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

6
•T WESTERN, BRENTFORD,
••
y ••A to'nf. CENTRAL TERMINUS JUNCTION
ItAll SW AY.
:Wit Arl44m-gtous and highly influential meeting of the inha-
L 2 esoseest*Sassafatlounslow, lsleworth, Heston, &c., took place on
',fesu. at the George Inn, Hounslow, for the purpose of
'•4 s • deputation from the Great Western, Brentford, and
- minus Junction Railway Company (Page's direct
ti -11 a, . . • earing from them the route they intendedAo pursue,
determine whether the support of the inhabitants
tor ought not to be given to the line. The object of the
deputation was also to ascertain the wishes of the inhabitants
of the town and neighbourhood of Hounslow as to the sites
for stations, &c., provided they came to the resolution of
supporting the line.
Among the influential gentlemen present, we noticed
Henry Pownall, Esq., of Spring-grove, Hounslow, Chairman
of the Middlesex Magistrates; Benjamin John Armstrong,
Esq.,- of Southall, a Middlesex Magistrate ; Henry Webb
Smith, Esq.; James Stanborough, Esq., the incumbent of
Hounslow ; and several other gentlemen of influence, and pos-
sessing property in the neighbourhood: -Mr. Page, the en-
gine-ea 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 twelve
o'clock, commenced its proceedings shortly after that hour.
The object the Company have in view will at once be seen
• f:otn the following prospectus :
• " At several large public meetings held in October last, at
Brentford, leleworth, 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 Loudon induced the principal promoters
of the undertaking to postpone bringing the scheme before
the public.
" This 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 wither:at interruption.
"By the intended junction, also, with the Great 'Western
Railway, at or near West Drayton, and by the intarectioir of
the Birmingham Railway at Kensington,- dia.' important'
lines will be supplied with direct access to the Central Termi-
nus and thence to the City, or to the southern andeastern lines.
"The proposed line passes through or near Piunlico,Chelsea,
Brompton, Kensington, Hammersmith, Chiswick, and Turn-
ham-green, to the town of Brentford, and thence to Islewortb,
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 hue 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 he 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 POWNILL, Esq., Deputy Chairman, was unani-
mously called to the chair, upon taking which, he said, that,
in obeying 'he call of so respectable and , influential a meet-
ing of the inhabitants of Hounslow and its neighbourhood,
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 sows: st the propriety of establishing , a railway from
lloun,low 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 Hounslow, 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 fon-Tier admirers to desert her. Happily, however,. things
were changed. Her youthful charms must be considered as
having, beea restored, f,r she had now no less than nine
suitors for her favour.—(Laughter). Gentlemen were now
beginning to antleieate success to the scheme of bringing a
ralwav to Hounslow.— (Cheers). It would be an anomaly
on hi.; 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 greet 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
had become stagnant in Hounslow and its neighbourhood;
in short, they were half a century behind the age iu which
they lived, from not having that means of communication
with the metropolis which many other towns possessed.—
(Hee-, Ilea-.) They all knew that it was much easier to go
from London-bridge to Brighton than from the Bank to
Hounslow.--(Hear, hear.) Houses now would not let'in a
d:striet where a railway did not traverse—(Hear)--but 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—
(lleer, hear)—the very inn in which they were that
day assembled fsriu ly employed no less than
25 pair of pest 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 Bagahot, they Would not probably
tied 15 horses kept, where formerly there was 1,500.—( Hear,
hear.) Now, what was the cause of that?—the establish-
ment of railroads. And wasllounslow 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, bear.) The fact of there being so many competitors
clearly established the value of a line through Hounslow and
Brentiord, and showed what the feeling of the public was
upon the subject. No doubt the inhabitants of 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 `fort, the good, the con-
venience, and the interest of the nublW atiarge, and that it
would be unwise and impossible io 14y' them down upon the
consideration of individual interests alone.-e-(Hear, hear )
They were to be established for- the interest of
the conununitv at lare-e, and that alone..--(ficar,liear.) Now,
he believed that the hue it was his pleasure to advocate (and
this was the first. railwaY he had ever been connected with)
was Page's direct line. lie StipPerted it because lie considered
it the best that had been yetSsiibmitted- to the public, both for
their convenience, and also fur. the benefit of the neighbour-
hood through which it passed.H(Hear; hear.) . He believed
that it combined so many advantages over the othet mtposed
lines, that there was no doubt,-when it came :before Puha,
merit, what the result would be.—(Fiear. hear.) Tire-pro-
posed line commenced at or near the station of the Great
Western Railway Company at West Drayton, travelling
through • Harlington and Cranford to • Hounslow, Brentford,
Hammersmith, Kensington,. Chelsea, and Westminster, and
ultimately terminating neat Ilungerford-bridge and Charing-
. cross. It was intended that it should be on the atmospheric
• principle, the 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 oecration.-.-(Hear, hear.) On the latter railway a
speed of upWards of sixty males an hour had-been obtained,-
• and, on due occasion, Such was the rapidity Witlawhich 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
principle, also, was more appicable, perhaps, to the present,
than many other lines, because the traffic was short, and the
stations near each other-, and the cheapw ss and the cenve-
uhrnee ruviered it deilrable in every localit v.—(llear, 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
thin any of the stations hitherto fixed around the metro-
pons,—(Hear, hear.) At Greenwich they had about 42,000,
at Bled; wall, 21,000, Croydon, 26,000, Eastern Counties
44,000, Leuloa and Birmingham, 90,000, South Western,
20,000; while within the fifteen miles which the proposed
railroad was intended to travel, they lad a population of
upwards of 100,000. (Hear.) Within that range at present
a great numher 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
half a million a veer fur Excise.—(Cheers.) There were also
large soap inanufactories there. There were large flour mills at
15h:worth. and coals that were now brought by an expen-
sive rate would, when the railroad swat established, be con-
veyed at a much cheaper rate. The trade of the market
gardners 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 famili a 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 nut one of those who anticipated a panic from
the moventeut that had taken place with respect to them.—
.
( Hear, hear.) lie considered that the pedod 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 advane
tages would accrue from rapid communication between town
and town, and kingdom and khigdom.—(Hear, hear.) It
would increase the civiliz ition of mankind, extend the bene-
fits of com:neree and diffuse happiness and prosperity over
the habitable globe.—(Hear, hear.) If any one doubted
that, let them leok not only to their own country, but to the
Continent, where the estathishrnent of railroads was forming
communications between towns and places-that had compa-
.
rat is-ely no communication before.—( Hear.) for his own part,
he believed that the peace and prosperity ofMny country was
greatly promoted by the success of railroads; he was sure
fiat 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
• liiinse'f in this because lie believed that it would benefit
•
the n<ighbourlosed alai himself also.—(Hear, heart) The
worthy g title:non concluded an excellent speech by calling
upon

BENJAMIN JOHN AnatsTnoNG, E. 1., of Southall, to move
the first resolution,. which was to the following effect:—" That
it was highly desirable that railway communication-.should
be established betwecn lioun,low and London as direct as
the nature of the county will permit, and following the
course of the old coach thoroughfare." hie thought it most
extraordinary, that while lines of railway had been diverging
in every directi,n in lee-s populated district, that that neigh-
bourhood had for so 1,,,g gone on without one, and been
almost forgotten.—(litar, hear.) The line they had met that
day to advocate appeared to him to be the best that had hither-
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 aid Brentford, but of every
part through which it wag proposed to pass.—(Hear, bear.)
He congratulated the inhabitants of those districts in the re-
spectability of the Provisional Committee—(Hear, hear.)
That body was nut formed of high-sounding names, meaning
nothing, but of all the talent and property in that part of
the county.—(Hear.) 'heyhadm the Earl
ofDevon as their
chairman—anobleman,hewashappy to say, flatre ineHussbasbe of
and who would support the undertaking m t
Lords.—(Hear, hear.) It would be idleto say they hado noto