The Sun.
London, England, 1856-11-25 00:00:00

(From the Times.)

Besides the many powers ascribed to us, there are
some which we possess in spite of ourselves. We can-
not help having shadows, and as little can we help giving
opportunity to those who contradict for contradieti.
sake. There are those who are sure to take one opinion
8
if we take another, who would be right enough, per-
haps, if they could be right first, and would rather lee
wrong than seem to play second fiddle. Suppose that
we had wasted a column or two in exposing a projectei
railway from Archangel to Tobolsk, with a branch to
Nova Zembla, before the end of the week we shouid fied
ourselves aceesed of all manner of ignorance, geographi•
cal, commercial, political, and social. We should have
imposing statistics, lists of Russian houses, financial
returns, ukases, and Heaven know- what not, all ar-
ranged in overwhelming gravity against us. Had not
the Czar expressly undertaken to provide free iron, free
forges and foundries, free blacksmiths, masons, carpen-
ters, anti navvies, at every station on the line ? What
if there were no poeu!ation now ? Railways make popu-
lation. They make also their own traffic. The cutting
through the Ural Mountains would pay itself in gold ;
and it the passenger traffic to Toholek fell off the Czar
would only have to exile to Siberia fifty-thousand
first-class passengers per annum,giving them return
tickets available after one, two
or ten years. Then
as to the branch to Nova Zembla, if the strait is
not always trezea over, perhaps neve e no doubt we
could have an. Imperial
the future, This pleage that it shall be for
notv seem rather an extravagaiit
illustration, bnt it is
much
inure
en
thanthe
'Cbt'Me
which has actually found favour with a jealous contem-
porary. Before ri,mo
the dreary termini and the
we willitu,,fn
j,aat premise teat the railway
awful distance,,
connecting the twocapitols, even with the as-
sistance of the war and az schemeonation bee not eet cleared
leper cent. Well, the
Peteretrrg to Warsaw, wiih
Comprises, first, a
line 670 miles from St.
er
a branch of 60 miles to E...,nigtb,
It would he juet
possible to make a line of thislengthin Great Britain
by making the Land's-end and Joh;ao'Groat's house the
two termini, and if the provinces through which the
Russian line passed were all 48 Dopoi)us as the north
of Scotland and the heart of Wales, n
yet reached by a railway, the St. Petersburg and War-
tber of them
saw would, iu one respect, though only
°", stand
comparison with the Caithness and Cornwall. The
second
item of the scheme is a line of 280 miles, thro
country Most of which is about as pernio,,_
as M ugh a
• e.
rionetbshire, from Moscow to NishniNovgorod.
the latter place is ordinarily a.city of no grist RIZ4I
and only exists for traffic•during its two mouths' fair,
whi••h rair is fast declining, and will decline all
faster thin ugh the operation of rail rays, tibia is a ;ins
"from the ace of spades to next Michaelmas," for
every condition is fleeting and temporary. Then coo(o
a line of 840 miles, from Moecow to Balsa ; oveo
World of steppes and through the Ciimea, but avoid.
proviece.s of Podolia an l
ing the comparatively rich
the Ukraine, as well as the commercial prrt of Odeioa.
Tne average popnlownese of the country traveo,e I
appears to he about that of Weetmere'arri. Tht,
last is a line of 750 milee, from Little Archangel, soath
of Moscow, to Libau, passing through a population
about as, thick as that of Cardigenehire. For these
comparisons we are indebted to the "Hertfordshire
Inounitient," whose letter will be. fount/. in another
Curare,

It might have been supposed, after our own railway
follies, and the commercial disasters so fresh in 6heo7.
wry of the nation, that the merest patrioti<m Wot 2
have. prevented.any public writer from assisting the. Czar
to pass off his bad railways. Thu love of contradiction,
no. doubt, drives men to extreinev, but it ought to have
its units like any other mental disorder. It is an assist
ance to the Czar when oeo particular of the cormns,i,-)ii
is fixed upon, without whin:., indeed, it wou'd be sirni,lY
ridiculous, but which goes very iitt!e way to rNieein s
certain fa lure. • iron is the first condition of a
Cheap railway, for iron is required not only for the
engines, permanent rail 4, tetnni.rary rails, bridges, au••
tools of ari kind, but .-dso for all that w‘irk
wi,sch fir
railway contractors find already dens for theri when
they enter a country. The exceptional importation aad
traniqiiission of duty-free iron in all for for 2,600
rtive,,
of ymuch of it ii.to„ Interims7o-0 or BCO
srilzs fro the po,:t, ?P4e4..k,L Fate ow; Britibb
epo-ienc_e or . eaun,,t but hello ve our