The Express.
London, England, 1851-11-29 00:00:00

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TO CORRESPONIIENTB.
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LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29.

one was caused by the breaking
.of the tyre of a
leading wheel; another by a tram running off the
line; a third by luggage taking fire in a train at
Wolverton. All of these accidents imply deficient
superintendence; want of proper inspection of the
state of rails and carriages; and proper precaution to
prevent the exposure of goods to sparks. The
Wccdon catastrophe is owing to negligence which
the other accidents prove to be systematic.
All these facts go to prove the want there is of a
more sharp enforcement of responsibility to the law,
and to public opinion, against the management of one
of the greatest, and certainly not the most carelessly
or unskilfully conducted railway establishments. It is
vain for railway directors to institute comparisons I
between the number of accidents that happen on
!railways and the number that used to happen on
' common roads. They only prove that railway
travelling can be made more safe than the old,
mode of travelling, thereby aggravating their own
culpability in all cases when accidents can be traced
to their neglect of proper precautions.

TIMMY we give, in another column, the result o
the inquiry into the causes of the fatal railway
collision at Wiedon.
Sydney smith was of opinion that railway travel-
ling would never be safe till it bishop had been burnt,
locked up in a train. Possibly some dangerous in-
jury to a general-manager front a collision might
nerve the same purpose as an episcopal incremation.
On this point the public is likely to be soon en-
Is.times like these, when the papal power abroad
lightened. The narrow escape which Mr. Bar vEar.s,
had is united
.offensively and defensively with monarehi-
the chief superintendent of the North Western,
cal despotism;—when, tit home, it has revived all
from being crushed in the late fatal collision at
those aggressive pretensions, the strength and viru-
Weedon, and the severe shock which both that
knee and danger of which it is the glory of the
gentleman and Captain WI-11, the general manager
greatest of our Tudors to have almost driven from this
of the line, received on the occasion,—preventing
realini—w.hen, in Ireland, its acts assume the form
their attend/moat the inquest—may have the effect
of disobedience to the law of the land, and in Eng-
of producing for the future inure care and attention
land are encourai;ed by the delusions and the trea-
to the safety of passengers on that railway.
the of of men reared in our favoured uni-
It as ms quite clear that a considerable proportion
veriaties, and well placed in. our wealthy church
of the casualties that take place on railways are ex-
I —at such a time, and in the presence of
elusively to be attributed to the negligence of the
such a state of things, a PROTE,TANT ALLIANCE re-
management. Trains will occasionally be behind or
ham their time; rails will wear out ; boiler.; will minds us of that mighty and successful Bond which,
under circumstances far more immediately. dangerous
get. uut of order; drivers, stokers, and guards will he
I but of a cognate character, the nobility and gentry
rash at times; signal-men and other servants will
andeommona.lty of EnglandlOrmed. for the protection
occasionally be negligent ; but each and all of these
Queen I. Lama:ill's person and their country's
things are so entin:lv within the range of avoidable of
freedom.. They ought, then, to be encouraging and
contingencies, that it is the duty of railway arms-
exciting words; an Alliance of this sort, under a
germ to be continually on the alert to prevent their '
I broad and comprehensive conduct, and a wise and
generous policy, might he of national, and more than
national —of European utility. Such a confederation
rightly based might, under the inspiration of true
statesmanship, act as a counterpoise to that Roman-
ist conspiracy against European liberties, which
Lord Jon,: ltessEtt has avowed to parliament his
conscientious and deep belief in.
Will, thee, the Protestaiit.%lliance, over which Lord
SIIAI:TIAIrla presided yesterday, vise to the height
of this great argument, or meet the emergencies of
threatened Europe? This is a question that time
and events alone can fully answer. Meanwhile, it is
entitled to fair play and generous treatment. It is
only by men of deep and earnest religious feelings,
of enthusiastic conduct, and of pure and huts
lives, that organisations, such as that proposed,
can be called into life; or, when formed, can
be adequately directed. At the bottom of that
heroic resistance which the people of England
made, in the days of our great Tudor Queen, to
Rome andSpain,and to their plots and confederacies,
lay Puritanism; the daring religious freedom, and
the even more audacious political teaching, of CALA.N
and fientva. It was on these that our constitutional
liberties, which at the Reformation received a new
development, were at last broadly and securely
laid.
Let us not, then, he afraid of encouraging a simi-
lar spirit and the like agencies in the reign of this
our second ; for there are tendencies and
causes in operation to correct and modify any ex-
ecs-es of Puritanism, should they be exhi-
bited in the nineteenth, as there also were
in the seventeenth, century. The danger of '
this generation and age dues nut lie in that, but in a
very opposite.directioa. Let us not, then, shrink
either from joining or encouraging Lord tiIIAYEE3-
IWItA.4 lingue because of its varied composition, its
peculiar impress, its iniperfeet aims, or of its sectional
origin. Rather, let us listen to it attentively and
respectfully; encourage it in its generous regard for
the sufferings of continental protemtantism promote
the association at home in harmony and peace of
protestants of all sects and forms ; warmly exhort it
to unite to free our church from Romanising error;
correct its mistake's where they exist; and try to
supply (if possible) its leader with that high courage
which hitherto has sometimes failed him when most
needed. . .

."-4,4•4 41...
It is difficult to get at the truth of railway acci-
dents. It is catty, on must occasions, by veil-
ing forward some witnesses, and overlooking (Oars,
to display ostentatimsly the rashness or negligence
of the iumnt diute culprit, and to throw a veil over
the systematic slovenliness which placed and kept
him in a position to do harm. Then it is such a cheap
piece of nrignanimity to throw overboard an °lli:wr-
ing domt slit., by cashiering or prosecuting him. It
is an diffieu t to catch a board of directors tripping as
to drop salt on the tail of a sparrow.
Ilulf arly returns of railway accidents arc, it is
true. dilly made to parliament, and printed for
public inform:dim' and cifilication. But these re-
turns are made by the railway officials, who are
naturally disinclined to implicate thenuitives. In
fact, the tabular arrangement adopted in these re-
turns has converted them into a piece of special
pleading a 'binding apology or explanation file
the liehirof of railway managers. In the column de.
voted to a staltment of the "nature and cause of
accident," every cireutastanee that can tell tbr the
managersis carefully inserted ; every one that in
likely to tell against them 1,4 carefully excluded. If
Jolts MOORE is ran over while trespassing, or
3ssnr twat -rime; knocked down by an engine
while attempting to cuts a line on a
level cruessing, be sure the fis.l-hardihood, both
of Jou,: uud JANFT is (My chronicled hir public
wonder and reprehension. Or if a collision takes place
at Boxmoor station, in eonsequenec of an engine-
driver neglei ling signals, the Met is recorded. But
when six passengers are killed and seventy-nine in-
jured in a tunnel on the Birkenhead and Cheshire
Junetion, Ind a word is said of the gross and culpable
neglect or proper precaution 011 the part of the ma-
nagement, 'skit a view to keep down their cgismses,
which occusiwit II as dephmlLle n catastrophe. And
when an etigine-shiver is killed and a fireman in-
jured, through the tweaking of the tyre of the
leading wheel Of an engine, not a word is said
about defective inspection of the lueomutives and

carrs.
Analwould that this were the worst feature of these
returns, &swami" us they systematically are, to screen I
the short -comings,—the sins of omission,—of railway '
managers. A summary is regularly appended to each 1,
half.yearly return humanity extruding the small ratio
which the numlier of persons hilted or injured by rail-
way
neeidents hears to the total number of passengers
travelling by railway. In the returns for the first
half of the current year it is shown by this summary
that, out of 37,5A1,/il3 isissengerie, ody 105 have
twill killed, send we/y 173 injured. Care is also taken
to impress upon the public mind the fact that of the !
killed ew g I I passengers, nod roily 31 servants of
commits and enntractors, have owed their deaths
to eircumstantss heyond their own control. Now,
this very anxiety to shift responsibility from the 1,
shoulders of the mating, men( betrays an uneasy MI-
011'IMPLIICss 1114 they me liable to reproach; and the
effort made to divert attention from the large
number of casualties to the small ratio they
bear to the whole body of travellers, be-
trays a startling callousness to human suffering.
We care not what fraction of the aggregate passen-
gers the 1 !red and five killed, or the hundred and
seventy-three injured may form; and we du think
it a very grave and lamentable fact, that one hun-
dred mid five human beings have been hurried into
eternity. and one hundred and seventy-three made
to sultjr pain and mutilation in the course of one
half-year. IN, our railway managers imagine that
the public will tolerate neglect leading to such ter-
rible tonsequentss, simply bemuse they contrive to
keep the number of fatal casualties on their railways
at u eomparatively. not a positively, low figure'
Now. though it is in most eases no easy matter to
obtain distinct legal evidence of culpable neglect on
the part of railwuy tanagers, it is at times possible
to convict them. The accident in the tunnel ou the
Birkenhead and Cheshire Junction was clearly owing
to tire semis cable desire of saving on the part of the
managers which led them to keep too few watchmen
on the line. and tour insufficient engines. And the
late fatal net itlent at Weedon is LIS clearly tractable
to a neglect on the port of the management that can
only be attributed to anxiety to keep down their
expenses at the risk of the limbs and lives of their
passengers.
Thirty passenger trains pass Weedon daily, of
which twenty-two atop ut the station. Fifteen lug-
gage trains puss it during the day and night, some
of which stop there. .'t number of special trains
also puss it. Su many trains it is obvious must fol-
low close upon each other. The utmost care of
drivers and other servants cannot prevent occasional
irregularities iu their rate of travelling and occasional
detentions ut the station. When the accident oc-
curred on Saturday, there were no less than three
trains waiting at the station. This can be no un-
common oes urreatee there; the station master in his
evidence at the inquest said that it is .• a thing
that frequently occurs;" and yet there is no siding
fur trains at %%realm. When a quick train has to .
paw a slow tune, the latter is transferred to the other
line, and thereby both lines are blocked up, inereas- .
ing the risk of accident. Were the management actu-
ated by any other motive than a desire to increase
the excess of receipt over expenditure ; had they
the slightest regard for the limbs and lives of their
passengers, they would have a siding at Weldon. To
the want of one may be attributed the fatal accident
of Saturday.
Turning to the return of railway accidents for the
first half of the present year, we find the North
Western set down fur seven. Two of these were col-
lisions, in consequence of trains running into other
trains. Now, let it be kept in mind, that the whole
traffic between London and the manufacturing dis-
tricts, which to the north of Rugby is spread over
a number of western and midland lines, comes, to the
south of that station, to be confined within the narrow
channel of the North Western. Years ago strong
representations were made that one double line of
rail had become insutficieut for the enormous number
of luggage and passenger trains that pass and repass
on this railway. And vet the managers, to keep
down their expenses• will not adopt the obvious and
indispensable precaution of hat tug sidings at all
their stations.

This Alhance met yesterday in Viremason's Hall
for a t wofold purls ase—first, to consider papal persecu
bons on the continent, and next to adopt means for the
repent of the Ilaynooth Endowment Act in Ireland.
In the harmer we can offer them most cordial assist-
ance ; in the hitter we cannot so heartily coincide.
Indeed, we nnast decline joining in any loud denun-
ciation of a grant which is of an educational charac-
ter, and which. however used, cannot be withdrawn
in the present state of affairs. and of state grants,
without giving to the parties from whom it is pro-
posed to be taken the sympathy which ever results
from persecution. 'Whilst some millions of our fel-
low-countrymen in Ireland require the services of
Homish priests, and whilst the protestant church
enjoys the rich revenues she holds in that country,
it would be equally unfair and impolitic to deny—at
present, at any rate—the means of education for the
priesthood of a faith on which our fellow-subjects
rely. A protestant alliance may find n host of high
ana important ditties claiming its notice more ur-
gently than the Maynouth grant can do.
At a moment when the head of the once great pro-
tcstant Prussian monarchy has deserted the old •
policy of his dynasty and become in his dreamy
sensuousness a Honiara catholic, in feeling and sen-
timent and policy at least—when, taking advan-
tage of his incredible folly and weakness, the Poet:
and his crowned allies are re-covering Germany
with a network of Popish propagandism which they
will not tolerate the use of by others in their own
territories; and when the "luxuries of religion"
are there captivating the tastes, and perverting the
heads, of courtiers, aristocrats, litterateurs, and phis
losophers—at moment such as this is a fitting time for
the protestant people of England to express sym-
pathy fur foreign protestuntran so depressed. And
happy will it bo it this community of feeling
for that which distance enables us thus to
group and sec so distinctly, should assuage
our own denominational differences; should abate
the ecclesiastical pride and hauteur of churchmen;
should eject Itontanism from our own establishment ;
and mitigate a little the stiffiless of dissentem—should
render us conscious that our real dangers are corn-
' mon. and our actual safety identical ; should make
the sufferings of others act as bonds of our own
brotherhood.

lor this reason we arc entitled to attribute to the
culpable neglect of the management, the collision at
the 13oxmour station in January; the collision at
the Limi -street station in April ; and now the colli-
sion at Wetslou lust Saturday. They undertake a
greater amount of traffic than can safely find room
ou their ,its.

Of the remaining accidents which occurred on this
Lue between January and June of the current year,

For what is it that we obiscriT most plainly and
distinctly abroad, but the weakness, the impoliec,
and the ruin consequent on such miserable minor
differences and sectarian separations? What lesson
can we learn thence, if it be nut union and common
action where the great objects of all are religious and
political freedom—on this earth quite inseparable from I
each other? It is in vain to talk large at the politic-al
tlrants and the religious persecutors of Continental
Europe, if we cannot sink the pretensions of church
and the suspicions of dissent at home. It is idle to
overcrowd and make Exeter Hall resound with do-
queues, and applause, if out of Exeter Hall we cannot I
walk arm and aria along the Strand. It is dangerous
to declare war against a common enemy, if we
will not meet him with a common phalanx.
I What was the practical wisdom Lord PALMERSTON
drew the other day from the liosstrrit ex-
.
atement ? That backed by the opinion and sup-
port of an united people, the government in this
country would be predominant in the affairs of
Europe. And in what, may we inquire of our
Secretary. would that predominance be so useful as
in one, and the worthiest, of the objects of to-day's
meeting—the protection and security of foreign
prote,dunt istn ?
Henceforth the foreign policy of England must
spring from svinpathy for the constitutional liberty
and the religious freedom of our fellow beings
on the continent of Europe. It is at least
Lord PALI/ rusroN's merit to have disassociated
that policy tram the support of this particular
tyranny or regard for that stags Quo of injustice and
I oppression. Except in this new character, England
has no place, and ran have no hearing. in the
European system. But that character depends en-
tircic on public opinion ; and is the formation or it
the thoughts and feelings of each individual, of
every single unit. are of importance.

NEW SIIIPPING•OFFICE.—The Local Marine Board
ha, made Nnul arcangetneal. for opening an additi,nal
shipping-office in Ebenezer-plrce, West India Dock Itu.d.