THE IRON PATH IN INDIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume V, Issue 268, 26 May 1855, Page 6

THE IRON PATH IN INDIA.

(From the British Banner). Of all countries in the world none are more adapted to the Rail, and none more requires it, than India. Compared with this, everything hitherto accomplished in the way of canals, or of roads, is but a very partial blessing. The Rail alone can contract the enormous territory into limited dimensions, and bring society, with its products, together. Already the happy results even of the partial experiments how being made begin to manifest themselves. A line of forty-two miles in length has been opened ;'and notwithstanding the still imperfect state of things as to stations, engines, and carriages, it has already worked wonders. There, as in this country, at the outset of the rail between Manchester and Liverpool, the Directors mainly looked to the carriage of goods for their remuneration : hut there, as here, they have speedily found that their hope would lie, not in the goods of man, but in man himself. There, too, as here, it is found, that the main source of revenue is the third class of passengers. The facts are the following : — Total Ist 2nd 3rd 19th August. 4,354 551 1,296 2,507 26th , 4,113 503 1,208 2,404 2nd September ..4,087 486 1,268 2,333 9th „ ..fi,085 457 1,232 4,396 16th „ ..5,622 261 1,061 4,300 23rd , ..6,367 300 1,188 4,879 Total 30,628 2,558 7,251 20,819

The natives, as may be supposed, are filled with astonishment at the appearance of this new and awi'ul power, wondering whereunto it will grow. Never did the genius of the Englishman appear so wonderful and stupendous as now. Often, and greatly, have they been astonished at the displays of British skill ; but the Bail leaves everything previously exhibited immeasurably behind. Pride of life, with its distinctions, has not yet attained to the same height there as at home: and hence the third-class carriage has nothing to repel the small shopkeeper, the clerk, and even the respectable classes who people the cities of the East. In a region where travel is so toilsome, even to the native, and so utterly destructive to the European, it will quickly appear, that the value attaching to the construction of the Rail is great beyond all calculation. The troops, in particular, will find their accounts in it: the great lines once completed, the laborious march of weeks may be accomplished in days, almost in hours, with an extraordinary saving of money for conveyance, and for the camp accompaniments, to say nothing of the preservation of life. The days of travel by the elephant are now numbered. That noble animal will, by and by, be left to disport himself in the plains," a quiet and majestic spectacle to the beholder, and a grand monument of the principal means of human transfer throughout the ages of a far distant antiquity.

But, while the Government will amply find its account in the railway, it will be of special service to the men of commerce: and not to them only, but to the missionaries of the cross. Few things will more conduce at once to the progress, both of trade and religion. When Dr. Arnold beheld the first engine dart past Rugby; his mind immediately was filled with the memories of the past,and theanticipations of thefuture he saw therein the developmentof a new power, which would annihilate the tyranny of the few, and elevate from their prostration the souls of the many ; and in a fit of enthusiasm as deeply stamped by philanthropy as prophecy, he exclaimed, " There goes the last remnant of the feudal system." A change of a similar character awaits our mighty in the East—a change which will result in the welfare of countless millions still unborn, bringing " pence on earth, good will to men, and glory to God in the highest."