FOOTNOTES: (continued 2)

“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.”

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.

“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.

“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.”

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.

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.

“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.”

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.

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.

“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.

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.

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.

“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.

“An old map, still in existence, shows the vineyard, meadow, kitchen garden, and orchard of Ely Place, to have extended northward from Holborn Hill to Hatton Wall and Vine Street, and east and west from Saffron Hill to nearly as far as Leather Lane; but except a cluster of houses (Ely Rents), on Holborn Hill, the surrounding ground was entirely open and unbuilt on. The Bishops of Ely made several attempts to recover the entire property, but during the imprisonment of Bishop Wren by the Long Parliament, most of the palatial buildings were taken down, and upon the garden were built Hatton Garden, Great and Little Kirby Streets, Charles Street, Cross Street, and Hatton Wall. During the interregnum, Hatton House and offices were used as a prison and hospital. In 1772 the estate was purchased by the Crown; a town house was built for the Bishops of Ely in Dover Street, Piccadilly; and the present Ely Place was built about 1775, the Chapel remaining on the west side. At Ely House was arranged the grand masque given by the four Inns of Court to Charles I. and Queen Henrietta Maria at Whitehall on Candlemas-day, 1634, at a cost of £21,000, when the masquers, horsemen, musicians, dancers, with the grand committee, including the great lawyers, Whitelocke, Hyde (afterwards Lord Clarendon), and Selden, went in procession by torchlight from Ely House, down Chancery Lane, along the Strand, to Whitehall.

“Holborn, in past times, was famed for its fruit gardens. Before 1597, John Gerrard, ‘citizen and surgeon,’ had a large physic garden near his house in Holborn, where he raised 1,100 plants and trees—‘a proof,’ says Oldys, ‘that our ground could produce other fruits besides hips and haws, acorns and pig-mess.’ Baldwin’s Gardens were so named after Richard Baldwin, one of the Royal gardeners, who began building here in 1589. Gray’s Inn Gardens were laid out under the direction of Lord Bacon, and in these gardens he erected a summer-house, where it is probable he frequently mused upon the subjects of those great works which have rendered his name immortal. At the corner of Furnival’s Inn, and in Queen Street, Cheapside, Mr. Edward Kidder, the famous pastry-cook, who died in 1739, had two schools, in which he taught 6,000 ladies the art of making pastry.

“The Holborn end of Fetter-lane was formerly a place of execution. Proceeding farther eastward we come to a part which was once supposed to be the worst part of London, and where stood Field Lane, described as ‘an infamous rookery of the dangerous classes,’ which extended from the foot of Holborn Hill northward, parallel with the Fleet Ditch. In 1844 was taken down the first part of Old Chick Lane, which turned into Field Lane. Here was a notorious thieves’ lodging-house, which was formerly the ‘Red Lion’ Tavern, where were various contrivances for concealment, and the Fleet Ditch in the rear, across which the pursued often escaped by a plank into the opposite knot of courts and alleys. But these places, in common with the Fleet Prison, are now nearly forgotten. Dickens, writing about Field Lane in 1837, thus describes it:—‘It is a commercial colony of itself—the emporium of petty larceny, visited, at early morning and setting-in of dusk, by silent merchants, who traffic in dark back parlours, and go as strangely as they come.’

“Skinner Street and Snow Hill would hardly now be recognised by their old inhabitants. Skinner Street, extending from Newgate Street to Holborn Hill, was built at the commencement of the present century, to avoid the circuit of Snow Hill. In Skinner Street, in 1817, was hung Cashman the sailor, who had joined a mob in plundering a gunsmith’s shop (No. 58). At the sign of the ‘Star’ on Snow Hill, at the house of his friend Mr. Strudwick, a grocer, died on the 12th of August, 1688, the famous John Bunyan, and was buried in that friend’s vault in Bunhill-fields burial-ground.

“The foregoing are only a few of the many interesting circumstances connected with this immediate locality; and no doubt, as improvements rapidly progress, very little of this portion of ‘Old London’ will be allowed to remain standing, and large mercantile buildings will be erected on the few spots where small tenements are now standing, and Holborn will be only a reminiscence of the past.”

^(A) Sir Harris Nicolas, in his life of Sir Christopher Hatton, written to expose and disprove the almost innumerable blunders of Lord Campbell in his lives of the Chancellors of England, gives the exact words of this celebrated letter.

“Proud Prelate, I understand you are backward in complying with your agreement; but I would have you to know that I who made you what you are, can unmake you; and if you do not forthwith fulfil your engagement by G—— d, I will immediately unfrock you.

“Yours, as you demean yourself,

“ELIZABETH.”

“With many a curve my banks I fret, By many a field and fallow,

And many a fairy foreland set With willow, weed, and mallow:

“I slip, I slide, I gleam, I glance, Among my skimming swallows,

I make the netted sunbeams dance Against my sandy shallows,

I chatter, chatter, as I flow, To join the brimming river,

For men may come, and men may go, But I go on for ever.”

Mr. J. M. Heppel, C.E., declining to enter into criticism or controversy upon this point, and doubting the necessity of using sand with the Fell engine, unless in very limited and exceptional cases, proceeds to state, in answer to the assertion, that its vertical and horizontal wheels would not act together:—“The vertical and horizontal wheels of Mr. Fell’s engine are all driven from one pair of cylinders, and so coupled that they must all revolve exactly together; so that, abstracting for a moment from the slip or scrub of the vertical wheels which takes place on curves, if one slips they must all slip; and so long as the total adhesion is sufficient to take up the power, it is a matter of very little importance how it is distributed among them.

“The adhesion of the vertical wheels is due to the weight of the engine, and for any given condition of the rails, is a constant quantity. On the other hand, the adhesion of the horizontal wheels is, within its maximum limit, completely under control, and is given by a powerful screw motion, acting upon springs, which keep them always pressed against the rail with a force practically uniform. Notwithstanding any small inequalities of dimensions, all therefore that is requisite in ascending a heavy incline, is to set up the screws till the adhesion of the horizontal wheels makes up with that of the vertical ones, the total amount required for utilising the traction power of the engine.

“One obvious advantage of this arrangement is that it admits of all improvements of construction by which an engine, at the same time powerful and light, is obtained, a most important point on steep gradients, where gravitation is so formidable an obstacle, and one which has, as far as I am aware, been obtained by no other system in a way to be practically useful.

“Another great advantage is the power of regulating the adhesion to suit the requirements of the case, thereby avoiding superfluous and useless friction, which is always the necessary concomitant of adhesion; and when the latter is in excess must, so far as it goes, both absorb the power uselessly, and wear out the machinery unnecessarily.

“I will not enter into a discussion with regard to the polishing of the rails by the breaks, and the consequent loss of adhesion. I believe that adhesion depends much more on the accidental condition of the rails, due to atmospheric causes, than on any permanent mechanical condition of their surface; but, at any rate, that quite sufficient adhesion will always be obtainable by the means I have endeavoured to describe, to what ever state of polish the rails may have attained.”

“The precautions taken with the tunnelling were: never to leave the earth resting upon the bars longer than absolutely necessary; to build the crown bars into the work, instead of withdrawing them, as is usually done in less important places; to select the hardest and best bricks, and to have them set in Portland cement, under careful and independent inspection on the part of the Engineers, the Contractors, and the Crystal Palace Company. The average thickness of the brickwork at this part, consisting of nine rings in the arch, five in the invert and side walls, was 3 feet 9 inches. The general shape of the tunnel was a semi-ellipse, 24 feet wide by 16 high.

“No settlement took place, nor was the Water Tower at all affected, although at other portions of the tunnel a small motion of the side walls took place, by their slightly approaching each other, with some crushing of the brickwork.”—Extract from Letter of G. H. Phipps, Esq., to the Author, dated the 16th of October, 1867.

French engineers construct tunnels on curves more than has been the practice of English engineers. One tunnel, that of Vierzon, 208 metres long, is on a reversed curve, one radius being 1,093 yards, and the other 1,366 yards.

Mr. Daft proposes four pairs of engines of the collective power of 2,400 horses for his boats, to receive which there are to be special floating harbours at Dieppe and at Newhaven, so arranged that the trains can at once be put on the deck of the vessels at the departure harbour, and landed at that of arrival without disturbing passengers or luggage. Mr. Daft makes up his figures as follows:—Expenditure on capital account £1,000,000; 600,000 passengers during the year at 5s. each, £150,000; 300,000 tons of merchandise at 8s. each, £120,000; gross probable receipts £270,000. Per contra, wages of crew, £4,680; coals, 15,200 tons for twelve voyages per week, £11,250; stores, light dues and pilotage, £920; interest at 5 per cent. on capital £50,000; insurance, repairs, and depreciation, £100,000, making a gross annual expenditure of £166,850, thus showing a divisible profit (besides the 5 per cent. interest on the million of capital) of £103,150. We sincerely hope that the shareholders may find it, if ever these vessels and harbours be constructed. The only objection we shall dare to offer to the plan is the possible inconvenience to which a gallant male passenger may be subjected when a lady, whom he had perhaps found a most charming conversational compagnionne de voyage on terra firma, may all of a sudden, in a rough sea, ask him to be so good as to hand her the basin!

“The one cylinder which alone was at work during my visit produced a strong current through the heading, and a perceptible current almost up to the face of the excavation. I learnt that a fan ventilator was employed to produce similar effects on the Italian side.”

“At length the terms of a new contract for the conveyance of the India and China mails have been arranged with the Peninsular and Oriental Company, and the new service, which will come into operation in February next, will be organised on a basis which in most respects must be considered very satisfactory. The contract is for a longer period than the previous one, and its terms are much higher. The Marseilles route will still be adhered to, and between that port and Alexandria there will be a weekly direct line of steamers in conjunction with a weekly line between Suez and Bombay. The Bombay mails will be made up in London each Friday evening, and the service abroad will be arranged with a view to insure the delivery of the homeward mails in London on Monday morning. There will be a fortnightly service between Suez and Calcutta and China, connecting at Galle, as at present; and the mails for these places will be despatched with every alternate Bombay mail. In like manner the homeward China and Calcutta mail will be timed to reach Suez simultaneously with every alternate Bombay steamer. In short, the China mail in future will be a fortnightly one, instead of twice in the calendar month; it will be despatched every alternate Friday, and delivered here, all circumstances being favourable, every alternate Monday. On this side of the Isthmus the whole system will consist of a weekly vessel between Marseilles and Alexandria direct, with another to and from Southampton, touching at Malta as at present. It will be observed that no contract has been made for a line between Brindisi and Alexandria; as the port of Brindisi could not be substituted entirely for Marseilles, an extra service has been decided against, on the score of outlay. The Australian mail will be once in every four weeks, joining the China steamer at Galle, as at present. The advantages of the scheme are obvious. The uncertain intervals between the making up of the mails, owing to the difference in the lengths of the months and the intervention of Sundays, disappear in favour of a system of regularity and fixed days. The partial amalgamation of the two services cannot fail to have a favourable effect in promoting increased punctuality in the delivery of the inward mails. The days selected for despatch and arrival are beyond doubt the most suitable ones. And it is satisfactory to know that the new era we are about to enter upon is a permanent and not an experimental one. It will be observed that the existing system of one line between Suez and Calcutta, and another between Bombay and China, with transhipment at Galle, is still to be retained, instead of giving place to the direct trunk line from Suez to Hongkong that we have always advocated. We must, however, rest content with this arrangement for the present, as the outlay involved by the direct line is more than the Post Office will sanction. We are assured, however, that the boat from Calcutta will always be despatched in time to avoid the possibility of detention to the China mail. It will be seen that the new service, however satisfactory in itself, will not harmonise with the French line at all; indeed, if the Messageries steamers continue to be despatched on the 19th of the month, probably in most cases the facilities at present offered by the French mail will be absolutely nullified. We imagine, however, that the French company will find it expedient to make a corresponding alteration by despatching their vessels on a given day in every fourth week, so as to bring their departure midway between two of the Peninsular and Oriental mails. We trust some such arrangement as this will be urged by our own Government on that of France. We may add that Saturday is the day fixed for both arrival and departure of the Southampton steamers, and that the duration of stay at Singapore, and the question of calling at Penang, are still undecided.”

By the now existing contract the company have a subsidy of £230,000 per annum, equal to about 4s. 6d. per nautical mile. By the new contract the subsidy will be £400,000 per annum, or at the rate of 6s. 1d. per mile. There are two new and special conditions attached to the contract. It is to be for twelve years instead of six, as heretofore; and when the net profits of the company exceed 8 per cent., a fourth of the surplus is to go to the Post Office, it being understood, on the other hand, that when the dividend sinks, from unavoidable causes, below 6 per cent., the subsidy is to be raised to an amount that will cover the deficiency, but it is not, in any case, to exceed £500,000 a year.