The Press. — London, England, 1853-09-10 00:00:00

RAILWAY ACCIDENTS, THEIR CAUSES AND REMEDIES. R►ILWAY casualties generally come in batches. After au - interval of regular action and delu sive security, the public are startled and horror-struck by a quick succession of dreadful accidents, till each traveller trembles as he enters his train. The popular experience tells us of all things, whether good or evil, that it never rains but it pours ;" but surely there must be some deeper cause than a mere eon glomeration of chances for this periodical crisis in railway history. During the last half year of 1852—the latest date to which the retur us were made up—very nearly fifty millions of passengers were con veyed. Of these nine were killed. and 316 in jured, from causes beyond their own control. Subdivided by the number of accidents, this comparatively small list of killed and wounded furnishes strong negative proof of the excel lence of the railway system, if properly worked. A further inquiry into the causes of these accidents exhibits the encouraging fact, that the nuOority of them might have been avoided, had there been the simplest and most obvious precautions. Unfortunately, the character of the employment and of the persons employed encourages a habit of mind which is not so much carelessness as a blind reliance on chance. Because Provi Bence has been tempted in vain three hun dred and sixty-four times in the year, the three hundred and sixty fifth offence is committed as a matter of course. The game of hazsu•d is played until Fortune is tired, and some fright ful collision takes place fatal to life and limb. The remembrance of instances is fresh. The papers are still filled with details of the terrible catastrophe at Hornsoy. It is known to the station-master, engine driver, and all parties concerned, that the express train will leave King's-cross at 5, and that it will come thun dering along in reliance on a clear line ; yet, at five minutes (or less) before that hour, the clumsy process of shunting a sluggish coal train is deliberately gone through, as it has been, perhaps, a hundred times before. On this particular occasion a hitch occurs; a race is run against time and inevitable fate, in the hope of stopping the down-coining train ; all is fruitless, and the collision occurs, periling some most valuable lives►, and spreading terror and its untraceable consequences among all the passengers. A few days after, Captain WYNNE, the Government in spector, goes through the farce of trying experiments as to how a train might have been stopped under such circumstances. Strange to say, no one ever thinks of the cause of the " accident "—the placing, on any pretence whatsoever, an obstructive body on the line. It was but the other day that a frightful collision occurred on the up-line of the Brighton and South-Eastern Railway, from precisely the same cause. On the Chester and Holyhead line, also, a collision took place in consequence of this senseless practice of shunting across a line when a train was ex pected ; and her Majesty herself appears to have had a most narrow escape, on her journey to Scotland, from a horrible fate—seeing that a train immediately following was r•un on another train at a siding through the " points" having been neglected. We allude to these cases chiefly because they are so recent ; but an examination of the return already referred to shows that an overwhelming majority of the railway casualties, dining the period embraced. arose from similar blind or obstinate defiance of the precautions which common morality dictates. The reader must take our word for the details, unless 1w will pay his few pence at Hansard's, and buy the parliamentary paper containing the facts. Why should so great a blessing as the rail way system be thus converted into a curse? It' a hundred millions of passengers can be conveyed per annum, with only fatal eonse quences to less than twenty persons, why should all the rest feel themselves jeopardised each time they go on a journey? Why should speculators set up au insurance company on the oopitAl of these vague fears Surely there must be sonic principle on which a remedy can be applied. The clumsy machinery of vet. diets of manslaughter and heavy pecuniary fines has been tried in vain. The disastrous shunting of the coal-train at Ilornsey took place only a few days after a jury had mulcted a rail way company in upwards of seven thousand pounds for one accident. Trusting to chance is a habit inveterate and unconquerable in such people. The motives of ilireetors may he ad mirable, but they art' frustrated by the meanest materialist in their employ. If 4iovernment control is at all hazards to he deprecated, can we not arrive at seine decalogue which shall impose the necessary mond rest mint ? It is naturally with the utmost diffidence that we approach a I:UW(1 so complicated and difficult ; but it seems that every detening influence has been tried in vain. The half yearly returns of the railway department of the Hoard of Trade furnish the facts of all accidents. Might not a careful analysis be made, and the causes arrived at" Our own observation leads to the conclusion that those causes are very few, and that a very simple code of laws might be framed which, in less than a decade of items, should indicate the things that under no circumstances whatever are to be done. Breaches of these intelligible laws might then he treated as criminal offences ; ad, while the directors would gain in the avoidance of vindictive damages. the public would enjoy the happiness of at least a ffincied security. A religious care for the public safety is the invariable routine of all foreign railway systems. If there is something in the national ammeter inimical to a similar /oora/e hen., thene seem* to be no alternative but. to attain the objeet by specific penal enactments. THE FUTURE LIFE ASSURANCE, " ly LIFE ASSURANCE one of those good things of which it is possible to have too mueh ?" Grave doubts certainly had arisen, and suspi • ei(on, seemingly well founded. pointed to the host of mushroom-like eompanies, with their rapid development and glowing reports of growing business, but wanting all guarantee of stability save a few " names," often too well known as speeulative directors—men, no doubt, respectable and honourable enough, but intangible in case of failure. The partisans of the old offices naturally fanned the flame, because their young and enterprising compe titors not only created and carried off the new business, hut also broke up the monopoly of the old. Policy-holders became alarmed, and Parliament interfered. The result of that interference has just ap peared in the Report of the Committee ap pointed by the House of Commons to consider the whole subject of assurance. After a thorough and searching investigation, the Committee arrive at certain conclusions, sonic of which, at least, we may reasonably suppose will become the basis of future legislation. Two opinions are boldly expressed, one cheering to the policy-holder, the other to the philanthropist. 'rhe Committee tell us that the general condition of the existing compa nies is more satisfactory than they had been led to believe before entering on the inquiry : they also feel that the ground hitherto occu pied has been comparatively limited, and that life assurance is capable of great extension, not only in the higher and middle ranks of society, but also amur►g the humbler classes. The object, then, of the suggestions embodied in the report is to improve and eontirm that which now exists, and so to formularise for the future as that the system may with safety be indefinitely extended in obedience to the growing wants of society. To this end the Committee pr o pose that life-assurance companies bhall be taken out of the range of the general law for joint-stock companies, and hereafter be regulated under a separate sot of Parliament; that the registrar ,joint-Stuck companies shall have Mier pom en. than now to rreVent evasion of the regtliatiolin ; and that the distinction exist ing between offices established before and after the set 4)1 1M44 shall I►e abolished. These ant general suggestions. to which hut little opposition. if any. eat% he offered. At present. although on the whole the Committee aro satisfied with the eondit ion of existing ofilees, they proelaint that many evasions have taken place, that provisional registration has been abused by persons who never intended " com plete " registration. and that the annual ite• counts. as now rendered by some o tbe e %. ar e " worse than useless." Some authorities on the que stio n h av i n g advised a duvet and *olive interference by titnaniment . Oil the plea that there is sou:4.- 111111 g 111 1110 llsSlllllll4 . t. Whiell render. it 4..xeep 11011411 11'11111 the general laws of trade. the arguments for and against have been that roughly weighed. with the result that the Committee manifestly lean to no lo ini e rierenee, itroviiied that the public have full materials for a sound judgment on the liniment% eittitli tion of the companies. it is the insuline of eompaides t o review their atlitirti at periods of not less than five vears, and then to 111111rOpriatti profits, chiefly in bonuses to the policyholders. With this wholesome custom it is not. proposed to inter ten'. Hut the companies also issue annual ileelounts, too Often 1111111telligible, unsatisfac tory, or (Lettish e. if the responsibility of judging is to be thrown on the public, all lia,veniment super% ision being rejected. this matter of the !instants is the real pivot of the whole olitestion. Make them sound, tnte, and comprehensible, and you nay !twee the rest of the machinery to work if itself. Besides the tive-yearly or other periotheal balance-sheet. the Committee most tt isely re eommend that l'arliament should preset as, the general ellltllleler tor the ammo' lit - enitittm. whiell shall exhibit the year's re eeipts for premiums and the year's eapeases; the 111 W policies Of the year, their number and uut ; the whole liabilities 4111 all eurrent policies, slid the premiums recen able thereon ; this whole capital of the company, and boa invested, what in cash, what in litiv eminent securities. what in mortgage on real estate, and what in other securities (specifying their nature); also the average interest on such iii• vestments, and whore such interest is is ao . relic. I,a these emiditions be Mifflind in 'atoll faith, and the Intim, of life assiminee will have beep fully eared for. The rest may be left to the good sense of the public; not cxerpting those humbler classes who are ilerentli't tat I Mil ie : - little, Wll4l liaise learned prudence :11141 IMO . - tiee through their benefit clubs. and with whom it is dangerous t o g i ve 1 1 1 ,. 111 , 1 , 4 . 1 “.. Imre of Go% eminent guarantee ; %%hereof the savings banks are an example. The pri.pose 11111 t Ida eolo• pally 011111 " eompletely revister" till I ii,tioui, e paid lilt and lin ested iu Iloterluaent stock partly to guarantee character, and 'tartly to meet !Halley claims in the infant.). insti tution. Besides that this floes Meet the 4 . 111 , 14 of . llll. " 11111t11111 " Sisieties, it is open to many objections; into which, however, tie do not enter, beeausit we hold that the publication of true and intelligible aecounts is the great ob ject to be attained. While antieipating a vast increase of life assurance among all classes, especially the humbler, the tee 111$4, eolltelllphlte with Complacency the extension of the principle to every species of casualty ; thus indireetiv sanctioning many schemes now in hHafi oporation, some of which were among the Most abortive bubbles of the South Sell mania. On the other banal, a derided stand is made against the new pnietiee taking deposits at interest, its being 111roltMOsteo1 111111 the hU141111901 or life assurance. The interferenec of l'arliament has thus led tat veil' grnu t results. The public us ill red limn' general etuititletice in existing conilatilie, although, at the tiara' tulle, they Ore wanted to will for a mitre strict enforeenient ad' the law as it •tands, and for sueli n publiention of aentunts Its will enable die intending assurer to exercise that vigilance in respect of his own affairs, which no Government officer could ever do so well or so satisfactorily on his behalf. 11..••••••••ils - • i SEPTEMBER 10,1853. THE PRESS. 485 _ • tt , •(.. A or•Tivvv•rc Turin 17 ti7s7.pg I must Nome+ mineinlo on which a remedy of ionn-stock companies shall have Mier