The Express.
London, England, 1851-05-14 00:00:00

TgE 11XPRES84, WEDNE§DAy ,ETgIUNG, MAY 14, 1851.

re him time to

of Wesel SIITIORP, u soon
street Taps sod organs shall
to maid eras of his.

Tam is get it ties a word
more awl that the Meetly° " ' r and
it is tars se meth abased as when its noun is
" death;" sp& es when both together form the ver-
dict of a eareser's jury:
If 50 se 10 poor misers are suffocated in an ill-
ventilated =lee, and the rates of the pariah burdened
with the maintenance of their widows and families,
that, accordiusgto the usual course of these verdicts, is a
case of " aorl&mtai death," fen which every one con-
nected with the management may be blamed, but no
one can be punished. If the boiler of a penny steamer
on the Thames, when used in an unfit state, bare,
and blow one half its passengers into the other
world, leaving the other half in the river, that
again is only " accidental death." And so with the
terrible slaughter in the Sutton tunnel; same am
unhappy persons are crushed to death by a calks ee
as clearly and obviously the result of negligence.
mismanagement, and selfish economy, as effect tea
be produced by cause, and their massacre h
also returned as so accidental as to be ass
from all criminal taint. The circumstances,
occurrences, and acts of commission and of
omission that jammed 1,300 passengers up together
in a dark damp tunnel a mile and a half low,
though morally censurable, are legally innocent.
Such is the result of the inquest held at Frodsham.
And a most unsatisfactory result it is. For, if
inch management as has led to, or rather has prodeeed
this fatal collision, be not amenable, in some Asp
or other, in the persons of directors, secretary, es
locomotive superintendent, to the criminal justice of
the country, the danger to life and limb in railway
travelling—always considerable from the mechanical
agency employed, its speed, and from casualties that
are unavoidable—is inordinately increased by the
state of the law, which, while it involves innocent
shareholders in large pecuniary responsibilities, gives
perfect personal immunity to officers who maid
death or injury on their customers and heavy lam
on their employers.
Accidents will occur on the best managed lines;
accidents terrible in their consequences, yet un-
avoidable by human forethought, and attention,
in their causes. But it is as demonstrable
as one of Euct.in's mathematical propositions,

that the collision in the Sutton funnel would
never have occurred had the commonest pru-
dence been exercised in fixing to the first train a
proper engine, in starting the three trains at reason-
able and definite intervals, in providing the guards
and trains with the ordinary lights, and, above all,
in keeping at the mouth of the tunnel on the fatal
day the policemen who were stationed there on all
other occasions. None of these precautions were
taken ; and all having been omitted, to say that the
law of England affixes no criminal responsibility on
these whose duty it was to take every precaution to
carry their customers safely, is a libel on that law,
which we decline to believe it obnoxious to.

For this, we repeat, was not an accident in the
ordinary sense of that word; as the smallest attention I
to the facia show. An engine of 15 tons weight 'I
started with a train containing some 500 or 600 pas-
sengers, and was followed by two other trains nearly
equally heavy, at intervals of ten minutes. Now,
the ordinary passenger engines of well-conducted
lines, carrying not a third of that number, average in
weight about 24 tons; and it is by the weight of an
engine that the momentum of the train to a great
extent is maintained. So that here, on a groat occa-
sion, the first of these enormous trains was despatched
with an engine nine tons less in weight than
' the engines attached elsewhere to ordinary trains.
Yesterday a special train, on the Great Northern
Railway, left London with 250 passengers, to wit-
ness the interesting race between the Flying Dutch-
man and Voltigeur at York, and on inquiry we learn
that to it were prefixed two engines, each 20 tons in
weight ; so that, against 600 people on the Chester
Cup day, drawn by a 15 tons engine, two engines of
40 tons were employed to take 250 passengers to
York ; and in this contrast is to be seen the differ-
ence between good and bad, safe and unsafe manage-
ment.

It therefore, in vain to attempt to transfer the
blame of the first stoppage in the tunnel from an in-
I sufficient engine to a shower of rain or sleet which
wetted the rails; for, had a properly weighted engine
been used, it would have grasped the rails despite
the wet, and have carried the train over the incline
of the tunnel. The primary cause of the collision
lay in sending off such a train with such an engine.
The locomotive superintendent thought the Druid,
the first engine, weighed 20 tons when it started,
and has continued under this mistake, until Captain
LAFFAN, the government inspector,brought his belief
to the teat of a weighing machine. A terrible mis-
take this for the unfortunate sufferers ! For not
even the management of this line would have dared
to start 600 passengers at the tail of an engine only
13 tons in weight, had it accurately known that fact.
And what a management it must have been that de-
spatched such a crowd with an engine the weight of
which it had thus exaggerated ! Its knowledge of
its own concerns and details seems to have been as
" accidental" as, luckily for it, the verdict of the
jury is.
i'Ve will not reproduce the remarks already made
as to the fatal rapidity with which the trains were
started, the fatal absence of side, tail, and guard
lights and lamps, and the still more fatal withdrawal
of the policemen at the tunnel's mouth on the awful
day of the collision and slaughter.
but it is impossible to omit noticing the general
insufficiency of every department of the company, as
shown by the evidence. First, you have offices
crowded together in one person ; the secretary. is
also general manager; and the locomotive superin-
tendent is also engineer of a district ; a combination
quite fatal to that complete attention and devotion to
each department and that consequent responsibility,
on which good, safe, and cheap management depends.
Then you have (necessarily and unavoidably so)
minutes of boards and committees ill kept • orders
and directions verbally and imperfectly issued; re-
sponsibility ill defined; and confusion predominating
when order is safety and economy first law. Next,
4; to be seen the same unwise parsimony in the
rolling stock, as in the executive service; an insuf-
ficient supply of engines, a short stock of car-
riages; a hurry-skurry canvass, on an annual
emergency, of other companies for the loan
of carriages to supply their own deficiency ;
and a supply obtained of carriages the bodies
of which touching the wheels made them act
as a break to the train. And lastly, you find police-
men removed from the point of danger, of death, and
injure, to other parts of the line, and 1,500 persons
cruslied togetherin a tunnel with only three attendants.
And what is the moral of all this? what its
rationale ? what its lesson ? That government should
have power over railway management? Nothing of
the sort. Our lives, our limbs, our property, would
only be more unsafe in such hands. What it teaches is
the necessity of having persons of superior character,
attainments, mental training, and habits of life, not
merely on railway boards, but in railway service
generally. Directors of that class will also have
officers of that order; and rice versa. The first cost
of this policy is, no doubt, high ; but in it there is
real and true economy. For, not all the cheese-
parings and parsimony this line, for instance, can
ever make, will pay for half the expense this fatal
collision in Sutton tunnel will ultimately inflict on
it ; to say nothing of the low of character and of
custom it will also involve.

LIBERATION OF HOSSUTIL—A public meeting was
held last night at the institution, at St. John's-street, Tot-
tenham-court-road, for the purpose of impreesing upon the
government of this country toe propriety el iatertbrieg
on behalf of the heroic Kossuth end be brave associates in
captivity. The chair was taken by Mr. Thornton Hunt,
who briefly explained the object of the meeting to be, by
outward preurre, to induce Lord Palmerston to interfere
foe the liberation of the brave Kossuth. A letter was read
from Sir B. liall, expressing hie concurrence in the object
of the meeting, and his readiness to impress upon her Ma-
tti go e governmenteetht propriety;oie liberation°fof ate at nsw:di the
other patriotic men who ase under restraint. Mr. Ituffey
said it appeared to him that the destinies of Europe were at
that time swayed by one man, sad that was Nicholas the
Autocrat of Russia; each would not, however, have been
the semi if England had :dose its duty at the time of the
late struggle for liberty, nor would they have been asking
as • favour of government that which should have been
does as a duty.i The heroic liomuth had surifieed all for
the liberty of his beloved country, and failing in his efforts
be was held in captivity. He believed that the time was
not far distant when they would not allow such events to
occur to the friends of freedom. Mr. Wood, Mr. Reztt4s4
Mr. Finks, and Mr. Julian llareey,subsequently addressed
the assembly, and • memorial to government in support of
the object of the meeting was adopted.

FRANCE.

PARIS, TVISDAT EVINING.
The greatest diversityof views prevails in the parlia-
mentary
.majority on the subject of revision. Among
the legitimists alone there are four opinions, namely,
absolute non-revision, total revision without de-
ekring the sense in which this is to be made, mo-
narchy or republic, and adjournment of the question
for six months.

Emile do Girardin prophecies that the candidate
of the party of order for the presidency will be Ge-
neral Caviugnse. He says, "Wo hear on all sides
that this candidature makes rapid progress, and is
received with marked favour by the monied men,
the manufacturers, and the high and middle com-
mercial classes."

At the close of the Assembly's sitting yesterday
the president read a letter of Admiral Romani-
Desfosse's resigning his seat as representative of
Finisterre.

The committee on the Municipal Bill adopted
yesterday, on the proposition of M. de Vatirnesnil,
that the renewal of the councils of prefecture should
be made by the government according to the double
list, ono containing the actual councillors ,and the
other drawn up by the councils-general according to
certain conditions of candidature.

The Bulletin de Paris and Monikur de Soir of,
this evening will contain a notice that the disavowal
of M. Veron, as expressing the opinion of the Elyske,
which appeared in those papers, and to which so
much importance has been attached, has no official
authority.
The bulletin de Paris says that the revision of the
constitution, and the abrogation of the law of May,
will be demanded simultaneously. M. de Broglie is
expected to bring forward the motion of the Rue des
Pyramides for revision on the sth of June.
The electoral union has adjourned until next Mon-
day its decision relative to the application of its
oranization to the purposes of agitation for revision.
The Assembly, in its sitting of to-day, proceeded to
ballot for the remaining vice-presidents and secre-
taries. The first ballot, for the vice-presidents, gave
the following results: Number of votes, 475; Darn,
262; Lacross, 233 ; Benoist d'Azy, 191 ; Vitet, 165 ;
the rest were in order as follows: Beugnot, Grevy,
Baune, Charms, Schrelcher, Lamorici.,re, Leon de
Malleville, Mathieu de la 'home. M. Darn, having
obtained the absolute majority, was proclaimed vice-
president. Berard was the fourth secretary ap-
pointed.yesterday. The ballot for the two remaining
secretaries gave the following result : Voters, 593 ;
Yvan having obtained 318 votes was proclaimed
secretary.
M. F....squiros demanded to interpellate the ministers
relative to the treatment of the convicts at Belle
Isle. The interpellations were fixed for Tuesday
next. The house then resumed the debate on the
Western Railway. M. Versigny moved an amend-
ment to Art. 39 of the coldir des eloaryes relative to
the right of the state to buy up the
railway after fifteen years of possession by the com-
pany. The amendment proposed that, by means of a
law, the state should be empowered to buy up the
railway at any epoch, the price of purchase being
fixed by a special commission of nine members, three
of whom should be appointed by the Minister of
Finance, three by the company, and three by the
council of state. The amendment was opposed by
M. Gustave de Beaumont, and rejected. The rest of
the bill was adopted without modification. The en-
semble of the bill was then passed by 439 votes
against 208.
M. Emile de Girardin demanded to interpellatc
the Minister of the Interior on the subject of a tele-
graphic despatch, sent upon the 9th inst. to the pre-
fect of the Landes, respecting the elections of the
Landes, fixed for the Ilth. In comformity with the
motion of M. Es' tancelin, the house agreed to adjourn
the interpellations until the verification of the
powers of the elected representative.
The President resumed his receptions last night.
There was a numerous attendance.

To-day there was a considerable decline in the
funds. The Fi‘es closed at 89.60, with a fall of 70c.;
the Threes fell 43c., and closed at 35.53.

SPAIN.

MADRID, MAT B.

. _
The Clamor Public° has been seized for publishing
the new concordat. This document, considered as one of
the must reactionary achievements of the government of
Narvaez, by which it was negotiated, has made an immense
sensation. I proceed to give yen its substance :—Art. 1.
excludes all other forms of religion but the Roman catholic,
Art. 2 gives the clergy absolute authority over education.
Art. 3 enables the church to prevent the publication, intro-
duction, and cirulation of all books deemed objectionable by
the clergy. Art. 5 settles a new division and circumscription
of dioceses. The present metropolitan sees are maintained,
and Valladolid is raised to metropolitan rank. New suf-
fragan dioceses are erected in Cuidad-Real, Madrid, and
Vittoria. Several of the smaller dioceses are made to
merge in one another. Art. 6 fixes the distribution of the
dependencies of the metropolitan sees. Art. 7 delegates the
demarcation to the Pope and government jointly. Art. 9
affects the four military orders, of which the new Bishop of
Cuidad-Real is to be prior. The territories of the orders
are annexed to their corresponding dioceses. It is said that
the text of this article has, however, been modified. Art.'
10 suppresses the exemptions of enclaves. Art. 11 supresees
all privileged jurisdiction, including that of the order of
St. John of Jerusalem, and annexes the territories belong-
ing thereto to the respective dioceses, with the exception
of that of the procapellan of the crown, the cartreuse, that
of the four military orders, that of the regular prelates, that
of the apostolic nuncio in the Italian church of the capital,
and that of the commissioners-general of the crunda.
Art. 12 suppresses the collectonhip of aids of deceased
bishops, and unites the commission for the administration'

of vacant property and collection of arrears to the commis-
sionership of the crusade. The text of this article is said
to have been modified, and the commissionership of the
crusade to have been abolished. The tribunal of the Escu-
nide is abolished. Art. 13 concerns the composition of
chapters, all the members of which are to have an equal
voice and vote. Art. 14 empowers the bishops to convoke
at will the chapters, at which they are to preside, to give
the casting vote, and in the appointment of persons to have
3,4, or 5 votes, according as the chapter consists of
16, 20, or more than 20 members. Art. 15 conforms the
mode of consulting the chapters to the canon law and the
Council of Trent; and abolishes all the particular privileges
and immunities of chapters existing in different provinces
of Spain, with prejudice to the bishop's authority. Art. 17
fixes the number of prebends in the metropolitan and suf-
fragan churches. Art. 18 reserves to the Pope, in exchange
for the 52 benefices conceded to his holiness by the concordat
of 1753, the dignity of head chorister in all the episcopal
churches. The deans aro appointed by the crown ; the
canons, after competition, by the bishops and chap-
ters ; the other dignities alternately by the crown
and the bishops ; the beneficed chaplains by the
crown and by the prelates end chapters alternately.
The stalls, canaries, and benefices vacated by promotion,
excepting those reserved to the Pope, shall be in all cases
filled by the crown ; also the dignities of the new sees, ex-
cepting those reserved to the Pope. Art. 19 renders the
residence ofdignitaries obligatory. Art. 20 provides that,
in cede gamete, the chapter shall, according to the provisions
of the Council of Trent, appoint a single vicarious capitular,
in whose person shall be vested the whole power of the
chapter without reserve, or power of revocation after ap-
pointment. Art. 21 reduces, with few exceptions, the
colegiatas to parishes churches. Art. 28 provides for the ap-
pointment of curates by the crown on lists presented of the
bishops. Art. 28 provides for the establishment of at least
one seminary in each diocese for the education of the
clergy. Art. 29 restores religious communities, subject to
the jurisdiction of the ordinary. Art. 30 restores nunneries.
Art. 31 tires the salary of the Archbishop of Toledo at
150,000 realm, and that of inferior prelates in proportion.
Art. 34 fixes at from 90,000 to 140,000 reels the expenses of
worship in the metropolitan catherals, and the cost of or are
in proportion. Art. 35 provides that the property of nun-
neries shall be converted into 3 per cents., sad distributed
to convents according to their needs. Art. 37 devotes to the do-
tation of worship and of the clergy (1), the proceeds of the pro-
perty restored to the clergy by the law of '45 ; (2), the proceed.s
of the crusade (3), the proceeds of the encomindea and
maestrassos of the four military orders, vacant and which
shall fall meant (4), • church-rate upon property to com-
plete the dotation, to be paid on kind or mosey, in the
collection of which the clergy are to be assisted by the
public authorities. All ecclesiastical property not com-
prised in the law of 1845, and not sold, shall be restored
to the church, including the property remaining of can.
nasteries, and converted into inalienable bonds of the
Three per Cent. Debt. Art. 39 declares that all the above
property shall be administered by the church, excepting the

proceeds of the crusade. Art. 40 also guarantees to the
church the right of acquiring property by all means which
were allowed to the church in Spain before the recent dis-
turbances, and the new acquisitions and foundations shall
be respected solemnly, and enjoy all the rights of the old.
And no suppression or union of such foundations shall be
made without the intervention of his holiness, saving the
faculties competent to the bishops by the Council of Trent ;
Art 41 leaves old purchasers of ecclesiastical property in
quiet possession. The remaining articles, 42, 43, and 44,
are merely formal, and repeal what in other conventions is
contrary to the present concordat.