The Sun.
London, England, 1838-10-09 00:00:00

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RAILWAYS IN IRELAND.

PRICE sd.

(From the Times.)
We will not pretend to give an opinion as to the supe-
rior eligibility of the lines recommended by the Commis-
sioners of Railways for Ireland, or of those proposed by
the Railway Companies already formed or contemplated.
This must greatly depend on local circumstances, requiring
the most laborious examination, and of which none but
skilful and experienced engineers can be competent judges ;
and the last few years have shown bow widely even those
persons can differ on such points. But as far as general
arguments, and as the traffic, means, population, and im-
portance of towns and districts are concerned, the recom-
mendations of the Commissioners appear fair and plau-
sible enough. They have been censured for objecting to
all the lines proposed by various formed or intended Com-
panies, and for recommending a line of their own in
lieu, it being argued that they were only appointed to
give an opinion respecting the comparative merits of the
lines proposed by different Companies, and to facilitate
the labours of those associations, not, on the contrary, to
endeavour to crush them by objecting to their lines and by
recommending totally different ones. This construction of
the letters patent by which the Commissioners were ap-
pointed does not seem to be warranted either by the letter
or intent of that document, or by the purpose for which the
Commission was issued. It appears to us that the Com-
missioners were not only left at perfect liberty to object.to
all the lines projected by Companies, and to recommend to-
tally different lines, but that- they were bound to do so, if,
after a full and partial examination of the former lines, they
found them disadvantageous to the public, or even less ad-
vantageous than others which could be suggested. Whether
this investigation was properly conducted, and the conclu-
sions of the Commissioners were fairly and impartially ar-
rived at (which would seem to be doubted by some of the
parties interested in rival lines), is of course quite another
question. We ob'cct, however, to the report and
proceedings of the Commissioners upon other grounds.
Ist. Because they have gone far beyond the letter
and evident intent of their instructions, by entering
into minute details and calculations of the cost and
return of the lines recommended by them : thereby
putting the public to a large and unnecessary expense in
attempting to do what the experience of the last four or
five years has proved to be utterly impracticable, while
their calculations may have the effect of seriously dampinc,
the spirit of oven legitimate enterprise in those undertak7-
ings. The Birmingham Railway will have cost about the
double of the original estimate laid before Parliament, and
the most enormous difference between the previous esti-
mates and the subsequent cost of execution has been ex.
perienced by all the Railway Companies. The same un-
certainty is shown as respects returns. The present extent
of traffic and intercourse is found to form no criterion
whatever of what is likely to be their future amount.
Steamers and railroads usually (we may say invariably,
where the means and taste of the population or other
local causes do not present unusual obstacles) create
so complete a revolution in the travelling habits of
every district with which they are connected as to
set all previous calculations at utter defiance. Ample
proof of this may every day be seen on our coasts,
rivers, and roads, and we need only refer to the descrip-
tion given by the Commissioners themselves of the enor-
mous and incalculable increase of travelling which has
taken place in all the countries where steamers, railroads,
omnibuses, and other new and improved means of convey-
ance have been introduced. Moreover, while the Com-
missioners have thus been exceeding their instructions and
puttinc, the country to great expense' for an unattainable
object (unless, indeed, the real object was to throw a good
job in the way of a friend or of a Whigling), they have,
by their own showing, omitted to do what they were clearly
instructed to perform. The letters patent directed them to
" take into consideration not only the existing means which
the country presents, but those which may be an-
ticipated from the resources which may in future be de-
veloped." Now, this they have not done, and they ex-
pressly say so at page 17 of their Report. " No allow-
ance," they observe, " has been made in these estimates
for the increase which would attend the progressive im
provement of the country."

2dly. We strongly object to the Commissioners 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 be 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 ? This is not only Irish
logic with a vengeance, but here is also a good spice of
Scotch "double-sight." It was, however, no bad means
for verifying the prediction which they had so presci-
ently made. A hint that money is likely to be got
for asking is seldom lost on speculators in any country ;
but the Irish are surely not so remarkable for their
retiring modesty and for their backwardness in asking
for money or for any other " valuable commodity" within
their reach, that it was necessary for the Commissioners
to give them so broad a hint on the subject instead
of waiting at least—if it had only been to pick John
Bull's pocket with some outward show of decency—until
the proposed plan of railroads had been made generally
known, and it could- really be shown that no Companies
were forthcoming to undertake those lines. The Commis-
sioners do not state the reasons on which they found the
opinion we have just spoken of, but, judging from general ap-
pearances, we should certainly have arrived at every different
conclusion, supposing always the lines recommended by the
Commissioners to have been made with judgment, skill, and
impartiality. It appears also from the Report, that rail-
roads have been undertaken or are projected, by Companies
already formed or proposed, from Dublin to nearly or all the
points recommended by the Commissioners, though by diffe-
rent lines, and this we presume (as no mention is made of
public assistance) without applying for a single shilling to
the public Exchequer. If, then, Companies were ready to
execute without public assistance the lines projected by
themselves, but described by the Commissioners as being so
inferior to their own, how much more desirous should those
Companies be of undertaking the lines proposed by the
Commissioners when they perceive their superiority ? But
if, on the contrary, they adhere to their own lines, and no
Company can be found to undertake the Commissioners'
lines without a large advance from the public purse, while
other lines can be executed without such aid, will it not
afford tolerably strong evidence that there is something rot-
ten in the state of Denmark ? We do not deny that, as far
as one or two principal lines go, railroads are perhaps the
most useful mode in which public money could be expended
in Ireland ; but, for the same reason, they are also the
undertakings in which capitalists are the post likely to em-
bark without. assistance from the Government. Such aid
should, therefore, only have been thought of when all chance
of establishing railroads by private means had entirely
ceased. There is another circumstance connected with
the foregoing point, respecting which some still stronger
charges have been brought against the Commissioners.
It is stated, that in the letters patent issued before
the death of his late Majesty, and by which the
Commissioners were appointed, the latter were instructed
to ascertain the best lines on which it may be advisable to
establish Railways, and for which Joint-stock Companies
may be willing to apply to Parliament ; but that in the
new letters patent which it became necessary to issue upon
the demise of the Crown all reference to Joint-stock Com-
panies was studiously omitted. This omission, it has been
more than insinuated, was caused by the Commissioners
themselves, to enable them to obtain public assistance for
some of their friends who intended to dabble in Railways,
and to secure for others some of the good jobs and appoint-
ments that would arise from the interference of Govern-
ment ; all which laudable schemes would have been pre-
vented, if the above-mentioned condition respecting Joint-
stock Companies, which was contained in the first let-
ters patent, had not been omitted in the second. The
cause of this notable omission it will be for Ministers
to explain on the re-assembling of Parliament. If we
laid a wager, we would bet that the Commissioners will be
found less to blame in the matter than her Majesty's Minis-
ters, and that this will turn out to be an attempt at another
of those disgraceful jobs—another of those sops, by which
the present Ministry endeavour to stop the growls and
satisfy the ravenous craving of the great Agitator and his
tail. We have already been told by one of O'Connell's
creatures that one or two millions of English money must
be given for public works in Ireland. The interference of
Government and an advance of public money are always
to be deprecated where they can possibly be dispensed
with, but this is doubly the case in Ireland, where the pro-
pensity to jobbing and to extravagance is so notorious.
Many undertakings in that country which would have
yielded a good return if executed under the vigilant con-
trol of parties immediately interested, became ruinous be-
cause the expense was defrayed out of the Exchequer, and
the works were planned and performed under the superin-
tendence of public officers. It is no doubt necessary for

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