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rests awl that of the races tre govern ; but , while we expose these defects , no useful purpose , will be sensed by ignoring the real benefits which have sprung from the British government of India .
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GOMMEBCIAL FAILURES . The causes of ttoe recent failures of some of our public companies are plain enough to people behind the scenes . Outsiders may express surprise that a business so naturally remunerative as the carriage of goods and passengers through a long line of country should , as in the case of the Great "Western Railway , break down miserably , and afford the proprietors of the concern only one per cent , interest for their money . One would as soon expect to hear of the
failure of a coffee-shop in Fleet-street conducted with even ordinary tact . The failure of the Crystal Palace Company as a business speculation is also wonderful enough to ordinary apprehension . Here is a place of amusement very popular , and enjoying ( beyond Oremorne , Surrey Gardens , or even the Opera House ) , the occasional countenance of royal people who allow themselves to be advertized as part of the great Exhibition- —and yet the proprietors of this ' flourishing business' no return for their original outlay .
The Great Western Railway was designed by Bnuinsii- —a man of genius . He thought it would be a fine thing to have a grand line on the broad gauge running from IiOndbn to the far west of England . There were engineering 'difficulties , ' but . Bbttneij with money could surmount them . Shrewd men supplied the money . Here one would think were indications of the propriety of the speculation : a great engineer and clever moneyed men agreeing that the line was practicable and would pay . The line was made—at
very great expense ; but Mr . Bbtinbi . was a man of genius and got Unlimited credit . Flattering accounts were received of the progress of the line ; the shares rose steadily . It was opened amid a flourish of trumpets ; the Bharea rose still higher . Now came the rewards of the man of genius and the moneyed men : one was paid his enormous fees , the others could sell their shares at a premium . They did sell them , and we believe it is a fact that few of the original projectors of
the' company are now large shareholders . A discovery was soon made that the line was too long in proportion to the food that came to it ; it languished like those long , thin boys who grow too quick , and don't get enough to eat . But what mattered this discovery to the original projectors ? They had projected a speculation—not a railway j they had given a certain name to a stock ingeniously connected with a plausible idea——but if the shares had been in a mine in Potosi it
would have been the same thing to them . They started a Great Western Railway , but it was a Stock Exchange line originating in Capel-court , and constructed mainly for the conveyance of specie ( " Convey , the wise it call" ) to their own pockets . " condemns them P it is done every day in the money market ; let the City man who is without sin of the same kind cast the first stone . The new proprietors of the line found their ' nourishing' speculation dying by inches .
They saw that the country could not pay the direct line from . London to Bristol , and so , with the usual wisdom of railway directors , they fostered branches to feed the main trunk . These crutches for the lame line cost money , and Remained more a burden to be supported than a source of support- —the terminating towns were too email . To find large , busy towns as termini of new branches was the want j but unfortunately the line from Xiondon to the- West of England has . more
pretty and interesting places than great factory or shipping towns , or coal districts along its route . "If the great towns wit not come to us , let us go to the towns , " said the adventurous directors , and so they determined to connect themselves with Birming ham , Manchester , Liverpool , and indirectly with the North of England . Look at the map of England ; the Great Western , line runs across the base of the triangle from east to west , and yet it is proposed that it shall be a means of communication from north to
south . When Parliament was asked to grant the Great Western Act , how it would have stared had the projectors . said , " "We mean the line to connect London with Bristol , Birmingham , Manchester , and Liverpool ; and yet it is simply to run from London to Bristol . " The practical paradox has been accomplished by uniting the Great Western with two or three railways running north . The scheme is , however , expensive , for every union rises hostility ; every inch , of ground
invaded is the subject of a costly contest in Parliament , and of costly competition on the lines ; and the clever managers of this Great Western line to the North of England have brought the profits of the business down to one per cent . Sir James Graham at Carlisle this week thus condenses the history : — " Think of the Great Western Railway . By wild speculations of the most improvident kind , amounting to almost insane rashness , it has been so mismanaged , that after an outlay of a million the dividend has sunk down
to one per cent , or some smaller figure . The Crystal Palace Company has failed through a similar process . The original projectors have sold their lands , have sold their shares , or have pocketed their enormous fees , leaving to the men who succeeded them as ruinousl
shareholders or managers a y expensive system . The palace itself costs nearly fifteen thousand a year in repairs . The fountains are the most expensive in the world , for they were designed on the rather vulgar idea that to throw water very high was the great beauty of a fountain . People with better ideas of beauty love rather to see
falling water , contrasted with flowers , statuary , foliage , and grass , as at St . Cloud : fountains on that principle are also , after the first expense , not very costly to keep up , while the gigantic ginger-beer bottles of the Crystal Palace — all foam and spray— -cost a great deal in the mechanism necessary to force them very high . Then the Palace , on account of the necessities of some of the original projectors to sell land at Norwood , is in a landscape without water , and is cut off from civilized London by the barrier of the all but impassable City . Here are causes enough for failure ; but why were not these causes considered at the commencement ? Simply because the projectors had their thoughts merely on the Exchange , and a tempting programme is enough to catch dupes in that locality .
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WORK FOR THE RECESS . The political activity of the next few months may be expected to consist of public meebings here and there , and salutations between members and constituents . We trust that those Liberal representatives who meet their constituents will be careful to draw from them a declaration in favour of reform , in order that the floating fallacy may be dispelled which describes the nation as altogether apathetic . Lord Bbougham has given us an illustration of the meaning to be attached to accounts of public apathy . When , in 1880 , he canvassed Yorkshire , he was taunted with the apathy that existed . During the canvass , not an allusion was made to the subject of reform . ( Slavery was mentioned , and reform
forgotteii . He gave notice of a reform motion on the first night of the next session , and soon , not only Yorkshire , but all England was alive . The Ministers were known to have adopted the principle , and the country was excited from end to end . The position of affairs at present is dissimilar . A popular Minister has promised—though his friends do not believe him—to introduce a
bill in 1858 ; on all sides , therefore—except in Parliament , where they know how evasion is managed— - there is quiet expectation . But let a measure be introduced by a powerful party ; let it be opposed and its promoters beaten , and if excitement be wanted , we shall not have to wait long for it . It were surely wiser to test the feelings of the constituencies ^— -classing non-electors also under that head—by a calm and systematic appeal to their common sense , than to delay all movement until a pressure of taxes or a scarcity of food drives the populace into agitation . The Liberal members of Parliament
might produce a great exhibition of public sentiment during the recess , by communicating with the represented and misrepresented classes , and stirring the stagnant question of reform . Otherwise another session will arrive , and the Premier , eluding his obligations , may point to the dumb and motionless public , and say , " When they ask , they shall have . " , Or , " still worse , he may introduce a bill , and consent , upon the representations of his noble friends , to withdraw it for a time .
The recess is the opportunity for eliciting an expression of public opinion . This public opinion , we believe , is in favour of a new Reform Bill . But it is latent ; the Government pledge keeps it silent . So important ia it , however , to stimulate the action of this powerful element , that the first person , in or out of Parliament , who kindles an agitation , will stand marked as the legitimate leader of Reform .
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OUR PICTURES . The National Gallery Collection is packed in one half of a very defective building iii Trafalgar-square , while the other half is occupied , rent free , by that wealthy close corporation the Royal Academy . We do not wish to anticipate the discussion which is to take pla c e next session upon the proposal to expel the Academicians . Jfc is certain that the public pictures are disgracefully crowded , and that it has been found necessary to shelter the National Portrait Collection in an engineer ' s
house in Great Russell-street . That topic may be postponed ; but it cannot be too soon to prepare for a thorough investigation of ' the system' in connexion / with the purchase and trusteeship of pictures for the nation . The recent debates on the National Gallerjr estimates have brought out some signal illustrations of the administrative methods in vogue , and of the ignorant extravagance of travelling agents . The worst evil is , however , that we have really no guarantee that the most valuable works ot art will not be ultimately ruined by profesnot
sional tampering , or that our galleries win be filled with spurious and ignoble mediocrities bought at high prices in the markets of the Continent , and mistaken for masterpieces by unqualified agents and professional trustees . The anecdotes of the past few years should , have put the House of Commons on its ^ uara ; but not many members care to defy the Prime Minister when he gets up and conjures them not to haggle and boggle over the expense of adding a Olavdw or Cokregio to the galleries of the nation . We inako no apology for travelling back a little , because the , plan of management is uualtered , while the same authorities are responsible , what
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80 S THE Ii E A I ) E B . [ No . 387 , Atoust 22 , 1857 .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 22, 1857, page 808, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2206/page/16/
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