The Sun.
London, England, 1845-08-26 00:00:00

EADVERTISEMRNT
TO THE MANCHESTER PU3LIC.
LONDON AND MANCHE3 rER RAILWAYS.
GENTLEMEN—I am one as much interacted as any of
you in this imp rtant matter ; have patience with me
while I say a few words which may tend to the common
advantage of all parties, except the lawyers ; and I sup-
pose that neither you nor I c ire much about them, as
they generally know pretty well how to take care of
themselves ! We all want a direct line to London, and
we want it for our own business, not for other people's,
nor to fill other people's pockets ; therefore it must be
independent. Well ; we have got such a line before us,
and it has b: en before us long enough to understand it :
it seems to be so good a one, that there is a general
scramble for it among engineers, attorneys, and direc-
tors, all anxious for the honour, and some, perhaps, for
the profit of carrying it out. It must therefore be a
good one, and just what we want—if we can get it !
Thie is the only point to which I wish te draw y ,ur it
tention, for what is it to us tet, does the work, or wh
gets the pay for it , so long as the w ele is dine, and well
done ? Now my opinion is, that if we remain neuter on
the question much longer, we incur some rich of nut
having the work done at all ; " between two stools," but
need not finish the proverb ; only if we want to seeure
a firm seat, we had best look out in time, beeire we sit
down, to make sure of the stool with the firmest legs !
I, for one, have no mind for an awkward fall.
I have read Ashurst's letter, and I have re id Reming-
ton's ; and, as an indifferent person to the dispute, ex-
cepting as one of the public, I think I see pretty clearly
where the merits lie. Ashusst says, the line is public
Property, and therefore it is my line as much as your's,
or any body else's." " No," say s Reminge n, " I panned,
surveyed, and -pent time, labour, and money on it years
ago, and now you want to fi ch it fro:n in e because I re-
ject your aid in carrying it oat !" And, in truth, Re-
mington seems to have the best end of the stick, and the
strongest arm to use it ; " but," rejoins Ashurst, " you
,hall not go on without me, for I have the Manchester
houses under my thumb, and right or wrong they'll back
me !" "We will see about that," retorts Remington,
"for it was my line and my project to which they gave
their names, and you have dishonestly transferred them
to yours; when they really know how the matter stands,
the Manchester men are toe honourable to countenance
your conduct." I believe Remington is quite right ; we
have still certain bull-headed notions among us, of
what is right or wreng, in regard to property,
though such notions are getting a little &el •
fashioned in these railway day) ; but we are not likely
to be bamboozled by lawyers, even though true-bred
London lawyers ; we know the value of new patterns,
and what it is to pirate them. But this is stray-
ing from toy point. Ashurst only states the truth, when
he says that he is backed by the trade (though he much
exaggerates his trade strength, for I am sure there are
not here a dozen first-rat; houses in his list, while all
along the line, every man, women, and chill, is against
him), and Remington states the truth when he says that
‘he trade don't know what they are about in backing
Ashurst, and this is what I want to impress upon you.
We want the thing done, and no mistake ; if matters go
on as at present, we shall make a great mistake, and a
fatal mistake, and a mistake for which everybody but
the lawyers will be cursing his own stupidity six
months hence. I have been inquiring carefully about it,
and I find, as anybody else may find, if they will only
take the same trouble, that Ashurst's line, or Rastrick's,
or whosoever line they choose to call it, is all bubble
and moonshine.: It is now the end of August ; plans, and
sections, and books of reference, and all that, must be
deposited in some hundred places by the 30th of No
%weber ; engineers, surveyors, levellers, and assistants,
must be employed by the score, and then followed by
scores of attornies, clerks, and other beasts of prey ; and
to this hour, neither Ashurst nor Rastrick has a single
soul at work between London and Manchester, while
Remington and Rennie have nearly finished the job !
and Messrs. Stephen, Hutchinson, Rogers, Owens, Wil-
son, Cobbstt, and nobody knows how many dozens of
country attorneys besides, are eternally on the road from
one end of the week to the other, speechifying, agitating,
O'Connellizing the whole country, and cramming all the
newspapers with puffs, notices, and advertisements.
Now, this looks like serious business at all events, and
there must be money forthcoming somewhere, to pay the
piper I but better than all, I find that Remington is
actually employing Rastrick's men, because Rastrick had
no funds to take them on, and now there is not a sur-
veyor, leveller, or working engineer in the market, to be
had for love or money ! ! !
i Let Ashurst deny this if he can ; if he cannot gainsay
t, then we have a right to ask him what he means and
we have a right to ask his hackers too, what they mean
by all this chaffing ? it is clear what they do act mean :
they do not mean to do business, unless for theinselvee ;
they may mean to kick up a dust, for Remington to
water down again ; they very likely intend to show
fight, so as to make it worth while to buy a cross ; they
may create such an alarm among 'the shareholders as to
keep back the deposits, and prevent Remington's shares
coming out at a high premium ; and if they do this their,
turn is answered, for they must be bought off ; but who
will have to pay the cost ? Why we shall ; if we buy
off Ashurst for ten or twenty thousand pounds, this is
an addition of ten or twenty thousand pounds to the ex-
pense of our independent line, and we have to thank
Mr. Ashurst and his Manchester friends for it, for it is
only by their aid that he ever can be worth the purchase;
if he is not bought off, and goes to Parliament to fight it
out with Remington, :then it will cost some fifty or a
hundred thousand, as with the London and York people,
and we shall have to pay it to the lawyers I If he is
not playing his cards either for a fight in Parliament, or
a cross, then I should like to know why he shuffles them
it all, when there is no good to be got by it, either for
himself or any body else ? It Inuit he merely to re-
venge himself fur being discarded by Remington's com-
mittee, and therefore, we forsooth are to hazard losing
our line altogether, that we may gratify Ashurst with
triumph over his former allies and present op-
ponents ! I defy Ashurst to escape out of one of these
three alternatives ; he means to be bought off at our
expense ; or to fight a Parliamentary battle at our
expense ; or to defeat the line altogether, careless at
whose expense, so long as he obtains his revenge ; let
him take his choice of the three ; either is equally
disgraceful to him and to his friends, and equally vexa-
tious and injurious to the Manchester trade.
But Ashurst's friends will certainly come in for their
full share both of the loss and the abuse : if no business
is intended, they are helping him to gull the public for
his own selfish purposes: if they really mean to go on,
where is the money to come from, except from their own
pocket's ? If they succeed in checking payment for
Remington's line, can they hope that they will get
their own deposits paid, when they have nothing in the
way of progress to show for it ? or can they expect to
be in time for the next session, where as yet they have
done nothing but talk ? and if not in time, can they
doubt but their shares will fell to a low discount ?
Thus the Provisional Committee of Ashurst will have to
" pay for all," like Nuncio in the play, out of their own
purses,
and all Manchester will abuse them for the dis-
appointment to the trade. Whether they are indemni-
fied or not, by Ashurst, I cannot pretend to say ; if
they are, then it shows that it is Ashurst's personal
interest, after all, which we are fighting for, and I fancy
that the trade will hardly consent to this when they
know it : but if his backers are not indemnified, and by
good waterproof, air-tight bonds too, they had better
look to it in time it is not very pleasant to cash up
,one's quota of some tens of thousands for usele is sur-
veys, and profitless sections, and acrimonious adver-
tisements in the papers.
The gist of the whole question is this ; we want a
line, and two people want to make it ; and they want to
fight their battle with our money, and some of our own
people are fools enough to lend their nines to get up
and promote this costly sham fight, at the imminent
hazard of depriving us of the object on which we hive
set our hearts, by impoverishing those who alone seem
you
e
able to accomplish it ; the question is, whetherwill submit to be made tools of for such petty, private,
and selfish purposes ? If you will, then my time is
thrown away, and in common with yourselves, I must
submit to the disastrous consequences ; but if you will
not, then you have no time to lose, but come forward at
once, like men of business, and tell Ashurst and hie
friends that you are men of business and common sense,
and have no notion of having your best interest sacri-
ficed to gratify personal cupidity or spleen.—l am,
Gentlemen, yours obediently,
A MANCHES'TER MAN.
P.S. While writing this letter, I have heard that
Ashurst and Rastrick have had a meeting of their
friends at the Royal Hotel, this morning ; this royal
game of humbug must be checked ; it would be more to
the purpose if Ashurst would call a public meeting,
as invited by Remington, and give a broad contra-
diction to Remington's charges of vindictiveness and
dishonesty ; these hole and corner meetings only
prove that there is nothing substantial in the mat-
ter ; fair play is always open play ; but however
that may be, I aver, and I challenge contradiction, that
having regard to the progress made by Remington's
people, and the less than nothing done by Ashurst, our
only chance of getting the line at all, is to give ail our
help to Remington, and carry hien through on our
shoulders; if we trust to Ashurst, and to people who
will lend their names without knowing why or where-
fore, only to make difficulties where all ought to do their
best to smooth them, we shall spend a deal of money for
nothing, and may wait till doom's-day for our railway.
How does it happen that out of such a host of pretended
patrons and supporters, Ashurst can get no stronger
acting Committee ? This looks very queer ! Some six
or eight names, out of more than a hundred influential
patrons ! ! ! and this petty list to manage such a magni-
ficent undertaking as a line from Manchester to Lon-
don ! ! ! Methinks this fact alone speaks volumes—hut
insist that Ashurst and his Manchester friends shall give
a plain answer to two plain questions—they have been
answered already by Wellington's Committee, and an-
swered publicly and satisfactorily, and in person, and at
Manchester.

'Will you pledge yourselves to go before Parliament
next session ?

Are you in a state to do s 9 ?
Answer this, Messrs. Ashurst, Rastrick, Dillon, Cal-
decot, and Co., and we shall know what to make of
you !
22d August, 1845.

GENERAL NOTT.-A meeting of the Committee
appointed to superintend the erection of an appropriate testi-
monial to the memory of the gallant General Nutt, took place,
on Wednesday se'nnight, at Carmarthen. There were present
—the Mayor (who presided ), •.;4' il. Love, C. 8., D. Pryiherch,
H. Lawrence, M.D., E. H. Stacep Lewis Morris, Esqrs ,
Major Bowen, and J. Longmore, Esq., the Secretary. The
minutes of the last meeting hiving been read, the amount cf
•
subscriptions was stated to be 1,1701. Arrangements were
made for more extensively advertising the project, and a sub
committee was appointed to canvass the town of Carmarthen,
and receive subscriptions.— Cambrian.
A few days ago a fire took place in the village of
Cournois (Puy de Dome), by which 30 buildings were de..
stroyed. It is supposed to have been the work of an incen-
diary.—French