The Sun.
London, England, 1852-10-23 00:00:00

the country, except the president, the secretary, or
the clerk aforesaid, who could, before the appearance
of Mr. Hume's letter, have answered the question as
to how many branch associations belonged to it.
The public, who never before heard of this large
family of branch associattous, must now be lost in
wonder at what sort of things they can be, and how
they could have been spending their time since they
were ushered into being. As we have never heard of
any thing they have said or done, there is a dramatic
unity between them and the parent establishment at
Charing. cross. As the old bird sings, says the pro •
verb, the young bird learns. As the parent Associa •
Lion in London has done nothing for the cause of
Parliamentary Reform, there is a poetic fitness in the
provincial branches spending their days and hours in
idleness also. They but follow the example of their
parent. They are appropriate chips of the old block.
" Do as I do," says the Charing-cross Association,
addressing itself to its numerous progeny in the
provinces. Like obedient children, they follow their
parent's advice ; and the result is, that nothing is done
at all. " William, what are you doing down there?"
"Nothing, Sir." " And, Tom, what are you about ?"
"Helping 'William, Sir." "Parent Parliamentary
Reform Association at Charing-cross, what are you
doing in the cause of financial or representative re-
form ?" "Nothing at all." "And what are you,
the branch Associations in the country, about ?"
" lielping the paient Association in the metropolis !"
This is the way, is it not, to get the work of reform
done ? Mr. HUME at least would make us believe
that it is so, for he, in the unsuspecting simplicity of
his soul, is made to eulogise the Charing-cross Asso-
ciation and its branches in the provinces.
We have, perhaps, a better right to speak unre-
servedly of this Association than any other journal,
because in the earlier periods of its existence we gave
it a more liberal support than any of our contempora-
ries. We did ss in the hope that it would make an
impression on the public mind, and prove an efficient
organization for the promotion of those reforms which
it is proposed to accomplish. It has proved a dead
failure. That is patent to all, —too manifest to be
denied by even the President or the Secretary. It
has not made itself felt either in the metropolis .or the
provinces. We do not blame the originators of the
Association for this. Its want of success may not be
their fault. We all know it is not in mortals to com-
mand success.

But now that the movement is so notoriously and
signally a failure, it would be suicidal for the party of
progress, any longer to trust to what it can accom-
plish. Still we should have spoken of its want of
success with regret, and paid a tribute of respect to its
memory--for there is no use in denying that it is
virtually defunct, had the triumvirate of which the
Association now consists, not gone out of their way
to interpose every possible obstacle to the contemplated
movement in favour of the Ballot.

Their conduct, in endeavouring to prevent an agi-
tation in favour of the Ballot singly, affords a fresh
illustration of the old maxim—that there are some
people who will neither do a particular thing them-
selves, nor allow any ote else to do it. The Ballot
was one of the great " points" in the movement con-
templated by the Parliamentary and Financial Reform
Association, and if they had been sincere in their
professions of attachment to the cause of secret voting,
they would, instead of opposing the intended move-
ment in favour of the Ballot, have given it their
heartiest support. But on this aspect of the matter
we shall, probably, have a few more words to say on
a future occasion.

TIDIES.--A paper on "Railway Accidents, their
Cause, and Means of Prevention," drawn up from
large personal experience, carefully framed and read
by a civil engineer before a professional meeting of
his brethren, ought to be both an interesting and in-
structive document. The two conditions indeed are
fulfilled in some respects by the specimen we publish
elsewhere, but not exactly in the sense designed by
Captain Mark Huish, its author. The name of this
gentleman, as connected with the London and North-
Western Railway, wil - be unfamiliar to the pub-
lic, and, though perha'. • evidence of so interested
a witness may be th. thT:, require some corrective
from tl other side, i undoubtedly desirable that
railway companies shou I:be permitted to state their
own case in their own turif:' Omitting, therefore, for
the present, all consideration of Captain Huish's
general views, we turn to his, analytical estimate of
railway accidents as they actually occur.
The railroad itself, or, as it is technically called,
" the permanent way," is very properly made the first
subject of the Captain's attention. On this point he
remarks, that while the weight, speed, and frequency
of trains have on most lines been materially increased,
the quality of the rails supplied by manufacturers has
heed rapidly deteriorating, insomuch that one com-
pany has taken the resolution of manufacturing these
supplies for itself. The augmentation of traffic, too,
has naturally induced an increase of " siding" ac-
commodation, involving a proportionate multiplication
of points and crossing—those fertile sources of
risk. Some idea may be formed of the changes in
this respect from the fact that the increase of siding
during the last few years on the London and
North-Western alone amounts, in the aggregate, to no
less than 53 miles. Altogether, however, Captain Huish
observes, that the casualties directly attributable to
the state of "the way" are fewer than from any other
cause, and contribute, indeed, but a scanty quota to
the great total of railway accidents. This, as far as
it goes, is, no doubt, correct; but there may possibly
be more of the truth behind. Of late, as we remarked
the other day, accidents have once or twice been re-
presented as wholly inexplicable; and it may be a
question whether some of these insoluble problems do
not depend on the condition of the road. We are
not without.a suspicion that they do, and in this case
the permanent way may have somewhat more to
answerfor.

From the road Captain Huish passes naturally to '
the engine; and gives an analysis of no fewer than
1,000 cases of locomotive failures which occurred in
a stock of 587 engines on the London and North-
Western Railway and its tributaries. In this table
the fractures of various parts of various engines are
detailed and classified with the utmost minuteness,
and probably with equal accuracy, but the particular
point of present interest to the public is left without
any notice whatever. No doubt, it will be useful to
the mechanist to learn that " tubes," " springs,"
"spindles," "pumps," and "pistons," are more fran-
gible than all the other organs of a locomotive taken
together; and the fact that only one casualty out of
the whole 1,000 was due to a " burst boiler" is cer-
tainly of some general interest. But the true ques-
tion, is, how many of these thousand failures origi-
nated in the defective character of the stock and
management, in the employment of inferior, worn, or
unserviceable engines, and in the attempt to perform
more work with less means ? For instance, the
Captain's table sets down five casulties to "detached
ash-pans." Now, we know that a failure of this
description the other day produced a fatal
accident, and that opinions were expressed very
strongly to the effect that the occurrence was
due to a rotten condition of the whole machine
ascertainable beforehand. Now, of the five tabu-
lated examples, how many might have been traceable
to very similar causes ? Of course, the reader will
understand that the 1,000 " failures " here spoken of
were not all attended with " railway accidents " in the
common sense of the word, but all probably involved
such liabilities.
In respect of carriages, Captain
found
more to say than that the companies have as yetof
Huish has little
it impracticable to provide any method or
and t systemhe
communication between the Passengersa n the
en-
gine-driver, but he enlarges very seriously
results of " inattention to signals ' and " neglect of,
regularity." "Of all sources of danger_bnuma
erne'
naturew y
says he, "•these are the most prolific.notH
be expected
is necessarily imperfect, and it can
that the servants
t red, will be
carefully selected selected and diligently,t,u
of a railway company, however
eAll will b very
empt from such a generhaelrea
is one most important
plausible, but, as before, t
wholly
that
veryo overlooks.
rr leoaoako so.
point
Humanof
nview r
ew
isi c
imperfect,Ca pt a n
andH u i
fsohr
should not be taxed too far. The servants of a rail-
way company, besides being "
be
erekfuellt up to such a
y selected," and
" diligently tutored,
strength that no man shouldis_work:dbeipnon,idinhsanitspt,s ne-
glect,"ower
powers.
A "momentary forgetfulness, or
are no doubt „fraught with all the tre•
inendous consequences described by Captain Huish,
but nothing is so likely to make neglect or forgetful-
ness probable as overwork, excessive duty, or general
confusion. The true question here is, how much of
these "consequences" was due to the defalcation of
the servant, and how much to the arrangements of
his employers ? As to punctuality in the times of
trains, Captain Huish is a perfectly audacious free-
thinker. " The press," he says, and "public opinion,
as expressed through a jury whenever an accident
occurs, generally seize on this point as the primary
cause of the mishap, whereas not only does he con-
sider this stress as unduly laid, since,
" with a well-
regulated system of signals, and a well-disciplined
staff, the greatest irregularity, whatever inconvenience
it may produce, ought not to lead to danger ;" but he
opines that, " to a certain extent, the very uncertainty
of the passage of the trains produces safety, by the
. continual vigilance it necessitates; and as few acci-