The Sun.
London, England, 1845-06-27 00:00:00

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LEEDS and WEST RIDING JUNCTION
RAILWAY.
The promoters of the Leeds and West Riding Junction Rail-
ways avail themselves of the earliest opportunity, after ti:e
unexpected decision against their Bill this day in the Ilouse
of Lords, to intimate to the Shareholders and the public their
intention to RENEW their APPLICATION to the LEGISLATURE
in the next session of Parliament, and in the meantime to use
every exertion to render their scheme fully adequate to the require-
ments of the district.
9, New Palace-yard, June, 27, 1845.

RAILWAY COMMITTEES
(THIS DAY.)

HOUSE oF LORDS.

WEST RIDING XITNCTION RAIL-WAT.

IMPORTANT nECISION.

The Select Committee to whom the above railway has been re-
ferred re-assembled son after eleven o'clock this morning, and
resumed their inquiry into the merits of the scheme.
Mr. TALBOT commenced the day's proceedings by replying to the
case for the opponents. He dispatched the opposition of Miss
Walker, the proprietor of Shebden Hall, with a simple offer on the
part of the promoters of the proposed line to do all that reasonably
could be required of them to satisfy the wishes and meet the views
of that lady or her committee, and then proceeded to comment
upon what he termed the dog-in-the-manger opposition of Mr.
Serjeant Talfourd and his learned coadjutors. He explained
himself by reminding their Lordships that the opponents came
forward, not in the capacity of promoters of a competing scheme, but
as parties who sought for unnecessary delay, with no other apparent
object but that of defeating the West Riding Junction line. They did
not suggest a better line, nor did they say a line for supplying the
district with railway communication could follow any other route
than that marked out by the promoters of the West Riding Junc-
tion scheme. He was, therefore, justified in complaining that they
would not make the line themselves, nor would they permit others
to do it for them. He met the objections urged against the g-avity
of the West Riding Junction line by declaring that it would involve
an outlay of 123,0004 to obtain more favourable gradients between
Lowmoor and Bradford, remarking that neither the anticipated
traffic between the two places, nor the probable saving in respect
of working expenses, could justify the expenditure. The Learned
Counsel, after pledging his clients to complete immediately the
proposed junction with the Leeds and Bradford Valley line in the
event of their Lordships sanctioning the scheme before them, con-
cluded with a somewhat violent and unhandsome attack upon Mr.
George Parker Bidder, one of the engineers of the alternative line
whose evidence he pronounced to be grossly fallacious, if not im •
pudently untrue, and wound up an address, extending over several
hours, by calling upon their Lordships to treat the Bill as an un-
opposed measure.

The room was then cleared, and the Committee having remained
In deliberation for about ten miuutes, strangers were readmitted,
when

The Noble Cnsramarr said, before he informed the parties the
result to which the Committee had come, perhaps he might be
allowed to state the extreme difficulty is which the
Committee had found themselves in this important, and,
he might add, lengthened investigation ; but he was
sure the parties on both sides would agree with him that through-
out the investigation the Committee had given their best and
most anxious consideration to the whole case. He need hardly
state that the members of a Committee of the House of Lords could
have no partiality for either party ; but, on the contrary, their
anxious desire was to do justice to troth parties in a manner they
thought would be best conducive to the interest of the public at large.
Taking all these things into consideration, and thinking it extremely
important that the public should have the beet line that could pos-
sibly be laid down in this part of the country, and considering that
little or no injury would result from a postponement, for one yea
only, of the present measure, the Committee had come to the
resolution that the preamble to the Bill was not proved.