570 



FARMERS' REGISTER-RAIL ROAD TRANSPORTATION. 



Manchester line?— Several; among others, Lords Derby 

 and Sefton. 



'Did Mr. Heywood of Manchester oppose the Man- 

 chester Rail Road? — Yes. 



'Did he afterwards complain of its not passing 

 through his lands?— He complained veiy much of 

 it.' 



If tlie ill effects of its opposition, on the part of 

 landed proprietors, to projected rail roads were 

 limited to the injury which tliey inflict upon them- 

 selves, the public woukl have less reason to com- 

 plain of it; but unfortunately other extensive in- 

 juries have been thus j)roduced. The opposition 

 by Lords Derby and Sefton to the Manchester 

 railway bill, compelled the company to deviate 

 from the line ol" road which they first proposed, 

 and which Mr. Stephenson, tlieir engineer, pro- 

 nounced to be the best. That line must have 

 passed through a part of the profierty of these no- 

 blemen, \vhose opposition would at tiiat time have 

 defeated the bill. The company were therefore 

 compelled to select another line, which was not 

 only much more expensive in tiie formation, but 

 which has been since productive of consequences 

 most injurious to the road, and to the interests ot 

 the company and the public. 



The line which the engineer was compelled to 

 adopt, imposed upon him the formidable enterprise 

 of crossing Chat Moss; and involved the company 

 in an enormous expense in forming a solid road 

 over that extensive morass. This, however, was 

 not the only or the most extensively injurious ef- 

 fect: it became necessary to carry the line of road 

 over an elevation, so that the moving power had 

 to overcome a sio])e rising at the rate of one in 

 ninety-six inboth directions, andextendingthrough 

 more than a mile and a half in each case. We 

 explained in our former article, the injury which 

 such an ascent produces: to draw a load up a slope 

 of this degree of acclivity requires an impelling 

 power, amounting to nearly four times the power 

 necessary to draw the same load upon a level; the 

 consequence is, that either auxiliary engines must 

 be kept constantly at the foot of the slope, or else 

 the impelling engine must be constructed Avith 

 four. times the power necessary on the level, and 

 Avith a proportionate increase of strength and 

 weight. We may safely assert, that no circum- 

 stance connected with the Manchester railway 

 has been a more fertile source of expense and in- 

 convenience than this occurrence. But if any 

 thing be wanting to demonstrate the mischief of 

 the proceeding out of which this has arisen, it is 

 the fact detailed in the evidence of Mr. Moss, that 

 a second line of railway has been in contemplation, 

 connecting Liverpool with Manchester; that this 

 second line is countenanced and encouraged by 

 these very noblemen, Lords Derby and Sefton; 

 that it is to pass through their grounds, and, we 

 presume, to take the very course whicJi was ori- 

 ginally contemplated by the present railway com- 

 pany, and from which they were driven by oppo- 

 sition. 



'Has there not been aschcmefor another railroad? — 

 Yes. 



'Is it to pass through Lords Derby and Sefton's 

 land? — Yes; they both consented. They threw us 

 back the first year by the opposition to our road, and 

 we then lost such a line as we never could obtain 

 again. Since this, they have both consented that the 

 other line .riiall pass through their propert3\' 



Other proprietors, how^ever, more speedily learn- 

 ed their error, and actually made interest to get 

 the line through their property. 



'Do you know Bold Hall? — Very well, it is a fine 

 house. 



'Is it near Liverpool and Manchester? — Yes; the pro- 

 prietor complained very much, that we made a com- 

 plete bend, to avoid his property. 



'Did he afterwards wish you to cut off the bend, and 

 go nearer by a straight l^ine? Yes; and we agreed to 

 go much nearer to his house.' 



Besides the permanent advantages to land by 

 opening large markets for every species of vege- 

 table, animal, and mineral production, railways 

 are attended with a variety of subordinate benefits, 

 which, though they may appear inconsiderable, 

 when compared with those already mentioned, 

 yet ought not to be whoUy disregarded. Among 

 these riiay be mentioned the extensive employ- 

 ment of the local population, in a work in which 

 by far the greater proportion of the labor is of a 

 rude kind; likewise the purchase of materials of 

 various kinds from the adjacent land owners. It 

 was proved that on the Stockton and Darlington 

 railway, as well as on other similar works, large 

 sums were paid to the land owners for gravel, 

 timber, and stone, for materials for bricks, and for 

 various other purjooses, independently of the land 

 purchased from them. It was also proved that a 

 very large proportion of the poor rates of the pa- 

 rishes through which railways pass are paid by the 

 railway company. The Manchester railway 

 company, for example, contribute not less than 

 £4000 per annum to the poor rates of their pa- 

 rishes. 



Mr. Pease stated tliat more than half the entire 

 rates of several of the parishes through which the 

 Stockton and Darlington railway passes, are paid 

 by the railway company. But in addition to this, 

 the actual amount of rates is lessened by the ex- 

 tensive employment afforded for labor on the rail- 

 way. Mr. Lee stated, that of the poor rates in 

 the parish of Newton, one-fourth part was paid by 

 the JNIanchester railway company. 



The speed of transit, and the consequent fre- 

 quency of conununication between places of 

 great commercial intercourse, are matters, the im- 

 portance of which can scarcely be overrated in 

 this country. The time between Liverpool and 

 Manchester, being a distance of about thirty-one 

 miles, is now about an hour and a half; there are 

 three deliveries of letters by post daily between 

 these two places; so that two letters may be writ- 

 ten and one answer received by the same corres- 

 pondents in the course of a day. The frequency 

 of communication might be still greater: nine 

 trains of coaches start daily from each place, and 

 if it were necessary, there might be nine deliveries 

 in each town. When the lines of railway from 

 London to Birmingham, and from Birmingham to 

 Manchester, shall have been completed, the time 

 from London to Liverpool ivill be about eleven 

 hours; the mail wliich leaves London at eight 

 o'clock in the evening, will therefore be delivered 

 in Liverjjool before nine the following morning. 

 The time between London and Birmingham will 

 be five hours and a half; there will probably, 

 therefore, be two mails daily. The letters de- 

 spatched from London at eight o'clock in the even- 

 ing would be delivered in Dublin the following 

 evening. From some improvements which are 



