Page:Inland Transit - Cundy - 1834.djvu/71

 to a single form, without deviation. The whole enterprise of the country was therefore paralysed, in as far as the powers of this road were concerned; with the exception of one individual, who was fortunate enough to obtain a field of exertion, which it must be admitted lie did not fail adequately to improve. It is true that upon some occasions the Directors have signified that they were willing to receive proposals for engines of other forms, but upon the condition that their performance should be in no degree inferior to those of the engines used on the road at the time of making such proposals. It is scarcely necessary to point out the impolicy and injustice of such conditions, when I consider the advantage possessed by one engineer, in having the exclusive experience of the road as his guide. It would perhaps have been not only a more liberal, but a more wise policy in the Directors, to have encouraged the inventive genius of the country, by affording it in some degree those opportunities and advantages which the possession of so grand an instrument as their railroad placed in their hands; and this might have been done in such a prudent way as would not have exposed them to the charge of unduly rendering the property of the Company subservient to the visionary speculations of unpractised persons.

At the commencement of the undertaking, the fuel consumed was at the rate of about 2 lbs, per ton per mile; and the engines were considered as suited to draw about three times their own weight. Improvements, however, have been successively introduced during the last two years, which have reduced the consumption of fuel in a very considerable degree. I am not able to speak of the actual consumption of fuel in regular work, at this moment. However,