Sir Cusack P. Roney

“ As the writer has taken his picture of England from the columns of its public press, and from its Parliamentary debates and returns, we should be the last to deny that there is in it a foundation of truth. But it is only as if an American were to fill his boxes with the very worst and filthiest rubbish he could pick up in this metropolis, and take it home as a fair average and faithful representation of the capital of the mother country. There is no falsehood so mischievous as truth partially and malignantly selected. ”

“ Our vessels were the first to cross the Atlantic and to round the stormy Cape to India. But have we not thus destroyed the spell that kept our shores inviolate. Not only ourselves, but the French, possess a magnificent fleet of transports on the Red Sea. We can no longer match the dexterity of our sailors against overwhelming odds. Steam breaks the charm. Wars are the affairs of weeks or days. ”

“ The scene in the refreshment room at Wolverton, on the arrival of every train, has so often been witnessed by our readers, that it need hardly be described. As these youthful handmaidens stand in a row behind bright silver urns, silver coffee pots, silver tea pots, cups, saucers, cakes, sugar, milk, with other delicacies over which they preside, the confused crowd of passengers simultaneously liberated from the train, hurry towards them with a velocity exactly proportionate to their appetites. ”

“ And, as regards personal locomotion, how grand and sublime are the powers of the railway. We leave Edinburgh to-night. We travel warmly in the cold season; luxuriously at all seasons, and with complete unconsciousness of the fact that as each hour passes, we are nearly forty miles farther from our starting point. The break at London in the morning gives us the margin necessary for ablution and refreshment; that evening we are in Paris, in ample time, and some to spare, for starting by any of the rapid trains that convey passengers and mails east, south, and west. ”

“ Till her citizens fell out with one another in the mere excess of youthful energy, and the mere exuberance of wealth and power, they had no need of an army to call an army, or of a fleet to call a fleet. It is folly, if not mockery, to compare such a country with England, as if the circumstances were equal, and laws responsible for all the difference. ”

“ The New York Times abuses Free Trade, by charging upon it everything unhappy or disagreeable in the condition of this country, and by asserting that Free Trade cannot be carried out consistently, and is therefore a hollow hypocrisy. Our agricultural labourers work like slaves for a pittance, our women and children make horseshoe nails, or traverse the country in gangs such as would disgrace the kingdom of Dahomey. ”

“ A railroad connects the Red Sea with the Mediterranean; a canal already conveys the sweet waters of the Nile through deserts of arid sand to Suez, and a fleet of superb transports upon the Red Sea conveys our troops to India. Who can predict the future? Who can declare the great French work to be impossible, and deny that within the next half century the fleets of the Mediterranean will sail through the Isthmus of Suez upon the Lesseps Canal? England has been the first to direct to general use the power of steam. ”

“ Free Trade, as ultimated in England, is the most debased ignorance, the most abhorrent cruelty, the most disgusting vice, and the most heartbreaking misery that can be seen in any country calling itself civilised and Christian. There is too much freedom of all kinds in England, and especially a great deal too much in Free Trade. ”

“ It happens, however, that England, with Free Trade, is scarcely building any ships, and that she is in serious danger from Continental competition. How is this muddle to be disposed of? With Free Trade, half the labouring population in England lives upon wages just above the point of starvation, with no resource in sickness or old age but the workhouse, and Ireland is in a state of chronic poverty and discontent. With Free Trade there is a perpetual war between capital and labour, and the enormous burden of pauperism is increasing. ”

“ The wave of a white flag by day, a white lamp by night, is railway language for “Yes,”—a sharp decisive whistle from the foremost guard,—whether the sound be heard above the hissing of the escaping steam or the motion only be perceived it matters not, the engine driver understands it,—up goes his regulator, on goes his steam, the fireman (who has freed his break as soon as the engine is ready for starting) looks to the rear of the train as it begins to move from the station. If the engine don’t “slip,” the regulator, further raised, admits more steam to the cylinder ”

“ You are never more charming, more feminine, more enchanting than when you are domestic. A magic circle of fascination then surrounds you. You are in your real mission, and being real, you are angelic. But, woman, be true to yourself; be domestic to the fullest extent that brightest imagination can picture or truth realise. But, sex most dear, most loveable of all things human that can be loved, hear the advice of one who believes you were sent on earth for the holy purpose of refining man, and of purifying him—never, oh, never be seen using a cork-screw! ”

“ But here little girls from seven to nine years old, are set to work and kept to work, as long as they can stand, hammering at the anvil, roasting by the forge, blacked with soot, never seeing schoolhouse or playground, but employed their whole lives making horseshoe nails for a bare subsistence. Absolute Free Trade sets women and children to work at forge and mine, and reduces wages to the lowest possible standard, and that is the system against which humanity protests, and with which Parliament, in spite of theories, finds it necessary to interfere. ”

“ There is a capital run of railway between York and Darlington, forty-four miles, almost level, and nearly straight. It was on this line that, just twenty years ago, most of the experiments and trials were made, instituted to vindicate the narrow gauge as the best for carrying on the traffic of the country. These trials formed one of the many phases of the great battle of the gauges, fought so vigorously by its champions on each side; yet, in the short space of the fifth of a century, how many of these then active and doughty men have passed away from us for ever. ”

“ And all public services are performed by the railways for the Government, at a moderate cost. But it is not entitled—it can establish no claim—to use the property of railway proprietors, without toll, or to have its work done, without paying a fair rate of profit to those who perform it. When the Post Office Report tells you, that railways are monopolies which have destroyed competition, I ask you to consider, on the other hand, whether railways are not in fact too much subject, at the present time, to Government control. This very mail service is performed by the railways under compulsion. ”

“ By-and-by the steam ferry-boat arrives, bells ring, and the living stream pours and crushes down a covered path, which, stopping suddenly, leaves some thirty or forty paces of open platform, upon which the sun and rain beat uninterruptedly, inconveniencing children, delicate women, old age, invalids, and what not. ”

“ Our shipyards are idle, our workhouses full, and the most repulsive and incessant toil receives wages just above starvation point. The English labourer pines for Protection; the Irish peasant for any possible escape from the allegiance and laws that keep him poor and degraded. Meanwhile, when the pinch comes, we give up Free Trade. In the opinion of the New York Times, it is an abandonment of Free Trade to provide workhouses for destitution, sickness, and old age; to prohibit the employment of women and girls in coal-pits; to limit the hours of factory children and provide for their schooling ”

“ The great forests which once covered the whole county of Sussex supplied the necessary fuel to former generations of manufacturers, but that material was easily exhausted, and, except for the development of coal mining, our iron industry would never have been known. Put coal and iron together, and the result is wealth, trade, population, power. These mighty agents turn a barrow into a borough. They attract labour as surely as gold-fields, and it is by their instrumentality that the displacements of modern society have been accomplished. ”

“ A septuagenarian may be healthy and strong for his years; his activity of mind and body may speak well for the moderation of his diet, the regularity of his habits and the calmness of his temper. What would be thought of a young man of twenty, of remarkable strength and stature, who taunted the old gentleman with his inability to carry a sack of corn, to throw a cricket ball a hundred yards, to run a mile in five minutes, to leap over his own height, to walk twenty miles in a day, to eat a dish of raw fruit or a quart of oats without indigestion? ”

“ As there is no accommodation for any class of traveller, the public sit and stand about the verandahs and covered ways, choking the approaches, thus rendering impossible any attempt at order. The railway staff, represented by baboos and a few lounging slovenly policemen—there are no porters—are swallowed up in the crowd, whilst the two English sergeants content themselves with keeping the carriage-ways clear. All care appears to cease after the traveller has committed himself to the hands of the East India Railway. ”

“ Nearly every coach that ran in 1830, between Birmingham and London, would now have been needed for Post Office purposes, if the London and North-Western Railway had not been brought into existence. The expenses would, consequently have been so large, that a universal penny postage would have entailed a certain loss. For the great blessing, therefore, derived from cheap postal communication, the nation is, in a great degree, indebted to the facilities offered by railways. It must be borne in mind here, that the boon conferred upon the public is not limited to written correspondence. ”

“ Is it an instinct or an abstract idea with them that the door of a compartment cannot be closed unless the closing be accompanied with a loud and violent bang, which pleases nobody and sets nervous persons into a state of glowing trepidation? Or is there a masonry among the officials of this grade, from participation in which the higher classed portion of the railway fraternity is excluded, the secret of the craft being that all railway carriage doors must be banged as they close them? ”

“ The line of demarcation, beyond which cereals will not grow, is higher on the southern than on the northern aspect; suddenly we come upon the walnut and the sweet chesnut, and we have not proceeded more than a mile or so, when a turn of the road near to Mollaretta, 3,795 feet above the level of the sea, brings us upon the grape, growing in beautiful festoons, and yielding fruit that is said to make good and vigorous wine. ”

“ Proceeding to the Calcutta terminus of the East Indian Railway, a line 1,000 miles in extent, we find a wretched little building with brick flooring and no punkahs, where tickets are so slowly issued as to raise doubts as to how the demands of a Derby-day would be discharged. Scores of coolies dash down upon our boxes, and, after much altercation, succeed in carrying them off. The waiting-rooms resemble lock-ups intended for the worst species of pick-pockets, and are simply uninhabitable. Parcel’s office, book-stalls, refreshment rooms, and other and more necessary conveniences are wanting. ”

“ As to Free Trade, the writer does not know what it is, and probably does not care to know. It is trade emancipated from all restrictions and burdens which are not in the interest of all the parties concerned; that is, which are for one person against another, one class against another, or one nation against another. As it is in the interest of common humanity—that is, of all the world—that the destitute, sick, and aged should not be left to perish; that children should not be worked above their strength, or left without education ”