The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-11 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1841.

PUBLICATIONS.

Now ready, price ss. bound in cloth.
RELIGION and her NAME. A Metrical
Tract, with Notes.

By JOHN SEARCH,
Author of " Considerations on the Law of Libel, as relating to
Publications on the Subject of Religion."
" Who ' John Search' is, we know not ; but the above
pamphlet, published under that name, is well deserving of at-
tention, as an exceedingly acute and cogent piece of reasoning
on an important branch of the law of libel."—Edinburgh Re-
view, No. 118, Art. 6.
James Ridgway, Piccadilly; and all booksellers.

Under the SUPERINTENDENCE of the SOCIETY for
the DIFFUSION of USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.
AIA PS.—No. 88, containing PLANS of
MARSEILLES and TOULON, will be published on
the 20th instant.
No. 89, containing THE WORLD, on MERCATOR'S
PROJECTION, will be published on the 22d March.
Now ready,
THE WORLD, on MERCATOR'S PROJECTION, in
two Parts, without the names of places.
59, Lincoln's Inn-fields, Feb. 10, 1841.

IUANCHESTER and BIRMINGHAM
RAILWAY.

TENDERS FOR LOANS.

The DIRECTORS of the MANCHESTER and BIR-
MINGHAM RAILWAY COMPANY are now prepared
to GRANT MORTGAGES (under the powers of their Act
of Parliament) of the TOLLS and WORKS of their un-
dertaking, as a security for Loans of Money, in sums of not
less than 5001. on each mortgage, and for the periods of
four, five, six, and seven years, at the option of the lender.
Interest warrants, calculated at the rate of 5,. per cent. per
annum, and payable at the Company's bankers, in London or
Manchester, on the half-yearly days on which the interest will
become due during the whole period of the Loaa, will be de-
livered to the Lender with the mortgages.
Particulars, explaining the peculiar eligibility of this secu-
rity, may be obtained at the Company's Offices, No. 43, Pic-
cadilly ; or at the office, of Slater and Heelis, Princess-street,
Manchester. THOMAS ASHTON, Chairman.
Manchester, January 12th, 1841.

ASTERN COUNTIES RAILWAY.
.14 CONTRACT FOR ENGINE STATION.

The DIRECTORS of the EASTERN COUNTIES
RAILWAY COMPANY hereby give notice that they are
prepared to RECEIVE TENDERS for the ERECTION of
an ENGINE STATION, and that the Drawings and Specifi-
cation, together with the bills of the quantities, may be seen
on application at the Company's Offices (Engineers' Depart-
ment), High-street, Shoreditch, on and after the 19th instant ;
the tenders to be delivered in signed and sealed before One
o'Clock on the following Tuesday, the 23d instant, addressed to
" The Directors of the Eastern Counties Railway," and en-
dorsed, " Tenders for Engine Station."
The parties tendering, or their representative, must be in
attendance at the above named hour precisely, and the success-
ful parties must be prepared with the names and address of two
sureties for the fulfilment of their contract. The Directors do
not bind themselves to accept the lowest tender.
By Order of the Board.
A. BULKELEY, Secretary.
Offices, High-street, Shoreditch, 2d February, 1841.

GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY.
Notice is hereby given, that the next HALF-YEARLY
GENERAL MEETING of the PROPRIETORS of this
Company will be held, pursuant to the Act of Parliament, at
the Company's-office, Princes-street, in the city of London,
on THURSDAY, the 25th of Fcbruar/ next, at Eleven o'Clock,
for the ELECTION of SIX DIRIXTORS in the place of
the same number who will retire by ballot, and for other pur-
poses of business. The Chair to be taken at Twelve o'Clock
precisely. .

CHARLES RUSSELL, Chairman,
ROBERT BRIGHT, Deputy Chairman.

.
The Directors retiring by ballot, are re-eligible under the
provisions of the Act. The Transfer Books will be closed
on Monday, the 15th of February, and will not be re-opened
until after the said Half-yearly General Meeting, on the said
25th of February. Clause 123 provides that no person shall
be entitled to vote as a proxy, unless the instrument appointing
him shall have been transmitted to one of the Secretaries of the
Company, at least five days before the meeting.
By order, CHAS. A. SAUNDERS, Secretaries./
THOS. OSLER,
Offices, 2, Princes-street, Bank, London ; Corn-street, Bristol.
January sth.

IMPORTANT TO GAS-LIGHT. and COKE COM-
PANIES, GAS-FITTERS, and CONSUMERS GENE-
RALLY.

-NT DEFRIES, GAS ENGINEER, begs to
.1.9 • inform Gas Companies and the Public, that after seve-
ral years' practice, and close study, he has succeeded in bringing
to perfection hitherto unequalled, aperfect DRY GAS MEI ER,
for which he has obtained her Majesty's Royal Letters Patent,
and now confidently submits the same for their approval and
support.
The PATENT DRY GAS METER has been tested
by several London Gas Companies, and the advantages it
possesses over the Water Meters are, steadiness of light,
working by the slightest possible pressure; and to show that
the correctness and accuracy of its measurement may at all
times be depended upon, it is only requisite to mention that the
Gas Fittings are not injured by the impregnated water with
which the Water Meters are charged, and that the severest
frost will not effect it; so that the Patent Dry Meter is emi-
nently calculated to surpass any other hitherto produced.
To be obtained at DEFRIES and LUY'S Manufactory, 67,
St. Martin's-lane, where all orders will meet with immediate
attention.

CORN-LAW AND POOR-LAW.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sxa,—The friends of the poor in this town and neigh-
bourhood have been long struggling to counteract, as
far as they could, the severe operations of the Corn-law
and the Poor-law combined. But, notwithstanding a
great extent of private charity, our workhouses are
crammed full, and thousands are enduring the severest
privations. We have above ten thousand persons in
our town, who have not a single blanket to cover them.
Vast numbers, including many ruined farmers, arc with-
out employment ; and we have 1,800 hand-loom
weavers, whose average clear earnings do not ex-
ceed Gs. 6d. per week. We all see the direct in-
fluence of the Corn-law in producing this poverty ;
and it is equally clear that those who support this law,
have also endeavoured to throw the burden off their
own shoulders by passing the New Poor-law. This has
produced dreadful calamity during the present winter,
and I have no doubt many are now in the churchyard,
who would have been in health and vigour if it had not
been for this law. The cruelties of separation, by send-
ing the husband to one house, and the wife and children
to another, have been practised with impunity ; and the
poor have yielded to hunger, nakedness, and starva-
tion, rather than submit to such horrid treatment.

A determined spirit of opposition, therefore, will be
raised in this district, against Lord John's new Bill.
Petitions will be immediately got up in every town and
village, praying for impartial investigation before the
law be renewed. And my object, in now troubling
you with this letter, is to call upon all the friends of
humanity, and the friends of the poor, to adopt a simi-
lar course throughout the country. Both Ministers and
Parliament, I believe, are deceived as to the working
of this measure ; and nothing has tended to keep up
the deception, so much as the one-sided Reports of the
Commissioners. Let the powerful voice of England's
humanity be heard within the walls of Parliament, and
I trust the Legislature will pause before:they again give
their sanction to this wicked Bill.—l am yours,
Preston, Feb. 8, 1841. J. LIVESEY.

SEWERS OF WESTMINSTER AND

PART OF MIDDLESEX.

A Special Meeting. of the Court of Sewers for the
City and Liberty o Westminster, and part of the
County of Middlesex, will be held at the Sewers' Of-
fice in Greek-street, Soho-square to-morrow, to transact
the following business :-
1. To try Traverses of such part of the Presentment
of the Jury on the Ranelagh District, delivered into
Court on the 27th November, IE4O, as relate to St.
Luke's Church, Robert-street, Chelsea—the Chopel
(late Old Church), Church-lane, Chelsea—the Work-
house in Gloucester-road, Kensington—and the Burial-
ground and Workhouse, Arthur-street, King's.road.
Mr. Adey to move, after the Traverses are disposed
of, That a Special Day be appointed for
,the following
matters, viz :

To make Decrees for Rates on the Ranelagh and
Counters Creek District, on Houses, &c. at 6d., and
on Land at 2d. in the Pound ; and to sign the Rate
Books for the New Rates, pursuant to the said De-
crees, and the Abstract of the Rate Books of the Rates
made 15th November, 1839: or to take such other
proceedings as the Court may then consider necessary.

THE WEATHER.—The weather is becoming
more Siberian day after day ; and since the morning of
Friday last, the earth has been locked up by a frost scarcely
less intense than thst which remained so long with us
before the late temporary break up. To make matters
worse we are scourged by a keen easterly wind, which al-
most defies the powers of rapid locomotion or exercise to
produce a natural glow of warmth. If we except thrashing
in the barn, and carting out manure, all agricultural opera-
tions are again suspended, and the plough is frozen in the soil
it should upturn. In many cases where thrashing mills are
driven by water, operations are interdicted by the freezing
of the dam ; and, altogether, independently of the farmer
and his labourers, many thousands are again thrown out of
emplyemcnt from this unwelcome recurrence of the bitter-
ness of winter. The ground is covered with a sprinkling
of snow, but the mails and coaches have been little de-
layed by it. Last night the thermometer stood at 4 deg.
or 5 deg. below the freezing point, awl the east wind con-
tinued to blow with cruel severity.-- Ghtsgoto Herald.

REGULATIONS OF RAILWAYS.

The following are extracts from the Reports of the
Railway Department, presented to both Houses of
Parliament, by command of her Majesty :
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE PRESIDENT OF THE

In compliance with
BOAP.D OF TRADE.
your instructions, that we should
report to you upon the measures which our eNperience
of the working of the railway system under the Act of
last Session for regulating railways has suggested as
necessary to give efficiency to the supervision of rail-
ways vested in the Board of Trade, we have the honour
to report as follows :

The objects which an effective supervision ought to
embrace may be classed under three heads :-1. Sta-
tistical. 2. Protection of public interests. 3. Pro-
viding for public safety.
A reference to the provisions of the Act for regu-
lating railways, 3 and 4 Victoria, cap . 97, and to the
R, ports of the Select Committes on. Railways, upon
which that measure was founded, shows that the atten-
tion of the Committee and of the Legislature was
chiefly directed towards the first and second of those
objects, and that the third, which experience has since
proved to be the most important, was, comparatively
speaking, overlooked.

_
With regard to the first two points, the principles
upon which a Government supervision of railways ought
to be based, were fully considered by the Select Com-
mittee, upon the authority of. whose Reports we may
consider it as established—

1. That Railway Companies using locomotive power
possess a practical monopoly for the conveyance of pas-
sengers on their several lines of railway, and that, under
existing circumstances, this monopoly is inseparable
from the nature of these establishments, and from the
conduct of their business with due regard to the safety
of the public.

2. That this monopoly is the result of circumstances
contemplated neither by the Legislature nor by the
Companies themselves, the extensive powers contained
in their Acts of Incorporation having been obtained
under the impression that the interests of the public
were sufficiently secured by fixing a maximum rate of
tolls, and providing for free competition in the supply of
locomotive power and other means of conveyance.
3. That, under these circumstances, the Legislature
is,bound to 'provide that the public interests shall not
suffer from the mistaken view taken in the infancy of the
science of locomotion, and that for this purpose the
powerful monopolies, in whose hands a large and in-
creasing portion of the internal communication of the
country is placed, should be subjected to the supervision
and control of the Board of Trade.

4. That, as an important part of this duty, the
Board of Trade should collect and register statistical
information on all points of general interest connected
with the railway system.

5. That, with a view to the protection of the public
against any abuse of their irresponsible powers on the
part of these monopolies, the Board of Trade should
have the power of ascertaining precisely what the system
is which is enforced towards the public on every railway,
and of disallowing any part of it which appears ob-
viously arbitrary or objectionable, and also of enforcing
the observance, of all provisions beneficial to the public
contained in Railway Acts.
These points being fully established, after mature in-
quiry, by the Reports of the Committee on Railways,
it will be sufficient for us, with reference to this branch
of the subject, to show in what respects the Act of
last Session fails of accomplishing the objects recom-
mended by the Committee, and what additional enact-
ments appear necessary in order to give them effact.
With reference to the other branch of the subject,
viz., providing for the public safety, little evidence was
gone into before the Committee, and in their Report
they expressly state that they postpone the expression
of any opinion on the subject, from the belief that more
satisfactory information would be obtained by the
Board of Trade. This information has been obtained
more speedily than the Committee could have antici-
pated, in consequence of the rapid succession of alarm-
ing accidents which have occurred since the date of
their inquiry. _ _ _

. .
The steps taken by the railway department of the
Board of Trade, in requiring returns of all accidents
upon railways, and instituting inquiries into those which,
from their nature and magnitude, seem calculated to
throw light upon points of general importance, have
placed us in possession of a number of facts with re-
gard to the causes of danger upon railways, and the
means of providing for the public safety, the result of
which we now proceed to state as the ground upon
which we recommend an application to Pailiament for
additional powers, with a view to the protection of the
public.
_ _

- The following is a list of accidents, attended with
personal injury, occurring in the course of the public
traffic, which has been returned to the Board of Trade
between the passing of the Act for regulating railways
and the date of this Report. or
[Then follows the list of accidents attended with
personal injury, occurring in the course of public
traffic, from the 7th of August, 1840, to the 25th of
January, 1841.]
This list is confined to accidents of a public nature,
and excludes the numerous cases of accidents which
have occurred to servants of the Company under cir-
cumstances not involving danger to the passengers or
public, and also of accidents which arc attributable to
carelessness or misconduct on the part of the person in-
jured. It is exclusive also of accidents unattended
with personal injury, respecting which we have no
power of calling for returns. The term " defective
arrangement" has been used in stating the cause of the
accident, not as necessarily implying neglect on the
part of the Company, but simply as stating the fact,
that the accident is one which, under an improved
system of arrangements, might have been prevented.
The following results appear from this list :-
1. Out of thirty-five railway accidents which have
occurred in the course of five months, twenty-one are
attributable, among other causes, to defective ar-
rangements.

2. Eighteen are attributable to "misconduct of ser-
vants," and

3. Six are attributable to "mechanical causes,"
among which the breaking of axles occupies a promi-
nent place.

With reference to these results, the following obser-
vations suggest themselves :

1. The inherent danger of railway travelling is very
small, and even under the present system less than that
of other modes of conveyance.
2. It is not, however, by reference to comparative,
but to absolute safety, that the question must be consi-
dered. The public have a right to expect that the
maximum degree of safety that the nature of the case
admits should be attained without reference to the
safety of other modes of travelling. This is the more
necessary as railway accidents, when they do occur, are
frequently of a frightful character, and calculated to
cause a panic in the public mind, which materially di-
minishes the benefit which the country would otherwise
derive from the improved mode of conveyance.
3. The maximum degree of safety is far from being
attained in practice, as appears from the-fact that a
great majority of the accidents above referred to have
arisen from causes not in any respect inherent in the
nature of locomotive travelling, and which might have
been avoided by the adoption of a better system of
arrangement.
This will appear more evident from a detailed state-
ytlieofßoard of
been
appointedhe subject
by
state-
ment of what has actually eccurred in the case of the
eleven
npersonal
investigationaccidents
by whichinspectors
Trade. These accidents, which from their importance,
and the degree of public attention they have excited,
may he called the " leading railway accidents," are the
following:—Hull and Selby, two accidents ; Eastern
Counties, three accidents ; North Midland, South
spe haveetors
Western, London and Birmingham, two accidents
York and North Midland ; Midland Counties. (De-
tails of these several accidents follow, occupying several
pages.)
In concluding this review of the railway accidents
which have been the subject of investigation by the Board
of Trade, we think it only fair to the Railway Compa-
nies upon whose arrangements we have had occasion to
remark, to add that in a majority of instances they have
evinced great readiness in adopting the recommenda-
tions of the Government Inspectors, and that the offi-
cers intrusted with the management of the different lines
have shown a great desire to introduce improvements
and prevent the recurrence of accidents.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOUNDED ON THE FOREGOING
EVIDENCE, AND REASONS FOR THEM.
The powers given to the Board of Trade by the 3d
and 4th Victoria, c. 97, are totally inadequate to enable
it to carry into effect the measures which from the evi-
dence above stated appear .indi▪
spensable for the public
safety. The only powers given by the Act which have
thea following
any reference
:_
1. A power of requiring returns of all accidents to the protection of the public safety are
at-
tended with personal injury, to be made Within this ty
days from the date of the requi▪
sition ; 3d and 4th Vic-
toria, c. 97, s. 3.
2. A power of appointing inspectors to enter upon
and examine any railway and the stations, works, build-
ings, engines, and carriages belonging thereto ; s. 5.
3. A power of directing prosecutions in any case in
which it shall appear that any of the provisions of Rail-
way Acts have not been complied with, and that it
would be for the public advantage to enforce their per-
formance ; 5. 11.
The power of requiring returns is evidently insuffi-

cient even for the limited purpose of obtai❑iag informa-
tion of accidents which have happened. The period of
thirty days given by the Acts for making the return is
alone sufficient to render it inoperative, and the limita-
tion to accidents attended with personal injury is very
objectionable, as accidents unattended with personal
injury may be equally important, as throwing light on
causes of danger and the means of prevention, and
may occasion serious inconvenience by interrupting the
public traffic. For the still more important purpose of
enabling the Board of Trade to obtain the information
respecting regulations, signals, time-tables, and other de-
tails of naaragement upon different railways, which is
indispensable with a view to any effective supervision
for the prevention of accidents, the Act does not at-
tempt to provide, and by expressly defining the re-
turns which the Board is empowered to call for, ex-
cludes by implication all which are enumerated in
the Act.

Whatever information upon these essential points we
have been enabled to obtain we owe to the courtesy of
individual Companies and their officers—a source upon
which it would be obviously unsuitable for a Govcrn-
meat department to depend, the more especially as the
temptation to concealment is strongest in those cases in
which it is most essential to obtain information.

The Select Committee on Railways having in their
Report expressly recommended " that the Board of
Trade, should have the power of calling for any returns,
financial or statistical, which it should consider neces-
sary for the performance of its duty," it is surely not too
much to ask to be entrusted with the requisite powers of
obtaining the information which is indispensible for the
discharge of the most arduous and important part of
our duty, viz., providing for the public safety.
We accordingly recommend that in any Act which
may be introduced in the course of the approaching
Session, a clause should be inserted empowering the
Board of Trade to call for returns of all accidents at-
tended with personal injury, or occasioning an interrup-
tion in the public traffic, and also such returns respect-
ing the arrangements for conducting the public traffic as
the Board of Trade may consider necessary, with a view
to providing for the public safety. This power, with that
of inspection, would be sufficient to give us access to the
requisite information. The possession of this infor-
mation, however, would be insufficient, unless our powers
of acting upon it are extended. The only positive
power given by the 3d and 4th of Victoria, c. 97, is
that above mentioned, of directing prosecutions to en-
force the provisions of Railway Acts—a power which is
useless for the purpose of enforcing the regulations and
precautions which experience has pointed out as essen-
tial for the public safety. As the Act stands at pre-
sent the Board of Trade has no power of enforcing any
one of the recommendations contained in the report of
its inspectors, however obvious and necessary for the
public safety. Although the Directors and officers of
the different railway companies whose lines we have had
occasion to inspect have, generally speaking, shown
great readiness to attend to the representations of the
Board,this has not been uniformly the case, and:instances
have occurred which are sufficient to show the impossi-
bility of exercising any effective supervision, unless pro.
vided with the requisite powers of enforcing our recom-
mendations.

With regard to the nature and extent of these powers,
the proper distinction appears to us to be, that the Go-
vernment should not attempt to interfere in questions of
an experimental nature, which are still subjects of dis-
cussion, and admit of a fair difference of opinion among
practical men ; nor should it attempt to regulate mat-
ters of detail, so as to take the management of railways
out of the hands of the parties immediately responsible,
viz., the Directors and their officers.
On the other hand, the Government should have the
power of enforcing, whenever it is found necessary, the
observance of all precautions and regulations which are
approved by experience and are obviously conducive to
the public safety. For instance, upon such points as
the comparative advantages of six and four-wheeled en-
gines, the best construction and mode of laying down
rails,,the best form and construction of wheels, axles,
&c., and other points of a similar nature, upon which
the practice of the best conducted railways differs, and
the opinion of the most eminent engineers is by no
means decided, it would be premature for the Govern-
ment to interfere until experience has solved the ques-
tions which may still be fairly considered as doubtful.
But with regard to other points, such as the propriety
of introducing upon every railway such arrangements re-
specting time-tables and signals as experience has shown
to be necessary for preventing collision, of establishing
a proper and uniform code of regulations for engine- I
drivers, guards, and other servants placed in a respon-
sible situation, and for maintaining strict discipline, and
generally of introducing upon all railways whatever has
been adopted and proved to be conducive to safety by
the practice of those which are considered to be the best
conducted, no difference of opinion can exist, and if the
principle of Government supervision be admitted at all,
it cannot find a more legitimate field for its exercise.

The same distinction applies to the case of opening
new railways. It would be impossible for the Govern-
ment inspector, upon a short inspection, to pronounce
an opinion upon questions of construction so as to share
the responsibility of the engineer under whose superin-
tendence the works were conducted. On the other
hand, the Government inspector is fully capable of
judging whether the works are sufficiently completed,
and whether the arrangements for working the line are
of such a nature as to present no obvious and unusual
danger to the public in the event of its being opened
at the time proposed, _ _ _

The present Act establishes the principle of a Go-
vernment inspection of railways previously to their being
opened for public traffic ; but if this principle is to be
maintained, it is inc ispensiblc to give the Government
power to prevent the opening of the railway in case the
conditions considered as essential for the public safety
are not complied with. As matters stand at present,
the Government has the responsibility, without any of
the power which ought to accompany it. The public
naturally look to the Government inspector as a gua-
rantee that the line is in a fit state to be opened, while,
in point of fact, the line may be opened in defiance of
the representations of the Government and its inspec-
tor. The present Act is also defective in not obliging
companies to give notice of the day when their railway
will be ready for inspection, as well as of the day when
it is proposed to be open it. Great inconvenience has
been experienced from this cause, as, from the anxiety
of railway companies to ope❑ at the earliest possible
moment, the inspection has either been fixed so late as
to afford no time for considering and acting upon the
inspector's report, or, if fixed earlier, the works have
been found incomplete.
We recommend, therefore,

Ist. That no railway or portion of railway should be
opened for the public conveyance of passengers until
one month's notice shall have been given to the Board
of Trade of the intention of opening, and too days'
notice that the railway is sufficiently completed for re-
ceiving the public traffic in safety.
2d. That in case of an unfavourable report from the
inspector appointed by the Board of Trade upon any
essential point connected with the public safety, a
power should be given to the Board of Trade of post-
poning the opening from time to time, for periods not
exceeding one month.

With -reference to the exercise of this power, it
should be a general rule never to sanction the opening
of a railway until the works of construction are so far
completed as to allow the permanent way to be
devoted solely to the purposes of the public traffic. and
of the ordinary repairs requisite for keeping the line
in order ; nor until the establishment for conducting the
public traffic is placed in all essential respects upon an
efficient footing.
With regard to the provisions which should be intro-
duced into the new Act for the purpose of enabling
the Board of Trade to exercise an effective supervision
over railways after they are opened, with a view to
provide for the public safety, it appears to us impossi•
hie to define in any Act of Parliament the exact nature
and limits of this supervision, and to provide before-
hand for every case which may arise in practice.
The principle which we think ought to regulate the
exercise of this supervision has bee❑ already stated, viz.
that it should be confined to the enforcement of such
rules and regulations as are approved by practice, and
obviously conducive to the public safety.
The following also may be stated as an outline of some
of the principal regulations which we think ought to be
enforced :