REVIVAL OF TURNPIKE TRAFFIC.

1 Adam Street, ..eteleWi, 11th November 1850. Sra—In nip last letter I set forth the economical arrangements by which, without any large expenditure of capital, outlying towns and districts may A Dutch innkeeper oncseoefa.btiltterly lamented to use the natural disadvantages inimbe doberdrroeuragthhtoict ‘kh%eilletpollouanret dtahlhaebourede.es:Imeet s7bgstanwace of his words was, " We are behind England, for we have to pay a work-rent' of ten percent to Nature to this is the position of those who live beyond the precincts of the rail—the civilising rail. They have to pay horse and cart rent, and time-rent, either to get to the rail on their way to the market, or to the market without the rail.

One of two things, therefore, must take place in the ever-moving process of economy to equalize production and profit ; the rails must go to the towns and farms, or new towns and farms will grow up along the rails while the old go to decay.

But inasmuch as the great mass of property still exists at a distance from the rails, it is a sure thing that the owners will awake from their supine- ness, and become possessors of railways. They should have been the first to possess them, but it is the tendency of property to be over-conservative : it keeps so fast a hold on the actual that it loses sight of the new; it held fast to the horses, drove away steam from its precincts, and forced it into new localities. Yet it is certain that steam accomplished more on the highways with its imperfect appliances, than has generally been accomplished on railways with the improved appliances and unstinted capital. The essential points of difference are, the improved gradients, and the hard iron surface diminishing the effects of gravity and friction. For self-moved vehicles can only advance by means of the fulcrum on which their driving-wheels tread—namely, the macadamized road, or the iron rail.

The macadamized road was an imperfect fulcrum for the weight of the steam-carriages.

And the iron rail has also ceased to be a sufficient fulcrum for the mon- strous machines that were generated in the contest for speed on the broad and narrow gauges. Their power was multiplied manifold, while the cepa- city of the rail to use it diminished. " Three and four hundred pounds per mile per annum " is but the cost of " maintenance of way." Followed out into its remote consequences, the waste would appear enormous. Yet, notwithstanding, all this, there can be little doubt that the railway system has been one main cause of the enormous increase of capital that makes it almost a drug in the money-market. The public have gained, if not the shareholders.

The earlier railways, driven away from the old tracks of commerce, were made as though they were military roads, regardless of expense--straight and level, as though the be-all and end-all were the two termini. They disre- garded, if they did not ignore, the question of population along their bor- ders. They sought out the wilderness where land might be had cheap. As a natural consequence, it was found that mere terminal traffic would not pay; and it became necessary to put out feeders and branches and make expensive approaches to the different populations. This has cost far more money than land would have cost running near to the towns.

Yet it is certain that these lines, thus made' will ultimately be sources of , large profit. When the saieidal clinging to impracticable high fares and ' destructive mechanism shall be extinct, our existing railway; under fitting appliances, will be equivalent to streets.

But to induce this, the railway must be bordered by a highway, and pos- sess three lines of rails, if it be desirable to have very fast traffic—two

for speed, and one for slow traffic of local passengers and goods, and provided with turns-out. The stopping-places should be at every quarter or half mile ; not involving any expense to the company, but leaving it to the owners of the land adjoining, to make road station-houses or inns at their own option, as is the practice of canals and highways.

The existing lines we may regard as artificial levels made to replace the levels of nature,—viz. the rallies wherein mankind placed their earliest residences. But to make the artificial levels equally available, something is

yet required. In the rallies are found the watercourses ; in the rallies is the natural drainage. Therefore on the artificial. levels of the railways,

or beneath them, must be laid water-pipes and sewage-pipes, ere farms and

factories can be located along their borders. Add the gas-pipes and the electric telegraph, and we have all that is required. Man may then com-

mence a new rem, independently of the arrangements of nature which served him during his less artificial. state. With masses of population along the line of the railway, the question of dealing with sewage becomes ex- tremely simple. It may be injected into the land and disposed of without any nuisance. As these truths shall grow familiar to men's minds, the pro- bable arrangement will be, that the dwellings and factories will be grounl along the line of railway, and the farms will be placed in the rear according to circumstances, stretching away to such distances as may be most advisa- ble; but in all cases the farm-yard communicating with the rail by a siding. Out of these arrangements would grow a sanatory system the most perfect that could be wished. But there is also the economical question of transit

for passengers and oods—onlyanother name for civilization reduced to the minimum cost; tine farm, the factory, and the market on the same rails, the rails running on to the roof of the market, and the waggons lowering their cargoes on to the market-stalls, as is now done by coals on almost all lines.

A greater thing yet would grow out of it. There are seasons when the farmers need surplus hands. The factories could furnish them, without ex- pensive transit. Coal, earned cheaply to the farms, and factory workmen employed thereon, invention would be quickened, and the labour-saving processes of manufacturers adapted to the great increase of production. Yet more than this : the physical health of the factory workman would be im- proved, and he would rise in the scale of moral being ; and the mental skill of the agricultural workman being developed, the same results would ensue, and he would be far less subject to the fluctuations of poverty. All this may be done even in hilly countries ; but in level districts, as Nor- folk, Lincoln, Cambridgeshire, and great part of Yorkshire and the Midland Counties, and Middlesex, it would involve as little trouble and expense as the intersecting an estate with roads for building purposes. Towns were originally built as places of security against foes. Subsequently close streets and tall houses were contrived to save distance in expensive

transit. With the rail, distance ceases to be an object. And therefore the tree may again, as of old, overshadow the dwelling. And it is quite clear that what there is at present objectionable in our factory system might be ob- viated, and their localities rendered picturesque. But this is beside the eco- inimical question.

The existing railways, after the first experiments of the Liverpool and Manchester had decided that passengers and speed were the chief objects to

aim at, were all made for speed ; and after years of experience, it is proved that there are other elements than speed essential to profit—elements of their own, in which competition cannot exist any more than between Oxford Street and Piccadilly omnibuses. Local traffic is the really. important thing. Iltla it been understood at that time, the imperfect experiment of trying to rim steam on grafel would not hare ended there. The essential feature of the iron rail inserted Os the sur- face, so a not to disturb existing traffic, would have followed ; and ere this the majority of the highways and turnpikes would have had steam transit

over them, as they will yet have for moderate speeds. And thereon will fol- low, better levelling, easier curves, and probably separate rails for higher speeds, in which greater average speeds will be attained by the better pro- portioning the moving machine to the rail and road.

The old lines commenced with great and increasing speed-of distant traf- fic, to work down to the local traffic. The new lines will have to work up

from the local traffic to the distant. There is a large work cut out for the existing race of road-surveyors, and large profits for landed proprietors, in the process of converting England into the garden-farm she is destined ultimately to become.

And with regard to Ireland, she is in the process of regeneration, and will require the careful outlay of capital. By steam and rails on her highways, the greater part of her agricultural and manufacturing transit may be ac- complished. The roads are mostly good and of litttle transit. If such men as Mr. Bianconi take this in hainl, they may supply Ireland with moving platforms or rail-steamers, without difficulty. For distant transit for mail-passengers to America, of course the maximum speed will be required as the future highway to America. But it must be

borne in mind that speed is not to be found in mere weight, though waste and destruction may. The same class of works as to strength of ,material that were available for the old highways and turnpikes would suffice for the highest speeds of well-proportioned engines with light trains. All this is essentially a practical matter, worked out in use.