Excerpt from The Railways of Great Britain and Ireland: Practically Described and Illustrated Yet, so it is; we go on improving: canals and turnpike-roads have, as it were, had their day, and now must yield the palm to that greatest achievement of modern times, the iron railway. We humbly venture an opinion, that the general introduction of railways, in con junction with that of the mighty steamers which ride swiftly and majestically over the troubled ocean, is the preparatory means where by the civilisation of the whole world will eventually be accomplished. Time, to those blessed with the advantages of railways, is, as it were, of thrice its former value; while money, considered relatively, is already increased in a two-fold ratio: and the day is not far distant when the means of railway travelling - looking to the increasing facilities and improvements which are constantly taking place - will be yet much more within the reach of the humblest classes of the people. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.