It is not contended that rapid intercommunication is an evil; or even that the towns we have mentioned, and hundreds of others, in all parts of the country, do not participate in the advantage, to the extent of being within a shorter distance of London than they were before; for it is evident, that to go to Lincoln would occupy less time if you went to Leicester by the railroad, and travelled the remaining miles by coach. But this is what we maintain--that towns or lines of road through which the railway runs, have an undue advantage--and that the prosperity so acquired, is at the expense of the towns which are not only at a distance from the new mode of communication, but are deprived of the old. Twelve years ago, upwards of a hundred coaches passed through Oxford in the four-and-twenty hours. We will be bound to say, not half a dozen pass through it now; and whatever the _University_ may think upon the subject, it is certain that the alteration is of great detriment to the _town_, and makes little less difference to the Corn-market and High Street, than the turning the course of the Thames would do to Westminster and Wapping. Who is to keep the beautiful roads by Henley and High Wickham in repair? And who is to restore a value to the inns at the tidy comfortable towns along the line? Will the prosperity of Steveton bring back the gaieties of Tetsworth or Beaconsfield, and the numerous villages within an easy distance of the road? We repeat it--the towns which formerly enjoyed the natural advantages of their geographical position, are now deprived of them; they become subordinates instead of principals, and will sink more and more, as new competitors arise in the towns which will infallibly gather round every railway station. In every county there are numbers of towns whose fate is sealed, unless some great effort is made to preserve their existence: Marlborough, Devizes, Hindon, Guildford, Farnham, Petersfield, the whole counties of Rutland and Dorset, and the greater part of Lincoln, besides hundreds, or probably thousands, of other places of inferior note. But what is the effort that should be made, and how are the parties interested to bring their powers to bear in staving off the destruction that threatens them? It is to these points we are now about to address ourselves; and we trust, in spite of the lightness of some parts of this paper; the real weight of the subject will command the notice of all who feel anxious to benefit any neighbourhood in the position of some of those we have mentioned. And the attention of the trustees of high-roads throughout the kingdom is solicited to the following suggestions.