The Sun.
London, England, 1845-10-13 00:00:00

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T4RN, BRENTFORD,
. .....i ', 0%. , ' TERMINUS JUNCTION
- • • v'' Ril .r.
-,1 •' • ~ # ?, x.--- L..-
A n'47:. :•,,,;, ~.' ' Ift influential meeting of the inha-
bi , 1. . I . ~. • • ~, , orth, Heston, &c., took place on
Sat' • -'l,. , -,:!,,:. rt-...... •n, Hounslow, for the purpose of
meeti
~,41. ~x,,,,E4:0 . the Great Western, Brentford, and
ccntraf • :itr.lt-"A ..ction Railway Com?any (Page's direct
line), andhearing from them the route theyintended to pursue,
and to determine whether the support of the inhabitants
ought or ought not to be given to the line. The object of the
deputation was also to ascertain the wishes of the inhabitants
or the town'and neightbulhood of Hounslov as to the sites
for stations, &c., provided theycame to the resolution of
supporting the line.
..ong thi Influential gentlemen present, we neticed
Henry Pownall, Esq., of Spring-grove, Hounslow, Chairman
*I the Middlesex Magistrates ; Benjamin John Armstrong,
Esq., of SoUthall, a Middlesex Magistrate ; Henry Wehb
ignith, EN. ; James Stanborough, Esq., the incumbent of
lounslow ;and several other gentlemen of influence, and pos-
'easing property in the neighbourhood. Mr. Page, the en-
gineer, was prevented from being present, in consequence of
engagements in another part of the country; but his absence
was supplied by Mr. Wilkinson, one of the solicitors of the
Company. The meeting, which was announced for twehe
o'clock, commenced its proceedings shortly after that hour.'
The object the Company have in view will at once be seen
from the following prospectus :=---

"At several large public meetings held in October last, at
Brentford, Isleworth, and Hounslow resolutions were unani-
mously passed in favour of establishing a railway communi-
cation with the metropolis, but the difficulty of obtaining a
suitable terminus in London induced the principal promoters
of the undertaking to postpone bringing the scheme before
the public.

" Th is impediment has now been overcome, and by a proposed
junction with the Central Terminus and the Thames Embank-
ment Railway, parties travelling by this line will be enabled
to proceed directly to the heart of the metropolis ; and by
the united railways, which will ramify from this point, to
almost every, part of the country without interruption.
"By the intended junction, also, with the Great Western
Railway, at or near West Drayton, and by the intersection of
the Birmingham Railway at Kensington, these important
lines will be supplied with direct access to the Central Termi-
-11113 and thence to the City, or to the southern and eastern lines.
"The propesed line passes through or near Pimlico, Chelsea,
Brompton, Kensington, Hammersmith, Chiswick, and Turn-
ham-green, to the town of Brentford, and thence to Isleworth,
Hounslow, and West Drayton.
" This line is singularly free from engineering difficulties ;
and, although there is almost a complete continuity of town
and village throughout the whole distance, /yet, from the
care with which the line has been laid down, so as to avoid
property covered with buildings, and to take advantage of
open and unoccupied spaces, the value of the ground to be
purchased will not be nearly so great as, from the nature of
the localities, would be inferred. By the adoption of the
atmospheric principle, or some equally eligible mode of work-
ing, the annoyances, inseparable from the locomotive system,
will be obviated, and the advantage of almost constant
trains, so indispensable to this densely-populated district, will
be secured.

" The population of the various places at which stations are
proposed to be erected on the present line is not less than
200,000, and to give some idea of the large amount of traffic
which may be calculated upon, it may be stated that the
present annual income derived from the carriage of pas-
sengers, by omnibuses alone, amounts to above 100,0001. ;
under these circumstances, no doubt can be entertained of a
very ample return for the capital required. for this important
work."

HENRY POWNALL, Esq., Deputy Chairman, wasa.unani-
mously called to the chair, upon:taking athigh, he saidathat,
in obeying the call of so respectable ankingi!entlal,a, nacer',
log of the inhabitarts of Hoinailo* and its neighbourhoeida
he thought he could not do better than commence the, few
observations he felt it his duty to make, by congratulating
them upon the altered state of public feeling from what it
was when they met that time last year, in that very house,
to suggest the propriety of establishing a railway from
Hounslow and its neighbourhood to London, and thereby to
raise Hounslow to its former position. At that time it was
considered by some to be a visionary scheme; by others it
was thought impossible for any man, or any body of men, to
call for that degree of inquiry upon which might be founded
the basis of the future regeneration of Honushiw, and the
establishment of her pristine youth. Hounslow was con-
sidered a worn-out town. She was forgotten as one of the
principal places at which the proprietors of coaches, in their
palmy days, delighted to honour ; and her decay in age caused
her former admirers to desert her. Happily, however, things
were changed. Her youthful charms must be considered as
having been restored, f.T she had now no less than nine
suitors ter her favour.—(6aughter). Gentlemen were now
beginnint,a- to anticipate success to the scheme of bringing a
railway to Hounslow.— (Cheers). It would be an anomaly
on his part to occupy the attention of the meeting by
debating the benefits of railroad communication—those
advantages were already well known and admitted ;
neither was it necessary for him to call the attention of those
present to the depressed state of Hounslow and its neighbour-
hood since the great traffic on railroads had been established.
—(Hear, hear.) That was sufficiently apparent in the decay
of their town. They had witnessed since that event how
much private property had been depressed, and how trade
liad become stagnant in Hounslow and its neighbourhood;
in short, they were half a century behind the age in which
they lived, from not having that means of communication
with the metropolis which many other towns possessed.—
(Hear, hear.) They all knew that it was much easier to go
from London-bridge to Brighton than from the Bank to
Hounslow.—(H.ear, hear.) Houses now would not let in a
district where a railway did net traverse—(Hear)—bat where
one did, the value of property was increased, trade flourished,
and enterprise and industry met with its reward.—(Hear,
hear.) Was that the case in Hounslow? (No, no.) As a
proof that it was only necessary for those present to take a
glance at the- situation of the district now and formerly—
(Hear, bear)—the very inn in which they were that
lay assembled formerly employed no less than
25 pair of post horses daily—(Hear)—to say nothing of
stage coach traffic, and more than 1,000/. a-year was paid
by the proprietor for post-horse duty alone ; but now, if they
took the whole road to Bagahot, they would not probably
find 15 horses kept, where formerly there was I,soo—(Hear,
hear.) Now, what was the cause of that ?—the establish-
ment of railroads. And was Hounslow and Brentford, formerly
places of so much traffic, to be prevented from having a rail-
road, also, to place them in the position they once held ?
(Hear, hear.) The fact of there being so many competitors
clea'r'ly established the value of a line through llonnalwa and
Brantford, and showed what the feeling of tht pialte was
upon the subject. No doubt the inhabitants et such locality
would prefer a line of railroad best calculated to suit their
own purposes, but it must be remembered that railroads
were public undertakings, established for the good, the con-
venience, and the.intereat of the public at large, and that it
would be unwise and impossible to lay them down upon the
consideration of individual interests alone.—( Hear, hear )
They were -to be established for the interest of
the community at large, and that alone.—(Hear, hear.) Now,
he believed that the line it was his pleasure to advocate (and
this was the first railway he bad ever been connected wirf• •
was Page's direct line. He supported it because he cop-'
it thl best that had been yet submitted to the W.'.
thgilr'convenience, and also for the beneßa

_Adered
,ac, both for
of the neighbour-
oaear, hear.) He believed
...'antages over the other proposed
.a:o doubt, when it came before Parha-
. result would be.—(Hear, hear.) The pro-
- commenced at or near the station of the Great
Railway Company at: West Drayton, travelling
through Harlington and Cranford to Hounslow, Brentford,
Hammersmith, Kensington, Chelsea, and Westminster, and
ultimately terminating near Hungerford-bridge and Charing-
cross. Ii was intended that it should be on the atmospheric
principle, tke practicability of which had been tested and
proved beyond a doubt, both on the Dublin and the Croydon
Railway, where it had been found to be highly advantageous,
and there Could be little doubt of its coming shortly into
general operation.—(Hear, hear.) On the latter railway a
speed of upwards of sixty miles an hour had been obtained,
and, on one occasion, such was the rapidity with which it
passed a train going to Brighton, that the persons who were
in the carriages upon the atmospheric line thought that the
Brighton train had stopped.—(Hear, hear.) The atmospheric
princVe, also, was more applcable, perhaps, to the present,
than many "other lines, because the traffic was short, and the
stations near each other; and the cheapness and the conve-
nience rendered it desirable in every locality.—(Hear, hear.)
He had now pointed out many of the advantages that be-
longed to the proposed line; but, added to this, they had at
the proposed stations along the line a far greater population
than any of the stations hitherto fixed around the metro-
pelis.—(Hdar, hear.) At Greenwich they had about 42,000,
at Blackwell, 21,000, Croydon, 26,000, Eastern Counties,
44,000, London and Birmingham, 90,000, South Western,
20,000; while within the fifteen miles which the proposed
railroad was intended to travel, they had a population of
upwards of 100,000.—(Hear.) Within that range at present
a great number of omnibuses were employed, the income from
which during the last year was between 50,000/. to 60,000/.
Then they must take into consideration the wealth of the
different districts through which the line was proposed to
pass. Look at Brentford. One distillery there paid more than
hall a million a year for Excise.—(Cheers.) There were also
hive soap manufactories there. There were large flour mills at
Isleworth, and coals that were now brought by an expen-
sive rate Would, when the railroad was established, be con-
veyed at ri much cheaper rate. The trade of the market
garners would be greatly improved by the line, as it would
open the north to them.—(Hear.) There was another ad-
vantage, too, in a moral point of view, that would be obtained.
Hounslow . and its neighbourhood was a peculiarly healthy
district ; it:was blessed with a good soil, high and dry, with
plenty of water, and there could be no doubt, when the rail-
road was established, that the mechanics of the metropolis
would avail themselves of it, and have houses for their wives
and families in the neighbourhood, they going and returning
at a cheap-rate night and morning. This had been done
in the neighbourhood of Leeds with the best results. He be-
lieved that the effect of railroads on the morals of the popu-
lation would be great indeed, that the immense importance of
such communication was only just beginning to show itself,
and he was not one of those who anticipated a panic from
the movement that had taken place with respect to them.—
(Hear, hear.) He considered that the period in which they
lived pointed out the necessity for laying down fresh roads
and modes of communication throughout the kingdom, and
there could be no doubt that the greatest possible advan-
tages would accrue from rapid communication between town
and town, and kingdom and kingdom.—(Hear, hear.) It
would increase the civilization of mankind, extend the bene-
fits of commerce, and diffuse happiness and prosperity over
the habitable globe.—(Hear, hear.) If any one doubted
the*, let them look not only to their own country, but to the
Continent, where the establishment of railroads was forming
communications between towns and places that had compa-
ratively no communication before.—(Hear.) For his own part,
he believed that the peace and prosperity of any country was
greatly ptomoted by the success of railroads ; he was sure
that they were highly beneficial for that part of the country
in which they lived, and although he had not hitherto taken
any part with respect to any railroad, yet he had interested
himself in this because he believed that it would benefit
tite neighbourhood and himself also.—(Hear, hear.) The
worthy g.ntleman concluded an excellent speech by calling
upon

hood through -which it passed.---'''
that it combined so many ad
lines, that there was
ment, what thi.

posed lin

BENJAMIN JonN ARMSTRONG, Esq., of Southall, to move
the first resolution, which was to the following effect :—" That
ito was highly desirable that railway communication should
be established between Hounslow and London as direct as
the nature of the county will permit, and following the
course of the old coach thoroughfare." He thought it most
extraordinary, that while lines of railway had been diverging
in every direction in leis populated districts, that that netgh-
bourhood had for so long gone on without one, and been
almost foigotten.—(liear, hear.) The line they had met that
dav to advocate appeared to him to be the best that hadhitlier-
to been put forward; that it was extremely needed; and that
it deserved the attentive consideration and support of the in-
habitants, not only of Hounslow and Brentford, but of every
part through which it was proposed to pass.—(Hear, hear.)
He congratulated the inhabitants of those districts in the re-
spectability of the Provisional Committee—(Hear, hear.)
That body was not formed of high-sounding names, meaning
nothing, but of all the talent and property in that part of
the county.—(Hear.) They had the Earl of Devon as their
chairman—a nobleman, he was happy to say, of business habits,
t
and who would support the undertaking b
e idle
Lords.— (Haar, hear.) It would to theysinayt4eHouse of
had not