The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-30 00:00:00

FALL OF A RAILWAY VIADUCT IN INDIA

and rebuilding the viaduct will occupy at least a
twelvemonth, and meanwhile the traffic for about

six miles must revert to the old route, via Cam-

poolee, crossing the Ghaut in bullock carts. Thr!
utter destruction of this great viaduct can only be
regarded as a great public calamity for Bombay and

she Deccan."

THE FRENCH ARMY.

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
CAMP OF CHALONS, Aug. 24.
It has often struck me as curious that Frenchmen,
who seem so unfit to colonise, should, when they

are made into soldiers, become such good cam-
paigners, while, on the contrary, Englishmen, who
have such success in colonising, should, as soon as

hey put on the red coat, become so helpless

This apparent contradiction in both cases is evi-
dently owing to the system in the first instance, and
then to the national peculiarities of the two races.

The Frenchman, as a rule, if left to himself, is the
most wretched and helpless being, while all the
energy of the Englishman will come out when he
has to rely upon himself. Now, in campaigning, the
English soldier, who has all his life been made

to think that he is there merely as a fighting animal,
which is to be provided with everything by others,

loses as it were the faculties which he has in
his native state. Of course, those who defend
the system tell you that it is the nature of the Eng-
lish soldier to be dull and helpless ; but how comes
it that the brothers and cousins of this same helpless
being can shift as backwoodsmen as none else can ?
The French soldier in garrison is, on the contrary,

encouraged to turn his faculties to account, and
although a provident " Intendance" supplies his
wants, there are always means for an odd job which
will eke out his pittance. This tendency to strive
and better himself he brings with him to the camp,
emulation helps, and the result is that he contrives
to make himself more comfortable than could
be imagined.

Whoever wants a practical proof of this has only
,o come from Aldcrshott to Chalons if he had no op-

portunity to make the comparison in the Crimea.
Chalons, although now burnt up by the sun, is a
comfortable place, and, curious enough, most com-
fortable, not where the permanent huts are, but

where the troops are under canvas. In the huts
there is only room for a Division and a half, while
the remainder of the infantry—that is, two and a
half Divisions—a Division of cavalry and all the
complement of artillery, eight field batteries, be-
sides the reserve artillery, are in tents. Round
every tent there is a little garden, and in front of

the line a succession of artistic beds, in which you
can still see the remains of flowers, while the bor-

ders turfed over show various patterns, some of
which, especially in front of the 63d, camped near
" Mourmelon le petit," would do honour to a pro-
fissional gardener. As for the quarters of the Coin •
mandant of Engineers, they display even now a
blazing mass of colour. In the rear of the tents are
vegetable gardens, most productive, of course, in the
cavalry and artillery regiments.
The presence of the Emperor has stimulated emu-

lation, and the regiments have vied with each other
to express their devotion in the most artistic form.
The huts display ornaments and devices in turf,
and before every regiment there is a more or less
appropriate trophy. The devices do not show much
variety, consisting mostly of the sacramental " Vive
l'Empereur !" to which is often joined " Vivo
l'Emperatrice !" " Vive le Prince Imperiale !" or
"Vive la Famille Imperiale !" There is more variety
in the trophies, although the bust of the Emperor
occurs too frequently. But there are a few which
display artistic merit. The first among them is in
front of the sth Chasseurs, and represents a ser-
geant who, on the 18th of June, was the first to get
into the Malakoff, and, what is more, got out of it.
The figure, cut in soft chalk stone, is really expres-
sive, and so thoroughly " chasseur-a-pied" is the
face and attitude as only a regimental artist
could contrive. The 90th Regiment has likewise its
hero in front, an ensign who carried the colours of the
regiment at the battle of Solferino. The silk was
torn, the staff shattered, and the ensign bleeding,
yet on he carried the colours. The 63d has a Cri-

The Times of India gives the following account o
the fall of a viaduct on the Bhore Ghaut incline on
the Great Indian Peninsula Railway :
"In our last overland summary we reported the
occurrence of a melancholy disaster on the Great
Indian Peninsula Railway, whereby from 50 to 80
passengers lost their lives. The precise number has
never been ascertained, as Government allowed its
order for an independent investigation by Govern-
ment officers to be frustrated, and on the one-sided
investigation instituted by the railway officials the
public can place no reliance whatever. It is felt that in
this matter the local government has egregiously
failed in its duty. Scarcely had the gap which oc-
casioned the accident referred to been repaired
when another break-down occurred, happily unat-
tended with loss of life, but, in every other way,
perhaps the most serious calamity that could have
befallen the c ompany. The most extensive viaduct
on the BhOre Ghaut incline—the Poona and Bom-
bay line—has totally collapsed, sacrificing the
labour of two years, and half a million of money.
As the Syhadree mountains, or Western Ghauts,
run parallel to the line of sea coast, they cut off
Bombay and other ports from the interior of the
country. Across these mountains, by a series of
tunnels, viaducts, and gradients, some as steep as 1
iu 37—the most magnificent railway works in the
world—goes to the South-Eastern lines of the Great
Indian Peninsula Railway. This Bhore Ghaut in-
cline is 15 miles and 68 chains in length ; the level
of its base is 196 feet above high water mark in
Bombay, and of its summit 2,027 feet, so that the
total elevation surmounted by the incline is 1,831
feet, at an average gradient of 1 in 18. The works
consist of 26 tunnels (the total length of which is
3,985 yards), and of eight gigantic viaducts, besides
numerous extensive cuttings. The viaduct which
has collapsed is that which crossed the Mhow-ke-
Mullee Khind, between Wonee and Thakoorwada,
and was thus the most important on the Ghaut,
connecting, as it did, the upper and lower ranges of
hills. It was also the most extensive on the line,
consisting of eight semicircular arches of 50 feet
span, and 139 feet above the surface of the ground.
So far as the actual work 3 were concerned, how-
ever, this does not show the real height, because it
was necessary to excavate to a depth of 21ft before
a sufficiently solid foundation could be obtained.
The viaduct was thus 163 ft above the footing, and
it was built on a considerable curve. It had b2en
known to be at bast superficially unsound for seve-
ral ye .rs, cracks having been visible in two of the
piers. Whether these cracks had been becoming
larger, or whether others had been making their
appearance elsewhere, we are unable to say; but, at
any rate, some fears seem lately to have been enter-
tained regarding the stability of the fabric, for a
special examination of the viaduct in question was
made on Monday last—three days before it fell—
by Capt. White, R.E., deputy consulting engineer to
Government in the railway department, and the
engineers of the Great Indian Peninsula, Railway.
It did not seem to them that there was any special
cause for increased alarm, as the piers did not ap-
pear to be more extensively or fatally cracked than
they had been for years. This is the most un-
satisfactory feature of the whole, tending,

mean hero, like the sth Chasseurs ; the 85th come
back from Rome, from the Castle of St. Angelo and
St. Peter's, with the colonnade. The Emperor gave
prizes for the best, and that was, of course, the
trophy of the Chasseurs. The cavalry, first in vege-
tables, are decidedly last in trophies and gardens.
It is said they have too much to do. The horses
certainly look as if they had done too much. There
is no heavy cavalry here this year ; two regiments
of Lancers and two of Hussars form the cavalry
division, and their horses look like overtrained
racers.

As for the two Mourmelons, " le grand et le pet

I observe but little change from what they were six
years ago. The church iu "Mourmelou le grand" has
been rebuilt in what I should call " imperial
Gothic," with a steeple in wood covered with tin, a
sort of style which you can see in almost all the
churches rebuilt in France during the present reign,
and which will at some future time serve as a land-
mark, just as the half-barrack and half-palace like
structures in the large towns, built in what is called
the Neo-Casernic style. Nor is it very surprising
that not much alteration should be made. There
is no increased demand ; every year, more or less,
the same number of troops arrives, and for these the
accommodation, such as it is, suffices. As in all
camps, hotels, restaurants, cafes, " brasseries,'
" buvettes," and billiards abound, but you will be
surprised to hear that there are two baths. They
are, of course, for officers and the floating camp popu-
lation. The idea which is prevalent in England
that Frenchmen are not so clean as Englishmen
does not hold good with the French soldiers and
the French lower classes in general. They are, as
a rule, cleaner than the English of the same class.
You cannot pass a row of tents or huts without wit-
nessing the ablutions of some of the inmates, and
whoever saw the two armies, French and English,
campaign together can have no doubt of the fact.
The old theatre in the pleasant grove close by the
Place is still extant, and to judge by the remains of
the playbills on the walls seems to have made great
efforts this camp season. Th.,n there are the cafe
concerts, and the balls four times a week, and fur
some time the troops had even a circus among them,
with giraffes, dromedaries, zebras, and monkeys.
But alas ! all this glory, or rather the little that
remains of it, will soon be over, for in a week's time
the camp will be broken up, and the huts left in
charge of the solitary regiment which is told off
every year for this duty. The troops have already
received their route, and those which are trans-
ferred to some other garrison are scanning the
chances of comfort in their new quarters, and col-
lecting information from those whom they relieve.
To-day was probably the last field mass, and a
fine sight it was to see those 40,000 men who form
the camp massed together before the altar raised in
front o the Quartier Imp6riale. I_ don't know

as it does, to create a want of confidence in the whether especial care has been taken to get toge.
judgment of even the most experienced engi- ther seasoned regiments this year to have a thorough
neers. The cause of the fall of the viaduct is trial with the new breechloader, and to make expe-
undoubtedly to be found in its very faulty riments with new evolutions, but certainly the sight
construction. Sound and substantial as the masonry was calculated to rejoice the heart of every
may have seemed outside, any attempt at inspection tary man. I never saw French troops look better
when the work was proceeding must have shown the and more up to their work, especially the in-
merest tyro in building that the inside masonry was fantry and the artillery. They looked the very
disgracefully insufficient. The lime and mortar, too, beau ideal of light, active troops. In less than a
used by the contractors must have been very in- quarter of an hour every division was back on
ferior, probably owing to the terrible scarcity of its road to its own encampment. They looked
water at the time. So scanty was the supply that so rmart in their present dress, the short jackets
there was not even sufficient to supply the wants of and baggy Zouave breeches, that it seemed almost a
the 24,000 or 25,000 men employed on the works, pity to think that all this is to be changed.
and who were decimated by cholera in consequence. And changed it will be. The change will be back
The mortar and the stones being too dry, no care in again to the old dress; the Zouave trousers are to
building could bind the courses of masoary together be given up, and the old trousers coming down t 0
—hence the cracks and downfall of the whole. the instep rehabilitated. The tight short jacket Is
Though this accident was attended with no loss to give way to the old long tunic for garrison work,
of life, the escape of two passenger trains was as while the cloak is to be replaced by the oid overcoat,
astonishing as it is gratifying—one which was which can be worn either alone or else over the
ascending the Ghaut having been stopped just in tunic. Instead of the present bonnet de police, with"
time to prevent its being precipitated into the ravine ; out a peak, the old cap with a peak is again to ho
and another, descending the Ghaut, having been introduced, and the shako is to be in future of
apprised of the danger at the station immediately cloth, and not of patent leather as hitherto. It
beyond it, and thus prevented from getting on the seems that practice has proved that what was very
incline, when escape would have been extremely suitable to Zouaves was not adapted to the gene"
difficult, if not, under the circumstances, absolutely rality of the French soldiers.
impossible. The work of clearing away the ruins

STATE OF TRADE.

BRADFORD, Aug. 29.—T0-day's market has been
quiet in all its branches. Although many staplers
report that they could more readily move stocks at
old rates, there are others who state quite the re-
verse. The demand for wool is far from general,
and spinners cannot be induced to purchase beyond
their actual wants. Choice wools, especially of the
fine-haired class, alone are in request, while inferior
sorts continue quite as much neglected as hitherto.
Prices may be reported as steady, without Of
change. The account of to-day's worsted yarn"
market are rather conflicting ; while some spinners
report that they have done rather better, others
report an entire absence of business. On the whole,
few fresh orders have been received. The conti-
nental d-wand is still most restricted. Very levi
offers are made, but cannot be accepted. The hong
trade is also much quieter. Prices are without 501
change. There is little new to report in the pia°
trade. The American merchants have been buying
a little more from stock. Whenever they Play
orders, which is seldom, speedy delivery is require
u.:
Although there is a slight improvement for this
quarter, it is only as yet very partial, and confine':
to certain sorts of goods. A few manufacturers are
still busy for the home trade. A little more busi-
ness has been done for Germany, but the aggreggt
transactions are small.