he vast
machinery, not only of this great country, but of the whole world.
Contrast, for one thing, the travelling facilities of Watt's early days
with those we now possess through his persevering industry. Fourteen
days was then the usual time for a journey from Glasgow to London, while
at present it can be performed in a less number of hours.

Railways! what have they not done! We see towns spring up in a few years
where only a few cottages formerly stood, and wild glens transformed
into fruitful valleys, by means of railways in their neighbourhood
developing traffic and trade, and creating employment by placing them in
communication with larger towns, and thus opening up new sources of
material prosperity. Look at the magnitude of our railways. With respect
to locomotives alone, in 1866 there were 8125 of these, and the work
performed by them was the haulage of 6,000,000 trains a distance of
143,000,000 miles. As each engine possesses a draught-power equal to 450
horses, these 8125 locomotives consequently did the work of more than
3,500,000 horses, and as the average durability of a locomotive is
computed to be about fifteen years, each will have in that time
traversed nearly 300,000 miles! Then, again, there have to be replaced
about 500 worn-out locomotives every year, at a cost for each of about
L2500 to L3000, entailing an annual expenditure of nearly L1,500,000
sterling. All this money circulates for the country's benefit, keeping
our iron, copper, and coal mines, our furnaces and our workshops, all at
work, and our people well and usefully employed, and thus proving one of
the greatest advantages of applied science and art to this country and
the world at large. If it had not been for steam, this valuable
Institution might not have been in existence, having for its chief
objects the promotion of the growth and increasing the usefulness of the
applied sciences.

We have now one of the greatest triumphs of engineering art in the Mont
Cenis Railway, and this, though worked out under great difficulties, has
proved a perfect success. Still more recently we have had brought under
our notice the bold scheme of connecting Britain and France by a tunnel
under the English Channel--a project which, but a few years ago, any one
would have been thought mad to propose; but science has proved that it
can be carried out; and it is only a few days since a large meeting was
held in Liverpool with a view of tunnelling under the