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

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•
OPENI G/OF T PARIS AND
HAVRE ItAILWAY.
This great and useful work is at length opened to the
public. On Saturday the inauguration to, k place, in
the presence of the directors and their friends, and on
Monday the regular trains comment ad running, and at
the present moment the journey from Paris to the sea,
and 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 journey occupied six and 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 disectors decided that they
could not inaugurate their railway more appropriately
than by applying the amount which in more prosperous
years would have been expended in festivity to :he relief
of the poor. They, therefore, resolved to distribute
12,000 f. in the districts through which the Havre Railway
passes, and that sum was accordingly placed in the hands
of the proper authorities, to be distributed in the
following proportions i-1,500f. to the poor of the
town of Havre ; 1,5001. for the city of Rouen ; 1,0001.
for Ingonville; I,ooof. for Graville ' - and 7.000 f. for
the other communes through which the line passes.
But althoug a great, formal, and expensive inauguration
was justly considered by the directors as, in the present
circumstances of the country, inappropriate and unbe-
coming, it was thought necessary that some of the for-
malities usual on such occasions 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 Chaussess 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
Mouchy, 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 Konen 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 moat 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. Locks, the head engineer, and of
31(ssrs. Mackenze 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, cuttincs, and embankments,
as the Havre line has. There is hardly a bit of level
ground in the whole distance. The consequence is, that
every portion of the line she s, even to the uninitiated
ye, the great amount of skill, labour, and pers.verance
necessary for its aceomplishment The train stopped at
the stupendous viaducts of Barrentio, Matanttay, and
Nlirville9 and also at some of the tunnels, in order to
allow the guests to examine these extraordinary works,
which are well c tleulated to give an idea of the immen,e
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 of Rouen)
the authorities also and the national guard, 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 wit, le of the authorities
in their robes of state, the troops of the garrison, the
national guards, the magistracy in their robes of effice,
and the members of the bar in their 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 the clergy, and of a procession with ban-
ners, &c., offered up a prayer in favour of the under-
taking, ad 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 Ponta 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 fact that, though
the Government engineers (whether from envy or a
more laudable 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 of them. ! e then alluded to the extraordinary
opposition which the company had met with from the
authorities of the city of Rouen—an opposition which
showed much mere selfishness thun patriotism, and
ehica formed a striking contrast with the &avish set vi-
lity of the same persens when the ques,ian was as
to the m Ating ,I a lin, between Rouen an Paris.
The only other toast elven was that or Mr. Mae•
kenzie, the eminent. engineer and priacipal contractor for
the works en the line.
The train started for Paris again at ten minutes past
four, and 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
a circumstance that was the suhleet of a good deal of
comment amorg the gue ta. Not one of the men:there
of the Royal Faintly was present. The Mi-
nisu r of Public Werks and his whole staff were
also absent; arid, in short, at the opeeieg of
the Havre line, the Freech Government, and all
those connected with it, took as little part as if the line
was of no t importance to Frsnce or her commerce. How
comes this? At the opening of the Rouen line the
princes were pit sent; at tee opening of the Northern
line they also attended, and at the opening of the small
section of the Bordeaux line between Orleans and lours
there were not ertly princes, but minister- tied public
functionaries without number. How, then, comes it that
the inauguration of the Rouen and Havre Railway—the
line that unites Paris with the AtlAitic—should not have
been honoured with the presence ot' any of these great
personages? Surely it is as important as any 01 the
others. Shall we tell the reason alleged on Stetuday ?
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 Company, to ea
opening
cause
e sip
i
much vexatious and unnecessary delay in the
the works, and to subject the
undertakers of it to an
enormous and useless expense. In ',bort
, it was said
that, because the company is considered
and because the principal per,ons about an
it English one,
are of that
country, that the French Government has thought
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 Eng
raged, and flattered; but
now that
were
hat
they have taught the
French nearly to equal themselves in such undertakings,
they are treated with a disdain which none can assume
more readily than French officials.

THE FRENCH CONSUL-GENERAL.—We under-
stand M. Cochelet, Tinny 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. PORTSMOUTH,
MARCH 22.—Her Majesty's steamers Avenger, Odin, and
Dragon, are ordered from Ireland to load at this port with
seed corn, of different descriptions, and return thither with
all expedition. Seed is expected at the Clarence-yard in the
course of the week. Her Majesty's ship Portland, 50, has
commenced loading with meal and biscuits. The grinding
and baking is continued day and night.
CUXHAVEN, MARCH 16,—A1l the Greenland
whalers of Hamburg, Gluckstadt, and Elmshorn have put to
, sea.