The Sun.
London, England, 1845-02-19 00:00:00

FLANDERS MAIL.

Bnussins, FEB. 14.—The city of Brussels has made ami-
cable arrangements with almost all the persons who had
claims for indemnity on account of the losses they suffered
from the riots in their city. One cause will have to be settled
in the courts of justice ; it is that of the claim of the Count
de Bathune, who has not accepted the offer made to him.
We learn, with great satisfaction, that the Government
seems at length seriously to turn its attention to the ques-
tion of the cultivating of our waste lands, and we are
assured that a Commission, composed of men well acquainted
with such matters, will be ultimately appointed to inquire
into, and to propose the best means to obtain the most satis-
factory results.
M. Delaveleye, who was engaged as civil engineer on the
railway proposed by Mr. Taylor, has addressed a letter to
to the Chamber of Representatives, announcing that, in con-
sequence of the range facts which have just come to light,
he desires to w* draw his name anl_ participation from this
undertaking.
The Chamber of Representatives, in its sitting to-day (the
15th), adopted several articles of the 18th chapter of the Bud-
jet of the Department of the Interior.
It seems that immense quantities of snow have fallen in the
province of Luxemburg, and the frost is very severe. It is
feared, from the appearance of the atmosphere, that there
will be a further fall of snow. If there should be a sudden
thaw, with rain, we may expect extraordinary inundations,
which will do incalculable damage.—Brussels Papers, Feb. 16.

CORNWALL and DEVON CENTRAL
RAILWAY AND THE BOARD OF TRADE.

In a paragraph in one of the papers of Saturday it is
stated that this Company intends to resist the decision of
the Board of Trade, and to apply to Parliament this
session for the portion of their line between Falmouth
and Bodmin. From the almost unanimous feeling of the
county of Cornwall in favour of the central line, as evi-
denced by the resolutions of the public meetings which
have been published in this paper, and the support which
it receives from Exeter and North and Central Devon,
the scheme will no doubt receive the serious considera-
tion of Parliament. What motives can have influenced
the Board of Trade in reporting against the central line
and in favour of the coast line, we are at a loss to deter-
mine. The coast line increases the distance from Fal-
mouth to Exeter twenty miles; and, as we perceive by a
comparative statement in the Falmouth Packet of Satur-
day last, the curves and gradients upon that line are
vastly inferior to those on the central. The central line
is also intended to be a double locomotive line, whilst
the coast line is proposed to be a single line.
The coast line having a railway gradient of 1 in 60,
and some miles of 1 in 50, and as high as 1 in 42, is totally
unworkable by any other than atmospheric traction.
This is well-known to all engineers, and candidly admitted
by even the promoters of the scheme themselves. We
were, therefore, led to regard the decision of the Board
to report in favour of this scheme as a direct recognition
of the applicability of that principle to railroad propul-
sion, and of the estimation in which the theory of at-
mospheric traction is held, if not by the Government, at
least by the Railway Department of the Board of Trade.
This fact must be borne in mind, that the proposed
Cornwall Railway from Plymouth to Falmouth can only
be worked by atmospheric means, or by some system in
which fixed engines are employed. We apprehended, of
course, that the decisions of the Board of Trade would be
influenced by some uniform principle, and that when the re-
ports should be laid before the House of Commons on
any given lines, the general features of that principle
would be clearly traceable in all subsequent reports.
With the knowledge that the Board had determined to
report in favour of the Plymouth and Falmouth Rail-
way, it created some astonishment in our minds to read
in the document presented to the House by the Railway
Board, "On the Kentish and South-Eastern Railway
schemes," being the first report yet presented to Par-
liament from the Railway Department, the following
statement relative to a line projected by the Croydon
Company :
" The question is further narrowed by the exclusion of
the line proposed by the Croydon Company, London,
Chatham, and Chilham, No. 142, which, from the nature
of its gradients, is incapable of sustaining a serious com-
petition with either of the other schemes, even if equal
to them in other respects ; while, from its direction, it is
manifestly no less inferior in point of local accommoda-
tion and national advantage.
" The gradients are more severe than have ever been
proposed for a locomotive line • 28 planes, extending
over more than 15 miles of the drst 30, being at an in-
clination of one in 50. _ _

"It may be proper to state, that the Croydon Com-
pany obtained, in the last session of Parliament, an
Act, under which they are proceeding to convert
their existing locomotive line of railway from London
to Croydon into an atmospheric line, in connexion with
another Company, also sanctioned in the last session, and
which continues the line on that principle, from Croydon
to Epsom. In their subsequent projects, which are now
under consideration, the Croydon Company equally
adopt the atmospheric system of propulsion. If that
system had already been applied successfully upon any
long line of railway, the severity of the gradients in
these projected lines would not have been considered so
objectionable. It is clearly,_ however, impossible for us
to assume the success of a system, as to which much dif-
ference of opinion exists among railway engineers, and
which has not hitherto afforded such proof of its merits
as could warrant us in giving the preference to pro-
jected undertakings, the success of which must depend
upon results, as yet uncertain, while other projects are
offered, to which no such uncertainty applies."
We shall be curious, after this, to see the report on the
competing Cornish lines. On reading the above we
could almost imagine that much of this language was
intended to be applied in condemnation of the coast line
in Cornwall, " which, from the nature of its gradients,
is incapable of sustaining a serious competition."
" The gradients are more severe than have ever been
proposed for a locomotive line."
"It is clearly, however, impossible for us to assume
the success of a system as :to which much difference
exists among railway engineers, and which has not
hitherto afforded such proof of its merits as could war-
rant us in giving the preference to projected under-
takings, the success of which must depend upon results,as
i,et uncertain, while other projects are offered, to which
vo' .sucA tinC67 tainty aßplies." We repeat, we shall be
curious to see the report of the Board of Trade on the,
' Cornish lines.