steam navigation.

"The first English model of a steam carriage was made in 1784 by William
Murdoch, the friend and assistant of Watt. It was on the high-pressure
principle and ran on three wheels. The boiler was heated by a spirit
lamp, and the whole machine was of very diminutive dimensions, standing
little more than a foot high. Yet, on one occasion, the little engine
went so fast that it outran the speed of the inventor. Mr. Buckle says
that one night after returning from his duties in the mine at Redruth, in
Cornwall, Murdoch determined to try the working of his model locomotive.
For this purpose he had recourse to the walk leading to the church, about
a mile from the town. The walk was rather narrow and was bounded on
either side by high hedges. It was a dark night, and Murdoch set out
alone to try his experiment. Having lit his lamp, the water shortly
began to boil, and off started the engine with the inventor after it. He
soon heard distant shouts of despair. It was too dark to perceive
objects, but he shortly found, on following up the machine, that the
cries for assistance proceeded from the worthy pastor of the parish, who,
going towards the town on business, was met on this lonely road by the
hissing and fiery little monster, which he subsequently declared he had
taken to be the Evil One in _propria persona_. No further steps,
however, were taken by Murdoch to embody his idea of a locomotive
carriage in a more practical form."

FIRST RAILWAY BILL.

The first Railway Bill passed by Parliament was for a line from
Wandsworth to Croydon, in 1801, but a quarter of a century elapsed before
the first line was actually constructed for carrying passengers between
Stockton and Darlington. People still living can remember the mail
coaches that plied once a month between Edinburgh and London, making the
journey in twelve or fourteen days. The _Annual Register_ of 1820 boasts
that "English mail coaches run 7 miles an hour; French only 4.5 miles;
the former travelling, in the year, forty times the length of miles that
the French accomplish." These coaches were a great improvement on the
previous method of sending the mails. In 1783 a petition to Parliament
stated that "the mails are generally entrusted to some idle boy, without
character, mounted on a worn-out hack."

"_Progress of the World_" by M. G. Mulhall.

RAILWAY FROM MERSTHAM TO WANDSWORTH.

Charle