The Sun.
London, England, 1850-10-28 00:00:00

OCTOBER 2B, 1850.

AMERICAN NEWS.

LiVEidOoL, tier. 7.
By the royal mail steam-ship Cambria, Captain
Leitch, we have advices from Boston to the 16th inst.,
and from New York, by telegraph, via Halifax, to
the 17di inst. The royal mail steam-ship America
arrived at Halifax on the 16th inst. The Asia was
spoken at nine P.m. on the 19th inst. in lat. 45 22 N.,
long. 53 25 W.

The Canadian news is unimportant.
Preparations were making on n large scale for a
grand industrial exhibition which was to commence
on the 17th inst.

The r'''ational Intelligencer says that the British
Government had withdrawn all its demands for port
and other dues from the harbour of San Juan de
Nicaragua and the navigation of that river.
We have Havannah advices to the Bth inst. The
Governor had disbanded the volunteers through fear
of revolt, and every preparation had been made to re-
sist a renewed invasion.

The sales of sugar were small in consequence of
high prices. Coffee in good demand.
Disturbances were apprehended at Detroit on the
12th, in consequence of the Fugitive Slaves Bill. A
large body of negroes had assembled outside the town.
A negro had been arrested as a slave, but the inhabi-
tants intended to buy him off.
A disturbance had occurred at Boston during one
of Jenny Lind's concerts, in consequence of over
crowding.
(LATEST BY TELEGRAPH.)

The steamer Arctic sailed on her trial trip to-day.
The American news, as read in New Orleans on
Tuesday evening, ten minutes a head of time, gave,
yesterday, increased firmness to the cotton market.
There is no news of the California mails.

The stock market continues active, and with ad-
vancing prices, especially the fancies. The Govern-
ment Sixes, '67, sold to•day at 117 k; Indiana State
Fives, 80; Ohio Sevens, 106. Quotations of prices
for cotton, flour, wheat, and Indian corn are precisely
as when the Cambria's mails left.
The Dutch Consul at New Orleans was arrested
on Saturday for a debt when going on board the
steam-ship Africa. On his return to America, ulti-
mately an arrangement was come to, and he was re-
leased, but great indignation was expressed at the
conduct of the sheriff's officer, who postponed the
execution of his duty until the steamer had got under
weigh.

HARWICH RAILWAY SAND PIER.

#,‘ 'he p 7. ve.7,

.~ :.,

i":ia'~'~" ..

[IP ••

only instalments of the long-promised Harwich branch
line. For many long months they have excited the
wonder of many, and the irony of not a few ; but
during the whole period they have been silent monu-
ments reared over the grave of the richest re-
sources of which the Eastern Counties can boast,
and, viewed aright, are especially eloquent wi,h
the inscription, " Sacred to the memory of Harwich !"
We have from time to time felt it our duty to call
attention to the natural resources enjoyed by the port
of Harwich, but which, from a series of fatalities,
have for ninny years been utterly neglected. We
purpose now to consider the greatest hardship under
which Harwich is suffering—we mean the want
of a railway connecting it with the towns in
these districts and with the metropolis. These are
bad times for a successful railway-making agitation,
but there are peculiarities in the Harwich case that
justify a vigorous enforcement of its claims in this
respect.

o long back as 1836 it was proposed to make a
railway to this port, and a prospectus was issued
which very fairly set forth its claims; a delay, how-
ever, in the construction of the Eastern Counties line,
and other circumstances, led to its abandonment,
when another proposition succeeded, having the
sanction of the Eastern Counties Company, whose
line had then reached Colchester. These promoters
also issued their prospectus, but vexatious Parliamen-
tary difficulties beset them ; however, in 1845 an
agreement was mutually entered into and signed by
the Eastern Counties and Eastern :Union Companies,
by which it was provided that the Eastern Union
Company should purchase the two-and-a-half miles
of railway next to Colchester, and should make a
railway branch from Manningtree to Harwich and a
pier, which should be leased to the Eastern Counties
Company at a rental of 4i per cent. on the cost.
The latter company also covenanted to have certain
privileges in running their trains from Colchester
to Manningtree. On this agreement being made
and signed on behalf of the companies by the
two respective secretaries, the most confident
hopes were felt that at last all impediments had been
removed, and that the works would rapidly progress.
But again the friends of the undertaking were doomed
to disappointment, for it was not until 1847—two
years after this agreement had been signed—that
Parliament gave its sanction to the construction of
the railway. In this Act a clause was introduced
for leasing the Harwich line, but which required the
sanction of another meeting as to the specific terms.
Now, although the Eastern Counties Company bad
solemnly pledged itself to take a lease of the line, and
by this pledge had encouraged the other company to
seek for Parliamentary powers to construct it, they
have, for reasons best known to themselves, never
called this special meeting, without the agreement of
which in the terms of the lease it is impossible that
the Eastern Union Company can proceed. The con-
sequence is, at the present moment the whole affair
is at a dead lock, and the capital expended in it might
as well be at the bottom of the harbour. Supposing
that the terms originally proposed are now unsuitable,
surely, if the Eastern Counties Company wished it,
they could be most easily modified, and perhaps
to the advantage of each ; in this case the
seal of the company could at once be affixed
to the agreement, and they would thus wipe
their hands clear from any further charge of
impeding this highly important undertaking. We
trust the directors, standing as they do before a
large body of influential, pledged, and we should
hope conscientious proprietors, will see that it is
their duty to use their immediate endeavours to ratify
this lease. More than two years have already passed
away since the time when this seal ought to have
been affixed ; a further delay may be entirely ruinous
to the whole project. Should this company again
seriously investigate this matter, and come to terms,
we hope they will make this one essential provision,
viz., that the works be constructed at once.

But, say the Eastern Counties directors, "We can
do no good—if we affix our seal to this lease the
Eastern Union Company will be unable, from want
of funds, to construct the line." With all humility,
we would reply, "gentlemen, this is no affair ofyours
—be good enough to transact your own business,and
then we shall know where the responsibility rests.
We must remove the first obstruction before we get
to the second. By many of your recorded resolu-
tions you have stated your belief that this branch will
greatly increase your traffic, you have pledged your-
selves to take a lease of it, and now refuse to do so;
the Eastern -Onion Company is afraid to make the

line without your promised giarantee, and thus the
undertaking is blocked, and at your door lies the
disgrace. If you will do your part we shall get out
of a world of complexity, and shall speedily be enabled

to see of what stuff the Eastern Un- ion directors are
made."

The bad faith in not carrying out an undertaking
to which these companies were solemnly pledged, and
for which a large capital has actually been sub-
scribed, is rendered more notorious by the unusually
powerful claims of Harwich and the whole of the
eastern district. We really believe if this branch rail-
way had been made that the pleasure traffic on it
would alone have soon paid the 4f per cent. interest
on the outlay. Take the facts connected with this
traffic during the past summer, and we shall find that
the number of pleasure-seekers brought over the
Eastern Union lines, and carried on by steamer from
Ipswich to Harwich, has been enormous; as many es
10,000 have thus visited the latter place in one week.
And it must be borne in mind that this has been
effected during the first summer when this peculiar
traffic has been systematically developed, and without
any aid from the Eastern Counties line, for that
company never advertised a single excursion train
to this sea-port, although other companies have
realised immensely by cultivating this description
of excursions. The delay in executing the pro-
mised work has also been dishonourable to the Go-
vernment, which, no doubt, on the faith of the pledge
given, authorised an expenditure of no less than
100,0001. in order to preserve the magnificent har-
bour from injury ; but although all this has been
done, and an Act of Parliament has been granted,
this paltry distance of 10i miles of railway, on the
making of which the most vital interests are sus-
pended, is still unmade. The bad land communica-
tion between Harwich and the metropolis was the
only reason why Government removed away the
packet station ; and it seems also past belief, when a
main railway has for years almost skirted the port,
that a branch has not been made to it. The whole
genius of our commercial enterprise renders it certain
that Harwich will eventually become the permanent
packet station. Swift and certain communications
between important points are now-a-days eagerly
sought for. The following table, given to the Lords
of the Treasury by their own Commissioners, will
show how this port stands, by comparison, in this res-
pect. The saving of time effected by the use of rail-
ways to Harwich, and from thence by steam to the
following different places, is as follows :