The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-01 00:00:00

LONDON AND BRIGHTON (WANDSWORTH

BRANCH).
(Continued from our Afternoon Edition.)

Mr. Fuller, surveyor, being examined, gave evidence of the value
and ornamental character of the ground through which the whoie
line passed. He thought that 40,0001., instead of 29,0001., would be
the proper price for the land. He founded that estimate on the nature
of the land, and the agreements entered into by the Company with
other parties—with Messrs. Rawlinson and Co.—who had received
9,0001., and with Crooke, Ellison, and Co., who had got 6,0001.
It came out in cross-examination that an agreement had been
made between the Company and Mr. Fuller about the ground of Mr.
Hague, giving Mr. Hague 400/. an acre, and 2,0001. Mr. Hague re-
pudiated the agreement, as not made wills his authority.
Mr. SUTTON, the solicitor to the Company, stated that he had
negotiated with Mr. Fuller and Mr. Hague's son, both of whom re-
presented themselves as authorised by Mr. Hague, sen. The witness
put in a written assent to the Bill, signed by Mr. Hague, jun., and
given in last year, when the scheme was before Parliament. lie
said the sum given to Messrs. Crooke, Ellison, and Co. was incor-
rectly stated, it was but 3,0001.
This closed the case.

Mr. O'MALLEY, on the part of the South Western (Mitcham
Branch), here objected to the Committee considering the line, for
which he appeared, as competing with the Brighton line, and he
would not offer any opposition to that line passing ' • but if the Com-
mittee considered it a competing line, he would be compelled to a I-
dress himself and his evidence against the preamble of the other Bill.
The Committee decided that as Mr. O'Malley had already acted, by
cros —examining the witnesses, as for a competing line, he had better
continue to occupy the same position.

SOUTH WESTERN (MITCHAM BRANCH),
Mr. O'MALLEY then proceeded to open the merits of the Mitcham
lie, and to put in evidence in favour.

Mr. Iterwa opposed the line on behalf of owners and occupiers on a
mile and a half on the projected line. . . . .

The Committee adjourned till twelve o'clock to-morrow.

GROUP XXI.
LONDON AND OXFORD.
(Continued from our Afternoon Edition.)

Mr. Henry Dickson, land valuer, of Oxford, considered that the
proposed station of this line in that town was admirably suited for a
junction with the stations of the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolver-
hampton, and the Oxford and Rugby Railways, Which received the
sanction of Parliament during the last session. The ground which they
would all occupy was extremely level. Generally agreed with the evi-
dence of the last witness. He estimated the revenue which the Company
would derive from the carrying of agricultural produce, beasts, coal,
butter, wool, grocery, drapery, horses, &c., at 38,0001.
Mr. Scales, salesman, Aldgate, said he was in the habit of receiving
cattle and sheep from Thame, Princes Risborough, and considered
the line would be of great advantage for their transmission. The
Birmingham was the best station, as it was nearer the markets.

ENGINEERING EVIDENCE.
Mr. John Addison, the engineer of the line, was then called and
examined by Mr. CALVERT—HQ said the Company was not new to
him, as he examined it ten years ago as to its feasability for a rail-
way. He also examined a portion of it last year for the London and
Birmingham Company. The line commenced by ajunction with the
London and Birmingham Railway at Harrow, and seven miles from
its station at Euston -square, and in its route to Oxford passed
through Northall, Uxbridge, Fulmer, leaving Wooburn to the
left, Loudwater, High Wycombe, Bradenham, Bledlow,
Saunderton, Horsenden, Eamington, branch to Thame, from
the neighbourhood of Tetsworth, Great Hagley, Little
Milton, Carrington, Cowly, terminating in the parish St.
Clements, at the 53d mile stone on the Lendon-road, about half
a mile from Maldon Bridge, where a junction was proposed to be
made at the Oxford and Rugby and the Rugby and Worcester.
The ground at this part was very level. The ex-
treme length of the line was 47 miles, b furlongs, and 5 chains ;
the branch to Thame 3 miles, 2 furlongs, and 2% chains; total
length to Euston-square 54 miles, 7 furlongs, and 2 chains. On the
main line there were four level planes, and the worst gradient was
1 in a 100. There were three inclined planes in the Thame
branctr-1 in 220, 1 in 167, and 1 in 2,640. At Bledlow there
was a plane of 1 in 136. The gradients were as favourable
as the nature of the' country would allow, and were per-
fectly consistent with moderate works, and were laid out
so as to compensate the mere level portions of the line this was
also the case with the embankment and cuttings. There were ten sta-
tions—commencing at Northalt, Uxbridge, Edgley, or Stoke Common,
Wooburn, High and West Wycombe, Princes Risborough, Tetsworth,
Carrington, and the terminus at Oxford, which was well situated for the
purposes of the town. There were engineering obstacles to putting
Thame on the main line. The London and Birmingham station at
Euston-square, possessed advantages over the station of the Great
Western, because it was two miles nearer the centre of the metropolis,
an advantage which he considered; and Mr. Robert Stephenson of
the same opinion, said it was equal to tenmiles of railway travelling.
There -were two tunnels on the line, one at Horsingden Wood, and
the other under the Cricket-ground at Uxbridge ; the first was 457
yards, and the second 325 yards in length. The soil was favourable
at Uxbridge, but not so at Horsingden, for which allowance
had been made in the estimate. The worst curves were
in the neighbourhood of Wooburn. There were two curves there of
a radius of half a mile and eight chains each. At the junction with
the London and Birmingham there was a curve a quarter of a mile
in length, with a radius of three furlongs each.

For the line, including 10 per ES
cent. forTIMATE.
contingencies £739,875
Laud ..... • • ...... ••••• • • • • .

The land required, on the average, would be • 61,643 cubic yards
per mile.
Cross-examined by Mr. TALBOT—Several schemes had been pre-
jected during the last ten years nearly along the route of this line ,
but but they were not proceeded with. Three or four plans were pro
was for making a line to Oxford, in November, but this line
the only one which had come before Parliament. This line
was originally proposed to afford railway accommodation west, by
Whitney, Cheltenham, Tewkesbury, and so on to Hereford, after
leaving Oxford, but this Banalas abandoned shortly after the report
of the Committee on tke Gunge line last year. The Commit-
tee of this railway came to the decision of yielding the ground west of
Oxford to the broad guage interest. He was a subscriber to the
amount of 26,0001. or 27,000/. The junction with the London and
Birmingham was north of the tunnel at Harrow, The line for six-
teen miles from London, ran about 316 from the Great Western line,
towards Kilburn about four miles. They should no doubt run as
many Oxford trains as the Great Western now did to that town. He
had no doubt of the London and Birmingham line being able to afford
them ample accommodation. On the main line there were thirty-
nine inclined planes and four levels ; but the total length of the levels
from end to end was not more than two miles. The best gradient
wag 1 in f
8t514.
feet. The deepest part of the cutting at Stoke-co
was 68 mmo
ton
They passed about 14 feet below, but parallel the
present road. The strata was chalk and gravel. There would be a
viaduct of 2,220 yards in length ; the extreme height 112 feet. The
viaduct on the Dover r e
at Folkstone, was 100 feet in height ; at
line,
68 feet in height.
Wycombe
there was a v
The
the Committee.
examination of this witness was not concluded at the rising of

GROUP XXV.
The Select Committee appointed to consider the merits of the Bills
comprise( in this group, re-assembled at the usual hour this morning
in the Westminster Sessions•house. Mr. Monekten Mines, Vice-Pre-
sident of the Committee; in the chair. •
STOUR VALLEY.

Before the merits of this line, which stood next andlast of the line,
was gone into, an incidental discussion arose as to the right of Mr.
Sergeant Wrangham to appear in opposition to the Bill, as the repre-
sentative of the Chelmsford and Bury line.
Mr. AUSTIN contended that the Stour Valley line, which ran from
a point on the Eastern Counties Railway near to Colchester, to Sud-
bury, could in no way be considered in the light of a comparative line
with the Chelmsford and Bury, which ran from Chelmsford through
Sudbury to Bury St. Edmunds : while, on the other hand,
Mr. Sergeant WAANGHAM urged that the two lines would compete
for the direct through traffic between the metropolis and Sudbury,
and Bury St. Edmund's ; and he had, therefore, a right to appear.
The Chelmsford ar d Bury Bill, which was now before a
Standing Orders Committee had been grouped with the Norwich
line, but that fact did not prove that it did not compete with the
Stour Valley line.
_ _

Mr. AUSTIN called the attention of the Committee to the fact that
the promoters of the Chelmsford and Bury Bill had not petitioned
against the preamble of the Stour Valley Bill, and this was an addi-
tional ground why they ought to be heard. The question of compet-
ing lines had nothing to do with the matter. Parliament now con-
sidered no such thing as competition. Lines were looked at now, not
in a competing point of view, but a comparative, and where two
lines were projected for serving the same district of country, Par-
liament decided upon the two without reference at all to the matter
of competition. Now these two lines did not serve the same district
of country, and again ho said his Learned Friend had no right to be
heard.

The Committee decided that the promoters of the Chelmsford and
Bury line could not be heard.
_ _

Mr. MELLox then stated the case for the Stour Valley Company.
It was to connect Colchester with its port, by means of the branch
called the Hythe line. It then passed along the Eastern Counties
line for some distance, and branched off down the valley of the
&tour, and terminating in a fork, one prong at Halstead and the
other at Sudbury. The length of the line was nineteen miles and a
half, and the estimated cost 250,0001. At present the carriage of
coals between these places was 7s. per ton. The proposed lino would
reduce it to 3s. or 2s. 6d.
Evidence of a general character was then adduced to prove the
extent of tram* in coals, iron, timber, agricultural produce and ma-
terials, geode and merchandise, at present existing between the Port