e, but, once in motion, we proceeded as smoothly as
possible. For a minute or two the pace is gentle, and is constantly
varying. The machine produces little smoke or steam. First in order is
the tall chimney; then the boiler, a barrel-like vessel; then an oblong
reservoir of water; then a vehicle for coals; and then comes, of a length
infinitely extendible, the train of carriages. If all the seats had been
filled, our train would have carried about 150 passengers; but a
gentleman assured me at Chester that he went with a thousand persons to
Newton fair. There must have been two engines then. I have heard since
that two thousand persons or more went to and from the fair that day.
But two thousand only, at three shillings each way, would have produced
600 pounds! But, after all, the expense is so great that it is
considered uncertain whether the establishment will ultimately remunerate
the proprietors. Yet I have heard that it already yields the
shareholders a dividend of nine per cent. And Bills have passed for
making railroads between London and Birmingham, and Birmingham and
Liverpool. What a change it will produce in the intercourse! One
conveyance will take between 100 and 200 passengers, and the journey will
be made in a forenoon! Of the rapidity of the journey I had better
experience on my return; but I may say now that, stoppages included, it
may certainly be made at the rate of twenty miles an hour.

"I should have observed before that the most remarkable movements of the
journey are those in which trains pass one another. The rapidity is such
that there is no recognizing the features of a traveller. On several
occasions, the noise of the passing engine was like the whizzing of a
rocket. Guards are stationed in the road, holding flags, to give notice
to the drivers when to stop. Near Newton I noticed an inscription
recording the memorable death of Huskisson."

--_Crabb Robinson's Diary_.

EARLY AMERICAN RAILWAY ENTERPRISE.

Mr. C. F. Adams, in his work on _Railroads_: _Their Origin and Problems_,
remarks:--"There is, indeed, some reason for believing that the South
Carolina Railroad was the first ever constructed in any country with a
definite plan of operating it exclusively by locomotive steam power. But
in America there was not--indeed, from the very circumstances of the
case, there could not have been--any such dramatic occasions and
s