The Sun.
London, England, 1845-03-17 00:00:00

N wry and Enniskillen,
E ni,killen and Diu dAk,

Belfast and Ballymena,
Londonderry and Enniskillen,
Londonderry and Coleraine,
which have chiefly for their object communication be-
tween inland towns and their nearest seaports.
In examining into these schemes, we have derived
much assistance from the second report of the Com-
missioners appointed to consider and recommend a
general system of railways for Ireland, printed in 1838.
To them we are indebted for a mass of most valuable and
well arranged information. Since 1837, however, when
the Commissioners' inquiries were going forward, com-
mercial changes have taken place; still the report must, en
the whole, be regarded as high authority; and without it
we should have found great difficulty in arriving, in
several instances, at what we consider to be sound con-
clusions. It is also satisfactory to observe that the pro-
jectors of the various schemes in Ireland look upon the
Commissioners' report as the most useful guide they
could have followed.

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Judging from the Commissioners' report, railways in
Ireland hold out no prospect of very great remuneration
to the projectors: judging from the statements made by
the projectors, considerable profits must be derived from
the receipts on all the projected railways. On the one
hand is the weighty argument, that if capital be laid out
in railways in Ireland, which cannot command a reason-
able return, a check will be given to railway
enterprise there, which must retard their useful ex-
tension. On the other hand, manifold advantages
are pressed on us as the certain results of railway com-
munication throughout the country. On this portion of
the subject we must observe, that while we are quite
alive to the benefits which will be generally diffused
thereby, we are not prepared to believe that in many
cases the railway receipts will greatly exceed the Com-
missioners' estimates, notwithstanding the changes which
have taken place in the last eight years.
The traffic cases connected with the various railway
schemes in England which we have examined, have ge-
nerally been attended by circumstances which have ena-
bled us to judge of the probable success of each under-
taking. For instance, the actual traffic on an existing
railway has frequently guided us in forming our opinion of
the value of an estimate of traffic on a projected line
likely to be placed in nearly similar circumstances. But,
in Ireland, we have had no such help : neither have we
had the power of making inquiries to an extent that
might have tested, in a satis'actorymanner,the accuracy
of many of the statements which w•e have received. We
are, consequently, induced to direct the particular atten-
tion of the Committee on the Bill to the estimates of
traffic in each case.

With regard to the general direction of the leading
lines of railway best adapted for Ireland, we are fully
disposed to consider the recommendations contained in
the report of the Commissioners as of great weight,
where the circumstances under which those recommen-
dations were made, continue unaltered.
In the present instance, however, of the railways pro-
jected for the accommodation of the north and north
we.st of Ireland, this is manifestly not the case.
At the date of the Commissioners Report, no line
northwards from Dublin had been sanctioned by the Le-
gislature, nor was there then any prospect of the line
from Dublin to Drogheda being brought forward by a
private company, as a commercial undertaking.
Under these circumstances the Commissioners, pro-
ceeding on the same sound and cautious principle which
had induced them to recommend the concentration of the
traffic of the south and south west of Ireland, upon a
single trunk line,similar to that which was sanctioned
last year by Parliament, from Dublin to Cashel, adopted
a similar principle with regard to the communications of
the north and north west, and recommended the adoption
of a single trunk line from Dublin to Navan, with
branches by way of Cavan to Enniskillen, and by way of
Armagh to Beltast, with a view to the concentration or
the principal streams of traffic upon the smallest possible
number of miles of new railway.
In this view, also, the Commissioners were very much
guided by the belief stated in their report, sad founded
upon the plans and sections then before them, that a
practicable engineering line could not be found through
the difficult country between Dundalk and Newry, and
therefore that the coast line could not be looked to as
affording an unbroken trunk communication between
Dublin and Belfast.