The Sun.
London, England, 1854-09-08 00:00:00

company in the superintendent's department, and of the
'difficulties'which had occurred in it, in regard to ques-
tions of public safety, to move a resolution, the conside-
ration of which should take precedence of the appoint-
ment of a general manager. My resolution was in these
terms :—" That the circumstances attending the ap-
pointment of A. B. C. to the charge of theGodstone
Station at the time of the late accident, and the circum-
stances attending the late accident at the Spa-road
station, be taken into consideration." And here I may
mention that in 1845 I moved the directors of the com-
pany to establish the electric telegraph forthwith over
all its lines and branches, in anticipation of the period
when we should have erected it in the natural course of
things, and, in compliance with our engagement with
the Government, in consequence of the frightful accident
which took place at Penshuret, which accident would not
have happened if the telegraph had been in use ; and
ever since the application of the telegraph has been
maturing, till in October last, a general order was issued
by my directions. Well, gentlemen, some of my reasons
for proposing this amendment are to be found in the
following correspondence. (The impatience of the meet-
ing did not allow Mr. Macgregor to read all the corres-
pondence, and the folloviing are the only portions of it
that he was enabled to lay before the proprietors)
" South-Eastern Railway, London Terminus,
July 30, 1852, 11 a.m.
" Dear Sir,—I heard enough of the evidence yesterday
reardin the accident at Headcorn to satisfy me that the
man (Wyg ke) in charge of that station is unfit for the duty
of a station-master.
" Just observe the facts :
" He shunts a pick-up train from the down line to the
up line to make way for the mail train, and leaves that
pick-up train on the up line for 44 minutes without com-
municating to the station below the fact that it is there,
or taking any extraordinary precautions whatever to pro-
tect the lives of the passengers or the property of the com-
pany.
" Whatever the close of the investigation may elicit
with regard to the conduct of the engine-drivers, or their
non-observance of signals, it is still clear to me that it is
impossible that the conduct of the station-master can be
justified, or that he can put himself in a situationo
tshow
that he has deserved the confidence of the directors.
" I place these views before you without loss of time,
in order that yon may have the advantage of my opinion,
and not lose by delay the credit which would be due to you
for a prompt and correct view of the case.
" The station-master at Headcorn was not justified,
under such circumstances as occurred, in trusting to ordi-
nary signals, or to sending a man down to wave his lantern
on the line, and in my view he cannot be continued in the
responsible office of station-master—where, whatever be
the regulations something must always depend on sound
discretion.

" IKave written to Mr. Drane to lay an estimate beforo
the directors of the cost of placing distant signals at every
station, and I shall move the board, who will meet specially
to-morrow, to adopt them at all stations at once.
" I shall be glad to have an amended time-bill for
August, to-day.—l am, dear Sir, yours truly,
" J. MACGREGOR.

" Captain Barlow, Superintendent."
The general order which was omitted to be enforced
on this occasion was as follows :

" South-Eastern Railway, London bridge
Terminus, Oct. 11, 1853.
" GENERAL ORDER.

" No. 101.
" On and after this date, section 20, page 69, of the ge.
neral regulations is cancelled, and the following order sub.

stituted-:
" ' After a train or empty engine has left or passed a
station, the danger signal is to be kept up until the station
beyond has telegraphed that such train or empty engine
has arrived, and that the line is clear. If a train or empty
engine breaks down between two stations, and requires
assistance, the directions given in section 32,1 page 72, of
the company's regulations, are to be carried out.
" To prevent unne;essa,ry delays, the arrival or passing
of train or empty engine must be immediately telegraphed
to the back station."
He went on to say—The nature of the accident at
Godstone was of this kind. A regular express train of
the company started at its proper time from Redhill
for Godstone, on its journey with continental traffic.
Redhill bad received the electric signal from Godstone
that the line was clear. The engine-driver had cleared
the Bletchworth Tunnel, and then saw with dismay the
signal against him and a truck on the line. What
le% occurred ? A truck had been shunted on the line
without the knowledge or authority of the stationmaster
—indeed, it, appeared, without any authority et all—
by porters. Most fortunately no life was lost, nor did
personal injury occur. But, though the station-master
proved to have been at his breakfast, and not cognisant of
the facts, who did this station-master turn out to be ?
Why, a person placed temporarily in power by the super-
intendent. And who was that person ? Why, the unfor-
tunate man who had been, in my view, the cause of the
accident at Headcorn. It is true that after the ap-
pointment was made, at a subsequent board, when
suppose the majority of our board of directors saw
the grave responsibility which might grow out of
Inch proceedings, they gave me an opportunity, by a re-
, Nolution which they put on their books, of inquiring into
the circumstances to which I had referred. Gentlemen,
I wanted no inquiry into these circumstances myself.
For my information I had satisfied myself that there was
matter for grave and serious consideration, that great re-
sponsibility grew out of them, and it was to give any
honourable colleagues an opportunity of making the in-
quiry
themselves that I moved the resolution. Now,
gentlemen, I think it will be obvious to yoti that I am
entitled to be freed from all share of responsibility re-
garding a measure carried in the face of my resolution,
and without inquiry into thecircumstances to which that
resolution adverts. In the performance of the duty of
the practical management of the company's affairs there
is an amount of anxiety and responsibility which, I
think, can only be appreciated by one who has been put
in the painful and responsible position of managing di-
rector. When accidents occur and are inquired into, it

will naturally be supposed that it is not the object of the
managers of the company, by recrimination among each
other, to make bad worse, or aggravate the sense of in-
jury which those who have suffered must feel ; but at
the same time it is due to you, when such great changes
take place, and when such interests as yours are, as I
think they have been, imperilled, that you should hear
something of the internal condition of your affairs, and
of those incidents which have aggravated, sometimes be-
yond expression, the sense of responsibility which I have
felt in your service. We have lately had a melancholy
instance of what may be brought about by the want of
forethought and the want of perfect discipline. On that
circumstance I shall make no further comment ; but I
claim for myself, as I think I have a right to do, your
belief, that whilst I held the office that you conferred
upon me, I used all the ingenuity I possessed in anxious
consideration for our general welfare, and in the most
heartfelt solicitude for the punctual petformenee of
your service and the safety of those who availed
themselves of it. It is far from my wish to deprecate
the good intentions of any one charged with the dis-
cielino of your line, but I du say, that after the
honour you conferred upon me in entrusting me for
so long a period with the conduct of your affairs
that it was due to you that any opinion that I had to
express upon a matter of importance and urgency
should have been weighed and considered, and that no
appointment should have been made that could in any
evav prejudice, your position. The majority of the board
of directors tell us in the report that the result of their
deliberations has been some immediate and a large
prospective reduction of expenditure. Gentlemen, I
venture to state to you, what you may gather, that this
statement has not been borne out by the report and
accounts. Does my withdrawal from office free you
also from the charge of the amount of salary which you
gave to me ? That is not the case. Other salaries
have been raised and other appointments made, and the
expenditure under the head of management will even-
tually not be reducsd. I see, indeed, in one ite nof the
accounts, there is a large deduction—namely, in the
wages to police, points, signal-gate, and watchmen.
gentlemen, I state emphatically, that if any reduction
be attempted, beyond the fixed staff to which I assented
after the closest inquiry in November last, in the num-
ber of officers and individuals necessary for the conduct
of your traffic, and the amount of which staff at every
station was put in print for the better knowledge of
your directors, that that reduction will inevitably be
followed by an amount of charge upon you for casualties
of which no calculation can be made, and which in their
character must amount to something not short of crimi-
nality itself. Gentlemen, nothing is so eosy as to find
fault, nothing so easy as for men at the end of tin year,
to lap up a story of parliamentary expenditure, and to
tell you, when asking you to raise an additional half
million of money, that 479,7111. has been from 1845 to
1853 lavished in promoting losing branches and lines, in
parliamentary and law expense., averaging the enormous
sum cf 53,301/. per annum. The majority of the board
of directors cannot have informed themselves suf-
ficientlyoofetahsaery circumstances under wihch it was abso-
lutely necessary to encountermt this outlay in applica-
tions to Parlialento
opposing successfully your
lineso w; na lines,nd w he
na ;It
iws
seellt
afOrtihn
that these Bums have entitled a heavy reduction of your
dividends, the parties making this assertion ought to
have known that without this expenditure you probably
would have had no dividends at
your all, for I fearlessly as-
sert that if the directors of
company had folded
their arms, and left others to apPly to parliament for all
yoanuggeoeustledd,
the extensions from time to time
without
their opposition on your behalf,
oatodhathveo
worked your line to return any profit at
only use of a public meeting would have been to audit
accounts, not to receive dividends. From the original
direction of our line we have been peculiarly open to at-
-tack, and it is not from your new directors, elected in 1
me to read l
1854, that I have, or that you have,
allow to learn the true
history of the company. Gentlemen,
to you two letters addressed to one of the members for
East Kent, which will recall
you have done on former occasions, and what I have
thought in relation to this class of expenditure. The
.letters are short, or I would not venture to ask your at-
tention to them. On the 26th May, 1 i
846, I had occ
to
inquiries to explain-the policy of the company n answer
inquiries having a tendency to pahrliamentary influence
on our position, and I did so is t ese terms, in
for a
E letast
ter
addressed to Mr. Plumptxe, the member
.Kent
" South-Eastern Railwily Office, Great George-
street, Westminster, May 26, 1846.
" Sir,—l beg, as chairman of the South-Eastern Com-
pany, to Bay, in answer toyonr inquiries, that the directors
of that company employed Mr. R. Stephenson to lay down
such railways in Kent as he should recommend them to
apply to parliament for powers to execute, in order to com-
plete a comprehensive system of railway communication in
that county in connection with the existing South-Eastern
Railway. These instructions were given with the appro-
bation of the proprietors ofcompany, confirmed at
our ,
four successive general meetings.
which the resolution founded upon The bona fide spirit ip
recommendation was carried outay Mbor. Stephenson a
the fact that 16 per cent, of the capitalm estimatedathere gatheredfor
f from
Construction of the whole of the projected lines of railway
has been paid up by the proprietors. The concession of a
portion only of that large scheme of Kentish railways by
the aeleot committee, whose report has just been made, has