The Sun.
London, England, 1849-06-26 00:00:00

CONTINENTAL TRAFFIC

NEWHAVEN.—We are glad to flnd the number of
passengers increasing between the parts of Newhaven
and Dieppe. The fast sailing steamboat Magician,
now performs the passage regularly three times a
week each way. On Friday, the 15th instant, she
arrived with 49 passengers at this port, and on the
following day sailed for Dieppe with 30. The arrival
and departure is an object of attraction to the locality,
and no doubt the Packet Wharf will be much fre-
quented as soon as the intended very important and
desirable improvements are carried into effect, by
widening the east pier and deepening the harbour.
The voyage is accomplished in about five hours and
a half ; and Newhaven is now the shortest, cheapest,
and most direct route for London and Paris. The
Brighton and South Coast Railway, and the General
Steam Navigation Companies united, enable any one
to have the option of return tickets (extending to 15
days) for either London or Paris. The large wharf
at Newhaven adjoins the splendid building called the
London and Paris Hotel, of which Mr. Bacon (of the
New Steine Hotel, Brighton) is the landlord, and
supplies on a moderate scale of charges. The hotel
is tastefully and elegantly furnished, and every
facility and convenience is given for embarking
and disembarking at the quay where the steamer
lies ; and, on the other side of the hotel,
under cover, passengers may step from the railway
carriages to the hotel, a portion of which is used
for the Customs. The structure of the hotel com-
mands extensive sea and land views—of the ship-
ping, the Downs, and of the deep and noble bay of
Seaford—and is contiguous to the mouth of the har-
bour. The hotel is of :great magnitude, the rooms
being numerous, spacious, and lofty; and it is well
adapted in every respect for a very extensive business
for passing travellers and visitors, also for sea-bathing
residents. The neighbourhood of Newhaven is diver-
sified by hill as well as valley, and the Downs, which
appear to dip at this point, command the
most extensive views of Brighton and Wor-
thing on the one hand, and Seaford hills,
town and bay ; where during strong easterly
winds, a considerable number of vessels anchor for
shelter, and is a site much recommended by her
Majesty's Harbour of Refuge Commissioners for a
national breakwater, at an estimated cost of
1,250,0001., having great depth of water there at all
tides, and lying midway between Dover and Ports-
mouth—and laeachy Head still farther east, on the
other. Newhaven promises, from situation, to be-
come a great naval station as soon as the Govern-
ment funds can be provided for the proposed
harbour of refuge. This port being nearer
to London than Portsmouth or Dover, gives a
superior advantage to Newhaven, and will increase
the revenue (already considerable) obtained from
the passage and goods' traffic on the Newhaven
line. Every facility required by the officers of Cus
toms, for examination and passing of luggage, have
been fully supplied by the company. Passports are ob-
tained at the wharf, and nothing is omitted to make
Newhaven pre-eminently (A. 1) the best port for French
traffic. A new town is gradually springing up near the
railway station, and the widening of the harbour will,
most probably, lead some commercial enterprising
men to a most desirable and no doubt profitable spe-
culation in the immediate locality—that which is al-
ready half formed by nature itself, particularly near
Sleeper's Hole, and must strike every observer, viz.—
the erection of Docks near the mouth of the Ouse, and
Lewes would soon follow the example. Newhaven
must eventually become what nature has so visibly
intended--the best harbour on the southern coast.—
Sussex Express.