The Express.
London, England, 1850-08-02 00:00:00

Clads 'oar

The Annual Report of the Riilway Commissioners
for /849 is not a brilliant document Brilliancy
is not, however, a quality likely to be provoked by the
subject ; so it must not be condemned on that ac-
count hut then it is dull, laboured, and oninstruc-
tire. In July, 1850, it tells us what we. known is
December, 1849; how that there were in the latter
Tear competing lines opened between Liverpool and
and Manchester aad Sheffield; how that there
wen new routes of communication called into opera-
tion between Manchester and Lineolr.shin and
Manchester and Derbyshire, Notts and Norfol;
bow that the Reading, Guielford, and Reigate
line then established direct communication between
the western and eastern pars of England ; azd how
that Cork in that year was brought within six hours
from Dublin and twenty hours from London : all
facts interesting and important; but in Jely, 1850,
stale, very stale ; not certainly worth paying a rail-
way board to report.
An annual report on railways generally, by compe-
tent persons, made to parliament early in a ach melon
would be a very valuable, and might be made a very
useful document. But to be worthy either
of railways or of parliament such a repert
ought to be made by men of experien'e,
learning, and authority on such subjects; of
an speaking out of the fulness of their knowledge,
not living oa the contributions of other people's wits;
of men who had something to tell, not who were de-
per.dent for their report on what other people told
them; in short, by such men as STEPHENSON,
Lucas, and CUBITT. Now, just contrast the high
authority of such names on railway subjects with toe
insincifitant authority on railway matters of
Mr. LaIOnCEIRI, Lord GRANVILLE, and Sir ED-
WASH RYAN, who do at present make these
yearly reports. The latter are all three aide men in
their respective ways and walks; and all gentleman
of education can now-a-days ba crammed suffiziently
well not to produce reports, essays, or treatises fla-
grantly absurd or nonsensical. But what a great
country like this wants in rho shape of reports is
documents commanding authority both by their con-
tents and their signatures. And when Mr. 8. LAING
was some ten or twelve years ago a clerk at the Burd
of Trade with only a few hundreds a year, he used to
draw up infinitely m Ire interesting and useful reports
on railways than any the Railway Board have ever
issued.

The report before us touches almost everything con-
nected with railways not certainly to adorn, or even
to improve them. Here far ex imply, a growing evil
in railway competition is pointed out ; bat wittsont
the shadow of a remedy soggestial:

Where the competiqat; between impulsed points is not
created by integral lines in the bands of only one company,
the beat derived by the public will depend upon the Mei-
lities of inter:nave, or for forwarding the traffic at the
patois it junction with other lines. Tnie will to a certain
extent apply when the railway at one colopmy joins that
of a friendly company ; bat where the forwarding of the
traffic depends upon the facilities to b, afforded by a company
which stay be a noel either for the tame, or at tome other
point for ether teethe, it easy reac.ily Lo perceiv d that
there will be sures, inducement on the part of one rattle
company to int7edie the traffic of the other, and thus that
the public will not derive the 101 l bereft of the two lints of
cememaication, and the shorts.; and in all other respects
the most advanlageous ron*e, may, In some instances, be
effectually cloud against all through traffic from another
Use.

In Dome eases, although the shorter routs would, under an
united eaans4ement, be most adventsgeoue to the public, the
,aste eitcnitcus one, eves though sot in the bends of a
loisi:e company, may be productive tit the greatest returns to
fist company, which, baying brought the trifle to the
Jealition, would, by sending it the longer jenny, receive
Mu upon its own railway for • greater mileage distance.
TiM can be effected is a very great dente by obstructivcs
aline junction in the interc'tange of traffic, or by cb.irgirg
penfercutial tolls, and than the object =parliament in sui ho-
=Wag the contraction of the &hurter line, on toe ground of
Ike advantage' tv be derived in the cniveyance of particular
dames of goods to sreial markets by • shorn r and more
erionomnal route, and off .r ling a larger outlet kit their can.
anseption at more =nitrate rates, would be dented.
A more important cieslderetiou in railway policy
than this questioi of junctions it is impossible to
slate. But surely, if we are to pay for a Railway
Board, it is exactly ore of those questions which it
might be expected such a !Yard would render same
@moistena in solving. At present there are several
railways entirely deprived cf their natural and legi-
timate traffic, and the distric's through which they
pass are thereby injured, because in some cases
arrangements as to trains cannot be made at
junctions, because in other cases the greater
lines, competing elsewhere with them, have bought
the onieoition of smaller intersecting liner. It is
meareely possible to take up the paper •at break-
fast wirhout reading some applications to or discus-
limas in the Court of Chancery on there ques-
does ; and not utfrequserly that we may also find
therein accounts of pi•cied battles between the ser-
vests of competing and rival companies at junctioes.
Mr. RICARDO'S company, the North Stailordshirty
Isit so severely the inconveniences of the protest
ebbs of the law on the junction epiestion, that he is-
massed a bill on the subtext this melon ; but a pet.
into member was, of coins°, powerless to aeons-
tilegialation thereon, and so the question rests
the state in which the report has desciibsd
it. Now, merely to describe, withoct any suggestion
for remedy in such a state of things., is we,
say, discreditable to the railway board. But though
discreditable, the omission is natural enough ; for
what can Mr. LADOUCHERE, Lord GRANVILLL or Sir
EDWARD RYAN know practically on such a matter P
The question of junction arrangement is a public, net
a private question' and requires the intervention of
public authority ; otherwise the public advantages, on
which parliament panted many lines, and the private
advantages on which they found shareholders, will be
lost.
Another point of great, of much greater import-
ance to railways than even junction arrangements, is
the question of wcrkiog expenses. As it is new
tolerably certain that the country has a greater
extent of railway accommodation than its,
traffic requires, the only mode of immedi-
ately increasing dividends seems to be by
a reduction of the working expenses, which still
average 43 per cent. of the receipts. Ultimatel, so
doubt, the inrosesed traffic of the country wilt' pull
railways through their present difficulties. But, in
their present condition, the subject of their working
ear sees is really quite a national question ; for there
is not a greater mistake than to suppose that the
wintry can in the long run gain by railways which
are unprofitable to their proprietaries. Now, this is
a question on which a properly constituted railway
board might very usefully report; cot by way of
interfering with :he management of railway com-
panies. bat of geceralisirg and classifying Nets for
the use of oompanies sad shareholders. But into
such a question neither Mr. LABOUCURRS nee Lord
Onexvittt has time to inquire aid on it the opi-
nion of B.r EDWARD Ruse a good lawyer neverthe-
less, could be of no earthly weiight.
In short, this report eery confirms us in the opinion
that a 'slimly board, to be of %ay use, or to have the
smallest authority, ought to be very differently con-
stituted from the present. Formerly there might
have been, when the demand for engineering ability
was so great, difficulty in getting proper persons.
Bat now, when both Mr. STEPHEN/10W and Mr. LOCKE
may be said to have retired from the profession they
Mooed, there can be none.

DIPTIZENCE BrTWW MAKE AND CONITIOCIT..-.
Omaibtases are generally mortroded a bola 16, but sour
how ail are made to ilia 18, and on a mot sight km
guatly mere than thst.—Pwried.