The Sun.
London, England, 1837-01-10 00:00:00

THE SIJN, LONDON, TUESDAY, JANITARY 10, 183/.

THE THEATRES.

DRURY-LANE.

There was a very full house here last night, as there has
been every night since the reduction of prices, to witness
the production of Rossini's opera of Cinderella for the first
time at this theatre. The cast is extremely strong, includ-
ing, with one exception, all the leading vocalists attached
to the establishment. We do not exactly remember whe-
ther Miss Romer has appeared in the part of Cinder-
ella before ; if not, it is but right that she undertakes a
character the music of which is well adapted to her powers.
She was warmly applauded throughout, and gave the con.
eluding scena with brilliancy and effect. Wilson makes
but a cavalier sort of lover, but he sang well, as did Se-
guin and Giubelei, who, as Dandini and the Baron Pum-
polino, exhibited comic powers of no mean order. Mea-
dows made Pedro a very amusing fellow.

BRIGHTON RAILROAD.

MEETING OF THE COMMISSIONERS.
(From the Brighton Herald of Saturday.)

A letter was read from Mr. Charles Pearson, the Soli-
sitor—Mr. Mills, the Engineer—and a deputation of direc-
tors, with the statements and sections of Cundy's Line, re-
questing to be heard before the Commissioners.
Mr. CORDY wished the plans to be laid on the table,
and that the plans respecting them might be made in
writing for their future consideration.
Mr. HALLETT thought that the adoption of Mr. Cordy's
suggestion would be treating the deputation very uneour-
teously—be felt a great anxiety that the town should•have
the best line, and he was of opinion that the Commissioners
should be open to receive suggestions from any persons
disposed to make them.—( Hear.)

Mr. FOLKARD was for hearing Mr. Pearson, but he
trusted the Commissioners would not commit themselves in
favour of any particular line.
Mr. PEARSON was then called in, and said, he placed
upon the table of the Commissioners a plan and section
of what, for distinction's sake, might be called Cundy's line,
because it passed through the valley of the Adur and the
Mole, as originally projected by that gentleman, and was
" Without a Tunnel," but the plans and sections had
been made by eminent surveyors and engineers who had
surveyed and levelled every yard of ground from Brighton
to London, and the Company he had the honour to represent
had deputed him to deposit in a banker's hands 500/. to
defray the expences of testing the accuracy of every level,
if either of their competitors had the boldness to impugn
them. He need not remind the Commissioners of the enor-
mous sums wasted during the last Session in the fruitless
enquiries which were carried on before Committees of both
Houses, and now when he found there had been lodged with
the Clerks of the Peace, plans and sections of five parent
lines, besides a numerous progeny of minor offsets, unless
some other and better course were to be adopted, the result
of the approaching enquiry would be the same as the last.—
(Hear.) It had been said that Cundy's sections were
visionary, and that the accomplishment of the Line With-
out a Tunnel was impracticable--these were facts which
admitted of demonstration as clearly as any problem in
mathematics, provided proper persons and a proper time
were selected for the enquiry ; but of all possible tribunals
for the consideration of such questions, a Committee of the
House of Commons was one which enjoyed and deserved
the least of public confidence.--(Hear.) This was univer-
sally admitted by their own Members—they could not sepa-
rate themselves from the control of party and personal influ-
ences—they had no professional reputation to peril by an erro-
neous judgment in engineering questions, and at the period
of the year at which they conducted the enquiry, the coun-
try was clothed with standing crops, when, if they desired
to bring a disputed level to the test of actual examination,
they could not do so, but were obliged to receive bold and
impudent assertions, which were met by perhaps as bold
and impudent contradictions, without having the means of
attestir, the accuracy of either—whereas, at the present
period of the year, when the country was open, persons
would be cautious how they hazarded statements, which
they knew were capable of being at once disproved.—
(Hear.) He (Mr. Pearson) proposed that these ques-
tions should be submitted at once to the consideration of
three impartial engineers of the first eminence, whose rank
and reputation would be the best guarantee for the ability
and integrity with which they would conduct the enquiry.
( Hear, hear.) Of what earthly use in the elucidation
or truth of engineering questions would the array of
lawyers be who were employed during the last Session ?
On the Brighton line alone there were above twenty
Counsel engaged, headed by six King's Sergeants and
King's Counsel—there was a regiment of above twenty
eminent solicitors of London and Brighton, flanked by a bri-
gade of Parliamentary agents, and a whole array of surveyors
and engineers, whose chief business it appeared to be to
contradict each other. To the best of his recollection they
were engaged fifty-two days before the Commons, at an ex-
pense of 1,1001. a day in disputing facts, when as many
hours judiciously employed, and as many shillings properly
expended, would have settled the whole by actual proof,
and have left nothing for ingenuity to have perverted. The
Commissioners of the Town of Brighton had a large stake
in its welfare, and they represented the great body of its
inhabitants, who had a deep interest not only in the speedy
establishment of a railroad, but likewise in the selection of
the best.—(Hear.) He proposed that a Committee of
the Commissioners should be appointed to negotiate arrange-
ments with the promoters of all the rival undertakings.
He should suggest that the Committee should select three
of the most eminent engineers in England, who are wholly
unconnected with all the lines, and that all the plans and
sections should be submitted to them with authority to ap-
point assistants to test the accuracy of any of the levels
on either of the sections which might be impugned by the
engineers of the rival lines. He proposed that each party
should place 5001. in the hands of trustees to be drawn upon by
the three engineers who would charge the expense of each par-
ticular survey to the party who produced the inaccurate
section, or, if accurate, to the party who had improperly
impugned it. The facts being thus ascertained with un-
erring truth, the engineers might then report upon the
length of each line, the depths of the cuttings, the heights
of the embankments, and the contents of each ; also upon
the comparative merits of the inclinations of each line, as
to its working gradients ; upon the possibility of dispens-
ing with tunnels, and the expense at which open cuttings
on each line could be substituted. The engineers would
likewise report upon any peculiar engineering difficulties
and facilities they might find in either line, and the amount
of money and time required to complete each line, and
the probable annual expense of the
Swear and tear of
the works, as well as the annual cost of the locomotive
power required to work each line.—(Hear.) Engineers ap-
pointed to perform this important duty would feel the dig-
nity of their elevated position, and would be above the sus-
picion of all improper bias; let their office not be merely
honorary, but, out of the sum deposited by the companies, let
them receive a liberal fee. A report of such men would be
next to decisive of the question ; if the Commissioners gave
their support to a line so recommended, that support would
be of the very greatest consequence in determining which
line should be adopted, because it would be manifestly
the result of calm and deliberate consideration, guided by
competent professional information, and would not be liable
to the imputation of being directed by party spirit, poli-
tical influence, or private interest. It might be said that
the agents of the several companies could not be brought
to agree to such a proposition. He (Mr. P.) thought
otherwise ; and at any rate, if they would not, the share-
holders would. The talented author of " Lacon " had re-
marked that "if the seconds in a duel had as little relish
for the encounter as the principals, very little blood would
be shed in that way."—(A laugh.) Perhaps the same thing
might be predicted of rail road contests. At the com-
mencement of last year people were madifor speculation ;
there was then an apparent plethora of wealth in the coun-
try, which seemed to turn people's brains ; but the gentle-
men of both professions had since that time cupped and
bled the patients so abundantly that they are now perfectly
sobered down, so as to be able to take a rational view of the
question. Whatever others might think he (Mr. P.) was con-
fident that if the shareholders of all the companies were called
together in London they would rather adopt his proposal,
whereby, for a few hundreds, the truth of the plans and
sections would be demonstrated, than spend thousands and
tens of thousands of pounds in conducting the same inquiry
before Parliamentary Committees. After such a report as
he proposed, there could be no doubt but that some of the
parties would retire from the struggle. If impartial engi-
neers proclaimed either plan impracticable, it would be mad-
ness to proceed with it. He (Mr. Pearson) spoke from the
confident assurances of the engineers and surveyors em-
ployed (and he believed it to be true), that the plans and
sections then on the table were in every respect perfectly
accurate, and believing that to be so, he felt convinced that
the line called Cundy's was incomparably the best line, be-
cause it possessed, in an equal or greater degree than all
the other lines, all the essential elements of a good Rail-
road, and was unencumbered with those frightful nuisances
tunnels. If, however, the Commissioners adopted his view,
and the engineers to be appointed reported that the plans
and sections were in any essential points inaccurate, or if
they pronounced the line without a tunnel impracticable,
he would at once recommend his shareholders to divide
the remaining cash amongst them, and retire from the
contest.—(Hear.) If, however, the engineers reported,
as he believed they would do, that it was not only a prac-
ticable, but the best line, he was quite prepared to suggest
a plan by which the shareholders, the directors, the soli-
citors, and engineers of the other lines might participate in
the advantages to be derived from the union of parties to
carry the best line.—(Hear, hear.) The duty of Parlia-
ment would then be light—the engineering facts having
been proved by disinterested testimony, Parliament would
merely have to protect, by suitable clauses, the interests
of the public and the rights of private individuals. If the
companies adopted this proposal, he was satisfied that it
could be easily worked out to a triumphant end ; let it be
rejected, and he feared that, while the advocates of the
best lines were check-mating each other by their opposing
interests, the 'promoters of a rival line, by concentrating
all their Parliamentary influence, might succeed in throw-
ing out the best Bills, or perhaps even in carrying their
own, which, like its parent, the South-Eastern, in the lan-
guage of Hudibras—
" Seems as if it were intended
For nothing else but to be mended ;"
and which has introduced a novelty in legislation—that of
passing a Bill one year for giving effect to a project which
in the following Session the parties who promoted it them-
selves come forward to prove it to be impracticable.
Mr. CORDY moved that the plans and sections be laid
in the Clerk's office for inspection, and that Mr. Pearson

'..••~~

should be informed w hen a meeting would take place to
consider his proposal.
Mr. PEARSON than :ed tht' Commissioners for the polite
reception and attentiv e hear:ng they had given him, and
it was understood that the subject would be resumed next
Wednesday, when. .Pearson said he would attend.
Mr. CLARK hanileo e opy of Stephenson's.line for the

use of th,

le Commissiovers•

IT
FOREIGN ELLIGENCE.

4.57 CE.
PARIS, JAN. 7.—A private letter from the frontiers of
Spain represents to us the doliverance of Bilboa as a great
and important victory, pre ciocs for its effects on the na-
tional spirits. The besiege srs a.-1.• now thrown back on all
parts, and 15,000 Christinos whq have entered the town,
secure it against any risk of a futures' attack. The Carlists
who have fallen back on Di irango, ace not without fears,
for Narvaez is marching tow 2 rds that pont, and it is well
known that he is an active and enterprising gencrat,so that
he may drive back the Curti:lt insurrection to the mewl-
tains in which it originated, A very important circumw
stance of this victory is that Es partero took the two com-
panies prisoners that were fore led of deserters from the
Algerine Legion, and were, perht ins, the best troops of the
Pretender. The battalions of Gu ipuscoa, which were also
very celebrated, disbanded themse. Ives in the retreat after
the raising of the siege.
When the post from Bayonne so: out for Paris, the
,
sere for three days.
Spanish mail had not been received tA.
An extraordinary courier set out at 5 el 'clock from the Fo-
reign office, for Count de Latour Maubon.rg, am;,,assador at
Madrid. The Duke of Bassano is exttemely ill.--La
Pair, Jan. 8.