nd so
permanently, such establishments as are seen at Lowell. The
proprietors of these works have availed themselves of _the canal_,
for their transportation for all articles, except in the winter
months ... and every effort has been made by this corporation to
afford every facility, it was hoped and believed, to the entire
satisfaction of the Lowell proprietors. The average annual amount
of tolls paid by these proprietors has been only about four
thousand dollars. It is believed no safer or cheaper mode of
conveyance can ever be established, nor any so well adapted for
carrying heavy and bulky articles. To establish therefore a
_substitute_ for the canal alongside of it, and in many places
within a few rods of it, and to do that which the canal was made to
do, seems to be a measure not called for by any exigency, nor one
which the Legislature can permit, without implicitly declaring that
all investments of money in public enterprises must be subjected to
the will of any applicants who think that they may benefit
themselves without regard to older enterprises, which have a claim
to protection from public authority. With regard, then, to
transportation of tonnage goods, the means exist for all but the
winter months, as effectually as any that can be provided.

There is a supposed source of revenue to a railroad, _from
carrying passengers_. As to this, the remonstrants venture no
opinion, except to say, that passengers are now carried, at all
hours, as rapidly and safely as they are anywhere else in the
world.... To this, the remonstrants would add, that the use of a
railroad, _for passengers only_, has been tested by experience,
nowhere, hitherto; and that it remains to be known, whether this is
a mode which will command general confidence and approbation, and
that, therefore, no facts are now before the public, which furnish
the conclusion, that the grant of a railroad is a public exigency
even for such a purpose. The Remonstrants would also add, that so
far as they know and believe, "_there never can be a sufficient
inducement to extend a railroad from Lowell westwardly and
northwestwardly, to the Connecticut, so as to make it the great
avenue to and from the interior, but that its termination must be
at Lowell_" (italics our own), "and, cons