In case the present reduced fares should prove to be unremunerative, we have endeavoured to show that, unless the shareholders in anger elect incompetent managers, the public have no reason to entertain any extra apprehension from accidents;--for the engine-driver might as well desire to run his locomotive over an embankment as a company of proprietors--almost all of whom are railway travellers--become reckless of their property as well as of their lives. Indeed, if railway rates were to be further reduced to-morrow, the public would, we believe, travel as safely, and perhaps even more so, than at present. The result of inadequate rates is not danger, but inconvenience, amounting to deprivation of many of those advantages which the railway system is calculated to bestow upon the country. For instance, to every practical engineer it is well known that pace is just as expensive on rails as on the road. At present the public travel fast, and those who want to go long distances are accommodated with trains that seldom stop. If, however, it does not suit them to pay for speed, they cannot reasonably expect to have it. If railway companies, as well as the public, are forced to economise, both we believe would eventually be heavy losers by the transaction. The London and North-Western Company, by taking off their express trains, might at once save upwards of 20,000_l._ a-year, besides severe extra damage to their rails. The railways in general might reduce the number of their trains,--make them stop at every little station,--run very slow,--suppress the delivery of day-tickets,--curtail the expenses of their station accommodation,--and finally abandon a number of tributary lines upon which large sums of money have been expended. It must be for the public to determine whether, for the sake of a small saving in their fares, which after all are moderate as compared with other travelling charges, they desire not only to forego the accommodation and convenience to which they have lately become accustomed, but to arrest the development of the railway system to its utmost extent, and with its development its profits. * * * * * But, whether our railways be eventually governed by high-minded or by narrow-minded principles,--by one well-constituted amalgamated board, or by a series of small disjointed local authorities,--we trust our readers of all politics will cordially join with us in a desire not unappropriate to the commencement of a new year, that the wonderful discovery which it has pleased the Almighty to impart to us, instead of becoming among us a subject of angry dispute, may in every region of the globe bring the human family into friendly communion; that it may dispel national prejudices, assuage animosities; in short, that, by creating a feeling of universal gratitude to the Power from which it has proceeded, it may produce on earth peace and good will towards men. APPENDIX.