10 Railway Accidents. [January, 
with a view to diminishing the number of railway ac- 
cidents. 
Bills have at various times been introduced with the 
object of compelling railway companies to adopt some 
precise system of working, but they were not passed; and 
in 1866, in a bill of this nature, it was for the first time 
proposed to compel railway companies to adopt a means of 
communication between passengers and guards, and between 
guards and engine-drivers of all trains. This Bill, however, 
did not, at the time, become law, but was withdrawn. 
In 1865 a Royal Commission was appointed to enquire 
generally into the subject of railways, and to report, amongst 
other matters, whether, with a due regard to the progres- 
sive extension of the railway system, it would be practicable, 
by means of any changes in the laws relating to railways, 
*‘more effectually to provide for securing the safe, expe- 
ditious, punctual, and cheap transit of passengers and mer- 
chandise upon the said railways.” 
Up to this date the legislation upon railways directed 
that no line should be opened until it had first been approved 
and passed by the Board of Trade Inspe¢tors, but after it 
had been once opened for traffic the manner of working was 
left entirely in the hands of the railway company, power 
being, however, reserved to the Board of Trade to cause the 
railways, the engines, and the carriages to be inspected by 
their officers whenever they might think fit, and they might, 
when applied to, make regulations for the safe working of 
the traffic at the junction of the lines of two companies. 
The railway company, in undertaking the duty of carriers, 
became liable under the common law to compensate persons 
injured, and under Lord Campbell’s Act to compensate the 
relatives of persons killed by the company’s negligence or 
by that of their servants. Thus Parliament relied upon the 
principle of leaving the responsibility of the safe working of 
railways with the companies rather than upon giving the 
Board of Trade the power and duty of interfering in the 
details of management. 
The Royal Commission of 1865, in their Report, expressed 
the opinion that the plan of relying for the safe working of 
railways upon the efficiency of the common law and of Lord 
Campbell’s Act, had been more conducive to the protection 
of the public than if the Board of Trade had been empowered 
to interfere in the detailed arrangements for working the 
trafic. They recommended, however, that, on the one 
hand, railway companies should be absolutely responsible: 
for all injuries arising in the conveyance of passengers, 
