The Express.
London, England, 1847-09-21 00:00:00

Zlit rprelSg.

MAILS.

The overland eloeed ales, to the Mediterranean,
Aden, DeYlon, India, Meng Kong, &e., will be matte up on the
erentng of the 2ith September.
The mails for Vigo, (Moony. Lisbon, Madeira, Wit, and Gibraltar
Will be made up on the morning of the 2;th septernbrr.
The mails for New Mouth Wale*. Yen icemen's Land and New
Tambuid will be made up on the evening of the 30th September.
The Wed Indio wigs, including those for Meths, klonduras, not
the Itavannah, will be mole op on the morning of the Ind October.
The overland mots for Gibraltar, Malts, Greene, the lornau Isiandit
Aden, Ceylon, India, Ilong-Kong, and China, rio Souttumpion,
Win made up on the evening of the 2nd October.
The mails for the Brasile, the Rim Plate, Monte Video, Pernam-
buco, Bahia, Ma mire, and Buenos Ayres, will be aide up on the
evening of the 4th October.
The mails for British North Asserted, Bernanda, and the Unite I
Mates, will be made up on the evening of the 4th October.

TO COIIIIIITOT DENTS.
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at Or t/Ilan Ilognork.eml. br Tye edeek. W ptabl:eattea.

RIOR WATER AT 1.01 DUR-11R1111111.
T. MI —Morals, SI Ws. R••• 10 . ARWR•OO.IO 1.010. WM 11.
To-1101.0• /lord& 0 ala put 0 Atwoome, .paKO

LONDON, TUESDAY, SEPT. 2L

A WORD or two must be added to what we have
said of state interference with railways, to prevent
unfair appli'ations of the principle on which it is ob-
jected to. It is not asserted that there are no cases in
which, in highly mature conditions of society, a
government may not be called upon to interpose, as a
minister to the general intentions of law, in overlook-
ing details which the text of the law cannot specify.
The necessity, indeed, can only occur where some-
thing has gone seriously wrong in the body politic;
but that it does arise we are unfortunately too well
aware. The rule to distinguish proper objects of such
exceptional restraint or constraint in public affairs
we take to be analogous to that by which in
certain instances the control of individuals is trans-
ferred from the person himself to guardians. It
allows of the general liberty being controlled—as in
the case of infants, lunatics, &c.—where there are
feeble and suffering objects in great want of relief,
and unable to procure it for the mselves. IVherever
a case of this kind can be made out, the paternal
office of government may justly be exercised: as
with regard to the maintenance, education, and
sanitary care of the poor, in certain restrictions on
the labour of helpless children and females, the duty
of interference appears to be shown by the fact
that their condition requires assistance, and that, if
the state does not help them, they moat ge unnoticed.
It may be a misfortune to a state, and a sign of a
diseased constitution, to have many such objects of
official care—to be frequently required to act in this
way ; but it would be a still greater evil to refuse to
come forward, where the necessity of interference is
proved by the existence of impotent distress.
It would be merely ridiculous to claim assistance on
this principle for " the public," in their relations with
railways. 'the former is no timid, oppressed, demo-
ralised victim, crushed by grievous misfortunes,
scarcely capable of knowing what good to desire, and
destitute of the power to accomplish it, if known. It
is, on the contrary, a bustling, peremptory, pros-
perous go-ahead" sort of creature,—keenly alive
to its own wants, rights, and pretensions—no-
wise modest in estimating them, and possessed of
a tremendous power, by merely expressing, to attain
its desires. This is not our picture only : we borrow
it from a sketch lately drawn, with reference to the
very subject now in hand, by one of the foremost
advocates of the " rights of the nation," as against
the railways. The Times told the latter, a few weeks
since, that it was in vain for them to contend with
" the public ;" that, right or wrong, it would have its
full way in all travelling arrangements, as well as in
rates of charge; whether this might or might not be
a " road to ruin" for the proprietors. Here, we appre-
hend, is no argument ail rnisericardiam for extra help
from the state. A party described as being so well able
to help itself may, surely, without any pain to the
guardian conscience of the ruling power, be left, with
the assistance of the law, to settle its demands and
maintain its rights with the railway owners. There
is no fear, whatever, of a body like this being mal-
treated with impunity. Let it be remembered, that
we have already secured to the poor—the only part
of the public that might require a patron—cheap and
comfortable conveyance, twice a day, on every line in
the kingdom. The rest will take very sufficient care
of themselves.

And what further do they want ? What hardship
is there to complain of ? These questions we often
are tempted to ask ; and have never seen rationally an-
swered. Are not the departures thrice as frequent as
in the old coaching times? Is there not room and
comfort enough in the carriages? Is lld. per mile
an extortionate fare for a handsome, easy, vehicle,
running at five-and-thirty miles an hour? Are the
attendants less civil than the porters in Lad-lane used
to be ? Do they dun the pensive public for " tip"
with the same assiduity ? Have not the government
officers placed it on record, iu more than one of their
annual reports to parliament, that railway travelling
is the safest yet known? What right is withheld
that the public is entitled to claim for anything it has
done, or that it is not strong enough to obtain, so that
a superior power must be called in on its behalf to
manacle the railway body ? If it is expected that,
by the help of government, fares will be reduced to
zero ; that every traveller, besides a seat gratis, shall
have a number of Punch and a bottle of wine pro-
vided at free cost, to cheer him on the journey ; that
an absolute security from all casualties will be attained
by bringing four or five hundred half-pay officers to
lounge about the stations, and sleep in the first-class
carriages—if such are the hopes of the public—we
need not study to prove them flatly unreasonable ;
it is enough to pronounce them unattainable.
The state itself cannot comrel the owners of
railways to work for nothing—they will cease to be
worked when they cease to pay ; the state itself could
not keep them at work, though making no profit, as
well as private means now do with a profitable
result ; nor can the presence of any number of officials
annul certain conditions of nature, that make man
liable to occasional mistakes ; that render iron and
wood apt to give way in unexpected flaws, and pro-
duce the remaining et cetera of irremediable casualties.
To prevent those which are remediable, we believe
that the present managers of railways are as good
watchmen as the public now desire, or are likely to
have.

We have seen something both of railway directors
and of state inspectors ; and know to which of these
a practical man would best like to entrust such a
charge of persons and property. The former, it may
be quietly hinted, are not mere abstractions of vulgar
covetousness, brooding in secret over nefarious plane,
and wholly absorbed in the gain they can draw from
this particular business. They are men engaged in
other affairs, as well, that attach them strongly to the
general interests of the country, persons of more than
decent standing, character, and education, who have
the eyes of a pretty large circle upon them,
whose railway shares, in general, form but a small
part of their actual properties—men who are far
from being indifferent to the applause or blame of
their neighbours, and who have, as those who
have dealt with them will testify, a pretty
fair proportion of public spirit mingled with
their purely mercantile objects. To regard
such men as less likely to care for "the public"
than a tribe of lounging government nominees, with
no local sympathies, no responsibilities, virtual or
nominal, except to a distant board, sitting in West-
minster—who can have no pride in the success, or
credit from the completeness, of an establishment they
have not started nor are allowed to govern—who
suffer nothing when an accident takes place, either in
the opinion of their equals, or from that heavy cost
which the least damage to railway machinery
creates. To fancy, we say, that whereas such men
as the GLTNS, Rossetts, and HunsoNs will study
to abuse the public, and despise its just com-
plaints, both would be secure in the hands
of an army of her Majesty's hard bargains—
Treasury hangers on, and the protivh of political
dukes—is to know very,little of the men, and very
little of human nature. We have not discovered, so
far, that the public is seriously aggrieved in this
matter : we believe that no railway management
could be devised that is more likely to have a quick
ear for its grievances than the existing directories
have, and daily show that they have. We, therefore,
see no grounds for any exceptional proceeding on tha
part of the state in this instance, either on the score
of wrong done, or of a defect of power, if it were
dose, to obtain prompt and sufficient redress.

No case can be more strongly sxemplszy of the
hardships and absurdities of our existing monetary
law, thee the threatened suspension of coal raising
and of the coal trade. We need not say how dis-
astrous lush an scent—taking place, too, at this period