Anonymous

“ Be assured that no care will be spared on this subject by those who are inviting the public to invest a capital of three millions; their calculations are founded, not on the estimate, but on the actual expenditure of the Liverpool and Manchester railway: they suppose theirs will cost as much as the other actually has cost. Is that an objectionable basis to build upon? They pledge themselves to ascertain the probable expense, and will not rest on the judgment of any one man, however superior they may justly and confidently think him. ”

“ It will condense the whole population of the kingdom, as to all purposes of intercourse for business or amusement; while it spreads it over the whole surface for purposes of healthful air and beautiful country scenery; and we know not yet its maximum rapidity; but our gardens, our farms, above all, our mines and manufactories, will be placed as near the great sea-ports and the sea as if Birmingham was only 30 or 40 miles from Liverpool or London. ”

“ It must not be forgotten, that the Liverpool and Manchester being the first line of the same magnitude that had ever been constructed, many expenses occurred, which are always attendant upon works of a new kind, and which are much reduced when the same kind of work has to be executed again. It was formerly the opinion of those who are best acquainted with these subjects, that railways might be constructed at as little expense as canals: and when we consider that a canal requires a perfect level; occupies an equal width of land with a railway ”

“ But the great point of all is the economy: and here, while we claim the right to assert a great economy, we may readily allow that there may not have been sufficient time to estimate all the expenses with which railways and engines of rapid motion may be attended. But would the low prices have been fixed between Liverpool and Manchester if the managers of this interesting establishment had not found they could with justice to the proprietors take those reduced prices? ”

“ But it is said, the railway may be a good thing for the country; but what will it be for those who consume their capitals in forming it; what does it promise to its proprietors? In the first place, I would observe that the common expression,—it may be good for the country and bad for the proprietors,—expresses what never can be true: it never can be for the good of the country that any capital should be so invested as not to make an adequate return. ”

“ The repair of engines appears great: average this on the quantity of work performed, and you find the charge per passenger or per ton is a mere trifle,—a fraction of a farthing. We will however admit that more time is necessary to ascertain the exact expense. But we must not forget that no great improvement is ever perfected at once: whatever be the expense at first, may we not justly expect it will be reduced?—A curious paper has been published on the power, or what is called the duty, of the steam-engine in Cornwall. ”

“ Does not, then, a question at once arise, Whether it is not possible to construct a road of some kind upon which this great and cheap power may be made to act, instead of horses, and with as great a degree of profit? ”

“ Between London and Margate, Dover and Calais, Liverpool and Dublin, Liverpool and Greenock, Stockton and Darlington, the passing has increased nearly ten-fold since the establishment of such improved conveyance. It is calculated that the whole number of passengers by steam-boats is one million and a quarter per annum. Can it then be expected that a steam communication from Birmingham to London will be an exception? for there is not a line to be found of equal extent in the kingdom on which the population is so great, or on which the commercial and agricultural transactions are so important. ”

“ The general causes of accident upon a common road, such for instance as the horses taking fright, the coachman losing command over them, the coach running against some obstacle in the road, or upsetting, cannot happen upon a railway. The engine can exert no additional force without the consent of the man who superintends it; one carriage cannot meet another, as there is a separate line for carriages travelling in the opposite direction; and even if a wheel breaks, the carriage is so low that it would not upset. ”

“ The application of steam to the purpose of locomotion has been proved upon a rail-road between Manchester and Liverpool. Moreover, the economy of steam power when applied to rapid progression is found to be much greater than when it is employed to supersede the horse-mill. In this the animal is not driven beyond his speed, but is allowed to move at a rate of two miles and a half per hour,—a speed which he can continue to perform for eight or ten hours per day. A horse is found to perform the greatest quantum of work when moving at this rate, and to be employed most economically. ”

“ What the prospect of that industrious population which depends upon it? A reduction of one half in the expense of carriage, which the railways appear justly to promise, would convert a bad trade into a good one; would give Staffordshire a superiority over all competitors. At this moment the remission of the duty on sea-borne coals will narrow the market of the Staffordshire coal trade. The railway may not only restore the balance, but incline it in favour of Staffordshire, whose mines lie nearest of any to the metropolis. But the superiority of railways is a question of fact ”

“ As the utility of railroads may be considered established by the one now in operation, it must be evident how desirable it is to connect Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham, and ultimately other towns in the North, with the Metropolis. Supposing a railroad connecting these important towns to exist, which might be considered as the chief line of communication from the North to the South, there is a reasonable hope, that shortly other roads would be proposed and executed, connecting the remaining influential towns. ”

“ It may be objected, that railroads would throw out of employment a great number of people, who are now actively engaged, as coachmen, guards, horse-keepers, boatmen, waggoners, &c.: but as all improvements which tend to reduce the price of travelling and quick communication have led to a different result, we may infer that the number of cross coaches and short conveyances of all kinds that would be established to bring up passengers and goods to the railway, would at once give employment to these men. ”

“ But even if the Railway costs twice or p. 17three times as much as a canal, the advantages that it has over a canal in its amount of traffic, and the economy attending it, are in a much greater proportion than the increase of its cost.
There are very few canals of any extent that can pass more than two hundred tons of goods per hour. The locks in general admit of but one boat passing at a time, carrying from twenty to twenty-five tons. Where the greatest despatch is used, the average is not more than eight boats passed per hour. Here at once is a limit to the despatch of canal conveyance. ”

“ Thus it appears, that canals are limited, in respect of the quantity of goods that can be conveyed upon them, to less than 200 tons per hour; their greatest average speed is less than three miles per hour, and for the slow boats one mile and a half per hour; the general expense of haulage is 1d. per ton per mile; they are subject to stoppages averaging five weeks per annum, from frost, drought, and repairs. A railway, on the contrary, may convey 4,000 tons per hour, at a velocity of fifteen miles: steam propelling power costs only one farthing per ton per mile, exclusive of the waggons ”

“ We may take as a proof the present posting and travelling upon the road from London to Dover, which was greater in 1829 than ever it was known to be before, although in the same year upwards of 1,000 passengers were conveyed weekly from London to Calais by steam. If indeed there are some persons that will be thrown out of employment for a short time, we must set against this the vast increase of labour that will be given to mechanics and others employed in manufacturing the engines and machines used on railways ”

“ Though the capital required is considerable, yet I think the public may be trusted in seeking out their own means of investment; they are in fact only carrying that principle to the establishment of an improved conveyance at the cost of an old one, (an improvement in which many of them are deeply interested,) upon which in their manufactories they constantly act, when a machine that costs 100l. is supplanted by one that may cost 500l., but which is found to perform ten times the work. ”

“ Let us again consider, that we are generating a new power, with the consumption only of a mineral drawn from the bowels of the earth, while we are saving the surface land to produce that sustenance which our increasing population requires. Every horse that is dispensed with, saves the produce that would support six men ”

“ Can steam power, then, be used to produce this rapid motion? One hundred thousand persons that have passed from Liverpool to Manchester in less than two hours since September last, can answer this question in the affirmative.
Another great advantage of the railway over the common road is the much greater safety that it offers. The above number of passengers have been conveyed with scarcely an accident. Is there a line of turnpike-road in the kingdom that can make the same boast, where an equal number of passengers have travelled? ”

“ The railways, which we are now considering, resting with one extremity on the metropolis, extending thence by way of Birmingham, through Staffordshire to Liverpool, and by Liverpool connected with all the north of Ireland and west of Scotland, to the north of Birmingham sending off a branch through Manchester to Leeds and the West Riding of Yorkshire,—will connect all the greatest towns, all the greatest manufacturing districts with each other and with the metropolis ”

“ But even compared with this, we have seen that an equal effect may be produced by steam power at one-sixth the cost. With how much greater advantage and profit, then, can steam be applied, where it is made to supersede the use of horses in rapid motion, of eight or ten miles per hour! at which work it is known they can continue p. 9but one hour per day, and even then they do not live to half the age of the horse employed at the slower speed. It is a fact, that horses employed in the fast coaches and for the fly-boats require renewing every four years. ”

“ It is unnecessary to establish by reasoning what is borne out by facts; and I refer again to the railroad between Liverpool and Manchester, on which goods and merchandise are now taken in one-tenth of the time and at two-thirds of the former cost, and passengers in half the time and at p. 22half the former charges by coach. May not the same support be looked for between London, and Birmingham, when the same advantages are offered? ”

“ The immense surface that is now required for the support of cattle may be conjectured, when it is known that in England and Wales alone we have upwards of thirty millions of acres in tillage, and that one acre may grow as much corn as is consumed by three men in a year. ”

“ The price of land in the vicinity of large towns is usually high; and the outlay was further enhanced by numerous claims for compensation, owing to the prejudice which a few years since existed against Railways, and especially against what now appears their peculiar recommendation—the Locomotive Engine. ”

“ Thanks to these works, at this moment, in the three kingdoms, 22,300 merchant-vessels, manned by 160,000 men, and capable of carrying two millions of tons of merchandize, are scarcely sufficient for the exportation of the superfluity of interior circulation, for the trade along the coast, and for the importation of those foreign products necessary to keep up a circulation so immense. ”