LORD BROUGHAMhad been asked by his noble Friend (Earl Russell) to postpone the Jamaica Petition which stood for today, he therefore fixed it for Monday with the Cuba Slave Trade, of which he had given notice. He would put a question to his noble Friend (Earl Granville). From accidental circumstances he was in communication with a great number of persons and societies all over the country, and he had received numberless applications from persons, much alarmed by the late numerous offences in railway carriages. For himself he did not profess to feel alarm, because at his time of life it would be folly to feel much about a risk of what little remained of life being cut short which was so very soon to terminate. But there were thousands of persons looking forward to very long years, and of these hundreds passed many days on railways, and their alarm was great. They said that as railway companies had a monopoly and transcendental powers under Acts of Parliament, they were bound to expect legislative interference for the protection of the public. Therefore the right of making laws to control them was incontestable. There might be various opinions on the best protection, but he thought it clear that there ought to be no power given to those in the compartments to communicate with the driver, but a power should be given to communicate with the guard; and it seemed manifest that every railway should be made with boards or other means by which the guard could pass along when called by any passenger. This was constantly provided on the foreign railways, and might by a small cost be afforded on ours also. He wished to know of his noble Friend if any steps were about to be taken, or had been taken to effect this, or any other means to quiet the alarm the country felt so generally and so strongly?
§ EARL GRANVILLEsaid, that as his noble and learned Friend had not given him notice of his Question, he had been unable to communicate with the Department more especially concerned. The subject, however, would be most carefully considered by Her Majesty's Government. Although on foreign railways there was generally a means by which the guard could communicate with the passengers, it was not always the case that the passengers could communicate with the guard.