The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-14 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—It is not surprising that the public mind
should be still disturbed by the terrible railway acci-
dents of last week. Two-and-twenty deaths in four
days are enough to frighten the most reckless tra-
veller, and to shake the faith even of those easy-
going optimists who think it only wonderful that
accidents do not happen more frequently. We also
think that fact wonderful, for every actual disaster
is sure to bring us information of a dozen other
occasions on which similar disasters were only just
escaped. This time, however, the alarm has been
more serious and enduring than usual, for the dis-
closures at the inquests have revealed a new and
most formidable source of danger. We have been
accustomed to hear of overworked guards, wearied
pointsmen, mistaken signals, defective engines, and
rapid succession of trains, but the " platelaying"
department has hitherto been kept out of sight. Yet
on that department depends everything else. The
Folkestone train on Friday last was capable of run-
ning at
50 mil es an hour with perfect safety over
any railway in the kingdom, but the " platelayers"
had so managed matters that at a certain point of
the line between Folkestone and London there was
no railway at all. That was literally the state of
things. On the bridge at Staplehurst " a portion of
the metal rail along which the trains run was not in
its place." In other words, for that distance there
-was no railway, and so far as consequences were
concerned it mattered nothing whether the break in
the line was half a dozen yards long or half a dozen
miles. Nothing could carry a train over that gap.
The Folkestone train was made up in the most ap-
proved manner. There were seven first-class car-
riages to one second, two break vans, five breaks
independent of the tender, and three guards. The
breaks were put on, and the speed of the train actually
reduced from 45 to 15 miles an hour ; but nothing
short of actual stoppage could have averted the acci-
dent, and even then the facts would have been dis-
creditable in the extreme to the company's manage-
ment. The most fortunate event that could have
happened would have been this—that at Head-
corn station notice should have been given that
between that point and London some rails had to be
laid down, and that the passengers must wait till
that portion of the South-Eastern Railway had been
opened afresh after being closed for repairs. As it
was the bridge might have been broken down, and
the train left to jump into the river, with about equal
prudence. We observe that the South-Eastern Com-
pany have discreetly resolved not to dispute "their
legal liability ; but their solicitor is mistaken in think-
ing that their acceptance of blame in this matter dis-
penses with the necessity of inquiry. There is not the
least occasion to " save time," but, on the contrary,
every reason for searching the case to the very bot-
tom. The accident at Staplehurst was by far the
worse of the two. At Rednal, though the rails had
been meddled with and the line disturbed at a most
unsuitable period, there was still a railway, and if the
engine had been a better one, 'and the train some-
what lighter, and the speed somewhat less, and the
signalssomewhat better ordered, there mightpossibly
have been no accident at all. But at Staplehurst
there was a point at which the railway absolutely
ceased. A " plate" or two had been taken up, and
the line had become a mere gravel walk for the oc-
casion. We see it questioned with some minuteness
whether a " signal" was or was not sufficiently dis-
played, but the point is of comparatively small im-
portance to themain issue. The only sufficient signal
would have been a notice given at Folkestone that the
South-Eastern line for that day was only open as far
as Headcorn. The true question at issue concerns
the whole system and practice of " platelaying."
We must know how this work is done, under what
arrangements, and, above all, under what superin-
tendence. As far as the evidence taken at the inquest
goes, nothing can be more alarming than the revela-
tions. There seems to be no sufficient code of rules
for the regulation of these most dangerous proceed-
ings, still less any effective supervision. 4 few " la-
bourers" work under the orders of a " ganger," and.
the " ganger," as we presume, makes his own arrange-
ments for the work. At Rednal the representative
of the Great Western Company said that " in ordi-
nary platelaying the platelayer would not require
written instructions," but that directions would
be extemporised by the " local engineer" and the
" foreman of that portion of the line." He further
explained that platelayers ought to show a caution
signal when doing " slight repairs," and a danger
signal when doing " heavy repairs." He did not, how-
ever, inform us who was to discriminate between
slight and heavy, but we obtain from the evidence
some insight into the practice actually prevailing.
" If," said the last-mentioned witness, " there was
no ballast under the sleepers, so that a train could
not pass over it in safety, it would undoubtedly be
the duty of a platelayer to send a man back with a
proper signal." So we should think, but now see
how the whole case was stated. " I believe," says
Captain Tyler, the Government Inspector, " the
accident has been caused by the want of properly
packing up some of the sleepers after the lifting of
the line." Very good. But John Crump, a
" labourer," who worked under the " ganger," had
explained all about the lifting and packing before-
hand. He said that on the day of the accident he
and others had been engaged in " lifting" the line—
that is to say, in raising the rails where they had
become loose and depressed, end then packing them
up again. About 1 o'clock in the afternoon the men
had " raised two middles a little," and then " con-
tinued opening up the ballast till the excursion train
came." They " did not take away more than the usual
quantity of ballast." He considered that the line
was "safe and packed sufficiently for a train to go
over," but " it was not fully ballasted." Now, under
these circumstances was it not "undoubtedly the duty"
of somebody to send a man back with a proper signal
—i.e., a signal of danger? Yet all that was done was
to stick a pole in the bank about half a mile off, with
a standing signal, not of danger, but of caution ;
and it was not until the train was seen to be coming
up, and coming up very fast, that the " ganger" sent
the" platelayer" to warn the driver. It was then too
late, for the• speed was high and the break-power
small, so on the train came to its destruction.
But we should like to ask another question,
more comprehensive than any of these. These
repairs of the permanent way of a railroad, render-
ing all traffic more or less dangerous or impossible,
are found to be going on in one case at 1 o'clock in
the afternoon and in the other at 3 o'clock in the
afternoon on certain days in Whitsun week. Now,
who selected such a time for such a work ? At this
period of the year the work might just as well have
been performed at 3 o'clock in the morning, when
it would have been broad daylight, and no train
would have been near. Who chose about the
busiest time of one of the busiest days in the year
for breaking upthe South-Eastern Railway at Staple-
hurst ? Was it a " ganger ?" If so, who are these
" gangers" who are thus intrusted with duties re-
quiring the highest efforts of organization and fore-
thought ? What education have they received, and
what salaries do they command ? We will put the
platelayers out of the question, and assume that they
are moderately-skilled labourers, answerable only to
their immediate director. But who is this director ? '
We know what he ought to be. He ought to be a
man of high intelligence, great powers of mind and
special training. Upon him, as we have now learnt
to our cost, depends the safety of every train started
on its journey. It rests with him whether a railway
shall be really a railway or only partially so, with
bits of broken road at intervals. We wait with
some interest for the revelation of the truth on this
point, for it concerns the public more deeply and
closely than many of the questions directly raised.
HERALD.—There has just. been issued a Parlia-
mentaty blue book which contains a most extraordi-
nary series of statements. It is the Twenty-sixth
Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public
Records. In this officially-tinted volume the duties
of the department are declared as those of keeping
safely and arranging the national archives, of mak-
ing calendars, inventories, and catalogues of the
public muniments, and of producing documents for
the service of legal, personal, historical, and govern-
ment inquiry. We observe a very large increase in
the region of historical research, and the ground
traversed is wonderfully wide. It would be impos-
sible, in fact, to enumerate within reasonable coin-
pass the points upon which book-compilers seem in
doubt, and which they would have settled for them
by the manuscripts in the Imperial collection. Did
a particular event take place in the parish of
Woodland, in the county of Dorset, exactly six
centuries ago ? Who was the first rector of Kirk-
Heaton, in Yorkshire ? What unclaimed property
was left in the island of Tobago in the year 1794 ?
Can the autograph of John Knox be absolutely
verified ? Who were the original Pomeroys of Berry
Pomeroy? To what did " the early Earls of Len-
nox" owe their social promotion? What was the
real pedigree of Mr. Maudslay, the engineer ? And
who did, as a plain matter of fact, copy the letter
of Simon Bustall to his wife ? These arc a few o f
the queries amid which the students in our Public
Record-office are busying themselves; but the para-
graph of the report in which the nation at large is
interested refers to Domesday Book. It is almost
incredible that this classic among our national. an-
tiquities should have remained neglected and liter-
ally fading out of legibility. Last year we were
told from the Ordnance Survey-office that copies of
it had been multiplied by the process of photozinco-
graphy, and were on sale; but where was the origi-
nal—where was, we may say, the priceless volume ?
It had been down at Southampton for three years in
charge of an assistant keeper ; its covers had been
removed, its leaves had been detached, it was- in-
deed unbound and brought to the condition of rub-
bish, when the Master of the Rolls interfered.
Domesday Book, he affirmed, was deserving of bet-
ter treatment ; it should be rebound with a strength

• • - _
and splendour worthy of its national importance
and so the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury
set themselves to work. They applied to the De'
partment of Science and Art ; they invited a com-
petition of designs ; they appointed the Lord Pre'
sident of the Council as arbiter, and Mr. G. Syk^gf
decorative artist of the South Kensington Museum/
has been engaged to institute " the necessary inCet
ries about enamelling and other processes which
may be expedient to adopt, and which will necessa,
rily influence the, character of the design. It is hoped7a'
continues the report, " the work will be put in 113,1%.
in the course of. the year 1865." We have no', -
word to say about the choice of this genn
man ; but in what other country of Europe WO t
Domesday Book have been a heap of manuscrik
rags in our generation ? It has actually been mud'
• up with piperolls, household, and wardrobe
accounts, ever since the middle ages, and, thole
often quoted, we are just beginning to apprecia
its value. The photo-zincography process, however'
which has been applied to so many old charters an
did not help to improve the condition of the origin
vellum, so that all who interest themselves in n
safety of our national archives, containing as they
do the essence of our history, must be glad that
Domesday Book—a document more interesting the
even the Roll of Battle Abbey—is at length to '0
properly conserved. The ordinary reader loc/ws
little of it ; he will not puzzle himself with its curio is
and motley language, its technical signs, or lto
o mysterious contractions. But it is the sour, r
which the historian goes. It is a great rerainued
and almost a perpetual memory for England ; an
no matter what the inaccuracies of its surveYlll3,,o
J
have been, the result of the vast undertaking was
invaluable. Modern compilers are in the habit
.0_
ridiculing our Domesday Book, now ordered to 01't
clothed in a new attire, with an Imperial Parliame
to satisfy the tailor; but such are the rude founda-
tionsa of our national history. Surveying Iv o
then an unknown science ; manors were reduced
geometrical forms ; general outlines were ally%
either stilly guessed or loosely irregular. Immo?'
spaces of the land were unappropriated and unllll,
proved, and the state of husbandry was deplorable'
Still, if there be any advantage to be derived from
„
the annals of our country and people, Domesday
• is almost our earliest instructor. It tel by` ~,"
" "
of our ancestors' clumsy ploughs, each drawn
eight half-fed oxen ;of our wild wood pastures;
of our timber which the very cattle cropped 6100;
and of our stunted brushwood which 0....:ver0;
spread the natural pasture soil. Antiques'
• instinct, tear each other's hair over the boo_
with a learned unction. We may leave them re
their discussions, while keeping the venere
vellum to ourselves. They may decide as 'Weft
choose la3tween the Saxon and Norman styles, Anof
be as positive as they like about little edifletSl
great strength, with square piers, which rir'
,
have been built—if they must have it so--be'°'r
the battle of Hastings. Domesday Book, hove° n
is the property of England for all time, and we e.3e.
only hope that Mr. Godfrey Sykes will do it justieby
Not, however, that it is ever likely to be read
the general public, who might as well be caller
upon to gather yesterday's news from a Par„st
printed in short-hand. But every Englishman 111 k
feel like an antiquary when he thinks of Domes nt
Book. It is scarcely less than the commeneeraeof
of his written annals. It measured all the linesn
property in the kingdom. It atoned for mall ea
st
of conquest and confiscation. It gave an inter of
to all ranks in the safe possession and descent vs
the soil ; it created permanent classes, whicui
wars or revolutions have been mischievous eno
to annihilate ' • and in it we mark many traces 01 lay
line by which England advanced towards a fact,
and solid civilisation. To the old Missi, "es;
who collected and compiled the materials of Pcl;:ahe
day Book, we owe the earliest definition 01,00
limits of estates, the rights of ownership, and, 3:the
all, an estimate of the number and condition 01 of
cultivating population. They were instrument°oi
the Carlovingian Kings ; yet Mr. Godfrey i5,13„11t
binding their autograph reports in a magnii",t;
volume. There may be economists who obJecsg
but Mr. Hallam was right when he said that aill.„" to
all treasures which a great nation should hold
be precious are the original and authentic materliist
of its own history. Voltaire ridiculed a 8703,
idea, ventured by a man less erudite than gra
and less dull ; but all his subtle criticism could °ror
fix upon a doubt whether William the Conquew,
created or improved the New Forest. That, 111:30re
ever, is a topic for general discussion. It is of Mos
immediate interest to learn that since the adroissfor
of inquirers to consult our public records, ,c3i
literary, historical, antiquarian, and geneo.l°glber
purposes, without payment of fees, their null'', yo
has largely increased ; their investigations l's„a
' been, on the average, of longer continuance Ai-sr
their usefulness in literature has been admitted
all competent critics. But a great source of 0101°"d;
ante remains in the constant transfer of reOrpr,
from one public office to another. When,. if ,e lt9
is this nuisance to be abated ? The Adrau-the
sends a part of its papers in one direction, and who
Home Department a puzzling batch in another,, led
colonies want to get rid of all archives assool3„scl
with our mismanagement of the lonian Isles, ;ILI
the War Department wants to know why it shocier
keep itself informed concerning the troops 111isj..
Lord Moira and the Duke of York, or thew
ciao
cheren expedition. As to the Chancery'
volumes, they had better be where Don (211,.').„-eba
library was after the good scholar of La 3'"l,4ati
had condemned its chivalrous enthusiasm. "dere
all events, whatever may become of this Illgook,
verbosity, we have a claim upon Domesday A' 1,0
and are not less delighted to learn that it is' t° se
encased within solid and gorgeous covers, 8.100
heirloom among our archives than to kin/L-40
the same authority that the Lincoln copy of 11;
Charta " is as clear and distinct as on the 11.014
was written." The Department of Public ite.c,o
is really a valuable branch of the national servi"