The Sun.
London, England, 1839-03-28 00:00:00

IRISH RAILWAYS

(From the Times.)
We are happy to pereeive evident signs of the
coming discomfiture of the Irish railway job. Even
some of the steadiest 'supporters of the present Go-
vernment have refused to swallow the pill, and the
Ministerial prints have since taken those gentlemen to
task for their insubordination in a tone of half suppli-
cation, half menace, which smacks considerably of
despair for the success of this audacious attempt.
Lord Brougham—the " stormy peterel" of the political
horizon—has already sounded the tocsin of opposition
in the House of Lords, and Mr. Whittle Harvey's
motion for a return of the names of the Members
through whose property the proposed railroad is to
pass, is likely to throw additional light on the subject.
We cannot believe, notwithstanding the clear expo-
sition of Sir Robert Peel, whose opinion was supported
by several of the subsequent speakers from both sides
of the House, that the Members who voted with Mi..
nisters for making railways in Ireland at the public ex-
pense, could for a moment have reflected on the con-
sequences of the important principle they were adopting,
and of the grave and dangerous precedent they were fur-
nishing for future legislation. We have always admit-
ted, and it is self-evident, that if the interference of the
State were not invariably found injurious, or even
fatal, to all the undertakings with which it comes in
contact, and to lead to the grossest jobbing, extrava-
gance, and mismanagement, it might and probably
would be advisable that Government should take upon
itself the construction and administration of all railways,
in England and Scotland as well as in Ireland, for the
purpose of rendering those important means of commu-
nication a public highway, of giving the accommodation
they afford at the lowest possible rate that will cover the
necessary expenditure, and of always being at full li-
berty to adopt such regulations and make such improve-
ments as circumstances and the interests of the public
might render desirable. But we maintained, and we still
maintain, that long experience has proved the Goverment in
this country to be utterly incapable of that econominal and
effective system of management by which alone the fore-
going advantages could be derived from the construction
of railroads at the public expense. Look at the Post-
office, look at the packet service, look, in short, at any
and every, undertaking labouring under the incubus of
Government management, and compare its tortoise pace
with the giant strides of individual enterprise, its callous
indifference for the interests of the public, and some-
times even its indolent contempt for their wishes and
opinions, with the zeal, the promptitude, and the intelli-
gence which are displayed in the arrangements of most
private undertakings in this country, because called
forth by that most powerful—perhaps the only really
efficient—of human motives—self-interest.
We hear much of the irresponsibility of joint-stock
companies and individual capitalists ; but are they not
actuated by the all-powerful motive just mentioned to
study the wishes and convenience of the public, upon
whose patronage alone depends the success of their un-
dertakings ? Even, however, should this motive alone
not be found sufficient to insure the necessary accom-
modation (of which strong symptoms have certainly
appeared in the case of one or two Railroad Companies)
there can be no great difficulty in enforcing it by a few
simple regulations on the part of the Legislature. But
once give the management of railroads and other similar
undertakings into the hands of Government, and what will
be the alleged irresponsibility of companies when compared
with that of the nominal servants, but, as daily expe-
rience shows, the real masters of the public, who pays
them, and with the insolent bearing of most of these
uncontrolled Jacks in-office? Responsibility of Go-
vernment officials, indeed ! Who has not been detained
by the hour in public offices, or obliged to call again re-
peatedly, for a matter requiring but a moment's attention,
because the clerk or other official whose duty it was to at-
tend to it was reading a newspaper, or chatting with ano-
ther, or not yet come to the office, or gone to take his
lunch, or attending on some superior ? And who has
not been paid with black looks, but oftener with some
insolent reply, if he has ventured to express his impa-
tience or dissatisfaction even in the most forbearing
manner ? Again, see the blind partizanship, and the
zealous, and often not over-scrupulous, esprit de corps,
with which all public functionaries are defended by
their official fellows in Parliament when their conduct
is impugned. A poor friendless clerk might indeed be
dismissed to appease complaints, and to make a show of
deference to public opinion ; but let the culprit be a re-
lative or protege of some Whig influential—and if in Ire-
land,even but a twenty-fifth cousin of one of the Tail,or an
acquaintance of the priest—and he will snap his fingers
at all threats of complaint, and continue his course with
perfect impunity. Why, one of the greatest evils of
Government management is, that public employes are,
really and practically, under no responsibility, and that
they have no motive for exertion, no interest in the
success of the business with which they are connected.
They receive neither more nor less salary whether
their official duties be zealously or indifferently per-
formed, and as they know full well that promotion de-
pends upon interest, and not upon merit or real claims,
their only study is to get through their work with as
little trouble as they can.
As to the economy of Government management, it is
surely impossible to mention it seriously—in Ireland,
too, above all countries, where we shall now perhaps be
told that the purity of its moral atmosphere would be as
promptly fatal to any attempted job as the effect of St.
Patrick's charm is said to be to every reptile.
But if Parliament decide that, notwithstanding
these objections and all previous received opinions on
the subject, it is advisable that Government should
undertake the making of a railroad from Dublin to Cork
and Limerick, that decision must and will apply not
only to every other part of Ireland, but also to the
whole of England, Scotland, and Wales. It is mere
quibbling to say that Ireland is poor, that she has not
within hrself sufficient capital to construct railroads,
and that the expected return for the necessary outlay is
not sufficient to tempt English capitalists to embark in
the enterprise. Cannot Wales, cannot the interior of
Scotland, cannot most of the agricultural districts even
in England, more or less, say th same thing with perfect
truth ! The complaints from Members connected with
other parts of Ireland, which immediately followed Lord
Morpeth's proposition, are but a very small foretaste
of the clamour with which Parliament will be assailed
from every corner of the kingdom, if it persevere in
the determination adopted that evening. Every Member
will have a railroad to propose and urge for his
part of the country, and will point to the grant of
2,500,000/. for the Irish south-western line as an unde-
niable precedent for the claim of his constituents. Once
open the door to such claims—once recognize such a
principle, and it will be impossible to limit its applica-
tion, or to shut out the torrent that will overwhelm
Parliament. Government must then undertake the con-
struction of railroads in every part of the kingdom, which
has not the means of effecting it itself, or where the profit
is not sufficient to tempt capitalists ;orMinisters must ac-
knowledge that this isanother job to propitiate the Agitator
and his band. They ask only for 2,500,000/ ,just to begin
with, not to alarm John Bull too much ; but the °Tow!.
ings of the rest of the kennel, whose turn to be fed was
not yet come, sufficiently indicated what the extent of
the feeding will eventually be. The truth of all this,
and the innate modesty of Irish Representatives, have
since been strikingly illustrated by the bashful motion of
Mr. French for extending the job of Government rail-
way-making to the province of Connaught !
Lord Morpeth conveniently assumed, like the Com-
missioners, that it was necessary for the public to
make railroads in Ireland, because no companies would
undertake them. But this is a most unfounded as-
sumption, as proved by the Commissioners' own Re-
port. There were more companies and capitalists
than enough in the field before the Commission was

issued ; but all indix idual enterprise was first stopped
by that step, and next destroyed by delay of now
three years, during which that inquiry and its adjuncts
have entirely suspended all the proceedings of the in-
tended companies. This is another proof of the
blessings and boasted advantages of Government inter-
ference ! Mark the honesty and ingenuousness of the
Commissioners, and of their friends the Ministers. They
first stop private enterprise, and tire it out by delays
and disappointments, and then turn round and say,
" Oh, there is nobody who will undertake these rail-
roads, and as Ireland must of course have railroads like
other countries, we must make them for her." If; as
was truly observed by Sir Robert Peel, railroads in
Ireland be a profitable investment, why not leave them
to companies and capitalists ! But if they be not profit-
able, it shows that that country is not yet in a state to
require them, and you have no right to undertake them,
unless you be also prepared to extend the same advan-
tage to all other parts of the kingdom.
As far as we can understand from Lord Morpeth's
confused statement, and from the Commissioners' Re-
port, the estimate adopted by Ministers for the cost of
the intended railroads is about 10,0001. per mile, while
the report states that the average estimated expense in
England has been about 17,0001. per mile, and the cost
of the Belgian railways, so much lauded by Ministers,
8,5001. per mile. Now, so far from this result being,
as Lord Morpeth and his colleagues seemed to flatter
themselves, conclusive against the English system
and in favour of the Belgian, it is exactly the re-
verse. Belgium is, of all countries in the world, the
most favourable for the construction and operation of

railroads. The surface is almost invariably flat ; its
soil is soft and free from rock, stones, or other impe-
diments ; labour is little, if any, more than one-third
of its cost in England, and not cheap but bad, as in
Ireland, but cheap and good, from the low price of
provisions, the constant employment of the people,
and their industry and manual skill ; and the cost
of the railroads was not enhanced, as it has been
in England, in many cases several thousand pounds
per mile, by the cost of an Act of Parliament, of
buying off opposition, of paying exhorbitant demands
for the land wanted or for damages, and of other
exactions. If, therefore, all these relative circum-
stances be taken into consideration, it will be seen
that 17,0001. per mile is considerably cheaper for Eng-
land than 8,500/. for Belgium ; and, consequently, that
the case adduced by the Commissioners and by Ministers
as an illustration of the advantages of the principle the