Since the date of the last Report railways have run their titanic course; and whether from the opposition of wise road trustees, or a want of enterprise in steam-carriage proprietors, or from some other cause, steam locomotion on common roads has not made any progress. But, in spite of the powerful evidence we have quoted, we cannot conceal from ourselves that there was always an _if_ or a _but_ attached to the complete triumph of the new system. The _if_ and the _but_, it will be seen, had reference to the nature of the road. Mr Macneil and the other able and scientific gentlemen examined, all concurred in calling for a vast improvement on the highways to be travelled on--"a smooth and well-dressed pavement"--"a hard pavement"--"a smooth pavement on a solid foundation"--they all agree in thinking indispensable to the complete triumph of steam. "If on the road," says Mr Macneil, "from London to Birmingham, there were a portion laid off on the side of the road for steam carriages, and if it be made in a solid manner, with pitching and well-broken granite, it would fall very little short of a railroad. It would be easy to fence it off from fifteen to twenty feet without injury to property." And a statement to the same effect was made in November 1833, to which the following names are appended:-- Thomas Telford, P.I.C.E. John Rickman, commissioner for Highland roads and bridges. C.W. Pasley, colonel royal engineers. Bryan Donkin, manufacturing engineer. T. Bramah, civil engineer. James Simpson, manufacturing engineer. John Thomas, civil engineer. Joshua Field, manufacturing engineer. John Macneil, civil engineer. Alexander Gordon, civil engineer. William Carpmael, civil engineer. "There can be no doubt," say they, "that a well-constructed engine, a steam-carriage conveyance between London and Birmingham, at a velocity unattainable by horses, and limited only by safety, may be maintained; and it is our conviction that such a project might be undertaken with great advantage to the public, more particularly if, as might obviously be the case, without interfering with the general use of the road, a portion of it were to be prepared and kept in a state most suitable for travelling in locomotive steam-carriages."