permanent way. The peculiarity of the
company's operations, in appealing rather to the
public sentiment of the middle and lower classes,
than to their sense of business or desire for
gain, has prolonged its out-door negotiations;
though not to any great extent. The trial may
have been severe, but the British householder,
with a few exceptions, has nobly stood the
test. He has shown that, if properly applied
to and properly treated, he may belong to a
nation of shopkeepers, and yet be something
more than a mere mercenary citizen.

The first time the proposition to electrify all
London was brought before the British
householder, it was calculated to inspire considerable
alarm. The telegraph, as at present existing, is
not a popular institution. Its charges are high;
its working is secret and bewildering to the
average mind. Its case, as displayed at the
railway stations, may look like a mixture of the
beer machine and the eight-day clock; but the
curious hieroglyphics and restless arrows on
its dial surface are like the differential
calculus framed in a gooseberry tart. The
unknown may masquerade in the dress of the
known; but the railway porter will still shake
his head.

When the sole depositary of the telegraphic
secret has gone to dinner, the whole electric
system of that particular railway station must
stand absolutely still. A certain amount of
familiarity will breed contempt; an equal amount
of unfamiliarity will breed awe and dread. The
British householder has never seen a voltaic
battery kill a cow, but he has heard that it is
quite capable of such a feat. The telegraph is
worked, in most cases, by a powerful voltaic
battery, and therefore the British householder,
having a general dread of lightning, logically
keeps clear of all such machines.

The British householder (number one) took
time to consider. The pole that the company
wished to raise upon his roof might not be
ornamental; might not suit the taste of his
wife, who, at that moment, was unwell; might
not meet with the approbation of his landlord,
who was very fastidious, and very old. If the
company would like to communicate with his
landlord, that gentleman was to be found in
Berkshire, if he had not gone to Switzerland, if
he was not up the Rhine. The British
householder (number sixty) was only one of a firm,
and he could give no definite answer without his
partners' consent. The British householder
(number sixty-eight) was of a vacillating
disposition, and after he had said yes, he took the
trouble to run up the street, because he had
suddenly decided to say no. The British
householder (number seventy) was the second mate of
a trading vessel, at that time supposed to be
running along the South American coast. His
wife was not prepared to say whether he had
any objection to a flag-staff (although she thought
he had not); and she could give no permission
to the company until his return. The British
householder (number seventy-four) very politely
allowed a survey of his roof; and when the most
eligible point was fixed upon, he had legal doubts
whether he had any power over it, as it was on
a party wall. His next-door neighbour, when
applied to, was equally scrupulous, and without
counsel's opinion it was impossible to get any
further. The British householder (number
ninety) was in a mist with regard to the whole
scheme. He associated telegraphs of all
kinds with large railway stations; and large
railway stations with red and white signal
lights. He would sacrifice a good deal for
science and the public interest, but to have
his parapet glaring all night like a doctor's
doorway, was more than he could bear to
think of. An explanation, accompanied by a
display of small pocket models (one of a standard,
as large as a pencil-case; the other of a bracket,
the size of a watch) was necessary to pacify
him, and when he found that no lamp was
required, he gave his conditional consent. The
British householder (number ninety-two) was
inclined to be facetious, and he hoped that the
company would not do anything to blow him up.
The British householder (number ninety-eight)
was only too glad to be of service, but
unfortunately his house was so old and so crumbling,
that not another nail could be driven into it
with safety. The British householder (number
five hundred and four) was an old lady subject
to fits, and she only wondered what next would be
proposed to her to hurry her into the grave.
The British householder (number six hundred
and ten) was another old lady who worshipped
a clean passage; and she merely consented upon
condition that the workpeople only passed
through her house once, to get at the roof,
carefully wiping their shoes on the mat in the
passage, and once again, to leave the premises,
on coming down, carefully wiping their shoes on
the mat in the attic. An agreement was made
upon this peculiar basis; and the carpenters were
kept sixteen hours amongst the chimney-pots;
their food being drawn up by a rope from the
street. The British householder (number seven
hundred and six) was almost rash in his obliging
disposition, and he gave the company full
permission to take his roof off if they found it in
the way. The British householder (number
seven hundred and four) might have been
induced to give his assistance, had not his wife
loudly warned him, from the depths of the shop
parlour, to beware. The consent of British
householder (number eight hundred and ten) was
secured by a display of the pocket-models; but,
when the workmen arrived with a pole as long as
a clothes-prop, he stopped them, on the ground
that they were attempting an imposition. He
had not allowed for the portable character of the
models; and the pole he expected to see fixed
on the house-top, was about the size of a toothpick.

Nearly four thousand calls were made upon
this errand, to get the consents of some
nineteen hundred people; and this only for the
hundred and sixty miles of metropolitan wire
already raised. The hundred and twenty miles
remaining to be surveyed will involve, perhaps,