The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-23 00:00:00

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PARIS AND
0 NING OTHE
lIAVRE RAILWAY.
/27/.) ege7 - This great useful work is at length opened to the
public. 0 aturday the inauguration to k place, in
// he presence of the directors and their friends, and on
Monday the regular trains commented running, and at
the present moment the journey from Paris to the sea,
toad from Havre to the capital, can be accomplished with
ease and comfort in six hours and a half. When it is
recollected that within little more than two years the
same j, urney occupied six awl thirty hours, the import-
ance of the undertaking may be conceived.
The inauguration on Saturday was conducted, in as
far as the directors were concerned, with great sim- •
plicity. Taking into consideration the great suffering in
the country, in consequence of the scarcity of food, and
looking to the misery existing in the very districts
through which the railway passes, from the excessive
dearness of provisions, the directors decided that they
could not inaugurate their railway more appropriately
than by app; ding the enitiunt which in more pros, ensue
yeers would have been expiTided in festivity to -he rdief
of the poor. They, therefore, resolved to distribute
12.000 f. in the districts through which the Hale(' Railway
passes, and that sum was accordingly placed in the hands
okfillothweingpropperorpoarutitohoosriies, to be distributed in the
tf
wtßoho
anrwe
st nainjt
oluohtgsfhe Lyon
vgatr ec :-1,500f. to the poor of the
communes
great,
ea, lnrot,
considered
001.
b.
formal,
.ymh
frfaotoolhr;
egatGdnhh cityiderriawenevcaxhi
tipoi:
:eprhosr
on; fsapi
stavß;honi
ieoadnittineel
tia7nhaau,
eneo;:duppl
present
sstseif;on;nrt.
voloalrmneegs;
circumstances of the country,
unbe-
coming, it was thought necessary that some of the for-
malities usual on such occasipns should be observed, in
order that the public might be aware that the line was
at length actually opened for its service, a fact which it
was the more necessary to make generally known, as,
from the unprecedented and wholly unnecessary difficul-
ties, thrown by the Minister of Public Works and the
department of the Fonts et Chausse in the way of the
company, people began to doubt if the line would be
opened at all. Accordingly the directors invited a few
of their friends to visit the works on Saturday. The
guests were limited, to one hundred, and consisted of the
chairman and some of the directors of the principal rail-
ways round Paris, the engineers and principal employes
on the railway, some of the principal shareholders in the
line, and the representatives of the fourth estate of
Paris, who, by the bye, outnumbered all the other
guests. M. Charles Laffitte, the chairman of the direc-
tors ; M. de l'Espee, deputy ; Count d'Alton-Shee, peer
of France ; M. Dailly, director of the Poste et Chevaux
at Paris ; and M. Blount, banker, directors, were all
present. Among the principal guests were the directors
of the Orleans and Northern Railway, the Duke de
Slouchy, the Mayors of Havre and Rouen, M. Du-.
bois, deputy for Havre ; M. Vital, deputy. for
Bolbec ; M. Theophile Gautier, M. Alphonse Karr,
&c. The train; consisting of eight first-class
carriages belonging to the Havre Company, started
from the Rouen Railway station at Paris at seven in the
morning, and reached Rouen at a quarter before ten.
At Rouen a handsome breakfast was provided for the
guests, which having been done ample justice to, the
train started for Havre. It is hardly necessary to remind
our readers that the country between Rouen and Havre,
through which this line passes, is the most beautiful as
well as the richest for agricultural products and manu-
factures in all France. Throughout the whole distance
the traveller is delighted with a succession of splendid
landscapes and river views, delightful valleys studded
with villages and country seats, and thousands of cot-
tages teeming with an industrial and comfortable manu-
facturing population. In the course of the journey
charming views are got of Ivetot, Bolbec, Harfleur, and
other picturesque old Norman towns, with occasional
peeps of the Seine, and of the opposite coast of Nor-
mandy. Bat the beauties of nature are not the only at-
tractions of the journey. To the man of science the
railway itself is the greatest curiosity. For a long time
it was thought impracticable to make a line of railway
to Havre, but the spirit and the genius of our own
countrymen (for almost every one connected with the
works is English), overcame every difficulty, and the
Havre line stands at the present moment a monument of
the skill of Mr. Locke, the head engineer, and of
Messrs. Mackenzie and Brassey, the contractors.
There is no railway in Europe, which, in pro-
portion to its length (58 miles), has anything like
the same number of stupendous works in the
shape of tunnels, viaducts, cuttings, mei embankments,
as the Havre line has. There is hardly a bit of level
ground in the whole distance. The cisesequstice is, that
ever) portion of the line shoe s, even to the uninitiated
,•ye, the great amount of skill, labour, and pers,veratice
necessary for its aceinnplishmene The train stopped at
the stupendous viaducts of Berrentin, Malanisy, and
Mirville, and also at some of the tunnels, in order to
allow the guests to examine these extraordinary works,
which are well calculated to give an idea of the immense
difficulties which the engineers had to contend with, and
which they have so completely surmounted.
At all the towns and villages on the line the popula-
tion flocked in great numbers to celebrate an event so
fraught with important consequences to them, and at
the principal towns (with the single exception ot. Rouen)
the authorities also and the national guards turned out
to do honour to the occasion. At Havre the train was
received with great enthusiasm. Besides all the princi-
pal inhabitants of the place, the whole of the authorities
in their robes of state, the troops of the garrison, the
national guards, the magistracy in their robes of office,
and the members of the bar in th,,ir caps and gowns
were stationed at the embarcadere ready to receive the
directors and their guests on their arrival. Immediately
on the appearance of the train a salute of cannon was
fired, and the whole of the troops presented arms, and
the assembled thousands rent the air with their enthu-
siastic cheering.
The. Bishop_ of Havre, who was present at the head of
a large body of th-ii-Olergy;un-d of-a-prooession-wit,b ban-
ners, --
&c., offered up a prayer in favour of the under-
taking, and blessed the railway, the engine, &c., in the
usual form. The sous-prefet of Havre then addressed a
short speech to the public on the advantages which the
railway was calculated to confer on the town of Havre,
and thanked the directors and promoters of the under-
taking in the name of his fellow-citizens—a speech which
was replied to by M. Charles Laffitte, the chairman of
the directors.
The distance from Paris to Havre, notwithstanding the
numerous delays and stoppages on the way, was accom-
plished in six hours and a quarter.
The directors, accompanied by their guests from Paris
and Rouen, and the authorities at Havre, then adjourned
to a handsome dinner provided by the company at the
Hotel Frascati, where 200 gentlemen were entertained.
After dinner the chairman (M. Laffitte) proposed the
health of the King, which was drunk with all the
honours. The health of the chairman was then drunk
by acclamation, and respended to by M. Laffitte. The
next toast was the health of Mr. Locke, the principal
engineer, which was drunk with great enthusiasm.
Mr. Locke, in his reply, alluded to the extraordinary
and vexatious delays in the opening of the line,
which had been caused by the Minister of Public
Works, and the Departments of the Fonts et Chaus-
sees. He also alluded to the extraordinary trials
to which the works on the line had been sub-
jected by order of the Government engineers, trials
which were not only wholly unprecedented in the
history of railways, but which were equally absurd and
unnecessary. He pledged his professional reputation
for the fact that there never was a line opened to the
public in a better working state, or the works on which
were safer or more solidly constructed than those of the
Havre Railway, and he declared that there could not be
a better proof of these works than the fret that, though
the Government engineers (whether from envy or a
more leedeble feeling he did not know) had done all in
their power to crush the viaducts, by laying weights
upon them which by no possible future combination of
circumstances they could be called upon to bear, not a
stone had moved, nor a brick cracked, throughout the
whole ot them. fie then alluded to the extraordinary
opposition which the company had met with Irene the
authorities of the city of Rouen—an opposition ehich
showed much more selfishness then patriotism, and
ehich rotated a striking contrast with the slavish servi-
lity of the same persens when the questioe was as
to the tusking of a line between Reuen and Paris.
The only other toast given was that of Mr. Mac-
kenzie, the eminent engineer and principal contractor for
the works en the line.
Tiw train started for Paris again at ten minutes past
four, end arrived in Paris before half-past ten, having
performed the journey again in six hours and a quarter.
In conc:uding this slight sketch of what was a most
agreeable and interesting trip, we cannot help noticing
amemberseal or
comment
tstitamncoe that
rgth was
egue sNahojtecotneufaa
tgh,,),o(id
of the Royal Family was present. The Mi-
nister of Public Werks and his whole staff were
also absent; and, in short, at the opening of
the Havre line, the French Government, and all
those connected with it, took as little part as if the line
was of no importance to France or her commerce. flow
comes this? At the opening of the Rouen line the
princes were present; at no opening of the Northern
line they also attended, and at the opening of the small
section of the Bordeaux line between Orleans and Tours
there were not only princes, but ministers and puhlie
functionaries without number. How, then, comes it that
the inauguration of the Rouen and Havre Railway—the
line that unites Paris with the Atlantic—should not have
been honoured with the presence of any of these great
personages? Surely it is as important as any of the
others. Shall we tell the reason alleged on Saturday?
It was said that they absented themselves for the same
reason that induced M. Damon and his understrappers
to give so much annoyance to the eompany, to cause so
much vexatious and unnecessary delay in the opening ot
the works, and to subject the undertakers
tho
afasn
rgeiltitoshhtio.oukt
hgan,hatettt,
enormous and useless expense. In short, it was said
eat ban at, tn,
becauset
ry because
,th a
tit
hh
ee
thecompany
principal French i
pis
ecGro noo svoi
Government
enar
mbe
ode
unat
tn
•
proper to show its ill-humour; for be it known, that, as
long as railroads in France were speculations of great
difficulty and hazard, the English werehcourtateduaehnt hctoue-
raged, and flattered; but now that they
French nearly to equal themselves in
suchauvenderakingth
they are treated with a disdain which none can assume
more readily than French officials.

/
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THE FRENCH— -
CONSUL-GENERAL.--We under-
stand M. Cochelet, many years the French Consul-General
at Alexandria, has been appointed to succeed M. Durant St.
Andre as Consul-General resident in London. M. Cochelet
has just arrived in town from Paris.
SEED CORN FOR IRELAND. --PORTSMOI;TH,
DMrAargcoirti,2a2r.e—oirideerreMd aijreosnyisreis3tie,admteorsiolAdveantgethr,isOpdoirnt with, and
seed corn, of different descriptions, and return thither with
all expedition. Seed is expected at the Clarence-yard in the
Portland, 50, has
bsihKipuits. The grinding
course of
ion, ficnetgdh eijsosa‘• edeink.g
continued,cliioe, :Ilan:el :ail: s,ttitn3 s
night.
d'
CUXHAVEN, MARcit 16. AU the Greenland
whalers of Hamburg, Gluekstadt, and Eh-112110m have put to
sea.