Many other officers in India, both in the Engineers and other arms of the service, coincide with the opinion of Col. Warren; but we confine ourselves to a short extract from the letter of Captain Goodwyn, Garrison Engineer, and Civil Architect of Fort William, and Superintendent of suspension bridges and iron roofing.

[To the Government, in the conveyance of military stores, troops, officers and mails, the benefits are really so numerous and of such magnitude, that the merits of each individual case requires more detail than is here necessary. Suffice it to say, that the estimated gains have been entered into, and are enormous, both in a financial and military view; whilst the statistical returns of the number of passengers and of the traffic on the line between Calcutta and Allahabad, of which, I believe, you have the particulars, sufficiently confirm what I have advanced on that head.]

In addition to the facts and opinions which have been stated, drawn from the evidence of the Quartermaster-General of the Army before a select committee of the House of Commons, the more recent testimony of that officer and General Burgoyne before the Gauge Commission, the Calcutta Review, and officers in the service of the Honourable East India Company, we close these extracts on the political and military importance of railways in India, by transferring to our pages the following corroborative testimony of Mr. Williamson, late Revenue Commissioner, Bombay, con

tained in a printed letter recently addressed to Lord Wharncliffe, as Chairman of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway Company.

"In Europe the importance of a railway as a military work is limited to the speed and comfort with which large bodies of troops may be conveyed to their destination; but in India its value is enhanced by the mode in which it would spare the health and save the lives of European troops.

"The saving of human life and the increase of efficiency in the men would of themselves be a sufficient argument in favour of such a mode of transit; but setting aside all considerations of humanity, the mere pecuniary saving would be very great. It is well known, that every recruit landed in India costs the Company one hundred and ten pounds, which sum is considerably increased before he is dismissed from drill and fit for service, so that the saving of every single life becomes a matter of considerable financial importance.'

The cogency of Mr. Williamson's remarks regarding the pecuniary advantage which would accrue to the state by the safe conveyance of troops must be strikingly apparent to all acquainted with the tedious and dangerous navigation of the Ganges.

* Pages 11 and 14 of the letter by T. Williamson, Esq., C S., on the Advantages of Railway Communication in India. (1846).

Three years ago one hundred Europeans perished in this river during a gale, entailing a loss upon the government of upwards of ten thousand pounds.

Leaving these facts to the consideration of those interested in the stability of the British dominion in the East, and merely alluding to the great facilities which the government would derive from safe and rapid transit of their treasure and despatches, the comparative ease with which the present necessarily cumbrous machinery of government might be wielded or reformed, both for the administration of justice, and the collection of revenue in the more distant provinces, the stimulus that would be felt immediately in every department of the public service, by being brought almost into contact with the seat of supreme authority; the active and efficient supervision of which would elicit more fully the highest and best qualities of their servants, improve the revenue, and be a blessing to the people.

Provided with this additional source of energy and strength, should an enemy again be rash enough to threaten our territory, he would find that territory surrounded, as with a wall of iron, bristling with British bayonets, our munitions of war at hand, and our guns in position.

Works so formidable to our enemies, so useful to ourselves, how calculated to impress surrounding nations with the intelligence, the resources, and the power of the paramount authority in India!

SOCIAL AND COMMERCIAL ADVANTAGES

OP

RAILWAYS IN BRITISH INDIA.

"There be three things," says Lord Bacon, "which make a nation great and prosperous, a fertile soil, busy workshops, and easy conveyance for men and commodities from one place to another."

"Railways are, assuredly, next to the invention of printing, the most powerful instrument of civilization that the ingenuity of man has ever devised. It is difficult, if not impossible, to foresee and define the results which they must, of necessity, at some period produce on the fate of nations."*

The knowledge of the value of time, the commercial benefits and social amelioration which flow from improved intercommunication, are now becoming gene

* Address to the Chamber of Deputies by the French Minister of public works. (1816).

rally known and justly appreciated, and it will not have escaped the observation of the attentive reader of history, that the march of nations in general improvement, enterprise, and the acquisition of riches, has been accelerated, or retarded, in a nearly exact ratio with the means afforded them of exchanging ideas and commodities within their own territory, and extending their relations with neighbouring and more remote countries.

The means of transit besides constituting a chief element in collecting data on which to base a true estimate of the progress of society, operate alternately as the cause and effect of civilization and prosperity. The formation of roads invariably tends to improve the most barbarous district, to evolve its resources and ameliorate the condition of its inhabitants, while the converse is alike certain in result. A country rich in agricultural, manufacturing or mineral wealth, with a people whose energies are awakened to the incalculable benefits which accrue to commerce from the easy and rapid interchange of commodities, demands increased facilities of transit, taxing to the utmost science, experience, and skill to keep pace with its requirements,

The state of internal communication of a country then bears a direct relation to and is co-equal with the progress of its people in general improvement, good roads and other means of transit being the infallible signs-because the certain consequences of civilization