The Sun.
London, England, 1840-10-28 00:00:00

Zhe itax.

LONDON:
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1840.

SincAe
have the discussions on railway accidents began
it IN repeatedly insisted on the propriety, which
to be ee, obvious, of not allowing the engine-drivers
b
Y .Each driver should be accompanied
4f ittes"er to assist him, or supply his place in case
l'eltt If the example of stage-coaches be

urged, which have only one driver, we must remind
the readcr that generally there is a passenger on the
box b) the side of the coachman, capable, for a
short time, of supplying his place in case of acci-
dents. Moreover, coaches run on common roads,
and it is very rarely that somebody is not at hand to
whom a coachman can apply for help if he need it,
or who will not be ready to stop the coach if an ac-
cident happen to him. A coach on the common
road is partially under the control of the passengers
and of persons on the road ; but a railway carriage,
moving on a road which it is almost certain death
to approach, is wholly, as it launches forward with
lightning speed, beyond the reach of either passen-
gers or bye-standers. At the recent accident on the
Great Western Railway, which has occasioned these
remarks, Mr. BRUNEL, the engineer, saw, as the
engine passed, that the steam had not been shut off,
but he had no power to render the least assistance,
or even to warn the people of their danger, much
less to control or stop the carriage. These circum-
stances make a second engine driver indispensible
with every machine, though a second coachman
inay be dispensed with. At the same time it should
be remembered that almost every long stage has a
guard who can, in case of accident, supply the place
of the coachman, or even remedy the consequences
of his negligence.
It appears from the evidence of JAMES GEORGE
JAMES, that the engine-driver hi the case of the
accident on Sunday morning, on the Great 'Wes-
tern, was a sober steady person, and was perfectly
sober ,on the day in question. He gave proper
directions to the stoker, as if he were, almost up to
the time of the accident, fully alive to his duties.
He omitted, however, to shut off the steam at
the proper time. The stoker called to him, but re-
ceived no answer. The unfortunate man, there-
fore, was either overtaken by sleep, or had fallen
into some kind of fit, and for the want of an assis-
tant or spare driver, his own life and the life of the
guard were sacrificed, the four passengers were in-
jured, and property was destroyed. This case
forcibly illustrates the propriety of our recommen-
dation. A second or spare driver would have pre-
vented the accident. The Jury returned a verdict
of accidental death, adding that no blame what-
ever could attach to the Great Western Railroad
Company. Accidental the death was, but blame
there also was. The Company was to blame for
not guarding, and every Company is to blame which
does not guard, against such accidents as this, by
providing every one of its engine-drivers with a
person to take his place in case of a misfortune or
an accident happening to him. In the case of the
South Western the Coroner was in fault for not
provoking a thorough examination in to the Corn-
pany's
regulations ; in the case .of the Great Wes-
tern the Jury were to blame for exonerating the
Railway Company. If the public press, if Coro-
liars and Juries, will honestly and fearlessly and
searchingly do their duty, the vast benefits of rail-
ways will not be much longer marred by either
carelessness or cupidity.
It ought to be remembered that one of the great
advantages of railways—that of being completely
the instruments of man's art—enhances the respon-
sibility of their proprietors and managers. A
sudden shift of wind, a strong eddy current, a
heavy squall, or a dead calm may render a ship
wholly unmanageable, and she may drift on board
another, or on rocks, or may founder, without
blame being incurred by any human being. Horses,
too, may, from natural causes, grow restive and
unmanageable. A sudden noise, a sound with
which they are not familiar, may terrify them, and
they may run off and overturn a coach, in spite of
the greatest precaution and the utmost skill. But
railways and locomotive engines are little affected by
storms, and not at all by currents; and the drivers are
never mastered by animal power, excited to madness.
The giant strength of steam can be guided and
commanded by the arm of an infant. The
whole contrivance including the motive power, from
bringing the ore, of which the machines are made
out of the mine, to raising the steam, and drag-
ing the train with astonishing rapidity to the end
of the journey—is made by the hand of man,, and
is under his control. A nail cannot he misplaced
or loose, but somebody must have neglected his
duty, and should be answerable for it. Though
accidents may still occur on railways—for a driver
maybe suddenly smitten with apoplexy—they ought
to be much fewer than by any other mode of con-
veyance, and, consequently, Jurors cannot be too
slow in returning verdicts of accidental death when
life is lost by railway trains. It may have been
by an unfortunate accident that the driver was
afflicted with some disease at the moment, but it
was by design that he was placed alone in a situa-
tion where his sudden illness caused his own death
and that of another, and might have caused the
death of a great number of persons. The Direc-
tors placed him in such a situation alone, and they
very generally place a single driver to au engine
which drags after it a hundred persons, and for such
improper conduct the Directors are answerable to
the public and the law. Let Jurors remember this,
and do their duty accordingly.

The very extraordinary language ascribed to Lord
SANDON by the Manchester Conner, quoted in
the Morning Herald of Monday, and to which
we yesterday attracted attention, was carefully sup-
pressed, as well as all the speech made by the Noble
Lord on proposing " The Church," by the other Tory
Journals of the metropolis. Why they should be
ashamed of it we cannot conjecture, for it is by far
the most ingenious defence of the Church we have
yet seen. The progress of the community in
knowledge and in wealth has been very great.
The Church--meaning the clergy, who so call
themselves—has laboured most assidously to pre-
vent that progress. She has frowned on Mechanics'
Institutions ; she has obstinately refused all educa-
tion, except under her control ; she has repelled
science ; she has persecuted and prosecuted freedom
of thought and freedom of speech. The free-
dom of the press is her bane. Freedom of trade
she cannot abide. All knowledge and all wis-
dom are contained, according to her estimation,
in the Thirty•nine Articles, and in the books
in which she pretends to find the source of her
mission and her power. In spite, however, of the
Church, the community has gathered knowledge
and wisdom from other sources; it has obtained
a partial freedom of trade, and a partial freedom
of the press ; freedom of thought she has been
unable to control ; the domain of science has been
extended and education enlarged, just as Catholic
Emancipation and abolition of the Test Act were
obtained—in spite of the Church. Now if, as Lord
SANDON says, the two latter could only have
been passed with our Church, and that they prove
prodigious meritin her, the whole progress of so-
ciety may also be said to be her work. She has
wanted the power, not the will, to arrest the course
of society : the Catholic Church in Spain and
Italy has had the power as well as the will, and
consequently the weakness of the Church of Eng-
land, unable to prevent improvement, however much
she may have desired it, is a great merit. Lord
SANDON has, therefore, found the means to turn
the faults and crimes of the Church into public
benefits, and we are astonished that his most inge-
nious defence has not found favour in the eyes of
our Tory brethren.
We can see only one reason for their dis-
like of Lord SANDoN's language. He makes the
merit of the Church consist in its impotency.
She has been beneficial, according to him, because
she has been unable to attain her ends. But they
all speak of her weakness as her only defect.
They want to strengthen her. They bawl daily
for more Church. They insist on giving her more
wealth and power, which, according to Lord SAN-
DON, would make her as dangerous to our com-
munity as the Roman Catholic Church has been
to Italy and Spain. They do not like Lord
SANDON'S speech, and they have suppressed it,
because they want to make our Church as strong
and as mischievous as the Papacy. We have taken
care, however, to preserve the Noble Lord's defence
of the Church, and to spread it far and wide. She
struggled to keep the Dissenters and the Catholics
bound in subserviency to her, and she caused, ac-
cording to Lord SANDON, the vast benefits she
was unable to prevent. We were not before aware
that the Noble Lord was such an extremely clever
,ersonage.

Our Radical friend, Colonel PERRONET
THOMPSON, has undertaken, through the medium
of the Leicestershire Mercury, to make as clear
as the characters in an old horn-hook to every
clod hopper in the midland counties, all that is
amiss in the Oriental policy of Lord P- ALMER-
,
STON. This is a duty which the Gallant Colonel
considers is imposed upon him by the dishonesty

of the London press, among which he is unable
to find a single Journal directly under Radical in-
fluence ; and perhaps he wishes the good folks of
Leicester to believe that to them should the last
appeal be made against any measure of foreign
policy affecting the tranquillity of the world. Their
position, their habits, their pursuits, and their
studies, are all so pre-eminently favourable to the
exercise of a sound judgment upon foreign politics,
that they may, for aught we know to the contrary,
conclude no empty compliment is intended in in-
voking them to determine the guilt or innocence of
her MAJESTY'S Ministers in all that has transpired
relative to the affairs of Turkey and Egypt. But
as we have summoned the Gallant Colonel into
court, we ate quite willing that he should be heard
in his own person. His complaint, story, appeal,
or whatever he pleases to call it, shall be told in
his own words :
" Tho old peril is upon us. Whether you know it or
not, we are at this moment in that condition, where it
depends on something like the falling of a die, whether
the agitation, uncomfortable enough I dare say to some
people, for further reforms in the political and social
condition of the community, shall be superseded by in-
quiries how many French labourers have been killed
by how many English, and the balance held out to us
as something to burn tallow about, and give thanks in
our cathedrals.
" And perhaps you think that all this is coming upon
us, in defiance of the exertions of the men that are at
the helm of affairs ;—that they are as busy as sailors
in a storm, doing everything that can keep them from
being driven on this dangerous coast, and that if they
ever come there, it will be by the act of God, and we
may all recover of the underwriters. Nothing of the
kind. They are all running down upon the peril with
their eyes open, as if determined on trying whether the
state ship or the rocks are hardest. You will hear
nothing about it from the London daily press, because
the Radicals have not a single daily paper that is not
under other influence than theirs ; which only makes
the obligation of the public greater to the independent
men of the provincial press, who are not afraid to touch
the question.
" You are to go to war. Do you want to go to war ?
Such of you as are militarily inclined can always 4 list.'
But the rest of you, do you wish for a general war ?
Will it better any of you either in substance or in
prospect ? As far as I can recollect, the men of Lei-
cester did not look as if they could be persuaded to it."
Before we can admit that The Sun is not wholly
under Radical influence we must have a new and
better authorized definition of
.that distinctive term,
than we profess a willingness to accept from the
mouth of Colonel THOMPSON, veteran as he is
in the ranks of Radicalism. If to assert to the
utmost of our ability, the will of the people to
be the only source of all legitimate power—if to
contend for the right of all men to the untaxed
freedom of religious belief and worship--if to lose
no opportunity of maintaining the co-equality of
the right of popular representation and taxation—
if to fight for the abolition of Corn-laws and all
other laws imposing restrictions upon trade at
home, and commercial intercourse with other coun-
tries—if to seek to impress Parliament and the
country with the justice of abolishing all abuses
in the army and navy, and throwing open
the door to the highest preferments in both
to worth and valour, however humble in its origin
—if to condeain sinecure and Court pensions for
nominal services, and to insist upon placing the
rights of the poor on a more sacred footing than
the pretended privileges of a titled aristocracy—
if to condemn all wars as ever burthensome to the
people, and-disgraceful to humanity—and if, in
addition to these things, never to be prevented
from rebuking the faults of the people themselves,
and recommending to them a sober, firm, bu t
peaceable demeanour, a distrust of mere dema•
gogues with paper charters, cut and dry in
their pockets ;---if such acts, and such coun-
sels are indicative of a Daily Journal under
Radical influence, then is The Sun a truly
Radical Journal indeed. But, if by Radicalism
is meant adhesion to any political doctrines
which a junta of workmen, whether in Lon-
don or Leicester, may think proper to adopt
as the articles of their creed—if by it be meant
a resolution to carry into opemation, at all
hazards to life, property, and the progress
of improvement, some unfledged scheme
of Government which is to carry us, one day or
other, to the stars—if it be a thing on paper, beau-

tiful to listen to when read, but unsuited to the
genius and habits of the people for whom it is in-
tended—then is The Sun not under the influence
of Radicalism, and we trust that it never shall be so.
But this is self-explanatory and episodical, not un-
called for, perhaps, but still somewhat beside the
question in hand. Return we, therefore, to the
Gallant Colonel's charge against the Government.
Colonel THOMPSON tells the people of Leicester
in express terms that they are to go to war ; adding
that from his recollection of their looks they don't
much like it. This is somewhat of a left-handed
compliment to the men of Leicester, but that is
their affair, not our's. If the Gallant Colonel ha-
rangued them about war, and he observed them
white in the gills, we doubt whether some of
them will not imprecate the tenaciousness of his
memory. He says there will be war ; he says, too,

that Ministers wish it, notwithstanding their solemn
disavowals of the fact. Here the Gallant Colonel
and the Ministers are at issue. It is, a question of
personal credibility,so far,between Col. THOMPSON
and Lord PALMERSTON. But as the Colonel is
not so unreasonable as to expect to be believed
here on his bare word, he gives, after COBBETT'S
fashion, and exactly in COBBETT'S manner, the
following version of the Oriental contest
A Sultan and a Pacha have quarrelled, in another
quarter of the globe. The Sultan and the Pacha
would have made up their difference long ago, but the
English Ministry sent to them to say they should not
be allowed to make up their difference, and that it
should only be made up as the Holy Alliance chose.
The English Ministry had been parties to an agreement
between this Sultan and this Pacha ; which the Sultan
broke. And then the English Ministers, instead of
endeavouring to restore things to the footing they were
on before, saw an opportunity for getting up a war,
pushed on, as it would appear, by a mischievous aristo-
cratical agent they have at Constantinople, who dis-
likes the Pacha because he has been a good re
former, and was • a grocer's son.' Here is let
out the reason for the whole. It is to be one
of the old-fashioned Holy Alliance wars to put down
political improvement. The Pacha of Egypt has
made his country safe and powerful, while Turkey
is going to the dogs through misgovernment. Russia,
who wants Turkey, wants the Pacha destroyed, be-
cause he is the only strong part of the Turkish empire
left ; and, cunningly enough, she asks our Ministers to
do it for her because he is • a grocer's son.' France,
who was a party with the English Ministry to the first
agreement between the Sultan and the Pacha and wil-
lingly consented to assist in stopping the Pacha, in case,
after the convention had been broken, he had tried in
his wrath to march to Constantinople, very properly
takes it in dudgeon, that this agreement should have
been afterwards turned into an agreement to put down
the Pacha because he was not legitimate. Frenchmen
cannot stand seeing people put down for want of legiti-
macy, if you can. They know that all the liberty of
any kind they have or you, has come by resistance to
this very thing which is called legitimacy. And out of
all this, our Ministers are nursing a war with France."
There are two ways of telling a story, and, with
all personal respect for the Gallant Colonel, we
hesitate not to say that he has here adopted the
wrong one. The following version of it is rather
more correct :—The vassal of an Empire whose
integrity five of the greatest Powers in Europe deem
essential to the peace of the world, by a series of ag-
gressions strips his master of the most valuable pro-
vinces of his dominions. Remonstrances are ad-
dressed to him in vain. Here under the pretext of
suppressing heresy—there under pretence of
punishing robbery, and exacting tribute to fill the
Imperial exchequer, he contrives to carry on a
constant and ruinous system of warfare, indirectly
against the enemies of order, but in reality against
the arms,
his master. In self-defence, the SULTAN is con-
strainedp
aKnodniatlbie, ionntelyrfesraevnecse
hiso t
Fr a
nee, toafter take
u battle of
capital from destruction. A peace is agreed upon,
but though kept in Syria by the vassal, it is broken
everywhere else. The finest Turkish provinces on
the confines of Bagdad, and the banks of the Tigris,
are overrun ; the Holy Cities forcibly detained; and
though actual war was not carried on in Syria, a
system of underhand corruption and intimidation
was established, the baneful influence of which
extended from the mountains of Lebanon to the
shores of the Bosphorus. The SULTAN was as
zealous a Reformer as his vassal—he was even
more SO ; but the influence of that vassal in Con-
stantinople was sufficient, by means of such tools
as KHOSREW PACHA, the old Vizier, to neu-
tralize the most meritorious designs of the
brave, liberal, but unfortunate IVIA HMUUD. When,
therefore, before the battle of Nezib the SULTAN
again took the field, he was only ostensibly the ag-
gressor. The real aggressor was MEHEM ET
ALI, whose conquest of Adana was entirely un-