248 APPENDIX 



our largest cities and towns ; and even to them the 

 benefit would become questionable, should the state of 

 every class of their overcrowded populations be strictly 

 looked into. 



" That your petitioner is not unwilling to admit the 

 convenience, the luxury — nay, even the safety and im- 

 portance, as regards the speed of the new mode of travel- 

 lino; — as also to acknowledo-e the truth of the French 

 philosopher's axiom, that the quick communication of 

 persons and thoughts is the very perfection of civilization ; 

 but your petitioner would humbly submit that luxury is 

 not happiness, any more than civilization is prosperity in 

 a nation or in a family. 



" That your petitioner views with considerable alarm 

 for the welfare and happiness of his country the immense 

 amount of capital already invested in railroads — amount- 

 in 2:, with the costs of those now introduced, or intended 

 to be introduced, to your Honourable House, to more 

 than three hundred millions sterling ; and that your 

 petitioner's alarm arises from this vast accumulation 

 of capital, its tendency having been at all times and 

 in all nations to make the rich man richer and the 

 poor man poorer — thereby oppressing the working - 

 classes, and grinding our already debased peasantry to 

 the very extreme of misery, inducing the increase of 

 atrocious crime to a most fearful extent. 



" That your petitioner would also show that these 

 monster establishments render anything like competition 

 impossible, and create a monopoly which, under any cir- 

 cumstances and in any form, is, has been, and ever will 

 be, inimical to the best interests of the communitv. 



7 *J 



