+--------+-----------------+-------------------------+---------------+ | Years. | Sea-borne Coal. |Coals brought by Railway.| Price per Ton.| +--------+-----------------+-------------------------+---------------+ | | Tons. | Tons. | _s._ _d._ | | 1827 | 1,882,321 | nil | 28 6 | | 1847 | 3,280,420 | 19,336 | 20 10 | | 1857 | 3,133,459 | 1,206,775 | 18 8 | | 1867 | 3,016,416 | 3,295,652 | 20 8 | +--------+-----------------+-------------------------+---------------+ Thus the price of coal has been reduced 7_s._ 10_d._ a ton since 1827, while the quantity delivered has been enormously increased, the total saving on the quantity consumed in the metropolis in 1867, compared with 1827, being equal to £2,388,000. But the carriage of food and fuel to London forms but a small part of the merchandise traffic carried by railway. Above 600,000 tons of goods of various kinds yearly pass through one station only, that of the London and Northwestern Company, at Camden Town; and sometimes as many as 20,000 parcels daily. Every other metropolitan station is similarly alive with traffic inward and outward, London having since the introduction of railways become more than ever a great distributive centre, to which merchandise of all kinds converges, and from which it is distributed to all parts of the country. Mr. Bazley, M.P., stated at a late public meeting at Manchester that it would probably require ten millions of horses to convey by road the merchandise traffic which is now annually carried by railway. Railways have also proved of great value in connection with the Cheap Postage system. By their means it has become possible to carry letters, newspapers, books, and post parcels in any quantity, expeditiously and cheaply. The Liverpool and Manchester line was no sooner opened in 1830 than the Post-office authorities recognized its utility, and used it for carrying the mails between the two towns. When the London and Birmingham line was opened eight years later, mail trains were at once put on, the directors undertaking to perform the distance of 113 miles within 5 hours by day and 5-1/2 hours by night. As additional lines were opened, the old four-horse mail-coaches were gradually discontinued, until, in 1858, the last of them, the "Derby Dilly," which ran between Manchester and Derby, was taken off on the opening of the Midland line to Rowsley.