metropolis to Brighton, has been stated to exceed even now, 100,000 annually; and allowing for those who return, including visitors from other parts of the coast and the continent, the passage money actually paid may be calculated on 200,000, independent of goods; which are estimated to amount to 30,000 tons a year by land carriage only. The present fare (averaging inside and outside passengers) is 15s. each. Now, if persons can be conveyed in half, or one-fourth the time, without the possibility of being overturned, and in perfect safety from other accidents incidental to coach conveyance, with greater certainty and convenience, besides having no road expences to pay, it will not be necessary to reduce the present charge for conveyance. Thus, 200,000 persons, at 15s. each, would be equal to an aggregate return of £150,000 per annum. The expence of power to convey 300 people and 50 tons of goods from London to Brighton and back every day in the year, in one-fourth the time it now takes to travel that distance, will not exceed £20 per day, or £7300 per annum. Allowing £25,000 for expences, this will leave a profit of 25 per cent. on the cost of putting the principle in operation from Brighton to London, considering the existing traffic only between those places. But it must be evident to every one, that were means adopted by which the space separating the metropolis from the coast, could be passed over as rapidly as this principle will admit, and the latter eventually brought within perhaps, less than an hour of the other, the present traffic would be increased in a proportion no one can estimate; and the value of each £100 share enhanced in a corresponding proportion. Therefore, to secure to those who advance the amount necessary for the first trial between Brighton and Shoreham every possible advantage as original subscribers, it may be proposed to establish the Company, not with reference to Brighton and Shoreham only, but to reserve in the Act of Parliament for that object, a right of putting the principle in practice between Brighton and London also, provided the 1 "Should it be wished, day-light might also be admitted into the cylinder through its whole course. But as it must necessarily be lighted with gas during half the twenty-four hours;-as providing for the admission of day-light would be incurring considerable expense, for a purpose, which the provisions that must unavoidably be made for gas-light, would equally well answer;-and as the little time a journey of one hundred miles might take up, would render it a matter of indifference, whether we were, during that period, cheered by natural, or artificial light, it is expected, that arrangements to admit the light of day will be seen unncecessary." --Insular Defence. 17 result of the experiment to Shoreham should be sufficiently satisfactory, to justify the prosecution of the principle to the metropolis. Instead, therefore, of consisting of only comparatively a few shares of £100 each, the capital for the first object may be divided into 15,000 shares, of £7 10s. each, with liberty to every holder of a share to increase his subscription to £100 per share, should he think proper, on the completion of the work to Shoreham, to co-operate in a second undertaking to London. But that every subscriber may feel certain that he cannot be called upon for more than the original amount of his subscription, namely, £7 10s. per share, except by his own consent, the Act may most fully and expressly provide, that no person who has become a shareholder for the first object, shall be liable to be called upon for the second, until the result of the trial to Shoreham shall be known; and that he has expressed his assent in writing, to render himself liable to the further sum of £92 10s. per share, which may then be required, to extend the line from Brighton to London. But previous to obtaining such Act of Parliament, no subscriber will be required to pay more than the odd ten shillings per share, which sum may be considered the first deposit to be paid unto the bankers, and in the names of the trustees, (hereafter to be declared,) to defray the cost of such Act, to be applied for in the next Session of Parliament, and other necessary expences preparatory to the commencement of the first object. Thus the extreme risk cannot exceed £7 10s. per share, a suin so very inconsiderable, that even were it entirely thrown away, it could not be considered a ruinous loss; while there is every reason to believe it will not only return itself in a few years from the completion of the work between Brighton and Shoreham, but yield a bonus of ten per cent. as long as it lasts. But supposing the experiment to Shoreham were to fail altogether as regards pneumatic transmission, the tunnel would still be efficient as a rail road; on which either horses or loco-motive engines may be employed to draw goods faster and cheaper than on any other rail-road; so that it is impossible the money can be lost, or the investment prove otherwise than permanently advantageous. CREASY and BAKER, Printers, |