of to-day may hold a different opinion upon that point. The most important result that immediately followed, however, was the revival of the scheme which had previously been mooted, but had been abandoned, for the construction of a railway between London and Birmingham. The Bill for this line, which was the parent of the London and North-Western Railway, was first deposited in November, 1831; but, after passing the House of Commons, was thrown out in the House of Lords on the 10th July, 1832. The opposition to this Bill was as unscrupulous, and of precisely the same character, as that which its precursor—the Bill for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway—had had to encounter; but in the end it was overcome, and the line, having been sanctioned in 1833, was finally opened to the public in 1838.
For the purposes of this work, it is not necessary to follow, step by step, the gradual, yet rapid, development of the railway system throughout the country. It will be sufficient to record that by an Act obtained in 1846 the London and Birmingham, the Grand Junction (with which, under an Act obtained earlier in the same year, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway had already been incorporated), and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway Companies were amalgamated under the title of the "London and North-Western Railway Company." During the lapse of time since that period this Company has gradually absorbed the South Staffordshire, the Chester and Holyhead, the Lancaster and Carlisle, and some forty smaller companies, many of which, for a time, were only leased, and retained their separate capitals with varying rates of interest and, in some cases their independent boards of directors. But
