It is unnecessary to establish by reasoning what is borne out by facts; and I refer again to the railroad between Liverpool and Manchester, on which goods and merchandise are now taken in one-tenth of the time and at two-thirds of the former cost, and passengers in half the time and at half the former charges by coach. May not the same support be looked for between London, and Birmingham, when the same advantages are offered? May not also the support of Government be expected, when its sanction only is asked to establish such a communication from one side of the kingdom to the other, not a farthing to defray expenses being required from it; at the same time that the capability is offered it, of sending despatches from London to Liverpool in seven hours, or of transporting twenty thousand troops the same distance within twelve hours, in case of need? Though the capital required is considerable, yet I think the public may be trusted in seeking out their own means of investment; they are in fact only carrying _that_ principle to the establishment of an improved conveyance at the cost of an old one, (an improvement in which many of them are deeply interested,) upon which in their manufactories they constantly act, when a machine that costs 100_l._ is supplanted by one that may cost 500_l._, but which is found to perform ten times the work. Why, I ask, may not 3,000 individuals associate themselves together to apply to a public undertaking the mechanical power which they have found so advantageous in their private establishments? Why not extend to the purpose of locomotion the power which has raised the manufactures of Great Britain and Ireland to their present high state of improvement? I would ask those who oppose its extension to this new purpose, whether the mechanical agencies of this kingdom, now amounting to the physical force of ten times the population of England, would ever have been called into action if the application of known powers and principles to fresh purposes and uses had not at all times met with the fullest support of the Legislature and the Public? I would ask again, Whether the steam power that has been generated within the last fifteen years, for propelling vessels exceeding the whole physical force of the British navy, would have had birth, had the principle been acted upon, of things remaining as they are? * * * * * _March_ 4_th_, 1831. APPENDIX. No. I. _General Abstract of Expenditure of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway_, _to the_ 31_st_ _of May_ 1830, [_from Mr. Booth’s Pamphlet_.]