The Sun.
London, England, 1867-03-30 00:00:00

'I.. as.

The Engine-Driver&

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Thursday, the strike being at an end, and the
whole of the engine-drivers and firemen, together
nearly 400 in number, having returned to wollz, the
passenger traffic of the London, Brighton, and
South-Coast Railway Company was resumed as well
on the main lines as on the subsidiary ones, and the
excitement consequent upon the dispute in the early
part of the week had died away. The leaders in
the movement, being better employed, held no meet-
ing at the Green Man, in Tooley-street, their head-
quarters, and the authorities, at the London Bridge
terminus, were relieved from the embarrassment
they had experienced on the two previous days. The
men are much pleased with the result, and have
gone to work with a will. They have not quite at-
tained all they wanted, but the directors having
generously conceded nearly all they asked, and
having besides met them half-way in the only re-
maining point of difference—that of promotion—
both parties are satisfied, and the pride of neither
has been offended. All or most of the trains to and
from London and Brighton, as well as those on all
the coast lines and branches between Portsmouth,
Hastings, Horsham, Guildford, and Tunbridge-wells
have been running since Wednesday, and yesterday
the ordinary trains were resumed over the whole
suburban system between London-bridge, Victoria,
Crystal Palace, Croydon, Epsom, Leatherhead, and
Dorking, and on the South London line.
Some misapprehension appears to exist outside as
to the actual time the drivers are ordinarily upon
their engines from day to day. During the dispute
it was said, and rightly said, that 10 hours a day
was surely sufficient for a man to be so engaged,
and especially in winter, having regard both to the
safety of travellers and his own needful rest and re-
creation. The directors complain that this part of
the case has been misunderstood by the public, and
in consequence invested with an appearance of
hardship which does not really exist, or only to a
limited extent. In proof of that they cite the case
of the driver of an express train on the main line.
He leaves Brighton in the morning for London,
where he rests some hours, and on leaving his engine
in the evening on his return to Brighton be may
not have been more than four or five hours on ac-
tual duty during the day. That, however, is an
exceptional case, and occasionally the interval of
rest is abridged by his having to take a goods train
from the London-bridge station to New-cross and
back. Another driver will go first from Brighton
to Hastings iu the morning, thence to London, and
then from London to Brighton. That is considered
a long day, but a longer day still is where a man
drives an engine from 13righton to Portsmouth,
thence to London, returning to Brighton in the
evening. That the managers say is the longest
day's work they have, and even in that case the man
is not more than about seven hours upon his engine.
He has, however, in addition, to be at the station
half an hour before the train starts in the morning,
and ou Lis returning in the evening he is supposed
to be occupied another half hour in seeing that his
engine is all right before he goes home. During
the summer season, when the passenger traffic is
brisk, a driver performs the distance from Brighton
to London and back, twice in a day, but in that case
he is paid for overtime. These are matters on
which the directors and superintendents desire to
be set right with the public. Again, they say it is
unjust to the highly-skilled men, and to the public,
as respects the greater safety of railway travelling,
to claim that all engine-drivers shall receive a uni-
form rate of pay, without distinction. They con-
tend that an engine-driver requires training just as
much as a man. put to any other trade, or perhaps
more. In the South of England drivers have
usually been agricultural labourers, and are first
put to clean engines, then to act as firemen, after-
wards as engine-drivers, first of ballast-trains, until
they have acquired a sufficient amount of experience
to justify their being intrusted with the driving of
passenger trains. The men, on the other hand,
say that after a certain time a man is, or ought to
be, a properly-qualified driver, and being so that he
ought to depend upon his superintendent or fore-
man promoting him. One reply of superintendents
and managers to that is, that there are many
men good drivers, but whom they would never
hink of trusting with the charge of an express train,
from want of nerve. However that may be,
the whole secret of the recent strike— and it may
be well for those whom it concerns to remember
it—is said to have been the tardy and procrasti-
nating spirit shown by the foremen as a body for
years past in recognising the claims of drivers to
promotion, and, consequently, to the higher rate
of pay. That, again, is said to have resulted
from the pressure put upon the directors at meet-
ings of the shareholders to economise expenditure,
and again by the directors upon those below them.
It was the feeling of hope deferred, consequent
upon this pressure and upon the neglect or delay
of foremen in recognising merit in those below
them, that culminated in the recent rupture, which
has caused the company considerable loss and the
public more or less inconvenience.

CONVICTION OF AN ENGLISH PICKPOCKET AT
PARIS.—John Mot, an Englishman, has just been tried in
the Court of Correctional Police for attempting to pick the
pocket of a lady at the Western Railway Station, Paris.
The prisoner pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to two
years' imprisonment and five years' police surveillance.
It will be a source of great regret to our profes-
sional readers when we inform them that Vice-Admiral
Sir Alexander Milne has for the last fortnight been suf-
fering from a very painful if not serious illness. Tho gal-
lant officer is, however, we are glad to say, convalescent,
and will return on Monday to his official residence from
Brighton, to which place ho had been ordered for change
by his medical advisers. Army and Navy Gazette.
Dr. LUSHINTGON.—Mr. Rothery, the registrar,
who disposed of a number of motions at the Admiralty
Chamber yesterday, stated that Dr. Lushington would hear
any pressing matter at his private residence, and it was
expected he would be able to take his seat in the Admiralty
Court at Easter Term.

THE REFORM BlLL—This bill having passed the
second reading, it will be moulded in committee to
the views of the majority of the Commons. When thus
revised, perhaps recast, the Government will consider
whether it is a measure in accordance with the constitu-
tional principle of representation of all classes and interests,
and not of a mere numerical majority. If it be such as
they can conscientiously approve, they will accept it and
it will become law before the close of the session. If, on
the other hand, it should be found to be unsafe, and to en-
danger civil, religious, and commercial liberty, they will
at once dissolve and put it to the country to determine if
it desires a pure Democracy. The country will then have
its own fate is its own hands, and by that verdict all parties
must abide—be it for evil or for good.—Law Times.

DUNCE, one opposed to learning ; one slow at
learning, &c. From Duns (Scotus), the leader of the
school-men from him called Dunses, who opposed classical
studies in the revival of learning —From Part 111. of
" Chambers's Etymological Dictionary of the English Lan-
guage," edited by James Donald.
A telegraphic despatch announces that a terrible
fire has burnt down a whole quarter of Constantinople.
The dockyards of the Golden Horn are entirely reduced
to ashes. The loss is estimated at not less than half a
million sterling.

It is said that the same question will arise in
the trial of John H. Surratt as in that of Frank
Knapp for the murder of White in Salem, more than thirty
years ago, and upon which Webster made his immortal
argument. By the old Maryland law, existing now in the
District of Columbia—as in Massachusetts, when Knapp
was tried, but since altered by statute hero—an accessory
cannot be convicted till after his principal has been.
As Booth has never been convicted, Surratt cannot
be convicted as accessory to the murder, and can
only be convicted as principal by proving him pro-
sent, or so near as to be able to render assistance, if
needed. It was the general opinion of the bar of Massa-
chusetts at the time that Webster's wonderful argument
not the law, hung Knapp. How near to the scene of the
murder of Lincoln the evidence will bring Surratt, remains
for the trial. If, as is generally understood, he was no
nearer than New York, it is difficult to see how he can be
convicted of the capital offence ; and if not of that, then,
under the peculiar statute in question, he can be convicted
of nothing.
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