ster experiment. The act was eventually obtained in
1833.

When it was proposed to extend the advantages of railways to the
population of the midland and southern counties of England, an immense
amount of alarm was created in the minds of the country gentlemen. They
did not relish the idea of private individuals, principally resident in
the manufacturing districts, invading their domains; and they everywhere
rose up in arms against the "new-fangled roads." Colonel Sibthorpe
openly declared his hatred of the "infernal railroads," and said that he
"would rather meet a highwayman, or see a burglar on his premises, than
an engineer!" The impression which prevailed in the rural districts was,
that fox-covers and game-preserves would be seriously prejudiced by the
formation of railroads; that agricultural communications would be
destroyed, land thrown out of cultivation, landowners and farmers reduced
to beggary, the poor-rates increased through the number of persons thrown
out of employment by the railways,--and all this in order that Liverpool,
Manchester, and Birmingham shopkeepers and manufacturers might establish
a monstrous monopoly in railway traffic.

The inhabitants of even some of the large towns were thrown into a state
of consternation by the proposal to provide them with the accommodation
of a railway. The line from London to Birmingham would naturally have
passed close to the handsome town of Northampton, and was so projected;
but the inhabitants of the shire, urged on by the local press, and
excited by men of influence and education, opposed the project, and
succeeded in forcing the promoters, in their survey of the line, to pass
the town at a distance. When the first railway through Kent was
projected, the line was laid out so as to pass by Maidstone, the county
town. But it had not a single supporter amongst the townspeople, whilst
the landowners for many miles round combined to oppose it. In like
manner, the line projected from London to Bristol was strongly denounced
by the inhabitants of the intermediate districts; and when the first bill
was thrown out, Eton assembled under the presidency of the Marquis of
Chandos to congratulate the country upon its defeat.

During the time that the works of the Liverpool and Manchester line were
in progress, our engineer was consulted respecting a short railway
proposed to be formed between Leicester and Swannington, for the purpose
of opening up a communicati