"4th July, 1837. Manchester. G. Karstadt, Esq. For the Postmaster-General. I enclose a letter from Mr. Louis with this report from Mr. Karstadt as to the first working of the railroad. I am sorry to say that it appears from the time bills an hour was lost upon the railroad coming up. (Signed) J.V.L.M. (Lt.-Col. Maberly). 5th July, 1837. Read, Lichfield (Lord Lichfield)." The coaches running all the way through at this period were timed to leave London at 8 p.m., and arrive at Liverpool and Manchester at 2.30 p.m. On the up journey the coaches left Manchester and Liverpool at 11.30 a.m., and reached London at 6.30 a.m. The conveyance of the mail partly by road and partly by rail came into operation on the Western road from 1838 to 1841 as section by section of the Great Western Railway became completed. Thus, in 1840, mails which had come by road between Maidenhead and Bath were brought into Bristol by trains composed of very primitive engines, tenders and coaches, as depicted in the illustrations taken from engravings of the period. Mr. J.W. Arrowsmith, the world-wide known Bristol Publisher, recently reprinted Arrowsmith's Railway Guide of 1854, the year of its first issue. It is interesting to note from the re-publication that the shortest time in which Mails and passengers were conveyed between London and Plymouth was 7 hours, 25 minutes, and between Plymouth and London 7 hours, 35 minutes. What a change a half-century has brought about! The pace of the trains has been vastly increased, and even goods trains accomplish the journey from London to Bristol in three hours. There is no such thing as finality in speed, as the Great Western Railway Company has been trying a French engine, with a view to beat all previous records. One of these engines was tried in France with the equivalent of fifteen loaded coaches behind it. It was brought to a dead stop on a steep incline, and when started again it gathered speed, so that before the summit was reached it was travelling at its normal speed--74.6 miles an hour. This new engine, "La France," recently accomplished a brilliant feat. She was started from Exeter with a load of twelve of the largest corridor-bogies, one being a "diner," the whole weight behind her tender, including passengers, staff, luggage, and stores, being nearly 330 tons. "La France" ran the 75-1/2 miles to Temple Meads Station, Bristol, in 72-1/2 minutes, start to stop, thus averaging 62.5 miles an hour, although she had to face a 20-mile climb at the start, the last 27 miles of this stretch being at 1 in 115. She went on from Bristol to London, 118-1/2 miles, with the same heavy load, in exactly 118 minutes. Her time from Bath to Paddington, 107 miles, was 104 minutes; from Swindon, 77-1/4 miles, 72 minutes; from Reading, 36 miles, 33 minutes.