The Sun.
London, England, 1857-11-24 00:00:00

INDIAN IMPLOVAMENTS.

(Front the Civil Service Gazette )
Parliament, when it-meets, will have no lack of
employment. Some of the most difficult and dan-
gerous questions that could possibly be submitted to
a legislature for decision will have to be solveti by it
off-hand, under pressure of extraordinary emergen-
cies, and within a period of time-inconveniently cir-
cumscribed. We need not here recapitulate those
niornentOus questions ; they will present themselves
to the mind's eye of every reader without the aid of
a piorppter. The military revolt in the Ea-,t, its
origin, and the mode of dealing with it ; the mone-
tary con.v9l4ion at home, its cause and remedy ; how
an empire- has been all but lost, and how it can be
recovered andltecured ; how the nation has been on
the verge of bankruptcy, and how it can he re-
established in credit and preserved for the future
from such extreme peril. These are the main subjects
*which-viil claim immediate attention, and which
ought to be decid- d only after calm deliberatioteand
dispassionate discussion. But there are lesser,' and
yet most important, subjects which will also have to
be taken -into consideration without a moment's
unnecessary delay. One of these is the establish-
ment of direct communication with India by steam
and telegraph, and the extension of tlie system
throughout our Eastern-dominions. We havp no
hesitation in saying that of all the questions to be
debated after the repair of our financial fabric at
home, and the restoration of our authority tar the
revolted provinces of India, this is the one that
demands the promptest determination of Parlia-
ment. Had the electric telegraph between England
and Hiudostan been-perfected, and had the direct
lines of railway and steam-boat communication be-
tween us and our Oriental dominions—lines which
have been projected and proved to be not merely
practicable but peculiarly easy of execution—been
constructed and in working order, what treasures
would have been saved, what precious lives would
have been spared, what agonies of suspense would
have been prevented, what discredit to our mili-
tary organisation and prestige would have been
avoided I Every well-wisher of the Crown in India,
every person in England who thinks for a moment
on the subject, deplores the want of rapid direct
railway and steamvessel transit, and of unbroken
telegraphic communication between the seat of Im-
perial government and the region of rebellion as a
dire misfortune, the extent of which it is impossible
to estimate. Let the British public imagine how-
different would have been the course of events dur-
ing five mournful and humiliating, and, notwith-
standing all ourvictories,disastrous months, had we
an electric messenger to flash intelligence backward
and forward from day to day, and had the Euphra-
tes Valley and the Scinde and Punjaub railways,
with their connecting links and ramifications, been
in full operation. Time was our greatest enemy ;
to overcome time, not the sepoys, was our chief
difficulty. But we had neglected the.aits and left
unwrought the implements by which time is con-
quered and made subservient t, empire, and hence
our grievous losses, our sore afflictions, our waste
of wealth, of character, and of human life. The
chances are that had the telegraph been unbroken,
and the means of rapidly transmitting troops by a
direct route been in existence, the military revolt
which has rendered India desolate and shocking to
humanity would never have been attempted. Bu t
however that be, it must now be impresed an 'all
thinking men that one of the first works necessary
for the future security and maintenance of our
power in India is the construction of a network of
railways and telegraphs throughout that country,
and the establishment of a direct transit by rail
and steamboat, and of telegraph wires betweeln the
Ganges, the Indus, and the Thames. When we
consider that troops take 24 days, even with forced
marches, to get over the distance that they could
accomplish by rail in 12 or 18 hours, we can easily
comprehend, what has been over and over again
asserted by those competent to give an opinion on
the point, that 10,000 soldiers having the com-
mand of railway transit are fully equal in India
to three times that number with the existing means
of conveyance. Economists should weigh well
that fact, and during the forthcoming discussions
bear in mind that bloodless prevention is better
than sanguinary cure, and that the cost of con-
structing lines of rail and telegraph is small in com-
parison to the annual charge of maintaining
standing armies three times as numerous as need
be. That a well-appointed British- army fresh
from England might have been at Lahore a month
after the breaking out of the mutiny, had the
telegraph been instantaneous, and had the route by
the Euphrates Valley and Scinde been available
for the transit of troops, cannot be doubted. The
rebellion would have been crushed in its infancy
before it had time to grow into formidable propor-
tions, if, indeed, it ever would have dared to show
its head at all, and it would have been crushed at
a fifth part of the expense whichits suppression will
now entail. But the mischief done is past recal ; the
neglect committed is beyond revocation. We have
paid dearly for our disregard of the most obvious
means of multiplying our strength—of imparting
to our power a three-fold force—of wielding our
arms with a five-fold velocity. It is, however,
never too late to mend, and history tells us that it
is the invariable practice' of the Anglo-Saxon race
out of the nettle " Danger," to pluck the flower
" Safety." We therefore hope and anticipate that
the British Parliament will immediately and ear-
nestly take into consideration the necessity of for-
waroing by all legitimate means the construction of
those lines of rail and telegraph which are wanted
to connect Central Asia with Europe. The reduc-
tion of the route by a thousand miles of actual road
to be traversed, and the establishment of means of
transporting troops, munitions of war, and baggage
without limit, and in a fourth or fifth of the time
now required, and the perfection of instruments
capable of transmitting intelligence and orders al-
most instantaneously, are surely objects of gr at
national importance which the national represen-
tatives cannot overlook for a single day without
failing in their duty to their constituents, and with-
out culpable neglect of the dearest interests of
their country.

HIGTI WATER AT LONDON' TIRIOqE.

THIS DAY 23 min. aft. 6 -Even., 53 min. aft. 6
To.Moßnow--Morn., 23 min. aft. 7 —Ev,JD., 53 gm.n aft. 7