1844.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



28'7 



ol people, inquiring the constant ami iuinu'diate attention of the home 

 aiilhoiities. So far as to the necessity of future progress ; vihfv, 

 however, wc look to the benefits accruing from past measures, we sec 

 every encouragenient for perseverance. No cue we shouUl tliink is 

 prepared to exchange the present rapid transit of letters, despatches, 

 and passengers to Bombay and Calcutta for the uncertain and tedious 

 route by the Cape, though inconveniences attendant on the present 

 overland route op|iosc considerable obstacles to its use by ladies and 

 children, who are compelled for comfort to go round by the Cape. 

 By accelerating the transit through Egypt, we shall obviate nnich of 

 this inconvenience complained of, and we shall gain about a day in 

 our communications. By the activity and enterprise of the Egyptian 

 Overland Transit Company and of Mr. Waghorn, and in consequence 

 of the competition in which they were engaged, the present means of 

 transport in Egypt have been made to produce their greatest effect ; 

 but it is evident that even with improved roads, camels, horses, and 

 asses, labouring under a tropical climate, and in a district where there 

 is not a drop of water, cannot put forth the energy they could in this 

 country. As to a ship canal, it is very evident that whatever facili- 

 ties it might afiTord to trade it could do very little in accelerating mails 

 and passengers. Only one means is available for doing that, and it is 

 a railway, which will give increased speed, saving in time, greater 

 comfort, and less expense, so as to enhance the advantages presented 

 by the overland route, and bring a greater number of travellers. To 

 the home Government then, the East India Company, the commercial 

 body, to travellers, and to the Indo-English community, the saving of 

 even a few lionrs would be of great importance, but a plan so replete 

 witli advantages as that of the Suez Railway demands on all hands the 

 most earnest attention. 



The nature of the Suez desert is pretty well known from tlie de- 

 scriptions of Indo-English travellers. It is in general composed of 

 hard gravel and pebbles, and has much the appearance of a dry sea 

 beach, with an undulated surface, and occasional hills of stone and 

 sand, and without a single well or a drop of water. It need scarcely 

 be said without a plant. The desert is about seventy miles across, 

 and its convenient passage has long been a matter of importance in 

 Egypt. So much so, that in 1834 the celebrated Bey Galloway was 

 authorized by His Highness Mehemet Ali to make a survey of the 

 country, with the view of laying down a railway between Cairo and 

 Suez. He found it perfectly practicable, and was authorized to pro- 

 ceed with it. It must at once be evident that in the construction of 

 such a line much less difficulties have to be encountered than under 

 ordinary circumstances, and much less expense to be incurred. In the 

 deserts of Egypt there are no ravenous claimants for land purchase, 

 severance, compensation, &c., no parliamentary expenses, no lawyers' 

 fees. The country everywhere presents a good foundation, without 

 expensive embankments or cuttings, and without tunnels, bridges, 

 expensive stations t.r works of art. Under such circumstances a 

 single line of radway can be laid down as cheaply as in any part of 

 the United States, after allowing for any increased expense by having 

 to convey all provisions and supplies into the deserts. The scheme 

 was one, therefore, which promised many advantages to the Egyptian 

 Government as an inducement, and Galloway Bey proceeded as far as 

 making contracts in England for rails and locomotives, when his un- 

 fortunate death, and the disturbed state of political affairs in the East, 

 gave opportunities for the intrigues of adverse diplomatists to obtain 

 a suspension of the plan, the receipts from overland traffic, moreover, 

 being then quite undeveloped. It must be observed, that in Egypt 

 whaiiver is proposed is subjected to all kinds of chicane and intrigue 

 from the French agents, ever anxious to meddle, and treating Egypt 

 as their own province, and the other members of the foreign corps 

 diplomatique are not behind them. Hence the plan of a railway has 

 been strenuously decried by them, and that of a canal overlauded, for 

 while a railway will chiefly advance English interests,and can do little 

 for France, Austria or Italy, a canal promises to open to the merchants 

 of Marseilles, Trieste and Syro, the commerce of the Red, Persian and 

 Arabian seas, and to give them advantages in carrying on such traffic 

 frota the Meditterranean. The railway will carry passengers, des- 

 patches, letters and light goods, most of which are English and paid 

 for by the English, consequently not presenting any very great temp- 

 tations to foreign commerce, and in our opinion rendering their inter- 

 ference uncalled for and unnecessary. 



In last year his highness renewed his authority to the house of Gal- 

 loway, and Mr. John Alex. Galloway proceeded to put himself in 

 comnmnication with the home government, by whom he has been 

 favourably received, although he has not yet succeeded in effecting 

 the necessary arrangement. He was authorized to propose on the 

 part of his highness that the railway should be constructed at once, 

 provided the English government-would consent to guarantee a postage 

 on the letter. This proposition, from whatever reasons, seems not 



to have been acceded to in its details, though Mr. Galloway intimates 

 that his highness would have be<'n amply satisfied with a piastre (2id) 

 on each letter. That the public would willingly pay this charge we 

 have no doubt, when we consider how ready they are to pay a much 

 larger sum for the transit by Marseilles. Against this "hd would, 

 however, have to be set part of the present charge for transit through 

 Egypt. We hope, however, that should there be any unwillingness on 

 the part of our government to accede, that the Egyptian authorities 

 will not delay on this account, for if government do not at once accede 

 to the very moderate terms nowr proposed, they will be at the mercy 

 of Mehemet Ali to submit to whatever high(~r charge may be pro- 

 posed, for the force of public opinion will compel the use of the route 

 when once made. 



Mr. Galloway strongly opposes all the projects for a ship canal, and 

 it seems to us with some show of reason, for of the three plans pro- 

 posed here not one of them emanates from a party who has been on 

 the spot, while the two French officers of his highness, Soliman Pasha 

 and Galice Bey, vilw visited the remains of the ancient canal near 

 Suez never examined the rest of the route. On the other hand, Mr. 

 Galloway brings the adverse testimony of an engineer who has been 

 on the spot, and the assistance ofCapt. Glascock, of H.M.S. Tyne, and 

 the master of the same ship, who state the Egyptian coast at Tineh to 

 be almost impracticable for sailing vessels. In fact, being in an angle 

 between two lov/ coasts, it constitutes a most dangerous place, like the 

 coast to the east of Ostend, and to the east of Hamburgh, where if a 

 vessel misses the harbours it must go ashore and be irretrievably lost. 

 Channels too have to be cut at each end to deep water, 4 miles one 

 way and miles another, and the engineering difficulties are of the 

 most serious character. Capt. Vetch estimates the cost of a ship 

 canal at two millions on hypothetical grounds. Mr. Galloway puts 

 forward strong reasons for doubting whether even this high estimate 

 would suffice. At any rate it is pretty evident that in the ordinary 

 state of Egyptian finance the necesssary capital would not be forth- 

 coming, while there are sufficient Egyptian interests to urge the con- 

 struction of such a work. As Mr. (talloway says, if Egypt were an 

 English province such a work might be attempted; but, at present, 

 neither the Egyptian government nor the English government will 

 undertake an enterprise uncertain in its expense, and still more un- 

 certain as to the revenue it would produce. The railway is then the 

 only practicable measure ; it is the one in every sense the most bene- 

 ticial to this country, and we trust it will be prosecuted with vigour. 

 For a railway we must furnish the rails, the locomotives, the carriages, 

 and the coals, for a canal we should supply nothing, while the interests 

 of England and Egypt will be much better consulted by the railway 

 than by the canal. \Vc repeat, we cannot doubt that the government 

 must accede to any reasonable contract for carrying the letters which 

 may be proposed, they have had to give way in the case of steam 

 mail contracts, and with the mail contract, the large and increased 

 number of passengers, and the extent of goods traffic, the Suez and 

 Cairo Railway must pay. 



Before we conclude, we beg briefly to nrge on our government the 

 value of the Syrian route, as a resource in case of any difficulties in 

 Egypt. The route through the valley of the Dead Sea and Jerusalem 

 used originally, by the enterprise of the Phenicians and Solomon, to 

 divert the Indian traffic by Egypt, will always be found available in 

 case of any interruption of our political or commercial relations with 

 Egypt. 



Reference lo the Plan and Section. — The intention of his highness is 

 to mike railroads from Alexandria to the vicinity of Cairo, as well as 

 to Suez; and on that account, as from local circumstances, a branch- 

 road from the citv of Cairo to the grand depot was made. The road 

 marked A is the line to Alexandria ; B to Cairo ; and C a short road 

 for the trial of engines, Sec; D D D D the Suez road, which runs in a 

 right line for seventy-five miles, and branches round at Aggoroot 

 Fort, and from thence to the sea at Suez, at which it is intended to 

 erect a pier: the entire length is eighty-four miles. The profile of 

 the ground shows very favourable gradients upon the greater part of 

 the line — there are no tunnels, and the engineering difficulties are 

 very slight. 



METROPOLITAN RAILWAY STATION. 



The unfounded fears and prejudices which dictated the exclusion 

 of railways from the heart of the metropolis, has now begun to do its 

 work. Instead of having the points of departure in accessible locali- 

 ties, we have to run to Euston Square, Paddington, Nine Elms, Shore- 

 ditch, or the Bricklayers' Arms. Now that the bugbear as to the 

 nuisance, danger and annoyance of railways is satisfactorily exploded, 

 the public begin to make a clamour on account of the incon- 



