by referring to the
obvious fact that the wide gauge has not realized those decided
advantages over the narrow gauge which were at one time anticipated. The
actual speed of trains upon the Great Western Railway, as shown by the
published time-tables, and by official returns, is not so high as upon
some narrow-gauge Railways, and notwithstanding the excellence of its
gradients, very slightly higher than the average speed of other great
Railways on the narrow gauge. In respect of safety, it is manifest that
both gauges are alike unobjectionable, with due precaution and proper
management; and in respect of convenience and of economy, including the
cost both of construction and working, the opinion of a great majority of
the most eminent authorities is unfavourable to the wide gauge.

Without wishing to express any positive opinion ourselves upon the point,
it is enough for us to say that we think there is nothing in the relative
merits of the two gauges in themselves materially to affect the question
between them, which turns upon commercial considerations.

In this point of view the question is, as we have already observed,
whether the points of junction between the wide and narrow gauge should
be at Rugby, Birmingham and Wolverhampton, or at Oxford and Bristol. In
support of the first view, it is contended that the principle which
should regulate the choice of the points of junction ought to be to fix
them at great _foci_ of traffic, and centres of converging Railways,
where delay must take place and large establishments be maintained at any
rate; while on the other hand it is contended that such points are the
worst possible to select, and that the opposite principle should be
adopted, of confining an inevitable inconvenience within the narrowest
possible limits, by fixing the points of junction where there is least
through-traffic.

The correctness of the latter proposition seems perfectly obvious upon
general considerations; but the question is one of such great commercial
importance, that we have thought it right to inquire fully and in detail
into the practical effects that would result to the principal interests
concerned from an interruption of the gauge, on the one hand, at
Birmingham and Rugby, and on the other at Bristol and Oxford.

By either combination the traffic of places intermediate between
Birmingham and Bristol with each other, and with London, would not be
affected; uniformity of gauge being se