The Express.
London, England, 1855-05-21 00:00:00

1113 EXPRESS, MONDAY ,EVENING, MAY 21, 1555.

in appearance and training is the **est troops 'vf
the lAA,
on fig. !Gish eel' pietas thin*
;osadirion of striae to 'rollicked far curtain meanie
'4ll# 10q Yftrotaad imarlfenciek ibetage kept
eglilfantly drilled in their qwa parishes, and consider
tlisanielvei to 'belong to the military and not the
department of society. Bach a force as this
sets at liberty, completely and at any moment,
the entire body of troops of the line. As Sweden hie
1 se hwelp sardines to provide for, and possesses at
'rhos, to a large militia, a force superior
weds, she can furnish a most respectable oontri-
imam to the armies of her Allies. Whether the
present calling out of her militia, and stir among the
indelta force, may indicate an approaching alliance
with England, France, Sardinia, and Turkey, or a
mere preparation for an armed neutrality, will soon
become known. It does net seem possible that the
decision should be deferred for another year. Even
if the Allies were not pressing for an answer, there
are some determining evidences which would seem to
be powerful enough.
Sweden owes to the Allies her release from that
peat lion in her path—the Russian possession of the
Aland fortifications. No single boos that any friendly
power could bestow on her could be so great as this.
Her wisest course would seem to be to help us with
her gunboats and seamen and troops, to blow up the
other fortifications which menace her. Ringo is in
rains; and that is our doing too—though the Rus-
sians laid and fired the train. All last year, we kept
'.the Baltic clear, and Sweden free from alarms; and
now, it mess reasonable that she should help as to
abolish the causes of her alarms. Whatever may be
the allimate destiny of Finland, it cannot be worse
he amiss than it is now ; and the seizure or
derweetha of the Russian fortifications there must be
a peeps= relief to the opposite coast.
As to the question—how the Allies stand in
Swedish estimation, after the first year of war—
that may be pretty well made out by those not in
their counsels. It was reasonable enough for the
Scandinavian Powers to refuse to decide while the
Viewa negotiations were proceeding, because it is
really, for them, a prime element in the question—
what Prussia will do—to say nothing of the rest of
Germany. While Prussia holds a long line of Baltic
coast, with ports whence she can smuggle assist-
ance into Russia, the holders of the rest of the Baltic
waste could hardly be expected to make up their
minds, and propose their terms. They now see, like
the rest of the world, what the alliance or neutrality
of the German Powers is worth ; and they will gain
no new lights by delay. The German is the
most unmanageable element involved in the
question ; for, to Sweden, Russia cannot at
this moment be a very formidable antago-
nist. The engineers who should be building steam-
ers, or converting sailing vessels into screw-ships,
have come away from Russia; and the coals which
should make her steam cannot get there. The Allies
are is the Baltic and White Sea; and there they
mess to stay till Russia is humbled ; and they would
artainly be by far the more formidable enemy, if
Sweden had to choose between them and Ruud*.
England and France sincerely disclaim all intention
of increasing their territory by this war; bat that is
no reason why Sweden should not use the opportn-
city to recover some of the valuable provinces of
which she was deprived by Russian aggression.
To us it appears that the balance of advantage to
be gained by joining the Allies must be irresistible to
all rational-minded Swedes; and we believe that
rational-minded Swedes are of that opinion. We are
entitled to require something better than an armed
neutrality, after what we have done in the Baltic for
the advantage of Sweden; and we trust that the true
impulse of the national heart will have its way, and
that such aid may be afforded out of the local and
peculiar resources of the Scandinavian peninsula, as
may enable the Allies to achieve whatever more is
wanted for the full and luting security and inde-
pendence of thus important kingdoms.—Daily News.

RAILWAY AND STEAM COMMUNICATION
WITH HINDOSTAN AND THE EAST.

=ittlebraeoh at Botha, about thirty miles below
h in good as finished.
' There esmains, therefore, beyond this, to cannot
tießed with the Meditermemme, that part only
Red
the Desert from Cairo to Sues, and
t mils* in length. On this there would
he an traffic, as the country is a perfect waste
and without a dwelling, with the exception of tht:
tun& stations, the tel uph towers, and a few
el-the g Bedouins. It must
fe AIM worked in conjunction
via thio saw of the line which traverses
%belted& plains of the Delta, and which will convey
I. the May pert of Egypt the abundant harvests of
htteat.
the emir senatry, together with the gams, ivory,
and ~Oakes of the far interior, which, either
lby MIMS se caravans, or by desponding the Nile for
many kmadhad miles, are brought by the Gellabs, the
slave mmehants of Dufour, Kordofan, and Khartoom,
to Cairo, the city to which merchants and travellers
resort from all the corners of the East. Passing as it
doss (the Cairo and Suez part) through a wilderness,
there will be no outlay necessary to meet land, law,
and parliamentary_expensee. those plenteous sources of
disbursement on English railways.
The country is favourable for the construction of a
railway. The summit level of about nine hundred
feet would afford tolerably easy gradients. A con-
siderable portion of the excavation would cost but
about one third of what it does at home. Good
ballast, which often, as in Bengal, has to be artifi-
eially made, and is extremely expensive, is to be
found here in any quantity all along the road.
Not a single over-bridge would be required when
clear of Cairo ; neither would stations on level cross-
ings be nuessery, with their attendant permanent
expenses of station-maters and gate-keepers. The
line, once made, would require very small repair. Its
first cost would probably not exceed 8,0001. per mile,
or about one-sixth of that of the principal English
railways. As regards the often debated point of the
obstruction likely to be caused to the working of the
traffic by the drifting of the Desert sande, it is a
popular delusion only. The Desert is composed of
rock, gravel, and mend—indeed it has much the
aspect of an immense gravel pit. Thesand, however,
is too heavy to drift, and the tracks of gazelles,
hymen, and other wild animals, remain unobliterated
for days together, even when a steady north breeze
sets in every evening. In addition to this, the
lightest particles of sand are carried down into the
lower grounds, hollows, and dells, where the railway
would be in embankment, and could not, therefore,
be affected by it. The only extra expense attending
its construction would arise from the necessity of
bringing the labourers from a distance, and providing
them with provisions and water. As for material.,
none beyond rails and chairs would be necessary.
Timber sleepers would not be required, °reeve's
patent metal chair and sleeper having proved
most efficient in Egypt where used by Ro-
bert Stephenson. Fencing also will be uncalled
for. The works, in short, would consist of cuttings
end embankments with • few culvert openings to
carry off the winter showers, together with the per-
manent way. In working the line the coke would
prove expensive, as it would have to come at first
from England ; the engines also would require an
extra tank supply of water, as noue could be pro- I
cured on the road ; and the wages of engine-drivers,
&c., would be high—viz., from 151. to 161. per month.
Theme would be among the principal causes of extra
expenditure.
M. Letups, the French consul, has spin pro-
jected the old design of a canal across the Isthmus ;
but there are insurmountable difficulties to the pro-
Bubb, execution of it. In the first place, if meads, it
would be unapproachable. No vessel of heavy ton-
nage can anchor within half a mile of Suez, or within
four or five miles of the Mediterranean shore at
Pelusium. To make a harbour on the latter data
germs and reef-studded coast would involve aa 1
enormous outlay. At present no harbour exists
nearer than Alexandria, which is some 200 miles
distant.
In addition to this, another and even more formid-
able obstacle exists. Northerly winds prevail in the
Gulf of Suez and upper part of the Red Sea, from
April till October. It was, perhaps, owing to this
that Ptolemy relinquished his idea of forming a canal,
end built Berenice six degrees to the south of Suez,
establishing an overland route of nearly 250 miles
from it to Coptos, near Thebes and Kenneh, on the
Nile. These winds would oppose, in this dangerous
sea, great delays to its navigation by sailing vessels;
neither could steam tugs overcome the difficulty. The
best line for the canal would be, not that proposed
by Mr. Leseeps, across to Pelusium, but to turn off to
the Westward after passing the Salt Marsh, half way
to the latter, where there are the vestiges of an
ancient canal, or rather what is supposed to have
been such, and then crossing the Nile about Mit
Ghamir, ran thence to Alexandria. But a great
objection to it would be the tendency to silt up, from
the alluvial deposits of the river, which already
nearly choke and render impassable the Mahmed-
seyeh, constructed by Mohammed Ali.
At present the number of vessels belonging to the
port of Suez does not exceed 100 in number, averaging
from 20 to 240 tons each.
They will, however, probably increase, as some
absurd regulations affecting the port have been abro-
gated by the present Viceroy. The trade consists of
about 24,000 bags of coffee, 20,000 of gum arabic,
8,000 of Benne leaf, and of tamarinds, mother-of
pearl shells, and spices.
The interests of England, the East India Company,
and the Peninsula and Oriental Company, are all
concerned in reducing the passage through Egypt to
the least possible amount of time. It now occupies
about three days,and with the detention off Alexandria
from the harbour not being buoyed out, and no pilot
coming off after sunset, often half a day more. It
might be brought down to a few hours. Why do not
the Peninsular and Oriental Company take op the
railway? If they did, until the day arrives that we
have one connecting Calcutta with Constantinople by
way of Persia and Turkey, they might defy competi-
tion from Brunet's and Scott Russell's giant steamers
round the Cape, or in any other manner. They should
render the transit through Egypt, so trying to inva-
lids, and the only weak point in their route, worthy
of the reputation which their generally good arrange-
'Mute, handsome vessels, and liberal accommodation,
have procured for them throughout the Eut. It is
dread of the fatigue of the desert vans, and the dis-
comfort of the Nile steamers, and Suez and Alexan-
drian hotels, which sends so many invalids, and pm-
angers having young children, round the Cape. ,
The development of traffic from the But, opus.
quest on railway and steam communication with
Hinduism, and the immense system of railways now
coustructing there, who can estimate? And what
impedes our way to the complete establishment of
impedes
Not a mountaisous barrier, whose snowy peaks,
lifting their bright' heads above the clouds even into
the regions of enbriken silence, serenely look down
defiance on puny man—not hostile nations, and fierce
treacherous tribes—but a little neck of land, com-
paratively level,
only 84 mites scram, where there
will be neither tunnel nor viaduct—a friendly go-
vernment and • docile people. Let us seize the hour,
and bring near us a territory extending over above
1,600,000 square miles, and with a population of
unknown millions.
G. S. J. JESSE:
The Same, East Indian Railway.

The Carmarthen lostriesl sanciances the death of
Dr. John Bowen, for many years a magistrate tor that
meaty and borough, and also a town councillor. The
family of deemed, it it stated, has resided in the county for
veral centuries, he Wag Weed' in dement from Sir
Blerinadulth Lloyd, of Llawr-rdlais, the of the judges of the
Breton circuit, and the last male eepreeentative of the
Bowies of Gamy, with whim in that county the name has
aspired. The bop* 4 the ample fortune of deceased is de-
vieed to his aeivr, Daniel Lloyd Jour, Bsq (cousin to
David Jones, Bog., of Pantiles, M.P. for the county), a
gutless= now in Aestralia.
1:1188E-H01BBRO.—A letter from Berlin states
that the proposition made by hearth to the MM to supprime
ell the gaming houses at tau different baths in Germany,
oe wineinerableebaaN et hiking adopted by the Diet.
A letter from Mites states that two shocks of an
oaribqeske were kb Si UM town on the 14th, at half past
tan at night, the emmed being the stronger ens. The *me
shooks were fait in ether plasm in the south, and parties-
hely at Arleta. No thump wen uprisen dam.
A decree in the Monifewr suppreenta the =pat duty
ea
common and reeked salt.
Tug RAILWAY flu GZIOA to Lake Maggiore
will completed toward. the end el Jane, by the °pewee
et the wawa from Ohl{. to Anse. ileum will that
seemaisisate dismay. with Bwitsaisad sad Osman).