be thrown out of gear
when necessary. At the same time he suggested, as an additional means of
safety, that the signals of the line should be self-acting, and worked by
the locomotives as they passed along the railway. He considered the
adoption of this plan of so much importance, that, with a view to the
public safety, he would even have it enforced upon railway companies by
the legislature. At the same time he was of opinion that it was the
interest of the companies themselves to adopt the plan, as it would save
great tear and wear of engines, carriages, tenders, and brake-vans,
besides greatly diminishing the risk of accidents upon railways.

While before the same Committee, he took the opportunity of stating his
views with reference to railway speed, about which wild ideas were then
afloat--one gentleman of celebrity having publicly expressed the opinion
that a speed of 100 miles an hour was practicable in railway travelling!
Not many years had passed since George Stephenson had been pronounced
insane for stating his conviction that 12 miles an hour could be
performed by the locomotive; but now that he had established the fact,
and greatly exceeded that speed, he was thought behind the age because he
recommended the rate to be limited to 40 miles an hour. He said: "I do
not like either 40 or 50 miles an hour upon any line--I think it is an
unnecessary speed; and if there is danger upon a railway, it is high
velocity that creates it. I should say no railway ought to exceed 40
miles an hour on the most favourable gradient; but upon a curved line the
speed ought not to exceed 24 or 25 miles an hour." He had, indeed,
constructed for the Great Western Railway an engine capable of running 50
miles an hour with a load, and 80 miles without one. But he never was in
favour of a hurricane speed of this sort, believing it could only be
accomplished at an unnecessary increase both of danger and expense.

"It is true," he observed on other occasions, "I have said the locomotive
engine _might_ be made to travel 100 miles an hour; but I always put a
qualification on this, namely, as to what speed would best suit the
public. The public may, however, be unreasonable; and 50 or 60 miles an
hour is an unreasonable speed. Long before railway travelling became
general, I said to my friends that there was no limit to the speed of the
locomotive, _provided the works could be made to stand_. But there are
limits to the strength