The Sun.
London, England, 1840-11-24 00:00:00

Z-')) --:1-10-1.

LONDON:
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1840.

The few accidents which have of late taken place
on railways seem to have come on society like the
shock of an earthquake, and have seized hold irre-
sistibly of the public mind. Loud and just has
been the condemnation of that carelessness by which
some half-a-dozen or a dozen lives have been lost.
Eagerly made and numerous have been the reeom-
' mendations to improve the management of rail-
roads. Captains of trains, better engineers, em-
bankments, examinations and licenses, six-wheeled
carriages, buffer springs, new signals, an extended
railway police, are amongst the novelties which the
excited state of the public mind, caused by the loss
of a few lives under very painful circumstances,
has showered on the public press. The outcry
against the Directors has been great. Coroners
and Coroners' Juries have been called on to amerce
the Directors wherever they or their servants were
the least in fault, and the utmost vigilance of the
public to protect itself has been required. Old en-
gines, shattered and dilapidated carriages, contri-
vances denominated antique, though they date
from within the last ten years, have all been
loudly and hotly decried, and it has been ex-
pressly and pertinaciously said that the Directors
must not be confided in, that they have a pecuniary
interest in the matter, and that the only way to
secure the public against such disasters is to watch
over them, control them, and compel them by law
to have better drivers, more secure engines, and be
more particular and peremptory in appointing the
hours at which each train is to start. We have
not evinced, we believe, insensibility on this im-
portant question, and have come forward with our
share of recommendations and warnings. But we
cannot fail to feel astonishment, on reflection, at the
warm interest which such sudden accidents excite,
compared to the apathy which habit engenders, con-
cerning deadly injuries inflicted on society to ten-
fold, or even a hundred-fold, the extent caused by

railways.
Not now to speak of the Corn-laws, except in
their relation to the priesthood, though they are a
frequent example of a state of the law slaying by
lingering torments hundreds and thousands, while
the railways, like a cannon-ball, have only inflicted
a sudden, though a terrible death, on a few, we can
but feel prodigious astonishment that the priesthood

should be allowed year after fear to inflict pain and
woes on society to which the accidents on railways
are the merest trifle. A large portion of the
evil of the Corn-laws is inflicted for their be-
hoof, and that enactment is maintained by their
Christian voices in Parliament, at tavern
dinners, and amongst their tithe -enslaved
parishioners. Of that slavery to which we yester-
day adverted, as defined by Mr. DovER with the
full approbation of the Times, they are the contri-
buting authors, for they constitute a very numerous
class, maintained in lordly and legal opulence,
wrung from the slave class, who receive not
a decent equivalent for their labour. The
Archbishop of CANTERBURY toils a few hours
every week, and he receives about 68/. a-day,
while the weaver for six days' labour, each
day of sixteen hours incessant toil, receives
only 9s. An agricultural labourer works nearly as
many hours as the weaver, and gains about the
same sum. But it is out of the produce of these
men's labour that the income of the clergy is paid,
and the workme❑ are condemned to excessive toil
and excessive poverty because, among other things,
the priesthood are very numerous and receive very
much. Thousands are condemned to suffering to
gratify the :,eifisliness of a few, but habit renders us
thoroughly a►:d perfectly apathetic to the evil, and the
overturning of an empty carriage on a railway
would excite infinitely more comment. Neverthe-
less, this evil may be remedied like the accidents on
railways. Inequality of property, except it be pro-
duced by positive enactment, like the great inequa-
lity caused by the Corn-laws, does not fall within
the scope of legislation ; but the priesthood, and
the property of the priesthood, exist but by law,
and the legislator is the guilty author of all the dis-
tress and suffering caused by the wealth of ti e
priesthood, and the poverty of the labourers.
The priesthood, like railways, exist, for a pur-