"Mayor's lumbering machine was the pink of elegance and grandeur; time was when fair "ladies were carried in sedan chairs and could "modestly draw the curtains, lest the torches of the "link boys should glare too rudely on their beauty; "time was when the mail hobbled on a sorry nag, “and a miserable post boy was at once carrier and "guardian; time was when hackney coaches were "few, and the Thames watermen flourished, and "cabriolets were unknown, and omnibuses were "not. Aye, and time was, and that but yesterday, "when our level roads, our picturesque mail "coaches, and our country inns were thought the "summit of perfection, and made us the envy of "surrounding nations, and the admiration of the "world, but all that is passed or passing, for the "inspiring blast of the guard's horn we have the "shrill whistle of the locomotive; for change of "horses, we have merely a supply of coke and (6 water, and for " John" the ostler, and "Mary" "the chambermaid, and "William" the waiter, "with cold beef, bread and cheese, and glasses of "ale; we have policemen and porters all as like CC one another as peas, while the stomach has to "be stayed by a hasty stare at a station house, "above all, one sadly misses the driver, at once so "conceited and so cool, now praising his team, or

quizzing a passenger-now touching his hat for "the expected half crown, and sneering when it proves only a shilling. As for the scarlet

"coated mail guard, he was always too important "to get very familiar with, the man felt that he "had a post office time piece in his pocket, and

66

was serving his king at the rate of ten miles an ❝hour. Ten years ago, railroads as a means of "general transit for passengers and goods were "almost untried, now they are spreading over the country like a net work; about one hundred and "fifty railroads are already in use in Great Britain “and Ireland, and upwards of sixty millions of

66

money are invested in them; they are upsetting "all our former notions, and altering our social "condition-they are pouring the country into "London, and spreading London over the coun"try; Northward, we are carried as far as "Lancaster, a distance of two hundred and forty"one miles from London, in eleven or twelve "hours by the London and Birmingham, the "Grand Junction, and the continuation to Pres"ton and Lancaster; where though for the pre"sent it stops, there will probably be a con"tinuation to Penrith, to Carlisle, and Glasgow; "the same lines, the London and Birmingham, "and the Grand Junction, link with Liverpool "and Manchester, at Rugby, eighty-three miles "from London, on the London and Birmingham

railway. The Midland Counties Railway carries " us to Nottingham and Derby, and at Derby, we "can get by the North Midland and its Junctions, "to Chesterfield, Sheffield, Leeds and York, or

"instead of going on to York, we may double like "a hunted hare, turn off to Hull by Selby, or "from Selby to Leeds. At York, the Great "North of England Railway now in progress, will "carry us on to Durham and Newcastle, and at "Newcastle we can cross the Island to Carlisle. "Returning to London, we find the Great "Western Railway opening to us the western "coast, and by it and its junctions, not only "enabling London citizens to spend a day comfortably at Windsor, but joining Bristol and "Bath, Gloucester and Cheltenham, either now

or shortly. The south coast again is almost free "to us by the Southampton and the Brighton "railways, along with the Greenwich and its "adjuncts, to Croydon and Dover, all either "made or making. Again, the north east coast is "accessible by the Eastern Counties railway, to

Ipswich or Norwich, and all who wish to avoid "the intricacies of the London portion of the "Thames, called the pool, or who are in a hurry "to reach a dinner of white bait, can be whirled "from the city to Blackwall by the Blackwall "railroad.

"The locomotive steam engines are high "pressure engines, no vacuum is produced in the Cylinder, and therefore the whole of the con"densing apparatus, the cold water cistern, con"denser, air pump, cold water pump, &c. are dispensed with, and nothing is retained except

66

"the boiler, cylinder, piston and valves; by this "means, the locomotive is rendered light and "portable, but at the same time there is required "the action of an intense heating power within a "small compass. The railroad from the City of "London to Blackwall, though a short one, is an "interesting one, from the admirable system

adopted, no locomotive engines are used, the "trains being pulled by ropes, moved by sta❝tionary engines, at each end of the line. Though "the line is a short one, there are several inter"mediate stations where passengers get out and "in, and when a train starts from London it pro"ceeds in the following order, each station having "its own carriage and each carriage its driver. "The carriage for Blackwall goes first, then the one "for Poplar, the one for the West India Docks, "Stepney, &c. the carriage for Stepney being the “nearest station to London goes last, and as the "train approaches the Stepney station, the driver "turns his carriage off, while the rest of the train goes on without stopping, thus carriage by car"riage is turned off, the rest proceeding unchecked, "and the intermediate stations being all passed, the "Blackwall carriage arrives alone, and with as "much rapidity as if it started singly, danger of "collision is thus rendered impossible, and a "whole train of carriages is not placed at the “discretion of a single man, as in the case with "trains drawn by locomotives. There is also an

66

" electric telegraph, by which constant and almost "instantaneous communication is maintained be

tween the termini, and a casual question being "asked in the London station house will have an "answer in a few seconds from Blackwall, the 'length of the railroad being nearly four miles."

It may not be amiss here to mention that upon the great railroads, the London and Lancaster for instance, there is a travelling post office in which the bags of letters are received from the several post towns and are sorted immediately by one or more clerks and the several bags of letters sealed up and delivered as they pass along the post office travelling upon the Birmingham railroad cost £600. it is fifteen feet, three inches long, seven feet, seven inches wide, and is six feet ten inches in height, the carriage is fitted internally with nests of pigeon holes to receive the letters as sorted, with drawers, desks and pegs and is divided in the middle by a partition, and the guard and mail bags that are to go through are in the hindermost part, the clerks keep on sorting and arranging the letters during the journey, and the guards tie up and exchange the mail bags. A Mr. J. Ramsay contrived the following ingenious process, by which the bags of letters are received and given out, without stopping the train or slackening the speed, for this purpose attached to the near side of the office is an iron frame with a piece of net, which is expanded as they approach