The Sun.
London, England, 1845-07-02 00:00:00

the land. The Committee would see the importance of that
line in connexion with the Cambridge and Lincoln line. The
Learned Counsel then adverted ,to the evidence on the coal
traffic, which he recapitulated at some length, and said he could
not conclude that branch of his argument without once more call-
ing the attention of the Committee to the population of the town of
Cambridge, and the importance of that fact, as well as the addi-
tional one of the University being there. He had re-
ceived his education in that University ; but until he
had studied the merits of this line, he could net have
formed any idea of the vast importance of the diarict of
county about the town of Cambridge in reference to its position
for traffic by railway communication. And now, having shown
the Committee, as he conceived satisfactorily, that the London and
York Company had taken credit for an income of 293,000/. a year,
as the result of their coal traffic alone, which, in his opinion, was
an amount they never cot'ld realise ; and having also shown that
the Cambridge and Lincoln Company had taken credit for only
14,0001 per annum, as the result of their coal traffic on one-fourth
of the distance taken by the London and York Company—having, as
he said, adverted to these facts, and disposed of them, he would
leave that branch of the subject, and proceed to comment upon
another. He had befere touched upon the landowner's opposition to
this line, for there was hut one; he would now pass that by with
a single observation. The opposition was that! of Mr. Pemberton,
who was not a landowner, but a trustee to two ladies; arid it ap
peared that the only injury that would be done in that instance was
such an encroachment upon a farm as was unavoidable in all such
undertakings, and therefore he would say not one word
more on that objection, except this, that it was the
only such objection offered, and that this line there-
fore, came before this Committee recommended by the re-
markable circumstance that there was not a single objection to the
line in the shape of a residential injury. He had now to complain
cf not having been fairly dealt with by the London and York Com-
pany, inasmuch as they now come forward, at this late period of the
proceedings, with a parcel of clauses by which it was pro.
posed to obviate the difficulties that originally existed to that
line, in reference to the VVitham navigation. He would
contend for it that those clauses had evinced a total dis-
regard to the public convenience, and had in view only the pro-
motion of the interests of the London and York Company, The
Learned Counsel then proceeded to comment upon Mr. Cubitt's
evidence, and said that that gentleman went so far as to tell the
Committee that there was no moral difficulty on the line.
Mr. Sergeant KINGLAHE said that Mr. Cubitt did not use any
such expression.

➢ir. HILDIARD hoped he would not be interrupted in this way.
His Learned Friends would have the reply, which was an enor-
mous advantage over him ; and his Learned Friends ought to
be content with that, and not endeavour now by those in-
terruptions to prolong a case which had now occupied the time of
the public and the Committee for over sixty days.

The CHAIRMAN begged that the Learned Counsel would not be
again interrupted. It was not necessary, for the Committee had
their notes of the evidence before them, and if Counsel should
make any mistake as to the evidence, the correction should be left
to the Committee.

Mr. HILDYARD then proceeded with his commentary cn the evi-
dence of Mr. Cubitt, and referred to the notes of it. He con-
tended, that Mr. Cubitt proposed to place a fixed bridge over
the Witham, which would have the effect of obstructing the
navigation of the Witham, and to which the trustees of the
public, namely, the Witham Navigation Company, had no power
to consent, because they had been appointed by an Act of Parlia-
ment to take charge of a public trust, which they had no power
to transfer to the London and York, or any other company, with •
out at least taking care that, to whatever hands they should
transfer that trust, the public convenience should be guarded
and preserved. But Mr. Cubitt was prepared to meet every diffi-
culty and obstruction, and was ready to propose clauses to any
effect, almost, in order to grasp at the preamble of this
Bill, as a drowning man caught at a straw.—(Laughter.)
But the Committee would know how to deal with that evidence
when they came to consider it, anti to say whether those clauses
had come in too late or not ; but let the Committee not forget this
tact, that a phrase was used in evidence to this effect, that if the
London and York Company got their Bill, this Witham
navigation would have become theirs, and that they could
do whatsoever they pleased with it, notwithstanding any
clauses that might be introduced into the Bill. The
Committee had it in evidence that the towing.path of the
Witham would inevitably be under water in flood times by the
works of the London and York line, and therefore that fact should
not be forgotten by the Committee. The Committee would also
ob erve that the London and York had originally a clause in
their Bill giving a power to sell the navigation for 999 years to
the Cambridge and Lincoln ; but seeing the peril that such a clause
would place them in, the clause had been withdrawn. The
Learned Counsel having made some further observations, wound up
his long address at three o'clock.