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800 STfie !L$aiJ*t% [Saturday,
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RAILWAY POLICY. Raii/vvay proprietors ar...
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MR. GLADSTONE'S DENIERS. The revelations...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Seizure Of The Nizam's Territories. As A...
only it is carried out in the most odious and reckless form . But we are not going to touch upon the point of humanity or justice ; we are only , for the moment , pointing out the inevitable financial effect of the operation . The English Government seizes the bankrupt revenue of the Deccan , and adds to the bankruptcy . The Nizam might make good the deficit out of his private purse ; and , if so ,
the seizure is virtually an aggression on private property . Or he might revoke Crown revenues bestowed on court favourites ; another species of aggression not unlike the revocation of patent offices or pensions in this country , without compensation . To recover £ 850 , 000 , therefore , the Engr lish Government must incur an amount of odium equivalent to a far larger sum in its damaging influence .
But we have the utmost doubt whether the £ 850 , 000 can be netted by the operation . The Nizam ' s territory has been a sort of" sanctuary " for vagabond soldiers of all the races that wield the sword in India ; the invaded " interests" of the Deccan are not likely to surrender their pleasant holdings without a contest ; and , therefore , the attempt at seizure will entail war . Yes , Manchester men and Peace Ministerialists , war . Now , war is not an oeconouiy . We have not all the current prejudices against it ; but we cannot recommend it as sound finance . The war is far less likely to nett £ 850 , 000 for our Government , than to add some £ 3 , 000 , 000 , at least , to the Indian debt .
Even that might be sound policy , under one allimportant if—if the territory were to be consolidated with our Indian empire and thoroughly reformed . It is demonstrable that the resources of India , so far from being exhausted , have been but scratched during the ages of wretched rule in which that splendid empire has been more than half fallow : the tiger still shares the empire with the
Englishman ; fever still keeps whole regions " in Chancery , " to the undisturbed possession of disease . There is not the slightest doubt , that reforms which might develope , rather than thwart the native institutions , with enterprises imported from Europe—notably scientific education , honourable employment as a consequence of that education , and railways—would render that huge Indian estate a real source of wealth . We are aware of no
reason why the New Brunswick principle should not be applied to railways in India , although it would , of course , need modification to suit it to the latitude . The " Nizam ' s ( territory" has been ^ one-of those forbidden ground ^ from which English influence was self-excluded , or into which it intruded only by fits and starts , and was available only to prevent native development . The mixed , or " protected " Government , is a tradition of the ante-British a * ra reduced to . a , miserable burlesque , a sham in no wise respectable . Were it swept away , then might a reform of the country be possible , its productive resources might beset free , and the annexation might ultimately prove an operation of sound ( economy . But the occupation , they say , is to he only " temporary . "
800 Stfie !L$Aij*T% [Saturday,
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Railway Policy. Raii/Vvay Proprietors Ar...
RAILWAY POLICY . Raii / vvay proprietors arc becoming heretical in political oeconoiny . One of the most extraordinary confessions ever made by comimrce to the public consists of the speech delivered by Mr . Glyn , Chairman of the North-Western Railway Company , at the half-yearly meeting of the shareholders on Friday . lie boasted that the Directors had " closed the capital account , " excepting for certain special purposes . Our readers will understand how desirable it is to set current charges against revenue rather than capital , since it is only by that means that you get a clear conception of profit or loss ; and the determination of the Directors not to pursue a system which magnifies profits to the eye , but really undermines them , is judicious . The boast was delivered with an emphasis implying that some difficulty had been conquered in carrying it out ; and we can well imagine that there was : the commercial public is ho fond of cheating itself .
It seems , however , that the capital account ia not closed ; and although it is reopened for an excellent purpose , it i . s of the utmost importance to bear in mind the circumstances under which it ia reopened . An extension of the railway is to be made into the heart of the city , for the traffic in goods ; evidently a most advantageous plan . At the same time another nort of extension is going on . Other parties have obtained a bill for a rail-Avay which will connect the North-Westcrn with the South-Western und other railways nouth of the
Thames ; an excellent metropolitan junction of the several systems . In resisting the temptation to charge outlay against capital , one charge that pressed hard . on their fortitude ; from its weight and nature , was that . for lawyers' bills ; and included in that was the cost of watching another sort of " bills "—those in Parliament . " If " we have not had to promote bills , " said Mr . Glyn ,, " we have been occupied for a considerable time in opposing bills . " This looks very invidious . In one case , however , the opposition was natural and proper enough . The company resisted a project , developed in two bills introduced by the Great Western Company and the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Company : —
* ' I do not think , gentlemen , that in the whole course of my parliamentary and railway experience I ever met with such an extraordinary attempt as that . It was admirable , in fact , from its boldness ; for they actually endeavoured to avail themselves of our capital—and we have spent a considerable sum of money for our station and our lines in Birmingham—they sought to avail themselves of our own land and station for the purpose of beginning a competition against us !" ? Cool ! The opposition was successful ; but still the Company is engaged in " a very serious
contest with the Great Northern , " in . which they hope to succeed , by favour of Mr . Gladstone ' s arbitration ; they hope , under legal advice , to bind the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Company to a written agreement ; negotiations with the Great Western have failed ; but they do not believe that Parliament will sanction a second competing line to the Mersey . Such are the hopes , fears , and tribulations , the enterprises contemplated and resisted by the North-Western Company ; and it is under such circumstances that the capital account is to be reopened for an extension of the line into the heart of the City . '
But Mr . Glyn extends his deprecation of the competitive principle beyond that hateful line to the Mersey : — " Rest assured that every year ' s experience—and more especially when capital accounts are closedwill lead ta"this fact and development , that competition is a fallacy as regards railway affairs . It is the reverse—it is the close and intimate conneciion between companies occupying the same districts—it is the connection supported by Parliament , and being
allowed to do tl . eir best , for the development of their traffic—being allowed , a fair receipt , under regulations laid down by Parliament—being allowed , in fact , to put something . into the pockets . of the proprietors , which will lead at last to the only chance which exists of tiie railway system being properly supported in this country . It is in vain to talk of competition . Look at the competition between the Great Northern and the Midland and ourselves—5 » . or 4 s 6 d . from Leeds to London and back ! It is
ridiculous to suppose that such a system can go on ? It mu £ t load to a combination and division of the whole territory among the companies aceotding to their respective interests . That must be and will be the ease . " Most true . In passing , we would ask Mr . Glyn whether the competition which is so bad , so wrong , so impracticable for railway companies , is good for any other branch of trade ? Whether the evils which become so convincingly evident in railway affairs are not just the same with the evils which it produces in others ? But although he says that competition cannot go on in railways , he al . so declares with the eloquence of prophecy that it will go on .
" But in the mean time I do not hesitate to say that to arrive at that point it is necessary for us , and I believe we shall have to go through a very serious racing competition . I know what the effect will bea great deal of ruin and a great deal of misery ; and , what is more , I know the public will be extremely ill-served , and we shall have a repetition of horrible accidents until the public mind itself is awake to the real position of the question , and Parliament shall do that which it ought to have done seven years agoplace the whole system on a different footing , and arrange it according to territorial districts . "
J he remed y suggested b y the railway chairman " m " a combination and division of the whole territory according to their respective interests ;" in other words , tho principle of concert , ho far applied . And he in not content with enunciating that principle , but he urges his hearers to become the propagators and miBttionaricM of tho new doctrine : — " Gentlemen , I wish it to bo understood that I alone am responsible for these remarks , but I am sure my colleaguen eonqur in them . It i » no use your coming here and paying , All these remarks aro very right . ' Uo to other meetings , aud imprcsm them with
the same conviction . I know that I am addressin gentlemen who are not merely proprietors in th London and North-Western , but in other companies * and I would say , * Go and impress these ideas upon them .. If you do not you will ruin your property if you do you will preserve it from utter destruction ' I am quite certain that it will take time to bring about a proper feeling on this subject , and a judicious course of action . " But let the missionaries understand what feeling they are to propagate . We are far from ascribing the intention of monopoly to Mr . Glyn ; it has been laid down as a fundamental rule , by high
authorities in railway affairs , that the financial administration is the best which produces the largest revenue and undoubtedly the largest revenue will always be produced by low prices . There is a point at which lowering of "price does not produce a proportionate increase of traffic , and that is practically the minimum point . There may also be an increase of traffic beyond the power of the rolling stock , so that the cost of wear and tear may outbalance the advantage of increased revenue . But it would not be for the public interest to overtax the railway beyond its powers ; nor for the public interest to ruin the railway—which too low a tariff of prices would
do . Iluined establishments cannot do the work well or safely . From these considerations it follows that a " monopoly , " in the old and ordinary sense of the word , would be as injurious to the companies as to the public ; that it is as impracticable as a reckless competition ; in other words , that the principle of concert holds good , not only between railway companies , but between each company and the public . Now , if this truth were fully understood by Mr . Glyn's missionaries and those of whom they are to make proselytes , the progress of the new propagandism of railway union would be far more easy , more rapid , and more effectual .
Mr. Gladstone's Deniers. The Revelations...
MR . GLADSTONE'S DENIERS . The revelations of Mr . Gladstone are absolutely incapable of refutation or disproof . But on the principle that tout mauvais cas est niable , a flat , barefaced denial has been deemed in this case the one kind of reply available to the satellites of his most religious Majesty the King of Naples . It is at least a satisfaction to find in the seared and blunted conscience of that , perjured and lawless man , to whom cruelty and violence , torture and assassination , wholesale massacres , and secret murders have been a regai and righteous pastime in the intervals of his religious offices so exactly performed , some show of susceptibility where pity has never entered and remorse is but the lassitude
of revenge . Like other phenomena in the annals of humbler crime , he has the inklings of a decent solicitude for " reputation , " even in the very act of crime , to the last hour of an ignominious retribution ; but neither confession , nor repentance . He stays not the hand of blood and treachery : he arrests not the atrocities at which all Europe of the nineteenth century stands aghast . Conscience is to be acquitted by denial . It is worth while to see what the denials are , who the deniers . We know that a person , whose name we have heard , was engaged to arrange a reply to Mr .
Gladstone , in the shape of a denial , in the very limited portion of the French press ( to its honour be it spoken ) amenable to so unholy an influence . The chief of the monarchical papers , Fusionist , Legitimist , Orleanist , fought shy of an advocacy so perilous , or of a denial more damning than tlie charge . Yet neither M . Le Docteur Vcron « Jnconstitutionnel , nor M . Guizot , De Pastoret , ana Co . 's pseudonymous AssembUe Rationale are remarkable for frankness and good faith . *' Dtbats , 8 o forcible-feeble since the law of thes signatures , declines all complicity with tho Ultra ' montane organs . The chivalrous Op inion / « J lique of the young Legitimists , and the sou hearted Gazette de France , never quite give U tlic lioneleNM iir /> l > li > rn of unitinur Legitimacy »»
Liberty . So that in none of the purely inon f . , " i press has his sacred Majesty of Naples *> btalJl * : u thorough champion . Hints of probable exagg ^ rations have been loosely thrown out , and n little of the especial rancour of the French l **> Yaf \ against England and Knglish nerfidicH , i ncidenta j emits it « venom ; but Mr . ( Hailstone survive in » The only " next friend" to go in for the iv k » utterly und unreservedly , iH that highly r ^ P ^ T of » uid ingenious Spiritual Director and Apos RetrogreHH , and Ultramontane Klcctric y ^ . L ' Uuivers , the select confessional of tlie f t ,, 0 iirfitre , the quasi Bonapartist promoter o { Fratricidal Roman invasion . But when wo
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 23, 1851, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_23081851/page/12/
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