ENGLISH v. FOREIGN RAILWAYS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Snt,—Writing of Stephenson in your review of the history of the Midland Railway (Spectator, June 22nd) you say :—" All that we hear of this wonderful man increases our admiration for him. He planned the line on principles which sub- stantially still hold the field." All that is true, but railway experts now nearly all look back upon him with much the same feelings as Imperialists upon Mr. Gladstone. He was a wonderful man of genius and magnetism, who by his vast personal influence ruined English railways for all time. Through him Brunel's broad gauge was confined to the Great Western, and ultimately perished to secure uniformity. Now, alas when it is too late, we all sigh for it,—the splendid dining and saloon cars ; the big, capacious goods waggons; the swift, powerful engines it would render possible. Americans call our trains "toy trains," and it is not too much to say that through Stephenson's genius we must take a back seat for ever in regard to railways. It is a most humiliating position for a great commercial country like England, but there is no practicable way out of it. If Brunel had only got his way with the broad gauge, most of the problems that are now so severely exercising railway engineers and managers would have been greatly simplified. We should not have been travelling about in "toy trains," and we should not have had to endure the spectacle of France and America passing us in the race.— I am, Sir, &c.,
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