The slaughter of the week on the Eastern Counties Itailway
re- minds one of the contest between the company and its servants, with the wholesale substitution of strangers for the familiar hands ; and many will ascribe it to the change. It will be said, that if men are so negligent as to incur death themselves, a for- tiori they will be negligent of passengers' lives. But the men im- plicated in this accident do not, we believe, belong to the class of servants implicated in the "strike," which probably had slight share, if any, in producing the accident. Still, the public rigour of vigilance which will expect the Company to account for their conduct is not altogether unjust : on the face of the ease, there is very oross misarrangeinent in a plan which permits labourers, not efficiently superintended, to continue, in a fog, just as a train is expected, the operation of laying down ballast. Not only does the safety of the men seem to be improperly risked in such a ser- vice, but the casualty which was fatal to them might have cast upon the line some obstruction less yielding than their bodies, and might have proved fatal to passengers.
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