The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-28 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 28,

ALP

;STS,

(From the Times' Correspondent)
RIFFLEBERG, Sept. 23.
Up, up, up, and up again ; it must go hard if a
man does not rise so high towards Heaven as to
find a cool spot upon earth. We left Visp yester-
day morning soon after 5, mounted on steeds whose
slow gait is something between the long stride of
the camel and the crushing tread of the elephant.
We had hardly reached Stalden when the sun was
high up in the valley, and we found no shelter
against its fierce heat in the few straggling fir trees
hanging here and there upon the steep road. It was
hot at St. Nicklaus, where we breakfasted on to ugh
beefsteak and sour Ballioz wine. Hotter still at
Branda, where we had a thimbleful of Kirschwasser
dashed into a bottle of lemonade gazeuze. The heat
had reached its acme when we stopped at the Hotel
Monte Rosa at Zermatt, and called for a pint of
Champagne Vaudois and a crust of bread. We had
nevertheless come over the whole length of this never
ending St. Nicholas Valley, and reached its head at
Zermatt at 2 in the afternoon, accomplishing the 94
hours' distance in seven hours, without computing
the stoppage of about 11 hours at St. Nicklaus. Al
this we achieved by forcing our heavy steeds into al
bone-breaking jog trot from time to time, and tak-
ing to our own legs when all other means of urging
on those sorry quadrupeds failed us. We drank
our sparkling wine and munched our dry crust at
Zermatt, and half an hour later went our way on
foot to the Rif eberg Hotel, wondering how any
human being who could possibly help it could take
up his quarters at Zermatt. It would be the same
as if one went to St. Paul's to enjoy the panorama
of London, and stopped at some of the shops below
in the churchyard. We had a stiff two hours' walk
up to the Riffieberg, a tough piece of work, yet
hardly worth mentioning, inasmuch as a good bridle
path has been made, not only to the hotel, but fur-
ther up to the Gornergrat,and no ascentwhere horse
can go should properly be reckoned as real mountain
climbing. At the Riffleberg, at last, we found a cool
breeze for the first time this many a week, and even
the fewest imaginable drops of refreshing rain.
I was here at this same Riffieberg Hotel 11 years
ago, arriving late at night, after crossing the Weiss
Thor from Macugnaga, the greatest Alpine feat
ever achieved by my legs in younger days. But
even after 11 years—nay, after a long lifetime,
a man who has been once on the spot, and has
only looked about him for five minutes, would
never forget a single feature in this matchless pano-
rama. There are far more beautiful spots in the
Bernese Oberland ; greater contrast between rock
and glacier on the one side, and fine meadow ver-
dure and luxurious vegetation on the other, is to be
met with at the foot of Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa,
on the Piedmontese side; but nowhere in the world
are you more at home among .snows and above
glaciers than at the Riffleberg, and no pyramidal
mountain rises so close at hand and at the sametiine
so hopelessly above you, so apparently beyond all
human reach, as that murderous Matterhorn. The
Matterhorn, still stained with the blood of its vic-
tims of two months ago, is here the king to whom
some scores of the highest summits in Europe bow in
obeisance. Even Monte Rosa, though considerably
higher, though so much more dignified and majestic
a mountain mass, must be satisfied with playing
second part to its great rival, Mont Cervin, in the
Zermatt region. Monte Rosa is most distinctly au
Italian mountain ; on its southern slopes, at Gres-
soney, Alagna, and Macugnaga, its greatness can be
fully appreciated, and from any part of the vast
plain from Turin to Milan it can be seen in all its
majesty, the giant of the chain, the brightest jewel
in the mountain-diadem of Italy.
The sea of snow and ice surrounding the open
platform of the Riffleberg, seen more comprehen-
sively from the summit of the Gornergrat, is still
inexhausted, but it looks at this present moment far
less inexhaustible than it did at the period of my
former visit. The long drought of this extraordinary
summer has dug as deep into the frozen mass as it
is in the power of any solar influence to achieve.
The lower ends of the glaciers here, as at Grindel-
wald and Murrell are converted into dry squalid
" moraines," and the lower skirts of the Alpine
mantle look as if they had been squeezed up like half
washed linen and stretched out to dry in the warp-
ing and withering sunlight.
It is, strange as it may appear, with a kind of
melancholy feeling that one looks upon the ravages
of this never-ending summer among the beauties of
the higher Alpine region. The epithet of " ever-
lasting" seems now less than ever applicable to the
Alps. This dwindling of glaciers and waterfalls re-
minds you, on the contrary, that these huge masses
are perpetually crumbling; every wave of those
muddy roaring torrents carries with it part of their
spoil; every one of those deep chasms, of those abrupt
crags and cliffs, tellsits tale of theslow but sure work
of frost and thaw. The Alps are going, ever going,
and imagination can anticipate the time when all
their rough grandeur shall have gone altogether,
when nothing shall remain of them save only round,
smooth eminences like the older Alleghanies and
Blue Ridges of North America. Melancholy as the
thought may be, let not the reader distress himself
on his own account or mine. Let the summer be
never so long, and the sun never so hot, the Alps, I
confidently believe, will last our time.

At Zermatt and the Itifileberg I have fallen in
with the Alpine tourists properly so called—those
who, according to the classification given in one of
my former letters, belong to the first category. Only
the other evening, at Visp, the company was still
mixed. Pleasanter talk than we had with a set of
highly civilised travellers on their way across the
Simplon to the Italian lakes I hardly ever remember
enjoying in my former tours. There was a Q.C., an
M.P., with his lady, a stately beauty, who had
nothing to fear from comparison with three or four
lovely g,rown_up daughters; there was a middle-aged
gentleman, doing duty as a tutor or bear-leader to
his own son, at home for the holidays—the father
the most intimate friend of the son, the son proud of
nothing so much on earth as his bland, gentlemanly
father; there were, in short, a score of persons, a
handful of the sand from that ocean shore which
constitutes the English nation, and these persons,
without hardly a link of common interest among
them, with no other ties of acquaintance than such
as began and were to end with that late table d'hote
dinner, spent together as agreeable an evening as if
each of them had cudgelled his brains to call
together the choicest company at his own house.
By that instinct which goes such great lengths
towards the eomposition of a gentlemanly charac-
ter, each of the guests took the part naturally
suited to him on his very first sitting down.
We had talkers and listeners. We had those who
had much to tell us about the Valais, its actual social
condition, the decline of its noble families, the dwindling of the population, their admeclieene bothe in physical and moral qualitiesannabsi inth health and wealth,
with allusions to the
past, when lordly
families from the turbulent Italeian republics, the
Tavelli, the Biondrate, the Dena. v
arlel , took refuge..
or
in the hitherto quiet and happy
ey, filling it
with their hereditary feuds, and converting it into,
theatre of violence and bloodshed ; when the Bishops
of Zion were by their riotous vassals thrown over
the battlements of their castles; or when, in later

times, those same ambitious and warlike prelatesled
the Valaisan peasantry down the plains of Italy,
.

allied themselves to the mercenary mountaineers of
the Forest Cantons, and adopting the maxim "Point
d'argent, point de Suisse," sold themselves and their

followers to the highest bidder, ready to sell the
latter in turn, whenever interest, bigotry, or caprice
seemed in their ignorant estimation and lax con-
science to justify defection and treason.
Our dinner last evening at the Riffieberg was with
an altogether different set. We had none but men
here. Strange to say, the inn is .not only exclu-
sively officered,:but actually commanded by women.
Our landlady is a sister or cousin of those brothers
Seiler who have the Monte Rosa Hotel at Zer-
matt and the " Rhone -Glacier" at the Furka Pass.
This lady, a young and pretty woman, is general-in-
chief ; under her a score of handmaidens ; no man in
the house except Boots, who never shows exceptfor
his night work, and whose only office, besides black-
ing, is that of killing the daily sheep, an act of
necessary cruelty to which no female heart could
lend itself. This table of mere men, attended by only
women, was, though on the whole perfectly orderly

yet somewhat noisy. Alpine climbers, if I may judge
from most specimens here assembled last night, talk
about anything rather than the Alps. They look
upon their mountain work as mere sport ; so many
miles in snow and ice ; so many hours' clamberingon
rocks. One has " done" the Cima di Jan yesterday ;
another is going to " do" the Lyskamm to-morrow.
They meet, question, and congratulate each other
on their exploits, much as men out of shooting would
count 10 or 12 brace of birds they have bagged, or
foxhunters would tell of the capital run they had
after hounds. There is but little aesthetic and nothing
scientific in the object of nine Alpine climbers out of
ten. The pleasure is not in the run, not in the fox
that is thrown to the hounds, or even in the phea-
sant or blackcock that everyboly is so keen to kill.
There were but few Syntax-like faces about me last
evening, but few who would not laugh at the notion
of coming to the Alps in quest of the picturesque.
One came to the Alps to " do" them, to breathe
fresh air, to give a keen edge to appetite, to seek a
vent for the exuberance of animal spirits. Some
in the company was evidently a lion, or fancied
himself so. His talk was of theloudest ; he bounced
up from his place every now and then, throwing
back his chair in the suddenness of his movements.
He showed great energy and alacrity in his step to
prove how little his powerful elastic frame had been
affected by his 14 hours' toil on the ice. His tone
was overbearing (there is no mincing the matter),
his manner obstreperous. He was young, wild-
looking, presumptuous. You would have said the
Champagne air of the Alps had got to his head. He
kept up an incessant rattle ; none within reach of
his shrill voice had a chance to put in a word ; and
as it ever happens where a man takes too much on
himself, there were those around him willing to
allow him even more than he assumed. There were
Boswells to this Alpine Johnson, who took every
impertinence as a joke, who burst out into up-
roarious laughter at the fine fun of seeing their
idol jump up in his place and kick down
the chair behind him. That upsetting of the chair
every five minutes was an incomparable joke ; so
was every remark about cat disguised as hare, and
tough ' goat palmed upon the guests as chamois.
The 40 or 50 guests assembled round the table were
not like these, thank Heaven ! There were, on the
contrary, men of intelligent countenance and gen-
tlemanly demeanour. But these were awed into
silence, worried and annoyed, but " shut up."
There was nothing for them but to hold their
tongues or fling the bottle into the face of the dis-
turber of the public quiet, and they took the more
prudent, more peaceful alternative.

The Iron-cased Fleets of France and
England.

The iron-cased fleet of France at present afloat
consists of 29 vessels, exclusive of four floating bat-
teries, built to meet the exigencies of the Russian
war, and five smaller batteries, built in sections, for
special lake service during the Italian war with
Austria. This force may be thus divided :-1. sea-
going vessels ; 2. vessels only serviceable for the at-
tack or defence of coasts, roadsteads, harbours, &c.
The seagoing fleet consists_of 17 vessels, which have
been shortly described as of the two-decked and
frigate classes, but'which for clearness of description
may here be divided into six classes, owing to diffe-
rences in displacement, engine-power, disposition of
armour, material of construction, &c. At the head
of the list stand the Magenta and Solferino, the two
flagships, which by their quaint form of bow
and high short hulls excited so much attention
during the recent Portsmouth festivities. The
Magenta has a displacement of 6,737 tons, the
weight of her hull, fitted and armour-plated being
4,164 tons, and the weight of her equipment 2,573
tons. Her length on the water-line is 280 ft. only,
with a breadth of hull inside the armour-plating of
56ft. Bin. Her mean draught of water in deep trim
26ft. Her engines, of 1,000 nominal horse-power,
drive a fixed four-bladed screw, and her speed over
the measured mile, in deep trim and under favourable
conditions of weather (under similar conditions to
those under which our own ships are tried), is 13.7
knots. The Magenta is built of wood—a short
wooden line-of-battle ship, carrying a water-line
belt of armour-plating, and armour-plating (very
roughly put on, and with the bolts exceedingly close
together) over the central portion of her hull, where
only she carries her guns, leaving her bows, stern,
and quarters without armour, and, consequently,
pervious to shell of any calibre. Behind the armour-
plating amidships she carries, on de main deck, 24
66-pounder rifled guns for shells only, burning 81b.
of powder, and fitted as breech-loaders, with a three-
faced raised screw breech-plug. On her lower deck
she carries 16 50-pounder smooth-bore solid shot
guns, and on the upper deck two of the latter de-
scription of guns and two rifled 8-65-in. howitzers.
She is rigged as a bark, with long lower masts,
narrow topsails, and topgallantsails over all, the
masts being well placed, and the amount of head
sail being unusually large as compared with our
ships. The Solferino is the counterpart in every
respect of the Magenta. She is said to be a fraction
of a knot faster under steam, but if she ever was
the faster vessel of the two she has since lost her
pre-eminence in that respect. The rig of the Ma-
genta and Solferino is closely followed in all the
other ships, and, indeed, it would be difficult to de-
vise one more simple and yet efficient for an iron-
clad. The same system of mixed armament is also
followed in all the ships with the 66-pounder
rifled and 50-pounder smooth-bore guns, and thus
serious complication of projectiles on board ship is
wisely avoided, however harmless such guns may be
against 6-inch armour-plating. We have thus far
dealt only with the two-decked armoured ships, but,
taking the remainder in the orderin which they were
built, we find in their hulls the history of the con-
struction of the armoured fleet of France. The
famous Gloire, the Invincible, and the Normandie
were laid down in 1858, the Gloire being completed
for sea in 1860, the Normandie in 1861, and the
Invincible in 1862. All three are built of wood, and
are coated with armour of 4.7 in. in thickness, are
255 ft. 6in. in length on the water-line, have a
breadth inside their armour of 55ft. 9in., and draw
at deep draught of water—Gloire, 25ft. 6in. ; In-
vincible, 25ft. Bin. ; Normandie, 25ft. 11in. All
have the old-fashioned square gun-ports placed
closely together, and carry their guns low on the
water. Their displacement is as nearly as possible
5,630 tons. Their engines, of 900-horse power,
drive a fixed screw, and the speed of the ships on
trial was 13.4 knots. For armament they each carry
12 50-pounder smooth-bore guns and 16 6G-pounder
rifled guns on their main deck, with four 8.65-inch
rifled howitzers on their upper deck. In contra-
distinction to the plough-coulter submerged bows of
the Magenta and Solferino, the Gloire, Normandie,
and Invincible have straight stems with rather full
wedge-line bow. Their armour-plating—the first
work of the kind done by our neighbours, it must
be remembered—is pierced all over with bolts, and
put on the hulls in the roughest possible manner.
The plating at the water-line of all three ships is now
in a woful condition.

In February, 1859, an important step in advance
ways made in the building of the iron navy of France
in the laying down the keel of the iron frigate
Caliro
nne, at L'Orient. Iron was now brought into
exei •
the
in the construction of a ship's hull, for
uslii le
I/. se
rtraen
tiraesiionnathe
Imperial dockyards, while pre-
vious
as t a were somewhatlight increase of length and
decrease of breadth departed from in
giving the co
comparedr with the Gloire,
reodur.onne carries
Normandie, and Invincible.
e
armour-plating of 4•sin, on the b
olde, and Sin.
weight of armour
round the bows and stern, her total
being 699 tons. She has a length of hull at the water_
line of 262 ft. sin., and a breadth inside her armour_
plates of 54ft. 9in. Her sea-going draught of water
is—mean-25ft., at a displacement of 5,982 tons.
The nominal power of the engines is 900-horse, and
the ship's speed at the mile 13.3 knots. The Cou-
ronne was completed for service in February, 1862.

Between Jan. and June, 1861, the most compre-
hensive measure towards the creation of an ironclad
fleet was taken in laying down 10 improved frigates
in the yards of Brest, Cherbourg, Rochefort, Lorient,
and Touton. Nine of these—the Flandre, Gauloise,
Guienne, Magnanime, Provence, Revanche, Savoir,
Surveillante, and Valeureuse—have wooden hulls,
cased with armour. The tenth vessel—the Heroine
_is of iron throughout. All have a length of hull at

the water-line of 262 ft. sin., with a breadth inside
their armour-plating of 55ft. gin. They have a mean
draught of water, at deep draught, of 25ft. 3in., at
a displacement of 5,711 tons. Their engines have
a nominal power of 1,000 horse, and their speed
over the trial ground ranges between 14.2 and 15
knots. Their armour is 4.7 in. in thickness all
round, and their armament consists, for each, of,
on main deck, 10 50-pounder smooth-bore and
16 66-pounder rifled guns. On the upper deck
two 50-pounder smooth-bores and two 66-pounder
rifled guns. All are very fine handy craft, with
armour of a superior quality, and much better put
on than in the instances of the previous ships.
Their gunports, too, although too close together,
are embrasured or narrowed in their outer area on
the English plan. The nine wooden-built vessels
have, of course, all the weakness inseparable from
wooden hulls loaded with iron. The iron vessel,
the Heroine, on the contrary, has all the advantages
of the possession of an iron structure throughout ;
but, strange to say, she has no athwartship water-
tight compartments, such as are considered indis-
pensable to all our iron ships of war. The Heroine
has, however, a longitudinal water-tight bulkhead,
rising up from her floor, and extending from stem
to stern at a certain distance from each broadside.
The ventilation of the Heroine below is, therefore,
much better than in the majority of English iron
ships, but we cannot consider this as an equivalent
for the safety given to the ship by athwartship
bulkheads.

These ten frigates, with their high rate of speed,
their moderate length, and consequent handiness in
evolutions--say, a naval engagement at moderately
close quarters in the Channel or at sea—in fact,
their collective and harmonious powers of efficiency
and of steaming at any rate up to 14 knots, and
manoeuvring in concert, represent a force that is
unrepresented in the navies of Europe or America.
Seeing them together it is almost impossible to
imagine a more perfect war machine than these ten
vessels make in their combination, although it must
be admitted that the nine wooden vessels are only
half as strong as they would be for powers of re-
sistance if built of iron, and that their artillery on
board all is unfit to cope with the artillery now on
board the American, and being introduced into the
English navy. As regards wooden ships cased with
iron, however, both England and America have simi-
larly built ships in their navies, and as for the effi-
cient armament of France's ironclad navy, the Em-
peror can afford to await the issue of English and
American experiments.

The last of the sea-going ironclads of France now
necessary to notice as actually afloat is the Belli-
. . _ _

queuse, laid down at Toulon in December, 1863
and launched and completed for sea by January,
1865. The Belliqueuse is the first illustration, as a
frigate, of the strange theory of the " plough-coulter"
submerged bow of M. Du Puy-de-Lome, the direc-
tor of material, or chief constructor of the Imperial
Navy. Her hull is built of wood, and carries a
water-line belt, with a central square plated box, all
coated with iron of 5.9 in. thickness. She is pierced
with 17 ports on each broadside, but with only six
of these ports in the centre, or amidships, included
in the armour-plating. From this description it
will be seen that the Belliqueuse is merely a Ma-
genta or Solferino reduced to frigate form. It will
be interesting to notice the speed attained by this
plough-bow'd ship, and compare it with the speed of
the handsome wedge-line bow'd ships the Ildroine
and Flandre, 15 knot vessels. The Belliqueuse has
a length at the water-line of 229 ft. 7in., with a
breadth of 45ft. 11in. inside her plating, and draws
at deep sea-draught, 19ft. 61 in., at 3,347 tons dis-
placement. Her speed and armament are not known
to a certainty in England at present, but the former
is probably as nearly as possible 13 knots, her en-
gines being of 200 horse-power, and her armament
will consist of 12 66-pounder rifled guns behind her
armour.

The remainder of the French ironclads afloat are
included in category No. 2. vessels destined for
the attack and defence of coasts, roadsteads, or
harbours. They comprise, besides the floating
batteries built for the Russian and Italian wars, the
Taureau, a peculiar vessel, having one gun and one
tower, with the plough coulter bow, drawing IGft.
Sin. of water, at a load displacement of 2,500 tons.
Her engines, of 900 horse power, drive a pair of
twin screws, and her speed is said to be 13 knots.
She is 19Th. long at the water line, with a beam of
47ft. Gin., and is coated with 5-9 in. armour plating.
The Paixhans, Pal€stro, Peiho, Saigon, Embuscade,
Impregnable, Protectrice, Refuge, Arrogante, Im-
placable, and Opiniatre are vessels varying in their
displacement from 1,550 to 1,220 tons ; in their
draught of water, from Bft. Gin. to 9ft. 10in. ; in
length, from 156 ft. to 129 ft. ; in breadth, from 51ft.
to 47ft. , and in their deep water draught from 10ft.
6in. to Bft. 9in. Seven (iron built) out of the 11
have armour plating of 5-sin., the remaining four
(wooden built) have 4-sin. All are fitted with 150
horse power engines, and their maximum rate of
speed, under the most favourable circumstances, is
seven knots. It is not, however, with the home
fleet of France that we arc now dealing, but with
her seagoing ironclads, that, combined with those of
England, may be looked upon as the water police
of Europe, and the possible arbiters of future peace
or war. To render our sketch of the French ar-
moured navy, therefore, of any value, we must
refer to the tabular forms published by our own
Admiralty, which, supplemented by other and non-
official knowledge on the subject, may give a means
of arriving at a fair estimate of the combined and
relative qualities of the ships of the two countries.
Taking the Magenta and Solferino as the largest
ships in the French navy, we have no other choice
than the selection of our Achilles as their com-
petitive ship in the English navy ; the Minotaur,
Northumberland, and Agincourt not yet having
undergone their deep-draught trials. By the Eng-
lish Admiralty returns we find that our iron-built
frigate Achilles had a displacement of 9,487 tons,
her length being 380 ft., with a breadth of 58ft. 31
in. ; her mean draught of water was 26ft. sin., her
mean speed 14.322 knots, and her nominal engine
power 1,250-horse.

In comparing this speed with that of the double-
decked ships of the French navy—the Magenta and
Solferino, we shall find that the Achilles beat both
ships by a good three quarters of a knot, with an
excess of engine power of 205-horse, of displacement
of 2,729 tons, of a length of 98ft., and a breadth of
3ft. In speed, therefore, the Achilles excels the
Magenta and Solferino, but her greater length ren-
ders her a far less handy ship when manceuvring
with a fleet than either of those ships. In armour
and backing no comparison can be made between
the ships, all merit being on-the side of the Achilles,
with her iron frame, inner iron skin, teak backing
between the iron ribs of the ship's frame and the
outer skin of sfin. armour plates, as contrasted
with the only partially protected hull and its soft
extremities, without inner iron skin, of the Magenta
and Solferino. In armament the Magenta and
Solferino will bear no comparison with the Achilles'
6f-ton 9fin. smooth-bore guns, although the latter'
are only placed on board as a makeshift until the
12-ton smooth-bore guns in stock now at Woolwich
have been lined with steel tubes and issued to the
navy as its 7-inch rifled broadside gun. But, as
we have already observed, the Emperor of the
French can afford, with his usual astuteness, to wait
the results of our costlygun experiments before arm-
ing his fleet with efficient armour-piercing guns. In
rig, handiness under steam or sail, ventilation, hos-
pital and general sanitary arrangements, the two
French ships are far in advance of our Achilles. Pass-
ing over the Gloire, Normandie, Invincible, and
Couronne, as the pioneers of the French iron-clad
navy, it only remains for us to draw a comparison
between the ten improved French frigates we have
n named tolour own sea-going ships below the Achilles
tonnageispurapioulselitohreseE-pontewer. Selecting,larth therefore,pefence:
Prince Consort, Elector,for,
andrpri Rioyse,e Research,
Sovereign as
the representatives of theirrespective classes, we
find the returns given to be as follows :
Name of Ship.

Mean Draught. Speed.
Engines' Horse-
Ft. In.
. l3 9
9'738 - 200
Research
Prince Consort
25 4 12.770 1,000
Defence
Foots. Power.
Enterprise '
24 9 11.618 600
Royal Sovereign
22 11 11.006360 800
800
Hector

Putting aside, therefore, the performance of Ourfirst

class ships under steam—our Minotaurs, Warriors,
and Achilles, as comparable only with Magentas and
and Solferinos—it will be found that we have not
ten frigates afloat and in commission, or that have
been in commission, that possess, "as a fleet," the
collective speed of the ten best frigates of the French
ironclad navy, that is to say, that could make a
12-knot passage between France and Algiers, as was
done by the French fleet on the occasion of the
Emperor's recent visit to Africa. As the speed
of the slowest vessel in a fleet must necessarily
regulate the speed of all the ships in the fleet, the
undoubted importance of a balance in this respect
is obvious, and it is in this respect, as also in their
relative lengths and turning powers, that the French
ironclads excel our own, and not only ours, but it
may be justly said the armoured fleets also of all
other nations. In exceptional instances of speed
the English undoubtedly beat those of France, but
in collective steaming power the latter have a de-
cided preponderance. On the whole, looking upon
the ironclads of both countries as two machines for
war, every part of which in each case should act in
perfect harmony with the other, as with the slides
and pistons of a steam-engine, we are compelled to
award the palm of superiority to the ships of Francs
over those of England, premising, however, that
only those of our own ships have been taken into
consideration which have been equipped to their
load draught and afterwards put through their
trial at the measured mile. In our Minotaur, Agin-
court, itnd Northumberland we certainly have, and
in the Pallas, Bellerophon, Lord Warden, and Lord
Clyde we hope to have, ships with 12-knot sea-
going qualifications. All thesevessels will probably
have completed their deep-draught trials within the
next six months, and if they should then realise the
estimates formed of their speeds the English iron-
clad fleet may be considered fully on a par with
that of our Gallic allies, but until then the latter
will continue to occupy the foremost place in the
face of the iron navies of Europe.

The Great English Railways•

-

THE LONDON AND SOUTH-WESTERN.
The next system to which we propose to direct
attention is " this company," to use an expression
which finds great favour with railway secretaries and
officials. The London and South-Western, like all
its great neighbours, represents also a mass of minor
undertakings which have linked themselves with its
fortunes by amalgamation, lease, or otherwise, and
every year the concern assumes more important pro-
portions. In one way or other, about 570 miles of
line have come to be worked by the management,
which has its head-quarters at the Waterloo termi-
nus, and the revenue now fluctuates between £25,000
and £30,000 per week. The original nucleus of the
London and South-Western system was the highly
productive line between London and Southampton,
but the enterprise has now been extended into the
far west of England, and it has carried the narrow
gauge into districts in which the genius of Mr.
Brunel once reigned supreme. If Mr. Brunel's life
had been spared, we should probably see an inces-
sant strife between this company and the Great
Western ; as it is, there is a kind of armed truce
between the two concerns—a severe struggle for a
line to Bristol on the part of the South-Western,
and for a line to Southampton on the part of the
Great Western by way of retaliation, having brought
about a cessation of hostilities between them,
both combatants being reduced, and more espe-
cially the Great Western, to a state of exhaustion.
It has required of late years considerable tact and
care to secure to the ordinary proprietors in the
South-Western a return of 5 per cent. upon their
capital, while the holders of the Great Western or-
dinary stock have not been so fortunate as to receive
even 3 per cent. with any regularity. Both parties
then remain quiescent for the present, the South-
Western having firmly established itself in Devon-
shire, although it has not yet got much of a footing
in Cornwall, while the Paddington magnates have
been compelled to accept a competition which cannot
now be avoided. The rough traffic receipts, the
working expenses, and the net profits of the Lon-
don and South-Western, were as follows, in 1862,
1863, and 1864 :
Year. Receipts. Expense. Profits.
1862 £1,265,578 £630,724 £631,851
1863 1,326,863 678,104 648,759
1864 1,413 745 712 554 701,191

The total distance worked at the close of each of
the three years was as follows :-1862—London and
South-Western proper, 412/ miles ; lines worked
on lease or otherwise, 91 miles ; total, 5361 miles.
1863—London and South-Western proper, 4511
miles ; lilies worked on lease or otherwise, 101/
miles ; total, 556 miles. 1864—London and South-
Western proper, 4701 miles ; lines worked on lease
or otherwise, 101/ miles ; total, 5711 miles. The
affiliated lines worked, leased, &c., by the company
comprise the Bideford Extension, the Bishop's Wal-
tham, the Chard, the Exeter and Crediton, the
Exeter and Exmouth, the Lymington, the North
Devon, the Ringwood, the Christchurch and Bourne-
mouth, the Salisbury and Yeovil, the Staines,
Wok inghain , and Woking, the Stokes Bay, the Alton,
Alresford, and Winchester, &c. The capital raised
by the London and South-Western is stated in a
sheet of statistics obligingly placed at our disposal
to have been £13,755,340 at the close of 1864, as
compared with £13,260,958 at the close of 1863,
and 12,785,585 at the close of 1862. The amount
of the ordinary stock in 1862 was £7,381,281 ; in
1863, £7,467,964; and in 1864, £7,562,228; sothat,
comparing 1864 with 1862, we have an increase in
the ordinary stock of £180,947. The amount of
preference stock in 1862 was £1,830,192; in 1863,
£2,093,190; and in 1864, £2,576,880; so that,
comparing 1864 with 1862, we have an increase in
the preference stock of £746,688. The amount of
debentures outstanding in 1862 was £3,574,112; in
1863, £3,699,804 • and in 1864, £3,616,232; so
that, comparing 1.61 with 1862, we have an in-
crease in the debentures of £42,120. These figures
are given as we find them in the previously-men-
tioned sheet of statistics, but they do not exactly
tally with a return made to the Board of Trade
last year as regards 1863. The return for
1864 has not yet been issued, we believe, by the
Railway Department of the Board, which can-
not be said to Inova in these matters at a railway
speed. If we take the Board of trade figures for
1863 we arrive at the following results :—Ordinary
stock, £7,067,964 ; preferential capital, £1,647,190;
debenture stock or funded debt, £786,448 ; and de-
bentures, £3,699,801 ; total, £13,201,406. Weshall
not endeavour to discover the causes of difference
between these figures and those previously sum-
marized, but it is important to note that the deben-
ture stock and debenture loans amounted together to
£4,486,252, and it is satisfactory to note that some
reduction was made in the amount of debenture out-
standing last year, as the intention of the Legislature
in consenting to the issue of debenture stocks was
to gradually extinguish debenture debts. It is dif-
ficult in dealing with a company embracing such a
number of affiliated undertakings as the London
and South-Western to state exactly how the bor-
rowing powers stand, but we fancy that they have
been fully exerted, although the chairman some
months since gave an assurance that they had not
been exceeded. The debenture debt appears to be
well administered, as, of the amount outstanding in
1863, £2,586,473 bore an interest of 4 per cent.
There were no debentures in existence at 5 per cent.,
but 41 per cent. were being paid upon £50,000, 4/
per cent. upon £847,804, 41 per cent. upon £20,000,
and 41 per cent. upon £97,967. From the ra-
ther trying state of the Money-Market, the ave-
rage rate of interest upon the company's mortgage
debt has been since somewhat advancing, having
been 4.13 per cent, in the first half of 1864, 4.21 per
cent. in the second half of 1864, and 4.26 per cent.
in the first half of 1865. There is no great signifi-
cance, however, in this circumstance, as probably
all the great railway companies have had to pay a
little more of late upon their loans. The bulk of the
preference capital has been raised at 4/ per cent.
Although the mortage and preferential charges have
been rolling on rapidly of late years, yet the Lon-
don and South-Western has still an excellent pro-
portion of ordinary stock in existence, the deben-
tures and preference shares having the guarantee
last year of £7,562,228 of fairly remunerated ordi-
nary capital, we may observe that a steady 5 per
cent. was divided upon the common shares or stock
in 1862, 1863, and 1864. in 1861, 1860, and 1859,
the corresponding dividends were at the rate of 41
per cent. only, so that the position of the ordinary
shareholders cannot be said to have changed for the

worse during the last six years, although in 1859
the company hadonly £232,940 of preference stock,
and in 1864 £2,576,880. But while at present the
preference stock created has done the ordinary
stock no harm, it is clear that the creation of pre-
ference shares to the amount of £450,000 per

annum—the average of the last three years—can
scarcely go on ad infinitum. While treating of
capital, it may be intere3ting to put on record the
fact that in 1850 the company had not raised more
than £8,808,112, of which £6,623,888 was ordinary
stock, £171,186 preference stock, and £2,013,038
debentures. The company had then, however, only
242 miles in working, while the dividend upon the
ordinary stock was only 3k per cent., so that the
extension policy of the last 15 years has been at-
tended, on the whole, with good results.
To turn now to the traffic results of the last three
years. In 1864 the receipts from passengers were
£956,193, as compared with £897,437 in 1863 and

£877,056 in 1862 ; and from goods £374,812, as
compared with £355,315 in 1863 and £317,729 in
1862. The balances required to complete the totals
previously given as the rough receipts of the three
years were, of course, made up of miscellaneous
sources of income, percentage on working other
lines, &c. As regards the working expenses, they
may be subdivided as follows for 1864 :—Mainte-
nance and renewal of way, £147,971, against
£144,433 in 1863 ; locomotive department, £188,953,
against £180,679 in 1863 ; carriage department,
£41,149, against £37,748 in 1863 ; traffic charges
(coaching and merchandise), £222,829, against
£207,833 in 1863 ; general charges, £45,820,
against £45,727 in 1863 ; and Government duty,
rates, &c., £65,550 against £61,683 in 1863.
The increase in the outlay last year in the
locomotive and carriage departments will be
explained at once by the fact that the aggre-
gate distance traversed by trains last year was
5,451,648 miles, while in 1863 it was only 5,128,473
miles, and in 1862 4,726,243 miles. The expansion
of business indicated by these figures accounts, of
course, for the increase of the working expenses
generally last year. With the exception of 1852, it
may be stated that the train mileage of each 12
months has been constantly increasing in every year
since 1850. In the last-mentioned year the distance
run was 1,808,932 miles, so that if we compare 1864
with 1850 we see that the train movement has in-
creased threefold in 15 years. Upon every train
mile run, however, last year the profit realised was
only 2s. 9d., while in 1850 it was 3s. 6kd. Without
taking account of season-ticket holders (the num-
ber of whom was 5,582 in 1863), we may state that
the number of passenger tickets issued last year
was 9,925,343 (of which 2,317,813 were first-class,
5,256,480 second-class, and 2,351,050 third-class).
In 1863 the passenger aggregate was returned
at 9,180,283 (of whom 2,056,634 were first-class,
4,865,040 second-class, and 2,258,609 third-class).
The weight of goods conveyed over the system
last year was 882,204 tons, as compared with
821,359 tons in 1863 ; and of coal, 440,488
tons, against 376,218 tons in 1863. The number
of live stock carried last •year showed a large in-
crease, the total being 540,955, as compared with
412,894 in 1864 (67,312 cattle, 318,358 sheep, and
27,224 pigs). As in the case of the Brighton, the
movement of goods is not very considerable over the
London and South-Western system. It is, however,
being sedulously and successfully developed, and it
may be remarked that while in 1864 the total move-
ment of goods and minerals was 1,322,692 tons, it
amountedin 1850 to only 298,762 tons. In fact,
regard the network in whatever light we may, its
productibility appears to be steadily increasing.
Our figures have thus far stopped short at 1864, but
if we carry them to June 30, 1865, we find that in
the six months ending with that date the rough re-
ceipts were £694,200, as compared with £663,840
in the corresponding half of 1864, while the net re-
venue was £336,293, as compared with £320,139 in
the corresponding half of 1864.
In connexion with the more immediate develop-
ment of the undertaking, we may state that the line
between Yeovil and Exeter is being doubled, by
which means the company will, of course, be ena-
bled to maintain a more effective train service to
Exeter and the extreme West. A double line of rails
is also nearly completed between. Salisbury and
Yeovil, a measure contributing to the same object.
The construction of a line between Southampton
and Netley, and of an extension at Chertsey is pro-
gressing satisfactorily, and both lines are expected to
be completed by the stipulated time. A line between
Kensington and Richmond has been staked out, and
considerable progress has been made in obtaining
the necessary land. The opening of the Weymouth
and Portland has been delayed in consequence of
fresh difficulties having arisen betweeu the pro-
moters and the Great Western as the Weymouth
station • the line having to be worked jointly by the
Great Western and the South-Western, the action
of the one company has been impeded by the in-
ability of the other to commence the traffic. Pro-
gress has been made in perfect arrangements with
the London, Chatham, and other metropolitan com-
panies for the development of a metropolitan traffic
not only between the suburban system of the Lon-
don and South-Western and the densely-populated
area south of the Thames, but also with lines to the
north of the great river. The works of the London,
Chatham, and Dover at Battersea are nearly com-
pleted,
and the extension of that line into the Clap-
ham Junction station on the north side of the Lon-
don and South-Western is also in a forward state.
In July a service of trainsbetween Euston and Lon-
don-bridge via Kensington and Waterloo, was com-
menced, together witn an arrangement of local
trains between Waterloo and London-bridge. Con-
struction operations have been commenced on the
Tooting, Merton, and Wimbledon, which by an act
of last session is vested jointly in the London and
South-Western and the London, Brighton, and
South Coast. It has been determined to erect new
and suitable station premises at Portsmouth. An
extension has been authorised from the main line
at Pirbright, by Aldershott to the Farnham and I
Alton at Farnham. In the west of England—.
that is, in Devonshire and Cornwall— the company
has obtained powers applied for in respect of a pro-
posed extension of the North Devon from Bideford
to Torrington, while extensions are also proposed
from Okehampton to the Cornish coast at Bude and
by Hatherleigh to Torrington. By an act—with
which, however, the London and South-Western

has no connection—an extension of the narrow
gauge has been authorised to Truro. The existing
Cornwall Railway has not been financially success-
ful, and if this narrow gauge extension to Truro
should be carried out it cannot fail to be prejudiced
by it. The further the narrow gauge gets into the
west, the better of course will it be for. the London
and South-Western; and it will be a proud day for
the directors when a traveller can be booked from
Waterloo to the Land's End. Unless, however, the
London and South-Western finds some of the capi-

tal—and we presume that by an honourable under-
standing with the Great Western it is prohibited
from doing so—it is not very clear that the narrow
gauge will include Truro in its grasp for some time
to come. But the broad gauge has probably received
its death-blow. The death of Brunel, whose splendid
genius as an engineer was sadly marred by his reck-
less inattention to financial considerations, deprived
the 7f t. gauge of its most formidable champion; and
as it is doubtful whether the Great Western can
ever develope a goods traffic with complete success
so long as it is isolated to some extent from its
neighbours, it seems within the range of possibility
that 20 years hence we shall see one uniform rail-
way gauge throughout Great Britain.—Times.