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

28, 1850.

HARWICH RAILWAY AND PIER.
Near to the Manningtree Railway station are some
heavy earthworks that form the first, and alas ! the
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 with
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 many 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
an se districts and with the metropolis. These are
had 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.
So long back as 1836 it was proposed to make a
railway to this port, and a prospectus was issued
which very fairly sot 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 bad then reached Colchester. These promoters
also issued their prospectus, but vexatious Parliamen-
tary difficulties beet 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 had
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 bands 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 Union Company is afraid to make the
line without your promised guarantee, 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 Union 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 llarwich and the whole of the
eastern district. We really believe if thi4 branch rail-
way had been made that the pleasure traffic on it
would alone have soon paid the 4i per cent. interest
on the outlay. Take the facts connected with this
traffic during the put 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 as
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 10f 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 se ems 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 :

By steamer By railway
Irom .and :learner Saving of
Route. London from time.
direct. Harwich.
- -
London and Hamburgh CO hours 30 hours 30 hours
and Holland ... 22 „ 11:1- „ 10 „
„ and Antwerp .. 25 „ 114 „ „
and Ostend ..... 15 „ if
„ and Dunkirk ... 15 „ 8 7 f t

and Holland
• and Antwerp ..
„ and Ostend .....
„ std Dunkirk ...1
This table is calculated on a sea voyage in calm
weather—in bad weather the difference would be
immense. Similar advantages would also be enjoyed
by vessels voyaging from the north, which are now
obliged to track the dangerous navigation of the
Swint and to waste their time in threading the long
and tedious channels of the Thames.

Putting aside for a moment the fact that Harwich
is the only good harbour on the eastern coast, that it
will afford good shelter and anchorage to an immense
fleet in any wind that blows, and that during the past
season at least sixty-five thousand persons visited the
place as pleasure seekers, let us briefly advert to the
circumstance that the port is admirably situated for
the North Sea fishery; 370 sails of smacks from
Greenwich, Barking, Gravesend, and Torbay, are
engaged at the Dogger, Well, and Brown Banks,
Smith's Knoll, and the Galloper, in the pursuit of
their unceasing trade, and the fish is from thence
conveyed to London. Now all these vessels (those
going to Whitstable excepted) are in the habit of
calling at Hrwich for whelks and mussels for bait,
which are kept here in large quantities.
But, let the reader mark, that all the
fishing-grounds we have named, with the exception
of the Galloper, are ninety miles further from
London than they are from Harwich. From a
careful investigation into the facts of the case, it has
been proved that 40,000 tons of fish are annually,
conveyed to London from the northern fishing sta-
tions, the whole of which might be at least 20
hours sooner in London if Harwich were provided
with a railway. Of this quantity 15,000 tons are
prime and 25,000 are inferior fish, but with ninety
miles of sailing saved, hundreds of cargoes that are
now.destroyed by delay would be preserved, and many
tons of fish that now reach the metropolis in an infe-
rior state would arrive there in first-rate condition.
The saving and advantage to the companies engaged
in the fisheries would be immense. They would get
a better price for a better article, and would have the
overwhelming advantage of being first in the market.
Nor would this be all. These railway facilities would
so increase the fisheries that the various ports on these
coasts would at once embark in the enterprise, and
thus would be developed one of the largest and
richest resources with which Providence has blessed
us. The effect all this would have upon
the railway, as a paying concern, must be obvious;
lest, however, we should over-estimate it, we may
state that Captain Washington, after a careful exa-
mination, arrived at the conclusion that. the con-
veyance
of 100
ance,ofol per week.shwould I
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