The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-24 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

The Times thinks dreadful railway accidents have been
but too common among us. But, whether it be due to the
magnitude or to the cruelty of the disaster of Thursday, it
certainly has a horror of its own. Loss of life and bodily
injury fall within the compass of our thoughts; but that
,upwards of thirty persons travelling in apparent security
should he suddenly destroyed and burnt to ashes must
be to most of us too much f.,r complete self-control.
We are not disposed to dweU upon its horrors ; it is in the
fact itself that the awfulness of the calamity is to be felt.
It gives a startling glimpse of the tremendous forces we
handle every day so lightly, and to the use of which
we trust ourselves with so little anxie'y. A moment's
thoughtlessness, the snapping of an inch or two of
iron, and we may find ourselves crushed to atoms or
devoured by the fury of the most raging fires.
Nature, it seems, does not yield her choicest advantages
without proportionate risks. The further we penetrate
into her secrets the more need we have of caution. It is
our penalty for our privileges. But we must not forget
what we gain. If rapid travelling and the use of petro-
leum have brought this disaster upon us, we must
remember how many lives they have saved, and what
benefits they have brought to us. It seems clear that as a
mere collision the accident might have been comparatively
harmless, The mail was not going at express speed. The
driver found himself in good time at Abergele station, and
was therefore taking his train easily up the incline to Llan-
dulas. He estimates his speed at only thirty miles an
hour, and though the counter velocity of the trucks
would of course increase the force of the collision, there is
other evidence to shew that the mere shock was not very
severe. It is, indeed, to the fire alone that the fearful effect
of the accident must be assribed. It was net a mere collision,
but a collision with petroleum. The destructive powers of
that compound never received such a frightful illustration.
It seems to:have swallowed up its unhappy victims in a sea
of conflagration before they had time to move or even te)
speak. The barrels were broken by the shock, the oil ex-
ploded as it came in contact with the furnace of the engine,
and it is believed that the mere explosion must have suffo-
cated or rendered insensible the occupants of the carriages.
The immediate occasion of the accident was the escape of
the trucks from the goods train, and if immediate responsi-
bility lies anywhere it must be here. The mere fact of
several trucks from a goods train running down the line
unchecked raises a strong presumption of carelessness.
There was a break-van at the end of the trucks, but no
guard on it. Machinery may break down at any time,
but, this apart, the Times does not see that there are any
dangers in travelling which strict rules and foresight
cennot guard against.
The Daily News remarks that almost all general charges
are more or less unjust, and it certainly would be unfair
on the strength of this accident to condemn either the
general management of the company or the special arrange-
ment and conduct of the Irish mail. Whatever the
management of other lines and other special trains may
he, we believe that all entitled to give an impartial
judgment on the subject will agree that the Irish
mail of the North Western Company has hitherto
been a triumph of skilful organisation and effec-
tive management, of which pot only the company
but the country might be justly proud. For seven
years past, traversing the same line twice a day,
has successfully combined, in a higher degree, we believe
than any other service, the unusual conditions of extraor-
dinary speed and perfect safety. But although the special
aggravation of the calamity arose out of conditions beyond
the control of the company or its servants, it seems not
improbable that the immediate cause of the accident may
be found to lie within the ordinary rules of railway
management. The only way of effectively preventing
the disastrous consequences of such an accident as
that by which the trucks were separated from the
goods train is probably the adoption of the " block"
system employed on some of the metropolitan lines,
and which has more than once been recommended for
general use throughout the railways of the kingdom.
According to this plan, which is simple enough both in
idea and in working, no train is allowed to pass the station
until the master of the next station in front has signalled
that the way between them is clear. There may probably
be difficulties in the way of applying this system to long
distances and express trains. But hardly any difficulties
ought to be allowed to interfere with a measure which, if
not actually essential to the public safety, would effectually
provide against such a terrible calamity as that which the
whole country now deplores.
The Post is not surprised that the jury was thoroughly
bothered, or that the Recorder, wearied with complica-
tions and beaten by time, found himself not in case at an
advanced hour of the evening to dissect the bundle of
evidence and present the fact "au sec" to the worried
twelve empannelled and boxed up. We do not think the
case would have loomed so large, or looked so despair-
ingly difficult if the Recorder had reduced it by process
of elimination to its real dimensions. The letters
and the legal documents appear to have constituted
the great stumbling-blocks both to the jury and
the judge. They are, we confess, as the case
stands, unintelligible, unmeaning, and unaccountable.
There is no solution of the mystery of the letters. That
is true, but we do not feel ourselves bound to fumble about
in a fog on account of them. We discard them, and prefer
to turn to the great facts which stand out clear in the
sunshine. From these the Post concludes, after putting
aside the mystification of the letters, which are apparently
aimless, objectless, and utterly unnecessary, if not irrele-
vant, and shelving Lord Ranelagh—who would do wisely
to find some other pastime in his leisure hours than chatting
in a very doubtful shop with a very doubtful illiterate old
woman—that the jury were right in finding the problems,
as put to them, insoluble. Another trial may enable
another jury to decide between two women who are not
worth one quarter of the trouble they have given.

The Herald remarks that the difficulties of the trial were
of Mrs. Borrodaile's own making, and that neither judge,
jury, nor counsel seemed to think they had got to the
bottom of the business. The most humiliating portions of
her examination were those in which she was confronted
with her own letters, of which there seemed to be two sets,
one written to Lord Ranelagh, and the other to a third
and undiscovered person described as "Dear William."
Who was dear William? 'I hat was the question which
Madame Rachel's counsel asked, and which the jury
found themselves unable to answer. Mrs. Borrodaile
said that he was Lord Ranelagh, and that she had
addressed him in that way for family reaions.
But then came the other series of letters, in which she
wrote to his lordship himself, and made evident references
to some third person, whose actual losses and prospeaive
gains by horses that were sure to win she mentioned in
another epistle. If " dear William " was Lord Ranelagh,
then the whole correspondence was a sham, one portion
of which Airs. Borrodaile had been weak enough to
write at Madame Rachel's dictation, while the replies
were concocted by Rachel herself, or by some one
in concert with her. This was exactly what the
prosecution undertook to prove, and in the endeavour to
prove which they failed. "Dear William" has been
called, like a spirit from the vasty deep, but he has failed
to answer those who summoned him, and nothing has been
made clear, by this prolonged inquiry, but that being made
beautiful for ever is a costly and somewhat perilous
process, to which no one can safely submit who has not
more prudence and less credulity than Mrs. Borrodaile has
shewn.

The Daily News estimates a fall in the price of wheat of
from 4s. to 6s. before the end of September. Take the
mean of ss. as the probable reduction. At this estimate a
sum of more than four millions sterling will be available
among our own population for buying other articles. The
general dispersion of such a sum out of the pockets of con-
sumers must have some effect upon our domestic trade ;
and it is quite as certain that the excellence of the har-
vest in all the principal countries that we trade with
will enable their several peoples to buy snore of
our exports. To support high prices of wheat or
meat, the supplies must be less than the demand. These,
Conditions in the case of wheat are universally reversed,
and we do not despair of seeing them considerably modi-
fied in the case of meat now that the risk of general
failure in the grass and root crops is removed. In these
conditions there is rational ground for anticipating a revival
in trade, sound and unspeculative ; and trade in thatstate
will compel where it may not invite financial confidence.
A 2 per cent. minimum rate of discount at the Bank of
England is the expression of a state of distrust, and the
Last twelve months has shewn that the offers of money
nt this rate have failed to revive business. This was
because the area within which the offers were made was
contracted. Low interest offered no temptation. But
with enterprise encouraged and trade invigorated, through
the means which the harvest will furnish to the population
of supplying their wants and increasing their luxuries or
enjoyments, money-lender; and money-borrowers will
speedily renew their former relations, to the advantage of
both and the benefit of the community.
The Standard says: The Rev. A. A. Rees, Baptist
minister of Sunderland, appears to be a sincere and earnest
man, but he must excuse us if we say that to the guile-
lessness of the dove, which he of course possesses in very
large measure, he adds too little of the wisdom of the
serpent. Mr. Rees, like most members of his sect, is an
uncompromising enemy of establishments, and looks
forward with impatience to their downfall. Of course his
hopes now centre in Mr. Gladstone, but the right honour-
able gentleman does not move fast enough for him,
Mr. Rees thinks that the disestablishment of all churches
must follow Mr. Gladstone's action as a spatter of course.
We quite allow that Mr. Rees's argument is conclusive
against Mr. Gladstone, but the reverend gentleman forgot
that leading and beautiful charleteristie of Mr. Glad-
stone's mind upon which his admirers are never weary of
expatiating. The right lion. gentleman's mind grows,
not steadily and unceasingly, but by fits and
starts, as a forcing process—with which we need not
say logic like poor Mr. Rees's has nothing to do—is
applied to it. By a happy peculiarity of his genius, Mr.
Gladstone advances to the acceptance of new truths simul-
taneously with the arrival of the moment in which their
profession promises to pay. Mr. Rees has taken the
wrong road for want of having observed the beautiful pro-
cess of Mr. Gladstone's mental developtr,e.nt. He has
bothered him with arguments against the Church of Eng-
land, instead of shewing him that to attack it would give
him a majority in the House of Commons. Whenever
Mr. Rees, or Mr. Bright, or Mr. Glyn, can satisfy Mr.
Gladstone as to such a majority, his mind will leap to the
truth so long hidden from him. He will see clearly that
a 50t9 Church is necessarily a national evil,