goods, the sawing of timber and stone, and even the making of pins and needles, steam was the great giant power. With this national revolution in trade, manufactures, and commerce, came a more active and enterprising spirit among the people; soft and hard goods, as the manufactures of the north and midland counties are technically called, were multiplied until supply exceeded demand; the locomotive wants and desires of the public increased; and all eyes and heads were turned towards Watts’ steam-engine as the only mighty agent of accelerated travelling. The history of the country has supplied the results of this great experiment. The ever-honoured George Stephenson succeeded in carrying heavily-laden trains, of passengers and goods, on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, at the rate of thirty miles an hour; and in the present day such is the appetite for rapid railway locomotion, that express trains, as they are called, flying over the earth at a more than race-horse speed of forty miles an hour, will scarcely satisfy the urgent requirements of manufactures and commerce. Railway projects arose in various parts of the kingdom, and the first step taken towards what has since proved a direct communication with this borough and the metropolis was the incorporation of the _Great Western Railway Company_, by an Act passed in 5 and 6 of William IV. Some years elapsed before any measures were adopted to establish railway communication in this district. At length, in 1845, when railway “bubbles and squeaks” “affrighted the isle from its propriety,” a direct line was projected from Chester, through Whitchurch and Wem, to Shrewsbury. The scheme was promoted by the Chester and Holyhead Railway Company, the London and Birmingham, and other important interests. Mr. Robert Stephenson was appointed engineer, and Mr. Mallaby, of Liverpool, solicitor. A Company, called the “North Wales Mineral Railway Company,” had previously obtained an Act for making a line of Railway, from Chester to Rhuabon, and on the scheme for the line from the former place, _via_ Whitchurch and Wem, being announced, a Company, in friendly connection with the North Wales Mineral Railway Company, and called the Shrewsbury, Oswestry, and Chester Junction Railway Company, was formed for the purpose of extending the Railway from Rhuabon to Shrewsbury, in opposition to the other scheme mentioned above. The late Mr. Henry Kelsall, of Chester, was appointed solicitor, and Mr. Robertson engineer. A sharp struggle between the rival Companies ensued, but at length the line from Chester to Shrewsbury, _via_ Whitchurch and Wem, was abandoned; by the prudent interposition of Mr. Edward Williams, solicitor, of Oswestry, (of the firm of “Longueville and Williams,”) the dissentient landowners were appeased; and the “Shrewsbury, Oswestry, and Chester Junction Railway Company” obtained their Act, which passed through parliament as an unopposed Bill, the royal assent being given to it the