The Sun.
London, England, 1845-04-23 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONIYON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, APRIL 23, 1845.

IGENCE.

tion by means of projects now before the Legislature,
and which will bring them into connexion: Cambridge
with Louden, Norwich, the north of England, and
Scotland ; and Bury St. Edmund's with London,
Norwich, and Ipswich.
There are, no doubt, at certain times, a considerable
number of persons repairing to Newmarket; but the
Opening of lines that would convey them to Cambridge
would sufficiently answer their purpose. Newmarket
has little or no trade, or other means of supporting a
railway, even of the cheapest construction.
Under these circumstances, we can see no public
reasons to lead us to recommend this extension line to
the favourable consideration of Parliament.
DARTFORD AND RUMFORD RAILWAY AND

' pleting of the coast of railway, there being otherwise a
gap in that coast line between Deal and Dover, which no
other company has proposed to fill up.
It will be seen, from the foregoing description, that
the Kentish coast line must, if executed, prove directly
competing with a portion of the lines of the South-
Eastern Railway Company already sanctioned by Par.
liament, and with other projects of the same Company,
as set forth in the report of this Board " on the Kentish
and South-Eastern Railway scheme," already presented
to Parliament.
The works would necessarily be expensive. Included
in them are two tunnels, one of 720, the other of 1,760
yards. The last two and a half miles into Dover, in
which the longer tunnel occurs, would be very heavy in
construction, the approaches to the tunnel being in cut-
tings of 88 and 90 feet.
Professing to complete this coast line of railway, this
project is defective in this very particular. Its terminus
at Dover would be on the west side of Dover Castle, at
a spot about 80 feet higher than the terminus of the
South-Eastern Railway, and having the town and the
backwater basin of the harbour of Dover between them,
thus still leaving a gap in the coast communication which
could not be supplied except at an enormous outlay.
The plan and sections lodged in this department under
the standing orders of the House of Commons were im-
pe feet in almost every eesential particular.
More correct and better executed descriptions have
very recently (March 26) been lodged in this depart-
ment, and complaint having been made of the insertion
in the London Genetic of a notice of our intention to
report unfavourably to Parliament upon the merits of the
project, it may be proper for us to give a short explana-
tion of the circumstance.

It has been the practice of this Board since its first
formation, having given notice in the Gazate of the
intention to consider certain railway projects, then to
receive from the projectors any statements which they
might think it advisable to offer in support of their
schemes, and to receive, upon application being made to
them to that effect, deputations of the promoters, when
they might desire to give personal explanations affecting
the merits of their undertakings. It never formed any
part of the plans of this Board to seek such interviews;
but in no case have they ever been refused to parties
showing reasonable cause for asking the same. In the
case of the Kentish Coast Railway, the promoters ap-
plied on the 6th of January last, requesting that an inter-
view might be granted to the members of the Provisional
Committee, and in compliance with that request the 22d
of that month was mentioned as the day when it would
be convenient to receive those gentlemen. On the 21st,
however, the solicitor called at the office of the Board
of Trade, and stated that it would not be convenient for
them to attend on the day appointed. No other day
was at that time or subsequently fixed for the purpose,
and the promoters having been informed that on their
making application an interview would be granted, and
no application for such interview having been made, nor
any statement presented, this Board having withheld any
report on the Kentish Coast line until the last moment
open to them, proceeded on the 25th of March to con-
sider the same with reference to the plans, &c.,
furnished to them in compliance with the
standing orders of the House of Commons, and
published their opinion In the London Gazette.
It has since appeared that the promoters of the

line received an erroneous impression that they
would be invited to attend with their statement before
the Board prior to the decision of the case. We beg
distinctly to state that the impression under which the
promoters of this project rested, that they would receive
an invitation to attend at this Board, arose from a mis-
conception on their own part ; but although such was
the fact, this Board, considering that their report had
not yet been submitted to Parliament, and that the
case was entirely an exceptional one, has thought itself
justified in receiving the statement which the misappre-
hension of the parties had delayed, and in considering
it previously to the final submission of their report. The
result, however, has been fully to confirm the opinion at
which they had originally arrived, that the scheme, as
a whole, presents no advantages which can entitle it to
be preferred to projects already in part sanctioned by
Parliament in a former session, and the remainder of
which have subsequently been favourably reported on
by this Beard.

I:AUNCESTON AND SOUTH DEVON RAILWAY
This line, as proposed, is twelve miles andseventy-
two chains ie length; it is intended to form a junction
with the proposed Tavistock branch of the South Devon
Railway, and to take a north westerly course to the
town of Launceston.

The favour with which the scheme has been received
on the spot, where the whole capital required has been
raised, sufficiently attests the desirableness of tLe under-
taking; and if the nature of tho country were such as to
warrant the belief that it Gould be constructed so as to
be worked by any means hitherto successfully adopted,
it might have been our duty to report that we see no
public reasons why the sanction to it of the Legislature
should be withheld; but so seriously objectionable are
the curves and gradients, as laid down in the plans sub-
mitted to us, that we are unable, with the present amount
of experience on the subject, to regard the project as
unobjectionable.
Of the 35 curves which occur on this short line, there
are:—

1 of 12 chains radius
4 of 15 •••
1 Of 18 •••
15 of 20 0111
1 of 24 •••
The gradients are very severe, being in various places
at a rise of 1 in 26k, 1 in 27i, 1 in 34, 1 in 43k; nearly
5i miles are steeper than 1 in 50, and, although their
severity is for the most part mitigated by their being in
planes of short length, there is one of nearly 2i miles at
lin 34. There occur two tunnels with an aggregate
length of 940 yards, and two viaducts of, together, 176
yards ; there are cuttings of from 34 to 62 feet in
extreme depth, and embankments of from 42 to 62 feet
in extreme height ; numerous bridges will be required
for crossing roads, &c. ; and thus, notwithstanding the
severity of the gradients, the works altogether will be
expensive.
It is proposed to work this line on the atmospheric
system of propulsion, which forms the justification of
the projectors for the adoption of such gradients and
curves as are here described. It cannot be necessary to
repeat here what wo have already stated upon the sub-
ject of projects thus formed in anticipation of the suc-
cess of the atmospheric system ; but we may remark,
that the difficulties to be encountered upon this railway
are much more serious than occur upon the line between
Kingstown and Dalkey, where the steepest gradient is
1 in 57, occurring at the aid of the line, while the re-
maining inclinations arc not below 1 in 100.
We have had reasons offered to us why a line better
than that now proposed may be found for the construc-
tion of a railway to connect Lancaster and Tavistock;
end it appears to us that, under the circumstances of the
case, the delay of a session will not prove a practical dis-
advantage, since the full benefit of this work would not
be experienced until the South Devon Railway should be
open for traffic.
On the grounds, therefore, of the unfavourable nature
of the undertaking ; considering that it must be altoge-
ther objectionable, except as an atmospheric line, and by
no means free from probable difficulty if even that system
shall be made available ; and with the hope that some
other line may be traced which will be less open to the
objections here mentioned, we would express an opinion
that there are public grounds why the sanction of Par-
liament should, for the present, be withheld from this
project.

1 of 25 chains radius
7 of 30 ~.
3 of 45 ...
land 2 of 60 ...

(To be continued.)

RAILWAY BILLS.
RESOLUTIONS OF THE COMMITTEE,

That Committees on Railway Bills have leave to sit in the
present session, notwithstanding any adjournment of the
House, if the Committees shall so think fit.
That such of the standing orders as relate to the compoFi-
tion of the Committees on Private Bills, and the orders con-
sequent thereon, be suspended so far as regards Railway Bills
pending in the course of the present session.

DRURY-LANE THEATRE.—Her Majesty and Prince
Albert, her Majesty the. Queen Dowager, the Duchess of
Kent, the great officers of State, and most of the leading
families of the nobility, attend the State visit at this
theatre to-morrow evening.
DEAFNESS AC OUSTIC INSTRUMENTS.-39, Albe-
marle-street, Piccadilly.—lnvisible Voice Conductors,
when fixed in the cavity of the ears, are not more uncom-
fortable nor perceptible than having a small piece of
wool in its place. They enable individuals at an ad-
vanced age, and of forty or fifty years' standing of ex-
treme deafness, instantly to join in general conversation,
and to catch the sound of a distant, low speaker, at
church, theatre, &c. They pour the conversation into
the ears to such an extent, that in most severe cases
deafness cannot be observed. Also original Ear Cor-
nets, French, German, and Spanish Artificial Ears, and
improved Hearing Trumpets of every description. Many
of those instruments have received the approbation of
the Royal Society and Royal Institution of Great Bri-
tain. The Newly Invented Spectacles, immediately
they are placed before extremely imperfect vision, it
is brought to its youthful, natural, and original state.
Also Achromatic Telescopes, Opera-glasses, Micro-
scopes, &c.--Caution : Messrs. S. and B. Solomons,
)pticians and Aurists, are not in any way connected with
a person of the same name in their immediate neigh-
bourhood, nor in any part of the country. To prevent
nistakes, be cautious, and observe—Only to be had at
N. Albemarle-street, Piccadilly, opposite the York Hotel.
DEATH OF SIR GEORGE HOSTE, C.B.—This dis-
tinguished officer, who filled the important office of Colonel-
Commandant of the Corps of Royal Engineers at Woolwich,
expired at his residence, Mill-hill, Woolwich-common, on
Monday evening, at ten minutes before six o'clock, of the
combined attacks of asthma and gout, under which he has
suffered for • about four months so severely as to render it
necessary for him to remain in bed in an erect position to
prevent suffocation. His age was, we believe, 76 years.
E
Sir G. Hoste entered the corps of Royal ,:criueers in the
year 1802, having been gazetted as Secondlh:uteuanton
the 20th December, and on the following day,t I,,femh er
21st, was promoted to First Lieutenant. I e was n,:ide
Captain on the 18th November, 1807 ; Brevet Major,
17th March, 1814 ; Lieutenant-Colonel, 29th July,
1825; Brevet Colonel, 28th June, 1838 ; Regimental
Colonel, 23d November, 1841. The services of the
deceased officer were of a very important character. He
served at the battle of Maida-hill, and at the siege of Scylla
Castle, in 1806; at the attacks on Alexandria and Rosetta
in Egypt, in 1807 ; at the taking of the islands of Ischia and
Procida, and at the siege of Ischia Castle in 1809. He was
in the action on board the ship Spartan, in the Bay of
Naples, gay 3, 1810. He joined the army in Holland in
November, 1813, and was present at the attack on Antwerp,
and led the Guards at the storming of Bergen-op-Zoom. He
served also in the campaign of 1815, and was attached to the
Prince of Orange, as senior officer of engineers, with the first
attack
and at the battle of Waterloo. He was also at the
and surrender of Peronne, and at the capitulation of Paris;
and was one of the commissioners appointed to give over the
fortress of Thunville and other strong holds from the French
to the Prussians. Were is but-one opinion as to his charac-
ter as an officer and in private life, which! distinguished
e
by charity and humanity. Sir George Hoste has
threeasl.ft bsoenhsin. d
him his widow. Lady Hoste, two daughters,