The Express.
London, England, 1848-11-13 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, NO V. 13.

——- - -
OFFICIAL itiltolllllll6ll of four of the groat metropo-
litan railway complass have now been published,
and we have already given, on the appearance of
each, a summary noting of the results, in one point of
view, which is common to them all. The immediate
cause of these special reports having been the attempts
made to throw discredit on all railway securities, by
misrepresentations of their financial state, it was
sufficient, on reviewing them, at the moment, to con-
trast the authentic with U. spurious accounts, and
observe how far the latter were justified, or
even partially excused, by their approach to
matters of fact. On this point, it is quite
clear, not • shadow of doubt can re main in the
cuss where the test has been applied. The balance-
sheets and estimates drawn up with so much parade
of exactness to prove railway concerns little better
than insolvent, have been torn to rats and their
authors are convicted, if not of wilful deception, at
least of gross errors seam ly leas blameable, in the data
from which the y d:ew invidious conclusions calculated
to Whet the loss of millions on those who relied upon
them. Considering the mischief that has been done
by their want of fairness or want of knowledge—it
matters little which—it may bo thcught that
the notorious rebuke they have now received
is a slight punishment for a serious offence.
It is one, however, thatwill not be easily evaded: and
neither the framers of the fuse balance sheets, nor
those who, like the unscrupulous Times, greedily laid
hold of them to reproduce their errors, and aggravated
their worst effects, will be forgotten while the finan-
cial events of this year are remembered. Whatever
the purpose may have been, these worthy fellow
labourers in the cause of deception have attained one
object at least of • certain kind of ambition : both the
misdeed and its exposure bare been signal and con-
comma
It is now established, we say, beyond question, that
the companies, whose condition has been officially

ululated, are not by any means redoced to the low
ebb which it was pretended they had reached; that it
is not likely that these_proprietors will have to
impasse hereafter, se the nue esespamionatsly eug-
bed, say sumer front a " court of benkruptt7."
Alai it may be pretty
have that the con-
ans. whom statements yet to appose., will ex-
hibit remits not less entidectory than have been shown
Lim mesa': number of those who have et; far laid
stairs before the public. The panic on this
chapte, indeed. has for the most part sabsided, and
the anxieties croaked by men falsehood, and fonwated
for minister purposes, may be expected to give plea
to thane more considerate views of the state and
of railway investment which depend upon
a realities, and which, as we observed while the
pan:e was at its height, must, after all detmmine the
trtie credit and permanent vales of this kind of pro-

petty.
To these we may new briefly recur, as the tricks of
the Weekly Shore List, and the invidious strictures elf
the Times, are not likely to disturb even the meet
weak or credulous any longer. On reviewing the
MR of what may be gathered from the directors' re-
ports with respect to use substantial interests of their
several cooosrns, we find, indeed, but little to add le
what we distinctly laid down, before any of these
documents had made their appearance, either as to tho
muses that have been acting on tir finances during
the last three years ; the presenhet effect and futon
operation of past measures ; or as to the only cowls
calculated to ensure the stable prosperity of which they
still possess all the main elements unimpaired. It is
now perfectly elms, from the accounts of the several
companies, that their standard of profits has been and
will be reduced, precisely in the manner described, by
an expansion of capital over works that do not reward
their promoters in any degree commensurate with the
advantages they present to the public. It is, however,
satisfactorily shows that, allowing for this reduced
scale, the future earning and secure receipt of
a fair—if no longer a brilliant—dividend may be
depended upon, "far all that has come and gone,"
provided the manger of this property, like wise and
honest men, will now resolutely bring their affairs
and obligations into a tractable compass ; exercise due
vigilance over every farthing of the outlay still needed
to finish the works they have undertaken ; observe
the same economy, and adopt judicious arrangements,
in working the system ; and. once for all, renounce
the delusion which has blinded every member of the
body without exception—that, namely, o f attempting
to pin or secure advantage at the expense of
their rive a or neighbours by schemes in themselves
unprofitable. This mistaken policy, which our wise
gevimment and many of our statesmen Lave done all
fa their power to encourage, has been the main source
of all that is real in the present difficulties of the rail-
way interest; and it is no lees for the benefit of the
public to see that no more money shall be wasted in
this insane kind of contention than it is necessary for
the future existence even of railways, as a va-
luable property, to abandon that noxious and enor-
mously expensive system of aggression and strife. The
work ing of this system may be read in characters, which
there is no miatakingin the accounts of those adjacent
companies who have been in the hottest of the drill
for the last three or four years. Each has beta se.
terly sighing a vast amount of expenditure, and mi-
litia; this sacrifice for the purpose of taking up a
variety of unprofitable schemes solely as a means of
protection " against the competition of the other.
We may now see thit both have simply arrived at
this common result—of having to bear hereafter an ex-
cessive burden of mere dead weight without the
tampensation of the expenditure having accomplished
the aim it was designed to secure. After these
years of waste and quarrelling, it now appears that
while all have been depressed by it in the scale of
their profits, the object for which these sacrifices were
incurred is found to be still as far distant as ever, and
recourse must be had at last to some other means of
mutual security, to some arrangement of a kind the'
veriest opposite of that which all the expense 'ad
trouble of former years have been professedly devoted
to. This conclusion, which his come out in that
scheme of triple union to which we lately adverted,
is important in many ways ; and, as we lately said,
shows in a strong light the utterly fallacious views
which have hitherto directed railway legislation.
The amalgamation plan, which we see has so
needlessly thrown the Times into hysterics, is
far more significant in this point of view than
in any other. Of itself it does not present any very
substantial character; and we shall before long say a
few words on the true state and prospects of the or
gotiation, which in reality is anything but the mature
and formidable scheme of " monopoly " that as peo-
maturely frightened our contemporary. In its
sent shape shape it can poems little importance, but fro.
the collateral instruction to be drawn from it.
We have often and recently stated how such mat-
ters and considerations affect the public interests, on
behalf of which we chiefly deal with railway. qua. '
tions ; we need not, therefore, again insist at
much length on the position that it is quite
as important to the nation as to the railway
proprietors that the investments of the latter should
be profitable, and that the expected profit should be
well eecured. The bearing of this truth may now in-
deed be seen in the nearly certain suspension for
years to muse of farther enterprise in this way—a re-
sult caused by the decline of profits now and the fears
of loss hereafter. The improvement of the property
must, therefore, be desired and promoted on general
grounds, as the first and indispensable step to any
new advance of a system still far from complete. In
no case can a speedy progress be expected ; the
question whether it shall or shall not fax resumed
at all in two or three years hence will be determined
by the degree to which the existing concerns may
now succeed in realising the promises made in the eye
of the public. We are satisfied that the directors 611.11
accomplish this ; and believing them to have the
c .z.;. we hope that the will and the resolute ad-
to the letter and spirit of their pledges may
not be wanting.

Ir is not our intention to make the case of the Rev.
Mr. INGLE the subject of any remarks upon the
killed surplice question. The pubic has heard enough
of the &cogs of similar hot-headed boys, fresh from
the reading, of DURANDUS or BINGIIAM, who do not
hesitate to stir up a mass of violent passions amongst
their friends and defenders in the very parishes
Womanly committed to their charge, for the pleasure
of wearing a garment of a peculiar colour. The feel-
ing excited in our minds by the perusal of this and
Wer cases bearing upon church discipline is one
of sorrow that such an institution as the
Church of England, endowed with such potentialities
he good, and connected so intimately and so glo-
/hasty with oar national traditions, should betray
such an accumulation of symptoms indicative of its
gradual approximation to a state in which it will be
almost powerless for good or evil, and this chiefly
owing to its want of sympathy with the great mass
of men and of events around it.
The conclusion to be drawn from the great majority
of incidents, in which the church has appeared as an ,
actor during many years past, is that our ecclesiastical'
system is capable of all kinds of variations within, but I
of none without. The spirit may be perpetually
changing ; the form is as immovable as a petrifaction. I
The chief ambition of its conduct-s seems to be to
allow of no alteration in its organisation, however
painfully that organisation may press upon its adhe-
rents, although the internal economy may be tho-
roughly changed. Within the memory of man the
church of England his been (by the confession of its I
most distinguished ornaments) a Socinian church, an
Arminian church, a Calvinistic church, and events
which have lately happened, prove that it is not the
fault of a large party within it that it is not in all
things except actual profession of allegiance to tho
Poe; a Romanist church. But during all those
changes, while the very essence of the church was
&seed, not the slightest alteration in the external
form was allowed.
It is this fearful rigidness in matters of form, care. I
ISM whether the spirit evaporates or not, that is the
bane of the church of England. his per se peefintly
immeturild whether Mr. INGLE preaches in his ear-
Pas sr sleeps in it ; but it is not immaterial that no
wear should exist to interpose any adequate inter-
homes when the peace of the church has been die- I
Mimi. There was confessedly a grievous breach of
dsssnm ; the whole purpose for which the lecture
wee instituted is rendered nought; the religious feel-
Of the parish in particular, and the church in
genialhe, were violated. But there is no remedy
in t t m.da of the highest authority, be-
cause no formal ordinance has been broken. The
whole purpose for which Mr. INGLE was ordained to
his parch has been unfulfilled, and the fault is owing
to his perseverance in a particular course, but the