text:  One of them is quite clear that if the present railway _mania_ (as he calls it) is permitted to go on unchecked for a short time further the country will not only be on the verge of bankruptcy but a general crash will be inevitable; that vast as the resources of Britain undoubtedly are she cannot by any exertion short of crippling her staple commercial relations furnish capital enough for the fulfilment of a moiety of the schemes already announced and thrown into the public market; that the fact which is incontestable that a large proportion of these shares were originally and are presently held by parties who have no means of paying up the calls but who are solely speculating for the rise must very soon produce a reaction and that such reaction will be of the absolute nature of a panic