Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1869-04-27

road, and the friends not beng informed
of the exact extent of the detection, wer'
alarmed and seemed upon the point o
surrendering at discretion. However
they made up their minds to make trla
and abide the result. The meeting or
eanized at one o'clock by the choice of W
| G. Doane, Esq. moderator. The resolu
ton to change the conditions was intro
duced by Mr.. Pearl. Mr.. Knight wa
called upon and kept upon the stand TO
an hour or so, explaining the proposition
and answering questions put by the oppo
nents. Mr.. Brigham was then called up
on, and responded in cogent and candle
speech, in which he showed plainly how
the proposed change would be for the in
terest of the towns. He showed how i
would be a great saving to the towns il
any event, and how it PROBABLY would b'
an immense saving. He could not see
how il was a breach of faith with the towns
r. offer them modification of their con
tract, SO obviously for their own interests tt
accent. He showed the great Importance
Of the action of the town OF johnson, anc
how its favorable action would virtually
close the campaign, and the danger OF al
verse action. His remarks were atteh
lively listened to and we are much mlsta'
kenad if they did not produce good ct,
feet It was now Mr.. Heath's turn, and
he took the floor and made long speech
which was warmly received by the oppo,
pents of the road and with grief, anger,
or chagrin by the friends, according to the
disposition and temper of the hearers lis
argument against the change IN question
mainly was, that the towns were called
Upon to surrender their security which
they now held in the condition that they
should not be called upon to pay until the
road was built and running, carrying pas
sengers and freight, without any reasona-
after they had issued their bonds. He
was not willing, as business man, to give
up a good mortgage security for less
good and certain one. His conscience
would not allow him to advise the people
Of johnson to do it, in view of what he
with others, had pledged to them when he
advocated bonding Of the town. We ad-
nit that there is some force and great
plausibility in this argument; and had
our freud stopped here, or have continu-
ed to urge arguments Of this kind to prove
it TO be unwise to change their bonds, We
do not see how even the railroad friends
could have reasonably found fault with
him--however much they might have been
aggrieved. But we regret to say his ar
gument did mo-. stop here. Having erect
ed his conscience as the black board 1--WE
use the figure In an inoifensive sense) upon
which to do it, he proceeded to write out
the substance of all the old arguments
which were made against bonding at all,
which arguments he had less than
year ago so ably and mantully refuted.
When he began to magnify the difficulties
OF building the road; to multiply and cle-
vate the mountain ranges; to imagine un-
discovered and unsupported and improba-
BILE hard-pans; to quote the enormous cost
OF roads extravagantly built as precedents;
to advise the directors to close the bar.
gain with any responsible party who would
build the road for $4,000 per
mile; to place the construction of the road
bed $4,000 or $4,000 higher in estimate
than Mr.. Lindsey and other compent en-
gineers; to attempt to figure the sum al
ready raised down to $1,000 or $4,000 per
mile, when the figures show it to be over
81 900 to the mile in case we change
the condition of our bonds so as to avail
ourselves Of all the money raised in
short, to urge many objections which We
have heretofore heard himself answer when
others had advanced them, we lost sight
of the conscience which had been so con-
spicuously thrust into the foreground, and
began TO give attention to the smiling
countenances Of his old adversaries.-
Heath il coming to his senses, said one
of them In our hearing, who was respond
ed to by another with Eyes, he is begin
nirg to see!" Tho tOnble with our friends
argument was that while he professed to
stand just where he always had stood, and
wanted to do just what they had agreed
to do, the greater part Of his speech was
more an argument against bonding at oil
than IL was against changing tho condi.
lions of the bonds, which was the question
at Issue. 1t was the spirit Of the opposi.
tion manifest through Heath. When Heath
boil concluded, the Row. DIR. was loudly