THE

NEW QUARTERLY REVIEW;

OR,

HOME, FOREIGN,

AND

COLONIAL JOURNAL.

VOL. VIII.

PUBLISHED IN

OCTOBER, M.DCCC.XLVI.

AND

JANUARY, M.DCCC.XLVII.

LONDON:

JAMES GILBERT, 49, PATERNOSTER ROW.

1847.

INDEPENDENT of the immense facilities furnished to locomotion by the Railways, to which this Review feels it a duty to contribute its best energies, as diffusing traffic, civilization, refinement, and religion,—we are glad to learn that great alterations for the public benefit in this particular are projected in our principal cities. Our table is literally covered with the numerous Prospectuses of different Companies to promote the economical transport of the population. Of course, we do not enter into the mingled motives of the various Companies by which this immense system of cheap locomotion, commencing in London, Liverpool, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, and most of our large towns, will be realized. It is enough for us that the results of genuine philanthropy are attained by laying open the means of the conveyance of parcels and passengers to the poorest classes. We believe we may also state, that the pretensions of a Company, "The Economic Conveyance," whose advertisement appears in our columns, are justly grounded as to priority of scheme and invention. Nor will another and higher class of the public be less benefited by a regular system of charges in a different mode of conveyance by the " Economic Brougham, Cabriolet, and Carriage Company," at 6d. a mile. This will entirely get rid of the Hackney-Coach and Cab impositions. No person at present enters either of these vehicles without almost a certainty of imposition on even their own high rates. Most of the great Capitals of Europe enjoy the benefit of cheap locomotion and fixed charges. These will be regulated in these conveyances by a terrameter, an instrument by which the public will be protected by the effectual indication of the distance while the passenger is in the vehicle, and the Proprietors will be protected by a similar process indicating the amount of transit per diem. It is high time that England should be on a par with the Continent in this respect, one of the greatest conceivable benefits to her poor, and, in fact, to all members of a community highly taxed both in every article of life, and in every item of income.