The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-02 00:00:00

THE EUPHRATES VALLEY RAILWAY.

When the Euphrates Valley Railway Company talked
of the certainty of a guarantee the world received the
assurance in the customary sense of a guarantee from
the East India Company. It now turns out that it is
not the security of the British but of the Turkish Go•
vernmeet that the shareholders have to rely on, and that
it is the Ottsman Porte who promises 6 per cent. for 90
years. He must be a bold politician who, after what
has just occurred, would venture to claim for the Turkish
power an existence of half this duration, and if, in place
of 99, we assumed nine as the extreme limit of the exist-
(rice of an antiquated and effete empire, we should pro-
lsibly not be much out of our reckoning. But it is not
requisite to speculate on the durability of the dynasty of
the Sultan to estimate the value of a Turkish guarantee.
Nations do not go to war to enforce the payment of
Spanish or Pennsylvanian bonds, and if Mr. Andrews
can get gulls enough to invest money on ouch securities
as this they have themselves to thank if they are sold
a bargain. The Grand Turk may plead, when called
upon to pay, that he himself was taken in ; that he was
assured that the income would meet charges and affsrd
dividends ; that what was asked from him was said
to be a promise to secure public confidence, and im-
posing no responsibilities ; that, in place of this, the
railway not covering working charges imposed upon
him a subsidy of 6 per cent. for the benefit of a body
of adventurers who, when they got his name upon the
bond, took no pains to determine for themselves the
probabilities of lawful return. The two great points on
which the whole enterprise turns do not as yet seem to
have entered the English mind at all—speed and eco
uorny of transit. We have already shown that the
transport of a ton of goods between India and England
by the Euphrates route will cost 401. at least, amount-
ing, except in a very small number of instances, to abso-
' lute prohibition, and that, were all the 10,000 English-
men now in India to go home and come back again
twice a-year, the passenger traffic would not pay for the
grease for the carriage wheels. Returns from the only
two sources of income a railway aspires to thus become
hopeless, whatever the attractions of speed. But the
Caleut.taErigallintanassumes that the promise of celerity
is itself a delusion, founded as it is on the presumption
that the Euphrates can be navigated at the rate of 300
miles a-day, 100 being in all likelihood considerably
beyond the average of what may be looked for. There
is, however, at home a plethora in the money-market
just at present, to be relieved only by depletion. Toe
East has become a fav Junto field of enterprise, mainly
on the principle of the magnificent and the unknown
being supposed equivalent. When we have thrown away
10,000,000/, or 20,000,0001. on wild-goose adventures,
people may benefit by the experience purchased on terms
so extravagant. It is curious how carefully reasonable
and moderate projects are shunned under such circum-
stances. A scheme supported by a profusion of facts,
but which appeals to the understanding, not to the
imagination, has no chance, just because of its defi
niteuess ; to catch the public ear, something vague and
vast must be poured into it—. something promising all,
most probably ending in nothing.—Bombay Timcs.

PANAMA RAILWAY.

The following paragraph appeared in the New
York Daily Times of the 13th ult. The informa-
tion which it contains is correct :

"I learn that the Secretary of the Navy has
just concludfd arrangements with the Panama
Railroad Company for the transportation across
the isthmus of an entire crew for the sloop-of-
war St. Mary's, and the return to the United
States of her present crew by the same convey-
ance. The officers who are to join the sloop
have just received their orders, and, as niay
readily be supposed, are happy to be relieved
from the tedious voyage round Cape Horn. Th•
supplies for the St. Marys are also to go across
by the same railroad. This commendable enter-
prise, initiated by Secretary Dobbin, is calcu-
lated to produce an entire revolution in the sys-
tem of conducting our Pacific and East Indian
squadrons. The Mare Island Naval-yard in
California will probably henceforth become the
station for repairing and refitting all our public
vessels in Pacific waters. This arrangement and
the exchange of crews and transportation of sup-
plies via the Panama Railroad are likely to do
away altogether, or nearly so, with all necessity
for doubling the Cape. A -United States vessel
once in the Pacific will be apt never to return
to the Atlaw ic, unless upon some extraordinary
exigency. The frigate Wabash, Captain Engle,
bearing the flag of Commodore Paulding, will
sail from your city in a few days for Aspinwall,
to take out the new crew of the St. Marys and
bring home the old one, whose term of service
has expired. While the new arrangement is an
economical one for the Government, of course it
will be a paying one to the railroad company."
By this step the Isthmus is placed under a
sort of surveillance, and the repetition of the
scenes of last summer rendered improbable.