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 Company 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 respect to railways in this country, and which, to our humble thinking, is an indelible disgrace to the times in which we live. Railway 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

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and more influential the party, the greater the extortion. Judging from past experience, we should that to say 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 temporal, 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 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 (and 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”TM“ 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 "the occurrence of an extensive bed of quicksand lying over nearly one-fourth of the whole length of the tunnel, and requir ing 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

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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 326,8451. 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 10%. 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.

"Stations and Carrying Department.' The Parliamentary Estimate was 80,000l.; 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 trunk, 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," 72,8691.; 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 privilege of adventuring some millions of money in an undertaking of such im. mense 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 1,576,6107.; 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, be yond 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 4,332,3321. is likely to yield an adequate return to the shareholders?

It is curious how studiously in all

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 hundred 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

be another man's loss; and that those, at least, who bought at a high premium, have just reason to complain of being. deceived and disappointed. In many instances the maxim cited is true enough, but it is wholly without application to a case like the present, where it is yet a question whether any loss whatever will be eventually incurred? If a person has purchased Birmingham shares at double their original price, he must have done so on the faith either that they would yield double the profit which was originally anticipated, or that the interest of the original holder was worth purchasing for twice as much as he paid for it. And having done so, he can hardly have any right to talk of deception and disappointment till circumstances arise (which we deny have as yet arisen) to justify him in considering all hope of his realizing the profit on which he reckoned as for ever gone. We speak here, of course, of such persons only as have bought with a view of permanent investment. As to mere obbers and speculators, who have purchased shares for the sake of gambling in them, of such gentry we make no account; they have no right to be considered at all in a question of the sort now under discussion, doing always more harm than good by their intermeddling, and it being to them a matter of supreme indifference how the concern may ultimately turn out, so that they can but get their turn in the meanwhile.

The question, therefore, narrows itself to this what amount of revenue may this Railway be expected ultimately to produce? According to the original estimates there was to be a net, or clear revenue of 369,3467.; but when we consider how many other railways that directly or indirectly will be tributary to this great inland trunk have started into being since these estimates were framed-that the Grand Junction Railway in particular, which is to connect the Birmingham with the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, is already on the point of completion, and that the great bulk of the Irish passenger traffic to the metropolis (for which hardly any credit was taken) must ultimately fall into this line, we are well warranted in reckoning that the real traffic will be more than double. Our own firm persuasion is (though of course we cannot

expect to impart that persuasion to the reader without a much fuller exposition of causes and consequences than we have here time or space for), that the net revenue cannot fall much short of a million. Let us take it, however, at only double the first estimate, or say 750,000l., and suppose the total cost of the line to amount to as much as 5,000,000 (which is certainly the outside of the possible cost), then the annual profit on the capital invested will amount to full 15 per

cent.

In realising such a profit as this, the Birmingham Railway Company will be but following in the steps of its great predecessor, the Liverpool and Manches

ter.

The original estimate of the Liverpool and Manchester Line was somewhere under 500.0001; the actual cost was close upon 1,200,0007.; and yet this notwithstanding, the revenue as such as to yield on the capital invested a net annual profit of 10 per cent. With such a precedent as this before them, the subscribers to the Birmingham Line may safely rest assured that they have nothing to fear from the worst that can now befal them in the way of expenditure. Not a reason can be urged in explanation of the brilliant success which has attended the Liverpool and Manchester Line, which does not go to justify the anticipation of a still more brilliant conclusion to the history of the Birmingham. The sources of revenue are much more numerous and ample, in the case of the Birmingham, than of the Liverpool and Manchester Line; while, at the same time, the sources of expenditure are by the great progress which locomotive science has made during the last six years, reduced to a point of economy, which, in the case of the older railway, with its unalterable allocation and gradients, we can never hope to see attained.

TUNNELS.

Report on the Primrose-hill Tunnel on the London and Birmingham Railway, by John Paris, M.D., Thos. Watson, M.D., Cantab., Wm. Lawrence, Esq., and R. Phillips, Esq.

We, the undersigned, visited together, on the 20th February, 1837, the Tunnel now in progress under Primrose-hill, with the view of ascertaining the probable effect of such

Tunnels upon the health and feelings of those who may traverse them,

The Tunnel is carried through clay, and is lined with brickwork. Its dimensions, as described to us, are as follows: height 22 feet, width 22 feet, length 3,750 feet. It is ventilated by five shafts, from 6 to 8 feet in diameter, their depth being 35 to 55 feet.

The experiment was made under unfavourable circumstances. The western extremity of the Tunnel being only partially open, the ventilation is less perfect than it will be when the work is completed. The steam of the locomotive engine also was suffered to escape for twenty minutes, while the carriages were stationary near the end of the Tunnel; even during our stay near the unfinished end of the Tunnel, where the engine remained stationary, although the cloud caused by the steam was visible near the roof, the air for many feet above our heads remained clear, and apparently unaffected by steam or effluvia of any kind; neither was there any damp or cold perceptible.

We found the atmosphere of the Tunnel dry, and of an agreeable temperature, and free from smell or perceptible effluvia of any kind; the lamps of the carriages were lighted; and, in our transit inwards and back again to the mouth of the Tunnel, the sensation experienced was precisely that of travelling in a coach by night, between the walls of a narrow street. The noise did not prevent easy conversation, nor appear to be much greater in the Tunnel than in the open air.

Judging from this experiment, and know" ing the ease and certainty with which thorough ventilation may be effected, we are decidedly of opinion that the dangers incurred in passing through well-constructed Tunnels are no greater than those incurred in ordinary travelling upon an open railway or upon a turnpike-road; and that the apprehensions which have been expressed that such Tunnels are likely to prove detrimental to the health, or inconvenient to the feelings. of those who may go through them, are perfectly futile and groundless.

LIST OF SCOTCH PATENTS, GRANTED BETWEEN THE 27TH OF JANUARY AND THE 23D OF FEBRUARY, 1837.

George Goodlet, of Leith, merchant, for a new and improved mode of distilling spirits from wash and other articles, also applicable to general pur poses of rectifying, boiling, and evaporating or con. centrating. Sealed Jan. 25.

Charles Wheatstone, of Conduit-street, Middlesex, and John Green, of Soho-square, musical-instrument manufacturers, for a new method, or me thods, of forming musical-instruments, in which continuous sounds are produced from strings, wires, or springs. Jan. 31.

Peter Spence, of Henry-street, Commercial-road, Middlesex, chemist, for certain improvements in the manufacture of Prussian blue, prussiate of po. tash, and plaster of paris. Feb. 10.

Miles Berry, of Chancery-lane, Middlesex, mechanical draftsman, in consequence of a commu nication from a foreigner residing abroad, of an improved apparatus for torrefying, baking, end roasting vegetable substances, which, with certain modifications and additions, is also applicable to the evaporation and concentration of saccharine juices and other liquids. Feb. 15.

John Gemmell, of Stockwell-street, Glasgow, merchant, for certain improvements in steam or other boats, or vessels, which are partly applicable to other purposes. Feb. 16.

Moses Poole, of Lincoln's-inn, gentleman, in consequence of a communication made to him by a foreigner residing abroad, for improvements in anchors, and in friction rollers, to facilitate the lowering and raising such, and other anchors, which friction rollers are applicable to other purposes. Feb. 20.

James Cook, of Birmingham, gun-manufacturer, for improvements in gas-burners. Feb. 22.

NOTES AND NOTICES.

The First Russian Railway.-The locomotive carriages made in England for the Pawlosk Railway, do not appear to have answered quite so well at the place of their destination, as they are said to have done on experimental trips in the land of their birth. On the 22nd December last, some short journeys were performed on that part of the line already completed, for the express purpose of demonstrating the practicability of Railway travelling in the very depth of a Russian winter. On this occasion, the velocity did not much exceed twenty miles an hour: a very satisfactory pace, especially under the circumstances, but still something under the "seventy-five miles an hour" rate reported to have been attained in England: on another day, the result was not even equal to this, which is attributed to the wind's blowing against the line of direction; perhaps, therefore, it blew the right way on the experimental trips, under the direction of the builder. On the 22nd December, the apparatus for removing the snow from before the wheels was tried, and proved quite successful; from recent experience at home, it would appear that any apparatus for that special purpose is quite unnecessary.

Failure on Failure.-The Bombay mail, which was confided to Colonel Chesney to be forwarded home by the Euphrates route, has only just reached England, although sent from India so long ago as the 16th of September. It appears that it was found impossible to convey it by the Euphrates, and that