On the 14th of September, 1830, we opened our first passenger railway in England worked by the locomotive. The line, thirty-one miles long, was then called the Liverpool and Manchester, but it has long since become part and parcel of the London and North-Western Company. Although the railway between Birmingham and Liverpool was first projected so far back as 1824, its construction was not sanctioned by Parliament until 1833, and it was not completed for traffic until the 6th of July, 1837. The then London and Birmingham Company also got its act of incorporation in 1833, but, owing to the difficult nature of many of its works, and the time required for their construction, it was only on the 20th of September, 1838, that Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham were completely connected with London by railway. Several of the railways now constituting portions of the Midland Railway Company obtained their acts of incorporation in 1836. These lines, when amalgamated in 1844, comprised 181 miles. On the 1st of September, 1867, the mileage of the Midland Company was 695; and since the 1st of that month the important section between London and Bedford (forty-two miles long) was opened for goods traffic, thus making its present total working length, 737 miles. By degrees, and notwithstanding the severe blow given to railway enterprise by the over-speculation of 1844-5, the net-work of British railways increased. On the 1st of January, 1843, there were 1,857 miles open for traffic; at the same date of 1849 they had increased to 5,007 miles; on the 1st of January, 1855, they were 8,054 miles; eight years afterwards, that is, on the 1st of January, 1863, they were 11,551; that day twelve months they were 12,322; on the 1st of January, 1865, they were 12,780; 1st January, 1866, 13,289; 1st of January, 1867, 13,882.[1] We shall refer to the progress of the railway system on the continent of Europe and elsewhere hereafter.