The Coroner's inquest on the Norwich, or rather the Thorpe
railway accident has ended in a verdict of manslaughter against both the night-inspector, Mr. Cooper, and the telegraph-clerk, Mr. Robson. That verdict was, indeed, inevitable, unless the jury had absolutely refused all credit to Mr. Robson's statements as to the night-inspector's orders, and as to his hurried and agi- tated return to attempt, too late, to stop the execution of those orders. It is quite certain that Mr. Robson did wrong to send the message ordering up the Yarmouth train without Mr. Cooper's signature to it. He himself admits that he had never before transmitted an unsigned message of Mr. Cooper's, and that it was his duty to have rung the bell for Mr. Cooper to sign it before transmitting it. On the other hand, if it be true that Mr. Cooper himself seemed to fear that the train might have been ordered up, there can be little doubt that he must have recalled something ambiguous in his own orders which produced that fear. That the responsibility lay between these two officials there can be no doubt ; and evidence so contradictory as theirs could only be sifted by a regular court of justice. Clearly, the fault of the massacre is either shared between them, or falls on Robson alone ; and which of these two hypotheses is the true one, it will take a very careful and acute investigation to decide.
