The Sun.
London, England, 1846-06-03 00:00:00

ltitning e4inl

LONDON, WEDNESDAY. JUNE 3, 1846.

We yesterday traced at some length the several
proceedings which had taken place with respect to
railway legislation up to the period of the bringing
forward of the Bill and resolutions which had been
adoptectas sessional orders, and we showed that as
yet nothing had been done opposed to the great
yr/11414e of um-interference with private enterprise,

which had been adopted and acted on long before the
several schemes now before Parliament had been
thought of or projected, and which had
been recognised and sanctioned at the be-
ginning of the session by the Committee ap-
pointed to inquire into, and report on, the
subject, and afterwards by the House, when
the report of that Committee was brought forward
and received. Should Lord FITZWILLIAM'S prop°,
sition now be adopted a new element must be taken
into calculation; the final success of the Bill would be
dependent, in a great degree, not on its own inherent
excellence, not on the wants of the district which
the proposed line was intended to traverse, not on
the moderation of the estimates in proportion to the
quantity of work to be done, or the prospect of a
handsome and remunerating dividend for the capital
expended, but on the Parliamentary influence which
could be secured by the several promoters. It is per-
fectly manifest that at the very end of the session,
when much of the public business remained unfinished,
and matters of every kind would be pressed on to
a hasty conclusion, there would be neither
time nor inclination on the part of the Legisla-
ture to enter into a cool and dispassi )nate
examination of the relative merits of the several lines,
so as to enabie them to weed the projects brought
before them down to the number which it might be
supposed desirable to sanction. Neither would it be
fair to impose on the promoters who had sufficiently
proved the excellence of their own undertaking the
necessity of impeaching that of another railway pass-
ing through a totally different country, or again
entering into the defence of their own, and bring.
ing up a new host of witnesses, at a vast ex-
pense ; in fact, it ;would be quite impossible to do
so. All would then depend on the votes of persons
wholly unacquainted with the real merits, and much
undue influence and canvassing for votes would most
undoubtedly take place, and scenes unworthy the
dignity of Parliament would be enacted. It has been
stated that the measures adopted have had very little
effect ; that proceedings have taken place to evade
the objects of the Legislature; that scrip has
been borrowed or purchased for the purpose
of securing the majority of scripholders required by
the resolutions. We cannot, however, agree with
this statement, or admit its importance, if true. It is
manifest that the person who will consent to his scrip
being lent for the purpose of votes being thereby
given for the further progress of the undertaking
must be well satisfied that such should be the case ;
that scrip should be represented in some manner ;
and it is as little likely that it should bo
used for a purpose opposed to the wishes of
its owner, as that the proxy of one of
their Lordships should go to swell a majority on a
question repugnant to the feelings of the noble giver
of that proxy. We cannot, therefore, think tint there
is any weight in the argument founded on the loan
of scrip. As little can be accorded to that of scrip
being purchased for the occasion ; if such should be
the case, the purchaser must be fully alive to the ad-
vantoges of the project, and most anxious for its suc-
cess ; he must step into the shoes of the person from
whom he has bought it, and take upon himself
all the responsibilities incidental to its ownership, if
he should afterwards feel disposed to part with that
scrip, after it has answered the purpose contemplated,
he must do so when the decision has been arrived at;
and if that should be an erroneous one, of course the
scrip will be much deteriorated in value, and he will
have obtained the privilege of voting at a very heavy
expenditure. We do not think that many persons
will be found willing to incur such a risk.
'We are not satisfied either that the number of
cases which will receive the sanction of the share-
holders will be so numerous as to create any further
disturbance in the money market, or to require an
expenditure beyond the ability of the country to en-
counter. True it is, that in the great majority of cases
in which meetings hare hitherto been held, the de-
cision arrived at was favourable to their continued
progress, and that, by very large majorities; but it
must be recollected, that these have been the culled
ana selected schemes that have stood the
test of Parliamentary inquiry, and been in almost
every instance reported on favourably, by the several
Committees to which they had been referred, in
which every expenditure had already been incurred,
and which were only waiting for the third readings.
Had it been otherwise, it is very probable that the
result of the meetings might have been different, and
that the persons interested would have come to a dif-
rerent conclusion. The expenditure in the construc-
tion of railways is very different in its effects from a
similar sum being sent out of the country for
any object whatsoever. There is no capital
withdrawn from circulation ; on the contrary,
much money that would otherwise be hoarded
up and lying idle, will be thereby put into
activity ; it will get into the hands of the industrious
and laborious classes, and create a demand for manu-
factures, and infuse new activity into the general
business of the country. Much public benefit will
thereby be effected ; a new capital, represented by
the value of the completed railways will be created,
which will be as available for the general purposes of
the nation, as if so many thousand acres of, land could
be reclaimed from the sea, or of waste land brought
into cultivation and fertility. .After a short time
confidence will, in all human probability, be restored,
and the public will see how great has been the folly,
the insanity which induced them from a panic to
sacrifice their property, and many will be found
willing to invest their savings judiciously, not in the
wild and reckless manner that unfortunately was the
case during the last year when any scheme whatso-

ever, no matter how unlikely wto succeed, was
eagerly adopted, and its shares sought for with avidity;
but prudently and with circumspection, after a full
examination into the prospects of success afforded and
of the merits of each individual project. Should,
however, the case be otherwise than we have conceived,
and the amount of capital required for the com-
pletion of all the sanctioned projects be more than the
country could afford, it would be easy for Par-
liament to add a clause authorising the postpone-
ment of the project for a certain limited
time, or extending the period within which the line
must be completed, or its works commenced. By
such a course no injustice would be done to any per-
son whatsoever, and the directors would be very un-
willing unduly to press on the work, or to depreciate
their property by a call, to be enforced during an un-
favourable state of the money-market. Again, it
may be provided that, calls should only
be made at extended periods ; and perhaps it
might be found advantageous to enact that

no new call should be made without the
approbation of a general meeting of the share-
holders, to be called expressly for that purpose, and
to decide thereon, which meeting might be held in a
" .

similar manner and he attended by a like number of
the shareholders to those now rendered necessary by
the resolutions already referred to. Either of these
courses would, as we conceive, have the desired effect
of preventing undue pressure, and no complaint could
fairly be made against them. We trust that the
Legislature will act in this important matter with due
deliberation, and, beyond all things, that there will
be no violation of what we must consider the implied
contract entered into with the several persons, who,
on the faith thereof, subscribed their eapital for the
execution of public works likely to effect much public
benefit.

From thefrequentrecurrence of collisions of steam-
boats after nightfall, and the frightful calamities
which incessantly result from those accidents, it be-
comes necessary to inquire into the most probable
cause of this frequency, and to devise some
It is not un-
thennocteforth. means for
sauticnhgoccwuhrreenntches taking place on the
ueffsuecatlutaallhyearobovfi
a sme s. le
maller craft is run
midnight,i
man or a so-
yt'he withcatastrophe. These circum-
stances are generally
iriordinary occurrence as
only to arrest public attention for an
high seas at
litany down
planki n s t an tsaanveeoduisal
cmonasutearnatlyoftraauncshp
rsetagnacredse da are
es
instant on the
Perusal of some newspaper paragraph. lf it be
remembered, however, that those wretched beings
who are thus dashed out of existence, nance
lessly, and almost uncommisserated, might have been
Preserved from such a premature destruction by a
few precautionary measures, trivial enough in them-
selves, but of immeasurable importance as a preven-
tive of accidental deaths, the affair assumes a new
and striking interest. To dilate upon the melancholy
uasociatious attached to the fate of the Oaken! would,