1875.| Railway Accidents. 26 
system on all lines will necessitate a considerable increase 
of staff for working it, and with these additional elements of 
“human frailty’ there will evidently exist an increase in 
the numbers of those to whom the safety of the travelling 
public will be entrusted, and increased safety can therefore 
only be expected to result if the rules laid down for the 
guidance of the companies’ servants are, in the first instance, 
judiciously framed, and afterwards rigidly enforced. 
2. Maintenance of Permanent Way.—The accidents caused 
by defects in permanent way are, happily, not nearly so 
numerous as they were in former years. The art of con- 
structing railways, in the first instance, and of properly 
maintaining them afterwards, is so much better understood 
now than formerly, that accidents arising from defeéts in 
its observance would be a great slur upon the professional 
officers of any company. In the year 1854, thirteen acci- 
dents occurred from the defective condition or neglect of the 
permanent way. In the following year thirty-one cases 
arose from the same causes, but in the year 1856 there 
were fewer accidents of this description, which fact may be 
attributed to the greater attention given by engineers to the 
permanent way, and to the introduction of the fished joint, 
and of other improved methods of connecting rails. In the 
year 1857 twenty accidents were caused _ by the neglect, or 
imperfect condition, of the permanent way ; in four of these 
the permanent way had been neglected, and in five it had 
been constructed in a defective manner. In 1858, twenty- 
nine accidents, and in 1859 fourteen accidents, were due to 
the state of the permanent way. 
In commenting on this class of railway accidents, due to 
permanent way defects, which occurred during 1870, Captain 
Tyler stated that only nine were attributable to the con- 
ditions of the way and works, or to obstructions on the 
permanent way, &c. ‘‘ This,” he observed, “is a great 
improvement upon former years, when, say ten years ago, 
16 per cent of railway accidents were caused principally by 
defects of permanent way; and the improvement is due, 
partly to the increased strength in some cases of rails and 
chairs, partly to placing the sleepers in some cases nearer 
together, and especially to the disuse of wooden trenails 
for attaching the chairs to the sleepers, and to the now almost 
universal employment of fish-joints for fastening the ends of 
the rails together.” As to the remedy suggested for this class 
of accidents, it is remarked that next in importance to proper 
maintenance, and even as part of it, is the question of dis- 
cipline amongst those employed in repairs, with a view to 
