RAILWAY REFORM. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY WOODPALL AND KINDER, 
 MILKORD LANE, STRAND. 
 
RAILWAY REFORM: 
 
 ITS IMPORTANCE AND PRACTICABILITY 
 
 CONSIDERED AS AFFECTING 
 
 THE NATION, THE SHAKEHOLDERS, 
 AND THE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM GALT. 
 
 " The roads of a country, from the very nature of things, are public concerns ; they are as 
 necessary to a people as the air they breathe." Second Report of the Select Committee of the 
 House of Commons, 1846. 
 
 " Should we live to see fully developed all the powers and energies of this system, we have 
 no doubt we shall also live to see it recognized as one of the very greatest benefits that either 
 art or philosophy has conferred on mankind," Quarterly Review. 
 
 "If I entertained any feeling on the subject of the interference of Government, it is one 
 of regret that they did not, in the first instance, take a more active and prominent part, that 
 they did not themselves lay out for consideration what appeared to them the best general 
 scheme for accommodating the traffic throughout the metropolis, without having the slightest 
 reference to this company or that." &;'t<;/i of the Earl of Derby in the House of Lords, 
 February Ittft, 1864. 
 
 LO NDON: 
 LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, ROBERTS, & GREEN. 
 
 1865, 
 
SPRECKELS 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 THIS treatise was written for private circulation in the early 
 part of last year ; it underwent revision in the parliamentary 
 recess; and since the subject attracted public notice, the author 
 has added, with a view to publication in a complete form, 
 the last three chapters. This explanation is necessary to 
 prevent a confusion of dates in the mind of the reader. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone has given notice, " That it is the intention of 
 Her Majesty's Government to advise the Crown to appoint a 
 Commission to inquire into the economical question connected 
 with our railway system : that is to say, the cost of conveyance 
 on railways, and into the charges which are made by railway 
 companies to the public." 
 
 Without an accurate knowledge of these important facts, 
 it would be utterly impossible for the Legislature to deal 
 satisfactorily with our railway system : it could neither com- 
 prehend the extent of the evil it has inflicted on the country 
 on the one hand, nor devise the necessary remedy on the 
 other. Government having determined " to begin with the 
 beginning," there is every reason to hope that the move- 
 ment now so well commenced may terminate in an equally 
 satisfactory manner. 
 
 16th February, 186,5. 
 
 113673 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IN 1844 an Act of Parliament was passed for the purpose of 
 enabling Government to purchase on certain specified terms all 
 railways in the United Kingdom that from that time forward 
 should be constructed. 
 
 To protect, however, the interests of the shareholders, and 
 give ample time to the nation and the Legislature to have full 
 experience of the management of our railways by companies, 
 it was enacted, that twenty-one years should elapse before our 
 present system should become subject to any change, or the 
 rights of proprietorship or management of the directors be in 
 anyway interfered with. It will, therefore, be seen that in 1865 
 this Act comes into operation, and five-sixths of the existing 
 railway mileage will eventually become subject to its provisions. 
 
 This measure was introduced into Parliament by Mr. 
 Gladstone, then President of the Board of Trade, in Sir 
 Eobert Peel's administration, and passed through under his 
 charge. For a considerable time previous to its introduction 
 there had been not only great dissatisfaction on the part of the 
 public with railway management, but also to some extent with 
 the system itself. The belief was universal that the country 
 did not derive as much benefit from its railways as some conti- 
 nental countries did from theirs, where they had been con- 
 structed by the State, and were managed under the immediate 
 control of their respective Governments. 
 
 On the opening of the Parliamentary Session of 1844 a 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 committee, composed of some of the leading members of the 
 House of Commons, was appointed " to consider whether any 
 or what new provisions ought to he introduced in such railway 
 bills as would come before the House during that or any future 
 session, for the advantage of the public and the improvement 
 of the railway system." This committee was nominated and 
 presided over by Mr. Gladstone, and there were examined before 
 it nearly all the principal men of the country connected with 
 railways. The evidence of these gentlemen formed the ground- 
 work on which the committee framed its reports, and the mea- 
 sure subsequently introduced into Parliament was in accordance 
 with the recommendation of the committee. 
 
 Although there were clauses in this bill relating to other 
 matters connected with railways than their purchase by 
 Government, yet to enable the Government at a future time to 
 effect this object was the main purpose for which the Act was 
 passed. " The question," said Mr. Gladstone, on introducing 
 it to the House, " of the whole bill is the purchase or option 
 of purchase on the part of Government : if we agree about that 
 we shall not quarrel about the rest; on the other hand, if 
 we differ about that, it will be a question for our consideration 
 whether we will take the rest, or postpone the whole till a 
 future period." 
 
 Sir Kobert Peel likewise took a warm interest in the success 
 of the measure. He was not prepared, he said, on the second 
 reading of the bill, "to advise the immediate purchase of 
 railways, nor did he wish to see the Government, or part of the 
 Government, the directors of railway concerns ; but, seeing that 
 there was a monopoly with respect to conveyance and commu- 
 nication, the Legislature should have the power of purchasing, 
 after a certain period, after giving due notice thereof to the 
 parties concerned. They were about to say to the railway com- 
 panies, ' You shall not have a permanent monopoly against 
 the public, but after a limited number of years we give you 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 notice we shall have the option of purchasing your property.' " 
 Such were the opinions held by Sir Robert Peel on this subject, 
 which induced his Government to bring forward, and carry 
 through Parliament, the bill in question. The second reading 
 was opposed, but carried by a majority of nearly two to one; 
 and on the third reading, matters having been satisfactorily 
 arranged, all opposition was withdrawn. 
 
 The law is therefore complete that enables the Legislature 
 to take the initiatory steps in the next session of Parliament, 
 for the purchase of our railways ; but where is the life and 
 spirit to give that law effect ? I am compelled to answer, that 
 they do not exist. Neither in the community at large, nor in 
 any section of it, great or small, has there ever been expressed 
 a desire to carry out the object for which this Act was passed. 
 Whatever may be the dissatisfaction with the manner in which 
 our railways are managed, and however loudly that dissatisfac- 
 tion may at times be expressed, it has not extended to any 
 complaint against the system itself, still less to a demand for 
 that great organic change for which the Government of Sir 
 Robert Peel thought it so necessary to provide. The Railway 
 Act of 1844 may therefore be said to be quite forgotten at the 
 very time it ought to be remembered, and to have become 
 obsolete before it even could be brought into operation ; for 
 all practical purposes it is at present a dead letter. Whether 
 or not it can or ought to be revived, is the matter we have now 
 to consider. 
 
 It would be difficult in the whole course of our legislative 
 history to find another instance in which a Government 
 measure has been treated with such utter neglect as has fallen 
 to the lot of this unfortunate Act. A committee, composed, 
 as we have seen, of the most eminent men of the House of 
 Commons, after a thorough investigation of the subject, re- 
 commended it to the Legislature ; after a full discussion in 
 Parliament, the bill passed the third reading without a dissen- 
 
 UNIVERSf 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 tient voice, and is then forgotten. Surely such a lame and 
 impotent conclusion, on a matter of such vital importance to 
 the best interests of the country as our traffic on railways 
 undoubtedly is, was never before heard of. One might reason- 
 ably have supposed it would have been otherwise. The name of 
 Sir Kobert Peel is not yet quite forgotten among us; nor 
 can Mr. Gladstone be called an unknown man; and yet 
 that Act, on which these two certainly not undistinguished 
 men expended so much care and trouble, is virtually defunct. 
 There are scarcely twenty people, perhaps, in the country, un- 
 connected with railways, who have any recollection of it ; and 
 very probably those few persons have now very little wish 
 to remember anything about it. Although I shall have 
 frequent occasion to refer to it, and will treat it with every 
 respect, just as if its provisions were to be brought into full 
 force next session of Parliament, it must, nevertheless, be 
 understood, that in doing so I do not differ from others, as to 
 its real position : and when I speak of " the Kailway Act 
 of 1844," it will be only for the purpose of rounding a period 
 or giving point to an " idea," as the case may be. 
 
 The administration, however, of that day must have been 
 deeply impressed with the importance of the subject, and the 
 necessity of providing a remedy for anticipated evils, when 
 it succeeded in having this Act passed by the Legislature. 
 But why is it despised or forgotten ? It may be said in 
 reply, that the very fact of its being in such a position is a 
 sufficient answer to the question; but I altogether demur to 
 such an answer as satisfactory ; there may be causes, and in 
 this case I think it will be found that there are causes, which 
 have prevented it from receiving that consideration to which, 
 as I contend, it is justly entitled. 
 
 In order more fully to comprehend the motives which 
 induced the Government of Sir Kobert Peel to bring this 
 measure forward, it is right to recall to mind not only the 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 principles on which that administration was founded, and the 
 general policy that it carried out, but also the peculiar circum- 
 stances that have been in operation having the tendency to 
 render the law in question practically obsolete. 
 
 The railway monopoly had in 1844 become very powerful. 
 It had possessed itself of the main channels of communication 
 throughout the country ; it had superseded the ordinary means 
 of conveyance ; it was to a great extent independent of the 
 Legislature and Government; its abuse of power had become 
 altogether intolerable; and the more the system under these 
 circumstances was extended, the more was this monopoly 
 consolidated and confirmed. 
 
 But the subject was one in every respect exceedingly diffi- 
 cult to deal with. In accordance with that traditional policy of 
 this country which leaves to private enterprise the execution and 
 management of our great industrial works, the construction of 
 railways had been, as a matter of course, undertaken by joint- 
 stock companies, and the Legislature, in giving them powers to 
 construct their lines, conferred on them a virtual monopoly of 
 the traffic in the several districts through which their lines ran. 
 But the companies that, up to this time, had obtained their 
 Acts and invested their capital in the works on the faith of 
 Parliament, had constructed upwards of two thousand miles 
 at an expenditure of nearly one hundred millions sterling ; 
 hence the impossibility of any attempt to impose obligations on 
 the companies not in accordance with the original agreement. 
 
 The public feeling on the management of railway affairs at 
 home was not much gratified by a comparison with the way in 
 which they were managed abroad. Belgium was the first of the 
 continental kingdoms to establish a railway system ; the rail- 
 ways were constructed by the State, and a very low and nearly 
 uniform tariff, at about one-third of the average English rates, 
 was adopted. 
 
Xll PREFACE. 
 
 As the Legislature was debarred from passing an ex post 
 facto law in regard to the companies that had already been 
 incorporated, and had expended their capital, Government de- 
 termined on adopting such precautionary measures in regard to 
 future railways as the nature of the case might require, and for 
 the purpose of fully investigating all matters connected with 
 railway legislation, the committee I have referred to was, at 
 the instance of Government, appointed. This committee sat 
 for the greater part of the session, and, after a thorough 
 investigation of the subject in all its bearings, came to the 
 conclusion that it was inexpedient at that time to make such 
 an organic change in our system as the purchase of railways 
 by the State would involve ; but that it was desirable to adopt 
 such measures as would enable the Legislature to carry such 
 a purpose into effect if it so thought fit, at a future period, 
 and an Act to that effect was passed. 
 
 Under these circumstances it is desirable that the public, 
 whose attention has not been in any way directed to the sub- 
 ject since the year 1844, and then but very partially, should 
 be enabled to form a judgment on the general merits of the 
 two systems the one founded on the possession and manage- 
 ment of the railways by joint-stock companies for their own 
 benefit ; the other on their possession by the State, and their 
 management entrusted by the Legislature to those whom it 
 should consider best qualified to perform that office. 
 
 In 1844, when the expediency of the purchase of railways 
 by the State was first mooted in Parliament, the subject was 
 not only little understood, but there existed, almost universally, 
 strong preconceived opinions, not only utterly erroneous in 
 themselves, but of such a nature as in a great measure to stop 
 in limine all investigation of the subject. Nor were these 
 opinions confined to those who, from their position in society, 
 might naturally be supposed to be without the means of ac- 
 quiring due information, but nearly all classes, even those who 
 
PREFACE. Xlll 
 
 undertook to enlighten the ignorant, shared with them alike in 
 the popular errors. 
 
 There existed at this time two prevailing ideas in the public 
 mind in regard to railways, that had a very unfortunate effect ; 
 one was, that the charges on a railway must bear a certain pro- 
 portion to the cost of its construction; and as the cost of 
 English railways was exceedingly heavy, so the charges by 
 them under any system, according to popular opinion, must 
 always be very great. The other idea was, that if railways 
 were the property of the State, they must necessarily be 
 managed by Government, when there would be a great addi- 
 tion to its patronage and power, and the management might 
 be still worse than it had been by the companies. 
 
 The Quarterly Review had an article on Kailway Legis- 
 lation in its number for July that year ; and in criticising a 
 publication that advocated a reduction of fares in this country 
 to the level of those charged in Belgium, thus attempted to 
 prove the impossibility of such a reduction being effected, 
 without great loss to the State : 
 
 "Let us look," said the reviewer, "at the expense of 
 making the respective lines, as stated in Mr. Laing's report : 
 
 Cost of Construction. 
 
 Average of the 71 railways of England . . . 34,360 
 Average of Belgium 17,120 
 
 Will any one pretend that a thing which costs 40,000 ought 
 to be furnished in detail to the public as cheap as if it had 
 cost only 17,000 ? But is it not curious to find that the 
 average expense of the Belgium lines turns out to be so exactly 
 the one-half of the average of the British lines, as are the 
 fares on the railways ?" 
 
 Is it not more curious, it might in reply be asked, if, as a 
 general rule, it will be found that the English railways on 
 which the greatest amount of capital per mile has been ex- 
 pended, are precisely those on which the charges are the 
 
XIV PREFACE. 
 
 lowest? The Charing Cross Railway, for instance, cost a 
 million and a half sterling per mile, and passengers are carried 
 at a lower rate on it than on some railways that were con- 
 structed at the hundredth part of that cost. The reviewer, 
 it will be seen, fell into the prevailing error of confounding the 
 cost of the machinery by which the passengers were con- 
 veyed with the cost of the conveyance itself, and does not 
 seem to have been aware that when the fares exceed the 
 actual expense incurred in conveyance, it becomes a mere 
 question of numbers as to what fares best pay. 
 
 The second error I have referred to was not less prevalent than 
 the first. It was universally assumed, as a matter of course, that 
 the possession of railways by the State necessarily involved 
 their management by Government ; and although this fallacy, 
 as well as the previous one, is too transparent to be seriously 
 discussed, there are still many who do not perceive the broad 
 distinction that exists between ownership and management. 
 It might with just as much truth be contended, that the pur- 
 chaser of an estate must necessarily farm it himself, as that 
 the owner of a railway should himself be obliged to manage 
 it. In 1844 the whole force of opposition was directed against 
 this imaginary necessity. It is scarcely necessary here to ob- 
 serve, that any scheme in regard to the possession of railways 
 by the State that would involve their direct management by 
 Government, or greatly increase its power and patronage, would 
 never in this country receive the sanction of public opinion. 
 
 It is easy, under these circumstances, to understand how little 
 the Government plan for the future purchase of railways was 
 appreciated at the time it was introduced : " As railways cost 
 in this country double or treble per mile more than they do on 
 the Continent," it was said, " so the fares must always remain in 
 the same proportion, and badly as the companies manage here, 
 the Government management would be still worse." Further, 
 the Act could not come into operation till after the expiration 
 
PREFACE. XV 
 
 of twenty-one years, and then only contingently ; therefore, its 
 future results were of no immediate interest to any one. 
 
 In addition to these special reasons we must add the great 
 dislike entertained in this country against Government inter- 
 ference in mercantile affairs even in cases that many might 
 deem absolutely necessary, and the little distinction drawn 
 between the possession and management of railways and that 
 of other industrial works of a quasi public nature. 
 
 "The laissez faire system," says Mr. Porter, in his " Pro- 
 gress of the Nation," " which is pursued in this country to such 
 an extent that it has become an axiom with the Government to 
 undertake nothing and to interfere with nothing which can be 
 accomplished by individual enterprise, or by the associated means 
 of private parties, has been pregnant with great loss and incon- 
 venience to the country in carrying forward the railway system. 
 Perhaps there never was an occasion in which the Government 
 could with equal propriety have interfered to reconcile the con- 
 flicting interests involved, and to prevent public injury arising 
 from the false steps so likely to be made at first in bringing 
 about a total revolution in the internal communication of the 
 country. It is not meant by these remarks to infer that 
 Government should have taken into its own hands the con- 
 struction of all, or any, of the railroads called for by the wants 
 of the community, but only to suggest the propriety and advan- 
 tage that must have resulted from a preliminary inquiry made 
 by competent and uninterested professional men, with a view 
 to ascertain the comparative advantages and facilities offered 
 by different lines for the accomplishment of the object in 
 view. If this course had been adopted before any of the 
 numerous projects were brought forward for the construction 
 of lines of railway between all imaginable places, and if it 
 had been laid down as a rule by the Legislature that no such 
 projected line could be sanctioned by Parliament which was 
 not in accordance with the reports and recommendations of 
 the Government engineers, the saving of money would have 
 been immense." * 
 
 Mr. Porter appears to have forgotten how little the Govern- 
 ment of a free country can do when it attempts to initiate a 
 
 * Sec. iii. chap. 5, 
 
XVI PREFACE. 
 
 policy, however wise in itself, that is opposed to the feelings 
 and prejudices of the people. 
 
 From the time the Act was passed till the present, the sub- 
 ject has remained in abeyance ; but, next year, in the ordinary 
 course of events, it may again come before Parliament, as the 
 twenty-one years of probation granted to the present system 
 will have expired. All the facts, figures, and arguments bear- 
 ing on the merits of the two systems ought to be fully investi- 
 gated by a Parliamentary committee, and the twenty-one 
 additional years of experience we have had of railway manage- 
 ment be turned to profitable account. For the purpose of 
 preparing the public mind in some degree for this subject, 
 if the occasion arise, the following treatise has been written. 
 As there are many, however, who would wish to have first, 
 before entering on details, a general conception of its nature, 
 to know the precise objects sought to be attained by the trans- 
 fer of the railways from the companies to the State, and why 
 those objects cannot be attained under the present system, a 
 brief introduction will be desirable. 
 
 The distinctive policy that marked the accession to power 
 of Sir Robert Peel in 1841, was the substitution to a consi- 
 derable extent of direct taxation in the form of an income tax 
 for indirect taxation on the principal necessaries of life. " Give 
 me," said Sir Robert Peel in effect, " a direct payment of five 
 millions per annum, and I shall be able to reduce your taxa- 
 tion on tea, coffee, sugar, and all the other necessaries of life 
 to the amount of twenty millions per annum," and he re- 
 deemed the pledge he gave to the nation. He made a reduc- 
 tion in the indirect taxation of the country that would have 
 reduced the revenue by that amount, had there been no in- 
 crease in the consumption of those articles on which the reduc- 
 tion of duty had been made ; but the natural elasticity of the 
 country, relieved of such a burthen, made up by increased 
 
PREFACE. XV11 
 
 consumption three-fourths of the loss to the revenue, and the 
 income tax paid the remaining fourth. 
 
 We shall find, in the course of our investigation, that on this 
 principle but with a very important difference in matters of 
 detail was founded the Kailway Act of 1844. Locomotion 
 is one of the great necessaries of life, and then, as now, the 
 means of locomotion throughout the country was a monopoly in 
 the hands of private individuals, whose charges for the convey- 
 ance of passengers and goods were enormously disproportioned 
 to its cost. The proprietors of railways, with very few excep- 
 tions, found it was more to their advantage to carry the com- 
 paratively few at high fares than the multitude at low fares, 
 and neither the Legislature nor the Government had any right 
 to interfere with their charges, inasmuch as they were strictly 
 legal. What Government, however, had a right to do and did 
 do was this ; it induced the Legislature to pass an Act hy which, 
 after a limited number of years, the right of purchase, on certain 
 specified terms, should revert to the nation, when the same 
 policy could be carried out in regard to the charges on railways 
 as had already been pursued in reference to our postal rates, 
 and to our customs and excise duty. 
 
 It is highly probable, however, that the success of the Post- 
 Office Keform scheme, which had been then several years in 
 operation, had no small influence in inducing the Government 
 to follow the course it did in respect to railways ; and as the 
 objects to be attained were in some respects analogous, we 
 shall briefly notice the principles on which the Post-Office 
 Reform Bill was based. 
 
 The gross amount of the Post- Office revenue in 1839 was, in 
 round numbers, 2,400,000/., the net revenue 1,400,000/., and 
 the number of letters conveyed 75,000,000. The postage 
 varied according to distance from twopence to two shillings for 
 a single letter, and any inclosure, however small, had the effect 
 of doubling the postage. There had been for many years 
 
XV111 PREFACE. 
 
 great complaints of these high rates, but till Mr. (now Sir) 
 Rowland Hill took the matter up, no step was taken towards 
 reducing them. Sir Rowland Hill directed special attention 
 to three matters : 1st, that the conveyance of a letter from 
 one end of the kingdom to the other cost less than half a 
 farthing ; 2nd, the great disproportion that existed between 
 the cost of conveyance and the charge to the public ; and 3rd, 
 the enormous increase that might be expected to take place in 
 the number of letters conveyed by post, if the average postage 
 was reduced to one-sixth of the then existing rates. The nation 
 adopted Sir Rowland Hill's scheme, the average postage of 
 sixpence on each letter was reduced to the uniform rate of a 
 penny ; and we all know with what result. 
 
 The same principles applied with equal force to the convey- 
 ance of passengers and goods by railway as to the conveyance 
 of letters by mail coach : there were the same high charges to the 
 public compared with the cost of conveyance, and a great in- 
 crease of passengers and goods might be expected by making a 
 material reduction in those charges. Government, however, 
 found itself in 1844 comparatively powerless to act with imme- 
 diate effect in the matter, further than by entering into an 
 arrangement with the old companies for the establishment of 
 Parliamentary trains, and thereby securing to the working 
 population, what they much needed, a very considerable reduc- 
 tion in charge, and some degree of comfort in travelling. 
 There was not then in the opinion of Government sufficient 
 experience of the working of railways by joint-stock companies 
 to justify Government in recommending the Legislature to 
 pass a bill for the purchase of railways then made, nor did 
 it desire to have constructed at the public cost those rail- 
 ways that might be considered necessary to complete our 
 system ; the middle course was adopted of securing the right 
 of purchase, with its exercise reserved till a distant time. 
 
 The amount paid by the public to railway companies is now 
 
PREFACE. XIX 
 
 increasing at the rate of more than two millions sterling per 
 annum : in 1862 twenty-nine millions were paid ; last year the 
 income of the railways was thirty-one millions ; this year it 
 will amount to nearly thirty-four millions; and next year it will, 
 probably, equal in amount the one-half of all our taxation ! 
 There is virtually no legal control over the fares and charges 
 the companies make to the public ; in some localities they 
 are double, treble, or quadruple what they are in others the 
 interest of each company being its only guide, and the interests 
 of the public entirely subsidiary to those of the companies. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, on introducing the Railway Bill,* stated 
 the principal reasons which induced the Government to bring 
 it forward : the first of which was the vast increase that might, 
 in the course of twenty years, be expected to take place in the 
 payments of the public to the companies, and the consequent 
 necessity at the expiration of that term of revising our present 
 system of management at that time the receipts of the com- 
 panies amounted only to five millions per annum, "But I 
 do not think," said Mr. Gladstone, " that it will be a very 
 extravagant estimate for me to assume that, in fifteen or twenty 
 years, the payment by the public will reach to fifteen millions 
 a year." Now, inasmuch as the estimated receipts of the com- 
 panies for next year amount to fully THIRTY-SIX MILLIONS ; 
 and it would appear that Mr. Gladstone thought it desirable 
 that the right of purchase should revert to the State when the 
 payments to the companies by the public would amount to 
 FIFTEEN millions it follows that, according to the opinion 
 then entertained by Mr. Gladstone, the time has long since 
 arrived when the expediency of exercising that right should 
 be discussed, and, if found desirable, be claimed by the Legis- 
 lature. 
 
 There is, in one respect, a very important diiference 
 
 * Mr. Gladstone's speech on tlie second reading of the Railway Bill, 
 and the Act itself, will be found in Appendix IV. 
 
 c 2 
 
XX PREFACE. 
 
 between the Post- Office reform and the Railway reform pro- 
 jected by the Act of 1844. The great, and indeed the only, 
 objection that ever had been made to the adoption of Sir Row- 
 land Hill's scheme was the heavy loss it would entail, for 
 many years at least, on the revenue ; nor was this point 
 disputed by Sir Rowland Hill ; for the first few consecutive 
 years there was a loss of a million per annum to the revenue, 
 nor was it till last year that the net revenue, under the new 
 system, equalled that of the old. 
 
 It would be a very different matter, in a financial point of 
 view, to carry into effect the Railway Act of 1844. What 
 is called " the purchase of railways by Government " would, 
 if carried out as I suggest, be in effect an operation by which 
 railway stock would, in a certain sense, be converted into 
 Government stock, and its market value thereby increased in 
 the proportion of 3j to 5, the profits of the transaction being 
 shared in equal proportions by the State and the companies. 
 To the profit the State would have from the transaction would 
 be added the great saving effected by the amalgamation of all 
 the railways under one general management ; that is, on the 
 supposition that a simultaneous arrangement could be made 
 by Government with the great bulk of the companies; other- 
 wise, if no better plan could be adopted, the Government 
 purchase could be carried out in detail, according to the Act, 
 as each company came severally within its provisions. 
 
 The exceedingly low cost at which passengers can be con- 
 veyed on railways is the broad foundation on which Railway 
 Reform rests. Every one will admit that a very low tariff 
 would greatly increase the traffic, but we cannot tell beforehand 
 precisely to what extent. Could we ascertain that, the whole 
 question could be solved to a mathematical certainty. But we 
 can only approximate to a solution of that problem. We shall 
 find, in the course of our inquiry, that the difference of fares 
 within certain limits makes but little difference in the profits, 
 
PREFACE. XXI 
 
 and that there is every reason to believe the possession of 
 railways by the State would enable Government to effect such 
 arrangements as to have passengers conveyed at one-third of 
 the present average fares without any assistance from the 
 Treasury, and a proportionate reduction made on freightage. 
 
 It may, at first sight, appear to many, taking into considera- 
 tion the small dividends that some companies pay, impossible 
 for Government to make such a reduction in the fares without 
 incurring a heavy loss, but the case in that respect is entirely 
 analogous to that of the Post Office it is a mere question of 
 numbers. The reduction made on the Post-Office charges 
 amounted to 84 per cent., and the reduction proposed on rail- 
 way charges amounts only to 66 per cent. And we have seen 
 that the Post Office, after reducing its postage rates from 
 an average charge of sixpence on each letter to a uniform 
 rate of a penny, without any extraneous aid, by the mere 
 increase of numbers, returns now to the exchequer the same 
 amount of net revenue as it did previous to the change. 
 But, in regard to any reduction of fares and charges on our 
 railways that the Legislature, under the new system, might 
 determine on, there would be a reserve fund that might be 
 calculated at jive millions sterling to make up the loss in- 
 curred by reduced rates. 
 
 I have assumed in this treatise that a reduction on our 
 railways to one-third of the present average rates would fully 
 meet the wants and wishes of the public, and that would 
 appear, by the reference made by Mr. Gladstone in his speech 
 to the fares in Belgium, to have been the reduction that he 
 intended. 
 
 " I believe," said Mr. Gladstone, " that the charges on the 
 Belgium railways are not more than one-third of our charges. 
 We must look at this subject in all its vastness and in all its 
 bearings. It may be said that England is the richest country ; 
 but because this country is rich, it is no sound reason why 
 
XX11 PREFACE. 
 
 it should pay the railway companies more than necessary, or 
 that cheap travelling should not be provided for the public. 
 But there is no likelihood that the great experiment of the 
 greatest possible cheapness to the public will be tried under 
 the present system." The companies are, unfortunately, much 
 more inclined to try the experiment of the greatest possible 
 dearness than that of cheapness. 
 
 Another point, which Mr. Gladstone thought of great impor- 
 tance, was the great saving that would be effected in the 
 management by the amalgamation of all the companies. He 
 quoted the opinion of Captain Laws, a man of great experience 
 in railway management, that through these means alone " a 
 saving of 25 per cent, would be effected to the public." It is 
 to be observed that no provision whatever is made in the Act 
 in reference to the management of the companies in the event 
 of the railways being purchased by the State : that was left 
 an open question, not then necessary to be disposed of, or ripe 
 for settlement. 
 
 When the subject is mooted for the first time of the pos- 
 sibility of effecting a great reduction in fares if railways were 
 the property of the State, there are few who can believe in the 
 possibility of a great reduction in charges being made without 
 loss to the revenue ; they very naturally say : " Eailway pro- 
 prietors receive, on an average, only four per cent, for their 
 money how would it be possible then for Government to carry 
 passengers at one-third of the present rates without incurring 
 an enormous loss ? I can, perhaps, best explain how that can 
 be done by means of an illustration. If, in some part of the 
 country, we saw an omnibus passing daily backwards and 
 forwards, carrying on an average not more than two persons 
 each journey, and the fare a shilling for the trip, and perceived 
 at the same time a great number of persons pursuing the same 
 route on foot ; we might feel inclined to ask the driver why 
 the proprietor did not charge a lower fare rather than have his 
 
PREFACE. XX111 
 
 omnibus travelling comparatively empty ? The inquirer might 
 possibly be told in reply, that the proprietor had tried every 
 variation in fares, and although the profits of the concern paid 
 him only four per cent, on the money he had invested, yet he 
 had found a shilling fare and carrying two passengers more pro- 
 fitable than a lower fare with an increased number of passengers. 
 He had tried sixpenny fares ; that certainly had doubled the 
 number of his passengers and had not increased his ex- 
 penditure, but he made nothing by it. He was told then he 
 did not go low enough, and that fourpenny fares would pay 
 best, as they would, if his omnibus would fill, on the journey 
 of only two miles. Well, the proprietor had tried that for 
 six months, and found it did not answer; he did not carry 
 more than five on an average each trip, and he was put to 
 some little extra expense : he lost by the change and got only 
 three and a half per cent, interest for his money. Finally, he 
 came back to his old charge of a shilling a head, his two pas- 
 sengers, and his four per cent, interest. 
 
 Now if we substitute one hundred millions of passengers 
 by railway for the one passenger we have assumed that 
 travels by the omnibus, we have a case exactly parallel. The 
 omnibus travels with the one-tenth part of the number it is 
 capable of conveying, and so do the trains ; if the omnibus 
 carried five persons instead of two, the increase in expense 
 would be scarcely appreciable, and in like manner with the 
 trains. The omnibus man finds that it is rather more to his 
 advantage to charge a shilling than a fourpenny fare ; the one 
 pays him four per cent, on his money, the other not more than 
 three and a half; in like manner, if railway directors would 
 lower their fares to one- third of their present average charges, 
 it is not probable that such a reduction would increase the 
 number of travellers quite threefold, and even if it should have 
 that effect why should the companies carry three persons when 
 they can obtain as much for one ? There would not only be 
 
XXIV PREFACE. 
 
 a slight increase in the expense for additional wear and tear, 
 but a considerable increase of work in the several establish- 
 ments, for which they would obtain no remuneration whatever. 
 This illustration will, I trust, render sufficiently clear the 
 causes which render it impossible that the low fare system can 
 as a rule ever be adopted by railway companies. Can any 
 reasonable man expect that a company paying, for instance, five 
 per cent, to their shareholders would reduce their charges one- 
 half, with the certain knowledge that such a reduction in their 
 fares would reduce their dividend from five to four and a half 
 per cent, and the market price of their shares from par to ten 
 per cent, discount? 
 
 Nearly every one believes, when he hears first of the purchase 
 of railways by Government and a great reduction in fares, that 
 this is to be brought about by some proposed change of 
 management ; but management in the ordinary sense of that 
 term has nothing to do with the matter. The State is one 
 thing, and the Government that administers the affairs of the 
 State for the time being, well or ill as the case may be, is quite 
 another. Whether the management of railways after being 
 purchased by the State should be undertaken solely by 
 Government, or be conducted essentially as it is at present, 
 or a middle course be adopted, would be for the Legislature 
 to settle in whatever way would seem most in accordance 
 with the general feeling of the country. All this is a matter 
 of detail, very important no doubt ; but the essential prin- 
 ciple of the Act of 1844 was the transfer of the railways to the 
 Government. The fund which the Government would acquire 
 by the substitution of public for private credit, would enable it 
 to make a vast reduction in fares and freightage by the appli- 
 cation of this fund to indemnify the revenue against the deficit 
 that might be expected as the natural consequence of these 
 low charges. 
 
 We shall see, in the course of our investigation, that a first- 
 
f V OF THE ^V 
 
 ( UNIVEPV 
 
 N^ 
 
 PREFACE. XXV 
 
 class passenger can be conveyed, in a railway train carrying 
 a fair load, sixteen miles for a penny, a second-class passen- 
 ger twenty-five miles for a penny, and a third-class passenger 
 forty miles for a penny, and that these fares would include all 
 expenses, direct and indirect, of conveyance. It is obvious, 
 therefore, that carrying first-class passengers, even at a fare so 
 low as a far tiling per mile, and the other classes in propor- 
 tion, might pay better than if the fares were ten times higher, 
 and would pay better if a sufficient number travelled. 
 
 To carry by one operation the Act of 1844 into full effect, 
 would require not only the assent but the cordial support of 
 three parties : these are severally THE NATION, THE SHARE- 
 HOLDERS, and THE GOVERNMENT. Each party, to a certain 
 extent, has separate interests and motives of action, and 
 therefore requires separate consideration. 
 
 1st. The Nation generally, it may be safely predicated, 
 would gladly accept any scheme by which the fares would be 
 reduced to one-third of their present average rates, and made 
 uniform throughout the country; which would effect a similar 
 reduction in the carriage of merchandise, minerals, and parcels ; 
 and would secure to all classes in the kingdom, not only a very 
 low tariff, but the adoption of such precautionary measures for 
 the safety of the traveller as it is now vain to look for. In a 
 word, which would substitute for the present system one that 
 would give to the nation all the advantages to be derived 
 from a very low rate of transit, combined with an improved 
 management directly responsible to the Legislature for its 
 administration of affairs. 
 
 2nd. The Shareholders, it may be supposed, would be very 
 willing to concur in any arrangement that would largely 
 increase the value of their property. Railway property has 
 very much improved within the last few years, and this 
 has been mainly owing to the conservative policy of the 
 present Legislature in refusing its sanction to the construction 
 
XXVI PREFACE. 
 
 of new lines which would inflict injury on the old companies. 
 But what security have the shareholders for the continuance 
 of such a line of policy ? Who can foresee what influences 
 may be brought to bear on the future House of Commons so 
 soon to be elected, and what view the railway committees of 
 that House may take of their duty to the public ? Eailway 
 shareholders know well that nothing can be more undefined and 
 precarious than the protection they receive from the Legis- 
 lature, the uncertainty of its continuance, and the heavy losses 
 they would incur if subjected to unrestricted competition. 
 Nor can there be any reasonable doubt that the great bulk of 
 railway proprietors would be willing to exchange a certainty 
 for an uncertainty, and co-operate with the Government in 
 any great financial change from which they would derive 
 their fair share of profit and necessarily increase the value of 
 their shares. 
 
 3rd. The Government, it is only reasonable to suppose, 
 would be willing to give effect to an Act which [would confer 
 such benefits on the country. When Government introduced 
 this measure in 1844, it laboured, as we have seen, under the 
 great disadvantage of having to encounter the prejudice arising 
 from the erroneous belief that, if railways were purchased by 
 the State, they must necessarily be managed by Government, 
 and free action was in consequence to a great extent para- 
 lyzed. The Act was considered by a very large class as a covert 
 measure, on the part of Government, to increase its influence, 
 patronage, and power. It will be seen, however, that the Act 
 has in it no provision of the kind, nor that any essential change 
 in the present management is necessary, further than making it 
 more stringent, the directors more immediately responsible to 
 the Legislature, the rights of the public more clear, and their 
 claim for compensation in case of wrong doing more easily 
 enforced, than is the case at present. There can be no doubt 
 the country would hail with satisfaction the announcement 
 
PREFACE. XXV11 
 
 that Government had determined to carry into practical effect 
 the Kailway Act of 1844. 
 
 The Quarterly Review, in the article I have already quoted, 
 thus truly and forcibly alludes to the imperial dimensions the 
 subject would one day assume. " It is impossible/' said the 
 reviewer, " not to see that the system is developing itself to such 
 an extent, penetrating all districts, superseding all other com- 
 munications, affecting every species of public and private in- 
 terests, and acting as the life-blood arteries of the empire, as 
 to render it probable, almost to certainty, that the time must 
 come when this great public trust can no longer be left to the 
 management of private companies scattered over the face of 
 the country. In truth, it seems only a question of time ; rail- 
 ways must be made subject to some unity of management, and 
 through whatever intermediate process it may pass, that man- 
 agement must finally be vested in the Government of the 
 country." 
 
 At the time this article was written for the Quarterly, the 
 payments to the companies, as we have seen, little exceeded 
 five millions sterling ; but at the rate the system is now deve- 
 loping itself, in two or three years more, the payments to 
 the companies, if no change takes place, will exceed the 
 whole amount paid by the country in customs and excise 
 duties, for they are still going on increasing year by year, to an 
 extent not definable by any limits. It surely, then, is time 
 for our statesmen to grapple with this huge question, and 
 devise some scheme for the consideration of the country, by 
 which this " Imperium in Imperio " that is now erecting 
 itself in the kingdom shall be abolished, and the whole system 
 brought under the immediate control of the Legislature. 
 
 The average fares on English railways may be taken at two- 
 pence farthing per mile for first class, three halfpence for 
 second class, and one penny for third ; and a reduction to three 
 far things j a halfpenny, and one farthing per mile for the 
 
XXVlll PREFACE. 
 
 several classes, and a proportionate reduction in the charges 
 for general merchandise, minerals, cattle, &c., and a uniform 
 rate for small parcels, would, I have no douht, give great and 
 general satisfaction to the public. 
 
 The practical question we have to consider is, Whether or not 
 a reduction of fares and charges on railways to one-third of 
 their present average rate, without any charge on the revenue, 
 could be at once effected on the principle of Mr. Gladstone's 
 Act? 
 
 Let us first assume, for the sake of argument, that such a 
 change in public feeling had taken place on the subject of 
 railway proprietorship and management as to render an altera- 
 tion in our present system possible, and that it only remained 
 for the Government to devise a scheme, and the Legislature to 
 give it the power of law, by which railways would become 
 national property, subject to the immediate control of the 
 Legislature. It must be premised that, as the main object in 
 carrying out such a project would be with the view of making 
 a very large reduction in the charges for passengers and goods, 
 a moderately low tariff would be adopted. 
 
 There are three different plans by which the assumed wishes 
 of the country in this respect could be carried into effect. The 
 best, most economical, and efficient one would be for the State 
 itself to make such railways as the Legislature, after due 
 inquiry, might deem necessary. 
 
 Whatever may have been the errors and shortcomings of 
 the Legislature in regard to its dealings with railway com- 
 panies, it took care to let the companies know that at all times 
 and under all circumstances the PUBLIC GOOD atone should be 
 the paramount object in view, and that it reserved to itself the 
 right of granting, at a future time, as many competing lines 
 as the necessity of the case might require ; nor has the right 
 of the Government to lay down competing lines been ever for a 
 moment questioned. The subject was especially brought under 
 
PREFACE. XXIX 
 
 the notice of some of the leading representatives of the railway 
 interest by Mr. Gladstone, when presiding over the committee 
 in 1844. Mr. Glyn, then chairman of the London and Bir- 
 mingham Company, and who subsequently held, for many 
 years, the same office in the London and North-Western Com- 
 pany, expressed his opinion very clearly and distinctly on this 
 point, as the following short extract from his examination will 
 show : 
 
 "Mr. Gladstone. It would be perfectly possible, would it 
 not, that the Government itself might undertake to make a 
 competing line, and work that line in such a way as to effect a 
 reduction of charges upon the public, both upon the old line 
 and the new one ? Certainly ; there would be nothing to 
 prevent it. 
 
 "Assuming that to be the case, and assuming that would be 
 the proper remedy for excessive rates and charges, do you 
 think that that would be the best plan that could be adopted 
 under the circumstances ? / would much rather see a com- 
 peting line in the hands of Government than in the hands 
 of a private company." 
 
 Exception may perhaps be taken to the form in which Mr. 
 Gladstone put the question in reference to the contingency 
 that would necessitate the construction of a new line viz. 
 " excessive rates and charges" on the old line but these may 
 surely be deemed excessive, inasmuch as they often exceed 
 twentyfold the cost incurred, or what might be incurred under 
 a proper system of management. 
 
 Let it be admitted, then, that the State, acting with the most 
 perfect good faith towards railway proprietary, should determine 
 on laying out, in the first instance, a comparatively small sum 
 in the construction of four trunk lines radiating from the 
 metropolis to the north-west as far as Liverpool, to the south 
 as far as the present lines extend, to the west as far as Exeter, 
 and to the north-east as far as Norwich, with branches from 
 all the trunk lines to the principal towns on their respective 
 routes, but the trunk lines in the first instance to be com- 
 
XXX PREFACE. 
 
 pleted. The new railways would be constructed at about 
 one-third of tbe cost of the old lines, and the engineers who 
 laid out the new lines would no doubt be instructed to lay 
 them out as distant as circumstances would permit from the 
 old lines, for the double purpose of doing the least possible 
 injury to the old companies, and providing additional railway 
 accommodation, in those parts of the country not well supplied. 
 
 According to the testimony of Mr. Brydges Adams, an 
 engineer of the greatest experience and authority, a railway 
 could now be constructed from London to Liverpool 200 
 miles for three millions sterling. The interest on that sum, 
 if borrowed by Government, would be about 100,000 per 
 annum. If Government would think it expedient to carry 
 first-class passengers at a farthing a mile, and the other classes 
 in due proportion, and goods, minerals, &c., at rates varying 
 from a farthing to a penny per ton per mile, from London to 
 Liverpool, and vice versa, those charges would yield a very 
 great profit on the cost of transit, including the wear and tear 
 of the line and an ample allowance for the expense of man- 
 agement. Now, if a line was constructed by Government, and 
 this with reference to other lines comparatively low tariff 
 adopted, it would not only pay the interest on the capital, but 
 possibly yield a large revenue. 
 
 Four thousand miles of railways judiciously laid out, and 
 constructed at a cost of fifty millions, would afford ac- 
 commodation to all the principal towns in the United King- 
 dom ; the annual interest to be paid on the capital would be 
 considerably less than two millions per annum ; and there can 
 be no doubt that, with the tariff I have named, a very large 
 revenue, after the payment of interest, would accrue to the 
 State, even divided as the traffic would be between the com- 
 panies and the Government lines. 
 
 Now, so far as the general interests of the community are 
 concerned, there could hardly be two opinions as to the 
 
PREFACE. XXXI 
 
 best mode of providing the public witb the means of cheap 
 travelling, and, as a matter of course, a uniform tariff through- 
 out the country at a farthing per mile, in the case we have 
 supposed, for first-class passengers, and the others in due pro- 
 portion, would give great and general satisfaction. 
 
 But let us carry the case a little further. The Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer we will suppose, when he opens his budget a 
 few months hence, will be able to make the agreeable announce- 
 ment that he can reduce the taxation of the country a couple 
 of millions, but that, instead of giving up twopence in the 
 pound of the income tax, he will propose that fifty or sixty 
 millions be laid out in the construction of a network of State 
 railways, and that the charges on the lines shall amount only 
 to the actual cost of conveyance, together with a sufficient 
 percentage added to maintain the lines in working order and 
 defray the general expenses. Under this arrangement, first- 
 class passengers would be conveyed, from London to Edin- 
 burgh, 400 miles, for two shillings and a penny, instead 
 of the present fare, three pounds ten shillings ; second- 
 class, one shilling and sixpence, instead of two pounds ten 
 shillings ; and third-class, one shilling, instead of one pound 
 thirteen shillings and fourpence. Coals, minerals, and general 
 merchandise would be carried at rates, not exceeding, on an 
 average, one- tenth those at present. Packages that the com- 
 panies now charge six shillings for carrying would be conveyed 
 for half as many pence; and parcels seven pounds in weight, 
 the carriage of which varies from sixpence to three shillings, 
 according to distance, might be assimilated to the penny-postage 
 rate, and a uniform charge of a penny made for each without 
 reference to distance ! 
 
 Several years would necessarily elapse before the works 
 could be constructed ; ten years, we will suppose, from the 
 present time, when our railway payments, increasing as they 
 are at the rate of two millions per annum, will amount 
 
XXX11 PREFACE 
 
 to FTFTY MILLIONS STERLING, or some ten millions in excess 
 of all customs and excise duties combined. But on the 
 morning of the 1st of January, 1876, the Government lines 
 would be completed and opened to the public at charges in 
 which shillings would be substituted for pounds, so that what 
 the public in 1875 paid fifty millions for, in 1876 would be pro- 
 cured for the one-twentieth part of that sum, and all this would 
 be brought about by the direct payment, on the part of the 
 nation, of two millions per annum ! 
 
 We will not enter on any calculation as to the amount the 
 country up to that time would have lost, or whether what has 
 been recklessly squandered away would have been sufficient to 
 pay off the national debt. Nations, as well as individuals, 
 must pay for any eccentricities they may be pleased to indulge 
 in, and if, from feelings of fancied independence, a nation 
 thinks proper to abandon its legitimate duties, and permits the 
 work to be done by proxy which should be done by itself alone 
 in its corporate capacity, it cannot complain of being obliged to 
 pay the heavy penalty which such a course of policy inevitably 
 entails. In Belgium, where, it is well-known, an opposite 
 system was pursued to that followed in this country, and the 
 railways were constructed by the State, and managed under the 
 direct responsibility of Government, the charges have not ex- 
 ceeded on an average one-third of those made with us, and 
 not only that, but the debt the Government incurred by the 
 construction of the railways has, from that time, been gradually 
 reduced by the appropriation of the profits arising from the 
 traffic for that purpose. In 1884, the railway debt will be com- 
 pletely paid off, and the Belgian people will be able, from that 
 time forth, either to avail themselves of the excessively low 
 rates when only the actual expenses of transit are charged, 
 or be in a position to decrease largely the general taxation 
 of the country by continuing the present charges on the 
 railways. 
 
PREFACE. XXX iil 
 
 We have to deal, however, with a different state of affairs in 
 this country. Four hundred and fifty millions sterling, under 
 our system, have heen expended. A great part of this enor- 
 mous sum has been squandered away in doing what might have 
 heen hetter done under a national system for, perhaps, one- 
 third of the money; useless competing lines, under such a 
 system, would never have heen made, and the reckless cost 
 incurred in carrying bills through Parliament avoided. Al- 
 though the nation and the Legislature are free to act in regard 
 to the construction of lines, that liberty will, nevertheless, be 
 found to be more nominal than real ; inasmuch as the course 
 I have indicated, of the State constructing new lines, and 
 carrying without profit, would be tantamount to confiscating 
 all the existing railway property of the country. Mr. Glyn, 
 as we have seen, gave an unqualified assent to the right of the 
 State to construct competing lines, but, as a matter of course, 
 he never assumed that the State would construct and work 
 lines without, at least, securing such a return from the railways 
 as would pay the interest on the capital invested. Mr. Hudson, 
 however, was more cautious in giving an opinion as to the 
 right of the State to construct competing lines. "I do not 
 question," said Mr. Hudson, "the right of the State to make 
 railways, but they must first buy up the old lines." Mr. 
 Hudson, in my opinion, took the right view of the case. It 
 would be exceedingly unjust to bring the resources of the 
 State into competition with private individuals, without first 
 giving the latter the option of retiring on liberal terms. 
 
 There are few men in modern times who have done more 
 to advance the great truths of economic science than Mr. 
 Edwin Chadwick; and in a paper he read some years since 
 before the Statistical Society, he thus described " competition 
 within " what he terms " the field of service " : 
 
 "From 1838 to 1841, whilst examining the sanitary condi- 
 tions of town populations, I found urban districts in England, 
 
 d 
 
XXXIV PREFACE. 
 
 where there are two or three sets of water-pipes carried through 
 streets which might be as well or better supplied under one 
 establishment, and competitions ending in strict monopolies, 
 bad and deficient supplies at high charges to the public, with 
 low dividends to the shareholders, and an almost impracti- 
 cability of improvement in their separate condition without 
 augmenting the already excessive charges of the ratepayers or 
 further reducing the low returns to the capitalists. These 
 competitions are what I then designated as competitions 
 * within the field of service.' As opposed to that form of 
 competition, I proposed, as an administrative principle, com- 
 petition ''for the field/ that is to say, that the whole field of 
 service should be put up on behalf of the public for competi- 
 tion, on the only condition on which efficiency, as well as the 
 utmost cheapness, was practicable, namely, the possession, by 
 one capital or by one establishment, of the entire field, which 
 could be most efficiently and economically administered by 
 one, with full securities towards the public for the performance 
 of the requisite service during a given period. The principle 
 was, upon due consideration, extensively adopted and advocated 
 by permanent public officers, commissioners and disinterested 
 public investigators for the regulation of enterprises in rail- 
 ways, then at their commencement ; * but the views chiefly 
 advocated by speculators and persons who profit by multiplied 
 conflicts who gain whosoever else lose were adopted by 
 Parliament. The principle was, however, upon independent 
 consideration, adopted by the continental administrators and 
 legislators, and the results stand out in wide and undeniable 
 contrast of legislative and administrative ability and integrity ; 
 in France, for example, in a much more responsible and 
 more regular service for the public at lower fares, with higher- 
 priced materials, with dearer fuel, poorer, thinner, and less 
 active population, and lower elements of traffic ; and yet, with 
 an average return of from seven to nine per cent, to the 
 original shareholders of the lines worked by companies. In 
 England we have a clashing, immensely more dangerous, 
 unsatisfactory, and generally less responsible service to the 
 public, fares, as contrasted with the continental fares, generally 
 one-third higher, with fuel, iron, and machinery cheaper, and 
 population and traffic more active ; yet with only an average 
 return of 3'06 per cent, to the original shareholders, with 
 
 * Vide, amongst other expositions, that contained in the admirable 
 report of Messrs. Drummond and Barlow, Commissioners for Railways 
 in Ireland. 
 
PREFACE. XXXV 
 
 extensive ruin to them with gigantic fortunes to the pro- 
 moters of conflicts. In France, the original shareholders 
 have, moreover, the elements of security and further improve- 
 ment to their property, whilst the French public have in rever- 
 sion, on the termination of the present concessions, the pro- 
 spect of further reductions of fares and increased facilities for 
 intercommunication, or a new source of revenue, derivable 
 from past economy in reduction of the general taxation of 
 the country. In England, the greater mass of original share- 
 holders have before them elements of further depreciation, and 
 loss, and even ruin, by the bounty afforded by the practicability 
 of cheaper constructions and by competitive extensions, that 
 are not to be averted by the patchings of quarrels or by any 
 combinations of their respective directories, whilst the public 
 have the main arteries of communication which ought with 
 sound legislation to be as cheap and free as any in the world 
 clogged with inconveniences and even with delays as well with 
 high charges, amounting to between six and seven millions per 
 annum in excess at the present time, of what a sound adminis- 
 trative principle would have insured. The maladministration 
 which has incurred the excessive outlays which maintains 
 nearly a hundred separate chief and independent establish- 
 ments, at the expense of the shareholders, and to the incon- 
 venience and loss of the public in working seeks to impose 
 these excessive charges upon the public by high fares, and 
 does so in defiance of the experience thus enunciated by an 
 observer of railway administration, that 'There is hardly an 
 exception to the rule, that a high fare produces a low amount 
 of traffic and stunts its growth, while a low or moderate fare 
 collects a larger amount of traffic and fosters growth.' " * 
 
 I have extended this preface beyond the limits usual in such 
 cases, as I am desirous, before we enter on the subject to be 
 discussed, that its nature and object should be clearly defined 
 and understood. There are also many persons who would 
 wish to understand the elementary principles of Railway Re- 
 form without any desire to examine in detail the facts on which 
 it is founded and the arguments by which it may be supported, 
 and with that class of readers I must here part company. 
 
 * Paper read before the Statistical Society of London, January 18, 
 09, by Edwin Chadwick, Esq., C.B. 
 
XXXVI PREFACE. 
 
 Railway statistics is not the most inviting subject for pleasant 
 reading. I hope that I have said sufficient to convey a clear 
 idea to their minds of what is sought to he attained hy a 
 change of system, and that such a change without loss to 
 the revenue is at least possible. 
 
 To that other, and I hope larger class, whom I may be able 
 to persuade to accompany me all the journey, they will remem- 
 ber that inasmuch as a man may travel from Dan to Beersheba 
 and not find it altogether barren, so the traveller who sets out 
 on a journey with a clearly defined object in view may, even in 
 a little- trodden and uninteresting way, pick up some "waifs and 
 strays" that, in the absence of more interesting objects, may 
 serve at least to beguile the tediousness of the way. In a few 
 months this country will be, or at least should be, called on 
 to discuss and come to a decision on a subject involving the 
 most important principles in social and political science ; this 
 subject I have endeavoured, to the best of my ability, to 
 elucidate how far I have been successful the reader must 
 judge for himself. 
 
 I should do much injustice to my own feelings if I omitted 
 to express my acknowledgments to Mr. Roebuck for the great 
 assistance I have received from him during the last six months 
 in my humble endeavour to promote the cause of Railway 
 Reform. It is now more than twenty years since I first con- 
 sulted him as to the desirability of a change being effected 
 in our railway system : although he concurred then generally 
 in my views on the subject, he thought, and I believe correctly, 
 that in the existing state of public opinion nothing more could 
 ba done at that time than had been done. 
 
 Mr. Horsman was on the Railway Committee of 1844, and 
 was, I believe, the only one of its members who was in favour 
 of the immediate purchase of the railways by Government. 
 During the sitting of that Committee, I was in frequent com- 
 munication with him on the subject, and was indebted to him 
 
PREFACE. XXXV11 
 
 for much useful information previous to my examination before 
 it. Mr. Horsman did not then succeed, but subsequently he 
 had the satisfaction of having his views, to a great extent, 
 carried out in India : he was the first whom I consulted last 
 session of Parliament, in reference to the expediency of 
 making an endeavour to recall the recollection of the country 
 and the Legislature to the Act of 1844 ; and from the en- 
 couragement I received from him I was induced to make this 
 attempt, with what success time only will show. 
 
 November, 1864. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 PART I. THE NATION. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction Development of the Railway System Cost of Locomotion on 
 Railways High Charges compared with the Cost of Transit The 
 Cause of High Charges Difficulty of Companies in fixing their Fares 
 The Ascending and Descending Scales Effects of Competition on 
 Dividends - The Right of Companies to charge the best paying Fares-* 
 The Effect of High "Fares in preventing Travelling A Hostile Tariff in 
 England In what Sense Railways are a Monopoly Report of the Irish 
 Commission Financial Position of the Companies Receipts for 1863 
 Taxation of the Public Necessity of this Inquiry .... 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Jealousy of Government Interference in Commercial Undertakings The 
 Construction of Railways undertaken by Companies Opposition they 
 encountered in and out of Parliament Compensation to Landowners 
 Expenses of Parliamentary Contests Non-interference of Govern- 
 ment Parliamentary Committee of 1839 Their Report Legislative 
 Doubts Continental Railways Belgium France Germany Russia 
 Italy Spain 19 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Progress of Railway Mismanagement from 1840 to 1843 Treatment of 
 Third-Class Passengers Extract from the "Times," December, 1842 
 The Companies' Defence Classification of the Charges against the 
 Companies Their Reply .31 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Prosperous State of the Country in 1844 Stimulus to Railway Enterprise 
 Appointment of the Parliamentary Committee Their Reports 
 
 / Third-Class Passengers Parliamentary Trains Evidence of Mr. (now 
 Sir) Rowland Hill Opposition of Railway Companies to the Govern- 
 ment Bill Their Arrangement with Government The Three Funda- 
 mental Reforms projected by Government Sir Robert Peel and Mr. 
 Gladstone ..... 40 
 
xl CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PAGK 
 
 ? Evidence before the Parliamentary Committee of 1844 Mr. Laing, of the 
 Board of Trade Mr. Saunders, Secretary to the Great Western Rail- 
 way Company Mr. G. Carr G-lyn, Chairman of the London and 
 Birmingham Company Mr. Baxendale, Chairman of the South-Eastern 
 Company Mr. George Hudson Captain Laws, General Manager of 
 the Leeds and Manchester Railway Establishment of Parliamentary 
 Trains 50 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Difference between Public and Private Credit Cost of Mail and Stage 
 Coaches per Mile Cost of a Railway Train per Mile The various 
 Items of Expenditure Expense of carrying Passengers 100 Miles 
 Fares on Forty-two of the principal Railways in the Kingdom The 
 Highest, the Medium, and the Lowest Fares contrasted A Reduction 
 not to be expected Excursion Trains and Fares Legitimate Monopo- 
 lies, Patents and Copyright Quarrels of Companies The Working of 
 extremely low Fares exemplified Proposed Tariff Much lower Fares in 
 India Passenger Traffic for 1863 70 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Return for 1863 of " Goods Traffic" The Charges take the form of indirect 
 Taxation Charges for the different Classes of Merchandise Each Com- 
 pany has its own Tariff Complaints of the Carriers Cost to the Com- 
 panies of the Conveyance of Merchandise Conveyance of Coal to the 
 Metropolis Its Cost on the Great Eastern Railway Parcels, Packages, 
 and Hampers Proposed Tariff for their Conveyance Post Office 
 Military and Militia Stores 98 
 
 PART II. THE SHAREHOLDERS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Advantages possessed by the early Railway Projectors Their Success 
 Yalue of Railway Property in 1845 Amalgamation The Results of 
 Competition Quarrels of the great Companies Their Refusal to abide 
 by the Board of Trade's Recommendations The Effect on the Value 
 of their Shares The Benefit. to the Public from Competition Lower- 
 ing of the Fares throughout the Country Great Number of unnecessary 
 Lines constructed Government Plan defeated Results to the Share- 
 holders What they have now to consider 116 
 
CONTENTS. xli 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Effect of Competition Some Shareholders favourable to Free Trade 
 The Duty of Directors Necessity of opposing Competing Lines Com- 
 plaints against Directors Improved Position of Railway Promoters 
 New Class of Contractors Low Rate of Contracts Complaints of 
 Shareholders "A fair and reasonable Charge" Under the present 
 System Competition must continue Dislike of the English People to 
 Monopoly Battles of the Companies Extracts from the last Half- 
 yearly Reports of the great Companies Great Eastern Northern ^ 
 Junction before Parliament Railway Affairs in 1844, 1845, and| 
 1846 The Effects of great Prosperity may again be anticipated 
 Complaints against Parliament False Position of Shareholders 
 Struggles to maintain the present System Mr. Gladstone on the Intro- 
 duction of the Bill of 1844 A Shareholder at the South-Eastern 
 Meeting Appeal to the Directors . . . . . . .130 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Right of the Companies to promote the carrying into effect the Bill of 
 1844 Meaning of the Term "Purchase" of Railways by the State 
 Superior Value of Government Security over Private Security Its Effect 
 on the Market Value of Shares Clause of the Bill relating to Purchase 
 Different Modes by which it could be effected Amount of Bonus to 
 Shareholders The Capital, Revenue, and Dividends o the' Thirteen 
 Great Companies The assumed Bonus that the Legislature might be 
 induced to grant to each ......... 157 
 
 PART III. THE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The late Sir Robert Peel's Opposition to Government Interference in Com- 
 mercial Affairs Change of his Opinion in regard to Railways Extract ^ 
 from his Speech on the Second Reading of the Bill Improvement 
 in Railway Legislation Bills for Non-paying Lines at one time refused 
 Railways that would have been refused Legislative Sanction had the 
 Truth been known The Value of a Railway to its Shareholders no 
 Criterion of its Value to the Country The Manchester, Sheffield, and 
 Lincoln Company The Select Committee of the Two Houses of Parlia- 
 mentAssistance from the State in constructing Railways that will no 
 payCheaply constructed Railways Lord Campbell's Act Com- 
 paratively small Loss to Companies by Accidents Refreshment Rooms 170 
 
Xlii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. PAGE 
 
 The Post Office as managed in former Days Mr. Rowland Hill's Scheme 
 Evidence of Post-Office Officials before the Select Committee of the 
 House of Commons Evidence of Lord Overstone, Lord Ashburton, 
 and Mr. Cobden Cost of the Conveyance of a Letter Calculated 
 Increase System by which the Revenue was defrauded Free Trade 
 in carrying Letters considered A well-governed Monopoly in some 
 cases better than Free Trade Test of the Applicability of Free Trade 
 Principles The extreme Free Trade Principles applied to Railways 
 
 Our Commercial Policy since 1842 The Effect of direct Taxa- 
 tion What a past President of the Board of Trade has done What a 
 future Chancellor of the Exchequer may do The Post Office and 
 Railways compared 193 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Mr. Mill on the Functions of Government Grounds of Opposition to the 
 BiU of 1844 The Right of a Nation to act in its corporate Capacity- 
 Constitutional and practical Objections to increase of Government 
 Power and Patronage False Issue raised to the Bill by its Opponents 
 Sir Robert Peel and Mr. Gladstone opposed to the immediate Purchase 
 of Railways The Management when possessed by the State Their 
 direct Management by Government not advisable Their being leased 
 out to Companies considered The present Management, with some 
 Changes, preferred A general Board of Management to be formed 
 from the Railway Boards Plan analogous to that of our India 
 Government The influence of Legislators in creating and forming 
 Public Opinion . . 208 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Classification of the Groundwork of Railway Reform The two main Grounds 
 
 Different Charges in Fares on the London and Blackwall Railway 
 The last Change and its Results The Glasgow and Greenock Line . 
 The slight Difference in the Results between high and low Fares 
 Evidence before the Committee of 1844 on the Subject Railways into 
 London Displacement of the Poor Cheap Morning and Evening 
 Trains The Earl of Derby's Resolution in the House of Lords the 
 most important since the Introduction of Parliamentary Trains The 
 Effect of Government Purchase on the Money Market . . . .232 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Act of 1844 the Assertion of a Principle Two Modes of proceeding 
 under it A strong Case of Necessity required to be made out 
 Amount of Capital in Railways Percentage paid on it Preference 
 Shareholders and Bondholders Improbability of Shareholders being 
 disinclined to sell to Government Approaching Half-yearly Meetings 
 Continued War among the Companies Extract from the Westminster 
 Review Mr. Watkin on Government Purchase of Railways Favours 
 Scheme as a Director and Shareholder Opposes it as a Senator and 
 Citizen His Arguments Probable Appointment of a Royal Commission 
 considered ... 246 
 
CONTENTS. xliii 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Construction of New Lines laid out by Government Engineers and con- 
 structed by Contract Constructed nearly on the present Plan Joint 
 Parliamentary Committees of the two Houses preferable The Reduction 
 of Railway Charges a National Question Objections against its being 
 considered so The proper way of discussing the Question Reduction 
 of Charges amounts to Twenty-four Millions Sterling Centralization 
 When it is advantageous Distinction between Local Duties and those 
 of the State The Post Office Objections of the Railway Press con- 
 sideredReductions on the Blackwall and Brighton Companies Future 
 Value of Railways Exchange of Shares for Stock HerapatKs Objec- 
 tions considered Ireland a convenient Field for trial of Government 
 Control 269 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Railway Receipts in 1865 An Agreement with the Companies to Reduce 
 their Charges The Justice of a Payment to the Companies for that 
 Purpose The Extent of Railways throughout the Kingdom All 
 Classes should derive Benefit from a Reduction in Fares and Freightage 
 Arbitrary Charges in the Tariff for Merchandise Adam Smith 
 Payment to the Companies compared to the Income Tax The direct 
 and indirect Advantages of a Reduction in Fares and Freightage 
 Extract from Mr. Mill's "Political Economy" Committee of the 
 House of Commons Experiments Suggested Conclusion Resume . 288 
 
 APPENDIX I. THE RAILWAY SYSTEM. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Thomas Gray the first Projector of Railways for the Conveyance of Passengers 
 and Goods His Scheme for a " General Iron Railway " for the King- 
 dom His Endeavours to have it adopted His Failure and Death 
 The celebrated Article in the Quarterly Review of 1825 on Railways 
 The Injustice done to the Reviewer A Resume of the Article . .313 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Construction of Railways The Smooth Tracks in Northern Italy First 
 Tramroads in the Neighbourhood of Newcastle Tramways at the Close 
 of the Seventeenth Century Roger North's Description of them to his 
 Brother, Lord Guildford Derivation of the word "Tram" George 
 Stephenson The Narrow, the Medium, and the Broad Gauges History 
 of the Locomotive The Marquis of Worcester Watt Trevithick . 323 
 
xliv CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Nineteenth Century George Stephenson Mr. Smiles' "Life of 
 Stephenson " Killingworth High Pit The Stockton and Darlington 
 Railway The Liverpool and Manchester Railway The great Difficulties 
 to be overcome in its Construction "Navvies" Trial of Locomotives 
 on the Liverpool and Manchester Line Lord Brougham's Speech on its 
 Opening The Success of the Undertaking established .... 333 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Progress of Railway Enterprise The London and Birmingham Line Great 
 Difficulties in its Construction The Kilsby Tunnel Robert Stephenson 
 Brunei The Electric Telegraph Compensation for Land Charges 
 against Landowners Their Answer Mr. Pease Robert Stephenson 
 lectures before the Institute of Civil Engineers The Grand Junction 
 Railway Contractors Thomas Brassey The various Developments of 
 the Contract System Sir Morton Peto 340 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Railway Taxation Its Impolicy and Injustice The Great Western The 
 London and South -Western The London and Greenwich The South- 
 Eastern The London and Croydon Parliamentary Contest for the 
 Brighton Line The London and Woolwich The London and Essex 
 The Eastern Counties . 353 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Railway Legislation Mr. Morrison's Motion The Session of 1836 The 
 first of the two Railway Manias The Edinburgh Review How Schemes 
 were got up The Reaction Committee of the House of Commons in 
 1837 Lord Seymour's Act Mr. Gladstone's Act of 1842 The Clear- 
 ing House Railway Department of the Board of Trade Accidents 
 The Act of 1844 The Mania of 1845 and its Results . 364 
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 STATISTICAL AND FINANCIAL SKETCH OF OUR RAILWAYS .... 371 
 
 APPENDIX III. 
 
 CLAUSES OP THE GENERAL RAILWAY BILL OP 1844 RELATING TO THE 
 
 PURCHASE OF RAILWAYS BY GOVERNMENT . 384 
 
 APPENDIX IV. 
 
 MR. GLADSTONE'S SPEECH, JULY 8, 1844, ON THE SECOND READING OP THE 
 
 GOVERNMENT RAILWAY BILL . . 391 
 
KAIL WAY REFORM: 
 
 ITS IMPORTANCE AND PEACTICAEILITY CONSIDEKED. 
 
 PART I. THE NATION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Introduction Development of the Railway System Cost of Locomo- 
 tion on Railways High Charges compared with the Cost of Transit 
 The Cause of High Charges Difficulty of Companies in fixing 
 their Fares The Ascending and Descending Scales Effects of 
 Competition on Dividends The Right of Companies to charge the 
 best paying Fares The Effect of High Fares in preventing Tra- 
 velling A Hostile Tariff in England In what Sense Railways 
 are a Monopoly Report of the Irish Commission Financial 
 Position of the Companies Receipts for 1863 Taxation of the 
 Public Necessity of this Inquiry. 
 
 I PURPOSE in the following pages to discuss the theory and 
 practice of the railway system as established in this country ; to 
 analyze the principles on which it is founded, and develope 
 their results ; to consider how far its practical working has 
 proved advantageous to the shareholders on the one hand 
 and to the public on the other; and, lastly, to examine the pos- 
 sibility of effecting an organic change, by which the share- 
 holders would obtain a more secure return for their invested 
 capital, and the public derive a still greater benefit than they 
 now enjoy from the existing organization. 
 
 The railway system, developed as it has been in this country, 
 presents the most wonderful combination of professional skill 
 and commercial enterprise that the world has ever witnessed 
 
 B 
 
either in ancient or modern times. Little more than thirty 
 years have elapsed since the extended construction of railways 
 commenced, when the work accomplished hy the locomo- 
 tive, as first displayed on the Liverpool and Manchester line, 
 gave assurance to the world that the new POWER come into 
 existence would, in the conveyance of passengers and goods 
 throughout the kingdom, supersede hoth the stage coach and 
 the waggon, which may now be considered as the relics of a 
 bygone age, when locomotion was in its infancy, and the 
 power of steam comparatively unknown. 
 
 There are few subjects of more importance to us than that 
 which relates to the facilities of transit the conveyance of 
 passengers and goods throughout the country at the maximum 
 of speed and minimum of cost ; and whilst we have gone on 
 day by day extending, by those mighty instruments of civiliza- 
 tion the steam-engine and the railway the means of accom- 
 plishing this good, we appear, by an acquiescence in the present 
 system of management, to have assumed that no improvement 
 is wanted nor any change required. 
 
 The practical application of steam to the useful purposes of 
 life was a gigantic step in the progress of the arts and sciences, 
 and may be justly said to have marked a new era in the history 
 of mankind ; few discoveries in physical truth have been at- 
 tended with more important results, or promise in their future 
 development to produce such mighty changes over the face of 
 the civilized globe. Amongst the various purposes to which 
 this power has been applied, that of locomotion in connection 
 with railways is by far the most important. No application of 
 any discovery in science has, within the same period, produced 
 such astonishing results as those which we see daily and hourly 
 in the conveyance of passengers and goods on railways. Effects 
 are now witnessed, which, had they been narrated forty years 
 since, would only have been admitted into the pages of fiction or 
 volumes of romance. Who could have credited the possibility 
 of a ponderous engine of iron, loaded with some hundreds of 
 
passengers, in a train of carriages of corresponding magnitude, 
 and a large quantity of water and coke, taking flight from Lon- 
 don and arriving at Liverpool, a distance of two hundred miles, 
 in five or six hours ? The rapidity of transport thus attained 
 is not less wonderful than the weight transported. Its capa- 
 bilities in this respect far transcend the exigencies even of the 
 two greatest commercial marts in Great Britain ; loads varying 
 from 50 to 100 tons are transported at the rate of 40 or 50 miles 
 an hour, and loads of 200 or 300 tons can he transported 
 by the locomotive with equal ease, although at a reduced speed. 
 The circumstances under which the steam-engine is worked on 
 a railway are not favourable to the economy of fuel ; neverthe- 
 less, a pound of coke burned in a locomotive engine will evapo- 
 rate five pints of water; in this evaporation a mechanical 
 force is developed sufficient to draw two tons weight on the 
 railway a distance of one mile in two minutes ! The same 
 weight in a stage coach on a common road, would require four 
 horses, and occupy six minutes. 
 
 The transport of a train of coaches weighing about 80 tons, and 
 holding 240 passengers, from Liverpool to Birmingham and 
 back again, a distance of somewhat less than 200 miles, the trip 
 each way occupying about three hours and a half, is effected 
 by the mechanical force produced by the combustion of four 
 tons of coke, the value of which is about Jive pounds. To 
 carry the same number of passengers daily between the same 
 places by stage coaches on a common road would require 
 twenty coaches and an establishment of 380 horses, whilst the 
 journey in each direction would not be performed in less than 
 twelve hours, stoppages included.* Such are the wonderful 
 economical results of the application of steam as a motive 
 power, in the transport of passengers and merchandise on 
 railways. 
 
 But then comes this strange anomaly : although the cost of 
 transport has been thus reduced to less than the one twentieth 
 
 * Dr. Lardner on the Steam Engine. 
 
 B 2 
 
part of what it was by stage coaches in days gone by, the 
 average fares by railways are more than the one-half of what 
 they formerly were by coaches. The accommodation, the rapid- 
 ity of motion, the ease and comfort of travelling, are incom- 
 parably increased, and any man who would attempt to depreciate 
 these advantages would be unworthy to enjoy them. But we are 
 speaking now of the financial part of the question ; the violation 
 of the laws of common sense, as well as of political economy : 
 these prescribe that reduction in price should follow in due 
 proportion to the reduction in cost, and these laws are grossly 
 violated in the working of our railway system. A low rate of 
 transit, so far as relates to the expenditure of railway compa- 
 nies, is established throughout the kingdom, from which the 
 public, for causes we shall endeavour to investigate, derive but 
 partial benefit. To the companies the expenditure per train 
 per mile is nearly uniform ; but the case is very different in 
 regard to their charges to the public. Nothing, apparently, can 
 be more capricious or less governed by any fixed principle than 
 their several tariffs. For the highest class passengers the fares 
 vary between one halfpenny and threepence halj -penny 'per mile; 
 and for the lowest, between one farthing tm&one penny per mile ; 
 if the low tariff were universally, instead of partially and in very 
 rare cases, adopted throughout the kingdom, there would not 
 be much cause of complaint, or necessity for any change 
 in our system. Occasionally, the companies, as it may suit 
 their interests not that the public have any right to 
 demand it give days of grace and holiday, and permit the 
 populace, who rush in crowds, to avail themselves of the 
 privilege, to travel at about one-third of the ordinary fares. 
 The lowest fare for which any company is obliged to convey 
 each passenger per mile is one penny, and that only once 
 each way per day ; but on these special occasions and 
 they happen frequently during the summer the " excursion 
 trains," as they are called, convey passengers at very low fares 
 compared with the ordinary traffic fares at the rate, for the 
 
lowest class, of three, four, or five miles for a penny, and the 
 other classes at proportionate charges. 
 
 What, then, is the cause of the high fares charged on most 
 lines ? the great expense incurred in their construction ? It 
 cannot he that ; for, as a general rule, we shall find, when we 
 come to look closely into the matter, that the cheapest carrying 
 railways in the kingdom are precisely those which have the 
 heaviest works and been constructed at an enormous expense. It 
 might be supposed, however, that those lines whose construction 
 has cost comparatively little would be those which would carry 
 at the lowest fares. So far from this being the case, we shall 
 find that those companies whose lines were most cheaply con- 
 structed charge, in many cases, double the fares of the most 
 dearly constructed lines. Is it, then, the difference of gradients 
 on the several lines, and the increased cost of conveyance on 
 those lines whose gradients are bad ? Nothing of the kind ; 
 the difference in expense is utterly inappreciable in reference to 
 the fare of a passenger. From none of these causes does the 
 difference in fares arise ; it proceeds from a cause widely differ- 
 ent, and that cause is expressed by the one word MONOPOLY. 
 
 Our railways are in the sole possession of companies, that, \/ 
 with certain limitations, which are very wide, and exceptions, 
 which are very few, have the complete control and management 
 of our inland transport. They fought very hard to attain their 
 present position, in and out of Parliament, with landowners and 
 each other, till they obtained their respective bills, and they never 
 have been on the best terms with the public. Thirteen large 
 companies monopolize about three-fourths of the railway traffic 
 of the kingdom, and above sixty smaller ones divide amongst 
 them the remaining fourth. All these companies are managed 
 by boards of directors, composed generally of men of high 
 social and commercial position, and well qualified to fulfil tho 
 duties of their office. These gentlemen hold respectively those 
 highways of the kingdom as a trust to be exercised, not for the 
 benefit of the general community, but solely for the profit of the 
 
shareholders, to whom the railways exclusively belong, and by 
 whom alone they are paid for their services. The companies are 
 under no pecuniary obligations whatever to the State ; they have 
 received neither subvention from the Legislature, nor assistance 
 or special protection from the Government ; and if, in the early 
 days of railway progress the projectors of our great trunk lines 
 were received with open arms by the landed proprietors, and wel- 
 comed as public benefactors, ungratefully they record it not ! 
 The directors, therefore, of the companies manage the railways 
 with one view, and one view only to obtain the greatest profit 
 for their shareholders, without any more regard to the interests 
 of the public than is necessary for effecting that object. 
 
 We have already noticed the wide range of fares adopted by 
 the several companies, commencing as low as one halfpenny per 
 mile for first- class passengers, and increasing by small fractional 
 additions, till the highest fare of threepence halfpenny per mile is 
 reached, and in the same proportion with the other classes. Thus 
 we shall find that in some cases the lowest fares produce a greater 
 profit than the highest ; but it is one of the most remarkable 
 phenomena of railway statistics, and one we shall have occasion 
 to illustrate at some length, that within the range of fares 
 adopted by the companies, the actual profit varies but compa- 
 ratively little, whether a high, low, or medium fare be adopted. 
 Every one will readily enough understand the great increase 
 of passengers that results from a considerable reduction 
 in fares, and the reverse when an opposite policy is pursued ; 
 but few persons would believe, who have not directed their 
 attention to the subject, what a comparatively small difference 
 it makes in a financial point of view when, from some cause, 
 there comes a sudden change in the policy of a company, and 
 low fares are substituted for high fares, or the reverse; never- 
 theless, there is a difference, quite sufficient to govern the 
 policy of a company. 
 
 It was at one time a matter of some nicety and considerable 
 anxiety to a board of directors, when a line was opened, to 
 
fix the fares at the exact point that would best pay. The opera- 
 tion was performed somewhat in the same manner as an habitue 
 of the Opera adjusts his opera- glass to his sight ; by alter- 
 nately extending and contracting it till his glass is at the exact 
 focus. On the same principle directors ascertained the precise 
 point in their sliding-scale at which their tariff would best pay, 
 and that knowledge was only to be acquired by going through 
 the process of alternately raising and lowering the fares until it 
 was ascertained. When directors were well advised and exer- 
 cised due care and judgment before they fixed their tariff, very 
 few changes were necessary, and unless from the opening of 
 a competing line, or some other extraneous cause, the fares re- 
 mained with little or no alteration for many years. The scale of 
 fares naturally depends on the character of the population whose 
 wants the railway supplies. Their general social position and 
 many other circumstances now enable the clear-headed manager 
 to decide at once on the best paying fares, or, at all events, go 
 very near the mark, and recommend them to his board accord- 
 ingly, so that very few changes are afterwards required. It 
 was very different, however, in the early history of railways, 
 when managers had but little experience to guide them in fixing 
 the fares, and thought the tariff that paid best in one locality 
 should pay best in all others. With railways that, paid fair 
 dividends the changes in fares were not very great, seldom ex- 
 ceeding 10 or 20 per cent. ; but it was very different with the 
 unfortunate class that paid very low dividends ; the directors, 
 attributing their want of success to not having charged the best 
 paying fares, made the most extreme and sudden changes, in 
 order to find them out. The tariff would be reduced 30, 40, or 
 50 per cent., or tried the other way, and raised 50 or, in some 
 cases, 100 per cent. We shall find, when we go into these cases, 
 this curious result, from all these changes that let the directors 
 alter their fares as they would make them high, low, or moderate 
 change them from threepence per mile for first class to three 
 farthings, or one penny per mile to one farthing for third class, 
 
8 
 
 the difference in dividend to the shareholders was comparatively 
 small, seldom exceeding a half per cent, per annum. That 
 difference, however small in itself, was of considerable conse- 
 quence to the shareholder, not merely as regards the income, 
 but its effect on the market price of shares, every pound of 
 income representing about twenty pounds of capital. 
 
 Some boards commenced with low fares, and gradually 
 increased them till the highest paying point was attained. Let 
 us suppose a case in which the directors think that the first- 
 class fare should not exceed one penny per mile, and the other 
 classes in due proportion ; but find that such a tariff pays only 4 
 per cent, per annum. Not being satisfied, they double their fares, 
 and find that pays 4f per cent. ; they hope still better to improve 
 their position, and add 50 per cent, more to their fares, but the 
 increase reduces their dividend to 4 per cent. ; by a few more 
 trials they soon ascertain the best paying point, which, perhaps, 
 turns out to be an addition of 20 per cent, instead of 50 per 
 cent, to the second tariff trial. Let us take now the descending 
 scale. The directors of another company, we will suppose, 
 believing that high fares would pay best, charge threepence 
 per mile for first class, and the others in proportion ; these fares 
 they find pay them at the rate of 5 per cent, per annum, 
 with which, however, they are not satisfied. They reduce 
 their fares 33 per cent., and they find that reduction raises 
 their dividend to 5i per cent. ; thus enSouraged, they make 
 another reduction, and reduce these last fares 50 per cent. : 
 this actually raises their dividend to 5| per cent. They go 
 on and reduce another 50 per cent., but they find now they 
 have gone beyond the mark, for their dividend is reduced to 
 5 j per cent., so they come to the right conclusion being some- 
 where between the present and the last charged fares, the exact 
 point they soon discover, and slightly raise their fares 
 till they find that three farthings per mile for first class, and 
 one halfpenny for second class, for the whole length of their 
 Jjne, return tickets at a fare and a half, and slightly increased 
 
9 
 
 charges for shorter distances, pay them 6 per cent. These 
 are the fares now charged, 6 per cent, being the dividend paid, 
 on the North London line. There are, however, very few rail- 
 ways in the kingdom but would lose considerably as compared 
 with their present earnings, by carrying their ordinary first-class 
 passengers at three farthings per mile, instead of twopence or 
 twopence halfpenny, the usual charge ; their second class at 
 a halfpenny per mile instead of three halfpence ; and their third, 
 at one farthing per mile instead of one penny. 
 
 We all have known of violent contests extending over 
 a considerable length of time, having taken place between 
 different companies, and the fares being suddenly reduced to 
 one-third or one-fourth of their ordinary rates. Some of us 
 may possibly have lived in districts where the public have derived 
 the advantages arising from such contests. What rejoicing it 
 caused for the time being ! The two companies, like desperate 
 opponents, appeared only intent on each other's ruin, and the 
 people rushed in crowds to avail themselves of the short-lived 
 opportunity of cheap travelling the contest afforded them. The 
 companies appeared to differ only from the old opposition coaches, 
 in not giving their passengers a dinner and a bottle of wine 
 gratis, after conveying them for almost nothing ! Few persons 
 who have seen or heard of this ever troubled themselves 
 to inquire what was the result, as it affected the companies 
 financially. Such an* extreme and sudden change in the policy 
 of a company either by raising or lowering its fares is always 
 attended with bad results to the shareholders, because it may be 
 safely assumed that the several companies have settled down to 
 their most profitable scale of fares, and that either to raise 
 or lower those fares to any great extent would produce a serious 
 loss. The London and North- Western Company, for instance, 
 in 1863 paid 5 2s. 6d. per cent, to their proprietors, but if the 
 fares were reduced to one- third of what they now charge, their 
 annual dividend might at first be reduced to 4 per cent, per 
 annum, a large reduction, representing a loss in the market 
 
10 
 
 value on each 100 share of %2 10s. The greatest loss, 
 however, that I have been able to trace to any company 
 by a change of policy was that caused by a sudden re- 
 duction of four '-fifths in their fares: the loss in that case 
 amounted to one per cent, dividend per annum on their capital. 
 To ascertain the loss companies would incur in their divi- 
 dends by any assumed reduction in their fares, when all the 
 data are furnished, would be a matter of little difficulty to any 
 well- skilled manager of a railway. 
 
 There is, however, another party who have some inte- 
 rest in the matter, not only in the fares of the London and 
 North- Western Company, but in the fares of all the railways 
 in the kingdom, and that very large party is the PUBLIC ; who 
 have no voice or influence, either direct or indirect, in the matter, 
 by themselves individually, or their representatives, nor, under 
 the present system, have a right to require any reduction in 
 the fares on a railway more than they have a right to require 
 their grocer or baker to reduce the price of their tea and their 
 loaf. It is a part of our recognized policy to grant to private 
 individuals the possession of these great arteries of communi- 
 cation which monopolize the conveyance of passengers and 
 goods throughout the country, and they who exercise the 
 trust on behalf of the shareholders find themselves obliged, in 
 the exercise of their duty, to exclude at least three-fourths of 
 those who have occasion to travel. It is universally acknow- 
 ledged that the first step from barbarism towards civilization 
 is shown by the construction of public roads, and that in pro- 
 portion as the facilities for intercourse throughout a country is 
 extended its happiness and prosperity are increased. In no country 
 in the world has such an enormous expenditure been incurred 
 as in Great Britain within the last thirty-five years, in making 
 public highways of the best construction, and with all the 
 modern improvements. Mountains have been bored through 
 with incredible labour and expense ; viaducts have been carried 
 over deep valleys and wide rivers ; the treacherous moss that 
 
11 
 
 scarcely a sheep could venture to cross, now bears in safety the 
 ponderous train, drawn by the swift flying locomotive. But 
 that train, ponderous as it may appear, is comparatively empty ; 
 it conveys but fifty or sixty passengers; whilst, without any 
 diminution in its speed or increase in its expense, three or four 
 times that number might be seated in its carriages. There is 
 the merchant who has business to transact ; there is the trader 
 who would fain go and personally select his own goods at the 
 best market; there are the mechanic and the labourer with whom 
 work is dull at home, but who know where it is brisk abroad ; 
 there is the invalid who would seek health, and the man of 
 the world who only travels for recreation or pleasure : all are 
 stopped by a HOSTILE TARIFF. 
 
 Yet it sounds very odd a hostile tariff in free England ! 
 If there is any country on the face of the earth where one 
 might suppose every facility would be given to promote the 
 utmost freedom of transit where there would be no endurance 
 of any artificial hindrance to the extension of trade and com- 
 merce where a people would be the most determined to abolish 
 any laws that trammelled their free intercourse with the most 
 remote districts that country we should certainly suppose to 
 be England. It has been said, and with great truth, that 
 England hates monopoly, and what we have to consider in 
 these pages is, whether under the specious disguise of free 
 trade a monopoly has not established itself among us of the 
 most pernicious nature, which has had the effect of greatly 
 enhancing the cost of transit, and depriving the country of 
 the manifold advantages that under a sound system of manage- 
 ment it would otherwise enjoy. 
 
 We are told that the most elaborate and recherche mode of 
 dressing a cucumber should only be made use of as a pre- 
 liminary to throwing it out of the window ; and on the same 
 principle may our railways be said to have been constructed, and 
 afterwards left unused. There was nothing that genius could 
 invent, or capital and labour supply, that has been spared in 
 
12 
 
 their construction ; but who planned them made them and 
 undertook to manage them ? Not the representatives of the 
 State, but the commercial class of speculators and capitalists. 
 
 Public opinion in this country declared at the outset, when 
 the necessity of constructing railways was established, that it 
 was of paramount necessity that no time should be lost ; and 
 without the importance of the step being duly considered, or 
 the vast difference that existed between the high roads of a 
 country and all other works of a quasi public nature being 
 taken into account, the construction of our railways was, not 
 undertaken by the State, but left open to any party who might 
 be able to get up a company and succeed in obtaining their 
 bill. The agreement between the Legislature and the companies 
 might be thus summarily stated : The companies were not to 
 receive any subvention or assistance of any kind from the State, 
 either directly in money, or indirectly by assistance in obtaining 
 land or by any protection from opposing lines, or by any reduction 
 in the heavy Parliamentary charges to be incurred in obtaining 
 their respective bills ; on the other hand, the companies selected 
 what districts they thought best for their operations, and fought 
 their way as they best could, till they obtained their bills. They 
 were allowed, in order to indemnify themselves for the enormous 
 expenses they were thus put to, to charge the public more than 
 twenty times what it cost themselves, for the conveyance of 
 passengers and merchandise ; they were not obliged to adopt 
 a uniform tariff: each company chose its own, according to 
 its peculiar circumstances. The results we have already de- 
 scribed. The old channels of communication throughout the 
 country were thus superseded, and to the companies was granted 
 a monopoly of the new a monopoly the most extensive, as it 
 stretched out on every side over the whole face of the land, 
 and the most injurious that could be conceived to the public 
 good, as it placed the community in the power of irresponsible 
 parties to tax them ad libitum, without any possibility of appeal. 
 
 Although we use the term "monopoly," as applied to rail- 
 
13 
 
 way companies, it must be remembered that they have none 
 by law ; their monopoly only arises from the superior excel- 
 lence of their conveyance, by which every opponent is driven from 
 the common road. The commission appointed many years 
 since, before railways were introduced into Ireland, for the pur- 
 pose of inquiring into the expediency of their being constructed 
 by the State in that country, drew out a long and able report 
 on the subject, which was presented to both Houses of Par- 
 liament. After describing the manifold blessings which the 
 full development of the resources of a country bestows on all 
 classes, the report points out, in forcible language, the jarring 
 interests of private monopoly and public good where companies 
 and not the State are the holders of railway property. " So 
 great are the powers," says the Eeport, " so vast the capabili- 
 ties of a railway, that it must, wherever established, at once 
 supersede the common road ; and not only will all the public 
 conveyances now in use disappear, but even the means of post- 
 ing will, in all probability, rapidly decline, and eventually, 
 perhaps, cease to be found along its line. Its superiority is 
 too manifest and decided to admit of rivalry, it possessing 
 almost unlimited means of accommodation. No amount of 
 traffic exists on any road, or is likely to exist, which a single 
 railway is not capable of conveying ; no concourse of passengers 
 which it cannot promptly dispose of. The velocity of the 
 locomotive, when impelled even at a very considerable reduc- 
 tion of its full power, surpasses the greatest speed which the 
 best appointed coach, on the best made road, can attain. The 
 monopoly of the railway is complete from the moment of the 
 railway's opening. The salutary dread of competition can never 
 stir the activity or ruffle the repose of the railway monopolist, 
 who finds himself in a moment invested with despotic power, 
 to which the best interests of society must succumb. Private 
 enterprise, of course, selects for the field of exertion those 
 portions of the kingdom where the most extensive intercourse 
 promises the largest profit. The main avenues throughout 
 
14 
 
 the country cease to be the property of the State, and are 
 handed over to the absolute possession of monopolists, placed 
 beyond the reach of rivalry or control. They are enabled to 
 establish a monopoly in the most extensive sense, and to keep 
 the intercourse of the country entirely at their command. The 
 rate of speed, the choice of hours for departing, the number of 
 journeys in a day, rest at their discretion; and, as they have 
 the unlimited right for fixing the charges for the conveyance of 
 both passengers and goods, then they have an opportunity of 
 repaying themselves not only for the legitimate cost of con- 
 structing and maintaining the railway, but for all the heavy 
 expenditure incurred either through their own extravagance or 
 in consequence of the various impositions practised upon them. 
 Thus every item of unnecessary expense falls eventually on the 
 public." 
 
 It is just twenty-five years since the report, of which the 
 above is an extract, was presented to Parliament, but it was 
 not followed by any beneficial results. It is no easy matter to 
 change, or even to essentially modify, the traditional policy of a 
 country, and the policy of this country was, and is, to leave, with- 
 out exception, our great industrial undertakings to private enter- 
 prise. Nevertheless, the laws of England are not like those of 
 the Medes and Persians. We shall find, in the course of our in- 
 quiries, that many of our statesmen and legislators are far in 
 advance of the public mind on this subject. We shall discover, 
 also, many reasons which have prevented the attention of the 
 people generally being directed to this subject ; and, if it can be 
 made clear to those who possess their confidence that the 
 management of our railways should be an exceptional case to our 
 general commercial policy, and that a change may be effected, 
 by which increased security would be given to the shareholder, 
 and the Legislature enabled to reduce the fares to less than a 
 third of their present average rates, the support of able and 
 influential men may be calculated on in furthering any project 
 that would produce such a result. 
 
15 
 
 When we remember that it is the recognized policy of this 
 country to allow the companies to choose whatever scale of fares 
 pays them best, it can be no just matter of complaint against 
 them, that they exercise that right to the fullest extent. There 
 may be reason for complaint against some of the companies 
 in other matters, but not in that relating to fares. When the 
 directors lower their fares or raise them, it is from the same motive 
 to increase their profits ; and as they have received no favour 
 either from the State or the public, they consequently look to 
 no interests but their own. Take an ordinary case in travelling : 
 you have been accustomed, we shall say, to use, on some par- 
 ticular line, a second-class carriage ; the accommodation was 
 pretty good, and the fare reasonable. But a change occurs : the 
 fare is raised, the accommodation is worse, and you write indig- 
 nantly to the newspapers. But why should you complain ? The 
 directors have no wish to inconvenience the public. They only 
 intend the changes in the second class as a civil hint for you to 
 travel by the first. You are not obliged to travel at all on the line 
 if you don't like. You say you are ; you have no other means of 
 getting to your destination. That may be a very good reason 
 for your asking the Legislature to effect, if possible, an arrange- 
 ment with the companies, by which you will acquire a right to 
 complain ; but so long as railways are, in one sense, private 
 property, and the directors, in endeavouring to make the greatest 
 profit by them, do not violate the law, there can be no just 
 cause of complaint. 
 
 But have the companies, armed with the great powers they 
 possess, holding the public completely within their grasp, regu- 
 lating at will, by their tariffs, the vast traffic that daily ebbs 
 and flows to and from the extremities of the kingdom have 
 they, in the undisturbed possession, for more than thirty years, 
 of the most gigantic monopoly the world ever saw, been very 
 successful ? Far from it. Within the last few years their 
 affairs, from exceptional causes, have considerably improved. 
 The average dividends of all the companies, for the year ending 
 
16 
 
 the 31st Dec., 1863, was considerably less than four per cent., 
 and I think we shall find, in the course of this inquiry, 
 that they may have reason to fear that their position is not by 
 any means secure, and their future dividends liable to be con- 
 siderably decreased by the encouragement given by the public 
 to the formation of new companies. It is, therefore, not at 
 all unlikely that, as a body, they would be willing to come to 
 equitable terms with Government, and, for the sake of a secure 
 dividend under Government guarantee, accept a much less 
 dividend than that which they now receive, so that from the 
 saving thereby effected a low and uniform rate of fares could 
 be established throughout the kingdom. 
 
 Let us consider for a moment the load of railway taxation 
 under which this country labours. Last year it amounted 
 to the enormous sum of THIRTY-ONE MILLIONS ONE HUN- 
 DRED AND FIFTY-SIX THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED AND NINETY- 
 SEVEN POUNDS STERLING, fully six millions in excess of the 
 sum required to pay the interest on the whole of our national 
 debt, or more than five millions in excess of our customs duty, 
 and, excluding the income tax, just equal to the half of all 
 our other taxation combined. Twenty years ago our railway 
 taxation amounted only to about five millions sterling; ten 
 years ago it had increased to more than treble that sum ; and 
 since that time the average increase per annum has been about 
 a million and a half. The number of miles open for traffic at 
 the close of 1863 was 12,322, and the annual increase varies 
 generally from 300 to 500 miles. But so far from there being 
 any tendency towards a decline in the construction of railways, 
 we find that they go on continually increasing ; and in 1863 
 bills were passed for the construction of 790 miles, not to 
 speak of a still greater number rejected. It is impossible, 
 therefore, to form any estimate as to what amount our rail- 
 way taxation will ultimately reach. It is very possible that, 
 long before we have reached the end of the present century, 
 our railway taxation will have fully equalled all our other 
 
17 
 
 taxation combined. Under these circumstances, it will be 
 fully admitted that it is impossible to over-estimate the im- 
 portance of a thorough investigation into this subject in all 
 its bearings. 
 
 Objection may, perhaps, be taken to the term "taxation," 
 as applied to the payments made to railway companies, on the 
 ground of such payments being voluntary, but the same 
 argument might be applied to all Government taxes. We 
 paid, last year, in postage 3,600,000; but that was all 
 in " voluntary " payments. No one obliged us, in the first 
 instance, to write letters ; and if we chose to write them, we 
 were not compelled to send them by post, we might have 
 forwarded them by special messenger. The absolute neces- 
 saries of life are untaxed ; but tea, coffee, sugar, malt, 
 tobacco, spirits, and wine, however much they may add to 
 our comfort and enjoyment, do not come strictly within this 
 category; the bulk of our indirect taxation is derived from 
 the revenue produced by their consumption, and the pay- 
 ment, therefore, by us of that revenue is altogether " voluntary." 
 So, in regard to railway companies, it may be said, and quite 
 truly, that our payments to them are voluntary. That cannot be 
 denied. If we require to travel, we can either walk, hire a car- 
 riage, or go by railway, and we take our choice accordingly ; 
 but as we agree to use the term " taxation" in the payments we 
 make to Government, we may, in the same sense, use it in those 
 we make to railway companies. There is, however, a wide 
 difference in the principles on which State taxation and railway 
 taxation are founded, and their respective payments enforced, 
 which we have already noticed, but shall have occasion to con- 
 sider, in some detail, in these pages. 
 
 I have, in the Preface and in this preliminary chapter, suffi- 
 ciently indicated the general purport of this inquiry, to 
 enable the reader to form a judgment of its importance and 
 the desirability of some change. So far from there being 
 anything novel in the suggestion of the purchase of our 
 
18 
 
 railways by the State, we shall find, as I have intimated in 
 the Preface, that it has been strongly recommended to the 
 Legislature by men of the greatest experience and ability ; 
 that the most important evidence has been given on the sub- 
 ject before Parliamentary Committees ; and that, during the ad- 
 ministration of the late Sir Robert Peel, an Act was passed 
 in 1844 enabling the Government, if they thought fit, after 
 the expiration of 21 years, to purchase the railway property of 
 the kingdom on certain terms therein specified. As the period 
 when the Legislature would be free to act, has now almost 
 arrived, it is in every way desirable that the subject should be 
 thoroughly ventilated the facts, figures, and arguments bear- 
 ing on the case gone into and the thirty years' experience 
 we have had in the working of our railways turned to profitable 
 account. 
 
19 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Jealousy of Government Interference in Commercial Undertakings 
 The Construction of Railways undertaken by Companies Opposi- 
 tion they encountered in and out of Parliament Compensation to 
 Landowners Expenses of Parliamentary Contests Non-inter- 
 ference of Government Parliamentary Committee of 1839 Their 
 Report Legislative Doubts Continental Railways Belgium 
 France Germany Russia Italy Spain . 
 
 HAVING in the foregoing chapter given some idea of the evils 
 complained of in the working of our railways, and endeavoured 
 to show that from their nature they were inherent in the 
 system we have adopted, we shall now proceed to notice the 
 difficulties that the early promoters had to contend with, and 
 the obstacles to overcome, before they obtained their respective 
 Acts : thence we shall trace the progress of our legislation to 
 the parliamentary session of 1844, when the abuse of power, 
 together with the increasing strength and contemplated amalga- 
 mation of the companies, rendered the interference of the 
 Legislature necessary. 
 
 There is no class of the community to whom the public are 
 more indebted than to that enterprising class of speculators 
 and capitalists who first undertook the construction of our 
 railways. Our own system if such it could be called grew up 
 without either order or method from within, or control or guid- 
 ance from without. The commercial policy of this country, ever 
 jealous of the interference of Government in matters of trade, 
 having considered these great industrial works merely in that )( 
 light, forbade any attempt on the part of the executive either to 
 render any assistance to, or exercise any but the slightest 
 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 supervision over, the new schemes as they started into ex- 
 istence. It was left entirely to enterprising speculators 
 and wealthy capitalists to take up what districts they thought 
 proper, to employ surveyors and engineers, in laying out 
 lines, who ran the risk of being treated as trespassers in 
 taking hurried surveys on lands, to which their owners denied 
 them access; and many amusing stories are told of the 
 adventures of these knight-errants. These impediments, 
 however, were hut the preliminary difficulties which the 
 early projectors of railways had to encounter. The Govern- 
 ment and Legislature declined to give assistance, direct 
 or indirect, in support of any line ; and as the opposition of 
 any considerable landed proprietor, whose property would be 
 affected by the railway, would be fatal, success could only be 
 secured by paying such enormous fines, under the name of 
 compensation, as the owners of the land thought proper to 
 demand, or the project had to be abandoned. The Eastern 
 Counties Company had to pay, in one instance, above 120,000 
 for lands not worth 5,000; and this company, in consequence 
 of this and similar acts of imposition, to which it was obliged 
 to submit before obtaining its Act, is scarcely able to pay now 
 2 per cent, per annum to its shareholders. This is but an in- 
 stance of what happened, in a greater or less degree, to all other 
 companies in the early days of railway construction. 
 
 But the projectors of a railway almost invariably found, on 
 their first introduction to a parliamentary committee, after the 
 lords of the soil and other interested parties had been settled 
 with on their own terms, that they generally had to meet 
 several competitors for the same prize : there were one or more 
 rival lines proposed between the same towns, and enormous 
 expenses were incurred in the contest for victory. From 
 London to Brighton no less than four lines were proposed. 
 Their parliamentary expenses for one year alone amounted to 
 upwards of 1 00,000: how they were incurred is graphically de- 
 scribed by one who took part in it. " There were about twenty 
 
21 
 
 counsel engaged, headed by six king's Serjeants and kings' 
 counsel ; there was a regiment of twenty eminent solicitors 
 flanked by a whole brigade of parliamentary agents, and a 
 whole army of surveyors and engineers, whose chief business 
 appeared to be to contradict each other, the lawyers aiding 
 and assisting and chuckling with delight." That is but a 
 counterpart of what took place almost before every committee. 
 / For the first ten years of railway progress say from 1829 
 to 1839 the policy of the Government was to hold itself aloof 
 from all contests, leaving the several parties, without any regard 
 to the merits of the rival schemes, to fight their own battles; 
 and to such an extent was this abstinence from intervention 
 carried, that, on great occasions, when a railway bill of more 
 than usual importance was to come on, not for discussion, 
 but division, after the President of the Board of Control 
 perhaps had delivered a long speech to empty benches on 
 the affairs of India, the rush of members plainly announced 
 that something of real interest was about to take place : it 
 was a railway bill, and the adherents of the rival lines had 
 been busily engaged for the last week or two in canvassing 
 the House of Commons for votes. The important night has 
 arrived, and the contending parties are assembled, when the 
 Prime Minister rises from his seat, and, followed by the other 
 ministers, leaves the House, to prevent the suspicion that even 
 their presence may influence a single vote. That was the way 
 we managed business in the early days of railway legislation. 
 
 The increasing power and extension of the companies, and 
 the abuse, as might naturally be expected, of that power, ren- 
 dered interference on the part of the legislature necessary ; and 
 in 1839, a select committee was appointed by the House of Com- 
 mons to inquire into the state of our railway communication. 
 It was composed of some of the leading members of the 
 House, including Sir Kobert Peel, Lord Stanley, Sir James 
 Graham, Mr. Poulett Thompson, and Mr. Shaw Lefevre. 
 
22 
 
 Their attention was specially directed to two points: 
 
 1st. The financial position of railways ; 
 
 2nd. The power given to them by the legislature ; 
 and the probable exercise of that power upon the general 
 convenience of the public and intercourse of the country. 
 
 " It does not appear," the committee state in their report 
 to the House of Commons, " to have been the intention of 
 Parliament to give to a railway a complete monopoly of the 
 means of communication on their line of road ; on the con- 
 trary, provision was made in all or most of the Acts of 
 Incorporation to enable other persons to place and run 
 engines and carriages on the road upon payment of certain 
 tolls to the company. The intention, however, of Parliament 
 cannot be carried into effect in the way contemplated by 
 legislation ; for it is obvious that the payment of legal tolls 
 is only a very small part of the arrangement which is necessary 
 to open the railways to public competition. Any person 
 with mere authority to place an engine and carriage on the 
 railway would be practically unable to supply his engine 
 with water, or to take up and set down his passengers at 
 any convenient station or terminus, and, indeed, would be 
 placed in such a disadvantageous situation, that all com- 
 petition with the company would be rendered impossible." 
 So completely, indeed, had the legislative enactment referred 
 to become a dead letter, that probably few persons at the time 
 were aware that it had ever existed. 
 
 Even at this early period the legislature began to suspect they 
 had committed a mistake in adopting a system which left to 
 private enterprise the task of supplying a public want, and that 
 already appeared to confer something very like a monopoly on 
 those who undertook and accomplished the task. The attempt 
 to carry out the analogy between promoting competition on an 
 ordinary high road and a railway, by permitting parties, on 
 paying a fixed price, to compete with the proprietors of railways 
 
23 
 
 on their own line, as they might do with the trustees of a 
 turnpike road, was a proposition in itself so preposterous and 
 absurd, that it is difficult to believe it ever could have been 
 supposed effectual. 
 
 A new era in railway legislation was, however, now to be in- 
 augurated. The attempt to carry out competition by promoting 
 opposition to shareholders on their own lines had failed owing 
 to the directors of the company not considering the subject in 
 precisely the same light as the legislature, and declining to pro- 
 vide their opponents in trade with the means of carrying on 
 the proposed rivalry. It was now, therefore, proclaimed from 
 high places that the only remedy for the public lay in pro- 
 moting opposition lines to those already constructed, in order 
 that the fares of the old lines might be forced down and all 
 other grievances complained of remedied. Such were the 
 palmy days that " free trade " in railways were to bring with 
 them. 
 
 But there were two or three matters connected with the 
 subject not then duly considered. First, That to construct a 
 railway where one already existed sufficient to supply the public 
 wants was a mere waste of national wealth. Second, That 
 as but a small proportion of the railways necessary for the 
 country were then constructed, there was little likelihood 
 of promoters seeking to make opposition lines, when the 
 greater part of the country lay before them unoccupied. And 
 Third, That whenever the time should arrive when it would 
 be the interest of parties to construct a rival line, the same 
 interest would induce them, as soon as possible after attaining 
 their object, to come to terms with their opponents. But com- 
 petition of this kind at the time we speak of was a long way 
 off; it is true there was great competition before Parliament for 
 obtaining an Act by the various competitors, but none after 
 it was obtained. The Parliament, therefore, of 1839 did little 
 or nothing towards effecting any important change, and the 
 
24 
 
 companies, becoming stronger from year to year, seemed alike 
 independent both of Parliament and people. 
 
 We shall now briefly direct attention to our continental 
 neighbours, for the purpose of contrasting their mode of pro- 
 ceeding with ours, and illustrating the comparative merits of 
 the two systems of railway management, one, as we have seen, 
 under the control of the companies, the other that we have to 
 consider under that of the State. 
 
 Belgium was the first of the continental kingdoms to recog- 
 nize, in a practical manner, the good results to be derived from 
 a well-established system of railway communication throughout 
 the country ; lines were accordingly laid out by eminent en- 
 gineers, through the most populous districts, constructed at the 
 expense of the State, and subject to the complete control of the 
 Legislature. The end aimed at was not the gain of the specu- 
 lator, but the extension of the traffic and communication of 
 the country to the utmost limits of the public capability, at 
 the lowest rate of charge at which the .original outlay could be 
 reimbursed; the project undertaken by Government was an 
 establishment which was intended should neither be a burden 
 nor a source of revenue, and required merely that it should 
 cover its own expenses, consisting of the charge for mainte- 
 nance and repairs, with a further sum for the interest and 
 gradual redemption of the invested capital. Such were the 
 terms in which the Minister of Finance in 1836 reported on 
 the system established in Belgium. The fares were fixed very 
 low, less than a penny per mile for first class, and the others 
 in proportion. A small, but well-laid-out network of rail- 
 ways was amply sufficient at that time for the population : the 
 whole extent of the lines did not exceed 500 miles. There 
 were constructed two great trunk railways forming a cross, 
 the intersection of which took place at Malines. The length 
 of the cross was extended from Ostend to Liege, and con- 
 tinued through the Prussian territory by Aix-la-Chapelle, to 
 
25 
 
 Cologne ; the transverse line was carried at right angles to this 
 from north to south, extending from Antwerp, through Brussels 
 by Mons, to the French territory; there were many other sub- 
 sidiary lines, not necessary to notice. 
 
 That, however, which requires our special attention is the 
 difference in the mode of treating the same subject in the two 
 countries England and Belgium. When the project which 
 afterwards became law, was first introduced into the Belgian 
 Chambers in 1834 there were not wanting advocates to re- 
 commend the course we were pursuing in England, and leave 
 the whole business to " competition." " No," said M. Kogier, 
 the Minister of Finance, " the state of affairs in which compe- 
 tition corrects the evil, does not apply here ; whoever holds the 
 railways holds a monopoly, and that should only be allowed to 
 exist in the possession of the State, subject to the responsible 
 advisers of the Crown." We cannot dispute the fact that the 
 owners of railways hold in their hands the monopoly of the 
 means of transit throughout the country. Do we, then, agree 
 with or dissent from M. Kogier, when he asserts that a monopoly 
 should be only held by the State, and administered under the 
 immediate control of the legislature ? 
 
 It was not till 1835, five years after the opening of the 
 Liverpool and Manchester line, that a railway movement 
 was made in France, and an Act passed authorizing the con- 
 struction of a line between Paris and St. Germain, which was 
 opened in 1837. In that year a commission was authorized to 
 prepare a project of law on the subject of national railways, 
 the general opinion being in their favour, which was sub- 
 mitted to the Chambers the following session ; but the 
 majority had in the meantime changed their opinion, and were 
 now opposed to the principle of the State assuming the di- 
 rection and management of these enterprises. The majority 
 was composed of two parties one the political party, dis- 
 trustful and jealous of the influence which the possession of 
 such vast patronage would invest the Government with ; and 
 
26 
 
 the other, a most large and influential party, representing the 
 financial and commercial interests, which looked forward to 
 reaping great profits from the operations of the Bourse, result- 
 ing from the traffic in shares, if the railways were executed, as 
 in England, by joint-stock companies. The combination of 
 these parties prevailed, and the project of Government was 
 rejected. These events took place in 1838, and during the 
 next four years but little progress was made by companies ; 
 but in 1842, M. Teste, being then the Minister for Public 
 Works, presented a project to the Chamber for the execution 
 of a system of railways in which the Government should 
 co-operate with private companies, and this, with some modifi- 
 cation, was adopted. The conditions were, that the Govern- 
 ment should purchase the land, buildings, and other property 
 necessary for the construction of the lines, that two -thirds of 
 the expenses were to be repaid by the communes through which 
 the railways would pass, and that companies were to have leases. 
 These terms, however, failed to produce any considerable 
 extension of railways in France ; and when the present 
 Emperor ascended the throne, scarcely twelve years since, 
 the entire length of the French lines did not exceed thirteen 
 hundred miles. He made surprising changes in the whole 
 system ; and, under the fostering protection of Government, 
 the mileage of railways in France is rapidly increasing 
 every year. At the expiration of ninety-nine years from 
 1852, all railways revert to the State. In order to indemnify 
 the original holders of shares, sinking-funds have been 
 established for the reduction of the capital. Every year so 
 many shares are drawn by lot, and paid off at par. The 
 fares are about 25 per cent, less than in England. The French 
 lines pay well much higher than the English; and some 
 of the larger lines pay a very high dividend. It is not at 
 all impossible but that the Emperor may revert to the original 
 policy intended, and make all the railways Government 
 property, and reduce the fares to one-third of their present 
 
27 
 
 amount. They understand these matters and manage them 
 better in France than with us ; and the full development of 
 the vast resources of that magnificent country could not be 
 promoted by any other means so well as by extending the 
 means of communication to all classes of her people. 
 
 Within the last few months the French Government have 
 published their annual review of the state of the country, and 
 in it is contained an elaborate report of their railway system. 
 The entire length of railways in France open on the 31st De- 
 cember, 1863, was 7352 miles, and the gross receipts for the year 
 19,546,416. The railways have cost 200,000,000 sterling, 
 and the Government has contributed about one- eighth of 
 that sum. It has now divested itself of all separate 
 property in railways. In the words of the Report, it was 
 the duty of Government which was legally authorized 
 to construct most of the railways at the expense of 
 the public revenue to escape, as soon as possible, from a 
 position which was onerous to the Treasury, and necessarily 
 temporary. The great companies were willing to relieve the 
 State of its engagements ; but they required, as a consideration, 
 that certain guarantees which they had obtained in 1859 should 
 be revised and augmented. The guarantees had been founded 
 on statements furnished by the companies themselves ; and it 
 is worthy of remark and satisfactory to Englishmen to know 
 that in almost every case the estimates were found utterly insuffi- 
 cient. The Western Railway, especially, satisfied the Govern- 
 ment it would be utterly ruined if it were held to its contract 
 four years ago. The Lyons and Mediterranean, and Orleans 
 companies were unwilling to spend money on branches ; and 
 the Lyons company insisted on the concession of a disputed 
 line from Cette to Marseilles. The Government having no 
 disposable capital, and more than 200 miles of railway which it 
 was bound to make, complied with the demands of this com- 
 pany by increasing its guarantees, and by adjudging the Cette 
 line to the Lyons and Mediterranean Company. Stipulations 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERS.'T 
 
 OF 
 
28 
 
 were inserted in the tariffs for the protection of travellers and 
 freighters ; and it is especially stated that coal was to be carried 
 at a rate of from fd. to IJd. per ton per mile, according to 
 distance. 
 
 The enormous railway business of France is committed to 
 six great arterial lines projected by the State : 
 
 1st. The Northern line, from Paris to Calais, Boulogne, 
 Dunkerque, and the Belgian frontier. 
 
 2nd. The Western line, from Paris to Havre and Dieppe, 
 &c. 
 
 3rd. The Orleans or Central line, from Paris to Orleans, 
 Bourdeaux, Nantes, &c. 
 
 4th. The Southern line, from Bourdeaux to Cette, Bayonne, 
 Toulouse, &c. 
 
 5th. The Paris, Lyons, and Mediterranean, from Paris to 
 Marseilles, with branches to Cette, Bayonne, Toulouse, &c. 
 
 6th. The Eastern line, from Paris to Strasbourg, Chalons- 
 sur-Marne, &c. 
 
 Some companies pay 20 per cent, dividend, and the average 
 is about 7 per cent. 
 
 In Spain considerable progress has been made within the 
 last few years in the construction of railways, and about 2100 
 miles are now open. In Italy the number of miles open is 
 about 3400. In Russia the progress has been slow, owing to 
 political and financial causes ; but, last year, a concession was 
 made to an English company for the construction of a line 
 from St. Petersburg to Sebastopol, passing through some of 
 the richest provinces of Eussia, which will tend greatly to 
 develope the resources of the country. 
 
 Germany is well supplied with railways ; in some cases con- 
 structed by the State, and in others by companies. Those 
 of the Grand Duchy of Baden, the kingdoms of Wurtemburg, 
 Bavaria, and Hanover, the empire of Austria, the Duchy of 
 Brunswick, and the Principalities of Hesse, have been, with 
 a few exceptions, constructed and worked by the States. In 
 
29 
 
 cases where the construction of particular lines was confided 
 to companies, the Governments have generally redeemed them. 
 In Prussia the State has in most cases abstained from any 
 direct interference with the construction or working of the 
 railways ; but has given encouragement to the present com- 
 panies, by whom the extensive system of lines which cover its 
 territory has been executed. In cases where the traffic did not 
 offer sufficient encouragement to stimulate private enterprise, 
 the Government has extended its aid either in the shape of 
 subscription or by taking certain shares in the line, or in 
 guaranteeing a minimum rate of interest on capital. The 
 Government, however, reserves a power of redemption at the 
 end of thirty years, on the condition of paying to the railway 
 proprietors a capital equal to twenty-five times the average 
 amount of dividend enjoyed by the proprietors for the preceding 
 five years. The State, in that case, would assume the respon- 
 sibility and debts of the company, but it would, at the same 
 time, take possession of their entire assets as well as their reserve 
 fund. 
 
 Travelling on the Continent is much slower than in Eng- 
 land : it is not, on an average, more than twenty miles an 
 hour. There is but a small weight of luggage allowed to each 
 passenger ; and every package, on most railways, is weighed 
 with the greatest exactness, and not a pound extra allowed. 
 The formalities, delays, and countless stoppages are, to 
 English travellers, very annoying. Let it not, however be sup- 
 posed that I am setting up the Continental management of 
 railways, under Government, as a model for imitation in this 
 country : on the contrary, I should be inclined to say that, 
 with a few exceptions, railway management in this country 
 is preferred by the English people to that on the Continent. 
 What we have to consider here is, not the management of Con- 
 tinental railways, but the extent to which our own system can 
 be improved. The accommodation, however, in second-class 
 carriages on the Continent is much better than with us ; they 
 
30 
 
 are all well cushioned and made nearly as comfortable as first- 
 class carriages here ; and by far the larger proportion of that 
 class which, in England, travel only in first-class carriages, 
 make use of the second-class on the Continent ; a remarkable 
 fact when we compare their respective fares; but so far does this 
 practice prevail abroad, that they have a common saying to 
 the effect that "None but princes, fools, and Englishmen 
 travel in first-class carriages." The cuisine is also far superior 
 on the Continent to what we find at any English station. With 
 these exceptions, the English system of management is, in 
 many respects, better than the Continental. 
 
 The following table shows the average fares charged in the 
 several Kingdoms and States on the Continent as compared 
 with those of the United Kingdom : 
 
 
 AVERAGE FARES FOR 100 MILES. 
 
 1st Class. 
 
 2nd Class. 
 
 3rd Class. 
 
 4th Class. 
 S. d. 
 
 4 
 
 
 s. d. 
 6 6 
 11 9 
 10 6 
 13 4 
 13 
 13 6 
 13 
 13 
 13 4 
 14 
 14 2 
 14 5 
 18 9 
 
 s. d. 
 5 6 
 8 10 
 7 11 
 10 
 10 
 9 4 
 8 6 
 7 6 
 9 
 11 2 
 11 
 10 10 
 12 6 
 
 s. d. 
 3 
 5 9 
 4 
 7 
 6 6 
 6 9 
 6 
 5 9 
 4 6 
 7 
 6 9 
 6 6 
 8 4 
 
 Spain .. . 
 
 Italv . 
 
 
 
 Switzerland 
 
 Denmark 
 
 
 Norway . . ... . 
 
 Holland 
 
 
 Russia 
 
 The United Kingdom 
 
 
 On some of the Belgian lines the first-class fare is so low 
 as one halfpenny per mile, and the other classes in proportion. 
 The fares on the French Northern Railway are from 10 to 20 
 per cent, lower than in other parts of the empire. In most of 
 the continental countries the scale of fares in each class is 
 tolerably uniform. 
 
31 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Progress of Railway Mismanagement from 1840 to 1843 Treatment of 
 Third-Class Passengers Extract from the "Times," December, 
 1842 The Companies' Defence Classification of the Charges 
 against the Companies Their Reply. 
 
 WE have already noticed that the legislative measures of 1839 
 had but little influence on the management of railways. The 
 Legislature had discovered the mistake they had committed, and 
 acknowledged it, but did not see their way clearly how to rectify 
 the error. The boards of directors possessed all but absolute 
 power over the traffic throughout the principal parts of the 
 kingdom ; for although the length of our railways at that time 
 scarcely exceeded 1000 miJes, they were the great trunk lines 
 over which then, as now, the greatest amount of traffic na- 
 turally passed. The directors soon began to make their power 
 painfully felt by the manner in which they exercised it; 
 they would first lower the fares, in order to drive opposition 
 from the road, then suddenly raise them when they had suc- 
 ceeded, and frequently change them, to discover the best 
 paying tariff. The arrangements of the companies to force 
 passengers to travel by first-class carriages, and the surveil- 
 lance alleged to be exercised over third-class passengers, in 
 order to deter a higher class from travelling in third-class car- 
 riages, gave great dissatisfaction to the public. In regard to 
 the goods traffic, the constant quarrels and lawsuits they 
 had with carriers, were carried on for the purpose of driving 
 them from the line. The greatest cause, however, of complaint 
 against railway directors was their treatment of third-class pas- 
 
82 
 
 sengers. The Times, in a leading article, in December, 1842, 
 thus alludes to the general feeling entertained towards rail- 
 way companies in general, and more especially in regard to 
 their treatment of the poorer class of passengers. 
 
 " We have received communications/' said the Times, " from 
 several correspondents, imploring us to maintain an advocacy 
 for the poorer class of railway travellers, who have to avail 
 themselves of the stinted accommodation afforded by the lead- 
 ing lines, and desire us to urge the necessity of more comfort 
 and facility in their transit than they at present enjoy. It would 
 appear from the facts stated in the several letters received, that 
 little choice exists in one more than another, and that all the 
 great lines are as parsimonious as they possibly can be in 
 providing comfort or convenience for those having the mis- 
 fortune to travel in third-class conveyances. The manner in 
 which the Great- Western Company treat this class of passen- 
 gers is described as worse than any other pursued, the only 
 trains by which they forward them being those used for the 
 transit of coals, cattle, and merchandise of all descriptions. 
 For instance, it is stated that a third-class passenger leaves 
 Paddington in an open carriage, no difference being made to 
 counteract wind or weather, at half-past 4 A.M. When he 
 arrives at Swindon he is detained upwards of an hour, and at 
 last gets to Bristol, if the train keeps its time, in nine and a 
 half hours, while the first and second class carriages make the 
 same journey in less than half the time. If a third-class pas- 
 senger wish to go on to Taunton from any place east of 
 Bristol, it is alleged to be still more inconvenient, since he 
 is detained from four to five hours in Bristol, and is kept on 
 the road, at a moderate calculation, from fourteen to sixteen 
 hours ; whereas, on the other hand, first and second class pas- 
 sengers arrive at the same destination in six and a half hours. 
 These are strong statements, and unless satisfactorily explained 
 away, must, sooner or later, bring these undertakings within 
 
33 
 
 the managerial scope of the Board of Trade, the authorities of 
 which bodies would do well to see that fair and adequate 
 provision is made by all the railway companies for the con- 
 veyance of the poorer classes during seasonable hours of the 
 day. Railway directors have at present the exercise of too 
 much irresponsible power, and therefore imagine they can deal 
 with the public as they choose. They, however, must be 
 mindful not to carry it beyond proper bounds ; for though 
 much good may have been achieved by the construction and 
 successful completion of intercourse by means of this system 
 of communication, it remains to be seen what will be the actual 
 results of this description of management, should it, without 
 some superintending control, be left entirely to the judgment of 
 the persons who have the sole exercise of this power. It may 
 possibly prove a useful hint to have said thus much on the 
 subject, without pressing more severely on the attention of the 
 several railway boards the necessity existing for some ameliora- 
 tion of the plan at present adopted in the conveyance of third- 
 class passengers ; for, regarding them in the light of national 
 improvements, raised on the foundation of the nation's wealth, 
 they must be considered as intended to furnish a comparative 
 convenience to one class of the public as well as the other. 
 The French, who are now following out the system of railways 
 extensively, are provided against these deficiencies, should they 
 arise, in a much better manner than we are at home, because 
 the Government of that country, having identified itself in 
 close alliance with these undertakings, by affording assistance 
 in a pecuniary point of view, have the superior right of in- 
 terfering, without encountering the condemnation of that part 
 of the public who may be interested in the maintenance of 
 the superiority of railway directorates against such supervision. 
 It is a barrier to expression among our railway interests, and 
 one that certainly once or twice occasioned strong opposition 
 against the inspection of the Board of Trade in these matters, 
 viz., that the Government having, in the first instance, re- 
 
34 
 
 fused all responsibility, and allowed private capitalists to sur- 
 mount the difficulties which these undertakings presented, 
 ought not now to provoke or desire an immediate connection 
 with their management. But the great answer to all this is, 
 that when the safety or convenience of the public is con- 
 cerned, then the Government have the power of inspection, 
 and will exercise it for their benefit." 
 
 The above judgment, from the principal organ of public 
 opinion in this country, shows how strong the general feeling 
 on the subject ran. Nevertheless, the companies were not with- 
 out advocates ; not that they required any, for they could very 
 well defend themselves. " We are willing," said their directors, 
 " to accommodate the poor as far as we possibly can without 
 injury to ourselves. We carry them now at less than half the 
 price we are authorized to charge. The working classes and 
 those of moderate means can travel, at all events, more com- 
 fortably and cheaper than they could a few years since out- 
 side a coach ; if they are made as comfortable as they would be 
 inside, the result will be that second-class passengers will take 
 third-class carriages, and so there will be a large falling off in our 
 revenue; but if Government will make us compensation, we 
 are willing to entertain the question." Now, it must be re- 
 membered that, at the time we speak of, Government had 
 made no proposition to the companies on the subject; it was 
 not till some years subsequently that any proposition was made 
 which, after some demur, was accepted by the companies. 
 
 I shall briefly notice a few of the principal causes that, from 
 1840 till Parliament found it necessary to interfere in 1844, 
 operated in making the companies so unpopular with the 
 public : 
 
 1st. A traveller about to proceed over more than one line, 
 and having started in a second-class carriage, when he arrived 
 at the terminus of the first line would be obliged to take a 
 first-class carriage over the next line, or to discontinue his 
 journey, perhaps, for several hours, or the day, as it might 
 
35 
 
 happen. If a passenger, for instance, left London for Liver- 
 pool, by the first train in the morning, he would arrive at Bir- 
 mingham about ten o'clock, and a train would then be ready to 
 start on the Grand Junction for the North of England ; but as 
 this train carried none but first-class passengers, second-class 
 passengers would be detained eight hours before they had an 
 opportunity of continuing their journey. This is a specimen of 
 the arrangements that then existed generally between the com- 
 panies. 
 
 2nd. The method adopted by the companies to drive oppo- 
 sition from the road was very effectual, by lowering the fares 
 till all opposition was crushed, and then suddenly raising them. 
 Sometimes a feeble attempt would be made to compete for the 
 traffic by a speculative coach proprietor, but in the course of 
 a few months, he generally found himself in the Gazette ; so 
 it was no very difficult matter with the companies to secure 
 an effectual monopoly of the passenger traffic. 
 
 3rd. The frequent and unceremonious manner in which the 
 companies changed their fares, raising them and lowering them 
 as they thought proper, gave cause for great dissatisfaction, 
 more especially with those companies that paid well, and added 
 but very little to their dividends by the higher fares, although 
 by such changes they laid a heavy impost on the public. The 
 Grand Junction, for instance now that section of the London 
 and North-Western that runs from Birmingham to Warring- 
 ton when they were paying 10 per cent, dividend raised their 
 fares 27 per cent., and thereby increased their dividend only a 
 half per cent. There was in this proceeding no legitimate 
 cause of complaint, and all other companies naturally did the 
 same when they thought they could profit by it, whatever their 
 dividends might be, but the public were much dissatisfied when 
 they contrasted the little gain the companies made by these 
 changes with the heavy loss to themselves. 
 
 4th. A great abuse in the railway system was the injury and 
 annoyance one company had the power to inflict on another 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 and the public ; they possessed the right, and frequently ex- 
 ercised it, of buying up a small company, whose line might 
 give a command of several other companies, so as to form, as 
 it were, a key to them, and thus enable them to charge what 
 fare they thought proper over the short line. 
 
 5th. The agreements that were entered into between the 
 companies, not intended to be published, but which occa- 
 sionally came to light in consequence of some disagreement 
 between the contracting parties, took the public by sur- 
 prise, and furnished a very disagreeable proof of the extent 
 to which the companies had not merely the passenger but also 
 the goods traffic in their hands. One of these cases attracted 
 considerable notice : a paper war having broken out between 
 two companies, then called the Manchester and Leeds, and 
 the Manchester and Birmingham, it appeared that one of 
 these companies paid the other a large annual sum not to 
 compete with them in a particular district, although to carry 
 on the competition it would be necessary to bring the merchan- 
 dise an additional forty miles. Yet there was nothing particu- 
 larly objectionable in this ; on the contrary, it is the usual prac- 
 tice of traders, when they find it to be their interest, to make an 
 agreement of this kind ; but it proved, nevertheless, that, by 
 the organization of the several companies, their control over 
 the goods traffic was as complete as it was over the passenger 
 traffic. 
 
 I should not have thought it necessary to enter into these 
 details of the differences that existed between the public and the 
 companies, more than twenty years ago, were it not that I con- 
 sider any treatise professing to narrate the progress of our early 
 railway legislation, would be incomplete without such notice ; 
 and, further, these events serve as a key to the legislative mea- 
 sure that shortly followed. It must be acknowledged that the 
 directors of the companies were placed in an entirely false 
 position; their shareholders had invested their capital in 
 railways as they would in any other speculation, and elected the 
 
37 
 
 directors to manage their property and protect their interests. 
 But it was alleged that the directors, in exercise of a public trust, 
 were bound to protect the public as much as their shareholders 
 in directing the affairs of the companies. Having said so much 
 in reference to the charges made against the companies, it is only 
 fair to hear, in reply, what was then said in their defence. 
 "Let the rights," said one of their advocates, "of railway pro- 
 perty be considered, its duties being already so well understood. 
 And, first let us inquire who these great railway proprietors 
 are, and what they have done for the public. Are they not 
 the authors of one of the greatest boons ever conferred by 
 enterprise and skill, upon commerce, industry, and social 
 advancement ? Have they not carried through to a happy 
 issue one of the greatest inventions of modern times, and car- 
 ried it through in the face of difficulty, discouragement, and 
 vast unpopularity ? 
 
 " Let us see what has been the general expression of public 
 feeling towards railways. The inventor of a new art was 
 despised by the Greeks and Romans. Are we to advocate an 
 apotheosis of the great projectors and constructors of railways ? 
 There seems little fear in the present temper of public opinion 
 of our perpetrating that folly. Never, perhaps, were there 
 such great enterprises achieved with so little aid from public 
 opinion. 
 
 " While the experiment was doubtful the attempt was 
 denied by all who were indifferent, and denounced by all who 
 were prejudiced. Its objects were assailed by selfish interests, 
 and its resources devoured by rapacious claims from those 
 whose aid was required, or whose neutrality had to be pur- 
 chased. From the first survey to the final completion of the 
 line, difficulties of all kinds met the projectors, local hos- 
 tility, corporate opposition. The public looked on, and if it 
 took part it was with their opponents ; the Legislature, the 
 Government afforded no effectual aid. The promoters fought 
 their way, step by step, and were received as if, instead of pre- 
 
paring for the country the greatest boon it has received in 
 modern times, they had been conspiring to deface and impove- 
 rish it. Such, in general for the instances of better judgment 
 were mere exceptions was the temper with which the railway 
 projects were met in the first stage of their national existence. 
 Lamentable enough ; but not unnatural. It is the price which 
 those must be ready to pay who attempt anything at once great 
 and new. But surely it entitles them to enjoy their reward 
 when, in spite of these obstacles, their energy and perseverance 
 have conquered success. 
 
 "Their efforts had indeed been successful; the invention 
 was found to surpass belief, and the country saw itself en- 
 riched by benefits which the most sanguine of the projectors 
 had not dared to promise. A rapidity of transit almost mi- 
 raculous ; a reduction of expenses quite unexampled ; system 
 and uniform tariffs substituted for irregularity and vulgar ex- 
 tortion, and with all this a safety, which only the silliest panic 
 could dispute, hitherto unknown in public travelling. These 
 were benefits, vast, incalculable, notorious, experienced by 
 every one every day. Under any circumstances, they surely 
 demand a large reward, a larger if the real difficulty of the 
 task had been troubled by needless hindrances. And how was 
 this reward bestowed ? By an universal outcry, so loud and 
 general that one might have thought it had been raised to 
 denounce some great national enormity. The directors, the 
 engineers, the proprietors, the managers of railways, were 
 questioned, and lectured, and worried on every side. Mortified 
 men, who wanted courage to share in the work while it was 
 full of risk men of habit averse to new ways men of rank 
 and wealth, accustomed to command wherever they travelled, 
 and impatient of all regulations superseded rivals, who co- 
 vered their anger with pretences of public care liberals whose 
 wisdom lay in repeating the phrases of ' monopoly,' ' competi- 
 tion,' and similar words without ideas the weak of all classes 
 whom the hubbub alarmed inventors eager to have their nos- 
 
39 
 
 trums tried, or at least purchased busy men anxious to regu- 
 late idle men wanting to be employed all joined in the cry, 
 while Parliament became suddenly full of zeal, and the Go- 
 vernment itself, stepping in to meddle when it had not learned 
 to mend, after standing aloof when it might have done good, 
 seemed to sanction the general excitement." 
 
 It is not necessary now to discuss which of the two parties, 
 the public or the railway directors, were more in fault or had 
 more to complain of. The latter felt that they had nothing to 
 thank either the public or the Legislature for, and showed a 
 determination, somewhat impolitic perhaps, to maintain their 
 strict legal rights, with but little regard to the wants, wishes, 
 and feelings of the general community. They considered that 
 they had been, to use the conventional phrase, unmercifully 
 plundered by landowners and others, whose goodwill to 
 obtain their bills was indispensable; and as they received 
 no special protection or assistance from the State, they con- 
 sidered they had a right to make the most of their position, 
 and so long as an opportunity was afforded them to turn it to 
 the best account. 
 
40 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Prosperous State of the Country in 1844 Stimulus to Railway Enter- 
 prise Appointment of the Parliamentary Committee Their Re- 
 ports Third- Class Passengers Parliamentary Trains Evidence 
 of Mr. (now Sir) Rowland Hill Opposition of Railway Companies 
 to the Government Bill Their Arrangement with Government 
 The Three Fundamental Reforms projected by Government Sir 
 Robert Peel and Mr. Gladstone. 
 
 DURING the year 1844 the country enjoyed an unusual de- 
 gree of prosperity ; an abundant harvest the preceding year, 
 and a flourishing home and foreign trade, had added largely to 
 the material wealth of the kingdom; the operation of free-trade 
 measures had begun to develope itself, and the Three per 
 Cents., for the first time in the present century, reached par. 
 In the previous year twenty-four railway Acts were passed : 
 the number was not more than the public service required, 
 but the present year brought with it a great number of 
 new projects, and was destined to mark a new era in railway 
 legislation. 
 
 The public discontent with the general management of rail- 
 ways, together with the great number of new schemes projected 
 for the session, convinced Government of the necessity of a 
 thorough investigation, not merely into the working of the 
 system, as it then existed, but also into the soundness of the 
 principles on which the system itself was based. The question 
 had been recently mooted, whether or not it was desirable to 
 follow the example of Belgium and other continental countries, 
 where railways were the property of the State, and although 
 few were inclined to go that length, there existed, nevertheless, 
 a very strong feeling that such precautionary measures should be 
 
41 
 
 taken by the Legislature as would leave the whole subject open 
 to be dealt with at a future day, as circumstances might 
 require. 
 
 On the 5th February, immediately after the opening of Parlia- 
 ment, a select committee was appointed by the House of Com- 
 mons, to consider whether any or what new provisions ought to 
 be introduced in such railway bills as would come before the 
 House, during that or any future session, for the advantage of 
 the public and the improvement of the railway system. The 
 committee was presided over by Mr. Gladstone, then President 
 of the Board of Trade, and was composed of some of the 
 leading political men of the House, and of those most promi- 
 nent as representatives of the railway interest. The Committee, 
 shortly after their appointment, proceeded to hear evidence on 
 the various subjects which required their attention. Amongst 
 others, the powers to be given to the Board of Trade, the 
 standing orders, loan notes, the rating of railways, and the 
 vexed question between the carriers and the companies occupied 
 no small portion of their time. But into the consideration of 
 these several matters; however important at the time, we do not 
 intend to enter. 
 
 The first Report of the Committee recommended that all 
 bills that should pass during that session of Parliament 
 should not be exempt from any general Act passed during the 
 session. 
 
 The second Eeport contained a recommendation as to the 
 manner in which railway committees should be formed. 
 
 " From the number of bills for the formation of new lines," 
 say the Committee in their third Eeport, " now before Parlia- 
 ment; from the appearance of many new schemes likely to 
 come under consideration in the next session; from the greatly 
 increased favour and support which, as compared with the pro- 
 jects of former years, these undertakings now receive from the 
 owners of landed property through which they are to pass ; 
 from the reduced amount of estimates of cost, and the compa- 
 
42 
 
 rative economy with which they can be made, and from the 
 improvement of trade and redundancy of capital in the coun- 
 try, combined with the prevailing indisposition to run the 
 risks which have rendered some kinds of foreign investments 
 so disastrous, the committee anticipate a very great extension 
 of the railway system within the next few years. 
 
 " It appears, therefore, to your committee, that the present 
 moment, while Parliament still retains in its own hands an 
 entire and unimpaired discretion, with regard both to the 
 inauguration of new companies and the enlargement of the 
 powers of old ones, affords an opportunity more favourable 
 than any that can be expected hereafter to occur for attaching 
 beforehand to the legislative sanction which is sought by those 
 parties on their own behalf, the conditions which may be 
 deemed necessary for the public good, and which may realize 
 and apply such conclusions as our experience of the new system 
 up to the present time may be deemed to have sufficiently 
 established." 
 
 The committee, after noticing the great augmentation that 
 might, in the course of a few years, be expected in the receipts 
 of railways, and the desirability of establishing a more direct 
 connection between the interests of the public and those of 
 railway proprietors, go on to say : " The committee deem it 
 clear that, although the practical monopoly of railway companies 
 has been acquired in the main by the superior manner in 
 which they have accommodated the traffic of the country, it is 
 nevertheless regarded, even in the present day, with consider- 
 able jealousy by the public at large, that questions of an 
 embarrassing nature, founded on the original views with which 
 Parliament granted Acts of Incorporation to new companies, 
 might be raised, which it would be far better to obviate, and that 
 on those accounts it is time to reserve on the part of the State 
 the right of intervention at a date sufficiently remote in the 
 convenience of these companies, and of a reconsideration of 
 their powers and privileges. 
 
43 
 
 " Again, great as have been the benefits of railways to the 
 public, that circumstance does not afford any good reason 
 against seeking by any just and reasonable means to enlarge 
 their advantages. Now, it is material to observe, that in this 
 country what is called the High Fare System ordinarily prevails, 
 that the average charge of railway communication a charge 
 falling in no inconsiderable degree on trade and commerce is 
 very much higher than in other countries where railways have 
 been established, and that there is no clear or early prospect of 
 a general reduction of the rate of charges under the present 
 system of independent companies, even although it might be 
 advantageous in particular cases. 
 
 " The committee are aware that Parliament will regard with a 
 just jealousy whatever even appears to tend towards the dis- 
 couragement of competition, or to impose restraints upon the 
 application of capital to domestic enterprise ; but the committee 
 also consider that this subject should be approached with the 
 recollection that the matter now under discussion is not the 
 expenditure of capital by mere individuals, or even by com* 
 panies associated under ordinary liabilities, and with ordinary 
 powers, but by permanent incorporations exempted from the 
 very material check the general principle of unlimited liability 
 imposes, and armed for given periods with compulsory powers, 
 under which they are authorized to set aside private rights, to 
 affect seriously by ne\y works the existing communications of 
 the country, and especially the local communications of rural 
 districts, and contingently on their abandonment to entail, 
 according to the common law, a considerable amount of per- 
 manent liability upon the districts which they traverse for the 
 repair of bridges and other works which they may have con- 
 structed." 
 
 The committee having thus stated the case, proceeded to lay 
 down the rules by which, in their opinion, it ought to be go- 
 verned. It is the established practice, they say, of Parliament 
 
44 
 
 to regulate or altogether prevent the expenditure of capital 
 without certain conditions being attached, as the public good 
 may require, " and the committee conceive that the grounds of 
 this policy are to be found first in a regard to the interest of 
 the public in the widest sense, but also in regard to the inte- 
 rests of those whose rights such companies are to control and 
 supersede, of those with whom they are to deal and to con- 
 tract, with those private dealers with whom they are to com- 
 pete in carrying on their business, and of those extensive 
 classes of persons who, not being capitalists, or possessed of 
 commercial knowledge, are induced to invest their small means 
 in enterprises of this kind, and in doing so are encouraged to 
 a great extent by the idea that they are under legislative regu- 
 lation, and that Parliament has made every just and practicable 
 provision for the protection of the subject. Further, in the 
 case of railways the number of possible competitors is of 
 necessity so restrained as to give to any project the aspect and 
 operation of a substantial monopoly, and in such cases it is 
 the practice of Parliament to impose special conditions for the 
 benefit of the public ; the rule and measure of which condition 
 the committee conceive to be this : that all such limitations on 
 projections are legitimate as leave to them sufficient and ample 
 inducement to carry into effect beneficial speculations. The 
 committee trusts that Parliament will be on its guard against 
 the superficial reasonings by which it is attempted to apply 
 popular maxims, sound in their ordinary operation, to cases more 
 or less removed by their peculiarities from the reach of such 
 maxims, and will keep steadily in view, as a paramount con- 
 sideration, the attainment, whether by ordinary maxims or 
 by such modifications of them as circumstances may justify 
 and require, of the greatest amount of ultimate public ad- 
 vantage. The willingness of parties to expend capital in 
 making a new railway is flot to be at once taken as a suffi- 
 cient ground for granting the necessary powers ; there is no 
 
45 
 
 public advantage in the construction of a work which cannot 
 afford remuneration, as there can be no security for the work- 
 ing of a railway except its yielding a profit. 
 
 " New railway companies may, as is quite conceivable, be 
 formed, and may come before Parliament with the specious 
 promise of combating monopoly, and of carrying, at lower 
 rates, the traffic now carried at higher ones, and under these 
 pretexts powers might be obtained in proportion to the en- 
 gagements contracted before Parliament, and it might, not- 
 withstanding, prove, when the Acts of Incorporation had been 
 passed, that on the one hand there were no adequate means of 
 enforcing the engagement, and that the guarantees taken on 
 the part of the public for their fulfilment were barren 
 and valueless, but that on the other hand the powers had 
 been improperly used as efficient instruments of extension 
 against the subsisting companies, to whom might be offered 
 only the alternative of losing their traffic or of buying off 
 opposition." 
 
 The committee recommended that railway bills should be sub- 
 mitted to the Board of Trade previous to their coming under the 
 notice of Parliament the committee conceiving that the Board, 
 or such other public department as might be entrusted with the 
 care of railway matters, could advantageously examine these 
 bills and also the schemes themselves before they had assumed 
 the forms of bills and that the reports from the Board of Trade 
 should on no account be regarded in any other light than as 
 intended to afford to Parliament additional aid in the elucidation 
 of the facts by the testimony of witnesses, competent by official 
 knowledge, habit, and opportunity, and officially responsible for 
 the advice they might offer. 
 
 This recommendation of the committee was subsequently 
 adopted by Parliament, but worked very unsatisfactorily ; the 
 reports received but little attention from the committees, their 
 recommendations were as frequently set aside as adopted, and 
 the duties of the Board of Trade in regard to these preliminary 
 
46 
 
 investigations and reports were in the course of a few years 
 formally abolished hy law. 
 
 A great deal of evidence was taken by the committee in re- 
 gard to the treatment of third-class passengers, and the effect 
 that the establishment of what are now well known as " Parlia- 
 mentary" trains might be expected to have on the general 
 traffic. A compulsory measure to convey passengers in enclosed 
 carriages at one penny per mile was received with great alarm 
 by the railway interest ; it was contended that the necessary 
 consequence of such a measure would be the reduction of first 
 and second class fares, and a decrease in dividends. 
 
 Among the many witnesses examined on this subject was 
 Mr. (now Sir) Kowland Hill, the author of " Post Office 
 Beform," and then chairman of the London and Brighton 
 Company. Mr. Eowland Hill bore testimony to the great bene- 
 fit his company had derived from a large reduction they had 
 made in their fares, namely, from 14s., 10s., and 7s., for the 
 several classes, to 12s., 8s., and 5s. ; and that the gross receipts had 
 been considerably increased without any addition whatever to the 
 expenditure. Mr. Hill was, however, altogether opposed to the 
 establishment of " parliamentary" trains; he thought passengers 
 could be carried more cheaply in open than in covered carriages, 
 and if companies were left to their own management, the pro- 
 bability would be that passengers would be carried in open 
 carriages at less than one penny per mile, but if companies 
 were required to enclose their carriages, he doubted whether 
 they would charge less than the maximum penny per mile. 
 He was therefore opposed to any compulsory measure on the 
 subject. Mr. Eowland Hill entered into considerable detail to 
 prove the lowness of the fares charged by railways compared 
 with those charged formerly by coach. "You have compared," 
 said Mr. Horsman, one of the members of the committee, 
 who, after Mr. Gladstone, took the most prominent part in 
 conducting its proceedings, " the fare which is paid by first class 
 by railway with that which is paid by coach. Have you made 
 
47 
 
 an estimate of the different costs of transporting passengers 
 by the two modes of conveyance ? " " The cost of transport," 
 replied Mr. Kowland Hill, " leaving out of consideration 
 the cost of the road, is incomparably less upon a railway 
 than by a coach, but the great cost consists in the interest 
 of capital expended on the road" 
 
 In the concluding part of Mr. Kowland Hill's reply to 
 Mr. Horsman, which I have marked in italics, it will be seen 
 that he fell into the common error of assuming that the high 
 cost of a railway acts as a preventive against low fares ; and 
 his falling into such an error is the more remarkable, as it is 
 one he carefully avoided when giving evidence on his own pro- 
 ject some years previous of post-office reform. Mr. Rowland 
 Hill then proved, before the committee appointed to investigate 
 his plan, that the cost of conveying a letter from London to 
 Edinburgh was only the thirty-sixth part of a penny ; but that 
 expenditure had nothing to do with the capital invested in the 
 road, and coaches and horses, on and by which the letters 
 were conveyed. 
 
 There were, at this time, three great fundamental reforms pro- 
 jected in the railway system by Government, which they were 
 determined, if possible, to carry. The first we have noticed with 
 regard to the compulsory conveyance of third-class passen- 
 gers ; the second was the right of revising the fares, under 
 certain contingencies; and the third was the concession to 
 the State of the absolute right to purchase the railways, on 
 certain specified terms, at the expiration of a fixed time. 
 
 It must be remembered that, in 1844, the main trunk lines 
 were paying 10 per cent, and upwards; and with the pro- 
 tective system Government proposed to adopt for existing 
 railways by discountenancing the construction of competing 
 lines, it was generally supposed that the ordinary increase of 
 the trade and commerce of the country would add largely to the 
 dividends of the companies. Government shared this opinion ; 
 and lengthened negotiations were carried on between the Board 
 
48 
 
 of Trade and the representatives of the railway interest, for a 
 considerable time, in vain endeavours to come to an amicable 
 arrangement with regard to conceding to Government the right 
 to revise the fares, and other knotty points ; and at one time a 
 total rupture between the two high contracting parties was threat- 
 ened. A meeting took place, at which nearly all the great com- 
 panies were represented. Mr. Hudson, at that time high on his 
 iron throne, took the chair, and denounced the bill introduced to 
 Parliament as injurious to railway property and prejudicial to 
 public welfare. Mr. Saunders, on behalf of the Great Western, 
 followed, declaring his belief that the provisions affecting future 
 lines would be brought to bear on the old as well as the new, 
 avowing that his directors were, to a man, opposed to it ; while 
 others, in the depth of their despair, saw only ruin before them. 
 It is quite impossible to describe the stormy feelings which 
 then pervaded the railway world. Mutual distrust and mutual 
 dissensions were forgotten. Opposing chairmen 'met in the 
 same room, discussing the same interest, and denouncing the 
 same Government. It was the great question of the day the 
 absorbing topic of the time. Men magnified its dangers, drew 
 pictures of its consequences, and trembled at the distresses 
 they had evoked.* 
 
 One of the main points of dispute between the Government 
 and the companies, on which a vast deal of evidence was 
 given before the committee, was in reference to the period that 
 should elapse, after the new companies were paying ten per 
 cent, dividends, before Government should have the right to 
 revise the fares. It is quite unnecessary to take any notice / 
 either of the evidence or the details of the dispute on this 
 section of the Kailway Act ; it became virtually a dead letter. 
 Very few of the railways, new or old, pay much beyond five per 
 cent. ; and I need hardly add, that there is not the least proba- 
 bility of any of them ever paying ten per cent. 
 
 The third projected reform in the railway system, proposed by 
 * Francis. 
 
49 
 
 Government on the recommendation of the committee, and 
 which ultimately passed the Legislature, was that which forms 
 the more immediate subject of this treatise, viz. the absolute 
 right of the Government to purchase all railways that obtained 
 their Acts of Incorporation in 1844, or any subsequent date, 
 the terms, should the parties not otherwise agree, to be settled 
 by arbitration. I may as well state here that the details of 
 the General Railway Act of 1844 were ultimately arranged to 
 the satisfaction of the railway body, and that all opposition 
 was withdrawn on its third reading. 
 
 It may well be imagined that nothing but a strong con- 
 viction on the part of Sir Robert Peel, Mr. Gladstone, and 
 the other members of Government, of the importance of 
 the case, and the necessity of providing remedial, measures, 
 although they should not come into operation till a long 
 distant day, would have induced them to depart so widely 
 from that traditional policy of the country which excludes 
 Government, so wisely and so well, from all management 
 of, and control over, our great industrial works. Yet even 
 Sir Robert Peel, strong as he was in the esteem and affec- 
 tions of his countrymen with his well-known liberal ten- 
 dencies, high constitutional character, and it may be added, 
 large parliamentary majority would not venture, even in an 
 exceptional case like the present, to run counter to the pre- 
 judices of the English people. Parliament, under his guidance, 
 enacted that a period of twenty- one years should elapse before 
 the Legislature would be in a position to resume those rights 
 and privileges, which, for the intervening period, they con- 
 sidered necessary to delegate to the railway companies. 
 
 It must, however, be remembered that at this time it was 
 assumed as a matter of course that the direct management of 
 railways by the Government would be the necessary conse- 
 quence of their purchase by the State. No one disputed this 
 absurd proposition, nor was it till many years afterwards that it 
 was entirely exploded. 
 
50 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 Evidence before the Parliamentary Committee of 1844 Mr. Laing, of 
 the Board of Trade Mr. Saunders, Secretary to the Great West- 
 ern Railway Company Mr. G. Carr Glyn, Chairman of the 
 London and Birmingham Company Mr. Baxendale, Chairman of 
 the South-Eastern Company Mr. George Hudson Captain 
 Laws, General Manager of the Leeds and Manchester Railway 
 Establishment of Parliamentary Trains. 
 
 THE time occupied in the examination of witnesses before the 
 committee extended over three months, and embraced every 
 subject connected with railway management. The witnesses 
 were principally directors, managers, and others connected with 
 railways, and Government was represented by Mr. Laing, of 
 the Board of Trade. An extract from the evidence of this 
 gentleman will sufficiently explain the views of Government in 
 regard to the deferred right of purchase on the part of the 
 State : f^ 9 L^J^^ufJlif^JL 
 
 Q. You stated, said(Mr. Gladstone,^that part of the scheme 
 which you proposed was to give the power to the Government 
 at the expiration of twenty years under certain circumstances 
 of buying up the whole of any given railway, and taking it 
 into their hands ? Yes ; that was part of the scheme. 
 
 Q. Was that part of the scheme assented to by railway com- 
 panies ? Yes ; certainly it was ; that part of the scheme was 
 rather favourably received by them. It was proposed that at the 
 end of twenty years from the next following 1st January, after 
 the passing of this Act, it shall be in the option of the Govern- 
 ment to take the line at twenty-five years' purchase of the 
 annual divisible profits calculated upon the average of the three 
 last preceding years. 
 
 Q. You would propose the alternative of the Government pur- 
 chasing the railway at the end of this period of twenty years, in 
 
51 
 
 case you could not make an arrangement as to the rate of fares ? 
 Either in case you could not make an arrangement as to fares, 
 or if Government should think it consistent with policy to do so. 
 
 Q. Then for twenty years from the present time, whatever 
 inconveniences might arise from the want of adaptation of the 
 different connecting Lines, would be permitted to go on ? We 
 propose to take the control over one train for the poorer classes ; 
 as regards the others, I do not see how you can remedy that,^?^ 
 unless you are prepared at once to interfere with their charges. \ ' 
 
 Q. The proposal is to leave the railway companies alone for 
 twenty years you adjourn the consideration of the question 
 for that time ? No ; Parliament has always the power to in- 
 terfere. 
 
 Q. Are not you proposing a scheme which is not to take 
 effect unless there is something advantageous to call for it ? 
 I look upon it in this way : that whereas now you have granted 
 this power to railway companies in perpetuity, you are going to 
 reserve the right of interfering at the end of a limited period. 
 
 Q. Do you propose that the Government should take the 
 railways into their hands ? The Government would take them 
 into their hands only in the event of exercising the option of 
 purchasing. 
 
 Q. In the proposals which you submitted to the railway 
 companies, have these various points which have been alluded 
 to been included and discussed ? Yes ; I think they are un- 
 derstood fully by most of those with whom I have communi- 
 cated on the subject. 
 
 From the foregoing extracts from Mr. Laing's evidence, it 
 will appear that the assent of the railway body had been ob- 
 tained to this proposal on the part of Government, and this 
 is confirmed by the fact that the bill was read a third time in 
 the House of Commons without opposition, and passed through 
 the House of Lords, unopposed at every stage. 
 
 Mr. George Carr Glyn, chairman of the London and Bir- 
 mingham Company, was not opposed to the Government making, 
 in case of necessity, competing lines, and in the Preface I 
 have given a brief extract from this gentleman's evidence; but 
 Mr. Glyn did not define what, according to his ideas, consti- 
 tuted a case of necessity, nor did Mr. Gladstone, in examining 
 Mr. Glyn and using the term " excesssive rates and charges," 
 say what was the standard by which their moderation or excess 
 
52 
 
 should be tested, and without some such standard I do not 
 well see the possibility of applying a test. At that time the 
 great object of companies was to drive competition off the 
 road, and thus secure a monopoly, and having done this, 
 immediately raise the charges to the highest paying point. 
 It is not likely that Mr. Glyn meant more than that, in some 
 extreme and exceptional cases, the Government would be 
 justified in constructing competing lines. 
 
 It is not at all likely that the extreme case supposed 
 will ever occur ; we have enough, and to spare, of 
 legitimate opposition, and however high the charges and 
 bad the management of a company might be, it would 
 never be tolerated that the resources of the State should be 
 brought to bear on private individuals, to have their profits 
 reduced by Government opposition when that remedy was 
 wanting in the ordinary and fair way of trade. 
 
 Mr. Glyn had great apprehension that competing lines, with- 
 out effecting any great good for the public, would place railway 
 property in general in great danger ; he was strongly in favour 
 of yielding many privileges to the public for the sake of pro- 
 tection against competition. 
 
 There was no company so determined as the Great Western 
 in their opposition to Government in every project they brought 
 forward ; they would receive no protection from the Board of 
 Trade, nor grant any privileges : all they desired was to be let 
 alone ; they had a strong objection to be in any way interfered 
 with ; and their great dread was, that by some piece of clever 
 legerdemain on the part of the Board of Trade, the Govern- 
 ment should acquire the right to purchase, at the expiration of 
 twenty years, the old lines as well as the new, the effect of 
 which would have been to limit the price of their shares, now 
 selling for <67, to 250 ! really four times their present price. 
 It is rather odd that the company that eventually suffered 
 most from competing lines was the very one, above all others, 
 to offer the most determined opposition to any offer of protec- 
 tion, come from what quarter it might. Mr. Russell, the chair- 
 
53 
 
 man of the board, was on the committee, and its able 
 secretary, Mr. Saunders, was its representative, and a very 
 difficult task he had to perform, to prove the manifold 
 benefits the country would derive from railway monopoly, and 
 the evil consequences that would result from competition ; and 
 not only that, but to satisfy the committee that this monopoly 
 could be maintained without some such protective system as 
 was proposed by the Board of Trade. Let Mr. Saunders, 
 however, under the guidance of the chairman of the committee, 
 explain his own ideas on the subject. 
 
 Q. Do you (said Mr. Gladstone) think it possible, under 
 any circumstances, absolutely to prevent competition between 
 railways, or to prevent the creation of new lines, which, though 
 intended for other purposes, may collaterally and indirectly 
 have the effect of competition ? I do not think you can that 
 is the difficulty I have always felt with respect to it. I do not 
 see how you can, in the interest of the public, take that course. 
 
 Q. Supposing it were possible to protect them against in- 
 direct competition ; do you think it also hopeless to endeavour 
 to obtain any protection against direct competition under any 
 circumstances ? I am afraid that it is so, to endure any great 
 length of time. 
 
 Q. Then is the committee to understand that you do not 
 think it worth while, under all the difficulties of the case, to 
 make any attempt to get protection against competition ? I 
 am afraid you cannot do it ; I should be very glad to see it 
 done, but I should be afraid of anything that is apparently 
 affording protection, which you either cannot give, or if you 
 apparently give you cannot maintain. 
 
 Q. If there were now before Parliament a body of persons 
 willing to make a new railway from London to Birmingham, and 
 offer to place themselves under restrictions to carry passengers 
 at two-thirds the present prices, should they obtain this bill ? 
 No ; I reject it on this principle, that you have made a 
 bargain with the London and Birmingham Railway Company ; 
 if you show that they offer impediments to trade, or if they used 
 their powers unfairly as regards the public, if their rates of 
 charges are a discouragement to traffic, you retain in your 
 hands the power of remedying it. 
 
 Q. Where do you find a bargain between Parliament and 
 the railway companies, except in the Acts under which these 
 
54 
 
 companies are constituted ? These are the bargains which I 
 speak of. 
 
 Q. Is there any bargain, express or implied, in those Acts of 
 Parliament to discourage the formation of competing lines ? 
 On the contrary, 1 say competition is not the bargain. I say 
 you hold the power of competition in your hands. If, instead 
 of moderate fares and remunerating rates, they charge their 
 maximum rates ; if there is any misapplication of the power 
 you have granted them, you reserve to yourself the power of 
 granting a competing line ; that is what I say you ought to 
 retain. I do not think you ought to fetter it. 
 
 Q. You ought to retain it, but not to use it ? You ought 
 to use it, I think, when there is a misapplication of the powers 
 given to the company. 
 
 Q. In case the powers granted by Parliament are not 
 exceeded, should a competing line be granted? Not if the 
 work is properly done. We all see and know the result when 
 twice the capital is expended ; the two parties at last come to 
 terms, and then must draw from the public, as a remuneration 
 for the capital that has been so expended, a larger sum than 
 would have been required for the smaller expenditure ; for I 
 do always maintain that it is essential in this country that the 
 Government itself shall either employ the national funds as the 
 means of carrying on these improvements, or that you must 
 encourage the accumulating wealth of this country to be 
 employed in them, for the purpose of getting such improve- 
 ments made, and at the same time enable the parties to obtain 
 a remuneration for the capital so employed. 
 
 Q. Your mode of encouraging parties to employ the accu- 
 mulating wealth of the country would be, that when parties 
 came forward to make a second line, you would reject their 
 bill ? Yes ; if that line is to be made for the mere purpose of 
 lowering the profits of an undertaking in which you have 
 already encouraged the accumulated wealth of the country to 
 be applied. 
 
 Q. Would it be fair to say to a company, "We will give you 
 your choice; if you make a reduction in your terms we will 
 reject the bill for a new line, but if you will not we sanction 
 it ? " I think it would be a very unfair thing to do ; it is very 
 much a piece with the highwayman who says, " Your money or 
 your life ! " I think it would be considered as ungracious, 
 and so unfair that it would recoil immediately on the public. 
 
 Q. You think that Parliament would reject those parties 
 and refuse the bill, although they would offer to carry the 
 
55 
 
 public at two-thirds of the present charge? I hold that they 
 should. I am confident they would. 
 
 Q. Assume that Parliament would act on the opposite prin- 
 ciple, and grant hills whenever they find parties willing to 
 carry on better terms ? Then the policy of Parliament would, 
 in fact, be to enforce new competition without regard to neces- 
 sity, unless you should choose to reduce your charges below 
 those at which you can afford to carry the traffic. 
 
 Q. Please to assume that Parliament would, if you so please 
 to call it, force on you competition when you refused to carry 
 as low as other companies would offer to do. Under this 
 assumption, I ask, would it be wise on the part of the company 
 to make some sacrifice in order to get an arrangement from 
 Parliament which would prevent this competition ? You hint 
 a hypothetical case for an opinion on it ; still I should be very 
 much disposed to take my chance rather than encounter the 
 certain sacrifice you have proposed. 
 
 Q. The London and Birmingham charge 30s. for a first 
 class, and 20s. for a second class to Birmingham ; if a body 
 of persons competent in respect to capital were to offer to 
 carry first-class passengers at 20s., and second class at 15s., 
 should they get their bill ? Most undoubtedly not ; you will 
 be introducing this destructive principle, and authorizing a 
 competition whether necessary or not. 
 
 Q. Do you think railways ought to be invested with a 
 patent right of carrying passengers between two places? Sub- 
 ject to certain conditions, I do ; and I must contend that you 
 would be doing the greatest possible injustice to this country, if, 
 when it can be shown that a company by economy and proper 
 management, and not by under charges, had been successful, 
 you were to break down their success by competition. 
 
 It would appear from the foregoing evidence that the prevail- 
 ing idea in Mr. Saunders' mind and he represented one of our 
 greatest companies was, that the public were made for the rail- 
 ways, and not the railways for the public. In his opinion, rail- 
 ways were almost too sacred to be in any way disturbed by com- 
 petition, and however largely the public, according to ordinary 
 ideas, would benefit from a reduction in fares, if such reduction 
 was the result of competition, it would be a fraud on the first 
 company in possession ; the Government that would even inti- 
 mate to a railway company the possibility of a rival scheme 
 
56 
 
 being countenanced by the Legislature, Mr. Saunders compared 
 "to a highwayman that demands your money or your life." 
 
 Notwithstanding Mr. Saunders' denunciation of the absolute 
 fraud that any company would be guilty of in competing with 
 the London and Birmingham Company for their traffic, only a 
 few years from that time elapsed till another company, utterly 
 regardless of the high moral principles laid down by that gentle- 
 man as those on which companies should act, but under the 
 guidance of a secretary as clever as himself, succeeded in 
 establishing a rival line to the London and Birmingham. 
 It will, therefore, be seen that Mr. Saunders had formed far 
 too high an opinion of the Legislature, for they did, after all, 
 " a very unfair thing, much of a piece with the highwayman," 
 when they granted this competing line. Curiously enough, 
 this second company has been the means of reducing the fares 
 from thirty shillings and twenty shillings, to twenty shillings 
 and fifteen shillings, the exact reduction Mr. Gladstone indi- 
 cated as likely to result from a rival line. " The recoil 
 on the public " that has produced such a great reduction in 
 fares, has been anything but " unsatisfactory ;" and to complete 
 this strange coincidence, the rival company " the highwayman 
 that said your money or your life " happens to be the Great 
 Western, and the bill was carried through Parliament under 
 the management of Mr. Saunders himself ! 
 
 It is twenty years since Mr. Saunders gave his evidence 
 before the committee ; and in conformity with it, the Great 
 Western directors have consistently acted; their shares, which 
 at one time were selling at 170, have been reduced by compe- 
 tition and guarantees to little more than the third of that value. 
 
 One of the principal witnesses on behalf of the railway in- 
 terest was Mr. Baxendale, head of the great carrying firm of 
 Pickford and Co., and chairman of the South-Eastern Railway. 
 This gentleman was undoubtedly the highest authority in the 
 kingdom in all matters relating to traffic, and the best manner 
 in which the public should be served. He was asked : 
 
57 
 
 Q. Do you anticipate great injury to railway property with- 
 out some change of policy ? Certainly. One feeling I have 
 as to railway property is its insecurity. I would much rather 
 have a more moderate income with a certainty than the un- 
 certainty which at present prevails in my mind. 
 
 Q. Do you think that an effectual provision could be made 
 for the interests of the public by the multiplication of competing 
 lines ? Competing railways have, in effect, not been competing 
 railways ; matters become worse than if there never had been 
 a competing line, for the parties soon coalesce. I have very 
 strong feelings on this subject. I have always considered that 
 the commerce of this country has always prospered to the 
 extent it has done in consequence of the great freedom of com- 
 munication ; I have always considered that the roads of the 
 country belonged altogether to the people, just as much as the 
 light of heaven. I have therefore invariably said that leaving 
 the whole of the roads of Great Britain, as they would ulti- 
 mately become, in the hands of irresponsible parties, did not 
 appear to me to be sound. At the time I took upon myself 
 the management of the London and Birmingham Kailway, I 
 then considered the whole of the proceedings which they were 
 adopting were very unsound, very stringent, and very unwise 
 for themselves and injurious to the public. I am sure that the 
 millions will never rest if a few thousands are to have these 
 great powers. 
 
 Mr. Baxendale entered into considerable detail in regard to 
 the charges and profits of the passenger traffic. The charge 
 for third class on his line was seven-eighths of a penny per 
 mile, and he calculated the expense at three-eighths of a penny 
 per mile, but there were a great number of vacant seats in the 
 carriages, which, consequently, considerably increased the cost 
 of those which were carried. " Whenever there was a great 
 multitude of third-class passengers," he said, "if you could 
 carry them by tens of thousands where you now carry them by 
 hundreds, no doubt the third class would pay well." It will 
 be seen that Mr. Baxendale calculated the cost of the convey- 
 ance of each third-class passenger at three shillings and one 
 penny for each hundred miles. Liberal as his views undoubt- 
 edly were, I think he hardly anticipated that before twenty 
 years had elapsed from the time he was speaking, third-class 
 passengers would be carried in excursion trains on his line at 
 
58 
 
 half the price of what he then stated to he the cost of convey- 
 ance. But to proceed with his evidence. 
 
 Q. Your opinion is, that it is impossible to prevent the 
 combination of two companies against the public ? Having 
 had to do with public bodies all my life (more, perhaps, than 
 any other man), I know they are never to be depended upon, 
 and therefore I would never leave in the power of public bodies 
 more than I could help. 
 
 Q. Do you think that new lines should be undertaken by 
 Government ? Certainly, because there would be no possible 
 reason for the Government adopting a course that was hostile 
 to the public. If the question were now a blank sheet of 
 paper, I should let the Government take the matter entirely in 
 hand. 
 
 Q. Does there exist at this moment among railway companies 
 a great apprehension as to the effect of what are called com- 
 peting lines ? There does in my mind, as a railway man. 
 
 Q. Would not the best way be to purchase the existing 
 railways, if Government were disposed to lay out their capital 
 for such a purpose ? / think the country at large would 
 probably hail a measure of that kind, because they would 
 get out of our trammels. 
 
 Q. Take the South Eastern has your line been threatened 
 with competition ? No ; but in the present state of the public 
 mind, there are so many schemers looking round for jobs, and 
 so many people who are induced to enter into these un- 
 dertakings, that I feel no security at its not being carried 
 out. If one short piece of railway is commenced at one end, 
 and another piece at the other end, by-and-by they get 
 another piece attached to it, and so they would ultimately get 
 another line of railway that would compete. 
 
 Mr. Baxendale appeared even then to have some forebodings 
 of the future London, Chatham, and Dover, and was not dis- 
 posed to be very complimentary in his language to those who 
 would be the promoters of the line. Mr. Baxendale's evidence 
 on the increase of goods traffic was important. 
 
 Q. Can you give the Committee an idea of the aggregate 
 increase of the traffic of the country as respects goods ? The 
 fact is, that every day thousands and tens of thousands of tons 
 that formerly were left upon the ground, and not removed from 
 one point to another, are now removed, and brought an immense 
 distance into the country. I do not know to what extent it is 
 likely to increase, nor can I say what the extent has been, but 
 
59 
 
 most assuredly the low rates of freight have increased to an 
 enormous extent the traffic. 
 
 Q. You were asked your idea as to the Government pur- 
 chasing up the railways do you think that a practicable one ? 
 I am not sufficiently acquainted with the finances of the 
 country to give an answer to that question. 
 
 Q. Do you see any difficulties in carrying that scheme into 
 execution besides financial ones ? I think the question is one 
 that might be very well grappled with. If two or three railway 
 companies can make arrangements for working, I think it is 
 within the grasp of Government to manage the subject. 
 Pp. 234-256. 
 
 The most important witness examined before the Com- 
 mittee was Captain Laws, manager of the Leeds and Man- 
 chester Eailway a gentleman of great experience in his par- 
 ticular department. It was on the line of which he was 
 manager that, on his recommendation, third-class carriages 
 were first introduced in England. I have given his evidence 
 in reference to the purchase of the railways by Government in 
 extenso, not only for the purpose of throwing all possible light 
 on the subject, but because the plan of purchase proposed by 
 him was recommended by the Committee and adopted by the 
 Legislature. 
 
 I may observe here generally that if ever a change takes 
 place in the public feeling of this country in regard to our 
 railway system, it must be mainly, if not entirely, brought 
 about by the conviction that men of high character and great 
 practical experience, such as Mr. Glyn, Mr. Baxendale, and 
 Captain Laws naturally attached as we may suppose them to 
 have been to a system indigenous to the soil would never 
 have proposed or recommended such a change as that involved 
 in the transfer of railways to the State, or the construction of 
 competing lines by the Government, unless they were strongly 
 convinced of its necessity, and the great benefit the country 
 would derive from a change in our present mode of railway 
 management. The English are, par excellence, a practical 
 people, and the most plausible theory can have but little 
 weight with them unless supported by the testimony of those 
 
60 
 
 best qualified to form an opinion how that theory would 
 operate in praotice. The evidence given before the Select 
 Committee in 1844 was by those who, not only from their 
 position and experience, could best judge of the merits of the 
 two systems, but who had also an interest in maintaining the 
 present one. Mr. Hudson, at that time the chairman of 
 six railway companies, in his evidence admitted that great 
 reductions might be made in the scale of charges if the rail- 
 ways were purchased by the State. Nor had he a word to say 
 against the policy of Government constructing competing 
 lines ; he fully admitted that Parliament never intended to 
 give companies a monopoly, and all he contended for was, that 
 if Government constructed competing lines, they were bound 
 to buy up the old ones. 
 
 The Committee was appointed on the 5th February, and made 
 their first Report on the 1 8th May. They entered on their 
 inquiry, they said, with a strong prepossession against any 
 general interference by the Government in the management 
 and working of railways, and left off with a recommendation 
 that the Legislature should pass a general Act whereby the 
 whole system should undergo revision in 1865. The number of 
 witnesses examined was 27 ; the examination of one alone 
 Mr. Laing occupied seven days ; and the aggregate evidence 
 and reports formed a bulky quarto volume of some six hundred 
 pages. Important as a great portion of this evidence is, in 
 regard to railway economy and management, we must neces- 
 sarily confine our extracts to the most salient points, princi- 
 pally relating to the purchase of the railways by the State ; 
 and as Captain Laws' is, in that respect, the most important, 
 we shall conclude our extracts with that gentleman's evidence. 
 He was asked by Mr. Gladstone : 
 
 Q. Do you think it desirable that Government should be- 
 come purchasers of all the railway property now existing in the 
 country ? Yes, I do. 
 
 Q. Can you state in what way you think the purchase of the 
 railway interests could be carried out beneficially to the pub- 
 lic ? I think a simple and equitable mode of purchasing the 
 
61 
 
 existing lines, as well as promoting the formation of such as 
 ought to he made in addition to the existing lines, might he 
 adopted in the following manner : That from the date of the 
 passing of any Act to authorize Government to make such pur- 
 chase, or ten years from the time any railway was completed 
 and in full operation under their parliamentary powers, they 
 should be subject to purchase under the following conditions : 
 the amount of compensation to be estimated entirely by the 
 amount of benefit on an average of the last three years ; and, 
 to prevent the companies dividing a larger dividend than their 
 earnings would have authorized had no such purchase been in 
 contemplation, by allowing working stock of engines (locomo- 
 tive or stationary), rails, turnplates, buildings, tools or ma- 
 chinery, carriages, waggons, furniture or stores, &c., to become 
 in disrepair or disused from improvements, I should deduct 
 from the net profits, after paying the working expenses, 15 per 
 cent., which forms about the average portion of railway capital 
 devoted to that particular part of their plant ; that is about the 
 average proportion of capital of railways generally for furnish- 
 ing that part of their property. 
 
 Q. You mean that 15 per cent, is about the proportion 
 of their gross capital which is employed in that way? Yes, 
 but I have an addition to make to that. The stock should 
 then be valued. I first say, here is 300,000 net profit for the 
 last three years. I deduct 45,000 from the 300,000, and 
 that leaves 255,000. But the 45,000 is a matter to be in- 
 quired into. That is to be done by a valuation of all the 
 articles included in this. 
 
 Q. What are the advantages which you propose the public 
 should derive from making the purchase ? I look upon it that 
 the advantage the public must derive would be, either by greater 
 accommodation, by means of the railway communications, or 
 an advantage in having a very considerable revenue to devote 
 to the public expenditure from this source. 
 
 Q. Then you contemplate that the Government should 
 either make this a means of revenue, or should, in fact, reduce 
 the charges very materially to the public ? I think there are 
 two modes of the Government making all the railways, merely 
 speaking in a financial point of view, with very great advantage 
 to the public. One would be to work it something on the 
 penny post system, and that the rates would be very little more 
 than sufficient to cover the working expenses and the interest of 
 the money that would give very great facilities and greatly pro- 
 mote every description of domestic industry, whether of manu- 
 facture or agriculture. On the other hand, if they were to 
 work it as private companies do exact the most they could 
 
62 
 
 from the public, so as to get the largest profit if they work it 
 upon that principle, of course, whatever there is over the work- 
 ing expenses and the interest of money, would be available for 
 the public expenses of the nation. 
 
 Q. What you contemplate is that they should either use 
 railways as the Post Office is now used, or that they should use 
 them as the Post Office was previously used, as a means of 
 revenue ? Those are the extremes of the case ; I should 
 recommend an intermediate course. 
 
 Q. At what rate do you suppose that Government would 
 borrow money in order to purchase up the railways ? Three 
 per cent., or a shade above it. 
 
 Q. What do you consider to be the present number of years' 
 purchase at which the public is willing to buy railway property ? 
 taking the established railways of the kingdom, what number 
 of years' purchase would the public be willing to give ? It is 
 very difficult to say ; the confidence in one would be so very 
 different to that in another. I could go and purchase some 
 railway stock now that would pay 8 per cent, on the purchase ; 
 but I should be sorry to hold that stock. In fact, on the good 
 lines the London and Birmingham, the Great Western, the 
 South- Western, and any of the well-established lines we have 
 no difficulty in getting money at 3 J per cent. 
 
 Q. Do you mean that the shares on these established lines 
 sell at such a price that they will only pay 3j per cent, to a 
 purchaser? The Manchester and Leeds shares were selling 
 yesterday at 118 for an annuity of 4 ISs. ; that is about 4^ 
 per cent., but this is a line which has not yet developed itself; 
 in fact, its connection with Liverpool is not yet open ; but I 
 apprehend you could not get an annuity in the London and 
 Birmingham now of 3, much under 100. 
 
 Q. Then the credit of the railway is now as good as the 
 credit of the Government ? It is approaching it very rapidly. 
 
 Q. Then the Government would not get any advantage in 
 the purchase ; they would not buy a property which, with the 
 present changes and the present incomes, would pay them a much 
 larger interest than the interest which they would have to pay 
 over to the persons from whom they purchased the property ? 
 Yes, they would, because there is not one-tenth part of the 
 railway property that stands in the description I have de- 
 scribed. 
 
 Q. But by purchasing the good lines, in point of fact, the 
 Government would obtain no surplus ? I have no doubt they 
 would purchase the good lines for perhaps one-half per cent, 
 better terms than any individual would give for shares in the 
 market ; but that, of course, is very much dependent upon the 
 
63 . 
 
 state of the market. The money market is now in a position 
 that has brought the better railways into great repute as to 
 credit and stability. 
 
 Q. Does it not follow from your view that any surplus reve- 
 nue which the Government may obtain, even under the present 
 charges, must be derived from some improvement in the ma- 
 nagement ? A great deal of saving, no doubt, would be 
 derived from an uniform and far less costly management ; and 
 generally taking the whole of railway stock, / should think 
 there would be one or one and a quarter per cent, in favour 
 of the Government purchasing against the public now. 
 
 Q. What would you estimate the railway stock at? It is so 
 mixed a question, that it is difficult to say. I can now buy 
 railway stock varying from a promissory dividend of 8 percent, 
 to one of about 3, 3J, or 3j. Whenever you find it is 3j, 
 there is some notion of the issue of new stock, by which you 
 participate in all the prospective advantages. 
 
 Q. Can you state any definite sums as to the amount for 
 which the Government might purchase the railways, the amount 
 of interest they would have to pay, the amount of profits of the 
 railways at present, so as to make a comparison of the sum the 
 Government would receive with the sum which the Government 
 would pay ? I think I could solve that question in a very 
 simple shape. I would say, let the Government take the best 
 of the lines. Suppose the Government has made up its mind 
 to begin the purchase, I should by no means suggest they 
 should run headlong into it, and give every railway company 
 notice, " We intend to buy you on such a day ; " but they 
 should begin and introduce themselves gradually into the sys- 
 tem and into the management by giving notice to one of the 
 great lines. I would give notice to those lines which are com- 
 pleted. Take the London and Birmingham and the Grand 
 Junction, which are completed over a distance of 200 and odd 
 miles. The value of those lines I hold to be as simple a question 
 as the value of the Three per Cents, to-day. I divide a profit 
 of so many hundred thousands a year; I take that and deduct 
 15 per cent, from it, to set against the working stock, including 
 rails and the plant. Now, value this stock. Their engines are 
 as good as anybody's ; but still the Government would have a 
 great advantage in this respect, that there has been a reduction 
 in the price of that stock within the last four years of full 50 
 per cent., and the probability is, that when you come to value 
 that stock at its present market price, instead of paying back 
 45,000, which would be the amount of 15 per cent, upon the 
 present income of those three lines, the value of that stock is 
 
64 
 
 not above 35,000, and I say that would be as fair a purchase 
 to all parties as anything could be. 
 
 Q. Does the consideration that the railway companies pos- 
 sess, in many respects, something in the character of a mono- 
 poly, enter materially into the grounds of your opinion ? Yes, 
 it does, and not only monopoly now, but every extension is 
 calculated to increase immensely that monopoly and a continua- 
 tion of monopolies. 
 
 Q. Do you anticipate that there will be a tendency among 
 the railway companies to amalgamate to a considerable extent ? 
 From what I have seen I can state that there is a much more 
 extensive combination than probably the committee have any 
 idea of. 
 
 On being further questioned by the committee, Captain Laws 
 proceeded to detail the various combinations and amalgama- 
 tions projected by the several companies, nearly all of which 
 were subsequently carried out. He further noticed the 
 way in which companies used their power of purchase, and 
 instanced the York and North Midland having bought up the 
 Leeds and Selby, not for the purpose of using it, but for closing 
 it up and taking passengers and goods by a circuitous route 
 on their own line, charging what fares and rates they thought 
 proper. Captain Laws then went into considerable detail as to 
 the inconvenience and losses inflicted on traders by the capri- 
 cious and unfair manner in which they were treated by several 
 companies, from whom there was no appeal so long as they kept 
 within the letter of the law. The purchase of the railways by 
 Government was again referred to. Captain Laws was asked : 
 
 Q. Do you think that very great economy would result in the 
 management of railways from the consolidation in the hands of 
 Government which you propose to effect by means of pur- 
 chase ? I have not the smallest doubt of it. If there is any 
 advantage in amalgamation, of course the extension of that 
 principle would be of advantage. Uniformity of practice and 
 a reduction of the large staff which every railway company has 
 would, of itself, be a considerable item in reduction of 
 expense. 
 
 Q. Would you regard a great reduction in the present 
 average of railway fares as a very great advantage to the trade 
 and commerce of the country ? I think there can be no doubt 
 about it. 
 
65 
 
 Q. Do you think that advantage bears directly, to a very 
 great extent, upon cheapening production in all the great 
 branches of the industry of the country ? I think so. 
 
 Q. Do you think that if your plan were acted on, it might 
 be possible for the Government, without risk to the Treasury, 
 to try the experiment of cheaper communication? I think 
 they might; I think it depends upon the nature of the lines. 
 In the case of a line like the London and York, I do not think 
 it would be of any great advantage to have a cheap rate upon 
 it. That line would hardly touch any town. The traffic 
 would principally consist of gentlemen going backward and 
 forward to London occasionally ; but when you come into a 
 densely populated district, or when you come into a district 
 one part of which is agricultural and the other manufactur- 
 ing, then the more intimate and cheap you can make the 
 connection, the benefit will be the greater. 
 
 Q. Where the communication is connected with business and 
 trade, then you think low fares are advantages; where it is 
 connected in a great measure with the private comfort of the 
 rich, then you see no particular advantage in low fares ? 
 To a less extent, certainly. 
 
 Q. May it not be argued that if that be the case, it will, under 
 the present system, be to the interest of the proprietors to adopt 
 low fares where they are desirable ? It is very possible ; but I 
 think there is this objection to any private interest being so 
 powerful an instrument as a combination of railways, that it 
 may be to their interest to shut out one section of country from 
 the advantages which are enjoyed by another. 
 
 Q. Is it your opinion that if the railways were in the hands 
 of Government, and if the Government were disposed at some 
 future time to make a great effort for the purpose of giving the 
 advantages of cheap communication, that that effect ought to 
 be confined to certain parts of the railway system, and not 
 extended to the whole? The more extended it is the better. 
 It would be expedient to begin with certain sections, and to 
 feel your way thoroughly. Though my own conviction is, 
 there would be no great difficulty in establishing the whole 
 thing under complete Government control in a few months ; 
 still I would say, feel your way, and you will soon discover 
 that there is no great difficulty in working the thing most 
 beneficially to the public. 
 
 Q. You would suggest that the railways ought to be taken 
 not simultaneously, but one after another, for the convenience 
 of making the experiment in the best way ; but looking at 
 the ultimate result, do you think it would be desirable to 
 
66 
 
 attempt the experiment of cheap fares all over the kingdom? 
 I do not think any evil could arise from it, and much 
 good might. 
 
 Q. Do you think there would he a great benefit, looking 
 at the communications of the country as a whole with a view 
 to the development of its traffic, from establishing universally 
 low prices ? I think there can be little doubt about it. 
 
 Q. You draw a distinction between railways that carry 
 trading traffic and railways that carry wealthy persons travel- 
 ling for convenience or pleasure ; but are there not a great 
 number of railways that have a mixed traffic ; and can you 
 always draw a line of distinction between those two classes ? 
 I apprehend that every railway has power; bat when I 
 spoke of high fares I was speaking of the thing now in 
 public, then in private hands. If I was a director of the 
 London and Birmingham Kailway, I should adopt the plan of 
 high fares, because I could command a traffic at those fares 
 that is very profitable, and it would be a dangerous experiment 
 to give up a certainty for an uncertainty ; though as a private 
 individual conducting the Birmingham railway, I should adopt 
 the course they have. On the other hand, as a private indi- 
 vidual conducting a railway of a very different character, 
 which depends very largely on the profits for goods of a 
 lower description of traffic altogether, such as third-class pas- 
 sengers, we can hardly go too low to arrive at a remunerating 
 price, and that is in consequence of the short distances more 
 than anything else. 
 
 Q. Looking at the Liverpool and Manchester traffic, and 
 the traffic upon your railway, is it a traffic a great portion 
 of which enters directly into the cost of production of goods; 
 that is to say, is it almost all carried on by persons in busi- 
 ness going from Liverpool to Manchester, connected either 
 with the purchase of raw material, or the manufacture or 
 export of goods ? That is the case. 
 
 Q. Therefore the establishment of low fares, even upon that 
 railway, would be very beneficial to the commerce of the 
 country ? No doubt of it. 
 
 Q. When you recommend the purchase of existing railways 
 by Government, do you contemplate that all new railways 
 should be constructed by the Government? No; T should 
 adopt the opposite course to that pursued on the Continent ; 
 I should say let private speculators make any new railway 
 that appeared calculated to serve the public purpose, because 
 I believe they would do it cheaper than the Government. 
 
 Q. First of all with regard to allowing them to make any 
 railway that seemed well calculated to serve the public purpose, 
 
67 
 
 you would not be willing to take the readiness of parties to 
 expend their capital in the construction of a certain railway 
 as a sufficient test that it would serve the public purpose ? 
 No, certainly not ; the public should have the choice whether 
 they would have it made. 
 
 Q. Would you recommend that all lines to be made should 
 be subject to the control of Government? Certainly; the 
 position of those lines. 
 
 Q. Do you think that Government should purchase all 
 existing railways, or only those they thought desirable ? The 
 whole of the existing ones; but giving to private enterprise 
 which had brought out those railways fair scope to develope 
 what it contemplated. 
 
 Q. What is the length of time you would consider it equi- 
 table to allow private speculators to have before the Govern- 
 ment became the purchasers ? I stated ten years before ; I 
 think that would be a fair time. 
 
 Q. You consider the advantages of cheap travelling as much 
 for one class as another ? Certainly. 
 
 Q. Then practically, supposing your scheme was carried out, 
 and that the Government acquired all the railways, would you 
 expect that the Government could safely make a large reduc- 
 tion in the present fares of passengers ? I think they might 
 on some lines with advantage. 
 
 Q. Can you state to what extent that reduction should take 
 place ? It is a mere matter of opinion. If I had to decide 
 the thing, I should not hesitate about making a reduction of 
 25 per cent, on all the then heavy fares. 
 
 Q. Do you think that would be sufficient to give a great 
 stimulus to the traffic of the country? I would try it; I 
 think a fourth is a large reduction. 
 
 Q. Do you know to what extent railway proprietors might 
 be willing to come into a general arrangement of sale to 
 Government ? Those whose opinions I am more intimately 
 acquainted with view it as a fair proposition, I think ; they 
 have well considered the matter, both as to the question of 
 check to private enterprise and the equitable arrangement of 
 the right of those who hold this property as investments ; and 
 they think that a proposition founded on the Third Keport of 
 the Committee might be fairly entertained. 
 
 Q. Have you considered how far it might be equitable to 
 take the price of the day as a foundation on which Govern- 
 ment should buy up railways ? I think it would be a very 
 dangerous thing to deal with, because, let there be the slightest 
 
 F 2 
 
68 
 
 intimation that a purchase was to be made, and of course those 
 shares would rise so high that you could hardly fix a day to 
 form the price. 
 
 Q. But you must fix a day that had already occurred? 
 You might fix a day retrospectively, but I do not think that 
 would give satisfaction. 
 
 Q. In order to carry out your object you must have a 
 classification of railways; the one class you would subject to 
 purchase by the Government on so many years' purchase on 
 the average cf the last three years' divisible profits ; the other 
 class having had no divisible profits, or the traffic not having 
 been firmly developed, you must deal with in some other 
 manner ? Yes, if there was no intent I would give them as 
 much time as they asked for, say five years ; I would say, we 
 will leave you to yourselves for five years, and see what you 
 may have developed. 
 
 Q. Is it your opinion that placing any limit by Parliament 
 on the profits of a railway, so that in no case they would be 
 able to divide more than that limit, would only lead them to 
 lay out money unnecessarily? It must be quite so, and I hold 
 it to be impossible that Parliament should completely limit the 
 dividend. 
 
 Q. Do you think it unreasonable to ask that there should 
 be limited accommodation provided for the poorer classes in 
 carriages protected from the weather ? There are great diffi- 
 culties in the way of it; on some lines one-half of the passen- 
 gers would go that way. 
 
 Nearly all the witnesses connected with railways expressed 
 great apprehension that the adoption of Parliamentary trains 
 would have a most serious effect on the dividends. Captain 
 Laws was not an exception to the number ; how far subsequent 
 events proved that their fears were groundless, is a matter of 
 dispute ; the increase in numbers caused by the establishment of 
 the Parliamentary trains was very great, but it is doubtful if it 
 was sufficient to make up the difference in the reduced numbers 
 by second-class trains. It is, however, quite certain that, without 
 the pressure brought to bear on the railway body by Government, 
 such a measure would never otherwise have been adopted. It 
 is very true the old companies were not included in the Act 
 which gave the Government the right of purchase, but they were 
 " invited " by the President of the Board of Trade to accede to 
 
69 
 
 certain arrangements the establishment of Parliamentary 
 trains among others for which certain privileges in return 
 were granted. There is great potency in a Government " in- 
 vitation" on the other side of the Channel, and perhaps it is not 
 less powerful here when, as in cases like the present, it is 
 backed by popular favour. In this evidence we have seen that 
 Captain Laws suggested a mode of purchasing the railways. 
 
 There was also another mode proposed to the Committee, 
 viz., making the market price the criterion of value. We 
 shall subsequently have to discuss the relative merits of the 
 two plans. Captain Laws did not recommend, as we have seen, 
 any very low scale of charges to be adopted ; he thought first- 
 class fares, then at 3d. per mile, should be reduced to %%d., 
 but did not recommend a low and uniform scale of charges 
 throughout the country for the several classes. The fare that 
 he suggested of %^d. for first-class passengers may be taken as 
 the average fare now charged for that class of passengers. 
 
 Captain Laws appears to have somewhat misunderstood Mr. 
 Gladstone's questions in reference to the number of years' pur- 
 chase at which the public were willing to invest in railway pro- 
 perty, or, in other words, what percentage they would require 
 for their money ; he appeared to think the question referred 
 to the rate at which first-class companies could borrow money. 
 When Captain Laws was examined in April, 1844, Consols 
 were at par, and shares in the best paying railways in the king- 
 dom, such as the London and Birmingham, Liverpool and 
 Manchester, Stockton and Darlington, Grand Junction, and 
 other first-class companies, would pay the investor, at the then 
 existing state of the market, at an average rate of 4. 7s. 6d. 
 per cent. 
 
 Captain Laws' evidence, taken in conjunction with that of Mr. 
 Baxendale, threw a flood of light on the whole subject of rail- 
 way management, and incontestably proved the false position 
 in which a country is placed which abandons to private specu- 
 lation the possession, management, and control of her great 
 highways. 
 
70 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Difference between Public and Private Credit Cost of Mail and Stage 
 Coaches per Mile Cost of a Railway Train per Mile The various 
 Items of Expenditure Expense of carrying Passengers 100 Miles 
 Fares on Forty-two of the principal Railways in the Kingdom 
 The Highest, the Medium, and the Lowest Fares contrasted A 
 Reduction not to be expected Excursion Trains and Fares 
 Legitimate Monopolies, Patents and Copyright Quarrels of Com- 
 panies The Working of extremely low Fares exemplified Pro- 
 posed Tariff Much lower Fares in India Passenger Traffic for 
 1863. 
 
 1 HAVE thought it desirable to give the ipsissima verla 
 beforte the Select Committee of some of the most eminent men 
 of the railway world, in reference to the purchase of our rail- 
 ways by the State. The evidence of these witnesses, from their 
 position and experience, was of great value in affirming a 
 principle ; but they did not enter into any detailed explanation 
 as to how their views in reference to Government possession 
 should be carried out. Captain Laws, however, in one of his 
 answers to the Committee, which I have italicised, directed 
 their attention to a very important fact, viz. : That the superior 
 credit of Government would enable it to borrow money at 
 such a low rate as would yield a profit on the purchase of the 
 railways of 1 i per cent. ; or, according to another witness, 
 I/. 75. per cent.; and that, by the use of this surplus, 
 Government could make a great reduction in the fares without 
 incurring any loss ; other witnesses, of a minor class to those 
 whom we have noted, also entered into elaborate statistical 
 details as to railway receipts and expenditure, and on every 
 point connected with the subject, the Committee bad the most 
 ample information. This evidence I shall incidentally make 
 use of, as occasion may require. 
 
 Let us now go back to the old accustomed way of travelling 
 
71 
 
 before the introduction of railways, for the purpose of con- 
 trasting the expenditure then incurred hy coach proprietors in 
 the conveyance of passengers compared with that of railway 
 proprietors in the present day for the same purpose. 
 
 Thirty-five years ago, mail and stage coaches were the only 
 mode of conveyance for the better class of passengers through- 
 out the country ; the general average fares by the former might 
 be taken at fivepence inside and threepence outside per mile, 
 and by the latter, threepence and twopence per mile. The 
 working expenses of a four-horse mail coach, travelling at the 
 rate of ten miles per hour, which might be compared to an 
 express train, and carrying eight passengers, was calculated to 
 cost the proprietors one shilling and eightpence per mile ; and a 
 stage-coach, travelling at the rate of six miles per hour, and 
 carrying four inside and twelve outside .passengers, which 
 might be compared to an ordinary train, cost its proprietors, 
 for working expenses, one shilling and fourpence per mile. 
 These charges were exclusive of tolls, but they included all 
 legitimate charges and current expenses in keeping up the 
 establishment, feeding the horses, and replacing them when 
 worn out ; keeping the coaches in repair and replacing them ; 
 payment of servants, and other incidental expenses. Thus, 
 when the mail and stage coaches carried their maximum 
 loads, the cost to the proprietors of the coaches for the con- 
 veyance of each passenger per mile was respectively twopence 
 halfpenny and one penny ; if they only had half the number of 
 passengers they could carry, the conveyance of each conse- 
 quently cost double these sums, and so in proportion, more or less 
 as the case might be, each journey. All that the proprietors of 
 the mail and stage coaches received beyond their expenses the 
 former having the advantage of being paid a considerable sum 
 in addition for the conveyance of mails made, of course, the 
 dividend which they received for their invested capital. 
 
 Now, the cost of the conveyance of each passenger by rail- 
 
72 
 
 way can be calculated with much greater exactness even than 
 that of the conveyance of a passenger by coach ; for we have 
 all the several items of expenditure in the companies' accounts, 
 together with detailed reports and statistical tables, published 
 annually by the Board of Trade, giving the fullest informa- 
 tion on all matters connected with railways and railway 
 management. The working expenses of railways are generally 
 classed under the following heads: 1st, Maintenance arid 
 renewal of way and works ; 2nd, Locomotive power ; 3rd, Re- 
 pairs and renewals of carriages and conveyances ; 4th, General 
 charges ; 5th, Rates and taxes ; 6th, Government duty ; 7th, 
 Compensation for personal injury, &c. ; 8th, Compensation for 
 damages and loss of goods; 9th, Legal and parliamentary 
 expenses; 10th, Miscellaneous working expenditure, not in- 
 cluded in the foregoing. All these items of expenditure are so 
 easily understood that they scarcely require any explanation. 
 They are calculated on this principle: not only are all the 
 ordinary current expenses of the establishment paid, but the 
 railway is kept in a state of efficient repair by the substitution 
 of new rails and sleepers for old ones, and all other works of a 
 similar kind that may be necessary ; the same principle is acted 
 on with regard to what is called, in railway phraseology, the 
 " rolling stock" engines, carriages, waggons, and trucks. All 
 are kept in efficient working order ; and, when worn out, are 
 replaced by new stock. All this outlay is comprised in 
 " working expenses." 
 
 We have seen what the expenditure is, or rather was, per 
 mile, for the conveyance of a passenger by mail and stage 
 coaches when they carried their full loads ; how do we arrive at 
 the same result in regard to a passenger by railway ? No pro- 
 cess can be more simple or easy. We have only to ascertain the 
 expense per mile on any given line which the company incurs 
 for the conveyance of a train, and the number of passengers 
 that can be conveyed by an engine on it ; and divide the one by 
 
78 
 
 the other. The expense on the English lines per train mile 
 varies from half a crown to three shillings ; on the Irish and 
 Scotch lines it is somewhat less. The average expenditure per 
 train mile, taking all the railways in the United Kingdom, has, 
 according to the Reports of the Board of Trade for the 
 year 1862, been two shillings and sevenpence halfpenny, and 
 for 18G3, two shillings and sevenpence. But it is necessary 
 to note the different items which go to form the whole, and 
 this we are ahle to calculate from the data furnished by the 
 companies, and reproduced by the Board of Trade. It is to 
 be observed, that this average expenditure per train mile 
 includes goods, coal, and other mineral trains conveying two 
 or three hundred tons each. 
 
 Average cost of conveying a train per mile : 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Maintenance of way and works 5^- 
 
 Locomotive power 9 
 
 Repairs and renewals of carriages and waggons 2 
 
 General traffic charges 9 
 
 Rates and taxes 1 
 
 Government duty 1 
 
 Compensation for personal injury and damage 
 
 and loss of goods 
 
 Legal and Parliamentary expenses 
 
 Miscellaneous working expenditure not included 
 
 in the above 2 
 
 Total 2 7 
 
 We now know the exact average charge for which trains, 
 passengers, and goods, are conveyed on our railways. The 
 expenditure may be classed under two heads direct and in- 
 direct. The first three items are direct: they are the actual 
 expenses incurred in the conveyance of each train, and amount 
 to one shilling and fourpence three farthings; the others 
 embrace the general expenditure of the establishments, and by 
 dividing the sum to which that amounts by the number of 
 miles travelled by trains, we are enabled to allot to each train 
 
74 
 
 mile its exact proportion of expense ; the indirect expendi- 
 ture on each train per mile, we find, is one shilling and two- 
 pence farthing. 
 
 In regard to the traction power of a locomotive, there are 
 few persons in this country who have not seen, at some time 
 or other, a monster excursion train of thirty carriages, with 
 forty or fifty excursionists in each, dragged along by an engine, 
 at a steady pace of some twenty miles or so an hour. A train 
 of that size, however, is inconveniently large. Consequently 
 we may take a train of twenty-five carriages, with an average 
 number of forty passengers in each, making in all 1000, 
 as a fair maximum load on the majority of our railways. 
 Our travellers are carried in three separate classes so far, 
 at least, as a distinction in charge can divide them and the 
 expense of conveying a second-class passenger, when properly 
 accommodated, is considered to be about one-half more than 
 that of the third class ; the greater space allowed for first class, 
 and the expensive accommodation they enjoy, make their 
 conveyance cost rather more than double the expense of third- 
 class passengers. Let us take, then, a train containing 1000 
 passengers, such as we constantly see on most of our lines 
 during the excursion season, and supposing it to contain 
 the proportionate number of first, second, and third class 
 passengers who travelled in 1862, the result would be 128 
 first class, 287 second class, and 585 third class. If this train 
 had travelled 100 miles say as far as from London to Brighton 
 and back again the cost of the train for the 100 miles would 
 be 137. 2s. 6d., and the expense incurred for the conveyance of 
 each first-class passenger for the trip would have been sixpence; 
 for the second c\a,ss,fottrpence; and for the third class, two- 
 pence halfpenny. The lowest wholesale price, if I may so 
 use the term, for which passengers can be conveyed in bulk 
 that is, the engine carrying a full load would be for each 
 passenger, per 100 miles, an average cost of something less 
 than threepen ce farth ing . 
 
75 
 
 The traction power of the locomotive is so great that it is 
 only on comparatively rare occasions it is brought into full use 
 in the conveyance of passengers. The average number of 
 passengers conveyed by each train in the kingdom is 71, ex- 
 clusive of season-ticket holders, and this class may raise the 
 number probably to 74 ; but, on the other hand, there is in- 
 cluded in this average all the summer excursion traffic, the 
 trains containing from 500 to 1500 excursionists, and if these 
 be excluded from the general average, the number of passengers 
 in the regular trains cannot exceed 50, scarcely the one- 
 twentieth part of what we have considered as the fair maximum 
 load of an engine on a railway that has good gradients. An 
 ordinary passenger train may thus be compared to a four- 
 horse stage-coach, carrying one passenger on an average each 
 journey. The cost of conveyance that was divided in our 
 former calculation among 1000 passengers is now reduced to 
 50, and the passengers that were conveyed among the multi- 
 tude, as we have seen, 100 miles, at an average cost of less 
 than 3 d., cannot be conveyed the same distance by the com- 
 pany amongst the select few of an ordinary train, at a less cost 
 than five shillings and fivepence ! that is, three farthings 
 per mile, on an average for each, or one penny for first class, 
 three farthings for second, and one halfpenny for third class 
 per mile. 
 
 In all these calculations in reference to the expense incurred 
 in the conveyance of passengers by railway, it must be borne 
 in mind that we have allowed no margin for profit nothing 
 but the bare current expenditure, and that which is sufficient 
 to keep the road and stock in an efficient state of repair; 
 carrying first-class passengers from London to Liverpool for 
 one shilling, second-class for eightpence, and third-class for 
 fivepence, would not yield any profit to the shareholders, 
 although there should be 1000 passengers in each train. In 
 fact, should there be a less number, they would be carried at 
 those fares at an actual loss. Now, in the ordinary trains, one- 
 
76 
 
 fourth of that number could never be calculated on, except at 
 much lower rates than are ever likely to be adopted in this 
 country, and therefore the data applicable to excursion trains are 
 totally inapplicable to the ordinary traffic. If the State should 
 become the possessor of the railways, and adopt a very low 
 tariff, there would be no necessity, unless in some special 
 cases, to run an additional train ; there would be an enormous 
 increase in the number of passengers, and, I think, we might 
 safely estimate that the ordinary existing traffic would be 
 trebled, and that the average number by the trains that we 
 now assume amount only to 50, would be increased at once 
 to 150, and might be expected to go on steadily increasing. 
 Taking the average number of passengers by an ordinary 
 train at that number, and the different classes in the usual 
 proportion, there would be twenty first -class, forty-three 
 second-class, and eighty-seven third-class, and the expense, 
 direct and indirect, for the conveyance of the first-class pas- 
 senger would be, for each 100 miles, two shillings and eight- 
 pence; the second-class, two shillings; and the third, one 
 shilling and threepence. 
 
 We have now before us: 1st, The expense of conveying 
 each passenger by excursion trains, with a maximum load ; 
 2nd, By ordinary trains, as at present, with an average load; 
 and 3rd, The reduced expense that would be incurred if a low 
 tariff was adopted. 
 
 Although the difference in the intrinsic cost in the con- 
 veyance of a passenger by the several railways is utterly 
 inappreciable, any one who has never studied the subject 
 must be surprised at the wide range fares take in the 
 several companies, according to the peculiar interest of 
 each, whether it be a low, moderate, or high tariff. We 
 shall best illustrate this phase of railway management by 
 giving the fares on our principal railways, together with 
 some others of lesser note, so as to have a fair view of the 
 average fares throughout the kingdom, commencing with 
 
77 
 
 those few railways whose managers have discovered very low 
 charges to be the most profitable. 
 
 Name of Railway. 
 
 Average Fares per Mile. 
 
 Express. 
 
 Ordinary. 
 
 
 st Class 
 
 d. 
 
 2nd Class 
 
 d. 
 
 1st Class 
 d. 
 
 o-o 
 
 0-7 
 0'9 
 0*9 
 
 0-8 
 1-2 
 
 2nd Class 
 
 d. 
 
 0-5 
 0'4 
 0'4 
 0-7 
 
 0-6 
 1-1 
 0-9 
 1.0 
 1-1 
 1-3 
 1-2 
 1-2 
 1-3 
 0-9 
 1-3 
 1-4 
 1-5 
 1-2 
 1-5 
 
 1-4 
 1-5 
 1-6 
 1-5 
 1-0 
 1-3 
 1-6 
 1-7 
 1-7 
 1-7 
 1-8 
 1-7 
 2-0 
 1-8 
 1-5 
 1-7 
 1-7 
 1-8 
 1-7 
 1-9 
 2-0 
 2-0 
 2-0 
 
 3rd Class 
 
 d. 
 
 0-3 
 
 0-4 
 
 0-7 
 0-5 
 0-7 
 0-7 
 0-7 
 0-7 
 0-7 
 0-8 
 
 0-8 
 0-9 
 0-9 
 0-9 
 0'9 
 
 0'8 
 0'9 
 0-9 
 0'9 
 0'9 
 0'8 
 0'9 
 0'9 
 1*0 
 0'9 
 
 ro 
 
 0'9 
 
 ro 
 
 0'9 
 
 ro 
 0-9 
 
 0'9 
 0'9 
 0'9 
 
 ro 
 ro 
 ro 
 ro 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 London, Tilbury, and Southend . 
 London, Crystal Palace, and Vic- 
 
 ... 
 
 ... 
 
 
 
 
 
 Leeds, Bradford, and Halifax ... 
 
 ... 
 
 ... 
 
 1-3 
 1-4 
 1-6 
 1-6 
 1-7 
 1-7 
 1-7 
 1-8 
 1-9 
 1-9 
 1-9 
 2-0 
 
 2-0 
 2-0 
 2-1 
 2-1 
 2-1 
 2'2 
 2-2 
 2'2 
 O.Q 
 
 Lancashire and Yorkshire 
 
 ... 
 
 ... 
 
 
 South Eastern 
 
 2'1 
 
 T6 
 
 
 
 
 
 Belfast and Northern Counties... 
 London and North- Western 
 
 2-4 
 
 T9 
 
 North British. 
 
 
 
 
 Ulster 
 
 
 
 London, Brighton, and South 
 Coast 
 
 2-0 
 2-4 
 
 T9 
 T7 
 
 Great Western 
 
 
 London, Chatham, and Dover ... 
 
 2'4 
 
 i'V 
 
 
 
 
 Great Southern and Western ... 
 Bristol and Exeter 
 
 2'6 
 
 T9 
 
 
 Midland 
 
 
 
 2-3 
 2-3 
 2-4 
 
 2-5 
 2-5 
 2-5 
 2-6 
 2-7 
 2-7 
 2-7 
 2-8 
 3-0 
 3-0 
 3-5 
 
 
 
 
 London and South "Western .. 
 
 2'7 
 
 2'8 
 
 1-9 
 2-0 
 
 Great Eastern 
 
 Manchester, Sheffield and Lincoln 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 West Midland 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 IBideford and North Devon 
 
 
 
 Stamford and Rouline . . 
 
 
 
 C armarth en and C ardi gan 
 
 
 
78 
 
 Thus the fares vary " from grave to gay, from lively to 
 severe," from the lowest charge compatible with a fair interest 
 on invested capital, on the one hand, to the highest rate that 
 monopoly can enforce on the other. Let us examine in detail 
 the fares of some of the companies, and the result as it affects 
 their dividends. The North and Southwestern Company occupy 
 the post of honour, and head the list. This company, as we see, 
 carry passengers lower than any other in the kingdom ; they are 
 quite satisfied with an inappreciable fraction over a halfpenny 
 per mile for first-class passengers, or 100 miles for five shillings, 
 a halfpenny per mile for second, and three miles a penny for 
 third-class, and on these low fares now return a dividend at 
 the rate of six per cent, per annum to their shareholders. The 
 North London charge a little more nearly three farthings 
 per mile for first-class, and less than a halfpenny for second, 
 and likewise pay a dividend of six per cent, to their share- 
 holders. Some people imagine that where a railway costs a 
 great deal of money, the fares must, in order to pay, he pro- 
 portionately high. Now, this line, for its length, is about one 
 of the most expensive in the kingdom, its construction having 
 cost as much for one mile as would pay for ten miles of an 
 ordinary line. Nevertheless, with the low fares this company 
 charge, they pay about the largest dividend in the kingdom. 
 Let us take next the London, Crystal Palace, and Victoria 
 line. The company charge for the entire length of the line 
 sixteen miles first class, one shilling ; second class, nine- 
 pence ; and third class, sixpence. All the companies carrying 
 passengers at very low fares, give return tickets at the usual 
 charge a fare and half to all classes. 
 
 It will be remembered that, in 1844, Mr. Gladstone ex- 
 perienced the greatest difficulty in overcoming the opposition of 
 the railway interest to the establishment of Parliamentary trains; 
 and it was only through his very pressing " invitations," accom- 
 panied by the promise of certain benefits in return, that he was 
 eventually able to succeed. Such men even as Mr. Rowland Hill 
 
79 
 
 and Captain Laws, representing the railway interest, were by 
 no means favourable to the measure, and, perhaps, with reason. 
 By the Parliamentary trains there are no return tickets given. 
 Whether the journey be long or short, the full fare a penny a 
 mile is charged each way, and the charge is fully enforced by 
 the great majority of companies; but by some of these cheap 
 carrying lines passengers are constantly being conveyed during 
 the day in second or third class carriages, at a half, a third, or 
 a fourth, as the case may be, of the established Parliamentary 
 fare of one penny per mile, and, as I have before noted, some 
 of these lines pay the best in the kingdom. 
 
 JBut is there any likelihood of any great trunk line, such as 
 the London and North-Western, making any reduction in their 
 Parliamentary fares ? There appears none whatever. All the 
 great companies, since they were established, charge the full 
 fare allowed by law, and I have no doubt that any dimi- 
 nution in the Parliamentary fare would, for a considerable 
 time at least, be followed by a loss ; therefore, it is not to be 
 supposed that these companies will ever make such reduction. 
 
 It may be objected, on the other hand, that the reduction in 
 fares that I propose is not sufficient. It might be said, for in- 
 stance, that twenty years ago, the fare of a third-class passenger 
 from London to Liverpool was one pound five shillings, and the 
 charge for a telegram was exactly the same ; but the charge 
 for the telegram has been gradually reduced, and now it seems 
 is fixed at one shilling. Why then, it might be asked, should 
 not the charge for a third-class passenger to Liverpool from 
 London be reduced to the same rate ? The cases, however, 
 are not parallel ; the actual cost of the conveyance of a 
 message must be very trifling the wear of the machinery and 
 the time of the manager, the clerk, and the messenger, would 
 probably not cost sixpence, whilst the conveyance of a third- 
 class passenger from London to Liverpool would cost, under 
 ordinary circumstances, by railway fully one shilling. The 
 same reduction in charge could not therefore be made. 
 
80 
 
 But to return to the average fares charged, and the wide 
 range they take throughout the kingdom. Of the companies 
 whose low fares we have quoted, there are only Jive whose first- 
 class fares do not exceed one penny per mile. Of those whose 
 first-class fares exceed one penny per mile, but do not exceed 
 three halfpence, there are six; of those whose fares exceed three 
 halfpence, hut do not exceed twopence, there are ten ; between 
 twopence and twopence halfpenny, inclusive, there are thirteen; 
 and from twopence halfpenny to threepence halfpenny, the 
 highest fare, there are eight ; of the three companies at the 
 bottom of the list, and which charge the highest fares in the 
 kingdom, two pay no dividend whatever to their shareholders. 
 
 From the foregoing table we deduce the following general 
 results : 
 
 
 1st Class. 
 
 2nd Class. 
 
 3rd Class. 
 
 
 s. d. 
 
 S. d. 
 
 S. d. 
 
 The cheapest travelling in the United 
 Kingdom is represented by the 
 North and South Western Railway; 
 
 
 
 
 their charge for 100 miles is . 
 
 050 
 
 4 2 
 
 2 6 
 
 The average charge, as represented by 
 the Great Western Railway, is 
 
 16 8 
 
 12 6 
 
 7 6 
 
 The highest charge, as represented 
 
 
 
 
 by the Carmarthen and Cardigan 
 
 
 
 
 Railway, is ..... 
 
 192 
 
 16 8 
 
 8 4 
 
 Whence, then, does this great difference of charge arise ? 
 How does it come to pass that an Englishman, travelling in 
 one part of the country, must pay three, four, or five times as 
 much, as the case may be, for the same distance and mode of 
 travelling, and with no greater degree of speed or comfort, than 
 he is called on to pay in another part of the country ? Is this 
 extra charge, this tripling, quadrupling, or quintupling the 
 fares, the natural result of the increased cost of conveyance on 
 those dear lines ? Increased cost of conveyance ! Why, a 
 first-class passenger, as we have seen, can be conveyed 100 
 miles on any line in the kingdom, and all the expense, direct 
 and indirect, can be brought within the small sum of six- 
 
81 
 
 pence! Does this extra charge arise, then, from the heavy cost 
 incurred in the construction of the line ? So far from that 
 being the case, we generally find, as we have already noticed, 
 that those lines which have been constructed at the greatest 
 cost, carry at the lowest charges. Does it arise from the 
 means of conveyance on some of the railways being physically 
 overtaxed, and the inability of their managers to provide ac- 
 commodation for all who wish to travel ? Nothing of the kind. 
 The trains on all the railways do not carry, on an average, 
 one- tenth the number of passengers they are capable of carry- 
 ing, and could, with scarcely an appreciable increase in the 
 expense, convey three or four times the number they actually 
 do. From none of these causes is the difference of fares to be 
 accounted for. Why does the Stirling and Dunfermline Com- 
 pany charge the traveller 50 per cent, more than the North and 
 South Western Company ? Why does the Caledonian Com- 
 pany charge 33 per cent, more than the Stirling and Dunferm- 
 line Company ? Why does the Lancashire and Yorkshire 
 charge 30 per cent, more than the Caledonian ; and the London 
 and North-Western 20 per cent, more than the Lancashire and 
 Yorkshire; and the Midland 20 per cent, more than the London 
 and North- Western ; and the Great Eastern and the Man- 
 chester, Sheffield and Lincoln, 10 per cent, more than the 
 Midland; and the Colne Valley 10 per cent, more than the 
 Great Eastern ; whilst our old friends, of the Carmarthen and 
 Cardigan, pour the last drop of bitterness into the traveller's cup 
 by adding a final 12 per cent, to the fare charged on the Colne 
 Valley line ; thus the last fare our traveller pays per mile in 
 the imaginary route we have traced out for him, after passing 
 through a gradually ascending scale, exceeds the first by 450 
 per cent. We want to know " the reason why. " 
 
 Had we lived 1000 years ago, and England been then 
 portioned out among the Danes, Saxons, and Normans, we 
 could pretty well have understood how the unhappy English- 
 man, in travelling through a country in the possession of 
 
82 
 
 foreigners and enemies, should be unmercifully plundered as 
 he passed along ; or, had we even lived 500 years later, in the 
 time of the Norman barons, we should probably have found 
 them by no means backward in exacting whatever they might 
 have been able to extort from the unprotected traveller in the 
 way of toll. The old barons on the Rhine were said to have 
 been famous hands at this kind of business ; and our modern 
 directorates in England, with due respect, be it said, are by no 
 means bad imitators of the German barons, not less in the 
 sagacity by which they are enabled to test the ability of the 
 traveller to pay than in the determination with which they 
 enforce their claims. Here, however, the comparison must 
 end. What the directors do is perfectly legal and justifiable ; 
 they are not acting, it is true, in the spirit of the constitu- 
 tion, but they are conforming to the letter of the law in 
 disregarding the most vital interests of the country, when 
 it interferes in the slightest degree with their profits as 
 traders. A Committee of the House of Commons has de- 
 clared " that the roads of a country are public concerns, and 
 necessary to the people as the air they breathe ;" but we ignore 
 these sentiments; and the State, acting on the erroneous sup- 
 position that its possession of the railways would increase the 
 power and patronage of the Government, delegates to private 
 individuals the charge of these highways, which should belong 
 to the Queen, and be managed under the direct control of the 
 Legislature alone. These private individuals are empowered to 
 make the most of their position, and all their differential fares we 
 have noted arise from mere statistical accident, as it is developed 
 in the working of this great monopoly. It so happens that 
 although the London, Tilbury, and Southend Company 
 charge their first-class passengers less than a penny per mile, 
 their fares are 50 per cent, more than the North and South 
 Western ; and the London and North-Western Company 
 charge 100 per cent, more than the London, Tilbury, and 
 Southend, and so on to the end of the list. All the fares on 
 
83 
 
 the different railways throughout the kingdom are settled by 
 the mere chapter of accidents. From some local cause a very 
 low, a moderate, or a very high fare is found to pay best, as 
 the case may be, and accordingly adopted. The difference in 
 the result to the shareholders, as we shall subsequently show, 
 between a very high and a very low tariff, is very small ; but, 
 however insignificant it may be, it is quite sufficient to turn 
 the scale in favour of the particular tariff that gives the 
 greatest profit. 
 
 Thirteen great companies possess and manage three- fourths of 
 the traffic of the United Kingdom. Of these, the lowest tariff 
 is that charged by the Caledonian ; the medium tariff" by the 
 London and Brighton ; and the highest by the Great Eastern, 
 and the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincoln Companies. As a 
 general rule, the worst paying companies charge the most. 
 
 On many of the great lines there are, strictly speaking, no 
 third-class, but only Parliamentary, trains. The Great Eastern 
 charge third-class passengers over the greater part of their 
 line three halfpence per mile. The lowest, the medium, and the 
 highest charges on the thirteen great lines are as follow : 
 
 
 1st Class. 
 
 2nd Class 
 
 3rd Class. 
 
 
 s. d. 
 
 S. d. 
 
 5. d. 
 
 The Caledonian Company charge per 
 
 
 
 
 100 miles 
 
 10 
 
 9 2 
 
 5 10 
 
 The London and Brighton charge per 
 
 
 
 
 100 miles 
 
 17 6 
 
 13 
 
 8 4 
 
 The Great Eastern charge per 100 
 
 
 
 
 miles 
 
 1 10 
 
 16 8 
 
 12 6 
 
 I have excluded express fares from these calculations. 
 As travelling by express trains is quite exceptional in 
 its character, and, as it is attended with great expense, the 
 fares must always be comparatively high. The number of 
 passengers is limited, and the wear and tear, both of rail- 
 way and rolling stock, in consequence of the rapid speed 
 of travelling, is very great. Those whose time is valuable can 
 afford the extra expense. The trains, however, might travel at 
 a greater speed on some of the lines, and the fares at twopence 
 
 G2 
 
84 
 
 for first and three-halfpence for second class passengers would 
 be sufficient. The lowest express fares are those charged on 
 the South Eastern ; the medium fares are those charged by 
 the Great Western; and the highest by the Great Eastern. 
 
 
 Express. 
 
 
 1st Class, 
 
 2nd Class. 
 
 
 s. d. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 South-Eastern Company, per 100 miles . 
 
 17 6 
 
 13 4 
 
 Great Western ,, 
 
 100 
 
 14 2 
 
 Great Eastern ,, 
 
 134 
 
 16 8 
 
 We are now enabled to form a pretty accurate judgment on 
 the different degrees of expense incurred by railway travelling 
 in all parts of the kingdom. From the specimens afforded 
 by the forty-two companies whose fares I have given, the two 
 extremes for first-class travelling per mile are one halfpenny 
 and threepence halfpenny ; for second-class, one halfpenny and 
 twopence per mile ; for third-class, one farthing and three half- 
 pence per mile. 
 
 There are two kinds of passenger traffic, which, from their 
 nature, must be dealt with in very different ways business and 
 pleasure traffic. In conducting the former, trains must be 
 despatched regularly at certain fixed intervals all the year 
 round, varying only according to the requirements of business, 
 and without regard to the number of passengers that at any 
 time may be conveyed in each train. Eor this branch of traffic 
 we have given the fares on all the principal railways in the 
 kingdom ; but most of the companies carry on during the sum- 
 mer and autumn months a large excursion traffic, and as such 
 trains are well filled, and they can calculate on their being so 
 filled, the excursionists are carried at comparatively low fares. 
 This branch of business is considered one of the most profitable 
 the companies possess. The great advantage consists in having 
 the choice of their own time for departure, so as not to interfere 
 with the general traffic ; and the large number who are induced 
 by what they consider low fares to take these trips, and the very 
 
85 
 
 low cost, as we have seen, at which the companies are ahle to 
 carry passengers, render the trains very profitable. 
 
 A large excursion traffic is carried on "between London and 
 the several watering places and seaports within a hundred 
 miles of the metropolis, especially to Gravesend, Southend, 
 Dover, Margate, and Kamsgate ; there is also a considerable 
 traffic of the same kind carried on by the great lines north 
 of the Thames to the principal towns of the kingdom. Pas- 
 sengers can be conveyed at a low sum by excursion trains, or, 
 in fact, by any trains where there is a full load, as we have 
 seen one hundred miles, first class, for sixpence ; second 
 class, fourpence ; third class, twopence halfpenny. All be- 
 yond those fares obtained from the passengers is clear profit. 
 Each company, therefore, regulates its own tariff according to 
 its views of what will pay best, and there is about the same 
 difference in the several fares charged by the companies for ex- 
 cursion as we have already noticed for the ordinary traffic. A 
 few instances will suffice in showing the extremes between 
 the charges of the companies out of London : 
 EXCURSION TRAINS. Fares per 100 miles. 
 
 
 
 Enclosed 
 
 
 1st Class. 
 
 Carriages. 
 
 
 *. d. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 South Eastern, to and from Ramsgate 
 
 3 8 
 
 1 8 
 
 London and Brighton, to and from Portsmouth 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 London and North Western, to and from 
 
 
 
 Liverpool 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 Great Western, to and from Plymouth 
 
 6 3 
 
 4 2 
 
 And the same difference in fares prevails throughout the 
 kingdom. 
 
 The South-E astern Company, we thus find, charges lower 
 than any other company out of London for excursion traffic, and 
 the Great Western the highest ; but the average excursion fares 
 may be taken at about one-third of the ordinary traffic fares. 
 
 It happens, however, occasionally, that we have a violent 
 contest continued over many months between some of the 
 companies, when the public are carried at what may be really 
 
86 
 
 termed moderate fares so low, indeed, that I should never 
 venture to propose them for general adoption. We shall, how- 
 ever, be enabled, by examining these tariffs, to get a glimpse 
 of the practical eVery-day working of a low fare system. 
 Let us take three contests, memorable in railway bistory 
 the first between the London and North-Western and the 
 Great Northern Companies in 1857; the second between the 
 South-Eastern and Great Western in 1852 and 1853; and 
 the third between the Edinburgh and Glasgow and the Cale- 
 donian Companies in 1854. 
 
 The first two companies I have named, having quarrelled, 
 made a sudden reduction in their fares at those points on their 
 respective lines at which they came in contact. The reduction 
 was to an extent altogether unprecedented, at least on long 
 lines. The Art Exhibition was then being held at Manchester, 
 and during the summer months, for two or three days in the 
 week, the companies gave excursion tickets between London 
 and Manchester, allowing the traveller to remain four days at 
 the latter town; the distance travelled over was about four 
 hundred miles, and the fares for first class were seven shillings 
 and sixpence, and, for second class, five shillings. They ran 
 not only fast trains on both lines, but the second-class carriages 
 were comfortably cushioned, as they always are on the Con- 
 tinent, and rarely with us. These trains must have interfered, 
 to a great extent, with the general passenger traffic of both the 
 companies with all the large towns in the north of England. 
 As the companies allowed four days for the traveller in Man- 
 chester, it gave him ample time to extend his journey to other 
 districts, and get back in time for his return journey. The loss 
 to each company was calculated at about a half per cent, in 
 their dividends a considerable loss, no doubt, to them, and 
 not wisely incurred; but what a benefit to the hundreds of 
 
 thousands who for once in their lives were enabled to travel at 
 
 . 
 
 a moderate jate of charge and get a fair value for their money ! 
 Let us stop now for a moment to inquire into the particulars 
 
87 
 
 of the profit and loss account of this quarrel. These trains were 
 well filled, and carried, I have been told, on an average, about 
 six hundred passengers say two hundred first class, and four 
 hundred second class, the fares for the double trip amounting 
 in all to one hundred and seventy-five pounds. The cost of 
 a train per mile is two shillings and sevenpence, and 
 taking the double distance at four hundred miles it is rather 
 more by the Great Northern and less by the London and North- 
 Western Company the whole expense of each train (both the 
 direct expense and its proportionate expense for management) 
 comes to fifty guineas, and the receipts, as we have seen, to 
 one hundred and seventy-four pounds, leaving a profit of nearly 
 two hundred and fifty per cent, on the conveyance of pas- 
 sengers by each train. The fares of the passengers, be it 
 remembered, were, for first class, each 100 miles, one shilling 
 and ninepence, or less than a farthing per mile ; and for second 
 class, in carriages comfortably cushioned, one shilling and two- 
 pence, or a penny for seven miles ! 
 
 The contest of the South-E astern with the Great Western 
 for the London and Beading traffic lasted about a year and a 
 half. The distance on the South-Eastern line is 67 miles, and 
 the company conveyed passengers the double distance by every 
 train for three shillings, first class, and two shillings, second 
 class; being at the rate, per hundred miles, first class, two 
 shillings and threepence, and second class, one shilling and 
 sixpence. In this case the chairman of the company stated 
 at the half-yearly meetings of the company that the company 
 lost nothing by the change in fares; they paid the same 
 dividends, and they were very well satisfied to go on. Never- 
 theless, the South-Eastern and Great Western were charging 
 on one part of their lines about ten times as much as they were 
 charging on other parts, and on those parts where they were 
 carrying lowest their profits amounted to about 250 per cent, in 
 the cost of conveyance by each train ! 
 
 The most remarkable case, however, that ever happened in 
 this kingdom, as confirmatory of the truth of the principles 
 
88 
 
 on which the Act of 1844 was founded, occurred ten years 
 ago on the Edinburgh and Glasgow line ; when, in conse- 
 quence of a dispute with the Caledonian Company, the fares 
 were reduced to about one-eighth of the ordinary charges. 
 The ' Edinburgh and Glasgow line is forty-six miles in 
 lengths, and the regular fares for the three classes were re- 
 spectively eight shillings, six shillings, and four shillings ; 
 these were suddenly reduced to one shilling, ninepence, 
 and sixpence; the Caledonian, of course, following suit, 
 and carrying likewise at the same fares. For a year and a 
 half this contest continued, to the great satisfaction, comfort, 
 and benefit, no doubt, of those two great Scotch cities, but to 
 the serious injury of the shareholders. The Edinburgh and 
 Glasgow Company paid one per cent, per annum less to their 
 shareholders, arid the loss to the Caledonian was calculated at 
 something less than a half per cent, per annum to theirs. 
 It is to be remembered that these were the fares by all trains, 
 and not confined to a few on certain days of the week. 
 The sum charged per hundred miles for first class was two 
 shillings and threepence ; second class, one shilling and nine- 
 pence ; and third class, one shilling and twopence. 
 
 If we put into a tabular form the original fares charged by 
 the companies for the three classes, the reduced fares, the dis- 
 tance, and the loss of profits they incurred by the reduction, 
 shown by their dividends, it will stand thus: 
 
 Original Fares. 
 
 
 
 Reduced Fares. 
 
 Loss in Divi- 
 
 
 
 
 
 dends per cent. 
 
 Return Tickets. 
 
 Miles. 
 
 
 Return Tickets. 
 
 per annum. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 s. d. s. d. 
 
 
 
 s.d. 
 
 s.d. 
 
 s.d. 
 
 S. d. 
 
 60 
 
 40 
 
 
 
 380 
 
 London and North- West- 
 
 1 6 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 ern. 
 
 
 
 
 
 60 
 
 40 
 
 
 410 
 
 Great Northern 
 
 7 6 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 7 6 
 
 '- 
 
 134 
 
 South-Eastern 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 46 
 
 Edinburgh and Glasgow 
 
 1 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 20 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 55 
 
 Caledonian 
 
 1 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 We have now before us the result, in a financial point of 
 view as affecting the companies, of what are termed relatively 
 very high, moderate, low, and extremely low fares; and we find 
 
89 
 
 that it makes comparatively little difference in the annual 
 dividends, not exceeding in any case one per cent., whether 
 they charge one farthing per mile for first-class passengers or 
 fourteen farthings the two extremes and the other classes 
 in the same proportion. It, however, happens that, although 
 the difference in profit would not be great, fourteen farthings 
 would invariably pay better than one, and, as the com- 
 panies have no obligation, legal or moral, to consider any- 
 thing but their own interest, they would always adopt the 
 fourteen if they had no other choice; but they have a free 
 choice from one farthing up to twelve or fourteen farthings 
 for first class per mile ; and, accordingly, we find that their 
 ordinary scale of fares commences at two farthings and 
 ends with fourteen farthings, but, as a general rule, that 
 nine farthings, or twopence farthing, for first class, and the 
 other fares in due proportion, pay best. Never, except in 
 cases of violent competition, do they go as low as a farthing 
 per mile for first class, and although, as we have seen, carrying 
 at that fare yields in a moderately filled train a profit of 250 
 per cent., it nevertheless tells on the dividends to the share- 
 holders. We shall find, however, that there is nothing peculiar 
 in this wide range of charges in railway fares ; that it is inherent 
 in all monopolies; and that the monopolist, having no fear of 
 competition, has only to consider whether the charge of a 
 shilling, a pound, or an intermediate price pays him best, and 
 adopt that price accordingly. 
 
 It is necessary for those unacquainted with commercial affairs 
 to understand clearly the distinction to be drawn between the 
 profits on a business and the interest or dividends those profits 
 will pay on the capital invested in it. One shopkeeper may sell 
 his goods at cent, per cent, profit, and not be able to realize more 
 than pays his current expenditure, whilst another charges only 
 five or ten per cent, profit and will gain twenty per cent, or 
 upwards per annum on his capital. In regard to the railways 
 of the United Kingdom, their average earnings per train 
 mile is five shillings and sixpence, and the expenses 
 
90 
 
 as we have seen, amount to two shillings and sevenpence. 
 The expenditure is forty-eight per cent, on the receipts, or, 
 to put it in another form, the average returns on the working 
 of railways yield a profit of rather more than one hundred per 
 cent., and these profits paid on the invested capital last year 
 a dividend of nearly four per cent, per annum to the share- 
 holders. A railway company might receive from each 
 passenger ten times as much as his conveyance costs, 
 and yet pay no dividend to the original shareholders. The 
 number of trains might be so few, and the business done so 
 insignificant, that the profits would be absorbed by the bond- 
 holders or preferential shareholders. 
 
 There are two kinds of monopoly one is produced from 
 artificial, and the other from natural, causes ; and to these a 
 third may be added that arises from a combination of the first 
 two. An artificial monopoly is created simply by a law for- 
 bidding competition; a natural monopoly arises from an 
 invention being so excellent that whoever uses it can set com- 
 petition at defiance ; the third kind of monopoly is exemplified 
 in our railway system, where, from the circumstances of the 
 case, the invention can either be only used by one party, or 
 at most by two or three, who combine instead of compete, and 
 divide the monopoly which it was intended they should destroy. 
 No presumed increase in the number of railways can alter 
 their character as a monopoly. 
 
 We have, however, in this country monopolies that are 
 perfectly legitimate and duly recognized by law. Those 
 granted for limited periods to patentees and authors, who are 
 allowed for a certain time to derive as much profit as they 
 can from the productions of their brains what do these 
 monopolists do ? The same as all other monopolists ; they 
 make the best of their opportunity, and charge five, ten, or 
 twenty times as much for their works as those works could 
 be sold for if no monopoly existed. A work, for instance, is 
 published in London at a guinea and a half, and immediately 
 afterwards the same work is published on the Continent for 
 
91 
 
 four or five shillings; but the cheap republication is not 
 confined to the Continent : as the period approaches for the 
 expiration of the copyright in England, the price of the work 
 is gradually reduced, till at last we find that our most popular 
 novels, published originally at a guinea and a half, end their 
 "monopolist" career by being published at two shillings! 
 And these two prices represent the respective tariffs of free trade 
 and monopoly, and the two extremes of fares on our railways 
 represent the two principles when for a short time free trade 
 flourishes. 
 
 In some cases, however, the author considers it to be more 
 profitable to publish his work in the first instance at a low 
 price, at half a crown, in preference either to half a sove- 
 reign or a still higher price and calculates on the large sale 
 compensating for the low price. Occasionally this calculation 
 may prove correct, but in the vast majority of cases a high 
 tariff pays somewhat better, and is accordingly adopted. The 
 same principle holds good in regard to railways and all other 
 monopolies. The monopoly enjoyed by a patentee or an author 
 is the only equitable arrangement- devised by which this class of 
 persons can derive a profit from their inventions or their works. 
 Without such protection we should have neither inventors nor 
 authors, and I refer to them merely as an illustration of the 
 injury a monopoly inflicts on the public compared with the 
 little advantage to the monopolist, even in cases where the 
 justice of its being granted cannot be disputed. 
 
 But these monopolies differ in two very important respects 
 from railway monopoly ; their time is limited, and their sphere 
 of operation circumscribed. In a few years, comparatively 
 speaking, the most useful and important invention or discovery 
 can be used and enjoyed by the public without any fiscal re- 
 striction whatever, and till that time arrives, if the price does 
 not suit the public, they are neither compelled to use the in- 
 vention nor read the work. But I need hardly observe that 
 the case is quite different with railways ; the public must use 
 them and pay the monopolist charge, not for a limited time, 
 
92 
 
 but in perpetuity, or, at all events, so long as our present 
 system is permitted to continue. 
 
 The sketcl; I have given in the foregoing pages shows the 
 practical working of our railway system as regards the convey- 
 ance of passengers, and how the delegated authority of the 
 State is carried out by the companies. The Government, in 
 effect, said to the companies when they entered into a new 
 contract with them in 1844, "You can carry first-class passen- 
 gers four miles, second-class passengers six miles, or third-class 
 passengers ten miles, for one farthing each, that sum covering 
 all expense, direct and indirect, of their conveyance ; all beyond 
 that sum being necessarily profit, we give you the power prac- 
 tically to charge the public what you please, but at the end of 
 twenty-one years we reserve the right to revise the system and 
 take the railways into our own hands should we think such a 
 course advisable." Well, twenty years have passed away, and 
 1865 has arrived, and we shall enter its parliamentary session 
 under circumstances in regard to railway projects similar to 
 those under which we entered the session of 1844. Let us 
 assume for the present that the working of our system since 
 that period may not have proved altogether satisfactory to 
 the Legislature ; that they may come to the opinion that the 
 State should possess the railways; and that a low tariff, 
 universal in its application throughout the country, should 
 supersede the present tariffs of the companies. We have now 
 to consider what that tariff should be. 
 
 It has been assumed throughout these pages that it is the 
 desire of the Legislature that the fullest development should 
 be given to the traffic of the country and to that department 
 of it especially relating to passengers. What the fares ought to 
 be for ordinary traffic we have already noticed ; business people 
 must travel, more or less, and this, to a great extent, they 
 regulate, by choice or necessity, according to their ability or 
 inclination to pay the fares charged. Excursionists, however, 
 have no absolute necessity to travel, and there if were not a 
 
93 
 
 very great reduction in the regular fares there would be no 
 business whatever for excursion trains. The companies, as 
 we have seen, differ very much in their charges, according 
 to circumstances or the policy of their respective boards, 
 the fares ranging from two to five miles for a penny for 
 the lowest class. These low fares attract a large number 
 of excursionists, and it is only reasonable to suppose that 
 the companies have settled their fares at that point which 
 gives the greatest profit. If the railways become the pro- 
 perty of the State, the Legislature will, I apprehend, fully 
 carry out what the companies do but partially, and will 
 afford an opportunity to all classes, the poorest especially, 
 to have some relaxation at convenient times by a short 
 change of scene and air. The Legislature would be in a posi- 
 tion to consider the matter in a very different light, and in a 
 much more liberal spirit, than that of the companies. They 
 would, no doubt, consider it to be their duty to place excur- 
 sion trips within the humble means of those who are sunk far 
 below the respectable artizan class, and who form such a large 
 proportion of every great city. Now, we have seen that the South- 
 E as tern carry a great proportion of their lowest-class excur- 
 sionists at the rate of five miles for a penny ; but that rate, low 
 as it may appear, is far too high for the classes of whom I am 
 now writing. I think ten miles a penny for third class, six 
 miles a penny for second, and four miles a penny for first, would 
 fairly meet the general wants ; and although these fares for a 
 considerable time would not probably yield so large a profit as 
 the present excursion fares, nevertheless, considering the object 
 in view, the Legislature might deem a profit of 300 or 400 per 
 cent, on the conveyance of this class of passengers sufficient. 
 
 The last class of travellers whose mode of travelling and 
 payment to the companies we have to consider are those who 
 hold periodical tickets and live generally at distances varying 
 from two to twenty miles from large towns, to which they come 
 daily to transact their business, and, when the distance is 
 very short, frequently several times in the day. Companies 
 
94 
 
 charge generally about 2 10s. first class, and 1 10s. second 
 class, per mile per annum up to five miles. From that dis- 
 tance the fare per mile gradually decreases in proportion to 
 the distance; at ten miles the fares are about 1 10s. and 
 1 per mile ; at twenty-five miles they decrease to about l and 
 15s. per mile; after that they decrease to about 15s. and 
 10s. per mile. Very few take periodical tickets at a dis- 
 tance beyond twenty-five miles from their place of business, 
 unless for a few months whilst at Brighton or some other 
 watering place. The holders of periodical tickets are gene- 
 rally a well-to-do class, and travel in fast trains for long 
 distances. One-half the present rates would meet the necessities 
 of the case, except third-class passengers, whose case requires 
 separate consideration. 
 
 The scale of fares I have through the foregoing pages 
 suggested may be classified as follows: 
 
 EXPRESS. 
 
 1st Class, twopence; 2nd Class, three halfpence per mile. 
 FAST TRAINS, calling only at first-class stations. 
 1st Class, one penny farthing per mile. 
 2nd three farthings 
 
 3rd one halfpenny ,, 
 
 ORDINARY TRAINS, calling at all stations. 
 1st Class, three farthings per mile. 
 2nd one halfpenny 
 3rd one farthing 
 
 Return tickets for all classes at a fare and a half. Second-class 
 carnages cushioned. 
 EXCURSION TRAINS. 
 1 st Class, four miles for one penny. 
 2nd six miles 
 
 3rd ten miles 
 
 Annual and Season Ticket-holders, one half the present average 
 
 rates. 
 
 The lowest payment, one penny. 
 I have not much to add to what has already been said in 
 
95 
 
 regard to the proposed fares ; those by express trains cannot 
 he much reduced from their present rates, but their speed on 
 many of the lines on which they now run may be considerably 
 accelerated, and this has been done within the last few years by 
 the London and North -Western Company. There are scarcely 
 a dozen lines in the kingdom on which express trains run ; 
 their expense being great, and the number of passengers for a 
 very high speed being necessarily limited, the fares by these 
 trains must always be high. 
 
 For first class by fast trains I have proposed one penny 
 farthing per mile, which is about the half of the present fare by 
 express trains on most of our great lines ; many may think even 
 this too high, and no doubt it is if we are to take as our standard 
 the fares charged by companies running at opposition fares, 
 such as we have already noticed. The return fares for first and 
 second class between London and Manchester are at present 
 respectively % 12s. Gd. and l 17s. 6d., and on the London 
 and North- Western line the distance is 188 miles. By the 
 scale I propose, the fares would be reduced to l 9s. d. and 
 17s. 7d. for the respective classes. What a paltry reduction 
 this appears with what the company made themselves ! They re- 
 duced their fares by a stroke of the pen from their normal rate 
 of 3 to 7s. Gd. ! and the result we have seen. However, it 
 must be remembered that this reduction did not extend over all 
 the company's lines, and therefore the experiment was only 
 partial. 
 
 It is, however, by the ordinary trains the multitude would be 
 carried, not requiring a great speed, and stopping at all 
 stations, like our Parliamentary trains, with accommodation 
 suited to every class according to their inclination or ability 
 to pay. The public would thus be amply provided for at such 
 moderate fares as would leave no fair ground of complaint. 
 Continuing the comparison of return fares between London 
 and Manchester under the proposed tariff and the present fares 
 which we have given above, by this train a return ticket for 
 the three classes would be severally 17s. 7d,, 13s. 5d., and 
 
96 
 
 6s. Qd.; which would be about one- third of the present fares 
 charged for first and second class, and one-fifth of the fare by 
 a Parliamentary train, as by the latter there are no return 
 tickets. The lowest fare there and back is l Us. kd., with 
 which the payment of 6s. 9d. would contrast pleasantly. 
 
 Although the foregoing tariff may to some appear low, it is 
 very high compared with that on some railways elsewhere. 
 Mr. Danvers, in his last report to the Secretary of India, says 
 that on the Bombay and Baroda line there is one element of 
 working which does not belong to other Indian lines. The 
 gradients are unusually favourable, the line is very level, and 
 one engine can thus draw heavy weights, thereby rendering 
 frequent and light trains unnecessary. The average weight, he 
 says, of our English goods trains is about 60 tons, and of our 
 coal and other mineral trains about 200 tons, and an average 
 passenger train, with seventy passengers in six carriages, about 
 100 tons; but a Bombay and Baroda train is composed of 
 seventy-two carriages and trucks, with a gross load of 720 
 tons, at an average rate of speed of twenty miles' an hour ; and 
 the average rate of fares for all classes is two shillings per 100 
 miles, or about one-sixth of our average fares in England ! 
 
 Such, as I have endeavoured to trace out in this chapter, is 
 the working of the railway system in this country in regard to 
 the conveyance of passengers, with all its anomalies, absurdi- 
 ties, and abuses, the natural results produced by the working 
 of an overgrown and but little checked monopoly. If 
 these high charges were made from unavoidable circumstances, 
 if they were the natural results of a sound system of manage- 
 ment, they should be submitted to in silence ; nay, more if 
 they even were the result of an unsound system, but one still 
 in accordance with the general policy of the country, there 
 would be no special cause of complaint ; but the contrary is 
 the case. Within the last twenty-five years the abolition 
 of monopolies began, and has been continued without inter- 
 ruption up to the present time, or, at least, so long as in 
 
97 
 
 popular opinion there remained any to be abolished ; but our 
 railway system so far has escaped the general doom. Yet 
 it is one of the most gigantic monopolies that ever existed 
 in the British Empire, and how it is working among us I have 
 endeavoured faintly to describe. That the carrying into full 
 effect the Act of 1844 would remedy all the evils complained 
 of in our railway system can hardly, I should imagine, be 
 a matter of doubt, although there may be much difference of 
 opinion as to the tariffs that in such case should be adopted. 
 
 The Board of Trade railway returns for the year 1863 have 
 been lately published, and show an increase of mileage over 
 the preceding year of 771 miles, and in receipts of 2,027,839. 
 The earnings of the passenger trains amounted to 14,521,528, 
 and of the goods trains to 16,634,689. The number of pas- 
 sengers carried was 204,635,075, exceeding by twenty-four 
 millions the number carried the preceding year. 
 
 It will be seen from these returns how the trade of the 
 country is yearly increasing, and it is satisfactory to know that 
 in 1863 railway proprietors shared in the general prosperity, 
 and that for 1864 the dividend will be still further increased. 
 
 
98 
 
 CHAPTEK VII. 
 
 Return for 1868 of " Goods Traffic"- The Charges take the form of 
 indirect Taxation Charges for the different Classes of Merchan- 
 dise Each Company has its own Tariff Complaints of the Car- 
 riers Cost to the Companies of the Conveyance of Merchandise 
 Conveyance of Coal to the Metropolis Its Cost on the Great East- 
 ern Railway Parcels, Packages, and Hampers Proposed Tariff 
 for their Conveyance Post Office Military and Militia Stores. 
 
 IN the returns by the companies, the traffic, as we have 
 seen, is classed under two general heads "Passenger" and 
 " Goods." The latter include all other kinds not carried 
 by passenger trains, viz., coal and other minerals, live stock 
 and general merchandise. The sum paid by the public to 
 the companies during the year 1863 under this head amounts, 
 as we have seen, to 16,634,689, viz. : 
 
 For tbe carriage of sixty-eight million tons of 
 
 coal and other minerals 5,419,667 
 
 For the carriage of live stock, viz. : 
 
 3,200,000 cattle, 
 
 8,250,000 sheep, 
 
 2,100,000 pigs, 636,773 
 
 For the conveyance of general merchandise. . . 10,578,249 
 
 16,634,689 
 
 Although the sum paid annually for the conveyance of mine- 
 rals and merchandise by that portion of the public who are 
 merchants and tradespeople considerably exceeds that paid by 
 the general public as travellers, the complaints against the 
 companies, in tbe matter of goods traffic, with the ex- 
 ception of those made by the carriers, and some other 
 
99 
 
 isolated cases, have never at any time been very great, 
 and this absence of ill-feeling may, to a great extent, be 
 accounted for by the fact that the payments in the one 
 case take the form of direct, and in the other of indirect 
 taxation. Without entering into the merits or demerits of 
 the two systems, it cannot be denied that direct taxation, as the 
 name implies, comes more immediately home to the tax-payer 
 than indirect taxation. He is much more sensitive in the one 
 case than in the other to any injustice in its operation, and 
 more determined, when an opportunity presents itself, in his op- 
 position to the enforcement of payment. If the Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer abolished the duties on tea, sugar, coffee, malt, 
 spirits, and tobacco, and sent in his little bill at the end of the 
 year to each household, claiming by a direct payment the 
 remitted duties, how many items in the account would be 
 criticized, discussed, cavilled at, or denied, before the unhappy 
 tax collector would be enabled to remit to the Treasury that 
 which now, by indirect taxation, is collected so easily and 
 securely, and comparatively with so little grumbling! 
 
 Nothing, however, can be more certain than that the sixteen 
 and a half millions sterling paid by merchants, traders, carriers, 
 and other freighters to the railway companies in 1863, and what 
 has been paid every preceding year, is an indirect tax levied con- 
 tinually on the public ; as much so as our customs and excise 
 duties, and in many articles of merchandise the expense of 
 carriage forms no inconsiderable component part of its price. 
 It will be found, when we examine into the charges by the 
 railway companies, that they are as disproportioned to the cost 
 of conveyance as we have seen to be the case in that of passen- 
 gers. The tariff of the " goods " department varies, as may be 
 supposed, very much, according to the value of the multifarious 
 kinds of merchandise carried ; these are generally divided into 
 four classes, with the annexed charges permitted by Parliament. 
 They vary somewhat on different lines, but the following may 
 be taken as the average rates allowed : 
 
 H 2 
 
100 
 
 1st class. Lime, limestone, manure, and stone for the 
 repairing of roads, three halfpence per ton 
 per mile, or 100 tons one mile for 12s. 6d. 
 
 2nd class. Coal, coke, charcoal, stones for building, 
 hrick, tiles, iron ore, and har iron, two- 
 pence halfpenny per ton, or 100 tons one 
 mile for 1 0*. lOrf. 
 
 3rd class. Sugar, grain, flour, meal, potatoes, linen, cot- 
 ton, yarn, earthenware, timher, deals, three- 
 pence halfpenny per ton per mile, or for 
 100 tons one mile, l 9s. 2d. 
 
 4th class. Cotton and other wools, drugs, fish, manufac- 
 tured goods, and all other merchandise, 
 fourpence halfpenny per ton per mile, or 
 100 tons one mile for 1 17s. Qd. 
 
 Let us now see what is the cost of conveyance of one 
 hundred tons of general merchandise one mile. A full load on 
 our railways may he taken at 200 tons, although frequently 
 the load is much heavier, exclusive of engine, tender, and 
 trucks, and the average cost of all the trains per mile in the 
 kingdom amounts, as we have seen, to two shillings and seven- 
 pence per mile ; consequently one hundred tons of merchandise 
 is carried a mile for one shilling and fourpence, or one 
 ton one hundred miles at the same cost ; whilst the au- 
 thorized charges for the same weights for different classes 
 of merchandise vary for the carriage of one hundred tons 
 a mile from twelve shillings and sixpence up to one pound 
 seventeen shillings and sixpence ! 
 
 The average load of a goods train may he taken at about 
 seventy tons. The high price the companies receive for the 
 carriage of goods compared with the cost of transit makes it 
 with them a matter of little account whether the load be 
 weighty or light; but coal and other mineral trains, the rates 
 for which are low, form an exception to the rule in this class 
 of traffic, as excursion trains do to that of passenger traffic. 
 
101 
 
 It is not my intention, and would, indeed, be quite beyond 
 my power, to enter into any analysis of the different charges on 
 the various kinds of merchandise, or to offer an opinion as to 
 what extent they should be reduced. The same variation exists 
 throughout the kingdom in charges on merchandise, as on fares 
 to passengers, the policy of each company being governed by 
 what it may consider its peculiar interests. A state of warfare 
 generally exists between the carriers and the companies, and 
 great complaints are frequently made of alleged arbitrary increase 
 of charges, but these complaints seldom come before or interest 
 the public. The practical right is conceded to the companies 
 to make what charges they think proper, and, unless in some 
 extreme case, the public never hear of any complaint. Should 
 the railways ever become the property of the State, a search- 
 ing inquiry no doubt would be instituted by a Parliamen- 
 tary committee into the charges for carriage of each description 
 of merchandise in the different classes, and a reduction be 
 made, according to the necessity of each case. Those 
 cases where the reduction in the carriage would materially 
 lower the price of the commodity, so as to increase its con- 
 sumption, and be sensibly felt as a relief by the general com- 
 munity, would no doubt receive the special attention of the 
 committee. 
 
 There are many kinds of merchandise that fall within 
 this description. Coal is the only one I shall notice; its 
 consumption enters largely into every family, and forms no 
 small item in the household account. In severe winters the 
 want of a sufficient supply, arising from its high price, is 
 severely felt by the poorer classes. In the northern coun- 
 ties of England, whence nearly all our supply comes, it is 
 sold at the pit's mouth at six or seven shillings per ton, 
 and the selling price when delivered to the consumer should 
 not exceed the original cost, the carriage and other inci- 
 dental charges, together with a fair profit to the trader. 
 \Vithin the last dozen years a large and continually increasing 
 
102 
 
 trade has been carried on by the London and North -Western, 
 Great Western, Midland, Great Northern, and other companies, 
 in supplying the London and other markets, and it is a 
 matter of some interest to know the expense per ton in the 
 conveyance of coal by the several companies from the pit's 
 mouth to the London market. It should be no very difficult 
 matter by calculations to come close enough, for all practical 
 purposes, to the cost of carrying a ton of coal per mile, and so 
 work out the result ; but, unfortunately, curious people in this 
 sort of calculation derive but little information from the reports 
 of railway meetings, or the returns made by railway officials, 
 or the speeches of railway chairmen. What could be more 
 interesting, for instance, to the public of the outer world than 
 to hear from the address of the chairman of the London and 
 North-Western Company to his shareholders that, the cost of 
 coal at the pit's mouth being seven shillings, and the carriage 
 to London being so much per ton, they would be able to deliver 
 it to the public at such a price, which would leave them a good 
 profit of so much per cent.? Now, the chairmen of our rail- 
 way companies not only never give these interesting details, but 
 seem totally unable to comprehend any question put for the 
 purpose of eliciting such information by an independent 
 shareholder. There are secrets in every trade, and railway 
 directorates naturally wish to keep all information from the 
 public that might have the effect of raising a popular clamour 
 against them, and nothing would be more likely to produce 
 such a result, so far as regards ignorant and prejudiced people, 
 than a comparison of what coal costs the companies in London 
 with the price at which they sell it ; yet they charge no more 
 than the market price, and only act as all other traders do in 
 realizing as much profit as they can. 
 
 Although the directors of companies are not in any way 
 called on as it appears they think it contrary to the interests 
 of their shareholders to direct the attention of the public to 
 the great difference between their charges for the work they 
 
103 
 
 perform and the expenditure they incur in performing it, I am, 
 nevertheless, fully persuaded that no class in the community 
 have such a deep interest as the shareholders have in making 
 every individual in the kingdom fully cognisant of the fact. 
 That they are in possession of a great monopoly is no fault of 
 theirs ; that they turn any advantage they have to the best ac- 
 count they can, \vithout regard to the interests of the puhlic, is 
 a failing, if it be one, shared in common with all classes and con- 
 ditions of men, whether in their individual or their corporate 
 capacity; that they derive but a very moderate percentage on 
 their invested capital is patent to the world; but what is 
 not patent is the enormous loss the nation sustains so long 
 as the present system continues. No change can be effected 
 without the concurrence of the shareholders, and, as a necessary 
 consequence, they must be liberally dealt with by the nation ; so 
 no class in the community has so deep an interest in making 
 the facts of the case fully known as the directors themselves. 
 
 But to proceed. We have, however, one case, and one case 
 only, on record in which the chairman of a railway company 
 entered fully into the matter, giving the most minute details of 
 expenditure, thereby showing the actual cost of the conveyance 
 of coal per ton to the metropolis, and incidentally to any 
 other place. The circumstances were these ; some years ago a 
 popular outcry, arose amongst the shareholders of the then 
 Eastern Counties Railway against their chairman, and one of the 
 principal charges against him was for the conveyance of coal for 
 certain contractors at rates which his opponents termed " unre- 
 in unerative," and " didn't pay." These terms, I may observe 
 in passing, are frequently used by railway writers and speakers 
 without their attaching any clear and distinct idea to them ; 
 and they may be understood in several ways first, charges on 
 a railway that will not pay five per cent, interest on the invested 
 capital may be termed " unremunerative," as that percentage 
 on investment is only a moderate return, and a lower per- 
 centage would reduce shares to a discount, but in that sense 
 
104 
 
 double the present charges on some railways would be still 
 less " remunerative," because with those charges they would pay 
 still less dividend ; second, charges may be termed " unre- 
 munerative," and are so, comparatively, when a higher rate 
 would pay better ; and third, they may be " unremunerative," 
 and are so absolutely, when they don't pay more than the actual 
 expense of carriage. In this last sense the shareholders 
 considered the chairman's tariff unremunerative. The chair- 
 man of the Eastern Counties, in answer to the charge, gave the 
 following minute detail of expenditure, signed by the traffic 
 manager : 
 
 " Mr. GOOCH'S KEPORT on Working Expenses of Coal Traffic. 
 Cost of Working the Coal Traffic on the Eastern 
 Counties Railway. 
 
 "This traffic is worked in full trains, excepting when 
 required to make up to full loads the ordinary goods trains. 
 Each train contains not less than thirty waggons, including 
 break vans, at 6J- tons each 190 tons net load; for which 
 the sum paid by the contractor is eight shillings and sevenpence 
 per train per mile, or about one halfpenny per ton per mile. 
 
 " The cost to the company is as follows : d. 
 
 1st. Locomotive power 9'68 
 
 2nd. Guards -50 
 
 3rd. Green lamps, oil r 
 
 4th. Permanent way 1* 
 
 5th. Management and office expenses... 1* 
 
 Total cost per mile per train of work- 
 ing expenses 13*18 
 
 "But as these trains return empty, only earning money in 
 one direction, this account must be doubled, and would give a 
 total sum of two shillings and twopence farthing to earn eight 
 
105 
 
 shillings and sevenpence, showing a profit of nearly 300 per 
 cent." 
 
 Mr. Gooch enters into considerable detail on other matters, 
 which we need not follow. 
 
 The contractors in the above contract found the waggons, 
 which might be calculated at %\d. per mile, bringing up the 
 entire expenditure say, to two shillings and sixpence per mile 
 for the double journey. The cost, therefore, of conveying each 
 ton of coal on the Eastern Counties line is one shilling and 
 fourpence for a hundred miles, or from the pit's mouth to 
 London less than two shillings per ton. 
 
 It is to be observed that there is a considerable difference 
 between Mr. Gooch' s mode of calculation and that of the 
 Board of Trade ; the difference, however, is more apparent than 
 real. Mr. Gooch goes little beyond the actual expenditure 
 incurred in the conveyance of coal, whilst the Board of Trade 
 distributes the general expenditure over all the trains, and, by 
 dividing that sum by their number, apportions to each its share. 
 The case in question, however, was an exception to the general 
 rule. The charge against the chairman of the company was that 
 he carried coal at "unremunerative" rates ; the answer, in effect, 
 was that the general expenditure of the establishment was 
 scarcely affected by the carriage of the coal, which would have 
 been incurred whether they were carried or not, and that the 
 company, for every shilling of actual expenditure incurred, 
 received back in return nearly four shillings. 
 
 Now, here is one of the great necessaries of life which, if 
 railways were in the possession of the State, we could have de- 
 livered at our very doors, exclusive of cartage, at the rate of 
 seven or eight shillings per ton, or, adding a large percentage 
 profit on the railway carriage, at eleven shillings per ton. 
 Such a fact requires no comment. 
 
 In the parliamentary session of 1863 a committee of the 
 House of Lords was appointed to consider the best means of 
 providing London with railways, more especially with connecting 
 
108 
 
 lines north and south of the Thames. In the evidence taken on 
 the subject the manager of the Midland Company stated that 
 after they had brought coal from Derbyshire and Nottingham- 
 shire at a charge of six shillings per ton, a demand of two 
 shillings per ton was made for passing over the lines to 
 Kensington basin, which practically had the effect of stopping 
 the passage, and doing its part towards keeping up the price. 
 
 It would be impossible, I think, to give a stronger instance 
 than this of the evil results that follow from entrusting a mono- 
 poly of such magnitude as the traffic on our railways to private, 
 irresponsible parties. There is no want more severely felt, nor 
 any commodity in a hard winter so soon run up in price, as coal. 
 We can buy it, as we know, at the pit's mouth, and transport it 
 to the metropolis, for seven or eight shillings per ton, but as a 
 general rule we pay four times that price in London. The price 
 the poor pay for the small quantity they are able to purchase at a 
 time during a severe winter, the extent to which they are cheated, 
 and the sufferings they in consequence endure, are matters 
 every one is well acquainted with. Monopoly charges them 
 three or four hundred per cent, in ordinary times, and in extra- 
 ordinary times as much more as it can lay on to bring the coal 
 not into the heart of London, but to its extremities; another 
 monopoly meets it then, and stops the way, unless a charge 
 equal to two thousand per cent, profit on the work done is paid 
 before the coal is taken to its destination ! And yet no blame 
 can be attached to the managers of these monopolies ; they do 
 nothing in ill-will against the public. What they do is for the 
 benefit of the shareholders, and so long as the country permits 
 monopoly to mask itself, and assume the garb of free trade, and 
 carry on such a system as we have in this case illustrated, the 
 less we boast of our advance in the knowledge and practice of 
 social economy will be the more to our credit. 
 
 The quantity of coal conveyed to London by the railways 
 has largely increased within the last few years, and has become 
 an important source of revenue to many of the companies. 
 
107 
 
 The following is the number of tons conveyed by each 
 company to London in 1863 : 
 
 Tons. 
 
 London and North-Western 759,763 
 
 Great Northern 550,908 
 
 Midland 165,984 
 
 Great Eastern 160,323 
 
 Great Western 110,440 
 
 South- Western 19,902 
 
 London, Chatham, and Dover 7,569 
 
 London, Tilbury, and Southend ... 598 
 
 1,775,487 
 
 Clay Cross pits, near Chesterfield, supply of the above 
 quantity about 200,000 tons, and the Silkstone coal from various 
 pits in south-west Yorkshire nearly the same quantity ; the 
 remaining quantity comes from the widely scattered coal 
 districts of the North. 
 
 The returns of the coal trade for the year 1864 show a 
 very remarkable increase ; they have risen to 2,342,720 tons, 
 being an increase of upwards of 30 per cent., and " these 
 figures," says the writer of the City article in the Times, " very 
 inadequately indicate the progress that might, under perfectly 
 favourable circumstances, be witnessed in the consumptive 
 capacities of the Metropolis. Had facilities existed in the 
 shape of additional lines of railway having direct and in- 
 dependent access to the northern coalfields, it is apparently 
 beyond doubt that the public would have been benefited from 
 one shilling and sixpence to three shillings per ton, since, 
 during that period, and especially at the present moment (De- 
 cember 30), in consequence of the prevalence of easterly 
 winds and gales on the north-eastern coast, the ordinary 
 sailing ships have been prevented, though laden, from putting 
 to sea, and the two principal railways, notwithstanding their 
 extra efforts, have been unable sufficiently to meet the demand." 
 It will be remembered, and I shall have to refer to the case 
 in some detail hereafter, that a committee of the House of 
 
]08 
 
 Commons refused permission to the Great Eastern to construct 
 a line that would connect them with the coalfields of the 
 north. But the Great Eastern, apparently not at all dis- 
 couraged, renews its application to Parliament during the 
 coming session. 
 
 Before a proper tariff could be drawn up, regulating the charges 
 for conveyance of all classes of merchandise, &c., throughout the 
 kingdom, evidence representing all the several interests affected 
 would he required, so that justice might be done to all. When 
 it is remembered that a ton of merchandise can be conveyed one 
 hundred miles for little more than a shilling, that the companies 
 are authorized in the majority of cases to charge that sum 
 twenty times over, that they do charge it, that the public have 
 not the slightest power or control in regulating these charges, 
 and that the amount paid in 1863 for the conveyance of 
 general merchandise, minerals, and live stock amounted to 
 upwards of SIXTEEN MILLIONS AND A HALF sterling, it must, I 
 think, be admitted by every one who will consider the question 
 in all its bearings, and the vast interests at stake, that the 
 expiration of the twenty- one years shadowed forth by Mr. 
 Gladstone in 1844 as the proper term when our railway manage- 
 ment should undergo revision, and the comparative merits of 
 the two systems be investigated, will not arrive too soon. 
 
 Many persons might perhaps be inclined to suppose that, in 
 accordance with a very common but very erroneous saying, 
 " the interests of the companies and those of the public are 
 identical," and that the rates of carriage have now a down- 
 ward tendency. The following extract from an article in 
 Herapath's Railway Journal, of the 14th of May, 1864, 
 will show the fallacy of such an opinion : " London and 
 North- Western and Great Western Eailways. Two small 
 advertisements in another column, one from each of the two 
 companies, make important announcements, both to the public 
 and to the shareholders. They are to the effect that, from the 
 first of next month, the rates for goods traffic will be revised 
 and increased, and that a very host of new through rates for 
 
109 
 
 goods traffic will be made for the conveyance of goods to and 
 from the principal stations of the two great companies, and 
 also of other leading railways of the kingdom. 
 
 " Both announcements are most important to the interests of 
 railway proprietors, and the second to the interest of the public." 
 
 The increase of rates here announced varies from twenty to 
 thirty per cent., and a similar increase may be expected on 
 most of the other great lines. 
 
 Great dissatisfaction has been generally expressed in the 
 northern counties at the high rate of freightage. " At a meeting 
 of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce/' says the Daily News 
 of the 8th Nov., " held yesterday, Mr. Grainger presiding, the 
 question of the excessive rates of carriage charged by the 
 various railway companies to and from Liverpool was dis- 
 cussed. On the motion of Mr. R. A. Macfie it was resolved to 
 refer the matter to their committee on railways." 
 
 In no part of the kingdom does the working of the system 
 appear to give satisfaction. 
 
 It would be almost impossible to over estimate the value of the 
 boon that would be conferred on the mercantile community by 
 the establishment of a low and, to some extent, uniform tariff 
 for parcels and packages throughout the kingdom. 
 
 The annual charge to the public for the conveyance of 
 parcels is very small in amount compared with that paid for 
 general merchandise, and does not probably exceed three hun- 
 dred thousand pounds, but the return is mixed up with that 
 of others. Great, however, as the difference is between the 
 two sums, I am almost inclined to believe that a low, and, to 
 some extent, uniform tariff for parcels, packages, hampers, &c., 
 throughout the kingdom would even be a more popular measure 
 than a general reduction in the charges for merchandise. It 
 would come more home to each household ; it would partake 
 more of the nature of an abatement in direct taxation than 
 almost any reduction would be in the charges on general 
 merchandise, coal only excepted. A low tariff for the carriage 
 
110 
 
 of parcels and packages would be a great boon to most fami- 
 lies ; it would enable them to procure direct at a moderate 
 charge, from any district throughout the country, the produce 
 for which it might be most celebrated. The Yorkshire hams, 
 the Devonshire cream, the Norfolk turkeys, the Yarmouth 
 bloaters, the Cork butter, the Coleraine whisky, and all other 
 local dainties throughout the kingdom, would contribute their 
 regular supplies direct to the consumer when they could be 
 procured at a low charge for carriage. 
 
 Let us first note the present charges for parcels and 
 packages on the principal lines out of London. Small 
 parcels are carried for much less by the Post Office than 
 by the railway companies in some cases less than a fourth. 
 The Post Office pays between five and six hundred thousand 
 pounds sterling per annum to the companies, and beats them 
 out of the field in competing for the carriage of small parcels ; 
 or perhaps it would be more correct to say the companies do 
 not think it worth the trouble of giving the necessary accom- 
 modation to the public. We can send by the Post Office to the 
 remotest part of the kingdom a parcel weighing 1 lb., and have 
 it delivered at the same time with our letters, for fourpence. 
 If we send it by a railway company it will cost in some cases 
 half a crown, and probably take double the time before it is 
 delivered. This illustrates the difference between monopoly 
 under strict control and directed only for the public good, and 
 monopoly run wild, guided by private interests, whim, or caprice, 
 and doing exactly as it likes. On the London and North- 
 Western line the lowest charge is 6d. ; for this sum a parcel 
 is carried 20 miles ; 40 miles, Sd. ; and so on increasing up to 
 220 miles, when the charge is 2s. 6d. That is the maximum for 
 one pound weight on this line. The Great Western minimum 
 charge is 6d., and maximum 2s. Sd., for the same weight. 
 
 In considering a new tariff under a national system it is not 
 necessary to take a lower weight than 3 Ibs. The following 
 table will show the scale of charges for such a parcel on three 
 of the principal railways out of London : 
 
Ill 
 
 London and Great Great 
 
 North Western. Western. Northern. 
 *. d. s. d. s. d. 
 
 Not exceeding 20 miles ... 6 06 06 
 
 40 ... 8 08 06 
 
 80 ... 10 10 08 
 
 120 ... 1 10 10 
 
 160 ... 1 3 13 13 
 
 220 ... 2 2 16 
 
 Exceeding that distance ... 2 6 28 16 
 
 On all lines there is a most unreasonable charge of 2d., in 
 addition to the rates I have quoted, for booking, however small 
 the parcel may he. 
 
 It is only justice to the companies to state that they will 
 carry a much greater weight than 3 Ibs. for the charges I have 
 affixed to their names, but if a person require to send a parcel 
 of only 3 Ibs. he gains little by being informed he can send five 
 times that weight for the same price. It is to be observed also 
 that the above scale of charges is only in reference to each line. 
 When a parcel passes over several lines the charge in many 
 cases is considerably increased. It will be seen, however, that, 
 at the present rates, charges for small parcels of little value are 
 almost prohibitory, and that a low and uniform rate for which they 
 would be conveyed to every part of the kingdom would confer a 
 great benefit on the community. I think that the following scale, 
 uniform for all distances throughout the kingdom, would not 
 only be generally acceptable to the public, but probably, in a few 
 years, produce a larger revenue than what is derived at present 
 from their carriage. Proposed scale, by passenger trains : 
 
 Parcels not exceeding 3 Ibs 4rf. 
 
 7 Ibs 6d. 
 
 10 Ibs 9d. 
 
 14 Ibs Is. 
 
 and for every additional 7 Ibs., or fraction of 7 Ibs., Qd. 
 
 No charge to be made for booking; and all to be paid in ad- 
 vance by stamps, as the delivery would be as quick as the post. 
 
112 
 
 The rates for long distances for packages and hampers are 
 very high. The charge, for instance, on a package between 
 London and Dublin, not exceeding 56 Ibs., is 5s. Qd. It is 
 unnecessary to go over the different rates charged by the com- 
 panies, but they may be said to be almost prohibitory in refer- 
 ence to the transport of merchandise or other commodities of 
 no great intrinsic value. When the distance is not great the 
 charges are comparatively moderate. The carriage of a 
 hamper, for instance, weighing 28 Ibs., on the Great Western 
 for 40 miles, is Is. Zd., but when it is conveyed 220 miles or 
 upwards it is 4s. Sd. Now, the principal expense is the terminal 
 charge the expense of collecting and delivering and that 
 expense is equally incurred when a package is carried 20 miles 
 or 200. When it is remembered that a ton of goods can be 
 conveyed 100 miles for one shilling and fourpence, it will be 
 seen that the difference in expenditure is scarcely appreciable, 
 whether the distance a package has to be conveyed is 20 miles 
 or 200; assuming even that the conveyance of packages, 
 hampers, and heavy parcels costs 5s. per ton per 100 
 miles, that would only be at the rate of threepence per 
 hundredweight. I think, therefore, a maximum charge for 
 the greatest distances for packages, &c., by goods trains at 
 the following scale might be adopted with great advantage 
 to the public : Maximum charges for parcels by goods trains, 
 not exceeding 28 Ibs., Is.; not exceeding 56 Ibs., Is. 6d.; not 
 exceeding 1 cwt., 2s. 
 
 Now, this scale could not be universally adopted, inas- 
 much as for short distances it would in some cases exceed the 
 present charges. For any distance, therefore, not exceeding 
 50 miles I should propose half- rates, viz.: for parcels not 
 exceeding 28 Ibs., 6d.; 56 Ibs., 9d.; 112 Ibs., Is.; and three- 
 pence for every additional quarter of a hundredweight. This 
 tariff would bring the minimum scale considerably under the 
 lowest charges on any railway. 
 
 It will be generally admitted that a low scale of charges 
 
113 
 
 for heavy packages, &c., would open up a new trade between 
 many parts of the kingdom where none now exists, prove 
 a great convenience to many private families, especially 
 those residing for a part of the year in London with a resi- 
 dence in the country, and facilitate communication and an 
 interchange of goods with the most distant and isolated 
 districts, which hitherto have been all but excluded from the 
 benefits to be derived from railway communication. 
 
 There are many other advantages the public would derive 
 from the possession of the railways by the State. I shall 
 briefly notice but two ; one is the increased facilities the 
 Post Office would derive from the conveyance of the mails. 
 The annual payments by the Post Office to the com- 
 panies exceed half a million sterling, and the heavy charges 
 the companies make for conveyance of the mails diminish 
 considerably the accommodation the public would otherwise 
 receive. The expense would be so great of carrying into 
 full effect in the rural districts the forwarding of mails by 
 railways, that the Post-Office authorities, in many cases, are 
 obliged to avail themselves of the old modes of conveyance. 
 The subject was brought before the House of Commons oil 
 the 4th of April, 1864, when Mr. Long moved for the ap- 
 pointment of " A Select Committee on the Post Office, with 
 an especial view to the improvement of existing arrangements 
 for the transmission of mails in the provincial districts." In 
 many districts, where railway communication exists, according 
 to the statement of the hon. member, it had not been taken 
 advantage of, and mails were still sent by horse and cart, and 
 even by messengers on foot. In some cases it took three days 
 to get an answer to a letter sent ten or twenty miles into the 
 country, just as it did thirty years ago. Although there had 
 been for many years a railway between the important towns of 
 Hereford, Ross, and Gloucester, the mails were still conveyed 
 by a horse and cart, as they had been fifty years ago. It 
 was the same in South Wales ; Newport, Cardiff, Merthyr, and 
 other towns were similarly situated. Between Shrewsbury and 
 
114 
 
 Liverpool letters were still sent by a mail cart; they were 
 twenty-four hours in passing between the two towns, whilst 
 passengers by train went in three hours. In Kent and Sussex 
 the postal communication was very imperfect ; in some places 
 not more than nine miles apart, it required four days to receive 
 an answer to a letter. 
 
 Mr. Long proposed that the chief and central Post Office 
 should be removed from St. Martin's-le-Grand to Charing 
 Cross, that there should be letter-boxes at each railway station, 
 and mails sent by trains to all stations along the lines. 
 
 In Cornwall and Devonshire, Mr. Wyld stated there was 
 great cause of complaint in regard to the conveyance of letters, 
 and that the First Lord of the Treasury and the Postmaster 
 General would soon be compelled to find a remedy for the 
 evil complained of. 
 
 Mr. Bentinck suggested that, as the railway companies 
 enjoyed a certain monopoly, it should be rendered obligatory 
 on railways to carry mail-bags at a reasonable rate ; and in 
 cases where the correspondence was not sufficient to pay for 
 increased accommodation, the Post Office might be empowered 
 to charge additional rates. 
 
 Mr. Baillie complained that revenue was too much looked 
 to by the Post-Office authorities, and that the right principle 
 was being departed from on which the establishment should 
 be conducted. When a district asked the Post Office for in- 
 creased accommodation, the usual answer was Would it pay, 
 or was it likely to pay ? He had presented petitions at various 
 times from the Isle of Skye, which, with a population of nearly 
 twenty thousand, had postal communication only three times 
 a week between Fort William and Inverness, and the answer of 
 the Post Office to a request for increased accommodation was, 
 that there was no certainty of its paying. 
 
 It was contended throughout the discussion that, to make the 
 necessary Post- Office accommodation throughout the country 
 a fiscal question, was altogether opposed to the principle on 
 which its management should be conducted ; and as there was 
 
115 
 
 a million and a half of revenue now derived from its working, 
 that sum, if necessary, should be applied to the full develop- 
 ment of the system. 
 
 The Chancellor of the Exchequer, whilst acknowledging 
 that the principle on which the Post Office was conducted was 
 fairly stated by Mr. Baillie, said, if the suggestion was acceded 
 to, that a million and a half should be laid out in providing 
 additional accommodation, the result would be that there would 
 be a gap to that extent which should be stopped by the laying 
 on of a new tax, or the augmentation of some tax already in 
 existence. 
 
 It is not necessary to pursue this question further at present 
 than to remark, that to carry out fully Sir Rowland Hill's 
 postal reform, as required by the country, and as advocated in 
 the House of Commons, would involve the sacrifice of no small 
 part of the million and a half of revenue the Post Office now 
 yields; whilst, if the railways were in the possession of the 
 State, the expense of conveyance of all the mails in the 
 kingdom would be almost nominal, with the exception of those 
 few special cases where great speed is required, or the trains 
 despatched at hours not suited for the general traffic. 
 
 The other advantage I have referred to would be the facilities 
 which the possession of the railways would place at the 
 disposal of the Government for the transport of our regular 
 troops, militia, volunteers, and military stores to all parts of 
 the kingdom, whenever or wherever occasion might require. 
 Government pay for soldiers a penny per mile, and the same 
 fiscal causes that operate so much to the disadvantage of the 
 complete working of the Post Office have an equally injurious 
 effect on the public service in the military department. 
 
 i 2 
 
PART II. THE SHAREHOLDERS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Advantages possessed by the early Railway Projectors Their Success 
 Value of Railway Property in 1845 Amalgamation The Re- 
 sults of Competition Quarrels of the great Companies Their 
 Refusal to abide by the Board of Trade's Recommendations The 
 Effect on the Value of their Shares The Benefit to the Public 
 from Competition Lowering of the Fares throughout the Country 
 Great Number of unnecessary Lines constructed Government 
 Plan defeated Results to the Shareholders What they have now 
 to consider. 
 
 WE now enter on another phase of this inquiry To dis- 
 cuss the past, present, and, so far as we can form an opinion, 
 the future financial position of our railway shareholders ; to 
 examine into the causes which have produced such a great 
 depreciation in the value of their property, once classed among 
 the best investments in the country ; to consider whether or 
 not the causes which have produced such an unfortunate 
 result are from their nature likely to be permanent in their 
 operation; and, lastly the more especial subject to in- 
 quire, whether or not it would be for the interest of share- 
 holders to avail themselves, so far as is in their power, of Mr. 
 Gladstone's Act of 1844, and support any movement for 
 carrying it into effect. 
 
 Although the early projectors of railways encountered great 
 opposition, and were in consequence^ put to heavy expense 
 before they obtained their Acts, yet the practical monopoly that 
 seemed to lie within their reach, the undisturbed possession of 
 
117 
 
 the public highways, promised at one time to yield a most 
 ample and permanent return for their large outlay. There 
 was hut little interference, either on the part of the Legislature 
 or the executive, and it only required union among themselves 
 to extend to a much later period than eventually happened, 
 that undivided monopoly which cost them so much to acquire. 
 Thirty-six years ago, after the success of the Liverpool and 
 Manchester line had been established, the construction of rail- 
 ways throughout the country became general. The fear of 
 future competing lines never appears to have been entertained 
 by the promoters ; they were, in fact, too much occupied in 
 overcoming the obstacles they had then to meet, to waste 
 idle speculations on those which might never exist. They 
 had to conciliate or circumvent the hostile landowners, to ob- 
 tain their Acts from a jealous Legislature, to surmount the 
 physical difficulties encountered in the construction of their 
 works, and to find the pecuniary means for carrying them on, 
 many of them being of the most expensive nature, and on a 
 gigantic scale. At the time we speak of, such a contingency 
 as the construction of a competing line does not appear to have 
 occurred to the mind of any one. The whole country was, so 
 to speak, unoccupied. A vast field had been opened for 
 British skill and capital, and nothing could have appeared 
 more unlikely than that those who had money to invest would 
 voluntarily enter into speculation on ground already occupied, 
 when the attempt to obtain possession would be so violently 
 resisted, and, in the event of success, the traffic would neces- 
 sarily be divided. The Parliamentary concession to make 
 a railway, for instance, that, when constructed, would pay its 
 shareholders a ten per cent, dividend, was, no doubt, violently 
 contested for; but when once the successful projectors obtained 
 their Act, all rivalry was considered at an end, and future oppo- 
 sition was never dreamt of. The traffic that would pay ten per 
 cent, to one railway would not pay four per cent, to two, as the 
 traffic would be divided, and the expenses but little decreased. 
 It was further considered that, in any case, Parliament would 
 
118 
 
 never permit an unnecessary, and consequently wasteful, ex- 
 penditure of capital. From these causes future opposition lines 
 entered not into the calculations of our early railway projectors. 
 
 Whatever might have heen the calculations or expectations of 
 railway projectors or shareholders, the Legislature took care to 
 keep itself clear from all engagements, either expressed or 
 implied, in reference to withholding its sanction for the con- 
 struction of competing lines ; indeed, from a very early period 
 in our railway history, the construction of competing lines was 
 held out by the Legislature as the main remedy the public 
 should rely on as a guard against excessive charges, or any 
 other unfair conduct on the part of directors of companies. 
 
 For many years the companies, as they succeeded each other 
 in extending the great trunk lines through the kingdom, pros- 
 pered with each extension; the more continuous and unin- 
 terrupted the lines, the greater the traffic, and, of course, the 
 greater the profit to the shareholders ; and so the companies 
 went on increasing in prosperity, and confining their opera- 
 tions to the wealthiest or most densely populated districts 
 of the country, avoiding all competition or intrusion into each 
 other's " territories," and finally proceeded to consolidate 
 their power by the process of amalgamation, whereby several 
 were united together for a common interest, and formed into 
 one large company. 
 
 The measures taken by the companies towards amalgamation 
 were received at first with considerable distrust both by the 
 country and the Legislature. It was contended, on the one 
 hand, that it would provide that necessary accommodation at 
 their terminal stations and their general establishments which 
 many of the companies could not afford that it would enable 
 small companies, whose lines were worked at great expense, to 
 obtain the benefit of cheapness and general arrangement which 
 were enjoyed by lines of greater extent, and that in the more 
 populous districts of the country the formation of numerous 
 lines under different management tended to create expense, 
 obstruction, confusion, and damage to life and property. These 
 
119 
 
 facts could not be disputed ; but the opposition relied more on 
 the application of general principles than of special reasons to 
 defeat the companies in carrying out their projects; it was 
 asserted that amalgamation was but another name for cen- 
 tralization, and that it was in the highest degree unconstitu- 
 tional to extend and consolidate the powers of the companies 
 in the manner proposed. The arguments, however, founded 
 on these principles failed to convince the Legislature, and the 
 amalgamations of the several companies that applied to Par- 
 liament were, after due investigation, permitted to take place. 
 
 When the process of amalgamation commenced, the com- 
 panies had reached their highest state of prosperity. This 
 was in the autumn of 1845. From the share list of September 
 in that year we quote the market price of all the principal 
 railways in the kingdom : 
 
 Name of Railway. 
 
 Amount 
 paid. 
 
 Price 
 per Share. 
 
 
 
 Birmingham and Derby 100 
 
 Birmingham and Gloucester 100 
 
 Bristol and Exeter 70 
 
 Eastern Counties 25 
 
 Edinburgh and Glasgow 50 
 
 Great North of England 100 
 
 Great Western 80 
 
 Grand Junction 100 
 
 Hull and Selby 50 
 
 Liverpool and Manchester 100 
 
 London and Birmingham 100 
 
 London and Brighton 50 
 
 London and Croydon 13 
 
 London and South Western 50 
 
 Manchester and Leeds 76 
 
 Manchester and Birmingham 40 
 
 Midland 100 
 
 Newcastle and Darlington 25 
 
 Newcastle and Carlisle 100 
 
 Northern and Eastern 50 
 
 North Union 100 
 
 South-Eastern and Dover 50 
 
 Sheffield and Manchester 95 
 
 Stockton and Darlington 100 
 
 York and North Midland . 50 
 
 
 
 128 
 
 131 
 
 90 
 
 21 
 
 76 
 
 217 
 
 165 
 
 242 
 
 106 
 
 217 
 
 222 
 
 75 
 
 25 
 
 80 
 
 215 
 
 90 
 
 169 
 
 64 
 
 113 
 
 67 
 
 225 
 
 45 
 
 148 
 
 275 
 
 118 
 
 1,774 
 
 3,324 
 
120 
 
 Thus we find that when the railways were at their culmi- 
 nating point, the shares could he sold at an average profit 
 of nearly cent, per cent, on the outlay. The hest-paying 
 railway, the Stockton and Darlington, paid fifteen per cent., 
 the Grand Junction eleven per cent., and many from seven to 
 ten per cent. These were happy days for the shareholders. 
 Many, foreseeing the coming change in affairs, sold out, and 
 placed their capital in safer investments. Of the ahove rail- 
 ways the Liverpool and Manchester, the Grand Junction, the 
 London and Birmingham, and the Manchester and Birming- 
 ham, form part of the London and North-Western line; the 
 Birmingham and Derby, Birmingham and Gloucester, and 
 York and North Midland, form part of the Midland line; the 
 Great North of England, Hull and Selby, and Stockton and 
 Dwiington, form part of the North-Eastern line ; and the 
 Northern and Eastern and Eastern Counties form part of the 
 Great Eastern line. A few of the companies in the foregoing 
 list are leased at a high guaranteed rate. The shares of all 
 the others are greatly reduced in value, in many cases to 
 the half, and in some cases to the one-third, of their former 
 value. 
 
 To what cause, then, or combination of causes is to be attri- 
 buted such a ruinous depreciation in the value of railway pro- 
 perty ? Is it a falling off in the trade and commerce of the 
 country, and a consequent decrease in our national prosperity ? 
 So far from that being the case, our trade and commerce have 
 for a long series of years been rapidly increasing, and probably 
 at no former period did there exist such a degree of national 
 prosperity as there does at present. Do the public travel less 
 than formerly, or are railways superseded by some new mode 
 of transit? The number of travellers in the year 1863 was 
 unprecedented, and, as we have seen, amounted to more than 
 two hundred millions ! Nor is there any probability that 
 the present mode of transit will be ever superseded by any 
 other. Well, then, is it to the falling off in the carnage of 
 
121 
 
 goods and minerals, as compared with passengers ? The 
 direct contrary is the case. In the year 1845 the amount 
 received for the carriage of goods and minerals did not amount 
 to one-third of that received for passengers ; whilst for the year 
 1863, as we have seen, the amount received for the earnings 
 of the " goods" trains considerably exceed that received for the 
 earnings of the passenger trains. So far as regards railway 
 legislation, there may be some cause of complaint as to unequal 
 parochial rates, and other causes of a comparatively trifling 
 nature, all of which have either been remedied, or are of too 
 trifling a nature to affect the general results. What, then, has 
 caused this great deterioration in the value of railway property, 
 and reduced an interest that promised at one time to be the 
 most flourishing and permanent in the kingdom to little more 
 than half its former value, its directorates struggling to over- 
 come difficulties apparently insurmountable, and without a 
 prospect of any permanent revival ? I answer, the cause of 
 all these accumulated evils to the railway interest may be 
 summed up in two words COMPETITION and GUARANTEES. 
 
 So long as the companies' operations were confined to thickly 
 populated districts, "all went merry as a marriage bell ;" the best- 
 paying districts were naturally the first selected, and the close 
 of the session of 1844 saw all the best parts of the country in 
 possession of the companies which up to that period had been 
 formed. From that time forward competition may be fairly 
 said to have set in. The battle of the gauges almost equalled 
 in its way the Wars of the Eoses ; all the great companies, 
 grown powerful by amalgamation, carried on a fierce inter- 
 necine war for possession of the districts between their several, 
 trunk lines. An ineffectual attempt had been made (as we 
 have had occasion to notice) by the Legislature in 1844 to put 
 some check on this warfare, by requiring the Board of Trade 
 to make a preliminary report to the Parliamentary Committees; 
 these reports, however, were soon discontinued. It was con- 
 sidered unfair by the railway interest generally that the Board 
 
122 
 
 of Trade should use its influence in favour of either of the 
 contending parties and that they should be left to fight it out 
 themselves before the Parliamentary Committee. The Com- 
 mittees soon ceased to pay any attention to the Board's reports, 
 and so they became discontinued. If the companies, in 
 carrying on this warfare, had, when defeated before a Commit- 
 tee, retired from the field, it would have been happy both for 
 them and their opponents ; but there were too many interested 
 lawyers, engineers, contractors, and jobbers of all kinds 
 to let the good work so happily begun die easily out. New 
 schemes were soon brought forward, and carried through Par- 
 liament, that competed, directly or indirectly, as the case might 
 be, with those that but a year or two previously were thought 
 quite sufficient to afford ample accommodation for the districts 
 in that part of the country. 
 
 Thus commenced the war between Monopoly on the 
 one hand and Free Trade on the other which, from that 
 time to the present, has been continued in each successive 
 session of Parliament. The great amalgamated companies 
 were not only intent on securing, in railway phraseology, 
 within their own extensive domains all their legitimate traffic, 
 but, by extending branches and feeders from their trunk lines 
 into the neighbouring territories, to abstract from " the lawful 
 owners" whatever they could lay their hands on. This naturally 
 produced retaliation, and so the war went on. 
 
 It is a favourite dogma of the railway faith that the public 
 derive no permanent benefit from the construction of opposition 
 lines ; that, after a short-lived opposition, the two or more com- 
 panies come to terms, the opposition is abandoned, and higher 
 charges are agreed on and enforced, to make up for the loss in- 
 curred by the opposition. This, however, is not by any means 
 a correct representation of the general effect produced by 
 the construction of opposition lines. In most cases the public 
 derive considerable benefit by a large and permanent reduction 
 in the fares. 
 
123 
 
 The traffic between the metropolis and our large towns is, in 
 a certain sense, competed for ; that between London and 
 Liverpool, for instance, once in the sole possession of the 
 London and North-Western, is now shared by the Great 
 Western and the Great Northern Companies ; to these will be 
 shortly added the Midland, as they have carried their bill 
 for the continuation of their line into London. And so through- 
 out the kingdom is there competition in a greater or less 
 degree ; there can scarcely be named a district of any im- 
 portance for which the traffic is not competed for by two or 
 more companies ; they agree as to the fares to be charged, 
 and in a limited sense compete for the traffic. Trade, no 
 doubt, has vastly increased within the last twenty years; 
 but what increase can compensate for the loss caused 
 by duplicate and triplicate lines, and fares and charges re- 
 duced in many cases to less than one-half of what they 
 originally were ? From London to Liverpool, twenty years 
 ago, a passenger could not make a continuous journey in 
 the same day for less than 2 7s. 6d., viz. by second class on 
 the London and Birmingham, and first class by the Grand 
 Junction to Liverpool ; now, he can go through by first class 
 express for 1 12*. 6d., or second class 1 5s. Then he required 
 two days by a third-class open carriage, at a cost of l 7s.; 
 now he can go down twice a day, either morning or afternoon, 
 in an enclosed carriage, for 16s. 9d. We have seen what it was 
 to travel by third class on the Great Western ; all that is now 
 changed. The fares by this line, that were formerly to Bristol, 
 first class, l 10s., and second class 1, are now 1 and 15s. 
 respectively. Twenty years ago you paid from London to 
 Birmingham, first class, 32s. 6d., and second, 25s.; now you can 
 travel there by express in one-third less time than you could 
 do then, and the fares have been reduced to 20s. and 15s. 
 From Birmingham to Liverpool you paid by the Grand Junc- 
 tion 26s. first class, and 18s. second class ; now you pay by the 
 same classes 15s. and 10s. Qd. The same high rate of 
 
124 
 
 charges prevailed in all parts of the kingdom, and within a 
 much nearer period than twenty years the fares between Lon- 
 don and York, and the other great towns in Yorkshire, where 
 the Midland had a monopoly, were very high. Of the route 
 to York the fares were respectively, for first and second class, 
 2 10s. and l 15s.; now they are l 15s. and 1 5*. It 
 is only two or three years since the South-Eastern charged 
 from London to Dover, by express, 22s., and all other classes 
 in proportion throughout the line; now, since the construction 
 of the London, Chatham, and Dover, the express fare has 
 been reduced to 19s., and all other fares in the same propor- 
 tion. 
 
 It is a common error to suppose that when companies waste 
 money they are able to extract this extra expenditure from the 
 public by an increased charge, and so recoup themselves for 
 their previous loss. This is not so ; the companies charge 
 in every case, whether the speculation be good or bad, the 
 highest paying price, whether that be high or low, and as they 
 cannot exceed that, and would make exactly the same charges, 
 whether any particular loss had been incurred or not, what- 
 ever losses they incur fall on themselves, and they suffer by 
 a decreased dividend. The public, therefore, can never lose 
 by competition, and always gain more or less. 
 
 It cannot, then, be a matter of surprise that opposition lines 
 should receive such encouragement from the public and the 
 Legislature. They are the only means by which charges on 
 the old lines can be reduced. It is contended for by railway 
 writers that competition does not effect this end, and that after 
 two competing lines have "run opposition" for a few months, 
 they both find it to be their interest to settle their differences, 
 and raise their charges to the old level, and so the public are no 
 better off than they had been previously. The last case, they 
 say, in point, is that of the South-Eastern and London, Chat- 
 ham, and Dover. There was for a time a strong rivalry 
 between the two companies ; afterwards they became friends, 
 
125 
 
 and mutually agreed to a scale of charges ; but, as we have 
 seen, the present fares are much below the original fares, and it 
 is only necessary to compare the present charges on those lines 
 where there is competition with their previous charges, when 
 they had a monopoly of the traffic, to satisfy the most incre- 
 dulous of the great benefits that have resulted to the public 
 from even a partial competition. But it is not alone by the 
 reduction of fares that the public gain by competing lines. 
 Large districts, previously without railways, or but partially 
 supplied, receive increased accommodation, and thus by 
 degrees, as the system is extended, the network of railways 
 is thrown over the whole country, till the most distant village 
 as well as the populous town will share equally in the bene- 
 fits of railway communication. 
 
 So far, therefore, as the general community is concerned, 
 it has, in many respects, but little to complain of in the 
 general working of the present system compared with the share- 
 holders, and if it be continued, the more it is extended, and 
 railways are multiplied and competition increases, so will the 
 causes of complaint decrease, although by carrying on such a 
 system the shareholders must sustain a heavy loss. 
 
 The main object of the Legislature in passing the General 
 Eailway Act of 1844 was to avoid the waste of national wealth 
 by preventing the construction of direct competing and there- 
 fore unnecessary lines. Whether the machinery for that pur- 
 pose was the best that could be devised might be a matter for 
 discussion, but it would be impossible to conceive any object 
 more calculated to promote the interests of the shareholders 
 than that Act of 1844. What did it do ? It gave the whole 
 weight and influence of Government to carrying out a policy 
 strictly conservative in its character, by the appointment of a 
 Board for promoting useful, and preventing the construction of 
 unnecessary, lines. Although the bill passed, the railway 
 directors of that day refused to co-operate with the Board of 
 Trade, to submit to its recommendations, or acquiesce in the 
 
 
126 
 
 line of demarcation the Board drew between the respective 
 " territories " of the rival companies; they preferred fighting 
 out their battles before Parliamentary Committees, and, as a 
 necessary consequence, the functions of the Board in this 
 department were soon abolished. 
 
 Let any one take up a railway map of England, and cast an 
 eye over that entangled mass of lines running here, there, and 
 everywhere in wild confusion, twisting and twining about, 
 sometimes in duplicate, and not unfrequently in triplicate, and 
 forming all sorts of odd complications that is what we call 
 our railway system. What untold scores of millions sterling 
 has this " system" cost the unhappy shareholders who have 
 been its victims ! how the money has been squandered away 
 in fruitless Parliamentary contests, in the construction or pur- 
 chase of worthless lines, or the guarantee of high dividends here, 
 carrying the war into the enemy's camp there, or " protecting 
 the rights and privileges of the shareholders from unjustifiable 
 aggression " somewhere else ! So has the game gone on for 
 twenty years a profitable and pleasant one, no doubt, for 
 many parties, but it is not unreasonable to suppose that the 
 shareholders may be pretty well tired of it ; and the question is, 
 will they now endeavour to abolish it ? 
 
 Let us examine for a moment the Government project for dis- 
 couraging the construction of competing lines, and endeavour 
 to form some opinion as to its result, if the Government had 
 succeeded in its plan, and prevented that frightful waste 
 of capital which it was one of the main objects of the Act to 
 effect. 
 
 There have been made clear, I hope, in the first part of this 
 work three important facts in connection with railway manage- 
 ment: 1st. That one railway between any two places is quite 
 sufficient for the ordinary purposes of traffic ; 2nd. That the 
 cost of conveyance on it is exceedingly low ; and 3rd. That, as 
 fares and charges decrease, in nearly the same proportion does 
 the traffic increase. We have seen that within certain limits 
 
127 
 
 (viz., from three farthings to threepence per mile for first- class 
 passengers, and for the other classes in proportion), it made but 
 comparatively little difference in the companies' profits; in few 
 cases, perhaps, more than one per cent, per annum less divi- 
 dend on their capital ; but if a rival line were constructed, the 
 loss in dividend would far exceed that percentage. " Would 
 it be fair," said Mr. Gladstone to one of the witnesses before 
 the Select Committee, " to say to a company, ' We will give 
 you your choice ; if you make a reduction in your terms, we 
 will reject the bill for a new line, but if you will not, we will 
 sanction it ? ' ' Judging from this and similar questions put 
 to other witnesses, the policy, apparently, of the Government, 
 if they had succeeded in carrying out their plan, would have 
 been, in each case where a rival line was projected, not to 
 sanction its construction, if the old company consented to 
 make what Government might consider a reasonable reduc- 
 tion in its tariff, according to the circumstances of the case ; 
 and, failing to make a bargain with the old company, to enter 
 into terms of arrangement with the new, and by these means 
 secure a very low rate of transit both for goods and passengers 
 throughout the country. How would this scheme have worked 
 for the then existing companies ? Their interests would have 
 been fairly protected, there would have been no unnecessary lines 
 made, and they would have been saved from the ruinous results 
 of that constant warfare they have had to struggle against from 
 that time to the present. Parliament found it absolutely 
 necessary, at the opening of the session of 1864, to appoint 
 a committee for the purpose of laying down a distinct and 
 definite plan for protecting London from the vast number of 
 railways that threatened invasion on a gigantic scale ; and from 
 all these different projects the Committee have settled on a 
 perfect plan by which London is to be amply supplied with rail- 
 ways. If the same principle that is now applied to the metro- 
 polis had been applied twenty years ago to the whole nation, 
 what a vast amount of capital would have been saved ! lines 
 
 
128 
 
 better adapted to serve the public would have been planned and 
 executed, unnecessary competing lines would never have been 
 constructed, the shareholders would have been fairly remune- 
 rated for the outlay of their capital, and the public would 
 now be deriving all those advantages produced by a low rate 
 of railway charges throughout the country, of which they 
 are unfortunately deprived by the failure of that part of 
 the Government scheme that referred to the construction of 
 railways. 
 
 It remains now for the shareholders of the present day, and 
 more especially the directors of the companies, to consider 
 whether or not it would be for their interest to support a move- 
 ment towards the carrying out of that part of the General Act 
 of 1844 which refers to the purchase of railways by the State. 
 It is true that Government in the coming session may have a 
 Committee appointed to investigate the subject, but as attention 
 has not been directed to it for twenty years, a great deal of 
 information must be given to the public before the matter can 
 be thoroughly understood. In forming an opinion on the 
 subject there are three topics which would naturally suggest 
 themselves to the mind: 1st. How would such a proposal 
 as the purchase of the railways by the State be received 
 and entertained by the public ? The answer would depend 
 in no small degree on the position of the party from whom 
 the proposal would proceed, and on their opinion as to 
 the general soundness of the theory and correctness of the 
 facts that could be advanced in support of it. It might, 
 I think, be safely predicated that the public would offer 
 no opposition to a scheme, if pronounced sound and feasible 
 by those best qualified to judge, that would enable them 
 to travel at a uniform rate through the country at fares 
 varying from a half to a fifth of what they now pay, 
 and with similar reductions on goods, parcels, &c. 2nd. 
 The shareholders, in considering the proposal, would naturally 
 direct their attention to their present position and future pro- 
 
129 
 
 spects. Is the former secure, and the latter hopeful ? Are the 
 causes which have produced such a depression in the value of 
 railway property temporary in their nature, and likely soon to 
 pass away ? Is the source of all evil to shareholders compe- 
 tition on the decline ? and may shareholders indulge in a 
 reasonable anticipation that the Legislature will refuse its 
 sanction in future to competing lines, and otherwise discourage 
 such projects by throwing the expense of defending existing 
 interests brought before Parliament on hostile projectors ? 
 3rd, and this is the main, consideration with shareholders 
 the others I have noticed being only of consequence so far 
 as they bear on this what bonus would the Legislature pro- 
 bably give for the shares, in addition to their market 
 value ? For if liberal, the shareholders would naturally sup- 
 port such a movement. The whole affair is a question of price. 
 Into the sale of houses, land, or other property there are many 
 considerations enter besides that of actual value; there is the 
 inconvenience or loss to the owner, which he naturally estimates 
 from a different point of view to that of the proposed purchaser ; 
 but with joint- stock property, constantly changing hands in the 
 market, it is a different affair altogether. A shareholder has 
 no sentimental attachment to " North- Westerns," " Brightens," 
 " South -Easterns," or " Great Northerns ; " even its " A Stock" 
 he would just as soon sell out if he considered the price of the 
 day a pound or two beyond its value, and buy in the worst 
 description of non- dividend-paying shares in the market if the 
 ttter were in his opinion selling a pound or two below their 
 ue. But as each shareholder can at any time get the market 
 
 ice for his shares, he would have no inducement to trouble 
 limself about the matter unless he was offered a liberal 
 
 >nus by the Legislature. We have now, therefore, to direct 
 attention to two branches of our subject the future prospects 
 of shareholders, and the probable bonus in addition to the 
 price that the Legislature might be induced to give them for 
 their shares. 
 
130 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Effect of Competition Some Shareholders favourable to Free 
 Trade The Duty of Directors Necessity of opposing Competing 
 Lines Complaints against Directors Improved Position of Rail- 
 way Promoters New Class of Contractors Low Ptate of Contracts 
 Complaints of Shareholders "A fair and reasonable Charge "- 
 Under the present System Competition must continue Dislike of 
 the English People to Monopoly Battles of the Companies 
 Extracts from the last Half-yearly Reports of the great Companies 
 Great Eastern Northern Junction before Parliament Railway 
 Affairs in 1844, 1845, and 1846 The Effects of great Prosperity 
 may again be anticipated Complaints against Parliament False 
 Position of Shareholders Struggles to maintain the present System 
 Mr. Gladstone on the Introduction of the Bill of 1844 A Share- 
 holder at the South-Eastern Meeting Appeal to the Directors. 
 
 IT is important for shareholders, and those especially who have 
 the direction of their affairs, to ponder well the impossibility 
 of adopting any means under our present system to put an end 
 to competition among railway companies. Its effect, as we 
 have seen, has heen to reduce railway property, within the 
 last eighteen or twenty years, to less than half its original 
 value, and, although the severe pressure only recurs at inter- 
 mittent periods, it is not the less disastrous in its results. 
 
 There are, however, some shareholders who contend that a 
 free trade in railways would have been profitable to both parties 
 the public and themselves; that if the directors had abstained 
 from all opposition to rival lines, the shareholders in the old 
 companies would now have been much better off, and been receiv- 
 ing large dividends. They further contend that this bad policy 
 was further aggravated by the directors, when defeated in the 
 first instance, purchasing up at extravagant prices, or guaran- 
 
131 
 
 teemg exorbitant dividends to, successful rival lines. In 
 condemnation of this policy they instance the enormous sums 
 spent in fruitless Parliamentary contests, and the heavy 
 burdens entailed on the old lines by such purchases and 
 guarantees. I think, however, when all the circumstances of 
 the case are duly considered, it will be admitted that the 
 directors could not, in these respects, have acted better for the 
 interests of their shareholders than they have done. 
 
 Before going into this matter, we must endeavour to see 
 clearly what was the duty of the directors in reference to the 
 shareholders on the one hand and the public on the other. 
 Up to a certain point their interests were identical, but at that 
 point they diverged, and became antagonistic. Whose interests, 
 then, should the directors promote ? No one, I think, can for 
 a moment doubt that they were bound to use every fair and 
 lawful means to protect and promote the interests of the share- 
 holders in preference to those of the public. 
 
 To do justice to the directors, their position must be fairly 
 stated. They represented a body of men who had rendered no 
 small service to the State in the creation of public works 
 works which had been undertaken, carried on, and completed 
 under great difficulties, without ever having received, as in 
 other countries, either subvention, assistance, or special protec- 
 tion from the Legislature. The men who executed these works 
 made no pretensions to philanthropy. They were working 
 undoubtedly for their country's good, but that was a mere 
 incident ; they were shrewd, hard-headed men of business, who 
 lid out vast sums of money to attain a certain object that 
 )bject being the possession, working, and monopoly of the 
 reat high roads of the country. All this was done as a 
 latter of profitable speculation. The Legislature was under 
 10 obligation to the shareholders, nor the shareholders to the 
 ?gislature. So far as regards the general public, there was 
 the same absence of obligation on either side. The public 
 wanted to travel as cheap as they could ; they cared nothing 
 
 x 2 
 
132 
 
 about the shareholders, or what return they would have for 
 their invested capital, or whether they should have any return 
 that was the shareholders' business ; they made the railways 
 on speculation, and must abide by the consequences. So far as 
 the general public were concerned, their feeling was decidedly 
 hostile to the directors. It is clear, therefore, that when the 
 interests of the shareholders and the public clashed, the direc- 
 tors had but one course to pursue, viz. to use their best 
 endeavours to advance the interests of the shareholders. 
 
 Let us now examine the policy pursued by the directors in 
 opposing competing lines. There are some persons, no doubt, 
 who contend that competition is good alike for all parties, but 
 I do not think that that theory can stand a moment's investiga- 
 tion. When a man can sell his wares or his services at his 
 own price, his estimation of their value is, in general, some- 
 what higher than that of the public ; and when he can enforce 
 that valuation his situation is decidedly pleasant, and may be 
 made very profitable. Competition is all very well for the 
 public, but no sane man would give up a monopoly so long as he 
 could possibly retain it. The directors, therefore, in upholding 
 the interests of their shareholders, could only do battle with all 
 comers who would venture to intrude into their territories, and 
 offer to every project, come from whatever quarter it might, 
 that would threaten to interfere with their monopoly, the 
 most determined opposition. This the directors have always 
 done, and on that head I do not think the shareholders have 
 any fair ground of complaint. I do not see how they could 
 have done better to promote their interests. 
 
 The second matter of complaint against the directors, 
 viz., buying up or guaranteeing high dividends to successful 
 opposition lines, is certainly more feasible than the first com- 
 plaint. It was said, and no doubt with truth, that such 
 purchases only gave encouragement to hostile projectors to 
 proceed to new aggressions ; but of the two evils the lesser one 
 undoubtedly was to buy the rival line up, or adopt any other 
 
133 
 
 means by which they could secure their monopoly, and pre- 
 vent the public being carried at the exceeding low rate at 
 which they otherwise would on the new line, to the great 
 disadvantage of the old line. 
 
 A great change has of late years taken place in the position 
 of railway promoters. The almost fabulous prices paid for land 
 in the early days of railway progress, and the opposition encoun- 
 tered from landowners and others, rendered the success of a bill 
 a matter of the greatest difficulty, and the inexperience and ne- 
 cessary ignorance of contractors added heavily to the expenses. 
 Up to 1844 the average cost of railways was 35,000 per 
 mile ; but times have changed wonderfully since then. Land- 
 owners, traders, and all other classes now fully appreciate the 
 benefit to be derived from railways. The value of land is 
 increased in the same proportion as they are made available 
 for traffic, and traders would be shut out from their markets were 
 they not within their immediate reach. Into whatever districts 
 promoters now go, they are welcomed as friends, where, thirty 
 years since, they would have been treated literally as enemies. 
 The landowner sells his land at a fair price, sometimes 
 takes the amount in shares, or in many cases gives it free, 
 and all other classes locally interested support the under- 
 taking ; and, last of all, the public eagerly take up the shares. 
 This is not all, nor the worst so far as regards the position of 
 shareholders in the old lines. The general demand for rail- 
 ways has called into existence a new class of speculators, who 
 unite in their own persons the several functions of promoters, 
 contractors, shareholders in the first instance, and lessees when 
 ecessary men of great wealth, enterprise, experience, and 
 
 ergy, in every way fully competent to carry out whatever they 
 undertake, always on the look out for business wherever they 
 
 ,n see there is work to be done, and the likelihood of a profit- 
 able investment. This class is the scourge of the railway interest ; 
 in former times they were unknown. Eailway companies then 
 only contended with each other ; now, two or three individuals 
 
 
134 
 
 form a company, and run up an opposition line with or without 
 assistance from others, as the case may be ; and when the line 
 is finished they sell it, lease it, or work it in opposition to an 
 old line till they can get their own price, and having cleared a 
 small fortune by the transaction, they are off to " fresh fields 
 and pastures new " in search of some other enterprise. 
 
 This class, it may be well imagined, stand in very bad favour 
 with railway shareholders. They are generally designated as 
 speculating jobbers, shameless intruders into other men's 
 domains, interlopers, and pirates ! But, whatever names be 
 applied to them, the gentlemen who follow this profession take 
 the matter very coolly, and realize large fortunes ; and well they 
 may, as the average cost of railways is now 12,000 per mile, 
 or about one- third of what they formerly cost. Every year 
 the expense appears to be decreasing. Last year a railway, 
 constructed by Mr. John Bower, one of our most able and 
 successful Irish engineers, called the Finn Valley Line, in the 
 county Donegal, was completed at the low cost of 5160 per 
 mile, being the cheapest of any constructed in the kingdom. 
 There are many concurrent causes which operate now, in 
 enabling contractors to make lines at a very low rate, compared 
 with former times. In addition to the favourable terms granted 
 by landowners, then unknown, there is the greater experience 
 in laying out the best lines, and the increased facility in con- 
 structing works, by having a well-trained body of men kept in 
 constant employment at the skilled and unskilled labour inci- 
 dent to their calling an advantage not possessed, of course, 
 by contractors in the early days of railway construction. 
 
 It is thought a hard case by most shareholders that their pro- 
 perty should be subject to what they term constant and unjusti- 
 fiable attacks, when, in their opinion, they are giving every ac- 
 commodation to the public, making only fair and reasonable 
 charges, and receiving but a very moderate return for their 
 capital ; further, that Parliament does not give them sufficient 
 protection, nor lay down a line of policy with sufficient clear- 
 
135 
 
 ness to enable them to draw a line of demarcation between 
 those schemes that should and should not be opposed in 
 Parliament. These complaints are not entirely without foun 
 dation, but there is great difficulty in dealing with the subject. 
 What, for instance, is " a fair and reasonable charge " on 
 railways, how is it to be tested, and what should be the 
 standard ? The London and North-Western and Great 
 Northern charged, as we have seen, at one time, on their respec- 
 tive lines, one farthing per mile for first class. The North 
 and South Western charge now one halfpenny per mile, the 
 North London three farthings, the London and Tilbury one 
 penny, the Lancashire and Yorkshire three halfpence, the 
 London and Brighton twopence, the Great Eastern twopence 
 halfpenny, the North Devon threepence, and the Cardigan 
 threepence halfpenny. There is a wide range ! from one 
 farthing to fourteen farthings, that at three farthings paying 
 the highest dividend. And which of these fares is to be 
 adopted as the standard of a " fair and reasonable charge ? " 
 Even on the same railway, on different days of the week, there 
 are different charges. I might refer again, as it affords a 
 familiar illustration, to the different prices of a book, first pub- 
 lished at a guinea and a half, again at six shillings, and lastly 
 at two shillings. Which of these prices is " fair and mode- 
 rate ? " The first is the monopoly, and the last is the free- 
 trade price ; but which of the three prices is " the true Simon 
 Pure," and which the counterfeit ? When we see that the 
 ordinary every- day working fares on some railways are three, 
 five, and even seven times as much as on others, and the 
 companies charging the lowest pay six per cent, dividends, 
 there may, under these circumstances, be some difference be- 
 tween the public and the shareholders as to what constitutes 
 " a fair and reasonable charge." Let us suppose that the price 
 of tea, of the same quality, varied, owing to local causes, over 
 the kingdom from one shilling per pound to seven shillings ; 
 would it not be obvious to every one that, if such a state of 
 
136 
 
 things existed in regard to tea or any other necessary of life, 
 there would be a constant action going on to reduce those in- 
 equalities, and bring competition to bear for that purpose on 
 those markets at which the highest charges prevailed. 
 
 So long, then, as our present railway system lasts, so 
 long must railway proprietors make up their minds to a con- 
 tinuance of that warfare which has proved so ruinous to their 
 interests; and in proportion as the public find the fares decrease 
 through competition, so will increase the desire to encourage 
 competing lines. There is, in this country, a great dislike to 
 monopoly, or anything that appears to strengthen monopoly. 
 In the early part of the last session, a bill promoted by 
 the Caledonian, Edinburgh, and Glasgow, and Scottish Central 
 Railway Companies, for their amalgamation, was thrown out 
 on the second reading, and the same bill had been thrown 
 out several times before, although the projectors had great 
 Parliamentary influence, and proposed a reduction of 35 per 
 cent, on their second-class, and 25 per cent, on their third-class 
 fares. These and similar proposals to Parliament to make 
 great reductions in fares on certain conditions are, unfortunately 
 for railway shareholders, highly suggestive, both to the public 
 and to Parliament, of gross overcharges being made ; and, 
 coupled with this, the extremely low fares on some lines and 
 their high dividends, confirm the popular opinion that nothing 
 but increased and unlimited opposition can effectually bring 
 down the fares. 
 
 We have seen that landowners now find that railway com- 
 munication is a necessity of civilization ; that those parts of 
 the country unprovided with such means of transport are not, 
 in the present state of society, fit places for habitation ; that 
 new promoters rush in where old ones feared to tread ; and, 
 what with internecine wars between old companies not grown 
 wiser by experience, and between new companies without either 
 experience or wisdom and what with the wars between 
 engineers, lawyers, contractors, and jobbers of all sorts, whose 
 
137 
 
 experience has been most pleasant the poor shareholders may 
 well look forward with anxiety to that happy millennium 
 when their troubles shall cease when their ruinous Parlia- 
 mentary warfares shall be at an end, when a new competing 
 line shall be a thing unknown, and when they shall be able to 
 enjoy their present dividends, such as they are, without any 
 fear of further reduction, or molestation from angry opponents. 
 How far that prospect, under the present system, is likely to 
 be realized, we have now to consider. 
 
 This future time, so anxiously looked for by shareholders, 
 is to be marked by the " completion of our railway system," 
 when the nation and the Legislature, it is assumed, will agree 
 in opinion with them as to the impolicy of permitting the con- 
 struction of competing lines. I am greatly afraid, when we 
 come to examine the foundation on which this rests, it will be 
 found altogether imaginary ; and a little consideration, pro- 
 bably, will satisfy the most sanguine shareholder that it is 
 utterly futile to suppose, under the present system, such a 
 " completion " can ever come to pass. 
 
 We have, in the United Kingdom, about 120,000 miles of 
 common roads, and about the one-tenth of that distance of 
 railways. I am very far from supposing that, under any 
 assumed circumstances, our railways will reach the one-fourth 
 of that extent during the present generation. But as there are 
 many different causes in operation that have a direct tendency 
 to promote the construction of cheap opposition lines, they must 
 still continue to operate so long as these causes exist. Although 
 the completion of our leading lines may take place in the course 
 a comparatively few years, our railway system will go on 
 
 :tending itself for many years to come. As the population 
 
 icreases,, and villages become large towns, so does the neces- 
 sity for a continual extension go on, and we generally add, 
 in ordinary times, from 300 to 500 miles per annum to the 
 existing lines. But it is not from this moderate extension the 
 railway proprietors so severely suffer. What they have to 
 dread is that vast influx of new schemes into Parliament 
 
138 
 
 \vhich periodically occurs after two or three consecutive years 
 of great prosperity. When the coffers of the Bank of England 
 are filled to overflowing, when the rate of interest is down to 
 1 or 2 per cent., when there is a vast amount of unemployed 
 capital lying idle for want of a profitable investment, the general 
 community anticipate increased happiness and prosperity, but 
 to railway shareholders these signs of the times are only the 
 forerunners of disastrous speculation and unlimited com- 
 petition. They have had the bitter lesson of 1844-5, and it 
 is not likely that that lesson will be soon forgotten. 
 
 These two years were remarkable for their good harvests, 
 their prosperity at home and abroad, the consequent easy 
 state of the money market, and the increasing supply of 
 bullion in the Bank for a large average circulation, and for 
 discounts varying from 2j to 3j per cent. In 1842 the 
 bullion in the Bank coffers had been as low as 5,629,000 ; 
 in January, 1844, it had increased to upwards of 14,000,000 ; 
 in January, 1842, the circulation was 16,923,000 ; in January, 
 1844, it had grown up to 20,301,000; and during the whole 
 of 1844 it averaged about the same amount. Money was very 
 abundant ; the great discount houses were full. The Bank 
 discounted at 2 J per cent. ; Consols reached par, a similar event 
 not having taken place in the present century; the Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer effected a saving of 1,200,000 per annum by 
 the reduction of the 3 J per Cents, to 3. Four of the principal 
 railways in the kingdom the London and Birmingham, the 
 Grand Junction, the Liverpool and Manchester, and the York 
 and North Midland paid from 10 to 12 per cent., and the 
 Stockton and Darlington, 15 per cent, per annum; everything, 
 in fact, promised a continuance of the golden age. 
 
 Up to 1844 railway enterprise might be regarded as the 
 natural effort of capital to procure a fair and proper interest ; 
 but the superabundant capital in the market, seeking for invest- 
 ment, brought about a widely different state of affairs. The lead- 
 ing railway companies, willing enough of course to remain quiet, 
 found it impossible to do so ; opposition lines were proposed, 
 

 139 
 
 which it was necessary to fight at great expense ; and small 
 branch railways being projected, the old companies were forced 
 to take and guarantee dividends from 4 to 6 per cent., and in 
 some cases as high as 10 per cent., many of these lines having 
 only been projected for the purpose of extortion. " Parliament 
 gave almost unrestricted scope to competition ; little regard was 
 paid to the claims and interests of railway companies. Their 
 proprietors saw, with terror and dismay, the reckless encourage- 
 ment to competing lines, by which all their calculations were 
 so disastrously interfered with. So determined were the pro- 
 prietors of new lines to succeed in their projects, that no price 
 for the purchase of land seemed too great to arrest opposition. 
 Sums varying from 5,000 to 20,000 were given, ostensibly 
 for slips of land, but really to avert opposition." 
 
 I have drawn freely, in the foregoing sketch of Parliamentary 
 legislation in 1844, 1845, and 1846, from Mr. Francis' interest- 
 ing " History of English Kailways;" and the lesson there 
 conveyed should not be without its use to the directors 
 of the present day. It is for them to watch the signs of the 
 times, and, by a wise foresight, secure themselves and their 
 constituents against the coming evil day. Nothing can be 
 more certain than that, sooner or later, this country will be 
 visited by one of these periodical returns of extraordinary pros- 
 perity, and similar results, in regard to railway property, may 
 fairly be anticipated. What reason is there to think otherwise ? 
 The Chairman of the London and South- Western recently 
 complained that'ten ' ' attacks," in Parliament, had been made 
 on their line in 1863. The London and Brighton came suc- 
 cessfully out of their Committee in the same year, but their 
 dividend was reduced in consequence one per cent. What are 
 we to expect again, when the money market will be in the same 
 state as that which we have just noticed, when 20,000,000 
 will be lying at the Bank of England; when our discounts 
 will be again at 2j per cent. ; some 70 or 80 millions sterling 
 of deposit lying in our joint-stock banks, paying 1 J or 2 per 
 cent, interest, and the depositors anxiously looking out for some 
 
HO 
 
 more profitable investment? With the encouragement which 
 railway projectors now receive from landowners with the great 
 facilities which exist for constructing lines, and the compara- 
 tively low price at which they can now be constructed with the 
 activity, wealth, and energy of the great contractors, who project 
 and carry out their lines, and the wider field for operations which 
 still exists in the vicinity of good paying lines these combined 
 causes must, I think, satisfy any reasonable man that, when 
 that season of great prosperity comes again, the railway 
 interest will be the first, the greatest, and perhaps the only 
 sufferer? When the flood-gates are again opened, and the 
 unchecked torrent of speculation rushes in, neither Parliament 
 nor shareholders can stop its course. 
 
 History, it is said, runs in cycles, and railway history is no 
 exception to the general rule. Since the railway mania, twenty 
 years ago, there has not been so great a number of railway 
 bills brought before Parliament as in the last session ; yet the 
 .times are very different; we have not had a succession of good 
 harvests, there is not, as in 1844, that vast accumulation of 
 gold at the Bank of England; money is not going a-begging at 
 2 or 3 per cent. ; and, although too many companies for general 
 purposes have been formed, there is not that wild and reckless 
 spirit of speculation abroad, as in 1845, that alarmed all interests 
 and brought such numbers to ruin; nevertheless, there is a 
 determination on the part of the public to convert their surplus 
 capital into new lines ; and there is no lack of companies, both 
 old and new, to avail themselves of that desire, and turn it to 
 profitable account. 336 Bills, claiming sanction for the con- 
 struction of upwards of 3000 miles, were introduced into 
 Parliament, attacking, without exception, all existing interests, 
 and threatening ruin to many of the companies. Let, however, 
 the reports of some of the principal companies, at their half- 
 yearly meeting in February, 1864, speak for themselves. It is 
 true that a great number of these bills have been either thrown 
 out or withdrawn, but only to reappear the next or some suc- 
 ceeding session, with hundreds of others. 
 
HI 
 
 " The directors of the London and North-Western Company 
 regret to say that the bills introduced into the present session 
 bearing on the interests of this company, and requiring the 
 watchful attention of the board, are, as on former occasions, 
 too numerous to be described in the Report." They waited, 
 they state, on the President of the Board of Trade, and urged 
 that the proprietors of existing railways, as the owners of nearly 
 four hundred millions of capital, might reasonably expect that 
 Parliament will not allow their property to be sacrificed, as is 
 now too frequently the case, for the sole benefit of speculators, 
 who, under the guise of public advantage, claim to use works 
 already established at great cost, and, having acquired such 
 rights, seek only to dispose of them to the highest bidder. 
 The directors further urged that, under existing circumstances, 
 they, as trustees, have little or no option but to appear in com- 
 mittee on any bill by which their interests may be affected, well 
 knowing, from experience, that a lodgment made by a specu- 
 lating scheme in one session is too often made a stepping- 
 stone to a serious invasion of their property, and to a costly 
 contest in a future session. At one time these contests might 
 have had their origin in an expectation, based on the apparent 
 policy of Parliament, that monopoly might be maintained ; 
 yet, for some time past, that expectation has been very gene- 
 rally abandoned. At the half-yearly meeting, the chairman, 
 in reference to the general policy of Parliament, said : " We 
 had the North London, when we got 3 and 4 per cent. ; and 
 now, when we have brought it into play, and your capital 
 makes something of it, Parliament steps in to rob you of your 
 labour." 
 
 Here now is a corporation, with a capital of some forty mil- 
 lions sterling, and an annual revenue equal to many of the 
 second-rate European powers, with a "territory" extending over 
 1200 miles, and possessing all that power and influence which 
 such an elevated position commands, obliged to live in a state 
 of chronic warfare, and to seek the special protection of the 
 
142 
 
 Board of Trade against the numberless schemes with which 
 they were threatened, " in the hope that Parliament will 
 not allow their property to he sacrificed, as is now too fre- 
 quently the case, for the sole benefit of speculators," &c. 
 
 The question that naturally suggests itself, on reading this 
 report, is, Why should the owners of private property be placed 
 in such an anomalous situation, that the interference that 
 Parliament may deem necessary for the public good is inju- 
 rious to their interests ? Parliament, they say, has too fre- 
 quently sacrificed their property for the sole benefit of specu- 
 lators. Well ! If " speculators " promote a good bill, why 
 should they not obtain it ? In other words the Legislature 
 has granted bills for lines that compete with the London and 
 North-Western, which the directors think wholly unnecessary ; 
 but we have seen that these competing lines, from London to 
 Liverpool and elsewhere, have greatly reduced the fares and 
 charges, no doubt at a ruinous loss to the company. Parlia- 
 ment has to judge between parties altogether antagonistic so 
 far as regards the principle of competition, and railway com- 
 panies occupy a false position in standing between the public 
 and the public good. Look what competition has done for the 
 London and North-Western Company it reduced their divi- 
 dends from 10 per cent, down to 3j per cent. For the last 
 few years they have been slowly recovering, and have now 
 attained a tolerably fair position, having paid 5 2s. 6d. per 
 cent, dividend in 1863, and 1804 will probably produce 6 
 per cent. ; but it needs no prophet to foretell the results, as 
 affects the company, if one half the projects continually 
 being launched against them receive eventually the sanction of 
 Parliament. 
 
 The chairman of the Great Western Eailway, at their half- 
 yearly meeting, said that, looking at the enormous mass of 
 merely speculative schemes that were brought forward, and 
 which involved great expense in opposing them, he thought 
 the leading companies were somewhat hardly used. There 
 
143 
 
 was no substantial guarantee against new projects having little 
 or no local support, or any real substantive basis. A specu- 
 lative engineer, a speculative lawyer, and a financial discount 
 company at their back, set them up. It was not like 1844 and 
 1845, when there was a great rush of capital into railways, when 
 there were railway shareholders and railway directors ; but in 
 the great mass of schemes which were now being promoted, 
 there were neither shareholders nor directors, and there was no 
 substantial local demand for those schemes. When authorized, 
 these schemes were merely made use of for exciting jealousy 
 and discord between neighbouring companies. They were 
 made for sale, and sale only. 
 
 All the great companies, in their reports to their shareholders, 
 spoke much in the same terms as the London and North- 
 Western and Great Western companies. The Lancashire and 
 Yorkshire directors said that it was a source of extreme regret to 
 them that they must again, in Parliament, resist encroachments 
 upon districts both in Lancashire and Yorkshire. They felt 
 bound to protect the shareholders' property, as much as possible, 
 from injurious legislation ; and they requested the authority of 
 shareholders to authorize the board to take all necessary pro- 
 ceedings for that purpose. The term " injurious legislation " is 
 a relative term ; and it must be remembered that the directors 
 are speaking from the directors' point of view, as affecting the 
 interests of the shareholders, and totally ignore those of the 
 public. 
 
 The chairman of the London and South- Western Company, 
 at their half-yearly meeting, said the directors had been unwill- 
 ingly obliged, by the action of others, to introduce a line for 
 affording accommodation to Richmond from Kensington, which 
 the company had been driven to promote in order to protect 
 themselves from the attacks of others. No less than four lines 
 had been projected, to rob them of their Richmond traffic, three 
 of which were still before the public. " They had offered terms to 
 the promoters of those schemes, and to the Great Western and 
 North- Western companies, which, he trusted, would satisfy the 
 
144 
 
 House of Commons that there was no public necessity for these 
 hostile and useless lines." 
 
 The directors of this company were placed in a bad position : 
 " they had given up all ambitious schemes, had abandoned all 
 incursions into their neighbours' territories; and wished to live 
 at peace with all men ; but they were dragged unwillingly into 
 the fray." "No less than four lines had been projected to rob 
 them of their Richmond traffic," and, nolens volens, they must 
 enter into the strife. Last session they had b'een attacked 
 at " ten different points." 
 
 The Chairman of the Great Northern, at the half-yearly 
 meeting, said that the directors had to regret that the Eastern 
 Counties had thought it right to invade, in the most unwarrant- 
 able manner, the country occupied by the Great Northern 
 Company, by promoting a bill for the construction of a new 
 line from a point a few miles north of Cambridge to Askerne 
 and Doncaster. He (the chairman), acting as a member of 
 the Legislature, thought the case so bad a one, that he had 
 endeavoured to throw out their bill on the second reading, and 
 had the House entirely with him ; but the Chairman of Com- 
 mittees, Mr. Massey, thought the proceedings to defeat a bill 
 on its second reading so unusual, that he recommended the 
 House to allow the bill to go before a select committee; and, 
 in deference to the opinion of that gentleman, which carried 
 great weight and authority in the House, he (the chairman) 
 withdrew his opposition ; and the company were now, at great 
 expense, compelled and driven to oppose that line before a 
 Parliamentary Committee. It would pass between the main 
 and loop lines of the Great Northern Company, and would not 
 be farther than three to four miles from any of them ; and the 
 honourable gentleman went on to prove, of course, that the 
 line was quite unnecessary. 
 
 The Great Northern is now one of the best-paying companies 
 in the kingdom, originally promoted under the name of the 
 London and York, in direct opposition to the Midland. It 
 eventually succeeded in making its way to Liverpool, in opposi- 
 
145 
 
 tion to the London and North- Western, and extending its 
 branches in all directions. What the predecessors of the present 
 directors did twenty years ago not, it is to be presumed, as 
 speculators, or with a view to profitable investment, but solely 
 for the public good the present directors denounce as a most 
 unwarrantable invasion on Great Northern territory by the 
 Great Eastern Company, and have succeeded in convincing a 
 Parliamentary Committee that such is the fact. 
 
 The Chairman of the Midland said, as to their position, "It 
 was a most difficult matter to know how to deal with such 
 new complications as might arise in railway affairs. The new 
 lines and new projects springing up would require careful 
 judgment; it would be impossible to apply any particular 
 principle ; every circumstance must be carefully weighed, and 
 each project discussed on its own merits. It had been said 
 that something like the French system ought to be applied; 
 and Lord Dalhousie's report recommended a sort of restricted 
 monopoly; but that was upset by Parliament, which kept 
 things, as it were, at haphazard. Many years ago, he gave 
 evidence in favour of a line from Derby to Leeds ; since that 
 time a second line to that town had been obtained by the 
 London and North-Western, and a third by the Great Northern, 
 and now a fourth was threatened; this showed the absence of 
 any fixed principle. The public feeling varied ; and whenever 
 a disposition was manifested to make a new line, Parliament 
 was too apt to give power, highly injurious to other interests. 
 Of the new projects before Parliament, about one hundred 
 proposed to do something or other with the Midland." 
 
 This company, like the Great Northern, is one of the most 
 prosperous in the kingdom; but that very prosperity is, in one 
 sense, to this class of companies, the cause of their greatest 
 anxiety and trouble. It very naturally attracts great numbers 
 of competitors, who are desirous of sharing in their prosperity 
 relieving them of their traffic, involving them in enormous 
 'arliamentary expenditure, forcing on them the construction 
 >f new lines, which may really be quite unnecessary and pro- 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 ductive of no benefit to the public, as they are not competing 
 lines. 
 
 At the meeting of the Great Eastern, Mr. Bidder (a director) 
 said, " He was responsible for recommending the Great Eastern 
 Northern Junction line. It was said that it would bring them 
 into antagonism with the Great Northern Company ; but he 
 asked them whether the latter company had not invaded their 
 territory at several points ? They had invaded the Great 
 Eastern district at Hertford, Cambridge, and Lynn, and they 
 were now endeavouring to get into Norfolk." 
 
 The Great Eastern is one of those companies that never 
 enjoyed the smiles of Fortune. Once on a time an attempt 
 was made " to make things pleasant " for the shareholders by 
 paying them dividends the line never earned ; but it ended, as 
 we all know, in a most disastrous failure. They endeavoured 
 in the session of 1864 to better their fortunes, in what they con- 
 sidered a legitimate manner, by promoting a line to the North 
 by a junction with their main line near Cambridge. The 
 length, with branches, was 134 miles, and the estimated cost 
 1,500,000. The gradients were exceedingly favourable; and 
 they looked to the carriage of coals as one of the principal 
 sources of revenue. They proved to the Committee that a loco- 
 motive of ordinary power on such a line would be able to drag 
 400 tons ; so they would be able to bring coals in any quantity 
 at a shilling per ton to London. They encountered, however, 
 the most determined opposition from the Great Northern and 
 Midland Companies, and the Committee rejected their bill ! 
 
 It is not, I apprehend, necessary to go into any further 
 details in regard to the position and prospects of railway pro- 
 prietors. Nearly all the reports of the several companies par- 
 take, more or less, of the same character as those we have 
 quoted. The bill for constructing a new line between London 
 and Brighton has been defeated in the two last sessions of 
 Parliament by the Brighton Company, but at a fearful ex- 
 pense; and, sooner or later, it is pretty sure to be carried. 
 The established companies passed through the Parliamentary 
 
147 
 
 ordeal of the last session without suffering much damage from 
 '* territorial invasion," but their expenditure must have been 
 exceedingly heavy. 
 
 What is it that the railway shareholders of this country, above 
 all other things, desire in regard to their property ? They 
 desire peace and security, and, under the present system, it is 
 impossible they can have either. No man can believe that 
 the causes are temporary, that have a direct tendency to depre- 
 ciate railway property. The directors of companies claim from 
 the Legislature protection against competition, and hitherto, 
 to a considerable extent, that protection has been afforded 
 them. The present Parliament, especially, has given but little 
 support to competing lines, and (unless where a very strong 
 case has been made out for intervention) has supported existing 
 interests. Under its fostering influence, railway property has 
 increased considerably in value within the last few years, and 
 most of the great lines are now at a fair premium ; but it is for 
 the shareholders to consider how long that prosperity will last, 
 when the principle on which it is based is not that on which is 
 founded the general commercial policy of the country; the one 
 is based on MONOPOLY, and the other on FREE TRADE. The 
 next Parliament may regard railway competition in quite a 
 different light from that of the present Parliament, and it is 
 for the shareholders themselves to consider How long the 
 exceptional policy of protection now afforded to them, con- 
 trary to the general policy of the country, is likely to be 
 continued ? In the" somewhat strong conventional language 
 )f the railway world, it is called " a robbery to intrude 
 
 ito your neighbour's territory." It is assumed that a rail- 
 way company ought to have an exclusive right of conveyance 
 in its own particular district. It is true this assumed right 
 has never been claimed, in express terms, by the railway 
 interest ; they qualify it to the extent of admitting the right of 
 Parliament to sanction all lines it may deem necessary for 
 the public benefit, but they complain most bitterly of the manner 
 in which that right has been often exercised. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 
 
 In regard to the conveyance of coal to London, the Great 
 Northern, whilst admitting the fact that the Great Eastern 
 could carry coal on the proposed line from the North of 
 England to London at a shilling per ton, and that it would 
 cost themselves a few pence more, contended that the difference 
 in the cost of conveyance was so slight, compared with the 
 price of coal in London, or the reduction that the Great Eastern 
 might think proper to make, that it would not justify Parliament 
 in permitting the construction of a competing line ; the argu- 
 ments of the Great Northern eventually prevailed, and the 
 Great Eastern, for the time, at least, will not be able to bring 
 up coal from the North of England at any price whatever. 
 
 Let any one but think of the densely populated district of 
 the east of London, with its half million of inhabitants, the 
 great majority of whom are poor hard-working people, in con- 
 nection with the fact that coal can be brought to their door from 
 the pit's mouth at an expenditure, say, of half a crown per ton ; 
 let it be remembered that during the winter months their greatest 
 deprivation is the want of sufficient fuel; that frequently during 
 the season the most exorbitant prices are charged for it; that 
 its cost at the pit's mouth is but six or seven shillings per ton ; 
 when we remember all this, we can form some idea of the benefit 
 that would be conferred on that section of the London popula- 
 tion if they could get their coal from the pit's mouth with 
 only an additional charge of some two hundred per cent, 
 profit on the carriage. The main contest of the session of 
 1864 was the one we have referred to, between the Great 
 Northern and Great Eastern Companies. It was, in many 
 respects, a most remarkable contest, and the result is a good 
 illustration of the principles on which Parliamentary decisions 
 are generally founded. It also affords a full confirmation of 
 the evidence given before the Select Committee of 1844, as to 
 the great benefit the public would derive from the railways 
 being transferred from the companies to the State. 
 
 The Great Eastern Company, as we have seen, projected a 
 line that would give them direct communication, not only with 
 
149 
 
 the great coal-fields of the North, but also with the Lancashire 
 and Yorkshire, the North Eastern, the Midland, the Man- 
 chester and Sheffield, and all the other lines in the northern and 
 north-eastern parts of the kingdom, and notwithstanding its 
 length, and consequently the great number of landowners who 
 were affected by them, none practically opposed it. One of the 
 main features of the case was the engineering superiority of 
 the line to any system of similar length yet constructed, and 
 the effect of such construction was, practically, nearly to double 
 the load which an engine could carry, as compared with the 
 load actually carried on the existing line of the Great Northern ; 
 the latter is 240 tons, whilst on the former line a load of 400 
 tons would be conveyed at the same cost. The cost per 
 train mile of working the traffic, including every expense, 
 was found not to exceed one shilling and sixpence, and 
 taking the total distance at 1 76 miles, the cost of carriage 
 of each ton from the pit's mouth to Shoreditch would scarcely 
 amount to a shilling! The bill was rejected by the com- 
 mittee, apparently on the grounds, 1st that as the Great 
 Northern line was not so good, it would subject the company 
 to an unfair competition; and 2nd that the public would 
 derive but little benefit from the construction of the new line, 
 the Great Eastern required permission to charge a profit of 
 jtween 400 and 500 per cent, on the cost of transit. 
 Now, as to the first ground, the reasoning on behalf of the 
 
 rreat Northern is the old economical fallacy of protection, as 
 applied to railway traffic, and if it were well founded it should 
 
 lave operated to prevent railways themselves from superseding 
 capital invested in canals and turnpike trusts ; they, too, 
 tied down to " their inherent imperfections." Yet it was 
 
 lot thought necessary to deny the public the benefit of an 
 iproved method of locomotion, simply because the old roads 
 id canals would suffer by the improvement. Suppose some 
 inventor were to discover a new and cheaper fuel, which would 
 entirely supersede coal and gas, . and would supply heat and 
 light at a far cheaper rate than any at present in use, what 
 
150 
 
 would be thought of the Attorney-General who refused a 
 patent for such an invention, or the Parliament which refused 
 to sanction the means of carrying it into effect, because the 
 capital expended by the gas companies and in coal mines was not 
 to be superseded, but consideration was to be shown for the 
 great services they had in past times rendered to the country. 
 
 Such were the arguments addressed to the committee by the 
 advocates of the Great Eastern Company, but which, unfor- 
 tunately for them, failed in producing any effect, and so their 
 bill was rejected. 
 
 The position of railway shareholders is altogether anomalous ; 
 they are the supporters of a system not an absolute monopoly, 
 but still less one of free trade ; it is a system which combines the 
 worst qualities of both, without any of the redeeming qualities 
 of either. At the present day, it is simply an anachronism. The 
 landed, the shipping, and all the other interests, great and 
 small, of the country, that, twenty years ago, were monopolies, 
 more or less close, have gradually undergone a change, and the 
 railway direction alone is making a desperate struggle to main- 
 tain its position against the innumerable assailants who are 
 attacking it on every side. It is for the directors themselves 
 to judge, from the signs of the times, which party, in the end, 
 is likely to succeed, or if the successful defence in one session 
 will prevent the renewed attack in another, and then to calcu- 
 late the costs. Is there any director or shareholder who will 
 assert that railway property is on a sound and satisfactory foot- 
 ing, or say there is any likelihood of less encouragement being 
 given to railway extension, or fewer speculators ready to throw 
 competing lines over the face of the country, than at present ? 
 Or can the railway directors point out any remedy that has the 
 most remote likelihood of being adopted by the country or the 
 Legislature which will reverse the present order of things, and 
 give what they consider due protection to their interests a 
 protection, however it may be qualified, that is not granted to 
 any other class in the community? I may confidently answer 
 that no hope exists, even amongst the most sanguine of share- 
 
151 
 
 holders or determined of directors, of such protection ever 
 being given to the railway interest. 
 
 This is not all. There is a large, influential, and increasing 
 class in this country, who contend that every facility should be 
 granted by the Legislature for the extension of railways that 
 competition is the only means by which charges can be reduced 
 that when landowners are willing to give their land, and 
 capitalists contribute their money, the duty of the Legislature 
 is to promote the benefit of the public in preference to that of 
 the shareholders, and that the latter have no claim to special 
 protection more than any other class of traders. If these prin- 
 ciples should ultimately prevail and that is a matter on which 
 every one will form his own opinion there are much worse 
 times in store for railway proprietors than they have ever yet 
 experienced. 
 
 V The Railway Bill of 1844 was intended for the mutual benefit 
 of the nation and the shareholders. It was supposed that 
 at the expiration of twenty-one years both parties would be in 
 a position to form an opinion of the working of our railway 
 system as then established, and the Government desired to be 
 in a position to have it changed if the future Legislature should 
 so desire it. " The question," said Mr. Gladstone, " of the 
 whole bill, is the purchase or option on the part of the Govern- 
 ment. If we agree about that, we shall not quarrel about the 
 rest. On the other hand, if we differ about that, it will be a 
 question for our consideration, whether we will take the rest, 
 or postpone the whole till a future period. With railways the 
 Legislature are dealing with a new system, producing new 
 results, and likely to produce unforeseen effects. Is it not 
 wise, then, to make provision for the future? Is it wise to 
 trust ourselves to all the changes which the next ten or fifteen 
 years may produce with regard to public communication by 
 railway, without a thought for providing for the difficulties that 
 might arise ? Is it wise to place ourselves in a position in 
 which, whatever might be the exigency, we shall be debarred 
 
152 
 
 from any interference, because now, before these new com- 
 panies have obtained their powers, it has been neglected to 
 obtain proper powers, to enable the question to be entertained. 
 With respect to the purchase of railways at the present 
 moment, gentlemen of great experience and intelligence had 
 recommended that it should be so. I do not think the com- 
 mittee were prepared to concur in that view; and I say I 
 would, at the present moment, vote against a plan for the 
 purchase of railroads. I would do so because, in the present 
 state of the system, there are not grounds for coming to that 
 conclusion. But it is a very different question whether I shall 
 reserve a free agency for either the purchase or revision at any 
 future time, in case such a measure should appear advisable, to 
 enable the State, after a term of years, to purchase the railways, 
 if the judgment of the Legislature should be such as to render 
 such a measure politic and expedient. In the present state of 
 the question, the elements which enter into it are rude and 
 unformed, and the evidence, I admit, is not complete." 
 
 The time provided by the Act, when the Legislature should 
 take the working of our system into consideration, has now 
 nearly arrived, and there are ample materials to enable the 
 nation and the Legislature to form a perfect judgment of the 
 comparative merits of the two systems. The Legislature of 
 this as of every other free country, is but the reflex of its 
 public opinion, and only a knowledge of the facts of the case is 
 required to create and form that public opinion in this country 
 to support the Act of 1844. To say that the public are 
 opposed to the purchase of the railways would convey a very 
 inaccurate idea on the subject. The question has been but little 
 more than mooted, and the relative merits of the two systems 
 never discussed. A proposition at the present time from the 
 Government to buy up the railways, before the matter is fully 
 discussed, and the public enlightened on the subject, would 
 be just as appropriate or successful as a proposition to buy 
 up the land. It remains, therefore, for the directors of our 
 
153 
 
 great companies to consider whether or not it is for the in- 
 terest of themselves and their constituents to let matters go on 
 in their present course, or to bring the provisions of the Act of 
 1844 under the consideration of the puhlic and the Legis- 
 lature, and express their willingness, so far as they are con- 
 cerned, to give every facility to their being carried out. 
 
 The policy hitherto acted upon by railway directors and, 
 considered as traders, not an unfair one has been to keep the 
 public in complete ignorance of the internal working of our 
 railway system, so far as regards the extremely low rate at which 
 passengers and goods can be conveyed on railways. " How 
 does it happen," said a simple-minded shareholder in the South- 
 E astern Company, to the chairman at the last half-yearly 
 meeting, " that we carry passengers at such a low tariff ? The 
 fares must be unremunerative. In 1855, I see by your report 
 that we carried between seven and eight millions of passengers, 
 for which we received 635,000/. ; but last year we carried be- 
 tween thirteen and fourteen millions, and only received 755,000/. 
 That will not pay." " I cannot undertake," said the chairman 
 in reply, " to discuss these delicate matters in public (hear, 
 hear) ; but I would say, look to your dividend, and rest and be 
 thankful." The dividend for 1855 was 31. Is. 8d., and for 
 1863, 4/. 15s. 
 
 But the chairman might have said, " The fact is that we 
 and all the other companies can carry passengers at exceedingly 
 low rates. A first-class passenger we can carry four miles for 
 a farthing, a second-class six miles for a farthing, and a third- 
 class ten miles for a farthing ; and all beyond that, with fairly 
 loaded trains, is profit. You may remember several years ago, 
 when we carried on the opposition for the Beading traffic, 
 charging about a farthing per mile to first-class passengers, and, 
 as I told you then, we lost nothing by the business. We have 
 latterly been obliged, by the opposition of the London and 
 Chatham, to reduce our fares ; it has done us no injury. We 
 have come to terms with our opponent, and agreed to divide 
 
154 
 
 the monopoly, and now we can pay you a better dividend than 
 ever w.e paid you before. We may soon be able to restore the 
 fares to what the honourable proprietor terms ' remunerative 
 rates.' That must not be done too suddenly, nor till we have 
 fully arranged our plans with the Chatham and Dover." 
 Now the chairman might have said all this with perfect truth 
 but what would Mrs. Grundy of the railway world have 
 said? 
 
 So long as the railway monopoly remained secure, this 
 policy on the part of the directors appears to have been the 
 best that, under the circumstances, could have been adopted. 
 To share a monopoly with one or even more companies does 
 not absolutely destroy it, however much it may impair its value ; 
 but when there appears an influx of companies so great in 
 number, promoted under such favourable circumstances as we 
 have described, so determined to carry out their projects and 
 with every probability of their number increasing from year to 
 year, the possibility must be kept in view of the monopoly 
 being entirely broken up owing to so many companies obtaining 
 their Acts that combination would practically be impossible. 
 Light will, sooner or later, break in on our present system ; 
 with light comes knowledge, and with knowledge comes action. 
 The public look only to one remedy more lines, more com- 
 petition. The directors must know, as practical men of the 
 world, that, sooner or later, all matters relating to railway 
 statistics will be fully known ; and when the public come to 
 know that a passenger can be conveyed one hundred miles for 
 twopence halfpenny, for which he is charged eight shillings and 
 fourpence, and that a ton of coals can be brought from the 
 extreme north of England for about a shilling, the cost being 
 there six or seven shillings, and the price here four or five 
 times that sum, it requires no prophet to foretell that the 
 days of railway monopoly in private hands will in this country 
 soon be numbered. 
 
 But the remedy the public will seek, if not better advised, 
 
155 
 
 will not only greatly reduce the value of existing railways, 
 but will afford a very insufficient remedy for the evils com- 
 plained of; the cry of the public will be for very cheap 
 travelling, and new companies will be promoted solely for that 
 object. Last session there were applications to Parliament 
 for as many miles of railway as, if properly laid out, should 
 be sufficient for the next ten years. Would it not, then, be for 
 the interest of the shareholders that the directors should say to 
 the Country, the Legislature, and the Government, " Here is 
 a property on which nearly four hundred millions sterling has 
 been expended, and which, with some comparatively trifling 
 exceptions, affords railway communication to every part of the 
 country. You have two courses before you, either to allow our 
 property to be greatly depreciated, the capital of the country to 
 be wasted, and very insufficient and partial remedies provided for 
 the evils of which you complain, or to take this property off 
 our hands. Give us, in addition to the market price of the 
 day, a liberal bonus as provided for by the Act of 1844, and 
 we on our part will render every assistance to the Government 
 in carrying out the views of the Legislature, in enabling the 
 public to travel at such low fares as you may determine." 
 
 I have now detailed as clearly as I can the grounds of my belief 
 that it would be for the interest of the shareholders that the 
 directors of our great companies should themselves take the 
 initiative or support any movement of others in bringing this 
 matter before the country. Their predecessors in office twenty 
 years ago made a sad mistake in rejecting the advice of such men * 
 as Mr. Glyn and Mr.Baxendale, and refusing to co-operate with 
 the Government of the day in protecting the companies from 
 competing lines, and giving in return certain benefits to the 
 public. Their successors have to deal with the second crisis that 
 has occurred in the railway history of this country now, when a 
 speculating mania for railway extension has set in not equalled 
 ', since that of 1845. It is for them to judge whether or not the 
 policy of the past shall be the policy of the future. If they 
 
156 
 
 can stop the progress of current events ; if they can roll back 
 that torrent of speculation that threatens to sweep them along 
 in its course ; if they can eradicate from the minds of the 
 British people that hatred of unchecked monopoly which may 
 now be said to form part and parcel of their very being ; if 
 they can persuade the public at large, when the day of reckon- 
 ing comes, that a system is sound which gives a practical 
 monopoly to the vendor of a necessity of life, and enables 
 him in many cases to charge the public fifty times over the 
 sum he pays ; if they believe all this, any argument I could 
 use would be quite unavailing to convince them to the contrary. 
 We have a system based on a principle, of which they are 
 the administrators, not to be justified 'on any enlightened 
 principle of legislation a system of forced taxation under 
 which this country, last year, paid upwards of THIRTY- 
 ONE MILLIONS sterling. If, then, the directors of our great 
 companies, men, almost without exception, of wealth and in- 
 fluence, and many of very high position, both social and 
 political, maintain the affirmative of these propositions, it 
 would be merely a waste of time to discuss the question further. 
 It is a matter that, for the present, apparently, must rest solely 
 with them ; they have only to consider what line of policy will 
 most benefit their shareholders, and they may very possibly 
 think that of inaction the best, but I hope it may be other- 
 wise. In the first crisis, in 1844, Government took the 
 initiative in a movement intended for the benefit of the share- 
 holders and the public, but partially failed. The second 
 crisis in the affairs of the shareholders has now arrived, and it 
 remains with themselves alone to consider what is best to be 
 done, whether to proffer their willingness, so far as they are 
 concerned, to carry out the Act of 1844, or follow the old 
 course of opposition to competing lines in a vain struggle to 
 maintain and perpetuate their monopoly. 
 
157 
 
 CHAPTEK III. 
 
 The Right of the Companies to promote the carrying into effect the 
 Bill of 1844 Meaning of the Term " Purchase " of Railways by 
 the State Superior Value of Government Security over Private Se- 
 cui% Its Effect on the Market Value of Shares Clause of the Bill 
 relating to Purchase Different Modes by which it could be effected. 
 Amount of Bonus to Shareholders The Capital, Revenue, and 
 Dividends of the Thirteen Great Companies The assumed Bonus 
 that the Legislature might be induced to grant to each. 
 
 ALTHOUGH the Act of 1844 left it optional with the Legis- 
 lature to exercise, on certain prescribed terms, the right to 
 purchase the railways, it is nevertheless quite open to the 
 companies, as one of the parties to the bargain, to bring 
 the subject before the country and Parliament, to state the 
 grievances under which they labour, and suggest any remedy 
 they may consider will meet the justice or necessities of their 
 case. What we have now to consider is, would the carrying out 
 of the Act of 1844, so far as it relates to the purchase of the 
 railways by the State, be a measure calculated to promote the 
 interests of the shareholders ? 
 
 In regard to the term " purchase," as applied to Govern- 
 ment and the railways, it is used more in a conventional than in 
 an absolute sense. Properly speaking, purchase implies payment,^<^ 
 or a promise of a money payment; and should the State claim 
 to exercise the right of purchase, and insist on that exercise 
 against the will of the shareholders, the latter could and no 
 doubt would claim a money payment, and therefore a pur- 
 chase on the part of the State of all the railway property in the 
 kingdom would be simply an impossibility. In the conven- 
 tional sense, however, it means the exchange of their shares for 
 a certain amount of Government stock, the shareholders giving 
 
158 
 
 up their property, from which they receive a fluctuating dividend, 
 and receiving in exchange a fixed annuity for a lesser amount 
 in perpetuity. With the great hulk of people the rate of interest 
 is a secondary consideration, compared with the security of 
 the principal ; and as no security in this country is con- 
 sidered equal to that guaranteed hy the State, a certain rate of 
 interest from it represents a much larger capital than the 
 same rate of interest from any ordinary mercantile invest- 
 ment. All shareholders would willingly accept a much lower 
 rate than they now receive if it was secured by a Govern- 
 ment guarantee ; not merely hy reason of the certainty of 
 always getting that interest, hut from the still more important 
 consideration of the security of capital and the higher price that 
 stock would realize when sold. It follows, then, that the income 
 arising from any particular kind of property is not to he taken 
 solely as the test of its value. If a capitalist invest in French, 
 Russian, or Colonial Government securities, or railway shares, 
 he will not give a higher price than will pay him 4j to 5 per 
 cent, on his outlay ; although he would lend his money to the 
 English Government and be satisfied with one or one and a 
 half per cent, less interest than he would receive from any of 
 those investments, he would consider his money safer, and, 
 when he required his capital, receive back a larger sum. 
 
 The consideration, therefore, of a proposal by Government 
 to purchase the railways, looking at it from the shareholders' 
 point of view, would be mainly if not entirely in reference 
 to the effect it would have on the market price of their shares. 
 They know how much they can sell for now ; how much more 
 could they obtain if they sold their shares to Government ? 
 Or, to put the question in another form, What bonus would 
 the Government give to induce them to sell ? 
 
 The extreme supporters, however, of the application of free- 
 trade principles to railways, are either entirely opposed to their 
 being purchased by the State; or, at least, think that such 
 purchase should be deferred to a distant period, when, as they 
 contend, the value of railways will be greatly lowered by being 
 
159 
 
 subjected to unchecked competition by the construction of a 
 vast number of new lines. 
 
 It must be admitted that from the commencement of the 
 railway system in this country, no principle could have been 
 more clearly and distinctly laid down by the Legislature, and 
 more constantly acted on with more or less stringency, than that 
 of competition. Each company, in obtaining its Act, had it 
 granted on the clear understanding that the Legislature could 
 and would permit whatever competing lines in the same dis- 
 trict they might think necessary. This right has never for a 
 moment been disputed by the railway body, although complaints 
 have been continually made of Acts being granted for which, 
 in the opinion of the objectors, there existed no necessity. 
 
 It is contended by many that, as the Legislature has the 
 power, so should they exercise it in giving full scope to railway 
 extension and competition the more the better, they say, for 
 the public and railway proprietors, in their opinion, have no 
 right to claim protection more than any other class of the 
 community; they had, they say, their day of prosperity, their 
 high dividends and premiums, and these should not be main- 
 tained at the expense of the country. Railways, they contend, 
 can be made at one-third of the price they formerly cost, and 
 let the public have the full benefit of them ; their competition 
 with the old lines will pull down the present fares and charges, 
 and their number will render combination impossible, their 
 market value will become proportionally depreciated, and if 
 the State at a future time desire to purchase the railways, it 
 can do so for a moderate sum. Such was the general purport 
 of a well-written article in the Westminster Review, that 
 appeared about two years since. 
 
 To follow out, however, this course for the purpose of first 
 depreciating the value of railway property and then purchasing 
 it, although not contrary to the letter of the law, would cer- 
 tainly be opposed to its spirit. There always has been a degree 
 of protection given to existing railway interests very uncertain 
 and undefined, it is true, sometimes loose and at other times 
 
160 
 
 stringent, depending entirely on the judgment or bias of 
 railway committees, the state of the money market, or the 
 public pressure on Parliament, one committee passing a line 
 in one session of Parliament that had been refused by another 
 Committee in the previous session. Nevertheless, there 
 always has been given some degree of protection, and to depart 
 from that principle for the avowed purpose of enabling the 
 State to acquire the railways at a price below the market 
 value, could hardly be considered a fair mode of procedure. 
 
 But without any intention on the part of the Legislature to 
 depreciate the value of railway property, the effect of construct- 
 ing competing lines, as affecting the present shareholders, is 
 just the same. If a committee think that a new line would be 
 for the public good, that is sufficient to justify them in passing 
 the bill, and the opinion of Parliament is to a greater or less 
 degree modified by the opinion out of doors. Nothing, there- 
 fore, can be more uncertain and precarious than the position of 
 railway shareholders; it is the only class in the country that 
 have any protection ; that protection they have no legal claim 
 to, and it may at any moment be entirely abolished. 
 
 We shall now proceed to notice how the Parliament of 1844 
 proposed to deal with the companies in regard to purchase. 
 
 There were two different modes of procedure recommended 
 to the committee for adoption. One was to take the average 
 dividends paid by the companies respectively for three years 
 previous to the purchase by Government, as the standard of 
 value, the other to take the current market price as the basis 
 on which the purchase should be made. The committee 
 recommended Parliament to reserve the right of either mode 
 of purchase; and accordingly the Legislature enacted that, 
 " Whatever be the rate of divisible profits in any such 
 railway, it shall be lawful for the said Lords Commis- 
 sioners, if they think fit at any time after the expiration of the 
 said term of twenty-one years, to purchase any such railway, 
 with all its hereditaments, stock, and appurtenances, in the 
 
161 
 
 name and on behalf of her Majesty upon giving to the said 
 company three calendar months' notice, in writing, of their in- 
 tention, and upon payment of a sum equal to twenty-five years' 
 purchase of the said annual divisible profits, estimated on an 
 average of the three then next preceding years." The Act 
 goes on to provide for the case of companies which do not pay 
 ten per cent., and as that proviso extends to all the companies 
 in the kingdom, it is the only part requiring notice. It says : 
 " If they [the companies] shall be of opinion that the said 
 rate of twenty-five years' purchase of the said average profits 
 is an inadequate rate of purchase of such railway, reference 
 being had to the prospects thereof, to require that the rate of 
 purchase, instead of being calculated on such average rate of 
 profit, shall be taken at a valuation to be determined in case 
 of difference by arbitration." 
 
 A little consideration will, I think, satisfy any one that the 
 first mode proposed of ascertaining the value of any particular 
 railway, would for many reasons entirely fail. 
 
 1. The money value of railways. Like any other property, 
 this value cannot be tested merely by the dividend produced; 
 the price of shares rises and falls from other causes, political or 
 commercial, as the case may be, quite independent of annual 
 dividends ; there is no property in the country the value of which 
 is more fixed than our Government securities ; yet in times of 
 peace and war, prosperity and adversity, good harvests and bad 
 harvests, abundant trade and commercial panic, these extremes 
 when you come to realize will make a difference of ten or 
 fifteen per cent., although the income remains exactly the same. 
 In 1844, when this Act was passed, the Three per Cents, stood at 
 par; ten years afterwards when we were at war with Kussia 
 they were down to eighty-six. As the variation in railway 
 stock from commercial and other causes is much greater than in 
 Government stock, it follows that the test would be altogether 
 fallacious that would make the income alone the rule by which 
 the value of a railway could be determined at a future period. 
 
 2. Assuming, however, that dividends alone should be taken 
 
162 
 
 as the measure to determine the value of a railway, the 
 system of averages enacted by the 'bill would entirely alter 
 its character ; the average dividends " for the three next pre- 
 ceding years," are to be taken as the test of value : a railway, 
 for instance, that for the three preceding years was increasing 
 in value and had paid each year respectively three, four, and 
 five per cent., and next year might be expected to pay a still 
 higher dividend, would be valued in the market according to 
 the prospective increase ; but by the Act its value would be 
 calculated as paying only four per cent., and a railway that was 
 decreasing in value whose dividends for the last three years had 
 been five, four, and three per cent, respectively, with a gloomy 
 prospect for the future, would be considered of the same 
 value. Thus the shareholders in one company with a bright 
 prospect before them, and receiving five per cent, interest on 
 their money, would obtain no more than the shareholders of 
 another company receiving only three per cent, interest for 
 their money, with perhaps a likelihood of a still smaller divi- 
 dend. The market value of the shares of the first company 
 would be nearly double the value of those of the second com- 
 pany ; but by that mode of calculation would be paid for at 
 the same rate. 
 
 3. But even assuming that an average of three years 
 of the dividend was correct so far as it went in determining the 
 value of a railway, there are other matters besides the actual 
 dividend that form the component parts which determine the 
 market price. These are the hopes and fears that exist as to 
 the future prospects of a company. If the trade of a district is 
 likely to increase, if there is no fear of " aggression," no 
 danger of the line being "tapped," and if the " territory may 
 be considered safe from invasion," these considerations greatly 
 increase the market value of the shares, and, it need hardly be 
 added, that a contrary state of affairs produces just the con- 
 trary effect. 
 
 4. But there is one class of companies that, after paying their 
 interest on loans and their preference shareholders, have very 
 
163 
 
 little for their original shareholders ; and another class have 
 absolutely nothing. What would be done with them ? The former 
 class can always obtain a much higher price in the market than 
 they would obtain by receiving the twenty-five years' purchase 
 on their dividends from Government ; and, as to the latter, 
 the carrying out of such a plan would be simply confiscation, 
 and therefore impossible. To carry out, then, the first clause 
 of the Act, in its precise terms, would give to one class too 
 much, a second too little, and to the third nothing whatever, 
 as they could make no claim where they received no divi- 
 dends, and in that case their property would revert to 
 the State without any compensation whatever. The value 
 of railway property is determined by a variety of circum- 
 stances, the abundance or scarcity of money, the political and 
 commercial state of the country, the actual dividends paid, 
 and the future prospects of the company ; all these go through, 
 as it were, the crucible of public opinion, and the result is, 
 that buyers and sellers agree on a certain price, and that 
 price we find recorded daily in the Stock Exchange list. 
 
 Let Acts of Parliament enact what they may, there is no 
 royal road to be devised for the purchase of railways more 
 than for the purchase of any other article of merchandise; 
 and should the Legislature ever authorize the Government to 
 purchase them, the Chancellor of the Exchequer will have to 
 make the best bargain he can with the companies, independent 
 of all Acts of Parliament. The clause, nevertheless, in the 
 Act relating to the purchase is not without its value in showing, 
 to a considerable extent, the terms which the Legislature con- 
 sidered fair, and these were agreed to by those members who 
 represented the railway interest in the House of Commons. It 
 must be remembered that at the time this Act was passed 
 3 per cent. Consols were at par. 
 
 From the evidence laid before the Committee, it appears that 
 investments in railway property at that time paid to purchasers 
 on an average 4/. 7s. per cent., and if railways had then been 
 purchased by the State at twenty-five years' purchase on the 
 
 M 2 
 
164 
 
 dividends and paid for in 3 per cent. Government stock at the 
 current price of the day, it would have given a bonus of about 
 eight per cent, to the shareholder on the amount of his shares. 
 It was evidently, therefore, the intention of the Legislature, 
 if Government should at any time exercise the right of 
 purchase, that the shareholders would receive a bonus in addi- 
 tion to the market value of their shares. It is true no 
 mention of this is made in express terms in the latter part of 
 the clause where arbitration is provided for; but from the pre- 
 mises of the bill it is evidently intended that, should the 
 State at any time require possession of the railways, the share- 
 holders should be dealt with in a liberal spirit, as twenty-five 
 years' purchase on their dividends at that time would have 
 given them a considerable bonus. 
 
 Whether or not the Legislature intended the Stock Exchange 
 list to be taken as the great arbitrator on the value of railway 
 property does not appear quite clear, but it certainly is the 
 best we could have. When there is an open market, and you 
 can either buy or sell, whichever may suit your purpose, a 
 number of shares in any railway with only a fractional dif- 
 ference in the price between the two operations, you may fairly 
 conclude that the shares are as closely valued as can possibly 
 be done, and that both parties, unless in very exceptional cases, 
 are fairly dealt with. 
 
 I am quite certain, however, that a bonus of eight per cent. 
 on the market value of their shares would not induce the 
 great bulk of shareholders to part with them ; and it might 
 be contended on the part of the companies that no reference 
 is made in the Act to the fluctuations of the market, and that 
 therefore it was the intention of the Legislature, in the event 
 of purchase, whatever should be the state of the market, that 
 the shareholders should have all the benefit they could derive 
 from the credit of the nation in being paid in Government 
 stock equal to twenty-five years' purchase on their annual 
 dividends; that on the other hand would, I think, give them 
 more than they would be entitled to, or than the Legislature 
 
165 
 
 would be willing to grant. It is very possible, under all 
 the circumstances of the case, and with the prospect of 
 unlimited competition before them, the great bulk of share- 
 holders would be willing to accept an amount in Government 
 stock equal to a bonus of 1 5 per cent. There are very few 
 shareholders, I imagine, in any railway that would refuse such 
 an offer from a private individual. Let us put the matter in a 
 practical way: we will take the London and North- Western 
 Company. The quotation for their shares, 30th June, 1864, 
 was 114/. ; and a bonus of 15 per cent, would have raised their 
 price to 13 II. Looking, then, at the probabilities of the case, 
 and still from the shareholders' point of view, would it be prudent 
 in them to reject such an offer, and is it likely they would do 
 so if it were made ? We can only judge in this as we would 
 in any other analogous case. A man seldom refuses any ad- 
 vantageous offer that may be made him to part with property 
 he has no particular interest to retain, and a railway share is 
 only valued as the representative of so much money. Real 
 property, such as houses, lands, or demesnes, may have a 
 value in the eyes of their owner far above their intrinsic 
 value, but it is totally different with shares in public com- 
 panies ; all the holder wants is a good investment for his 
 money, and he will change from Brightens to North- Westerns, 
 and from North- Westerns to Midlands, or sell out his Mid- 
 lands and purchase Government stock, as the case may be, if 
 he think he can make anything by it. Capital, it is said, like 
 water, will always find its level, and this is especially true in 
 a country like this, where there is such a facility for its trans- 
 fer, or, to keep up the similitude, when it can flow unimpeded 
 from one investment into another. The holders of shares in 
 the Sheffield, Manchester, and Lincoln Company, or the 
 London, Chatham, and Dover Company, who receive such a 
 small return for their investments, know or may know as much 
 of the affairs of the London and Brighton Company as the 
 shareholders of the latter company themselves ; and if the 
 London and Brighton shares were thought below their value by 
 
166 
 
 the shareholders in these or any other companies, they would 
 immediately sell out their own shares and purchase those of 
 the London arid Brighton Company. There is no peculiar 
 advantage, therefore, in one investment over another ; one man 
 chooses this company, and another man that; and a third, under 
 the advice of his broker perhaps, divides his money among half 
 a dozen different companies, and various kinds of Government 
 stock. 
 
 If the Government, then, were to propose to the London and 
 North- Western Company a price tantamount to a bonus of 111. 
 per share, in addition to their premium of 14/., I eannot conceive 
 the likelihood of the shareholders refusing such an offer, except 
 on the supposition that by holding out they could get still better 
 terms. That is a point we shall not discuss at present ; but, 
 in the absence of any such motive, and comparing the present 
 position and prospects of the shareholders with what it would be 
 by accepting the offer of the Government, it is very possible 
 that the offer would be unanimously accepted. Is there any 
 shareholder in the London and North- Western that would refuse 
 131/. per share at the present time from a private individual, on 
 the sole condition that he should not purchase back again into 
 the company ? I should think hardly one ; and this appears 
 to me the fair way of testing the liberality of such an offer. 
 
 It might, however, be contended on the part of the companies 
 that it was the intention of the Legislature that their shares, 
 taking them at their market value, should be converted virtually 
 into a 4 per cent, stock without any reference to the state of 
 the market. I have endeavoured to show that it would be 
 impossible to ascertain the value of a company's shares by 
 mere calculation on the dividends they have paid. That, 
 however, is now a matter of comparatively little consequence, 
 as the Act never can be carried out, in the manner I propose, 
 by compulsory means, and therefore, if carried out at all, must 
 be by voluntary agreement between the respective parties. It 
 is very certain that if the Legislature were satisfied that the 
 purchase of the railways was a desirable project, they would 
 
167 
 
 act liberally with the companies. If they would give a bonus 
 of 15 per cent, on the market value of shares, our railway 
 companies might consider themselves liberally dealt with. 
 
 Let us, by way of illustration, take the quotations from the 
 Stock Exchange list of June 30, 1864, of the selling price of 
 shares in the thirteen great companies. To that we shall add 
 the amount of capital expended in each, their receipts for 
 1863, their dividends, the premium or discount at which they 
 then stood, and the assumed bonus the Legislature might be 
 induced to give. The shares of all the companies are 100/. 
 paid. 
 
 Capital ex- 
 pended. 
 
 ^ame of the Company. 
 
 Receipts for 1863. 
 
 Dividend 
 paid. 
 
 Prem. 
 
 Dis. 
 
 Govern- 
 ment 
 Bonus. 
 
 
 
 9,947,494 
 
 
 
 
 871,677 
 
 s.d. 
 5 15 
 
 19 
 
 
 18 
 
 20,960,200 
 15,825,395 
 43,972,630 
 19,960,007 
 
 48,995,114 
 
 Great Eastern ... 
 Great Northern... 
 Great Western ... 
 Lancashire and 
 Yorkshire 
 London and North 
 Western 
 
 1,539,751 
 1,523,252 
 3,067,613 
 
 1,813,700 
 4,912 846 
 
 1 17 6 
 
 6 10 
 2 10 
 
 4 10 
 526 
 
 34 
 
 15 
 14 
 
 53 
 33 
 
 7 
 20 
 10 
 
 17 
 17 
 
 11,797,181 
 
 London and Brigh- 
 ton . ... 
 
 976 463 
 
 500 
 
 4 
 
 
 16 
 
 14,658,647 
 
 London and South- 
 
 1,143,219 
 
 500 
 
 
 3 
 
 15 
 
 12,743,981 
 
 Manchester and 
 Sheffield 
 
 806,321 
 
 15 
 
 
 40 
 
 9 
 
 23,187 222 
 
 
 2,177,705 
 
 676 
 
 39, 
 
 
 20 
 
 10,448,170 
 31,109,980 
 15,063,243 
 
 North British 
 North-Eastern ... 
 South-Eastern ... 
 
 655,201 
 2,524,409 
 1,142,628 
 
 1 10 
 4 19 
 534 
 
 4 
 
 46 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 16 
 14 
 
 278,669,264 
 
 
 23,154,785 
 
 
 
 
 
 It will be seen from the foregoing list that the shares of 
 seven of the great companies were, on June 30, 1864, at an 
 average premium of ill., and the assumed Government bonus 
 would be 18/. per share. The shares of six companies were 
 at an average discount of 29/., and the assumed Government 
 bonus would be III. per share. 
 
 After deducting from the gross receipts forty-eight per cent, 
 for expenditure that being the proportionate expenditure on 
 
168 
 
 the receipts of the year 18G3 the net revenue has yielded a 
 return of 4/. 8s. per cent, on the invested capital. In that 
 average is of course included the interest on loans and prefer- 
 ence shares. The length of these railways is 7360 miles. 
 
 In addition to the thirteen great companies, there are 
 fourteen lesser companies; their united length is 1640 miles. 
 These are the Bristol and Exeter, the Edinburgh and Glas- 
 gow, the Furness, the Glasgow and South-Western, the Great 
 Southern and Western, the London, Chatham and Dover, the 
 Metropolitan, the Midland Great Western, the North Stafford- 
 shire, the North London, the Scottish Central, the Scottish 
 North-E astern, the South Devon, and the Taff Vale. 
 
 The shares of six of these companies are at an average 
 premium of 33/., and the remaining eight at an average dis- 
 count of 28/. 
 
 These twenty-seven companies, whose lines extend over 
 9,000 miles, absorb seven-eighths of the entire traffic of the 
 kingdom. The remaining eighth is shared by about fifty small 
 companies, many of them, however, being of considerable 
 importance, and the extent of their lines somewhat exceeding 
 3,000 miles. 
 
 The general reader who may have but a slight knowledge of 
 railway matters, will find in the Appendix the railway history 
 of the country given in some detail. 
 
 There are few who know so well as the directors of our 
 companies the soundness of the principle on which the 
 Government Act is based, or could bring a greater variety of 
 interesting statistical information to illustrate and confirm the 
 arguments that have been used in its support. 
 
 If the present system is unsound, sooner or later it must 
 come to an end ; and, if such is the case, it surely would be 
 for the advantage of the shareholders that the initiative in 
 creating and forming a public opinion on the subject should be 
 taken by the railway body itself, by those who have a deep 
 interest at stake and are in every way best qualified to under- 
 
169 
 
 take the task. It should not be deferred to an indefinite 
 period, when railway property may again be subjected to 
 hostile influences; when a succession of good harvests and 
 other favourable causes produce a glut of money in the market, 
 and when speculation will again take the same turn and with 
 the same result as it did in the memorable years of 1844 and 
 1845, will not be the time for railway shareholders to appeal 
 to the Legislature for protection or assistance. It should not 
 be forgotten by them that their position as traders is altogether 
 exceptional, that they enjoy at the present time both privileges 
 and protection to which they have no legal claim, and which 
 at any time they may be deprived of. What would be the 
 value of railway property if all protection were withdrawn 
 from it, and what security will they have from session to 
 session that such may not be the case after the present Par- 
 liament has passed away ? There is every prospect of the 
 dividends for 1864 being much better than they have been for 
 many previous years; the returns for the half-year ending the 
 30th June show a large increase on the corresponding last 
 half-year. The traffic is much increasing, and railway pro- 
 perty within the last year has greatly improved. Shares are, 
 consequently, rising in the market, and so far as we can 
 judge from present appearances, the prosperity of railways 
 for the present will be uninterrupted. Although the railway 
 interest is too strong to fear any attack, come from what 
 quarter it may, it would, nevertheless, be in many respects 
 desirable that, whenever the Act of 1844 becomes the subject 
 of discussion, with a view to its provisions being carried out, 
 those who are most deeply interested in its success should 
 take the initiative in its settlement ; for if such a change as we 
 have been discussing shall ever be effected, it must be by the 
 cordial co-operation of the two parties to the bargain the 
 public on one side, and the great bulk of railway companies on 
 the other. 
 
170 
 
 PART IIL-THE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The late Sir Robert Peel's Opposition to Government Interference in 
 Commercial Affairs Change of his Opinion in regard to Railways 
 Extract from his Speech on the Second Reading of the Bill 
 Improvement in Railway Legislation Bills for Non-paying Lines 
 at one time refused Railways that would have been refused legis- 
 lative Sanction had the Truth been known The Value of a Rail- 
 way to its Shareholders no criterion of its Value to the Country 
 The Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln Company The Select 
 Committee of the Two Houses of Parliament Assistance from the 
 State in constructing Railways that will not pay Cheaply con- 
 structed Railways Lord Campbell's Act Comparatively small 
 Loss to Companies by Accidents Refreshment Rooms. 
 
 IF there ever existed an English statesman, the leading cha- 
 racteristic of whose mind was to keep the Government of this 
 country clear from all management of, or connection with, com- 
 mercial companies, that statesman was the late Sir Robert Peel. 
 Whenever an occasion presented itself in the House of Com- 
 mons for contrasting the policy of this country in such respect 
 with that of most foreign countries, no one was more prominent 
 than he in dilating on the advantages we had derived from pur- 
 suing such a line of policy, and pointing out how much it had 
 contributed to promote that spirit of independence, enterprise, 
 and self-reliance so characteristic of the English people. Many 
 will remember with what unction he used to tell the House the 
 story of the Caledonian Canal : how the Government, in an 
 evil hour, conceived the idea of executing a great industrial 
 
171 
 
 work which, if necessary at all, ought to have been left to private 
 enterprise, but having been undertaken by Government was 
 necessarily a failure ; how it became a concern utterly bankrupt, 
 supported by the public purse ; and that the Government would 
 be only too happy to get rid of it, and make a present of it to 
 any joint-stock company who would accept it and undertake to 
 carry out the purposes for which it was formed. The under- 
 taking, he would say, had, however, one useful result; it 
 served as a warning to that and every succeeding Govern- 
 ment not to undertake the management of such affairs, opposed, 
 as such a proceeding was, to all the political traditions of the 
 country. 
 
 Sir Kobert Peel, in the early part of our railway progress, 
 had great dependence on competition, and, perhaps, did more 
 than any other man then living to promote in this country 
 railway extension. In 1839, however, he, with the present 
 Earl of Derby, then Lord Stanley, were members of the Select 
 Committee appointed by the House of Commons to inquire 
 into the state of the railway communication of the country, and 
 from that period his views appear to have undergone a change, 
 or at least considerable modification, in reference to the benefits 
 the country would derive from competing lines. Sir Robert 
 Peel returned to power in 1841, and in 1842 commenced that 
 series of commercial reform measures, with which his name 
 will be for ever associated, and one of these was the Railway 
 Act of 1844. He must at that time have had great doubts as 
 to the soundness of our system, and contemplated the possi- 
 bility at some future day, of our national policy being reversed, 
 and that the Legislature should desire to be in a position 
 to claim from the companies the possession of the rail- 
 ways not in the exercise of an abstract right, but in 
 the ordinary course of carrying out a duly settled contract. 
 Sir Robert Peel appeared then to have some forebodings not 
 only of the vast waste of capital that would be incurred in 
 constructing unnecessary lines, but the inefficient remedy it 
 
172 
 
 would afford for the many evils complained of; he knew, 
 on the one hand, that to make competition in all respects 
 effectual, there must be a sufficient numher of competitors 
 to prevent combination, and, on the other, that every unne- 
 cessary line laid down would be, in many respects, not only 
 a wanton waste of the national wealth, but a great injury to 
 the shareholders in the old lines. At this time, however, 
 there were many difficulties in the way of the Government 
 taking more direct and immediate measures to bring about 
 the transfer of railways from the companies to the State. Mr. 
 Gladstone, as we have seen, stated in the House that " gen- 
 tlemen of great experience and intelligence had advised the 
 immediate purchase of the railways; but, in the present state of 
 the system, he could not advise such a course." At that time 
 there were scarcely 2000 miles of railway in the kingdom, not 
 the one-sixth of their present extent, and as it never was con- 
 templated that Government should make the lines, Sir Robert 
 Peel and Mr. Gladstone appear to have concurred in opinion 
 that it would require about twenty-one years to complete our 
 railway system, or at least so far to complete it that the subject 
 could be properly dealt with by Parliament. " The ques- 
 tion," said Sir Robert Peel on the second reading of the bill, 
 " is, whether they have not arrived now at that period of 
 legislation, with respect to railways, when it was advisable that 
 Parliament should take some precaution for the furtherance of 
 the public interests respecting them. The hon. gentleman who 
 had preceded him wanted to see another railway between Man- 
 chester and Liverpool. Was the hon. gentleman sure he could 
 guarantee to the public any advantage from that competition ? 
 He did not call the railways monopolies in an invidious sense ; 
 but surely in one sense they were. The parties who enjoyed 
 the existing monopolies had the power of exercising their 
 influence in Parliament, and of even successfully preventing 
 competition. He was not prepared to advise the immediate 
 purchase of railways, nor did he wish to see the Government, 
 
173 
 
 or part of the Government, the directors of railway concerns ; 
 that was not the object of the bill ; but seeing that there was 
 a vast number of new railway projects that were about to 
 receive the sanction of the Legislature, seeing that there was a 
 power of taking land, and a monopoly with respect to con- 
 veyance and communication, the Legislature should have the 
 power of purchasing, after a certain period, after giving due 
 notice thereof to the parties concerned. They were about to 
 say to the railway companies, ' You shall not have a permanent 
 monopoly against the public, but, after a limited number of 
 years, we give you notice we shall have the option of purchasing 
 your property.' It had been said that this was a hasty legis- 
 lative effort on the part of Government. Why, the whole of 
 the Third Eeport of the Kailway Committee, which was printed 
 in the early part of the session, was one continuous notice of 
 the measures the Government had now brought forward." It 
 is pretty clear from the foregoing extract what were the opinions 
 of Sir Robert Peel on the subject, viz. : That the possession 
 of the railways by the companies should be only probational ; 
 that the system should undergo revision at a future time, that 
 time being fixed at twenty-one years from that date ; that the 
 Legislature would by that time have sufficient data on which to 
 form a sound judgment, and then, but not till then, could the 
 nation come to a definite conclusion as to which of the two 
 systems was the better. The Legislature of 1844 admitted the 
 truth of the facts and soundness of the arguments adduced by 
 Sir Robert Peel and Mr. Gladstone in support of their views, and 
 passed the bill, thus leaving to the Legislature of 1865 the 
 task of completing that investigation which they had so well com- 
 menced. The doubts and difficulties which existed twenty years 
 ago, when so little, comparatively, was known about the man- 
 agement of railways, ought now no longer to exist. Aided by 
 the light which such a long experience has given us of the 
 working of our own system, the Legislature should now be 
 able to form a judgment whether or not it is the best that 
 could be adopted to meet the wants and wishes of the commu- 
 
174 
 
 nity, and to develop the resources of the nation to the greatest 
 practicable extent. 
 
 Great improvement has taken place of late in railway legis- 
 lation. Some years ago, before a company could obtain their 
 Act, they were obliged "to prove their traffic;" and the great 
 test of the necessity of a railway was whether or not it would 
 " pay." If it were a beneficial investment for the proprietors, 
 it must be so for the public ; but if it would not give the 
 proprietors a fair return, then its construction could be only a 
 public loss : these were the grounds on which the promoters of 
 a bill claimed the assent of Parliament, and that was one of 
 the tests. Now, if this principle was sound, it followed that 
 any line that did not pay should never have been constructed 
 an axiom quite true, no doubt, so far as the interests of the 
 shareholders were concerned, but quite a different matter as 
 regards those of the public. Where would have been our 
 original Great Western and its eight hundred and odd miles of 
 tributary lines, and all our communication throughout the West 
 of England ? Where our South-Eastern and its 250 miles, 
 securing communication between the metropolis and the Con- 
 tinent ? Where our Great Eastern, with its 600 miles of 
 railway, and all our communication with the eastern counties 
 and the eastern coast ? Nay, more, take our London and 
 North- Western and its 1200 miles, and our communication 
 with Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, &c. The shares are 
 now above par, but a few years since they were considerably 
 below par, and if the test then adopted were true the 
 line should never have been constructed. It may be said 
 that some of these lines originally paid well, but the~ : r 
 dividends fell off in consequence of loss of traffic through 
 competing lines; but the Legislature first declared that 
 the test of the necessity of a line, of its being re- 
 quired by the public, depended on the proof of its being a 
 profitable investment for its shareholders, and by a parity of 
 reasoning, some might argue, when it ceased to be a good invest- 
 ment, it must likewise cease to be a benefit to the public. 
 
175 
 
 Parliament next granted competing lines, which reduced many 
 of the old lines to a non-paying point. This, according to the 
 legislative opinion of that day, destroyed all their public use- 
 fulness; but to be in any way consistent, the Legislature should 
 have required all such non-paying lines to be closed. 
 
 But there was not the slightest truth in this now defunct legis- 
 lative principle, nor any connection whatever between the divi- 
 dends to the shareholders and the advantage to the public ? 
 Could we dispense better with the services the Great Western 
 renders to the public, because it only pays 3 per cent, to their 
 shareholders, than with the Stockton and Darlington, which pays 
 7 per cent. ? Would the population of the eastern counties 
 have any reason to rejoice over the abolition of the Great 
 Eastern, as it only pays 2 per cent, to its shareholders, 
 whereas the Midland pays 6 per cent. ; or have the inhabitants 
 of Dover, and all the towns in the south-eastern district of 
 England, gained the less, because the London, Chatham, and 
 Dover, which, as yet, pays but a mere trifle to their share- 
 holders, was made, in addition to the South-E astern, which 
 pays 4 1 per cent, to their shareholders, whilst the public have 
 not the less gained by increased accommodation and reduction 
 of charges ? 
 
 The soundness of the principle on which the Legislature, for a 
 long time, acted in refusing to permit the construction of a line 
 unless there was a traffic " proved to be remunerative," will not 
 stand the test of examination. It was assumed, as we have seen, 
 that if the traffic was not sufficient to be profitable to the share- 
 holders, the line could not be wanted by the public. Now, what- 
 ever plausible grounds there might have been for this assumption 
 if railways were constructed at the same cost throughout the 
 kingdom, it is reduced to nothing when we consider that the 
 physical difficulties in the construction of some lines are so 
 great, and those lines of the greatest commercial consequence, 
 not merely to their respective localities, but the kingdom at 
 large, that they never would have been constructed had their 
 
17G 
 
 cost of construction been foreseen. Take, for instance, the 
 group of railways amalgamated under the title of the Man- 
 chester, Sheffield, and Lincoln, running through the most popu- 
 lous of the manufacturing districts, having an invested capital 
 amounting to nearly twelve millions, and a revenue of upwards 
 of 750,000/. per annum. The traffic per mile exceeds that of 
 four-fifths of any one of all the other lines in the kingdom, and 
 nearly equals some of our greatest trunk lines; but the ex- 
 penditure incurred by this company was enormous. There is 
 one tunnel alone between Manchester and Sheffield three and a 
 quarter miles long, double in length to that of any other in the 
 kingdom. The works were of a very expensive nature, so that 
 scarcely any traffic could repay such an expenditure as has been 
 here incurred, and the company scarcely pays 1 per cent, to their 
 shareholders ; but is there less necessity, so far as the public 
 interests are concerned, for railway communication throughout 
 these densely populated districts, or between such great manu- 
 facturing towns as Manchester and Sheffield, because the 
 railway by which the traffic is maintained pays little or nothing 
 to the shareholders ? This line would never have received Par- 
 liamentary sanction had a correct estimate of the traffic and 
 cost of the railway been made, nor would it have ever come 
 before Parliament. 
 
 It may be asked how did these non-paying companies ever 
 succeed in obtaining their Acts? The reply is, that the 
 projectors in most cases made erroneous estimates of the 
 necessary outlay, that the capital "proved before the com- 
 mittee as sufficient " had in the execution of the works to be 
 far exceeded ; and the extravagant estimate of traffic fell con- 
 siderably short of the mark. So far, then, as the public are 
 concerned, it will hardly be contended that the most unprofit- 
 able railway to the shareholders may not be the most useful ; 
 and, in fact, indispensable to the public. This principle is now 
 acknowledged in the Legislature, and no proof of " remuner- 
 ative traffic " is required. 
 
J77 
 
 The greatest advance in railway legislation of late years, 
 is that which took place in the last session of Parlia- 
 ment, by the appointment of a joint committee from both 
 Houses, to stop the influx of railways into London, and lay 
 clown a general plan by which London and its suburbs should be 
 sufficiently supplied with railway accommodation on the one 
 hand, and duly protected from hostile invasion, as it may well be 
 termed, on the other; it is much to be hoped that the same 
 principle that is acted on in regard to the metropolis will 
 be applied equally to all the other parts of the kingdom ; it 
 would confer a great benefit on all parties concerned, by pre- 
 venting useless contests, stopping in limine wild projects, and 
 saving both to old and new companies vast sums of money 
 that will otherwise be squandered away in contests before 
 Parliamentary Committees. Without any reference whatever 
 to the scheme of the Government purchase of the railways, 
 it would undoubtedly be most desirable that some general 
 plan should be sketched out of what is wanting for the 
 country at large, as was done in the session of 1863 by a 
 Committee of the House of Lords, in reference to the pro- 
 jected railways for the metropolis; a joint committee, com- 
 posed of members from both Houses, sitting for a few weeks 
 and having heard the best evidence to be adduced on such a 
 subject, would be perfectly competent to define what lines 
 they considered necessary to complete our system for the 
 present ; and there would be enough of competitors to carry 
 out all that such a committee would deem necessary. 
 
 Our actual want at the present time is the completion of our 
 railway system, the links to be let in, in the unfinished network, 
 thrown over the country, and the attention of promoters, as in the 
 case of the metropolitan lines, to be directed to what railways the 
 country yet requires. It is only necessary to glance at a railway 
 map of the United Kingdom, to see that many parts of the 
 country are totally unprovided with railways ; many districts are 
 so mountainous, and so thinly populated, that, during the present 
 
 N 
 
178 
 
 generation, there is little likelihood of that want being supplied ; 
 but there are many populous districts totally without railway 
 accommodation, in consequence of the heavy cost that would 
 attend their construction. As we have already noted, some 
 of the most important and useful lines in the country would 
 never have been made, had the shareholders foreseen the 
 results of their several speculations, unless they had received 
 from the State substantial assistance in their construction. 
 It is not to be supposed, in such cases, the Legislature would 
 have allowed the country to be without railways ; but, con- 
 sidering them in the light of great industrial works necessary 
 for the development of the resources of the nation, would have 
 given such support, in some form or other, such as would have en- 
 sured their construction. The State has already done so in some 
 instances in Ireland, and the same principle would, I presume, be 
 acted on in England, if such a course should be considered con- 
 ducive to the national welfare. The Legislature, as we have seen 
 at one time, considered, that if a railway would be a loss to its 
 shareholders, it would also be a loss to the country, and would 
 not allow it to be made. That opinion has been so far modified, 
 that they consider it quite a secondary matter, whether a 
 railway pays the shareholders or not. It is not clear, however, 
 that the Legislature is prepared to go beyond this point, and 
 consider it a positive benefit to the nation to construct lines that 
 would not pay the shareholders, and it is doubtful if it is 
 prepared to take a step still further in advance of what has 
 been yet done, and be willing to give some assistance, direct 
 or indirect, as the case may be in most cases, a Government 
 loan would be sufficient for the construction of such lines as 
 a joint committee of both Houses should define as necessary 
 to complete our railway system. But I cannot help thinking 
 that, in so doing, the Legislature would confer a great 
 benefit on the nation. 
 
 A very prevalent opinion prevails, that in process of time, 
 as the cost of constructing railways decreases, and Parlia- 
 
 
179 
 
 mentary and other expenses are lessened to the companies, the 
 public will derive a proportional advantage by the reduction in 
 fares and charges ; the companies, they say, can then afford to 
 carry for less : but all companies charge as much in every case 
 as they can, just as private individuals do. The New River 
 Company, whose 100/. share sells for 18,000/., paying off 
 their original capital each year five times over, cannot "afford" 
 to sell their water for less to the public than another company 
 not paying their expenses ; if the public on the one hand lose 
 nothing by any expense a company may be put to, so, on the 
 other, they gain nothing by any saving the company can effect ; 
 all is reduced to one dead level, without the prospect of bene- 
 ficial change to either one party or the other. 
 
 One of the most serious evils inherent in our present 
 system, and altogether inseparable from it, is the number of 
 frightful accidents that happen during the summer months, 
 which, in the great majority of cases, can be traced to the 
 deficient arrangements of directors and managers; and this 
 happens more especially to those companies which pay very 
 small dividends, and whose directors are naturally anxious to 
 increase them : the result is an inefficient, badly paid, and over- 
 worked staff of officers and men, a road kept in bad repair, and 
 the rolling-stock in many cases quite unfit for use. When acci- 
 dents happen from causes of this nature, the sufferers, or their 
 representatives, can recover damages against the offending 
 company. But last year a bill was introduced into Parlia- 
 ment, and only rejected by a small majority, to change the 
 common law of England in favour of railway proprietors ! 
 The allegation was, that they suffer a heavy loss from the ope- 
 ration of Lord Campbell's Act, by which they were compelled 
 to compensate, so far as money could compensate, widows and 
 orphans, for the loss sustained by the deaths of their husbands 
 or fathers, when caused by negligence. The companies thought 
 it unjust, that when a valuable life was lost through the 
 criminal negligence of their servants, they should be bound 
 
 N 2 
 
1RO 
 
 to make up in a pecuniary point of view the loss to his 
 family. They contended, that beyond a certain sum, a traveller 
 should he hound to value his life when starting on a journey, 
 and pay a premium accordingly, to enahle his relations to 
 recover damages in case of death. Putting aside the argu- 
 ments pro and con in this matter, it must be pretty obvious, 
 that, looking at the practical effects of this bill on railway 
 finances, the companies can have but little to complain of. We 
 know that the average expenses of the companies amount to 
 2s. id. per train mile ; and all the losses that they sustain, not 
 only by compensating parties for personal injuries, but also for 
 loss and damage to goods, amount to one halfpenny out of the 
 2s. 7d. ; they do not object to paying for loss and damage 
 to goods, nor to a fixed sum, where lives are lost by the 
 culpable negligence of their servants. All they would gain, 
 then, by the abolition of Lord Campbell's bill, and substituting 
 their own, could not reduce their expenditure more than half 
 a farthing per train mile ! 
 
 The popular belief" has been, that the heavy damages 
 awarded against companies form so large an item in their 
 expenditure, as to be no small protection to the public, by 
 increasing the vigilance and caution of the companies against 
 accidents. But how do these accidents occur ? Not so much 
 from gross negligence in the ordinary sense of that term, as 
 from a systematic cheese-paring economy, either in the number 
 of officers or men being insufficient or overworked, or ill-paid 
 and negligent, or from undue saving being attempted in some 
 other way; take, for instance, the serious accident on a large 
 scale that occurred some time since on the Great Eastern Rail- 
 way, when six persons were killed, and a great number seriously 
 injured. The immediate cause was a bullock straying on the 
 line ; but the proximate causes were the want of sufficient 
 superintendence to have the line properly protected, and the 
 rottenness of the third-class carriages in which the unfortunate 
 passengers were killed ; there is a great saving in the expen- 
 
181 
 
 diture, when the carriages are in that state ; they may serve 
 their purpose so long as nothing occurs to test their strength, 
 but when that is once tested, a catastrophe is the result. 
 Had there not been undue economy in another department, 
 that should have provided for the proper superintendence of 
 the line, and the hands necessary to execute needful works, and 
 had the fences been in proper order, the accident in question 
 could not have happened. Again, on the 13th July last, 
 another frightful accident happened on this line, within half a 
 mile of the Bradford Station; the engine lurched over and 
 dashed down a steep embankment, dragging all the train after it. 
 The stoker was killed on the spot, and a great many dreadfully 
 injured. " The permanent way," says the report in the papers, 
 " was in too weak a condition to support the weight of the 
 train, and this weakness resulted simply from the rotten con- 
 dition of the sleepers, many of which were broken and the 
 metals torn up." 
 
 So in regard to accidents on other lines. Sometimes 
 they result from the employment of servants totally unfit 
 for their situation, but engaged at low wages; at other times, 
 there are not sufficient to do the work ; take, for instance, 
 the following paragraph that went the round of the papers last 
 autumn without contradiction: 
 
 " EAILWAY SERVANTS. At the Oxford City Court yesterday, 
 before Mr. J. R. Carr and a full bench of magistrates, Philip 
 Tuttey, an engine-driver, and Elijah Weatley, a fireman in the 
 employ of the Great Western Railway Company, were brought 
 up in custody, charged, on the information of Mr. Wright, the 
 superintendent of the locomotive department between Oxford 
 and Reading, with being drunk while on duty. The evidence 
 showed that early yesterday morning the defendants were in 
 charge of an empty luggage train, proceeding from Paddington 
 to Oxford. When they arrived at the Culham station they 
 were detained four hours, in consequence of a pointsman 
 having neglected his duty, and caused two trucks to be thrown 
 off the line. The defendants partook somewhat freely of ale 
 and rum in the interim, and on their arrival at Oxford, at about 
 half-past five A.M., Weatley was found lying drunk on the 
 
182 
 
 foot-plate of the engine. Tuttey was too much intoxicated to 
 render it prudent for him to be allowed to take further charge 
 of the train. Tuttey had been in the company's service fifteen 
 years, and until this happened his conduct had been irreproach- 
 able. Weatley had only acted as a fireman for a fortnight. 
 Both defendants alleged that during the past week they had 
 been so hardly icorkcd as to ~be only able to obtain sixteen 
 hours' repose, which so exhausted them that the drink they had 
 taken produced the effect above alluded to. In answer to the 
 Bench, they said that the average working hours of engine- 
 drivers and firemen on the line were fourteen hours daily. 
 These statements, which were uncontradicted, drew forth strong 
 observations from some of the magistrates. The defendants 
 were fined 15s., including costs, with the alternative of fourteen 
 days' imprisonment." 
 
 Now if a company like the Great Western, and other com- 
 panies similarly situated are obliged to resort to such means 
 to eke out the miserable dividends they pay to their proprietors, 
 it more strongly proves the utterly false position in which 
 directors are placed between the public and their shareholders. 
 The amount the companies pay per annum per train mile for 
 loss of life and personal injury to their passengers, caused by 
 the neglect of their servants, amounts, as we have seen, only 
 to one farthing out of the 2s. 7d.; but the traffic charges and 
 maintenance of ways and works amount to one shilling and 
 threepence per mile, and these are the items affected in keeping 
 up an efficient staff and the line in working order. It is easy, 
 therefore, to imagine that, looking at it in a monetary point of 
 view, the fear of the penalty in case of accident can have little 
 or no effect. In reality, however, the directors even on the 
 worst-managed lines never anticipate an accident; they fear it 
 as little as the man who never insures fears that, some night, his 
 house will be burned ; and the trains may run nine hundred and 
 ninety-nine times in perfect safety ; but the thousandth time, the 
 catastrophe occurs : the result to the public is DEATH, and to the 
 saving railway companies who are, in effect, their own insurers 
 that penalty which, in the aggregate of their several expenses, 
 is represented completely by one farthing loss per train mile. 
 
183 
 
 It is to be observed that if a passenger is either killed or 
 injured on a railway, not owing either to any fault of his or the 
 company, but to some unforeseen accident, the company pays no- 
 thing. If the State, however, at some future time undertake the 
 charge of the conveyance of passengers, it would be desirable 
 to provide, as far as possible, against unavoidable accidents, and 
 that the payment of the fare should be considered, at the same 
 time, an insurance against death or accident. Suppose each 
 farthing paid per mile by the several classes to represent an 
 insurance for 100/. in case of death, or a reasonable allowance 
 for personal injury. This, I consider, would be sufficient to 
 meet the necessities of the case. 
 
 The refreshment department at our railway stations is by far 
 the worst of any in Europe. On many lines, it is absolutely a 
 national disgrace ; squabs of pork lie offered without the 
 slightest reference to the season, old three-cornered jam puffs, 
 fossil sandwiches, sausages concealed in heavy pastry, are 
 humorously but very truly described by a writer in the Satur- 
 day Review, as the staple food provided for railway travellers 
 in England. Nor is the drink better ; there is a curious 
 brown dilution of chicory or imitation of chicory sold as 
 coffee ; but it is not even good chicory. As for drinkable 
 tea, it is a beverage altogether unknown at our railway 
 stations. 
 
 " If it is asked," says the Saturday Review, " what it is 
 that is wanted, we can only reply that we want, at the best 
 English stations, something like what we get at a bad buffet in 
 France. Nothing could be easier than to furnish coffee made 
 of foreign berries not of roots and beans plenty of good 
 fresh milk, fresh rolls, and pats of cool, clean butter. The 
 more aspiring stations might go as high as tea, made recently 
 of an honest black foreign leaf; but this, we know, is going 
 too far. The coffee, and rolls and butter, are what we must ask 
 for, because then there would always be something on which we 
 could rely ; and if other people wanted to eat their puffs, and 
 pies, and concealed sausages, they might. But if the reform 
 were to be sweeping and universal, the whole style of thing 
 might be changed, and there might be the variety, the quick- 
 
184 
 
 ness, and the cleanliness of such lujfets as those of Macon and 
 Lyons. There is, indeed, a long way from where we are to 
 where we should be then, and we do not expect such a wide 
 interval to be passed over very quickly. Jt seems as if there 
 were some inherent incapacity in Englishmen to keep bujfets. 
 We remember to have heard of a traveller who went along the 
 whole length of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada. He 
 wished to eat and drink with decency and comfort. Time after 
 time he was disappointed. Everywhere there was the usual 
 English management the old original pork pie and imitation 
 chicory. At last, and as it happened, on a Saturday evening, 
 he got to a station where there was a refreshment-room after a 
 very different pattern. All was neatness and order. The 
 things to eat were eatable, and the things to drink were drink- 
 able. The enchanted traveller descended, established himself 
 in the refreshment-room, and determined to pass the Sunday 
 there. He knew that if he went farther, he would be sure to 
 fare worse ; and a very pleasant, though rather quiet, Sunday he 
 passed with his host, who was, of course, a Frenchman. How 
 sincerely every Englishman must wish that such a being could 
 come to this country, to preside over an exceptional refresh- 
 ment-room ! English managers of these places know no 
 better, and, unfortunately, they find their own villanous 
 arrangements highly profitable. They have a monopoly, and 
 the dura Anglorum ilia are found to endure, and even to 
 desire, the squabs and the concealed sausages. So the money 
 comes in, and the administrators not only make money for 
 themselves, but are able to pay a good rent to the railway 
 company. This satisfies the directors, who do not conceive 
 themselves to be under any further responsibility, and who 
 would never think of making any objection, even if things were 
 worse managed than they are." 
 
 These refreshment-rooms are leased out to contractors at 
 enormous rents, and they make proportionate charges to the 
 traveller the quality of their viands and the prices charged 
 every one knows. The directors of our railways, the bad- 
 paying lines especially, endeavour to screw something out of 
 everything under their control, down, it is said, on some lines, 
 even to the shoe-blacks, towards a dividend ; and although, 
 under all the circumstances of the case, it is hard to blame 
 them, such a state of things could never be permitted under a 
 national system. 
 
185 
 
 There is, perhaps, no neglect on the part of railway com- 
 panies that has caused a stronger feeling of indignation than 
 their refusal to provide means of communication between the 
 passengers and the guard, and the frightful murder on the North 
 London line last year has very much increased that feeling. 
 
 Our carriage accommodation requires complete revision ; by 
 providing open compartments, as well as separate sleeping 
 compartments for those who can afford to pay for them some 
 carriages being made in this fashion and others in that all 
 parties would be satisfied. 
 
 It would be quite out of place here to enter on any discus- 
 sion in regard to the benefits that, would be derived by the 
 country from the adoption of a liberal and enlightened policy 
 in the management of our railways ; with us it has never been 
 made a party question, and those who have most widely differed 
 in politics, have from time to time joined cordially together in 
 an endeavour to effect beneficial changes in the system we 
 have now to consider. 
 
 How should railways be managed were they in the hands of 
 the State ? 
 
 1st. Should they be leased out to companies ? 
 
 2nd. Should their management be entrusted to the Govern- 
 ment ? 
 
 3rd. If not, should Government have a limited control over 
 the management of affairs ? 
 
 4th. If none of these three courses should be thought 
 expedient, to whom should their management be entrusted ? 
 
 These are questions of the greatest importance, but before 
 entering on their consideration, it is desirable to notice what 
 Parliament has done of late years in regard to a reduction of 
 taxation, which largely affects the present subject. 
 
 The whole course of our commercial policy for the last 
 twenty- two years has been to reduce, as far as possible, taxation 
 on the necessaries of life. This policy was inaugurated by the 
 
180 
 
 late Sir Robert Peel when at the head of the Government, and 
 has been continued by his successors in office down to the 
 present time. 
 
 This policy is now clearly understood, and consistently 
 carried out; if the thirty millions and upwards sterling per 
 annum that we pay in the ordinary way of business to railway 
 companies were paid by us to Government in the form of direct 
 taxation, as we pay postage, the tariff for passengers and 
 merchandise would undergo the strictest scrutiny ; and, unless 
 I have greatly deceived myself, it would appear beyond con- 
 troversy that the principle on which that tariff was founded, 
 although perfectly sound as regards the principle of commerce 
 as carried on by private individuals, was utterly opposed to our 
 modern principles of taxation, and would accordingly undergo 
 the strictest revision. 
 
 I have no doubt it would be found on trial, that a great re- 
 duction in the charges would have the same financial result, 
 as affects the receipts on railways, as similar measures had 
 on the duty derived from tea, sugar, coffee, and other articles 
 of daily consumption, and on the postage on letters. 
 
 How, then, might we imagine the Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer would deal with railways ? It would be impossible to 
 suppose any department in which a great reduction in charges 
 could be more called for, whether in regard to the enormous 
 amount paid by the public, or the universal relief it would afford 
 to all, and especially the commercial and the poorer classes. 
 On the other hand, there would be with the present charges a 
 branch of the revenue conducted on sound commercial principles, 
 and to make a large reduction in these charges, analogous to that 
 made in the Post Office, would involve the revenue for many 
 years in a heavy loss. By Sir Rowland Hill's measure, post- 
 age was reduced on letters to one-sixth on an average of their 
 former rates, and the immediate effect on net revenue was a 
 reduction to one-third of its previous amount, viz. : from a 
 million and a half to half a million. The net revenue from 
 
187 
 
 the railways last year, after paying working expenses, which 
 amounted to forty-eight per cent, on the gross receipts, was six- 
 teen millions ; and, assuming the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 would reduce the fares and charges to one- third of their pre- 
 sent average amount, instead of the one-sixth that Sir Rowland 
 Hill carried out in the Post Office, the deficiency in the rail- 
 way revenue for some years could not be calculated at a less 
 rate than five millions per annum ; and how would this 
 deficiency be made up ? It would, no doubt, be a very wise 
 policy on the part of the country to submit to an addition to 
 the income tax to have such a reform carried out. The carriage 
 of letters is surely not more important than that of the whole 
 population, and of all on or by which that population lives. 
 But would the country submit to an addition of five millions 
 to the income tax for any object uhatever? I think that 
 may be greatly doubted. We have a great dislike to direct 
 taxation, people generally prefer paying double or treble the 
 amount in indirect taxation. In the hypothetical case I am 
 assuming, if the traffic were no more than doubled, the nation 
 would be a great gainer by the change, although the five 
 millions would still be paid by the nation in the aggregate 
 one part of the nation that previously paid the whole of the 
 tax, would now pay only the half for the same service rendered 
 by the railways, and the other half would be paid by a new 
 class who previously had been unable to use them. This shows 
 the benefit of direct taxation to a limited extent when judi- 
 ciously applied. 
 
 If the public opinion of this country undergoes a change 
 and a change it must assuredly undergo, sooner or later, if 
 the principles in the Act are sound some future Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer will be in a position to deal with 
 this important question. Let us, for the present, assume 
 this to be so ; how will that future Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer deal with the subject? He will be able to 
 tell how, in times long gone by, a President of the Board of 
 
188 
 
 Trade designed a total reorganization of our railway system, 
 and for the purpose of carrying that design into effect he 
 succeeded, after encountering the most formidable opposi- 
 tion, in making a commencement of this great work ; that he 
 laid the foundations broad and deep, but had been obliged to 
 leave to other hands in more favourable times the task of 
 raising the superstructure and completing the work. 
 
 That Chancellor of the Exchequer's task will be a very easy 
 one, when the public mind is prepared for such a change ; but 
 many years may possibly elapse, and hundreds of millions 
 be paid in railway charges, before the attention of the public 
 is directed to this subject from any influential quarter; but it 
 will one day be known that in 1865 an Act of Parliament 
 came into force, by the operation of which the fares and 
 freightage on all railways throughout the country might 
 have been reduced two-thirds without any charge whatever to 
 the public, and the difference to the shareholders made up by 
 the substitution of national for private credit; the sure and 
 comparatively unfluctuating credit of the State for the uncertain 
 and ever changing credit of commercial undertakings. 
 
 It may be said that to reduce the fares to one-third of their 
 present amount instead of one- sixth, as in the case of postage, 
 would only effect a compromise of the question, and that the 
 public, with the successful example of the working of the 
 Post-Office reform before their eyes, the number of letters 
 increased ninefold, and both gross and net revenue greater 
 than under the old system, would be dissatisfied till they had a 
 similar measure of reform, viz., a reduction to one-sixth of the 
 present charges. The cases of the Post Office and the railways 
 are, in some respects, however, not analogous, and one point 
 of difference, I apprehend, would be in regard to numbers. 
 I doubt very much, if passengers were even carried free, 
 that their number would increase ninefold. It is a very 
 different matter sending a letter by post and taking a journey 
 per train ; and if the fares were fixed at the respective rates of 
 
189 
 
 three farthings, a halfpenny, and a farthing per mile, with 
 return tickets, and a liberal allowance for time, I think com- 
 paratively few persons having business to transact would be 
 prevented from travelling, but tbe increase would not, probably, 
 be more than threefold for some years to come. 
 
 In considering this part of the project, it must be clearly kept in 
 view that, although the public accommodation should be the first 
 consideration, its financial success should be undoubtedly the 
 second, and tbat it would be a mere wanton sacrifice of revenue to 
 make large reductions in charges not appreciated by the public, 
 and which they did not require. If, for instance, it was proposed 
 to reduce the penny postage to a halfpenny postage, so far from 
 such a reduction being hailed as a boon, it would, I believe, be 
 denounced as a very foolish measure, throwing away a million 
 and a half of revenue, perhaps, without any appreciable good 
 to any one. The present postage rates but rarely prevent any 
 person from writing that has a wish to do so ; and, with the 
 exception of circulars, the increase would be very slight. It 
 has been suggested, however, that the transmission by post of 
 printed circulars, not exceeding a quarter of an ounce each, with 
 halfpenny stamps, would pay better than with penny stamps, 
 and so far the change might be an improvement. 
 
 It must be remembered that the fare is not the only expense 
 in travelling ; there are many other expenses, and, what is often 
 to some persons more valuable, the loss of time which is money; 
 consequently, if travelling for long distances were perfectly free 
 to business men, the loss of time and, to all, the expenses of 
 hotels, would act as a considerable preventive. The first-class 
 fare, for instance, from London to Edinburgh, 400 miles, is 
 at present 3 10s., and although that might be reduced by 
 two thirds, which would of course cause a great increase of 
 travellers, yet the hotel expenses and loss of time would always 
 be effective in preventing an increase in ordinary travelling in 
 anything approaching to the same ratio as the increase of 
 letters under the reformed system. There would be a very 
 
190 
 
 great increase in the number- of third-class passengers by the 
 Parliamentary trains ; there are no return tickets given at pre- 
 sent, so that travellers by that class who would use a return 
 ticket, would travel at about one-Jifth of the present fare ; their 
 time not being very valuable, and their expenses for lodging, 
 &c., but light, it would be difficult to estimate the vast increase 
 that would take place with that class of travellers. 
 
 If the regular, safe, and cheap conveyance of our letters and 
 papers is to us a matter of such importance, of how much more 
 importance to us is the whole of our inland traffic as carried on 
 by the railways of the country? The one is represented in a 
 money point of view by three millions and a half sterling, 
 and the other by ten times that sum : to the one we 
 entrust merely our correspondence, to the other onr lives and 
 property. The charges, regulations, and management of the 
 one is absolutely under the control of the nation through its 
 Legislature, and its working devoted solely to the public good : 
 the charges, regulations, and management of the other are 
 independent of the nation, the Legislature, and the executive, 
 and are under the sole control of the directors, and all con- 
 siderations for the public are sacrificed in order to obtain the 
 largest dividend for their shareholders. In a word, both 
 systems are monopolies carried on for purposes somewhat 
 analogous, but conducted on principles widely different, and 
 the public should now be able to form an opinion as to whether 
 the Post-Office system should be assimilated to the railways, or 
 the railway system to that of the Post Office. 
 
 The superiority of the Post- Office system is obvious : the Legis- 
 lature settle at once, distinctly and definitely, the proper charges, 
 which cannot, under any circumstances, be altered without its 
 assent. The object of competition is to effect by a very round- 
 about and imperfect process the same result. Were it possible 
 to enact and carry out a law by which a fair price should be 
 fixed for everything that is sold, there would be no occasion for 
 competition, for all that competition aims at is to keep down 
 
191 
 
 prices to that rate ; but as it would be impossible to carry out 
 such a law, we do the best we can under the circumstances 
 we promote competition and, so far as we can, extend free trade. 
 So long as we do not make the mistake of attempting to apply 
 free-trade principles as a complete remedy where they are not 
 applicable, we do well, and no test can be more simple than 
 that of their applicability. Is there a likelihood of a suffi- 
 cient number of competitors coming into the field to prevent 
 the possibility of combination ? If that question cannot be 
 answered in the affirmative, there is not a free-trader in this 
 country but will admit that to attempt to carry out his prin- 
 ciples in such a case is perfectly hopeless. In the case of rail- 
 ways we have long attempted to accomplish that purpose. We 
 have succeeded, no doubt, in multiplying railways and dividing 
 the monopoly, and to that extent have done good. 
 
 It is contended, however, by no inconsiderable section of 
 free-traders, whose views are represented in the Westminster 
 Review, that it is owing to the fault of the Legislature that there 
 is not perfect free trade in the construction of railways. Every 
 year, they say, there is a vast number of projects rejected, and 
 if every bill were permitted to pass the monopoly would soon 
 be destroyed. I admit the truth of that proposition, and that 
 carrying it out would, in a certain sense, be in accordance with 
 free-trade principles ; but what would political economists say 
 to the waste of capital it would involve ? Look at many parts 
 of England Birmingham, for instance ; there are three lines 
 laid down between that town and Wolverhampton, closely 
 parallel, the distance between them, at any point, scarcely 
 exceeding a mile, and consequently affording no increased 
 accommodation to the public by passing through widely 
 separated districts ; the monopoly is divided, but not destroyed, 
 and the fares are moderate, little more than twopence per 
 mile for first class, and the others in proportion. But how 
 much better would it be, both for the public and the share- 
 holders, to have only one line, an absolute recognized mono- 
 
192 
 
 poly, supposing even a company had it, with first- class fares 
 limited to a halfpenny per mile, and the others in proportion ? 
 We know that two companies with these fares are each paying 
 six per cent, to their shareholders, and with the traffic existing 
 in that part of the country confined to one line, the dividend 
 would he very high indeed. 
 
 Let us now look at the railway question from another point 
 of view, viz., in reference to the general taxation of the country. 
 We will suppose that the railways had heen constructed by the 
 State, that they were under Government control, and the 
 fares and charges the same as they are now; would the 
 common sense of the country permit them to be continued ? 
 Would it be permitted, in the present day of advanced legis- 
 lation, that Government should charge the public fourfold 
 a fair price because it happened to pay a little better ? The 
 main cause that has prevented public attention from being 
 directed to this subject arises from the fact, that, as railways are 
 private property, and their proprietors have a right to make 
 what charges they think proper, speculative inquiries of such a 
 nature are considered of no practical use. Let us, however, 
 assume that, like the Post Office, they were the property of 
 the State, and let us examine closely into the working of that 
 institution before and after its management had undergone 
 reform in 1839. We shall thus be enabled to form an opinion 
 of the benefit to the public from a change somewhat analogous 
 in the management of our railways. 
 
 
193 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Post Office as managed in former days Mr. Rowland Hill's 
 Scheme Evidence of Post- Office Officials before the Select Com- 
 mittee of the House of Commons Evidence of Lord Overstone, 
 Lord Ashburton, and Mr. Cobden Cost of the Conveyance of a 
 Letter Calculated Increase System by which the Revenue was 
 defrauded Free-trade in carrying Letters considered A well- 
 governed Monopoly in some cases better than Free-trade Test of 
 the Applicability of Free-trade Principles The extreme Free- 
 trade Principles applied to Railways Our Commercial Policy 
 since 1842 The Effect of direct Taxation What a past President 
 of the Board of Trade has done What a Future Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer may do The Post Office and Railways 
 compared. 
 
 THAT part of the present generation who are under middle age 
 have very little idea of what the public suffered in regard to 
 postal rates, before Mr. Rowland Hill introduced his celebrated 
 scheme of a low and uniform rate of postage throughout 
 the kingdom. The conveyance of letters was then, as it is 
 now, a Government monopoly ; but at that time it was con- 
 sidered merely as a source of revenue, and conducted as 
 the railways, or any other private commercial monopoly is 
 conducted, viz. : without any more regard to the general 
 convenience than was necessary to extract the greatest 
 amount of money from the public. In this respect, the 
 unreformed Post Office was not a whit behind the most 
 obnoxious of its compeers ; it laid on the most exorbitant 
 rates, it guarded with the utmost jealousy any attempt to 
 infringe on its patent right to carry letters, and prosecuted 
 with the utmost rigour trespassers on its domain. In those 
 days writing a letter, or rather sending it by post, was a 
 serious matter ; not to be undertaken rashly, but only on due 
 
 o 
 
194 
 
 consideration, and when the circumstances of the case war- 
 ranted it. Although the cost of conveying a letter from one 
 end of the kingdom to the other did not amount to half a 
 farthing, the Post Office charged half-a-crown; the monopoly 
 was most stringent, even a friend taking charge of a letter was 
 liahle to fine or imprisonment; the phrase single, douhle, or 
 treble letter is now happily obsolete, but in those days it 
 had a very unpleasant signification ; it meant, that the post- 
 master, holding up the letter to the light, and prying between 
 its folds, either saw or fancied he saw one or two slips of paper 
 within, and the postage in consequence was doubled or trebled. 
 The poorer classes were deprived almost entirely of the use of 
 the Post Office, and the middle classes used it only when they 
 could not help it. 
 
 Application had been made at various times to the Post Office, 
 or rather to successive administrations, for some reduction in the 
 rates of postage, and a general feeling existed, that they were 
 much higher than they should be ; still, there was no movement 
 of the nation, there was no pressure brought to bear on Govern- 
 ment, and the stereotyped answer in this, as in all similar cases, 
 was, " The revenue cannot afford it." It was in 1837 that Mr. 
 Kowland Hill's pamphlet appeared, and its effect throughout 
 the country was electrical ; it took people's breath away ! That 
 a very considerable reduction was desirable in the charges for 
 postage, no one doubted ; but such a revolutionary measure, 
 one that struck so completely at the root of all heretofore 
 recognized principles on which a commercial establishment had 
 been conducted, had certainly never been dreamt of : "How," 
 it was said, " can a treble letter be conveyed from Edinburgh to 
 London for a penny ? Great as the profits of the Post Office are, 
 the expenses amount to one-fourth of the gross receipts ; the 
 postage on a treble letter is three shillings, and therefore the 
 actual cost to the Post Office for the conveyance of the letter is 
 ninepence, and there would be an actual loss of eightpence by 
 the transaction ; the scheme is impracticable." 
 
105 
 
 The Post Office was, as we have noticed, then conducted like 
 any other mercantile monopoly, the average postage paid on 
 each letter was sixpence, which Mr. Rowland Hill proposed to 
 reduce to a penny; the Post- Office officials were strongly 
 opposed to the project, and from their point of view, looking 
 at it as a branch of the revenue from which all the money 
 should be drawn that it was possible to extract, were quite 
 right. There was a great number of witnesses examined 
 before the Parliamentary Committee appointed to inquire into 
 the subject, some of whose evidence we shall briefly notice. 
 
 We shall first take that of Lieutenant- Colon el Maberly, 
 Secretary to the General Post Office. He was asked 
 
 Q. Are you of opinion that the high rates of postage 
 prohibit the middling and humbler classes the use of the 
 Post Office ? Of course, the very high rates prohibit them 
 when they wish to write; but my feeling is, they do not wish 
 to write in the manner that people imagine, that they are not 
 disposed to write. 
 
 Q. Is it your opinion no one is prevented corresponding by 
 the present high rates of postage ? Of course, those persons 
 who have no money to pay the postage are prohibited corre- 
 sponding ; but that would apply equally to the penny charge ; 
 if a person had not a penny, he could not write. 
 
 Q. How could the illicit correspondence be suppressed ? 
 If the Government were to take it in hand, a great deal might 
 be done ; but it would be a question of policy whether you 
 would institute a right of search, and whether you should as a 
 Government employ informers very extensively, to lay infor- 
 mations against merchants, who evade the present rates of 
 postage. 
 
 Q. What is your opinion of Mr. Hill's plan of reform ? 
 It appears to me a most preposterous plan, utterly unsupported 
 by facts, resting entirely on assumption. 
 
 Q. You are of the opinion that every reduction will tend to 
 a loss of revenue ? Certainly, that is my opinion ; that with a 
 small reduction the revenue will recover itself; but if it were 
 reduced to one penny, it would not recover itself for forty or 
 fifty years. 
 
 Q. Do you think persons have an objection to a high rate of 
 postage ? I think they have an objection to any postage, if 
 they can avoid it. 
 
 og 
 
196 
 
 Let us hear what Mr. Godby, Secretary to the Iribh Post 
 Office, says: 
 
 Q. Would Mr. Hill's plan much affect the revenue ? Mr. 
 Hill's plan would cause a very great decrease in the revenue. I 
 do not think any human being living would ever see such an 
 increase of letters as would make up the loss. 
 
 Q. Have you formed any opinion as to the extent to which 
 the Post-Office regulations are evaded ? I was always aware 
 they were evaded by every one who could evade them ; but, I 
 confess, I was never even suspicious of the astounding facts 
 revealed by this inquiry I must say mortifying facts that are 
 disclosed in the volume of evidence I have gone through ; I 
 never had the most distant suspicion of it. 
 
 In answer to further questions, Mr. Godby said : 
 " The time has come to adopt some means, either by a 
 severity of punishment against the commission of crime or 
 the other alternative of a reduction of postage, to meet the 
 smugglers. 
 
 " I see by the evidence that the increase, in the opinion of 
 some people, would not be immediate. I am of the opposite 
 opinion ; I think at first there would be an immense revenue, 
 but a declining after." 
 
 The Earl of Lichfield, then Postmaster- General, gave 
 evidence to the same purport ; and, so far as the immediate effect 
 on the revenue was concerned, these gentlemen were quite 
 correct in their prognostications, for the first five years after the 
 change the loss to the revenue averaged about a million sterling 
 per annum. 
 
 A writer of some note thus expressed his opinion of the 
 scheme some years after it had been in operation: 
 
 " In looking back at this extraordinary scheme, suggested 
 only at the distance of six years, it is really surprising how sen- 
 sible men could be deluded to such an excess upon points which 
 scarcely required the experience of twelve months to bring 
 them back to a sober estimate of what was proposed. To raise 
 revenue by means of a Board is one thing, to accommodate 
 
197 
 
 the public, and all the individuals which compose it, equally and 
 at all places, and upon an abstract principle, is another. To a 
 philosopher who assumes to regulate a department by a theory 
 of his own, the argument for uniformity in the case put by 
 Mr. Hill is specious enough, but, to a Minister who wishes to 
 derive revenue from it, it is totally unreasonable and incon- 
 sistent with common sense. 
 
 "But it must be borne in mind that the Post Office is not 
 under any obligation to convey the correspondence of the 
 public. The Post Office is as much intended to bring its 
 quota to the service of the State, as the Excise or Customs. 
 In arguing, therefore, upon the fairness of uniformity, it should 
 have proceeded further than by showing its abstract equity. 
 
 " But what has Mr. Hill's plan effected? It has prostrated 
 the public revenue ; instead of being an auxiliary to safety, 
 it has so impaired the former security of transmission, that a 
 money letter sent by the post since Mr. Hill's plan might as 
 well, says the Postmaster- General, * be cast down on the 
 pavement in the street ; ' it has changed the whole character 
 of the department, it has pretty nearly converted it into a 
 Parcel and Conveyance Delivery Company, a public general 
 carrier, a kind of flying bazaar, instead of maintaining its 
 former and permanently honourable position as a Board of 
 Revenue, and a safe and effective instrument of conducting the 
 correspondence of a great commercial empire. When mes- 
 merism and other attractive novelties of the day have had 
 their hour and are passing away, the quackery of penny 
 postage ought surely now to follow the same course. Mr. 
 Hill has fixed the nation with a penny postage, and what 
 statesman is likely hereafter to come forward and retrieve 
 us ? Like the Sphynx in the palace of Thebes, the Post Office 
 may only deem itself too happy if some future Treasury 
 CEdipus were to redeem it from this intolerable plague." 
 
 The last witness put forward by the Post- Office authorities, 
 whose testimony I shall quote against Mr. Hill's scheme, was 
 a gentleman who had been in the service nearly forty years, 
 
198 
 
 whose evidence was a curiosity in its way, and as it was brief, 
 we shall allow him to tell without curtailment the grounds 
 of his opposition. 
 
 In answer to questions from the committee, this gentleman 
 said, " he thought Mr. Hill's plan would be well received by 
 the public ; but he thought the reduction too great, so long 
 as the establishment was made a branch of the revenue, he 
 must always look to that. As to payment in advance, he 
 thought it would be objected to by many persons ; he would 
 mention one description, viz., letters applying for the payment 
 of debts ; the creditor writes to the debtor, and very often his 
 having been obliged to pay the postage produces the pay- 
 ment of the debt, lest he should have another dunning 
 letter; but in case of the payment in advance being compul- 
 sory, the writer would have to add that additional charge to his 
 former debt [that is, one penny] without being able to recover 
 it of his debtor!" 
 
 If there had been no other question at issue beyond that 
 relating to the immediate effect on the Post- Office revenue, the 
 inquiry would have been totally unnecessary, as Mr. Eowland 
 Hill, from the very outset of the inquiry, protested against con- 
 sidering its immediate fiscal effects as the criterion of success. 
 
 The Post- Office officials of that day, from the Postmaster- 
 General down to the humblest postman, were naturally opposed 
 to a scheme that, in their opinion, would not only reduce their 
 establishment to insolvency and ruin, but would also degrade 
 it into " a Parcel and Conveyance Delivery Company a 
 Public General Carrier a kind of flying bazaar, instead of 
 maintaining an honourable position as a Board of Revenue." 
 It does not seem to have occurred to any of these gentlemen, 
 that if the Post Office lost a million a year of its revenue, the 
 nation paid so much less, and was, consequently, to that 
 amount a gainer; and if the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 required that million, or part of it, or twice that amount, 
 he would take care to have it back again from the nation 
 through some other channel ; so far, therefore, as the revenue 
 
199 
 
 was concerned, it had the same result ; nor did these gentle- 
 men remember, that the Puhlic was the paymaster, and con- 
 sequently entitled to choose the mode of payment. 
 
 I turn now to another class of witnesses, and shall 
 confine myself to some extracts from the evidence of Lord 
 Ashburton, Lord Overstone (then Mr. Jones Loyd), and Mr. 
 Cobden, who, together with a host of others, supported Mr. 
 Kowland Hill's scheme. I shall first give some short ex- 
 tracts from the evidence of Mr. Jones Loyd, banker : he was 
 asked 
 
 Q. Have you formed any opinion as to the justice of the 
 proposed plan of an uniform rate of postage for all distances ? 
 It seems to me the justice of the plan is perfectly obvious, 
 except on the ground that the cost of conveyance differs. It 
 is clear that the present rate of postage does, in point of fact, 
 produce a prohibition of the use of the Post Office to all 
 classes that may be below the higher classes. 
 
 Q. Is it a just mode of reasoning to maintain that persons 
 do not feel the oppression of a tax, because they were pro- 
 hibited from using the taxed article ? No : it appears to me 
 so absurd, that I can hardly suppose anybody uses such 
 reasoning. They may not know the loss they sustain, but that 
 does not alter the fact that they sustain a great loss, and 
 it would be highly criminal and cruel voluntarily to inflict 
 such a loss on a person, merely upon the ground he does not 
 know it. A child that is born blind, does not know the 
 advantages of sight, but still it would be a very extraordinary 
 thing to inflict blindness on a child, merely upon the ground, 
 if you do it in time, he will not know the loss he has sus- 
 tained. As to other modes of conveyance, last night we 
 received thirty-six parcels containing 3500 documents ; the 
 total value of those documents was 95,000/. ; a letter, weighing 
 a half ounce, would contain, perhaps, ten of these documents ; 
 and in that case, 350 letters would contain the whole of them ; 
 if these letters were charged twopence each, 21. 18*. &d. would 
 be the cost of sending these letters by post, and the additional 
 security and certainty in sending them would put a stop to 
 the idea of sending them by any other conveyance. 
 
 Mr. Cobden was deputed by the Manchester Chamber of 
 Commerce to give evidence before the Committee; and the 
 variety of details he entered into must have produced con- 
 
200 
 
 siderable effect; his opinion was, that in case the penny 
 postage were adopted the increase would he nearly sixfold. 
 Mr. Cobden quoted the following extracts from his^notes : 
 "We are prevented," said one firm, " drawing hills for small 
 amounts on our connexions in country towns by the high 
 rates of postage." Another complains that the smallest bit of 
 pattern enclosed should be charged double postage. " We 
 have an instance," says the writer, " this morning of such 
 an enclosure weighing one and three-quarter grains, costing 
 us elevenpence, without any advantage arising to us from 
 the same." "I sent Lobby," writes an individual, "a five- 
 pound note, to Cambridge ; it was a charity, and I could not 
 let the bearer pay the postage ; it was tenpence for the enclosed 
 note, which, on the amount, is nearly one per cent, on trans- 
 mission. There is also an injustice, that you may send a large 
 sheet, perhaps a half-ounce weight, as single, and the % smallest 
 bit enclosed pays double postage." " Our rule," says one writer, 
 " is never to send by post when we can avoid it." " We, our- 
 selves," is the reply of another, "remit 180,000/. to 200,000/. 
 by post in sums varying from 50/. to 200/., for which 
 remittances we receive no acknowledgments, owing to the 
 expense of postage." A third party says, " I do not doubt that 
 four-fifths of the correspondence between Manchester and 
 Liverpool is carried on by private hand. I often go down 
 to Liverpool, and every trip I take I bring for my friends 
 pocketfulls of private letters." Another says, " Many of our 
 customers have continued for many years to send their letters 
 to us by private hand, coachmen, guards, or travellers. On 
 reference to our books, we have taken out one instance of 
 many, in which an individual during the last seven years has 
 sent us 170 orders, and 139 remittances; and in no instance 
 through the post." A bookseller says, "In almost every coach 
 parcel I receive, packets of letters are enclosed for individuals 
 in this neighbourhood, totally unconnected with my branch of 
 trade. Every traveller, whether from a publisher or stationer, 
 
201 
 
 has his advice letters forwarded through a bookseller's parcel ; 
 and I have frequently received thirty or forty at a time, all of 
 which would be sent by post." One of the answers gives the 
 opinion that " an amazing increase of letters through the 
 Post Office would take place in connection with the lower 
 classes ; the high rate of postage compels them to find out 
 various means of evading the postage ; and it is amazing how 
 indefatigable they are in finding out channels." "We know a 
 firm, six miles from Manchester," writes one party, " who en- 
 close in parcels 300 circulars, letters, invoices, &c., per week. An 
 account was also sent to us of a railway company, the directors 
 of which had availed themselves of a newspaper, as a medium 
 of circulating their half-yearly report, a copy of which was 
 thus sent to each proprietor, and the cost of postage saved." 
 These are a few amongst a great number of similar statements 
 which we received, all from parties bearing their own signa- 
 tures ; one writer says, " We should consider a general reduc- 
 tion of the rates of postage to one penny, as one of the 
 greatest boons which could possibly be conferred on the 
 trading interest ; indeed, if we were asked what favour as 
 mercantile men we should desire from Government, we should 
 not hesitate a moment to desire the change proposed as one of 
 almost equal importance, but of greater safety, than even the 
 repeal of the corn laws." " I know of a house (continued Mr. 
 Cobden) carrying on a wholesale business in Devonport, 
 which sends all its circulars throughout the country four 
 times a year for twopence per letter ; they send 200 letters 
 each time, and 180 of these 200 letters are sent by carrier, 
 and twenty by post." 
 
 Lord Ashburton, formerly at the head of the great firm of 
 Baring Brothers and Co., in answer to the question if he con- 
 sidered postage a proper source of revenue, said, " I have cer- 
 tainly always thought it a bad means of raising revenue. I 
 think it is one of the worst of taxes. We have unfortunately 
 many taxes which have an injurious tendency; but I think few, 
 
202 
 
 if any, have so injurious a tendency as the tax upon the com- 
 munication by letters." In answer to various questions, his 
 lordship said : " I think it is very hard upon family communi- 
 cation, and upon the social enjoyment which arises from that 
 communication ; it must affect the general diffusion of know- 
 ledge very much. Men of letters, and .men of science, are 
 the greater part of them of a class little able to bear heavy 
 postage ; and in that way it must affect the general diffusion 
 of knowledge in the country, and to that extent affect educa- 
 tion. As to commerce, the reduction would certainly be 
 beneficial. I cannot doubt that a taxation upon communica- 
 tion by letter must bear heavily on commerce. You might 
 as well tax words spoken in the Eoyal Exchange, as the 
 communication of various persons living in Manchester, 
 Liverpool, and London. The opinion I have expressed with 
 respect to the present high rate of postage is an opinion I 
 have always entertained : but I was much struck with the 
 opinion of Mr. Hill on the subject ; I thought the uniformity 
 of the rate of postage, and the plan of stamping letters, and 
 not making any addition for moderate-sized letters, were very 
 good ; also, I was much struck with the great facility in the 
 delivery of letters, arising from the deliverer having no money 
 to collect upon delivery, and the great means of simplifying 
 the whole transactions of the Post Office, by transferring the 
 money part of it principally to the Stamp Office, and taking 
 away from it nearly the whole of its functions as a Board for 
 the collection of revenue." 
 
 Let us now briefly note the result of Sir Eowland Hill's 
 reform as it has affected the revenue and the nation. For the 
 first three years after this change was effected there was a loss 
 to the revenue of nearly a million sterling per annum ; but 
 each year after that time the revenue increased, and we learn 
 from the "Treasury Minutes" of the llth March, on the 
 occasion of Sir Rowland Hill retiring from his post as secre- 
 tary, that the gross revenue for 1863 exceeded that of 1839, 
 
203 
 
 the last year of the old system, by more than a million sterling, 
 and the net revenue of last year was greater than that of 
 1839. The figures are., for 1839, 1,660,000/., and for 1863 
 1,790,000/.; so, in a financial point of view, the new system, 
 after a period of twenty-five years, has overtaken and passed 
 the old, and with every prospect of the distance between 
 them being annually increased. 
 
 But we have to regard it in a much more important point of 
 view. How it affected the revenue was, in one sense, a matter 
 of comparative indifference ; if a reduction of a penny in the 
 pound is made in the income tax, there is a loss to the revenue 
 of a million sterling in the year, and a relief to the country 
 to that extent but nothing more. It was quite a dif- 
 ferent matter in reference to the effect produced by the Post- 
 Office reform ; had the public not availed themselves of the 
 benefit of cheap postage, had there not been an additional 
 letter or newspaper carried, there would, at all events, have been 
 a reduction of taxation to the amount of a million sterling per 
 annum. But look at the matter as it now stands : the esti- 
 mated number of letters that passed through the Post Office in 
 1839 was seventy-five millions; in 1863 the actual number 
 was 700 millions more than ninefold. The gross sum paid 
 by the public for postage in 1839 was 2,390,000/., and 
 had there been no reduction in postage, and if we could sup- 
 pose for a moment that the difference in postage would make 
 no difference in the number of letters being sent by post, the 
 taxation of the country for postage alone would now amount 
 to upwards of nineteen millions sterling per annum! But 
 we know, as a matter of course, that if the old system 
 still existed seven-eighths of the letters, now despatched by 
 post, would have been forwarded to their destination 
 through some other channel, as described by Mr. Cobden, 
 or never have been written. The matter practically stands 
 thus : 1st, The net revenue to the Government derived from 
 the Post Office, after a period of twenty-five years' continued 
 
204 
 
 increase since the change of system, now equals the old 
 revenue, exceeding in round numbers a million and a half 
 sterling. 2nd, For the same number of letters which the public 
 in 1839 paid nearly two and a half millions sterling, they 
 pay now considerably less than half a million. 3rd, The 
 individual or firm whose taxation for postage under the old 
 system amounted, we will say, to 60/. per annum, had 50/. 
 of that taxation at once struck off; and all other individuals 
 and firms had a reduction in the same proportion. And 
 4thly, the revenue is now made up by two classes : the old 
 class, who always availed themselves of the Post Office to a 
 certain extent on compulsion, not being able otherwise to 
 carry on their business, but who now voluntarily avail them- 
 selves of it largely ; the new class comprises those who never, 
 or but rarely, wrote letters at all. 
 
 I am considering the change of system in the Post Office 
 strictly in a financial point of view, but there are matters 
 relating to finance the value of which to the public is not 
 easily estimated. In 1839 the amount of money orders paid 
 in the United Kingdom, owing to the high charge for these 
 orders, was considerably less than half a million sterling ; in 
 1862 the amount exceeded fifteen millions and a half, owing, of 
 course, to the low and graduated scale of charges. How, again, 
 can we estimate in figures the convenience the public derive 
 from the book post ? We send a parcel (if a book or paper) 
 from one end of the kingdom to the other in half the time and 
 at one-fourth the cost that we can send it by railway ! How 
 can we estimate the value to the poorer classes of Mr. Glad- 
 stone's two measures that he has engrafted on the Post Office 
 the Savings Bank and the recent Insurance Act? The value 
 of these different measures cannot be tested by a money 
 standard. 
 
 I have thought it desirable, and indeed necessary for the illus- 
 tration of my subject, to go into some detail as to the working 
 of the two systems under which this great establishment has 
 
205 
 
 been managed; the one a sound mercantile system under which 
 our Post Office was at a former period, as our railways are at 
 present period, conducted, viz. to make money without any 
 reference to the wants, the wishes, or the general benefit of the 
 community ; the other, in which the financial success was 
 considered subsidiary to the welfare of the community. 
 
 If the Post Office had been a commercial instead of a Go- 
 vernment monopoly, the proposition of Mr. Eowland Hill 
 would have been too preposterous to have received a moment's 
 attention ; the revenue that is, the Post-Office revenue has 
 lost by his measure not less than fourteen millions sterling ; this 
 sum remained " fructifying " in the pockets of the people, or 
 at al] events would have done so, if Chancellors of the Ex- 
 chequer would have so permitted it. As it was, the deficiency 
 was either made up from a new tax, or some other tax was not 
 remitted that otherwise would have been. One thing is quite 
 certain, the Chancellor of the Exchequer took care he should 
 have his money. There was no doubt a great outcry made by 
 interested parties some years after Mr. Rowland Hill's plan was 
 in operation, from the alleged failure of the financial part of 
 his scheme, and affecting to treat the loss to the revenue for 
 the time being as an actual loss to the nation ! 
 
 The Post Office is now, as it was then, a strict monopoly, and 
 the question therefore arises, is a great monopoly necessarily 
 an evil, or may it be rendered a great good? We have 
 in regard to the Post Office a highly centralized system of 
 management, extending over the whole of the kingdom, and 
 connecting the most distant cities, towns, villages, and districts 
 with each oth'er and with the metropolis. We have a great dislike 
 in a general way both to monopoly and centralization : would 
 it be desirable, then, that the Post Office, as a national institu- 
 tion, should be abolished, and that the duties now performed by 
 that establishment should be left to the operations of free trade 
 and competition, as we find it developed in our railway com- 
 panies ? The Post Office has a monopoly of the conveyance of 
 
206 
 
 our letters on one system ; the railway companies that of our 
 persons and our property on a system totally opposite. Which 
 is the better of the two ? The duties of hoth are analogous. 
 We have had certainly enough of opportunities within the 
 last twenty years of testing the respective qualities of each. 
 It has been somewhere suggested, that the railway system 
 is the better of the two ; and if such is the case, and the 
 Government monopoly be abolished, we can have no difficulty 
 whatever in tracing the course of the future Post-office 
 companies, whenever they may be established. They would 
 act, no doubt, as all railway or other commercial companies 
 act each company would charge whatever rate of postage 
 paid it best, and taking the range of railway companies 
 as a criterion, and the lowest charge for a single letter to be 
 a penny, the highest would probably be a shilling. We 
 should, no doubt, have a hundred different companies 
 battling through the kingdom for business ; they would assert 
 their "territorial rights," they would "repel invasion," they 
 would not submit to be "robbed of their postal traffic," 
 and "would take measures to defeat their opponents;" they 
 would combine against each other and the public, and the 
 postage would rise or fall from day to day as they might be 
 successful or otherwise in their several combinations or arrange- 
 ments. The well-paying districts would be well supplied, and 
 the non-paying districts neglected ; there would be no control, 
 authority, or combined action throughout the kingdom, nor 
 tribunal for the redress of grievances. The public would be 
 entirely at their mercy, and they would be served so far and no 
 farther than suited the interests of the companies. 
 
 The truth is, that monopoly and free trade have each its 
 separate sphere of labour, and when there is a public industrial 
 work to be done, the first thing to be ascertained should be 
 to which of the two departments it properly belongs. An 
 effective competition prevents an overcharge ; but if, from 
 special circumstances, there are either no competitors in the 
 
207 
 
 field, or not a sufficient number to prevent their combination 
 against the public, there is no competition, or at best it is but 
 very partial in its operation and incomplete in its success. It 
 is, further, a violation of the soundest principles of political 
 economy to permit the waste of money by the construction of 
 public works not in themselves either necessary or useful, when 
 that object can be fully effected without either the waste of 
 money or the injury to capitalists who have already invested 
 their money. The English people have shown themselves in 
 the case of the Post Office, not opposed to monopoly when it 
 is placed under the strict control of the Legislature, for then a 
 still greater benefit can be derived from its working than under 
 the most enlarged system of free trade. The greatest free- 
 trader in England would never dream of abolishing the 
 national Post Office, nor suppose we could be as well served 
 under any free- trade system, however perfectly it might be 
 developed. 
 
 It is possible that the day may not be far distant when the 
 British people will come to the opinion that a system which, in 
 the conveyance of our letters, has been attended with such 
 triumphant success, is not less applicable to the conveyance of 
 ourselves and our goods ; and as the Legislature have deemed 
 the former branch of commerce so important as to keep the 
 management under its exclusive control, so it may be hoped, 
 when; it is at liberty to deal with the latter one which 
 so materially affects the interests of all classes of the commu- 
 nityit will be equally determined to secure for the country 
 at large all the advantages that may be derived from the proper 
 administration of this still greater and more important branch 
 of commerce. 
 
203 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 Mr. Mill on the Functions of Government Grounds of Opposition to 
 the Bill of 1844 The Eight of a Nation to act in its corporate 
 Capacity Constitutional and practical Objections to Increase of 
 Government Power and Patronage False Issue raised to the 
 Bill by its Opponents Sir Robert Peel and Mr. Gladstone opposed 
 to the immediate Purchase of Railways The Management when 
 possessed by the State Their direct Management by Government 
 not advisable Their being leased out to Companies considered 
 The present Management, with some Changes, preferred A general 
 Board of Management to be formed from the Railway Boards 
 Plan analogous to that of our India Government The Influence 
 of Legislators in creating and forming Public Opinion. 
 
 " ONE of the most disputed questions, both, in political science 
 and in practical statesmanship, at this particular period, relates 
 to the proper limits of the functions and agency of govern- 
 ments ; but the general opinion in this country is in favour of 
 restricting to the narrowest compass the intervention of a 
 public authority in the business of a community, and few will 
 dispute the more than sufficiency of these reasons to throw, in 
 every instance, the burthen of making out a strong case, not on 
 those who resist, but on those who recommend Government 
 interference. Laisser faire, in short, should be the general 
 practice; every departure from it, unless required by some 
 great good, is a certain evil." * 
 
 Such are the recorded opinions of one of our most dis- 
 tinguished writers on political economy, and these opinions 
 command almost universal assent. When a great good can 
 be effected without the agency of Government, not only is there 
 no necessity, but it is exceedingly undesirable, to have recourse 
 
 * Mill's " Political Economy," vol. ii. p. 541. 
 
209 
 
 to such aid ; on the other hand, when that ohject can be 
 attained by no other means, it would be both foolish and absurd 
 to deny that it is one of the most undisputed and important 
 functions of Government to undertake that agency when its 
 exercise becomes necessary to produce the desired good. In 
 many cases, however, the good desiderated may not be unmixed 
 with evil, and in some cases may be more than counter- 
 balanced by it. Nor is it merely by material benefits to a 
 people that the desirability of Government interference can 
 be tested ; reference must be had to their peculiar habits, and 
 more especially their opinions as to the duties of Government. 
 What would be not merely tolerated but recognized as the duty 
 of a Government in one State, would be denounced as an 
 intolerable attempt to interfere with the liberty of the subject 
 in another. We have in this country a great dislike to a 
 " paternal Government," and suffer the continuance of num- 
 berless social evils and much wrong-doing and injustice sooner 
 than permit the interference of the strong hand of Govern- 
 mental power. In some cases, however, the evils become so 
 great that the public reluctance to permit the interference of 
 Government is at length overcome, and such measures as those 
 relating to factory children and women labouring in mines are 
 allowed to pass. In Prussia it is one of the functions of 
 Government to provide for the education of children. With 
 us no such interference, under any circumstances, would be 
 permitted. We consider those cases that occur, in which 
 children are brought up in ignorance and vice, not suffi- 
 ciently numerous to justify us in departing from the general 
 law of nature, which declares, as a rule, that parents are the 
 best judges to what extent their children should be educated. 
 
 " A second general objection," says Mr. Mill, " to Govern- 
 ment agency is, that every increase of the functions devolving 
 on the Government is an increase of its power, both in the 
 form of authority, and still more in the indirect form of influ- 
 ence, and a third general objection rests on the principle of the 
 
 p 
 
210 
 
 division of labour. Every additional function undertaken by 
 Government is a fresh occupation imposed on a body already 
 overcharged with duties. The inferiority of Government 
 agency, for example, in any of the common operations of 
 industry or commerce, is proved by the fact that it is hardly 
 ever able to maintain itself in equal competition with individual 
 agency, when the individuals possess the requisite degree of 
 industrial enterprise, and can command the necessary assemblage 
 of means." 
 
 The views expressed by Mr. Mill in regard to the duties of 
 Governments are those of the great bulk of Englishmen, and I 
 have brought these opinions prominently forward that they may 
 be duly considered in reference to the subject we are discussing ; 
 as it has been contended, they form an insurmountable ob- 
 stacle to the carrying out of this project. 
 
 When Mr. Gladstone introduced his Kailway Bill into Parlia- 
 ment the whole force of the opposition was directed not against 
 what was in the bill under discussion, but what was assumed 
 might at some future day be in some other bill on the same sub- 
 ject, viz., Government management. But, in reality, there is 
 no more connection between the possession of railways by the 
 State and their direct management by Government, than there 
 is between Goodwin Sands and Tenterden Steeple. In popular 
 estimation, however, it has been always held to mean one 
 and the same thing, and that if railways became the property of 
 the State they must necessarily be managed directly by the 
 Government, with all the patronage, in the same manner as the 
 Customs, Excise, or Post Office. On the Continent, wherever 
 the railways belong to the State, they form a branch of the 
 public service ; and it appears, therefore, to be taken for granted 
 in this country, that their ownership and management must 
 necessarily be inseparable. Such not only is the common idea 
 at present, but the early advocates of the purchase of railways 
 by the State, including all who gave evidence before the Select 
 Committee in 1844, assumed as a matter of course that the 
 
211 
 
 railways would, in the event of their being purchased by the 
 State, come under direct Government management. This as- 
 sumption we shall find altogether unfounded, and to it more 
 than any other cause is to be attributed the neglect with 
 which this subject has been treated. 
 
 As an abstract proposition, it cannot be questioned that the 
 nation has a right to do anything in its corporate capacity which 
 it is assumed can be better done by itself than by delegating that 
 power to another. There are, however, many grave objections 
 against Government taking the direct management of our rail- 
 ways, and I know of no argument that can be advanced in 
 favour of following an opposite course. A very strong feeling 
 is entertained in this country, both on practical and constitu- 
 tional grounds, against entrusting to the management of Govern- 
 ment officials more than can possibly be helped; a very low 
 opinion is held of their administrative abilities, and there exists a 
 belief that they are more skilled in the " way not to do it " than 
 in the way "how to do it;" and, further, that having obtained 
 their situations by patronage and not by merit, they have 
 little to do, and do that little badly. Such is the popular 
 opinion of Government officials : how far it may be correct it 
 is not necessary for us to discuss. Another strong objection to 
 making the management of railways a Government depart- 
 ment, in the ordinary sense of that term, would be the vast 
 increase of patronage it would give to Government ; therefore, 
 on constitutional grounds such a change would be highly 
 objectionable. The prevailing policy is to diminish Govern- 
 ment patronage, and that policy for some years past has been 
 steadily adhered to ; but did neither of these objections which 
 I have noted exist, there would be no necessity to have recourse 
 to Government management. 
 
 Nothing could be more simple or clear than the object for 
 which the Act of 1844 was passed. It was not for the purpose 
 of having transferred to Government, at some future day, the 
 possession and management of our railways, and with such 
 
212 
 
 transfer all the power and patronage therewith connected; but it 
 was for the purpose of enabling the Legislature, after the 
 expiration of twenty-one years, to take possession of the rail- 
 ways should the working of the present system not prove satis- 
 factory to the nation. The attention of the Kailway Committee 
 of 1844 was drawn especially by more than one witness to four 
 important facts, (1) the great superiority of public credit over 
 private credit ; (2) the comparatively small increase to a com- 
 pany's revenues from high fares and charges as compared with 
 low fares and charges; (3) the certainty that that difference 
 could be met by the saving effected in the decreased dividend paid 
 to shareholders after the transfer of railways from them to the 
 State; and (4) the great saving that would be effected in 
 management by the amalgamation of all the companies. It 
 was on these grounds, and quite irrespective of the authority 
 to which the railways should be entrusted in the event of 
 their coming into the possession of the State, that the committee 
 recommended to Parliament the adoption of those measures that 
 subsequently became embodied in the celebrated Act of 1844. 
 
 The reasons why Government did not at that time recom- 
 mend the immediate purchase of the railways were clearly 
 stated, both by Sir Kobert Peel and Mr. Gladstone; they 
 believed it possible that the necessity for such a step being 
 taken might never arise, and that the country might possess 
 all the benefits that railway communication could confer on it 
 under the present system, but that, at all events, we had not 
 then gained a sufficient experience in the working of rail- 
 ways, to be able to form a perfect judgment as to the expe- 
 diency of such an important change, and that it was desirable 
 to wait for a long term of years, when our network of railways 
 would be nearly complete, and then consider its necessity when 
 the matter should be fully ripe for discussion. 
 
 If it had so happened that the bulk of our great companies 
 had found it to be to their interest to pursue the same policy as 
 a few of our second and third class companies have done, viz., 
 
213 
 
 to carry passengers at what are considered very low fares, there 
 would not at the present time be any occasion for legislative 
 interference ; but, unfortunately for the public, it has turned 
 out otherwise. As we have seen, there are but two com- 
 panies whose directors find it to be their interest to make so 
 low a charge as a minute fraction more than a halfpenny per 
 mile for first-class passengers, and the other classes in propor- 
 tion, and although the companies in question pay six per cent, to 
 their proprietors, the great bulk of our companies exercise a 
 sound commercial policy in charging four or five times the 
 amount of these fares to the public, and gain by so doing. 
 The Act of 1844 was intended to provide against a contin- 
 gency of this nature, by supplying a fund for indemnifying in 
 another form the State from the loss that might be incurred 
 by the pursuance of any line of policy that the Legislature of 
 the time might think fit to determine on. The Act had no 
 reference or provisions as to the future management of rail- 
 ways; there was left a tabula rasa, on which should be in- 
 scribed at a distant day the law by which their management 
 should be regulated. 
 
 We have now to consider the different modes of administra- 
 tion that might be adopted if the railways were in the possession 
 of the State. That which would most approximate to the 
 present system, and would thereby necessitate the least change, 
 would, per se, if in every other respect satisfactory, be the most 
 desirable. The traffic of the country might still be managed 
 by independent companies. It would, in many respects, be 
 more in accordance with the public ideas of good management 
 to intrust it exclusively to companies, leaving only to Govern- 
 ment the power to enforce the agreements between them and 
 the State. We shall therefore consider 
 
 1. The Contract System. That could be carried out by 
 dividing the country into convenient districts, and a general 
 tariff for passengers and goods traffic having been settled 
 by the Legislature, leaving the working of the lines to companies 
 
214 
 
 on the competitive principle. These companies would derive 
 their revenue either from a certain percentage on the gross 
 receipts, or a fixed sum per train mile, as might be agreed on. 
 Many other ways for the management of our railways on 
 the same principle might be suggested ; they could be leased 
 out to those companies that would offer the best terms, 
 at certain fixed rentals. It is unnecessary to go into 
 detail as to the various plans by which the railways could 
 be managed on this system ; the best would probably 
 be, for the companies to find the rolling stock, and be 
 obliged to keep the works in a state of thorough repair. 
 It must, however, be remembered that when a third party 
 comes between the Government and the public with secured 
 rights and privileges, the railway companies would still 
 be as they are now, in a great measure, free from legislative and 
 popular control. One great object, however, would be attained 
 of having a low and uniform scale of fares and charges 
 throughout the kingdom, and many, no doubt, would be 
 inclined to consider that if the Legislature secured that boon 
 for the public, nothing further would be required, and the 
 railways might be delivered over to a new class of com- 
 panies under another system. 
 
 2. Government Management. It is not necessary to discuss 
 this proposition at any length. There is no class in the country 
 to whom it would be acceptable, or who could be induced to assent 
 to such a proposition. There is a belief in this country that 
 Government signally fails in the management of public works 
 entrusted to its hands ; whether that be the case or not it is 
 unnecessary to discuss, but there is no disposition on the part 
 of the public to extend, in that respect, its sphere of operations. 
 In a political point of view the objections would be insuperable ; 
 the national policy at the present time is directed by means of 
 the competitive system to diminish Government patronage, but 
 by giving to Government the direct management of the rail- 
 ways, its patronage would be increased to an enormous 
 amount. 
 
216 
 
 It now seems strange that twenty years ago, when the 
 desirability of . the purchase, by the State, of the railways 
 was discussed in the House of Commons, the universal 
 assumption was, that the direct management of railways by 
 Government would be the necessary consequence of their 
 purchase. This error was shared alike by the nation, the 
 Legislature, the Government, and every witness before the com- 
 mittee who advocated the purchase of the railways by the State, 
 nor was it till many years after that this fallacy was entirely 
 exploded. It might just as well have been contended that a 
 wealthy man should not purchase an estate because he might 
 not know how to sow turnips, or embark his capital in railway 
 shares because he could not lay out a railway or construct a 
 locomotive. To carry out an undertaking successfully requires 
 both capital and good management, and in every large industrial 
 undertaking these wants are supplied by different parties ; one 
 contributes the capital and the other undertakes the management. 
 So in regard to the State; it may, for special reasons, invest its 
 capital in an industrial undertaking, or, what comes to the same 
 thing, give its guarantee for the payment of a certain specified 
 interest on a capital not its own, embarked in such an under- 
 taking, reserving to itself the right of entrusting its man- 
 agement to those whom it may consider best qualified to 
 perform the task. For many reasons Government is not the 
 best qualified for such an undertaking; and therefore its 
 services in this respect are never likely to be required. 
 
 3. Government Control. This differs as much from Govern- 
 ment management, as the shareholders in a company taking 
 the management of its affairs into their own hands, instead of 
 entrusting them to a board of directors, and reserving to them- 
 selves a general control over its affairs at their half-yearly 
 meetings. Now, it must be borne in mind that without a cen- 
 tralized as well as a national system of management, properly 
 conducted by those best qualified to carry out such a system, 
 our traffic can neither be well managed nor brought under the 
 
216 
 
 immediate control of the Legislature. We cannot have economy, 
 regularity, and uniformity, if the railways should be once 
 more in the hands of two or three score of independent 
 companies, who would have no object in view but to make 
 as the old companies had done before them as much 
 money as they could. It is true, if the railways were 
 leased to the companies they would not be able to alter the 
 tariff agreed on, but the new companies would have the same 
 motives then as the old ones have now, to use every means to 
 force the lower-class passengers into better-class carriages; 
 they would also have the same motives then as now, to prac- 
 tise in their management a cheese-paring economy, in all cases 
 destructive of the comfort and in many cases incompatible with 
 the safety of the public. If our present system were so far 
 modified as to deprive our directors and managers of all 
 motives to undue economy, and to discourage all parsimonious 
 savings that deprive the public of what they are fairly en- 
 titled to, our railways would be the best managed in the world. 
 It is universally admitted, even by those who are most op- 
 posed to Government management, that a stringent Govern- 
 ment control under our present system in the management of 
 our railways is necessary ; and, on the other hand, it will, I 
 think, be generally admitted, that the companies' management, 
 taken on the whole, is far superior to what we might expect 
 if our railways were handed over to the Board of Trade, or 
 any other class of inexperienced Government officials. The 
 directors and managers of our companies are in general 
 men of great experience, some of remarkable ability, and 
 nearly all possess a thorough practical knowledge of the most 
 economical and effectual manner of conducting railway traffic. 
 What is wanted is not a change of men, but a change of 
 system, to eliminate its evil qualities and conserve its good, 
 and to confide the practical working of the new system to 
 those who were the most distinguished in the management of 
 the old. 
 
217 
 
 The following plan appears to me to be one of the best, 
 under the assumed circumstances, that could be adopted : 
 Twenty-four gentlemen, approved of by Government and 
 selected from and by the principal railway boards throughout 
 the kingdom, such salary being given as should secure the 
 services of the most competent, should form the general board 
 of management of all the railways in Great Britain, to be 
 presided over by a president and two vice-presidents appointed 
 by the Crown, the office of one of the latter officials to be 
 permanent, that of the other and of the president to change 
 with the Ministry. The present railway boards should be 
 entrusted to elect members of their own boards or principal 
 officers, subject to the approval of the Crown, and thus a 
 General Board would be formed well acquainted with the local 
 traffic in all parts of the kingdom. The following detailed 
 arrangement will more clearly define the manner in which the 
 management I have suggested should be carried out : 
 
 Members from their own body, 
 or from their principal officers. 
 
 The London and North- Western board to elect 3 
 
 Great Western .... 2 
 
 Midland 2 
 
 North-Eastern ..... 2 
 
 Lancashire and Yorkshire 2 
 
 Great Eastern 2 
 
 Great Northern . 2 
 
 Bristol and Exeter .... 1 
 
 London and Brighton ... 1 
 
 South-Eastern . 1 
 
 South- Western 1 
 
 Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln . 1 
 
 Caledonian ..... 1 
 
 North British 1 
 
 Glasgow and South- Western . . 1 
 
 Edinburgh and Glasgow ... 1 
 
 24 
 
 As Ireland is entirely separated from England, so there 
 should be necessarily a separate administration, subject, how- 
 ever, to the head of the English administration. 
 
218 
 
 The Great Southern and Western . 
 Midland Great Western . 
 Dublin, Wicklow, and Wexford 
 Belfast and Northern Counties 
 
 Ulster 
 
 ,, Dublin and Belfast Junction . 
 Dublin and Drogheda 
 Waterford and Limerick . 
 Irish North Western 
 Belfast and Co. Down 
 
 Members from their own body, 
 or from their principal officers. 
 
 to elect 
 
 2 
 2 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 
 12 
 
 The two establishments, however separate, could work together 
 on a uniform system. 
 
 The above selection might be said to fairly represent all parts 
 of the kingdom, and bring together those best qualified, both by 
 general and local knowledge, either as directors or managers of 
 railways, to assist in carrying out the full development of the 
 traffic throughout the kingdom. As the Government would be 
 responsible to the Legislature for the manner in which the 
 carrying trade of the country would be conducted, as a matter 
 of course the president of the board should, in all matters that 
 might come under discussion, decide what was to be done. 
 
 All railway officials to retain their situations unless their 
 services should not be required, and when those services should 
 be dispensed with to receive compensation. 
 
 This plan would meet the objections of those who are not 
 opposed to a small increase in Government patronage, but 
 who have no faith in Government management, and would con- 
 sider it unjust to any of those who are now engaged on our 
 railways, that they should be sufferers in consequence of any 
 change. 
 
 Two Boards thus formed of the best materials, the elite of 
 the directors and managers of our principal railways in the 
 United Kingdom, presided over by a cabinet minister who 
 would be responsible to the Legislature for the performance of 
 his duty, and that duty to consist in fully developing the 
 
219 
 
 traffic of the country by adopting the best means advised by 
 those who were most competent to do so, should, if the prin- 
 ciple be conceded of Government control, form an executive 
 that ought in every respect to give satisfaction to the country. 
 Contrast such an administration as that with what we have 
 at present seventy-two different boards of directors, each 
 board at variance with its neighbour, or with others com- 
 bining against the public, guided by no rule except that of 
 expediency, and governed by no principle except that of 
 making money by any means not absolutely forbidden by law. 
 This mock system of free-trade, but real monopoly, is suffered 
 to lord it over the trade and commerce of this country, form- 
 ing an artificial barrier to obstruct every class of the com- 
 munity in the otherwise, free intercourse that would exist 
 between the most distant parts of the kingdom. 
 
 4. The Management entirely independent of Government. 
 There can be no doubt there exists a strong feeling in this 
 country against any increase, direct or indirect, of the power 
 and patronage of the Crown, and it would be impossible to 
 deny that both, to some extent, would be increased by any 
 measure that would place the management of the railways, 
 under whatever restrictions, in the hands of Government. 
 The opposition that the bill of 1844 encountered was, as we 
 have seen, owing to the belief, on the part of the minority, that 
 the purchase of the railways by the State necessarily involved 
 Government management ; nor was this proposition disputed ; 
 and it was contended then, as it would be now, that such a 
 measure would be opposed to the spirit of the constitution, for 
 which any material advantage the country might derive from 
 reduced fares and charges, would afford no adequate compensa- 
 tion. 
 
 We are not at all inclined, as a people, to favour the principle 
 of centralization in connection with Government management. 
 We believe that it has a tendency to discourage individual 
 exertion, to check private enterprise, to supersede local au- 
 
220 
 
 thorities in the management of their own affairs, and to give 
 a power and influence to Government which might be turned to 
 very bad account. Even supposing that the patronage of the 
 Crown would be confined to a few of the principal appoint- 
 ments, many would assert that the evil of such appointments 
 would not be counterbalanced by any benefit that would 
 be derived from having the whole administration under the 
 direct responsibility of the Government. Some would further 
 be induced to fear that it would be only getting in the thin 
 end of the wedge, and that the patronage which, in the first 
 instance, was confined to the nomination of the principal 
 appointments only, might, in the course of time, be extended 
 to all offices in the administration. 
 
 In some respects the management of our railways could be 
 more efficiently carried on by having it entirely independent 
 of the Government. In the Post Office, however well 
 qualified the Postmaster- General may be to perform his 
 duty, he is, by a change of Ministry, removed from office, 
 and another appointed in his place, entirely from political 
 influence, who may be, and generally is, entirely ignorant 
 of the duties of his office, and may possess no single quali- 
 fication necessary for the performance of its duties. Such 
 a system is deemed by some highly objectionable in the 
 management of a great mercantile establishment such as our 
 Post Office, and is not applied to other branches of the 
 revenue, such as the Customs and Excise ; the affairs of these 
 two departments, the returns from which amount to more than 
 ten times those of the Post Office, are managed by boards per- 
 manently appointed, chairman and deputy chairman included. 
 The management of the Customs and the Excise has no con- 
 nection whatever with politics. Many would prefer placing our 
 railways under a Board of Commissioners selected by the direc- 
 tors themselves from their own respective directorates, subject to 
 the approval of the Crown and the Legislature. In such case 
 the management of the railways would be assimilated to that 
 
221 
 
 of our Customs and Excise, having not only a permanent 
 Board of Commissioners, but also a permanent chairman, and 
 vice-chairman, who would be quite independent of the Ministry 
 or of ministerial changes. The general tariff would of course 
 be settled by the Legislature, and the duty of the Board of 
 Commissioners would be purely administrative, having merely 
 to carry out what the law had enacted for their guidance. 
 Tjhese Commissioners would be as independent and as free 
 from Government control or influence as are the present directors 
 of the companies. They would have no temptations or induce- 
 ments to strain the law, either in favour of or against the public. 
 They would be directly responsible to the Legislature for the 
 manner in which they discharged their duties, and if, on the 
 one hand, the Government exercised no patronage, they would, 
 on the other, be more free than they are at present from 
 responsibility. The situation of chairman and deputy chair- 
 man of the board would, no doubt, be offices of great trust, 
 but there are at the present time more than two hundred 
 members of the Legislature connected with railways, many of 
 whom have not only held high office in the State, but are 
 also thoroughly conversant with the management of railways. 
 The names of at least a dozen noblemen and gentle- 
 men will suggest themselves to any one acquainted with 
 railway matters, the permanent appointment of any of whom 
 would be a guarantee to the Legislature, that the adminis- 
 tration of railway affairs would be thoroughly satisfactory to 
 the country. 
 
 Looking, then, at the management of our railways from this 
 point of view, and excluding entirely the political element, the 
 whole of the Government scheme would amount to nothing 
 more than an extension of the amalgamation principle, with the 
 national credit pledged to the shareholders for an annual pay- 
 ment of many millions less than what they now receive in divi- 
 dends. The shareholders would have the security of Govern- 
 ment for payment in consideration of the benefit to be derived 
 
222 
 
 from having a low and uniform tariff for passengers and goods 
 established throughout the country, and a reduction made in the 
 present fares and charges from twenty to eighty per cent., ac- 
 cording to the necessity of each case. No one could question, 
 per se, the exceeding desirability of such a change. That the 
 great arteries of communication throughout the country should 
 be really opened up to the public; that the artisan, for instance, 
 who now pays from London to Liverpool and back again, to the 
 London and North-Western, the Great Northern, or the Great 
 Western, one day II. 13s. 6d., and another day 12*. 6d., as it 
 may suit their whim, convenience, or interest, should have that 
 charge permanently reduced to six shillings and threepence, 
 and the fares for the other classes reduced according to the 
 circumstances of the case ; and on the same principle, a corre- 
 sponding reduction in the carriage of minerals, general mer- 
 chandise, parcels, &c. 
 
 What necessity would there, then, exist for any special inter- 
 ference, or control, on the part of the executive, if all our 
 railways were under one general management, any more than 
 there is with the Board of Customs or Excise ? In the London 
 and North-Western Company, as we have seen, are comprised 
 about thirty original companies at one time all independent 
 lines ; it is now proposed to amalgamate the Lancashire and 
 Yorkshire with this great company. The united receipts of the 
 two companies exceeded the aggregate sum received from all the 
 railways in the kingdom, when the project was first mooted of 
 Government purchase, twenty years ago. 
 
 It might, perhaps, be objected that Government would refuse 
 its support to any project to which the national credit would 
 be pledged, without having the patronage and control that 
 might fairly be supposed, in such case, to belong to it. But, 
 so far from this being the case, I believe it will be found 
 that it is this patronage question, and the supposed neces- 
 sity of its exercise on the part of the Crown, which has, up 
 to the present time, paralyzed the action of Government, and 
 
223 
 
 deprived the country of the full advantage that would other- 
 wise be derived from the possession of the railways by the 
 State. 
 
 I have noticed all these plans by which the railways could 
 be managed, in order to show that there is no necessity that 
 the railway department should be a branch of Government, in 
 the sense in which that term is generally understood. It will 
 be for the Legislature when the proper time arrives to 
 fashion and mould the management of our railways to what- 
 ever it may deem most consistent with the public welfare. 
 Probably the third plan I have sketched out would be found 
 most in harmony with constitutional government. 
 
 One of the most important advantages to the public from 
 the possession of the railways by the State would arise from the 
 great saving that would be effected in their management under 
 one general consolidated system, more especially when those 
 who had the management of affairs were intimately acquainted 
 with the local peculiarities of each line. Captain Laws, in his 
 examination before the committee, laid great stress on this 
 point, and this gentleman's opinion as to the great saving that 
 would be effected by the amalgamation of all the railways 
 was especially referred to by Mr. Gladstone in introducing 
 the bill of 1844 : " Captain Laws is of opinion," said Mr. 
 Gladstone, " that if railways were placed under the general 
 control of Government a saving of twenty-five per cent, 
 would be effected to the public. Now this is material to 
 consider. In the present state of the question, the elements 
 which enter into it are rude and unformed, and the evidence, I 
 admit, is not complete." That was in 1844. Whether or not 
 the experience of twenty additional years in the working of 
 our railways has, in Mr. Gladstone's mind, completed the 
 evidence and enabled him to arrive at a definite opinion on the 
 subject, I am unable to say. 
 
 We are opposed in this country to what is generally 
 termed " centralization," and we have seen with what feel- 
 ings of jealousy all amalgamations, or attempts to amalga- 
 
 * 
 
224 
 
 mate, on the part of the great companies, are regarded hy the 
 country and the Legislature. In the last session of Parlia- 
 ment, we had a notable instance of this feeling the refusal 
 of the Legislature to sanction the amalgamation of some 
 of the great Scotch railways, although the public would have 
 had secured to them an immediate reduction in charges of 
 thirty per cent. ; but the parties most interested petitioned 
 against the amalgamation, from a vague fear of what the con- 
 sequences might be if the companies should have in the 
 district the uncontrolled monopoly of conveyance, and the 
 latter naturally refuse, without the amalgamation, to make 
 the reduction. What a commentary this incident is in itself on 
 our whole system ! The public and the Legislature refuse to 
 trust the companies with the power they require, and the com- 
 panies naturally decline to make the reduction in charges 
 without being allowed to amalgamate ; and all parties are thus, 
 through mutual distrust, deprived of the advantages they would 
 otherwise possess. But notwithstanding the jealousy both of 
 people and Legislature, the natural course of events has brought 
 about many of these amalgamations, which in many cases have 
 been equally beneficial to the public and to the companies. 
 Each extension of the amalgamation system is a forward step 
 in the progress of centralization, proceeding onward, it is to be 
 hoped, till all the railways in the kingdom shall be comprised 
 under one system of management. In order to form an opinion 
 as to the manner in which amalgamation affects the public, let us 
 look at the working of one company the London and North- 
 Western. This company, as everybody knows, is formed by 
 the amalgamation of the London and Birmingham, the Grand 
 Junction, the Liverpool and Manchester, and added to these 
 are some five-and-twenty smaller companies ; all these rail- 
 ways are now united under one proprietary management and 
 central authority. How, then, would the country approve of 
 this union being dissolved, and each of the thirty component 
 parts of which it is formed resuming its original position as an 
 independent company, each having its own fares, charges, and 
 
 P 
 
225 
 
 regulations, and passengers paying their fares and changing 
 their carriages at every railway ? It is only by picturing to our- 
 selves the result of a retrograde movement, one towards de- 
 centralizing our railways, and making each independent of its 
 neighbour, that we can form a correct estimate of the relative 
 character of the two systems. All the companies find it neces- 
 sary to carry out among themselves, so far as the law permits, 
 a modified system of centralization ; but without legislative 
 sanction they can do little more than make arrangements for 
 their passengers being conveyed over several lines in the same 
 carriage, without the inconvenience of having to divide the pay- 
 ment of their fares among the several companies over whose 
 lines they must pass. So far as regards the internal working 
 of each company, the directors can make no arrangements for 
 reducing their expenditure through the process of amalgama- 
 tion, without the direct sanction of the Legislature. 
 
 It must therefore be obvious, that the more completely the 
 amalgamation or centralization of our railways is effected, the 
 expenditure in connection with them will be so much less, and 
 the accommodation to the public may be made so much the 
 greater ; but, on the other hand, the more these amalgamations 
 are allowed to extend, so also is increased the power of the 
 companies to whom such extension is permitted, and the security 
 of their monopoly the more confirmed; hence the jealousy 
 with which these amalgamations are viewed, both by the 
 country and the Legislature, and the unwillingness on the part 
 of the latter, unless a very strong case is made out, to permit 
 their being carried into effect. 
 
 The case would be altogether different if the railways were 
 in the hands of the State, and, as a matter of course, 
 under the immediate control of the Legislature. At one 
 time in the history of this country it would have been im- 
 possible to effect such a change in our commercial policy 
 as that provided for by the Act of 1844, but the duties of a 
 Government have of late years been viewed in a very different 
 
 Q 
 
226 
 
 light by the English people from what they were at a former 
 period. But a few years since comparatively our Eastern 
 Empire was managed by a great joint-stock company, subject 
 to a "Board of Control." There was a divided authority, 
 and consequently a divided responsibility; the merchant 
 princes of Leadenhall Street did not at all times bow to the 
 behests of their rulers in Cannon Row, and went even so far 
 in some cases as to assert their independence of the wishes 
 of their liege lords, and act in direct opposition to their 
 views. At an eventful crisis in Eastern affairs the common 
 sense of this country decided that, in a matter of such 
 vast importance as the government of our Indian Empire, a 
 divided responsibility was opposed to all sound policy, and that 
 a joint-stock company, however intelligent and honourable its 
 directors might be, was placed in a false position when allowed 
 to share in the management of a great empire. The East India 
 Company was in consequence dissolved, and the power held by it 
 transferred to the British Government, and the patronage to the 
 British nation. The direct management of Indian affairs was 
 entrusted to a high officer of State, responsible, of course, to 
 the Legislature for the way in which those affairs were con- 
 ducted, and having for his advisers the elite of the extinct 
 Board of Directors. 
 
 One of the changes I have suggested in the management of 
 our railways, in the event of their being made national property, 
 is strictly analogous to the scheme of government adopted by 
 the Legislature in regard to our East India possessions. How 
 far the analogy can be carried out in other respects between the 
 two cases I am not prepared to say. Many, however, may be 
 inclined to think that a matter involving the annual payment 
 of the British people to the amount of THIRTY-FIVE MILLIONS 
 sterling is not less worthy of attention than the government 
 of a distant empire, the interests of which, however important 
 they may be, only affect us indirectly. 
 
 The term of probation granted to the present system will 
 
227 
 
 expire in 1865 ; and, in the ordinary course of events, a com- 
 mittee, I presume, will be appointed in the approaching session 
 of Parliament to investigate the respective merits and demerits 
 of the two systems, and turn to practical account the long 
 experience we have had in the working of our railways. 
 
 Of the thirteen members of the House of Commons "who 
 in 1844 formed the General Committee on Railways, and 
 on whose recommendation the Act was passed, there remain 
 only two in the present House, viz., Mr. Gladstone and Mr. 
 Horsman. That Mr. Gladstone contemplated the probability 
 of the provisional clauses of the Act, viz., the right of pur- 
 chase on the part of the State, being one day brought into 
 operation, may be gathered from his own statement, in which he 
 expressly declared that those clauses of the bill that authorized, 
 under certain conditions, the purchase of railways by the 
 Government, were the essential parts of the bill ; and, notwith- 
 standing the strong opposition which these clauses encountered, 
 the second reading was carried by a majority of nearly two 
 to one. Whether or not that bill is to become a dead letter, 
 will most probably be determined during the present year. 
 
 Public opinion in this, as in every other country, is of very 
 slow growth, and necessarily the more slow, if it runs counter 
 to the prejudices and feelings of the people. Our commercial 
 policy is to leave to public companies the management of our 
 great industrial works, and however much the nation was 
 dissatisfied with the railway companies in 1844, there was no 
 disposition on its part to abolish the system, or adopt the 
 organic change shadowed forth in the Government bill. 
 It was considered by those at that time in power that, if 
 eventually it should be found necessary to reconstruct our rail- 
 way system, it would require twenty years to prepare the public 
 for so great a change. It is not through the intervention, in 
 the first instance, of those who are the most deeply interested 
 in great and beneficial changes in our national policy, that 
 such changes are generally brought about. In this, as in 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 
 
 so many other cases, the demands of public opinion lag 
 immeasurably behind the requirements of reason and good 
 sense. The measures, for instance, taken for the abolition of 
 the corn laws, so far from originating with the working class 
 that class most interested in their abolition met for a consi- 
 derable time with their most active opposition; had it there- 
 fore depended on the people, in the conventional sense in which 
 that term is used, so far from the repeal of the corn laws 
 having been carried triumphantly through Parliament, the bill 
 would never have been even introduced. 
 
 In the discussion of the Kail way Bill in 1844, there was no 
 point touched on but the inefficiency of Government manage- 
 ment, it being assumed throughout as a matter of course that 
 the possession of the railways by the State necessarily implied 
 their management by Government. That fallacy, it is to be 
 hoped, is now abandoned, but at that time it had the effect of 
 diverting men's minds from the subject under consideration. All 
 the great economic truths involved in the discussion of the 
 question were entirely ignored by the opponents of the bill ; 
 the evidence of the most eminent and experienced men of the 
 railway world was never once referred to, and the important 
 statistics of the Board of Trade bearing on the subject were 
 never noticed ; all these matters were passed by for the pur- 
 pose of attacking the principle supposed to be involved in the 
 bill, viz., a great increase of power and patronage to Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 It must be remembered that at this time the subject had 
 been but little considered in this country ; our statistical infor- 
 mation was mainly derived from foreign sources, and all the 
 projectors who then proposed the purchase of railways by the 
 State admitted, as a necessary consequence, that their direct 
 management must be given to Government, notwithstanding 
 its manifest unfitness for such a task, and the great increase 
 of power and patronage it would thereby acquire. The charge, 
 therefore, which ministers had then to contend with was, that 
 
220 
 
 under pretext of passing a useful practical measure, they 
 were introducing a bill founded on unconstitutional principles, 
 that should therefore be strenuously opposed. 
 
 But the expediency of carrying this Act into effect will be 
 discussed under very different circumstances in 1865 from 
 those in 1844. 
 
 A great deal of distress and suffering has of late years been 
 inflicted on the lower classes of the metropolis by the extensive 
 displacement consequent on the extended introduction of rail- 
 ways into London, and the recent mania for still further 
 extension at one time threatened to increase the evil to an 
 alarming extent. Railway companies naturally select those 
 districts for their lines where property is the least valuable, 
 and, consequently, those who are the most interested in it 
 have the fewest rights to maintain, and, what in such matters 
 is of great importance, where they are least capable of main- 
 taining them. It is in the homes of the poorest classes 
 that the companies attain both these objects; the great bulk 
 of the poorer class of London, artisans and all grades 
 from that position downward, are weekly tenants, all their 
 " rights " are confined to a week's notice from their landlords, 
 and at the expiration of that brief notice " they have the 
 world before them where to choose." Their homes are broken 
 up, and, in the great majority of cases, they are obliged to seek 
 their dwellings in some other suburb, a considerable distance 
 from where they follow their daily avocations ; the law gives 
 them no redress from the companies, who have only to arrange 
 their terms with their landlords. Now, one would naturally 
 suppose that a grievance of this sort, that may be said literally to 
 come home to the poorest classes, would have excited a strong 
 feeling among the public generally, and the working classes 
 particularly, as being especially affected by these railway exten- 
 sions into the metropolis. We might suppose that to avert 
 this threatened invasion, or to indemnify them from its results, 
 a regular organized agitation would have been got up, and 
 
280 
 
 that those who put themselves forward, par excellence, as the 
 exclusive defenders of the rights and privileges of the poor, 
 and are well skilled in the various ways that popular feeling is 
 brought to bear on every grievance, would have done something 
 on an occasion like the present. The public, however, allowed 
 matters to take their course, and nothing was done outside the 
 walls of Parliament. To the committee, presided over by 
 Lord Stanley, was entrusted the important task of selecting 
 those lines that would afford the greatest accommodation to 
 the metropolis. This task occupied the committee to near the 
 close of the session, and the selection of lines the committee 
 has made appears to have given general satisfaction. 
 
 One great advantage connected with the discussion of any 
 proposed reform in our railway system is the entire absence 
 of all party or political feeling in reference thereto. One of 
 the most zealous supporters of the Government bill of 1844 
 was Mr. Labouchere, who had been President of the Board of 
 Trade in the former administration, and at the present time, 
 the complaint of Lord Derby against the Government is not 
 that they have interfered too much, but that they have 
 not taken the initiative in those measures that might be 
 considered necessary for the better management of our 
 railways. 
 
 To our legislators in their individual capacity we are indebted, 
 in no small degree, for these great reforms, constitutional and 
 commercial, that in the course of the last thirty or forty years 
 have brought about such a wonderful change in the state of 
 this country. It would be impossible to refer to any great 
 measure of reform, without identifying it with one or more 
 members of Parliament, to whose unwearied exertions it may 
 have been for many years we are indebted for the creation 
 and formation of that public opinion through which those 
 measures became ultimately the law of the land. To overcome 
 the vis inertia of mankind has been in all ages and countries 
 a matter of the greatest difficulty, and it is only when the 
 
231 
 
 attempt to do so proceeds from an influential quarter that 
 there is any likelihood of its being successful. 
 
 Every word spoken by a man of eminence, either in Parlia- 
 ment or elsewhere, on public occasions, is noted down and 
 circulated throughout the length and breadth of the land. All 
 newspapers, without distinction of party, give currency to his 
 opinions, expressed in his own words ; those opinions are made 
 the subject of comment, favourable or otherwise, as the case 
 may be, and thus commences the growth of what we call 
 PUBLIC OPINION. So, in regard to railway reform, it has 
 scarcely arrived at the first stage of existence. The Go- 
 vernment Bill, as yet, is a dead letter, but at some future day 
 it may become a living principle ; now it is a mere idea, but 
 in the course of time that idea may develop itself into a 
 great plan, recognized by the nation, adopted by the Legisla- 
 ture, and working for the benefit of the whole community 
 through all classes of society. 
 
CHAPTEK IV. 
 
 Classification of the Groundwork of Railway Reform The two main 
 Grounds Different Charges in Fares on the London and Blackwall 
 Railway The last Change and its Results The Glasgow and 
 Greenock Line The slight Difference in the Results between high 
 and low Fares Evidence before the Committee of 1844 on the 
 Subject Railways into London Displacement of the Poor Cheap 
 Morning and Evening Trains The Earl of Derby's Resolution in 
 the House of Lords the most important since the Introduction of 
 Parliamentary Trains The Effect of Government Purchase on the 
 Money Market Resume. 
 
 THE desirability of carrying into full effect the Railway Act 
 of 1844 rests, as we have seen, on the following distinct 
 grounds : 
 
 1st. In a financial point of view, it makes but compara- 
 tively little difference to a company whether, within certain 
 limits, its fares and charges be very high or very low ; these 
 limits being three farthings per mile on the one hand, and 
 threepence halfpenny per mile on the other for first-class 
 passengers, and the other two classes in proportion. 
 
 2nd. As a general rule, the directors of companies find that 
 what are called moderate charges, avoiding either extreme, 
 are the most profitable ; and twopence farthing per mile for 
 first-class passengers, and the other classes in proportion, may 
 be taken as the average fares on our railways, such fares being 
 three times greater than those charged on the cheap lines ; the 
 latter, however, from exceptional causes, paying as high divi- 
 dends as those lines on which high fares are charged. 
 
233 
 
 3rd. The purchase of railways by the State does not 
 necessarily involve either Government management or patron- 
 age; it may be a matter for discussion whether it would be 
 desirable to have the head of the department a minister of 
 the Crown, removable on any change of administration, or 
 have the appointment permanent, as that of Chairman of the 
 Board of Customs or Excise. The question of patronage 
 would not in any case extend beyond a few appointments, and 
 could very well be dispensed with. If railways become the 
 property of the State, no essential change in the present 
 management might be necessary, and such change should 
 be confined to those measures necessary to bring the manage- 
 ment under the effective and immediate control of the Legis- 
 lature. 
 
 4th. It is a matter of the greatest national importance that 
 a large reduction should be made in our railway fares 
 and charges, the amount paid last year exceeding thirty-one 
 millions sterling, with an annual increase of more than two 
 millions ; inasmuch as a first-class passenger can be conveyed 
 sixteen miles for a penny, in a moderately loaded train 
 and a ton of goods or minerals can be conveyed eight 
 miles for a penny, the present charges are utterly dispro- 
 portioned to the cost of conveyance ; and so far from any 
 likelihood existing of their being reduced, the directors are 
 rather disposed to raise them, and a considerable rise has taken 
 place on some of the great lines within the last few months. 
 
 5th. Inasmuch as the credit of the State is superior to 
 that of private credit in the ratio of more than four to three, 
 that credit ought to be made available, as contemplated by the 
 Act of 1844, for effecting an arrangement with the shareholders, 
 and reducing the fares and charges by at least two-thirds of 
 their present amount. 
 
 , 6th. Independently of the abstract right of the Legisla- 
 ture to deal with all property in the kingdom, there exists 
 on the part of the shareholders a desire to have a well-secured 
 
234 
 
 fixed interest for their invested capital in preference to uncer- 
 tain and fluctuating dividends, 
 
 7th. There would be a great saving effected by having all 
 the railways in the kingdom under one consolidated manage- 
 ment, and a great benefit conferred on the public by the adop- 
 tion of a low and uniform tariff for passengers and goods, &c. 
 
 The two main propositions of the foregoing ones are the 
 1st and 4th. On these two, in fact, the Government bill is 
 based ; and unless they are fully maintained by incontro- 
 vertible evidence, the whole scheme falls to the ground. It is 
 necessary, therefore, to go into the evidence bearing on these 
 two points in somewhat greater detail than we have yet done. 
 It is to be hoped that the discussion of this national ques- 
 tion will take a much wider range the next time it comes under 
 the consideration of the House of Commons than it did 
 on the last, and that all the valuable materials we now possess 
 for investigating the merits of the two systems in all their 
 details will be turned to good account. 
 
 At the present time there are few of those extreme fluctuations 
 in the range of railway fares that were so common before the 
 experience of directors and managers enabled them to settle at 
 once the best-paying tariff. Our statistical information, there- 
 fore, on that point is principally derived from the management 
 of railways when the subject was less understood than it is at 
 present ; there are, however, some exceptions. 
 
 The fares on the London and Blackwall line, four miles in 
 length, were, at its opening for first class, 4c?. ; second, 3d. 
 The second class was raised, some time after, to 4c?., and the 
 first to 6d. A further rise took place in September, 1841. The 
 first class was raised to 8e?., and the second class to 6d., and 
 the same fares between all the intermediate stations, although 
 the distance between some of the stations little exceeds half a 
 mile. This tariff lasted only for two months, when the fares 
 were reduced between the intermediate stations to the former 
 rates of Qd. and 4c?. Another change took place in the follow- 
 
235 
 
 ing March, when the fares between Blackwall and London were 
 reduced to 6d. and 4^., and between the intermediate stations 
 to 4d. and 3d. 
 
 The directors, in their report to their shareholders, at their 
 half-yearly meeting held in February, 1843, thus notice the 
 result of raising the fares in the previous year : 
 
 "The fares of the railways were raised on the 12th of Sep- 
 tember; and the directors were much mortified to find that the 
 result showed a very considerable diminution, not only of the 
 numbers carried, but of the money received. The increase 
 during the previous summer had not been inconsiderable; and 
 in the eight weeks prior to the 12th of September, which offered 
 the fairest means of comparison with the former year, as 
 they go back to the opening of the Fenchurch Station on the 
 2nd September, 1841, the receipts show an increase of about 
 
 1 6 per cent, over those of the previous year ; whereas those of 
 the eight weeks following the 12th of September show a 
 diminution of 41 per cent, in the number of passengers, and 
 
 17 per cent, in the revenue, as compared with the eight corre- 
 sponding weeks." 
 
 It formed no part of the business of the directors to refer to 
 the loss inflicted on the public by raising the fares during these 
 two months ; but the evil, in a commercial point of view, so 
 far as regarded the interests of the company, worked its own 
 cure, and the fares were reduced to what was considered the 
 highest paying point. It will be seen that the directors of that 
 day far exceeded anything that ever had been attempted as 
 regards high fares. The directors appeared to think that all 
 they had to do to increase the revenue of the company was to 
 increase the fares ; but when certain limits are exceeded, they 
 soon tell their tale. 
 
 Passing over twenty years, let us now consider the last 
 change the directors made in the fares and its results. In 
 July, 1863, they reduced the intermediate fares on the line 
 between thirty and forty per cent.; there was an enormous 
 increase in the number of passengers, and without any increase 
 in the expenditure; but the increase in the company's re- 
 ceipts for the half-year amounted only to 120/. The chair- 
 
236 
 
 man stated at the half-yearly meeting, held in February, 
 that, however profitable the reduction in fares might be 
 to the public, the company derived no benefit from the 
 change, but intimated that the experiment would be tried 
 for some time longer. On looking to the company's receipts 
 as published in the papers, for the six months ending the 
 30th of June, under the low-fare system, we find they amount to 
 46,56 1/., as compared with 45,817/. for the corresponding 
 half-year , under the high-fare system. This, in itself, is a 
 mere trifle, not even affecting the dividend ; and the directors 
 will probably think themselves justified in continuing the 
 reduction beyond the expiration of the current half-year, and 
 not raising the fares 50 per cent. 
 
 Now here is a subject for statesmen to ponder, and we 
 could not choose an illustration more in point of the working 
 of the present system. The London and Blackwall Railway 
 was constructed for the accommodation of the poorest and 
 most densely populated district of the metropolis; the fares 
 are moderate, three halfpence and a penny per mile, for the 
 two classes of passengers ; but considering the poverty of 
 the district through which the railway runs, it is pretty cer- 
 tain, that if the fares for the whole distance, four miles, were 
 reduced to twopence and one penny respectively for the two, 
 they might pay nearly, although possibly not quite, as well as 
 the present fares. The directors, no doubt, would be glad if 
 they could accommodate the public by further reducing their 
 fares to the level of their neighbour, the North London, if 
 they could do so with justice to their shareholders ; but in- 
 stead of doing so, they may eventually feel themselves obliged 
 to return to the old fares; it just turns on the chance of their 
 taking a few hundred pounds less in the course of the year. 
 The number of passengers conveyed in each train on the 
 London and Blackwall, according to the last returns, was ninety- 
 one ; and by the North London, one hundred and fifty-five. 
 
 There were conveyed on the London and Blackwall Railway 
 
287 
 
 last year, upwards of TEN MILLION passengers ; yet in this 
 densely populated district, this teeming hive of industry, where 
 time may almost literally be said to be money, probably three 
 times that number were obliged to travel on foot, who would 
 have been able to pay a penny for their fare, and could have 
 been carried at a mere nominal increase in the expense, as 
 the trains are running comparatively empty. 
 
 One more instance. The length of the Glasgow and 
 Greenock line is twenty-two and a half miles. There was an 
 active competition carried on for some time between the rail- 
 way company and the owners of steam-boats on the Clyde ; 
 the third-class fare by the railway, which had formerly been 
 a shilling for the entire distance, was reduced to sixpence, and 
 the opposition was carried on for two years ; there was, of 
 course, an enormous increase in the number of passengers, but 
 an arrangement having been come to between the contending 
 parties, the railway company returned to their original fares ; 
 the difference in the company's receipts, after the change, was 
 rather in their favour, but it amounted only to one shilling 
 per cent, per annum increase on their dividend. 
 
 To those who would wish to go into this branch of the 
 subject at greater length, I would refer to the evidence laid 
 in a tabular form before the Select Committee of 1844, in 
 which are noted down the several variations in the fares on a 
 number of railways, and their financial results ; and it will 
 there be found, that the most extreme case, either of raising 
 or lowering the fares, did not make a greater difference to 
 the shareholders than twelve shillings per cent, per annum. 
 The loss to the shareholders of the Edinburgh and Glasgow 
 Companies, which I have noticed in a previous chapter, was 
 one per cent, per annum, in consequence of their great reduc- 
 tion in fares, but this took place only ten years since. 
 
 The Earl of Derby's resolution passed in the House of 
 Lords, in the last session of Parliament, that railway 
 
238 
 
 companies entering the metropolis " should provide a cheap 
 transit for the labouring classes to and from their labour 
 by a morning and evening train," is the most important 
 measure for the working classes that has been adopted by 
 either House in reference to railway travelling since the 
 passing of the Act establishing Parliamentary trains. What 
 at one time threatened to be a serious calamity, their dis- 
 placement from their homes, may be converted into the means 
 of effecting a great and beneficial change in their habits of 
 life, giving them a pure atmosphere for one foul and foetid, 
 in which they hitherto have been obliged to live when not 
 actually engaged in their daily labour. Such a change can- 
 not be effected without being productive of the greatest benefit 
 to their social and moral condition. 
 
 Objection has been taken to the interference of Lord 
 Derby, on the grounds of its being "injudicious and inope- 
 rative ; " that as some of the companies have offered to do 
 voluntarily what he proposes to secure by Act of Parliament, 
 therefore the Act is unnecessary, "Competition," says the 
 same authority, "can and will effect more for the public 
 than all the Acts of Parliament in the Statute-book." 
 It is curious to observe how the advocates of the railway 
 interest deal with the vexed subject of " competition ; " if it 
 is proposed to make a new line, that may affect the interests of 
 another company, nothing in that case can be made more plain, 
 than that competition in regard to railways is totally useless, 
 that the two companies will be sure to "unite, and so far 
 from the public deriving any advantage from increased railway 
 facilities for travelling, the companies will make the public pay 
 all the unnecessary expenditure they are put to." When the 
 public acknowledge the truth of these representations, and en- 
 deavour, to some little extent, to protect themselves by legal 
 enactments, they are then told, in high-sounding phrases, that 
 these do more harm than good, and the public would be better 
 
239 
 
 served by leaving the remedy to competition. " Means can 
 always be found," says this writer, " of evading or nullifying 
 public statutes." Not always, nor indeed ever where there is a 
 large class interested in taking care that they should not be 
 evaded ; take the case most in point, Parliamentary trains how 
 could the companies nullify or evade the Act by which they are 
 obliged to run them ? It would be unfair to assume that they 
 have any wish to evade the law, but it must be remembered, 
 an Act of Parliament called this class of trains into existence, 
 that they never would have been instituted but on compulsion, 
 or by express agreement ; and if the law compelling the com- 
 panies to maintain these trains were abolished, they would at 
 once altogether cease. The Great Western's Parliamentary train 
 leaves London for the West of England, at 6 A.M.; and 
 the fare to Exeter, for instance, is 14s. 3 \d. ; but if a traveller 
 is unable to reach the station in time for that train, he must 
 pay II. 5s. by any other train during the day. If, on the Great 
 Northern line, a traveller miss the morning train going to 
 York, by which he would pay 15s. 10 5^., by any other train 
 during the day he would have to pay II. 6s. 6d. On the Great 
 Eastern to Norwich, the fare by the Parliamentary train is 
 9s. 5^d. ; but by any of the ordinary third-class carriages, the 
 fare is 14s. 3d. On the great railways, the utmost farthing 
 the law allows is charged, nor is any additional accommodation 
 given to what the law compels ; in all this, there is no fair 
 matter of complaint against the companies. It is quite suffi- 
 cient that they obey the law ; but it must be clearly understood, 
 that were it not that the law compels the maintenance of these 
 Parliamentary trains, the companies would immediately give 
 them up. This will be evident, if we consider the manage- 
 ment of the railway companies in reference to them. It must 
 be remembered, that no small proportion of the travellers 
 in Parliamentary trains are women and children, and to 
 find their way in winter, at an early hour, to stations at 
 the extremities of the metropolis, when there are no public 
 
240 
 
 conveyances in the streets, is very far from sufficiently 
 meeting the wants of the working classes. The companies 
 say with truth, that unless the hours of departure were made 
 as inconvenient as they well can he the Parliamentary trains 
 would he made use of hy those for whom they never were 
 intended ; the policy of the London and North-Western 
 Company is, however, an exception in this respect, to that of 
 most other companies, as they despatch their Parliamentary 
 trains at reasonable hours during the day. 
 
 It is impossible to over-estimate the importance of the 
 movement made hy Lord Derby in reference to the resolution 
 passed by the Lords at his instance, rendering it compulsory 
 on railway companies to convey passengers between the city and 
 where they may reside in the vicinity, morning and evening, for 
 a penny each way without reference to distance. It is to be hoped 
 that Lord Derby intends, as Mr. Gladstone did twenty years 
 ago, to invite the old companies to join in the movement for 
 giving greater facility for railway travelling to the working 
 classes. The movement cannot stop there. If one person 
 travel on a railway paying a farthing per mile, his neighbour, 
 who does not happen to belong to the privileged class, will not 
 long submit to paying perhaps five or six times that fare, 
 travelling by the same train and in the same class. The evil 
 will in time, to some extent, work its own cure, but that is no 
 reason why it should be unnecessarily continued. 
 
 The other subject to which I have referred as affecting the 
 Government, and requiring perhaps some further elucidation, 
 is the manner in which the purchase of railways should be 
 effected, and how their purchase by the Government would 
 operate on the money market ; but we must first direct our 
 attention to the financial position of railways, so far as regards 
 the profit that would accrue to Government if the latter 
 purchased the shares, giving the shareholders a bonus of 
 15 per cent, on the market price. 
 
 We have already had occasion to notice that the value of a 
 
241 
 
 railway cannot be calculated solely from the dividends it may 
 pay at any particular time to the shareholders ; although, as a 
 matter of course, the dividend forms a very important element 
 in the calculation. The Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln 
 Company paid, in 1863, only fifteen shillings on their 100/. 
 shares ; yet they could not be obtained for less than 40/. per 
 share. If the dividend had been the only criterion to ascertain 
 the value of the shares, their value would not have exceeded 
 151. ; but the shareholders considered they had good reason to 
 expect that their dividend would be, in 1864, at least three 
 times as much, and there is every probability of their not being 
 disappointed. On the other hand, although the South-E astern 
 Company paid a dividend on their year's earnings of 51. 3s. 4d., 
 yet the price of their shares was only about 85/., whereas they 
 should be worth 201. more if the above dividend was to be the 
 test of their value ; but the public, for many reasons not neces- 
 sary to notice, thought that the South-Eastern could not main- 
 tain their dividends. 
 
 In times of great prosperity, when money is very abundant, 
 there is naturally a difficulty in finding a good investment for 
 money. In 1844, when Consols, for a short time, were at par, 
 investments in the best railway property would not, on an 
 average, pay a higher interest than 4/. 7*. 6d. per cent. ; but 
 that time was altogether exceptional, and lasted only for a few 
 months. 
 
 In ordinary times, with Consols say at 90, railway property 
 can be purchased to pay 5 per cent. ; but so far as the purchase 
 of railways by Government is concerned, it would make but 
 little difference, either to the State or the shareholders, at what 
 time a purchase might be made, as Government stock is 
 subject to the same influence as railway stock, and rises or 
 falls in value, although not to the same extent, as these in- 
 fluences act on it. 
 
 The average difference of interest between an investment in 
 Government stock, and an investment in ordinary railway stock, 
 
242 
 
 may be taken at II. 10s. per cent, so that, after paying 
 fifteen shillings to the shareholder, there would remain the 
 same to Government to make up for the loss by the reduction 
 in fares and charges ; or, in other words, of the increase in the 
 value of income derived from the conversion of railway shares 
 into Government stock, the profit would be equally divided 
 between the two parties. It is hardly necessary to observe 
 that if the Act of 1844 be carried out, and the market price 
 of shares be the basis on which they should be purchased 
 and it would be difficult to devise any other a day would 
 be named for taking prices previous to that on which the 
 Act comes into operation. 
 
 It might, however, be supposed that to pass a Bill authoriz- 
 ing the Government to create such an enormous amount of 
 stock as would enable them to purchase all the railways in the 
 kingdom, would create such a convulsion in the money market, 
 and cause such a depression in the price of Government stock, 
 as might be attended by the most disastrous results. Such, 
 no doubt, would be the case if the measure were compulsory; 
 but nothing of the kind is suggested. Shareholders would 
 not accept Government terms, unless they were favourable ; 
 and would continue to hold their shares till Government 
 stock was at a better price. If a large number of companies 
 simultaneously sold their lines to Government, and many of 
 the shareholders realized, it would, no doubt, affect the price 
 of Government stock ; in that case the sales to Government 
 would decrease till the market regained its natural tone. 
 
 There is but little doubt that the great bulk of shareholders 
 would remain permanent holders of Government stock ; as in 
 the case, however, of allotments in joint-stock companies, there 
 would be many anxious at once to realize the profits made by 
 the transaction. 
 
 Besides the original shares in companies, there are also 
 guaranteed and preference stock. The Legislature would deal 
 with these shares in a different way from that in which they 
 
243 
 
 would deal with the ordinary stock of a company ; this stock 
 is, for the greater part, secure against risk, and the variation in 
 the price is consequently limited. A much less premium would 
 be sufficient for this class of stock shareholders, than for the 
 original holders. The bondholders would probably be satisfied 
 with a small bonus to save the Government the trouble of a 
 loan. 
 
 The strongest argument, perhaps, that can be used to prove 
 the possibility, in a monetary sense, of the purchase of the 
 railways by the State, is somewhat negative in its character, viz., 
 that during the passing of the Act of 1844, notwithstanding 
 the strong opposition it encountered in the House, no one ever 
 suggested a doubt as to the possibility of Government carry- 
 ing out the measure, if deemed necessary at a future time by the 
 Legislature. Nor was Sir R. Peel a man likely to sanction a 
 Government measure about the success of which there could be 
 a reasonable doubt. 
 
 How would such a measure affect the national credit ? 
 
 If, on being brought forward and discussed, it should be 
 found in any way to injure it, that would, of course, make 
 an end of the project; but nothing could be more unlikely 
 than such a result ; to reduce our fares and charges to an 
 average of one-third of their present rate, would be to reduce 
 our payments by nearly TWENTY-FOUR MILLIONS STERLING. 
 
 The railways of the United Kingdom are managed by some 
 seventy or eighty independent companies at the cost of about 
 fifteen millions sterling per annum ; it would be a very moderate 
 assumption to suppose that two millions per annum would be 
 saved in the management by their amalgamation in one gene- 
 ral system. Taking the railway property of the kingdom as 
 worth four hundred millions sterling, three-fourths per cent, on 
 it would amount to three millions, and this sum, together with 
 the assumed saving in management, would amount, in all, to 
 five millions sterling. Whether or not this sum would be 
 sufficient to meet the deficiency that would result from 
 
 R 2 
 
244 
 
 adopting the comparatively low tariff I have indicated, would 
 be impossible for any one positively to say; but, judging 
 from analogy, it would be more than sufficient. Looking at the 
 account, however, in a national point of view, as there would be 
 a saving of twenty-four millions sterling to the country if 
 the charges on our railways were reduced to a third of their 
 present average amount ; so, whatever might be the expense 
 incurred beyond the five millions would be deducted from 
 the twenty-four millions, and the result would show the net 
 gain to the nation. 
 
 It may be said that by abandoning the conservative policy of 
 the present Parliament, encouraging competing lines, with- 
 drawing protection, and adopting similar measures, the value of 
 railway property would be much reduced, and Government 
 could purchase on its own terms. Such a proceeding would be 
 entirely opposed to the spirit of the Act of 1844, and not 
 likely to be acted on either by the nation, the Legislature, 
 or the Government ; assuming, of course, that the companies 
 were willing to meet fairly the views of the nation and the 
 Legislature. 
 
 It possibly might be feared by some that, in the event of 
 the public mind being directed towards this subject, there 
 would take place an immediate rise in railway shares, and 
 a successful combination of railway companies to defeat the 
 object for which the Act of 1844 was framed. So far from 
 that being the case, I believe it would be found that the general 
 feeling of both directors and shareholders is in favour of some 
 arrangement by which their property would be secured from the 
 great depreciation to which it is so frequently subjected, and 
 to secure this great object they would be willing to meet any 
 fair proposal on the part of Government. 
 
 But no combination of companies could prevent the success 
 of the scheme, provided that the country was thoroughly in 
 earnest and determined to have cheap travelling. Let us sup- 
 pose that all the companies did combine, and refuse to deal 
 
245 
 
 with the Government on such terms as the Legislature should 
 determine to offer; and, remembering the formidable support the 
 railway interest possesses in the House of Commons, we can 
 well suppose the terms would be liberal. The result would be 
 that all the protection that railway companies now enjoy would 
 be entirely withdrawn, and unlimited competition would be the 
 precursor of the downfall of the railway interest. Any suppo- 
 sition, therefore, of a combination on the part of the railways 
 against the country is quite absurd. They would, no doubt, 
 unite in an effort to get as high a price as they could, and make 
 the best bargain in their power with Government ; but, beyond 
 that, it is hardly likely any of them would venture to go. 
 
 The modus operandi by which Government would carry out 
 the scheme of purchase, would probably be somewhat after the 
 following fashion : the bonus for the different classes of shares 
 having been settled by the Legislature, and the day named for 
 which the Stock Exchange quotations from the share list 
 should be taken as the standard of prices, it would be 
 announced by Government that on and after such a day, all 
 companies that chose to accept the Government terms would be 
 dealt with. The Legislature in the meantime having settled 
 the tariff, both for passengers and goods, the Government 
 would only require to make a temporary arrangement with the 
 board of each company for carrying on the traffic, until the 
 bulk of the companies came in. The process, I apprehend, 
 would go on very rapidly. So soon as one of the great lines 
 towards the north should signify its adhesion to the Govern- 
 ment, and commence business on the Government tariff, it 
 would encourage all the other companies having lines in the 
 same direction to accept the Government terms, and thus the 
 extension of the scheme throughout the kingdom would soon 
 be accomplished. 
 
240 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Act of 1844 the Assertion of a Principle Two Modes of proceed- 
 ing under it A strong Case of Necessity required to be made out 
 Amount of Capital in Railways Percentage paid on it- Pre- 
 ference Shareholders and Bondholders Improbability of Share- 
 holders being disinclined to sell to Government Approaching 
 Half-yearly Meetings Continued War among the Companies 
 Extract from the Westminster Review Mr. Watkin on Govern- 
 ment Purchase of Railways Favours Scheme as a Director and 
 Shareholder Opposes it as a Senator and Citizen His Argu- 
 ments Probable Appointment of a Royal Commission considered. 
 
 THE Act of 1844 has always appeared to me more intended 
 for the assertion of a principle than as a special enactment by 
 which a great measure of reform could be carried out ; that 
 principle apparently was the recognition of the supremacy of 
 Parliament in railway matters at all times and under all cir- 
 cumstances. One of the principal objects the framers of this 
 Act appeared to have had in view was to impress on the minds 
 of railway proprietors, and especially directors, that, at the ex- 
 piration of twenty-one years from the time the Act was passed, 
 the present system should undergo a thorough parliamentary 
 investigation, and if its working should have proved unsatis- 
 factory, it should either be entirely abolished, or its details 
 so modified as to make it work in harmony with the other 
 institutions of the country. 
 
 It was evidently intended that, by the operation of this Act, 
 or by some other Act founded on the principle contained in it, 
 fares and freightage should be largely reduced throughout the 
 country ; and this could be effected either by purchasing up a 
 
247 
 
 few trunk lines running through different parts of the country, 
 and reducing the tariff as low as the Legislature would deem 
 desirable, which would have the effect of obliging the companies 
 to make charges equally low; or, the other plan that might have 
 been intended is the one I have proposed, viz. for Government 
 to purchase all the railways, and adopt a low and uniform 
 tariff throughout the country. Which of these two plans Mr. 
 Gladstone had in view is not very clear, but of this we may be 
 certain, that the bow was not drawn at a venture that sent 
 forth the shaft destined, on the 1st January, 1866, to pierce 
 the joints of the armour of railway monopoly. There can 
 be no doubt that to carry out the first plan would be strictly 
 in accordance with the Act and with the agreement entered 
 into between the Legislature and the railway companies ; but, 
 as we have already shown, if so carried out, and a very low 
 tariff adopted, it would bring ruin on the shareholders, and 
 reduce the value of their property not less probably than fifty 
 per cent. Eailway shareholders would, therefore, much prefer 
 to make the best agreement they could with the Government 
 for the disposal at once of all their property rather than have 
 it sacrificed in detail. 
 
 A very strong case, however, must be made out before the 
 Government could be induced to propose, or the Legislature 
 to sanction, a measure by which the nation, as it has been said, 
 "would incur the enormous responsibility of increasing the 
 national debt by some four hundred millions." We have 
 heretofore discussed the question merely on general principles ; 
 we must now go into some detail, make the best estimate we 
 can of the debit and credit sides of the account, and endea- 
 vour to approximate to the result. 
 
 The capital paid up by railway companies to the close of 
 1863 amounted to four hundred and four millions: to that 
 sum may be added twenty-one millions, the assumed sum 
 paid in calls in 1864 ; thus it would appear that the gross 
 amount of capital invested in our railways amounts to the 
 
248 
 
 enormous sum of FOUR HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE MILLIONS 
 sterling, comprised under three heads, viz. : 
 
 1st. Ordinary capital by shares ..215,000,000 
 2nd. Preferential capital . . . 102,000,000 
 3rd. Loans 108,000,000 
 
 ^425,000,000 
 
 The nett returns of the railways for 1863 yielded within a 
 small fraction of 4 per cent, on the invested capital. The 
 year 1864 has been much more prosperous for railway pro- 
 prietors, and the returns will probably pay a percentage of 
 4j per cent, on the capital invested. The holders of preferen- 
 tial stock and debenture loan notes receive on an average 
 about 4j per cent, interest on their investments ; and this must 
 be paid before the original shareholders receive anything. The 
 former class of holders are but little affected by the state of the 
 market or the financial position of the companies : they receive 
 their well-secured dividends or interest ; whilst their fellow 
 investors, who bore the burden and heat of the day, and took 
 on themselves all the risk of the speculation, must rest satisfied 
 with whatever they caii obtain after the claims of the privileged 
 class have been satisfied. In 1864 railways, as we have noticed, 
 will pay 4|- per cent., the highest dividend paid since 1847, so 
 that the original shareholders at length will receive the same 
 interest as the preferential holders. 
 
 As original railway stock pays now, on an average, 4j per 
 cent., and at the market price investors can purchase at a rate 
 that will pay them 5 per cent., it follows that the market value 
 of the ordinary stock at the present time is 194,000,000/. ; and 
 if to that sum be added a bonus of 15 per cent, on the value, it 
 will raise the amount in round numbers to 222,000,000/. 
 
 In regard to the preference and guaranteed shareholders 
 and bondholders, their claims, as we have seen, on the property 
 of the original shareholders amounts to 210,000,000/., about 
 one-half of the capital invested. Now this prudent and 
 
249 
 
 cautious class, who have risked little or nothing, are in a very 
 different position in regard to the amount of their claim for 
 compensation compared with that of the original shareholders. 
 Nevertheless, the amount is so large, their co-operation so 
 desirable if not indispensable, and the inconvenience they 
 would be put to so great if involved in such a projected 
 change, that an arrangement probably could not be effected 
 with them for a less bonus than 4 or 5 per cent., say ten 
 millions bonus on their invested capital, which would raise the 
 amount to 220,000,000/., which may be taken at par; that is 
 to say, a purchaser investing in guaranteed or preference stock 
 or in loan notes would require on an average 4j per cent. 
 The different companies vary very much in the degree of 
 credit they severally possess, and consequently in the terms on 
 which they can obtain money ; but 4|- per cent, may be taken 
 as the average rate. 
 
 The account would then stand thus : 
 
 Original shareholders market value 
 
 of their shares . . . J 194,000,000 
 
 Bonus 29,000,000 
 
 Preference or guaranteed capital or 
 
 loans 210,000,000 
 
 Bonus 10,000,000 
 
 ^443,000,000 
 
 Interest at 3j per cent., 15,500,000/., proposed future pay- 
 ment to the present shareholders and bondholders. 
 
 The actual marketable value of the railway property of the 
 kingdom amounts, by this estimate, to 404,000,000/. Invest- 
 ments in Consols, at the present time (December, 1864), pay 
 nearly 3 \ per cent, interest to the purchaser. Assuming that this 
 arrangement was made between the Government and the railway 
 interest, that there should be an equal division of the profit 
 between the State and the companies by the exchange of rail- 
 
250 
 
 way shares for Government stock, it would be a matter of mere 
 detail for duly qualified accountants to arrange the exact 
 amount for each party. The above is merely given as an 
 approximate estimate to. what it would be. 
 
 The purchase of railways by the Government would involve, it 
 is said, "an addition to the national debt of some 400,000, OOO/." 
 This, however, is a very incorrect way of describing such a 
 transaction ; the term " debt " would imply that the money was 
 spent, and nothing to show for it, as with our national debt. In 
 the present case it would be an investment of the credit of the 
 nation, when, so far from the money being lost, the State 
 might make a profit, if it so thought fit, by a continuance of 
 the present charges, of some five millions, more or less, per 
 annum. Any one who calls that " an addition of four hundred 
 millions to the national debt," and considers that a correct 
 way of stating the case, must either have a strange confusion 
 of ideas, or such a personal interest in having the matter 
 viewed in that light as to blind his better judgment. 
 
 I do not think it at all necessary to discuss the probability 
 of the shareholders, in the event of the nation desiring 
 eventually to become possessed of the railways, refusing to 
 accept whatever sum the supreme arbiter in such cases, the 
 Legislature, should, under the circumstances, think fair and 
 proper, nor weuld the opposition of interested parties be of 
 any avail, should the public be determined on having cheap 
 travelling and a low rate of freightage. 
 
 I believe there is no doubt that this important question, 
 involving the proprietorship and management of railways, will 
 at least be mooted in Parliament early in the session of 1865. 
 It is desirable for shareholders to consider the matter well, and 
 make up their minds as to the line of policy they will 
 adopt. What prospect, then, does the ordinary parliamentary 
 campaign present ? Since 1847 there have not been so many 
 projects introduced into Parliament, and that, too, at a time 
 when money has been at a most unexampled rate of interest ; 
 
251 
 
 nor did the great companies ever seem more determined to 
 carry on a fierce internecine war on the approach of any 
 former session, than they do now. English, Scotch, and 
 Irish seem equally determined to carry on an offensive or 
 defensive warfare. Here we have the Great Eastern" intro- 
 ducing its scheme again, in conjunction with the Lanca- 
 shire and Yorkshire, intending to fight its battle over again, 
 and force its way to the coalfields of the North, in spite of the 
 determined opposition of the Great Northern and the Man- 
 chester, Sheffield, and Lincoln. The latter company finds 
 itself in 1864 in a remarkable position : it is in the possession 
 of a dividend of j per cent.; in 1863 it had not half 
 that amount, and the year previous nothing whatever. So 
 now it may be considered rich, with abundance of money 
 to throw away. It undertakes to stop the Great Eastern on 
 one side, and to bid defiance to the London and North- 
 Western on the other, and with its allies, the Midland and 
 Great Northern, purposes to force its way to Liverpool. The 
 Scotch and Irish companies have, likewise, great campaigns 
 before them. 
 
 But if those gentlemen who are now so actively engaged in 
 preparing for renewed hostilities, would look around them, they 
 would, I think, see, in the signs of the times, opinions declared, 
 in certain influential quarters, which they would do well to 
 ponder, and, perhaps, they might then come to the conclusion 
 that there is another matter of much more importance to be 
 attended to than even their Parliamentary battles, and that is 
 the great fact that the public opinion of this country points, 
 in a manner not to be mistaken, to the total abolition of 
 railway monopoly ; " when," according to the opinion of the 
 Times, " the making of a "railway will be as free to capitalists 
 as the formation of a line of steamers." 
 
 "Existing railway companies complain," says the West- 
 minster Review, " that any new company is sure, sooner or 
 later, to get its bill, and if opposition be successful one ses- 
 
252 
 
 sion, it is useless the next. Let this uncertainty cease. Let 
 it be proclaimed, that Parliament will countenance all new 
 railway schemes, and the result will be a long truce to parlia- 
 mentary contests. The real grievance of directors is competi- 
 tion ; the grievance we deplore is uncertainty. They secretly 
 strive after monopoly ; we demand entire free trade in railways. 
 They will consider the remedy both as an insult and an injury ; 
 its adoption, however, will immensely benefit the public. There 
 cannot be too many railways, although there may be too few ; 
 and as regards the old established lines, they cannot possibly 
 be so greatly damaged by rivalry as they now are by strug- 
 gling for monopoly. At one time, Parliament might have 
 determined what lines of railway ought to be made, and might 
 have granted the necessary powers to those companies that 
 offered to make them. Such a course is no longer possible, 
 and we are glad of it. Had our railways been constructed 
 under these conditions, their managers would have been justi- 
 fied in raising the cry of vested interests, whenever competing 
 lines were proposed. As it is, we can afford to laugh at that 
 cry, and can feel confident that the utmost efforts of the one 
 hundred and fifty directors who have seats in Parliament will 
 be baffled, should they persevere in attempting to make of 
 some railways monopolies. Act after Act of Parliament has 
 been acquired, in the hope that no interlopers will venture to 
 dispute the supremacy of a company in a particular district. 
 The chief result of that policy has been to increase the mileage 
 of several companies, to swell their receipts, and dimmish their 
 dividends. Were the directors of the Great Western, for 
 example : to abandon their aggressive and spendthrift policy, 
 it is possible their fellow-shareholders would receive a more 
 satisfactory half-yearly dividend than a quarter per cent. We 
 are perfectly aware that the management of our railways is a 
 public scandal ; but it is no part of our duty to enlarge on the 
 demerits of railway directors." 
 
 Many directors of railways read this article, I have, no 
 
253 
 
 doubt, with great indignation, and but little anticipated that 
 within a couple of years from that time they would see 
 similar opinions expressed in the Times ; and when the leading 
 organ of public opinion in this country expresses its belief 
 that the railway institution must be made to work in unison 
 with all the other institutions of the country, it is quite time 
 for every man who has money invested in the railway monopoly 
 to endeavour to estimate the value of his property when that 
 monopoly shall be destroyed. 
 
 I do not know what has given rise to the report that has 
 been for some time in circulation that Government has an 
 intention of purchasing the railways, or that it rests on 
 any foundation beyond mere rumour; but everyone should 
 know that Government has no more power to make a whole- 
 sale compulsory purchase of the railways than any private 
 individual. It is very true, that a year hence, on the 1st of 
 January, 1866, there are a number of lines that Government, 
 with the assent of Parliament, may make a compulsory pur- 
 chase of ; but shareholders need not be under the slightest 
 fear if that be the proper term that then, or at any future 
 time, the compulsory powers of the Act of 18-44 will ever be 
 brought into operation against them either by the present or 
 any succeeding Government. From that quarter they have 
 nothing to fear, whatever they may have from other quarters. 
 
 The Act of 1844 is little more than declaratory. Its 
 framers supposed it might be possible that, at the expira- 
 tion of twenty-one years, the nation might desire to take the 
 possession and management of the railways into its own hands; 
 and in order to be in a position to do so, if such should be its 
 future policy, set certain limits to the demands of the share- 
 holders ; but these limits are far beyond the present value of 
 railways. 
 
 If it should, then, be the desire of the nation to purchase the 
 railways, it would remain with the Legislature, on the one hand, 
 to say what price it would be willing to give the companies, and 
 
254 
 
 it would be with the companies on the other, to say whether 
 they would accept it or not. The State could itself make the 
 railways for one third of the cost at which it could buy 
 them, and there is no law to prevent it doing so ; therefore, 
 there is something inexpressibly ludicrous and absurd in any 
 one talking of Government using its compulsory powers for 
 the purchase of railways. Let the railway shareholders " first 
 catch their hare." Let them wait till Government " threatens" 
 to exercise its compulsory powers of purchase, to give not only 
 three times the price for the railways that they could be now 
 made for, but, in addition to that sum, give a bonus to the 
 shareholders of 25 per cent. When Government proposes to do 
 this, it will be quite time enough to talk seriously of Govern- 
 ment intending to make them such an offer. 
 
 I have already stated that one of the principal objects the 
 Government of 1844 had in view in passing this Act appears to 
 have been for the purpose of impressing on the minds of directors 
 that the whole system would be subject to revision or alteration 
 in 1865. But there was also another object which the Govern- 
 ment of that day may have had equally in view viz., to direct 
 the attention of the public, as the expiration of the twenty- one 
 years would draw nigh, to a consideration of the subject of 
 railway management generally, and of the two rival systems 
 especially. Looking at the merits and demerits of the Act in 
 reference to the present state of affairs, it would be difficult to 
 say in what way it could be made operative. The same might 
 be said of any attempt to fix by certain arbitrary rules the 
 future price of any commodity. We have seen that at the 
 time the Act was passed, twenty-five years' purchase on the 
 dividends would have given the shareholders an average profit 
 of 8 per cent. At the present time it would give some 
 shareholders 40 per cent, beyond the value of their shares, 
 others the exact value, some not half the value, and a great 
 number nothing at all ! But the Act, in the end, makes it all 
 right for both parties ; the Government is not obliged to buy 
 
255 
 
 in any case, nor is the company obliged to sell on the 
 prescribed terms. A company may require a valuation in 
 reference to its future prospects, which may be double, or 
 more than double, as we shall see by-and-by, the present 
 value; but then the Government would not give that sum, and 
 so the matter would end. The only case in which the Act 
 would have become really operative had reference to the 
 limitation of companies requiring more than twenty-five years' 
 purchase on 10 per cent, dividends. 
 
 But this Act has probably done all that its framers intended 
 
 it should ; it has been the means of securing the attention 
 
 both of shareholders and the public, at the proper time, to the 
 
 consideration of this important subject. Had not that Act 
 
 been in existence, it would have been a vain expectation for 
 
 any private individual to suppose he could obtain even a 
 
 hearing on a subject of such magnitude. The Act of 1844 
 
 has done its duty, and done its duty well ; but mixing it up in 
 
 any way with the purchase of railways by the Government only 
 
 embarrasses the question ; it would therefore simplify matters 
 
 very much if it were once more "forgotten." The attention 
 
 of the public was directed to it a few months since by the 
 
 Economist newspaper, and the result has shown what a 
 
 wonderful change has taken place in public opinion within the 
 
 last twenty years. Who at that time would have been listened 
 
 to for a moment while advocating the purchase of railways by 
 
 the State ? Now we find, before even the subject is discussed, 
 
 that the public takes a deep interest in the matter, and is 
 
 anxious to have it thoroughly investigated. 
 
 Let us now direct our attention for a moment to railway 
 boards. A railway board is generally composed of individuals 
 forming two separate classes the one wealthy, and possess- 
 ing a large stake in the line ; the other professional directors, 
 that is, those who make a business of directorship, and 
 whose time is occupied on the different boards on which they 
 manage to get introduced, or which may seek a connection 
 
256 
 
 with them. These gentlemen are, for the most part, very active 
 and enterprising, and well earn the fees they receive. It is 
 not to he supposed that this class of directors look with 
 much favour on any change of system that would materially 
 affect their present position. 
 
 Not long since, the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln 
 Company held its half-yearly meeting, which was presided 
 over by the chairman, Mr. Watkin, a gentleman of very great 
 ability, largely connected with the railway world, and a director 
 on some half-dozen or more of companies. Mr. Watkin took 
 occasion very properly at the meeting to direct the attention of 
 the shareholders to the rumours that had been widely cir- 
 culated in reference to the supposed intentions of Govern- 
 ment to purchase up the railways, "under the Act of 1844," 
 and on that speech the Times had a leading article, in which 
 the whole subject is fully and ably discussed. 
 
 But what does Mr. Watkin say to his shareholders ? He is 
 perfectly satisfied, he says, " speaking for himself, and entirely 
 in the interest of the shareholders, and in that of the other 
 railways with which he is connected, to express his entire 
 readiness to hand over to Government and Government officials 
 the property, the working of it, and all its thousand-fold 
 responsibilities and anxieties." Now, a word in regard to the 
 price that the shareholders of this company would under the 
 Act receive for their shares. Twenty-five years' purchase on 
 their average dividend for the last three years, would amount 
 to about the one-half of the market price they can at any time 
 obtain in the market for their shares ; so that part of the 
 arrangement would have to be set aside, and the shareholders 
 be content with what two arbitrators would say was the 
 value of the railway with reference to its future prospects. 
 Mr. Watkin having briefly expressed his satisfaction as a 
 director and shareholder, at the prospect of the proposed pur- 
 chase, so far as the interests of the company were con- 
 cerned, immediately passed from these two characters into 
 
257 
 
 those of the senator and the citizen, in which he took an 
 entirely opposite view of the supposed measure. His duties 
 in these two latter characters unfortunately clashed with 
 his interest in the two former ones. Whilst the director 
 and the shareholder could do nothing but applaud and 
 admire, the senator and the citizen could only lament and 
 condemn. " They must consider the question," said Mr. 
 Watkin, " not merely as railway proprietors, hut as citizens, 
 and in its bearings upon the industrial life and political 
 independence of our people.'' But why must they, Mr. 
 Watkin ? What was the necessity that the shareholders of 
 the "Manchester and Sheffield" should occupy, as our cousins 
 on the other side of the Atlantic would say, such an elevated 
 platform. Shareholders meet, for the purpose of getting infor- 
 mation about their affairs, and to promote every measure that 
 will advance their interests as shareholders, and not as citizens. 
 I have no doubt, however, that if I can point out to Mr. 
 Watkin some mistakes he has made in the case he put before 
 his shareholders, and that if he be able to reconcile his interest 
 as a director, in giving up this management, with his duties as 
 a citizen, he will feel much obliged to me. First, Mr. Watkin 
 speaks of handing the railways over to "Government officials," 
 thereby intimating that if Government had possession of 
 them, their management would be handed over to the Board of 
 Trade or some other inexperienced officers of the Government ; 
 but in the event of the change we are speaking of being accom- 
 plished, the Legislature would take very good care that, under 
 the new administration, the services of the most able and 
 eminent practical men of the country should be secured. It 
 is not that the ability or integrity of those who at present 
 manage our railways is doubted ; it is the system itself that 
 compels them, in the execution of their duty, to set aside the 
 most important interests of the public when they interfere in 
 the slightest degree with the interests of their constituents 
 as traders. Would a board composed of the most eminent 
 
 s 
 
258 
 
 directors and managers of the railway world be less active 
 and efficient in the discharge of their duty than those who 
 are responsible for the management of the Post Office, or 
 Customs, or Excise branches of Government ? Would Mr. 
 Watkin cast a stigma on the leading men of our present 
 system, and say that they would be less inclined to do their 
 duty in the service of the State, than in that of companies ? 
 Mr. Watkin does not venture to insinuate that, but he gets out 
 of the dilemma by intimating that their services would be 
 altogether dispensed with, and inexperienced, and consequently 
 incompetent, persons placed in their stead. 
 
 Mr. Watkin advanced many very pertinent reasons against 
 handing over the railways, in the event of their being pur- 
 chased by Government, to contractors. He says : " If the State 
 owned the corpus of the railways, and the moving plant, and a 
 contractor or contracting company worked or applied them, 
 what a temptation would exist to run down the property and 
 plant, in order to extract a higher rate of profit ! In fact, it 
 was found in practice that when the owners and workers were 
 one, and had one interest, the integrity of the property was 
 and must be more fully considered than when one party had an 
 interest in renewals as little and the other as much as possible. 
 A high condition of repair meant a high condition of safety, 
 and he preferred, himself, to travel on a company's instead 
 of a contractor's line." There would be no doubt many dis- 
 advantages in leasing out the Government lines as compared 
 with having them under the direct control of the Legislature ; 
 there would be a number of independent companies, as there 
 are now, each pursuing its own plans independent of the others. 
 The directors would have then, as now, no obligation to serve 
 the public further than suited their own interests, there would 
 constantly be charges preferred against them, and it would 
 require the closest supervision on the part of the authorities to 
 prevent the contractors taking those unfair advantages which 
 Mr. Watkin has pointed out. All that may be admitted ; 
 
259 
 
 but, on the other hand, as the companies or contractors would 
 be obliged to carry passengers and goods at a fixed tariff, it 
 would be impossible that in this most important matter they 
 could impose on the public any more than they can do now 
 in regard to parliamentary trains. With all the drawbacks 
 and I admit they would be very great the nation would, 
 nevertheless, derive great advantage from a change of 
 system, even if it went no further than leasing the lines to 
 companies. 
 
 But where would the necessity exist of the lines being let 
 out to contractors at all ? If there were a board composed of 
 the most eminent railway men, selected from or chosen by the 
 present boards, does Mr. Watkin mean to say that they would 
 not form a governing body fully adequate to perform their 
 duty and give satisfaction to the country ? " There are now," 
 says Mr. Watkin, "some 250,000 employes connected with 
 our railways ; only imagine a party government armed with 
 the nomination and control of such a body, and able to dis- 
 tribute to political partisans or the incapable relatives of elec- 
 tioneering agents some 12,000, OOO/. in salaries and wages!" 
 I have no doubt it will give Mr. Watkin the greatest satisfac- 
 tion to know that this fearful picture he has drawn of the 
 proposed scheme, which would produce such direful effects on 
 the British constitution, and this future distribution of twelve 
 millions a year in corrupting the constituencies of the empire, is 
 entirely imaginary. No one, that I am aware of, ever proposed 
 to give the patronage of the railways to the Government. The 
 principle of competitive examinations is now so firmly esta- 
 blished that patronage to a great extent is done away with ; 
 and if ever the railways became the property of the State, the 
 Government in all probability will never ask, and most cer- 
 tainly will never be entrusted with more patronage than the 
 Legislature may consider absolutely necessary to ensure a 
 proper discharge of the duties of administration. 
 
 Mr. Watkin frankly admits that under existing circum- 
 
260 
 
 stances it would be greatly for the benefit of the shareholders 
 that the Legislature should carry out the Act of 1844, or rather 
 the intention of its iramers, and buy up the shares of all the 
 companies. The advantages the companies would derive from 
 such a course are, to his mind, so clear and obvious that 
 he does not waste time in discussing them ; " but, speaking 
 entirely in the interest of the shareholders both of that and 
 the other companies he was connected with, he would be most 
 willing to hand them over to Government." The opinion of 
 Mr. Watkin on this subject will, I think, be supported by 
 every railway director in the kingdom. 
 
 It is much to be regretted that Mr. Watkin's zeal as a 
 citizen hurried him away from this very important part of the 
 subject, and caused him to forget that some of his fellow 
 shareholders might be desirous to know his reasons for wishing, 
 as a shareholder, that the Government should purchase the 
 railways. What they were I cannot, of course, undertake to 
 say, but the following reasons might be adduced in support of 
 the correctness of his views : 
 
 1st. The certainty of a great change of policy in the 
 country with regard to railways. The success of the move- 
 ment that is now being made in reference to the purchase of 
 railways by the State depends entirely on the assent of two 
 parties, the nation and the shareholders. It appears pretty 
 certain at the present time that the policy of such an impor- 
 tant step will undergo a thorough investigation, and the result 
 may be that the nation and the Legislature will disapprove in 
 toto of the scheme ; or they may consider that the carrying of 
 it out would be surrounded with so many difficulties as to 
 become virtually impracticable ; or that the shareholders 
 require a higher price than they would be justified in paying. 
 No matter what the cause may be, we will suppose the scheme 
 entirely fails. 
 
 There have been two or three articles in the Times on this 
 subject, and it quite approves of Mr. Watkin's views, but it 
 
261 
 
 notices one important omission in his speech, viz. the absence 
 of any notice of the future policy of the country. According 
 to that high authority, the making a railway will be as free to 
 capitalists " as the formation of a line of steamers." The 
 Times may be right in its opinion, that the country will be 
 opposed to carrying out the Act of 1844, but will insist on a 
 perfect free trade in railways, or at least a trade so free that 
 none but land-owners will be permitted to oppose the construction 
 of a line. Now, if shareholders would but realize in their own 
 minds the full import of that term, " free trade in railways," they 
 will well understand the emphatic declaration of Mr. Watkin 
 that he would be most willing, on the part of himself and the 
 shareholders in the various companies he represented, to hand 
 the railways over to the State. What would railway property 
 be worth in five years from the present time if all protection 
 were withdrawn, and railway companies were subjected to 
 the same competition as any other class of traders ? Not- 
 withstanding the protection they enjoy, and the high price 
 money has been, there will be more projects before Parliament 
 in 1865 than in any year since J847. In 1844 the directors 
 refused to co-operate with those who then advocated their 
 purchase by the State. They wished their lines to be " de- 
 veloped ; " they would not take the value then, they would 
 wait for the increase of trade. Within the next half-score of 
 years they developed themselves with a vengeance, from an 
 average dividend of about 8 per cent, down to one considerably 
 less than half that amount. And so at the present time I 
 have no doubt there are many inconsiderate persons who, 
 because railways have prospered for the last few years, have 
 come to the conclusion without any reference to exist- 
 ing facts or the future policy of the country in regard to 
 railway legislation that they must continue to prosper, and to 
 bear up against the competition that, under such adverse cir- 
 cumstances, they will be subjected to. Mr. Watkin knew 
 better than that, and honestly acknowledges that the best 
 
262 
 
 policy for shareholders would be to part with their shares to 
 the State. 
 
 Let shareholders look abroad, and then form an opinion how 
 long the present state of things is likely to last. With the 
 spirit of inquiry that is now spreading in every direction this 
 bolstered and propped up system must soon come to an end, 
 either by a compromise which would be for the benefit of all 
 parties, and add to the present price of shares a large bonus, or 
 by violent means, viz. by the action of unlimited competition ; 
 and it is impossible to deny, whatever the results may be to 
 shareholders, that such a course as that pointed out by the 
 Times is the one most in accordance with the general policy 
 of the country. 
 
 One, then, might suppose, that under these circumstances, 
 Mr. Watkin, acknowledging, as he does frankly, the benefit 
 that would be conferred on all shareholders by the State taking 
 the railways off their hands, would naturally be supposed to do 
 everything in his power to promote such an object; that he, 
 one of the great magnates of the railway world, would only be 
 too happy to promote a project that would be so profitable to 
 his fellow shareholders ; but, so far from that being the case, 
 we find that he will give the project his most determined 
 opposition. He is afraid that under such a system, " England 
 would be what France was in the latter days of Louis Philippe ;" 
 and a " moribund Parliament he does not deem fit to meddle 
 with the question, but he will have no objection to a properly 
 appointed commission." 
 
 Some persons, perhaps, may be disposed to consider the 
 course taken by Mr. Watkin and those directors who are 
 similarly situated, to be somewhat influenced by the large 
 emoluments they derive from office ; they may not well under- 
 stand why they should oppose what they admit would be so 
 advantageous to their fellow shareholders ; it is more liberal, 
 however, to suppose that the views of these gentlemen are 
 totally uninfluenced by any selfish consideration, and that it 
 
63 
 
 is a sense of high moral feeling, acting on minds peculiarly 
 sensitive to public duty, that has produced such an extraor- 
 dinary result. 
 
 It is very remarkahle to notice in what opposite directions 
 Mr. Watkin's feelings as " a citizen " cause him to act. Last 
 session, as we all know, the Great Eastern promoted a railway 
 to connect their main line with the coalfields of the North ; and, 
 had they "been successful, it would to some extent have lessened 
 the evils of the present monopoly of which the Manchester and 
 Sheffield Company possess no small share. In this case, un- 
 fortunately, the zeal of the chairman overcame the patriotism 
 of the citizen, and, mainly, I helieve, through Mr. Watkin's 
 active exertions, the scheme was defeated. The Great Eastern, 
 no way daunted, is to make another attempt in 1865, and 
 I am greatly afraid Mr. Watkin will offer the same opposition 
 again, whether or not with the same success remains to be 
 seen. Mr. Watkin, however, entertains a very different feeling 
 towards the inhabitants of Liverpool and Manchester. There 
 has existed, for a considerable time past, a feeling of great 
 dissatisfaction with the railway authorities on the part of the 
 merchants and traders of those great towns, on account of 
 the exorbitant charges, as alleged, made for the freightage of 
 merchandise between Liverpool and Manchester. It is only a 
 few days since a communication appeared in the papers from 
 the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the President of the 
 Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, in answer to a memorial 
 addressed to him by that body, complaining of the exorbitant 
 rates they were obliged to pay. In his answer the Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer stated that the matter was of great 
 importance, and had attracted the notice of Her Majesty's 
 Government ; but, as doubtless they knew, he had no power to 
 interfere. In this extremity, Mr. Watkin presents himself as 
 the deus ex machind by which the merchants and traders of 
 Liverpool and Manchester are to have their merchandise carried 
 at a moderate rate, and he proposes to make a second line. It 
 
264, 
 
 unfortunately so happens, however, that the trading population 
 of these two great towns have not that confidence in Mr.Watkin 
 and his company that perhaps they ought to have, and instead 
 of receiving him with open arms, absolutely threaten to peti- 
 tion against his bill, unless they first agree about the fares and 
 charges for merchandise. Here, now, is a great opportunity for 
 Mr. Watkin's coming out in the character of the good citizen, 
 and proving to the public how much may be done by private 
 enterprise and competition, as compared with what Govern- 
 ment could do. 
 
 The case stands thus: the Liverpool and Manchester line 
 cost more than a million and a half, and the length is 31 J 
 miles ; the fares are 5*. 6c., 4s., and 2s. l\d. for the several 
 classes. Mr. Watkin says he can make a line for half the 
 cost of the Liverpool and Manchester line ; that reduction in 
 the cost of construction would not enable him to carry pas- 
 sengers at lower fares, but the same profit on the working would 
 give to his shareholders double the dividend which those of the 
 Liverpool and Manchester Railways receive. Now, he could 
 carry first-class passengers the entire length of his line for 
 threepence, second-class for twopence, and third-class, a penny; 
 and as the London and Manchester charge something more 
 then twenty-fold the cost of conveyance, it is to be hoped the 
 company finds the charges " remunerative." Merchandise can 
 be conveyed from Liverpool to Manchester for sixpence per 
 ton, and the freightage bears probably about the same propor- 
 tion to the cost of conveyance as the fares for passengers do 
 to their conveyance. Now, let Mr. Watkin make an offer in 
 good faith to the Liverpool and Manchester people, that if they 
 will support his line, he will consent to a tariff for passengers 
 and goods at one-third of the present rates. I say, make an 
 offer in good faith, because no man knows better than Mr. 
 Watkin that parliamentary undertakings on the part of rail- 
 way companies are not always made in good faith, either to 
 make a line for which they apply, or keep their charges within 
 
265 
 
 those limits to which they had pledged their good faith to 
 obtain their Acts. A notable instance of this kind now occurs 
 to me. There are few companies that encountered so fierce 
 and expensive an opposition from rival companies as the Great 
 Northern. They were defeated in the first attempt by the com- 
 bined companies ; but they succeeded in their' second, mainly 
 by having had recourse to a very clever trick. The directors 
 proposed to the committee to limit the fares for first-class to 
 twopence per mile : that was a reduction of about 30 per cent, 
 on the fares then charged by the other companies. The latter 
 were taken quite aback by an offer on the part of their op- 
 ponents to carry at " such unremunerative rates," and the com- 
 mittee passed the Bill. Before the line was opened, the Great 
 Northern pointed out to the other companies the great loss 
 they would incur by having their fares brought down by com- 
 petition, proposed to the other companies to unite their parlia- 
 mentary strength, and have the Great Northern's fares raised 
 from 2d. to S^d., the same as the other companies. This was 
 done. It being a private Bill, it was nobody's duty to stop it, 
 and so their Act was " amended " without opposition. 
 
 But to return to our more immediate subject. It is very 
 remarkable that Mr. Watkin, in addressing his shareholders 
 for the purpose of obtaining their sanction to go before Parlia- 
 ment, never alluded either to the cost at which he could convey 
 passengers and goods between Liverpool and Manchester, nor 
 the fares and rates he intended to charge. Mr. Watkin does not 
 dispute the fact that he could carry passengers all the way from 
 Liverpool to Manchester, or vice versa, for a penny a head, or 
 goods for sixpence a ton ; nor can he assert that there would 
 be a less profit in charging a shilling for a third-class return 
 ticket between those towns, inasmuch as the cost to the 
 company would be less than twopence. The working classes 
 of these two enormously populated towns are virtually ex- 
 cluded from communication with each other, unless on rare 
 occasions. The mechanic, if he intends to return now on the 
 
266 
 
 same day, may almost as well take a second-class return ticket, 
 for which he will pay 6s. ; whilst the double parliamentary is 
 5s. 3d. Now, if these two questions were pressed on Mr. Watkin, 
 could a third-class passenger be carried for a penny from Liver- 
 pool to Manchester, and might not a single third-class ticket 
 at eightpence, and a double ticket at a shilling, pay as well as 
 the present fare, Mr. Watkin could not deny the possibility of 
 such a case. But if Mr. Watkin were followed up then by 
 the question, " Will you give an undertaking to insert a clause 
 in, your Bill, limiting third-class fares to that rate, and a pro- 
 portionably reduced tariff for merchandise? " Mr. Watkin would, 
 1 have no doubt, reply at once, that he could not advise his 
 company to undertake any such risk ; and, therefore, the expe- 
 riment, so far as he and his company were concerned, must 
 remain untried. Just so, Mr. Watkin ; that would be a very 
 proper and sensible answer on. your part, and perhaps you 
 will more clearly understand now than when you addressed 
 your Manchester and Sheffield shareholders, why it is that 
 Government interference is necessary, viz. to try experiments 
 which no directors of a commercial company would be justified 
 in running the risk of incurring. I have said before, what I 
 now again repeat, although it is not a popular doctrine, that 
 I consider the companies have an undoubted right to exercise 
 their own discretion, in making whatever charges they consider 
 will pay them best; and if the Legislature thinks proper, 
 either to alter the policy of the country, or to make experi- 
 ments for the purpose of testing the desirability of altering its 
 policy, such experiments should be made at the expense of 
 the State, and not at that of private individuals. 
 
 There is another subject on which Mr. Watkin could give 
 very interesting information, viz. the contest, if it might be 
 termed such, between the " London and North- Western " on 
 one side, and the " Great Northern" and the " Manchester and 
 Sheffield" on the other, when they were carrying first-class 
 passengers from London to Manchester at a farthing per 
 
267 
 
 mile. Now, it is quite possible that their profits were not so 
 great as when they were charging two-pence halfpenny per 
 mile. If I recollect right, what they lost by that contest 
 amounted to about a half per cent, on their dividend ; but 
 it must be remembered that rate was extraordinarily low. 
 I propose that first-class passengers should not be carried at a 
 less average rate, according to speed, than a penny per mile ; 
 whilst the fare Mr. Watkin and his friends adopted was just 
 the one-fourth of that amount I 
 
 As matters now stand in the railway world, Mr. Watkin 
 and a few other managing directors of our great' companies 
 regulate, according to their good will and pleasure, the whole of 
 our inland traffic, both in passengers and goods. Their word is 
 law ; they are absolute dictators ; from their decree there is no 
 appeal, and remonstrance is useless. They make " war or 
 peace," they " contract alliances " or " dissolve unions." They 
 plan " invasions of territory," " secure alliance," and, after a 
 hard-fought campaign, " enjoy, the blessings of peace." Such 
 are the usual terms, in a portion, at least, of the railway press, 
 when speaking of great railway transactions; and they are not so 
 very inappropriate when their magnitude is considered. The 
 only policy which these gentlemen follow is, that which each 
 individual thinks will best promote the interests of his own 
 company. What other interest should he look to ? But how 
 does that work in practice for the general community ? One 
 district will have very high, another very low, and another 
 medium rates, just as the directing manager thinks best for the 
 interest of his company. Here are all our great manufac- 
 turing and commercial towns, such as Liverpool, Glasgow, 
 Manchester, Birmingham, and Leeds, dependent for their pros- 
 perity on a few individuals, over whom they have not the 
 slightest control. 
 
 And this is the system that Mr. Watkin and those who act 
 with him hold up to the admiration of the world ! The " sur- 
 roundings " through which these gentlemen see this system, I 
 
268 
 
 have no doubt, are very agreeable ; but their brother share- 
 holders, have not, I am afraid, things made so pleasant for 
 them ; and it will be for the English Parliament, when the 
 subject comes on for discussion, to decide whether or not our 
 present system is worthy of a great and enlightened country. 
 
 Mr. Watkin thinks "that a commission which included such 
 names as Mill and Newmarsh, with Galton, Swift, Clarke, and 
 Allport, ought to be satisfactory to all." On that point I 
 think there can be no doubt. A thorough investigation into 
 the working of our railway system is the great object that all 
 should have in view. It should, however, be remembered that 
 these gentlemen, however eminent they may be, cannot tell us 
 how many passengers would travel for the next year between 
 Liverpool and Manchester, and Edinburgh and Glasgow, and 
 on the Blackwall, Metropolitan, or any other line in the 
 kingdom ; and that is the subject on which we most want 
 information. It is only by a trial of the effect produced by 
 low rates that a satisfactory result can be obtained. The 
 same remark applies, in a great degree, to the freightage of 
 goods ; but the merchants, manufacturers, and traders in our 
 great towns can explain to a royal commission the loss that is 
 inflicted on them by the rates they consider exorbitant, and 
 which they are obliged to pay ; and it will be then for the 
 commission to consider whether or not a satisfactory conclusion 
 can be come to on the subject without first trying the fiscal 
 results of a very low tariff for freightage. 
 
269 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Construction of New Lines laid out by Government Engineers and 
 constructed by Contract Constructed nearly on the present Plan 
 Joint Parliamentary Committees of the two Houses preferable 
 The Reduction of Railway Charges a National Question Objections 
 against its being considered so -The proper way of discussing the 
 Question Reduction of Charges amounts to Twenty-four Millions 
 Sterling Centralization When it is advantageous Distinction 
 between Local Duties and those of the State The Post Office 
 Objections of the Railway Press considered Reductions on the 
 Blackwall and Brighton Companies Future Value of Railways 
 Exchange of Shares for Stock. 
 
 How our future lines should be constructed will become, at 
 some future day, a matter of very grave consideration for our 
 Legislature. This much, I think, may be safely predicated, 
 that the two Houses of Parliament will never part with the 
 right they now exercise of investigating the merits of each line 
 for the extension of our system, and granting or withholding 
 their assent to its construction, as the case may be. 
 
 Assuming this point to be settled, it is most likely that the 
 success which, two sessions since, attended the experiment of 
 the appointment of a joint committee, selected from both 
 Houses of Parliament, to form one tribunal, to investigate local 
 railway matters affecting the metropolis, will encourage the 
 Legislature to continue in a more settled and permanent form 
 a mode of legislation which was only tried for a special pur- 
 pose. The proceedings and report of that committee gave, so 
 far as I am aware, universal satisfaction; and from such an 
 auspicious commencement there would be every reason to hope 
 
270 
 
 that its future proceedings would, in like manner, give general 
 satisfaction to the country. There are several reasons why a 
 joint committee, appointed hy the two Houses, would be 
 preferable to a tribunal composed of two separate committees. 
 
 1. It would command more respect as an authority. Now 
 the authority is divided, and although a Bill that is thrown 
 out by a committee of one House cannot appear before the 
 other, there is generally a feeling of dissatisfaction on the 
 minds of promoters when a Bill is rejected by one of the com- 
 mittees, and the belief is entertained by those interested that 
 if their good fortune had brought them before the other com- 
 mittee, they would, in all probability, have succeeded. 
 
 2. There would be a great saving in time and labour. At 
 present there is a great amount of useless expense incurred 
 by the promoters, and the time of members of both Houses 
 is needlessly occupied by the same statements being made and 
 arguments urged before both committees. 
 
 3. As the rejected Bills do not come before the second com- 
 mittee, it is very disadvantageous^ placed; it cannot deal in 
 any way with those Bills that have been rejected, and must 
 either pass the Bill before it or reject it, and thus may 
 possibly leave the district the line was intended to accommodate 
 without any railway communication whatever. 
 
 For these reasons I think it would be exceedingly desirable 
 that all railway committees should be composed of the 
 members of both Houses. 
 
 In the event of our railways becoming national property, 
 there would arise, I have no doubt, very great difference of 
 opinion as to the system under which our future railways 
 should be constructed. 
 
 1 . They might be laid out, in the first instance, by our most 
 eminent engineers, and, after having obtained the sanction of 
 Parliament, the land might be purchased by Government and 
 the lines constructed by contract. 
 
 2. The present system might in the construction of our 
 
271 
 
 lines be to a considerable extent adhered to. It might be left 
 open as now for any company to come with its Bill before 
 Parliament with an offer to construct a line and deliver it to 
 Government on certain specified terms, and it would be for a 
 parliamentary committee to recommend or not that the offer 
 be accepted. A Government board might be appointed to 
 collect such statistical or other information as might be re- 
 quired, arid prepare a report in each case for the use of the 
 parliamentary committees. If this plan should be adopted, 
 the nation would have the full benefit of competition both in 
 the laying out and the construction of lines, rural districts would 
 compete in getting up lines, and guarantees might be given by 
 public bodies, as has been done in some cases in Ireland, that 
 the line would pay a certain percentage. If Government had 
 a satisfactory guarantee in doubtful cases that the traffic would 
 yield 8j per cent, interest on the capital, little inquiry in such 
 cases would be necessary. This plan might possibly be more 
 acceptable to the public generally and the railway interest 
 than the first, and would not be a very wide departure from the 
 present system. 
 
 The last subject we have to discuss is one of the greatest 
 importance ; indeed, it may be said to be that on which the 
 whole question hinges, and it is, therefore, necessary to con- 
 sider it fully. " Unless," it is said, " it can be proved that 
 a reduction in fares and freightage to one-third of the present 
 charges can be effected without loss to the nation, the scheme 
 would be a failure, as in that case the public treasury would 
 have to make up a loss from which the general community 
 would derive no gain." The proposition here advanced is, that 
 a reduction of railway charges would only affect certain classes 
 in the country, viz. those who travel, and those who pay for the 
 carriage of merchandise ; and although collectively they pay a 
 large sum, yet the other classes who neither travel nor send 
 merchandise by rail could not in justice be called on to con- 
 
272 
 
 tribute to make up a loss. I contend, on the other hand, that 
 a reduction in railway charges would be equally beneficial to 
 all classes ; that a reduction to one- third of our present charges 
 would be to all intents and purposes equal to a reduction in 
 taxation of twenty -four millions, less whatever, if any, sum 
 from the treasury might be required to make up the deficit. 
 
 The proper way, in my opinion, to discuss the matter is to 
 suppose the railways to be the property of the State,and the 
 present tariff for passengers and goods in operation, then to 
 consider whether or not its reduction would be a measure 
 likely to be called for by the public generally, and if so, 
 whether or not a reduction should be made, and, if made, to 
 what extent. 
 
 The principal objection made against the purchase of railways 
 by the Government is, that it would create a vast centralized 
 system in this country, in direct opposition to the feelings of the 
 people ; that it would abolish local government ; that it would 
 substitute official management for that of mercantile manage- 
 ment ; that it would discourage private enterprise, and initiate 
 a new policy totally foreign to the habits of the people : that it 
 would encourage on the part of the public dependence on 
 Government to supply their wants, instead of leaving them 
 to trust to their own energy, activity, and industry, to supply 
 their wants : this is the sum of the general objections made 
 to the purchase of the railways by the State and their 
 management by, or under the control of, Government. 
 
 First, in regard to centralization. In matters affecting only 
 a particular locality, it is most desirable that each community 
 should form its own government, without any superior or con- 
 trolling power. Thus, we have our municipal, parochial, and 
 other local authorities ; and these institutions, without doubt, 
 tend in the highest degree to promote that independence of 
 feeling, and spirit of self-reliance, and energy, so character- 
 istic of the British people. In contrast to those local institu- 
 tions so congenial to our soil, we find that in most continental 
 
273 
 
 countries, the people are deprived by their rulers of nearly all 
 natural rights, and their respective Governments insist on 
 doing everything for them, the necessary results follow ; the 
 people are without life and energy, indisposed to active exer- 
 tion, and look on with a listless apathy, whilst the underlings 
 of Government do their work. 
 
 The distinction that exists between local duties and those of 
 the State appears so plain, that it is scarcely possible there 
 could ever be any misconception on the subject. When there 
 are no interests affected, except those whom the governing 
 body represents, local government works well, and within its 
 proper sphere ; but when those boundaries are passed, and 
 an authority, which should be merely local, manages to get hold 
 of imperial power to exercise authority over those whom it 
 does not represent, and by whom it cannot in any way be con- 
 trolled, then there is an infringement on the rights of the 
 subject by a power in a certain sense irresponsible, and not 
 in any way bound to promote the interest of those over whom it 
 rules. If people did not travel beyond the limits of their own 
 parish, then the parish should make the line, and the parochial 
 authorities regulate the tariff; but inasmuch as the public is 
 entirely unrepresented at railway boards, the directors vir- 
 tually exercise the power to charge what they think proper. 
 " Taxation," we are told, " without representation, is tyranny, 
 and ought to be resisted." We take such matters easier now ; 
 but, at all events, there is no difficulty in this case, at least, 
 in drawing the line of demarcation between imperial and local 
 rights. We commit as great an error in one way, in this 
 country, as they do on the Continent in another ; there the 
 imperial power supersedes the local power, and will reign 
 supreme in everything. Here, the local authority manages to 
 get possession of imperial sway, and we, to avoid the 
 Scylla, fall into the Charybdis ; and whilst proclaiming our 
 independence of the Government, we fall under the dominion 
 of the local and irresponsible tyrant. 
 
It has been said that the change proposed would he entirely 
 opposed to the feelings of the people. I quite admit that would 
 have been the case twenty years ago, and possibly may be so 
 now, but that cannot be known till the subject is brought fully 
 before Parliament, and thoroughly ventilated throughout the 
 country. It is quite true a scheme may be proposed that, in a 
 monetary point of view, would be advantageous to a people, 
 and one, nevertheless, to which they may be opposed, and, 
 therefore, it would be useless to discuss that point at present. 
 
 The great objection made by the railway boards to the 
 possession of railways by the State is the " bad management 
 of Government officials." These gentlemen are, no doubt, 
 like most other officials, neither better nor worse ; they neglect 
 their business when they are not looked after, and perform it 
 properly when they are. The Post- Office department is one, 
 the employes of which come almost hourly in contact with all 
 classes of Her Majesty's subjects, and there is no complaint of 
 the manner in which they perform their duty ; but what have 
 Government officials, as that term is understood, to do with 
 the present case? It can only be by Act of Parliament that 
 railways can come under the control of the Crown, and if 
 such an event should take place, the nation and Legislature 
 would take care that the board that should manage the 
 railways should be formed of the most able and distinguished 
 men who are now directors and managers of railways, and 
 whose high social and professional position would be a 
 sufficient guarantee to the country for the manner in which 
 the railways of the country would be managed. 
 
 In regard to patronage, the Legislature would, no doubt, by 
 means of competitive examinations, and by taking necessary 
 measures to secure each officer his fair share of promotion in the 
 ordinary course of routine, reduce it to a very low point; still, 
 some places would no doubt remain, and whether they should 
 be disposed of by the board, or by the responsible head of the 
 board, and under what conditions, it would be for the Legis- 
 
275 
 
 lature to arrange. The promotion of officers in any Govern- 
 ment establishment to places of high trust depends on his own 
 conduct, and any attempt on his part to advance his position 
 through political influence would, as an immediate result, cause 
 his name to be placed at the bottom of the list, and, there- 
 fore, an attempt of the kind is never made. 
 
 The objection that the purchase of the railways would be 
 opposed to the freedom of piivate enterprise is so entirely 
 fallacious that it is scarcely worth notice. How would it 
 discourage private enterprise if the State would give to those 
 who had embarked in the enterprise 10, 15, or 20 per cent., 
 as the case might be, more than they could obtain from any 
 other quarter, and when they would be at perfect liberty to 
 accept the offer or not ? So far from that being considered 
 the case by those best qualified to judge, those directors who 
 have noticed the subject admit that the purchase would be of 
 benefit to the shareholders ; they object only as " citizens." 
 
 " The English people," it is said, "will not consent that the 
 highways of the country be handed over to the tender mercies 
 of a Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Board of Trade, 
 who, at any time, would have the means in their hands, by an 
 imposition of a farthing per ton per mile on goods and on 
 passenger fares, to replenish an exchequer however ex- 
 hausted." No one ever proposed that either the Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer or the Board of Trade should have any control 
 over the management of the railways. The railways ought to 
 be public property, under the immediate control of the Legis- 
 lature, with rates and fares fixed, at a low and uniform 
 rate, such as Parliament would deem necessary for the full 
 development of the passenger and merchandise traffic of the 
 country. 
 
 " If Parliament chose," it is said, " it could revise the maxi- 
 mum tolls of all the railways in the kingdom directly it met, 
 and cut them down to the lowest figure." "In fact," says the 
 Railway News, " we do not know anything which Parliament 
 
 T 2 
 
276 
 
 could do were the railways national property, which it cannot 
 do just as well now when they belong to private shareholders." 
 
 Parliament has no power to do anything of the kind. The 
 Railway News does not surely contend, or rather admit, that 
 Parliament would have any moral right to compel the com- 
 panies to carry either passengers or goods at a lower rate than 
 they are permitted by their respective Acts to charge. The 
 Railway News, no doubt, means that compensation should be 
 made for any loss that would be incurred, but on the manner 
 in which such arrangement would be carried out the Railway 
 News throws no light. 
 
 " There are limits," it is said, " to the amount of capital 
 which holders are willing to invest at 3 per cent., and there 
 is no telling what might not be the influence of such a large 
 issue of new Government stock as this purchase would involve 
 upon the Government security which already exists." 
 
 There would be great force in this objection if it were pro- 
 posed to pass an Act compelling shareholders to accept 
 Government stock; and if the scheme of the Government 
 purchase of the railways should appear to have the effect of 
 weakening the credit of Government, it would never be 
 attempted, nor would railway shareholders accept stock in 
 exchange for their shares. The great bulk of railway share- 
 holders are permanent holders for investment and not specu- 
 lators, and would be as little inclined to traffic in Government 
 stock as they had been in railway shares. 
 
 " If, at the present time," it is contended, " the Imperial 
 Three per Cents, are readily accepted, it is because they rest on 
 a stable foundation ; but would not a different element be intro- 
 duced, if these securities depended on railways which might or 
 might not pay ? We should then find Government consenting 
 only to such extensions of the railway system as were certain 
 to be remunerative, or else jeopardising the national revenue." 
 
 An argument somewhat similar to this I have before noticed. 
 The Three per Cents, rest, no doubt, on a " stable foundation," 
 
277 
 
 inasmuch as that security consists of all the territorial pro- 
 perty of England, and the security for the Three per Cents, 
 issued in exchange for the railways would rest on precisely the 
 same foundation, with the additional security of the railways for 
 both. If the revenue fell short of what was expected, the 
 deficiency, whatever it might be, would not be lost, but remain 
 in the pockets of the people ; so that, if the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer wanted it, he would know where it was, and might 
 be very safely left to take his own measures to get back for the 
 expenses of the country the whole, or as much of it as he 
 might require. 
 
 " Directors are generally alive to the potency of cheap fares 
 whenever they have reason to believe that their revenue will 
 be improved." 
 
 That, no doubt, is true to some extent, but is far from being 
 the whole truth. There is a natural desire in the minds of 
 all boards to keep up high fares, and not without some reason ; 
 there is considerable risk in lowering them, as, if the low fares 
 are found not to answer, there is often much ill-will raised 
 against the directors by returning to the old fares, and it 
 frequently happens in such cases that the old fares are not so 
 remunerative as they had been formerly. But, making every 
 allowance, the directors, I believe, in some cases, do not go as 
 far as they might with safety. The directors of the London 
 and Blackwall Railway, as we have seen, made a reduction of 
 30 per cent, in the intermediate fares about a year and a 
 half since ; they have not gained certainly by the change, but 
 they have not lost. The directors of the Brighton Company, 
 when a rival line against them was being contested before a 
 parliamentary committee in the session of 1863, consented to 
 a reduction of their fares 20 per cent. The result we shall 
 allow the chairman of the company to state in his own words, 
 as reported at the half-yearly meeting of the company a few 
 days since : " It was his duty," he said, " on the last occasion 
 of meeting them, to announce a reduced dividend, arising from 
 
278 
 
 the reduction of the tariff, but he ventured at that time to 
 express a hope that the railway traffic and the railway revenue 
 would increase, as the revenue of the country had increased, in 
 consequence of the reduction of duties. Those hopes had been 
 speedily and fully realized, and it was not too much to say 
 that not only had they a prospect of shortly, as far as the 
 dividend was concerned, resuming their former position, but 
 making up for what they had lost consequent on their starting 
 on a new principle." 
 
 " Sweet are the uses of adversity." Had there been no 
 opposition to the Brighton in 1863, the public would have 
 had no reduction of 20 per cent, in their fares, nor would 
 the chairman have been able to address his fellow share- 
 holders in such congratulatory terms on the bright pro- 
 spects of the company. The receipts of this company for 
 passengers for the year amounted to about 800, OOO/., so the 
 passengers who travelled by that line in 1864 effected a 
 saving of 160,000^. by the gentle pressure put on the com- 
 pany, and the shareholders did not lose a shilling! At the 
 last meeting of the National Association for the Promotion 
 of Social Science, a paper was read by Mr. Chadwick, of 
 a most interesting nature, containing a considerable number 
 of remarkable instances of the benefit that company had 
 derived from a great reduction of fares. At the request of the 
 society, Mr. Chadwick has consented to have it published, 
 and, as every one who takes an interest in the subject will 
 have an opportunity of reading it, it is unnecessary to make 
 any lengthened quotations from it. I shall content myself 
 with one. 
 
 " One of the most important examples, as it appears to 
 me," says Mr. Chadwick, " of the effect of reduced charges, was 
 in a competition between the London and North Western 
 Railway, in the London, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and 
 Stour Valley district, which includes the lines between 
 Dudley and Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Birmingham, 
 
279 
 
 Shrewsbury and Wellington. The London and North 
 Western Railway Company were induced, much at the in- 
 stance of Mr. W. Richardson Roebuck (who was then the 
 manager of the Stour Valley Railway, but who is now at the 
 head of an eminent trading firm in Manchester), to reduce 
 their fares in varying rates of a fourth or fifth of the previous 
 proportions in the district. The development of traffic was 
 such as to astonish himself and the other local railway agents 
 and managers, particularly the unwonted development from 
 sparsely populated lines; and these lower fares were, in their 
 opinion, highly remunerative, and they would have been more 
 so if the fares had been maintained. Yet on the cessation of 
 the competition, the company returned to the previous high 
 rates, for which no other reason was assigned than that if the 
 low fares were continued, the public travelling on the rest of 
 the company's lines would be struck with the contrast, and 
 would be dissatisfied with the high fares. And it is a matter 
 of inquiry, on behalf of the shareholders as well as of the 
 population, why the example should not have been extended 
 throughout the whole of the company's lines ! As one instance 
 of the financial effect of the low fares, I am enabled to give 
 the following results of a return to high fares. The receipts 
 per train, at a penny fare from Shrewsbury to Upton Magna, 
 were in December, 1858, III. 15s. 8d.; but on the return to 
 3Jo?. in November, 1859, the receipts per train fell to 
 4/. 4s. ILd. The receipts per train from Shrewsbury to 
 Walcot were, at a penny, 14/. 17s. 7d., and at Qd. they fell, in 
 October, 1859, to 41. 5s. 5d. The results of the Upton 
 Magna case were borne out, even to a greater extent, at each 
 station between Shrewsbury and Wellington. It is most 
 important to observe, however, in this and other such 
 examples, that they are examples o traffic divided between 
 two competitors, neither running under the best conditions for 
 a productive result. But if both lines were brought under 
 unity of management, one might be given up to exclusive 
 
280 
 
 passenger traffic with increased safety and comfort, the other 
 to goods traffic, under a consolidated management, with 
 augmented net returns. It is further to he noted from such 
 instances how many more are hindered from travelling hy 
 high fares than would he anticipated, a priori, except hy 
 reference to the economic law I have indicated as to the 
 ratios of increase of consumption with reductions of prices." 
 
 I have, however, written this treatise to very little 
 purpose, and failed entirely to convey my meaning, if it 
 would he supposed that I rested my case for the necessity 
 of Government purchase on the fact that railway hoards do 
 not make the reduction even that they might in the in- 
 terests of their shareholders, although that is a most im- 
 portant matter to be home in mind. The three great facts 
 on which railway reform are based are these: 1st. That 
 the sacrifice of one per cent of a company's dividend would 
 secure a reduction of fares 50, 60, even in some, cases 70 per 
 cent. ; but as it would be preposterous and utterly unreason- 
 able to expect that railway directors would sacrifice the interest 
 of their shareholders and their own to the public, hence it is 
 that only through Government interference, either by pur- 
 chase of the existing lines, or the construction of lines by 
 the State, can this nation ever derive the full measure 
 of benefit from her railways. We have noticed in the last 
 instances of reductions in fares in the Black wall and Brighton 
 lines, they may have gone as far as they can without increasing 
 loss ; if they would take off 20 or 30 per cent, more, they 
 might very possibly find their dividends reduced by a half per 
 cent, for some years. The second fact on which railway reform 
 rests is the profit the nation would have by the terms of 
 purchase being advantageous to both parties ; and third, the 
 great saving in working the lines, by their amalgamation under 
 one management. Now, why is it that writers in the railway 
 interest will not notice the facts, or, at least, what I put forth 
 as facts, and either deny their correctness or show that they 
 
281 
 
 have no bearing on the question ? Is it or is it not a fact that 
 the three classes of passengers can he conveyed in a mode- 
 rately loaded train at the rates of sixteen, twenty-four, and 
 forty miles respectively for a penny each ? Do trains convey, 
 on an average, ' ( not to put too fine a point on it," one-tenth 
 of the number they are capable of conveying ? Do we find 
 that in proportion as fares are reduced, in nearly the same 
 proportion is the number of passengers increased ? Will they 
 name any contest between two companies similar to that between 
 the Great Northern and the London and North- Western when 
 they carried first-class passengers at a farthing per mile, where 
 the loss of dividend exceeded one per cent. ? Do they think 
 it would be a benefit to the nation if the fares were reduced 
 to one third of their present average rates? Can merchan- 
 dise be conveyed on railways for about one shilling and 
 sixpence per ton per 100 miles ? Did the Great Eastern 
 Company prove that they could bring up coals by their new 
 line if it were granted for about a shilling per ton ? Might 
 coals be brought from the North to London, with a good 
 profit, at 10s. per ton ? Are not the contests carried on 
 between the companies as fierce and bitter as ever ? Is there 
 the most remote probability of this or any future Parliament 
 giving the railway interest protection against competing lines, 
 when the most active promoters of opposition lines are the 
 leading members of the railway body itself? 
 
 Such are a few of the topics I would suggest for the con- 
 sideration of the advocates of the present system ; there are 
 none, in my opinion, who would derive so great advantage as 
 the shareholders themselves from the change I have advocated. 
 
 " There is a broad distinction," it is asserted, " to be drawn 
 between the reform of the Post Office, which was a purely 
 governmental establishment, and the railways of Great Britain, 
 which are neither indebted to the Government for any contri- 
 bution towards their construction, to any aid from Parliament, 
 but rather obstruction, nor to any extraneous assistance in 
 their organization." 
 
282 
 
 That is a distinction that every one will admit, and to refer 
 to the difference between the two cases would be quite pertinent 
 if it was contended that the State had any right to take posses- 
 sion of the railways, or that the companies should he in any way 
 coerced to sell their property ; hut no one ever proposed such a 
 course, or put forward on the part of the State any such claim ; 
 nevertheless if the companies are made an offer they should 
 think it would be for their advantage to accept, the case of 
 the railways and the Post Office, so far as regards the working 
 of the two establishments, would be nearly analogous. There 
 is in both cases the same extremely low cost of conveyance ; 
 there was in the Post Office the same fiscal restriction on the 
 conveyance of letters, as there is now on the railways in the 
 conveyance of passengers and goods, and we find a similar 
 result in those cases when the railway tariff is lowered, as we 
 have experienced by the reduction of Post-Office charges. 
 
 " The Act had become forgotten," it is said, " because the 
 general feeling of the country never lent itself to the idea that 
 there was any intention to take action upon the claim after the 
 failure of every attempt to establish, by the means of commis- 
 sioners and inspectors, an intrusive interference with the policy 
 and practical working of the railways of the country." 
 
 There is some truth in this statement, so far, at least, as the 
 " purchase claims " are concerned ; but the question is, would 
 it be for the benefit of the shareholders, bearing in mind their 
 present position and future prospects, to make an agreement 
 with the Government in the spirit of that Act ? If they 
 think not, that necessarily makes an end of the matter. 
 
 " The question of the ' highwayman,' " it is now declared, " is 
 now about to be put to the railway interest one of two things, 
 * unrestricted competition, or surrender your rights to the Go- 
 vernment ; ' thereby meaning and intending, ' Your money or 
 your life ! ' for there is no mistaking the difficult position in 
 which the railway interest is intended to be placed by the 
 resuscitation of the ' almost forgotten ' purchase clause of 
 1844." 
 
283 
 
 It is so far from certain of the " question of the highway- 
 man " being put, that at the present time we have no means of 
 judging if ever the nation will consent to the purchase of the 
 railways on any terms whatever, and therefore the supposition 
 is wholly gratuitous. All that can be said at the present time, 
 so far as an opinion can be formed from the public press and 
 from the opinions of some of the leading statesmen of the day, 
 is, that the subject is deemed worthy of consideration. But to 
 bring the question under the consideration of Parliament, 
 with a view to turning it to practical account, would require 
 the cordial assent of the railway interest ; and if we are to take 
 its press as the representative of its feelings, it does not seem 
 much inclined to favour the project. As a matter of course, 
 the railway press is quite right in so doing, if it considers such 
 a change disadvantageous to the shareholders ; but is it not 
 obvious to every one, that every year the general feeling of the 
 country is tending towards a state of perfect free trade, and 
 at the present time the business of conveying passengers and 
 goods through the country is the only one that can be termed 
 a monopoly. Notwithstanding the enormous expenses the 
 companies severally incur to maintain this monopoly, it is per- 
 fectly plain, if there is any dependence to be placed in what we 
 see passing around us, that if the present system be not 
 abolished, every facility at least will be given for the construc- 
 tion of new lines. The Times says, " In a few years hence 
 people will look back with astonishment at a system that per- 
 mitted interested traders to offer opposition to another set of 
 traders who desired to compete with them in the market." The 
 projectors of a new line will, no doubt, have to make the best 
 terms they can with the majority of the landlords, and if there 
 be bond fide opposition from a landowner, and he can prove 
 that the line is not wanted, and that the opposition is lonafide, 
 arid not from another company in disguise, in such case the 
 line would no doubt be refused. Now, I put this case hypo- 
 thetically: assuming that it would appear evident, from the 
 
284 
 
 state of feeling in the country, that all exclusive privileges rail- 
 way companies enjoy should be abolished, and unlimited com- 
 petition be the future rule, would it not be for the benefit of 
 shareholders that the Act of 1844 should be carried out? 
 
 " Are Government establishments so wisely and economi- 
 cally conducted," it is asked, " as to make the public place 
 faith in the preference of Government over private administra- 
 tion ? Are the dockyards so well conducted the naval 
 department so superior to private yards ? Is the ordnance so 
 cheaply and so efficiently controlled as that it may be assumed 
 that economy and efficiency go hand in hand with Govern- 
 ment control ? " 
 
 This is the great stock argument against the possession of 
 the railways by the State, if that can be called an argument 
 which has no foundation whatever in fact. It affords a 
 remarkable illustration -of the association of ideas, and it 
 seems impossible for the railway interest to disconnect Govern- 
 ment management from the Board of Trade ; there the Board 
 sits like Banquo's ghost, shaking its gory locks at directors 
 and railway officials, and directors and railway officials love it 
 not. But who ever suggested that the management of the 
 railways should be " handed over to Government officials ? " or 
 that the Board of Trade had any qualification for undertaking 
 such a work ? That Board has a number of multifarious 
 duties to attend to, even were it qualified, which it is not, to 
 undertake the management of our railways. There is not the 
 shadow of a pretence for supposing that in the event of the 
 State taking possession of the railways they would be handed 
 over to Government officials, as that term is usually under- 
 stood. The nation and the Legislature would require that the 
 railways should be managed by a board comprised of the 
 ablest practical men in the kingdom, selected from the existing 
 boards, and it is only fair to suppose that the Government 
 would give effect to the wishes of the nation. What, then, 
 becomes of this argument that meets us at every turn about 
 
285 
 
 " Government officials ? " No doubt, in one sense, the 
 gentlemen comprising this board would become Government 
 officials ; but would railway writers contend that these gentle- 
 men, in the exercise of the duties of their office, would be 
 less able, conscientious, and independent in the discharge of 
 their duty on behalf of the nation than they are now on behalf 
 of their shareholders ? I hope it is the last we shall hear 
 of the objection to " Government officials," unless the writers 
 state to what class of officials they refer. It is very remark- 
 able, as I before noticed, that the manner in which Post- 
 Office officials do their duty is never held out as a warning 
 against making railways a Government department. No doubt 
 there are many shortcomings with them, as with other officials, 
 but they are kept so continually under the public eye as 
 railway officials would be that there is a continual check on 
 their conduct. 
 
 " There is another course should be adopted," it is contended 
 by the advocates of railway restriction " that of imposing 
 upon parliamentary committees the sacred duty of seeing that 
 all railway powers are strictly required by the necessities of the 
 districts which the railways promoted are professedly designed 
 to serve, and that the promoters had not mere speculative and 
 jobbing interests to serve." 
 
 There can be no doubt if Parliament would adopt the course 
 suggested, and perform the " sacred duty " marked out for it, 
 great benefit would be conferred on railway property. The 
 task, however, would be for a committee somewhat difficult 
 and invidious of deciding as to who were speculators -and 
 jobbers, and who were not. Here we have the directors of the 
 "Great Eastern," in conjunction with the "Lancashire and 
 Yorkshire " on one side, opposed to the " Great Northern," 
 the " Manchester and Sheffield," and the " Midland " on the 
 other; now it would be a very delicate matter for a committee 
 to decide which boards were composed of "good men and 
 true," and which of speculators and jobbers, and to draw the 
 
286 
 
 same distinction in all other applications for Bills. It would 
 simplify matters very much, and I have no doubt give great 
 satisfaction to the railway interest generally, if there was an 
 Act passed making it a misdemeanor to promote a Bill for 
 a new line within twenty miles of any existing line ; such a 
 course would put an effectual stop to competing lines. 
 
 " As no conversion could take place," it is said, " without 
 an offer be made to repay the principal sum proposed to be 
 converted, we believe the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who 
 took in hand the purchase of British railways, would find 
 that he would have to pay down a good round sum in hard 
 cash, ns well as stock certificates." 
 
 If the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed to carry out 
 the Act literally, and if he had to deal with a hostile pro- 
 prietary, he could, as we all know, do nothing at the present 
 time ; but it is proposed to supersede the Act by a voluntary 
 arrangement, and that the payment should be made in the ordi- 
 nary Three per Cent. Stock ; the shareholders would become 
 stockholders and repay themselves, like any other stockholders, 
 by selling out. 
 
 " Our own opinion is," says Herapath, " that railway tra- 
 velling would not be improved by the change Mr. Gait contem- 
 plates, and that some railway properties would be victimized to 
 a wholesale extent, while others would be fairly remunerated 
 under a purchase by Government. How, for instance, would 
 the Great Western proprietors be fairly compensated ? It 
 might be said, this feature might be estimated and allowed for 
 in the private bargain. Herapath thinks, if Government 
 would make an offer of 200/. a share the market price being 
 80/. the Government would have no difficulty in purchasing 
 at such price. Herapath's opinion appears to be, that the 
 value of some railway property will be so much increased that 
 it would be unreasonable to ask the shareholders to sell at the 
 present market price, but if sold at all it should be at the price 
 speculative persons suppose it may be worth some ten or fifteen 
 
287 
 
 years hence. There is a novelty in this plan to be commended, 
 but why should this method of purchase be confined to pur- 
 chase of railways by Government? Let railway projectors 
 show how this plan would work by giving to every one whose 
 house or land they may require the owners' prospective valuation 
 of the property fifteen or twenty years hence ! 
 
 In Ireland, railway directors and proprietors have enter- 
 tained very favourably the scheme of the purchase of railways 
 by Government. At a meeting held in Dublin lately, in 
 reference to this subject, Mr. Murland, chairman of the 
 Dublin and Drogheda line, and vice-chairman of the Great 
 Southern and Western Company, expressed himself strongly in 
 regard to the advantage it would confer on a great number of 
 companies, the shareholders in which, at the present time, 
 receive no dividends whatever. Mr. Murland, it is true, stated 
 that he did not think the public would derive as much benefit 
 as I had calculated on from the adoption of the scheme, and 
 in this respect he may be right ; it is only by a trial the result 
 can be tested. 
 
 Thirty years ago, a Eoyal Commission was appointed to 
 report on the best plan for providing Ireland with railways. 
 The commissioners were unanimous in opinion that the rail- 
 ways necessary for the country should be constructed by the 
 State ; to that report I have referred in the early part of this 
 work. Ireland is in every respect more adapted for a railway 
 system under the control of Government than England is. 
 There the people do not view the interference of Government 
 in mercantile affairs with the same distrust as is felt in this 
 country ; and whilst in one country it might be desirable to 
 confine the experiment of low fares and Government super- 
 vision to a few lines, in the other the experiment might be 
 extended from the Giant's Causeway to Cape Clear, and from 
 Connemara to the Hill of Howth, with the complete assent 
 and support of all classes and sections of the people. 
 
288 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Railway Receipts in 1805 An Agreement with the Companies to 
 Reduce their Charges The Justice of a Payment to the Com- 
 panies for that Purpose The Extent of Railways throughout the 
 Kingdom All Classes should derive Benefit from a Reduction in 
 Fares and Freightage Arbitrary Charges in the Tariff for Mer- 
 chandise Adam Smith Payment to the Companies compared to 
 the Income Tax The direct and indirect Advantages of a Reduc- 
 tion in Fares and Freightage Extract from Mr. Mill's '' Political 
 Economy " Committee of the House of Commons Experiments 
 Suggested Conclusion Resume. 
 
 THE amount of payments that will be made by the public 
 to railway companies in 1865 may be calculated at thirty-six 
 millions sterling ; and we have now to consider, if the fares 
 and rates by the companies were reduced by two- thirds, would 
 such a reduction be equivalent, so far as the interests of the 
 public are concerned, to a reduction of the taxation of the 
 country by twenty- four millions ; or, in other words, would 
 such a reduction in railway charges give as much relief to 
 the country as tbe total abolition of our customs duty, which 
 amounts annually to nearly the same sum ? 
 
 Let us suppose the railway companies would say to the 
 Government, " If you make us a payment of four millions per 
 annum, we will consolidate ourselves into one body, and reduce 
 our fares and rates two-thirds." Would it be advisable for 
 Government, in the absence of any other scheme, to recom- 
 mend the Legislature to accept such an offer ? Would the 
 nation gain twenty millions per annum by the agreement ? 
 That is the first question we have to consider. 
 
 It will be admitted, I presume, that whether the public pays 
 money to a company or to the State, amounts, so far as the 
 
289 
 
 individuals are concerned, to the same thing, as the relief 
 is equal, if the payment be reduced, in either case. But 
 to make that relief national it must not only he extended 
 to every part of the kingdom, but to every class in the com- 
 munity ; and let us consider if these two indispensable con- 
 ditions are comprised in payments to the railway companies. 
 
 First, in regard to the extent of railways throughout the 
 kingdom. One has but to glance over a railway map and he 
 will scarcely be able to discern a village, or even hamlet, that 
 is not provided with railway accommodation ; there is not a 
 district, however thinly populated, except in the Highlands of 
 Scotland, that one or more railways do not run through. 
 
 Second, in regard to the classes from whom the companies 
 receive payments. It will be found that all classes, without 
 reference to position, would be equally relieved by a reduction 
 in their payments to the companies. Let us take first the 
 numbers who travel, and the payments made by the different 
 grades of society, as represented by the three classes. The 
 number of first-class passengers who travelled in 1863 was, in 
 round numbers, twenty-three millions; second-class, fifty- seven 
 millions; and third-class, one hundred and twenty-one millions; 
 and the fares paid by each class severally were 3,300,000, 
 4,.200,000/., and 4,900, OOO/. It will be seen, therefore, that 
 the working classes would derive their full share of advantage 
 from a reduction in fares. 
 
 In reference to the payments to the companies for freightage, 
 although that is paid in the first instance by the merchant, 
 trader, or manufacturer, the charge ultimately, as every one 
 knows, falls on the consumer ; it extends almost to every- 
 thing that we eat, drink, or wear, smell, taste, touch, or handle, 
 everything, in fact, that ministers to our comforts or necessities 
 comes under the railway tariff for " merchandise." There is 
 in this tariff by the several companies as much difference in 
 charges as there is for that of passengers ; but inasmuch as 
 the payments are principally confined to the trading classes, 
 
 u 
 
290 
 
 it is those classes alone that know the vexatious manner in 
 which the payments are enforced, although the general public 
 must ultimately pay. It is in heavy articles of merchandise, 
 such as coal, where the charge for conveyance adds so largely 
 to the price, that the middle and working classes feel the 
 monopoly so severely. The carriers may be said to live in a 
 state of chronic warfare with railway directors. 
 
 It appears to me very evident that if a reduction of payments 
 by the public to the companies be considered, either in refer- 
 ence to the area over which that reduction would extend, or its 
 equitable distribution among all classes, it would be found in 
 conformity with the doctrines laid down by our highest autho- 
 rities in political economy. 
 
 Nothing, as we have seen, can be more arbitrary than the 
 charges by railway companies, either for passengers or mer- 
 chandise. What does Adam Smith say on this subject ? 
 
 " The tax which each individual is bound to pay ought 
 to be certain, and not arbitrary. The time of payment, the 
 manner of payment, the quantity to be paid, ought all to be 
 clear and plain to the contributor, and to every other person. 
 When it is otherwise, every person subject to the tax is put 
 more or less in the power of the tax-gatherer, who can aggra- 
 vate the tax on any obnoxious contributor. The certainty of 
 what each individual ought to pay is, in taxation, a matter of 
 the greatest importance." 
 
 " It may obstruct," he says in another place, " the industry 
 of the people, and discourage them from applying themselves 
 to certain branches of business. All nations have endeavoured, 
 to the best of their judgment, to render their taxes as equal as 
 they could contrive. 
 
 " The sovereigns of China, those of Bengal while under 
 the Mahometan Government, and those of ancient Egypt, 
 are said, accordingly, to have been extremely attentive to the 
 making and maintaining of good roads and navigable canals, 
 in order to increase, as much as possible, both the quantity and 
 
291 
 
 value of every part of the produce of the land, by procuring to 
 every part of it the most extensive market which their own 
 dominions could afford." Wealth of Nations. 
 
 I think it would be well to follow the example set us by the 
 " sovereigns of Bengal, China, and ancient Egypt," and learn 
 that as we have the best roads in the world, our work is 
 but half done, so long as our fiscal arrangements in regard to 
 their use by the public are of such a nature as to nullify, in a 
 great measure, the immense advantages that the nation would 
 otherwise receive from them. 
 
 Assuming that an arrangement could be made with the com- 
 panies by a payment of four or five millions a year to make the 
 reduction in charges we are discussing, let us examine how far 
 such a payment would be analogous to that of the income tax 
 laid on by Sir Kobert Peel for the purpose of reducing indirect 
 taxation. 
 
 I think it would be found that a payment to the railway 
 companies for the purpose I have named, if we could do nothing 
 better, would be still more beneficial to the public, inasmuch as 
 the income tax was only laid on for the purpose of decreasiog 
 indirect taxation, whilst the payment of four or five millions 
 a year to the companies, if such a bargain could be made, 
 would not only decrease direct payments to double that 
 amount, but also indirect payments to a still greater amount. 
 
 Taking our gross payments for 1865 at thirty-six millions, 
 we might calculate on rather more than the half for merchan- 
 dise ; and a reduction of payments to one-third would effect a 
 saving to the public, in round numbers, of eleven millions in 
 direct payments on fares, parcels, &c., and thirteen millions 
 in indirect payments on general merchandise. Thus, a person 
 who was in the habit of paying 30/. a year for travelling would 
 have that sum reduced to 10/. ; that would be definite and 
 distinct, and the saving he would make he could calculate to a 
 penny. Now it is a very different matter when a reduction is 
 made in indirect payments ; it is a considerable time before the 
 
 u 2 
 
292 
 
 consumer derives all the profit from the change ; there is gene- 
 rally a rise in price in the commodity itself, caused by the in- 
 creased demand, then the dealer generally takes care to make 
 something by the change, so that the consumer, often for along 
 time at least, makes but little by the alteration. Why is it a 
 reduction in the income tax is always so popular ? because 
 the public the tax-paying portion at least have the full 
 benefit of any reduction. So it would be with the payment of 
 fares: every person that travels by railway and who does not ? 
 would have the full benefit of the reduction. But it may be 
 said many persons do not now travel by railway. That, no 
 doubt, is the case, but it is the result of excessive fares. Is 
 there any class in the kingdom who either have no necessity or 
 no wish to travel, either on business or on pleasure ? Not one. 
 From the peer to the peasant, from the wealthiest merchant to 
 the humblest mechanic, there is no exception to the universal 
 rule. 
 
 It might be objected that with low fares many people would 
 not in reality save money, for many would travel three times as 
 much as they do at present; but their doing so would be 
 entirely optional, and if they can have the same extent of 
 travelling for one- third of the money they formerly paid, it 
 rests with themselves to expend more money or not, as they 
 may think proper. At the present time many people spend 
 more in postage than they did under the old rates, but no 
 one, I suppose, would argue from that circumstance that the 
 reduction of post-office charges is the less beneficial to the 
 public. 
 
 In regard to the advantages the public would derive from 
 the abolition of the thirteen millions of indirect payments, it 
 would, no doubt, be more unequally divided among the popu- 
 lation than the benefit derived from the reduction in direct 
 payments when each individual in the community obtains his 
 or her exact share in the reduction that takes place. In the 
 reduction of indirect payments the person through whose hands 
 
293 
 
 the payments take place are naturally those who derive the 
 greatest advantage from such reductions. This is especially 
 the case in regard to traders when the reduction is small com- 
 pared with the value of the article in which they deal; the 
 public, for instance, derives little or no benefit from a reduction 
 of half-a-crown in the hundredweight in the price of sugar, 
 as the grocer considers the reduction so small that he may as 
 well keep it to himself. So in those cases where the cost of 
 carriage bears but a small proportion to the value of the 
 articles carried, the general public might not gain much, yet 
 that very large class, the mercantile community, would be very 
 great gainers. It would be from the reduction in the carriage 
 of heavy articles of merchandise, as coal, timber, iron, &c., the 
 conveyance of which so greatly enhances the price, that the 
 general public would derive the full benefit ; so that, on the 
 whole, the indirect payments of the different classes of the 
 public would be reduced by thirteen millions, in addition to 
 the eleven millions of direct payments. 
 
 Let us give another illustration of the benefit the nation 
 would derive from the possession of the railways, and the 
 adoption of the low tariff I have suggested. The nation, it is 
 said, would by their purchase " contract an additional debt of 
 some four hundred and odd millions." That is not a correct 
 way of putting the case. The nation would not make any 
 engagement whatever about the principal, but would only 
 undertake to pay a rental in perpetuity, considerably less than 
 the net receipts now received by the shareholders. The nation 
 would pay, in the case I have supposed, four or five millions in 
 its corporate capacity, but inasmuch as it would save twenty- 
 four millions a year in its individual capacity, in the payments 
 by individuals of whom the nation is composed, the aggregate 
 savings of fifteen or twenty years would be sufficient to pay off 
 the whole of the principal. 
 
 Well, then, we come back to the original question. Would 
 the nation gain twenty millions per annum by giving the 
 
294 
 
 companies four millions per annum to make a reduction of 
 two-thirds in charges ? Do these payments now made extend 
 to every part of the kingdom ? Do they affect all classes 
 equally ? Would the nation experience the same relief in 
 the reduction of those charges as it would by the reduction 
 of taxation to the same amount in the ordinary way by the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer ? 
 
 There is a great confusion of ideas caused by the wrong use 
 of terms in reference to the State. Many speakers and writers 
 use the terms " Government," " State and Kevenue," as 
 though they were synonymous ; and will say, " the State 
 incurs a loss," whereas what they mean, or at least what they 
 should say, would be that the revenue incurs a loss. Even 
 some of our very able political writers fall into this error. 
 Here, for instance, is a quotation from one of our leading 
 newspapers, a few weeks since, in reference to the Post 
 Office : 
 
 " The first great change in the system was all in favour of the 
 public, to the detriment of the State. The introduction of the 
 penny postage everybody felt directly and immediately; no 
 relief that the Chancellor of the Exchequer could devise would 
 come home so quickly and sensibly as this did to every man's 
 door. The loss to the State had to be made up as far and as 
 steadily as possible, and this could only be done by extending 
 the business, or, in other words, multiplying the number of 
 letters transmitted through the post." 
 
 If the writer had used the word " revenue " for that of 
 " State," he would have been quite correct; but in the sense 
 he used it he conveyed altogether an erroneous idea. The State 
 would lose, and not the revenue, by the loss of a Queen's ship, 
 or by war, or a loan guaranteed to a foreign power that the 
 Government would ultimately be called on to repay ; but the 
 State would not lose by a reduction of taxation, although the 
 revenue might, inasmuch as the people, who compose the State, 
 frequently gain much more in their individual capacity than 
 
295 
 
 they lose in their corporate capacity. When the Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer took fourpence per pound off tea, there was 
 a decrease in the revenue of three or four hundred thousand 
 pounds; and when he took twopence in the pound off the 
 income tax there was a loss to the revenue of some couple of 
 millions; but it would be very erroneous in either case to 
 say that the State was a loser. 
 
 So at the present time you will hear people speak about the 
 purchase by the State of the railways, and concerning the reduc- 
 tion to one-third of the present charges they will say, " Those 
 fares will not pay, and Government will lose by it ; so Govern- 
 ment cannot undertake it." Thus the Government, the Nation, 
 and the Eevenue are all mixed up in the public mind, without 
 any distinction or difference whatever. 
 
 It must be obvious, I think, to every one who gives the 
 matter the slightest consideration, that the view now generally 
 taken of the subject is altogether erroneous. It would be 
 quite correct if Government were a joint-stock company, having 
 no connection with the nation, and had undertaken to govern 
 this country as a matter of speculation on its own account; but 
 it should be remembered that the Government is but the acting 
 manager for the country for the time being, and whatever saving 
 is effected by its means to the different classes of society, is in 
 every respect tantamount to a reduction in taxation. 
 
 If Government, however, in carrying out any scheme by 
 which a great saving would be effected to all the individuals of 
 which society is composed, should be obliged to incur some 
 expense while acting for the nation in its collective capacity, 
 the latter sum should be deducted from the former, and the 
 balance shows the net gain to the nation by the transaction. 
 
 Our traders and manufacturers feel the load pressing very 
 heavily, which railway directors are enabled, from the power 
 they possess, to lay on them. " The cost of production," says 
 M'Culloch, " together with the ordinary profit, may therefore 
 be called the necessary price or value of all things made by 
 
296 
 
 labour and capital." But of what avail is labour and capital, 
 it may be asked, if there is a power over them practically 
 despotic, that can, and does to a great extent, neutralize the 
 natural effects produced by the combination of labour and 
 capital ? 
 
 " When the cost of production is increased artificially by a 
 tax, the effect is the same as when it is increased by natural 
 causes. If only one or a few commodities are affected, their 
 value and price rise so as to compensate the producer or dealer 
 for his peculiar burthen ; but if there were a tax on all com- 
 modities exactly proportioned to their value, no such compen- 
 sation would be obtained. A tax on any one commodity, 
 whether laid on its production, its importation, its carriage 
 from place to place, or its sale, will, as a general rule, raise 
 the value and price of the commodity by at least the amount of 
 the tax. Whatever renders a large capital necessary, in any 
 trade or business, limits the competition in that business, and, 
 by giving something like a monopoly to a few dealers, may 
 enable them either to keep up the price beyond what would 
 afford the ordinary rate of profit, or to obtain the ordinary rate 
 of profit with a less degree of exertion for improving and 
 cheapening their commodity. There is still another considera- 
 tion : the higher price necessitated by the tax almost always 
 checks the demand for the commodity ; and since there are 
 many improvements in production which to make them prac- 
 ticable [.require a certain extent of demand, such improve- 
 ments are obstructed, and many of them prevented altogether." 
 Mill's Political Economy. 
 
 There is perhaps no class whom the railway monopoly 
 more injuriously affects than our manufacturers, living at a 
 great distance from our coal-fields, and obliged to submit to 
 whatever price the companies charge, and compete, under 
 such disadvantageous circumstances, with other manufacturers. 
 Coal can be brought to London, and pay a good profit, at ten 
 shillings per ton ; and we all know what it costs. 
 
297 
 
 It is not necessary to pursue this branch of the subject 
 further ; but when the experience of our practical men coincides 
 with the theories of our most distinguished writers on political 
 economy relating to a matter deeply affecting the vital interests 
 of the country, it is surely time for the British Parliament to 
 examine closely into the causes that have produced such a 
 result, and devise the necessary remedy. 
 
 It must be remembered that, although the payments to the 
 companies for 1865 may be calculated at thirty-six millions, 
 it is impossible for any one to form an opinion as to the 
 amount they will ultimately reach in future years. Should the 
 Act of 1 844 not be carried out, but, on the contrary, be re- 
 moved from the statute book, the prognostications of the Times 
 will, in all probability, prove true ; and the railway system, 
 under such circumstances, be so extended as to defy, at 
 the present time, all powers of calculation. Mr. Watkin, it 
 appears by his speech, does not consider our present system 
 perfect : he thinks that " four or five large systems, bound to 
 interchange with each other by a ' through ' system of work- 
 ing, might be better than fifty or sixty smaller ones." This is 
 pretty well for a beginning:. It would be reforming the system, 
 no doubt, indifferently well, but why not reform it altogether ? 
 When Mr. Watkin has got so far as to be willing to reduce 
 the number of establishments to four north, south, east, and 
 west he has only to go a little further, consolidate the four 
 into one, obtain the increased credit that a Government 
 guarantee would give, and then he and I are quite agreed as to 
 the course that should be pursued. 
 
 It has been a matter of surprise to many that in France, 
 or any other of the Continental nations where centralization 
 is carried to such an extent, there has not been established a 
 uniform tariff, either for passengers or goods. Although the 
 tariff in each country has not the same diversity it has with us, 
 yet in the different parts of each country there is considerable 
 difference in the charges. Some years since, I was on the 
 
298 
 
 direction of the South Eastern Railway of Switzerland, and at 
 one time entertained some hopes of bringing about a uniform 
 tariff through the different cantons, but I soon had to give 
 up the attempt ; the interests were so conflicting, or they were 
 so at least in the opinions of the different directors, that I soon 
 found that nothing in that way could be effected. 
 
 We have been so long accustomed to deal with railways as 
 private property, to be managed by private individuals, and 
 that whoever manages them should make them pay, that even 
 should the country come ultimately to the opinion that they 
 should be in the possession of the State, it might, nevertheless, 
 still think that the charges ought not to be reduced to a lower 
 rate than would be met by the actual receipts that the 
 Government should not incur "a loss," nor seek any assistance 
 from the Treasury. As it is not likely that there will be any 
 legislation in the session of 1865, should even some great 
 change be found desirable, there will be ample time to have 
 full inquiry and experiments as to the extent that reduction 
 in charges can be effected without " loss " if I must use the 
 word before the new Parliament meet. By that time there 
 can be collected every necessary information for legislative 
 purposes. 
 
 Should a committee, or commission, be appointed by 
 Parliament to consider this subject, the first matter for in- 
 quiry would probably be the actual cost of conveyance for 
 passengers and goods on railways. Second, the additional 
 expense, if both were largely increased, say threefold their 
 present number or weight ; and as there is no data in existence 
 that would afford the means to form an opinion as to 
 the amount of loss which would be incurred, the necessary 
 information could only be obtained by an arrangement with 
 a certain number of companies, engaging them to convey 
 passengers and goods at such a tariff as the Legislature, 
 acting on the recommendation of the Government, might 
 deem desirable. 
 
299 
 
 I believe there is not a company in the kingdom would 
 refuse to co-operate with the Government in any experiment the 
 latter might think it desirable to make, a guarantee, of course, 
 being given for indemnification against loss; and if half a 
 dozen or a dozen lines in England and Scotland were selected, 
 so that all the different kinds of traffic would be represented, 
 those lines being so isolated that they could not abstract 
 traffic from other lines, and that tariff be continued for a 
 year, the issue between high and low charges would be fairly 
 determined, the public opinion of the country would be en- 
 lightened, and both nation and Legislature in 1866 would 
 thoroughly understand and, therefore, be perfectly competent 
 to deal with the subject. 
 
 Although the committee might recommend this course, and 
 Parliament act on such recommendation, there would remain, 
 nevertheless, two matters of the greatest importance the com- 
 mittee would have to investigate and report on, viz. the extent 
 of reduction in fares to passengers, and in freightage on goods, 
 it would recommend for adoption to the Legislature. 
 
 Let us now consider as briefly as we can the different recom- 
 mendations in regard to the tariff for fares that would in all 
 probability be pressed on the attention of the committee. 
 
 1. Very low fares. There are many, I have no doubt, who 
 would recommend to the committee a reduction similar to that 
 made in the Post Office, and contend that as, in the ordinary 
 course of trade, the cost of production governed the price for 
 which the article was sold, so the same principle should be 
 acted on by Government, and as a first-class passenger could 
 be carried sixteen miles for a penny, it would be a most 
 unreasonable charge to make him pay a shilling in a slow 
 train, and one shilling and eightpence in a fast train, and 
 that the reduction should be assimilated to that of the Post 
 Office, and that sixpence, under the circumstances, was the 
 utmost that could be fairly charged. 
 
 It would be further contended that as the fares were decreased, 
 
300 
 
 so in the same proportion, or nearly so, would the number of 
 passengers increase, until ultimately, as in the case of the Post 
 Office, the revenue under the new system would equal that 
 under the old, therefore, it would he argued, a very low tariff 
 should he adopted. 
 
 I have had before occasion to remark, in regard to the finan- 
 cial part of this question, that, although the public good, in an 
 enlarged sense, is the primary matter to be considered, the 
 financial success of the scheme is secondary to it only. I have 
 also given reasons, not necessary to repeat here, why I con- 
 sidered the increase in the number of passengers would not 
 under any circumstances be in the same ratio as the increase of 
 letters ; but I will suppose that I have been in error, and that 
 it were satisfactorily proved that a reduction could be made 
 in fares to the one-sixth of the present rates without any loss 
 to the revenue, I should, nevertheless, say that even under 
 those circumstances it would be a sound and good policy on 
 the part of the Legislature to charge double those fares. 
 
 It must be remembered that, if the railways should ever 
 become the property of the State, the greater the revenue raised 
 from them the greater will be the reduction in our taxation in 
 other departments, direct or indirect, as the case may be. It 
 is impossible for any man at present to foresee to what extent 
 at some future time our railways may contribute to the national 
 revenue, and, consequently, to our relief from other burthens 
 which either press upon us, or which, from their injustice, cause 
 considerable irritation in the public mind. The tariff which 
 it is desirable to fix for passengers and goods should be suffi- 
 ciently low to meet the necessities of all classes throughout 
 the kingdom. In regard to passengers, I think twopence per 
 mile by first-class express, and one penny per mile on an 
 average of first-class fast and slow trains, and other classes in 
 proportion, would fairly meet the necessity of the case. If we 
 go higher than those rates, we largely decrease the traffic ; but 
 if we go lower, I doubt if the traffic would much increase. 
 
301 
 
 The effect on the traffic is the sure test by which the apprecia- 
 tion by the public in a reduction of charges is known ; and 
 when the reduction is carried to that extent that it ceases to act 
 with efficiency, revenue that could be easily collected is thrown 
 away that might be usefully employed in relieving the nation 
 from taxation of some other kind that presses heavily on it. 
 
 In regard to the proper tariff for each class of goods, I am 
 not competent to give an opinion. Our merchants, manufac- 
 turers, and traders, would of course give all the information to 
 a commission necessary to enable it to form a right judgment 
 of the extent to which it should be reduced. 
 
 It is impossible to calculate, with any pretension to accuracy, 
 the increase of passengers that would take place under the 
 tariff I- have proposed, or any other low tariff. We are, at 
 present, to a great extent, groping our way in the dark, 
 with only such glimpses of light to guide us as the for- 
 tuitous collisions of hostile parties occasionally furnish us 
 with. We are, in fact, profoundly ignorant of the effect on 
 the British people of a full development of our traffic as it 
 would be when freed from its present fiscal restraints, not 
 merely in reference to their commercial prosperity and physical 
 well-being, but also to their social and moral progress. If I 
 might venture to borrow the beautiful simile of the greatest 
 of our philosophers, when illustrating a far more important 
 subject than that we are now discussing, we might compare 
 ourselves to children picking up pebbles by the seaside, with 
 the sea itself stretching out before us, its depths unfathomed, 
 and we profoundly ignorant of all that those depths contained. 
 
 What is the obstacle, then, to prevent our legislators from 
 dealing practically with the railway question in the session of 
 1865 ? Simply a want of the necessary knowledge pertaining 
 to the subject, and until this is acquired it is utterly impossible 
 that the Legislature can, in any way, deal satisfactorily with 
 the matter. The specific knowledge the Legislature mainly 
 requires, is the extent to which the nation would avail itself of 
 
302 
 
 a low tariff for passengers and goods. We know pretty ac- 
 curately the cost at which a train of carriages with passengers, 
 or trucks with goods, can be conveyed per mile, and we likewise 
 know that with a small addition to the cost of passenger trains 
 three times the number of persons might be conveyed by each 
 train ; but we require more specific knowledge. Especially in 
 regard to the conveyance of coal and other minerals, and to the 
 weight that could be conveniently sent by goods trains, and 
 the increased cost of sending large loads, we require additional 
 knowledge. 
 
 Nor is it even positively ascertained that a reduction of 
 the tariff on passengers and goods to one-third of the present 
 rates, would have the result of increasing the number of 
 travellers and the quantity of goods in the ratio say of 5 to 2. 
 The principal subject for inquiry is to ascertain, on the one 
 hand, the increase in expense, and, on the other, the profit the 
 State would derive from the decreased payment to the share- 
 holders, and by the saving in expense by the consolidation of 
 the railways under one management. 
 
 We have had, it is true, many contests between railway 
 companies, to some of which I have drawn attention, carried on 
 for considerable periods, at one third of the fares I have 
 ventured to suggest, as those that in our ordinary tariff might 
 be adopted, without more loss in the dividends than the profit 
 of the State would make up. These cases, however, cannot be 
 depended on beyond a certain extent; they do not form a 
 class from which a general rule can be drawn, as the reduction 
 of fares on the several lines was only carried out on part of 
 them. 
 
 That the world at large is reaping the greatest advantages 
 from the improved, or rather newly invented facilities for 
 locomotion can be doubted by none ; they are the means 
 whereby the most distant provinces are closely connected with 
 their respective capitals, and not only that, but they are 
 breaking down the barrier that separates nation from nation, 
 
303 
 
 uniting the capital of one country with that of another, and 
 thus tending rapidly towards one of the great ends of human 
 existence, the knowledge of our fellow man. And so it is : 
 those two mighty powers of civilization and science, the steam 
 engine and the railway, are day by day entering on new 
 tracks, and penetrating regions hitherto almost unknown ; 
 confined to no hemisphere, indigenous to every soil, careless 
 under what Government they exist, onward are they marching 
 with giant strides, through the wild forests of America, along 
 the romantic hanks of the Ehine and the fertile plains of 
 Lombardy; and in the same proportion as the wise design 
 of Providence becomes more and more appreciated, that all 
 should consider themselves as members of one great family, in 
 the same proportion should we use our best exertions to extend 
 the use of those means which seem destined to accomplish this 
 great end. 
 
 There are other considerations connected with this subject, 
 which I need not do more than glance at. That knowledge 
 would be extended, and religion and morality advanced, by an in- 
 creased facility of communication with those densely populated 
 parts of the country where ignorance and vice most prevail, 
 cannot be doubted by any thinking man. The influence which 
 a comparatively free means of communication might be ex- 
 pected to exercise in abolishing these evils, have been thus 
 forcibly described by one of our great departed statesmen : 
 
 " The steam engine and railroad are not merely facilitating 
 the conveyance of merchandise from one part of the country 
 to another, they are doing more, they are sealing the inter- 
 course between mind and mind, and they are creating demands 
 for knowledge, sending the desire for that knowledge into 
 all the recesses of this empire, tending powerfully to the culti- 
 vation of the mental as they are improving the physical 
 capabilities of the country." 
 
 I have now completed, to the best of my ability, the 
 
304 
 
 task I have undertaken, and, however inefficiently it may be 
 done, I hope that I have said enough to prepare the public 
 mind for that thorough investigation of our railway system 
 which in the parliamentary session of 1865 it will probably 
 undergo. 
 
 I shall now, in conclusion, make a brief resume of the main 
 facts and arguments I have brought forward in the course of this 
 work to prove the importance and practicability of a thorough 
 reform of our railway system. 
 
 It has been stated, in express terms, by a committee of the 
 House of Commons : 
 
 1. "That the highways of a country are as necessary to a 
 people as the air they breathe," and I have endeavoured to 
 .show that our railways have become these highways ; that the 
 Legislature, in delegating the trust involved in their manage- 
 ment to private individuals, gave up one of its most important 
 functions, and abandoned, for the time being, to irresponsible 
 parties, that power which should be exercised by the State 
 alone. 
 
 2. That the present system, so far from being definitely 
 adopted by the Legislature and the country, is avowedly on its 
 trial; that Parliament, in 1844, acting on the recommendation 
 of the Government of the day Sir Robert Peel being the first 
 Minister of the Crown, and Mr. Gladstone President of the 
 Board of Trade passed a general Act, whereby all railways 
 constructed in the United Kingdom from that time forth should, 
 after the expiration of twenty-one years from the date of their 
 respective Bills, become national property, whenever the Legis- 
 lature should so determine. 
 
 8. That, in the Act of 1844, the exact terms were stated 
 on which the railways should be purchased. 
 
 4. That this bargain was made by the President of the 
 Board of Trade with the representatives of the railway interest, 
 and that the Bill passed the third reading without opposition. 
 
 5. That the purchase of the then existing railways was recom- 
 
305 
 
 mended by "men of the highest commercial position and great- 
 est experience;" and the Government, whilst fully admitting 
 the importance of the subject, thought it desirable that the 
 settlement of the question should be deferred for twenty-one 
 years, when, as might be expected, our railway system should 
 be nearly completed, and the public in a much better condi- 
 tion to judge of the merits of the question than they were 
 at that time. 
 
 6. The main argument in favour of the State exercising its 
 right of purchasing the railways is founded on the fact that the 
 companies who hold them have virtually in their hands the mo- 
 nopoly of the traffic of the country, and raise and lower the fares 
 and charges at pleasure. How this power is exercised by the 
 companies is proved by the great variation in their tariffs, 
 both for goods and passengers; although the cost of transport 
 is reduced, by means of railways, to less than the one-twentieth 
 part of what it was by common roads, yet the charges are not 
 reduced, on an' average, to one-half of what they formerly 
 were ; they varyTall over the kingdom, being double, treble, or 
 even quadruple in some places, to what they are in others ; the 
 directors' powers in this respect being practically unlimited, 
 they naturally choose those charges that pay best, without 
 reference to the interests of the public. 
 
 7. It is shown that the variation in fares, within certain 
 limitations, viz. from three farthings to threepence per mile for 
 first-class passengers, and from one farthing to one penny per 
 mile for third-class passengers, makes but comparatively little 
 difference in profit to the shareholders; but, as a general rule, 
 what is termed moderate fares, viz. about twopence farthing 
 per mile for first class, and the other classes in proportion, are 
 found to pay best ; and it is shown that, in some cases, when, 
 from opposition or other causes, the fares have been reduced 
 70 per cent., the dividends to the shareholders were not, in any 
 case, reduced more than at the rate of one per cent, per annum 
 on their capital. 
 
 x 
 
306 
 
 8. It is argued that as no right exists, either legal or moral, 
 to call on railway proprietors to reduce their fares and charges 
 lower than what they find most conducive to their interests, 
 there is no probability of any great reduction taking place, and 
 that therefore, under the present system, the same high and irre- 
 gular charges must continue to exist throughout the kingdom. 
 
 9. It is endeavoured to be shown that our system has been 
 as detrimental to the interest of the shareholder as to that of 
 the public ; and that competition being the only means to 
 which the public can look for a reduction in charges, it must, 
 if the system be not altered, prove ruinous to railway pro- 
 prietors. It is shown, by a comparison of dates and dividends, 
 that railway property has been reduced by competition to little 
 more than half its former value. 
 
 10. A reaction having, within the last few years, taken place, 
 and railway property being considerably improved, it is argued 
 that the present would be the best time for railway proprie- 
 tors to evince their readiness to come to an arrangement with 
 the Government for the purchase of their railways on fair and 
 equitable terms, according to the spirit of the Act of J844. 
 
 11. It is contended that the improvement in railway property 
 arises from two causes, wholly exceptional : the conservative ten- 
 dency of the present Parliament in railway matters, evinced in the 
 discountenance generally given to new projects, and the atten- 
 tion of the public being directed at this time to other modes of 
 investment. It is noted, as prejudicial to existing interests, 
 that there is a yearly-increasing tendency, on the part of land- 
 owners, to promote, in every way, the construction of ne\ 
 railways; therefore, it is argued that it would best suit the 
 interest of the shareholders to sell their property to the State 
 so soon as a public opinion in this country was created and 
 formed, that would enable the Government and the Legislature 
 to carry out such a project. 
 
 12. Sir Rowland Hill's plan of reform, in reference to our 
 Post Office, is quoted as a precedent for the carrying out of a 
 
307 
 
 plan somewhat analogous in regard to our railways. It is 
 shown, by the Post-office returns, that the gross revenue is in- 
 creased fifty per cent., and that the net revenue is equal to what 
 it formerly was, although the postage on each letter has been 
 reduced to an average of one-sixth of its former rate ; and it is 
 contended that a reduction in railway charges to one- third 
 of their present rate might be expected to produce, in many 
 respects, similar results. 
 
 13. The mode suggested for the purchase of the railways is, 
 that an equivalent be given in 3 per cent, stock on the market 
 value of the shares at the present time, with such bonus as 
 the Legislature may consider fit. It is assumed that the Legis- 
 lature would offer such liberal terms as to induce the com- 
 panies to accept Government stock in exchange for their shares ; 
 that the purchase, or rather conversion of railway stock into 
 Government stock, would be gradual ; and that the operation, 
 being voluntary, would in no way disturb the money market 
 or the general commercial state of the country. 
 
 14. The difference between the interest paid by Government 
 and the dividends derived from investment on the best railway 
 unguaranteed stock is about \\ per cent.; and it is con- 
 tended that as the shareholders would take a much less interest, 
 secured by the State, than that which they now receive from the 
 railways, the Government would have at their disposal a suffi- 
 cient sum to make up the loss that would be caused by a great 
 reduction in fares or charges. 
 
 15. It is proposed that as each railway would become the 
 property of the State, a low and uniform tariff for passengers 
 should be adopted : by ordinary trains, first-class passengers at 
 three farthings per mile, second-class one halfpenny, and third- 
 class one farthing per mile, with higher rates for fast and 
 express trains; and that for excursion trains half the rates 
 of ordinary trains should be charged. 
 
 16. The very low cost of conveyance of passengers and 
 merchandise on railways is proved by calculations founded on 
 
308 
 
 the traffic returns from the Board of Trade and the companies. 
 It is shown that a passenger, taking an average of the three 
 classes, can be conveyed a hundred miles when an engine is 
 fully loaded, as in excursion trains, for fourpence; that charge 
 covering not only every direct expense, but also a fair per- 
 centage added for the general expenditure of the establishment. 
 A ton of merchandise can be conveyed a hundred miles for 
 little more than a shilling. The tariff for the different kinds 
 of merchandise, as at present charged, is given, whereby it is 
 seen that the general charge is, in many cases, more than 
 twenty times that which it costs the companies. 
 
 17. The injurious effects of such a system to the mercantile 
 interests of the country are pointed out, and it is contended that 
 in proportion as the impediments to free communication 
 throughout a country are removed, in the same proportion must 
 that country prosper; and it is further submitted, that impedi- 
 ments of a fiscal nature to extended intercourse throughout a 
 country, in the form of what may be termed a hostile tariff, 
 have, to a great extent, just the same effect as physical im- 
 pediments. 
 
 18. The pernicious working of our railway monopoly is 
 especially noted in regard to the supply of coal to the metro- 
 polis. It is shown, by the accounts drawn out for a special 
 occasion about ten years since, by the chairman of one of the 
 companies, in answer to a charge made against him that he 
 was conveying coal at " unremunerative rates," that although, 
 during a short opposition, he charged only a farthing per 
 ton per mile, even at that low rate the carriage yielded 200 
 per cent, profit ! It is further shown, by a report from a com- 
 mittee of the House of Lords published last year, that a railway 
 but a few miles in length, in the proximity of London, has the 
 power of stopping the coal traffic by railways from the North of 
 England to a large district in London, and practically exer- 
 cises it by making an enormous charge. Especial notice is 
 directed to the fact that a Bill for completing railway com- 
 
309 
 
 munication between the Great Eastern Railway and the North 
 of England was thrown out last Session of Parliament. 
 Although the price of coal at the pit's mouth is only six or seven 
 shillings per ton, and the company could convey it to London 
 at the rate of eightpence per ton, and the price of coal in 
 winter in London is frequently more than thirty shillings per 
 ton, the committee considered that, under the present system, 
 the puhlic would derive no advantage from this line being 
 constructed, and its construction would inflict a loss on the 
 Great Northern Company. 
 
 ] 9. Attention is drawn to the great benefit that would be 
 conferred on the community by the conveyance of parcels and 
 packages throughout the kingdom at a low and, to some extent, 
 uniform rate. The present charges by the principal companies 
 are given. The proposed rates are, by passenger trains, parcels 
 not exceeding 3 Ibs., 4d.; above 3 Ibs. and not exceeding 7 Ibs., 
 6d.; above 7 Ibs. and not exceeding 10 Ibs. 9d. ; and not ex- 
 ceeding 14 Ibs. Is. ; and 6d. for every additional 7 Ibs. or 
 fraction of 7 Ibs. For packages not exceeding 1 cwt., to be 
 conveyed by luggage trains, when the distance does not exceed 
 fifty miles, Is.; exceeding 50 and not exceeding 200 miles, 
 Is. 6d. ; and exceeding that distance, 2s. per cwt.; one-fourth 
 to be added to these several charges for each additional quarter 
 of a hundred or fraction of that weight. All to be without 
 booking charges. 
 
 20. Great stress is laid on the fact that there are heavy fiscal 
 burdens under which the country labours in regard to its rail- 
 way payments, that in 1865 it is calculated they will amount 
 to the enormous sum of THIRTY-SIX MILLIONS STERLING, and 
 the annual increase is now about two millions; it is endea- 
 voured to be shown that the whole of our commercial policy 
 for twenty-two years past has tended towards decreasing the 
 charges on the necessaries of life, of which the conveyance of 
 passengers and goods is one of the greatest. 
 
 21. A comparison is instituted between the benefits the 
 
310 
 
 nation would derive from the total repeal of our customs duty 
 and a reduction of two-thirds of the present fares and rates, 
 and the conclusion drawn is in favour of the latter measure. 
 
 22. Kailways, it is contended, must from their intrinsic 
 superior excellence monopolize the great bulk of the traffic of 
 the country, and therefore all attempts to apply to their manage- 
 ment the laws which govern the operations of free trade must 
 signally fail. It is, however, shown that, for the want of a 
 more efficient remedy, the feeling is spreading in the country 
 that railways should not be favoured by protection more than 
 any other interest; and that when the majority of landlords, 
 in any district, is favourable to the construction of a railway, 
 the Legislature is bound to permit it. It is contended that 
 the construction of unnecessary lines involves the country in 
 a great loss of capital ; and, although not without considerable 
 use, are totally inefficient in giving the public the full benefits 
 that might, by a proper system of management, be derived from 
 them. That it is only by bringing the railways under the 
 absolute and complete control of the Legislature that this 
 object can be effected. 
 
 23. It is asserted that the strong feeling that exists in this 
 country, and that hitherto has prevented the subject being 
 fairly discussed, arises from the erroneous assumption that if 
 the railways become the property of the State, the present 
 system of management must undergo a complete change, and 
 that they must be handed over, from the time of transfer, to the 
 immediate charge of Government. It is contended that such a 
 change is altogether unnecessary, and that a slight modifica- 
 tion of our present system would effect every necessary purpose. 
 In order to avoid any extension of Government patronage, it 
 is suggested that the present principal directorates should 
 elect from their own body twenty-four members whom they may 
 consider best qualified to form a Board of General Manage- 
 ment, such board to be presided over by a Minister of the 
 Crown, as in the case of the East Indies and the Post Office, 
 
311 
 
 and all future appointments to be made on the competitive 
 system, or that the management should he assimilated to that 
 of the Customs or Excise, viz. a Board of Management, with 
 a Chairman and Vice-Chairman permanently appointed. 
 
 24. It is contended that to realize all the advantages that 
 this country should derive from her magnificent network of 
 railways, the principle which formed the groundwork of the 
 Government Bill of 1844 should be carried out in its full 
 integrity; that all our railways should be consolidated under 
 one general management; that a low and uniform tariff for the 
 different classes of the people should be established throughout 
 the country ; that the carriage of all descriptions of minerals, 
 goods, general merchandise, and parcels, should be reduced 
 in a like proportion; and that virtually, under the present 
 management, with such modifications as circumstances may 
 require, all the innumerable advantages that a comparatively 
 free transit throughout a country bestows, should be made 
 available to the British people. 
 
 25. The statement made by Mr. Watkin, Chairman of the 
 Manchester and Sheffield Company, at the late meeting of the 
 shareholders, is fully discussed, as well as those of writers in 
 the railway press. It is argued that these gentlemen have 
 altogether evaded the points at issue, and not noticed a single 
 argument brought forward in favour of railway reform. 
 
 26. Finally, it is submitted that as contemplated by the Act 
 of 1844, the time has now arrived for a revision of our 
 railway system, and for that purpose a Eoyal Commission 
 will probably be appointed to inquire into the working of 
 our system; it is contended that after that inquiry shall 
 have been completed, and the Commissioners have made their 
 report to the Crown, it would be desirable, in order to render 
 such inquiry effectual, and to ascertain the extent to which the 
 traffic of the company in passengers and merchandise would 
 be developed, that Government should be entrusted with such 
 powers as may be necessary to make arrangements with those 
 
312 
 
 companies it may think proper to select to convey passengers 
 and merchandise at such fares and rates as it may think 
 sufficiently low to meet the wants of the country, and by 
 this means it is contended the Legislature in 1866 will be 
 in possession of the necessary knowledge that will enable 
 it to deal satisfactorily with the question. 
 
313 
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 THE KAIL WAY SYSTEM. 
 
 " The system of British Railways, whether considered in point of utility or in respect of 
 the gigantic character and extent of the works involved in their construction, must be 
 regarded as the most magnificent public enterprise yet accomplished in this country far 
 surpassing all that has been achieved by any Government, or by the combined efforts of 
 society in any former age." SMILES' LIFE OF STEPHENSON. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Thomas Gray the first Projector of Railways for the Conveyance of Passengers 
 and Groods^ His Scheme for a " General Iron Railway " for the Kingdom 
 His Endeavours to have it adopted His Failure and Death. The celebrated 
 Article in the Quarterly Review of 1825 on Railways The Injustice done 
 to the Reviewer A Resume of the Article. 
 
 As more than twenty years have now elapsed since public attention 
 was directed to our railway system, it has struck me that a sketch 
 of that wonderful system its rise and progress would not be un- 
 acceptable to the general reader. T may as well state at the outset 
 that this Appendix is intended for perusal by those only who have no 
 special knowledge of the subject : the facts here narrated, and the 
 statistics entered into, are perfectly familiar to the railway world. 
 
 There lived some fifty years ago, in the town of Nottingham, a 
 poor mechanic named Thomas Gray, and this man was the possessor 
 of an "idea." Before railways were ever dreamt of, further than 
 being the means of transit for coal from the pit's mouth to the 
 place of embarkation, Gray had devised a great national scheme for 
 supplying Great Britain and Ireland with railways, and steam as 
 the motive power. 
 
 Gray's idea was either not sufficiently matured, or he had not 
 
 Y 
 
314 
 
 the means of publication, till 3819, when he produced his " Plan 
 of a General Iron Railway." This pamphlet has been for many 
 years out of print, and his prospectus of a railway for carrying 
 passengers and goods was the first ever published. It is, there- 
 fore, of considerable interest, and we shall allow the author to 
 introduce his own project. 
 
 " The great exertions," said Gray, in the introduction to his 
 work, " that have been made to relieve the necessities of the poor 
 of this country have no doubt in some instances succeeded ; but 
 generally speaking, particularly in all manufacturing districts, the 
 accounts always before the public show too plainly that the evil 
 seems to increase, and to threaten us with its concomitant, vice, in 
 all its most appalling features. The hand of charity has been 
 extended in a most unparalleled manner, but still we find, unless 
 some employment be prepared to draw off the overwhelming number 
 of applicants, these liberal contributions apparently tend to prolong 
 the life of misery rather than afford any permanent relief to the 
 object. It is to be hoped that some great national work will be hit 
 on which by affording labour may reduce the number of poor within 
 the means of support of each parish, and at the same time answer 
 the end proposed ; for there can be no well-grounded hope of 
 success except the public be attracted by a scheme Jnat promises 
 benefit to those who may be inclined to promote it, as nothing 
 short of individual interest can ensure national prosperity." 
 
 Gray having thus appealed to the country for a friendly hearing 
 for a plan he is about to propose to relieve the national distress by 
 finding employment for the people, proceeds then to state the 
 nature of his proposition. 
 
 " It has frequently occurred to me of late that an iron railway 
 from London to Edinburgh, passing through all the commercial 
 towns of Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield, Wakefield, Leeds, &c., 
 with branch railways to Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, and 
 Liverpool, would be productive of incalculable advantage to the 
 country at large. And here I would suggest the propriety of 
 making the first essay between Manchester and Liverpool, which 
 would employ many thousands of the distressed population between 
 ^Manchester and Liverpool. 
 
 " This would serve for the conveyance of all merchandise as well 
 as persons by steam waggons and coaches, or by waggons and coaches 
 built to run on the railway drawn by horses ; in which latter case 
 the quantum of horse power required would be infinitely less than 
 by the present road : consequently the country must derive incre- 
 
315 
 
 dible advantage from the superior speed of conveyance, and the 
 great saving iu horses. 
 
 " The conveyance of the inland mails might be effected at a 
 very trifling charge compared with the present enormous expenses 
 of mail coaches, as one coach upon a proper construction would take 
 all the mails on the line of road between London and Edinburgh. 
 
 " The introduction of fresh fish into the interior of the kingdom 
 would open a source of trade to an immense number of individuals, 
 and very essentially contribute to tbe improvement of our fisheries, 
 as well as to the establishment of new ones. 
 
 " Very great benefit would arise to all estates in the direction of 
 the railways by the very easy and cheap conveyance to market 
 towns, but more especially to the metropolis, where provisions and 
 vegetables of all kinds might be sent from distant parts of the 
 kingdom. 
 
 " After an Act of Parliament is obtained, the sum of money 
 required might be raised by shares of fifty and one hundred 
 pounds." 
 
 Gray enters then into considerable detail on the many bene- 
 fits his " General Iron Railway" would confer on the country. " If 
 the conveyance," he says, " of mails across the channels by steam- 
 boats prove so highly important, how much more so the early dis- 
 tribution of the foreign and inland mails iu all our commercial and 
 manufacturing districts by royal mail steam carriages ; the safe 
 and expeditious conveyance of passengers by steam coaches, and 
 the rapid transport of merchandise of every description, of steam- 
 caravans and waggons." 
 
 Accompanying Gray's work were plates and maps illustrating 
 his plan. He proposed there should be laid down a trunk line 
 from London, to each of the following towns, viz. : Edinburgh, 
 Liverpool, Bristol, Falmouth, Devon, and Norwich, with branches 
 to the principal towns on the respective routes. The length of 
 railway comprised in his plan for Great Britain appears to have 
 been about two thousand miles ; and for Ireland he proposed 
 that trunk lines should be laid down from Dublin to Belfast, Cork 
 and Galway, with branches to the smaller towns on the respective 
 routes, the entire length being about seven hundred miles. 
 When looking over Gray's well-defined plans, one cannot help 
 lamenting that there appeared no one in England capable of ap- 
 preciating his great scheme for laying down his " Iron Railways," 
 having the will or power to assist him. 
 
 " I shall take," he said, " the sum of one thousand pounds per mile 
 
316 
 
 for the single railway; the present plan, as above mentioned, requiring 
 six railways, will consequently cost six thousand pounds per mile ; 
 and if we take the draught of the plan for Great Britain as given in 
 this pamphlet for our guide, and allow for a few branch rail ways which 
 may still be added thereto, the number of miles will be about two 
 thousand, which, at the rate already stated, will amount to twelve 
 millions sterling ; supposing that double or even treble this sum be 
 demanded, it would be found that the present revenue drawn from 
 the public roads, the great expense of their repairs, and the enor- 
 mous sums of money expended in the purchase and keep of horses, 
 will sufficiently demonstrate the abundance of wealth the new 
 scheme will yield to the subscribers. It may in all probability be 
 urged that the capital required for the full execution of this plan 
 can never be raised by subscription ; however this may prove, I 
 should wish so to convey my ideas to the public on the subject, so 
 as to leave no point untouched relating thereto ; for I feel assured 
 that the total expense of the purchase of horses might be com- 
 pletely saved, and that the annual expense of their keep alone 
 would more than provide for the steam engines necessary for this 
 new projection, as well as defray the whole annual expense of repairs 
 on the General Iron Railway." 
 
 " When Thomas Gray first proposed his great scheme to the 
 public," said the Chevalier Wilson, in a letter to Sir B. Peel, in 
 1845, " people were disposed to treat it as an effusion of insanity. 
 Had he chanced to live in the days of monkery and Galileo, he, 
 like him, would doubtless have been incarcerated, and as the 
 astronomical philosopher, to save himself, condescended to recant, 
 saying that the sun did revolve round the earth, so also might the 
 mechanical economical philosopher of our days have found it con- 
 venient to confess that stage-coaches and canals were the ne plus 
 ultra of carriage velocity and convenience. Such, however, were 
 his imperturbable convictions, such his enthusiastic impregnation 
 with the grand idea, that I recollect, in 1320, he entered my room 
 one day precipitately, saying, "I have gained my cause; travelling 
 will be performed by steam. Now I can reply ; now people will 
 wish to read ; they will read and be convinced." 
 
 Thomas Gray was, undoubtedly, the projector of our railway 
 system, but he was mocked as a visionary when he first introduced 
 his great scheme. Despite all his discouragements, and his subse- 
 quently neglected or unanswered memorials explaining his plans, and 
 soliciting their examination and adoption, addressed to British Min- 
 isters of State, to boards of trade and agriculture, to the corporations 
 
317 
 
 of London and Liverpool, to public men and capitalists through- 
 out the empire, and despite the continuous rebuffs of contemptuous 
 incredulity with which everywhere he was treated, his persuasion 
 was not the less unabated and unrepressed; but he failed in all his 
 efforts to have his great scheme carried out, and had the mortifica- 
 tion to see others step in and carry it out in detail. 
 
 A small sum of money was raised by subscription for Gray some 
 time before his death, which I believe took place about the year 
 1850. 
 
 In March, 1825, appeared in the Quarterly Review the famous 
 article " On Canal and Railway Communications," from which has 
 been quoted some hundreds of times by historians and eulogists of the 
 railway system, the well-known passage deprecating the absurdity 
 of expecting the realization of a rate of speed which we should now 
 regard as most tedious and insufficient. The popular impression 
 of the tenor of the article, being solely derived from this isolated 
 passage, which so many have uncandidly extracted without any 
 qualifying allusion to the 'character of its context, is an extremely 
 erroneous one. The article was, on the whole, highly favourable to 
 railways ; in fact, it was written with the express and avowed object 
 of allaying the apprehensions about them then so rife, equally in 
 interested as in antiquated quarters, and it represented the views 
 of the most enlightened section of the educated portion of the com- 
 munity at that time. We doubt not that the great majority of the 
 contemporaneous readers of this article looked upon its prophecies 
 and anticipations to be quite as visionary and baseless as readers of 
 1865 would be disposed to regard its conclusions as characterized 
 by extreme moderation, and indeed laughable timidity. Not for the 
 mere purpose of vindicating the reputation of a Quarterly reviewer 
 in all human probability long since passed away but because I 
 could not possibly select a better or more favourable exemplar of the 
 views of the very foremost minds in England, current about railways 
 forty years ago, I present a long analysis of this article. 
 
 The object of the article was twofold having for its purpose to 
 give a moderate support to the Liverpool and Manchester scheme, 
 then for the first time before Parliament, and to reprobate the 
 enormous charges and exactions of the monopolist canal companies, 
 and their interested opposition to the new-fangled invention. The 
 article commences with a very humorous satirical treatment, rising 
 sometimes to the tone of grave moral rebuke, of the host of specu- 
 lative schemes brought before the public in the memorable years 
 1824 and 1825 ; a period of our commercial history which has 
 
318 
 
 only been equalled by the epochs of the South Sea Bubble, in the 
 last century, and the Railway Mania, in our own times. Amongst 
 other objects of serious or comical denunciation enumerated, are 
 stone breakwaters and iron chain piers ; bridges suspended over 
 rivers, and tunnels bored under them ; steam engines of all sizes, 
 and for all purposes ; steam vessels, steam coaches, steam cannons, 
 steam ovens to hatch chickens, and steam kitchens to cook them 
 in ; steam hothouses to ripen grapes and pineapples at Christmas, 
 and steam laundries, " to wash, and to wear," linen. And amongst 
 other items of the long list of the schemes ridiculed, some with 
 indignation, but most with a good-natured badinage, are milk 
 companies, fishing companies, " for catching gudgeon in London 
 and Westminster ; " and coal-gas companies for whirling through 
 the clouds at the rate of forty miles an hour, or to bowl along a 
 turnpike road, at the rate of twelve miles an hour, with relays of 
 bottled gas, instead of post-horses. And after citing, among other 
 impracticable monstrosities, " a necropolis or two along the sloping 
 sides of Hampstead and Highgate," the Reviewer winds up with 
 an absurdity, that he has evidently deferred to the very last as the 
 culminating climax of unattainability " a ship canal cut through 
 Nicaragua, or the Isthmus of Panama," which is probably the 
 very earliest great triumph of engineering skill likely to be effected 
 in our more favoured days. 
 
 After some more introductory matter of a similarly mixed se- 
 rious and playful description, the writer proceeds to say : " But it is 
 high time that we should advert to the more immediate object of 
 this article a discussion of the merits of an old invention, newly 
 revived, which is become an object of almost as eager and feverish 
 speculation as the mines or the loans. It is one, however, in which 
 the commercial and agricultural, and, indeed, every class of the 
 community are most deeply concerned; we need hardly say that we 
 allude to the projected improvement in the internal communications 
 of the country, by which a more speedy, certain, safe and econo- 
 mical conveyance of passengers and property is expected to be 
 accomplished." After a summary of previous improvements in 
 travelling in England, arising from the Turnpike Acts, the substi- 
 tution of waggons for packhorses, the introduction of stage-coaches 
 and postchaises, and of canals ; " the rage for which became so 
 vehement, that in a few years, the whole surface of the country 
 was intersected by these inland navigations, and frequently in parts 
 of the island where there was little or no traffic to be conveyed ; " 
 the writer proceeds : 
 
319 
 
 " Nothing now is heard of but railroads ; the daily papers teeia 
 with notices of new lines of them in every direction, and pamphlets 
 and paragraphs are thrown before the public eye, recommending 
 nothing short of making them general throughout the kingdom. 
 Yet, until these few months past, this old invention, in use a full 
 century before canals, has been suffered, with few exceptions, to act 
 the part only of an auxiliary to canals, in the conveyance of 
 goods to and from the wharfs ; and of iron, coals, and limestones 
 and other products of the mines, to the nearest place of shipment." 
 
 Alluding to the warm countenance and support given by Mr. Hus- 
 kisson, the President of the Board of Trade, to George Stephenson 
 and the new invention, the Reviewer proceeds, in reference to a then 
 recent meeting " to consider the proposal of a monument to James 
 Watt," " These, and many similar sentiments of the Ministers of 
 the Crown, were cordially re-echoed by Mr. Wilberforce. Sir James 
 Mackintosh, and Mr. Brougham, which occasioned Lord Liverpool 
 to observe, * that where the arts were concerned, there could be 
 nothing like party in the country.'" 
 
 Among the general conclusions of the Reviewer, the following are 
 the principal. He asserts that the canal proprietors had not the 
 least ground for complaining of a grievance ; and that the public 
 were interested in any rivalry that should coerce them into a 
 reduction of the charges for the conveyance of merchandise, which 
 were extremely burdensome to the trading community, and so 
 productive to the leading canal companies as to return them 100 
 per cent, dividends. But here the writer inserts a careful 
 caveat: "We are not the advocates for visionary projects that 
 interfere with useful establishments ; we scout the idea of a 
 'general railroad,' as altogether impracticable; or as one, at least, 
 which will be rendered nugatory in lines where the traffic is so 
 small that the receipts would scarcely pay for the consumption of 
 coals. As to those persons who speculate on making railways 
 general throughout the kingdom, and superseding all the canals, 
 all the waggons, mail and stage-coaches, post chaises, and, in short, 
 every other mode of conveyance by land and by water, we deem 
 them and their visionary schemes unworthy of notice." Then the 
 pro-railway arguments are resumed on these further grounds the 
 great disadvantages of canals as compared with railways, from frost 
 in the winter and drought in summer ; the impossibility of the 
 application of steam to canal traffic (a difficulty which, in more 
 recent days, the invention of the screw propeller has pretty success- 
 fully overcome) from the washing down of the banks by the 
 
320 
 
 agitation of the water; the impossibility of increasing the number 
 of canals in populous trading districts, beyond the fixed limit of the 
 natural supply of water, as in the case of the water communication 
 between Liverpool and Manchester, which was quite incapable of 
 further augmentation ; and, lastly, the " greater certainty, safety, 
 and economy " of railway conveyance. In illustration of this im- 
 portant advantageous point of contrast, some startling facts were 
 cited. It was stated, for example, as a well-known fact, that the 
 loss of goods embarked on the barges running from Manchester 
 to Liverpool, from the carelessness and dishonesty of the servants 
 of the two canal companies, was so great as to constitute a most 
 important diminution of the profits of the merchants and manu- 
 facturers engaged in the trade. In consequence of these frauds, 
 all the valuable wool that went down to the West of England for 
 manufacture into the superior broadcloths, for which that district 
 was so famous, had to be conveyed at greatly increased cost by 
 road. The canal servants had got into the habit of abstracting 
 portions of wool from the bales entrusted to their care, and then 
 saturating the remainder with a sufficient quantity of water to 
 restore the exact weight withdrawn. Hence there was no imme- 
 diate means, on the receipt of the deficient packages, of bringing 
 home the culpability to the peculators. 
 
 The " General Eailroad" referred to by the Reviewer was the 
 scheme proposed, as we have seen, by Gray some years previously. 
 
 Shortly after this candid, and, on the whole, highly favourable 
 and considering that it was written forty years ago, before a single 
 passenger or bale of goods had been conveyed by steam anywhere 
 in England, save on a most moderate scale and in a remote nook of 
 the kingdom, very favourable summary of the advantages of rail- 
 ways, the well-known passage which is so frequently and so un- 
 fairly quoted, without any of the modifying context, occurs, and is 
 as follows : 
 
 " It is certainly some consolation to those who are to be whirled 
 at the rate of eighteen or twenty miles an hour, by means of a 
 high-pressure engine, to be told that they are in no danger of being 
 seasick while on shore ; that they are not to be scalded to death 
 nor drowned by the bursting of the boiler; and that they need not 
 fear being shot by the shattered fragments, or dashed in pieces by 
 the flying off, or the breaking, of a wheel. But, with all these 
 assurances, we should as soon expect the people of Woolwich to 
 suffer themselves to be fired off upon one of Congreve's ricochet 
 rockets, as trust themselves to the mercy of such a machine, going 
 
321 
 
 at such a rate ; their property, perhaps, they may trust ; but while 
 one of the finest navigable rivers in the world runs parallel to the 
 proposed railroad, we consider the other 20 per cent, which the 
 subscribers are to receive for the conveyance of heavy goods, almost 
 as problematical as that to be derived from the passengers. We 
 will back Old Father Thames against the Woolwich Railway for any 
 sum." 
 
 The article concludes, very sensibly, it will be admitted (under 
 the then circumstances), thus : " We have purposely abstained 
 from that part of the question which regards the conveyance of 
 passengers. There is no doubt that a diminished weight may be 
 conveyed with an increased speed and equal safety, as far as the 
 strength and stability of the engine are concerned ; but we think 
 it would be expedient to waive all thoughts of this part of the 
 subject for the present, until the roads and the engines have 
 acquired that degree of perfection of which they are capable, and 
 such as will remove all apprehension of danger." 
 
 I have quoted at some length from this article, and summarized 
 its general conclusions, because, so far as I am aware, it is the first 
 recognition on an important scale, and in a friendly tone, which 
 the great railway enterprise obtained from periodical literature of 
 the highest rank in this country. It brings vividly before us the 
 exact feeling of the better class of the public towards the new 
 invention at the time of its first appearance ; and it forms a mo.st 
 convenient starting point, from which we now proceed on our 
 short journey, the purpose of which is to present in a concise 
 and non-scientific form a few sketches and statistical gleanings, 
 illustrative of the history of the railway system, from its com- 
 mencement about forty years ago down to the present time. 
 
 Another, and a special, reason has induced me to remain a little 
 longer in the pleasant company of the Eeviewer, than I might 
 otherwise have been inclined to do, even on the grounds and for 
 the purpose just specified. It is impossible for those dwellers in 
 England of to-day who are not old enough to depend upon per- 
 sonal recollections of the character of transit in the ante-steam 
 days, to estimate fully the advantages derived from the successive 
 discoveries and inventions in relation to the use of steam for the 
 purpose of traction on iron roads, without having a clear conception 
 of their nature, and how they have developed themselves in the 
 creation arid improvement of our railway system. It is not mv 
 purpose to describe at any length the mode of constructing our 
 
322 
 
 railways or locomotives ; the subject at the present time does not 
 possess much interest, and any detailed description would therefore 
 be entirely out of place ; a brief narrative, however, may not be 
 unacceptable. 
 
 lu regard to steam carriages on common roads, great hopes were 
 at one time entertained by their several constructors that they would 
 succeed in overcoming the difficulties they had to contend with, and 
 eventually render them of practical service. The obstacles, how- 
 ever, were too great to be overcome ; the roads were too rough, and 
 the friction consequently too severe for the delicate machinery of the 
 locomotive, and so the ingenious inventors necessarily failed in their 
 plans. 
 
323 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Construction of Railways The Smooth Tracks in Northern Italy First Tram- 
 roads in the Neighbourhood of Newcastle Tramways at the Close of the 
 Seventeenth Century Roger North's Description of them to his Brother 
 Lord Guildford Derivation of the word "Tram" George Stephenson The 
 Narrow, the Medium, and the Broad Gauges History of the Locomotive. 
 The Marquis of Worcester Watt Trevithick. 
 
 THE course of successive discoveries and inventions which have 
 led to the matured and composite result to be witnessed to-day on 
 any of our great leading trunk lines has been twofold the suc- 
 cessive improvements in the roads upon which the locomotive 
 steam-engines, with their attendant trains of trucks and carriages, 
 run, and in the carriages themselves, and especially in the engines 
 those carriages which contain, elaborate, and economize the motive 
 power. The history of the railway system, therefore, so far as its 
 mechanical, engineering, and structural departments are concerned, 
 naturally divides itself under these two heads the history of the 
 road, and the history of the engine. The railroad was in existence 
 long before the locomotive, or even the stationary steam-engine. 
 We therefore introduce, at this stage, a few notes on the his- 
 tory of rails, as appliances in mitigation of the labour and cost of 
 traction. 
 
 At the present day the traveller, in certain of the magnificent 
 cities of Northern Italy, may observe smooth tracks of hard marble 
 in the ordinary paving of the streets. These have been laid down for 
 many centuries ; but they cannot, properly speaking, be called rails, 
 as this term involves the essential principle of being raised above 
 the surface, and, as some would hold, the further appliance of the 
 " flange " of the wheel for its guidance and the conservation of the 
 continuity and steadiness of its course. The invention of the 
 rail, strictly so called, is of a considerably more recent date, and is 
 solely to be claimed by England. Roads with wooden rails were 
 first laid down in the neighbourhood of Newcastle, for the purpose 
 of conveying coals from the pit's mouth to the sea or river side. 
 Nicholas Wood, the author of the admirable " Practical Treatise on 
 Railways," who was a pupil of the elder, and the instructor of 
 
324 
 
 the younger, Stephenson, says that it was some time between 
 1602 and 1649 that the first rough beginning of the railroad 
 came into being. Some acute observer, now unknown to fame, 
 seeing that the rut of the common road rendered the work of the 
 cattle easier, acting on this observation, placed logs of wood in 
 parallel lines, and thereby enabled each horse to draw at least 
 double its former burden from the mouth of the mine, and with 
 much less fatigue. It is certain that, ere the close of the seven- 
 teenth century, this plan had come into general operation in the 
 north of England. The earliest literary record of its existence, so 
 far as I have been enabled to discover, is the following. Roger 
 North, describing a visit of his brother, Lord Guildford, to New- 
 castle while on circuit, says, that among the curiosities of the place 
 were " way-leaves." *' When men," he says, " have pieces of 
 ground between the collieries and the rivers, they sell leave to lead 
 coals over their ground, and so dear that the owner of a road of 
 ground will expect 20 per annum for this leave. The manner of 
 the carriage is by laying lines of timber from the colliery down to 
 the river, exactly straight and parallel, and bulky carts are made 
 with four romlets fitting these rails, whereby the carriage is so easy 
 that one horse will draw down four or five chaldron of coals, and is 
 an immense benefit to the coal merchants." No further improve- 
 ment seems to have been effected until 1738, in which year we 
 learn, from the " Transactions of the Highland Society," iron rails 
 were substituted for wooden ones; but, owing to the old waggons 
 continuing to be employed, which were of too much weight for the 
 cast iron, they did not completely succeed on the first attempt. 
 However, about 1768, a simple contrivance was attempted, which 
 was to construct a number of smaller waggons and link them 
 together, and by thus diffusing the weight of one large waggon over 
 many, the principal cause of the failure in the first instance was 
 removed, as the weight was more divided upon the iron. 
 
 In 1800, Mr. Benjamin Outram, of Little Eton, in Derbyshire, 
 used stone props instead of timber in supporting the ends and join- 
 ings of the rails. These roads became known thence as " Outram 
 Roads," and, by a further contraction, as " Tram Roads." Another, 
 but as it seems to me a less supported derivation of the term, is, 
 that long before Outram's time, the coal waggons in the northern 
 counties were known by the provincial name of " Trams," and that 
 the roads on which they ran were called after them. 
 
 About the time when, from whatever source, the term " tramroads " 
 became common, and their use considerably extended, Lord Kenyon 
 
325 
 
 congratulated the Duke of Bridgewater upon the then established 
 success of his canal ; the prescient peer, entertaining an uncom- 
 fortable foreboding about the prospects of the new invention, and 
 with wonderful foresight apprehending its future rivalry, replied 
 " Yes, we shall do well enough if we can keep clear of these accursed 
 tramroads there 's mischief in them!" 
 
 The first rails in the Liverpool and Manchester Railway weighed 
 501bs. per yard, being constructed with reference to the conditions 
 of the well-known contest in which the Rocket won for Stephenson 
 his great and decisive triumph as an engine builder, which were a 
 total weight of six tons to the engine, ten miles an hour speed, 
 50lbs. pressure per inch, an aggregate load of 20 tons, including 
 tender, and a level railway. These rails were what is technically 
 termed " fish-bellied," i.e. deeper vertically at the points of support 
 than at those points over the sleepers. The error here was the 
 assumption that the sleeper was a movable fulcrum instead of a 
 yielding point. It was afterwards remedied by the device of parallel 
 rails. The thin lower end of the rail also got damaged in the 
 chains, which were of cast iron, fixed by an iron key, and fastened 
 down to a stone block or wooden cross sleepers. To remedy this, 
 Mr. Joseph Locke devised the double-headed rail, which answered 
 the twofold purpose of preventing crushing by affording a larger 
 bearing in the chair, and of enabling the rail to be reversed when 
 the surface first employed had become worn. 
 
 The phrase " permanent way " came into use thus : engineers 
 devised a cheap temporary rail for the use of contractors in the 
 process of construction of railways, which was afterwards removed 
 after the formation of the earthworks and the laying down of the 
 ballast. The rails then laid down were called by comparison and 
 contrast the " permanent way." The " temporary way" was light, 
 weak vertically, shallow and single headed, but with a wide foot, so 
 as to stand upright without the necessity of chairs, on the tem- 
 porary cross sleepers. The Ohio and Baltimore line, the first 
 railway constructed in the United States, was laid in flat tire -bar 
 rails on longitudinal timbers. This plan was soon discovered to 
 answer very badly. The rail ends turned up as the trains rolled 
 over them, and forming what were called " snakes' heads," abso- 
 lutely speared the passengers through the floors of the carriages ! 
 And as the railway system began to extend in America, passengers, 
 where there was an option of two routes to reach their destinations, 
 would select one line in preference to another, even if involving a 
 considerable detour, on the alleged ground of it having a smaller 
 
326 
 
 risk of " snakes' heads " than its sister channel of communication ! 
 The Americans afterwards substituted the English temporary way, 
 which they used as their permanent one, endeavouring, though with 
 but small effect, to atone for the want of iron by a compensating 
 quantity of cheap wooden sleepers. " They were scarcely better 
 than on private colliery lines," says Mr. Bridges Adams, to whose 
 discursive, but entertaining " Roads and Eails " I am mainly 
 indebted for the notes I here reproduce. 
 
 In England, two systems of Gauge, known as the " broad " and 
 "narrow," have prevailed. In Ireland, at one time, there were no 
 less than six or seven gauges, or different breadths of line. It has 
 been jocularly stated (but possibly with some considerable grain of 
 truth incorporated in the statement) that the diverse Irish gauges 
 were assimilated thus : All the various gauges being added up 
 together, the mean was taken. Thus second-hand rolling stock 
 was prevented being palmed upon Ireland from England. The 
 Irish standard is now 5ft. 3 in. The Indian gauge is 5ft. 6 in.; and 
 the Spanish national gauge the same. The English standard 
 narrow gauge is 4 ft. 8| in. People have been puzzled why a 
 measure containing a fraction should have been selected, but the 
 explanation is very simple. The original cart track of five feet 
 outside the wheels was taken as the standard for the gauge of rails, 
 which were measured outside also. The width of each rail being 
 If in., gave exactly 4 ft. 8 1 in. as the wide measure. When the 
 rails were subsequently widened, that greater strength might be 
 gained, they were widened outwardly, as the flange of the wheels 
 could not be altered. Accordingly, the inner gauge has remained 
 stationary, while the outer gauge has increased j in. each rail over 
 the old 5-feet cart standard. 
 
 THE GKEAT WESTERN. 
 
 The 7-feet gauge employed by Brunei on the Great Western 
 was based, in the first place, on his assumption that the time 
 would never arrive when lines running north would come into 
 communication with lines running west, and when, accordingly, any 
 inconvenience could arise from diversity of gauge ; and, recently, 
 he argued that so great a breadth of gauge would lower the centre of 
 gravity, and increase the size of the wheels by placing them on 
 each side instead of beneath the carriages, as in the case of the 
 narrow gauge, and also give ample space for large engines. This 
 innovation rendered necessary corresponding alterations in the 
 character of the line. Bridge-rails, which are hollow bars with 
 
327 
 
 flanges at the sides, secured to the timber by nut-head screws on 
 the outer flange, and by notch-head screws on the inner flange, to 
 keep them out of the way of the wheel flanges, were employed ; 
 and felt was laid under the rails to keep them soft to the move- 
 ment. The substructure on which these rails reposed was of this 
 character : timber piles were driven into the earth along the line, 
 at distances of 15 feet; to these were fastened half balks of 
 timber, connected in pairs ; on these again were spiked planks of 
 oak an inch thick, which joiners, working on their knees on the 
 line, planed to a perfect level. As the whole structure, both of car- 
 riages and way, was an entire novelty, it is neither very much to be 
 wondered at, nor much to the discredit of Brunei, that that did 
 occur which might have been expected, viz., that the previously 
 untried experiment necessitated an almost endless series of altera- 
 tions and renovations, ere it could be made to answer. The 
 engines, in place of possessing the requisite superior power to those 
 used on the narrow gauge, turned out to be weaker. Horse-boxes, 
 designed to carry horses sideways to the engine, which the greater 
 width permitted, had to be cut in two, and carried their tenants, as 
 on the narrow gauge, with their noses to the engine. As concerned 
 the road, it was discovered that the timbers and rails played up 
 and down from their oak and felt cushions between the piles, 
 and striking occasionally in water lying below the timbers, they 
 splashed it over the carriages. The passengers bumped rather than 
 rolled over the piles, and the carriages being too short, the irregular 
 motion was very great. Successive remedies were applied ; longer 
 carriages were substituted ; the piles were removed, and the longi- 
 tudinal timbers were framed together by cross transverses, and laid 
 on the ground ladder-wise, being secured no otherwise than by 
 their own weight. Further expedients, such as using bolts instead 
 of screws, enlarging nuts, and boarding across the longitudinal 
 timbers with short planking, have been added ; and so, by a suc- 
 cession of such addenda and substitutions, the Great Western, with 
 its tributaries, stands now in that final form and condition with 
 regard to which we read that " at the present day there is not left 
 upon the line a single construction either engine, carriage, waggon, 
 wheel, or spring as originally designed." 
 
 One of the most important minor inventions in connection with 
 the permanent way, was the " fish joint." Originally, the double- 
 headed rail was fastened to the sleepers by cast-iron chairs, both at 
 the joints and intermediates. The joints were about two inches 
 wider than the intermediates, so as to receive the adjoining ends of 
 
328 
 
 the rails. But they rapidly worked loose, being only fastened by 
 timber keys ; consequently, the ends of the rails were hammered 
 and crushed. To remedy this, the inventive genius of Mr. Bridges 
 Adams hit upon the fish joint, in which, in place of one joint 
 serving in common for two rail ends in contact, the rail ends were 
 brought almost, but not quite, in contact, and suspended, not upon 
 one joint supporting them in common, but upon two, a little apart, 
 each supporting only one rail, and being connected together in a 
 chair at their respective bases. This made the rails continuous bars, 
 which was exactly what was wanted. A great gain was effected at 
 once in the ease and the safety of travelling. 
 
 INCREASE IN THE WEIGHT OF ENGINES, AND ITS RESULTS. 
 
 The Rocket and the three competitors against which it was 
 pitted, thirty-five years ago, in Lancashire, weighed only twenty 
 tons, with their laden tenders. The weight of engine and tender 
 now frequently amounts, especially on the broad gauge, to three 
 times that amount. This has, of course, necessitated a propor- 
 tionate strengthening of the rails, which now often weigh nearly 
 100 Ibs. in place of 50 Ibs. to the yard, and the chairs weighing 
 from 14 Ibs. to 42 Ibs., there is thus formed an aggregate weight 
 of about 100 tons per mile. Nevertheless, it turned out that not 
 even this large augmentation of solidity and strength successfully 
 averted great destruction of rails and sleepers. An attempt was 
 made to remove the cause of this, but, latterly, efforts have been 
 made rather in the direction of mitigating and counterbalancing it. 
 The means now generally adopted is to place a cushion of wood at 
 the bottom of each chair, which receives and neutralizes the blow 
 of the rail loosened by the enormous weight and pressure. A more 
 permanent remedial mode of treating the evil would be theoreti- 
 cally more eligible, and would have been preferred by railway 
 engineers, but for the fact that, practically, the paramount consi- 
 deration with them is " how to replace a worn or damaged rail with 
 the greatest facility." Convenience has been preferred to mecha- 
 nical accuracy. 
 
 SINE QUA JVozra IN A GOOD RAIL. 
 
 These are, briefly, the following: It must possess sufficient depth 
 to distribute the load it has to bear over a considerable extent of space ; 
 it must possess sufficient lateral strength to secure the trueness of 
 the gauge ; the base must be considerably wider than the elevation ; 
 if the rail be supported in its base, depth is to be avoided ; but if 
 
329 
 
 suspended from the other table, nothing more is required than the 
 mere connection of the top and bottom tables. The rails must be 
 so connected as to form a continuous beam, not merely by " fish 
 joints," to give vertical support, but also so as to furnish lateral 
 support. The metal must be homogeneous neither imperfectly 
 welded, nor likely to break into fibres under a heavy engine. To 
 attain this latter end it is more than probable that steel will be 
 eventually substituted for iron. Nor will considerations of cost 
 prevent this result, as the weight of steel rails may be safely made 
 very much less than those of iron. 
 
 SLEEPERS. 
 
 " What are the best sleepers ? " is a relative question ; or rather 
 a question to be responded to by relative or conditional replies, 
 according to circumstances. Stone, timber, cast iron, or wrought 
 iron may each be the best in certain situations, and under varying 
 conditions. The question of cost has much to do with this. Where 
 good timber for example, as in virgin countries may be had for 
 the cutting, at convenient sites along the route, and where it may 
 be replaced from time to time for the mere cost of labour, it would 
 be the grossest and most needless extravagance to employ anything 
 else. Again, in climates where heat and moisture alternate, as in 
 the Gulf States of North America, metal is, for obvious reasons, 
 preferable. The general argument in favour of timber, on account 
 of its elasticity, is more specious than sound. For if there be 
 elasticity in the rails, it can only be in the intervals between the 
 chairs, which are only of the length of three feet, and whatever 
 elasticity there be will necessarily involve a corresponding and 
 instantaneously reiterated rigidity. Sleepers are plastic rather 
 than elastic, which is proved by, the chairs steadily sinking into 
 them without any indication of resurgent spring, and by the fact 
 that they wear out mechanically and not chemically. Where elas- 
 ticity is wanted as well upon a highway as upon a railroad is in 
 the vehicle, and not in the way. On these and similar grounds no 
 absolute and unfailing dictum can be laid down about the inherent 
 preferability of one description of sleeper -over another. You may 
 have as hard substances as possible as the three constituents of 
 your way the rail, the chair, and the natural bottom, even if the 
 latter be of rock but you must have no " looseness" between the 
 three connecting parts. Each must be immovably connected with 
 the others by what is called an absolute and unmistakable 
 " engineer's fit." Another simple way of accomplishing this end 
 
330 
 
 of elasticity of the whole, but of no one part is to lay rails 
 embedded longitudinally in timber, and bolt the timber down to a 
 paved sub-surface. 
 
 THE EAKLY HISTORY OF THE LOCOMOTIVE STEAM ENGINE 
 
 is so much more generally attractive than the history of the road, 
 and has been so much more popularized in connection with the 
 lives of the earlier engineers, than with their construction of 
 railways, that we may condense our remarks under the above 
 heading within a very small compass. 
 
 The story of the Marquis of Worcester, the ingenious and 
 speculative author of the " Century of Inventions," seeing Solomon 
 de Caus confined in the Bicetre in Paris, in 1641, as a madman, 
 because he had insisted to the Cardinal Minister that he could 
 construct a carriage which would propel itself by steam, is well 
 known, and to be found in all the popular compendia of the subject. 
 No result followed the discovery, or intuition, or lucky surmise of 
 this unfortunate victim of the superstition which is the antithesis of 
 science, and his existence has no more to do with that chain of 
 causes which leads to ultimate successful invention, with the 
 ultimate application to the uses of man of the steam engine, still 
 less of the locomotive, than had the ingenious contrivance of the 
 well-known steam tug at Alexandria. 
 
 Black's discovery of the power of latent heat was the scientific 
 harbinger of those experiments of James Watt, which resulted in 
 his production of these two important results, which for the first time 
 enabled man to use steam in the uninterrupted supply of the motive 
 power, and a continuous rotatory motion. It was about 1759 that 
 Watt began to devote his mind to the question of the practicability 
 of forming a stationary engine which should move, and generate 
 motion, by virtue of his novel discovery. He, and many others, 
 began further to speculate upon the possibility of the formation of 
 steam engines to move along roads, as well as stationary ones to 
 propel machinery. But the idea of connecting locomotion with 
 railroads had not yet occurred. And it was not until 1784, that 
 William Murdoch, the friend and assistant of Watt, produced the 
 model of a steam carriage to run upon common roads. " One 
 night," says Mr. Smiles in his " Life of Stephenson," " after 
 returning from his duties in the mine, at Redruth, in Cornwall, 
 Murdoch determined to try the working of his model locomotive. 
 For this purpose, he had recourse to the walk leading to the church, 
 about a mile from the town. The walk was rather narrow, and was 
 
331 
 
 bounded on either side by high hedges. It was a dark night, and 
 Murdoch set out alone to try his experiment. Having lit his lamp, 
 the water shortly began to boil, and off started the engine with the 
 inventor after it. He soon heard distant shouts of despair. It 
 was too dark to perceive objects ; but he shortly found, on follow- 
 ing up the machine, that the cries for assistance proceeded from the 
 worthy pastor of the parish, who, going towards the town on busi- 
 ness, was met on this lonely road by the hissing and fiery little 
 monster, which he subsequently declared to be the evil one in 
 propria persona." 
 
 Singularly enough, the next stage of inventiveness in the direc- 
 tion of a locomotive to run on common roads, was attended with a 
 similar ludicrous incident. Trevithick, a Cornish miner, invented 
 a locomotive in, or shortly previously to, 1 802. But whereas the 
 latter was content with the production of a miniature model, Tre- 
 vithick constructed an actual engine. He determined to transport 
 it to London, for the purpose of the introduction of his invention 
 to the savans and commercial magnates of the metropolis, and 
 started with his engine on the road to Plymouth, where he in- 
 tended to embark with his valuable freight. Coleridge relates that 
 whilst the vehicle was proceeding along the road to the port, at the 
 top of its speed, and had just carried away a portion of the rails of 
 a gentleman's garden, Andrew Vivian (who was Trevithick's cousin, 
 and the " capitalist " in the production of the engine) descried 
 ahead of them a closed toll-gate, and called out to Trevithick, who 
 was behind, to slacken speed. He immediately shut off the steam ; 
 but the momentum was so great, that the carriage proceeded some 
 distance, coming dead up, however, just on the right side of the 
 gate, which was opened like lightning by the tollkeeper. " What 
 have us got to pay here?" asked Vivian. The poor tollman, 
 trembling in every limb, his teeth chattering in his head, essayed a 
 reply, " Na-na-na-na! " " What have us got to pay, I say ? " " No- 
 noth-nothing to pay ! My dear Mr. De-devil, so drive on as fast as 
 you can ! Nothing to pay ! " 
 
 For forty years, Watt, Symington, Trevithick, Blenkinsop, 
 Chapman, Brunton, and others, had striven to discover methods of 
 propelling carriages by steam upon common turnpike roads, and 
 upon railways ; but after numerous failures, the whole class of 
 machine makers seem, about 1812, to have made the discovery that 
 a simple-hand wheel could not exercise a sufficient amount of 
 friction upon a road surface, to cause the carriage to advance. For 
 many years the efforts of steam carriage builders were directed to 
 
 z 2 
 
332 
 
 alleviating this imaginary difficulty, and rachet wheels, jointed 
 levers, and mechanical legs of every shape and form, were intro- 
 duced, to the detriment of the roadway, and the diminution of the 
 useful power of the engines. At last, in 1814, Stephenson con- 
 structed one bearing two cylinders, seated upon a boiler mounted 
 upon wheels, and immediately above the axles of these wheels, which 
 have cranks connected with the piston heads of the cylinders, and 
 were made to revolve in unison by Vaucassen chains working over 
 barrels in the respective axles. This was the true road out of the 
 difficulty, and it is essentially the germ of the locomotive steam 
 engine of to-day. 
 
 The various improvements that have been effected in its con- 
 struction, from that time to the present, we shall not attempt to 
 describe ; those who may wish to enter more fully into the subject 
 will find in Lardner's " History of the Steam Engine " every neces- 
 sary detail. 
 
333 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Nineteenth Century George Stephenson Mr. Smiles' "Life of Stephenson" 
 Killingworth High Pit The Stockton and Darlington Railway The Liver- 
 pool and Manchester Railway The great Difficulties to be overcome in its 
 Construction " Navvies " Trial of Locomotives on the Liverpool and Man- 
 chester Line Lord Brougham's Speech on its Opening The Success of the 
 Undertaking established. 
 
 THE nineteenth century has been emphatically a century of en- 
 gineers and engineering. Not more essentially was the fifth 
 century one of anchorites and monasticism, or the thirteenth one 
 of crusading, or the sixteenth one of courtly pageant and trans- 
 Atlantic conquest, or the eighteenth one of philosophy and criti- 
 cism, than has the nineteenth been illustrated and distinguished 
 by the splendid triumphs won by the keenest and most assiduous, 
 the most unflinching and indomitable human minds over the 
 hardest resistance that can be offered by the most stubborn material 
 inertia in its most ponderous, defiant, and apparently invincible 
 forms. Long since, Carlyle wrote that the keynote of the modern 
 epic is, not " Arms" but " Tools, and the man I sing." This fact 
 has been reflected in our recent popular biographies. It is the 
 workers, not the warriors, whose lives are now celebrated by our 
 most gifted biographical and critical pens, and about whom the 
 highest curiosity of the public is displayed. Probably there has 
 been no one man about whom the millions of modern readers have 
 cared to learn so much, and have actually learned so much during 
 the last ten or twelve years, as George Stephenson, the father and 
 the founder of the railway system. This is largely to be attributed to 
 the excellent biography by Mr. Smiles, a gentleman who is himself 
 honourably distinguished by his eminence in a high field of railway 
 administration, and who, by his " Life of Stephenson," and his other 
 works, has achieved the position of facile princeps in the rich and 
 important field of industrial biography. Mr. Smiles has made 
 Stephenson's name a household word in the homes of England and 
 the civilized world. All of us now know the man in his most intimate, 
 private, and domestic relations, as well as in the locomotive factory, 
 
334 
 
 on surveying expeditions, and on the line of the completed railway. 
 We watch his slow and arduous steps, from the humblest beginnings 
 to the most splendid ends. We follow him sympathetically through 
 each successive grade, from his humble cowkeeper's position at 
 twopence a day to his promotion to turnip hoer at fourpeuce, stone- 
 picker at sixpence, until he obtains the sumptuous remuneration of 
 eightpence per diem as gin-horse driver. Then we find him engine 
 fireman at a shilling a day, and then engine driver and plugman at 
 twice that wage, when he innocently believes that his fortunes are 
 secured, and exclaims, " I am now a made man for life ! " We watch 
 with sympathy his laudable efforts at self-education ; his touching 
 wooing, wedding, and early widowhood ; his devotion to the one 
 pledge of affection that his beloved Fanny Henderson left behind 
 her the future author of the great bridges over the Wear, the Menai 
 Straits, and the ice-laden St. Lawrence. And, following his earlier 
 career through its subsequent stages, we at last arrive at that period 
 of it when his achievements fit into our narrative, in connection 
 with the progress of the development of the locomotive. 
 
 The year 18 LO was the turning point in George Stephenson's 
 career. " Killingworth High Pit was clean drowned in water." An 
 atmospheric pumping engine had been at work twelve weary months, 
 incessantly eating up coal, but producing no more effect than if it 
 had been operating on the pitchers of the Danaides. All the pit 
 doctors in the district had tried their hands, but unavailingly. At 
 last Stephenson was applied to, and in a week after his engine was 
 set to work the mine was dry. This and subsequent achievements 
 within the next two years led to his appointment as engine wright 
 to the Killingworth Colliery at 100Z. a year. 
 
 Trevithick had progressed somewhat further with his invention 
 than merely to frighten the Cornish turnpike keeper with fears of 
 diabolic presence. He had made a great advance on his prede- 
 cessors. He had for the first time caused steam to drive the piston 
 both ways, got rid of the condensing tank, and attained a minimum 
 of lightness not hitherto approached. In 1804, he had actually 
 run a locomotive on the Merthyr Tydfil Kail way. In 1812, he 
 constructed an engine for Mr. Blackett, an enterprising and far- 
 seeing coalowner of Northumberland, and immediately afterwards 
 built the famous Black Billy. Trevithick then left engine-building, 
 when he had almost grasped substantial success. Stephenson struck 
 in where Trevithick left off. Northumberland, with its longheaded- 
 ness, seized the prize which the fickle Celt of Cornwall missed. 
 Stephenson knew he could beat Black Billy. In 1814, he turned 
 
335 
 
 out a locomotive, the first made with smooth-tired wheels, which 
 drew thirty tons up a slight ascent at the rate of four miles an hour 
 In 1815, he built another, being a further improvement upon its 
 predecessor. Next year he devoted himself to rails and wheels. 
 Gradually his invention took to itself form, fitness, and final finish. 
 
 THE STOCKTON AND DARLINGTON RAILWAY 
 
 was the first in England which was regularly used as a locomotive 
 line for the conveyance of passengers and goods. Stephenson was 
 appointed its engineer at a salary of 300Z. a year ; and he per- 
 suaded Edward Pease, the principal shareholder, and his brother 
 directors, to change it from a horse to a locomotive line, and also 
 to permit him to lay down malleable instead of cast-iron rails. In 
 1822, the first rail was laid, and in three years after it was opened 
 for traffic. Edward Pease had the insight to discover the genius of 
 Stephenson. He united with him in establishing an engine factory 
 at Newcastle. George Stephenson was so much engaged with 
 his duties in the railway, that his son Robert, who was barely 
 twenty years of age, had nearly all to do with the establishment of 
 the factory, and was admitted as a partner. The son was only 
 twenty-three years his father's junior, and was regarded by him 
 rather as a younger brother than a son. The strength at once of 
 George's affection and admiration for Robert is well displayed by 
 a circumstance like this, as well as by the fact that when the plans 
 of the Stockton and Darlington went before Parliament, Robert's 
 name, when he was only eighteen, appeared as engineer. This was 
 the father's mode of bringing his son into notice, and a clear proof 
 that even so early his position was so well established that he could 
 afford to fall into the background and accord his son the promi- 
 nence. 
 
 THE LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY 
 
 was first broached in 1821, and revived in 1824. In that year a 
 pamphlet was published under the authority of Stephenson, which 
 drew forth a document from a hundred and fifty Liverpool mer- 
 chants, calling for the execution of the scheme. A deputation 
 having been sent to examine the Killingworth locomotives, a com- 
 pany was at once established for the construction of a double line. 
 Stephenson was appointed engineer. His surveys, in which he was 
 assisted by his son, were pursued under the greatest difficulties. 
 The canal companies were up in arms, and all the local magnates 
 on the route, the Earls of Sefton, Chesterfield, Derby, and Wilton, 
 united in offering the hottest and most determined opposition. 
 
336 
 
 He had to execute his survey on some estates by trespass, and was 
 afterwards sued for damages. He surveyed when the watchers 
 posted to warn him off were at dinner, and by night with the 
 assistance of dark lanterns, and at the risk of being shot for a 
 poacher. At last the bill came before the House of Commons, 
 on the 21st of March, 1824, Stephenson being the only combatant 
 on the one side, and a whole array of counsellors and " civil 
 engineers," who scornfully repudiated Stephenson as a mere 
 "mechanical engineer" on the other. "All the regular-bred 
 engineers," says Mr. Adams, " disliking the presumption of the 
 untaught man in setting himself up to thrust aside their precon- 
 ceived notions and formulae, were enlisted as willing evidence on 
 the part of the opposition ; and George Stephenson, alone, unaided 
 save by our old friend Nicholas Wood, and a mechanical engineer, 
 a builder of steam engines at Stourbridge one John Urpeth 
 Kastrick, afterwards the maker of the 'Brighton Direct' had to 
 enter upon the contest. The untaught man, with imperfect utter- 
 ance, ignorant of the methods of schools, had to be baffled and 
 browbeaten by a host of technical schoolmen and practical men, 
 who had gone over and examined and measured at their leisure the 
 course of the line, which he could only get at by glimpses. All 
 sorts of evidence were brought forward that the railway would 
 stop the milk of the cows, the growth of grass, would poison the 
 game, would burn down the farms, would frighten horses, would 
 cost 270,0002, to get through four miles of Chat Moss, would be 
 utterly unsuccessful, and yet would ruin the stage-coaches ; and so, 
 after a two months' contest of unscrupulous opposition, the bill 
 was finally thrown out, though the preamble was passed." 
 
 At last, however, by dint of the large support given by many 
 members of Parliament, and even of the Ministry ; by buying off 
 some of the most potent opposition ; by the representatives of the 
 Bridgewater canal property becoming large shareholders in the rail- 
 way, and so carrying their eggs in two baskets; and lastly, by 
 sinking George Stephenson's name, appointing the Messrs. Rennie 
 engineers, and so making a humiliating concession to professional 
 superciliousness, the bill was passed in 1826. George Stephenson 
 was, of course, at once reappointed engineer, and the work of 
 forming the line entrusted to his hands. 
 
 THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE LINE 
 
 were to construct the way over Chat Moss, and to bore the tunnel 
 through the sandstone rock on which Liverpool stands. Both were 
 
337 
 
 with great labour overcome. The latter was done by Joseph Locke, 
 who here for the first time appears in the history of railway engineer- 
 ing. Over Chat Moss a road of hurdles and heather was constructed, 
 with a covering of earth to steady it. And when this showed a 
 tendency to sink below the level into the abyss of bog, the moss 
 was laden on each side of the track to balance it. When the water 
 still oozed through, a new kind of drain pipe, formed of waste 
 tallow casks, headed together, was invented. 
 
 George Stephenson and the railways called into existence a new 
 class of manual labourers the navvies. The word navvy is an 
 abbreviation of navigator ; the term Laving been first applied to the 
 artificers of canals, or systems of inland navigation, a generation or 
 two before the inception of railways. These navvies were, and are, 
 splendid specimens of the bone and muscle which English bread, 
 beef, and beer will produce. The staple and nucleus of the navvies 
 were men born on Blackstone Edge, the great mountain ridge on the 
 confines of Lancashire and Yorkshire, men " with stomachs like 
 ostriches, with gizzards capable of cramming and digesting any amount 
 of flesh, meat, and bread, and turning it into bone and muscle, to do 
 any amount of work." So much, indeed, was feeding an element in 
 the powers of the navvies, that in later days of railway engineering 
 and contracting than those at which we have now arrived in our 
 survey, when contractors had to dismiss any number of men on 
 account of the diminution of work to be performed, they invariably 
 parted with those whom they had observed to display the smallest 
 gastronomic and digestive capacities. Two pounds of beef-steak 
 was an ordinary allowance for a navvy's dinner, and condiments, 
 solid and liquid, were consumed in fair proportion. Once when 
 Mr. Brassey had a contract in France I think, for the Paris and 
 Orleans Railway he resolved, from very proper and considerate 
 motives, to employ native labour. Having collected a gang of the 
 most strong and able-bodied field labourers whom he could find, he 
 told them that he would fix their remuneration at the same scale, 
 and expect the same rate of work, as he had been accustomed to in 
 England. And, he added, that, to enable them to accomplish this 
 work, and earn this wage, they must needs eat the same quantity of 
 food as his English workers. The delighted Frenchmen made the 
 attempt heartily, but wofully failed. They found that they could not 
 possibly absorb the requisite alimentary sustenance. This shortcom- 
 ing was proportionately reflected in the amount of labour performed. 
 Mr. Brassey had to bend to circumstances ; and the pay-rate had to 
 be conformed to the rate of food eaten and work done. The navvies 
 
338 
 
 " earned their money like horses," and spent it like children ; oft- 
 times the victims of the tommy-shop ; caring little for lodging ; 
 helping one another in distress, to the sharing of the last shilling ; 
 imposed on by public-house keepers, and submitting to it though 
 knowing it, and with a peculiar custom of persecuting the cheating 
 publican by concealing from him that their contract was out on the 
 line, and then eating and drinking his house empty and dry at a 
 final feast, and clearing out without paying a sort of balancing up 
 of the general items of cheating they had suffered." 
 
 When the Liverpool and Manchester line was completed, the 
 question remained, what motive power should be employed, and if 
 steam, how should it be employed? Most were in favour of 
 stationary engines ; only the Stephensons, father and son, and 
 Joseph Locke, were in favour of locomotives. The directors were 
 at last so far convinced that the latter were preferable, that they 
 advertised a trial of competitive steam engines, with a prize of 500 
 to the victor. There were four competitors ; and one of them was 
 the Rocket built by Stephenson at his Newcastle factory. The 
 Rocket performed well all the conditions of the contest, and 
 signally distanced the other three competitors. When the Rocket 
 arrived at the platform at the close of her day's successful run, 
 Isaac Cropper, one of the directors favourable to the fixed-engine 
 scheme, lifted up his hands and exclaimed, " Now is George 
 Stephenson at last delivered!" 
 
 Lord Brougham at the dinner given by the directors on the 
 opening of the line, thus eloquently commented, on the great 
 event : " When I saw the difficulties of space, as it were over- 
 come ; when I beheld a kind of miracle exhibited before my 
 astonished eyes ; when I surveyed masses pierced through, in 
 which it was before hardly possible for man or beast to plant 
 the sole of the foot, now covered with a road, and bearing heavy 
 waggons laden, not only with innumerable passengers, but with 
 merchandise of the largest bulk and heaviest weight; when I 
 saw valleys made practicable by the bridges of ample height and 
 length which spanned them ; saw the steam railway traversing the 
 water at a distance of sixty or seventy feet perpendicular height ; 
 saw the rocks excavated, and the gigantic power of man penetrating 
 through miles of the solid mass, gaining a great, a lasting, an 
 almost perennial conquest over the powers of nature by his skill 
 and industry ; when I contemplated all this, was it possible for 
 me to avoid the reflections which crowded into my mind '? not in 
 praise of man's great success, not in admiration of the genius and 
 
339 
 
 perseverance he had displayed, or even of the courage he had 
 shown in setting himself against the obstacles that matter offered 
 to his course no ! but the melancholy reflection that these pro- 
 digious efforts of the human race so fruitful of praise, but so 
 much more fruitful of lasting blessings to mankind have forced a 
 tear from my eye by that unhappy casualty which deprived me of a 
 friend, and you of a representative." These words were addressed 
 to the inhabitants of Liverpool, which had been represented by 
 Mr. Huskisson, who was lamentably killed by the Eocket while 
 conversing on the line of rails with the Duke of Wellington. 
 
 The first report of the directors was one continued swell of 
 triumph. In the first fortnight the passengers had averaged eight 
 hundred a day, and immediately after they rose to twelve hundred. 
 The journey was performed in an hour and a half, in place of two 
 hours, as had been undertaken. " Thus," stated the report, " in a 
 few months was produced a new and effective system of inter- 
 communication, highly important to the interests of a mercantile 
 community, and so extraordinary and complete as to form an era in 
 national improvements, and an epoch in mechanical science. The 
 company have not been required to wait for gradual and partial 
 transition." Although the winter was one of extreme severity, in 
 no one day were the trains prevented from running. A dividend of 
 eight per cent, was paid. Remarkable discrepancies between the 
 estimates and the actualities of traffic appeared. Goods which were 
 expected to give a return of 50,000, did not produce 3000 ; 
 coals, estimated at 20,000, figured for less than 1000. But, on 
 the other hand, the passenger traffic, which had been put down for 
 10,000, produced above 100,000. The aggregate net income, 
 which had been estimated at 62,500, was over 83,000. The 
 expenses, which had been estimated at 33 per cent, on the receipts, 
 turned out to be 62 per cent. Similarly, the cost of the construc- 
 tion of the railway, which had been estimated at 510,000, reached 
 1,200,000. After the issue of the first report, the 100 shares 
 rose to 200. In 1835, the annual number of passengers had 
 risen to 473,000, being an increase of 117,000 in four years. 
 
340 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Progress of Railway Enterprise The London and Birmingham Line Great Diffi- 
 culties in its Construction The Kilsby Tunnel Robert Stephenson Brunei 
 The Electric Telegraph Compensation for Land Charges against Land- 
 owners Their Answer Mr. Pease Robert Stephenson lectures before the 
 Institute of Civil Engineers The Grand Junction Railway Contractors 
 Thomas Brassey The various Developments of the Contract System Sir 
 Morton Peto. 
 
 FROM 1825 till 1830, railway enterprise was depressed, sharing in 
 the general languor which affected all commercial operations after 
 the crisis of the former year. But as trade began to revive, new lines 
 of railway were projected. In ] 829 an Act was passed for a line con- 
 necting Newcastle and Carlisle, but it was not opened till ten years 
 after. There had sprung up in the meantime a desire to have great 
 trunk lines from the metropolis. The line between London and Bir- 
 mingham had been surveyed in 1825, but the project was abandoned 
 after the panic. In 1830 it was revived. Two rival routes, one by 
 Sir John Rennie, the other by Mr. Giles, were proposed. George 
 Stephenson was appointed by the projectors to adjudicate between 
 the two. He decided in favour of the line by Coventry, and against 
 that which was proposed to proceed by way of Oxford. Stephen- 
 son and his son were appointed the engineers. The latter person- 
 ally surveyed the whole line, walking some twenty times the 
 whole distance between London and Birmingham, back and 
 forward. The first crude idea embraced only a single line of rail, 
 and the cost was estimated at 6000 a mile. The capital was a 
 million and a quarter, and the shares were soon at 10 premium. 
 More matured thought suggested a double line, which so frightened 
 the investing classes that the shares fell to a discount. The 
 directors were sneeringly denominated " a patriotic party of specu- 
 lators, coming forward for their country's good." The company 
 issued their first circular in January, 1832. Their total estimate of 
 expense was 2,400,456, and the estimated revenue 671,102, 
 divided in nearly equal proportions between passengers and goods. 
 The discussions about this line showed, in a marked manner, the 
 gradual progress of opinion since the Liverpool and Manchester was 
 
341 
 
 first mooted. Mr. Hardman Earle, who had been a strenuous 
 opponent of that line, voluntarily came forward, and said that all 
 his unfavourable opinions had been falsified. He had experienced 
 no inconvenience from the trains passing through his grounds. 
 The smoke was not offensive, and the noise not disagreeable. " The 
 passage of the carriages was a pastime rather than a nuisance." 
 The Earl of Derby, who had so strongly opposed the Liverpool and 
 Manchester, manfully made a similar recantation, and supported the 
 London and Birmingham. Still the old cries were revived, and 
 prejudice and selfishness found expression in the form of discon- 
 tent. Such expressions as the following were flying about, " the 
 railway will be a drag on the country ; " " the bridges and culverts 
 will be antiquarian ruins ;" "it will not take tolls sufficient to keep 
 it in repair ;" " the directors are making ducks and drakes of their 
 money ; " and " every hill and valley between the two towns will 
 behold falling arches and ruined viaducts." One wiseacre wrote : 
 " Long before the London and Birmingham is ready, such are the 
 improvements now making in canals, that not only may the charge 
 be expected to be many times less than the railway, but the time 
 of transit will be considerably saved." And another said, " Our 
 estates will not only be deteriorated, but destroyed. It is not a 
 question of pounds, but a question of principle." Probably no 
 bill, with the exception perhaps of the Great Northern, ever sus- 
 tained so much opposition as the London and Birmingham. The 
 grounds of one clergyman, who was also a landowner, were surveyed 
 by stealth, while he was performing his clerical duties on Sunday. 
 The most extortionate demands for compensation were made. One 
 piece of land, which had its value increased 20 per cent, by the 
 railway, was purchased for 3000, with 10,000 "consequential 
 damages." One proprietor demanded four bridges, which was 
 agreed to. Then he thought that half the money which the 
 bridges would cost would be more serviceable to him, and he made 
 a representation accordingly to the company. They entertained it, 
 and paid the money on the basis of this compromise. After a 
 tremendous amount of opposition before Parliament, the bill was 
 passed ; the land requisite having been purchased at three times 
 its fair value at least, opposition being thus bought off. 
 
 "It is well known," says Sir Francis Head, "that one of the 
 results of Mr. Kobert Stephenson's elaborate investigation was 
 that the London and Birmingham Railway ought to pass by the 
 healthy and handsome town of Northampton. The inhabitants, 
 however, urged and excited by men of influence and education, 
 
342 
 
 opposed the blessing with such barbarous fury, that they suc- 
 ceeded in distorting the line via the Kilsby Tunnel, to a point 
 five miles off." The contract for the making of this tunnel was 
 let to a contractor for 99,OOOZ. A quicksand stopped his progress, 
 he was compelled to relinquish his contract, and the vexation 
 killed him. Mr. Eobert Stephenson took up the reversion of the 
 enterprise. Though the difficulties were so great that the 
 directors proposed to abandon the task, he persevered. He set 
 in operation all the available resources. He had at work 1250 men, 
 200 horses, and 13 steam engines. And by their aid, he raised 
 1800 gallons of water night and day for eight months ; he so 
 thoroughly infused his own energy into his workmen, that it is said 
 when one of their number was killed, they simply threw the body 
 out of sight, and went on with their work. On the 17th of 
 September, 1838, the railway was opened. The capital had been 
 increased from 2,400,OOOZ. to 4,500, OOOZ. 
 
 Every part of the line had been carefully examined by Robert 
 Stephenson beforehand, and it was begun in several places at once. 
 The elaborate plans and drawings which he made were afterwards 
 borrowed by Brunei for the Great Western, and became generally 
 the model of all subsequent railway operations. The relations 
 between Stephenson and Brunei were of the most creditable cha- 
 racter to both. Mr. Jeaffreson, in his recently published " Life of 
 Eobert Stepheuson," says, *' The relations that subsisted between 
 him and Brunei could not have endured between rivals endowed 
 with merely ordinary generosity. Continually as they were pitted 
 against each other, much as the reputation of the one was exalted 
 by the failures of the other, they not only preserved strong mutual 
 affection, but in their gravest periods of public trial were always 
 ready to assist each other with counsel and support. When Robert 
 Stephenson, with fearful anxiety, was watching the floating of the 
 first enormous tubular bridge to the piers, Brunei stood by his 
 side; and when Brunei was heroically contending with the gigantic 
 difficulties of launching the Great Eastern, Robert Stephenson dis- 
 regarded the claims of failing health, in order that he might be on 
 the spot to encourage and advise his brother engineer. Two nobler 
 adversaries the world never witnessed." 
 
 Mr. Stephenson was intimate with Mr. Wheatstone and Mr. 
 Cooke, the inventors of the electric telegraph, and he procured for 
 them the opportunity of fixing their first wires of communication 
 upon the line from Euston Square in the year before its public 
 opening. The first important occasion on which beneficial uses of 
 
 
343 
 
 the electric telegraph were brought forcibly before the general 
 public was the case of Tawell, the murderer. This man poisoned 
 his unfortunate victim near Slough. She learned that she was 
 poisoned contrary to his expectation ere she died. The pierc- 
 ing shriek which she uttered on making the horrid discovery 
 alarmed her neighbours, who ran out of their cottages and saw 
 Tawell in the act of flight. He was not captured, however, before 
 he succeeded in taking unobserved his seat in a carriage at Slough 
 of the up London train. But long ere he arrived at Paddington, 
 the following telegram had been received : 
 
 " A murder has just been committed at Sal thill, and the sus- 
 pected murderer was seen to take a first-class ticket for London 
 by the train which left Slough at 7.42 P.M. 
 
 " He is in the garb of a Quaker, with a brown greatcoat on, 
 which reaches nearly down to his feet. He is in the last compart- 
 ment of the second first-class carriage." 
 
 On arriving at the terminus, he took a city omnibus, the con- 
 ductor of which, he little thought, in his fancied security, was a 
 policeman in disguise. After Tawell, probably with the object of 
 proving an alibi on the night of the murder, had entered one 
 coffee-house after another which he was in the habit of frequenting, 
 he went finally to a City lodging-house, and just as he was opening 
 the door, the policeman, who had never left the trail, calmly 
 accosted him, and said, "Haven't you just come from Slough?" 
 Confusedly answering, " No ! " he was taken into custody, tried 
 and hanged. A countryman, who travelled in the same carriage 
 with Sir Francis Head from Paddington a few months after, is 
 recorded by that entertaining writer to have ejaculated, looking at 
 the telegraphic wires, " Them's the cords that hung John Tawell! " 
 
 It was in connection with the London and Birmingham line 
 that what its projectors termed "the scandalous cupidity of land- 
 owners" was first displayed. They favoured the introduction of 
 projected railway bills only that they might oppose them in 
 Parliament until they had exacted their own terms. Sums of five, 
 six, ten, thirty, and even so much in one case as one hundred and 
 twenty thousand pounds were extorted, nominally for slips of land, 
 but really to buy off opposition. In one narrow neighbourhood it was 
 necessary to buy off opposition at a price which at the ordinary rate 
 of railway profits would necessitate the raising of 15,000^. per annum 
 additional tolls, a sum equal to the fares of sixty thousand third- 
 class passengers per annum to the neighbourhood in question. 
 
 The details of the occurrence just referred to are the following. 
 
344 
 
 When the Eastern Counties carae to be planned, it appears that a 
 few miles of the line would pass through the estates of a noble lord 
 and a right honourable gentleman who were indisposed to favour the 
 project : the first entered into a contract with the provisional com- 
 mittee of the company, stipulating that, in the event of his not 
 opposing the bill, he should receive 120,000 for the land required 
 a strip of some five or six miles. After the bill was passed, the 
 directors demurred to paying the money, and his lordship at 
 once applied to Chancery, and got an injunction against them. 
 The company applied to Parliament for an amended Bill, but his 
 lordship entered into an alliance offensive and defensive with his 
 neighbour, the right honourable gentleman in question, and the 
 directors were compelled to pay the peer not only the 120,000, 
 but interest for nearly two years in addition. The commoner ob- 
 tained 35,000. It is only just pleasing to record, that the son of the 
 latter, many years afterwards, refunded 15,000 to the company, 
 when he learned that his property had not been so much deterio- 
 rated as his father alleged it would. 
 
 The directors of the Glasgow Lunatic Asylum asked 44,000 
 from the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway Company. The com- 
 pany determined to carry the question before a jury. Before the 
 trial came off, the Asylum directors reduced their claim to 10,000. 
 The jury awarded exactly 873. 
 
 Mr. Pease, of Darlington, who took a very active part in conjunc- 
 tion with George Stephenson in the promotion of railway enterprise, 
 when he was once examined before a committee of the House of Com- 
 mons, testified that when the Stockton and Darlington Company 
 purchased more land, some years after the line was first opened, the 
 very men who had received large compensation for the injuries antici- 
 pated to be done to their estates, clapped on 50 per cent, additional 
 as enhanced value by the opening of the railway on their estates. 
 And, on one occasion, a land valuer was 1 giving evidence to prove 
 how much a certain property would be deteriorated by a projected 
 line, when the counsel for the company put in his hand a news- 
 paper containing an advertisement drawn up by the witness, extol- 
 ling the increased value of the property to be traversed by the new 
 railway. 
 
 Robert Stephenson, in an address read by him before the Insti- 
 tute of Civil Engineers, thus pithily expressed himself about the 
 peculiar claim for the depreciation of the value of land denominated 
 by the legal term of " severance." " Parliament has never, on 
 any occasion, considered improvement [i. e. of land] as an element 
 
345 
 
 in favour of a railway ; but it has always been ready to tax a rail- 
 way company on account of possible depreciation. The extent to 
 which claims on account of depreciation have been carried is well 
 known. Great was the ingenuity of the agent who discovered the 
 use of the word " severance." To railway companies, constant 
 repetition has made that term but too familiar. In every case in 
 which the line passes through an estate, a claim is set up for com- 
 pensation on account of " severance;" which means simply that a 
 property having been previously in what is called a ring-fence, it 
 becomes, by the passage of a railway through it, less convenient for 
 the purposes of cultivation. Agents of the highest respectability 
 make the claim, on the ground that it is customary, admitting that 
 there is no substantial reason whatever for it. In one recent case, 
 a claim for compensation for " severance" was made by the owner 
 of some marsh land in Essex, whose whole estate was taken by a 
 company, but who claimed for " severance" on the ground that the 
 loss of his marsh land on the Thames was injurious to an arable 
 farm which he possessed many miles distant. I carefully abstain 
 from introducing anything approaching to political controversy in 
 this sketch. But this at least may be said, without transgressing 
 the limit which I have prescribed, that the railway interest has 
 suffered in a much higher degree than any other form of property 
 or description of enterprise from that relic of feudalism still im- 
 bedded in English law, by which land is considered as differing 
 from all other kinds of estate, and hedged round with peculiar pri- 
 vileges and immunities ; and that for these privileges and immu- 
 nities enjoyed by laud and its possessors, shareholders are paying 
 at this day. 
 
 Ere I leave this department of the subject the artificial, ex- 
 cessive, and exorbitant elements of expense of the construction of 
 railways I may add a few figures of authenticated statistics which 
 speak far more forcibly than any amount of general description. 
 
 The following represent the cost per mile for outlay of this 
 description paid by four of the leading companies : 
 
 LAND AND COMPENSATION. 
 
 London and South Western 4000 
 
 London and Birmingham 6300 
 
 Great Western 6300 
 
 London and Brighton 8000 
 
 A. A 
 
346 
 
 PARLIAMENTARY EXPENSES. 
 
 London and South Western 650 
 
 London and Birmingham 650 
 
 Great Western 1000 
 
 London and Brighton 3000 
 
 LAW, ENGINEERING, AND DIRECTION. 
 
 London and South Western 900 
 
 London and Birmingham 1500 
 
 London and Brighton 18UO 
 
 Great Western 2500 
 
 I may contrast with this the expenses of with the exception of 
 Mr. Bower's line in the county Donegal the most cheaply con- 
 structed railway in the United Kingdom, the short branch of the 
 North British, a little more than twenty miles long, connecting 
 the pretty country town of Peebles with Edinburgh. This line was 
 projected during the railway mania, the expenses were estimated at 
 the then prevailing rate, and the claims of the landowners, of 
 whom there are about a dozen or so on the whole line, were what is 
 called exorbitant after the prevailing mode. The result was that 
 the project never came to anything, and the shareholders were glad 
 enough to receive back LSI. 10s., or exactly one fourth of the 50Z. 
 shares, after the enormous preliminary costs had been defrayed. 
 Years brought prudence, both to the proprietors of the land and the 
 commercial and residential parties interested in the success of the 
 line. The measure was reintroduced, and a single line only was laid 
 down, without a single landlord offering opposition. The required 
 land was obtained at thirty-five years' purchase agricultural value, 
 severance value being fixed by arbitration. The turnpike-road trus- 
 tees made no claim for damages, and the Act, which was procured 
 in 1853, cost only 650Z., not a single penny being paid to counsel. 
 The whole Parliamentary expenses up to the obtaining of the Act 
 came to only 1569Z. The total charges for land and com- 
 pensation amounted to 21,222Z., or at the rate of 1131Z. per mile. 
 Seven stations were built, the average cost, including the termini, 
 being ] 200Z. The works cost 3600/. per mile. Thus the total cost 
 per mile was little more than 6000L. One need not wonder that 
 it was not long ere a five per cent, dividend was reached. 
 
 It is only just towards the landowners of that period to record 
 their defence against the charge of extortion made against them 
 by the railway projectors. " These works," they said, " are private 
 
347 
 
 speculations, in which the State takes no part a class of specu- 
 lators wish to take our lands from us, convert it to their own use, 
 and give us no higher price than if we were voluntary sellers in 
 the market their only object is to make money; they expect 
 to make enormous fortunes by getting possession of our land, 
 run up their shares to a high premium, get ten or fifteen per 
 cent, interest for their money, and the profits arising from these 
 transactions they wish to exclude us from entirely ; they are not 
 called on by any public duty to make railways for the country, nor 
 do they profess to be moved by any patriotic motive ; if they don't 
 like the terms on which we are willing to sell our land, why do they 
 buy ? nobody asks them ; they complain of the high prices ex- 
 torted on the Liverpool and Manchester line by landowners for 
 their land, but, notwithstanding the ' high prices ' charged, the 
 speculators have made about 150 per cent, by the transaction; and 
 had they shared 1000 per cent, clear, they would not give us a 
 single shilling more than they could help. If from any circum- 
 stance a sudden rise takes place in the price of sugar, cotton, or any 
 other commodity, does the Liverpool or Manchester merchant or 
 manufacturer say, ' I will take no advantage of this rise the old 
 price allows me a sufficient profit, and I should consider it highly 
 immoral to make a profit by this sudden and unexpected de- 
 mand.' When mercantile men hold this language, and act on 
 these principles, it will be quite time enough for them to lecture 
 us on taking advantage of our position." 
 
 There are always two sides to a question, arid we shall not stop 
 to discuss which of the parties had the better of the argument. One 
 story, as the proverb goes, is good till the other is told. I certainly 
 never heard of any case where our speculators offered to share the 
 profits with the landowners. 
 
 We now resume, after this episodical abrege of the history of com- 
 pensation, &c., in the construction of the earlier lines, the nar- 
 rative of the successful construction of the great railways of the 
 kingdom. We left off at the period of the opening of the London 
 and Birmingham, the first great unassisted triumph of Robert 
 Stephenson. I say his first great unassisted triumph in this sense 
 that it was the first great work of which he had the whole control. 
 But, it appears, quite as much from the biography of the father 
 by Mr. Smiles, as from the life of the son by Mr. Jeaffreson, that 
 very much of the credit due to George for the construction of the 
 locomotives purchased by the Liverpool and Manchester line, and 
 of the road on which they ran, is to be divided with his well-beloved 
 and proudly regarded son. 
 
 A A 2 
 
348 
 
 The Grand Junction was formed to connect Birmingham with 
 Manchester and Liverpool, and thus to complete the chain to 
 connect the two latter towns with London. The title was not* 
 original, there having existed many years before the Grand 
 Junction Canal, designed to constitute the same requisite link in 
 its day as the railway was in a later. The Grand Junction had been 
 first brought forward in 1824, but, having failed to propitiate the 
 " interests," was unsuccessful. A second application, in 1826, also 
 failed. In 1832, it was again introduced, and then, for the first 
 time, under the title by which it was subsequently known. This 
 time there was no opposition, and the Act was procured without any 
 difficulty. The line was opened for public traffic in 1837. Very 
 little excitement had been created by the progress of this line 
 as little was caused by its completion. The country was getting 
 accustomed to railways now ; the novelty was beginning to 
 wear off. And yet it was one of the most important ever formed 
 perhaps even more important than its two great predecessors. It 
 passed through a hive of industry, and equally affected commercial 
 and manufacturing interests. Connecting as it did the coal, iron, 
 and pottery districts with the great emporium of the carrying 
 trade and the cotton manufacture, it formed the remaining link 
 necessary to connect Manchester and Liverpool with London. Its 
 bearings upon social progress, national wealth, and the industrial 
 interests of labour, must be considered as even of higher importance 
 than the Manchester and Liverpool, or the London and Birmingham 
 Railway But, perhaps, the true view is to attribute no preponderance 
 of importance and value to either of the three vertebrae of this great 
 spine. Each derives the highest measure of its strength and 
 tenacity from its association with its fellows. This circumstance 
 was recognized some years afterwards in form as well as in fact, and 
 the three companies were incorporated into one, the London and 
 North Western. The completion of the Grand Junction furnished 
 the first of those great triumphs of postal communication for which 
 we are indebted to the railways. The Liverpool merchant, and 
 still more the private individual of humbler station or less busy 
 habits, were astounded to find letters sent from London at eight 
 in the evening in their hands the following morning ; and the 
 rough and grimy Birmingham worker in iron regaled himself for 
 the first time in his life on the unwonted luxury of fresh seafish, 
 served to him as wholesome and as cheap as they were to the 
 dwellers on the estuary of the Mersey. 
 
 About this time the important system of contracting, which has 
 played such a large and leading part in the history of railway con- 
 
349 
 
 struction, first began to assume considerable proportions. On the 
 Grand Junction line Thomas Brassey took a contract for the con- 
 struction of ten miles. The beginnings of contracting were thus 
 but humble. In the early days, about half a dozen miles of earth- 
 works, fencing, and bridges formed about the average of responsi- 
 bility undertaken by a single contractor ; but ere many years it was 
 comparatively common for one man to hold himself answerable for 
 the construction of an entire railway, and deliver it over complete 
 to the company. Then, of course, the system of sub-contracting, 
 and yet again sub-contracting, to an indefinite extent, followed. 
 Great capital, is necessary, and large profits earned, by the great 
 contractors. Probably never in the history of the world has any 
 one class of traders or manufacturers, for they belong equally to 
 both classes, so rapidly risen from such small beginnings to the 
 possession of great wealth as the leading contractors of the world 
 the M'Kenzies, the Brasseys, the Petos, and the Salamancas. 
 
 One peculiarity about the nature of the business of contractor is 
 especially worthy of notice. So long as he remains in business, 
 he cannot for any considerable period permit his capital to lie idle, 
 for his plant is so enormous that were it long to remain idle, it 
 would eat away very much of the profits of even his most successful 
 ventures. Hundreds of earth-waggons and horses, scores of miles 
 of rails and sleepers for " temporary way," several locomotive and 
 several stationary engines, tools of countless numbers and endless 
 variety these, in addition to enormous accumulations of timber, 
 brick, stone, rails, and a host of other materials, all vociferously 
 call for more employment. And although the mere " hands " the 
 Titanic navvies can be gradually diminished as works approach 
 completion, and involve no eating up of capital when the work is 
 done, the contractor must have a very large staff of scientific, 
 commercial, and skilled employes, whom he must keep in per- 
 manent employ or pay, else the whole work of superior organization 
 and drill would have to be re-undertaken when every new enter- 
 prise was inaugurated. This, of course, would be as impossible as 
 it would be irksome and costly, and hence it is that contractors are 
 constantly pressing forward new undertakings ; being willing fre- 
 quently, so long as they can only secure employment for their 
 brains, capital, and staff, to accept in very large proportion shares 
 of new enterprises in part repayment of their services and expendi- 
 ture. The same inducements produce this other result that they 
 themselves project undertakings, use parliamentary influence to 
 have them legalized, and employ their private influence among their 
 
350 
 
 own circles of connections and dependants to have sufficient shares 
 taken up to induce Parliament to pass bills. Thus, in very many 
 cases, has the original relation between the contractor and the 
 promoters and proprietors of a given measure been just reversed. 
 They now inaugurate, and endeavour to induce the public to follow 
 and participate, in place of the public promoting and then calling 
 in the contractor's services for the realization of the project pro- 
 moted. This diametrical change does not appear on the surface of 
 affairs ; but it is not the less practically true. 
 
 This second development of the contracting system has proved 
 as far removed from an unmixed good as it has from an unmixed 
 benefit. On the one hand, this restless stimulating desire for 
 employment has doubtless facilitated the accomplishment of many 
 enterprises whose course otherwise would have been far less smooth, 
 or whose inauguration might have been delayed till long after the 
 period of their actual accomplishment, or even which might not 
 have been heard of to this day ; but, on the other hand, it must 
 be borne in mind that this insatiate, and, I add and admit, 
 inevitable, craving for contracts has precipitated many enterprises 
 prematurely, forced in others fitter for the next century than our 
 own, and still others which the inhabitants of many homes have too 
 much reason to fear will never be remunerative at all. A writer 
 in the Edinburgh Review, under date of October, 1854, says, 
 " The most gigantic project which private enterprise has yet dared 
 a project of which, unfortunately, there is now no hope origi- 
 nated with a distinguished contracting firm." 
 
 It was not long ere Mr. Brassey extended his operations to a 
 much higher scale than his small beginnings in the Grand Junc- 
 tion. Before he was forty-five, he thought nothing of contracting 
 for the construction of a thousand miles of rail, or of under- 
 taking responsibility to the extent of many millions on his own 
 account, and equally large sums in conjunction with two as- 
 sociates. Now, being about sixty years of age, he is said to 
 have contracts in hand amounting to the enormous sum of sixty 
 millions. The following authenticated incident is recorded of Mr. 
 Brassey, and remarkably illustrates that indomitable perseverance 
 and high sense of honour which have equally conduced to his 
 astounding success. He had a contract for the construction of 
 the line between Rouen and Havre, and had built a bridge of 
 twenty-seven arches, costing 30,OOOZ. During the progress of the 
 work he repeatedly protested against the quality of the material 
 supplied to him. The bridge fell down, the bad foundations of the 
 
351 
 
 bridge being the best proof of the good foundations of his com- 
 plaints. His friends assured him that there was not the 
 slightest moral claim on him for its reconstruction, and his lawyer 
 told him that there was an equal absence of any legal responsi- 
 bility ; but he said, " I have contracted to make and maintain the 
 road, and no law shall prevent Thomas Brassey from being as good 
 as his word." He rebuilt the bridge out of entirely new materials ; 
 and although sixteen millions of bricks were necessary for its 
 reconstruction, fourteen millions of which had to be made on the 
 spot, the work was completed in seven months. 
 
 Another great magnate amongst the contractors is Sir Samuel 
 Morton Peto. His earliest railway work of large bulk was the 
 Cambridge portion of the Eastern Counties, constructed about 1843. 
 Sir Morton Peto did not commence life, or even business, as a 
 railway contractor. Although the nephew and successor of one of 
 the largest builders in England, he was taken from school at an 
 early age, and regularly apprenticed as a working builder. He was 
 barely a journeyman when he became the head of the firm, which, 
 in addition to the ordinary routine of the building trade, undertook 
 large contracts : such, for example, as for the Hungerford Market 
 and the Houses of Parliament, besides such various structures as 
 clubs, theatres, prisons, castles, and docks. But in 1834, Mr. Peto, 
 fascinated' with the splendour of the career opened up by rail- 
 ways, gave up his purely building trade, and determined to risk all 
 in the new calling of railway contractor. His first work was the 
 WharnclifFe Viaduct, and he early became distinguished, like Mr. 
 Brassey, afterwards his some time partner, by the courage with 
 which he singly undertook pecuniary responsibilities from which 
 even companies shrank. Mr. Peto soon became honourably known 
 to the public by the kind and assiduous care which he took of the 
 welfare of his huge gangs of labourers. He shortened the period 
 of the payment of wages, so as to relieve them from usurious 
 exactions, and set his face dead against the truck system. He lent 
 them books, established sick clubs and savings banks, and built tem- 
 porary cottages for them on the line of the works going on. While 
 carrying on a large contract in the diocese of the excellent Bishop 
 Stanley of Norwich, known as the author of the best book on 
 British Birds that ever was written, and as one of the best prelates 
 that ever was ordained, the Bishop thus spoke of Mr. Peto : 
 
 " Mr. Peto was a dissenter ; and he envied the sect to which he 
 belonged the possession of such a man, and he would gladly pur- 
 chase him at his own price ; and heartily he prayed that ere long 
 
352 
 
 he would become a member of the Church of England. He 
 (Bishop Stanley) was a Churchman, and holding a high office in 
 the Church, and believed that in that Church was the purest faith ; 
 but he was still a catholic Christian, and, as such, he would hold it 
 a dereliction of his duty if he did not express his approbation, 
 respect, and regard for the exertions used for the moral benefit of 
 railway labourers by Mr. Peto. All down the line he had met 
 with his agents, and had found them not merely giving directions 
 and instructions, but also giving to the men religious and school 
 books, for the education of themselves and their children ; and thus 
 showing them that education can civilize the mind, reform the 
 habits, and elevate the understanding. The gin-shops were left 
 deserted, and the schools were full. The good and exemplary con- 
 duct of Mr. Peto's railway labourers under this system deserves to 
 be recorded ; and let it be noted as a fact, that not one labourer in 
 the Norwich district had been guilty of misconduct that made him 
 amenable to the law." 
 
 Sir Morton Peto is one of the largest employers of labour in the 
 kingdom; the number of persons at present in his employ is said to 
 amount to thirty thousand. 
 
or TH 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 ^ 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Railway Taxation Its Impolicy and Injustice The Great Western The London 
 and South- Western The London and Greenwich The South-Eastern The 
 London and Croydon Parliamentary Contest for the Brighton Line The 
 London and Woolwich The London and Essex The Eastern Counties. 
 
 IT was in 1832 that the Government first determined to tax the 
 railways. In that year a tax was imposed to the amount of a penny 
 a mile for every eight passengers, or half a farthing for each, being 
 the eighth part of the fare subsequently paid by the passengers by 
 " parliamentary trains," and mulcting the whole passenger traffic of 
 the three kingdoms of a sixteenth part, or six per cent, of its gross 
 takings. The good policy of imposing this tax was doubted at the 
 period of the imposition, and it will be recollected that it underwent 
 some modification some years since at the instance of Mr. Gladstone. 
 The general opinion is that it is impolitic for Government to tax 
 any means of communication between one place and another, and 
 railways should form no exception to the general rule. It must be 
 recollected that it is a special and exceptional imposition laid upon 
 railways. In other and ordinary ways the companies pay precisely 
 their proportionate share of the burdens of the country, in the form 
 of property tax to the exchequer, and of assessed contributions to 
 the local rates of every town, county, parish, and union through 
 which they pass. They represent the only description of fixed 
 property in the country which pays property tax and another and a 
 more onerous tax to boot. Or if you regard them in the light of 
 traders, they represent the sole department of commercial enterprise 
 which is taxed, and of which the natural development is thereby 
 impeded. 
 
 Besides those considerations of morality and justice on which I 
 have been dilating, another argument, one of governmental expe- 
 diency, applies with equal strength against this impost. One of the 
 most cogent arguments used in favour of the reduction of the rate 
 of postage (and it has been amply confirmed by the result) was this: 
 even if the revenue were to sustain a loss by the reduction, the 
 commerce of the country would receive such an impetus, the inter- 
 change of commodities would be so increased by the stimulus 
 
354 
 
 given to commercial inter-communication, that the excise and cus- 
 toms department would largely profit by the increased consumption 
 of duty-paying articles. This argument applies equally to railways. 
 Cheaper travelling of persons must necessitate greater transit of 
 commodities, many of them duty-paying. And it must not be 
 imagined that because the Government imposed the railway tax 
 as a poll tax on persons, it therefore follows that railway companies 
 derive the means of paying the tax collectors out of their pas- 
 senger fares. The burden falls generally upon the whole traffic, 
 and, in some cases, it is more than possible that it is the goods that 
 pay the tax, for the companies are bound down by a parliamentary 
 edict to at least a minimum fare, and that forms an arbitrary 
 standard from which they cannot very well make their higher tariffs 
 deviate except at the fixed, understood, and now uniform scale of 
 difference. In other words, if the railway poll tax were taken 
 off, it is possible that the public would, in some cases at least, 
 reap the advantage in the reduction of the charges for the convey- 
 ance of goods. The exchequer must necessarily feel the direct 
 beneficial benefit of the increased consumption of articles not 
 coming within the strict categories. 
 
 It is questionable, in fact, whether the revenue does not suffer 
 considerably more than it gains by the railway tax. No doubt, to 
 some extent, and partially at least, the railways recoup themselves 
 by the sums they receive from the Post Office. Were no bill sent 
 in from Downing Street to Euston Square and London Bridge, it is 
 asserted by railway companies that Euston Square and London 
 Bridge would not present quite such large accounts for settlement 
 at St. Martin's-le-Grand ; and, in confirmation of this view of the 
 case, they state that immediately the tax was laid on in 1832, the 
 Liverpool and Manchester directors boldly announced that, "in 
 consequence of the above tax, the company's charge for conveying 
 the mail between Liverpool and Manchester would be three-half- 
 pence per mile, instead of one penny as heretofore." These state- 
 ments of the companies must, however, be taken cum grano sails. 
 
 I now turn to the establishment of the Great Western line, 
 which was many years ago called, and may be justly still termed 
 " the most gigantic work, not only in Great Britain, but in the 
 entire world." The well-known battle of the gauges, on which all 
 England was divided, being waged not only between engineers, 
 mechanicians, and men of science, but by hosts of pamphleteers, in 
 the leaders of morning journals, and in all places of public resort, 
 was waged about this line. But there was another fierce battle to be 
 
355 
 
 waged before the battle of the gauges i.e was there to be a line 
 at all? 
 
 The first prospectus was issued in 1833, Reading only being 
 then proposed as the terminus : 3,000, OOOZ. was first named ; but 
 this was considered alarmingly great, and in deference to the money 
 interest, the proposal was reduced to 2,500,OOOL The bill was 
 applied for in 1834. The old style of opposition was at once 
 renewed opposition, indeed, as valid as that which had assailed the 
 Liverpool and Manchester, and much more irate then the anta- 
 gonism which had assailed the London and Birmingham. But this 
 was no indication that the railways were receding in popular favour, 
 or that men were becoming less sanguine as the novelty wore off. 
 The fact was very simply explained. The London and Birming- 
 ham had gone to a large extent through, and at all events to, 
 a great centre of trade and industry. The Great Western pro- 
 posed to invade one of the most luxurious, sleepy districts in 
 England. It did not propose to open up any hive of collieries, 
 mining, melting, spinning, or exporting enterprise. The valley of 
 the Thames was a very different locality. It was not to be wondered 
 at that the courtier, peers, and squires, living under the very shadow 
 of the flag that waved over the Palace at Windsor, or that plethoric 
 tutors of Eton, should have been horrified at the prospect of the 
 assault of the iron monster. 
 
 The old cries were raised without the slightest variation or 
 novelty. "It was a mere speculation of engineers, attorneys, and capi- 
 talists." " The river would beat the rail." Tunnels would smother 
 one-half the passengers, and those who escaped suffocation in the 
 bowels of the earth would be burned to death by the cinders, or 
 scalded by the steam in the open aether. Every gentle slope was 
 magnified into precipices, and whole trains were to be dashed into 
 the abyss below. Eton College violently opposed the scheme, as 
 certain to be the destruction at once of the morals and the discipline 
 of their pupils. They said, " anybody who knew the nature of 
 Eton boys would know that they could not be kept from the rail- 
 way." A farmer knew that his cows would be killed, if they passed 
 under a certain archway ; and one squire coolly stated that no amount 
 of national benefit could compensate for the destruction of the beau- 
 ties of his estate. Another wiseacre warned the public that the 
 water in the Thames would be materially decreased to supply the 
 boilers, and drew a mournful picture of sacred royalty itself at 
 Windsor finding no response from the tap. An attempt was made 
 to propitiate the benevolent, by urging the circumstance of the 
 
356 
 
 cruelties inflicted by the drivers bringing cattle up to London from 
 the west, and those of less fine feelings were reminded that their 
 cattle were thus depreciated in value, to the value of many thou- 
 sands per annum. But it was all of no use the bill was 
 rejected. 
 
 One objection urged against the bill and it had some reason in 
 it was, that a railway going westward to stop at Reading was a very 
 poor and incomplete affair. The directors profited by the objection, 
 and reintroduced the measure extending the line to Bath and 
 Bristol. The objectors, who had objected that they had not .pro- 
 posed so distant termini at first, now alleged, that, " though the 
 Great Western may reach as far as Bath from Bristol, after having, 
 like a mole, explored its way through tunnels long and deep, yet 
 those who travel by it will be so heartily sick, what with foul air, 
 smoke, and sulphur, that the very mention of a railway will be 
 worse then ipecacuanha." However, on this occasion, in 1835, the 
 bill was passed. The capital was 2, 500, 000?., and powers to borrow 
 833,333?. were granted. The usual enormous donations had to be 
 given to opponents, ere success was achieved. Supplementary 
 bills, in years immediately following, increased the capital by one- 
 half, and the borrowing power in the same proportion. 
 
 1 have already, in a preceding page, in that part of my narrative 
 which briefly describes the history of the mechanical contrivances 
 of the railroad, briefly noted the difference between the broad 
 and narrow gauges. It was in the interval between the first and 
 second parliamentary struggle for the Great Western, that Mr. 
 Brunei, the engineer of the company, conceived the idea of en- 
 larging the width of the rail, on scientific grounds, specified in an 
 earlier page. He was a man capable of the propagandised of honest 
 opinion, as well as of great practical ability, and he persuaded the 
 directors to fall in with these views. Now these, in fairness to the 
 memory of Mr. Brunei, must be tested by the light, not of this, but 
 of that day. He fancied that certain great Hues should rule over 
 certain definite and mutually distant districts, and that there would 
 be little or no necessity for intercommunication between these dis- 
 tricts ; and his conclusion was, that each company might choose 
 its own gauge as it liked. The proposal was a magnificent one to 
 the imagination. The whole plan, with its concomitants, assumed 
 grand and colossal proportions ; and Mr. Brunei being, as we have 
 said, a man of fine sympathies himself, and with fine powers 
 of awaking the sympathies of others, enlisted a great deal of 
 enthusiasm on his side. A supplementary Act, authorizing the 
 
357 
 
 necessary alteration of the plans, was passed, and the pro- 
 gramme had to be further modified in this particular. Originally 
 the arrangement had been that the Great Western should join the 
 London and North Western at the outskirts of the town, and 
 use in common with it its Euston-square terminus. The alterations 
 of the gauge rendered this impossible. And not only was the 
 company thus obliged to build its costly station at Paddington, 
 but to its permanent loss, was obliged to content itself with an 
 inconvenient and remote corner of the metropolis. 
 
 Independent of the real issue involved, and its actual merits, 
 I do not think there is any finer specimen of perseverance under 
 difficulties, and a high, hopeful, and persevering courage, altogether 
 unaffected by circumstances, than the position taken by Mr. Brunei 
 throughout this extraordinary controversy. The whole railway 
 world was against him ; only one engineer of any standing was on 
 his side. And this, unfortunately, was his own second in command, 
 and was maliciously pooh-poohed as Sancho to Don Quixote. The 
 press, generally ignorant of the scientific question, cried him down, 
 or at least endeavoured to do so, and the general masses, although it 
 could not affect them in any way, whether successful or not, grew 
 absolutely afraid of it. The carriages could not run round the 
 curves, the axles would be broken, and, horror of horrors ! the share- 
 holders would be ruined. 
 
 The event was, that the last-mentioned prediction seemed but too 
 likely of fulfilment. As the scheme was new and untried, Brunei 
 had to begin experimentally, and unfortunately for him, just in the 
 midst of the storm, his first experiment signally failed. The 
 whole timbers of the rail would not answer, and had to be relaid ; 
 and a bridge expressly built over the Thames at Maidenhead to 
 show how the river might be curved by two arches instead of six, 
 as hitherto, actually fell down twice. Amid all this outcry and 
 calamity Brunei maintained his ground unruffled, and, by the very 
 force of his indomitable courage, and, we may add, equally indomit- 
 able good temper, eventually gained his point. 
 
 In 1832, the London and Southampton line was first presented 
 to the notice of the public. It was received with a general feeling 
 of surprise. A railway between great commercial centres like Man- 
 chester and Liverpool, or Birmingham and London, it was said, could 
 be understood ; but what possible traffic, it was asked, could reim- 
 burse the outlay of a railway to a small and obscure port, as South- 
 ampton was then ? A few, however, there were far-seeing enough to 
 descry the position which Southampton would attain as the great 
 
358 
 
 mail-packet emporium ; and Sir John Easthope, the leading pro- 
 moter of the line, received valuable support, first from Scotland, 
 and, to a still greater extent, from Lancashire ; the Stock 
 Exchange followed suit, and the capital was obtained. The fur- 
 ther difficulties with which the company had to contend were of 
 its own making, as its Act, or rather Acts, were procured with 
 comparative ease. Unfortunately, however, the construction of 
 the line was entrusted to a number of small contractors, unpro- 
 vided with capital, and whose efforts were paralyzed by the 
 slightest engineering difficulty. Matters accordingly got into a 
 complete state of confusion, and the shares fell to a great 
 discount. The Lancashire shareholders sent up a deputation to 
 learn what the matter was, soon discovered the source of the 
 evil, found money to complete the undertaking, appointed Mr. 
 Locke engineer in place of the gentleman under whom affairs 
 had gone wrong, and thus brought the project to a satisfactory 
 issue. One great means of the extension of the London and 
 Southampton (or as we know it better now by its title of South 
 Western) from its difficulties was the adhesion of Mr. Chaplin, the 
 head of the great carrying firm of Chaplin and Home. Knowing 
 the South Western would get a large portion of his business, 
 he saw it to be the part of wisdom to make common cause with his 
 destroyer, and, it is believed, in the end reaped a benefit to which 
 his wise liberality of view eminently entitled him. The line was 
 opened throughout in May, 1840, and its success was soon 
 established. A newspaper writer, of five years' later date, 
 thus expresses himself: "This is one of the early lines, and 
 furnishes a good example of the difficulties, discouragements, and 
 disasters encountered by the enterprising men who at that date 
 undertook the arduous duty of constructing, from private capital, 
 these great public works, unaided, even discountenanced, by the 
 Legislature and the Government; regarded with hostility, and 
 even with hatred, by the owners of the land they were destined so 
 materially to benefit ; and considered, even by juries of their 
 countrymen, in these days, as proper objects of unlimited and 
 legitimate plunder." 
 
 Much of the success of this line is to be attributed to Joseph 
 Locke, who, with the exception of Robert Stephenson, was the 
 favourite and most distinguished pupil of the elder Stephenson. 
 Among his many achievements, the following are some of the chief. 
 He largely helped at Chat Moss, and still more largely in the Liver- 
 pool tunnel. He was the engineer of the Grand Junction, and the 
 
359 
 
 great tunnel on the Manchester and Sheffield is his. He was the first 
 to introduce passenger traffic into Spain, and the chief portions of the 
 lines that connect Paris with the Provinces are his. Perhaps the most 
 meritorious fact that can be stated about the engineering career of 
 Mr. Locke is, that he always kept his works within the estimates. 
 
 The construction of the following lines followed quickly upon the 
 successful triumph of the South Western over so great and appa- 
 rently insurmountable difficulties : the London and Brighton, 
 London and Greenwich, South-Eastern, London and Croydon, 
 London and Blackwall, London and Essex, or, as it was afterwards 
 called, the Eastern Counties, and now, as the result of amalgama- 
 tion with smaller companies owning lines in the same district, the 
 Great Eastern. It will be impossible, within my limits, to make 
 any but a passing illusion to the origin and early fortunes of these 
 lines. 
 
 Among the numerous instances of reckless Parliamentary ex- 
 penditure which the history of the English railway records, the 
 history of the London and Brighton takes high rank. No less than 
 five contending schemes for communication between London and 
 Thackeray's London-super-Mare, were brought forward ; and their 
 projectors fought for each of the five valiantly. The mere 
 preliminary expenses of Rennie's line cost 72,0002., Stephenson's 
 54,0002., Cundy's 16,0002., Gibbs's 26,0002., and that of the 
 South-Eastern, 25,0002. Ultimately, the most direct, but the most 
 difficult way was selected. Earthworks, bridges, viaducts and 
 tunnels were all characterized by an unusual scale of expensive- 
 ness. It is not accordingly to be wondered at that, although the 
 directors only estimated the cost of construction at 23,0002. per 
 mile, the estimate was exceeded by more than 14,0002. a mile. 
 
 The short line between London and Greenwich inspired its pro- 
 prietors with the highest hopes. It was to be a well-paying, as 
 well as a useful and practical, line. Its dividend was to be secured 
 by the profits of the trips which the curiosity of the three millions 
 of annual visitors to London would induce them to make, the pro- 
 moters forgetting that just as the railway system became developed 
 throughout the land, the curiosity would abate in proportion to the 
 diminution of the novelty. It was certainly preposterous to expect 
 that any curiosity would induce a visitor to London to make experi- 
 ment on an extremely reduced scale of a mode of conveyance which 
 had already carried him to London from his distant provincial home. 
 It is true that the London and Woolwich was one of the first pro- 
 jected railways, and, indeed, was the first completed line which had 
 
3GO 
 
 its commencement in the metropolis, and persons old enough to 
 recollect the occurrence, talk to this day of the extraordinary crush, 
 curiosity and excitement of the opening day. Not only did the 
 London and Woolwich depend upon this necessarily temporary 
 and evanescent department of traffic, but they dwelt with great 
 satisfaction upon the prospect of tolls from pedestrians, and on 
 letting out at large rentals its scores of large arches as ware- 
 houses. These latter anticipations proved equally fallacious, the 
 ardent hopes of the proprietors were disappointed, and it was not 
 very long ere at once their importance and their identity were swal- 
 lowed up by amalgamation with the South Eastern. 
 
 The South Eastern was first projected in 1833, and proposed to 
 connect London with Dover. It had a very hard struggle with the 
 rival plans of the Mid-Kent and Central Kent, but at last procured 
 its Act in June, 1836. Sundry supplemental Acts empowered devia- 
 tions and addenda, and much money was expended, with ultimate 
 but deferred success, in the endeavour to procure the right of 
 extension to Brighton. 
 
 For some time previous to the stage at which I have now arrived 
 much public scandal had been created by reiterated allegations that 
 the promoters of rival schemes personally canvassed members of 
 both Houses of Parliament with shameful pertinacity, and, what 
 was worse, were wont to enforce their importunities by promises of 
 direct pecuniary advantages in the form of preferential and other 
 shares. So much was said of this, and the honour of the House of 
 Commons was becoming so decidedly compromised, that its members 
 were compelled to take formal notice of the report. It was in 1836, 
 and in connection with the South Eastern, that the alleged conduct 
 of a member of the House, whose name it would serve no good 
 purpose now to exhume, was brought before the Commons. The 
 said member admitted that he had greatly exerted himself in his 
 legislatorial capacity in favour of the line ; further, that he had done 
 so, not so much on public grounds, as at the solicitation of one of the 
 directors, for that " he owed him a debt of gratitude." He further 
 admitted that the director had, out of reciprocal regard for the 
 member's services, conducted a negotiation in his (the member's) 
 name and for his behoof in the sale of shares of the company, by 
 which he benefited to the extent of three hundred pounds. But the 
 member decidedly denied that any condition had been offered or 
 exacted, previously to the rendering of his parliamentary services, 
 by which any pecuniary recompense was stipulated. The committee 
 of the House, which had been appointed to inquire into the trans- 
 
361 
 
 action, felt bound to report that they accepted the truthfulness of 
 the member's representation; but, though they did not suggest that 
 any censure should be expressed, they felt " obliged to direct the 
 attention of the House to this circumstance." 
 
 " The London and Essex Bailroad" was first projected in 1831. 
 The career of this line has probably been the most chequered and 
 unfortunate of any in the three kingdoms. Few, if any, lines were 
 ever projected with greater hopes of success, and certainly none, 
 during one period of its career, has had to suffer so much public con- 
 demnation, or such a succession of the most unfortunate accidents. 
 The leading expectation of personal profit and public advantage which 
 the promoters of the London and Essex entertained was in con- 
 nection with the supply of the London food market. The following 
 is from the first prospectus : " By the proposed railroad, places 
 thirty or forty miles distant from London will be brought within a 
 two hours' journey. The whole country will become contributory 
 to the London market ; the first necessaries of life will be supplied 
 in greater abundance ; competition increased, and a reduction in 
 prices the necessary consequence. All descriptions of persons will 
 be enabled to participate in many articles, the produce of the soil, 
 from which the poor, and even the middling classes in a degree, are 
 now precluded, from high prices, occasioned by expensive cultivation 
 in the immediate vicinity of the town." In such articles as fish 
 and coal the public was especially expected to benefit. " Every 
 shareholder," it was stated, " would in a few years save the cost of 
 his share in fuel." Further elements in the hope-suffused picture 
 were the following : The London markets of all kinds would be no 
 longer dependent on westerly winds and adverse tides : Holland 
 and Hamburg would be brought next door to us ; the nature of the 
 country would require neither viaducts, tunnelling, nor much em- 
 bankment. The picture was summed up in the concise promise of 
 "large dividends and gradual return of the capital." 
 
 Spite of this seductive appeal, the matter remained in abeyance 
 for three years. Unfortunately the picture had appeared without 
 the credentials of its limners, and in the absence of the guarantees 
 of respectable or, indeed, any names, the public did not extend 
 their support. In 1834, the Eastern Counties Railway Company, 
 with a repetition of the same proposal, came before the public, 
 and came before it in a possibly more prosaic but much more 
 business-like attitude. The estimates contained the following as 
 their chief calculations : Cost of the line, 1,500,000. ; annual 
 expense of working, 150,000/. ; gross returns over 400, OOO/., leaving 
 
 B B 
 
362 
 
 a nett profit of 267, QUO/., or fifteen per cent. These estimates 
 were faulty, both on debit and credit side. The estimate of revenue 
 made no allowance for computed increase of traffic between London 
 and the Eastern Counties and their ports ; taking as data only 
 their then existing trade line, and then calculating how much of it the 
 railway was likely to appropriate. And this, although it was even 
 then known that the traffic between Liverpool and Manchester had 
 increased six-fold, and that between Stockton and Darlington in the 
 marvellous and almost incredible ratio of twenty-fold ! On the 
 other hand, no allowance was made for compensation to landowners, 
 an error which the company had bitter reason to remember, and on 
 which I have already remarked in a former page. The line was 
 violently opposed. The solicitors were met by the taunt that "by 
 their own superior intelligence they had ascertained that the 
 landed and commercial interests of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex 
 were quite ignorant of their own concerns." " The nursery of 
 our best sailors, it was asserted, would be destroyed by the 
 railway, our maritime glory would decay, and England's sun 
 would set for ever." One advantage this company had there 
 was neither canal nor rival railway scheme to oppose it. Never- 
 theless, the mere local, landed, and maritime opposition proved so 
 formidable that the promoters rested on their oars, and withdrew 
 their scheme for a while ; in the meantime maturing a new cam- 
 paign, searching for new and influential support, buying off inter- 
 ested opposition, and the like. A new and much more weighty 
 direction, embracing the authoritative names of Thomas Gibbes, 
 Sir Thomas Harvey, Desanges, Wood, Butler, &c., was formed. The 
 ranks of the assailants had been well fortified in the interim. The 
 promoters endeavoured, with equal legitimacy and tact, to enlist 
 the support of the rural population to the scheme, on the ground of 
 the notorious diminution of poor rates which had been effected in 
 every English district to which railways had penetrated. " Wher- 
 ever railways abound most," said the second prospectus, " there the 
 greatest rise in the value of land has been observed, and the most 
 rapid strides have been made in agricultural, manufacturing and 
 commercial prosperity. They have not only materially reduced 
 the poor rates of every district they intersect, by furnishing 
 profitable occupation to large numbers of the unemployed poor, but 
 have still further relieved the old ratepayers by contributing 
 largely towards the reduced rates ; and, while thus conferring incal- 
 culable benefits on the community at large, they have yielded to 
 their proprietors a quicker return in the capital invested than 
 
803 
 
 was ever obtained from any other description of public under- 
 taking." 
 
 Unexpectedly, the Eastern Counties now experienced opposition 
 from rival companies ; but as these all proposed going northwards, 
 in the direction of Scotland, and they therefore had no fair ground 
 of antagonism, their opposition was not formidable. I have already 
 recounted how, in the two cases of opposition, of which so much 
 has been heard, the bill was opposed, and at how great a cost it was 
 bought off. 
 
 The 120,OOOZ. paid to the Essex peer almost wrecked the bill, for 
 it so excited the hopes of others in a position to oppose it, that there 
 was some appearance of its being thrown out in the Upper House 
 after it had passed the Commons. " But," says the directors' report, 
 " the directors, by meeting the parties with the same promptness 
 and in the same fair spirit which had carried them successfully 
 through their previous negotiations, effected amicable arrangements 
 with them. " What the nature of the transactions euphemistically 
 denominated " amicable arrangements " was, it is hardly necessary 
 to discuss. 
 
 The bill was passed. The hopes of the company may be inferred 
 from these clauses extracted from a long and cumbrous sentence of 
 self-congratulation, uttered at the first meeting of shareholders : 
 " From the Continent will flow in return to the eastern counties 
 ample supplies of every commodity, foreign or domestic, of which it is 
 the great storehouse ; because the fisheries of our eastern shore 
 freed from every restraint on their abundance, will become ten times 
 more productive than ever; because the ports of the eastern 
 counties will once more be rendered the favourite points of ingress ; 
 because this railway must bring with it whatever can give vigour to 
 industry, make commerce active, or render a people happy." 
 
 Notwithstanding the confidence with which the directors looked 
 forward to the future success of this undertaking, it proved even- 
 tually one of the most unremunerative of our great lines. When at 
 its lowest ebb, Mr. Hudson, then at the zenith of his power and 
 fame, undertook, unfortunately for himself, to raise its fallen for- 
 tunes, and in giving certain instructions to the secretary in reference 
 to the accounts, said he " wished to make things pleasant," a phrase 
 now classed among our household words. 
 
 B B ^ 
 
364 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Railway Legislation Mr. Morrison's Motion The Session of 1836 The first of 
 the two Railway Manias The Edinburgh Review How Schemes were got 
 up The Reaction Committee of the House of Commons, in 1837 Lord 
 Seymour's Act Mr. Gladstone's Act of 1842 The Clearing House Railway 
 Department of the Board of Trade Accidents The Act of 1844 The 
 Mania of 1845 and its Results. 
 
 THE first attempt at legislation for the railways on a general scale 
 was made by Mr, Morrison in 1836. He moved, " That in all rail- 
 way bills it be made a condition that the dividends be limited to a 
 certain rate, and that Parliament reserve to itself the power of fixing 
 periodically the tolls on passengers and goods. " He obtained leave 
 to bring in a bill, but the ministry did not support it, and Sir 
 Eobert Peel added the great weight of his name to the strong 
 opposition of the railway interest. Mr. Morrison was obliged to 
 withdraw his proposal after the first reading of the bill. 
 
 In the session of 1836, no fewer than twenty-nine new lines re- 
 ceived the sanction of Parliament. The total length of these lines 
 was nine hundred and ninety-four miles ; in the following year, 
 Government introduced what was considered by the railway interest 
 a most arbitrary and dictatorial measure, compelling the railways to 
 perform all services required of them by the Postmaster General. 
 The whole railway interest was up in arms. The bill was not 
 rejected, but many of its provisions were considerably modified. As 
 amended, it enacted that the companies should carry the mails at 
 such hours as the Post Office should direct, that remuneration was 
 to be according to agreement, and that any difference that might 
 arise was to be settled by arbitration. 
 
 All the while, new companies were being projected with the most 
 amazing and dangerous celerity. The country had arrived at the 
 portals of the first " railway mania. " Money was plentiful, in- 
 terest low, and there were few legitimate channels of investment. 
 It was in the latter part of 1836 that the rush into railway 
 schemes, possible and impossible, fairly commenced. " There is 
 scarcely, in fact," said the Edinburgh Review, " a practicable line 
 
365 
 
 between two considerable places, however remote, that has not been 
 occupied by a company ; frequently two, three, or four rival lines 
 have started simultaneously." It is impossible for me to dwell in 
 detail upon the successive incidents of the increase of the mania 
 and its subsequent collapse ; nor is it necessary, for the history of 
 all such manias is almost identical, the difference being only that it 
 is now shares in one commodity or enterprise, and at another time 
 shares in some other, that constitute the adored El Dorado of the 
 hour, and lure their victims on to their inevitable fate. The whole 
 public attention was engrossed with the subject of railways ; this 
 may be observed from the circumstance, that it was at this stage of 
 English history that the English language received certain adjuncts 
 from the railway system. Now it was for the first time that men 
 began to talk, when they wished to indicate preparations for an 
 enterprise, of " getting up the steam, " or if they wished to indicate 
 a belief that any person or project was advancing too rapidly, they 
 spoke of him or it as " going at railway speed. " The shares of 
 all the five opposition lines to Brighton were at a premium. \ In a 
 single London parish no fewer than sixteen schemes were afloat. 
 Lord Londonderry said, that in his country there were three 
 schemes suggested, all running in parallel lines ; of the three, he 
 said, only one was at par, the second bankrupt, the third could never 
 pay. One man proposed to propel his engine by sails, and started 
 a company to carry out the plan ; another proposed to drag forward 
 his trains by firing off a succession of rockets, and believed, or pro- 
 fessed to believe, that he would thus attain a speed of a hundred 
 miles an hour. 
 
 Still the mania was not altogether without check, opposition, or 
 warning. The highest terms were, as usual, exacted for land. 
 Although the great majority of the newspapers were infected by the 
 prevailing fever and to them, at least, it brought great profit 
 there were certain worthy exceptions ; and the reviewers and pam- 
 phleteers of the so-called economic school frequently sounded the 
 note of alarm. The latter endeavoured to establish the doctrine, 
 that too great and sudden an embarkation of the surplus national 
 capital in the railways would divert it from other legitimate chan- 
 nels. The great demand for labour, it was urged, would unduly 
 increase wages and prices. Turnpike landholders and coach pro- 
 prietors piteously petitioned against the newly projected lines. 
 
 Nevertheless the fever continued to rage. The grossest dis- 
 honesty, it afterwards appeared, when the poor dupes made 
 enraged but tardy inquiry, was mixed up with many of the 
 
300 
 
 schemes. When a subscription became necessary, men of straw 
 filled in their names for enormous amounts. In one company a 
 man, receiving a salary of 60Z. a year, signed for 35,OOOZ. One 
 railway purchased signatures for ten shillings a head. In another, 
 which had obtained its Act, only 235Z. had been actually sub- 
 scribed, and not one penny of this sum had been paid by any 
 one of the directors. 
 
 At last the reaction came. The Bank, as usual, gave the coup 
 de grace. It raised the price of discount to five, and the bubble at 
 once burst. Consols fell 4 per cent., and articles of trade 40. The 
 customs receipts sank nearly a million in one quarter. All this 
 meant ruin to thousands of those who had believed themselves 
 to be rich, and absolute destitution to those who had already been 
 poor. Nearly half the mills of Lancashire were shut up, and in 
 Manchester and its immediate neighbourhood 50,000 hands were 
 unemployed. Numbers of the working people of Glasgow and 
 Paisley must have died but for the compassion of the benevolent. 
 
 Even on those railways of a legitimate and sound character, 
 the effect was more than proportionate. It became necessary to 
 make large demands upon shareholders who with the greatest diffi- 
 culty could procure money for their current and necessary busi- 
 ness expenses, and to contract loans at a time when lenders were 
 peculiarly anxious to hold secure what they had. The London 
 and South-Western shares, with 40L paid up, were unsaleable 
 at 13Z. The cheques of the Great Western were refused, and shares 
 with considerable sums paid upon them were given away, with a 
 premium in cash to boot. 
 
 A committee of the House of Commons was appointed in 1837 
 to inquire into the mania and its worst aspects. One result of 
 its deliberations was the discovery of the sham character of many of 
 the companies. To prevent similar impositions on the public for 
 the future at least to the same extent it was ordained that no 
 railway bill should be introduced unless a tenth part of the proposed 
 capital were paid into the hands of Government. This expedient 
 acted well at first. It was so far successful in stopping measures, 
 that not a single railway bill was introduced in the following 
 year, but in a subsequent session the required deposit was reduced 
 to five per cent. 
 
 About this time a strong feeling of dissatisfaction with the tax on 
 travelling began to prevail very widely. Especially the nature of 
 its incidence was objected to. It pressed with peculiar heaviness 
 upon the poor traveller ; for the proportion of the tax levied from 
 
307 
 
 the first-class passenger's fare was only three and a half, while from 
 the third-class passenger's it was twelve and a half per cent. This 
 tax in the year 1835 amounted to 39,570/., and in ]840 it had 
 risen to 72,176. In this year another railway bill, familiar to 
 railway shareholders and the public as " Lord Seymour's Act," 
 was passed. It was the first of a number of successive mea- 
 sures to confer upon the Board of Trade those controlling and 
 regulating powers which now belong to that committee of the 
 Privy Council. The bill gave to the Board of Trade the right of 
 inspection of all lines, and a power of veto in all bylaws of the 
 companies. As has just been shown by the enormous increase in 
 the amount of the railway tax from 1835 to 1840, a very large num- 
 ber of railways were completed and opened in the latter year. In 
 that year, it was said, " every important district might be reached 
 by the new mode of travel." From 1826 until 1839, a hundred 
 and three railway Acts had been passed by Parliament. 
 
 A bill supplementary to Lord Seymour's Act was introduced in 
 1842 by Mr. Gladstone, then Vice - President of the Board of 
 Trade. It did not introduce any very important change. He 
 declined to license engine drivers, as had been suggested, think- 
 ing it much better to leave the general responsibility of securing 
 proper servants with the railway directors. The bill provided 
 for more efficient inspection of lines before they were opened. 
 Punishments for misconduct on railways were enacted, and 
 greater authority in case of accidents was given to the board. 
 This bill occasioned great discussion. The companies opposed 
 it with all their weight, suggesting compromise or modification at 
 least ; but the Government would not flinch from any clause which 
 had regard to the safety of the public. Mr. Plumptre opposed 
 the bill on another ground, introducing an amendment, that the 
 clause should be added " That no railway should be used on any 
 part of the Lord's day." This was rejected, and the Government 
 bill carried intact. 
 
 In 1842 was founded the railway clearing-house, established on 
 the model of the clearing-house of the London bankers. Although 
 the amount of work effected by this most ingenious instance of what 
 may be called composite account-keeping was not one-third as great 
 when Sir Francis Head published his " Stokers and Pokers " as it 
 is now, yet the plan then adopted is still in use, and the intricacies 
 to be overcome then were of the same character, though not of the 
 same amount, as now. I therefore make no apology for extracting 
 a few detached sentences from Sir Francis' description of the 
 clearing-house and transferring them to my pages. 
 
368 
 
 " The next operation," says Sir Francis, "is, by a consideration 
 of all these balances, to determine what the clearing-house, as the 
 the creditor-companies, is entitled to receive representative of all 
 from the debtor-companies. The final result of all these operations 
 is exemplified by a monthly return forwarded by the office to each 
 of the forty-seven companies, showing separately to each, for each 
 of its stations, the weights, the mileage proportions, the terminal 
 expenses, and, lastly, the balances, whether due to it or by it, on the 
 traffic from each of its stations to all other clearing-house stations 
 to which goods had been sent, or from which received. . . . All 
 tickets collected at all the clearing-house stations from through 
 passengers are transmitted daily to the London clearing-house, 
 from whence, after being examined and compared with the returns 
 of the tickets issued, they are sent back to the respective com- 
 panies. . . . Returns are also sent daily from all the clearing- 
 house stations on all the lines of railway, by the servants of the 
 respective companies, of all foreign carriages arriving and departing 
 from each of the said stations. From these returns the London 
 clearing-house is enabled to trace the course of all waggons and 
 passfinger carriages travelling on what are termed " foreign " lines, 
 and to debit and credit every company with the sums it has 
 respectively incurred for mileage, as also what is due from 
 and to the respective companies for demurrage per day of waggons 
 or of passenger carriages. Sheets covering waggons are in like 
 manner all checked at the junctions by the men placed there by 
 the London clearing-house, as also by returns forwarded to the 
 office from the various stations at which the waggons stop 
 to be loaded or unloaded ; and thus the charge of one-tenth of a 
 penny per mile for the use of these tarred coverings is divided 
 according to its proper proportion among the respective companies 
 over whose lines they have travelled. 
 
 The first report of the railway department of the Board of 
 Trade was very satisfactory. It especially dissipated the vulgar 
 delusion that railways were more dangerous than stage coaches. 
 Mr. Laing, who drew up the report, said " If, then, stage coaches 
 were attended with as little personal injury to the public as rail- 
 ways, the following would be near the proportional number of 
 casualties : 
 
 Passengers killed from causes beyond 
 
 their own control 1 in 833 years. 
 
 Killed from their own folly, negligence, 
 
 or misconduct 1 1250 ,, 
 
 Persons run over in the road . . . 1 ,, 500 
 
 Coach servants . . . 1 ,, 125 ,, 
 
3G9 
 
 The year 1844 witnessed a still more important piece of legis- 
 lation at the instance of the Board of Trade than any which I have 
 in this Appendix hitherto chronicled. In May, Mr. Gladstone pro- 
 posed that the amount of deposit on projected railways should be 
 reduced from ten to five per cent. ; and in spite of the objection 
 of Mr. Hume, the proposal was carried. But this measure was of 
 very secondary importance to a bill introduced by ministers later 
 in the year to elucidate which this volume has been written ; a 
 cursory notice of it, however, is here necessary, a measure which 
 met with the most determined resistance, and which the Govern- 
 ment had in considerable degree to modify ere they could effect its 
 enactment. The most important provisions of the Act as it finally 
 stood were the following : 
 
 If after twenty-one years from the passing of any Act for a 
 railway, the profits should exceed ten per cent, per annum, the 
 scale of tolls should be revised, and a new one fixed, such revised 
 scale to continue for twenty-one years. 
 
 The Lords of the Treasury to have the right of purchasing any 
 future railway after the expiration of twenty-one years, upon payment 
 of a sum equal to twenty-five years' purchase of the divisible 
 profits, estimated on the average of the three preceding years ; but 
 should the proprietors think their prospects more favourable than 
 such average, the amount of purchase money to be decided by 
 arbitration. 
 
 Existing railways to be exempt from the Act, and branch lines 
 not longer than five miles not to be considered as new railways. 
 
 No purchase of a line to be made without an Act of Parliament, 
 and three months' notice to be given. 
 
 A " Parliamentary train" to run at least once every lawful day, 
 at a speed of not less than twelve miles an hour, including stoppages 
 
 to stop at every passenger station ; the carriages to be seated and 
 
 protected from the weather ; the fare not to exceed a penny a mile. 
 
 Parliamentary trains to be exempt from the passenger poll-tax. 
 
 The electric telegraph to be established on all lines of railway. 
 
 Such are the chief, but by no means the whole of the stipula- 
 tions of this most valuable Act. I doubt if it be not, next to Free 
 Trade, the greatest boon ever bestowed on this country. The two 
 names worthily associated with this measure are those of Peel and 
 Gladstone, who, when it passed, were respectively Premier and 
 President of the Board of Trade. Not the least debt of gratitude 
 owing by the working classes of England to Mr. Gladstone is that 
 combined comfort and cheapness of travelling which the companies 
 
370 
 
 twenty years ago made no attempt to confer, and which accordingly 
 legitimately demanded the salutary interference of the Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 I have already remarked, in my short summary of the leading 
 features of the first railway mania in this country,*that every com- 
 mercial mania or fever of speculation is so much akin to every other as 
 to present an almost absolute identity of aspect. It will not, there- 
 fore, be necessary to do more here than allude to the mania of 
 1845, which I have noticed at some length in the body of this work ; 
 it had filled the minds of the many nine years before, and a 
 precisely similar catastrophe descended in 1846 as had done in 1837. 
 It was in the three summer months of 1845 that the mania was at 
 its height. A novelist has described with no more than fair artistic 
 exaggeration the then condition of men's minds. " The whole 
 country from coast to coast was to be traversed and dissected by 
 iron roads. Wherever there was a hamlet or a cattle track, a 
 market or a manufactory, there was to be a railroad ; physical 
 objects and private rights were straws under the chariot wheels of 
 the Fire King. Mountains were to be cut through ; valleys were 
 to be lifted ; the skies were to be scaled ; the earth was to be tun- 
 nelled ; parks, gardens, and ornamental grounds were to be broken 
 into; the shrieking engine was to carry the riot of the town into 
 the sylvan retreats of pastoral life ; sweltering trains were to 
 penetrate solitudes hitherto sacred to the ruins of antiquity ; 
 hissing locomotives were to rush over the tops of houses." 
 
 One distinguishing feature of this second railway mania was the 
 enormous increase of the railway press. An entirely new or, 
 at least, a greatly augmented department of journalism started 
 into existence. Most of the publications had a short life, but it was 
 a merry one. The ordinary daily papers frequently came out with 
 entire double supplements crammed with advertisements of railways 
 alone. Some of the exclusively railway papers netted 700Z. or 8001. 
 each publication, and two daily papers were started dedicated to the 
 railway interest alone. 
 
 The crash came in the usual way. Discount was raised, the 
 rein tightened, and the catastrophe came which many of the 
 readers of these words remember ; and of those who are too young 
 to do so many will suffer the results of it during the course of 
 their lives. 
 
371 
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 STATISTICAL AND FINANCIAL SKETCH OF 
 OUB BAILWATS. 
 
 I HAVE already carried the strictly chronological plan of sketching 
 the establishment of the institution of the English railway as far 
 as seems to me necessary. This method of treating the subject 
 may have sufficient interest to engage a reader so long as he is 
 tracing the faint beginnings and early romantic difficulties of a new 
 undertaking ; but we have now arrived at a stage of the narrative 
 when it must be considered that railways have attained their 
 maturity, and when it would be no longer possible to associate any 
 trait of heroism or romance with the story of their further 
 development. I propose, therefore, to dedicate my concluding 
 pages to the presentation of a brief general view of the existing 
 condition and development of the principal railways of the United 
 Kingdom, in alphabetical order, taking them as typical and repre- 
 sentative of the inferior lines, whether these be auxiliary to, or 
 isolated from, the great trunks. 
 
 Referring to the last published authoritative reports at the time 
 these words are written, we find that there are now five hundred 
 and thirty-two separate railway establishments on the earth's 
 surface, of which no fewer than three hundred and seventy-five 
 exist in the United Kingdom. This fact is, perhaps, the most 
 splendid and triumphant proof of the superiority of our civili- 
 zation. But we must not here, nor in any similar cases, be misled 
 by a mere general description. There is a peculiar and delusive 
 vagueness in the term " railway establishment," which simply 
 means, separate company, or proprietary body. Some of our 
 "railway establishments" represent merely a colliery line of some 
 two or three miles. The very first company mentioned, for ex- 
 ample, in the alphabetical list of English railways, the Aber- 
 dare Valley line, has but the modest capital of 12, 0001., and its 
 
372 
 
 length is but a mile and a half. Whereas, on the centralizing 
 Continent, where the Governments possess and regulate, more 
 or less, the railways, or in the wide stretches of India or the 
 United States, such modest and miniature establishments do not 
 exist. But, after all, if the standard of mileage, which is the only 
 fair and decisive one, be taken, we shall be found, as might be 
 expected, far in advance of any other nation. 
 
 Out of the five hundred and thirty-two " railway establishments " 
 in t"he world, three hundred and seventy-five, as already noticed, are 
 British and Irish, one hundred and ten are Continental, five are on 
 the continent of Africa, of which three are in our Southern Colonies, 
 one in Egypt, and one in Algeria; three are in Australia, nine 
 in British North America, thirteen m India, exactly the same 
 number in South America, fifty-seven in the United States, and 
 seven in the West Indies, of which three are in our possession, and 
 no less than four in the single island of Cuba. 
 
 Beside the English railway companies, railway shareholders very 
 fairly rank a certain number of other companies, numbering in all 
 twenty-two, as " auxiliary associations." Of these, the chief are the 
 various Telegraph Companies, the British and Foreign Railway 
 Plant, the General Rolling Stock and the Lancaster Waggon 
 Companies, &c. &c. 
 
 We shall now notice briefly, in alphabetical order, the names of 
 our principal railways, and a few particulars of general interest in 
 reference to each. 
 
 The returns given as " capital expended " are from the last 
 report of the Board of Trade, and are made up to 3 1st Dec. 1863. 
 The receipts are for the year 1864. 
 
 The Belfast and Northern Counties line supplies railway accom- 
 modation from Belfast to Portrush, a seaport town in the extreme 
 north of Ireland ; there is^ also a branch to Cookstown : the length 
 of the line is one hundred and thirty-six miles. Capital expended, 
 7,011,8032. Receipts, 110,10U 
 
 The Blythe and Tyne Railway, incorporated in 1852. Length, 
 twenty miles from Blyth to Percy Main on the North Shields 
 line. The railway runs through a coal district. Capital, 484,3302. 
 Receipts, 98,1102. 
 
 The Bristol and Exeter Railway is one hundred and twenty-one 
 miles in length, Act obtained in 1836. This line is on the broad 
 gauge, and is a continuation of the Great Western. Capital 
 expended, 4,246,8392. Receipts, 351,6602. 
 
 The Caledonian is the largest and most important of the Scotch 
 
373 
 
 lines, and perhaps it is the most signal example of the vicissitudes 
 of fortune that the history of British railways records. At one 
 time persons (if of responsible position) were offered Caledonian 
 shares gratis, with a money payment of thirty shillings added to 
 tempt them. Now, the Caledonian shares are among the highest 
 in the market, at a premium of more than thirty per cent. 
 
 The Caledonian commands 230 miles of country, but much of 
 this territory it has gained by amalgamations and working arrange- 
 ments. After long and protracted litigation about the conflicting 
 interests involved in leases, preference shares, &c., an agreement 
 was finally arrived at and incorporated in an "Arrangement Act," 
 passed in 1851. Shortly after this the Caledonian, in her then 
 crippled state, made arrangements to receive the powerful assist- 
 ance of the London and North-Western ; and the result is what 
 I have recorded. The amount of capital expended 31st December, 
 1863, was 9,987,0842. Eeceipts, 920,5002. 
 
 The Charing Cross Railway Company was incorporated on the 
 8th of August, 1859, "for making and maintaining a line from the 
 South-Eastern at London Bridge to Charing Cross." Subsequent 
 powers were applied for, and granted, to effect communication by a 
 second bridge across the Thames with the City, at Cannon Street. 
 This is a thorough representative of what may be termed the costly 
 intramural metropolitan lines, costing over a million a mile, or a 
 larger sum than would be represented by paving the line with an 
 undisturbed succession of golden sovereigns. The bridge of this 
 company at Hungerford is declared, on the excellent authority of 
 Mr. Bridges Adams, -to be without exception the very strongest 
 railway bridge in the world. This company has been incorporated 
 with the South-Eastern Company. 
 
 The Cornwall line is sixty-five miles in length, and is a continua- 
 tion of the South Devon from Plymouth to Penzance and Falmouth, 
 and was incorporated in 1846. Capital, 1,648,5882. Receipts, 
 80,0872. 
 
 The Dublin and Belfast Junction is the second link in the chain 
 connecting the metropolis of Ireland with the capital of the north, 
 and is a continuation of the Dublin and Drogheda line. Length, 
 sixty-three miles. Capital, 1,011,5372. Receipts, 72,6022. 
 
 The Dublin and Drogheda Company was incorporated in ] 836, 
 and the length of the line is thirty-two miles. This line is cele- 
 brated for its viaduct over the Boyne at Drogheda. Capital paid 
 up, ], 168, 1122. Receipts, 90,7602. 
 
 The Dublin, Wicklow, and Wexford line is not yet completed, 
 
374 
 
 although its Act of incorporation was obtained in 1846; for some 
 time past, however, the works have been in active progress, and it 
 is expected will be completed in 1865. Capital, 1,300,6302. 
 Receipts, 142, 2132. 
 
 The Edinburgh and Glasgow was the first railway established 
 north of the Tweed. Its first capital was very humble, being only 
 900,0002. in shares, and 300.000Z. by loan. In 1848 it was 
 incorporated with the Union Canal, which connects the rivers 
 Forth and Clyde, with branches to Edinburgh and elsewhere. The 
 company was reincorporated and consolidated in 1852. It possesses 
 169 miles of productive mileage, including 32 of the Union Canal. 
 The receipts of this company are now included in the North 
 British. Capital expended, 5,550,0002. 
 
 Furness is f>0 miles in length, is used principally for the convey- 
 ance of minerals from Dalton and Kirley mines, commencing at Bar- 
 row, and forming a junction with the Whitehaven line at Foxfield. 
 Incorporated in 1844. Capital, 1,271,4532. Receipts, 162,3712. 
 
 Glasgow and South- Western is one hundred and ninety-eight 
 miles in length. The main line from Glasgow to Ayr was opened 
 in 1843. The remainder with completion of the Dumfries line 
 in 1850. Capital, 4,840,1142. Receipts, 455,9062. 
 
 The Great Eastern, in its final and present form, was incorporated 
 on the 7th of August, 1862. It comprises what were formerly 
 known as the Eastern Counties, Norfolk, Eastern Union, East 
 Anglian, East Suffolk lines, and various subsidiary undertakings. 
 The Eastern Counties, the predecessor if not the progenitor of all 
 the others, has two great arteries, one running to Colchester, the 
 other to Cambridge. By a recent Act this company is authorized 
 to run steamboats between Harwich and the north-western ports 
 of the Continent. The total mileage is 662f, besides 67| miles 
 " worked " by the company. The total capital, including nearly 
 five millions of mortgage debt, is 23,220,3082. Receipts, 1,591,1062. 
 
 The Great Northern, an amalgamation of the London and York 
 and Direct Northern, was first incorporated in 1846. Its total 
 parliamentary powers represent 335^ miles. The amalgamations, 
 powers of working, &c., of the Great Northern, are very numerous ; 
 affecting its relations with the Great Eastern on the one hand, and 
 extending as far as Cheshire on the other. Its relations with the 
 North London, the Edgware and Highgate, &c., secure its connection 
 with all parts of the metropolis. The total capital is 1 2, 689,4 16/. 
 Receipts, 1,627,242/. 
 
 Great Southern and Western (Inland) is now, with its various 
 
375 
 
 amalgamations and extensions, three hundred and eighty-seven 
 miles in length. The Act of incorporation was passed in 184-4 for 
 a line from Dublin to Cork, passing by or near Portarlington, 
 Tipperary, and other towns on the route. Capital paid up, 
 5,661,7932. Receipts, 429, 746/. 
 
 The Great Western was remodelled in 1863, by Acts authorizing 
 the amalgamation with it of the West Midland and South Wales. 
 The Great Western proper had previously amalgamated many 
 minor lines, such as the Berks and Hants, Cheltenham Union. 
 Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth, Birmingham and Oxford, &c. 
 Mutually beneficial arrangements have been entered into with the 
 South Devon, the Metropolitan, the London, Chatham and Dover, 
 &c. The mileage of the Great Western is 1225 miles, and its 
 capital 40,666,1 III. Estimated receipts, 3,285,0002. The year 
 was not completed till the 1st February, but the receipts may be 
 estimated at 3,410,0002. 
 
 Inverness and Perth Junction. Incorporated 1861. Length, 119 
 miles. Capital, 962,7672. This line has not been opened a year; 
 the receipts for the half-year ending 31st December are 55,144?. 
 
 The Irish North-Western (formerly Dundalk and Enniskillen). 
 Incorporated 1845. The length is one hundred and forty-five 
 miles. Capital paid up, 866,1 872.' Keceipts, 90,51 82. 
 
 The Lancashire and Yorkshire is an amalgamation of the Man- 
 chester and Leeds, Manchester, Bolton and Bury, Liverpool and 
 Bury, Huddersfield and Sheffield, Wakefield, Pontefract and Goole, 
 West Riding Union^and East Lancashire. The present title was 
 conferred by an Act passed in 1847. The productive mileage is 
 395 mileg. The Manchester and Leeds, the parent line, was 
 opened as far as Normanton on the 1st of October, 1844. Capital, 
 19,931, 57R Receipts, 1,890,186*. 
 
 The London and Blackwall Company obtained their Act in 1836. 
 Length, 5f miles. This line is one of the most expensively con- 
 structed in England, the line passing through a densely populated 
 district. Capital, 2,224,2552. Receipts, 112,0472. 
 
 The London and Brighton is an amalgamation of the Croydon 
 and Brighton, under an Act of 1846. Various subsequent Acts 
 have legalized a large number of branch lines. The Mid Sussex, 
 Lewes and Uckfield, East Grinstead, &c., have been incorporated. 
 Capital, 11,708,7932. Receipts, 1,024,0862. 
 
 The London, Chatham and Dover, was formerly called the East 
 Kent. On its main line there are 81 miles in operation, and 
 on its metropolitan extension seven miles. The Kent Coast line is 
 
376 
 
 leased to this company. Capital expended, 8,835, 0002. Eeceipts, 
 346,8472. This company have just completed their bridge over 
 the Thames at Blackfriars. 
 
 The London and North-Western is the greatest company 
 in the kingdom, and is an amalgamation of the Manchester and 
 Birmingham, Grand Junction, and London and Birmingham. The 
 Grand Junction itself had been an amalgamation of the Liverpool 
 and Manchester and four other lines. This company is further 
 interested, by subscription or lease, in several lines, such as the 
 Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Stour Valley, the Preston and 
 Wyre, Lancaster and Carlisle, &c. The total capital is 38,360,3642. 
 Receipts, 5,205,6192. The receipts of this company nearly equal 
 what were the receipts of all the companies in the kingdom twenty 
 years ago. 
 
 The London and South-Western was first known as the London 
 and Southampton. In an earlier page, I have described the first 
 difficulties of the undertaking. There are branches to Chertsey, 
 Guildford, Farnham, Richmond, Hampton Court, &c. Lines to 
 Portsmouth and elsewhere are leased. Capital, 13,201,4062. 
 Receipts, 1,289,4072. 
 
 London, Tilbury, and Southend. Incorporated in 1852. Length, 
 45 miles. Capital, 794,2442. Receipts, 73,9392. This line was 
 constructed by Messrs. Peto, Brassey, and Betts, and they 
 guarantee the shareholders 6 per cent, per annum on their capital 
 till 1876. 
 
 The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire is an amalgamation 
 of the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester, the Great 
 Grimsby and Sheffield Junction, the Sheffield and Lincoln- 
 shire, the Sheffield and Lincolnshire Extension, and the Great 
 Grimsby Dock Companies. The mileage in operation is 181 
 miles. A beneficial arrangement has been negotiated with the 
 Midland. This company is also interested in one way or other 
 in the Cheshire, Midland, Oldham, Ashton and Guide Bridge, 
 &c. The capital is 9,753,7682. Receipts, 806,1782. 
 
 The Metropolitan extends from Paddington to Farringdon Street, 
 with powers of further extension City-wards. It is associated on 
 friendly terms with the Great Western. Its works are not yet 
 completed, its capital account is not yet closed. Capital, 1,729,0002. 
 Receipts, 112,4232. 
 
 The Midland is one of the most prosperous railway properties in 
 the kingdom. It is an amalgamation of the North Midland, Midland 
 Counties, and Birmingham and Derby. The total amalgamated 
 
377 
 
 length is 641 miles. The following companies have been incorpo- 
 rated with the Midland since its first amalgamation : The Bristol and 
 Gloucester, and Birmingham and Gloucester (95^- miles), Sheffield 
 and Rotherham (9J), Leicester and Swannington (16), Leeds and 
 Bradford (43), and many others. The capital is 23,377,4472. 
 Receipts, 2,316,4252. 
 
 The (Irish) Midland Great Western connects Dublin with Galway, 
 Sligo, and Athlone. Its total length is 259 miles. The capital 
 is 3,418,9542. Receipts, 241,1442. 
 
 Monmouthshire. Incorporated 1845 for a line from Newport 
 to Pontypool. Length, 44 miles. Capital, 1,182,1612. Receipts, 
 131,9292. 
 
 The North British is an incorporation of the original North 
 British with; 4 the Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee, and Edinburgh 
 and Glasgow, along with their respective feeders. Its total mileage 
 is 615 miles, 8 of which 193J are single line. The main line is 
 from Berwick, by Edinburgh, to Perth, with very many branches 
 running ^inland. The North British line is also further inter- 
 ested, in one form or other, in the Carlisle and Silloth Bay, 
 Peebles, Selkirk and Galashiels, Border Union, Border Counties, 
 West of Fife, &c. The capital is 15,570,6782. Estimated receipts, 
 1,063,0002. 
 
 The North-Eastern comprises the York, Newcastle and Berwick, 
 Leeds Northern, and Malton and Driffield, which were amalgamated 
 in 1844. Since that date, sundry additional amalgamations have 
 taken place. The company now comprises the Hartlepool Dock 
 and Railway, the Dearness Valley, North Yorkshire and Cleveland, 
 Bedale and Leyburn, Hull and Holderness, Newcastle and Carlisle, 
 and Stockton and Darlington Railways. A very large number of 
 new 4 works, such as the Lanchester Valley, Market Weighton and 
 Beverley, &c., have, since the first amalgamation, been added. 
 1095 miles in length. The total capital is 30,017,8002. Receipts, 
 2,693,8962. 
 
 The North London Railway is one of the lines we have made 
 frequent reference to as being one of the cheapest carrying in 
 England, although one of the most expensive in construction. 
 It traverses the northern and eastern suburbs of London, and 
 by junctions with the Great Northern, Great Eastern, and the 
 Blackwall at Stepney 'passes into the heart of the City and the 
 Steam Packet Wharf at Blackwall. Capital, 2,125,0302. Receipts, 
 160,2882. 
 
 North Staffordshire obtained their Act of incorporation in 1846 ; 
 
 c c 
 
378 
 
 the length of miles open is 258, but that mileage includes a canal. 
 Capital, 5,656,8492. Receipts, 422,6732. 
 
 The Scottish Central obtained their Act in 1845 to construct a 
 line from Falkirk to Perth. Other works followed, and their 
 mileage at present is 113 miles. Capital, 2,813,2412. Estimated 
 receipts, 246,000/. 
 
 The Scottish North-Eastern is formed by the amalgamation of 
 several companies, viz. the Aberdeen, the Alrath, and Forfar, and 
 some other lines. The length is 138 miles. Capital, 3,214,2942. 
 Estimated receipts, 268,0002. 
 
 South Devon. Incorporated 1844 for a broad gauge line from 
 Exeter to Plymouth. Length, 75 miles. Capital, 2,764,3602. 
 Receipts, 196,447 
 
 The South-Eastern was first incorporated as the South-Eastern 
 and Dover. 306 miles are now completed. The original scheme 
 commenced at Reigate and terminated near Dover. Subsequently 
 extensions were legalized to Dover, Canterbury, Maidstone, Rams- 
 gate, Folkstone, &c. The company was also authorized to subscribe 
 300,0002. to the Charing Cross line. An amicable arrangement 
 has also been made with the London, Chatham, and Dover. The 
 capital is 13,846,7032. Estimated receipts, 1,202,0002. 
 
 Taff Vale. Incorporated in 1836 for a line commencing at 
 Merthyr Tydfil, in Glamorganshire, to the docks at Cardiff. Length, 
 57 miles. Capital, 1,534,1982. Receipts, 2SO,282/. 
 
 The railway receipts for 1864 fell very little short of THIRTY- 
 FOUR MILLIONS sterling. In the previous year they amounted to 
 31,156,397/., and the additional receipts as reported in the papers 
 amount to 2,683,830/., but in the returns by the Board of Trade 
 there are included some additional railways, so that the gross 
 amount will be found to be little short of the sum which I have 
 stated. 
 
 It will be seen from the foregoing summary, which is confined to 
 our principal railways, and is condensed from Bradshaw's Railway 
 Guide, the Board of Trade Returns, and the railway papers, that our 
 thirteen first-class companies, the returns from which we are accus- 
 tomed to see reported separately every week, have received, in round 
 numbers, no less than twenty-five millions sterling ; the twenty- 
 four second-class companies have received five millions ; and the 
 remaining four millions have been received by the shoal of small 
 companies. 
 
 In 1863 the percentage on the gross receipts for each class of 
 traffic was as follows : 
 
379 
 
 Per Cent 
 
 -t irst-class passengers 11 
 
 Second-class jg 
 
 Third-class passengers .... ] 6 
 
 Season and periodical ticket holders . . 1 
 Excess of luggage, parcels, carriages, horses, 
 
 and dogs ..... 4 
 
 Mails 2 
 
 By passenger trains . 47 
 
 Coal and other minerals ... 17 
 
 General merchandise 34 
 
 Live stock .... 2 
 
 Luggage trains . . 53 
 
 100 
 
 The proportion per cent, of receipts from the passenger traffic 
 and the goods traffic for the years 1861, 1862, and 1863 are 
 respectively as follow, viz. : 
 
 Passenger Traffic. Goods Traffic. 
 
 1861 ... 46-65 53-35 = 100 
 
 1862 ... 47-76 52-24 = 100 
 
 1863 ... 46-61 53-39 = 100 
 
 The returns for 1864 are not so complete as to enable us to 
 calculate exactly the proportionate receipts of the two kinds of 
 traffic, but there appears to be about the same ratio between goods 
 and passengers as in 1862. 
 
 It may be remarked that in the winter months the goods traffic 
 far exceeds the passenger traffic. We find, for instance, in the 
 returns for the week-days, 31st December, the percentage on goods 
 on the thirteen great railways exceeded that of passengers by ten 
 per cent., whilst in the summer months the passenger traffic 
 exceeds the goods traffic by seven per cent. 
 
 From a number of other miscellaneous statistics of the railways 
 of the United Kingdom I select the following. And first as to the 
 number of railway employes. But I may premise that the last 
 return made does not come down to a recent date, and that 
 therefore the railway employes of all classes must be by this time 
 very considerably augmented. 
 
 c c 2 
 
380 
 
 Secretaries or managers . . . . 221 
 
 Treasurers ...... 26 
 
 Superintendents ..... 398 
 
 Accountants or cashiers . . . . 201 
 
 Station masters 2,471 
 
 Ticket collectors 404 
 
 Guards or brakesmen . . . . 3,716 
 
 Switchmen 3,263 
 
 Engineers . . . . . . 150 
 
 Storekeepers 198 
 
 Draughtsmen . . . . . . 156 
 
 Foremen 1,335 
 
 Enginedrivers 3,563 
 
 Stokers 3,644 
 
 Artificers 21,337 
 
 Platelayers . . . . . . 8,260 
 
 Inspectors or timekeepers . . . 997 
 
 Clerks 8,712 
 
 Gatekeepers 1,998 
 
 Policemen or watchmen .... 2,349 
 
 Porters or messengers . . . . 17,091 
 
 Labourers 26,285 
 
 Miscellaneous ...... 2,885 
 
 Total 109,660 
 
 Being at the rate of 12-263 employes of all classes per mile on 
 the mileage of the railways of the United Kingdom. It is a year 
 since the date of these returns, and there has been a great increase 
 since. And it must also be recollected that under the head of 
 " artificers " is not included all the artisans of this country who 
 are engaged in the manufacture of railway stock and other railway 
 plant. A very large percentage of the rolling stock, and especially 
 of the trucks or waggons, is not the property of the railway com- 
 panies, but of various joint-stock bodies whose business it is to hire 
 out their waggons to the railway companies and the public. And 
 besides, thousands of coal and other trucks are the property of the 
 owners of collieries, mines, &c. Again, many of the canals are now the 
 property of railway companies. To the list of their employes must 
 therefore be added a considerable proportion of the various workers 
 concerned with our inland navigation ; and still further, even of 
 the rolling stock which is the property of the companies, it is only 
 
381 
 
 a part, and a small part, \vhich is manufactured by themselves. 
 If the great companies have their great factories and veritable 
 towns of industry at Crewe and Wolverton, there are also the 
 great private firms of the Stephensons, the Hawthornes, and 
 many others. I think the male adult inhabitants of the two 
 isles who derive directly their living from the railways may be 
 set down at a quarter of a million ; and to this must be added 
 
 thousands indirectly maintained by the railways cabmen at 
 
 stations, shopkeepers at places like Crewe, railway hotel keepers 
 and their servants, and a host of others. Then, again, there are the 
 workers in wood and iron in their first crude'states, who would not 
 have been so employed but for the railways. Add all together, and 
 increase in the usual proportion for members of families ; and I 
 doubt if it be an excessive estimate to say that a million and a 
 half of British mouths are filled? and British backs clad by the 
 railways of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Even this possibly is 
 an under-estimate ; for it must be recollected, that new railways 
 are being constantly constructed ; and there seems no likely limit 
 at present to the continuance of these new constructions. All the 
 artificers of every kind engaged in the construction the floating 
 and migratory navvies, and all their more skilled but less sinewy 
 collaborateurs must be added. Any person living in the metro- 
 polis during the last few years, and witnessing the wholesale con- 
 struction of railways in London and its neighbourhood, can form an 
 approximate idea, in his imagination at least, how large an increase 
 to my estimate must be made under this head. Still further, it 
 may be urged that scores of thousands of the building trades are 
 employed by such railways as those recently constructed or now 
 being constructed in the metropolis. For the wholesale demolition 
 of tenements which they effect necessitates an equal reconstruction 
 of houses (the amount of reconstruction ought to be at least equal) ; 
 hence numberless masons, carpenters, bricklayers, and builders' 
 labourers find employment which would not exist but for the rail- 
 ways. But it would be endless to follow out the various ramifica- 
 tions into which any one would be led who should endeavour to 
 assess the total amount of employment created by the railways. 
 It is enough to say, in a word, that if they have enormously 
 enhanced the value of land and trebled the profits of the trader, 
 they have also added millions to the annual wages fund of th 
 working man, while they have at the same time cheapened the cost 
 of the commodities in which his wages arejexpended. 
 
 An interesting table from the Board of Trade returns shows the 
 
382 
 
 average length of journeys undertaken in the three countries by 
 passengers of each class. The average of the three countries is the 
 following : First-class passengers travel on an average nineteen, 
 second-class fourteen, and third-class twelve, miles each journey ; 
 the general average of the three (the aggregate number of journeys 
 being taken into consideration) being thirteen miles each journey. 
 
 Some years since the receipts of the three classes contributed in 
 a proportion nearly equal; first-class paying about 30 per cent., 
 second 35 per cent., and third 35 per cent, of the whole. 
 
 On the future effects and further development of the railway 
 system much more might be said, and it would be easy to fill as 
 many pages on the future of the iron road and the locomotive 
 steam-engine as have been occupied with their past history. I 
 commenced this sketch by quotation and condensed summary of 
 the well known Quarterly Review article of March, 1825. I con- 
 clude by citation from the same eminent source. And I quote, not 
 the reviewer, but a quotation made by him, and with which he 
 concludes his article. My readers will be able to judge for them- 
 selves, how far the fanciful and exaggerated anticipations contained 
 in the following sentences have been realized, and how much of 
 them, so far as they are feasible and seriously meant, remains yet 
 to be effected. The reviewer thus concludes his lucubrations : 
 
 "We have purposely abstained from that part of the question 
 which regards the conveyance of passengers. There is no doubt 
 that a diminished weight may be conveyed with increased speed 
 and with equal safety, as far as the strength and stability of the 
 engine are concerned ; but we think it would be expedient to waive 
 all thoughts of this part of the subject for the present, until the 
 roads and the engines have acquired that degree of perfection of which 
 they are capable, and such as will remove all apprehension of dan- 
 ger ; without waiting, however, till they are brought to that enviable 
 state which is contemplated by a very sensible but somewhat 
 whimsical advocate for railroads, with an extract from whose work 
 (The Fingerpost) we will close our observations for the present : 
 " ' It is reasonable to conclude that the nervous man will, ere long, 
 take his place in a carriage drawn or impelled by a locomotive engine, 
 with more unconcern and with far better assurance of safety than 
 he now disposes of himself in one drawn by four horses of unequal 
 powers and speed, endowed with passions that acknowledge no con- 
 trol but superior force, and each separately momentarily liable to 
 all the ills that flesh is heir to. Surely an inanimate power, that 
 can be started, stopped, and guided at pleasure by the finger or foot 
 
383 
 
 of man must promise greater personal security to the traveller 
 than a power derivable from animal life, whose infirmities and pas- 
 sions require the constant exercise of other passions united with 
 muscular exertion to remedy and control them. To combat the 
 inconvenience his senses are anticipating, I must ask him to indulge 
 his imagination with an excursion some twenty or thirty years for- 
 ward in the regions of time ; when the dark, unsightly, shapeless 
 machine that now offends him, even in idea, shall be metamorphosed 
 into one of exquisite symmetry and beauty, glittering with all the 
 pomp and circumstance the pride of wealth knows so well how to 
 bestow, and as superbly emblazoned with heraldic honours as any 
 that are now launched from the floors of Long Acre; a machine that 
 shall regale his nostrils with exhalations, not from pit coal and train 
 oil, but from some more genial produce of the earth, whose essence 
 may be extracted at an insignificant cost by the same principle that 
 creates the power which moves him, and its fragrance left in the 
 breeze for the sensitive traveller's gratification ; a machine which, 
 in place of the dull monotonous ache-engendering rumble of modern 
 coaches, may delight his ear with the concord of sweet sounds, the 
 lever-wheel of the engine proving the mainspring of harmony; 
 and last, though not least, a machine that may minister to his 
 palate in a style somewhat superior to the comforts enjoyed by a 
 mail-coach dinner-party in eighteen hundred and twenty-five. But 
 a truce to fanciful imaginings : I am aware they are least of all 
 calculated to serve the principle I advocate ; they may stand, how- 
 ever, to exemplify the poet's sentiment, that let a man learn what 
 he will, still must he die with half his lesson unlearned ; and this 
 caviller may rest assured that neither his olfactory, his auricular, 
 his ocular, nor any other nerves he possesses, are likely to suffer 
 from the change.' " 
 
 The " nervous man " may certainly take his place now in a 
 railway carriage with less danger to fear than he formerly did in a 
 four horse coach, but so long as railway directors neglect to take 
 necessary precautions against accidents because the percentage 
 now killed or maimed on railways is less than what it formerly was 
 by coach, so long will the public have reason to protest against 
 their inefficient arrangements. 
 
384 
 
 APPENDIX III. 
 
 CLAUSES OF THE GENERAL RAILWAY BILL OF 1844 
 
 RELATING TO 
 
 THE PURCHASE OF BAILWATS BY GOVERNMENT. 
 
 1. WHEREAS it is expedient that the concession of powers for the 
 establishment of new lines of railway should he subjected to such 
 conditions as are hereinafter contained for the benefit of the 
 public ; be it enacted, by the Queen's most excellent Majesty, by 
 and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Tem- 
 poral, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by 
 the authority of the same, that if at any time after the end of 
 twenty-one years from and after the first day of January next after 
 the passing of any Act of the present or of any future session of 
 Parliament, for the construction of any new line of passenger 
 railway, whether such new line be a trunk, branch, or junction line, 
 and whether such new line be constructed by a new company 
 incorporated for the purpose, or by any existing company, the clear 
 anwual profits divisible upon the subscribed and paid-up capital 
 stock of the said railway, upon the average of the three then last 
 preceding years, shall equal or exceed the rate of ten pounds for 
 every hundred pounds of such paid-up capital stock, it shall be 
 lawful for the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, 
 upon giving to the said company three calendar months' notice in 
 writing of their intention so to do, to revise the scale of tolls, 
 fares, and charges limited by the Act or Acts relating to the said 
 railway, and to fix such new scale of tolls, fares, and charges, 
 applicable to such different classes and kinds of passengers, goods, 
 and other traffic on such railway, as in the judgment of the said 
 Lords Commissioners, assuming the same quantities and kinds 
 of traffic to continue, shall be likely to reduce the said divisible 
 profits to the said rate of ten pounds in the hundred, and so from 
 
385 
 
 time to time at the expiration of each succeeding period of twenty- 
 one years : Provided always, that no such revised scale shall take 
 effect, unless accompanied by a guarantee, to subsist as long as any 
 such revised scale of tolls, fares, and charges shall be in force, that 
 the said divisible profits, in case of any deficiency therein, shall be 
 made good to the said rate of ten pounds for every hundred pounds 
 of such capital stock : Provided also, that such revised scale shall 
 not be again revised or such guarantee withdrawn, otherwise than 
 with the consent of the company, for the further period of twenty- 
 one years. 
 
 2. That whatever may be the rate of divisible profits in any 
 such railway, it shall be lawful for the said Lords Commissioners, if 
 they shall think fit, at any time after the expiration of the said 
 
 . term of twenty-one years, to purchase any such railway, with all its 
 hereditaments, stock, and appurtenances, in the name and on behalf 
 of Her Majesty, upon giving to the said company three calendar 
 months' notice in writing of their intention, and upon payment of a 
 sum equal to twenty-five years' purchase of the said annual divisible 
 profits, estimated on the average of the three then next preceding 
 years : Provided always, that if the average rate of profit for the 
 said three years shall exceed the rate of ten pounds in the hundred, 
 it shall be taken at only ten pounds in the hundred, for the 
 purpose of calculating thereon the amount of such purchase- money : 
 Provided also, that if the average rate of profits for the said three 
 years shall be less than the rate of ten pounds in the hundred, it 
 shall be lawful for the company, if they shall be of opinion that 
 the said rate of twenty-five years' purchase of the said average 
 profits is an inadequate rate of purchase of such railway, reference 
 being had to the prospects thereof, to require that the rate of pur- 
 chase, instead of being calculated upon such average rate of profit, 
 shall be taken at a valuation, to be determined, in case of difference, 
 by arbitration. 
 
 3. (A.) That nothing herein contained shall be construed to sub- 
 ject to the said option of revision or purchase any railway made or 
 authorized to be made by any Act previous to the present session ; 
 and that no branch or extension of less than five miles in length 
 of any existing line of railway shall be taken to be a new railway 
 within the provisions of this Act ; and that the said option of pur- 
 chase shall not be exercised as regards any branch or extension of 
 any existing railway, without including in the purchase the existing 
 railway ; also in case the company of proprietors of the same shall 
 require that the same be so included. 
 
386 
 
 4. (B.) And whereas it is expedient that the policy of calling into 
 exercise the powers of revision or purchase hereby reserved, or either 
 of them, should in no manner be prejudged by the provisions of 
 this Act ; and should remain for the future consideration of the 
 Legislature, upon grounds of general and national policy: and 
 whereas it is not the intention of this Act, that under the said 
 powers of revision or purchase, if called into use, the public re- 
 sources should be employed to sustain an undue competition against 
 any independent company or companies; be it enacted, That no 
 such notice as hereinbefore mentioned, whether of revision or pur- 
 chase, shall be given, until provision shall have been made by 
 Parliament, by an Act or Acts to be passed in that behalf for 
 authorizing the guarantee or the levy of the purchase-money herein- 
 before mentioned, as the case may be, and for determining, subject 
 to the conditions hereinbefore mentioned, the manner in which the 
 said options or either of them shall be exercised : Provided always, 
 that before any application is made to Parliament for the powers to 
 exercise the said options or either of them, three months' notice 
 shall be given by the said Lords Commissioners to the company or 
 companies to be affected thereby, of the intention so to apply. 
 
 5. That from and after the commencement of the period of three 
 years preceding the period at which the option of ransom or 
 purchase becomes available, full and true accounts shall be kept 
 of all sums of money received and paid on account of any rail- 
 way within the provisions hereinbefore contained (distinguishing, 
 if the said railway shall be a branch railway, or one worked in 
 common with other railways, the receipts, and giving an estimate 
 of the expenses on account of the said railway from those on 
 account of the trunk line, or other railways) by the directors of 
 the company to whom such railway belongs, or by whom the same 
 may be worked, and of the purposes and things for which such sums 
 of money shall have been received and paid ; and every such rail- 
 way company shall once in every half-year cause a half-yearly 
 account in abstract to be prepared, showing the total receipt and 
 expenditure on account of the said railway, for the half-year ending 
 the 30th day of June and the 31st day of December respectively, 
 or such other convenient days as shall in each case be directed by 
 the Lords of the said Committee, under distinct heads of receipt 
 and expenditure, according to such form as may be required by the 
 Lords of the said Committee, with a statement of the balance of 
 such account, duly audited and certified under the hands of two or 
 more directors of the said railway company ; and shall send a copy 
 
387 
 
 of the said account to the Lords of the said Committee on or before 
 the last days of August and February respectively, or such other 
 days as shall in each case be directed by the Lords of the said Com- 
 mittee, in each year ; and it shall be lawful for the Lords of the 
 said Committee, if and when they shall think fit, to appoint any 
 proper person or persons to inspect the accounts and books of the 
 said company ; and it shall be lawful for any person so authorized, 
 at all reasonable times upon producing his authority, to examine the 
 books, accounts, vouchers, and other documents of the company at 
 the principal office or place of business of the company, and to take 
 copies or extracts therefrom. 
 
 6. Companies to provide one cheap train, each way, daily. And 
 with respect to all railway companies subject to these obligations, 
 which shall be open on or before the 1st day of November next 
 these obligations shall come into force on the said 1st day of 
 November; and with respect to all other railways subject to this 
 obligation, it shall come into force on the day of opening of the 
 railway, or the day after the last day of the session in which the 
 Act shall be passed, by reason of which the company will become 
 subject thereunto, which shall first happen. 
 
 7. That if any railway company shall refuse or wilfully neglect 
 to comply with the provisions of this Act, as to the said cheap trains, 
 within a reasonable time, or shall attempt to evade the operation of 
 such order, such company shall forfeit to Her Majesty a sum not 
 exceeding 207. for every day during which such refusal, neglect, or 
 evasion shall continue. 
 
 8. Board of Trade to have a discretionary power of allowing 
 alternative arrangements. 
 
 9. That no tax shall be levied upon the receipts of any railway 
 company from the conveyance of passengers at fares not exceeding 
 Id. for each mile, by any such cheap train as aforesaid. 
 
 10. Certain companies to convey military and police forces at 
 certain charges, 5 & 6 Viet., c. 55. 
 
 11. Bail way companies to afford additional facilities for the trans 
 mission of the mails, 1 & 2 Viet., c. 98. 
 
 12. And whereas electrical telegraphs have been established on 
 certain railways, and may be more extensively established hereafter, 
 and it is expedient to provide for their due regulation ; be it enacted, 
 That every railway company, on being required so to do by the 
 Lords of the said Committee, shall be bound to allow any person or 
 persons authorized by the Lords of the said Committee, with 
 servants and workmen, at all reasonable times to enter into or upon 
 
388 
 
 their lands, and to establish and lay down upon such lands adjoining 
 the line of such railway, a line of electrical telegraph for Her 
 Majesty's service, and to give to him and them every reasonable 
 facility for laying down the same, and for using the same, for the 
 purpose of receiving and sending messages on Her Majesty's service, 
 subject to such reasonable remuneration to the company as may be 
 agreed upon between the company and the Lords of the said Com- 
 mittee, or, in case of disagreement, as may be settled by arbitration : 
 Provided always, that, subject to a prior right of use thereof for the 
 purposes of Her Majesty, such telegraph may be used by the com- 
 pany, for the purposes of the railway, upon such terms as may be 
 agreed upon between the parties, or, in the event of difference, may 
 be settled by arbitration. 
 
 13. That where a line of electrical telegraph shall have been 
 established upon any railway by the company to whom such railway 
 belongs, or by any company, partnership, person or persons other- 
 wise than exclusively for Her Majesty's service, or exclusively for 
 the purposes of the railway, the use of such electrical telegraph for 
 the purpose of receiving and sending messages, shall, subject to the 
 prior right of the use thereof for the service of Her Majesty and 
 for the purposes of the company, and subject also to such equal 
 charges, and to such reasonable regulations, as may be from time to 
 time made by the said railway company, be open for the sending 
 and receiving of messages by all persons alike, without favour or 
 preference. 
 
 14. And whereas, by an Act passed in the fourth year of the reign of 
 Her Majesty, intituled, "An Act to regulate Railways," poweris given 
 to the Lords of the said Committee to appoint any proper person or 
 persons to inspect any railway and the stations, works, and buildings, 
 and the engines and carriages belonging thereto ; and in order to 
 carry the provisions of this Act into execution, it is expedient that 
 the said power be extended ; be it enacted, That the said power 
 given to the Lords of the said Committee of appointing proper 
 persons to inspect railways shall extend to authorize the appoint- 
 ment by the Lords of the said Committee of any proper person or 
 persons, for such purposes of inspection, as are by the said Act 
 authorized, and also for the purpose of enabling the Lords of the 
 said Committee to carry the provisions of this and of the said Act, 
 and of any general Act relating to railways, into execution ; and that 
 so much of the last recited Act as provides that no person shall be 
 eligible to the appointment as inspector, who shall, within one year 
 of his appointment, have been a director, or have held any office of 
 
389 
 
 trust or profit under any railway company, shall be repealed : Pro- 
 vided always, that no such person shall exercise any powers of in- 
 terference in the affairs of the company. 
 
 J5. Eepealing provision of 3 & 4 Viet., c. 97. 
 
 16. Board of Trade may direct prosecutions to prevent railway com- 
 panies from contravening or exceeding the provisions of their Acts. 
 
 17- Notice to be given to the company. Prosecutions to be 
 under the sanction of the Board of Trade, and within one year 
 after the offence. 
 
 18. And whereas many railway companies have borrowed money 
 in a manner unauthorized by their Acts of incorporation or other 
 Acts of Parliament relating to the said companies, upon the security 
 of loan notes or other instruments purporting to give a security for 
 the repayment of the principal sums borrowed at certain dates, and 
 for the payment of interest thereon in the mean time ; and whereas 
 such loan notes or other securities issued otherwise than under the 
 provision of some Act or Acts of Parliament have no legal validity, 
 and it is expedient that the issue of such illegal securities should be 
 stopped ; but such loan notes or other securities having been issued 
 and received in good faith as between the borrower and lender, and 
 for the most part for the lawful purposes of the undertaking and in 
 ignorance of their legal invalidity, it is expedient to confirm such as 
 have been already issued : be it enacted, That from and after the 
 passing of this Act, any railway company issuing any loan note or 
 other negotiable or assignable instrument, purporting to bind the 
 company as a legal security for money advanced to the said railway 
 company otherwise than under the provisions of some Act or Acts of 
 Parliament authorizing the said railway company to raise such money 
 and to issue such security, shall for every such offence forfeit to 
 Her Majesty a sum equal to the sum for which such loan note or 
 other instrument purports to be such security: Provided always, 
 that any company may renew any such loan note or other instru- 
 ment issued by them prior to the passing of this Act, for any period 
 or periods not exceeding five years from the passing of this Act. 
 
 19. That where any railway company, before the 12th day of 
 July, 1844, shall have issued or contracted to issue any such loan 
 notes, or other unauthorized instruments, the company may and 
 shall pay off such loan notes or other instruments, as the same may 
 fall due, subject as hereinbefore provided; and until the same shall 
 be so paid off, the said loan notes or other instruments shall entitle 
 the holders thereof to the payment, by the company, of the principal 
 sum and interest thereby agreed to be paid. 
 
390 
 
 20. That a register of all such loan notes or other instruments 
 shall be kept by the secretary, and such register shall be open, 
 without fee or reward, at all reasonable times, to the inspection of 
 any shareholder or auditor of the undertaking, and of every person 
 interested in any such loan note or other instrument desirous of 
 inspecting the same. 
 
 21. Remedy for recovery of tithe rent charged on railway land. 
 
 22. Communications to and from Board of Trade, service of 
 notices, &c. 
 
 23. Penalties. 
 
 24. That where the word " Railway" is used in this Act, it shall 
 be construed to extend to all railways under the powers of any Act 
 of Parliament; and when the words "Passenger Railway "are used 
 in this Act, they shall be construed to extend to all railways con- 
 structed under the powers of any Act of Parliament upon which one 
 third or more of the gross annual revenue is derived from the con- 
 veyance of passengers by steam or other mechanical power; and 
 whenever the word " Company " is used in this Act, it shall be con- 
 strued to extend to include the proprietors for the time being of 
 any such railway ; and that where a different sense is not expressly 
 declared, or does not appear by the context, every word importing 
 a singular number or the masculine gender shall be taken to include 
 females as well as males, and several persons and things as well as 
 one person or thing. 
 
 25. That this Act may be amended or repealed by any Act to be 
 passed in this session of Parliament. 
 
391 
 
 APPENDIX IV. 
 
 ME, GLADSTONE'S SPEECH, JULY 8, 1844, 
 
 ON THE 
 
 SECOND BEADING OF THE GOVERNMENT RAILWAY BILL. 
 
 ME. GLADSTONE. Sir, I am glad the time is at length arrived 
 when the statements of the promoters and opponents of this Bill 
 may be compared in equal debate on the floor of this house. It is 
 not a question of party, on which the Government can appeal to the 
 sympathy of their supporters ; it is not a question of popular in- 
 terest, in which the passions of persons out of doors would be 
 largely interested in our favour ; we have stood, as I think, on the 
 ground of reason alone, while every means that the most assiduous 
 and manifold solicitation could bring to bear against us has been 
 employed in organizing an opposition to this Bill. I lament that 
 the statements by which this Bill has been opposed have been in 
 many particulars entirely at variance with its real nature. Now it 
 is most material to look, in the first place, to the circumstances 
 under which this Bill originated. This Bill is at once the Bill 
 of the Government, the Bill of the Board of Trade, and the Bill 
 of the Committee. I ask, in the first place, any gentleman con- 
 nected with railways, in what spirit the Kailway Department of the 
 Board of Trade has hitherto administered its duties. I ask 
 whether, under the administration of the right hon. gentleman 
 opposite, that department was actuated either by a spirit of hos- 
 tility or a disposition to interfere with the concerns of railways. 
 Not to travel on this point to cases more remote, I will remind the 
 House that at the time I proposed this question to the House, so 
 anxious was I to secure to Railway Companies every description of 
 full and fair representation, that in the list of the committee I 
 proposed there were the names of four gentlemen who were 
 
392 
 
 actively engaged as Railway Directors in different parts of the 
 country ; but the feeling of the House was so distinctly expressed, 
 on the nomination of that committee, against what they conceived 
 to be undue partiality towards railways, that I felt it my duty to 
 withdraw two valuable names, that the inquiry might not at the 
 outset be liable to suspicion. Such were the circumstances attend- 
 ing the appointment of the committee, and I refer to them merely 
 to bring to mind, what it is impossible to omit in a case of this 
 kind, that the gentlemen out of whose deliberate examination this 
 Bill has arisen were gentlemen whom no man can venture to assert 
 were other than favourable to railways in this country. Now, I 
 will go step by step. Having started with the appointment of the 
 committee, I will not allude to the names composing it in detail. 
 No person, I believe, has found fault with the committee on the 
 score of the parties actually selected. In short, the list of the 
 committee was graced by the names of almost all who were inter- 
 ested or known to be conversant with railway matters. 
 
 My next position, therefore, is that the committee were, except 
 the hon. member for Reading, substantially unanimous in favour, 
 not of the precise Bill I have laid on the table of the House, in 
 compliance with the views of a majority of the committee, but of 
 interference at least as extensive. An hon. gentleman opposite has 
 said it was a question in the committee whether the power to be 
 taken over future Railway Companies should be a power of purchase 
 only, or a power of purchase combined with a power of revision. 
 The hon. gentleman himself advocated the plan of purchase. My 
 noble friend, who voted in the minority, also advocated the plan of 
 purchase, and his objection to the present proposal was, that it did 
 not go far enough. I believe that others took the same view, and 
 thought that at least as much interference as this was absolutely 
 necessary. I think I shall hardly be contradicted when I say that, 
 except the hon. member for Reading, who, from the first day the 
 committee sat, has, in the most straightforward and candid manner, 
 expressed the strongest opposition to any and every interference of 
 this kind w r ith that exception not a single member of the com- 
 mittee but agreed that something analogous to the main provisions 
 of this Bill, if not its actual main provisions, was absolutely neces- 
 sary in the present state of things. [Mr. GISBORNE dissented.] 
 The hon. gentleman means to differ from me, but I believe the 
 hon. member did propose a plan according to which it would have 
 been recommended to Parliament that a power of purchase should 
 be taken on behalf of the State, with reference not only to future 
 
393 
 
 but to all railways. The present Bill has reference to future 
 railways only, and I think, therefore, the hon. gentleman's objection 
 was not that we went too far, but that we did not go far enough, 
 and that the proper measure would have been to assume a compul- 
 sory power of purchase over all railways whatever. [Mr. GISBORNE 
 again dissented.] I find it so here, and of course I can only go 
 by the printed minutes of the committee. 
 
 I now come to the charges in the petitions, and I really cannot 
 tell how those who framed them (I do not say the railway com- 
 panies, because they were not framed by the companies) could 
 descend to the assertion that the evidence taken was ex parte. 
 Why, we should deprive words of all meaning, if we sanctioned such 
 a use of them. I know not what is meant by saying it is ex 
 parte evidence, unless indeed they mean that it is evidence 
 much more on the side of the railway companies than on the 
 other. What are the facts ? Twelve witnesses gave evidence 
 on the general question ; out of these one, Mr. Laing, was an 
 officer of the Board of Trade, and another, Mr, Gait, was known to 
 have strong preconceived opinions, but the other ten were railway 
 directors, and were they chosen with reference to this particular 
 scheme ? Let us read. There was Mr. Glyn, chairman of the 
 London and Birmingham Railway; Mr. Hudson, connected with 
 some half-dozen railways ; Mr. Baxendale, chairman of the South- 
 Eastern Railway Company ; Mr. Swift, agent of the Grand Junc- 
 tion Railway Company, and one of the cleverest men in the 
 country ; Mr. Saunders, worthy, in this respect, to be classed with 
 Mr. Swift ; Captain Lawes, manager of the Manchester and Leeds 
 Railway Company ; the Member for Clitheroe, of whom I will say 
 nothing in his presence ; Mr. Wilkinson, chairman of the Croydon 
 Railway Company ; Mr. R. Hill, known chiefly for his connection 
 with another subject, but also a director of the London and Brighton 
 Railway Company ; and Mr. Harding, secretary of the Glasgow 
 and Greenock Railway Company. This is the evidence which is 
 called ex parte against railways. My hon. friend proposed that the 
 companies should be allowed to call evidence, and I understand he 
 made a proposal which T should think he must have been aware 
 could not have been acceded to namely, that the minutes of 
 evidence should be submitted to parties out of the committee, 
 contrary to the express rule of the House. But my hon. friend 
 was in the committee as the representative of the railway interest. 
 At all events he was there. I do not mean deputed ; we all know 
 what he is; but he was active, able, and energetic in their behalf. 
 
 D D 
 
394 
 
 The hon. member for Leicester also- took a prominent part ; but 
 did these gentlemen, or any one else, tender a single witness to the 
 committee who was refused ? No such thing. The hon. member 
 for Nottingham suggested several additional points in their favour, 
 which were acceded to, because he was known to be conversant with 
 the subject. These hon. gentlemen have not said that it was 
 ex parte evidence, and I am sure I may claim their assent when 
 I say this accusation is not only an unfounded, but a ridiculous 
 and absurd accusation. 
 
 So much, then, for the inquiry ; but now I want you to under- 
 stand what we are discussing. 
 
 The QUESTION, however, of the whole Bill, is the PURCHASE or 
 option on the part of the GOVERNMENT. If we agree about that, 
 we shall not quarrel about the rest ; on the other hand, if we differ 
 about that, it will be a question for our consideration whether we 
 will take the rest or postpone the whole till a future period. Now, 
 here it is I complain of the gross misstatements which have been 
 made to the world with regard to the nature of this Bill. The 
 statement which has been published is this, that the effect of the 
 Bill is to enable the executive to purchase or reduce the tolls of 
 future railways on certain terms, if they think fit so to do. All 
 the arguments against the Bill are arguments of the impolicy of 
 enabling the Government so to interfere with railway companies, and 
 taking out of their hands powers which it is contended they have 
 used beneficially and wisely. I see an hon. gentleman opposite is 
 under the same delusion in this respect as other parties. I see 
 another hon. gentleman, also a railway director, who appears to be 
 also under the same delusion, but I will prove the Bill does nothing 
 of the kind. Another hon. gentleman, a railway director, says it 
 does. These gentlemen, cannot surely have read the Bill. If it 
 did give to the executive power to purchase railways at discretion, 
 or even one railway, I would vote against it. That would be to 
 foreclose the question which it is the whole object of this Bill to 
 open. The Bill gives the Government no power to purchase either 
 future or existing lines. The companies will have power to make 
 agreements which would bind them, but they will have no right or 
 power to make agreements which would bind the State. An 
 opinion may be entertained that even that course is not desirable. 
 But the proposition I mean to contend for is, that Parliament ought 
 to have that discretion that, with respect to existing railways, 
 Parliament is excluded from the power ; and that, with respect to 
 future railways, it is the bounden duty of Parliament to reserve to 
 
395 
 
 itself that power. Are there any gentlemen within these walls 
 under the impression that it is in the power of the Executive Go- 
 vernment to purchase any or to receive the tolls of any railway 
 under this Bill, without resorting to Parliament ? Because, if there 
 are, I feel confident they are wrong. But if they had read the Bill, 
 and the effect of it is to convey such an intention or such a mean- 
 ing, I will join with them in amending the Bill, so that no such 
 meaning shall be apparent. But it may be said that, although the 
 Bill does not give this power to determine the question, whether it 
 would be politic for the State to sanction the purchase or revision, 
 yet when the time arrived that that point should be submitted to 
 Parliament, the question, although the mere mechanical and formal 
 parts had been reserved, would be looked upon as settled. If 
 gentlemen will read that report, they will find that the ground taken 
 by the Committee was this, that even if it were considered politic 
 to purchase or revise, we were not in a condition to do so with respect 
 to existing railways ; we were barred from that question. The 
 point may be proper to be considered when it is actually proposed 
 that the State should take these powers, but now it is beside the 
 question. With railways the Legislature are dealing with a new 
 system, producing new results, and likely to produce unforeseen 
 effects. Is it not wise, then, to make provision for the future ? Is 
 it wise to trust ourselves to all the changes which the next ten or 
 fifteen years may produce with regard to public communication by 
 railway, without a thought for providing for the difficulties that might 
 arise? Is it wise to place ourselves in a position in which, whatever 
 might be the exigency, we shall be debarred from any interference, 
 because now, before these new companies have obtained their 
 powers, it has been neglected to obtain proper powers to enable the 
 question to be entertained ? 
 
 With respect to the purchase of railways at the present moment, 
 gentlemen of great experience and intelligence had recommended 
 that it should be so. I do not think the committee were prepared 
 to concur in that view. And I say, that I would at the present 
 moment vote against a plan for the purchase of railroads. I would 
 do so because in the present state of the system there are not 
 grounds for coming to that conclusion. But it is a very different 
 question whether I shall reserve a free agency for either the pur- 
 chase or revision at any future time in case such a measure should 
 appear advisable. I cannot see that this is determining the point 
 whether such purchase at a future time would be politic. What I 
 desire to show is this, that the whole foundation of the complaint 
 
 D D 2 
 
396 
 
 against the Bill as to the option of purchase was swept away, for 
 nothing is to be done except reserving a discretion ; and the dis- 
 tinction I mean to draw is not a mere technical one, but a real bond 
 fide one to enable the State, after a term of years, to purchase 
 railroads, if the judgment of the Legislature should be such as to 
 render such a measure politic and expedient. The intention of the 
 Bill is to remove the preliminary bar which exists on the ground of 
 public faith, to leave the question entirely free and open, and unfet- 
 tered by the numerous and complicated considerations which now 
 beset it. An hon. member referred me to clause 7, but is it not 
 obvious that that merely placed the Bill in the form that would be 
 requisite for the purpose if Parliament should determine upon 
 granting the power ? The Government cannot purchase railroads 
 without money: and Government could not get money without coming 
 to Parliament : and Government could not come to Parliament for 
 such a purpose without strong grounds of policy on which to justify 
 their demand. I have shown that the Bill does not enable the 
 Executive to purchase or revise, because it cannot do so without 
 the money. But it has been said that the measure fetters and ties 
 up the judgment of Parliament. Then, I say, invent any declara- 
 tion, however authoritative, that shall leave the judgment of Parlia- 
 ment obviously free, and I will join in it. The committee say : 
 " In this state of things the committee would deem it unwise to 
 enter into any engagements which should tend to restrain the free 
 action of the Legislature or the Government in future times, as it is 
 impossible to judge what amount of inconvenience might thereby be 
 entailed ; but they would propose that such powers only should be 
 taken as, even though they may fall short of the full extent of the 
 occasion when it arrives, may be either exercised for some substantial 
 advantage, or, at the worst, left in abeyance without detriment." 
 This was the full purpose of the committee, and the present Bill 
 does not give full power to the executive to deal immediately with 
 railways. I will now revert to the main point in issue. I shall 
 refer to what was stated by Captain Lawes, an able man, when under 
 examination. He is of opinion that, if railways were placed under 
 the general control of Government, a saving of 25 per cent, 
 would be effected to the public. Now this is material to consider. 
 In the present state of the question, the elements which enter into 
 it are rude and unformed, and the evidence, I admit, is not com- 
 plete. 
 
 The committee felt some of the difficulties. They examined 
 particularly into the case of the carriers, and some peculiar difticul- 
 
397 
 
 ties presented themselves. They ascertained that carriers had been 
 placed by the railways in a very peculiar situation, and they entered 
 into the nature of these new relations between the traders and the 
 railway companies. The railway companies have in fact come 
 amongst them, like tritons among minnows, and the effect of this 
 collision has been to produce inconvenience in many cases to indi- 
 vidual traders. The carriers showed that their arrangements 
 were greatly affected, not only on the lines, but off the lines ; and 
 they showed that their ordinary course of business was completely 
 altered and controlled by the railways. I do not mean to sa^ that 
 these cases are ripe for decision, but there is no doubt the com- 
 mittee saw and felt that great difficulty existed in the case of the 
 railway companies and those great traders who carried on business 
 along the different lines of railway, and that this difficulty mainly 
 arose from the want of a power to deal with such difficulties. And 
 it is our expectation that as the country becomes covered with a 
 network of railways, these difficulties will increase, and that we 
 shall be reduced to this alternative namely, to take one of two 
 courses, either to say to the private trader, " Your case we admit is 
 a hard one, but neither the law nor the Legislature can help you ;" 
 or else we must say that Government is bound to assume to itself a 
 general power of interference with the carrying arrangements of 
 railways, in order to secure justice to the complaining traders. 
 This has been suggested to us to take into our hands the power 
 of control over railways, which in the case of carriers would 
 certainly prove a relief ; but then the course is open to this objec- 
 tion, that such a control will involve an interference with the 
 powers and privileges which railway companies now possess. We 
 saw that a grievance not a general or a national grievance, but 
 a grievance of a limited nature existed, and that we were unable 
 to suggest a remedy; and at the same time we saw that if griev- 
 ances of this sort became numerous and weighty, they would 
 furnish material considerations why Parliament would be justified, 
 and would be required, to deal with the question. 
 
 The next point is, as to the probability of economizing the 
 means of conveyance. This is a question which will become one 
 of great importance, on account of the large scale on which the 
 matter rests. The payments by the public to the railway com- 
 panies are now not less than five or six millions a year; but I do 
 not think it will be a very extravagant estimate for me to assume 
 that in fifteen or twenty years the payments by the public will reach 
 to fifteen millions a year. If these statements and opinions are 
 
398 
 
 true, which I do not mean to assume to be true, because we have 
 not all the evidence before us yet but if it be true that the 
 experiment is likely to produce a large reduction of fares, then 
 it is right for Parliament to have the power to enter upon the 
 consideration of how this can be carried into effect so as to afford 
 immense relief to the public with the smallest possible loss on 
 the aggregate receipts of the railways. It is this consideration 
 which makes it important that we should not vote at once for the 
 purchase of railways, but have the power and means of purchasing 
 them at some future period without breach of faith. I do not 
 think we can expect from the railway companies any such general 
 economical system. Foreign railways are managed on a principle 
 different to our railways. Belgium, for instance, has gained much 
 more by railways than England. I do not mean to say that the 
 Belgian railways are as good as ours they are, however, very much 
 cheaper. I believe the charges are not more than one-third of our 
 charges. We must look at this subject in all its vastness and all 
 its bearings. It may be said that England is the richest country ; 
 but because this country is rich it is no sound reason why the 
 public should pay the railway companies more than necessary, 
 or that cheap travelling should not be provided for the public. 
 But there is no likelihood that the great experiment of the 
 greatest possible cheapness to the public will be tried under the 
 present system. Some hon. gentleman may reply, " You have it 
 tried on the London and Greenwich Railway ; it may be tried on 
 the railway from Glasgow to Greenock, and also the railway of 
 that spirited company to which the hon. member belongs the 
 London and Dover line." But the effect on these lines will prove 
 nothing satisfactory. You must have it tried on the great lines, 
 and on such a scale as to have the whole of the effects properly 
 developed throughout the country. The experiment must be tried 
 in some large district ; but you will not find in the large companies 
 universally a disposition to try the experiment; for you must 
 recollect that we are dealing with a number of independent com- 
 panies. The boards of directors of these companies are bound 
 to produce the largest dividend to their shareholders they have 
 no national objects to promote ; and therefore if you come to deal 
 with nine or ten railway companies in this matter, nine out of ten 
 may be disposed to try the experiment, but then it will be found 
 that the tenth is able so to order matters as to baffle the experi- 
 ment. To secure to the House the right of purchase or revision 
 with respect to newly formed railways, it is necessary that it shall 
 
399 
 
 possess a great portion of the control over such railways, only 
 to be exercised at a befitting opportunity. 
 
 The next question which it is necessary to solve is, how did it 
 happen, that, although this Bill is only to affect the new railroads, the 
 only opposition it meets with is from the old railroads, that cannot be 
 affected by it? What objection can they have to it? We raise the 
 right against the railway companies now in progress they say 
 nothing, but the old railway proprietors are the complainants. It 
 cannot be because any attempt has been made to control them, of 
 which we are too much afraid, lest it should be said we are in the 
 habit of treating too lightly the idea of an engagement so seriously 
 entered into. But I have learned that the reason given for their 
 objection is. that they conceive that they will at last fall within 
 the scope of the Bill, and that Government will finally compel 
 them to come into its proposals. This, I know, forms a part of 
 the paper which they have dignified with the appellation of Reasons 
 for their opposition. I should advise the writer seeing that to 
 force them to accept our proposal, if ours it were, must be im- 
 possible to amend that paper, for reason it is none. And let 
 them, in so amending it, substitute the word " Legislature " for 
 " Government." Now, when they would urge in opposition to 
 this Bill that the conditions forced upon the railway companies 
 would be ruinous and oppressive, they would charge, not the 
 Government, but you and the Legislature, with the attempt to 
 ruin and oppress them. Now, what danger there can be of their 
 being injured or ruined by you, I am at a loss to conceive. I 
 really must say the railway interest is too diffident of its strength. 
 It is by far too modest. I would recommend the adoption of 
 more confidence in the strength it possesses within these walls. 
 Its power is only too great. 
 
 I believe the subject resolves itself only into two cousiderations : 
 the first is, the question of the option to purchase or revise; the 
 second is a question of time. I admit that if you were now pressed 
 to acquiesce in the reservation of the right to purchase or to revise, 
 the objection as to the time would be strong. In such a case there 
 must of necessity be estimates made out, a reference to long 
 accounts, and very probably to arbitration. That, however, was 
 not the case now. You are not in that state, and therefore the 
 objection as to the time so far falls to the ground. But it is said 
 the Blue Book, containing the evidence upon the subject of the 
 Railway Committee's investigation, has been on your table only 
 three weeks. Sir, I would rest with confidence in this instance 
 
400 
 
 upon the report of the committee. I do not, T confess, think that 
 the House in this instance stands in want of evidence. I wish 
 it to be understood that we did not see it in the light of a desirable 
 investment. Our view was, that the reserving of your discretion 
 and option was an object of public policy. Indeed, so much am I 
 persuaded of it, that if the blue book, all the evidence on the subject, 
 and the report of the committee were lost, I should still recommend 
 it to adoption as wise and politic. The question, as I have observed, 
 is, in the first instance, one of option, or of revision. Now, I would 
 remind the House, that the report on which we proceeded was 
 made on the 13th of March last, and that since the 3rd of April 
 following the Bill has been in the hands of hon. members, which is 
 above three months since. One hour's attentive reading of the 
 measure would have sufficed my hon. friend to obtain a competent 
 general knowledge of its provisions, and of its propriety as a 
 political measure in relation to railways. During that long period, 
 not a voice has been raised against the Bill throughout the country. 
 Approbation of the measure has proceeded from the railway pub- 
 lishers, and every print in their interest has expressed its admiration 
 of the moderate, wise, and cautious tone of the proposal made by the 
 Government in this Bill as far back as three months ago. I recollect 
 it was assumed by an hon. friend of mine engaged on the com- 
 mittee, that our third report, he expected, would make a noise. 
 That expectation was only so far realized that we only heard from 
 the railroad organs renewed approbation of the liberality of the 
 provisions of the Bill towards the railway interests. And yet 
 some hon. gentleman said to you, " Does it not raise universal 
 alarm?" Now, sir, I shall dispute that proposition. But with 
 respect to this plan, when it has been discussed on its own merits, 
 there exists no alarm whatever ; but there is, on the contrary, every 
 disposition to accept the plan as a wise measure. I am now going 
 to complain of a misrepresentation on the part of the London and 
 Birmingham Railway Company. I take an extract of their peti- 
 tion : " That the Select Committee, upon whose reports the Bill 
 is founded, have been sitting during the greater part of the present 
 session ; and although they have made short reports from time 
 to time, the last and most important of those documents was only 
 laid upon the table of the House on the 24th day of May last, and 
 the printed evidence, which is very voluminous, was not published 
 until a fortnight afterwards." Now, I say I complain of misrepre- 
 sentation. Sir, the meaning of that paragraph, and the meaning 
 and intention of the man who wrote it, was, that it should be 
 
401 
 
 understood, that though there had been minor reports made before 
 the 24th of May, yet the report on which the Bill is founded came 
 out on the 24th of May. But the Bill relates only in minor points 
 to the report of the 24th of May ; the main question of the option 
 and discretionary power of Government is wholly dealt with in the 
 report of the 3rd of April. Yet this misrepresentation bears the 
 seal of the company. I say it was drawn up by some solicitor, and 
 that the seal of the company is set to the words ! I know that the 
 members of the direction would repudiate such a misstatement. I 
 now refer to a passage in the third report: " It appears, therefore, 
 to your committee, that the present moment, while Parliament still 
 retains in its own hands an entire and unimpaired discretion, with 
 regard both to the incorporation of new companies, and the enlarge- 
 ment of the powers of old ones, affords an opportunity more favour- 
 able than any that can be expected hereafter to recur for attaching 
 beforehand to the legislative sanction, which is sought by these 
 parties on their own behalf, the conditions which may be deemed 
 necessary for the public good, and ' which may realize and apply 
 such conclusions as an experience of the railway system up to the 
 present time may be deemed to have been sufficiently established." 
 Now do not say that you have been taken by surprise by this Bill, 
 because I show you the report of the committee, which was moved 
 for by me as a member of the Government, and which points out 
 the present moment as the moment at which Parliament should 
 legislate on the subject, and that the consequences of delay would 
 be disadvantageous in the extreme. 
 
 I ask, what would be the result if this Bill was postponed till the 
 next session of Parliament ? At the beginning of the session there 
 would be, perhaps, sixty or eighty applications for railway Bills ; 
 general legislation upon other great measures would overthrow the 
 discussion on this particular subject, and in July next year you 
 would come to the second reading of the Bill, and if you did, you 
 would arrive at the discussion under increased disadvantages. 
 
 But what is the opposition to this Bill ? It is composed of dif- 
 ferent elements, and that is a curious and instructive part of the 
 case. I shall state my view of it, and that with reference to facts. 
 One portion of the opponents of this Bill are those directors of 
 railways who adopt a very high tone against the interference of the 
 Parliament. My hon. friend the member for Beading (Mr. Russell) 
 is the chairman of the Great Western Eailway Company, and he is 
 a chieftain amongst the class of persons. He stood alone in the 
 Select Committee he adopted that high tone, and was averse to 
 
402 
 
 any attempt to lay down general rules for railway legislation, and to 
 applying any legislative restrictions as to future railway Bills. Those 
 gentlemen who, like the hon. member for Reading, have their par 
 ticular mode of consoling the public on railway matters, say, " Oh, 
 trust to competition" I would no more trust the railway proprietors 
 on railway matters than I would Gracchus speaking of sedition ! 
 I know of nothing more chilling than the hope which the directors 
 of these railways hold out from the competition. If you do not 
 shut your eyes to facts, you will draw important conclusions from 
 what has been passing in relation to this competition, to which your 
 attention must have been directed, and which I trust I may mention 
 as a short episode. There has been going on during the spring a 
 very notable affair. The London and Birmingham and the Grand 
 Junction Railway Companies have been at deadly feud with each 
 other ; and what was the result ? There was a most flourishing pro- 
 spect for the public. The public were to have the choice of a new 
 line. The public have 'already a new line between Birmingham 
 and Liverpool, and between London and Birmingham. The 
 London and Birmingham Company were engaged in the purchase 
 of the Chester and Birkenhead Railway, and they proposed to make 
 a line from Birmingham to Shrewsbury, and the distance from 
 Chester not being great, parties saw there would be a line to 
 Shrewsbury from that place, and then the public were to go down 
 to Liverpool by this route ; and this was a delightful prospect for 
 the public : but the Grand Junction Company had as much public 
 spirit. They thought there would be no objection to the two lines 
 at the north end of the line, but they thought that there should 
 also be two at the south end, and the Grand Junction proposed a 
 line from Stafford to Bedford, and so accomplished a line all the 
 way to Bedford. These companies are now singular philanthro- 
 pists ; nay, they are like lovers. No sooner had they quarrelled 
 than reconciliation followed, and they remind one of the saying of 
 Mr. Fox, " Breves inimicitia3 ; amicitia? sempiternaB." One of these 
 lines, however, has gone to the land where all things end. I state 
 this as an instance of the hopes which are to be entertained from 
 competition amongst the railway companies. I wish to show 
 Parliament the doctrines held by those of the high school of non- 
 interference on the subject of existing railway companies, and the 
 part which Parliament ought to take with respect to those which 
 shall spring into future existence. 
 
 It is perfectly untrue that the old companies would be subject to 
 the option of purchase or revision of the Government ; they are 
 
403 
 
 exempted from it. But, sir, there is a deeper power at work in 
 this opposition. I say it is the power of Parliamentary agents and 
 railway agents. Yes, I know not why I should not speak out 
 plainly. They are the great opponents of this measure. I say 
 with them has originated this effective opposition. Why did they 
 allow the Third Report to remain a dead letter ? Why did that 
 report remain still-born ? Because it makes so great alterations as 
 to the expenses, and consequently diminishes the prospects of the 
 Parliamentary agents. They are the parties who know how to get 
 up an opposition in this House. But I have shown you by dates that 
 the Third Eeport was published on the 3rd of April, and I have 
 shown you that there was no opposition raised to it worth naming. 
 But when I come to the Fifth Keport, which is called by the 
 London and Birmingham Company the longest part of the report, 
 the committee having at considerable length stated their reasons for 
 thinking that something founded on a system of railway legislation 
 is required will hon. gentlemen say there is any dispute on that 
 subject ? Well, then, will you deny that the time has come when 
 we should lay, t the axe to the root of that tree ? It is one of the 
 objects of this committee to lay the axe to this root. Therefore, 
 it is right that these new schemes should be examined by an 
 impartial authority. I was no party to the concluding recommen- 
 dation of the committee, that these matters should be referred to 
 the Eailway Department of the Board of Trade ; and I should be 
 glad if these powers were vested in some other public authority. 
 But this House's sittings being limited to six months of the 
 year, and the railway schemes being prepared during the other six 
 months, it is impossible that this House can have the officers or the 
 machinery requisite to get parliamentary matters connected with 
 railway Bills prepared for the judgment of this committee ; but 
 the committee recommend a preliminary reference to the Board of 
 Trade in these cases, involving most important subjects where 
 public questions were raised. All the evidence of Captain Lavves, 
 of Mr. Glyn, Mr. Baxendale, Mr. Cardwell, Mr. Swift, and Mr. 
 Wilkinson, goes in favour of this preliminary reference to the 
 Board of Trade. The Third Eeport contains the present Bill, 
 and I will show you that the Third Eeport was assailed by no 
 disapprobation for two months. The Fifth Eeport was presented 
 on the 26th of May, and was delivered on the 8th of June ; and 
 on the llth of June two days after it^ was sent out a circular 
 was sent out, signed " Hunt and Co.," addressed to railway agents 
 and solicitors, calling upon them to consider what measures should 
 
404 
 
 
 
 be taken in consequence of the proceedings of the committee. I 
 have written to ask their authority to petition against the Bill, and 
 whether they were authorized by the companies. They say they 
 were, because the meeting was called by circular, inviting the 
 parties to come together and consider the provisions of the Bill. 
 Now this is wonderful, because the article was written on the 
 llth of June, and the Bill was not presented until the 20th 
 of June, and was not printed and published until the 24th 
 of June. I have shown you that it was not when the committee 
 recommended the enactment of this power of revision or purchase 
 that the petition arose. It was not then that any shock was given 
 to the proprietors of railways, and it was not then that the secre- 
 taries and others became alarmed, and the lobbies became crowded 
 with parties immediately employed by the railway companies to 
 solicit members for their votes, it was not then this plan came 
 out. No, sir ; it was when we advised that the Bills should be 
 referred to the Board of Trade, and when the committee intimated 
 an opinion that that reference would cheapen the proceedings before 
 Parliamentary Committees. This is the powerful element of the 
 opposition, and of all that has taken place to render the Bill 
 unpopular. I have pointed out the secret source from which this 
 movement has arisen. The hon. member for Reading and other 
 hon. members will understand that I do not speak of them. They 
 have been the opponents of the Bill from the first. I speak of those 
 from whom the movement derives its organization ; and I say, that 
 those gentlemen who came here, on a misrepresentation of the 
 nature of the Bill, to oppose it, are made the unconscious instru- 
 ments of maintaining a lavish, and extravagant, and discreditable 
 system of private-bill legislation before this House. I am sorry I 
 have been obliged to detain the House so long, but there is one other 
 subject on which I wish to make a few remarks, and it is the last 
 topic on which I shall trouble the House. The Bill is represented 
 as an attack upon railway property, and the hon. member for 
 Sheffield intimated that it had given a great shock to that 
 property. It is really a farce to make use of such an expression ; 
 for there has been no shock to railway property. Even at 
 this moment there has been no shock to railway property, and 
 there has not been even as much as a dull day in the railway 
 market. I have been taunted to-night with having said that I 
 thought the consent of railway companies an essential condition to 
 a satisfactory arrangement. I believe I have gone nearly that 
 length. But I have the strongest impression that if the relations 
 
405 
 
 of Parliament and railway companies are to be satisfactorily carried 
 out, they must be founded upon the discretion and moderation of 
 both parties. I shrank from a contest with railway companies. 
 I would have foregone any measure founded upon popularity, if the 
 justice and necessity and policy of it had been capable of a doubt. 
 I knew the power of railway companies in the House, and was 
 satisfied, with justice on their side, they would be perfectly resist- 
 less ; but being persuaded that justice is not with them, but against 
 them being persuaded that they have misjudged the interests of 
 those on whose behalf they are appointed to act being persuaded 
 that the clamour which has been got up within the last three months 
 against the plan which, three months ago, was published, and of 
 which everybody approved, is misplaced being satisfied that it is 
 requisite we should reserve the power which it is now proposed to 
 reserve, I do not shrink from the contest. I contend that this 
 measure, so far from being a measure of violence, of an extreme or 
 doubtful character, is a measure of the utmost importance, and that 
 the option of revision and purchase is characterized by the utmost 
 temperance and moderation ; and feeling that we have right and 
 justice on our side, I say that, although the railway companies are 
 powerful, I do not think they have mounted so high, or that Parlia- 
 ment has yet sunk so low, as that, at their bidding, you shall refuse 
 your sanction to this Bill. 
 
 The Second Reading of the Bill was carried by a majority of 88 : 
 viz. : In favour of the Bill . . . .186 
 
 Against the Second Reading . . . 98 
 
 Printed by Woodfall and Kinder, Milford Lane, Strand, W.C. 
 
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