The Sun.
London, England, 1852-03-23 00:00:00

A RUNAWAY ENGINE.

--- • - -
On •-',Ve loresday aftereoon last aresceidept weltered on
the Great Northern line of railway, near York, which
iesulted in .a censiderable loss of property; end might
hyae teen atteeded with an eewrill sterifiee of human •
life. It appears that the driver of an engine having c.o-
.:Aston go into is station at York, he lett hie engine to
ttin t
charge of the stoker. who, iu order to- et...re time. to he
!‘:inght, endeavored to shunt it on the other line. For
teas pnroose he partially puteon the:steam, and then get
offsioi wseeot
turn
a itth ebapioipnltsB,3oidn t;eoundtitn, geiteelteelpper iioninnee
a.
thifertunately, however, the ,eseape valve. closed. end'
away rushed the engine out of the station, at the rate of
thirty miles an hour. Ali attempts to overtake it were
of oeurse futile to iMeextrenie, ter in ti Shari this .the
velocity increased -to sixty wiles ,an. heck, Anent: a
Leila from York, ihp driver of 4 c3al train wietieeaa pre-
C4cEng along the down line saw the rutisteey ereeite:
aeproachiege and' he -instantly roeres,,,t)riii engits,-,
.order to avoid-the chnseqeencest
-7a ai apparently itzeviWige. o eo,,eet iel4e...tie (few
:hart tile other 'Queries Wes upett initut emir wietiera elte
:;teker jumped off jest , ns• theLoniiiiiettge reetikentiteei•
!nrl. fortunately esceped treinjuredse Tile-tmtels,plTitueed
the opposing egginte was tretr4l-1(1..)11:.feff41-1 of the
Coii-w;ggons were completely ehettered in plecese and
the render of Tunawry Wits fOrcHVop to the top! of.
t'no '1)i4;01,9, where it remained 491 i anti turin. The de-
:patipratesi:;ar. _upwards -of
..a,OOO/. t
&lay the debris were &awed off illre line eo ae to en-
abes the trains to pass, and. thus no teri,u4 imp° litneut.
F./a.; niused to the traffic. Had the secifitW. c.ccui-red a
few:mitten:a Mar oe-engine would I,ave eerier iu ooetect
wi+h ehe express,. which toliov,ed 003 l it
iseftetrfal to con_zemplate.tho .cowkeriii,nets which "must
then have ensued. The stoker is week din custody.
Shortle !flat the occurrence of .tht4 tietastioPr.o. the
stoker, George Whittell, who had eio recklessly been the
cause of the raisehiefewtes taken into eusteily to awaiit as
examination before the entigistrat4e. On the following
dey (Teursdey) he was bought up before the Lord
Mayor, a; the Guildhall. Tee specific charge laid,
against him ens, tat he, being a s-rvant of the York
end Nerd" Midland Railway Company, endsegered the
lives of the passengers travelling.ini thth line, by wil-
fully neglecting his duty while in charge of one of the
engines, by leaving the said engine.
William Gray, jun., &q , secretary of the company,
.eppeartd in support of the information, and stated chat
it was one preierred, from a eense of duty towards the
public, against a man who had caused an eceident of so
serious and extensive a nature as the cempany felt they
could not overlook. He was a man who had always
eurne en excellent character, and bad invariabl,yoon-
ducted himself with propriety; but es be had been the
instrument whereby, the serious damage had resulted,
and as ,hehad.pliced in jeopardy the lives of the railway
passengers as well as his fellow-workmen employed upon
the line, it was necessary, as a warning to others, that
an example should be made of him. Mr. Gray then
briefly recapitulated the facts of the case, as detailed
above.
The Lord Mayor, in adjudicating upon the case, said
the defendant had been guilty of the grossest negligence
and recklessness of conduct that it was possible to con-
ceive, and consequently a severe example ought to be
made of him. The tither and stoker of the goods train
had, by a providential interference, for he could call it
nothing else, saved their lives by jumping off their en-
gine. Had the express train come up, which: it provi-
dentially-did not, as immense sacrifice of life, fearful to
Contemplate, would doubtless have been the result; lie
had received.a good character; his Lordship, however,
could, not but declare that his conduct had beennegli-
gent, wilful, and culpable in the highest degree.: His
LordNhip then inflicted upon the defendant the maximum
penalty iif the law—namely, 101. Whitten paid $l., and
was allowed a short time to pay the other 51.

ROYAL 'HIGHLAND SOCIgT
Yesterday the members of this loyal body field a ge-
neral court at the Freemasons' Tavern, to ekot office-
bearers and transact other business for the year. Atter
which they, with a large number of friends' dined to-
gether in the great hall. In the absence of hia. Excel-
lency the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland (the Piesideet),
Sir John Campbell, K.C.H., presided, supported by
Cluny MacPherson, General Delamotte; Captains Jay,
R.N., Phillimore, Hall, Wilkie, Forbes, Richardson, and
Dr. Est, Life Guards; Messrs. C. Sutherland, James
Murray, Reynolds, M.P., J. Coppock, Thomas Macgre-
gor, and Mr. Bain, honorary secretary, &c. The object
-of-thia society—established in 177.8!--ia .to preserve the
national spirit,.dress, Sco., of Caledonia' es well as 'to
improve the condition of the highlands. The occasion
of the festival being, according to custom, the anniver-
sary of the ,victory of Alexandria, one of the leading
toasts was " The memory of Sir Ralph Aber-
crombie and those who tell with him in Egypt."
The Chairman, having' previously given the " Health
of Prince Albert; in conjtinotion with that of the Queen,"
said he need offer no apology for again proposing
the health of his Royal. Highness as the chief of the
Highland_Society. . "The Clans and Chiefs " was re-
sponded to by Cluny Macpherson, who expressed his
belief that the Scottish clans alone would suffice to pro-
tect chir sh,res from any foreign invaders; that they, i
E 0 a man, would gladly take the place of all rifle or other
volunteer corps and. fight to the last to protect their
count!), and t
deaerving, of their love. Among' the other toots were
" The Caledonian Asylum, and its able aupporter„. Cap-
tain F4ters;" and " The Emerald file;" responded to
i:0 Quo', who had shown herself so well
by Mr. Reynolds, scp. The bagpipes of Angus Mackay,
the Queen's piper, and of the children of the Caledonian
Asylum, kept up, a merry and exulting series of airs
throughout the evening, whichwas further ehlivehed by
a Highland dance, admirably executed by Mackeeve of
Av-ck, Cluny Macpherson, Mz.cdontild of Itiistreieich,
and Mr. Bain. '
The dioncr and wines were served up in excellent
style, the managers of this faVonrite sluieV
excreding their predecessors in their attention to the
pl•:asures of themorapany, the lessees of the Freemasone'
'tavern b,ing now the former t,fficiala under Messrs.
Cutt and 8,.e0n.
Mr. Moody ' and • Mr. 'Sinclair sang several songs
durirt the evening.