n additional rails, may be
practicable under peculiar circumstances, and to a limited extent, but it
is open to great objections.

It is very doubtful how far the addition of a single rail only would be
consistent with safety, as in this case the centre of gravity of the
carriages of different gauge in the same train would not be in the same
straight line. If a complete double set of rails were laid down the
expense would be very considerable.

The complication of switches and crossings that would be necessary would
involve considerable additional risk and great expense. The difficulty
and expense of maintaining the permanent way, and of keeping the double
set of rails in proper adjustment, would be greatly increased; and on the
whole, the expense, inconvenience, and risk, would probably be so great
as to prevent the experiment from being tried to any extent.

We cannot therefore consider the plan of laying down additional rails as
applicable, unless perhaps to a limited extent and under special
circumstances, such as enabling, for instance, mineral waggons
constructed for the narrow gauge to pass for a short distance and at a
slow speed over a wide-gauge Railway; with which view alone it is
proposed to lay down extra rails upon the Oxford, Worcester, and
Wolverhampton line, for a few miles south of Wolverhampton.

On the whole, therefore, we cannot consider any of the mechanical
arrangements which have been proposed for obviating the inconvenience of
a meeting of different gauges (even if we could assume their
practicability, which in the present state of experience we should not be
warranted in doing,) as anything better than partial and imperfect
palliatives of a great evil.

Assuming this to be the case, and assuming also, as we are compelled to
do, that an interruption of gauge must exist somewhere, the question is
reduced to this: to ascertain at what points such interruption should be
fixed in order to occasion the least inconvenience to the traffic and
commerce of the country. From the fact that nearly 2,000 miles of
Railway are already made or sanctioned on the narrow gauge, while not
more than 300 are sanctioned on the wide gauge, a disproportion which
will be still more largely increased by the new Railways now in
contemplation, an inference might be drawn in favour of confining the
gauge which is in such a decided minority within the narrowest possible
limits; and this inference might be strengthened