in good order and free from
obstruction. If so, he takes his stand with a white flag and waves it to
the approaching train as a signal to 'come on'--and come on it does, at
full speed. If there is anything wrong, he waves a red flag, or at night
a red lamp, and the engineer, on seeing it, promptly shuts off the steam,
and sounds the whistle to 'put down the brakes.' Every inch of the road
is carefully examined after the passage of each train. Austrian
espionage is hardly more strict."

SEIZURE OF A RAILWAY TRAIN FOR DEBT.

The financial difficulties under which some railway companies have
recently laboured were brought to a crisis lately in the case of the
Potteries, Shrewsbury, and North Wales Railway, a line running from
Llanymynech to Shrewsbury, with a projected continuation to the
Potteries. A debenture holder having obtained a judgment against the
company, a writ was forthwith issued, and a few days back the sheriff's
officers unexpectedly presented themselves at the company's principal
station in Shrewsbury, and formally entered upon possession. The down
train immediately after entered the station, and the bailiffs, without
having given any previous intimation to the manager, whose office adjoins
the station, seized the engines and carriages, and refused to permit the
outgoing train to start, although many passengers had taken tickets.
Ultimately the manager obtained the requisite permission, and it was
arranged that the train should make the journey, one of the bailiffs
meanwhile remaining in charge. The acting-sheriff refused a similar
concession with regard to the further running of the trains, and it being
fair day at Shrewsbury, and a large number of persons from various
stations along the line having taken return tickets, much inconvenience
to the public was likely to ensue. The North Wales section of this line
was completed in August last at a cost of a little over 1,100,000 pounds,
and was opened for passenger and goods traffic on the 13th of that month.
As has already been stated, the ordinary traffic of the line was, after
the enforcement of the writ, permitted to be continued, with the proviso
that a bailiff should accompany each train. This condition was naturally
very galling to the officials of the railway company, but they
nevertheless treated the representative of the civil law with a marked
politeness. On the night of his first becoming a constant passenger by
the line he rode