ing of friction by means of tram-ways, and to the substitution 

 thereon of locomotive in place of horse power, which had 

 been heretofore attempted with very indifferent success. By 

 liberal premiums much emulation was excited — much talent 

 elicited. Tn the year 1830, the locomotive engine of George 

 Stephenson was launched on the Liverpool and Manchester 

 Railway — to astonish the mechanician and delight the 

 world. By it, the predictions in Dr. Darwin's oft- quoted 

 lines are proved to be no poetic fiction. In fact, they have 

 been far more than realised. Which of us, sixteen years 

 ago, would have ventured to assert the possibility of con- 

 structing such a machine ? At the touch of the engineer's 

 hand it starts into action, carrying with it 1000 passengers 

 or 260 tons of goods. 



" Lo! where it comes, like an eternity, 

 As if to sweep down all things in it's track, 

 Charming the eye with dread."* 



With giant power it pursues its unerring course along 

 the plain, and pierces the everlasting hills, rivalling the 

 winds in speed, annihilating distance, and accelerating 

 friendly and commercial intercourse. By creating fresh, 

 and extending old relations, it dispenses the resources of 

 the state in a degree never before dreamt of, and (as it 

 were) adds a new soul to the body politic. Its labours being 

 performed, the hand of the engineer is again applied ; — its 

 mighty energies subside, and remain dormant until he calls 

 them again into action. We have seen that the land journey 

 performed by the poet Horace, from Rome to Brundusium, 

 took fourteen and a half days. The distance is about as far 

 as that between Dover and Newcastle-on-Tyne, which, twenty 

 or thirty years ago, occupied nearly three days. The 

 triumphs of modern science enable us now to perform it in 



* Byron. 



