The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-17 00:00:00

Railway and Public Companies in Parliament.

Yesterday the opposition of the corporation of the
City of London to the proposed East London Rail-
way was opened by Mr Hope Scott, Q.C.; Mr R.
Gurney, the recorder; and Air Chambers, the com-
mon sergeant. Thecorporation object to the intru-
sion of the railway within the precincts of the City,
and to those portions of it thb t propose to run by
the east side of Hount'slitch to a junction with the
Finsbury extension of the Metropolitan Railway
at Little Moorfieldc, and to the lengths on the east
side of Moorgate-street, to the City branch of the
North London Railway, near Sun-street, and to
the Liverpool-street terminus of the London and
North-Western. Mr. Haywood, engineer to the
City of Lir!don Corporation, was examined, and
stated that the underground portion of the line was
objectionable in an engineering and public point of
view, and that the open portion would lead to the
demolition of a large amount of property, the ac-
quisition of which would be very expensive. He
thought,moreover, that the introduction of the rail-
way would be a nuisance. It would run so close to
the Friends' meeting-house in Bishopsgate-street as
to interfere with their meditations and the quietude
of their meetings. Mr. Sergeant Bellasis, Q.C., ob-
jected to the adducing any evidence in connection
with the Friends and their establishment, inasmuch
as they had not petitioned against the bill, and cense'
quently had no locus standi. The committee, however,
overruled the objection, and Mr. Hoy land, one of
their number, was examined to prove the corrects
ness of the assertion that the privacy of their devo-
tional meetings would be destroyed, exhibiting at
the same time a model of the meeting-house to the
committee. After hearing Mr. Phinn, Q.C., upon
the whole case, the committee passed the bills that
had occupied their attention some days for the
North Staffordshire Railway Company's new works
and Silverdale and Madeley extensions. The; also
passed the bill to enable the North Staffordshire to
make Tanstall Railway of two miles from a junc-
tion with their Potteries line, at Wolstanton to New-
field Hall and Pottery, to raise £BB,OOO and create
debenture stock, Mr. Johnson informed the com-
mittee that the promoters of the Shrewsbury and
Potteries Junction Railway had elected to withdraw
that bill. Mr. Hope Scott, Q.C., opened the bill to
empower the London and North Western Railway to
make a navy approach to the Euston-station through
the northern part of Easton-square, for deviations,
to retain for ten years superfluous lands at Pinner,
Bedford, Birmingham, Rugby, and St. Albans, to
abandon the construction of the railway between
Cheadle, Bulkeley and the Stockport, Disley, and
Whaleybridge authorised in 1861, and to sanction
the abandonment by the South Staffordshire of the
Junction line to the Oxford, Worcester, and Wol-
verhampton, authorised in 1855, to use certain rails
ways of Messrs Allsopp and Sons at Burton-on.
Trent, to contract with the Great Western Railway
for the use and working of the line to connect the
Worcester, Abergavenny, and Hereford with the
Hereford, Ross, and Gloucester. It is farther pro.
posed to enter into arrangements with the Midland
Railway with respect to the traffic of their respective
railways, and as to taking a joint lease of the Lan-
caster and Carlisle, Lancaster and Preston, and
Kendal and Windermere railways, and to contract
with the Lancashire and Yorkshire with respect to
the Preston station. The company also seek powers
to construct nine small branches in or der to complete
and consolidate their system in the north, including
two short branches near Harlesden to connect the
Hampstead junction with the company's main line
£300,000 as new ordinary or
preference capital, and £lOO,OOO by mortgage.
Witnesses were examined. The evidence of Mr.
Richards, the engineer of the line, occupied the.
tahnedy with
propose the
to raWest
ise
of London. For,these purposes
committee of which Mr. Ilassard is' chairman, on
the Gloucester and Ledbnry Railway. The bill for
the South Wales Mineral Railway was passed in
Mr. Paull's committee. Mr. Webster opened the case
of the. Swansea Vale and Neath and Brecon Rail.
way in Mr.
of £120,000 in shares and
Mr. Watlington's committee, the object of
the bill being to incorporate the companyi with a
capital. £40,000 loan for
a line of eight miles from a junction with the Swan.
sea Vale to the Neath and Brecon at Colbrend.
Evidence adduced in favour. The bill for the Pems
broke and Tenby bill passed. The case of the Man-
chester, Sheffield, and Lincelnshire Company's
st eane_boats came on in Sir F. Goldsmid's committee.
Mr. Leith, of the Great Northern, being examined
by Mr. Saunders in favour. In . the Lords, the com-
mittee of which Lord Belper chairman, after
hearing counsel on both sides, passed the bill for
the proposed Solway, Cumberland, and Dumfries-
shire Junction Railway, but declined to give runs
ning powers to the Glasgow and South 'Western.
Lord Monteagle's committee, after passing the
Edinburgh and Leith Sewerage Improvement Bill,
entered on the consideration of that for the Glou-
cester and Aberystwith Railway ; stud further evi-
dence occupied Earl Devon's committee c n the
Wrexham, Mold, and Connah's Quay RailwaY.

LONDON, FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 1854.

- 4.-

The oddest answer ever addressed to an Oppo,i.
Lion by a Prime Minister, at a diplomatic juncture
of extraordinary emergency, is Bcerningly at this
critical period regarded by Lord PALMERSTON as
—among all answers that could by possibility be
thought of—the most triumphant ! It is this—
without a syllable of explanation as to the Minista•
rial policy in this vital matter about Schleswig-
Holstein, as between Denmark and Germany, with -
out one syllable of explanation, as to what has been
the drift of the Ministerial policy in the past as to
what is likely to be the drift of that policy in the
future, with a carelessly scornful, and yet a distirctly
defiant air, Lord PALMERSTON flings back by way
of retort to the Opposition this wonderful poser
—"Tell us, what would you have done under simi-
lar circumstances !I As if that were the constitu-
tional responsibility devolving upon an Opposition !
Namely, at any time of great difficulty, when the
Gibinet happens to have got itself into a dilemma,
into what the Yankees would call a "fix"—to
come opportunely to the aid of Ministers, with a
suggestion as to what bad better be done I This,
moreover, being said—as though the unfolding of El
policy t,le Opposition werG notonly the rig ht thing
at these periods of supreme
for the Opposition to do,
anxiety, but as if such were actually the solemn and
bounden duty of an OpPositiou• "Vas there ever
heard is the House of Commons anything in its way
more utterly preposterous P Hard), Possible, we
should think ! And the absurdity here is one fall.
ing not from the lips of a Si; BOYLE ROCHE or of
a Colonel SIBTHORP, but from those of a veteran

Parliamentarian, as ripe in experience, as sagacious
usually, in the detection of an absurdity, as Lord
rALmERSTON. No Wander the Leader of
the Opposition in the House of Com-
/21003 disdains to cffer ary further reply
to so nonsensical an iipiitation when ier
this ih3itation has been disdainfally tcssed orer to i

him by the Prime Minister, than—" It is not among
our duties as an Opposition !" As it certainly is
not. No—tie day of reckoning has—very adroitly,
very cleverly, very successfully—been put off now
during all this weary session, week after week,
month after month, until, through February, and
March, and April, and May, we have got
far on into the middle of June ! With
the period of grouseeshocting almost within view,
as one may say, at the end of a perspective of a
very few weeks longer !
These admirably well-managed postponements
of discussion (both in the Lords and in the Com-
mons, but more particularly, of course, in the Com
mons) of the ministerial policy as regards the Dane-
German question—these admirably well-managed
postponements of all discussion upon the question,
being effected, it will be remembered, upon a
singular variety of picas. First of all there was the
delay caused by the absence of any reference what•
ever to this vitally and supremely important Ques-
tion in the Royal Speech inaugurating this present
session of Parliament. In that speech not a hint of a
promise was thrown out as to the Danish despatches
being laid in due form upon the table of Parlia-
ment! Mr. DISRAELI'S lynx eye at once detected
this sinister omission his uncompromising
index-finger at once pointed it out ! And what
was the Prime Minister's reply thereupon i Well
do we remember the almost, we had said, imperti-
nence of the very tone with which Lord PALMER-
STON scornfully replied to Mr. DISRAELI, " Why,
of course you'll have the papers laid before you !"
As though he had said, " Cela va sans dire—You
are putting the most ridiculous inquiries to the
Treasury Bench, as though you, Leader of
the Opposition though you are, Leader of the
House though you have been in your time (and
that twice), had no more experience of the
usages of the House or of the habits of Government
than a schoolboy ! Of course, you'll have them.
Don't make yourself in future quite so ridiculous
as to ask any more of these silly kind of questions !
Of course you'll have them—Yes, and in good time
also—and plenty of them, too !" Nay, as if warmed
into facetiousness by the exhilaration caused by
the utterance of his flippant sarcasms in
the way of retort, Lord PALMERSTON on that
first night of the session, while, thus replying to his
antagonist, to his principal rival for the lead of the
House of Commons, indulged himself in one of his
customary pleasantries. Saying, not only—" Of
course, you'll have them (these Danish papers you
are worrying about), and plenty of them—but," in a
sort of seriocomic aside to the House, the effect of
which drowned the closing words of the sentence in
general laughter, "There are so many of these papers
in fact to wade through that, heaven help any man
who"—here it was that there came the laughter,
drowning whatever words brought the noble lord's
sentence to a grammatical conclusion. Yet, while
such was the sort of reply first given by Lord
PALMERSTON to Mr. DISRAELI'S inquiries, hie
very natural inquiries surely in regard to the
Danish Correspondence—in answer to further quese
tions as to how it came that no mention at all of the
correspondence was made in the Royal Speech—
what was Lord PALMERSTON'S answer by way of
explaining that silence ? Why, it was actually
this—" We didn't want to make it (the speech)
too long!" The Speech, it will be remembered,
referred to the difficulty in the matter of the
Japanese disturbances and the consequent dip-
lomatic correspondence, but, for fear of being
too long, it made no mention of the docu•
mentary consequences of the war in the north
of Europe—to wit, the Dano-German Cor-
respondence ! -Wonderful reticence, certainly,
under the circumstances! However, the papers, not
promised in the Speech, when asked for (so unne-
cessarily!) by tke Opposition, were to be given in
due time as a matter of course. When ? asked the
Opposition. " Don't keep worrying us in this
way !" was virtually the reply of Ministers—" In
all reasonable time, you may be quite certain
of that." Well, we remember the reasonable
time it did take ! The mere commencement
of the piecemeal publication of the despatches, was
only extorted after an awfully long pause—and
How, even then ? By a series of the most pertina-
cious badgerings on the part of the Opposition !
Even when commenced at last, tee correspondence
was doled out at as long and at as uncertain inter-
vals as possible ! And , at the best, it stopped
short abruptly. It ;,ore here and there the appear-
ance of having f',eetli as they say, very carefully cooked
or doctor' Q, Then there was the excuse about the
Conference. In regard to that, the Opposition was
recommended to hold its peace and to delay dis-
cussion, in the national interests, because a Con-
ference was probable. Next, the Conference
would be held, and—" At least," it was said to the
Opposition, "you will wait until it has as.
sembled." Then, when it had asse/nbled—
"At any rate, you won't spoil every chance
of a pacific settlement of differences, by debat-
ing the Dano-German Question in the House
while the Conference is sitting." Afterwards
came the adjournmente of the sittings of the Pleni-
potentiaries—then the armistice of a month—then
the armistice of a supplementary fortnight! And

so the chief part of the session has eaten itself away
" dumb expectancy !" Lord PALMERSTON'S
smartest retort upon the Opposition being—" Tell
us Your policy !" If th 6 House of Commons con-

tinues to endure this state of things much longer,
it is certainly far more meek and far more easily

contented than we should have imagined.

The report of the select committee appointed to
inquire into the administration of the Poor Law
Relief spite
Da, and its general operation, has just
been issiud. It .
18, as might have been anticipated,
voluminous in e$
tent, since it includes the proceed-
ings of the committee at their several meetings.
The members appear to have devoted themselves to
assidious attention, and the
rtheseuirltoonfetrhoetlisr task wfietxh isting
The committee
prolonged and careful inquiry is now
before the public, and will tend, we may hope, bo
some amelioration
was originally instituted with the view of ascer-
taining how far the ordinary Poor Law
was able to
bear the pressure of any exceptional distress. It
was appointed in consequenceo o
preva-
lentf
in 1860.61, and part thethereport refers to
facts connected with that short period. By a
ous and melancholy coincidence the report is issued
just after another period of extrema distress, and the
circumstance is perhaps fortunate, since the public
attention is more likely to be directed to the im-
portant subjects discussed in it, while the revela-
tions of our bitter winter are stilt fresh in the popu-
lar recollection. Englishmen have been shocked
alai startled to find that in spite of all their costly
appliances for the relief of the destitute, a season

like the winter we have had renders deaths from
want and cold appalingly frequent. It has been
shown, moreover, on careful inquiry, that the evil
is of long standing, and that when a sudden "cold
Wave of the atmosphere" mows down its hundreds
in one night, the victims are gathered from the
aged, the feeble, the sick, and the very poor. These
last form a large proportion of those doomed by the
Frost King, and if they escape the publicity conse-
quent upon being found dead on a doorstep, or
being repulsed with unusual severity from the doors