nd been rapt by the tones, now burst forth simultaneously
in expressions of delight and applause.

* * * * *

THE RAILWAYS.

We read, no later than yesterday, two very pungent leading articles in
the London daily journals, on the present all-absorbing subject of
railway speculation. Both writers are evidently well versed in the
details of the novel system; both possess some smattering of political
economy, sufficient at least to enable them to form a judgment; and
both consistent in their data and statistical information. Yet,
agreeing in these points, it is somewhat singular to find that the
_Coryphaei_ have arrived at diametrically opposite conclusions. One of
them is quite clear, that if the present railway _mania_ (as he calls
it) is permitted to go on unchecked for a short time further, the
country will not only be on the verge of bankruptcy, but a general
crash will be inevitable; that, vast as the resources of Britain
undoubtedly are, she cannot, by any exertion short of crippling her
staple commercial relations, furnish capital enough for the fulfilment
of a moiety of the schemes already announced, and thrown into the
public market; that the fact, which is incontestable, that a large
proportion of these shares were originally, and are presently, held by
parties who have no means of paying up the calls, but who are solely
speculating for the rise, must very soon produce a reaction, and that
such reaction will be of the absolute nature of a panic. Such are the
opinions of this writer, who is clearly of the restrictive school. He
holds, that the government is bound, in such a crisis as that which he
rather states than prophesies, to interfere at once with an arbitrary
order, and to prevent the issue of any new schemes until those already
before the public are either disposed of or exhausted.

How this is to be effected, the writer does not sufficiently explain.
He points to immediate interference, from which expression we are led
to believe he points at some such proceeding as an Order in Council,
to be pronounced during the recess of Parliament. If so, we may
dismiss this gentleman and his remedy in a very summary manner. Such
an Order in Council would be worse than useless, because it would be a
manifest breach of the constitution. As well might an Order be issued
to close our manufactories, to restrict the amount of any branch of
produce, or to prevent parties from form