The Sun.
London, England, 1846-06-10 00:00:00

beJentag nit

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 1846,

The Lords of the Committee of Privy Council for
Trade, have made a minute, under date of the 6th of
June (which was yesterday inserted in The Sun), on
the report of the Gauge Commissioners. Their Lord-
ships appear to have given the closest attention to the
difficult subject in question, and we confess that we
are better satisfied with the result at which they have
arrived, the suggestions they have offered, than those
adopted by the Commissioners. They have considered
the report and observations there made by the Great
Western Railway Company, which is the company most
deeply interested in the question. And, concurring
fully in the opinion " that a break of gauge is a
very serious evil," and that none of the mechanical
contrivances, 'or other methods proposed for miti-
gating the evil, " are calculated to remedy in any
important degree, the inconveniences attending a
break of gauge," they come to the real practical
question,' viz., whether any just means can be
found of producing entire uniformity of gauge.
throughout the country? This truly is the great
question, for whatever may be the convenience or ad-
vantages to the public, were they even as great as the
warmest supporters of uniformity have asserted them
to be, they would be purchased at too high a price if
attained by any but just means, and this is the fitting
view to be taken by persons exercising so high an
influence over the trade of the country, the basis of
which must ever be justice and integrity,
The Commissioners recommend,amongst other things,
—lst. That equitable means should be found of pro-
ducing entire uniformity c,f gauge, by reducing the
broad gauge lines to the narrow gauge. 2d. That all
public railways now under construction, or hereafter
to be constructed, in Great Britain, shall be formed
on the narrow gauge. Their Lordships do not con-
cur in the entire extent of these recommendations ;
they cannot feel themselves justified in recommending
an entire reduction of the broad gauge. Several methods
had been proposed for meeting the expense which
would be occasioned by the reduction ; the principal
plans suggested were :-1. That the expense should
be defrayed from the public moneys. 2. That it
should be defrayed by the companies themselves, who
should be compelled to reduce their gauge at their
own expense, or to lay down intermediate rails for
narrow gauge traffic. 3. That the expense should
be borne by a contribution, to be levied on all the rail-
way companies in the kingdom. The only one of these
methods compatible with equity or justice, is that first
named, viz., that the expense should be borne by the
public. It would be indeed a monstrous injury to
the companies who had adopted that standard which
they thought best suited to their traffic, who had
made all their works with the sanction and authority
of Parliament, at increased expense, and who are satis-
fied that that expense has been properly incurred, and
was fully counterbalanced by the additional
speed and other real or fancied ad-
vantages attendant on the broad gauge
if they should now not only be called on to forego all
the benefits derivable from that increased outlay, and
to expend a further considerable sum in reducing
their lines to the narrow gauge. Such a proposition
is so utterly repugnant to every feeling of fair play
and justice, that it requires no argument to be offered
against it—it carries with it its own condemnation,
And so it is with the other, of levying a general con-
tribution on all the railways in the kingdom ; it
would indeed be hard if railways, which derived
little or no benefit from the proposed change, which
are far remote from those about to be altered, should
be compelled, nolens voleas, willing or unwilling, to
pay a large sum of money from their own resources.
Private rights have ever been respected by our
Legislature, and though it has often been necessary to
take the property of individuals for the public benefit,
yet the principle has ever been that the public, or parties
to be benefited, should pay a full and fair compensa-
tion for the injury inflicted. If, then, the private rights of
the broad gauge companies are to be interfered with, not
for their own but the public benefit, it would be mani-
fest that the public should not only bear the entire
expense of the alteration, but make a fair compensa-
tion for the deteriorated value of the railways after
the change had been effected. The question then re-
solves itself into this—ls the public benefit which
would be derived from an uniformity of gauge equ

valent to the great expense which would be thereby
occasioned ? Their Lordships seem to think not, for
they decidedly say that they cannot recommend the
Legislature to sanction such an expense from the pub-
lic money. They also declare themselves unable to
suggest any other equitable or practicable means by
which the desire" uniformity of gauge could be ob-
tained.

From this decision of their Lordships it becomes
manifest that an absolute uniformity of gauge cannot
now be attempted, and they turn their attention to
the next point of importance, viz., to endeavour to
effect such a settlement of the gauges to be used in
the several railways already sanctioned, and to lay
down such general regulations for the future, as will

prevent the increase and further extension of an evil
they cannot altogether remedy, and will reduce the
inconvenience inflicted on the passenger and goods
traffic of the country within the narrowest attainable

We think the suggestions they have offered sound
and practical, and such as will afford the most bene-
ficial result. They adopt generally the narrow

gauge :as that on which future railways should
be constructed, although they do not wish that

it should be considered positive and final, wisely
—considering that the superiority of some ther and
intem'adiate gauge may hereafter be proved, and that
the advance-- of -Nficance and course of experience may
point out a practicable mode of altering an existing
great operation
so costly
gauge, and of easily effecting a
south ,
which is now generally conceived to b
difficult as to
of the be impracticable. Lines
tothe
existing line from London to Bristol, and
short loraildles of a few miles in length, in im-
mediate
be
eith Great Western
still
Railway, may the
sanctioned on the broad
onnexibli
gauge, but a special re
Committee on the 818, settingf must be made by the
have induced them to advise sueohrth the reasons that
a gange
2ndly. Unless by the consent of the Legu.lature, it
shall not be permitted to the directorsoi
com-
pany to alter the gauge of their railway, any
The other suggestions are, that any suitable /flea_
sures should be promoted to form a narrow gauge link
from Gloucester to Bristol, and from Oxford to Basing-
stoke, or by any shorter route connecting the proposed
Rugby and Oxford line with the South-Western
Railway. The object of this is to complete the
general chain of narrow gauge communication from
the north of England to the southern coasts and to

the port of Bristol.
The South Wales line and its branches, to be
formed as the broad gauge, as sanctioned by the
Act ; by this means a second continous line of rail-
way to Ireland, a matter of much public importance,
will be secured. It may, possibly, hereafter much

Facilitate our intercourse with America. Lastly,

the Rugby and Oxford lines, and Oxford and
Wolverhampton, are to be still on the broad gauge ;
_ . .

but additional narrow gauge rails are to be forthwith
laid down from Rugby to Oxford, and from Wolver-

hampton to the junction with the Birmingham

and Gloucester line.

And, if it should appear

that there is a traffic requiring accommodation on

the narrow gauge from the Staffordshire dis-
ricts to the southern coast, every suitable

measure shall be promoted by Parliament to form
a narrow gauge link from Oxford to the line of the
Birmingham and Gloucester Railway. We trust that
this report will be acquiesced in and adopted, and
that thus the battle of the gauges, so fiercely con-
tended, may be brought to a peaceful termination.

On the 3d inst. the Council of Berne adopted the
three first clauses of the new Constitution without
any amendment.

Madrid papers of the 3d inst. have arrived. They
contain no intelligence of importance.
The Three per Cents. sold at 331 for cash, the Five
per Cents. at 20, the Coupons at 19k, the shares of
the Bank of San Fernando at 385, and those of Isabel
at 196.

We have received the Paris papers of Monday. At
six o'clock in the morning of that day the regicide
LECOMTE was guillotined at the Barrier St. Jacques.
The Chamber of Peers on Monday passed the Wes-
tern Railway Bill and the St. Dizier and Gray Rail-
way Bill without discussion.

In the Chamber of Deputies the discussion on the
budget of Algeria had commenced. The Minister of
War, who pronounced a high eulogium on Marshal
BUGEAUD, was speaking when the post left.
These papers contain some additional particulars
on the subject of the illness and death of the POPE.
" Cardinal de la Tour d'Auvergne received on the 4th of
June, from Rome, the following communication:—
" Eminence Reverendissime,—Aware of the lively interest
your Eminence takes in the valuable health of the Sovereign
Pontiff, I eagerly seize the opportunity of certifying in the
most positive manner, that the slight indisposition, accom-
panied with a little fever, which prevented his Holiness from
being present at the solemn high mass at Chiesa-Verova, for
the fete of Saint Philip Nevi, has produced no ill conse-
quences, and that his Holiness may be considered as entirely
recovered. I receive this information from the Pope's phy-
sician, my particular friend, whose declaration will allay the
anxiety of your Eminence as to the alarming reports circu-
lated on the subject.
" P.S. I am enabled, my Lord, to confirm, at the moment
of closing my letter, the happy news of the restoration to
health of the Sovereign Pontiff. It is quite positive, and I
have it from the Austrian Ambassador himself.

(Signed)
" The Commander CAMILLE LOUIS DE ROSSI,
"French Ambassador.

" Rome, May 28."

The Presse mentions having received a letter:from
Rome of the 30th ult , stating that " a surgical ope-
ration performed on one of the POPE'S legs produced
a violent iilammation in that limb on the evening of
the 26th ; it made such progress during the follow-
ing da3s, that on the 30th the physicians lost all
hopes of saving the august patient. GREGORY XVI.
had long laboured under a chronic affection in the
legs, in consequence of his habit of remaining during
the greatest part of the day, seated at his desk."
"We cannot undertake to-day," says the Univers, " the
history of the long career and the difficult and glorious pon-
tificate of Gregory XVI. The last events which illustrated
it are still present in the memory of Europe and the world.
We find an immense consolation-in recollecting the noble
words which Gregory XVI. so courageously addressed some
months ago to the Emperor Nicholas in favour of the perse-
cuted Catholics of his empire. He said, considering his great
age, that the time approached when he should render an ac-
count to God, and it was under the inspiration of his piety as
well as of his heart that he defended, on that solemn occa-
sion, justice and religion oppressed. llis soul, full of faith,
was not surprised by death. According to the ordinary rules
the Cardinals are to meet in a conclave ten days after the
death of the Pope, to proceed to elect his successor. The
mass of the Holy Ghost, which precedes the conclave, will
be celebrated accordingly on the 11th inst., in the church of
the Priests of the Mission, on Mount Quirinal."

Cardinal DE LA TOUR D'AUVERGNE proceeds imme

diately to Rome to attend the Sacred College,
which must be immediately assembled to elect
a new Pope. Tie will, on the part of
France, exercise a right which that power
possesses, in common with Austria and Spain, of
annulling the first election, should it prove disagree-
able to them. Spain, it is said, acts in concert with
France on this occasion.

The King and Queen of the BELGIANS arrived in
Paris on Saturday.

The railway from Paris to Sceaux was opened on
Sunday.

Mr. THOMAS, a notary, has been arrested at Dijon,
charged with being the author of the letters threaten-
ing incendiarism, which were addressed to the Mayor
of St. Usage and Echenon on the 30th of April.
The Minister of Agriculture and Commerce had
published the returns of the corn trade of France
during the month of April last, from which it ap-
pears that the imports were—wheat, 85,946 metrical
quintals; other grain, 4,066 ; flour, 414: exports,
wheat, 776 metrical quintals ; other grain, 22,512 ;
flour, 2,241: and the quantities lying in the Go-
vernment bonding stores, wheat, 144,183 metrical
quintals; other grain, 23,334; and flour, 7,662. The
imports during the first four months of 1846 were,
wheat, 1,492,628 metrical quintals; other grain,
41,114 ; and flour, 9,278 ; and the exports, wheat,
7,468 metrical quintals ; other grain, 130,095 ; and
flour, 13,783.
The Three per Cents. closed on the Paris Bourse on Mon-
day at 83f. 15c. ex. div. ; the Five per Cents., 120 f. 30c.;
the Orleans Railroad Shares, 1,2561. 25c.; Rouen, 1,030 f. ;
Havre, 7501. ; Great Northern, 743 f. 75c. ; Avignon, 895 f. ;
Vierzon, 6401. ; Bordeaux, 610 f. ; Boulogne, 487 f. 50c. ;
Troyes and Montereau, 380 f. ; Basle, 220 f.; Dieppe, 420 f.
Paris and Strasburg, 505 f. ; Tours and Nantes, 520 f.; Paris
and Lyons, 545 f. ; Belgian Two-and-a-Half per Ceuta., 57f. ;
Spanish Three per Cents., 38.
The following are quotations for other railway shares:
Lyons and Avignon Definitives, 520 f. ; Bordeaux and
Cette, ditto, 506 f. 25c.
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, JUNE 9.
Boulogne and Amiens, 11—Central of Spain, 1% —East Indian,
%-3ladrid and Valentia, 1 —Namur and Liege, 3%—Northern of
France Constituted, 13%—Orleans and Bordeaux, 9% —Paris and
Lyons Constituted, 61,fi —Paris and Orleans, 47%—Paris and
Rouen, 39Y2—Paris and Strasbourg Constituted, 4%—Rouen and
Havre, 2834—Sambre and Meuse, 5.

QUEEN'S BENCH.-(THIS DAY.)
(Sittings in Banco.)
THE QUEEN V. SHARP.
- -

This case which has arisen out of a church-rate contest
was argued at great length this morning. It is an applica-
tion for a rule to grant a church-rate, made in the parish of
Wakefield, under the following circumstances :—A meeting
of the ratepayers was called in the usual way, and after
some discussion a division was taken, and subsequently a
poll of the ratepayers, which resulted in a majority of four
in favour of the rate. The opposing party contended that
the vicar, who presided, had admitted many improper votes,
and that instead of a majority being for the rate, there
would be found, on a scrutiny, a majority of one hundred
and fifty against it. Some altercation took place about the
vicar not granting a scrutiny, and a committee was ap-
pointed, the result of whose labours did not give
satisfaction, as the magistrates were appealed to
against the rate. The magistrates dismissed the application,
and the result was the present appeal to the Court of Queen's
Bench to quash the rate, on the ground of the vicar refusing
to allow a proper scrutiny into the votes, and that, therefore,
the rate attempted to be raised was illegal.
Mr. Baines, with whom was Mr. Hall, was heard in sup-
port of the rule; and Mr. W. D. Hill and Mr. Atherton were
heard against it. _ _ _

(The case had not concluded when our report left.)

BAIL COURT.-(THIS DAY.)
This Court was occupied the whole of the forenoon in hear-
ing a bill case, the particulars of which were of no interest,
except to the parties concerned.

SECONDARIES'.—(THIS DAY.)
(Before Mr. Secondary JAMES.)
THE QVZEN V. MALIN.
This was a writ of extent, and the jury were called upon
to inquire of what goods, chattels, &c., the defendant was
possessed within the bailiwick of the Sheriffs of London. The
case had been previously submitted to ajury, but the inquiry
was abandoned for want of evidence, and the Secondary said
that it could be renewed at any time before the return of
the writ. The following are the facts of the case :—The
defendant is the widow of an officer of the East India Com-
pany, entitled to a pension of 2051. 6s. 3d., from a fund,
called the Royal Bengal Military Fund, founded by
Lord Clive, and of which the board at Calcutta
are trustees. It was customary for the amount of the an-
nuities due to persons residing in England to be transmitted
to the East India Company, who paid it to them or to per-
sons holding their powers of attorney. In this case the de-
fendant resided in Calais, and had been waived (or outlawed),
and had given a power of attorney to Messrs. Richards,
Little, and Co., East India agents, Bishopsgate-street, who
last. The question now was,
whether aTy
held the money under the board and
had
the i
Company
oump p toa n
yJ a n u
were bound to pay it within the City of London, or whether
the parties entitled could claim it elsewhere.
The SECONDARY said it appeared to him that the pension
at all events could not be touched, and that the Company
Ny.l4e,wr eondodmboer ebteht
better,
agents
therefefirier, t lti
oe pgaeytmtehnet osecretary
i v itdoe ntdhse.
East India Company to attend and explain the precise
Mr. WARREN now contended rights
of
all
mere servants of the cfneteetnided that the body in India were
the pension and required thelird
nature of the fund
eiliCompany, who sanctioned
presarttoiessUbscribe.
eeretary's office, was
Mr. Thos. Keith, a clerk in
yrit,tedvanmi by the
saaidmatthteer mofonceoyn
NeansientaceerB.
Companyc a led H
eas
It fact,
bad the money, but there was an account cLennetveliCe
sent over to the Government in India, who settlepdt, and
the directors or managers of the fund. An with
.application
was made three or tour years ago to
the Directors
to advance the money for the pension on receipt of a certifi-
cate from t
whe agent Of the fund, and it was consented to,
but theywould not take any responsibility on themselves.
They might pay or refuse ; there was no obligation to pay,
Lord Clive's fund itself was exhausted twenty years ago.
A tedious discussion ensued in consequence of Mr. Warren
cat
er what the e
l *ming to tend ,title Seemed to the
pension and the
East liability of the
India Company to pay.
i suggested that a special •
verdict should
Mr. WAHREN then sigg
be given.
said the inquiry was as to what property
The SECONDARY
within the bailiwick v
possessed of of the
the defendent was
London. In his charge to the jury,
Sheriffs of the City of
pension was due in -
him that the
he said it appeared to
not bound to pay. A new writ,
and that the Company were
however might be issued hereafter if other evidence could be
brought forward.
clods chattels, &c.The jury found there were no g /