practical tender, from persons fully competent to carry the plan in to furnish steam carriages, rails, and timber work, ready for use, pro. the land be delivered, levelled, and ballasted, ready for the permanent way. at the price of 2,000l. per mile of single way, the carriage to travel fifty miles an hour, and to carry 1,000 persons per day of twelve hours, over a line twenty miles in length, with greater safety than with the present engine." · Grant,” pp. 49-52.

We can add little to the value of these extracts by our remarks: it is sufficient that we note how they bear out our observation. In place of monster engines of thirty and thirty-five tons weight, with a pressure, or crushing weight, of six tons on the driving wheels, tearing the rails to pieces-from which it has been necessary to increase their weight, as on the Manchester and Liverpool line, from thirty-five pounds per yard, to sixty and eighty pounds per yard (and it is even proposed to increase them higher) at enormous expense-we have a tender for the construction of both rolling stock and rolling block, both the permanent way and the carriages, at a cost of £2,000 per mile-the carriage to travel fifty miles an hour, carrying a thousand persons a distance of twenty miles every twelve hours, with greater safety and far less cost than with the monster engine. Here is the matter calculated out for India by Colonel Grant:

This little carriage (Mr. Samuel's) with its coke and water, weighing only 25 cwt., expending only 24 lbs. of coke per mile-and in England, the total expense for drivers, coke, and oil, being only one penny per mile-and carrying seven passengers, besides the driver, at a rate of upwards of forty miles an hour, ascending steep gradients, and with the power of bringing up from speed in about fifty yards, appears peculiarly suited for an express train on our Bombay line. Such an engine might reach Delhi, with the mail in thirty-six hours, instead of eight or ten days, its present time of transit; or, if travelling on by daylight, three days would be sufficient time to reach Delhi with passengers and the mail; so that there could be no doubt of this mode of conveyance being taken advantage of by all officers and others, proceeding to, or returning from, England, from the North-West Provinces; whilst the actual cost of thus carrying seven passengers and the mail, all the way from Bombay to Delhi, would, at the English rate of one penny per mile, amount to only 31. 12s.; or, say that this cost is increased three or four-fold, it would pay even for the conveyance of the daily dawk, not to mention the profit from the constant passenger traffic.

Not only would the mail, passengers, and light articles of value, thus be conveyed to the Punjaub and to the North-West Provinces, but in time, Bombay would become the line of transit also, from England to Calcutta and Madras. To Calcutta is 1185 miles, a distance at thirty miles an hour for thirteen hours of daylight, capable of being accomplished in three days; to Madras from Bombay is 763 miles, or two days' journey at the same rate. Compare these times with the length of the voyage from Aden to either of these places-and see the advantages Bombay would possess for the conveyance of the mails and passengers, and all such articles, as are usually brought by the overland route. These are no ideal advantages: they are matters of fact and calculation. Whether an express line of the light rails and construction, capable of carrying the small light express engines now under notice, would pay-and pay better than any other description of railway in India, let the above facts show.

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The smallness, the cheapness, and the astounding low rate of working such a little engine for the express mail, as has now been proposed, may cause it to be looked upon as a toy; be it so-a toy, that could carry the mail from Bombay to Delhi in thirty-six hours on an emergency, or, travelling only by daylight, convey passengers in three days, would be the prettiest and most favourite toy, we have ever seen in India; indeed, do we want at present for passenger traffic more than this toy? Seven passengers, or, by the larger engine carriage of the same class, forty or fifty passengers, travelling thirty or forty miles an hour, might leave Bombay every hour, if necessary.-Pp. 55-57.

Colonel Grant adverts to the tram lines lately proposed by a writer in Calcutta, to be worked by cattle, costing about £600 per mile and he considers that these tram lines might be most advantageously employed for the transport of cotton and other goods, or raw produce from depots to this main line of railways, by which the benefits of the railway system might be disseminated more universally over the country. Such lines, even with light engines, are now recommended at home for landlords and farmers, to connect their farms and stock depôts with the Grand Railway Trunk lines, in order that the agricultural interest may be able to compete more readily with the manufacturing interests. Agriculture at home may now be said to be at a stand-still, waiting for the rails. Already, on some farms, rails have been laid down but it is by a simultaneous co-operation and combination of their interests, that farmers or landlords will be able to bring the principle of the rail into operation, so as to derive the fullest amount of benefit at this lowest rate of cost from this efficient means of transport for this produce. In India there is no public to do this, as the native landholders are unable to appreciate the advantages of the rail; and there are no main trunk lines yet for them to communicate with; it is therefore, on the soundest principles, that Colonel Grant advocates that main lines for steam locomotive engines should be constructed, with which should be connected short tram roads, where necessary for land communication, acting as feeders to the main line. When Cuba and Jamaica and Demerara can afford to carry their sugar by steam rail, and make it pay well too, surely in British India we can do the same. Our sugar, or our opium, or our indigo crops, are articles quite as valuable and many of the comparatively coarser and lower-priced products of this country would eventually be carried by it. Many people imagine that it is only valuable merchandize and wrought articles, that can afford to pay for their carriage by rail, and that, in England, bulky produce is seldom so transported. This is however a very great mistake: and, as it is one into which the author of the Calcutta pamphlet has also fallen, we feel obliged to extract largely from the table compiled by Colonel Grant from the "Railway Statistics" of Hyde

Clarke, Esq., showing that all descriptions of produce are to a very great extent carried by rail in England.

The foregoing table shows, that not only light and valuable articles are carried by rail, but heavy goods, iron, iron ore, even ballast for shipping, stones for building, bricks, tiles, lime, slate, timber, manure, cattle of all kinds, fish, milk, fruits, vegetables, grain, liquor, horses, dogs, carriages, even gunpowder and vitriol, parcels containing every description of goods-in fact, every enumerable thing, light, heavy, costly, of little value, live or dead, or inanimate, both the raw material in bulk, and the manufactured article. How can it be affirmed after this, that the coarse heavy low-priced products of this country cannot afford the expence of steam locomotive traffic? or who can now doubt but that a railway properly established in India would pay? The foregoing table is drawn up from the most authentic sources, and is of itself worth a whole chapter of arguments on the value of railway steam locomotive communication.-Pp. 68-70.

Major Kennedy's testimony is also to be received by those who are still incredulous on the subject of railways. He shews in a few plain words, what we have before stated, that the rail is the cheapest of all means of carriage: and while he deplores that the characteristic energy of Englishmen, which has produced such marvellous results at home, should have done so little towards the improvement of India, he yet considers it fortunate that we have not had to pass, as some would say, through the progressive steps of improvement. Those, who consider that a country should advance by progressive steps, as they call it, do thus, as it were, by a misuse of terms and confusion of ideas, beg the whole question at issue. No one denies that a country must advance gradually but, to advance, it must use the most perfect tools and instruments, that are at its disposal. We do not in India, because it is two centuries behind the European civilized world, recommend the use of the imperfect weapons of the middle ages. We have conquered the monarchies of the East by the use of the most powerful weapons of modern warfare; witness the thunders of Guzerat, and their effects at Múltan, Hattras, or even Bhurtpore; and in like manner we must conquer the material empire of India, by the employment of the first and best principles of modern science. We use not the weapons of our fore-fathers to battle with the physical world: neither should we go back to their instruments, or roads to subdue the material world around us. India must profit by our experience. We have but little capital, and must therefore husband our resources, and make the best investment with what we have. As Major Kennedy well says,

In England no fewer than four successive investments have occurred to effect nearly the same object, each, in its turn, superseding and rendering almost useless, that which preceded it. We have had,

First. The defective roads of intercourse of our forefathers, crossing hill and dale, and accessible only to back-loads, or lightly laden carriages.

Secondly.-The more civilized and profitable carriage roads of the present generation, which set the former aside.

Thirdly. The network of canals for carriage of merchandize. Fourthly and Lastly. The railways of the present day, capable of doing the work of all, and with much greater profit and economy, if the errors at their introduction had been avoided.

The position of India at this moment, therefore, enables her to save the three first progressive classes of investment, and to effect at once the fourth and perfect class.- Pp. 13-14.

That this investment of our capital in railways in India will pay, he gives us every reason to believe. He expatiates on the peculiar and general fitness of India for railroads, possessing, as he says,—

A rich and varied produce, widely separated capitals, extensive lines of traffic, defective and costly modes of transport, with a warm and enervating climate, increasing the numerous obstacles to that locomotion, which promotes civilization, and which is essential to the expansion of all those agricultural, manufacturing, and mercantile operations, that are the sources of national and individual wealth.-P. 3.

He shows us that, although it cost him twenty-two days hard work to reach Umballah from Calcutta, a distance of 1000 miles, a good railway train at a moderate speed would accomplish the distance in forty hours: and, as to the expense, he calculates that it would save £10 a ton even on heavy goods :

The time that heavy goods require to make the same journey, by the present conveyances of the country, is from two to three months, at a cost of £12 to £15 per ton. Whilst, if a train existed, they would be conveyed this distance in forty-eight hours at a cost of £4 to £5 per ton.

The cost to a traveller making this journey, by the present covered conveyances, in twenty-two days, cannot be less than from £50 to £70. By the train, it ought to be done within forty hours for less than £6 cost.

The information already obtained from official and other sources shows, that there is at present a sufficient amount of goods and travellers, passing over this line, to remunerate a judiciously managed railway investment; and it is difficult to estimate the increase of mercantile and industrial activity in all its ramifications, which must follow the vast reduction of cost, delay and inconvenience in the transport of goods and passengers, that the establishment of a railway would produce.-Pp. 4-5.

In one most important particular, his opinion must not be despised. He considers that these important national works should not be considered as private enterprizes. Whether the cost of their construction comes from private or public sources, the association which constructs them, and the public which benefits by them, should each receive the cordial protection of the Legislative. The Government must neither permit the public to be imposed upon by the excessive rates of a grasping proprietory, or ignorant and too credulous shareholders to be ruined and abused by an extravagant or profligate management. Both parties are entitled to a fair protection: and, in all associations for the development of the resources of India, or for its improvement, gentlemen in the service, who know the country,