s;
And there were sudden partings, such as press
The coins from hungry pockets, mutual sighs
Of brokers and their clients. Who can guess
How many a "stag" already panting flies,
When upon times so bright, such awful panics rise?"

Mr. Francis, in his _History of the English Railway_, says: "The daily
press was thoroughly deluged with advertisements; double sheets did not
supply space enough for them; double doubles were resorted to, and, then,
frequently, insertions were delayed. It has been estimated that the
receipts of the leading journals averaged, at one period 12,000 and
14,000 pounds a week, from this source. The railway papers, on some
occasions, contained advertisements that must have netted 700 to 800
pounds on each publication. The printer, the lithographer, and the
stationer, with the preparation of prospectuses, the execution of maps,
and the supply of other requisites, also made a considerable harvest.

"The leading engineers were, necessarily, at a great premium. Mr. Brunel
was said to be connected with fourteen lines, Mr. Robert Stephenson with
thirty-four, Mr. Locke with thirty-one, Mr. Rastrick with seventeen, and
other engineers with one hundred and thirteen.

"The novelist has appropriated this peculiar portion of commercial
history, and, describing it, says gravely and graphically: 'A colony of
solicitors, engineers and seedy accountants, settled in the purlieus of
Threadneedle Street. Every town and parish in the Kingdom blazed out in
zinc plates over the doorways. From the cellar to the roof, every
fragment of a room held its committee. The darkest cupboard on the
stairs contained a secretary, or a clerk. Men, who were never seen east
of Temple Bar before, or since, were, now, as familiar to the pavement of
Moorgate Street, {279} as the stockbrokers; ladies of title, lords,
Members of Parliament, and fashionable loungers thronged the noisy
passages, and were jostled by adventurers, by gamblers, rogues and
imposters.'

"The advantages of competition were pointed out, with the choicest
phraseology. Lines which passed by barren districts, and by waste
heaths, the termini of which were in uninhabitable places, reached a high
premium. The shares of one company rose 2,400 per cent. Everything was
to pay a large dividend; everything was to yield a large profit. One
railway was to cross the entire Principality without a single curve.

"The shares of another wer