like paying a shilling to be rattled in an omnibus from London to a field in Bermondsey marsh, in order to climb up a flight of stairs to be rattled along the railroad at Deptford, at which place the traveller is suddenly ejected, his object being Greenwich (after which town the absurdity is delusively named), which it neither does, nor, thanks to the wisdom of Parliament, ever will reach; so that, what with the coloured hearse through the City, before you get to the starting-place in the bog, the climb upstairs, and the wearisome walk through the mud of the Lower Road to Greenwich, after you come down again, you would save exactly six pennies and three-quarters of an hour if you stepped into a fast-going coach at the Shoulder of Mutton or the Salopian at Charing Cross, and went slap bang to Greenwich itself, for the trifling charge of one shilling. This is absurd for a short affair and a matter of joke; but the railroad from Croydon to Brussels, for a serious concern and a long business, 'beats Bannagher,' as Mr. O'Connell says." The Greenwich Railway referred to was opened by the Lord Mayor and civic authorities, on December 14, 1836, but only as far as Deptford; and the whole affair seems to have been a muddle. The _Times_ of December 15 says-- "On the arrival of the several trains at Deptford the occupants of the carriages were allowed to get out; but here the arrangements fell far short of what we expected, for no preparation was made for their return. Many who had got out in the hopes of being present at the presentation to the Lord Mayor, and others who wished to regale themselves at some of the neighbouring inns at Deptford, could not, from the density of the crowds below the railway, get out; and, on retracing their steps to the railway, they found it a work of still greater difficulty and danger to return to the carriages from which they had alighted. Many who had taken the precaution to notice the name of the engine which drew the train, and the number of the carriage which brought them down, got back in the line between two trains, but were told by the conductors that they could not return by that way without great risk, for that the trains would return immediately. In consequence of this, many persons who came down by the trains went on to Deptford, and thence to town by the coaches." CHAPTER XXVII. Cases of wife selling--Duelling--Cases of--O'Connell and D'Israeli--Other duels.