RAILWAY ROMANCE.
"Max loves the Unforeseen," said a well-known Revolutionist, who himself had dealt largely in " l'imprevu." But Englishmen exemplify the aphorism no less than the men of Paris. Practical as this nation is, business-like, mechanical, jogtrot, boutiquiere, it cannot keep away from romance in real life. Driven from every part of society, the romance appears in the very heart and vitals of our trade! Yes, Sir Herbert Jenner Fust sits daily in the courts matrimonial, llustrating a Decameron common to West-end and to City. Our Bankruptcy courts disclose extravagancies and vicissi- tudes rivalling the Arabian Nights. And the railway is a region of marvels, with its panting, snorting, smoking, fiery dragon of a locomotive; its Jove-like dealing of death to innocent passengers,-- Unius ob noxam et furies Ajacis Wiens— all. through the fault and haste of Oily Jack the engineman; its Ar lel speed; its secret histories unwritten, rivalling a mythology ; its Tartarean tunnels, and " tartarea tromba " the steam-whistle shrieking as a Titan alone would shriek " the steep of Delphos leav mg." In the triumph of our mechanical arts we recur to the vicissitude and adventure of the middle or primaeval ages, and enjoy " l'imprevu with a vengeance.
Nay, the Unforeseen invades the very meeting-room of the shareholders. Personal audacity enjoys an immunity unknown except to fiction and the stage ; and treasure is tossed about, snatched and lost, with the easy nonchalance of the sock
and buskin. A chorus or MlictitLIORLeris, in pm., demand their due, with multitudinous emphasis—as at the meeting of the Waterford, Wexford, Wicklow, and Dublin ; and the whole multitude is bearded by a nameless "Stranger," precisely as whole armies or townspeoples are bearded by Mr. Sims Reeves or Signor Mario. The many rend the skies with loud de- mands for their money and their accounts, for their rights and the absent directors; but the cool " Stranger" keeps the even tenour of his defiance as heedless of shouts and brandished umbrellas as Mr. Reeves of the basses in unison or Signor Mario of the en- circling storm of swords. At the York, Berwick, and New- castle, the tyrant-king Hudson is roundly accused of confiscating a goodly sum in the shape of an overcharge for shares ; and he offers to refund, with a coolness which implies that shares and premiums fly about as munificently as stage purses. People say that "character" is involved in the transaction : to us it appears that Mr. Hudson's drama only differs from the common run in having "the incidents too crowded,"—a frequent fault with ge- nius. He recollects, recants, refunds, abdicates : king no more, the fallen monarch is kicked at by the shareholders—the very men probably who joined in presenting Mr. Hudson with a " tes- timonial " for getting so rich. " I am Dutchess of Malfi still " : he is as rich as ever—at least who knows anything to the con- trary? But railway affairs are the region of the Unforeseen. Meeting at Boulogne, the Irish stag may sit upon the ground
j and listen to the story of the lovely beggar that has just enslaved him, beginning in these words—" I am a princess, the daughter of a great railway king."
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