The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-27 00:00:00

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

LONDON AND NORTH-WESTERN.

On Saturday a special general meeting of the share-
holders of the London and North-Western Railway Com-
pany was held at the Euston-square terminus, Major
General Anson in the chair, for the purpose of having
submitted to them, in accordance with the standing
orders of the House of Lords, copies of the following
bills :--

" A bill to enable the London and North-Western Rail-
way Company to make a railway to connect the Bucking-
hamshire Railway w.th the Oxford, Worcester, and Wol-
verhampton Railway, and to confer certain other powers
with respect to the last-mentioned railway."
" A bill to enable the London and North-Western Rail-
-way Company to construct a railway from near Tring to
Oxford, with a branch at Oxford, and for other purposes."
" A bill to enable the London and North-Western Rail-
waY Company to construct branch railways to St. Albans,
and for other purposes."
' " A bill to enable the London and North-Western Rail-
way Company to construct a railway from Northampton to
Market Harborough, with a branch therefrom, all
county of Northampton, and for other purpose_s-
" A bill to enable the London and North-Western Rail-
way Company to construct branches to Stourbn ' dge and
to form a junction with the Oxford, Worcester,_ and Wol-
verhampton Railway, in the township of UpperSwi,nf_ ord,
in the county of Worcester, and for other pm-poses. '
" A bill to enable the London and North-Western Rail.
way Company to construct a railway from near Wellington
to Coalbrookilale and Ironbridge, with a branch to the
Hadley station of the Shropshire Union Railway, all in
the county of Salop, and for other purposes."
" A bill for enabling the London and North-Western
Railway Company to construct a railway from Crewe to
Shrewsbury, and other works in connection with their
undertaking, and for other purposes relating thereto."
" A bill for conferring additional powers on the London
and North-Western Railway Company with reference to
the construction of their Oldham branch, and for making
an alteration in such branches, and for other puiposes."
" A bill for making a railway from the London and
North-Western Railway at Willesden' to the East and
West India Docksand Birmingham Junction Railway, with
a branch to the North and South-Western Junction Rail-
way, to be called ',The North and South-Western, Hamp-
stead, and City Junction Railway,' and for other purposes.
" A bill for making a railway from Worcester to Here-
ford, with certain branches therefrom, for making arrange-
ments with the Midland and London and North-Western
Railway Companies, and for other purposes."
" A bill for making a railway from the London and
North-Western Railway, in the parish of Milverton, in the
county of Warwick, to Stratford-upon-Avon, in the same
county, with branches, to be called the Leamington, War-
wick, and Stratford-npbn-Avon Railway."
The advertisement by which the meeting had been con-
vened having been read by the secretary, Mr. C. E.
Stewart,
The CHAIRMAN said—Gentlemen, you have been called
together to-day for the purpose of having submitted to
you the bills for the various projects which the directors
of this company have thought it their duty to prosecute
in Parliament, with a view of extending and promotinc,
the interests of this great company, and which projects
have now passed through the ordeal of an examination
in the House of Commons. When I last had the plea-
sure of meeting you, I told you that I hoped, on the
occasion of another meeting, I should be able to give
you some information respecting the course which
the select committee of the House of Commons had
recommended on the subject of the future railway
legislation of the country. In that hope I have been
disappointed. We are still in the dark with respect to
their views as to the past legislation on railway matters,
and we are also still in the dark as to their views and
opinions of the present system, or of the mode in which
it should be amended—that is, providing it has been
proved before them in evidence that the system hitherto
pursued has been objectionable. The consequence 'of
this state of uncertainty has been that we have been
obliged to go on as we have heretofore proceeded—we
have been compelled to endeavour to fortify ourselves as
well as we can—to protect the property that we possess
to the utmost extent that the ingenuity of lawyers and
the professional skill of engineers would enable us to do.
I confess to you that I regret this state of things, for I
should have been glad to tell you now that some more
definite course of legislation had been chalked out for us
by Parliament. I am ready to admit that the directors
of this company are fully sensible of the strong dissatis-
faction that may be, and no doubt is, felt by many pro-
prietors at the prospect of any large additional expendi-
ture of capital by this company ; but I can assure you
that the directors have not been regardless of such a
feeling. On the contrary, they have been exceedingly
anxious to consider all the projects originally brought
forward this year, in the hope that some of them might
be abandoned. Int I assured you at the last meeting
that the directors had examined them calmly and
deliberately; and that they found it impossible to appear
in this room and to recommend to the proprietors that
any of them, in that stage of their existence, should be
abandoned. In the interim that has elapsed the directors
have not had their anxiety in any way diminished in
reference to these bills ; they have watched with sedulous
care their progress through the House of Commons, and
have waited to see whether the select committee would do
anythingto guiderailwaycompanies in their future course;
but, as I have stated, the select committee have, as yet,
not chalked out any course for us to pursue, and we
therefore now appear before you having reconsidered
all those projects, and the result is, that we are
satisfied we should not be fulfilling our duty to the
great company, whose interests are placed in our hands if
we did not recommend you, on this occasion, to give
your unqualified, and, I hope, your unanimous sanction
to the measures named in the circular that has been for-
warded to each proprietor. I should be sorry to occupy
your time with preliminary observations to-day particu-
larly as we have a good many of these bills before us ;
but as honourable proprietors may have some objections
against, or be desirous to offer some observations upon
them, I will proceed to name the different projects as
they are offered to you in the circular. I think you
will remember. that at the last meeting, held in the
month of April, I stated the number of projects involv-
ing an expenditure of capital was nine ; they are now
reduced to six, three having fallen victims to the in-
quiries in the "louse of Commons ; and the amount of
money required to complete them is also reduced by
750,0001., leaving the estimated outlay at 1,400,0001.
This certainly lightens the task which is before me to-
day, and I hope that you will be satisfied in giving your
sanction to the amount that we shall have to ask for.
The first of these bills is to enable the London and
North-Western Railway Company to make a railway
to connect the Buckinghamshire Railway with the Ox-
ford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton Railway, and to
confer certain other powers with respect to the last-
named railway. Now this was explained to you before
as being a very short branch to connect our Bucking-
hamshire system with the Oxford, Worcester, and Wol-
verhampton Railway, and which is in point of fact a
continuance of the narrow-guage system from South
Wales to the east of England, and I think it closes a
gap of very great importance. The east of England will
now be open to the mineral products of South Wales ;
and I think that the traffic, passing through our dis-
trict, as it must, will be found extremely beneficial to
us. The estimated outlay for these works is 36,0001.
The line is two miles in length, but it is in the
neighbourhood of Oxford, and the land is of course
of considerably higher value than land generally
is in agricultural districts. The next bill is to
enable the London and North-Western Railway
Company to construct a railway from near Tring to Ox-
ford, with a branch at Oxford, and for other purposes.
Now, gentleman, this is one of the projects the pro-
priety of which was rather disputed by many gentlemen,
who thought the district through which it is proposed to
be carried an unprofitable one for a railway. But allow
me to say there are other considerations connected with
this, and which, I think, will satisfy you-that the line is,
at this moment, considering what passed in the House
of Commons, one of the most important brought for-
ward for your consideration. There was the Mid-
Western line projectod by a separate company, and it
was to form a continuous line, I may say, with the Ox-
ford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton line, into the
South Wales district. That scheme was considered for
many days by a committee of the House of Commons,
and they decided unanimously, I believe, that our line
was the preferable one. (Hear.) I dare say that one
of the considerations which induced them to come to
their decision'svas the larger amount of capital required
for the proposed Mid-Western line. The committee,
expressly stated that they thought it most desirable that
a narrow-gauge communication between the South
Wales district and London should be carried out by this
projected extension from Tring to Oxford. I think this
is a most satisfactory conclusion for. us—(hear)—and the
committee were satisfied that this line would afford not
only the best through communication, but that it would,
also give the largest amount of local accommodation in
that district of country. lam afraid that some of the
landed proprietors of the district are disappointed at
the loss of the Mid-Western project, but I think the
line of country is so completely within our system that
you will at some future time give your sanction to
provide kir the whole of the accommodation proposed
to be given by the Mid-Western scheme, for I am
satisfied it will entirely answer all our purposes and
be remunerative. We cannot expect that any por-
tion of the district should remain satisfied without
having the railway accommodation required, and I think
the affording such accommodation to all the great tow ns
in England is in some degree a question of time. I my-
self fully anticipate that, at some future day, the whole
of England will be a network of railways, so that there
will be hardly a town without railway conveniences.
The length of the Tring and Oxford line is 31 miles, and
the estimated outlay is 400,000/. ; but we have reason
to believe that this is rather an excessive estimate, and I
think the revised estimate will give it at about 381,0001.,
for which the works will be completed.
It was here suggested that the chairman should put
to the sanction of the shareholders each bill immediately
after he
he had made his observations upon its object.
The CIIAIRMA.N said he was anxious to carry out the
wishes of the proprietors, and at once put the bills for
the branch to conect the Buckinghamshire and Oxford,
Worcester, and Wolverhampton Railways, and for the
Tring and Oxford line.
The bills were unanimously approved of.
The CIIAIR3IAN rhe i next bill s one to enable
the London and North-Western Railway Company to
construct a branch railway to St. Alban' s,
ndefxoprlaoiteheedr
purposes. I think the object of this bill'
was
t branch
.
to you at the last meeting. It is fora
which will be a considerable feeder to our main r
Albans is placed in rather a peculiar position witillie.
refer-
ence to its being a certain distance from the Great
Northern Railway. If we do not accommodate the in-
habitants they will obtain it from another company ; and
although I do not wish to express any great jealousy at
the increase of traffic upon other lines, I must yet ob-
serve that we are necessitated to give accomodation in
districts which legitimately. belong to our system of
railways. I think the projected branch will be bene-
aow to us. The length im eight mileth and the esti-