The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-30 00:00:00

Opening of the Punjab Railway by the
Viceroy of India,
(From Allen's India Mail.)

A peculiar interest has been attached to the Punjab, or
country of the Five Rivers, from the days of Alexander and
Porus to our own times. It was the battle field on which
the fate of empire has often decided, and the boundary of.'
two opposing faiths, where the wild wave of the Maho-
medan invader from the North broke in vain for centuries
against the stolid but rock-like superstition of the Hindoo.
The country of the Five Rivers may well be considered the
most important portion of Asia south of the Himalaya, not
only in its pclitieal, but also in its commercial relations.
Communicating on the cast with the valley of the Ganges,
commanding on the west the passes into Persia and
Affghanistan, it is the great bulwark of British India, be-
hind which all other provinces repose in safe, y, so lung as
it is impregnable. The Punjab, having by th. Indus its
communication open with the sea at Kurrachee, not only
supplied the men, money, and munitions of war that enabled
us to retake Delhi, but from the exuberant fertility of ire
extensive plains, it soon after fed, during the famine, the
starving millions which had but recently been in rebellion
against us. It has not only a population of 15,000,000, equal
to that of England 20 years ago, immediately subject to our
rule, and scattered over 100,000 square miles, but it con-
tains within its borders 7,000,000 of people owing fealty to
native chiefs, covering nearly a similar area, and making the
whole population, for whose peace and well-being the repre-
sentative of Queen Victoria is responsible, nearly the same
in number as the present inhabitants of Great Britain. We
have lately seen that this great and important province sent
forth its thousands to greet its ancient ruler with, in the
East, a rare enthusiasm, and that there was held at the ca••
pital, to honour in his person the majesty and power of
England, such a durbar es had never before paid homage to
any eastern potentate, the ambassadors of the remote Khan
of Kokan coming a journey of three months' duration to
sue for protection against the Russians, who had invaded
their territory. The Punjab has made great progress dur-
ing the last few years. During the latter part of Lord Can-
ning's rule, and the short Viceroyalty which ended so sadly
in the quiet Dhurmsala hills, a railway has linked Umritsur,
the sacerdotal and commercial capital, with Lahore, the
seat of government and reeidence of many of the chiefs, A
few months more will see Lahore placed in railway connec-
tion with Mooltan, 220 miles away on the Chenaub. The
city of Umritsur, with its dense population, is the greatest
commercial emporium in Northern India. Its merchants
have dealings with London, Paris, Conetantinople,lspahan,
Bokhara, Herat, Candahar, Cabul, and Chinese Tartary,
and with all the chief towns in India. In India, as well as
in Europe, the arrival of a great man is taken advantage
of to give some éclat to the commencement or opening of
railways and as Sir Job's Lawrence had graced the inau-
guration of the Punjab Railway by turning the first sod
several years ago, nothing could be more natural than that
he should still further identify himself with this most im-
portant work by opening a large additional section of the
line. The Punjab Railway is 252 miles in length, and ex-
tends from Umritsur to Mooltan ; and, with the Delhi Rail-
way, it constitutes the crown of that great steam arch, 2,200
miles in let g,th, which will unite Calcutta, in the Bay of
Bengal, with Kurrachee, on the Arabian Sea. The great
Central Railway Station at Lahore, now rapidly approach-
ing completion, is one of the largest and most beautiful
structures in India. It, is a very picturesque building, with
a style of architecture in the East suggestive enough,
although it would in England be considered entirely out of
place. It has been built so as to answer in some degree the
purposes ea fortress should the occasion arise, as well a 3
of a railway station—and its massive walls, pierced with
loopholes for musketry, flanked by bombproof towers, and
crowned by minarets, wo•ill give it the appearance of some
mediaval castle, were it not for the evident newness of the
materials with which it is built. Ilere,in time of danger, the
European community could retire, and defend both them-
selves and the railway against the enemy. Holding the
command of this great central station would go a long way
to keep open the communications both with Umritsur and.
Mooltan. On Feb. 8, 1859,the present Viceroy and Governor
General of India, then Lieut. Governor of the Punjab,turned
,he first sod of the Punjab Railway, in presence of a vast as-
sembly of the native nobility, and with every circumstance
calculated to make the ceremonial impressive. Although
the heavings of the mu' my had hardly subsided, Sir J. Law-
rence th n predicted the success of the railway, saying that 1
"few railways in India will have been undertaken under
happier auspices." On March 1, 1862, Sir R. Montgomery,
the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, opened the first
section of the railway, 32 miles in length, which placed La-
hore and Umritsur in railway communication. That occa-
sion Sir R. Montgomery characterised as a great day for the
Punjab—a new era. Another link," he said, " has been
added to the great highway between Kurrachee, the sea-
port of North Western India, and Umritsur," and he ex-
pressed his conviction " that not only India in general will
undergo a complete change through the earliest possible
completion of the railway system, but that more especially
the various nations and races of the Punjab, as well as the
semi-barbarous tribes that girdle its frontier, will all the
sooner succumb to its civilising influence, if we be permitted
to augur such a result from the witness we have had on the
late opening of the line to Umritsur, and almost daily since,
of the excited demeanour, and the unhesitating though
wonder-struck subni_ssion /tendered as to a superior power ,
or race of men, against whom, in future, it would be vain to
contend) which the crowds of natives of all classes then
exhibited." A Brahmin, on that occasion, looking at a
locomotive, remarked, that " all the incarnations of all
the gods in India never produced such a thing as that." On
the 19th October last, the day after having held the grand
durbar at Lahore, Sir John Lawrence inaugurated the open-
ing of the line from Lahore to Mooltan in the presence of
the chief civil and military authorities of India, and of many
of the native princes, who had the day before assembled in
durbar to pay him, as the representative of the Queen, a
willing and loyal homage. Sir John was well satisfied with
the section of the railway which he opened. and spoke of the
great things that were to be expected from it and other lines
in India, both politically and commercially. The next day
the Maharajah of Cashmere, the heir apparent, and suite
went by special train over part of the line, his highness rid-
ing some distance on the locomotive, en route to his own do-
minions, and giving convincing proof that although he had
never seen a railway or a locomotive before, he well under-
stood their mechanism and uses.B The Maharajah is well
known for his courtesy and princely hospitality to all who
visit his beautiful valleyfor health or recreation, and received
from all the authorities the most marked attention. His
highness derived much gratification from the short excur-
sion on the railway, and placed in the hands of his honour,
the Lieutenant Governor, 2,500 Rs as a gratuity for the em-
ployes on the line. After the official opening by the Gover-
nor G metal of this, the first section of the line from Lahore
towards Mooltan, the Punjab Railway Company, to cele-
brate the event, entertained at dinner, with good old Eng-
lish fare, in one of the passenger waiting rooms at Lahore, a
magnificent apartment 80 feet in length, 120 of their Euro-
pean emploe ee. An eye'eitness remarked, " The durbar at
which the viceroy received 600 princes and chiefs in a splen-
did tent, pitched on a vast plain, was doubtless a magnifi-
cent sight, but we regarded the assembly of 100 hard-
handed plain English mechanics, in an ordinary railway
waiting room erected in the ancient Sikh capital as far more
curious and suggestive, and one calculated to excite emo-
tions of a more pleasurable nature. The ono was a mere
pageant, representative of the barbaric, splend ur of the
dark ages, while the other was the living embodiment of
progress and enlightenment. We cannot better conclude
this notice than by adopting the words of Mr R. Temple,
late commissioner of Lahore, on the occasion of the first sod
of the railway being turned by Sir John Lawrence, when
Mr Temple alluded to the services of the chairman of the
company in the following eloquent terms : —" Mr Andrew
has, by his enterprise and spirit as a public man, and by
his talents as an author, largely contributed to the great
undertaking of which we have this day celebrated the
commencement. It is not very long since doubts were, in
many quarters, entertained as to the practicability of this
railway. It was thought that the line through a great
portion of its distance traversed a desert; that the port
of Kurrachee could never compete with Bombay ; that
the Central Asian traffic with North Western India
could not be attracted to the route of the Indus. But
Mr Andrew showed. with descriptive eloquence, with statis-
tical accuracy, with local information. gathered from va •
rious sources, that Kurrachee and the Indus are to North,
Western India what Calcutta and the Ganges are to Bengal;
that Kurrachee can compete with Bombay ; that all the
traffic from the Jumna westward will find its natural outlet
by the Indus; that the line, though for some distance pass-
ing through uninhabited country, has yet important ter-
mini at both extremities, which aro indeed the centres of a
mighty trade. Besides this, Mr Andrew showed how this
project is connected with the navigation of the Persian
Gulf, the Euphrates Valley route, and the commercial lines
in the:mountainousiregions of Central Asia. lam certain
that if life and health are spared him he will be intimately
connected with the future material prosperity of this pro-
vince."

PLYMOUTH, Dec. 29.—The Essex from Port
Philip Sept. 20, passed off this port to-day. She brings 140
passengers, 21,000 om. of gold, and a cargo of wool, tallow,
leather, and other colonial produce. 14 passengers landed
here this afternoon by pilot boat.
HANDEL'S " MESSIAH."--When it was first per•
formed, the audience was exceedingly struck and
affected by the music in general; but when the choru
struck up For the Lord God Omnipotent,' in the `Hs alle-
lnjah,' they were so transported that they altogether, with
the King (who happened to be present), started up, and
remained standing till the chorus ended. It has bees
well said that Handel's " Messiah" has "fed the hungry,
clothed the naked, and fostered the orphan," for it is gene-
rally selected as the oratorio to be performed en charitable
occasions. Handel gave an organ to the Foundling Hos-
pital, and conducted his " Messiah" there on 11 occasions,
bringing to the charity a sum of £7,000. The trustpeyersi,ihnt
a somewhat narrow spirit, wanted to obtain an Act of Par-.
liament to secure to the hospital a sort of semi.eo g
in this immortal work. But Handel wrathfully excl-timca
in his Germanized English. "For vat sal de Foundling put
mine oratorio in de Parliament ? Mine music sal not go
to de Parliament 1"