The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-10 00:00:00

THERMOMETER.

This day at Two o'clock .. 66

Barometer-29.98.
WIND —W.; strong breeze, and fine.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS Div.—Morning, 6i. 30m.—Afternoon, 6h. 50m.
lu-moß.sow.-Morning, 7h. 12m.—Afternoon, 7h. 40in.

g 01*

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 1864.

It seems that public interest is not to be suffered
to die out regarding the clangers incurred by the
present system of railway travelling. The awful
catastrophe on the North London Railway is still
fresh is our recollection. The judicial investigation
respecting it is incomplete. The murderer, if
tracked, yet unsecured, when side by side with the
report of the inquest comes the narrative of another
railway journey performed at imminent risk to life,
if not resulting in actual physical injury. Fate is
certainly against the directors, shareholders, or
other railway authorities who wish to avoid trou-
blesome and expensive changes, and whose motto is
the old favourite,
"What we did with yesterday,
We'll e'en do with to-day."

The murder of Mr. BRIGGS was heard with the
greater horror in our households because it was felt
to be a catastrophe that might befal any happy
home; and the some feeling attaches itself to the
report which one of the gentlemen who took part
in the journey the other night has furnished to the
public. The thread of the story is, that five gen-
tlemen were occupying a carriage in the express
train to the north on Thursday evening last. Just
before the train which started at 9.15 p.m. left
King's-cross the guard pushed into the carriage a
man in a sailor's dress, who was seemingly some-
what intoxicated—not a very pleasant companion
under any circumstances for a journey from Lone
don to Edinburgh. They had not proceeded far
before the man, who was suffering from an attack
of delirium tremens, declared he had been robbed,
and rushed wildly about the carriage. At first
the other passengers tried not to notice him, but
when it came to launching out blows in every
direction, and trying to get cut of the windows,
it was time to interfere; but SO strong was the
madman, added to the strength given by the frenzy
he was in, that it took four of the other passen-
gars to secure hia , and these had to exert their
utmost strength. One of those present, en elderly
gentleman, was naturally unable to render much
assistance, and was seriously terrified. The
others were not very wcli satisfied with their
Position, as unwilling keepers of a lunatic,
for the distance of eighty miles,without any me ditS
of securing him save a slander strap for his tvAnds
and their pocket handerchiefs for his feet. 4i Neees•
city is the mother of invention," and tide necessity
being urgent and the danger inami',ent, they made
the most of these appliances, bur, it was necessary
for tNo of them to hold him down on the seat all
the way. They did not resign themselves to this
position without a struggle, but their efforts to
alarm either guard or driver were totally una„it.
ing. The occupants of the next carriage heard the
commotion, and endeavoured to second their efforts.
Other passengers became alarmed, but shouts and
screams were alike useless, and away rushed the
train through the darkness, remorselessly bent on
reaching Peterborough, the first station where the
iron horse draws breath on his northern journey.
At oneimoment, indeed, there was a gleam of hope

for the anxious watchers exhausted with the pro+
tracted struggle. The officials at one of the statio as
which they passed perceived that something was
wrong, and put up the danger signals. The train
slaak.ened its speed, but only for a time, and no
danger appearing, away it went again. If it were
possible to assassinate Mr. BRIGGS between
the two stations of Bow and Hackney, cer-
tainly a dozen murders could be perpetrated
between London and Peterborough. Happily,
however, ►hanks to the number of passengers
present in the carriage—not to the arrangements of
the line—no fatal injury was inflicted, and the
luckless party, after passing, we should imagine,
the 1- ngest hour and a half of their lives, reached
PeterhcrouA,h in safety, and deposited their charge
in the hands of the unwilling officials of that sta-
-1 tion. This is by no means the first or second time
that a madman has been encountered on a railway
line, the excitement or the commotion attending
such a mode of locomotion being apparently iastru.
mental in developing the disease to a dangerous
pitch. On the very line on which Mr. BRIGGS
met his death there was last year an occurrence of
this sort. Had there then been one instead of two
gentlemen present there would certainly have been
a fatal catastrophe instead of a dangerous aecident.
Had there been two persons instead of five present
in the carriage on Thursday night, or had two or
three of those present been women or children
there would with equal certainty have been another
disaster added to the list of railway horrors. It is
quite bad enough for railway passengers to be
liable to all the risks to life and limb incurred by
the carelessness of cfficials, the recklessness of the
men employed, or the short-sighted economy of the
companies, but it is really too much, in addition to
the chance of collisions or summersaults of trains
racing three minutes after each other, of engines
going backwards, and danger signals sus-
pended, to have the possibility of having
to take charge of a dangerous lunatic at
very short notice. How much longer is this
state of things to go cn ? We do not wonder
that one of the passengers on Thursday night
wished that a director of the company had been is
the carriage, on SYDNEY SMITH'S principle; but in
truth directors, shareholders, and other officials are
as much concerned in this matter as the general
public, since they must certainly travel sometimes
on their own lines, and are no more secure from the
intrusion of a maniac, a thief, or an assassin than
anybody else. Besides we can hardly suppose these
gentlemen to be indifferent to the safety of their
passengers, and cannot therefore doubt that they
will busy themselves in introducing some immediate
reform by means of which passengers can commu-
nicate with the guard, and the guard with the driver,
without necessarily waiting for a station eighty
miles off. Tae objection raised in some quarters
that mischievous or nervous people would be con.
stantly stopping trains would fall to the ground if
the guard could pass along the carriages while the
train was in motion, as is done abroad, and so
ascertain what was amiss. Bis dat qua cito dat, and
it will be a more gracious and popular part for our
railway directors to play, and more in accordance
with their general regard for the public convenia
ence, If they comply with the request of the Board
of Trade, and turn their immediate attention to the
subject, than if they put off any alteration until the
general dissatisfaction and uneasiness has extorted
from the Legislature some compulsory enactment.

The Sixth Report of the Workhouse Visiting
Society, which hes just been published in the last
number of its journal, will be found to be very in-
teresting, and the information contained in it can-
not but be conducive to the interests of the large
class to which they refer. That there has been a
marked improvement in the interest taken in
workhouses generally is an undoubted fact, and it
cannot be supposed that a corresponding benefit
will not ensue in consequence of it. It was cer-
tainly time that the subject was taken up, mad
great credit is due to those who have endeavoured
to inaugurate a change in the extensive system
which prevailed in too many of these places.
Where so many unhappy and unfortunate persons
are collected it is absolutely essential that the
details and management of the institution should
be open to the public for investigation and cone-
meat, or else the result will inevitably prove that
great misery and dissatisfaction will prevail. It
is a mistaken notion that has led the managers
and guardians to shut out all communication with
the outer world, as the consequence of visitors hay-
ing access to these places is not prejudicial to the
working of the establishment, and, indeed, in
general conduces to order and good feeling pre.
veiling. It is not probable that a large number of
persons will work more steadily, suffer more
patiently, or sustain their spirits more
equably, if they are shut out from all communion
with those of another sphere to their own. On the
contrary, it has been proved that the beet and hap-
piest results have often occurred from the visits
made to these refuges for the distressed and suffer-
ing, in the mind as in body. Unless personal in.
veetigation is made, it is impossible to form an
adequate idea of the state of matters, and many
who would very likely turn away from the dry
details of published reports and the irksome perusal
of classified information would be interested by the
sight of the sad array before them. In the report
here before us it is stated that ten years ago there
was a great indifference manifested as to the con.
dition of workhouses, the moral and physical state
of their inmates was in a manner totally disregarded,
and but lately a happier state of things has super-
vened, and many have volunteered their services to
aid and assist in the efforts mane to improve the
condition and solace the afflictions of their unfortu-
nate brethren. The association lately formed in
the Bishop of LONDON'S diocese for ladies' work in
charitable affairs has been productive ref great good
in this respect, for many visitors from workhouses
have been supplied from this source. The inten-
tions are the same in all cases, but it stands to
reason that the higher the station of the visitor the
greater the services 'chat may be rendered. In
these pages we find some instances mentioned of the
valuable succour bestowed upon some poor unfortu-
nate individ'aals through the kindly aid and happy
instrameretality of some of the visitors. This proves
that it is of the greatest possible benefit to all parties
concerned that some communication be established
oetween those well-favoured by the gifts of fortune
and those, for Some wise purpose, shut out from
those gifts entirely. There is a rule which prevents
the Guardians from contributing any sums towards
the removal of inmates. The sooner this regulation
is altered the better, and in many cases it would be
a decided saving to the establishment, since the out-
lay
could be made up in a short time, and, then, the
burden would be removed from its expenses at a
trifling cost to the visitors who humanely inter.
posed. A German woman end her children and an
American sailor have been sent to their several des.
tinations. The services thus rendered have been of
incalculable value, and yet they wou:d never have
taken place had visitors been precluded from enter-
ing the workhouses in question. The more class
and class mingle in a befitting mariner the greater
the interchange of friendly feelings; and the more
extensive the knowledge diffused among the higher
rank 6 of society respecting the condition and wants

of these outcasts from fortune and friends, the bet-
ter it will be for the diffusion of the first
principles of Christianity and the welfare
of the community at large. Thera are many
reasons which might be furnished for the prevalence
of this practice of workhouse visiting, and besides
1 worldly considerations of benefiting the poor and
ameliorating the social condition of the country, the
best influences of human nature must surely plead
for those who have been placed in so lamentable a
position. It is an awful thing to reflect upon that
the workhouse should be the receptacle of so many.
There are hundreds now pining is its confines whom
one thought as little that they should ever enter its
precincts as some of the effluent and some of their
visitors. It is not always easy to foretell to what
straits a person may be reduced through the thou-
sand ills to which flesh is heir, and it is dealing cut
a very hard measure to say, that all who become
paupers forfeit their claim on the friendly feelings
of the community, and must not expect to share
more than the scanty portion allotted to them. For
too many, alas, all assistance is useless; the passage
to the grave may be smoother, and that is all; they
have entered upon a dwelling which must henceforth
be their home until they are called upon to enter
the common home of our race. There are hundreds,
however, for whom a timely aid would do much,
and many others would be cheered on the dark
road by acts of kindness and testimonies of
sympathy. It would be a wiser, kinder, and
more Christian course .to regard this large
array of paupers as a part of the great family of
mankind, who are dependent, in a great measure,
upon the kindness and attention of their more pros-
perous brethren for the comforts they can enjoy in
their sad state of privation. As a writer in this
periodical truly remarks, " The harvest is great but
the labourers are few." It may surprise some of
those who do not attend to such matters very parti-
cularly to learn that there are as many as seventy
thousand recipients for outdoor relief at one time,
and that the "annual number assisted by the poor
rates is calculated at two hundred thousand." Surely
such facts speak volumes as to the importance of
this subject, and it is essentially one that calls for
attention end regard. There can be no greater
mistake made than to shut out those driven by hard
necessity from all intercourse with the better and
more elevated of their fellow-beings. They become
hardened in iniquity and lost in corruption, and
when they sink into those depths who shall say
where the blame rests, and by what limits it may
oe bounded ? Have not the wealthy, the influen-
tial, and the powerful great responsibilities
resting upon them, and do not the tenets of
their religion inform them that they will have
to render one day an account of their steward-
ship. There must have been something very
faulty in the structure of that society which
shut out the suffering and sorrowful from all chance
of alleviation ;and prospects of solace, and made
poverty an unpardonable crime. It is well that a
better and truer spirit is gaining ground among
us, and there is this satisfaction in the benevolent
efforts now so strenuously made by the Workhouse
Visiting Society, that their work cannot change
with the convulsions of politics and the current of
shifting events. The poor shall never cease oat of
the land. We are all well acquainted with this
fact, and it should quicken our efforts and urge on
our enterprise to mitigate the evils and lighten the
burdens of their crooked lot. It is very satisfactory
to find that so much can be done to benefit the
condition of the inmates of workhouses, and it is
doubly gratifying to reflect that the beginning is
always the hardest part of such undertakings.
There is no reason to doubt or to despair of great
trnprovemEnte taking place in n few years in this
important work, and it will be a blessed day for the
distressed when all the workhouses of the metro-
polls are open to visitors, instead of little more than
one-third as at present. To help those who cannot
help themselves is a praiseworthy endeavour, and
it is also a grateful task to give the needful chance
the desired opportunity to the struggling who,
without the friend in need, may sink into a hope.
less state of despondency.