of water in the hour, and will convey a load of 236 tons at a speed of 40 miles an hour, or a load of 181 tons at a speed of 60 miles an hour. The weight of this engine empty is 31 tons; of the tender 81⁄2 tons; and the total weight of the engine when loaded is 50 tons.

The weight of engines of this class is, says Mr. Bourne, "very injurious to the railway; bending, crushing, and disturbing the rails, and trying severely the whole of the railway works. No doubt the weight might be distributed upon a greater number of wheels, but if the weight resting on the driving wheels be much reduced, they will not have sufficient bite upon the rails to propel the train without slipping. This, however, is only one of the evils which the demand for high rates of speed has produced. As, however, the attainment of a high rate of speed requires much power, and consequently much heating surface in the boiler, and as the number of tubes cannot be increased without reducing their diameter, it has been found necessary, in the case of powerful engines, to employ tubes of a small diameter, and of great length, to obtain the necessary quantity of heating surface; and such tubes require a very strong draught in the chimney to make them effective.*

We conclude with a few of the more striking Statistics of Railways, during the Ten Years from 1855 to 1865.

Mr. Robert Stephenson, in 1855, described our Railways as spreading like a network over Great Britain and Ireland, to the extent of 8,054 miles completed. In length they exceeded the ten chief rivers of Europe united; and more than enough, if single rails were laid, to make a belt of iron round the globe.

The Railway works had then penetrated the earth with tunnels to the extent of more than fifty miles. There were eleven miles of viaduct in the vicinity of the metropolis alone. The earthworks measured 550,000,000 cubic yards, which would form a pyramid a mile and a half in height, with a base larger than St. James's Park.

Eighty millions of train miles were run annually on the Railways, 5,000 engines and 150,000 vehicles composed the working stock; the engines, in a straight line would extend from London to Chatham; the vehicles from London to Aberdeen; and the Companies employed 90,400 officers and servants; while the engines consumed annually 22,000,000 tons of coals, so that in every minute of time, four tons of coal flashed into steam twenty tons of water, an amount sufficient for the supply of the town of Liverpool. The coal consumed is almost equal to the whole amount exported to foreign countries, and to one half of the annual consumption of London.

* Catechism of the Steam-engine, 1856.

Fortunately, the Railway System, since the introduction of the Locomotive engine, by Stephenson, gave it vitality, has been a complete success, in the reproduction of capital, in the enormous saving in the cost of transport; in the facilities it affords for the development of mines, and of nearly all branches of national industry.

The consumption of fuel had been diminished. Before 1829, it required about 5 lbs. to carry one ton a mile. In that year George Stephenson reduced it to 2'41 lbs. of coke. It can now be brought to less than a quarter of a pound per ton per mile.

In 1854, 11,000,000 of passengers were conveyed on Railways; each passenger travelled an average of twelve miles. The old coaches carried an average of ten passengers, and for the conveyance of 300,000 passengers a day of twelve miles each, there would have been required at least 10,000 coaches and 120,000 horses.

The Railway wear and tear is great : 20 tons of iron require to be renewed annually; and 26,000,000 of sleepers annually perished; 300,000 trees were annually felled to make good the loss of sleepers; and 300,000 trees can be grown on little less than 5,000 acres of forest land.

The Acts of Parliament which Railways had then been forced to obtain, cost the country 14,000,000l. sterling; and the legislation of Parliament had made Railways pay 70,000,000l. of money to landowners for land and property; yet almost every estate traversed by a railway has been greatly improved in value. Railway accidents occurred to passengers in the first half of 1854 in the proportion of one accident to every 7, 195, 343 travellers.

The results of Railways were then (in 1854) astounding: 90,000 men were employed directly, and upwards of 40,000 collaterally-130,000 men, with their wives and families, represent a population of 500,000 souls; so that I in 50 of the entire population of the Kingdom might be said to be dependent on Railways! The annual receipts on Railways had reached 20,000,000l., or nearly half the amount of the ordinary revenue of the State. Had Railway intercourse been suspended, the same amount of traffic could not have been carried on under a cost of 60,000,000l. per annum; so that 40,000,000l. a year were saved by Railways to the public; "time is money," and in point of time a further saving was effected; for on every journey averaging 12 miles in length, an hour was saved to 11,000,000 of passengers per annum, which is equal to 38,000 years in the life of a man working eight hours a day; and allowing an average of 3s. per diem for his work, this additional saving was 2,000,ocol. a year.

In 1865, the capital expended in this country on Railways had been upwards of three hundred and eighty-five millions sterling, or nearly half the National Debt.* This amount had been devoted to the construction of eleven thousand five hundred miles of Railway in the British Islands, which are now open for traffic. The works executed in connexion with these undertakings, says the Railway News, have been of extraordinary magnitude. Navigable rivers and even arms of the sea have been crossed over; hills have been pierced by tunnels and viaducts, embankments and cuttings made in all directions. All this has been accomplished within the lifetime of a single generation of men, who have not only executed the work, but proParliamentary Return.

*

vided the means out of their own private resources, without any assistance whatever from the funds of the State. In a word, the Railway System of England has been the spontaneous outgrowth of the native industry, energy, and enterprise of its people. The rapid growth of the Railway System of the United Kingdom to its present dimensions must be accepted as a remarkable proof of the progress of the country. During the 41 years which passed since Stephenson ran his first train on the Stockton and Darlington line, the Railways of the kingdom absorbed 500,000,000l. of capital, and extended over more than 14,000 miles. In 1865, the length of lines was 13,289 miles, of which more than a third were single lines, and the rest double; this was an increase of 500 miles over the preceding year. The main trunk lines have now been laid out, and little more is wanted than lines and branches.

The statistics of a year's work on the existing Railways afford a striking illustration of the constant activity of our population, as well as of the important part which this means of communication plays in the social and • industrial life of the nation. We find that in 1865, 3,448,509 passenger trains, carrying 251,862,715 passengers, travelled 71,206,818 miles; while 2,108,198 gods trains transported 15,179,000 horses, dogs, cattle, and other stock, 77,805,786 tons of minerals, and 36,787,638 tons of general merchandise over 68, 320, 309 miles. Thus, taking passenger and goods trains together, it appears that they travelled in the 12 months as great a distance as from the earth to the sun, and about half the way back again. In order to do this the Companies had to keep a rolling stock of 7,414 locomotives, 17,997 passenger coaches, and 233,260 goods waggons, trucks, &c. This, together with the cost of permanent way, management, servants, lawyers' bills, and compensation for accidents, involved an expenditure of 17,211,000/. On the other hand, there was received for passengers' fares 16,572,000/., and for goods 19,318,000l., together 35,890,000l., which leaves a balance of profit for the Companies of about 18,679,000l.

What is implied by the Railway Interest-its hold on the country and monetary value—may be gathered from the following statistics :-The first Railway in the United Kingdom in length and revenue is the London and North-Western, extending over 1,274 miles, and drawing 6,276,8791. cf annual receipts. Next comes the Great Western, 1,256 miles long, with 3,585,6147. of annual receipts; followed by the North-Eastern, 1205 miles and 3,529.2887. annual receipts; the Great Eastern, 756 miles, and 1,690,2697. receipts; the North British, 723 miles, and 1,309,8657. Midland, 700 miles, and 2,729,1317.; the London and South-Western, 576 miles, and 1,477,8437.; the Caledonian, 494 miles, and 1,432,445. the Lancashire and Yorkshire, 431 miles, and 2,150,6437.; the London and Brighton, 275 miles, and 1,055,1167.; the London Chatham, and Dover, 132 miles, and 446,8967. The profits of railway work, however, are not necessarily in proportion to length of mileage or amount of

revenue.

Mr. Tidd Pratt states that upwards of 160,000 persons compose the general body of the working men on the Railways of this country. The public has a deep interest in the well-being and contentment of those who have the practical management of the railway traffic of the country, and in their being a faithful, vigilant, and well-conducted class of men, because upon them depends not only the safety of the lives of a great portion of

the people of this country, but also the management and regular carrying on the commercial traffic of the kingdom.

The Army, Navy, and Volunteers, are services much indebted for their efficiency to the Railway System throughout the country. It has been stated at a Railway inquiry, that whereas at one time it took nine days and many marches to bring a regiment from Manchester to London, it could now be accomplished in a few hours. In reference to the Navy, Railways have proved a most valuable boon, inasmuch as through their agency ships can be much more quickly served with stores and ammunition; and it may be truly said that the Volunteers are greatly benefited by the facilities they derive from the operations of the Railway System.

The longest railway in the world is the Illinois Central, which, with its branches, is 731 miles in length, and was constructed at a cost of 15,000,000 dollars.

Since page 317 was printed, stating the highest Railway in the World to be that in Chili, at an elevation of 4,075 feet above the sea-level, the line of Railway which had been in the course of construction for the last eighteen months over Mont Cenis, and which follows in the main the great road of the first Napoleon, was successfully traversed on the 21st of August, 1867, over its whole length, or 48 miles, by a locomotive engine. A train, composed of an engine and two carriages, left the St. Michel station at 6.30 A.M.

Mr. Fell's system consists in the application of a central doubleheaded rail placed on its side in the middle of the way, and elevated about 14 inches above the ordinary rails. There are four horizontal drivingwheels on the engine, under the control of the engine-driver, which can be made by pressure to grasp the central rail so as to utilize the whole power of the engine, and so enable it to work up incredible gradients without slipping. The carriages also have four horizontal wheels underneath, which, with the central rail, form a complete safety-guard. In addition to the ordinary break there are breaks upon the central rail. It would appear, therefore, impossible for the engine or carriages to leave the rails where the central one is laid.

After leaving the deep valley in which St. Michel is situated, the line passes by a gradient of 1 in 30 to the Pont de la Denis, where an iron bridge spans the River Arcq, near the site of that which was carried away by the inundations of 1866.

The first very steep gradient of 1 in 10 was seen in passing Modane, and, foreshortened to the view, appeared on the approach as if impossible to surmount; but the engine, the second constructed on this system, had already proved equal to the task on the experimental line, and, clutching the central rail between its horizontal wheels, it glided quickly up, under a pressure of steam of not more than 80 lb. to the square inch, without apparent effort. The progress was purposely slow, because no engine or carriage had previously passed over the line, and also to give opportunity for examining the works. The train entered Lanslebourg station under a triumphal arch, having accomplished 24 miles of distance, and attained an elevation of 2, 100 feet above St. Michel.

From this point the zigzags of ascent commence, and the gradients over a distance of four miles were for the most part I in 12. Looking down