ans of ascertaining the expenses
of such a line as the London and York, which was fought inch by inch
through the Committees of both Houses with unexampled acrimony and
perseverance. We know, however, that the expenses connected with the
Great Western, and the London and Birmingham bills, amounted
respectively to L88,710 and L72,868, exclusive altogether of the costs
incurred by the different parties who opposed these lines in
Parliament. It has been stated in a former number of this
Magazine--and we believe it--that the parliamentary costs incurred for
the Scottish private and railway bills, during the last session alone,
amounted to a million and a half.

Now, though a great part of the money thus expended is immediately
returned to circulation, still it is a severe tax upon the provinces,
and might very easily have been avoided by the adoption of some such
plan as that which we have intimated above; and we shall presently
venture to offer a few practical remarks as to the course which we
think is still open to the government for checking an evil which is by
no means inseparable from the system.

But, first, we are bound to state that, _as yet_, we can see no
grounds for believing that the nominal amount of capital invested in
the railways which have obtained the sanction of Parliament is beyond,
or any thing approaching to, the surplus means of the country. Foreign
speculation, except in so far as regards railroads, (and these are
neither so safe nor so profitable an investment as at home,) seems for
the present entirely to have ceased. The last three years of almost
unequalled prosperity have accumulated in the country a prodigious
deal of capital, which is this way finding an outlet; and though it
may be true that the parties who originally subscribed to these
undertakings may not, in the aggregate, be possessed of capital enough
to carry them successfully to an end, still there has been no want of
capitalists to purchase the shares at a premium--not, as we verily
believe, for a mere gambling transaction, but for the purposes of
solid investment. We base our calculations very much upon the steadily
maintained prices of the railways which passed in 1844, and which are
now making. Now, these afford no immediate return--on the contrary, a
considerable amount of calls is still due upon most of them, and the
earliest will probably not be opened until the expiry of ten months
from the present date. It is quite obvious