The Express.
London, England, 1847-10-02 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, OCT. 2.

THE meeting at Manchester, on the subject of rail-
way calls, of which a report was given in our columns
yesterday, appears to have represented the views of
no inconsiderable portion of the "bankers, merchants,

and traders" of that great manufacturing town.
Such demonstrations are by no means, and at no ti
to be disregarded. It is evident that, before any '

time,
l
number of practical men can be brought to unite a
public declaration of a specific grievance, the
feeling of distress, for which some cause is to be sought,
must have become both general and severe ; and
the indications which direct them to find a cause in
any particular quarter must have a certain reality.
The Meeting may be regarded as au evidence beyond
dispute, that men of business in Manchester are
suffering in no common degree from circumstances
that have straitened credit and diminished the supply
of money ; and also that there has been incurred
by these parties a greater amount of railway liabili-
ties than they can meet under present circumstances
without extreme difficulty. But they may not be
quite infallible judges of the cause, nor quite
Just in treating their own case as a national one.
They would apply, as a remedy to the evil pressing
ea themselves, measures extending over the whole
sarfitce of railway progress throughout the island.
It may be proper, therefore, while admitting the
practical character of their views, to observe, in the
first place, that certainty of railway expenditure being
the cause of their present troubles may not be so posi-
tive as is the fact that such troubles exist ; that, ad-
mitting that cause to be a principal one in this particu-
lar quarter, there may be reasons for refusing to take
from a state of things arising from special circum-
stances in this district, a rule to be applied to the
whole question of railway expenditure, as affecting
the finance of the country. In the next place, allowing
that the Manchester cue maybeapplicable to this whole
question, and that some restraint of the kind, which
the meeting demanded, is generally needed, it mast be
seen what limitations should be observed in prescrib-
ing it, in order that, while we are hastily grasping at
forcible means of relief from one class of evils, others
may not be provoked more grievous and universal in
their effects, and less easy of cure.

That the drain of money. for railway works must
have been painfully felt in a time of scarcity,
however produced, will be obvious enough. That it
is neither the cause of the scarcity, nor would of it-
self alone have oppressed the resources of the nation
at large, but for the joint operation of larger influences,
has been proved, we think, by merely counting the
annual millions taken bodily out of England during
the war, when the capital of Great Britain was less,
by a third at least, than it now is. It is natural,
perhaps, that a single object, whose compact and
visible magnitude distinguishes it at once from others,
should be fixed upon by men in difficulties, as the
sole cause of any great confusion in which they may
fled themselves, from the mere circumstance that other
elements ofthis claos,though more considerable in their
whole effect, are each of them less tangible in a dis-
tinct form. The Manchester capitalists, too, will be
found, we apprehend, to have gone considerably be-
yond the average line of investment in railway
schemes. While money was easy, they may have
been doing a large proportion of their regular hairiness
on credit, and laying out their real funds on railways,
with a view to raising in this way a double interest
on their capitaL To them, under sorb circumstances,
the strain caused by credits being narrowed, new
shares falling in value at the same time, would, from
such special circumstances, be heavier than the general
pressure caused by railway engagements on the means
of the country at large : and the probability—which is
a pretty strong one—of their having dealt in this pre-
carious manner, must not be lost sight of in estimat-
ing the weight of their evidence as an authentic testi-
mony to the universal effects of railway expenditure.
Still, however present difficulties may have arisen,
and to whatever extent the Manchester difficulties, in
connexion with railways, may be in excess of the true
average, there can be no doubt that over all the tlnan-
, cial world there is a pressure for money, and in the
circumstances of all who have money a need of relief
from heavy calls, which were not foreseen by the
promoters of the railway schemes of the last two
years when they were started. It is of no use to
blame them for a want of moderation, of which very
few persons indeed, at the time, saw the least neces-
sity ; a moderation, too, which parliament and the
government, by encouraging the spread of unneces-
ry works, with the avowed purpose of increasing
"competition," then did their best to render impossi-
ble. The object should now be to discover what,
under present circumstances, would be a prudent,
and what en unwise, restraint of the expenditure
thus taken up.
The entire stoppage of all farther outlay might re-
trieve for the moment a limited number of speculators
who have exceeded their proper means. But it wonld
inflict far more injury than it could prevent. We
lately pointed out what would be the fearful effects to
a very important class of the population of suspend-
ing the railway works now in progress, which a stop-
page of calls would inevitably bring to a stand-still.
Other mischiefs would result from any indiscriminate
measure of the kind. There are some hundreds of
miles of railway already pretty well advanced, which
a moderate farther outlay will complete ; and if the
sum required to render their production be now
withheld, the whole larger amount already expended
upon them must remain as dead and useless
as if it had been thrown into the Thames.

To extract the profit from several millions now
lying inactive, by advancing the remaining instal-
ments, is a measure of the merest economy; and any
check which should prevent this would be tantamount
to a burying of the treasure already spent, and eacri-
fining to the alarm of a moment resources which a
moderate effort would soon render fruitful, both to
the investors and to the country at large.
To enter thoughtlessly on new constructions in
times like these, to call upon shareholders, many of
whom may have extended their obligations too far,
for the instant means of proceeding with them, would
indeed be a grave imprudence. As far as a strong
warning against this indiscretion may go, we en-
tirely agree with the views of the Manchester
speakers. There is work enough already under-
taken, and for the present it will not be expedient to
venture on beginning any more. This caution to the
railway body, however, cannot, we apprehend, be
very urgently needed from without. The directors
in most of the chief companies, indeed, have already
given notice of their determination to leave their
new schemes untouched for the present. The
wants of the day, which others sensibly
and immediately feel, will not be lost upon
men who themselves live in the midst of the business
world, and who must also be fully aware of the con-
dition' seriously affecting a part of their constituents.
Al far as these influences can teach caution, in the
way in which caution can be usefully exercised, we
apprehend the lesson will not be thrown away. The
hasty demands of panic, whether local or universal,
we need not wish to see obeyed, being convinced that
no great immediate relief, and much ultimate evil,
would result from the disturbance, by any extreme
measures, of a process in itself Bound and productive.

THE Times very often resembles a Mexican general,
who makes a tremendous noise of cannon as a pre-
liminary to running away. That journal had yester-
day an article upon Orem, during the grader pert
Id which it tired away. against Muses and ite lets
minister, Cco.wrri, against Xing Ortro sad M.
I Guam, es the most idioms, end worthies, and
trial, and Igtooverningsfuse. Net enlythe dames
drseee, buclu, Fin& , were redwood to
the lowest ebb. Timm epee -siteurity, nor
Imet, nor hops, use leesteeed wig the
country, the King, or its man.. •
In shoat, the 2V. it the allepe;cot a
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