And first, in regard to the writer who has given us his
speculations on Rail-roads and Air-roads, our correspondent shall
have his own way. To the rail-way, we must say, like the courageous
lord mayor at his first hunting, when told the hare was coming, "Let
it come, in Heaven's name, I am not afraid on 't." Very unlooked for
political and social effects of the iron road are fast appearing. It
will require an expansion of the police of the old world. When a
rail-road train shoots through Europe every day from Brussels to
Vienna, from Vienna to Constantinople, it cannot stop every twenty or
thirty miles, at a German customhouse, for examination of property
and passports. But when our correspondent proceeds to
Flying-machines, we have no longer the smallest taper light of
credible information and experience left, and must speak on _a
priori_ grounds. Shortly then, we think the population is not yet
quite fit for them, and therefore there will be none. Our friend
suggests so many inconveniences from piracy out of the high air to
orchards and lone houses, and also to other high fliers, and the
total inadequacy of the present system of defence, that we have not
the heart to break the sleep of the good public by the repetition of
these details.
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