articles to be conveyed were placed upon a square frame of wood, which was dragged along by the horse; and when the goods were very bulky, the united efforts of several horses could be thus employed, which could not be done when it was laid upon their backs.

It is very uncertain at what period wheel carriages were first introduced into Great Britain; the warchariot of the ancient Britons, formed a species of wheel carriage, but it does not appear that at that period they were used for the purposes of conveying goods.

The Romans would, no doubt, introduce many of the Eastern articles of trade, and of the arts; but such is the force of habit, that it appears, long after the invasion of the island by that people, the ancient inhabitants retained their native habits and customs.

By degrees, however, when civilisation reached a higher degree of perfection, and commerce became more extended, the occurrence of articles of trade or comfort, in the interior districts of the country, would enforce the adoption of some mode of communication suitable to the advanced state of the arts and manufactures; and the use of wheel carriages, where the weight that could be conveyed by a horse, would be considerably greater than either what he could drag upon a sledge, or carry on his back, would proportionably extend the facility of internal traffic.

On the first introduction of military roads, they were formed, by paving the track whereon the horses travelled with large stones, or with small pebbles and gravel arranged with peculiar care, and beat down by manual labour. The great lines of communication in England, or turnpike roads, have all been established and supported by legislative enactments, enabling individuals who advanced the money for the construction and repair of these roads, to be repaid, by levying tolls upon,

the traffic passing along them; all the district roads being kept in repair by a rate or tax upon the occupiers of the property in the district. Recently, all the roads in the country have been very much improved, by the adoption of a system of road-making suggested by the late Mr. M'Adam, by which the expense of keeping the roads in repair has been much diminished, and the resistance to the carriages very much decreased.

§ 3.-Railways.

The next alteration in interior communication, appears to have been the substitution of wooden railways, in place of the common or military roads; and these appear to have been first adopted in insulated districts, where the quantity of goods to be transported was considerable, and always over the same ground.

It is, however, very difficult to trace the precise date, when railways were first introduced into Great Britain.

Where the traffic was inconsiderable, and consisted of various articles, to be conveyed in numerous directions, the difficulty of forming roads suitable for all parties, and the expense of branching them off to all the different parts where the goods were to be carried, would operate to prevent the introduction of them, as a species of general communication.

The most probable supposition is, that the adoption of these artificial roads, first took place where the goods were of a uniform, and of a heavy description, and had to be conveyed to one place only, and where the quantity also was considerable. Continually passing along the same road, where perhaps the materials for upholding and keeping it in repair were expensive, might induce them to seek out some remedy; and it is not unlikely, that the laying down of timber, in the worst parts of the road, might tend to the introduction of

wooden rails the whole distance. Such is the practice in Russia, and it appears to have been as ancient as civilisation in that country.

At the coal works in the neighbourhood of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the expense of conveying the coals, from the pits to the places where they were to be shipped by sea, would be very great. Down to the year 1600, the only mode appears to have been by carts on the ordinary roads, and in some instances by "panniers" on horseback.

A record in the books of one of the free companies in Newcastle, dated 1602, states, "That from tyme out of mynd, yt hath been accustomed that all colewaynes did usually carry and bring eight baulls of coles, to all the staythes upon the ryver of Tyne, but of late several hath brought only, or scarce, seven baulls.” The cost of transporting such a heavy article as coal along common roads, which may be supposed would not be of the best description, in carts containing seven or eight bolls, would operate very powerfully, in accelerating the introduction of some improvement in the mode of conveyance, to lessen the expense.

In a work published at Newcastle, in the year 1649, by a Mr. Gray, called "A Chorographia," or survey, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the following account of the coal trade is given :-" Many thousand people are employed in this trade of coales; many live by conveying them in waggons and waines to the river Tyne," &c. And in page 31 of the same work, he states, "Some south gentlemen hath, upon great losse of benefit, come into this country to hazard their monies in coale pits. Master Beaumont, a gentleman of great ingenuity and rare parts, adventured into our mines with his £30,000, who brought with him many rare engines not known then in those parts, as the art to boore with iron rodds,

to try the deepnesse and thicknesse of the coale; rare engines to draw water out of the pits; waggons with one horse to carry down coales from the pits to the staythes on the river, &c.; within a few years he consumed all his money, and rode home upon his light horse."

Considering that the carts employed in conveying the coals were, in 1602, called "waynes," and the carriages introduced by Master Beaumont, " waggons ;" and also, that ever since that period the carriages employed upon railroads have been designated by the latter name, we may infer, that the "waggon" of Mr. Beaumont was applied upon a railway, and that he was the first to introduce them into the North.

The date of the introduction of railways as a sub stitute for common roads at Newcastle would then be between the years 1602 and 1649; probably a considerable time prior to the latter period, as we find Master Beaumont had at that time expended his. £30,000.

Whether they were used, in any other part of the country before this time or not, I have not had the means of ascertaining.

In 1676 they are thus described:-"The manner of the carriage is by laying rails of timber from the colliery to the river, exactly straight and parallel; and bulky carts are made, with four rollers fitting those rails, whereby the carriage is so easy that one horse will draw down four or five chaldron of coals, and is immense benefit to the coal merchants."*

At that time it is probable the road would be of the simplest construction, consisting of single rails fastened upon transverse sleepers stretched across the road. The

* Life of Lord Keeper North.

following description is given of them in Jaa's Voyages Métallurgiques in 1765 (vol. i. p. 199):-" When the road has been traced at six feet in breadth, and where the declivities are fixed, an excavation is made of the breadth of the said road, more or less deep, according as the levelling of the ground requires. There are afterwards arranged, along the whole breadth of this excavation, pieces of oak wood of the thickness of four, five, six, and even eight, inches square; these are placed across, and at the distance of two or three feet from each other; these pieces need only be squared at their extremities, and upon these are fixed other pieces of wood well squared and sawed, of about six or seven inches in breadth by five in depth, with pegs of wood; these pieces are placed on each side of the road along its whole length; they are commonly placed at four feet distance from each other, which forms the interior breadth of the road."

This kind of railroad, shown in Figs. 1 and 2, Plate I., was very imperfect, and had many disadvantages. Though probably, at first made of greater strength than necessary to support the weight, yet by frequent use, the rails would soon become reduced in depth, by the action of the wheels, and would break long before they were worn through. It would thus be necessary, that the rails should be often renewed; and as the road required to be always of the same width, the bearing section of the sleepers, by the frequent perforation of the holes, to fasten the rails down, would soon be rendered useless. Though much superior to the common roads, in point of economy, and of transit; yet the frequent renewal of the rails and sleepers, would be attended with considerable expense, not only of time, and labour, but also in the cost of the material.

The waste of timber thus occasioned, principally by