Fifty years ago . or rapid conveyance, but it was notpopular ; the omnibus had only recently been intro-duced by Mr. Shillibeer; and there were no hansomcabs. There was a Twopenny Post in London, but no Penny Post as yet. Therewas no Book Post, noParcel Post, no LondonParcels Delivery you wanted to send aparcel to anywhere inthe country, you confidedit to the guard of thecoach ; if to a town ad-dress, there were streetmessengers and the cadsabout the stage-coachstations ; there were no telegraphs, no telephones, nocommissionaires. Fifty years ago the great railways were all begun,bu
Fifty years ago . or rapid conveyance, but it was notpopular ; the omnibus had only recently been intro-duced by Mr. Shillibeer; and there were no hansomcabs. There was a Twopenny Post in London, but no Penny Post as yet. Therewas no Book Post, noParcel Post, no LondonParcels Delivery you wanted to send aparcel to anywhere inthe country, you confidedit to the guard of thecoach ; if to a town ad-dress, there were streetmessengers and the cadsabout the stage-coachstations ; there were no telegraphs, no telephones, nocommissionaires. Fifty years ago the great railways were all begun,but not one of them was completed. A map publishedin the Athenceum of January 23, 1836, shows the stateof the railways at that date. The line between Liver-pool and Manchester was opened in September, 1836 it was carrying 450,000 passengers in the year,and paying a dividend of 9 per cent. The line betweenCarlisle and Newcastle was very nearly completed ; thatbetween Leeds and Selby was opened in 1834 ; there. GENEBAL POSTMAN GREAT BRITAIN, IRELAND, THE COLONIES 7 were many short lines in the coal and mining districts,and little bits of the great lines were already London and Greenwich line was begun in 1834 andopened in 1837. There were in progress the Londonand Birmingham, the Birmingham, Stafford, and War-rington, the Great Western as far as Bath and Bristol,and the London and Southampton passing throughBasingstoke. It is amazing to think that Portsmouth,the chief naval port and place of embarkation fortroops, was left out altogether. There were also agreat many lines projected, which afterwards settleddown into the present great Trunk lines. As they wereprojected in 1836, instead of Great Northern, North-Western, and Great Eastern, we should have had oneline passing through Saffron Walden, Cambridge,Peterborough, Lincoln, York, Appleby, and Carlisle,with another from London to Colchester, Ipswich,Norwich, and Yarmouth; there was also a projectedcontinuati
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