The Sun.
London, England, 1858-08-25 00:00:00

naked and leafless as in December, and the bark is so bruised Mr. Ramsay, of Barnton. Tne stone bridge which will span
and broken, that in all probability they will die, at least they the Glasgow highroad is rapidly advancing, as is also the
annul bear fruit for some years to come. Mr. FrancisNel- bridge across the Water of Leith. The latter will consist of
son has also suffered very much, besides several small tenants three arches, sixty feet above the stream. These are both
upon whom the injury will fall as heavy, if not heavier in to be skew bridges. It was the intention of the directors
proportion than upon those in better circumstances. to lay down a single line of rails only, but operations are
" Lord Hertford, who receives an immense annual income on a scale sufficient to accommodate if necessary a double
from this estate, will have an opportunity of spending a small line. The distance of the line from the Hayruarket
portion of it in a most praiseworthy manner by doing some- branch to Granton is 51 miles; hut by forming another
thing towards indemnifying the unfortunate victims of this branch—which we underst,and is in contemplation—run-
unforeseen calamity. Unless something handsome be done ning almost directly eastward from the Granton Junet:on to
for thew, they cannot recover their position for years—some the Caledoniao line near Dairy, this distance will be reduced
of them never. No words can give a pe:fect idea of this by a mile and a half, leaving the total distance only 41
misfortune, which has been unexampled in the history of
this country. miles. This, if passenger traffic from Edinburgh should be
established, would render uunEcessary the disagreeableness
"Being on a visit here from England, and not having of shunting
seen a full account of it in any of the local papers, I venture trains back on to. the Haymarket Junction.
The cuttings present no f(arure'of extraordinary difficulty,
to send you this letter, which I would feel obliged by your
and it is expected, should the work meet with no unforeseen
publishing in your widely-circulated journal." - interruption, that the line will be fully completed by Christ-
mas twelve rn oLths. It will run through a fine undulating
country, and Will skirt the beautiful Corstorphiue Hill oa
the east, forming, if passenger traffic should be undertaken,
a most pleasant, although certainly somewhat circuitous
route to Greaten.
As regards the capital, the Parliamentary estimate of the
Cost of the line was £OO,OOO, but the managers have power
to raise, in addition to this, the sum of £24,000. The Duke
of Bucelettch, we learn, contributes half the amount of
evil al.—Scotsman.

RAILWAY INTELLIGEACE.

LONDON, TILBURY, AND SOUTHEND.
The half-yearly meeting of the shareholders in this com-
pany was held yesterday afternoon at the London Tavern—
Mr. Daniell, the chairman of directors, in the chair.
The CHAIRMAN, in opening the proceedings, expressed
his regret that this, like most other railways, had felt the
effects of the prevailing depression, which had very materially
affected the development of traffic on the line. The railway
had not suffered so much as many others, and he was happy
to say that the decrease in the receipts, as compared with
the corresponding half-year of 1857; was not more than £291.
He was also happy to state that during the six weeks follow-
ing the close of the half-year, the gross traffic receipts were
£1,700 more than in the corresponding period of last year.
From the Bow to Barking branch opened in March last, he
augured the best results, as tending very materially to a
development of traffic.
Mr. KENNELL read the report, which stated that the re-
ceipts from the passenger traffic of the line for the half-year
ending the 30th of June last, which were payable to other
companies, were as nearly as possible as follows, viz.:—Black-
wall Railway Company, £4,184; Eastern Counties Railway
Company, £32,999; North London Railway Company,
£439. These sums, added to the amount credited in the
revenue account (£21,789), would give the gross receipts
derived from passenger traffic.
After some discussion the report was adopted.

NEWRY, WARRENPOINT, AND ROSTREVOR.
The report of the directors states that the balance.sheet
shows £694 to the credit 'of the revenue account. The di-
rectors took counsel's opinion upon the agreements with the
Newry and Enniskillen Company, and were sorry to find it
practically adverse to legal proceedings against the com-
pany under its new designation of " Newry and Armagh
Railway," but the directors are nevertheless equally sale-
fled that, however defective the agreements were in legal
formality, they were both prudently devised and honestly
consistent with the unitedinterests of the two companies, a
conclusion' at which the directors believe the Newry and
must necessarily arrive before the merits
Armagho that
Company
can be possibly developed.
railway

DUBLIN AND DROGHEDA RAILWAY.
The receipts of the company for the last half year exceed
those for the corresponding part of 1857 by the sum of £1,629
o'. 2d., while the working expenses are less than those for the
corresponding period by £304 Os. ld. thus leaving an in-
ct £1,4933 Os. 3d. in the profits of" the kalf-year. This
result, it is hoped, will prove satisfactory to the shareholders,
when they bear in mind that the receipts on many of the
railways in the United Kingdom show a considerable fallisg
off; owing to the ,dept eased state of trade. The net profits of
the half-year, after paying working expenses, interest on
loans, and &viands on preference sharesfamount to £14,029
15s. 7d. To this is to be added the balance of £3,E6G 10s. Bd.
carried over from the profits of the last half-year, making the
amount at present applicable to dividend on the ordinary
shares of the company £17,596 Gs. 3d. Out of this the
directors recommend a divi, end of 335. 9d. on each £75
share, and of lls. 31 on each £25 share, being at the rate
of4l per cent. per annum. This dividend will amount to
£12,755 Ws. 3d. and will leave a balance of £4,840 10s. to
be carried to the reserve and reproduction fund. The
shareholders will be glad to learn thLt the arbitration so long,
pending between the Post-al-ice and this company, relative
to the rate of remuneration to be paid to the company for the
postal service,. has at length been determined. By the award
of the umpire the company is to receive £165 per annum
more than it has been receiving hitherto. The works on the
Dundalk and Enniskillen Railway have progressed satisfac-
torily during the past hell-year. About the end of June 16
miles of the line—viz., from Newbliss to Lisnaskea—were
opened for traffic. A further extension was opened on the
14th inst. to Lisbellaw. When the remaining four miles to
Enniskillen are completed, there will be an uninterrupted
railway communication between Dublin, Enniskillen, ;nd
Derry, which cannot fail to bring an accession of traffic to
your line. In pursuance of the wish expressed by the share-
holders at the last general ineeting, the directors opposed in
Parliament the bill promoted .by the Dublin and Meath
Company; and though they were advised and felt that they
had strong and just grounds for opposition, yet they regret
that it was unavailing. It has been found necessary to add
a new goods' engine and six waggons to the rolling stock of
the company during the past half-year ; the cost of these
has been charged to the capital. During the same period
one of the old engines hag been replaced, the expense of
which has been charged to the reproduction fund. A con-
siderable sum has been expended ou the rebuilding as well as
on the repairs of carriages and waggons: The whole of this
has been included in the current working expenses.

RUSSIA 'AND CHINA.

(From the Times.)

We suspect that the English public Was .rather surprised
than gratified by the kind, offices of the Russian Govern-
ment in giving us intelligence of what we are doing in the
East of Asia. It is good to know that our diplomatic diffi- • •
culties are over, and that we may now enter into this land
abounding in silk and tea. Our busy men of commerce
will immediately set their wits working to organise com- •
mereial expeditions up the Yang-tse. We shall probably
soon ascertain whether the short staple cottons of the Chi-
nese Deltas Cannot be adapted to our looms. A strong •
spirit of enterprise, bridled a little by the recollection of
disasters in that quarter now 15 years old, will ga forth
eastwards. Manehever will shortly have her correspend-
cuts at Wanchau, Sheffield " notions" will have penetrated
to Pekin, Nottingham laces will compete at Soochow, and
Liverpool will Import sugars from Formosa. But commercial
and political thinkers will be startled in their calculations
by this ugly fact—Sr. Petersburg, on the 20th of August,
had news from the Peiha up to the 27th of June; London
has on this 25th day of August no news of its own from the
Peiho later than the 4th of June. St. Petersburg, therefore,
AexeLto P ekZt
power, dominion, life, a month Is as a thousand years.
Fancy Ve eficet of a runtora with Tt wissia Ve.kwn knownbyCell% it liatta_a month before it can be known by Lord
..Elgin. Fancy the effect even of some crisis in the tea and
silk markets being known to the merchants of St. Peters-
burg a month before it becomes suspected on cur Royal
Excitan.rzr. A puliticiau or a merchant who operates with
Luc odds Of a month's early news against him is like a savage
• with a bow and atrow contending against a prize sergeant
fresh from the Hythe School of Musketry; or like the same
sergeant contending against that coming philosopher who
is to kill his man at 20 wiles distance by the power of con-
centrated sunbeams. Everything is by comparison. Every-
thing is according to the station held in the great onward
race. The impatient lover who, separated from his mistress,
implored Jove to " annihilate all time and space," was
thought an uureasonajilc personage; but nothing short of
this will fill the measure of our large desires. If Puck takes
40 minutes to put a girdle round about the earth, Ariel will
beat him out of the field if he does it in two throbs of a pulse.
When the Sirius, 30 years since, steamed into New York
harbour all the city turned out to see her, and the excite-
ment was tremendous; a month hence any Liverpool broker
who should remain ignorant of the price of cotton till ne got
it by means of a steamship would be placed in a private
lunatic asylum. We must go on, on, on. We have proved
that we can annihilate space and time, and, having di-
vulged the secret of our capacity, the inexorable necessities.
of competition seize upon us, and insist upon our working
up to the full pressure of our power.
We have been beaten by a month. It is not very easy to
say how this has happened. How can it be that news can
speed more quickly by relays of horses than by steam and
electric wires? How is it that the passage of intelligence
to St. Petersburg is so prompt? We know the Russians
have an establishment at Pekin; but it is of a religious and
educational, rather than of a diplomatic character. It was,
we believe, never suspected that a high road and a chain of
posts existed between the two distant capitals, or that con-
stant communications are kept up between the Pekin Col-
lege and the Cabinet of the Czar. Some time ago we were
given some cause for conjecture by a passage in a Pekin
( iazette, which informed us that an Elibassy, sant to con-
dole with the Itusrian Court on the death of the Emper,r
Nicholas, had just returned; but that information did not
necessarily imply smooth roads and easy intercourse. Here
we have an ittstaece of .6,000 miles traversed in 50 days. We
will assume that the despatch arrived at Pekin in the form
of a telegram, and that Moscow was the nearest point to
which it was carried. It is still rapid work. It is not that
10 miles an hour for 12 hours a-day, or five miles an hour fur
find over
a prepared Count-y. But our surprise is to the
24 hours a-day, ore very fast work for Tartar e.rie
uthrsat
if he took the dirtct
Country is to prepared. The courier,
route, must have struck northwards from Pekin, and, cross-
ing the Great Wall of China, must have alvaaced into the
vast sandy desert which interposes between the inha-
,
rate the Russian from the Chnions. Ile must
bited parts of China and thoseimountainnese domiianges that sepa-
have traversed this desert in an oblique direction, and, sur-
mounting. the hills that form its north-we,tern boundary,
rli have
.e furridden
ae
shirt
rest
the e
in Turkistan. Coursing downsteppes of the Khirghis, stop-
phieziu,ps
eth
the valleys of the tributaries t.=, the Sea of Aral, and passing
to the north of the Caspian, he would thus reach the fron-
tier of Russia Proper, and might water his horses in the
Wigs and the Don as he passed ou his now easy cOur.e along
the prepared routes to his capital. Was this his road ? Or
did he strike up northwards fram Pekin until be reached
some Russian settlement upon that winding and mysterious
river, the Atnoor, about which we hear so much and know
so little ? The Americans tell us of a great commerce grow-
ing at its mouth, and of many steamers plying on its waters;
we know that by a great and most unlucky bend southwards
it descends to within eight degrees ci the latitude of Pekin,
and that the Russians have appropriated the great portion
of Chinese territory which is included by that southward
sweep. It was by that route Count Puik.tin arrived in
China, so we may be assured that it is shorter and not much
more laborious than the sea route by Suez. Russia, it is
plain, has found out a northern vulnerable point, and has
already secured a covered way into this great finuadering,
defenceless empire.
The moral of this is, that we Westerns must bestir our-
selves, or we shall be shut out of the new game. We must
become a wire-extending people. We have let every nation
get a-head of us in this matter. In England we don't
do things because they are useful, still less became they
are beautiful ; but there is nothing u the earth or
under the sea that we cannot accomplish o
if it offer a good
dividend on a large capital. There seems to have been a
hesitationabout the chance of making profits by carrying
Messages, and meantime every one hasoutstripped us. The
French have covered all Northern AfAca with their wires;
how far Russia has yet carried hers we do not know. But
this China telegram gives us ground to suspect that they
are pushed a long way beyond Moscow. The Amedean
States talk hourly with each other with, these tongues of
lightning; yet we, to whom rapid communication is as the
breath of cur empire, have not yet begun even to lay down
wires to Calcutta. Nudged and elbowed by Brother Jona-
than, we have thrown a line across to America; but let any
one compare the Atlantic Ocean, which, so far as it was.an
impediment to conversation, we have practically abolished,
with the Red Sea and the Straits of Bab-el-mandeb, and the
Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, and the S rain. of Ma-
lacca and the China Sea. There cal he no difficulty in any
of these seas. We have Aden and Galle and Singapore and
Hong. Kong as stations—what is to prevent us -frog p4i,vh ,enrge
out our lines of wire and. working our telegraphs 7
.that the official
really is nothing to prevent this, except
telegraph is a
mind is not yet quite sure that the Atlantice
that the work
fact, and 'not a dream, and cannot yet tee
is so easy as it has been n its, proved to •
__,.

TILE HEAVY INDIAN MAIL.--The Indian mail
packet Colombo has not yet arrived. If she had not lost.her
screw she would Lave been home the middle of last week.
She has her India and China passengers on board, but her
mails have arrived in England. She was to be towed from
Gibraltar by a small Government steamer, but northerly
winds prevail along the peninsular coast by the last
counts, Which would prcvent the Colombo from_ gettai4-
along. . A telegram was received from the Peninsula stating
Mai assistance would be required for, the Colombo, and the
Becares, a powerful steamer, was despatched to meet tier,
earweiuhdonartilyil
should the
pa rlody e t coaanstsri as tryi'n. gettingß oth tb eh
expected.
AND WATER.--TWO French milk dealers
MILK
were on Saturday
.fined 50f. by. the Tribunal of Correctional
Police for having NI 11 RI cent. of water in tiler milk.