There are two important subjects which it appears to me should at once
be impressed upon the minds of the members of the Italian Government.
The first is, the probable very early completion of the Mont Cenis
Railway on Mr. Fell’s system, and the second, the notice given at
the end of last year by the British Government to the Peninsular
and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, to terminate its existing
_Mediterranean_ contracts on the 31st of January, 1868, and the
advertisement which it has since issued, inviting parties to tender
for these services, dating from the 1st day of the ensuing month—that
is from the first of February, 1868. This advertisement contains,
for the first time, an intimation that the British Post Office is
desirous of establishing an ocean contract service between Brindisi and
Alexandria, in addition to its existing services between Southampton
and Alexandria, and between Marseilles and Alexandria.
As regards the Mont Cenis Railway, the testimony of the various
Imperial and Royal Commissioners who were present at the trials on the
experimental line above Lanslebourg, made in 1865, is so uniformly
in favour of the system, that we have simply to look forward to its
opening as the commencement of a revolution, not only as regards
railway construction in mountainous districts, but also as leading to
the most important results, in connection with the transport of the
Anglo-Eastern mails.
The two kingdoms most deeply interested in the success of the system
are, undoubtedly, England and Italy, the former, because, by means
of the railway the transport of the fast mails can, according to the
testimony of Captain Tyler, of Her Britannic Majesty’s Royal Engineers,
and the Commissioners of the British Government, at the trials on the
Mont Cenis, be effected between London and Alexandria, in thirty-nine
hours less time than _viâ_ Marseilles. Italy becomes, by means of this
railway, a route hitherto undeveloped, and it can be brought into
active operation not only for mail transport, but also for that of
passengers; and no doubt, eventually, for that of light goods, and of
specie also.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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