INFLUENCES OF THE RAILWAY SYSTEM.


While there are many machines which contribute much more directly to
the rapid accumulation of wealth in the persons of individuals, than
does the railway locomotive, there is probably none which tends more
to enrich a community. Unlike most other mechanical contrivances for
the abridgment of labour, the railway locomotive unites in the
effects which it produces the elements of social as well as
commercial improvement. Like the steamship, the railway is
cosmopolitan in its character. The range of its operations may be as
extensive as the globe itself; and throughout that sphere of
activity, be it what it may, the locomotive engine is scattering
thickly the seeds of civilisation, as well as of wealth.

By the application of steam as a motive agent an immense saving has
been effected in the outlay required to be made in producing a given
result in locomotion. This is the combined product of two causes.
Such perfection has been attained in the construction of machinery,
that by the aid of steam there can thence be obtained a continuity,
combined with a rapidity of motion, which far exceeds what can be
produced by any other means at present known to us. The fleetest
racer equipped for speed alone, cannot equal, even for a single
mile, the rate at which the locomotive engine, dragging after it a
load of eighty tons, can, for hours together, be driven with ease
and safety along its iron path. And this twofold result can be
secured at a comparatively small cost. Coal, iron, wood--substances
all to be easily obtained in nearly every quarter of the globe--can
be, and daily are, fashioned into working agents not merely fleeter,