The Sun.
London, England, 1846-03-24 00:00:00

Committee of Selection, whose object in making the sugges-
tion was to thaw the attention of the House of Commons to the
magnitude and importance of the subev.t. This question of
arnalgamatkin was not only the most important, but one of the
most dillicult questions connected with railway subjects.
It was more so now; there were no less than 33 amalgama-
tion schemes before the house at the present moment. The
Committee, therfore, thought it their duty to bring the mat-
ter under the consideration of the House. He considered that
if the Committee had gone on quiAly allowing that state of
thins to go on, they would soon have had all the communica-
tion of the country in the hands of two or three gigantic com-
panies, Fie begged to state, that so far as his own opinio.n
was caneerned, he would be content to follow the course indi-
cate by the Hight Hon. Baronet at the head of the Govern-
ment.

Mr. BARING considered that the House was get-
ting into a state of considerable confusion. There were a
mass of railways before them, the merits of which should be
disposed of without unnecessary del iy. The House had three
propositions before it as to the manner of disposnig of these
momentous qeestions. !'irst, there was the proposition of the
lion. Member far North Lancashire (Air. Entwisle), for the
appointment of a Select Committee to determine upon certain
general principles which were to govern the various Commit-
tees in dealing with amalgamation Bills hereafter. Then came
the proposition for the Committee of the Hon. Member fur
Inverness ( Mr. Alorrison), of which the Right Hon. Baronet,
the Vice-President of the Boatel of Trade, had justly said
that they would hare quite sufficient to occupy their attention
without attending to the question of amalgamation. And then
they had a proposition of the Right Hon. Baronet at the
head of the Gove:nrnent, which he (Mr. Baring) must say
he considered the most business-like mode of dealing with the
question—that a Special Committee be appointed, to whom,
as a group, all the amalgamation Bills would be referred, and
who, having examined these hills, should report to the House
upon the subject. He (Mr. Baring) differed with the Right
lion. Baronet only on one point—he would have wished that
the Committee should have been empowered to examine into the
merits of the various Bills, and not nave been confined, as was
proposed, to the mere examination of the tendencies of those
amalgamations. He thought that they ought to decide upon
the comparative merits of the Bills brought before them. He
thought that these amalgamation Bills should be all grouped
together, and that it would give rise to le:s inconvence to the
promoters of the several Bills. Let them go to that Com-
mittee, and let it determine on the nature of these Bills, fur
why should they subject them to a remote trial. He did not
consider that the suggestion of the Member for Bath could
by any means be adopted, as it would be a source of endless
confusion ; what he would recommend was, that they should
extract all the amalgamation Bills, anti put them into on group.
They should then refer them to a Committee of five, to be em-
powered to ex; mine into tin it merits, and make their report
to the House, which report should be decisive of the fate of
these Bills, they world thus obtain the very report for which
they were new seeking. He should like to hear what argu-
ments would be urged against giving to this Committee a
power to decide upon the merits of this Bill.
Mr. PACKE said that if this motion were agreed to, the
public would suffer much loss.
Mr. I'tIORRISON did not think that the tending of those
Bills to a Committee, for the purpose of considering their
merits, would be the proper plan. They had had enough of
such legislation ; what they now wanted was the laying down
of a principle which the Government should apply in all ea-es.
For instance, before they were prepared to decide upon this
great question of amalgamation, as had already been suggested
by his Hon. Friend, it should be determined to what extent
they would sanction the amalgamation of such great railway
companies as now possessed what must be called great
legal monopolies.—( Hear, hear.) If that had been
done some years ago many evils of which they
had now to complain in railway matters would not
now exist. He thought that railway comranies coming now
before the House, praying for powers to amalgamate should be
treated as new companies, and therefore subjected to all those
preliminary conditions to which the promoters of all new bills
had to submit.—(Hear, hear.) But, independently of that,
there were a great many things that had been quite neglected,
which were very necessary in these matters ; and those things
could have been done without at all affecting their tariffs. For
instance, he might quote the present system of carrying
goods On railways, which much needed amending. They
ought to require that railway companies should charge every
person alike ; and he would propose that if one party was
charged more than another, he should have power to recover
back the overcharge in one of the legal tribunals. These
matters ought to be settled at once, and they could easily do it,
for whenever a company came far new prices their line ought
to be treated as a new one. There ought in his opinion to be
one general rule applied to railways, and all company's required
to charge one rate of fares. But he might be told, that a line
which passes through a poor country could not charge so low
fares as a company which ran through a populous country. His
answer, however, to that was very simple. If the line would not
pay at particular fares, the line ought never to have been made.
Mr. LABOUCHERE thought that if the Vice-President
of the Board of Trade were to apply his attention to the amal-
gamation of railways, the result of his opinions would furnish a
much better guide than could be obtained from the appoint-
ment of the proposed Committee.
Mr. DUNCOMBE was of opinion that the amalgamation
of railway Bills was a matter attended with very considerable
difficulty. He had, ma one occasion, been a member of a
Committee which had to deal with the amalgamation of the
Grand Junction line and the Birmingham and Gloucester
Railway. In that inquiry the Committee complained very
much of having no distinct reference to guide them in coming
to a decision. He was of opinion that a preliminary Commit-
tee should Ise appointed, as the House at present certainly was
not in a position to deal with the amalgamation Bills. The
Hon. Member for Inverness seemed to be satisfied that some
of the amalgamation Bills might be allowed to pass. Hon.
Gentlemen used the term amalgamation in boo loose a man-
ner, and frequently in ignorance of what this term really
meant. He (Mr. Duneombe) supposed that amalgama- •
tion meant that the conducting of the affairs of two
railways should be brought under the superintendence
of one Board. But there existed two kinds of
amalgamation, one of which consisted of union for the public
advantage, and the other of union to promote private interests.
Now it was to provide against the monopoly which the latter
kind of amalgamation would result in, that the House should
he specially careful. lie thought that a Committee should be
appointed to make a preliminary inquiry into the nature and
objects of any proposed amalgamation ; and such Committee
would not at all interfere with the motion of his Hon. Friend,
the Member for Inverness.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER entertained
similar oyinions with thoee pronounced by the Hon. Gentle-
man who bad just sat down. He believed that it was neces-
sary that some definite rules should be laid down with respect
to the amalgamation of railways, for it was perfectly true,
as the Hon. Gentleman had observed, that nothing could be
more indistinct than the ease of amalgamation which had
been brought before the House. He must say, that looking
at the subject in all its bearings, the best mode of proceeding
appeared to him, to appoint a Committee in which the House
could have confidence, arid of which Committee the Vice-
President of the Board of Trade should be chairman, to in-
vestigate the merits of the various amalgamation Bills, and
report their opinion accordingly. It struck him (the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer), that this mode of proceeding would
not interfere with the motion of the Hon. Member for Inver-
ness, and would, at the same time, tend very materially to
facilitate the progress of public business.
Mr. HUME would humbly submit to the House that no
more amalgamations of railway companies should be allowed to
take place until the report of the Committee of 1845 had been
produc2d, and he would further propose that the consideration
of every case of amalgamation should be postponed until the
report of the Committee which had been appointed to inquire
into the subject should be obtained.

Mr. W. Li. COLLETT considered that whenever amalga-
matien had taken place, the public had been greatly benefited—
the fares had invariably been lowered, and every pains had been
taken to meet the public convenience. He had always enter-
tained the opinion that the House was favourable to the amal-
gamation of railways, and felt surprised that there should now
exist any desire to thro ,v a difficulty in the way.
Lord HA 11 R.Y VANE suggested that certain general prin-
ciples might be laid down, so that those who had to deal with
the matter might be able to form some definite judgment as to
the practicability and utility of any proposed amalgamation.
Ho could not see that any bad result would be the consequence
of postponing the consideration of the amalgamation Bills to
another session. Until the matter had been thoroughly sifted,
it would be difficult to say, whether, when deciding on any
amalgamation 13111, the Committee were riot preventing the con-
struction of a line which would be more beneficial to the public.
Mr. WILSON PATTEN then briefly replied, and proposed
that the adoption of the report of the Railway Committee of
1645 should be added to the original motion.
In reply to a question from Mr. SMYTHE,
Mr. W. PATTEN said it was not his intention to exclude
the consideration of the amalgamation of canals from the atten-
tion of the Committee, and he would insert the word "canals"
in every case after railway.
The resolution as amended, was then put from the Chair, and
agreed to.
Mr. HUME wished to ask two questions of the Noble
Lord the President of the Board of Control. He wished to
know if there was any truth in the reports which appeared in
the Paris papers with respect to our affairs in India ? The
second question which he wished to have answered was
whether the Government had taken into their consideration
the present system of communication with India by our over-
land mail ? He thought that the Government should do some-
thieg to save them from depending upon such reports, by
establishing a better means of communication, more especially
when it was shown by Mr. Waghorn that he had been enabled
to anticipate the overland mail by forty-eight hours.
Lord JOCELYN said that, as the Indian mail had not
yet arrived, he could not give a positive answer as to the cor-
rectness of the reports in the Paris papers. With respect to
the second question, he would say that the Government had it
under their consideration, and would, no doubt, adopt some
measure to meet the inefficiency of the present means c loom-
munication.
Sir 11. PEEL wished to inform the House how this in-
formation had reached the Government of this country,
as the subject was most important to many, perhaps his ex-
planation, would go far to allay any anxiety. The intelligence
was telegraphed from Marseilles to Paris, and the French
Government immediately communicated it to her Majesty's
Government. This was all the authority at present for the re-
ports in question.
Lord PALMERSTON wished to put a question to the
Right Hon. Baronet at the head of her Majesty's Government,
with respect to their relations with Buenos Ayres. He wished
to know if they were at all acting in the war which was going
on between the Republic of Buenos Ayres and Monte Video?
The language of the Government in Parliament was the
language of peace, but the acting of their ministers at these
places were the acts of war. There had been advertisements
for ships to remove the British subjects Lom Buenos Ayres
to Monte Video, and this looked as if the Government of this
country had taken part with tl.e latter republic. If they
were at war with Buenos Ayres it was right that the Govern-
ment should communicate the fact, and if not it was proper that
such should be stated. He thought it necessary for her
Majesty's Ministers to say whether or not they had sanctioned
the acts of their ministers at these places. Without reading
the instructions of the Government to their consuls, it was
difficult to make out whether or not those gentleman had acted
for peace or war. He wished to know from the Rig ht Hon.
Baronet if the country was at war with Buenos Ayres?
Sir R. PEEL thought, as the notice of the Noble Lord was
not very formal, it would be better that he should simply
answer the question, and he would recommend that no
discussion should take place. It was with great reluctance
that her Majesty's Government had interfered with the affairs
of Buenos Ayres, and it was not till protesting became almost
intolerable that this country interfered. The independence of
the republic was established through the interference of this
country, and it was acknowledged by the Brazils. The inte-
rests of England were greatly connected with the two repub-
-1 lies, and the mercantile interests were very much injured by
the continuation of hostilities- The Government of this
country represented to France that the war was most injurious
to the mercantile interests, and in conformity with those re-
presentations, treaties were made and accepted in 1 841 by
Monte Video, and rejected by Buenos Ayres. By these
treaties England had no other object but the restoration of
peace—no accession of territory was sought, for that was out
lof the question. England and France at a later period sent a
special mission, recommending a cessation of hostilities, and, if
I possible, to restore peace. The proposals were again accepted
by Monte Video, but were rejected by Buenos Ayres. It was
i then agreed by the two Gpvernments that they would not in-
' terfere by force unless actuthiy compelled. The instructions
which had been given by Isis country to their Ministers