described as opinions. They are the simple utterances of that dear-bought political wisdom which is acquired by the rulers of men at the cost of wars, rebellions, and famines-utterances the neglect of which is simply the invitation to evil fortune and crushing disaster.

Assuming, as we may now rightly do, that the importance of the Euphrates Valley line, as an integral link of the military and political system of the British Empire, is a matter beyond all question or cavil, it remains to enquire at what cost it is possible to construct such a railway, and what is the commercial value and financial outcome which may be reasonably anticipated from the outlay.

As to the northern section of the line, from Seleucia to Aleppo, and from Aleppo to Beles on the Euphrates, the information already collected is ample to justify immediate action. The report of Major-General Chesney, cited at the head of the present article, recalls the fact that in 1857 a company had actually been formed, a concession obtained from the Porte, and surveys had been made of the first of the three consecutive sections between the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf. Mr. Andrew, who we believe was the chairman of the company, in a pamphlet entitled European Interests in the Euphrates Valley Route,' published in 1861, accuses the late Emperor of the French of having, 'for reasons 'best known to himself, put his veto' on a line for which the concession had been obtained, and the avowed approval of the British Government secured. The surveys of General Chesney and Sir John Macneill, who, like ourselves, 'prefer, after survey, Seleucia, the ancient port of Antioch and Aleppo, as the Mediterranean terminus of the Euphrates 'railway,' and the reports as to the elements of traffic which were drawn up for the information of the directors of the proposed line, thus afford a large amount of information neglected by the committee of 1872. What is accessible to the public is enough for our present purpose, but the fact that more exact details are attainable at this moment, if required, is one not to be kept in the dark.

6

Dropping, as we are now fully entitled to do, any further reference to the fever-stricken swamps and steep mountain ladder of Scanderoon and the Beilan Pass, we have the means of estimating the cost of the line from Seleucia to Koweit with a considerable degree of certitude. The estimates of Mr. Macneill, we are told, had the practical guarantee of an offer from Mr. Brassey to undertake the works of the line within their amount. Mr. Macneill estimated the line from the foot

of the Beilan Pass to Aleppo at 7,500l. per mile, and from Aleppo to Beles at 6,500l. per mile. Beyond this Mr. Macneill had no personal knowledge of the country; a fact which explains his contemplation of the left bank of the Euphrates, involving crossing that river twice, and running through a district full of marshes and intersected with old streams and canals. On the right bank of the river there are no affluents to bridge; and by selecting a level slightly above that reached by the highest inundations of the river a line might be traced, requiring but little more work than the laying of the permanent way. And if what are called the Barlow rails, which combine rail and longitudinal sleeper in one, are used, the simplicity of the work would be extreme. Using rivets instead of bolts for the connexions, a rigid bar of iron could be laid across the country which no predatory band of Arabs would have tools adequate to allow them to displace, even if they had the chance of being undisturbed. And the wires of the electric telegraph could be safely and secretly laid under one of the lines of rail.

With the exception of the range of the Balbi hills, from 300 to 500 feet in height, which causes the Euphrates to make an abrupt bend, almost at right angles to its course, at 2 miles above the ancient passage to Palmyra, no features in any way exceptional to the general fall of a wide river valley are to be found on the Survey of General Chesney. If any difference existed in the cost of the line from Aleppo across the country to Beles, and thence down the course of the river, it would be in favour of the latter. Thus the outlay of 7,5001. per mile for ninety miles, and of 6,500l. per mile for the remaining 844 miles, amounting to 6,151,000l. for the whole distance, covers what may be called the contract estimate. Looking in the face every contingency, it seems difficult to doubt that from eight to nine millions sterling would be ample to cover every legitimate outlay for the entire completion of the railway, stations, and harbour work at either terminus.

The traffic which would be commanded by a railway down the Euphrates valley would be of three kinds. There is that which, at the present moment, exists over a certain portion of the line. This it would be only necessary to accommodate. It would come on the railway as soon as opened, as certainly as water would flow down a trench. The second portion consists of such traffic as now takes a route in some degree parallel to that of the old caravan line up the Euphrates valley, which would certainly be diverted to that route by the saving in time and cost secured by a railway. The third source of income

VOL. CXLIX. NO. CCCV.

K

is the traffic which would actually be created, as in every territory proves to be the case, by the facilities offered by a rail

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way.

With regard to existing traffic, Sir John Macneill, according to General Chesney's report of February, 1857, met in one day 1,453 laden animals between Suedia and Antioch, and it appears from the registers that on an average 1,200 'camels and horses pass the Jisr Hadid every day with goods 'from Aleppo or Killis, and various other places.

6

The papers sent home by Mr. Kennedy,' General Chesney continues, which have been printed in connexion with the Euphrates Valley Railway, show that 181,100 tons of goods. are annually imported through Aleppo, and 179,800 tons pass that city for export.' The value of the imports is returned, from figures in a report from Mr. Consul Barker to the Foreign Office on the trade of Aleppo, at 1,214,0597., and the exports at 1,254,130, as an annual average from 1851 to 1855. This is exclusive of an internal trade with Turkey amounting to 1,079,556. A report from Suleiman Pasha, when Governor of Aleppo, shows that he actually paid into the treasury, in 1853, 17,000 purses, which, being taken at 3 per cent., gives upwards of two millions sterling.' The present cost of carriage per ton from Aleppo to Alexandretta is from 47. to 67. But the mere transport of the existing tonnage of 360,000 tons per annum between Aleppo and the coast, at the enormously reduced charge of 21. per ton, would give a gross revenue of 720,000l. per annum, exclusive of passenger traffic. On the Scinde, Punjab, and Delhi line the passenger revenue amounts to 39 per cent., and on the East Indian main line to 41 per cent., of the receipts from general merchandise. Allowing a like proportion in the present case, the figures, which show a traffic approaching to that of the Lancashire and Yorkshire line in this country, are startling. But they are the simple outcome of official returns.

With regard to the lower and easternmost section of the line under investigation, any local traffic which can in the first instance be expected has rather to be diverted than simply to be accommodated. The connexion of Bagdad with the Euphrates line by a branch, or, as suggested by General Chesney, by steam haulage on a canal, would be an integral part of the scheme. From the confluence of the river Kuthah with the Euphrates, the length of a straight canal to the Tigris, four miles below Bagdad, is only about seventeen miles. The distance from the confluence to Koweit is about 252 miles, which makes the point of embarkation for the Persian Gulf 273

miles from Bagdad. Allowing a speed of four miles per hour for the canal, and twenty miles an hour for the railway, six hours' margin might be taken for transference from canal to railway, and yet a consignment from Bagdad might be alongside of a vessel in Koweit harbour within twenty-four hours from leaving the former city.

The actual distance of the tortuous course of the Tigris from Bagdad to Mohamara is 472 miles; and Mohamara, besides being unfit for a port, is forty miles within the bar at the mouth of the river, which is some thirty miles further up the Persian Gulf than the entrance to Koweit. Mr. R. Paul gave evidence, before the committee of 1872, that he had been on one occasion eight days descending, in a river steamer, from Bagdad to Bassora, which is twenty-two miles above Mohamara. The ascent would occupy, at the very least, twice the time of the quickest descent; while by the railway and canal the time occupied in the up and down journey would be the same. There can be but little doubt that the construction of a route of nearly the length, and occupying a sixth part of the time, of the river navigation, would at once command the bulk of the trade now carried on the Tigris between Bagdad and the Persian Gulf. Even if a railway were constructed along the left bank of the Tigris, it could not be made either so short or with such favourable gradients as the Euphrates line; while the expense of the numerous bridges and other works would be very heavy, involving a corresponding outlay for maintenance of line and interest of money. It could not legitimately compete with the Euphrates line for the Bagdad traffic. By the steam canal the trade of Bagdad would be transferred from the Tigris to the Euphrates, and an important centre of commerce would rapidly grow up round the junction.

As to what the trade of Bagdad is, general information is not wanting. In the first volume of The Expedition for the 'Survey of the Rivers Euphrates and Tigris,' General Chesney

says:

'During the past twenty-five years the pashas have succeeded in drawing to the capital almost the entire commerce of the country. Fleets of large well-built boats descend and ascend the Tigris from the Persian Gulf; but the mass of the trade is carried on by caravans, which branch in different directions from this great emporium. From Persia and Kurdistan are brought silk, coarse woollens, shawls and carpets of Cashmere, Kirman, Yezd, &c., stuff's, gum rahabat, fur, skins, tobacco, rose water, galls, dyes, &c. From Turkey, soap, cotton, linen, silks, embroidered muslins, opium, coffee, and stuffs. From Arabia, incense, myrrh, galbanum, raisins, gums, drugs, and coffee. From Europe, Egypt, &c., grey cloths, prints, calicoes, long cloths,

sheetings, twills, hardware, and cutlery, all English. Also fine French and German cloths, cutlery, lead, tin, West India coffee, cochineal, velvet and satin stuffs, drugs, and spices.

'The exports are wheat, barley, rice, and other grains, horses, pearls, coral, honey, dates, cotton, silk, tobacco, gall nuts, wool, bitumen, naphtha, saltpetre, salt, coarse coloured cottons, fine handkerchiefs, and other manufactures of a country which will eventually make its commerce more valuable than that of Egypt.

'The revenue is derived from a tax on transit goods. Naphtha, &c., is understood to produce 34 millions of dollars. From dates, cotton, house rent, &c., 14. From wheat, barley, and other grains, exclusive of the lands farmed chiefly near Bagdad and Hillah, four millions. And from the proportion taken by the pasha, being one-tenth of the animals reared, 3 millions. Total, 12 millions of dollars.'

Without attempting to determine the exact amount receivable for the carriage of goods on which the Government duties alone amount to more than two millions sterling per annum, it is unquestionable that there exists a large and increasing traffic between Bagdad and the Persian Gulf. With regard to passengers, a very remarkable influx would be that of the pilgrims. At Kerbelah, about seventy miles south of Hillah, at Najaf, forty-one miles from Kerbelah, at Kufah, and other neighbouring places, are the tombs of the imaums, the place where Ali died, and other sites of the most sacred character in the eyes of the Shiite sect of Mohammedans, which comprises the Persians and other Oriental Mussulmans. The pilgrims go to these sites in extraordinary numbers. They are described by one eye-witness as crowding to the shrines like ants.' And not only would there be a constant stream both down from Bagdad and up from Koweit to these shrines, not only would the shortening of the Mecca pilgrimage by some fortnight at least bring another category of pilgrims over the route, but accommodation for the dead would be almost as important as that demanded for the living. The Shiite Moslem shows the greatest anxiety to be buried in the neighbourhood of the tombs of the imaums. The Tigris and Euphrates Company receive very large sums for the carriage of pilgrims. One Begum, Mr. E. Dawes gave in evidence, paid 2,000l. for herself and followers to go up from Bushire to Bagdad, and as much to return. The voyage was too much for her, and she died shortly after her return, and 4007. was then paid to take back her body to be buried near the sacred tombs. • The 'Shiites who visit Kerbela are of the high church, and they are of the higher classes.' The exact number of pilgrims could be ascertained, Captain Selby says, by the duty they pay in Bagdad. The coffin traffic seems not much inferior to the