[77] The oldest of the great public schools, or “grammar” schools, of England is Winchester, founded in 1381 by William of Wykeham, a Bishop of Winchester, the year after he had founded “New College,” Oxford. There is no doubt, however, that Winchester school, in its original shape, is of much greater antiquity than the time of William of Wykeham, some authorities tracing its existence to the introduction of Christianity into Britain. It has the only English motto of all our great public schools, “Manners makyth man.” Royalty frequently visited the school for the first two hundred years after Wykeham’s endowment. In 1570, Queen Elizabeth pleasantly asked one of the scholars whether he had ever endured the famous Winton birching. He happily replied from the “Æneid,”

“Infandum, Regina, jubes renovare dolorem,”

which produced a most gracious smile from Her Majesty.

Eton College was founded by Henry VI. The Procuratory is dated the 12th September, 1441; but the Charter is dated twenty-nine days later—on the 11th October; and the royal endowment was not completed until 1443. The most pious, but most unfortunate, of English sovereigns took the warmest interest in the success of the school, and whenever he heard of any of the boys visiting his officers and attendants at Windsor Castle, he would send for them, and admonish them to follow the paths of virtue; besides his words, he would give them money to win over their good will, saying to them “Sitis boni pueri; mites et docibiles, et servi Domini.” “Be good boys, be gentle and docile, and servants of the Lord.” The motto of Eton is, “Floreat Etona.”

John Colet, Dean of St. Paul’s, founded St. Paul’s School in 1509. The motto is “Doce, Disce, et Discede.”

Westminster School (the motto of which is “In patriam populum que”) was established in its present shape by Henry VIII.; but it existed as a school even in the time of Edward the Confessor. The Letters Patent of Queen Elizabeth, who took an interest in the school from the patronage bestowed upon it by her father, are the oldest extant about it. They bear date the 11th of June, 1560.

Rugby School, founded by Laurence Sheriff, grocer and citizen of London, celebrated the tricentenary of its existence on the 26th of June, 1867, with Dean Stanley, of Westminster, as President. Rugby’s motto is, “Nihil sine Laborando.”

The Royal Grammar School of Shrewsbury was founded by the Corporation of the town in 1549; and in two years afterwards obtained from Edward VI. for its endowment, a portion of the estates of the dissolved collegiate churches. Its motto is “Intus si recte, ne labora.”

Edward VI. founded several grammar schools, the first of which was that of Norwich, but his name is more intimately associated with that of Christ’s Hospital, London (popularly known as the Blue Coat School), than with any other. He died on the 6th July, 1553, having just one month previously signed its charter of incorporation. Christ’s Hospital is without a motto.

The foundation of the Merchant Tailors’ School is due to the wisdom and munificence of the ancient “Company of the Marchaunt Tailors,” which, according to Stow, has been a guild or fraternity from time immemorial. The statutes of the School, which has for a motto “Homo plantat, homo irrigat, sed Deus dat incrementum,” were authorised and sanctioned on the 24th September, 1561.

The motto of Harrow is “Stet fortuna domus.”

The site upon which Charterhouse School stands was purchased by Thomas Sutton in 1611 from Thomas Earl of Suffolk, fourth son of the fourth Duke of Norfolk (beheaded in Queen Elizabeth’s reign), for the establishment of a hospital for the support of poor and aged people, and a free school for the maintenance and education of poor children. Letters patent to carry out both these objects were immediately granted by James I.; the motto is “Floreat Æternum Carthusiana Domus.” For full particulars of these schools see “The Great Schools of England,” by Howard Staunton; and for details concerning the early history of Eton College, and of all authors who have written respecting it previous to 1858, Vols. 1 and 2 of the “Annals of Windsor,” by Messrs. R. R. Tighe and J. E. Davis, should be consulted.

[78] Byron has left us the following recollection of his Harrow School-boy days:—

Ye scenes of my childhood, whose loved recollections
Embitter the present, compared with the past;

Whence science first dawned on the powers of reflection,
And friendships were formed too romantic to last;

Where fancy yet joys to retrace the resemblance
Of comrades in friendship and mischief allied;

How welcome to me your ne’er-fading remembrance,
Which rests in the bosom, though hope is denied!

Again I revisit the hills where we sported,
The streams where we swam, and the fields where we fought;

The school where, loud warned by the bell, we resorted,
To pore o’er the precepts by pedagogues taught.

Again I behold where for hours I have ponder’d,
As, reclining at eve, on yon tombstone I lay;

Or round the steep brow of the churchyard I wander’d,
To catch the last gleam of the sun’s setting ray.

I once more view the room, with spectators surrounded,
Where, as Zanga, I trod on Alonzo overthrown;

While to swell my young pride, such applauses resounded,
I fancied that Mossop himself was outshone;

Or, as Lear, I poured forth the deep imprecation,
By my daughters of kingdoms and reason deprived;

Till, fired by loud plaudits and self-adulation,
I regarded myself as Garrick revived.

Ye dreams of my boyhood, how much I regret you!
Unfaded your memory dwells in my breast;

Though sad and deserted, I ne’er can forget you,
Your pleasures may still be in fancy possest.

To Ida full oft may remembrance restore me,
While fate shall the shades of the future unroll!

Since darkness o’ershadows the prospect before me,
More dear is the beam of the past to my soul.

But if through the course of the years which await me,
Some new scene of pleasure should open to view,

I will say, while with rapture the thought shall elate me,
“Oh, such were the days which my infancy knew.”

Byron used to lay on the tombstone above referred to for hours, when labouring, even as a boy, under those morbid excitements that embittered his comparatively short life. It is still called “Byron’s Tombstone.”

[79] Subjoined is Sir Francis Head’s description of the Wolverton Refreshment Rooms as they were in their palmy days:—

“In dealing with the British Nation, it is an axiom among those who have most deeply studied our noble character, that to keep John Bull in beaming good humour it is absolutely necessary to keep him always quite full. The operation is very delicately called ‘refreshing him;’ and the London and North-Western Railway Company having, as in duty bound, made due arrangements for affording him, once in about every two hours, this support, their arrangements not only constitute a curious feature in the history of railway management, but the dramatis personæ we are about to introduce, form, we think, rather a strange contrast to the bare arms, muscular frames, heated brows, and begrimed faces of the sturdy workmen of railways.

“The Refreshment Establishment at Wolverton is composed of—1. A matron or generalissima. 2. Seven very young ladies to wait upon the passengers. 3. Four men and three boys, ditto ditto. 4. One man-cook, his kitchen-maid, and his two scullery-maids. 5. Two housemaids. 6. One still-room maid, employed solely in the liquid duty of making tea and coffee. 7. Two laundry-maids. 8. One baker, and one baker’s boy. 9. One garden-boy; and lastly, what is most significantly described in the books of the establishment—10. ‘An odd-man.’

“‘Homo sum, humani nihil à me aliemun puto.’

“There are also eighty-five pigs and piglings, of whom hereafter.

“The manner in which the above list of persons, in the routine of their duty, diurnally revolve in the ‘scrap drum’ of their worthy matron, is as follows:—very early in the morning—in cold winter long before sunrise—‘the odd-man’ wakens the two housemaids, to one of whom is intrusted the confidential duty of awakening the seven young ladies exactly at seven o’clock, in order that their ‘première toilette’ may be concluded in time for them to receive the passengers of the first train, which reaches Wolverton at 7·30 a.m. From that time until the departure of the passengers by the York mail train, which arrives opposite the refreshment room at about eleven o’clock at night, these young persons remain on duty, continually vibrating, at the ringing of a bell, across the rails (they have a covered passage high above them, but they never use it), from the north refreshment room for down passengers to the south refreshment room, constructed for hungry up-ones. By about midnight, after having philosophically divested themselves of the various little bustles of the day, they all are enabled once again to lay their heads on their pillows, with the exception of one, who in her turn, assisted by one man and one boy of the establishment, remains on duty receiving the money, &c., till four in the morning for the up mail. The young person, however, who in her weekly turn performs this extra task, instead of rising with the others at seven, is allowed to sleep on till noon, when she is expected to take her place behind the long table with the rest.

“The scene in the refreshment room at Wolverton, on the arrival of every train, has so often been witnessed by our readers, that it need hardly be described. As these youthful handmaidens stand in a row behind bright silver urns, silver coffee pots, silver tea pots, cups, saucers, cakes, sugar, milk, with other delicacies over which they preside, the confused crowd of passengers simultaneously liberated from the train, hurry towards them with a velocity exactly proportionate to their appetites. The hungriest face first enters the door, ‘magnâ comitante catervâ,’ followed by a crowd very much resembling in eagerness and joyous independence the rush at the prorogation of Parliament of a certain body following their leader from one house to the bar of what they mysteriously call ‘another place.’ Considering that the row of young persons have among them all only seven right hands, with but very little fingers at the end of each, it is really astonishing how, with such slender assistance, they can in the short space of a few minutes manage to extend and to withdraw them so often; sometimes to give a cup of tea, sometimes to receive half-a-crown, of which they have to return two shillings, then to give an old gentleman a plate of warm soup, then to drop another lump of sugar into his nephew’s coffee cup, then to receive a penny for a bun, and then again threepence for four ‘lady’s fingers.’ It is their rule, as well as their desire, never, if they can possibly prevent it, to speak to anyone; and although sometimes, when thunder has turned the milk, or the kitchen-maid over-peppered the soup, it may occasionally be necessary to soothe the fastidious complaints of some beardless ensign by an infinitesimal appeal to the generous feelings of his nature, we mean, by the hundred-thousandth part of a smile, yet they endeavour on no account ever to exceed that harmless dose. But while they are thus occupied at the centre of the refreshment table, at its two ends, each close to a warm stove, a very plain matter-of-fact business is going on, which consists of the rapid uncorking of, and the emptying into large tumblers, innumerable black bottles of what is not inappropriately called ‘stout,’ inasmuch as all the persons who are drinking the dark foaming mixture, wear heavy great-coats, with large wrappers round their necks, in fact are very stout. We regret to have to add, that among these thirsty customers are to be seen, quite in the corner, several silently tossing off glasses of brandy, rum, and gin.

“But the bell is violently calling the passengers to ‘Come! come away!’ and as they have all paid their fares, and as the engine is loudly hissing—attracted by their pockets as well as by their engagements, they soon, like the swallows of the summer, congregate together, and then fly away.

“It appears from the books that the annual consumption at the refreshment room averages 182,500 Banbury cakes; 56,940 Queen’s cakes; 29,200 patés; 36,500 lbs. flour; 13,140 lbs. butter; 2,920 lbs. coffee; 43,800 lbs. meat; 5,110 lbs. currants; 1,277 lbs. tea; 5,840 lbs. loaf sugar; 5,110 lbs. moist sugar; 16,425 quarts of milk; 1,095 quarts of cream; 8,088 bottles of lemonade; 10,416 soda water; 45,012 stout; 25,692 ale; 5,208 ginger beer; 547 port; 2,095 sherry; 666 gin; 464 rum; 2,392 brandy. To the eatables are to be added or driven, the eighty-five pigs, who after having been from their birth most kindly treated and most luxuriously fed, are impartially promoted, by seniority, one after another, into an infinite number of pork pies.

“Having, in the refreshment sketch which we have just concluded, partially detailed at some length, the duties of the seven young persons at Wolverton, we feel it due to them, as well as to those of our readers who, we perceive, have not yet quite finished their tea, by a very few words to complete their history. It is never considered quite fair to pry into the private conduct of any one who performs his duty to the public with zeal and assiduity. The warrior and the statesman are not always immaculate; and although at the opera ladies certainly sing very high, and in the ballet kick very high, it is possible that their voices and feet may reach rather higher than their characters. Considering, then, the difficult duties which our seven young attendants have to perform—considering the temptations to which they are constantly exposed, in offering to the public attentions which are ever to simmer and yet never to boil; it might be expected that our inquiries should considerately go no further than the arrival at 11 p.m. of the ‘up York mail.’ The excellent matron, however, who has charge of these young people—who always dine and live at her table—with honest pride declares, that the breath of slander has never ventured to sully the reputation of any of those who have been committed to her charge; and as this testimony is corroborated by persons residing in the neighbourhood and very capable of observation, we cannot take leave of the establishment without expressing our approbation of the good sense and attention with which it is conducted; and while we give credit to the young ladies for the character they have maintained, we hope they will be gratefully sensible of the protection they have received.” Stokers and Pokers, by the author of “Bubbles from the Brunnen of Nassau.” London: John Murray, Albermarle Street, 1849.

[80] Ladies, it is sometimes dangerous to conceal your exact ages. We will give you a case in point, that only occurred in the summer of the present year. A lady, as far back as 1825, insured her life for the benefit of her relatives. She only died a few months ago; but on coming to compare her age, as given by herself at the time of effecting the insurance, with that on the certificate of births required by the office, to be obtained, after death, from the parish register, it was found that although the lady was in reality 42 years, in 1825, she only owned to 35, and paid premiums on that scale for 42 years. The office, had it been so disposed, might have declared the policy absolutely forfeited. It took a more generous course; the policy was admitted, as a claim, but from the amount that would have come to the legatees, if all had been in order, the difference of premium between 35 and 42, for 42 years, with interest and compound interest thereon, from the period that each premium became due, was deducted. The legatees thus received not more than half the nominal amount stated on the policy.

[81] Both ladies have since been married. “No cards.” Were we a newspaper proprietor, we should charge two and sixpence additional for the two last words of this announcement.

[82] Engineering, of September the 27th, and October the 4th, 1867, contains several extremely well executed views of some of the bridges and viaducts of the Highland Railway. “They are engraved,” says the Editor, “not because of any special peculiarities of their mechanical structure, but mainly on account of the fine character of the abutments and approaches; in short, the artistic qualities of their general design. For variety and originality, for pleasing outline and detail, and for their dignity and their harmony with the associations of the district traversed by the line, these bridges are admirable works in every respect. They have an artistic as distinguished from their merely material character, and they are, notwithstanding, economical structures.”

Mr. Joseph Mitchell, the engineer, by whom the line was constructed, read a paper descriptive of it at the Meeting of the British Association at Dundee in August last. This paper is given in full in Engineering of September the 13th.

[83] Great, and it is hoped successful, efforts are now making to connect the North-East and the North-West of Scotland by a line to be made from Dingwall, eighteen miles beyond Inverness and the most western station of the Highland Railway, through Strathpeffer to Loch Carron, a distance of fifty miles, whence there will be steam communication with the Isle of Skye. The Dingwall and Skye Railway Company has been formed some time, but now, in consequence of the amount of capital subscribed, and the liberality of the landowners, application is to be made for an Act of Parliament to authorise the construction of the line; Mr. Matheson, M.P., is the Chairman of the Company. At the conclusion of its half-yearly meeting, held on the 30th October last, Mr. Kenneth Murray proposed a vote of thanks to the Chairman, Mr. Matheson, M.P., and in doing so, expressed his most cordial good wishes for the prosperity of the Skye Line. “Every thing,” said Mr. Murray, “that lays in my power to promote it as a shareholder and otherwise, I feel it my duty as a Ross-shire man to do, and every one who has the interests of the North of Scotland, and of the people at heart, must sympathise with the efforts made to open up the distant West country. To Mr. Matheson, almost solely, the very high merit of having pushed forward the scheme is due, and I think he has very strong claim on every gentleman, whether proprietor, farmer, or minister even, that they should come forward and assist him in an object so very dear to him, as no line projected for a long time had such a claim on public sympathy and on the purse of the public.” Mr. Matheson, in returning thanks, expressed the hope that by 1870 passengers from Edinburgh and Glasgow might reach Postree, the capital of Skye, in about thirteen hours, and passengers from Inverness in about six hours.

[84] The following is an extract from a speech delivered in October, 1867, by the Rev. Dr. Guthrie, on the occasion of re-opening the parochial schools at Niddrie. “I was once present in a congregation in the town of Thurso, which contained as many as 1,200 people, and, perhaps, you will hardly believe me when I tell you that on that occasion I saw what I never saw before, and what, I am sure, you never saw, and what I hope I shall never see again—I saw 600 people asleep! 600 people asleep! I happened at the time to be living with Sir George Sinclair, a very excellent gentleman, who resides in the immediate neighbourhood of that town. I told him what I had seen in the church. “Oh,” said he, “that is nothing to what I have seen myself; I have seen in almost every pew the whole people asleep, with only here and there an exception.” The Rev. Doctor’s opinion is that the cause of drowsiness in church, during sermon time, is “bad ventilation.” No doubt—— of the subject.

[85] The Post Office traducers of the railway are boastful enough of its services when it suits them to be so. Of Thurso it is thus written, at page 6 of the Postmaster-General’s Eleventh Report (undated)—“The most northern town of Scotland is Thurso, 755 miles distant from London, and the combined effect of these accelerations was to admit of a letter despatched from London on Monday night being delivered in Thurso early on Wednesday morning, and of its reply, if posted about four o’clock on Wednesday afternoon (“about;” is that the way in which letter receptacles are closed in the north of Scotland?), reaching London in time for the first delivery on Friday morning.” As the Post Office chooses to make unfair attacks upon railways, the Post Office must expect retaliation. Therefore, Mr. Seely, of the Admiralty, may we beg you to note there is no end of Post Office “pigs” that can be placed in your hands to work upon, and we beg you to take one, now, to start with. At the commencement of 1867, the department gave the year’s notice it is bound to give, to the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, that its Mediterranean contracts should cease on the 31st of January, 1868. In March, 1867, advertisements were issued inviting tenders for the conveyance of these mails, the service to commence on the 1st of February, 1868. Attached to the form of tender are thirty-eight conditions. By the 31st of these it is stipulated that “the contract shall not be binding until it has lain on the table of the House of Commons for one month without disapproval, unless, previous to the lapse of that period, it has been approved by a resolution of the House.” We believe we were the first to call the public attention to the fact that, as the day for receiving tenders was Monday, the 16th of September, 1867, and as the new contractors would have to commence on the 1st of February, 1868, they would, in that case, not only incur all the risk of providing vessels and suitable arrangements for carrying on the service for a period that might last six years, but they would have actually commenced it several days before the contract could be laid upon the table of the House of Commons. This was in consequence of the House not usually meeting until the 3rd or 4th of February, and it might not be approved until the same date in the following month.

As soon as the blot had been hit it was discovered by the Post Office. It was therefore determined to postpone the commencement of a new contract for six months. The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Company was applied to, to continue the service for that period. The Company expressed its willingness to comply with the request, upon receiving an advanced price of ten shillings a mile instead of four shillings, the price now paid for the service. Mr. Hunt, the Secretary of the Treasury, in a debate upon this question and upon the attempt of the Post Office to place the conveyance of our eastern mails in the hands of Compagnie des Messageries Impériales de la France, designated the demand of the Company as “preposterous.” Whether that be so or not, the omission on the part of the officials of St. Martin’s-le-Grand, an omission or blunder which a junior clerk in a large commercial establishment would at once be dismissed for being guilty of, is to cost the country rather more than £60,000, equivalent to what the Post Office pays for over two millions miles of railway conveyance for mail bags.

Punch, in its number for the 2nd of November, 1867, has a vignette of Toby holding the envelope of a letter for Lord John Manners, Chief Commissioner of Works, and says, “I will not, for the moment, adopt the tone of my friend, the Pall Mall Gazette, who bitterly says, a new principle governs the performance of official duties in England. Elsewhere, where certain men are appointed to take part in the Government of a country, they understand that they are to do the duties of their offices forthwith. With us the understanding is quite different: no work is to be begun except under such emphatic demand as in private life would answer to the practice of regularly kicking your footman to the coal-scuttle, when the fire needs replenishing.” Punch then reminds His Lordship, that at the commencement of this year it was resolved that the water of the lake in Regent’s Park should be drawn off, the mud of half a century be cleared away, and the lake be rendered shallow and safe for skaters this winter. Punch having learned that, practically, nothing is done as yet, proceeds, “Here I repeat, my dear Lord John, is November. We shall have frost soon, and when the ice forms, the foolish crowds will be rushing upon it. I say no more. The rate at which Government work is done, singularly contrasts with the rate at which private work is performed. But, of course, John Bull’s servants never hurry themselves.” On the 30th of September we wrote to the Post Office, complaining that a letter posted in a London pillar box by a member of our family was not delivered to its address in London in due course. On the 25th of October, an answer comes, the whole gist of which is, that as the letter was not delivered at the time expected, it could not have been posted at the time stated. It is hardly necessary to say, that this allegation is unfounded. On the 2nd of October, and again on the 8th, we wrote to complain of the continuous irregularity in the transmission of our book packets; in one instance a letter to us and a book-packet having been posted at Lombard Street post office, and by the same fingers at the same time. The letter came in two hours and a-half, the packet in 39 hours and 20 minutes. Exactly on the day of our closing this sheet for the press (the 8th November), the promised answer to our complaints was delivered. Mr. Punch may well say, “John Bull’s servants never hurry themselves.” The Post Office not only never hurries itself, but, like Mr. Sturgey, the stockbroker, and other immaculate persons, considers itself always in the right.

[86] The latest advices from India announce the commencement, in November, 1867, of a passenger service between Calcutta and Bombay, which is to be done in 116 hours, or 4 days 20 hours. Of these, 80 are to be by rail and 36 in dâk. The journey by dâk will be between Jubbulpore and Nagpore, but the latter station will cease to be on the line of railway communication between Calcutta and Bombay when the existing gap is completed. Eighty hours in the railway seem very long, especially as it is intended, when the through line is opened, to run the whole distance between the two capitals in forty-four hours. The fares for the temporary service are to be 231 rupees (£23. 2s.) first class, 165 rupees (£16. 10s.) second class. Passengers, whether first or second, pay 100 rupees (£10) each by dâk between Jubbulpore and Nagpore.

[87] Can it be possible that the two following paragraphs, the first copied by Engineering from an Indian journal, the second an original article—correctly represent “Travelling in India” at the present time, or even recently?

“Proceeding to the Calcutta terminus of the East Indian Railway, a line 1,000 miles in extent, we find a wretched little building with brick flooring and no punkahs, where tickets are so slowly issued as to raise doubts as to how the demands of a Derby-day would be discharged. Scores of coolies dash down upon our boxes, and, after much altercation, succeed in carrying them off. The waiting-rooms resemble lock-ups intended for the worst species of pick-pockets, and are simply uninhabitable. Parcel’s office, book-stalls, refreshment rooms, and other and more necessary conveniences are wanting. As there is no accommodation for any class of traveller, the public sit and stand about the verandahs and covered ways, choking the approaches, thus rendering impossible any attempt at order. The railway staff, represented by baboos and a few lounging slovenly policemen—there are no porters—are swallowed up in the crowd, whilst the two English sergeants content themselves with keeping the carriage-ways clear. All care appears to cease after the traveller has committed himself to the hands of the East India Railway. By-and-by the steam ferry-boat arrives, bells ring, and the living stream pours and crushes down a covered path, which, stopping suddenly, leaves some thirty or forty paces of open platform, upon which the sun and rain beat uninterruptedly, inconveniencing children, delicate women, old age, invalids, and what not. We are not in the least surprised; thirteen years of neglect has accustomed us to this sort of thing. Immediately afterwards, the Howrah side of the Hooghly is reached, and another uncovered platform presents itself; and if the crushing has hitherto been excessive, the natives being hustled and driven together like sheep, what shall be said of the scene at the Howrah station platform—a narrow stone terrace of considerable length, where other crowds of travellers are already collected and arriving, shrieking and gesticulating? A dense mass of natives, from which an Englishman, by pure muscular power, may occasionally be seen to break, flows onwards, and fills the railway carriages to overflowing. Resistance is out of the question. The pressure onward and inward towards the train, by a simple law of gravity, accomplishes the desired end amid cries and protestations, and forces the human units into acquiescence and the railway carriages. Anything is preferable to being left behind, and such is the option offered to four-fifths of the travelling native population of India. Whether the crowd be great or small, we have never known it considered necessary, so remarkable is the elasticity of the carriages, to afford extra accommodation. Nothing is impossible to the policeman’s baton and the brutality of a station-master, not even death itself. Last year no less than seven or eight corpses, if we remember rightly, were taken from the carriages of this line alone—victims to a barbarous system of overpacking. How many subsequently die from exhaustion will never be known. Men and women are often so crushed in third-class carriages as to be compelled to remain standing for the entire length of a journey, sometimes 400 or 500 miles, and at the hottest season of the year. Scenes daily occur at our Indian railway stations which make an Englishman’s blood burn with shame and anger, not that natives should oppress natives, but that his countrymen should be guilty of, and tolerate in others, acts at once unjust, cowardly, and inhuman; for, as the confusion subsides, many railway officials may be discerned, some on duty, others from the adjoining offices, all connected with the line—all supremely indifferent to its proper management—all smoking, spitting, and gossiping.

“By the time the train has reached Sahibgunge and Jumalpore, this free-and-easy behaviour has passed into absolute rowdyism and terrorism. At one station some respectable natives, travelling by second class are permitted to be insulted and dragged from their carriage by a drunken barrack-sergeant. At another, villagers who had been forced into intermediate class carriages, in course of being knocked about by policemen, are crying and protesting against being charged a fare not voluntarily incurred. Nowhere are the natives treated otherwise than as wild beasts. Tickets for distances under those paid for are constantly issued to the ignorant; and the possession of a small bundle too frequently, under threat of arrest, necessitates the payment of a douceur. These, and hundreds of similar occurrences, are forced upon the attention of the most unobservant European traveller in the course of a few stages. Much remains unseen. With the exception of the private rooms of station-masters, generally extravagantly furnished for men drawing small salaries, five stations out of six are filthy and altogether uncared for, useless to the public, and a disgrace to the line. In all the distance between Calcutta and Delhi, the railway traveller is only reminded of travelling at home by the unbroken absence of every pleasure he has been accustomed to associate with that species of progression. If he has not suffered personally, or not excessively, he has witnessed the sufferings of others more poor and humble, and to a right-thinking Englishman the difference will not appear very material; he will also have witnessed an amount of neglect of, and contempt for, the public such as, we venture to assert, was never before exhibited either in England or abroad.”

“Travelling in India.—In October, 1866, a petition was presented to the Governor-General of India by the British Indian Association of the North-Western Provinces, bearing the signatures of 3,251 persons, praying for the introduction of certain reforms, with a view to affording further and better accommodation for the native travellers, who constitute by far the greatest source of revenue to the railway companies. The construction of railways in India has, as a matter of course, put a stop to the old modes of transit, and the natives have therefore no alternative but to resort to them as a means of conveyance from one place to another; but the accommodation provided for them, either at the stations or in the railway carriages, would, from their complaints, appear to fall far short of what is required.

“One of the principal points to which attention is directed by the memorial is the want of shelter and accommodation at the different stations for third-class passengers. These passengers consist of the poor, the ignorant, and the helpless; many among them are weak and feeble, some sick and old, many women and children. These have always to wait in crowds of hundreds, for several hours at a time, in an open and unsheltered place to purchase their tickets. The few rich and wealthy have waiting-rooms, or the sheltered platform to accommodate them; but the masses of the poor have absolutely no shelter at all. It cannot be expected from these that they should come in only at the proper time, for most of them have but an indefinite idea of time, and a large number come in from surrounding villages and rural districts where no time is kept. But, besides this, the trains themselves arrive so very irregularly—sometimes six hours behind the time—that, without any fault of the passengers, they are compelled to wait; and whilst thus waiting, there is no shelter to be had from the fierce rays of the sun, from the heavy and drenching showers of rain, from the hot winds and clouds of dust, or from the cold cutting blast. In winter, in summer, and in the rains, at all times alike, these masses of weak, ill-clad human beings are left exposed to all the inclemencies of the wind and weather, and suffer and contract diseases which not rarely result in death.

“Another complaint is of the want of proper restaurants for the same class of people, the want of proper nourishment, especially in long journeys, being no less the fruitful source of disease and suffering than the want of proper shelter and accommodation, and, owing to their prejudices of caste, life is often sustained during the railway journeys under great difficulties by the Hindoos and Mohammedans. They also complain of the absence of medical assistance in the event of an accident, and request that some one possessed of medical experience and surgical training may be placed in medical charge of each through train.

“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, Miles.	No. of Journeys.	Total.
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:—