The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-07 00:00:00

SPIRIT i. 12 THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

The Times thinks the policy of annexing the territory of
the tribes who are troubling our north-west Indian frontier
is hot without its attractions. At present our frontier
garrisons are established on a sultry and insalubrious
plain, with a broad river behind them—not a favourable
position in either a sanitary or strategical point of view.
Our troublesome enemies look down upon the settlement
from fastnesses above, which it is very difficult for us to
reach ; so that their raids, except in cases of extreme
provocation, can be accomplished with impunity. On
this frontier duty we have a special force of 12,000 men
permanently employed, independently of such occasional
musters as the present. What if we advanced our posts
to the hills themselves, and established our forts on that
cool and pleasant range which the panting Englishman
can now only contemplate from below? To this ques-
tion we must reply by another. Who would be our neigh-
hours then ? We must have a frontier somewhere, and on
the other side of that frontier there will be a population
of some kind. Shall we mend matters by going further?
If we subdue these independent tribes and turn their hills
into a frontier of our own, we shall then be in contact
with the Afghans themselves, and will that be a quiet
neighbourhood? There is an alternative policy of "con-
ciliation," but as that is the very policy which has produced
twenty-three wars in nineteen years it is not unreasonably
regarded as a failure. Hitherto we have not appropriated
a single square yard of territory in this direction.
We hold simply the ground that was held by Runjeet
Singh, as monarch of the Punjab, and no more. We have
endeavoured to persuade these highlanders of our good
intentions, and though it is true that we have been inces-
santly in collision with them, that, in our version of the
story, is their fault, and not ours. At any rate, we have
not encroached upon their lands or their independence,
though it is possible that some modification of this for-
bearance may be thought desirable now. It is intimated,
indeed, that under the circumstances of the Russian
advance our whole policy on this north-western frontier
must be subjected to comprehensive reconsideration. We
fear it would be vain to expect peace and quietness at the
end of any experiment, but we rejoice to think that the
question, at any rate, is still in the hands of Sir John
Lawrence.

The Standard returns to the consideration of the
Premier's address. Mr. Disraeli has said that the disen-
dowment of the Irish Church can hardly fail to diminish
the security of property. The triumphant reply is, that
the main cause of the insecurity of property in Ireland is
its association with " an alien Church," and that the dis-
endowment of the latter will be the best guarantee for
vested interests. But we have the very highest authority
for knowing that the main grievance is not the
establishment of the Protestant Church, but the
possession by Protestants of nine-tenths of the
soil. It is obvious, therefore, that if the Protestant
Establishment is to some extent the cause of the
insecurity of property, we shall never get to the
the root of the evil until we have transferred the soil from
its present possessors. If the disendowment of the PrO:
testant Church is a partial remedy, how much re.',4e
effectual will be the transfer of nine-tenths of the soil froiii
the Protestant holders ? Moreover, the principle is equally;
applicable in both cases, only the title of lay holders like
the Duke of Devonshire is neither morally nor legally half
so good as that which can be produced in behalf of the
Church. The contention of the Premier, that the outrage
it is proposed to inflict upon the Irish Church would aggra-
vate religious hostilities and party rancours, is not disputed,
but it is urged in reply that " the ancient wrong c: n lot be
redressed" without some such result. It does not seem
to occur to our contemporaries that those who profess to
suffer under " the ancient wrong " are perfectly unanimous
in declaring that they will not accept the disruption of
the Irish Church as any measure of redress whatever,
but merely as an infinitesimal instalment of terms
which at present no English statesman, not even Mr.
Gladstone, dares even to look at, much less to
entertain. Feeblest and most puerile of all is
the attempted reply to Mr. Disraeli's argument
that the disestablishment of the Protestant Church
in Ireland will tend to the advancement of the
Roman Catholic Church—in fact, that the loss of Protes-
tantism will be the gain of Popery. The answer is, that
the Protestantism as established in England is in no
respect " injured by the existence of a rival, and, indeed,
hostile Establishment north of the Tweed ! " " Rival"
Establislunent ! As if the Presbyterian Establishment in
Scotland were not infinitely more rigidly Protestant than
the Established Church in England ! Mr. Gladstone might
well be pardoned for regretting that the critics of his rival
are not a trifle more acute.

The Herald thinks it beyond possibility of denial that
one measure of confiscation is likely to be followed by
others. It is beyond reasonable doubt that the overthrow
of the Church of England can only redound to the advan-
tage of the Church of Rome. That Church we cannot
disestablish ; woe to us if it be left the only Established
Church in the realm. We would only observe upon Mr.
Disraeli's " secondary reasons " applied to the individual
case of Ireland, that they are distinctly given as secondary
only: the case of the Church in Ireland resting sub-
stantially upon principles applicable to all three kingdoms
alike, the importance of a national religion, the interests
of Protestantism, the value to religious and civil liberty,
of that principle of lay control which is embodied in the
constitutional doctrine of the royal supremacy and the
sanctity of property. Of those principles the Tory party
is now the sole defender ; Liberalism has betrayed and re-
nounced them. It follows that the cause of religious free-
dom, as well as of constitutional order, of personal liberty
of conscience, as well as of public morality and Christian
faith, is now identified with the cause of the Conservative
party ; and that every vote which is given to a follower of
Mr. Gladstone is given in the interests of Popery and
priestcraft, as well as of disloyalty and anarchy.
The Daily News considers it absolutely necessary for the
success of the Liberal cause that the number of Liberal
candidates shall be reduced to the number of seats. Old
and tried members ought to be preferred to new candi-
dates as a rule ; otherwise the value of hard work and
experience goes for nothing. Where the candidates are
all new men, who are known only by their professions,
and have no past services to the Liberal cause to which
they can appeal in confirmation of them, as the election
draws nearer they ought to make it perfectly understood
that, rather than divide the Liberal party in the constitu-
ency, they are ready to leave it to the electors to say
which of them shall go to the poll. How the determina-
tion of the electors in the matter is to be ascertained
is a point of some difficulty. It is very important
that it should be the result of an impartial and
extensive canvass, and not be left merely to the
decision of a public meeting, whose decision might only be
that of a minority of the Liberal party. In all except the
largest constisuencies, however, it is probable that the
votes which can be safely counted on are known to the
leading local politicians ; and, where this is the case, it
need not, we should think, be any more impossible to
ascertain how these certain voters stand affected as
between the different Liberal candidates, than it has been
to ascertain how they are disposed as between a Liberal
and a Conservative. When once a conclusion has been
honestly arrived at a candidate can have no excuse for
disregarding it, and anyone who persists in doing so ought
to be eschewed as rigidly by every Liberal elector as
though he were a professed Conservative.

The Post thinks that the true idea of war seems to have
been completely misunderstood by those who propose that
what is termed private property should be respected by
belligerents. In operations on land, the inhabitants
of a besieged town which has been taken are treated on
a different footing from the garrison by which that town
has been defended, and their property is, in accordance
with modern usage, for the most part respected.
It is, however, far different with the capture and confis-
cation of private property at sea. The wealth of a nation
must be in a great degree dependent on its foreign trade,
and when that trade is paralysed or extinguished the bel-
ligerent which thus suffers is deprived of the means of
further prosecuting a war. No such end is even remotely
attained when a victorious general puts to the sword orplun-
ders those whom the fortune of war throws into his hands.
Mr. Vernon Harcourt placed the matter in its true light
when he pointed out that the fact of war ruining trade was
an inducement for nations to avoid it if possible, and that
the destruction of the mercantile marine was one of the
most effective blows which could be struck at an enemy,
since it deprived him of the means of manning his ships of
war. Those who seek to strip war of many of its terrors
forget that in the proportion that they succeed do they
render it more likely to be rashly engaged in it.

Notwithstanding that we hear of nothing but harmony,
adhesions to the new Government, and general popular con-
gratulation, the Telegraph thinks that everything :n Spain
cannot -be called perfectly smooth. It was, apparently,
only through a fortunate chance which brought the troops
of Serrano from Andalusia in the nick of time, that
Amable Escalante, a noisy sudden favourite of. the Madrid
mob, was prevented from setting up something not very
far removed from a reign of terror. That danger was
averted ; but the impression seems to gain ground that
the agreement of the revolutionary leaders is suspicious—
that their harmony, to emplor a familiar phrase, is
" too sweet to be wholesome.' The difficulties and
temptations of the leaders may be seriously increased,
if the popular inclination should tend towards the
republican form of government. The jealousies
and aspirations which they all might control or suppress
in the event of a royal personage being elected to fill the
vacant throne, would find free vent if it came to the ques-
tion who should be President. We hear reports which ,
imply that the disposition to entrust the destinies of Spain
to an English prince is gaining ground. There are several
reasons why this should be the case • among them,undoubtedly, the fact that the Spanish'people, proud of
their navy, with whose possible achievements they feed
their hopes of restored national greatness, might hail with
peculiar satisfaction the sovereignty of a sailor prince.
As yet, all schemes of succession or settlement are vague
and crude. "Everything is in abeyance." But the silence
and mystery cannot last long ; and we may find the
second act of the Spanish drama even Snore exciting than
the first,

HOLYWELL RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

On Tuesday an action of a novel and important cha-
racter was opened before the Holywell magistrates ; the
Earl of Denbigh chairman. The complainant was Mr.
Edwards Woods, the solicitor who has taken a prominent
part in the Abergele prosecutions, and the defendant was
George Grinnett, signalman at the Holywell station on the
London and North Western Railway. The offence charged
as stated in the summons was, that the defendant did
unlawfully, wilfully, and negligently omit to put up the
semaphore signal " danger " to show that the line
was not clear at Holywell station at the time
the express train leaving Chester at 2.45 p.m. was due
to pass through, at which time a goods train was standing
on the down line, causing the express train to run into
collision with the goods train, whereby the life and limbs
of Mr. Edwards Woods and the life and limbs of other
passengers were endangered.

Mr. Woods said the complaint which the bench would
be asked to hear was preferred by himself against the
defendant, who was a signalman at Holywell station on
the 16th day of September. The proceedings were taken
under the 3rd and 4th Vic., cap 97, sec. 13, whereby it is
enacted that " any engineman, driver, guard, porter, or
servant being drunk when employed on the railway, com-
mitting any offence against the bye-laws or regulations
of the company, wilfully or negligently doing' or omitting
to do any act whereby the life or limb of any person pass-
ing along or being upon the railway or the works of the
railway shall he or might be injured or endangered, or
whereby the passage of any of the engines, carriages, or
trains shall be, or might be, obstructed or impeded, may
upon conviction be imprisoned with or without hard labour
for any period not exceeding two years."
Mr. Woods having described in detail the accident and
the injuries which he alleged himself to have sustained,
Mr. Ellis Eyton proceeded to cross-examine him. In reply
to various questions,

Mr. Woods said : I hardly remember what train I went
down to Holywell by on the morning of the accident. I
think I went down by the noon train, but I am not sure.
Mr. Eyton : Are you certain that you were not at Aber-
gele at one o'clock on the day of the accident?
Mr. Woods : I don't know anything about that, but I
am certain I was in the train when the accident hap-
pened. The first step I took was to summon the station-
maaster, Mr. Jones. I did not obtain the summons in
this court. What I did was under the advice of Mr.
Lenge, the magistrates' clerk at Rhyl. I entirely disclaim
any personal motives in this prosecution. After the acci-
dent I went on to Rhyl, and telegraphed an account of
it to the Times newspaper and the Daily Telegraph. I
wrote another letter to the Times enclosing a letter which
had been forwarded to me praising me for my conduct in
the Abergele case.

Mr. Eyton was proceeding to cross-examine Mr. Woods
as to his doings at Abergele, but this was objected to by
the bench as being irrelevant, and Mr. Eyton was required
to state his reason for adopting it.

Mr. Eyton said he wished to show that Mr. Woods was
actuated by motives other than that of the public good,
but as their worships thought he should not pursue the
subject he would defer.

Mr. Edwards Woods next called Mr. Jones, station-
master at Holywell, who cited a rule of the company's
service with reference to the proper working of signals ;
and Mr. Stretton, inspector of police upon the line, proved
that he had supplied the defendant with a copy of the
rules.

Mr. Hughes, who temporarily filled the office of station-
master at Holywell during the absence of Mr. Jones, who
was on his holiday at the time of the accident, stated
that the semaphore signal was up two minutes before the
express was due. The down line was not clear at the time
the 2.40 p.m. train arrived, and a collision occurred.

Cross-examined : The 2.40 train is not timed to stop at
Holywell, but as a matter of fact it had stopped for some
time previously for the purpose of taking water. On an
average it stops at Holy-well two or three times a week. I
was standing in the middle of the platform when the
express passed through, and the trucks which were being
shunted, and with which the express came into collision,
stood about 200 yards further on. When the express
passed me it was going at the rate of about twelve miles an
hour. The guards were applying the breaks hard, and by
the time the train reached the trucks the speed was re-
duced by one-half. I went up to the carriages upon the
accident taking place, but did not find any one hurt.
None of the passengers complained to me of injuries. I
do not know whether I saw the complainant there. I
think I did.

John Naylor, engine-driver of the express, said : When
I approached Holywell I saw that both the distance signal
and the semaphore were at danger. I saw them about a
mile off. On seeing the distance signal I shut off steam
and prepared to stop the train. I whistled, and both
signals were lowered as a sign that all was right. I had
not then reached the distance signal. I thereupon put
on steam and proceeded. The train was not timed to
stop at Holywell. When I got inside the station I saw a
person waving his hands to me to stop. I then shut off
steam and reversed the engine, and did all I could to stop.
At this time I was going at the rate of about thirty
miles an hour. The semaphore signal was down at this
moment. I am sure of that, for when I saw the hand
waving I looked up to the signal. I did not see any
portion of the obstructing train till I got close up to it. I
saw that one portion of the goods train was on the up-line,
and the other on the down. I ran into them broadside.
The goods train was going towards Chester, and the
driver had drawn it on to the up-line as far as he could
get, but there was a passenger-train before him, and his
train was so long that three of the trucks were left on the
down line in the way of my train. I got on the step of
the engine and dropped off just before the collision took
place. I was going at the rate of about fifteen miles an
hour when the shock occurred.
This was the case for the complainant.
For the defence it was urged that the accident was the
result of an error of judgment on the part of the defend-
ant, and not of wilful negligence as provided for by the
statute.

The Chairman dwelt upon the importance of the sig-
nalman's duties, and to mark their sense of the heinous-
ness of the prisoner's offence, the bench sentenced him to
two months' imprisonment, the longest term the law per-
mitted them to inflict.