The Sun.
London, England, 1844-07-09 00:00:00

upon the second reading of the Railway. Bill, leaves I
little to be said upon the subject. The principle of the
question lies in a very narrow compass. A railway
company comes to Parliament for a Bill—obtains it—
displaces all other means of travelling upon the same
line ; and then proceeds to make exactly such charges,
and dispense such accommodation as it thinks
will afford it the greatest amount of profit. This is the
natural course of things, and the natural remedy for any
evil arising out of it is competition. Accordingly, the
rates being thought too high, or the accommodation
insufficient, another railway company claims from Par-
liament permission to lay down another railway parallel
to the former. Oh no, cry the elder company, we have
invelted our money upon the faith of a public engage-
ment that there should be no second railway on this
same line. This is all quite fair. "Public faith" is to
be maintained inviolable; but there is to he no respect
to " railway faith." Railway companies invest their
money- upon the 'faith that they are to have
a monopoly ; but do they not take that mo-
nopoly under an implied pledge that they will
not abuse it by an extortionate tax upon the locomotion
of the Queen's subjects—a monopoly of the means of
which locomotion they have got into their own hands.
It seems' to us that the obligation between Parliament
and the railway companies is reciprocal.. Parlia-
ment is to protect their monopoly—they are not
to make a use of it oppressive to the public.
But how is Parliament to enforce the observance of
their plighted faith upon these Companies ? By fixing
their fares, and arranging the accommodation pravided
for passengers and carriers? This would never answer.
The only means that Parliament can resort to is, either
to allow of competition by rival railways, which,
as every one must see, would invite to a dead loss of
an enormous amount of capital that might be better
employed, or to claim the power of buying in for the
public the existing railway at a fair price. The Bill be-
fore Parliament reserves to Parliament this latter right,
and we cannot guess upon what principle so fair a pro.
position can be resisted.

COURSE OF EXCH.
Amsterdam CF. 12 54
Ditto, at sight l2 ,g
Rotterdam 2U. 12 6
Antwerp 25 90
Hamburgh 31.8. 13 13
Altona l3 131
Paris, 3 days' sight 25 60
Ditto, 3 months 25 80
Marseilles 25 85
Bourdeaux 25 85
Frankfort on Maine l2li
Petersburgh, 3Us 37
Berlin 7

kNGE.—(THIS DAY.)
Gibraltar
Leghorn 3O 45'
Genoa 25 90
Milan
Venice 47
Naples ........
Palermo, per oz llB
Lisbon 54
Oporto s3f
Rio Janeiro 23
Bahia 23
Buenos Avres
NewYork,2ldyssight
Philadelphia
PRICES OF BULLION, PER OZ.
Foreign Gold, bars. £3 17 9
Portugal Gold Coin 3 17 5
New Doubloons-- 0 0 0
New Dollars 0 4 10i
Silver in' Bars 0 4 118

Vienna, effee. fl:3 M 952
Trieste, ditto
Madrid 37

Cadiz
Bilbao 36
Barcelona 36

Sevilla

THE LONDON GAZETTE
(THIS EVENING.)

FOREIGN-OFFICE, JULY 50844._

The Queen baa been pleased to approve of Mr. Michael Ken-
nedy as Consul at Galway for the United States of America.

WHITEHALL, JULY 6.

The Queen has been pleased to present the Rev. Donald
M'Connochie to the church and parish of Durness, in the
presbytery of Tongue and county of Sutherland, vacant in
consequence of the Rev. William Finlater, late Minister thereof,
having ceased to be a minister of the Church of Scotland.