The Sun.
London, England, 1845-06-02 00:00:00

GROUP P.

The Committee met this day at twelve o'clock, in room No. 11,
the Right Hon. F. Shaw in the chair. The Committee resumed
he inquiry into

Ti 11 LOND3N, WORCESTER, AND SOUTH

STAITOrIDSHIL.E RLILIV/I.Y.

Mr. Sanders, examined by Mr. COCKBURN—With regard to
that part of the report of the Board of Trade referring to our inten-
tion of guaranteeing the Severn navigation from loss, the Board
reports that we have not done so, but it is our intention to carry
out that guarantee.
Cross-examined by Mr. DANIEL—With regard to the population
on both lines, I have since prepared tables of the population, and
they are as follows :

Population from Oxford to Evesham :—Headington, 1,668—
Marston, 396—Elsfield, 185—Wood Eaton, 62—Wolvercott, 470
—Wytham, 89—Ensham, I,B93—Cassington, 381—Yarnton, 302
—Begbroke, 110—Kidlington, I,3o3—South Leigh, 326—Church
Handborough, I,oo9—Bladon, 687—North Leigh, 617—Combe,
605—Woodstock, I,4l2—Wilcote, 9—Stonefield, 553—Hurley,
I,44o—Charlbury, 2,9B2—Spilsbury, 597—Ascot, 463—Sars-
den, 179—Shipton under Wychwood, 2,624—Fyfield, 213
Idbury, 207—Westcote, 240—Bledington, 354—Bingham, 555
Churchill, 651—Cornwell, 97—Daylcsford, 81—Addleshop, 200—
Churtleton, 239—Stowe-on-the- Wold, 2,l4o—Upper Swell, 80
—Broadwell, 345—Little Compton, 301—Evenloste, 325
Loughborough, 625—Seizincote, 67—Moreton in the Marsh, 1,345
—Botsford, 79—Great Walford, 585—Todenham, 474—Blockley,
2,l36—Shelton on Foss, 434—Chipping Campden, 2,087 —Eking-
ton, 583—Saintbury, 133—Weston Subedge, 134—Mickleton,
698—Long Marston, or Marston Sicca,: 337—Pcbworth, 829.
Total, 37,378.

Population of Places between ➢Tarsworth and Bicester, and be.
tween Fenny Compton and Evesham, on the London and Wor-
cester and South Staffordshire Railway, exclusive of the two

Terminii.

From Marsworth to Aylesbury :—Cheddington, 439—Drayton
Beauchamp, 231—Buckland, 534—Aston Abbots, 356—Win-
grave, 814—Puttenham, 136—Aston Clinton, I,o2s—Weston
Turville, 718—Hulcot, 33—Bierton, 605—Aylesbury, 5,429.
Total, 10,420.

From Aylesbury :to Bicester:—Hartwell, 138—Stone, 809
Quarrington, 64—Fleet Marston, 58—Hardwick, 747—Whit.
church, 930—Oving, 391—Pitchcott, 68— Quainton, I,oBl—
I,7so—Wooton Underwood, 265—Grendon Under-
wood, 384—Luggershall, 566—Piddington, 487—Arebroseden, 892
—Edgcott, 195—Marsh Gibbon, 863—Stratton Audley, 319—Staun-
ton, 619—Wendlebtiry, 214—Chesterton, 393—Middleton Stoney,
309 —Bicestcr, 2,022. Total 14,484.
From near Fcnny Compton to Petworth :—Gaydon, 276
Chadshunt, 36—Lighthorne, 384—Kineton, 1,248 Butler's
Marston, 313 —Radley, 397—Radway,1 374—Oxhill, 348
hateeote, 182—Pillerton Percy, 217—Loxley, 318—Upper
and Lower Eatington, 704—Alderminster, 508—Whit-
church, 247—Preston-on-Stour, 394—Atherstone-on.Stour, 93--
Clifford Chambers, 309—Stratford-on-Avon, 3,32l—Lower Quin-
ton, 666—Weston-upon-Avon, 161—Welford, 738—Binton, 269
—Bidford, I,s67—Dorsington, 141—Long Marston, or Marston
Sicca, 337—Pebworth, 829. Total, 14,377.
Population of places within three miles on either side of the
Moreton-in-the-Marsh and Stratford-on-Avon Railway :—Lower
Leamington, 53—Great Wolford, 311—Toddenham, 474—Bur.
mington, 720—Tidmington, 70 Barcheston, 44—Shipton.on-
Stour, I,B46—Honington, 335 —Tredington, 287—Flimington,
873—ILIford, 425—Lower Eatington and Upper Eatington, 704
—Alderminster, 508— Whitchurch, 247—Preston-on-Stour, 394
Lower Quinton, 666—Atherstone-on-Stour, 93—Clifford Cham-
bers, 309—Weston-upon-Avon, 161—Stratford-on-Avon, 3,321
Total, 11,841.
Cross-examination continued—l have been guided by a diagram
drawn up some time since. •
Mr. DANIEL— We knew nothing of it.
Mr. COCKBURN—It was made by the London and Birmingham
Company, and surely you cannot disown it.
Mr. Saunders—li was made about seven years ago by the London
and Birmingham Company, in promotion of their line from Chel-
tenham to Tring.
Mr. DANIELS—We cannot take it as evidence; it is not your
own getting up, and it was got up by us for a totally different
purpose to this inquiry, with which it has nothing to do.

. _
The CHAIRMAN—We had better not examine Mr. Saunders on
it, as it is not his own evidence.

Mr. Saunders then retired.

The evidence on both sides having closed,
Mr. COCKBURN addressed the Committee. The time had at
length arrived when he would have an opportunity of laying before
the Committee in argument the case which he had to urge on behalf
of the promoters of the Wolverhampton, Worcester, and Oxford-
shire, and of the Rugby and Oxford line of railway, and he was
glad that this opportunity had arrived, for he could not but regret, on
behalf of his clients,that that period had been so long deferrod. He
did not express his satisfaction that the time had come from
any belief on his part that his humble powers would do much far
his clients, but he really did feel that from the great delay which
had taken place in giving him an opportunity of making his ob-
servations on their behalf, had greatly tended to their disadvantage.
Firstly, there had been before the Committee from their first
sitting a report of the Board of Trade, and no doubt that was
a competent authority t• make such a report, but it was the means,
to a certain extent, of prejudicing the case, for it was, he con-
sidered, assumed by the Committee that that report was founded
on a full consideration of the subject at issue. He thought
the result of the evidence, as far even as it legitimately
went, must have satisfied the Committee, without casting
the slightest imputation upon the Honourable Board, that they
had not sifted the case, inasmuch as it was proved they had not
heard the statement of ena of the parties in comparison
with the other. They could not have made oat a prima facie
case for their report, which was not based on cogent reasoning.
Yet he could not but feel that a report of that nature, emanating.
from such an authority, and having the semblance of reason in its
favour, and apparently in some degree supported by evidence,
would naturally be calculated to produce a strong impression
on the minds of Honourable Members. Again he could not
btit remember that the case for the other side was opened by his
Learned Friend Mr. Austen, in a speech calculated to uphold the
conclusions at which the Board of Trade had arrived. He did
think, looking at the report on which the case for the other
side was based, accompanied with all the elaborate ornamentation
in which the exuberant playfulness of his Learned Friend's fancy
abounds, and the irregular grace which he imparted into all these
matters, that it was calculated to possess a degree of favour
in the eyes of the Committee which he thought
under no other circumstances it would have received.
His Learned Friend opened this case in a speech of some two hours,
and certainly a most eloquent opening it was, for though he (Mr.
Cockburn) had not had the advantage of hearing it, he hr.d read it
word for word, and he was convinced that more able argu-
ments never were addressed to this or any other Committee.
And he could not disguise from himself that the effect of that
address, coming upon that report, aid followed up by evidence
which, no doubt, was calculated to give it a form of solidity and
substance—with all this to contend against, he could not conceal
from himself that there must necessarily have been much less
chance for their case meeting with a favourable reception from the
hands of the Committee, than their Case would have had but for
those circumstances by which the others have, in the first place, ob-
tained a footing and ingratiated themselves with the Committee.
He, therefore, did not disguise it from himself—and, if he should