m. 



A "PRACTICAL" BEGINNING. 



IT was urged by Mr. Brunei, as a justification t'ni 

 more attention and expense in the laying of the 

 rails of the Great Western,* than had been ever 

 thought of upon previously constructed lines, that 

 all the embankments and cuttings, and earth-works 

 and Stations, and Law and Parliamentary ex- 

 penses in fact, the whole of the outlay encountered 

 in the formation of a Railway, had for its main and 

 ultimate object a perfectly smooth and level line of 

 rail; that to turn stingy at this point, just when 

 you had arrived at the great ultimatum of the 

 whole proceedings, viz: the Iron "Wheel-track, was 

 a sort of saving which evinced a want of true 

 perception of the great object of all the labor that 

 had preceded it. It may seem curious to our 



* Railway between London and Bristol, England. ED. 



