The Sun.
London, England, 1858-08-18 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 18, 1858.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

METROPOLITAN.

The half-yearly meeting of this company was held at the
London Tavern yesterday—Mr. W. A. Wilkinson in the
chair. The following was the report presented:—

" The proprietors will remember that, at the last meeting
of the company, a resolution was passed to authorise the di-
rectors to withdraw the bill for the abandonment of the un-
dertaking, and to proceed with the works, in accordance
' with which instructions were given to the solicitor, and the
bill was withdrawn. The directors then addressed them-
selves to the necessary arrangements for constructing the
line, and made a call of Ll 10s. per share on the capital of
the company. As it was felt that in the present positio,n of
the company it would be impossible to provide the large sum
' of money required to remove the prison in Coldbath-fields
application was made to the justices of Middlesex for per-
mission, on certain terms, to carry the line in a tunnel under
the prison. The justices, acting under professional advice,
intimated that they had no power, without the consent of
Parliament, to permit any deviation from the terms of the
Company's Act, and expressed a strong desire that the com-
pany should apply in the next session for powers to deviate
their line so as to avoid the prison altogether. To this recom-
mendation the directors thought it advisable under all the cir-
cumstances to accede,the more especially as they were advised
that,from the altered state of property in that neighbourhood,
a much cheaper and equally advantageous line could now
be obtained. The propriety of giving notices to take the
lands required for the railway and works next engaged the
earnest attention of the board, it being necessary, as the
powers of the company would expire on the 9th of the pre-
sent month, to come to an immediate decision. The direc-
tors finally resolved to serve the notices from Paddington to
the point of the proposed deviation, near King's-cross, and
the notices have accordingly been served over that portion
of the line, and the land thus secured. Several conferences,
with a view to the commencement of the works, took place
with the-contractor, Mr. Jay, who at length informed the
board that he had reconsidered his position with respect to
the company, and that unless he could be materially re-
lieved from the pressure of his shares, he was not willing to
incur the responsibility of commencing the works. As the
action of the board had been based on the assumption that
Mr. Jay was prepared to carry out his contract, this state-
ment placed the directors in a vis:t:6ll of considertade
difficulty. In consequence of overtures made by the
re-openL 1 7 50e0d, wa ths
aan
ovt
iioe
owe
dt o b
yt h epi ra 'ohms corui ngw
htiho e uwmo u
lodf
Great Northern Railway Company, negotiations were
s
have enabled the directors at once to commence the works.
Several interviews have taken place, but the Great Northern
Board have hitherto declined to render any assistance. Ne-
gotiations were thereupon entered into and are still pending
(with Mr. Jay's concurrence) with contractors possessed of
ample means, who are willing to undertake any portion of
the works on the terms that payment should be made, one-
third in money, one-third in shares, and one-third in de-
bentures when they could be legally issued. In addition to
the prospects thus afforded of completing the line from
Paddington to the City, Mr. Pearson, whose labours in the
cause of a City terminus are so well known, proposes to
form an independent company to construct the line from
King's-cross to Farringdon-street, paying the Metropolitan
Company a fair proportion of the expenses already incurred,
and giving the company running powers and terminal ac-
commodation. For this experiment Mr. Pearson asks two
months, at the expiration of which time he will be prepared
to declare his failure or his success, and the directors are
disposed, with the sanction of the proprietors, to afford him
the opportunity he desires. Should Mr. Pearson succeed,
the ]Metropolitan Company will possess ample means for
making tke line from Paddington to King's-cross. Should,
however, his endeavour prove unsuccessful, the directors
advise that application be made to Parliament for powers to
deviate the line so as to avoid the prison—to terminate at
Farringdon-street—to reduce the capital of the company—
and to enable other financial arrangements. The directors
have availed themselves of the power conferred upon them
at the last general meeting by electing Mr. John Parson'to fill
the vacancy at the board. The directors have unabated con-
fidence in the soundness of the undertaking, and every fresh
investigation only serves to confirm their belief that so
cheap a metropolitan line of railway or one so full of all the
elements of prosperity was never before even imagined.
They still believe that its intrinsic merits will carry it
through all difficulties,
and so long as they receive the
cordial support of the shareholders they will leave no effort
untried to secure a successful result."

The accounts showed that their receipts had been
£147,673 4z. ld., and there remeined in the hands of the
Accountant-General and the company £87,22715. sd.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the report,
said they would all remember the circumstances under
which they last parted. At that time it was determined to
withdraw the bill then before Parliament for the abandon-
ment of the line, under the impression that the contractors
were ready to go on with the :construction of the line. The
directors tn; been accordingly employed in taking the ne-
cessary step+ for that purpose, and they had made a call of
£1 10s. per share. It might be thought that they had been
dilatory in carrying out the arrangements for the construc-
tion of the line, but they had been earnestly occupied in car-
rying out that object; and he could assure the proprietors
that he never remembered to have devoted so much atten-
tion to business of thisdescription as he had during the last six
months. He certainly regretted that they had not yet ac-
complished what they proposed, but he was still as confident
as ever of their ability to carry out the undertaking. With
regard to the passing of the line through the site of
Coldbath-fields Prison, they were aware the Middlesex
justices had declined to give their consent to that
course, and recommended an applic..lion to Parliament
for an act for a deviation of the line. He was not prepared
to say that it would not be a good plan to take the prison
into their hands as a good site for the station of their line,
bat it would require a large capital, in which they were de-
ficient, but he thought that probably a tunnel under the
prison would be more attainable. The justices, however,
objected to that also, and the matter was in abeyance; and
the directors proposed to go to Parliament next year for an
act to enable them to vary the line by a route which would
avoid the prison, and which their engineer:said would be a
cheaper route. The next question he had to allude to was
the giving the notices for land for one line. They hesitated
to give the notices, for they felt that they were not in a
condition to commence the works; but, looking to the in-
structions the proprietors had given them to commence the
works, they took care not to let their powers lapse, and
they gave the notices. The line had been resurveyed,
and although the survey originally made fur Parlia-
ment had of course been estimated as low as possible,
yet the new survey, made with a different view, had come
within the estimate= originally made, and showed that they
would get the land for less than they expected. With re-
gard to Mr. Jay, he would read the paragraphs in the report
which stated that " Mr. Jay has reconsidered his position
with regard to the company, and that unless be can be
materially relieved ft orn the pressure of his shares, he is not
ready to incur the responsibility by commencing the works,"
he wished it to he understood that the board threw no
blame on Mr. Jay; they only stated the fact that whereas
he had said that he was 'pre pared to carry out the works,
he now wished to postpone his contract. It was because he
believed that he was ready to carry out the works that they
withdrew their bill for the abandonment of the line, but

they said no more than that. They hsd had overtures made
to them by the Great Northern Company with a view to
an arnstlgmation of tbeir interests, and they endeavoured to
get that company to subscribe the £175,000 which would
have enabled them to commence the works, but they had not
yet been able to effect that arrangement, and that circutn-
stance rendered them less able to construct the line. They
had, with the consent of ➢ir. Jay, entered into negotia-
tions with other contractors, who were prepared to carry on
the works, and were willing to be paid one-third in shares,
one-third in debentures when they could be legally issued,
and one-third in cash, which were certainly favourable
terms. He now came to that part of the report which re-
ferred to the circumstance that Mr. Pearson proposed to
originate a metropolitan railway. That gentleman was pre-
sent, and would explain his views. All that he could say
was, that there ought to be the means of obtaining funds to
carry cut the line. As their shares were in so few hands

there might be a difficulty in obtaining capital, but If they
were able to disseminate their shares, and Mr. Pearson

proposed to get up a new company to assist them to carry
out their scheme, he hnd n doubt they should obtain
the capital. There might be other modes of raising the
money besides the formation of a new company, but
he would leave that question in the hands of Mr. Pearson,
and if they agreed to a resolution which would be proposed
to them, they would leave it to them to ascertain what mode
of raising the capital was to ha adopted. With regard
to the soundness of this undertaking, he still entertained the
fullest confidence in it; and if they only looked at the nature
of the undertaking, and saw how different it was to other
branch lines, they would agree with him. It was not a
branch line; it was a trunk line which would assist those
great lines, which were depreciated and half rained by those
branches. Let them look at what the Brighton Company
bed done to get a %Vest-end terminus. They had given
£154,000 to obtain such a facility for their traffic, although
they had an excellent terminus. The Great Western and
the Great Northern had bad termini. The Great Western
was shut out from suburban traffic, whilst the 13righton had
its Croydon, its Epsom, and its Crystal Palace feeding lines
The South-Eastern, too, had the North Kent, the Greenwich,
and other lines for suburban traffic, and these lines had made
the two companies probably what they were. Then let
them look at the North London line, the most analogous

to their own. It ran from Camden-town to the Minories,
and it had done great. things for the London and North-
Western, which had had the good sense to foster and
make it. What was now the condition of that line? It
had paid 5 per cent. dividend this la.st half-year, and the
price of it: stock in the market was 101, whilst that of the
Lnndm nni Not th-Wec ern 7:a= 0 3 to 03. The North Loudon
was nine miles long, whilst the Metropolitan would be only
four, and they would therefore probably get 10 per cent.
when the. North London obtained 5 per cent._ There were
reasons for believing in the success of the Metropolitan, and
in that belief he begged to move the adoption of the report.
A SHAREHOIMER asked whether Mr. Jay had received

£15,000 from the company, and whether he held more shares
now than he did in May last?
The CHAIRMAN replied that he had not received the
money nor increased the number of his shares.
The report was then adopted.

The CHAIRMAN moved—" That' the directors be, and
they are hereby, empowered to treat and agree with Mr.
Pearson and his friends in any measure that they may deem
most calculated to promote the objects and interests of the
Metropolitan Railway Company."
Mr. CHARLES PEARSON said that upon the recommen-
dation of the committee charged with the improvements of
the City of London the Conimon Council had lent his hum-
ble services to the public for three months, in the hope that,
during the interval, he might assist in devising some prac-
tical means for promoting the construction of the trunk line
of railway along the valley of the Fleet. By the proposed
railway, which had been projected by him several years ago,
it was intended to enable the directors of the Northern and
Western Railroads terminating in London to extend their
respective lines from their gigantic palatial stations in the
metropolitan suburbs to a cheap, useful, and convenient
joint station at or near Farringdenestreet. By means of
this necessary addition to those railways, the beautiful
country round London, through which they pass, would be
rendered available for the citizens; and passengers, whether
provincial orsuburban, who, for the purposes of health or busi-
ness, desired to be conveyed with the economy, speed, and re-
gularity which the railroads could alone afford, to or from the
City, would be provided with station accommodation better
placed, but bearing about the same relation, in point of dis-
tance, to the centre and focus of distance, as the London-
bridge and Fenchurch-streetvtations,evhich, incredible as
it may appear, in consequence of the facilities they afford
for suburban residential traffic, receive and distribute daily
ten times as many City passengers as the Great Western,
the North Western, and the Great Northern, including the
Midland, and the Lincoln and Sheffield Companies, which
have recently acquired runrieg powers over the letter line
to King's-cross. These great companies, which profess to
provide the chain of railway communication between the
city of London and Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester,
Sheffield, Leeds, Liverpool, and the other great centres of
commercial enterprise and manufacturing industry, possess
an aggregate capital of more than 120 millions sterling;
and yet they are too poor or too indifferent to the wants of
their customers and the interests of their shareholders to
provide their quota for making the last link in the chain
which ought to connect together the provincial and metro-
politan, commercial, and manufacturing interests of this
mighty empire. He was net in the secrets of the great railway
companies and did not pretend to know how much of the
£120,000,000 had been wasted in the legal and parliamentary
contests, how much bad been squandered in constructing
extravagant stations and useless branch lines, or how many
hundreds of thousands of pounds of annual revenue bad
been at various times sunk in insane competition to carry
goods and passengers at less than cost price. One fact was
apparent to the most superficial observer; enormous sums
had been expended by the Great Northern, the Great
Western, and the North Western companies in construct-
ing costly stations, and purchasing high-priced land for the
first few miles out of London; and yet they failed to turn
to a profitable account the local traffic they might acquire
if they would, by the construction of a City line, and offer in-
ducements to the citizens to reside in the country through
which their railways pass. Dr. Franklin was wont to say
that if he had a handful of truths to dispose of, he would
only open one finger at a time, lest, if the most valuable
truths were presented open-handed, men would refuse
to take them as truths on account of their number. As
Cowley says :—" Men do doubt if they be stars that paint
the milky way." A judicious friend, reminding him
(Mr. Pearson) of Franklin's saying, advised him,
years ago, to abstain from advocating the railroad on
account of the moral, social, and economical advantages it
would confer upon society. " Leave off talking," his friend
would say, "about the overcrowding of the streets of London
and the overcrowding of the dwellings of the poor, and stick
to the assertion that the enormous traffic the railroad would
attract was sufficient to yield a dividend of 10 per cent."
This might have been judicious advice in times past, when
shareholders believed in 10 per cent. lines,if directors asserted
they would prove to be so ; but the time for the belief in such
representations had now passed away, and no English rail-
way scheme could hope to obtain support unless it could be
shown to be useful to the public and be demonstrated to the
shareholders.; at the same time, to be profitable to those
invited to take part in the undertaking. It was a complete
fallacy to assume that, because a railroad was recommended
on account of its public usefulness; it was to he avoided as
a private speculatioa. Thesame circumstances that rendered
it useful would make it remunerative. (Hear, hear.) One
of the great merits of the projeet was that it would
diminish the overcrowding of the streets by diminishing the
number of railway vtes, omnibuses, and cabs that pass to
and tbr:ugh the city from the suburban stations north of
the Thames. The vast amount of Manchester goods taken
from Haydon-square, up Leadenhall-street or Fenchurch-
street, along Lombard-street or Cornball, had to cross the
great stream of traffic going through the City from north
to south, by Gracechurch-street, King William-street, &c.
This would he materially diminished if a portion of the
northern traffic were brought to goads stations at Smith-
field or Clerkenwell, on the north-west frontier of the
City, whence they would be conveyed direct to the
great wholesale houses situated in Woed-street, Watling-
street, Milk-street, and the other great streets in which
those trades were carried on, all of which were on the
western side of transverse streams of traffic to which
lie bad already referred. (Hear.) The establishment
of the trunk railway would to a considerable extent pre-
vent the driving of large dares of cattle and sheep through
the metropolitan streets. It had been asserted that the
removal of the cattle market from the centre of the metro-
polis to one of its suburbs would prevent the traversing
of the streets by cattle; he had always contended that that
assertion was erroneous, and it had now been found that it
was 1.0, as the cattle had to pass through the principal
thoroughfares from the market to the slaughter-houses in
which the carcase butchers killed their stock for the supply
of the wholesale meat markets. If the Fleet Valley Rail-
way were completed from the cattle market on the north, to
a great wholesale poultry and vegetable market in the centre
of the City, for supplying the population of all the outlying
districts, there could be no cltubt but that the London
slaughtertuen, whose establishments were now spread over all
parts of the metropolis, would kill weekly several thousand
animals in the abattoirs at the cattle market, whence they
would be conveyed to the wholesale market without
loss of time or exposure to the weather, instead of being
driven alive, as is now the case, to the houses where they
are slaughtered and afterwards conveyed to the market in
waggons and carts. (hear.) By the removal of the meat
markets from Leadenhall and Nevegate-streets, and by
securing railway conveyance fur the vast quantities of dead
stock brought to London by the northern railroads, the
streets would be freed from an intolerable nuisance, a large
quantity of meat would be saved that is in summer time
damaged by the delays growing out of its conveyance to the
City in carts and vans. The trunk railway would at the
same time receive a large addition to its income by this
description of traffic, as well as from the number of
butchers, graziers, and salesmen that would be frequently
passing between the live and dead markets, if they could do
so at a small sacrifice of time and money. The establi,h-
roent of the proposed railway, with a station in the heart of
the metropolis, and with cheap, rapid, and frequent trains
to its various outlets, would render incalculable service to
the cause of humanity and the improvement of the sanitary
and social condition of the industrious classes, by afford-
ing them means of escape from the low and confined
situations in which they were now compelled to dwell.
(Hear.) Mr. Simon, in his reports as officer of health for the
City, had depleted in touching terms the unhappy condi-
tion of many of our respectable artisans and mechanics who,
for the purpose of being near their daily occupations, were
compelled, with their decent families, to live in miserable
courts and alleys, in close contiguity with some of the most
wretched, as well as the most degraded, classes of the com-
munity. (Hear.) In ancient times plague and pestilence,
and the sweating sickness and occasional famine, were the
means by which it pleased God to humble the proud and
scatter the superabundant population of a rich, luxurious,
and overcrowded city. Improved sanitary regulations and
the expansion of the metropolitan population over a com-
paratively large area had ,for years mercifully averted these
scourges front the City; but Mr. Simon showed by figures
and facts, which could not be controverted, that fever, con-
sumption, and countless other diseases resulting from the
overcrowded state cf the habitations of the poor in the City,
were in constant action to reduce the health and strength,
and destroy the lives of those whose unfortunate fate fixed
them to the spot in which their daily occupations were
carried on. (Hear.) The evils of past ages were borne
because there was no remedy ; but no such excuse
for their continuance could he pleaded in the present day.
When George Stephenson devised the railroad and the
locomotive engine he placed in the hands of the rich a new
power by which all these evils might be effectually removed.
By plautiez a railway station in the centre of a city,
Saosaver overcrowded, and by c:taneelitig it s%itit C.O
great railway communications of the surrounding country,
facilities were at once afforded for relieving all classes of
the evils which must ctherwise necessarily flow from
crowding together such vast communities in such confined
situations. Railroads had been figuratively described as
the muscle and sinew of commercial enterprise; they might

be no less accuratelydescribed as the veins and arteries of com-
mercial intercourse, and yet that great city, overflowing with
wealth and population, was more destitute of rtilway accom-
modation than manyof our second-rate provincial towns. Th
overcrowding of the City arose from the enormous price of
building ground and the vast amount of business carried on
within its walls. If the better class of mechanics aid arti-
sans could be provided with cheap railway trains to take
them in and out of the City, morning and evening, the
classes immediately below them would naturally occupy
their places. The miserable dwellings he had before referred
to might then be pulled down, and the courts and alleys
would besdevoted to the improvement of our thoroughfares,
or be used for the erection of warehouses or Chops. It bad
been said to be one of the peculiar functions of railways to
equalise prices ; it was the want of an improved railway com-
munication between the"centre and suburbs of London that
created the enormous disparity between the price of land in the
City of London and in various parts of the sureounding country.
Land for the erection of fire houses in the City had been
recently taken on lease as an investment, and a large amount
bad been expended on the buildings; the ground rent of
the uncovered land on which the houses had to be built was
fixed at the rate of £lO,OOO per acre per annum. If the
Fleet Valley Railway and central station were now in
existence, the occupiers of those houses might be taken
within half an hour for 6d. to land fit for the erection of
country houses, which was pow let as agricultural land at
two and thirty shillings per acre annual rent. (Hear.) It
had been calculated by persons engaged in constructing
tables of vital statistics that in less than 50 years the popu-
lation of the metropolis would be doubled, and might thus
advance at a neon3etrical ratio of progression to atranknown
extent, while the City would still remain in the centre with
thisincreased and increasing population from all sides still in-
fringing upon its streets, which were already utterly inade-
quate to accommodate its present traffic and population.
(Hear.) He (Mr. Pearson) did not wish to awaken differences
of opinion upon this subject, which had happily been set at
rest for some time. It had been unanimously agreed that
the Fleet Valley Railway should be rcstlic:Ld in both 1.1,e
and stations to the northern end of Farringdon-street. He
could not, however, refrain from observing that the time
must come, though probably not in his day, when the
Fleet Valley, instead of being the end of a terminal sta-
tion would itself be but a link to connect the railways north
of the Thames by a gallery bridge—like that over the Tyne
—over the river with the South Coast, the South-Eastern,
and the South-Western lines. Such a complete system
would suffice to convey by night all the goods and
merchandise required to be carried through, from, or to
the City, while it would serve by day to conduct the
passenger traffic, without in the slightest degree incom-
moding any of the public streets. (Hear.) The intercom-
munication of a population of five or ten thousand, and the
supply of their wants afforded, it had been considered, a
sufficient inducement for speculators to construct a railroad
10 or 20 miles in length, and what would not be the pro-
fits of a railroad through a concentrated population of mil-
lions, if it were only for the supply of the clothes, fuel,
and food which they annually consumed ? (Hear.) He bad
already observed that the Corporation of London had mani-
fested their desire to see this great engine of public im-
provement carried into execution, by so gracefully sanc-
tioning the recommendation of the committee to give
him three months' leave of absence that he might
endeavour to unite the various interests that would
be benefited by the accomplishment of the under-
taking. He had been the more gratified by this reso-
lution of the Common Council, because it indicated a
strong change of opinion on the part of some of his best
friends, members of that Court, who in the year 1853 had
conscientiously opposed the undertaking and objected to his
taking any part in its promotion. Prejudices had formerly
prevailed against railroads amongst all classes of the com-
munity, from the monarch on the throne to the least
educated of the people. A corporation, however honourable
and intelligent it might be, was but an aggregation of indi-
viduals, and was liable to as many changes of opinion and
action as was found amongst individuals in private life.
When the great contest was raging for the right to
construct a line to Blackwell, one company proposed to
carry it by a viaduct, and the other in a cutting—the one
proposing the use of locomotives—the other a stationary
engine and an endless rope. Although some of the first men
in the City were upon the directions, enough money was
spent in litigation to ruin any line. The contest was taken
up in the Court of Common Council. One gentleman, who
favoured the line with an endless rope, described the horrors
of locomotive whistling, roaring, steaming, smoking ; and
another member, in a fit of poetic elevation, declived—

"It was a monster of such hideous mien,
That to be hated needs but to be seen."

The supporters of the locomotive line lost the day, and for
some years the endless rope was used. lie (Mr. Pearson)
some time afterwards was going with a committee to dine at
Blackwall. This once dreaded locomotive, like an infant
Hercules, was cradled between the platforms, gently
breathing, as if in conscious strength, before it resumed its
labours. He (Mr. Pearson) could not refrain from t`cmind-
ing his friends of the quotation from Pope, and folloviing It
up with the concluding distich, that the monster—

I" When ellen seen, familiar with its face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace,"

It should be distinctly understood by the meeting that the
Corporation of London had not expressed an intention in
any manner to identify itself either with the Metropolitan
Company or with any other company that might be found
to carry out the design. The corporation had never sullied
its reputation by promoting any speculative undertaking.
The corporation bad at various times borrowed upon its seal
large sums of money, amounting to upwards of a million
sterling, to carry out great public improvements in
the locality through which the proposed railway would
pass. They had respectively borrowed £250,000, £20,000,
£60,000, £25,000, £32,000, £BB,OOO-, £30,000, £260,000,
and £420,000. These vast sums had been laid
out on property extending about two miles, in line
from the north of the cattle to the south of the meat
market in Farringdon-street; these various properties were
up to the present hour unfortunately unproductive, and the
loss of interest on the various loans amounted to nearly half
a million of money. No man could look at Farringdon
market, the site of the Fleet or Smithfield, or the waste
land in Victoria-street, without feeling the deepest regret
that something had not been discovered for the profitable
occupation of so vast an amount of property in the imme-
diate vicinity of land of the enormous value he had stated.
In his (Mr. Pearson's) judgment, if the image and super-
scription of a railway were impressed upon the land, it
would acquire the value of standard gold; whereas, without
some such adventitious aid, it would hardly command,
figuratively speaking, the price of any baser metal. The
shareholders would persijvc 1 the directors' report that
they had conelir it expedient, under all the ci:cuz-
, stances, to pfb-de in his hands the power of organising a new
company to construct the, trunk railway from king's.
cross to thfiCity in conjunction with the Great Northern,
the Midifficl, and the Lincoln and Sheffield Companies,
provided be could accomplish the proposed object within
two months from the date of the deed which would be exe-
cuted to declare the principles upon which be bad under-
taken to make an effort to carry the project into execution.
He would take a very early opportunity of explaining in
detail the means by which he should endeavour to effect his
object. A brief sketch for the present would suffice. He
would endeavour to fsrm a committee of gentlemen well
known in the City as men of business and men of intelli-
gence. He proposed that they should undertake a minute
examination into all the facts of the case, with the view
of ascertaining the maximum cost of the entire work
and the minimum calculation of its probable proceeds.
He (Mr. Pearson) proposed that this inquiry should be an
open one, and that some competent, independent, and dis-
interested engineer or surveyor should be appointed to
assist the committee in their investigation. The London
press would, he hoped, give publicity to the investigation.
The principal journals of the day bad recently lent their
columns to an inquiry into the state of our English rail-
ways, and the causes of their depressed condition. It might
be a matter of some importance for the world to learn how
the three hundred millions of capital invested in railroads
bad been disposed of, and what were the reasons they
had failed to be remunerative. But he (Mr.
Pearson ventured to think that the press lived below its pri-
vilege if it limited its function; into an inquiry as to the
past, when the present and future were placed before them
as a field of action. A gentleman interested in the success
of the Fleet Valley Railway had on that morning placed
I'ooo in his hands to defray ally expende he might incur in
this inquiry. He should have much pleasure in handing a
fee of one hundred guineas over to any competent profes-
sional gentleman who might be selected by the committee
to assist them in their investigation. (Mr. Pearson resumed
his seat amidst much cheering.)
Mr. PARSONS seconded the motion, and expressed his
opinion that, should the scheme be carried out, Mr. Pear-
ssn would have conferred a greater benefit upon the City of
London than any other man who ever existed. They having
failed with their negotiations relative to the prison, they
had locked for another line, and they had now a better down
the Ungnigge-wells-road—upon the construction of which
l'ocre would he a saving of £70,000 to £BO,OOO. He knew
that other contractors would 13,; i tnl;e np 111 c
line, and that it might be constructed fur £1,000,000.
If Mr. Pearson succeeded in getting up a strong
company to make a line from the Great Northern Railway
to Farringdou-street ail their difficulties would disappear,
aa they were now strong enough to make the line to the