130 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[April, 



The fonnuUe devised by MM. Arago and Dulong, and by Trcd- 

 gold, are simple enough; but these, as well as all others hitherto 

 proposed, contain some one or more constant coefficients, whose 

 origin cannot be pointed out, for which reason no one of them can 

 be regarded as representing the natui-al law. We therefore propose 

 in the ensuing paper, to present a formula which may possibly be 

 the expression of the law sought to be determined, as it contains no 

 coefficient of which the origin cannot be traced. 



IRISH RAILWAY DEBATE. 



Parliamentary measures on that pernicious invention, the Irish 

 railway job, commenced on the 1st of March, by Lord Morpeth moving 

 the appropriation of .€2,500,000 for this purpose. The subject was 

 very appropriately preceded by some sparring relative to the partiality 

 of the government. Mr. Lucas forcibly called attention to the injustice 

 of the proceedings to the Central Irish Railway Company, and claimed 

 on their part that they should be heard by counsel at the bar of the 

 House against the recommendations of the jobbery. He pointed out 

 the elastic rule by which they measured traffic, extending it in one 

 instance, and reducing it to the narrowest limits in others. Mr. 

 Hodgson Hinde called attention to the report of the committee on rail- 

 ways, and the proceedings of government on the Morecambe Bay and the 

 Scotch railways, when they refused even to appoint a commissioner to 

 decide on their relative merits. Mr. Hinde observed there was 

 certainly one species of justice toward this country, and another species 

 of justice to Ireland. Colonel Perceval called the attention of the 

 House to the notorious change of the clause with regard to joint stock 

 companies on the renewal of the commission. Lord John Russell and 

 Viscount Morpeth both replied to this charge, that the ministry were 

 unconscious that the change was maue, and thus afforded a glorious 

 proof of the system of ministerial responsibility. 



The business of the evening was then commenced in earnest by Lord 

 Morpeth, and never did ministerial hack have a more unfortunate cause 

 to plead, or pronounce sophistries so palpably diaphanous. He boasted 

 of the unanimity with which all parties in Ireland had hailed this 

 measure, and called upon the House to grant money to those who 

 proved their worthiness of it by their readiness to receive it. Hence- 

 forth a gift is not to be determined by the willingness of the donor, but 

 by the openhandedness of the recipient .' The noble viscount gave a 

 fearful state of the poverty of Ireland compared to England, and 

 pointed out the solitary railway in one, and the si.-sty millions' worth in 

 the other ; that Ireland had only 400 miles of water navigation, and 

 England 4000 ; atid upon this he attempted to base a claim for the 

 deficiency being supplied at the national expense. If this system be 

 indeed adopted, it is one to which no limit can be assigned but the 

 entire destruction of the resources of the empire, and establishing 

 Ireland as a pet farm of the imperial government. We begin by making 

 all the railways, and it will be but justice to make up the deficiency oV 

 canals, and what will follow next heaven knows ; but there can be little 

 doubt that, were this system once pursued, tliere would be no falling 

 back in the merits of Ireland, and that we should be saddled with a 

 perpetual premium for their poveity. If such claims he but admitted, 

 it must be recollected that England herself lias milhonsofaeresof waste 

 land, of which the interests of a pauperised population imperatively 

 demand the cultivation, and that Scotland has abundance of barren 

 hills and glens, which would look more beautifcd with forests laised 

 from English gold. The next claim is, that large sums of money have 

 been spent on the Caledonian and Ridcau canals, and with a want of 

 merit surpassing that of Irish misery, the ministry dare to appeal to 

 measures which are the most convincing proofs of tlieir incapacity and 

 extravagance. Belgium was again brought forward, and the apparent 

 success of the government plans was triumphantly relied upon ; but it 

 would be a silly act to be allured by even the most attractive examples 

 to place in the hands of government the controul over the whole traffic 

 of the country. By the poor law, the administration hold the woiking 

 population of the country at their command, by the police they keep 

 them in coercion, and by monopolising the means of transport, thev I 

 would then obtain an ei|ual ))ouer over the whole traffic of the country, 

 and all the resources of the farmer and the manufacturer. Instead of a 

 government suspension of bank p.iymeuts, let us have another William 

 Pitt stop at once the whole communication of the couutrv, and we 

 shall then see how the industrial classes will be paralysed by the 

 weapons they themselves have forged. Lord Morpeth most strongly 

 acknowledged the resources of Ireland, and the manner in which they 

 repaid the exertions of pcrblic eutei-prise : and yet, with manifest incon- 

 sistency, he sirbsetpiently endeavoured to depreciate them ; the ancient 

 satyr would have felt horrilied at this blowing hot and cold. The 

 unfortunate lord favoured the whole House with a recitation of the 

 sentinieirts of the open-mouthed candidates for the ' tin,' passed at 



their public meetings, and thusadopted them as his own. One of these 

 sets of suitors ' in forma pairperis' urges that — 



" Capital would be obtained at a much lower rate of interest , and the 

 enormous law costs, and those conse([uent upon parliamentary investi- 

 gations, almost entii'ely sased ; while the professional assistance to be 

 obtained in the several public departments would be calculated mate- 

 rially to lessen the general expense." 



This is, verily, Tom Thumb's making giants and then killing them ; 

 and our Government Glumdalca first oppresses the railway companies 

 by the standing orders, and then urges against them the misery pro- 

 duced — like as we enslaved the negroes, and then degraded them for the 

 results of our oppression. The noble viscount did, however', acknow- 

 ledge that the country was immensely indebted to the energy (!) the 

 skill (! !) and the enterprise (! ! !) which those companies (the English) 

 had displayed. 



Still farther " going the whole hog" in this stream of inconsistency, 

 it is not wonderful if the unlucky animal should give a few digs against 

 its own throat. Attacking the English railways {quod et euudetn est 

 as the future Irish jobbery), he says: — 



" It is now beginning to be ascertained, that great as are the advan- 

 tages which have resulted from these undertakings, thei'e are to be 

 foirnd among them some of those abuses and imperfections which 

 MONOPOLY and lunESpoNsiBiLixv seem, as it were, lay the law of 

 natirre, to bring about in time ! ! .'" 



Taking advantage of the experience gained by the faihrres of the 

 early English attempts, the self-denying minister is not contented with 

 employing the resirlts of their labours, but he blames them for the very 

 imperfections which by their exertions he is enabled to avoid. We 

 should like to know if, as a part of the ex-Irish Secretar-y's advocacy of 

 Belgian principles, he is prepared to carry out their system in all its 

 adnrirable details, particularly that part on which he dwells, of the non- 

 interference of private interests, which it is well known no foreign 

 government ever allows to interfere with its object, as the noble lord 

 might learn from some of the proprietors on the Belgian lines. Most 

 pathetically did Lord I\Jorpeth r-ecite the expenditure to which the 

 English r-ailways had been subjected, and never did crocodile so bemoan 

 its victims : — 



One of the great items of expense regarding railways was that of conducting 

 them through Parliament. That expense alone, even in very long lines, 

 exceeded 1,000?. per mile. (Hear, bear.) The parliamentary expenses of the 

 London and Birmingham line were 72,868/. ; of the Great Western, 88,710/. ; 

 of the London and Southampton, 39,000/. ; of the Midland Counties' Rail- 

 road, 28,000/., which (with some others mentioned by the noble lord) 

 amounted to 2f per cent, on the gross expenditure. Another great expense 

 was the enormous amount of compensation given to individuals possessing 

 large pailiamentary interest. The statement which had been made by the 

 Member for Leicester touched upon that point. He stated that cases were 

 known in which individuals possessing large pai'liamentary interest received 

 ten times the amount of compensation that did other individuals in precisely 

 the same circumstances. In one case, which had been made the subject of 

 trial in the Court of Chancery, it appeared that a nobleman had withdrawn his 

 opposition to the bill in consideration of receiving 100,000/. for injury done 

 to his estate. 



And yet for all this, the jobbery advocate talks of the expense of 

 lines executed by private individuals, and talks as if the same resirlts 

 would be produced in Ireland. He can best tell how far the Irish 

 companies will be subjected to the Parliamentary scr-ew ; but as to the 

 value of land, or that of wages, there is an immense ditference iir favour 

 of Ireland. He speaks with great unction of i\\e yenerous gifts of land 

 by Irish proprietors ; but, if the noble lord be reported correctlv, 

 the same thing has been done in England, where in one county dona- 

 tions were made to the extent of 50,000/. The noble lord could not, 

 of corrrse, omit that beautiful argument about private companies screw- 

 ing the pi-ofits to the highest pitch, and the devoted conduct of Govern- 

 ment, which never asks more than the lowest farthing. He forgot, 

 however, to furnish any illusti-ations of this ; but we ar-e happy to sup- 

 ply this deficiency by alluding to that admirable institution, the Post 

 OlHce, which does not indeed take the lowest farthing, hut, by a beau- 

 tiful metonymy, r-ealises the words of Scriptur-e as to the lastfartliiny. 

 Lord Mor-peth cited one fact with regard to Belgium, which might 

 impress upon many of our companies the policy of a reduction itr their 

 fares : — 



The returns from Bolgium showed that in 1837 a population of 232,000 

 made five trips per annum. In England there was an increase over the 

 travelling by the former modes of conveyance of 218 per cent. In Belgium, 

 previous to the formatioii of the railway, 80,000 persons passed on the old road, 

 paying 43. and 2^. 6J. Wiih a change to 2s. (id., and Is., these being the 

 railway prices, the travellers amounted in the year 1837 to 781 000, which was 

 an advance of 876 per cent., being an increase 9^ times greater than the former 

 amount of tr-avelling. 



After ha^"'g made a great deal of palaver about those wicked dogs, 



