the product of the soil was according to a certain rate of increase, and assuming that rate of increase, it is perfectly certain the population could not have been more than a certain assigned number. He has been enabled to show also that the effect of the pestilence, the effect of the "Black Death," which prevailed in Western Europe in the middle of the fourteenth century, was such as to produce, in a short space of time, a complete economical revolution; that the wages of labour rose in such a degree that it became no longer profitable for the owners of estates to cultivate them by bailiff supervision. The estates had to be placed in the hands of middlemen, and from that cause arose in a great measure the foundation of the yeoman class of the country. He has also, by his investigations, been enabled to trace, in a manner quite surprising to those persons who have not had the opportunity of seeing these volumes, the course of events which mark the great change which took place in this country from the time of Edward I down to the close of the reign of Henry IV and the later kings. I consider that it was only due to the Society that this most remarkable labour on the part of one of its members should be brought under its attention at its first meeting; and I trust the Society will agree with me in thinking that Professor Rogers is entitled to our warm commendations for having afforded, upon so extensive a scale and in so complete a manner, an example of the principles for which we have always contended in this roomnamely, the capability of statistics, when properly applied, and when handled in a philosophical manner, of constituting the best history which can be framed of the real progress and of the real condition of a country.

RAILWAY EXTENSION and its RESULTS. By R. DUDLEY BAXTER,

Ir a Roman emperor, in the most prosperous age of the empire, had commanded a history to be written of that wonderful system of roads which consolidated the Roman power, and carried her laws and customs to the boundaries of the accessible world, it would have afforded a just subject for national pride. The invention and perfecting of the art of road making, its sagacious adoption by the State, its engineering triumphs, its splendid roads through Italy, through Gaul, through Spain, through Britain, through Germany, through Macedonia, through Asia Minor, through the chief islands of the Mediterranean, and through Northern Africa; all these would have been recounted as proofs of Roman energy and magnificence, and as introducing a new instrument of civilisation, and creating a new epoch in the history of mankind.

A similar triumph may fairly be claimed by Great Britain. The Romans were the great Road-makers of the ancient world—the English are the great Railroad-makers of the modern world. The tramway was an English invention, the locomotive was the production of English genius, and the first railways were constructed and carried to success in England. We have covered with railroads the fairest districts of the United Kingdom, and developed railways in our colonies of Canada and India. But we have done much more than this, we have introduced them into almost every civilised country. Belgian railways were planned by George Stephenson. The great French system received an important impulse from Locke. In Holland, in Italy, in Spain, in Portugal, in Norway, in Denmark, in Russia, in Egypt, in Turkey, in Asia Minor, in Algeria, in the West Indies, and in South America Englishmen have led the way in

railway enterprise and construction. To this day, wherever an undertaking of more than ordinary difficulty presents itself, the aid is invoked of English engineers, English contractors, English navvies, and English shareholders; and a large portion of the rails with which the line is laid, and the engines and rolling stock with which it is worked are brought from England.

To Englishmen the annals of railways must always be of the highest interest, and I trust that the brief inquiry upon which I am about to enter, will not be deemed a waste of labour. I propose to examine into the extension of railways at home and abroad; to show the rate at which it is proceeding; the expenditure which it has cost; and its vast commercial results. The practical questions will follow whether the construction of railways in the United Kingdom has reached its proper limit? Are we over-railroaded, as some assert, so that railways ought to be discouraged? Or are we underrailroaded, so that fresh railways ought to be invited? Are other nations passing us in the race of railway development? And lastly, can any improvements be introduced into our railway legislation?

II.-Railways in the United Kingdom.

So far as roads are concerned, the dark ages may be said to have lasted from the evacuation of Britain by the Romans in 448, to the beginning of the last century. During the whole of that period nothing could be more barbarous or impassable than English highways. The Scotch rebellions first drew attention to the necessity of good roads. The first step was to establish turnpikes, with their attendant waggons and stagecoaches; superseding the long strings of packhorses which up to that time had been the principal means of transport. The second step was to render navigable the rivers which passed through the chief seats of industry. The third, which commenced later in the century, was to imitate the rivers by canals, and to construct through the north and centre of England, a net work of 2,600 miles of water communication, at an outlay of 50,000,000l. sterling. But roads and canals combined were insufficient for the trade of Lancashire and Yorkshire, and bitter complaints were made of expense and delay in the transmission of their goods.

The desired improvement came from the mining districts. Since the year 1700 it had been the custom to use wooden rails for the passage of the trucks. About the year 1800 Mr. Outram, in Derbyshire, laid down iron rails upon stone sleepers, and the roads so constructed took from him the name of Outram's Ways or Tramways. About the year 1814, the ingenuity of mining engineers developed the stationary steam engine into a rude locomotive, capable of drawing heavy loads at the rate of four or five miles an

hour. It was proposed to construct a public railway on this principle between Stockton and Darlington. After much delay the line was opened by George Stephenson in 1825, and the experiment was successful as a goods line-unsuccessful, from its slowness, as a passenger line. The next experiment was the Manchester and Liverpool Railway, projected as a goods line to accommodate the increasing trade of those two places, which was crippled by the high rates of the canal and navigation. Before the railway was completed, another great improvement had taken place in the construction of locomotives, by the discovery of the multitubular boiler, which immensely increased the volume of steam, and the speed attainable.

The opening of the Manchester and Liverpool Railway on 15th September, 1830, was the formal commencement of the railway era. On that day the public saw for the first time immense trains of carriages loaded with passengers, conveyed at a rate of more than fifteen miles an hour, a speed which was largely exceeded in subsequent trials. The desideratum was at length obtained, viz., the conveyance of large masses of passengers and goods with ease and rapidity; and it was seen that the discovery must revolutionise the whole system of inland communication.

The public feeling was strangely excited. Commercial men and men of enterprise were enthusiastic in favour of the new railways and eager for their introduction all over the country. But the vested interests of roads and canals, and landed proprietors who feared that their estates would be injured, together with the great body of the public, were violently prejudiced against them. Railways had to fight their way against the most strenuous opposition. I quote from the "Life of Robert Stephenson," the engineer of the London and Birmingham line:

"In every parish through which Robert Stephenson passed, he was eyed with suspicion by the inhabitants, and not seldom "menaced by violence. The aristocracy regarded the irruption as an interference with territorial rights. The humbler classes were "not less exasperated, as they feared the railway movement would "injure those industrial interests by which they lived. In London, "journalists and pamphleteers distributed criticisms which were manifestly absurd, and prophecies which time has signally falsified." -Vol. i, p. 169.

The city of Northampton was so vehement in its opposition, that the line was diverted to a distance of five miles, through the Kilsby Tunnel, to the permanent injury both of the city and railway. The bill was thrown out in Parliament, and only passed in the following session by the most lavish expenditure in buying off opposition.

Other lines were soon obtained in spite of the same vehement

hostility. The Grand Junction Railway from Liverpool to Birming ham, was passed in 1833. The Eastern Counties Railway was sanctioned in 1834. It was launched as a 15 per cent. line. It is said that a wealthy banker in the eastern counties made a will, leaving considerable property to trustees to be expended in parliamentary opposition to railways. The Great Western was thrown out in 1834, but passed in 1835. The London and Southampton, now the London and South Western, was proposed in 1832, but was not sanctioned till 1834.

In 1836 came the first railway mania. Up to this time the difficulty had been to pass any bill at all, now competing schemes began to be brought before Parliament. Brighton was fought for by no less than five companies, at a total expenditure of 200,000l. The South Eastern obtained its Act after a severe contest with the Mid Kent and Central Kent. Twenty-nine Bills were passed by Parliament authorising the construction of 994 miles of railway. In the autumn the mania raged with the greatest violence. "There is "scarcely," said the "Edinburgh Review," "a practicable line "between two considerable places, however remote, that has not "been occupied by a company; frequently, two, three, or four rival "lines have started simultaneously." The winter brought a crash, and the shares of the best companies became almost unsaleable. In 1845 most of the great lines had proved a success. The London and Birmingham was paying 10 per cent., the Grand Junction 11 per cent., the Stockton and Darlington 15 per cent., and railway shares were on an average at 100 per cent. premium. The railway mania broke out with redoubled violence; railways appeared an El Dorado. The number of miles then open was 2,148. The number of miles sanctioned by Parliament in the three following sessions was—

Had all these lines been constructed, we should have had in 1852 more than 10,700 miles of railway, a number which was not actually reached till 1861, or nine years later. But the collapse in 1846 was so severe, that an Act was passed for the purpose of facilitating the dissolution of companies, and a large number of lines were abandoned, amounting, it is said, to 2,800 miles.

Railway extension was now menaced with a new danger. The effect of the panic was so great, and the losses on shares so severe, that the confidence of the public was destroyed. Besides this, as