The Sun.
London, England, 1846-06-10 00:00:00

the Staffordshire €listricts and the southern coasts, any suit-
able measure shoula be promoted by Parliament to form a
narrow gauge link from the Birmingham and Gloucester line
to Oxford, on the same grounds and in the same manner as
the Commissioners have recommended that it should be
formed between Oxford and the South-Western Railway.
Having thus adverted in detail to the several railways now
proposed to be constructed on the broad gauge, and already
sanctioned by Parliament, my Lords beg leave to submit the
regulations they would recommend to be observed for the
future.
My Lords do not feel themselves competent to give an
opinion on the question alluded to by the Commissioners of
the merits of the four feet eight and a half inch gauge' as
compared with any other among those that have been pro-
posed.
In suggesting, therefore (with some exceptions to be spe-
cified), the adoption of the recommendation made by the
Commissioners, that the "four feet eight and a half inch
gauge should be declared by the Legislature to be the gauge
to be used in all public railways" " hereafter to be con-
structed in Great Britain," they do not conceive that any de-
claration on this point should be understood as positive and
final. The working of the wider gauge established in Ire-
land, and the future history of railways in other countries,
may possibly prove the superiority of some other and inter-
mediate gauge; while the advance of science and the
course of experience may point out a practicable method of
altering an existing gauge, and of easily effecting a great
operation which is now generally conceived to be so costly and
so difficult as, in truth, to be impracticable.
• With this explanation, my Lords beg to recommend that
no line shall hereafter be formed on any other than the four
feet eight and a half inch gauge, excepting lines to the south
of the existing line from London to Bristol, and excepting
small branch lines of a few miles in extent, joining the Great
Western Railway, and conveying to it the traffic of places in
its immediate vicinity; and they further recommend that no
Bill for any such line as above excepted shall be passed by
Parliament unless a special report shall have been made by
the Committee on the Bill, setting forth the particular rea-
sons which have led the Committee to advise that such line
should be formed on any other than the four feet eight and a
half inch gauge. They concur, also, with the Commissioners
in recommending that,. unless by the co = ,• ,
airilpAish6l.lAll2itrralViZCl totakeke. .;
my Lords beg leave to recapitulate the suggestions they
have felt it their duty to make :-
1. That no line shall hereafter be formed on any other
than the four feet eight and a half inch gauge, excepting
lines to the south of the existing line from London to
Bristol, and excepting small branches of a few miles in
length, in immediate connexion with the Great Western
Railway ; but that no such line as above excepted shall be
sanctioned by Parliament, unless a special report shall have
been made by the Committee on the Bill, setting forth the
reasons which have led the Committee to advise that such
line should be formed on any other than the four feet eight
and a half inch gauge.
2. That, unless by the consent of the Legislature, it shall
not be permitted to the directors of any raiiway company to
alter the gauge of such railway.
3. That, in order to complete the general chain of narrow
gauge communication from the north of England to the
southern coasts, and to the port of Bristol, any suitable mea-
sures should be promoted to form a narrow gauge link from
Gloucester to Bristol, and also from Oxford to Basingstoke,
or by any shorter route connecting the proposed Rugby and
Oxford line with the South-Western Railway.
4. That the South Wales line and its branches to Mon-
mouth and Hereford should be permitted to be formed on
the broad gauge, as sanctioned by their Act.
5. That the Rugby and Oxford line, and the Oxford,
Worcester, and Wolverhampton line, should be permitted to
be formed on the broad gauge, as sanctioned by their Acts ;
that the Lords of the Committee of Privy Council for Trade
shall exercise the powers conferred upon them by the
several Acts, and shall require that additional narrow gauge
rails shall forthwith be laid down from Rugby to Oxford,
and from Wolverhampton to the junction with the Birming-
ham and Gloucester line ; and that if it should hereafter
appear that there is a traffic requiring accommodation on
the narrow gauge from the Staffordshire districts to the
southern coast, any suitable measure shall be promoted by
Parliament to form a narrow gauge link from Oxford to the
line of the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway.