The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-06-17 00:00:00

,GLASGQW AND FALKIRK JUNCTION RAILWAY.

The Committee upon this bill sit for the examination of the wit-
nesses one day previous to the recess. it met again upon Wednesday
theist June, when the examination of evidence in support of the bill
was continued, and has been sitting .every day since..
This bill'appears to be strettuonsly opposed by the land Owners on
the line, and the Etlinbiligh and.Glasgnw Railway Company. Messrs.
Harrison and Wood are Council fur the former,, and Messrs. Andrews
!and Sandford for the latter, • •'• '" • • " " •
T,lie firstswituess examined was one of the agents for the bill, who
was called to prove the existing communication bthreen Glasgow and •
)Sterling and Edinburgh, Sic. • Upon cross-examination this
gentleman was obliged to admit, that, at the desire of the Union
Canal,;a clause had heen inserted in the ibill, in terms of an agreement
!between the promoters of bill and the proprietors of the Union
Canal, by which tbe;ltailway Company were prohibited from extend-,
, ing the railway aeroaa.the Union Canal.. Thus, so far as the Junction
;Railway Company is concerned, the Union Canal, in the immediate
neighbourhood of •Ealltirk, is to be the boundary of tha communica-
tjon by railway between the metropolis of Scotland and the great com-
macial emporium of the.west.
But the nature of the present application was sufficiently apparent,
so far as oneef the parties was concerned, when the second witness
being examined stated,: at the-close of his, examination, that in the
evidence given by him as to the advantageous nature of the railway,
" he was only lookingto the•interest of the United Canal..l'
The manner in which the principal witness as to traffic attempted
,to ;create. a revenue was rather unique. It seems that coals and-mine, •
rats are found 'at either end of the line at New Monkland, towards the
- junction of the projected railway with the Garnkirk ; and at the east
enfl Attar Ihnternaiuus.)in the Umon,Canal.• „Mr., Geddes accordingly
sfikgestett, that an thin vierk Witlitlieir furnaces would no" doubt be
erecteCniidway between the two ;termini; which would then have 'to
bring in coals and ironstone from either one end of the railway or the
. other ; •and the matevials;thus brought mustennsequeritly pay a large
sum of dues to the Company, while, op the other hand, the iron when •
produced-would nisi) hiv4 to-travel an equally long journey-npon the
railway. bqfore .it .would brought to- market.- The revenue. to be
derived from this supposed iron work was reekeied as artniunting to
nenrlTX.7o9ol3k)annunt I. l •It did not seem to strike the witness, that .
with the great Caron Foundry at ene end of the line, and the Dundy-
van, Calder, and other Iron -w02149 at •the other, all situated- in 'the
centre of a great minetaLcountry, with little expense of carriage,
there was not ranch probability of any new company being- esta-
blished, og, if it were, existinoip.a. state of solvency for a-single-year,
This mode of-making up a revenuue afforded much auSeinent.
Most of the other witnesses In'ought forward were more or less con-
nected with the Garnkirk Railway Company ; and their„Superin-
tendent proved, that after having borrowed everrfarthing they were
allowed to borrow by act of parliament, not one penny of dividend
had yet been divided among the shareholders; •
We regret extremely that this should hate been the case, and that'
the proprietors of this Railway should have suffered so greatly from
the speculations) But at the same time we must :protest' against the
the interests of two such important communities as those of Edin-
burgh and Glasgow being sacrificed to or injured- by, the desire of
increasing the revenues of the Canal and Garnkirk Railway. It is
quite evident, even now, and it is understood that the design will be
made even more apparent before the discussion in the Committee is at
an end, that these two Companies are the originators of the Junction
bill, far. the purpose of preventing a thorough- -line of Railway com-
munication being establised between Glasgow and Edinburgh. Now
we have all •along felt convinced, that the formation of a line of
Railway between Glasgow and Edinburgh will be of incalculable be-
nefit to these cities, and therefore we trust that nothing will be per-
mitted to interfere with so important a measure. .
The engineering evidence has not yet commenced, and it is "likely
that the sittings of the Committee will not terminate for several days.
—(Frain a Correspondent.) •