IRJo.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL 



387 



not a rechiiujTaire of conteiulins evidence, all of which we havealreaily 

 bail till" benetiti,?) of, nearly tutUlem rcrbis, in the evidence on the rival 

 gaupe lines last session : what we do want is some plain practical doci- 

 siun which can be fairly and readily worked out by such means as are 

 easily within reach. In short, the railway ijiterest requires a decision, 

 not a discussion, on the long-pending question of gauje. 



Next, we want to know of you this: Do you tiiink the broad Raujje so 

 much better tha[i the narrow j;i'"ri'^) '''at we should take up all the nar- 

 row gauges and lay tlieni down as broad gauges? If you do, don't be 

 afraid to say so. Many railways have already taken up their rails and 

 laid down new. The Liverpool ami Manchester, for example ; also tlie 

 Great Western is now in the act of doing so, as all travellers know. If 

 you think the broad gauge so much better, pr.iy say so ; and when, in a 

 few years, there is a change in strength or kind of rails, and new ones 

 arc about to be laid down on any narrow gauge line, let it be then cuii- 

 verted into a brond guage. Let us have this decision, if it be your honest 

 upiuiuu, and we now, iind our successors after us, will thank you — cir- 

 taiuly for your honesty and decision of character — possibly also for your 

 wisdom and foresight. Thus, at least, your decision will tend to confer 

 onus and future generations the great benefit of uniformity of systejii — 

 of a national gauge — which we think very important, and likely every 

 day to become more iraportaut; and whether you take 81 inches or 57, we 

 shall in either case be grateful for a decision. 



But there is another alternative for the Commissioners. You may be of 

 opinion that neither gauge has sullicient superiority over the other to 

 render it desirable that either should betaken up for the purpose of na- 

 tional benefit. You may be of opinion that the broad gauge is better tlian 

 the narrow, but neither better nor worse in a sutliciently high degree to 

 justify the extreme measure of supplanting either by the other. Tins is a 

 probable enough alternative. 



Permit us to say that tliis has been suggested as a decision not only 

 possible, but even probable, if this be your ultimate decision, we beg to 

 point out the iulluence which that will have on our property. Suppose 

 you to have decided that the Great Western line has advantages over the 

 narrow; — suppose you to to have thus decided, that the advantages of 

 the broad gauge are so great over the narrow, as to countervail all the 

 disadvantages and inconveniences of diversity of gauge — suppose iliis lo 

 be your decision, that we are to keep on two gauges, llien we wish to call 

 your attention to the enevitahle consequences of your decision. 



You have before you, in this event, tlie following practical alternatives. 

 The lirst of these has, we hear, been propoied lo you, viz., to tie u|i the 

 guages each into a district of country— to give as the boundary of demar- 

 cation, which shall separate the broad gauge district from the narrow ; 

 and the contest, in that case, will merely be as to which line shall have a 

 given district of country. 



Now, we wish strongly to direct your attention to the practical eflVot 

 of such a decision. We take leave to assure you that a theoretical snlienie 

 oftyingnpthe broad gauge into any particular distric.', leaving all the 

 rest to the nurrow, would on such grounds be grievously unjust to the 

 broad gauge — would be inevitably injurious to the public — would be, in 

 the end, impracticable, and therefore foolish. 



If the broad gauge be, as you shall deride, the better gauge ; and if it 

 be so much belter that its superioriiy shall countervail all the evils of 

 diversity of gauge; and if we are to have both; and if your opinion in 

 tills respect be adopted by Ihe Legislature ; then we beg to submit to you 

 that all attempts to tie it up into any given district are not only wrong, but 

 absurd and impossible. Having decided that the broad guage is so much 

 the superior of the narrow, are you to say lo the authors of such gn-at 

 national improvements, that they are not lo enjoy its benefits over the 

 whole country, wherever people wish to enjoy them .' Is one gauge to be 

 the better for Urintol and the other for Birmingham ! Would you allow 

 a man to take out his patent fur some valuable invention and improvement, 

 and then say his invention must only be used and sold in Cornwall, but 

 should be contraband in every other country ? Such legislation would ho 

 iniquitous— unworthy of a just nation — unjust in the highest degree to 

 the broad-gauge party. Such a restriction, therefore, being wrong, could 

 not possibly last. 



Moreover, if you decide the broad-gauge to be the better, and so much 

 better as in its excellence to overbalance all the disadvantage of diversity 

 of gauge, Ihen why is one part of England only to have the benefit of it .' 

 If you decide that we can travel faster, cheaper, safer by it, why should I, 

 who reside in iManchester, who ovin works in Slall'ordshire — 1 who have 

 manufactories at Leeds and coal mines at Newcastle — be debarred I'ruiii 

 tile same benefii, in briuging my commodities to market, as the miner of 

 Cornwall, Ihe ironmaster of South Wales, and the merchant of Bristol, 

 If, therefore, the broad gauge be thus much the better, 1 too am surely not 

 to be shut out from repainug ils advantages in my own district! To Ihe 

 general public, therefore, as well as the broad-gauge party, the proposi- 

 tion is unjust. 



Suppose, however, on your recommend«tion, some imaginary bouudary 

 to be laid down, some theoretical line to be assumed, we will underiai.e 

 that, in a very short time, the restriction will show ilself impracticable 

 and absurd. The broad gauge would in that case have an easy task lo 

 break Ihrongh ils restrictions. It will ouly be necessary for that parly 

 that it should fill its district with branches, occupy as expeditiously as 

 possible every acre of that ground given over to it, and rapidly push 

 orward numerous branches to every practicable point along its boundary, 



slopping short always at this imaginary line of the C'ommissione s : — -re 

 say the broad gauge would only require to play this game well — Jand who 

 doubts their playing it capitally .')— to overwhelm the boundary by demon- 

 strating its own great practical inexpediency, and enable it, lik; a giant, 

 to lireak through the wretched cobwebs of a legislation so feable aud 

 foolish. 



We place, therefore, most respectfully, before the commission the inevit- 

 able cllect of their decision on people and things out of doors. There aro 

 also two great questions now to be decided — the capabilities of the gauges, 

 and the capacity of the commissioners. Their decision, if for the public 

 interest, will reflect on Ihein personal credit and enduring gratitude; if 

 otherwise, it will overwhelm the commissioners with never ending dis- 

 grace. Th» public at large care little, perhaps, which guage is the better: 

 only, if there be but little diflVrence between them, pray let us only have 

 one; if there be a great dillVrence, suflicient to countervail the disad- 

 vantage of two, then by all means let the whole country have tiie benefit 

 of the latter; as undoubtedly it ultimately must, whether present legisla- 

 tion choose it or not. 



Such are the questions before the commission. We leave our interests 

 with confidence in ils hands. In saying thus much, we have discharged 

 the responsibility laid on us as representatives of railway property. 

 Henceforth, we leave the commissioners in peace to deliberate and to 

 decide on the interests committed lo their charge, as well also for the 

 public benefit as for their own personal reputation. — Railway Chronick: 



ROYAL SCOTTISH SOCIETY OF ARTS. 



XXV. SESSION. — I. MEETINO. 



The Annual General Meeting of this Society was held at Edinhnrgli, on 

 Monday, November 10, ISib, I'rofessor More, President in the Chair. 



The President opened the Session with the following address : — 



" before resigning this chair, to which you so kindly advanced me, permit 

 me to return my best thanks for this honourable distinction, and to congratu- 

 late you on the clieering prospects with which we enter upon the 2Jth ses- 

 sion of this Society. I rejoice that a Society, which has already done so 

 much for the advancement of the useful arts, should be going on with in- 

 creased progress, and tliat during tlie last session as many, at least, and as 

 valuable couimunications were laid before you as during any previous session ; 

 and I sincerely trust that every future President, on retiring from the chair, 

 will he able to nuke a similar, or even a more gratifying statement. 



"Many societies which have comiuenced as vigorously as ours, have, after 

 a time, languished and decayed ; but I anticipate no such result lo our So- 

 ciety. Its constitution, by whi.;h even the humblest efforts of genius are 

 fostered, and by which our operative artizans are called lo nsiist us by their 

 contributions, give it a principle of stability which will ] res-rve it from sucli 

 a fate, and which, I trust, will long enable it to flourish in undiiaying vigour. 

 Nothing can be more conducive to the improvement of the arts than that, 

 free interchange of views and suggeslions which takes ])lace at our meetings, 

 and to which we liave to ascribe several of the most valuable communications 

 with which we have been favoured. Without intending to disparage any 

 other Society, I hope I may boldly say, that there is no ether institution in 

 this country'which is better calculated to foster and stimulate all the useful 

 arts, 



" While I congratulate the Society on our past success, and on our future 

 prospects, I have to lament, with you all, the losses we have sustained by 

 death during the last year. In particular, let me mention the names of two 

 distinguished naval officers, both of wh.un took a warm inteiest in this So- 

 ciety, I mean the late Admiral Sir David Mdne, who at one time acted as 

 one of our vice-presidents, and the late Admiral Tail, who when his healtli 

 permitted, was seldom absent from our meetings. We have also to lament 

 the death of our honoured member Dr. Abercrombie, whose numerous avo- 

 cations alone prevented him from taking such an inteiest in our meetings a» 

 he would otherwise have done. Two other members who took a deep in- 

 terest in our affairs I must rmt overlook, I mean the late Mr. Hunter of 

 Thurston, and Mr. Robert Forsyth, advocate. I hope that the places of 

 these eminent men will soon be supplied by the accession of new members ; 

 and this leads me to mention that the number of our members at present oa 

 the roll is 3G3. of whom 21 were enrolled during the last session. Allow 

 me to add, in conclusion, that no member can either render more essential 

 service to the Society, or confer a greater benefit on his friends, than by in- 

 ducing such of them' as are likely to become useful and efficient members to 

 join this Societv." 



At the request of the Council, an Experimental Exposition of some of the 

 recent applications of Electriclly, particularly of the Electro-Magnetic Ma- 

 chine, to Silvering and Gilding, was given by George Wilson, M.D., F.R.S.E., 

 F.R.S.S.A. 



Dr. Wilson commenced by stating, that although different observers had 

 noticed that the decomposing action of electric currents might be applied to 

 the reduction of metals for practical purposes, the art of Electro-Metallurgy 

 must be considered as dating from Daniell's invention of the Constant Vol- 

 taic Battery. He then mentioned, that in the year 18^9, Messrs. Jordan 

 and Spencer, in this country, and Jacobi, in Petersburg, coutempnraneouily 



51* 



