The Sun.
London, England, 1863-03-24 00:00:00

THE ARMY.

The invalided troops which arrived at Spithead
on Sunday in the Nile, East Indiaman, from Cal-
cutta, were transferred yesterday to the Lucifer
steam tender, and landed from her at the new mili-
tary hospital at Netley, in Southampton Water.
The Nile sailed from Spithead about 2 p.m. for Lon-
don.

Railway Schemes for the Metropolis and
Suburbs.

Colonel Yolland, R.E., at the request of the Board
of Trade, has just issued his report on the Railway
Schemes of the present Session proposed for the
metropolis and its suburbs. It states that he had
carefully examined the Report of the Royal Com-
mission that investigated in 1846 the various
projects for establishing railway termini within
or in the immediate vicinity of the metropolis, then
defined as follows :—The Edgware-road, from Ox-
ford-street to the intersection of the New-road and
City-road to Finsbury-square; Bishopsgate-street ;
London-bridge ; High-street, Borough; Blackman-
street ; the Borough-road ; Lambeth-read ; Vaux-
hall-bridge ; Vauxhal l-bridge-road ; Grosvenor-
place; and Park-lane. The general conclusions of
the Commission were adverse to allowing railways
to enter within those limits north of the Thames,
but they recommended intercommunication be-
tween the London and South-Western and the
South-Eastern Railways, south of the Thames,
which has now been authorised and was in course
of being carried into effect. They stated, how-
ever, that if at any time hereafter it shou!d be
deemed advisable to admit railways within those
limits north of the Thames, this should be done in
conformity with some uniform plan, and that under
no circumstances should the thoroughfares of the
metropolis be surrendered to separate schemes,
brought forward at different times, and without
reference to each other. Little attention appears to
have been paid to this representation of the Com-
mission. The urgent necessity now generally ad-
mitted to exist for relieving the overcrowded streets
of some portion of their traffic did not appear to
have been then much felt, neither did the Commie-
sion seem to recognise the desirability of intercom-
munication between the termini of the principal
railways lying north of the Thames; and they were
also opposed to any attempt to connect the railways
north of the Thames with those south of the Thames,
except at some point west of Vauxhall-bridge. But
the increase of traffic and a continually recurring de-
mand had led to the authorisation and; execution of
a considerable length of railways in and surrounding
the metropolis, some connecting the eastern and
western sides of London, both north and south of
the Thames, while others were still in course of con-
struction ; but with the exception of the Metropo-
litan, the Charing-cross, and the London, Chatham,
and Dover Railway, across the Thames to Farring-
street, those had all been laid out beyond the limits
of the metropolis to
which he had referred. Again,
the number of termini north of the Thames had been
increased by three--viz., the Victoria station at
Pimlico, the Great Northern at King's-cross, and the
Metropolitan at Farringdon-street (temporary) ; a
fourth had been sanctioned for the North London
at Liverpool-street, and another important company,
the Midland, was now seeking for a London termi-
nus at Euston-road, St. Pancras, intermediate be-
tween the London and North-Western and the Great
Northern Railways. The completion of the West
London Extension Railway had established a con-
nection between the London and North-Western
and the Groat Western Railways north of the
Thames, with the London and South-Western, the
London, Brighton, and South Coast, and the Lon-
don, Chatham, and Dover Railways south of the
Thames, and had afforded access to a terminal sta-
tion at the west end (the Victoria, in Pimlico), only
just outside the limits of the metropolitan area de-
fined to the Commissioners in 1846. Three railway
bridges had been authorised, and were in course of
construction, across the Thames, within the limits
of the metropolis proper—viz., one at Hungerford-
market for the Charing-cross line, another adjacent
to Blackfriara-bridge for the London, Chatham, and
Dover, and the third between London and South-
wark-bridges, also for the Charing-cross Railway.
The second bridge would enable intercommunication
to be made between the London, Chatham, and
Dover, south of the Thames, and the railways in
connection with the Metropolitan Railway north of
the river. He thought that the construction of those
lines of railway when completed would be attended
with benefit to the community at large, though there
was little doubt that better arrangements might have
been made if the subject had been looked et as a
whole when these schemes were under consideration.
The Metropolitan Railway, as constructed, would
probably be injurious in preventing the construction
of new lines of railway that would connect some of
the metropolitan termini with each other—a most
desirable object, as pointed out in the report of the
Select Committee of the House of Commons on Me
tropolitan C mmunications, which sat in 1855. If
that be admitted, it would follow that before any
new lines of railway within the metropolis, some
running in an easterly and westerly, and others in
a northerly and southerly direction, were sanctioned,
the several projects should be very carefully
examined to ascertain that barriers were not allowed
to be erected that would absolutely prevent the
construction of any new lines of intercommunication,
however much they may be required. A disregard
of the recommendation of the Commission might
also be traced in the authorisation of two terminal