way. It is, therefore, quite a mistake, and has the tendency of misleading the public to suppose it otherwise. The remedy for the evil is much more likely to be found, and a cure effected, by open investigation than by attempting to conceal it or gloss it over.

As the railway movement must now proceed, it therefore becomes, as has been observed, of the greatest importance, both to the numerous undertakings established, or to be established, and to the convenience of the public, that every thing should be done, which care and attention can do, to make railway communication as perfect as possible. In order to effect this, much more is necessary than well-laid roads and well-constructed locomotive engines. Punctuality is of vast importance in railway business. Men who are to direct and manage should be men of ability and energy, capable of seeing quickly what ought to be done, and of enforcing discipline. It has been complained of that, with the increase of railway business, confusion has increased, and uncertainty as to the arrival and departure of trains, which did not previously exist. It has been complained of-that, instead of growing more perfect by practice, the increase of business has made railway travelling somewhat less perfect,

less to be depended on, than it was. The movements of a great railway require to be governed with as much precision as a great army. Strict discipline should be enforced every where.

It is much to be feared, as the railway system is extended, that without the exercise of such vigilance as here enforced, confusion may be increased, and, instead of railway accidents being diminished by experience, they may be multiplied. It may be useful, therefore, to attempt to trace the real causes of the frequent accidents on railways.

RAILWAY ACCIDENTS.

Railway accidents, with the locomotive system, may be classified under two heads:

1. Those accidents arising from mismanagement, or from railway administration, and from negligence.

2. Those arising from errors in railway construction or defect in any part of the working apparatus.

Under either of these heads, but especially the first, accidents are so numerous and multifarious, that it would fill volumes to describe them; and, indeed, it almost becomes a rare circumstance to

take up a newspaper without the eye falling on the words "Fatal or Serious Railway Accident."

Under the head of accidents attributable to mismanagement, or to the railway administration, and from negligence may be classed the numerous collisions of trains -- the running of one train into another; the running of carriages off the rails from extreme or reckless driving.

Under the head of accidents, arising from defect in railway formations, may be classed carriages running off the rails from the imperfect state of the rails or sleepers; want of consolidation or solidity of embankments; improper curves; defective fences, bridges, viaducts, and tunnels; imperfect state of the engines; boiler explosions; ignition and burning of goods and carriages, &c. But some of these may also in part be attributed to mismanagement or the administration.

There is a third class of very serious accidents on railways, by which many deaths have occurred, but which it does not fall under the object of this work to dwell upon, although, no doubt, many of them might be averted were there existing a more perfect system of railway surveillance I mean accidents which are commonly considered attributable to the imprudence of parties themselves.

I. ACCIDENTS ARISING FROM MISMANAGEMENT

OF THE RAILWAY ADMINISTRATION,

FROM NEGLIGENCE.

AND

There is no class of accidents which it may be presumed admits of a more certain remedy than those arising from mismanagement. This mismanagement often proceeds from false economy in the employment of persons at a low salary who may be unacquainted with railways, and who cannot from previous habits appreciate the advantages of a well-maintained system of discipline,— or it may sometimes arise from retaining and using imperfect engines and from the want of a proper supply of these to work the line.

The want of an efficient head or strict superintendence at head-quarters extends its baneful influence over subordinates, and the railway system never can be efficient unless throughout every branch of it the most perfect vigilance, regularity, and attention be maintained — and persons be appointed, not because they have interest to obtain a situation, but because their services are valuable for the post they are to fill, from their knowledge and experience. By liber

ality and encouragement, and the employment of able persons, accidents would soon be diminished. Without entering into minute particulars, I shall, for the sake of illustration, give notices of a few accidents under the first head, that of mismanagement, gleaned from the journals of the day.

ACCIDENTS FROM COLLISION.

A case was brought before William Jeffcock, Esq., the sitting magistrate at the town-hall, Sheffield, Aug. 15. 1845, which shows in a remarkable degree the sad resultsprobably death or injury to some fifty or sixty persons which might have arisen from the gross misconduct of an engine-driver, in the employ of the Midland Railway Company, and which was only prevented by the extraordinary presence of mind of another engine-driver named Tallent.

Robert Bell, a man about 40 years of age, was brought up in custody, charged under the Railways' Regulation Act (commonly called Lord Seymour's Act), with gross misconduct whilst in the service of the Midland Railway Company as an engine-driver. For some time past, workmen have been employed on about two miles of one line of rails, in taking up the old and laying down new ones of a heavier description, and in consequence only one line of rails was available for the passage of the trains both ways. As a necessary precaution against any collision, men had been placed at signal-posts a short distance from each other along the portion of the line under repair, and the engine-drivers