19 APRIL 1845, Page 2

Lord Brougham has "drawn attention" to two facts connected /with

railways, that ought to provoke some more effectual atten- .tion to growing evils,—the excess of speculation, often not very .lucrative, sometimes quite profitless and ruinous ; and. the enor mous power obtained by railway companies. Every man's louse is his castle, except, now-a-days, as against a railway. Com- panies are empowered, not to buy lands but to confiscate them on vouchsafing an indemnity. Meanwhile, the mania to speculate .in these potent enterprises amounts to a madness. We hear in .Lancashire of maid-servants holding railway shares : " Shares " -are household words. "Had I better buy more shares, do you .think, ma'am ? What meat shall I order of the butcher." "Shall .1 realize ? Shall I return two stale loaves to the baker, ma'am ?" Such are the questions you may hear at the parlour-door, amid the buz round the fire-place of "Cent per cent premium "—" Bill 'likely to pass "—" Double my income," and so forth. A crash wane follow.