But shall we always be satisfied, even when we have achieved communication by railway from the Mediterranean to the head of the Persian Gulf, and thence by water to English India? There can be but one answer to the question—It would be contrary to all human progress if we were to be so. Only in the summer of the present year, France and England were each honoured with a visit from the Sultan, and it is said there was nothing which struck His Majesty during his short residence in Western Europe as of more importance to the well-being of a state than the construction of railways. It is therefore not surprising that he has already given the subject attention for his own country, and that concessions have been granted for several important lines. Even now the break which separates the railways that extend continuously from Calais to Basiach, on the Danube, 419 miles to the south-east of Vienna (accomplished by the express train in seventeen hours), are only separated from Rustuch by less than 300 miles, and, as the railway—138 miles long—from Rustuch to Varna is open, there is in fact only the Basiach-Rustuch break in a complete railway communication from Calais to the Black Sea. Before ten years from this time, not only will this gap be filled up, but the City of the Golden Horn will be equally put into connection with the whole of the European system of railways. The Queen’s messenger, and the mails now go from London to Constantinople,[97] _viâ_ Marseilles, in about eleven days. When the Brindisi route is established, the time will be diminished some three days, and on the completion of the railways to Constantinople, the interval in time between it and London will not exceed five days. So far with regard to a railway journey, the accomplishment of which, within ten years, is certain. Nothing, except the coming of chaos, can prevent it.