190 RAILWAYS AND CANALS. 



pond to which, the weight to be drawn at the rate of four miles an 

 hour would amount to more than fifteen tons, which of course could 

 not be moved by any four horses in the world. Therefore, we enter- 

 tain no doubt whatever that a rapid rate of conveyance, with short 

 stages, and rest and refreshment intervening, is the most economical 

 expenditure of the powers of the horse, and contrary to the doctrine 

 of Dr. Lardner, that twenty-four tons may thus be conveyed with 

 incomparably more facility at the rate of five miles an hour, the 

 proper pace for an English cart-horse, than twelve tons at the rate of 

 two miles an hour. The experience of Mr. Grahame, " that it is 

 much easier to draw a boat along a canal at the rate of fifteen miles 

 an hour, than at the lower velocity of six miles," is equally 

 true with reference to railways ; but though twelve tons, according 

 to the estimate of Dr, Lardner, were the utmost daily performance of 

 a horse, conveying that load for a distance of twenty miles, still the 

 number between Manchester and Liverpool would only be required 

 to be doubled, at an encrease of the expense of 23,040/. per annum, 

 which sum would amount to an additional charge of four pence per 

 ton upon the conveyance of goods, and even at the extreme charge of 

 one shilling and four pence per ton, it cannot be contended that the 

 railway would continue to be opposed by the tedious canal. 



I do not assert that horse power is in reality cheaper than the 

 steam-engine, upon a properly constructed railway ; but the Liver- 

 pool and Manchester, and all other yet existing railways, are inap- 

 plicable altogether to the economical use of steam locomotive power, 

 and were probably not projected for the use of any other than horses 

 in the conveyance of goods. 



Enough has already been said, however, to prove that no compari- 

 son whatever exists in the cost of conveyance by railways and canals, 

 for we have seen that upon the Manchester and Liverpool railway, a 

 charge of one shilling per ton produces a splendid dividend of ten 

 per cent, by the employment of horses alone ; from which it follows, 

 that for a distance of one hundred and twelve miles, the estimated 

 length of the London and Birmingham railway, the charge will not 

 exceed three shillings and sixpence per ton; whereas the present 

 cost of conveyance by the canal, from Birmingham to London, is 

 three pounds per ton almost twenty times the rate upon a well 

 managed railroad. And as the railway is thus a more substantial, 

 cheap, and durable conveyance, never obstructed in the winter, and 

 requiring none of the immense expenditure for cleaning out, and 

 attendance and repair of locks, banks, and walks, it is certain that 

 the canal will be no longer able to compete with the railway. 

 With regard to the wide difference in the cost of steam locomotive 

 engines, as compared to the labour of horses upon railroads, we 

 believe the true cause to be in the entire inapplicability of the steam- 

 engine, in its yet cumbrous construction, to the purposes of motion. 

 The friction and enormous weight of so monstrous a mass of iron, 

 coal, and water, added to the load of the usual train of waggons, is 

 calculated to defeat even the stupendous powers of the steam-engine. 

 A locomotive engine may be justly compared to a moving animal, 

 the load of fuel and of water corresponding to the provender and 



