The Express.
London, England, 1853-09-13 00:00:00

THE COLLISION AT HORNSEI.

Viscount Enfield, one of the sufferets 1 'he col-
lision at Hornsey, has published the follow tete •tt.r, ad.
dressed to the chairman of the Great Northern 1: •city:
"Dear Beckett Denison,—lt appears to me, fr..e. what I
, read in the papers, that an attempt is being made to screen
the guilty authors of the catastrophe at Hornsty, and to
fix the blame on those who are comparatively innocent.
have abstained until now from making any public remarks
upon that appalling occurrence, because I was it, sirens of
reading the evidence adduced at the preliminary inquiry,
and because 1 was anxious to divest myself or 4.5 vindic-
tive or hostile feeling which the injuries to my s. a and to
myself may be supposed to have created. I Lope And Uuat
that any such feelings, if they ever existed, are ebsorlud
in the gratitude which I feel for our merciful preservation.
The few observations which I deem it a duty to make I
address to you rather than to the public press or the officer of
the Board of Trade, because I have such relimlce upon
your high character and manly straightforward nature,
that I am confident you will allow no consideration to in-
terfere with the rigid and impartial prosecution of this
portent inquiry. On Wednesday last, the 31st of August,
I was a passenger by the Great Northern Railway to and
from London. I left Hatfield by the express train for
London, and was detained in it one whole hour between
Barnet and Colney Hatch by a coal train which had broken
down, and was immoveable upon the liac. 1 hod ample
opportunity, during our compulsory deteutitn, to ob-
serve the cargo upon the obstructing troika, and I
noticed, when they were shunted at Colney Hatch, a load
of timber, very remarkable from its weight and calibre.
After the concussion I inspected the wreck ul our shattered
train and the obstacles which occasioned it, and among
the latter I think that I recognised the identical load of
timber. I hope that lam mistaken, fur if my suspicion is
correct, and the vexatious impediment of thy• morning was
permitted to he the cause of such bodily and mental suffer-
ing (and probable loss of life) in the evening, there is nO
Punishment too severe for the superintendent of the Hors-
ley station. Be this as it may, no doubt whatever Can ex-
ist as to his culpability in permitting the disabled coal train
to be shunted within ten minutes of the arrival of the ex-
press; or of his criminal neglect of duty in fading to ob-
serve and to remove a source of danger, which oas noticed
and reported to him by a chance spectator (a iody whose
name I have preserved). I think it right to odd that the
insufficiency of working staff at the stations of the Great
Northern line was a topic of general conch nination by my
fellow-travellers in the morning and afternoon of the 31st
ult. I shall attentively watch the course of the. inquiry,
upon which will depend the publication of my opiuion.
tt Brock-,t-bell, Welwyn, Sept. 5."
Lord Enfield goes on to say :
"To this letter Mr. Denison has sent me a reply, written
by Mr. Mowatt, the secretary of the company, sac unsatis-
factory in every respect that I feel compelled to call public
attention to the circumstances which I thought might be
susceptible of explanation. Mr. Mowatt admits die correct-
ness of my suspicion respecting the timber truce, though its
identity was denied by the persons interrogated on the spot,
at my suggestion, by Mr. Seymour Clarke. Thu: it appears
that the obstruction of the morning on the up bra,• was per-
mitted to become an instrument of fearful danger in the
afternoon on the down•hne, having crawled, like a wounded
reptile, some six or seven miles in the course et as many
hours. I often hear it asserted that the Great Northern
line is mainly dependent upon its goods and ce traffic,
and that the passenger traffic is a secondary cone-dcration;
if this be so, in the name of public safety let them abandon
the latter, and adhere to the more profitable and harmless
line of business. The experiments made in the presence
of the government inspector appear to me to he a childish
farce, for the purpose of withdrawing went. ~ trona the
real delinquents, the collector at Homey, and the persons
who appointed a porter at St. Neot's to so r.sounsible a
situation. It would be strange indeed if cal, I imenta so
tried did not succeed. Your reporter can scam le preserve
his gravity in the relation. There are three or tour gees.
tions to which Mr. Tyrwhitt or the governm, iit inspector
ought to have explicit answers.
tt Why was the disabled coal and timber train, which
had obstructed the morning traffic between Blreet and
Colney Hatch, an impediment at liornscy at 5 pen. ?
Was the collector at Hornsey aware of tic,: at rival of
this train at 4 minutes to 5, and if so, did he order it to bo
shunted across the down-line, over which the eXilteS4 was
to pass at 5 minutes past 5 ?
" ' Did the collector despatch the porter with a signal of
danger before or after his telegraphic message to London?
t" Was the collector apprised of the impeudieg danger
by a casual spectator ?'
tt I make no apology for troubling you with this long
letter; it is upon a subject of universal interest. No one
who has pai I attention to railway accidents con have
failed to observe that the large proportion of them occur
at stations; but I do not remember a superintendent
being punished or censured, the offence being always at-
tributed to and expiated by the guards and engine.
drivers. I am, sir, your faithful servant, EN lIELD."