The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-20 00:00:00

G~-i-r~v ~ ~vt~

7IIE PACIFIC RAILROAD.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
The Grand Trunk Pacific line frOm Omaha to
Sacramento, which is virtually from New York to San
Francisco, has been, we doubt not, finished ere
this so far that trains can pass over it, though in
the English acceptation of the term we fear it is
yet far from being a finished road. But, scamped
; though it may be, it is the grandest of undertak-
. ings, furnishing an instance of American energy
such as the history of the world cannot equal. From
the beginning to the end, the scheme is characteris-
tic of the Americ ,n, alike exemplifying good and bad
qualities. Its conception in its magnificence bordered
on temerity seeming to the world but narrowly sepa-
rated from the point where angels fear to tread but
fools rush in. Through almost unknown wastes,
over three of the most stupendous mountain ranges,
oafvlnasdtidaiejzrt, a country covered with hostile bands
heights ovethung by the avalanche, it
has been carried from nee in to ocean acrd s a c In-
tiuent to'conm•et the Eastern portions of the world
with the Western Portions. This stupendous work
was cotnnieuced during a war which threatened to
shiver the Republic into fragmmts, when the
energies of the nation, North and South, were ab-
sorbed in the effort to annihilate each other. That
such a giant work, pr.j..ced and commenced at
such a time, should require men of giant strength
is the next conclusion at which the world would
arrive. Not a bit of it. Anybody, Nobody, did it.
GEORGE FRANCIS TRAIN says he was the man, with
the street rails he lot 1 down in London, which
were pulled up and thrown at him by the City
authorities. Mr. DURANT, the Vice-President, gave
some interesting information in the examination
still progressing in the New York Courts. One
thing is certain that all interested in its start have
feathered their nests till they have become the most
downy in the States. Whether GEORGE FRANCIS
ITRAIN started the Union Pacific Railway or not, he
left England with everything with which he was
eemneeted in a state of collapse. The flag, he main-
tains it was he who flew so defiantly in the face:of
a hostile Europe, over eteue,..preeleceasor the Lon-
don American, had been hauled down, and his rails
pulled up; but now Mr. TRAIN is building palatial
residences, that at Newport at an expenditure of
some hundred thousand dollars. The testimony
'given in the investigation showed the enormous
profit made by the contractors; and the contractors •
were the promoters ; the whole neatly worked out
through another company called the Crddit Mo-
bilier. The Court insisted on the production of the
papers and books ; Mr. DURANT so strenuously re-
sisted that the Judge entertained a motion to Wm-
mit him for contempt. The safe was in the office;
the combination key in the pocket of Somebody
Else, and that Somebody Else nowhere. The Judge .
ordered the safe to be blown open, but the safe, too,
resisted even more strenuously than Mr. DURANT,
as if bent upon being a fine advertisement for its
maker. The best of this joke, if it be a joke at all,
is, that JAMES FISK (junior), of Erie notoriety, is the
self-constituted champion of the public against this
railway jobbing. Mr. TRACY, counsel for the defence,
asserted that the Receiver had once been through the
safe, and had found in it only an old almanac and
one dollar and a half. About two centuries ago,
replied Mr. STOUGHTON, a lawyer on the other side,
a certain JOHN HAMPDEN made a great fuss over a
few shillings of ship money. Mr. Meer retorted
that he had beard of JAMES FISK in several capa-
cities, but never before as the philanthropist and
patriot "JOHN HAMPDEN." how they had heard of
Mr. Fisx was stated by another counsel for the
defence, Mr. M'FARLANE, who insisted on reciting
a precedent why a Receiver should not be ap-
pointed. "It was one of the Erie cas3s wherein
the plaintiff in this suit was sought to be restrained
from ravage and pillage, of which he thought he
had shown him to be guilty. In that case a re-
ceivership of the railroad had been denied on mo-
tion.
Was this man (Mr. Fish-) yet unwhipt of
justice to obtain an order ex parte, without proof,
which had then been denied on the fullest proof ?
It is ',rasing strange that a Director who led in
the affairs which made the Erie notorious should
prosecute in this dog eat dog way ; but Mr. FisK,
with more than American versatility, is ready for
any character, from the pulpit of the Rev. HENRY
WARD BEECHER to " The Wickedest Man in New
York." That the projectors of the railway have
made a good thing out of it is undeniable, while it
is equally true that they have accomplished a great
work. The world could not expect the road to be
substantially f Jrmed, aul doubtless the Comtnis-
Blotters lately appointed are justified in reporting
adversely. But the Government may compel the
Company again to go over the work, to ballast,
and, to use a favourite word in the United States,
to reconstruct it. At Washington a contest has
been progressing between the 'Union Pacific and
I-- - - -; - ------ --*.'-' e---- -eef 3------, -- -i,l Utah.--
the former desires the spot, to be Monument. Point
on the Great Salt Lake, the latter Ogden in the Salt
Lake Valley. As yet the Central is successful,
Ogden being named by the Senate Committee,
though the Union Pacific hail been completed some
time ago, 25' miles beyond that town, while the
Central Milk had not reached within a consider.
able distance of Monument Point. The Central
alleges that its rival is not finished to Ogden as
stated, as there are several miles of temporary track
in the Wasatch Mountains, 30 miles east of Ogden,
with grades exceeding 200 feet to the mile ; and
two tunnels which could not be finished till the
30th of April, by which time the Central would
have laid its track to Ogden City. The Union retorts
by asserting au over-issue of Government Bonds
to the Central, that the track is badly built, &c.,
and the Commissioners on that point seem to bear
out the recriminations of both companies. In Iced, on
one Saturday, a few weeks ago, the Union finished
6 miles of its road, at which rate a railway could be
completed between London and -Liverpool uuder
forty days. Still enough rem tins to show that
enormous ingenuity and energy have been expended
on both roads, especially the Central. Take for
instance the means used to protect the elevated
portions most exposed, from snow in winter. For
twenty-two miles a shed has been constructed,
which appears like a tunnel sixteen feet high, not
including the pitch of the roof, and sixteen feet
wide. It is made of the best timber procurable,
braced together, and firmly bolted to the rocks,
and where snow slides, the roof is carried with extra
strength to the cliffs, so as to conduct the falling
masses over the road down the chasms. This
snow-shed covers 43 acres, and 40,000,000 feet of
timber have been used in framing it. We have
said that the undertaking brings out in a high de-
gree
American characteristics. It was a grand con-
ception ; it was carried through with extraordinary
speed and success ; it was used as a means for job-
bing, the plunder being Bonds in millions, and
estates equalling principalities, and in success it
opens with everybody at loggerheads, with half-a-
dozen lawsuits, and the point of junction, a vanish-
ing point which no one can determine ; coupling a
strange amount of grandeur and of littleness, asso-
ciating names with a work worthy of a combined
world, with mean motives and insatiable plunder.

Mr. Thomas C. Bowie, belonging to the En-
gineer Corps of the Noah Missouri Railroad, was killed
by falling into a cellar in Kansas
.City on the 30th March.
He was a nephew Of the Hon. Reverdy Johnson, also of
the present Governor of Maryland, and was formerly con-
nected with the United States Coast Survey.

Dr. Guy R. Phelps, President of the Connecticut
Mutual Life Insurance Ciompany,died at his residence in
Hartford, Thuts,lay morning, March 18, aged G 7. He
graduated ac Yale in 1825, and directed his attention to
insurance in 1846. He signed, either as secretary or pre-
sident, 97,000 policies, and paid $8,000,000 in losses. He
had an insurance on his life for $20,000, $15,000, of which
was in his own company, and the rest in the Mutual Bene-
fit of New Jersey.
Senator Sprague is described by himself as "LID
orator." A correspondent says he speaks " with his
hands in his pantaloons pockets, with 117 s arms akimbo, or
his hands clasped under his coat tails. Also, that he
turns his back upon the Vice-President
a andrreksiidnentand poundingtotakshis
the
galleries, while twisting and
empty chair.
DUNVILLE and Co., Belfast, are the largest
holders of Whisky in the world. Their Old Irish Whisky is re-
commended by the medical profession in preference to French
Brandy. Supplied in casks and cases for home use or exporta-
tion. Quotations on application 'to Messrs. Danville and Co.,
Belfast; or 4, Beaufort-buiDtings,Strand, London, W.Q.....{Ad-
rertiaonaent.