FOREIGN RAILROADS.

Russian Railroads. We have just perused the Chevalier von Gerstner's "Second Report" on the progress of the line from St. Petersburgh to Zarskoe-Selo and Powlowsk. It is dated Sept. 10, and announces the delivery at St. Petersburgh of the major part of the rails, chairs, carriages, &c., from England, and the intended partial opening of the line upon the arrival of the locomotives, which were shipped in September, and expected about the 8th or 10th October. The construction of this line, eighteen miles in length, carried upon an embankment about nine and a half feet high, including forty bridges, one of which upon a larger scale is thrown over the canal encompassing the town, will thus have been effected in less than seven months, an achievement unparalleled in the history of railroads, and reflecting the highest credit on the directing engineer M. von Gerstner. The grand building within the Imperial park of Powlowsk, for the entertainment of the better classes of St. Petersburgh with its conservatories and fountains worked by a steam-engine of eight-horse power, is in rapid progress towards completion, and two other stations are in course of construction. We learn also that a second line of railroad from St. Petersburgh to Peterhoff, about twenty-six miles, also an Imperial park and palace, and the site of numerous country residences of the nobility, gentry, and merchants of St. Petersburgh, is to be commenced in the spring and finished by the 1st July ensuing, after which two other lines from Moscow to Colomna, and from Riga to Mitau, are to follow. "For a term of ten years this railroad company is to be exempted from taxes of every kind." Here is an example to our British engineers, and to our legislative and parochial governments. A railroad of eighteen miles, some of the materials for which have to be contracted for and brought a distance of near 2,000 miles, is begun and finished in seven months, about one-third the time it would have taken us to procure an Act and get the land conveyed; and at an expense of only 7,500l. per mile, a little better than one-third of our average cost. Scarcely would the ground here be staked out before our greedy authorities would be for laying on their taxes and rates" thick and threefold;" but this line is to have a total exemption for ten years! Instead of throwing every obstacle in the way of going through such a place as Greenwich-park, for a great national work, the Imperial Government of Russia generously throws open one of its most valuable private retreats, on which the Emperor lays out some 100,000l. sterling annually, and only requires that the Company's buildings shall not discredit his Majesty's. Would it not be very beneficial to this

country to put our higher authorities under Russian tuition for a few months? The prospectus of this Company is well worth perusal. We sincerely wish our unfortunate Spanish bondholders had had their money in the Zarskoe-Selo Railway.

Russian Avidity for Railway Information.-Thirty thousand copies of M. Gerstner's the engineer's first Report on the ZarskoeSelo Railway, we hear, were circulated in a few days after it appeared; namely, 20,000 in the Russian language, 9,000 in the French, and 1,000 in the English. As many copies will be printed of the Second Report.

Railway Communication between Montreal and New York.We are truly glad to see that the anticipations of a flying journey to New York, in which we lately taught the restless public to indulge, are soon to be realized. Swifter boats will almost immediately be employed on Lake Champlain. The railroad line will be completed from Whitehall to Albany, and the journey may ultimately be accomplished in the short space of 20 hours, being an hour less than letters and passengers three short months since used to spend between their departure from Montreal and their departure from St. John's. We subjoin the calculation of Thursday's Gazette. The distance from Montreal to New York is 384 miles, which will be effected in 27 hours, as will be seen from the following statement:—

This may yet be shortened by improvements that might be introduced, and a journey to New York, by the Hudson, be effected within the 24 hours. But, if the railroad from St. John's to Stanstead be completed, and the line finished from the Province line to New Haven, the time necessary to reach New York might also be reduced to 18 or 20 hours.-Montreal Herald.

Great American Railroad.—The projected Railroad from Quebec to St. Andrew's, which has been so liberally forwarded by a grant of 10,000l. from Government, is viewed in the United States as of vast importance in a political as well as commercial point of view. A writer in the New York Express says of it, "The length of the route does not exceed 250 miles; the estimated expense 4,000,000 of dollars, being at the rate of 16,000 dollars a mile." The writer adds, "It enables the British Government to transport all her troops, munitions of war, &c., with all possible speed, from that important travelling position, Halifax, where the British Government is now fitting up one of the strongest fortifications in the world, to Quebec, Montreal, Toronto, the lakes, and all along

our southern and north-western territories. In five or six days soldiers can be taken from the great military and naval depot at Halifax and put upon the St. Lawrence, from Quebec to Lake Ontario. The difficult and dangerous navigation of the Gulph of St. Lawrence is thus avoided. St. John, in population and wealth being the great outlet of the vast lake, the St. Lawrence country will soon rival New York. The British will also thus have a port where their produce can be sent to and from the West Indies. Military and commercial advantages prompt the British Government, not only to expend 4,000,000 dollars, but 40,000,000 if necessary."-Falmouth Packet.

Railways in America.—A project has been set on foot at Boston of a very important and gigantic character-the construction of a railway from Brunswick Harbour, on the coast of Georgia, to the Apalachicola River, or Bay, in Florida. Brunswick is stated to be the best harbour in the southern Atlantic coast, and the healthiest place in the southern states. Sixty years ago, it was recommended as a dock-yard, and naval depot for the South Atlantic Colonies, by the then British Colonial Government. The object of the Company in question is to cut a canal, for the purpose of directing the trade of the Allamanda into this harbour, which opens into a large inland sound, navigable for steam-boats to Charlestown and Savannah in the north, and to St. John's, in Florida, to the south, and connect it by a railroad to the Apalachicola River, in Florida, about 200 miles. This project, when carried into effect, will produce a revolution in the internal trade and communication of the United States, and will enable the merchants and travellers at New York to make an easy passage to New Orleans in six days. The flour, pork, tobacco, and sugar, from the Mississippi, destined for the markets on the southern and eastern states, will then be shipped at this point; while the Apalachicola River will be the place where land transportation will end, and steam transportation begin. The New York Morning Courier, alluding to this great scheme, says

"This railroad, from a good port in the Gulph of Mexico, to the best on the other side, must be one of the most important of any in America. It cuts off from twelve to fourteen hundred miles of dangerous navigation round Florida Cape, and lessens the distance of travelling, with regard to time and extent, one-half. The merchant or other person leaving here, on business or pleasure, will arrive at New Orleans in six days, without riding all night at the hazard of his neck. Boats will run to Brunswick as they now do to Charlestown."