The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-05 00:00:00

The Railway Invasion of the City,

Yesterday, at 2 o'clock, a conference of members of Par-
liament representing the city of London or connected with
it, and of bankers, merchants, and other principal citizens,
was held in the banking house of Messrs. Rothschild, in
New-court, St. S within's-lane, in reference to the impend-
ing railway invasion of the city, which has given rise to a
great deal of public anxiety and alarm. Baron Rothschild,
M.P., occupied the chair, and there were present, among
others, Mr. R. W. Crawford; M.P., Sir Samuel Morton
Peto, 1\1.13., Mr Tite, M.P., Alderman Salomons, M,P., Mr
F. W. Russell, M.P., Mr John Abel Smith, M.P., Mr S.
Morley, Major Snell, Mr J. P. Gassiott, Mr Trower, Mr
Corrie, City Remembrancer, Mr Charles Candy, and Mr B.
W. Horne.

It was stated in a circular convening the meeting that a
public meeting was recently held at the London Tavern for
the purpose of considering in what manner the city of Lon-
don could be best protected against the various Railway
bills now before Parliament, which propose to occupy space
within its limited area so greatly needed for business pur-
poses, The meeting was very numerously and most influ-
entially attended, resolutions were passed and a committee
appointed to effect the objects set forth. The House of
Commons had appointed a select committee to consider all
the Railway bills which affect the metropolis, and it meets
on the 11th of April. A petition, praying that legislation
with respect to all railway schemes which propose entering
the city of London shall be postponed until some of the large
works already sanctioned shall be further advanced, and

time thus obtained for more mature consideration, had been
almost unanimously adopted and most influentially signed.
It had, therefore, become necessary to consider carefully in
what manner the objects of the petitioners could be best
attained.

Mr. S. MORLEY, as chairman of the committee appointed
at the public meeting, enumerated the public works which
had been already sanctioned within the city, and were now
in course of construction or in contemplation. These, he
said, included three bridges across the Thames, two for
railways and one for ordinary traffic at Blackfriars; the
Thames Embankment, the new street from Blackfriars to
the Mansion-house, a railway station in Cannon-street, and
two others in Broad-street and Finsbury-place, together
with an extension of the Metropolitan Railway, for all of
which a large number of houses had yet to be taken down,
in addition to those which had been already demolished.
There was also the projected viaduct over Holborn-val-
ley, to which Parliament had given its sanction,
and which would involve an enormous destruction
of property. There existed at present, he sail, a feeling of
deep anxiety among citizens as to how they were to find
space in which to conduct their various business, and he
believed it would be most acceptable to the great body of
them if the Legislature could be induced to abstain until
next session, at least, from sanctioning any fresh projects
until those which he had enumerated, and come of which
were advancing rapidly, were completed. The memorial
reflected the sentiments of a large proportion of the citizens
on the subject. They did not in the least present them-
selves before Parliament in any antagonistic spirit, but
they were of opinion that the limited area of the city of
London, the seat of au immense and rapidly increasing
trade, should be protected against the intrusion of any rail..
way which was not absolutely requisite for the convenience
of the public, and it would be a great relief to them to be
spared, for a time at least, from the imposition of any fresh
schemes.. All the bankers, he believed, had signed the
petition, and a very considerable number of the leading
merchants and trading classes. They utterly repudiated
the idea of needing at present the schemes which were now
in contemplation. He knew men who were absolutely at
their wits' end as to what they should do in the event of
projects with which the city was threatened being carried
out. All that the petitioners said was, " Spare us for the
present," and he believed that a wide. spread feeling in the
city of London was reflected in that wish.
A conversation followed as to the course to be taken with
the view to give the greatest possible effect to the wishes of
the petitioners before the House of Commons. Mr. Craw-
ford was of opinion that, not representing any corporate
interests, the memorialists could have no locus standi before
the committee of which Lord Stanley is chairman. Any
petition, he said, against a particular soheme would be re-
ferred by the house to that committee, and not be consi-
dered singly by the house upon its merits. \Vith the
view of testing that matter, he said, he recently moved the
house to postpone a particular line of railway—namely,
that from Blackfriars-bridge to the Tower, but he did not
succeed, and the bill was now in the hands of the com-
mittee. The petitioners might be able to obtain a hearing
before the committee through counsel, but in that case there
must be a private interest to represent. Mr. Morley said
the petitioners made no reference in their petition to any
particular line. Alderman Salomons remarked that the
memorialists were merchants, bankers, and many other per-
sons interested in the question, and their petition might
possibly be referred to a select committee. Mr. Tito re
minded the meeting that the committee of which Lord Stan-
ley is chairman was one to which all the schemes in the
city were to be referred. The petitioners did not object to
any particular scheme, but to all the schemes for the pre-
sent, and it would be, therefore, of no use to them to have
their petition referred to Lord Stanley's committee. They
ought rather to endeavour to interest Lord Palmerston, as
the head of the Government, in the matter on its merits,
and when the petition was presented Mr. Crawford or some
other city member might move that it be read at the table
and referred to a select committee to consider the previous
question, so to speak. Mr. John Abel Smith suggested that
it would be desirable in that case to move also that the peti-
tioners be heard by counsel. Mr. Morley said he should
like Lord Palmerston to see a deputation on the subject be-
' forehand, believing that if he was assured that beyond all
controversy there was a deep feeling of anxiety on the sub-
ject among men engaged in the various departments of
banking, trade, and commerce, and that their object was
not to oppose in any unreasoning sense, but simply to ask
that time might be given, his lordship would support a pro •
-position so reasonable. Mr. Carrie, the City Remernbran-
cer, remarked that the bills in question having been read a
second time, and referred to Lord Stanley's committee,
there would be a difficulty in taking them out of the hands
of the committee ; but if this petition and that of the cor-
poration of London on the same subject were presented to-
gether, a motion might be made to refer them to the com-
mittee, with an instruction to inquire as to whether it would
be desirable to postpone legislation for a time. The corpo-
ration of London had instructed him to consider the
schemes in question very carefully,' and he had that day
had a conference with one of their committees on the sub-
ject. They had gone through the various bills and come to a
decision as to which they would not oppose. They had
agreed not to oppose the Charing-cross Rail way, the North
London Railway, or the London, Chatham, and Dover Rail-
way Bills of the present session, inasmuch as they.only
asked for powers to perfect schemes previously sanctioned
by Parliament, and which the corporation rather regarded
as improvements than otherwise. They should, however,
move the insertion of clauses with the view to promote the
public convenience in some respects. \Vith respect to all
the other schemes the corporation would petition Parlia-
ment to postpone them.
It was eventually decided that inquiry be made as to the
course to be taken to give the greatest practical effect to the
prayer of the petitioners, consistently with the forms of the
house, and that, before the petition was present.
Lord
Palmerston be asked to see a deputation on the matter.
The conference then terminated.

CENTRAL RELIEF FUND.—The usual fortnightly
meeting of the Executive Committee was held at
the Town-hall, Manchester, yesterday—Sir J. Kay Shuttle-
worth, high sheriff, presided. The honorary secretary re-
ported that £6,241 15s 8d had been received during the past
fortnight, and that the balance in the bank was £133,210 38
Bd. That morning £29 8s sol had been received from Red-
ditch and £329 Os 8d from Darlington. Mr Parnell re-
ported that there had been a decrease of persons receiving
relief in the fortnight ending March 26, from the guardians
of 27 unions, of 6,687. The hon. secretary having presented
his monthly report, Mr Parnell said, in answer to Mr Wor-
rell, that more money would be wanted than there was to
lend under the Public Works Act. If it should so happen
that, frOm unforeseen circumstances, certain local authori-
ties did not want the whole sum placed to their credit, it
would be very desirable for them to let the Poor-law Board
know, so that any surplus might be apportioned among
others really needing it, Mr Ashton said he had been in-
formed, by persons upon whose testimony he could rely, of
efforts to stimulate emigration from these districts, which
he deemed of such importance to the working classes that
publicity should be given to them in order that this disclo-
sure might operate as a warning both to the agents and their
victims, or, if untrue, be authoritatively denied. He under-
stood that persons, representing themselves as agents from
some of the mills in America, were engaging people here for
factory work in that country. Each man engaged received
a certain sum for outfit and passage money, and was required
to sign an agreement binding him to repay the advance
within a period of 90 days of his arrival in America. On
stringent measures being adopted to enforce repayment the
emigrants who had not then saved sufficient money were
induced or compelled to enlist in the army. The system was
first tried with single men, but as many of them contrived
in some way to raise the cost of their individual expenses it
was now being applied to married men with families of chil-
dren over 10 years of age, whose emigration expenses were
much larger. Consequently men so situated had scarcely
any prospect before them but enlistment vs hen pressing de-
mands were made for the repayment of the emigration loan.
After some explanations had been given of the delay in sup-
plying boots for the men employed on public works, the
committee proceeded to make grants of money to the local
relief committee.
M. CAHOURS has presented an important memoir
to the Paris Academy on 27te Respiration of Fruits.
THE WAY THE MONEY GOB/3.—A Parliamentary
return of the gold and silver imported into and exported
from each Presidency of India states that, in the year
1863, the gold and silver imported exceeded the export by
no less than L 19,367,764. In the last eight years this excess
of import over export in India has reached the enormous
value of £109,652,917. Bullion has been coined in India
in the present century to an amount considerably exceeding
£200,000,000.