Popular Science Lectures. 157 
engineering skill, the scattered people of our Empire 
and the various nations of the world have been brought 
nearer to each other, international commerce has 
received a wonderful impetus, and increased exchange 
of produces has brought about larger and cheaper 
supplies. 
There is a great change from the olden days when 
a voyage hence to England took many months, and 
when the perils of the deep were such as to render 
prudent the making of wills and other settlement of 
human affairs, as though the traveller were starting 
for another world instead of another hemisphere ; 
whereas now, the punctual arrival of the steamers engaged 
on the longest voyages can be reckoned on with almost 
certainty. A few days' journey takes us hence safely 
and comfortably, — if one is a good sailor that is, please 
remember — to England, and then we can hurry from 
place to place with a speed approaching a mile a minute 
— I am not speaking of our Demerara Railway. We 
can turn in to a comfortable couch at night and sleep un- 
interruptedly, until next morning when we awake at our 
destination — a marvellous contrast to the old coach 
days when speed was slow, and accommodation, to say the 
least, uncomfortable. 
The railway traffic of the United Kingdom exhibits 
besides ingenious application of scientific principles, per- 
fection of organization ; and when we think of the millions 
of passengers conveyed every year by rail and the great 
risk arising from high rate of speed — hidden defects in 
material or workmanship — and want of caution, we may 
well wonder at the way in which this traffic is conducted 
so as almost to ensure immunity from disaster. To appre- 
