—it was said that when carriers undertake to convey persons by the powerful and dangerous agency of steam, public policy and safety require that they be held to the greatest possible care and diligence,—that the personal safety of passengers should not be left to the sport of chance, or the negligence of careless agents.

A master is liable to third persons injured by negligent acts done by his servant in the course of his employment, although the master did not authorize or know of the servant's act or neglect, or even if he disapproved or forbade it.

Similarly, although the special hazards once posed by rail travel have sometimes been cited as an important source of the absolute liability imposed on carriers

A corporation is doubtless liable, like an individual, to make compensation for any tort committed by an agent in the course of his employment, although the act is done wantonly and recklessly, or against the express orders of the principal.

—it was held that the fact that a collision was caused by disobedience of orders by the locomotive engineer was no defense to an action for an injury in the collision by one who, though paying no fare, was lawfully on another locomotive by invitation of the president of the company.

—which was an action by a passenger against a railroad corporation for a personal injury suffered through the negligence of its servants, the jury were instructed that "the damages, if any were recoverable, are to be confined to the direct and immediate consequences of the injury sustained;" and no exception was taken to this instruction.

—case the Court spoke of the "powerful but dangerous agency of steam" and held that carriers must be held to the greatest possible care and diligence even in the transportation of gratuitous passengers, whose personal safety "should not be left to the sport of chance or the negligence of careless agents."

But even an action by a passenger, or by an owner of goods, against a carrier, for neglect to carry and deliver in safety, is an action for the breach of a duty imposed by the law, independently of contract or of consideration, and is therefore founded in tort.