EARLY MANHOOD 91 



attempts no solution ; it lays no blame ; yet it does throw 

 the door open to a draught most uncomfortable to receive 

 at the end of a book that would have been, without it, one 

 to keep in good spirits the investors in things as they are. 

 A few other magazine articles may be mentioned here. 

 Writing in Eraser's of May, 1874, on the Railway 

 Accidents Bill, he says that ' no Government can at this 

 day hope to carry such a measure ' as purchase of railways 

 by the State. But while the companies have the privi- 

 lege of purchasing land compulsorily, they must * sustain 

 an equivalent amount of responsibility.' He suggests 

 Government inspectors of the permanent way ; better 

 fences ; the use of continuous brakes ; diminution of the 

 number of hours of employment ; stricter regulations to 

 insure the safety of the servants themselves. It is a sober, 

 clear, and practical article, showing plenty of knowledge 

 and interest in practical matters. He shows good sense 

 in his article in Fr user's of February, 1875, on the Shipton 

 accident of the past Christmas Eve. He rebukes the 

 comment that ' leans towards adopting a fatalistic creed ' 

 in face of such accidents. It is ' a species of crime ' to 

 say that a percentage of accidents is inevitable. Every- 

 thing, he says, ' points to an entirely preventible origin,' 

 and the remedy is to rouse public opinion to a point 

 irresistible by the railway companies. His * Story of 

 Swindon ' in Eraser's of May, 1875, is also sensible and 

 well-informed. He thinks the men of the Great Western 

 Railway Factory intelligent, and strongly contrasting with 

 the agricultural poor. He is ' tempted to declare ' this 

 class of educated mechanics the ' protoplasm or living 

 matter out of which modern society is evolved.' 



