cct. — dec. 1857] Madras Railway. 



77 



It possesses no manufactures, no mineral deposits, not one ele- 

 ment of permanency or stability. Of the three main sources of its 

 present populousness, the Railway is certain to destroy one, to ma- 

 terially curtail another, while a few strokes of the pen, in the shape 

 of an Extract Minutes of Consultation, would at once remove the 

 third. 



The effect of the Railway, had it run right through it, would 

 have been precisely the same, as it will be now, entirely to destroy » 

 its business and importance as an emporium of trade, with the dis- 

 tant provinces, with Mysore, Bellary, Salem, &c. The same effect 

 has been produced by Railways in England in numberless cases, 

 some of which have fallen under my own immediate observation. 

 The large traffic that now passes into Vellore from Salem, Banga- 

 lore, Mysore, and Bellary, will, as the rail advances towards those 

 places, be conveyed at once through it, and the number of people 

 now residing there, connected with this traffic, will disappear. 



Had the line run right through these two towns, it would have 

 been the same ; nothing would be left them but the importance 

 due to a Railway station, and even this would be a fall from their 

 present condition, considered merely as local agricultural centres, 

 since stations, on each side of them, within 6 or 8 miles, would draw 

 away much of the business that, in the present state of the com- 

 munications, passes into these towns. 



Nothing will remain to give Vellore special importance, but 

 its Fort and its Garrison ; and it is not probable that the latter will 

 ever be considerable. 



The other towns near which the line passes are Gooriathum , » 

 Vaniembady, Tripatoor, Salem, and Coimbatore. To some of 

 these it passes quite close, but the same principles apply. In some 

 cases, as Salem, it appears a positive good that the station should 

 be 2 miles away, on a high and apparently healthy spot, to 

 which many traders will be attracted leaving the present town, 

 which like many others in this country, seems to have been plant- 

 ed on the most unhealthy spot that could have been selected. 



I think for the reasons I have now given that the present 

 towns, existing wholly upon temporary and accidental causes, as 



