CHAPTER XXI. 



GENERAL. 



It has often struck me when looking at an ex- 

 cursion train containing several hundred passengers, 

 what an immense number of persons must travel 

 now compared with those who did so before the 

 railways were made — allowing for the great increase 

 which has taken place in the population, which in 

 round numbers, according to the census, was over 

 13,000,000 in 1831, but in 1881 exceeded 25,000,000. 

 I suppose that not one in a hundred of those who 

 now travel could have been accommodated by road 

 under the old system. 



Take, for instance, one of the long third-class 

 carriages, with six compartments, and ten persons in 

 each, which is their number, and you have as many 

 passengers as could be conveyed in five stage-coaches 

 with ten outside passengers on each ; while two first- 

 class carriages, each with their three compartments 

 having six seats, will accommodate enough persons to 

 fill the inside of nine coaches. 



