The Sun.
London, England, 1845-03-27 00:00:00

RAIL WAY INTELLIGENCE.

REPORT OF THE RAILWAY DEPARTMENT OF
THE BOARD OF TRADE ON RAILWAYS
PROPOSED TO BE MADE IN IRELAND,
WESTWARD FROM DUBLIN.

Railway Department, Board of Trade,
Whitehall, 20th March, 1845.
The Board constituted by minute of the Committee of
the Privy Council for Trade, for the transaction of
railway business, having had under consideration
schemes deposited with the Railway Department for ex-
tending railway communication in Ireland into the dis-
trict west of Dublin, have decided on submitting the
following report thereon for the consideration of Par-
liament:-
These schemes are two—viz.,
The Great Western (Ireland), Dublin to Mul-
No. L linger and Athlone.
Ditto, ditto, Alternative line to Mullingar.
Ditto, ditto, Galway Extension from Athlone.
No. 2. Irish Great Western Railway (Dublin to
Galway).
To avoid confusion we shall call the first the Mullingar
scheme, and the second the Dublin and Galway scheme.
The Mullingar line is proposed to be carried along the
bank of the Royal Canal from Dublin to Mullingar, there
to divide into two branches, one taking a north-west
direction to Longford, and the other a south-west direc-
tion to Athlone. The promoters of the scheme have
lodged plans and sections to enable them to continue
their line from Athlone to Galway ; but it is not their
intention to do so unless urged by circumstances, which
will be explained hereafter.
The plans, sections, and notices belonging to the
Dublin and Galway scheme, deposited at the Board of
Trade, are for the purpose of enabling the promoters to
make a railway from a point about miles from
Dublin, on the Great Southern and Western line, to
pass through or near the towns of Edenderry, Phillips-
town, Tullamore, Athlone, Ballinasloe, and Longhrea, to ,
Galway. A portion of this line will be dropped, how-
ever,
in consequence of arrangements made with the ,
Great Southern and Western Company, which will be
presently mentioned in detail.
In this, as in our two former reports on projected
lines of railway in Ireland, we shall find it neces-
sary to quote extensively from the second report of the
Commissioners appointed to consider and recommend a
general system of railways in that country..
When, in 1837, the Commissioners examined into the
state of the country now under our consideration, they
found it "overspread with small but exceedingly crowded
communities, sometimes located in villages, but
more frequently in isolated tenements, exclusively com-
posed of the poorest class of labourers, who, removed
from the presence and social or moral influence of a
better and more enlightened class, were left, generally,
to the coercive power of the law alone to hold them
within the bounds of peace and order. No system of
constant and remunerative industry was established
among them. The cultivation of their patches of land ,
and the labour of providing fuel were their sole em-
ployments, which, occupying but a eemparatively small
portion of their time, left them exposed to all the tempta-
tions of an idle, reckless, and needy existence."
Much change, however, appears to have taken place
since that period in the aspect and condition of the dis-
trict. A visible and steady progress in improvement
is said to be apparent ; signs of increasing wealth are
manifest ; and the labouring population are necessarily
beginning to benefit as the general prosperity advances.
Evidence to this effect has been given to us by per-
sons, among whom are noblemen and gentlemen inti-
mately acquainted with the localities, conversant with
the subject, many of them without a single share in the
competing railways, and whose undoubted veracity could
be as little questioned as their means of procuring the
information they imparted.
But in the course of progressive improvement this
portion of the Irish people have still to struggle with
want of continuous employment, and with inadequate re-
muneration for their labour. Agricultural knowledge,
though beginning to be diffused among them, is yet in
its infancy, and it needs the stimulus of a more exten-
sive market than it can now command before the culti-
vator can obtain such a return for his labour as may
induce him to pursue a course of habitual industry and
frugal forethought. Steam-vessels have done much for
those parts of Ireland whose geographical position per-
mits of an easy communication with England. From
this advantage the district in question is debarred, and
railways are now proposed to accomplish that to which
steam navigation cannot extend.
With reference to this subject the Commissioners ob-
serve that—
" A well-arranged system of railways in Ireland
would have the effect of continuing and extending
throughout the country the benefits which the outports
have thus obtained by the introduction of steam-vessels.
The subsisting relations of business and commerce would
be thereby extended and enlarged, and others formed,
opening fresh resources to the industry and enterprise
of the trading portion of the community ; while an ob-
ject of no less consideration Lwould be immediately at-
tained, in rendering agricultural produce, which may
be called the grand staple of this country, at the same
time more profitable to the producers, and accessible on
easier terms to the principal purchasers and consumers.
We have already mentioned that a considerable traffic
has been formed since the application of steam-vessels to
purposes of commercial transport, in the exportation of
fat cattle. The direct benefit, however, derived from
this trade, on the part of Ireland, is confined to counties
adjacent to the eastern ports, or connected with them by
canals ; for the condition of the animals would suffer so
much by their being driven any considerable distance,
that they are necessarily disposed of in some neighbour-
ing market. A railway intersecting the country from
Dublin would place the cattle of those rich pastures
within reach of Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham,
thereby insuring to these markets a larger supply and of
a superior quality, while the profits of the Irish feeder
would be proportionably enhanced. A similar advan-
tage would be secured, through the same means, to the
growers of corn ; that the prices of produce being thus
equalised through the whole country, land would be of
nearly equal value to the cultivator at a distance from
the metropolis as in its immediate neighbourhood, and
hence the inducement to expend capital and labour upon
its improvement would be as strong in the one case as in
the other."
Further on they add—" Although a railroad itself,
as a mercantile speculation, might not all at once fulfil
the sanguine expectations of the projectors, it would
still be an invaluable source of general wealth and
prosperity."
We have been induced to dwell en this topic so long,
in consequence of the Commissioners having stated their
decided opinion that a line in this direction could not be
attempted without ruin to the speculators ; while, at the
same time, they are convinced that railway communica-
tion through the country ought, if possible, to be esta-
blished. On the point of traffic, therefore, does the
question of some line of railway being sanctioned tura ;
and yet we have two opposite statements respecting this
important matter, besides that which we have quoted
from the Commissioners' report.
The promoters of the Mullingar scheme show by their
traffic tables that between Dublin, Mullingar, Longford,
and Athlone, there is sufficient traffic to support a rail-
way ; but that between Athlone and Galway there is not
sufficient traffic to support a line ; while, on the other
hand, the traffic tables of the promoters of the Dublin
• and Galway scheme go to prove that there is not only
sufficient traffic to support a railway between Dublin and
. Athlone, but also to support the more extensive line be.
tween Dublin and Galway.