Chapter XXVI: Appendix: , No. 3 (6)

“The subject of bad treatment to native travellers is also forcibly brought to notice, for not only are native passengers of all classes and grades, without distinction, subjected to disrespect, but they have also to suffer the greatest insolence, impudence, hard language, contempt, and even sometimes ill-usage, from the menials of the railway police and other officials. Indiscriminate abuse, and often on their superiors in the social scale, is freely lavished, without let or stint or a regard to its quality. Passengers have even been struck and otherwise treated with great indignity, and second-class passengers are not allowed to get in even to the platform, but are made to herd with the mass outside. The most respectable Hindoos and Mohammedans further complain that they are liable to ill treatment and loss of honour from their European fellow-passengers in the second-class carriages; and thus native gentlemen of birth and respectability, in striving to avoid the crowd and pressure and company to be found in third-class carriages, find themselves even worse off in a second-class seat. Lastly, this memorial draws attention to the utter impossibility of native ladies of respectable birth and breeding taking advantage of the railway, as matters are at present carried on. The absence also of any proper retiring-room at the station for such of the better class of native ladies as have to wait for trains, places further obstacles in the way, and tends to keep them from the use of railways whenever they can be avoided.”

[88] For a very complete and interesting history of the East Indian Railway and of the existing arrangement for its management and control, the reader is referred to the letter and memorandum of Mr. R. W. Crawford, M.P., chairman of the board of directors, dated the 21st of March, 1867, and addressed to the Secretary of State for India.

[89] Whilst the area of British India is 956,436 square miles, with, in 1861, 143,271,210 inhabitants, the area of the “Native States,” is 596,790 miles, with 47,909,197 inhabitants, and the area of Portuguese India is 1,066 square miles, with 313,262 inhabitants, the area of the French settlement of Pondicherry is only 188 square miles, with a population of 203,887 souls.

[90] Bombay will have to go a-head in various ways, if she wish to manage with credit the immense traffic of which she is destined to be the centre almost immediately. First, as regards her docks and docking accommodation. At present there are two belonging to the Government. They were built by the old East India Company. One, though useful at the time it was built, and for many years afterwards, is no longer available for the steam vessels that now navigate the Indian seas. The second, the “Duncan” Dock, has only sixteen feet of water at the Lock Gates. This unfits it for many vessels, and will render it useless for most of the steamers that will shortly navigate to and from Bombay. The Peninsular and Oriental Company have two docks, one of which, although only 390 feet long, has 20 feet 6 inches at the lock, and will admit any vessel afloat except the “Great Eastern.” But the company requires both docks for its own purposes, and it will find it difficult to lend them, even occasionally, for docking the new transport steamers shortly to be put on between Suez and Bombay, until further docks are provided. It may be stated, _en passant_, that these steamers will, with the exception of the “Great Eastern,” be the largest vessels afloat—length of each, 381 feet; breadth, 49 feet; tonnage, 500 tons. When placed on the line between Suez and Bombay, all British troops destined for or from the East will be conveyed by them, instead of by vessels taking the passage by the Cape of Good Hope.

An illustration of the value of eligible docks constructed for the accommodation of important lines of ocean communication connected with arterial railways, is afforded by what has occurred at Southampton since 1840. They have proved themselves to be not only an advantageous investment, but to their presence are, no doubt, due the immense commercial development, and the equally great increase which has taken place in its population in the last twenty-five years. The docks were opened for business in 1840, and at the end of four years the revenue yielded by them was only £4,018; but in 1844 Southampton was made the port of arrival and departure of the Peninsular and the West India Mail steamers. The revenue of the docks had therefore risen to £20,614 in 1850. Five years afterwards, by which time the steamers of the several companies had increased in magnitude and in frequency of arrivals and departures, the dock revenue had risen to £55,442. In 1860 it was £54,558; in 1861, £55,342; in 1862, £58,121; 1863, £57,739; 1864, £58,358; 1865, £62,449; and in 1866, £66,011. In 1854 the inhabited houses within the postal limits of the town and neighbourhood, of which the Post Office is the Head-centre, were 14,290, and the population had risen from about 45,000 in 1844 to 78,829. In 1863, the population was 108,079, the inhabited houses 19,969. In 1867, the population and the inhabited houses within the same limits had increased still further. The estimated population of the actual borough, in the middle of 1867, was 56,107, and the inhabited houses, 9,263.

Bombay is also very defective as regards hotel accommodation. The defect, however, is, to a certain extent, about to be remedied. One is in course of erection on the Esplanade, and nearly ready for opening, which will be a valuable acquisition, as well as an ornament, to the city. Messrs. Ordish & Lefeuvre, of London, are the architects. The building (of four stories), will be 190 feet long, 90 wide, 85 high.

It is by works such as these, and others suited for great commercial purposes, that Bombay may eventually become successful in its aspirations to be the capital city of the Indian Empire. In population she already exceeds those of the two other great capitals of India. The population of Calcutta, is, according to the latest estimates, about 700,000; of Madras, according to the Administrative Report for 1863, 427,771; whilst that of Bombay was, according to the census of February, 1864, 816,562.

[91] “Sir Bartle Frere sees at a glance the immense importance, both politically and commercially, of the Punjaub lines in the whole economy of the railway system of India; he sees, too, no doubt, their bearing and intimate connection with that direct route to Europe through the Euphrates valley, which, by the untiring exertions of the very able Chairman of the Punjaub and Scinde Railways, must sooner or later be a _fait accompli_. Nor does he stand alone in the view he takes of this great question. The Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjaub is strong on the same side, and the whole press of India is unanimous in urging the completion of those lines with the utmost speed.

“At the recent Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at Dundee, in August last, Sir Samuel Baker, President of the Geographical section, when speaking of our Indian possessions, said: ‘It appears to many of us as the affair of yesterday that the overland route to India was established by the indefatigable Waghorn (whose name should ever be held in honour); but in the short space of about fifteen years the camel has ceased to be “the ship of the desert” upon the Isthmus of Suez. A railroad connects the Red Sea with the Mediterranean; a canal already conveys the sweet waters of the Nile through deserts of arid sand to Suez, and a fleet of superb transports upon the Red Sea conveys our troops to India. Who can predict the future? Who can declare the great French work to be impossible, and deny that within the next half century the fleets of the Mediterranean will sail through the Isthmus of Suez upon the Lesseps Canal? England has been the first to direct to general use the power of steam. Our vessels were the first to cross the Atlantic and to round the stormy Cape to India. But have we not thus destroyed the spell that kept our shores inviolate. Not only ourselves, but the French, possess a magnificent fleet of transports on the Red Sea. We can no longer match the dexterity of our sailors against overwhelming odds. Steam breaks the charm. Wars are the affairs of weeks or days. There are no longer the slow marches that rendered inaccessible far distant points. The railway alters the former condition of all countries. Without yielding to exaggerated alarm, we must watch with intense attention the advances of Russia upon the Indian frontier, and, beyond all geographical enterprises, we should devote extreme interest to a new and direct route to India by the Euphrates Valley and Persian Gulf, thus to be independent of complications that might arise with Egypt.’

“So long as the Indian Empire exists, the connection between India and this country must be kept up; and if that connection were interrupted for many months, the doom of our Eastern Empire would be practically sealed. England maintains her position in India by force of arms; and it is a principle, both of war and of common sense, to take efficient means to keep open the lines of communication between the base and the field of operation.

“It is impossible to contemplate, without a shudder, the consequences which must result if the Government should ever neglect to maintain effectively the means of communication with the East. The present route, _viâ_ Egypt, might at any time be rendered unavailable by political combinations in Europe, and yet our Government have hitherto been content to rely upon one means of communication, notwithstanding that it is in their power to establish not only an alternative, but an infinitely better one by way of the Euphrates Valley.

“But we feel well assured that the great design of connecting Europe with Central Asia, by the telegraph and the rail by the Valleys of the Euphrates and Indus, is at length approaching its accomplishment. The Euphrates and Indus Railways completed would be the grandest pledge that could be given for the peace and the prosperity of the world.”—_Allen’s Indian Mail._

[92] The length of the Euphrates, in its direct course from North to South, is about 700 miles; but with its various windings, it is nearly 1,800. The current is sluggish, not exceeding two and a-half to three miles an hour, except during the floods, when it increases to about five miles. The river navigation would extend from Ja’bar Castle to Bir, 120 miles, or to Bussorah, 70 miles from its mouth, and the vessels must not draw more than eight feet. The draught of the ocean vessels into which the mails and passengers would be transferred at Bir or Bussorah, must be limited, as there are not more than twelve feet on the bar at the mouth of the Euphrates at low water.

[93] The intelligence respecting Kurrachee Harbour is unsatisfactory. It is quite clear that with any increase of trade there, the capabilities of the place as a harbour will be surpassed, notwithstanding the fact that, on the recommendation of the late Mr. James Walker, upwards of a quarter of a million sterling has, since 1859, been expended on works for increasing its capacity. But now, according to the opinion of Messrs. Stevenson, of Edinburgh, all this outlay has been useless, although it has had the effect of adding from 70 to 100 acres to the dimensions of the harbour. Naturally the report of Messrs. Stevenson has given rise to much disappointment, for it means that the money expended, if not absolutely wasted, has not been usefully laid out, and that all the valuable time consumed between 1859 and 1866 has been virtually lost. One of the subjects specially referred to Sir Seymour Fitzgerald, on his appointment, early this year, as Governor of the Bombay Presidency, was Kurrachee Harbour. In the meantime the works were to be suspended and not to be resumed until the Home Indian Government had received the additional data for a satisfactory settlement of the question, which Sir Seymour was directed to collect. His report has not yet been received at the India Office.

[94] Perhaps there is an additional reason of more or less weight for urging on the early construction of at least the section of the Euphrates Valley line from the Mediterranean to navigable water on the Euphrates. If the Isthmus of Suez Canal be completed, France will, in all likelihood, hold the keys of it—a very dangerous fact for England in case of war between the two countries. That the canal will be finished seems more than probable. Mr. Daniel A. Lange, the English representative and director of the company for its construction, in his published letter of the 2nd of November, 1867, says that “by the last official reports from Egypt, there remained on the 30th of September last 44,000,000 cubic metres of earthwork to be done. During the month of September 1,342,000 cubic metres have been excavated, the highest figures as yet obtained, and this work has been performed with only forty-three dredging machines, thus leaving, at the same rate, on the 1st of January next, 40,000,000 cubic metres for excavation, the original total required to be removed being 74,000,000 cubic metres. When the full complement of seventy-eight dredging machines now being fitted up on the spot is in working order, it may readily be calculated that the returns will show a result of at least two millions of cubic metres per month, which, in other words, means that the time required for completing the entire earthworks of the Suez Canal will not exceed twenty months from the present time. The construction of the jetties at Port Said is being pushed forward with similar rapidity. The manufacture of blocks on the spot during the month of September amounted to 9,472 cubic metres, which, together with those already made, gives a total of 164,031 cubic metres, leaving 85,969 to be manufactured, the total required for both the jetties being 250,000 cubic metres. The entire quantity already sunk in the sea at the end of September amounted to 142,776 cubic metres; remained to be immersed, 107,224 cubic metres—total, 250,000 cubic metres for both jetties. Taking 6,000 cubic metres per month, both the jetties will be completed in eighteen months from the present time. It may not be out of place to mention that these so-called blocks weigh about twenty tons each.” Mr. Lange concludes thus:—“Having said thus much on the subject of the progress of the Suez Canal works, I trust I may be permitted to add, that the time is near at hand when these gigantic works will be completed for the benefit of all nations, as by means of them the passage from sea to sea will be secured for the largest ships.”

[95] Mr. Frederick Hill was the principal witness from the Post Office examined by the Committee of the House of Commons, that sat in 1866, upon the postal and telegraph communications of England with the East. The whole tendency of Mr. Hill’s evidence was, that no further accommodation or increased frequency of mails should be given to the public, unless the Post Office were indemnified against all hazard of loss—even temporary—either by increasing the rates of postage, or by the obtention of a special appropriation from the Government of India. It was in consequence of the character of this evidence, and of correspondence which had passed between the India Office, the Treasury, and the Post Office department (which appears in the Appendices to the Report) that the Committee inserted the following paragraph:—

“Your Committee cannot assent to the doctrine that interests so important from every point of view, whether political, social, or commercial, as those which connect the United Kingdom with the largest and most valuable possessions of the Crown, should be prejudiced by an insufficient postal service, because the establishment of an efficient service might leave an apparent loss of no great magnitude to be borne by the two countries. They submit that a question of profit or loss, within reasonable bounds, is a consideration entitled to little weight in the case of so important a postal service as that between England and India. They concur in the views expressed on this subject in a letter addressed by the Indian Office to the Assistant Secretary to the Post Office, on the 5th October, 1865, in which it was said, ‘Sir Charles Wood cannot, however, regard the question as one merely affecting the charge on the Imperial revenues. It has been the perception of the bearing of increased postal communication on the wealth and progress of a country that has induced statesmen of late years to consent to fiscal sacrifices for the purpose of obtaining it. There can be no doubt that increased postal communication with India implies increased relations with that country, increased commerce, increased investment of English capital, increased settlement of energetic middle-class Englishmen; and from all these sources the wealth and prosperity of England are more greatly increased than that of India.’”

It seems extraordinary, it is nevertheless a fact, that Sir Rowland Hill, whose name and reputation have been built solely upon the foundation of cheap postage, should, through the medium of several Postmaster-General’s Reports, urge the necessity of increased postal charges whenever an ocean mail communication did not pay _per se_ in postages realised.

In 1853, a Commission, consisting of the late Lord Canning, the Right Hon. Wm. Cowper, Sir Stafford Northcote, now Secretary for India, and the late Sir R. Madox Bromley, Accountant-General of the Navy, was appointed by the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury to report upon the contract packet services of the country. The Commissioners went very fully and elaborately into the whole subject, examined witnesses, and had various returns prepared for their consideration. The gist of their views and opinions upon oceanic communication, by means of first-class contract steamers, is as follows:—“The value of the services thus (by the establishment of large vessels built for the conveyance of ocean mails at high speed) rendered to the state cannot be measured by a reference to the amount of mere postal revenue, or even by the commercial advantages accruing from it. It is undoubtedly startling at first sight to perceive that the immediate pecuniary results of the packet service is a loss to the revenue of about £325,000 a-year; but although this circumstance shows the necessity for a careful revision of the service, and though we believe much may be done to make the service self-supporting, we do not consider that the money thus expended is to be regarded, even from a fiscal point of view, as a national loss. The objects which appear to have led to the formation of these contracts, and to the large expenditure involved, were to afford a rapid, frequent, and punctual communication with those distant ports which feed the main arteries of British commerce, and with the most important of our foreign possessions; to foster maritime enterprise, and to encourage the production of a superior class of vessels which would promote the commerce and wealth of the country in time of peace, and assist in defending its shores against hostile aggression. These expectations have not been disappointed. The ocean has been traversed with a precision and regularity hitherto deemed impossible; commerce and civilisation have been extended; the colonies have been brought more easily into connection with the Home Government, and steam ships have been constructed of a size and power that, without Government aid, could hardly, at least for many years to come, have been built by private enterprise unaided.”

M. Vandal, in his _Annuaires des Postes_, published on the 1st of January 1867, having given in detail the whole of the ocean postal service of France, thus expresses the views both of the French Government and of the department of which he is the head: “And these great results have been obtained, not by the exclusive action of private industry, for industry would have been rash to have attempted them; and also not by the exclusive action of the State, for the State, which governs, is unfitted for commerce, but by the happy combination of the two elements—the State and private enterprise. On the one side, it is the duty of the State to study the whole subject in view to its own wants and to those of the public. Therefore it is that, in order to open new routes of communication to the spirit of industry and enterprise of the nation, the State pays subventions to the amount of upwards of twenty-four millions of francs, and by means of them industry invests its capital with the encouragement of the Government. The benefit is common to both sides. The State obtains the advantage of increased influence throughout the world, and at home increased customs revenue, with increased and general prosperity, and on the other hand private enterprise is adequately remunerated for its capital and investments.”

[96] The whole of the sea service of the Indian, China, Japan, and Australian Postal Communications of Great Britain is, with the exception of that between Dover and Calais, performed by the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. This company is the largest Ocean Steam Company in the world. It has a fleet of 53 steamers, with an aggregate tonnage of 86,411, and 19,230 horse-power; its largest ship is of 2,800 tons; its next largest is of 2,600 tons, five are between 2,000 and 2,500 tons, and eighteen are between 1,500 and 2,000 tons each. Its routes extend from Southampton and from Marseilles to Alexandria, from Suez to Bombay, from Suez to Point de Galle and Calcutta, from Bombay to Calcutta, from Point de Galle to Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Yokohama, Japan, and from Point de Galle to Melbourne and Sydney. The total number of _knots_ performed by the postal vessels of the company in 1866 was 1,194,952.

The total contract land mileage of our Eastern mails is at the present time as follows:—

————————————————————————┬—————————┬———————————┬————————
Route. │ Length, │ No. of │ Total.
│ Miles. │ Journeys. │
————————————————————————┼—————————┼———————————┼————————
London and Dover │ 88 │ 96 │ 8,448
Calais and Marseilles │ 740 │ 96 │ 70,080
Alexandria and Suez │ 250 │ 192 │ 48,000
London and Southampton │ 78 │ 96 │ 7,488
│ │ ├————————
│ │ │ 133,916
————————————————————————┴—————————┴———————————┴————————

It should be explained that the “heavy mails” which are conveyed between Southampton and Alexandria are taken across the Isthmus of Suez by separate trains from those which convey the light mails _viâ_ Marseilles; hence there are 96 trips of Eastern mails per annum across the Isthmus for the Marseilles mails, and 96 for those _viâ_ Southampton. Thus the total annual length of this great postal service is—

Water 1,374,194 English miles.
Land 133,916 ” ”
—————————
1,508,110 ” ”

or 4,132 miles _per diem_, 173 _per horam_, nearly 3 _per minutam_.

[97] _In summer_ the journey from London to Constantinople, _viâ_ Paris, Strasburg, Vienna, and Basiach by railway, and thence by steam on the Danube and Black Sea, can be accomplished in seven days.

[98] Almost immediately after the above extract was made from Mr. Juland Danver’s report we read the following portion of a telegram, dated Calcutta, October the 9th: “Unprecedented floods have inundated the districts of the Ganges. Numerous villages have been swept away, and the Eastern Bengal Railway has suffered severe damage.”

[99] When the railway to Peshawer is made, it will have to cross the Indus either by a bridge, or to go under it by a tunnel at Attock, a thousand feet above sea-level, and 942 miles from the river’s mouth. For many miles above this great fortress the river flows in a wide divided stream at no great velocity; but as it approaches Attock, it becomes contracted and united, the velocity increases, and during the wet season it flows past the fortress at the rate of fully thirteen miles an hour. Numerous schemes have been tried for bridging the Indus at this point, but none have been successful, owing to the enormous difference of the water level at different periods of the year. It was therefore proposed, in 1859, to carry a tunnel under the river, and some progress was made with the work. Further reference to this subject will be found at a subsequent page.

[100] Colonel Glover, late Director-General of Indian Telegraphs, in his recent memorandum, pointing out the difficulty of maintaining telegraphic communication in India, says—“In many parts of the country the wires are laid through forests, jungle, and desert, where means of transit do not exist; where there are literally no roads; where unbridged rivers of first magnitude cross the route, rendering inspection difficult, and at times impracticable; where the population, whether dense or sparse, only affords labourers unskilled, and as such, of use only for the amount of brute force they are capable of exerting, adding considerably to the cost and difficulty of construction and repairs. In many parts the climate at certain seasons of the year is of a character so deadly that inspection is carried on by European officers at the risk of life; while native subordinates simply refuse to face it. In some places the rainfall and natural humidity are of a magnitude almost unknown elsewhere, and the case of Arracan may be instanced, where 240 inches of rain fall annually, of which 224 inches fall during the months of June, July, and August. On the western coast the climate is very similar, and Assam can scarcely be considered more favourable. Storms and hurricanes are of regular and not exceptional occurrence, and during the last monsoon they occurred with unusual violence, destroying the telegraphic wires for miles, as well as the embankments of the railways in Scinde, Goozerat, and Bengal. These and other influences peculiar to the country involve an unexceptionally heavy expenditure in repairs and renewals, and necessitate the retention of a large conservancy establishment.”

In India, owing to the dense forests and jungles, swarming with birds and animals, it is necessary to make the wires very much stronger than they are made in Europe. They are, in fact, small bars of iron three-eighths of an inch in thickness. An amount of rigidity is thus obtained, which is necessary to meet the requirements of the country. The bars of iron are placed on the top of bamboos at a sufficient height to allow the country carts to pass underneath them, and even to give passage to loaded elephants. The size of these conducting bars is necessitated by the heavy rains of India. Even in England, the rain dripping in a stream from the telegraphic wire to the post is sufficient to stop the working of the wire, inasmuch as the electric current escapes directly to the earth, and is then dispersed. Notwithstanding the difficulties that the construction and maintenance of the telegraph system have to contend against in India, there were 13,400 miles of lines of communication open in the three Presidencies on the 30th of April, 1867. The first cost of their erection and of furnishing the necessary instruments, batteries, &c., was £1,345,328. As regards rainfall, taking the Registrar-General’s return for the first six months of 1867 and doubling it, it would appear that the highest annual rainfall in the United Kingdom is, at Bristol, 41·0; at Glasgow it is 40·2; Sheffield, 36·4; Birmingham, 31·0; Manchester (including Salford), 29·5; Edinburgh, 28·0; Dublin, 26·2; Leeds, 26·0; London, 25·2; Liverpool, 20·2; and Newcastle, only 16·2.

[101] In the report of the Directors of the Madras Company for the half-year ending the 30th June, 1867, it is stated, as regards the South-West Line and Bangalore Branch—“The maintenance of a great part of this line and branch is still enhanced in cost by the replacement of wooden sleepers, as they decayed, by iron sleepers and by the greater expense of maintaining the wooden road in the western district, though wooden sleepers were good and cheap there. It has been found impossible to bring down the cost of maintaining a line with wooden sleepers to anything like an equality with the iron sleeper line.” On the North-Western section of the line, where iron sleepers only are used, the cost of maintenance for the past half year had been at the rate of only £66. 18s. per mile per annum, whereas on the South-Western Line and Bangalore Branch it had been at the rate of £159 per mile per annum.

[102] COAL IN INDIA.—The chief part of the following information is taken from _Engineering_, one of the best “Class” papers ever published in any country. The article is compiled from all the Government reports and statistical statements that the editor could avail himself of.

“Viewed as a coal-producing country, it may fairly be asserted that the British territories in India cannot be considered as either largely or widely supplied with this essential source of motive power. Extensive fields do occur, but these are not distributed generally over the districts of the Indian empire, but are almost entirely concentrated in one and that a double band of coal-yielding deposits, which, with large interruptions, extends more than half across India from near Calcutta towards Bombay. This band extends throughout about 5° of latitude, that is, between the 20° and 25° parallels of latitude. All the country lying to the south of the 20° parallel, and all the country lying to the north of the 25° parallel up to the foot of the Himalayas, with the exception of the widely detached coal-beds of Eastern Bengal, Assam, and the Khasia hills, and the poor coals of Tenasserim, presents, so far as those portions of the country are known geologically, either no probability whatever of any deposits of coal being found within their limits, or if coal does exist, it can only be expected to be found at such a depth below the surface that it could not be profitably worked or economised. As British India stretches from 8° north latitude to 35° or 36°, or through some 28°, the very local disposition of its deposits of coal becomes evident; and it would seem that they are so far removed from several of the railway systems of India as to preclude the hope that such lines could ever profitably employ the extracts from those beds as fuel, for they could be more cheaply supplied from England, the cost of land carriage on the one hand being so much more expensive than the freight by sea on the other.

“Up to the present time it may be said that little more than surface workings have been carried on in India. The deepest pits there scarcely exceed seventy-five yards, while certainly one-half of the Indian coal used up to the present date has been produced from open workings or quarries, in which the coal has been worked like any ordinary stone. In parts of the Raneegunge field these open workings are of marvellous extent and size, covering hundreds of acres.

“Many causes have combined to lead to this mode of working. Cropping out at the surface with a very small dip, and, in most cases, with a very limited covering of clay or rocks, the valuable mineral could be removed at a very small cost. No expense was incurred for lights; drainage was easily and cheaply effected; all the coal was obtained, and the heavy waste incurred in cutting or hewing brittle coals, such as are most of the Indian coals, was avoided. But even more than all these considerations, the facility of obtaining labourers who would work in the daylight, and the difficulty, or even impossibility, of procuring those who would work in a pit, combined with the ease of inspection and measurement in the one case, and the cost and difficulty in the other, all led to the vast extension of open-work quarrying of coal, and, consequently, to the economy with which the mineral could be obtained and sold. This system is, however, now rapidly disappearing. Much of the coal accessible in this way has been removed, while at the same time the managers and proprietors are daily becoming more alive to the injudiciousness of exposing valuable seams by these diggings towards the outcrop. Every year is also adding to the number of labourers, and also of the tribes or castes to which they belong, who will work underground.

“Even in the only Indian coal-field which has as yet been worked to any extent, namely, Raneegunge field, very much more must yet be done before safe and satisfactory conclusions can be reached as to the amount of coal and its position. Up to the last year or two, in no single instance was a survey of the underground workings made or plans kept. The memory of the ‘old men’ was the only source from which information could be obtained as to the extent of the workings, the mode of occurrence of the seams, the disturbances to which they had been subjected, &c. This system, however, or rather want of system, has been changed in some cases, and plans are now kept. On this subject Professor Oldham justly remarks, ‘Considering the many ways in which danger to public safety (putting aside altogether the serious risks to private property and to individual life) results from abandoned mines and excavations, and from an ignorance of their true limits, I am compelled to think that the keeping and recording of such plans ought to be rendered compulsory. The cost to the colliery proprietors would be slight, while the advantages, even to them, would be inestimable. In hundreds of cases the safety, nay, the very possibility, of working certain mines, or parts of mines, will depend upon the accuracy of the knowledge of the limits of adjoining excavations, or upon sacrificing much valuable material by leaving unwrought greatly larger barriers than may be necessary. Such plans ought, I think, to be therefore insisted on, under penalties for neglect of this precaution.’

“The following list gives the names of the several coal-fields of India in the order of their successive geographical distribution, commencing with those nearest to Calcutta and proceeding westwards, taking first those which occur in the great band of coal-fields stretching from Calcutta towards Bombay, and then those which are comparatively distant or isolated:—

1. Rajmahal Hills.
2. Raneegunge.
3. Kurhurbali.
4. Jherria.
5. Bokaro.
6. Ramghur.
7. Karunpoora, North and South.
8. Eetcoora.
9. Palamow.
10. Sirgoojah, Singrowlie.
11. Upper Sone.
12. Koorba, or Belaspore.
13. Talcheer.
14. Nerbudda, and Pench River.
15. Chanda.
16. Kota.
17. Cutch.
18. Sind.
19. Salt Range.
20. Murree, and other places.
21. Darjeeling.
22. Assam.
23. Khasia Hills.
24. Garrow Hills, Cachar.
25. Cheduba, Sandoway.
26. Burmah.
27. Tenasserim Provinces.

“The Raneegunge coal-field is at a distance of 120 to 160 miles north-west of Calcutta. It extends from a few miles to the east of the village of Raneegunge to several miles west of the Barakur, the greatest length being, near east and west, about 30 miles, and the greatest breadth about 18 miles. The area included by the coal-bearing rocks is about 500 square miles. The coal of this field, like most Indian coals, is a non-coking bituminous coal, composed of distinct laminæ of a bright jetty coal, and of a dull more earthy rock. The average amount of ash is some 14 to 15 per cent., varying from 8 to 25 per cent. The Raneegunge field has the advantages of two branches of the East Indian Railway, which traverse its richest portions, and afford great facilities for the removal of coals.

“The small, but valuable, coal-field of Kurhurbali is about eighty miles distant from the Luckieserai station of the East Indian Railway. When the chord line from Luckieserai to Raneegunge is opened this colliery will be put into active working. Patches of coal or lignite have been found along the outer range of the Himalaya Mountains, and at the foot of the Darjeeling Hills. In Assam several good coal seams have been discovered. There is also very good coal in the Khasi Hills; but the coal beds exist at an elevation of 4,000 feet above the adjacent country. It is known that there is not any coal in British Burmah. On the whole, the East Indian coal, especially that accessible to railways, is so inferior in quality that it comes nearly as expensive as English coal. It is, therefore, evident that companies will have in the main to rely upon wood as fuel for their locomotives.”

[103] “The coal mines of the East India Coal Company Limited, situated in the district of Raneegunge, Bengal, were sold by auction to-day by Mr. Murrell for £20,000 under the Winding-up Act.”—_Times_ (City article), 13th November, 1867.

[104] The Madras Railway continues to exhibit very striking results, both as regards its progress of development and its working expenses. During the half-year ending the 30th June, 1867, the number of passengers conveyed over the North-Western line was 1,019,164 as against 930,845 in the corresponding half-year of 1866. The goods were 164,334 tons as against 132,052 tons in the first half of 1866. The gross receipts were £241,010, against £213,676; the net £141,182, against £117,873. While the receipts had increased upon the half-year 12¾ per cent. the expenses had only increased by 4¼ per cent. Of the general goods traffic of the railway, salt still held its place as the largest item; the quantity carried in the half-year was 24,697 tons, yielding a gross receipt of £20,191. The quantity of cotton carried to Madras was 9,422 tons, against 3,486 tons in the corresponding half of 1866.

The receipts per train mile on the South-Western Line and Bangolore Branch were 6s. 11¾ d. in 1867 as against 6s. 9¼d. in 1866. The expenses, in 1867, 3s.½d. as against 3s. 1¾ d. in 1866. On the North-Western Line the receipts per train mile were in 1867, 7s. 10¾ d. as against 6s. 5d. in 1866, the expenses 2s. 5½d. as against 2s. 1¼d. in 1866.

[105] The following are the lengths of some of the European Railways open for traffic on the 1st of January, 1867:—France, 8,989 miles; Prussia, 5,483; Austrian Dominions, including the non German Provinces of Austria 4,001, excluding them 2,066 miles; Bavaria, 5,208; Saxony, 1,587; the total length of railways in Germany and the German Provinces of Austria were 12,450 miles, not including amongst them those exclusively used for coals and minerals; Belgium, 1,910; Italy, 3,040; Spain, 3,216; Russia, 2,893.

[106] THE DEBT OF INDIA.—“The public debt of India has expanded very considerably of late years. In 1840 it was £34,484,997; in 1841, £35,922,127; 1842, £38,404,473; 1843, £40,478,640; 1844, £41,833,451; 1845, £43,502,750; 1846, £43,891,849; 1847, £46,884,225; 1848, £48,757,213; 1849, £51,050,512; 1850, £53,934,768; 1851, £55,099,315; 1852, £55,114,693; 1853, £56,233,686. During several of the foregoing years wars of more or less magnitude prevailed. In 1854 the debt was reduced to £53,683,468; but it rose in 1855 to £55,531,120, and in 1856 to £57,764,239; then came the Indian Mutiny. In April, 1857, the debt was £59,461,969; but by April, 1858, it had risen to £69,473,484. In April, 1859, it was £81,171,308; April, 1860, 98,107,460; in April, 1861, £101,877,081; April, 1862, £107,514,159. By April, 1863, it had fallen to £104,495,235; April, 1864, to £98,518,145; April, 1865, to £98,477,555. During 1866 and 1867 there has been some increase of the debt, making it about £100,000,000. The charge for interest in 1840 was £1,595,778. In 1845 it had risen to £2,009,039; in 1850, to £2,558,939; in 1855, it had fallen to £2,189,433; in 1860, it had risen to £3,889,191; in 1865, to £4,482,385. The increased charge for interest in 1865, over that for 1860, was £593,194, whilst the increase of capital was only £370,095, thus showing that India pays a higher rate of interest on her loans than formerly.”—_Times_, 28th of August, 1867.

[107] The value of the imports into the United Kingdom only, from British India, £36,897,743, deducted from the gross exports from India, will show that our Eastern Empire has done trade of the value of more than twenty millions sterling with other nations. In 1865, the value of the British Indian merchandise imported into Great Britain was £37,395,425; in 1864, it was £52,295,595; in 1863, £48,434,740; in 1862, £34,133,551; in 1861, £21,968,752; in 1860, £15,106,597; in 1859, £15,244,869; in 1858, £14,989,030; in 1857, £18,650,223. The high price of cotton and the large imports of that staple from India since 1861 have, of course, swelled the totals of the last few years. But quite apart from this trade, our commercial relations with India have experienced both a solid and a permanent extension.

[108] The cotton importations of the first nine months of the present year have amounted to 988,314,096 lbs., being 9½ per cent. less than in the same period of 1866, and 62 per cent. more than in 1865. The supply of American this year, however, has been 5 per cent. beyond that of last year, while the quantity from India has experienced a reduction of 29 per cent. Of the total arrivals, the proportions this year have been as follows:—American, 46 per cent.; Indian, 33 per cent.; Egyptian, 10 per cent.; Brazilian, 6 per cent.; Turkish, 1 per cent.; and other countries, 4 per cent.

The total amount of the cotton crops of India is about 2,400,000,000; so that England only receives about a fourth of it. The average weekly consumption of cotton for all purposes in Great Britain is about 45,000,000 bales. The weight of a bale is 320 lbs.

[109] The only other British Colonies from which we receive cotton, are the West Indies, including the Bahamas and Bermuda. In 1852, they only sent to the mother country 703,606 lbs.; in 1865 the quantity had risen to 19,814,480 lbs.

[110] The _New York Albion_, of September 15th, 1867, very truly says:—“A oneness of purpose, and that mutual sympathy which inspires mankind with a collective and national patriotism, is rapidly taking root throughout British North America, and it is in these deep-rooted, but slow-growing sentiments that we implicitly place our trust for the future. When the Canadian is animated by the same feeling which wrought the ‘seven days’ wonder’ last year in Central Europe, and which still adheres to ‘German Unity’ as its watchword; or is inspired with the enthusiasm that recently made Italy one, ‘from the Alps to the Apennines;’ or with the national pride of even the Frenchman or Russian, there will be no fear of her policy being fixed or her destinies materially influenced by the outer world, no matter how boisterous the demonstrations, or unprincipled the purposes of her assailants.”

[111] “EASY TRAVELLING.—The Pullman Sleeping Car Company have just placed on the Great Western Railway of Canada a new passenger car, which they call an ‘Hotel Car,’ and which combines the comforts of a first-class hotel, the luxuries of a drawing-room, and the speed of an express train. Like all American passenger cars, it is open at each end, with a platform in front of the doors; its length to the end of the platform is 71 feet 4 inches, width 10 feet 6 inches, with a ceiling 10 feet 6 inches from the floor. At each corner of the car, making four in all, is a private bed-room or state cabin, containing a sofa, two arm-chairs, and a centre table. These are convertible into comfortable beds, with mattresses, pillows, sheets, &c. The rooms are adorned with mirrors of large dimensions. The doors and fittings are of black walnut; carved and gilt ornaments of bronze are introduced. Each of these rooms will contain six passengers. Then follows a small room, fitted as a kitchen and steward’s pantry. Here meals will be cooked, coffee or tea prepared, and drinks dispensed. A bell with wires communicating all over the car—or shall we say the edifice—will summon the steward. A central passage runs down the length of the car from door to door, and on each side are three other compartments, each intended for four passengers. Berths are made up exactly as on board a steamer, the bed appurtenances being conveniently stowed away during the daytime. The partitions dividing the compartments being moveable, when used as a drawing-room rise no higher than the backs of the seats, which are covered with rich Genoa velvet; the floor is carpeted, the ceiling is painted in _fresco_, and the walls richly carved and gilt. A stove heats the interior, with provision for ventilation, and a washing-room and other conveniences complete the internal arrangements.

“The exterior is painted a rich lake crimson, relieved with gold ornaments. On two oval panels on either side are copies in bronze of Thorwaldsen’s figures of Sight and Hearing. The car is placed on two trucks of eight wheels each, with lateral motion springs.”—_Railway News._

[112] We learn from the _Sydney Empire_, that the first locomotive made in New South Wales was launched from the yard of Messrs. Vale and Lacy, engine manufacturers, in January last. She is upwards of seventy horses power, and is now employed on the inclines and zig-zags of the Great Western (of Australia), between Redfern and Pyemont. “The trial,” says the _Sydney Empire_, “was pronounced by the scientific gentlemen present to be very satisfactory.”

[113] The Telegraph system of Australia deserves a few words of record:—At the end of 1866, New South Wales had 2,624 miles, upon which, during the year, 138,175 messages had been sent; Victoria, 2,626 miles, its messages 256,380; Queensland, 1,131 miles, messages 47,697; South Australia, 855 miles, messages 112,344. The reason of South Australia having so many messages in proportion to its mileage, is that St. George’s Sound is on the direct course of the mail steamers to and from Suez. It is, therefore, the first Australian land touched at on the outward passage, and the last on the homeward.

The lowest telegraph charge within New South Wales is one shilling for 17 miles; from 20 to 50 miles, it is two shillings; all above 300 miles, four shillings. The longest telegraph distances in New South Wales are from Sydney to Moama, and from Sydney to Hay, each 520 miles. The Border passed, there is a uniform charge with the other colonies; to Victoria (excepting a few Border Stations), eight shillings; Queensland, nine shillings; South Australia, nine shillings. Within Victoria the highest charge is three shillings. To the other colonies there is a uniform rate; to South Australia (with one exception, to Port Augusta, seven shillings), six shillings; to Queensland, nine shillings. In Australia each single message consists of ten words only, exclusive of the addresses of sender and receiver.

[114] The following are the heights, at their summits, of all the passes of the Alps available for carriages. Two of them, however, are not carriage roads throughout their entire extents—the Little St. Bernard and the Great St. Bernard. Commencing at the Western extremity the height of the Col di Tenda is 5,890 feet; Mont Genevre, 5,850; Mont Cenis, 6,658; Little St. Bernard, 6,780; Great St. Bernard, 8,200; Simplon, 6,636; St. Gothard, 6,808; Benardine, 7,115; Splugen, 6,940; Stelvio, 9,272; Brenner 4,650. These passes are referred to, _ante_, at pages 8 to 13.

Mr. John Ball, late President of the Alpine Club, in the Indices to his two Guides for the Western and Central Alps (1863 and 1866) enumerates 370 Alpine Passes for the former, and 239 for the latter. The following are the names and heights of those exceeding 9,500 feet:—On the Western Alps, the Col d’Argentière, 12,556 feet; Blanchet, 9,544; De Bréona, 9,574; De Collon, 10,269; Cristillan, 9,771; Cula, 10,076; Dora Blanche, 11,668; Pas de la Forcetta, 9,898; Galambre, 10,200; Garin, 10,393; Grancron, 11,034; Lauzon, 9,500; Levornea, nearly 10,000; Pas de Lore, 10,049; Maison Blanche, 11,212; Grand Motte, about 11,500; Nenaude, 10,036; Del Color del Porco, 9,604; Des Rayes Noires, 9,680; Mont Rouge, 10,958; Jeleccio, 9,600; Torrent, 9,593; Traversette, about 10,000; Turbat 9,800; Vacornère, 10,335; Val Pellina, 11,687; Zwischenbergen, 10,742.

Those among the central Alps are Passo di Boudo, about 10,000; Capütschin, about 10,600; Cercen, 10,030; Diavolezza, 9,670; Diavolo, 9,541; Fex Forcla, 10,112; Forus, 11,100; Hohenferner, 10,000; Jungfrau, 11,095; Langenferner, 10,765; Lobbia Alta, 9,956; Lobbia Bassa, 9,541; Lötschen Lücke, 10,512; Madritseh, 10,252; Matsch, 10,750; Oberaar, 10,264; Orteler, 11,000; Peter’s Grat, 10,550; Presena, 9,647; Salet, 9,565; Scerscen, 9,912; Sforzellino, 9,950; Strahleck, 10,994; Sterla, 9,515; Zufrid, 9,905.

Mr. Ball also enumerates 398 peaks or mountains in the Western Alps, and 685 in the central.

[115] During the progress of these sheets through the press, we lighted upon the following most interesting account of “Holborn Past and Present,” in the _Morning Advertiser_ Newspaper. Its introduction here, will, we are sure, not be considered inappropriate.

“Perhaps no part of London has undergone such an alteration and business-like remodelling within the last few years as High Holborn, consequent on the construction of the Holborn Viaduct and other contemplated improvements. A few particulars relating to this locality, therefore, may not be thought, perhaps, uninteresting at the present time to our readers.

“Holborn extends from the north end of Farringdon Street to Broad Street, Bloomsbury. It was anciently called Oldbourne, from being built upon the side of a brook or bourne, which Stow says ‘broke out of the ground about the place where now the Bars do stand, and ran down the whole street till Oldbourne-bridge, and into the river of the Wells or Turnemill-brook.’ Holborn was first paved in 1417, at the expense of Henry V., when the highway ‘was so deep and miry that many perils and hazards were thereby occasioned, as well to the King’s carriages passing that way as to those of his subjects.’ By this road criminals were conveyed from Newgate and the Tower to the gallows at St. Giles’s and Tyburn; whither a ride in the cart ‘up the heavy hill’ implied going to be hung, in Ben Jonson’s time. As an instance of the way persons were conducted to the place of execution in by-gone times, we can quote Swift’s lines:—

‘As clever Tom Clinch, while the rabble was bawling,
Rode stately through Holborn to die of his calling,
He stopt at the George for a bottle of sack,
And promised to pay for it when he came back.’

And as to the lessons of morality taught in those days, it is said that an old councillor in Holborn used every execution-day to turn out his clerks with this compliment,—‘Go, ye young rogues; go to school and improve.’

“The average annual amount of traffic between Fetter Lane and the Old Bailey, which has been increasing rapidly during the last thirty years, was in 1838 assumed to be 20,000,000 pedestrians, 871,640 equestrians, 157,572 hackney coaches, 372,470 carts and waggons, 78,876 stages, 82,256 carriages, 135,842 omnibuses, 460,110 chaises and taxed carts, and 352,942 cabs. It was Alderman Skinner, who built Skinner Street, that first proposed to construct a bridge from Snow Hill across the valley to Holborn Hill, and part of the late Mr. Charles Pearson’s plan was to lift the valley seventeen feet.

“On the north side of Holborn Hill, approaching Farringdon Street, is Ely Place. All that remains of this once celebrated Palace, anciently called Ely House, which was then the town mansion of the Bishops of Ely, is the Chapel of St. Etheldreda. The crypt of this chapel during the interregnum became a kind of military canteen, and was subsequently used as a public cellar to vend drink in. It is now a Welsh Church, at the entrance being written—

‘Y.R. E.G.L.W.Y.S. C.Y.M.R.A.E.G.’

underneath

‘St. Etheldreda’s Chapel.’

“Evelyn records the consecration here of Dr. Wilkins, Bishop of Chester, in 1668, when the famous Dr. Tillotson preached; and here, on the 27th April, 1693, Evelyn’s daughter Susannah, was married to William Draper, Esq., by Dr. Tenison, then Bishop of Lincoln.

“At the south-east corner of Middle Row (now in course of demolition), Sir James Branscomb kept a lottery office sixty years ago; and at the ‘Golden Anchor,’ Holborn Bars, Dr. Johnson lived in 1748.

“At Ely House, ‘Old John of Gaunt, time-honoured Lancaster’ died, February 13, 1399, and Shakspeare has made it the scene of Lancaster’s last interview with Richard II. Here were kept divers feasts by the serjeants-at-law in olden times. At an entertainment given by them in 1495, Henry VII. was present with his Queen; and again in 1531, on the occasion of his making eleven new serjeants, Henry VIII. and Queen Katherine were banqueted here with great splendour, ‘wanting little of a feast at a coronation,’ and open house was kept for five days. In 1576, at the mandatory request of Queen Elizabeth, Bishop Cox leased to Sir Christopher Hatton, for twenty-one years, the greater portion of the demesne, on payment at Midsummer-day of a red rose, ten loads of hay, and £10 per annum, the Bishop reserving to himself and his successors the right of walking in the gardens and gathering twenty bushels of roses yearly. Hatton largely improved the estate, and then petitioned the Queen to require the Bishop to make over the whole property, whereupon ensued the Bishop’s remonstrance, and the Queen’s threat to ‘unfrock’ him.(A) In 1578, the whole property was conveyed to Hatton, and Elizabeth further retaliated by keeping the See of Ely vacant for eighteen years from the death of Bishop Cox, in 1591.