The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1840-12-22 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

CAUTION TO RAILWAY COMPANY'S SERVANTS.— ACCIMCNTS.—The directors of the Manchester and Leeds Railway Company have issued their second monthly number, that for November, of a serial publication on railway accidents, addressed to their own servants in all the departments of duty on their line. It is a goodly octavo phamphlet of 42 pages, commencing with some account, derived from the evidence on the inquest, of the accident on the York and North Midland Line, attended with the loss of two lives ; and the other cases printed in the pamphlet are the committal of an engine-driver on the Liverpool and Manchester Line, for a month, under Lord Seymour's act, for disobeying the regulations of the company in reference to the locomotive engine entrusted to his care ; the conviction and infliction of a penalty upon a labourer on the Manchester and Leeds Line, for not removing a wheelbarrow far enough from the rails, so that the steps of a carriage upset it ; the eommittal of a " plate-layer," on the same line, for two months, to the Wakefield House of Correction, under Lord Seymour's act, for neglect of duty in not making a signal to stop an approaching train, when an obstruction had been caused by raising some rails ; a caution issued by the company to their servants referring to this case, to the effect, that, " in all instances where negligence or disobedience is shewn to any of the rules or regulations of the company, or any omission in the discharge of their several duties, such servants will be proceeded against with the utmost rigour ; it being the full determination of the company to use the utmost caution in order to prevent accidents; and, as far as possible, to protect the lives and property of the public travelling upon the said railway." The next case notieed is the late fatal accident on the London and Birmingham Line, where a verdict of murder was returned against the deceased engine driver ; a letter, in reference to it, reprobating the practice of employing as engineers persons who have not been properly trained to that business ; and the last case noticed was the conviction of an auctioneer for having got upon an engine on the Eastern Counties Line, and turned on the steam, by which means he caused the engine to run over and dash to pieces a horse carriage and coal truck, and by this collision was himself thrown out, and narrowly escaped being killed on the spot. He was sentenced to be imprisoned for six months, and fined in the penalty of £5. We understand that the directors issue these pamphlets to their superintendents and principal servants along the line, by whom they are distributed to every individual employed under the company, each man receiving a copy to take home for his own reading ; and the material parts, either pointing out the causes of accidents, or any negligence on the part of railway company's servants, or containing useful suggestions in the way of caution or. improvement, are rendered conspicuous by being printed Italics. Thus these little publications must be doing great good in bringing to the knowledge of all concerned in the working of the line, the danger of their negligence in reference to the lives of passengers, and the serious responsibility which devolves upon themselves, with the almost certainty of punishment for any act of gross negligence, even though. it should not be attended with any serious consequences. Thus they are trained already, while the line is but partially opened, in those habits of caution and attention so desirable in, and indeedimperative upon, all persons concerned in the working of railway transit —Manchester Guardian.