The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-01 00:00:00

STREET RAILWAYS.

--
The readers of Tancred will remember that the
respective characteristics of Europe and Asia are
illustrated in that attractive tale by a sarcastic con-
trast between Damascus and Birkenhead. Yet at
this moment the West might sustain the suggested
comparison without much disparagement. Damas-
cus is depopulated by assassins and hangmen while
Birkenhead is giving England a lesson which may
do as much for public convenience as any discovery
of the present century. Vast as are the advantages
of railways, they have been but half explored. We
use them only for long distances and on a gigantic
scale. We leave the invention to great companies
with their millions of capital, and totally neglect
its benefits at our very doors. If we had pursued
the same system on the water that we have adopted
on land, half the services of steam would have been
lost to us. Screws and paddles would have been con-
fined to the Atlantic and Mediterranean, while for
a trip to Gravesend or Chelsea the old machinery of
sail or oar would serve us still. Everybody, however,
now understand that the real utility of steam power
in navigation is felt in its smaller applications, in
the daily and hourly convenience it affords, in the
cheapness it has established, and in the multitude
of•facilities it has added to every-day life, whereas
these are precisely the uses to which railways have
never yet been turned. We can run along an iron
road from London to Bristol, but not from Charing-
cross to London-bridge, although for one person
who makes the former journey there are at least
100,000 who make the latter. Why, then, should
we not have street railways as well as river
steamers! That is the question which Londoners
have been asking for these five years, and which
Birkenhead has at length answered.
Let nobody be alarmed at the idea of a locomo-
tive careering along the streets of the metropolis.
Even that phenomenon would not be without a
precedent; but in reality, it is by no means indis-
pensable that a railway should be worked by a
steam-engine, nor is that the proposition which we
are now advocating. The essence of a railway is
in its " track"—in the smooth and level course
provided for the wheels of carriages. When fric-
tion has thus been reduced to a minimum, and
interruption prevented, it matters not what species
of power is employed for the actual purpose of
traction. A horse can draw a railway carriage as
well as an engine, though not so quickly. A pair
of rails turns a road, as it were, into a canal, and a
couple of horses, under zilch conditions of draught,
can run away with a load which on ordinary
ground they would be utterly unable to move. To
bring the case to a point, we simply ask the reader
to look at the spectacle which either Fleet-street
or Cheapside is pretty sure to present at any hour
of any morning in the week. Ten or twenty
omnibuses may be seen packed in a line or jammed
into a mass with carts, vans, waggons, and cabs.
Each of these omnibuses has its two horses and its
two men to work it, whereas if a railway were laid
down two men and two horses would suffice, with
proper carriages, for all the passengers together.
Moreover, in addition to the economy of labour,
there would be an immense increase of convenience.

It is something to find that a pair of horses can draw
50 passengers with perfect ease, but the discovery
becomes still more agreeable when it is seen that
every one of these passengers obtains twice the
amount of accommodation which the old system
would have provided.
Of course such a novelty as this could never
escape opposition. We have been long ago assured
that the scheme was utterly chimerical—that on a
macadamised road the rails could never be laid
down or taken up again—that carriages would have
their wheels knocked off, and that street accidents
would be of constant occurrence. Exactly in the
same way 30 years back we were told that railways
altogether were as mad a speculation as the South
Sea bubble; that they would be stopped by snow,
by wind, by rain, or by frost ; that they could never
be made, never be worked, and never turned to
profit, and that argument, in short, was almost
thrown away in convicting of folly a design which
would soon perish of itself. It happened that rail-
ways were tried, and we know the results. Fortu-
nately, street railways are now to be tried also, and,
the Birkenhead experiment will probably be fol-
lowed in other towns as rapidly as the Manchester
and Liverpool line was copied between other sta-
tions. The predicted embarrassments of the opera-
tion vanished like smoke before the practical reso-
lution of Lancashire assisted by American experi-
ence. It was only in March last that the scheme
was first proposed. It was only in May that the
terms of the undertaking were arranged, and yet on
Thursday morning the new carriages were actually
plying on the new rails, to the perfect satisfaction
of all concerned.

This is the first introduction of the American
street railway into this country, but an experiment
of a still bolder kind will presently be attempted in
another town. Burton-upon-Trent has been raised
by its breweries to the position of a provincial capital.
Sir Walter Scott tells us that it was celebrated for

its beer in the days of Ivanhoe, and so rapid, at any
rate, has been the progress of its renown in recent
times that it is experiencing the difficulties as well
as the dignities of London itself. What happens
in the Strand has happened on a smaller scale in the
streets of Burton. The traffic was so enormous that
it became necessary to divert it, or to provide in
some way or other for the relief of the thorough-
fares. Accordingly, Messrs. Allsopp and Sons, in
conjunction with the Midland Company, have pro-
jected the construction of two railways across the
streets of the town, and, although the inhabitants
opposed the scheme, the bill for this novel under-
taking was passed last session. At two great centres
of business, therefore, we shall now see what rail-
ways can do for the depletion of overcrowded
streets, and all who know anything of London will
devoutly hope for the success of the experiment,
and a speedy reproduction of the example.
The obstruction of our streets at present is really
intolerable. The tax upon time, money, patience,
and temper is as bad as any tax we have to pay.
Without some relief we cannot go on. The dead lock
which already occurs at every second crossing and
every second minute will by and by become absolute
stagnation. If our drivers were not dexterous, and
if the very necessity of the case did not suggest
expedients, Cheapside could never be cleared. By
the aid of habit, resignation, and policemen we con-
trive to get along, but distances are more than trebled
in practical effect, while the state of things becomes
worse every day. Statistics are superfluous to those
who feel the truth every hour of their lives, but if
any country reader should wish to get an idea of the
facts we may just observe that the vehicles and
persons who pass over London-bridge every 24
hours represent the numbers of an enormous
army, and that the number of passengers actually
coming and going at the single station of Fen-
church-street in a single year is ten times as great
as that which Herodotus assigns to the host of
Xerxes. Then why, let us once more ask, should we
not have street railways ? Is it because they can-
not be constructed or will never practically work ?
Birkenhead teaches us otherwise, not to mention
the evidence of American examples. Is it because
of the possible inconvenience ? No inconvenience
can be greater than that which we suffer already.
30 4
conveyue ue u
practi-
callyla
Is it because of the danger? On this point we
it
have but two words to say. A city magistrate took
occasion the other day to remark that more peoplen
ra
.1, -
were killed and injured by street conveyances
London alone than were killed and injured
UnitedPll
way travelling throughout the whole oftth
heepresent
Kingdom. So much for the safety
system. As to that of street. raSolfvroatw-neouomhave
r
prove our
simply to add, that whereas in
sengers travelled by ofthiishl72:kodnseulych
facts
conveyance in
New York and Brooklyn
came to any mishap. We ,
established.—.7imes.
case, and we shall be heartily gladlBs

Under the provisions t.whiethricarEtasAt
lentdoiaf
ofted
SPt oa crk-
liament all business o
will in future be transacted at th-------7—cee
e Bank of England.
THE BRITISH MusElfll,—The British Museum
will be closed to the public from this day (September 1)
to
the 7th inst. inclusive, for the purpose of being thoroughly
cleansed in every department, and new arrangements car-
ried out for the accommodation of the increasing number of
visitors. Since the new directions respecting the Reading-
room were issued, requiring that every application for ad-
mission should be accompanied by a written recommenda-
tion addressed to the Principal Librarian, no less than 20,000
persons have availed themselves of the advantages and faci-
lities of reference now afforded to students by the trustees
of the National Collection.
NEW ACT ON SPIRIT DUTlES.—Yesterday the
new act to grant excise duties on British spirits and on
spirits imported from the Channel Islands which received
the royal assent at the time of the prorogation, was printed.
The duty charged on British spirits made within the United
Kingdom on and after the 29th February last was Bs. ld.
per gallon, and on and after the 10th of July last 10s. per
gallon. On Channel Islands spirits imported into the
United Kingdom on and after the 28th March last, Bs. 6d.;
and on and after the 17th July, lOa lA. Where contracts
have been made the additional duties are to be charged
with the price of the commodities.
THE DAMSEL AT THE PLOUGH.—A rather un-
usual circumstance occurred at a ploughing match which
lately took place at Vaugueray (Rhone); a young woman,
about 19, driving a pair of oxen, presented herself as one of
the competitors. At first some objections were raised as to
her admission, but under the circumstances of the case they
were set aside. Marie Chirat, the young girl in question,
had the misfortune to lose her father about ten months 11.''s0.
He had a lease of a farm at 2,000 f. a-year, and when he
died left a widow, a little boy, and Marie. The daughter,
feeling that to quit the farm in the middle of the lease
would be the ruin of the family, told her mother not to be
cast down, for she would undertake to work the land. She
applied herself strenuously to the work, and was soon pro-
nounced to be the best conductor of a plough in the com-
mune. That opinion was confirmed at the public competi-
tion, as the principal prize was awarded to her. She re
turned home in triumph to her mother, accompanied by a
party of female friends, who presented her with a large
h bouquet. This incident produced a deep impression Among
the crowd,