actual progression. Railways are in progress between the points of great intercourse in the United Kingdoms, and travelling steam-engines are in preparation in every quarter for the common turnpike roads; the practicability and utility of that application of the steam-engine, having not only been established by experiment to the satisfaction of their projectors, but proved before the legislature so conclusively, as to be taken for the foundation of Parliamentary enactments, and upon which large capital may be safely invested.
The important commercial and political effects attending such increased facility and speed in the transport of persons and goods, which were proved before Parliament in the sessions of 1831, 1832, and 1833, are too obvious to require any very extended notice here. A part of the price (and in many cases a considerable part) of every article of necessity or luxury, consists of the cost of transporting it from the producer to the consumer; and, consequently, every abatement or saving in this cost, must produce a corresponding reduction in the price of every article transported; that is to say, of every thing which is necessary for the subsistence of the poor, or for the enjoyment of the rich, of every comfort, and of every luxury of life. The benefit of this will extend, not to the consumer only, but to the producer: by lowering the expense of transport of the produce, whether of the soil or of the loom, a less quantity of that produce will be spent in bringing the remainder to market, and, consequently, a greater surplus will reward the labour of the producer. The benefit of this will be felt even more by the agriculturist than by the manufacturer; because the proportional cost of transport of the produce of the
