The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-24 00:00:00

~:

~_...

RIGHTS AND DUTIES 0=417
WAY PROPERTY,

(From the Railway ChronicJO
Every property brings with it duties as well as
rights. It is the general reproach of the holders of
I some kind of property that they exercise, to the ut-
termost, all their rights, while their duties, being for-
! gotten, are neglected and pass into disuetude. To the
1 duties of railway proprietors, the public has always
been sensitively alive. All failures in speed, regu-
larity, economy, safety, are culled with. care by the
public censor, " set in a note-book, conned by
rote, to cast into the teeth " of the great " rail-
way monopolists." " But then their rights
what are they ?" " flights ! Who ever heard
of the rights of railway proprietors ? Bights!
Why, these monstrous monopolists these mil-
lionaires these speculators what rights have
they ?" They have the right to be abused, to be
found fault with, to be legislated upon, to be set upon
by Boards of Trade and Select Committees—to carry
her Majesty's mails for nothing—to carry a peasantry
in coaches, for less money than the cost, and less than
half What it costs them to walk—in short, to do as
the public choose ! Well, and their pay—surely
these public servants should be paid their hire—have
they not a right to their wages, to compensation for
loar.s and risks, and' expended money and time and
toil, and all this service ?—they may surely have
their hire and a reasonable profit upon their work ?
" Well, we must think about that—we will consider
of it." "If they are to be paid at all, we must see
that at least they are not too well paid." Be it so.
Then let the rights of railway property be con-
sidered! its duties being already so well understood.
And first let us inquire who these great railway pro-
prietors are, and what they have done for the public.
Are they not the authors of one of the very greatest
boons ever conferred on enterprise and skill, upon
commerce, industry, and social advancement. Have
they not carried through, to a happy issue, one of the
greatest inventions of modern times—and carried it
through in the face of difficulty, discouragement, and
vast unpopularity ?
Let us see what has hitherto been the general
expression of public feeling towards railways.
The inventor of a new art was deified by the
Greeks and Romans. Are we to advocate an apo-
theosis of the great projectors and constructors of
railways? There seems little fear, in the present
temper of public opinion, of our perpetrating that
folly. Never, perhaps, were such great enterprises
achieved with so little aid from public opinion.
While the experiment was doubtful the attempt
was derided by all who were indifferent, and de-
nounced by all who were prejudiced. Its objects were
assailed by selfish interests, and its resources devoured
by rapacious claims from those whose aid was re-
quired, or whose neutrality had to be purchased.
From the first survey to the final completion of
, the line, difficulties of all kinds met the projectors—
' local hostility, corporate opposition. The public
looked on ; and if it took part, it was with their op-
ponents ; the Legislature, the Government, afforded
no effectual aid. The promoters fought their way,
step by step; and were received as if, instead of pre-
paring for the country the greatest boon it has re-
ceived in modern times, they had been conspiring to
deface and impoverish it. Such, in general (for the
instances of better judgment• were mere exceptions),
was the temper with which railway projects were
met in the first stage of their national existence.
Lamentable enough ! but not unnatural. It is the
price which those must, be ready to pay who attempt
anything at once great and new. But surely it en-
titles them to enjoy their reward, when, in spite of
these obstacles, their energy and perseverance have
conquered success.
Their efforts had, indeed, been successful ; the in-
vention was found to surpass belief, and the country
saw itself enriched by benefits which the most san-
guine of the projectors had not dared to promise. A
rapidity of transit almost miraculous : a reduction of
expense quite unexampled; system and uniform ta-
riffs, substituted for irregularity and vulgar extortion
—and with all this a safety (which only the silliest
panic could dispute) hitherto unknown in public
travelling. These were benefits vast, incal-
culable, notorious : experienced by every one
every day. Under any circumstances, they
surely deserved a larger reward ; a larger, if the
real difficulty of the task had been troubled by need-
less hindrances. And how was this reward be-
stowed ? By an universal outcry, so loud and
general, that one might have have thought it had
been raised to denounce some great national
enormity. The directors, the engineers, the
proprietors, the managers of railways were questioned,
and lectured, and worried on every side. Mortified
men, who wanted courage to share in the work, while
it was full of risk—men of habit, averse to new ways
—men of rank and wealth, accustomed to com-
mand wherever they travelled, and impa-
tient of all regulations—superseded rivals who
covered their anger with pretences of public care—
liberals whose wisdom lay in repeating the phrases
of " monopoly," "competition," and similar words
without ideas—the weak of all classes whom the hub-
bub alarmed—inventors, eager to have their nos-
trums tried, or at least purchased—busy men anxious
to regulate; idle men, wanting to be employed—all
joined in the cry ; while Parliament became
suddenly full of. zeal, and the Government itself,
stepping in to meddle where it had not learned
how to mend, after standing aloof when it might
have done good, seemed to sanction the general excite-
ment. Of this, however, a part which was but tem-
porary soon yielded to time :—a part, merely absurd,
was easily exploded by obvious proof; counter attacks
mutually defeated each other • and the main burden
of what now remains, may be referred to'two prin-
cipal heads—the disposition of men in power to inter-
fere with whatever they feel to be important ; and the
common jealousy which is provoked by success. To
these we shall advert hereafter.

INCENDIARY FIRES IN STAFFORDSHIRE.--TWO in-
cendiary fires, supposed to have been the work of strangers,
have occurred in this county during the present week. As
constables Price and Pike, of the county constabulary, were
on patrol between one and two o'clock on Sunday morning
last, they discovered a fire in the rick-yard of Mr. Henry
Critchley, of Eaton-house, near the Spread Eagle, in the pa-
rish of Penkridge. They immediately gave the alarm to the
inmates of the house, and with the assistance' of Mr.
Critchley and his sons, succeeded in drawing a burning
waggon, which was covered with straw, into an adjoining
field, and in extinguishing the flames before they extended
further. Had not the police been providentially passing at
the moment, the rick-yard, contaning several stacks of corn
and hay, and a barn with a thrashing machine, &c., must
have been totally consumed. On the following morning a
lucifer match and part of a match-box were found near the
place where the waggon had stood. Mr. Critchley considers
that the greatest credit is due to the police for their untiring
exertions during the progress of the flames.—The other case
occurred within a mile of Wolverhampton, on Monday even-
, ing. A rick of hay, the property of Mr. Jenkinson, butcher,
of Wolverhampton, and situate on the Cannock-road, was
discovered on fire about eight o'clock on that evening. Mr.
Marshall, of Grimstone-cottage, near the place, immedi-
ately dispatched a man on horseback to town for assist-
ance, but although he rode at a most furious rate
through the town, it was some time before it was rendered,
he having passed the place where the engines are kept, and
several of the constabulary reside, without raising the
cry of fire. The necessary irformation having at lengthbeen given at the police-station, Colonel Hogg, with !If •
constabulary and town engine, proceeded to the burni:g
mass, where were also the Birmingham and cotnie.nfrnoian,
by whose assistance the fire was shortly extinguished.
,
ing about the place the whole day, no t
the fact of two suspicious characters haying been
the parties
tire having been the work of an incendiary,
seen
existed
01 loiter-
ing
Marshallttehre-
haodnstehnet
The police immediatelywereei
tioi werealert, and after a night of most active
.ex • f ,fhoarN,-,i,anrgdbheiesninseesesneilitgeaerr. the place after Mr:
his name as John Richardson,
some Lucifer matches,
success-
ful in apprehendinga
• 1 who hae confessed to his having set the
potter by trade, and tnaii,etenenna3teiavresoof
Nagottiinvidloamga:
ae.
re. When brought to the station by police-officer
nt °rmi c
with some of tire, and also
remanded until uhnatdil Friday,
themean-
time that his reason foi• doing so was, that " he had nothing to
in
eat, or nothing to take to." He was brought up for exami-
nation'a Clough,
rick
eon's 0 , th,evrietielierieiefostunitlicldnii,loenseliti
s
been apprehended at Birmingham by
zlcojnv aoinliolll'eodfnie.iqisla3d,obsetiitthm
the police,was
examined with him. They did not deny the
ny charge, and
were committed for trial at the next assizes.
HER MAJESTY'S FORTY-FOURTH
REGIMENT OF
FOOT.—CHATHAM
, APRIL 23.—Yesterday afternoon very
considerable interest prevailed in Chatham Garrison, ry
owing
to the arrival of a detachment of
this
regiment, consisting of
one sergeant-major, one sergeant, and eighteen privates,
under the command of C •
Captain William Evans, being the re-
leased ipr soners who had been taken at Caubul in January,
1841, by the Affghanistans„ during the retreat of the British
forces in the late war. These troops embarked at Calcutta
on the 4th of December last, on board the ship Duke of
Cornwall, Captain Eyles, and after a very favourable pas-
sage of one hundred and thirty-eight days, they arrived off
Gravesend on Saturday afternoon, the 20th instant. The
whole of the men are wounded, two of them have balls in
their bodies, causing them at intervals very considerable pain ;
two women and one child, with a private of the 49th and one
private of the 3rd Dragoon Guards, came with them. The
44th lost one man the second day after they had sailed, who
died of cholera. Dr. Flemming, from one of the native
corps, had the above soldiers in charge. These troops were
under the conimand of Major-General G. Pollock, C. 8., and
wete released in the month of September, 1842, and miracu-
lously escaped being again taken prisoners during their
march through the Arghunder Pass, by the enemy, by the
fortunate advance of our troops, which had been expresslyforwarded for their safety by Major• General Sir R;
The men state, no one an imagine the hardships they have
endured during the last part of their military career. The,
majority of these soldiers have been in India upwards of etFht-
teen years. They have joined the Military Invalid Depot at
Brompton, and will shortly undergo medical inspection, Pre- •
vious to their being pensioned.
INTERCOURSE BETWEEN ENGLAND AND FRANCIS.
—Number of persons who passed between England and
' France from: the 10th to the 16th of April Boulogne,
1,034 by Calais, 424. Of the 1,034, 442 entered France, and
392 came to England. At the corresponding peried of last
P year, the number who passed between EnglaOd and France
• was—by way of Boulogne, 872 ;by way of Calais, 317.
ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SoctETy.—April 22, R. J.
Murchison, Dig., President, in the chair. Two new members
were elected, and a portion of a very interesting account of a
F journey in Seistan, by the late lamented Dr. F. Forbes, was
read. It maybe remembered that that enterprising and ta-
lented traveller was treacherously and barbarously murdere4
on the Laki3 of Zunah.

-
„
!br'