RAILWAY. 



cafes, and in all wlierc there is much bufinefs to be done, 

 they would require to be double, one for going, and the 

 other for coming upon, to prevent interruption and inter- 

 ference. 



And he afterwards offers a few remarks, tending to ihew 

 the prafticability of the mcafurc, and to guard againll letting 

 out upon a bad plan, which might, he fuppofe^, ni time to 

 come, frullrate the good that might have refiilted from the 

 undertaking ; merely premiiing, that he pi-opofes thefe rail- 

 ways folcly for the purpofe of conveying weighty loads, 

 leaving the roads, as at prefent, open for coaches and light 

 carriages. 



Alfo with a view to difcover how far it may be praAica- 

 ble to introduce thefe iron railways into general ufe, he has 

 made fome inquiries refpeftmg the expence of making them ; 

 and althougli this muil vary accordmg to the abundance 

 and goodnefs of materials, and other circumllances, the fol- 

 lowing ftatement may ferve to give fome general notions on 

 that head. In the moll eligible fituation, where materials 

 are abundant and good, and circuniilances favourable, the 

 loweft expence at which a fingU railway of this lort can be 

 made, will be about one thoufaad pounds a mile. But as 

 a fmgle railway mull be hable to great uiconveniencies, un- 

 lefs under very particular circumllances, double railways 

 ought to be confidered as the only ufeful fort. Thefe, for 

 pubhc purpofes, according to the opinion of the niventor, 

 fhould be %-ery fubllantially made. The metal ufcd fhould 

 be of the ftoutefl. fort, and of fubllance enough, not merely 

 to carry the weiglits propofed, but to be equal to bear almall 

 any blow or Ihock that they may be likely to experience ; 

 and, thus made, what they will lofe by ruft or wear, will 

 be long ere it materially weakens them. Made after fuch a 

 manner, in favourable lituations in the country, a double 

 railway may, he thinks, coll about two thoufand pounds a 

 mile, but in the neighbourhood of London, where the 

 charge of every thing is high, and where they fliould be of 

 the itrongell fort, we fliould fuppofe they might coll nearly 

 three thaufand pounds a mile. It is bad economy, he thinks, 

 to fave on articles of this fort at the lirll ; for the httle ex- 

 pence thus laid out then will fave much in repairs : how fmall 

 thefe repairs are, may be imagined from this circumllance, 

 that when a road is thus made, the undertaker does 

 not fcruple to fupply all that are broken, free of charge, 

 for the firft three years. Say then that fuch a road coil 

 three thoufand pounds a mile, this would bring a charge 

 upon the turnpike of 150/. a-year ; fay 50/. more for annual 

 repairs ; this is, in all, 2Co/. per annum. Compare this with 

 the expence of keeping the prefent roads in repair. It 

 has been fuggefted to him, that there is annually laid out in 

 repairs upon the road from Hyde Park Corner to Hounflow, 

 confiderably above one thoufand pounds a mile ; fo that the 

 difference of expence is, even at the beginning, very much 

 in favour of railways : and were the money thus at firil 

 expended to be gradually paid off, the tolls might thus be 

 lowered ahnod to nothing. And, he thmks, that a turn- 

 pike road cannot be made in almoll any fituation for lels, as 

 he is told, than 1000/. per mile ; but where it is of confider- 

 able width, as near great towns, it will run from 1500/. to 

 2000/. /«■ mile ; and in annual repairs, including the pur- 

 chafe price of materials, carting them on the road, fpread- 

 ing, raking off, and carting away again, from 100/. to 1000/. 

 a mile. Say 1500/. prime coll, theintereJl 1575/. and 150/. 

 for repairs, the annual charge of fuch road will be 225/. 

 This is an expence of 100/. a-year more than the other. 

 But for the prefent, let us fuppofe that they will be equal, 

 the extra charge for purchafing ground for a new waggon- 

 way, &c. being equal to that furplus ; let us now fee what 



would be the difference of charge to the employers of thefe 

 waggons in the two cafes. Suppofing the road to be fo 

 much employed as that 100 waggons (or loaded carriages 

 to the fame amount ) pafs each day, carrying (ix tons each, 

 drawn by eight horfes ; theie, at one (hilling each waggon 

 for toll (or two-pence a ton), would produce 5/. 3 day, or 

 1825/ a-year; which, at the rate of eight miles for each 

 turnpike, would be 228/. per mile, the furplus being pro- 

 duced by road horfes and light carriages. The charge then 

 to the employer, for this ilage, mull be 1825/. and the keep 

 of 800 horfes, bcfides fervants, incidental charges, and 

 owner's profits forthetranfportingof 6ootonsof goods a day. 

 Say that the fame horfes travel two ftages a day, the turnpike 

 money would be doubled; that is, ^6^ol. per annum ; the 

 keep of 800 horfes, at 2s. fach per diem, is 29,200/. Thefe 

 fums added make 32,850/. ; owner's profit and incidental 

 charges, fay 10 per cent., 3285/.; in all 36,135/., or, on 

 2 1 9,000 tons (being 600 tons a day), about one-fourth ^«- 

 ton. And fuppofing the fame quantity of goods carried 

 on the railway, and the fame turnpike money paid, and 

 that,each horfe drew only fifteen tons, this would require 

 only, he thinks, forty horfes ; the keep of whicli, at 

 2s, a day, would be 1460/., add the toll, 1825/. is 3285/. 

 per annum. Owner's profit, &c. upon this fum 10 per cent. 

 as above, 328/. ; in all 3613/., or about four-pence a ton, 

 juft one-tenth part of the charge in the other cafe. He 

 thinks, that when the objeft comes to be confidered in this 

 point of view, few meafures that can be propoled will hold 

 forth fuch an important national improvement as this would 

 be. Confidered with regard to the confumption of thi 

 produce of the earth (an object at prefent deferving th..- 

 fullell attention, as this improvement can be applied to 

 aimoft every part of the country), it would, he luppoft:, 

 reduce the number of heavy road horfes to one-eighth pail 

 of what they are at prefent, and of courfe augment the number 

 of cattle or other confumeable provifions in a proportionate 

 degree, fo as greatly to lower the price of the neceflaries ot 

 life. It would, in the next place, lower the price of the car- 

 riage of goods of all kinds to an amazing extent ; and lallly, as 

 a confequence of that, it would give fuch encouragement to 

 agriculture, as no other meafure that can be contrived could 

 ever efieft, and that without colling one (hilling expence 

 to any one individual, or to the ftate. On the contrary, 

 by inducing cheapneis of provifion, and affording fuch effi- 

 cacious encouragement to manufaftures and to agriculture, it 

 would produce a general profperity, which, by augmenting 

 the confumption of taxable commodities, would augment 

 the public revenue ; while, at the fame time, every indivi- 

 dual would feel himfelf reheved from the prefTure of many 

 taxes that prove diflrefsfu! to him at pi-efent. After juftly 

 reprobating every fort of gambling fpeculations by monied 

 men in undertakings of this nature, and (hewing the nume- 

 rous evils that attend them, he adviies it, as highly necef- 

 fary to prevent thefe railways from ever becoming private 

 property, on any account, to keep them open and patent 

 alike, to all who (hall choofe to employ them as a king's high- 

 way, under fuch regulations as it (hall be found neceffary to 

 fybjefl them to by law. In (hort, they (hould, he thinks, 

 be put upon the fame footing, in all refpefts, as pubhc roads 

 are at prefent, only under the direilien of a dillinft fet 

 of commiffioners, who (hould have the fuperintendance of 

 every thing that concerns this fpecies of roads only. Thefe 

 commiflioners (hould be veiled with authority under an aft 

 of parliament, to erect turnpikes upon thtm, to levy certain 

 flipulated tolls, and to mortgage the produce of thefe tolls 

 for the purpofe of raifmg money to be applied in the necef- 

 fary purchafes of land, and making the roads. In the aft it 



(houid 



