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The coroners' juries who investigated the catastrophes on the Brighton

and Hampstead lines have returned verdicts of manslaughter in the first case against the station-master, and in the second against the signalman. In each instance the verdict seems commendable, as enforcing a thorough legal inquiry, with evidence on oath, and all necessary aids to a complete explanation of the affair. At the same time, we have a sense that the unlucky prisoners are made the scape- goats of a system which postpones security to profit. In the Hamp- stead case the jury created some amusement by recommending the signalman to mercy, on account of his youth. Obviously they ex- pected to see him condemned to death there and then,—a confusion of ideas one would not have expected out of a Welsh county.

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