ngage an express train to convey it to London; they did so,
and the plans and sections came _in the hearse_, with solicitors and
surveyors as mourners!

Copies of many of the documents had to be deposited with the clerks of
the peace of the counties to which the schemes severally related, as well
as with the Board of Trade; and at some of the offices of these clerks,
strange scenes occurred on the Sunday. At Preston, the doors of the
office were not opened, as the officials considered the orders which had
been issued to keep open on that particular Sunday, to apply only to the
Board of Trade; but a crowd of law agents and surveyors assembled, broke
the windows, and threw their plans and sections into the office. At the
Board of Trade, extra clerks were employed on that day, and all went
pretty smoothly until nine o'clock in the evening. A rule was laid down
for receiving the plans and sections, hearing a few words of explanation
from the agents, and making certain entries in books. But at length the
work accumulated more rapidly than the clerks could attend to it, and the
agents arrived in greater number than the entrance hall could hold. The
anxiety was somewhat allayed by an announcement, that whoever was inside
the building before the clock struck twelve should be deemed in good
time. Many of the agents bore the familiar name of Smith; and when 'Mr.
Smith' was summoned by the messenger to enter and speak concerning some
scheme, the name of which was not announced, in rushed several persons,
of whom, of course, only one could be the right Mr. Smith at that
particular moment. One agent arrived while the clock was striking
twelve, and was admitted. Soon afterwards, a carriage with reeking
horses drove up; three agents rushed out, and finding the door closed,
rang furiously at the bell; no sooner did a policeman open the door to
say that the time was past, than the agents threw their bundles of plans
and sections through the half-opened door into the hall; but this was not
permitted, and the policeman threw the documents out into the street.
The baffled agents were nearly maddened with vexation; for they had
arrived in London from Harwich in good time, and had been driven about
Pimlico hither and thither, by a post-boy who did not, or would not, know
the way to the office of the Board of Trade.

The _Times_ newspaper, in the same month, devoted three whole pages to an
elaborate analysis, by Mr. Spackman, of the v