subject, and their doubts were speedily dispelled. One im- 

 provement followed another in rapid succession, until now the 

 voyage is performed from New York to Liverpool in thirteen 

 days, and back from Liverpool to that port in fifteen. Prior 

 to this employment of steam, the performance of the finest 

 sailing vessels was very far inferior. The famous Liverpool 

 packet ships, called the Liners, took on the average twenty- 

 six days for the outward passage to New York, and nine- 

 teen and a half days back, the distance being 3200 miles. 

 Such are the wonders of steam navigation, and these wonders 

 are now displaying themselves all over the globe, wherever 

 habitable lands are separated by seas or navigable rivers. 



" Astonishing as these efforts of human ingenuity appear, 

 they are exceeded by the still more astonishing improve- 

 ments recently adopted in land carriage. It is little more 

 than half a century since merchandise was carried from one 

 part of England to another on packhorses, and even on 

 men's backs. These were succeeded by waggons, which, 

 within the memory of many now present, were the great 

 medium of conveyance between this town and London. 

 Meantime canals began to be constructed for short distances 

 along level districts. Ten days or a fortnight, however, 

 were still required to transport goods between Liverpool 

 and London. 



" Adam Smith has somewhere said that man has always 

 been found the most difficult sort of goods to convey, and this 

 remark stood true long after Adam Smith's time, indeed 

 until within the last fifteen years. A person wishing to go 

 from this town to the metropolis, found it impossible to 

 perform the journey in less than twenty hours, and in so 

 doing was subjected to the greatest inconvenience, fatigue, 

 and even danger. Some took the precaution of making 

 their wills before they started. But the genius of our 

 northern engineers became earnestly applied to the diminish- 



