RAILWAYS AND CANALS. 187 



pences of conveying even this fraction of the trade, have been so 

 enormous, as to make it doubtful whether the railway company do 

 not suffer a regular loss upon their carrying trade, which is defrayed 

 from their profits as coachmasters." Now, this is all undoubtedly 

 very true respecting the one particular railway from Liverpool to 

 Manchester the worst and most extravagantly planned, built, and 

 managed in all the British dominions ; but is by no means true of 

 many other railways, such as that from Stockton to Darlington, where 

 the rate of conveyance does not exceed one halfpenny per ton per 

 mile, whilst the rate on the Manchester road is precisely nine times 

 that sum, being twelve shillings per ton for the whole distance, 

 which is thirty miles. The cause of this enormous rate of carriage 

 upon the Liverpool railway, is the great and entirely needless cost 

 of steam power, in the use of which the Directors persevere, at a loss 

 to the public of some hundreds of thousands per annum. 



Let us suppose that the use of these steam engines were discon- 

 tinued, and the entire carrying trade of the railway were performed 

 by Tiorses. First, it is necessary to remark, that a decrease of speed 

 would be altogether immaterial in the conveyance of goods, for the 

 short distance between Liverpool and Manchester, since the waggons 

 might travel in the night ; or, starting at three in the morning, might 

 arrive in six hours, drawn by horses, as effectually in time for business 

 as though conveyed as at present in two hours by unnecessary steam. 

 By the substitution of horses, in the place of steam engines, the 

 rate of carriage might be at once reduced from twelve shillings to 

 one shilling per ton ! a change which would effectually shut up the 

 canal increase the dividend upon the stock of the railway save 

 almost a million per annum to the merchants of Manchester and 

 Liverpool, and through them, to the mass of the people, who consume 

 the commodities carried upon the railway. 



We prove this assertion by the following calculations. The weight 

 of goods now annually passing between Liverpool and Manchester, 

 amounts to about fourteen hundred thousand tons ; and as no canal 

 could compete with a railway at the rate of one shilling per ton, 

 which involves the loss of eleven-twelfths of its present revenue, it 

 is certain, that the whole fourteen hundred thousand tons would 

 thenceforth be carried upon the railway, Now, fourteen hundred 

 thousand shillings at the rate of one shilling per ton, amounts to the 

 annual sum of 70,000/., whilst the expence of conveying these four- 

 teen hundred thousand tons will be shewn to amount to no more 

 than the sum of 23,040/., leaving a profit of 46,960/. The aver- 

 age amount of tonnage will be about four thousand tons per diem ; 

 and one horse upon a railway can draw twenty-five tons a distance 

 of ten miles, at a pace of five miles an hour, and return with another 

 load of twenty-five tons ; thus performing two stages, or twenty 

 miles, and conveying a load of fifty tons per diem. One hundred and 

 sixty horses will, therefore, be required for the conveyance of four 

 thousand tons ; and as there will be three stages in a distance of 

 thirty miles, the entire number of horses between Liverpool and 

 Manchester, will amount to four hundred and eighty. The weekly 

 cost of maintaining four hundred and eighty horses, we will estimate 



