The Express.
London, England, 1847-10-07 00:00:00

the wise rule, and that the Plata people had better be
left to settle their own differences en familk. The
Americans have even gone further, and declared that
they would not much longer tolerate European inter-
ference on the continent of South America. This is
a rather big expression; but it is enough to show
that in forbidding France to prolong the civil war on
the banks of La Plate, we could reckon upon the
United States as an ally.

Tna officers of the railway department of the Beard
of Trade, in their report for 1842, after a three years'
exercise of the inspection entrusted to them by parlia-
ment, gave their opinion on the returns collected
during that period in rely express terms. "We are
satisfied," they said, "that a degree of security has
been attained upon well-managed railways decidedly
euperior to that of any other made of conveyance."
This decided testimony has not been contradicted by
the experience of five subsequent years. The returns
prepared by the commissioners for the six months
ending on the; 30th of June last, of which the main
results have already been published in oar columns,
show that, with a mileage of railways opened,
and a tale of passengers carried upon them, more
than the double of what there were in 1842, the pro-
portion of fatal casualties to the entire number aver-
aged, continues to be practically insignificant. In
the last half year, upon about 2,700 miles of road then
at work, 23,119,339 passengers have travelled without
any, the slightest, accident : of fatal casualties, the
total number was 22 ; and of this number 14 only
suffered " from causes beyond their own control," the
remaining 8 having perished "owing to their own
misconduct or want of caution." Thus,taking the en-
tire account of lives lost, from whatever cause, the
proportion is leas than 1 in every million conveyed—
excluding from it those which were sacrificed by the
recklessness or wilful conduct of the owners, it is re-
duced to 1 in 1,631,300 only.
These figures, it will be seen. establish a rate of
general safety, "decidedly superior," as the Railway
Department said in 1843, "to that of any other mode
of conveyance ;" and entitle the system at large, in
the terms of their pros so, to the praise of being " well
managed." They show more than this. The acci-
dents to railway passengers will be found, on refer-
ence to the statistics of accident, in any of the active
operations of daily life, to exceed in no sensible de-
gree the ordinary rate of casualties to any equal num-
ber of persons, however occupied ; that in to say, the
chances of fatal injuries happening, in every million
of persons busily employed, in what other way salver,
will require to be stated at as high a figure as that
which now represents the usual per centage of acci-
dent to a million using a railway. Or, perhaps, the
fairer way of stating the position would be,
that the rate of risk in travelling on railways
will be found as low as it is in taking any
other practical share of the common business of life.
We do not observe merely that, of a thousand steam-
boat passengers, of a thousand omnibus or eabasete
there will be a greater proportion of fatal IDIOM.
riages than in the same number on a railroad. TIN=
is probably a nearly equal per centage of fatal acci-
dents in any one of the several occupations or acts, to
which no idea of personal danger is ever attached.
No one thinks, for instance, of counting the risk of
life before setting forth to walk about in Paris et
London ; yet it has been gathered from statiarlaal
calculations that, the annual loss of life to foot-panian-
gers from various street casualties in both those cities
—in the former especially—amounts to a proportion of
the estimated numbers supposed to circulate in
them, far higher than we have seen elicited
from the authentic returns of railway travelling.
For all practical purposes,. indeed, it may be assumed
that this business, as it is now conducted, is as free
from serious i ink as any other thing a man can un-
dertake. And this from a very simple view of a
plain fact. In no busy operation of life whatever's=
we be certain that of every million of individnals
concerned one shall not come to an untimely end by
some accident. Occupations of far greater danger
are going on daily before all eyes, and no one dreams
of alarm respecting them. Many of our standing
amusements even are ten-fold more fatal to life—
number for number concerned—than is this business
of travelling. Yet we see landowners ride annually
to Epping, and sportsmen pack up for the moors with-
out a disturbing thought of the per centage of necks
broken in riding, or of deaths from fire-arm accidents.
There are twice as many lives lost from bathing in
one month of summer as in all the twelve by train
passengers.
How, then, does it happen that so disproportionate
an amount of anxiety should exist on the chapter of
railway casualties?
The main cause is that when they do happen the
circumstances are of a nature to produce more than
common terror. That immense power, which enables
the locomotive to perform its miracles of usefulness
while under due control and in good order, works
fearful havoc when it escapes from guidance, or
when the breach of some part destroys the balance
of the whole. Like the element of fire, as described
by SCHILLER, in his " Song of the Bell," its might
is beneficent while tamed and watched, fearfully de-
structive when it once breaks loose from man's
constraint. Thus, it is not merely the loss
of life that appals bystanders in a rail-
way accident ; it is the fearful manner of its
accompaniments; the suddenness with which it
takes place ; the terrible energy displayed, by the
moving cause of the misfortune. Now this is a con-
dition, above all others, requiring to berightly viewed
by every one concerned. On the one hand, those who
have the charge of the potent engine employed to
effect so much good must be held to the strictest care
in using it, by the knowledge of what mischief the
same power, if deranged or neglected, can work.
That they have done so hitherto, indeed, is clearly ap-
parent in the gratifying results which we have been
commenting upon ; and nothing, we trust, will here-
after relax their solicitude on this cardinal point. On
the other hand, those who use railways must plainly
accept, within the limits belonging to the sphere
of general casualties, the conditions inseparable
from the nature of the instrument in question. It is
a law of our being, as well as of the world around us,
that in everything. moral and material the principle of
c3mpensation is inevitable. If we control the whirl-
wind to our uses, we cannot expect it will become a
zephyr when it happens by some chance to get
beyond our control. It is en incident to every
mighty instrument for good, that it will act with irre-
sistible force if perverted in a contrary direction u
well ; and when the amount of habitual good
infinitely surpasses the occasional evil, as in
the ease now before us, that peculiar character
which renders the latter appalling will take
its place, and should take no more than its
due place, in the general scheme • no scheme of any of
the conditions of 'life being composed of unmixed ele-
ments. In any considerate view of its exceptional
events, we may fairly be reconciled to whatever is
alarming in the derangements of a stupendous power,
when it is seen that the evils of these bear the smallest
possible proportion to the vast benefits we owe to the
very circumstance of its possessing gigantic energies.
This consideration, we think, should prevail in so far
as railway accidents belong to the nature of casual-
ties—in so far as they may happen by such apparent
fatalities as will occur to all things we use or
handle. So far, and not a step further, we are
called upon to take the evil with the good ;
where the evil cannot be justly ascribed to causes re-
movable by human care or foresight, and where the
good infinitely overweighs its opposite.
Beyond this point, the character of thendschief that
is done when due care might have prevented any,
justly aggravates the blame of those who are respon-
ebbs, and the anger or alarm of those who view the
consequences of their fault.
That in the management of railways, so far, there
has been little, if any, jut occasion for such censure or
anxiety, is proved by a simple reference to the facts
and figures attested by the public authorities. This is
the principal matter of interest in the "chapter of ac-
cideats." To some other subjects connected with it we
shall return hereafter.

a change must waive the minor points of difference,'
that each shoulder may be addressed unincumbered
to the task of lifting the wheel out of the mire. We
trust that the exam* will find imitators, and that
public opinion will be expressed in all parts of the
kingdom in unanimous chorus, condemnatory of the
present restrictive system.
It is essential to confine all efforts to the attain-
ment of the one object, the repeal of the restrictive
clauses of the Bank Charter Act, and of the present
limitation of private issues by regularly licensed

bankers.
Two reasons prescribe this course. In the first
place, the of the restrictive enactments
seek to she ter themselves from the responsibility
they have insurred, by pleading the numerous and
divergent views of the currency question that are en-
tertained by practical men. " Propose a remedy for
the mischief," say the authors of the daily diatribes,
who seek to put off complaints by sneers, and who
meet sad and serious reasoning with sorry jokes.
The reply to this confession of weakness, for it
is nothing else, must be the denunciation of
the meddlers who presumed to undertake the
regulation of a matter of such importance
in the flippant manner so justly held up
to notice by Mr. MUNTZ. The denunciation
must be, if possible, unanimous, that it may over-
power opposition. The remedy will soon be found,
when the diseased body is restored to its powers of
healthful action. But the want of a universally re-
cognised remedy is no ground for the continuance
of
measures that are acknowledged to aggravate the
disease. In the second place, it is highly desirable
that the restrictions which have prodd so much
suffering should be abolished without the formality of
a committee of inquiry. No doubt, good results to some
extent from such investigations, and a committee to
inquire into our present monetary crisis, and its im-
mediate senses, will be useful to make the operation of
the system that led to it clear and intelligible to all
classes. But if relief does not sooner appear, if the
restriction on our issues—that is to say, on the right
of making well-earned credit available for purposes
of trade—be not removed before the report of such a
committee could be drawn up, the injury that will be
inflicted upon the trade of this country will be Una-
, cnlable.
To judge of the truth of this assertion we have
i only to review the history of the last twelve months.
The export,. of bullion for grain amounted, according
to Mr. 13ARING'S estimate, to eight millions sterling.
Until this sum, or a portion of it, returned to pay
for manufactures exported, the mercantile world
demanded that the currency of the country should be
kept at its usual amount, that no stoppage of produc-
tion and no substitution of poor-rates for wages should
take place. The utility of the Bank as a national
organ of credit would have been shown by its respond-
ing.to this appeal. But the Charter Act, which allows 1
an issue of 14,000,0001. for the convenience of govern.
merit, does not allow of an issue on the mercantile
credit of the country that is not covered by a deposit
in gold. The reduction of the bullion fund by the
export of last spring obliged the Bank to diminish its
discounts, and with this diminution the distress began.
Since July, 1846, the notes in circulation have
diminished by nearly 3,000,0001., and bullion to the
extent of 3,000,0001. more went out of the circulation
of the country to pay for corn. But it was the re-
fusal of the Bank to discount, and the consequent
stoppage of trade, that made this diminution be felt
as a real evil ; for, although large stocks of goods were
held in our trading towns, yet they could not as usual
be represented in notes, for which they furnished
securi.
Hadtyt.he restrictions on private credit not existed,
or had the Bank not been tied down to notes repre-
sented by gold, there would have been means avail-
able for meeting the pressure of the moment. As it
was, holders were forced to realise in a market de-
nuded of its circulating medium. They were not
allowed to await the return of the wave, which would
have restored the disturbed level.
The wave has not yet flowed back, and the crisis is
consequently not yet over. Our position, from shaken
credit, is now such, that in dealing with foreign
markets, cash payments will, to a great extent, be
requisite. The return of bullion will thus, in some
manure, be delayed. In order to execute the orders
which are to bring back the exported bullion,
the manufacturer mast seek bullion at home,
to pay for the raw material and for workmen's
wages. Suppose that orders arrived simultaneously
from Raga and America to the extent of three mil-
lions—and such orders may daily be expected—the
Foods must be made up and sold abroad if the value
is to be remitted in specie. But in the interval,
there will clearly be a drain at home. The chief use
of sovereigns in England is in payment of wages,
where 31. notes are inconvenient. The home drain,
must, therefore, to a large amount, take the shape of
bullion. What is paid in the shape of railway calls
will naturally, to a great extent, also take that
form. We are thus exposed to an immediate drain
to the amount of three to five millions, or even more,
before much of the exported specie can come back to
us. And how is tho Bank prepared to meet such a
drain ?
The lest official statement shows that with a con-
tracted circulation of 18,078,0001., the gold on the
deposit side of the bank only amounted to 675,0831.
A demand for gold would, therefore, oblige the bank-
ing department to draw gold from the issue side by
the sacrifice of its reserve of notes—that is to say, by
a sacrifice of the means available for discount. The
increase of pressure, therefore, to which there is rea-
son to look forward, will be met by no exertion of
what the Chronicle calls " the boundless credit " of
that establishment. It can only issue upon a deposit
in gold. The bank is clearly and utterly powerless
in this crisis. The cruel part of the matter is, that
the Bank Charter Act having crippled the bank,
the limitations on private issues have left the
trader no resource. The merchants of Liver-
pool, Bristol, and Glasgow, the manufacturers of
Wales; Staffordshire, and the north of England—cut off
from the accustomed aid through the mediation of
the capital—cannot turn to the bankers near them
with proofs of the possession of property, and obtain
local help.
Thus we are in every way brought back to these
acts restricting the use of credit, as terming, if not the
first cause, certainly the most aggravating stimulators
of the present distress. To remove them must, under
all circumstances, be the first step to improvement,
and could an order in council for their suspension until
the meeting of parliament be obtained by the expres-
sion of public opinion, both the government and the
nation would ultimately be deeply bound to the ener-
getic promoters of such a measure.

Ova police report, on Saturday last, contained an
account of the hearing, at the aerkenwell-office, of a
complaint against the owner of a house in Laystall-
street, Bt. Andrew's, who had been summoned " for
suffering a nuisance that was dangerous to the health
and lives of the inhabitants." The house, it appeared,
was occupied by one Rsnictrrt, a fellow whose trade
it is to import Italian boys, and turn them out into
the streets here to levy contributions on the public for
his profit, with barrel-organs, white mice, rielks,
and other instruments of annoyance. There were
crowded together in this single den of abomi-
nation some seemly or eighty of these wretched'
foreign vagrants, kept, as the magistrate was
no doubt moat truly informed, " in a most horrible
state of filth," and " living upon the worst of food."
Naturally enough, the place and all that belonged to I
it were in a state of revolting nastiness, and the
drains choked with every kind of ordure; and pools
reeking with stagnant pollution were continually
giving out fatal stenches, pestilent miasmata, bad
enough to poison the whole neighbourhood. " They
had been obliged," it was said, "to remove to the
hospital, in a state of fever, one of the sufferers from
this infection ;" and, it need scarcely have been added,
that " the pulic health was in danger while the
nuisance existed."
Here was certainly a strong case for the inter-
ference of law. The whole system, of which this is
one fruit, is a disgrace to this metropolis. It belongs
to a species of hateful traffic pretty largely carried on
by certain Italian vagabonds, which, on more than
one account, we think would be prohibited in any
I well ordered system of police. The nuisance is a
double one. We have reported one instance, amongst
many, of the pestilent matter it brings into the spots
where these hired mendicants are huddled together
in their owner's sty ; and only those who are de-
prived of bearing can be ignorant of the annoyance
their daily performances inflict on all who reside is
of the . incessant
its origin,
deserve pro-
,,,ces of

~~;

7, 1847.