The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-09-23 00:00:00

OPENING OF THE MONT CENIS
TUNNEL.

The formal opening .d the Mutt (ruin tunnel took
place WI SIIII.IIIY. The "inauguration " train, consist-
ing f twenty-two carriages, started from Bardonnechia
at half-past ten in the morning and arrived at Modane
at eleven. The French Home Minister (M. Lefrance),
accompanied by other French officials, was awaiting
the arrival of the train in order to salute the Italian
Ministers and authorities. The festive train returned
to I ((trim muslin at 1101111, and at three o'clock a banquet
wan given to a thousawl persons. The French
Minister, M. Lefranc, the Italian Ministers, and
several distinguished foreigners were present. M. de
Winusat had not arrived in time to take his idain.
Signor Visconti-Venosta track to the prosperity of
France. M. Lefranc. in reply. paid a high tribute to
the scientific and political attainments of the Italians,
and drank to the unit, of France and Italy amid
tremendous applause. Signor De Vincenzi proposed
the health of all participators in the great work ; and
M. Lesiep Ceresole, representative of Switzerland,
congratulated the assembly OD the triumph achieved.
Signor Sella also spoke. M. de 'Lessens drank to the
political 111A1/11 of France and Italy, and Signor Rota
to their commercial union.

Referring to this engineering achievement, The Motel, of
.Ntoonday ho the following leader :
Yesterday witnessed the celebration of what is in
many respects one of the most remarkable of those
triumphs over Nature %elicit are the glory of the pre-
sent age. We are now RI/ familiar with similar under-
takings that we are scarcely aisle to appreciate the
illalllllSo effort oof scientific faith, genius, and patience
which was necessary even to conceive such a work
as the Mont (*rids Tunnel. In former days, how-
ever, any considerable moelification of natural fea-
tures was deemed so utterly beyonol human power
as to be traditionally attributed to some super-
uatund agency. If a mountain gorge were rudely
spanned, even though human 'minis leed undoubtedly
done the work, it would be styled the Devil's
Bridge ; or if mine Ileep cutting- were made in a
hill side, it acquired the name of the Devil's Dyke.
Sometimes a more respectable agency was credited with
the feat ; but such achievements were thought only lit
for spirits, good or eviL On a mountain side near
Grindelwabl there is a spot from which, at a certain
hour, the rays of the sun may be seen to gleam from an
opening in the vast opposing Maas of the Eiger : and
tradition tells that one oof these 'supernatural agents
once rested his back against the nock, where the
depression is still to be seen, awl with his spear
struck and pierced it through. M. etas do not
work so easily, lout the feat of piercing a, moun-
tain has now been performed by man on a male
which might once have seemed beyond the powers
of either saint or deviL A beautiful arrangement of
little spears, incessantly working night and day for
about ten years, has bored a Tunnel sufficiently large
to admit a double line o of rails throwgh the greatest of
European 111111111thill ranges. Of course, an easy place has
been selected ; but the great fact remains that the Alps
have been tunnelled. It is an extraordinary and
memorable achievement. The most formidable kind of
barrier with which Nature has impeded the intercourse
of the human race has been removed, and for purpmetc
! of obstruction the Alps exist no nude. It is now as
easy to cross that vast mountain range as to tra-
verse the most level plain. Apart from its special
value of this achievement opens a new prospect for in-
ternational communications. So long as the only way
of traversing mountains was by crossing the summits
of passes, a snow-covered range would always present
a formideble obstacle to coommeree and to travelling.
Mountains were sterner barriers of division than even
the " diesociating ocean." But the success of the field
great Alpine tunnel removes once anol for all, this limi-
tation of our power, and we may be confident that no
physical obstacles need noow turn aside the great
arteries of modern civilisation from any route along
which it may be worth our while to carry them.
Ni, drawback appears to mar the complete success
of the undertaking. Less than twenty years ago there
were many who thought it impracticable, and the
apprehensions then expressed were such as could only
be dissipated when the work was complete. The
piercing of the mountain might be a mere question of
time and money; but it was said that even when the
Tunnel was made it would not be found practically
available. It is impossible, as in ordinary tunnels, to
carry shafts upwarml through the ocuperincumbent mass,
so that it can only i.e ventilated front its two extremi-
ties, and it Wall feared that in a closed tube seven miles
long the atmosphere would prove insupportable. No I
such inconvenience, however, has been experienced. The !
experhneutal train,s have frequently iGssed thins--h
without the least dimwit& ort to the passengers. There
is said to be abundance of air, and a rather agreeable
increase in the temperature. The experience 14 Lon-
doners in the Metropolitan Railway woould have anti-
cipated a somewhat different result ; but it appears
that a shorter and. far pleasanter journey is needed to
pierce, to run through, the Alps than to get from
Bayswater to the Mansion Rouse. Thoose who have
smelt tedious anti perilom hours in crossing the
old Pass will appreciate the fact that a train has now
run from France into Italy in twenty minutes. Such a
success olows infinite credit to the skill and energy of the
Italians. It should not be forgotten that the work is due
to their initiative, and has been carried out by their
genius and inolustry. It was commenced itm 1557, by the
small State which was to expand into the Kingdom of
Italy, as a means oof communication between Piedmont
anti its ancient pnovince o of Savoy; mil since the an-
nexation, though France has contrilmteol to the expense,
the Italians have continued to execute the works. The
result is a weeopicuous illustration of the mental and
phyeical energy which the Italians still retain, though
it has long lain dormant under adverse political and
commercial cirmunstances. Since the gloomy shadow
of the priesthomol has been lifted from the country it
has been springing up into a vigorous life which must
Place it, iu time, in the first rank of nations. The
people who can conceive, anol carry out with unexpected
promptittele, such a work as the Mont Cenis Tunnel
will in time show themselves capable of any enterprise
which modern necessities anol competition can suggest.
If the Alpe are no (obstacle to them, it is hard to say
what they may not overcome.
They eil7lllot fail too reap an abundant reward for
their exertime, awl the Tunnel is a political and Coln.
mercial noo less than an meffneentig achievement.
Booth in itself, and in the stimulus it will give to
similar works, it must be the means of securing hi
Italy the course of one of the greatest streams ef human
intercourse, auol thus connecting the country still
more closely with the circle of international life.
Italy will -be the main bridge between Europe
and the East, mai the benefit it will thus derive
will be far beyontl the mere toll it may levy
on the traffic. A country through which life is con.
tinually miming cannot, if it centains any reserve of
energy reinain dead, and froth time Alps to Brindisi
Italy will now feel from day to day au incessant
stimulus ta activity. lo th..se who regard Rome as
the centre of the universe, the function of being
EG Cana of communication may appear rather a fall
froom their romantic dreams. But the change will,
in a great measure, represent a supple recurrence
to the ohl conditions of the country. The glories (of
Italy in Christian times were Fssentially toonnected
with the commercial onsultuuttes and genius of its

people. It was the commerce of Genoa and Venice,
and the fact that they monopolized the Eastern trade,
which furnished the wealth of Italian States, and gave
the country the spring of its energ.y. The develop-
ment of new worbbt hal In the East and West, turned
the strewn of life and csminieree in another direction,
and from the moment Italy was thus, like Spain,
left stranded, her decay commenced. She may
now look forward with confidence to a resuscitation
of her old glories, and to the renewal of her national
prosperity on a firm and substantial foundation.
It is natural, moreover, to anticipate a wonderful in-
fluence not merely on Italian, but on European develop-
ment from the free opening of commwahntion between
the Southern Peninsula and the great nations of
Is;ortheni Europe. The principal commerce, however,
that will thus reanimate the old energies of Italy will
be our own. Now that the Alps are annihilated, the
Brindisi route to Alexandria cannot fail to supersede
every other, and both mails and passengers must before
long he transferred to it. Probably without the pros-
pect of such traffic the Tunnel would never have pro-
mised sufficient rumuneration to encourage its construc-
tion, and to that extent we may consider we have a
share in the achievement. 'Mt the benefit conferred on
us will be more than proportionate, and this is another
example of the manner in which every advance in
civilization seems to bring souse advantage to this
country. Every improvement in the means of
comm !ation, wherever effected, is a new instru-
ment in the hands of the country which maintains the
widest communications and depends on the most uni-
versal intercom:4e with the world at large. Whethcr
it is a railway over the Rocky Mountains or under the
Alps, a canal or a tunnel, English commerce is facili-
tated, and the hold of England (.11 her distant poss
si es-
ons is rendered closer and less precarious. e sym-
pathise in such engineering triumphs as that celebrated
yesterday, for they are in harmony with our 01111
genius. hut we have also an intimate concern in their
results, and we must feel some gratitude to those who
have accomplished them. The interests of the two
nations become more closely identified by these mutual
services in the progress of civilization.

The Special Correspondent of The Times, in his de-
scription of the opening festivities, pays the following
well-earned tribute to Italian enteirrise and skill:—
it was isupossible to be is nuns and not to sympathise with
the joy all around us evinced at this splendid result of their
undertaking. The men employed at the tunnel, as well as
the engineers aunt other °therm's, are all Italians, and mostly
Piellmontese. They are the picked men of a brave, strong,
handsome, intelligent race. They have been t4piling together
from 1857 to 1871, lighting against tremendous material hard-
ships, often under circumstances not unlikely to inspire
serious moral depression. But they were sustained Ily a feel-
ing tint was national men more than professional ; they en in-
sidered that the honour of their country was at stake, they
were bent on 4111/Willa that Italians could still achieve some-
thing : that, if they had inherited nothing else Irons their old
It ~,,, an grandfathers, they were still as great as the Romans
had ever been at road-snaking. And they proved to the
French, who in 11162 gave them 20 years to accomplish their
work, and would have tined them them half a million nil
francs hnr every year exceeding that period, that they were
altogether out in their reekoning, and that it was they, the
French themselves who would have to lie niulcted to the
.ine amount for the la years gained upon the original eon,
'dilation. Your readers are aware that, UMM the &MMus-
of Savoy tin France, it was agreed that the work of the
Tunnel sleuthl lie carried on by the pun nide who undertook it,
but that the expenses should be equally borne by the two
imams. The icicle cost was 65,000,000 f. of these 25,000,0001.
will be contributed by the railway companies, and 20,000,0001.
by the Government of the twin States. Owing to the com-
pletion of the enterprise In sin shod a time the Italians will
be entitled tnn charge the French 6.500,000 f. of what was to fall
to their 441111 share of the expense. The Italia. have I wen at
all times first-rate engineers, 314 May be seen by tacir won-
derful canals and einiatilliments throughout the Lombnud
plains, and by those Alpine roads of the adjoining Mont Cods,
the Simplon Mind Genevre, tile l'ol 41i Tenda, itc., most of
them exeruted under foreign rule, halt lill several of which
they were fully entitled to place the inscription, ...Ere
Palo, A Mal INIII(1110." They may HOW write on the tunnel
" .Pi, Galileo, Au. Italic,' Vie Italians have front olden
times shown especial aptitude in burrouing through the
bowels if the inountaim. Witness the gallery of the Col. of
Monte Viso, achieved in the fifteenth century by a petty
Marquis of Salurso, to enable his subjects of the Val nil Po
to go to the French markets safe from the worst horrors nit
wintry Alpine journey, and the road nicer the Pass of Les
Echelles, between Chambery and Grenoble, constructed by
Charles Emniamiel 111. of Savoy in the 17th Century, on the
very spot through which in after times Napoleon coneelved
and Italians executed and completed the gallery, which to-
[feting. with those of the Nlont Coin and the Simplon were
among thu. wonders of past generations.

These able engineers and these stalwart workmen have
hardly had one moment to rest after their achievement under
the Col de Fri%his, when they are already elate at the pros.
pert if a work of almost equal magnitude at the St. tiotheril ;
a railway which is to ran all its length through Swbs terri-
tory, but to which Italy is to contribute a subsidy of
4:,,i55it.1.0 francs, and whid. Is to be altogaher carried into
execution by Milian engineers mid men. This first experi-
ment ii the 3lont 4 'enis route has enabled the Italians to to.
liter the piercing of mountains to a science. Their o,lllllllilla-
t ion of lading machines, moved by hydraulic power, and
acting at the some time as air-compressing machines to
support ho man life at a great distance from the earth sur-
face, and, again, in the same act clearing the excavation from
the rubbish as the work advanms, has given them
power, as we have wen, to work nearly eight times as fast
as could be done by the I rid methods. In all these inven-
tions and discoveries some light hasoccasionally been tlimwn
on the subject by foreign engineers ; but all the merit of
aPidicat ion and improvement, all the practical use ri these
contrivances. are I hie to the leading engineers if the Mont
yeniii Tunnel, irattoni, liranilis, and Sondueiller ; the tlist
.Nonti Miedmoutese, the last-named a Savoyard, but an
Italian at heart, and who cast his lot with his former
countrymen at the time that Savoy was made over to France.
Poor Sommeiller, who was sin indefatigable throughout the
work, died only two months ago—two mouths before lie
could are its inanonstion. I bad a long walk with Som.
meiller's brother, who is also employed as engineer to the
works, and whom I met at the tunnel entrance on the
Modanc side.

It will be long before the world will learn to appreciate all
the consummate skill, the inventive resources, the unwearied
patience if these heroic engineers in the execution of what
was necessarily fir several years a tentative work. They
were hardly ever at a loss in their reek. ll ill . they hardly
ever tailed in ally of their new and various experinents.
With a kuowleihre of geology, of ' Talogy, and of hydrau-
lics nil jell reflects the highest honour on their technical
schools, they foresaw and provided ,igainst any imiption of
the waters they guessed, as it were, the nature of the
strata id rock and soil against which they had to contend,
and dealt with the unexplored mountain as if they hail
known it Intuitively and by heart, or as if it had stood before
them all transparent.

The banquet given by the municipality of Turin in
honour of the opening .of the Mont eenis Tunnel
proved most successful. M. de lb:notsat, in respond-
ing for the " I:nests," whose health had been proposed
by the Syndic of Turin, referred to the grandeur of
the undertaking which had been completed, and in the
name of France congratulated the Italian nation upon
having perfected at important a work. As the repre-
sentative of a nation which had waged such fierce
struggles for liberty, he drank to the Italian people,
whit were on all occasions &terminal to defend their
independence. Signor Visconti Venosta congratulated
his countrYmen upon the fact that this work would,
through France, unite them more closely with the
whole civilised world. The toast he proposed, "M.
Tillers anti the French Government," was received with
loud cheers.