any load or package which may pass the
stations, till they are satisfied such load or
package does not contain contraband salt.

Such are the Salt Laws of India; such the
monopoly by which a revenue of three
millions sterling is raised; and such the
system which, in these days of progress and
improvement, acts as an incubus upon the
energies, the mental resources, and social
advancement of the immense population of
India,

Political economists of all shades of opinion,
men who have well studied the subject,
deliberately assert, that nothing would tend so
much towards the improvement of that
country, and to a more complete development
of its vast natural resources, than the abolition
of these laws; and we can only hope, without
blaming any one, that at no distant day a
more enlightened policy will pervade the
councils of the East India Company, and that
the poor Hindoo will be emancipated from the
thraldom of these odious enactments.

But apart from every other consideration,
there is one, in connexion with the Indian
Salt-Tax, which touches the domestic happiness
and vital interest of every inhabitant in
Great Britain. It is decided, by incontrovertible
medical testimony, that cholera
(whose ravages every individual amongst us
knows something, alas! too well about) is in a
great measure engendered, and its progress
facilitated, by the prohibitory duties on salt
in India, the very cradle of the pestilence.
Our precautionary measures to turn aside the
plague from our doors, appear somewhat
ridiculous, while the plague itself is suffered to
exist, when it might be destroyed; its existence
being tolerated only to administer to the
pecuniary advantage of a certain small class
of the community. Let the medical men of
this country look to it. Let the people of
this country generally look to it; for there is
matter for grave and solemn consideration,
both nationally and individually, in the Indian
Salt-Tax.

EXCURSION TRAINS.

FOR several years the South- Western Railway
Company were solicited to run Cheap
Excursion Trains; but for some reason or other
refused to do so. At length a reluctant consent
was obtained, though with many "qualms" as
to its result. The first train started one fine
Sunday last year, with upwards of fifteen
hundred passengers, which in the short space
of two months gradually increased to three
thousand, and has been steadily on the
increase. It was considered that these trains
would only answer on Sundays. The results
of a Monday experiment, however, were that
three excursion trains were running on this
line at one time consisting of nearly one
hundred carriages, containing three thousand
persons, yielding a large amount of profit to
the Company. It was thought, however, that
although trains from London to Southampton
might pay, the latter town would never be
able to furnish a sufficient number of persons
to fill a remunerative train to the Metropolis.
In consequence, only a few excursion
trains were started from Southampton
to London, and these at fares double those
charged on those running in the opposite
direction. The consequence was, total failure
from want of patronage.

At last the experiment was tried of an
excursion train at the same fares as those
charged from London to Southampton. The
result was extraordinary. On the morning
of departure the neighbourhood of
Southampton was like a fair. Upwards of one
thousand five hundred persons took advantage
of it to visit the Metropolis. The receipts
were two hundred and eighty-three pounds,
and the expense of working, by three engines,
did not exceed forty pounds. So complete
was the success of these excursion trains, and
so profitable were they to the company, that
measures were immediately taken to provide
extra accommodation. These trains, in fact,
came to be regarded as a regular, and not an
occasional, source of revenue,—it being found
that they did not interfere with the ordinary
traffic.

On the Great Western line the results of
excursion trains were beyond all expectation.
On the occasion of the first cheap Sunday
trip to Bath and Bristol, although the advertised
time for starting was eight o'clock, the
excursionists had arrived in such large
numbers, long before that time, that two immense
trains were despatched by half-past seven, and
a third at eight o'clock. Each of these trains
comprised about twenty-five of the company's
large carriages, the number of persons
conveyed by them being nearly six thousand.
The profit netted by the company was very
considerable.

But, however gratifying all these facts may
be, (and they are rendered still more so by
the preparations at present made and making
by several Railway Companies to accommodate
the public with excursion trains at
considerably reduced fares,) still we can only
accept them as instalments of what must
eventually be done. The wants of the great
bulk of the people yet remain to be provided
for; and this can only be accomplished by a
further reduction in the present scale of
transit. The progress of cheapness has, by
no means found its terminus. To it the
doctrine of finality cannot be at present
applied. It has been prognosticated by those
thoroughly conversant with railways, and
equally so with arithmetic, that a railway
Rowland Hill will yet arise, and organise
periodical excursion trains to run similar
distances as the mileage between London and
Brighton (say, for simplicity, fifty miles), for
the small sum of sixpence.

If omnibuses can "rattle over the stones"
for two hours, for sixpence each passenger,