The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-03 00:00:00

T "

0 X F O R D,

6, OXFORD-STREET.

Every Evening Grand Selections from Verdi's " Macbeth "
and from his new opera, " Simon Boccanegra" (now produced
for the first time in England), by Miss Russell and Madame
Enderssohn (her first appearance) ; Messrs. C. Greville,
Tivoli, Morley, and H. Herbert, with powerful band and
full chorus. Other vocal and instrumental music and varied
attractive entertainments of the highest order. The Comic
portion by Messrs. M. P. Foster (in his " Life Sketches"),
Sam Collins, Harvey, and French (the Nerves), E. Marshall,
And W. Randall. Hall, sixpence : Balcony and Stalls, one
shilling. Privateßoxes, 10s. 6d. Musical Director and Con-
ductor, Mr. F. Jonghmans.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
DAY.—Morning, 12h. 34m.—Afternoon, 12h. 58m.
To-monßow.-Morning, lh. 20m.—Afternoon. lh. 40m.

THE WEATHER.-SUN OFFICE, SEPTEMBER 3, 1561.

THERMOMETER, IN TIM SHADE.
71—. highest since noon yesterday.
59—lovrest this morning and during the night.
68 —this day at noon.

BAuomETzR-29.87 ; still falling.
WlND—South-Westerly—rather fresh; with dull weather,
and some rain in the morning.
Two o'cLocx.—Wind, S.W. ; fresh and very squally,
with a heavy shower. It must be blowing a gale in the
Channel, and it is well that the Queen has safely reached
her Highland home before this preliminary Equinoctial
has set in.

All__erases
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THE SUN.

LONDON, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1861.

Scarcely have we realized the full horror of that
melancholy accident in the tunnel on the London
and Brighton Railway when another accident, and
one, if possible, still more lamentable in its con-
.ry9-anlzett...42otrradt, cVeit.emPtinr direction.
collision in which the sufferers are passengers by
an excursion train. It J.'a
ful casualties that so many are killed of a sudden,
and that still more are maimed for life, and are for
a more or less lengthened period after these acci-
dents subjected to excruciating agonies—it is that
anguish of an indescribable kind is carried at " one
fell swoop" into so many peaceful home—and all
this so unnecessarily.
There is a peculiarity about the season of the
yeas at which these two last deplorable collisions
have occurred that must upon the instant strike
the attention of everyone. It is a signi-
ficant circumstance, we mean, that both
accidents happened to excursion trains at the
very time when -Sore of these excursion trains
are running than usual. In each instance due
allowance has manifestly not been made for this
more frequent runing of heavily laden excursion
trains upon the line, here, let us say, of the London
and Brighton, there of the North London Railway.
In the former instance, the ordinary traffic
upon the line interferes with the free and
safe running of the extra train, the train
of the poor, ill-fated, overtaken excur-
sionists. The Parliamentary train (a class of
train not usually remarkable either for velocity or
punctuality) comes np with the unfortunate excur-
sion train in a tunnel—hence the catastrophe.
In the later instance, the instance that oc-
curred only yesterday evening upon the North
London Railway, it is another of these
supplementary trains, an excursion train put
on the line for that day only, not down upon
the printed papers, but simply npun the line
—it is this essentially surplus train that is fated to
destruction (or at least a considerable portion of
it is fated to destruction) because, forsooth, there
is no interference made with the ordinary shiftieg
of ballast on the line, and the customary shunting
of the train of ballast trucks from one line of rails
to another. The excursionists, who in consequence
are the sufferers, are for the most part, we believe,
the members of the families of the employ-ie.?, who
had been out for a summer's holiday at Kew
Gardens, and were on the way back after their few
hours innocent recreation. There was still, never-
theless, right in their pathway, that long, dull
tre►il of the ballast trucks that are usually
neon there on the North London Railway,
dawdling along the line, and being slowly
shunted from one line of rails to another, from
the up-line to the down-line, or vice versa, as the
case may be, in the midst of the whirling maze of
the ordinary passenger traffic.

The wonder is, we are told, among the in-
habitants in the neighbourhood of the line
(for it runs through the midst of a thickly
populated district) that Some accident of this
very kind has not long ago occurred there, in
consequence of the shifting to and fro, backwards
ao.d forwards of the ballast trains—even under
ordinary circumstances! If—even under ordinary

circumstances—the peril be so great as is thus
described, it may be conjected bow much greater

and more imminent that danger becomes when,

in addition to the usual traffic, there are running

in the midst of that ordinary traffic, and in be-

tween the shunting, hither and thither of the

ba/last trains, these supplementary or extra trains
Put on to the line for the use of the excursionists.

Nevertheless, it is only fair to the railway com-
ps flies whose interests are affected, and whose

son, le of responsibility, nay, even of humanity,
n lay' be said to be seriously impugned by the ex-
p rossions of astonishment to which we have been

ri 3 ferring—it is only fair to the railway Company
1 ~ernselyes that we should glance at the other side