fairly to afford us almost every thing we can desire in this respect as railroads, is evident from the rapid manner in which they have already spread and are now spreading over civilized Europe and America, and are extending to Asia, if not to Africa. If it is a mania, it is therefore a mania which is not confined to England, nor is it bounded by the limits of the ocean, but is like the air we breathe, common to mankind. To endeavour to resist it then would be like endeavouring to exhaust the ocean, or stop the rising and setting of the sun. No; so thoroughly are matters changed, that it is no longer the promoters of well planned railroads, but the opponents who are become the madmen, and who will need the particular care of their friends. That railroads will go on, and must go on, is inevitable, and to try to stop them is a mark, not of wisdom, but of superlative folly.

What is wanting of the legislature is to sift the merits of the schemes proposed to the bottom; to examine strictly on what principles they are founded, and how they have been got up. I shall here just mention a case or two of the mode of projection and getting up of lines which have actually come within my own knowledge.

A needy adventurer takes it into his head that a line of railway from the town A to the town B is a matter of great public utility, because out of it he may get great private benefit. He therefore procures an Ordnance map, Brookes's or some other Gazetteer, and a Directory. On the first he sketches out a line between the two towns, prettily curving here and there between the shaded hills for the purpose of giving it an air of truth, and this he calls a survey, though neither he nor any one for him had ever been over a single foot of the country. An estimate is then made out by the known average cost of railways, making a little alteration here and there from some loose information he may have picked up. The Gazetteer, Directory, and a pot of beer to a cad or coachman, supply him with all the materials for his revenue, which fortunately never fails to be less than 15, 20, or 30 per cent. per annum, and is frequently so great that his modesty will not allow him to tell the whole. His next object is to get a secretary and solicitor. For the former he finds a young man, or a man young in experience, who, by advancing a few hundred pounds merely for current expenses, secures a substantial situation, on paper, of some five or six hundred pounds per annum. In a similar manner is the solicitor drawn in. The large profits to the shareholders and the apparent fairness of the estimates, of which he can form no idea, are the blossoms of the golden harvest he actually expects to reap from a little present risk and trouble.

A second method of getting up a line, is that of an attorney getting together a few rich clients under the assurance that he knows of an excellent rail-road project-though he has not had an inch of it surveyed, and knows

not whether it is practicable or impracticable—promising the most ample returns. Through them, he then orders some engineer devoted to his interests, to lay out a line which must be sure to pass at or near the estates of Messrs. or my Lords A. B. and C., without the slightest regard to any other interests, or whether the country is favourable or not. These gentlemen are his clients, or he has some object of interest or profit in view, and that is enough. Thus the engineer and the committee are his tools, and the solicitor, under his modest title, the absolute dictator, through whose orders the public are to be cajoled and plundered without mercy.

A third method, which is the most impudent and unprincipled of the whole, is again, that of some attorney; for attorneys are generally the prime movers in these matters. He first wheedles, whines, and bows himself into an acquaintance with some monied men, and then informs them of a capital project that he has, for the investment of capital. Being won over, as men and invite engineers to

may with pleasing subjects, they call a meeting,

submit their plans, &c. under a pledge that the best will be adopted. Having thus got all the information in his power, and a clue to some good line, the cunning solicitor orders fault to be found with all the plans presented, and another engineer, more suited for his purpose, is directed to find "the best line for the company." This trick on the engineers having succeeded, with numberless addendas I have not now time to notice, the next great stroke is to get the shares to a premium. They are, of course, all appropriated to a few. One of these few sends brokers into the market to purchase such shares at whatever price they can get them, and others to sell at not less than so much. Of course the shares are at the premium almost before a single one is bona fide sold. At first this premium is small, lest Johnny Bull, gullible as he is, should take alarm; but the same game played day after day, up mounts the premium to an enormous height. Quotations of these extraordinary premiums, which the public suppose spring from legitimate merit, naturally create an appetite for the concern, which is so judiciously fed as to be increased rather than diminished.

In this way are some of the concerns got up, and the public most wofully plundered to fill the pockets of a few; while other concerns of real and solid merit, in which the whole of the shares are legitimately out (as the Gravesend, &c.), and therefore beyond the control of the directors, remain at a little above par.

What I have stated are not the figments of the imagination, but cases actually before, or about to be before, the legislature. Neither are they a tithe of what, if I had time, I could point out; but they are, I presume,

* I would not wish these observations to be understood as against the profession generally. There are many that I have the pleasure of knowing as honourable men as any in England.

quite sufficient to call on the Commons and Lords to act with extreme caution, and not merely as respects the goodness or badness of a line, but as respects the parties who are the actual supporters and promoters of it.

It may now very naturally be asked, if you are satisfied of all these things, what remedy would you propose for their cure, or what means for their prevention? These are subjects of extreme difficulty, and of so much importance, that I should be sorry to approach them with haste, particularly with the haste in which I am now obliged to write. However, that I have thought of them, and consulted with men whose opinions are much more valuable than mine, is true, and in the next Number I will endeavour to submit the result of our conferences to my readers, together with some observations on the method of laying out lines, which appears in general, either to be little understood, or exceedingly disregarded.

RAILWAY NOTICES AND INTELLIGENCE.

EDITOR.

Birmingham and London Railway.-Twenty-one miles of this line of the London end are expected to be opened for the public in the ensuing spring; ten more in the summer; and the whole in the summer of 1838. A loan is to be raised, and a further call of ten per cent. to be made, to meet the current expenses of the year.

Calcutta and Sauger Railway.—With so much avidity were the shares of this railway taken up by parties interested in Indian affairs, that not a single share was to be had a few days after the appropriation.

A report having been circulated that the line was carried over a swampy ground subject to deep floods, &c., the Editor of this journal was induced to make some inquiry into it, for the sake of those who may have embarked their money in the speculation. Fortunately for this purpose, he was called on last Sunday, the 14th of February, by Lieutenant F. C., who had been in India for about eight years, and said he was intimately acquainted with that part of the country, but had barely heard of the intended railway. He most decidedly negatived the report as to deep floods, and stated positively that though, as in many parts of England, there were occasionally floods, yet he had never known them more than from about one foot to one and a half or two feet deep. His opinion was, that if a good embankment of 12 or 14 feet high was made it would be much more than ample. And as to the profits of the concern, when finished, he said, from the tedious and dangerous navigation of the Hooghly, and the immense trade carried on with Calcutta, he conceived they could not fail to be exceedingly great.

The Greenwich Railway. This railway has at length commenced running

for pay, though only about 24 miles of the middle of it, from Deptford to Bermondsey Street, have been finished. An account of the receipts from the 8th, the day on which the running commenced, to the 19th, are in the editor's possession, and shew a progressive and rapid increase. The daily average of the first week's returns was about 177.; of the last nearly 311. or 11,300l. per annum. In this calculation, Sunday's traffic, which would have been exceedingly great, is omitted because there was no running. If we consider that this is nearly 37. per cent. per annum, on the capital of the whole line, and upwards of 71.* per cent. on that of the part actually run on; and if we call to mind that it is on the middle of the line, without any accommodation at either extremity-particularly at the London end, which is half a mile from the bridge, instead of to the foot of it, as it will be— we may form some idea of the enormous returns this railway is likely to make when completed, from its own resources alone, without any of those tributary streams, which the Editor in a former article calculated on.

We are sorry to hear, that the carriages have not been running on either of the two Sundays. What can be the reason of this? Surely there can be no scruples on that score? We cannot for a moment suppose, that the directors who keep up their police, keep men to receive tolls, and to shew the carriages, the arches, the railway, &c. for profit on a Sunday, and very properly so, can have any qualms as to allowing an inanimate machine to roll over the railing on that day, for the convenience of the Public. If they have upon any such principle forbid the running, are they not incurring a heavy responsibility with the shareholders, in thus lopping off perhaps five or ten per cent. of their legitimate income?

Since writing the above we have made inquiries, and find that the suspension of running on Sundays is owing to the want of engines, and that as soon as they are well furnished, Sunday will not form a day of exception.

Gravesend Railway.—We hear that Colonel Landmann, the engineer, was desired on Friday the 19th of February, by the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, to stake out the line he wished to take across the Park, which he did the next day. The subject will of course be taken into immediate consideration; and it is to be hoped that the obstacles which heretofore operated against the completion of this great undertaking, will now give way in the only quarter in which opposition would be effective to the march of improvement, and the necessity of the times. How, indeed, can public property be so well employed, as for works of public convenience, and public utility? Dr. Burney and others, whose opposition was very formidable, doubtless feeling convinced that individual interests should not, especially with men who

• Since then, the daily receipts have actually risen to upwards of 14 per cent. per annum. - EDITOR.

really love their country, stand opposed to the general good, have very handsomely sent in their assents. We are glad to hear that a Meeting got up on Monday last at Greenwich, for the avowed purpose of opposing this railway, was totally unsuccessful.

"For that contemplated portion of the viaduct, which it is intended shall cross the Royal Park at Greenwich, a design has been submitted for having niches at stated intervals between the massive piers which sustain it, wherein are to be placed the busts of our most celebrated by-gone admirals, leaving vacant ones for the reception of future naval heroes, whose achievements may entitle them to such eminent distinction; the whole to be surmounted in the centre by a triumphal arch, upon which is to be erected a colossal statue of his present majesty, in full naval costume. The adoption of a design thus combining utility with ornament—an undertaking which, whilst it gives an impetus to our commerce, will help to commemorate the many naval triumphs which in perilous times secured it to us; appropriately too in the immediate vicinity of the magnificent palace which a grateful country has charitably devoted to the services of its heroic veterans, is less an object of private than of national concern. It is to be hoped, therefore, that no impediment will be unnecessarily thrown in the way of its advancement." Indeed! we are glad to hear this from the Herald.

Gravesend and Dover Railway.—One of the most numerous and respectable meetings almost ever held at Maidstone, was held there on the 17th of February, at the Town Hall, for the purpose of taking into consideration the two projected lines through the county of Kent, from London to Dover. Charles Ellis, Esq., the Mayor of Maidstone, presided. A deputation from the Gravesend and Dover company attended, for the purpose of giving any information required, but no one appeared on behalf of the "South Eastern line," as it is called. After a long and animated discussion, during which, the deputation very satisfactorily answered every interrogatory, strong resolutions were passed in favour of the Gravesend and Dover, and against the South Eastern Line, with only four dissenting voices, (and scarcely more than one of them of the town), out of some hundreds assembled. In fact a stronger symptom of unqualified preference could hardly have been given, and a petition to Parliament in favour of the Gravesend line, was eagerly and numerously signed on the spot.

Grand Junction Railway.—The works are in a very forward state, and proceeding with great rapidity.

Railway from Lancashire to Glasgow.-We hear that surveys have been made with a view of connecting Liverpool and Manchester with the great manufacturing districts of Scotland, and a report on the practicability of the line will in a few days be made. So far as we have been able to learn, the proposition is to commence the line at Preston, where the North Union