The Express.
London, England, 1849-07-10 00:00:00

between Athlone and Galway 500,0001 ; but he had reason
to believe that the actual cost might be redu-ed corsiderably
below this I stimate, including the construction of bridge;
&c. He proper d that up on the sum advanced by govern.
mint interest at lil per cent. should he paid, re payment of the
capital sem not to commence before the expiration of 10
years, sod then to be made by instalment., the et cur;ty foe
the loan ben g the tabula lino between Dublin and GM.
way. The money would be advanced in sums not exceed.
lag 100,0001. eat a time, no new advaucc being
made until it was shown that the previous advance
had been tairly expended on the works. For every 100,0001,
advanced by government, this company would have to ad-
vance 60,0001. ; and it was proposed that unless the
line wt' comnleted within the stipulred two yeses,
the government should be empowered to take pea,
session of the line, and dispose of it in the way
deemed most expedient. Upon the principle thus etste
the sum to be advanced by the government towards
the FOO,OOOl. required would be 500,0001. Its need not
dwell upon the enormous advantages which this appliectiom
of public money would confer in the fist instance, and
more immediately upon the baronies and districts
through which the line would mos. He held in
his hand a letter from Mr. John Macneill, the chief engineer
of the South. Western lie, showing the benefits which the
conatrue ion of that Foe had conferred upon 0 e population
residing on and tear it. One contractor alone upon that
Bee, Mr. Daman, had in his constant employment during
the °mauve+ n of the line 15,000 men, a xclusive of masons
I and other skilled artisans ; these men received each of them
9.. per week, enabling him to maintain his family, and to
relieve the peer rte.(' from that burden which would
otherwise have inevitably fallen upon them; and
there was this other most valuable result stated, that
the men who had been employed upon this labour
had 'afterwards, tram the character they acquired upon
the line, found no difficulty in obtaining employment else.
where, as well in England and in Scotland, as in In land,
the men themselves thenceforward yreterring is do their
work rather upon contract than for wages. abandoning their
former indolence for habits of industry and energy. He was
happy to ha .e it in his power to state that there was en in-
creased disposition on the part of capitalists to invest money
in the particular part of the country in question, and it only
needed to afford such facilities as that now proposed for
more ready accvss to the various portions of the dial ict, and
for bringing hack the product to the English markets, to in.
crease this tendency most largely. (lie ar, hear) Tits
right boo gentleman concluded by putting his motion.
Mr. FRENCH regarded this pro portion as one of the
moat stateamanhae measures that had emanated from the
government. It was his opinion that the employment
atte.rded by the railways in England had, quite as much as
the new poor law, tended to check pauperi.m It. re, and he
we. satisfied that the creation f f railways an Ireland would
tend to the same happy result there. There had hitherto
been far too little dote by the government of this country
in the promotion of railways, despite the admirable ex-
amples shown them by far less weal by and lets commercial
countries. What bad been done by tne Belgian government
under M. Nethomit's admini•tralon was familiar to every-
b idy, but he doubted if what had been effected by other
continental state s was equally well known. In the smaller
Gerrnen states 541 miles had been coastructed at a cost of
9,676,2491., in this proportion:—

Di..tance. Cost.
Miles. C.
Baden
Brunswick and Hanover
Brunswick and tkliterleben
Brunswick and lloi gburg
Hamburg to B. rgedurf
Alton to Kell .... 64 ... 582,500
Leipzig to Dresden —..—
Saxon Bavarian 5l 900,000 Iby slate.
Taunees Railway
Munich to Augsburg
vernment.
Louis, Southern & Northern. 70 ... 4,288,500 Gficriument lice.
1 Nuremberg sad Mirth 4 ... 17,708

In Prussia, a comprehensive system of lines was tnced out
to the extent of 3,200 miles, of which, up to 1815, G 52 miles
were completed at a cost of 7,017,1981., on an average of
about 10,0001. a mile, in this proportion.

. . - -
Instance. Cast
Berlin and Anbalt
Berlin and ['Madam
lhrlin and Stetten
Ditto and Frankfort on Oder 49.1
Lower Silesian l3l 131 per cent. gums- 1,400,000
Upper ditto
Brnhaw and Schwcrdnitz
Magdeburg and Ulnae I.
Ditto and Ilaltimtelt
Dusseldorf and Elberreld ....
Cologne and Ale la Chapelle
1 Dittoand Bonn

632
In Austr's the fellowina lints bad been made :
Distance.
Budnere Lineguimden ll9
imp. Ferdinat de Nor 179
Vienna to lilognitz
Olmutz and rmigue l3l
idurtzwellag and GNU. 37S ..

-.
0.01.
542,101
1,700,001
1,050,001
1,843,715
600,000

4,936,125

In Sweden the state guaranteed 4 per cent. for 1.5 years, re-
payment of any money paid by the government, not to take
place for 10 years, and then only to be made from 1i the
surplus profit over 6 per cent. The terms being the se : The
ekes to be purchased by the government for 20 years, unless
at a bonus of 25 per cent. To he exempted from ordinary
taxation. Crown lands to be given fre s, cud the labour of
soldiers, paupers, and convicts at the disp'sal of government
to he given to the companies at reduced wage.. Electric
telegraphs to be erected at the public expense. Even in our
own colonl, a the principle has been acted upon. By an act
of the legislature of New Brunswick 6 per cent. was stew
ranteed to the St. Andrew and Quebec Railway. The Hut
India Company guaranteed to the shareholders in the Greet
India.% Peninsular Company a dividend of 6 per cent., and
010 11 &12 Vic , c. 130, authorised her Majesty to gas
rantee 4 per cent. for loans for the construction
of 'unwept in the West Indies and the Mauritius.
Eleven years ago the attention of the government was drum
to the expediency of developing the resources of Ireland by
a Nantes to Irish railways, and a measure wee introduced by
Lord Morpeth for applying two millions and a half to the
enrpo.e, but this proposal had not been carried out. Since
that time acts had been obtained fur the construction of
thirty lines, extending to 1,676 miles. Fifteen of these lines
were open or in progress, extending to 450 miles altogether,
361 miles being actually open, le eying 1,200 miles which the
legislature lead decided to be necessary and remunerstim
not commenced, nor likely to be commenced. The lines open
were Kinvatown, Drogbeda, Great Southern and Western,
Cashel, Midland Great Western, Mellinger, Ulster, Bally-
mena. Those in progress are the Belfast Juncioe Newly
and Enniskillen. Dundalk and Enniskillen, Belida and
County Down, Waterford and Limerick, Waterbed and
Kilkenny, Cork and Bandon, South Eastern, It was no
great wonder that hitherto capitalists in Ireland bad been
deterred from entering more largely upon railway schemes,
when cunsileration was applied to the enormous sums
which had been expended here upon railway,. In England.
up to the present time, a sum of nearly 200 millions had
be ea spent in the construetion of railway., the cost tier mile
beir g, Blarkwall, 289,9801. ; Croydon, 80,4001 ; Mancha-
tcr and Bury, 70,0001. ; Manche otter and Leeds, 64,5521.
Manchester and Birmingham, 61,624/ ; Manchester and
Sheffield, 66,3161 ; Brighten, 66,9811.; Eastern Counties,
46,3561.; Great Western, 46,8701.; South E astern, 41,411!.;
North Western, 41,6121. You will not wonder at thin
oast when you consider the monstrous expenditure toe
land and parl.amentary eh , which upon the Eartem
Counties line amounted to 15,8811. ;on the Brighton, to
10,1051 ; and on the Bla kwsll, for par:iamcntaiy expenses
alone, 14,4121. per mile. (Hear.) Contrast this outlay with
the cost of railways elsewhere. The entire cost of
the Germ in lines averaged only 10,9901. per mile • that of
the American, but 6,0001. under there heads: oolumbis
and Philadelphia, 10,0001. ; Boston and Wurcute r, 7,700/. ;
Western, 7,3001.; Camden and Amboy, 4,1001.;
3,6001 ; Richmond, 3,6001. ; Florida, 3,2001.; Auburn,
2,9001 ; South Carolina, 2,6001. He was deeply grate-
ful for the advance now proposed, but he found that in tke
ciericts no immediately benefited it would be could( red a
manifestation of favouritism towards a particular line ; and,
at lent, as another illustration of that bit by bit 1. Oilseed
which hid long been the subject of complaint m
the pert of Ireland as against the imperial parliament.
A line from Mellinger to Ballina, with branches to Sligo
and Westport, woulal pass through the distressed unions of
Baffin*, Swinford, Castlebar, Westport, Ballinrorle, Row
common, and Canteen, audit would cost only 880,0001. ;
if Sir John MacneiPs plan of construction were adopted,
about hall that anisunt. If the government thought lit to
make loans, on the same conditiees as the present on, .te
existing railway companies, in order to secure the compilers
of trunk lines, the following sums would be sufficient to le
mire that important object : To the Midland Great Western.
600,0001. ; &Rest Junction, 300001. ; Dun.lolk, or Newry
and Enniskillen, 200,0001. ; Londonderry and Enniskillen,.
100,000 e ; Waterford and Limerick, 200,0001.; Killeen/
Junction, 50 0001.; Limerick and Ennis 70,004. tot,
1,500.0001. And, for these advances, the security whin
the lines themselves offered would be ample ; and, by this
extension of the plan of the government, empleyamet
would be afforded to 40,000 heads of families, woich would
be tantamount to finding food for 2,000,000 of persona is
the whole. The hon. gentleman conceided by saying. the:
the whole sum whi h his plan involved did not exceed
2,000,0001., spread over a period of two and a hilt yes",
and there was nothing in such an operation to disturb the
financial market, or to render money more difficult to ere
cure. He should nut make any motion, but should be crow
tented with having brought the facts under the observation
of the house.
Mr. GGC/.I3LeRN • said, he should not follow the bac
gentleman Who bad 'just eat down, by offering soy observe-
tiensee the advantage, to be derived from the compunction et
railways inr Ireland.. The speech made by ebat hor. member
was perfectly appropriate to tbe.oceasion. He had traly
' said, teat the Chetnellar'speoppeal was fur the benefit of
one district only, and, not for the general benefit ti
Ireland, and had bled truly said, teat if it was he
iirahle • to confer the ' full benefit of railways dot
Ireland the full mouse' Heasley for their c‘rotractiM
must be advanced: the hon. gentleman had estimated that
amount, at 2,000.0001. It would be much more likely le
.amotoit, fo four or five times that sum, Tne pres•nt was the
time/or die tense to emuldet Whether it was prepared to
Atter on such a course as that proposed by the Cifincellie of
the Exchequer.. He must ask the coeunittee whetterr, wet
so small a surplus • belapee, in tbe.axebegner. diet bed'
lldt
better c.ensider deeply if the public money costa cot
more advantageously employed. It was now two rem
' shim the' hor. gentlettien opposite had asked for a gnus-
enent adtance of 600;0001. to complete the rally/me from
, Dore to Limeeiclu Goulburn) hard thee weed OM
esitention ref the Amin. es the el diceletes which ' were
consequent upon such a transaction; awl he Ind sated that
Occult Wailer elsbassissiobt, be looked ear ttvei