RAILWAY BUSINESS IN PARLIAMENT: RAILWAYS IN THE SOUTH OF SCOTLAND.
JUDICIOUS management on the part of the Railway Committee of the Board of Trade might make the appalling number of com- peting lines of railway, which threaten to engross the whole time of Parliament next session, a source of public advantage. If each railway is to have its own Committee, it is difficult to see how the House of Commons is to find time for other business. Many of the projected railways, however, are lines planned in direct rivalry with each other ; and more of them may be grouped together as suggesting the inquiry, from which will the district derive most benefit, at least in the first instance ? The bills which admit of
being thus classed together might all be referred to the same Corn mittee ; and this Committee might first hear evidence relating to the general structure and capabilities of the district, and then pro. ceed to decide what lines ought to be immediately commenced, by calling upon the promoters of each to prove—that it is likely to be a paying speculation ; that it will accommodate a large public, and promote the development of the natural capabilities of the district ; that it will not materially interfere with the prospects of success of another line calculated to further those ends to a greater extent. By this means, the fate of a number of bills might be settled with almost as little expense of time and trouble as in the ordinary way of proceeding would be spent upon each of thern, and with more benefit to all.
The peculiar conformation of the island suggests natural districts for the purposes of this classification and distribution of business. There are six elevated or comparatively elevated districts, sepa- rated from each other by level spaces little raised above the sea. On the South, are the high lands of Cornwall and Devonshire, and resting on them the chalky uplands of Wiltshire, with their project- ing arms running South of the Thames into Kent and North into Norfolk ; on the West, are the Welsh mountains ; and North of these two, the hill-country which extends from the banks of the Trent to the Tyne and the Eden. These elevated regions are sepa- rated by the low and level district which attains its highest elevation about Stafford and Birmingham, and sinks by easy gradations to the level of the sea at the mouths of the Severn, the Mersey, and the Ouse. In Scotland, there are also three high districts, bounded in like manner by three depressions,—the "South Hielands," bounded on the South by the depression through which the Tyne and the Irvine (an affluent of the Eden) flow in opposite directions, and on the North by the low lands between the Forth and Clyde ; the Highlands, bounded by the latter depression on the South and the "great glen" of Scotland on the North; and the Ross-shire and Sutherlandshire hill-country North of the great glen.
On all the depressions, railroads may be constructed (if there is capital and population) with comparative ease. Some of the up- lands, from their natural conformation, or from their being densely peopled and having large capitals invested in their mining and manufacturing processes, admit of being intersected by railway lines—at the cost, it is true, of more labour and capital, but still with fair prospects of gain. These may be regarded as independ- ent railroad districts; while the less accessible or less thickly in- habited hill-countries can only be taken i- ceanexion with the adjoining level district.
On this basis of classification, the great natural districts in which railways are actually in progress are-1. The Southern upland, or London district. This includes the continuaus lines of railway made or in contemplation from Falmouth, through Exeter, Bristol, and London, to Norwich and all the country to the South. 2. The Midland level district ; including the systems of railway communi- cation to the North-west of Bristol, London, and Norwich, of which Birmingham and Manchester are the centres. 3. The North of England upland district ; in which York and Lce.:- are the centres of railway enterprise, extending to Lincoln on thc South, and Newcastle and Carlisle on the North. 4. The South of Scot- land district ; within which would fall the railways constructed or projected North of the Newcastle and Carlisle line, to and includ- ing the lines which connect Greenock, Glasgow, and Edinburgh. 5. The Middle level district of Scotland ; comprehending all rail- ways North of the Greenock, Glasgow, and Edinburgh lines, as far as Aberdeen and the Murray Frith. Two districts would at pre- sent be sufficient for Scotland ; but the wealth and enterprise al- ready directed into this channel in England would require a sub- division of its great districts: for example, of the Southern upland into the Bristol* and London districts ; of the Midland level, into the Birmingham and Manchester ; of the North of England upland, into the York or Leeds and the Newcastle district.
The chief advantage of such an arrangement appears to be, that while it leaves private enterprise free to project and choose the most promising lines, it would lead Parliament to decide upon the lines to be first adopted with a view to larger considerations of ge- neral utility. But the plan has another recommendation. At the meeting of Parliament, the applications for railway-bills could be laid at once on the table of the House of Commons by the Railway Committee of the Board of Trade, classed together according to their respective districts. The members of each Committee would be chosen among the representatives of the district. The mem- bers who took most interest in such inquiries and showed most ap- titude for them would come to be intrusted with them year after ear; and thus a class of Members of Parliatnent would be formed, whose familiarity with the subject would enable them to despatch railway business with greater expedition amid intelligence than is now the case.
This idea has been suggested by a controversy now keenly waged in the upland district of the South of Scotland. The problem there is, the most advantageous method of connecting the English rail- way system, of which the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway forms the Northern limit, with the railway system which connects Edin- burgh and Glasgow. A line along the East coast to connect New- castle and Edinburgh by way of Berwick is partially in progress. But before there was any certainty of this line being constructed, a line was proposed from Carlisle, up the valley of the Annan to the Upper Ward of Clydesdale ; from which diverging branches might lead to Edinburgh and Glasgow. A line was proposed about the same time from Carlisle, across the valley of the Annan to • The railways of South Wales might be included within the Bristol district. *Dumfries, and up the valley of the Nith to join the Ayrshire and Glasgow system of railways. No person acquainted with the coun- try could for a moment hesitate as to which of these lines could be most easily and economically constructed, or was most likely to pay. Looking alone to the communication between Carlisle and the manu- facturing district of which Glasgow is the centre, the case stands thus. The line to the Upper Ward of Clydesdale (the Caledonian Railway) is the shorter by 134 miles. On the other hand, the sum- mit-level of the line to Ayrshire (the Glasgow, Dumfries, and Car- lisle Railway) is only 600 feet, and attained by easy gradients ; while the summit-level of the Caledonian line is 1,000 feet, of which 700 feet must be ascended in a distance of less than 10 miles, along a narrow valley, with innumerable abrupt windings between steep hills. The most thinly-peopled country through which the Caledonian Railway passes is between Gretna and Lanark ; the most thinly-peopled country through which the Carlisle, Dumfries, and Glasgow Railway passes, is between Gretna and Kilmarnock. The distances are nearly equal. The population of the parishes through which the Glasgow, Dumfries, and Carlisle Railway passes, is 80,686; the population of the parishes through which the Caledonian Railway passes is 28,195. Between Gretna and Kilmarnock are Annan and Dumfries, small harbours with a fair trade, capabilities for increasing it, and steam communication with Liverpool ; and the mineral district of hluirkirk : on the latter there is not a single town or mineral district. The only circum- stance which could for a moment turn the scale in favour of the Caledonian Railway, would be its offering the means of connecting Edinburgh as well as Glasgow directly with the English railways, if there were to be no other railway communication between Edin- burgh and the English railways. The comparative merits of these two rival lines can only be decided when it is known with certainty whether the Edinburgh and Newcastle line is to be immediately constructed. There are other railway speculations, the feasibility of which is dependant upon the adoption of the Caledonian, or the Glasgow, Dumfries, and Carlisle line. There is an intermediate line between those by which it is proposed to connect New- castle with Edinburgh and Carlisle with Glasgow—a line connect- ing Hawick with Edinburgh on the one hand and Carlisle on the other. Again, it is alleged that the promoters of the Caledonian line will depend mainly for their profits upon carrying on a commu- nication between Edinburgh and Glasgow along their branches from Lanark to those cities, in competition with the existing Glasgow and Edinburgh railway. It is for the interest both of the private speculators in these competing lines of railway and the whole in- habitants of the district, that the adoption or rejection of each be made to depend upon its superior fitness as part of a system to develop the natural resources of the district ; and therefore the whole ought to be referred to the decision of one Committee, im- powered to investigate their mutual bearings from this command- ing point of view.
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