may be now, whether among the "benighted British," or those models of civilization and virtue, the Parisians, or in

whatsoever region of articulately-speaking men, I am not sure he will not be angry with me for putting him into print.

66

CARL BENSON.

THERE is no emotion so soon deadened as the sentiment of wonder. The most astonishing event which could be presented to the senses would, by frequent recurrence, soon cease to excite attention. It is, in fact, only so long as a miracle is novel that men will suspend the current of their ordinary thoughts to yield to the excitement it is calculated to produce. One who should convert water into wine, or restore vitality to a corpse, would command every ear and eye; but if he should repeat the experiment daily, he would soon be regarded with indifference. That which is deemed absurd in one age is possible in the succeeding one, practicable in the next, and an event of ordinary and daily occurrence in the following generation. Until the thing ceases to be strange and novel, it excites inquiry. Every one wonders and is curious to know how it is brought about. When it connects itself by daily use with the common affairs of life, no one troubles himself about it, no one wonders, and no one is ashamed of being ignorant of the philosophy of that which no one can dispense with.

Half a century has not elapsed since an individual announced to the world that ready-made flame could be manufactured in establishments to be constructed for the purpose in the suburbs of cities, and might

EUROPE.

thence be conducted in pipes under ground, so as to be supplied and used in every part of the town for illuminating streets, the interior of buildings, shops, theatres and private dwellings. This individual was by most persons regarded as being afflicted with monomania. His hallucinations, however, assumed gradually the air of reality, and those who regarded his mental aberration with compassion, now, forgetting their former incredulity, walk without astonishment through streets lighted with gas, and look with indifference at the brilliant illumination of the theatres, the shops, and all the other buildings of the modern city.

When Franklin proposed, in a letter addressed to the Royal Society of London, to draw lightning from the heavens by means of an iron rod, the council of that learned body received his suggestion with laughter, and, out of compassion to their correspondent, and having more regard for his character for sanity than he seemed to have had himself, they declined printing the letter in their proceedings. There is now, however, an iron rod over the room in which this learned body meet, and it excites neither astonishment nor inquiry how this rod keeps the lightning from striking the room.

Great advances in the application of

science to art are generally slow. Many causes conspire to retard their progress. Various practical difficulties must commonly be surmounted before the desired effect can be produced, with the requisite economy. To surmount these difficulties, a combination of sufficient scientific knowledge, practical and mechanical skill, and pecuniary resources, must be found. It rarely happens that these requisites exist in the same person. Sometimes the same individual may combine scientific and practical knowledge-or, at least, he who possesses the one may acquire the other. But it almost never happens that the capital necessary to carry out an invention or discovery is possessed by the inventor or discoverer. Opportunity alone, or chance, must bring together the man who invents and the man who has the means and the will to realize the invention.

But even when all these requisites are combined, there is still another condition, not less essential to the realization of the final result. The public, who are to use the invention and to pay for it, must be so well convinced of its excellence, that they shall be willing to avail themselves of what the inventor and the capitalist have to offer them. It not unfrequently happens that this is the most difficult of all the conditions on which the success of an invention or discovery depends. James Watt made his great improvements in the steam-engine about the middle of the last century. Many years elapsed before he found a capitalist able and willing to engage in the enterprise, so as to realize his conceptions. He at last met with Matthew Bolton. When the engines were perfected and offered for sale, no one would buy them, and the capitalist was some forty thousand pounds out of pocket. Parliament was appealed to to protect the inventors by an extraordinary extension of the patent right, and the mining interests were coaxed into the adoption of the improved engine as you would coax a child to swallow a black dose.

The application of steam power to the rapid transport of passengers on iron railways, affords a rare example of a mechanical invention starting suddenly to a high degree of perfection without encountering any of these difficulties or delays. Indeed this power of locomotion burst on the public with all the effects of a new and unlooked-for phenomenon. It was as little anticipated by engineers, or men of science, as it was by the public; and

when the first locomotive placed on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway started off at thirty miles an hour, the very constructors themselves stood aghast, and like the artificer of Frankenstein, recoiled in affright from the work of their own hands.

Before habitual familiarity with its effects has blunted the edge of curiosity, let us inquire what has produced this vast revolution in locomotion, what are the predominant advantages of this new system, and whence have they arisen? It is now not quite twenty years since the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, a line thirty miles in length, was projected. The object which its projectors had mainly in view was the transport of goods, merchandise and coal between these two great commercial marts. This was to be accomplished by wagons drawn along the railway by steam-engines; but whether the engine should accompany the load or should be erected at fixed stations and connected with the load by a rope to be carried along the line between the rails, sustained at convenient intervals on rollers, was a question of grave doubt. The directors of the enterprise were divided respecting this question. The best engineering authorities differed upon it; and it was determined that four engineers of the highest repute should be commissioned to report upon this knotty point, with ample means to defray the expense of extensive experiments. The individuals selected for this purpose, whose names have since become still more universally known, were, James Walker, since President of the Society of Civil Engineers, George Stephenson, of railway celebrity, William Urpeth Rastrick, engineer of the London and Brighton and other railways, and Nicholas Wood, the author of the well-known work on railways. The result of their labors and investigations was that Messrs. Stephenson and Wood reported in favor of making the engine travel with the load, and Messrs. Walker and Rastrick reported in favor of the stationary system.

Happily for the progress of art the directors adopted the counsel of Messrs. Stephenson and Wood. At this period, however, the idea of obtaining any considerable traffic in passengers, much less of superseding stage-coaches on the common road, never entered into the minds of the directors. Some more sanguine spirits, it is true, ventured to hint, with some diffidence, however, at the

possibility of obtaining with a locomotive steam-engine a speed equal to, or perhaps, even exceeding that of horsepropelled coaches on common roads. Such absurd anticipations were, however, prudently repressed. Mr. Wood, in one of his published works, indignantly disclaimed sharing the theories of such wild speculators, and very properly rebuked them, expressing a hope that, although he advocated the locomotive in preference to the stationary system, no person would do him the injustice to confound him with those hair-brained and hotheaded enthusiasts, who imagined it possible for a locomotive engine to travel with a carriage at such a speed as twelve miles an hour!!

The locomotive system was, therefore, to be established to supersede the wagon on the common road, for the transport of goods, combined, as a subsidiary advantage, with a traffic more or less in passengers. In the very first trial, however, the public was thunderstruck by the phenomenon of a speed of thirty miles an hour, attained by one of those very machines, in recommending which, Mr. Wood had the prudence to disclaim the supposition, that anything like twelve miles an hour was possible! This result, of course, changed the entire character and destiny of railways. The great object now was the transport of passengers and dispatches, at speeds unattainable by mere animal power; and merchandise, formerly the chief, if not exclusive object, was regarded as a matter of secondary importance.

The moment that it became apparent that the locomotive must supersede horsepower, and railway carriages supply the place of stage coaches, the railway system acquired prodigiously increased national importance, and it soon became evident, that all the thoroughfares throughout England must ultimately be converted into railways, and that the whole system of intercommunication which had subsisted since the invasion of the Romans, must be obliterated from the face of the land, and that the surface of the country must be overspread with a net-work of artificial tracks, the course of which must be obstructed by neither hill nor valley; that they must pursue their straight and level way; that valleys must be exalted by artificial mounds or bestridden by colossal bridges, to bear these tracks; that mountains must either be cloven by artificial valleys, or pierced

by enormous tubes through which these iron tracks are to be conducted; that nature must everywhere yield to the omnipotent hand of art, to enable man to fly over the surface of this planet with an expedition, compared with which, the speed of the wind is sluggish!

To an intelligent govornment, watchful of the public weal, this condition of things would have presented a noble opportunity of interfering to guide and assist private enterprise by the supervision of legislative wisdom and administrative skill. A completely new system of intercommunication was to be designed and executed for the most active, wealthy, industrious, and intelligent population in. Europe. The project was unencumbered by any pre-existing lines of road. The beauty and symmetry of the design was unobstructed by the want of harmony in any pre-existing elements. The council of the crown had a tabula rasa before them. They had a carte blanche for their design. It was possible to lay down a grand system of roads. Great trunk lines would be carried between the chief centres of wealth and population; branches would spread from these to the smaller places, and secondary branches again diverging from these, would penetrate into the sparsely peopled localities. The branches of each trunk would interweave and unite with those of the others, and the uniformity of plan, in the working machinery, would enable the circulation to pass freely through every part of the system. A more noble occasion was, perhaps, never presented to the civil administration of any country.

This splendid opportunity was lost. Whether it was that the government did not perceive the vast revolution in intercommunication, which was imminent, or that distracted by the miserable strife of political parties, they shrunk from the labor and responsibility, which a scheme so comprehensive would entail upon them, or yielding to the influence of custom and precedent, always so powerful with English statesmen, they passively allowed a succession of private companies to obtain acts of parliament, sanctioning lines of railway through different parts of the country. A few of these coming into operation exhibited such profitable results, that capital was attracted to that species of investment so irresistibly, that parliament soon found itself besieged by applications for legislative sanction for projects involving an

amount of capital, bearing a serious proportion to the sum total of the national debt.

As each individual company acted for itself, and considered its own interests and objects, irrespective of all others, it has followed inevitably, that the confused net-work of railways, with which England is now being overspread, will be made without any unity of design, consistency of parts, or harmony of objects. The different meshes will not connect with each other. The pieces will not fit or mutually dovetail. Nay, in some cases, the traffic of one section of the country cannot flow into another section without the heavy charge of the cost of transhipment. When we compare, however, the evils which might have arisen from this pêle-mêle system with those which actually have ensued, we must conclude that the country has reason rather to be thankful that so little injury has ensued, than to regret the omission of a proper system of design and operation in the first instance.

The evils which have arisen are chiefly these: First, that capital has been misapplied and unprofitably expended in the construction of some lines on which the traffic will not be proportionate to the cost. Secondly, that in some instances, several independent lines have been constructed where the service would be better executed by one main trunk with lateral branches, which would have required less capital, and on which a less amount of traffic would have afforded adequate profit. Thirdly, that the railways are constructed with two different gauges, or width of rails, from which cause, the traffic on the one cannot pass upon the other without the expense and delay of transhipment.

The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the first of those adapted for the swift transport of passengers, was opened in 1829. Some years afterwards the lines connecting the metropolis with Birmingham, and the latter town with Liverpool, were completed and brought into operation, and from that time the construction of railways has been in constant progress, new lines having been opened for traffic in each successive year.

Of the great arteries by which traffic is now circulated through the United Kingdom, the most considerable is the London and Birmingham line, with its ramifications and dependencies. The Company which constructed and directs this,

has absorbed several other Companies, independently of its proper branches, and it now forms by far the most important and powerful body of this kind in England. The Grand Junction Railway Company, (from Birmingham to Liverpool,) the Liverpool and Manchester, and the line from Liverpool to Lancaster, have been successively amalgamated with it, and this combination now represents above three hundred and fifty miles of railway, forming the chief means of intercourse between several of the largest and most opulent centres of population and commerce. Next to this in importance, is the Company which directs the line called the Great Western, with its dependencies, extending from London, through Bristol to Exeter. The eastern section of the kingdom is reached by lines called the northern and eastern, and the Eastern Counties connecting London with Cambridge, Norwich, Yarmouth and Colchester. Finally, the traffic of the south and south-west, is executed by three main lines connecting London with Southampton, Brighton and Dover.

Scotland has not yet made much progress in the establishment of this means of inter communication; the only considerable line in operation being that which connects Edinburgh with Glasgow. In Ireland, the only railway of any considerable length, is that between Drogheda and Dublin.

On the Continent of Europe, Belgium presented a most favorable theatre for railway operations. The country, almost everywhere a dead level, required only that the surface should receive the road structure, without the cost either of earth works or masonry. Here no expensive viaducts or tunnels were required. The rails with a proper substratum were all that was necessary to make the road; accordingly, Belgium is the first of the European States, after England, and hitherto the only one, which has been overspread with a system of railways. These enterprises, however, were not left to private competition, but were retained by the Government, in which they are now vested.

In France, notwithstanding the enlightened condition of the country, all great social improvements are late in their adoption and slow in their progress. The railway system has been especially so. Hitherto, but few lines have been brought into operation; but many are in a state

of progressive execution. Two lines connect the capital with Versailles, one following each bank of the Seine. The line from Paris to Rouen has been some years in operation, and will be continued by two branches to Havre and Dieppe, which will probably be in operation soon after these pages are in the hands of the public. The line to Orleans has recently been completed as far as Tours, and is now in operation, and the great Northern Railway, connecting Paris with Brussels, has just been opened for traffic.

While the construction of railways 'has been thus prosecuted with vigor and zeal, great efforts have been made to introduce improvements into the machinery by which they are worked, and the locomotive engine has undergone progressive improvement in its efficiency, though no signal change has been effected in its principle or its form. The great aim of those who have directed their attention to it, has been to combine safety with power; but, above all, and at whatever cost, to improve its speed, and wonderful have been the results of these exertions.

Although at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester line, in 1829, the first locomotives were shown to be capable of attaining a speed of thirty miles an hour, yet this rate was not attempted in the regular traffic of the line. The fastest passenger trains completed the trip between Liverpool and Manchester, with a single stoppage, for about two minutes at Newton, in an hour and a half. The actual rate of the most rapid traveling, was therefore only twenty miles an hour. When the railway between London and Birmingham, was brought into operation some years later, the rate of the fast passenger trains, exclusive of stoppages, was fixed at twenty-two and a half miles an hour, the trip between London and Birmingham, (112 miles,) being five hours and thirty minutes.

While the Birmingham line was in progress, the Great Western line was

projected and commenced. Hitherto the railways which had been constructed not only in England, but elsewhere, were laid down with a distance of 56 inches between the rails. This width, or gauge as it has been since called, was the result of accident, not of choice, or guided by any clear reasons. The Liverpool and Manchester line was constructed with this gauge by Mr. George Stephenson, simply, because the Coal railways, to which that engineer had been accustomed in the Northern Counties, were so constructed; and the succeeding lines followed the same scale, partly from that inertia which disposes men to follow what has been already done, and partly, because some of these lines were intended to be connected, directly or indirectly, with the Liverpool and Manchester line. The latter reason, however, was inapplicable to the Great Western, which was intended to traverse a different and independent tract of the kingdom, and the superintendence of it was placed in the hands of a young man ambitious of doing something by which his name should get into the mouths of the public, and who, having been before unconnected with any railway works, was free from the influences and prejudices arising from their traditions; Mr. Brunel,* Junior, the engineer of the Great Western determined to break the charm of the 56 inch gauge, and to lay down the rails of that line with a width of 72 inches.

This change entailed upon the enterprise a large additional expenditure of capital in all its departments. An increased width of line produced, in the original construction of the road, a sadly augmented amount of work of every kind. Wider embankments, wider cuttings, larger bridges, arches of greater span, tunnels of larger calibre. In the working of the road, when completed, a necessity arose for larger wagons and carriages of every kind, larger and more powerful engines, larger engine houses, sheds, and every other species of subsidi