conveyance by land and
water, we deem them and their visionary schemes unworthy of notice.... The
gross exaggeration of the locomotive steam engine may delude for a time,
but must end in the mortification of all concerned.... It is certainly
some consolation to those who are to be whirled, at the rate of 18 or 20
miles per hour, by means of a high-pressure engine, to be told that they
are in no danger of being sea-sick while on shore, that they are not to be
scalded to death or drowned by the bursting of a boiler, and that they
need not mind being shot by the shattered fragments, or dashed in pieces
by the flying off or breaking of a wheel. But with all these assurances,
we would as soon expect the people of Woolwich to suffer themselves to be
fired off upon one of Congreve's ricochet rockets, as trust themselves to
the mercy of such a machine going at such a rate."

These words, strange and ludicrous as they seem to us, but tersely
expressed the general opinion of the day; but fortunately the clear head
and the undaunted will persevered, until success was at last attained, and
the magnificent railway system of the present, which has revolutionized
the world, is the issue. And the results are almost overwhelming in their
magnitude. Here, in Great Britain alone, 654,000,000 people travel
annually. There are 14,000 locomotives, and the rolling stock would form a
train nearly 2,000 miles long; while the number of miles traveled in a
year by trains is more than 10,000 times round the world; and the
passengers would form a procession 100 abreast, a yard apart, and 3,700
miles long.

These stupendous results have been attained gradually; if we go back to
1848, we find that on the London and Birmingham Railway the number of
trains in and out of Euston was forty-four per day. The average weight of
the engines was 18 tons, and the gross loads were, for passenger trains 76
tons, and for goods 160. Now, the weight of an express engine and tender
is about 65 tons, and gross loads of 250 to 300 tons for an express, and
500 tons for a coal train are not uncommon, while not only have the trains
materially increased in weight, owing to the carriage of third-class
passengers by all (except a few special) trains, and also to the lowering
of fares and consequent more frequent traveling, but the speed, and
therefore the duty of the engines, is greatly enhanced. A "Bradshaw's
Guide" of thirty-five years ago is now a rare book, but it is ver