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 of
Commons, a copy of railwayreports 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 H. ardinge 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 ad;itional powers, approach-
ing almost to übiquity, as compared with the system of
ddk runners and d:cilt travelling. Such a facility would
decide the question os the Governor-General and the
auembers of tioveroment moving up to the frontier; or,
if it were necessary, to move rapidly up, the return
would be equally speedy. The vigour, the confidence,
anti 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
10,000/. 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 zo 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
k n-contributedw n
and
i,o by State.gtleieneraly
l
merelywell
l
conclude by stating my opinion, that on military coml.-
admitted, Al
the
that
points so
derations alone the grant of one million sterling, or an
annual contribution of five lacs of rupees, may be contri-
buted to the great line, when completed, from Calcutta
to Delhi. and a pecuniary saving be effected by
_e edl
nution of military establishments, arising out ofthca!
faci-
lity with which the troops would be moved from
ona
lint to another."

lock, an accident of
shortly after four o' c ,
Thursday morning,
urred in Stheir livent-stre eset, Sout
For some
wark.
a most alarming sons
soncc early
lost
FALL OF
.
by which sevenT7o .....TIOLISES IN lENT-STILEET.-011
considered unsafe,
chapel, had been ,
used As a
elderly lady, named bmith, and her two
notwithstand-
ing which, an
time past the housePenatwnnumbered 215 in the street, formerly
to a violent gale of wind, a lofty stack of
continued to reside therein. On the morning in
questions
owing
chimneys, together with the party wall, fell with a crash
resembling a peal dr thunder. The heavy mass falling upon
the top of that house, and on the one adjoining, known as
the Temperance Union Coffee-house, both roofs were forced.
in, and also the floorings, so that the interior of both houses
became filled with bricks and rubbish. At that time Mrs.
Smith and her two daughters were in one building, and Mr.
Smith, the landlord of the coffee-house, with his wife and
two sons, were in the other. For some time it was feared
that all the parties had perished, but the joists 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 Sous of the Plicenix." The whole of the para-
phernalia has been destroyed, and Mr. Smith has lost furni-
ture valued at upwards of 100/..
DUNDEE TRADE, FEB. 16.---We have no particular
change in the state of our market to notice. It is under-
stood, that the sales of flax during the past week have been
of considerable extent, and at full prices. Tows and codillas
are in demand, and have been sold at an advance on the
prices previously paid. In the value of jute there is no alte-
ration. Linens continue in fair demand as well as yarns
although some particular kinds are rather neglected. No
arrivals ft om iureign 4ince our last.—Courier.
BRISToL SUGAR MARKET, FEB. 19.—The de-
mand for all descriptions of sugar continues limited, and
ices are with difficulty supported. The Ingleborough,froro
Vom is tin only iugav 'hip repot this yfetk•-.-Briztoi
ibroir'•