The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-04 00:00:00

RAILWAYS IN IRELAND.

• Mr. - FRENCH rose 'to move the following resolu-
tion
t—" That this House do resolve itself into a Commit-
tee of the whole Muse, for the purpose. of preparing an
Address to her Majesty, praying that she would be gra-
ciously pleased to recommend to Parliament, that such
measures shall be taken as may appear most likely .to
secure to Ireland the advantages of railway communica-
tion." He, had. more than once expressed his conviction
that unless the• Government undertook the construction
of railways in Ireland, that country would remain with-
out those great advantages ; and the opinion of several
eminent practical
.men, whom - lie had consulted, was
that the Government Ought to take up the question.
The questien narrowed. itself to this consideration.
Would they refuse to so large x portion of, the empire
as Ireland the power of raising sufficient funds on its
own credit, to develope its resoarces by the introduction
of railroads? ' He would prove there was no hope leA of
having railways in Ireland, exeVtthe GovernmeeL carat)
forward to lend. them assistance. ' Up to 1838-there had
been no less'. than 112 private Ac 3 - passed - for the con-
st:uction of railways in-England and Wales ; 21 for the
construction of railways in Scotland ; and only eight for
the construction of rail Ways in Ireland. But Ireland
was not'even so well off as might be, imagined from the
inspection of these figures ; Cot- out of eight Bills, -;ive
had ,remained unacted on up to the present monieut ;
and while the whole of England and Scotland had been
traversed by railways, 'in Ireland, a line of seven miles
from Belfast to Lurgan; and another of six miles,. from
• Dublin to Kingstown, were all that private enterprise
had been : able to accomplish. Whether it was
that the report of the Railway CominisSioners had un-
derrated the returns that were likely to be made for.
capital invested in railv.-ays, or that capitalists were
deterred irpm embarking in such speculations, through
ignorance Of the intentions of the Government, he woull
-not stop toinquire ; but he would take that opportunity
of stating, that , the returns of the profits on the
Dublin and -Kingstovn railway, showed that an interest
of,B per cent. had been realized on the capital invested.
He would 'ow briefly considtT what had been done by
411
the late overnment.. in relation- to this subject. Li 1836 they !ad .issued - the -Railway Commission. The
Commissioners' wero men of the highest character and of
the . greateU scientific - attainments. They' were Mr.
Drummond, Dr. Barlow, Sir John Burgoyne, and Dr.
' Griffiths. 'On the 11th of March, 1837, they made their
first report, which was • very brief, but contained one
recommendation which had the effect of-deterring capi-
talists froth embarking in railway undertakings in Ire-
.

land. -The reconnujudlui,.. --Was,. That tlye,aectlnn-uf-1
the great tines should not be kft to private capitalists.
That was sufficient to tlestroy the hopes of railway enter-
prise in that country ; and this gave him a strong claim
upon the mnsideration of the house. The .The second re-
port was thade in June, 1838, and it was attributed to
one of the!ablest men of the present age, the late Mr.
Drummontl. The report showed that the best way
to give Ireland the advantage of a railway sys-
tem was that the Government should undertake
the manfigement, whereby the enormous prelimi
nary expenses—law and Parliamentary—and the
extravagant compensation paid to owners of land, which
were incurred by all the English Railways, would be
avoided. The Parliamentary expenses of the English
Railways amounted in the aggregate to 1,716,000/. The
result waS that the public were obliged to pay 100 per
cent. higher under the system pursued in this country
than uncle* that pursued In Belgiuml4 la,lemrialete
foorf
..ptirlas..-
3(t., for coals from id.
vseenl negrsi, nfiotrh
mlaetstetornceofurnotnriyi
di.% a:,
to 4d., and for manufactured goods from 2d. to 6d. Ile
trusted that the benefits of such a system would • be ex-
tended to Ireland—that the errors committed in the con-
struction of other railroads may be avoided, and that
the benefits of railroad communication, with all the ad-
vantages and improvements-of the best system, combined
with a Moderate expenditure, may be secured to her
The speculator must be sanguine, in&ed who expected
that a railway with two parallel lines of road would, in
Ireland, tic-a remunerating one. Still, they ought to ex-
tend to leland the advantages of the railroad-system.
In 1836, his Noble Friend had brought forward his Act
for the construction of lines of railroad in Ireland, and
obtained the sanction of the Legislature to the expendi-
ture of two-millions and a half. He hailed the proposal
as a haprly omen, and endeavoured to impress on the
House, that it would k• a more judicious application o;-
that sum; if it was applied to the construction of given
portions of three great lines to tie north, south, and
west, and to be distributed. among them in equal pro-
portions. Ile read a resolution of a public meeting, over
which the Right Hon. Member for Dublin presided, re- -
cOmmending the plan for forwarding three lines
of road. The Itou,e would perceive thatu-this
:subject had been six years under discussion. How-
ever much he might regret the late change of Ad-
Ministration, he still hoped that the Noble Lord, the
asnti t d o f
e th
present Secretary for Ireland, would show the same
anxiety which had been shown by his predecessor to
.ceotofi ng contribute
strength
communication, d especially,
e
-
to rendert h
o Irempire.tdan aN source
tihadvance .the social condition of a country than improve-
ments in its means of
establishmen t- of railways. The Governments of Russia,
Austria, and the United States had devoted their parti-
cular attention to that subject. In England, there were
now 1,750 miles of railway, which had cost 60,000,000/. ;
of which 10,000,0001. had been swalloived up Parliamen--
tary expenses, and of -that sum 6-,726,000/ were abso-
lutely and.unntietssarily thrown away: The most direct
and easy mod:: ofcommitniCatiOn would contribute to the
mutual advantages of Kith this country and Ireland, and
increase that identity of _interest upon which so much
dependi the prosperity of tOth 'countries. He trusted that
those considerations would have their due weight, and
influence upon the mind of the Right Hon.-Baronet at
the head of her Majesty's- Government, and that the
, Right Hon. Baronet would either adopt those recommen-
dation. or any other means which might be thought best
to promote these objects. There was another fact which
he (Mr. French) thought it right to state to the House.
Perhaps Hon: Gel-Wen-len were not aware that the •
Government in every instance had gained very consider-
able by the adVances Made from time to time for rail-
ways. The system of making those advances was this:-
100/., suppose,. was lent, at.s per cent. for eleven years,
the Government had-that money for 3 per cent., which
in, eleven years amounted to :W., showing a clear gain of
f those facts, and
Chancellor of the Exchequer Was aware
was not riPir
could contradict him (Mr; French) if he
22 per cent. on every transaction of that nature. The
showingt.
the imports
(aln'dheexHpoonrisMoefinihreerl'atlenfroeradar:rty Trec.anrt ocsr
that the
than any words could do, how essential it was
s
interests -of Ireland should he attended to. In propor-
tion as the resources of Ireland were developed, would
the burdens of England. be diminished and those re-
sources would be speedily and fully deVeloy:d by allow-
ing them to use, what was-used with no eparm,,,
0- hand in
this country; viz, railway, communiCati• lie felt he
ad too- lon trespasr4ed on the time of tIIQ .House, and
of
-on
he should therefore conclude with the motion which
he had given notice—a` That -this House do resolve itself
g
into a Committee of the whole House, for the purpose
of preparing an Address to her Majesty, praying that
she would be graciously pleased to recommend to Par,-
liament, that such measures shall betaken as may appear
most likely to secure to Ireland the advantage of railway
. communication."
The SPEAKER inquired if the motion of the
Hon. Member was intended to raise money (as we
understood). .
Mr. FRENCH said his object was to call the attention
of her Majesty's Government to the subject of Railways
in Ireland.
Mr. SHAW rose to second' the proposition. He had
a two-fold object in view;
first, he hoped. that his Hon.
Friend would not persist pressing his motion on her
.
M.jesty's Government.—(Loud laughter.) He intended
to suptiort the motion, but he felt that at the present
tim considering the great measure to be introduced by
bet Majesty's Ministers, and considering that the Go-
vernment at the present moment were not in - a position
to obtain such information as would enable them to come
to a satisf:cery conclusion, and considering tha i Fa de-
cision were taken upon the subject no% it would be un-
fai-Ourable-JYtile- views' iVhich he (Mr. Shaw) held in
common with the Hon. Gentleman, therefore, he