The Sun.
London, England, 1845-08-12 00:00:00

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

RAILWAY SCHEMES—THE TWO DIRECT
MANCHESTER RAILWAYS.
(From the Mining Journal.)
Among the many schemes, which for the last few
months and even now are attracting the public attention,
none are so prominent and important as the two com-
panies, who have started main trunk lines to Manchester.
The first was announced cfficially to the public under
the title of " The Direct London and Manchester Rail-
way," the second assumed that of "The Direct Inde-
pendent London and Manchester Railway—Remington's
Line." A rival line of railway to Manchester, and an
opponent, too, W. the London and Birmingham, Grand
Junction, and other great lines in that dirt ction, needs
for its prospects of success, the countenance and support
of those who can turn into it some of that immense
traffic passing daily betna en London and Manchester.
It is demonstrable, that if there is to be another main
trunk to Manchester out of London, it must be a TRADE
LINE. This is an opinion, and we are confident that that
opinion will be acquiesced in by all who have thought,
and are interested in the subject, and is the opinion of
the projectors tioms Ives. With the same confidence
that we express this opinion, we express another, which
we hope will be properly neighed by those who are em-
barking in railway projects--viz., that a railway com-
pany, formed to go from London to Manchester, started
for speculation sake, will full.
Passing by some topics which have been introduced to
the public, as to these schemes, and most properly in-
troduced—namely, the use by one company of names fur
which no authority had been received from the parties
quoted, because such matters, unnoticed, are apt to take
the public ff their guard, and tend to ruin many a man
who legitimately and honestly employs his capital upon
the credibility and responsibility of the names advertised
as the promoters of a scheme, we shall advert, as briefly
as our space allows, to a few circumstances, which should
be considered in connexion with a project of such extent
and importance. No man, who has :een the immense
woollen and linen drapery establishments in London aed
the large towns, can fail to be struck with the vast
quantity of goods which must come out of Manchester,
and, if we could bring to the eye the shipments of the
Manchester manufactures which are made to all quarters
of the globe, the annual commercial operations between
London and Manchesti r would appear astounding. If,
in addition to these, we add the extensive glove and
stocking trade of Leicester, is hich principally pours it-
self into London, an accumulation of commercial trans-
actions would b.! developed which no other part of Eng-
land could surpass in extent. The three great termini
of the new main trunk to Manchester, are Manchester,
Leicester, and London. We have it on good authority,
that in one large stocking and glove establishimnt at
Leicester, no less than 25,000 pairs of gloves are manu-
factured weekly !
The inevitable conclusion is, that if the traffic conse-
quent upon the transit of goods from Manchester and
Leicester to London, or any large portion of it, were
thrown into a competing line with the Birmingham and
Grand Junction, that competing line, if legitimately
carried forward, could not but be successful. The pre-
sent route to Manchester is circuitous; that to Leicester
more so. The question which forces itself, then, upon
us is—which of the two main trunk lines now projected
could approach such traffic ? If one be started by the
masters of that traffic, who pay for the carriage, and
could, if there were two tines, choose which they
please—surely the conclusion would be, that must be
the one, if any, to succeed. It is plain that Reming-
ton's line is not only not supported by the large ware-
houses and establishments in London, but opposed by
them—while it is as palpable that the Direct London
and Manchester is the project of the Manchester and
Leicester trade, and the addition of " the Trade line "
would have been a proper appendage to it. The
Direct comes forward with the astounding intimation
that " the London promoters only of this lire
(the Dirt ct London and Manchester), in their
ordinary commercial operations, now pay for the
carriage of goods a sum equal to 4 per cent.
upon the whole capital ; an amount of traffic which will
pass upon the Direct line when completed. At the
proper time this fact will be proved in Parliament." The
names of this Company's committee are a guarantee of
the truth of the statements published under its title,
and, with regard to the extent of business of its sup-
porters, those who have been in Watling-street, Wood-
street, and the neighbourhood, in the morning, when the
waggons of our great carriers, Pickford, Chaplin, and
Deacon, have been casting their bales of goods from
Manchester and Leicester into the extensive warehouses
there, can doubt the magnitude of the daily dealings of
these firms. While the Direct is announced to the world
as started by the wealthy proprietors of such establish-.
meats, there is not on Remington's acting committee one
London tradesman named, engaged in the Manchester
or Leicester trade. These facts and reasons induce us
to give the preference to the Direct Company, of which
Mr. Rastrick is engineer. Our space prevents our going
into this matter further to-day, but there are other topics
to which we shall have occasion again to advert, in con-
nexion with the history of the two companies.