The Sun.
London, England, 1845-02-12 00:00:00

a, 1845,

tenth hour, he should have introduced suugestions, and
recommended measures, that A-4,uld have been so much

more in place at the period when railway speculations
first commenced? He agreed with the Noble Lord that
it would, indeed, be exceedingly diffieu:t to find in that
House impartial individuals— MeMbers uneonnectt.d
either directly or indirectly with these schetnea. Be
al ould like to see the subject fairly investigated, and
therefore he had en a former night asked the Noble Lord
the Chancellor of the Dnehy 'of Lancaster, how far these
five gentlemen—Men of character they were—he granted
they were Tn. n of integrity—how tar they were con-
nected with railwayi? These gendemen must found
their opinions on party statements, themselves having no
Knowledge of the country through which the prOectcd
lines were intended to
.pass. Be would ask the Noble
Lord who had suggested improvements in the system,
if he himself was totally free from prejudice, or from a
connexion with' some of these projected lines ? For,
himself (Colonel Sibthorp) he had never been,
and would not. be connected with any railway ;
and ' for this• reason, that, if called upon by
that House to sit as a juror on some of these
projects, he might at least he an impartial one. His
Lordship had, he (Colonel Sibthorp) believed, corre-
sponded with a Mr. HO, on, and 'objected to some line
recommend, d by that gentleman, on the ground that it
would be near his Lordship's residence, Howick Hall,
and that, therefore, on that account, the line, however
well suite to the wants of the district in other respects,
was inadmissib'e. With these remarks he would con-
clude, but he hoped that' the Noble Lord would explain
his reasons for delaying the suggestions he had been
pleased that night to make.
Mr. GISBORNE said, that the Bill of last session had
been considerably modified in its passage through that
House. and at last it had been passed by a sort of tacit
compromise between the opposing parties. He thought,
therefore, that. the policy, embraced by it ought not
rashly to be interfered with, and therefore he could not
scree to the opinions advanced by his honourable
Friend the Member for Greenock upon the subject.
The Noble Lord the Member for Sunderland had given
a vivid description of the difficulties which he said in-
terferred with the decisions of the House on the matter
of the projected- lines, hut he ;Mr. Gishorne) thought
that the very facility with which the Noble Lord had
painted them, was a proof that they were not of the
most serious character. The Noble Lord had spoke n
very feelingly of the expenses incurred by the pro-
moters of some Of these schemes, before they could be
brought before Parliament, and alleged the hardship of
their rejection :by the 'Beard of Trade—but what was
the House to do ? How could they, in that House, tie 7
eitle, upon the merits of 'competing lines ? How were
they. to say what railway communication should or
should not be
.given to such or such a place, or by
what line that. communication should be made?
They might depend upon it that the advantages
of the respective Hies would be best tested
by a •onunission constituted as was the Board of
Trade. With respect to the powers vested in that
Board by the Act of Parliament of the 1: and 4th
Victoria, cap. 9, he should, with the permission of the
flouse, read such part of the : Act as releted to those
powers, and also those given by the subsequent Act of
Parliament. The Act directed that no railway should
he opened for traffic without at least a month's previous
notice oeing given to the Board of Trade ; and it em-
powered the Board to suspend. in certain cases, the
opening of such railway: The Bear, could also empower
inspectors to examine the railways and carriages, and a
copy of the bye-laws of -each company was directed to
be sent to them for their approval. The Act also directed
that the Beard should have the power of ordering a re-
tern of the traffic. and the rates and charges on each line.
These, and powers of a somewhat similar character, were
granted to the Board
,133 the Act of Parliament he had
quoted. In the last session these powers were somewhat
extended, it being directed, in the first place, that all
railways should be submitted to a Committee of the
Board of Trade. who should report to Parliament upon
them, but whose report was not to be considered final.
There 'was therefore nothing in the resolution to prevent
railway schemes coming before the House, whether the
Committee of the Board of Trade reported favourably or
not. He did not find anything either in the Act of Parlia-
ment, nor could he find that the Railway Committee
were in any way authorised to publish in the Gaze*
repOrts for or against particular lines of railway. He
understood that the object originally designed by the ap-
pointment of the Committee was an investigation and
elucidation of facts.—(Hear, hear.) A committee of
that House had come to the conclusion that the decision

of the Railway Committee of the Board of Trade should
not prejudice the claims of private persons. Great in-
justice had resulted from the proceedings of the Sub-
committee. The public had been under the impression
during the recess that the decisions of the Committee of
the Board of Trade would be supported by the Govern-
ment—in short, they considered them all but final and
conclusive. It was true the Right Hon. Baronet oppo-
site had dispelled the delusion on the first night of the
seesien, but great mischief had previously resulted.
Those lines which the Committee reported in favour of,
had their shares greatly - increased in price,
whilst those reported against, whatever their
me its might be, received a great discouragement from
the decisions. of the Board of Trade. It resembled a
race on the turf. There was quite as much speculation,
but it differed in there respects, that the amount at stake
was much larger, and that the event of the race could not
be known until it was over, whilst the decisions of the
Railway Committee became known before they were
published.—(Hear, hear.) He did not attribute any dis-
honour to any Member of that ComMittee, far from it,
he believed them to be men of integrity and honour
but it was impOSSible for any man not to see that, in
many cases, the decisions of the Bi,ard of Trade, respect!
ing lines of railway, were predicted with a degree of cer-
tainty very strange and striking. Where seven or eight
were entrusted with a secret, it was very hard to pre-
serve that inviolable privacy which was in this case so
desirable. Some men lost their memorandum-books
other mese were communicative to their wives; and others
talked in their sleep. In short, there :were several
modes by which. a secret might be divulged in such a
case, without any breach of honour or duty on the part
of the Committee. Unless there Was any great advan-
tage in such an arrangement as the present, it -was not
worth while to subject a body of men to the odium and
suspicion which such a situation entailed. It was very
difficult to convince th.., public where such temptations
-and such opportunities-presented themselves, and above
all, where so much was to be gained by disclosure, that
there had been no fa!se dealing. The grossest imputa-
tions bad been thrown upon the Board of Trade, and he
did not believe that any good they could effect would
counterbalance the distrust their decisions would in-
evitably-create. Again, he did not believe it possible, with
the means of information which the Committee had at its
disposal, and the opportunities they had for investiga
Lion, that they couht decide with a full knowledge of the
facts. and that they could make their decisions respected
for their abstract soundness and justice. How could
they decide upon the respective merits of 240 projected
lines of railway in every part of England, Ireland, and
Scotland? To be sure they had maps and ordnance
surveys to judge from, and the testimony of witnesses,
but what were these things where the fullest local in-
formation was requisite? He thought some less objec-
tionable tribunal might be devised than the present, and
he thought, moreover, that the Committee of the Board
of Trade assumed to themselves a !sewer which the
Legislature never intended they should assume.
Mr. J. S. WORTLEY said he considered that the
Committee of the Beard of Trade had been appointed to
report to Parliament the merits of rival schemes, and
that its proceedings would be conducted in such a manner
as to conciliate the confidence of the public, and be of
material assistance to the House. But when they published
their decisions before they were communicated to Parlia
ment—before the grounds upon which they arrived at them
were made known, he thought the public had just cause
of eemplaint. He could not, however, approve of the
project of the Noble Lord the Member for Sunderland.
That Noble Lord had admitted the propriety of deciding
at once upon the different schemes, and the impolicy of
postponing their consideration to another year ; but
how could this be done, it the whole 250 projects were
to be decided by any one tribunal? In his opinion the
tribunal, whatever it -might be, which was to decide upon
railway communications, ought to decide, not merely
upon the preference of rival schemes, but which was the
best line. Now the best line, as it often happened,
might not be proposed at all ; it might embrace a por-
tion of two projects ; but the present tribunal did not go
any further than the schemes proposed. Further, he
did not think the Government, by any mode of organisa-
tion, could judge of such a multitude of projects, extend-
ing as they did over the whole face of Great Britain and
Ireland. It would be a task which no Government, how-
eversible and 'assiduous, could accemplish. He felt that
the present - organisation and machinery was imperfect,
and hoped a remedy would be speedily supplied.
Mr. WARBURTON felt assured that the Board of
Trade would not adopt any measure by which to inter-
fere prejudicially with the large mass of capital now
invested in railroad speculations in this country, and the
result of which interference would be, that those specu-
lators would immediately transfer their capital to similar
undertakings in foreign countries. The laws of this
country, in respect to railroads, were so exceedingly
stringent, and the advantages to the speculator who in-
vests his capital in foreign lines so many, that any in-
terference with the English lines that would not be en-
couraging to capitalists, would have the effect of in-
ducing them to resort to foreim countries.—(Hear.)
He had listened with considerable attention to the
scheme of the Hon. Member' for Sunderland ; but he
should say, that in his opinion that scheme would be
attended with great inconvenience. It should be recol-
lected -that engineers would be employed to survey the
different lines proposed ; to report.upon what they con-
sidered to be, the advantages and disadvantages of each
line ; then to lay their report before. Parliament, who
would then take the matter off their hands, and finally
decide upon which was the best plan ; that was one
plan. The other proposal of the Noble Lord was, that
a company who had resolved upon a certain line should
go before a Parliamentary Committee, having first de
sided on their line, and that Committee were to call for
tenders, and declare in favour of the lowest. What
would the effect of such a caurse be ? Why this—it
would be giving a monopoly to a certain company. upon
that line for a certain term of years. Now, surely the
country had too recently embarked in the whole scheme
of railroads to warrant that House in coming to such a
resolution as would, in effect, be declaring that they had
reached the utmost verge of perfection.—(Hear, hear.)
Improvements were being made every day ; and it
might so happen, that that line which in a few years
hence would be- shown ,to he infinitely more advanta-
geous than a former one, could net be approved of and
adopted, because the lowest tender had been ac-
cepted, and the contract was to hold goed for
a nuinber of years. This would bring about a
state of things that would ins olve the Government in an
inextricable maze. Therefore he could see no mode by
which to remedy this evil, but the adoption of one rule,
and that was to al:mit the fullest and fairest competition,
and to give every importunity to new consuls* to cm-

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