The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-05 00:00:00

--
From Regent-circus to Union-court, Holborn, I ilia
railway is intended to pass through a tunnel ep to
Field-lane, then to be carried over Field-lane end
Victoria-street by d viaduct at fifteen feet clear in
height; it is to pass and go over Fox and K not-
court, beneath John's-court, which is to be raised
twelve feet, and thence in a tunnel to the market‘
The area scheduled in the city is about four acres, and
the numberof publ s places interfered with is yen.
The Charing-cross Railway (City terminus) is a
project for making a junction with the Charing.:
cross Railway, near to Redeross—arect, Southwark
thence
i crossing the river Thames near to the steel-
yard n Upper Thames-street, and terminating at
Cannon-street, close by Turn wheel lane. It will be
on a viaduct. The area scheduled is 44- acres; the,
public ways to be interfered with are nine.
The Thames Embankment is designed to fulfil
threeimportant objects—firstly, to serve as a line
of public highway between the points named ;
secondly, to enable a railway to be constructed
upon its line up to New Bridge-street ; thirdly, to
serve as a line for constructing the low Level in-
tercepting sewer, now projected to becarried along
the Strand and Fleet-street. The embankment,
with its road and railway, is intended to commence
at the eastern side of Westminster-bridge, and be
carried until within a short distance of Blacktriat s-
bridge, entirely in the bed of the river. The road-
way is prolaosed to be close to the river, the rail way
nearest to the existing wharfs. At Blacktriars-
bridge the roadway is to terminate by junction
with Chatham-place, while the railway is to proceed
over Chatham-place and join the London, Dover,
and Chatham Extension. The area scheduled
within the city is 2,1 acres, and about 13 acres of
river shore fronting the city line of wharfage. The
public ways to be interfered with are 14.
In conclusion, the report states that. the mag-
nitude and variety of the projects in the present
year nearly approach those of the year
1846. The area scheduled is 72 acres, of
which 20 acres are public way ; and the area of the
property threatened with demolition is about 52-4-
acyes. The number of public ways to be appro-
priated, stopped up, altered or interfered with, is
about 160. With the exception of the North Lon-
don Railway Branch and the Charing-cross Rail-
way City Terminus Branch, the whole of the pro-
jected lines are to be in tunnels. The magnitude
of the schemes (several millions' outlay is contem-
plated), and the limited time which has elapsed
since the plans were deposited, preclude the possi-
bility of an investigation of them. The whole are
worthy of the closest consideration, and the import_
ante of some it is almost impossible to overrate.-a The
salient and most important feature(orre indeed ,which,
if realized, may be expected materially to influence
the future distribution of metropolitan traffic) is
the convergence of the whole of the schemes to the
commercial centre ; the extension of the Metropoli-
tan and Eastern Counties Railway to Finsbury-
cireus, and the placing of the city terminus of the
Charing-cross Railway in Cannon-street, and that
of the North London Railway in Broad street, will
enable a large portion of the metropolitan popula-
tion as well as those from the country to enter and
leave the city, or pass threugh it to either of its
suburbs, with a certainty as to time and comfort to
which they have long been unaccustomed; and
perform journeys speedily which the present state
of the main thoroughfares is daily making more
difficult and vexatious. Mr. Haywood also
states that on the advantage of a Thames em-
bankment having a railway throughout the
length, and a roadway for traffic of all classes
80 feet in width, it is needless to dilate. For full
30 years this project has been before the public, and
although most men of engineering eminence have
agreed in the expediency of its execution, yet
hitherto the want of funds, together with local
trade opposition, have been sufficient to prevent
its realisation, and, if it should be shortly carried
out, it will owe that completion as much to the fact
of its affording means of obviating the public incon-
venience which the construction of the Northern Low
Level Intercepting Sewer will otherwise cause the
public, as to any other advantage inherent in the
embankment scheme itself. The construction of
some of the railways will necessitate the occupation
of large streets for some months and excava-
tion throughout their entire length; many other
streets, now having a fair amount of traffic, will
apparently disappear altogether from the city map,
giving place to the structures erected for railway
purposes, or to new buildings for the general pur-
poses of commerce which will replace them ; and
it is scarcely too much to say, that the existing
plan of sewerage of a considerabll portion of the
city must be destroyed and miNs of sewers be
reconstructecia As in previous instances also, all
the companies appear to contemplate the absorption
of large areas of public way for their own advantage.
It seemed at present needful that the Commission
should dissent from the whole, so as to obtain the
locus standi for negotiation, or. opposition, should
that ultimately be found requisite.

THE FINAIV CI AL 8 ITU.eITION OF

ER.411 CE.

(From the Money Market Review.)
We have confined ourselves to the consideration
of the financial pressure put upon us by America.
But we are also pressed upon another side—namely,
from France. In many quarters the fear of what
France may do, in order to make our capital avail-
able for her extrication from her pressing difficul-
ties, is greater than the fear of what America can
do. France is nearer at hand. The bulk of the
exchange business, not merely between the Conti-
nent and England, but between the Continent,
England, and America—in short, the bulk of the
exchange business of the world—is conducted
through London and Paris. There are many ways
of attracting capital temporarily to a loca-
lity where it is urgently wanted, as long as
these great financial ramifications exist. Houses
on the Continent can either sell securities here,
and draw money from us ; or buy up the
bills ou this country existing on the Continent ; or,
thirdly, they can create such paper to a large
amount, send it over here for discount, and get gold
from us. The Bank of France has before now put
this power into operation, to our great inconve-
nience. It may, if pressed, do so again. It has
lost fully £8,000,000 sterling of gold within five
months. This fact attests sufficiently the serions
character of the drain upon it. It is urged in some
quarters that the present is a time for hope ; that
the rise in the rate of discount of the Bank of France
to 7 per cent.—a point equal to our own—denotes
a return to correct principles ; and that a check will
soon be given to the foreign drain. But those who
entertain this view seem to lose sight of the fact
that the financial errors committed by France—her
extravagance and undue greediness for foreign
investments—date from years back, whilst her
adoption of a sounder policy is of very recent occur-
rence. She has been engaged for years in sowing the
seeds of difficulty, and has delayed reformation until
a time when, owing to the occurrence of a very de-
ficient harvest, it was impossible to continue in the
old path any longer. The combination of adverse
circumstances being now serious it will probably
be found that even the rise in the value of money
in France to 7 per cent. will not speedily arrest the
draught upon her specie reserves.
There is another circumstance which, as we have
before pointed out, promotes the efflux of gold from
the French Bank, and practically counteracts the
remedial steps which it has adopted. We allude
to the error—the complete violation of banking
principles—which is involved in the Bank's per-
mitting the note circulation to expand at the very
time when the specie upon which the notes
nota''
based, is being drained away. The B.ek does
curtail its note issues by restricting itsdislcto tess,
udne
through a weak fear of troubling trade.
not
not call in notes by throwing ovuatnra
securi-
ties, upon which it has made advances, because it
ompanies, whose
cnally, it does not
fears to embarrass the raiolwayFi
foci:fling in the loans which,
works must be kept
adopt the expedient o
securities,
p ce ofthebeßeause to
idt haso
so
wouldmad eot nh r
ogwo.
deoryn the
entes---
the Government are mor-
v,.ne.oll'We hear shrewd observers ex-
a matter upon
the fact that, whilst the rate of
midly
tract comfort
discount at the Bank of France is 7 per cent., the
I
best bills are negotiable in Paris, in the open
market,
as low as 5 per cent. But this merely
illustrates the way in which, by the expansion. of
its note circulation, the Bank permits the lat;) re-
strictive action to be rendered of no avail.
The Bank of France is now casting about in every
part of Europe for the means of relief. Cb aracterii-
tically, it is seeking rather for a palliative than
for a real remedy. It does not take the best mea-
sures for correcting the foreign drain, but is en-
deavouring to convert its silver into gold, in order
that it may be able to go on paying it away. It is
silver—inknown to
Bbeelgniou, Germanywmbuyinggold—probably with
and other places.
According to a rumour circulated yesterday, it is
negotiating with the Bank of Russia, with a view
to procure a million sterling of gold against a like
amount of silver. If these endeavours be successful,
the French Bank may still maintain its ground,
and give us breathing time to recover from the
strain to which we are now subject to America.
But, in the contrary event there will be no alterna-
tive but that of a suspension of specie payments by
the Bank of France, Lamentable t hough the
effects of such a step would be upon th e best inte-
rests of the country, we have too good an opinion
of the ingenuity of the Government and its scribes
not to believe that it would be shown— .en paper—
to be one of the best possible steps for the advance-:
ment of the empire, and for the carrying out o
I
f
those " missionary" ideas which have ong pve
a stumbling-block in its path, and a serious obstacle
to tranquillity in every neighbouring titat