ase, if an unbroken Railway communication is
afforded, which can only be done by the narrow-gauge combination.

The same combination affords the important advantage of an unbroken
communication to the traffic of Manchester and Liverpool with Bristol,
and indeed with the whole of the West of England, as a very
inconsiderable proportion of the goods actually dispatched require to be
carried in transit through Bristol. The same remark applies to the trade
of the Potteries with the West of England; of Bristol and Gloucester with
the Midland Counties, where the imports of these ports now meet those of
Hull and Liverpool; of Worcester, Kidderminster, &c. with Liverpool,
Lancashire, and Yorkshire, and of various other branches of traffic that
might be specified.

As a proof of the importance of some of the branches of traffic that
would be thus inconvenienced by a change of gauge at Birmingham, it may
be mentioned that single carriers already send as much as 20,000 tons a
year in transit through Birmingham, by the Birmingham and Gloucester
Railway, and that the total quantity thus sent is estimated at from
50,000 to 100,000 tons per annum, and is considered to be capable of
great increase, the line of communication having been only very recently
completed by the opening of the Bristol and Gloucester Railway, and the
development of the traffic having since been greatly impeded by the
interruption of the gauge at Gloucester, and other circumstances.

With the low rates which it is now proposed to establish on coals, salt,
agricultural produce, and other heavy goods, the amount of traffic that
may be expected to pass from the west in transit through Birmingham, and
_vice versa_, if the advantage of an unbroken communication can be
secured, will be exceedingly great. It has been represented to us that
Droitwich alone would send upwards of 250,000 tons of salt annually.

The same observation applies as to the coal traffic from the Midland
Counties through Rugby to Oxford. The whole of the extensive district
between Rugby and Oxford, where coal is now usually at a very high price,
may be cheaply supplied by Railway; an object of great importance, which
could be only partially attained if the impediment of an interruption of
gauge were allowed to exist at Rugby.

Another important consideration which seems to point to Bristol rather
than Birmingham, as a proper point for the interruption of the gauge, and
which has been strong