The Sun.
London, England, 1846-09-05 00:00:00

MARTINGALE.

RAILWAY MONOPOLY IN KENT.
(From the Times.)
Parliament is no sooner prorogued, and all immediate
prospect of interference with railway monopoly at an
end, than the directors of the South-Eastern Company
make a considerable addition to the fares throughout
their main line and its various branches. Though the
Legislature has suspended its functions, the power ofthe
press is happily always in operation ; and it becomes
more necessary that its force should be exerted when
there is a cessation in the sittings of that higher tribunal
which is specially intrusted with the protection of the
common interest. The South-Eastern Company, having
succeeded in bamboozling Parliementery Committees,
has now commenced the victiinisation of the public with
a speed that shames the fastest locomotive on the rail-
way. A large increase in the charges of conveying pas-
sengers has suddenly taken place, in spite of all the
sacrifices that the directors promised to make for the
general benefit, as an inducement to the Legislature to
give the company the monopoly of the Kentish
traffic. Nothing but the lowest practicable scale
of fares can compensate for the fearful in-
convenience occasioned by the very circuitous
communication which this company affords ; but
high charges and indirect routes form a combination
of annoyances that it is " too bad" to tolerate. Kent,
under the present arrangement, is much in the same
position with regard to the facilities of transit as that to
which the metropolis is frequently reduced in conse-
quence of the blocking-up of its direct leading thorough-
fares. What the famous Commissioners of Sewers and
others are in the habit of doing temporarily for the City
and the West-end, has been permanently accomplished
by the South-Eastern Company with reference to the
distance between London and Dover or Ramsgate.
Travellers from Charing-cross to the Bank are sent
wandering wide of their destination during a period of,
perhaps, six weeks at a time, but a journey to any of the
places on the South-Eastern line must always embrace a
series of the most tortuous deviations. It is bad enough
to be carried miles out of one's way, but it is too bad to
be taxed at the highest rate for travelling over the enor-
mous surplus distance which has been added to the ordinary
length of journey by the eccentric meanderings of the rail-
way. Suppose some association were permitted to super-
sede all the direct London thoroughfares by a series of
serpentine streets, and were allowed also the exclusive
privilege of carrying the public from one end of the
metropolis to the other at very exorbitant fares ; we
should have some parallel to the case of the South-
Eastern and its monopoly of Kent, which can only be
traversed, at a large waste of time and money, through
the imperfect and costly accommodation at present af-
forded. It is true that to the man of business speed is
often more important than the saving of expense, but
extravagant charges become a fearful grievance when
aggravated by tardy and circuitous travelling. In the
communication with Ramsgate the gain in point of time
is almost nothing, for the railway offers very little ad-
vantage over the steam-packet ; while the fares by the
former are thrice the amount of those charged for con-
veyance by the latter. Four hours all but twenty mi-
nutes is, according to the time-table of the South-
Eastern, the average duration of the journey from Lon-
don-bridge to Ramsgate, and when allowances are made
for delays, to say nothing of casualties, it frequently hap-
pens that the traveller byrail is full four hours in passing
between the places specfied. For this, if he chooses the
first class, he must pay Ms., when the steam-boat will
convey him for one-third of that fare to his destination
within a space of time not much exceeding that occupied
in the tour by railway. The South-Eastern directors
have taken an unfair advantage of the public by select-
ing the usual season for visiting watering-places, at hcme
and abroad, to levy an exorbitant tax upon travellers.
From numerous letters we have received, we feel as-
sured that this experiment on the patience of the public
will not be very cheerfully submitted to, and it will cer-
tainly alienate from the South-Eastern that sympathy
in its struggles with rival projects it has hitherto expe-
rienced. The comparative cheapness of its fares used
to be cited as a proof of a disposition to compensate for
the inconvenient circuity of its course. But it has now
become one of the dearest as well as the most round-
about of existing railways. For some time we
have observed a rapidly increasing irregularity in
the departure and arrival of trains upon this line,
bidding fair to gain for it a notoriety similar
to that which has been acquired by Eastern
Counties. The Hudsonian fault of non-punctuality
seems to lead as a natural consequence to exorbitant
charges, and the South-Eastern is already in this second
stage of the infection, or whatever it may be that hangs
over all the lines under regal management. As the ma-
lady affects and his originated with those companies
over which his Railway Majesty presides, we may be
justified in calling it a sort of railway King's evil. Its
symptoms are high and feverish rates of fares, accom-
panied by terribly intermittent action of the powers of
locomotion, and great irregularity of the whole system.
We regret to see the South-Eastern manifesting all
these fearful signs of having become infected with the
Hudsonian malady. The complaints we have received
from various sources show a determination on the part
of the public not to submit quietly to one of the cool-
est pieces of imposition that ever was practised by a
railway company. People who have taken summer
residences on the line are justly incensed at the sud-
den alteration in the fares, by which even those
who have only to go a few miles backwards and for-
wards every day find an addition of some ten, fifteen, or
twenty shillings a week to their estimated expenditure.
Those who have made their arrangements must of course
allow themselves to be victimised, but when Parliament
meets and rival projects are in the field, these persons
will not have forgotten the two or three months course
of bleeding which they will have undergone at the hands
of the South-Eastern Company. Those travellers who
have gone abroad upon the low fares will undoubtedly
be caught on their return by the high rates; but we sus-
pect it will prove the old story of cutting open the
goose for the sake of the golden eggs in this instance.
The unfortunate public is just now in the position of
the goose, who can do nothing but hiss under the pro-
cess of victimisation. John Bull, however, is after all
not quite such a foolish bird as some people are disposed
to take him for; and he will doubtless find means during
the ensuing session to protect himself hereafter from a
repetition of such a trick as that which has just been
played off upon him by the South-Eastern Railway.

RAILWAY SIGNAL.

TO TIIE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sin,—l observe in your paper of yesterday a notice
of a patent railway signal, which has been experimented
with on the Eastern Counties Railway. It seems to me
but a clumsy and inefficient mode of producing a sound
which the steam of the engine is now made to produce
with infinitely greater power than the lungs of any
guard could possibly compass.
It has often surprised me that the existing whistle of
the WI gine has not been put in requisition as a means of
communication between the guards and engine-drivers.
Why, were a piece of string attached to the lever of the
whistle valve, and simply thrown over the carriages, so
as to be within reach of the guards, it would form no
inefficient substitute for this patented contrivance ; and
there is no doubt that, with the exercise of a little inge-
nuity, the steam of the engine might be made available
for a great variety of signals, not under the control of
the guards alone, brt within reach of every passenger in
the train. If this latter object were accomplished, ladies
need not then fear travelling alone.—l am, Sir, your's
respectfully, J. B.
York, Sept. 4,184 G.
[The above suggestion is well worthy consideration ;
indeed, some such simple contrivance has often occurred
to ourselves.—En. Sim.]

fio SUPPOSED SUICIDE OF A
GENTLEMAN BY
Dnowrallo.—On Wednesday evening a long inquiry
took place before Mr. Bedford, at the King's Arms,
Ranelagh-row, Thames-bank, concerning the death of
Mr. William Johnson, aged 52, a gentleman of large
property, residing at No. 14, Belvoir-terrace, Vauxhall
Bridge-road. Ann Barnes, housekeeper to the deceased,
said that her master was of a very nervous temperament,
and at times he was so excessively agitated that he
would cry out without any apparent cause. On Monday
afternoon witness went out on some business, and on
her return home, about half-past eight, she was informed
that the deceased had returned at four o'clock, and he
had been in and out of the house five or six times during
the evening in a very agitated state. On entering the
dressing-room she found it in a confused state, his ward-
robe strewed about, and he had gone out in the oldest
clothes he had, leaving behind him in one of his drawers
the keys relating to his papers and property, which he
always carried about him, and which raised her sus-
picion that he did not intend to return, as he had pre-
viously told her that in the event of anything happening
to him, she would find his keys deposited where they
were found, and they were to be given to his brother, a
solicitor, residing at Bunton, Norfolk. Verdict, "Found
drowned."

WESTMINSTER BRIDE..--Since Wednesday last the
greatest activity has prevailed in removing the ballustrades
the whole of which, on the upper side, are nearly taken down,
it being intended to strip the bridge as low as the cornices.
Yesterday the levels of the piers were again taken, and the
result showed that, although they had not left off sinking,
yet still the opinion of the gentlemen conducting the obser-
vation was, that the settling was decidedly less when com-
pared with observation on a previous occasion, and if the
piers sink no further, there is not the slightest doubt but
that the bridge will be as secure as ever for foot passengers
till the erection of the new one. Two hundred men are now
engaged on the bridge, and when the whole of the parapets
are removed, if the piers are found to be in state quo, it is
intended to erect a light parapet, :about four feet high, and
then throw open the entire roadway of the bridge to the
public.
TuE CORN-LAWS.—The ruinous effect of the re-
peal of the corn-laws was very forcibly displayed at the
sale on Saturday evening last at the Eagle Hotel, of the
lease of the Manor farm at Grantchester by Mr. Went-
worth. We never remember to have seen a larger or
more respectable company at an estate sale in this town
than was assembled on that occasion ; or to have wit-
nessed more spirited competition. The lease is granted
by King's College, to whom the estate belongs, for a
term of years, of which nineteen are unexpired, subject
to a corn and money rent of about 2001. per annum. The
improved rent paid to the College lessee by the occupy-
ing tenant, Mr. Frederick Lilly, amounts to 6001. per
annum. The lease was ultimately knocked down for
the very trifling sum of 6,1601., to Mr. Devereux Den
ton, on behalf of the occupier, Mr. Lilloy. So much
the
agricultural distress, and the miserable prospects of
farnaers.--Canthridge Advertiser.