The Sun.
London, England, 1838-10-03 00:00:00

sonal interests and those of the Irish nation to
be identical. Even several of the Liberal Journals,
whom we have no reason to suspect of being the or-
gans of any party, have been wanting in attention to
the fact, that the Commissioners have had no indivi-
dual interests to serve—that their Report has been
admitted by their opponents to be founded on in-
quiries the most comprehensive and laborious—and,
what is more to the purpose, that no rational objec.

. _
tion could be taken to the lines of railway recommended
by them, had no private companies embarked their
capital in the formation of roads for their own espe-
cial benefit. By no party, that we are aware of, has
the Report itself been attacked, save and except in so
far as it appears to militate against the interests of
established companies ; and, when the alarm raised by
them and their organs has subsided, we have no doubt
but that the good sense of th• Irish representative
body will lead them to prefer the welfare of the country

:o all minor considerations. We do not mean to say

that the property vested in those railways, for which
Acts of Parliament have been obtained, should be
recklessly sacrificed, or that great efforts should not be
made to reconcile, as far as possible, public with pri-
vate vested interests. On the contrary, we are of opt-
nion, that were immediate steps taken to effect such a
purpose, many evils would be prevented, which must
otherwise be inevitable. But to improve Ireland
on a great scale—to elevate her to her proper
rank among the nations of Europe—to place her
on a footing of physical, commercial, and moral
equality with England and Scotland, it is in-
dispensible that the main design of the Railway
Commissioners should be universally and simultane-
ously adopted. To improve Ireland by railways, the
whole country must be traversed with them, not from
city to city, but from sea to sea. It is not the inter-
nal, so much as the external, trade of Ireland, to which
a powerful and general impulse requires to be given, in
order to render the whole Island prosperous. She must

become a link in the chain connecting this country with

America before she can avail herself of the vast resources
of human happiness which she at present possesses.
In the case of a country like Ireland the great object
is to unite remote harbours by direct lines, by which

means every town will be enabled, by branch roads, to
share in the general prosperity. We therefore par-
ticipate in the pleasure expressed by our Contem-
porary at the disposition manifested by the inha-
bitants of Cork to consider the expediency of
giving speedy effect to the recommendations of the
Commissioners. With respect to the raising of a fund
adequate to the carrying on of so great a work, objec-
tions have been taken to a National Loan, on the
rational ground of a dread of jobbing—hitherto the
bane of every scheme for the internal improvement of
Ireland. We do not look upon this evil as one for
which no remedy can be provided. But as it is but
fair towards Ireland, that the money-raising plans sug-
gested by the Irish Press should be generally made
known in this country, we take the following from the
Waterford Chronicle of Saturday last :

In turning to the proposition for levying a County-rate,
to aid the construction of railways, we have to observe that
the idea has for some time been a favourite one with us.
The happy example of America ; in making the local Go-
vernments of its separate States contribute towards the

construction of railways, first suggested the idea, and from
the magnificent results it has produced in that country, leads
us to hope that it may be applied to lre!and with great

benefit.—At the same time,. we are by no means-pre-
pared to agree with the Southern Reporter, in maintain-
ing that the counties either can or ought to undertake

works of the kind wholly and solely on their own separate
accounts. We do not suppose that our Contemporary's
ingenuity, considerable as we admit it to be, will
suffice for the devising of a practical scheme for combining
bodies so mixed in their compo,ition—in their interests so
conflicting—and in their natures so ji.alous, as the county
grand juries, to unite with any effect in labours so arduous
and complicated as these of national railways. But though
we are clear in our conviction that counties are incapable
of conducting enterprises of this kind, we are strong in our
belief that a mode may be found by which they may he
enabled with perfect ease and success to contribute to-
wards the completion of such works within their respec-
tive bounds. As the subject is one of considerable inte-
rest, we shall freely communicate our views on it, hoping
that they may deserve some consideration, and receive,
from the ordeal of public discussion, the improvements of
which, in their present nascent state, they are obviously
susceptible.
Our opinion is, that upon a Bill for making any railway
being obtained, it shall be lawful for the grand jury of any
county through which it is intended to pass, to authorise
the Treasurer of the county to subscribe for a limited
number of shares, for and on the account of the county ;
and to pay out of the county rates the call made by the
Company for such shares, and to receive for and on account
of the county, the dividends arising from such shares.
The number of shares to be thus subscribed for by the
Treasurer, should, in every instance, bear a proportion to
the capital of the Company, and the extent of railway
traversing the county, and they should in no instance be
allowed to exceed 500,0001. or 100,0001.
The money should be invariAbly expended upon that
part of the line situate within the county rated, and not
elsewhere.

This plan, we think, might be acted upon with great
facility. Let us suppose a railway with a capital of a
million sterling, and for twenty miles, passiog through a
particular county. The county Treasurer, under the Act
of Parliament we propose, is directed by the grand jury
to subscribe for shares to the amount of 100,000/. This
would probably be 1,000 shares, of 1001. each. Now,
supposing the calls upon them to be tw• a year, and of 10/.
each—and no existing company has exceeded this average—
the county rate would be 20,0001. for four or five years, at
the end of which the shares would be at a very large
profit, or producing an interest which would materially
lighten the county taxation for years to come.
This scheme, we apprehend, is decidedly a practical
one, and may be put in force at any moment.

How far this plan of raising a National Railway
Fund may be considered practicable, we leave to be
determined by the good sense of our readers. To us
it appears much more plausible than conclusive. We
shall enter more fully into the merits of the whole
question in the course of a few days.

The Paris Journals of Monday contain no news of
any political interest. We regard the Swiss question
as settled for the present, notwithstanding the fears to
the contrary expressed by several of the ultra-demo-
cratical Papers, and particularly by the National. On
Saturday the Police, whose Royalist zeal is as untiring
as it is necessary to alleviate the fears of the CITIZEN
KING, seized, in the Rue St. Benoit, the printing
presses of an obnoxious publication called the Homine
Libre, 700 copies of the paper, and a quantity of
cartridges and bullets. They also succeeded in seizing
the presses of the Moniteur Republican:, and what was
of mote importance, the suspected Editors of that
very obscure publication. Some new poniards were
found in one of the printing offices, which, coupled
with a suspicion of the loyalty of the widow of PEN ti—
who, it will be remembered, was beheaded, as an
accomplice of EtEscm—appears to have greatly
alarmed the authorities. Really, one is disposed
to pity or to laugh at the jaundiced eye with which
the French Government regards every movement of
the handful of starving, and consequently desperate
'TT', who, more to gain an infamous livelihood than to
di,e
crush, advocatettlil,eeamn:ail,pimrinainrcsciiiixpylteno,ofattack in trumpery periodicals
of small circulation, and no moral or political influ-
ence,
either of them o r theirntjhusl,y.simpSlyenbsiyblteakiinnegn
nwo•onuold.
The following
include all that is of any
moment in these Papers :
A letter from
Oran, of the 20th September, " Abd-el-Kader has finally failedf save :
The Arab army has suffered much, and ebe or
extracts
authors,
losses in men, luggage, &c. The pa,rtisansloPferAndeed
Tre
indeed, that the chiefs of Ain-;Nadi have -islo-lkiertdeedr,
through the Marabouts of different tribes, to be received
among the subjects of the new Sultan, and that their desire
has been complied with, that in consequence an amicable ar-
rangement had been concluded, but this is a pure fable.