The Sun.
London, England, 1847-05-11 00:00:00

GROUP XIII.

NORFOLK (TECETFONLD TO LOWESTOFT,
&Q., WITH A BRANCH TO BALES-
WORTH).
The Committee mot this morning at twelve o'clock, in
:N.10). 7 Committee-room ; Mr. Buller in the chair.
•
DECISION.

The CHAIRMAN declared that the preamble of the Bill had
been proved; and the clauses, with various amendments,
having been agreed to, he intimated that he would report the
favourable decision of the Committee to the House this
evening.

GROUP XV.
CAMBRIDGE AND BEDFORD.
The Committee on this group met this morning at twelve
o'clock ; Mr. Bernal in the chair.
This line is to run across the country by Bigleswade,, so as
to connect the Midland Counties Branch at Bedford with
the Eastern Counties line at Cambridge, and
Mr. Waddington, the vice-chairman of the Eastern
Counties line, was called to show the advantage that would
accrue by the proposed route for the carriage of iron from the
western districts to Ipswich and all the places on the coasts
of Suffolk and Norfolk, while coal would be conveyed, as he
conceived, from Lynn into the centre of Bedfordshire and
Buckinghamshire.
A long cross-examination ensued on the war in which the
line would affect the property of Lord Hardwicke, as also on
the respective merits of Ipswich and Lynn as ports for the
reception of coals, when the witness stated that the cost of
carriage of coals on the Eastern Counties line is three far-
things and a penny per ton per mile, while on the London
and York line the company were restricted to three farthings.
Mr. Robert Stephenson, the engineer, said that he had
laid out a line for an east and west communication two years
ago, and the Eastern Counties Company hadpurchasedmuch a
property with a view to its formation. It would
re-
markably easy line to construct, and would, in his opinion,
not cost more than about 13,0001. per mile.
Mr Borthwick, the engineer, of the line, stated that it
would be twenty miles one furlong in length, of which two-
and-a-half miles are already made. The whole cost of the
line would be 385,0001., and that for land would be 2,1571., of
which 267 acres would be required. There was but little
residential property to be interfered with indeed; those of
Mr. Lewis and Lord Lord Hardwicke being the only ones.
The land agent stated that the owners of land who assented
were 46, those who dissented 40, while the neuters were 65.
The lessees who assent are five, and those who dissent six,
and the occupiers respectively 58 and 83.
This closed the case for the promoters, after which,
Mr. GURNEY, Q.O , opened on behalf of the opposing land-
owners, and said that unless the Legislature were prepared
to sanction an independent line of railway between every
two villages, they would never give their sanction to the
line now before the Committee. It appeared from the evi-
dence that the whole of the population on the proposed line
was 25,000, almost the whole of whom were already sup-
plied ; for 14,500 were ou lines already made, 2,500 were within
a mile and a half of lines now formel, and 3,000 were within
two miles. Then, as to the whole of the traffic, nothing had
been shown as to the transfer of vegetables from the neigh-
bourhood of Potton, the whole of which it appeared was
not more than 3,000 tons, and the whole of the revenue
from it would be 3751. Mr. Smith, a brewer at Cambridge,
had stated that within the course of his experience there had
been no traffic on this line at all ; and another witness, from
the other end of the line, had stated just the same thing; so
that there was no public necessity whatever established.
As for the plea that there was a necessity for an east and west
communication, that was already practically obtained, for the
line from Huntingdon to Bedford had already obtained the
sanction of Parliament, and that would only take the passen-
gers a distance of nine miles further round. With respect
to the procuring coals, that access for them was also
already obtained, for by this latter line there was
the means of communication with the ports of Lynn and
Bedford for the seaborne coal, and for the inland coal-fields
there was the North-Western line and its branches. Seeing
all this, he trusted the Committee would not give their de-
cision on the preamble of this Bill without taking the evi-
dence upon the other Bills before them, and that they would
not sanction a line which had no public utility whatever to
recommend it, in opposition to the wishes of a great number
of owners, with whose property it would materially in-
terfere.
Mr. LIDDELL then called Mr. Nash, who was examined
on the way in which the line would affect the residental pro-
perty of Slr. Law, at Shelford, Mr. Bendish, and Miss Har-
rell, from each of which it runs between three and four hun-
dred yards distant, running in front of the houses on an em-
bankment ten feet high.
The Earl of Hardwicke, Lord-Lieutenant of Bedfordshire,
stated that he resided at Wimpole, seven miles from Royston,
where his property was about 7,000 acres in extent, and that
he did nut conceive, from the thinness of the population, that
there was any justification whatever for the outlay for this
line. There appeared to be two lines of communication
already sanctioned, and in his Lordship's opinion there was
no probability whatever of another line being profitable, for
every requisition as to railway accommodation for the coun
try was already satisfied.
The Committee adjourned at four o'clock.

GROUP XVIL