The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-07 00:00:00

IRISH RAILWAYS.

(From the Railway Times.)
The Irish contest of last week between the two Western
Railway Companies, may be compared to the Battle of the
Gauges of last session, as upon no subject connected with
railways at present was the same degree of interest excited
in the sister kingdom. On the one hand, the Great Southern
and Western Company were actively promoting the well-
known Dublin and Galway scheme, and had actually under-
taken to subscribe 100,000/. for this purpose, while on the
other hand the Midland Great Western Company were pro-
moting the construction of a railway from Mullingar to
Galway, which while it would afford a more direct commu-
nication, professed to accomplish the object by the construc-
tion of some eighteen miles less of railway.
By the decision of the Committee, the competing Com-
panies .have been permitted to connect Athlone with Dublin
by two different routes, while the Dublin and Galway Com-
pany have got the extension from Athlone to the latter town.
how, with every respect for the honourable tribunal by
whom the subject was investigated, we are at a loss to divine
the reasons for their decision, for, if the witnesses produced
by the competing Companies agreed upon any one subject in
particular. it was on this, namely :—Titat it would be absurd
to sanction two lines to Athlone, as the traffic of the country
would never justify an expenditure sufficient for their con-
struction. In the teeth of such evidence, coming from such
public men' as General Sir John Burgoyne, Messrs. Griffith
and Mulvany, as well 'astir John Macneill, the Committee
haVe arrived at a decision which may be productive of
serious mischief to the inhabitants of Galway, who, after all,
are the parties most interested, and have heretofore taken
the most active measures to bring before the public and
Parliament the claims of their locality for railway communi-
cation with the metropolis. Having been in the committee-
room when the decision was announced, we are enabled to
state from conversations which we had then, and subse-
quently, with some of the most active promoters of the com-
peting lines, that the Mullingar Company (as they are
called) will probably make their railway
.to Athlone, which
they can accomplish by some twenty-three or twenty-
four miles, while the Dublin and Galway Company, having
to construct nearly thirty-eight miles for a similar purpose,
will be slow to incur the necessary expenditure ; the more
particularly because, when made, the competition of the
grand canal for merchandise, and the Mullingar Railway
for passengers, would leave but a comparatively trifling re-
venue upon which to depend fora dividend.
We have therefore no difficulty in expressing our convic-
tion, which we do with the greater certainty, because we
have the evidence of such practical men as those to whom
we have referred, that it would be a cruel and unnecessary
waste of the money of the shareholders to attempt to con-
struct a railway from Portarlington to Athlone, and it would
be :also unfair to the people of Connaught that Athlone
should have two communications with Dublin, while, in
consequence of the bickerings of two boards of railway direc-
tors, their chances of a railway to Galway would be seriously
prejudiced. The present is not the time for wild and reck-
less expenditure. The condition of the money market—the
great depreciation which has taken place in the value of
railway securities, and the prevailing apprehension that
many sound projects will be brought to a stand-still, from
the general 'pressure of calls upon shareholders—all those
causes should produce their due effect upon prudent and
honourable men, and induce them not to involve their pro-
prietary in expense which, while it is not likely to be pro-
ductive, may have a very damaging effect upon some sound
undertakings in the sister country. We are not now broach-
ing new opinions; we can refer to the pages ef this journal
for the full confirmation of the sentiments which we now
express, and more particularly instance the cases of the Dun-
dalk and Enniskillen and Newry Companies, respecting
which we gave warnings which were unheeded, and which
unfortunately are already in a fair way of being verified.
It is idle to suppose that Irish railways will produce (at
least for some years to come) the amount of revenue which
their projectors anticipate, and it should become the un-
doubted duty of those parties who are intrusted with their
construction to take care that the works shall be made
cheaply, yet substantially, such as when made will be likely
to afford a fair return to the shareholders. It will not do to
permit engineers and architects to lavish money on splendid
viaducts and costly stations, with a view of gratifying their
ambitious aspirations. If such things are permitted, we do
not expect that one-third of the schemes which have received
the sanction of Parliament will be completed for the next
twenty years.