ick while on shore, that they are
not to be scalded to death, nor drowned, nor dashed to pieces by the
bursting of a boiler; and that they need not mind being struck by the
flying off or breaking of a wheel.  What can be more palpably absurd or
ridiculous than the prospect held out of locomotives travelling _twice as
fast_ as stage coaches!  We should as soon expect the people of Woolwich
to suffer themselves to be fired off upon one of Congreve's Ricochet
Rockets, as trust themselves to the mercy of such a machine going at such
a rate.  We will back old Father Thames against the Woolwich Railway for
any sum.  We trust that Parliament will, in all railways it may sanction,
limit the speed to _eight or nine miles an hour_, which we entirely agree
with Mr. Sylvestor is as great as can be ventured on with safety."


PARLIAMENTARY OPPOSITION.


On the third reading of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Bill in the
House of Commons, The Hon. Edward Stanley moved that the bill be read
that day six months, assigning, among other reasons, that the railway
trains worked by horses would take ten hours to do the distance, and that
they could not be worked by locomotive engines.  Sir Isaac Coffin
seconded the motion, indignantly denouncing the project as fraught with
fraud and imposition.  He would not consent to see widows' premises
invaded, and "how," he asked, "would any person like to have a railroad
under his parlour window?...  What, he would like to know, was to be
done with all those who had advanced money in making and repairing
turnpike-roads?  What with those who may still wish to travel in their
own or hired carriages, after the fashion of their forefathers?  What was
to become of coach-makers and harness-makers, coach-masters and coachmen,
innkeepers, horse-breeders, and horse-dealers?  Was the House aware of
the smoke and noise, the hiss and whirl, which locomotive engines,
passing at the rate of ten or twelve miles an hour, would occasion?
Neither the cattle ploughing in the fields or grazing in the meadows
could behold them without dismay....  Iron would be raised in price
100 per cent., or, more probably, exhausted altogether!  It would be the
greatest nuisance, the most complete disturbance of quiet and comfort in
all parts of the kingdom, that the ingenuity of man could invent!"


SPEED OF RAILWAY ENGINES.


At the present day it is amusing to read the speeches of the counsel
employed against an act of Parliament being passed in favour of the
railway between Liverpool and Manchester.  Mr. Harrison, who appeared on
behalf of certain landowners against the scheme, thus spoke with regard
to the powers of the locomotive engine:--"When we set out with the
original prospectus--I am sorry I have not got the paper with me--we were
to gallop, I know not at what rate, I believe it was at the rate of
twelve miles an hour.  My learned friend, Mr. Adam, contemplated,
possibly in alluding to Ireland, that some of the Irish members would
arrive in wagons to a division.  My learned friend says, that they would
go at the rate of twelve miles an hour, with the aid of a devil in the
form of a locomotive, sitting as a postillion upon the fore-horse, and an
Honourable Member, whom I do not see here, sitting behind him to stir up
the fire, and to keep it up at full speed.  But the speed at which these
locomotive engines are to go has slackened; Mr. Adam does not now go
faster than five miles per hour.  The learned Sergeant says, he should
like to have seven, but he would be content to go six.  I will show you
he cannot go six; and probably, for any practical purposes, I may be able
to show, that I can keep up with him by the canal.  Now the real evidence
to which you alone can pay attention shows, that practically, and for
useful purposes, upon the average, and to keep up the rate of speed
continually, they may go at something more than four miles an hour.  In
one of the collieries, there is a small engine with wheels four feet in
diameter, which, with moderate weights has gone six; but I will not
admit, because, in an experiment or two, they may have been driven at the
rate of seven or eight miles an hour--because a small engine has been
driven at the rate of six, that this is the average rate at which they
can carry goods upon a railroad for the purpose of commerce, for that is
the point to which the Committee ought to direct their attention, and to
which the evidence is to be applied.  It is quite idle to suppose, that
an experiment made to ascertain the speed, when the power is worked up to
the greatest extent, can afford a fair criterion of that which an engine
will do in all states of the weather.  In the first place, locomotive
engines are liable to be operated upon by the weather.  You are told that
they are affected by rain, and an attempt has been made to cover them;
but the wind will affect them, and any gale of wind which would affect
the traffic on the Mersey, would render it impossible to set off a
locomotive engine, either by poking up the fire, or keeping up the
pressure of the steam till the boiler is ready to burst.  I say so, for a
scientific person happened to see a locomotive engine coming down an
inclined plane, with a tolerable weight behind it, and he found that the
strokes were reduced from fifty to twelve, as soon as the wind acted upon
it; so that every gale that would produce an interruption to the
intercourse by the canals, would prevent the progress of a locomotive
engine, so that they have no advantage in that respect."


DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED IN MAKING RAILWAY SURVEYS.


Difficulties connected with making surveys of land were encountered from
the very commencement of railway enterprise.  The following dialogue on
the subject took place in the Committee of the House of Commons, April
27, 1825.  Mr. Sergeant Spankie was the questioner and George Stephenson
was the respondent.

_Q_.  "You were asked about the quality of the soil through which you
were to bore in order to ascertain the strata, and you were rather
taunted because you had not ascertained the precise strata; had you any
opportunity of boring?"

_A_.  "I had none; I was threatened to be driven off the ground, and
severely used if I were found upon the ground."

_Q_.  "You were right, then, not to attempt to bore?"

_A_.  "Of course, I durst not attempt to bore, after those threats."

_Q_.  "Were you exposed to any inconvenience in taking your surveys in
consequence of these interruptions?"

_A_.  "We were."

_Q_.  "On whose property?"

_A_.  "On my Lord Sefton's, Lord Derby's, and particularly Mr. Bradshaw's
part."

_Q_.  "I believe you came near the coping of some of the canals?"

_A_.  "I believe I was threatened to be ducked in the pond if I
proceeded; and, of course we had a great deal of the survey to make by
stealth, at the time the persons were at dinner; we could not get it by
night, and guns were discharged over the grounds belonging to Captain
Bradshaw, to prevent us; I can state further, I was twice turned off the
ground myself (Mr. Bradshaw's) by his men; and they said, if I did not go
instantly they would take me up, and carry me off to Worsley."

Committee.  _Q_.  "Had you ever asked leave?"

_A_.  "I did, of all the gentlemen to whom I have alluded; at least, if I
did not ask leave of all myself, I did of my Lord Derby, but I did not of
Lord Sefton, but the Committee had--at least I was so informed; and I
last year asked leave of Mr. Bradshaw's tenants to pass there, and they
denied me; they stated that damage had been done, and I said if they
would tell me what it was, I would pay them, and they said it was two
pounds, and I paid it, though I do not believe it amounted to one
shilling."

_Q_.  "Do you suppose it is a likely thing to obtain leave from any
gentleman to survey his land, when he knew that your men had gone upon
his land to take levels without his leave, and he himself found them
going through the corn, and through the gardens of his tenants, and
trampling down the strawberry beds,