18.19.1 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



103 



(No. 

 (No. 



ing a knowledge of the works of our best sculjitors, for in effect it 

 comes near marble, and in ebeaimess near plaster. It takes a 

 middle place between marble and plaster, and being more lasting 

 tlian the latter, is likely to be very much used by the middle classes. 

 We fear, however, that it will give us in sculpture a school of 

 statuettes, as we have in painting a school of cabinet pictures, and 

 BO far draw away the public mind from high art. Still, we welcome 

 the statuary porcelain and the Parian as a good beginning, and we 

 can take the evils when they come with the less remorse, as now 

 sculpture is far from being in the most palmy state. This kind of 

 copy promises likewise a better reward to the artist, for marble is 

 a material costly in itself and hard to work, and therefore the 

 sculptor gets few orders for a good study, and few are fond of 

 casts. Now, a small gallery of groups can be had for a very small 

 sum, and no one need be ashamed of ha\ing such works in his 

 drawing-room. Among Mr. Copeland's productions we would no- 

 tice the Narcissus, after Gibson (No. 209) ; Innocence, after J. N. 

 Foley (No. 210); Paul and Virginia, after Cumberworth (No. 211); 

 the Return from the Vintage (No. 212); Apollo, after Wyatt (No. 

 214); Cupid chained (No. 218) ; and. Ondine, after Pradier (No. 

 219). The busts do not tell so well. 



The Cupids holding a Tazza (No. 182) is a very good design for 

 a flower-stand, in statuary porcelain. 



Mr. Copeland is very successful in the Portland jug (No. 202), 

 of the same material. 



Another work of his we shall name is the Armada bottle 

 217). We are likewise pleased with this vase after Cellini 

 223). 



iNIessrs. Chamberlain, of Worcester, have sent some very gorgeous 

 porcelains, gilt, painted, and enamelled. 



Mr. Magnus, of the Pimlico Slate Works, has sent slate chimney- 

 slabs, likewise table tops, which are worthy of notice by builders. 



Mr. Pratt's Anglo-Etruscan vase, in the Great Room, is very 

 praiseworthy. 



The prize candelabrum must be the work of an architectural 

 student, and have been chosen for the prize by an architect. It is 

 what some architects call classical, and what other people call 

 tame, stiff, and bald. AVe think the prize is thrown away, and we 

 should have been much more pleased with a copy of one of the 

 candelabra in the British Museum. 



The prize lamps are not much better. They may catch some 

 eyes, being in silver, but are poor and common-])lace. We wish 

 there had been more designs for silver-plate. One very good is 

 No. 348, an adaptation of the trumpet lily for a dessert-stand. 



The papier-mache productions to our mind show much more 

 splendour than taste. They are too much in the gewgaw and 

 Vauxhall way. 



The " Repose" ann-chair (No. 242), is very unluckily named, for 

 there is no repose in its composition, and there can be none within 

 its arms. Mr. J. C. Horsley is the designer, hut his skill is quite 

 thrown away, for the reliefs have no effect. The terminal figures, 

 in whatever material they may be finished, will be indistinct. 



Mr. Nicholson has shown a very elaborate shell cameo (No. 258), 

 but the subject is too complicated, and therefore indistinct. Miss 

 M. A. Nichols has sent five imitation cameos. Cameo cutting is 

 worthy of care, for in Paris it gives work to many hundred men. 



The glass works (Class XII.) are so very good that we hope they 

 are an earnest of our making a great trade in glass, and becoming 

 free from the Bohemians and Germans. 



The Decorative Art Society is doing so much good, that we look 

 forward to see some other society raised which shall take in a lower 

 class of workmen. There is room for a great deal to be done, and 

 we feel very strong hope from what we call the small exhibition of 

 the Society of Arts — small because we are sure we shiill soon see 

 much larger exhibitions held under its care. 



INDIAN RAILWAYS. 



Indian Railways and their Probable Results, with Maps and an 

 Appendix, containing Statistics of Internal and External Commerce of 

 India. Bv an Old Indian Postmaster. Third Edition. London : 

 Newby, 1848. 



We are now in 1848, and Indian railways remain where they 

 were, though the East India Railway Company has got a guarantee 

 and leave to begin. This is a hard lesson, but one which is of no 

 good so far as the present is concerned, and will, we fear, be found 

 little better in the future. Governments are not ready scholars, 

 even in the matter of revolutions. We have always upheld the 



freedom of joint-stock undertakings, as the best safeguard against 

 speculation and the want of it. The East India government were 

 fearful in 1845 of the gambling madness of the times. Scheme 

 after scheme was brouglit l)efore them, money was held out freely, 

 but they drew back frightened, and set themselves down in what 

 they held to lie a quiet and orderly way, to lay down rules on which 

 railways should be carried on and shareholders sliould pay their 

 money. Following in the path of the Board of Trade here, they 

 sent out to India a railway board, with Mr. Simms at its head. He 

 did his work as well and carefully as he could, and sent home some 

 long blue-books, from which, however, we are sorry to say, ive 

 have learned no more than we knew before, so that they have in 

 no way put railways forward one inch. Everything has to be tried 

 still ; JVIr. Simms has given us no answer as to embankments in the 

 valley of the Ganges, long bridges over the streams, how wood will 

 serve for sleepers, how works are to be carried on, nor one single 

 point in engineering has he settled, — and from no fault of his, be- 

 cause experience is the only guide and judge. Therefore, three 

 years have been lost on this head, and instead of beginning with 

 three or four years' experience, we are as far behind-hand as we 

 were before. It is during the first three or four years that the 

 greatest changes are made, because it is the time of experiments ; 

 every day shows something, and instead of trying to settle the 

 engineering of India before-hand, a wise man would wait for prac- 

 tice to guide him in fixing any lasting system. 



India has needlessly lost so many years of railway transit ; by 

 this time the trafiic of the Ganges would have had some small help 

 from railway works. Perhaps a couple of hundred miles of railway 

 would have been open ; and if only so much, or even less, still 

 the results would have been great, because each hundred miles of 

 railway is the saving of a day in the communication with the up- 

 land. The opening of a railway would have been felt by the steam- 

 boats, and more of them would ha^■e been put on the river, while 

 branch roads would have been laid down to reach the railway. 

 The making of a railway is, as is well known, only a small part of 

 the good which is to arise. The railway will be the trunk towards 

 which steamboats will run, and roads be made. The ti'affic will be 

 always growing, so that at each step food for new railways w ill 

 be found. The steamboats have shown this, though not so much. 

 At first six small steamboats were run, sometime after six more, 

 and latterly six large steamboats have been put on, and there is a 

 call for more. All are paying well, though there is more than four 

 times the power that was in the first instance held needful. We 

 have heard of railway carriages carrying their own railways with 

 them, but it may be said of Indian railways that they will carry 

 their own traffic with them. 



When we come to the money part of the question, and say that 

 three years have been lost, we do not give a right idea of the evil 

 which has been done. Time in the share-market cannot be trifled 

 with, and canuot be got back again. The fatal event of Louis 

 Philippe's death or fall has been long hanging over us ; it was 

 known that it must happen, and th.at when it did the share-market 

 would be utterly upset. Never was it so needful to make hay 

 while the sun shone ; the storm was hanging about, it was looming 

 in sight, and there was no time to be lost. In the years 1845 and 

 1846, any money could have been raised ; in the years 1847 and 

 1848, no money can be raised, — and who dares look forward with 

 hope .'' 



If the share-market were as law-makers wish it, and as they 

 have tried to make it, it would be very well ; but unhappily it is 

 not so. It does not work so smoothly as they think it may ; it 

 has its ebbs and its floods; sometimes setting in with a full tide, 

 whirling and eddying round, the waters rising to the top of the 

 flood, then the stream pouring out with a quick rush and leaving 

 all bare. People were wonder-stricken that there should be gamb- 

 ling in 1846, as if there never were before ; and though they were 

 quite ready to say that a heavy fall would follow, they did none 

 the more wisely. Time has shown that while share-gambling is 

 going on, railway-making is going on ; and when share-gambling is 

 at an end, money cannot be raised even for the most useful under- 

 takings. There is a cloud hangs over all, the good and the bad ; 

 and though those who have helped to make the storm worse may 

 wish it otherwise, the good feel it as much as the bad. 



While the share-market flourished, and the East India govern- 

 ment were besought to give their leave for the railways to be begun, 

 they stopped short, as if they had time in their own hands, and 

 could wait as long as they pleased. They have so often set up 

 kings in the east and put them down — they so often send out their 

 word, and a mighty kingdom springs up or is cast down, that they 

 thought they had only to speak, and railways would be made when- 

 ever they liked. Had they then, as they were told, given the 



