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

ceeded ? The Commission bound them most cer-
tainly " to take into consideration the means to be
anticipated from the resources of the country here-
after to be developed ;" but what can be more
absurd then to say that they ought, therefore, to have
mixed up exact calculations upon certain data with probable
estimates founded upon the mere groundwork of hopes and
expectations ? The Times, however, seems to be ignorant
that the latter have place in the Report:at all. Our Con-
temporary expressly charges the Commissioners with
omitting this part of their duty. No charge can be more
destitute of foundation.
It would have been well had the Times given the entire
passage in page 17, of which it quotes the first sentence.
That passage is as follows :
No allowance has been made in these estimates for the
increase which would attend the progressive improvement
of the country. They are framed in reference to an addi-
tional facility in the transport of the existing trade ; but
the evidences of growing prosperity are such as can leave no
doubt that even without taking into account the powerful
impulse which would be given to the general industry of
the country, through: the operation of such Railways, a
considerable addition might, in the course of a few years,
be reasonably expected."
And the Report immediately proceeds to detail a mulel-
tude of facts of the greatest interest and importance in sup-
port of this general statement. It gives tables of exports and
imports, enabling us to estimate the commercial progress of
the country from 1825 to 183.5. It gives Post-office re-
turns from 1827 to 1837, and it gives a view of the pro.
gre-ss of banking in Ireland.
But is this all i) IVill the Times do us the favour to turn
to page 86 of the Report, to the section ‘‘ On the influ-
ence of Railways in developin,g the resources ofa country ?"
There is a reference to this in our Contemporary's article,
but he would seem to have pursued it no further than the
remarks upon English and foreign railroads led him. The
greater part of that section, however, is occupied with Ire-
land, and contains most ably and luminously unfolded
views and anticipations of the Commissioners, in confor-
mity with that very part of their instructions, which the
Times inconsiderately charges them with having altogether
overlooked. The greater portion of the section we speak
of, has already been published in this Journal.
There is one passage in this part of the Report which
we willingly avail ourselves cf the present opportunity to
lay again before our readers. After some remarks upon
the increased inducements which a complete railway system
in Ireland would hold out to travellers from the other parts
of the United Kingdom, and even from the- continent ce
Europe, the Commissioners observe with great force, ant
in a spirit which cannot be too highly commended—

" But the motel effects of such intercourse will perhaps
Outweigh the immediate pecuniary intersts involved in it,
by the important influence which they will exercise on the
fate of the country. Ireland, though for years past a sub-
ject of anxious attention and discussion in public, is really
very little known to the British people ; and the disadvan-
tvge to both countries, arising from that circumstance, is
much greater than is generally supposed. Connected as
they are by the same laws and identified in interests, any
proposal to cement this union, by drawing their inhabitants
clovr together in the bonds of mutual intercourse and
knowledge, claims general attention, and, if it appear cal-
culated to promote that end, should command general
support.

If the lines recommended by us shall be adopted there
will, undoubtedly, be a large resort of strangers to Ireland,
nod great numbers will constantly pass and repass through
(
the land. It might be enough for the shareholders and
proprietors of a railway to assured of this, without
troubling themselves to ask what business may hare brought
so many travellers to their trains, or whither they may go
after departing from the stations. But these are questions
of great interest and importance to the country, for so abun-
dant and continuous a stream could not flow through its
soil without fertilizing and enriching it on both sides. Those
frequent visitors, whether engaged in commerce, attracted
by curiosity, or merely passing on to a more remote desti-

nation, must, necessari:y, cause an increased activity
in various departments of business, and ;:dcl most con-
siderably to the circulation of money. Thus, although
a railroad itself, as a mercantile speculation, might not, all
at once, fulfil the sanguine expectations of the projectors,
it would still be an invaluable source of general. wealth and.
prosperity."

- The length to which this article has already extended
obliges us to defer until to-morrow -our answer to the
second objection advanced by the Times against the
Report.

We proceed, AS we promised, to notice the second objec-
tion advanced by the writer in the Times to the report of
the Irish Railway Commissioners. He says :
" 2dly. We strongly object to the Commissioneri having
taken upon themselves to express a ' doubt whether
any Company will be induced to undertake either of the
great lines' recommended by them, and, consistently
enough, to follow up that statement by advising a large
pecuniary advance to ba made from the public purse to
assist in carrying them into effect. How could the Com-
missioners possibly know the intentions of Companies and
capitalists respecting the lines suggested in their Report
before those lines had been made known to and examined
by the above-mentioned parties ?"
And a little further on he asserts :

" The Commissioners do not state the reasons on which
they found the opinion we have just spoken of, but, judging
from general appearances, we should certainly have arrived
at a very different conclusion, supposing always the lines re-
commended by the Commissioners to have been made with
judgment, skill, and impartiality."
Now we cannot do better than lay before the reader the
following passage from Part 111. of the Report, p. 93. Let
the Commissioners speak for themselves :
" There can be no doubt that parties might be found
ready to undertake certain portions of these lines, which
hold out special prospects of advantage ; such, for example,
as the first 20 or 30 miles leading out of Dublin, over which
all the traffic with other places, near as well as remote,
must necessarily pass. But since, according to our calcu-
lations, the return of profit on'the whole system could not
be expected, for some time, to exceed 3} or 4 per cent.,
it is manifest that if the best and most productive portions
are taken possession of unconditionally-, there can be no
reasonable hope that the remainder will ever be carried
into effect. This would so completely frustrate the most
important of the objects contemplated in issuing this Com-
mission, by Opposing a bar to thefuture improvement of the
country, that we trust it will not be in any case permitted.
It would be even more advisable that no partial line should
be sanctioned until the country should possess within itself
the means of undertaking the whole system to its full ex-
tent, than at once and,for ever to obstruct and paralyse all
future exertions for its accomplishment, by abandoning, to
parties having particular and distinct interests, the mono-
poly of some of its most productive detached portions.
" We, therefore, earnestly recommend that every effort
be made to combine into one' interest, and under one
%management and controul, the whole of the southern sys-
tem of intercommunication between Dublin and Cork,
Limerick, Waterford, and Kilkenny ; and that the northern
line, by Navan—to Armagh at least—be treated according
to the same principle, and considered as one concern.
" If a body of capitalists be found ready to undertake
either of these great works, as a whole, we presume that
the general feeling of the Legislature and of the country
will be to leave the execution of it as little fettered as
possible by restriction, to the management of private enter-
prise ; and in addition to this, it would be just and advis-
able to relieve them from all needless expenses, to which
otherwise, in the existing state of the law, they would be
liable. With this view, we recommend particularly that
the Act of Parliament be granted free of any charge, as for
a public measure; that a mode of determining the amounts to
be paid in compensation of land and damages be adopted, on
principles more fixed and independent of private or local
bias than the present practice ; and that, some general enact-
ment be provided, authorising:, to a certain extent, altera-
tions
of obvious utility to be introduced in the original
plan, without the costly expedient of resorting, in every
case, to Parliament for a new or amended Act.
" But the investigations which we have made lead us to
doubt whether any Company will be induced to undertake
either of these great lines, even with the facilities and ad-
vantages which might, on general principles, be afforded
them. In such case we trust, that to avoid the evils of partial
execution, and to accomplish so important a national object
as that contemplated in the completion of the entire system,
we may look forward to a certain degree of assistance from
the State, as great, at least, as has been given for the en-
couragement of other public works in Ireland ; and on
tl.ose grounds of policy which, we believe, have not been
disputed, and on which it is therefore unnecessary for us
to enlarge."
The reader will observe, in the first place, that the
Commissioners do state the reasons which lead them to
doubt whether any Company will be induced to undertake
either of the great lines recommended. They state those
reasons in the paragraph of the passage we have just x",*
trActed. The Times, however, sa)s they were not. called
upon to express any such opinion, and, in fact, that in do-