The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-10 00:00:00

to accommodate the railway to those circumstances.
(Cheers.) They_lhay.e_had to take the.level of the.
street for their guide, and to deal with d fficulties
having nothing to do with engineering con.
siderations. The line has had to worm its
way through a complicated and in!! icate laby-
rinth under difficulties almost insuperable, and I do
heartily congratulate the company on having
brought the enterprise to the present fortunate and,
I believe, successful termination. (Cheers.) One
great difficulty of such an undertaking consists very
much in this, among other things—that in a tunnel
or in a deep cutting it is almost impossible to find
space for your stations and for the necessary en-
gineering machinery connected with the railway;
but every one who observed carefully to-day must
have seen how admirably this difficulty had been
dealt with and overcome—(cheers)—how,
even in
this dull and dismal day, darkness was penetrated
by the light of heaven—(cheers)—how
a line carried
among drains and sewers and through a soil infected
by the use of gas for so many years was yet totally
free from all odour, and how through a long tunnel
and underground it was so admirably ventilated.
(Cheers.) All this will, no doubt,
in the course of
years, seem a matter of course ; but those who first
devised such a scheme, and carried it out in spite of
so many difficulties, are justly entitled to the highest
praise. (Cheers.) I speak thus warmly on the sub-
ject because I have no possible pecuniary interest in
the undertaking—(cheers)—but -I feel that such an
enterprise is an honour to the country, and a solid
advance worthy of civilisation. Nor ought we to
under-estimate,the:advantage of bringing into easy
connexion so many lines which, with the timidity
which often characterises great companies, at first
led them to plant their stations in the outskirts
rather than venture into the sacred precincts of the
city. (Laughter.) In a short time, unless I am
much mistaken, this line will form the nucleus of
what may become a circle by which to connect all
the great railways in one continuous chain. (Cheers.)
For these and many other reasons, which I will not
detain you by mentioning, I call on you to drink a
bumper to the success of the Metropolitan Railway.
(Loud cheers.)
The toast was drunk with all the honours, and
briefly acknowledged by the Chairman.
The next toast was " The Corporation of the City
of London," which had subscribed £200,000 to the
capital of the company, proposed by the deputy-
chairman, which was drunk with much cordiality.

The LORD MAYOR returned thanks. He con-
sidered himself very fortunate in being chief magis-
trate of the city of London on that auspicious occa-
sion, because he had always taken a deep interest
in the enterprise and had supported the proposition
that the corporation should embark a portion of their
funds in the construction of this railway. They had
done so, contrary to their usual custom of not em-
barking in any speculation ; bat they were deeply
impressed with the necessity of the present day of
doing something which should relieve the constantly
growing difficulty they felt in regard to the street
traffic of London. (Cheers.) And, certainly, he
believed this line would largely contribute to its re-
lief. The growing commerce and intercommunica-
tion which was brought about by our railway sys-
tem had resulted in making the city of London and
London generally almost impassable ; and this was
one of the great undertakings which had for its
object the remedying of that state of things. He
therefore believed the corporation had done wisely
when they embarked part of their property in the
undertaking. He quite agreed that the engineer
had great difficulties to contend against—he had
performed a:work such as no other engineer had ever
attempted; but, unless the means had been sup-
plied, even the gigantic resources of their engineer
and the contractors would have failed. He there-
fore felt the honour done to the corporation of
the city of London on the present occasion
was a becoming tribute to their merits—(cheers)
—and he trusted the scheme, which was a
great .engineering success, would be commer-
cially successful, so that the corporation
might participate in the results. (Cheers.) He felt
no doubt upon this point, for one great argument
of their friend the late Mr. Pearson was that the
great element of railway success was not the cheap-
ness of its construction, but the population that was
to use it. (Hear.) He did not care what the rail-
way cost, or what difficulties had to be encountered
in its construction, if they had only a sufficient po-
pulation to employ it; and in that respect it could
certainly not be denied that they had all the ele-
ments of success for the Metropolitan Railway.
(Cheers.)
Lord HARRIS proposed the next toast. If there
was one body of men to whom England was in-
debted more than another, they were the civil en-
gineers—(cheers)—and he felt it a high honour to
be allowed to propose the health of one who had
shown such eminent talent, genius, and energy as
his friend Mr. Fowler--(loud cheers)—which had
placed him in the front rank of the civil engineers
of his country. (Cheers.) He hoped he would live
to carry out as successfully the other part of the
scheme—the extension of the line to Finsbury-
circus. (Loud cheers.)
The toast was drunk with all the honours.
Mr. FOWLER, who was loudly cheered, said,—
Mr. Chairman, my lords, ladies, and gentlemen, I
am much obliged to Lord Harris for the kind and
flattering terms in which hehas proposed my health
as the engineer of the Metropolitan Railway, and
to you, ladies and gentlemen, for the cordial manner
in which you have responded to it. I confess I can-
not but feel proud of the result of this day's pro-
ceedings. Your journey over the Metropolitan Rail-
way from Paddington to the present city station, in
which ,we are now assembled, has brought to a suc-
cessful:completion a great public work of a novel
character in which a large measure of the responsi-
bility has necessarily devolved upon me. The line
over which our journey to-day has extended may
be said to form the first section of the Metropoli-
tan Railway in its course eastward, and the station
in whioi we are now assembled must be considered
only alprovisional city station. The next step will
be tot carry out the authorised extension to
Smithfield and Finsbury-circus, or Moorgate-
street, here a large permanent station will be c.,con-
struct . Cheers.) The Metropolitan Railway
was o+,gincy designed as a line from Edgware-
road tee Ring's-cross, where it was proposed to join
a project for a railway and large terminus in the
Fleet Valley, promoted by our late distinguished
friend,' Mr. Charles Pearson, the city solicitor'
(Cheeri.) Mr. Pearson took great pains for several
years in drawing public attention to his own vast
and comprehensive scheme, which comprised a large
central railway station extending down the valley
of the Fleet to Farringdon-street with a wide road-
way on the top of it. The pains taken by Mr.
Pearson at this time, combined with his great
energy and perseverance, prepared the public mind
for the Metropolitan Railway as a public necessity,
though he did not succeed in obtaining the requisite
amount of support for his own particular scheme.
e
The Act for the first Metropolitan Railway, or the
following- roa d t o K i
year,ng ' s - c rho
os sw,
Was
passed
e rs v w
passed in 18 •
instalment froms Edgware-road
thea r e
for the MbtropOlitan
Railway was sanctionedscheme
by
Parliament, commenc-
ing at Paddington, opposite the Great Western
the Old Wharf-road for
hotel, with a junction along
goods, and extending to the General Post-office,the
with a branch for Post-office purposes only to
11P to this
London and North-Western Railway -
time the idea of the promoters was to make the
Metropolitan Railway an isolated line without
junctions with any other line for passenger traffic.
tlhnecmonosdeeqsuoefnwceorokf
itnhgistanticipatedisolation,
w a sth n
con-
sidered was the atmosph •e ; and it appeared to be
a favourable opportunity of successfully
applying
ell
eoneof
this principle of locomotion ; but after fullyinves-
tigating the question in all its bearings, with the
assistance of my late able friend, Mr. Brunel, I
advised the directors to adopt locomotive en-
gines. After the passing of the Act in 1854
difficulties of various kinds arose, but chiefly of
a financial nature, for which the Russian war
was held to be chiefly responsible; and, except
an act for a trifling deviation, and for a junction
with the Great Northern Railway, no steps were
taken to carry out the undertaking until 1859.
Daring this interval, however, it became evident
that the original expectation of an isolated metro-