INDIAN RAILWAYS.

England is naturally in advance of all other countries as regards railways in her possessions and colonies. There is not one of them in which the system has not made some advance, but in two of them it has become of magnificent proportions. First as regards India.

Although the question of Indian Railways was first agitated as far back as 1840, it was not until 1846 that the British Parliament began seriously to occupy itself about them. In February and March 1847, the House of Commons ordered a vast amount of information, both official and unofficial, that had been collected from various sources, to be printed, and it may be said that the reports and documents then circulated, have formed the basis upon which the legislation for Indian railways has been framed. By the Act of the 12th and 13th Victoria, cap. 93. (1849), the construction of a line from “Calcutta towards the Northern Provinces,” by the East Indian Railway Company, was authorised. The first divisions of the line, that is, from Howrah, opposite Calcutta, to Pundoah, 37½ miles, was not opened for traffic until September 1854; and by the 3rd of February, 1855, a further length of 92 miles to Raneegunge was completed. At the present time, the total length of the East Indian Railway is 1,354 miles. In mileage therefore it exceeds the London and North-Western Company of England by twenty-six miles, eight miles having been added to the latter company’s lines since page 23 of this book was printed. The following is a brief sketch of the Great Railway as it now exists. At Burdwan (about ninety-two miles from Calcutta), the separation between what is called the “Chord Line” (to be finished throughout in 1869) and the main line takes place. The latter runs due north to Rajinabad, thus connecting Calcutta with the Ganges, and enabling traders to avoid the navigation of 250 miles of one of the most dangerous parts of the river. At Rajinabad, the railway turns westward, and proceeds up the right bank of the Ganges, past Monghyr, where it is carried through the only tunnel in its course, 300 yards long, to Patna, Benares, and Allahabad. Shortly beyond Patna, it is carried across the River Soane, by a magnificent bridge, said to be the second longest in the world; it is therefore next in length to the Victoria Bridge at Montreal, to which reference is made hereafter. At Allahabad the line crosses the Jumna, by a bridge nearly as great as that over the Soane. In the crossings of these rivers, and of two others, the railway is carried at the top, with a roadway underneath for the ordinary traffic, in a somewhat similar way to the High-Level Bridge at Newcastle. These four bridges are constructed upon the wrought-iron lattice principle. That over the Soane consists of twenty-eight openings, with spans of 150 feet; that over the Jumna of fifteen openings, of which each span is 205 feet. The bridge over the Adjai consists of thirty-two openings, with spans of 50 feet; that over the Keeul, of nine openings, with spans of 150 feet; a smaller bridge over the Touse consists of seven openings, each with a span of 150 feet.

From Allahabad the East Indian Railway extends through Cawnpore to the heart of the upper Provinces, and at Ghazecabad it meets the Punjaub Railway, whence it is carried to the Great City of Delhi.

At Allahabad it branches off to Jubbulpore, where the line of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway is to come from Bombay to meet it. The gap to be filled up is 225 miles, and according to the interesting and instructive report of Mr. Juland Danvers, the Government Director of the Indian Railway Companies, issued in May last, it is fully expected that this gap will be completed for traffic, notwithstanding the difficult and costly character of several of the works upon it, by October or November of next year. Then railway transit from Bombay to Calcutta will be accomplished in forty-four hours;[86] and it is not too much to hope that in two, at all events three years, the present contract time of mails from London to Calcutta, vi Marseilles, will be reduced from 34 days to 23½ days. If the speed of the steamers which are to carry the Mails between Brindisi and Alexandria were to be twelve knots an hour, and not ten as specified in the invitations for tenders sent out by the Post Office, at the early part of the present year, and the speed of the steamers between Suez and the port of Bombay were increased from 9½ to 10½ knots an hour, a further acceleration of nearly two days to Calcutta would be gained, thereby reducing the time to 21½ days, or 2½ days less than the present contract time between London and Bombay, vi Marseilles. Two to three hours would also be gained by the construction of a great bridge over the Hooghly, thereby extending the East Indian Railway, from its present terminus at Howrah, into Calcutta. Such a work is stated by Mr. Juland Danvers to be, “in the opinion of those best able to judge, imperatively required, in the interests both of the railway company and of the public.” No decision, however, has as yet been come to with reference to its construction being commenced at an early period.

The average cost of the upper portion of the East Indian Railway has been about £15,000 a mile. The lower, or Bengal portion, has been, at least, half as much again. It is expected that the Jubbulpore extension will come to £15,000 a mile, including rolling stock and maintenance of the line and works for a year after opening. The gross traffic earnings[87] during 1866 were £2,012,680, showing an increase of £338,239 as compared with 1865. The receipts per train mile in 1865 were 7s. 9d., in 1866, 8s. The[249]
[250]
[251] expenditure per train mile in 1865 was 3s. 8d., in 1866 a farthing a mile less. The train mileage in the year ending 30th June, 1866, was 4,625,705 miles.[88]

The Great Indian Peninsular Railway Company was incorporated in 1849. It is to be the great line which is to unite Bombay with Madras, and also with Calcutta. From Bombay to Callian may be considered the parent line, as it is at this point it becomes divided, one branch going south-east in the direction towards Madras, and the other north-east towards Calcutta. The south-eastern branch is carried over the Bhore Ghaut by an incline nearly sixteen miles long, with a total elevation of 1,381 feet. The foot of the mountain is 196 feet above high water mark at Bombay. Its average gradient is 1 in 48. The steepest gradients are 1 in 37 and 1 in 40, for a total length of 9 miles and 44 chains; 1 in 37 extends in one length for 1 mile 10 chains, and 1 in 40 for 5 miles 6 chains. Short lengths of level gradients and of 1 in 330 are introduced into this incline to facilitate the ascent of the engine. The radii of the curves upon it range from 15 chains to 80 chains; but as much as 12 miles 45 chains have a radius of more than 30 chains, and 5 miles 33 chains are straight. It comprises twenty-five tunnels of a total length of 3,585 yards. The longest is 437 yards; and the longest without a shaft, which is carried through a mountain of basalt, is 346 yards. There are eight viaducts of a total length of 987 yards. The two largest are 168 yards long, and respectively 163 and 160 feet above the foundations. The total quantity of cutting, chiefly rock, amounts to 1,263,102 cubic yards. The maximum depth of cutting is 70 feet, and the greatest contents 75,000 cubic yards of trap rock. The embankments amount to 1,849,934 cubic yards, the maximum height being 74 feet; and the greatest contents are 209,000 and 263,000 cubic yards. The slopes average about 1½ to 1. There are twenty-three bridges of various spans, from 7 feet to 30 feet, and sixty culverts from 2 feet to 6 feet wide. The rails weigh 85 lbs. per yard. The cost of the incline has been nearly £800,000; at one time there were no less than 42,000 men (natives of India) employed upon its construction.

At the eleventh mile the incline is divided into two banks by what is called a reversing station. This subdivision, however, was not adopted for the purpose of making two banks of the incline, but of increasing the length of the base, in order to flatten the gradient and to reach a higher level, where it encountered the great features of the Ghaut margin, near Khandalla. Without the necessary expedient of the reversing station, the practicability of changing the direction of the line would have been confined to making curves of small radius; but with the device of the reversing station the direction was altered at a very acute angle, by means of points and crossings. In consequence of its adoption, the length of the line has necessarily been considerably extended.

The Bhore Ghaut is unquestionably a stupendous mass of works, unsurpassed by any others in the world; and probably the nearest rivals to them in magnitude and grandeur are those of the Thull Ghaut.

This incline extends from the village of Kussarah to Egutpoora. It is 9½ miles in length, and has a total ascent of 972 feet. At the end of 3¾ miles there is a reversing station, similar to that upon the Bhore Ghaut Incline, by which the base is lengthened, the gradient flattened, and the incline divided into two banks. The steepest gradient is 1 in 37, for a length of 4 miles 30 chains; and the same introduction of a level portion is adopted here as on the Bhore Ghaut. The radius of the curves ranges from 17 chains to 100 chains; but of 7 miles 12 chains the radius exceeds 30 chains, and 3 miles 28 chains are straight. There are thirteen tunnels of a total length of 2,652 yards. The longest are, one of 474 yards in black basalt with two shafts, and another of 483 yards without a shaft, in green-stone. There are six viaducts, of a total length of 741 yards, the largest of which are respectively 144 yards and 250 yards long and 83 feet and 182 feet high. The latter is of three spans with triangular iron girders measuring 150 feet, with a pair of semi-circular abutment arches measuring 40 feet at each end. There are fifteen bridges of which the span varies from 7 feet to 30 feet, and sixty-two culverts. The cost of the incline is about £500,000.

The Thull overcome, a branch line, runs south-eastward through the great cotton district of Oomrawattee to Nagpore, but the main line continues its course eastward to Jubbulpore, where it meets the East India Railway which comes to join it from Calcutta. From Bombay to Jubbulpore the distance is 615 miles, and from Bombay to Raichore, the point of junction with the Madras Railway, the distance is 441 miles. As soon as the whole system of the East Indian Peninsular Railway is completed it will consist of 1,267 miles.

Its train mileage in the year ending the 30th June, 1866, was 2,259,881 miles. The gross receipts for the year ending the 31st December were £1,252,962, showing an increase of £77,872 over 1865. The receipts per train mile in 1865, were 10s. 5d.; in 1866, 10s. 11d. The expenditure per train mile in 1865, was 6s. 2d.; in 1866, 6s. 4½d. For the half-year ending the 30th of June, 1867, the net receipts amounted to £530,568, being at the rate of £6. 9s. per cent. per annum on the whole of the paid-up capital of the company. As the guaranteed interest of the half-year advanced by the Government amounted to £398,452, the surplus profit was £132,116; but, in consequence of the accidents that had occurred to the works, it has been decided by the shareholders that no more than at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum, shall be divided among them for the present. The Great Indian Peninsular Railway must always be liable to heavy cost, and occasional interruptions to its traffic, in consequence of several of the districts through which it passes being subjected to severe and sudden floods. At Bombay, the annual rainfall is about 85 inches (more than three and a-half times the rainfall of London), and although at other places on the line it is considerably less, it is nevertheless as high as 255 inches at Matheran, and as high as 265 inches at Mohableshwar. It may be that the works on the railway, as a whole, have not been constructed sufficiently with a view to this fact, but, from whatever cause proceeding, several serious disasters to viaducts and bridges have recently taken place; and, we regret to perceive, by a minute of the Governor-General in Council, that these disasters are attributed to original defective construction. It also appears, by the latest reports from India, that as many as seventeen bridges on the unopened portions of the Nagpore Extension have been condemned by the company’s engineers. But might not this fact have been avoided if they had done their duty in the first instance?

It was not until the year 1852 that the Madras Railway was incorporated. The object of the company was to construct a railway from Madras to the western coast. The difficulties of construction of this railway have not been great, the only ones that presented themselves being the way in which several rivers should be crossed. By means of this line, railway communication with the important military station of Bangalore is obtained. It also passes through the cotton fields of Combatoore, and it finds its way through a passage in the Ghauts to the Port of Beypoor, on the coast of Malabar. From Madras to Beypoor, the distance is 406 miles. The Bangalore Branch is 86 miles, and it attains a height of 3,000 feet on the Mysore Table-land. The north-west line, leaving the main line at Arconum, 42 miles from Madras, proceeds through Cudapah, crosses the River Pennar to Gooty, to which place the line is expected to be opened in January next. Near Gooty, a branch is given off to Bellary. The main line crosses the Toongabruda, and runs to Raichore, the point of union with the Great Indian Peninsular Railway from Bombay. This portion of the railway, when completed, will be 338 miles, thus making the distance from Bombay to Madras 821 miles, 160 miles more than by the ordinary road. The connection between the Bombay and Madras Railways is expected to be complete in 1869. When the whole main line and branches are completed, the length of the Madras Railway will be 825 miles. Of these, 645 are at present open.

The traffic of the line has been injuriously affected in 1866 by the failure of the Monsoon rains, the consequent scarcity and famine, and the state of trade. But good service was rendered by it during the famine, in conveying to the districts so lamentably affected by it nearly 23,000 tons of food, an amount which Mr. Danvers says would have employed 17,000 carts every day for three months. The gross traffic receipts of 1866 were £438,787, showing an increase of £33,787 over 1865. The receipts per train mile in 1865 were 6s. 1d.; in 1866, 6s. 7¾d. The expenditure per train mile in 1865 was 2s. 10¾d.; in 1866, 3s. 2d. The train mileage for the year ending 30th June, 1866, was 1,306,998 miles.

Beypoor has for some time been felt as an unsuitable terminus, on the western coast, for the Madras Railway. It provides the conveniences neither of a harbour nor of a port, and the advantages of the railway to the western side of India are, in consequence, greatly diminished. Proposals have, accordingly, been made to extend it northwards to Calicut, or southwards to Cochin, sixty miles from Beypoor. The former would hardly be much better than Beypoor, but Cochin appears to offer considerable advantages. Independently of possessing a fine harbour, there is close by, the remarkable roadstead of Narrakal, accessible to ships at all seasons. The only drawback is, that the line would pass through a foreign territory; but this would be slight if the Rajah of Cochin would support the project. The matter is now under the consideration of both the Supreme and the Madras Governments.

It is expected that by means of the Madras Railway the French East Indian settlement of Pondicherry,[89] situated not far from the south-eastern extremity of the continent, will eventually be linked by the railway system with all the chief cities of British India. The French Government has just decided upon granting a subsidy for the construction of a line that, in the first instance, is to be carried between the City of Pondicherry and Conjeveram, and subsequently to some point on the Anglo-Indian system. Such a connection will materially improve postal and passenger communication between France and its dependency. At present there is only direct intercourse between them once a month, through the medium of the steamers of the Messageries ImpÉriales—a company that is largely subsidised by the French Imperial Government.

The Bombay, Baroda, and Central India Railway was formed to connect Bombay with the Cotton districts of Guzzerat and Central India. The works were commenced in 1856. Taking a northward direction along the coast from Bombay, it passes Damaun and Surat. Here it crosses the River Taptee by an iron bridge 2,000 feet long. But at the Nezbudda River the bridge is nearly double that length, being 3,800 feet. This has been the most formidable work of construction on this railway. The line then continues its course to Ahmedabad, which is 310 miles distant from Bombay.

This line, when completed, will prove to be the most expensive in India. Its cost will be more than £20,000 a mile. To cover the interest a large traffic will be required, and such may be reasonably expected. But its capabilities are at present cramped by the want of a good terminal station at the Port of Bombay,[90] and by the imperfect road communications with the stations. This last is a complaint that can truly be made by all the railway companies of India. The railway sustained very serious damage by floods during the Monsoons of 1866. Their destructive character is said to have been unprecedented, and for upwards of a month the traffic was totally suspended on about thirty miles of the line. Nevertheless the growth of the traffic is not unsatisfactory. In 1866 the gross receipts were £407,688, being £85,872 more than in 1865. The gross receipts per train mile in 1865, were 12s. 6¾d. (the highest in India), but the working expenses were also the highest—8s. 1¾d. a mile. The train mileage for the year ending the 30th June, 1866, was 745,961 miles.

Very considerable desire exists in India to extend this railway from Baroda, across central India to Delhi, nearly parallel (but at a distance of from 350 to 500 miles during two-thirds of its course) to the main line of the Great Indian Peninsula to Jubbulpore, and thence to Allahabad. The length of this line would be about 570 miles, and surveys are already being carried on with the view of ascertaining the best route and making complete estimates of cost. At present it is assumed that the line will cost about £12,000 a mile, or £6,850,000. If the results of the surveys be satisfactory, arrangements will probably be made for constructing this railway. A main difficulty is that it will, for the most part, be carried through the territories of native princes; negotiations must, therefore, before the works can be commenced, be entered into for the abolition, at all events the relaxation, of the existing onerous transit dues.

The tendency of the construction of this extension would be to still further concentrate European traffic at Bombay, as by means of it not only would Delhi and the north-western provinces be accommodated, but there would be a second route from Bombay to Calcutta, a roundabout one to be sure,—but a second route notwithstanding.

The next railway we have to refer to is the Scinde Railway, which was incorporated in its present shape in 1857. “Although,” says the editor of Engineering, “the affairs of this company are under a single board, the operations of the company, in reality, embrace four separate concerns.” The object of the combined undertaking is to establish railway communication between the port of Kurrachee and the Punjaub, and to connect the chief cities of that province with the East Indian Railway, which has already been mentioned as extending to Delhi.

The first portion of this great connection is a most important section of 109 miles in length, crossing the rivers Bahrun and Mulleer, and through the Karatolla Hills to Kotree on the Indus, opposite Hyderabad. It has since its opening in May, 1861, developed a considerable trade in cotton, which had not been previously seen on the Indus, as well as Indigo, grain, wool, and other products.

Usually, the violence of the monsoons does not extend on the western side of India, so far to the north as Scinde, but, in August, 1866, it was not less destructive to the works of the Scinde Railway than to those of the Bombay and Baroda. In two days, forty inches of rain fell, and the floods produced by this sudden down-pour were such that they as completely swept away a viaduct as if it had never existed. Iron girders, sixty tons in weight, were hurled along for a distance of half-a-mile, and rails were carried away 300 feet from the line. The traffic was, in consequence, interrupted for several weeks. As in the case of the Bombay and Baroda Line, the cost of repairing the damage will, in consideration of the exceptional circumstances which caused it, be allowed as a charge against capital. In 1865, the gross receipts of the Scinde Railway were £82,493, and the net, £3,507; in 1866, although the gross receipts had fallen to £53,166, the net earnings were £10,083. The train miles in 1866 were 283,062.

The second portion of the system connected with the Scinde Railway as it now exists, is for the navigation of the Indus from Kootree to Moultan, eventually to be superseded by what is designated the Indus Valley Railway. The Indus Steam Flotilla consists of thirteen steamers, three tugs, and twenty-six barges. The vessels which formed the early portion of the company’s fleet did not turn out satisfactorily, but now the service is efficiently carried on. The gross receipts of the company for the year ending the 30th of June, 1865, were £73,958, and the net, £16,400; for the year ending the 30th of June, 1866, they were respectively, £80,640, and £22,283.

As regards the Indus Valley Railway, the object of its projection is to unite by means of a line that would be about 500 miles long, the existing Scinde and Punjaub Railways, and thus to provide a continuous line of railway communication, about 2,200 miles long, from the Port of Kurrachee to Calcutta, vi Hyderabad, Moultan, Lahore, Delhi, and Allahabad.

The project is indeed a grand one, and its effect would be (assuming that the line be made between Baroda and Delhi) to give a third line of communication between the western coast of India and Calcutta, and also three lines of communication between that coast and the North-Western Provinces, of which two (one, however, circuitous) would be from Bombay, and one from Kurrachee.

When we have, as we shall undoubtedly have, sooner or later, the Euphrates Valley Railway,[91] it will, in the first instance, be carried from the ancient Port of Seleucia, on the Mediterranean, to Ja’bar-Castle, on the Euphrates, below which point there is water communication by the Euphrates and Tigris to the Persian Gulf.[92] Kurrachee[93] will then be the port of call between Europe and India. At whatever time these eighty miles shall be constructed, and proper lines of steamers established in connection with them, there will be a gain of fully four, if not five days over the existing Red Sea Route.

But will progress in shortening time between England and India stop at the construction of only eighty more miles of railway?[94] It would be out of reason to suppose that such will be the fact. It may therefore be taken for granted that continuation of the whole 800 miles of Euphrates Valley line will be accomplished somehow or other. Whenever that time comes,—and every day is accelerating its advent,—the gain will be at least two days, possibly even a little more on the homeward journey. Then, India—the India of England—will, at its nearest point, be under fourteen days from England. Then the postal communication between the two empires will not be as it is now, forty-eight times a year; it will not be the two and fifty, so long proposed, so long and so miserably resisted by Post Office narrow sight and want of appreciation of imperial grandeur and importance.[95] No! It requires no great foresight, or fore-reading of events to feel conviction that the service will be daily, and that despatch will succeed despatch on each of the working days of the year, as well from west to east, as from east to westward. Even now, the postal service of England with the east is the grandest combined land and ocean communication of the world.[96] No other maritime service approaches it. It is five times as great as that of the Cunard Company. It is more than double that of the two great routes of the Royal West India Mail Company. Notwithstanding that its ramifications extend thousands of miles, the component parts of it fit in so harmoniously, and work together in such complete and accurate accordance, the one with the other, that whether we take the outward journeys with their divergent fragments, or the homeward journeys, continuously aggregating and increasing as they approach completion—the mails arrive almost with the rarely failing fidelity of clockwork—punctuality the rule, absence of it the rare exception.

But shall we always be satisfied, even when we have achieved communication by railway from the Mediterranean to the head of the Persian Gulf, and thence by water to English India? There can be but one answer to the question—It would be contrary to all human progress if we were to be so. Only in the summer of the present year, France and England were each honoured with a visit from the Sultan, and it is said there was nothing which struck His Majesty during his short residence in Western Europe as of more importance to the well-being of a state than the construction of railways. It is therefore not surprising that he has already given the subject attention for his own country, and that concessions have been granted for several important lines. Even now the break which separates the railways that extend continuously from Calais to Basiach, on the Danube, 419 miles to the south-east of Vienna (accomplished by the express train in seventeen hours), are only separated from Rustuch by less than 300 miles, and, as the railway—138 miles long—from Rustuch to Varna is open, there is in fact only the Basiach-Rustuch break in a complete railway communication from Calais to the Black Sea. Before ten years from this time, not only will this gap be filled up, but the City of the Golden Horn will be equally put into connection with the whole of the European system of railways. The Queen’s messenger, and the mails now go from London to Constantinople,[97] vi Marseilles, in about eleven days. When the Brindisi route is established, the time will be diminished some three days, and on the completion of the railways to Constantinople, the interval in time between it and London will not exceed five days.

So far with regard to a railway journey, the accomplishment of which, within ten years, is certain. Nothing, except the coming of chaos, can prevent it.

But when the railway has arrived as far east as the City of the Golden Crescent, will it stop and end there? In one sense it must, unless indeed some of the engineers who are now competing for the honour of tunnelling under, or placing tubes upon the bed of the ocean between Dover and Calais, shall suggest a scheme for tunnelling under the Hellespont, and their proposals shall be accepted. At all events, even if a railway were only to extend a hundred or so of miles eastward in Asia Minor, one will certainly be made for that distance, and opened for traffic by the time the line, coming from the far west to its terminus at Constantinople, shall be completed. It will go through a country rich and productive, as well as covered by a prosperous and money-making population. Fact and reality ended, we approach a “dream of the future.” A dream not new to us, for we have often dreamt of it, and occasionally discussed it with others, whom the reader will probably feel disposed to consider as dreamy as ourselves. And yet the time will come—possibly even a few of those now grown to manhood may see its fulfilment before they die; the Long Railway will first traverse Turkey in Asia, anciently the seat of the kingdoms of Troy and of Lydia; the birth-land, possibly of Homer and Herodotus, certainly of Thales, Pythagoras, and others hardly less distinguished. From classic land it will cross to Persia, and from Persia it will pass to Afghanistan, the grandest in physical aspect, and perhaps for 600 miles, the most difficult country in the whole world for railway construction. When it has gone beyond those kingdoms, it will be on British soil. There it will attach itself to the then Great Indian Railway, the unbroken course of which will be from the Persian Gulf to the mouth of the Ganges.

When the now far distant day of accomplishment has arrived, how will Calcutta and London be to one another in point of postal distance? Possibly, fifteen; certainly, not more than seventeen days asunder!

The third portion of the Scinde connection is the Punjaub Railway, 253 miles long. Its present western terminus is at Moultan, where eventually it will be united to the Indus Valley Railway. From Moultan the line follows nearly a straight course up the left bank of the Ravee to Lahore; whence it proceeds, taking a westerly course until it reaches Umritser. But surely the statements recently made respecting wholesale corruption, both in England and in India, on the Punjaub Railway cannot be true. It can hardly be possible that, but for the interference of the Governor-General, Sir John Lawrence, the contract price for the construction of the line would have been £5,000 a mile higher than it now is; neither is it to be believed, although so broadly asserted, that the iron-masters have to pay “the usual commission” of from five to ten per cent. for orders given to them by the officials of Indian Railways. However, the Government of India has very properly appointed a Commission to inquire into these allegations, and the facts must shortly come to light in their reality. It is evident, from a passage in Mr. Juland Danver’s Report, that he has had, for some time, serious doubts as to the efficient character of the traffic management of this railway.

In the year 1865 the gross earnings of the Punjaub Railway were £25,250; and if the traffic accounts be correct, the net receipts were £6,009. In 1866 the gross receipts were £90,269; the net £25,395. The number of train miles for the year ending the 30th of June, 1866, were 354,239. The Punjaub, while rich in agricultural produce, is a comparatively new and uncivilised province of British India; and the benefits which the railway is destined to confer upon it cannot be shown until proper access is obtained by the construction of roads leading to it from the neighbouring districts.

The Delhi Railway will, when completed, be 320 miles long, and it forms a link in India pretty much as the Lancaster and Carlisle does in England in connecting English and Scotch railways together. By means of the Delhi Railway a junction will be effected with the Punjaub Railway, the North-Western Provinces, the Indus Valley, and the Scinde Railways. 87 miles of line are now opened; 117 will be opened next year, leaving 116 to be finished in 1869. As the line crosses several important rivers, the bridges at them constitute the measure of time for the completion of the railway. It is, therefore, satisfactory to know that the piers and abutments of all the large bridges have been successfully got in.

The Eastern Bengal Railway Company was formed to give accommodation to the densely populated and prolific districts lying north and east of Calcutta. Its length is 114 miles; but in August, 1865, it was determined to extend the line forty-five miles farther, to Goalundo, at the confluence of the Bramapootra and the Ganges, with the view of intercepting the traffic from Assam, Bhotan, and the more distant north-eastern countries.

The Calcutta and South-Eastern Railway Company was established in 1857 for the construction of a line, twenty-nine miles long, in a south-eastern direction, to a town and harbour which it was determined to establish on the Mutlah estuary, the object being to avoid the dangerous navigation of the Hooghly. The necessary wharves and jetties required at “Canning Town” have been constructed; but unfortunately, just as the traffic was beginning to make progress, the bed of the river shifted, in consequence, it is supposed, of certain operations on the shore close by, and it was partly carried away. The “Port Canning Company,” which has already expended £600,000 at the place, is re-establishing the jetty. A new town is now gradually rising at the place; “so that,” says Mr. Juland Danvers, “when the dangers and difficulties of its infancy are passed, the whole scheme of establishing a port on the Mutlah will be in a more promising condition. Upon the whole, we may look with hope, if not with confidence, to the future.”[98] The Calcutta and South-Eastern Railway exhibits a deficit in its revenue accounts.

The Great Southern of India Railway was constituted in 1857, its objects being to construct railways in the southern provinces of India. The line runs from the east coast of the Great Indian Continent, by Tanjore to Trichinopoly, through a country extensively cultivated with rice and cotton crops. Seventy-nine miles were opened in 1862. An extension of eighty-seven miles has been since authorised, by which a junction will be effected with the Madras Railway at Errode.

With the exception of the Indus Valley and the Rajpootana Railways, all the lines above enumerated are entitled to the payment of interest from the Government of India, at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum, on all capital, the expenditure of which is duly sanctioned by the Government. At the close of 1865, the number of miles thus guaranteed was 4,944, and the amount of the guarantee would be about £81,000,000, when all lines are completed. This year, the guarantee has been extended to 700 more miles, making the total now sanctioned for guarantee 5,644 miles, and the total capital £88,000,000. By means of it, the Indian Branch Railway undertakes to construct a system of railways through Oude and Rohilcund, with branches to various places on the East Indian Railway. These districts are populous, and highly productive, and have obtained the name of the Garden of India. There are no engineering difficulties on the lines, and very few works of great magnitude, except some bridges over the Ganges, which will have to be made, if the full benefits of the lines are to be secured. The form of guarantee to the Indian Branch Railways differs in some details from the form originally adopted, but in the main the terms are the same. In the old contracts, the guarantee is given for ninety-nine years, and at the end of that period the railway lapses to the Government; but these provisions are practically annulled by the power which each company has of surrendering the railway to the Government at any time before the expiration of the ninety-ninth year (at the ninety-eight year for example), and receiving back from the Government the capital expended. In the new arrangements, no period is fixed for the termination of the guarantee, but the Government has the power of taking possession of the line after the first twenty years, or at the expiration of any ten years afterwards. If it exercise this power within a hundred years, it will have to pay a sum equivalent to the average value of the stock during the three preceding years. If the power be not exercised until after a hundred years, it then has only to pay back the capital expended. Per contra, the company has the power of surrendering the railway to the Government any time after the line has been opened six months. In this event, the Government is not to pay back more than the capital actually expended.

The amount of guaranteed capital raised up to the 1st of April, 1867, has been £67,254,802, of which £51,800,377 consists of share capital, and £15,454,425 of debentures. It may here be observed, that it has been determined, as a rule, henceforth to restrict, as far as possible, the issue of debenture capital, especially such as is not convertible into stock. Perpetual debenture stock has, however, been sanctioned, to some extent, in the case of the Great Indian Peninsular Company, and its issue will, probably, under certain circumstances, be permitted to be made by other companies.

The Indian railway capital is well diffused all over Great Britain, as, on the 31st December, 1866, there were 34,849 shareholders, and 8,170 debenture holders. In India, there were at that date 816 shareholders, of which 396 were Europeans, and 420 natives. Neither Europeans in, nor natives of India were debenture holders at that date.

The total amount of guaranteed interest on railways which has been paid by the Government of India from the year 1849, to the 31st of December, 1866, has been £18,929,576; of course during the early period of the Indian railways, it was all expenditure and no profit, for, although guaranteed interest commenced in 1849, the first length of Indian railways was not opened for traffic until 1853, and then the length was only 22 miles. In 1854, the miles opened were 55; in 1855, 98; in 1856, 102; in 1857, 145; in 1858, 145; in 1859, 75; in 1860, 208. In 1861, 759, which is the largest number of miles opened in any one year; the following year, 1862, was nearly as much, being 747. Since then, the amount has been increased at the average annual rate of about 300 miles, and the total mileage now is 4,070.

The companies have repaid to the Government, out of net earnings, about £7,000,000; making the present debt of the railways to the Government nearly £12,000,000. Their net earnings for 1865 were £1,341,550, and for 1866 they were about £2,170,000. The amount paid by the Government for guaranteed interest during 1865 was £2,796,676, consequently the net amount of money which the Government had to find, and to debit against the companies was £1,455,126; but, in 1866, whilst the amount paid in guaranteed interest was £2,964,073, as the net earnings were £2,170,000, the Government had only to debit the companies with about £800,000. It is expected that the sum deficient this year will not be more than £600,000, notwithstanding that the amount of interest for which the Government is responsible will be about £3,300,000.

In 1866, for the first time, the net receipts of the East Indian, and of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway Companies exceeded the 5 per cent. guarantee. The excess of the first named was £108,073; of the second, £75,878. In accordance with agreement, half these amounts, or £91,976, were retained by the Government towards repayment of guaranteed interest which it has already advanced. Mr. Juland Danvers notices, as a very satisfactory circumstance, that “the guaranteed interest which was exceeded by the receipts, was paid on account of capital greater than that which produced those receipts, a large portion having been expended upon unfinished works or lines not opened for traffic, and consequently unprofitable.” How long it will take to extinguish the debt against the companies on this account is difficult to say. Some no doubt will be able to do so in the course of the next twenty to twenty-five years, some very probably never. It will be seen, by referring to page 255, that the surplus profits of the Great Indian Peninsular Company, for the first half-year of 1867, were £132,116; half of this will go in diminution of its interest debt due to the Government.

It is quite clear that the guarantee system—without which experience has shown it is impossible to obtain the construction of railways in India—is not to stop at 5,644 miles, involving an expenditure of £88,000,000 sterling. We have already referred to the extension of the line proposed from Baroda to Delhi, called the Rajpootana Line, and that of the Indus Valley. Their lengths (jointly) are about 1,070 miles, and the capital required for their construction—the works for them being, on the whole, not of a difficult character—would be under £13,000,000, or about £12,000 a mile. The construction of these lines, with the guarantee on the capital, will, no doubt, be commenced before long; and there is a third, the capital for which, whenever constructed, can only be raised on the same system—the line to connect Lahore and Peshawer together. This railway has been the subject of a great deal of discussion and debate, both within the walls of the British Parliament, and outside them. Whenever made, it can hardly be looked upon other than as a military and political line, for its commercial importance is very trifling indeed. It will also be very expensive in its construction. Besides the Indus,[99] there are three rivers, the Ravee, the Chenab, and the Shelum, great hurling and devastating torrents at the period when the rains set in, and when the Himalayan snows are melting; but with almost dry beds for at least six months every year. These three rivers must each be transversed by a long and costly bridge. The length of the line would be about 250 miles, and the cost about £20,000 a mile, or a total of £5,000,000. It has been decided that, at all events for the present, the construction of this line shall not take place, and that the two other railways seeking the guarantee shall have precedence over it. Mr. Ayrton, M.P., whose opinion is entitled to much consideration, from his knowledge of India, is decidedly adverse to its construction at all; whilst, on the other hand, Mr. Laing, M.P., laments that the Governor in Council has come to the determination of not recommending the work to be proceeded with at once. As these three railways progress, they will add to the guaranteed capital about £18,000,000, making its total £106,000,000, and the amount of interest for which the Government of India will be annually responsible, £5,300,000, against which will be the net incomes of the railway companies up to 5 per cent. on the capital invested in each. We have just seen, that even with increased responsibility in the shape of guaranteed interest for the present year, the net amount will be less by £200,000 than it was last year. Nevertheless, on the £88,000,000 guarantee, when it shall have all been expended, the Government may, we think, look to being liable on balance for at least a million per annum for some years to come, and to still more during the construction, and subsequent to the opening of the lines likely to obtain the guarantee that is to raise its total amount to about £106,000,000.

We now come to speak of the very important subject of working expenses. On these working expenses depends, in fact, the fate of the Indian railway system, and in considering them we must bear in mind that there are three elements of outlay of a character to which railways are, at most, very partially subjected in England—terrific inundations, destruction of materials, and cost of fuel. As regards the first, it would almost seem as if scarcely any provision that the engineer may make is sufficient to counteract their devastating effects upon the railway. Nor can this be wondered at when we read of rivers rising twenty—thirty—fifty feet in a few hours, as also that in places where there was a dry river bed one afternoon there is an impetuous torrent, hurling villages along in its devastating course next morning. On the Indus at Attock, on the high road between Lahore and Peshawer, the floods of 1858 appear to have risen 80 feet above the usual cold weather level of the river. In 1841 they were 92 feet above it, and from the nature of the river at this time it is possible that they may rise even higher. It is the same, though not to the same degree, at other places, and even if railway bridges and viaducts be not carried away, the ordinary permanent road suffers to an extent such as we know nothing of in this country.[100] No doubt experience will in process of time suggest means of protection as regards both construction and maintenance. Still, let man do what he may, there is no foe that he has ever faced on earth, or that he is likely to face, equal to the elements in anger. It is God’s will that they should be so, and although He places in our hands means to resist them, He has never given, and for His own wise purposes probably never will give us complete power to control and subdue them.

No matter how highly timber used for sleepers on Indian railways may be saturated with creosote, or any other analogous preparation, they are all powerless to resist the ravages of the red ant. Iron “pot” sleepers have therefore been generally adopted, and they have been found very serviceable, especially on lines where the speed is not high. Some of the engineers are in their favour, even where trains are run at high velocities. Thus the District Engineer and the Locomotive Superintendent of the Punjaub Railway report strongly in recommendation of them. “I have never,” says the latter, “travelled over a finer piece of road, than the seventy to eighty miles of pot sleepers road laid between Montgomery and Mooltan. Our speed does not exceed thirty-five miles per hour, and I have never heard of breakages to permanent way resulting from this rate.” The agent to the Madras Railway Company says, “I have all along strongly advocated the use of cast-iron pot sleepers upon our lines of railway, believing that a road laid with iron was more easily and economically maintained, insured greater safety from accidents, and from its smoothness of surface, less prejudicial in its effects upon our rolling stock than any other form of roadway.”

In 1862 Mr. Henry Rouse, the Chief Resident Engineer to the Egyptian Railway, in the course of a report upon the use of these sleepers, says, “I may assert with unerring confidence, that after ten years’ use of them, had a system of permanent way to be again selected for adoption on the fine alluvial soil of Egypt, no more fitting choice could be made than was, in fact, made by Mr. Robert Stephenson in 1851, when he determined on the adoption of Greaves’s cast-iron pot sleeper road.”

Captain Sherard Osborn, R.N., the late agent to the Great Indian Peninsular Railway, quotes the report of Mr. Rouse, and confirms it with the recommendations of Mr. Hardcastle, Mr. Perry, and Abul Meyd Effendi, Civil Engineers, each in charge of portions of the Egyptian Railway. On the other hand, the Chief Engineer of the East India Line says, “I do not consider these sleepers would be suitable for the through roads of this railway, although they might be used with advantage on sidings and in station yards. From general knowledge I am of opinion that, with small ballast, iron pot sleepers would answer well in countries where rainfall is not excessive, and is evenly distributed over many months in every year, but that they are not adapted to large ballast under any circumstances, more particularly when the road is liable to much periodical injury from rain. They might be used with advantage on long lengths of bank in dry districts with very considerable economy in ballast. In rock cuttings, however, where the jar is at all times great, iron pot sleepers would be liable to much damage from trains at high speed.” It may here perhaps be incidentally noticed that the use of cast-iron sleepers has not been adopted in the construction of Peruvian railways. In Brazil, with one exception, they have been used on all the railways in that country. The running speed of the trains there is, however, not more than twenty miles an hour. They have also been adopted in the construction of the railways of the Argentine Republic.

Upon the whole, the balance of opinion seems decidedly in favour of the general adoption of iron sleepers. They are certainly preferable to stone blocks; and timber is impossible[101] upon Indian Railways.

Several miles of steel rails have been sent from England during 1866. Their first cost is, of course, much greater than that of iron; but, irrespective of any other advantages, if we take into consideration the cost that is always incurred in sending materials from Great Britain—a cost which, in some cases, where the inland carriage is of considerable length, almost doubles the original price of the rails—it is certainly worth while, within certain limits, to ship steel rails in the first instance.

It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of the fuel question.[102] Cheap or dear fuel may, in many instances, on Indian railways, be translated into complete success or very nearly total failure. Even at the commencement of the present year, before freights had risen so much in consequence of the Abyssinian expedition, the value of coal and coke before it was landed in India was about 50s. a ton. When the landing charges and the cost of conveyance along the lines are added, the average price of coal for the railways on the western and southern sides of India becomes about 60s. a ton. It is a fortunate circumstance for the East India Railway that its line runs through the finest portion of the Raneegunge coal-field,[103] thereby reducing its cost of fuel to 3¼d. per ton, and also affording it the opportunity of having a large coal traffic. Nor will this be the only source from which the railway can be supplied with coal, for the chord line between Raneegunge and Luckieserai passes through another coal bed, that of Kurhurbali. The coal of this field is described as excellent, although it does not exist in as large quantity as at Raneegunge. On the other hand, the Great Indian Peninsular Company, not having entered into arrangements with the Nerbudda Coal Company, its fuel cost was 1s. 6¼d. per train mile in 1866, the estimated average cost of coal over the whole line being £3 per ton, of coke £3. 12s., and of “Patent Fuel” £3. 8s.

Mr. Oldham, Superintendent of the Geological Survey of India, does not speak encouragingly as regards the prospect of coal being found in parts of India where it would be of great value to the railways. “Extensive coal-fields do occur,” says Mr. Oldham; “but they are not distributed generally over the districts of the Indian empire, but are almost entirely concentrated in one (a double) band of coal yielding deposits which, with large interruptions, extends more than half across India, from near Calcutta towards Bombay.” He, however, adds, that much still remains to be surveyed, and, until careful mapping has been carried out, of all the fields, any estimate of the coal resources of British India must be defective.

In the meantime coal from Labuan and from Australia are in course of being tried. Much must not be expected from the former; but there are great hopes that the latter will be largely available for India. But all persons who have written upon, or are interested in, the subject, come to the same conclusion, which is that the railways must mainly look to wood for their fuel. We are happy to perceive that the subject is engaging the most serious attention of the Governments both at home and in India; and there is no doubt but that an extensive system of planting timber suitable for fuel purposes will be immediately carried into operation, all the more necessary when it is borne in mind that a plantation of twenty acres will be the average proportion necessary for the requirements of every mile of railway.

The working expenses of the railways exhibit very great differences both as respects actual amounts and their per centage proportions to traffic. Thus, for instance, on the Great Southern of India Line they were for the year 1865 2s. 7½d. a mile, and only 2s. 3d. a mile in 1866; yet the fuel cost was £2. 18s. a ton; exactly the same price as on the Bombay and Baroda line, the working expenses of which were 8s. 1¾d. in 1865 per train mile. In 1866 they had fallen to 6s. 8d.; so that the difference between these two amounts is exactly two-thirds of the total working cost per train mile of the Great Southern Company. The East Indian was 3s. 8d. per train mile in both 1865 and 1866. But the Madras cost was only 2s. 10¾d. per train mile in 1865. It went up, however, 3¼d. in 1866, being 3s. 2d. Yet the average price it pays for coal is the same as that paid by the Great Indian Peninsular, the cost per train mile of which in 1865 was 6s. 2d., in 1866, 6s. 4½d. No doubt the two Ghaut inclines add heavily both to locomotive and to permanent way charges, but they do not explain why the working cost per train mile should be double that on the Madras Line. It is a remarkable fact also, and it is one which should be recorded to the honour of the Madras management, that, although its traffic receipts per mile are almost the lowest on the whole system of East Indian railways—£13 a mile a week—its per centage of working expenses is actually the lowest, 43½.[104] The per centage of the East Indian, with a weekly mileage receipt of £43, is 44½. The Great Indian Peninsular, the weekly receipt per mile of which is £48, is 59¾; and on the Bombay and Baroda the weekly receipt per mile is £29, the working expenses being 64½ per cent. The Scinde working expenses were 85½ per cent. of the receipts; but the unlucky Calcutta and South-Eastern spends £109. 10s. for every £100 it earns.

Accidents have hitherto been rather numerous on Indian railways. The returns for 1866 were not complete at the time of Mr. Juland Danvers’ last report. In 1864 there were 345 accidents on an average of 2,699 miles of railway open, and the number had fallen to 284 on an average of 3,153 miles open in 1865. The Madras line, on the whole, has had fewer accidents than any other company—only five in 1865. Accidents by fire are rather numerous, especially in those districts where wood is used as fuel. This is, perhaps, also to be expected, in consequence of the conveyance of cotton forming so important a portion of the business of the two companies having their termini at Bombay. Accidents from fire, however, sensibly diminished in 1865, which is ascribed to the extended introduction of covered waggons for carrying cotton, to the greatly increased use of coke, which gives out less sparks, and to the custom that prevails now of invariably placing several waggons (even running empties for the purpose, if none others are available) between the engine and cotton waggons.

But although the number of accidents was less in 1865 than in 1864, they were more destructive in their character in the former year, 316 persons having been killed or injured in 1865, as against 256 in 1864. But in these numbers are included the persons injured through their own fault or imprudence. It deserves to be recorded that in eleven years the Madras Railway has carried nearly twelve millions of passengers, hitherto without a case of injury to any of them. But, on the other hand, owing to two serious collisions on the line, a large number of the company’s servants have been fatally or seriously injured. Native passengers are reckless; but native servants are especially so, for out of 49,398 employed on all lines in 1865, 96 were killed and 97 injured, or 193 in all, against 147 in 1864, with about the same number of servants. Of these casualties, 136, or 1 in 363, occurred in 1865 through incaution or misconduct; 42 were killed or injured in attempting to get upon or off, or falling from, engines or carriages in motion; and 52 were run over or struck whilst incautiously crossing, standing, or walking upon the line.

Reference to page 176 will enable the reader to compare the number and character of Indian railway accidents with those on the railways of the United Kingdom.

There is one more subject connected with the working expenses of railways in India to which reference must be made—the staff. It is quite evident that on railways, as in every other department of Anglo-Indian service, whether it be governmental or corporate, all the persons in leading positions—not only those to direct and command, but those in the scale some degrees subordinate to them—must be European British subjects; not merely of European descent, but of actual birth as such. Without them the great railway system of India can never be efficiently worked. The returns of persons employed on the lines in 1866 show this fact very clearly, for whilst “native” servants were (excluding the Southern of India, which has not sent in any return of its staff) 30,838, the Europeans and East Indians were only 2,736. All the highest appointments were filled by Europeans. East Indians could rise to the class of station-masters; so could the natives, in an inferior degree, but these last constituted the whole of the humblest classes of servants. On the East Indian Railway the comparative estimation of the three nativities for the appointments of station-masters was thus shown:—Out of 114, 35 are Europeans, who receive salaries the lowest of which (irrespective of ample lodging accommodation) is £180, and they range up to £420 a year. Five East Indians, very choice and exceptionally superior men, have from £180 to £300 a year; whilst the salaries of the 74 natives vary from a minimum of £25 to a maximum of £250 a year.

It will always he necessary to recruit the upper ranks of railway officials in India from amongst the railway officials of Great Britain; and up to now, as far as our knowledge and acquaintance extend, no gentleman has left this country to fill a railway appointment in India at much less increase than three times his English emoluments. It is possible that efficient gentlemen may henceforth be obtained at smaller comparative salaries; but we doubt that such will be the fact. The character of the climate of India, so telling, as a rule, upon Europeans, but especially upon those who do not go to it when very young, and who are liable to exposure out of doors in the broiling hours of the day, and during the down-pours of the deluging rain torrents every year, and the necessary separation of a man and his wife from their children during the period of their education, must naturally deter officials from leaving comfortable appointments in England, except under the influence of strong pecuniary temptations. The risk of health-failure is also accompanied by knowledge of the fact that men cannot insure their lives, except upon payment of very high annual premiums.

The manner in which the East Indian Railway Company proposes to meet this last difficulty is by the establishment of a Provident Fund, the principles of which are explained by the following extract from the last Report of the Directors:—

Although the Secretary of State for India has sanctioned the arrangement, and the shareholders of the company, at their meeting held on the 2nd of July last, approved of, and agreed to its adoption, we doubt whether it is one that is likely to prove satisfactory to the officials, especially to those from Europe. The practical operation of the scheme is this. Henceforth, the Europeans are, from the moment of their appointments, to he subjected to a deduction of 5 per cent. from the nominal amount of their salaries, but the company is not to contribute to the fund until after the net earnings have amounted to 6 per cent. and upwards; thus, if these earnings were declared at the rate of £5. 19s. 11d. per annum, the shareholders would receive, firstly, 5 per cent., and secondly, the half of 19s. 11d., under the contract between the Government and the company; the Government would receive the second half of the 19s. 11d., and the Provident Fund nil. This scheme should be altered. The deduction of 5 per cent. from salaries is too high, and the contributions of the shareholders and of the Government should commence at a much earlier step in the scale of net earnings.

The rolling stock provided for Indian railways is miserably insufficient. The number of locomotives possessed by all the companies on the 1st of January, 1867, was only 795, not quite one engine for every five miles. The other descriptions of plant are equally defective in point of numbers. The East Indian Company announced, in its report of January last, that it intended to make up its rolling stock for a traffic of £60 a mile, at a cost of about £300,000. The other companies will have to outlay at least half-a-million on rolling stock almost immediately.

Apart from every consideration purely political, the railways of India have been the means of rendering the greatest service to England, at a moment of greatest peril. Through them she has received supplies of cotton that otherwise could never have got even as far as a port of shipment. There are seven districts from which these supplies come. By far the largest and most important is the Oomrawattee Cotton District, which both the main line of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway, and its Nagpoor Extension pass through. When the extension line of this company to Jubbulpore is completed, it will, jointly with the East Indian Railway, open up the Sassegur District, and, on the opening of the Madras Connection, it will touch upon a fourth. The Bombay and Baroda goes into the midst of the great Guzzerat Cotton Fields; the Madras Line through that of Combatore. There is a comparatively small one at nearly the extreme south of the continent; and the smallest of all is in the Punjaub, between, and to the northward both of Delhi and Lahore. Of the production of these cotton districts, we shall speak presently.

If England have found almost exclusively the capital for the construction of Indian railways, she has not only made a safe—or, it might rather be said, a first class—investment, but she has also benefited largely in her manufactures and commerce through their construction. The amount of capital expended in the United Kingdom in consequence of Indian railways between 1851 and 1866 has been as follows:—In 1851 it was £154,212; in 1852 it was £174,920; in 1853, £252,484; 1854, £960,878; 1855, £1,939,101; 1856, £1,752,813; 1857, £1,324,873; 1858, £1,940,052; 1859, £2,507,949; 1860, £2,396,924; 1861, £1,596,010; 1862, £1,854,289; 1863, £1,411,661; 1864, £1,387,699; 1865, £2,192,090; 1866, £3,942,598. It is expected that the amount expended in England during 1867 will be about £2,457,250. The industry of the mother country has thus been greatly assisted by the valuable orders represented by these figures. If all these amounts be added together, it will be found that they are nearly £26,500,000, or between a third and a half of the £67,932,550 that have been expended up to April last on account of Indian railways. The tons weight of goods despatched have been 3,195,862; and as the number of ships they were conveyed in was 4,827, it followed that the average load which each carried was 662 tons.

We have dwelt upon Indian railways at greater length than we had originally intended, but the subject is a great one; for it must not be forgotten that the capital expended upon them at this date is a seventh of that to the same account in the United Kingdom. Presently it will be a sixth, and hereafter it will he a fifth; because also the mileage of these railways is, even now, nearly a third of the railways of Great Britain; presently it will he more than a third. On the 1st of January, 1867, it was nearly half that of France; only 1,413 miles less than that of Prussia, 1,138 less than that of Bavaria, 69 more than that of the Austrian dominions, 1,030 more than that of Italy, 854 more than that of Spain, 2,160 more than that of Belgium; 2,177 more than that of both Russia in Europe and Russia in Asia; and 1,574 more than that of Canada.[105] On the 3,638 miles which, towards the close of 1866, constituted the length of Indian railways, the train miles run amounted to 10,120,920. The gross receipts earned by those trains were £4,537,235, just 1,425,000 more than in 1865; of these gross earnings, £1,278,580 were received from passenger traffic, and £3,091,723 from that of merchandise. The number of passengers carried in 1866 was 12,867,000, being 367,000 more than in 1865. This, of course, in no way represents the proportion due to population in British India, for in 1861 that population was 143,271,210, dwelling on 956,436 square miles of land.

Let us proceed some few steps farther with reference to the development of India. Its revenue has increased from £27,832,237 in 1852, to £45,652,897 in 1865. But on the the other hand, the expenditure, which was £27,098,462, or £750,000 within its income, in 1852, was £46,450,920, or £800,000 in excess of income in 1865. Then, us a further but doubtful proof of prosperity, the public debt of India had risen from £55,114,693 in 1852, to 98,518,145 in 1865.[106] The tonnage of vessels entered and cleared in India during 1852 was (exclusive of coasting trade) 1,591,937; in 1865 it was 4,268,666. The value of imports (including bullion and specie) into India in 1840 was £8,415,940; in 1852 they were of the value of £17,292,549; and in 1865 they had increased to £49,514,275. The value of its exports rose in fifteen years from £20,798,342 to £69,471,791.[107] In 1852 the total amount of cotton which British India sent to the United Kingdom was only 84,922,432 lbs., just a ninth of that received from the United States, which was 765,630,544 lbs. In 1866 the amount of cotton imported from India was 615,302,240 lbs.,[108] exactly 95,244,840 lbs. more than from the United States, and not far from one half of the total amount imported from all places, namely, 1,377,129,936 lbs. Thanks to India, the total quantity of cotton imported in 1866 is only 13,000,000 lbs. less than it was in 1860, the year of our greatest cotton importation. In that year the quantity received from India was little more than a seventh of the importations from all sources. It is, therefore, not to be wondered that Manchester has altered its cotton machinery, and has rendered it suited for working the cotton, the importation of which will, thanks to Indian railways, soon make England, as regards supplies, independent of all other countries in the world.[109]

Let us say, finally, that if we have dwelt at such length upon the yet infant railway system of the Indian Empire, it is because India is a land that has a well-recorded history dating back nearly 4,000 years, with national monuments and buildings still existing, and in comparatively sound preservation, that were erected 400 years before Rome was created; and, last of all, BECAUSE of the now standing army of India, numbering 190,195 men, 71,880 first saw the light from Heaven in the United Kingdom. It is at that number our reinforcements will have to be never-failingly kept up, if we wish to avoid the dangers and horrors of a second Indian mutiny.

Postscript.—Immediately after page 271 was printed, we met a gentleman who, in consequence of his professional connection with Persia, has, for several years, made the subject of a communication from the north-western side of Asia Minor, through Persia and Affghanistan to India, his constant study. He takes a different view from us as to the starting point of the Long Railway, but in many other respects our opinions are identical. It is probable that they may be brought jointly before the public in a more detailed and substantive form, in the course of a few months. We may here mention that, as early as 1847, Mr. Austin H. Layard, M.P., was alive to the importance of this communication, for in his work on the “Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon” (London, Murray, 1853), he says, that the route of the Euphrates, the adoption of which he urgently recommends “must be the second Indian route until civilisation and Christianity afford a reasonable basis for those gigantic schemes which would carry a line of iron through countries almost unknown, and scarcely yet visited by a solitary European traveller.”