boiler, horizontal cylinders inside the smoke-box, the cranked
axle, and the fire-box firmly fixed to the boiler. The first load of
goods conveyed from Liverpool to Manchester by the "Planet" was 80 tons
in weight, and the engine performed the journey against a strong head
wind in 2.5 hours. On another occasion, the same engine brought up a
cargo of voters from Manchester to Liverpool, during a contested
election, within a space of sixty minutes! The "Samson," delivered in
the following year, exhibited still further improvements, the most
important of which was that of _coupling_ the fore and hind wheels of the
engine. By this means, the adhesion of the wheels on the rails was more
effectually secured, and thus the full hauling power of the locomotive
was made available. The "Samson," shortly after it was placed upon the
line, dragged after it a train of waggons weighing 150 tons at a speed of
about 20 miles an hour; the consumption of coke being reduced to only
about a third of a pound per ton per mile.

The success of the Liverpool and Manchester experiment naturally excited
great interest. People flocked to Lancashire from all quarters to see
the steam-coach running upon a railway at three times the speed of a
mailcoach, and to enjoy the excitement of actually travelling in the wake
of an engine at that incredible velocity. The travellers returned to
their respective districts full of the wonders of the locomotive,
considering it to be the greatest marvel of the age. Railways are
familiar enough objects now, and our children who grow up in their midst
may think little of them; but thirty years since it was an event in one's
life to see a locomotive, and to travel for the first time upon a public
railroad.

The practicability of railway locomotion being now proved, and its great
social and commercial advantages ascertained, the general extension of
the system was merely a question of time, money, and labour. Although
the legislature took no initiative step in the direction of railway
extension, the public spirit and enterprise of the country did not fail
it at this juncture. The English people, though they may be defective in
their capacity for organization, are strong in individualism; and not
improbably their admirable qualities in the latter respect detract from
their efficiency in the former. Thus, in all times, their greatest
enterprises have not been planned by officialism and carried out upon any
re