The Sun.
London, England, 1846-01-10 00:00:00

MANCHESTER AND SOUTHAMPTON
,RAILWAY.

The following letters have been addressed to the editor of the
Times :

Sir,—ln one of your editorial articles of this morning on the cab-
ject of new railroad Schemes, I find the Manchester and Southamp-
ton Railway thus singled out for animadversion:—" The much-
vaunted plan for railway communication .between Manchester and
Southampton, for instance, is now alleged to be simply an impossi-
bility. In the excitement of launching the scheme, allotting the
shares, getting the plans deposited in time, and congratulating the
fortunate shareholders on the last grand point having been gained,
every one seems to have forgotten the existence of the Cotteswold
hills, which present, it is now declared; an insurmountable barrier
to the railway being constructed. It is strange that no one ever
thought of the Cotteswold hills before, but there they are, and there
they have been from the first-L' a great fact,' which all the forces
the Railway King has at his command will net be able to remove."
The sinister report to which yen thus give currency was officially
contradicted in the columns of many of your contemporaries a fort-
night age, and the Directors had hoped that a statement at once so
unfounded, and calculated so unnecessarily to disturb the minds of
their shareholders, would not again be lightly advanced.
Fer your information, however, and that of the public, I beg once
more distinctly and emphatically to state that, so far from the Cottes-
wold hills presenting " an insurmountable barrier to the railway
being constructed," the Company's engineers-in-chief (Messrs. Ste-
phenson and Bidder) have been enabled to lay out a line which,
having regard to the entire distance of 88 miles between Cheltenham
and Southampton, is of ordinary character and costs.
I may add, that the gentleman on whose authority this pass
was seme time snce stated to be " impracticable," is himself the en-
gineer to a line through the same hills,. wh*.ch is to be submitted to
Parliament in the ensuing session, and as to the engineering features
of which this Company may invite comparison with those of
their own line, and that the practicability of the line was
distinctly ascertained many months `ago, before a prospectus ap-
peared, er a single share was issued; and, further, that the Directors
are fully prepared to substantiate to Parliament and to their sub-
scribers every statement upon the faith of which they have re-
ceived the support of the latter, and are about to softit the sanction
of the former. You will, indeed, be Aware that, if any reasonable
doubt existed on these points, the public and the shareholders are
themselves In a position to satisfy their doubts, copies of the Com-
pany's Plans being in the possession of the Clerk of the Peace for
every county into which the line runs; of every Parish Clerk, of the
Clerk of the Parliament, and of the Officers of the House of Commons,
and the Clerks of Peace and of Parishes, being bound to exhibit them
to all corners for a fee of is. per hour.
In order that there may be no possible mistake in this matter, I
annex a letter from the Company's engineers, in confirmation of the
foregoing statement, and remain, Sir, faithfully yours,
JOHN WHEELER.
17, Great George-street, Westminster, Friday, Jan. 9, 1846.
To the Managing Committee of the Manchester and Southampton
Railway.

" Gentlemen,—We observe in the ' Times' of to-day a statement to
the effect that this line is impracticable, the Cotteswold hills pre-
senting an insurmountable obstacle to its construction.

" It has been our professional rule and practice io lay out the
railways committed to our charge in such a way as to insure easy
and practical lines by the construction of moderate works at a rea-
sonable cost, and we shall be prepared to show, at the proper tine,
that, so far from the Manchester and Southampton line through the
Cotteswold hills being impracticable,' it answers in every respect
to the character we have endeavoured to impart to all our under-
takings, and will bear a very favOurable comparison with several
lines now in operation, and with a vast number of those submitted
to the Legislature in the last year, or intended for Parliament in its
approaching session.—Your obedient servants,
(Signed) " ROBERT STEPHENSON.
" GEO. P. BIDDER.
" Great Creorge-street, Westminster,
Friday, January 9, 1846."