378 PAELTAMENT AND THE MANIA. CHAP. XVII. 



field, Congleton, and Orewe Railway a line in which, 

 as a coal-owner, he was personally interested ; and of 

 three branch-lines in connexion with existing companies 

 for which he had long acted as engineer. At the same 

 period, all the leading professional men were fully 

 occupied, some of them appearing as consulting engineers 

 for upwards of thirty lines each ! 



One of the features of the mania was the rage for 

 " direct lines " which everywhere displayed itself. There 

 were " Direct Manchester," " Direct Exeter," " Direct 

 York," and, indeed, new direct lines between most of 

 the large towns. The Marquis of Bristol, speaking in 

 favour of the " Direct Norwich and London " project, at 

 a public meeting at Haverhill, said, " If necessary, they 

 might make a tunnel beneath his very draicing-room, rather 

 than be defeated in their undertaking ! " And the Rev. 

 F. Litchfield, at a meeting in Banbury, on the subject of 

 a line to that town, said " He had laid down for himself 

 a limit to his approbation of railways, at least of such 

 as approached the neighbourhood with which he was 

 connected, and that limit was, that he did not wish 

 them to approach any nearer to him than to run through 

 his bedroom, with the bedposts for a station ! " How 

 different was the spirit which influenced these noble 

 lords and gentlemen but a few years before ! 



The course adopted by Parliament in dealing with 

 the multitude of railway bills applied for during the 

 prevalence of the mania, was as irrational as it proved 

 to be unfortunate. The want of foresight displayed by 

 both Houses in obstructing the railway system so long 

 as it was based upon sound commercial principles, was 

 only equalled by the fatal facility with which they now 

 granted railway projects based only upon the wildest 

 speculation. Parliament interposed no check, laid down 

 no principle, furnished no guidance, for the conduct of 

 railway projectors ; but left every company to select its 

 own locality, determine its own line, and fix its own 



