We need say nothing then upon the importance of Parliament and of Proprietors as a body going hand in hand to urge forward this great project. Were all other motives wanting self-preservation will force the latter to give it their support; whilst, whether viewed commercially, morally, or politically, it has the most powerful claims upon the protection of the former. At the same time, we only consider it fair towards the manufacturing classes, to whom cheap bread of home growth ought to be infinitely preferable to cheap bread from importation, to state that we consider the agricultural interest bound to adopt this cheaper mode of raising food by every principle of fellowship and honesty. Public industry and happiness alike demand that nobody in the state should make a monopoly of their productions, but should avail themselves of every improvement to make them bear an equitable price to other commodities. If this is just in ordinary circumstances, what is it at a moment when predial and urban destitution are bringing the largest divisions of our population into collision? Now it must be kept in view, and we think we do the landed classes some service by reminding them of it, that, -(when the poor-rates are subtracted from their incumbrances, which nothing but their criminal mis-management has perpetuated and increased, and the tithes, which a strong pull on their part will get commuted, and that they are exempt from the legacy and auction duties, and from the house and window duties)—the land-tax in this country has remained absolutely stationary for the last 140 years, whilst those of the continent have been in a state of constant and progressive increase; that whilst the French land-owners pay 12 per cent. on the nett produce of their lands, the British pay only about 3; that, in the reign of William III. the landtax was one-fifth of the land-rents, whilst

hand of the midnight incendiary has been employed to a frightful extent. We look forward with fearful apprehensions to the coming winter."

in the reign of William IV. it is about one-fifteenth ;-that then landlords paid nearly one-half of the public revenue, now they contribute about the twenty-fifth part.* But this is not all-of the agricultural system now in use in England, it may be more truly said than of any other, that there is something rotten in it, whilst all the other producing classes have artificially decreased the expense of their respective modes of labour, the agriculturists have actually increased theirs. The Returns to the Board of Agriculture shew that the expense of cultivating 100 acres of land in 1790, was 411/.; in 1803, 5477.; and in 1813, 771/.! With all due allowances for increase of taxation, and superior farm management, this is not what it ought to be. Whilst, therefore, we consider the protection of our domestic agriculture the first duty of the state, we do not depart from insisting in the name of the manu

* A Correspondent of The Times, December 7th, enables us to make the following statements :

The wages of labour are, upon the average, from 75 to 100 per cent. higher in France than in the United Kingdom.

The population of France is 32,000,000: the contribution in kind, per head, 314lbs. of flour. The population of the United Kingdom is 24,000,000: the contribution ditto 228lbs.

The French nation, therefore, collectively furnish 79 per cent. more to Government than the British nation collectively; the French nation individually 37 per cent. more than the British individually. Yet, paradoxical as it may appear, the Frenchman in consequence of the low price of food is less heavily burthened than the Englishman. If the income of each be 1007. and each pay 257. in taxes, the 75l. of the former will buy 14,483lbs. of flour; the 751. of the latter, 8,400lbs.-ergo, the resources of the one for the conveniencies of life is 72 per cent. greater than the other.

Further, the French Agriculturists contribute 16,000,000l. sterling beyond their fair proportion to the public revenue; the English Agriculturists 4,000,000l. less than their fair proportion.

The corn-laws impose a tax, it is computed, of £40,000,000 upon the nation. The labouring classes contribute about 8,000,000 to the Government taxes, and at least 27,000,000l. towards the bread tax. How important then that change AT HOME to our manufacturers, which will permit of this sum being expended upon commodities. The "Anti Corn-law Societies" should all change themselves into "Pro Steam-Husbandry Societies."

facturing and other classes, that one of two things shall be adopted, viz.-either reduction in the price of food, by the cheaper mode of cultivation now put within their power; or TO ABIDE THE CONSEQUENCES.

It is truly fortunate for all parties that if the former be wholly unavoidable to the agriculturists it is also wholly desirable. The bane of having prices reduced, by Steam transport, and the antidote of providing for the same by Steam husbandry, are both before them. We cannot suppose that the one will be unaccompanied by the other. We conclude, therefore, this article, congratulating all orders of our fellow-subjects upon the bright prospects which the general application of Steam to economic purposes opens upon us. At a moment when the resources of the country are no longer adequate to the wants of our population "WHEN A RESTLESS SPIRIT OF DISCONTENT IS EVERYWHERE ABROAD"and cheap food of home growth is a sine qua non to an ameliorated condition, this beneficent agent steps in to accomplish what could not have been effected by any external process whatsoever. The speedy and general introduction of Steam cultivation is all that is required to make cheap bread in England, in a way that will reduce no one to destitution in England. If our industrious classes must still earn

and eat their bread by the sweat of their brow, they shall nevertheless eat it in plenty and contentment. Under the social economy which the extension of Steam to the purposes of brute labour will allow, it shall no longer be said that the wealthiest empire in the world is also the most wretched one; or, that with all our boasted wisdom in science and art, we are unwise in that which not rightly to know is misery and unhappiness! The better policy of the age of Steam must be to make the millions rich instead of the units to render monopoly the property of the state and not of the stock-jobber-to comfort a thousand happy homes, instead of building up one bloated capitalist. Steam, which, confined to physical purposes hitherto, has wrought such marvels, extended further to economic, can achieve all this for by home means, equalizing the price of necessaries and conveniences, it will adjust PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION: the unbalanced condition of which, alone, has deranged the currency-paralyzed transaction-abridged industry; and, in a word, occasioned all those evils which at length have produced a nation divided into usurers and debtors, to the danger alike of the constitution, the altar, and the throne.

At a moment when the mania for Railway speculation is not unlikely to involve at least SIXTY MILLIONS of capital, should all the 3,000 miles be laid down which have been contemplated by the Treasurer of the Manchester Railway, it may not be uninteresting to prove to the satisfaction of those most prejudiced in their favour, how perfectly unable Rail-Roads are to compete with Canals,-Steam Carriages on common roads, or even Stage Coaches.

That rail-roads have a decided superiority over all other methods of conveyance yet adopted, is certainly true, but only where great weights are required to be carried very quickly, and without regard to expense.

For example:-Locomotive engines, on the Manchester and Liverpool Railway, have drawn 90 and even 100 tons at one time, at the rate of 20 miles an hour; being twice as great as Boats on the Paisley Canal, and Steam Carriages on common roads.

But as the whole weight carried, in the most profitable half-year of the Manchester and Liverpool Railway, as shewn in Statement No. 1, was 90,972 tons in 5392 trips, averaging about 17 tons per trip at most, as the profitable weight; it is plain, that as the engine, tender, fuel, water, and attendance may be said to average about 12 tons, the weight not profitable was more than two thirds of the whole weight carried. Assuming, therefore, the whole estimated

burthen carried on the Railway, to be 4,000 tons daily, for 312 days, or according to the original estimate 1,248,000 tons, the total weight paying NOTHING to the Shareholders would be in the same ratio, at least 880,941 tons.

Hitherto, the calculation has been made on the supposition that no carriages or waggons travelled empty. But from the statement issued by the Directors for instructions to Messrs. Rastrick and Walker, dated 12th January, 1829, the following calculation is made, shewing that the total weight paying no toll daily, to carry 2,970 tons of profitable weight would be as under :

Waggons and empty waggons from Tons. Liverpool to Manchester . 2,180 Ditto from Manchester to Liverpool 2,500 Ninety-six engines and tenders, at 10 tons each

Total dead weight paying no toll

1,960

6,640

Thus, if 2,970 tons of profitable weight cannot be carried without 6,640 tons of weight paying no toll, 4,000 tons of the former would burthen the railway with 8,942 tons, which, for 312 working days, would be 2,789,904 tons, paying nothing, for 1,248,000 tons of profitable weight; thereby shewing that the Rail-road must carry nearly twice and a third of the whole profitable weight GRATIS, to make even a gross profit of 74 per cent. per annum.

according to the last half-year's income. Thus explaining why the expenditure in the waggon department was 73 per cent. of the income, while in the coach department it was only 44 per cent. See Statement No. 2.

But, it will be said, that the question is not about the surplus weight, or the amount of expenses generally, but whether a satisfactory return can be made for the capital. To this however it may be replied, that the gross weight not only does now, but must shortly diminish still more fearfully the dividend. For the weight paying nothing, is yearly giving birth to fresh expenses, exceeding already 14000l. per annum for repairs alone; whilst it threatens, at no distant date, to stop the railway altogether. That this is no designedly mischievous view of the case is proved by the fact, that every year has actually produced a diminished dividend, although the goods for conveyance have increased nearly cent. per cent.

Of this unpropitious finale to a plan, that opened with such fascinating prospects, the cause is to be traced to the miscalculations of those, who, devoting all their mind to producing velocity of transport, overlooked every fact likely to impede the prosecution of a speculation, that could not fail to be a mine of wealth to engineers, surveyors and solicitors, whatever it might be to the less fortunate Shareholders themselves.

The extent, to which these mis-calculations have been carried, is such as almost to stagger belief. Some of the estimates, it is true, have stated in round numbers the probable cost; and a few have even condescended to enter a little into detail; but the majority have wisely failed to furnish any data at all; the projectors being well aware, that some influential names were all that were necessary to blind the avidity of capitalists, who depend more upon the integrity of ignorant Committees, than upon their own good sense.

That these mis-calculations have been

wilfully made, far be it from us to assert. All that we are anxious to impress upon the mind of the public is, that in questions of apparently easy solution, engineers, publicly announced as the "most eminent,” and surveyors of "undoubted talents and activity," are not only confessedly at variance with each other, but even with their own statements.

For example:-After the Manchester line had been twice surveyed, and all the levels taken by engineers and surveyors, declared by the Directors to be of the highest character; and after more than 20,000l. had been paid for their labours, no sooner were they examined, in May, 1825, by a Committee of the House of Commons, who were no engineers at all, than, says Mr. Treasurer Booth, in his Treatise on the Railway, (p. 18), "a considerable ERROR in the levels and sections was found to have been committed; and upon that ground, as well as upon others, the Bill was rejected for the time being, with the exception of the preamble, which was carried by a majority of one in a Committee of 73.

A fresh estimate was then issued by the Directors raising the capital from 400,000l. to 510,000l.; that is, from 12,000l. to 17,000l. per mile, and in order to produce the most perfect confidence in the accuracy of this estimate, after all the previous blunders, it was stated "that to avoid all chance of similar complaint in future, the Committee had engaged the professional services of the "most eminent" engineers, aided by assistants of " undoubted talents and activity;" whose combined efforts justified the fullest assurance, not only of the correctness of the plans and sections, but that the whole line would be arranged with that skill and conformity with the rules of mechanical science, which would equally challenge approbation, whether considered as a national undertaking of great public utility, or as a magnificent specimen of art."

Unhappily, however, not even the "most eminent engineers," nor the "undoubted

talents and activity of the Surveyors," have been able to prevent a fourth break down in the professional estimate, the cost having risen from 17,000l. to nearly 40,733/. per mile. See Statement No. 1.

Before, however, we proceed more particularly to point out other errors in the calculations for the Manchester line, it may be as well to remark, that the dexterity exhibited for mystification, appears to be quite equal to the talent for miscalculation.

Among the fascinations in the Report of the Directors, in March, 1832, the Shareholders were told that the expense of Omnibus accommodation was no longer to be paid by them, but by the public. The cost for carrying passengers in the half year ending 31st of December, 1831, is stated to be 2s. Oдd. each, including 3d. or about 15 per cent. for Omnibuses; yet, in the last half-year the cost for passengers, instead of being 1s. 91d. averaged about 2s. 104d.; thus adding to the cost more than four times the amount of the whole saving professed to be made by the Directors fifteen months previously!

So, with regard to the revenue, the picture was equally flattering. For the carriage of goods was estimated to produce 50,000l. per annum. or 5 per cent. on one million of the capital; instead of which, the half year ending 31st of December, 1831, did not even yield one per cent. In two whole years, 1831 and 1832, it did not average yearly 2 per cent. and in the last half year, only 1 per cent. The coal and turf was estimated to return 20,000l. per annum; yet, the utmost they have produced in eighteen months is less than 2,300l.

Among other delusions, previous to the opening of the Railway, it was said by some of the engineers, that in proportion as the speed was increased, the expense of conveyance would be diminished, as the engines, by doubling their speed, would do, in the same time, double work. Accordingly, Messrs. Stephenson and Locke,

in their original estimates, calculated the expense of an engine doing 936 trips yearly, or three trips per day, at the rate of 15 miles per hour, dragging a dead weight of about 30 tons, at 324l. 12s. 10d. including a sum of 541. wisely laid aside each year for replacement of engine and interest on cost, so that the estimated expense for motive power, was calculated at less than 6s. 6d. per trip.

The exact number of 30 mile trips made by the engines on the Liverpool Railway in the most productive half year, ending 31st of December, 1831, was 5,392, of which, 2,944 were with passengers. The total profitable weight carried, including passengers at 15 to a ton, was as before stated, about 17 tons, instead of 30 tons; yet the expense or cost of these 5,392 trips for coke, wages, and repairs alone (allowing nothing for replacement) was 12,203l. 5s. 6d. or a little above 21. 5s. 3d. per trip, instead of 6s. 6d. per trip; or the bare cost of an engine doing 936 trips was 2,1077. 14s., instead of 270l. 12s. 10d., thus proving two eminent engineers to be out in their calculations, in this item alone, more than seven times over!

To prove also how strangely some of our Reviewers are out in their calculations as to the capabilities of this Railway, Dr. Lardner states in his Treatise, that the Locomotives actually travel over it, 25,000 or 30,000 miles without any expense whatever for new tubing; yet, in the same half year as last alluded to, the charge for repairs and attendance on the Liverpool Railway Coaches is stated to be 7,4551. including 3,2541. for Omnibus accommodation; leaving, therefore 4,2017. for repairs and attendance alone. The number of 30 mile trips being 2,944, the total number of miles was 88,320, and as 12 out of 24 engines employed may be considered actually engaged in the Coach department, it follows, that instead of these engines travelling 30,000 miles for NoTHING, they cannot travel even one quarter of the distance without an expense of 4,2017.