The Sun.
London, England, 1840-09-10 00:00:00

public attention, is fraught with utmost peril to our In-
dian rule. And this truth is in train of fearful develop-
ment by . events, hoxever in the pride of easy success,
we may now unreasonably overlook the inevitab'e flow
of certain consequences from causes in operation.

FROM THE MOONING PAPERS CP THIS DAY.
(From the Times.)
RAILWAY ACCIONTS.—In discharge of ti.e duty
we have undertaken of promoting inquiry into the
causes of railroad accidents, and the means by which
the public may be best protected against their occur-
rence, we have given insertion during the past week to
several letters upon that subject. The more wein-
quire, the more thoroughly we are convinced, that in
the arrangements made by the Railway Companies the
safety of their passengers is constantly overlooked, and
motives of economy are suffered to interfere with the
use of those precautions, without which frequent acci-
dents will be inevitable. While these Companies
think proper to employ as engine-drivers persons
totally unacquainted with the machinery of the
steam-engine, and unable to measure the degree
of power which may be commanded without positive
danger, they nevertheless wilfully neglect to adopt
such a construction of their engines as might ope-
rate of its own acct rd to control the rashness or
the incapacity of their servants. A correspondent,
whose letter we inserted yesterday, has reminded us
that every steam-engine in factories is provided with
a piece of mechanism (the invention of James Watt)
called a regulator, or " governor," by means of which it
is prevented from ever exceeding the maximum speed
compatible with the objects for which it is intended.
There are many ways in which this invention might be
applied without the least inconvenience to the engines
used upon railways :—" A horizontal wheel, for in-
stance," says our correspondent of yesterday, " might
be employed, so constructed as that its circumference
would by the centrifugal force increase or diminish ac-
cording to its rate of speed, and so press with more
or less force upon the salve, called the neck or
throttle valve, which regulates the rush of steam into
the cylinder." Had this invention been adopted, it
would have been impossible for the engine lately
driven by the unfortunate Foster upon the Eastern
Counties Railway to have attained that frightful de-
gree of speed which ended in the fatal occurrences so
painfully fresh in our memory. We call upon the
railway proprietors to give the public for the future
the benefit of this precaution, and entirely to abandon
the practice of entrusting the conduct of trains to any
but skilful and regularly-educated engineers. There is
another point in the construction of railroad engines
which equally requires to be reformed. The use of
four-wheeled engines, which are much less steady, and
have a much greater tendency to run off the rail than
th at which are constructed with six wheels, ought to be
discontinued ; or, if not voluntarily discontinued, pro-
hibited by law. It was a four-wheeled engine which
carried the train over the embankment on the Eastern
Counties Railway on the 19th of last month ; and we
believe that such engines are in general use on that
line, as well as on the London and Birmingham line,
and on several others. They are recommended by
their advocates on the ground of cheapness and superior
speed (though in the latter point their superiority is
questioned), and some feeble attempts have been made
to prove that they are equally safe with the other kind.
But what are the facts ? In the first place, we need
not point out to our readers the obvious gain, in point
of steadiness, by an increase in the length and weight
of the engine ; in point of adhesion, by the increased
number of points in contact with the rail, and (conse-
quently) of impediments to deviation. Those who may
feel an interest in the scientific discussion of this sub-
ject, will find it well treated in the Railway Times
of Saturday last, from which we quote the following :
" Any one who will take the trouble may see, that
while t he motion of a six-wheeled engine is comparatively
steady, that of a four-wheeled engine is attended with con-
stant jumps, and that the slightest obstruction throws
the leading wheels up on the rail, on which they fall
again with considerable force." The writer proceeds to
show that this pitching, added to the rocking which he
had previously mentioned and attributed to the same
cause, is productive of several very serious results—
first, of the destruction of the permanent way ; secondly,
of a greatly increased wear and tear of machinery ; and,
thirdly, of extreme danger to the public. " Four-
wheeled engines," he says, " when moving at high velo-
cities, have been known to jump completely off the
rails, and carry the train with them, when no cause
could be found for the accident in the derangement of
the rails or engine. The breaking of an axle in
the four-wheeled engine must, almost inevitably,
be attended with the overturn of the engine and
train, an accident to which a six-wheeled engine
is not so liable, from the shocks to the axles
not being so great ; and which, if it did occur, would
not necessarily produce the same frightful results, as a
considerable portion of the weight would be supported
by the other four wheels." He informs us of an im-
portant experiment, which seems to be conclusive upon
this subject, having been tried on the Greenwich Rail-
way. The four-wheeled engines in use on that line
having been observed to pitch to an alarming extent, an
additional pair of wheels was introduced under the
fire-box of one of them, in order to correct this ten-
dency ; and the engine, though unaltered in every
other respect, was found to run much better after the
change. The writer concludes by citing the opi-
nions of most of the leading engineers of the day,
and especially the Messrs. Stephenson, as to the su-
periority, not only in point of safety, but also in every
other respect, of the six-wheeled engine. The elder
Mr. Stephenson himself employed four-wheeled en.
nines on the Manchester and Liverpool Railroad, till
experience led him to adopt the improvement of six
wheels, a:id to that he has ever since adhered.
The facts thus stated in the Railway Times, as to
the dangerous properties of four-wheeled engines,
will be found, by any of our readers who may take
the trouble to compare them with the evidence given
before the Coroner on occasion of the late accident, to
throw important light upon the causes of that occurrence.
'fne careful management which we are bound to ac-
knowledge in the Directors of the London and Birming-
ham Railway Company have been as yet successful in
preventing any similar event upon that line ; but
we are not without fears that the greatly accele-
rated speed at which their trains are now fre-
quently in the habit of travelling may soon be
attended with some disaster ; and we have personally
experienced a most unpleasant and even alarming
degree of rocking upon that railway, in carriages near
the engine, which is not felt upon the Great Western
Railway (where six-wheeled engines are in use),
even when the train is moving at a still greater velocity.
L. addition to the points on which we have now been
dwelling as to the construction of engines, a corre-
spondent of this morning brings to our notice another
topic of great importance—namely, the open and de-
fenceless state in which the railway companies are suf-
fered to leave the sides of those high and precipitous
embankments, on the summits of which their rails are
so often laid. Notwithstanding the frighful peril to
which travellers are exposed, in the too possible event of
an engine going off the rail in these places, no precau-
tions are taken against such an occurrence ; and when
it does happen, nothing but the interposition of a mer-
ciful Providence can prevent the lives of hundreds of
human beings from being sacrificed in a moment. Our
correspondent suggests the obvious security of a slope
or mound of earth raised above the road on each side
of every embankment, at such a height, and of such a
thickness, as to resist the impetus of an engine at full
speed etriking it at the angle which experience may
render probable. He informs us that the Manchester
and Liverpool Company have, much to their credit,
adopted this principle, and constructed fences of this
description upon all their embankments within the last
year. We trust that other compeniee will follow so
excellent an example of their own accord, or, it not,
that means be found to compel them. The public have
much reason to complaie of the slender and insufficient
barriers with which most of the railways are guarded,
not upon the embankments only, but upon other
parts of the road ; they are easily broken by cattle,
and many accidents happen from that cause. The
remarks which we feel it our duty to make upon
this subject will, doubtless, appear to chairmen and
directors, and jobbers in railway shares, to be dic-
tated by mere prejudice, or by an abstract "spite"
against
railways. We are happy to be subject to that
imputation in company with the greatest men of the
day. The South Western Railway Company seem at
first to have supposed that they could cajole the Duke
of Wellington in compliance withtheir humours
by placing a train always at his disposal—an honour
which, we are carefully informed, is paid to no other
private subject : and now they (or some of them) ap-
pear to think that by grumbling, cavilling, and insi-
nuating unworthy motives, they can deter him from his
jealous observation of their defects. But the Duke is
a man

" Whose honesty is not
So loose and easy, that a ruflfing wind
Can blow it loose, or glittering look it blind."
While the compliments and the manners of rail-
way proprietors alike pass by him " as the idle wind,
which he regards not," he doubtless preserves, alta
menle repostunz, the memory of that day on which
the first railroad ever made in England was opened,
and of the illustrious victim whom his eyes then
saw immolated before the car of successful enterprise.
He observes the grasping and monopolizing spirit of
these companies, the negligence and insecurity of their
arrangements, the daily and hourly losses of human life
forced upon the public notice, and be knows that these'
are but a small proportion of the losses which actually
occur. He therefore stands forward, and we hope lie
may long continue to stand forward, worthily of himself,
as a vigilant protector of the public interest against the
interest of pecuniary speculators ; and he keeps a jea-
lous eye upon them and their proceedings. We shall
bring prominently forward those facts which the people
are most concerned to know, relying upon him and
other patriotic statesmen to give ultimate effect to such
suggestions (if such we should be enabled to offer) as
may require and be found
mor
nd,.
worthyiig c
ofh icarolnegislela.)tive sanction.
(From the
Our Correspondent in the capital of Turkey persists '