In confirmation of this result, the Directors state in their Report, July last, that "the expenses include the cost of two new engines. But a considerable saving is expected to take place by the recent application of brass tubes in the engines, in lieu of copper tubes, previously used, WHICH WERE ALMOST CONTINUALLY BURSTING," so that where the Doctor got his data for the wonderful economy of the engine, the next edition of his work will perhaps explain.

But one of the most vulnerable parts of the whole question is, the bare cost of keeping the Railway fit for use. For this expense, under the head of "Maintenance of Road" i.e.a sum not only more than 14,000l. per annum, sufficient to pay five per cent.on 280,000l. annually, but instead of being a mere bagatelle comparatively, as originally estimated, it actually now threatens, at no distant date, to stop conveyance altogether upon it, till the road is re-laid throughout the whole distance.

The Foreign Quarterly Review, for October, 1832, observes, "The rails are not supported uniformly by laying on the surface of the road, but rest upon stone pillars or sleepers, as they are called, placed at distances of a yard from each other; and as the great weights pass over them with considerable velocity, these sleepers are driven deeper into the ground; so that the Rail-road soon becomes uneven, one rail having one direction, and the next a different one. Though these defects are not easily detected by the eye, yet they are very sensible upon close inspection with instruments; and still more so by the carriages that pass over them, as the wheels in passing over the joining of two rails, receive a severe jolt, and also a change of direction. Driven first on one side of the road, then on the other, the carriage rocks like a ship at sea; whilst, at every swing, one wheel or the other strikes a rail with considerable violence."

Another writer, (Mr.Vallance) after much investigation, adds, "The stone blocks or

bases which carry the rails are two feet square. The weight of the large locomotive engines is above ten tons, more than half of which being thrown on two of the wheels, each block has three tons weight on it, when those wheels pass over it; consequently the pressure upon every square inch of the foundation is above four times as much as in the boilers of Bolton and Watts' steam engines, from which result, the sinkings and drivings into the ground alluded to in the Foreign Quarterly Review. In fact, there are in the whole, including every liability to derangement and repair, above 80,000 parts or places in every mile of the Manchester Railway where adjustment or repair may daily be required."

But let us see how this same item will affect Steam Carriages on Common Roads:

First. It should be remembered, that five or six years must be lost altogether, besides a very large sum in interest alone, before Rail-Roads for long lines can be constructed, even for the chance of income; and then at a cost, which, as compared with turnpike roads, and the Manchester Railway, is as 40,733l. to 1,500l. per mile, or more than twenty-seven times dearer than the latter. But, according to the plan of Sir Henry Parnell and Mr. Telford, the expense of a stone railway to Birmingham will be about one-tenth of the estimated cost of the iron railway by four engineers; whilst, on the principle recommended by Colonel Macerone, even new lines will be wholly unnecessary.

Secondly. Steam Carriages have not to wait five or six years, or a single moment for income, having 28,000 miles of road ready made for their use, besides the benefit of not being constantly burthened as the Locomotives on the Manchester Railway are, with a drag to each wheel more than 400 times heavier in the shape of the first cost; whilst instead of paying 4881. p mile for repairs, or "maintenance of road," Steam Carriages can maintain their road by paying merely two-pence or three-pencehalfpenny per mile for every mile they

per

travel on it, and not before they do travel on it; whereas, the Manchester Railway must pay annually in interest or toll, more than 2,000l. per mile, besides the 4887. per mile for repairs, whether the road be used or not; whilst the stone railway repairs will cost not more than 30/. per mile.

Thirdly. It may be said, that Steam Carriages never will succeed, owing to the complexity of the machinery, and the impossibility of freeing it from the effect of jolting, and wear and tear, on the common roads. But this, like all other objections, must surrender at last to the ingenuity of man. Already has the whole construction been simplified and reduced to a very small compass. The Inventors have far excelled the Inventors of Railway Locomotives, ten to one in speed off their own road. For not one of the latter can move effectually, if at all, on a turnpike road: an assertion supported by the evidence of some of our most enlightened engineers before a Committee of the House of Commons, on the principle, that locomotive enginees on the common road, must carry with them from 21 to 25 times greater power than they want on the railway. Besides, the boilers used on the railway will not bear a pressure of more than 50 or 60 pounds to the square inch; whilst the boilers used on the common road, drive the carriage along at the rate of ten or twelve miles an hour, and bear a pressure of 150 to 200 pounds to the square inch (or more îf necessary) that is nearly four to one greater than the Railway Locomotives.

Nor are the boilers of Railway Carriages constructed on a principal of perfect safety, being all recipients of great diameter, strong merely by thickness and weight of metal; but sure to commit sad havoc should they happen to burst. On the other hand, the boiler of the Steam Carriage patented in July last by Colonel Macerone and Mr. Squire, as well as by Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Charles Dance,

Messrs. Gurney, Hancock, Ogle, and Heaton, Brothers, are constructed on a principle of separation and division, thereby rendering it next to impossible that any explosion, or rather opening should occur; and even if it did, the effect would be absolutely so harmless, that any one riding on the top of the boiler would scarcely know that such an opening had been -made. For the only inconvenience that can arise, is the stoppage of the vehicle. These assertions have been proved over and over again, by the repeated burstings or openings of some of the boilers, or rather tubes, during experimental trips, close to the backs of the passengers, owing principally to the corroded state of the boilers, but not to any defect in the principle, nor with any other annoyance than delay. Had this not been the case, a Committee of Engineers, headed by Mr. Telford, would not, after such occurrences under their own eye, pledge themselves to the full practicability of Steam Carriages, at a speed not attainable by horses. In fact, even these accidents will shortly be made almost impossible: and steam Carriages rendered as free from delays as they are now destitute of all danger to life or limb on common roads. Yet, says Investigator, p. 107,

more fatal accidents occurred upon the 31 miles of Iron Railway between Liverpool and Manchester, in three months, than upon all the road between London and Birmingham in so many years."-Witness the late Mr. Huskison, the Engineer's own brother, and many others, the names of whom, it is said, there is considerable reluctance in declaring.

Besides, turnpike roads can and will be made suitable. One of our most intelligent engineers, Mr. Macneill, in his evidence before a Committee of the House of Commons, observes, "If, on the road from London to Birmingham there were a portion laid off on the side of the road for Steam Carriages, which could be done without difficulty; and if it were

made in a solid manner, with pitching and well broken granite, it would fall little short of a Rail-Road." The Commercial Road, for example, is confirmatory of Mr. Macneill's suggestion.

Colonel Macerone, late aid-de-camp to Murat, King of Naples, a well-known distinguished officer and writer, has also edited a pamphlet on this subject, published by Wilson of the Royal Exchange. The Times of the 1st of November, 1833, in noticing this work, observes :—

it

"This is Colonel Macerone's plan, and appears more simple, sensible, and feasible, than any other yet proposed; and far less expensive, so the sooner it is adopted, the better for the public," &c.

The Colonel describes the principle of his plan as under :

"There is a certain, infallible, and very cheap method, by which almost every advantage of the Rail-Road might be applied to every ordinary road, except, I say again, on such lines as Liverpool and Manchester; the like of which there is not in Europe. If two lines of pavement, composed of stones, six or eight feet long, and one to two feet square, were laid endways, along each side of the road, a track would be formed at a very cheap and durable rate, along which Steam Carriages would most undoubtedly easily travel, at the rate of twenty miles the hour. There need be no levelling of hills-no filling up of hollows-no levelling of any kind; nothing but to keep to the surface of existing roads. The two lines on one side would be for Steam Carriages going one way; the other lines, for those travelling in the contrary direction. If the road be kept on a level with the surface of the long stones, the carriages could easily quit the stones for any momentary necessity. A well-paved road is a good thing in itself; but a road to which such lines of long stones shall be applied, will allow of a velocity equal to that of a rail-road, at one hundredth part of the expense. All ordihills will be ascended and descended

nary

with ease and rapidity; and the road will be equally open and serviceable for horse carriages.

"With regard to the wear and tear of the long stones, or parallopepidons, which I recommend to be laid on all high roads for the use of Steam Carriages, no inconvenient wear will take place on their surfaces for the space of two or three years. When it does, all that will be required, will be to turn them over so as to present a new side to the surface; and after another lapse of time to do the like, until all the four sides have been worn in their turn. After this, the parallopepidons may be submitted to the stone-mason's chisel. In laying these long blocks of stone, care must be taken that they do not sink so as to form disjunctions at their ends. To this effect, piles of wood of about a foot square, and from two to three feet long, previously soaked in hot coal tar, must be forcibly driven into the road, so that the ends of each of the long stones shall rest on the surface of the pile, by which means, if they sink at all, they will both sink equally and together. But on the construction of such roads, I shall treat more at length and more minutely, when required, at a future period; I will only repeat, that along such a road, whether hilly or level, such Steam Carriages as our's would travel at the average rate of, at least, twenty miles the hour, including stoppages, with ease and safety."

To shew also that other minds have been at work preparatory to making roads more suitable for Steam Carriages. Sir Henry Parnell has recently written a very elaborate and able Treatise, explanatory of the principles on which roads should be made, with plans, specifications, and contracts actually used by Mr. Telford on the Holyhead Road. And a Company is now forming to turn, in effect, one side of the turnpike road into a Rail-Road for Steam Carriages, without "separating parts of estates and fields, with immense gashes and mounds," and without fixing a drag to the wheel of any of the vehicles travel

But as the weight of TAXATION is such, as to compel all classes of the community to obtain the maximum of labor, at the minimum of cost, can any step be taken more likely to advance that object, than one calculated to facilitate Inland Communication, by the substitution of a power cheaper than rail roads, and more expeditious than stage coaches?

To arrive at this desideratum, men of genius and enterprise have directed their attention for more than half a century, and expended a large capital in various efforts to bring to perfection Steam Carriages on common roads. Oliver Evans was the earliest to introduce the principle in America; Symmington in Scotland; and Gurney in England. The first in 1772; the second in 1786; and the last in 1825.

Mr. Gurney was no engineer, but a chemist, yet did he build a Steam Carriage, and actually proved by its performances

* See Report, following Article.

+ See following Article, Statement No. 3. See Statement No. 2. of this Articie. § See following Article, Statement No. 4.

more than any man had been able to accomplish, the practicability of preconceived impossibilities in the judgment of some of the most eminent engineers.But shall the author of such a boon to his country be driven to the Land's End like an exile, with his resources almost exhausted, in an honest attempt to serve himself and the Nation at large? or, are we to wait till he quietly descends into the tomb of his ancestors, and then raise a monument to his memory in mockery of the benefits received?

Sir Charles Dance, though no engineer, next followed the example of Mr. Gurney, and by some valuable improvements in the plan of his predecessor, succeeded in building a carriage, which has already travelled the best part of 5,000 miles. Among numerous other trips, including the grand experimental trip by the Committee of Engineers, we see by a Treatise published by Simpkin and Marshall, that Sir Charles Dance completed one journey from London to Brighton and back, without any failure in the machinery.

C

Colonel Macerone is no engineer, whilst his co-patentee, Mr. Squire, is one of our best operatives; yet the practical skill of the latter, aided by the ingenuity and talents of the former, has produced a Steam Carriage which justifies the Editor of the last Mechanics' Magazine, in saying "we see enough to justify us in coming to the conclusion, that Messrs. Macerone and Squire have, in truth, produced a very capital machine, and one which might be safely left to bear the brunt of competition, on its own unexaggerated merits." It has travelled more than 2,000 miles for days, weeks, and months together, at rates varying from 10 to more than 15 miles an hour, and repeatedly to Windsor and back, including all the steepest hills round London, even when some have been newly gravelled, at a speed of seven miles an hour; whilst the cost for repairs is represented to be considerably less than any other steam carriage proprietor has yet stated.

Messrs. Hancock, Ogłe, and Heaton Brothers, are not less entitled to credit, for the efforts which they have used to perfect the principle of Steam Carriages. Each having travelled over many hundred miles

of ground; the latter 78 miles in one day without any failure in the machinery; whilst Mr. Hancock has actually run for hire for many weeks together, from Paddington to London : so that no very long time will elapse before each of these carriages may be expected to take the field permanently and successfully against horse coaches.

The only question is, which is the best Steam Carriage? And the most effectual way of solving the problem is, for the government to do as they have done in the case of chronometers, and the discovery of the North-west Passage, and that is, to offer different premiums for different Steam Carriages, in the ratio of the reduction they can effect in the cost of transport on common roads; and as soon as a carriage shall prove its claim to such reward, to give a further sum, not exceeding a reasonable per centage for previous outlay: thus exciting the talent and ingenuity of the kingdom to still greater efforts, and finally accomplishing the grand object.

Having thus noticed the claims of these competitors for the best method of cheap conveyance, we resume our review of Railway estimates.

With regard to the estimated Revenue for all the Railways now before the public, it should be observed, that the whole of the promoters are quite right in taking as a basis for their calculations the proportion which the expenses bear to the income on the Manchester line. But unfortunately for the shareholders, some have accommodated the ratio to a basis of a very different kind, not from dishonesty so much, as from an over desire to fascinate others with a liberal display of profits; by reducing the actual cost in some cases 40 and nearly 50 per cent.; whilst they have added at least 75 per cent. generally to the revenue, more than is likely ever to be realized, after adding to the cost the whole sum minus for construction and otherwise.

But we see no reason why the ratio should be thus decreased, on the following ground:

1. According to Mr. Stephenson, jun. the first five years will be the most expensive, owing to blocks sinking, and breakage of iron.

2. The published reports of the Directors, do not contain the whole cost of conveyance in the waggon department, though proved to exceed 73 per cent. of the income in the last six months of 1831. For example engagements outstanding, and "extraordinaries," the latter including probably a magnificent warehouse at Manchester, which cost more than 20,000l. for the reception of goods passing along the line gratis.