The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-02-03 00:00:00

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SKETCH Of the Era .v BURGH, NEWHAVEN, LEITH, & GRANTON RAILWAY, chewing its connexion with Burntisland

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Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway

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We give above two sketches—not very elaborate affairs,
having been hastily got up, but still, we trust, sufficiently
accurate to serve the purpose of the few observations
which we wish to make upon them.
The first shows the direction of the four lines north of
the Forth, viz. :—The Edinburgh and Northern, the
Scottish Central, the Scottish Midland, and the Dundee
and Perth.
The second shows the direction of the four companies
smith of the Forth, centerinc, in Edinburgh, viz. :—The
Edinburgh and Glasgow, the North British. the Caledo-
nian. and the Edinburgh, Leith, and Granton. Our object
in offering to our readers the plans in question, and the
remarks which we propose making upon them, we shall
briefly explain.
It is a well-known fact, that a large amount of the cani-
tal invested in Scottish railways has been furnished by
parties in England ; and, we believe, we may safely affirm,
that of the lines south of the Forth, particularly the Edin-
burgh and Glasgow, and the Edinburgh, Leith, and Gran-
ton, above one-half, at least, of the shares are held in Li-
verpool, Manchester, and London—the bulk in the two
former localities. Hence the judicious and impartial
management of these companies becomes an object to
secure which we are necess%rily deeply solicitous. Share-
holders at a distance, who have no local interests to serve
—no local or personal jealousies or piques to gratify—
nothing, in short, to influence them beyond the natural
desire to see the most made of their investments—look
with a keen eye upon anything in the management of con-
cerns in which they are interested, which affords even the
shadow of a suspicion that such concerns are not carried
on with an immediate view to their permanent interests,
but that these are postponed to the advancement of some
other objects with which they have neither sympathy nor
connexion. _ _

North British
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cause, was unequivocally entertained when they saw the
Edinburgh and Glasgow Company playing a fast and
loose game of negotiation with a company whose friend-
ship was so much to be desired, and ultimately lending
their cooperation to competing lines—atmospheric and
others—which they saw it to be manifestly impossible
that the legislature could ever sanction. An amalgama-
tion, they conceived, was for the mutual advantage of
both companies; and such a course they are prepared at
the present moment to advocate almost to a man.
We, of course, are not behind the scenes. We cannot
tell whet feeling it is which induces the Chairman of the
Edinburgh and Glasgow to throw impediments in the
way of the realization of the wishes of the bulk of the
shareholders, and of the advancement of the real interests
of the line, at whose management he is the bead. We
can assure him, however, that the time is not far distant
when, if the present policy is persevered in, they will take
into their own hands a little more of the direction of their
own affairs, than they at present possess. And with
respect to the shareholders of the Edinburgh, Leith, and
Granton, we can tell him that they are becoming so far
apprized of their unassailable strength, that they will not
long allow their line to be purchaseable at the fair rate of

equality, at which it has been hitherto offered.
Already it will be sten that they have taken the first
step towards the assertion of their own independance, by
an amalgamation, on equitable terms, with the Edinburgh
and Northern, by which they secure the whole of the
Northern Traffic from Burntisland pier across the Forth
to Granton pier. The former pier we suspect is already
in treaty to be purchased by them, and it is not improba-
ble the purchase of the latter may be effected, by which
advantages to both lines will be secured, the extent of
which it is impossible to appreciate, and of a participation
in which the Edinburgh and Glasgow board are by their
conduct depriving themselves.

For some time we have known that a strong feeling of
dissatisfaction has existed among the shareholders in Lan-
cashire with the management of the Edinburgh and
Glasgow Railway—an undertaking capable of vast devel-
opment and, by judicious handling, of becoming second
in importance to no railway north or south of the Tweed.
The shareholders have never been able to fathom at what
precise object the directors and their chairman were dri-
ving. It was apparent to all the world, and admitted by
the Edinburgh and Glasgow Board themselves, that it was
of the first importance to thir railway to secure an effi-
cient communication with the sea, for their inland and
export and coastwise traffic ; and also to get the best pos-
sible station in the centre of the town of Edinburgh.
Both these objects the shareholders' conceived might have
been gained by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Board coming
to an a;reement, based on equitable terms to both parties,
with the Edinburgh, Leith, and Granton Board. The
latter had a station at the North-bridge of Edinburgh.
than which a better or more central for the traffic of all
the companies south of the Forth was impossible to be
projected. They bad also a connexion with the docks of
Leith, and the splendid new piers of Granton and New-
haven, impossible to be excelled in convenience, and
which it is very unlikely thit parliament will ever allow to
be interfered with by any competing lines.
The English shareholders of the Edinburgh and Glasgow
Railway naturally expected to see the board of directors
of that line, at once and without equivocation, avail them-
selves of the vast advantages which it held forth to their
property. They expected to see an amalgamation, on
equitable terms, between the two companies ; and we can
unhesitatingly affirm that they estimated the advantages
which the Edinburgh, Leith, and Granton Company could
confer upon their line—holding, as they did, the keys of
the city and of the sea—at quite as high, or a higher,
value than any which their line could confer upon the
Edinburgh. Leith, and Granton. Their jealousy and
suspicion of want of judgment, or some other impelling

In the prresent position of railway matters, a Parliament
can obviously sanction no more competing lines, unless it
can be shecvn that some great public benefit will accrue ;
and we are certain that, on this very ground, Mr. Lear-
mouth's pet schemes are mere moonshine, and the
Edinburgh, Leith and Granton is, and will remain,
impregnable.

We invite our readers to turn to the maps, with which
we furnish them, and to say if anything better, in the
shape of accommodation, can possibly be devised than
that which the Edinburgh, Leith and Granton affords for
the city traffic, and for a connection with the sea to all
the railways centreing in Edinburgh. And, moreover,
we ask them if it is likely that, with such a line already
formed, the va'uable property in the City of Edinburgh
and near the docks of Leith will be permitted by the
Legislature to be invaded, without some pressing emer-
gency to render it inevitable. The unhesitating answer
will be—No !
And now for the Northern plan. A few months ago it
was the wish of the Northern Railway to secure a Central
Station near the Harbour of Perth. Difficulties, how-
ever, intervened in the companies coming to an amicable
conclusion, which two government engineers, Captains
Goddington and Cleather, were dispatched to Scotland to
solve; and their inquiries and tiegociations have termi-
nated in the arrangement of all questions in disputes and
the recommendation to form the admirable central station
at Perth, as marked in our plan. We hold out this exam-
ple to the companies south of the Forth, as worthy of their
imitation ; and if they continue to meet with obstacles in
the obstinacy of members of their respective boards, let
the shareholders, at the approaching half-yearly meetings
take their affairs into their own hands. Really valuable
undertakings ought not to he allowed to be shipwrecked
for the want of firmness in their proprietors to repress
the want of forethought of those in whose hands they
have placed the management of such great interests.

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