A  violent  crusade  against  Railways,  still  continues  to
be  carried  on  by  the  "  Times  "  newspaper,  every  calamity
that  befals  society,  famine,  commercial  embarrassment^
want  of  employment,  and  diminution  of  the  circulating
medium,  is  attributed  to  an  extension  of  the  Railway
system.  It  is  not  Railway  Calls,  but  the  "  Times**  itself
that  has  been  the  chief  cause  of  the  present  commercial
crisis.  During  the  last  autumn,  and  until  the  close  of  the
year,  it  exaggerated  the  scarcity  of  food,  it  predicted  that
wheat  would  be  25Z.  a  load,  it  alarmed  the  legislature
and  the  nation,  by  asserting,  that  all  Europe  was  on  the
verge  of  famine.  This  induced  boundless  speculation,
shipping  could  not  be  procured  to  bring  over  the  com,
the  Navigation  laws  were  suspended,  prices  lose  to  an
unheard-of  extent,  food  on  British  account,  was  bought
up  all  over  the  world,  and  gold  to  the  amount  of  one
million  per  week,  was  transmitted  to  pay  for  it.  All
the  productive  classes,  that  is,  the  labourers,  mechanics,
and  shopkeepers,  could  scarcely  earn  enough  to  buy  food,
nine-tenths  of  the  people,  had  nothing  left  to  expend  for
clothing  or  luxmies,  and  every  description  of  trade  be-
came paraHzed,  To  stop  the  drain  for  bullion,  the  Bank
was  compelled  to  reduce  the  quantity  of  notes  in  circu-
lation, by  raising  the  rate  of  interest,  and  refusing  to
discount  so  freely.  The  speculators,  deprived  of  the
means  of  paying  for  the  com,  were  forced  to  sell  and  stop
payment ;  a  com  panic  set  in,  and  it  was  then  discovered


PREFACE    TO    THE   NINTH    EDITION.  5

that  prices  had  ranged  too  high,  that  it  was  a  false  alarm
as  regards  our  not  having  com  enough,  to  feed  the  people
until  the  present  harvest  was  gathered,  that  the  quantity
imported  was  so  enormous,  that  warehouse-room  could
not  be  found  for  it,  and  the  stock  so  large,  that  a  grain
of  our  own  crop  need  not  be  touched  until  next  March.
