§ MR. MACDONALDasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If his attention has been called to the Report of Inspector Moore as to the explosion which took place on the 20th August 1877 in the No. 2 Pit, Blantyre, in which he states
that a fall of the roof took place in the waste close to them, which brought down some fire-damp. It ignited at their naked lights and burned them both;whether Inspector Moore visited the survivor, Francis McMulty, to get any information as to the cause of the explosion to frame the Report, as the survivor alone could give a true account of the explosion; and, whether it is true that an order was given for the fireman Black to be prosecuted for a breach of the special rules; and, if so, why the prosecution was abandoned some time before the explosion on the 22nd October, by which he lost his life?
MR. ASSHETON CROSS, in reply, said, he did not see his right hon. and learned Friend the Lord Advocate, who could, perhaps, bestreply to the Question, in his place; but he knew the right hon. and learned Gentleman was in communication 1883 with, the Procurator Fiscal on the subject to which it referred. He hoped the hon. Member would postpone the Question until the Lord Advocate himself could reply to it.