The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-15 00:00:00

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• I frown down sectionalism around the board, the nrestue,
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our State, and, nbstainin from Rt 314-) " , •AVA.
freely df7cuss, every inter3zt e.7.-_,ent "14-7:0#4,; . 04,,-
us cultivate peace, as :In emancipat n V ~.:7117 ::: tl
-- Ay
the nation may arch its neck for a
Let us see that the men who represent us, ik thfitou
of the nation are faithful, capable, and honest. Let us
frown down sectionalism around the board, the fireside,
and the altar, and in a comprehensive system of social
charity embrace the practice and the creed of Christians.
Let us rally round the pure and patriotic statesman who
stands to-day at the helm of State, bearing toward Georgia
to take on board her new-born fortunes."

It may be that these extracts will prove tedious,
and this fear restrains me from. multiplying tfren►.
But they are extremely important, as showing thAt
the South is calumniated and grossly misrepresented
by those who pretend to be protecting its in-
terests, and who assert that she is only pausing in
order to gather up her strength to make a fresh
stroke for secession. She is trying to retrieve her
all but fatal misfortunes, and those alone are her
enemies who try to divert her from this duty, and
to cause the Government to regard her with sus-
picion.

I In the absence of any pressing political news a few
illustrations of the excessive discomfort and danger
of rail way travelling in the United States may not
be uninteresting. As I observe that by what seems
an inevitable law any statement made regarding a
-circumstance happening here is sure to be instantly
contradicted, and that consequently if I gave any
information respecting railway travelling based on
my own observations there would be many rejoin-
ders to prove that not a single railway accident had
ever occurred in this country, I will again fortify
my remarks with statistics taken from the New
York papers. According to the returns given by
the Tribune there have been 67 disasters on Ameri-
can railroads during the past twelvemonths, in which
300 persons were killed and more than 600 injured.
The New York Times, however, gives fuller returns,
from which it appears that no less than 45 railway
accidents have taken place since last April, and that
the total number of killed and wounded is 1,500.
If to these be added the casualties by steamboats
the aggregate of killed and wounded will not be less
than 5,000. The Herald gives the number of rail-
way disasters between the Ist of January and 31st
of August as 128, in which 266 persons were killled
and 1,109 wounded. The Erening Post states that
9 fatal accidents occurred in the months of July and
August just past, the loss of life being no less than
77, and the injured numbering 166. Nearly the
whole of these disasters were caused by sheer, un-
deniable, and wilful neglect. Yet, until within the
last few days, when an unusually horrible accident
happened close to New York, scarcely any attention
has been paid to these events, the coroner's inquest
being solely a matter of form, and ending almost as
soon as it is begun. The disregard of human life
shown here since the war is certainly most extraor-
dinary. It rather resembles the impregnable indif-
ference which is to be observed among the MUssul-
men of India when an epidemic is raging among them
than the decent feeling which is common to civilised
and Christian people. A woman commits a murder,
and is not only acquitted by the jury and kissed in
open court by her counsel, but complimented and
flattered by the judge. Another woman advertises
every day in the papers her readiness to destroy
children. There is no disguise about this adver-
tisement ; it is so openly expressed that a school girl
could not fail to understand it. Coroner's juries sit
to inquire-into railway accidents, and will scarcely
condescend to receive any evidence. Railway mur-
ders which would excite horror and indignation
throughout Europe do not attract so much notice
here as one child-poisoning case in England, which
is held to be an evidence of our national habits and
morality. Every incident of this kind is greedily
drawn from the English papers, and a big label
stuck on to it, while the five or six murders a week
reported here—this is a truthful, not an exaggerated
statement of the number—are passed over as very
commonplace incidents, as, indeed, they are. With
reference to railway travelling, it has long been the
boast of Americans that their plan of passing a
cord along the roofs of the railway cars, and thus
enabling the passenger to communicate with the
driver, is a safeguard against accident. Experience
proves that it is not of the smallest use, except it be
to give a delusive sense of security to the passen-
gers. They may like to fancy that they could stop
the train at any moment. In reality they find
themselves with broken legs or Arms before they
had any idea of the approach of danger. The per-
manent way on nearly every line out of New York is
now in a condition which must render disasters not
a matter of chance but of certainty. The rails, as
I stated in a previous letter, are broken into mere
fragments, and the sleepers are so rotten that they
yield to every thrust of a walking stick. The cars
wo shcii
el lha tper wo
vi de etlhya ftr
iotm issidet tso so
eiadsey, aand th ji
nu
gm pasait a
tloroakste
to cause a railway accident, but that great pains are
necessary. The country roads across the line are not
fenced in, and the level crossings have no gates to
them, but merely a notice put up in these words,
" Railway crossing, look out for cars." This board,
it will be allowed, is of no great use after dark.
Hundreds of such roads run across every line. The
railway is rarely properly fenced in at any part, so
that cattle stray upon the line constantly. In short,
the least disagreeable accident that can happen to a
railway traveller, especially at this season, is to take
away with him very unpleasant mementoes of his
journey, All classes being huddled together in one
long car—for all men are equal, the tobacco chewer,
the shoeblack, and the too fastidious Englishman or
traveller'sande a
American alike—the atmosphere is loathsome be-
ywoonmdanwhoclaims
description, andthe
there almost
scat sure
puts to b
hum
out of it. Such are thought to be the privileges of
the sex in America. Behind each seat is often a
stuffed pad, on a projecting piece of iron, for the
traveller's head to rest against, a foul, greasy, offen-
sive pad, which could not be fail to be an object of
interest to the diligent student of insect life, but
must always prove a terror to the tired traveller.
Every now and then the guard walks through the
cars, and does not ask the tourist for his
ticket, but knocks him in the side if his
head happens
to be turned the other way, or
pinches his arm. This, so far as I have seen, is
invariable ; the man never speaks, but Always uses
his fist. It would, of course, be very ungracious,
not to say improper, to repulse these familiarities
in a land of equality and freedom. There are sleep-
ing cars to travel in by night, but they are simply
storehouses of vermin, and anybody who trusts him-
self within them is sure to spend an active and
lively night. If by chance he drops asleep the con-
ductor will certainly tap him in a friendly way in
the chest and cry out, " Now, then, ticket !" The
indecency of other arrangements in these cars I must
leave undescribed. The English system of railway
travelling, even at its worst—say on the Great
Eastern line—is so far superior to the American that
they cannot be for a moment compared with each
other; while the " sleeping carriages" which we have
placed upon our Indian railways are, as a matter of
fact, more comfortable than an ordinary bedroom in
a crack New York Hotel—the " Brevoort House,"
for instance--where a stranger on a hot night is
poked into a cupboard to sleep. Railway arrange-
ments in America are far behind those of all the rest
of the world, as all travelled Americans sorrowfully
admit. If some proper supervision is not exercised
over the management of the lines there will be many
more railway murders to regale the strong-palated
readers of the morning journals.
The statements which have been made respecting
the intention of General Lee to leave Virginia and
take up his home in Europe are understood to be
unfounded. Mr. Seward's passport order was in-
tenc%,d to give Southern men who wished to exile
them Selves facilities for leaving the country, but it
is not compulsory in its effect, and does no more
than close the mouths of cavillers who made out
that the Government would neither pardon the
Southern leaders nor suffer them to find a place of
refuge elsewhere. It is willing to do the first, under
' certain moderate and reasonable conditions, and t 5
do the latter without any conditions at all.

SUICIDE OF A CLERGYMAN.—On Monday the
Rev. Josiah Rodwell, of Canterbury, while on a visit to his
brother, the Rev. T. M. Rodwell, of Clovelly, Devon, de-
stroyed himself by cutting his throat with a razor. The
deceased, who was 50 years of age and in moderate circum-
stances, had for some time appeared much depressed in
spirits, resulting, it is thought, from overtaxed energies.
An inquest was held, and the jury returned a verdict to
the effect that the deceased was in an unsound state of
mind when the fatal act was committed.