Image TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage Tile
Image size: 6144x7168 Scale: 35% - PanoJS3
Page overview thumbnail

Article text

UK I > S LITE »,\ SV I )NRY.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13, issi.
-» .
.Mr Cowper and his Railway
B «solutions.
* NO. II.
AFTER al) thc noisy proclamations pul
.forth from time to time in favour of the
intended -.Railway hy design'ng men and
"headstrong theorist«, it ia now evident,
< even to the partial originators of that
notable project, that their abortive,
sickly bant lint;, is generally, if not uni-
versally, regarded cither w:t]i npnthy,
suspicion, or disgust. The utter wnnt of
confidence in th« wholo undertaking so
uñmistakeuhly evinced hy the contemp-
tuous) indifference of every body lo thc
many tremendous blunders of *' The
Company "- tho visible reluctance of
plain practical men to mix themselves up
with its atlaira in any way,-,and lastly,
the most conclusivo and damning proof
of all, that which inevitably accrues to a
scheme of this sort from tho. »ant of a
prpper " status " in public opinion, viz..
".wa actual want of cash," all portend
-the rapidly approaching dissolution nf n
thing cpneeived in rashness, and carried
out by imbecility. Yet some few en
.thusiasta hud once great hopes in the
Sydney Railway. Anxiously cared for
by. the -Legislature, and sustained for
awhile on the friendly puffs of the Exe-
cutive, tho Bubble has, nevertheless,
buen unable to emerge from hopeless ob
.scurity, and «s now ready to burst without
'leaving a trace of its worthless existence
behind it. Money has been wafted, time
lotti and still nothing done. Not a mile,
nota foot of this vaunted Railway has
been completed--perfected as a sample
of what tho Directors " could " do when
they cared to try,-as an «¡arnest-ar.d on«
long 'looked for in vain-that " this
Great Southern thoroughfare " was really
in a «tate of progress. A-stono wall (un-
finished) near the Haymarket,with a few
fences'in the Cleveland Paddocks, and
elsewhere, arc about the only tangible re-
sults that our eyes have as yet been per-
mitted to contemplate. Wearied and dis-
heartened we nalurallyturn to Mr Cowpet
fur explanations, and aredecidedly " not'
satisfied with the vague, but condescend-
ing assurance, that there " has " beer
«onto diguing going on somewhere ; tha
the Htvilway has, forsooth, been " al-
most laid down-upon paper, that se-
veral bark huts have boen" erected, am
this, all this, done at the low charge o
Fourteen Thousand Pounds Sterlings
Who is not offended nt th's-who don
not feel both astonished and disgusted '
J s it, under these circumstances, a mau«:
of surprise that certain members of UM
Legislativo Council should have fallet
foul of ihb Railway. HS they did, to thi
?no small terror of Railway Magnates, it
?the debate which 'arose ont of Mr Cow
Ser's " Resolutions " a few days since
'he opposition then so, pathetically* de
precated was the reaction of comraoi
sense, and the cli«satisfaction so londl;
expressed, unanswerable because wei
founded.
For Mr Cowper and his five disinte
rested friends, conscious of weakness ant
insufficiency, to go down to the House
.ntl ask, willi the energy of despairin)
. men, for hollow vote?» of confidence (fo
that is what it amounted to) was at ono
.n abject and ridiculous proceeding.
' <2ouId tho member for Durham have oar
ried what he proposed-and he was loath
it seems, to yield without a "second'
fruitless struggle-it would still hav
availed him nothing. The broad " hint
at still further assistance from Govern
nient contained in the Fourth Résolu
lion, he was under the disagreeable ne
cossity of explaining to niran nothing a
all, although with what object it coal
luve been drawn up sayo that which it
hapless framer so promptly repudiate«
we aro at an absolute loss to itnauint
On the distinct understanding, howeve
that this obnoxious sentence was to I
taken in a " non-natural " neiise, und ni
at having nu oyo tu any future aid, tl
Chief O Hice" r of Ute Executive goat
naturedly voled for tho discomfited mi
anger, moro, evidently, to spore th
wot thy's feelings than any lhing\elt>i
' -and truly tho spectacle of a man pl ead ii
hard to he allowed to record his vote
confidence in luninelf must have . be
something very puinful to witness-an a
of gratuitous humiliation, which met wi
tho reward it deserved. ; - '
' As .r^fiiards . these eccentric motio
aeriatiiu,. ..he'^-fir**1" affirmed, we b
leave to obseive, u mer« (ru sui, t » whi
thi> bold assertion of Hie . second," " Iii
Jtnilronds ar»» the b»'»4, "mid will ev*
tually provo the cheapest kind of mat
isa drcult-d . non a«|uilur,'' anti even
tu uhnwet propositiou turned out to
scarcely (enable under the terrific croan j
fire promptly opened''upon it b/y M es*! fi
Wentworth and Darvall, who proved, in :
our opinion, incontestably, llint iii this
colony; ÜB at present situated, Hallways,
if" practicable,'* (onder the ordinary ac
cpptritinn of the terni) will be enor-
mously expensive in every way. The
third proposition advanced, us to the
effects of the Gold Discovery upon (hr»
Inbour market, is simply " nonsense."
No reasonable man anticipates possible
evils when they are evidently i m pro -
bnble, deliberately guarding, at all
hazards, against what may never happen
at all. But the point of this felicitous
argument in favour,cf the Southern Kail,
way is positively too fine fur us io touch
upon ; and HS we have airead)' oliuded to
the one immediately subséquent tlicoto,
(which lies under . the heavy imputation
of having no meaning at all,) we for ihc
present drop this subject, not without n
sigh for the disappointment mid discri-
mination of those who conferied upon
Mr Cowper his present official situation,
the duties of which are as practically
unknown, to him ns thc responsibilities
are evidently irksome.
$