RAILWAYS AND CANALS. 191 



water of the horse ; and a steam coach or a locomotive engine on a 

 railway, moves under the disadvantage of a horse burthened, in addi- 

 tion to a load, with his own supplies of water, provender, and corn. 

 The wear of locomotive engines upon the Manchester and Liverpool 

 railway, has, from this cause, proved so expensive, as materially to 

 defeat the advantages of this great work ; for an engine of the value 

 of one thousand pounds does not endure for a period of three months, 

 and thirty-six locomotives are required to be maintained, to supply 

 the daily complement of six. Previously to the opening of the Man- 

 chester railway, no just experiment had indeed been made of the 

 cost of locomotive steam power, and until the steam engine shall be 

 yet vastly simplified in its construction, we hold that its cost will be 

 fatal to its use, and that the interests of the shareholder and the pub- 

 lic require, that for the present it should be abandoned. 



When reduced to their lowest practicable cost for conveyance, 

 boundless indeed will be the results of the railways, which, at an 

 early day, will throw their giant arms across the commercial di- 

 visions of this great empire. Cities now covering a circumference of 

 miles will die away dispossessed of their peculiar advantages, from 

 the vicinity of harbours, rivers, coal, and the useful metals ; the most 

 inland districts will enjoy the advantages of sea-port towns ; and 

 property will become equalized in value, to the most distant portions 

 of the kingdom. The rail-road projected from London to Dover will 

 alone overturn the grandeur, and even the very foundations of the 

 modern Babylon for it will assign to Dover the entire shipping 

 business of London, and finally close the Thames. The expensive 

 and circuitous navigation of the Downs and the river will be avoided 

 millions per annum, now paid for pilotage, dock dues, and the in- 

 numerable charges of the Thames, will be saved to the commerce of 

 the kingdom the sea-faring population will be drawn off from the 

 pestilential haunts of the port of London and the plough will soon 

 pass over the ancient and filthy towns upon the Thames ; the banks 

 of which will exhibit a beautiful, still, and natural scene a most de- 

 sirable view, although anticipated by Volney with great regret. For 

 London is one immense monopoly engrossing through the court, 

 the East India Company, the Bank of England, and the various de- 

 partments of the government, the expenditure of almost all the 

 revenue of the country ; draining and weakening the provinces. 

 The distribution, and not the accumulation of wealth, should be the 

 true object of all commercial legislation and the rail-road projected 

 from Dover to Birmingham should receive the most zealous support 

 of the government, if only to scatter the stagnant treasures of London 

 through the impoverished and distant inland districts of the kingdom. 



It is, indeed, to be most deeply regretted, that the opposition ex- 

 perienced in the upper House of Parliament should cast so disheart- 

 ening a prospect upon these splendid undertakings. Upon the Bir- 

 mingham and London rail-road alone, the parliamentary expences 

 have already amounted to the vast sum of 40,000 ; and it is not re- 

 duced to a certainty, that the expenditure of double that sum will 

 ensure the passing of the bill. This forms so great a proportion of 

 the expence to be incurred for the entire undertaking,, that we would 

 suggest to the directors of that arid similar works, that measures may 



