Book contents
- The Year That Shaped the Victorian Age
- The Year That Shaped the Victorian Age
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface
- Textual Note
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Public Scandals
- 1 Opening Mazzini’s Mail
- 2 The Railway Juggernaut
- 3 Poor Law Bastille
- Part II Private Lives
- Part III Oxford Movements
- Part IV Irish Questions
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - The Railway Juggernaut
Delane, Dickens and the Press
from Part I - Public Scandals
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 December 2022
- The Year That Shaped the Victorian Age
- The Year That Shaped the Victorian Age
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface
- Textual Note
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Public Scandals
- 1 Opening Mazzini’s Mail
- 2 The Railway Juggernaut
- 3 Poor Law Bastille
- Part II Private Lives
- Part III Oxford Movements
- Part IV Irish Questions
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Public engagement with the twin scandals associated with the railways was much more direct, as most of the victims were ordinary citizens. These individuals shared their experiences by writing eyewitness accounts of crashes, or of approaches made by speculative stags, in letters to the press. Some of the newspapers that published these letters of protest were themselves caught up in the politics of the ‘railway interest’, occasionally engaging in internecine warfare through statements written by their editors. And Sir Robert Peel, whose government was responsible for the control of the railways, was prepared to address the nation directly, if anonymously, by drafting text for a Times leading article in a letter to his chancellor of the exchequer.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Year That Shaped the Victorian AgeLives, Loves and Letters of 1845, pp. 49 - 79Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022