As on its naked stem the rose shall burn, As to the empty sky the stars return, As hope comes back to hearts crushed by regret ; Nay, say not this to his heart ne'er crushed yet!" We Americans, however, whose right and duty it is not to lose faith in the triumph of a just cause, can, even in its gloomiest hour, accept as prophecy these words from one who believes that liberty can triumph only through the submission of the Church to secular law, and the abolition of all her privileges: "WILLING OR LOATH. "Willing or loath, the flames to heaven tend, Willing or loath, the waters downward flow, "And thou, successor of Saint Peter, thou We will not perish at the mountain's feet." We have already noted the more obvious merits of the Stornelli, and we need not greatly insist upon them now. Their defects are equally plain; one sees that their simplicity all but ceases to be a virtue at times, and that at times their feeling is too much intellectualized. Yet for all this we must recognize their excellence, and the skill as well as the truth of the poet. It is very notable with what directness he expresses his thought, and with what discretion he leaves it when expressed. The form is always most graceful, and the success with which dramatic, picturesque, and didactic qualities are blent, for a sole effect, in the brief compass of the poems, is not too highly praised in the epithet of novelty. Nothing is lost for the sake of attitude; the actor is absent from the most dramatic touches, the painter is not visible in lines which are each a picture, the teacher does not appear for the purpose of enforcing the moral. It is not the grandest poetry, but it is true feeling, admirable art. W. D. HOWELLS. 8vo ART. III.1. The Railway. Remarks at Belfast, Maine, July 4, 1867. By JOHN A. POOR. Boston. 1867. pamphlet. 2. Monthly Circulars of the National Anti-Monopoly CheapFreight Railway League for promoting Reform in Railroad Management, by securing Equal Rights and Cheap Transportation, with consequent increased Development of our Industrial Energies and National Resources. Nos. I. VII. New York. 1867. 8vo pamphlet. IT is related in the Sussex Archæological Collections, that in 1703, when the king of Spain went to Petworth, his equipage was engaged for six hours in traversing the last nine miles of this journey; and that Sir Herbert Springett went to church in the family coach drawn by eight oxen, a stately and patriarchal mode, which arose from the necessity of having "the strong pull, the long pull, and the pull all together" of the bovine team, to which the power of horses is as naught. The excellent roads of Telford and McAdam made a great change in England before the end of the eighteenth century, for there were by that time some thirty thousand miles of highways in Great Britain on which the traveller could, if he chose to pay for such a luxury, drive at the rate of twelve to fifteen miles an hour, with perfect ease and safety. And half a century before the journey alluded to above, a primitive sort of railway was in use at the coal mines in the North of England; but it was not till the completion of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, in 1830, that the present system of railway travelling was fully introduced. Forty-two years since, George Stephenson built the first locomotive employed on a public railway; and that engine, by the way, may now be seen, after having "run" till 1846, carefully preserved as a relic, on a pedestal in front of the Darlington station of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, in England. Every one is familiar with the story of the Stephensons, the "Rocket," and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Mr. Poor, the author of the pamphlet the title of which is at the head of this paper, tells us that it was his own "good fortune to witness" one of the early experiments in railway locomotion in this country. "The Boston and Worcester Railroad Company imported from Newcastle-upon-Tyne one of George Stephenson's locomotives, not unlike those placed upon the Bangor and Oldtown Road in 1836, -small in stature, but symmetrical in every particular, and finished with the exactness of a chronometer. Placed upon the track, its driver, who came with it from England, stepped upon the platform with almost the air of a juggler or a professor of chemistry, placed his hand upon the lever, and with a slight move of it the engine started at a speed worthy of a companion of the Rocket,' amid the shouts and cheers of the multitude." And he adds in another place: "The locomotive came upon the world like a miracle. All previous modes of land conveyance were slow and cumbersome. As the packhorse relieved the solitary foot-passenger, so the common wagon, the pleasure-carriage, and the stage-coach came in its time to man's relief; but the greatest of all the means of transportation, the locomotive engine, produced in the lifetime of a single generation greater results affecting man's physical and social condition than all the agencies of previous times." Those of us who recollect the discomforts of a long journey by stage-coach, for instance, from Albany to Buffalo, or, by canal and coach, from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, — and who happen to have lately made the same journey comfortably seated in a "monitor" or "palace car," will cordially unite with Mr. Poor in this tribute to the genius of the man who invented the first successful locomotive engine for passenger conveyance. Since the days of the "Rocket," the power of the locomotive engine has been enormously increased, by giving the engine greater weight and dimensions, and by certain improvements which have naturally followed its introduction to general use. It can now drag a heavy train, on a good railway, at the rate of sixty miles an hour; and, with such a load, can maintain that great speed without stopping for sixty miles and more. It can pull a load of one thousand tons at a slow rate; and it can even ascend and descend mountainous roads, long considered impracticable to any motive power less docile and sure-footed than pack-horse or mule. In outward form it varies with its various uses. There are the beautifully made "express engines"; the ponderous machines of the Pyrenean and German lines; those for the fast trains of the "London and Northwestern," with their seven and a half and eight feet "drivers," the mammoths of the broad gauge; the many-wheeled mountain engine of the Alleghany inclines; besides a great many others, "passenger" or "freight.' But the locomotive is not all. Without the rail, the progress of the engine would be slow, and its tractive force limited. Yet the railroad of 1867, at least in this country, is much more nearly like that of 1834 than are the locomotives of those dates. Improvements in the road have not kept pace with those in motive power and rolling stock. Of this, however, more hereafter. We will now proceed to avail ourselves of the statistics given by Mr. Poor, in connection with some others, in order to point out a few of the remarkable results which have followed the introduction of railroads, and then to make some remarks in reference to that reform the author of "The Railway" considers so urgent. Of the 95,727 miles of railway which had at the end of the year 1866 been built in the world, —“ a vast achievement for a single generation," nearly 37,000 are, according to Mr. Poor, in the United States. But it must be remembered that the railways of the United States are, with comparatively few exceptions, single lines, while a large proportion of those in Europe are double lines. Although such estimates are more curious than useful, it may perhaps convey some idea of the labor of constructing the 37,000 miles of railroad of the United States to state that it is estimated that the iron used weighed near four millions of tons; that at least six hundred square miles of forest have been cleared for the purpose of obtaining sleepers and other timber needed; and that, if the material which has been moved in the process of construction were spread over the largest city in the Union, it would bury it as completely as Pompeii and Herculaneum are now buried! But most minds will perhaps Mr. Marsh, of Boston, is building a railway of extraordinary inclination up Mount Washington, in the White Mountains, which is to be traversed by a locomotive he has patented. better than in any other way appreciate the skill, energy, and industry bestowed upon these railways, by knowing that they have cost no less than fifteen hundred millions of dollars. Between the Atlantic cities and the valley of the Mississippi, from north to south, the country is so completely covered with railroads, intersecting each other in every direction, that it would now be impossible to describe even the great routes without the aid of a map. It is enough to say that they have been for the most part admirably projected so as to facilitate the business operations of the country, and for the great convenience of the traveller; and that, although there may have been a great deal of wasteful expenditure, and many unwise schemes, the system as it now exists is a magnificent one, sufficiently comprehensive for the present moment, yet being constantly extended as rapidly as there seems to be occasion for its extension. Besides the lines eastward of the Mississippi, several are advancing towards the west, far beyond that river. The Great Pacific Railway is reported to have reached within a few miles the base of the Rocky Mountains. California is building towards the east, and St. Paul, at the extreme northwest, is now connected by rail with Chicago. Railway engineering at the present day is so well understood that its practice is easy, except where unusual natural obstacles occur. Thirty years ago the case was different. It was then a new branch to the profession of the engineer. Its principles had to be discovered and applied, here at least on a grand scale, but with inadequate means; and the bold engineering of the great lines leading from the Atlantic to the West is a satisfactory as well as striking illustration of the ability with which those principles were applied by such men as Knight and Latrobe, McNiel, Whistler, the Robinsons, and Judge Wright. It is to be regretted that there is no complete and uniform. system of returns for working expenses, gross receipts, &c. required by the general government, similar to those of some States; but the latter will afford means of showing results from which the magnitude of the general railway interest may be inferred. Take, for instance, the returns for the State of New York, where, in 1865, there were 3,089 miles of railroad, having |