The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-11-24 00:00:00

China

Europe," then even a
Common -

length rind a voice wherewith to con-
demn a ministry which has been guilty of a series of

errors more conspicuous than any government ever
before committed, and more portentous in their conse-
r ministry dared to hazard.

quences than any f

PROSPECTS OF WHIGGERY.
(From the Oxford Herald.)
That good fortune which has always befriended our
whig ministers has not failed to afford them its assist-
ance during the present vacation. If it be true that
the thing of all others most eagerly to be desired by
great statesmen is, that the public eye may freely scan
and consequently. admire their conduct, it is equally
true that your pitiful diplomatists most affect the es-
caping public observation, because such observation
cannot but lead, not to admiration, but contempt.
This escape from observation is what the fortune of the
whig cabinet has lately afforded them. The promi-
nency given by recent events to the foreign relations of
England, and the faint applause a generous pity has
bestowed upon Lord Palmerston, have drawn public
attention almost entirely away from the colleagues of
e contemplation of their general
lose of the session these

that noble 1

incapacity

lucky men have enjoyed an uneasy repose ; and some
of them are perhaps dreaming that this blessed state
of things is to last for ever, most absurdly. This
somnolence, they should know as well as most men,
must have

an end

at Christmas they must awake
Ind be again dragged before the
views their prolonged tenure of
We very well know that there will
,mong the oracles of whiggery
nßsert that their party

who have ti

powerful, nor their seats

.e secure

than at the
two stubbor

nt moment : nevertheless there are

g these unscrupulous men in

the face—the registrations and the municipal elections,
the last of which, that chosen shaft out of the whig-
radical quiver, has been most successfully turned
against its inventors during the late elections. With
reference to these two measures and their effects, along
with the feelings which their perverse working must
excite in Whig bosoms, we are tempted to quote, if
they are not too good for such a base use, those cele-
brated lines—

Keen were his pangs, but keener far to feel
He nursed the pinion which impelled the steel,
While the same plumnge that had warmed nis nest
Drank the last life-drop of his bleeding breast."

zistrations and elections must

give each member of the Whig cabinet a cold thrill
when the possibility, for what we know the probabi-

lily, of a general election flits across his mind. The
best of men have their times of melancholy : to the
Whig-radicals these fits must be fierce and frequent.
Only let the conservatives pursue their course un-

flinchingly, let them organise their forces, so as to

leave the enemy not a hope of victory ; above all, here
in Oxford let us be prepared to give England a glori-
ous example of how the battle may be won. The time
may not be far distant when our strength will be
tested. ,

ACCIDENTS ON RAILWAYS AND NOSTRUMS

(From the Railway Magazine.)

Our columns have "this week to record no less than
four accidents upon as many lines of railway, by three
of which human life has been sacrificed.

It is difficult for us to pourtray the pain we have in
relating these most lamentable occurrences. Railways,
however, are not the only modes of locomotion the

safety of which seems at the present moment to be at
a discount in pubic estimation. Steam navigation has
been almost as unfortunate. It is not long since the
Phcenix came in contact with a French vessel, when
the latter went down, engulphing property, as it was
said, worth £50,000; but fortunately all the lives were
saved. We do not wish to extenuate the accidents on
railways, but when have we had any single accident
on them, or any ten together, in which so wholesale a
destruction of property has been the result as here ?
Happily the casualty with the Phenix was free from
the loss of life, but that negative merit is all the advan-
tage it has to boast of; in other respects it was truly
appalling. _

On Saturday week, the Hopewell of Cork came in
collision with the Yawden of Gloucester, and was

sunk, by which five out of 12 persons were drowned,
and several thousand pounds worth of property irre-
trievably destroyed. The property lost in this case in

all probability is nothing short of- £B,OOO or £lO,OOO,
and may be much greater; but the proportional sacri-
fice of life is awful. Out of 12 persons 7 only escaped !
Had the same fatal proportion have held in any of the
railway accidents, scores of lives would have been lost.
In the late accident on the South Western it must
have amounted to at least 300.

We do not mention these circumstances as any pal-
liation of the railway accidents so deeply to be deplored.
Our only object is to show that, serious and lamenta-
ble as they have been upon railways, they are, never-
theless, when they occur, incomparably surpassed,

both in the amount of property destroyed and in the
proportional sacrifice of human life, by that branch of
steam travelling which has had the benefit of mach
longer experience, and which ought, on this and other
accounts, therefore, to be much more exempt from

casualties

It is, we do not mean to deny, a most unfortunate
circumstance, to see so many accidents one after ano-
ther. But it is a great satisfaction to find that, in
almost every case upon railways, the accidents have
not been the fault of the system, but of some unpar-
donable negligence of the paid servants of the company.
On the Hull and Selby, the accident was clearly owing
to the want of care in not sufficiently fastening an
iron table, and another in the culpable neglect of not
returning break carriages for those sent. The first
accident upon the Eastern Counties was, no doubt,

owing to the mad fury of the driver ; the second and
third, to the inattention of the engine drivers in not
keeping a good look out. That lately on the Great
Western appears to have had its origin in the engine
driver having been asleep or in a fit, though we are not
quite satisfied that the stoker was blameless. The
--t - lent- IP'

recent accu .s on the .onnon am, Birmingham, and
York and North. Midland Railways, were the one due
to the inattention of the driver of the second engine,
and the other to some error respecting the lights which
is not sufficiently explained.
All these cases are clearly , the result of misconduct,
and not owing to the defects of the system. But the
universal cry throughout the country is, what can be
done to prevent them ? We confess we know nothing
more than we have over and over urged, namely, due
and proper diligence enforced by much severer laws.
Laws, it has been supposed,_ will have but little effect,

because, if men are not sufficiently careful to prevent
accidents when their lives are in jeopardy from them,
legal enactments will not impress them with more care?
For our part we are of a different opinion. We believe
that the causes of accidents are tracuble rather to a
kind of habitual carelessness and recklessness in the
whole conduct of the men, owing to the want of the
discipline not being sufficiently strict, and the punish-
ment for negligence not being more certain and severe.
Few men would be insane enough wantonly to throw
'b' "--. t but if the rule

away their own lives , _..es by which they
are kept to their duty are so lax as to induce-a general
want of care, or not to impress due care in all cases,
listlessness in some of their duty will easily extend to
all the rest. If good and fair wages be given, but not
extravagant—which with the class of men that fill, and
perhaps ever will fill such situations, would only lead
to dissipation—and proper rewards be held out for
good conduct, and certain punishment for bad or neg-
lect of duty, whether accident or not follows, we think
in a short time a considerable improvement would be
made, and accidents hardly ever be heard of.
We do not by this mean to discourage improvements
or useful regulations ; on the contrary we should be
anxious to see anything introduced which may in ever
so small a degree diminish the number and lamentable
effects of these sad catastrophes. We really, however,
cannot help feeling sick at the nostrums perpetually
proposed by men who know little or nothing of the
subject.
The duties of engineers cannot be easier or simpler.
If men's heads are not as senseless as the wheels of the
engines they drive, it is almost impossible they can do
wrong. All that is required ale attention and care,
not skill. Has a single accident happened for want of
skill ? Not one but—we believe, we may repeat most
emphatically, all—except that on the North Midland,
for want of due care and attention in the men upon the
engines or upon the lines. Wherefore then is this out-
cry about having men of a better grade ?
Sir Frederick Smith has proposed to institute a board
to examine engine drivers as he would pilots. Would
this pilot examination have prevented the accident on
the South-Western Railway, by bringing back to his
post the signal man who was absent at tea? Would
it have fastened the iron better upon the Hull and
Selby truck ? Would it have kept the engine man and,
we fear, the stoker too, on the Great Western, awake,
or have prevented a fit ? 'Would it have cleared away
the fog, or given better eyes to the engine man on the
York and North Midland Railway ? Would it have
furnished the driver of the second engine, on the Bir-
mingham, with ears, or less obstinacy, or more atten-
tion ? Would it have prevented the explosion of the
engine on the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway?
In fact, would it have done any thing besides, perhaps,
finding Sir Frederick Smith a post and a snug salary
at the public expense ?
We do not wish to be hard upon Sir Frederick
Smith, but if he will afford us an opportunity of giv-
ing him—aye him, the government commissioner—a
little public examination on the subject of railways and
the laws of machinery, and, if he then get off with
flying colours, we will gladly subscribe to his nostrum
to form a board for the production of engine and other
men who shall lie always awake, always attentive, and
never go to tea when they should be at their post, ne-
ver badly fasten on plates, always be able to see through
fogs, avoid accidents, and, as a consequence, and the
climax of perfection, secure to Sir Frederick honour,
lasting employment, and a good salary.