Rambles on Railways

by Sir Cusack P. Roney

“It is impossible to contemplate, without a shudder, the consequences which must result if the Government should ever neglect to maintain effectively the means of communication with the East. The present route, viâ Egypt, might at any time be rendered unavailable by political combinations in Europe, and yet our Government have hitherto been content to rely upon one means of communication, notwithstanding that it is in their power to establish not only an alternative, but an infinitely better one by way of the Euphrates Valley.

“But we feel well assured that the great design of connecting Europe with Central Asia, by the telegraph and the rail by the Valleys of the Euphrates and Indus, is at length approaching its accomplishment. The Euphrates and Indus Railways completed would be the grandest pledge that could be given for the peace and the prosperity of the world.”—Allen’s Indian Mail.

[92] The length of the Euphrates, in its direct course from North to South, is about 700 miles; but with its various windings, it is nearly 1,800. The current is sluggish, not exceeding two and a-half to three miles an hour, except during the floods, when it increases to about five miles. The river navigation would extend from Ja’bar Castle to Bir, 120 miles, or to Bussorah, 70 miles from its mouth, and the vessels must not draw more than eight feet. The draught of the ocean vessels into which the mails and passengers would be transferred at Bir or Bussorah, must be limited, as there are not more than twelve feet on the bar at the mouth of the Euphrates at low water.

[93] The intelligence respecting Kurrachee Harbour is unsatisfactory. It is quite clear that with any increase of trade there, the capabilities of the place as a harbour will be surpassed, notwithstanding the fact that, on the recommendation of the late Mr. James Walker, upwards of a quarter of a million sterling has, since 1859, been expended on works for increasing its capacity. But now, according to the opinion of Messrs. Stevenson, of Edinburgh, all this outlay has been useless, although it has had the effect of adding from 70 to 100 acres to the dimensions of the harbour. Naturally the report of Messrs. Stevenson has given rise to much disappointment, for it means that the money expended, if not absolutely wasted, has not been usefully laid out, and that all the valuable time consumed between 1859 and 1866 has been virtually lost. One of the subjects specially referred to Sir Seymour Fitzgerald, on his appointment, early this year, as Governor of the Bombay Presidency, was Kurrachee Harbour. In the meantime the works were to be suspended and not to be resumed until the Home Indian Government had received the additional data for a satisfactory settlement of the question, which Sir Seymour was directed to collect. His report has not yet been received at the India Office.

[94] Perhaps there is an additional reason of more or less weight for urging on the early construction of at least the section of the Euphrates Valley line from the Mediterranean to navigable water on the Euphrates. If the Isthmus of Suez Canal be completed, France will, in all likelihood, hold the keys of it—a very dangerous fact for England in case of war between the two countries. That the canal will be finished seems more than probable. Mr. Daniel A. Lange, the English representative and director of the company for its construction, in his published letter of the 2nd of November, 1867, says that “by the last official reports from Egypt, there remained on the 30th of September last 44,000,000 cubic metres of earthwork to be done. During the month of September 1,342,000 cubic metres have been excavated, the highest figures as yet obtained, and this work has been performed with only forty-three dredging machines, thus leaving, at the same rate, on the 1st of January next, 40,000,000 cubic metres for excavation, the original total required to be removed being 74,000,000 cubic metres. When the full complement of seventy-eight dredging machines now being fitted up on the spot is in working order, it may readily be calculated that the returns will show a result of at least two millions of cubic metres per month, which, in other words, means that the time required for completing the entire earthworks of the Suez Canal will not exceed twenty months from the present time. The construction of the jetties at Port Said is being pushed forward with similar rapidity. The manufacture of blocks on the spot during the month of September amounted to 9,472 cubic metres, which, together with those already made, gives a total of 164,031 cubic metres, leaving 85,969 to be manufactured, the total required for both the jetties being 250,000 cubic metres. The entire quantity already sunk in the sea at the end of September amounted to 142,776 cubic metres; remained to be immersed, 107,224 cubic metres—total, 250,000 cubic metres for both jetties. Taking 6,000 cubic metres per month, both the jetties will be completed in eighteen months from the present time. It may not be out of place to mention that these so-called blocks weigh about twenty tons each.” Mr. Lange concludes thus:—“Having said thus much on the subject of the progress of the Suez Canal works, I trust I may be permitted to add, that the time is near at hand when these gigantic works will be completed for the benefit of all nations, as by means of them the passage from sea to sea will be secured for the largest ships.”

[95] Mr. Frederick Hill was the principal witness from the Post Office examined by the Committee of the House of Commons, that sat in 1866, upon the postal and telegraph communications of England with the East. The whole tendency of Mr. Hill’s evidence was, that no further accommodation or increased frequency of mails should be given to the public, unless the Post Office were indemnified against all hazard of loss—even temporary—either by increasing the rates of postage, or by the obtention of a special appropriation from the Government of India. It was in consequence of the character of this evidence, and of correspondence which had passed between the India Office, the Treasury, and the Post Office department (which appears in the Appendices to the Report) that the Committee inserted the following paragraph:—

“Your Committee cannot assent to the doctrine that interests so important from every point of view, whether political, social, or commercial, as those which connect the United Kingdom with the largest and most valuable possessions of the Crown, should be prejudiced by an insufficient postal service, because the establishment of an efficient service might leave an apparent loss of no great magnitude to be borne by the two countries. They submit that a question of profit or loss, within reasonable bounds, is a consideration entitled to little weight in the case of so important a postal service as that between England and India. They concur in the views expressed on this subject in a letter addressed by the Indian Office to the Assistant Secretary to the Post Office, on the 5th October, 1865, in which it was said, ‘Sir Charles Wood cannot, however, regard the question as one merely affecting the charge on the Imperial revenues. It has been the perception of the bearing of increased postal communication on the wealth and progress of a country that has induced statesmen of late years to consent to fiscal sacrifices for the purpose of obtaining it. There can be no doubt that increased postal communication with India implies increased relations with that country, increased commerce, increased investment of English capital, increased settlement of energetic middle-class Englishmen; and from all these sources the wealth and prosperity of England are more greatly increased than that of India.’”

It seems extraordinary, it is nevertheless a fact, that Sir Rowland Hill, whose name and reputation have been built solely upon the foundation of cheap postage, should, through the medium of several Postmaster-General’s Reports, urge the necessity of increased postal charges whenever an ocean mail communication did not pay per se in postages realised.

In 1853, a Commission, consisting of the late Lord Canning, the Right Hon. Wm. Cowper, Sir Stafford Northcote, now Secretary for India, and the late Sir R. Madox Bromley, Accountant-General of the Navy, was appointed by the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury to report upon the contract packet services of the country. The Commissioners went very fully and elaborately into the whole subject, examined witnesses, and had various returns prepared for their consideration. The gist of their views and opinions upon oceanic communication, by means of first-class contract steamers, is as follows:—“The value of the services thus (by the establishment of large vessels built for the conveyance of ocean mails at high speed) rendered to the state cannot be measured by a reference to the amount of mere postal revenue, or even by the commercial advantages accruing from it. It is undoubtedly startling at first sight to perceive that the immediate pecuniary results of the packet service is a loss to the revenue of about £325,000 a-year; but although this circumstance shows the necessity for a careful revision of the service, and though we believe much may be done to make the service self-supporting, we do not consider that the money thus expended is to be regarded, even from a fiscal point of view, as a national loss. The objects which appear to have led to the formation of these contracts, and to the large expenditure involved, were to afford a rapid, frequent, and punctual communication with those distant ports which feed the main arteries of British commerce, and with the most important of our foreign possessions; to foster maritime enterprise, and to encourage the production of a superior class of vessels which would promote the commerce and wealth of the country in time of peace, and assist in defending its shores against hostile aggression. These expectations have not been disappointed. The ocean has been traversed with a precision and regularity hitherto deemed impossible; commerce and civilisation have been extended; the colonies have been brought more easily into connection with the Home Government, and steam ships have been constructed of a size and power that, without Government aid, could hardly, at least for many years to come, have been built by private enterprise unaided.”

M. Vandal, in his Annuaires des Postes, published on the 1st of January 1867, having given in detail the whole of the ocean postal service of France, thus expresses the views both of the French Government and of the department of which he is the head: “And these great results have been obtained, not by the exclusive action of private industry, for industry would have been rash to have attempted them; and also not by the exclusive action of the State, for the State, which governs, is unfitted for commerce, but by the happy combination of the two elements—the State and private enterprise. On the one side, it is the duty of the State to study the whole subject in view to its own wants and to those of the public. Therefore it is that, in order to open new routes of communication to the spirit of industry and enterprise of the nation, the State pays subventions to the amount of upwards of twenty-four millions of francs, and by means of them industry invests its capital with the encouragement of the Government. The benefit is common to both sides. The State obtains the advantage of increased influence throughout the world, and at home increased customs revenue, with increased and general prosperity, and on the other hand private enterprise is adequately remunerated for its capital and investments.”