The Sun.
London, England, 1845-10-22 00:00:00

,ONDON, WEDNESD AS, OCTOBER 22 1845

Tha extension of rallway enterprise continues to form onc
of t he most n-markable and best defined features of the times.

It is not only the numi:er and variety of the schemes—the
vast magnitude of the capital required for their execution—
he spirit with which the most expensive preliminaries are
embarked upon. long before that stage of progress has been
attained which, under ordinary circumstances would alone
seem to justify such an outlay—the facility w which the
great landowners, on the lines of pT ojccted railways, arc
now induced to patronise a class o undertakings to
which they were formerly opposed, almost to a man,
with uncompromising hostility—it is not one, or any,
or the whole of these circumstances, which consti-
tutes the most notable aspect that these undertaking,
present. Any one who N 1 ill peruse the various summaries of
the projects from time to time brought forward in the pro-
vectuses which appear in our advertising columns, canner
fail to be struck with their development of improved plans

ti railroad communication between points as to which they
who have not made the projection of railway bases over given
portions of the superficies of the country, their peculiar study,
inight erroneously suppose that the most eligible and avail-
able trunk lincs had been already adopted. Branch lines.
and lines of junction and continuation are continually gene.
rated by the same certwin and imperative wants which called
the first executed railroads into existence. Towns, villages, and
rural hamlets, which until now never dreamed of divertim,
the ordinary high roads even . into more convenient proxi-
mity to their own position, are now entirely sensible of Ot.
manifold advantages to be derived from multiplying their
points of contact with other places, more or less remote, that
are likely to prove advantageous markets for the disposal of
heir manufactures, their agricultural products, their grazing
,tock, or for the supdly of their own immediate wants. Ex
periencc has long since demonstrated that communications
.take neighb turhoods, but neighbourhoods do not necessa-
,tily establish communications. The greater or the more re-
ricted the facilities of access to any plate, the more-posi-
tive are the advantages which result not to it alone,
tut to some other place or places from which that access
is effected. So true is this position, that the present
t•affic or population of any given locality, to or throngl
which no railway has yet been run, is ro longer an infalliblt
test by which to determine the expediency of constructini
,one of these very costly and extensive. works. Places that
tad no previous trade or importance have sprung up, fron
the mere accident of their vicinity to railways passing nea
their site, into sudden favour—into the residences of increasing
populations, and the seats of rapidly accumulating opulenc...
ill that has been fabled of the magic powers of the ring, ant•
the lamp of Aladdin, in Oriental story, has been realist-0
ny the marvels which railway enterprise has worker
:'nom wild or neglected tracts of country in the thre.
:ittgdoms within the last ten years. Of these ten

ears the last five have as much eclipsed the forme,
a the number, magnitude, and results of the railroads de•
:igned and aceomplish-d, as,the former surpassed in thes,
expects the old •4railed tramways of the seventeenth cen
are," described by Lord Keeper NORTII, in 1676, as '• being
if immense benefit, to the coal-masters of the north." A
example of the rapid growth of these "roadside

nd flouri:hing communitie=, which are still more common ii
ancashire and Yorkshire than in the southern counties o

ngland, is furnished by the town of Kingston-upon-llail—
tised like a cereal crop in a single year, and in every suc-
!cling year more and more expanding its dimensions ov
te converted pastures and meadows adjacent to the South-
restern Railway. Greenwich, from a small fishit;

qwn, rcrfired to by the inhabitants of the me-
ropolis only for the beauty of its park, and the more
tlan royal magnificence of its Hospital, has risen iet

very few pars. mainly in virtue of the railway established
pomtssing a retail trade of an
~,tween it ;ind t its present importance, numbering
.1
which it would be difficult 0 shots
superior I,l4ll.sa,ool,orosii:et hriatbyi toafn ts,
superior exaLople, and returning its Members to Parlie,
ent. But the grandeur and importance of Birkenhee,
,vith the unrivalled dock, basins, and public buildings
,v:tich it possesses, its liberal and sanitary accommodations
.nil provision for its rodu,tlial paor, its giga.itic advances a
f Tmilable rivalry • to the almost imperial weak!' and long-
s::)listed commercialcJusequeuceoC Liverpool, or the oppo-
,te shorn of the Mersey—these are creatures born, as it were,
.at yesterday, and already the astonishment of
Europe. They have sprung into existence, unquestionably,
in virtue of the happy precedent of established railways
,n Cheshire and Lancashire. Doubtless, the natural capabili
les for the improvements of scientific art were always tin.
'arm; but it was reserved for the eoablishment of so many
inert of railway communication in its neighbourhood to
develop them.

these views on the genetal subject of " railways,"
1 allowing fur the qualifications such views are liable to,
• rearion of ocasional ill-devised projects or practical
ilureir in onstruc, ion; we confess that we are indiscosel
1 , tswe of alarm ant deprecatiorr respecrivp

,in h e tecopi,e, lately, in the remarks an mornin;„
paver oil the results that may ensue from the degree of public