The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-04-01 00:00:00

THE RAILWAY TIMES & ITS CORRESPONDENTS

We had occasion some weeks ago to comment upon the ex-
tremely unfair and injurious course pursued by the Railway
Times, in giving insertion to the effusions of every moon-
struck or splenetic person who imagines himself to be ag-
grieved by, or capable of inflicting a blow upon, any railway
undertaking. We reminded our contemporary at that time
of the peculiar sensitiveness of capital invested in these un-
dertakings to every expression of public opinion—that the
slander of the designing or the misrepresentation of the
foolish possessed far more power to wound, than truth, how-
ever strongly tasked, to heal ; and we did hope that our con-
temporary, acknowledging, as he then did, its impropriety,
would have ceased to open his columns to this masked war
carried on by the officials, or the interested tools of this or
that company, against rival companies, unless he was sure of
the correctness of the facts put forward, and was prepared to
give the same currency to any rejoinder which might be made
that he had already given to the original lie.
We are sogry, however, that we cannot accord to the Rail-
way Times that credit for fairness, in this respect, which, on
many recent occasions, he has assumed for himself. From a
correspondence, which has been brought before our attention,
in the Sheffield Independent, it is very obvious that whilst our
contemporary has been willing to lend himself to the inflic-
tion of a wound upon a struggling undertaking, he has de-
clined repeatedly to afford space for any explanation of the
perversions of facts and inferences which his columns have
been the vehicle of conveying to the world. The interested
libeller and the merely stupid scribbler are permitted to
creep under our contemporary's shadow and discharge their
venomed darts at random ; but the advocate of truth can
neither tell the source from which these missiles come, nor
proclaim through:the same channels, the falsehoods which
they bear abroad.

We should scarcely, however, have been induced to recur
to this subject, had we not felt compelled, by our position
as journalists, and by the opinions which we have previously
expressed upon the subject tolwhich it refers, to call the at-
tention of our readers to an anonymous letter, dated Feb.
21st, in the. last number of the Railway Times, addressed
" to the shareholders in the Manchester and Leeds Rail-
way." In that letter the statements are so extraordinary,
that we should almost think our contemporary must have
omitted. reading it before giving it insertion, did not the
date—nearly five weeks old—fully warrant the' supposition
that it is an advised and deliberate publication, for the ma-
terial truth of which (upon the principle which it is acknow-
ledged ought to govern the editor of a publication like the
Railway Times, in whose pages a whispered rumour may
involve the security of property to an incalculable extent)
as, ought to be held, at least, morally responsible.

The object of the writer of this letter is evidently to create

a feeling in favour of the Manchester and Leeds line and its

direction, and to prejudice the public against the Liverpool
and Manchester and other lines interested in the southern
junction in Manchester. In the course of this laudable en-
deavour, he proceeds to inform us with respect to the past
proceedings, not of the Liverpool and Manchester board,
but of the Grand Junction, North Union, and others, which
we really imagine have little to do with the matter before us.
These gentlemen, he says, have been guilty of all these enor-
mities in past time; and they are now striving to " puff the
Sheffield line into notice, that they may stifle the project of
a junction at Hunt's Bank, and ultimately prevent any
junction line whatever from being made through the town
of Manchester." .

✓ What an unhappy monomania, we may remark, these
gentlemen of the Manchester and Leeds Railway are afflicted
with, upon the subject of the Sheffield Railway ! Macbeth
certainly never " murdered sleep " as the distant sound of
the cutlery of Sheffield, the woollens of Yorkshire, the cot-
tons of Lancashire, and the produce from the Humber,
booming along the valleys of the Don and the Etherow,
seems to fright away sweet visions from the pillows of these
bewildered gentlemen!
But to proceed. The letter writer (in himself NOBODY ;
but, so far as his statements are adopted by the Railway
Times, entitled to some notice) contends that the Liverpool
board are so prejudiced by their interest in the Grand June-
don and other lines that they cannot act honestly in this
question of a Junction through Manchester.
" Are they sincere," he asks, " in bepraising the Sheffield
line, and will they take it up in earnest arid carry it through ?
No such thing ; they are too good judges in railway matters ;
they know very well that the population spread along the
Sheffield line is extremely thin ; and that from Staly Bridge
(seven miles from Manchester) there is not a single town all
the way to Sheffield ; they know, too, that the works are
heavy, and that the tunnel is upwards of three miles long, or
nearly twice the length of the Leeds Summit tunnel, which
has cost £250,000."
The whole of this paragraph our contemporary must have
known to be a tissue of senseless and determined lying. But
we pass that over, reminding our readers that it comes from
Leeds.

" They know full well," proceeds the letter writer, " that
if the completion of the Sheffield line proves injurious to us,
it would prove fatal to the Grand Junction Line : that it
would deprive them of the Manchester traffic to London, or
of half of it at least, as the distance from 'Manchester to
London, via Sheffield and Derby, would be no greater than
via Crewe and Birmingham."

Indeed! is this so ? Is the " distance from Manchester to
London, via Sheffield and Derby, no greater than via Crewe
and Birmingham'?" IT is so! The alarmist of the Lecds
line is perfectly correct in this assertion, at least ; and it may
possibly throw some light on the grounds upon which the
Manchester and Birmingham Company are not a little in-
clined to submit to their portion of the injury which must
result from the adoption of the Hunt's Bank junction, in pre-
ference to the southern line—a line, by the bye, which they
themselves, or parties ipintimateconnectionwith them, were
but afew years ago eagerly advocating. But that the Grand
Junction Company have any reason to fear such competition
we utterly deny, although it is sufficiently apparent that the
Manchester and Birmingham, equally with the Leeds, FRAIL
this Sheffield line, and are willing to join in the attempt to

injure it.
We have bestowed, perhaps, too much attention upon this
small insect—the correspondent of the Railway Times—
whose inclination to wound is certainly much greater than
his capacity. We wish, however, to point a moral to our re-
spected contemporary. It must be evident that, at the root
of a great portion of the objurgation levelled against our
fellow-townsmen for the course which they have pursued with
respect to this junction question, is a bitter hostility against,
and fear of the successful completion of, the Sheffield line.
Upon the showing of our contemporary's correspondent, that
line is one of great public utility. It shortens materially
the route to Leeds and the Humber. It is Me Shortest
routefrom Manchester to the important towns of DEany,
NOTTINGHAM LEICESTER, &C., and the adjacent districts:
and it is "a competing line" from Manchester to the me-
tropolis itself: Is it then, we ask, worthy of our contem-
porary—is it consistent with his character as an advocate of

railway interests—is it, we ask, honest or wise in him, with
its evident claims to support upon the ground of public con-
venience even, to lend himself to efforts, thus systemati-
cally and perseveringly made, to crush an uadertaking of
such importance as this must be ? We leave the ytte‘tion
to his consideration.

CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY. —A was held,
in aid of the above society, in St. Mark'stil School-room, on
B. A. Marshall
meeting
Associa-
tion Tuesday evening, the 29th ultimo, the Raevi
in the chair, fur the purpose of formin-
don for that Church and District. The°
nume-
rously attended, and at the conclusion twentyn-gtwwoluvenil
delivered
collectors offered their services. Addresses
by the Rev. B. A: Marshal, A.M., and the Rev.ere
It is hoped that many more Juvenile Branches of
most important association will be formed in this to:nt. this
most as a means of interesting the young is
cause of missions, and of increasing the funds of the parent
the
The Church AlisihMary Society have prepared col-
,ecting cards, boxes, and a :Royal), perodical, speci ally in.
tended for the young.

society