The Sun.
London, England, 1846-12-26 00:00:00

indeed ; but that the number leaving Glasgow, and
going out at such stations as Kirkintilloch, Croy, and
Cast.lecary, was very great. He ascertained that from
200 to 250 left Glasgow every Sabbath, but that the
great majority of these persons were not on works of
necessity or mercy. They were not connected with the
localities to which they went ; and that they went to
Kirkintilloch for the purpose of spending the day in the
neighbourhood of Campsie Glen. He was likewise told
that in the afternoon it resembled very much a fair or
a race-day, and that it was necessary to open the sta-
tion-house an hour before the usual time, in order that
they might issue the sixpenny tickets to these persons.
He mentioned these facts for this reason, that if the
former resolution was to be again adopted by the com-
pany, it might be done under proper regulations in
reference to the matter to which he referred. He had
already said that the motio❑ was premature ;
and he thought there was great force in what was
stated by Bailie Mack, in regard to the matter of
the funds. Were they, as a Town Couucil, called upon
by the urgency of this matter ?—did it come so near to
them as to affect the interests of the community so much
(and here it should be remembered that they had not yet
got a specific return of the number of individuals pass-
ing on the Sundays from Edinburgh to Glasgow) as
would justify them in using the funds of the corporation
in carrying on an opposition to the Bills of the company
in Parliament ? There was another reason, however.
These gentlemen said that it was a regard for the Sab-
bath which induced them to come to this resolution ;
and were they to visit this act with pains and penalties?
--(Cries of " No, No.") He would ask his friends, the
dissenters at the council board, to consider well this
matter before they were prepared to take such a step.
If he wanted to get a Bill from Parliament for the pur-
pose of advancing his own pecuniary interests, and if,
because he held certain principles, he was to be opposed
by the Town Council in his endeavour to get that Bill,
they were punishing him because he held these religious
opinions.—(" No, no," and " Hear, hear.") But there
was another ground on which this motion should be
resisted, and that was the ground taken up by Mr.
Dick. They all knew that no measure which this com-
pany might introduce would pass the Legislature unless
it in some degree contributed to the advantage of the
public welfare; and this being the case, the motion pro-
posed by Mr. Tait reminded him very much of the
story of the boy who had got his foot hurt, and because
he did not find his mother disposed to pay some little at-
tention to him, and to grant him some little request, he
said, " I will be revenged upon you;" and he struck hts
foot.against a wall. Now, because the directors of this
railway refused to run Sabbath trains, they were pro-
posing by this motion, to frustrate the attempt of the
company to get means which would be for the public
welfare.—(Hear, hear.) Therefore he thought that in
the whole circumstances, the consideration of this motion
should be disassociated with anything that the council
did on a former day; and he (Bailie Duncan) could see
no iaconsisteacy whatever in gentlemen who supported
the motion proposed at the previous meeting, now voting
against that of Mr. Tait.—(Hear.)
The LORD PROVOST said that the difficulty started by
Mr. Dick in regard to the motion was fully met, if' not in
the motion, at all events in the speech of Mr. Tait, in
which he proposed that it should be left to the Lord
Provost's committee to take such steps as they might
consider to be most proper for accomplishing the object.
There had been a great deal said about the large sum
that would be expended in opposing the Bills of the rail-
way company in Parliament, and he begged for himself
to say that if the matter came before the Lord Provost's
committee, he would oppose as much as any one the ap-
propriation of the city's funds for opposing this Bill.
But he would tell them that, without expending one far-
thing, they would put a spoke in their wheel. He would
take upon himself to guarantee this. Then, as to the
tyrannical nature of the motion, alluded to by Bailie
Mack, his lordship said he would like to know on whose
aide the tyranny lay. He was of opinion that it lay viith
the directors, who had tied up their legs, and would not
allow them the means of locomotion, who had placed a
wall across the railway, and said, " You shall not cross
it."—(Hear, hear.) Bailie Mack proposed—and the
proposition was a very natural one to come from a
lawyer—that if they wanted redress they should takeout
a suspension and interdict of the Court of Session. That
was not a very pleasant thing; but he would suggest that
a far more easy road was, to meet the directors in Par-
liament, when they would be quit of the quibbles and
quibbling of the law.—(A laugh.) Therefore, as to ap-
plying for an interdict, he had no wish to try that. The
Council had already come to the resolution that they
should endeavour to have that road opened en the Sun-
day; and if it was a right thing that this should be
done, ought they not to take effective measures for se-
curing- that object? And as they had the means of ef-
fecting that object, they ought not to hesitate to take
them.—(Bear, hear.) The memorial referred to by
Bailie Mack, as emanating from the tradesmen of Lan
don, was against the opening of the shops on 'he Sundays.
This was not the opening of a railway, but the opening
of the regular business of London. Now, he, for
one, was as much opposed to the carrying on of or-
dinary labour on that day, as he was opposed to the re-
solution of the directors discontinuing a morning and
an evening train on the Sundays. Bailie Duncan had
given them an account of the numbers who went f:om
Glasgow to Kirkintilloch, for the purpose of visiting
Campsie Glen. Now he had the authority of a talented
and highly respected gentleman for saying that, as Glas-
gow drew its working population from all-the towns in
the country, the railway, being open on the Sabbath
day, enabled many of these persons to visit the towns
from which they came, and to attend the churches there
with their parents or their sisters. But even granting
that a great number of those that went to Kirkintilloch
spent the day in visiting Gampsie Glen, if they did not
think they were doing wrong, what right had we to
coerce them by shutting up the means of conveyance?
And when it was remembered that these were not the
individuals who were in the habit of attending upon
church, he would ask if it was not better that they
should be enjoying themselves in a visit to that glen,
rather than in the lanes and tippling houses of Glasgow.
As to the idea of pains and penalties mooted by Bailie
Duncan, his Lordship said he had no difficulty at all in
meeting it. The directors, when they went to Parlia-
ment, came unde.z an implied agreement that they
were to give accommodation to the public ; and if they
did not fulfil that agreement, was it not quite right,
when they came again before Parliament, that they
should not get farther powers, until they had discharged
the duties previously imposed upon them?—(Hear,
hear.) The Lord Provost concluded by saying that
there was nothing that a railway company dreaded more
than a little opposition in a Parliamentary Committee ;
therefore, if the directors did not do what was just, they
had only to tell them that they would meet them where
they would get justice.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. C. B. TAIT having added to its motion the follow-
ing paragraph :—" and that it be left to the Lord Pro-
vost's committee to inquire what steps may be taken to
give effect to this resolution," the roll was called, when
20 voted for thf motion, and seven for the amendment.
For Mr. C. B. Tait's motion,—The Lord Provost,
Bailies Ritchie and Tullis, Messrs. Burke, Falkner, Wil-
son, Anderson, Stott, A. Robertson, Blyth, Weroyss,
Hay, Drummond, Cochrane, Calder, Dick, Cruckshank,
Clark, C. B. Tait, Renton.
For Bailie Mack's Amendment—Bailies Mack and
Duncan, Convener Cushnie, and Messrs. Burgess,
Whyte, A. Tait, and J. Robertson.