have no difficulty in making another line or section, re-commencing where the navigation again becomes defective; for instance, from Benares to Allahabad, or from Allahabad to Cawnpore, the river intervals between these sections being provided for (until united) by a sufficient number of powerful iron steam-boats. We should thus gradually, easily, and profitably for the Government, the public, and proprietary body, establish an extensive and available railway development, every part of which might eventually become an integral portion of a complete trunk line of railway communication between Calcutta and the north-western frontier, pursuing along the entire route the beaten track of commerce through the most populous and productive regions in India, connecting the great towns and military and civil stations, and having every facility for construction by means of river transit and a dense population, the comparative salubrity of the climate, the perfect security to the works during their progress, from the peaceful and industrious habits of the people, so entirely under control, together with the abundamt supply of all other requisites.

The comparative merits of the two modes of connecting Calcutta with Delhi and the north-west frontier may be stated in a few words: A line from Calcutta by Burdwan, Hazareebaugh, Shergotty, and Mirzapore to Delhi, or a line from Howrah, opposite to Calcutta, by Rajmahl, Bhagulpore, Monghir, Patna, Benares, and Mirzapore to Delhi. By the latter, the actual or lineal distance would not be in

* Another reason, according to papers recently received from India, for the construction of this line is, that the largest river connecting the Ganges with the Hooghly is yearly closing up; and they add that-" There are many local circumstances which may render the construction and working of the line the cheapest, as it would be the most valuable. Coals, for instance, may be brought down the Adjie River, and laid down under twenty-five rupees per 100 maunds. Lime may be taken from the bed of the same river, and laid down, burnt ready for use, for less than the above sum. Bricks may be burnt by the people of the country all along the line at two rupees eight annas per 1000. Granite for sleepers, or wooden ones if preferred, are easily obtained. Timber of large size can be brought down the Ganges from Gurruckpore at low rates, and landed at Rajmahl, or it may be obtained in the district itself. The country through which the line would pass is populous, and the people are au fait at bunding, levelling, making water courses, &c.: therefore none but mere Coolie labour would be needed beyond that supplied along most part of the line itself. This line is neither subject to inundation nor to being flooded by the bursting of Damooda-bunds, the embankment, therefore, may be low, and for nearly fifty miles scarcely any is wanted. The construction of this railway may thus be easily effected with economy and prudence."

creased by more than eighty miles, and the time occupied in traversing the entire distance would scarcely be effected, as it would be essentially a level throughout; while the former would have on several portions stiff gradients, requiring assistant power, so that the question resolves itself into one of time-not distance-for pro rata to the power required, so is the distance; while, to many intermediate points (Patna for instance) the lineal distance of the Gangetic valley would be actually less, and the necessity would no longer exist for a number of branches to supply the railway with traffic; the main trunk itself meeting the requirements of both the through and local traffic of the country, and thereby saving the cost of construction of upwards of 100 miles of railway. Every few miles of such a railway, when opened, would be available for traffic, and yield some return on the capital expended, while scarcely any beneficial result could be expected from the Mirzapore direct line until the whole was completed.

It is true, as is explained in a note attached to this paper that the Rajmahl line has been incidentally considered by Mr. Simms, the advising civil engineer in Bengal; but there is no evidence to show that Mr. Simms was required to report upon this great work as a primary object, embracing the ready transit of commodities between the port of Calcutta and the interior of India by the ancient channels of the internal and external commerce of that country.* It is, there

"The Railway Commissioners have reported in favour of the direct Mirzapore line, the principal Commissioner not having seen, or at all events, not having surveyed any other, but it would be much to be lamented were there to be a postponement of the Court's decision till there was a fresh survey, as there can be but one opinion regarding the Rajmahl line, and the one from Allahabad to Delhi; and the comparative merits of the two routes to Mirzapore can be tested while those are in progress of construction.

"The gain in time by the shorter line, if any, would be too inconsiderable to be taken into account in a country where time occupied in travelling is estimated by months instead of hours, or to be a just compensation for so great an amount of expenditure.

"Unacquainted with India himself, the English capitalist looks to those placed in authority and acquainted with the country to act with a just and discriminating vigilance in making the first move in the right direction.

"It might have been hoped that the Railway Commissioners would have cleared the way to a satisfactory decision on this subject, with an authority derivable from the soundness of the views enunciated, the variety of new and interesting data-the prestige of office and acknowledged ability. But their report, beyond giving an official sanction to railroads in general, sheds no new light on the question at issue; long without being comprehensive, elaborate

fore, this defined and comparitively practicable project, that I would again earnestly press upon your consideration, trusting that the direct communication being once established between Rajmahl and Calcutta, the improvement of the steam navigation from that point to the north-westward would rapidly follow, and ultimately tend to the formation of railroads in the upper provinces, which are admitted to be free from those obstructions which rendered the scheme of the East India Railway Company exceedingly problematical as a financial undertaking.

It cannot be doubted that the social position and general prosperity of the inhabitants of the British Empire in the East, as well as the maintenance of the commercial and manufacturing pre-eminence of England, must be most powerfully influenced by the success or failure of the first railway in India. The momentous results involved in the solution of this question must plead my apology for having ventured to extend this letter to such an unusual length.

without supplying any data to arrive at practical results, giving no estimates of cost, or specifications, or traffic tables, even leaving to private enterprise the decision (with one exception) of whether this or that line should be ultimately adopted.

"The Commissioners instructed to suggest some feasible line of moderate length.

"The principal portion of their report is devoted to recommending the adoption of a railroad of 450 miles in length, through the most difficult, most unproductive, and most desolate portion of a country elsewhere easy, fertile, and densely peopled."-Vide Indian Railways. By an Old Indian Postmaster. Second Edition. 1846.

A PERSIAN COURT TRAGEDY.

SOME months have only elapsed since the perpetration of one of those enormities which too often stain with innocent blood the cruel annals of Asiatic courts.

Who does not know that the Shah of Persia reigns uncontrolled over such portions of his subjects as are peaceable and loyal, not only as a sovereign, but as absolute master of their lives and fortunes?

An authority thus unlimited, amenable to no control but that of the dread of popular vengeance at the hands of an outraged people, already too much inured to tyranny to regard human life as of much value, or to understand the sacred rights of property: such an authority is invariably surrounded by wretches ready to do its bidding on the slightest intimation, whether the matter in hand be the murder of the Prime Minister and the confiscation of his property, or the simple ruin of a petty trader.

Despotic power, with instruments not only ready to execute any command, however cruel and unjust, but fertile in expedients, and full of criminal suggestions

"Allured with hope of plunder, and intent,

By force to rob, by fraud to circumvent."

"It is the curse of kings to be attended

By slaves, that take their humours for a warrant

To break within the bloody house of life:

And, on the winking of authority,

To understand a law; to know the meaning

Of dangerous majesty, when, perchance, it frowns
More upon humour than advis'd respect."

"How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds,
Makes deeds ill done!-

This state of things is doubly dangerous when there is a power behind the throne greater than the throne itself; and the Government of Persia is at this moment in this unhappy predicament. The Shah, although he has been for several years upon the throne, is still in years a mere boy, and is greatly under the influence of the Queenmother, a bold, avaricious, and unprincipled woman.

The present king is the grandson of Prince Abbas Mirza, who acquired some notoriety in Europe from his wars with Russia and in Khorrassan, and his quarrels with his father, Futti Ali Shah, the mild

D

successor of the eunuch king, the able but remorseless Aga Mahomed, who sated his vengeance by collecting in bushels the eyes of his rebellious subjects.

Prince Abbas Mirza, the heir apparent, died without ascending the throne of Persia, and on the death of the old king, his father, the eldest son of Abbas Mirza was proclaimed the rightful sovereign. This was the first occasion in Persia in which the order of succession to the royal dignity, according to the principle of primogeniture, was clearly defined, and the youthful monarch had not to fight, as had been so often the fate of his predecessors in similar circumstances, his way to the throne, imbruing his hands in the blood of his relatives.

The prompt and politic measures of the then British Minister at the Court of Persia, Sir John N. R. Campbell, powerfully contributed to prevent any rival claimant from entering the field, while the disciplined army under Colonel Passmore and Sir Henry Bethune was employed to escort the new Shah to his capital of Tehran.

Not long afterwards (Sir John N. R. Campbell having, most unfortunately for British interests in the East, returned to Europe), this king, so greatly indebted to the wise dispositions of the representative of Great Britain, ascending the throne as it were under the auspices of England, forgot all his obligations.

The Shah, acting, as was supposed, under Russian influence, contrary to our advice and repeated remonstrance, which eventuated in a declaration of war, persisted in marching an army against and finally besieging Herat, on the borders of Affghanistan. This led to the dire calamities resulting from the Affghan invasion.

Some few years ago the intrigues of the Persian Court, and the policy of its Government, were scrutinized and discussed by us as matters that affected us most intimately in relation to our jealously guarded ascendancy in India; but now we hear with indifference of the probability of a Russian subject being appointed Commander-inChief of the Persian army, and we see the present Shah not only besiege but take Herat without remark, much less remonstrance from any one, holding ready, as we should have said at one time, for the Czar one of the gates of India.

What takes place in the court and capital of Persia is still, if possible, more indifferent to us.

The best and foremost man in the country has been done to death in the most cruel and treacherous manner, and no one in England knows or cares anything about it.

Since the dark and dreadful days of the fierce eunuch king the