482 



EFFECTS OF RAILWAYS. 



CHAP. XXI. 



As respects the immense advantages of railways to 

 mankind, there cannot be two opinions. They exhibit, 

 probably, the grandest organisation of capital and 

 labour that the world has yet seen. Although they 

 have unhappily occasioned great loss to many, the 

 loss has been that of individuals ; whilst, as a national 

 system, the gain has already been enormous. As 

 tending to multiply and spread abroad the conveniences 

 of life, opening up new fields of industry, bringing 

 nations nearer to each other, and thus promoting the 

 great ends of civilisation, the founding of the railway 

 system by George Stephenson and his son must be 

 regarded as one of the most important events, if not 

 the very greatest, in the first half of this nineteenth 

 century. 



THE STEPHEN SON MEMO1UAI. SCHOOLS, WJLLINGTON QUAY. 

 [By R. P. Leitch ] 



