78 On the line selected for the M. Railway, [no. 5, new series, 



the proximity of roads, passes, European stations, &c. are by no 

 means deserving of the same consideration that is due to such 

 towns as Birmingham, Manchester, and Liverpool; to sea ports, 

 or to the abodes of men clustered round, and upon, an inexhausti- 

 ble supply of Coal and Iron. 



These towns of ours have no local product?, every article 

 now brought out of them is due, not to the town itself, nor to the 

 ■ people in it, but to a tract of country of which it has hitherto been, 

 but which the Railway station will in future be, the centre. 



I would not needlessly compel the few who may remain, when 

 the busy through traffic has disappeared and passed by the rail, 

 to shift their dwellings to a station 2 or 3 miles off, but the sacri- 

 fice to them is inconsiderable, compared with that to the Company 

 in selecting a worse and more expensive line, merely to accommo- 

 date a town and a group of people, destined to melt away under 

 the operations of the Railway itself. 



The Railway has to do with a great agricultural District, and 

 •whether it lies a few miles this side, or that, the business com- 

 ing into it will be the same, depending, as the sphere of its opera- 

 tion depends, on its " rates and fares." 



It has often occurred to me, as a thing to be borne in mind, that 

 the distribution of the inhabitants of this country has not attained 

 to any thing like a normal state. Had we laid down Railways in 

 England 300 years ago, the lines then laid might have been useful 

 even now, but they would certainly not be of the first importance. 



We have seen within short spaces of time, collections of human 

 beings rise and disappear with political changes ; and we may be 

 quite sure that whatever particular course they follow, few changes 

 will be more marked than that which must follow the introduction 

 of Railways through these agricultural districts, with stations at 

 every 6 or 8 miles. 



The men engaged in trade, however, distributed now, must and 

 will cluster along the line. Such towns as Wallajahnuggur and 

 Vellore, established under, and due to, a totally different order of 

 things, must and will, to a great extent disappear. 



