. F. S. Williams in an article upon "Railway Revolutions,"
remarks:--"When railways were first established it was never imagined
that they would be so far degraded as to carry coals; but George
Stephenson and others soon saw how great a service railways might render
in developing and distributing the mineral wealth of the country.
Prejudice had, however, to be timidly and vigorously overcome. When it
was mentioned to a certain eminent railway authority that George
Stephenson had spoken of sending coals by railway: 'Coals!' he exclaimed,
'they will want us to carry dung next.' The remark was reported to 'Old
George,' who was not behind his critic in the energy of his expression.
'You tell B--,' he said, 'that when he travels by railway, they carry
dung now!' The strength of the feeling against the traffic is
sufficiently illustrated by the fact that, when the London and Birmingham
Railway began to carry coal, the wagons that contained it were sheeted
over that their contents might not be seen; and when a coal wharf was
first made at Crick station, a screen was built to hide the work from the
observation of passengers on the line. Even the possibility of carrying
coal at a remunerative price was denied. 'I am very sorry,' said Lord
Eldon, referring to this subject, 'to find the intelligent people of the
north country gone mad on the subject of railways;' and another eminent
authority declared: 'It is all very well to spend money; it will do some
good; but I will eat all the coals your railway will carry.'

"George Stephenson, however, and other friends of coal, held on their
way; and he declared that the time would come when London would be
supplied with coal by railway. 'The strength of Britain,' he said, 'is
in her coal beds; and the locomotive is destined, above all other
agencies, to bring it forth. The Lord Chancellor now sits upon a bag of
wool; but wool has long ceased to be emblematical of the staple commodity
of England. He ought rather to sit upon a bag of coals, though it might
not prove quite so comfortable a seat. Then think of the Lord Chancellor
being addressed as the noble and learned lord on the coal-sack? I'm
afraid it wouldn't answer, after all.'"

AN EPITAPH ON THE VICTIM OF A RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

A correspondent writes to the _Pall Mall Gazette_:--"Our poetic
literature, so rich in other respects, is entirely wanting in epitaphs on
the victims of railway accidents. A specimen of what