In 1840s Glasgow, the reverend dignitary of a local parish went house to house looking to spread the ‘judgement of God ’.
Gathering support to protest against the shareholders of the Glasgow and Edinburgh Railway, Reverend William Burns told locals in the village of Kilsyth that they would end up in hell for using the rail service on the Sabbath. While visiting the house of a female parishioner, he ordered her to sign his petition.
The Cork Examiner published an article on February 9 1842, stating he told her: “Should she ever happen to be travelling by railway, and an explosion should take place, attended with loss of life, and her amongst the number, he would consider it as nothing else than a visitation of the righteous judgement of God for her criminal disobedience.”
