The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-08-24 00:00:00

and abominable a crime as that which has been
perpetrated by the twelve jurors at SIX-MILE-
BRIDGE.

RAILWAY AMALGAMATION

WHEN ti

this countr

Railwaysystem was first introduced into
', and the iron road and thelocomotive

were permitted to supersede the Macadam and the

stage-coach, it was foreseen that there might be a
)1y being created ; and the legis-

danger of monc

conditions for the

Lbility, imposed

,n of the public

rates of toll allowed to be charged for the various
classes of goods and passengers were limited ; and

various regulat

of injury to the person
The

gement

own for the preven

arising from improper

first plea urged in behalf of

the formation of any nL
required by the district throe

e was, that it was

which it was to be

carried; and the next plea, that it would remunerate
ked their capital in it. Botb these

those who mbar

t was indispensable to ha

proved, before Par-

t could in justice grant to companies the
' and carve the land of private owners
at their discretion ; and we all remember what

power to cut

hosts of engineers, surveyors, valuers, and traff,

agents used every session to be seen bustling about
the committee-rooms of Parliament, brimful of
cs, and prepared to prove the pro or con, of

statist

any required proposition, according to the par-

ticular lines on which they happened to be engaged.
Upon this principle, and thus jealously watched
by the legislature, the first great trunk lines of the

kingdom were established

After a few years

however, new districts, and new companies, who
had observed their successful working, began to
demand the accommodation of branches or junctions,
, • ,

which were, in many instances, resisted as being
unlikely to be remunerative. The public and the
capitalist at length proceeded to ask for additional
main lines; and now began the struggle between

...,
the parent companies to decide which of them was
to get hold of the new traffic thus created. Line

after line was granted—all of which were to 1

"independent," and to confer immense advantage
upon the public—yet all, reluctantly, by the per-
mission of the legislature, were absorbed by one or
other of the now gigantic companies. At length
came the mania of 1845 and 1846, when the doctrine
of competition was put forward, and it was con-
ended that there could not be an excess of railway
The scheme was at that time so wild or

facilities

visionary that support

ers could not he found willing
to embark in them, chiefly induced, however, by
the expectation that they would ultimately be
bought up by one or other of the trunk lines. The
fact that Mr. HUDSON, or Mr, GLYN, or any other
of our railway magnates, had been seen talking to

a director or a solicitor of any worthless scheme,
put thousands in the pockets of the fortunate
holders of shares in that scheme; and Stock
Exchange gambling 11ecame a trade, into which
thousands of the most respectable men rushed, to
the disgrace of the mercantile and even the national
character of' the country. The issue all prudent
men foresaw. A collapse took place, and some
hundreds of bubble schemes burst at once, entailing

only ruin upon their authors. A considerable
number of a more respectable and feasible character
had already received the assent of Parliament and
been commenced. The bulk of these were at the
time under arrangements with, or have since been
purchased or leased by, the boards of the competing
trunk lines, thus depriving the public of the full
extent of the facilities to which they were entitled.
The first result of this madness was that the
dividends of the trunk companies, which had been
as high as ten or twelve per cent., sunk to two or
three per cent., and, in a few instances, to nothing.
They had become hampered with guarantees to a
host of branches and junctions, which were a source
of loss instead of profit ; and they were, at the same
time, engaged in a fierce competition with each
other to secure the largest possible amount of the
traffic of the cuuntry through which they ran•
On one side the Great Western Company were
invading some particular district which the London
and North-Western had considered as its own.
gOrna
stph
se
oomthe e,
dri s ttrhieo t afrtot emr
theu•as
Great-e s t e extendingvn
cs
tiet
rsna, r mto
s The

• ....MI..
" Battle of tilt Guages," and the ruinous expenditure
incurred, and still being incurred, in carrying it on,
will be a startling incident in the history of railway
enterprise, or rather railway folly.
Within the past fortnight an event has occurred
I which is of the very deepest import to the public.
This is no other than a proposition between these
companies for the erection of a monopoly, probably
the most gigantic that the world has ever seen.
The Great Western and the London and North-
Western Boards, through their respective chairmen,
have declared in the language of PEACHANI and
LocKJT—" Brother, brother, we have both been
in the wrong," and propose to shake hands and
cease their ruinous rivalry. A similar fraternization
is, it seems, about to take place between the Midland
and the Great Northern. As yet the precise terms
of neither of these amalgamations have been
arranged. But we may regard an early agreement
as certain ; and we are boastingly informed that no
difficulty will be found in procuring for it the
sanction of the Legislature.