The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-03-18 00:00:00

LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY

COMPANY.

JUNCTION LINES IN. MANCHESTER

Oa Tuesday, at one o'clock, a special general meeting of
the proprietors of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway was
held in the Cotton Sales' Room, for the purpose of consider-
ing the course to be pursued with respect to the several pro-
posed lines of communication with the Manchester and Leeds
Railway, and others in Manchester. The chairman of the
directors, CHARLES LAWRENCE, Esq., presided.
Mr. CLAY, law clerk to the company, read the notice con-
vening the meeting. It set forth that the objects of the meet-
ing were to take into consideration and decide upon the
course to be pursued with respect to the several proposed
lines of communication with the Manchester and Leeds Rail-
way, and other railways and places of traffic in Manchester
and Salford, namely, the line from Hunt's Bank and St.
George's-road, in Manchester, and the south, a new line from
Ordsall-lane by Castle-field and Store-street to the Man-
chester and Leeds Railway ; that in the Oldham-road, in
Manchester, and on either special affairs.
The CHAIRMAN then said, that since they last had the
pleasure of meeting the proprietors in that place, he begged
to assure them that the directors had not been idle upon this
question. They had taken every measure, and they had ex-
erted themselves to the utmost in obtaining the greatest pos-
sible information upon this important subject, in order to lay
it before the proprietors. (Hear, hear.) On the 28th ult.
they addressed a letter to the proprietors upon it, and they
now begged leave to read a further report, in addition to what
they then circulated. (Hear, hear.) He would not detain
the proprietors longer ; but, before sitting down, lie begged
to assure them that the directors, in all their proceedings,
had but one object, and that was to promote the interests of
this undertaking. They bad no personal feeling in the mat-
ter which had led to the proprietors being called together ; and
although there appeared to have been great animosity and
differences between them and the directors of the Leeds and
Manchester line, he was prepared, on behalf of the board
over which be bad the honour to preside, to deny that they
had any feeling of that kind. (Applause.) They were quite
willing to meet the Leeds board, and they regretted that cir-
cumstances should_ have occurred to have prevented a meeting
between them recently. (Hear, hear.) At the same time,
he assured the proprietors, that whatever their decision was
on the subject, the directors would feel it their duty to carry
out their instructions according to the best of their ability,
and to negotiate with the Leeds, or any other line, in order
views of the proprietors. (Applause.) The

to carry out

secretary vim, report.
Mr. Boinu, secretary to the company, then read the re-
port, which will be found in our advertising columns.
The CHAIRMAN said, that before he proceeded to hear any
observations or remarks from the proprietors upon this re-
port, he would take leave to state that the directors had pre-
pared certain resolutions in conformity with the report, which
resolutions they proposed to submit for the approbation of
the meeting. They (the directors) had requested him to
cause these resolutions to be read, in the first instance, us
being their resolutions; and they thought it was more cor-
rect for them to undertake the responsibility of proposing
these resolutions, than to commit them to individual proprie-
tors, who had not bad an opportunity of considering the
question so fully as the directors. (Hear, hear.) In conclu-
sion, he begged to assure the proprietors that both the reso-
lutions and the report were the unanimous production of the
directors. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. CLAY then read the resolutions, which will also be

Id now read ti

found in the advenisement.
The CHAIRMAN then said, it was his intention, on behalf
of the directors, to propose that these resolutions be adopted,
when he had had the honour of hearing the remarks of the

.. . _
proprietors; and, in the meantine, the directors would be
happy to answer any questions that might be put to them.

Hear, hear.)

M r. BOOTH BY

said it was with great pleasure that he rose

to propose the adoption of the resolutions which had been
just read. He had come to the meeting, he must confess,
with a very contrary intention, and he was bound to state

that he hadforined that intention from the communication

which the directors had issued to the proprietors about a
week ago, in which, if he recollected rightly, there was a re-
commendation that the junction by Hunt's Bank should be
abandoned. He was happy to see now, by the resolutions
which had just been read, that no such ultimate decision
had been come to by the directors. (Hear, hear.) Approving
as he did of all that was said in the report and in the resolu-

tions ; as far as be w•as able to judge, in an engineering point

of view, and with reference to general communication in the
town of Manchester, the connexion by the south line was

preferable to that of the north. But, unfortunately, the
question was not to be decided upon merits of that kind ; for
this company, perhaps hastily, but with the best intentions,
had applied for
_and obtained the sanction of parliament to-

make ti :junction by Hunt's-bank, and it might be question-
able how far they could get rid of that obligation and obtain

the sanction of parliament to the otheiline;- There were also
other questions involved in it of vital importance to the pros-
perity of this undertaking, one of which was whether, by
making the south junction with the Leeds railway, they
could obtain the co-operation of the other companies and of
the town of Manchester itself. Unfortunately a spirit had
been generated between the two companies, not of cordial
co-operation, but of mutual jealousy and recrimination.
The Leeds and Manchester Railway Company objected to
this company's line by the south, lest by a connection
with the Sheffield line they might open a communication that
would be prejudicial to the interests of the Leeds company.
therefore he was not surprised at the great unwillingness of
that company to adopt the recommendation which was now
proposed. They, no doubt, entertained a feeling of jealousy
that this company .night promote a rival line to Leeds to
their injury, and this company might also think that they
would apply their capital for a rival line to Liverpool, there-
fore the question was one of mutual jealousy rather than
wil;ch was the best engineering line, and he was afraid that
these considerations had more influence upon the minds of
some parties than the real merits of the case. It was
difficult tor those merits to be fully discussed in a pub-
lic meeting like the present, and therefore, he should
not presume to enter upon them. If the question
was one of expense, he could only say that be had
perfect confidence in the ability and experience of Mr.
Locke, and that he would rest his faith upon the estimates
of that gentleman ; and if the amount of traffic were the ques-
tion in dispute, he felt bound to place greater confidence in
the investigations of his own directors (the Liverpool arid
Manchester) than in those of the opposing party.. Be had

very little doubt that the estimates of Leeds Company had
been overstated. Of course he did not mean to impute to
them having done so wilfully, because they had given the
best proof of the sincerity of their opinions by the bold offer
they had made of placing themselves in the position of the
shareholders in the LiVerpool and Manchester Company,
taking all the risk upon themselves, and guaranteeing to the
shareholders 10 per cent. The meeting, therefore, could not
doubt their sincerity. (Hear, bear, hear.) There might
have been injudicious observations made out of doors in order
to excite suspicions and doubts on both sides ; but he (Mr.
Boothby) believed that in the body of directors of both com-
panies there existed only a desire to do that which was fair

and honourable towards all parties, if it could be done upon
a plan of mutual security. (Hear, hear.) He was glad,
therefore, that the directors of this company had not recom-
mended the proprietors to come to a definite resolution that
under no circumstances would they adopt the Hunt's Bank
Line, but had most judiciously recommended that this im-
portant question should be submitted to the judgment of men
of unimpeachable character, of high honour, and perfectly
disinterested—such as were named in one of the resolutions,
the members for the county (north division), the chancellor
of the duchy, or the board of trade. (Hear, hear.) To that
recommendation he really thought that no person could
offer any reasonable objection. He had come down here very
much contrary to his wishes, and not with any desire to in-
terfere with the deliberations of the meeting, but, he might
say, at the request of a few parties, friends of his, who were
interested in both sides of the question. He had no interest
himself in the Leeds and Manchester, in the Manchester and
Birmingham, or in the Manchester and Sheffield lines ; his
interest was confined exclusively to this line, therefore in
what he said he was not open to the remark of being influ-
enced by a pecuniary interest in other lines. At the same
time he had friends who were connected with, and interested
in, other lines, in whose character lie had the greatest confi-
dence, and whom he believed to be perfectly sincere in their
desire to promote a measure that should unite these two
companies in the promotion of their mutual interest. It was
highly desirable that some scheme should be devised to re-
concile the conflicting opinions, and to remove the jealousies,
which now existed; and he should conclude what he had to
say by strongly recommending the resolutions to the adop-
tion of the meeting, adding, however, another resolution to
them, to the effect that the chairman of this company be re-
quested to meet, or to ask for a meeting, with the chairman
of the Leeds and Manchester Company, with the view of en-
tering into a discussion of the various points now atissueand not
excluding from their consideration that most important one
of the leasing of this line. He was perfectly sensible of the
difficulties that existed in the way of leasing the line—so
much so, that it was only the other day he wrote to his friend
Mr. Houldsworth his deliberate opinion, that those difficul-
ties were not to be overcome. He had since had the plea-
sure of seeing that gentleman, and, after a good deal of dis-
cussion with him upon the subject, he found that, although
great difficulties did and would occur, there were means
whereby all those difficulties might be effectually removed.
He was himself of opinion, that, if there was a desire for it
upon the part of this company, all the difficulties in the way
of leasing the line might be overcome, if the sanction of par-
liament could be obtained. Upon that question he could
not give an opinion • but he might observe, that there was
already one example of parliament having sanctioned the
leasing of a line—namely, the Leeds and Selby line—to an-
other company, upon conditions similar to those proposed
in the present case. With that example it ought not to be
presumed that parliament would refuse its sanction to the
scheme, especially because public grounds might be assigned
in favour of it. The union in the working of the two lines
would conduce to the public convenience, and the expendi-
ture of such a large sum of money as that which was proposed
being contingent upon that union would be found to promote
public convenience, whilst the great outlay of this company
would be secured from an inadequate return. Now, if the
Leeds company were willing to take upon themselves the
risk, and guarantee to this company a dividend of 10 per
cent., they had, he considered, a strong claim upon parlia-
ment to enable them to lease this line. He would further
observe, with regard to leasing the line, that the engage-
ments which this company had contracted with other com-
panies—the Grand Junction, and other tributary streams
which added to their revenue—had strongly pressed them-
selves upon his (Mr. Boothby's) mind • but, from the con-
versations be had had with Mr. Houldsworth, he thought
that those difficulties were not insuperable. They might be
overcome, by those engagements forming a portion of the
conditions of the lease. He did not wish to go now into
details ; he merely desired to state his wish that the chair-
men of the two companies might meet and discuss between
themselves this very important question, and see if the diffi-
culties in the way of an adjustment could not be overcome.
He was quite sure, from .what he knew of him, that the
chairman of the Leeds Company, who was so anxious to
have the two companies united upon the principle he had
mentioned, would be satisfied with such a decision as this,
and that he would endeavour to come to some understand-
ing, either to go to Store-street or otherwise. In recom-
mending the chairmen to meet, he did it upon this ground—
that questions of such great delicacy and importance as this
were much better discussed by two individuals than by more
numerous committees. It would avoid, too, the danger to
which they had been hitherto exposed, of misunderstanding
and recrimination. He had perfect confidence, as they
all had, in the integrity, discretion, and gentlemanly
bearing of their chairman, Mr. Lawrence ; he believed
that confidence would be unanimously placed in that
gentleman ; and he must also be allowed to say, from
long intimacy with, and a personal knowledge of, Mr.
Houldsworth, that he did not believe Manchester possessed
a more independent mind, a more honourable spirit, or a
more upright man, than that gentleman. (Hear, hear.) He
felt the strongest confidence that if these two 'gentlemen met
in friendly discussion all differences between the two com-
panies would be amicably arranged. He did not mean to say
that the deputation should be limited to these two gentlemen.
If the chairman of either company felt that the responsibility
would be too great, and he sought to add another member of
Lie board, he (Mr. Boothby) did not object, but after what he
hid said he did not think it became him to say any more. In
proposing the adoption of the resolutions he also begged to
move, not as an amendment, but as an addition, that negoci-
tions be opened between the chairmen, of the two companies,
in the full hope and expectation of their leading to an ami-
cable and friendly understanding. (Hear, bear, hear.)
°t, appearedßm l l
be
begged to
most
to
extraordinary
ra or alloweddina
rt; xianlcice t
oa
his mind that this company should be found fault with for
having struck upon the south line, and that it should be.
called a new idea. He begged to recall to the recollection of