Railways and tine Board of Tradé
RAILWAYS
AND THE
BOARD OF TRADE.
LONDON:
EFFINGHAM WILSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE.
MDCCCXLV.
111^
LIBRARY
eURLAU OF RAILWAY ECONCViC^
v/a
Note.—The greater part of this pamphlet was written nearly
three weeks since. The occupations of the author have pre¬
vented him from issuing it until now.
LISRARY
eUREAU CF RAILWAY ECONOMICS
WASHINCTOM, D. C.
13^ i
RAILWAYS & THE BOARD OF TRADE.
THERE has arisen within these few months a tribunal
in this country, which, if only on account of the vast
interests with which it deals, deserves the careful
observation of all classes of society ; but, inasmuch as
it is founded on a principle altogether new among
us; that it works in absolute secrecy; is irrespon¬
sible until it has accomplished its purpose, whether
for good or for evil ; and has already, in the very outset
of its existence, acted with such rashness as to sur¬
prise even those who foreboded the greatest evils from
its establishment,— men may well watch its proceed¬
ings with anxiety, not unmingled with dread.
Hitherto it has been characteristick of this nation,
that the great works which abroad are executed at
the suggestion, with the funds, and under the super¬
intendence of the state, are here undertaken, ac-
Acomplished, and managed by private persons. Some¬
times alone, with their individual funds, as in the noble
instances of Sir Hugh Middleton and the Duke of
Bridgewater ; more frequently by a combination of
4
many persons, united either by a deed of settlement
into a partnership, with most of the liabilities of ordi¬
nary traders ; or incorporated by royal charter or act
of parliament which protect them in a limited degree
from indefinite responsibility. And well may the
people of England exult at the triumphs which this
system has produced—rivers have been spanned by
bridges, which may vie in usefulness and beauty with
the greatest works of antiquity ; canals have carried to
the manufacturers the material of his industry, and
again have enabled him to transport the produce of
his ingenuity, at but small expense, to the distant
consumer ; docks have been opened, fit for the re¬
ception of the navies of the world ; vast tracts of land
have been conquered from the sea, and now form
the most fertile portions of England—in short, this
system has accomplished the imperial works of the
poet ; it has
" Bade liarbours open, public ways extend ;
Bade temples worthier of the God ascend:
Bade the broad arch the dangerous flood contain,
The mole projected break the roaring main ;
Back to his bounds their subject sea command,
To pour obedient rivers through tlie land."
But the combined exertions of private persons,
unburthened by the patronage and unrepressed by
the interference of the executive Government, have
far surpassed all that the imagination of the poet
could invent. Sums of money so vast as to startle
the understanding, have been contributed, and in the
5
raain, profitably to the subscriber, for the con¬
struction of roads, which, in so undulating a country
as England, must needs be nearly level; filling up
valleys and perforating mountains ; which could
not avoid impediments by sudden curves; and
which had every physical difficulty aggravated and
the pecuniary cost greatly increased by the re¬
strictions of the Legislature. More than 2,000
miles of Railway have been constructed within
twenty years, at an expense of nearly seventy mil¬
lions of pounds, voluntarily contributed by indivi¬
duals, in the exercise of their own discretion, subject
to their own control, and with a view to their own
profit—a view which, if sometimes disappointed, has
been generally realized, and often to an extent far
exceeding the most sanguine expectations of the
speculator.
But it cannot be denied, that the promoters of
Railways are not more infallible than the rest of
mankind.—The merchant or the tradesman some¬
times embarks his fortune in unprofitable specula¬
tions. The illustrious man who conceived and
executed the princely task of supplying a metro¬
polis with water, exhausted his fortune, and was
reduced in his old age to the brink of indigence, by
a work which has enriched his successors. The
Duke of Bridgewater, when engaged on the vast un¬
dertaking which has been a source of wealth to his
descendants, felt it prudent to abandon the pomp
belonging to his rank, and confine his expenditure to
the limits of a rigid economy. So men have some-
6
times engaged in Railway speculations, which hav«
not yet realized their expectations, however beneficial
the undertaking may be to the public now, and
however profitable to the proprietors hereafter.
So, likewise, there are seasons when, more than
at others, the public is prone to Railway specula-
lations ; partly from the accumulation of capital,
and the impossibility of finding for it profitable in¬
vestments; somewhat, perhaps, from that kind of con¬
tagion which seems at times to infect men, and to
impel them to unprofitable rivalry and rash adven¬
ture. Hitherto, however, this evil has been ade¬
quately checked by the prudence of the Legislature,
the only legitimate controlling power. No laws in a
free state can protect individuls who think fit to
embark their whole fortunes in enterprises of doubt¬
ful or remote advantage; it is enough that under¬
takings which require the authority of the state
for their accomplishment, should undergo, before
the competent tribunal, a careful and impartial ex¬
amination.
Such an examination 1, who am well acquainted
with the matter, have no hesitation in affirming that
Railway Bills do now undergo from Parliamentary
Committees, as at present constituted. Patient
these committees are, incredibly patient, under the
severest trials ; intelligent, business like ; usually,
as to a majority of their members, well conversant
with the matters discussed ; inaccessible, now-a-
days, to solicitation, and beyond all suspicion of cor¬
ruption ; acquainted with tlic wants of ihc country ;
\
7
duly regardful of the rights of private property ;
and capable of hearing and very ready to hear the
representations, adverse or favorable, of all parties
affected by the project before them. That the inquiry
before a committee of either House is costly, cannot
be denied ; but it is difficult to conceive how matters
so multifarious as the objects of those inquiries are,
can be investigated by the testimony of eminent
witnesses, unless at great expense. This is certain,
that no conceivable tribunal can be more cheaply or
immediately accessible, by any person complaining
of grievance or seeking protection. I have seen
illiterate, injudicious, unprofessional persons listened
to by a committee on a Railway Bill with the ut¬
most indulgence, whilst they were pertinaciously
urging some real or imaginary grievance ; and some¬
how or other, what from the fear of alienating the
committee, by rendering notorious a refusal of jus¬
tice, what from the dread of strengthening the case
of rival projects, Railway companies are kept in
very tolerable order, when they are looking forward
to the necessity of seeking anything from a com¬
mittee of the Commons, and still more of the Lords.
The year 1844 was rife in Railway projects.
Money was abundant ; the channels in which to
pour it with safety and a chance of profit, few.
Much was invested in foreign Railways, although the
adventurer knew that he could exercise little influ¬
ence in the management of the undertaking, even
in time of peace ; none, in case of war. But
English Railways were the favourite subject of
8
pecuniary investment, and wisely so. Some of the
established lines were paying their proprietors from
ten to fifteen per cent. ; few were unprofitable,
unless from gross mismanagement. How many
schemes altogether were suggested I do not know :
some perished in the birth ; many were mere
branches from existing lines ; many were incom¬
patible one with another : they were rival (or ac¬
cording to the parliamentary phrase, competing ")
lines ; so soon as one should receive the authority
of Parliament, the other would cease to exist ; each
had, in the eyes of its own partisans, merits pecu¬
liar to itself ; Parliament was fully competent to
decide between them ; and by that ordeal the pro¬
moters were willing that their schemes should be
tried.
Few ministers are more dangerous than^those,
who think that every evil, or every movement of the
public mind which they deem evil, must be met
by some new legislative enactment, and controlled
by some new department of the executive Govern¬
ment- Wise men, experienced statesmen, know
that excitement of whatever sort, excepting, per¬
haps, that of polemical divinity, is of its essence,
transitory ; and they content themselves with using
the remedies which the constitution has in store.
Not so with Gladstone, rash, busy, and of abundant
vanity ; uneasy at finding himself restrained in all
the more important functions of his office by the
prudence of the head of his Government, he saw in
Railways a career in which he could exercise un-
9
wonted authority. Thus he comes down to the
House of Commons at the end of the session with a
Joint Slock Companies Bill, so monstrous and
tyrannical in its provisions, and so absurd in its
construction, that he was obliged, not without the
display of some bad faith and much bad temper, to
abandon those portions of it which had mainly
prompted its introduction. He sees that Railway
Acts are very bulky, as indeed they are ; tells the
House that the mere engrossment of them costs
two hundred pounds ; never tells them, though he
knew it well, that of this large sum one hundred and
ninety pounds consists of a fee to the officers of the
House, wdnch the promoters must pay, though it
avails them nothing ; and forthwith—still, and
always at the end of the session—introduces three
crude Bills, winch he lays on the table of the House;
and which, by a bungling savouring of the confusion
of ideas attributed to the inhabitants of the sister
country, he recommends the framers of Railway Bills
to adopt and deal with as though they were, what in
their present state it is greatly to be hoped they
never will be, the law of the land. How Parlia¬
ment, how land-owners, how the numberless per¬
sons who find it needful to watch, perhaps oppose,
particular Bills, on account of some of the clauses
usually inserted in them—but now by Mr. Gladstone's
desire, only supposed to be in them—are to deal
with Railwav Bills this session, no mortal 'can
guess.
But the great mischief was still to be accom-
10
plished) and for its perpetration the ready means
suggested itself of a new department ; a Board
auxiliary to the Board of Trade—itself only a subor¬
dinate department of the Government. Again, at
the end of the session, when most of the members
had left London, and those who remained were
wearied by sittings, vvhich lasted froni midday to
midnight, and were perhaps frightened at the pros¬
pect of the private business which thretaened them
for the next session, Mr. Gladstone, with more of
astuteness than candour, obtained a standing order
of the House, requiring that all those documents
relating to Railway Bills, which Parliament requires
for its information, should be deposited with the
Board of Trade; and he at the same time procured
authority to create that subsidiary Board, whose
reckless doings have filled all men with surprise.
Little did the House of Commons dream, worthy of
all censure would it have been had it supposed,
when it permitted the Board of Trade to make pre¬
liminary inquiries into one or two of the details
concerning Railways, that it was in fact abrogating
its functions ; delegating to the Executive im¬
portant duties proper to the Legislature ; divesting
itself practically of the power to deal with the vast
and multifarious interests involved in these great
undertakings ; and handing over, not to the crown,
but to a few clerks in a subordinate Government-
office the control of the means of communication in
this empire.
Thus, however, the Railway department of the
11
Board of Trade was created ; and it remained to be
seen who should fill the oflSce. The selection was
no easy task ; its difficulty, however, might have
been foreseen ; and it therefore affords no apology
to the minister, if he has erred in his choice. It
behoved him to appoint men of such a station as to
be above the reach of influence, and beyond temp¬
tation to corruption ; men who would scorn to prop
up their decisions by unjustifiable concessions to
the parties affected, doling out little benefits here
to compensate for greater disappointments else¬
where ; of minds sufficiently capacious to compre¬
hend the extent and importance of their task ; cau¬
tious, deliberate ; not only conversant with the prin¬
ciples and the details of Railways, but of such re¬
putation for knowledge and discretion, as to induce
the engineer, the capitalist, the land-owner, and the
public readily to defer to their judgment.
And whom has Mr. Gladstone appointed? I
would willingly avoid the inquiry ; it is infinitely
irksome to me to discuss the personal qualities of
gentlemen, most of whom are, I dare say, desirous
of well discharging their duty to the publick ; against
whom 1 have, as yet, no other specifick ground for
complaint than their utter hopeless incompetency,
and their entire ignorance of the proper limits of
their functions, and the consequences of their own
acts. But the inquiry is inevitable. These persons
have not hesitated to handle secretly, and (as I shall
presently show) with most insufficient information,
12
interests of enormous magnitude and ramified into
a thousand branches ; they have done what in them
lies to destroy property of vast amount ; to deprive
large districts of the best means of Railway commu¬
nication, and to establish a principle jn the selec¬
tion of those undertakings, so dangerous, that if it is
confirmed by the Legislature, the remotest posterity
will rue the day when this department was created.
Men who assume, and (as I believe) usurp these
functions, must submit to have their qualifications
for the discharge of them unsparingly scrutinized ;
and I will not be deterred by any silly affectation
of delicacy, from demonstrating, by the intellectual
character of the individuals from whom they ema¬
nate, how worthless the judgments are which have
of late issued from this tribunal.
First in place, and perhaps in capacity, is Lord
Dalhousie, a man of business and of considerable
acuteness ; and if the Board had been composed
only of such as him, probably small mischief would
have been done. He knows little if an y t hi tig of
the construction of Railways; has, I should think,
but very indistinct notions of the ineamng of a
datum line, and would be infinitely puzzled to de¬
monstrate an error on a section. But if Lord
Dalhousie had all the qualifications which I have
predicated as essential to a good member of this
Board, they would avail us nothing, for his lordship
fills the laborious, or what ought to be the laborious,
office of Vice-President of the Board oí Trade. He
13
cannot possibly have time to inquire into these pro¬
jects; he must form his opinions upon the state¬
ments of his colleagues.
Of General Pasley I would desire to speak
with all respect, out of gratitude to him for the
great services which, in the zenith of his bodily and
mental powers, he rendered to the country. He
knows too well the caution and deliberation re¬
quired in surveying a country, to have affected to
bring his knowledge as an engineer to bear in any
but the most superficial and perfunctory manner upon
the innumerable questions which have been pre¬
sented to the Board, and (incredible as it may
seem) decided by them, since the 30th of Novem¬
ber last. Besides, he is an Inspector of Railways ;
an ofBce which, as it produces a salary, is, I hope,
also not unproductive of work. Of Railways, consi¬
dered as a great national system, General Pasley, I
know, does not pretend to judge—he is an engineer,
and that is all.
Mr. Porter is the third member of this illustrious
body ; and a very worthy, industrious man he is.
He was a wine-merchant, and in the year 1832, or
thereabouts. Lord Auckland, who was then Presi¬
dent of the Board of Trade, promoted him to a
clerkship in that department, upon the credit of cer¬
tain very useful statistical tables and papers, which
he was in the habit of preparing for an annual
publication. His office of Superintendent of the
Statistical Department of the Board of Trade, Mr.
Porter still holds, with much credit to himself. It
14
ought to be a laborious office, and, as I know Mr.
Porter to be a conscientious person, I believe, that,
in fact, he devotes most of his life to it. He is also
an Inspector of Railways. Thus he has no time
to look, and most assuredly he does not look nar¬
rowly into the projects on which he reports ; nor, if
he did look into them, would his opinion be of any
weight. Few men know better than he does the
aggregate length of all Railways ; their cost, per¬
haps the average cost of each per mile ; the num¬
ber of casualties which have occurred in a given
space of time ; and, very possibly, he has calculated
what are the chances of any hundred men arriving
at their destination alive, if they start by a third-
class train on the Great Western Railway. But
beyond this table-work, Mr. Porter, even if he had
time, would be a very incompetent guide in Rail¬
way matters.
Mr. or Captain O'Brien follows in the order of
signature, and plays a very prominent part in the
Board; indeed,between him and Mr. Laing, the whole
burthen of the office is notoriously borne. Captain
O'Brien was Secretary to the Home. Secretary, and is
a brother of the Superintendent of the South-Eastern
Railway. He was himself Secretary to the Great
North of England Railway, an office which he left
for his clerkship in the Board of Trade. He is
evidently a man of energy and ability, but the cir¬
cumstances I have mentioned, foreboded that his
decisions would unavoidably be regarded with great
mistrust, and the event has verified those forebodings.
15
Last in order, but far the first in influence, comes
Mr. Laing, the chief instrument in Mr. Gladstone's
hands, if, indeed, he was not that minister's promp¬
ter in suggesting the hasty, bungling measures at
the close of the last session, to which I have alluded.
Mr. Laing was either a barrister or an attorney, and
of so little success in his profession, whichever it
was, that a short time since he became a clerk in
the Board of Trade, at a salary of about three or
four hundred pounds a-year. He is laborious, easy
of access, and (with the exception of an excessive,
and, toa plain man, somewhat alarming astuteness, and
an unceasing watchfulness for the aggrandizement of
the office which he has, by almost imperceptible de¬
grees, created for himself) he is, I have no doubt, a
very virtuous and respectable person ; but to say that
Mr. Laing is in any one single respect qualified to
judge what Railways ought to be constructed in this
kingdom ; nay, to assert that he has any talents, natural
or acquired, which should induce his most intimate
friend to consult him, excepting out of courtesy, as
to the direction of a garden-path, would be to sacri¬
fice truth most needlessly to compliment. And
yet Mr. Laing deals with the subjects brought he-
fore him as though he were conscious of faculties
fit to bear the weight of mightiest monarchies ; and,
as though the noble projects which have anxiousl)''
occupied the study of engineers-—that class of men
whose genius is the main prop of this country un¬
der pecuniary burthens, which but for them would
well nigh crush it—projects which liave attracted
16
the wealth of the capitalist, which agitate populous
towns, rouse from their apathy rural districts, and
induce great land-owners to allow their paternal
acres to be invaded, were things by his capacious
mind immediately conceived and intuitively to be
judged of. Quite recently he thought it befitted
him to receive, single-handed, at his levee, deputa¬
tions from a dozen towns in England, headed by
members of parliament and borough magistrates.
There was a time when county members and the
representatives and mayors of ancient towns ex¬
pected that they should be listened to by a
minister of the crown, if deputed to explain the
wants of their constituents ; but the Railway de¬
partment has altered all that. Not even the Vice-
Chairman of the Board of Trade was there, and, it
seems, that these deputations, conscious, no doubt,
of the power of mischief which Mr. Laingcan wield,
condescended, without a murmur, to present their
memorials, and utter their petitions to a clerk in a
Government office Verily, I greatly mistake my
countrymen if this system lasts.
There is also a Captain Coddington, who, like his
colleagues, has favoured the world with an an¬
nouncement of his intentions, favourable or adverse
to certain Railway schemes which he has had under
consideration Of this gentleman I shall say nothing ;
because I (in common, I believe, with all the rest of
mankind) know of him nothing, excepting that he
appears in the Red Book as an assistant to General
Pasley.
17
Such are the individuals to whom Mr. Gladstone
has presumed to delegate interests directly involving
many millions of pounds, and the fortunes of thou¬
sands of persons ; indirectly and by no means
remotely, affecting every subject of these realms—
every man who moves from home, whether for duty
or pleasure ; the necessities of his livelihood or the
calls of affection—every man who has anything to
send or to receive, to manufacture or to consume.
How the Board so constituted have performed their
functions remains now to be discussed.
There was a function, humble, no doubt, but use¬
ful, to the performance of which this Board was
competent. They might have investigated the pre¬
liminary steps in the formation of Railway Com¬
panies before they reach the House of Commons,
and might have ascertained whether the promoters
of the schemes are persons of such station and
means as to raise a fair presumption that their ulti¬
mate intention is to attain the professed object, and
not merely to create a stock on which to gamble.
That inquiry, among the multiplicity of other sub¬
jects of investigation, is almost practically excluded
from the consideration of two committees of the
House of Commons, to which for distinct purposes
these Bills are referred. It is precisely the kind of
inquiry which might with propriety be referred to a
Board composed virtually of Mr. Laing and Mr,
O'Brien. The legal education and temper of the
former, and the experience and associations of the
latter would probably render them acute investi¬
gators of these matters. b
18
Perhaps, too, it would not have been beyond the
sphere of their abilities, if they had endeavoured to
mediate between promoters of Railways and landed
proprietors ; protecting the former from wanton
opposition ; the latter from needless invasion of their
estates, to be resisted only at vast trouble, expense
and risk.
But the fatal ambition of the Board made them
launch into a wider sea. The former of these two
matters they utterly, as I know, neglect; the
latter they professedly exclude from the scope
of their labours. They must, forsooth, take larger
views, lay down principles for the guidance of the
Legislature, anticipate all its labours, and wield undi¬
vided sway over the whole realm of Railway enter-
prize—a sphere, Heaven knows, far beyond their ken.
There are three aspects in which Railway projects
must be contemplated, before it is fitting that they
should receive the authority of the Legislature.
First. They must be of public utility ; they must
traverse a populous country, and facilitate the inter¬
course of its inhabitants; or they must connect remote
places, whose inhabitants are, or might be, united by
the ties of interest or society—the merchant with the
manufacturer; the man of business, or of pleasure,
with a place of relaxation. Or, again, they must
tend to the improvement of the land, or facilitate the
production or transit of some particular property
arising from the land ; conveying ore to the smelting
furnace; coal to the manufacturer, or the town ; ma¬
nufactured goods to the ports from which they will
be spread over the world.
19
A second and subordinate point of view, from
which to examine Railway projects, is their profit¬
ableness to the promoters; a matter best left to their
own discretion, and therefore, from year to year, less
and less investigated by Parliament ; and this the
rather, because it may perfectly well happen that a
Railway, unprofitable directly to its promoters, pay¬
ing perhaps not two per cent., is indirectly a source
of the utmost advantage to them as mine-owners, land¬
owners, or manufacturers ; or as a part of a more ex¬
tended scheme on the whole productive. Again, the
public, or future generations, may gain by the imme¬
diate loss—a dangerous principle, no doubt, to be ap¬
plied in all cases, or even generally ; but, nevertheless,
not entirely to be lost sight of, before men, who are
anxious to embark their capital in projects, are refused
leave to do so, because some tribunal, with necessa¬
rily less perfect means of judging than the specu¬
lator, conceives them to be mistaken in their calcu¬
lations of profit. Nevertheless, it is right that the
Legislature should, to a certain extent, learn the pro¬
fitableness of the undertakings submitted to them.
One element of this inquiry is, the cost of construc¬
tion, which is, in fact, the largest and most difficult
branch of evidence discussed before parliamentary
committees. It usually occupies them many days;
is sifted by the minutest examination of the chief
engineer ; corroborated or disputed by other eminent
persons in the same profession ; and is generally
made up of a vast variety of details, some peculiar
to the particular case, which nothing but the most
patient investigation will display. The nature of the
c 2
20
country traversed, its fertility, undulation, soil, the
roads and navigable w^aters to be crossed, the orna¬
mental property or houses to be taken, the distance
to which materials for the Railway must be carried,
the temporary and ever-fluctuating price of those
materials, are among the causes which make the cost
of constructing Railways vary from twelve to ninety
thousand pounds a mile.
Last of all, though by no means the least impor¬
tant in the eyes of Parliament, is the interference
with landed property. If of two Railways, of equal
advantages, the one interferes with no ornamental
property, and has the assent of the land-owners over
whose estates it is made, while the other heaps its
ugly embankments across ancient parks, roots up
avenues, the growth and ornament of ages, and dis¬
regarding alike the dwellings of the living and the
sepulchres of the dead, raises throughout the coun¬
try, which it invades, a clamour of indignation—it is
clearly the duty of the Legislature to prefer the for¬
mer project.
What means have the Board ofTrade of examining
these various difficult subjects ? They have, since the
1st of December, inquired into and dealt upon more
than two thousand miles of proposed Railway. If
on deciding on any, even the least important of these
projects, they have omitted from their consideration
one of the matters at which I have glanced, they
have grossly betrayed their duties, sacrificed to their
rashness or negligence the interests of the publick,
and committed on the promoters of the schemes
which they have rejected—perhaps too of those which
21
they have adopted—a great, unpardonable, and, I
fear, in many cases, irreparable injury. Nor are they
altogether free from this censure, if, after duly weigh¬
ing these matters, they have decided on them erro¬
neously ; they have usurped their functions; on them
is the responsibility even of inevitable error.
The Board of Trade have formed their judgment
on more than two thousand miles of projected Rail¬
way, or profess to have formed it, upon the inspection
of plans and sections deposited with them on the
30th of November; on written statements, made se¬
cretly by the promoters, in favour of their own pro¬
jects, and (I blush to be obliged to state the fact
concerning any public department in this country,
which deals with the property and reputation—for
that too is involved in these questions—of thousands
of persons) on written statements, made secretly by
the promoters, or by any one else, in disparagement
of adverse projects. Finally, the Board listens to oral
statements of the same sort, made by the promoters
in the absence of their adversaries. The ingenuity of
man could scarcely devise more certain means of
error. If these people desired to be misled, or to dis¬
play their incapacity ; if they had already determined
on the projects which they would select or condemn,
and were only seeking a pretext for their foregone
conclusions ; if, in the dearth of public amusement
in this country, they entertained the benevolent in¬
tention to hold themselves forth as the laughing¬
stock of all persons conversant with the subjects
which they feign to master, never could they have
attained more complete success.
i he plans and sections, until narrowly sifted,
afford no ground of opinion. And yet upon them
alone the Board must have formed their opinion of
the cost of construction of the Railways. That
they should have subjected the documents to mi¬
nute inquisition in the eight weeks which have
passed since the deposit of them in Whitehall is a
sheer impossibility, only less inconceivable than
that which some thoughtless people have pre¬
tended—that the Board have actually sent to sur¬
vey the district affected by the schemes before
them. In one section now before the Board of
Trade it is alleged, I believe on suEBcient authority,
that there is an error of fifty feet spread over
many miles ; in many the face of the country is
falsely represented—and yet all seems fair—there
is nothing to lead the Board to discover the errors
even if they had time, and it is stupid to suppose
that they have time, to inquire. But these errors
go to tlie root of the whole matter. Besides, the
section and plan show nothing of the soil, or of
the nature of the property affected, perhaps de¬
stroyed.
And then the written and the oral statements.
I beseech the reader to reflect carefully upon this
part of the system ; a system not the growth of
gradual abuse; not a relic of worse times ; not a
part of any ancient institutions, tolerated by habit,
and perhaps palliated by preponderating benefits ;
but now for the first time avowedly introduced—
God forbid tliat I should say established—in this
country. And let there be no doubt about its ex-
23
istence ; to me it was told by a member of the
Board, that the statement to be made (and, remem¬
ber, secretly made) In support of a particular pro¬
ject, might contain any charges which the projec¬
tors might think fit, impugning a rival scheme.
No confronting of parties ; no means of reply ; no
knowledge of the accusation ; on the contrary, a
refusal to reveal the contents of any adverse docu¬
ment. Again I say, that I blush for a department
where such things prevail—a department which
offers a premium to effrontery of assertion ; which
violateseveryprincipleacknowledgedin this country
of investigating conflicting claims ; which shocks all
those convictions of reflecting men, so rooted that
they seem instinctive.
And see the wide door to abuse which this
system opens. I believe that direct bribery—the
giving of hard money, or money's worth, to a pub¬
lic oflBcer, for the sake of influencing his conduct—
is rare; though not unknown, it is, I believe, not fre¬
quent. But if we desired to give vogue to that crime,
I should say, let us establish a Railway depart¬
ment of the Board of Trade, such as that which
now revels in an existence as brief 1 hope as it is
mischievous. There are men to whom the report
of the Board of Trade, on a particular project now
before them, will produce gain or loss to the extent
of twenty or thirty thousand pounds. It is noto¬
rious among those who have watched its proceed¬
ings, that the business of the Railway department
is in fact, as it needs must be, managed by Captain
O'Brien and Mr. Laing. It is perfectly well worth
24
the while of not one or two, but of many persons,
to offer either of those two individuals five thousand
pounds to decide one way or other upon a project
before him. The bribe would no doubt be refused
by him, but who shall answer for his successors ?
Let these gentlemen blame themselves, and the
pernicious system they have established, if the
possibility of these things is suggested ; and if
there grows up in the mind of the public a sus¬
picion, that such an offer would not be rejected.
But if bribery is rare, stock-jobbing, we all
know, is common. The share-market is affected
by the decisions of the Board to an extent which
brings ruin on many men, wealth to some. The
members of the Railway department (excepting
Lord Dalhousie and General Pasley) are just in
that station of life in which they are likely to have
brothers or other near connexions involved in
speculations in Railway shares. Is there any one
silly enough to suppose, that men formed in the
ordinary mould of humanity will allow their re¬
latives to be ruined by a decision which is to be
announced next afternoon, if by hinting at that
decision beforehand they can avert the ruin, nay,
convert it into opulence ? But if it is so likely as
to be nearly certain, tiiat in their relations with
their near kindred and friends they will avail
themselves more or less of their foreknowledge,
what is to prevent that process in the case of the
individual members of the Board themselves ?
They know that certain shares will on the day
after their report be at four or five pounds premium
25
or discount—they see wealth within their grasp.
Does the blockhead breathe who dreams that they
will not clutch it? I never believe rumours ; but
there have been fluctuations in the prices of shares
singularly premonitory of the reports of the Board
of Trade, To these I shall recur.
And, alas ! the step is not very wide, though no
doubt there is a distance, betwixt profiting by a
knowledge of the decision which one is about to
pronounce, and modifying that decision to suit
one's profit. Of all the vices which trouble men
in the middle ranks of life, in the present state of
society, there is none more subtle in its influence,
and more sure to enlarge that influence until it
becomes despotick, and prompts its victim to reck¬
less, even desperate adventure, than that form of
gambling which consists in speculating in Railway
shares. Let us suppose some future member of
the Railway department of the Board of Trade,
holding, in some other name than his own, a large
stake in a particular Railway, his property will be
depreciated if certain projects, highly beneficial to
the public, are accomplished ; it will be doubled if
those projects are destroyed ; and to destroy them
rests on him alone. He works in secret—that is
the principle of action in the Board ; he suggests
or fosters counter-projects, infinitely less beneficial,
nay, perhaps comparatively injurious, but still not
without such merits (what Railway scheme is
devoid of them ?) as may cast a pretext over his
preference. Perhaps he avails himself of the re¬
verence prevailing in this country towards vested
26
interests ; perhaps counts on the parliamentary in¬
fluence of his own company ; or even relies upon
effecting his purpose by dint of mere assertion.
But let the means be what they may, the end, I
doubt not, will be attained, cost what it will to the
publick.
I do not pretend now to exhaust this fertile sub¬
ject, or even to suggest the main arguments which
occur to me against the establishment, principle,
and working of this new Board ; but I must not
refrain from suggesting one other objection. We
have seen in this country, of late years, parties so
nearly balanced in the House of Commons, that
five votes on the one side or the other would have
displaced a Government. Let us suppose a Rail¬
way scheme, on which a certain district has set its
heart ; upon its success and the destruction of its
rival depend very much (and this has happened)
the seats of two, perhaps four, strong supporters
of the Government. They explain to the minister
that they must have their Railway : it is the worst,
but not very glaringly the worst ; a report in its
favour, though wrong, would not shock common
sense. Can we doubt that the Vice-Chairman of
the Board of Trade would find the officers of
his department open to conviction ? Besides, he
may himself by his voice determine the decision.
There is another point of view from which to be¬
hold the proceedings of this Board ; and if I only
mention it, without dwelling on it now, I do not
the less appreciate its importance, but 1 reserve it
for future discussion. The compliance with the
27
Standing Orders of Parliament is a process which
involves vast trouble and expense, In some cases
I have known more than twenty thousand pounds
expended upon that matter, and necessarily ex¬
pended, before the Bill is brought into the House.
It is very probable that in many instances the
scheme adopted by the Board of Trade will be
utterly deficient in its compliance with the stand¬
ing orders ; whereas, the rejected project will have
spent its thousands of pounds to good purpose.
Nothing certainly will be watched more jealously
during the present session, than the decisions of
those Committees of the House of Commons,
whose duty it is to inquire into the compliance
with standing orders ; and nothing will tend so
much to impair the confidence which all parties
entertain in the impartiality of those tribunals,
as any leaning for or against a Bill according
as it may be approved or reprobated by the Board.
Although I desire now to confine myself princi¬
pally to a consideration of the vices inherent in the
constitution of this Board, reserving for another
publication an examination of their acts ; never¬
theless, I should do wrong to the aversion which
that constitution has begotten in me, if I did not
support, by a reference to their misdeeds, the charges
of rashness and incompetence which I have brought
against them.
First, we must bear in mind, that the announce¬
ment which these individuals have made of their in¬
tentions to report foror against any Railway scheme,
arc perfectly wanton and gratuitous. The Board
28
were not required, nay, they were in nowise autlio-
rised to make such announcements. They have,
for reasons which their friends allow to be inscru¬
table, and which those who disapprove of their
conduct, are apt to attribute to motives which I
abstain from describing, hurried with most insuf¬
ficient information into a statement of what at
some future time will be their conduct. Nothing
could be more silly or more mischievous ; no¬
thing more demonstrative of utter ignorance of
all those rules which restrain decently conducted
tribunals of all sorts. The judges of the land,
(men whom it would be a kind of mockery to com¬
pare with Mr. Laing, and Captain O'Brien, and
Mr. Porter,) when, dealing with matters of infinitely
less weight than those which occupy the Railway
department, withhold all expression of their opin¬
ions, (formed by them after open discussion by
counsel for both parties face to face) until the
moment when the ordinary course of proceeding
renders that expression necessary ; and then they
accompany their judgment with a statement of the
motives which have produced it. Not so the Board
of Trade ; they are permitted to report to the House
of Commons such matters as they may deem fitting ;
and what do they do? Upon a cursory glance
over insuificient, probably erroneous, documents;
after a hasty hearing of partial statements, and in
violation of all the rules of Parliament, they publish
in the Gazette, an announcement that they intend
to report in a particular way to the House. No
reasons for the report are stated ; and there the
29
Board were right ; people who in two months, with
such data, form a conclusive opinion on more than
two thousand miles of Railway, cannot fairly be ex¬
pected to have, far less to show, any grounds for their
conduct. But the effect is the same, the things
which in their folly they desired and dared to
crush, are well nigh destroyed ; the share-market,
as by some means it foresees, so it ratifies their
decisions ; their will has been pronounced, and
has been thereby accomplished ; that will may
stand in the stead of reasons.
The first projects, I believe, on which the Board
reported, were those for supplying nearer and
cheaper means of communication than now exist
between London and the South-Western parts of
England. The Great Western Railway Company
suggested certain circuitous routes, tending to in¬
crease their revenue at the expense of the public ;
the South-Western Company devised other lines,
by which a distance of more than forty miles
would have been saved between London and Fal¬
mouth. The Board report for the Great Western,
and against the shorter and cheaper line.
The South-Western Company have a circuitous
bad line of Railway, between London and Ports¬
mouth ; no man pretends that they thought of im¬
proving or shortening the route. The Croydon
Company project a far shorter, cheaper, and better
line, through Epsom and Godalming to Portsmouth.
Forthwith the South-Western Company profess to
solicit another improved route ; it is still longer,
and worse than the Croydon scheme ; it is opposed
30
by nearly all the land-owners whereas, its rival is
approved by them ; nevertheless, all men knew
that the Board of Trade would compensate, at all
events, the South-Western Company for previous
injuries; and, in fact, the Board did select the South-
Western line.
The South-Eastern Railway Company—that
fruitful mother of Bills—has constructed a ludi¬
crously bad route to Dover ; other, and better, and
shorter lines are projected towards the same point.
Thereupon, of course, the South-Eastern Company
profess to desire leave to construct an improved
route, a desire which, but for this pressure, would
never have entered into their breasts. The Board
decide for the South-Eastern plan. The share-
market foretold this decision—but of that, anon.
A vast and overbearing monopoly exercises
nearly undivided sway over the Railway commu¬
nication in the midland and north-eastern counties
of England. A line is projected between New¬
castle and Berwick, independently of this levia¬
than ; he has a rival scheme. The Board of
Trade, instead of rescuing that important dis¬
trict from its present thraldom, confirm the mo¬
nopoly and decide against the independent line.
The share-market marvellously foretold this decision
likewise; and it is thought that (according to the
principle which seems to actuate their decisions)
this sop is given to the Midland Company in antici¬
pation of a heavy blow which impends over them.
Thus, in all its decisions, the one only prin¬
ciple which guides this rash, short-sighted tri-
31
buna), is evidently a desire to maintain monopolies,
or (as thoughtless people would terra it) to protect
vested interests ; provided those interests are sufiB-
ciently powerful to be formidable. In vain will
the public henceforward complain of the conduct
of the Great Western Railway Company; the de¬
vices which it contrives for the discomfort of
its second-class passengers ; the sufferings to
which the poor are exposed in its third-class
wagons. Let us no longer dream of the short¬
ening of ill-constructed devious routes ; most use¬
less will be our clamour against the extortionate
fares, the arrogant demeanour, the negligence and
rapacity of Railway companies ; henceforth they
may riot in abuse. The Board of Trade if sup¬
ported by Parliament, has from this moment se¬
cured to them a monopoly more certain and invio¬
lable than charter or statute or custom ever con¬
ferred. Henceforward it will be too late for the
Government or the Legislature to talk, as the Duke
of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel did wisely
talk, of keeping Railway companies under con¬
trol by competition, or the dread of competition.
There go two to this competition ; not only the
Publick which needs it, but the capitalist who
supplies the funds. And what capitalist will
from this day spend his money upon the pre¬
liminary steps which must be taken, before a Bill
is brought into the House, knowing, as he does,
that if his project interferes, however remotely, with
any existing Railway company, the latter will
suggest a rival scheme; that scheme will be
adopted by Government ; tlie preliminary expenses
will be wasted, and neither project will be exe¬
cuted ?
I do not pretend that it would be fair, excepting
in extreme cases, to authorize the construction of a
Railway parallel, or nearly parallel, to an existing
line ; but I affirm that the Publick have a right to
demand, if they will furnish the needful money,
and if the land-owners are not unnecessarily in¬
jured, the best route between two termini; es¬
pecially if that route supplies the wants of a new
population, whom the existing Railway does not
reach. It is the direct interest of existing com¬
panies to prolong the route in order to increase
their tolls. Indirectly it is injurious to them to
spend money upon improvement, if their monopoly
compels the public to use their line at all events.
That monopoly the Board of Trade tends to
render absolute.
What then does it^behove the Publick and the
Legislature to do? I answer without hesitation, let
them abolish this rash, incompetent, and most mis¬
chievous tribunal.
THE END.
F.ffinghain Wilson, l*rint»r, Royal Exchange.
^ k 1 b 1 s
Gayîord Bros,
Makers
Syracuse, N. Y.
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