Welsh Journals

THE CAMBRIAN QUARTERLY MAGAZINE AND Celtic Bepertorg. No. 16.—OCTOBER 1, 1832.—Vol. IV. THE LONDON AND BIRMINGHAM RAILWAY. We look upon the Rail-road as one of those grand applications of science to the practical concerns of life, which exert a decided and lasting influence upon the general welfare of the community. If we were called upon lo express in one word all the benefits which are to be expected from such an improvement, we should say, that word was—concentration. Few persons who have at all reflected upon the workings of civilized society, and the mode whereby its individual members are made to partake of the various enjoyments which it produces, will hesitate, at once, to allow that the machinery by which all this good is effected, consists, to express it generally, in an universal co-operation, a mutual interchange, of the produce of each man's bodily labour and of each man's mental thought; and looking to experience, it will be found, that a country is prosperous and powerful precisely in proportion as this interchange of labour and knowledge is unrestricted. But the intercommunication which we speak of will be obviously greater or less as men happen to be near to or distant from one another ; and upon these plain truths we found our expectations of the great advantages of the Railway, when established gene¬ rally throughout the country ; since, by diminishing more than one half the time now required to go from one place to another, it will virtually reduce the present distances between all places within its limits in the same proportion. Its advantages, however, do not rest here: not only does it, as we have observed, in effect brin"- more than halfway closer together all places which it connects, but, at the same time, it affords a power greater than any hitherto employed, for the transportation of commodities, of whatever bulk or weight, without any sensible abatement of speed. To ob¬ tain an accurate idea of its advantages, therefore, it is necessary to keep this combination of properties in view; speed, namely, so. XVI. Gg