The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-01 00:00:00

RAILWAY ECONOMY.

Next to our race of energetic and ingenious men (says
Mr. 6) (lacy, la his RailwaySystem)—next to our trea-
sures of coal and of iron—nothing has contributed more
to the successful rivalry in commerce, and all the arts of
peace and war, which this small island has maintained
with great European states, blessed with a more favour-
able climate and more fertile soil, than our excellent
means, natural and artificial, of internal communication
—what Baron Charles Dupin has so happily called our
pouvoir viable,—while the sea around us forms an easy
highway from north to south, from east to west.
Roads, rivers rendered navigable, canals, and railroads
(the last discovered and most perfect means of reducing
time and space), not only give increased value to our
fields and our mines, but actually create wealth
as much as if they struck on veins of gold and diamonds ;
for means of easy conveyance open the long-neglected
coal-mine, give fuel to the shivering peasantry, employ-
ment to the miner, and unlooked-for revenue to the
landed proprietor—easy means of conveyance bring lime
and manure to be laid down on the reclaimed heath,
which, in return, gives back hay and corn, turnips, milk,
cream, butter, cheese, and fat cattle to be also conveyed
to the markets the new roads have opened. The amount
of this interchange must depend on theprico of transport.
A hard turnpike road made that point near which was
out of all reach when pack-horses on bridle-roads were
the only means of transport. The canal still more
duced the distance and expense fur certain articles ; the;
railroad, most of all and hest of all, was open to every-
thing which it would be useful to transport, from an ox
to a-load of manure. Cheap as railroads are, they would
be more useful if,they were cheaper.
At first sight, this would seem a truism so obvious,
that to prove it, no long array of facts and arguments
drawn from the stores of parliamentary reports was re-
quired ; and yet in this year of 1847, in the seventeenth
session of railway experience, at this moment great and
constantly increasing efforts are being made to saddle
the country with an additional, or rather excrescence,
on our present railway system, which will not only
wallow up all the economiescommunication
o ef
xcpoennsstirv:
inefficient, and construction which ex-
perience has effected up to the present time, but also
render railway
unsafe.

There can be no doubt that capital unnecessarily ex-
pended on a canal or railroad must become a tax upon
the public either in increased charges or diminished ac-
commodation. Thus if, from any cause, a railroad
costs 1,000,0001., which might have been constructed
quite as well for 500,0001., either travellers must pay
higher charges, or the speculative-investment will prove
unremunerative, and the road and machinery will fall
into decay and disorder, or the company will be pre-
vented from extending to other andapgearinh,aptshlaetssrwaielawltahyys
districtsthheasbepnreoftytesdo?
againlocomotive
snd communication. Ex-
perience
which are not remunerative will not long be either
efficient or safe. In this country the great streams of
commerce are already secured by our principal trunk
lines ; the districts which remain open for railway pro-
jects are agricultural, rich rather in latent than in
existing traffic ; which, if they are to be well served,
must be cheaply served.
theT sherheifporaendthsetagcoem-cpolaech,
completion of
an effective railway system—that is to say, a system
shal
l
fill which shallplace, base t itsonof success
de
onp thee nd on
many—which
economical
of the carrier's cart—must
con-
struction and economical management.

RAILWAY PROGRESS ON THE AMERICAN
CONTINENT.
The surplus products of American harvests, and
transportation to meet the exigencies of the molder
country, render freights OD the American lines difficult
to be obtained, notwithstanding that the New Jersey
and other lines run many extra trains both night and
day. The quantity 0f flour which has been received at
Boston by the Western Railway between Sept. 1 and
April 10 was 182,542 barrels, against 143,647 barrels
for the corresponding period last year. The quantity of
corn received from all points during the same period was
1,853,560 bushels.
VIEW CoMMEACIAL ON AMERICAN LINES.---The im-
pressions that at present prevail in America relative
to the ultimate remunerativeness of their multiplying
lines may be taken as a tolerable criterion of the
eventual advantage that will accrue upon prudent
enterprise in connexion with almost all our British rail-
ways. It is predicted in the best informed quarters that
every line in America, no matter how unfavourable at
present may appear their location, must eventually pay
good dividends. Nearly every rail in the country earned
more money in 1846 than in 1845, and so far this year
they have done a very large business compared with the
corresponding period in former years. The activity in
the grain markets has given all any quantity of freight,
and they have been reaping a very rich harvest. Every
road in the country, in good hands, must improve in
edbecomeriffe eeroetn.
value and productiveness. They are so intimately con-
the
developed,
sections
cvteilcountry,oonp se do , f that
andth e
they must 1....,
ma
nec:ed witl,thereetvriddsees ar.bneedstewcuoermeenems
connexions are 111-' mess of the New England
country. The bus— • .
of a local character
lines is almost
entirety
rls than any other
u and they pay better divide-
inning in any
roads in this country. Railways L
direction from New York, or one in !my, way
connected with it, are more fave--trably locateu than
any others in the country. The No w• workers have ex-
pended nearly three hundred millions of ~'-,•6 in works
of doi..l‘- . e
of internal improvement; some are unproduottb. .4. some
-+l
in an unfinished state, and some at present pellet,
useless. At the time the immense debts of some of the
States were contracted, the public mind was almost ma u.
entirely absorbed by the west • ructi
=tag built at that time, at a aon of canals. The To be au,
such
u extravagant rate of the a •''
pproachmg elsok,,,

THE 114RVEST—POTATO CROP.—AII the reports
of the grain crops are most favourable, and nine out of
ten of the accounts of the potato are of the same gratify-
ing character, especially those which have reached us
just now. In the county of Carlow, for instance, we are
assured -khat potato fields that had been considered
affected, three weeks ago, appear quite flourishing, and
a notion begins to prevail that there had been no real
ground for alarm—in fact, that the blight of the two past
years has not yet made its appearance at all. We must,
however, mention, that a communication has been re-
ceived from one of the most experienced farmers, and
certainly the most extensive potato cultivator in the
midland counties, expressing fears for the safety of the
general crop, and stating that signs of disease have
appeared in the roots and stalks in his kds.—Dublin
Evening Post.
THE ARCTIC EXPEDITION.—Mr. C. R. Vold, a
connexion of Sir J. Franklin, states that all the alarm
which has been created respecting the Arctic adventurers
is groundless. " Sir John,' he says," was provisioned
for the summer of 1848, and when he sailed no one con-
templated hearing from him earlier than October or
should
No-
vember, 1847, unless some unforeseen accident
in pass ,
compel his earlier return. If he succeeds
g
Behring's Straits at the end of August, or in September
or October, 1847, we shall not learn his success earlier
than January or February, 1848. There is,
therefore,
no cause as yet for flying to his rescue. His absence
has not yet equalled that of Sir E. Parry on his second
voyage; and there does not, in fact, exist at the present
moment more reason for apprehension than there was
when the expedition sailed. The not having heard from
Sir John is to be lookedupon as more an earnest of
success than of failure.'
REDUCTION 111 THE PRICE Or BREAD.--Tuesday
there was a general reduction of one halfpenny in the
price of the 41b. loaf throughout the different metropo-
litan districts, the high-priced bakers charging lid.,
~econd quality 9id., household 9d. and 80. the 41b. loaf;
-.ad is 7d. the loaf, and Indian corn 2d. the lb.
" without reserve, the Protectionists at