§ MR. BAILLIE COCHRANEsaid, as he understood that he had rather taken the President of the Board of Trade by sur- 1469 prise on a former evening, he would now beg to ask the right hon. Gentleman, Whether he will not reconsider the determination he then expressed; and whether, on the part of the Government, he will not give a promise that he would introduce next Session a Bill to make it compulsory upon Railway Companies to adopt some improved mode of communication between guards and passengers on their lines?
§ MR. MILNER GIBSONsaid, in reply, that it appeared, in replying to the Question of his hon. Friend on a former evening, he had been understood as refusing to entertain the suggestion. He certainly had not intended to convey that impression. If the hon. Member wished him to promise that next Session he would introduce a Bill to compel Railway Companies to adopt some means of communication between guards and passengers, he must say that he could not at present see his way sufficiently clear to enable him to give such a promise. He admitted that it was not a pleasant thing to be shut up in a railway carriage without the means of summoning aid if it were needed. The recent outrages and murder clearly showed that the obtaining of this communication was much to be desired, but the difficulties of the question were so considerable that, although he was quite willing to consider any proposal which might be made, he must decline to give any promise to introduce a Bill on the subject.
§ MR. BAILLIE COCHRANEsaid, he wished to ask, Whether the right hon. Gentleman was not aware that all through the Continent, and in other places, there were means of communication which did not exist in this country between the passengers and the guards?
§ MR. MILNER GIBSONsaid, he believed in some parts of the Continent there were such means of communication, but he was not at all sure that the construction of our railways or of the carriages running upon them would admit of the same arrangements.