The Sun.
London, England, 1846-01-09 00:00:00

THE RAILWAY REGISTER.

The opening paper of this number, on the " State
and Pro,pects of Railway Affairs," holds out, it must
be confessed, but a gloomy prospect. The articles on
the "Continental Railways," and on the" Metropolitan
Improvements" are continued. The writer of this
latter paper speaks in the following terms of the
scheme of the Thames Embankment and Railway
Junction Company :
" The possibility of an embankment of a portion of
the river was started twenty years since by Colonel
Trench, and is now brought forward under auspices that
bid fair to give the first crude conception positive relief
and existence. In the scheme propounded two leading
features have been embraced ; first, the erection of at
embankment on the r.orth shore of the Thames, extend
ing from Hungerford-market to Blackfriars-bridge, by
which a solid longitudinal platform would be raised,
affording an elevated mound fur a noble public terrace
aloag the river, and fora carriage and foot-way, that
would open greater facilities for business and transit
than the narrow and crowded thoroughfares which DOI%
form the only communication between the west and east
ends of the metropo:is. This part of the design will be
readily understood from the !nap prepared by Mr. Page,
the able engineer of the prujected work, and which we
hope to be able to insert in our February number.
" At this point the design might pause, and when
practically carried out, a great public work held to be
completed. But, in connexion with the embankment, it
is intended to open a railway street, which forms the
second feature of the plan, upon the atmospheric prin-
ciple, from the east, or Blackfriars end of the embank-
ment, to the vicinity of London-bridge, the Bank and
Royal Exchange, and thence to the Blackwall Railway;
throwing off branches from this junction line over
Southwark-bridge, or a new railway bridge, so as to
communicate with the Brighton, Croydon, South-
Eastern, and other lines on the Surrey side of the
Thames. •

" Such is the general outline of the scheme, whose
advantages may be thus recapitulated:-1. A river-side
terrace, equally striking in appearance and utility,
affording a spacious drive and promenade available for
the purposes of either business or health and recreation,
will be obtained for the public; while the most crowded
thoroughfares ofthe City will be relieved from a part of
the vast traffic which obstructs them, and by the
adoption of the improved mode of railway transit, free
from noise, smoke, and danger. 2. The improvement
of the navigation of the river, and of the metropolitan
sewerage, by the removal from the north shore of the
taisightly and unwholesome accumulations of mud that
now impede and disfigure it. 3. A rapid and uninter-
rupted tine of communication will be opened between
the centre of London and the southern and eastern
parts of the kingdom."
He is likewise favourable to the proposal for the
establishment of cemeteries on the banks of the
Thames, and offers several valuable suggestions on
the question of the Metropolitan termini. There is
one subject which, we hope, will attract the serious
attention of those who are devoting their attention to
the improvement of the metropolis, and that
is, the providing the population with a suf-
ficient supply of pure water for drinking. For
all other purposes, the solution of putrid and noxious
matters which under the name of water is supplied to
us by the water companies may be sufficient, but
when used as a beverage the stuff is so deleterious,
not to say poisonous, that we feel convinced the mor-
tality of the metropolis is greatly increased by its
use. It is the generator of low nervous fever, from
the depressing effects which it produces on the
system, and it encourages intoxication by forcing
many to have recourse to fermented and spirituous
liquors who would prefer water, provided they could
procure it pure, wholesome, and tasteless. The suc-
cess of the Artesian Well, at the back of Trafalgar-
square, holds out a hope that the metropolis may at
length possess this desideratum.