CHAPTER XV. 86 66 THE RAILWAY MADNESS-ITS EFFECTS UPON THE NEWSPAPERS-THE RAILWAY 66 66 66 66 66 THE railway mania was now arrived at its height of absurdity and madness. Impossible lines over impracticable country; lines to connect places without trade or inhabitants; colonial lines, foreign lines-anything that could be called a railway, were eagerly subscribed to by the public, which was just then in one of its periodical fits of excitement, when any impostor can do what he likes with it. Old ladies, spinsters, clergymen, and country gentlemen were particularly affected by it: and only too grateful to be relieved of their money. Railway directors were as plentiful as blackberries: you say "stags" standing at every corner, awaiting the passing by of the postman to get hold of that letter of allotment which they could run off and sell at a high premium. This feverish excitement had set everyone buying, consequently the prices of shares had been constantly going up, and no one had lost—at present. Never had a rage or mania been so universal since the South Sea bubble: even Mississippi Law would have held up his hands in amazement. The newspaper press-that great index of public opinion-soon showed, in its own characteristic way, the extent to which the fever had spread. Newspapers were set up exclusively treating of new or projected railway schemes: weekly at first; but the impatient public could not wait through such a long interval-twice-thrice a week-then daily. The railway press of 1845-6 is the most significant feature of that mad time. If some thirty sixpenny newspapers could get a living-and a very good one it was for a time -in London alone by publishing railway news, how many hundreds of thousands of persons must there have been interested in the schemes of new lines (real and sham), the prices of shares, reports of committees, and the other information which they gave out? We have preserved a list of co-existent newspapers devoted to railway matters in London, in 1845-6, which will be in itself a record of one of the greatest extravagances into which a nation ever fell. These were insufficient to appease the cravings of the public for information, and two bulky monthly magazines, expressly devoted to the same subjects, were eagerly bought at high prices. Strong symptoms of the disease were exhibited elsewhere; for, with all these journals posted by tens of thousands every evening for the provinces, Edinburgh maintained a weekly Scottish Railway Gazette; Glasgow, a North British Railway Gazette; and Dublin devoured two, the Irish Railway Gazette, and the Irish Railway Telegraph. Fainter were the symptoms displayed by the foreign press; yet there they were on the Continent, too plain and unmistakable, the Journals des Chemins de Fer. But in 1846 came the crash the palaces of the railway directors were tumbled to the ground, mere heaps of plaster and tinsel; their purses collapsed, and the counters, which they had so long been playing off as coins of the realm, lay manifest; their borrowed plumage was stripped off, and they were found to be mere kites and vultures after all. Happy homes were broken up; gentle maidens had to turn out to service-or worse, as governesses; parents of ruined families rushed from the wreck their credulity had brought about, and plunged into the dark river. Rails and printing presses were sold for old iron, and the railway press sickened and died. Not without a struggle though. An insane attempt was made to continue the Iron Times, as a competitor of the Times; but the attempt failed miserably: the Railway Bell gave away terrestrial globes, well mounted, in the hope of keeping back its deserting readers; and the Railway Telegraph advertised pianofortes to be drawn for by such of its supporters as would subscribe for one year more. But the time was gone by: it would have been wisest to put up the shutters at once; people had no taste for railway news now. Many cursed the very name of railways, and turned with loathing from the papers that were feebly trying to blow the embers into a spark again. They dropped off one by one; for some time there were three seen struggling among the ruins, but the Railway Times and the Railway Journal were, at last, the sole survivors of that busy crowd. Even the London Gazette was forced out of its jog-trot, and put upon the gallop in those wild days! for nearly an entire month it was forced into being a daily paperand thus it was brought about. A Standing Order of the House of Commons made it compulsory on all projectors of new railways to lodge their plans and maps with the Board of Trade, and to advertise their scheme, set out at full length, in the London Gazette, previously to the 30th day of November, 1845, otherwise they could not be taken into committee during the session. The flurry and bustle among surveyors and draughtsmen, engineers and contractors, law writers and engrossers, was immense; and, as the month of November approached, plans began to pour into the office of the Board of Trade, and lengthy advertisements into the office of the London Gazette. It was, at first, announced that, in consequence of the pressure of advertisements, an extra Gazette would be published on Saturday, the 1st of November; but they might as well have put a beer barrel to catch the falls of Niagara. The advertisements poured in: the Gazette was issued every day; yet the heaps went on accumulating; it was doubled in size, trebled, quadrupled-all was in vain; it had got, by the 15th, to nearly fifteen times its natural size, and yet there were bushels of advertisements awaiting insertion. The month wore on projectors, on the verge of madness, demanded insertion; parliamentary agents offered fabulous amounts of money for a column or two of the quaint old paper, now swollen to the dimensions of the "Post-office Directory." Saturday, the 29th, arrived at last. Oh! that the Government could be prevailed on to put forth a Gazette on Sunday, for Monday would be the 1st of December, and-TOO LATE. Monday came, and the London Gazette, although it had to make room for a number of notices, and a quantity of matter put aside during the pressure, was 256 pages short of its Saturday number, 544 of what it had been once during that stormy month! No better sign of the times can be recorded than that marvellous epoch in the career of the London Gazette; and as a register of the rise, the crisis, and the decline of that feverish month, we have compiled from its files the following table, showing the number of pages put forth daily by the Gazette during that busy November: |