The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-05 00:00:00

Distance saved by proposed now route..

The Morris and Essex Railroad is nine miles longer than
the New Jorsoy Central Railroad, and will doubtless be re-
duced in length by a cut-off link And if a new road be
made between the Catawissa Railroad and the Morris and
Essex Railroad, over a route nearer the Wind Gap than
Allentown, another saving of mileage may be made,
though higher gradient will be incurred.

Besides, if the new road between Oil City and Milton be
made on a line nearer straight than the Pennsylvania Rail-
road between Harrisburg and Pittsburg, and the Phila-
delphia and Erie Railroad between Sunbury and Erie City,
in such case, less than 225 miles of new road will suffice
between Oil City and Milton. Hence, instead of showing
a saving of only 35 miles by the new route, as against the
Salamanca route, there is a possibility that about 75 miles
of distance may ultimately be extinguished.
Nor will the adoption of the proposed new route cause
the abandonment of the 101 miles of road between Mead-
ville and Salamanca, because a connection with the Erie
road will always be mutually desirable and beneficial for
local intertrade, independent of through traffic to and from
New York city and the Mississippi Valley.

The 101 miles of road between Meadville and Sala-
manca will also comprise an important link in the wide-
gauge road which is in progress from Salamanca to Buf-
falo, thence across the international bridge at Black Rock
into Canada, and thence down the Niagara river to Lake
Ontario, to a shipping point for freights down the St. Law-
rence water route, in the season of navigation.
Meadville will thus be made the diverging place whence
ono line will continue on northward to the cheap outlet
down the St. Lawrence, for shipment of breadstuffs to
Europe ; and whence the other lino will lead out east
through Pennsylvania to New York, with a prong to Phi-
ladelphia, giving the Atlantic and Great Western Rail-
road a forking, but end in the two great cities on tidewater,
and making it another grand trunk line into the great in-
terior, which is already peopled on both slopes of the
Rocky Mountains—an interior which is a vista of rising
cities as the sky is a firmament of flashing stars.
All this, wo aro aware, foreshadows a gigantic under-
taking, and vast outlay of money to build and stock it.
But the fact is too palpable to be ignored or underrated,
that, under the financial manipulation of James
Milenry, Esq., the Atlantic and Great Western Railway
organisation commands the confidence and co-operation of
British capitalists of powerful influence and ample means,
who have had experience in building roads and in placing
bonds in market.

Hitherto this organisation has had its faco turned west-
ward, till a wide-gaugo connection is secured with Cleve-
land, with Cincinnati, with St. Louis; and now it would
appear as if it is about to turn short round to tho East,
and, by leasing existing roads and building new links,
carry its own independent wide gauge to New York city,
the show-window of the great Republic—not omitting a
wide-gauge connection with Philadelphia, the centralising
focus of American mechanic arts.

What legislation may be necessary to enable the At-
lantic and Great Western Railway Company.to consummate
its bold scheme for a line of its own, by ownership and
lease, all the way to New York city, is a question to be
'solved next winter at Harrisburg, where there are fewer

practical than professed cosmopolitans; as, for instance, a
member from Northampton, in favor of free legislation for
railroads in his own county, voting and working against a
bill for a railroad from Allentown to Norristown. A
great clamor was raised against the repeal of the tonnage
tax imposed on the Pennsylvania Railroad, by members
who were vehement in opposition to a similar tax on rail-
roads in their own counties !

There are in Pennsylvania many potential interests re-
presenting immense investments, and how the introduction
of a wide gauge into and through a Fart of the State where
now none but the narrow gauge exists may be regarded by
them, we must wait and watch. It is, of course, usual
for parties asking for legislation, to take high ground in
the expression of liberal sentiments ; but, sometimes, after
such parties get what they themselves want, and other
parties ask for something else, what a change comes over
the spirit and import of their acts!