s we have already
seen, a larger population; and therefore, on the whole, both in these
respects and in the important particular of the gauge, it seems to us to
be in itself decidedly preferable to the competing Great Western scheme.

It remains to be seen whether there are any other considerations which
might modify this conclusion.

It is urged, that the concession of this line to a Company promoted by
the London and Birmingham Company, will constitute a great monopoly,
extending over a vast extent of country, while, by giving it to the Great
Western Company, a competition would be introduced, from which the Public
might derive benefit. On the other hand, it may be said that, to allow
the Great Western Company to embrace, by their influence, not only the
whole western communications of the island, but also the whole of South
Wales, and the whole district up to Worcester and Birmingham, would be to
establish a monopoly much more gigantic than that of the London and
Birmingham. This latter monopoly would also be more obviously
objectionable, inasmuch as an interest adverse to the Public would at
once be established if the line from London to Worcester and
Wolverhampton, and that from Bristol to Birmingham, were to be in the
same hands, and upon the same wide gauge, as the line now proposed
through South Wales. The accommodation of Herefordshire, Worcestershire,
South Wales, and the important districts lying to the west of the present
lines of Railway, will evidently, at no distant period, require not only
a wide-gauge Railway along the Southern coast, to place them in
communication with London, but also a narrow-gauge Railway to place them
in direct and unbroken communication, through Birmingham, with the
manufacturing districts and the great Railway system of the rest of the
kingdom.

The extension of such a Railway would be greatly facilitated by the
establishment of the narrow gauge, and of an interest independent of the
Great Western, in the Worcester district, and, on the other hand, would
be greatly impeded if that district were assigned to the Great Western
interest and to the wide gauge.

In respect therefore of the general question of monopoly, it appears to
us that nothing would be gained by substituting that of the Great Western
for that of the London and Birmingham, which is the only alternative; at
the same time, if the latter Company had shown no disposition to meet the
fair demands of the Public by