The MONTHLY RETURNS, published in terms of 9th Geo. IV. c. 60, shewing the Quantities of Corn, Grain, Meal, and Flour imported into the United Kingdom in each Month; the Quantities upon which duties have been paid for home-consumption, during the same Month; and the Quantities remaining in Warehouse at the close thereof, from 5th May to 5th July 1837. 60 14,326 0 9 4,332 0 10 .. 158,560 2 16 6,236 2 5 164,797 0 21 34 3 21 34 3 21 60 14,326 0 9 4,332 0 10 158,595 2 9 6,236 2 5 164,832 0 14 .. 409 3 15 1,501 3 24 1,911 3 11 154,612 1 24/17,628 2 26 172,241 0 23 1837. May, 7/6@7/9 7/6 @ 8/68/ @ 8/5 8/6 @ 9/6 7/6 @ 8/3 7/6 @ 8/6 8 @ 8/9 7/9 @ 8/6 PRICES of English and Scotch WOOL. ENGLISH, per 14 fb.-Merino, 25/ @26/; in Grease, 13 @ 16/6.-South Down, 14/6 @ 19/6; Leicester, Hogg, 18/ (@24/: Ewe and Hogg, 14/@ 21/.-Locks, 9/(@11; Moor, 7/6 @ 9. SCOTCH, per 14 tb.-Leicester, Hogg, 14/ @ 16,6; Ewe and Wether, 12/ @ 14/6.-Ewe, 10/6 @ 12/: Cheviot, White, 9/ (@12/: Laid. Washed, 7/6 @ 8/6; Unwashed, 6/6 @7/; Moor, White, 6/ @7/; Laid, Washed, 5,3 @6, Unwashed, 4/6 @5/. THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. ON RAILWAYS. By WILLIAM GALBRAITH, M. A., and M. S. A., Edinburgh. THE importance of a ready and cheap mode of conveying goods and passengers from one place to another is now so well understood and duly appreciated, that the demands for canals, and more especially for railways, has of late increased to an unprecedented degree. The immense benefit derived from the use of steam-boats on our sea-coasts, friths and rivers, has long attracted attention, and they have become the means of opening up a communication with the more remote corners of our island; so that places which could formerly be reached in the course of several days, can now be visited in a few hours, thus affording a vast variety of easy pleasure trips to our tourists, the carriage of various articles of manufacture, and the produce of the soil to all parts of the kingdom. During a number of years past, canals, of various dimensions, have been advantageously used for the conveyance of goods, and partially for passengers; and for this purpose they are well fitted when a saving of time is not of much importance. But when expedition is required and a quick transit is of vital importance, the superiority of the railway, constructed on proper principles, is indisputable. The superiority of a railway over a turnpike road as at present constructed, will be obvious, when VOL. VIII.-NO. XXXIX. T it is known that they give the certainty of the turnpike road in transit with the advantage, in ordinary cases, of saving seveneighths of the power; that is, one horse on a railway will produce as much effect as eight horses on a turnpike road.* On a good railroad the effect produced by a given power is nearly a mean between the turnpike road and the canal when the rate of travelling is about three miles an hour; but when great speed is necessary the railway in effect may either equal the canal, or even far surpass it. No doubt the construction of canals, roads, and railways is expensive, but if a fair return be received for the outlay of the proprietors, which in judiciously managed speculations will be the case, this can form no objection. The schemes and prospectuses for railways are, however, at the present time so numerous, while the advantages held out to subscribers are so doubtful, that it seems to be a duty incumbent on those who possess a moderate share of scientific knowledge, to examine their pretensions and expose their real properties. Indeed, the subject appears to be so important as to demand a large share of the attention of the Legislature, to prevent such a crisis as happened in the year 1825, which the present aspect of affairs seems but too clearly to forebode. This will not appear to be an exaggerated statement, when it is well known that, in many instances, railways are projected by solicitors, attorneys, &c. in combination with engineers anxious for business or ambitious of prominence in their profession, and are little solicitous for excellence in principle or public advantage, provided their own fees are well paid, and large profits are realized on the transfer of shares. "The suspicion," says Colonel Mudge in his tract on Railways, "arising to the mind on taking up a book or pamphlet on railways, naturally occurs, that the writer some way or other is an interested person, either a railway specu lator, an engineer, or a lawyer, in short, one who has a direct personal interest in some one of the many schemes, which having gone through all the stages of incubation, are now hatched, fledged, and, like the peacock with his spreading tail, exhibiting all their beauties and attractions to the admiring public." "In England," says he, p. 14, "the mode of getting up a railway is well known, and the means by which it is brought to maturity is no secret. speculator examines a good map, and, after an examination of the positions of A *It is to be hoped that great care will now be taken in the selection of the lines, as well as in the formation of the turnpike roads, so that, at no distant period perhaps, locomotive engines may be employed advantageously upon them. the hills and valleys, draws the line, which is afterwards to be more minutely surveyed and levelled. Having provided himself with this document, and likewise being furnished with a flourishing prospectus, he gives the preference to some gentlemen of well known wealth and character, to whom he exhibits the promising undertaking. A few good names, in addition, as directors, and a popular engineer, suffice for the formation of a company very frequently; and it may be generally said, at the outset of the railway speculations, without any one of the parties, including the engineer, ever having seen the ground at all. As a matter of profit, and to induce the public to come forward in support of these undertakings, in many cases the most fallacious statements are put forth, and some of them so absurd, that it implies an almost incredible degree of credulity in the parties deceived by them. "The fact really is, with reference to profit, that a reasonable doubt is entertained by those best qualified to form a correct judgment, whether any thing more than a very moderate profit will ever be realised eventually by any of the railways, either executed or now in progress, from the enormous expenses to which they will be liable, and a belief prevails that the chief part of those in contemplation, should they commence tunnelling and cutting according to the usual method, will be in the condition of the Thames Tunnel, with reference to the original capital long before a very moderate proportion of the work shall be done." 95# To these faithful and judicious remarks of Colonel Mudge, it may be added, that when any attempt is made by an honest and accurate engineer, though, perhaps, less known, to correct defects, or disadvantageous properties, in those works proposed by engineers who consider themselves to have a kind of prescriptive right to public confidence, an appeal is straight-forward made to a friend of the same class, who considers himself in duty bound to produce a piece of special pleading, supported by exaggeration, gratuitous assumption, and fallacious deduction, in the shape of a report, erroneously called an examination of the relative merits of the two lines of railway, and invariably gives the preference to that of his friends, by whom he is employed. In the opinion of some, it seems to be taken for granted that a circuitous line, of almost any distance, may be chosen in preference to a shorter and more direct line, provided the gradients be very good. Now there cannot be a greater fallacy than this in general, though nothing is more true in many particular instances, within certain narrow limits. For instance, a railway perfectly level might be formed between any two sea-ports, one on the east, and the other on the west coast of Britain, if carried *This tract of Colonel Mudge, of the Royal Engineers, ought to be carefully studied by all those connected with railways. along the sea-shore, though in many cases the adoption of such a line would be absurd, and, because this is an extreme case, its fallacy is readily detected. But the same objection may be, and really is, applicable to many railways now in contemplation, though not in so great a degree, and is therefore less easily perceived. Indeed, it is admitted that a greater tonnage may be propelled along the longer and more level line with the same velocity as a less tonnage on the line possessing higher gradients, and of a smaller distance, with locomotive engines of equal power; but then it is clear that a saving of time on the shorter line may do as much, and often does more than counterbalance the greater load on the former. Suppose, for example, that two railroads join two extreme points, one of which is two miles long, with steeper gradients than another of three miles long with easier gradients, in such a manner that, on the shorter, a locomotive engine, can propel a load of two tons at the same velocity as an equal powered locomotive engine can propel a load of three tons on the longer line, then the train would pass three times along the shorter line, in the same time that the equivalent train would pass twice along the longer line, that is, each of the trains would transport six tons between the extreme points in the same time, while, by adopting the shorter line, one mile, or one-third of the expense of the longer line, would be saved, without losing any part of the effect. Again, by reason of bad curves causing great centrifugal force, thereby rendering the trains liable to run off the rails, improper position, and numerous other casualties, a long line, though nearly level, may be so much inferior to a shorter line, with comparatively less favourable slopes, as to admit of no sort of comparison, in point of utility and judicious construction. The advantages, therefore, to be derived from the use of railways, are rapidity of transit and economy of charge, to accomplish which the following principles should be kept constantly in view :— 1. One of the conditions which must not be departed from in laying out great lines of railway is, that those lines may be tra versed throughout their whole extent by locomotive engines, and, in order to avoid as much as possible interruptions and delays, that the same engine should draw the same train. 2. Another condition is, to diminish, as much as possible, the time of transit between two given points, by reducing the length |