The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-22 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Tms.--There is one feature in the revelations
elicited by the late accident at Staplehurst which is,
perhaps, as alarming as anything ever brought to
light respecting railway management. The points,
indeed, upon which we commented yesterday are of
themselves sufficiently unsatisfactory. It is bad
enough that the very existence of the railways at
any given moment should be allowed to depend
upon the arbitrary pleasure of a man in the receipt
of less wages than a carpenter. It is bad enough,
again, that the very system of signals devised by the
Company for counteracting any mistake on this
man's part should, as we have shown, be completely
and elaborately insufficient for its purpose. It is
alarming, again, to see to what an extent individual
carelessness can go even in the discharge of the most
momentous duties. The carelessness which has pro-
duced this accident is a sort of ideal carelessness. It
reaches a height to which no one would have ven-
tured to predict that human nature would ever go.
But even these considerations are far from being the
worst suggested by the accident. Directors will
occasionally make unsatisfactory rules, and will have
to be convinced of their error by painful experience.
Men will occasionally be careless, and we shall cease
for the future to be surprised at any extent to which
this may go. But these individual failures might
fairly be considered exceptional, and not, therefore,
to be looked upon in the light of common dangers.
Experience in the one case and the certainty of
sharp punishment in the other might be expected to
be sufficient safeguards. It would be a very diffe-
rent thing if it should turn out that, whatever the
Company's rules may be, there is no security what-
ever for their observance at any moment. It was
conclusively proved, as we showed yesterday, by the
admission of the guilty parties, that the platelayers
had habitually disregarded every one of the regula-
tions respecting signals, and that the district Inspec-
tor was either ignorant of the fact or had himself
also disregarded the rules. In order to under-
stand what is implied in saying that this neglect
was habitual it is to be observed that it had
existed for ten weeks, and there is every reason to
believe that it had existed for years. Now, let it
be observed what this establishes. It proves that
the lowest servants of the Company, its very hands
and feet, as it were, may absolutely neglect
their duties, and the Inspector, whose business it is
to prevent this, may either be not aware of it or in-
different to it, or both. Again, this Inspector may
himself thus habitually neglect his duties, and may
leave his subordinates completely unchecked, and
he may do this without being observed or called to
account by any one. This being the case, what
security is there that the rules of the Company
should be ever observed ? An unenlightened pas-
senger would comfort himself with the supposition
that the workmen were kept to their rules by the
constant presence of the Inspector, the Inspector
by the supervision of the Engineer, and the Engi-
neer by the Directors themselves, or by some officer
responsible to them. On the contrary, each of
these limbs of the machine works, as it appears,
separately, and does, or does not, its duty at its
pleasure. It is this which is the climax of the recent
revelations, and which we recommend to the reflec-
tion of every member of Parliament, or of any per-
son of influence who may have occasion to travel on
the South-Eastern Railway. He is travelling on a
line where all the rules upon which his safety
depends are, for all he knows, absolutely in abey-
ance. Nor can this appalling consideration, in the
present state of our information, be confined to the
South-Eastern. alone. This line has hitherto had a
good reputation among railways for the care of its
management. If on a careful line the most im-
portant rules may be disregarded without anybody
interfering, what may be the case on a careless
line ? After such a revelation, we, too, like Mr.
Milner Gibson, are astonished that accidents do not
happen oftener, but to this admission we must acid
that such a condition of things is terrible and dis-
graceful. It is, if possible, more amazing still that
such a state of things should be acquiesced in by any
one ; yet even this phenomena has occurred. The
Resident Engineer appears to look upon it as quite
a natural and proper arrangement, and the jury
which heard the condemnatory evidence views the
matter with perfect complacency. It only remains
for us to hear that Mr. Milner Gibson is of the
same opinion, and " only, wonders" that any regula-
tions should ever be observed on railways. We con-
fess to being less patient, and if, as Mr. Eborall
said, it is the duty of the engineer to exercise super-
intendence over the inspectors, we do not see upon
what grounds Mr. Gallimore can be condemned
which will not also inculpate the engineer. The
idea which this gentleman—Mr. Ashcroft—enter-
tains of the duties of an inspector may be sufficiently
indicated by the following extract from his evidence :
" I think Mr. Gallimore might have discharged his
duty during the ten weeks the works were in pro-
gress, and yet not happen to be aware of the fact
that the sending the signal to a proper distance had
been habitually disregarded. If it had been habit-
ually neglected, Mr. Gallimore ought, perhaps, to
have been aware of it, but he might possibly have
overlooked the circumstance without absolutely hav-
ing been guilty of a neglect of duty." If this repre-
sents Mr. Ashcroft's notion of the manner in which
he ought to discharge his own duty of inspection,
we are not surprised at any amount of neglect in
his subordinate officers. If this extraordinary state-
ment could be admitted, a consequence would follow
still more alarming than the supposition we have
dwelt upon. We have supposed that the officials of
the line may neglect their duty without being called
to account; but Mr. Ashcroft would have us to know
that they may discharge their duty without being of
any use whatever. To one of these two results, in
short, we are absolutely reduced, and either of them
is enough to warn every one off the South-Eastern
line who can possibly avoid travelling on it—either
everybody may neglect his duty without anybody
being the wiser, or everybody may discharge his
duty without anybody being the better. In short,
a jury never pronounced a more incomprehensible
opinion than when they excited Mr. Eborall's
satisfaction by recognising " the general sufficiency
of the company's rules to insure public safety."
It is evident, on the contrary, that the rules
are entirelydeficient in that condition without which
all rules are worthless —the power, that is, of en-
forcing them, and this, we take it, is the great and
special danger of these vast concerns. The share-
holders trust everything to the directors, and the
directors trust everything to a manager, and the
manager trusts everything to an engineer, and the
engineer to the inspectors, and the inspectors to the
workmen, and thus everybody considers his respon-
sibility shifted to his superior or subordinate, and
the rules sooner or later fall into abeyance. Com-
mon sense would suggest this danger, and the rules
therefore ought to provide against it. It will be
evident, moreover, upon reflection, that the whole
system must ultimately depend for its efficiency upon
the Board of Directors. The men will sooner or
later grow careless if not kept up to their work by
the inspectors. The inspectors will do the same if
not kept up to their work by the engineers, and the
chief officers should be required to make the most
constant and accurate reports to the directors. It
is only by such a system that regularity is effectually
maintained in the only other instances in which it is
equally important,—in the army and in the navy ;
and we believe that the only reason why it is effec-
tually maintained there is because the heads of the
army are themselves responsible to the nation. If
railway directors continue to permit such a state of
things as this accident reveals, it may become a ques-
tion whether they should not similarly be rendered
personally accountable for the consequences of their
neglect. At all events the only way in which such
a state of things as we have noticed can be effectu-
ally remedied is by the directors requiring the most
rigid and constant supervision of every department
of their service, and this they will never have done
unless they set the example themselves.

HERALD.—We confess to some surprise and not
a little mortification at the manner in which the
Publichouses Closing Act Amendment Bill has been
treated in the House of Lords. Its supporters in
that house have been completely jockeyed by the
Government, and induced to give their consent to
a provision which renders it totally useless for all
the purposes it was intended to serve. A short
history of the circumstances which rendered the
measure necessary will be sufficient to demonstrate
this. When Mr. Knox, the police magistrate, in
his laudable attempts to put down the Bacchanalian
orgies of the Haymarket, persuaded Sir George Grey
to pass the measure for closing all places of refresh-
ment between the hours of one and four in the morn-
ing, alarm was taken by those classes whose lawful
avocations compelled them to be on the streets at
those prohibited hours, and representations were
made to the Home Secretary that such an indiscri-
minate closing of all means of refreshment would
punish the innocent along with the guilty. Their
plea was then admitted, and a clause was inserted
in the bill-that special licences might be granted by
the police authorities for keeping open those houses

that were bona fide frequented in the otherwise prodhibited hours by those classes of whom the mornin
newspaper compositors and the market gardeners
may be taken as the accredited types. The bill passe'
with this proviso, and had the police acted upon it,
and done their duty fairly under it, there would not
have been a word of complaint heard on the subject,
and the act, in removing a great stain and blot upon
our modern civilisation, would not have itself in-
curred the scandal of puritanical rigidity. But WI
since the passing of the act the provision it con-
tained in favour of these exceptional classes has re-
mained a dead letter. Not a single license has boo
granted, and Sir Richard Mayne has been at ng
pains to conceal his determination that none shall
be granted. It was to compel him and those under
him to do their duty that the amendment bill was
introduced. This and no other purpose was itS
direct aim; and accordingly the House of Commons!
in order to secure that their intentions should
againTlT
be defeated, took the licence out of the lianas
of the police, and, in spite of all the efforts of Sir
George Grey to the contrary, vested the power in
the hands of the magistrates. In committee of the
Lords Earl Granville succeeded in substituting the
police for the magistrates; but he was warned tha",.
on bringing up the report the clause, as it first WO
up to them, would be restored. The matter was
again discussed on Tuesday night, and there `vas
every prospect of the bill being restored to itS
pristine integrity. There was a clear majority
against the Government, when Earl Granville, Wis.e
in his generation, suggested a compromise, which
we suppose their opponents were compelled to
accept. The compromise proposed by Lord Gran-
ville was to the effect that whereas the bill applies
in its provisions both to the metropolis and to tne
country, the magistrates should be allowed to giTe,
the licenses in
_the country, but the police should
have the matter in hand in town. Was there eve!,
such a perverse evasion of the great object of a
as this ? Why, the grievance exists only in t'Ll.
town. We have heard absolutely no complain
°
whatever from the country. It was to benefit Lon-
don and not the country that the bill was brought
in at all, and as Mr. Henley truly said, in the debate
in the lower house, had the police done their dilty
there would have been no occasion for a new bill.
And now it is gravely proposed, because the police
have thwarted the intentions of the Legislature in
one bill, that the power shall be put into their hands
of thwarting their intentions in another. But the
mischief is now done, so far as the House of Lords
is concerned. The practical question to be nowconsidered is, what is the House of Commons nO".,
to do ? Will they imitate the conduct of the Lord
and accept this glaringly one-sided compromise •
Deliberately, and after long discussion, they liege;
tived the proposition that the power of licensint:
should be placed in the hands of the police. ,„..-A"
that time there was no thought of the country. 1'42,
one talked of the operation of the measure ul the
country. The whole gist and scope of the previ-
sions of the bill were considered as it affected LOO
don and London only. Will they now consent tot
a measure by which their deliberate resolution is se
at nought, and they are mockingly told that their
principle may act very well in places where they
never intended, but that it is wholly inapplic-
able in the place where alone they desired:;
it to operate ? We cannot believe they will se
tamely see their opinions set aside. If there Nver.
any valuable .provision still left in the measure 1t
might be worth while to postpone considerations
of dignity to those of public utility. But this
not the case. To put the power into the hands
the police is simply to refuse the power altogetheri;
How can it be otherwise ? Parliament says It e
desirable that certain houses shall be opened for to
refreshment of certain classes at hours when other-
wise it could not be obtained, and then they proporo
to leave the discretion of opening such houses 1,
parties who have over and over again declared ;
the most emphatic manner that so far as dePenii.
on them such houses shall not be opened at at,
If the two houses choose thus, with their eyes 013 e -at
to elect a master that shall override their OW,
solemn decisions, it is their own concern, and they
have doubtless well weighed how far that is likely
to advance their own dignity in the eyes of tot
country ; all we have to say is, that they will 11:55
benefit the classes for whose welfare they prof„o
themselves to be so anxious. The bill will pass
doubt, and add one chapter more to those that alt
ready fill the statute book; as to any practical effe,ei.
it will be as dead as the Ecclesiastical Titles 131"
But if the House of Commons shall reject the COni_'
promise, and insist on the restoration of their ovio
clause, good is sure to result. It may be that t.
P.
Government, which has already shown itself rathei:
elastic in the matter, may yield under the firm front
and strong will of the House of Commons, and re-
store the clause in its integrity in spite of the
plausibilities of the President of the Council. bland
that were to happen we venture to think that everr
• body would be satisfied except Sir Richard Alarl°
and those under him, who would find themselves 10
the disagreeable position of having their dignity
lessened and their duties increased. And if the
• worst should happen, the Lords remain obstinate/
• and the bill be thus suffered to fall through, "'v.e
venture to believe that those who first asked for i°
• would not break their hearts. For if the present
sham measure be rejected they will have an
milted standing ground from which to approach A
_
new Parliament with a new measure, introduce
,`6l
under happier auspices, and, we may hope,
• with more success. attended