The Sun.
London, England, 1829-11-28 00:00:00

PRICE OF SUGAR.

The average price of Brown or Muscovado Sugar, com-
puted from the Returns made in the week ending Nov. 24,
is 25m. 1(1. per cwt., exclusive of the duties of customs
paid or payable thereon on the importation thereof into
Great 13ritain.

STEAM COACHES AND LOCOMOTIVE

ENGINES.

Somnianus indocti doctique.

A few years ago, when we hazarded an opi•
non that by steam conveyances we might travel
at twenty miles per hour, we were taunted as
die miners and enthusiasts ; but the late experi •
merits at Liverpool have fired the imagination of
so many persons, that we rather oddly find our-
selves in the rear of speculation, and compelled
in our turn to play the part of the " practical
men," by sobering clown the wild exaggerations
of others. There are persons who talk now of
a velocity of 50 or 60 miles an hour, as a thing
to be immediately realized, and a statement has
been making the circuit of the press, with the
name of a mathematician attached to it, in
which the annual saving, from the substitution
of steam for horses, is estimated at 100,000,0001.
per annum ! On these two points we have a
few remarks to offer.

To ascertain the saving which steam carriage
may produce, we must fist solve the question,
" how much money i 3 expended annually in the
conveyance of goods and passengers in Britain."
Now, we have data from which this may be es-
timated by approximation. Mr. Macadam stated
in 1823, that the number of miles of turnpike
road in Britain was '24,500, and the annual
produce of the tolls 1,280,0001. This relates to
1821, and if we assume that the amount in-
creases at the rate of 2 per cent. annually, the
present sum will be about 1,450,0001., and ad-
ding 100,000/, for toll-keepers' profits, we have
the entire produce 1,550,0001., about one-tenth
of which may be deducted for carriages and
horses, kept for pleasure, leaving a net amount
of 1,350,0001. Now, we are informed by a
practical man, that tolls amount to nearly one
penny a ton per mile, and constitute about one-
tenth part of the whole expense of carriage. In
round numbers, therefore, we may assume on
pretty good grounds that about 14,000,0001. is
the whole sum paid for carriage of goods and
passengers by land. The dues on canals may
amount to 1,500,0001. more, making in all
15,590,000/. ; but we have no objection to en-
large our estimate to 16,000,0001. or 18,000,0004
It is needless to talk of the corn eaten by horses,
or the iron consumed in their shoes, and on the
wheels of carts and coaches, for all this must be
included in the gross amount drawn. How then
we ask, is it possible to save a hundred millions
on carriage, when the whole internal carriage of
the country costs only of sixteen or eighteen mil-
lions! It is a pity that speculators before they
spi❑ their theories, do not think of enquiring a
little into facts. Our own opinion is, that two-
thirds of the gross amount, that is ten or twelve
millions, is the largest saving which could pos.•
sibly be effected. But the grand benefit to be
derived from the introduction of steam carriage
will consist, not in the saving of money now
paid ; but in the vast increase which is certain
to take place in the amount of internal commu-
nication, arising from its speed and its cheapness
combined.

From the data already given, it follows that
the whole amount of internal carriage
in Bri-
tain, is equal to about 400,000,000 tons carried
one mile. This comprises passengers as well as
goods, but is exclusive of what is carried by
ships in the coasting trade.
We...demur to the idea of travelling at 50 or
60 miles an hour, on grounds which will pro-
bably satisfy those who value the integrity of
their bones. We shall put the case in a shape
which will enable any reader to understand it.—
Every one knows that no precautions can en-
tirely prevent accidents. A wheel may give
way ; a piece of the rail may be broken ; or an
obstacle may be lying on the path which might
cause the machine to make an instantaneous halt.
Now, when this happens to a carriage moving at
sixty miles an hour, what will be the result ?
Sixty-six miles all hour are equal to 96 feet per
second : and this is the velocity a heavy body
acquires when it has fallen through a space of
100 feet in 2-4 seconds. It follows that the
vehicle travelling at this rate (with the persons
in it or on it) would be thrown against the ob-
ject which stopped it, with precisely the same
violence of concussion as if it had been dropped
to the ground from the top of a wall 100 feet
high ; the engine would evidently have its parts
separated ; the wooden carriage would be
dashed to pieces ; and every one of the pas-
sengers killed. Even a velocity of 44 miles an
hour is equal to what a body acquires when
it has fallen from a height of 64 feet.
Reader, how would you like to be put into
a box, like a coach or a sedan chair, and drop-
ped from a window in the fifth or sixth flat of
a house ! We admit that something might be
done to lessen the danger attending such acci-
dents, and that in point of fact so heavy a body
could seldom be entirely stopped at once by any
obstacle likely to occur ; but even supposing
that means were found to abate one-half of the
violence of the shock, enough remains to terrify
considerate men from risking their persons in
such a species of conveyance. A speed of 22
miles an hour is equal to 32 feet per second, or
the velocity acquired by a descent of 16 feet.
With proper caution this or something a little
greater may be attempted, but till we have bones
of brass or iron, or better methods of protecting
them than we have now, it is preposterous to
talk of 50 or 60 miles an hour as a practicable
thing. The danger, it is to be observed, rises
ill a much higher ratio than the velocity ; for in
rapid movements, besides the increased violence
of the concussion, there is less time for adopting
precautions to guard against its effects.
We understand that the railway experiments
have produced a great sensation in Paris. "On
en parle avec grande emphase ;" but doubts,
which we must pronounce to be foolish and
groundless, are entertained as to the accuracy of
the result. Coulomb would have seen nothing
incredible in them, and why should men of
science, who have studied his works ? We hope
a petty jealousy of England has nothing to do
with tins incredulity:—Scotsman.

The young poet, whose tragedy, on a Jewish
subject, has been accepted at Covent-garden, and is the
intended medium of first introducing Miss KEMULE to the
public in an untried character, has, en attendant the delay
of bringing it forward (caused by the unlocked for and
unprecedented attraction of Juliet), bethought himself of
inditing a broad farce, which has also been accepted at
the same house, by acclamation, and will be performed in
a very few days. We hear that " Green-room report
speaks highly of it." This looks a little suspicious; for
namNAND MENDEZ PINTO himself was a veracious per-
son compared with that same " Green-room report."—
But as, contrary to the receivtd opinion, we hold that the
power of writing a good tragedy is prima facie evidence
of the power of writing a good anything—but particularly
a good farce—our hopes, in connexion with this young
writer, are doubled by this news ; for the truth is, that
even in our own peculiar domain of the drama—that of
broad farce, a thing unknown out of England--we are
utterly without a first-rate writer, as we are without a
fifth-rate in any other department of the drama. We hear
that Mr. WA nes farce is on the fertile subject of Phreno-
logy—a ready-made farce in itself, .Court Journal.