it would be inconceivable blindness in the parties interested in
the subject to overlook the certain mode of success offered to them, by
merely laying down a portion of the road in wood. Who those parties are we
have already pointed out. They are the inhabitants and owners of property
in towns and neighbourhoods at some distance from railway traffic; and if
the proprietors of great lines of railway saw their own interest, they
would be foremost in adopting the new method as an auxiliary, and not view
it as a rival or an enemy. For it is very evident that nothing can be so
beneficial to a railway already in operation as a branch line, by which a
hitherto unopened district can be united to their stations. And the
difference of expense between the two systems--namely, between an iron
railway and a wooden pavement--is so great, that the latter is scarcely
beyond the power of the poorest neighbourhood. An iron branch was at one
time proposed between Steventon and Oxford. The same sum which would have
been required for this purpose, according to the estimates, would have
laid down an excellent road in wood from Steventon through Oxford to
Rugby; thus connecting the three great arteries of the country--the Great
Western, the Birmingham, and the Midland Counties Railways. It will be
found that the great lines of railway have been forced, at an unavoidable
and foreseen loss, to spread out minor or tributary lines, which, if the
system of wood-paving had been in existence, might have been laid down at
less than a third of the expense, and producing a proportionate profit.
This view of the case has not been altogether neglected, for it has been
dwelt on at some length in an able pamphlet on "the Use of Mechanical
Power in Draught on Turnpike Roads, with reference to the new system of
Wood Paving." It is evidently the work of a practical man, who has deeply
studied the subject. "No part of the community," he says, "are likely to
benefit so largely by the introduction of the new system as the holders of
railway shares. For though, in all probability, the railroads would not
have been constructed to their present extent had the virtues of wood
paving been earlier known, yet it would be absurd to contend that the
wooden road will ever be able to compete with the existing iron lines. The
new principle, however, may be most usefully adopted by the railway
companies themselves, in the formation of branches or tributary roads, the
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