ce, dirt, and degradation
fearful to contemplate. To active philanthropists, not to seekers of the
picturesque, archaeologists, and antiquarians, do we address ourselves. Still
we ought to add that, in the iron works and rolling mills, there are studies
of half naked men in active motion at night, with effect of red firelight and
dark shade, in which the power of painting flesh and muscular development
might be more effectively displayed than in the perpetual repetition of model
Eves and sprawling nymphs.

* * * * *

WOLVERHAMPTON formerly lay away from railroads, at a convenient omnibus
distance; but competition has doubly pierced it through and through. One
line connects it with Shrewsbury; another, on the point of completion, will
connect it with Dudley, Birmingham, and Oxford, and another with
Worcester,--add to these means of communication the canals existing before
railroads commenced, extending to Hull, Liverpool, Chester, and London, and
it will be seen that Wolverhampton is most fortunately placed.

The great railway battle of the gauges commenced at Wolverhampton, and has
been carried on ever since at the cost of more than a million sterling in
legal and parliamentary expenses, beside the waste of capital in constructing
three railways where one would have been sufficient, and the extra cost of
land traversed where a price was paid, 1st, for the land; 2nd, for the
revenue; 3rd, for compulsion; 4th, for influence, and 5th, for vote, if the
landowner were a member of either House of Parliament.

At the end of the battle, a competing line to London has been established,
which will end shortly in a compromise; and, if one district has two
railways, others, much needing, have none. The shareholders on both sides
have lost their money, the engineers have reaped a harvest, and the lawyers
have realized a fortune.

The experience of water companies, gas companies, canal companies, and
railway companies, has distinctly been, that, between great monied
corporations with large capitals sunk in plant, competition is impossible and
must end in a compromise.

But these contests are profitable to lawyers, who must always win, whether
their clients do or not. It is no exaggeration to say that, as surely as
Spain and Portugal are priest-ridden, so surely is Great Britain lawyer-
ridden. No sooner does the science, the industry, and the enterprise of the
country carve out some new road to commercial prosperity, than