Chamberss Edinburgh Journal, No. 455 | Page 2

the way of traffic, and there being only
wretched cars drawn by cows, as the means of locomotion, this great
mineral wealth has been locked up, and next thing to useless. What an
outlet will the Strasbourg and Manheim Railway furnish! Paris may be
as well and as cheaply supplied with coal as London.

Belgium--a kind of little England--has for a number of years been well
provided with railways; and you may go by locomotion towards its
frontiers in all directions, except one--namely, that of Holland. This
odd exception, of course, arose from the ill-will that has subsisted for a
number of years between the Belgians and Dutch; the latter being not at
all pleased with the violent disjunction of the Netherlands. However,
that coolness is now passing off. The two neighbours begin to find that
ill-nature does not pay, and, like sensible people, are negotiating for a
physical union by rail, seeing that a political one is out of the question.
In short, a railway is proposed to be laid down in an easterly direction
from the Antwerp branch, towards the border of Holland; and by means
of steam-boat ferries across the Maas and other mouths of the Rhine,
the junction will be effected with the Rotterdam and Amsterdam series
of railways. The north of Holland is yet a stranger to railways, nor are
the towns of such importance as to lead us to expect any great doings
there. But the north German region--from the frontiers of Holland to
those of Russia and Poland, a distance of something like 1000 miles--is
rapidly filling up the chasms in its railway net-work. Emden and
Osnaburg and Gottingen in the west, Danzig and Königsberg and
Memel in the east, are yet unprovided; but almost all the other towns of
any note in Prussia and North Germany are now linked together, and
most or all of the above six will be so in a few years.
The Scandinavian countries are more interesting in respect to our
present subject, on account of their railway enterprises being wholly
written in the future tense. Denmark has so little continuous land,
Sweden has so many lakes, and Norway so many mountains, that,
irrespective of other circumstances, railways have not yet reached those
countries. They are about to do so, however. Hitherto, Denmark has
received almost the whole of its foreign commodities viâ the two Hanse
towns--Hamburg and Bremen; and has exported its cattle and
transmitted its mails by the same routes. The Schleswig-Holstein war
has strengthened a wish long felt in Denmark to shake off this
dependence; but good railways and good steam-ship ports will be
necessary for this purpose. When, in April 1851, a steamer crossed
rapidly from Lowestoft to Hjerting, and brought back a cargo of cattle,
the Danes felt suddenly independent of the Hamburghers; but the route

from Hjerting to Copenhagen is so bad and tiresome, that much must
yet be done before a commercial transit can really be established. There
was at that time only an open basket-wagon on the route; there has
since been established a diligence; but a railway will be the only
effective means of transit. Here we must correct a mistake in the last
paper: Denmark is not quite without railway accommodation; there is
about 15 miles of railway from Copenhagen to Roeskilde, and this is to
be continued across the island of Zealand to Korsör. The Lowestoft
project has led to important plans; for a railway has been marked out
from Hamburg, through the entire length of Holstein and Schleswig to
the north of Jütland, where five hours' steaming will give access to the
Swedish coast; while an east and west line from Hjerting to
Copenhagen, with two breaks at the Little Belt and the Great Belt, are
also planned. If Denmark can by degrees raise the requisite capital,
both of these trunk-lines will probably be constructed.
Norway has just commenced its railway enterprises. It seems strange to
find the familiar names of Stephenson and Bidder, Peto and Brassey,
connected with first-stone layings, and health-drinkings, &c., in remote
Norway; but this is one among many proofs of the ubiquity of English
capital and enterprise. The government of Norway has conceded the
line to an English company, by whom it will be finished in 1854. The
railway will be 50 miles in length; it will extend from Christiania to
Lake Miösen, and will connect the capital with an extensive chain of
internal navigation. The whole risk seems to have been undertaken by
the English company; but the benefits will be mutual for both
companies--direct steam-communication from Christiania to some
English port being one feature in the comprehensive scheme.
In Russia, the enterprises are so autocratic, and ordinary joint-stock
operations are so rare, that our Stock Exchange people know very little
about