accurate idea. Wherever the system has had a fair trial, the
number of passengers has been quadrupled--in some cases quintupled,
and even more; and every month is adding to their numbers.

But 1838, though prolific in railways, was still a mere Rachel when
compared with the seven Leahs that have succeeded it. The principle of
trunk lines, then first recognised, has since been carried into effect
throughout England, and adopted in Scotland, though here the system
has not yet had full time for development. The statistics of the
railways already completed, have fully and satisfactorily demonstrated
the immense amount of revenue which in future will be drawn from these
great national undertakings, the increase on the last year alone
having amounted to upwards of a million sterling. That revenue is the
interest of the new property so created; and, therefore, we are making
no extravagant calculation when we estimate the increased value of
these railways at twenty millions in the course of a single year. That
is an enormous national gain, and quite beyond precedent. Indeed, if
the following paragraph, which we have extracted from a late railway
periodical, be true, our estimate is much within the mark. "The
improvement in the incomes of existing railways still continues, and
during the last two months has amounted to upwards of L200,000 in
comparison with the corresponding two months of 1844. The lines which
have reduced their fares most liberally, are the greatest gainers. At
this rate of increase of income, the value of the railway property of
the country is becoming greater by upwards of L2,000,000 sterling per
month." It is, therefore, by no means wonderful that as much of the
available capital of the country as can be withdrawn from its staple
sources of income should be eagerly invested in the railways, since no
other field can afford the prospect of so certain and increasing a
return.

The question has been often mooted, whether government ought not in
the first instance to have taken the management of the railways into
its own hands. Much may be said upon one or other side, and the
success of the experiment is, of course, a very different thing from
the mere prospect of success. Our opinion is quite decided, that, as
great public works, the government ought most certainly to have made
the trunk railways or, as in France, to have leased them to companies
who would undertake the construction of them for a certain term