The Sun.
London, England, 1845-08-15 00:00:00

RAILWAYS and the PARLIAMENT.
The Upper House appears inclined to give heart and hand
in facilitatirg railway legislation. Lord Monteagle's suggestion,
that Railway Bills should be canmenced in whichever House
was ready to receive them, has been favourably received, and
will probably he acted upon. The present system is absurd.
All the Railway Bills were first submitted to the House of
Commons, and having passed that branch of the Legislature,
went to the House of Lords at such an advanced period of the
session that nothing could exceed the " quick haste" employed
to pass them all before the prorogation.
A Contemporary says :—" An improvement on that would
be to have but one Committee, composed jointly of Lords and
Commons, to sit on the Bill, and of course but one investiga-
tion. That would save much time and expense."—lt is not
likely that Parliament would agree to such an arrangement,
albeit a very desirable one.
Perhaps it may not be to late to establish three local Boards
—in London, Dublin, and Edinburgh—with power to examine
into the merits of, and necessity for, railway projects for Eng-
land, Ireland, and Scotland. This would confine Parliament
to the strictly legislative proceedings on such projects. It
would save the enormous expense of witnesses in London, and
would secure for each project more definite and full investigation
than it now poss;bly caa receive from Members of Parliament,
who—with all due deference be it said—generally know very
little about railway gauges, inclined plains, plants, traffic.
bridges, viaducts, tunnels, embankments, and other matters of
that sort. _ . .

It is very desirable, if Parliamentary Committees are to sit
in judgment
,upon railway projects, that they should examine
and decide a ithout the intervention of lawyers. We have a
high respect for the profession, but think its members sadly out
of place when acting as the paid partisans of this or that railway
proposer or objector before a Committee. The questions
which railway committees have to inquire into involve matter
of fact, and not of law. There is no occasion for the employ-
ment of counsel. The expense is enormous, and comes out of
the fund which would be better employed in making the rail-
way. If the project be rejected, the immense fees paid to
counsel come out of the pockets of those who have paid deposits
on allotted shares.
The Commission en the gauges, now sitting, have acted
most properly in deciding not to hear legal men. To " make
the worse appear the better reason" is the duty of these gen-
tlemen, and the investigation of truth is rarely aided by them.
We venture to say that, had the Parliamentary Committees
not beers obliged to hear counsel, they would have completed
their business in less time and in a more satisfactory manner.
A plain statement of the case, pro and con, and the examination
of witnesses, would have been all that was necessary. The
speeches of counsel did but confuse, and mystify, and darken
the minds of plain men.—Railway Express.

GREAT EMBARRASSMENT
AMONG SPECULATORS.
The totall% unexpected amalgamation of the Hud-
dersfield, Ilidifax, and Bradford Union Railway with the
Manchester and Leeds Railway Company has had the
most extraordinary and unhappy effect on great numbers
of speculators in shares in Leeds and the neighbouring
towns. According to the fatal system which prevails so
extensively, of persons selling shares without possessing
them, on the speculation of being able to buy them at
a lower price before the time comes for their delivery, a
vast number of these shares bad been sold in the market,
no less, it is said, than eighty thousand. The number
of shares originally announced in the prospectus of this
railway was only fifteen thousand, and the number
which the committee have actually to allot, according to
the agreement with the Manchester and Leeds, is only
seven thousand five hundred. As soon as the arrange-
ment with the latter Company was known, the shares
sprung up from 30s. to 101., 12/., and even 151., partly
owing to the real value of the shares as stock of the
Mancester and Leeds Company, and partly from the
rush into the market of those who had previously sold
shares, to obtain them for delivery. The consequence
has been the absolute inability of those who had pre-
viously sold on speculation to fulfil their bargains ; and
this inability is all but univer•al both among brokers and
their clients. Under these extraordinary circumstances
the members of the Lee,is Stock Exchange met on
Thursday, and adopted the following resolutions :
" That no buyer of shares in any projected railway
where the scrip was not issued at the date of the con-
tract shall be allowed to buy in such shares against the
seller; but that the members of the Exchange be required
to do their utmost to effect a just and amicable arrange-
ment with each other of any contracts for such shares in
which they have been engaged, and be bound to abide by
the decision of the Committee of management as to the
mode of such arrangement. That no dealings be here-
after permitted in shares of which the scrip is not issued,
with the exception of such transactions as may be
entered into with the express view of promoting
the settlement of transactions now open." It is
believed that it will be agreed to receive about 51.
per share, instead of the market price. In the Leeds
Association of Sharebrokers, we understand that it has
been determined to repudiate altogether the bargains in
this railway, on the alleged ground that the Committee
have not fulfilled the expectations held out in their pro-
spectus as to the number of shares to be allotted to the
public. All bargains in shares where the scrip has not
been issued being illegal, payment cannot be enforced
by law ; but we need not say what the effect of the re-
pudiation must be on the parties. In at least one other
town of the West Riding the same state of things exists
as in Leeds. The Huddersfield, Halifax, and Bradford
Union not being thought likely to succeed, the shares
were sold (or beared, in the phrase of the speculators) to
an immense extent ; and the consequences are of the
most disastrous character.—Leeds Mercury.

RAILWAY PROJECTS —THE MANCHESTER
AND SOUTHAMPTON.
Among the railway projects of the day none is of more
importance to the borough of Cheltenham than the projec-
ted line from Manchester to Southampton, advertised in
ourcolumns this week. " The Manchester and Southamp-
ton," or more correctly the Cheltenham and Southampton,
is designed fir a direct communication between the
increasing port of Southampton, southward, and the
manufacturing dis•ricts of the Midland Counties, north-
ward, making Cheltenham the point at which it will
unite with the Birmingham and Gloucester line. At
whichever point of view we look at this project, whether
as one of national or local importance, whether in re-
spect of the probability of its Parliamentary success, or
the certainty of its financial success when carried into
completion, it offers advantages to the investment of
capital equal or superior to any of the lines by which the
country is intersected. Looking at the map of England
we find the only mode of transit from Southampton to
the north is by the circuitous route of the South Western
to London, and thence by the London and Birming-
ham to Manchester and Liverpool, while Cheltenham is
onlj reached by the doubly circuitous route of the South
Western and the Great Western. By this line a direct
communication will be made with these important inland
capitals, the line running via Marlborough, Swindon, and
Cirencester, direct to Cheltenham, and carried thence
partly on the Birmingham and Gloucester and Grand
Junction lines to Manchester and Liverpool.
On the importance of a direct communication with
Southampton, it is only necessary to mention, that it is
the packet-station fur the port of Havre, the Peninsular,
and the East and West India passenger traffic ; a ready
means of reaching which is of peculiar importance to a
fashionable inland watering-place like Cheltenham. The
port of Southampton i.sclf is rapidly growing into im-
portance—the exports,' which ten years ago were only
sixty or seventy thousand pounds annually, have now
reached thri e millions, and would, in the opinion of
competent judgei, immediately rise to ten millions on
the completion of a direct communication with the
source of supply ; its imports are also very considerable,
and its passenger traffic to and from foreign countries
amounts to between forty and fifty thousand annually.
It is needless to say, that a great portion of this immense
traffic Would be directed through the proposed line.
To prove that this line has a cert tinty of being com-
pleted, it is only necessary to say, that the proprietors of
the northern lines are deeply interested in its formation;
to the Birmingham and Gloucester Company, the Grand
Juticti(4), the Derby and Midland, the North Stafford-
shire, and other northern lines, the formation of the
Southampton extension would bring an immensely in-
creased traffic. Already we understand the applications
fur shares are unprecedentedly numerous, and the only
thing want( d to ensure its success, is that amount of
local support which its own merits will command. At
Southampton, the scheme is looked upon as of vital con-
sequence ; an announcement is this day published
wherein the town council of the borough has passed an
unanimous vote of approval, and a requisition, with 500
resident signatures, has been presented to the mayor, for
a public meeting, to stamp on the undertaking the sanc-
tion of public approval. The same feeling will, no
doubt, be exhibited in Cheltenham, which, as a resort for
the traveller and valetudinarian, must be especially in-
terested in procuring a ready communication with this
outport of the East and West India traffic.—Cheltenham
Examiner.

SCOTCH RAILWAYS.
The various lines lately projected to pass into and
through Ayrshire will, in all likelihood, obtain the sanc-
tion of the ensuing Parliament. The Provisional Di-
rectors of the Caledonian Extension met a deputation of
the Ayrshire and Caledonian Junction at Edinburgh, on
the 6th inst., when the former resolved to carry out, in
its integrity, their proposed line from Lanark to Ayr,
with a branch from Muirkirk to Abbington ; and con-
sidering the importance of the Ayrshire Junction, as
affording the Caledonian Extension a connexion with
Kilmarnock, the directors offered, if required, to work
that line at the lowest rates of charge, and instructed
their engineer to adapt the Caledonian Extension line,
as far as possible, both in line an,' levels, to the Ayrshire
Junction. The Provisional Directors of the Kilmarnock
and Ayr Direct, and of the Glasgow, Kilmarnock, and
Ardrossan lines have been in correspondence about
fixing upon a central terminus at Kilmarnock ; and
their respective engineers have been instructed, if pos-
sible, to unite both lines there with the Ayrshire and
Caledonian Junction—so that Kilmarnock, which was
despised and rejected at the formation of the Glasgow
and Ayr line, in all probability is to become the radius
01 railways in Ayrshire. The projected line from Ayr
to Portpatrii k is deservedly popular, and shares are ac-
cordingly at a considerable premium.

CLONMEL, AUG. 13._ FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)
—I beg leave to inform you, thA the weather since Saturday
evening has been very fine—this day is beautifully so. If it
continues so for ten days the wheat will be generally cutting
here, and the crop will be an abundant one. By reference to
one of my former letters, you will find that I was right as re-
garded the quantity in the hands of factors and millers. A
field of wheat in the suburbs of this town is being cut down
this. day. We never had so good a crop of barley, oats, and
pot DINNER TO THE SONS OF BURNS.—We learn from
the Inverness Co,' ier that the inhabitants of that city gave a
grand dinner on Wednesday week to the sons of Burns, who
are at present on a tour in the Highlands. Upwards of ninety
gentlemen sat down to dinner at the Caledonian Hotel, and
the evening was passed in the true spiz it of old Highland hos-
pitality. The honoured guests were presented with the free-
dom of the city.
RUNNING MATCH ON WATERLOO-BRlDGE.Yes-
terday morning the 120 yards' race between Warne and Til-
ling came off, over the stipulated distance, on Waterloo-
bridge. The stakes were 101. At the start Warne took the
lead, but was quickly passed by his opponent, ivho won easily
by suoiard.