1819.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



105 



foreii?n loans. The 166,000,000/. is, however, only the sum named 

 in the prospectuses, and does not therefore show the real capital 

 which would be wanted to carry out the undertakings. This the 

 writer makes out to be about 55,000,000/.; but as very few of these 

 undertakings went any furthei than the beginning, the outlay was 

 very small. Therefore, so far as to its lasting eifects, the mania 

 of 1825 was of much less importance. 



Of the canals set forth above very few were made; but there 

 were some few docks, gasworks, waterworks, and bridges made. 

 The railways carried out were likewise few. Many of the as- 

 surance companies went forward, but there was no outlay upon 

 them. 



On the mines a great sum was spent, though much less than is 

 commonly believed. 



Most of tlie undertakings of 1825 turned out worthless because 

 they were not rightly taken up. Tlie British iron-works, the 

 Tliames Tunnel, the foreign and Irish mines are well-known cases 

 of large capitals whicli met with a small return, nor did tlie smaller 

 undertakings come better off. The Steam Wasliing Company and 

 tlie Alderuey Dairy Company both i-an their race, and came to an 

 untimely end. Tlie best undertakings were stopped in the House 

 of Commons, those only getting through which no one thought 

 w(u-th opposing. 



If the excitem.ent in 1825 was very great, it did not go the 

 lengths of the canal mania of 1790, when speculators forced their 

 way through the windows of inns and offices to reach tlie sub- 

 scription lists for canals, breathless with anxiety to enroll their 

 names.^ Such, too, was the eagerness, that a number of farmers 

 were drawn together at midnight to a lonely inn on a common, 

 being told that the concoctors of a new canal or navigation were 

 about to allot the shares among themselves: the victims of the 

 hoax becoming of course the prey of the landlord of the inn in 

 which they were compelled to liarbour. 



More real loss must have happened from the mania of 1825, 

 because more real property was hopelessly sunk. 



XIII. THE FIRST RAILWAY MANIA. 



1835 is commonly named as the First Railway Mania, but the 

 true one was, as may be seen from what has been just said, ten 

 years before. Thus there have been three of these episodes in 

 railway history. 



The railway mania of 1825 brought forward undertakings for 

 which a capital of abo^■e twenty millions was wanted, and by 

 whicli lines many hundred miles in length were to be made. 



^Villiam Henry James seems to have begun with a gieat railway 

 for the south of England, on which he wrote a pamphlet, with a 

 map. It was to start from London and to go to Rochester and 

 Shoreham, to be worked by locomotives.* 



M'hether however James first brought forward this or the Liver- 

 pool and Manchester Railway, we are not able to say. 



By 1821, the Liverpool and Birmingham had been surveyed, 

 and others all over England; and by 1825, they had spread to 

 Ireland. 



The following will show some of the lines brought forward, with 

 the capital proposed, though it must be remembered that more 

 than one company was sometimes proposed for the same line, and 

 that therefore the number of railway companies of 1825 will be 

 greater than that of lines : — 



*I.iverpool and Manchester railway, £400,000 



*Lond()n, Rochester, and Slioreham railway, £500,000^ 



*l!irmin(;liam and Liverpool rail wav, afterwards Grand Junction, £600,000" 



♦Bristol and [Jaih railway, £100,000' 



*Lijndon and Birminghara railway, £1,500,000 



*Lonrton and Bristol railway, afterwards Great Western, £1,500,000^ 



*Lnndon and Northern railway, £2,000,000 



*Londnn, Portsmouth, and Southampton railway, afterwards Soutti-Western, 



♦Manchester and Leeds railway, £500,000 ' [£1,000,000 



♦Manchester and Bolton railway, £150,000 



Limerick and Waterford railway, £300,0009 

 ♦Newcastle and Carlisle railway'" 

 ♦Garnkirk and Glasgow railway 



3 Finger-Post, p. 28. 



4 Report on the Engine Railroad, by William James, 1823. (In the Library of the 

 Institution of Civil Engineers.) 



5 Report on the Engine Railroad. 



6 Cumming on Railways. London : Baldwin, 1824. p. 42. Statement of the 



Claim of the Subscribers to the Birmingham and Liverpool Rjilroad to an Act of Parlia. 

 ment. London : Baltiivin, 18?5. 



7 John Bull newspaper. 



8 Observations on the General Comparalive Merits of Navigations and Railroads. 



3 Repoit by Alexander Nimmo, C.E., M. Inst.C.K., on the LiiMerick and Waterford 

 Railway. Dublin ; 1825. (In the Library if the Institution of Civil Engineers.) 

 10 Reports of Wm. Chapman on the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway. 



♦Edinburgh and Glasgow railway' ' 



♦London and Brighton railway, or Surrey, Sussex, and Hants, £750,000'^ 



Grand Junction railway, £2,000,000' » 

 *Taunton railway, £200,000 



•Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex railway, since Eastern Counties, £1,000,000 

 •Leeds, Selby, and Hull railway, £500,000 "* 



London and South Wales railway, £1,000,000 

 •Birmingham and Bristol railway, £80,000 



Kentish railway, £1,000,000 



Grand Western railway, £3,000,000 



East London railway, £100,000 

 *Canterl)ury and Whitstahie railway, £25,000 



Severn and Wye railway, £131,670 



Stroud and Severn railway, £50,000'^ 



Hihernian railway, £1,000,000 



Colchester and Halstead railway, £40,000 



Ipswich, Diss, and Eye railway, £200,000 



Exeter and Exmouth railway, £35,000 

 ♦Cromford and High Pfak railway, £150,000 

 •Duffryn Llynvi and Portli Cawl railway, £30,000 

 "London and Edinburgh railway 

 ''London and Newcastle railway 

 •Maidstone and Tunhridge railway 

 •Manchester and Oldham railway 

 •Bolton and Leigh railway 

 •Rhymney railway 



Berwick and Kelso railway 



East Lothian railway 

 •Edinliurgh and Dalkeith railway '° 



West Lothian railway 



Glasgow and Roseliank railway 



Kelso, Melrose, and Dalkeith railway 



Dundee and Strathmore railway 

 •Monkland and Kirkintilloch railway 



Galligate railway 



Tees and Weardale railway 



Kennet and Avon and Old Sarum 

 •Dublin and Kingston railway 

 •Dublin and Belfast railway 

 •Brighton and Shoreham railway 



Wormsley railway 



Flintshire railway 



Portland railway 



Festiniog railway 

 •Hnddersfield and Wakefield railway 



Redworth railway 



The above gives a list of about sixty railways, to which others 

 were afterwards added. 



The capital of those companies which had published the amount 

 they would require was above 20,000,000/. ; and as much may be 

 taken for the other thirty companies, which would give a capital 

 proposed of 40.000,000/. Tlie writer in the John Bull reckoned 

 that 11,500,000/. would be enough to make a complete railway sys- 

 tem. It was to be thus laid out --^ 



Grand Junction .. ..£2,000.000 



London and Birmingham .. 1,500,000 



Liverpool and Manchester . . 400,000 



Manchester and Leeds . . 500,000 



Manchester and Bolton .. 150,000 



London and Bristol .. .. 1,500,000 



Bristol and Bath .. .. 100,000 



London and Portsmouth .. 1,000,000 



London and Northern .. 2,500,000 



Miscellaneous .. .. 1,850,000 



The actual cost of these lines has been nearly as follows . — 



Estimated as above. Cost. 



London and North-Western.. £3,900,000 .. £10,000,000 



MEnchester and Leeds . . 500,000 



Manchester and Bolton .. 150,000 

 London and Bristol .. ..1 600,000 



London and South-Western . . 1,000,000 

 London and Northern . . 2,500,000 



2,500,000 



620,000 



4,000,000 



2,000,000 



10,000,000 



9,650,000 29,120,000 



What is called the Grand Junction in the above estimate, most 

 likely includes the lines as far as Carlisle. If so, more must be 

 added to the cost. 



Nothing will show more strongly than the above how little was 

 understood of the railway system, and how little way it has made. 



11 Vallance's Pamphlet, p. 23. 12 Vallance's Psmphlet, p. yu, 32. 



13 Vallance's Pamphlet, p. 111*. 14 Hill's Pamphlet on Leeds and Selby Railway. 



13 Stroud and Sevs-rn Railroad, a Fallacy; quoted by Vallance, p. 24. 



19 Whishaw on Railways. 



15 



