There has been a perfeet glut of railway accidents—on many
railways, and sometimes'more than.one on each. On the Birmingham Railway, two. A train going, in a mist, at the rate of thirty miles an hour, was driven into another : one person's leg was smashed, and several were bruised. An engine- driver's leg was crushed while he was looking at an engine that was out of order.
On the Dover Railway, one. In consequence of some mistake about lights, one train ran into another : a person's leg was broken, a second suffered dislocation of the jaw, a third injury to the spine, and more were bruised. On the Eastern Counties, one. Two engines, one at each end, were employed to propel a train : there was a concussion, and several persons were badly hurt.
On the Midland Railway, two. A porter was killed by the 'winging round of a truck on a turn-table. A stoker's leg was smashed by the collision of two mineral-trains.
On the Great Western, two. A guard was knocked off a plat- form, while asleep. A labourer, waked up from sleeping in a dangerous place, was frightened, ran in the way of a tram, and was killed.
On the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, one. A drunken porter was jammed between two carriages, and killed.
Of these nine bad "accidents" on six railways, there is but one—the last, if that can be accounted an exception—that Was not the result of gross carelessness—but one which the smallest forethought and system might not have prevented. A word, an act of the will, as easy to fulfil as what was done, would have made all safe. Sir Robert Peel observes, it is sophis- tication to say that accidents are proportionately less on railways than elsewhere. They ought to be so : a horse cannot be counted On like machinery; but you can calculate to an inch where your engine shall go—it is never restiff—nothing but negligence can turn it from its allotted path at the allotted time. Truly, the Premier's threatened interference need not be delayed for want of proof that it is necessary, when the defective arrangements of rail- way directors thus waste life and limb in all parts of the country.
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