On 31 Oct. Lieut. Waghorn practically demonstrated the feasibility of his “Overland Route” to India. The regular Mail and his Express arrived at Suez by the same steamer on 19 Oct. The Express was given to a man on a dromedary, who, stopping nowhere, entered Alexandria on the 20th. The Express was delivered to Mr. Waghorn, who started at 11 o’clock. He had been waiting on board an Austrian steamer, which had remained in quarantine, so that he arrived at Trieste in free _pratique_. He landed, however, at Divina, twelve miles nearer London than Trieste, and hurried through Austria, Prussia, Baden, and Bavaria, with a passport ready _viséd_ by the representatives of those countries. He reached Mannheim in 84 hours, proceeded by a steamer to Cologne, thence by special train to Ostend, by boat to Dover, to London by railway, and arrived at 4.30 in the morning of the 31st. The news from India thus brought, was published in all the London papers, which were in Paris before the Mail from Marseilles was on its way to London. [Picture: Punch Illustration] CHAPTER XXVI. The Railway Mania—Deposit of plans. The accompanying illustration from _Punch_ (18 Oct.) justly holds up to ridicule the Railway Mania, which might then be said to have been at its height. It is called “THE MARCH OF SPECULATION.—‘This is the young Gent, as takes my Business, Mem. I’m agoin’ into the Railway—Director Line myself.’” As a proof of this Madness, see this paragraph: “Oct. 25. During the past week there were announced, in three newspapers, eighty-nine new schemes, with a capital of £84,055,000; during the month, there were 357 new schemes announced, with an aggregate capital of £332,000,000.” On 17 Nov. the _Times_ published a table of all the railway companies registered up to the 31st October, numbering 1,428, and involving an outlay of £701,243,208. “Take away,” it said, “£140,000,000 for railways completed, or in progress, exclude all the most extravagant schemes, and divide the remainder by ten, can we add, from our present resources, even a tenth of the vast remainder? Can we add £50,000,000 to the railway speculations we are irretrievably embarked in? We cannot, without the most ruinous, universal and desperate confusion.” Here is a Parody on the situation, 1 Nov.: “There was a sound, that ceased not day or night, Of speculation. London gathered then Unwonted crowds, and moved by promise bright, To Capel Court rushed women, boys and men, All seeking railway shares and scrip; and when The market rose, how many a lad could tell With joyous glance, and eyes that spake again, ’Twas e’en more lucrative than marrying well;— When, hark, that warning voice strikes like a rising knell.