664 RAIL-ROADS. 



anything hitherto known. Places one hundred miles dis- 

 tant may, for every purpose of commerce, convenience 

 and defence, be brought within ten, and thoseTOOO miles 

 distant within one hundred. 



An inland coasting trade we might, almost sav. has 

 arisen, which will carry home to our inhabitaA their 

 commerce, both in war and in peace, in winte^and in 

 summer, unparalyzed by adverse winds, by insurances or 

 blockade; a means of transporting, in case of invasion, 

 both troops and the munitions of war, from one* portion 

 to another of our country, with unexampled rapidity. 



It is not the object of "this treatise to defend the claims 

 of railways. There is much conjecture about a matter 

 so new, but that a portion of the anticipated results, will 

 be an affair of jjwre history in some parts of our country, 

 is about as certain as the rising of tomorrow's s-un. Some 

 twenty years since, Mr Steven?, one of the earliest and 

 largest steam-boat proprietors in New- York asserted, 

 that there were those then living, who would, between 

 sun and sun, see New- York and Albany, (150 miles.) 

 He was ridiculed at as visionary, but it has been done in 

 ten hours. 



The words of an accurate and practical engineer, who 

 had long devoted his professional attention to rail-road*, 

 are worthy of note. In recommending locomotive en- 

 gines, he says; ' It is far from my wish, to promulgate to 

 the world, that the ridiculous expectations, or rather pro- 

 fessions of the enthusiastic speculatist, will be realized, 

 and that we shall see them travelling at the rate of twelve, 

 sixteen, eighteen or twenty miles an hour; nothing could 

 do more harm towards their adoption or general im- 

 provement, than the promulgation of such nonsense/ 

 In a future edition of his work, we shall probably see 

 this passage amended, as the author, five years aflerward?, 

 was one of the judges at the late Manchester race, when 

 the rate of thirtyfive miles, (and even fortyone for a short 

 distance,) was accomplished. 



