528 



THE STEAM-ENGINE. 



from passengers since its opening, has, contrary to all that was foreseen, been 

 vastly greater than that which has been derived from merchandise. So great 

 was the want of experience in the construction of engines, that the company 

 was at first ignorant whether they should adopt large steam-engines fixed at 

 different stations on the line, to pull the carriages from station to station, or 

 travelling engines to drag the loads the entire distance. Having decided on 

 the latter, they have, even to the present moment, labored under the disadvantage 

 •of the want of that knowledge which experience alone can give. The engines 

 have been constantly varied in their weight and proportions, in their magnitude 

 and form, as the experience of each successive month has indicated. As de- 

 fects became manifest they were remedied ; improvements suggested were 

 adopted ; and each year produced engines of such increased power and effi- 

 ciency, that their predecessors were abandoned, not because they were worn 

 out, but because they had been outstripped in the rapid march of improvement. 

 Add to this, that only one species of travelling engine has been effectively 

 tried ; the capabilities of others remain still to be developed ; and even that 

 form of engine which has received the advantage of a course of experiments 

 on so grand a scale to carry it toward perfection, is far short of this point, 

 and still has defects, many of which, it is obvious, time and experience will 

 ■remove. 



If, then, the locomotive engine, subject thus to all the imperfections in- 

 separable from a novel contrivance — with the restrictions on the free applica- 

 tion of skill and capital, arising from the nature of the monopolies granted to 

 railway companies — with the disadvantage of very limited experience, the 

 great parent of practical improvement, having been submitted to experiments 

 hitherto only on a limited scale, and confined almost to one form of machine ; 

 if, under such disadvantages, such effects have been produced as are now daily 

 witnessed by the public, what may not be looked for from this extraordinary 

 power when the enterprise of the country shall be more unfettered — when 

 greater fields of experience are opened — when time, ingenuity, and capital, 

 have removed or diminished existing imperfections, and have brought to light 

 new and more powerful principles ? This is not mere speculation on abstract 

 possibilities, but refers to what is in actual progress. The points of greatest 

 wealth and population — the centres of largest capital and most active industry 

 throughout the country — will soon be connected by lines of railway; and vari- 

 ous experiments are proposed, with more or less prospect of success, for the 

 application of steam-engines on stone roads where the intercourse is not suffi- 

 cient to render railways profitable. 



The important commercial and political effects attending such increased 

 facility and speed in the transport of persons and goods, are too obvious to 

 require any very extended notice here. A part of the price (and in many 

 cases a considerable part) of every article of necessity or luxury, consists of 

 the cost of transporting it from the producer to the consumer ; and consequent- 

 ly every abatement or saving in this cost must produce a corresponding re- 

 duction in the price of every article transported ; that is to say, of everything 

 which is necessary for the subsistence of the poor, or for the enjoyment of the 

 rich — of every comfort, and of every luxury of life. The benefit of this will 

 extend, not to the consumer only, but to the producer : by lowering the ex- 

 pense of transport of the produce, whether of the soil or of the loom, a less 

 quantity of that produce will be spent in bringing the remainder to market, 

 and consequently a greater surplus will reward the labor of the producer. The 

 benefit of this will be felt even more by the agriculturist than by the manufac- 

 turer ; because the proportional cost of transport of the produce of the soil is 

 I greater than that of manufactures. If two hundred quarters of corn be neces- 



