The Sun.
London, England, 1846-09-02 00:00:00

S N7 SEPTEMBER 2, 1846.

great works, that is, the viaducts at Mereville, Barentin,
and Malaunay, are on the eve of completion. Indeed,
the latter is entirely finished, and the rumours spread
abroad of its defectiveness happily proved to be un-
founded. Fur several days back it has been subjected
to a very severe test; a dead weight consisting of a
quantity of ballasting, estimated at several times the
weight of the heaviest train that will ever pass over it,
has been laid on the top, and over that again trains have
been passed. Hitherto no symptoms of sinking has been
observed. It is reported also that the interests of the
Rouen and Havre and Paris and Rouen lines will shortly
be amalgamated. Those persons who are interested in
either of these lines will be glad to learn that measures
are about to be taken that must secure to the Havre line
nearly all the traffic between that town and Paris. The
Rouen people have succeeded at length in obtaining a
Government grant for improving the bed of the Seine, to
enable them to compete with the railway in the carriage
of merchandise. To contend against this rival, the rail-
way company have commenced erecting in the vicinity of
the Havre station, and parallel with the rails, an immense
pile of warehouses, which are intended to serve as a grand
entrepilt for merchandise of every description, whether
going to or returning from Rouen to Paris. On the
opposite side of the rails, and adjoining the Bassen
Vauban, a series of dry docks will also be prepared, so
that vessels with wine, spirits, &c., may land their car-
goes into the railway warehouses, where they will be
ready for transmission into the interior. We believe an
association, in connection with the railway company, is
about to be formed for the purpose of carrying out this
object; and, independent of the beneficial consequences
that are likely to resultfrom it in a commercial sense, it
will meet with encouragement by the people of Havre
from the fact that it will be the means of conferring a
lasting benefit on the town, by removing to a distance
the danger of destructive fires. There are few if any
sea ports in Europe so inconveniently and dangerously
crowded, or as it were conglomerated together; ao
much so, that should a fire of any extent
break out in the vicinity of the docks, it would, in all
probability share the fate of Hamburgh.—Brighton
Guardian.

RETURN TICKETS ON THE GREAT WESTERN.—AS an
erroneous idea prevails respecting the new regulation on
the Great Western Railway, which came into operation
yesterday, relative to return tickets, it is necessary to
caution the public that they will only be available for a
distance not exceeding 50 miles on the same day, except
those issued for this distance on Saturday, which are
available for the return journey on Monday ; not ex-
ceeding 100 miles on the same or the next day (Sunday
not being counted) ; exceeding 100 miles on the same
day, or either of the next two days (Sunday not being
counted)o; and then subject to the following conditions
—viz., the ticket is not transferable. It is to be shown
at the end of the first journey, to be marked by the
ticket collector, and upon the return journey it must be
shown to the clerk at the station, to- have it restamped ;
otherwise the person will be liable to pay the full fare
back. The rate charged for return tickets is one-third
less than the full fare for the double journey, and they
are only allowed to first and second-class passengers.

EASTERN UNION RAILWAY.
IPSWICH, MONDAY EVENING.—The half-yearly meet-
ing of the shareholders of this Company was held this
afternoon, at the company's offices, in Brook-street. The
meeting was also made special to confirm the purchase
of the Hadleigh Junction Railway, to authorise the
directors to call in the old Harwich line scrip, and to
re• issue new scrip in such a manner as might be deemed
expedient ; to sanction an application to Parliament for
powers to construct a branch line to Harwich from Man-
ningtree, and to raise 20,0001. by issuing new shares.
Mr. J. C. Cobbold took the chair.

Mr. J. F. SAUNDERS, the secretary, read the report.
It stated the Eastern Union line was opened for traffic
on the 15th of June, and the results hitherto have ex-
ceeded the expectations which your directors enter-
tained of the first receipts upon it. 'With only three
engines the returns have varied, since the first week,
between 4001. and 475/. A slight re-action in pas-
senger traffic occurred during the operations of the
harvest ; but such has invariably been found to be
the case in agricultural districts, and naturally ex-
plains itself. In the last week for which the returns
have been made, namely, to 231 August, the receipts arc
again 4781. 15s. 7d., and in the week just concluded, at
your own stations they have still further increased, and
the through trains have been better than any since the
line opened. The traffic, although large (for it now
exceeds 1,4501. per mile annually), is limited much by
the want of locomotive power ; and your directors have
been subjected to delays in procuring it which were be-
yond their control. The works of Messrs. Hawthorn
and Co., from whom they were to receive, in July, three
engines, were destroyed by fire; but from that establish-
ment, and from Messrs. Sharp, Brothers, and Co., six
other engines are expected in a very short time. The
opening of the line to Bury, and successively to Dies
(to which point the works are comparatively easy), and
onwards to Norwich, justifies them in expressing a con-
fident opinion that, with the traffic fully developed, the
seventeen miles of lino will give the proprietors
as large a dividend as any railway in England.
Economy will be practised, and the working ex-
penses kept down as much as possible, consistent
always with the observance of regularity, and with the
perfect safety of the public. Up to this period not an
accident, or even misfortune, has happened between
Ipswich and Colchester, and a solitary instance only
has been reported of a train being behind time
on arriving at Colchester. Those details will
not be deemed by the proprietors trivial and
unnecessary, as the directors are desirous that the
arrangements, which really do credit to the engineer
of your Company, and to the superintendence of the
traffic and stations, should be known to the public.
The directors have the means of assuring you
that the contracts for making the line from the junction
of the present line at Haughley to Norwich, have been
determined upon by the Ipswich and Bury Company,
that the ceremony of turning the first sod at the Nor-
wich end is fixed for an early day, and further, that the
whole undertaking will be prosecuted with undiminished
vigour into the city of Norwich, where an excellent
station will necessarily command the largest and best
portion of the through traffic.

The CHAIRMAN said, since the opening of the line
50,000 persons had travelled by it, giving an average
of 5,000 weekly. With a view of developing the
merits of the line and the ports of Ipswich and Har-
wich, experiments had been made to the opposite coast,
which, as they would be aware, proved .the most satis-
factory, and in the course of next year an arrange-
ment would be made that would give the shareholders
the benefit of those experiments. He now wished
to allude to two memorials which had been pre-
sented to the directors, soliciting the withdrawal of all
trains that arrived in or departed from the town on
Sunday. They were signed by many clergymen and
gentlemen of much weight in the neighbourhood. He
could assure them that the board of directors were
anxious to pay every observance to the Lord's day;
but, after giving the matter every consideration, they
found they could not consent to the prayer of the
memorialists. There were only two trains that ar-
rived and departed in the course of the day, and they
were so arranged that they did not run during the
periods of Divine service. To effect that alteration they
were obliged to apply to the directors of the Eastern
Counties Railway to change the time of one of the
trains, who met their desire in the most honourable
way, and acceded to the proposition, notwithstand-
ing they would and had received a practical loss in
income. There were a great many parties who,
being closely confined during the week, had only
the Sabbath to visit their friends or enjoy the puro air
of heaven, and now that the ordinary means of travelling
had been removed by the construction of the railway, he
did not think that they ought to close the only con-
veyance left them, and that on a day on which only they
could avail themselves of it.—(Hear.) Therefore, in
justice to the public and the poorer and industrious'
classes, the directors could not accede to the suggestions
contained in the memorials. He for one did not think

that they ought to prevent the poor from breathing pure
air even on a Lord's day.
Mr. JOHNSON, of Halesworth, regretted the determi-
nation the directors had come to. They were reaping
the fruits of Sunday trading, a traffic which created
drunkenness and many other abominations on the Sab-
bath. He intreated the board to reconsider the subject,
and use their influence to stop the trains running on that
sacred day.

The Rev. Mr. SMYTIIERS, of Colchester, approved of
the course the directors had taken. The making re-
ligion a bugbear did more harm than good. It was
monstrous to curtail the enjoyments of the poorer classes
on the Sabbath, the only day they could recruit their
strength by breathing the fresh air of the country.
After some further discussion on the matter, nearly all
persons concurring in the conduct of the directors, the
report was adopted.
The resolution confirming the purchase of the Had-
leigh Junction was then put and carried, as also those
for creating 20,000/. by new shares, and the sanctioning
of another appeal to Parliament for leave to construct a
branch to Harwich.

MAN C HESTER and SOUTHAMPTON

RAILWAY.

ANDOVER, MoNDAv.—A large and influential meet-
ing of the clergy, gentry, and other respectable in-
habitants of this borough and neighbourhood, interested
in this line, was held in the Town-hall this day, con-
vened by requisition to the mayor. The requisitionists
basing heard with regret that the Bill recently before
Parliament, for making a railway communication between
Manchester and Southampton through Andover, had
been thrown out by the Committee of the House of
Lords, and feeling the gnat advantages that would arise
to the town and neighbourhood, and to the public
generally, if such an undertaking were carried out, con-
sidered it advisable to urge the directors of the under-
taking to renew their application to Parliament in the
next session. The disappointment, says our corre-
spondent, in this borough among the shareholders and
inhabitants generally, scarcely knew bounds on its first
becoming known that the Committee of the Lords had
rejected the Bill, as not only Andover, but Whitchurch,
Stockbridge, Marlborough, and other important towns,
lare yet without railway communication, much to the
pecuniary injury of every tradesman, it costing at the
present time more for the transmission of heavy goods

from the station to Andover (ten miles) than it does for
the whole of the other distance, either from London or
Southampton—to the groat deterioration of trade
generally—as the price of articles, such as groceries,
coals, building materials, &c., have to be kept up in price
in this borough, so that the retailers or tradesmen may
get a profit, or compete with tradesmen at Winchester,
and other towns on the line.
Henry Earle, Esq., was voted to the chair.
Mr. HENRY MAnsu, of Hatherden, stated the benefits
that must be derived by this line passing through
Andover. Were not all the inns half shut up? There
was nothing to bring people to Andover at the present
time without railway ; therefore the more they had
through the town the better it would be ; therefore he
said persevere, and you must eventually prosper.
Mr. B. Haw Kin, draper, seconded the resolution.
All the opposition had been withdrawn or overcome, but
from the Great Western, and they, it appears, had in-
fluence sufficient with five of the Lords to cause the re-
jection of this measure. He concluded by expressing a
hope that the second attempt would be more successful
than the first.—(Applause.)
Mr. HENRY LOSCOMBE, solicitor, proposed as an
amendment, " That the meeting should not bind them-
selves to any particular line of country." His opinion
was, that a line by way of Didcot would be more direct
and of greater advantage than through Marlborough.
Mr. FONVLE thought not, as the present proposed
line went more into the heart of the iron and other
large manufacturing districts.
Mr. W. H. HEATH, banker, expressed himself in
favour of the original plan.
After some further discussion the amendment was
withdrawn.

Mr. Joux Pooaz, spirit merchant, proposed the
second resolution. He feared some under speculation
contributed to getting it thrown out—(Cheers)—while
such noblemen as the Earl of Aylesbury supported and
approved of the line, he thought the had but little to
fear, WilitLite km/xi was the chief op-
ponent, and haft the; eellier s ril getting this Bill
rejected, he at first thought it was the present Prime
Minister.

Mr. FOWLE, of the firm of Tasker sad Fowle, large
iron-founders, seconded the resolution.
Mr. SANDERS proposed an amendment to the follow-
ing effect :—That this should be a free and independent
line, unconnected with the Great Western or the South
Western Companies, which was ultimately negatived.
The following resolution was passed unanimously
" Tnat the inhabitants of this town, having learnt with
deep regret that the Manchester and Southampton Rail-
way Bill has been rejected by a committee of the House
of Lords, upon the opposition principally of the Great
Western Railway Company, and not from any deficiency
of its merits or want of proof of its necessity or im-
portance to the district through which it was intended
to pass, and being fully convinced of the immense utility
and advantage such a line of railway, if made, would
prove to the public generally, and to this town and
neighbourhood in particular, do earnestly request the
committee of management and directors of the Man-
chester and South-Western Railway Compaay to renew
their application to Parliament in the ensuing session,
for an Act for making the same, and in that case do
engage to give their cordial support to such applica-
tion. '—(Cheers.)