The Express.
London, England, 1863-08-17 00:00:00

!MITA Stil A.

Tars MIMING. TUE CIY PRAer. AND PARDON.
Mr: I EFVECE. Itofeiaor Pepper's
Mr. Pirekm's 111‘vution. Mr. W. Randall and Mr.
rukk.r. —And unl \I F: AND RENIMINE.

NUM ' 1I TU AI IArSDo44 num&
21,3 DAT 314 . AftArnnon. aa. 52,
IVlWASOW—llornittc. 4 .Afternoon, 4D.

LONDON, MON DA I%

A UGUST 17.

ABOUT the time when Railway Companies are
holding their second half-yearly meetings, the
Railway Accident season seta in. It has been the
singular good fortune —perhaps we might say
the only good fortune known to the shareholders
—of most companies to get their half-yearly meet
ings over just iu time to prevent the uncomfortable
necessity of paying the last (and only) respect to
dead and wounded passengers by the insertion of
a few words of " sincere regret" towards the end
of a Report, the substance of which is of course a
statement of gross traffic receipts, earnings for
the half-year ended, interest on debenture
debt, " your directors recommend a dividend
" after the rate, etc., on the share capital,
" which will leave a balance, etc.," and
" excursion traffic." The rest of the Report
is probably concerned with amalgamations and
extensions ; and if the line is anywhere within the
bounds of the habitable globe, a " new first class
" hotel is pretty sure to be "in contemplation."
The art of making things pleasant may be advan-
tageously studied in the reports of railway meet-
ings ; and it is an art which attains perfection
only under difficulties. In this, as in every other
art, facility is fatal to excellence. The Report pre-
sented to the half-yearly meeting of the Lynn and
Hunstanton Railway Company on Saturday was,
on the whole, complimentary as to the past and
confident as to the future ; especially with reference
to the excursion "traffic, which has been more than
" e.lual to the directors' anticipation." So far this
Report contains nothing beyond the common form
of felicitations. It is in the last two sentences
that the Lynn and Hunstanton Directors allow
themselves to be betrayed into something
like a sentiment, and to transgress the
rules of composition ordinarily observed in such
documents. " With sincere regret your directors
" refer to • lamentable accident which happened
" to an excursion train returning from Hunstanton
" to Lynn on Monday night last, which resulted
" in the death of six person and injury to several
" others. It is hardly necessary to say that the
" Great Eastern Company are affording every
" facility in the inquiries which are taking place
" before the coroners under whose respective
" jurisdiction the accident falls." There is • fine
effect of contrast and a telling climax in this
final paragraph of • report which has just
been congratulating the shareholders on the fact
that " the excursion traffic has been more than
" equal to your directors' anticipations." Rail-
way reports, like new books, &theta slut fate.
There is scarcely • railway company in the land
that might not in the course of half •
year indulge in " sincere regret" at falling under
the jurisdiction of coroners ; it has been the peculiar
fate of the Lynn and Huustanton line to kill six
persons and injure several others a few days be-
fore the half-yearly meeting instead of a few days
or a few weeks after. If the half-yearly meeting
had been held on Monday last, and the accident
had occurred on the Saturday following, it is clear
that no " sincere regret" need have marred the fair
report of excursion traffic presented to the half-
yearly meeting next spring.
The Lynn and Hunstanton Company were doubly
unfortunate in perpetrating • " lamentable &eel-
" dent " on the eve of a half-yearly meeting, and
at a season of the year when amidst the silence
and stagnation of public affairs even the vulgarest
murder makes an unusual noise and stir.
Considering the severity of these circumstances
we were almost disposed to refrain on this
occasion from joining in the hailstone chorus of
our contemporaries, and to be content with regis-
tering the extraordinarily righteous and sensible
verdict of the coroner's jury. Bat this half-
yearly meeting, at which, we are informed, an
unusually large number of shareholders were
present, supplies a temptation which we are unable
to resist. Let us confess that we can well excuse
the directors of a railway company for regarding
the phenomenon of an implacable jury returning
a verdict of unprecedented severity upon an acci-
dent occasioned by a straggling bullock, as a
strange and mysterious fatality. So many far
more " lamentable accidents," arising from
causes far more subject to control than
the stupid curiosity of bullocks—from far more
culpable negligence or recklessness on the part of
station-masters, or signal-men, or pointamen (not
to speak of higher authorities)—have been visited
with verdicts acquitting everybody with honour,
or at worst only censuring a deceased engine-
driver or • mutilated stoker. There may be a
certain reasonableness in this complaint on the part
of directors ; yet on the pert of the travelling
public we believe the general remark upon the
verdict has been "better late than never." The
travelling public can hardly be expected to accept
the occasional sacrifice of a bullock as • sufficient
atonement for the occasional sacrifice of half-s-
-dozen human beings.

There were some edifying deliverances at the
half-yearly meeting of the Lynn and Hunatanton
Company on Saturday. The Chairman,who spoke
with true feeling, felt the accident much, because
it had occurred to his neighbours and friends.
Though the care of the line belonged to the
Great Eastern Company, he would on his own
responsibility have removed any danger, if he
had heard of any. He regretted they had heard no
complaint of the state of the fences ; he thought
the sympathy and attention of the officials of the
Great Eastern Company, the surgeons, and the
public, deserving of all praise. In justification of
the Company he might say that in twelve years
they had not paid five shillings for injury done
to any person ; which was as much, and perhaps
more, than could be said for other companies.'
AU that human agency can do to ensure the public
safety will be done, "if itis necessary." "But for
" this deplorable accident" the excursion traffic
was most promising; for a time, however, there
would bee falling off in the receipts, not only on
account of the farmers being engaged in harvest
operation!, but because " some persons will natu-
" rally feel • decree of timidity in travelling."
The line had been cheaply constructed, but this
was not from inferior workmanship or material,
but from their having reduced Parliamentary,
Impel, and engineering expenses to the lowest