The Press.
London, England, 1858-09-25 00:00:00

" band goods or uncertified strangers, but is powerless against the gaseous
" factors of plague, cholera, or yellow fever."

" When somebody falls out somebody else gets their own," so runs
the phrase. Now, we are far from applying the usual epithets to either of
the parties in this case, but the lesson read by the late ruinous conflict of
the powers that be is not difficult to read, nor the moral uninstructive. By
gigantic strides the London and North-Western Railway has advanced
over a country teeming with industrial populations abounding in wealth,
and whose transactions of daily and hourly life are so complicated and
immense as to stagger the belief of many a man who lives a quiet dreamy
life in the nooks and corners of this small island of ours. No wonder
Euston-square sways an army of 13,000 employ4s, and enjoys a princely,
nay, an imperial, revenue, on which they are prepared to resist any en-
croachment. The traffic of Manchester is naturally a heavy item in this
account, and accordingly when the Great Northern Company, by an adroit
negotiation with the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Company, got
a footing, they endeavoured by every means in their power to drive out
such rivals from such a field. Then followed the usual train of evils—
ruinous competition, carrying of passengers 400 miles for 55., endless law
and Chancery proceedings, Parliamentary committees, and their infallible
results, the squandering of thousands, and the low rate of dividend to the
unhappy shareholders. Now we cannot entirely sympathize with these
last-named gentlemen. We cannot help remembering the disclosures on
Mr. HUDSON'S fall; the accounts rendered by Sir MORTON PETO and his
co-directors of the North of Europe Steam Navigation Company ; the
REDPATII forgeries of scrip ; and numberless instances where a proper
supervision of their servants by the shareholders would have rendered a
reckless dealing with the funds of the concern extremely difficult, if not
impossible. The stake is so enormous—the capital of the London and
North-Western amounting to thirty-five millions of money, and the
Great Northern to not much less—and the interests at stake so momentous,
that, setting aside the case of the shareholders altogether, the public
cannot afford to see these gentlemen wear bone and sinew in a
struggle which is sure to end in the fabled Gnouement of a like pug-
nacity in the case of the Kilkenny cats, for nothing is more certain
that in some shape or other the costs of all these proceedings will have to
come out of the pockets of this same public. Under these circumstances,
and having these considerations in view, we are glad to see a tendency of
late to more conciliatory measures. On the retirement of Captain HUISH,
immortalized by Punch as one of the rival Curtii who impelled his pant-
ing engine into the yawning gulf of railway competition, the Directors of
the London and North-Western have inclined to milder counsels, and we
have reason to hope that their good example will be followed by the lesser
constellations of the railway horizon. We have systematically—and, in-
deed, quite lately—pointed out the grave errors committed by the Legislature
in not at the first controlling by regulations framed on wide and sound bases
the various conflicting interests brought into irremediable contradiction by
the different Acts of Parliament passed for particular companies and special
purposes. However, they are the law of the land, and nothing can now
be done but reconcile them as best we may. But clearly the proper
as the first duty lies on the railway companies themselves so to
regulate the enormous powers granted them as not to endanger them-
selves and each other, and ultimately by careful and judicious arrangement
with one another to benefit the public at large, who arc their common
master. And such we believe to be the feeling which has prompted the
late arrangements at Euston-square, and in common fairness we feel bound
to congratulate all parties on the first step in the right direction.

The speech of Lord BROUGHAM at Grantham last Tuesday, on the
inauguration of a statue to Sir IsAAc NEWTON, was worthy of that
versatile genius. On the occasion of ceremonies of this kind, his
Lordship sniffs the battle from afar. His knowledge is of that
encyclopaedic character that he can always draw upon it for a popular
harangue without fear of disappointment. In the whole circle of the
moral and physical sciences he is perfectly at home. At poetry, painting,
and the art of war, he glances with the eye of a master, his burden
being throughout— Vixere fortes ante Agamemnon, and the course
of his observations tending to illustrate the progressive character of all
knowledge, and to show that the greatest discoverers have generally been
preceded by experimentalists in the same path. Unfortunately, however,
these comprehensive orations are apt to be deficient in real soundness. No
reader or listener well versed in even the rudiments of logic or mental
philosophy but would regret the Noble Lord's observations, for instance,
on the subject of Lord BACON, whom he states to have " exploded the
errors, the absurd dogmas, and fantastic subtleties of the ancient schools"
—meaning, we suppose, " schoolmen." We should very much like an oppor-
tunity of asking Lord BROUGHAM what he meant by these absurd dogmas,
and whether he had ever really given his mind to a serious consideration
of what the old schoolmen were striving after. We confess we have our
doubts upon the subject. It has been shown by COLERIDGE, we think with
sufficient certainty, that there is nothing irreconcileable between
the methods of BACON and ARISTOTLE ; and upon ARISTOTLE,
of course, the theories of all the schoolmen were more or
less based. Men of Lord BROUGHAM'S stamp of mind do mischief to
the cause of true learning by these random statements, of which the
present instance seems indeed somewhat incompatible with the
general tenor of his discourse. Iris Lordship, however, is a relic of that
generation which, in its eager crusade against exclusiveness, forgot the
dangerous consequences of trying to give every one every kind of informa-
tion. His own vast abilities have, owing to this blunder, produced far less
literary and philosophic fruit than they might have done ; while the great
educational institution with which his name is principally associated
already mourns over the error which fundamentally vitiates her teaching.
The present generation, we believe, is wiser. And a growing conviction may
be traced in the minds of our ablest men concerned in education that we
must strive at less, if we would endeavour to gain more, than the preceding
generation.