74 On the line selected for the [no. 5, new series, 



Again, Colonel Cotton is, as far as I can learn, in error in 

 naming 13 miles as the average distance travelled by passengers 

 for all England of all classes. In the report for 1855, the average 

 receipt from passengers (exclusive of season tickets) is 19*20 pence, 

 the average fare per mile 1*28 pence. The average distance tra- 

 velled is = 15. For the United Kingdom it is 14'9. 



But I follow this no farther, because I think it very un- 

 sound to build systems and theories for India upon English ex- 

 perience. Take for example the statement regarding the prepon- 

 derance of passengeis and goods traffic. If in one and the same 

 country, as England, there be different lines of Railway, some 

 making their chief profit from passengers, some almost wholly 

 from goods (and one of the latter the Taffvale has been long dis- 

 tinguished as one of the most profitable works in England); if this 

 be the case there, we may well look for a difference in this respect 

 in different countries. 



No two countries would be found to offer more different pros- 

 pects to a Railway than England and India ; the one confined 

 within narrow limits with a dense and wealthy population, active- 

 ly engaged in manufacture and as such collected in large towns, 

 whose existence is secured by permanent and natural causes ; the 

 other a country of vast extent, with scanty and scattered popula- 

 tion, wholly engaged in agriculture, or in commerce connected 

 therewith — the few large towns scattered widely apart, existing in 

 dependance upon accidental and ephemeral causes. 



The difference between the aim and prospects of a Railway, 

 or system of Railways, in a manufacturing and in an agri- 

 cultural country is, as great as this, that in the one case the atten- 

 tion would be immediately directed to the large towns — the seat 

 of mineral and manufacturing wealth— in the other the object 

 would be to drain, as completely and cheaply as possible, a large 

 tract of country of its agricultural produce. 



The latter is the case with us here. The line running inland 

 from Madras seeks thus to serve directly the inland districts 

 of North-Arcot, Salem, Coimbatore, and Malabar ; while until the 



