The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-05-03 00:00:00

reality, a piece of as complete absurdity as was cv
put forward, even [from the lips of so distinguished
propounder of fiction as Mr. Robert Gill.
As little reason is there, we arevsatisfied, for tile fe
which seems to have been entertained, of any serio

opposition to a southern junction from the Manchester
and Birmingham Company. The: directors of that
company, however dovetailed in interest they may be
with sonic of the LeedS Board, would never he per-
mitted to embark in a serious opposition to a junctior
so valuable as this would be to their own undertaking.
On this head we state, advisedly, that the Liverpoo.
Board have been completely misled, as they have alsc

been with respect to the feeling of the public of Man-
chester, which we can assure them is anything but one
of approbation of the course which they have pursued,
or of strong liking for the Hunt's Bank project.
We dare say we shall be told that it is too late now
to canvass this question ; and certainly the rapidity with
which the Leeds gentlemen are pressing on their opera-
tions would favour such an opinion. Already the con-
tracts for the formation of the branch from the present
station of the Leeds Company to Hunt's Bank are
advertised, and we have no doubt the Liverpool Cow.
pany will be immediately pressed to commence upon
their portion of the junction. We do sincerely trust,
however, that they may yet be induced to pause, before
hopelessly entangling themselves; for it is impossible
to shut out from our mind, or from the mind of any
man acquainted with the locality, the conviction that,
sooner or later, a junction line by the south of M an-
chester, and the formation of a general station in a
part of the town more central than Hunt's Bank, will be
loudly called for, and must take place ! It is a manifest

impossibility that a line with the traffic which the
Sheffield line will have upon it, when once completed,
can be permitted to remain isolated ;—that a break in
the direct communication, which would otherwise be
formed between the east and west coasts of England, can
be permitted to occur for the want of a junction line

through Manchester to the Liverpool Railway

scarcely possible to believe, either, that Stockport;
Macclesfield, and other towns upon the Manchester
and Birmingham line will long submit to be deprived
of an uninterrupted communication with Liverpool,
the great mart of their staple material, merely to gra-
tify the prejudices or the absurd fears of a few selfish
proprietors in other lines. This communication, we
repeat, must be made, and by the Liverpool company
too, if they consult the interests of their own underta-

king; and .it is surely ruinous and absurd policy, w
this fact before them, to attempt embarking in a p
ject which will involve an outlay of £300,000 with(

doing any more than connecting themselves with
out of the three lines which must be provided with s

communication !

We believe firmly that the Liverpool Company
not aware of half the influences which have beer

work to induce their committing themselves to this
Hunt's bank project. The whole of the water com-

panies of Manchester see in this untoward step the
prospect of securing to themselves the valuable traffic
from the south and east—from Stockport, Ashton,
Duckinfield, Hyde, Staley Bridge, Mottram, Glossop,
Sheffield, Barnsley, New Mills, &c., which must either
travel the entire distance by canal or he set down at
Store-street, to find its way, by the various carrying
companies, to Liverpool,instead of coming at once, and
inevitably, upon the Liverpool line. And, after all,
what, we ask, has the company gained to compensate
for this sacrifice ? Have they any additional security