The Sun.
London, England, 1847-02-22 00:00:00

LORD HARDINGE ON RAILWAYS

IN INDIA.
On Monday was printed, by order of the House o
Commons, a copy of railway.reports from India. There
are seven papers in the document, the last of which is
an importont communication from the Governor-Gene-
ral, Lord Hardinge, dated the 28th July last, wherein
his excellency states his opinion on the proposed Indian
railways, and also his confidence that the speculation will
entirely fail, unless it be largely and liberally encouraged
by the East India Company. The following observations
of Lord Hardinge show the importance of the proposed
undertaking:—" The limitation of the Company's liber-
ality may be safely calculated by the positive and palpa-
ble advantages which a railway from Calcutta to
Delhi would confer, and it need only be guaranteed
to be forthcoming when an efficient and daily com-
munication by railway shall have been actually com-
pleted between the two extremities, and measures have
been taken to ensure that it shall be permanently
kept up. The calculation of the contribution to be given
would be based on the political, military, and commer
cial advantages which would be derived from the com-
pletion and full operation of such a line. In a political
point of view, the daily delivery of the mails from Delhi
to Calcutta in sixty hours, instead of eight days—the
electric telegraphic communicating important orders in
a few minutes from one extremity to the other—would
give the Government great additional powers, approach-
ing almost to übiquity, as compared with the system of
chik runners and (14k travelling. Such a facility would
decide the question of the Governor-General and the
members of Government moving up to the frontier; or,
if it were necessary, to move rapidly up, the return
would be equally speedy. The rigour, the confidence,
and the economy with which the Government would be
carried on would be greatly increased. In a military
point of view, I should estimate the value of moving
troops and stores with great rapidity, 'would be equal to
the services of four regiments of infantry. This reduc-
tion of military establishments would be a saving of
50,0001. a year on the lowest scale. When the Lanca-
shire Yeomanry were moved to Birmingham, they com-
pleted 120 miles in three hours, rode their horses quite
fresh to the scene of the disturbance, having accom-
plished a distance of 130 miles in five hours, and being
again at their houses on the following day. In this
country, where no man can tell one week what the next
may produce, the facility of a rapid concentration of in-
fantry and artillery, and stores, may be the cheap pre-
vention of an insurrection, the speedy termination of a
war, or the safety of the empire. I need not enter into
the commercial and agricultural advantages which would
repay the Exchequer for a large portion of the outlay
contributed by the State. All these points are so well
known and so generally admitted, that I will merely
conclude by stating my opinion, that on military consi-
derations alone the grant of one million sterling, or an
annual contribution of five lace of rupees, may be contri-
buted to the great line, when completed, from Calcutta
to Delhi, and a pecuniary saving be effected by a dimi-
nution of military establishments, arising out of the faci-
lity with which the troops would be moved from one
point to another."

FALL or Two 1401:18E5
Thursday morning, shortly after IN
---r---------
KENT -STREET.—On
Ted
ifnour o'clock, an accident of
in the
tehneti-rs tlrieveete,. Southwark,pe r
some
a most alarming nature occurred
by which seven persons nearly
,liolls
street, formerly
paeaset
ethheeper
hseednhuemenbeeerendeid-ered
ing which, an elderly lady, named unsafe, notwithstand-
daughters, continued to reside therein. utismede
Smith, and her two
question, owing to a violent gale of wind, the morning in
chimneys, together with the party wall,
fella lofty stack of
resembling a peal of thunder. The helavy mass with a crash
the top of that house, and on the one adjoining, falling upon
the Temperance Union Coffee-house, both roofs were
known as
in, and also the floerings,so that the :interior of bothere
housesforeed
became filled with bricks and rubbish. At that tim ira
Smith and her two daughters were in fine building, ared Dir.
Smith, the landlord of the coffee-hour.', with his wife a—d.
two sons were in the other. For some time it was feared
that all the parties had perished, but the piste and flooring
having settled upon the top of Mr. Smith's bedstead, they
formed a kind of arch, which protected the inmates, and they
thereby escaped. Mrs. Smith and her daughters also by
some extraordinary means escaped destruction ; one of? the
parties only received any personal injury, and that merely a
cut on the head. The upper room of the coffee-house was
decorated with tents and canopies for the use of the society
termed "The Sons of the PilO3OlX." The whole of the para-
phernalia has been destroyed, and Mr. Smith has lost furni-
ture valued at up wards of 100/.
DUNDEE TRADE, FEB. 16. We have no particular
change in the state of our market to notice. It is under-
ast week have been
stood, that the sales of flax during the p TOWS and cedillas
of considerable extent, and at full prizes.
are in demand, and have been sold at an advance on the
4there is no alte-
prices previously paid. In the value of jute
ration.
Linens continue in fair demandas well as yarns,
arrivals from
partivular kind- are rat;l: r n,',l
altho ,e 00.• :5
rom toreigu mince our last.--Coulicr.
. CABINET DINNER .--Tile . le Earl of Clarendon has
issued invitations
to his several
on Wednesday, colleagues for 4 Cabinet dinner
ay, the 8d proximo.