The Sun.
London, England, 1860-08-01 00:00:00

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FRIGHTFUL ACCIDENT ON TILE
BLACKIVALL RAILWAY.

An accident of a truly terrible character occurred
yesterday morning, near the Haydon-square junc-
tion of the Blackwall Railway, which produced
much ex citement in the City, and occasioned the

greatest i'nconvenicnce, the whole of the traffic in
and out of the Fenchurch-street Terminus being

stopped most part of the day.
The train which met with the accident was one
from the North London line, due at Fenchurch-

street at 9.25. It was rather a long one, having

Irought up from Kew several carriages required

for City excursion traffic, and was drawn by a
North London engine, No. 20. After leaving Step-

ney, the train proceeded towards Fenchurch-stree,
at the usual speed, and pursed safely over the line
until it arrived in front of the semaphore signal at
the south side of the line, some few yards from the
Haydon-square junction, when, all of a sudden, the
engine left the metals and took a slanting course
towards a goods siding, and after traversing about
twenty yards turned sharply round over the up and
down lines and then rolled over on its side, Two
composite carriages which were next to the engine,
the break being in the third, instantly mounted the
prostrate locomotive, and the the remainder of
the carriages in the train, as we were informed,
were thrown off the line, stove, and crushed in
a confused state. There were between 300 and
400 passengers in the train, and the kind of
panic that followed on discovering the fearful
character of the accident added much to the alarm
and confusion which prevailed. As soon as they
had somewhat recovered from their fright, inquiries
were made after the fate of the engine-driver
and stoker. Happily, both these men were found
to have escaped. They had sprung off from the
engine as it swung round and fell over, and, beyond
some bruises, they were unhurt. The position of
the occupants of the two carriages which had
mounted on the top of the engine, which was send-
ing forth volumes of steam, excited the most serious
apprehensions. Miraculous to state, when extri-
cated, not one was found to have sustained any
injury with the exception of being bruised, and a
necessarily great shock to the system. While these
measures were being taken to release the passen-
gers, another accident was nigh occurring. As
before stated, the North London engine lay com-
pletely across the main lines, including that of the
Tilbury, North Woolwich, &c. The North London
train had passed an up Tilbury train about half a
mile down the line, and when the accident occurred
the Tilbury had approached within a short distance
of the spot, and, as the writer was informed, the
driver had the greatest difficulty in bringing his
train to a halt without coming upon the prostrate
engine. It may also be noticed that a down excur-
sion train with nearly 1,000 passengers had scarcely
passed the spot a minute before the engine rolled on
the rails on which it was proceeding. Speedily
after the Tilbury train came others from the North
London, North Woolwich, Blackwall, and Wood-
ford lines, which were obliged to disgorge their
multitude of passengers on the line, which became
much crowded, and, as a consequence, considerable
excitement prevailed. Very shortly after the
accident occurred the officials of the Blackwall
Railway Company, Messrs. Wightman (the mana-
gers), Mr. Logan (the superintendent), and Mr.
. Louth (the superintendent of the Tilbury line),
arrived, with a large staff of the company's ser-
vants, and vigorous efforts were immediately made
to clear the obstruction. Other aid came from the
North London Company, with Mr. Adams, the lo-
comotive superintendent, and Mr. Chambers, of the
Bow works ; but with all their united exertions,
assisted by several engines, it was some hours ere
the lines could be cleared. During these hours the
scene at the Fen church-street Station was some-
what bewildering. It was besieged by thousands
of excursionists for Gravesend, Southend, Rams-
gate, Margate, and other places, and as a train
could not leave the station, the inconvenience and
disappointment, as may be imagined, was most
trying. Almost a similar scene was witnessed at
the Bow Station, where the passengers by the
North London, for the same pleasure trains, were
detained, unable to proceed on their tour, and,
after waiting several hours, had to return to their
respective homes.
As regards the cause of the accident, the writer
experienced much difficulty in eliciting the facts,
owing in a great measure to the indifference of the
company's officers to furnish information ; indeed,
so anxious were they apparently to prevent any-
thing been known as to what had led to the acci-
dent, that Mr. Louth, one of the company's super-
intendents, directed an inspector to follow the re-
porter and to warn the servants of the company
not to furnish him with any information. From
another source we learn, however, that the Black-
wall Railway Company attribute the accident to
some default or action of the engine, which caused
it to leave the rails. On the other hand,
the North London Company allege that it arose
from the carelessness of one of the Black-
wall Railway Company's servants in leaving open
the switch points facing the Haydon-square junc-
tion ; and this is confirmed by the driver of the en-
gine, who represents, it is stated, that he saw that
the points were open just before he got to the spot,
and endeavoured to bring up the engine by shut-
ting off his steam and applying the break, but the
rate the train was travelling rendered it impossible.
It may be considered most providential that the en-
gine took the course it did in turning round over
on to the rails. Had it kept the track it took on
first leaving the metals, it must have gone over the
viaduct into the street below. As this is the second
instance of an engine leaving the Blackwall line
within the last few days, doubtless the Board of
Trade will institute a searching investigation.

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THE COMMERCIAL TREATY.

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Health and freedom are two blessings which it is
said no man thoroughly appreciates till he has lost
them. Will Mr. Gladstone forgive us if we make
an application of these homely maxims to the pre-

sent condition of English trade and finance ? About
six months ago we were in a financial condition
which, if not everything which could be desired,
was yet in the main sound and satisfactory. We
had a large revenue, and we had the power of in-
creasing it at will by taxes as little odious as

taxes can well be. We were masters of our
own affairs, and no foreign nation or poten-
tate had a right to dictate our policy, or con-

trol or interfere with our commerce. The doe.
trines of Free Trade we held in all their strict-
ness untouched and untampered with, just as
we had received them out of the searching
alembic of the Corn Law controversy. We had
succeeded to an extent which no nation had ever
reached before in separating our Government
from all responsibility for the good or bad state of
trade, and had entirely disavowed the principle of
mixing up politics with finance, of raising our du-
ties to exclude rival producers, or of lowering them
to conciliate powerful neighbours. It is good for
us to look back upon this state of things if we would
estimate at its full value the effects of the change
we have since undergone. We are no longer what
we were; we can no longer boast with truth that
we are masters in our own louse, that we can regu-
late our own affairs as we will, that each English-
man holds his destiny in hfs own hands, absolutely
depending on his own skil and industry, and above
all things, entirely free from the control either of
his own or any foreign Government. These boasts
were true once, but they are true no longer. If we
have not returned to Protection, we have returned
at least to a good deal of the animus and spirit of
Protectionism. Our commerce, which once was
free, we have made the subject of huckstering ne-
gotiation, and of a negotiation in which we were
sure to get the worst. When two countries enter
into a Treaty of Commerce the concessions which
the one makes are the consideration given for the
concessions made by the other. In proportion as
the country has mush to give it will receive much;
in proportion as tae country has little to give it
will receive little. This of itself is a conclusive
reason why a country which has long acted on the
liberal maxims of political economy should forbear
from entering into a Commercial Treaty with a
country which has always repudiated these max-
ims. Its very liberality has made it poor—poor in
the medium by which its exchange is carried on—
the abandonment of vexatious and unreasonable
duties on the imports of other nations. The maxim
"Prodigus et status donat (lute spernit et odit"

applies very well to a nation which is surrendering
duties which it considers as evils in exchange for
duties which its antagonist considers as benefits.
If we were able to do without our very heavy
wine duties, we ought, for our own sakes, to
have abandoned them, whether France was dis-
posed to meet us in the same spirit or not. If
we required the money for the purposes of
revenue, we ought not to have sacrificed it, what-
ever concessions France was willing to make in
return. When we have already for our guidance
a set of well-ascertained principles, in themselves
perfectly adequate and sufficient to guide our con-
duct, we ought to direct ourselves by those prin-
ciples, and not mike them the subjects of negotia-
tion. Negotiation is proper to things in their own
nature indifferent; but the truths of science are no
more fittrng subjects for international compact
than the dictates of morality. So our political
economists have taught us, and we have had
enough experience of the truth and profit of their
teaching to make us cautious of running counter
to the principles of a science which has approved
itself not less on abstract than on practical grounds.
But we have chosen to be wise after the wisdom
of Mr. Gladstone, which is wisdom of another
fashion from that of Adam Smith, Ricardo, and
Mill. We have fancied that it was possible for us
to gain a double advantage, and while relieving
our own consumers td do something in the way of
striking a good bargain for our own producers. The
French Treaty was made almost before it was an-
nounced to the public. Every warning that we
could utter—and we were prodigal of warnings—
was unheeded. It was to usher in an era of uni-
versal peace, which has been well illustrated by the
necessity under which we feel ourselves of spending
£12,000,000 more in order to protect ourselves
from the very country mith regard to which this
Treaty was to replade the necessity of armaments.
We require money for the war in China, and we
are driven to the unsound expedient of borrowing
from the balance which stands to our credit for
the coming year, because we have lowered the
taxes which would have made small an anticipation
of our resources unnecessary. We have reduced
indirect taxation to a point which threatens to
overthrow the balance of our financial system and
materially to cripple our resources by throwing any
future expenditure which we may require to make
upon the rich, and to put it in the power of the poor
to impose taxes which they do not pay. In
these critical times a tax that is paid without any
great difficulty is something more than a means of
collecting national wealth for the State; it is
national wealth itself. These things are so well
understood now, and so critically analysed, that it
is very difficult to impose a tax which has not in
its favor long prescription and implicit submission.
In every indirect tax which we lose we part with
a weapon of defence which we cannot replace.
Nor is this all. We had hoped that by leaving
commerce free we had delivered our Government
from the complaints of men who are only too
ready to lay upon any one but themselves the blame
of their own improvident speculations or the results
of misfortune or accident. But any one who glances
over a Trade Report now will see that the tone with
which these matters are regarded has recently
undergone a change. Commercial Circulars are
full of complaints of the slackness of trade, which
are pointed generally at the French Treaty as the
cause of the disturbance of the markets. Oar mer-
chants have undergone the degradation of under-
taking
,journeys to Paiis to petition for favourable
treatment at the hands of the Executive of a foreign
nation. These journeys have only too often been
made in vain. The French Government has taken
back in detail what it conceded in the gross. We
have given all that we could give, and they with-
hold all that they are able to withhold. Even now
an important `'ranch of our manufacture is trembling
for its very existence, its raw material smitten by
France with an absolute prohibition, and the duty
which countervails this just exclusion on the very
point of being removed. But it is pretended that
Parliament cannot freely discuss this gross injustice
because it is precluded by the Treaty from apply-
ing any remedy, at least as far as France is con-
cerned. We belieVe that this construction of the
Treaty cannot be maintained for a moment ; but the
mere fact that such an argument should be adduced
shows how much freedom in dealing with purely
English interests we have surrendered. Surely,
when we consider these things, we are justified in
looking back with no little regret to the position
which we occupied some seven months ago, when,
if we were excluded from the commerce of France,
we, at any rate, thoroughly knew and appreciated
our own position, when we had no uncertainties or
ambiguities to perplex us, when we had at least
the confidence we were giving effect in our prac-
tice to the soundest principles of Free-trade, and
when, it' we received little favour from France, WQ
had, at any rate, the comfort that we bad asked for
nothing, when we were masters of our own finance,
and were freed from all those fetters and anxieties
in which we 41ase since so unadvisedly entangled
ourselves ?—.Times.

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