ceptible to your mental vision, I am afraid you must remain in darkness, your case is hopeless.

Nautilus and Trebor Valentine little imagine, I presume, that the same argument that they have advanced to show the absurdity of expecting a perpetual motion from the wheel and magnet, may be applied with almost equal force, to show the absurdity of the Newtonian system. Let us try what a little transposition will do.

"How then can it be expected, gravity being powerful enough to restrain the earth, and keep her in her orbit, thereby nullifying the angular velocity, that the said velocity is to remain for ever unnullified.”—Nautilus.

"It must be plain to every one, that the momentum, the very power which is said to give motion to the earth and planets, is completely neutralized by the power of gravity." -Trebor.

There, Nautilus and Trebor Valentine, you see that you have unwittingly given the electrical theory a "pretty considerable lift," for which I beg to offer you my most humble thanks; and in your future meditations upon the "great problem" of the wheel, you will take this consideration along with you, that when you have succeeded in proving its absurdity, you will at the same time succeed in proving the absurdity of the Newtonian system; after which happy result of your deep cogitations, it will be found that the electrical theory is not so very absurd as some wise folks have supposed. I am, Sir, &c.

T. S. MACKINTOSH.

FRODUCTION of Life BY GALVANISM

ANIMATION OF HORSE HAIRS!

Sir, I have been delighted and overjoyed to see in your last Number (705), Mr. Crosse's account of the production of living animals by the judicious combinations of water, mineral matter, another galvanic fluid. I look upon this, as a clear experimental proof of the truth of the theory which I have been inculting for the last twenty years, which is the identity of all life, with the electric, galvanic, magnetic, or solar substance. In Number 401, p. 98, of the Mechanics' Magazine, your readers will see, that in speaking of the vital rudiments and phosphorescence " of the sea, I use

I also endeavour to account for the plague, yellow fever, and similar epidemics, on analagous principles; principles, in fact, which are now beginning to be applied to the "dry rot" in timber.

In 1818, I communicated my galvanoelectrical ideas to an acquaintance of great philosophical acquirements, and requested him to try the experiment (as he had the necessary apparatus) of placing a fresh pulled horse-hair in a glass vessel containing pond water, exposed to the sun, and keeping a constant current of galvanic fluid passing longitudinally through the horse-hair.

Very shortly afterwards, I had occasion to g༠ abroad, but I met Dr. Foster some time afterward, and he assured me that at the end of three weeks' submission to the galvanic influence, the hair had increased to the size of a thick straw, and gave him satisfactory proofs of real identical vitality.

I do not well remember how the business ended, but I recollect that he attributed the subsequent death of this his first-born, to the ligatures with which he had attached it to the wires. He promised to repeat that experiment, and others on different substances and infusions. But he shortly after went to Scotland, and I have heard is now prac tising with distinction at Edinburgh. I hope he may see this.

Many people have all along called me insane, in consequence of opinions on vitality, the identity of all matter, &c., partly set forth in Numbers 400 and 401, and now intended to be more developed in the series of articles I have recently sent you. Perhaps Mr. Crosse will not disdain to try the horse-hair. I shall, and other things too, when I can get an electromotive apparatus.

I am, Sir,

Your obedient servant,

F. MACERONI.

THE BIRMINGHAM SEVENTH HALF

YEARLY REPORT.-REMARKS.

The publication of this Report has produced a great sensation in what may be called the railway world, and combined with the general depression which has lately prevailed in the money market, and consequent distaste for enterprise and speculation, has exercised, and, we fear, is still exercising, a most injurious influence on all railway projects. Whe ther the facts which it discloses are of a nature to warrant such a decline of confidence in the railway system, becomes therefore a subject of earnest inquiryto all, at least, who think with us that there is more good to come to the country from the rapid and general adoption of that system, than from any other class of public undertakings whatever.

The grand fact promulgated by the Report that which is in every one's mouth, and is disquieting and unsettling the minds of not a few-is, that "the contemplated works for the efficiency of the railway in the carrying department, as well as for the road itself," will require a sum of nearly two millions more than the sum originally estimated to be requisite. Certainly this is a large excess; but before we leap to the conclusion (as is the fashion of the day), that we should therefore cease to have any faith in the safety and the eligibility of this or any similar undertaking, as a means of pe cuniary investment, there are two preliminary questions which ought in all fairness to be carefully examined and disposed of (if so they can be) in the negative.

First. Is the excess accounted for on just and reasonable grounds?

And, second. Will this excess increase the total expenditure to so disproportionate an amount that the railway will no longer yield an adequate return to the shareholders?

I. Now with respect to the first question, let us see how the excess is stated in the Report to have arisen.

"Land and Compensation."-The Parliamentary Estimate under this head was 250,000.; the actual cost has been 506,500l.-m -more than double. The promoters of the undertaking had, we dare say, calculated, that the owners and occupiers of the land required for the railway, would, in consideration of all

the rest of their estates being incalculably improved in value by its passing through them (to say nothing of the higher and purer consideration of the public good), have been content to accept of the actual value of the land taken from them, and a fair compensation for the actual loss otherwise sustained by them; or, at all events, with the double of such actual value and double compensation for such actual loss. Nay, perchance they may have even fancied it not without the limits of probability, that some of the more distinguished of these persons for wealth and station-noblemen and gentlemen, for example, with vast landed possessions and more than princely incomes-would have public spirit enough to make the undertaking a present of the few paltry acres required from them. Instances of such enlightened liberality · have not been rare in railway cases on the other side of the Atlantic; and it may have been supposed (fondly, at least, however erroneously,) that the flame of patriotism still burns as brightly in the old or father-land of the English race as in the new. Certain, at all events, it is, that the Parliamentary estimate for land and compensation must have exhibited the full amount, which, in the judgment of competent persons, ought to have been paid under this head; for it is only upon evidence to such an effect and of such a character, given too upon oath, that the Bill for the undertaking could have passed the Upper House of Parliament. But all these reasonable calculations-these valuations on oath notwithstanding, we find the actual has been more than double the estimated cost? And whose fault is this? Not the Company's assuredly. The Directors state that they have been obliged to purchase 800 acres of land more than they laid their account with, and that the much higher price which they have been "compelled to pay," for it was, "in some degree, extorted by the necessity of obtaining possession at an earlier period than by the provisions of the Act of Incorporation the Company could legally enforce." But how else extorted, they do not say; and for not speaking out a little more boldly, are, we submit, much to blame. We think the justice of the case demanded a full exposure of all the extortion to which they have been subjected, through all its degrees of enormity.

We shrewdly suspect that if the whole truth were made known, we should find there was extortion both as to the number of acres the Company were compelled to purchase, and as to the price they were compelled to pay for them -extortion as well on account of time of payment as of time of delivery of possession-extortion, in short, under every imaginary pretext, in every step of every transaction. Not a garden or pleasure-ground, we will make bold to say, has been encroached upon even to the extent of a hand's breadth, without the Company being forced to purchase at an extravagant price, the entire garden or pleasure-ground, with whatever mansion houses, or other buildings might happen to be standing upon them. So destructive of all fitness for gentlemanly occupation is the proximity of a noble railway, on which vehicles worthy of all admiration as objects of art, and of incalculable benefit to the national industry, may be seen some ten or twenty times a day, gliding quietly but swiftly past-no sooner seen than gone! So grievous, forsooth, the injury inflicted, that nothing but gold, and more gold, and yet a little more, could compensate the unfortunate sufferers! Eight hundred acres beyond what was wanted! Why, this must be just about as much again as was required for the actual purposes of the railway,-eight acres per mile being about the fair average. The doubling of this head of the estimates is thus at once accounted for; the patriots of the landed interest have "extorted" from the Com. pany double what they had any right to. The extortion here practised is but a sample-not, perhaps, the worst that might be adduced-of a system which is unhappily too much in vogue with re spect to railways in this country, and which, to our humble thinking, is an indelible disgrace to the times in which we live. Bailway companies are by too many considered as only fair objects of plunder, and plundered they accordingly are with a vengeance. Why they should be so considered, it were hard to tell; unless it be that they are to be plundered on the same principle that Aristides was ostracised-namely, that they are things too good to be spared. Men of all ranks and classes have joined with equal avidity in this new species of public robbery; the only difference being that the higher

and more influential the party, the greater the extortion. Judging from past ex perience, we should say that to "one of the quorum" an acre of railway ground is worth, at least, thrice as much as to any ordinary yeoman; to a gentleman of Parliamentary influence, full ten times as much; and to any lord, spiritual or tem poral, so very much more than to any body else, that there is no measuring the enormousness of its worth, except by the latitude of conscience common to men of such high degree. Times there have been, when public prostitution so gross, as has been lately witnessed in this country in railway cases, would have been visited with its merited punishment-impeachment, expulsion, degradation, and infamy. Speak we untruly? Let any one who deems so, but procure a return to be made from the different Railway Companies of the various sums which have been paid, or engaged to be paid, during the last six years to Members of the two Houses of Parliament, or to the near relations of such Members, in the shape of price or compensation; and we shall fearlessly abide the issue.

"Contract Works for forming the Road." -The excess under this head is 442,2387., and the manner in which it has arisen is thus explained in detail by the Engineer (Mr. R. Stephenson) :

The first cause of excess is stated to be an increased width in the railway.” How much this increase is, the Report does not state; but we believe it to be not less than four feet upon twenty-six. We believe, also, that we are right in assuming that this increased width has not been adopted from any conviction of its necessity on the part of the judicious and intelligent Engineer of the Company, or even on the part of the Directors, but from a prudential regard for the theory lately propounded by the Engineer of the Great Western Railway, that the only proper width for railways is 7 feet (instead of from 4 feet 8 to 5 feet), and the only proper diameter for railway-carriage wheels also 7 feet (instead of from 4 feet 6 to 5 feet 6) and from respect for the good opinion entertained of this theory in certain circles which are reported to exercise a great sway in all railway matters. Mr. Brunel may be in the right-all other railway-engineers in the wrong; and, therefore, it is good policy to be provided against the contingency! Other

railway-engineers, to be sure, have experience on t on their side, which Mr. Brunel confessedly has not; they have, also, the established principles of mechanical science with them in their adherence to past usage; but what of all that? Has not the new system been voted by a numerous public meeting of railway adventurers, held in a certain great town in the north, to be the only true system? And what tribunal so capable of deciding upon a grave scientific questiou like this as a miscellaneous public assemblage of merchants, manufacturers, tradesmen, shopkeepers, and the like? The truth to speak, the Birmingham Railway shareholders are made to run a much greater risk for this whim of Mr. Brunel's, and for the confiding credulity of his friends and admirers, than there is any good reason to justify.

The other items of excess consist of an "additional outlay," arising from the company's having been compelled to take up the contracts for the Primrose-hill, Blisworth, and Kilsby Tunnels, which were all let below the revised estimate" (of the engineer), and then thrown on the Company's hands, " in consequence of the great and unforeseen (aud in the cases of the Primrose-hill and Kilsby Tunnels unprecedented) difficulties which occurred in the progress of the works. The engineer cannot, of course, be to blame that contracts, which were entered into at prices below his own estimate, were thrown up; nor the Directors that they accepted the lowest tenders which were made to them by respectable and competent parties. As little would any reasonable person think of finding fault with the engineer or contractors for making no provision against " unprecedented" and therefore" unforseen"" difficulties." The only part of Mr. Stephenson's explanation on this head which we are not satisfied with, is that which relates specially to the Kilsby Tunnel, the excess in the cost of which he ascribes to occurrence of an extensive bed of quicksand lying over nearly one-fourth of the whole length of the tunnel, and requiring to be drained by powerful steamengines, which must be kept at work till the completion of the contract; the other parts of the tunnel abounding in water, and rendering it necessary to increase the number of shafts to an extent which could not have been foreseen." The

"the

drainage requisite at this spot is, according to all accounts, quite enormous. The number of "powerful steam engines” kept constantly at work for the sole purpose of pumping up the water being not less than sixteen; but why we must take leave to ask,-" could it not have been foreseen ?" Why was not the existence of the extensive bed of quick sand lying over nearly one-fourth of the whole length of the tunnel" ascertained beforehand? Were there no borings made? And if not (as the lawyers say), why not?

"Rails, Chairs, Blocks, Sleepers."-These articles are now estimated to cost 326,8457. more than was originally anticipated; nor will the reader be surprised at this when he is informed that the price of iron has risen in the mean while from 61. to 101. per ton, and that instead of rails weighing from 40 to 45 lbs. per yard, it has been found by experience that rails, weighing not, less than 60 lbs. per yard, are requisite wherever (as in this case) heavy weights have to be transported, and heavy carriages (themselves, far more than an ordinary load,) have to be employed to transport them.

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"Stations and Carrying Department.” The Parliamentary Estimate was 80,000%; the present estimated cost is 408,2361. This great difference is stated to arise "from the (more) ample provisions made for the carrying department, and particularly with reference to the traffic to be expected from other railways, for which Acts have been obtained since the estimate was made." The more tributaries to the main truuk, of course the more "stations" required; and the larger the "Carrying Department," the greater the requisite establishment of locomotiveengines, carriages, waggons, &c., and the greater the ultimate profit to the Company.

"General Charges."-The excess under this head beyond the Parliamentary Estimate is 222,7911. No estimate of such a generality as this could possibly have any pretensions to accuracy; and but that the forms of Parliament required an estimate to be made, none would probably have been attempted. One of the heaviest items under this head is the Expenses of obtaining the Act of Incorporation," 72,8697.; and it may reasonably be considered a matter of no small hardship, that so vast a price as

this should have to be paid for the privi lege of adventuring some millions of money in an undertaking of such immense public benefit. The blame of this rests not, however, with the Company, but with the system of national polity that admits of such strange things -if system that can be called, under which the most important interests of a country are left to shift for themselves as they best can.

The total amount of the items of excess which we have now passed under review is 1,576,6101; but to this there has to be added, 255,7221. on account of the Euston extension of the line, not at all included in the original estimates; making the entire difference between the original capital of the Company (2,500,0007.) and the present estimated cost (4,332,3321.) 1,832,3321.

Great as this difference is, and, beyond all question, deeply to be regretted, not only on account of this particular railway, but of all railways-we think it must be allowed by every one who attentively and dispassionately considers the explanations offered by the Directors and their Engineer-not excluding the aid of such lights as the preceding remarks may perchance have thrown over the debateable ground—that it is, upon the whole, of a sort that could not well be helpedis attended by many circumstances of a large compensatory character-and involves neither of necessity nor by fair inference a single solid objection to the railway system in general. However landowners may have been to blame for their rapacity, or the Legislature for its wilful blindness to the extortion and oppression practised by the money changers within its walls, the Directors and officers of the Company have at the utmost this, and no more, to reproach themselves with -that they have in some instances yielded too readily to the pressure of external influences, and in others relied a little too much on the resources of art (mighty though they be) to overcome the difficulties opposed by nature to their progress.

II. The most material question (after all) still remains to be disposed of, namely, whether this railway, at the increased cost of 4,332,3327. is likely to yield an adequate return to the shareholders ?

It is curious how studiously in all

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railway cases, questions of this sort are slighted by most of those who take an interest in railway matters (railway executives always excepted). Talk of any estimate of cost being doubled or trebled (no matter how excusably), and there is instantly a universal hubbub—“ What a shame!"-"What a disgrace!"-" How disastrous!". "How damning!" But take the obverse of the picture-let a report get abroad that the published estimates of revenue of any particular railway are some two, three, four, or any number of times below the actual truth (concealed, as the "actual truth" too often is, from a fear of startling public belief by proving apparently too much), and that instead of paying 5 or 10 per cent., as at first supposed, it will in reality pay 15 or 20-up go the shares instantly to double or treble the prices originally paid for them, and out go as many of the holders as prefer a bird in hand to two in the bush. One would think that there must be large room for thanks here, both from those who realise at once so handsome a profit, and from those who buy in with the hope of realising an equally handsome profit, only at some more distant day-that as the projectors of the undertaking are so unmercifully abused when the cost, side of their estimates happens to be exceeded, so, on the other hand, they would be proportionally lauded when the profit side is in excess. But no such thing; every accession in the shape of profit or premium is considered as coming quite in the ordinary course of things, and pocketed in silence without thanks to any one. We have heard of some shareholders in this very Birmingham Railway, who, by selling out one-half of their original shares at a hund ed per cent. premium, made a clear gain of the other half, that is to say, have paid not a farthing for them, and yet are the loudest in their complaints against the Directors and officers of the Company for the deficiency now made public. Could we but obtain an account of all the money which has been made by the sale of the shares of this Company, we feel confident that it would be found vastly to exceed the whole amount of that excess in the expenditure about which such an outcry has been raised. But we shall, perhaps, be told that one man's profit must needs