The Express.
London, England, 1848-11-23 00:00:00

premed for the consideration of tut Impottant coming
question ; fbe true state of the national representation
'may be exhibited to their view; and the empire may
be enabled to j age of the effects of that of which the I
prevent knowledge is limited to the localities affected.
Every honourable man in these localities feels himself
degraded by. the perpetuation of such abuses, and
earnestly desires that they may be pat an end to.
We look in this task to receive the assistance and
support of all true reformers. Let the extent of the
evil be but shown, and there will be comparatively
little difficulty as to the remedy.

Tite notices of an application to parliament for
power to unite three of the metropolitan railway
companies have provoked some notable outbreaks of
the animosity existing towards interests of that clue
in certain quarters. The Times, as usual, has been
the loudest in demanding new exactions upon the
contributors cf the money by which this kingdom has
been endowed with its most useful public works;
and suppressing, u usual, the fact of their having
been thus constructed, demands that the state shall
take advantage of this occasion to deprive the owners
of the property of all that remains to them of the re-
ward fairly earned by the benefit which their adven-
ture has produced to the nation at large--an adven-
ture to which the state has not contributed one
farthing, while drawir g from it considerable revenues
in the shape of passenger and stamp duties, poor and
other rates, income tax, tic The signal of this noto-
rious partisan has beent taken up by other inferior
organs, and we have been amused to hear the con-
fused echo in certain Sunday papers of the menaces
which the great blusterer of the press has
pompously discharged on this occasion. The
explosion, we ray, is diverting, because the
outbreak of blind hostility, and the procla-
mation of unjust principles, which might, indeed,
provoke the gravest censure, were they likely to reach
any substantial object, are directed on this particular
occasion against something very like a " mare's nest."
Such being the reel aspect of tt.e matter, we need not
trouble ourselves to refute once more t'e fallacies on
which the Times rests its plea for what would be vir-
tually a confiscation of railway property, or to re-state
the claim of its owners to enjoy without further impo-
sitions the profits they have liberally earned. It will
be sufficient in the present instance to show, from the
real history and prospects of this amalgamation
scheme, what cause there was for falling into convul-
,ions on the mere rumour of it; and how much bile
has been wasted on a p: oject of no very alarming
complexion, indeed, could it be accomplished, bat
which is as fur as possible from being either settled
now or likely to be consummated hereafter.
The o-Nin of the treaty, in en far as it was sug-
gested by • desire of putting an end to
useless and expensive contentions between
three neighbouring concerns, we have already
noticed in general terms. It remains only to
add, that, although this wiser disposition, if per-
sisted in, may and must lead in other ways to a b tter
understanding on all sides, and so promote a more ra-
tional use of the funds of the se companies, there
seems to be little likelihood of its effecting these ends
in the way of an absolute union of all in one body.
The special character and obligations of each, in fat,
altogether unfit them fur any fusion into • common
mass; and the first step towards realising the idea—
the first advance beyond the merest general affirma-
tion that it ?night be desirable could it Pie neentri-
plishe,l, must tall upon °bedecks that cannot be re-
moved on any terms to which the parties are likely to
consent. At the present stage of the business we ap-
prehend no such forward step has yet been taken;
and we doubt very much whether it will ever advance
beyond mere meliminaries. The plan, we hear, was
started by the Great Western, whose struggles to
maintain a false position on the exceotioinal gauge,
lime reduced it to a state in which a continu-
ance of the warfare of past years may well
be dreaded. Hereupon its clever managers appear to
have bethought them of trying if they. could maintain,
by skill in negotiating with their rivals, a position
that it would be hard to keep any longer by hostile
means. The offer of an amicable treaty, in times like
, these, could not, of course, be refused ; and it seems

that the chairman of the London and North Western,
in a laudable anxiety for peace, has too readily em-
braced the notion, dexterously suggested by the other
party, of a termination of all differcnce s by the entire
combination of the rival interests. This may have led
him somewhat prematurely to concede, in general
terms, the expediency of amalgamating, before he had
duly considered how ill the respective elements are
suited for union, supposing the thans in quo of the
different gauges to be maintained—a condition from
which, of course, the Great Western, as author of the
scheme, muAt be understood to trice started this pro-
posal. The third party named (the London and
South Western) would have taken an obnoxious atti.
tads, had it refused to hear of any treaty, even thougl,
persuaded of the difficulty of carrying it out to any
practical union: and thus, we believe, there came
to pass those triple conferences, which have frightened
the 2laws from its propriety. At these conferences,
it Is said, the difficulty of settling any actual terms of
anion soon became apparent ; and we believe, in fact,
that up to this time no progress whatever has been
made beyond the general conditional affirmative
already described; and, further, that the transaction
will hardly get pot this preliminary stage. Still,
the parties have been reluctant to part without
attempting something in appearance if not in
reality.
The agreement to apply to parliament for a merely
permiuire bill amounts to nothing more than the ex-
pression of this reluctance, or of a general desire for
peace. This desire is laudable ; but co far it has not
led to any practical result in the way of a junction of
the three concerns, nor is it likely that it can on
terms acceptable to all ; and on this account it would
perhaps have been wiser not to clothe it, even provi-
sionally, in what appears to be a mere abortive form
without substance.
The state of the treaty, at all eventa, is not, as we
lately said, sufficiently mature or effectual to alarm
those even who might have plausible ob;ections to any
combination of the Ohre° boeies. The lilt for which
notice has been given, if passed, will enact nothing
whatever if this kind. It will merely empower the
parties to combine, should they find it possible to
unite hereafter, on some common base, the whole
substance of which, the very outline even, is for the
present in nabiloi s ; and it is very improbable in-
deed that it will ever a.sume a more solid form.
Slob, then, is the actual position of the affair, which,
we repeat, it may have been anything but wise to
think of laying before parliament in such a crude
state; but on which, for this very reason, it is the
merest absurdity to fly into paroxysms of alarm, or to
bawl out for the /ream comitatus to save the country
from being plundered by the " monopolists."
It is not even quite certain that the infant scheme
will ever reach parliament at all. It is said that
some of the parties have, from the beginning, had no
very sanguine hope. of any result from it, and are not
at all disposed to yield to their late opponents, on the
strength of so feeble a promise, any of the substantial
points they have secured in other ways. We shall
not be surprised to hear of the scheme being with-
drawn before the day on which it is to be laid before
the proprietors. These, too, should it come before
them, ate not likely to affirm the ex-
pediency of joining their interests with those
of a system which cannot be worked in common
with theirs ; while the Great Western are not will-
ing just yet to give up their exceptional gauge--a
concession which must be the sine gwl non of any
real amalgamation hereafter. The publication of the
accounts of the latter will not have much increased the
desire of either of their neighbours to combine stocks
and share debts and liabilities in common with a corn-
peny so largely involved; and the other two companies
may well hesitate to vote in favour of a merely provi-
sional treaty without fuller satisfaction on this head
than is likely to be afforded in the present stage of
the agreement. And we think they will
best show their provident regard for the
millions they have invested by refusing
point-blank to take any leap in the dark in a grave
matter like this, which concerns nothing less than the
whole of their enormous property ; whereas, u we
have said, the first step towards a clearer understand-
ing on points of detail will be sure to bring the irre-
ceeeil.ble differences of the two gauge- into activity.
Of the proprietors' dissatisfaction some notable sips
have already been made public ; and more will be
likely to appear when the meetings are held ; so that
it is anything but certain that the affair, if not broken
off before those meetings, will then proceed so far as
to reach parliament even in the prov.sional and un-
formed character we have described above.
Hence it will at least be seen that it is sin-
gularly absurd to fall into any premature rage, or to