The Sun.
London, England, 1834-09-19 00:00:00

reference to another column it will be seen that the
petition upon the Bill of Rights has been carried in
detail, and in toto, in despite of the whole influence of
the Ministry.

We have just been favoured with intelligence from
Lisbon of the Bth inst., from which we learn that
the Regent Don PEDRO, is recovering, though
his health continues in a most precarious
state. His complaint is said to be dropsical.
For some days his recovery was despaired of, and
some went so far as to report that poison was the cause
of illness ; but happily for the country over which he
presides, hopes arc entertained of his re-appearance
in public in a few days. The country is steadily pro-
gressing in improvement, the people are generally well
contented, and the plans of the Government are giving
general satisfaction.

The immense importance of whatever has a ten-
dency to facilitate an internal communication between
the inhabitants of this great kingdom, and more espe-
cially between the large provincial towns and the
metropolis, demands that public attention should be
more generally directed towards the important question
of railroads, now engaging the minds of some of the
most talented and patriotic persons in the United
Kingdom. It is a sad sight to behold the vast numbers
of public men, individually interested in the improve-
ment of their country, who either from indolence or
indifference, neglect to examine the practicability and
efficiency of a measure which promises to raise this
kingdom—owing to its commercial relations, and
colonial dependencies—above the level of the most
favoured nations in Europe. Why this indolence, or in-
difference, or both ? Is mankind still ashamed of appear-
ing more intelligent than their barbarous progenitors ?
Is the range of the human mind so bounded that the
savage sees it at a glimpse ; or is there impiety in em-
ploying our highest mental faculties in promoting human
happiness, and diminishing human suffering ? To
suppose an answer in the affirmative, would be too
sharp a satire on the understanding of the most pros-
trate worshipper of ancestorial wisdom.
The resolutions passed at a public meeting, held at
Norwich on the 13th inst., at which the MAYOR pre-
sided as Chairman, and which was attended by a great
number of highly respectable gentlemen, for the pur-
pose of connecting Yarmouth with London, by a rail-
way passing through Norwich, will be found in an
advertisement in another column,—and is the more
worthy of attention, as evincing the progress which this
great question is everywhere making at the pre-
sent moment. The meeting was attended by Mr.
CUNDY, an able, intelligent, and public-spirited
engineer, who in an eloquent speech, and subse-
quently, in answer to several interrogatories, explained
to the entire satisfaction of the meeting the practicabi-
lity and importance of such a line of communication
between a large fishing town on the extreme coast of
England, and the metropolis of the British empire.
His remarks on this subject were truly valuable, in
consequence of the great reflection which he had be-
stowed on the results of such a communication to this
country, as regarded Foreign States. This was what
particularly struck us the moment his peculiar mode of
reasoning on the utility of the rail-road in question
was made known to us, as it was through the medium
of an intelligent correspondent. The following extract
from the advertisement before referred to, gives a faint
outline of his views :
" He fully proved the importance of the plan to the counties
of Norfolk, Suffolk, &c., and the superiority of transporting
cattle by vehicles over the present method of driving, which
occasioned a great reduction in their value. He informed the
meeting, that in consequence of some important information
relative to the trade of Yarmouth, it would be highly advan-
tageous to extend the communication to that port, which
would complete the line with the German Ocean. He had
been supplied with correct data, which enabled him to demon-
strate that this determination would not only be important to
the Company in a pecuniary way, but that it would be a great
benefit to the population of Yarmouth, and furnish an immense
supply of the finest fish to the London market, and through
the country. It would connect that town with the northern
districts, and with the north of Europe in particular; and pro-
bably the Post-office packets would convey the mails to Ham-
burg, Gottenburg, &c., from that port."
An intelligent public wnuld find it impossible to
close its eyes to the importance of truths thus ably de-
monstrated. The farmers of the inland counties,
who are in the habit of annually sending cattle to
Smithfield, have too often lamented the injury their
eir
beasts sustained, and the
great depreciation which
has taken place in their value, in consequence of being
over-driven, not to see the importance, to them, of the
scheme here developed, by which they would be en-
abled to send their flocks to market without undergoing
any fatigue whatever. We know enough of pastoral
pursuits, to be able to assert of our own knowledge,
that cattle driven for only thirty miles will grow lean
in consequence, so that they will not bring by one-
sixteenth the price they would have done had they
not been removed from their accustomed pasturage.
The other observations are still more worthy of regard,
as they are more comprehensive and philosophical--
more in accordance with the true spirit of national im-
provemelit. There is no doubt but that a rail-road
froin London to Yarmouth, passing through Norwich,
would open a direct communication between that town
and the North of Europe. This has been long a most
desirable object, as England has yet but little benefited
by the great fisheries in the North Seas, and London is
at present most inconveniently and precariously supplied
with that necessary article of human subsistence. The
trade with Scotland too would be greatly increased, as
a direct, cheap, and expeditious land .communication
between Yarmouth and London would induce the
Scotch traders to- prefer that line of travel, to the delay
and danger which attends the further navigation of the
Thames. The Highland fisheries would be also mate-
rially benefitted from the same cause.
But the national interest for promoting every scheme
of railway improvement is not confined to merely local
considerations, and shareholders' profits. The Govern-
ment would find in such facilities of transporting troops
from one part of the kingdom to another, at almost no
expense, and with comparatively no trouble, a power-
ful er.lgine for defending the country, and for securing .
as internal quiet, even were a reduction of the army to
take place to-morrow. By means of a good line of
railroad a greater military force—.men, stores, ammuni-
tion, and baggage—could be removed from one town

or garrison to another in one day, than could, under
the present modes of military conveyance)
in a week.
pub
More need not be said to impress those lic-spirited
veterans, who have served in the army -
with the
degree of attention of which this
consi4erAun alone is
deserving.

But though we prefer treating this question on tin) I
general and admitted principle of national improvement.
we cannot overlook the fact of the vast 1111,-‘ I
would be benefitted by the ee*-'

communication