Legislation has
introduced, is, of course, answerable for this delightful change; but
a glance at the following table for the six weeks since the Act has
come into operation, will show how effectively and rapidly it has
worked:--

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Trains Chairmen Directors Station Other
late. put sentenced Masters Officials
in Irons. to Penal sentenced sent
Servitude. to Hard to Gaol
Labour. and Fined.
--------------------------------------------------------------
First week | 1725 | 9 | 95 | 192 | 2004
Second, Do. | 3 | 1 | 3 | 17 | 143
Third, Do. | 2 | .. | 2 | 11 | 88
Fourth, Do. | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 15
Fifth, Do. | .... | .. | 1[A] | .. | ..
Sixth, Do. | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 10
--------------------------------------------------------------

[Footnote A: Precautionary sentence.]

The list of officials, as furnished in the above Schedule, undergoing
their various periods of punishment, is an encouraging sign to the
travelling public, and it is satisfactory to notice that the old
unpunctuality that marked the first week, followed up as it was _by a
rigorous application of the new law_, instantly disappeared as if
by magic, when the Companies began really to understand their
responsibilities and their penalties under the new Act. It is
confidently, therefore, to be hoped, that next week's record may
possibly be an entirely clean one, and that, _the only method of
ensuring punctuality_, namely, the infliction of a penalty on the
Authorities who can control it, may be found in practice to be
entirely successful.

* * * * *

SUGGESTION GRATIS.--Why doesn't some enterprising publisher engage
Sergeant PALMER of the 19th Knowles's Century Powder Magazine to
write a Military Romance? There has been nothing of the sort worth
mentioning since CHARLES LEVER. The Sergeant could write under the
_nom de guerre_ of _Micky Free, Redivivus_.

(_Signed_) BARON DE BOOK-WORMS.

* * * * *

_Q._ If several Householders who love peace and quietness on Sunday,
should combine to put down the Salvation Army's so-called singing,