The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-01-26 00:00:00

tion is the 68,0001. per mile scheme by which

Manchester believes she will be enabled to throw

Liverpool into the shade, and secure an advanta-
tageous oulet to the sea for herself.
The fact that these two railways, which are
to play such prominent parts, first, in the
industrial and commercial prosperity of the
North, and, secondly, in the borough and city
diplomacy of Lancashire, should be saddled with
such vast amounts of guaranteed indebtedness,
is much to be regretted. Had a fair limit of cost
been adhered to, in bringing these great under-
takings into operation, the Mersey might have
derived incalculable benefit from her great

tributary, and the Manchester wiseacres would
no doubt have been able to carry their jealousy
and love of independence to very great lengths.
But, as it is, Liverpool is required to pay a
dividend on railway extravagance, or what may
he called " a national debt ; " and Manchester
relies for new triumphs over the manufacturing
districts, on a line of policy, which, as a prelude
to its success, contempla' es the raising little
short of an Imperial revenue from those who are
silly enough to take an amount of guaranteed
railway indebtedness on their shoulders, which
has already reached 63,0001. per mile ! Now,
we say, give the railway shareholder 10 per cent.
interest for bis money ! The nature of his
investment requires that he should be paid a high

dividend ; but this cannot be done under any
circumstances, where the cost of construction has

reached 54,0001., to say nothing of 68,0001. per
mile. The present traffic receipts of all our
leading lines would pay 10 per cent. on 15,0001.
per mile, with economical management, and, if
the cost of making railways had not exceeded

20,0001., there would have been a regular divi-
dend of 10 per cent., and a large margin left for
making reductions in the passenger and goods
carrying tariffs of the country. If these desiderata
could be secured, they would be of immense
benefit to Liverpool and Manchester. If they
were separated by charges of one and two cents
a mile only, what large mutual advantages would
follow ! It would be almost impossible to carry
on the traffic between the two places, and their
interests would at once become identical; but
there stands the demon indebtedness of inter-
communication, and Manchester selects for her-
self 68,000/. instead of 54,000/. per mile.
The wise men, who seek, by such a course, to
give our neighbouring city a port of her own, at
the expense of Liverpool, seem to belong to that
class of political economists who are always
boasting of our having expended 360,000,0001. in
the construction of railways, as a proof of our ex
traordinary wealth and material prosperity ; but
these gentry seem to forget that when money is
sunk, which can yield no return, it is thrown
away, and the works it leaves after it are so many
types of moral weakness and commercial wicked-
ness. Money is worth to the owner 10 per cent.

expended on railways had been employed in any
other industrial pursuit, it would have yielded
36,000,0001. annually, after giving employment
to labour, and discharging all the other functions
of floating capital ; but where, we would ask, is
36,000,0001. a year to come from, in the shape
of railway receipts ? The nation has gained by
developing a system of transit which has quad-
rupled our natural concentration of numbers and
material ; still the class whose money has been
taken for the universal good are in a most hope-
less condition. Their prospects are more dreary
than those of the original contracts of the South
Sea bubble, and as far from being improved as
those of the depositors in the Royal British and
Tipperary Banks—for the country will have its
carrying business done at a fair commercial rate,
and when necessity provokes the construction of
trunk lines at 15,0001. and 20,0001. per mile, what
willbecome of the prodigallymanaged undertakings
which have shown no respect for the interests of
their shareholders and the commercial require-
ments of the rest of the community ? There are
some few railway shareholders who may console
themselves that these remarks can not be applied
to their property ; but Liverpool, Manchester,
and the manufacturing districts appear to have
been specially selected for extravagant manage-
ment, proportionately exorbitant tariffs, and small
dividends, all of which have a direct tendency to
favour the construction of cheap lines ; and what,
then, is to become of those who have created a
spirit of opposition which they dare not meet ?