they been fatal, although nearly a million of passengers have travelled upon the road. If the number of accidents which have occurred be compared with those which occur upon a mail-coach road with the same number of passengers, the comparison will exhibit in a clear light the superior security for life and limb afforded by the substitution of steam-engines on railroads for horses.
As might be expected under such circumstances, upon occasion of trials of this kind, complaints have been made, and charges of unfair proceedings have been brought against those employed upon the road. The engine men of the Company, and those under them, it is said, upon such occasions screwed down or overloaded the safety-valves of Mr. Stephenson's engines, with a view to give them an unfair advantage; and have secretly inflicted injuries upon those competing with them, for the purpose of disabling them, or impairing their performance. I believe that such complaints have come before the directors, and that they have been found not always groundless. The offender, it is said, has been sometimes dismissed.
I now take leave of this topic, recommending to the directors to consider whether the continuance of the system complained of be consistent with the real interests of their constituents; and the genius of the country, and bringing it to bear upon one of the noblest undertakings which England or any other country in the present or any former age has beheld;—by considering whether it be not advisable not only to be free from suspicion, but to be free even from the appearance of it;—by considering whether it be expedient that the same individual who is the engine maker should be the engine judge; and
