The Sun.
London, England, 1865-02-27 00:00:00

Direct Communication Between London and
Calcutta, by Land. in a Fortnight.

My son has drawn my notice to the letter of Mr.
Sankey, in your impression of the 21st ult., under
the above heading, in which occurs The following
passage :—" But the scope of this article is to draw
attention to a subject which I was the first to bring
under public notice, namely, direct railway com-
munication with India." My son, jealous that I
should not lose what reputation belongs to the origi-
nation and promulgation of so grand an idea, sug-
gests that I should not let the above paisage in Mr.
Sonkey's letter pass quite without notice, and hence
this letter to you, for which I respectfully ask inser-
tion in your next number.

I have been since the year 1835 intimately con-
nected with railways in all parts of Great Britain and
Ireland ; I have also had remitted to me important
statistical and other investigations in respect torail-
ways in Algeria, Canada, the United States of North
America, and Denmark.

About 23 years ago I became personally acquainted
with the late indefatigable Lieut. Waghorn, the ori-
ginator of what is called " the, overland route to
India." This always struck me as somewhat of a
misnomer, and, at the time I mention, induced the
thought suddenly to cross my brain of the practica-
bility of constructing t railway direct from Calais,
by way of Constantinople, Turkey in Asia, Persia,
and Affghanistan, to Calcutta, thus having a really
" overland" route, which, at the time, I said might
be traversed by express trains in six days. IA a few
months after I added to my originhl scheme " an
extension to Canton."

At first I was so overwhelmed by the vastness
of the scheme as scarcely to dare to mention it
except to a very few personal friends, who of course
set me down as a very dreamer. In 1843-4, however,
I commenced to elaborate the first offshoot of my
brain, and in the geographical statistics I was aided
by Dr. Black and another friend, both of whom I
believe are now living.
At this time our great railway mania set in, and
I was for several years largely engaged, for Parlia-
mentary purposes,lan projected lines all over Great
Britain and Ireland, and in course of my travels on
these duties I made known my great scheme to nu-
merous engineers and others officially engaged in
railway affairs, many of whom are now dead, but
still many living. Suffice it to name two of the latter
—Mr. John CoUlster, C.E., and Mr Edwin Clark.
To have an unbroken chain of communication
from Calais to Calcutta, by the route I have men-
tioned, I found at least one great physical difficulty
to be overcome, namely, the passage of the Bos-
phorus. This I proposed to effect, for reasons which
I need not now state, a little to the north of Con-
stantinople, at the site of the Castles of Europe and
Asia. In the year 1846 I mentioned this to Mr.
Edwin Clark, who was then actively engaged in the
construction of the Britannia Bridge over the Menai
Straits, and I and some members of [my family well
remember his reply, to the effect that I might rest
satisfied on that head, for his experience in the
great work on which he was engaged enabled him
to say that a bridge across the Bosphorus was quite
practicable.
Since 1842 I have taken every fitting opportunity
of-mentioning the project, especially to parties who,
I believed, might in one way or. other, aid it. At
the outbreak of the Crimean war I had the pleasure
of making the acquaintance of General Chesney,
under whose command the exploration of the valley
of the Euphrates was conducted, by order of Go-
vernment, more than 30 years since, and to whose
Blue Book I am much indebted for valuable infor-
mation. To this officer I gave an outline of my
plan, and we have had several conversations about
it since. Again, when crossing the plains of Algeria,
in 1858-9, I laid it before M. Eugene Caillaux,
Ingenieur des Pouts et Chausees, who expressed
much interest in it.

But, sir, the best epitome of the history of this
subject is, I believe, to be found in an octavo volume
(published by W. H. Allen and Co., in 1857), from
the pen of Mr. W. P. Andrew, the chairman of the
Scinde Railway, and the early= and indefatigable
promoter of railways in India generally. To all