A terrible accident occurred to the Scotch express on the
North-Eastern line on Saturday night. The train, going at about thirty miles an hour, had arrived at a curve south of Morpeth, when the engine left the line, "the flange of a wheel," according to Captain Tyler, " having mounted a rail," owing to the " defective condition of a joint." It was at first believed that a spring of the engine had given way, but Captain Tyler showed that this had occurred after the engine turned over, and that " there was no sign of any defect in the engine." The train was instantly reduced to a wreck, five persons were killed, and eleven more or less seriously injured. The accident is remarkable from the entire absence of any blame to the driver, pointsmen, or signal- men—unless, indeed, the suspicion thrown out that the train was going too fast should be proved correct—the accident, ac- cording to the official Inspector, whose evidence was taken as final by the coroner's jury, being entirely due to a alight fault in the permanent way, which may have been injured by the passage of the next previous train. It is hardly possible to think of a system of inspection which would prevent suck► an occurrence by night as well as by day.
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