1875.1 Ralway Accidents. 9 
under a penalty, that every railway company should deliver 
to them returns, in whatever form they might prescribe, of 
the traffic in passengers and goods, as well as of accidents 
attended with personal injury, and a table of tolls and rates 
from time to time levied on passengers and goods. All bye- 
laws already made by companies were to be certified to the 
Board, and no new ones were to be made without its sanc- 
tion. The Board was also constituted the guardian of the 
public interests, being empowered at its discretion to certify 
to the law officers of the Crown any infraction of the law, 
and the law officers of the Crown were thereupon required 
to take the requisite legal proceedings. The power which 
had been conferred upon proprietors of land adjoining rail- 
ways by their private Acts of Parliament, for. making 
junctions, was placed under the control of the Board of 
Trade, with a discretion to regulate the manner in which it 
should be exercised. 
In 1842, the returns of the accidents required to be made 
to the Board of Trade were extended to all cases, whether 
or not they were attended with personal injury; and in 
1844 parliamentary trains were established by law, and the 
powers of the Board of Trade to compel railway companies 
to comply with the law were extended to all unauthorised 
proceedings on the part of the railway companies. In 1846 
an Act was passed establishing a Board of Commissioners 
of Railways, to whom the powers possessed by the Board of 
Trade were transferred ; but in 1851 the Board of Commis- 
sioners was abolished, and its powers and duties were re- 
transferred to the Board of Trade. 
In 1857 a Select Committee on Accidents on Railways 
was appointed, who in their Report of the 25th June, 1858, 
classified the causes of accidents under the three following 
heads :—Inattention of Servants; Defective Material, either 
in the works or rolling stock; and Excessive Speed. Much 
stress was laid by the Committee on the necessity for 
punctuality in the departure and arrival of trains; they 
considered that it should be imperative on every railway 
company to establish a means of communication between 
guards and engine-drivers, and that a system of telegraphic 
communication on the lines should be enforced, in order 
that they might be worked on the block system; and they 
concluded by recommending that, with respect to signals, 
breaks, and other precautions, such details should be left to 
the management of the railway boards, but that the Boaro 
‘of Trade should be invested with further powers to enabd 
them the more effectually to control the working of railways 
VOL; V. (N.S:) Cc 
