iginal
line, it was clear that they would be 30,000 pounds the richer, as the
enforced deviation would cost 60,000 pounds; and, on the other hand, the
owner of the estate would obtain a secure house, or receive 30,000 pounds
in money. The proposed bargain was struck, and 30,000 pounds was paid by
the Company. 'How can you live in that house,' said some friend to him
afterwards, 'with the railroad coming so near?' 'Had it not done so,'
was the reply, 'I could not have lived in it at all.'

"One rather original character sold some land to the London and
Birmingham Company, and was loud and long in his outcries for
compensation, expatiating on the damages which the formation of the line
would inevitably bring to his property. His complaints were only stopped
by the payment of his demands. A few months afterwards, a little
additional land was required from the same individual, when he actually
demanded a much larger price for the new land than was given him before;
and, on surprise being expressed at the charge for that which he had
declared would inevitably be greatly deteriorated in value from the
proximity of the railway, he coolly replied: 'Oh, I made a mistake
_then_, in thinking the railway would injure my property; it has
increased its value, and of course you must pay me an increased price for
it.'

"On one occasion, a trial occurred in which an eminent land valuer was
put into the witness box to swell the amount of damages, and he proceeded
to expatiate on the injury committed by railroads in general, and
especially by the one in question, in _cutting up_ the properties they
invaded. When he had finished the delivery of this weighty piece of
evidence, the counsel for the Company put a newspaper into his hand, and
asked him whether he had not inserted a certain advertisement therein.
The fact was undeniable, and on being read aloud, it proved to be a
declaration by the land valuer himself, that the approach of the railway
which he had come there to oppose, would prove exceedingly beneficial to
some property in its immediate vicinity then on sale.

"An illustration of the difference between the exorbitant demands made by
parties for compensation, and the real value of the property, may be
mentioned. The first claim made by the Directors of the Glasgow Lunatic
Asylum on the Edinburgh and Glasgow railway is stated to have been no
less than 44,000 pounds. Before the trial came on, this sum was reduced
to 10,0