Autobiography of Sir John Rennie, F.R.S., Past President of the Institute of Civil Engineers / Comprising the history of his professional life, together with reminiscences dating from the commencement of the century to the present time.

by Sir John Rennie

CHAPTER VII.

Swedish Railways—Surveys in Holland and Portugal.

In 1844 Count Adolphe Rosen obtained a concession for making railways in Sweden, and offered me half the concession, provided that I would go over to Sweden, lay out the lines, and bring the matter before the English public. I accordingly employed a Mr. Tottie, a Swede, who had been employed by Mr. Rastrick, to make the surveys of the lines laid out by me, which consisted of a main one from Gothenburg right through the kingdom to Oxhoe, as the central portion for the iron trade; from thence one branch went to the upper end of the Lake Wener, and the other to the Lake Malar, to communicate with Stockholm; the line then proceeded north by Westerâs to Upsala, and thence to Stockholm.

The same year I went from Hull with Count Rosen to Gothenburg by steam, and spent two or three days there. The country through which I passed, though not rich, was much more so and better cultivated than I expected to find it, and the people honest, simple, and industrious, and extremely civil. The general appearance rather picturesque, and in places wild, being covered with dense forests of firs, larch, beech, &c.; large spaces had been cleared of wood and brought under cultivation. The houses were for the most part built of wood, in the Russian fashion, the logs being laid close together, dovetailed at the ends, and the joints caulked with moss, the inside being closely planked, and in every room was a stone or porcelain stove; the windows were double, and in winter the outer and inner were both shut up, and all the joints pasted with paper so as to prevent the admission of the outer air. The houses were generally very comfortable. In some of the larger towns, such as Orebro, many of the houses were solidly built of stone, others had stone foundations and wooden superstructure; most of the country churches were of stone, with a detached building of wood for the bells, which were frequently of a large size, with a very fine full melodious sound. Gothenburg is a very well and regularly built town, chiefly of stone, in the Dutch style, with canals running through the streets. Some of the houses of the principal merchants, as well as public buildings, are spacious and handsome, although the town generally has a heavy, dull, yet substantial appearance.

I resolved to visit the celebrated iron mine of Daunemora, some miles farther northward. I accordingly started off with Count Rosen, and reached it the same evening, and visited the mine next day; it consisted of a mass of rock, cropping out to the surface, of almost solid magnetic iron, containing about 75 to 80 per cent. of the finest metal. There were extensive forests round, so that there was no want of fuel; the wood was converted into charcoal, and the finest iron was extracted, the best for making steel; it fetched the highest price in the English market, where there was a great demand for it. The machinery employed was very rude and simple, the bellows for the forges being in some cases driven by manual or horse labour, in others, where it was accessible, by water power. I was anxious to go to the great mining district of Dalecarlia, about 100 miles farther north, but the season was getting late, and therefore I was obliged to return to England.

When I had got all my surveys finished, I made a report upon the whole line; but I found that the Swedish Government was not sufficiently alive to the importance of railways at that time, or rather the Government did not see its way to giving them encouragement by subscribing or rather taking a pecuniary interest in them. Though by no means undervaluing the importance of railways, yet, being naturally cautious and economical, with only moderate funds at its command, the Government doubted much whether a reasonable profit would be derived from them, but at the same time wished us every success in obtaining the money in England. I represented to them that people in England, knowing nothing of Sweden, or her capabilities, would hesitate to subscribe their money without a certain guarantee by the Government of interest of 4 or 5 per cent. upon the amount of capital expended, and that as it was quite clear that the railways would pay that, there could be no risk; in fact, the guarantee would be merely nominal, but that it would have the effect of obtaining the money in England, and thus conferring upon Sweden a great national benefit, by saving their capital without running the least risk. I was recommended to give a grand dinner, which several of the ministers and all the other notables of Stockholm attended. Everybody was enthusiastic, and a great number of speeches were made as to the importance of railways, and the great national benefit they would confer, and my health was proposed by the Minister of Commerce, Skogman, and was received with the greatest enthusiasm, but the effect was nothing, for we neither got private subscriptions nor public guarantee. However, after all we had done something; we had introduced the subject of railways into Sweden, we had shown the importance of them, and we had in some measure opened their eyes, and we trusted that in time, when they had maturely reflected upon the advantages, they would view them more favourably, and contribute liberally towards them; but as there was no use in then pressing the subject further, we returned at once to England.

In all fevers there is a climax; the railway fever had its climax like the rest, and it was then upon the decline. The vast multitude who had expected to make their fortunes found at last to their sorrow that their money was gone; but that was not the worst, for they would have been very happy if they had not had to pay more. As for any new railway speculation, that was entirely out of the question, and therefore it turned out that the Swedish railways were too late for the market; nobody would entertain the subject; the very name of railway was sufficient to drive everyone away, so that there was no help for it but to abide better times. Accordingly the Swedish railways remained in abeyance until the year 1852; by this time the Swedish Government had considered the subject maturely, and felt that, as every other European nation had adopted them, Sweden, if she desired to keep pace with other countries, must either make the railways herself, for which at the time the Government had not the money, or she must encourage others to make them by guaranteeing a sufficient interest for the capital expended. Accordingly I went there again, and was as usual very kindly received by the King and his Ministers, and I saw that they were becoming more anxious than ever that the railways should be made. I had been there in October, 1848, and had the honour of being invited to dine at the palace in Stockholm, as I had previously the honour of dining with their Majesties at the summer palace of Hoga, near Stockholm. Upon arriving at the palace I was most courteously received by King Oscar, who did me the honour of presenting me to his handsome, graceful, and intelligent queen. When her Majesty heard that the railways were to be commenced, she said that she had heard so much talk about them and nothing had been done, that she feared they never would be made, “therefore talk no more about them, but set to work and make them.” The dinner party consisted of about thirty. I had the honour of sitting next the Lord Chancellor, a very agreeable, intelligent person, who sat next to the Royal Family. We had an excellent dinner, without the least restraint, and the common topic of conversation seemed to be, who would be elected President of the French Republic, Cavaignac or Louis Napoleon, and everybody seemed in favour of Cavaignac as the proper person; they all spoke very disparagingly of Louis Napoleon. It seems curious to think how little the world knew of that extraordinary man, and how completely he disappointed all previous expectations.

When at Stockholm I was presented to his present Majesty, King Charles XV., then Prince Karl, a very handsome intelligent young man. Since his accession to the throne he has done me the honour of conferring upon me the order of Knight Commander of the Order of Wasa, for what his Majesty was pleased to term the great services which I had rendered Sweden. This was the more agreeable, as it was sent to me through my personal friend Count Platen, then the Swedish representative at the Court of London. Many years ago I made acquaintance with his father, the celebrated Count Platen, who was the chief instrument in changing the dynasty from the worn-out old race, and in placing Bernadotte on the throne. My introduction to the Count arose in this manner. The Count took the utmost interest in the completion of the great Gotha Canal, which unites the river Gotha below the falls of that river and the lower end of the great Lake Werner, thus completing the navigation between the whole of the towns bordering upon that lake and Gothenburg. A canal had formerly been made between the lower end of the lake and the river Gotha (which issues from it) below the falls, and at the time a very great work it was, but the locks were so unequally distributed, and the rise of some of them so great, that the navigation was very much impeded; the Count, therefore, came over to England, after the death of my father, to consult Mr. Telford, who was then considered our first engineer, as to what was the best means of improving the Gotha Canal, so as to avoid the inconvenience complained of. Mr. Telford went over, prepared a plan, and carried it into effect, much to the satisfaction of the Swedish Government. During Count Platen’s visit to England, Mr. Telford brought him to Lynn, where we met as engineers of the Eau Brink Drainage and Navigation, and we explained to him the whole of the Eau Brink Works, with which he was much pleased. He was a very superior person, grave and dignified, with great intelligence, and of easy, affable manners. The Mayor of Lynn being informed by Mr. Telford of his visit, called upon him, and being introduced, invited him, in the name of the Corporation, to one of their civic dinners, which he accepted. He had, however, brought no dress suit with him, and indeed was perfectly indifferent about it, and would have gone to the mayor’s feast in his travelling costume, which, to say the least, was very rough. Telford consulted me about it, and we both agreed that the Count could not attend the dinner without the usual evening dress costume. Upon this being delicately explained by Mr. Telford, he took the hint and sent for a tailor, who in the course of a couple of days equipped him properly. The greatest attention was of course paid to him by all the company.