The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1858-07-17

FRIoHrFuL AoomENr ON The ERIE RAIL-
RoAD.-We are again called upon to re-
cord a fearful sacrifice Of human life, the
result Of railroad Encouragement The
night express train from this city to the
West, on the Erie Railroad, which left the
depot at Jersey City on Thursday evening at
five o'clock, met with shocking accident near
Port Jervis about ten o'clock tie same night
by which six or seven people were instantly
killed and forty mangled. 1t appears that
broken rail etruck the two last cars of the train
off the track, tumbling them down an embank-
ment forty feet high, and crushing them to
atoms. Nearly every one in these cars WAS in
jured more or lees, and, as far az at present
known, Elk or seven souls at least, persisted.
Is there 10 be no end to frigatful calamities
like these? Cannot railroad companies be made
amenable to some law by which they can be
compelled to exercise proper caution and some
consideration for the lives of passengers 1t is
but few weeksago since, through the parsimony
of the company, whole train on the Central
Railroad went down into a creek through rot
ten bridge, the timbers of which were proved
by the fragments to have been no firmer than q
fungus, killing and mutilsting several people.
Ard what was the upshot Of the disasters
An investigation, resulting in nothing The
company probably compounded with the injured
parties; but public justice remained unsatisfed.
The Erie road, On which this last accident
occurred, has been grossly mismanaged for
long time past, financially and in every other
way, and it is quite probable that at the present
moment the rolling stock is almost unfit for
use; yet the company persist in carrying pas
sengers. And here is the result. We would insist
that an investigation into the cause of this dis
asier should be had, only that we know too
well what investigations are worth in such
cases. The only remedy is for every person
injured by this accident, and the friends of the
unfortunate dead, to bring suits for damages
against the company-make no compromises
but mulct them as heavily as juries can be found
TO do it and juries ere to be had who have no
squeamishness in dealing with such cases. More
than this: the Grand Juries in every city on the
line OF road should indict it as q nuisance,
unless it is put in safe condition for travelling.
Much pretension has been made about the
security of the Erie road, on account of having
its own telegraph line from end to end, where
by communications warning conductors Of dan
ger could be despatched to every station; yet
in this case the telegraph proved worthless in
warding off calamity frightful to think of.
EXPENSES OF THE CRY FOR THE PRESENT
YEAR.-Comptrolle Flagg has just completed
his report for the first six months of the present
yesr-from January to June 30. If the ex-
pendtures of the city government for the entire
year should be in the same ratio, il will show q
slight diminution from that Of 1857. But we
may be sure that by some means or other the
figures will grow amazingly during the remain
ing six months
The expenditure up to the 3Oth of June, 1853,
is s7,2l3,97s, and the receipts s5,742, 9s9. The
receipts, however, do not inclnde the taxes,
which are not payable until September, and
they are higher in proportion than last year.
Supposing that the tax levy should not be great
or than lS57-though Il undoubtedly viii be
the aggregate amount paid into the city treasury
will he, at this rate, over nineteen millions and
q half
Among the items of expenditure is one of
sl3.367 80 for Mr.. Conover's law expenses in
conducting the suit in defence of bis claim to
the Street Commissioner Office, TO which he
was declared by the highest court in the State
to possess no claim whatever: and another, to
the amount of SIC, $50, for similar purpose, in
regard to the Metropolitan police. Voting the
money Of the city to pay expenses incurred by
the stupidity and arrogance of the Executive at
Albany, as in Conover's case, is little too
much of a good thing; but II is only on q par
with all the rest Of the doings in that quarter
last year.