I find an excellent illustration of the state of modern roads,
'not blamed for blood,' in the following "Month's List of Killed and
Wounded," from the 'Pall Mall Gazette':--
"We have before us a task at once monotonous, painful,
and revolting. It is to record, for the benefit of the public,
the monthly list of slaughter by rail, for the last four weeks
unprecedented in degree and variety. In August there were three
'accidents,' so called, for every five days. In the thirty days of
September there have been in all thirty-six. We need not explain the
dreary monotony of this work. Every newspaper reader understands
that for himself. It is also painful, because we are all more or
less concerned, either as travellers, shareholders, or workers on
railways; and it is grievous to behold enormous sums of money thrown
away at random in compensation for loss of life and limb, in making
good the damage done to plant and stock, in costly law litigation,
and all for the sake of what is called economy. It is, moreover,
a just source of indignation to the tax-payer to reflect that he
is compelled to contribute to maintain a costly staff of Government
inspectors (let alone the salaries of the Board of Trade), and that
for any practical result of the investigations and reports of these
gentlemen, their scientific knowledge and 'urgent recommendations,'
they might as well be men living in the moon. It is revolting because
it discloses a miserable greed, and an entire callousness of conscience
on the part of railway directors, railway companies, and the railway
interest alike, and in the Government and Legislature a most unworthy
and unwise cowardice. It is true that the situation may be accounted
for by the circumstance that there are between one and two hundred
railway directors in the House of Commons who uniformly band together,
but that explanation does not improve the fact.
Sept. 2.--North-Eastern Railway, near Hartlepool. Passenger train
got off the line; three men killed, several injured. Cause,
a defective wheel packed with sheet iron. The driver had been
recently fined for driving too slowly.
Sept. 5.--Great Western. A goods train ran into a number of beasts,
and then came into collision with another goods train.
Sept. 6.--Line from Helensburgh to Glasgow. A third-class carriage
got on fire. No communication between passengers and guard. The
former got through the windows as best they could, and were found
lying about the line, six of them badly injured.
Sept. 8.--A train appeared quite unexpectedly on the line
between. Tamworth and Rugby. One woman run over and killed.
Sept. 9.--Cannon Street. Two carriages jumped off the line;
traffic much delayed.
Sept. 9.--Near Guildford. A bullock leaped over a low gate on
to the line; seven carriages were turned over the embankment and
shivered to splinters; three passengers were killed on the spot,
suffocated or jammed to death; about fifteen were injured.
Sept. 10.--London and North-Western, at Watford. Passenger train
left the rails where the points are placed, and one carriage was
overturned; several persons injured, and many severely shaken.
Sept. 10.--Great Northern, at Ardsley. Some empty carriages were
put unsecured on an incline, and ran into the Scotch express;
three carriages smashed, several passengers injured, and driver,
stoker, and guard badly shaken.
Sept. 11.--Great Eastern, near Sawbridgeworth. A goods train,
to which was attached a waggon inscribed as defective and marked
for repair, was proceeding on the up line; the waggon broke down,
and caught a heavy passenger train on the down line: one side
of this train was battered to pieces; many passengers severely
shaken and cut with broken glass.
Sept. 12.--East Lancashire, near Bury. A collision between two
goods trains. Both lines blocked and waggons smashed. One driver
was very badly hurt.
Sept. 13.--London, Chatham, and Dover, near Birchington
station. Passenger train drove over a number of oxen; engine was
thrown off the line; driver terribly bruised; passengers severely
shaken. Cause, the animals got loose while being driven over a
level crossing, and no danger signals were hoisted.
Sept. 15.--Caledonian line, near Glasgow. Passenger train ran
into a mineral train which had been left planted on the line;
one woman not expected to survive, thirteen passengers severely
injured. Cause, gross negligence.
Same day, and same line.--Caledonian goods train was run into
broadside by a North British train; great damage done; the guard
was seriously injured. Cause, defective signalling.
Sept. 16.--Near Birmingham. A passenger train, while passing
over some points, got partly off the line; no one severely hurt,
but all shaken and frightened. Cause, defective working of points.
Sept. 17.--Between Preston and Liverpool, near Houghton. The
express train from Blackburn ran into a luggage train which was
in course of being shunted, it being perfectly well known that
the express was overdue. About twenty passengers were hurt, or
severely shaken and alarmed, but no one was actually killed. Cause,
gross negligence, want of punctuality, and too much traffic.
Same day.--Great Eastern. Points not being closed, a cattle train
left the metal and ploughed up the line, causing much damage and
delay in traffic. Cause, negligence.
Same day.--Oxford and Bletchley Railway. Axle-wheel of waggon
broke, and with seven trucks left the line. A general smash
ensued; broken carriages were strewed all over the line, and a
telegraph post was knocked down: blockage for four hours. Cause,
defective axle.
Same day.--A goods train from Bolton to Manchester started
so laden as to project over the other line for the down
traffic. Encountering the express from Manchester near Stone
Clough, every passenger carriage was in succession struck and
injured. Cause, gross negligence of porters, station-master,
and guard of goods train.
"Here, it will be observed, we have already got eighteen catastrophes
within seventeen days. On September 18 and 19 there was a lull,
followed by an appalling outbreak.
Sept. 20.--At the Bristol terminus, where the points of the Midland
and Great Western meet, a mail train of the former ran full into
a passenger train belonging to the latter. As they were not at
full speed, no one was killed, but much damage was done. Cause,
want of punctuality and gross negligence. Under a system where
the trains of two large companies have a junction in common and
habitually cross each other many times a day, the block system
seems impossible in practice.
Same day.--Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln line. A passenger
train was unhooked from the engine at Peninstone, and ran down the
incline at a fearful rate. A signalman, seeing something wrong,
and naturally confused, turned it on to the Sheffield line. At
Wortley it encountered a goods train laden with pig-iron. Smash
in every direction, carriages and trucks mounting one on the
top of the other. Fortunately there were only three passengers;
but all were seriously injured. Cause, gross negligence.
Sept. 22.--Midland Railway, near Kettering. A train ran off the
line; metals torn up; traffic delayed for two hours.
Same day.--Passenger train from Chester was descending the tunnel
under Birkenhead; the engine ran off the line and dashed against
the tunnel wall. Passengers much shaken, but not seriously
maimed. Traffic stopped for several hours.
Sept. 23.--A lull.
Sept. 24.--North British Railway, at Reston Junction. The early
express train which leaves Berwick for Edinburgh at 4.30 a.m. was
going at full speed, all signals being at safety, but struck a
waggon which was left standing a little on the main line over
a siding; engine damaged, and the panels and foot-boards of
ten carriages knocked to bits; no loss of life. Cause, gross
negligence.
Sept. 25.--A Midland excursion train from Leicester got off the
line near New Street station; the van was thrown across both
lines of rails; great damage and delay. Cause, over-used metal.
Same day.--London and North-Western, between Greenfield and
Moseley. A bundle of cotton which had fallen from a train pulled
one waggon off the line; twenty other waggons followed it, and the
line was ploughed up for two hundred yards; great damage, delay,
and many waggons smashed: no loss of life. Cause, negligence.
Same day.--Great Eastern, St. Ives. Through carelessness a
pointsman ran a Midland passenger train into a siding on to some
trucks; passengers badly shaken, and a good many had their teeth
knocked out. The account stated naïvely, "No passengers were
seriously hurt, but they were nevertheless very much alarmed, and
fled the carriages in the greatest state of excitement." Cause,
gross negligence.
Same day.--South Yorkshire, near Conisbro'. A mineral train
(signals being all right) dashed full into a heavy coal
train. Much damage, but no loss of life. Cause, gross negligence
and over-traffic.
Sept. 26.--This was a very fatal day. At Sykes Junction, near
Retford, the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln joins the Great
Northern. A coal train of the latter while passing the junction was
run into at full speed by a cattle train of the former. The engine
and fifteen carriages were thrown down the bank and smashed, and
valuable cattle killed. Meanwhile a goods train drew up, the signal
being for once at danger, and was immediately run into by a mineral
train from behind, which had not been warned. Drivers, guards,
firemen injured. A fog was on at the time, but no fog signals
appear to have been used. Cause, negligence and over-traffic.
Same day.--North-Eastern passenger train from Stockton to
Harrowgate ran into a heavy goods train near Arthington. The
crash was fearful. About twenty passengers were injured; half that
number very seriously. The signals contradicted each other. Cause,
gross negligence.
Same day.--North-Eastern, Newcastle and Carlisle division. There
was a collision between a mineral and a cattle train on a
bridge of the river Eden more than 100 feet high. Part of the
bridge was hurled down below; several waggons followed it, while
others remained suspended. Cattle were killed; three men badly
injured. Cause, gross negligence.
Same day.--Near Carnarvon. A passenger train ran over a porter's
lorry which had been left on the line; no one was injured,
but damage ensued; passengers had fortunately alighted. Cause,
negligence.
Same day.--Great Eastern. A train of empty carriages was turned
on to a siding at Fakenham, and came into collision with laden
trucks, which in their turn were driven into a platform wall;
much damage done, but no personal injury. Cause, gross negligence.
Sept. 27.--The Holyhead mail due at Crewe at 5.30 was half an hour
late; left standing on a curve, it was run into by a goods train;
a number of carriages were smashed, and though no one was killed,
nearly fifty persons were injured. The signals were against the
goods train, but the morning being hazy the driver did not see
them. Cause, negligence, unpunctuality, and want of fog signals.
Sept. 28.--South Devon Line, near Plymouth. A luggage train was
set on fire, and a van laden with valuable furniture completely
consumed.
Sept. 30.--The London and Glasgow express came up at full speed
near Motherwell Junction, and dashed into a van which was being
shunted on the main line; the engine was thrown down an embankment
of thirty feet, and but for the accident of the coupling-iron
breaking the whole train would have followed it. The fireman was
crushed to death, the driver badly injured, and many passengers
severely shaken. Cause, criminal recklessness in shunting van
when an express is due.
Sept. 30.--Great Western. Collision at Uffington between a fish
and luggage train; no loss of life, but engine shattered, traffic
delayed, and damage done. Cause, negligence.
"Besides the above, two express trains had a very narrow escape from
serious collision on September 13 and September 26, the one being near
Beverley station, and the other on the Great Western, between Oxford
and Didcot. Both were within an ace of running into luggage vans
which had got off the lines. It will be observed that in this dismal
list there is hardly one which can properly be called an accident,
i.e., non-essential to the existing condition of things, not to be
foreseen or prevented, occurring by chance, which means being caused
by our ignorance of laws which we have no means of ascertaining. The
reverse is the true state of the case: the real accidents would have
been if the catastrophes in question had not occurred."
A correspondent, who very properly asks, "Should we not straightway
send more missionaries to the Kaffirs?" sends me the following
extracts from the papers of this month. I have no time to comment
on them. The only conclusion which Mr. Dickens would have drawn from
them, would have been that nobody should have been hanged at Kirkdale;
the conclusion the public will draw from them will doubtless be,
as suggested by my correspondent, the propriety of sending more
missionaries to the Kaffirs, with plenty of steam-engines.