RAILWAYS. (Hansard, 15 March 1844)

§ Earl Fitzwilliam

said, a petition had been entrusted to him, which he believed he could not consistently with the usages of Parliament lay on the Table, but upon which he would beg to found a few observations. It was a petition from some of the inhabitants of Scarborough, against certain provisions of the York and Scarborough Railway Bill, now before the House of Commons. The particular points to which the petitioners objected were, that this branch Railway, which was forty miles in length, was projected by a company whose main line was only twenty-seven miles long; and the next objection, which was a more important one, was against the making this a single line. Many persons thought there was danger, but he was sure there was at least much inconvenience, in having a railway of such length as forty miles, consisting only of a single line. It was true their Lordships had last Session given their sanction to the construction of a railway about the same length in a single line, but he thought that was very injudicious, and hoped they would not strengthen the practice by repetition, for if they sanctioned such a principle no lines would ever be made double, because, of course, the single line was cheaper and more convenient to the projectors. He could not help expressing his strong wish that the Executive Government of the country would take into their serious consideration the whole question of the system of Railways throughout the country. He was satisfied that even now, after the number of Railways that had been made, the Government could most efficiently and usefully under take the conduct of the others. His notion would be that they should issue a commission to survey the country, and to determine what were the points which required to be connected by means of railway communication, and then to lay down the lines, and after that to leave it to individuals to execute them. He was not desirous that the Government should undertake the formation of lines of Railway, but he thought enormous expense and a vast deal of ill-feeling would have been saved a they had originally undertaken the control of them to the extent 1061 he had stated, for if a landowner residing in the country were told on the authority of the Government that a particular railway, though inconvenient to him, was of importance to the country, he would, if he had any good feeling, readily submit; but he was not likely to be so complaisant if the persons with whom he had to deal were speculators who projected railways, not for the interest of the public, but merely that they themselves might be able to gamble in the shares in the market. There was a line of importance now in contemplation—the line through Cambridge to the North of England, which would shorten the distance between Yolk and London by twenty or thirty miles, but since that Railway was projected, there had been movements on the part of a great company to give to the people of Lincoln such a modicum of railway communication as would render them less anxious for that original line: such were the projected lines from Swindon to Gainsborough and Lincoln, and from Nottingham to Lincoln. He had no doubt the Committee now appointed in the other House had every desire to do what was right, but as the Government had the power to do whatever they pleased, he thought the appointment of such a Commission as he had suggested would be of great service.