TIME-KECKONING. 123 



for a great increase of railways ; l)ut taking the present mileage and 

 population of that continent as a basis, the proportion would give to 

 Europe and Asia together more than one million miles of lines. 

 These two great continents have as yet only 96,000 miles of railway, 

 and it would probably be taking too sanguine a view to suppose that 

 so great an increase will speedily be realized. No one, however, can 

 doubt that the network of railways in Western and Central Europe 

 will before long be greatly enlarged ; that branches will extend to 

 Asia ; and that ofF-shoots will ultimately be prolonged to the farthest 

 shores of the Chinese and Russian Empires. A comparatively few 

 years may indeed witness extraordinary progress in this direction, to 

 bz'ing into prominence the difficulties alluded to, and v/hich cannot 

 fail to make themselves felt. 



The subject which we are now considering, in different degrees clea.rly 

 concerns all countries ; it is especially important to the United States, 

 Brazil, Canada, indeed to the whole of America. It is important to 

 France, Germany, Austria, and to every nation in Europe. It is of 

 })eculiar interest to the gigantic empii'e of Russia, extending over 

 nearly 180 degrees of longitude, and with a total variation in local 

 time of about twelve hours. It is of still greater importance to the 

 Colonial Empire of Great Britain, with its settlements and stations 

 in nearly every meridian around the entire globe, and with vast terri- 

 tories to be occupied in both hemispheres. 



Before the introduction of railways in England, every town and 

 village kept its own time. The traveller found his watch constantly 

 at variance with the local clocks. On the establishment of the railway 

 system this state of things could not be tolerated, as local time could 

 only lead to complication and confusion. The railways demanded 

 uniform time, and Greenwich time came to be used. This was looked 

 upon as an innovation, and was for a considerable period vigorously 

 opposed. At last the advantages of uniform time became so manifest, 

 that Greenwich time came into general use throughout Great Britain . 



But for the employment of uniform time in England, Scotland and 

 Ireland, it would be an extremely difficult task to regulate safely 

 the great number of daily trains. The safe working of the railways 

 in the United Kingdom is indeed a problem sufficiently difficult even 

 with uniform time ; and we can scarcely conceive how much the 

 problem would be complicated if in Great Britain they were to revert 

 to the system of local time as it prevailed in the days of stage 

 coaches, when every town and hamlet kept its own time. 



