from Wolverhampton, through Worcester and
Banbury, to join the London and Birmingham line at Tring; the other
scheme consists of a line from Oxford to Rugby, which is proposed to be
made by the Great Western Company; and of another line from Oxford to
Worcester and Wolverhampton, which is undertaken by an independent
Company, but in connexion with the Great Western Company, and which must
be considered as forming, with the Oxford and Rugby line, one scheme,
competing with the former.

For the sake of brevity we shall distinguish these as the "London and
Birmingham or Tring Scheme," and the "Great Western or Oxford Scheme."
Their general direction will be easily understood by reference to the
accompanying map.

In their general features and objects the two schemes are so nearly
identical that the two manifestly cannot stand together. A further
scheme for the accommodation of the country between Worcester and
Wolverhampton, was proposed by the Birmingham and Gloucester Company, but
it is understood that arrangements have been made by which this scheme is
withdrawn in favour of the London and Birmingham scheme, to which it was
moreover inferior in several important respects, so that we may consider
the question as reduced to one of competition between the schemes of the
two great Companies.

The first point is, whether a sufficient public case can be established
to justify the construction of any Railway at all throughout the
districts in question. As regards the South Staffordshire district, this
point has been disputed by various Canal interests, who urge that the
district is already sufficiently well supplied by water communication,
and that the introduction of Railways, by destroying the resources and
crippling the efficiency of such water communications, will be productive
of injury rather than of benefit to the Public. Various special reasons
have been urged in support of this view, more especially with reference
to the mineral district of which Dudley may be considered as the centre.
It is said that the Birmingham Canal Company have, at a great expense,
created a very complete and efficient system of water communication
throughout this district; that a right is reserved of making branch
Canals to all mines and works within certain limits, which right would be
to a certain extent defeated by running a Railway parallel to the
existing Canal, to the injury both of the Canal Company, and of the
owners of the mine