Therworst railway accident since that of Abergele occurred on- - the
Great Eastern Railway, on Thursday night, at Thorpe, two miles from Norwich. But unlike Abergele, an accident in which -the-purely accidental element of a truck of petroleum made the, speeial horror of the event, the Thorpe accident is one which -ought not, humanly speaking, to have happened. It ought not tube even possible that a mail train should run into an express -train, engine to engine, on any railway in any civilised country in time of peace. The wild Marquis of Waterford wished, it is -said, to try the experiment of setting two steam-engines full tilt at each other in his own demesne, but was prevented by the local magistrates. Such was the nature of the Thorpe accident. The engines charged each other, and in their terrible straggle "reared up into an almost perpendicular position, the two trains being mixed up in irremediable ruin." Needless to say that the -drivers and firemen of both trains were killed. Eleven passengers were slain. Four have since died. "The destruction of rolling stock is great,"—and the Company throw all the blame on the night-inspector at Norwich. Nevertheless, we fear the public may clamour to have a Director hanged.
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