[H] Some estimate of the influence of railways alone may be formed by
reference to the following statement, which occurs in an address of
Robert Stephenson before the Institution of Civil Engineers, in 1856:--
"The result, then, is, that, upon the existing traffic of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain, railways are affecting a direct saving to the
people of not less than forty million pounds per annum; and that sum
exceeds by about fifty per cent the entire interest of our national
debt. It may be said, therefore, that the railway system neutralizes to
the people the bad effects of the debt with which the state is
incumbered. It places us in as good position as if the debt did not
exist."