The Sun.
London, England, 1848-11-09 00:00:00

SPfRIT of the PCBLIC JOURNALS

LEIGH HUNT'S ACCOUNT OF LONDON.
On Monday next will be published, in 2 vols. post Bvo., with Forty-five
Illustrations, price 245. in embossed cloth,
H E T sO•W N:
ITS MEMORABLE CHARACTERS AND EVENTS
(From St. Paul's to St. James's). ,
By LEIGH HUNL. -
London : Smith, Elder, and Co., 65, Cornkill.

Now ready, ice Is,
AN INQUIRY INTO THE PRESENT STATE OF
QMITHFIELD CATTLE MARKET, and the
• Dead Meat Markets of the Metropolis. Showing the tendency
of the present system to reduce the profits of the Graziers; cause un-
necessary Cruelty to Animals, Poison the Food of the Poor, and give
rise to the meat disgraceful Desecration of the,Sabbath.
James Ridgway, By JOHN BULL.
Piccadilly, and all Booksellers.

Now re
of Lady, priceAN Is.,
THE TENURE D in IRELAND
CONSIDERED. • •
By T. ALCOCK, Esq., T.P..
James Ridgway, Piccadilly, an all Booksellers. •

Now rea,
ASTRONOMICAL EPHEMERIS for 1849
and 1850; containing the Latitude, Longitude, Declipation,
and night Ascensions of the Sun, •Moon, and Planets, for each day
at noon. Also a Table of Houses for Latitude for. 52 deg. 30 min. ;
carefully computed brZADIKIEL.
Published by Sherwood and Co., Patemester-row, London.
Price Two Shillings.

Just out,
T HE FINANCIAL REFORM ASSOCIATION
_ TRACT.

No. 111. ON TAXATION:
Amount paid into the Ekchequer ; Cost of Collection; Sources
and Distribution of the Taxes ; Comparison •of Burthens on Pro-
perty, Trade, and Industry; Juggling in Finance; Labour and-
Labourers Crushed ; the. Excise and CuStoms Analysed.
No. I. THE CIVIL LIST.

No. 11. THE PENSION LIST.
Futare Tracts, to. appear once a fortnight, will Comprise—The
Army—The Navy—The Ordnance—The Colonies—Law and Justice
—The National Debt, &c., &c.-
London: Published by G. Vickers, Hollyvrell-street ; and may be
had front him through any bookseller in the kingdom.
Terms of membership of the Association, entitling to all the publi-
cations free by post for a year, Nen Shillings or upwards. •
ROBERTSON GLADSTONE, Chairman.
Address to the Secretary, Hargreaves-buildings, Liverpool.

THE ROYAL POLYTECHNIC
INSTITUTION, REGENT-STREET..
A Lecture on Sanitary Measures connected with the Progress of
Cholera and other Epidemics, by Dr.. Ryan, daily, at Half-past
Three, and on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday Evenings, at Nine
o'clock.—Also on the Manufacture of Gutta Percha, by Dr. Bach-
hoffnor, Mornings and alternate Evenings.—An entirely stew Phan-
tasmagoria, by Childe, every Evening at Eight o'clock, whit ap-
propriate Music—The Dissolving Views, with historical descriptions.
—The Chromatrope, with New Effects.—The Microscope at Oae
o'clock daily.—Diver and Diviag-bell.—Working Models explained.
Open daily front Eleven to Five , and in the Evenings (including
•;aturditY)-from Severs till Half-past Tea.
Admission, IL—Schools, Malf-price.—The New Catalogue, Is.

LONG EVENINGS MADE SHORT. .
ECHrS FAMOUS BAGATELLE TA-
BLES, manufactured upon the premises, 4, Leadenhall-street,
London, make long evenings appear short, and combine calculation
with amusement. Price 3/. 10s., 41. 10s., 51. 103., up to 12/. Sold
also by his agents, Spiers and Son, Oxford ; Powell, and Lounge,
Leeds ; Eastee, Liverpool ; Woolfield, Glasgow ; Pratt, Bradford ;
Thompson, Nottingham ; Stephenson, Hull ; Squiers, Dover ; Steel
and Rix, Norwich. None are genuine without Mechi's name.

PENCER'S CHINESE LIQUID HAIR DYE.
Y. The thousands of individuals who for upwirds of twenty
years have used this celebrated liquid, pronounce it to be the only
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plication, that this article promotes the growth of hair, nourishing
the roots till the latest period of life. Price 3s. 6d:, 65., and 10a.
per bottle.

To be had of the Proprietors, 29, Nottingham-place, Fieldgate-
street, Whiteehapel-road, London ; also of Mr. Johnstone, 68, Corn-
bill ; Butler, 4, Cheapside ; Prout, 229, Strand ; Sanger, 150, Oxford-
street; Barclay, Farringden-street ; Atkinson, 24, Old Bond-
street; Hooper, 43, King William-street, London 'bridge ; Finnigin,
Milsona-street, Bath ; Elmore, Bull-street, Birmingham ; Roberts, 23,
Church-street, Liverpool ; and of most Perfumers and Medicine
Vendors in town and country. Sent to any part of the kingdom
by receiving a remittance, pest-paid.
Please to ask for " Spencer and Co.'s Chinese Liquid Hair Dye.'
Observe, the Proprietor's address is on the wrapper.

BEST APERIENT and ANTIBILIOUS
MEDICINE for general use is. FRAMPTON'S PILL OF
HEALTH, which. effectually relieves the stomach and bowels by
gentle relaxation, without griping or prostration of strength'. They
remove head-ache, sickness, dizziness, pains in the chest, szc., are
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not fail to be appreciated.
This medicines has for many years received the approval of the
most respectable classes of society ; and in confirmation of its effi-
cacy, the following letter has been kindly forwarded to Mr. Prout,
with permission to publish it, and if requisite, to refer any respect-
able person to its author :
" To Mr. Prout, 229, Strand, London.
" Heavitree, Exeter, April 24, 1844.
" SIR,—I feel pleasure in being able to bear my strong and unsoli-
cited testimony to the excellence ofyour Frampton's Pill of Health,'
which I Consider a most safe, efficacious, and very superior ge-
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near relative of-mine, has used them—very rarely having re-
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has recommended them extensively, and in one instance' in
which she induced a -person -to adopt -them, and supplied the
first box herself, they her., proved or extraordinary efficacy. I think
that, perhaps, there is scarcely Any other of the many patent medi-
cines before the public of equal value as a friend in need ;' certainly
none possessed of superior claims. I shall be happy on all occasions
to give them my individual recommendation; and am, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
*C y *

Sold by T. Prout, 229;Strand, London. Pries Is. 134 d. and Ss.
per box. Also by the venders of medicines generally throughout the
kingdom. •

Ask for FRAMPTON'S PILL of lIEALTIL and observe the name
and address of " Thomas Prout, 229, Strand, London," on the Go-
vernment Stamp.

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
TIM ES.—Our forefathers certainly were in error
when they said the age of iron bad come. What
they saw was only a feeble anticipation of the Rail-
way Millennium. They never knew that dashing
disregard for veracities, consistencies, decencies
moralities, and Ruch pious relics of antiquity, which
steam alone can inspire. It is our misfortune that
we cannot keep pace with the age, and are accord
ingly placed in unwelcome antagonism with its gods.
At one time all mankind are darting forwards into
space, and we find ourselves, far in the rear, under a
shower of missiles from our enterprising competitors.
By and by we pass the debris of a terrific collision,
and then perceive that our safer destinies have ren
dered us more hateful than ever. Nothing will
abash or subdue the effrontery of these little Titans,
who are equally furious on exactly opposite grounds,
and who, at the present moment, are labouring to
bury us under mountains of abuse because we
seem blind to the extent of their former infatua-
tion. Rather more than three years since England,
Ireland, and Scotland were railway mad. Every
man was to make his fortune by buying scrip cheap
and selling it dear. But to conduct this attractive
and honourable commerce it was necessary to be-
lieve, or at least to inculcate, that this country could
make railroads at the rate of 100,000,0001. or there-
abouts a year. The majority of our contemporaries
gave in to this pleasing illusion, and saw no bounds
to the national capability. We dissented tote ccelo,
and totis asiribus also, from the insane calculation.
On various data, collected and analized with all the
care we could bestow, we estimated that even an ex-.
penditure of 30,000,0001. on railartas alone might
prove an injurious drain na of rwselarces, •and in the
event of war or bad harvests most certainly would.
This we said before there was any expectation of a
famine ; and as a conteMporary has lately thought fit
to assert that we only turned with the tide towards
the close of the year, we beg to say that we began
our warnings on the. Ist of July, and repeated them
at intervals with increasing emphasis, till, when the
tide did turn in October, we had for several weeks
been incessantly denouncing the dishonest and ruinous
character of the movement. In that very month an
ingenious contemporary found nothing better to say
of us than that the continued buoyancy of the share-
market showed how little people cared for the Times.
We maintained that but a small portion of the rail-
ways projected, even by responsible parties, could be
executed. At the beginning of the session in 1846,
we implored Sir Robert Peel to adopt some effectual
check on railway legislation ; and when at the close of
that session it transpired that Acts had been passed
authorising calls and loans to the amount of
128,986,7141., in addition to 61,357,3731. authorized
in the previous session, we said that nothing like that
quantity of railway could be made within the time,
and warned the public that the mere attempt would
produce the greatest disasters. Notwithstanding,
however, a considerable foretaste of these disasters
the public still persevered, or were so hampered that
they could not recede, and in the session of 1847 fur-
ther Bills were passed to the amount of 38,007,233/.
Thus in those three fatal years 1845, 1846, and 1847,
Railways Bills were passed which, on the face of Par-
liamentary returns, authorised an expenditure of
228,351,3201. In hose three ;years certain of our
contemporaries, one in particular, still maintained that
there had been no excess of railway legislation. Their
first and palmary argument was founded on the enor-
mous sums raised by taxes and loans in 1813, 1814,
and 1815, and spent in war. It was argued, that if
all this expenditure for unproductive purposes, so far
from draining this country, contributed, as these rea-
soners alleged, to its prosperity, much snore would an
equal expenditure in productive railroads. It was for-
gotten, or slurred over, that immediately upon those
three years there followed just such a terrible col
lapse of credit and failure of resources as we have
lately witnessed. It was also argued that any ex-
penditure in the country was no loss of means ; that
the money only circulated; that the wages only fed
those who would be fed at all events; that the
material was all our own, and that trade was all the
better for brisk employment. We replied earnestly,
sincerely, and consistently, and can only regret that
our arguments were not as well received as they have
been fulfilled. But for our incredulity as to the
power of spending 228,000,0001. in railroads within
three or four years, we subjected ourselves to a con-
tinued fire of invectives. It was repeatedly and
most charitably surmised that as our contracted-es-
timate of the national powers could not possibly have
any foundation-in fact or In belief; it must have been
assumed for the purpose of damaging the railway in-
terest, beating down the price of shares, and other such
gratuitous devilry. Will our readers have the good-
ness just to bear in mind the one topic of incessant
abuse lavished upon us in 1845, 6,7, and then make
what reflection they please on the following incident ?
We will premise that a mouth ago'weinserted, in a letter
from •a well-known correspondent, a summary of
railway legislation from 1826 to 1847. It only pro-
fessed, of course, to be a compilation of Parliamentary
returns, but the little merit or originality which as'
such it could possess, was immediately claimed by
Mr. James Bigg, jun., of 53, Parliament-street, for
a publication entitled, "Special Railway Acts passed
in 1847." According to this table the amount of
money authorised to be raised by the Railway Acts
passed from 1826 to 1847 inclusive, was 326,643,2171.,
of which the amount nominally raised or called up to
the end of 1847 was 166,938,241/.•' the amount of
calls for this year to the end of September
28,378,8651., making the total raised and called
195,317,1061. Deducting this sum from the larger
suwi, it appeared that there were liabilities still
resting on the public, in respect of railway pro•
jects not completed, amounting to 131,326,1111.
In an article which appeared the following day
inviting directors to set the public anxiety at
rest,effiee
and dispel misrepresentations, by detailed
official statements, we called the public attention to
these figures, chiefly as indicating the enormous value
of the property actually sunkeand affected by the fluc-
tuations of the market.
referred to the
document, and purpose] abstasiinmepdlyfram committing
ourselves to its authority, though
of.arliamentary returns it mas a mere abstract
have some sort of
truth. The extreme uncertaintyus of all railway sta-
tistics suggested this caution. Indeed. we have ob-
served that even up to this day there has not appeared
one single railway statement, of alle an extensive or
detailed character, which hyasqunaoltifibedn immediately
contradicted or considerabl
else, at least by its own authors. v, if by nobody
oarresuatr
are of opinion that railway statements bpeastrtonl we
approximations to the truth. No sooner had wey
quoted this summary of railway legislation than our
candid and benevolent contemporaries assailed
us from a new corner of the heavens. Their
accusation now was that we had concocted an ex-
travagant statement as to the liabilities still resting
whereas we had made no state-
on the public ;
ment at all,
but only referred to a summary
of railway legislation published in our columns with
the signature of a well-known correspondent. The
charge, however, has
passed from mouth to mouth,
and on every side it is averred that we have trebled
the amount of railway work still to be done, and so
forth. Now, how does the simple reader imagine the
Parliamentary figures are got rid of? We have no
doubt whatever, and never did doubt, that Parlia-
mentary are not exempt from the fatality which has
befallen all railway statistics; but accidental dupli-
cates and over-reckonings would go little way to
reduce the figures we quoted. So now, in the coolest
manner imaginable the railway igentlemen are
turning round upon us with the exclamatron"How
come you to think all those railways are ever likely
to be made f Why, 40,000,0001. worth of them have
been given up." Here we !me it in the Leeds
Intelligencer, a paper evidently deep in the interests,
the politics, and the morals of railway society
" On reading the Parliamentary returns, we find that
many branches connected with old lines are included,
which will not be, and never were intended to be made.
These branches were merely brought out either to defeat
rival projects, or to prevent the formation of new com-
panies, by their apparently occupying the ground, and
thus offering to supply the imagined wants of the
public. The London and North-Western directors have
just stated that they will abandon branches amounting
to 3,800,000/. The York and North Midland Company,
it is well known, do not intend to make the new line to
Leeds, for which they got powers ; and we believe that
nearly every old company intend quietly to abandon the
branches for which they were compelled thus to apply,
Many of the lines passed in 1846 have not yet made a
call ; and, as most of these are worthless schemes, very
few men of property are amongst the original sub-
scribers. Those likely to be injured by calls
have mostly transferred their shares to men of straw,
who would feel flattered by having a writ served upon
them. This mode of evading liabilities has been practised
to a large extent, railway companies having no power
to refuse transfers to such parties. Calls made under
these circumstances would be wholly unproductive. The
editor of the Economist objects to our statement, because
it does not include the amount to be raised to make
branch lines. We think there is no truth in this objec-
tion. The branch lines were principally originated in
1845; and if the editor will refer to the various railway
meetings, when the consent of the shareholders was ob-
tained to apply for those branches, he will find in almost
every case that new shares were created to rcp t.-. et
them, in many cases when the directors had no inten-
tion of making the branches. Such was the greediness
of shareholders for new shares caused by the great pre-

miums
to be got for them, that any other course would
have given general dissatisfaction."
Is not this delightful ? The facts are stated so
naïvely and confidently that we will not venture to
dispute them, and certainly have no wish to do
so. But this is not all. With most engaging
candour our informant goes on to describe va-
rious cases in which calls have been dispensed
with, and which, therefore, need not be reckoned,
because their place has been supplied by loans.
The loans altogether amount to 46,457,3374 no
trifling item in the liabilities still resting on the
public. Our knowing contemporary runs over the
share lists, and picks out here and there a line that
is " likely to make a call." On five lines, amounting
to more than 3,000,0001., a different opinion has been
expressed. Somebody thinks they are not quite dead.
So our authority says the shareholders and public
generally consider these, with only one exception, de-
fun -t schemes; and he intimates that the engineer,
and solicitors would reward any one who could tell
them how money could be extorted from the present
shareholders. He then trips lightly over the giant
carcases of deceased lines with passing obituary re-
marks,—" The deposit only paid. "It is very im-
probable this scheme will he proceeded with." "The
deposit only has been paid." And he winds up with
lamenting the amount of calls that have been made
already, the number of contracts inconsiderately let,
and the supineness exhibited by shareholders in
suffering directors to proceed with their undertakings.
For this year at least it is evident that railway specu-
lation has sounded the bottom of our national
resources. The Gazette informs us that 125 applica-
tions for extension of time have been received and
considered, and yet we have complaints and remon-
' strances addre.ssed ,to those -who- have failed "to
apply. Now, this we call hitting us on the right
cheek and on the left also. We were abused two
years, night and day, for maintaining that thellines of
1845.46-47 could not and would not be done. We
are now derided, not for supposing that they will ever
be done, but for so much as reckoning them among
the liabilities still resting on the public. Gentlemen
behind the scenes rush forward and exclaim, ." Oh,
they were never intended to be made. They were
got up, like Hodge's razors, for sale, and not for use.
The shareholders wanted premium, so the directors
made sham lines to satisfy the general cupidity. De
pend upon it, the lines can't be made, and won't be
made, and you are a simpleton for imagining that they
will be ever attempted, or that they are at all burden-
some to the consciences of the directors." There is
so much substantial comfort ,in the rebuke that we
cannot but receive it with all meekness. We are
truly glad to hear, on undeniable authority, that
40,000,0001. worth of lines on which deposit has been
paid, and which the Legislature enacted after months
of quarrelling and spending, are mere hoaxes and
nothing else. It was not, perhaps, very respectful to
Queen, Lords, and Commons, nor yet to the public—
but we will let that alone; all parties will be so happy
to hear the railway gentlemen confess themselves
beaten.
HERALD.—The Times-,has somewhat moderated
the tone of its exacting suggestions to the State, as to
the mode in which the property of the London and
North-Western Great ',Western, and South-Western
proprietors shall be treated when the Amalgamation
Bill comes under legislative discussion. It is, how-
ever, the tone only that has been moderated—the
spirit of the aggressive suggestions is plainly dis-
cernible under less " open " though equally "advised"
language. Our contemporary, with a singular for-
getfulness, lays down the principle that, "It is ac-
cording to all precedent, to all principle, to all ana-
logy, and to the plainest common sense, that the
State should take care that the means of comtnunica-
tion are available, cheap, and good," and it is readily
admitted that the State is bound to fulfil all such en-
gagements as it could properly contract, and to re-
ward within reasonable limits the genius and spirit of
private adventure." But has the State "taken care"
to do this ? It 'is perfectly true that the State has fre•
quently " taken care" to render the means of railway
communication " available," and also "cheap and
good," but not by comprehensive interference—not
by any initiatory encouragement—not by any na-
tional grant. But the State has, also, by acts of
omission and commission, thrown a thousand obstacles
in the way of the cheap construction of railways, and
having committed this great error, " according to
all precedent, to all principle, to all analogy,
and to the plainest commoa sense," it has
sought to render railway communication " cheap and
good" at the expense, and frequently to the manifest
injury of those to whom the country is altogether
indebted for it. It is precisely within these " rea-
sonable limits" that our contemporary would reward
the " genius and spirit of private adventure." On
Saturday the Times would not listen to the applica-
tion to Parliament, by the three great railway com-
panies, for a Bill permitting them to put an end to
their ruinous contests in and out of Parliament, un-
less those corporations would consent to allow the
State to •' claim a p mar of dictating new branches,
new trains, new accommodations, and lower fares ; "
that is, unless the three companies would, for the
mere legislative sanction to an Act to enable them
to save the probable outlay of another million ster-
ling in Parliamentary struggles, permit the State
to dictate conditions utterly subversive of the rights
and destructive to the interests of private property.
The Times now requires that if the three companies
" present themselves to Parliament for a further in-
crease and consolidation of their existing power and
monopoly, the gain shall not be wholly on one side.
There shall be a quid pro quo. There shall be gua-
rantees against the abuse of absolute power, or rather
against the possibility of having to arrest its en-
croachments." But this moderated suggestion is
coupled with a disbelief that it is the interest of rail-
way companies to afford ample accommodation to the
public at moderate rates of fares. Our contemporary
doubts " that lower fares will frequently leave the net
profit undiminished. He cannot trust such visionary
hopes. The public will not have the utmost possible
use of the railway." Our contemporary's quid for
legislative permission to these three companies to settle
their differences and economise their expenditure is
still, therefore, clearly "low fares," that will diminish
net profits, or, in other words,,the " utmost possible use of
the railway" for the public. This " utmost possible use"
may, and perhaps will, be a very popular doctrine.
But at whose cost is it to be realised? What is the
quid that the shareholders are to have secured to
them ? The Times does not appear to be very clear
in the notions it entertains about railway traffic.
" The utmost possible use ?" Does our Contemporary
mean that the Post-office principle, of which it seemed
enamoured on Saturday, should be applied ? The
" utmost possible use of a railway by the public,"
would vary with a dozen varying circumstances. It
would, consistent always with a fair dividend to the
shareholder, be twenty-four or forty-eight trains per
day on this, and six or four trains per day on that,
line of railway. Does it think that if the passenger
fares of the London Sand North-Western Company
were reduced one-half, the public would " have the I
utmost possible use" of that railway ? To yield the
present net revenue, if the company were to make
this diminution of charge, the passenger traffic must
be quadrupled; whereas all those practically ac-
quainted with the traffic of the company in question
know that the reduction would not even ap-
proach such an increase. Perhaps the Times would
desire to have the passenger fares reduced to one-
fourth their present amount. In that case it would,
we think, find the task of developing a paying amount
of traffic somewhat difficult, as well as the duty of
working it, rather an onerous one. The Times
is very emphatic in its demand for " guarantees
against the use of absolute power " by the
three companies. Railway corporations could
not, beneficially to themselves, use such a
power in the way our Contemporary infers or
insinuates they would. We have previously ex-
plained the fact that all our great railway companies
have a direct interest in affording ample accommoda-
tion at moderately low fares; but it is not their in-
terest, indeed it would be spoliation and nothing
else, to allow the public to " have the utmost possible
use of their railways?' If such an accommodation
be desirable, let the State afford it the same way that
cheap
the
nationalpostage o
shta, swbi
tehe n
thegiven
aidt
of
ano tahe ug comeran
et ud ni
ni tcyo—m
ea
-t
tax, and not through a confiscating intermeddling with
private property. A claim for " guarantees against
the exercise of " absolute power ' on the part of the
three companies comes with a very bad grace from
one who urges the State to demand " a power of dic-
tating new branches, new trains, new accommoda-
tions, and lower fares," considering that all those cor-
porations have too many trains already, that the fares
of the London and North-Western are very low, and
that those of the Great Western will soon be very
considerably reduced by Act of Parliament. If the
aggressive recommendations of the Times were
adopted by the Legislature, .and consented to by the
companies, the "gain" would indeed be "wholly on
one side." Our contemporary admits that, "on the
whole, the present fares and accommodation are as
good as may be expected under the existing traffic ;"
but then it urges—" If, however, the present compe-
tition is to be set at rest, and the iron rule of a giant
monopoly to take its place, we demand in that case
that the right of the l'peuplo shall be guarded by tie
State." Yes, and a little more is demanded by our con-
temporary. "On the whole the present fares and ac
commodation :are as good as may be expected ;" but