introduced a higher rate of speed between London and our great towns than
that which obtains at present.

The whole question of the future introduction of trunk lines, exclusively
for fast passenger traffic, is fraught with the highest interest, but it
would be foreign to the subject matter of this paper to enter more fully
on it, the author merely desiring to state his opinion that if the future
trade and wealth of our country require their construction, and if a very
high rate of speed much above our present is to be attained, their gauge
will have to be seriously considered and settled, not by the reasons which
caused the adoption of the present gauge, but by the power required to
carry on the traffic--in fact, to adapt the rail to the engine, and not,
as at present, the engine to the rail. High speed requires great power,
and great power can only be obtained by ample fire-grate area, which for a
steady running engine means a broad gauge. The Gauge Commissioners of 1846
in their report esteemed the importance of the highest speed on express
trains for the accommodation of a comparatively small number of persons,
however desirable that may be to them, as of far less moment than
affording increased convenience to the general commercial traffic of the
country. The commercial traffic of England has grown and prospered under
our present system, and if its ever increasing importance demands high
speed passenger lines, we may rest assured that the ingenuity of man, to
which it is impossible to assign limits, will satisfactorily solve the
problem.

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