RAILWAYS, HIGHWAYS, AND CANALS. 169 



proceeds calmly to estimate the future value of railways, from the 

 data by which the probability of any thing future can be safely^esti- 

 mated the experience of the past. 



Only two railways have been constructed in England upon a 

 scale sufficient to afford any judgment of their value as public ways 

 the Darlington railway, in the valley of the river Tees, and the Liver- 

 and Manchester railways. Both of these have the advantage of 

 peculiar trades ; the former between mine and port for the convey- 

 ance of coal and lime ; and the latter between port and manufactory, 

 where the usual carriage was, as already stated, swamped by a mono- 

 poly. Both of these are, therefore, experiments made under the 

 most favourable circumstances ; and no one has a right to assume 

 that success will be better in any other case than it has been in these. 

 Mr. Grahame examines these, not from any hypothesis of his own, 

 favourable or unfavourable, but from their own published documents 

 and declarations ; and, therefore, the conclusions at which he arrives 

 have all the truth of demonstration, and should have all its influence 

 upon the public mind. 



Previously to entering upon the details of these railways, Mr. 

 Grahame makes some observations on the fluctuating and variable 

 value of time, which are well worthy the consideration of those 

 whose minds are carried away by the great advantages which society 

 at large is to derive from the increased speed produced by locomotive 

 engines upon railways ; and, indeed, without any such experience, 

 it is perfectly evident that this speed never can be of the smallest 

 value to one in a hundred of the whole community. Not one of 

 those who are distributed over the country, and engaged in its 

 cultivation and improvement, can derive the smallest value from this 

 speed. The pedestrian, the equestrian, the team-driver, and the 

 charioteer, must all keep aloof from the railway. It can answer 

 none of their purposes ; and if they venture near it, some of the 

 locomotives may crush them to atoms. It is of no use to the located 

 artisan, even if in the town ; and he in the village is injured by it; 

 the engine cannot stop to take him up as the stage-coach can ; and 

 if he will ride, he must in many instances submit to a walk equal to 

 his whole ride, before he can get at the starting-point. Stage- 

 coaches go to the inns in different parts of a great town, and travel 

 the principal streets in their whole length, so that by them the pas- 

 senger and his luggage can be taken up at his own door. To the 

 community generally there is, therefore, no saving of time at least, 

 of time which is of any value ; for, what with the time spent between 

 the locomotive and the residence or the place of call, and what with 

 that spent in waiting for the starting, very little will be gained. 

 Frequency of arrival and departure have their value, as well as speed 

 along the line ; and as the rail-road and the locomotive engine can 

 neither create passengers nor goods, their trips must be fewer in 

 number than those of coaches. From these and various other consi- 

 derations, which will readily suggest themselves, it is quite evident 

 that much of the general accommodation which this species of con- 

 veyance is said to afford, is mere delusion; and that, however 

 valuable it may be in peculiar localities, something not only ad- 



M.M. No. 2, Z 



