Belgium, from its geographical position, not less than the extraordinary adaptation of the nature of the surface, seems to have invited the experiment of supplanting the old modes of conveyance, by an uniform and comprehensive system of railroads. The project was taken up by the government in 1833, and the plan finally executed, was that of taking one point, in the centre of the kingdom, and issuing from it--north, west, east, and south--lines, to maintain a communication with the sea-ports of Ostend and Antwerp, and the great commercial outlets of France and Prussia. It is expected, that on reaching the frontier of these two states, at Limbourg and Couvin, in the Bois de la Thierache, the enterprize would be taken up by private speculators, who would continue the chain to Cologne, on the east, and, on the south, in the direction of Paris. The whole project is in direct opposition to the _laissez faire_ principle of the English government, whose maxim is, to leave everything to private enterprize, that private capital is calculated to grapple with. But Belgium has been so long accustomed, both under France and Holland, to “government interference” in the minutest concerns of the nation, even to the prejudice or supersession of individual speculation, that the habitual policy of the country may have rendered its intervention indispensible. And as the entire extent of all the lines projected, in progress, and open, will not exceed three hundred miles, and these can be completed, at a cost infinitely lower than anything that has yet been attempted in Great Britain, the undertaking is not so very gigantic as at first sight it might appear. One advantage which arises from this undertaking, is that its benefits will thus be extended equally to every portion of the kingdom; had it been left solely to private enterprise, those lines alone would have been selected, which promised to be the most prolific in profits; and other districts, less inviting, would never have been traversed by a railroad at all. But the government, by combining the entire into one comprehensive system, is enabled to apply the excess of gain on one section, to repair the possible loss upon another, and thus extend its facilities alike to all. But private enterprise is by no means prohibited, and in addition to the government works, applications from capitalists have been already granted, to construct branches in the mining districts of Hainault.