The Sun.
London, England, 1834-09-19 00:00:00

representatives of the Great Western Company be called
forward to speak of their line in comparison with that of
which so much had been said to the meeting, and to vindi-
cate their character, which he had no doubt they would be
able to do the satisfaction of all present. The opportunity
of doing this should be afforded before the resolutions were
passed.

- Mr. SAUNDERS, of Bradford, proposed that an adjourn-
ment should take place, in order to afford time for a con-
ference between the Directors of the two Companies, but
the proposition was strongly resisted by a great majority.

Mr. DE BLAQuIERE rose with the intention of offering
some observations, but calls for Mr. Saunders, the London
secretary of the Great Western Railway, becoming gener
ral, he was not heard.

Mr. SAUNDERS then presented himself to the notice of
the meeting. He had a right to stand forth in justification
of a large proprietary interested in the promotion of the
Great Western Railway. The meeting had heard a great
deal on the subject of a new railway undertaking. A
crude plan of a branch railway had been submitted to the
public. Much had been said of the importance of a rail-
way communication between this neighbourhood and the
metropolis—all this he cordially agreed with. But bad it
been shown that it was the intention of the Southampton
Company to extend the road to Bristol—no ; for it was
only to proceed from Basing to Bath. He (Mr. Saun-
ders) was not present at the conference which had been
referred to, but he knew that it was recorded on the books
of the Great Western Company that Mr. de Blaquicre
would not consent to an enquiry into the respective merits
of the two lines. The Bristol Directors were even now
prepared to have this enquiry made. Was not that a fair sub-
ject of consideration ? Were they to agree to a line with-
out examining its merits—without the hearing of evidence
—a line respecting which they entertained strong doubts
whether it could ever be carried into effect. He was
prepared to abide by the opinion which might he given by
competent engineers respecting the relative merits of the
lines. He repeated that the Great Western Directors were
still willing to stand or fall by the issue of such an enquiry.
Much had been said on the subject of the terminus of the
Great Western line, and an objection had been made to its
going through Chelsea ; with reference to this part of the
subject he would give the meeting an idea of the misrepre-
sentations which had been so industriously circulated, and
the propagation of which had been continued even in this
room. It had been said that the Great Western Company
would have to destroy between 300 and 400 of,the best
houses on the property of Lord Cadogan ; the truth, how-
ever, was, that only 80 houses would be taken down—
,(Hear, hear)—and it was found that the rents of these
ranged only from 151. to 201. per annum.—(Applause.)
Was it rational to suppose that the Company would seri-
ously propose to take down 400 of the best houses in Chel-
sea! It was necessary for him to allude to these gross
libels, and he envied not the feelings of those who originated,
or, from other sinister motives, were engaged in their cir-
culation. They who were the most active in disseminating
these statements must have known them to be false. Mr.
Saunders then alluded to the attempts which he stated had
been used to prejudice the Great Weste,n Railway in the
minds of the public at Bradford and Trowbridge, (the truth
of the assertion as respects Bradford was denied by Mr.
Saunders of that place and other gentlemen present). In
Manchester the same game had been played—but notwith-
standing these occurrences, the Great Western Company had
never endeavoured to injure the Southampton Company. The
Great Western had, in fact, refused to aid in the opposi-
tion promoted by those landholders who were opposed to
the Southampton road, although they were invited to assist
in such opposition. For the truth of this he would appeal
to a: gentleman present,Mr. Burke—who was the agent
for conducting the opposition referred to._ (Mr. Burke
here corroborated the statement of Mr. Saunders.) Mr.
S. then read some passages from the evidence of Mr. Ste-
phenson, showing his opinion of the line proposed by the
Southampton Company. Mr. Stephenson stated that
" this line was so ridiculously bad, that he could not ima-
gine who could think of supporting it ; if it were made it
might be rendered entirely useless by the establishment of
another line, the levels were so bad ; the line was so bad
that it would never be made ; the proprietors would sooner
or later see that it could never go on." Mr. Saunders then
mentioned the names of several eminent engineers who had
stated that the line could not be made for the estimated
sum, if it were possible to make it at all. " Here, then (con-
tinued Mr. S.), is ground to pause before we adopt a line
which is of so questionable a nature. All we wish is, that
the public should support that line which embodies the
greatest number of advantages. Besides, a mere branch
railway is not what Bath and Bristol have a right to expect.
I would beg the meeting to remark that nothing satisfac:
tory has been to-day said on the subject of remuneration
to the subscribers. This is a most important omission.

It has, it is true, been observed, that if the Great Western
Company can find a profit on their outlay of 3,000,0001.,
there can he no doubt that there will be profit in a under-
taking which requires an outlay of no more than 1,400,000/.
Not only, however, do I doubt whether there will be any
profit in the scheme of our rivals, but I know that there
will be none. It is notorious that the portion of the rail-
way near London will absorb all the profit, and of this the
subscribers to the Bath and Basing line are to have no
share. We do not wish to have this question settled by
the dictum of our engineer or their engineer ; we want fair
and proper enquiry, without which it is too much to expect
that we will throw away our prospect of establishing a com-
munication to which we consider ourselves to be entitled.
We are ready now to enter into such inquiry, but it must
be undertood that we are not to be arrested in our progress
during the ensuing Session of Parliament. Mr. Dc Blaquiere
has said that our Directors ought not to condemn the Bath
and Basing line without having first seen the section. Have
the Directors whom that gentleman represents seen the
section of the northern line—no—and they therefore ac-
cuse us of a fault of which they are themselves guilty. I
am enabled to go farther, andsay that at the time when Mr.
De Blaquiere made his proposition to the Directors of our
Company, he had not even •seen his own section. He
has found fault with us for seeing only one section, and
it turns out that he decided without seeing any at all !
Bristol and Bath are identified in interest, and I will appeal
to the inhabitants of Bath whether they will disconnect
themselves from Bristol—(No, no)—and take up a propo-
sition for uniting them with Basing.—(No, no.) We have
heard what has been said by a gentleman from Manches-
ter. The question is, are you to be sacrificed for the sake
of bencfitting the Manchester shareholders ? The scheme
this day laid before you has been promoted for the benefit
of the London and Southampton Railway Company. The
officers of the proposed plan are the same as those of the
Southampton Company. It is quite impossible that the
two undertakings can be managed by the same persons with
equal advantages to both ; the interests of the; one must
inevitably succumb to those of the other ; it will be allowed
that a solicitor cannot well be employed for both plaintiff
and defendant. The plans must, therefore, be divided ;
they must be independent of each other ; their affairs cannot
be advantageously and properly conducted by the same
Company. He (Mr. Saunders) had no doubt that the
Great Western Railway would be effected if the Company
had not forfeited the confidence of this city, which was most
essential to their success. The late disappointment ought
not to discourage further efforts. The Liverpool and Man-
chester Railway B'll had been thrown out on the first ap-
plication. The line of the Great W estern Railway was
good—the levels were good ; he was in no way daunted by
what had occurred.' He looked for a great increase on the
subscriptions of the present shareholders. After a few
general observations, be concluded by saying that the
Great Western Company would have no objection to a
joint property in a road as far as it might be found conve-
nient to go together.—( Applause.)
Mr. BRUNEL was then loudly callad for, and having pre-
. sented himself to the notice of the Meeting, this gentleman,
on the suggestion of Capt. B. L. Lye, entered into an ex-
planation why he considered the line of the Great Western
Railway the preferable road. He said that he had com-
menced his examination by surveying the line marked out
by Mr. Brunton. He afterwards examined the line through
the North Wiltshire vale, and he was very much struck
with its great superiority. There was, in fact, no compari-
son between the two. The line which he bad selected had
met with the approval of the best engineers in the country.
With regard to the estimates, he begged to say that he
could not venture to compare his calculations with those of
the Southamptom company. The idea of digging a cubic
yard of stuff, carting it, conveying it four miles, and making
it into an embankment, for sd. per cubic yard, appeared to
him perfectly ridiculous. It had been that. day said that if
the Western Railway calculated on a profit after expend-
ing 8,000,000/. much more might a profit be expected on
an outlay of 1,400,000/. It should be. borne in mind, how-
ever, that the cost of the. two lines had been estimated in
very different modes. Between London and Bristol the
cuttings would amount to 2.4 millions of cubic yards, while
those on the line of the Great Western Railway would not
exceed 8 millions, being only one third of the amount..
And when it was considered that the excavations formed
a very large portion of the expanse, this, it would be seen,
was a most important point. He knew by experience that
excavations could not be made for less than one shilling per
cubic yard. Mr. Brunel concluded by making some ob-
servations on the general advantages of the northern line.
His statements were received throughout with much ap-
plause. _ _

.Mr. DE BLAQUIERE then rose and said, that as an
Englishman and as addressing an English assembly, he
claimed a right to reply to the assertions of both Mr.
Saunders and. Mr. Brunel. He sought fair play for Mr.
Brunton as well as for himself. He said he was then pre-
pared to reply, although he had not come into the room to
discuss the whole question with the Great Western Rail-
way Company. His rejoinder would of course occupy