The Portland daily press., 1872-02-12


Boston & Maine railroad to locate their extern
sion from Berwick in such a manner as to
make it part of great through route, from
Bangor to Boston through Gorham and Alfred,
are calculated to excite much interest in this
vicinity. We are unable to say how much Mr.
Burleigh's views may be eolored by the intense
feeling excited among his own constituents by
the course the corporation has pursued in their
own town:
From some unexplained cause to me I'M
known, the Boston and Maine Railroad Com
pany have withdrawn or kept back from this
Honse the bills presented early in the session,
and thereby deprived me of an opportunity to
present the grievances OF my town to this Leg
islature, and now propose to embrace this op-
portunity to make a few statements and here
ON this floor charge the & M. r. r. Co.
with not keeping in good faith their contracts
with this State. With attempting to cheat nv
town, and by SO doing decrease the value of it's
property more than 100000. With not build
ing their new road through the town of South
Berwick according to charter With building
road fromithelState line, diverting from South
Berwick direct to North Berwick, on line for
which they have no charter. With obtaining
charter from this State last winter under false
pretenses. With imprisonng our citizens with
out law, under color of law. With not daring
to meet these charges squarely before this Leg
islature meaning to drag my town into an ex-
pensive law suit.
The petitions (now on file in the Secretary of
States office) presented to the Legislature of
last winter by the b. & M r. r. Co. pray that
the company may be allowed to extend their
railroad from South Berwick junction to Port
land. The charter granted them at that time,
reads. ''The b. & M. r. r. Co: is hereby au-
thorized to extend its railroad from some con-
venient point in Berwick or South Berwick
within this State; thence through the towns of
South Berwick, North Berwick if necessary,
Wells, Kennebunk, and on to Portland" 1t
provides that they may begin back at point
in Berwick, that as they asserted at the time,
''they might curve their line and enable them
/ to go through the village of South Berwick, and
more accommodate it," That they might get
this charter our citizens petitioned, and even
came here and aided them in having it granted.
This company is now building road without
going through South Berwick, road turning
aside from the town as soon as it strikes the
soil of our State; road that is not an extern
sion, but diversion of their road from South
Berwick to Portland. What is the result of
this action of the B. & NJ r. r. to my town?
1 answer, depreciation of stumpage alone of
over $4,000; deprivation of railroad facilities
j0yed for thirty years by more than 1000 people;
making valueless twenty or thirty houses own
ed by working men,. moving the business of
South Berwick junction to the junction of the
Great Falls branch in New Hampshire; in
word, making the village of South Berwick
Junction, in the swampy wilderness in which
| IL is placed OF no more account imam II sunk, or
| wiped from the face of the earth.
| To push things ON this new road located
without law or charter and in order to intimi-
date the owners of the land they get up an is
sue between them and the courts and through
false representations, have no doubt procured
an injunction restraining all persons from in
terfering with the building of the Boston &
Maine railroad Armed with this instrument,
the sheriffs came and arrested two of our best
citizens, carried them to Jail by night and car
tnA han Irfry villa IN On y,I kIx0,-
tried, fined and put him under bonds Gentle
men, these men did nothing worthy of bonds
or imprisonment, as can be abundantly proved.
This was in the last week of October; we well
remember the time. Our citizens collected to-
! gether in all parts OF the town and talked in
| low and excited tones; their moral sense of
| justice was outraged, dearest rights were being
trampled under foot, the strong arm of the
law was brought to bear upon them with great
injustice. AS good peaceable citizens as ever
lived, men never known to be in trouble with
the law, ~eounseled resistance to it, All that
was lacking of riot was for any one of our
good citizens to say come, and whole people
would have rushed to the rescue and driven the
officers of the law from town.
| Need say that the Railroad Company ac-
complished its end? Our citizens, the land
owners, were completely unnamed, scared,
! by this treatment. All this and more would
we have proved to the Committee on Railroads
Ways and Bridges, if the attorney of the Bos-
ton & Maine had not moved to withdraw the
petition aud bill referred to it by this House.
to allow the company to take up its track from
South Berwick junction to Salmon Falls Gen
tlemen may ask why they applied for a char
ter to build road to one place, and built it in
another? / will ask why their engineers cut
so wide road through forest where they had
charter early in April, and contractors not
commence to build the road as located, without
charter, before the last of October?
In answer, say that if gentlemen will go in
to the Secretary of States office, they may find
together in the index book, the so called act for
the extension of the Boston & Maine and the
act to build the Alfred & South Berwick rail-
road
On that map you may see that these roads
are being built together in one road as far as
North Berwick, and twelve miles more
through a sandy plain, from North Berwick to
Alfred, and the Portland & Rochester rail-
road is tapped | will 60 further, Mr.. Speaker
and gentlemen, and say that while the Boston
& Maine is building ON straight course from
the State line to North Berwick and on towards
the bosom of the great commercial metropolis
of our State, this company is also building in
the same road towards the great manufactur-
ing centre, Lewiston The hand writing is on
that map on the wall, and he who reads may
judge. Who of you gentlemen will dare to say
that within two years the route through Bangor
Lewiston, Gorham, Alfred, North Berwick,
and Boston, will not be the greatest as it will
be the nearest Railroad thoroughfare in this
State, to the great commercial center of New
England?
With the developments of the summer and
autumn, this prospect in the distance, viewed
with an eye to business, seems to me to be rea-
son enough why South Berwick is left one side.
But wanting sufficient reasons for this rich
company to ruin so many people, injure our
town SO much without just Compensation; but
not sufficient reason to imprisOn our citizens
without law, and for riding over them in
rough-shod and arbitrary manner, if they dare
to stand up for the dearest rights of man.
No TREATY OF SEPARATIoN.-A Quebec
dispatch states that Mr.. Langerin, Minister of
Public Works, says that there is no foundation
whatever for the rumor of a treaty of separa-
ton between Canada and Great Britain, be-
cause such a matter could only be transacted
by the Parliament of the Dominion, and that
body never heard anything of the kind. Great
Britain had made no overtures to the Domin-
ion. 1t has been said, that in the event of war
arising from the present complications, Great
Britain will be likely to cut Canada loose, SO as
to save her from the consequences of any imne-