The Express.
London, England, 1847-06-25 00:00:00

ebewiliami hiraliewall flak *neeli
• '
Olestele:=MlZlßrilititr:gten;
I*
_A. a seirbdrust to railway tat . On.
.17 ii oink ethos tamely like each other, and to
wok me's self to their tractive power with all
spiky which old gentlemen were in the habit of
..esseieggie with the remembered enjoyment of sitting
...„.issm...hoese team, " all life and energy." But
107—skirtli mach of the force of this contrast is va-
jig, for those, at least, who have raid the evidence
sobs Nntboorne inquest. From it we learn that
1..., have their characters and paces as distinct
0 lidded?' asthma of the fastest team ever turned
ott g NIMION's yard, and that the handling. of
aa Mao by the beet whip on the Brighton
a ,
et thetiae.danWrerhianvethqeuietexclioteetm,
"I 1.1; Cisilla eto": the
g his "Inuulintnatasit
weente°ofilfMeasr:
account of engine-driving. Mr. Hes-
go4.
sobs knowing hand. He has been for lb years
`ewe should now call the best railway stables.
to have officiated as a sort of engine stud-
he the Brighton lines. ""My duty is to see
eileaskw
engines are right when they go out." He
emmnined No. 40, and found her sound, wind
ifilank sad as tit for her day's work as when she
em haled in the foundry. ROBERT PEEL drove
"Oa tbe morning. " Has never said that she would
sassaisplechasing. She jumped about a little snore
im the rest. We have four of STEPHENqON'S engines,
" 40, 41, and 42. They all shake about a
igit.wtthon the rest, and 40 shook a little more than
die War three ! But I did not consider them
Vii," Not at all. He looked upon this jumping as
adya peculiar pace. "Of course," admits Mr. Heserrn
are minutes after, " an engine that jumps is not so
igh" as one that does not ; but " not su safe" and
easis are different things. It appears that many
sigapdrivers have lately left this liue, and that one
isi boa dismissed shortly before the accident for re-
tail& ride this very No. 40.
Bat there is no getting Mr. HESKETH to confess
trot this " long-backed" breed of engines is " un-
ea" The coroner puts the question point blank :
"Did you ever say. tho engine was unsafe ?" Mr.
Haman's reply is indirect but significant : " Why,
when the engine jumps, she wants steadying." This
arms very much to ROBERT Peet's view of the case.
If the driver has nerve and nicety of perception
seagh to know to a hair's breadth how igh
ea mese. meat jump to jump off the rails,
asst can, into the bargain, shut off the steam
st that precise moment, there is no danger. But
'apprising he make a mistake in this very deli-
cate calculation—eh, then indeed! But llorieer PEEL
does not make mistakes of the kind, and would drive
No. 40 to-morrow. All drivers, however, are not
ROBERT PEELS. At all events, we should recommend
all passengers on the Brighton lines, when they see
a "long-backed" engine " put to," to ascertain,
before taking their seats, that ROBERT PEEL
as driving her. ROBERT PEEL, is the safe
man, par excellence, in other places besides St.
Stephen's, and for other kinds of driving beside that
tithe great conservative engine.
Perhaps this tone of levity may be thought un-
becoming such a subject. But we defy the most
mattirnine soul to avoid it after being excited by pe-
nal of Mr. HESRETH'S evidence. It is given in such
a s;rting style !
e venture, in conclusion, to ask, how long is the
eddy of the public to be left dependent on the nice
accuracy of observations and rare presence of mind of
the ROBERT PEELS? How long are " jumping"
engines to be allowed to play their tricks with scores
of live passengers behind them? Why are not
engines of this description confined to the slow work
of the goods trains? We despair of seeing any
practical answer to these questions, while railway
companies are left to the mockery of penalties imposed
by coroners juries, or the dim and distant chances
of ution by sufferers or their relatives. We
I never have the danger of railway travelling
minimised until heavy pecuniary responsibility be
laid directly on the company on whose line an acci-
dent happens. tinder the influence of such a system
of direct and weighty penalties we should soon find
the " long-backed" engines standing in the yard,
or doing the safe and snail-pace work of the
goods train, and the ROBERT PEELS placed
in charge of machines very different from those
whose tricks suspend the lives of passengers upon the
promptness and perception of a moment, exercised
under circumstances when nineteen men out of
twenty become flurried and frightened. Nor should we
keg, under such a change of system, have the
safety of railway works, bridges, tunnels, and em-
bankments, left to be tested solely by the superficial
and illasory survey of the government inspector.
Direct money responsibility of the company is the
only real security of the railway traveller.

A CORRESPONDENT, zealous for the honour of the 'I
society for promoting the amendment of the law,
etppoees that in a recent article on the law of real
property, we said that the society bad only reported
on a system of registration ; and he informs us of
various other subjects in connexion with the laws
relating to land upon which reports have been made
by the society. We had not overlooked such reports
—ill to a certain extent useful and suggestive; and
we distinctly recognise the value of the society as
preparing the public, the owners of land, and the
legal profession, for that complete change of system
in the law of real property which is daily becoming
more and more imperative. The doubt we intimated,
rather than stated, was, whether the active members
of the society are prepared to go to the root of the
evil, and whether they have the nerve necessary to
recommend a complete remedy. Without that, no
amendment in details of the system, however skilfully
performed, will avail. To cheapen transfers of land,
we must shorten titles. and the only effectual way, of
shortening titles is still further to restrict the period
daring which land can be rendered inalienable. We
say still further restrict, because the principle of re-
striction is already in full operation. No one can
limit land beyond a period commenzuntte with ex-
isting lives and twenty-one years afterwards, that is
until an unborn child of an existing person shall•
attain twecty-one. The further restriction necessary
is, to take away the power of limiting to an unborn
generation, by enacting that, where a life interest is
given to any person with subsequent limitations to
his unborn children, that shall amount in point of
legal effect, to an absolute estate in the parent.
There is one thing recommended by the society
to which we attach great importance, namely, the
making a general map of England and Wales, for the
purposes of registration of titles. This, however, we
apprehend to be indispensable to anything like a
useful system of registration.
We have also been supplied with a note of some
valuable evidence given by a solicitor of great ability
and experience, Mr. Pinace Msnose, upon the
effect of the existing system of registration of deeds
in Ireland, before the " Registration and Convey-
ancing Commission." From that evidence it appears
that a general registry of deeds was established in
Ireland in 1108, which does not differ very much
from that of Middlesex or Yorkshire. The deed
itself is not registered, but a memorial, which is, in
effect, little more in most cases than "a notice that a
deed between certain parties, and of a certain date,
exists, and has been executed ; and even if the lands
Conveyed by it be named, it is merely that certain
lands are conveyed from A to B, for the considera-
tions therein mentioned, without stating what the
considerations or conditions might have been; and if
it is a mortgage, then the memorial will only state
subject to the redemption, or subject to the conditions,
therein stated." So of trusts, which are merely alluded
to a " trusts and purposes therein stated." Such a
registration is so obviously imperfect, that it is far
sere likely to create difficulties of title than to
lessen them. And such we find to be the effect, for
Mr. M tuoey says, "In truth, for the purposes
of clearing up and elucidating title, our system
of registration embarrasses, and does no more
than give a statutable notice instead of giving ac-
taal notice of the contents of the deed to purchasers,
lice and thereby, while it increases the expense of
treader, it does not give security to any party in the
absence of the original deed." And he gave some
',riling illustrations of the expense and vexation of
the system. Of course, on every dealing with land,
by at,, settlement, mortgage, and so forth, it is ne-
cessary to search the register. Such a search may be
In official, or what is called a "negative" one, when
the person on whose behalf it is made receives a cer-
tificate from the registrar of all the acts relating to
the Property which are recorded, and that there are
Ito others. This, however, from the amount of fees
and stamp duty payable, is enormously expensive.