The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-07-22 00:00:00

July 22, 1846.

will be seen that the prospects of the line from the opera'
tion of connecting railways are of the most cheerlob
description.]

THE KING OF RAILWAYS AND HIS PROJECTS.

The multiplicity of railway projects, already and rlBbeing brought before the public is no doubt calcullesaLla'a
V.
excite great regret and even alarm. This country h
before now to feel the consequences of excessive aPec ee;
tion in matters connected with its ordinary comnser_
to
and it is too much to be feared that it may shortly havfit,
feel the results of such speculation, in a kind of invistO
talent which has hitherto been productive both of Pr° •
the investors and infinite advantage to the commtTltf,
ifo
The question, therefore, most material to be solved,
1
those who look with singleness of mind to the publieeseB,
is what is the course which Parliament ought to Purs,..
and which the public ought to sanction by its voice, tu'"
rest the approaching evil. ft
We do not profess to be able to solve this question• to
has already proved itself beyond parliamentary P°werool
repress the projection of new and useless schemes,
oat
altogether beyond the good sense of the public to Preyed
the sanction of Parliament being given to such scheS,
Yet we do unhesitatingly say that, in its railway leg bt
tion, Parliament is not taking that course which it °"gtei
to take for the ultimate good of the country and thel/oot
of the plague which is now overrunning it. We have•viss
a loose principle established whereby we decide leg the
Is
tively upon railway projects—a loose system, with alio,.
pretension of being most rigid and almost prohibit so
We entrench ourselves behind standing orders and nth:
forms, which a wily parliamentary agent and a clove': eit
gineer can drive a coasts and six through, whilst we leave
the merits of rival schemes to be decided upon purely Po,
sonal or party grounds, instead of upon public "nd je t ,
tional grounds. We only ask it to be proved,
es
2ndly, that no individual will be needlessly
that there is no public objection to any line of railwal.;
it; thirdly, that the line will pay a profit to the Prof
tors—a matter which we might fairly leave to the iu"a7.B
meet of the shareholders—and if these are proved, we •os
content. We scarcely ask whether or not, with antd
creasing desire for these facilities for communication, Ile
the growth of science, it is likely that, when we hp to
granted this or that particular line, we shall not hav-ble
entertain the prayer of some other parties—a reasolaoui,
prayer, too—for the best line affording the greatest sere
We dovetail this line to that; give a branch "be,
and there; reject this project and that; unmindful wob,
ther we are thereby bestowing a permanent boon or °d
temporarily propping up an injurious monopoly. re.
A text which will serve us as the basis of a re- and
marks in illustration of our position is now before ;
it may also tend to exhibit to the world the agi,r,esb'iae
ase
character of the peculiar species of monopoly wine d of
are legislating to perpetuate. All the world has heard 01
the gentleman whose name we have given at the how.
this articlel; how he has grown from a successful trance,
injured.;
man to wield a power arid a revenue which some IR.
reigns cannot command. We refer, of course, t° •
g,
George Hudson, a gentleman who, at a recent meeting.
held at Derby, boasted that the company which he regreret'
sents, and of which he is the soul, has " eight ironies
miles of railway, which have been sanctioned by For di•
went, all carried on, and to be carried on, under one
tsea
rection. Now, let us see how this great railway levi'Veet
manages affairs. Passing over his fight for the DLbt
Northern against the London and York—the great 7/13t
of the session—which is most likely to be fought
.",,iofr
again ; passing over, also, his various purchases da,`od,
the present year—those of the Great North of Engitleed
the Darlington and Newcastle, the Birmingham :0,
Gloucester, and Gloucester and Bristol lines, and his
rious other arrangements—let us see what he has Ofor
and is doing. to fortify his monopoly. We shall refer,
this information, to the speech itself. bal. Mr. Hudson first congratulates the Midland share hu,
ders upon their having succeeded in throwing oiltoest
Chesterfield and Sheffield and the Sheffield and New
ae
lines, which, he says, " we felt it our duty to resist las
much as possible." hy ? Where was the duty ?oat
to the latter, he admits that " we were futy aware ood
such a district as that ought to be supplied with a ~
railway communication ;" and then Engineer Mr"
Stephenson is therefore instructed to survey a
other words, the parties originally seeking such a
—a " good railway communication"—and whom „tee,
Hudson has vanquished in a parliamentary comet'
were quite justified ; but the Midland leviathan must ct to
struct it, and reap the profits! Again, with resPeefter
the Chesterfield and Sheffield line, Mr. Hudson, 8..
succeeding in throwing it out, admits its reasonable;j'ev ois
and is about to make it himself! In the same way
iOO,
prepared, if permitted, to make the Barnsley June'
which he assisted in throwing out. re'
But in his treatment of Nottingham, Mr. Hudson
o p
ure
eminently exercises the office of a dictator. Nottiogßd $
wsnted a direct communication with Manchester, °die
line was projected from that town by Erewash, to joiniset,
Manchester and Buxton line and the Midland at Amur+
gate. This, however, was not to be permitted. Acc?inr
ingly the railway king purchased a projected collier), the
called the Erewash Valley Line; pushed it throug4 the
House of Coo mo ; arid now, although it has se ale
ordeal of the House of Lords to pass through, where
trust its pretensions will be thoroughly sifted, this is°o"
scheme of a single line of rails, to be carried out to mt.
bergate, and thence to a junction at Manchester, at ore,
Hudson's convenience, is selling in the market at t! 'the
mium of nearly £3O per share. Thus, so strong ,Isso in-
prestige
If ever
ae , pearl twr ye a r
e
prestige of this most successful man, that but for tus'e
terference of the House of Lords, the impqrtant trawsect
Nottingham may have (for a time at least) to be dragas
colliery
haverailway a
hetaoltihrsy centralatareof
mtahrikoegts siterre
are not to he deluged with new schemes, and the coutsia
unnecessarily cut up with railways, half of then', °erg('
to be unprofitable—such a monopolizing power as If
Hudson is exercising, must be strenuously resisted tea
two important towns or districts require to be conneeseP
together, why should this gentleman be allowed to
to,
in, and after buying their scheme, or by the aid of then it of
mense property over which he presides, throwing it oorat
parliament, give them some paltry secomtnodation, !eat,
sufficient to stand in the way of a really valuable IPliels
whilst it is totally inadequate for the purposes for wog
such a communication is required? We are aware tobiP
it is the fashion—in high quarters too—almost to villay to
l'oo
Mr. Hudson. It is also th grand mistake of the lit
talk of the advantages of combination in the manage bias
of ra lways. But whilst we give every due credit ti° ors
for his enterprise and ability, we must neither blind the
selves to the danger of placing too much power.'"oloo
hands of any man or any company, or allow conahi°
of management to grow into a monopoly.

aD
LYNN AND ELY, ELY AND HUNTINOI4 -v-s,
AND LYNN AND DEREHAM RAILWAYS
IN WEST NORFOLK.

(From the Railway Record.) olt;
In the early part of the present year we made
servations on the proposed lines in West Norfolk 'bate
much pleasure in reporting most favourably
now that the session has nearly reached its close, te rpro:
gress and prospects, No time has been lost in Pred Os:
of the. soot
them forward through parliament with energy an 0305;
snatch, and the result has been, as we anticipate Wet'
satisfactory. The Lynn and Ely Company have obi ever
the royal assent to their act, which gives them the t0:11'
to carry out the whole of their original scheme, ere OP
ing a main line from Ely to Lynn, a branch to the of
port of Wisbeach, and another small branch W has
the Lynn passenger station, in the very centre
town, with Lynn harbour. Cam
Company's readers are aware, that the Northern and ,'" BesaY
Company's line proceeds direct from London, eta terb°;
bridge, to Ely, where it diverges on the left to Fee love
rough, and on the right to Brandon, meeting, at th
place, the Brandon Company's line to Norwiett'„, the
main line of the Lynn and Ely Company continaly to
Northern and Eastern Company's line direct front 940!
Lynn, one of the most important ports on the eons°
coast, and which has for generations enjoyed asnon,,tilt
entire monopoly of the trade of the adjo n3ng c-
even as far as Buckinghamshire. The branch to / rail,
beach will give to that town and port the benefito- naa
way communication with London and the east, :
prove a most valuable feeder to the main line. le conir
The branch to Lynn harbour, at which point eti3bintlfle
pany have power to purchase about forty acres will eotte,
the purpose of r.recting a wharf, quays, Bze., the 1)-#;
to the railway the conveyance to the interior of eye.,
mense quantities of sea-borne goods which Pas 6,
year through the harbour. a cee,be
Closely indentified with, and, in fact, forming of ;1,
nuition of, the Lynn and Ely Railway, is the lily, 41°
foe,
Ely and Bedford Company. Commencing at e
• ho
lows the valley of the Ouse, and passing throng ~be „
Huntingdon, and St. Neots, joins at Bedford
c'oanelo
from that town to Bletchley, thus preserving the distrieby
ion which has so long subsisted between those ded
and the port of Lynn. The line was reconinaeonad th.'ol
the Board of Trade for postponement, on the gr° gel Abe
between Huntingdon and Bedford, it ran Pare s, 'by
the London and York and Eirect Northern l'reieeiinni.6
directors nullified the effect of this recommen a tbolo
l O
limiting their application in the present session t strnett
between Ely and Huntingdon, the act for the eau el,
of which has received the roa assent.
The registration of sharesyin the two lines isPerft e°ll'
ing, and public meetings of shareholders have be
vened for the 29th and 30th instant. a iaentk
The Lynn and Dereham line commences by B tbe
with the Lynn and Ely line, and thus secures ti harbaL",
vantages attending the passenger station "
erlce to Per, it
branch of that company. It proceeds thence heroham, a large town in the centre of Node' ionti cos,ai
meets a line to Norwich. It is entirely free,
the an
be,
petition, and by means of some one or other 0:e.) not( tbe
rous projects (the Grand Union, East Coast, onn
fore the public for forming a direct line frolnu7datiblaioe
secure the whole of the great
midland and manufacturing districts, roust goods gods
strolls
passenger 8
ra"
kingdom. The bill has passed both houses between Yarmouth and Norwich and
ofthose
beesthe
and only awaits the royal assent. before
We find, front the evidence adduced s have _,e.
mittee on the three bills, that agreemento4 074
entered into for uniting all the lines under "li., work of
ment, with a view to harmony and econotnYide'ri-t, towsof,
them. Most of the directors are locally re_s_ficieneets of
great respectability ; and we can with euu
the ele'renSPec
that the lines appear to us to combine all
asonabie e
success, cheapness of construction, the re
tunity 0
sot
tation of abundant traffic, and the er'o°V undeS
economical working and management• 90 ,
that the works will be commenced imment. wiles
Atl
,c 1 tat
all the lines, comprising together about ninety
secar- en-
be opened within twelve months.
ctiTitV' Jose e•
Lynn has, by its enterprise and
d its Pe so
itself a position that must inevitably ten has been or 007
prosperity; and no town in the kingdora,7l3 this 11
cesstul in its applications to Parliamet"
previous session. esar_tisiso6,ot.f