The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-03 00:00:00

RAILWAYS

It has been stated that the applications to Par-
liament, this session, for Enilvvey Bills, r. ill be more
numerous than they have been in any year since
1830 ; that the lines to which the contemplated Bills
relate extend 600 miles in length, and that the pro-
jectors are so confident of carrying their Bills as to
have already, in their eagerness to commence pro-
ceedings, entered into contracts for the formation of
these railways, at an expense, including stations, of
10,0001. per mile. We have so much re'ison to con-
fide in the general authenticity of this statement, as
to feel it our duty to direct the earliest attention of
the public to the important considerations which
connect themselves with the facts which it com-
prises. Could any argument more cogent be
adduced for the necessity of that preliminary controll-
ing and economical legislation touching the corn-
luencement and construction of new railways, which
the public convenience has so long and so vainly de-
%ended ? The public convenience—emphatically, it
is—which is immediately and most deeply involved
in these projects for enlarging and multiplying the
lines of intercommunication between important pro-
vincial towns and the capital, or the capital and the
coast—with whatever, as yet, undetermined, because
future practical results, certainly not without an ex-
pense to the public at large of very grave present
inconvenience—of serious prejudice to private pro-
Petty under certain circumstances—and of the dis-
Placement of a large amount of existing facilities and
accommodation for travelling.
It is hardly necessary, at this time, to guard our-
selves against misconstruction by reiterating the con-
viction we have so often expressed as to the magical
effects of the extension of railroad communication,
Wherever it is extensively diffused throughout a
country. It removes, or rather counteracts the
Physical—and overcomes the moral—obstacles, which
the remoteness of given points from the general
centre of intelligence and refinement would other-
-wise:present to the prompt spread of the knowledge,
and arts, and civilization there collected. It is the
great extirpator of local prejudices. It is the in-
orming power which animates the extremities with
the same vitality and energy that throb in the heart
Of a nation's social system. It brings the dwellers
in the North into habitual and easy contact with
those of the South; and to the long segregated po-
pulation of the East, introduces, as it were without
effort or difficulty, their brethren of the West. It
erases the frontier lines described by geographical
or political divisions; and with them—by certain
but irresistible degrees—the antagonistic feelings
which have grown up on either side of those lines.
It approximates distances by a marvellous abridg-
raocibueinr,te(r the time which it would heretofore have re-
to traverse them. For these, and other
ev'eus reasons, railroads are among the most
efficient and valuable administrators, not merely to
o sum
or mass of human intelligence and happiness,
ut to its distribution; and the distribution of good
is as difficult a problem in the economy of ethics,
as the distribution of money is 'in our monetary
3Ystem. But even the establishment of railways is
not an unmixed good. If it drives out of the field one
Monopoly of travelling on the high road by coaches, it
establishes another, and a stringent one, on its own
lincompetable lines. It annihilates altogether the
facility of moving from any one intermediate point
to another on these high roads or their vicinity,
Which are not within the easy reach of rai lwa
stations. It sacrifices, wherever it appears, a vast
portion of property previously invested in hotels and
inns, stabling, public stage-coaches, horses for their
Various relays, posting houses, and the cattle em-
PloYed by them, together with the business of so
'tally coach-makers, spring manufacturers, white-
smiths, saddlers, harness makers, forage growers
and dealers ; a numerous array of shop-
Iceepers, and inferior chapmen (all interested in the
luvestinents of capital under the old system), the
friers of turnpike trusts and the unfortunate holders
of securities upon tolls. These mischiefs, extensive
and various as they are, it may be urged are still but
partial ones ; for that, on a comparison of good and
evil,
of public advantage and disadvantage, the
balance is clearly in favour of railroads. We Fmay
rant all this ; and concede tFe corollary—that there-
ore the evil occasioned by the establishment of' rail-
roads must be accepted as an inevitable consequence
h
f.thede conditions on which only they can be estab-
lis.
But other evils, not inevitable consequences, not
necessary results of those conditions, have crept in
with_ the laying down of our existing railroads,
tllle experience of which justifies us in assum-
ing,_ that, with regard to any lines hereafter
10e constructed, they may be clearly avoided by
adopting such a previous system of legislation, for the
economic control and direction of their original esta-
blishment as that to which we have alluded in the out-
Set. We should be the last to advocate any unneces-
tary intervention, either by the Government or the
Legislature, with any investments of private capital
itt this country that are permissible by the law of the
land. But, railroads are a species of public works
411 i generis. If they succeed, their advantages and
the benefit their proprietors derive from them, cannot
he, as in almost every other undertaking, interfered
with or jeopardised by the competition of other par-
ties in the same object, and over the same ground.
The Parliament will not grant to two separate com-
panies power to purchase the fee simple as it were,
of parallel strips of freehold throughout so many
miles of country, in order to run their lines
from and to neighbouring termini. Separate
companies—two or more, would not be found
to subscribe a million or two, each, of capital
132 so vast and desperate an experiment of competi-
tion, were Parliament even to grant them the neces-
'arY Powers. But private dealers or gentlemen may
start this week the finest and the best horsed public
coenveyances to be found in Europe, to run through-
Yet an entire line of 100 miles ; and next week a few
ganls may combine their capital, and produce an or-
soro:ed °PPosition of well-appointed coaches, hand-
„ °
titeams, &c., for the very purpose of being
ght off the road," as it is termed, by the original
auree_s, at a heavy suns. If their predecessors on the
do not consent to embarrass themselves by clos-
ing With the exorbitant proposals of their " opposi-
e7l2e3" the latter run " against them ; and then the
tivite's t is continued a l' outrance, till one of the parties
leav In. Sometimes, indeed, both are utterly ruined,
g their creditors, out of the wreck of a large
diiert t y
sacrificed in this insane sort of emulation, a
tips end neither larger nor more valuable than the
inernoof the tails of the Kilkenny cats, of combative
4.40,1 the debates of the House of Commons during
show...lVorpeth's Irish Secretaryship, it was well
e,i.l What ought to be the supervision which the
lee;„"ature should exercise over the preliminary se-
IN "'land works of a few railways. Some of the
P°siti
Passed °ns then made were finally adopted and have
atei„ into law; others, at least equally important
N.i'riPassed over. But it is not enough that eminent
praereers, civil and military, should report upon the
hett_leability of a proposed line ; there should be
aehiel; previous guarantees that it is " the best"
lie, could be adopted for the locality. Every new
to it, °light to be sanctioned only in reference
khe.' present, or possible, or ultimate relations to a
the Lae or line of railroad communication through
lencreat divisions of the length and breadth of the
Qoayee It should be ascertained that wherever public
teesn,lenee may demand it, it can be joined to main
ferin already laid down and in work, by branches of-
lUter the best facilities of level, subsoil, &c., for their
e construction. There should be no hazard of
entalng any two of these huge arteries of social
Preeaullnication; too closely into juxtaposition. All
flayhenmis should be adopted for avoiding, where it
tetfere practicable to do so, needless or vexatious in-
tent lee with the lands and holdings of reluce
ProjeoOndowners on the line of railways
the an 7g. Tunnelling should be, as much as
ieetedNrfieial outline of the country will allow, re-
essential But, in order to provide for these and other
Arev• arrangements, there should be organised
I°llsl
aoeer 3, and deposited with the Legislature or the
11, etnent
rtlost , some general scheme or plan, showing
of eligible and most requisite lines of railway,
liaa're,"t constructed, over the whole British islands ;
laieeil applications for new Bills should be enter-
2,Ues ,Jr dismissed, in proportion as their intended
;Ibtltile ZIA be found to approach to or be incompa-
'e alleh such general scheme of railway projections.
Pert,„, know how much inconvenience, loss of pro-
tio<hit? d even of life, and inadequate accommoda-
Ivailt of e ensued on some existing railroads from the
desire t such forecast and pre-arrangement as we
never o see established in these matters. It must
co rbe nstenntforgotten that of all errors of mechanical
ePaie „ 'on the most difficult and most expensive to
sea. ere uthn .those which are framed in substantial oak
44114 ern rivetted in iron, and imbedded, clamped,
liedr banked in the soil, by the incessant labour of
thousandse of •
artisans, and at an outlay of hundreds ef
t- °n
pounds sterling
Fel
4t ILaY
„el., he, morning, after two dais of boisterous
Wy fall of snow commenced the metroolis,
ve Qom'
ted Inued throughout the Thei ground ist co,--
qlelnete t!a snow from four to fivsiiniccoal\Yise.s deep, and the hei
'her verY low. Winter hae. come in earnest.
.ttraordwinulter at Christiania in Norway, has been
atn,itheer:fhthe last arri:in,°•artl
dat arY for that I,i, ern climate. Up to the 23d
not a flake of snow had fallen,
ite", forad not been ail), frost. The thermometer had
-eau,, seweral day
tvoir,from 38 at from 3to 5 degrees above zero of
lioii.rutband Warm as in de gees of Fahrenheit, and the sun
t'edin
understand that the pro-
the in this I
Y lastlong litigated case were finally settled on
the ies o_m,,prornise—the Messrs. Baird, the last of
Nlibeicaatternexilitte,eiasn,
i=ataititom an arrangement had to be made with
further ha egrresttootp6abvoloool ,0001. for the use of
in name of expenses.
I had the • • '
111N?ad, Per to, t„original demand of the patentees,
ttoahl break
the: acceded to, and had no attempt been
sted irt have ex patent, the whole amount to be paid
eolt,„,
tithe exceeded 7,000/. The other parties inte-
m j4eage,n (1,
es, a t9previously to te abe arrangement,
11.—Edinbarghh Papov
er.