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John Atkinson, the elder, re-examined. The furnaces for ventilating are about 23 yards from the shaft bottom at the A and B pits. The gas is conveyed up the shaft about four fathoms above the furnace; it cannot come in contact with the flame; I have never known the gas to fire at the furnace in the B pit of Wallsend colliery. Two years and a half since a man was killed by an explosion of gas at the C pit; it was at the furnace where it happened, and the gas in all probability fired there. This furnace has not been altered; it has not been burning since that time. A new furnace was built at the B pit, and it was shifted further back than where the old one stood, as a matter of precaution, and to be further out of the way of the gas. We have been employed in heightening the drift from the G pit in a line with the A pit, at about 460 yards from the G pit; the dumb-drift was about 20 yards from the drift they were engaged in heightening, and runs nearly parallel with the dumb-drift; there were two men found at or near to the place where they were heightening the drift, who had been employed in doing so; there was no oil-lamp nearer that place than 140 yards; the men had candles who were working in the stone drift; the stones that came down in heightening the roof were stowed away in a double headway, about 40 yards from the place the men were working at ; the men used gunpowder to blast the stone from the roof of the rolly-way; there was a main door and a trainway main door; one door would be about 15 yards from the place where the men were blasting with powder, and the other door about ten yards further on; the nearest of those doors would be about 70 yards off the old workings, or waste, which are filled with gas; and, as Mr. Buddle describes, as being complete gasometers. In firing the blast or shot it is not likely that those doors would be thrown open by the concussion; but if those doors were left open, there would be danger from the blasting. I cannot say whether those doors were open or shut ; I saw the men working at the rolly-way on the Tuesday before the misfortune, two days before; I did not consider the work they were engaged in dangerous, but I cautioned them about the doors; I have been as far as where the men who were working at the drift were found, but could get no farther for the after-damp; one of these men was found much burnt, but I did not see any marks of fire near the place. If the explosion originated at this place, there would not be any marks of it where the men were found, but in all probability some marks may be discovered in the dumb-drift 20 yards off; have not been able to explore the dumb-drift since; the man that was found burnt was severely so; the men might be about two yards apart from each other; they were found about 40 yards from the place where they were, or ought to have been, working; the explosion has blown the stoppings out east of the place where the work at the rolly-way was going on; the stoppings are made of brick, and nine inches thick; they are calculated to afford considerable resistance; all the stoppings in and around that particular place have either been wholly or partially thrown down; the doors above described, between the rolly-way of dumb or gas drift, were not locked; to the best of my belief there was a sneck or latch upon them. Through these doors, into the gas or dumb-drift, I consider it to be very dangerous, there being vast quantities of gas in the old workings in that vicinity. When travelling this district with my Davy I have never seen any fire there, but in the adjoining district I have known it to fire frequently; in this district, the first south-west, the gas is constantly, feeding into the dumb-drift, and the gas is also constantly feeding into the dumb-drift from the second south-west district, so as to render these places near where the men were working at the rolly-way before described, exceedingly dangerous. The men were found about 15 yards from the doors above described; I do not know that they deposited their tools within these doors, but I know they had orders not to go near the doors; for I gave the order myself. I consider it would be dangerous if those doors had been left open. It is possible, if those doors were open, the gas might fire at the candles the men had with them, where they were working at the rolly-way. Robert Moralee, one of the men who has been saved, was keeping a trap-door, about 60 yards west of the shaft of the G pit. The place where the two men above-mentioned were working at the rolly-way is from 330 to 350 yards to the west of where Moralee was tending the trap-door. This man Moralee, who is unable to attend and give evidence in court, described to the Reverend John Armstrong and Mr. Anthony Easterby, two of the jurors, that the first sensation he experienced, at the time this accident or explosion must have taken place, was a ringing in his ears; and then he heard what he described a booming noise proceeding from the west, and immediately he felt the door he was tending thrown against him. At this time he was standing at the east side of the door, he was deprived of sensation, and when he recovered, he found what he thought to be the door lying upon him. The above jurymen further examined John Middleton, the little boy who was saved, and who is too ill to attend in court, being very severely burnt. This boy was a rolly-driver, and describes himself as having been employed in the west rolly-way; and the first indication he had of something having gone wrong, was a noise at the trap-doors to the west. This boy's account appears to coincide with Moralee's, but he is exceedingly ill, and unable to undergo examination.

John Atkinson.

John Atkinson, jun. re-examined, saith : I was in the workings in both quarters, the second north-east district, and the second north-west district, on the morning of the 18th of June, when the accident happened. There were two men working at the rolly-way, increasing the height of it to admit of horses, which rolly-ways are generally made about six feet four inches in height. I saw these men engaged in their work about a week or 10 days before the accident, but it is out of my district, and I did not see them the day I was last down; my father had generally taken these men under his charge.

John Atkinson, jun.

Alexander Harton, re-examined: I was down in the workings of the Bensham seam at half-past eight o'clock on the morning of the 18th of June. Near where the two men were working at the rolly-way, there were two doors leading into the dumb or gas drift. I saw those doors on the 17th. The morning before the accident I went through the doors into the dumb-drift, to examine the course of the air; these doors were not locked ; they were never locked. I have known the men who were working at the rolly-way deposit their working gear between the doors of the first south-west district (which, as has before been described by Mr. Atkinson, sen., is the most dangerous place in the Bensham seam), I have seen the men twice put their gear there ; the last time. I knew of it is six months ago. I told them to put no more gear there, which they promised not to do. I put a lock on the doors. I was through these doors on the 18th of June; I found them locked, and left them so after passing through. The reason of those two doors near to the place where the men were working at the rolly-way, not having been locked was, that they were considered so far out of the way, both of the boys and men, that there was no occasion for keeping them locked. I cannot say that these men left their gear between these two doors last spoken of, but I think it looks very like it; it has the appearance of it. Had I found the men leaving their gear at this place, I would have had them up before Mr. Buddle. I should have considered it so extremely dangerous, and consequently wrong of the men to do so.

Alexander Hawton His mark.

Thomas Kennedy, Wallsend, furnace-keeper, sworn, saith: I have been employed nearly 40 years at this colliery. My duty is to attend the furnace at the B pit. This furnace is at the bottom of the shaft. When I went to work on the 18th of June I went down the G pit; from the bottom of this shaft to the place where my duty was at the furnace might be about three-quarters of a mile. I went along the drift which proceeds westward from the G pit to the furnace. On my road I passed the place where two men were working at the roof of the drift, increasing the height of it to admit of a horse travelling along. These men were lighted at their work by candles. I never saw any men at this place with pipes. At the time that the explosion took place, I was convinced something wrong had happened from the current of air that was forced to the place I was at. After remaining about a quarter of an hour I found it prudent to leave the pit, but could not return the same way I had come; I therefore persuaded the man who was with me to try the C pit, which was to the north of us. We found very great difficulty in getting to the C pit, but ultimately succeeded in making our escape.

Thomas Kennedy His mark.

John Pattison, Wallsend, banksman, sworn, saith: I have been employed above 40 years as banksman at the Wallsend colliery. My station was at the G pit. On Thursday the 18th of June, about two o'clock in the afternoon, as I was landing the undermost corf of coals that had been drawn up, the empty corf having been thrown into the shaft again, and before we got the middle corf which was suspended above the mouth of the pit; the blast came up the shaft (to explain this, there are three covers brought up by the chain together, one above the other). The violence of the blast blew the empty corf out of the shaft to bank again, it also took my hat off and threw it over the pully, which may be 26 feet from the ground. The shaft was closed up with rubbish, so that all access to the pit down the shaft was closed up. When I turned round a few minutes afterwards I looked at the C pit, near Wallsend village. I saw the smoke coming out of it. No other men were saved at the time of the explosion but the two furnace men, who got out at the C pit. Afterwards three men and one boy were got out alive.

John Pattison.

James MacIntire, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, surgeon, sworn, saith: I attend the Wallsend colliery. Have seen several of the bodies since they were brought from the pit. Some of them were very severely scorched by fire, others had no marks upon them, but had died of suffocation by inhaling the carbonic acid gas. Others I understand (but whom I did not see) had their bodies much mutilated. Three men and a boy were got out on Saturday, the 20th June, from the pit alive; all are likely to recover. One man has undergone amputation of the leg above the knee; but all are unable to be removed to give evidence; it cannot be done with safety to them. Brown and Morallee are competent to give evidence but unfit to be brought into court.

James MacIntire.

The above examinations were duly severally taken, on the 22nd, 23rd, 25th, and 29th days of June, at the place first above mentioned, to wit, at the School-house at Wallsend, before me, S. Reed, Coroner.

(Copy Inquisition.)

An inquisition indented, taken for our Sovereign Lord the King, at Wallsend, in the parish of Wallsend, in the county of Northumberland, the 22d day of June, in the fifth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord, William the Fourth, by the grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, and in the year of our Lord 1835, before Stephen Reed, esquire, one of the coroners of our said Lord the King, for the said county, on view of the body of John Giles, then and there lying dead, on the oaths of Anthony Easterley, John Wright, John Armstrong, Patrick Rye, William Jameson, Robert Henry Coward, Matthew Elliot, Joseph Mordue, John Hornsley, John Brough, George Shanks, John Falcus, Charles Weatherly, and Washington Potts, good and lawful men of the said county, duly chosen; and who being then and there duly sworn, and charged to enquire for our said Lord the King, when, where, how, and after what manner, the said John Giles came to his death, do, upon their oaths, say, that the said John Giles, on the 18th day of June, in the year aforesaid, at the parish and in the county aforesaid, being at work in a certain pit or coal-mine, called the G pit of Wallsend colliery, it so happened that the inflammable air, accumulated and contained in the workings of the said pit, from some cause or causes, and in some part or parts thereof, to the jury unknown, ignited and exploded, by reason and means whereof he, the said John Giles, then and there accidentally, casually, and by misfortune, received divers wounds and contusions in and upon his body, or otherwise was burnt and suffocated, and thereby presently died. And so the jurors aforesaid, upon their oaths aforesaid, do say that the said John Giles, by reason and means aforesaid, and in manner aforesaid, accidentally, casually, and by misfortune came to his death, and not otherwise. And that in the opinion of the said jurors there has been no want of due care and precaution on the part of those who have had the direction and management of the said mine. In witness whereof, as well the said coroner as the jurors aforesaid, have hereunto set their hands and seals, the day and year first above written.