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

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He dwelt—till I

'Tams there th

Perchan

the soul caught some glimpses of glo,
first touch to his harp the bard gave;

And the wish v

nderect of living in story

As waking. the

'odd to the wron

s of the slave

thoUght, from its deepest recesses,
was destined to drag to the light

y richly possesses,

Where fiction

act both in beauty unite

let no mortal profane it,
or with song cannot claim

Who friendshi

•
Oh! worthy alone is that man to retain it

RoscoE" can cherish, in mem'ry and name

CONTEMPORARY

PRESS

RAILWAY ACCIDENTS
Blackburn Standard.)

Railwa

accidents

are becoming

quite appallin,

s up a newspaper, it is with the
" Horrible Railway Accident"
lc face, with all its pleasant accompani-
dful smash," broken limbs, lost noses,
ed" bodies. Look, for instance, at our

Every time on

expectation of

wents of "(

Eirst we

up" on the Bir

gham and Gloucester line—one man
'lied, a second so injured that he died
and two others horribly scalded : then
.1 the York and North Midland line—
carriages ~ed into fragments or pressed together
" like a sheet of paper," a man and a woman killed,
and mutilations, such as the loss of a hand or the side
of a face, " too numerous to mention : next of another
"smash on the London and Birmingham line—two
men killed on the spot, one of them so crushed and
jellified" that his features could Snot be identified :
fourthly, of a " run over" on the York and Leeds line
—a leg and an arm skilfully amputated by the carriage.
wheels ; and, lastly, of a minor " smash" on the East-
ern Counties line—an unknown number of individuals
more or less disfigured. To these .we may add a re-
.

in a few hours
of a " smash"

port of another disaster on a York line, attended by
the death of two persons, and the mutilation of some
half-score others.

Now, we think this a tolerable catalogue of five days'
work, and demonstrates pretty clearly that there must
be a change in the working of the system, unless we
are to be driven back into the somewhat antiquated
practice of making our wills before we venture on a
journey. It strikes us that dividends have held a more
prominent place in the estimation of some railway di-
rectors than public safety. But this reckless risk of
human life cannot be tolerated. Regulations—and
stringent' regulations—must and will he devised by
Parliament, for it is impossible for any one to consider
calmly the circumstances connected with recent acci-
dents on railways, without arriving at the conclusion
that they are generally the result of a gross neglect of
proper precaution.

INSOLENCE OF THE MINISTERIAL PRESS.
(From the Carlisle Patriot.)
The insolence with which the ministerial press treat
their readers has 'no parallel, except in the conduct of
the detected thief, who turned round soil accused the
man he had plundered of having robbed him. The
reckless disregard, of all decent bearing exhibited by
these O'Counellised journals is perfectly astounding.
Their immorality would be destructive of the best of
causes, and when employed to uphold the worst—how-
ever consistent and correspondent the means may be
with the object—it Certainly is not the less calculated
to excite one's indignation and disgust. During the
discussions that have arisen out of the recent events
in Egypt and Syria, and while there existed the least
chance of a war between England and France what
has been the conduct of the conservative press of this
country, almost without exception ? Laying aside all
oppressing every rising emotion of anger
government of her Majesty's ministers and
only the. honour, interest, and happiness of
their sovereign and of their country, they have in the
spirit of true patriotism upheld the councils of the
Queen, denounced (though, as we have more than
once before intimated, not always in justifiable terms
nor on legitimate-grounds) those who would fan the
embers of war in France and, with a self negation
scarcely excusable in public men, they vindicated the
conduct of their political opponents, when they con-
ceived them to be in danger of coining in Conflict with
the common enemy of their country. This was the
course pursued by the conservative press at a time
when the Chronicle and the Globe, the especial organs
of Downing-street, were using every means to widen
the breach between the two countries. Under these
circumstances it might be supposed that the ministerial
papers would, at least, have remained silent, if they
did not think proper to award to the conservative press
the praise justly due to their disinterested conduct.
A sense of decency, if not shame, would forbid the
adoption of any other course. Not so, however,
shame is a word of no meaning with them. Their
creed is that the end justifies the means. To retain
their masters in office is the sole object of all their
exertions, and to accomplish this, every means is with
them legitimate. Having, as present circumstances
seem to indicate, been foiled in their wicked attempt
to involve this country in a European war, they en-
deavour to escape from their ignominious position by
audaciously accusing the conservatives of England of
secretly fomenting the quarrel with France ! Our
readers will recollect we prophecied that if we went
to war, the whole gang of liberals would declare that
they had been forced into it by the conservatives; here
is a proof of the correctness of that prediction. " War
(says the Chronicle) would have received the general
support of the tories." " Already (it continues) had
indications been given in the tory journals, and at
agricultural dinners, of the advantage which the food
monopoly would have taken of that dire calamity."
The hardihood displayed in this wilful falsehood, is
only to be equalled in baseness by the sickening affec-
tation of the writer in his lamentation at the " dire
calamity" of war.
We expect to hear him in another strain before long,
and to find him pouring forth his wailings at the dire
calamity of peace. What does he think of the " dire
calamity" of radical defeats in the corporations, (a
matter of vital importance to the "liberals," though of
comparative indifference to the conservatives,) of Lord
Lyndhurst's triumph at Combridge ; and what agony
will he endure at the " dire calamity" of the signal
discomfiture that awaits his patrons when the bill of
costs comes to be dissected, which their errors, their
ignorance, and their utter incapacity to govern, have
entailed upon the country. Aye,_ there's the rub. All
would go on smoothly and well were it not that the
unjust steward must render an account of his steward-
ship. There is, unfortunately, too great an inclination
on the part of the people of this country to give their
attention too exclusively to passing events, forgetful of
the past and heedless of the future. Hence much
mischief may be worked by a minister provided he
keeps causes and consequences out of view. But the
future, in time, becomes the present, and when Mr.
Baring, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, shall appear
before the representatives 'of the people, and insert the
sums opposite such items as "War in India—War in
China—War in Syria—and Preparations for war in
Europe," then even a " liberal" un-English House of
Commons will at length find 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 coast
quences than any former ministry dared to hazard

party feeling
at the n

PROSPECTS OF -W.H-IGG-ERY.
fortune s
Oxford Herald.)
That good fortune which has always befriended our
whig ministers has not failed to affbrd 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
that noble lord, and the contemplation of their general
incapacity. Ever since the clOse of the session these
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
from their slumbers, and be again dragged before the
eyes of a people that views their prolonged tenure of
office with disgust. We very well know that there will
not be wanting some among the oracles of whiggclT
who have the countenance to assert that their party
was never snore powerful, nor their seats snore secure
than at the present moment : nevertheless there are
two stubborn facts staring 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
Ire 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."

The returns of these registrations and elections must
give each member of the Whig cabinet a cold thrill
when the possibility, for what we know the probabi-

city, 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 Maaazine.)

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 public 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 Phomix 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
ll•

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,,,q property irre-
trievably flestrtwArl Tha vsrrlrsorfvr to •••• 41-.;

all probability is nothing short of fB,ooojor £lO,OOO,
and may be much greater; but the propoilional 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 much
longer experience, and which ought, on this and other
accounts, therefore, to be much more exempt from
ties.

casua.
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
recent accidents on the London and 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 traceable 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
away their own lives; but if the rules 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.hy 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 are 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 te 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 he 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