me have yet given them. The matter, though
seemingly local, is really one in which all persons of taste must be
interested, and, therefore, I hope to be excused if I venture to treat
it at some length.

I shall barely touch upon the statistics of the question, leaving these
to the two adverse parties, who will lay their several statements before
the Board of Trade, which may possibly be induced to refer the matter to
the House of Commons; and, contemplating that possibility, I hope that
the observations I have to make may not be altogether without influence
upon the public, and upon individuals whose duty it may be to decide in
their place whether the proposed measure shall be referred to a
Committee of the House. Were the case before us an ordinary one, I
should reject such an attempt as presumptuous and futile; but it is not
only different from all others, but, in truth, peculiar.

In this district the manufactures are trifling; mines it has none, and
its quarries are either wrought out or superseded; the soil is light,
and the cultivateable parts of the country are very limited; so that it
has little to send out, and little has it also to receive. Summer
TOURISTS, (and the very word precludes the notion of a railway) it has
in abundance; but the inhabitants are so few and their intercourse with
other places so infrequent, that one daily coach, which could not be
kept going but through its connection with the Post-office, suffices for
three-fourths of the year along the line of country as far as Keswick.
The staple of the district is, in fact, its beauty and its character of
seclusion and retirement; and to these topics and to others connected
with them my remarks shall be confined.

The projectors have induced many to favour their schemes by declaring
that one of their main objects is to place the beauties of the Lake
district within easier reach of those who cannot afford to pay for
ordinary conveyances. Look at the facts. Railways are completed, which,
joined with others in rapid progress, will bring travellers who prefer
approaching by Ullswater to within four miles of that lake. The
Lancaster and Carlisle Railway will approach the town of Kendal, about
eight or nine miles from eminences that command the whole vale of
Windermere. The Lakes are therefore at present of very easy access for
_all_ persons; but if they be not made still more so, the poor, it is
said, will be wronged. Before this be admitted let the q