The Sun. — 1864-08-10 (London, England)

MARLBOROUGH CLUB COMPANY TH.E (Limited.) for the anxious watchers exhausted with the pro. tracted struggle. The officials at one of the stations 13, Grafton-street, Piccadilly. NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVES, that in consequence of which they passed perceived that something was the Alterations not being completed, the Opening of the Club wil be postponed until WEDNESDAY, the I.i tla day wrong, and put up the danger signals. The train of August, liol. slackened its speed, but only for a time, and no danger appearing, away it went again. If it were possible to assassinate Mr. BRIGGS between the two stations of Bow and Hackney, certainly a dozen murders could • be perpetrated between London and Peterborough. Happily,• however, thanks to the number of passengers present in the carriage—not to the arrangements of the line—no fatal injury was inflicted, and the luckless party, after passing, we should imagine, the 12ngeet hour and a half of their lives, reached Peterborouh in safety, and deposited their charge in the hands of the unwilling officials of that station. This is by no means the first or second time that a madman has been encountered on a railway line, the excitement or the commotion attending such a mode of locomotion being apparently instrumental in developing the disease to a dangerous pitch. On the very line on which Mr. BRIGGS met his death there was last year an occurrence of this sort. Had there then been one instead of two gentlemen present there would certainly have been a fatal catastrophe instead of a dangerous aecident. Had there been two persons instead of five present in the carriage on Thursday night, or had two or three of those present been women or children there would with equal certainty have been another disaster added to the list of railway horrors. It is quite bad enough for railway passengers to be liable to all the risks to life and limb incurred by the carelessness of officials, the recklessness of the men employed, or the short-sighted economy of the companies, bat it is really too much, in addition to the chance of collisions or summersaults of trains racing three minutes after each other, of engines going backwards, and danger signals suspended, to have the possibility of having to take charge of a dangerous lunatic at very short notice. How much longer is this state of things to go on ? We do not wonder that one of the passengers on Thursday night wished that a director of the company had been in the carriage, on SYDNEY SMITH'S principle; but in truth directors, shareholders, and other officials are as much concerned in this matter as the general public, since they must certainly travel sometimes on their own lines, and are no more sEcure from the intrusion of a maniac, a thief, or an assassin than anybody else. Besides we can hardly suppose these gentlemen to be indifferent to the safety of their passengers, and cannot therefore doubt that they will busy themselves in introducing some immediate reform by means of which passengers can communicate with the guard, and the guard with the driver,  By Order, S. 0. RATTENBCRY, Iron. See. Registered Office, 6, John-street, Bedford-Row, W.C.