The Sun.
London, England, 1851-05-13 00:00:00

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LONDON.,

forward -should have yielded gracefully to the
adverse decision. In place of that we find motion

after motion for adjuurnment, the majority in-
creasing on each division until at length it
amounted to no less than 311, there being 54 for
and 365 against the adjournment, and yet that over-
whelming majority were obliged to succumb, and to
consent that the motion for going into Committee
should be postponed until Thursday next. Under
such circumstances it is clear that a Committee of
Inquiry must be appointed to inquire and report on
the standing orders, and to ascertain the best manner
of expediting the progress of legislation in both
Houses.

It will be observed that a verdict has at length
been pronounced in reference to the fatal railway col-
lision in Cheshire. It will also be remarked that this
verdict is couched in language expressive of the most
emphatic condemnation. Accidental—purely acci-
dental—the death is unquestionably pronounced to
be, but " with great blame to the executive committee
and charge of imprudence and indiscretion against the
officers." Such are the preliminary phrases of the
verdict, vague but adverse—the subsequent sentence
being somewhat more explicit in its reprobation.
" There was deficiency," it says, " of loco-
motive power, and the management was so
imperfect as to endanger the safety of the public:'
Whether this decision is or is not in all respects cha-
racterised by truth, it cannot be denied that it has
been arrived at after the most mature deliberation.
Nothing could be more painstaking than the attention
paid throughout to the inquiry by the coroner, or
more evidently conscientious than the final opinion
expressed by the body of jurymen. From all the
circumstances of this case it must from the very out-
set have been apparent that no ad'quate precautions
were taken to prevent the possibility of any such
horrible and disastrous accident. Otherwise
it could scarcely have occurred so slowly and
deliberately. Warning of some sort must inevi-
tably have been given of the danger approached by
the second train previously to its entrance into the
fatal tunnel. From the peculiarity of the occurrence
it has suggested itself to the minds of the jury that
peril of the like kind might henceforth be very
readily avoided by the affixing of signals,jnvariably,
at the mouth of every such excavation, and by attach-
ing lights iu addition to this upon all occasions to the

carriages. Had measures of this description been
adopted upon the railway through Cheshire, the
survivors of the unfortunate victims of the
collision would not have had better cause
tor lamenting the untimely demise of their friends
and relatives. The event referred to should con-
sequently be taken as a warning of an awfully im-
pressive character, enforcing upon all the railway
companies of the United Kingdom the necessity of
adopting the means specified for the avoidance of
equally lamentable catastrophes.
Considering the terrific power placed by science
under the guidance of man in the steam-engine, it
must, nevertheless, be confessed that the
marvel is rather that so few fatal accidents
have occurred since the inauguration of
the railway system than that the public has been oc-
casionally startled by their announcement. Those
who have never chanced to be waiting on the platform
of an intermediate station when an express train has
roared past and disappeared in the distance can at
all realize the extraordinary velocity with which the
iron rails are daily traversed. Coupling with this
the strange complication of the various lines upon
any one of the trunk railroads, and the seemingly inex-
tricable difficulty of shunting those lines one into an-
other, according to the passage of the various trains
up and down, and in proportion to the lapse of time
in the four-and-twenty hours, the wonder is that no
more accidents have transpired than those recorded
during the last quarter of a century upon the diurnal
tablet of the newspaper. Nevertheless, while such
may be the surprise experienced in the consideration
of this matter by the uninitiated, those who are
familiar with the general organization of the system
of railways can understand the facilities placed in the
way of the authorities for the prevention,
under ordinary circumstances, of any really
serious catastrophe. With the aid of their customary
regulations, with a strict adherence to the hours of
arrival and departure, with careful attention to the
conduct of the different underlings intermediately
situated between the principal termini, and with a
sedulous regard to the repairs of the road and the
efficiency of the engines employed in the traffic to
and tro—there scarcely remains a possibility of any-
thing like a collision, or of an accident of any less
terrible character. It consequently behoves the
directors of the various lines now in ope-
ration to look cautiously to each and all
of the particulars above enumerated, so that
in every instance the blame may attach rather
to their servants than to themselves. By this
method the public interest would be effectually
conserved, and additional reasons would be afforded

for attention to their different duties among the
officials employed upon the three thousand miles and
upwards of railway now in active operation through-
out England. Rewards of a more attractive kind
than those hitherto extendtd to the servants of the
various companies should he held out for the faithful
discharge of duties of a very arduous and responsible
description. Punishments in like manner of a more
serious and practicable species, such, for example, as
the degradation or discharge of the culpable, should
be raised in terrorem over the heads of those
entrusted with the lives and deaths of their
fellow-creatures, inciting them to the more
punctilious discharge of duties so peculiarly onerous
and important. By this method we feel satisfied that
the whole intricate system of railway management
might ultimately be conducted with the precision and
regularity of clockwork.