should be encouraged to join, and protected in the exercise of their lawful right to do so. A better tone would thus be imparted, when it is done openly and fairly, and with the full sanction of Government. The principles, which Major Kennedy lays down for the general superintendance and controul of the Waterford and Limerick Railway, are so good in themselves, and so very applicable to all companies and joint-stockeries whatsoever, that though, we have already swelled our extracts rather too much, we must give them for the benefit of such of our readers as may be interested in companies of the kind. It appears that the Directors of that Company had been in the habit of meeting weekly in a Board room, at a distance from the scene of their expenditure, and leaving that, which they were thus unable to controul, to the entire discretion of irresponsible men-in consequence of which their shares had fallen to a discount of eighty per cent. Major Kennedy advises them to adopt a contrary system by establishing a distinct responsible controlling superintendence-which, he says,—

Whatever it may be called, whether a Secretary, a Managing Director, or an Executive Committee of three Directors, should act upon a strictly defined course laid down by the Board-the principal feature of that course being to render a MONTHLY ACCOUNT of every outlay and liability incurred, and of the progress effected, to a meeting of the Directors, to be held at the advanced Terminus. Every account should be settled monthly; and the report, given to the Directors, should contain a full abstract of the account. There is no difficulty whatever in keeping the accounts upon a principle that will admit of this, which is the only solid protection that any Company can have.

The functions of a many-headed Directory are generally misunderstood in conducting any intricate or ramified executive administration.

They should invariably have a responsible and despotic individual superintendent in the executive charge under them. They should keep up a constant and strict scrutiny to ascertain that he is efficient, without ever. venturing to interfere, except through him, with his subordinates in any department.-Pp. 48-49, and Note, p. 65,

Would that all Directorial bodies would but consider their res ponsibility, and attend to these two concise principle;-1st, in. the commencement to make their plans as perfect as they have the means of doing; and 2nd, to work so as to ensure a return. for the capital laid out; and, says he,

If, after a careful consideration, we find this result likely to be attended with doubt, it would then be our duty to tell the shareholders so, and not to allow their interests to be endangered, whilst trusted to our direction, without affording to them the most clear statement of every circumstance affecting them.-P. 49.

But to return to Colonel Grant, and his book. He proposes to adopt in India a railway, raised on a system of bridges, form

ing a continuous viaduct about six feet clear of the ground, thus giving passage to all animals, native carts, &c. He considers that, in an unenclosed country like India, stray cattle would dangerously obstruct the passage of a train, and that the embankments would be injured by them. The cost of this system would be about £8,500 per mile for a single line, and £17,000 for a double one. It is not necessary that we should particularly describe this system, as we think that it is not likely to be carried into effect. It is objectionable on many accounts;-1st, on the score of expense, without any real benefit gained; and, 2nd, we do not agree with Colonel Grant that all animals could get under six feet arches. Bullocks and country carts might, but elephants, and even camels, would find it difficult, nor would it be quite safe for a man on horseback. In Germany the fields are almost as much unenclosed as in India; and we remember bolting along on a train through the fields, which, we remarked, were cultivated close up to the rails, and that too without any intervening palisade, or hedge, or protection. Colonel Grant should remember that, in thinly inhabited districts, land is comparatively little valuable: and there, as Major Kennedy suggests, good strong fences of prickly pear, bambu, and aloe, of sufficient depth can be formed, constituting a very efficient protection, both to the embankments and the rail itself. The system of raised wooden viaducts, which Colonel Grant alludes to as being recommended by an American author, is intended, we take it, to obviate the use of the costly stone constructions in use in England, for crossing valleys and ravines. These have, in many instances, been formed at a cost, for which no amount of traffic can ever repay the shareholders. Colonel Grant purposes to run his viaduct over the level country-an idea which never entered the brain of the cheaply working American engineer, who merely uses his wooden viaduct to cross deep ravines, in situations where bridges are necessary, and where the cost of stone bridges would totally preclude their construction. What he says respecting the termini of any proposed line is much more to the purpose. Railroads must not be made at random in any direction: nor is it sufficient that one terminus is a large and important port of export. We must look to the general direction of the line, and also to its other proposed terminus, ere we commence such an important work. Nor is Colonel Grant altogether satisfied in this respect with what is proposed at Bombay for the Grand Trunk, or "Great India Peninsular" Railway. We like to give it its full name, although it is apparently at present only destined to lead from Bombay to

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Callian, and thence up the Malsej hill to the plain beyond, at an enormous outlay. Colonel Grant thinks it would be more profitable, and also more practicable, to make a railway from Bombay to Pùna, and make that place the terminus. This is a large station for troops, is 1800 feet above Bombay, enjoys therefore a comparatively cool climate, and is consequently a place of general European resort: and it would, were there a rail, doubtless rapidly increase in size and importance :

Poona, the seat of Government, and the head-quarters of the army for one-third of the year, a military station usually occupied by at least 3000 European troops, among whom is a regiment of Dragoons and a brigade of Horse Artillery, constantly requiring large supplies of every kind; besides native troops, and a native population of 7000 or 8000 persons connected with the camp bazar, with a large arsenal and depot of military stores, the resort of a numerous European community for several months of the year;-the capital of the Deccan, a city containing 70,000 inhabitants, on the direct road to Ahmednuggur, the head-quarters of our artillery and principal depôt for guns and military stores, in the direct line to the valuable districts of Sholapoor and the Southern Mahratta country, and onwards to the Madras Presidency, also to the Nizam's dominions and the Calcutta Dawk line-Poona, with all these advantages, with troops, military stores, European supplies of all kinds, and in vast quantities, constantly passing and repassing, might well support a Railway of her own, were it not that the line of intervening Ghauts presents an obstacle, which it seems absurd to overcome at more than one point; but, with the advantages of its position, as the first terminus between Bombay and the whole of India, added to its own requirements, it does seem a pity that the Ghauts, which must be surmounted, should not be ascended in the line to Poona.

By the completing a line at once to Poona, leaving the Ghauts for the present to a system of porterage, until the expense of carrying a rail of some kind up it can be better afforded, the advantages of steam locomotion would be at once exhibited, and the Government, without whose liberal assistance the Railway must have died in embryo, would be among the first to reap the advantages of its liberality. The saving, that would be effected on the transport of military stores, ammunition, and commissariat supplies of all kinds, to meet the demand of 4000 European troops, including those at Ahmednuggur, would be immense. The permanent conveyance establishment of the commissariat at Poona amounts to 60007. a year. The economy, not only in money, but in life, in moving a European regiment from Bombay to Poona, on its first arrival in the country, and whenever required for immediate service (thus making Poona the garrison for the European troops of this Presidency) would be equally remarkable. The facilities also of communication between the official organs of Government, especially during the four months of the monsoon-these, one and all, would make Poona almost a suburb of Bombay, at an elevation of 1800 feet above it, with all the advantages of a healthy climate, to be reached by a journey of four hours' duration, even allowing one hour for the passage of the Ghauts.

Thus the first constructed line would be complete within itself, whilst its advantages would not be confined solely to one object, that of the conveyance of merchandise,-but would be felt and appreciated by all classes of the community; and these 100 miles of rail would do more to give

a favourable impression of the value of this (to India) new system, than 300 miles of Railway would, if extended in the proposed direction towards Indore.

Poona would also be equally efficient as a terminus for merchandise and the produce of the country, with Alleh, the proposed point of bifurcation of the lines north and south; for, suppose the line of rail to be carried from Bombay to Poona, thence by Seroor to Ahmednuggur, thence to Aurungabad, and thence by the pass at Adjunta to Boorhampoor: by this line the distance to Boorhampoor on the north, and Seroor on the south, whence the southern line would be continued, would be about 356 miles; whereas, by the proposed Malsej Ghaut line, the distance to Boorhampoor on the north, and to Seroor on the south, is about 330+36=366 miles. By the Aurungabad route the 356 miles of Railway would connect Bombay with the large city and military station and entrepôt of Poona, the city and artillery depôt of Ahmednuggur, and the large city and station of the Nizam's army, Aurungabad; thus opening up the whole of the Nizam's dominions to the rail; whilst, by 366 miles of rail by the Malsej Ghaut, the single small station of a wing of a native infantry regiment, Malligaum, would be passed, and that is all. The small camp of Seroor is common to both lines. On the one line, not only merchandise, cotton, grain, salt, &c., but light valuable goods and parcels, passengers, troops, military stores, English stores and supplies of all kinds would pass. On the other, nothing but cotton, grain, salt, and such heavy and bulky articles could be required. On the Poona line, the Electric Telegraph, which is made a sine qua non of the Railway system, would virtually seat the Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Presidency at the Council Board in Bombay, whilst residing at Dapoore and Poona: whilst on the Malsej line, for the first 350 miles, the Bheels of the jungles, or wild beasts of the forests, would be nearly the sole representatives of animal life, with whom such communication could be made.-Pp. 85-87.

We trust that Colonel Grant's suggestions will meet with the serious attention which they deserve, that the money of the shareholders will not be wasted in excavations at the Malsej Ghat, and that the seven miles of tunnel will be forthwith abandoned.

In his Appendix, Colonel Grant gives us some interesting calculations as to the comparative value of draft, both of Steam and Cattle. Though he seems at times, to a superficial reader, to contradict himself, yet, (we take it) his meaning is to recommend whichever system of draft will pay best in the particular instance, that may be under discussion at the time. Thus he recommends a tram-road with Bullock draft, on the Thul Ghat, on the road leading to Nassick and Malligaum ; and haulage by Steam on the road or line to Poona. He also strongly recommends the tram road worked by cattle in Guzerat ; though in general he thinks that all main lines should be traversed by light locomotives. From his tables we extract the comparative cost of carriage of a ton of grain.

In this way he shews that, on plate rails with bullock draft, a charge of one penny per ton per mile would give a dividend of 12 per cent. In this calculation he has not stated clearly the time consumed in travelling each mile in each case: and that this must have an important influence on the calculation is evident, from the significant fact that, in England, with all its expensive system of railroads, and consequent high charges, 16,000,000 tons of goods are now yearly carried on railways, hauled by steam. Time is no doubt more valuable in England than it is in India; yet still it must be considered even here as an important element; and the length of road in India, that has to be traversed, will tell much in the calculation. Goods, which in England were carried by a steamer round the coast in a few days, or inland by waggon in the same time, are now taken by rail in one day, counting also the time for loading and unloading, which is the same for all lengths of carriage by rail. But here in India, goods, which would not reach Umballah with any certainty in three months, could be conveyed by steam rail to that station in forty-eight hours, at one-third of the cost! In the one case, days are compared with days; but, in the other, the comparison is with months-long tedious months of uncertainty, whether the goods will ever arrive or not.

We cannot conclude our notice of these two works more appropriately than in the words of Major Kennedy in his address to the Most Noble the Marquis of Dalhousie :-" We cannot close this paper without expressing to your Lordship, our firm and daily encreasing conviction that, in whatever 'view one regards the interests of India-whether in respect to the application and consolidation of its Military power; the efficiency of its Civil Government; the development of its industrial and mercantile resources; the advancement of its 'native population; or the health and security of its European Residents, the first effectual impulse must consist in giving facilities to intercommunication through the instrumentality ' of Railways, which, we have not the least doubt, if properly managed, may be introduced with great profit to their un6 dertakers."