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

Ottenin_c atilt

LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH 17, 1845.

We are glad to perceive that the objectionable na-
ture of the Board of Trade Railways Committee is
not likely to be withdrawn from the notice of the
Legislature. In the course of a somewhat animated
conversation which passed between the Earl of 'DAL-
HOUSIE and Lord BROUGHAM, the latter Peer ex-
pressed an opinion, on Thursday night last, confirm-
ing, in express terms, that which our readers may
remember we have, in many former articles, endea-
voured to enforce on their most serious consideration.
The Noble and Learned Lord said that " a judica
ture, like that which was exercised by the Board of
Trade over railway schemes, was a judicature
abhorrent to the constitution and odious to the whole
country." The transactions out of which the con-
versation arose amply justified these misgivings as to
the working of the very anomalous body in question.
In reference to the several lines ptejec;-ed between
London and York, which had been under the consi-
deration of, and :eported upon by, the Rail way Com-
missioners, Lord Bnouo HAM wished to know
" whether the Noble head of the Board could tell him
on what day, and at what hour of that day (fur this
was a most important element in the case) their deci-
sion on the lines he spoke of was come to? It was well
known at twelve o'clock on Tuesday noon that the
London and York' had been decided against, and
the consequence was that the shares of the other two
projects for such railway had risen two and three per
cent. premium long before the Gazette announcing
the decision was published." This was a question in-
volving ,4 hat the Noble and Learned Lord declared to be
" a fact, communicated to him by a very important
merchant and broker." We ourselves alluded, not
long since, to a similar statement having been broadly
made by Mr. WAKLEY, in the House of Commons,
and having received no contradiction—distinctly as
that was challenged—from her MAJESTY'S Ministers
at the time. It can admit of no doubt that the
subject of Lord BROUGHAMS question on Thursday
last directly involved the character of the Board of
Trade Railways Committee. If the charge be true,
they cannot shelter themselves from the imputation
of a gross breach of duty to those who appointed
them (and who we still take leave to contend, paren-
the!ia ally, had no title or power to make such an ap-
pointment), except at the expense of their character
for common management and ordinary official dis-
cretion. If the Board can vindicate itself from
laving, in the conduct of its affairs, manifested
a lack of common business-like management and
official discretion ; this it can do only by throwing
overboard all pretensions to a strict, impartial, and un-
compromising discharge of its very responsible duty.
A main ingredient of the instructions upon which it
acted was, that its deliberations should be with closed
doors, and its decisions first promulgated in the
London Gazette. If the Earl of DALHOUSIE and
his brother Commissioners are prepared to show that
Le premature communication of the Board's decision
in this case, prior to the notice in the Gazette, was
made by any parties cognisant of the Board's secret
deliberations ; they, the Noble Earl and his Col-
leagues, will only have to disprove the averment of
Lord BROUGHAM, that the intelligence which ought
not to have been known -beyond the Board table,
till the coming out of the Gazette on Tuesday even-
ing, was already actually and largely operated upon
on the Stock Exchange by twelve on Tuesday noon.
Now, was ti is assertion disproved by Lord DAL-
HOUSIE ? His Lordship replied to Lord BROUGHAM
thus—" The fact was, that the precise time at which
the decision was made was in the afternoon. The
Board on that day we.% held in the afternoon ; and,
therefore, it was utterly impossible that the rise in
the shares could have taken place with the Board of
Trade "

This i really wie of the most remarlmble von se-
quiturs that ever illustrated Parliamentary I.
When Doctor JOHNSON; in oue of his stoutest fits of
critical scepticism, ridiculed the notion, not only of the
genuineness of the Ossianic Poems, but hinted his
conviction that the whole story which MACPHERSON
had got up of their discovery, was an imposture, a aea.
low Highlander undertook to satisfy the scrupulous I

* This Return does not include the British Isles.
THOS. LIGHTFOOT, A. and C. G.
Accountant and Comptroller-General's-office,
Stamps and Taxes, March 10, 1845.

Two new articles have just been nclde.l to the postal
treaty between France and Great Britain. They have
for object :-1. To place the Post-office of Boulogne in
direct clrrespondence with the Post-office at Fulkstone,
by means of the private steamers between the two ports.
2. To regulate the trans.it through France ivut,r6,
paid or obirtid, Irma Great Britain and her colonies and
possessions for the kingdom of Greece.
Loss OF TILE BRITISII BRIG GLENGARIFF.—A
dispatch has been received at Lloyd's from the Foreign-
office, containing copies of dispatches froni. the Govern-
ment of Mexico, relative to the total loss of the
English Brig. Glengariff, on the Bar of Goazocoao„
with part of her crew, in November, 1844. ,