The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-04 00:00:00

Blackfriars Railway Bridge,

The foundation stone of this structure, which,
when complete, will form one of the most important
links in the widespread network of branches and
feeders which the London, Chatham, and Dover are
now throwing out in all directions, was laid on Sa-
turday last by Lord Sondes, the chairman of the
company. This foundation block is a single mass
of Portland stone, nearly five tons in weight, and
was placed on a bed of solid brickwork about ten
feet above the actual foundation and nearly level
with the low water-line. It is hardly necessary
to say that, though this is called the foundation
stone, the foundations themselves are considerably
below it, and, in fact, are already tolerably advanced
towards completion. The whole bridge, when com-
plete, will cross the river at a uniform level of 30
feet above high-water mark, and will be built in five
spans, similar to the new city bridge at Blackfriars,
the erection of which has also been entrusted to the
same engineer who has charge of the railway
bridge, Mr. Cubitt. The latter work, however, is
being pushed forward with wonderful activity,
though, apparently, very little is doing towards
constructing the public bridge, which, of the two,
is certainly more needed by the public than that
for the railway. A full description of the de-
tails of the railway bridge has already appeared
in our columns, so that it is unnecessary further
to refer to the work on this occasion than to
say that it is to cross the river in five spans,
varying in width from 163 feet at the sides
to 188 ft. in the centre, ifle girders which span
these intervals will be (on the lattice principle, and
three will form the width of the roadway, each
girder resting on a group of four massive cast-iron
columns rising from the piers. The piers will be of
granite to below the water-line, and hence, in a
caisson of cast-iron will be laid in solid brickwork
to a depth of 27ft. below high-water mark. These
brickwork foundations will be built in the manner
now always adopted to avoid the expense of coffer
dams, by wrought-iron caissons forced down into
the bed of the river, the water pumped out, the
slime and: gravel dredged away to the proper
depth, and the brickwork laid inside the
caisson. The stagings of piles necessary for
sinking these caissons are well advanced,
and it is expected that the whole work may
be opened for traffic in about 12 months from this
date. The close proximity of this railway-bridge
will, of course, completely hide from that side the
still finer structure which is soon to be built by the
city in place of the present most dilapidated and
unsafe pile of arches that new does duty
ta
at Black-
friars. After the ceremony of laying stone on
Saturday the noblemen and gentlemen invited to
be present on the occasion partook of a a sumptuous
dejeuner, provided by Messrs. Staples, of the Albion.
Sir Morton Peto presided during the repast, at the
conclusion of which the hea.ths of Lord Sondes and
Lord Harris (the chairman and deputy-chairman
of the company) Mr. Cubitt, the engineer; Mr.
ifolroyd, the secretary ; and other gentlemen con-
nected with the undertaking were given and drunk
with all the honours.

The spuriousness of the pretended discovery of a
human bone in the drift, to which wo last week
drew attention, has since been confirmed by Dr. Falconer.
M. Bouner de Ferthes allowed Dr. Falconer to bring away
the molar found with the jaw-bone ; and when suspicion
was aroused as to the genuineness of the "find," the Eng-
lish physician had this molar sawn across, when it turned
out to be a modern tooth.
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LONDON, MONDAY, MAY 4, 1863.

It were hardly anything of an extravagance to
assert that the Ministry have for some time past
existed, that they still exist solely upon the reputation
for bonhommie enjoyed by our gay old Premier Vis-
count PAL3fERSTON. It were simply absurd, indeed,

to say otherwise. It is their one source of strength.
It is their one claim upon public toleration. And
they certainly are so far conscious of this that they
make the most of it. The Prime Favourite—the
winner of so many political Derbys—they trot out,
or encourage to show us his paces, to prove to us
by occular domoubtration the go there is still in him,
upon every possible opportunity. A timely
interval of a fortnight's rest early in the session
was seized, it may be remembered, as
affording a very golden opportunity of this
kind. Lord PALMERSTON is whisked off by rail.
way to the opposite extremity of the island, and
there gads about, starring it, for a whole week (of
that fortnight) together. His lordship's audiences

in Scotland are of a very various character—now
the bigwigs of a University—now the working
people of Glasgow—now a gathering of good honest
Cits and Bailies. To all of these audiences the
Youthful Veteran who guides the helm of the State
vessel with such an easy carelessness that he really
seems to occupy the position of The Man at the
Wheel,who may be talked to, by anybody and every-
body, at any hour and under any circumstances—
to all these multifarious Hotel Audiences, as though
he were a stripling Barnacle, a gay young Barnacle,
a light-in-hand young Barnacle, a touch-
an d- go young Barnacle, instead of being
a Statesman almost of the last gene-
ration but one, as well as the Statesman of the
present—Lord PALMERSTON, showed invariably
that constitutional vivacity which is, in some mea-
sure, the secret of his immerse popularity. His
philosophic discourses before the Professors and
Students, it will not be forgotten, were compounded
of the feeblest scientific and philological platitudes,
and of the most superficial generalities. When
he was at his best, he was unbending the rigidity of
the Scotch mind, for the reception by it of a little of
his own favourite pleasantry. And with such eminent
success, as it happened, by the way, that one is
almost disposed now to think that, for once, SYDNEY
SNITS shot very wide, indeed, of the mark aimed
at by his flying shaft of wit, when he said that it
required a surgical operation to get a joke into the
brain of a Scotch man ! It required nothing of the
kind, as the effect proved, w hen Lord PAL3IERSTON
was the joke - master, down at Glasgow
and at Edinburgh. Those jokes of his were caught
and roared over—upon the instant—by the
hard-headed Scotch men the noble Viscount
was good-humouredly poking his fun at. Merry
little jests of the feeblest and slightest character
well imaginable, were exulted over, then and there,
as though it were really another YORICK installed
in office in the person of Viscount PALMERSTON.
No matter what the assembly addressed, or what
the theme treated upon by the veteran Prime
Minister of England—all is one to him for
that. He is as inexhaustibly volatile as
Miss MOWCHER. As GARRICK was thought
by the contemporary actress to be capable, if he
wished, of playing a gridiron—as MUNDEN, ac-
cording to CHARLES LAMB, could understand a leg
of mutton in its quiddity—so Lord PALMERSTON
could just as readily, one might say, make a jest
out of a broomstick, or turn the gravest assembly in
the land into a modern embodiment of HOGARTH'S
Laughing Audience. It was precisely in this way
that Lord PALMERSTON spoke on Saturday
attheiaßuogyhaeld_Aciaaduegmhyedd,ininneHr,oamnec
and that the guests
there
phrase, " in-
extinguishably,'' in Lord FOPPINGToN's phrase,
"consumedly, step my vitals?" For the genial,
hearty, fun and frolic of the speech, it might have
fallen from the lips of CHARLES DICKENS. "I don't
know whether we had much wit among us," the
guests at the Royal Academy table on Saturday
might say now, looking back and echoing thus the
familiar words of the Vicar of Wakefield—" I
don't know whether we had much wit amongst us,
but I am sure we had a great deal of laughter"

AU which, of course—not a doubt of it—is
very delightful. But does it not come;
after all, somehow like a very unwelcome

enforcement, in its way, of the famous sarcasm
of OXENSTEIRN—abort the little wisdom required
for the governing of men ? For, really and truly—
barring our laughter, barring our appreciation of
the robust constitution of this splendid old states-
man—where is the advantage of it all for the coun-
try be governs ? Where is there one single scrap
of Reform for which we have reason to feel indebted
to him and his colleagues vouchsafed to us by
them during all the four years, very nearly,
during which they have now been iu power ? They
came in—as everybody knows full well—expressly
to give us Reforms of some kind, of a good real kind,
Reforms full, comprehensive, well considered. They
have given us nothing whatever of the sort. On the
contrary, during Lord PALMERSTON'S regime be-
tween June, 1859, and May, 1863, Reform has been,
by him and his colleagues, effectually shelved,
cushioned, quashed, squelched—we have not a word
strong enough for it, by which to express the utter
efficacy and completeness—so long as these Re-
formers (save the mark !) remain in power—the
utter efficacy and completeness with which Reform
has met its death and burial at the hands of Lord
PALMERSTON. All earnest Patriots enamoured
at heart of Reform as a panacea for the many
grievances under which the country yet groans,
might say with most serious truth—having an eye
askance, while they utter the words, to Lord
PALMERSTON'Sj ocular, laughter-provoking speeches
—" What's fan to you is death to us, or at any rate
to our hopes !" Looking at the pitiable do-nothing
charaeter of the policy of this so-called Reforming
Coalition, one is fain to ejaculate once more in the
hackneyed words of TULLY, Quousgue tandem
abutere patientiam nostram? Only—we have this
one consolation left (hardly a sufficient one under
the circumstances, it is true, but, such as it is, there
it is)—Sir ROBERT PEEL'S well-known summary of
the National estimate of Lord PALMERSTON—" We
are all proud of him !"

The rapid development of onr railway system
outstrips the most sanguine anticipations. New
plans and new projects are constantly being ori-
ginated, and no sooner are they carried to com-
pletion :than fresh wants are felt and a host of
enterprising engineers and capitalists spring up to
supply them. We have scarcely ceased to comment
on the marvellous mole-like achievement that con-
nects the eastern and western extremities of this
great city, fidgetty old gentlemen and nervous
maiden ladies have scarcely ceased to anticipate
the speedy descent of themselves, and their chim-
ney pots into the regions of the Underground
Railway, when there appears upon the scene a
candidate for honours who not only aspires to link
together Paddington and the City, but actually
proposes to unite in one unbroken chain of commu-
nication the brown moors of Scotland and the gay
scenes of continental cities. This is, in truth, a
wonderful achievement, and one which will supply
a need much felt by the numerous travellers who
hurry to and fro at the call of business or plea-
sure. Let us see how the proposal is to be carried
into effect. The London, Chatham, and Dover
Railway has commenced building a bridge at
Blackfrairs, which is to form a connecting link
with the Underground Railway, and thus maintain
unbroken the stream of communication not only
between the northern and southern suburbs of our
busy human hive but between the northern counties
of England, Scotland, and the Continent. When
brought to a successful termination this gigantic
undertaking will certainly be a worthy tes-
timony of the resources of English enter-
terprise, mince, and capital. One remark-
able feature in the affair is that the company
are so confident of the financial success of the
scheme that the shareholders have voluntarily sub-
scribed sufficient funds for the work—no light task
when we look at the programme. The bridge in
question is already in progress, the first stone
having been laid on Saturday, under the auspices
of Lord SONDES, Chairman of the Company. It
has five spans, the centre one being 188 ft., the
second end fourth are 177 ft. Bin., and the first and
fifth are of 163 ft. span. The abutments will be
of brick work, cased with Portland stone, and the
foundations are taken down to the London clay,
at a depth of 27 feet below Trinity high water. The
first stone is laid at the level of low watermark, or
18 feet below high water. The abutments are built
in coffer-dams of the ordinary construction, which
are the largest ever executed in this country. In
the construction of the piers a new method has

been tried for the first time. They are four in
number, and their foundations will be laid a depth
of 55 feet below Trinity high water; and in order

to avoid the expense and inconvenience of coffer-
dams in reaching this depth, large wrought-iron
caissons, 18 feet in diameter, are sunk into the bed
of the river till the required level is reached, when

the brickwork is commenced inside them, and car-
ried up two feet below low-water line. At this
point the masonry of the piers commences, and this
is laid within a temporary caisson to five feet above
Trinity high water. The temporary caissons will
then be removed. Above this point the piers
will consist of clusters of cast-iron columns,
one cluster under each girder, and as there
are three throughout the length of the
bridge, there will be three such clusters of
columns on every pier. The headway for
navigation will be 30fT. Sin. above Trinity high
water. The bridge is expected to be opened for
traffic this time next year, and already the work is

.n motion. M2anwhile a large temporary station

is to be erected close to the southern side of the
bridge, which is to be opened in September next,
and is to be the City terminus of the railway until
the promised opening of the bridge. The Com
pany seem to be confident that this new railway
bridge will bear comparison with our recent addi-
tions, and add to the beauty as well as to the
number of the noble structures that span old
Father Thames.

The ambition and enterprise of the Dover and
Chatham line are not, however, satisfied even with
the construction of a new bridge and station, or
with the extension of their system of communica-
tion between North and South. They propose
also to extend their traffic to Brighton, by means
of a line starting from the junction of the Chatham
and Dover with the South-Eastern, near Becken-
ham, passing onward in a straight line to Lewes,
and then taking an eastern curve to its proposed
terminus at Kemp Town. It is many years since
we suggested such a scheme, but the chairman of
the South-Eastern Company would not at that
time entertain it. Its advantages have now, how-
ever, become too evident to be longer overlooked,
and the busy districts of Kent and Sus-
sex, through which it will pass, will
thus be suddenly introduced to tha faci-
lities of raiway travelling. from which tl- ey
have hitherto been entirely cut cif. By this new
scheme a sojourner at Brighton may be transported
to any of the chief points of the metropolis. The
fascinations of that p:eusant watering place will be
increased tenfold to the man of business if he can
from the top of West-street, the Charing-cross, or
Waterloo-road, thereby avoiding that wearisome
pendent to a railway journey—a conclusion in omni-
bus or cab—
tedious part cab—which
ll is
expedition. ofte n the
most
They
annoyingeerem o
ceremony
and
ofof
laying the first stone went off with great eclat