1 14 Progress and Civilisation. PT. m. 



their full force and activity ; but we have added to 

 them new ones, not less potent, not less wonderful, 

 not less signal triumphs of the intellect and genius 

 of Man. 



In the foremost rank of these new achievements 

 of the inventive genius of Man, the first place will 

 be assigned to the application of the motive power 

 of Steam to every description of manufacturing 

 industry, and to the three great purposes of river 

 and ocean navigation and railway communication, 

 and immediately after these follows the still newer 

 invention of the Electric Telegraph. We advance 

 so rapidly, and these great inventions of our age 

 have now become so thoroughly established as part 

 of our daily existence, that we recall with a sort of 

 surprise that they were all unknown during the 

 first twenty years of the present century. Those 

 still only on the threshold of old age can perfectly 

 remember the days when Sailing-packets, Mail- 

 coaches, and Post-horses were our means of 

 locomotion. Steamboats were not established 

 between England and France or Ireland until after 

 the year 1820, and the first great Eailway line for 

 Passenger traffic, the Manchester and Liverpool, 

 was opened in 1830, acquiring a melancholy celebrity 



