equal to that of the English lines. The aggregate receipts for passengers on all the lines, in the year ending June, 1867, amounted to a little short of one-third of the total revenue, or 1,430,000Z., while merchandise contributed 3,272,000l. During two half-years the earnings of the two chief lines have exceeded the guaranteed interest, and the shareholders have accordingly received an additional quarter per cent.; but we cannot and still less ought we to expect a cotton famine in England and a grain famine in India every year. The Indian railways unquestionably afford the most eligible and the most desirable channel for the investment of capital to those who are content with a permanent return of 5 per cent., liable to no risk or interruption. Any addition to that sum must depend on the vigour of commercial enterprise in India, and also, in some measure, on that jealousy of the current expenditure of the line of which our continental neighbours afford so bright an example. On the two more prosperous lines, the Government has been entirely relieved from the farther payment of any interest on the capital they have absorbed—about forty-five millions; and the amount advanced last year from the Indian Treasury for interest on the other lines was reduced to about 700,000l. The aggregate sum advanced from the beginning by Government on account of all the railways, after deducting repayments, does not exceed twelve millions. Even if this sum should not eventually be repaid from the profits of the rails, it is a very insignificant amount for the masters of so magnificent an empire to have contributed in fifteen years out of an annual revenue of forty-five millions, to endow it with the incalculable blessing of railways. It is, after all, less by three millions than the sum squandered on the fatal expedition into Afghanistan.

With regard to rates and fares, the control of Government is limited by the terms of the contract to the power of fixing them in the first instance, and regulating any subsequent movement to increase them. It is precluded from reducing the scale without the consent of the Companies, except when the profits exceed 10 per cent. Sir Stafford Northcote has recently sanctioned a system of maximum rates and fares, leaving it to the discretion of the agents in India to work below that limit as they may deem most conducive to the interests of the line. The rates for goods are determined by the classes, six in number, into which they have been distributed, and they range on the East Indian line from 7-8ths of a penny to 7d. per ton per mile. The fares for passengers on that line are 24d. per mile for the first class; 1d. for the second; and 3-8ths of a penny for the third; that is to say, a first-class fare for a distance equivalent to that from London Bridge to Brighton, would be 10s. ;

a second

a second-class 5s. ; and a third 18d. But even this very limited scale is considered too high for the means of the lower class of natives, and a proposition has recently been made by the Government of India to reduce it by one-third. It is for the interest of the Companies,' as Mr. Danvers justly observes, 'to increase the taste for travelling among all classes, and more especially the lowest ;' but as this class forms the stamina of the passenger traffic on all the lines, the reduction of the income by one-third will require much deliberation. There is, however, no diversity of object between the Government and the Railway Companies. Both are equally anxious to render the rail popular, and thereby remunerative; and if it be said that the tendency of all Companies is to adopt high rates, it will not be forgotten that the Government of India is likewise interested in the success of the undertaking, and that whatever loss may be sustained by inadequate fares, if they reduce the revenue below five per cent., must be made good from the public treasury. There is in fact such a beneficial balance of interests in the Indian guarantee system, that a wise adjustment of this question may be attained without any difficulty. By the contract, the Government of India is constituted the guarantee of the public interests, and in no respect has Sir John Lawrence exhibited a more earnest and laudable anxiety than in his repeated remonstrances against that contempt for the comfort of the third class of passengers which railway officials manifest in all countries, and which in India is aggravated by difference of colour. The rapidity with which the works were pushed forward, in order to open the lines within the shortest period, left much to be accomplished at the various stations for the accommodation more especially of the inferior class. These deficiencies have been partially supplied, but much remains yet to be done. The thirdclass carriages were at first worse than cattle pens, crammed as closely as the hold of one of the old slave ships. To a certain extent these carriages have been improved, but the Companies must be allowed no rest till they have provided them with the conveniences of some of the continental vehicles, with a passage down the middle, and seats on either side to prevent overcrowding. This arrangement would also afford facilities for the inspection of the police. With regard, moreover, to the provision for entering and leaving the third-class carriages there is room for great improvement, and the unremitting attention of the Government in India and of the Boards in England is indispensable to secure them.

The introduction of railways forms a new era in the history of public works in India. This was the department in which

the neglect of Government had been most palpable and reprehensible. It was more especially to be deplored in reference to the most important of material requirements, the construction of bridges. During the century in which the East India Company governed the country, no bridges were erected except over some contemptible rivulets, and they were repeatedly swept away by floods. The railway Companies have relieved our national honour from this reproach. Under the modest name of viaducts, they have bridged the most rapid and difficult streams, the Adji, the Soane, the Tonse, the Jumna, at Allahabad, and again at Delhi, the Taptee, and the Nerbudda; and the occurrence of the most formidable river in their path is considered no obstacle to their progress. There still remains one great work untouched, though it is of paramount importance to the prosperity of the East India rail, and the interests of its shareholders-the bridging of the Hooghly at Calcutta. While it has been deemed necessary to connect the old capital at Delhi with the line by a bridge which has cost 150,000l., the metropolitan terminus of the rail is still at Howrah, on the opposite side of the river. The entire traffic of a line of 1000 miles, and of 70,000,000 of the most industrious population in India, is separated from its maritime emporium by a river half a mile wide, crowded in every part with shipping, and for four months of the year flowing like a torrent, at the rate of seven miles an hour. All the produce of those opulent districts on its arrival at the terminal station at Howrah is transferred to boats, many of which are unsafe, and conveyed across the river, and re-transferred to the carts which carry it to the warehouses of the merchants. Much of the time saved by the rail is too often lost on the river, more especially when it becomes impassable for a day or two during the height of the south-west monsoon. Some faint estimate may be formed of the confusion and embarrassment to which the trade of the Gangetic valley, for the benefit of which the rail was constructed, is daily subjected by the want of a bridge, by supposing the entire traffic of more than a thousand miles of English rails to be brought up at Southwark, and transported day by day in lighters to London. It was part of the original plan of the rail, when Howrah was occupied as a temporary terminus, to complete it by a bridge, as soon as it was open throughout. The necessity of constructing it, to meet the continual growth of traffic becomes daily more imperative. Two years ago the Governor-General, on the earnest representation of the merchants of Calcutta, by whom the line is mainly supported, appointed a commission of engineer officers, to investigate the question under every aspect, and they reported that a bridge was essential

essential to the prosperity of the line. Their report was backed by a strong recommendation from Sir John Lawrence, and transmitted to the Secretary of State, who lost no time in offering the East India Railway Company the usual guarantee of five per cent, on the outlay, combined with the privilege of keeping the account distinct for ten years, to prevent any interference with the revenue of the main line. The proposition was submitted to the shareholders at the half-yearly meeting in the room at the London tavern, which will accommodate about 150, when between twenty and thirty absolutely refused to entertain the idea of the bridge, even on these liberal terms, or, indeed, on any terms whatever. The rest of the shareholders present abstained from voting at all. Three years have thus been lost to an object which is indispensable to the full development of the traffic of the line, and it is a question of some importance whether an arrangement which leaves the policy of this gigantic undertaking to be determined by the crotchets of some thirty shareholders out of a body of more than 12,000, does not call for revision. Sir John Lawrence, upon a second and more pressing representation from the merchants in Calcutta, appointed another commission at the beginning of the present year to go over the ground afresh, and to suggest the plan of execution. Under the impression that there was little chance of securing the construction of the bridge, and of the metropolitan terminus by the East Indian Railway, Sir John Lawrence proposed to the Secretary of State to erect them through the agency of a separate company, composed of members of the East Indian and the Eastern Bengal Company. This proposal is now under consideration, and unless some new obstacle should be thrown in the way, this important work will be commenced before the close of the year.

The establishment of railways in India has led to the introduction of several thousand Europeans employed in various subordinate posts on the different lines. The temptations to which many of them are exposed, when separated from the salutary restraints under which they were accustomed to live at home, demand the constant attention of the Companies, who are, moreover, the greatest sufferers from the casualties and invaliding entailed by their irregularities. On the largest of the lines, the number of Europeans falls little short of two thousand, and the Directors have spared no pains or expense to improve their position, and to counteract their proneness to those indulgences which lower the national character, and dishonour the Christian name in the eyes of the natives. They have offered to grant to every family man one-half the passage of his wife and children, and to advance the remainder, to be repaid by instalments. They

have also endeavoured to multiply the means of recreation, and mental enjoyment, and Christian instruction. At Jumalpore, the great workshop of the line, a large European population has been planted, which is constantly on the increase. This settlement, which is situated in a salubrious climate on the confines of Bengal, has been laid out with neatness and regularity; the drainage is complete, and the houses, both for men and officers, have been erected on the most advanced principles of sanitary science. There are two Christian churches, a mechanics' institute, a library, recreation grounds, a racket court, and a band, supplied with instruments from a fine and forfeit fund, and in fact every appliance which could conduce to the rational enjoyment of the men off duty. It is the object of the Company to extend these advantages as far as possible to other stations in proportion to the European population. For the whole service of the Company there is a savings bank, which appears to be rapidly growing in popularity, and likewise a provident fund, to which the servants on the establishment of recent appointment are required to contribute five per cent. of their allowances, which the Company has agreed to subsidize with an equivalent sum when the returns of the line exceed six per cent. The same arrangement has been made by the Great Indian Peninsula.

Mr. Danvers's report contains some valuable observations on the practice adopted by some of the Companies of establishing a reserve fund to meet the expense of maintenance, and he recommends all the Companies to follow the example. This plan, he observes, had been attempted and abandoned in the case of English railways, because there was no sufficient security against the employment of the fund for other purposes.' There can be no such risk on the Indian lines, where the fund would be invested in Government securities and held sacred. The arguments adduced by those who are opposed to the plan appear extremely feeble by the side of those which are advanced in its favour. The permanent way will need general replacement; the rails once, and the sleepers twice, in sixteen years, according to the latest calculations. The entire expense incurred in maintaining the line, including the cost of materials, is charged to revenue, to the last farthing, when the half-yearly account is made up. Mr. Danvers justly observes that the cost of the renewals will fall very heavily and very unjustly upon the revenue of the two, three, or even four years in which it took place.' It is manifest that it ought to be equitably distributed over the whole period. It does not seem reasonable that the burden should fall exclusively on those who happen to hold shares during the period of replacement, and that those who were shareholders