The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-31 00:00:00

by the Eastern Counties Railway to an order of the
House. The line, which is 51 miles in length, cost
45,1991. in Parliamentary expenses. The other prelimi-
nary expenses, such as cost of engineering, &c., amount-
ing to 48,6501., are separately stated. The Parliament-
ary expenses of the London and Birmingham have
been stated at 6501. per mile ; of the Great Western at
1,000/. per mile. No wonder that foreigners hold up
their hands in astonishment when they hear of this
enormous waste. The sums paid for land by the Eastern
Counties amounted to 809,950 L, or about 12,0001. per
mile, alone, exceeding the whole cost per mile on most
of the German lines, and on several of the Belgian.
The London and Birmingham and the Great Western
paid 6,300/. each per mile for lands. In the case of the
Rouen and Havre line, Mr. Reed states that 6,0001. was
paid to three gentlemen who made considerable ex-
ertions to obtain the Act, but that the expenses incurred
in the inquiry before the board, and up to the time the
Act was obtained, amounted in all only to 7001.
The allowing, as an affair of course, the projectors of
a railway, on giving the prescribed notices to drag ex-
isting companies or owners of property on the proposed
line before a Committee of the House of Commons, is
an evl the magnitude of which can hardly be over-rated.
Many of the schemes lately brought forward were, on
the face of them, quite unworthy of being entertained ;
some were started for gambling purposes, and not a few
with the object of compelling existing companies to come
to terms in order to avoid a troublesome and expensive
contest. Mr. Peto mentions cne instance within his own
knowledge, where, though the line was utterly irnprac
citable, and the Bill never went beyond the Standing
Orders' Committee of the House of Commons, the solici-
tor's account, which did not include the expenses of
engineers and various other outlays, amounted to no less
a sum than 82,0001.
Your Committee are happy to perceive that the causes
of the failure of the Committee of the Board of Trade
to answer the ends for which it was appointed, are satis-
factorily explained by many of the witnesses whom they
have examined. Mr. Robert Stephenson attributes the
failure not to any incompetency on the part of that Com-
mittee,. but to the faulty system pursued by them in re-
ceiving evidence in private. Without entering on the
question whether, if that Committee had been properly
supported by the Government, a different result might
have been expected, it is sufficient to state that no con-
clusion against the placing railways under the super-
vision of a department of the Executive can be fairly
drawn from that failure. The Committee of the Board
of Trade took more enlarged views of the object for
which they were appointed than the Legislature and the
public in general were then prepared for; but after the
experience of the last two years, the conviction has be-
come general that something more is required than
merely to decide between the conflicting claims of con-
tending parties, and that railways are of too much im-
portance
,to the community to allow of their being
any longer viewed as subordinate to the interests of
individuals. Objectionable as the mode of proceeding
before Committees confessedly is, and erroneous as
their decisions may sometimes have been, this evil,
great as it is, sinks into insignificance in comparison with
that to which the country has been exposed from the
want of a board of high character connected with the
Executive Government to watch over the public interests
in railway affairs. Such a board, pursuing an enlightened
system in sanctioning or rejecting proposed lines,
keeping constantly in view the necessities of the country
and the protection of the public from excessive exactions
for the conveyance of goods and passengers,!and taking due
advantage of every suitable opportunity that may present
itself for obtaining a reduction of fares and charges, and
uniformity both with reference to prices and classifica-
tion, would soon obtain the confidence of the public, and
command the respect of the Legislature. Though Par-
liament would still have the power of deciding in the
last resort, it would no longer be forced to encumber
itself with preliminary inquiries which might be so
much more advantageously conducted before a tribunal
proceeding according to a more judicious system,
thoroughly acquainted with railway affairs, and there-
fore peculiarly qualified for the task confided to it. The
hopelessness of shaking the confidence of rarliament in
the Board, which would result from unsuccessful at-
tempts could not fail to induce a disposition to acquiesce
in its decisions, and thus the spirit of gambling which is
so much fostered by decisions varying with each other in
principle, would experience a serious check.
That part of the functions of the proposed Govern-
ment Board which relates to the supervision of existing
railways, in order to secure the public against a capri-
cious exercise of their powers, and unreasonable fares
and charges, might not be"so palatable to companies as
the power to interfere in the origination of new schemes.
Your Committee are, therefore, thoroughly persuaded
that a due regard to the public interests essentially re-
quires that companies, in the exercise of their powers,
should be placed under a vigilant supervision. A board
of high character and influence, possessing an extensive
knowledge-of the wants of the different parts of the
kingdom, might resolve oh doing so of their own accord.
Mr. Smith, of Deanston, for instance, states that the
greatest benefit may be expected from the conveyance
of fat cattle on railways, as they can only be driven for
a Very abort distance. Now on many of the railways
the directors have from the first maintained, and still
maintain, a scale of charges for cattle which utterly
excludes them from railways. Captain Laws, a direc•
for on two or three railways, and who has the manage-
ment of the traffic on the Manchester and Leeds
Railway, recently stated before another Committee that
railway companies, by fixing their fares for cattle and
sheep too high, deprived the public of the benefit of the
conveyance by railways ; that though the present rates
are only about a third of those with which they started,
and though the reduction has greatly increased the
traffic, the majority of the cattle and sheep are still
driven, to their great detriment. An intelligent su-
pervision would have led to the correction of this evil
long before this, and prevented the iporance or obsti-
nacy of directors from inflicting so serious an ilijur, on
the public.
A pretext has been set up by companies, that the
great outlay by them on their lines ought to secure them
from all interference with a view to a reduction of fares,
so long as the profits of the undertakings do not allow
such dividends as would constitute a fair return on their
capital. Though fares so high as to interfere with
the interests of the country ought in no case to be
allowed, and the principle of determining fares by
the returns which capital ought to obtain is not to
be recognised, yet it may not be irrelevant to observe
that even if the amount of capital sunk in a line
were to be taken as a criterion, it would be necessary to
distinguish between the original outlay on a line,
and the amount to which the capital of the company
has been swelled by the mode adopted in purchasing
and amalgamating with other lines, and in providing for
extension and branch lines. It is quite clear that the
original outlay on lines, including all the extravagant
purchases of land, and the wasteful expenses incurred in
surveys, and the proceedings before the Parliamentary
Committees, falls far short of the amount of stock which
has been created. Your Committee are unable to state
with exactness the amount of money divided, or to bo
divided, in this country, among proprietors, as premiums
on new shares, but they conceive it cannot fall much
short of fifty millions. The payment of large sums to
obtain the consent of competing lines to amalgamations,
which at one time excited so much sensation, was not so
objectionable in itself as in the use that was made of
such amalgamations, and of the power to raise money
for the extension of old, and the construction of branch
lines. By issuing shares representing capital to an
amount far beyond that of the money required, in order
to enable proprietors to divide among themselves large
premiums, sums were pocketed by proprietors, which,.
if applied to the purposes of the lines, would have
rendered a corresponding issue of shares unneces-
sary, and in so far diminished the amount of stock
created. Of these practices a striking illustration has
already been given by your Committee from the report
from the Select Committee on Group (58) of Railway
Bills, relating to the Hull and Selby Railway Purchase
Bill. Were an account taken of the sums already
divided and to be hereafter divided among proprietors in
this objectionable way, and of the expenditure incurred
in buying off parties supposed to possess powerful interest,
and in proceedings before Committees, which at a low
estimate alone must have exceeded twenty-five millions,
they would have been found sufficient for the construction
of trunk lines for the whole country.
The whole of the State lines of Belgium, of which
145 miles were double, and 202 miles single, cost only
5,945,148/.

The whole of the capital required for the magnificent
system of railways executed and in the course of execu-
tion, and projected in France, down to the autumn of
1845, by which the commercial wants and military de-
fence of that great kingdom were provided for, does nQt
exceed the sums divided and to be divided by a few
English companies among the proprietors in the shape
of premiums.
The capital for
31st of July, 83
rhthelines concededandls, m
eoi d
executediete inte
France, down to
8,576,0001.; and among these lines are those from An-
dresieux to Roanne, from Bordeaux to La Teste, from
Montpellier to Cette, from Mulhausen to Mann, from
Paris to Orleans, from Paris to Rouen, foom Paris to
St. Germain, from Paris to Versailles, from St. Etienne
to Lyons, from Strasbourg to Basle, the line of the Gard
ar.d the mines of La Grande Combe. The capital for
the lines in the course of execution at the above period
amounted to 14,000,0001. The capital for the lines and
branches to be conceded in 1845.6, voted in the session
of 1845, amounted to 32,360,000/ The capital required
for the lines remaining in the state of report at the
close of the session of 1845, excluding a few branches
not finally decided on, amounted to 9,520,0001. All
these sums taken together amount only to 64,566,000/.
This was the estimated amount of the capital necessary
to complete the French railways at the period alluded
to, though, indeed, additions have been subsequently
made. Such is the manner in which sums have been
withdrawn from the purposes of the public deemed suffi-
cient for the coustruction of railways, on a magnificent
scale, for the greatest continental kingdom, where local
difficulties are often formidable, and where the outlay
for earthwork, masonry, and iron work is as high as
in England, and which, if applied to their legitimate
purposes, would have left no part of Great Britain with-
out the benefit of railways,
It' we assume the aVet'age cost of the tOtietruction of
railwap ih Prii.sia to be 12,000/. per mile, which,
judging from those already erteettei.i, is rather above
than below the mark, the whole expenditure on 0,200
miles of railway by which the surface of a kingdom co
taining a population nearly equal to that or Engi...l
will be covered as with a network, will not exceed
36,000,000/, a fraction only of the money withdrawn
here from its legitimate purposes.
Part of the evidence taken by your Committee has
reference to consequences with which the establishment
of railways has been attended, to a branch of the public
revenue intimately connected with the convenience and
welfare of the great body of the people. Before the
establishment of railways the Post-office, according to
Mr. Stow, paid for the carriage of the mails, including
the coaches, something under 2d. a mile, but the chines