48 



REVERIES ON RAIL-ROADS. 



In approaching this question we have done so without any parti- 

 cular bias against this new mode of communication. On the contrary, 

 considered in the abstract, and even relatively, as applied to a new 

 country unprovided with a hydrographical system of roads, we 

 freely admit that it surpasses all others. But, as it has been finely ob- 

 served by the great Montesquieu, it is by its influence on the whole 

 system of society that the application of any new law or invention 

 must be judged. Now, when we reflect upon the artificial state of 

 the whole structure of English society, on the present social con- 

 dition of the people, and the numerous causes that already diminish 

 the material comforts, and allow due weight to the clashing of con- 

 flicting interests, and the financial burdens of the country, we do 

 say that the introduction of railways should be sparingly sanctioned 

 by the Legislature, lest, hurried away by an over-ardent and mis- 

 taken zeal for the good of posterity, we sacrifice the happiness 

 of our own immediate contemporaries. 



Since writing the above, we have received the report of a trial 

 upon the common road of Sir Charles Dance's steam carriage ; and as 

 our readers will be able to form an accurate idea of the progress that 

 is now making in such description of conveyance, we cannot do better 

 than subjoin it. 



" Report of the result of an experimental Journey upon the Mail Coach 



Line of the Holy head Road, in Lieut. -Colonel Sir Charles Dance's 



Steam Carriage, on the 1st of November, 1833. 



" Public attention having been attracted to the practicability of 

 travelling with locomotive engines upon ordinary turnpike roads, by 

 a report of a committee of the House of Commons, of the 12th of 

 October, 1831, stating that, in the opinion of the committee, the prac- 

 ticability of such mode of travelling had been fully established 5 and, 

 more recently, by a report of a journey to and from Brighton having 

 been successfully performed by Lieut.-Colonel Sir Charles Dance's 

 steam carriage, as well as by the fact that the same carriage was daily 

 in use between London and Greenwich, conveying numerous pas- 

 sengers through the crowded suburbs of the metropolis without the 

 slightest inconvenience to the public, we were desirous of personally 

 making an experiment of the facility with which a carriage of that 

 description could perform a journey of considerable length: and 

 having selected the mail coach line of the Holyhead road for the pur- 

 pose of such experiment, we made an arrangement with Sir Charles 

 Dance for the use of his carriage, on Friday, the 1st inst. 



" Before the carriage had proceeded six miles, one of the tubes of 

 which Sir Charles Dance's boiler is composed was found to leak so 

 fast as to render repair absolutely necessary : it was also apparent 

 that the size of the engine was not sufficient to carry so great a weight 

 along a heavy road at any high velocity. The weather was by no 

 means favourable; but the average rate of travelling had been seven 

 miles per hour. 



" Thus there can be no doubt that, with a well constructed engine 

 of greater power, a steam carriage conveyance between London and 

 Birmingham, at a velocity unattainable by horses, and limited only by 

 safety, might be maintained." 



(Here follow the signatures of the engineers.) 



