The Sun.
London, England, 1839-09-11 00:00:00

ness, if not with sincerity, we should say as he
said, borrowing a simile of RALF the historian,
that between the dissensions of the Whigs and of
the Radicals, born of arrogance and ambition, as
between two thieves, the public welfare is crucified.
The prospects at present, then, of the Liberal
party are not hopeful, and we state what appears to
us the condition into which it is fading in order
that the danger may be known, and energy sum-
moned to meet it. With a cordial union of the
Whigs and the Radicals, the Liberals have nothing
to fear. They broke and routed the monopolists
long ago, when the latter were stronger than they
now are, and can do it again whenever they
put forth their united powers. But they must
be united to effect it, and the course of both has of
late been more and more apart. How they are to
be brought together we scarcely know ; the aboli-
tion of the Corn-laws, if the Whigs would go
heartily into that plan, might rally them ;
but unless
they do rally and do unite, the government of the
country must again fall into the hands of that fac-
tion which never has concealed its determination to
make the Government an instrument to promote its
own odious, selfish purposes.

On Saturday we published a speech of Sir
ROBERT PEEL'S, delivered at Tamworth to a nu-
' merous meeting of gentlemen interested in the suc-
cess of that important and much-opposed measure,
the Manchester and Birmingham Railway Bill.
Parts of the speech were of a local nature, but
the greater proportion applied to railroads in ge-
neral—to the objections at first raised against them,
to their rapid progress in every part of Great Bri-
tain, their convenience, security, and their vast
importance to the prosperity of a commercial coun-
try ; and as Sit ROBERT PEEL must always have
great influence in Parliament, whether in opposi-
tion or on the Treasury Bench, all persons who
wish to see these undertakings prosper must be grati-
fied to find that his opinions on this subject are of the
most liberal and cheering character. He is opposed
to monopoly on the one hand, and on the other to
any unnecessary competition with lines that have
absorbed much capital, and that ought, unless the in-
terests of the public demand a change, to be allowed
to remunerate the shareholders. He trusts also that
landholders will forego needless opposition to mea-
sures of such great national importance, and that the
proprietors of railways will deal liberally with them,
and make great concessions for the loss of their
property, and the violence done to their feelings.
This is almost the only point on which we differ
from him. Where a line passes through an ancient
demesne, and interferes with the privacy of do-
mestic life, great concessions ought to be made ; but
between granting ample remuneration in such a case,
and granting such enormous sums as have been
bargained for by Lord PETRE and Mr. LAEOU-
CHERE on the Eastern Counties Line, there is
a wide difference. In assessing the amount of com-
pensation, two points ought never to be lost sight of,
that the proprietors of land through which a road
passes, generally profit more from the undertaking
than the shareholders, and that any extravagant
remuneration lays only an additional and unjust tax
on the public. About the success of the railway
in question, Sir ROBERT PEEL has not the
slightest doubt—he is equally confident as to its
expediency and its justice.
It was utterly impossible (he said) that any opposition
which could be brought to bear against the measure could
prove effectual; and if its opponents did not feel that
the Manchester and Birmingham Extension Railway would
prove a formidable competitor to the existing railways;
that it would accommodate the inhabitants of important
districts, and command a vast amount of traffic, they might
depend upon it they would not have been half so persner-
ing or determined in their hostility to the measure, which
he had not the slightest doubt would be ultimately carried.
He would ask any man to look at the position of the metro-
polis on the one hand, and of Manchester on the other,
and then to look at the direction which the Stone and
Rugby line proposed to take, and say whether the oppo-
sition of any rival line was likely to be successful. What,
he asked, was the state of the case as regarded the
Extension Railway ? Simply, that it brought the great
manufacturing district of Manchester nearer the metropolis
by thirteen miles, one-ninth of the entire distance. But
in addition to this, the line was so particularly favourable
as to gradients that they might consider it further shortened
by several miles. Thus, therefore, by effecting the cons
munication between Stone and Rugby, an actual saving of
at least 20 miles was effected."

Mr. O'CONNELL, in
,_the Bank of Ireland affair,
showed what one sturdy', ria rmined, and indefati-
gable Member can do against all the powers of
Government, and Sir ROBERT PEEL has also
shown what patient perseverance and judicious ar-
gument can do against much stronger powers, the
selfish interests of shareholders, and the unblushing
opposition of Members of Parliament. Had any
other than the Right Hon. Baronet represented
Tamworth this Bill would have been crushed at
the outset. This, however, is not the only for-
tunate circumstance. In defending the Tamworth
line, he must, in consistency, defend other com-
peting lines, and oppose what has been one of the
the establishment of monopolies. On this
greatest blunders committed in passing Railway
Bills,
point he is most precise. In allusion to the oppo-
sition from the London and Birmingham Company,
he says :
" He had too much confidence in their good sense and ho-
nour and justice to suppose for an instant that they would
throw any obstructions in their way. Nay more, he be-
lieved that it would not be for their interest to do so ; but
should the event prove otherwise, of this he was sure, that
that same Legislature which granted them their monopoly,
would never for a moment tolerate them in throwing ob-
stacles in the way of another Company."
The speech altogether is remarkable for its good
impartiality. The concluding remarks
to the attention of all those who
,se,enseand
recommend
doubt the expediency of encouraging railroad commu-
nication, and the last two lines of his speech we
point out especially for the instruction of Railway
Directori. This is the conclusion : •
" Since he last had the pleasure of meeting them, ex.
perience had tended to confirm the advantages of railroad
travelling, both as regards safety, economy, and rapidity.
Ir was at one time doubted whether any benefit would
arise from adopting this new mode of transit ; and he
acknowledged that it was impossible to see the momen-
tumwith which passengers were carried along, with-
out feelings of apprehension for their safety ; but
experience had shown that, although there might
be occasional accidents, yet, on the whole, commu
nication by railways had been proved to be vastly superior
in point of safety, as well as velocity, to the old method.
He perfectly well recollected that many of his own hiendS
had hinted to him doubts whether the adoption of railroads
would not lower the price of oats; and some went so fir as
to say that horses would be a complete drug. Many of
those who now heard him were able to form a correct esti
mate of the real value of such apprehensions. Tho Let
was, that all these great improvements rested on each other,
and worked together to promote the general prosperity of
the community. The Right Hon. Baronet concluded by
expressing his opinion that there should be no unequal
taxation on this point, that all modes of communication
should ba left entirely free, and that the present rate of
tolls charged by railways was too high, greatly too high,
for their own interests."

Improvements in the construction of railway
carriages, which are likely to lead to important re-
sults, have lately been made.,by Mr. COLES, the
mechanician, of Charing-eroSs. These improve-
ments are directed to the diminution of friction, and
are as remarkable for their simplicity as for the ef-
fectual manlier in which they accomplish their ob-
ject. The friction on railroads is of two kinds,
namely, that which arises from the weight of the
carriage and its contents pressing on the axles of the
wheels, and that which i$ caused by the lateral
pressure of the flanges of thi off-wheels against the
perpendicular part of the rails when the railway,
from being a straight line, assumes the shape` of
a curve. To diminish the friction between
the axle and its bearings, Mr. COLES has
had recourse to the following ingenious con -
trivance. Where one wheel is now employed he
employs three, so placed, the one above the other,
that the axle of the ground-whee!, instead of bear-
ing in the collar, works upward against the rim of
a large anti-friction wheel, the axle of which, in its
:urn, works against the rim of the third or upper-
most wheel, which revolves upon a fixed stub axle
' screwed to the frame-work of the carriage, and
sustaining its whole weight. A modal carriage on
this construction will traverse round a circle of
thirty-four feet six inches in four seconds, or at tine
rate of seventy-one miles an hour. It will also propel
a two-wheeled carriage, or rather a carriage with
one set of anti-friction wheels on each side, at the
rate of fifty miles. The practical result of the re-
duction thus made in friction is that carriages con-
structed on this principle will not require one.
eighth part of the power to propel them on level
roads which is required for those with the wheels
now in use. Carriages with the patent wheels
may also be propelled by manual labour, without
the aid of steam, by means of some very simple
machinery.
The way in which Mr. COLES gets rid of the
friction occasioned by the flanges of the wheels
acting against the rails, in working a curve, is partly
by a slight alteration in the present form of the
rails on the outer curves, which it is not easy to