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From "Sharpe's Magazine."

RAILWAYS: THEIR INTRODUCTION

INTO GREAT BRITAIN.

selected for the development of their capabilities was particularly unfortunate, from the steep gradients abounding on that line. Yet the day of triumph was not far distant. PUBLIC railroads are exactly coeval with Already the "Grand Experimental Railthe nineteenth century, for the legislative | road" was more than schemed; for in the act authorizing the construction of the Sur-year preceding the opening for traffic of the rey line in 1801, was the first Act of Parlia- Darlington and Stockton line, the first ment of this nature; all earlier railways prospectus had appeared of a company eshaving been purely private works, chiefly tablished for the formation of a double associated with mines or collieries. Cast- railway between Liverpool and Manchester. iron plate-rails, fastened on rough blocks of They obtained their Act of Parliament in stone, were adopted on the Surrey tram- 1826, despite the determined opposition of road, which unites Croydon and Wands- the Canal proprietors, who had procured the worth, and is nine miles long, including the rejection of the Company's petition for leave branch to Carshalton, being of nearly the to bring in a bill the year before. This same length as the first Scottish railway, the scheme originated with Mr. William James Kilmarnock and Troon line in Ayrshire, the of London, in 1822, (the projector also of the Act for which was passed in 1808. An London and Birmingham Railway,) who outlay of £60,000 was required for the exe- influenced Mr. Saunders of Liverpool, comcution of the Surrey line, and the sole motive monly regarded as the father of the underpower employed was horses. Three years taking, so much in favor of the project, that afterwards a new locomotive agent of as that gentleman caused a survey of the line much, but of very different mettle, made its to be made at his own expense. A work modest débût on the railway at Merthyr published in 1820, called "A General Iron Tydvil in South Wales. Fresh from the Railway," claims however for the author, manufactory of Messrs. Richard Trevithick, Mr. Thomas Gray of Leeds, the honor of and Andrew Vivian, of Camborne in Corn- having founded the existing railway system. wall, the "car without horses, the car with Mr. Wilson of Brussels wrote a pamphlet in out wings," displayed its first performances 1845, explaining the merits of Mr. Gray, who, "with a rush and a roar" undoubtedly, if when he presented a copy of his book to not with "the speed of a dream" but Mr. Wilson, said to him in prophetic tones: drawing on this first experiment ten tons of iron, and the carriages containing them, a distance of nine miles, at the rate of five miles an hour, without requiring a second supply of water. Not content with a private stage, the locomotive ventured into public on the Stockton and Darlington line, between Stockton and Wilton Park Colliery, opened on the 27th of September, 1825; which was the first public railway on which steampower was employed; and where it was associated with horse-power, and applied both by locomotive and stationary engines. This union of agents proved far from harmonious, especially as there was only a single pair of rails, with passing stations; and great delays necessarily occurred. The attention of the scientific and commercial world was now, however, fully awakened to the importance of this new form of power, which had been so successfully applied to navigation. Not only were the Darlington engines of inferior construction, but the field VOL. II.-38

" Here is the main-spring of the civilization of the world: all distances shall disappear; people will come here from all parts of the Continent, without danger, and without fatigue; companies will be formed, immense capital paid and invested; the system shall extend over all countries; emperors, kings, and governors will be its defenders; and this discovery will be put on a par with that of printing." The insufficiency of the existing means of transport was most strongly felt at Liverpool, "the greatest thoroughfare in the world," and it is not the least honor of her enterprising merchants that they "with fostering care," as Mr. H. Scrivenor says, "nursed the new-born system at a time when landowners, canal proprietors, and others, desired its destruction, and combined to crush the project in its bud. Then it was they shielded it from attack, and drew forth its latent principles, discovered its giant strength, and at much cost of time and money exhibited all its

virtues in practical results which finally world a-gadding. Twenty miles an hour, silenced opposition."

Was ever a great boon offered to mankind which provoked not the opposition of short-sighted selfishness and ignorance? When it was proposed to extend the metropolitan turnpike-roads to greater distances, the farmers of the surrounding counties became dreadfully alarmed at the prospect of additional competitors, reduced prices, and resultive ruin. They petitioned Parliament against the measure, alleging, "That the remoter counties would be able, from the comparative cheapness of labor in them, to sell their produce in London at a lower rate than they could do; and that their rents would be reduced and cultivation ruined by the measure!" How have their sapient predictions been verified? As Mr. Porter says, "The plan has been beneficial to them, inasmuch as, by providing for the indefinite extension of the city, it has rendered it a far better market for their peculiar productions." What wonder that such an innovation as Railways was strenuously opposed, threatening, as it did, the coaching interest, and the posting interest, the canal interest, and the sporting interest, and private interests of every variety. "Gentlemen, as an individual," said a sporting M. P. for Cheltenham, "I hate your railways; I detest them altogether; I wish the concoctors of the Cheltenham and Oxford, and the concoctors of every other scheme, including the solicitors and engineers, were at rest in Paradise. Gentlemen, I detest railroads; nothing is more distasteful to me than to hear the echo of our hills reverberating with the noise of hissing railroad engines, running through the heart of our hunting country, and destroying that noble sport to which I have been accustomed from my childhood." And at Tewkesbury, one speaker contended that "any railway would be injurious;" compared engines to "war-horses and fiery meteors;" and affirmed that "the evils contained in Pandora's box were but trifles compared with those that would be consequent on railways." Even in go a-headative America, some steady jog-trotting opponents raised their voices against the nascent system; one of whom (a canal stockholder by the way) chronicled the following objective arguments. "He saw what would be the effect of it; that it would set the whole

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Pray,

sir! Why, you will not be able to keep an apprentice-boy at his work; every Saturday evening he must take a trip to Ohio, to spend the Sabbath with his sweetheart. Grave plodding citizens will be flying about like comets. All local attachments must be at an end. It will encourage flightiness of intellect. Veracious people will turn into the most immeasurable liars; all their conceptions will be exaggerated by their magnificent notions of distance. Only a hundred miles off! Tut, nonsense, I'll step across, madam, and bring your fan!' sir, will you dine with me to-day at my little box at Alleghany? Why, indeed, I don't know. I shall be in town until twelve. Well, I shall be there; but you must let me off in time for the theatre' And then, sir, there will be barrels of pork, and cargoes of flour, and chaldrons of coals, and even lead and whisky, and such-like sober things, that have always been used to sober travelling, whisking away like a set of sky-rockets. It will upset all the gravity of the nation. If two gentlemen have an affair of honor, they have only to steal off to the Rocky Mountains, and there no jurisdiction can touch them. And then, sir, think of flying for debt! A set of bailiffs, mounted on bomb-shells, would not overtake an absconded debtor, only give him a fair start. Upon the whole, sir, it is a pestilential, topsy-turvy, harum-scarum whirligig. Give me the old, solemn, straightforward, regular Dutch canal-three miles an hour for expresses, and two for ordinary journeys, with a yoke of oxen for a heavy load! I go for beasts of burden: it is more primitive and scriptural, and suits a moral and religious people better. None of your hop-skip-andjump whimsies for me."

The incredulity and laughter with which Mr. Stephenson's opinions were listened to by Parliamentary Committees concerning the velocity he expected to attain, are well known. He was implored by the Directors who engaged him not to indulge before these legislators in the visionary schemes, which led him to contemplate the achievement in speed of twelve or fourteen miles an hour, lest he should bring discredit on their enterprise. He says, that "he sought England over for a man to support him in his evidence before Parliament, and could find only

one man, James Walker; and was then afraid to call that gentleman, because he knew nothing about railways. He had then no one to tell his tale to but Mr. Saunders, who did listen to him, and kept his spirits up." But the exigencies of Liverpool inspired her inhabitants with sufficient energy to overcome all obstacles. Certainly there were two canals between that town and Manchester, but they were inadequate for the existing traffic of those emporiums of commerce, which then amounted to more than a thousand tons daily, and would greatly increase with added facilities of transport. It was estimated that these towns annually consumed not less than a million tons of coals, supplied from the mines of St. Helens; a distance of thirty miles by canal, but which would be reduced one-half by the proposed railway, and effect upon the carriage the yearly saving of £100,000.

Thus stimulated, the Company's engineers vigorously set to work, in June, 1826, conscious that there was no child's play before them. The tunnels to be excavated, and mosses to be drained, the viaducts to be erected, and levels to be sunk, would tax and test to the utmost their ingenuity and skill. Exclusive of tunnelling, the cuttings amounted to nearly 720,000,000 cubic yards, Professor Barlow tells us, and the embankments to 276,000. Chat Moss, a bog so soft as to be impassable by a pedestrian, except in unusually dry weather, was the first scene of their operations; and a trial of perseverance it proved of no ordinary kind; especially as it was the reverse of a "labor of love," being a difficulty not naturally and necessarily imposed upon the construction of the line, but entailed upon the Company by the blind opposition of Lords Sefton and Derby to the course of the original line, recommended by Mr. Stephenson, the chief engineer, which would have traversed a portion of these noblemen's property. Moreover, the compulsory adoption of this inferior line involved the additional evil of a double gradient, a mile and a half in length each way, and rising one foot in ninety-six in both directions.

This is a permanent and most serious disadvantage to the working of the line. It is evident that it is far more important to make a railway level than a turnpike road, as the resistance to the descending tendency of a

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load on an inclined plane is far greater on the latter road than on the iron one; for as double the impulsive force is required on a smooth macadamized road rising one foot in twelve, to that which would draw the same load on a level line, the rise of only one in two-hundred-and-forty feet on the railway, requires the impulsive force to be doubled; and a nearly quadrupled power on these particular gradients. If the mortification were not sufficiently severe at first, its measure was completed not many months after the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester line; when a second line was contemplated between these towns, which these very lords, grown wiser than of yore," were willing enough to admit through their grounds; experience having taught the proprietors of land the increased value of property in the vicinity of railways. But there was no help for it then. Chat Moss, the beloved of snipes and Jack-o'-lanterns, must be drained and levelled, although 44 miles in length, and, in some parts especially, of almost unlimited capacity for the reception of solids without apparent surfacial improvement. Through this semi-fluid an iron rod would sink by its own weight; and tons upon tons of embankment were absorbed before this yielding morass could be rendered fit for the support of any superstructure.

Night and day, navvy and horse worked, but winced not at the pulpy foe. Gradually they gorged with their interminable heapings the last and most insatiable half-mile on the Eastern border; and on May-day, 1830, the Rocket Engine steamed a carriage full of enterprise across the Moss. The ingenious method by which this difficulty was mainly overcome is thus described by Mr. R. Ritchie. "As the materials laid down for an embankment, about four feet high, gradually sunk, it became impossible to use either clay or gravel. Recourse was therefore had to the moss itself for the forming of the embankment, which, from its less specific gravity, would not be so liable to sink; and by cutting drains every five yards apart, and laying the moss dry between the drains, it formed an excellent material for the embankment, requiring only four or five times the quantity which would have been used on solid ground. In forming the road on the surface of the moss, drains were first cut on each side of the line, and lateral

ones to carry off the water, and by this
means the surface acquired tenacity and
consolidation. Upon this hurdles, wickered
with heath, were laid transversely. Upon
these were placed two feet of ballast or grav-
el, to form the permanent road, and on which
the wooden sleepers for the rails were bed-level part of the railroad.
ded." The Parr Moss, too, was solidified;
the Sankey Viaduct, from sixty to seventy
feet in height, was erected; the Liverpool
Tunnel, through 1,970 yards of moist earth,
sand, or sandstone, was completed at a cost
of nearly £35,000; and the finishing touch
applied to the constructive works of this
railway (thirty-one miles in length between |
the terminal stations) by spanning the Irwell
with a noble stone bridge, in September,
1829; the total expense amounting to nearly
£740,000.

minimum rate of ten miles an hour. Four
competitors presented themselves for trial
October the 6th was the day appointed for
the struggle, and the selected arena was
about two miles in extent, on the eastern
side of Rainhill Bridge, the only perfectly

London, Newcastle, Darlington, and Leith engaged in the noble rivalry: Messrs. Braithwaite and Ericson entering the "Novelty" on the lists, the smallest engine, weighing 2 tons 15 cwt.; Mr. Burstall of Leith brought forward the "Perseverance," weighing 2 tons 17 cwt.; the "Rocket," whose "training" was first completed, was supplied by Mr. R. Stephenson of Newcastle, and weighed 4 tons 3 cwt.; and the fourth candidate was the "Sans Pariel," also weighing 4 tons 3 cwt., and constructed by Mr. Ackworth, of Darlington. Every run was a heat, certainly, but of course the compet

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And now the great question presented itself for the company's solution, of the tractive power to be employed on their com-itors ran in succession. No spurred and pleted highway. Three rivals entered the leather-unmentionabled rider in this contest lists: horses, stationary engines, locomo- lashed his steed. Shovels and pokers took tives; but flesh and blood soon withdrew place of whips and rowels; and, instead of from a contest with iron; lungs could not melted-down jockeys in rainbow-hued jackcompete with boilers; breath stood a sorry ets, men smoke-begrimed and fustian-clad chance opposed to steam. Two gentlemen governed the reins. But never did a Derby in the direction of the company, accom- day or St. Leger give birth to so honorable panied by Mr. H. Booth, made a tour of in- an excitement as prevailed in this salamanspection, and quickly narrowed the question drine race. No betting-ring was required to the rival forms of engine. Messrs. J. to give it interest. And who was victor? Walker and J. U. Rastrick, both civil en- "Perseverance" for once failed to “overcome gineers, were next commissioned to make all difficulties," and easily yielded the conobservations and comparisons on the differ- test to names of greater pretension; while ent methods of applying steam power. the 'Novelty," unfortunately bursting a They accordingly laid two separate reports vessel, was compelled to seek retirement before the Board, advocating the adoption and professional aid. Mr. Ackworth's enof the stationary steam-engine. But Mr. gine made a gallant show, performing 224 George Stephenson, "the father of the loco- miles of the course in 1 hour 37 minutes; but motive system," was strongly of a different the "Sans Pareil," becoming disabled after opinion, and was supported in his views by the same fashion as her metropolitan rival, the majority of the Directors, who resolved lost her chance of victory. So the "Rocket" to attempt the introduction of the locomotive won the field, attaining 29 miles per hour engine; and, therefore, to encourage and at her greatest speed, and 11 miles at her stimulate the invention of improvements, slowest pace; accomplishing the whole jourof which they deemed this machine to be ney twice at an average rate of 12 ninesusceptible, they offered a premium of £500, twentieth miles per hour, and receiving the to be contended for in 1829, for the most premium at the award of the judges, Messrs. approved engine, fulfilling the condition of Rastrick, Wood, and Kennedy. limitation in weight to six tons, (those in use averaging nine tons,) freedom from smoke, a capability of drawing at starting three times its own weight, and of travelling seventy miles with that load at a

As nightingales love most to sing near an echo, so does the heart speak loudest near tones of music.

From "Fraser's Magazine."

WINTER HOLIDAYS AT A SWISS

SCHOOL.

WOE betide the unfortunate wight who was latest dressed on the last morning of the Old Year! We all went to bed on the eve of that day with handkerchiefs in knots under our pillows, and long before it dawned the majority were on the alert without requiring any aid from the stentorian voice which usually aroused them. The earliest of these ante-peep-of-day-boys having completed their own toilet, would steal to a friend's bedside, and, with finger on lip, give him his shirt and the hour of the watch, while the rest continued snoring; and when all the light sleepers and those next in their confidence, were in their shoes (nearly half the school being usually dressed before the rest knew their danger or whereabouts) the laglasts springing simultaneously out of bed, turned the late quiet dormitory into a very noisy assembly-room. Never did bereaved hive buzz more dolefully, on first discovering the loss of their queen, than lamented some of our sans-culottes on first missing these indispensable articles of attire; and, when the mischievous rogue who had filched and secreted at length restored them to their owner, he was often unable, from sheer deficiency of breath or buttons, to adjust them on his person in time, whilst to add to his confusion, a knot of comrades already clad, would stand by shouting to the loiterers to make haste, and betting whole batchen against kreutzers on some still uncovered pair of shoulders, in imminent risk of that morning's knouting. When of the few who yet remained unjacketed, all but one had wriggled into their clothes-he, thus doomed to be the scape-goat of the Old Year, might spare himself that trouble; the custom was to seize and carry him to the further end of the long room, where, already drawn up in double file, were stationed the whole muster of his class-mates, all vociferously cracking jokes and handkerchiefs at his expense, and loudly demanding their victim. Swiftly, smartly, and without intermission, down came a hundred tapering scourges at once on the legs, back, and shoulders of the delinquent; nor did the bellowing representative of Saint Sylvestre, whose day it is, and whose martyrdom we

thus commemorated, escape into the corridor without acquiring a very lively sense of what his patron must have endured, if, as the chronicles relate, he was really put to death by flagellation. But the breakfast of the New Year, a panacea for all bruises, and more than a compensation for the ill-usage he had sustained at our hands, was by this time ready and announced. The hot fragrant coffee issued in browner streams from spouts of twice the usual calibre; a general Ranz des vaches had taken place that morning under the windows; and the consumption of milk this day was unrestricted and undiluted; every platter foamed at least twice to the brim with fresh supplies, loaves of immense proportions absolutely barricaded the tables; there was an abundant supply of spec, snitz, and walnuts; and every thing was on an equally substantial scale of good cheer. Our butteries turned out but one such breakfast in the year, but that was a lion's breakfast, unus sane at leo. On this one occasion we had every inducement to eat more than enough; and if boys could die of surfeit, verily we had been in peril. As it was, the experiment tried but once a year did none of us any harm. When each had out of the good things before him garrisoned his stomach with a month's provisions-and even bulimia must pause for want of capacity-in came Herr Rstretching forth his arm, like Paul before Festus, requesting a minute's silence and attention. A man of Herr R's altitude, the six feet high, which “looked six inches higher," with his Farnese herculean breadth of shoulder, and grave, dignified deportment, might have secured an uninterrupted hearing under circumstances less favorable than having a holiday to announce to his delighted auditory. The herald of these pleasing tidings at once stopt every mouth, and drew upon himself the eyes of all his listeners, who waited with ears erect and dropping chin for the coming "allocution." The Herr's gay dress, which was never seen but after breakfast on the 1st of January, attracted almost as much attention as the wearer: and no wonder; for his wide shoulders were cased in a pea-green coat, studded with glass buttons, a coat of such dimensions that Jack the Giant Killer might have been proud to strip it from the back of any of his stalwart victims; his equally broad chest

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