“STEEL-LAID RAILWAYS.—A line of railway laid in steel is now well known

to be superior, in respect of economy of working, to one laid in iron.

It requires less labour in keeping up, and, all other things being

equal, it can be maintained in a better running condition than an iron

way. The reasons of its superiority are apparent enough. A yielding

roadway is a bad roadway for traction; and while bad at all speeds, it

is especially bad at high speeds. Whatever may be the explanation, the

following are well-established facts:—The axle friction of carriages,

and the mere resistance to rolling along a smooth rail, are constant

at all speeds. The actual resistances to the motion of trains upon

our best railways are, however, considerably greater at high than at

low speeds, and the excess is very much beyond that known to be due

merely to the atmosphere. Besides the latter resistance, there is a

considerable resistance known to increase in the ratio of the square

of the speed, and it is, we believe, the universal custom of the

profession to speak of this as the resistance due to “concussions;” and

what but an irregular, uneven, or yielding line can cause concussions?

These increased resistances apply to lines in good and even first-rate

condition, and are much greater on lines not well kept up. The constant

resistances are but from 8 lb. to 10 lb. per ton for the engine,

tender, and train, so that the resistances due to “concussions” are

about equal to the constant resistances at 40 miles an hour, and twice

as great at 60 miles an hour. At the high and increasing speed at which

railways are now worked, these “concussions,” due to the irregularities

of our lines, thus absorb the principal portion of our locomotive

power, and entail a heavy charge in the shape of working expenses.

But for these “concussions” our lines might be worked, probably, at

35 per cent. instead of 50 per cent. of their present gross receipts,

there being always a considerable proportion of the working charges

which, like management, station attendance, &c., are independent of

the condition of the line. Although we have no precise data to show

the superior working condition of a steel-laid, as compared with an

iron-laid line, it is notorious and beyond dispute that the steel lines

are worked at less expense, not only so far as renewals of rails are

concerned, but in respect also of maintenance of way, locomotive power,

and wear and tear of carriage and waggon stock. Steel rails, by their

superior hardness, strength, and stiffness, approach much nearer than

iron to the mathematical planes to which all rails should conform, in

order to diminish the resistance to traction to a _minimum_. Taking the

working expenses of railways at their present average rate, it would be

a low estimate indeed to say that, even apart from all consideration

of the _renewals_ of rails, the superiority of steel over iron rails

does not amount to at least 2d. per train mile, taking into account

the saving of locomotive power, wear of carriage and waggon stock,

maintenance of way, &c. At this rate a line, having fifty trains each

way daily, and having 240 tons of steel per mile of double line,

would save, yearly, £304 per mile of way, equal to more than 25s. per

ton of the steel in the line. One great objection heretofore made to

the introduction of steel has been the extent to which the compound

interest upon its increased cost would mount up in a series of years;

but even if the saving in working expenses were but half that estimated

above, it would fully pay for the _whole_ interest of steel, at £12.

10s. per ton, at which rate steel rails are now often sold. Under the

hardest wear, steel rails have outworn twenty-five times their weight

of iron, and no estimate now made of their service is ever less than

that of a three-fold durability over iron; but if their durability was

only as much greater than that of iron as their cost is greater, or

even if it were absolutely no greater, it is virtually certain that

they would prove cheaper in use than iron, because of the superiority

of working condition of a steel-laid as compared with an iron-laid

line, and the consequent very considerable saving in working expenses.”

Abridged from _Engineering_, October 11, 1867.

[71] The first admission of crinoline into England is thus described

by Miss Agnes Strickland in Vol. 3 of her “_Lives of the Queens of

England_”:—“On the day of St. Erkenwald, the 14th of November, 1501,

writes the herald to whom we are indebted for the particulars of the

marriage of Prince Arthur with Princess Catherine of Arragon, the Duke

of York led the infanta from the Bishop’s Palace to St. Paul’s. Strange

diversity of apparel of the country of Hispania is to be ‘_descriven_,’

for the bride wore, at the time of her marriage, upon her head a coif

of white silk with a scarf bordered with gold and pearl and precious

stones, five inches and a half broad, which veiled great part of her

visage and of her person; this was the celebrated Spanish mantilla. Her

gown was very large, the body with many plaits, and beneath the waist

certain round hoops bearing out their gowns (those of the princess

and of the four Spanish maids of honour who attended her) from their

bodies, after their country manner. Such was the first arrival of the

famous farthingale in England.” Ladies, a friend of ours recently asked

us, “What is the length of a crinoline”? Having of course “given it

up,” he informed us that it is usually _over two feet_!

[72] Miss Aldworth of Newmarket House, County of Limerick, concealed

herself in the case of a clock in the room of a house at which a

masonic lodge was held. Before the completion of the day’s proceedings

her hiding place was discovered. She was immediately brought forth and

on the spot she was made a mason. She took the oaths, and like a good

member of the craft as she was, never divulged the secret to the day

of her death. Even now (1867) her insignia as a masoness are preserved

with religious care at Newmarket House, and the chair in which she used

to sit when at her lodge is in the dining room; above the chair is her

portrait.

[73] The latest statistics show that there are 50,117 miles of railway

in Europe; North and South America, 40,866; Africa, about 300; India,

4,070; Australia, 480. Of the North and South American railways,

33,896, belong to the United States, and there are about 16,000 miles

constructing. Almost all American railways are very inferior in point

of construction to European railways, and they are nearly all single

lines. They have, however, been of inestimable value in developing the

material resources of the country.

[74] Penny-a-lining, so called, because it is paid for by the

newspapers at the rate of three-half-pence a line!

[75] There is only one part or portion of railway practice which,

with all our railway experience, we are unable to account for. Yet

the practice is universal. We (always in the singular number, we

are plural, editorially, only) have travelled in a great many parts

of the world, but wherever we have gone we have never found but one

undeviating and unalterable rule among the door-opening and the

door-closing portion of the railway community. Is it an instinct or

an abstract idea with them that the door of a compartment cannot be

closed unless the closing be accompanied with a loud and violent bang,

which pleases nobody and sets nervous persons into a state of glowing

trepidation? Or is there a masonry among the officials of this grade,

from participation in which the higher classed portion of the railway

fraternity is excluded, the secret of the craft being that all railway

carriage doors must be banged as they close them? Dear colleagues

of the class of carriage door shutters, country station masters,

inspectors, ticket collectors, guards of the first class, guards of

the second, and temporary guards, foremen porters, ordinary porters

and good-looking porters, porters of the strong back, and porters of

brachial muscle much developed, let us entreat and implore you to

retire from the brotherhood and learn to close carriage doors gently,

quietly, and as becomes your gentle natures. There is a Latin proverb

which means do your work vigorously, but be gentle in the mode of doing

it,—_suaviter in modo, fortiter in re_. One word from a cordial friend

to a wise man, suffices.

[76] Turpin’s ride to York turns out, notwithstanding the bright and

vivid description of it by Mr. Harrison Ainsworth, to have no real

existence as regards his hero. Nevertheless, Mr. Ainsworth had fact for

the foundation of his story, a noted burglar of the latter end of the

17th century having actually ridden, after the commission of a great

and daring robbery, from, if we recollect rightly, Stamford or some

place to the south of it, and on his trial (for he was subsequently

indicted) he was able to produce persons who had seen him in York early

the following morning. The evidence, however, against him on other

points was clear and decisive, and he paid the penalty for his crime,

in the manner usual in those days; they hanged him.

[77] The oldest of the great public schools, or “grammar” schools,

of England is Winchester, founded in 1381 by William of Wykeham, a

Bishop of Winchester, the year after he had founded “New College,”

Oxford. There is no doubt, however, that Winchester school, in its

original shape, is of much greater antiquity than the time of William

of Wykeham, some authorities tracing its existence to the introduction

of Christianity into Britain. It has the only English motto of all our

great public schools, “Manners makyth man.” Royalty frequently visited

the school for the first two hundred years after Wykeham’s endowment.

In 1570, Queen Elizabeth pleasantly asked one of the scholars whether

he had ever endured the famous Winton birching. He happily replied from

the “Æneid,”

“Infandum, Regina, jubes renovare dolorem,”

which produced a most gracious smile from Her Majesty.

Eton College was founded by Henry VI. The Procuratory is dated the 12th

September, 1441; but the Charter is dated twenty-nine days later—on the

11th October; and the royal endowment was not completed until 1443.

The most pious, but most unfortunate, of English sovereigns took the

warmest interest in the success of the school, and whenever he heard

of any of the boys visiting his officers and attendants at Windsor

Castle, he would send for them, and admonish them to follow the paths

of virtue; besides his words, he would give them money to win over

their good will, saying to them “_Sitis boni pueri; mites et docibiles,

et servi Domini_.” “Be good boys, be gentle and docile, and servants of

the Lord.” The motto of Eton is, “_Floreat Etona_.”

John Colet, Dean of St. Paul’s, founded St. Paul’s School in 1509. The

motto is “_Doce, Disce, et Discede_.”

Westminster School (the motto of which is “_In patriam populum que_”)

was established in its present shape by Henry VIII.; but it existed

as a school even in the time of Edward the Confessor. The Letters

Patent of Queen Elizabeth, who took an interest in the school from the

patronage bestowed upon it by her father, are the oldest extant about

it. They bear date the 11th of June, 1560.

Rugby School, founded by Laurence Sheriff, grocer and citizen of

London, celebrated the tricentenary of its existence on the 26th of

June, 1867, with Dean Stanley, of Westminster, as President. Rugby’s

motto is, “_Nihil sine Laborando_.”

The Royal Grammar School of Shrewsbury was founded by the Corporation

of the town in 1549; and in two years afterwards obtained from Edward

VI. for its endowment, a portion of the estates of the dissolved

collegiate churches. Its motto is “_Intus si recte, ne labora_.”

Edward VI. founded several grammar schools, the first of which was that

of Norwich, but his name is more intimately associated with that of

Christ’s Hospital, London (popularly known as the Blue Coat School),

than with any other. He died on the 6th July, 1553, having just one

month previously signed its charter of incorporation. Christ’s Hospital

is without a motto.

The foundation of the Merchant Tailors’ School is due to the wisdom and

munificence of the ancient “Company of the Marchaunt Tailors,” which,

according to Stow, has been a guild or fraternity from time immemorial.

The statutes of the School, which has for a motto “_Homo plantat, homo

irrigat, sed Deus dat incrementum_,” were authorised and sanctioned on

the 24th September, 1561.

The motto of Harrow is “_Stet fortuna domus_.”

The site upon which Charterhouse School stands was purchased by

Thomas Sutton in 1611 from Thomas Earl of Suffolk, fourth son of the

fourth Duke of Norfolk (beheaded in Queen Elizabeth’s reign), for the

establishment of a hospital for the support of poor and aged people,

and a free school for the maintenance and education of poor children.

Letters patent to carry out both these objects were immediately granted

by James I.; the motto is “_Floreat Æternum Carthusiana Domus_.” For

full particulars of these schools see “The Great Schools of England,”

by Howard Staunton; and for details concerning the early history

of Eton College, and of all authors who have written respecting it

previous to 1858, Vols. 1 and 2 of the “_Annals of Windsor_,” by

Messrs. R. R. Tighe and J. E. Davis, should be consulted.

[78] Byron has left us the following recollection of his Harrow

School-boy days:—

Ye scenes of my childhood, whose loved recollections

Embitter the present, compared with the past;

Whence science first dawned on the powers of reflection,

And friendships were formed too romantic to last;

Where fancy yet joys to retrace the resemblance

Of comrades in friendship and mischief allied;

How welcome to me your ne’er-fading remembrance,

Which rests in the bosom, though hope is denied!

Again I revisit the hills where we sported,

The streams where we swam, and the fields where we fought;

The school where, loud warned by the bell, we resorted,

To pore o’er the precepts by pedagogues taught.

Again I behold where for hours I have ponder’d,

As, reclining at eve, on yon tombstone I lay;

Or round the steep brow of the churchyard I wander’d,

To catch the last gleam of the sun’s setting ray.

I once more view the room, with spectators surrounded,

Where, as Zanga, I trod on Alonzo overthrown;

While to swell my young pride, such applauses resounded,

I fancied that Mossop himself was outshone;

Or, as Lear, I poured forth the deep imprecation,

By my daughters of kingdoms and reason deprived;

Till, fired by loud plaudits and self-adulation,

I regarded myself as Garrick revived.

Ye dreams of my boyhood, how much I regret you!

Unfaded your memory dwells in my breast;

Though sad and deserted, I ne’er can forget you,

Your pleasures may still be in fancy possest.

To Ida full oft may remembrance restore me,

While fate shall the shades of the future unroll!

Since darkness o’ershadows the prospect before me,

More dear is the beam of the past to my soul.

But if through the course of the years which await me,

Some new scene of pleasure should open to view,

I will say, while with rapture the thought shall elate me,

“Oh, such were the days which my infancy knew.”

Byron used to lay on the tombstone above referred to for hours,

when labouring, even as a boy, under those morbid excitements that

embittered his comparatively short life. It is still called “Byron’s

Tombstone.”

[79] Subjoined is Sir Francis Head’s description of the Wolverton

Refreshment Rooms as they were in their palmy days:—

“In dealing with the British Nation, it is an axiom among those who

have most deeply studied our noble character, that to keep John Bull

in beaming good humour it is absolutely necessary to keep him always

_quite full_. The operation is very delicately called ‘refreshing him;’

and the London and North-Western Railway Company having, as in duty

bound, made due arrangements for affording him, once in about every

two hours, this support, their arrangements not only constitute a

curious feature in the history of railway management, but the _dramatis

personæ_ we are about to introduce, form, we think, rather a strange

contrast to the bare arms, muscular frames, heated brows, and begrimed

faces of the sturdy workmen of railways.

“The Refreshment Establishment at Wolverton is composed of—1. A

matron or generalissima. 2. Seven very young ladies to wait upon the

passengers. 3. Four men and three boys, ditto ditto. 4. One man-cook,

his kitchen-maid, and his two scullery-maids. 5. Two housemaids. 6. One

still-room maid, employed solely in the liquid duty of making tea and

coffee. 7. Two laundry-maids. 8. One baker, and one baker’s boy. 9. One

garden-boy; and lastly, what is most significantly described in the

books of the establishment—10. ‘An odd-man.’

“‘_Homo sum, humani nihil à me aliemun puto._’

“There are also eighty-five pigs and piglings, of whom hereafter.

“The manner in which the above list of persons, in the routine of their

duty, diurnally revolve in the ‘scrap drum’ of their worthy matron,

is as follows:—very early in the morning—in cold winter long before

sunrise—‘the odd-man’ wakens the two housemaids, to one of whom is

intrusted the confidential duty of awakening the seven young ladies

exactly at seven o’clock, in order that their ‘première toilette’

may be concluded in time for them to receive the passengers of the

first train, which reaches Wolverton at 7·30 a.m. From that time

until the departure of the passengers by the York mail train, which

arrives opposite the refreshment room at about eleven o’clock at

night, these young persons remain on duty, continually vibrating, at

the ringing of a bell, across the rails (they have a covered passage

high above them, but they never use it), from the north refreshment

room for down passengers to the south refreshment room, constructed

for hungry up-ones. By about midnight, after having philosophically

divested themselves of the various little bustles of the day, they all

are enabled once again to lay their heads on their pillows, with the

exception of one, who in her turn, assisted by one man and one boy of

the establishment, remains on duty receiving the money, &c., till four

in the morning for the up mail. The young person, however, who in her

weekly turn performs this extra task, instead of rising with the others

at seven, is allowed to sleep on till noon, when she is expected to

take her place behind the long table with the rest.

“The scene in the refreshment room at Wolverton, on the arrival of

every train, has so often been witnessed by our readers, that it need

hardly be described. As these youthful handmaidens stand in a row

behind bright silver urns, silver coffee pots, silver tea pots, cups,

saucers, cakes, sugar, milk, with other delicacies over which they

preside, the confused crowd of passengers simultaneously liberated from

the train, hurry towards them with a velocity exactly proportionate

to their appetites. The hungriest face first enters the door, ‘magnâ

comitante catervâ,’ followed by a crowd very much resembling in

eagerness and joyous independence the rush at the prorogation of

Parliament of a certain body following their leader from one house to

the bar of what they mysteriously call ‘another place.’ Considering

that the row of young persons have among them all only seven right

hands, with but very little fingers at the end of each, it is really

astonishing how, with such slender assistance, they can in the short

space of a few minutes manage to extend and to withdraw them so often;

sometimes to give a cup of tea, sometimes to receive half-a-crown,

of which they have to return two shillings, then to give an old

gentleman a plate of warm soup, then to drop another lump of sugar

into his nephew’s coffee cup, then to receive a penny for a bun, and

then again threepence for four ‘lady’s fingers.’ It is their rule,

as well as their desire, never, if they can possibly prevent it, to

speak to anyone; and although sometimes, when thunder has turned the

milk, or the kitchen-maid over-peppered the soup, it may occasionally

be necessary to soothe the fastidious complaints of some beardless

ensign by an infinitesimal appeal to the generous feelings of his

nature, we mean, by the hundred-thousandth part of a smile, yet they

endeavour on no account ever to exceed that harmless dose. But while

they are thus occupied at the centre of the refreshment table, at its

two ends, each close to a warm stove, a very plain matter-of-fact

business is going on, which consists of the rapid uncorking of, and the

emptying into large tumblers, innumerable black bottles of what is not

inappropriately called ‘stout,’ inasmuch as all the persons who are

drinking the dark foaming mixture, wear heavy great-coats, with large

wrappers round their necks, in fact are _very_ stout. We regret to have

to add, that among these thirsty customers are to be seen, quite in the

corner, several silently tossing off glasses of brandy, rum, and gin.

“But the bell is violently calling the passengers to ‘Come! come away!’

and as they have all paid their fares, and as the engine is loudly

hissing—attracted by their pockets as well as by their engagements,

they soon, like the swallows of the summer, congregate together, and

then fly away.

“It appears from the books that the annual consumption at the

refreshment room averages 182,500 Banbury cakes; 56,940 Queen’s cakes;

29,200 patés; 36,500 lbs. flour; 13,140 lbs. butter; 2,920 lbs.

coffee; 43,800 lbs. meat; 5,110 lbs. currants; 1,277 lbs. tea; 5,840

lbs. loaf sugar; 5,110 lbs. moist sugar; 16,425 quarts of milk; 1,095

quarts of cream; 8,088 bottles of lemonade; 10,416 soda water; 45,012

stout; 25,692 ale; 5,208 ginger beer; 547 port; 2,095 sherry; 666 gin;

464 rum; 2,392 brandy. To the eatables are to be added or driven,

the eighty-five pigs, who after having been from their birth most

kindly treated and most luxuriously fed, are impartially promoted, by

seniority, one after another, into an infinite number of pork pies.

“Having, in the refreshment sketch which we have just concluded,

partially detailed at some length, the duties of the seven young

persons at Wolverton, we feel it due to them, as well as to those of

our readers who, we perceive, have not yet quite finished their tea,

by a very few words to complete their history. It is never considered

quite fair to pry into the private conduct of any one who performs

his duty to the public with zeal and assiduity. The warrior and the

statesman are not always immaculate; and although at the opera ladies

certainly sing very high, and in the ballet kick very high, it is

possible that their voices and feet may reach rather higher than their

characters. Considering, then, the difficult duties which our seven

young attendants have to perform—considering the temptations to which

they are constantly exposed, in offering to the public attentions which

are ever to simmer and yet never to boil; it might be expected that

our inquiries should considerately go no further than the arrival at

11 p.m. of the ‘up York mail.’ The excellent matron, however, who has

charge of these young people—who always dine and live at her table—with

honest pride declares, that the breath of slander has never ventured

to sully the reputation of any of those who have been committed to

her charge; and as this testimony is corroborated by persons residing

in the neighbourhood and very capable of observation, we cannot take

leave of the establishment without expressing our approbation of the

good sense and attention with which it is conducted; and while we give

credit to the young ladies for the character they have maintained,

we hope they will be gratefully sensible of the protection they have

received.” _Stokers and Pokers_, by the author of “Bubbles from the

Brunnen of Nassau.” London: John Murray, Albermarle Street, 1849.

[80] Ladies, it is sometimes dangerous to conceal your exact ages. We

will give you a case in point, that only occurred in the summer of

the present year. A lady, as far back as 1825, insured her life for

the benefit of her relatives. She only died a few months ago; but on

coming to compare her age, as given by herself at the time of effecting

the insurance, with that on the certificate of births required by the

office, to be obtained, after death, from the parish register, it was

found that although the lady was in reality 42 years, in 1825, she only

owned to 35, and paid premiums on that scale for 42 years. The office,

had it been so disposed, might have declared the policy absolutely

forfeited. It took a more generous course; the policy was admitted, as

a claim, but from the amount that would have come to the legatees, if

all had been in order, the difference of premium between 35 and 42, for

42 years, with interest and compound interest thereon, from the period

that each premium became due, was deducted. The legatees thus received

not more than half the nominal amount stated on the policy.

[81] Both ladies have since been married. “No cards.” Were we a

newspaper proprietor, we should charge two and sixpence additional for

the two last words of this announcement.

[82] _Engineering_, of September the 27th, and October the 4th, 1867,

contains several extremely well executed views of some of the bridges

and viaducts of the Highland Railway. “They are engraved,” says the

Editor, “not because of any special peculiarities of their mechanical

structure, but mainly on account of the fine character of the abutments

and approaches; in short, the artistic qualities of their general

design. For variety and originality, for pleasing outline and detail,

and for their dignity and their harmony with the associations of the

district traversed by the line, these bridges are admirable works

in every respect. They have an artistic as distinguished from their

merely material character, and they are, notwithstanding, economical

structures.”

Mr. Joseph Mitchell, the engineer, by whom the line was constructed,

read a paper descriptive of it at the Meeting of the British

Association at Dundee in August last. This paper is given in full in

_Engineering_ of September the 13th.

[83] Great, and it is hoped successful, efforts are now making to

connect the North-East and the North-West of Scotland by a line to

be made from Dingwall, eighteen miles beyond Inverness and the most

western station of the Highland Railway, through Strathpeffer to

Loch Carron, a distance of fifty miles, whence there will be steam

communication with the Isle of Skye. The Dingwall and Skye Railway

Company has been formed some time, but now, in consequence of the

amount of capital subscribed, and the liberality of the landowners,

application is to be made for an Act of Parliament to authorise the

construction of the line; Mr. Matheson, M.P., is the Chairman of the

Company. At the conclusion of its half-yearly meeting, held on the

30th October last, Mr. Kenneth Murray proposed a vote of thanks to

the Chairman, Mr. Matheson, M.P., and in doing so, expressed his most

cordial good wishes for the prosperity of the Skye Line. “Every thing,”

said Mr. Murray, “that lays in my power to promote it as a shareholder

and otherwise, I feel it my duty as a Ross-shire man to do, and every

one who has the interests of the North of Scotland, and of the people

at heart, must sympathise with the efforts made to open up the distant

West country. To Mr. Matheson, almost solely, the very high merit of

having pushed forward the scheme is due, and I think he has very strong

claim on every gentleman, whether proprietor, farmer, or minister even,

that they should come forward and assist him in an object so very dear

to him, as no line projected for a long time had such a claim on public

sympathy and on the purse of the public.” Mr. Matheson, in returning

thanks, expressed the hope that by 1870 passengers from Edinburgh and

Glasgow might reach Postree, the capital of Skye, in about thirteen

hours, and passengers from Inverness in about six hours.

[84] The following is an extract from a speech delivered in October,

1867, by the Rev. Dr. Guthrie, on the occasion of re-opening the

parochial schools at Niddrie. “I was once present in a congregation

in the town of Thurso, which contained as many as 1,200 people, and,

perhaps, you will hardly believe me when I tell you that on that

occasion I saw what I never saw before, and what, I am sure, you never

saw, and what I hope I shall never see again—I saw 600 people asleep!

600 people asleep! I happened at the time to be living with Sir George

Sinclair, a very excellent gentleman, who resides in the immediate

neighbourhood of that town. I told him what I had seen in the church.

“Oh,” said he, “that is nothing to what I have seen myself; I have

seen in almost every pew the whole people asleep, with only here and

there an exception.” The Rev. Doctor’s opinion is that the cause of

drowsiness in church, during sermon time, is “bad ventilation.” No

doubt—— of the subject.

[85] The Post Office traducers of the railway are boastful enough of

its services when it suits them to be so. Of Thurso it is thus written,

at page 6 of the Postmaster-General’s Eleventh Report (undated)—“The

most northern town of Scotland is Thurso, 755 miles distant from

London, and the combined effect of these accelerations was to admit

of a letter despatched from London on Monday night being delivered in

Thurso early on Wednesday morning, and of its reply, if posted about

four o’clock on Wednesday afternoon (“about;” is that the way in which

letter receptacles are closed in the north of Scotland?), reaching

London in time for the first delivery on Friday morning.” As the Post

Office chooses to make unfair attacks upon railways, the Post Office

must expect retaliation. Therefore, Mr. Seely, of the Admiralty, may

we beg you to note there is no end of Post Office “pigs” that can be

placed in your hands to work upon, and we beg you to take one, now,

to start with. At the commencement of 1867, the department gave the

year’s notice it is bound to give, to the Peninsular and Oriental

Steam Navigation Company, that its Mediterranean contracts should

cease on the 31st of January, 1868. In March, 1867, advertisements

were issued inviting tenders for the conveyance of these mails, the

service to commence on the 1st of February, 1868. Attached to the form

of tender are thirty-eight conditions. By the 31st of these it is

stipulated that “the contract shall not be binding until it has lain on

the table of the House of Commons for one month without disapproval,

unless, previous to the lapse of that period, it has been approved by

a resolution of the House.” We believe we were the first to call the

public attention to the fact that, as the day for receiving tenders

was Monday, the 16th of September, 1867, and as the new contractors

would have to commence on the 1st of February, 1868, they would,

in that case, not only incur all the risk of providing vessels and

suitable arrangements for carrying on the service for a period that

might last six years, but they would have actually commenced it several

days before the contract could be laid upon the table of the House of

Commons. This was in consequence of the House not usually meeting until

the 3rd or 4th of February, and it might not be approved until the same

date in the following month.

As soon as the blot had been hit it was discovered by the Post Office.

It was therefore determined to postpone the commencement of a new

contract for six months. The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Company

was applied to, to continue the service for that period. The Company

expressed its willingness to comply with the request, upon receiving

an advanced price of ten shillings a mile instead of four shillings,

the price now paid for the service. Mr. Hunt, the Secretary of the

Treasury, in a debate upon this question and upon the attempt of the

Post Office to place the conveyance of our eastern mails in the hands

of _Compagnie des Messageries Impériales de la France_, designated the

demand of the Company as “preposterous.” Whether that be so or not,

the omission on the part of the officials of St. Martin’s-le-Grand,

an omission or blunder which a junior clerk in a large commercial

establishment would at once be dismissed for being guilty of, is to

cost the country rather more than £60,000, equivalent to what the Post

Office pays for over two millions miles of railway conveyance for mail

bags.

_Punch_, in its number for the 2nd of November, 1867, has a vignette

of Toby holding the envelope of a letter for Lord John Manners,

Chief Commissioner of Works, and says, “I will not, for the moment,

adopt the tone of my friend, the _Pall Mall Gazette_, who bitterly

says, a new principle governs the performance of official duties in

England. Elsewhere, where certain men are appointed to take part in

the Government of a country, they understand that they are to do the

duties of their offices forthwith. With us the understanding is quite

different: no work is to be begun except under such emphatic demand

as in private life would answer to the practice of regularly kicking

your footman to the coal-scuttle, when the fire needs replenishing.”

_Punch_ then reminds His Lordship, that at the commencement of this

year it was resolved that the water of the lake in Regent’s Park should

be drawn off, the mud of half a century be cleared away, and the lake

be rendered shallow and safe for skaters this winter. _Punch_ having

learned that, practically, nothing is done as yet, proceeds, “Here

I repeat, my dear Lord John, is November. We shall have frost soon,

and when the ice forms, the foolish crowds will be rushing upon it.

I say no more. The rate at which Government work is done, singularly

contrasts with the rate at which private work is performed. But, of

course, John Bull’s servants never hurry themselves.” On the 30th of

September we wrote to the Post Office, complaining that a letter posted

in a London pillar box by a member of our family was not delivered

to its address in London in due course. On the _25th of October_, an

answer comes, the whole gist of which is, that as the letter was not

delivered at the time expected, it could not have been posted at the

time stated. It is hardly necessary to say, that this allegation is

unfounded. On the 2nd of October, and again on the 8th, we wrote to

complain of the continuous irregularity in the transmission of our book

packets; in one instance a letter to us and a book-packet having been

posted at Lombard Street post office, and by the same fingers at the

same time. The letter came in two hours and a-half, the packet in 39

hours and 20 minutes. Exactly on the day of our closing this sheet for

the press (the 8th November), the promised answer to our complaints was

delivered. _Mr. Punch_ may well say, “John Bull’s servants never hurry

themselves.” The Post Office not only never hurries itself, but, like

Mr. Sturgey, the stockbroker, and other immaculate persons, considers

itself always in the right.

[86] The latest advices from India announce the commencement, in

November, 1867, of a passenger service between Calcutta and Bombay,

which is to be done in 116 hours, or 4 days 20 hours. Of these, 80

are to be by rail and 36 in dâk. The journey by dâk will be between

Jubbulpore and Nagpore, but the latter station will cease to be on the

line of railway communication between Calcutta and Bombay when the

existing gap is completed. Eighty hours in the railway seem very long,

especially as it is intended, when the through line is opened, to run

the whole distance between the two capitals in forty-four hours. The

fares for the temporary service are to be 231 rupees (£23. 2s.) first

class, 165 rupees (£16. 10s.) second class. Passengers, whether first

or second, pay 100 rupees (£10) each by dâk between Jubbulpore and

Nagpore.

[87] Can it be possible that the two following paragraphs, the first

copied by _Engineering_ from an Indian journal, the second an original

article—correctly represent “Travelling in India” at the present time,

or even recently?

“Proceeding to the Calcutta terminus of the East Indian Railway, a

line 1,000 miles in extent, we find a wretched little building with

brick flooring and no punkahs, where tickets are so slowly issued

as to raise doubts as to how the demands of a Derby-day would be

discharged. Scores of coolies dash down upon our boxes, and, after

much altercation, succeed in carrying them off. The waiting-rooms

resemble lock-ups intended for the worst species of pick-pockets, and

are simply uninhabitable. Parcel’s office, book-stalls, refreshment

rooms, and other and more necessary conveniences are wanting. As there

is no accommodation for any class of traveller, the public sit and

stand about the verandahs and covered ways, choking the approaches,

thus rendering impossible any attempt at order. The railway staff,

represented by baboos and a few lounging slovenly policemen—there

are no porters—are swallowed up in the crowd, whilst the two English

sergeants content themselves with keeping the carriage-ways clear. All

care appears to cease after the traveller has committed himself to

the hands of the East India Railway. By-and-by the steam ferry-boat

arrives, bells ring, and the living stream pours and crushes down

a covered path, which, stopping suddenly, leaves some thirty or

forty paces of open platform, upon which the sun and rain beat

uninterruptedly, inconveniencing children, delicate women, old age,

invalids, and what not. We are not in the least surprised; thirteen

years of neglect has accustomed us to this sort of thing. Immediately

afterwards, the Howrah side of the Hooghly is reached, and another

uncovered platform presents itself; and if the crushing has hitherto

been excessive, the natives being hustled and driven together like

sheep, what shall be said of the scene at the Howrah station platform—a

narrow stone terrace of considerable length, where other crowds

of travellers are already collected and arriving, shrieking and

gesticulating? A dense mass of natives, from which an Englishman, by

pure muscular power, may occasionally be seen to break, flows onwards,

and fills the railway carriages to overflowing. Resistance is out of

the question. The pressure onward and inward towards the train, by a

simple law of gravity, accomplishes the desired end amid cries and

protestations, and forces the human units into acquiescence and the

railway carriages. Anything is preferable to being left behind, and

such is the option offered to four-fifths of the travelling native

population of India. Whether the crowd be great or small, we have never

known it considered necessary, so remarkable is the elasticity of the

carriages, to afford extra accommodation. Nothing is impossible to the

policeman’s baton and the brutality of a station-master, not even death

itself. Last year no less than seven or eight corpses, if we remember

rightly, were taken from the carriages of this line alone—victims to

a barbarous system of overpacking. How many subsequently die from

exhaustion will never be known. Men and women are often so crushed in

third-class carriages as to be compelled to remain standing for the

entire length of a journey, sometimes 400 or 500 miles, and at the

hottest season of the year. Scenes daily occur at our Indian railway

stations which make an Englishman’s blood burn with shame and anger,

not that natives should oppress natives, but that his countrymen should

be guilty of, and tolerate in others, acts at once unjust, cowardly,

and inhuman; for, as the confusion subsides, many railway officials

may be discerned, some on duty, others from the adjoining offices,

all connected with the line—all supremely indifferent to its proper

management—all smoking, spitting, and gossiping.

“By the time the train has reached Sahibgunge and Jumalpore, this

free-and-easy behaviour has passed into absolute rowdyism and

terrorism. At one station some respectable natives, travelling by

second class are permitted to be insulted and dragged from their

carriage by a drunken barrack-sergeant. At another, villagers who

had been forced into intermediate class carriages, in course of

being knocked about by policemen, are crying and protesting against

being charged a fare not voluntarily incurred. Nowhere are the

natives treated otherwise than as wild beasts. Tickets for distances

under those paid for are constantly issued to the ignorant; and the

possession of a small bundle too frequently, under threat of arrest,

necessitates the payment of a douceur. These, and hundreds of similar

occurrences, are forced upon the attention of the most unobservant

European traveller in the course of a few stages. Much remains

unseen. With the exception of the private rooms of station-masters,

generally extravagantly furnished for men drawing small salaries,

five stations out of six are filthy and altogether uncared for,

useless to the public, and a disgrace to the line. In all the distance

between Calcutta and Delhi, the railway traveller is only reminded of

travelling at home by the unbroken absence of every pleasure he has

been accustomed to associate with that species of progression. If he

has not suffered personally, or not excessively, he has witnessed the

sufferings of others more poor and humble, and to a right-thinking

Englishman the difference will not appear very material; he will also

have witnessed an amount of neglect of, and contempt for, the public

such as, we venture to assert, was never before exhibited either in

England or abroad.”

“TRAVELLING IN INDIA.—In October, 1866, a petition was presented to

the Governor-General of India by the British Indian Association of

the North-Western Provinces, bearing the signatures of 3,251 persons,

praying for the introduction of certain reforms, with a view to

affording further and better accommodation for the native travellers,

who constitute by far the greatest source of revenue to the railway

companies. The construction of railways in India has, as a matter of

course, put a stop to the old modes of transit, and the natives have

therefore no alternative but to resort to them as a means of conveyance

from one place to another; but the accommodation provided for them,

either at the stations or in the railway carriages, would, from their

complaints, appear to fall far short of what is required.

“One of the principal points to which attention is directed by the

memorial is the want of shelter and accommodation at the different

stations for third-class passengers. These passengers consist of the

poor, the ignorant, and the helpless; many among them are weak and

feeble, some sick and old, many women and children. These have always

to wait in crowds of hundreds, for several hours at a time, in an open

and unsheltered place to purchase their tickets. The few rich and

wealthy have waiting-rooms, or the sheltered platform to accommodate

them; but the masses of the poor have absolutely no shelter at all.

It cannot be expected from these that they should come in only at the

proper time, for most of them have but an indefinite idea of time, and

a large number come in from surrounding villages and rural districts

where no time is kept. But, besides this, the trains themselves arrive

so very irregularly—sometimes six hours behind the time—that, without

any fault of the passengers, they are compelled to wait; and whilst

thus waiting, there is no shelter to be had from the fierce rays of

the sun, from the heavy and drenching showers of rain, from the hot

winds and clouds of dust, or from the cold cutting blast. In winter,

in summer, and in the rains, at all times alike, these masses of weak,

ill-clad human beings are left exposed to all the inclemencies of the

wind and weather, and suffer and contract diseases which not rarely

result in death.

“Another complaint is of the want of proper restaurants for the same

class of people, the want of proper nourishment, especially in long

journeys, being no less the fruitful source of disease and suffering

than the want of proper shelter and accommodation, and, owing to

their prejudices of caste, life is often sustained during the railway

journeys under great difficulties by the Hindoos and Mohammedans. They

also complain of the absence of medical assistance in the event of an

accident, and request that some one possessed of medical experience and

surgical training may be placed in medical charge of each through train.

“The subject of bad treatment to native travellers is also forcibly

brought to notice, for not only are native passengers of all classes

and grades, without distinction, subjected to disrespect, but they

have also to suffer the greatest insolence, impudence, hard language,

contempt, and even sometimes ill-usage, from the menials of the railway

police and other officials. Indiscriminate abuse, and often on their

superiors in the social scale, is freely lavished, without let or

stint or a regard to its quality. Passengers have even been struck and

otherwise treated with great indignity, and second-class passengers are

not allowed to get in even to the platform, but are made to herd with

the mass outside. The most respectable Hindoos and Mohammedans further

complain that they are liable to ill treatment and loss of honour

from their European fellow-passengers in the second-class carriages;

and thus native gentlemen of birth and respectability, in striving to

avoid the crowd and pressure and company to be found in third-class

carriages, find themselves even worse off in a second-class seat.

Lastly, this memorial draws attention to the utter impossibility of

native ladies of respectable birth and breeding taking advantage of the

railway, as matters are at present carried on. The absence also of any

proper retiring-room at the station for such of the better class of

native ladies as have to wait for trains, places further obstacles in

the way, and tends to keep them from the use of railways whenever they

can be avoided.”

[88] For a very complete and interesting history of the East Indian

Railway and of the existing arrangement for its management and control,

the reader is referred to the letter and memorandum of Mr. R. W.

Crawford, M.P., chairman of the board of directors, dated the 21st of

March, 1867, and addressed to the Secretary of State for India.

[89] Whilst the area of British India is 956,436 square miles, with,

in 1861, 143,271,210 inhabitants, the area of the “Native States,” is

596,790 miles, with 47,909,197 inhabitants, and the area of Portuguese

India is 1,066 square miles, with 313,262 inhabitants, the area of

the French settlement of Pondicherry is only 188 square miles, with a

population of 203,887 souls.

[90] Bombay will have to go a-head in various ways, if she wish to

manage with credit the immense traffic of which she is destined to be

the centre almost immediately. First, as regards her docks and docking

accommodation. At present there are two belonging to the Government.

They were built by the old East India Company. One, though useful at

the time it was built, and for many years afterwards, is no longer

available for the steam vessels that now navigate the Indian seas. The

second, the “Duncan” Dock, has only sixteen feet of water at the Lock

Gates. This unfits it for many vessels, and will render it useless for

most of the steamers that will shortly navigate to and from Bombay. The

Peninsular and Oriental Company have two docks, one of which, although

only 390 feet long, has 20 feet 6 inches at the lock, and will admit

any vessel afloat except the “Great Eastern.” But the company requires

both docks for its own purposes, and it will find it difficult to lend

them, even occasionally, for docking the new transport steamers shortly

to be put on between Suez and Bombay, until further docks are provided.

It may be stated, _en passant_, that these steamers will, with the

exception of the “Great Eastern,” be the largest vessels afloat—length

of each, 381 feet; breadth, 49 feet; tonnage, 500 tons. When placed on

the line between Suez and Bombay, all British troops destined for or

from the East will be conveyed by them, instead of by vessels taking

the passage by the Cape of Good Hope.

An illustration of the value of eligible docks constructed for the

accommodation of important lines of ocean communication connected with

arterial railways, is afforded by what has occurred at Southampton

since 1840. They have proved themselves to be not only an advantageous

investment, but to their presence are, no doubt, due the immense

commercial development, and the equally great increase which has taken

place in its population in the last twenty-five years. The docks were

opened for business in 1840, and at the end of four years the revenue

yielded by them was only £4,018; but in 1844 Southampton was made the

port of arrival and departure of the Peninsular and the West India Mail

steamers. The revenue of the docks had therefore risen to £20,614 in

1850. Five years afterwards, by which time the steamers of the several

companies had increased in magnitude and in frequency of arrivals and

departures, the dock revenue had risen to £55,442. In 1860 it was

£54,558; in 1861, £55,342; in 1862, £58,121; 1863, £57,739; 1864,

£58,358; 1865, £62,449; and in 1866, £66,011. In 1854 the inhabited

houses within the postal limits of the town and neighbourhood, of which

the Post Office is the Head-centre, were 14,290, and the population had

risen from about 45,000 in 1844 to 78,829. In 1863, the population was

108,079, the inhabited houses 19,969. In 1867, the population and the

inhabited houses within the same limits had increased still further.

The estimated population of the actual borough, in the middle of 1867,

was 56,107, and the inhabited houses, 9,263.

Bombay is also very defective as regards hotel accommodation. The

defect, however, is, to a certain extent, about to be remedied. One is

in course of erection on the Esplanade, and nearly ready for opening,

which will be a valuable acquisition, as well as an ornament, to the

city. Messrs. Ordish & Lefeuvre, of London, are the architects. The

building (of four stories), will be 190 feet long, 90 wide, 85 high.

It is by works such as these, and others suited for great commercial

purposes, that Bombay may eventually become successful in its

aspirations to be the capital city of the Indian Empire. In population

she already exceeds those of the two other great capitals of India.

The population of Calcutta, is, according to the latest estimates,

about 700,000; of Madras, according to the Administrative Report for

1863, 427,771; whilst that of Bombay was, according to the census of

February, 1864, 816,562.

[91] “Sir Bartle Frere sees at a glance the immense importance, both

politically and commercially, of the Punjaub lines in the whole economy

of the railway system of India; he sees, too, no doubt, their bearing

and intimate connection with that direct route to Europe through the

Euphrates valley, which, by the untiring exertions of the very able

Chairman of the Punjaub and Scinde Railways, must sooner or later be a

_fait accompli_. Nor does he stand alone in the view he takes of this

great question. The Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjaub is strong on

the same side, and the whole press of India is unanimous in urging the

completion of those lines with the utmost speed.

“At the recent Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement

of Science, at Dundee, in August last, Sir Samuel Baker, President of

the Geographical section, when speaking of our Indian possessions,

said: ‘It appears to many of us as the affair of yesterday that the

overland route to India was established by the indefatigable Waghorn

(whose name should ever be held in honour); but in the short space of

about fifteen years the camel has ceased to be “the ship of the desert”

upon the Isthmus of Suez. A railroad connects the Red Sea with the

Mediterranean; a canal already conveys the sweet waters of the Nile

through deserts of arid sand to Suez, and a fleet of superb transports

upon the Red Sea conveys our troops to India. Who can predict the

future? Who can declare the great French work to be impossible, and

deny that within the next half century the fleets of the Mediterranean

will sail through the Isthmus of Suez upon the Lesseps Canal? England

has been the first to direct to general use the power of steam. Our

vessels were the first to cross the Atlantic and to round the stormy

Cape to India. But have we not thus destroyed the spell that kept

our shores inviolate. Not only ourselves, but the French, possess a

magnificent fleet of transports on the Red Sea. We can no longer match

the dexterity of our sailors against overwhelming odds. Steam breaks

the charm. Wars are the affairs of weeks or days. There are no longer

the slow marches that rendered inaccessible far distant points. The

railway alters the former condition of all countries. Without yielding

to exaggerated alarm, we must watch with intense attention the advances

of Russia upon the Indian frontier, and, beyond all geographical

enterprises, we should devote extreme interest to a new and direct

route to India by the Euphrates Valley and Persian Gulf, thus to be

independent of complications that might arise with Egypt.’

“So long as the Indian Empire exists, the connection between India and

this country must be kept up; and if that connection were interrupted

for many months, the doom of our Eastern Empire would be practically

sealed. England maintains her position in India by force of arms; and

it is a principle, both of war and of common sense, to take efficient

means to keep open the lines of communication between the base and the

field of operation.

“It is impossible to contemplate, without a shudder, the consequences

which must result if the Government should ever neglect to maintain

effectively the means of communication with the East. The present

route, _viâ_ Egypt, might at any time be rendered unavailable by

political combinations in Europe, and yet our Government have hitherto

been content to rely upon one means of communication, notwithstanding

that it is in their power to establish not only an alternative, but an

infinitely better one by way of the Euphrates Valley.

“But we feel well assured that the great design of connecting Europe

with Central Asia, by the telegraph and the rail by the Valleys of

the Euphrates and Indus, is at length approaching its accomplishment.

The Euphrates and Indus Railways completed would be the grandest

pledge that could be given for the peace and the prosperity of the

world.”—_Allen’s Indian Mail._

[92] The length of the Euphrates, in its direct course from North to

South, is about 700 miles; but with its various windings, it is nearly

1,800. The current is sluggish, not exceeding two and a-half to three

miles an hour, except during the floods, when it increases to about

five miles. The river navigation would extend from Ja’bar Castle to

Bir, 120 miles, or to Bussorah, 70 miles from its mouth, and the

vessels must not draw more than eight feet. The draught of the ocean

vessels into which the mails and passengers would be transferred at Bir

or Bussorah, must be limited, as there are not more than twelve feet on

the bar at the mouth of the Euphrates at low water.

[93] The intelligence respecting Kurrachee Harbour is unsatisfactory.

It is quite clear that with any increase of trade there, the

capabilities of the place as a harbour will be surpassed,

notwithstanding the fact that, on the recommendation of the late Mr.

James Walker, upwards of a quarter of a million sterling has, since

1859, been expended on works for increasing its capacity. But now,

according to the opinion of Messrs. Stevenson, of Edinburgh, all this

outlay has been useless, although it has had the effect of adding from

70 to 100 acres to the dimensions of the harbour. Naturally the report

of Messrs. Stevenson has given rise to much disappointment, for it

means that the money expended, if not absolutely wasted, has not been

usefully laid out, and that all the valuable time consumed between

1859 and 1866 has been virtually lost. One of the subjects specially

referred to Sir Seymour Fitzgerald, on his appointment, early this

year, as Governor of the Bombay Presidency, was Kurrachee Harbour.

In the meantime the works were to be suspended and not to be resumed

until the Home Indian Government had received the additional data for a

satisfactory settlement of the question, which Sir Seymour was directed

to collect. His report has not yet been received at the India Office.

[94] Perhaps there is an additional reason of more or less weight

for urging on the early construction of at least the section of the

Euphrates Valley line from the Mediterranean to navigable water on the

Euphrates. If the Isthmus of Suez Canal be completed, France will, in

all likelihood, hold the keys of it—a very dangerous fact for England

in case of war between the two countries. That the canal will be

finished seems more than probable. Mr. Daniel A. Lange, the English

representative and director of the company for its construction, in his

published letter of the 2nd of November, 1867, says that “by the last

official reports from Egypt, there remained on the 30th of September

last 44,000,000 cubic metres of earthwork to be done. During the month

of September 1,342,000 cubic metres have been excavated, the highest

figures as yet obtained, and this work has been performed with only

forty-three dredging machines, thus leaving, at the same rate, on

the 1st of January next, 40,000,000 cubic metres for excavation, the

original total required to be removed being 74,000,000 cubic metres.

When the full complement of seventy-eight dredging machines now being

fitted up on the spot is in working order, it may readily be calculated

that the returns will show a result of at least two millions of cubic

metres per month, which, in other words, means that the time required

for completing the entire earthworks of the Suez Canal will not

exceed twenty months from the present time. The construction of the

jetties at Port Said is being pushed forward with similar rapidity.

The manufacture of blocks on the spot during the month of September

amounted to 9,472 cubic metres, which, together with those already

made, gives a total of 164,031 cubic metres, leaving 85,969 to be

manufactured, the total required for both the jetties being 250,000

cubic metres. The entire quantity already sunk in the sea at the end of

September amounted to 142,776 cubic metres; remained to be immersed,

107,224 cubic metres—total, 250,000 cubic metres for both jetties.

Taking 6,000 cubic metres per month, both the jetties will be completed

in eighteen months from the present time. It may not be out of place

to mention that these so-called blocks weigh about twenty tons each.”

Mr. Lange concludes thus:—“Having said thus much on the subject of

the progress of the Suez Canal works, I trust I may be permitted to

add, that the time is near at hand when these gigantic works will be

completed for the benefit of all nations, as by means of them the

passage from sea to sea will be secured for the largest ships.”

[95] Mr. Frederick Hill was the principal witness from the Post Office

examined by the Committee of the House of Commons, that sat in 1866,

upon the postal and telegraph communications of England with the

East. The whole tendency of Mr. Hill’s evidence was, that no further

accommodation or increased frequency of mails should be given to the

public, unless the Post Office were indemnified against all hazard

of loss—even temporary—either by increasing the rates of postage, or

by the obtention of a special appropriation from the Government of

India. It was in consequence of the character of this evidence, and of

correspondence which had passed between the India Office, the Treasury,

and the Post Office department (which appears in the Appendices to the

Report) that the Committee inserted the following paragraph:—

“Your Committee cannot assent to the doctrine that interests so

important from every point of view, whether political, social, or

commercial, as those which connect the United Kingdom with the largest

and most valuable possessions of the Crown, should be prejudiced

by an insufficient postal service, because the establishment of an

efficient service might leave an apparent loss of no great magnitude

to be borne by the two countries. They submit that a question of

profit or loss, within reasonable bounds, is a consideration entitled

to little weight in the case of so important a postal service as that

between England and India. They concur in the views expressed on this

subject in a letter addressed by the Indian Office to the Assistant

Secretary to the Post Office, on the 5th October, 1865, in which it

was said, ‘Sir Charles Wood cannot, however, regard the question as

one merely affecting the charge on the Imperial revenues. It has been

the perception of the bearing of increased postal communication on the

wealth and progress of a country that has induced statesmen of late

years to consent to fiscal sacrifices for the purpose of obtaining it.

There can be no doubt that increased postal communication with India

implies increased relations with that country, increased commerce,

increased investment of English capital, increased settlement of

energetic middle-class Englishmen; and from all these sources the

wealth and prosperity of England are more greatly increased than that

of India.’”

It seems extraordinary, it is nevertheless a fact, that Sir Rowland

Hill, whose name and reputation have been built solely upon the

foundation of cheap postage, should, through the medium of several

Postmaster-General’s Reports, urge the necessity of increased postal

charges whenever an ocean mail communication did not pay _per se_ in

postages realised.

In 1853, a Commission, consisting of the late Lord Canning, the Right

Hon. Wm. Cowper, Sir Stafford Northcote, now Secretary for India, and

the late Sir R. Madox Bromley, Accountant-General of the Navy, was

appointed by the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury to report upon the

contract packet services of the country. The Commissioners went very

fully and elaborately into the whole subject, examined witnesses, and

had various returns prepared for their consideration. The gist of their

views and opinions upon oceanic communication, by means of first-class

contract steamers, is as follows:—“The value of the services thus

(by the establishment of large vessels built for the conveyance of

ocean mails at high speed) rendered to the state cannot be measured

by a reference to the amount of mere postal revenue, or even by the

commercial advantages accruing from it. It is undoubtedly startling

at first sight to perceive that the immediate pecuniary results of

the packet service is a loss to the revenue of about £325,000 a-year;

but although this circumstance shows the necessity for a careful

revision of the service, and though we believe much may be done to make

the service self-supporting, we do not consider that the money thus

expended is to be regarded, even from a fiscal point of view, as a

national loss. The objects which appear to have led to the formation of

these contracts, and to the large expenditure involved, were to afford

a rapid, frequent, and punctual communication with those distant ports

which feed the main arteries of British commerce, and with the most

important of our foreign possessions; to foster maritime enterprise,

and to encourage the production of a superior class of vessels which

would promote the commerce and wealth of the country in time of peace,

and assist in defending its shores against hostile aggression. These

expectations have not been disappointed. The ocean has been traversed

with a precision and regularity hitherto deemed impossible; commerce

and civilisation have been extended; the colonies have been brought

more easily into connection with the Home Government, and steam ships

have been constructed of a size and power that, without Government

aid, could hardly, at least for many years to come, have been built by

private enterprise unaided.”

M. Vandal, in his _Annuaires des Postes_, published on the 1st of

January 1867, having given in detail the whole of the ocean postal

service of France, thus expresses the views both of the French

Government and of the department of which he is the head: “And these

great results have been obtained, not by the exclusive action of

private industry, for industry would have been rash to have attempted

them; and also not by the exclusive action of the State, for the State,

which governs, is unfitted for commerce, but by the happy combination

of the two elements—the State and private enterprise. On the one side,

it is the duty of the State to study the whole subject in view to its

own wants and to those of the public. Therefore it is that, in order

to open new routes of communication to the spirit of industry and

enterprise of the nation, the State pays subventions to the amount

of upwards of twenty-four millions of francs, and by means of them

industry invests its capital with the encouragement of the Government.

The benefit is common to both sides. The State obtains the advantage of

increased influence throughout the world, and at home increased customs

revenue, with increased and general prosperity, and on the other hand

private enterprise is adequately remunerated for its capital and

investments.”

[96] The whole of the sea service of the Indian, China, Japan, and

Australian Postal Communications of Great Britain is, with the

exception of that between Dover and Calais, performed by the Peninsular

and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. This company is the largest

Ocean Steam Company in the world. It has a fleet of 53 steamers, with

an aggregate tonnage of 86,411, and 19,230 horse-power; its largest

ship is of 2,800 tons; its next largest is of 2,600 tons, five are

between 2,000 and 2,500 tons, and eighteen are between 1,500 and 2,000

tons each. Its routes extend from Southampton and from Marseilles

to Alexandria, from Suez to Bombay, from Suez to Point de Galle and

Calcutta, from Bombay to Calcutta, from Point de Galle to Singapore,

Hong Kong, Shanghai and Yokohama, Japan, and from Point de Galle to

Melbourne and Sydney. The total number of _knots_ performed by the

postal vessels of the company in 1866 was 1,194,952.

The total contract land mileage of our Eastern mails is at the present

time as follows:—

————————————————————————┬—————————┬———————————┬————————

Route. │ Length, │ No. of │ Total.

│ Miles. │ Journeys. │

————————————————————————┼—————————┼———————————┼————————

London and Dover │ 88 │ 96 │ 8,448

Calais and Marseilles │ 740 │ 96 │ 70,080

Alexandria and Suez │ 250 │ 192 │ 48,000

London and Southampton │ 78 │ 96 │ 7,488

│ │ ├————————

│ │ │ 133,916

————————————————————————┴—————————┴———————————┴————————

It should be explained that the “heavy mails” which are conveyed

between Southampton and Alexandria are taken across the Isthmus of

Suez by separate trains from those which convey the light mails _viâ_

Marseilles; hence there are 96 trips of Eastern mails per annum

across the Isthmus for the Marseilles mails, and 96 for those _viâ_

Southampton. Thus the total annual length of this great postal service

is—

Water 1,374,194 English miles.

Land 133,916 ” ”

—————————

1,508,110 ” ”

or 4,132 miles _per diem_, 173 _per horam_, nearly 3 _per minutam_.

[97] _In summer_ the journey from London to Constantinople, _viâ_

Paris, Strasburg, Vienna, and Basiach by railway, and thence by steam

on the Danube and Black Sea, can be accomplished in seven days.

[98] Almost immediately after the above extract was made from Mr.

Juland Danver’s report we read the following portion of a telegram,

dated Calcutta, October the 9th: “Unprecedented floods have inundated

the districts of the Ganges. Numerous villages have been swept away,

and the Eastern Bengal Railway has suffered severe damage.”

[99] When the railway to Peshawer is made, it will have to cross the

Indus either by a bridge, or to go under it by a tunnel at Attock, a

thousand feet above sea-level, and 942 miles from the river’s mouth.

For many miles above this great fortress the river flows in a wide

divided stream at no great velocity; but as it approaches Attock, it

becomes contracted and united, the velocity increases, and during the

wet season it flows past the fortress at the rate of fully thirteen

miles an hour. Numerous schemes have been tried for bridging the Indus

at this point, but none have been successful, owing to the enormous

difference of the water level at different periods of the year. It was

therefore proposed, in 1859, to carry a tunnel under the river, and

some progress was made with the work. Further reference to this subject

will be found at a subsequent page.

[100] Colonel Glover, late Director-General of Indian Telegraphs, in

his recent memorandum, pointing out the difficulty of maintaining

telegraphic communication in India, says—“In many parts of the

country the wires are laid through forests, jungle, and desert, where

means of transit do not exist; where there are literally no roads;

where unbridged rivers of first magnitude cross the route, rendering

inspection difficult, and at times impracticable; where the population,

whether dense or sparse, only affords labourers unskilled, and as such,

of use only for the amount of brute force they are capable of exerting,

adding considerably to the cost and difficulty of construction and

repairs. In many parts the climate at certain seasons of the year is

of a character so deadly that inspection is carried on by European

officers at the risk of life; while native subordinates simply refuse

to face it. In some places the rainfall and natural humidity are of

a magnitude almost unknown elsewhere, and the case of Arracan may be

instanced, where 240 inches of rain fall annually, of which 224 inches

fall during the months of June, July, and August. On the western coast

the climate is very similar, and Assam can scarcely be considered more

favourable. Storms and hurricanes are of regular and not exceptional

occurrence, and during the last monsoon they occurred with unusual

violence, destroying the telegraphic wires for miles, as well as the

embankments of the railways in Scinde, Goozerat, and Bengal. These and

other influences peculiar to the country involve an unexceptionally

heavy expenditure in repairs and renewals, and necessitate the

retention of a large conservancy establishment.”

In India, owing to the dense forests and jungles, swarming with birds

and animals, it is necessary to make the wires very much stronger

than they are made in Europe. They are, in fact, small bars of iron

three-eighths of an inch in thickness. An amount of rigidity is thus

obtained, which is necessary to meet the requirements of the country.

The bars of iron are placed on the top of bamboos at a sufficient

height to allow the country carts to pass underneath them, and even

to give passage to loaded elephants. The size of these conducting

bars is necessitated by the heavy rains of India. Even in England,

the rain dripping in a stream from the telegraphic wire to the post

is sufficient to stop the working of the wire, inasmuch as the

electric current escapes directly to the earth, and is then dispersed.

Notwithstanding the difficulties that the construction and maintenance

of the telegraph system have to contend against in India, there were

13,400 miles of lines of communication open in the three Presidencies

on the 30th of April, 1867. The first cost of their erection and of

furnishing the necessary instruments, batteries, &c., was £1,345,328.

As regards rainfall, taking the Registrar-General’s return for the

first six months of 1867 and doubling it, it would appear that the

highest annual rainfall in the United Kingdom is, at Bristol, 41·0;

at Glasgow it is 40·2; Sheffield, 36·4; Birmingham, 31·0; Manchester

(including Salford), 29·5; Edinburgh, 28·0; Dublin, 26·2; Leeds, 26·0;

London, 25·2; Liverpool, 20·2; and Newcastle, only 16·2.

[101] In the report of the Directors of the Madras Company for the

half-year ending the 30th June, 1867, it is stated, as regards the

South-West Line and Bangalore Branch—“The maintenance of a great part

of this line and branch is still enhanced in cost by the replacement of

wooden sleepers, as they decayed, by iron sleepers and by the greater

expense of maintaining the wooden road in the western district, though

wooden sleepers were good and cheap there. It has been found impossible

to bring down the cost of maintaining a line with wooden sleepers

to anything like an equality with the iron sleeper line.” On the

North-Western section of the line, where iron sleepers only are used,

the cost of maintenance for the past half year had been at the rate of

only £66. 18s. per mile per annum, whereas on the South-Western Line

and Bangalore Branch it had been at the rate of £159 per mile per annum.

[102] COAL IN INDIA.—The chief part of the following information is

taken from _Engineering_, one of the best “Class” papers ever published

in any country. The article is compiled from all the Government reports

and statistical statements that the editor could avail himself of.

“Viewed as a coal-producing country, it may fairly be asserted that the

British territories in India cannot be considered as either largely or

widely supplied with this essential source of motive power. Extensive

fields do occur, but these are not distributed generally over the

districts of the Indian empire, but are almost entirely concentrated in

one and that a double band of coal-yielding deposits, which, with large

interruptions, extends more than half across India from near Calcutta

towards Bombay. This band extends throughout about 5° of latitude, that

is, between the 20° and 25° parallels of latitude. All the country

lying to the south of the 20° parallel, and all the country lying to

the north of the 25° parallel up to the foot of the Himalayas, with the

exception of the widely detached coal-beds of Eastern Bengal, Assam,

and the Khasia hills, and the poor coals of Tenasserim, presents, so

far as those portions of the country are known geologically, either no

probability whatever of any deposits of coal being found within their

limits, or if coal does exist, it can only be expected to be found at

such a depth below the surface that it could not be profitably worked

or economised. As British India stretches from 8° north latitude to 35°

or 36°, or through some 28°, the very local disposition of its deposits

of coal becomes evident; and it would seem that they are so far removed

from several of the railway systems of India as to preclude the hope

that such lines could ever profitably employ the extracts from those

beds as fuel, for they could be more cheaply supplied from England, the

cost of land carriage on the one hand being so much more expensive than

the freight by sea on the other.

“Up to the present time it may be said that little more than surface

workings have been carried on in India. The deepest pits there scarcely

exceed seventy-five yards, while certainly one-half of the Indian coal

used up to the present date has been produced from open workings or

quarries, in which the coal has been worked like any ordinary stone.

In parts of the Raneegunge field these open workings are of marvellous

extent and size, covering hundreds of acres.

“Many causes have combined to lead to this mode of working. Cropping

out at the surface with a very small dip, and, in most cases, with a

very limited covering of clay or rocks, the valuable mineral could

be removed at a very small cost. No expense was incurred for lights;

drainage was easily and cheaply effected; all the coal was obtained,

and the heavy waste incurred in cutting or hewing brittle coals, such

as are most of the Indian coals, was avoided. But even more than all

these considerations, the facility of obtaining labourers who would

work in the daylight, and the difficulty, or even impossibility, of

procuring those who would work in a pit, combined with the ease of

inspection and measurement in the one case, and the cost and difficulty

in the other, all led to the vast extension of open-work quarrying of

coal, and, consequently, to the economy with which the mineral could be

obtained and sold. This system is, however, now rapidly disappearing.

Much of the coal accessible in this way has been removed, while at the

same time the managers and proprietors are daily becoming more alive

to the injudiciousness of exposing valuable seams by these diggings

towards the outcrop. Every year is also adding to the number of

labourers, and also of the tribes or castes to which they belong, who

will work underground.

“Even in the only Indian coal-field which has as yet been worked to

any extent, namely, Raneegunge field, very much more must yet be

done before safe and satisfactory conclusions can be reached as to

the amount of coal and its position. Up to the last year or two, in

no single instance was a survey of the underground workings made or

plans kept. The memory of the ‘old men’ was the only source from which

information could be obtained as to the extent of the workings, the

mode of occurrence of the seams, the disturbances to which they had

been subjected, &c. This system, however, or rather want of system, has

been changed in some cases, and plans are now kept. On this subject

Professor Oldham justly remarks, ‘Considering the many ways in which

danger to public safety (putting aside altogether the serious risks to

private property and to individual life) results from abandoned mines

and excavations, and from an ignorance of their true limits, I am

compelled to think that the keeping and recording of such plans ought

to be rendered compulsory. The cost to the colliery proprietors would

be slight, while the advantages, even to them, would be inestimable.

In hundreds of cases the safety, nay, the very possibility, of working

certain mines, or parts of mines, will depend upon the accuracy of the

knowledge of the limits of adjoining excavations, or upon sacrificing

much valuable material by leaving unwrought greatly larger barriers

than may be necessary. Such plans ought, I think, to be therefore

insisted on, under penalties for neglect of this precaution.’

“The following list gives the names of the several coal-fields of India

in the order of their successive geographical distribution, commencing

with those nearest to Calcutta and proceeding westwards, taking first

those which occur in the great band of coal-fields stretching from

Calcutta towards Bombay, and then those which are comparatively distant

or isolated:—

1. Rajmahal Hills.

2. Raneegunge.

3. Kurhurbali.

4. Jherria.

5. Bokaro.

6. Ramghur.

7. Karunpoora, North and South.

8. Eetcoora.

9. Palamow.

10. Sirgoojah, Singrowlie.

11. Upper Sone.

12. Koorba, or Belaspore.

13. Talcheer.

14. Nerbudda, and Pench River.

15. Chanda.

16. Kota.

17. Cutch.

18. Sind.

19. Salt Range.

20. Murree, and other places.

21. Darjeeling.

22. Assam.

23. Khasia Hills.

24. Garrow Hills, Cachar.

25. Cheduba, Sandoway.

26. Burmah.

27. Tenasserim Provinces.

“The Raneegunge coal-field is at a distance of 120 to 160 miles

north-west of Calcutta. It extends from a few miles to the east of

the village of Raneegunge to several miles west of the Barakur, the

greatest length being, near east and west, about 30 miles, and the

greatest breadth about 18 miles. The area included by the coal-bearing

rocks is about 500 square miles. The coal of this field, like most

Indian coals, is a non-coking bituminous coal, composed of distinct

laminæ of a bright jetty coal, and of a dull more earthy rock. The

average amount of ash is some 14 to 15 per cent., varying from 8 to

25 per cent. The Raneegunge field has the advantages of two branches

of the East Indian Railway, which traverse its richest portions, and

afford great facilities for the removal of coals.

“The small, but valuable, coal-field of Kurhurbali is about eighty

miles distant from the Luckieserai station of the East Indian Railway.

When the chord line from Luckieserai to Raneegunge is opened this

colliery will be put into active working. Patches of coal or lignite

have been found along the outer range of the Himalaya Mountains, and at

the foot of the Darjeeling Hills. In Assam several good coal seams have

been discovered. There is also very good coal in the Khasi Hills; but

the coal beds exist at an elevation of 4,000 feet above the adjacent

country. It is known that there is not any coal in British Burmah.

On the whole, the East Indian coal, especially that accessible to

railways, is so inferior in quality that it comes nearly as expensive

as English coal. It is, therefore, evident that companies will have in

the main to rely upon wood as fuel for their locomotives.”

[103] “The coal mines of the East India Coal Company Limited, situated

in the district of Raneegunge, Bengal, were sold by auction to-day

by Mr. Murrell for £20,000 under the Winding-up Act.”—_Times_ (City

article), 13th November, 1867.

[104] The Madras Railway continues to exhibit very striking results,

both as regards its progress of development and its working expenses.

During the half-year ending the 30th June, 1867, the number of

passengers conveyed over the North-Western line was 1,019,164 as

against 930,845 in the corresponding half-year of 1866. The goods

were 164,334 tons as against 132,052 tons in the first half of 1866.

The gross receipts were £241,010, against £213,676; the net £141,182,

against £117,873. While the receipts had increased upon the half-year

12¾ per cent. the expenses had only increased by 4¼ per cent. Of the

general goods traffic of the railway, salt still held its place as the

largest item; the quantity carried in the half-year was 24,697 tons,

yielding a gross receipt of £20,191. The quantity of cotton carried to

Madras was 9,422 tons, against 3,486 tons in the corresponding half of

1866.

The receipts per train mile on the South-Western Line and Bangolore

Branch were 6s. 11¾ d. in 1867 as against 6s. 9¼d. in 1866. The

expenses, in 1867, 3s.½d. as against 3s. 1¾ d. in 1866. On the

North-Western Line the receipts per train mile were in 1867, 7s. 10¾ d.

as against 6s. 5d. in 1866, the expenses 2s. 5½d. as against 2s. 1¼d.

in 1866.

[105] The following are the lengths of some of the European Railways

open for traffic on the 1st of January, 1867:—France, 8,989 miles;

Prussia, 5,483; Austrian Dominions, including the non German Provinces

of Austria 4,001, excluding them 2,066 miles; Bavaria, 5,208; Saxony,

1,587; the total length of railways in Germany and the German Provinces

of Austria were 12,450 miles, not including amongst them those

exclusively used for coals and minerals; Belgium, 1,910; Italy, 3,040;

Spain, 3,216; Russia, 2,893.

[106] THE DEBT OF INDIA.—“The public debt of India has expanded very

considerably of late years. In 1840 it was £34,484,997; in 1841,

£35,922,127; 1842, £38,404,473; 1843, £40,478,640; 1844, £41,833,451;

1845, £43,502,750; 1846, £43,891,849; 1847, £46,884,225; 1848,

£48,757,213; 1849, £51,050,512; 1850, £53,934,768; 1851, £55,099,315;

1852, £55,114,693; 1853, £56,233,686. During several of the foregoing

years wars of more or less magnitude prevailed. In 1854 the debt was

reduced to £53,683,468; but it rose in 1855 to £55,531,120, and in 1856

to £57,764,239; then came the Indian Mutiny. In April, 1857, the debt

was £59,461,969; but by April, 1858, it had risen to £69,473,484. In

April, 1859, it was £81,171,308; April, 1860, 98,107,460; in April,

1861, £101,877,081; April, 1862, £107,514,159. By April, 1863, it had

fallen to £104,495,235; April, 1864, to £98,518,145; April, 1865, to

£98,477,555. During 1866 and 1867 there has been some increase of

the debt, making it about £100,000,000. The charge for interest in

1840 was £1,595,778. In 1845 it had risen to £2,009,039; in 1850, to

£2,558,939; in 1855, it had fallen to £2,189,433; in 1860, it had

risen to £3,889,191; in 1865, to £4,482,385. The increased charge for

interest in 1865, over that for 1860, was £593,194, whilst the increase

of capital was only £370,095, thus showing that India pays a higher

rate of interest on her loans than formerly.”—_Times_, 28th of August,

1867.

[107] The value of the imports into the United Kingdom only, from

British India, £36,897,743, deducted from the gross exports from

India, will show that our Eastern Empire has done trade of the value

of more than twenty millions sterling with other nations. In 1865, the

value of the British Indian merchandise imported into Great Britain

was £37,395,425; in 1864, it was £52,295,595; in 1863, £48,434,740;

in 1862, £34,133,551; in 1861, £21,968,752; in 1860, £15,106,597; in

1859, £15,244,869; in 1858, £14,989,030; in 1857, £18,650,223. The high

price of cotton and the large imports of that staple from India since

1861 have, of course, swelled the totals of the last few years. But

quite apart from this trade, our commercial relations with India have

experienced both a solid and a permanent extension.

[108] The cotton importations of the first nine months of the present

year have amounted to 988,314,096 lbs., being 9½ per cent. less than in

the same period of 1866, and 62 per cent. more than in 1865. The supply

of American this year, however, has been 5 per cent. beyond that of

last year, while the quantity from India has experienced a reduction of

29 per cent. Of the total arrivals, the proportions this year have been

as follows:—American, 46 per cent.; Indian, 33 per cent.; Egyptian,

10 per cent.; Brazilian, 6 per cent.; Turkish, 1 per cent.; and other

countries, 4 per cent.

The total amount of the cotton crops of India is about 2,400,000,000;

so that England only receives about a fourth of it. The average weekly

consumption of cotton for all purposes in Great Britain is about

45,000,000 bales. The weight of a bale is 320 lbs.

[109] The only other British Colonies from which we receive cotton, are

the West Indies, including the Bahamas and Bermuda. In 1852, they only

sent to the mother country 703,606 lbs.; in 1865 the quantity had risen

to 19,814,480 lbs.

[110] The _New York Albion_, of September 15th, 1867, very truly

says:—“A oneness of purpose, and that mutual sympathy which inspires

mankind with a collective and national patriotism, is rapidly taking

root throughout British North America, and it is in these deep-rooted,

but slow-growing sentiments that we implicitly place our trust for

the future. When the Canadian is animated by the same feeling which

wrought the ‘seven days’ wonder’ last year in Central Europe, and

which still adheres to ‘German Unity’ as its watchword; or is inspired

with the enthusiasm that recently made Italy one, ‘from the Alps to

the Apennines;’ or with the national pride of even the Frenchman

or Russian, there will be no fear of her policy being fixed or her

destinies materially influenced by the outer world, no matter how

boisterous the demonstrations, or unprincipled the purposes of her

assailants.”

[111] “EASY TRAVELLING.—The Pullman Sleeping Car Company have just

placed on the Great Western Railway of Canada a new passenger car,

which they call an ‘Hotel Car,’ and which combines the comforts of

a first-class hotel, the luxuries of a drawing-room, and the speed

of an express train. Like all American passenger cars, it is open at

each end, with a platform in front of the doors; its length to the end

of the platform is 71 feet 4 inches, width 10 feet 6 inches, with a

ceiling 10 feet 6 inches from the floor. At each corner of the car,

making four in all, is a private bed-room or state cabin, containing a

sofa, two arm-chairs, and a centre table. These are convertible into

comfortable beds, with mattresses, pillows, sheets, &c. The rooms are

adorned with mirrors of large dimensions. The doors and fittings are

of black walnut; carved and gilt ornaments of bronze are introduced.

Each of these rooms will contain six passengers. Then follows a small

room, fitted as a kitchen and steward’s pantry. Here meals will be

cooked, coffee or tea prepared, and drinks dispensed. A bell with

wires communicating all over the car—or shall we say the edifice—will

summon the steward. A central passage runs down the length of the car

from door to door, and on each side are three other compartments, each

intended for four passengers. Berths are made up exactly as on board a

steamer, the bed appurtenances being conveniently stowed away during

the daytime. The partitions dividing the compartments being moveable,

when used as a drawing-room rise no higher than the backs of the seats,

which are covered with rich Genoa velvet; the floor is carpeted, the

ceiling is painted in _fresco_, and the walls richly carved and gilt.

A stove heats the interior, with provision for ventilation, and a

washing-room and other conveniences complete the internal arrangements.

“The exterior is painted a rich lake crimson, relieved with gold

ornaments. On two oval panels on either side are copies in bronze of

Thorwaldsen’s figures of Sight and Hearing. The car is placed on two

trucks of eight wheels each, with lateral motion springs.”—_Railway

News._

[112] We learn from the _Sydney Empire_, that the first locomotive

made in New South Wales was launched from the yard of Messrs. Vale and

Lacy, engine manufacturers, in January last. She is upwards of seventy

horses power, and is now employed on the inclines and zig-zags of the

Great Western (of Australia), between Redfern and Pyemont. “The trial,”

says the _Sydney Empire_, “was pronounced by the scientific gentlemen

present to be very satisfactory.”

[113] The Telegraph system of Australia deserves a few words of

record:—At the end of 1866, New South Wales had 2,624 miles, upon

which, during the year, 138,175 messages had been sent; Victoria, 2,626

miles, its messages 256,380; Queensland, 1,131 miles, messages 47,697;

South Australia, 855 miles, messages 112,344. The reason of South

Australia having so many messages in proportion to its mileage, is that

St. George’s Sound is on the direct course of the mail steamers to and

from Suez. It is, therefore, the first Australian land touched at on

the outward passage, and the last on the homeward.

The lowest telegraph charge within New South Wales is one shilling

for 17 miles; from 20 to 50 miles, it is two shillings; all above 300

miles, four shillings. The longest telegraph distances in New South

Wales are from Sydney to Moama, and from Sydney to Hay, each 520 miles.

The Border passed, there is a uniform charge with the other colonies;

to Victoria (excepting a few Border Stations), eight shillings;

Queensland, nine shillings; South Australia, nine shillings. Within

Victoria the highest charge is three shillings. To the other colonies

there is a uniform rate; to South Australia (with one exception, to

Port Augusta, seven shillings), six shillings; to Queensland, nine

shillings. In Australia each single message consists of ten words only,

exclusive of the addresses of sender and receiver.

[114] The following are the heights, at their summits, of all the

passes of the Alps available for carriages. Two of them, however, are

not carriage roads throughout their entire extents—the Little St.

Bernard and the Great St. Bernard. Commencing at the Western extremity

the height of the Col di Tenda is 5,890 feet; Mont Genevre, 5,850; Mont

Cenis, 6,658; Little St. Bernard, 6,780; Great St. Bernard, 8,200;

Simplon, 6,636; St. Gothard, 6,808; Benardine, 7,115; Splugen, 6,940;

Stelvio, 9,272; Brenner 4,650. These passes are referred to, _ante_, at

pages 8 to 13.

Mr. John Ball, late President of the Alpine Club, in the Indices to his

two Guides for the Western and Central Alps (1863 and 1866) enumerates

370 Alpine Passes for the former, and 239 for the latter. The following

are the names and heights of those exceeding 9,500 feet:—On the Western

Alps, the Col d’Argentière, 12,556 feet; Blanchet, 9,544; De Bréona,

9,574; De Collon, 10,269; Cristillan, 9,771; Cula, 10,076; Dora

Blanche, 11,668; Pas de la Forcetta, 9,898; Galambre, 10,200; Garin,

10,393; Grancron, 11,034; Lauzon, 9,500; Levornea, nearly 10,000; Pas

de Lore, 10,049; Maison Blanche, 11,212; Grand Motte, about 11,500;

Nenaude, 10,036; Del Color del Porco, 9,604; Des Rayes Noires, 9,680;

Mont Rouge, 10,958; Jeleccio, 9,600; Torrent, 9,593; Traversette,

about 10,000; Turbat 9,800; Vacornère, 10,335; Val Pellina, 11,687;

Zwischenbergen, 10,742.

Those among the central Alps are Passo di Boudo, about 10,000;

Capütschin, about 10,600; Cercen, 10,030; Diavolezza, 9,670; Diavolo,

9,541; Fex Forcla, 10,112; Forus, 11,100; Hohenferner, 10,000;

Jungfrau, 11,095; Langenferner, 10,765; Lobbia Alta, 9,956; Lobbia

Bassa, 9,541; Lötschen Lücke, 10,512; Madritseh, 10,252; Matsch,

10,750; Oberaar, 10,264; Orteler, 11,000; Peter’s Grat, 10,550;

Presena, 9,647; Salet, 9,565; Scerscen, 9,912; Sforzellino, 9,950;

Strahleck, 10,994; Sterla, 9,515; Zufrid, 9,905.

Mr. Ball also enumerates 398 peaks or mountains in the Western Alps,

and 685 in the central.

[115] During the progress of these sheets through the press, we lighted

upon the following most interesting account of “Holborn Past and

Present,” in the _Morning Advertiser_ Newspaper. Its introduction here,

will, we are sure, not be considered inappropriate.

“Perhaps no part of London has undergone such an alteration and

business-like remodelling within the last few years as High Holborn,

consequent on the construction of the Holborn Viaduct and other

contemplated improvements. A few particulars relating to this locality,

therefore, may not be thought, perhaps, uninteresting at the present

time to our readers.

“Holborn extends from the north end of Farringdon Street to Broad

Street, Bloomsbury. It was anciently called Oldbourne, from being built

upon the side of a brook or bourne, which Stow says ‘broke out of the

ground about the place where now the Bars do stand, and ran down the

whole street till Oldbourne-bridge, and into the river of the Wells

or Turnemill-brook.’ Holborn was first paved in 1417, at the expense

of Henry V., when the highway ‘was so deep and miry that many perils

and hazards were thereby occasioned, as well to the King’s carriages

passing that way as to those of his subjects.’ By this road criminals

were conveyed from Newgate and the Tower to the gallows at St. Giles’s

and Tyburn; whither a ride in the cart ‘up the heavy hill’ implied

going to be hung, in Ben Jonson’s time. As an instance of the way

persons were conducted to the place of execution in by-gone times, we

can quote Swift’s lines:—

‘As clever Tom Clinch, while the rabble was bawling,

Rode stately through Holborn to die of his calling,

He stopt at the George for a bottle of sack,

And promised to pay for it when he came back.’

And as to the lessons of morality taught in those days, it is said that

an old councillor in Holborn used every execution-day to turn out his

clerks with this compliment,—‘Go, ye young rogues; go to school and

improve.’

“The average annual amount of traffic between Fetter Lane and the Old

Bailey, which has been increasing rapidly during the last thirty years,

was in 1838 assumed to be 20,000,000 pedestrians, 871,640 equestrians,

157,572 hackney coaches, 372,470 carts and waggons, 78,876 stages,

82,256 carriages, 135,842 omnibuses, 460,110 chaises and taxed carts,

and 352,942 cabs. It was Alderman Skinner, who built Skinner Street,

that first proposed to construct a bridge from Snow Hill across the

valley to Holborn Hill, and part of the late Mr. Charles Pearson’s plan

was to lift the valley seventeen feet.

“On the north side of Holborn Hill, approaching Farringdon Street, is

Ely Place. All that remains of this once celebrated Palace, anciently

called Ely House, which was then the town mansion of the Bishops of

Ely, is the Chapel of St. Etheldreda. The crypt of this chapel during

the interregnum became a kind of military canteen, and was subsequently

used as a public cellar to vend drink in. It is now a Welsh Church, at

the entrance being written—

‘Y.R. E.G.L.W.Y.S. C.Y.M.R.A.E.G.’

underneath

‘St. Etheldreda’s Chapel.’

“Evelyn records the consecration here of Dr. Wilkins, Bishop of

Chester, in 1668, when the famous Dr. Tillotson preached; and here,

on the 27th April, 1693, Evelyn’s daughter Susannah, was married to

William Draper, Esq., by Dr. Tenison, then Bishop of Lincoln.

“At the south-east corner of Middle Row (now in course of demolition),

Sir James Branscomb kept a lottery office sixty years ago; and at the

‘Golden Anchor,’ Holborn Bars, Dr. Johnson lived in 1748.

“At Ely House, ‘Old John of Gaunt, time-honoured Lancaster’ died,

February 13, 1399, and Shakspeare has made it the scene of Lancaster’s

last interview with Richard II. Here were kept divers feasts by the

serjeants-at-law in olden times. At an entertainment given by them in

1495, Henry VII. was present with his Queen; and again in 1531, on the

occasion of his making eleven new serjeants, Henry VIII. and Queen

Katherine were banqueted here with great splendour, ‘wanting little of

a feast at a coronation,’ and open house was kept for five days. In

1576, at the mandatory request of Queen Elizabeth, Bishop Cox leased

to Sir Christopher Hatton, for twenty-one years, the greater portion

of the demesne, on payment at Midsummer-day of a red rose, ten loads

of hay, and £10 per annum, the Bishop reserving to himself and his

successors the right of walking in the gardens and gathering twenty

bushels of roses yearly. Hatton largely improved the estate, and then

petitioned the Queen to require the Bishop to make over the whole

property, whereupon ensued the Bishop’s remonstrance, and the Queen’s

threat to ‘unfrock’ him.(A) In 1578, the whole property was conveyed

to Hatton, and Elizabeth further retaliated by keeping the See of Ely

vacant for eighteen years from the death of Bishop Cox, in 1591.

“An old map, still in existence, shows the vineyard, meadow, kitchen

garden, and orchard of Ely Place, to have extended northward from

Holborn Hill to Hatton Wall and Vine Street, and east and west from

Saffron Hill to nearly as far as Leather Lane; but except a cluster

of houses (Ely Rents), on Holborn Hill, the surrounding ground was

entirely open and unbuilt on. The Bishops of Ely made several attempts

to recover the entire property, but during the imprisonment of Bishop

Wren by the Long Parliament, most of the palatial buildings were taken

down, and upon the garden were built Hatton Garden, Great and Little

Kirby Streets, Charles Street, Cross Street, and Hatton Wall. During

the interregnum, Hatton House and offices were used as a prison and

hospital. In 1772 the estate was purchased by the Crown; a town house

was built for the Bishops of Ely in Dover Street, Piccadilly; and the

present Ely Place was built about 1775, the Chapel remaining on the

west side. At Ely House was arranged the grand masque given by the four

Inns of Court to Charles I. and Queen Henrietta Maria at Whitehall on

Candlemas-day, 1634, at a cost of £21,000, when the masquers, horsemen,

musicians, dancers, with the grand committee, including the great

lawyers, Whitelocke, Hyde (afterwards Lord Clarendon), and Selden, went

in procession by torchlight from Ely House, down Chancery Lane, along

the Strand, to Whitehall.

“Holborn, in past times, was famed for its fruit gardens. Before 1597,

John Gerrard, ‘citizen and surgeon,’ had a large physic garden near his

house in Holborn, where he raised 1,100 plants and trees—‘a proof,’

says Oldys, ‘that our ground could produce other fruits besides hips

and haws, acorns and pig-mess.’ Baldwin’s Gardens were so named after

Richard Baldwin, one of the Royal gardeners, who began building here

in 1589. Gray’s Inn Gardens were laid out under the direction of Lord

Bacon, and in these gardens he erected a summer-house, where it is

probable he frequently mused upon the subjects of those great works

which have rendered his name immortal. At the corner of Furnival’s

Inn, and in Queen Street, Cheapside, Mr. Edward Kidder, the famous

pastry-cook, who died in 1739, had two schools, in which he taught

6,000 ladies the art of making pastry.

“The Holborn end of Fetter-lane was formerly a place of execution.

Proceeding farther eastward we come to a part which was once supposed

to be the worst part of London, and where stood Field Lane, described

as ‘an infamous rookery of the dangerous classes,’ which extended from

the foot of Holborn Hill northward, parallel with the Fleet Ditch. In

1844 was taken down the first part of Old Chick Lane, which turned into

Field Lane. Here was a notorious thieves’ lodging-house, which was

formerly the ‘Red Lion’ Tavern, where were various contrivances for

concealment, and the Fleet Ditch in the rear, across which the pursued

often escaped by a plank into the opposite knot of courts and alleys.

But these places, in common with the Fleet Prison, are now nearly

forgotten. Dickens, writing about Field Lane in 1837, thus describes

it:—‘It is a commercial colony of itself—the emporium of petty larceny,

visited, at early morning and setting-in of dusk, by silent merchants,

who traffic in dark back parlours, and go as strangely as they come.’

“Skinner Street and Snow Hill would hardly now be recognised by their

old inhabitants. Skinner Street, extending from Newgate Street to

Holborn Hill, was built at the commencement of the present century, to

avoid the circuit of Snow Hill. In Skinner Street, in 1817, was hung

Cashman the sailor, who had joined a mob in plundering a gunsmith’s

shop (No. 58). At the sign of the ‘Star’ on Snow Hill, at the house

of his friend Mr. Strudwick, a grocer, died on the 12th of August,

1688, the famous John Bunyan, and was buried in that friend’s vault in

Bunhill-fields burial-ground.

“The foregoing are only a few of the many interesting circumstances

connected with this immediate locality; and no doubt, as improvements

rapidly progress, very little of this portion of ‘Old London’ will be

allowed to remain standing, and large mercantile buildings will be

erected on the few spots where small tenements are now standing, and

Holborn will be only a reminiscence of the past.”

(A) Sir Harris Nicolas, in his _life of Sir Christopher Hatton_,

written to expose and disprove the almost innumerable blunders of Lord

Campbell in his lives of the Chancellors of England, gives the exact

words of this celebrated letter.

“PROUD PRELATE, I understand you are backward in complying with your

agreement; but I would have you to know that I who made you what you

are, can unmake you; and if you do not forthwith fulfil your engagement

by G—— d, I will immediately unfrock you.

“Yours, as you demean yourself,

“ELIZABETH.”

[116] “The ‘City’ has an area of less than one square mile. During the

past fifty years the number of houses in the City have been reduced to

5,581, yet the value of the remainder has so increased that the present

few outbid the former many. During the last ten years only, the annual

value of the City has increased no less than a million and a-half

sterling, or at the rate of 273 per cent. The 17,413 inhabited houses

of 1811 had decreased to 13,431 in 1861, but the rental of 1811, which

was £565,243, had increased to £2,109,935 in 1866. Therefore, the fewer

houses of 1866 are worth more by £1,544,692 than the more numerous

houses of 1811. The houses in the City were worth £32 per house, annual

value in 1811. They are now worth £137 each, annual value. They were

worth, to capitalise them at twenty-five years’ purchase in 1811,

£14,131,075; they are now worth, by the same process, £52,748,375,

equal to the total revenue of Great Britain only a few years since, and

equal to five-sixths of the present revenue.”—_City Press, April, 1867._

[117] The following, from the “Brook,” may be taken as an English

reading, with additions and variations, of the above lines:—

“With many a curve my banks I fret,

By many a field and fallow,

And many a fairy foreland set

With willow, weed, and mallow:

“I slip, I slide, I gleam, I glance,

Among my skimming swallows,

I make the netted sunbeams dance

Against my sandy shallows,

I chatter, chatter, as I flow,

To join the brimming river,

For men may come, and men may go,

But I go on for ever.”

[118] A writer in one of the French journals, describing the passage

of the first locomotive and train over the Mont Cenis, doubtless,

having Switzerland and her legendary hero in his mind, says, that “the

railway is laid on the system of the distinguished Swiss engineer, M.

Guillaume Tell!” The Edinburgh Review, in 1865, described Mr. Fell as

an American. He is, however, of English birth and of Saxon descent.

In the course of an excellent description of the trial trip on the

26th of August, published in one of the London papers, reference is

made to the railway over the Brenner, and the writer adds that, in

point of precedence, the Austrian engineers had beaten their English

_confrères_, but the printers, by omitting one letter, made it appear

as if the Austrian engineers had _eaten_ those of England!

[119] It is wonderful how ingenious men can be when they are out of

temper, and want to vent anger and disappointment. A writer in a

professional paper, from whom better things might have been expected,

and who has fairly and honestly won reputation in fields where

imaginery grievances have not warped and overset truthful judgment,

argues that because Mr. Fell’s engine must go up the mountain by the

centre rail system, it is most costly, and therefore practically

useless on account of the great loss of power occasioned by the

necessity of the engine coming down again. Nearly as much power, says

the writer, is thus lost in the descent as is required to get the train

up to the summit. This maybe so, and very probably is so, but is not

this loss the penalty that has to be paid for crossing the mountain

at all. If the writer have crossed the Mont Cenis he could not fail

to have seen that instead of the eight or ten horses or mules that

are required to draw a carriage or a waggon up the pass, only two are

required in the descent for the former, and one for the latter, all the

other horses coming down the mountain loadless. After all, the disease

is not half so bad as the remedy suggested for curing it—twenty-four

to thirty miles of tube or tunnel, to say nothing of the mode of

propulsion through it.

[120] An article appeared in the _Times_, of the 18th September last,

upon the subject of engines ascending steep gradients and sharp curves.

The Fell system was condemned, and grooved rails, within which the

phlanges of the wheels were to move, were recommended in substitution

of the centre rail, and of horizontal wheels upon the engine. Railway

men could at once recognise the writer of the article, both from

its style and from the extensive reference made to the plans of one

individual who was specially named more than once in it. It does not

require to be an engineer to know that the plan recommended would,

instead of giving increased _adhesion_, create friction to an extent

that would soon render a locomotive fixed and buried in its own sand,

for it should be mentioned that the continuous pouring of sand from the

sand-box of the engine on to the rails, and into the groove, was one

of the sources from which it was stated, increased adhesion was to be

obtained.

Mr. J. M. Heppel, C.E., declining to enter into criticism or

controversy upon this point, and doubting the necessity of using sand

with the Fell engine, unless in very limited and exceptional cases,

proceeds to state, in answer to the assertion, that its vertical and

horizontal wheels would not act together:—“The vertical and horizontal

wheels of Mr. Fell’s engine are all driven from one pair of cylinders,

and so coupled that they must all revolve exactly together; so that,

abstracting for a moment from the slip or scrub of the vertical wheels

which takes place on curves, if one slips they must all slip; and so

long as the total adhesion is sufficient to take up the power, it is a

matter of very little importance how it is distributed among them.

“The adhesion of the vertical wheels is due to the weight of the

engine, and for any given condition of the rails, is a constant

quantity. On the other hand, the adhesion of the horizontal wheels is,

within its _maximum_ limit, completely under control, and is given

by a powerful screw motion, acting upon springs, which keep them

always pressed against the rail with a force practically uniform.

Notwithstanding any small inequalities of dimensions, all therefore

that is requisite in ascending a heavy incline, is to set up the screws

till the adhesion of the horizontal wheels makes up with that of the

vertical ones, the total amount required for utilising the traction

power of the engine.

“One obvious advantage of this arrangement is that it admits of all

improvements of construction by which an engine, at the same time

powerful and light, is obtained, a most important point on steep

gradients, where gravitation is so formidable an obstacle, and one

which has, as far as I am aware, been obtained by no other system in a

way to be practically useful.

“Another great advantage is the power of regulating the adhesion

to suit the requirements of the case, thereby avoiding superfluous

and useless friction, which is always the necessary concomitant

of adhesion; and when the latter is in excess must, so far as it

goes, both absorb the power uselessly, and wear out the machinery

unnecessarily.

“I will not enter into a discussion with regard to the polishing of the

rails by the breaks, and the consequent loss of adhesion. I believe

that adhesion depends much more on the accidental condition of the

rails, due to atmospheric causes, than on any permanent mechanical

condition of their surface; but, at any rate, that quite sufficient

adhesion will always be obtainable by the means I have endeavoured to

describe, to what ever state of polish the rails may have attained.”

[121] Baron Seguier evidently still considers himself the inventor of

the centre rail system, for after the announcement in the newspapers of

the successful crossing of the Mont Cenis Pass, on the 26th of August

1867, he published a letter in the _Moniteur_, making a statement to

the above effect. He added, however, that he did not intend “to raise

any question as to the pecuniary advantages that would be derived by

others from the invention.”

[122] It has recently come to light that, through some members of the

Mont Cenis Board interfering in details connected with the construction

of the engines—upon which they were not competent to pronounce an

opinion, but which were, nevertheless, adopted in opposition to the

recommendation of Mr. Fell—considerable alterations will have to be

made in the rolling stock before the line can be opened for traffic.

These alterations can hardly be completed before February of next year.

[123] Tunnels are not the only monuments of great antiquity that

have come down to us. In the course of a very interesting article

upon the Suez Canal, in the _Cornhill Magazine_ for May 1865, the

writer, speaking of the obelisk in front of the Temple of the Sun,

at Heliopolis, says, “It is thirty-eight centuries old. It is the

father of all obelisks that have arisen since. It was raised a century

before the coming of Joseph; it has looked down upon his marriage with

Asenath; it has seen the growth of Moses; it is mentioned by Herodotus;

Plato sat under its shadow. Of all the obelisks which sprang up around

it, it alone has kept its first position. One by one it has seen its

sons and brethren depart to great destinies elsewhere. From these

gardens came the obelisks of the Vatican and the Porta del Popolo,

and their venerable pillar (for so it looks from the distance) is now

almost the only landmark of the seat of the wisdom of Egypt.”

[124] The extract in the text is taken from Book II, chapter 1, of the

“Books of Diodorus Siculus, made English by G. B. Booth, of the City of

Chester, Esqre.,” published in London, _Anno_ 1700.

[125] Of Anne, we learn that she was the daughter of James, King of

Cyprus and Jerusalem; that she was married in 1433 to Louis, second

Duke of Savoy, and second son of Amadeus VIII., who abdicated in 1434,

and, although not an ordained priest, was nominated Pope in January

1440, and was the last of the Anti-Popes; his abdication of the Papacy

took place in 1444, and his death in 1451. Anne, considered the most

lovely woman of the period in which she lived, gained by the beauty

of her person and her intellectual capacity such ascendency over her

husband, from the time of his coming to the throne, that she not only

disposed of all the honours and appointments of the duchy, but founded

several useful industrial establishments. She gave the best proof of

her own industry and attention to domestic duties by being the mother

of sixteen children, most of whom grew up to man’s and woman’s estate.

Anne’s death took place at Geneva in 1463; her husband survived her two

years.

[126] The language in the text is confirmed by the following paragraph

in the _Times_ of the 13th September, 1867. The Genoa _Morimento_ has

the following from Nice:—“The news of the success of the Fell system

for passing mountains has been received here with pleasure, and two

distinguished Nizzards intend visiting Mont Cenis to see how far that

system can be applied to the Col di Tenda. The people of Nice well

know that the only thing that can give life to their trade is a rapid

communication with Cuneo, because by that town they would be in direct

intercourse with Piedmont, Lombardy, and Venetia. When the necessary

studies shall have been made of the development of the line in

question, and of the outlay it would require, the company which would

be formed to carry it out would probably ask the Alta Italia Railway

Company to take charge of at least the construction of the section

which would end at the short tunnel that must be made on the Col

itself. The town of Nice would put itself at the head of the company

for promoting the work, and would take a large number of shares.”

Negotiations are in progress for carrying this intention into effect.

[127] These are four in number of the respective lengths as

follows:—Oakley, 800 yards; Belsize, 1,460; Elstree, 900; Ampthill,

640. Total 3,800 yards, or two miles and a sixth.

[128] In 1865 the London and North-Western Railway Company promoted

in Parliament the Buxton Chapel-en-le-Frith and Sheffield Railway,

the length of which was to have been twenty-four miles. When the Bill

had passed the House of Commons, it was withdrawn under arrangements

made with its opponent, the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire

Company. If the line had been constructed, it would have had upon it

the two longest tunnels in Great Britain. One would have been three and

one-eighth miles, and the other four miles long.

[129] “While upon tunnels, the construction of that upon the West End

and Crystal Palace Railway may be referred to, in consequence of the

anxiety that was felt on account of its passing very close to the

south-west angle of the Crystal Palace, between that point and the

Water Tower, the foundations of which were being laid just as the

tunnelling was proceeding at that spot. It will be remembered that the

present Water Tower replaced one of which the foundation was deemed

insufficient. Considering the enormous weight and height of the Water

Tower, with its huge tank at the top, capable of containing several

hundred tons of water, it became necessary to take every precaution,

the matter being of great importance both as regards the safety of

the tunnel, with its huge superincumbent weight, and the Water Tower,

which, from its great height, and also from being placed at some little

distance laterally from the tunnel, might easily have been thrown out

of the perpendicular, had any settlement taken place after its erection.

“The precautions taken with the tunnelling were: never to leave the

earth resting upon the bars longer than absolutely necessary; to build

the crown bars into the work, instead of withdrawing them, as is

usually done in less important places; to select the hardest and best

bricks, and to have them set in Portland cement, under careful and

independent inspection on the part of the Engineers, the Contractors,

and the Crystal Palace Company. The average thickness of the brickwork

at this part, consisting of nine rings in the arch, five in the invert

and side walls, was 3 feet 9 inches. The general shape of the tunnel

was a semi-ellipse, 24 feet wide by 16 high.

“No settlement took place, nor was the Water Tower at all affected,

although at other portions of the tunnel a small motion of the side

walls took place, by their slightly approaching each other, with some

crushing of the brickwork.”—_Extract from Letter of G. H. Phipps, Esq.,

to the Author, dated the 16th of October, 1867._

[130] There are about 3,000 miles of canals and navigable rivers in

France.

[131] In constructing shafts, French engineers prefer to place them on

one side, and not over the centre of the tunnel, partly because they

consider it more convenient for purposes of construction, and partly

because they think it safer for the line, which is thus less exposed

to accident or ill-will, or to the annoyances experienced from wet or

dripping shafts.

French engineers construct tunnels on curves more than has been the

practice of English engineers. One tunnel, that of Vierzon, 208 metres

long, is on a reversed curve, one radius being 1,093 yards, and the

other 1,366 yards.

[132] For full particulars of this tunnel see reports of Mr. Storrow,

and of Messrs. Laurie & Latrobe, embodied in the report of the

Commissioners of the State of Massachusetts on the Troy and Grenfield

Railroad, and the Hoosac Tunnel, dated the 12th March 1863.

[133] Drawings of the tunnel entrances, and a section of it, are given

in _Engineering_ for September 27, 1867.

[134] Under water between France and England is not going to have it

all its own way. In 1864 there was a scheme for very large ferry-boats

between Dover and Calais, the boats to come, at each harbour, into

a groove or dock specially to be made for them. The plan, however,

was abandoned at an early stage, mainly, it is believed, because the

French Government declined incurring the very great outlay that would

have been unavoidable at Calais. In fact, the plan would have rendered

necessary the construction of a new and much enlarged harbour there,

involving an expenditure of three or four millions sterling. The

present year has brought out several ferry schemes, one of which only

we purpose referring to—that of Mr. T. B. Daft, C. E. This gentleman

proposes to run his vessels between Dieppe and Newhaven. He has not,

however, quite decided whether each ship is to consist of one hull or

of two. If the hull be single, his deck is to be 500 feet long and 150

wide. If double, each is to be 50 feet wide, the pair to be placed 30

feet apart, and to be connected together by iron beams covered over by

a broad deckway, so that passengers might go from one ship to another

at their convenience. But no vessels so united could hold together in a

heavy cross sea. The beams would be smashed to atoms by its violent and

irregular action, and the difference of elevation of waves only a few

feet distant from one another.

Mr. Daft proposes four pairs of engines of the collective power of

2,400 horses for his boats, to receive which there are to be special

floating harbours at Dieppe and at Newhaven, so arranged that the

trains can at once be put on the deck of the vessels at the departure

harbour, and landed at that of arrival without disturbing passengers

or luggage. Mr. Daft makes up his figures as follows:—Expenditure on

capital account £1,000,000; 600,000 passengers during the year at 5s.

each, £150,000; 300,000 tons of merchandise at 8s. each, £120,000;

gross probable receipts £270,000. _Per contra_, wages of crew, £4,680;

coals, 15,200 tons for twelve voyages per week, £11,250; stores, light

dues and pilotage, £920; interest at 5 per cent. on capital £50,000;

insurance, repairs, and depreciation, £100,000, making a gross annual

expenditure of £166,850, thus showing a divisible profit (besides

the 5 per cent. interest on the million of capital) of £103,150. We

sincerely hope that the shareholders may find it, if ever these vessels

and harbours be constructed. The only objection we shall dare to offer

to the plan is the possible inconvenience to which a gallant male

passenger may be subjected when a lady, whom he had perhaps found a

most charming conversational _compagnionne de voyage_ on _terra firma_,

may all of a sudden, in a rough sea, ask him to be so good as to hand

her the basin!

[135] M. Metres.

[136] C. Centimetres.

[137] For the first Half of 1867 only.

[138] On the other hand, Captain Tyler, in his report to the Board

of Trade of his inspection of the Mont Cenis Railway, dated the 4th

September, 1867, states, that, by the favour of the Italian Government,

he visited the tunnel works on the 24th of August, when “on going with

Signor Copello, the chief engineer of the French side, into the Grand

Tunnel on that side of the Alps, I found that a great improvement

had been effected in its ventilation since my visit of last year. A

wooden partition had been completed under the roof for a distance of

1,500 metres. Four cylinders had been constructed, each four metres in

diameter, and with a stroke of two metres, for drawing out the foul

air at a maximum rate of ten strokes per minute. The head of water for

working these cylinders was 70 metres.

“The one cylinder which alone was at work during my visit produced a

strong current through the heading, and a perceptible current almost

up to the face of the excavation. I learnt that a fan ventilator was

employed to produce similar effects on the Italian side.”

[139] There are no such shafts upon railways as there are in mining.

The shafts of the Consolidated and United Mines, Cornwall, are 1,488

and 1,650 feet. The shaft of the Nesvain Copper Mine is 2,180 feet;

of the Veta Grande Mines, Mexico, 1,092 feet; of the Valenciana Mine,

Mexico, 1,860; of the mines of Himmelsfurst, Saxony, 1,080 feet; of

the salt mines near Cracow, 1,783 feet. Several mines in the Harz

Mountains, in Bohemia, and in Cornwall, have also been worked to a

depth exceeding 2,000 feet. The deepest in Bohemia is Keettenburg,

said to be 3,000 feet below the surface of the soil. The deepest in

Cornwall is that of Fowey Consols. The shaft of the Fahlam Copper Mine

of Sweden is 1,300 feet deep. The shaft of Mr. Astley’s colliery at

Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, is 2,100 feet deep. The deep workings

are 1,500 feet below the bottom of the shaft. The shaft of Wearmouth

Colliery is 1,600 feet deep; that of Dukenfield, Cheshire, 2,004 feet;

and the lowest working in the colliery is 2,504 feet. At Pendleton,

coal is worked from a depth of 2,505 feet. One of the collieries at

Wigan is 1,775 below the surface. Many of the Durham collieries are

equally deep. For further particulars see Dr. Ure’s _Dictionary of

Arts, Manufactures and Mines_, edition of 1861.

[140] See note, page 373.

[141] This is a suggestion that may prove of great value in the working

of the railway through the Great Tunnel of the Alps.

[142] The largest number of passengers ever conveyed in one day was on

the 10th June, 1867 (Whit Monday), 113,075. The total carried that week

was 542,833.

[143] It will be seen by the subjoined extract from the _London and

China Telegraph_ of the 15th November, 1867, that a contract for

the conveyance of our Eastern mails (referred to _ante_, page 241),

has been entered into between the Government and the Peninsular and

Oriental Steam Navigation Company. Henceforth, the service to and from

Egypt and India will be weekly, instead of four times a month; to and

from China, fortnightly, instead of twice a month; to and from the

Australian Colonies, once every four weeks, or thirteen times a year,

instead of twelve times, or once each calendar month, as at present.

It will be perceived that, as usual, St. Martin’s-le-Grand is opposed

to a more complete postal system, because the outlay involved “is more

than the Post Office will sanction.” The service is undoubtedly an

improvement on the existing one, but it falls far short of what will

have to be conceded, probably even within another twelvemonth.

“At length the terms of a new contract for the conveyance of the India

and China mails have been arranged with the Peninsular and Oriental

Company, and the new service, which will come into operation in

February next, will be organised on a basis which in most respects must

be considered very satisfactory. The contract is for a longer period

than the previous one, and its terms are much higher. The Marseilles

route will still be adhered to, and between that port and Alexandria

there will be a weekly direct line of steamers in conjunction with a

weekly line between Suez and Bombay. The Bombay mails will be made

up in London each Friday evening, and the service abroad will be

arranged with a view to insure the delivery of the homeward mails in

London on Monday morning. There will be a fortnightly service between

Suez and Calcutta and China, connecting at Galle, as at present; and

the mails for these places will be despatched with every alternate

Bombay mail. In like manner the homeward China and Calcutta mail will

be timed to reach Suez simultaneously with every alternate Bombay

steamer. In short, the China mail in future will be a fortnightly

one, instead of twice in the calendar month; it will be despatched

every alternate Friday, and delivered here, all circumstances being

favourable, every alternate Monday. On this side of the Isthmus the

whole system will consist of a weekly vessel between Marseilles and

Alexandria direct, with another to and from Southampton, touching at

Malta as at present. It will be observed that no contract has been made

for a line between Brindisi and Alexandria; as the port of Brindisi

could not be substituted entirely for Marseilles, an extra service has

been decided against, on the score of outlay. The Australian mail will

be once in every four weeks, joining the China steamer at Galle, as

at present. The advantages of the scheme are obvious. The uncertain

intervals between the making up of the mails, owing to the difference

in the lengths of the months and the intervention of Sundays, disappear

in favour of a system of regularity and fixed days. The partial

amalgamation of the two services cannot fail to have a favourable

effect in promoting increased punctuality in the delivery of the inward

mails. The days selected for despatch and arrival are beyond doubt the

most suitable ones. And it is satisfactory to know that the new era we

are about to enter upon is a permanent and not an experimental one. It

will be observed that the existing system of one line between Suez and

Calcutta, and another between Bombay and China, with transhipment at

Galle, is still to be retained, instead of giving place to the direct

trunk line from Suez to Hongkong that we have always advocated. We

must, however, rest content with this arrangement for the present, as

the outlay involved by the direct line is more than the Post Office

will sanction. We are assured, however, that the boat from Calcutta

will always be despatched in time to avoid the possibility of detention

to the China mail. It will be seen that the new service, however

satisfactory in itself, will not harmonise with the French line at all;

indeed, if the Messageries steamers continue to be despatched on the

19th of the month, probably in most cases the facilities at present

offered by the French mail will be absolutely nullified. We imagine,

however, that the French company will find it expedient to make a

corresponding alteration by despatching their vessels on a given day in

every fourth week, so as to bring their departure midway between two of

the Peninsular and Oriental mails. We trust some such arrangement as

this will be urged by our own Government on that of France. We may add

that Saturday is the day fixed for both arrival and departure of the

Southampton steamers, and that the duration of stay at Singapore, and

the question of calling at Penang, are still undecided.”

By the now existing contract the company have a subsidy of £230,000 per

annum, equal to about 4s. 6d. per nautical mile. By the new contract

the subsidy will be £400,000 per annum, or at the rate of 6s. 1d.

per mile. There are two new and special conditions attached to the

contract. It is to be for twelve years instead of six, as heretofore;

and when the net profits of the company exceed 8 per cent., a fourth

of the surplus is to go to the Post Office, it being understood, on

the other hand, that when the dividend sinks, from unavoidable causes,

below 6 per cent., the subsidy is to be raised to an amount that will

cover the deficiency, but it is not, in any case, to exceed £500,000 a

year.

[144] The Government press of Rome has just published the census of the

population of the city for 1867:—The city and the suburbs are divided

into 59 parishes, containing a population of 215,573 souls, being an

increase since 1866 of 4,872. Of these 30 are cardinals, 35 bishops,

1,469 priests and ecclesiastics, and 828 seminarists. The occupants of

religious houses are 5,047, 2,832 being monks and 2,215 nuns. These

belong to 61 different congregations or orders. There are also 49

seminaries or colleges, among which are the French Seminary, tenanted

by 48 pupils; that of South America by 50; that of North America by

33; the German Seminary has 58 pupils; the English 21, and the “Pie

Anglais” 14; the Scotch 12; and the Irish 52, &c. The number of males

educated in colleges amounts to 258, and females in _pensionnats_ to

1,642; 775 males and 1,088 females live in charitable institutions.

The number of families is 42,313, composed of 98,176 males and 93,438

females—to whom must be added 7,360 following the military profession,

320 _detenus_ 4,650 Jews, and 457 other dissidents. There have been

1,615 marriages contracted during 1867.

[145] It appears, from the Third Report of the Select Committee on

Postage, 1838, page 49, that in the mails despatched from London at

that time, the chargeable letters formed only 7 per cent. of the whole

weight. An increase in the number of those letters to nine-fold, or by

800 per cent., would therefore advance the total weight of the mails by

only 56 per cent., or little more than one-half, even if the average

weight of a letter had continued the same. That average has, however,

been considerably reduced.

[146] The evidence more particularly referred to is that of Mr. Louis,

the Surveyor and Superintendent of mail coaches, who had a thorough

knowledge of the details of the service under his control.

[147] This amount includes the cost of the inconsiderable extent of

railway mail service at that time in operation.

[148] Only a portion of the bags which these mails formerly carried is

now sent by the London and North-Western Railway.

[149] This statement, as regards weight, is completely refuted at pages

85, _et seq._—C. P. R.

[150] In 1856 the Eastern mails were only forwarded twice a-month,

_viâ_ Marseilles. They are now forwarded four times a-month, or

forty-eight times a-year. From and after the 1st of February, 1868,

they will be despatched weekly, or fifty-two times a-year. The average

number of boxes despatched on the three nights of each month, when the

Australian mail is not forwarded, is 178; on Australian mail night the

number is 374.—C. P. R.

[151] The successive Reports of the Postmasters-General, from one to

twelve, both inclusive, abound in misstatements similar to the above.

They are very discreditable to the department.—C. P. R.

[152] Since the 1st of October, 1860, the mail trains run twice a-day

in each direction between London and Holyhead, in 6 hours 35 minutes.

The distance is 263 miles.—C. P. R.

[153] In consequence of the service now being performed by the finest

steamers in point of speed at present afloat, in 3½ hours, instead of a

_minimum_ of 4 hours 40 minutes, in 1856, the price paid is £78,000 a

year.—C. P. R.

[154] The Royal Commissioners upon railways disapprove in their Report,

dated 7th May, 1867, of the Post Office becoming parcel carriers. See

_ante_, page 122.—C. P. R.

[155] This mis-statement is dealt with at page 80.—C. P. R.

[156] This is quite true. The Post Office has been unceasing in its

efforts to put a stop to the transmission of newspapers through

the post, _except with postage stamps_ affixed to them. In 1855,

the Treasury, at the urgent instance of the Post Office, abolished

the transmission of newspapers with the impressed stamp to foreign

countries and our colonies, unless, _in addition_, postage stamps were

affixed.—C. P. R.

[157] Since the 1st of October, 1860, the mails are conveyed between

London and Dublin in eleven hours and-a-half. The distance is 335

miles.—C. P. R.

[158] It now costs £100,000 a-year.—C. P. R.

[159] Unfortunately, Mr. Stephenson died without mentioning his

proposed arrangement; but if he had lived until now, he would have seen

that the ill-will of the Post Office towards the railways is as great

as ever it was.—C.P.R.

[160] _Viâ_ Mont Cenis.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:

—Obvious print and punctuation errors were corrected.

—The transcriber of this project created the book cover image using

the title page of the original book. The image is placed in the public

domain.

End of Project Gutenberg's Rambles on Railways, by Cusack Patrick Roney