The Sun.
London, England, 1847-10-01 00:00:00

S : L
MANCHESTER, THERSDIY i,iS DU: m
toms fiance w;th are quisit-oie to the 2,1a5 go. d ,
by 300 persons and firms, consi-ting of t'e. priecipsd
'tankers, merchants, manufacturere, and sa,rehrekers,
a public meeting was held at the Fown-hall, in Kieg-
Areet, to take into consideration the present extent of
esilvvay exi enditure, it being tie opinion of the re-
luisitionists that the mercantile affairs of the country
have been seriously deranged by the heavy calls made
for railway purposes, thereby rendering it expedient
that bankers, merchants, traders, and others interested
should consider any and what steps can be taken to
limit the drain thus created and occasioned upon the
floating capital of the nation, so as to diminish the
pressure so injuriously affecting the trade of the dis-
trict and country generally.
The large room of the Town-ball, calculated to ac-
commodate between 1,000 and 2,000, was filled by
shout half-past eleven o'clock, at which hour the
Mayor, Mr. E. Armitage, took the chair. On the
platform we observed Mr. J. B. Smith, M.P. fer
Stirling; sir. Alderman Bancroft, Mr. Alderman
Kershaw, Mr. ;dilemma Shurtleworth,
;rounds, chairman of the West Lorelei) Railway,
Mr. Raw-ion, a director of different Lancadiire rail-
Nays, and the following large maeufac. urers—Mr.
T. Bazeley, Mr. L. Willyams, Mr. Johnson, chair-
,nan of the Manchester Stock Exchange, Mr. 1).
:'rice, Mr. Greig, Mr. Metcalfe, and the representa-
thes of numerous other firms.
Before the proceedings commenced the entrance of
a body of Chartists excited some observation, but
they took no part in the proceedings, and offered no
obstruction.
Mr. T. BAZELEY, a large cotton manufacturer, of
the firm of Bazeley and Brothers, proposed the first
resolution, to the effect that, owing to the tadare
the potato crop, and the general deficiency of our
harvest in 1846, causing an extreme drain upon our
resources for the purchase of food from other coun-
tries, our available capital is insufficient to carry on
the necessary business of the country, and to meet the
demands now being made upon it for railway pur-
poses." Though he had been allured, like many
others, by the temptation of making investments in
railways, he had never, excepting in the capacity of
an executor and trustee, possessed a single railway
share ; and it might, therefore, fairly be presumed
that he had no sinister or self-interested motive
in coming forward on the present occasion.—
(Loud applause.) Though not identified with the
railway movement he was not insensible to the dis-
tresses it was inflicting on the mercantile communities
of this country, in conjunction with the various cir-
cumstances that had led to the present embarrassed
state of things ; for though railway evils stood pro-
minently forward, he did not think that they were
justified in exclusively confining the injuries they
were sustaining, and the losses they had experienced,
entirely to railway operations and investment.—
(Hear.) Unquestionably the deficient harvest of
1846 was the primary cause of their inability to em
ploy capital in two directions. They could not em-
ploy their capital in making purchases of foreign food
for the people, and at the same time invest it in rail-
ways.—(Hear, hear.) The great evil they contended
with was the necessity of transfixing capital—taking
it from a floating to a permanently fixed and invested
purpose. The failure of the harvest accelerated the
necessity of withdrawing floating capital from the
general manufactures and commerce of the coun-
try, and capital at the same time was lately
called for by the railway directors to invest it
in the various projects then before the coun-
try. He could not omit calling attention to
the proceedings of public journals and public
bodies in reference to the conduct of railway di-
rectors and proprietors during the last two years.
The editor of the Times had done himself great
honour, and the country great service, by treating
the subject as it had, by its constant and unqualified
condemnation of wild, speculative, and ill-digested
schemes. The public press generally had warned
them that they were about to fall into a national di-
lemma, and the Manchester Chamber of Commerce
prophetically, a year and a half ago, petitioned the
1-louse of Commons to take the whole subject into
consideration ; but this was attended by no result.
They afterwards, in July, 1846, petitioned the Board
of Trade, stating, " That, considering Parliament had
granted Railway Bills throughout the session without
reference to the aggregate amount of capital which
they thereby authorised the directors to collect, and
which could not be so collected by individual agency,
—seeing that the calls Parliament has sanctioned
transfer from a floating to a fixed capital an amount
which it is impossible for the country to supply,—
believing that in many of the projects, the Bills for
which if pushed to completion could not be carried
out, the subscribers to them would now be most
gladly relieved of responsibility, and foreseeing great
misery and loss of employment in the manufac-
turing districts, your memorialists earnestly pray
before the session expires that your Lordships may
cause some general measure to be proposed which
may apply to all bills passed, which may have the
effect of fully testing the power of subscribers to each
individual project to carry out the object proposed,
which shall grant facilities to companies to dissolve
themselves, and which may in every case limit the
power of the directors to make calls under such pro-
visions as your Lordships may consider the least pre-
judicial to the general interest or within the probable
power of the country to supply." Had this judicious
advice of the directors of the Chamber been acted on,
the country would hays been saved much misery and.
incalculable loss.—(Applause.) They might, how-
ever, by an expression of public opinion, induce the
directors of railway companies not to expend capital
to an inconvenient amount. It might be unwise,
probably, totally to suspend operations connected with
the extension of some particular lines, or it might be
unwise to suspend all operations in connexion with
new lines, for there would he thrown out of employ-
ment such a mass of physical power that, in all pro-
bability, the peace of the country might be disturbed,
and in having to contend with one evil we should.
take care to avoid raising another by too suddenly
suspending operations in connexion with the evil they
were now contending with.—(Applause.) The Legisla-
ture, he apprehended, would not interfere with the
Acts that had already been granted, but the rectifying
principle of public opinion should be called into ex-
ercise, for the purpose of mitigating the evil.--
(Hear.) Railway proprietors, like all other people,
naturally pursued their own interest, and he believed
it would be exceedingly difficult to obtain pledges
from any directors to cease their operations. Like
other men of business, they would follow their own
interest and ideas—ideas, he feared, very frequently
crudely conceived, and prejudicial alike to the pro-
prietors and the public.—(Hear, hear.) He per-
ceived in one of the Manchester papers that during
the present year the outlays on fifty principal rail-
ways had amounted to 13,000,0001., and it was found,
by computing the total market value of these fifty
lines from the commencement of the present year to
the present period that they stood at a less marketable
value by 15,000,000/. sterling, even after the alit•
Lion to their capital of 13,000,000/. sterling. (I/
hear.) Here was a glaring deficiency of 28,000;000/.
sterling—a sum that might as well have been sunk
in the sea as employed in a manner so pre judicial
to the community.—(Applause.) If railway pro-
prietors did not see that by paying further calls they
were depreciating their own property, they must
be totally without the comprehension of men of
business. The meeting of this day would have an
effect en many well-intending directors and pro-
prietors. lie believed that, as a body, they were ex-
ceedingly anxious to consult the public on the sub-
ject, and when public opinion was unmistakably
expressed, a salutary influence would be effected.—
(Applause.) These works ought to be curtailed.
They could not have capital to carry on large indus-
trial operations connected with manufactures and
commerce, and at the same time have precisely the
same capital fixed and invested in railways; and,
until this common sense idea was acted on, they
would continue to be seriously inconvenienced. The
existing state of things could not go on without
leading to increased difficulties—difficulties that they
could not contemplate without feelings of horror and
t e
dread.—(Load applause.)
Mr. Alderman KERSHAW said, that although he dil
engagements
now found them to be oppressive. All
m
not possess a single share, he yet sympathised with
thoseus t
admit
mt h
o havingtat h
me ad e
railwaynga nts with ra" way
i
companies,
gtreaffiec ofthis country
was becoming a most element
important
as connected
with our commercial success ; and no one, he though;
had a word to say against a proper and prudent ex-
tension of railways.—(Applause.) But, owing to a de-
ficient harvest, the drain on the national resources has
been such that they could no longer carry on the bu-
siness of the country and pay their railway
calls; and the question therefore was, whether
the commercial engagements and manufacturing
projects of the nation were to give place to
these immense demands.—(Cheers.) Railway calls
might be suspended without any large measure of
inconvenience to the country, but their manufactures
and commerce could not be perplexed by the great
monetary matters connected with them without the
entire nation, rich and poor, participating in the ille
astrons consequences.—(Applause.) What was the
effect of it? W hat was the price of money ? What
the difficulty of obtaining money to carry on commer•
cial operations ? What were they to think of the
failures that were literally stunning them day by day?
They naturally asked what would be the end of these
things, and as reasonable and wise men he trusted all
parties would unite in devising a mode for protecting
the interests of each.—(Appause.) Directors might
continue to make cads, but he could not see how they
were to be met ; but if they were met, it was only to
pay a large amount of money for railway purposes,
with the absolute certainty of reducing railway pro-
perty to the extent of those payments. The measures
which they now asked railway directors and proprie.
tors to take, were equally conducive to their own irn