The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-12 00:00:00

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

LO ;DON, BRIGHTON, AND SOUTH COAST.
The progressive increase of traffic on this railway
during the last few years has produced a corresponding
increa: e in the exteneive works at the Brighton termi-
nus. Several new shops have been built ; and there is
still further call for an extenriou of the works, which
will be carried out as soon as sufficient space can be
procured. In 1547 the company were paying about
7001. per week for wages ; now they are paying more
than double that amount, the number of workmen
exceeding 1,00. All the carriages and the locomotive
engines are manufactured in Brighton ; and we
are assured by persons competent to form an opinion,
that the Brighton works can compete with any engine
manufactory in England or any other country. Sonic of
the best workmen hi England are employed there. Dur-
ing the past year 10 new engines have been built, and it
is expected that the number to be finished this year will
far exceed that of last year. In addition to the 10 new
engines, the company have increased their stock by add-
ing two of the largest engines in England on any narrow
gauge, namely, the Europa and the Orestes, which were
manufactured by Messrs. Sharp and Company, and are
worked principally in the conveyance of coals and chalk.
Some hundreds of tons of chalk have been removed from
the hill near the cutting, for the purpose of obtaining
more space, and a vast quantity continues to be conveyed
to the various stations, the company having signified to
the agriculturists that they may have as much as they
please at a mere nominal charge. The company have a
very large wharf at Deptford ; and they are about to
fill up the Deptford Viaduct with chalk from the Brigh-
ton cutting.
Latterly there has been a great improvement in the
second class carriages, cushioned seats and backs being
introduced, and they are also much more commodious
than the old pent-up second class carriages, which latter
we hope to see shortly brought entirely into disuse.
They are fast disappearing from the line, and the second
class carriages will in future have an air of comfort about
them that they bad not till lately possessed. It is the
intention of the company to cover the whole of the third
class carriages. Even in the first class carriages a con-
siderable improvement has been shown by the space
between the seats.
In connection with the Brighton Railway Com-
pany steam packets run between Newhaven and
Dieppe. From London to Paris this is much the
shortest route ; and a great number of persons avail
themselves of the time saved on this line. The only
drawback to a much more extended amount of traffic
is the sea voyage, to which many travellers have an
aversion. But in tolerably fine weather the water is
crossed in about five or six hours by first class packets,
and a more delighted aquatic trip it is hardly possible to
conceive. From Dieppe to Paris, a railway is laid down
the whole distance. Other packets in connection with
the company run between Newhaven and the Channel
Islands ; but during the dull winter months they are
discontinued. That the railway has been, and is, of in-
calculable advantage to the town cannot be disputed ;
and we trust that a good understanding will always be
kept up between the inhabitants and the company, which
must necessarily be of advantage to both, for the interest
of the one is the interest of the other. It is matter for
congratulation that no accident of any serious character
has occurred during the past year through the negli-
gence of the company's servants. We believe it will be
generally admitted that the Brighton line is in first-rate
working order, and we trust it will ever continue so.
There is one interesting feature connected with these
railway works, and that is the library, which is supplied
with above 2,000 volumes. In this establishment the
men and apprentices have an opportunity of learning
writing, arithmetic, and drawing ; each Saturday even-
ing a concert takes place for their recreation ; and, since
the opening of this library, the entertainments afforded
by the company, by means of an instrumental band and
a stringed band, &c., have had the effect of weaning
many a man from the low and more grovelling attractions
of the beer-shop. The subscription is low, only ls. ld.
per quarter.

The Great Western Company, we believe, started the
idea of forming a library for the workmen, and we un-
derstand that there are only a few stations where the
example has been followed.
The branch railway to East Grimstead is in a very for-
ward state, and is expected to be opened in March next.
The Brighton Company have recently built a new
screw steamer, to run between Newcastle and Deptford,
and have given it the name of the Samuel Laing, in
honour of their chairman. It had euly made three voy-
ages when the Government, desirous of obtaining all
the screw steamers possible, have purchased it.—
Brighton Gazette.

DEATH OF LORD ROBERTSON.

(From the Caledonian Mercury of Thursday.)

- -
We record with infinite sorrow the death of Lord
Robertson, which took place yesterday about 11 o'clock
a.m., at his house in Drummond-place. Yesterday
morning he rose in his usual health, which, however, of
late, has not been good—breakfasted as usual, and re-
ceived by post and read a letter from his son, the gallant
Captain of her Majesty's Fourth Regiment of Foot, re-
cently mentioned in Lord Raglan's despatches, and pro-
moted fur distinguished services in the Crimea. Shortly
before 11 o'clock, a friend who has also a son before
Sebastopol, and who had also received a letter, called
for the purpose of giving and receiving intelligence,
willed' they were actually engaged in doing, when his
lordship fell back in his chair, and instantaneously ex-
pired. His disease was supposed to be connected with
the vessels of the heart.
Lord Robertson was born in February, 1793, and bad
consequently nearly completed his 62d year. He was
the son of the late Mr. James Robertson, amost re-
spectable
and highly employed writer to thes net o
this city. He became a member of the Faculty of Ad-
vocates in 1815—a Depute-Advocate in 1834—Dean of
the Faculty of Advocates, in room of the present Lord
Wood, in 1342—and was promoted to the bench on the
retirement of the prosent Lord Meadowbank in 1843.
This is a somewhat meagre record of the life of a man
of genius, for such Lord Robertson,assurediy was ; and
yet we fear that after the present generation has passed
away, it is all or nearly all that will remain. By the
present generation in Scotland there was no man more
generally, perhaps so generally, known. For about
a quarter of a century after he came to the bar, there
were few Juries either in the Criminal or Civil Courts
of Session—few members of the various successive
Reverend Assemblies of the Church of Scotland,
and few, indeed, of his fellow-citizens of LlM-
burgh,—who were not familiar with his manly eloquence,
replete with sound sense, and relieved by never-failing
sallies of irresistible glee. And there was, and there still
is, a class of his admirers—we mean his personal friends,
—now afflicted with profdund grief for his loss, to whom
the memories of his intercourse will ever seem the sun-
niest in their calendar. But after all these shall have
disappeared,—afterjuries shall have gone to judgment,
--and reverend assemblies to one still more august, and
the citizens of this city shall have become citizens of
another,--and the mourning friends shall be mourned
for in their turn,—there will be no memorial left on
earth sufficiently characteristic of this remarkable man.
The genius of Patrick Robertson lay in acute percep-
tion and instantaneous illustration. The false of no kind
or species could ever be palmed upon him for the true,—
no gilding could hide the tinsel, no tarnish could conceal
the gold ; and while he was a merciless denunciator of
pretence in all its moods and genders, be was at the
same time a profound worshipper of excellence. Those
who knew him well know his reverence for Shakspere,
whose works he had almost committed to memory; while
those who knew him neither well nor wisely, were prone
to imagine that the broad grin or the bitter caricature were
incompatible with the purest admiration of all that was
truly great. The conclusions, almost intuitive, at which
he arrived ; apparently without effort, he could com-
municate and express in conversation so felicitous, as
almost to partake of the marvellous. None who ever
heard him with the understanding ear can ever forget the
charm, or expect ever to listen to its like again. This
was genius, felt, acknowledged, and appreciated by those
whose good fortune it was to be there ;—the genius of
conversation,—evanescent indeed—leaving no written or
substantial record—only a fleeting wake of applauding
murmurs and approving memories ; but not the less
akin in its universal application to that of the great Eng-
lish master who was ever uppermost in his love. It
could only have been by means of some photographic
process, unhappily as yet unknown, that a record of the
genius Patrick Robertson could have been handed down
to posterity ; to repeat him were as impossible, nearly,
as to forget him ; and, deeply as his loss will be deplored,
it is greatly enhanced by the consideration that so much
that was worthy of a place in the archives of time should
have passed irretrievably away.

Lord Robertson, whose death it is our painful duty to
record, has been the twelfth judge who has died within
, Lord Anderson,
the last four years. Lord Jeffrey died in the end of
erndnFanullerton, Lord C ock-
January, 1850, and was followed by Lord Moncreiff,
Lord Lord J.Tkulasteikeeet2Gzieen,erLaoaoyDieu,nLdio•
burn, Lord Medwyn, Lord Cuningharoe, Lord Ruther-
furd, and Lord Robertson now completes the sad cata-
logue, containing as distinguished names as ever adorned
the be❑ch of this or any other country.
•

NEW ROUTM BETWEEN DUBLIN AND LONDON.—The
rupture twelve months since of the arrangement between
the City of Dublin Steam-packet Company and the
Chester and Holyhead and North-Western Companies,
by the English managers, has led to an important
arrangement between. the Great Western Company and
the Dublin Packet Company, for the " through book-
ing " of passengers and go6ds between Paddington and
Dublin, via Oxford, Shrewsbury, and Birkenhead. By
these means passengers can book throughout at reduced
fares on three days every week ; but in the season the
accommodation will be daily. This master-stroke of
competition-policy will give the public additional facili-
ties, and open up a new and interesting land route.
The Custom-house list of port wines exported from
Oporto during the past year has been received, from
which it appears that the total quantity was 39,252
pipes, being a decrease of 16,559 pipes from that of 1853.
The principal shippers were Sandemad and Co., 4,050
pipes ; Cockburn and Co.' 2,395 ; Martinez and Co.,
2,392 ; J. D. Harris, 2,329 ; Graham and Co.' 1,804 ;
Gilley and Co., 1,768 ; Hunt and Co., 1,582 ; Morgan
and Co., 1,148 ; Redpath and Co., 1,056 ; Bruno, Silva,
and Co., 1,006 ; all others figured under 1,000 pipes.
The quantities to each country were as follows :—To
Great Eiitain, 33,831 pipes, against 46,834 in 1853 ;
Brazil, 1,274 ; Canada, 952 ; Hamburg, 814 ; Australia,
639, against 2,521 in 1853 ; Sweden, 444 ; Denmark,*
426 ; United States, 326 ; Portuguese possessions, 245 ;
Newfoundland, 182 ; Bremen, 64 ; Prussia, 80 ; France,
15 ; Holland, 10,