nd,
and of money on the other, which is effected by means of railways,
we cannot fail to perceive that even did this new system of
locomotion economise time and labour in no other way than this
alone, its effects upon commercial transactions and on business
generally would be immense. But when we reflect that this system is
exerting the very same influence upon trade--and in a much higher
degree, so far as the outlay of money is concerned--in reference to
the carriage of goods, as in regard to that of passengers, we then
come to comprehend in some measure how fertile the railway
locomotive is in the production of the fruits of industry.

Another commercial effect of the railway system has been to equalise
the value of land, and promote the cultivation of those districts of
a country which lie considerably removed from large towns. Every one
knows that distance from market forms, as regards the cultivation of
many vegetable and animal productions, a very serious drawback.
Hence it arises that lands lying immediately around large cities
bring a far larger price than portions of ground of equal extent and
fertility would do situated at a greater distance. This is
peculiarly the case with kitchen-gardens, and pasture-land suited
for the purposes of fattening cattle, or feeding such as are
required for the dairy. In all these cases, and others which might
be mentioned, the performance of a long journey affects very
injuriously the quality and value of the several articles, and hence
the demand for farms and fields not exposed to this drawback has
naturally raised their value. Now railways, as they abridge space by
means of speed, have had a tendency to increase the value of pasture
and garden ground lying at, comparatively speaking, a very great
distance around cities. It is now no unusual thing for the
inhabitants of cities such as London, Liverpool, and Manchester, to
use at breakfast milk or cream which has travelled thirty or forty
miles the very morning it is consumed, and at dinner to partake of
vegetables whose place of growth was more than a hundred miles
removed from the stall at which they were sold.

The railway system has had a marked effect upon the state of the
money-market of the commercial world in general, and of this country
in particular. From the successful experiment made in 1830 in steam
locomotion between Liverpool and Manchester, this new method of
transit has been developing itself with a rapidity