The Sun.
London, England, 1856-07-16 00:00:00

THIS SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING.
_JULY 16, 18515

n o matter ho w remote, and Hey ! Presto !—you were
there, as the saying is (though we can't undertake
to explain the precise meaning of either phrase,
etymologically), in a jiffy, or in the twinkling of

a bedpost ! Instead of the wishing-carpet of the
oriental tale, however, we are promised a mira-

culous little bit of cardboard in the shape of a

railway-ticket—the wizard who gives the promise
being one ROWLAND MACDONALD STEPHENSON.
The promise, moreover, has recently been volun-
teered to the world at large by Mr. STEPHENSON
in sober seriousness. He—Mr. R. M. STEPH. EN-
SON—being no idle daydreamer, we should observe
at once, but a practical man of business, at the
present moment the Managing Director of the
East India Railway Company—a man accustomed
to deal not with tropes and metaphors, but with
facts and figures, with pounds, shillings, and
pence, with the solid, simple, substantial results
of arithmetical calculation and cubic measure-
ment.

It is actually projected by Mr. STEPHENSON—,
(a name we take it of tolerably good omen in
such matters)—that one continuous iron road,
one colossal railway;shall connect Europe and Asia
from their uttermost extremities That a High-
way should be opened (" The,World's Highway"
it has been called) from London to Calcutta !
This scheme too—it should be remembered—is not
a vision in nubilrus. It is an enterprise not
mused over "in the clouds," but mapped out
upon terra, firma. The Managing Director of the
}last India Railway Company has sketeh:d the
undertaking out in all its details, weighing each
detail in turn "in the balance " with the utmost
degree of deliberation—and only presenting to
view the astounding sum total after a minute and
cautious scrutiny of each individual unit !

Recollect the route traversed in the
oonstruction of this titantic road, termed for want
of a better name "The World's Highway," and
so designated by no means extravagantly, crosses
various kingdoms of the earth, inhabited by races
of different manners, and religions, and languages,
and degrees of civilisation ! Remember that it
spands in one extended sweep no less than 90°
of longitude 1 Yet it is intended to have
but two breaks from one terminus to
the other, the first break at the Strait; and
the second at the Dardanelles. Starting from
London it will have to pass either through Bel-
gium, Prussia, and Germany, or through France,
Baden, and Wurtemburg—to Ba-varia, and on-
wards from the confines of Bavaria by way of
Nuremburg, through Austria, Turkey in Europe,
Turkey in Asia, Persia, and Beloochistan, pro-
ceeding onwards from Kurrachee to each of
the three Presidencies. Nevertheless, although
so many physical and political difficulties
have to be encountered and overcome before the
project can be actually accomplished, the scheme
still appears to be feasible to other competent
(and perhaps more impartial) judges besides
the projector himself, Mr. R. MA.CDONALD STE -
PHENSON. He has, let us again observe, carefully
gone through the whole of the preliminary calcu-
lations. He estimates the sum total of the cost
to each country—say by the Belgian Route—at
38,100,0001. in round numbers, involving an
annual interest upon the aggregated whole of just
1,905,0001. The total requiring an expenditure
in Belgium of 1,500,0001., in Prussia of
800,000/. ; in Germany of 400,0001. ; in Bavaria
to Nuremburg of 1,200,0001., and beyond Nu-
remburg of another 1,200,0001. ; in Austria of
4,000,0001.; in European Turkey of 5,000,000/. ;
in Asiatic Turkey of 13,000,000/. ; in Persia of
5,500,0001., and in Beloochistan of another
s,soo,oool.—completing the aggregate already
specifiedof 38,100,0001. ! The distance traversed
from Belgium to Beloochistan inclusively being
3,810 miles—of which 405 are already
opened, or in course of construction—
leaving 3,405 still required to complete the
connection. Nothing daunted by the obstacles
rising before him, like " Alps on Alps," as he
proceeds upon his calculations as to the practica-
bility of his cherished design, the projector of
" The World's High way" finds them, on more
careful examination, melting away beyond even his
most sanguine anticipations. Insomuch do the in-
terposing difficulties lessen in numerical amount and
in individual magnitude that it proves in the end
to 1):1 altogether indisputable that all now required
to complete the line of direct communication pro-
posed to be established between India and Eng-
land--is the task, here, of laying down a line of
500 miles from Belgrade to Constantinople ; and,
here again, of another of 1,300 from Karma to
Constantinople. Au extension of existing railroads
by the length of 1,800 miles altogether—the first
500 miles passing through a country already civi-
lised, and having even now a large and increasing
trade, and a passenger traffic, we are told by a
competent authority, the Calcutta Review, "limited
only by the existing means of conveyance "—the re-
maining 1,300 miles extending through rich
tracks of land, some 600 miles of it trailing
through the valley-path of a gigantic river, with
the ocean at either extremity, and midway an easy
access to the waters of the Mediterranean ! "Is
this impossible ?" asks the contemporary review
just quoted, in the course of a succinct but mas-
terly resume of the whole of this vast project of
"the World's Highway." Answering the inquiry
immediately with these three pithy sen-
tences :—" The line from Calcutta to Born-
boy, via Agra, is longer. The line of the
Great Pacific will pass through a more difficult
and less inhabited country. The lines of Western
America are almost as far from the supply of
labour, and the lines of Germany are far less ac-
cessible from the ocean." Remembering which—
who shall venture to assert that this particular
enterprise is impracticable ? People said it was
impracticable to steam across the Atlantic, to fly
3n the wings of the wind at the tail of a loco-
motive, to communicate across distances of many
hundreds of miles, from man to man, in the twink-
ling of an eye, as by flashes of lightning ! Yet
all these things are matters now of every-day
occurrence. Who shall say after this that it is
impossible to lay down one or two thousand miles,
more or or less, of iron rail for the completion of
" The World's Highway 1" Certainly we shall
not assert as much. For without being
.lay dreamers we do seriously believe in
bhe perfect feasibility, sooner or later, of the
magnificent scheme sketched out by ROWLAND
NIA CDONALD STEPHENSON—the gigantic railway
extending, with only two breaks, across Europe
and Asia, from the European terminus at Lon:
don, to the Asiatic terminus at Calcutta.

ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA (LYcxnu).—The Queen and
his Royal Highness Prince Albert, with their Royal
highnesses the Prince and Princess of Prussia and the
Princess Louise, honoured the Ttoyal Italian Opera
(Lyceum) with their presence last evening. In attend.
Ince were the Countess of Desert, the Countess von
!lecke, Countess Oriolla, Madame von Sternberg, Hon.
Elora Macdonald, Lord de Tabley, Count Boos, Major
General Hon. C. Grey, and Colonel F. H. Seymour.
£he house was crowded with fashionable company.
Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess de
Nemours visited her Royal Highness the Duchess of
Kent, yesterday, at Clarence House, St. James's.
Wears authorised to state that Viscount Hard'nge
3 progressing favourably. His lordship passed a good
sight on Monday, and was as well as could Le expected
'esterday morning. The Queen, his Royal Highness
Prince Albert, and all the members of the royal family,
tnd a long list of friends, have made daily inquiries, in
Great Stanhope-street, after his lordship's health.

LATEST NEWS

INSURRECTION AT MADRID.

We have to announce the outbreak of a for-
midable insurrection in Madrid.

The populace were on Monday night in arms,
and there was sharp fighting in the streets between
the insurgents and the troops.
At ten o'clock yesterday morning the fighting
continued ; but, up to that time, the Queen's
troops, under Marshal O'Donnell, retained pos.!
session of the city, and continued to make head

against the rebels.
The insurgents proclaim a Republic.
It is not known where Espartero is.

VIENNA, JULY 15.

Intelligence from Constantinople, by way of
Bucharest, and bearing date the 9th inst., states
that Marshal Pelissier had disembarked at the
Golden Horn, on his return from the Crimea.
The German Legion, after th© complete disem-
barkation of the French and English troops, were
to establish their camp at Maslak.
The Bourse at Constantinople, at the date of
these accounts, was depressed.

The Vienna correspondent of the Times (second
edition), in his letter dated July 12, says :
" It is considered certain that a great Russian
expedition will be undertaken in the Caucasus
in the spring, as the officers of engineers are
busily employed in surveying the different passes.
That part of the plan of operation which relates
to the construction of fortifications and stronghold
is to be entrusted to General Todtleben."

Letters from Turin, of the 13th inst., state
that the Royal decree, allotting 1,000,000 f. for
the erection of new works of defence round Ales-
sandria, had produced a deep sensation. The
measure, however, has been universally approved,