ver and guard, cracking whip, flying dust and stones, and reeking
foam-flecked horses, dashed into town and pulled up, while at nearly
full speed, amid all the glorious crash and turmoil of arrival! No
doubt the passing of an express train within a yard of your nose is
something peculiarly awful, and if you ever get permission to ride on
the engine of an express, the _real_ truth regarding speed, weight,
momentum, will make a profound impression on you, but in ordinary
circumstances the arrival of a train cannot for a moment compare with
the dash, the animal spirit, the enthusiasm, the romance of the mail
coach of days gone by.

About the time that the day of slow speed was drawing to a close (1837)
licenses were granted to 3026 stage-coaches, of which 1507 went to and
from London, besides 103 mail-coaches. And it has been estimated that
the number of passengers carried in the year about that time was two
millions. In regard to the merchandise traffic of the kingdom, we
cannot give statistics, but we ask the reader to bear in mind that it
was all conducted by means of heavy waggons and slow-going canal barges.

Now, let us contrast this state of things with the condition and
influence of railways up to the present time. As we have said, the iron
horse began his career in 1830 on the Liverpool and Manchester line--
long since become part of the London and North-Western Railway--at that
time thirty-one miles long. Eight years later, Liverpool, Manchester,
and Birmingham were completely connected with London by railway. Then,
as success attended the scheme, new lines were undertaken and opened at
a still more rapid rate until, in 1843--despite the depression caused
for a time by over-speculating--there were nearly 2000 miles of railway
open for traffic. In 1850 there were above 6000 miles open; in 1860,
above 10,000. In 1864 the railways of the kingdom employed upwards of
7200 locomotives, 23,470 passenger carriages, and 212,900 goods and
mineral waggons. In that one year about five million passengers and
goods trains ran 130 millions of miles--a distance that would encircle
the earth 5221 times--the earth being 24,896 miles in circumference. In
1866 the gross receipts of railways was about forty millions of pounds
sterling. At the present date (1871) above 14,000 miles of railway are
open in the United Kingdom. This mileage is divided amongst about 430
companies, but a considerable number of these have been in