The Sun.
London, England, 1835-11-25 00:00:00

EXETER, PLYMOUTH, AND DE-
VONPORT RAIL-ROAD.

GREAT PUBLIC MEETING AT PLYMOUTH.
(From the Devonport Independent.)
The sounds of commercial improvement, in the rapid
strides by which it has been recently advancing, have
hitherto reached us at a distance ; we are now likely to hear
them nearer home. The inhabitants of Bristol and Exeter
having matured a plan for a railway between those towns,
and this having been so spiritedly supported that nearly
three times the required amount of subscription was offered,
some Gentlemen of the latter town projected a continuation
of the line to Plymouth-90,4001. have been already offered.
Thinking it necessary to have the co-operation of the inha-
bitants of this neighbourhood, a requisition was published
for- a meeting at the Guildhall, Plymouth. Accordingly,
a large assembly of Gentlemen of the three. towns and the
vicinity, of the highest respectability, took place.
Viscount BORINGDON having been called to the Chair,
observed that the present meeting had not altogether origi-
nated amongst themselves, but was the effect of a commu-
nication made by their friends and neighbours of Exeter,
from whom they would that day receive some further com-
munications and exposition. No one ought to embark in
speculations hastily, or adopt, without due consideration,
the projectiwhich the leading spirit of the times seemed to
impose upon him. On the other hand, it was more impor-
tant not to be backward in undertakings of the in-
terest to ourselves and posterity.
J. COLLIER, Esq., M.P., moved the first resolution. He
had always been an advocate for the improvement of roads,
and his own efforts had on various occasions been directed
to that object. He was fully conviucesi of the national
importance of bringing the great capital kingdom nearer, as
it were, to every other part of it. Although the line of
road might not be quite so direct as it was•at present, yet
they should estimate the distance by the time it takes in
passing from one place to another ; and it the journey to
London which now occupied 24 hours, could be accom-
plished in twelve, the great city might be said to be brought
nearer to us by one half. The undertaking itself was yet
in its infancy, but the project for establishing such a com-
munication between Plymouth and Exeter, and between
Exeter and Bristol, which would no doubt be extended to
Falmouth, and other parts of the county of Cornwall,
could not fail to meet with support.
T. BEWES, Esq., M. P. seconded the resolution moved
by his colleague. As to any ulterior proceedings it might
be thought necessary to adopt, he should certainly hold
himself at liberty to form his own opinion, after the data
were obtained.—( Hear, hear.) - It was only a duty to the
public to caution persons against that mania which was
now spreading through the country. The cost of this road
ought to be estimated with calmness and clearness.
Dr. BELLAMY then spoke on the principle embodied in
the resolution. Living in peculiar times, when capital was,
as it were, seeking application, it was a duty owed to the
labouring classes by all who had means, whether of influence
or money, to use those means in furtherance of this—the
right application of capital. Although he was ready to
lose what little he had advanced, yet there was not the
least doubt of a good return. Gentlemen embarking in
such speculations were not to expect an immediate return ;
they would probably have a multiplex one in a few years.
But he was sorry to take up the question on the ground of
profit. These railroads must do good ; the mobility and
velocity were not confined to themselves, they set men's
minds working and moving with saniethino• like railroad ra-
pidity. On the same principle that the poor man had
a claim for sustenance from the soil, according.to the enact-
ments of the legislature, he had a claim for the employment
of his industry according as persons possessed the means of
setting him at work. He bad no doubt that the sinews of
war would be obtained ; and science would point out the
application of the means. The railways would becOme as
much a system as the circulation of blood in the human
body ; the country would be intersected by them in every
direction ; and every great trunk would send forth a multi-
tude of branches, and every branch would produce abun-
dant fruit for the support of industry.
The resolution having been carried unanimously.
Mr. T. Gtx.r. read all the Resolutions intended to be
proposed. Having done so, he proposed the second, and
observed, that the meeting had originated with the Com-
mittee formed at Exeter, who had given the subject mature
consideration. Allusions had been made to the schemes
so common in the present day. There never yet had been
a useful measure proposed, but it had been carried by some
to the extreme. They ought not unhesitatingly to commit
themselves, but move on step by step : every individual
ought to be satisfied, not only as to the feasibility of the
plan, but of an advantageous result. The value of money
to the country-could only be estimated in proportion as it
was advantageously employed. There was much capital at
the present lying inert, as far as the public was concerned.
It was little worth for a man to possess half a million if he
kept it locked up in a box, or in a place where it realised
almost• as little benefit, producing perhaps 23- per cent.
This port possessed many advantages over, not perhaps
every other, but over most in the kingdom. Perhaps there
was no part in the kingdom where chargei were nearly so
low as in Plymouth and DevonpOrt. The railroad coin-
munications had been compared to the circulation in the
human body. If that circulation, instead of being carried
throughout the whole body, were to cease at a certain point,
paralysis must be the consequence. That would inevitably
he the case if the circulation reached Exeter, and there
stopped, if the people of this place would sit still-and see
the advantage of them adopted by all other districts of the
country. The commercial intercourse of Plymouth was
now nearly confined to South Devon ; it might be extended
to every part of the country. If the farmer could obtain
10 or 15 per cent. more for his produce in London than
here, there could be no reason why he should not avail
himself of the opportunity.
Mr. T. Fox observed that it was impossible for them to
stand still ; they must move with the tide.—(Hear, hear.)
If they refused to take part in the improvements every-
where making, they would go back in the scale of society.
Forward or backward they must move. To keep the same
relative position, by doing nothing, was impossible.
Mr. TY RR EL, of Exeter, said the object of the Committee
at Exeter, in deputing him, had been to assure themselves
of their co-operation in the business. They had pot
waited one moment to consider whether it might not
eventually be of immense importaece to Plymouth at
their own expense.—(Hear, hear.) Their object had
been to carry forward a line of communication, which
must be of great benefit to the country at large. They
had not sent him with mere professions : immediately
before he. left they had put into his hands a list of sub-
scribers, gentlemen of Exeter, or of the neighbourhood,
influenced by them. Their subscriptions amounted al-
ready to 95,4001.—(Hear, hear.) This money had n?.t
been put down in large sums, for the purpose of specu-
lation, but in different quantities—some one share, some
five, the utmost fifty. It was not an undertaking for
men who wished to gamble, but for sober men with their
minds open. The practicability of obtaining the necessary
funds was sufficiently evident from the success which had
attended the Exeter and Bristol railway. Three months
ago, the Committee wanted about 1,200,000/ or at most a
million and a half. There had been applications for shares
to the amount of 3,400,0001.—( Hear, hear)—two millions
more than was required.
JOHN RUNDELL, Esq., M.P., proposed the next resolu-
tion, and said that the desirableness of the work was self-
evident. Those districts which were without this advan-
tage, would be deprived of all those markets to which rail-
ways from other places were carried. They heard a great
deal of agricultural distress, and much of it was too true ;
but agriculturists must look not to high prices for relief,
but the extent of sale at low prices ; they must endeavour,
by every possible mode, to lessen the cost of produce. , He
did not quite agree in the propriety of applying the term
mania, to the disposition to join in railway speculations.
He considered, at this moment, that they were the most
profitable kind of investments ; but if they only produced
three and a half or four per cent., let the collateral bene-
fits be taken into account. They bad heard weighty ar-
guments from the gentlemen of Exeter. A great deal of
that mean narrow jealousy which formerly prevailed be-
tween town and town, was fast passing away ; we had come
now to find that none of us were the poorer, because our
neighbour had become richer. The ruin of Plymouth had
been predicted on the change from war to peace, but it
appeared to him to have increased in prosperity ; and the
same energies would enable it to go on still further, and,
by the present undertaking, to adopt profitable branches of
business not hitherto introduced into this port.
Mr. J. RAMSEY moved the next resolution, and said that
the advantages would be considerable there could be no
doubt, if they only looked to corresponding benefits where
railroads had been in full operation. That it would be a
public benefit was evident from the simple fact, that we
shall be able to go to Exeter in two hours, transact, business,
and return to dinner. If they were later in the field than
the projectors in the other parts of the kingdom, they had
one decided advantage—they would have the benefit of
their experience. If the conductors of the London and
Birmingham railway began with their present knowledge, it
was well known that they would have completed it at an
expense of nearly 500,0001. less than it has actually cost.
They would have, too, the experience of the Bristol and
London, as well as the Great Western Railway.
Mr. JOHNSON said he had experienced considerable loss
in another railroad, owing to the inexperience of the person
employed ; but that would not have happened had the road
to be now commenced, when it might be completed at one-
third the expense. In this case the most eminent and ex-
perienced person would be employed, to survey the line.
He, therefore, would second the resolution.
J. C. BULTEEL, Esq., proposed the names of the com-
mittee, and remarked upon the' necessity of improving the
time of peace in works of this nature. lie trusted that