§ MR. BENTINCKsaid, he had to ask the President of the Board of Trade, Whether, in consequence of the repeated recurrence of railway accidents, it is the intention of Her Majesty's Government to introduce, during the present Session, any measure founded on the Report of the Committee on Railway Accidents which was laid upon the table of the House in 1858?
§ MR. MILNER GIBSONsaid, that from the reports which had been made by the inspectors of recent railway accidents, it did not appear to the Board of Trade that any new circumstances had arisen during the past year which rendered the interference of the Legislature in the management of railways desirable. Therefore, it was not the intention of the Government as then advised to introduce any Bill on the subject. He might add, that although two very lamentable accidents had occurred during the past year, by which a number of lives were lost and several persons injured, yet the whole number of accidents in 1861 was less than in any year, except 1857 and 1858, since 1851, although the mileage for railway traffic had increased in that time some 50 per cent, and the number of passengers 100 per cent. In consequence of the Clayton tunnel accident, it was thought right to circulate among the railway companies an extract from Colonel Tyler's report on that accident. That report contained suggestions for the more efficient working the electric telegraph, and other modes of obviating 190 similar accidents. It had been the practice, and would be, to circulate such information as would be likely to prevent the recurrence of accidents. If, however, the recommendation of the Committee on Railway Accidents in 1858 had been carried out, they would have had no effect in preventing the accidents to which he had alluded. Under present circumstances, there fore, the Government was not prepared to legislate on the subject.