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REMARKS ON THE PROPOSED RAILWAY BETWEEN BIRMINGHAM AND LONDON.

LONDON:

PUBLISHED BY EFFINGHAM WILSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE: SOLD ALSO BY R. WRIGHTSON, BIRMINGHAM; EBENEZER THOMPSON & SONS, MANCHESTER; AND G. & J. ROBINSON, LIVERPOOL.

PRINTED BY RICHARD TAYLOR, RED LION COURT, FLEET-STREET.

WITHOUT minutely inquiring into the origin of the different modes of conveyance at present existing in this country and others for passengers and goods, I shall content myself with asking, Why were canals first established? and What was the great benefit arising from them, which caused so much as fifteen hundred miles in extent to be executed in less than a quarter of a century, at a cost of nearly twenty millions of money, and for the most part during a time of war, when the highest rate of taxation prevailed?

As further instances of the effect produced by the same causes,--in 1740, before the establishment of canals, the iron manufactured in England and Scotland employed 59 furnaces, which produced annually 17,000 tons. In 1827 there were upwards of 280 furnaces, with an annual produce of 690,000 tons; during the intervening period canals were cut, connecting the iron districts with large towns and the ports. In 1750 there was but one smelting furnace in Staffordshire, making less than 2,000 tons of iron per annum. In 1827 there were 97 furnaces in that district only, making 216,000 tons per annum. The population of Staffordshire in 1750 was 160,000; it is now upwards of 350,000. In England in 1750 it was 6,017,000; it is now upwards of 13,000,000.

But notwithstanding the advantages that have attended upon the introduction of canals, there are limits within which their utility is confined, and, as regards despatch, much confined. The canals as they are now constructed are adapted only to horse power, and are subject to the inconvenience of that slowness of travelling which arises from the great increased resistance of fluids to bodies moving in them, with only a very slight increase of velocity. Two horses may take a loaded boat of twenty-five tons at the rate of four miles per hour; but to obtain a velocity of twelve miles per hour, it would require twenty-seven horses. It is found that with a velocity of six miles per hour so great a surge or swell is produced in the water as to hazard the sinking of any boats that are passing.

The stoppages arising at the locks is very considerable. In the canals between Birmingham and London, every means are used to effect despatch; but still the quickest passage for the fly-boats is sixty hours. The distance is 153 miles, and there are 142 locks; nearly one-third of the time is lost in passing them; and while this is being done, one horse and four men are comparatively idle; the expenses of wages and keep however are going on. These expenses are incurred more particularly by the haulage; but in addition to them the tonnages are very high, and of necessity so, since the repairs of so many locks, cleaning and repairing canal, and above all, the raising of water to the summit-levels by steam-engines, must incur a great expense. The cost of this last operation may be guessed at, when it is known that for every boat that passes from London to Birmingham, a body of water of 120 tons weight has to pass through a difference of level of 1,140 feet. And yet in dry summers, notwithstanding the pains thus bestowed, the boats are frequently detained, for want of water, twelve, eighteen, and twenty-four hours in one trip.

Much, then, as the canals surpass the common roads, it appears that much remains to be done, if their peculiar disadvantages can be got rid of.

The economy of steam compared with horse power is too well established to need many comments. The expense of working a twenty-horse power steam-engine is known to be less than one-sixth of the cost of twenty horses and men to attend them. I appeal to the proprietors of the thousands of steam-engines now in use for the truth of this statement. Does not, then, a question at once arise, Whether it is not possible to construct a road of some kind upon which this great and cheap power may be made to act, instead of horses, and with as great a degree of profit? We rejoice that the question has suggested itself, and that it has received an answer. The application of steam to the purpose of locomotion has been proved upon a rail-road between Manchester and Liverpool. Moreover, the economy of steam power when applied to rapid progression is found to be much greater than when it is employed to supersede the horse-mill. In this the animal is not driven beyond his speed, but is allowed to move at a rate of two miles and a half per hour,--a speed which he can continue to perform for eight or ten hours per day. A horse is found to perform the greatest quantum of work when moving at this rate, and to be employed most economically. But even compared with this, we have seen that an equal effect may be produced by steam power at one-sixth the cost. With how much greater advantage and profit, then, can steam be applied, where it is made to supersede the use of horses in rapid motion, of eight or ten miles per hour! at which work it is known they can continue but one hour per day, and even then they do not live to half the age of the horse employed at the slower speed. It is a fact, that horses employed in the fast coaches and for the fly-boats require renewing every four years. Can steam power, then, be used to produce this rapid motion? One hundred thousand persons that have passed from Liverpool to Manchester in less than two hours since September last, can answer this question in the affirmative.

for only a portion of the business; as in the above statement none of the coaching or posting that falls upon the Holyhead road, at Coventry, Northampton, and many of the towns nearer London, is taken into the account. The above amount is calculated from what passes through Birmingham only, and that exclusive of posting.

In addition to the above traffic, there are upwards of 2,000 tons that pass daily through Birmingham, besides an equal amount upon the Grand Junction Canal. There is also the whole of the business that arrives at the different towns upon the line; and it is ascertained that the passengers by stage-coaches only that pass through the towns near London, are upwards of four times the number that pass through Birmingham. But if it appears that a considerable profit would arise from conveying but a portion of the business by a railway, it will be much more satisfactory than if it were dependent upon the whole for an adequate return. And yet, as it appears that passengers are taken by this mode of conveyance in half the time in which they can be taken by any other, and at half the cost, and that goods are conveyed in one-sixth of the time and at a lower charge, the great probability is that a considerable portion will immediately be sent by it.

It must not be forgotten, that the Liverpool and Manchester being the first line of the same magnitude that had ever been constructed, many expenses occurred, which are always attendant upon works of a new kind, and which are much reduced when the same kind of work has to be executed again. It was formerly the opinion of those who are best acquainted with these subjects, that railways might be constructed at as little expense as canals: and when we consider that a canal requires a perfect level; occupies an equal width of land with a railway; must have its embankments made of materials impervious to water;--and when, again, it is known that an expensive lock is required at almost every mile, as well as numerous drains and reservoirs to collect the water from the surrounding country, and powerful engines to raise the water from the lower to the summit levels;--it does appear a natural supposition, that such a work must require a greater outlay than a road, which, to a degree, has the inclination suited to the level of the country over which it passes; whose embankments, instead of being washed by a river, have only to carry two or four bars of iron; and, moreover, in whose banks no injury from leakage can arise to the country lying below it; which invariably happens to land at the foot of canal embankments.

There are very few canals of any extent that can pass more than two hundred tons of goods per hour. The locks in general admit of but one boat passing at a time, carrying from twenty to twenty-five tons. Where the greatest despatch is used, the average is not more than eight boats passed per hour. Here at once is a limit to the despatch of canal conveyance. Eight boats per hour, at an average load of twenty tons, gives only 160 tons per hour as the greatest quantity that can be passed. The average load of a fly-boat is but sixteen tons.

Does not this show, then, that an infinitely superior conveyance is now offered to the public, both for themselves and their goods? An instance of the support which the public give to quick conveyance, is afforded by the facts, that in 1800 there were seven coaches from Birmingham to London, and the average time was eighteen and twenty hours; that at present there are twenty-two coaches, and the average time is twelve hours.

Last year the number of passengers from Liverpool to Manchester was 500 per day, and the time occupied by the journey four hours. Since the opening of the Railway in September last, the average number has been nearly 1,000 per day, and the time two hours. The increase of passing between the towns that have had steam communication has been in a much greater proportion than the above. Between London and Margate, Dover and Calais, Liverpool and Dublin, Liverpool and Greenock, Stockton and Darlington, the passing has increased nearly ten-fold since the establishment of such improved conveyance. It is calculated that the whole number of passengers by steam-boats is one million and a quarter per annum. Can it then be expected that a steam communication from Birmingham to London will be an exception? for there is not a line to be found of equal extent in the kingdom on which the population is so great, or on which the commercial and agricultural transactions are so important. As the utility of railroads may be considered established by the one now in operation, it must be evident how desirable it is to connect Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham, and ultimately other towns in the North, with the Metropolis. Supposing a railroad connecting these important towns to exist, which might be considered as the chief line of communication from the North to the South, there is a reasonable hope, that shortly other roads would be proposed and executed, connecting the remaining influential towns. An expeditious, cheap, and secure conveyance would thus be established throughout the country; so that in all probability, the business that would be brought upon the main line by these side channels would increase the whole traffic beyond what can now be calculated upon.

It may be objected, that railroads would throw out of employment a great number of people, who are now actively engaged, as coachmen, guards, horse-keepers, boatmen, waggoners, &c.: but as all improvements which tend to reduce the price of travelling and quick communication have led to a different result, we may infer that the number of cross coaches and short conveyances of all kinds that would be established to bring up passengers and goods to the railway, would at once give employment to these men. We may take as a proof the present posting and travelling upon the road from London to Dover, which was greater in 1829 than ever it was known to be before, although in the same year upwards of 1,000 passengers were conveyed weekly from London to Calais by steam. If indeed there are some persons that will be thrown out of employment for a short time, we must set against this the vast increase of labour that will be given to mechanics and others employed in manufacturing the engines and machines used on railways; for if these works go forward, there will be immediate employment for tens of thousands of labourers, and constant occupation in the workshop for double the number of hands that for a time may be thrown out of work upon the roads or canals. And I would ask, Which is the more important member of the community, the ingenious mechanic or the wandering boatman?

Let us again consider, that we are generating a new power, with the consumption only of a mineral drawn from the bowels of the earth, while we are saving the surface land to produce that sustenance which our increasing population requires. Every horse that is dispensed with, saves the produce that would support six men; and it is calculated that one-third of the grain consumed, is by horses . The immense surface that is now required for the support of cattle may be conjectured, when it is known that in England and Wales alone we have upwards of thirty millions of acres in tillage, and that one acre may grow as much corn as is consumed by three men in a year. And yet we are in the habit of importing a considerable quantity of grain!

It is unnecessary to establish by reasoning what is borne out by facts; and I refer again to the railroad between Liverpool and Manchester, on which goods and merchandise are now taken in one-tenth of the time and at two-thirds of the former cost, and passengers in half the time and at half the former charges by coach. May not the same support be looked for between London, and Birmingham, when the same advantages are offered? May not also the support of Government be expected, when its sanction only is asked to establish such a communication from one side of the kingdom to the other, not a farthing to defray expenses being required from it; at the same time that the capability is offered it, of sending despatches from London to Liverpool in seven hours, or of transporting twenty thousand troops the same distance within twelve hours, in case of need?

I would ask again, Whether the steam power that has been generated within the last fifteen years, for propelling vessels exceeding the whole physical force of the British navy, would have had birth, had the principle been acted upon, of things remaining as they are?

? s. d. ? s. d. Advertising Account 332 1 4 Brick-making Account 9,724 4 4 Bridge Account 99,065 11 9 Charge for Direction 1,911 0 0 Charge for Fencing 10,202 16 5 Cart Establishment 461 6 3 Chat Moss Account 27,719 11 10 Cuttings and Embankments 199,763 8 0 Carrying Department, 35,538 0 0 comprising--Amount expended in Land and Buildings for Stations and Dep?ts, Warehouses, Offices, &c. at the Liverpool end Expended at the 6,159 0 0 Manchester Station Side Tunnel, being the 2,485 0 0 approach to the Crown-street Station Gas-light Account, 1,046 0 0 including cost of Pipes, Gasometer, &c. Engines, Coaches, 10,991 11 4 Machines, &c. 56,219 11 4 Formation of Road 20,568 15 5 Iron Rail Account 67,912 0 2 Interest Account 3,629 16 7 Land Account 95,305 8 8 Office Establishment 4,929 8 5 Parliamentary and Law Expenditure 28,465 6 11 Stone Blocks and Sleepers 20,520 14 5 Surveying Account 19,829 8 7 Travelling Expenses 1,423 1 5 Tunnel Account 34,791 4 9 Tunnel Compensation Account 9,977 5 7 Waggon Account 24,185 5 7 Sundry Payments for Timber, Iron, Petty 2,227 17 3 Disbursements, &c. not included in the foregoing Accounts ?739,165 5 0

"CUTTINGS AND EMBANKMENTS.--The Excavations consist of about 722,000 cubic yards of rock and shale, and about 2,006,000 cubic yards of marle, earth, and sand. This aggregate mass has been removed to various distances, from a few furlongs to between three and four miles; and no inconsiderable portion of it has been hoisted up by machinery, from a depth of thirty to fifty feet, to be deposited on the surface above, either to remain in permanent spoil banks, as at Kenyon, or to be afterwards carried to the next embankment, as at the deep rock cutting through Olive Mount; the process in this latter case being rendered expedient from considerations of increased expedition. Where land for the deposit of spoil banks has been purchased, the cost of the land forms part of the expenditure under this head, and a good deal of substantial and lofty walling in the deep cuttings is also included."

"IRON RAIL ACCOUNT.--This expenditure comprises the following items:--

Railways will no doubt be extended; and if they are what they profess to be, the sooner the better: they will be extended wherever the traffic and intercourse are great; and if we were to attempt to estimate the sum now paid for carriage on all those great lines,--I know not what it is, what it is supposed to be;--but be it a million, be it a million and a half, or two millions, if we are rejoiced at the remission of a tax of four or five hundred thousand per annum,--will the country derive no benefit from being relieved from a tax of half a million or a million on the expenses of conveyance?

The railways, which we are now considering, resting with one extremity on the metropolis, extending thence by way of Birmingham, through Staffordshire to Liverpool, and by Liverpool connected with all the north of Ireland and west of Scotland, to the north of Birmingham sending off a branch through Manchester to Leeds and the West Riding of Yorkshire,--will connect all the greatest towns, all the greatest manufacturing districts with each other and with the metropolis; and on the other hand, will thus connect the metropolis with them; they will serve as the means of intercourse among a population, which was of FOUR MILLIONS, when the whole kingdom contained less than TWELVE, and this without any wide deviation from the most direct course. The distance by Birmingham is not more than three miles more than the distance in a straight line from London to Liverpool, not more than nine miles more than the direct distance between Manchester and London.

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