SINDH EAILWAY. 283 



laid down from the hills, that difficulty will be 

 removed. 



Great credit is due to Lieutenant Chapman 

 for the labour and forethought with which, 

 in so short a time, he has succeeded in getting 

 together so much valuable information, and for 

 the business-like manner in which he has col- 

 lated and arranged it. In neitlier of his pro- 

 jects (railway or canal) has he made the most 

 of the facts he had adduced : not only has he 

 discarded all information not strictly official, 

 but he has used the official returns with the 

 greatest caution ; and with the knowledge 

 that it has been a very common practice in 

 England, when framing traffic returns, to double 

 all the existing traffic, and that result has gen- 

 erally shown that the projectors have been by no 

 means too sanguine, I am certain a much larger 

 return might very fairly have been promised. 

 For instance, the commerce of Sindh has been 

 found, without the stimulus of improved means 

 of communication, steadily to have increased 

 at the rate of 20 per cent, per annum : the 

 removal of all transit duties will certainly tend 

 to increase the commerce still more rapidly ; 

 yet, notwithstanding the Deputy Collector 



