The Sun.
London, England, 1841-12-30 00:00:00

FRENCH RAILWAYS.

We have procured the Ministerial Report, or pream-
ble to the project of law, about to be presented to the
French Chambers respecting railways.
The document commences by a comparison, showing
the inferiority of France in these great enterprises.
" Belgium," it says, " has 82 leagues of railroad exe-
cuted and open, out of 141 leagues projected ; Eng-
land has 1,398 miles out of 2,187 projected ; Germany
has 180 leagues out of 1,800 ; whilst France, out of
540 leagues of railway necessary, has but a few leagues,
not worth noting."
It is only the Royal roads and great lines of corn-
munioation that are at the charge of Government. Go-
vernment, therefore, need only turn its attention to the
railways that are to run in the line of Royal roads, con-
necting north and south, east and west, the ocean and
the Mediterranean. These are the great lines, and the
system of the Government is limited to them, leaving all
embranebment lines to private speculation. Paris must
ba the centre of the great system, which comprehends
the following lines :
1. From Paris to Belgium and the Channel, by
Lille or Valenciennes, Calais or Boulogne.
2. From Paris to the Mediterranean, by Lions and
Marseilles.
3. Paris to the ocean, by Tours and Nantes.
4. Paris to the ocean, by Bordeaux and Bayonne.
5. Paris to the Getman frontier, by Strasburg.
The sixth great line from Paris to Havre need not
be mentioned, as a Company is already executing it.*
Three of the above lines exist merely in an inchoate
state, and it would be impossible to estimate their cost ;
they must. therefore be deferred.
The Anglo-Belgian line comes first. The surveys
and studies for it can be finished before the end of
1842, as they are already completed as far as Creel. It
is the most important in a political and commercial
sense, and therefore ought to be the first railroad un-
dertaken.
The line from Paris to Marseilles is surveyed merely
from Paris to Dijon, by Chalons-sur-Saone, and from
Marseilles to the Rhone. Untl the resources of the
Treasury permit the execution of the whole line, these
portions of it may he first executed, they moreover
being connected together by the steamers which navi-
gate the Rhone and Saone. The difficulty of finding
a sufficient number of skilful engineers is also a reason
for not commencing five great lines at once.
Government, therefore, confines its demands to
credits for the following lines :-
1. For the Anglo-Belgian line.
2. For the line between Marseilles and the Rhone.
3. For the line from Paris to Chalons-sur•Saone, by
Dijon.

A million of francs, over and above, will be &-
mended, in order to complete, before the end of 1843,
the surveys of the three other lines.

The report and preamble then proceeds to consider
the best mode of execution, and the legislative measures
necessary for the realization of the gratuitous cession
of the land required.
In 1837 the Government proposed to cede several
railway lines to Companies. The Chamber decided
that, for moral and political reasons, these great ways
of communication ought not to be entrusted to private
Companies. Accordingly, in 1838, the Government
brought forward a vast pri jest, by which the State was
to execute the principal lines ; but the Chamber had
changed its mind. As many objections were now found
against the tardiness and prodigality of the Adminis-
tration undertaking these lines, as the year before
against the insecurity of private Companies ; and the
result was, the cession of two great lines to two Com-
panies, formed part of the financial notabilities of the ea-
, pital. The first of these Companies was forced to
abandon its task ; the second had recourse three times
to the Chambers, and even when supported by the
credit of the State, it has not been able to keep its
shares up to par.
Bearing these facts in mind, the present Minister
of Public Works now proposes a mixed system, to ob-
viate, first, the evil of entrusting such vast operations to
Companies and individuals not equal to the task ; and,
secondly, the evil of overburdening the Treasury with
an expenditure so much exceeding its nominal limits.
The Government will itself undertake to execute,
or get executed, the great lines, abandoning embranch-
meets to private industry, without now examining in
what proportion private industry may be aided.
The localities interested must furnish the value of
the ground required. The State will execute the em-
bankments, excavations, works of art, bridges, stations,
&c. ; and then private Companies will be called to
undertake the laying down of rails and preparing the
roads fOr the duties of public conveyance, according
to a certain tariff.

According to calculation, this plan will divide the
expense into two equal parts, the State getting rid of
one-half of it, and thus meeting the objcetion of over-
burdening the Treasury.
The basis for the repartition between the depart-
ments of the land to be furnished, or its value, must
be the length of the line. But for communes, or pa-
rishes, their interest in the line is to be considered ; for
poor and merely agricultural localities cannot derive the
same benefit from it as rich and commercial ones. The
pr2prietors of ground are not to be treated with iso-
latedly. This would open the door to arbitrary deci-
sions. The departmental association must bargain and
decide on these pointi.

The plan of each line throughout the whole depart-
ment will be st:bjected to the procedure laid down in
the law of March, 1841. A judgment of expropria-
tion will be demanded for the whole line, and a jury in
each district convoked to fix the quota of indemnity.
All cession or purchase of lands shall be effected judi-
cially, and some by private bargain. Mortgages are to
be met in the usual way.
The total of the sums awarded by the juries of each
district will be levied on the whole department. The
Consul-General of the department will partition out the
sums between the districts, and each Consul of district
between the communes or parishes.
The sums will be levied on the four branches of di-
rect contributions.

The great project of Railroads presented by the
French Government ir. 183 S mentioned nine great lincs,
or which Paris to Toulouse by Orleans was one, Bor-
deaux to Marseilles another.

MRS. GORE'S NEW NOVEL, «THE MAN
OF FonTuNE."—Mrs. Gore's reputation has been long
established as one of the cleverest imaginative writers
of the day. Her krowledge of society, inure especially
of the " World of Fashion," has never perhaps been ex-
ceeded by any novelist. Like all the rest of her
admirable productions. "The Man of Fortune" has
been eagerly looked for by the novel reading world, and
in its perusal no one we venture to say, will be disap-
pointed of the amusement expected to be derived from
its pages. Of all the various stories we have had the
gratification of perusing from Mrs. Gore's pen, we have
hardly met with one so thoroughly pleasing and inter-
esting as " The Man of Fortune "—a circumstance
arising probably from the entirely original manner in
which she has treated her subject—pourtraying with
singular vbility and humour, the struggles of a young
man entering upon life with almost unbounded wealth to
make himself a star in the West, exclusively by the influ-
en:q, of his fortune. The present tale must undoubtedly
ratoi as one of Mrs. Gore's best fictions.