The Sun.
London, England, 1845-05-28 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 1845.

SUN, LONDON,

enterprise and activity for which the Scottish nation is
so justly distinguished. In saying this, we mean to
speak, of course, comparatively. Scotland is by '
no means so rich a country as England ;
but, cateris paribus, we_may well doubt whether Eng-
land has not shown more alacrity and industry in im-
proving her sources of natural production. In any case,
the extension of her fisheries, and nature has supplied
her with some of the finest in the world, has not been
prosecuted by Scotland with half the ardour or success
that she has shown and realised in advancing her agri-
culture and stock-farming. Much, even as to her
fisheries, she has accomplished, but she has not yet
availed herself of a tithe of the opportunities that pre-
sent themselves for profitably extending them in a hun-
dred localities upon her creek, estuary, and harbour-
ndented shores. _ _ _

The dispatches published in Tuesday's Gazette, rela-
tive to the operations in Sinde, are highly honourable to
Sir CHARLES NAPIER and the little gallant army under
his command. It is a singular fact that this able officer
has been successful in every plan for defeating his ene-
mies, and tranquillising that important district. The
malevolent press of India has been compelled
to acknowledge his merits ; his opponents in
this country cannot find one fault, and the
praises bestowed upon him by Sir HENRY HAR-
BINGE, the Governor-General Elect of the India
Board, are equally flattering with those so willingly
given by his calumniated predecessor. Here is the
tribute paid by a discriminating judge and skilful warrior
After announcing the complete success of the expedition,
the Governor-General says :—" An operation of this na-
ture demanded, on the part of the General, the utmost
prudence, skill, and foresight, and on the part of the
troops, the greatest fortitude in enduring the fatigues
and privations to which they were exposed. These
qualities, which prove the merit of a commander and
the discipline of the troops, have been displayed by both
with characteristic energy. Every officer and man in
this short but arduous campaign has shown that there
are no difficulties which discipline cannot surmount under
able guidance."

On Monday evening Lord JOHN RUSSELL brought
forward his promised series of resolutions, which, though
nominally limited to a review of the condition of the
labouring classes, embraced a great variety of other
topics. These topics were, many of them, of an interest
almost equally extensive to such as the Currency, the
Corn Laws, and Free Trade. His speech also embraced
a searching inquiry into the condition of education
among the people generally ; but this subject is so legi-
timately connected with any attempt to consider the con-
dition of the poor, that we should not venture to discuss
the one without the other. From this description of
Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S speech, our readers will readily
understand that it would not be very practicable to con-
dense such observations as we may desire to offer upon
it, within the limits of a single article. Sir JAMES
GRAHAM passed this well-merited eulogium upon it ;
that in justice to the Noble Lord he felt bound to say
that anything more worthy the great subject it dealt

with, or more comprehensive in its views than the
speech of the Noble Lord, he had never heard in
that House. It was totally devoid of all party
feeling, or any acrimonious assertions. To this
high praise it was certainly entitled ; and from
that very conviction we are as anxious to parti-
cularise its more prominent merits as to express with
caution, and all the respect due to such a gifted speaker,
the occasional points as to which we find ourselves un-
able to arrive at the same conclusions which he has re-
corded. Impossible as it will be on the present occasion
to do more than throw a comprehensive glance over the
general effect of this admirable address, owing to the
pressure of much matter of immediate interest, we
cannot refrain from expressing the gratification
we have derived from the indications this
speech everywhere abounds with, of a deep and
anxious solicitude for the welfare of the in-
dustrial classes. Lord JOHN RUSSELL speaks like
a man alive to the wrongs which this invaluable class of
the community have long endured, and bent on a vigor-
ous and chivalrous effort to retrieve them from their
pressure in future. On the question of the course to be
taken in providing for the general education of the poor
we are proud to find his Lordship concurring in a grin-
; eiple we have so lately argued in relation to that point.
He expresses broadly his conviction that any mea-
sures for the moral or intellectual improvement of

the poorer classes, to be attended with success, must be
preceded by adequate provision for their physical im-
provement, and especially of their food, subsistence, and
lodging. It certainly does appear a romantic com-
mencement of any scheme of popular amelioration—
where the distress to be remedied is extensively diffused
and of the most sordid and disorganising character, and
its causes imbedded deeply in by by-gone errors of po-
litical legislation and social usages—to grapple with the
choice of abstract principles to be adopted in the
discipline and training of men's minds, whilst their
bodies are exhausted by inanition, suffering, and
disease. What aro class books and interesting
lessons in light or instructive literature to
them, whilst they themselves are starving, and their
families are sinking around them, under the double
pressure of want and domestic misery? With regard to
the Noble Lord's statistics of wages and prices, in their
reciprocal relations to one another, we cannot entirely
concur in the results which he draws from his

at Paris :

own premises. into that larger question, how-
ever, we will not now enter ; and we forbear, for
the present, from contesting, as we should feel
bound and prepared to do, the Noble Lord's views
of the action of the Bank Restriction Act of 1797, at the
time, and ever since, on the wages of labour and the con-
-dition of the labouring population. It is with all sub.
mission no sort of proof that the present wages of la-
bour are not greatly below a fair remunerating, or even
a bare living standard in some of the largest branches of
agricultural and manufacturing employment, that it
appears from Mr. Dent's tables that wages are much
the same now, with corn at a moderate price,
as they were in 1801, for instance, with corn at
the famine price of 115 s. per quarter. It is clear
that the Noble Lord omits out of his calculation the
enormously increased burden of indirect taxation now
borne by the labourer, and the consequent reduced
amount of necessaries and all other consumable articles
which the same nominal scale of wages now represents.
The consideration of this incident in the condition.of in-
dustrial labour in this country—of the operation upon
it of the altered standard of currency established by Sir
R. PEEL in 1819, and of the corn-laws, we must defer
to a future but early opportunity. Connected with the
question of corn-laws, we cannot deny ourselves the
pleasure of noticing the manly and candid language in
which the Noble Lord acknowledged the discrepancy
between his present convictions touching the expediency
of a graduated scale of protecting duties. We shall
speedily recur to them, and to his argument in favour
of a fixed low duty of 45., 55., or 6s. per quarter.

Whilst public opinion on this side of the Tweed ap-
pears to be much divided as to the merits of the Lord
Advocate's new poor-relief legislation for the kingdom
of Scotland, it may be expected that we should recur to
a subject which we handled at some length on the occa-
sion of the Learned Lord bringing in the Bill in ques-
tion. But we should be sorry to throw impediments
in the way of any measure having for its object the
mitigation of those evils which the Scottish poor have
too long been left to encounter, with means almost in-
conceivably inadequate to procure them the means of
even the most meagre and attenuated subsistence. The
disclosures,—for his instrumentality in bringing
which under the notice of Parliament we think the
Learned Lord has scarcely received from some of our
contemporaries his due meed of praise,—the disclosures
which have been made of the destitution in which a vast
community
of the people of Scotland habitually dwell,
ts formingand
subjects,
the
than
r lott h of
so they
are scarcely more appalling from the amount of personal
misery
many which
of outrhfeel oy exhibit,w.cr
ea asu r
e
are startling from the economic phenomena
they reveal.
The condition of the poor of Scotland becomes aenoab-
.
ob-
ject of deep but painful interest, when one reflects upon
this remarkable fact, that although the development of
agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial prosperity
in Scotland, within the last half century, is scarcely to
be surpassed by the example of any other nation within
the same era, and the same interval of years ; her un-
developed, or at least unimproved resources, are still so
extensive that their amount is almost a scandal to the

The followingare the quotations for the new lines :
Orlears and Bordeaux, 220 f. premium ; Boulogne, 110 f.
ditto ; Troyes and Montereau,-_ 50f. ; Paris and Lyons
(Laffitte), 20f. ; ditto (Caton), lf. 50c. ; ditto (Ganneron),
10f. ; Northern line" (Laffitte), ;35f. ; ditto (Rosamel),
7f. 50c. ; Tours and Nantes (Mackenzie), 10f. ; ditto (Drouil-
lard), par; ditto (O'Neill), 15f. ; ditto (Jacques Lefevre),
par ; Lyons and Avignon (Lecointe), 20f. ; ditto (Talabot),
35f. ; ditto (Compagnie Meridionale), 10f. ; Bordeaux
and Toulouse (Mackenzie), 4f. 50c. ; ditto and Cette (Espe-
leta), 17f. 50c. ; Creil and St. Quentin, lf. 50c. ; Paris and
Strasburg (Ganneron), 12f. 50c.
LYONS, MAY 23.—Avignon and Marseilles, 1,060 f., cash;
Orleans and -Vierzon, 825 f., end of May ; Orleans and Bor-
deaux, 730 f., ditto ; Boulogne, 617 f., ditto ; Nianes and
Montpelier, 590 f.

There is, perhaps, in all Europe, no landed gentry
who possess better, or more extensive, fishing fields
than that of Scotland, scattered, as their possessions are,
along a coast line of vast extent, washed with seas that
swarm with fish. It is much to be deplored that the
great landowners in these districts—take, for example,
the Western Isles and Highlands of Scotland—do not
far more largely avail themselves of the means which
are thus ready to their bands, of increasing their own
fortunes by vastly benefiting those of the hardy natives
who hold under them. They are fishermen by the acci-
dents of their birth, and the necessities, not less than
the advantages of their position. But their energies,
their intrepidity, their endurance, and fortitude, being
at present limited to little more than the care of provid-
ing for the immediate subsistence of themselves and
their families, are rarely accompanied by that perseve
rance which permanent employment, at however high
wages, and the exertions of capital among them, would
be sure to stimulate. Fresh fish in the spring and
summer, and cured fish for the winter, with a scanty
supply of potatoes raised by that slovenly tillage of
neglected garden plots and closes which the sagacity and
sarcasm of the late Dr. MACCULLOCH shamed, for a time,
into something like transitory activity, are too com-
monly the utmost achievements of their forecast and
their exertions. Having so few resources to fall back
upon, their poverty habituates them to a reliance more
or less, on one or two, exclusively, out of that limited
number. A wet summer or a protracted winter de-
stroys, or nearly destroys, their potato harvest. A very
boisterous season greatly diminishes the produce of
their fishery. The decay of their once valuable kelp-
trade leaves them little or no chance of repairing either
of these calamities.
But let some great proprietors emulate the noble
example of Mr. MATHESON, M.P., on his enormous pro-
perty of Lewis, which we yesterday described in our
columns. Let them reclaim their bog and moor lands
by drainage ; let them build and furnish fishing and
curing stations ; facilitate the purchase of nets, tackle,
and implements, where such aid is required of them at
the hands of meritorious individuals : let them cut
roads, deepen water ways, and avail themselves of the
substantial material -which nature has every where
around them placed within their reach, of erecting dams,
constructing harbours, and all other works requiring
only rude and massive masonry ; and they will be mul-
tiplying ten-fold the present value of their rent-roll,
and ameliorating a hundred-fuld the physical comforts
and condition of their poor tenants and compatriots.
When these primary elements shall have been got into
vigorous and well-combined action, then let the land-
owner introduce a simple but generous plan of moral
education for those whose social lot he will have already
so incalculably improved. What will be the amount of
free unalloyed enjoyment which they will thus secure
for themselves, who will move about wide domains more
overspread with an aspect of busy and contented in-
dustry and cheerful vigilance, amidst the most inhos-
pitable rigours that may at times beset the climate, and
gaze, with honest emotion, on the noble contrast which
their own efforts, their own desire to amend the hard
existence of these remote but well-disposed people, and
,heir own spirited liberality have established, with
the desolate and savage and dispiriting fea-
tures that the same country presented but three

or four years previously. In Sutherlandshire,
in Caithness, and along the northern and north-western
shores of Scotland, how much may yet be done, fraught
with better and more salutary influences than all that
poor laws can effect for a well-disposed and kindly-
natured people. Let the same fine spirit which is now
diffusing life and activity to the most distant corners of
the " distant Lewis," visit the pauperised recesses of
Mull and Tobermory, or Sutherlandshire itself ; but not
to expel—not to eject—not even to force into an ill-pro-
vided-for emigration, a starving yet reluctant race of
hereditary but impoverished tenants. There are Dukes
in Scotland—Lords of the fairest lands in Sutherland-
shire and Argyllshire, who, if they would betake them-
selves to follow out such plans as the wise and generous
proprietor of Lewis is now working for the improvement
of his property—and the people on it—might hope, like
him, to verify the glorious aspiration of our lyric poet,
and " read their history in a nation's eyes." Let those
Dukes " go and do likewise."

The intelligence from Madrid is to the 20th inst. On
that day the Senate voted the entire budget, by a ma-
jority of 70 to 5, and this closed the business of the
Cortes, which, as will be seen by a telegraphic dispatch,
was prorogued three days afterwards. The Court was
to set out for Catalonia on the 24th.

On the 20th the Three per Cents. closed at 32i, and
33} at 60 days ; the Five per Cents. 24 for eash, and
24i at 60 days; and the Debt without Interest at 8 3-16
at 60 days.

The following telegraphic dispatch has been received

" The Queen of SPAIN closed the session of the Cortes,
in person, on the 23d instant. The new Constitution
was promulgated on the same day."
The Paris papers are chiefly occupied with the affairs
of Morocco and Algeria, and the forthcoming discussion
on the Budget. On the latter subject the Jou, nal des
Debate says :—" The Chamber of Deputies will be able
to enter on the discussion of the budget of estimates; at
the beginning of next month. The report of M. BIG -
NON'S report is in the press, and will be distributed to the
Deputies in the course of a week. The five Bills, for
the removal of the hotel of the Minister of Foreign
Affairs—for the extraordinary credit for Algeria—
for the police—for the railroads—for the colonial
regulations—and for the Paris and Lyons railroad,
will probably be brought forward before the budget.
The report on the extraordinary credits for Algeria,
which amount to 14,430,000 f., was distributed on
Saturday, and will be taken into consideration on Tues-
day. The Committee, after having taken a full view of
the entire situation of Algeria, has made a rigid exami-
nation of all the questions connected with the conquest
of this country, its government, and colonisation.
On the day the Committee was formed it was made
acquainted with the projected expedition of Marshal
BUQEAUD against the Kabyle country. Marshal SOULT,
to whom the Committee applied for a full statement of
the case, sent a summary of all the late reports from
the country in question. Soon afterwards the Minister
of War attended the Committee, and declared that, in
his opinion, the intended expedition would have favour-
able results, but he did not consider it urgent, and there-
fore the Government would not consent to any increase
of the effective force for this purpose. The Committee
admits the propriety of keeping up the effective force
for the present year at 82,000 men and 15,513 horses."
The Con.seitutionnel has changed its tone relative to the
failure of the commercial treaty with Morocco, and now
implies that the failure has been brought about by
English influence. M. GUIZOT, of course, comes in for
a share of the blame. The following are observations
on this affair in that journal :
" A council of Ministers was held on Saturday relative to
the affairs of Morocco. It is stated that the resolution come
to was such as might be expected from the Cabinet which
signed the treaty of Tangiers, disavowed MM. Dupetit
Thouars and D'Aubigny, and indemnified Mr. Pritchard.
The convention negotiated by M. Delarue had a double ob-
ject—to regulate the question of limits, and to assure to our
commerce certain commercial advantages. It was the
execution of two articles of the treaty of Tangiers.
The convention has just been ratified by France,
but the Emperor Abderrhaman, disavowing his ple-
nipotentiaries, refuses the ratification. What course
will be taken ? The matter is perfectly simple. General
Delarue will be disavowed without noise, and a new negotia-
tion commenced. It will be stated, it is already said, that
M. Delarue has gone beyond his instructions, and that
he was too exacting with regard to that Moorish Govern-
ment,which, in other respects, gives us so many proofs of
goodwill and deference. In the frontier question, without
giving way to the cunning and tardiness of the Arab nego-
tiators, who would have prolonged the discussion to eternity,
relative to every blade of grass, M. Delarue decided the
question equitably, like a geometrician, and obtained the
assent of the negotiators. This-operation will be gone over
again, and Abderrhaman will receive some portion of
the territory which he claims. As to the commercial ques-
tion, it will be abandoned purely and simply, under the form
of indefinite postponement, to please not only the Emperor
Abderrhaman, but also another power. Such are the poli-
tical exploits by which our Ministry will impress the Moorish
tribes with respect for France,and will perpetuate the remem-
brance of the victory of Isly I You will find that M. Guizot
and M. Duchatel will attempt to prove afterwards that by
this condescension they are giving the Maugrabins a high
idea of France I See, in fact, how the evacuation of Moga-
dore and the treaty of Tangiers have strengthened the Em-
peror and weakened Abd-el-Kader."

The business in the French Chamber on Monday was
only of local interest. The prices in the Funds and
shares were somewhat depressed.
The Three per Cents. closed at 85f. 85c. ; the New Loan,
at 86f. 15c. ; the Five per Cents. at 121 f. 85c. • Orleans
Railroad Shares at 1,227 f. 50c. ; Rouen, I,loof. Vierzon
817 f. 50c. ; Havre, 885 f. ; Avignon, 1037 f. 50c. • Basle,'
270 f. ; Spanish Actives, 39% ; Spanish Passives, 1%.

EDNESDAY EIEN'INCI, MAY 98 1648.

Sambre and Meuse
Tours &Nantes (Mackenzie) 2
JOINT STOCK BANKS.
40

Australasia .

LLOYD'S SHIPP ING.—(THIS DAY.)
LONDON, MAY 28. —Wind N.E,, moderate breeze and
cloudy, with showers.
DEAL, MAY 27.—Wind N.N.E. to N.F., light.—Sld.
Ethelred, Aden ; Ranger, Sierra Leone ; Belle Creole, De-
merara ; Rebecca, Honduras ; Cremona, Quebec.
PLYMOUTH, MAY 27.—Wind N.E.—Arrd. her Majesty's
ships Electra and Illustrious, Bermuda ; Brunswick, steamer,
Plymouth, get ashore this morning in a thick fog, but came
off with the flood.
SOUTHAMPTON, MAY 27.—Sld. Royal Tar, steamer,
Gibraltar.
OFF THE WIGHT.—Don Antonio, Valparaiso.
OFF DARTMOUTH.—Northumberland, Brid, Madras.
PLYMOUTH, MAY 27.—S1d. Wilberforce and Richard Rey-
' nold, Quebec. Off, Abberton, Campbell, Port Phillip.
DARTMOUTH, MIT 27.—The Bolina, arrived here from
New Zealand and the Falkland Islands, reports the crew
and master of the Jane Grey were at Port William (Falkland
Islands), Feb. 10. She had been struck by a sea off Cape
Horn, and bore np for the islands, and was subsequently
wrecked on the West Falkland, Feb. 10. The Manney was
condemned at Falkland Islands, had discharged part of
her cargo, and was waiting a vessel from Monte Video to
take the cargo into Valparaiso. Her Majesty's ship Philomel
was lying there.
FALMOUTH, MAY 27.—Wind variable and light.—Off,
Saline, New York, for Hamburgh.
OFF THE OLD HEAD OF KINSALE, MAY 25.—Henry Gar-
diner, Kinsale.
WHITEHAVEN, MAY 27.—The Catherine and Isabella,
from the Clyde to Liverpool, ashore near Booth, has been got
off, and put in here to repair.
PORT TALBOT, MAY 26.—The John Thompson, from White-
haven, with iron ore, grounded on a hollow near the quay at
Meath, and strained and filled, and has been discharged for
repairs.
BERWICK, MAY 23.—Sld. Mohawk, South Seas.
LONDONDERRY, MAY 20.—Sld. Harriet, St. John's, New
Brunswick ; Cahawba, New York ; Agenora, Philadelphia.
COWES, MAY 27.—Sid. Unicorn, Swan River.
SWANSEA, MAY 25.—Sld. Elizabeth Bevnon, Valparaiso.
OFF BRIGHTON.—Tiber, Charleston, for Antwerp.
LIVERPOOL, MAY 27.—Arrd. Douglas, Farrell, Loango.
Sld. Epamonidas, Boston ; Eliza Ann, Rio Grande ; Flibberty,
Bahia; Emelie, Africa; Diana, Barbadoes ; Isabella, Phila-
delphia ; Waterloo, New York ; Junius, Nova Scotia. on;
Ottoman, —.
SUNDERLAND, MAY 27.—The Elizabeth Vane, off and
for this port from Hamburgh, is ashore near here.
CLYDE, MAY 26.—Sld. Benares, Gilkison, Trinidad.
POSSESSION ISLAND, FEB.—Loading, Mauley, Glover.
ICHABOE, MARCH 10.—Arrd. Fame London ; Lochinvar,
Clyde. 11. Aulabv, Southampton.

RAILWAY COMMITTEES

(THIS DAY.)

Group F.

The Committee met again this day in Room No. II ; present,
the Right Hon. F. Shaw, Chairman ; Mr. Drummond, Mr. V.
Stuart, Mr. Bramston, and Mr. Lockhart. The Committee pro-
ceeded with the adjourned case of the
LONDON, WORCESTER, AND SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE

Kidderminster, and passes within half a mile of the town.

Group A.

WAY.

Group V.

MANCHESTER, SHEFFIELD,

RAILWAY.
Mr. Coceoutor said that in consequence of what had fallen from
the Committee yesterday, as to the character of the evidence re-
garding the traffic, he would sacrifice his own feelings in the
matter, and he would now call a fresh class of evidence. He
would call Mr. Brunel, who would speak as so the difference of
gauge and the engineering evidence. He would, however, reserve
to himself the right of calling, at a future time, evidence on the
local traffic. '1 he importance of such evidence would be seen, in-
asmuch as Parliamentary Committees generally decided upon the
merits of the lines before them.

The CHAIRMAN had only to say, that the number of witnesses
examined already amounted to eighty-four, counting on both sides.
The intimation of the Committee yesterday amounted to a sug-
gestion, and no more. The Committee were of opinion that the
importance of a line of railway was apparent to the Committee,
and they thought that the London and Birmingham had proved
the case, up to a certain point, for the Great Western Company.
Mr. Hope hoped that if there was any more evidence to adduce
in support of the traffic on the line, it would be brought forward
at once. It would not do after breaking down in the engineer-
ing evidence to bolster up a case by calling fresh traffic evidence.
It would disarrange the proceedings. _ . .

The Cumuli AN could not see_ that anything like bolstering up
would succeed with the Committee.

Mr. COCKBURN could inform his Learned Friend that there was
nothing in his mind fearful of a breaking down of the engineering
evidence. On the contrary, he defied his Learned Friend to shake
that evidence.

Mr. Brunel examined by Mr. COCKBURN—Is engineer to lb • Great
Western schema for the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton
line of railway. In laying down the line he was guided by the ob-
ject of connecting South Staffordshire with Oxford, Berkshire, and
London. There is a cross line before Parliament from the Great
Western line to Basingstoke, which will form a continuation of
the line then before the Committee. The plan of the line from
Wolverhampton to Worcester and Oxford had been made for
some years. The project is of old standing. The line was first
projected in 1836, but from the difficulty of raising money at that
time, it was abandoned. There was also about that
period a branch line to Oxford. It was then propsed to carry the
line from Rugby by Banbury to Worcester. The branch to Ox-
ford was thrown out of Parliament three times in consequence of
not introducing the academical clauses. The traffic of the South
Staffordshire districts was very important. The cost of the Ox.
ford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton line would be 1,500,0001.,
and the cost of the Oxford and Rugby would be 600,000/. The
gradients of the Great Western line were more favourable than the
gradients on Mr. Stephenson's line. The population accommodated
on the Oxford and Rugby line was much greater than the popula.
Lion on the Tring line. The report of the Board of Trade stated
that the population on the Tring line was much greater ; but wit-
nese believes that the reverse was the fact. The line to Wolver-
hampton commences near the Grand Junction station between two
large and important towns. Mr. Stephenson's line at certain
points would be much higher, and would then descend considerably.
_ _

The Great Western line would come into the fire-brick

works, which was a most important consideration in the
traffic. From Stourbridge the Great Western line is carried to

reason for not bringing the station into the town was, that the
tonnage did not exceed more than fifty tons per week, and the
value of that to a railway amounted to a very small item. The
value of the manufactured goods was from 1501. to 3001. per ton,
and the cost of cartage from the town t• the station would be very
trifling. Had no station at Stockport, the trade was not important,
and there is a canal accommodation
(LEFT Immo.)

THE LONDON, CHATHAM, AND ROCHESTER RAIL.

The Committee met again to-day at twelve o'clock. Chairman
Mr. Laccelles.

The Counsel in suppoat of the Bill called
Mr. Sedder, an estate agent at Rochester, who had been
mayor of the city. This gentleman stated that there was consider
able deficiency in the means of communication at present between
Chatham, Rochester, and London. The inhabitants were obliged
to come by the Rochester Railway to Gravesend, and thence
by the boats to London. There were many charges
and many delays. Many thousands of troops sent to
Chatham in the course of the year, and many thou..
sands of workmen employed in the dockyards, had to pass to and fro
from time to time between Chatham and the metropolis. He was
acquainted with the North Kent Railway projected by Mr. Vig-
notes. At a public meeting held at Rochester to consider the
merits of the various lines, the feeling was almost unanimous in
favour of Vignoles' line. The inconvenience at present felt for
want of complete communication was very great. The population
of Rochester, Chatham, and Stroud, without the troops, was
35,000. The country around was very fertile, and a great number
of cattle were sent to London.

Cross-examined by Mr. WILMORE, for the London and Croydon
Railway—The feeling of the meeting to which he had referred was
decidedly in favour of Vignoles' plan. There was a great want of
railway communication between his part of the country and London.
Cross-examined by Mr. MEREWETHEE, for the South-Eastern
Company—Was not aware that nine tenths of the owners of
property in the neighbourhood were unfavourable to it. He
admitted that the names read to him by the Learned Counsel
were owners of a very large portion of the agricultural property in
that part of Kent, but did not know they had petitioned against
the present project.
Re-examined by Mr. GOLDSMITH—The feeling was generally in
favour of Vignoles' plan. 7he delay of communication with
London, especially in winter, was very great.
Mr. J. Batter, auctioneer and surveyor of Rochester, was also
one of the Rochester magistrates.
(LEFT SITTING.)