The Sun.
London, England, 1838-10-11 00:00:00

gage might be placed ju-t as well as a a feet, leaving the
bridges, tunnels, and viaducts exactly the same, but 11
feet was thought be some still too narrow ; and when it is
remembered that this barely allows a width of 10 feet for
loads, whether of cotton, wool, agricultural produce, or
other light goods, and which are liable, also, to be displaced
in travelling, 13 feet (which has been fixed upon in the
Great Western Railway, and which limits the maximum
breadth, under any circumstances, to about 12 feet) mill
net be found excessive." Having maintained a width of
thirty feet on the viaducts and bridges, he thought
that it would be better for the two or three
miles of tunnels which would occur in the whole length
of the line, to maintain the ntaxitnurn space of thirty feet.
Tunnels, they were aware, when once formed could not be
altered without a frightful expense, and to make the bridges
and viaducts thirty feet wide, and to limit the tunnels to
twenty-four, appeared to him to be extremely unwise.—
Cheers.) With respect to the next point, gradients. there he
thought arguments had been advanced which, if applied
would lead to the greatest extravagance instead of eco-
nomy. Having arrived at the gradient of 1 in 528, or 10
feet in the mile, it was assumed that no profitable advan-
tage could be - obtain- ti by going further. Now the gra-
dients on the Great Western Line were four feet in the
mile, which made a d ilerence of 26 per cent. in the loco-
motive power in the direction of the ascent of the plane.
—(Hear, hear.) He was quite aware that arguments had
been frequently advanced that an engine which was
capable of drawing an average load up a gradient of four
feet in the mile, would be equally good for ten feet in the
mile ; but such was not the fact. When they saw two
engines on -the Grand Junction, or on the London and
Birmingham line, propelling a train, what was the
cause? Was it not because the ordinary engine was
not sufficiently powerful to move the train up an in.
clination of 16 feet in the mile ? And why ? because
engines would be always constructed to suit the ave-
rage loads they were to carry. He really did not.
know how it could be asserted that little advantage could
be obtained by gaining better gradients. The resistance
up the inclined plane to the Oxford Station would be 20
per cent. greater were the gradients 10 feet in a mile, than
if they were only 4 feet in a mile ; and what advantage is
it that you can come back more rapidly ? You
must have the power beck that you take up to
Oxford.--(Hear, hear.) When they capitalize the
saving on locomotive power they will find the diffe-
rence between engines of 100 and 128 per cent. He
contended, therefore, that it was good economy to expend
that sum in the first instance, not only because it would
command the best traffic, but that it would keep it.—
(Hear, hear.) Acting as the engineer of that Company,
what he had looked to was the greatest possible return ftir
the capital expended, and he would add a permanent re-
turn. He did not wish to allude to any particular lines,
but he might imagine a line where the gradients were not
the most favourable, and where the distance was not the
shortest, and which, therefore, could not be worked at the
cheapest co-t. He mig'it suppose rival lines running pa-
rallel to those which might cut, off a considerable portion
of their profits.—( Heel-, he Sr.) He hoped that all would
pay, but he thought that in laying down a line of Railway
those matters should be considered, and if a line could
maintain its superiority from these causes over other lines,
it would not only have a large but a permanent return
for the capital invested.—(Cheers.) Mr. Brunel here re-
ferred to the Chester and Crewe line and the Manchester
and Birmingham line, which, he said, was likely to in-
terfere very materially with the traffic of the Grand
Junction, and these points ought to be materially
considered in laying doe n a new line.—(Great cheering.)
Those by whom he had been employed bad allowed him
to point out those advantages, and with their sanction,
as a man of business, and not from any wanton or whimsi-
cal wish to expend the money of the Shareholders, he had
adopted what he conceived to be the most economical
plan,—(Cheers.) He was reminded of one great
point. Looking at the convection between Oxford
and London. Suppose the former town was connected
with the Birmingham line and the Great Western, could
there be a doubt from the superiority of the gradients on
the Great Western, that it would not command the entire
traffic? It was not a question of—would they divide the
traffic? But, who would get all? And the difference of
26 per cent. in locomotive power would bring the whole of
the traffic to the Great Western line.—(Much cheerine.)
He had not taken up these plans fur the purpose of incurring
expense, but from what he believed to be a sound view of
the interests of the Company ; and upon that he was
perfectly willing to stake his reputation as a professional
man.

After a few remarks from Mr. Seale and Mr. Heyworth,

Mr. BABBAGE came forward, and said that a short time
ago he had little anticipated that he would take any pert
in the proceedings of the meeting. He had always taken
a great interest in matters of this sort, and he would shortly
state to them why he had come there, and what means he had
taken to inform himself on the subject. In the course of a
tour he had made six or eight weeks ago, he had heard of the
progress of various railways, but in all his experience of
unfounded reports and statements, he had never met with
so much of what he ectreived to be delusion, with respect
to the inconvenience of travelling on the Great Western
Railroad.—(Hear.) Every coffee-room from there to the
Highlands teemed with reports ; and although not a pro-
fessional engineer, as one of the Shareholders of the un-
dertaking, he made up his mind to travel upon
other Railways, and, by conversing with professional men
connected with them, to form his opinion upon the merits
and demerits of each. He had gone over twelve Railways
with great minuteness, in coniequence of that determina-
tion ; and he had obtained the opinions of those whom he
thought most competent to offer them. He bad written
his remarks white they were fresh in his memory ; during
the transit, he bad noticed the number of vibrations, and all
the other advantages and disadvantages, and the Railways
would then stand. in a certain numerical order. Among
these the Great Western stood second in point of comfort
and facility in travelling.—(Cheers.) He would observe
that even then he was doing injustice to the Great Western,
because he travelled on an experimental train, going at the
rate of forty miles an hour.—(Renewed cheering.) He
was not aware at the time that the Company bad referred
to Mr. Wood, but he was delighted to find that such was
the case, because, ft out what he knew of him, he was satis-
fied that they would get from him facts upon which they
would all agree.—( Hear, hear.) They were at a period
of great and advancing mechanical knowledge, and in con-
structing their Railway it was desirable to look forward to a
greater traffic -hereafter. The outlay at the present
.noment might appear to be extravagant, but at the end of
five or ten years it would turn out a very different thing.
The more their line had a capacity to adapt itself to the
improvements of the day, the more profitable it would be.
Mr. Babbage then referred to the wide gage, and the
longitudinal bearers, to both of which he expressed himself
decidedly favourable. Ha then referred to a series of ex-
periments made on the Newcastle and Durham Railway, for
. ,
the purpose of ascertaurng. tne wearand tear of engines,vrhich
he showed had been materially increased from the difficulty
of getting at de parts requiring repairs. He then referred
to the Report of the Irish Railway Commissioners, which
had been sanctioned by an eminently practical man, Mr.
Drummond, who was also in favour of an increased width
between the rails. Another question was—Suppose they
wished to alter the gage, would they save much ? He
believed not, and be entreated them to weigh the clues.
tion well before they ventured to make the change he
had heard suggested.—(Cries of " Hear," and cheers.)
His opinion on the whole was, that the grossest fallacies
relative to the Great Western Railwey were abroad. It
was against their common irate esta that these fallaciesishould
be propagated, and lie called upon them to refute them,
by obtaining the best iliforination they could on the subject.
It they suspended the works, and said they had no confi-
dence in their engineer, his (Mr. B.'s) conviction was, that
they would throw back the progress of Railways for many
years, and inflict a deep injury on commerce and manufac-
ture.—(Cheers.) Again he would point out to them the vast
invisible expense, by that sort of distraction of mind to which
the Directorshadbeen latterly subjected. He would entreatof
them all to turn their attention to the best means of direct-
ing this energies of the Proprietary to carrying on, to a
profitable conclusion, the important work in which they
were all embarked.

Some discussion then took place as to the probable time
when Mr. Wood's report would be ready ; an.! the Chair-
man eventually fixed the 20th of December as the period
when a Special Meeting of the Proprietors should be heed
in London, for the purpose of taking the reports of Mr.
Wood and Mr. Hawkshavre into consideration.

With this understanding, Mr. Heyworth said he had no
objection to withdraw his amendment ; and the motion,
that the Report be received and adopted, was then carried
unanimously.

forward Mr. HoYE
as,rs had
3otif
five vivurensootiie of
uctions, hisbut
intentionfor
rtii bringgprentbe
Would withdraw them ; at the same time, he begged to
state that he had not in any way altered his opinion.
Mr. I.3aaaaGE moved a vote of thanks to the Directors
for the manner in which thy had conducted the business
of the Company.
The motion was seconded by J. HAIR, Esq., and carried
with acclamation.
Mr. SWIFT then moved a resolution to the effect " that
in the registration book, whi h is open to the Shareholders,
and in which the names of the Proprietors are entered,
he number of shares held by each should also be speci-
fied." The motion was opposed by Mr. Jones and some
other
,-,-oatletnen, but e!',vt‘l i
carried.

Mr. LlEywown.i. ,• • •••• • tut ,otile inisunderstandin,
• r. ,nettt Of Mr.
.Urn 'D
L." u.,,ster .Way to take away the
trail.: from the Grand Junction line. The fact tva, that