Page:Stryker's American Register and Magazine, Volume 6, 1851.djvu/354

348 It is interesting to observe the increase of third class travelling, relatively, to first and second class:

First. Second. Third.

1845 . . . 17 . . . 43, . . 40 = 100

1850 . . . 12 . . . 36 . . . 52 = 100

The following table shows the change in the money receipts:

First Class. Second Class. Third Class.

1845 . . . £38 . . . £43 . . . £19 = 100

1850 . . . 30 . . . 40 . . . 30=100

The goods traffic relatively to the passenger traffic during the same period :

Passengers. Goods.

1845 £63 . . .£37 = 100

1850 52 . . . 48=100

The average charge for conveying one ton of goods is almost precisely the same as paid by average passengers.

It has been found, on a careful analysis of the working of the principal railroads for a series of years, that for every £100 working expenses, the distribution averages nearly as follows:

Direction and management ..... £10.52

Way and works 15.76

Locomotive power 23.15

Carrying department 38.87

100.00

The rails and their supports on one mile of the Great Western road comprise about 400 loads of timber, and 500 cwts. of iron.

It appears that the railroads insure passengers against accidents, both on periodical and single journey tickets; nearly all the companies now afford facilities for carrying out the principle. The legal liability of the companies in the U. States answers about the same purpose, yet there are some cases that it would not reach.

A Report on the Railways of the United Kingdom has been published by Captain J. L. A. Simmons, Government Inspector, from which it appears that the number of miles open for traffic at the close of 1851, was, in England and Wales, 5,306 miles; in Scotland, 960; Ireland, 624; total, 6,890. The sums raised annually for Railway purposes previous to the year 1848, cannot be ascertained; but since that period Parliament has required returns, which show the calls for 1848 to have been £33,234,418; in 1849, £29,574,720, and in 1850, £10,522,267. The diminution is remarkable. The return of the sums raised in 1851 have not all, as yet, been received, and therefore cannot be stated. During the year, 36 passengers were killed, and 375 injured by