Page:A protest against the extension of railways in the Lake District - Somervell (1876).djvu/48

 taste. These things he can do without asking Parliament to help him, and with a reasonable certainty that Parliament even if asked, will do nothing to hinder him. But so long as there is no railroad nearer than Windermere, Rydal Water is not likely to be invaded by either mines or mills, and as a railway cannot be made without the aid of Parliament, it is at this point that obstructives can most conveniently take their stand.

We have guarded ourselves against being supposed to say that no more railways ought to be made in the Lake country. It is enough for our purpose if it is conceded that no more ought to be made without careful inquiry, without full consideration of the weighty arguments against their extension in this particular district, and without a preliminary recognition that a very much more imperative case ought to be made out for their construction in this particular district than in almost any other. So far as is yet known, no advantage that we do not already possess can be secured by prolonging the railway beyond Windermere; whereas it is evident that against any gain that may be realized by prolongation must be set certainly the partial, and possibly the entire, destruction of scenes of natural beauty, and, by comparison, of unbroken solitude, which can never be reproduced. In the present condition of England this argument ought to have a strong influence on the Legislature which has to decide the question.