The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-09-17

IN INDIA. Tine FROM LONDON TO CALCUTTA
wen DAYS, WITHOUT SroPPAoEs."-S Such Is the
.ouncement which, in plain type and straight
ward phrase, lies now before us. To be sure,
information is termed prophecy, but, unlike
81 prophecies, it fixes the exact period of tia own
ilment, and that period is only Ia years distant:
recover the contamination is to be gradual, and
Try five years will not only contribute it's own re-
BED portion of the work. but give pledge Tor
completion Of the rest In sober truth, the
eme exhibits not the first visionary idea OF a
hector, but the revised designs OF an engineer
10 has been for some time engaged in maturing
means OF the undertaking. About two years
b we surprised our readers with the original
Ispectus of the az Direct Calais and Mooltan,"
4 some doubts were, perhaps, entertained as TO
seriousness OF such an extraordinary sugges-
a. Since that time, however, the scheme has
IN actually extended in its scope, discussed IN
details, approved in much Of its purport, and SO
advanced that of the four great divisions of the
ite two have been positively decided on, and are
present course of completion.
70 form proper Judgment on the character OF
is enterprise, the reader should open some gene
map including the continents of Europe and
'rica, and SO much of Asia as would comprise the
5uths of the Gangcs, and then follow our re-
arks, pencil in hand, upon the sheet before him.
ne ancient route from England TO India was round
9 Cape of Good Hope--a passage which was per-
fmed wholly by sea, and which generally occu-
lsdNof late years about one hundred days. In 1910
le first step OF a new system had been taken by
Gibraltar, carrying it along the Mediterranean
ea, across the Isthmus of Suez. down the Red Sea,
I'D 50 over the Indian ocean to Bombay. or round
eylon to Calcutta Z Nor was this all, tor by ira
rising France from Calais to Marseilles the detour
lund Cape st. Vincent--a detour exactly resem-
ing on smaller scale that round the Cape OF
God Hope-was altogether escaped, and the
,ute assumed the appearance of toierably
lraight line from Calais TO Alden. 1t will be
Deserved that this gain had been effected part
u by the division of the voyage into stages,
hereby steam power became available, but
aore notably by the substitution OF overland
uts for long sea circuits. Thus, the cut from Ca
lis to Marseilles saved the circuit round Spain,
nd that across Egypt the vast circuit round the
ape. Now, to put the matter concisely, this sub
Tuition of land carriage for water carriage ID the
ne simple principle of the scheme before US, and
ne problem is nothing more than this: how to
Eliminate from the route between Narcotics and
Calcutta those portions which still performed
" sea, and substitute instead thereof some means
4 transport by land. Curiously enough, this is
ne exact reversal of that invention which changed
le face of history four centuries ago. Al that time
he communication with the East was by land, but
md journeys were then SO painful and adven-
urous that the discovery of sea passage round
he Cape ut once diverted the course OF trafnc
O a route which it still steadily maintains. At
present, by the introduction OF railroads, land ira
cl has become to sea voyages what sea voyages
we're to medi@val caravans, and the consequence
q that Vasco di Gamas invention will be super
eded in its turn, and the traffic OF the east will
,nce more beconducted through Constantnople,
and Cologne.
The sea stages Of the present route to India, e1-
,lusve of the trip the channel, are two; one
rom Marseilles or Trieste to Alexandria, and the
,ther from Suez to Bombay or Calcutta. These
tages constitute by far the longest part othe jour-
icy, being 5,075 miles, performed by steamers,
rom which an average speed of some ten miles an
hour is all that can be expected. The longer,
gain, of these two stages s that from Suez to Hin
iostan, as it includes circuit round two sides OF
he triangular territory OF Arabia. The nrst OBJ
ect, therefore, is to treat the detour by Alden as
he detours by Cape st. Vincent and the Cape OF
Good Hope have been treated already, and this is
o be done by carrying the passengers to the
mouths of the Orones, instead of the mouths OF the
Nile, and forwarding them across the Turkish ter.
-itory to Bussorah, at the head of the Persian gulf
The railroad required for this purpose would run
long the Euphrates valley, and its length would
not exceed nine hundred miles--barely two-thirds
# the extent just executed in the little Common
wealth of Massachusetts, whereas it's completion
would reduce the distance from London to Calcut-
o by more than one half-by twenty days, In tact,
,ut of thirty nine This project, it Is conceived,
Gould be accomplished in five years time, and the
cute would then lie through Ostend, Trieste. by
he Mediterranean sea, to the Orontes, thence to
3ussorah, and by the Persian gulf to Bombay,
where it would meet the Indian railroads now ac-
tually commenced, and by that time completed to
calcutta.
We nave thus got rlu OF the INtu sea ClfCult eiiu
substituted a land route for nine hundred miles OF
he distance. There remain now the straight run
rom Bussorah to Bombay, and the circuitous reach
rom Trieste to the Orontes, to be commuted for
he facilities Of direct railway transit by land. OF
bese the latter ia the first to be taken in hand and
ts difficulties are the less continuous line OF
railway from Ostend to Orsova on the frontiers Of
he Turkish empire, s already decided on. From
Orsova to Constantinople s only three hundred and
orty five miles; from Constantinople to bussorah
bilp
If which nine hundred would be already covered
The distances, in our English eyes, are undoubt-
idly great, but Americans have accomplished
greater fcats of railroad mechanism in countries
where the natural obstacles were at least equal to
hose likely to be encountered in Asia Minor. 1t
g suggested that the line should run round the
coast OF the Asiatic peninsula, and an estimate is
riven that this communication between Constan-
inople and the Orontes, completing that between
The same city and Bussorah, might be established
~ the year 1860 On that assumption the total
mileage Of the route would give four thousand two
hundred to railways and only one thousand ak
hundred to steamers, and the journey from Lon
ion to Calcutta would occupy tloelve days.
Here perhaps, we might pause, for it is no mean
exploit to have brought Calcutta as near as New
York, and Beloochistan, we must needs think,
would be a strange country for even Irish navi-
gators" The protector, however, is not yet con-
tent, and he allows five years more for eliminating
the Persian gulf and continuing the railway from
Bussorah by the coast line of Persia and Beoo-
chistan' 10 The old capital of the Ameers, Hyder
abad on the Indus, whence the several branches OF
the Indian lines would soon whsk the passenger to
Bombay, Lahore, or Calcutta, according to his
wants. the latter station being exactly five thou
sand six hundred mies, or seven days journey,
from the booking Office of the company in Grace
church street. This is the scheme. Its accom-
plishment involves the completion, altogether, OF
some i've thousand six hundred miles of railway;
but of these some two thousand six hundred are
actually decided on and in course of construction
already; and if we look to what has been done
may, perhaps, think this Anglo
Saxon prophecy by no means 80 impossible oil fui-
filment as 1t seemed at first.
It is remarkable circumstance that the East
India lines, which we introduced to notice some
four years ago as undertakings in themselves Of
singular novelty aud boldness, should now have
become the most natural and practicable portions
Of stupendous whole. There is no more doubt
about the line across Hindostan than about the line
across Hungary, and this fact alone should lead us
10 distrust our impressions of scheme so strange
as that above described. If the Indus valley and
the Nerbudda valley are now thought so readily
passable for locomotives, who is to say that the
Euphrates valley will not wear like aspect when
ever our eyes shall have been once accustomed to
the work. 1t is difficult, perhaps. to repress n
smile OF incredulity at the thought Of railway
with one terminus at Calais and the other at Cal
cutta; but London and Edinburgh were once fur
ther asunder than Liverpool and New York are
now, and all experience should teach us TO hesitate
in limiting the powers Of steam.