The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-01-14 00:00:00

RAILWAYS IN IRELAND,

(From the Dublin Evening Packet)
~The reader will see, by an advertisement in. our present
publication, that a meeting is intended to be. held at the
Commercial Buildings, Dame-street, on Monday next, for
the purpose of submitting certain resolutions passed at the
Thatched House Tavern, London, in April last. Having
been present at the passing of the resolutions-alluded to, we
can speak with certainty and confidence as to their spirit and
intention, which were; that lines of railroad in Ireland should
be simultaneously started, north, west, and south, with a
view to extend the advantages of the undertaking equally to
all the, provinces, instead of. confining them to the south, as
was designed by the framer of the Government Report on.
Irish Railways.' The meeting at the Thatched House Ta,
vern was called by the friends of private enterprise, the oppo-
nents of government monopoly,: and the enemies of the job
for effecting which the report ofTom Drummond was framed :
but they did not insist upon the adoption, of their plan for
the encouragement of the principle of private enterprise, and
the . investment of the surplus capital of England in Irish
railways, lest a division between them and the friends of the
government scheme, who attended in a strong number, should
frustrate the establishment of the important principle that
each of the provinces should gain alike by any grant of par-
liament for the purpose of Irish railways. It was distinctly
intimated at the meeting, that the principle of private enter-
prise was not abandoned ; that it was only placed in abey-
ance, for sake of unanimity, until the intention of the govern-
ment on the subject of the new proposition shduld be known.
To the principle of private enterprise we• steadfastly ad-
here i 'and, so far from anything that has been said in favor
of government monopoly having shaken our opinions, every-
thing we have heard-upon the subject has tended to convince
us the more that we are, and were originally, right. A cer-
tain individual, who sometimes tells truth unwittingly and by
accident, declared, at the last meeting of the monopolists held
at the Commercial Buildings—" That the government had
.frightened English capitalists out of the Irish market." That
'was a, truth, though uttered by' Daniel O'Connell, who
exclaimed—" Let me go. to the government and I will con-
vince their' that they should advance money for railroads in
Ireland—l will tell 'them that they have, by their report,
frightened English capitalists out of the field." This, we
• repeat, was true, though spoken by Mr. O'Connell. Every
sensible and impartial .man must be convinced that the great
want of Ireland is capital, and that the influx of the surplus
capital of England. would fertilise Ireland—would make her
prosperous, industrious, happy, and contented. A few paltry
millions from the government, or from parliament, spent on
railroads, in the hands of monopolists, would not effectually
benefit the country;
We want John Bull amongst us, superintending the outlay
of his capital, and exploring our vast resources for investment
of this overgrown wealth. We want him to find out employ-
ment for our idle and overgrown population, by digging our
mines and blasting our quarries for his benefit and our own.
If the government iutended to advance the country, a parlia-
mentary grant in aid of private enterprise would have been
long snce applied for, and the foul job meditated for the be-
nefit of an individual 'would have leen given up. "But it is
folly to talk of an intention on the part of the Whigs to.
benefit ally portion of, the empire, or any person beyond the
circle of those who serve to keep them in office,
It should not be forgot by those who may attend the meet-
ing on Monday,Ahat Sir Sobert Peel advocates the principle
of encouraging private enterprise, and the outlay of British
capital in Ireland ; and that the Right Honorable Baronet,
when he shall return to office, will ask parliament for a grant
or loan to adiance the interests of this distracted country, by
aiding railroad speculation—a prayer or demand in which the
representatives of the Irish people cannot refuse to join, lest
they should lose their seats, and in which the English mem-
bers will heartily concur, beeause it will open a field for the
investment of their capital. Most'earaestly do we entreat
the friends of private enterprise—the true friends of Ireland
and of England, and the enemies of obbing and monopoly—to
be firm in the maintenance of
_their principle, which being
founded on truth must ultimately prevail.