The Sun.
London, England, 1860-05-14 00:00:00

lIORSII RAILROADS.

The following extract from the report of Mr. R.
A. Gray, county surveyor, to the Grand Jury of the
County of Dublin, dated April, 1860, will be read
with interest

" The attention of the county surveyors having
been called at the last County-at-large Sessions to
a bill before Parliament to facilitate internal com-
munication in Ireland by means of tramways or
tramroa.ds,' our opinions were solicited as to what
effect the provisions of the bill would produce (if
enacted.) upon the existing thoroughfares and the
interests of those concerned in their construction,
maintenance, and use. Our ideas are given on
each clause of the bill seriatim, and which, I sup-
pose, will be communicated to you by the secretary,
and some observations in addition upon the work-
ing of the system in the United Staten, where
it is extensively in use, may be considered desira-
ble : and I may state some facts respecting the sub-
ject,, a knowledge of which I acquired during my
professional occupation in that country. The tram-
ways are there almost confined to the cities and
large towns, mechanical traction being found cheaper
and more suitable on the long Hiles of commutation
thro agh the country. The great facilities of start-
ing and stopping vehicles drawn by horse power on
rails, gives such a decided advantage to that mode
of conveyance through populous towns, that it was
very- extensively adopted, and continues to increase
rapidly. I observed that in addition to the great
advantage the proprietors have in being able
to move a comparatively very great weight
at a good speed under complete control,
the public enjoyed the benefit of accom-
modatio:a in the vehicles, were conveyed at
very cheap rates, were taken up and let down
wherever they desired along the lines, were carried
without noise or jolting, and, as compared with any
other means of locomotion, were particularly free
from accident.
"The rails for these conveyances are of a peculiar
sonstruction ; so contrived as not to interfere with
the ordinary traffic of the streets they traverse, but,
on the contrary, afford a surface which is invariably
taken advantage of by drivers going in the direc-
tion of the tramways. The annexed section of rail
is that in use in Sixth Avenue,New York, a crowded
and fashionable thoroughfare. It is a heavy rail,
and one ghat does not interrupt the crossing in any
direction or at any angle, of ordinary vehicles,
although. there is a double line through the street.
There are several other sections quite as free from
objection.
" The Sixth Avenue Establishment consists so
four miles of double track, laid with a 741 b rail.
The rolling stock consists of 70 carriages, of about
three tons each, worked by 420 horses and mules,
the fareu for the whole length being 2}d for adults,
and I.ld for children. Notwithstanding, the
ownern receive 10 per cent. The number of pas-
senger 3 travelling on this road, which may be taken
as an average, per annum, is five and a-half mil-
lions ; and the number carried give an idea of the
advantage the rest of the street derivesfrom such
a multitude being thus conveyed instead of travel-
ling in ordinary carriages, and adding so much to
the wear and tear of its surface. The official
statements published in 1858, alluding to five lines
of tramways in New York, gives the following re-
sults :
" Second Avenue-8 miles of single track,T h
car-
ried 4,504,645 passengers ; no accident.
carried
Avenue-61 miles of double track,
7,945,462 passengers; six injured. Sixth Avenue
—4 miles of double track, carried 5,612,337 pas-
sengers ;no accident. Eighth Avenue-5 miles of
double track, carried 6,768,203 passengers, one in-
jured. Brooklyn-21 miles of double track, car-
ried 7,705,839 passengers; five injured. Thus the
safety of the system to travellers is exemplified by
the fact that of 34 millions of people who travelled
on these roads during the year, only 12 individuals
were injured.
"In Philadelphia, where I spent the winter of
the year before I became your surveyor, there is a
population of over half a million of people; and it
is now traversed by 164 miles of tramways. Of
the great advantages of these ways public opinion
must be strongly impressed, when the inhabitants
of such a town, consisting in great part of Quakers,
proverbial for prudence and steady calculation,
have adopted them to such an extent in the short
time of little more than four years since the
first were laid down. At the beginning of this
year there were in operation in Boston 56, Balti-
more 50, St. Louis 21, and a proportionate extent
in Cincinnati, Chicago, Milwaukie, and almost every
large town in the Union. I have observed that the
enormous amount of traffic diverted from the ordi-
nary ways has produced a proportionate effect of
relieving them of so much wear and tear, and feel

(Berwick), £l.
The Foreign and Colonial markets have shown Ft
st
no material alterations ; prices, however, are flat. :1
Great Luxemburg are 61: /, San Paulo 1, East
st
Indian 1014 1011, Grand Trunk of Canada 32/ si
321, and Great Western of Canada 13 and 13/
Joint Stock Bank and Miscellaneous Shar es are s'
inactive, and prices generally chew a downward s
movement.

BRITISH FUNDS—CLOSING PRICES.
Bank Stock
3 per Cent. Reduced Annuities 93/ / 3
3 per Cent. Cons*ls Annuities
New 3 per Cent. Annuities
India Stock .. .
Ditto 6 per Cent. • lO6l I
Ditto Enlaced Paper, 4 per Cent .
Ditto 5 per Cent.
Ditto 51 per Cent
Ditto Debentures, 1858 97
Ditto 1859 96i
Consols for Account (6th June)
Exchequer. Bills, £l,OOO, 11d
Ditto Small
FOREIGN FUNDS—CLOSING PRICES.
Brasilian 5 per Cent
Ditto 41 per Cent. 1858 9l 90
Buenos Ayres, 6 per Cent.
Chilian 4/per Cent —
Ditto 3 per Cent
211
Mexican 3 per Cent
Ditto Account
Russian 5 per Cent. 1822, £ St •
Ditto, 3 per Cent., 1859 64
Sardinian 5 per Cent. Account..
Ditto Account
Spanish 3 per Cent
Ditto New Deferred 3 per Cent Account 37 1
Spanish Cora. Cert. of Coup. not funded 4l
Turkish 6 per Cent .. 751 5 i
Ditto New Loan
Ditto Account - /
Venezuelan 3 per Cent
Ditto 11 per Cent.
Dividends on the above payable in London.
Belgian, 41 per Cent., Ex. 25f, 951
Datch Exchange, 12 Guil. 21 per Cent O6
THREE O'CLOCK
Consols, Money
Ditto June Aecount
f -