The Sun.
London, England, 1845-08-04 00:00:00

AND x.rNcozarsimiz LINE.

This Committee resumed to.day at the accustomed hour, Viscount
Courtenay in the chair. Previous to proceeding to the ordinary
business of the day,
Mr. Tk1.30; Q. C., made an application to the Committee to
postpone the consideration of the Wakefield Branch of the Lon-
don and York till next session. That scheme was opposed
by the promoters of the Swinton and Lincoln line, with which it
clearly competed, and it would entail an enormous and useless ex-
pense to keep witnesses, day after day; to give evidence on a sub-
ject which could not be considered for some time. He, therefore,
asked that a specific resolution should be come to by the Committee,
postponing the case in question, a course which must necessarily be
adopted, or at any rate rendered advisable from the fact that even
if reported on, the schemes must remain in abeyance till next les.
Moe.

Mr. Pacer replied that the promoters of the London and York
line were very anxious that no delay should take place in
the prosecution of their case, and be therefore urged the Committee
not to accede to an application which might eventually be proved
not only unnecessary, but prejudicial.
The CHAIRMAN, after consulting with his colleagues on the Corn.
mittee, observed that no resolution could be effected, either for or
against the application, until Mr. Sergeant Wransham (who was
then absent) had had AR opportunity of hearing and expressing his
opinion upon it.

_
The Committee then proceeded with the hearing of evidence
adduced by Mr. Talbot, to prove the injury the Sheffield and Lin-
colnshire line would entail on the property of Mr. Foljambe and
Mr. Hutchinson. Lord Galway, Mr. Beaumont, and Mr. Mills,
stated their opinion of its injury to the property of the former, and
a Mr. Corringham, to its injury to that of the latter.

This having closed the case for the promoters of the Bill,

Mr. Hughes, civil engineer, was then examined by Mr. PAGUE
to substantiate the rebutting case to the Sheffield and Lincolnshire
line. He had personally surveyed the line both of the Bawtry
branch and the Lincolnshire line, and considers that the cost of the
forraer would be 899,0181. 13s. 4d., including 16,7711. for fencing,
270,9731. for permanent way, and the cost of 3,248,000 yards of
earth cutting. But if taken in the same proportion as that adopted
by Mr. Fowler, the entire cost would be 676,699!. and the quan-
tity of earth cutting 3,193,000 cubic yards.
Mr. Cubitt deposed to the survey and estimates of the Bawtry
Branch having been made by Mr. Hughes on precisely the same
principle as that adopted on the London and York, and he attested
their accuracy in every particular.
This having closed the rebutting case of the London and York,
Mr. BAINES, Q.C., addressed the Committee on behalf of the
promoters, and summed up the evidence adduced in the course of
the consideration of the case. The Sheffield and Manchester
line had seine years since been constructed under difficul-
ties of a most unusual, if not discouraging, charac-
ter ; and as the line for which he now sought
the approving vote of the Committee was not only sanc-
tioned but virtually promoted by this Company, which, struggling
against and overcoming these preliminary obstacles--once on the
brink of insolvency, and now one of the most flourishing under.
takings in the country—he regarded that as a most important fea-
ture in the project and eminently calculated to ensure its success.
In the first place, let them look at the accommodation this line will
afford in every direction. If they regarded it as a means of
forming a southern communication with Sheffield, they
would find that by a junction with the Midland
Railway, it would pass through Derby, Lincoln, and Nottingham,
to London, and effecting by this course a saving of 41 miles over
the present route. But taking the distance on the Midland Rail-
way, this Company as compared with the latter, effected even a
greater saving. By the proposed Lincoln line, the distance to the
metropolis would be 1601 miles, while by the Midland it was 177.
Thus it would be no less than 17 miles shorter than that railway.
But not only would Sheffield be thus benefited by a line through
such important towns—Huddersfield, so celebrated for its exten-
sive trade in wool, would be most advantageously accommodated
with a speedy means of conveying its manufactures to a beneficial
market, either for home consumption or an outlet for exportation.
A good deal had been said of the Chesterfield line, and the
accommodation it afforded as between Sheffield and London,
but the distance by it was 169 miles, while by the
Sheffield and Lincoln It would be, as he before stated, 1601.
With respect to the article of coal, shout which so much had
been said in the course of the protracted proceedings, Mr. Jeff.
cock, a coal owner and valuer, of Sheffield, whose evidence had
been unimpeached, and, therefore, it was to be inferred, Indisput_
able, had proved that, for a distance of 27 miles out of Sheffield,
taking a mile on each side of the proposed Sheffield and Lincoln.
shire line, and reckoning to the depth of 150 yards, there were
coals sufficient to yield 41,845,275 tons, while, for the same dis.
tance, proportionably, on the Bawtry branch there were only
6,223,425; tons, or nearly seven times as much on the former
as on the latter line. Again, there was another kind of coal ex-
isting in that neighbourhood required for converting iron into
steel. Along the line he represented there were no less than
9,323,000 tons of this class of coal, while on the Bawtry branch
there were only 453,000 tons, or about one-twentieth part; and
it was proved that whereas the price of this coal at Sheffield was
now Os. 2d. a ton, by the construction of that now under conside-
ration, it was reduced to 7s. 3d.
nd
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Monday.

Railway Bills would, with the exception of one or two
It was said that the tedious and protracted labours of both
Houses on Railway
Three Com-
mittees to a close this day.
bustle--the lawyers
form formal
sat matters,
to-day,be
looked fagged, but there was no stir or
and so did their Lordships. In the House of Corn-
ri.,„„,, it was with difficulty a House could be made, and in the
Lords it was a " beggarly accouht of empty benches." No stran-
ger passing outside the Houses could have supposed that the
great inquest of the nation" was being holden within ; in short,
as Jonathan says, " there was nothing stirring but stagnation."

WEST INDIA PINE APPLES.—Thursday afternoon
4,500 of this fruit, brought by the Bezer and Lancashire Lass from
Eleuthera, in the Bahamas, were sod in Monument-yard, averaging
from Is. to 3s. each. The same brokers have sold upwards of
100,000 this seafinn, and the simply is expected to continue for
another month. • The experience of last year has enabled the im-
porters to select and pack the fruit so as to secure its arrival in much
higher perfection.