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1839.]THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT’S JOURNAL.87 O BSE R V ATIONS ON THE IRIS II R AIL WAY COMMISSIONERS’ REPORT. With no unfriendly feeling either to the Irish Railway Commis sioners, or to those professionally connected with them, we again make further observations on the Irish Railway Report, as a public document executed at the expense of the people. Does not the following suggested distribution of railroads through Ireland exhibit a spirit of favouritism and partiality, when, for the southern division of Ireland, the Railway Commissioners have laid out 359 miles of railway, estimate 5,317,884/., and for the northern 152 miles, estimate 2,336,258/. ; while no railway has been laid out for the centre of Ireland, nor for the whole province of Connaught? In the September number of this Journal we took a general view of the Report; we showed that the general system of railways laid out through Ireland by the Commissioners was wrong; we also showed in correct detail numerous errors, both in the maps, plans, sections, and gradients, such as were sufficient not only to destroy the reputation of the work, as to its accuracy, but even affecting the very characters of the individuals who had incautiously compiled and published so erro neous a document. Those numerous and serious errors were laid before the public through the columns of our Journal six months ago, and have not been questioned or replied to in any published works to our knowledge, by any of the commissioners or their friends, no, nor even by the grandson of Charles Ilutton, nor the eleve of Telford, deeply and seriously as it affects both of them, the Railway Commis sioners,and even the (iovernment, after an expenditure of nearly twenty thousand pounds, and a loss of more than two years’ time. We ask, what will the engineers of France and of America say in examining such an inaccurate production ? Will they not justly exclaim, Behold, the people in the country of Newton, of Napier, and Maclaut'it), are now so reduced in scientific acquirement, that they are not able to work accurately the simple operations of decimal arithmetic? Is it not humiliating to think that among the rulers of this great empire that so few individuals of scientific acquirement are to be found ? Sir Davies Gilbeit and Lord Oxmantown are men of science; the former has now nearly reached the maximum age allotted to man, while we regret that political influence has swept the latter from that position in the councils of the sovereign and the country which his talents and acquire ments so pre-eminently entitled him to occupy, for to aid the advance ment and the progress of those interests connected with the works of science and improvement, which so few could comprehend and under stand so well among the representatives of the country. We are happy to have an opportunity of testifying our great regard and esteem for Lord Oxmantown, not only as a cultivator of science in its highest branches, but also of his devotion to the prosecution of practical me chanics. Has not one of the most distinguished savans of the empire de clared—" That the sciences and the arts of England are in a wretched state of depression, and that their decline is mainly owing to the ignorance and supineness of the Government, to the injudicious organization of our scientific boards and institutions, to the indirect persecution of scientific and literary men, by their exclusion from all the honours of the state.” And has it not been truly said that—“ The young diplo macy of the American States was raised into distinction when Franklin took upon himself the functions of her ambassador, and France was at the zenith of her glory when the Marquis La Place was President of her Conservative Senate, Lagrange a Peer of France, and Carnot her Minister of War.” A few leading articles have appeared from time to time in the minis terial papers, praising the Irish Railway Report, but the acquirements of the editors of newspaper# are such as to exclude them from being able to review such a work, and to those who understand such subjects, those leading articles must appear to have been put forward by the commissioners and their friends, to support their very objectionable system of Irish railway projects. It is remarkable that the government of the country found it necessary to employ a gentleman to travel through Ireland for the express purpose of praising this railway report, at various public meetings which had been held in that country -—and this was actually acknowledged publicly by the individual so employed. The “ Quarterly Review" for January, 1839, contains an article on the Report of the Irish Railway Commissioners; but it contains nothing that had not been previously published or well known before, and it is only remarkable for introducing a vast variety of subjects totally irrele vant to the one it professes to discuss. We beg to observe, that Mr. David Stevenson never was at New Orleans, and that the information regarding the steamers at New Orleans, which the “ Quarterly Re view” quotes at page 6, is from the pen of Captain Basil Hall, who had visited New Orleans, and not from that of Mr. Stevenson, who bad not been there ; the statement of the “ Quartetly" is, therefore, No. 18,—-Yon, n,—March, 1839. not correct. The observations made on the democratic institutions of the North American Republic at page 25, are not only quite unworthy of the intelligence of the age, but they are, in our opinion, unfounded and untrue. The property of the people of the United States of America is just as secure as that of the people of any other country. The laws which govern the free and independent states of the North American Republic are more likely to spread through the great American continent than those of the arbitrary and despotic govern ments of Europe ; in all likelihood those principles of freedom which have been spreading so widely for the last 50 years, will yet be ex tended much more, and ameliorate the condition of the human race in the most remote and distant regions of the earth. Matters of a political kind we do not profess to discuss, and we regret to do so in any manner ; but our excuse is, that for the American people of the United States we entertain the highest respect, and we therefore do not like to see them and their institutions calumniated in pages which profess and avow to be consecrated to the discussion of a scientific subject, and which our avocations oblige us to notice, and more particularly as an attempt will be made to convert the Irish railway monopoly into a political state job ; it therefore becomes a sacred duty with us to expose it to the fullest public animadversion. “ We conceive the principal question in this inquiry to be—Does the report emanate from persons possessing, in the opinion of Europe, the requisite qualifications ? We have, accordingly, taken some pains to inform ourselves upon this subject.”—Quarterly Review, December, 1838. The account given by the “ Quarterly Review” on this very im portant matter, has established, in the clearest manner possible, that none of the Irish Railway Commissioners had ever executed any kind of railway works ; and it therefore cannot fail to appear to those pos sessed of practical knowledge in railway engineering, that the nomina tion of such a railway board was a very extraordinary proceeding on the part of the executive ; to depute such men to legislate on matters they never had been previously acquainted vyith, was certainly, to say the least of it, not an arrangement either consonant to reason, nor creditable to the wisdom of the government of this country. When the legislature had deemed such a commission necessary to lay out a system of railways for Ireland, why were not individuals of the highest practical skill in railway engineering, totally unconnected with Ireland, selected for such a purpose? And this service, we affirm, could have been accomplished in four months, and the reports, sections, plans, &c., might have been with ease delivered in less than eight months, while these Railway Commissioners required nearly two years, involving in its consequences a loss of three years to Ireland in the progress and extension of railways, inflicting a deep and lasting injury upon her prosperity, and the unemployed population of that country. We are advocates that great works of national utility should ori ginate with the people—we are inimical, in the highest degree, to legis lative interference with anything, from the making of a steam-engine to that of the smallest article ; we conceive it is the duty of a wise and a paternal Government to aid andassist pnblic companiesin their exertions and endeavours to execute works of public utility: but, on the other band, if a Government once assumes the mantle of general manufacturer of steam-engines, engineer-general of railroads, &c., under an act of the legislature, then the rights and interests of all the industrious classes are directly invaded, a monopoly set up, and the spirit of enterprise, of invention, and improvement ceases, and all those vigorous trading impulses which have so eminently contributed to the wealth and to the prosperity of all free and enlightened countries, but particularly the great advantages which would result to Ireland by the introduction of English capitalists. We deny the right of the British Government to step in at the eleventh hour and interfere, except so far as the public interests may require, with either the English rail way companies, or even those of Ireland, which have been formed, by men who have, in England, Scotland, and Ireland, congregated together, subscribed and risked capital, called into existence a new power, executed the most stupendous works with the most triumphant success, and all without the aid of a Royal commission. Will not the Government of this country read a lesson of wisdom from past events? Has not steam navigation across the Atlantic Ocean been achieved in the most satisfactory manner by private enter prise ? Have not the river navigations, and also the whole of the canals of England, been executed by companies? Are not all the steam- vessels which, cover, not only the British seas, but also tl ose of Europe, entirely due to the successful enterprise of companies ? And have not the noblest engineering works in the world been accom plished by private companies ? Look at the bridges of Waterloo and S mtbwark; they will prove that the people are quite capable of exe cuting works as stupendous and nionumtntal as the pyramids of Egypt, but of a much more useful and nolle kind. We are thoroughly con-