THE INFLUENCE; 
 
 OF 
 
 ENGLISH RAILWAY 
 LEGISLATION 
 
 OF 
 
 TRADE AND INDUSTRY: 
 
 WITH AN APPENDIX 
 
 TRACTS AND DOCUMENTS. 
 
 BY JAMES MORRISON, ESQ. 
 
 ?n 
 
 LONDON: 
 LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. 
 
 1848. 
 
LONDON: 
 
 JOSEPH RICKERBY, PRINTER, 
 SHERBOURN LANE, CITY. 
 
C O N T E N T S. 
 
 The Influence of English Railway Legislation on Trade and 
 
 Industry ........ 1 
 
 I. Speech, 17th of May, 1836, on moving a Resolution 
 relative to the Periodical Revision of Tolls and 
 Charges Levied on Railroads and other Public 
 Works ........ 101 
 
 II. Observations illustrative of the Defects of the English 
 
 System of Railway Legislation .... 110 
 
 III. Speech, March 20th, 1845, on moving Resolutions re- 
 
 specting Railways ...... 134 
 
 IV. Speech on moving for the appointment of a Select 
 Committee to inquire whether, " without discourag- 
 ing legitimate enterprise, conditions may not be em- 
 bodied in Railway Acts, better fitted than those 
 hitherto inserted in them, to promote and secure the 
 interests of the public" ...... 153 
 
 V. Draft Report, &c ........ 158 
 
 578300 
 
THE INFLUENCE 
 
 OF 
 
 ENGLISH RAILWAY LEGISLATION. 
 
 IT is now nearly twelve years since I first called the 
 attention of the House of Commons to the defects of our 
 system of legislation with regard to Railways. In com- 
 mon with most men, I was impressed with the immense 
 importance of an invention which promised, in no long 
 time, to supersede our accustomed means of communication ; 
 but I also saw that the community was exposed to serious 
 evils from the legislature conceding to private Companies 
 the powers required for making and working Railways, 
 unaccompanied by such conditions and restrictions as were 
 necessary to secure the public interests. This attempt to 
 rouse the legislature to a proper sense of its duty so that, 
 while it was yet time we might guard against abuses 
 pregnant with the most disastrous consequences was not 
 attended with the success on which I had some right to cal- 
 culate. But, though baffled for the time, I was not discou- 
 raged. When I found that nothing effectual was done by 
 those on whom this duty properly devolved, I appealed to 
 the public, through the press, and renewed my exertions 
 in the House of Commons ; and, in 1846, I succeeded in 
 obtaining a Committee, through the labours of which a 
 
 B 
 
* 4 * *** 1 "" * * J 
 
 - . *"' "'.J* ***" 
 
 valuable light was thrown on Railways, both British and 
 Foreign. 
 
 Freedom of inter-communication belongs, as a matter 
 of course, to the members of every social union. The 
 very idea of society implies intercourse ; and a road is 
 always one of the very first objects of solicitude to the 
 men who quit their native land for a home in the wilder- 
 ness. Our highways were of course free, with this limita- 
 tion, that occasionally, for the sake of the public conveni- 
 ence, parties were allowed to expend money on their 
 improvement, for which they were permitted to indemnify 
 themselves by a toll. Railways are improved highways, 
 and must more and more supersede them : they are high- 
 ways, however, that can only be used under regulation 
 and control. The public safety, as well as the eco- 
 nomy by which alone a Railway may be made to yield 
 a return for the expense of construction and working, 
 require that the passengers and goods shall proceed 
 along it in trains of vehicles, at certain fixed periods. 
 This difference between the highway and the Railway 
 renders it necessary that the latter should be placed under 
 a particular management, whether conducted by public 
 functionaries, or by the servants of those who have 
 obtained from the legislature a cession of the Lines, with 
 the privilege of indemnifying themselves by fares for the 
 outlay. 
 
 In some countries Railways have been constructed by 
 the state ; in others, partly by individuals and partly by 
 the state. When constructed by associations of indivi- 
 duals, cessions of the Lines have been granted either for 
 terms of years or in perpetuity. In this country, all the 
 
Lines have been ceded in perpetuity. Where the object 
 can be attained by a cession for a term of years, a cession 
 in perpetuity is of course objectionable ; but whether the 
 cession be for a term or in perpetuity, it is quite clear 
 that the legislature, as guardians of the public interests, 
 ought to have taken especial care that the exactions from 
 the public should be no more than would afford a suit- 
 able return to the associations for their outlay. The 
 cession was of the nature of a contract between the Com- 
 panies and the public, and if the legislature conceded 
 more to the Companies in this contract than was a just 
 equivalent for the services performed, it thereby betrayed 
 its trust.' 55 ' 
 
 Even at first, when it was problematical whether the 
 adventurers should lose the capital they embarked, or be 
 rewarded by success, ten per cent, on their outlay was 
 fixed by the legislature as the limit of their profits. 
 This extravagant return was continued in all the subse- 
 quent Acts, though a much smaller one had then become 
 a sufficient encouragement for the investment of capital 
 in Railways. But, whatever the rate, it is quite clear 
 that the Companies have no right to more ; and if, through 
 the negligence of the legislature, they have been permitted 
 to violate their contract by all manner of fraudulent eva- 
 sions, a great wrong has been suffered by the public. The 
 limitation of their profits to ten per cent, necessarily in- 
 vests the public with the right to ascertain, through an 
 impartial audit, what profits are made by the Companies, 
 
 * " In the instance of Railway legislation, the public interests 
 have been overlooked to a degree that is not very excusable."* 
 M'Culloch's British Empire, 3rd edition, vol. ii. p. 59. 
 
 B2 
 
in order that effect may be given to the stipulation, when 
 the 10 per cent, is exceeded. In disregard, however, 
 of every principle of justice and equity, the Companies 
 have been suffered, by the guardians of the public in- 
 terests, to treat with contempt the conditions on which 
 they obtained their cessions. It will be shown in the fol- 
 lowing pages, that the impunity with which Railway Com- 
 panies have been suffered to violate their agreements 
 with the public, by the evasion of the provisions for li- 
 miting their profits, and the exaction of fares and charges 
 not justified by their outlay, has produced a host of evils, 
 and ultimately an extraordinary amount of distress. 
 
 A departure from sound principles in commercial le- 
 gislation can never be hazarded with impunity. The 
 failure of the legislature to place our Railway system on a 
 proper footing has been attended with the most disastrous 
 results to trade and industry. The prospect of returns 
 far beyond the usual rates of profit, which the success of 
 the early constructed Lines went far to justify, led ne- 
 cessarily to the devotion of a disproportionate amount of 
 capital to Railways. When, however, the success of the 
 Liverpool and Manchester Line had removed all doubts as 
 to the possibility of executing Railways with profit, and 
 supplied the public with data for their guidance in simi- 
 lar undertakings, a fair return was all that was required 
 to encourage enterprise. To allow Companies to obtain 
 Acts, enabling them to receive from the public a dispro- 
 portionate return on their investments, was not a legiti- 
 mate encouragement of enterprise, but a stimulus to ex- 
 travagant speculation. Had parliament interposed in 
 time, and distinctly told Railway Companies, "You shall be 
 
allowed aerate of profit sufficient to indemnify you for your 
 outlay, and to encourage the investment of the additional 
 capital required for similar undertakings ; but we shall 
 secure to the public a right to participate directly in 
 such further advantages as may result from the inven- 
 tion," Kailway speculation, while it received a healthy 
 stimulus, would not have exceeded its proper limits ; and 
 such an amount of capital only would have been devoted 
 to it, as the savings of the country could have afforded, 
 without injuriously interfering with trade and industry. 
 To parliament, therefore, as the source of the evil, is chiefly 
 attributable the heavy calamities which the extravagant 
 expenditure on Railways has inflicted on the country. 
 Individuals are merely puppets put in motion by the legis- 
 lature. Day does not succeed night with greater certainty, 
 than a high rate of profit attracts capital to the channels 
 of enterprise, in which there is a fair prospect of its being 
 obtained. 
 
 It is not easy to overrate the disastrous influence of 
 the abuse of Kailway speculation. There is not a nook 
 or cranny throughout the land into which it has not 
 found an entrance. The experience of every man has 
 rendered him familiar with its effects. Allured by the 
 prospect of immense gains and rapid fortunes, all classes 
 rushed eagerly into Railroad speculations. The manu- 
 facturers and traders starved their business that they 
 might buy shares; and even resorted to the most des- 
 perate^expedients for raising money. Some idea of 
 the enormous sums which have been withdrawn from 
 industry by Railway speculation may be formed from 
 the recent statement of a Chairman of one of the Lines, 
 
(the South-Eastern,) that the people of Liverpool and 
 Manchester only have within the last four years supplied 
 three millions to that Line. If these two towns have sup- 
 plied three millions to one Line, what must the aggregate 
 of their advances amount to 1 
 
 Are we to be astonished then at the phenomena which 
 have lately been witnessed in the money market ? There 
 is now, indeed, but one opinion among those who from 
 their position and acquirements are looked up to as au- 
 thorities in these matters, that the late panic in the 
 money market was chiefly caused by the extravagant ex- 
 penditure on Railways. That other causes, such as the 
 Irish famine, and a deficiency in our own crops, contributed 
 to our difficulties, may be safely admitted ; but the funds 
 for payment of our importations of food could have been 
 supplied without materially trenching on the capital required 
 for the wants of commerce and industry. It was the heavy 
 and constantly increasing drains of the Railways, continued 
 during considerable periods, and the infliction on the trade 
 and industry of the country, of a competition in the 
 money market with shareowners, whose engagements often 
 rendered it necessary for them to borrow on the most ex- 
 travagant terms to avoid a total wreck, that led to that 
 extraordinary rise in the rate of interest, which commerce 
 was utterly unable to support. When a rise in the rate 
 of interest is caused by high commercial profits, it is an 
 unequivocal evidence of prosperity ; but in this case, the 
 rate of interest actually exceeded the rate of profits. For 
 months and months no money was raised for Railway 
 purposes at a lower rate of interest than 10 per cent., and 
 for at least a month 20 per cent, and even more was 
 
7 
 
 given. Now the ordinary profits of commerce have usually 
 been estimated under the lowest of these rates ; and it is 
 therefore evident that they cannot support an amount of 
 interest at all approaching to 10 per cent. The country 
 could not supply capital in sufficient amount for the wants 
 of the Railways, and the wants of trade and manufactures ; 
 and the consequence was that terrific pressure on the 
 money market, which far exceeded in severity anything 
 before experienced in this country. In ordinary circum- 
 stances, when profits fall, the rate of interest also falls ; but 
 the Railway demand was altogether exceptional, and trade 
 and industry could not carry on the struggle with it. The 
 result is yet fresh in our recollections. Whole classes have 
 been, as it were, decimated. Mercantile houses, ranking 
 high in general estimation, and hitherto supposed, whatso- 
 ever the reality, to be possessed of immense resources, fell, 
 one after another, in such numbers, that universal distrust 
 began to pervade the commercial world, and credit was 
 almost annihilated. Monied men asked themselves, where 
 is all this to stop ? Their faculties were, as it were, para- 
 Ijzed with apprehension ; and even now many hardly dare 
 trust themselves with reflection on the scenes through 
 which they passed. 
 
 It appears to me that a time like the present, in which 
 the wrecks of so many once-proud establishments floating 
 around us bear testimony to the magnitude of the evils 
 resulting from inordinate Railway speculation, and arraign 
 so forcibly the defective legislation in which they have 
 their source, is peculiarly appropriate for an inquiry 
 into the whole subject. The past is of course beyond 
 remedy ; but as a continuance of the same causes 
 
8 
 
 will naturally produce the same effects, if suffered to 
 run their course unchecked and uncontrolled, it be- 
 comes of paramount importance that we should endea- 
 vour to discover and adopt means for ensuring our future 
 safety. 
 
 The Kailway world have suffered largely from the dis- 
 tress which they were so instrumental in inflicting on 
 others. No description of property has felt more the 
 derangement of the money-market than Railway Shares. 
 Indeed, circumstances peculiar to them, to which I shall 
 hereafter advert, created a distress in the share-market 
 before property in general felt any material depreciation ; 
 and now that money can be readily obtained at low rates, 
 by persons of good credit and available resources, Railway 
 Shares still remain in an extreme state of depression. A 
 strong suspicion exists that the accounts of many Com- 
 panies have been framed with a view to purposes of 
 deception ; that, to swell the amount of apparent profits, 
 charges which ought to have been placed against receipts 
 have been paid out of capital ; and from the loose way 
 m wLicii the accounts of many Boards of Directors are 
 kept, the mystery in which they wrap their affairs, and 
 the want of an efficient audit, a justification is afforded 
 for distrust. It has been publicly affirmed, that many 
 Companies have been paying dividends more or less out 
 of capital ; and that some which have received credit for 
 yielding a tolerable per centage, have been enabled to 
 do so by their capital alone. Besides this cause of 
 distrust, the immensity of the engagements into which 
 many of the Lines have entered ; the belief that the 
 profits on old Lines will be swallowed up in a great 
 
9 
 
 measure by Branches of a less productive descrip- 
 tion, which in their eagerness to distance rivals, or to 
 exclude the public from low fares, the old Compa- 
 nies grasped with so much avidity ; the inability to 
 pay a series of calls for works which must be completed 
 before they can be productive, and which, at the same time, 
 gluts the market with shares, all conspire to depreciate 
 Railway property. The crooked policy, too, of many 
 Boards of Directors, who, during the palmy days of 
 Railway speculation, engrossed Line after Line, and 
 amalgamated right and left, guaranteeing large divi- 
 dends where little or no profit had ever been realized, 
 thus enabling parties in the secret to buy up beforehand 
 discredited stock, which they sold in a month or two, 
 sometimes at a profit of cent, per cent., and often much 
 more, tells now with fearful effect on the holders of 
 shares. 
 
 There was a time when some excuse might have been 
 offered for the defective legislation with regard to Railways. 
 When the gentlemen who projected the Liverpool and 
 Manchester Line first applied for their Act, few persons 
 believed that the enterprise would either be practicable 
 or profitable ; and it was hardly astonishing that under 
 such circumstances, no adequate protection for the public 
 should have been thought of. But when the Line 
 was fairly opened in 1830, and its success left it no 
 longer doubtful that Railways would afford a beneficial 
 investment for capital, the eyes of parliament should have 
 been opened to the importance of the invention, and the 
 influence it was likely to have on the interests of the 
 country. Any man possessed of ordinary powers of obser- 
 
10 
 
 vation and reflection must then have discovered that 
 Railways would soon supersede all other means of communi- 
 cation. Their superiority in point of speed and facility 
 was so manifest that parliament ought instantly to have 
 secured the community whatever benefit was derivable 
 from them, without discouraging enterprise, But, year 
 after year, parliament pursued the same heedless course 
 the lessons of experience were lost on it. On the 1 7th 
 of May, 1836, in my place in the House of Commons, I 
 endeavoured to draw attention to the evils of the course 
 we had been pursuing. On moving a resolution, " That 
 in all Railway Bills, it be made a condition, with a view 
 to the protection of the public interests, that the dividends 
 be limited to a certain rate ;* and that parliament should 
 reserve to itself the power of fixing periodically the tolls 
 chargeable on passengers and goods," I attempted to 
 impress the House with a due sense of the importance and 
 magnitude of the interests involved in the change which 
 was likely, " at no distant period, to transfer our chief 
 public conveyances from the king's highways to a number 
 of Joint-stock Railway Companies." I remarked that legiti- 
 mate speculation, where there was a probability of a reason- 
 able return, would not be checked by such legislative re- 
 strictions as the public interests required ; and I pointed 
 out the circumstances which rendered it peculiarly neces- 
 sary in the case of Railways, to protect the public in- 
 terests ; observing that " if any improvement took place 
 which tended to lower the cost, or to accelerate the speed 
 
 * The dividends had from the first been limited to 10 per cent., 
 but the Companies were suffered to act as if subject to no limitation. 
 
11 
 
 of our accustomed public conveyances, the public imme- 
 diately had the full benefit of it ; but in the numberless 
 Acts now before the House, no security is taken that the 
 public should have the benefit of any improvement in 
 Railways/' 
 
 At that time some of the greatest Railways in the king- 
 dom had only been commenced. The Great Western had 
 obtained their first Act in 1835, and twenty-three miles 
 of their Line were opened on the 4th June, 1838. The 
 London and Birmingham Company was earlier in the 
 field. Its Act of Incorporation dates from 1833; but, 
 although partially opened before, the whole of the Line to 
 Birmingham was not completed till 1839. Long posterior, 
 however, to the date of this motion, (17th of May, 1836,) 
 the various Companies had to apply to parliament for 
 fresh powers to enable them to proceed with their un- 
 dertakings ; and it was still time to have repaired any 
 oversight that might have been committed in first dealing 
 with these bodies. " If the public," I observed, " do not reap 
 from the Railways all the advantages it is entitled to, the 
 fault will be laid, and justly so, at our door. It is our 
 duty to give every fair encouragement to the enterprise of 
 individuals and of associations, but we are at the same time 
 bound to take care that we do not confer rights and privi- 
 leges on any individual, or set of individuals, which may 
 be employed to the public detriment, or which may hinder 
 the public from hereafter reaping advantages they would 
 have enjoyed, but for the existence of such rights and 
 immunities." 
 
 When once the conveyances of the highway are super- 
 seded, the public are entirely at the mercy of the Rail- 
 
12 
 
 way ; and on this account all the vigilance of parliament 
 was called for to guard against an abusive exercise of 
 the power which from the very nature of things must 
 be possessed by the Railway proprietors. Competition 
 on a given Line was out of the question ; and competing 
 lines, in all cases a distant remedy, were viewed by me 
 as affording at best, only a distant hope of relief from 
 monopoly. 
 
 The history of our Metropolitan Water and Gas Compa- 
 nies had already afforded an instructive lesson on this point ; 
 and Mr. Hudson, at a much later period, (1844,) in his evi- 
 dence before a Committee of the House, distinctly declared 
 that it was out of the power of parliament to prevent a com- 
 promise between competing Railways. I was led by con- 
 siderations such as these to doubt the possibility of 
 / remedying the evil, against which I wished to guard, by 
 the concession of competing Lines. " The Railway from 
 London to Liverpool/' I observed, " will cost, probably, 
 four or six millions sterling.* Suppose, now, that the 
 speculation should turn out a profitable one, and that the 
 shareholders realize a large dividend : it is plain that, 
 under the circumstances of the case, it would be all but 
 impossible to reduce it, or to lessen their charges upon 
 the public, by bringing a rival establishment into the 
 field : for, first, the existing Company is in possession of 
 the best Line ; and, secondly, were it seriously intended to 
 
 * In the infancy of Railways, no one dreamed of the possibility 
 of their construction requiring anything like the amount of capital 
 per mile which has since been expended. This was the very largest 
 sum which it was then supposed could be required for the London and 
 Birmingham Line : it is hardly necessary to remark that more than 
 twice that sum has actually been expended. 
 
13 
 
 form a rival establishment, the original Company would seek 
 to deter them, by reducing their charges ; and if, as is 
 probable, they succeeded in this way in getting rid of the 
 threatened competition, they might again raise their 
 charges to the continued injury of the public. But sup- 
 pose that in spite of all the difficulties opposed to the 
 formation of a new Company, one is formed, obtains an 
 Act, and actually comes into competition with the pre- 
 sent Line ; would not the obvious interest of both parties, 
 unless prevented by some such precaution as that which 
 I have proposed, inevitably bring about some understand- 
 ing between them, by which the high charges would be 
 further confirmed, and all chance of competition removed 
 to a greater distance ? " 
 
 With respect to Gas-works, Water-works, or other 
 associations, the process by which the attempts of the 
 public to bring down the prices charged by existing Com- 
 panies by means of the erection of works of the same 
 description under new Acts, had always been frustrated, 
 was something like this : When dissatisfaction with the 
 charges of an old Company led to the formation of ano- 
 ther, the dividend paid by the former was expected by 
 the latter. To avoid competition, the old Company never 
 failed to surrender to the new, part of a district ; but in 
 order to pay the same dividend, while the number of 
 houses supplied by each was diminished, the per centage 
 of expenditure was necessarily increased ; and thus, in- 
 stead of the public being supplied on lower terms than 
 before, a rise invariably took place. It is now seen that 
 the way to benefit the public, is not to seek to lower 
 charges by competition, but by enforcing low charges, and 
 
14 
 
 reserving the power of revision. The question, in all such 
 cases, must be, without abandoning competition as a ge- 
 neral principle, By what means may the public advan- 
 tage be best secured 1 
 
 Besides the doubts which I entertained of the efficacy 
 of competing Lines as a security to the public against 
 an abusive exercise of monopoly, I objected to the con- 
 struction of two Lines where one was sufficient for the 
 public accommodation, as unnecessarily, and therefore 
 wastefully, employing the capital of the country, and in- 
 creasing the cost of that accommodation. 
 
 From the first the legislature acted with regard to Rail- 
 ways, on the assumption, which is at variance with all ex- 
 perience, that their construction and the mode of working 
 them were susceptible of no improvement ; and in fixing 
 the rates of charge, lost sight of the consideration that 
 the sum, which constituted a suitable remuneration one 
 year, might be an extravagant remuneration in another. 
 "What I contended for was, that parliament should in- 
 variably reserve to itself the power to make periodical 
 revisions of the rates of charge, always taking care to 
 allow the proprietors an adequate return for original 
 outlay and risk. To allow the proprietors of Railways 
 to charge certain rates on all parties using them 
 in all time to come, though the expenses of working 
 might experience a continual diminution, and the traffic 
 might increase a hundred or a thousandfold, was irrecon- 
 cilable with every sound principle of legislation. Ac- 
 cording to Mr. Robert Stephenson, the expenses of work- 
 ing trains on the London and Birmingham Line, had fallen, 
 in the course of only five or six years, from 6s. or 6s 
 
15 
 
 and 6d., to from 3s. to 5s. per mile.* But the reduction 
 of the expense of working did not then cease, but is still 
 going on. 
 
 The Americans had set us an example in the manage- 
 ment of their public works by which we ought to have 
 profited. The Erie Canal, one of the greatest undertakings 
 in the world, which was completed in 1825, had, notwith- 
 standing a progressive reduction of tolls, (in two years 
 only, as much as 35 per cent,) accumulated a surplus 
 of five millions of dollars, and in twelve years would have 
 paid the whole cost of construction, and become a source 
 of revenue to the state. 
 
 Such in substance were the views which, in 1836, 1 en- 
 deavoured to impress on the legislature. The proposition 
 was well received by the House, and instead of moving the 
 Resolution which I had proposed, I was called upon gene- 
 rally to move at once for leave to bring in a bill to effect 
 the proposed object, which I accordingly did. The bill was 
 brought in, and, as usual, was read a first time ; but before 
 the time of the second reading arrived, I found that 
 doubts were entertained in high quarters as to the 
 advisableness of interfering with new undertakings, by 
 which capitalists might be deterred from embarking in 
 them ; and that I could look for no support where sup- 
 port was absolutely necessary to ensure success. It was 
 objected, too, that the principle of interference with private 
 enterprise was new in our legislation ; that too much 
 power would be placed in parliament ; and that those who 
 might otherwise be disposed to invest their money in 
 
 * Second Report, Railways Acts Enactments, Minutes of Evi- 
 dence, p. 192. 
 
16 
 
 Railways, would feel a repugnance to be so much in the 
 hands of the House of Commons. Finally, it was said, 
 that the measure I proposed was now of little importance, 
 (an argument not altogether in keeping with the fears 
 that it might place so much power in the hands of parlia- 
 ment,) and that it came too late ! The Liverpool and 
 Manchester Line was already made ; bills had passed for 
 Lines to Bristol and Southampton. The Birmingham 
 Line, it was alleged, was in the course of construction ; 
 and it was impossible that any other Lines could pay. 
 Finding that I could not expect that support, without 
 which it would have been hopeless for me, as an indepen- 
 dent member, to face the powerful interests which were 
 already beginning to show themselves in favour of Rail- 
 way speculations, I abandoned the bill. The Duke of 
 Wellington, however, who has always been distinguished 
 for strong good sense, the conscientiousness with which 
 he examines every question that comes before him, 
 and the manly sincerity with which he gives expres- 
 sion to his convictions, having turned his attention to 
 Railways, became strongly impressed with the necessity 
 of subjecting them to proper regulation ; and moved and 
 carried a Resolution in the House of Lords, reserving the 
 power during the next session of parliament, to deal as 
 it might seem advisable with the subject. The next 
 session, however, passed without anything having been 
 done towards remedying the evil ; and as the Railway 
 interest increased in strength in the sessions that followed, 
 with the new bills that were constantly passed, the 
 Companies began more and more to disclose the most 
 ambitious views ; till at length, from the difficulties with 
 
17 
 
 which the subject was beset, the Government were pro- 
 bably reluctant to enter on it, and it became utterly 
 impossible for others to deal effectually with the question. 
 Although it was generally felt and admitted that some 
 legislative measures of a general and comprehensive 
 nature would soon become indispensable, yet still, in 
 the meantime, nothing was attempted. While we were 
 acting with such supineness, the French Government had 
 adopted various regulations similar to those urged by me, 
 such as the fixing of fares and charges, the principle of 
 periodical revision, and the audit of accounts, in their 
 Railway legislation, which have been applied to all the 
 Lines made and projected in that country : a contrast 
 to our legislation, little to our credit. 
 
 The cry set up by the Railway authorities, that the 
 employment of capital should not be interfered with, 
 and that full scope should be afforded to enterprise, was 
 slavishly echoed by parties from whom better things might 
 have been expected! Why, the whole system of ceding 
 Lines in perpetuity, is an interference with the free 
 employment of capital and unrestricted enterprise ! A 
 Company obtain by their Act a monopoly of the traffic 
 on the Line to be constructed by them. That compe- 
 tition, by which the rights of capitalists and the public 
 interests are reconciled, where enterprise is left free, is 
 excluded from undertakings which place the public under 
 the control of the proprietors of a Railway. When a 
 landlord embarks money in the improvement of his 
 estate, or a manufacturer in erecting a mill, the returns 
 are not regulated by the amount of outlay, but by the 
 prices at which other landowners and manufacturers offer 
 
18 
 
 their commodities for sale. But the Railway starts with 
 the monopoly of a Line ; and if the charges are too 
 high in consequence of the neglect of the legislature to 
 secure low fares, the public may long be without any 
 remedy. Those who raised this cry were not themselves 
 its dupes. Many years had not passed from the first 
 opening of Railways, before a magnificent scheme of 
 combination began to be formed by the leading Com- 
 panies, to exclude the possibility of future interference 
 with their monopoly. A statement was read to Mr. Glad- 
 stone's Committee, by Captain Laws, the present Manager 
 of the Great Northern Line, who was present at one of the 
 Meetings where this scheme was sanctioned, that " by the 
 statements made at Railway Meetings held at York, Gains- 
 borough, and Lincoln, within the last fortnight, (this 
 evidence was given on the 22nd April, 1844,) it appears 
 a combination now exists between the London and Bir- 
 mingham, the Amalgamated Midland, the York and North 
 Midland, and all the Lines in connexion, and that are to 
 be in connexion, north of York to Edinburgh ; and that 
 they had only to stand firm to themselves, and any com- 
 petition would be very harmless ; and that an extension 
 of the same combination had already passed through 
 Committee in the House of Commons from York to Scar- 
 borough, and Leeds to Bradford ; and that, in the ensuing 
 session of parliament, powers were to be sought to make 
 a Line from the North Midland, near Swinton, and the 
 Midland Counties from Nottingham, to meet at Lincoln, 
 and another Line from a point north of Swinton to a point 
 on the Sheffield and Manchester Line, called Peniston 
 Moor, which, with the Sheffield and Manchester, and 
 
19 
 
 Sheffield and Rotherham, would become a part and parcel 
 of the same interest. And, extensive as this combination 
 appears, there is (provided parliament grant the powers) 
 nothing impracticable in it, as it was stated that all the 
 new capital would be guaranteed by the existing Lines, 
 and that the London and Birmingham had offered to sub- 
 scribe largely to that object. Were such a combination 
 to exist, it would completely defeat any limit of dividend 
 or check from competition ; for, however threatening a : 
 new Line might appear before parliament, if this com- 
 bination were allowed to extend themselves east and 
 west from Lincoln to Manchester, and north and south 
 from London to Edinburgh, they could perfectly defeat 
 any competing Line, and very soon drive them into their 
 own terms, and thus establish the privilege exclusively of 
 fixing the rates and carrying the traffic by a circuitous 
 route, not only through the Midland Counties districts, 
 but also the Eastern ; for in the event of the North- 
 Eastern extending, as they intend, their Line to Boston or 
 Lincoln, they could divert, by various means of delay, &c., 
 the greater part of the traffic from thence, or any direct 
 Line north and south." This scheme forms a very in- 
 structive commentary on the position that the liberty of 
 enterprise demands that there should be no restrictions on 
 Railway Companies. 
 
 The Act for the Regulation of Railways, passed in 1842, 
 commonly known by the name of Lord Seymour's Act, had 
 reference merely to matters of police, and modes of pro- 
 cedure, in disputes between Railways and other interested 
 parties. 
 
 But in 1844 the Government took a step from which 
 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 important results were anticipated. On the 5th February 
 of that year, Mr. Gladstone, as president of the Board of 
 Trade, moved the appointment of a Select Committee, to 
 consider whether any and what new provisions ought to 
 be introduced into such Railway Bills as might come 
 before the House, during that or future sessions, for the 
 advantage of the public, and the improvement of the 
 Railway system. The Committee appointed in pursuance 
 of that motion took much valuable evidence, which, ac- 
 companied by a Report, was in the course of the session 
 laid before the House. The Act of the 7 & 8 Victoria, 
 cap. 85, to attach certain conditions to the construction 
 jjjj Jbf future Railways, was passed in pursuance of the recom- 
 \. [/ mendation of the Committee. The Act by no means an- 
 swered the expectations of those who were anxious for an 
 effectual remedy for the evils of our Railway system, 
 which had already made themselves severely felt. It pro- 
 vided that, after a lapse of twenty-one years, when the 
 A dividends should equal or exceed ten per cent., the Lords 
 of the Treasury, on giving three months' notice, might 
 revise the scale of tolls, fares, and charges ; but as the Act 
 contained no provision for subjecting the accounts of Com- 
 panies to an effectual audit, the public had no means of 
 knowing when the nett receipts of a Company equalled or 
 exceeded ten per cent. ; and as Companies were left at full 
 liberty to adjust in what manner they pleased the princi- 
 ple on which dividends should be calculated, no advantage 
 could be taken of the power of revision. Companies had 
 it completely in their power to keep parliament and the 
 public in the dark as to the real state of their affairs. 
 Bad, therefore, as matters were before, the Act of the 
 
21 
 
 7 & 8 Viet. cap. 85, may be truly said to have made them 
 infinitely worse. Parliament, it is true, had before granted 
 to Companies applying for Bills every thing which they chose 
 to demand, with but few stipulations in favour of the pub- 
 lic, and those of little value. But there was always a pro- 
 bability that the legislature might one day awaken to a 
 sense of its duties, and endeavour to make the stipulation 
 in the Liverpool and Manchester and other Railway Bills, 
 that the excess of profits above ten per cent, should belong 
 to the public, effectual for its object. There was always 
 hanging over the heads of the Companies a danger that 
 parliament might impose conditions on them, by which 
 their dividends could have been fixed at ten per cent., or 
 even reduced below that amount, and such a system of 
 control established as would have rendered it impossible 
 for them to evade or disregard these conditions. Besides, 
 that prolific source of abuse, the creation of new shares 
 to be divided among the Proprietors at par, when selling 
 in the market at cent, per cent, premium, for their exclu- 
 sive benefit, had never, I believe, been before recognised in 
 any single case, and was considered of doubtful legality. 
 But all doubt upon the subject was removed by the Com- 
 panies' Clauses Consolidation Act, that followed the Act 
 of the 7 & 8 Viet., by which the past and the future 
 were equally legalized. The power of interference with 
 a view to make the 10 per cent, condition effectual 
 in behalf of the public, which it was notorious had been 
 utterly disregarded by Joint Stock Companies, and parti- 
 cularly by the Liverpool and Manchester Company, was 
 thereby renounced. With the evidence before him of the 
 many shifts to which Companies were in the habit of re- 
 
22 
 
 sorting to vary the rate of dividends at pleasure, Mr. 
 Gladstone gave the public no prospect of relief from 
 control or revision till the 10 per cent, had been reached, 
 while he made no provision for auditing accounts, so that 
 all means of ascertaining whether it had been reached 
 or exceeded were withheld. The consequences which 
 might naturally have been expected immediately fol- 
 lowed. Companies having now something like a parlia- 
 mentary guarantee, or what was considered such by many 
 people, began to issue new shares for almost every pur- 
 pose. The whole system of branches and extensions, 
 purchases, and amalgamations with other Lines and with 
 canals, subscriptions to new Lines, harbours, oi- any other 
 public works, for all which the means were obtained 
 by the issue of new shares, received its full develope- 
 mefit. The new schemes were in many cases by no 
 means eligible with reference to their ultimate produc- 
 tiveness ; it was enough, however, that they offered the 
 means by which shareholders could immediately realize a 
 large bonus. The Companies crowded to Parliament with 
 their projects ; fought with each other for districts, as fields 
 for enterprise, like so many contending armies ; covered 
 the face of the country with hosts of surveyors and engi- 
 neers ; filled every hotel and lodging-house of the metro- 
 polis with agents and witnesses ; and succeeded in infusing 
 into all ranks and conditions, and both sexes, young and 
 old, an eagerness, amounting almost to frenzy, to partake in 
 the golden harvest. The enormous sums realized by 
 certain great Companies through means supposed to be 
 now legalized, infected the whole community with an in- 
 ordinate desire of sudden wealth. For every million ex- 
 
23 
 
 pended under the authorization of Parliament on certain 
 Railways, another million passed into the pockets of the 
 shareholders,""" just as effectually as if it had been voted 
 directly to them by the House of Commons, and paid by 
 the Treasury from the public revenue. There is no pa- 
 rallel to be found in the history of the legislation of this 
 or any other country to this gigantic abuse. 
 
 Hence the Companies' Clauses Consolidation Act, (the 
 8 Victoria,) by the sanction which it was understood to 
 give to the creation of fresh shares to be issued at par, 
 and by its securing to the proprietors an equal distribution 
 of the new shares among themselves, which had in former 
 cases of some smaller Joint Stock Companies, been, as they 
 thought, unfairly monopolized by Directors and their fa- 
 vourites, contributed greatly to augment the evil which the 
 previous defective legislation had called into existence. 
 
 On the 14th July, 1845, I addressed, at his request, 
 a letter to the Earl of Dalhousie, then at the head of 
 the Railway Department of the Board of Trade, contain- 
 ing the substance of certain suggestions which I had 
 
 * The large sums received in this way contributed to the advance- 
 ment of no one beneficial object. The public were in no wise bene- 
 fited ; and so far from benefiting the Railway itself, it was generally 
 injured by the schemes for which the new shares were issued. The 
 advantage was confined to the small number of individuals who might 
 happen at the time to be proprietors, and who, in a month after- 
 wards, might be no longer so. Mr. Hudson, when asked what the 
 proprietor of a 50 share in the York and North Midland would 
 have obtained in the wav of premiums upon the different issues, an- 
 swered, " Many men cannot hold ; they are obliged to sell ;" leaving 
 it to be inferred that the men who pocket the premiums often part 
 with their shares soon afterwards. 
 
24 
 
 ventured in conversation to make to his lordship. In 
 this letter I stated, as universally admitted, " that it is 
 the duty, as it must be the work of Parliament, to pro- 
 vide that the Railways which are endowed with many 
 privileges by the law, should afford to the public the 
 cheapest and most expeditious means of travelling, com- 
 patible with a fair remuneration to the capitalist for his 
 outlay. But unfortunately it is difficult in the present 
 state of our knowledge for Committees of the House of 
 Commons to ascertain the true and proper limits of charge, 
 to establish, in other words, a fair tariff ; to estimate cor- 
 rectly the amount of necessary expenditure; or to draw that 
 line which, while it provides effectually for the public in- 
 terest, does no injustice to the constructors of the road. 
 There is at present no record of experience to which the 
 Members of a Committee can refer, and having no know- 
 ledge in most cases themselves upon the subject, they are 
 driven to depend upon their own unaided judgment, or to 
 seek for information from parties who, by their position 
 and habits, are likely to afford them anything rather than 
 disinterested and satisfactory information. In similar 
 circumstances it has been the custom of this and other 
 Governments to make systematic inquiries ; I need not 
 enumerate the occasions on which this course has been 
 adopted by our own. At the present moment this re- 
 markable circumstance is to be observed : in England we 
 have the most perfect mechanical skill and power of any 
 nation in the world ; and we have also at hand, in 
 abundance, labour, iron, coal, and machinery we have, 
 in fact, all those things in greater abundance, and can obtain 
 them at a cheaper rate than any other nation. The na- 
 
25 
 
 tural consequence of such a state of things, we should 
 fancy, would be, that our Railroads would be constructed 
 and worked at a cheaper rate than those of any other 
 people ; and that the charge for travelling on them would 
 be lower than among many continental nations : but such 
 is not the case. France, for example, with less admirable 
 machinery, inferior skill, smaller capital, dearer iron and 
 coal, has been able to secure for her people cheaper travel- 
 ling than we in England enjoy. This remarkable con- 
 dition, I submit to your lordship, calls for inquiry ; and the 
 object of my present letter is to suggest the propriety of 
 instituting such an inquiry, by means of a commission, 
 which should make full search into all the circumstances 
 attending the formation of Railroads in the various coun- 
 tries of Europe, especially where the right to make these 
 roads is conceded to private Companies, and report the 
 whole cost, and the various items of cost, in the construc- 
 tion, the mode and cost of working the Line, and the 
 whole tariff of charges. A body of evidence thus col- 
 lected from authentic sources would be, in my opinion, of 
 the highest utility to parliament in all our future legisla- 
 tion upon this important subject." 
 
 Nothing, however, was done by his lordship to give 
 effect to the suggestions in this letter ; and the reason 
 he assigned for this was, that he really could not find 
 a person competent from his qualifications for such a 
 commission, as the Railway Companies had engrossed all 
 the talent available for the purpose. I am quite satis- 
 fied that if the determination had rested altogether with 
 Lord Dalhousie, we should be in a far better state with 
 regard to Railways than we now are. It is evident, 
 
26 
 
 from his Reports, that he thoroughly understood the 
 subject, and knew the means by which the public could 
 be most benefited by Railways. 
 
 But though no Commission was appointed ; it will be 
 seen that several of the points respecting which it was 
 recommended that information should be obtained, re- 
 ceived considerable elucidation in the following year. 
 
 The next step taken by me was to move that it be left 
 to Committees on Railway Bills in each case to settle the 
 tariffs of fares and charges which the Companies should 
 be allowed to charge. Parliament, however, except in a 
 very few instances, never acted on this Resolution. 
 
 In 1846, while speculation was at the height of its 
 madness with regard to Railways, and consequences of a 
 very serious nature were to be apprehended from a con- 
 tinuance in the course we were then pursuing, I deemed it 
 advisable to publish the annexed " Observations illustra- 
 tive of the Defects of the English System of Railway 
 Legislation, and of its injurious Operations on the Public 
 Interests; with Suggestions for its Improvement." In 
 that publication, I entered very fully into the various 
 bearings of this important subject : and, as the consi- 
 derations which I then urged have received addi- 
 tional force from recent events, I trust I shall be par- 
 doned for again requesting for them the attention of the 
 reader.* 
 
 In 1836 I had assumed that the best Lines had been 
 first seized on; and conceiving the possibility of recon- 
 ciling the interests of the monopolists with those of the 
 public, I was anxious to guard against an unnecessary 
 expenditure of capital in the construction of new Lines, 
 
 * Sec >. 110. 
 
27 
 
 and an undue waste of the soil of the country.*'' But 
 in the interval, between 1836 and 1846, parliament, 
 proceeding with the same disregard of the public in- 
 terests, had conceded numberless Lines and Branches 
 without taking any security against extortionate fares; 
 and Mr. Gladstone's Act of 1844 left matters in a 
 worse condition than it found them in, as the hopes it 
 held out of revision were utterly illusory. There was, 
 however, also a probability that one or more of the 
 old Lines would not be able to afford sufficient accom- 
 modation to the enormous and continually increasing 
 traffic of the country, and Lines had been projected 
 affording more direct communication to many important 
 Districts, which, by the exercise of ordinary care on the 
 part of parliament, through a competition with the old 
 Lines, might, I thought, compel them to the adoption of 
 greatly reduced fares and charges. 
 
 Strongly impressed with the necessity of a change in our 
 Railway system in accordance with the views in question, 
 on the 19th of March, 1846, I moved for the appoint- 
 ment of a Select Committee to inquire whether, without 
 discouraging legitimate enterprise, conditions might not 
 be embodied in Eailway Acts, better fitted than those 
 hitherto inserted in them, to promote and secure the inte- 
 
 * It may be doubted whether, strictly speaking, the portion of 
 soil taken for a railway is wasted. If the area is diminished, the 
 productive power of the land intersected by the Railway is so much 
 increased by the facilities it affords for the conveyance of manures, 
 and other means for fertilizing soils, that this increase more than com- 
 pensates for the ground appropriated to the Line. But when more is 
 paid for the land than its worth, in order to buy off threatened or ap- 
 prehended opposition, the excess is as much a waste of capital, as the 
 extravagant fees paid to counsel. 
 
28 
 
 rests of the public. la introducing that motion, I stated 
 that I expected to be able to show that the system of 
 cheap fares, not in England only but the other countries of 
 Europe, had been found most advantageous and profitable, 
 and that in almost every case the Companies which had 
 tried the experiment had not been injured, but benefited 
 by it.* I stated also that I proposed to inquire into the 
 
 * Tt has been alleged that there is an inconsistency between the 
 statement that cheap fares are profitable to Railway Companies, and 
 that, in almost every case, the Companies which had tried the ex- 
 periment had benefited by it and the course of argument pursued 
 by me, to show the importance of the legislature preventing the 
 enhancement of fares, in order to raise the rate of dividend. But 
 the inconsistency is only in appearance. There are, in the first 
 place, districts in which high fares would have the effect of prevent- 
 ing all traffic on Railways; and again, there are other districts where 
 high fares can be levied without producing that result. The distinc- 
 tion is clearly drawn by Mr. Peto. (Railway Acts Enactments, Min. 
 of Evidence, p. 242.) " I am at present constructing a Line in an 
 agricultural district; and in conversation with the Directors, I have 
 told them several times, that unless they make their rate of fares 
 upon the Line very low indeed, they will get scarcely any traffic ; if 
 they put it as low as we did between Norwich and Yarmouth, they 
 will have a very large traffic, but not otherwise. * * * * 
 In another district, where there is a sufficient class of inhabitants 
 all together, say in the vicinity of London, and where Lines are very 
 costly indeed, there are a number of people coming to business every 
 morning, they can afford to pay rather more, and you would get 
 them under any circumstances." In p. 48, a quotation is made 
 from the evidence of Mr. Robert Stephenson before the same Com- 
 mittee, that " you increase your income by diminishing your fares up 
 to a certain point; and beyond that point, if you go on diminishing 
 the fares, you diminish your income." One Railway may exact 
 fares which will destroy the traffic on its Line, while another Railway 
 may exact fares considerably higher, without producing any such re- 
 sult. Again, there are Lines, forming joints of a long trunk, which, 
 if not prevented by parliament, can charge with impunity very high 
 
29 
 
 practicability of relieving Railway Committees from the 
 weight of business which oppressed them; and also into 
 the important subject of substituting leases of Lines for 
 concessions in perpetuity. Without endeavouring to eflect 
 an absolute uniformity in the scale of charges, which must 
 vary to some extent with the circumstances of each par- 
 ticular case, I expressed a belief that considerably reduced 
 fares would be found of advantage to all parties, and that 
 the right of revision should be reserved at periods con- 
 siderably under twenty years apart. I briefly contrasted 
 the French and English Lines, and the circumstances of the 
 two countries, alluded to the then recent failure of the 
 Railway Department of the Board of Trade to efiect a 
 beneficial change in our Railway system ; and by way of 
 illustrating the advantages which England possessed over 
 France for Railway undertakings, I gave the population of 
 ten of the principal towns in each country, with the ship- 
 ping of the ten principal English and French ports.* 
 
 The motion was not opposed, and a Committee 
 was appointed ; consisting of the Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer, (Mr. Goulburn,) Lord John Russell, Mr. Hudson, 
 Sir George Grey, Sir George Clerk, Mr. Wilson Patten, Mr. 
 Warburton, Mr. Labouchere, Mr. Sidney Herbert, Mr. 
 George Hamilton, Mr. Parker, Mr. Hume, Mr. Charles Rus- 
 sell, Sir John Easthope, and myself. 
 
 Without entering into a detailed account of the 
 evidence taken by the Committee, it may be briefly 
 stated that the cheapness of the fares in foreign countries, 
 
 fares indeed, as the through passengers are obliged to use them, 
 and must consequently submit to almost any amount of exaction. 
 * See p. 153. 
 
30 
 
 as compared with the fares in England, and the greater 
 consideration paid in the former to the humbler classes of 
 passengers, were abundantly proved, whilst it was equally 
 proved that the cost of the materials used in constructing 
 the Lines, of earthwork, and the expenses of working the 
 Lines, were higher abroad than in this country. Mr. 
 Reed, who had been secretary of the Southampton Line, 
 and was a Director of the Paris and Rouen and Rouen 
 and Havre Railways, whose evidence, in that respect, 
 was confirmed by Mr. Brassey, the well-known contractor, 
 stated that the cost of earthwork is much the same in 
 England and France, that the rails and chairs which on 
 the Southampton Line cost 2,790 per mile, cost 4,635 
 per mile on the Paris and Rouen Line ; that the working 
 of the former Line cost about Is. a mile, while it was 
 about Is. 4d. on the Paris and Rouen Line ; that the 
 locomotive power and carriages cost about 14^ per cent, 
 on the former, and 16-^ per cent, on the latter. The 
 advantages of England in point of cheapness appeared 
 still more conspicuous, when a comparison was instituted 
 between the French and some of the other English Lines, 
 which pay much less for their coke, than the Lines of 
 the south of England. The details of the expenses of 
 constructing and working nearly all the English and 
 Scotch Lines, are to be found in the documentary evi- 
 dence annexed to the Report. 
 
 From the first, parliament was merely considered an 
 arena for the struggles of the projectors of conflicting Lines, 
 having hardly any regard for the mode in which the public 
 would be affected. System, as I have already observed, 
 was out of the question. Some of the witnesses examined 
 
31 
 
 give a very striking account of the arbitrary mode in 
 which Companies were suffered to deal with the country, 
 and highly illustrative of the character of the tribunal 
 before which their struggles were conducted. " I would 
 say," observed Mr. Robert Stephenson,* " that the London 
 and Birmingham ought to have been commanded some 
 years ago to have made their Northampton and Peter- 
 borough Line. The London and Birmingham, again, have 
 a branch to Aylesbury ; I think they ought to have been 
 compelled to extend that branch to Thame : that is 
 a town left between the Great "Western and the London 
 and Birmingham, without the benefits of Railway com- 
 munication." And with respect to the partitioning the 
 country, the same gentleman observes,t " I will take the 
 case of the struggle between the Great Western and the 
 London and Birmingham for particular Lines, and essen- 
 tially other contests will be the same ; it was a mere 
 battle who should get the casting vote of the Chairman 
 in that Committee." These struggles led, when the share- 
 market was high, to results in many cases much more 
 agreeable to those to whom it afforded the means of 
 pocketing high premiums on new shares, than to those 
 who purchased shares unduly enhanced in price as a 
 permanent investment. It has been found that many of 
 the Branch Lines, however convenient they might have 
 been for the creation of stock when shares were at a 
 premium, have, on their completion, afforded small returns, 
 and thus lowered the general rate of profit derivable 
 from trunks and branches taken together, and as this 
 
 * Second Rep. Raflway Acts Enactment, Min. of Evid. p. 200. 
 f Ibid, p, 196. 
 
32 
 
 result must lower dividends, where they are not paid in 
 part out of capital, the purchaser of the present day will 
 only consent to pay a price corresponding to the actual 
 profits of the united concern. 
 
 I was anxious to. have light thrown on a practice which 
 seemed utterly at variance with the provision of the Act of 
 1844 ; and in the report which, as Chairman, I drew up, 
 and which was by mistake printed with the evidence, 
 and has been distributed, though, from the close of the 
 session before it could be submitted to the Committee, it did 
 not, of course, receive their sanction,"''" there occurs the fol- 
 lowing passage : " It is established by the most saisfac- 
 tory evidence that, in the case of many Companies, large 
 additions have been made to the nominal capitals, beyond 
 what has been required by the actual outlay, through 
 the creation of shares, not at the current market price, 
 but at par. To take one of the most common operations 
 of the successful Companies, if, for instance, shares being 
 at cent, per cent, premium, a million were required for 
 an undertaking, and to raise that million, shares for a 
 million were created, in order to enable the proprietors 
 to divide among themselves another million in the shape 
 of premiums, it is clear that the nominal capital exceeds 
 by 500,000 that of which the actual outlay required 
 the creation ; and consequently, that a dividend is made 
 on a sum exceeding by so much that outlay. In this way 
 the object of parliament, in subjecting Companies to a 
 revision of fares when the dividends should equal or 
 exceed 10 per cent., could always be defeated. Mr. 
 Hudson, a member of your Committee, specified several 
 
 * See p. 158. 
 
33 
 
 instances in Companies with which he was connected, 
 where large additions were made to the nominal capitals, 
 by these and other means. For instance, he states that 
 by an arrangement between the Great Northern"" and the 
 Great North of England Railway, it was stipulated that 
 the latter should receive 10 per cent, on every 100 share 
 till 1851, when they had a claim to be paid off in 4 per 
 cent, stock, at 250 a share ; thus creating a new nominal 
 capital of 250 for every 100. He states also that to 
 meet a purchase by the Newcastle and Darlington Company, 
 new shares were issued to the proprietors at par, when 
 they were at a premium of 20. It is obvious that the 
 money required could have been obtained by a much 
 smaller issue of shares, had the 20 premiums, as well 
 as the 25 shares, been applied to the purposes of the 
 Company, and not divided as a bonus among the proprietors. 
 This practice of swelling the nominal amount of stocks 
 beyond the actual outlay on the Lines, which has exten- 
 sively prevailed, was recently noticed, in reports presented 
 by Mr. Ellice, from the Select Committee on group 58 
 of Railway Bills, in which it is stated, that in the Hull 
 and Selby Purchase Bill, the actual outlay and estimates 
 for further works is 955,363, while the money to be 
 raised by the Bill is two millions, exceeding the outlay and 
 the engagements of the Hull and Selby proprietors by the 
 large sum of nearly a million ; and that in the Great North of 
 England Railway Purchase Bill, the actual outlay and esti- 
 mate for additional works is 1,49 6,79 6. 18s. 4d. ; the pro- 
 posed capital 4,000,000 ; exceeding the actual outlay 
 
 * Sic in Minutes of Evidence, p. 251. Instead of Great Northern, 
 read Newcastle and Darlington, the Company alluded to. 
 
34 
 
 and engagements of the Great North of England pro- 
 prietors, by the sum of 2,503,003. Is. 8d." After refer- 
 ring to the evidence of Mr. William Reed, who stated 
 that the French Government rejected the application of 
 the Paris and Rouen Railway to be allowed to raise 
 money by the issue of new shares to the proprietors 
 at par, on the ground that the rights of the future pro- 
 prietors would be compromised by the issue of shares at 
 par, when at a premium, the report proceeds to notice 
 the defence set up for the practice, by some of the Rail- 
 road proprietors in this country, that it is immaterial 
 whether the money required by the Companies be raised 
 by the creation of new stock or by loans, and whether the 
 shareholders receive increased dividends on smaller capi- 
 tals, or smaller dividends on larger capitals. "If," says 
 the report, " the rate of dividend is to determine whether 
 the scale of fares shall be subjected to revision by the 
 Government on behalf of the public, it is of the very first 
 consequence that the capitals should correspond with the 
 original outlay. It may be the same thing to permanent 
 proprietors, whether they pocket large bonuses, and increase 
 their capitals by sums exceeding the money laid out on 
 the roads, by the amount of such bonuses, and receive pro- 
 portionably smaller dividends ; but it is a very different 
 thing to the public, if the scales of fares are to be governed 
 by the rate of dividend, whether they pay high fares or 
 low fares." 
 
 Much evidence was given to show the immense importance 
 of low fares with reference to the industry of the country ; 
 and it appeared that in not a few instances Railways had 
 found it for their interest to submit to considerable reduc- 
 
35 
 
 tions. The object of the Railway proprietors when un- 
 checked by parliamentary restrictions, is of course to adopt 
 that scale which shall afford to them the highest return 
 without reference to any other interests than their own ; 
 the object of the legislature ought to be to enforce the 
 adoption of the lowest scale compatible with a suitable re- 
 turn on the capital invested. But here we are met by the 
 difficulty to which I alluded in the publication of 1846 : 
 the criterion by which the title to remuneration is to be 
 determined. A Company have laid out their money inju- 
 diciously, their purchases have been ill advised, more econo- 
 mical processes in constructing Railways have been disco- 
 vered since they completed their undertaking ; difficulties, 
 which at one time could only have been overcome at 
 great expense, are now surmounted with comparative ease 
 at much less cost in fact, a Line which cost 50,000 
 a mile, may now be constructed for 15 or 20,000. It 
 may happen that a Company could obtain a sufficient 
 return from low fares, calculating on an outlay of 15,000 
 or 20,000, but not on an outlay of 50,000 per mile. 
 But this is only what is constantly taking place in every- 
 thing else. The manufacturer, for instance, always as- 
 sumes the probability of mechanical improvements, which 
 will cheapen the cost of production, and he knows that 
 his original outlay will not enable him to command a 
 higher price for a commodity than can be obtained by a 
 rival, who at much less outlay can produce it equally 
 good. On this point, Mr. Robert Stephenson, in his evi- 
 dence,* observes very significantly, " It may be said, that 
 
 * Second Report Railway Acts Enactments, Min. of Ev. p. 197. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 the cost of the Railway has, in one point of view, nothing 
 to do with the fares ; but in another point of view, it has 
 a great deal to do with the fares. I will take the London 
 and Birmingham Eailway, that has cost 50,000 a mile ; 
 if it could have been made for 25,000 a mile, if labour 
 and other things had been half the price, there is no 
 doubt that they could have afforded to carry passengers 
 much cheaper. But having spent 50,000 a mile in con- 
 structing the Railway, when once it is opened, the ques- 
 tion, what the fares shall be to produce the maximum re- 
 sult, is a totally different thing, irrespective altogether of 
 the cost ; because you increase your income, by diminishing 
 your fares up to a certain point ; and beyond that point, 
 if you go on diminishing the fares, you diminish your in- 
 come." During the late crisis, Companies were obliged to 
 raise money to pay their contractors, at from 1 to 30, 
 and even in some instances, it is said 50 per cent, dis- 
 count. Is this to be a ground for raising fares ? The 
 South Eastern Company, have, it is said, expended 
 7,934,876 up to July last. It may be that their funds 
 have been expended very injudiciously : are we to make 
 no distinction between wise and imprudent expenditure ? 
 When Mr. Macgregor, the Chairman, gave his evidence in 
 1846, They charged, he said, by ordinary trains for 
 the first class, 2'05d. per mile; for the second class 1 '36d.; 
 for the third class, '8 2d. of a penny. From the circuit- 
 ous nature of their Lines, these fares, though apparently 
 low, were in many cases actually high. Thus, for instance, 
 Maidstone, which, by the coach-road, is only 34 miles 
 from London, is 56 miles by the South Eastern. But 
 to take Dover at Mr. Macgregor's then rates, the ordinary 
 
37 
 
 fares would amount to 15s. for the first class, and 9s. lOd. 
 for the second, But their tariff was first raised for these 
 classes to 16s. 6d., and 12s. ; and by a recent alteration 
 they are now raised to 20s. and 14s. 8d. The fares to 
 Maidstone, which about a twelvemonth ago, were raised 
 to 9s. for first class, and 6s. 6d. for second class, have 
 been recently raised to lls. and 8s. It may serve to 
 give an idea of the extravagance of these rates, to state 
 that the coach fares to Maidstone have long been lower by 
 more than 50 per cent. It may be true that the real 
 balance of receipts over expenditure for the half-year 
 ending 31st July, 1847, only amounted, as has been 
 affirmed, to 69,197, without allowing for numberless out- 
 lays, which, though actually charged against capital, 
 ought to have been charged against revenue ; and that this 
 forms a low half-yearly return for .8,000,000 : but are 
 people to be subjected for ever to higher fares than their 
 neighbours, because a Company has chosen to invest money 
 injudiciously ? The question ought always to be, not what 
 a Company has expended, but what rate of fares would af- 
 ford an adequate remuneration for similar works from time 
 to time, according to the variation in the cost of construc- 
 tion. To adopt any other principle, is to give to Com- 
 panies an arbitrary power of subjecting particular districts 
 to burdens and disadvantages, from which other districts 
 are exempt, and thus lowering the value of property in 
 one district, and raising it in another, at their pleasure. 
 
 Much evidence was also taken on the defects of the 
 existing system of legislation with regard to Railway and 
 other so-called Private Bills, and on the systems pursued 
 by foreign Governments and Legislatures respecting Rail- 
 
38 
 
 ways. Whether, and how far the Railway Board, which 
 has since been appointed, will be suffered to remedy the 
 evils pointed out by most respectable and competent wit- 
 nesses, and thereby answer the expectations of the coun- 
 try from its formation, remains to be seen. One great 
 purpose for which the Board was deemed necessary, the 
 supervision and control of existing Railways, with a view 
 to the protection of the public from an unjust and capri- 
 cious exercise of the powers committed to them by the 
 legislature, has yet been very inadequately answered.""" 
 
 The extraordinary depression of Railway Shares since 
 1845, amounting in the principal Lines to upwards of cent, 
 per cent., has naturally led the public and proprietors to 
 reflect on the causes of this peculiar state of things. The 
 latter find that purchasers will no longer be contented with 
 accounts of the continuance for years of a certain rate of 
 dividend, but wish to ascertain the precise source whence 
 the dividends have been paid, in order that they may give 
 a price corresponding to the actual income which they 
 can hope to draw permanently from the Lines. This has 
 led some proprietors, at the recent periodical meetings of 
 Companies, to put questions to Directors, indicative of 
 
 * It has been contended by some, that a fair construction of the 
 7 & 8 Viet, necessarily gives an audit of the accounts of Companies ; 
 for when a certain end is prescribed, the means by which that end 
 can alone be attained must be assumed as equally prescribed ; and it 
 is clear, that without an audit it never can be known whether the nett 
 profits of a Company equal or exceed 10 per cent. The provision in 
 the Act is a farce, if the only means for giving it effect are withheld. 
 Whether they who entertain this opinion are correct as to their law is 
 a point on which I shall not pretend to decide ; but if the opinion is 
 not in accordance with law, this only proves that law and common 
 sense are not always identical. 
 
39 
 
 much uneasiness as to their future prospects. The Di- 
 rectors, on their part, begin to retort on the proprietors 
 the advantages they derived from extension shares during 
 the palmy days of the Railway market ; and Chairmen of 
 different Companies begin even to throw the blame on 
 each other, as well as on the legislature, of the construction 
 of Branches and Extension Lines, to which the reduced 
 dividends are ascribable. A few specimens from some of 
 the speeches of Chairmen, by way of illustrating these 
 remarks, may not be unseasonable. Thus, for instance, 
 Mr. Hudson is reported to have stated, at the half-yearly 
 meeting of the Midland Company, on the 19th February, 
 1848, " That several meetings of Railway Companies had 
 recently taken place of a tumultuous character, and that 
 the Directors had been called to account for having 
 reduced their dividends. That might have been the 
 position of the Directors of that Company ; but in such 
 case they could meet them with the same confidence of 
 receiving their approbation as heretofore. If that conse- 
 quence had happened as a result of having projected 
 many of their Branches, their Directors would not have 
 been liable to blame for that extension of the Railway 
 system, and the rapidity with which the new works were 
 undertaken and executed. The legislature and public 
 opinion had forced these new undertakings upon them ; 
 for if they had not thrown out these new Arms and 
 Branches, the proprietors would have found their pro- 
 perty irretrievably injured" Mr. Hudson had a little be- 
 fore congratulated the Company on the success with which 
 he had resisted the low tariffs which had been imposed 
 upon other Companies, because it had enabled the Di- 
 
40 
 
 rectors to maintain their rate of dividend. And he no 
 doubt means to say here, that if he had not thrown out 
 new Arms and Branches, the legislature would have ena- 
 bled other parties to supply the wants of the country at a 
 cheaper rate, and have thus prevented him from continu- 
 ing the high fares for which he takes credit. " The new 
 Lines," he goes on to say, " might be at first a charge upon 
 the old ones, because a traffic could not be in a moment got 
 upon the rails. It usually took three years to develope 
 the resources of a Line ; but as the Directors were ena- 
 bled to open these new Lines, the holders of stock would 
 come in for a dividend immediately. If, then, they re- 
 ceived a smaller dividend for a time, it would be upon a 
 larger capital, and they must bear in mind who had 
 received those shares. The proprietors had received 
 them, and they must recollect that a part of their profit 
 had been derived from this source, whether they had re- 
 tained or sold these extension shares." It must be small 
 consolation to the proprietor of 1848 to learn that the 
 proprietor of a former year, in whose shoes he may stand, 
 received a benefit from the sale of shares for undertakings 
 which have had the effect of lowering his receipts. The 
 French Government, as we have seen,* refused to allow 
 existing proprietors to issue shares at par when at a pre- 
 mium in the market, precisely because the interests of 
 future proprietors would thereby be injured. 
 
 To understand the full force of these passages of the speech 
 of Mr. Husdon, we must bear in mind, that the Midland 
 Company own part of a main trunk Line ; and provided they 
 keep within their maximum, which is an extravagant one, 
 
 * See page 34. 
 
41 
 
 can charge with impunity very high fares, so long as they 
 are not exposed to competition. So far from lowering 
 their fares, at the time when other Companies submitted 
 to reductions, they were in a condition even to increase 
 their fares, often in consequence of these very reductions. 
 As was stated by Captain Laws, in his evidence before 
 the Committee of 1844,* the passenger to York "does 
 not know where the money is distributed'' and when one 
 part of the Line makes a reduction, another part can say, 
 " You have reduced your rate 2s. 6d. ; we can put that on 
 ours" To keep up these high fares, however, Arms and 
 Branches must occasionally be thrown out, in order to 
 occupy the ground which competitors might otherwise 
 seize ; and rival Companies in existence must be pur- 
 chased on almost any terms. The system on which the 
 Midland Company acted in their various purchases, amal- 
 gamations, and extensions is very graphically described 
 by this intelligent witness. How far the Great Northern 
 will interfere with the success of this magnificent system 
 of monopoly, remains to be seen. 
 
 On the other hand, the Chairman of the Great Western, 
 Mr. Charles Kussell, at a meeting on the 23rd of Feb- 
 ruary, 1848, also complains, like Mr. Hudson, of the 
 necessity imposed on that Company by the legislature of 
 entering into extensive engagements ; but while he takes 
 credit to himself for having, in his place in parlia- 
 ment, endeavoured to curb the speculations of 1845-6, 
 he blames the Chairman of the Midlands for the encou- 
 ragement he afforded them. " If," said Mr. Russell, "their 
 engagements were extensive, (and he did not deny that 
 
 Fifth Report, Railways, (1844,) Min. of Evid. p. 503. 
 
42 
 
 they were so,) they had been entered into only as a 
 matter of necessity. They all arose out of the mania of 
 1845-6. He, as far as he was concerned, had not only 
 not promoted these projects, but he had taken every 
 means in his power to check them. In January, 1846, 
 in his place in parliament, he had predicted the results, 
 if some steps were not at once adopted to put a curb on 
 reckless speculation ; but most unfortunetely for all 
 parties, that was not the view which was taken by the 
 House of Commons. Mr. Hudson and other gentlemen 
 maintained that the course he recommended would be 
 an unfair interference with private enterprise ; and the 
 consequence was that schemes involving altogether the 
 sum of 25,000,000, passed through the legislature in 
 that year. The Great Western had remonstrated with 
 the President and Vice-President of the Board of Trade ; 
 and, left to their own resources, they had been com- 
 pelled in self-defence, to look to their own interests, 
 by getting hold of all the rival, or contemplated rival 
 Lines!' 
 
 "We may see here how necessarily one false step leads 
 to many others. Had the legislature, in delivering over 
 the communications of the country to private associations, 
 taken any adequate security in behalf of the public against 
 excessive exactions, all these struggles to retain, by means 
 of Extensions, Branches, Amalgamations, and purchases of 
 rivals, an excessive return on investments could not have 
 taken place. The object of the struggles is to keep at a 
 distance rivals, who by accommodating the public for 
 lower fares might compel the monopolists to a reduction 
 in turn. The Extensions and Branches, however, having 
 
43 
 
 been in most instances much less productive than the main 
 Lines, they, in the degree in which they were less produc- 
 tive, lowered the general dividend. This effect would not, 
 however, seem to have been generally anticipated, in the 
 era of extravagant speculation ; for the new shares were, 
 with the premiums, equal to the prices of the old shares, 
 calculated on the old scale of profits. In the first instance, 
 enormous sums are realized by the premiums on the issue 
 of the new shares ; but as, in the degree in which invest- 
 ments become less profitable, the general return is lowered, 
 the price of shares also necessarily falls. The London and 
 Birmingham shareholders, for instance, realized by the issue 
 of shares down to 1846, 4,294,825, while their original 
 outlay was 5,750,000 ; but the new undertakings have 
 had the effect of lowering the dividend of the North "Western 
 to 8 per cent. This result was anticipated by Mr. Glynn, 
 and more than once foretold at the Meetings of the Com- 
 pany; and the reduction of the dividend from 10 to 8 
 per cent., is not, therefore, as was stated by Lord George 
 Bentinck, in the House of Commons, the fruit of any 
 reduction of fares, but the consequence of the invest- 
 ment of capital in less productive undertakings than the 
 original Line. It is stated in the Report submitted 
 to the last half-yearly Meeting of the London and 
 North Western, on the 18th of February last, "that 
 the passenger traffic, notwithstanding the general depres- 
 sion, has equalled that of the corresponding period of 
 last year ; and, both in general merchandise and coal, 
 the gross receipts have exhibited a considerable in- 
 crease." The effect of the branches and amalgamations 
 on the revenue was very candidly stated by Mr. Glynn, 
 
44 
 
 in his evidence before the Railway Acts Enactments 
 Committee.* 
 
 " Have the branches paid their full dividend ? We 
 do not make any distinction in the mode of payment, 
 except in one particular case, and that is, the money 
 that was raised purposely for the Northampton and 
 Peterborough Line ; in that case, the dividend will not 
 begin to accrue until the 1st of January next year, 
 and it will be paid to the 30th of June, (1847,) at the 
 same rate as the others. 
 
 " That branch is not a loss to the Company ? We do 
 not know the proportion ; but as the shares have been 
 created and issued in every instance to the proprietors, 
 they reap the benefit of the profit arising from the whole 
 concern ; we treat it as one. 
 
 "Supposing your dividend to be 10 per cent., would 
 the receipts on the Northampton and Peterborough Line 
 pay 10 per cent, upon the outlay? No. The Leamington 
 and Warwick would not bear 10 per cent ; it would be 
 
 between six and seven. 
 
 & * # * 
 
 " Had you any lease ] We have a lease of the Ayles- 
 bury Line, for which we paid 2,000 per annum. 
 
 " That was a short lease ? Yes. Under the Act, of 
 seven years. 
 
 " A single Line \ Yes. It was 4 per cent, on their ca- 
 pital. It is amalgamated, now at par" 
 
 * Second Report, Railway Acts Enactments, Min. of Evid. 
 pp. Ill, 112. 
 
45 
 
 " So that whether you require capital to make a Branch, 
 or an Extension, or improvements of stations, or whether 
 you subscribe to other Lines, the capital is provided in the 
 same way in each case ? Exactly in the same way, by 
 the issue of new shares." 
 
 In some cases it would appear the revenue of Lines was 
 so great as even to alarm the proprietors, who, under all 
 circumstances, deemed it safer to guarantee unproductive 
 purchases and Lines, that they might have an opportunity 
 of realizing money by the sale of shares, which would have 
 the effect of lowering the amount of the dividends to the 
 desired rate. The process is described by Captain Laws, 
 in his evidence in 1 844 : * " There is the York and Scar- 
 borough Line, a single Line of rails from York, over a poor 
 country almost all the way to Scarborough : Scarborough 
 is a little fishing town on the coast of Yorkshire. Those 
 shares are at 17 premium, 2. 10s. paid', and they are 
 worth the money, because they are amalgamated with the 
 York and North Midland. The York and North Midland 
 Company will have a revenue sufficient to divide 20 per 
 cent. ; but they look upon that as rather dangerous, and 
 therefore they say, We will throw out a branch to Scar- 
 borough ; we will take it ourselves, and get 1 per cent, upon 
 the Scarborough Line, which of itself might not pay 2 per 
 cent., and the same upon the Leeds and Selby Line. If we 
 can get 1 per cent, upon all this, it comes to the same thing, 
 and it is much safer and more certain to retain than to 
 be getting 25 per cent, upon a line from York to Methley." 
 
 These operations were no doubt highly profitable to 
 many individuals ; but in the long run they have reacted on 
 * Fifth Report, Railways, (1844) Min. of Evid. p. 481. 
 
46 
 
 the shareholders, and account for much of the discredit, 
 under which Railways now generally labour, as a 
 means of permanent investment. Let us, for instance, 
 compare the half-yearly statements of the Great Western 
 on the 18th February, 1847, and the 17th February, 
 1848. The sum to be divided in both cases was nearly 
 the same. On the 18th February, 1847, it was 
 211,002. 4s. 9d. ; and on the 17th February, 1848, 
 it was 215,526. 10s. But the former of these sums 
 corresponded to a dividend of 8 per cent. ; and the latter 
 only to a dividend of 7 per cent. ; that is, the shares on 
 which 8 per cent, was paid on the 18th February, 1847, 
 must have amounted to about 5,275,000, and those on 
 which 7 per cent, was paid on the 17th February last, to 
 about 6,157,900. On the latter occasion more guests 
 sat down to a table which had only the same quantity 
 of viands, so that a smaller proportion fell to the lot of 
 each. The rate of dividend may not always be a correct 
 index of the state of a Company, for the power to borrow 
 on debenture may have been abused ; but without entering 
 into this question, and speaking merely with reference to 
 receipts from Lines, it will be found that in proportion as 
 additional outlays yield a smaller return than former out- 
 lays, in that proportion must the intrinsic value of the 
 shares be lowered. The intrinsic value of the shares of 
 the Great "Western, calculated according to nett revenue, 
 without reference to the market price, is just one-eighth 
 less in 1848 than it was in 1847. This may be taken as 
 a specimen of the working of the Branch and Extension 
 system. 
 
 But the fall in the price of shares is out of all propor- 
 
47 
 
 tion greater than can be accounted for by any reduc- 
 tion of profits which appears in statements submitted to 
 meetings of proprietors. If some Directors have, as is 
 confidently alleged, framed their half-yearly Statements 
 with a view to exhibit a larger balance of receipts over ex- 
 penditure than the facts justify, till this point be satisfac- 
 torily cleared up, all Companies, even those whose accounts 
 are framed on the most correct principles, must suffer in 
 general estimation. The Bill introduced by Lord Monteagle 
 in the House of Lords, for subjecting Eailway accounts 
 to a proper audit, on the requisition of a certain number 
 of proprietors, though it does not meet the evil fully, ought, 
 at all events, to have the cordial support of shareholders 
 themselves, from the tendency of the measure, which is evi- 
 dently to prevent Companies paying bona fide dividends 
 from suffering in estimation through the conduct of Direc- 
 tors of other Companies who may have exhibited delusive 
 balances, with a view to enhance unduly the price of their 
 shares. The public are always disposed to think, with a 
 character in one of Smollett's Novels, that concealment is 
 never resorted to but when the truth would be of disser- 
 vice. It may be that the accounts of the Eastern Counties, 
 for instance, are as satisfactory as they were stated to be 
 by the Chairman at the meeting on the 26th February last ; 
 but his opposition to the proposition made by a proprietor 
 for an effective audit, was calculated rather to increase 
 than to remove suspicion, and the idea which he after- 
 wards threw out of laying the accounts before two or three 
 of the largest Proprietors, was tantamount to saying that 
 the Directors would have no objection to audit themselves 
 their own accounts. The view here taken is substan- 
 
48 
 
 tially the same as that which was stated by Mr. Glynn in 
 his evidence before the Railway Acts Enactments Com- 
 mittee.* 
 
 " Might not they (i. e. debentures) be issued for longer 
 periods, and required to be converted into shares at some 
 period named in the Acts \ The advantages that 
 would arise from that course would be these : first, it 
 would allow the capital accounts to be closed, which I 
 think is desirable ; it also would have this advantage, 
 that the public would get more easily than it does now 
 at the real value of Railway stock. An artificial value is 
 often kept up in Railway stock, by a great deal of capital 
 in any particular Company being raised upon debentures, 
 at a low rate of interest ; whereas, perhaps, only three- 
 fifths of the capital is actually paying dividend, and they 
 are enabled to pay a large dividend upon it by the low 
 rate of interest at which they have raised the rest of the 
 capital ; and thus the value of the shares is enhanced in 
 a way which, perhaps, the general merits of the under- 
 taking do not altogether warrant." 
 
 The amount of the depreciation in the shares of ten 
 leading Railway Companies alone, between 1845 and 
 1847, without including calls paid up in the meantime, 
 has been calculated at upwards of 78,000,000. The 
 100 shares of the London and North Western (then the 
 London and Birmingham) were, in July, 1845, 243. 
 On the 4th April, 1848, they were 126. The Great 
 Western shares of 100, on which 80 was paid up, 
 were in July, 1845, 205. With 90 paid up, they 
 
 * Second Report, Railway Acts Enactments, Minutes of Evid. 
 p. 130. 
 
49 
 
 were, on the 4th April, 1848, at 2 discount, i. e. 88. 
 The Midlands 100 shares were, in July, 1845, 187 ; 
 on the 4th of April, 1848, they ranged from 94 to 96. 
 The York and North Midland 50 shares were, in July, 
 1845, 109; on the 4th of April, 1848, from 61 
 to 63. The London and South Western 50 shares, 
 of which the average paid 41^, were, in July, 1845, 
 80 ; on the 4th of April, 1848, from 42 to 44. 
 The South Eastern 50 shares, with 33^ paid, were, 
 in July, 1845, 48 ; on the 4th of April 1848, from 
 22. 10s to 23. 10s. The London, Brighton, and 
 South Coast 50 shares were, in July, 1845, 76 ; on 
 the 4th of April, 1848, from 28. 5s. to 28. 15s. The 
 Lancashire and Yorkshire (formerly Manchester and Leeds) 
 100 shares, of which 70 paid, were in July, 1845, 
 173 ; and on the 4th of April, 1848, 69, with 82 
 paid up. The Eastern Counties 20 paid-up shares, 
 were on the 4th of April, 1848, from ,13. 2s. 6d. to 
 13. 5s. Edinburgh and Glasgow 50 shares, in July, 
 1845, 75 ; on the 4th of April, 1848, from 36 to 38. 
 These are enormous revolutions in price, and out of all pro- 
 portion to the changes in the value of other descriptions 
 of property. In cases where the payments bear but a 
 small proportion to the sums for which the shares are 
 issued, the apprehension of future calls may account for 
 disproportionate depreciation ; but the shares which we 
 have instanced are of old established Companies, and the 
 calls have all been made, with one or two trifling excep- 
 tions. It is clear, therefore, that peculiar causes weigh 
 on the share-market ; and more particularly that the ex- 
 tent of the engagements into which the great Companies 
 
50 
 
 have been led to enter, with a view to the issue of new 
 shares, and to preserve their monopolies which after all, 
 may, it is feared, break down, notwithstanding the gigan- 
 tic nature of the combinations against the public, has 
 contributed greatly to the discredit in which Railway 
 property in general is involved. 
 
 But whatever the existing proprietors of Railway 
 shares may have suffered from Amalgamations, Extensions, 
 and Branches, and the guaranteeing high-rates of dividend 
 on Lines yielding often small returns, by which shares pre- 
 viously selling at low prices in the market could be after- 
 wards disposed of at a price corresponding to the in- 
 creased dividend, it is clear that, as far as the public are 
 concerned, the whole system is at variance with every 
 principle of justice. Where a Branch or Extension can be 
 made with the prospect of a fair return for the capital 
 invested in it, the inducement will be sufficient to stimu- 
 late capitalists to embark in the undertaking. As every 
 branch or extension Line must add to the receipts of a 
 trunk Line, the capitalists who are interested in that 
 trunk Line will naturally have a stronger motive than 
 other parties to embark in the construction of the new 
 Line. But if a certain scale of fares affords an adequate 
 remuneration for the capital expended on a trunk Line, 
 there can be no more reason why the passengers along that 
 Line should be obliged to pay additional fares for Branches 
 or Extensions, to enable the Company to pay an ade- 
 quate dividend, than there would be for making the pas- 
 sengers along one highway pay toll, not only for the use 
 of it, but for the use of another, which they have no oc- 
 casion to travel over. The people on the road from Lon- 
 
51 
 
 don to Colchester, for instance, would have thought it very 
 odd if an additional toll were to have been imposed on 
 them, in order to make a road from London to Canterbury. 
 In like manner, if two Lines choose to amalgamate, for the 
 sake of the saving which may be effected by their coming 
 under a common management, there can be no reason 
 why they should not be allowed to do so ; but the only 
 principle on which amalgamation is allowable is that the 
 amalgamating Lines enter into the arrangement on equal 
 terms. If of two amalgamating Lines, one returns 8 per 
 cent, and the other only 2, the proprietors of the re- 
 spective Lines should share the joint revenue in the pro- 
 portion in which each contributes to it. However ex- 
 travagant the maximum of 10 per cent, fixed by the 
 legislature may be, and however defective the provisions 
 by which the excess over that rate is secured to the 
 public, still the principle which had indeed been for 
 some time adopted by parliament in the case of Dock and 
 similar Companies was from the first introduced into 
 Railway Acts, namely, that 10 per cent, on an outlay was 
 all that a Company had a right to receive. But if a Com- 
 pany levying on a Line fares which would yield a higher 
 dividend than 10 per cent, throw out a Branch yielding 
 only 2 per cent., which they construct by the issue of 
 new shares, entitling the holders to the same dividend as 
 that received on the trunk Line, the difference between 
 the 2 per cent, and such dividend being paid out of the 
 profits of the trunk Line, which new shares at whatever 
 rate issued, immediately rise to an equality in price with 
 that of the old, such Company by the issue sells that 
 to which it has no title. The difference between the 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 guaranteed dividend and the produce of the new Line, 
 if paid from the excess of revenue of the old Line, over 10 
 per cent., belongs to the public. In like manner the 
 acquisition of a new Line by amalgamation, on the prin- 
 ciple of a guarantee of a dividend above its actual returns, 
 is made at the expense of the public. The addition to 
 the value of the guaranteed stock by the transaction 
 could on no principle of justice belong to the holders ; 
 for it was derived from a transference of a part of the 
 profits of a Line of which the public, when they reached 
 a certain rate, were made owners. In all these transac- 
 tions the difference between the par value and the price 
 at which the shares were actually sold belonged more or 
 less to the public. 
 
 But let us look a little more closely at the operation. 
 It is in purchases and amalgamations that the greatest 
 frauds on the public may be perpetrated, and future pro- 
 prietors subjected to the greatest injury. The shares of 
 one Line are, we shall suppose, selling at 25 per cent, dis- 
 count, say at 75 for 100 paid. Another Line decides 
 on purchasing these shares for 1 50, and the more they 
 give, the better it will be for both parties. The affair is 
 kept secret and the shares are bought up. Under the in- 
 fluence of large and eager purchases, the shares gradually 
 rise to par, without its being known to those not in the 
 secret why the purchases are made. When parliament 
 passes the bills, the purchasing Line, whose shares are cur- 
 rent at 200 or more, are enabled to realize a double 
 gain. Those who are in the secret and their friends 
 gain from 50 to 100 per cent, by the purchase on the one 
 side, and the whole of the proprietors gain with the 
 
53 
 
 greatest ease 1 00 per cent, upon the amount of the new 
 shares issued to pay for the purchase. 
 
 Mr. Hudson, who, if not the inventor of this system of 
 purchase and amalgamation has carried it to a greater 
 extent than any other individual, in his evidence before 
 the Railway Acts Enactments Committee of 1846,* de- 
 scribes without any circumlocution, the course he pur- 
 sued. " On the Great Northern," f he says, " we become 
 the purchasers of the Great North of England Railway 
 by Act of Parliament, which has received the Royal 
 assent, by which we guarantee to give the North of Eng- 
 land 10 per cent, till 1851 : then they have a claim to 
 be paid off in four per cent, stock, at about 250 a 
 share. 
 
 "Mr. HUME. That brings the original 100 share up 
 to 250 ? Yes. 
 
 " CHAIRMAN. You have the power of charging the New- 
 castle and Darlington with four per cent, on 250 for 
 every share I Yes. 
 
 " A guaranteed stock \ Yes; and 10 per cent, divi- 
 dend up to that time. 
 
 " Which 10 per share per annum will be chargeable 
 upon the income of the Newcastle and Darlington ? And 
 the Great North of England. 
 
 " Will shares be issued for the purpose of raising that 
 250 ? Yes ; we have no other means of raising it." 
 
 The Great North of England was stated by Mr. Ellice, 
 
 * Second Report, Railway Acts Enactments, Minutes of Evid. 
 p. 251. 
 
 f Sic in Min. of Evid., for Great Northern, read Newcastle and 
 Darlington. 
 
54 
 
 in the report to which I have already alluded, as paying 
 at the time of the amalgamation only a very low dividend. 
 The new value given to its stock by this guarantee was 
 derived from the revenue of the guaranteeing Line. 
 
 The same gentleman gave the following evidence :* 
 
 " Can you state what the proprietor of a <^50 share in 
 the York and North Midland would have obtained in the 
 way of premiums upon the different issues?" Many men 
 cannot hold, they are obliged to sell. 
 
 " Supposing a man had purchased 50 and held it from 
 the beginning ? I should think it would be about ^250. 
 
 " So that an original proprietor of ^50, if he had held 
 it, would have received upon that 50 in the way of pre- 
 miums upon new shares 250 ? Yes." 
 
 Thus the premiums received by the holders of York 
 and North Midland original shares, amounted to five 
 times their outlay. The original shares amounted to 
 1,500,000, and the premiums to the enormous sum of 
 7,500,000.f The premiums so received were the consi- 
 deration paid for successive transferences of the excess 
 of revenue of the York and North Midland beyond the 
 dividend, applied to the new Lines. The revenue of the 
 York and North Midland was diminished exactly in the 
 ratio in which the revenue of the new Lines falls short of 
 the guaranteed dividends from them. The York and 
 North Midland, it is to be remembered, forms only part 
 of the present Midlands. Its length is 73 miles, and 
 that of the whole Midlands, in 1846, was 248 miles. 
 
 * Second Report, Railway Acts Enactments. Minutes of Evid 
 p. 239. 
 
 -j- Ibid. p. 232. 
 
55 
 
 But what is said of the Lines of which Mr. Hudson is 
 Chairman, applies more or less to all 10 per cent. Lines, the 
 Lines which have issued shares at par when at a premium 
 in the market. The London and North-Western, but for the 
 Branches and Extensions, which have afforded to the pro- 
 prietors premiums nearly equal in amount to the outlay on 
 the original Lines, must have now yielded a dividend much 
 beyond the 10 per cent., which long continued to be paid. 
 If we suppose the sums received as premiums up to 1845, 
 without including those received since, to have affected 
 in a degree corresponding to their amount the revenue of 
 the trunk Lines, we must also suppose that, but for the 
 Extensions and Branches, a revenue far above 10 per cent, 
 would now be received. 
 
 Nothing could be more objectionable than the mode in 
 which these operations were conducted. The shares for 
 a Branch or Extension, which it would take five years to 
 construct, had in some cases been issued before the first 
 sod was turned up ; although no one could tell what the 
 result would be till the end of the five years. 
 
 We must suppose human nature to be very different 
 from what it is, if we can bring ourselves to believe that 
 the desire to realize these enormous sums by premiums 
 on shares was not the motive which chiefly influenced 
 most of those who were concerned in Kailways. The 
 object, to use a familiar adage, was to "make hay while the 
 sun shone." The men who pocketed the large sums ob- 
 tained by such means may, for the most part, have disap- 
 peared from the scene ; but the consequences are now 
 making themselves felt in diminished rates of dividend 
 and universal distrust. 
 
56 
 
 Mr. Hudson stated, in 1846, that at that time it might 
 be assumed, that where a Line paid a dividend of 10 per 
 cent, the shares would sell for 200. "We all know that in 
 such a case the shares of some Companies actually sold for 
 much more. But taking 200 as the price, an orginial 
 holder of a share of 100 would, on a fresh issue, receive 
 a new share of 100 by paying that sum for it. These 
 two shares would sell immediately for <200 each, together 
 400, and there was nothing to prevent his putting this 
 sum in his pocket, and walking off with it. But with 
 every new scheme, involving an equal outlay of capital, 
 the same thing again took place. What the sums so ob- 
 tained amounted to, in the aggregate, we may have some 
 conception of, from the statement of Mr. Hudson just 
 noticed, that an original owner of the North Midland had, 
 by 1846, received in premiums on new shares at different 
 times 250. To this enormous sum must be added the 
 prize-money, as it has been termed, of the sessions of 
 1846 and 1847, which may have, perhaps, swelled the pre- 
 miums to six or seven times the original cost of the Line. 
 Heavy as the original cost of the London and Birmingham 
 Line was, nearly the whole of it had been returned to the 
 proprietors by 1846, and the two last sessions supplied 
 them with the means for large additional issues. The Man- 
 chester and Liverpool was at least equally productive in 
 proportion to its extent. It would have been astonishing, 
 indeed, if new schemes for Branches, Extensions, and the va- 
 rious other channels of expenditure, requiring new issues of 
 shares, had not been urgently called for by the shareholders. 
 The desirableness of the new schemes, with reference to 
 the permanent interest of the Companies, was at that 
 
57 
 
 time a secondary consideration. It was enough that 
 in the then state of the market they would richly re- 
 ward the existing proprietors ; the future must shift for 
 themselves. 
 
 I have said enough to have satisfied my readers that if 
 the permanent interest of Companies was little consulted 
 in those extensions, the benefit of the public was consulted 
 still less. As many, if not most, of the Extensions and 
 Branches were in themselves losing concerns, the loss fell 
 on the trunk Lines, and hence, instead of lowering their 
 fares with the increased productiveness of these last Lines, 
 they in many instances increased them, in order to be 
 enabled to continue their rates of dividend. 
 
 In all these operations Mr. Gladstone's maximum was 
 no more thought of than if it had no existence. Com- 
 panies laughed at the very idea of its being supposed 
 that they should be unable to devise expedients for ren- 
 dering all such provisions a mere nullity. In the infancy 
 of Joint Stock Companies, Directors would sometimes, for 
 the sake of patronage, lay out larger sums on repairs and 
 alterations than they were justified in doing. But subse- 
 quent ingenuity has enabled Companies so far to improve 
 on this practice as, by an abuse of the power to borrow 
 given to them by parliament, to coin the very credit they 
 possess. One of the expedients to which some Companies 
 have had recourse may be thus briefly described. A share 
 is issued for a new project, say for <100, upon which 
 .20 is paid, The Company, abusing their powers to 
 borrow, raise the remaining 80, for which they charge 
 say 5 per cent. ; thus they pay 4=, and receiving a divi- 
 dend of 10 per cent, this added to the <4 constitutes a 
 
58 
 
 dividend of 14 per cent, instead of the 10 per cent, to 
 which Mr. Gladstone's Bill restricted them. We may 
 truly say, that the existing race of Railway Directors have 
 greatly improved upon their predecessors ; and they were 
 considered very clever in their day. 
 
 Thus we are going on in a ruinous circle. Parliament 
 neglecting its paramount duty, suffered Railway Com- 
 panies to obtain a concession in perpetuity of Lines 
 without any security against excessive exactions. These 
 Lines yielded revenues so much exceeding the ordinary 
 returns of capital, that shares soon were at a large pre- 
 mium. Mr. Gladstone's Companies' Clauses Consolidation 
 Bill authorized the issue of shares at par when at a 
 premium in the market. This naturally inflamed specu- 
 lation, and Directors extended their operations, in order 
 by the issue of new shares at par, to realize large pre- 
 miums. The sums derivable from this source led to in- 
 vestments in unprofitable undertakings, which in due time 
 lessened the profits of Trunks, Branches, and Extensions, 
 taken as a whole, and in spite of the increase of traffic 
 on the Trunks diminished the rate of dividend ; and this, 
 with the suspicion of unfair practices resorted to, in order 
 to prevent the truth from being known, has led to, per- 
 haps, in some cases, an undue depreciation of Railway 
 property. Had the legislature secured the public from 
 undue exactions, the price of shares would not have risen 
 to such an extravagant height ; had it not authorized 
 the issue of shares at par, when at a premium, by the 
 sale of which enormous sums were realized, the judg- 
 ment of Directors would not have been warped, and 
 new schemes would not have been sanctioned by them 
 
59 
 
 which did not promise to yield an adequate remunera- 
 tion. The original disregard of the public interests has 
 thus in due time come round to the Railway proprietors 
 themselves. 
 
 The only defence which I have ever heard of the practice 
 of throwing out Branches and Extensions, which would 
 not have been made as independent concerns for the sake 
 of the return they might yield on the capital invested in 
 them, is, that thus many places have had the benefit of 
 Railway communication which otherwise would have been 
 deprived of it. This may be true to some extent, and 
 the Branch or Extension may have the effect of commu- 
 nicating an additional value to all the property through 
 which it runs. In like manner, there can be no doubt 
 that a canal cut through a district, of which the traffic 
 would not yield an adequate return for the capital in- 
 vested in it, might yet be of great benefit to the owners 
 of property in that district. The Canal between Graves- 
 end and Rochester, for instance, one of Major Dodd's 
 grand schemes, however losing a concern it might prove 
 to the shareholders, was of advantage to the market- 
 gardeners of Higham, to whose doors it brought ma- 
 nure. A great nation may construct works from political 
 motives, such as the canals in Canada ; or from chari- 
 table motives, such as the Caledonian Canal, which, how- 
 ever magnificent in themselves, would not be undertaken 
 as profitable investments of capital. But the only safe 
 principle for our guidance in commercial undertakings is 
 the return which they will yield. It is not for the in- 
 terest of the community that capital should be invested 
 where an adequate profit is not obtained. When once 
 
60 
 
 we abandon the principle that capital shall be expended 
 with a view to profitable returns, we are altogether at sea. 
 We may cultivate Dartmoor, we may grow grapes in the 
 Highlands of Scotland, if we are undeterred by the ex- 
 pense. Nay, Railways themselves furnish the best illus- 
 trations of the mischief of losing sight of profit, when 
 embarking in undertakings ; for to what do we owe the 
 recent commercial panic, and the distress of the labouring 
 classes from the loss of employment, but to the reckless 
 manner in which Branches, Extensions, &c., were resolved 
 on, chiefly, with a view to realize premiums by fresh issues 
 of shares \ A Railway Company has no right to say, " We 
 will bring this or that district within the range of mar- 
 kets by means of capital raised on the credit of revenues, 
 which beyond a certain amount do not belong to us, if 
 the new undertakings will not of themselves prove a pro- 
 fitable investment/' That the desire to pocket large sums 
 by the issue of new shares at high premiums, may have 
 had the effect of raising the rent-roll of many a land- 
 owner, and covering many a neglected spot with pic- 
 turesque habitations, is quite possible ; but still the 
 question recurs : Would the undertaking of itself pay I 
 The adequacy of the return is the only criterion by 
 which we can safely be guided in the employment of 
 capital. 
 
 This test of the solidity of the various schemes will 
 be afforded when the construction accounts are closed, 
 and Directors have no longer any other source from 
 which to pay dividends than bond fide revenue. Such a 
 test, however, if we may judge from the spirit evinced by 
 many Directors at their late half-yearly meetings, is one with 
 
61 
 
 which they are by no means disposed to indulge the 
 public. 
 
 The issue of new shares at par when the exist- 
 ing shares were at a premium, was first legalized by 
 Clause 58 of the Companies' Clauses Consolidation Act, 
 (8 Victoria, cap. 16.) There seems to be no reason for 
 doubting that the practice before this enactment was not 
 authorized by law. In the analogous case of forfeited 
 shares in Joint Stock Companies, they were sold for the 
 benefit of the Companies, and any profit derived from the 
 sale was carried to the general account. By the 34th 
 clause, however, of the 8 Victoria, cap. 16, the surplus 
 of forfeited shares sold, after payment of arrears, in- 
 terest, and expenses, must on demand be paid to the 
 defaulter. The instances of forfeitures in Joint Stock 
 Companies were rare, and never large in amount. It 
 was only when new shares were issued for hundreds of 
 thousands of pounds, that both law and custom were dis- 
 regarded. The new practice had doubtless its origin in 
 Acts of Parliament authorizing the raising additional 
 capital to complete a line, where the estimated amount 
 was found totally insufficient ; and there were plausible 
 reasons in its favour. It was maintained that those 
 who had encountered the risk of an enterprise, when 
 the public confidence in its final success had raised 
 the shares to a premium before its completion, ought in 
 justice to be allowed to divide among themselves the 
 benefits derivable from the shares by which the addi- 
 tional capital necessary to finish the work could be ob- 
 tained. But even this, the earliest form in which the 
 abuse of issuing shares at par when they were at a pre- 
 
62 
 
 mium in the market, made its appearance, was at variance 
 with all sound principles of business and commercial mo- 
 rality. It gave the shareholders inducements to pursue 
 a course, which, however temporarily profitable to them- 
 selves, might not promote economy in the undertaking. 
 It is evident that so long as fresh shares could be issued 
 without lowering the premium, they might have too great 
 an interest in keeping open, under one pretence or an- 
 other, the construction account, and thereby swelling the 
 total cost of a Line, and the amount of capital entitled 
 to a dividend, and of course also the scale of charges to 
 the public. The original intentions of Parliament in 
 granting acts authorizing the raising additional capital 
 for the completion of works, have in this way been de- 
 feated. The only check against wasteful and unnecessary 
 expenditure on which reliance can be placed, is when it 
 affects parties in the shape of diminished profits. It has 
 even been sometimes thought that the mode of paying 
 architects by a per centage on expenditure, gives them an 
 interest in swelling its amount, which their duty to the 
 parties affected is not able to counteract. It was a con- 
 viction of the dangerous tendency of this practice that 
 led the House of Commons to assign a round sum at 
 once to the architect of the new Houses of Parliament. 
 But what may be expected, when the natural guardians 
 of an undertaking themselves have a direct interest in 
 wasteful expenditure. The construction of an unprofitable 
 Branch or Extension from which a low return is expected, 
 the amalgamation with a Line paying a small dividend, 
 by means of capital, for which a trunk Line is pledged, are 
 in effect a sale of part of the revenue of that Line, which 
 
63 
 
 would never have been thought of, but for the enormous 
 profits derived from the premiums on fresh issues of 
 shares. Here, contrary to all the usual practices of mer- 
 cantile life, the more the guardians of a purchasing Line 
 give for that which they purchase, the greater is their 
 own profit. Had the Directors alone profited by the 
 abuse, it never could have been carried to such a height ; 
 but the proprietors generally profited equally with the 
 directors by it, and, instead of checking them, were cla- 
 morous for new issues, and could only be quieted by 
 obtaining them. Such a monstrous state of things is 
 enough to destroy the morality of any people on earth. 
 Whenever the principle of competition can be brought 
 into operation against the Companies which have adopted 
 these courses, the loss must ultimately fall on the share- 
 holders themselves. 
 
 There can be no question that Railway speculation has 
 had the most disastrous influence on the morality of 
 the nation. The disclosures which have taken place 
 in the recent bankruptcies of several great Houses have 
 done much to lower the character of our commercial 
 men generally in other countries. With reference to 
 this " long list of Houses trading with all parts of the 
 world, carrying on very extensive business, and generally 
 enjoying a high repute," it is justly observed by Mr. 
 Hubbard, in his Letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 on the Monetary Pressure ; " How little their reputation 
 was deserved, was only learnt in the statements which 
 the official accountants prepared with such skill, and 
 which exhibit to a degree almost incredible, either gross 
 mismanagement, or a scale of engagements extravagantly 
 
64 
 
 outmeasuring the Capital at their command" But still 
 there is this to be said with regard to these bankruptcies, 
 that commerce cannot be conducted without hazard, and 
 that commerce with distant quarters of the world is pecu- 
 liarly hazardous. Without wishing to apologize for " a 
 scale of engagements extravagantly outmeasuring capital/' 
 I may observe, that heavy losses often lead to desperate 
 efforts to retrieve them. But the immorality in Railway 
 affairs has been immeasurably greater than in foreign com- 
 merce, without having the same excuse. The Railway spe- 
 culators were not like these foreign houses, obliged to incur 
 hazard. Railways, when undertaken with due considera- 
 tion, are exposed to less risk than almost any other works 
 which can be named. The projectors of a Railway have 
 only to frame their estimates carefully, and obtain the 
 sanction of Parliament for the construction of the Line. 
 Contractors will now, I believe, undertake the whole 
 parliamentary engagement, except the purchase of land. 
 There is no conceivable enterprise in which a return for 
 money can be obtained with more ease and certainty. The 
 whole of the extravagant speculation had its origin in no 
 necessity, but in the neglect of the legislature to take 
 proper securities against the exaction of extravagant fares 
 from the public, and in the licence given to existing share- 
 holders, to pledge the revenues of their Lines for Exten- 
 sions and purchases, and by the operation to put imme- 
 diately sums of enormous magnitude into their pockets. 
 
 And in the case of amalgamation, the consideration 
 that has been so strongly pressed on parliament, and 
 which had much effect in influencing it, that, on the 
 one hand it would prove highly advantageous to the 
 
65 
 
 Companies, by the saving it would effect in working 
 expenses and establishments, while, on the other, it 
 would promote the public convenience by diminishing 
 the chances of disappointment from conflicting arrange- 
 ments, was far more than counterbalanced by another 
 consideration, which seems always to have been over- 
 looked. When amalgamations were sanctioned, parlia- 
 ment parted with the only chance left to the public of 
 the probability of benefiting by competition in the shape 
 of reduced charges. So long as Lines remained separate, 
 there was some chance of their occasionally entertaining 
 different views, and running against each other. At 
 several meetings in the autumn of 1846, Mr. Hudson in 
 defending himself against the accusation of charging, 
 more from passengers than was exacted on other Lines, 
 very frankly admitted, that if such were the case on some 
 of his Lines, on others the accusation was not applicable, 
 and he instanced some Lines where his fares were low, 
 which were exposed to a competition with steamboats and 
 other Lines. When the amalgamation is sanctioned by 
 law, from that moment, the hope, however feeble, of public 
 benefit from competition is gone, and cannot be recovered. 
 The demand for amalgamation ought to have been taken 
 advantage of, to insure better terms for the public. To 
 obtain a reduction of fares was the only ground worth a 
 moment's consideration for sanctioning an amalgamation 
 and interfering with arrangements which had long been 
 in existence. 
 
 Railways did not require to be fostered by the tempta- 
 tion to inordinate speculation. From the very beginning 
 they were popular among all classes of the community. 
 
 F 
 
G6 
 
 The landowners, it is true, were at first opposed to them, 
 from an idea, that they would be unsightly objects in a 
 prospect, and might come into too close proximity to their 
 mansions. But the landowners soon discovered that they 
 had exaggerated the deformities of Railways, while they 
 had not done justice to the many conveniences which 
 they afford. They were not the last, however, to perceive 
 that Railways would be the means of yielding them in all 
 cases a price for their land far beyond its real marketable 
 value, frequently, it is said, as a consideration for parlia- 
 mentary services ; and that should they be disposed to 
 drive a hard bargain, they could even obtain for it an ex- 
 travagant price. On the other hand, they saw that Railways 
 would add an incalculable value to their estates, by the 
 means of communication afforded to their tenants, the im- 
 provements to which this would lead, and the access to 
 profitable markets, by all which the rentals could not fail 
 to be materially raised. But all classes, in short, bene- 
 fited by the invention, in a greater or lesser degree : the 
 professional man, the tradesman, and all those along the 
 Line who looked for employment in its construction. 
 The shopkeeper hoped to profit by the large temporary 
 outlay in each locality, as the work advanced. The 
 ratepayer expected that his payments for the poor would 
 be diminished by the absorption of all the unemployed, 
 and by the liability to local burdens of the new pro- 
 perty about to be created. And all hailed with eager- 
 ness an invention, which, as it were, annihilated time and 
 space ; which effected what our forefathers in their wild- 
 est flights of imagination, with the aid of their seven- 
 leagued boots, hardly even dreamed of ; which, even where 
 
67 
 
 the charges were the highest, enabled men to perform 
 journeys at a cost much less than they had theretofore 
 paid, while the services afforded were of so superior a 
 character. Along every Line, too, were shareholders deeply 
 interested in its success, who loudly proclaimed the ad- 
 vantages to be derived from it, in which they themselves 
 hoped to participate. Representatives were beset by con- 
 stituents, eager to have bills passed, who never even be- 
 stowed a thought on conditions for the security either of 
 shareholders or the public. It would have been deemed 
 illiberal at that time to suppose that Directors could have 
 anything in view in the powers they sought for, but the ad- 
 vancement of the undertakings and the good of the share- 
 holders ; or that agents could by possibility be influenced 
 in their movements by the heavy bills which would be in- 
 curred to them. As most things come to light sooner or 
 later, a key to much of the zeal of that day will no 
 doubt be found in due time, in the magnificent scale 
 according to which it was rewarded. 
 
 Let us suppose that parliament had set its face against 
 this whole system of Extensions, Branches, Purchases, and 
 Amalgamations, by means of capital obtained through the 
 issue of shares at par to proprietors, when at a high pre- 
 mium in the market; that it had said, "You received powers 
 to make a certain Line, and to levy rates for the public 
 sufficient to constitute an adequate return for the money 
 invested by you in the undertaking, compensation for the 
 risk you ran, and encouragement to others to follow your 
 example ; but we had no intention to give, and in fact we 
 never gave you the power to raise large sums which you 
 might divide among yourselves. You propose to divide, 
 
 F 2 
 
68 
 
 not the interest only in the shape of dividends, which is, 
 what you are allowed to do, but to divide a portion of 
 the capital itself. We should as soon think of giving you 
 permission to dispose of all the engines, carriages, and 
 other working stock, by which your Line is made ser- 
 viceable to the public." Let us suppose that in conse- 
 quence of this refusal, another course had been adopted, 
 that the bonuses had been deemed the property of the 
 Company itself, to which indeed they justly belonged, 
 what then would have happened ? The Companies would 
 have been in possession of a fund, by the judicious em- 
 ployment of which they might have been enabled to 
 sustain the consequences of the changes inseparable from 
 future improvements in the construction of Lines, and 
 diminished expenditure on purchases. It is well known 
 that the costs of some of the Lines first constructed were 
 enormous ; and it is already evident, that in many cases 
 the Lines hereafter to be constructed will not cost one 
 fourth part of the amount. When an end shall be put 
 to prodigal legal expenditure when landlords, who of 
 all others derive the greatest gain from Railways, and 
 have the greatest interest in encouraging them, instead 
 of requiring to be bribed by large sums for their land, shall 
 exert themselves to get Lines made through their estates, 
 then the Companies which have divided among their pro- 
 prietors such enormous sums by the issue of fresh shares, 
 will discover the mischief they have done. By pursuing 
 another course, every Railway would have been made 
 that could be made without loss, while many would 
 not have been made, which never ought to have been 
 made, and never would have been made, but for the oppor- 
 
69 
 
 tunity offered for obtaining large premiums by the issue of 
 shares. The public would then have been sufficiently 
 accommodated, and the Trunk Lines would not have ex- 
 perienced a diminution of revenue. Companies would have 
 profited by the abandonment of the system of extravagant 
 expenditure. Where a million was raised to construct a 
 Branch Line, half that sum would have been sufficient. 
 A Company in such a case would have had no room for 
 apprehension from the competition of a new Line, for it 
 would always have possessed such decided advantages over 
 any new Company, both in constructing and working, as 
 to have put rivalry out of the question. With 100 
 shares, selling in the market for 200, it could have 
 made the Line for half the money that a new association 
 would have required for a similar undertaking. Thus 
 every Branch or Extension Line, instead of being a 
 source of weakness to the Trunk Line, would have 
 added to its income, and therefore to its strength. 
 The Branch or Extension would then have paid for its 
 own construction, and at the same time have brought 
 fresh traffic on the Trunk, and thereby increased its 
 receipts. The prudent manufacturer who derives more 
 from the profits of his establishment than the ordinary 
 interest on capital, and allowance for wear and tear, 
 knows that he must be prepared to avail himself of 
 future improvements in machinery, by the adoption of 
 which he may hope to compete successfully with rival 
 establishments. The old Railways being thus in posses- 
 sion of a dividend made certain, would have supplied one 
 of the best, if not the very best securities in the country 
 for the investment of capital, and if they had had 
 
70 
 
 occasion to borrow money for a fresh undertaking, they 
 could always have obtained it on the most advantageous 
 terms. And, on the supposition that the ten per cent, 
 clause were to have been fairly and honestly carried 
 into operation, and that fares would have borne a 
 certain proportion to cos^ with every improvement, 
 the charges to the public would have been reduced ; 
 and thus we should in reality have reconciled mono- 
 poly with the public interest, and have had a few 
 lines paying high dividends, resting on the best of all 
 foundations, the cheapness of the accommodation sup- 
 plied by them. 
 
 In this way the difficulties in which Eailway Companies 
 are about to be involved with the public would have been 
 avoided. They may lay their account with a demand 
 which they will find it difficult to resist that fares in 
 this country shall not be, as they now are, with hardly any 
 exception, higher than anywhere else, and in many cases 
 greatly higher. The public will not be satisfied till it 
 realizes all the advantages resulting from the greater 
 extent of our traffic, and the comparative cheapness with 
 which Railways may be constructed and wrought in this 
 country. The English public are seldom unreasonable ; 
 but to expect that they will long submit to exactions 
 which are borne by no other people, in spite of the mani- 
 fest advantages they possess over their neighbours in 
 all that constitutes a legitimate title to greater cheap- 
 ness of fares, would be to suppose them not reasonable, 
 but stupid and spiritless. If Railway Directors conceive 
 that the legislature, which has hitherto so signally failed 
 in its duty to the public, will be disposed to continue in- 
 
71 
 
 definitely to lend its sanction to exactions justified by no 
 necessity, they will find themselves wofully mistaken. 
 Justice, they may be assured, will at length be done to 
 the community. 
 
 It can hardly be necessary for nie to add further illus- 
 trations of the position that, to the defective character of 
 our Railway legislation is to be attributed the inordinate 
 gambling in Railways, the attraction to them of a greater 
 amount of capital than the country could afford, without 
 injuring its trade and industry, and, as a consequence, the 
 late lamentable monetary pressure, and the difficulties in 
 which Railway property itself is now more than ever 
 involved. I think I have successfully shown that, from 
 the moment it was proved that Railways had become 
 a safe investment, capital must necessarily have been 
 attracted to them in sufficient abundance, and that the 
 concession of Lines, without any security against undue 
 exactions from the public, or any restriction in the system 
 of Extensions, Branches, Purchases, and Amalgamations, 
 effected by capital raised by the issue of shares at par to 
 proprietors while at a premium in the market, did not con- 
 stitute a necessary or healthy encouragement to enterprise, 
 but such an excessive stimulus, as could not fail to ter- 
 minate in commercial derangement. 
 
 It has been said and repeated again and again at 
 Railway meetings, and the language has often found an 
 echo in the legislature, that it is better that the country 
 should benefit by the employment of its capital at 
 home, than that capitalists should be tempted by higher 
 profits to embark in schemes for the improvement of 
 other countries. It may be here observed, such is the 
 
72 
 
 desire of every man to have his capital under his eye, 
 as it were, that without a strong inducement he will 
 seldom be inclined to invest it abroad, and to hazard the 
 greater risks to which it may be exposed in countries with 
 the laws and usages of which he can at best be but im- 
 perfectly acquainted. When, yielding to the temptation of 
 higher profits he invests capital abroad, it seldom remains 
 long there, but is brought back, when the attraction of a 
 higher rate of profits no longer exists. It is well known, for 
 instance, that at the end of the war, when, in consequence 
 of the impoverishment of the nations of the continent, there 
 was a great demand everywhere for capital, and conse- 
 quently the rate of interest was high, we became exten- 
 sive holders of foreign stocks, and embarked largely in 
 all sorts of undertakings in other countries. But as the 
 nations of the continent, in consequence of the long peace, 
 acquired capital of their own, the rates of profit and of 
 interest fell, and English capital gradually found its way 
 back. It is well known that England holds a smaller 
 amount of foreign stocks now than at any time since the 
 peace. When the exchanges become adverse, and interest 
 rises at home, foreign bonds and shares are generally 
 found the most convenient medium by which payments 
 can be made to foreigners, and on such occasions are 
 parted with by their English holders. It was a sense of 
 this convenience that dictated the plan recommended 
 to the Bank of England of having available securities 
 abroad to draw on during any adverse state of the ex- 
 changes ; but whatever may be thought of such an expe- 
 dient, it is better perhaps that the restoration of the 
 exchanges should be effected by individuals, who will 
 
73 
 
 naturally select the most profitable means of meeting 
 foreign demands, than by the systematic operations of a 
 great public institution. 
 
 It may safely be assumed that, with a rate of profit 
 either equal or nearly equal, a preference will always be 
 given by the owners of capital to home over foreign invest- 
 ments ; but should the difference in the rate of profit be 
 such as to induce capitalists to encounter the greater risk 
 of foreign investment, is it advisable that we should seek 
 to retain capital at home by the undue encouragement of 
 Railways ? We have abandoned^ the principle that any 
 branch of domestic industry should be protected against 
 foreign competition, In adopting the principle of free 
 trade, are we to exclude capital from its operation 1 I 
 apprehend that we cannot make any exception, and that 
 free trade in capital stands on precisely the same founda- 
 tion as free trade in everything else. 
 
 When, from the inducements of higher profits, the capi- 
 talists of a country are led to make investments abroad in 
 State Stock, Mines, or Railways, the very circumstance of 
 the higher return proves that the country has gained more 
 by the foreign than it could have gained by domestic 
 investments. The capital itself returns when it becomes 
 advantageous that it should no longer remain abroad. 
 The securities, in such a case, change hands. The 
 Frenchman or Dutchman, for instance, then takes 
 the place of the Englishman who advanced money on 
 French or Dutch securities, just as much as thousands of 
 persons at home every day take the place of the original 
 Railway speculators. During the late monetary crisis, 
 when the demands for capital were so great in this 
 
74 
 
 country, the first expedient resorted to by those who 
 were in difficulties was to part with the foreign stocks 
 and shares which they held. Most of the foreign secu- 
 rities in this country have thus been returned. The 
 observation is not more applicable to continental securities 
 than to those of the United States. When it became pro- 
 fitable to part with them, during the time that the large 
 importations of grain turned the exchanges so much against 
 us, they nearly all found their way to that country. This 
 return of foreign stock, which had indeed been going on for 
 years, was accelerated by the late scarcity of money in a 
 remarkable degree. 
 
 Mr. Hubbard, in his Letter to the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, describes, in a very luminous and instructive 
 manner, the mode in which, as far as Russia was con- 
 cerned, (and what he says with regard to Russia is 
 more or less applicable to other states,) the capital 
 account between that country and England was balanced. 
 " One half," he says, " of the whole foreign trade of Rus- 
 sia is carried on with England ; the intercourse of the 
 two countries is friendly and intimate, and the most en- 
 tire confidence is reciprocally entertained in the good 
 faith of the Government and the stability of the institu- 
 tions of either nation. 
 
 " Russia, a country comparatively young in manufac- 
 tures, commerce, and the arts of civilization, possesses in 
 its vast elements of power and wealth, a field more than 
 adequate to engage the capital of its own people. The 
 return which the use of their capital yields is high ; hence 
 the advantage which both Government and people find in 
 borrowing from countries where the perfected application 
 
75 
 
 of labour and skill has produced an accumulation of 
 capital, exceeding the amount for which investments can 
 be found at home, without lowering the return it should 
 yield. Of the countries so situated, England is the most 
 eminent example, and she became naturally the largest 
 lender to all foreign borrowers, and to Russia in par- 
 ticular. 
 
 " The externally negotiated debt of Russia amounts to 
 ^45,000,000, and although it is impossible to ascertain 
 what proportion of it is held by British subjects, in 
 bonds here and stock in Russia, still it may be safely 
 taken as at least 5,000,000. 
 
 " The Russians are habitually debtors for a large por- 
 tion of the value both of their imports and exports. 
 The Russian Official Trade Tables for 1846 state the 
 value of exports to Great Britain at 6,000,000. 
 The exports from Great Britain, direct and indirect, 
 may be taken at an equal amount, and of the total of 
 12,000,000, it is not improbable that Russia is con- 
 stantly owing us from ,3,000,000 to 4,000,000. Be- 
 sides this, large sums have been invested by English capi- 
 talists in shares of public Companies, and in various in- 
 dustrial adventures. 
 
 " But the debt from Russia to England contracted in 
 the first instance because money may have been worth 
 7 per cent, in Russia, when it was only worth 4 per cent. 
 in England is liable to vary with a change of the value of 
 money in either country ; and should the rate of interest 
 rise to 5 per cent, in England, while it falls to 6 per 
 
76' 
 
 cent, in Russia, English capital will be withdrawn from 
 Russia to be invested at home, at a lower rate of interest, 
 but with more perfect security. "* * * * In pay- 
 ment for our earlier purchases of grain in Russia, we sent 
 her gold ; and while the loss of so much money raised the 
 rate of interest here, its acquisition reduced the rate in 
 Russia. * "* * * Under the altered monetary po- 
 sition of the two countries, the ordinary course of our 
 dealings with Russia was reversed. Exports were bought 
 with a deposit only, instead of altogether for cash ; im- 
 ports were sold for ready money, instead of for credit ; 
 Russian bills were discounted with the banks of St. Pe- 
 tersburgh ; stocks were sold, or made the subject of a 
 loan ; and the result of these expedients has been seen, 
 not only in the purchase from Russia of a further quan- 
 tity of grain without involving a further export of bul- 
 lion, but in the return of the gold which had been 
 already exported." 
 
 The apprehensions of those who fear that the invest- 
 ment of capital in other countries for the sake of higher 
 profits may induce the owners to follow their capital in 
 disproportionate numbers, and quit for ever the land of 
 their nativity, are perfectly groundless. Patriotism, or at- 
 tachment to home is not a factitious virtue, but has its 
 foundation in the very nature of things. Of all animals, 
 as Dr. Smith has well observed, the most difficult to re- 
 move from one country to another, is man. The Dutch- 
 man is happier by the side of his " dank canal/' than he 
 would be among the " laughing meads" of England. The 
 ties which bind a man to his native soil are strong and 
 numerous, and cannot be burst asunder, even by those who 
 
77 
 
 from their acquirements are the best prepared for the 
 change, without a material deduction from their happi- 
 ness; and the security for property which an Englishman 
 derives from his free institutions, would render him of 
 all men the least disposed, for the sake of a small differ- 
 ence in the rate of profit, to renounce his country. 
 
 It may be affirmed then, that that employment of 
 capital by which the greatest return is obtained, no 
 matter where the field of employment may be, is the 
 most advantageous to a nation. If from the greater de- 
 mand for capital in Russia, in the "Western Hemisphere, 
 or in any other part of the world, the Englishman can 
 make advances at a higher rate of profit than he can 
 obtain at home, it is for the benefit of the nation, as 
 well as for his own, that he should give the preference to 
 the more profitable investment. 
 
 We have seen what have been the effects of attempt- 
 ing to force investments at home by an artificial enhance- 
 ment of profits above the level of the ordinary returns 
 on capital. It led to the high premiums on Railway 
 shares in the market, and, by a necessary consequence, to 
 the mania which followed to the Extensions, Branches, 
 Purchases, and Amalgamations, the capital for which was 
 raised by means that enabled existing Railway proprie- 
 tors to enrich themselves at the expense of their suc- 
 cessors, and ultimately had the effect of involving the 
 whole country in a state of unexampled distress. The 
 stimulus given to domestic investments by returns dis- 
 proportionately high, obtained through exorbitant ex- 
 actions from the community, is indeed a strange way to 
 enrich a nation ! 
 
78 
 
 We have seen, too, that the source of the whole mis- 
 chief was the continued concession of Lines without any 
 available restriction on fares, and the sanction given to 
 the extravagant issues of shares at par, when at a pre- 
 mium in the market. But it has sometimes been said 
 that, numerous as were the schemes that received the 
 sanction of Parliament, and large as were the demands 
 which were in consequence made on the capital of the 
 country, all this could have been borne but for the 
 immense payments for imports of food, which, in 1847, 
 have been stated on good authority to have exceeded 
 30,000,000. Of two concurrent demands, each for 
 nearly the same amount, and both contributing to the 
 result produced, it is not enough to say, that the one 
 without the other could have been met by the capital at 
 the disposal of the nation. But it has been maintained 
 by those who contend for the innocuousness of the 
 Railway demands, that an internal investment of capital 
 does not affect the exchanges, while it is the drain of 
 gold, caused by adverse exchanges, which brings on a 
 crisis and panic. It is quite true that a drain of gold or 
 a sale of foreign securities always follows an adverse 
 state of the exchanges ; but we may have interest rising 
 and gold flowing in at the same time. Should the de- 
 mands of the Railways exceed the measure of what the 
 disposable capital of the country can supply, and the 
 rate of interest rise beyond what the profits of com- 
 merce can bear, the consequence must be bankruptcies 
 and panic. It may be said with truth, that the expen- 
 diture on Railways had much more to do with the late 
 commercial panic than the excessive importations of food. 
 
79 
 
 Nay, it may even be doubted, whether, had our imports 
 of food been no greater than usual, the commercial panic 
 could have been avoided. The question was merely one 
 of time. In that case, the Railways, of which the de- 
 mands were only limited by the utter inability of --the 
 country to supply them, would have merely added to 
 their expenditure the thirty millions paid for our im- 
 portations. 
 
 Capital is increased slowly by its combination with la- 
 bour, and in agiven period it cannot exceed a certain amount. 
 The investment which promises to be the most secure, and 
 to afford the highest return naturally obtains the prefer- 
 ence. From the number of Railway Bills passed in 1846, 
 and even 1847, authorizing the expenditure of sums of 
 enormous magnitude, and the extraordinary demand for ca- 
 pital in consequence, while from the nature of things the 
 supply to meet that demand was limited, it was impos- 
 sible, even if the famine had not occurred, that the money 
 market should not have been at last seriously affected. 
 It was impossible too to offer better security than the best 
 Railways could give, The revenues of these Companies 
 were pledged for the capital demanded ; and few mercantile 
 securities were equal to Railway Debentures. The amount 
 required could not have legally exceeded one-third of the 
 original outlay on the Lines. But the Railway calls fol- 
 lowed in quick succession, and with them a continually 
 increasing demand for capital, and a rise in the rate of 
 interest, when the struggle commenced between the Rail- 
 way men and the manufacturing and other industrious 
 classes, who should obtain the largest share of that which 
 was evidently insufficient for the requirements of all. A 
 
80 
 
 large amount of the floating capital of the country was 
 in consequence drawn from other employments by Kail- 
 ways, which could offer the larger remuneration and the 
 best security, to the great injury of the manufacturing and 
 commercial interests. It happened here, as it always does, 
 that the weakest went to the wall. First-rate commercial 
 houses, to the number, it is said, of more than two hun- 
 dred, were obliged to stop payment ; and though no doubt 
 many of these were not only weak, but had been actually 
 insolvent for many years, yet others possessing a juster title 
 to public sympathy, were involved in the wide-spread ruin. 
 Gold was at first exported; but it was brought back by the 
 high rate of interest, and when it was found that foreign 
 state securities and shares, owned by Englishmen, could 
 be used to more advantage in effecting payments abroad/ 5 ' 
 That the heavy expenditure of Railway Companies must 
 have affected the exchanges, by largely increasing the con- 
 
 * The prostration of the houses employed in carrying on the 
 foreign trade of the country is a calamity extending in its influence 
 far beyond the ruin of the individuals belonging to these houses, and 
 the hopes of their creditors. The place of these houses cannot be 
 immediately supplied. The goods manufactured for the Eastern 
 market lie in the warehouses for want of channels of conveyance to 
 their intended destination. The interruption of this commerce will 
 no doubt only be temporary ; but its immediate effects cannot fail to 
 be most disastrous to the labouring classes. In this, as in all other 
 misapplications of capital, the loss falls finally on the labourer. If 
 the manufacturer pays more for the capital he requires, he neces- 
 sarily pays less to his labourers; for if the price of goods in the 
 market remain the same, the additional charge for capital must be 
 borne by profits, and with reduced profits the wages must also be 
 reduced. In time, no doubt, prices will again attract capital into 
 our foreign trade ; but in the interim much suffering will be felt by 
 numerous parties more or less dependent on the markets now closed. 
 
81 
 
 sumption of foreign produce at a time when the food produced 
 in this country was insufficient for our supply, is self-evi- 
 dent. The people employed on Railways, and all who pro- 
 duced the materials of construction, taken together a very 
 large class, consumed far more than the average of labourers. 
 Of the enormous importations in 1847, by no means an in- 
 considerable share must have gone to those who derived 
 their means of payment from Railways. 
 
 But without stopping to inquire how much the Railway 
 expenditure may have added to the importations, we 
 return to the more important consideration of the bearing 
 of that expenditure on the commercial distress. Under 
 ordinary circumstances there never can be any material 
 demand for capital beyond what can be conveniently sup- 
 plied ; for the rise in the rate of interest would instantly 
 diminish the demand. But the Railway demand was 
 altogether exceptional. Works in progress could not be 
 abandoned without heavy loss, as the productiveness of a 
 Railway might depend on its completion; the calls on Lines 
 advancing towards completion could not be refused, when 
 it was inconvenient to meet them, for all the previous 
 payments would in these cases have been as good as 
 thrown away. It was this inexorable necessity for con- 
 tinued outlay, at a time when the means to meet it were 
 so straitened, that constituted the distinctive feature of 
 Railway demand, and gave it so overwhelming an influ- 
 ence in crushing commerce. The circumstance which in- 
 fluences the demand for capital in ordinary cases the 
 profits to be made by it had no bearing, where additional 
 capital must be found to avert what was equivalent to 
 confiscation of the large sums already advanced. It was 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 something like the indigo cultivation in the East, where 
 expenditure must be continued for a series of years in order 
 to obtain any returns, and to prevent a total loss of all 
 that has been before risked. It is easy to see, therefore, that 
 the Railway demand could not fail to have the most disas- 
 trous effects on commerce. No ordinary industrial under- 
 taking could bear up against the enormous discounts which 
 the demands for the Railways occasioned. Of course the 
 urgency increased with the advance of a Line towards 
 completion ; and hence some Lines which were near com- 
 pletion, offered at one time 25 or 30 per cent, for money, 
 and even could not obtain it at that rate. 
 
 But though the monetary crisis is past, its effects will, it 
 is feared, be long felt by the industrious classes. The 
 adage, that we cannot both eat our cake and have it, 
 has, in the case of Railways, received a most disastrous 
 exemplification. The industrious classes of Lancashire, 
 who have always been the largest speculators in Railways, 
 found lately, to their cost, that, ample as their means 
 were, they had pledged them to undertakings to which 
 these means were unequal. Meeting after meeting was 
 held at Manchester, and other great Jo wns in that county, 
 in the autumn of last year, at which the ruinous opera- 
 tion of the constantly recurring Railway calls was dwelt 
 upon by all the speakers, and demands for the postpone- 
 ment of the different works in progress till a more favour- 
 able period, were urgently made. Those who are of 
 opinion that too much capital cannot be consumed in 
 Railways will find few to second them in the manufactur- 
 ing districts. Many of our manufacturers have suffered 
 severely from the competition for capital caused by the ex- 
 
83 
 
 penditure on Railways ; and though money can no doubt 
 be obtained at present without difficulty, yet if we may 
 venture to draw an inference from the amount of calls for 
 April, 1848, which exceed two millions, there is reason 
 for thinking the danger from which we have escaped, may, 
 in some degree, recur sooner than is generally apprehended. 
 When the rate of interest is high, industry necessarily 
 suffers. The capital already absorbed in Railway ex- 
 penditure cannot of course be again returned to trade and 
 manufactures. The creation of fresh capital from savings 
 can only be the work of time ; and when the rate of 
 interest is high, accumulation takes place more slowly, and 
 the labourer in the mean time suffers. In the case of goods 
 raised for the foreign market, the price abroad determines 
 the price at home ; and when the manufacturer has 
 high interest to pay, he can only continue his business 
 at a profit by lowering wages, for he cannot pay high 
 wages and high interest at the same time. A high rate of 
 interest is equivalent to an increased cost of production : 
 it is obvious, then, that the reckless manner in which 
 parliament sanctioned an expenditure of capital beyond 
 the ability of the nation to supply, has thus inflicted 
 great suffering on the labouring classes, by diminishing 
 employment and reducing wages. 
 
 Mr. Hubbard, in alluding to this subject, has not dis- 
 played his usual clearness and precision. " Excepting in 
 so far as the larger consumption of foreign commodities 
 affects the exchanges," he says, " I can conceive no dis- 
 turbance from Railway undertakings, so long as they are 
 promoted in a legitimate manner; i. e. by the subscriptions 
 of individuals able to pay the calls out of their disengaged 
 
 G2 
 
84 
 
 capital. It is doubtless otherwise when traders subscribe 
 to Railways, and attempt to carry on their mercantile 
 operations as before ; to be merchants with their capital 
 invested in goods and bills, and Kailway proprietors with 
 the same capital in shares. The same capital cannot meet 
 their acceptances and their calls ; either their goods or their 
 shares must be sacrificed, and prices and interest are dis- 
 turbed by their struggles to extricate themselves. The fair 
 inference, however, ought to be, that individuals subscribe 
 to Railways, only to the extent of their means, and that the 
 exceptions to the rule are too few and trifling to be worth 
 notice, in their effect upon the money market* Far more se- 
 rious is the disturbance of the value of money, when Railway 
 
 * We have an instructive commentary on this assumption, that 
 prudence presided over the purchase of Railway shares, in a Report 
 of the proceedings at the Annual Meeting of the shareholders of 
 the Liverpool Commercial Bank, on Saturday, the llth of 
 March, 1848, inserted in the Morning Chronicle of the 13th. 
 Mr. McGregor, one of the Directors, who is also Chairman of the 
 South Eastern Railway Company, stated, " that during the time 
 he had been Chairman, (four years,) nearly 3,000,000 of the 
 capital of that Railway had been supplied by Liverpool and Man- 
 chester." It appears that the property in which the reserved sur- 
 plus fund of the bank is invested, had fallen in value, 50,282. 14s. 6d., 
 and that the reserved surplus fund, which on the 31st December, 
 1846, was 200,721. 13s., had been reduced to 150,439. Is. fid. by 
 the fall in Railway shares. The amount invested in Railway securities, 
 was 93,000. It is to be hoped that the London Joint Stock Banks 
 and the Scotch do not follow the practice of their Lancashire brethren. 
 Some of the shareholders complimented the Directors on their prudence, 
 "as the South Eastern was the only Line amongst the Great Railways 
 whose receipts per mile were more this year than last." And it is 
 the only great Railway that has been continually raising its fares 
 though in 1846, in the struggle with the projected North Kent Line, 
 it took credit for having reduced them, and urged that reduction as a 
 ground for parliamentary favour ! 
 
85 
 
 Companies enforce the power of borrowing on debentures in 
 a contracted market. The privileges they possess in this way 
 appear far too great, and liable to considerable objection." 
 
 The distinction here taken may be said to be substan- 
 tially without a difference ; or rather, of the two, the mis- 
 chief is more likely to be created by calls than debentures. 
 Debentures are naturally only resorted to for raising money 
 when it abounds and interest is low. When the rate of in- 
 terest is high, Railway Companies are obliged to raise money 
 by loan or by discounting bills. At such a time those who 
 have advanced money on debenture would naturally be 
 anxious to obtain payment of it, to profit by the increase 
 in the rate of interest; and accordingly, during the late 
 crisis, it is understood that many debentures were only not 
 paid off, because the Companies resolutely refused to com- 
 ply with the demands of holders. 
 
 But the best commentary on the position, that it is a 
 fair inference that individuals only subscribe to Railways 
 to the extent of their means, is the share mania of 1846. 
 Blinded by the enormous sums obtained by the issue of 
 shares at cent, per cent, premium, individuals rushed into 
 the markets to realize their visions of sudden wealth, and 
 prudence was cast aside. When the fall in the share- 
 market, and the demand for calls, woke them out of their 
 beatific trance, and a long series of future calls, was dis- 
 cernible in the distance, then prudence returned, but often 
 when it was too late. The proportion between the hopes 
 of individuals and their means is seen in the spectacle 
 of shares selling in the market greatly below the amount 
 of capital paid on them. 
 
 I do not, by what has been stated, wish it to be in- 
 
86 
 
 ferred that I am not deeply sensible of the advantage 
 of Railways to a country. It is obvious that a nation 
 without Railways is without an instrument of almost 
 incalculable power for abridging labour, and facilitating 
 the acquisition of capital, and must suffer greatly from 
 the relative unproductiveness of its industry, compared 
 with that of the nations possessing Railways. By bring- 
 ing within the reach of manures and markets, land hith- 
 erto without access to them, they may be said to have 
 given us a large accession of territory. But all these 
 advantages might have been obtained in a greater degree 
 than we now possess them, by the limitation of fares to a 
 scale yielding a suitable return on the outlay, and no more. 
 And now we come to the great, and by far the most 
 important question ; how are we to derive in future the 
 greatest possible advantages from the improved means 
 of communication which Railways afford 1 We have 
 ceded in perpetuity, under no necessity, many of our 
 Lines, without the slightest security against abuse; for 
 the conditions on which the nation can gain possession of 
 them are not such as to admit of their being made 
 available. A monstrous evil has thus been sanctioned 
 by the legislature ; but what has been done, it will be 
 next to impossible to undo. At the same time it is quite 
 impossible to suppose that the people of this country will 
 long continue to pay fares on a scale disproportioned to the 
 future cost of constructing and working Railways. How 
 then are we to escape from the difficulty of leaving the 
 monopolies obtained from an improvident legislature 
 undisturbed, while we communicate to the country the 
 advantages from Railways to which it is so justly entitled. 
 
87 
 
 The Directors of Railways, and those who represent the 
 Railway interest, both in and out of Parliament, have 
 always maintained that no better mode could be devised 
 of imparting to the community the advantages of the new 
 and improved mode of communication than that which 
 exists at present, The Railway interest has been, and 
 still continues to be, very powerful in the legislature, 
 and much of the active talent of the country has been 
 enlisted in the service of Companies. While barristers 
 and solicitors were reaping golden harvests, while land- 
 owners, great and small, were availing themselves of the 
 eagerness of Companies to proceed with their Lines, and 
 holding threats of opposition over their heads, in order 
 to extort inordinate prices for their land, while mem- 
 bers of Parliament were deeply involved in numerous 
 Railway speculations, it was difficult for an independent 
 man to obtain a hearing. The Government of this coun- 
 try is, from its very nature, obliged to yield to those 
 who are in possession of influence ; and now that the 
 legislature more than ever represents the active classes, it 
 can less and less afford to have a distinct and independent 
 determination. No minister of this country, can ever 
 again possess the power of Mr. Pitt, though even he was 
 obliged to enter on the war with France against his own 
 opinions. But the barristers and solicitors have reaped 
 their harvest, and the gleanings that remain are compa- 
 ratively of little moment, the landowners have pocketed 
 their prices, the Railway speculators in parliament though 
 not fewer, are less formidable from the change in the 
 public feeling ; and we may therefore hope to find the 
 legislature more accessible than it has been to views in 
 
88 
 
 harmony with the public interests. A brighter day is be- 
 ginning to dawn upon us. With these improved pros- 
 pects, it may be supposed that the legislature will be 
 more ready to second the adoption of any system which, 
 without disturbing the powers granted to existing Com- 
 panies, promises to work the country out of the difficulties 
 in which it has been so improperly involved. 
 
 Hitherto, as I have shown, in all the proceedings be- 
 fore Parliament and Parliamentary Committees, the in- 
 terests of rival Companies were alone considered. The 
 floors of Parliament and Committee-rooms were the arena 
 for battles between these parties, and the interests of the 
 public received little, if any, consideration. Let us hope 
 that, in this respect, the present parliament will be 
 guided by sounder and more legitimate views of its duty 
 than the last; and that in its determinations with regard 
 to Railway affairs, the first consideration will be, not 
 how particular Companies may be affected, but how the 
 public interest will be most promoted. 
 
 Railway Companies, as I have shown, have been en- 
 abled to work the extensive mischief from which we have 
 suffered so much, by the whole course of legislation hav- 
 ing been directed to the extension of unrestricted mono- 
 poly over the country. If we wish to secure the country 
 against a danger to which it may be again exposed, should 
 an abundance of capital, and a low rate of interest return, 
 with the prospect of high receipts from Railways, Parlia- 
 ment must at once interdict the practice of issuing new 
 shares by the proprietors of existing Lines at par, to be 
 divided among themselves, in order to realize premiums by 
 their sale in the market, In all cases where additional Lines 
 
89 
 
 are projected, and where new shares can be issued at a pre- 
 mium, such shares ought to be disposed of for the benefit of 
 the original Lines. Some, arguing from the present state of 
 the share market, may deem all precaution against this evil 
 superfluous. But, though shares can never rise again to 
 their former price, it is not so certain that they may not 
 hereafter be again eagerly sought after. At all events, 
 the legislature ought to set its face stoutly against this 
 practice, and destroy the motive for embarking in unpro- 
 fitable undertakings, with a view to sell premiums on the 
 shares required for them, corresponding to the differ- 
 ence between the receipts on the old Lines and the usual 
 returns for capital, whereby the common return for the 
 whole of the connected Lines, both old and new, must 
 ultimately be lowered, and Directors, instead of reduc- 
 ing the fares to keep pace with the improvements in 
 the cost and working of Railways, will be driven, as the 
 South Eastern, for example, to successive enhancements 
 of their scale. It is impossible to over-estimate the 
 mischief which has resulted from this practice. Were 
 it abolished, Directors and existing proprietors would 
 no longer be biassed by the temptation which has been 
 found irresistible, of sacrificing for immediate gain the 
 future interests of their Companies. To say that men 
 who can pocket cent, per cent, premiums, and even more, 
 by new issues, while they gain, perhaps, another cent, per 
 cent, by being in the secret of an intended Amalgamation, 
 are not under the influence of sinister interest, is to be- 
 tray an utter ignorance of the motives by which mankind 
 are usually governed. 
 
 Mr. Hudson, indeed, told the Railway Acts Enactments 
 
90 
 
 Committee,* that he had no personal interest whatever, 
 in the purchases made by him, "not holding a single 
 share in the Great North of England, at the time of its 
 purchase, or in the Brandling Junction, or in the Durham 
 Junction, or in the Stanhope and Tyne, or the Hull and 
 Selby ; that, in fact, in any Railway of which he had be- 
 come the purchaser, he had no interest to the amount of 
 sixpence, directly or indirectly, in any way whatever." 
 
 Far be it from me to question the purity of the right 
 honourable gentleman. An Aris tides may, no doubt, 
 occasionally be found, even in these degenerate days. 
 But it would be hazardous to calculate on many such in- 
 stances of disinterestedness. We may, without being 
 deemed uncharitable, assume, as a general proposition, 
 that, where the shares of a Line, from the lowness of its 
 receipts, are a drug in the market, those who are in the 
 secret of an intended purchase by a rich Line, or an 
 Amalgamation on the principle of guaranteeing to the 
 holders of such unmarketable shares a high rate of divi- 
 dend, are under the influence of an irresistible temptation to 
 turn their secret to account. And even where a Chairman 
 may scorn to avail himself of his peculiar sources of in- 
 formation ; and, though knowing with certainty that the 
 shares which are to-day purchaseable, say for 100,000, 
 may be sold in a week's time for 200,000, or even 
 300,000, will allow, without a sigh, the enormous gain 
 to be appropriated by others ; yet, this paragon of self- 
 denial may have friends and dependents, who are not 
 altogether indifferent to the means of becoming easily and 
 
 * Second Report Railway Acts Enactments, Minutes of Evi- 
 dence, p, 253. 
 
91 
 
 suddenly wealthy, and we know sufficiently well that the 
 power to confer riches on others, is not altogether value- 
 less. This much is certain, that enormous sums were 
 gained, by parties who had the good fortune to be in 
 possession of shares in unproductive Lines, at the time 
 of their purchase, or Amalgamation, and that enormous 
 sums were also gained by the proprietors of prosperous 
 Lines, on every fresh issue of shares. And it is quite as 
 certain, that if the legislature do not interfere, the same 
 disreputable juggles will be repeated should opportunities 
 occur. 
 
 When the distrust caused by the mystery in which Rail- 
 way affairs are now involved, has been removed by pub- 
 licity and an audit by a public functionary, and when it 
 is seen that Lines can continue to pay a suitable divi- 
 dend from the revenue alone, without drawing on capital, 
 it may be expected that the shares of such Lines, 
 though they may never rise to their former extravagant 
 prices, will, in most cases, be somewhat above par. Al- 
 lowance too must be made for the growth of the traffic of 
 the country ; for, as has been justly observed by Mr. 
 M'Culloch, " the fair presumption is, that the country will 
 continue to increase in wealth and population, for an un- 
 defined period, with the same rapidity that she has in- 
 creased since the close of the American war ; and, if so, 
 these rates (Railway) will in a few years yield a profit or 
 interest far beyond any that was in the contemplation of 
 the parties when the work was entered upon. " * 
 
 It must be borne in mind that Railways are necessary 
 to the community ; and we may be certain, therefore, that 
 
 * British Empire, 3rd Edit. vol. ii. p. 59. 
 
92 
 
 till they have been fully supplied, their construction will 
 be continued. It is not to be supposed that any district 
 of which the traffic will afford a return for the expenditure 
 on a Railway will long be without one. Notwithstanding, 
 therefore, what has already been effected, there will be 
 found, for many years to come, in the supply of the legi- 
 timate accommodation of the country with railways, such 
 a return for the capital invested in their construction, as 
 will form a sufficient inducement to embark in them. 
 But after our past experience, it would be the extreme 
 of folly to suppose that future Railways will be constructed 
 with more beneficial results to the public than those which 
 already exist, if they be not subjected to an efficient public 
 control, and more especially if the publicity of accurate 
 accounts both of income and expenditure for the in- 
 formation of the legislature be not secured. Indeed, it 
 is not less for the permanent interest of shareholders 
 than of the public, that the publicity of accounts should 
 be insisted on. The former at present know very little of 
 what is going on, and are afraid to elicit disclosures which 
 may affect the marketable value of their property. Besides, 
 many of them have shared too largely in the abuses 
 which have prevailed, to be desirous to establish that 
 efficient control by which alone good and honest manage- 
 ment can be secured. The best Director hitherto has 
 been he who was the most successful in the lobby and 
 Committee-rooms of parliament, and not he who best 
 managed the proper business of the Lines. The private 
 interests of the moment became in this way too powerful 
 to be overcome by any other means than those at the 
 
93 
 
 command of a Government strong in the support of the 
 legislature. 
 
 We must not, however, shut our eyes to the diffi- 
 culties which must for some time stand in the way of 
 new Lines disposed to exact merely a fair compensation 
 for their outlay. All sorts of expedients will, no doubt, 
 continue to be resorted to for preventing independent 
 action on the part of any Company. Except a Line be a 
 whole within itself, it will too often be in the power of 
 others to subject it to such inconvenience as, without great 
 determination and perseverance, will have the effect of 
 driving it into a common arrangement at the expense of 
 the public. Captain Laws, whose reputation for skill 
 in management of Railways, is admitted by all the wit- 
 nesses who have been examined on the subject, describes 
 very graphically, in his evidence before Mr. Gladstone's 
 Committee, the modus operandi by which one Line is 
 driven into the views of others :* " You could not compel 
 them to .make their trains fit yours ; and if they did, they 
 could still inflict a degree of inconvenience upon the pas- 
 sengers, by making them get in and out of the carriages, and 
 stopping in certain places in a way that would be nearly 
 a perfect bar to any one taking his family. If you were 
 determined to throw your weight into the other scale, 
 because you thought it was the right one, you might force 
 your way by submitting to considerable inconveniences. 
 1 * * If two Lines were in competition, you could 
 not blame me for favouring that in which I was indi- 
 rectly interested, in preference to that which was a 
 determined rival. Then, I say, I should take care to 
 
 * Fifth Report, Railways, 1844, Min. of Evid., p. 480. 
 
94 
 
 arrange my trains so that the passengers should suffer 
 some degree of inconvenience, as much as I could inflict, 
 if he went by my rival instead of me." He then proceeds 
 to illustrate the various other ways by which an inde- 
 pendent Line " may be driven into the combination at any 
 terms the other parties choose to dictate" The legisla- 
 ture has therefore done that already which renders it not 
 a little difficult to return to a proper system ; still it is 
 right that we should always keep the correct course in 
 view, as an object to be aimed at in all future legis- 
 lation. 
 
 But, to insure these beneficial results, Railways must be 
 undertaken with a view to the profits they can legitimately 
 afford in themselves ; and the whole system of making 
 Branches and Extensions, for the sake of issuing new shares, 
 with a view to premiums, must be brought to a termination. 
 Unless we close this source of all manner of frauds, we 
 may, under certain conceivable circumstances, have the mo- 
 netary affairs of the country again thrown into confusion. 
 Should Railways again raise their heads, the high prices 
 of shares would in that case lead to new investments, 
 not considered with reference to ultimate returns, but 
 to the immediate pocketing by existing proprietors of the 
 sums to be realized by the issue of shares. It is impossi- 
 ble to prevent, under such a system, a disproportionate 
 share of the disposable capital of the country from being 
 diverted to Railways, and all the consequences that flow 
 from such a diversion. The country cannot afford to be sub- 
 jected, after short intervals, to manias, and panics, and wide- 
 spread bankruptcies. Our national character, hitherto 
 the highest in the world for fair commercial dealing, can- 
 
95 
 
 not stand many such exposures as have lately been made 
 in recent bankruptcies. 
 
 At the hazard of being charged with repetition, I must 
 again and again inculcate the paramount necessity of 
 guarding, by every means which can be devised, against 
 the practice in which the speculation mania has its source. 
 Railways doubtless will be more cheaply constructed and 
 cheaply wrought ; but they cannot be cheaper to the 
 public, if Companies be allowed to evade accountability as 
 at present, by mixing up the affairs of different Lines, and 
 paying the guaranteed dividends on some from the revenues 
 of others. Everything hinges on Parliament's closing this 
 source of mischief. When Captain Laws was asked 
 in 1844, whether Railways could be made cheaper here- 
 after than they had been, he gave this memorable an- 
 swer: "I have not the smallest doubt; but whether they 
 will be made much cheaper in the mania which now 
 exists, 1 have some doubt. Iron is much cheaper, but 
 this is only one portion of the thing. The way in which 
 they are every day buying off opposition, and the expenses 
 in Parliament, appear to be much upon the same principle 
 that they have been formerly/' The mania no longer 
 exists, but a well-founded expectation of profit will again 
 stimulate to enterprise. New Lines will hereafter be made 
 at a cost infinitely below that of the Lines first constructed. 
 If the earthwork, for instance, of the Caledonian, which 
 passes through one of the most difficult districts of Great 
 Britain, cost only 10,000 per mile, we may assume that 
 few Railways will now cost above 15,000 per mile. The 
 public have a right to expect that every facility should be 
 given to the construction of Railways ; for the imposing 
 
96 
 
 a heavy tax at the outset in the shape of legal charges, 
 is like laying a tax on the raw material of a manufacture 
 of the first necessity. If then Railways can be con- 
 structed at much less cost than formerly, it would be 
 the height of injustice, were the Lines already in exist- 
 ence to be allowed to stand in the way of future Lines. 
 We are entitled to say to the old Companies, " The use 
 you have made of your monopolies justifies our interfer- 
 ence with them. You have expended more on your Lines 
 than you ought to have done, and to obtain a corres- 
 ponding dividend you must charge oppressively high fares ; 
 but is that any reason why the public should not do 
 themselves justice by constructing cheap Lines, which may 
 afford the requisite accommodation for lower fares 1 Are 
 you to be considered as so many territorial sovereigns, 
 who may close your respective districts against all future 
 attempts to run Lines through them, to compete with 
 yours 1 It may sometimes be necessary to grant monopo- 
 lies, and it may be just to uphold them ; but, this can 
 never be the case, unless it can be clearly made out that 
 they are, on the whole, advantages to the public." 
 
 Should the legislature be disposed to allow every facility 
 to the construction of new Lines, and to set its face 
 against the renewal, under favourable circumstances, of the 
 system of adding Line to Line, and Branch to Branch, by 
 means of issues of fresh shares at par, when at a pre- 
 mium in the market, and thus reduce the demand for 
 new Lines to its natural level, namely, a suitable return 
 for the capital embarked in the undertakings, the very 
 last parties who ought to murmur are the existing proprie- 
 
97 
 
 tors of Railways. They have already reaped an abundant 
 harvest by the baneful practices in which they should no 
 longer be permitted to indulge. To use the language of 
 Mr. Hudson, " they must bear in mind who received these 
 shares!' They have been suffered to pocket millions after 
 millions of premiums on new issues, by sales in anticipa- 
 tion of the produce of future branch Lines, calculated on 
 the scale of profits of the trunk Lines, and derived from 
 that excess of profits on the latter which legitimately be- 
 longed to the public. Let them be satisfied with what 
 they have got ; and let them not, by an irritating and 
 vexatious course of procedure, provoke inquiry into the 
 justice of their title to the booty in their possession. 
 Besides, there will be few prizes for some time, at least. 
 In the history of no country, has there been such a bare- 
 faced sacrifice of the public interests for the benefit of 
 private associations, who, without any efficient restraint or 
 restriction, have been suffered to monopolize, and for 
 their own selfish purposes to employ the means of com- 
 munication of a great industrial nation. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 s 2 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 Speech of James Morrison, Esq., M. P., in the House of Commons, 
 llth May, 1836, on moving a Resolution relative to the peri- 
 odical Revision of Tolls and Charges levied on Railroads and 
 other Public Works. 
 
 IN bringing forward the motion of which I have given notice, 
 if I trespass for a short time on the attention of the House, I 
 must plead the importance and magnitude of the interests in- 
 volved in the question as my excuse. Honourable Members, Sir, 
 may differ from me on this subject; some may consider my appre- 
 hensions as altogether unfounded some, admitting the evil which 
 I would seek to remedy, may think I exaggerate its probable 
 effects whilst others, perhaps, agreeing that something is neces- 
 sary to be done, may allege that the remedy I propose is inappli- 
 cable or insufficient ; but all must allow that the change now 
 going on, and which is likely at no distant period to transfer our 
 chief public conveyances from the King's highways to a number 
 of joint-stock railway companies, is a subject which demands the 
 early, the deliberate, and the serious attention of Parliament. 
 
 I need not, Sir, occupy the time of the House by pointing out 
 how important it is to a commercial and manufacturing people 
 like ourselves that our means of conveying persons and goods 
 from place to place should be as perfect as possible ; every one 
 must be aware how much has been done in this way during the 
 last twenty or thirty years. It would be difficult to estimate the 
 value of these improvements, or their effect upon the trade and 
 prosperity of the country. They have carried competition not 
 only into our smaller towns, but even into our villages ; and the 
 facilities which they have afforded to the dealer in visiting the 
 warehouses of the manufacturer and the merchant, as well as 
 in obtaining whatever he might require at the least expense and 
 in the shortest space of time, have promoted in no inconsiderable 
 degree that remarkable developement of our internal industry 
 during the last twenty years, which has so far outstripped the 
 anticipations of those the best acquainted with the subject. I 
 should have hesitated much before I brought forward this resolu- 
 tion had I thought it would check in any degree individual enter- 
 prise or fair and legitimate speculation ; but I am persuaded it 
 will have no such effect. Though my proposition had been years 
 ago the law of the land, I believe we should not have had one 
 
102 
 
 project the less before us. Experience shows in this as well as in 
 other countries that legislative restrictions, required by the public 
 interests, do not prevent individuals from embarking their capital 
 in public works affording the probability of a reasonable return. 
 We all know, Sir, how much this country is indebted to indivi- 
 duals and companies for great and useful works ; but for its water 
 communications with the metropolis and other places, Manchester 
 would now have been merely a large village. The illustrious 
 Duke to whom the public is chiefly indebted for this improve- 
 ment, is justly considered as amongst the greatest benefactors of 
 his country ; nor must we forget what is due to the public- 
 spirited individuals who first undertook, under many and great 
 discouragements, that truly national work, the Liverpool and 
 Manchester Railway, the success of which has led to the exten- 
 sive introduction of similar works on the Continent, and still 
 more in America. Hitherto on our public roads the most perfect 
 competition has always existed ; whoever paid the tolls was at 
 liberty to use them. If any improvement took place which tended 
 to lower the cost or to accelerate the speed of our public convey- 
 ances, the public immediately had the full benefit of it ; but in 
 the numberless Acts now before the House no security is taken 
 that the public should have the benefit of any improvement on 
 railways. The superiority of this over all other modes of travel- 
 ling in respect of rapidity, is perhaps not greater than the capa- 
 bility it promises of reduction of cost. The general introduction 
 of railways may be of great future benefit to the country ; and if 
 the public do not reap from them all the advantage it is entitled 
 to, the fault will be laid, and justly so, at our door. It is our 
 duty, Sir, to give every fair encouragement to the enterprise of 
 individuals and of associations, but we are at the same time bound 
 to take care that we do not confer rights and privileges on any 
 individual, or set of individuals, which may be employed to the 
 public detriment, or which may hinder the public from hereafter 
 reaping advantages they would have enjoyed but for the existence 
 of such rights and immunities. All Acts of Parliament conferring 
 on a Joint Stock Company the power of making a canal or 
 railway between any two or more places, necessarily confer 
 peculiar powers and privileges on the subscribers, the abuse of 
 which ought consequently to be guarded against. Such Acts 
 authorise companies to carry their works through the estates and 
 properties of private individuals, often inflicting inconveniences 
 and injuries which no pecuniary compensation can remove or 
 repair, the only justification for which and in my opinion it is 
 always a sufficient one being the subserviency of private interests 
 to the public good. But this is not all ; these Acts further give 
 them what is really equivalent to a monopoly. I put the case 
 thus strongly because it is a fact that between any two or more 
 places that can be pointed out there is a certain line that is pre- 
 ferable to every other line for a railway or a canal ; and which 
 may, indeed, be the only practicable one that can be selected. 
 
103 
 
 Now the chances are ten to one that this preferable line will be 
 the first that will be occupied ; and a company authorized by the 
 legislature to take possession of it has thereby acquired an incom- 
 municable privilege, and a substantial monopoly, inasmuch as no 
 company that may be formed at any future time for making a new 
 canal or a new railway between the same places could come into 
 the field under equally favourable circumstances. The advan- 
 tage conferred in this way may be in some cases so very great as 
 to render all subsequent competition impossible, and in almost all 
 cases it must be very decided. Not only, however, would there 
 be the obstacle of an inferior line in the way of a new company, 
 but the difficulties ta be overcome in getting a new Act, the time 
 necessary for the completion of the undertaking, and the vast 
 amount of capital required, all contribute to secure the monopoly 
 conferred on the subscribers to the first line, and prevent their 
 profits from being governed by that principle of competition 
 which is in ordinary cases the best protection of the public interests. 
 The railway from London to Liverpool, for example, will cost 
 probably five or six millions sterling. Suppose, now, that the 
 speculation should turn out a profitable one, and that the share- 
 holders realize a large dividend : it is plain that, under the circum- 
 stances of the case, it would be all but impossible to reduce it, or 
 to lessen their charges upon the public, by bringing a rival esta- 
 blishment into the field ; for, first, the existing company is in 
 possession of the best line ; and, second, were it seriously in- 
 tended to form a rival establishment, the original company would 
 seek to deter them by reducing their charges ; and if, as is 
 probable, they succeeded in this way in getting rid of the 
 threatened competition, they might again raise their charges to 
 the continued injury of the public. But suppose that, in spite 
 of all the difficulties opposed to the formation of a new company, 
 one is formed, obtains an Act, and actually comes into competi- 
 tion with the present line ; would not the obvious interest of both 
 parties, unless prevented by some such precaution as that which 
 I have proposed, inevitably bring about some understanding 
 between them by which the high charges would be further con- 
 firmed, and all chance of competition removed to a greater 
 distance ? 
 
 The history of our Metropolitan water companies is most 
 instructive on this point. After a fierce contention among them- 
 selves, they came to an agreement by which they parcelled the 
 town into districts ; and having assigned one to each company, 
 they left it to obtain from the inhabitants the utmost that it can 
 obtain, and to profit, without let or hinderance of any kind, by the 
 extension of this ever-growing metropolis! The public, too, is 
 served, not merely with a dear but also with a bad article; and 
 the probability of reJief is perhaps more distant than it would 
 have been had some of the companies not been established. 
 
 It is evident, from what has been stated, that in such cases we 
 have no security in competition. I am confirmed in this opinion 
 
104 
 
 by the Report of a Select Committee on the Supply of Water 
 for the Metropolis, printed in 1821. 
 
 " The public is at present without any protection even against 
 a further indefinite extension of demand. In cases of dispute 
 there is no tribunal but the boards of the companies themselves 
 to which individuals can appeal ; there are no regulations but 
 such as the companies may have voluntarily imposed on them- 
 selves, and may therefore at any time revoke. All these points, 
 and some others of the same nature, indispensably require legis- 
 lative regulation, where the subject matter is an article of the first 
 necessity, and the supply has, from peculiar circumstances, got 
 into such a course that it is not under the operation of those 
 principles which govern supply and demand in other cases," 
 
 The Committee afterwards state that the object of Parliament 
 in granting these Acts was to give the benefit of competition to 
 the public, but that they had failed of their object, and they sug- 
 gest that the companies should be obliged to lay their accounts 
 annually before Parliament. 
 
 The history of the existing canals, water-works, &c., affords 
 abundant evidence of the evils to which I have been adverting. 
 An original share in the Loughborough Canal,, for example, which 
 cost 142/. 17s. is now selling at about 1250/. and yields a divi- 
 dend of 90/. or a IOOJ. a year ! The fourth part of a Trent and 
 Mersey Canal share, or 50/. of the company's stock, is now fetch- 
 ing about 600/., and yields a dividend of about 301. a-year. And 
 there are various other canals in nearly the same situation. But 
 the circumstances already specified, that is, the possession of 
 the best, or it may be the only practicable line, and the vast 
 capital required for the formation of new canals, have enabled 
 the associations in question, unchecked by competition, to main- 
 tain rates of charge which have realized the enormous profits 
 referred to for a long series of years. The advance in the value 
 of the New River Company's shares may be referred to as afford- 
 ing a further and even more striking illustration of the same 
 principle. 
 
 It is plain from the facts now stated, and I might have referred 
 to fifty other similar instances, that competition in such cases is 
 not to be depended upon as a means of reducing the exorbitant 
 rates of charge which produce such extraordinary and unlooked- 
 for profits. But even though competition might be depended 
 upon, the question arises whether it would he right to trust exclu- 
 sively to its protection ? And to this question a decided negative 
 should be given. The legislature is bound to prevent, as far as 
 it can, the unnecessary waste of the public capital. Now, it 
 would be obviously a most flagrant waste of capital to construct 
 two or three canals or railways to do the business that might 
 be as well done by one, the only object in fact of the construction 
 of the latter being the reduction of the charges made by the first, 
 a reduction which might have been effected without trouble or 
 outlay, by a proper legislative provision. 
 
 We have already seen that five or six millions sterling will be 
 
105 
 
 required for the construction of a railway from London to Liver- 
 pool. Now, suppose that the undertaking should at some future 
 time become an exceedingly profitable one, that the charges are 
 not sufficiently reduced, and that in consequence it is resolved to 
 construct a rival line of road. This rival line will probably require 
 an additional outlay of something like five or six millions for its con- 
 struction ; in other words, in order to reduce the rates on the first, 
 it will be necessary to lay out other five or six millions in making 
 a second ! Ought not the possibility of so egregious a waste of 
 the money of the community to have been provided against ? 
 And this might have been done without any difficulty whatever. 
 All that can be gained by the second road might have been as 
 effectually accomplished by the legislature, had they reserved a 
 power to revise the rates or tolls chargeable on the first ; so that 
 under the circumstances supposed, a capital of five or six millions 
 will have to be sacrificed to repair a legislative oversight. 
 
 But expensive and wasteful as this resource undoubtedly is, 
 it is all but certain that it will have to be resorted to. Had a 
 railway been established between London and Manchester in 
 1770, and rates of charges fixed that would have yielded a 
 moderate profit at the time, it would be difficult to say what 
 profit they would now have yielded, but it must have been 
 quite enormous. The cotton trade may be said to have almost 
 entirely grown up in that interval. So low indeed was the esti- 
 mation in which it was held at the period referred to, and 
 for several years after, that it is not so much as once alluded to 
 in the Wealth of Nations, published in 1777; though the annual 
 value of the manufacture may now be moderately estimated at 
 thirty- five millions ! The effect that this wonderful increase has 
 had on the population and wealth of the country has been quite 
 unprecedented in the history of the world. Liverpool, Manchester, 
 and Glasgow, from inconsiderable places, have become great, opu- 
 lent, and flourishing cities. The population of Lancashire, which 
 in 1770 was about 400,000, was in 1821, 67i>,731, and at present 
 certainly exceeds 1,500,000, having nearly quadrupled in little 
 more than half a century. Now, can any one doubt that it would 
 have been most unfortunate for Lancashire, and for the commu- 
 nity at large, had the principal lines of communication with the 
 metropolis, or any other considerable place been assigned to asso- 
 ciations in 1770, with power to levy certain specified tolls and 
 charges in all time to come ? So preposterous an arrangement 
 would long since have been felt as a great grievance, and the 
 interference of the legislature been imperatively required. But 
 can that which would have been folly in 1770, 1790, or 1800, be 
 wisdom in 1836? Astonishing as has been the progress of the 
 country during the last half century, there is every reason to con- 
 clude that its progress during the ensuing fifty years will be still 
 greater. Every department of industry has been for years, and 
 continues to be, steadily and rapidly progressive. It is stated by 
 Dr. Kay, of Manchester, in a Report to the Poor Law Commis- 
 sioners, dated July last, that as many new mills were then in the 
 
106 
 
 course of being constructed in the cotton district of Lancashire as 
 would, when completed, furnish employment for 45,042 mill hands, 
 and require a moving force equivalent to 7,507 horses ! If we look 
 at the other great branches of manufacture we shall find a corre- 
 sponding advance. The improvement in agriculture is not less 
 striking. The application of bone manure, a more effectual sys- 
 tem of drainage, improved machinery, and a better and more 
 scientific rotation of crops, have done for agriculture what the 
 steam-engine and the spinning-frame have done for manufactures, 
 and it has made, and is now making, the most extraordinary ad- 
 vances. But it is unnecessary to trouble the House with details 
 as to this point. It is sufficient to state, that at this moment the 
 population of Great Britain, exclusive of Ireland, is certainly 
 increasing at the rate of 260,000 or 270,000 a-year, and that we 
 have not imported any foreign corn during the last four years. 
 
 But besides the improvement of the country, and the conse- 
 quent increase of traffic, may we not also look for great improve- 
 ments in the construction of locomotive engines, and in the whole 
 machinery and management of railroads ? These are admitted 
 on all hands to be in their infancy ; and yet the House of Com- 
 mons has been legislating with respect to them as if they had already 
 attained to the highest degree of maturity and perfection. Parlia- 
 ment fixes a rate of charge, supposed to be capable of yielding a 
 profit to a company using the present engines upon roads of the 
 present construction ; so that if, as is most probable, the engines 
 and roads should be so much improved, and the cost and other 
 charges so much reduced, as to enable them to perform the same 
 amount of work for a half or a fourth part of the present cost, the 
 public will be shut out from all participation in the advantage ! 
 Would not this be monstrously injurious to the interests of the 
 public ? And is not Parliament bound to provide against such 
 a contingency ? 
 
 The legislature seems to have been always impressed with a 
 conviction that, while by protection and the granting of peculiar 
 privileges, it gave all due encouragement to enterprise and the 
 undertaking of great public works, it was also bound to provide 
 that the subscribers to them did not, by means of their peculiar 
 privileges, acquire exorbitant profits at the expense of the public. 
 It is to be regretted, that the measures devised in this view have 
 been singularly ill fitted for the attainment of their professed 
 object. They have consisted mostly in the limitation of the rates 
 of charge for the services rendered, and, in a few instances, in the 
 limitation of the dividend. But the limitation of the rates of 
 charge is, in a progressive country, good for little or nothing. 
 The increase of population and trade has been so very great, that 
 a toll that would have yielded an ample profit on a railway con- 
 structed a dozen or twenty years ago, might now, perhaps, yield 
 an equal amount of profit were the rates reduced a half. Nothing, 
 in fact, can be more improvident, or more absurd, than that Par- 
 liament should, once for all, fix the rate of toll when an under- 
 
107 
 
 taking is entered upon, and divest itself, unless by violating 
 the right of property, of the power to reduce that rate in all time 
 to come, how greatly soever it may exceed what would be a liberal 
 return for the capital vested in the undertaking. I need not 
 add, that it is of the greatest importance to the interests of the 
 public that the cost of internal communication should be reduced 
 as low as possible. The limitation of the dividend is a practice 
 found to be as ineffectual as the fixing a maximum on the rate of 
 charge. The public has no check on the system of management, 
 nor can it explore the thousand channels in which profits may be 
 distributed under other names among the subscribers, nor has it 
 any means of preventing the wanton and extravagant outlay of 
 money on the works, &c. To make the provision for limiting 
 the dividends good for anything, it would be necessary that all 
 the proceedings of a company so limited should be controlled by 
 Commissioners appointed by Government. But I am aware that 
 the objections to this are so numerous and obvious that I do not 
 press this part of my resolution on the House. 
 
 For these, and a variety of reasons, 1 am clearly of opinion 
 that Parliament should, when it establishes companies for the 
 formation of canals, railroads, or such-like undertakings, invari- 
 ably reserve to itself the power to make such periodical revisions 
 of the rates of charge, as it may under the then circumstances 
 deem expedient. It should have the power to examine into the 
 whole management and affairs of each company, to correct what 
 may have been 'amiss in the former, and to fix the rates of charge 
 for another period of years : always taking care that the proprie- 
 tors are allowed a fair return for the original outlay of capital, as 
 well as compensation for the risk which such undertakings are 
 generally more or less subject to. 
 
 There is not the shadow of a reason for thinking that the reser- 
 vation of the power to revise .the tariff of charges, at defined 
 periods, would prevent any undertaking from being entered upon, 
 that promised a reasonable return; and in most cases, it would be 
 a waste of the public capital, to engage in any other. Those who 
 take shares in canals and railroads, with the intention of holding 
 them, do not look to exorbitant, but to reasonable profits for re- 
 muneration ; and these would not be affected by the proposed 
 provision. 
 
 When peculiar privileges, and a substantial monopoly, are 
 conferred on any set of persons, the public interests ought always 
 to be secured against their abuse : if competition afforded this 
 security, it would be unnecessary, and therefore improper, for the 
 legislature to interfere ; but in cases of this sort competition can 
 do really nothing, so that security against abuse must (if sought 
 for at all) be sought for in positive regulations. 
 
 The principle for which I have been contending is not a new 
 one ; it is one indeed which is frequently acted upon, and has, in 
 many cases, received the sanction of the legislature. The limita- 
 tion of rates, and of dividends, to which I have already adverted, 
 
108 
 
 involves in fact the principle for which I am contending ; and our 
 Turnpike Acts, which are generally, I believe, granted for 21 
 years, are somewhat analogous. The cases of the Smalls', the 
 Longships', the Dungenness' Lights, and other private Light- 
 Houses, are instances in point. The parties by whom these Light- 
 Houses were erected, were authorized to charge certain rates for a 
 specified term of years, on all ships coming within a certain dis- 
 tance of their lights; the Light- Houses becoming, at the end of 
 such terms, the property of the crown or the public: and yet 
 though this be a more stringent regulation than any I propose in- 
 troducing, the arrangement has always been regarded, and with 
 justice, as a most improvident one, on the part of the public. 
 The Smalls' Light yielded its proprietors in 1831 32, a nett re- 
 venue of 10,973/., and when the Trinity-House proposed to pur- 
 chase it, the price asked for the residue of the term was 148,000/. 
 The case of the Skerries' Light-House is even more striking : it 
 was made over for ever to private individuals by an Act of the 
 3rd of Geo. II., when the rates of charge were fixed ; and it now 
 produces, such has been the increase of trade, above 12,500/. a 
 year, nett revenue, over and above what is necessary for its main- 
 tenance. 
 
 But important as it is to have the charges on account of lights 
 as low as possible, it is infinitely more important that the charges 
 on the principal lines of inland communication should be regu- 
 lated by the lowest standard that will suffice for their establish- 
 ment and efficient maintenance. If the giving of power to the 
 proprietors of the Smalls' Light House, to exact certain fees on all 
 shipping for 99 years, evinced a culpable inattention to the public 
 interest ; what are we to think of allowing the proprietors of Rail- 
 ways to charge certain fees on all parties using them, in all time 
 to come, though the traffic upon them be increased a hundred or 
 a thousand fold ? The history of the London water companies 
 shows, also, how important it is that some such power as I am 
 contending for, should be retained in the hands of the Legislature, 
 when creating associations to which the ordinary principles of 
 competition do not apply. 
 
 The Americans have set us a good example in the management 
 of their public works, and in the proceedings in their legislatures. 
 Whether their practice in this respect be owing to the peculiarities 
 of their social condition or the nature of their political institutions, 
 or to what other cause, I will not venture to conjecture. The 
 Erie Canal in the state of New York, one of the most important 
 public works in the world, was completed only in 1825. It has 
 proved a very prosperous concern ; and notwithstanding that tolls 
 have been progressively reduced, (between 1832 and 1834, two 
 years only, as much as 35 per cent.,) the revenue has increased. 
 But not only have the tolls been reduced, there is already accu- 
 mulated a surplus of 5 millions of dollars; in the year 1837 the 
 whole outlay will be repaid, and this magnificent undertaking will 
 in twelve years have paid the whole cost of its construction and 
 
109 
 
 other expenses, and become the property of the State, leaving 
 whatever revenue the legislature may think it expedient to raise 
 beyond the necessary expenses of management and repair, to be 
 applied to the formation of other public works, or to remit tuxes 
 raised for the general expenses of the State. In the United States 
 I believe there is no railroad so ancient as that between Manches- 
 ter and Liverpool, the first having teen completed in 1827; but 
 they are, to borrow a phrase from that country, " progressing" at 
 an extraordinary rate. I find the stale of New York alone granted 
 acts of incorporation to 24 railroad companies as far back as 1832, 
 and others are forming, I believe, at this time in every state of the 
 Union. I will trouble the House with some particulars of one 
 only. They refer to that between Boston and Providence. By 
 Act of Legislature the dividends are limited to 10 per cent ; at the 
 expiration of 20 years the State may take the property, paying 
 the stock-holders at par, and making up the dividends at 10 per 
 cent, for the whole 20 years, if the revenue should fall short of the 
 amount. 
 
 And now, Sir, allow me a few words as to the particular motion 
 with which I shall conclude. Some Honourable Members, ad- 
 mitting perhaps the existence and magnitude of the evils I wish 
 to provide against, may not consider the proposed reservation as 
 affording the best or most effectual remedy. They may think 
 that, afler a certain term of years the roads ought to become, as in 
 the case 1 have jusl cited, the property of the public. 1 have not 
 ventured so far. There are many serious objections to any such 
 resumption, and I doubt if a single advantage could be obtained 
 by making these roads public property which will not be as effec- 
 tually secured by the plan I propose, for a revision of the rates 
 after a certain number of years. As to the proposed term of years, 
 it is one to which I am not particularly wedded, a few years more 
 or less being of little importance. It may be said, perhaps, that 
 the intended provision comes too late, seeing that some of the 
 principal lines are already occupied ; but this is no reason for de- 
 ferring the measure, though it be a good one for carrying it into 
 eifect, with as little delay as possible Tt is high time certainly, 
 that the efforts of the legislature should be directed more effec- 
 tually to the protection of the public interests in this particular, 
 than it has hitherto been, otherwise great injury will be done, and 
 great public dissatisfaction will eventually be created. I beg, Sir, 
 to move 
 
 " That in all Bills for Railways, or other public works of that 
 description, it be made a condition, with a view to the protection 
 of the public interests, which might otherwise be seriously com- 
 promised, that the dividends be limited to a certain rate, or that 
 power be reserved to Parliament of revising and fixing at the end 
 of every twenty years, the tolls chargeable on passengers and goods 
 conveyed." 
 
110 
 
 No. II. 
 
 Observations illustrative of the Defects of the English System of 
 Railway Legislation, and of its injurious Operation on the public 
 Interests ; with Suggestions for its Improvement. By James 
 Morrison, Esq., M. P. 
 
 THE extraordinary number of railways projected during the 
 past year, the excessive speculation in shares to which they have 
 given rise, and the heavy losses thereby entailed on many indi- 
 viduals, have naturally drawn a comparatively large share of the 
 public attention to the subject of railway legislation; which has 
 been further excited by the diversion of capital from other pur- 
 suits to the formation of railways, and by the accounts given of 
 the system under which these undertakings are carried on in 
 France. I believe, indeed, that there is no subject which has 
 greater claims upon the immediate and earnest consideration of 
 the country and of the Legislature. 
 
 The greater part of the railway schemes projected in the course 
 of last year have failed to qualify themselves for coming before 
 Parliament by the payment into the Bank of England of the 
 parliamentary deposit. But notwithstanding their disappearance, 
 the payment of the deposits on the remaining schemes has pro- 
 duced a very severe pressure on the money market. Indeed, had 
 the time in which this operation has been effected not been one of 
 general prosperity and favourable exchanges in our foreign trade, 
 it would certainly have produced a most disastrous crisis. But, 
 besides the evils which the multiplication of railway projects have 
 already produced, there remains another question too serious to be 
 overlooked ; viz. : whether the railways now in the course of being 
 constructed, and those which are likely to be voted by Parliament 
 during the present session, will not require a larger annual out- 
 lay of capital than the country can afford ? It is, no doubt, 
 impossible to ascertain with any degree of accuracy either the 
 annual amount of the nett savings of the country, or how much of 
 these may, with a due regard to other interests and the general 
 convenience, be spared for investment in railways. It is plain, 
 however, that the amount of savings must be constantly varying 
 from year to year ; that it must depend upon the profits of 
 capital and the state of our foreign trade, and more especially 
 upon the produce of our crops. 
 
 But we know, that in a country in a progressive state of social 
 and commercial improvement, and in which every branch of 
 industry is rapidly extending, a great demand must exist for 
 investments for a vast variety of objects, having an equal claim 
 with railways to the consideration of Parliament. A large 
 amount of capital is annually required to meet the immense ex- 
 penditure incurred in adding to our towns, and in the construc- 
 tion of the new establishments which are constantly arising and 
 
Ill 
 
 spreading on uJl sides in the great seats of manufacturing industry. 
 And, not to speak of other demands, an outlay of many millions 
 a year will certainly be required for many years to come, in carry- 
 ing on those most beneficial improvements in draining and 
 agriculture that are now everywhere practised or called for, and 
 that have already made such immense additions to the productive 
 capacities of the country. I am inclined to think that those 
 whose opinion upon such a subject is best entitled to considera- 
 tion, would regard it as a very liberal estimate were it to be 
 supposed that twenty, or at most five-and-twenty millions a year 
 could be advantageously applied to railways. 
 
 But it appears that we are actually expending TWENTY-FOUR 
 millions a year, or thereabouts, on the railways now in progress ; 
 and the immense number of railway projects which it is supposed 
 will be sanctioned in the course of the present session, will, if 
 they take effect, double, or it may be, treble this expense; that is 
 they will double or treble the sum which the country can con- 
 veniently spare for such projects.* So disproportionate a drain 
 on our resources cannot fail greatly to raise the value of money, 
 and consequently to occasion much distress. Indeed there is very 
 little doubt that this effect would have been already produced to 
 such an extent as seriously to inconvenience trade, had not the 
 last two or three years been a period of large, or probably I 
 should say, of unprecedented profits. But it would be dangerous 
 to assume that these will continue. All experience shows that 
 periods of great prosperity are sooner or later followed by a 
 reaction. Should a bad harvest, or a period of great commercial 
 depression and scarcity of money overtake us, while numerous 
 expensive railway undertakings are in different states of progress, 
 it might be impossible for the companies to borrow, and useless 
 for them to make calls ; so that the works might be brought to a 
 stand-still, to the great loss of the shareholders and the incon- 
 venience and injury of the public. 
 
 An excessive expenditure upon railways would not only raise 
 the value of money, to the great inconvenience of the manu- 
 facturing and trading interests, and of landholders whose estates 
 
 * Note in 1848. The Chancellor of the Exchequer in his speech in the 
 House of Commons, on the 30th of November, 1847, on moving the appointment 
 of a Committee to inquire into the cause of the recent Commercial Distress, gave 
 the following as the amounts of the expenditure on Railways:" In 1841, 1842, 
 and 1843, the amount was about 4,500,000; in 1844, it was 6,500,000; in 
 1845, it was 14,000,000; in the first half of 1846, it was l),800,000, and in 
 the last half-year it was 26,000,000; in the first half of 1847, it was 
 25,720,000 ; and if the works had been proceeded with, the expenditure in the 
 last half of 1847 would have been 38,000,000 on Railways. * Let it be 
 recollected that a great amount of capital was taken away, which deprived men 
 of the means of carrying on their commercial pursuits, and that we cannot avoid 
 looking to the obvious consequences of converting 50,000,000 of that which 
 had before been floating into 50,000,000 of fixed capital, and thereby taking 
 it out of those commercial channels in which it was hitherto employed." It will 
 be seen therefore, that my conjectural estimate, high as it was, approximated very 
 closely to the reality. 
 
112 
 
 are encumbered, but u would further tend to produce a serious 
 derangement in the labour matket. 
 
 Already we have complaints on all hands that from the induce- 
 ment held out by the high wages paid to those engaged in them, 
 labourers are leaving other employments for railways. And in 
 some cases, as in the vicinity of Glasgow, the price of coal is 
 rapidly advancing, from the difficulty of getting labourers to work 
 in the mines. It is true that a steady, gradual, and permanent 
 increase in the demand for labour is above all things to be 
 desired. But a sudden and violent demand drawing, by the 
 temptation of high wages, great numbers of people from their 
 usual modes of life, to engage in an employment which must 
 necessarily terminate in a few years, and which will most proba- 
 bly come to a stand on the occurrence of a bad harvest or of a 
 commercial revulsion, must, in every point of view, whether 
 moral or economical, be productive of the most baneful effects. 
 
 The excessive multiplication of railway projects is doubtless 
 to be attributed in a greater degree to the increasing desire of all 
 towns and districts for the advantages of railway communication. 
 The prodigious superiority of railways over all former modes of 
 conveyance, and the advantage which the localities that possess 
 them have over others, have produced a demand for their exten- 
 sion in every direction. But this cause will not account for the 
 unhealthy excitement which has prevailed, and which has resulted 
 in such heavy, and in many cases ruinous losses. 
 
 Had railways yielded no more than the ordinary rate of profit 
 on capital, it would have been applied to them moderately, yet in 
 sufficient abundance to have met the public wants. Those lines 
 which were intended to supply the wants of the most populous 
 districts would have been made first, and the others would have 
 followed in their turn. But the profit on railways in favourable 
 situations, provided they have been planned with moderate judg- 
 ment, and are efficiently and economically managed, is so much 
 greater than in other investments, that capital, which will always 
 be attracted where the remuneration is the greatest, has rushed 
 from all sides into this channel. And it will continue to flow into 
 it, and the same evils we have lately witnessed will be renewed, 
 in spite of every warning, so long as the temptation of a more 
 than ordinary rate of remuneration remains. 
 
 The genius of our institutions prevents us from meeting this 
 evil by restricting private enterprise, or by reserving to Govern- 
 ment the initiative in planning railway lines, as in France. 
 
 The only remedy which seems likely to check it, or to reduce 
 it within moderate limits, is a change in our system of railway 
 legislation which may remove the temptation to plan lines, except 
 in those directions where the elements of a considerable traffic 
 really exist. 
 
 The establishment of a system of low fares, that is, of fares very 
 much lower than those now charged on most of our railways, 
 would oblige the subscribers to railway schemes to look into their 
 
113 
 
 real m frits. Experience, both in this and in other countries, has 
 abundantly proved that a great reduction of fares and charges 
 has so powerful an effect in developing traffic on lines, where the 
 elements of it exist, as to make the reduced fares afford an ample 
 dividend to the shareholders. It is at least doubtful whether an 
 effectual reduction of the present tariffs of the English railways 
 would not be attended with an increase in their nett receipts. It 
 may be considered certain that it would not greatly reduce them. 
 But the announcement of a low tariff as the legal maximum of 
 fares on all new railways, combined with such other stipulations 
 for the benefit of the public as may be found practicable and ex- 
 pedient, would probably cool the ardour of railway speculation 
 down to the point of temperate and reasonable enterprise. Let 
 the legislature, in dealing with railways, be impressed with the 
 conviction that the profits to be realized on capital vested in new 
 lines should not exceed those realized in other in vestments of equal 
 risk ; and that it is their duty to secure whatever excess there may 
 be over this by enacting low maximum rates of charge and other 
 stipulations. If they do this, they will effectually moderate those 
 ardent expectations of inordinate profit which are the main source 
 of wild speculations. 
 
 The result to which we propose to approximate by legislative 
 provision, that is, the equalization of the rate of profit on future 
 railways with the profit on similar investments is one which 
 must be eventually brought about, though probably with great 
 loss and suffering, in the course of time. 
 
 It is not possible that capital should permanently continue to 
 yield a higher return in one employment than in others of equal 
 risk. So long as this continues to be the case, money will be 
 drawn towards the more profitable investment ; and railways will be 
 multiplied until their competition and the subdivision of the traffic 
 of the country among them has reduced their profits to or below 
 the ordinary rate. But in bringing about this result, there will 
 be an enormous waste of capital upon unnecessary railways, each 
 trying to vanquish its competitors by reducing fares, or to realize 
 high profits by keeping up high fares under arrangements with 
 them : thus alternately depressing the dividend of the share- 
 holders, and inflicting serious injury on the public. 
 
 It cannot be said that the greater uncertainty of railway invest- 
 ments requires that the rate of profit on them should be higher, 
 or that the margin left for hopes of future increase should be 
 broader in them than in other employments. On the contrary, 
 whatever may have been the risks of the first experiments in rail- 
 ways, there is now perhaps no form of investment depending for 
 its results on the accuracy of estimates, and, therefore, not abso- 
 lutely certain, in which there is so little room for miscalculation 
 as in English railways.* The construction of a line, as planned 
 
 * Note in 1848 Mr. Thomas Brassey who since 1829, has been extensively 
 employed as a Railway contractor in England and France, and in 1846, had, with 
 
 I 
 
114 
 
 by the engineer, may be contracted for at once, whatever its lengthy 
 thus rendering the cost certain ; and the tables of traffic may, 
 taking proper precautions, be compiled with so much accuracy 
 as to reduce within very narrow limits the chances of mistake in 
 the revenue. 
 
 It is obviously, indeed, for the interest of the great existing 
 lines, voluntarily to establish low tariffs in their own case, as well 
 as to support their enforcement on future lines; for, while it is at 
 least doubtful whether the reduction of fares and charges may 
 not benefit them by a positive increase of dividends, it will, at all 
 events, greatly diminish the chances of the establishment of com- 
 peting lines. The announcement of a low tariff of charges as the 
 basis of future railways will check the disposition to construct 
 lines where a sufficient traffic is not likely to be realized ; at the 
 same time that the reduction of fares on the existing lines will 
 lessen the public demand for new and cheaper lines. 
 
 It lias been contended that the immense outlay by most of the 
 leading English railway companies, occasioned by the great ex- 
 cess in the cost per mile of their lines over the cost of lines in 
 other countries, justifies and renders necessary the maintenance 
 of a proportionally higher rate of fares on the English railways. 
 But the rate of dividend on the stock of several of these companies 
 is 10 per cent. And it does not follow, whatever may have been 
 their cost, that they should be allowed to monopolize the traffic 
 between the towns and districts which they connect, to insure so 
 great a dividend to their proprietors. No such monstrous pro- 
 position as this can be entertained. If a new line could in any 
 case be constructed for half the expense of an existing line, or, 
 supposing the expense to be the same, if it were constructed by 
 parties who would be satisfied with a dividend of 5 instead of 10 
 per cent, Parliaments bound to sanction the new line, unless the 
 company make a corresponding reduction in the fares on the pre- 
 sent line. One or other of these results must take place : for if 
 the principle be true, that capital will force its way into those em- 
 ployments which yield more than the ordinary rate of profit, il 
 will be impossible to maintain the monopoly and high charges of 
 the old companies. 
 
 Applications for new lines intended to divide the traffic with the 
 old companies at lower rates will continually be repeated ; and 
 though they should at first be rejected by the influence of the latter, 
 they must eventually be conceded. In this, as in other things, 
 the legitimate demands of the public for local accommodation, 
 and for a general reduction of charges, cannot long be defeated. 
 
 If railways may now be constructed for 20,000/. per mile, where 
 
 his partners contracts to the amount of about five millions, states in his evidence that 
 the expense of constructing Lines can be estimated with great accuracy. He 
 states, for instance, that he took the Caledonian for somewhere about 10,000 
 per mile; " Our contract includes, in all those cases, the works complete, except 
 the rails, chairs, and land." The cost of rails and chairs will of course vary with 
 the price of iron at the time. 
 
116 
 
 60,0007. was formerly expended, do those who have laid out the 
 latter sum imagine that Parliament or the public will grant them 
 such a protection from competition as may enable them by high 
 rates of charge to obtain a profit of 10 percent, on that part of 
 their capital which has been wasted, as well as on the part which 
 would now suffice to construct their lines ? If the shareholders 
 of the London and Birmingham, the Great Western and other 
 railway lines, believe that they are to be permitted to flourish at 
 the expense of the public by means of that protection, which is 
 hunted down on all sides, I apprehend they will experience a dis- 
 appointment. The monopoly of the landowner is not to be sup-- 
 pressed to make way for the monopoly of railway speculators. The 
 latter must accommodate themselves to the new order of things. 
 The proprietors of an old line of railway are in the position of a 
 manufacturer who, having constructed machinery on an old and 
 expensive plan, finds it superseded by more economical or 
 powerful machinery : but were such a man to attempt to obtain 
 a higher price for his work than would remunerate those who 
 work with the improved machinery, and asked Parliament to 
 assist him in doing this, should we not consider him as fitter for 
 Bedlam than for the Exchange ? 
 
 The Board of Trade, in their Report on the South-Western 
 District, in 1845, state, that the lines proposed to be made in that 
 part of the country might be constructed for about 12,000/. per 
 mile ; and the estimated cost of the mass of new railways, pro- 
 jected during the last two years, ranges, with few exceptions, be- 
 tween 25,000/. and 10,000/. per mile. Now, Mr. Laing says, in 
 the Appendix to the Evidence before the Committee of the House 
 of Commons in 1843, that if our railways had been constructed for 
 20,UOO. a mile, they might have been limited to rates of charge 
 varying from a half to two-thirds of their present tariff's ; and the 
 example of many foreign railways, the traffic on which is much 
 smaller than on our great lines, proves the reasonableness of this 
 assertion. 
 
 To suppose that Parliament will continue to reject all applica- 
 tions for railways which may interfere with the monopoly and high 
 rates of the old lines, is to suppose that it will continue to sacrifice 
 the interests of the many to those of the few ; those of the public 
 to those of monopolists ; cheapness to dearness ; low fares and 
 national advantage to the high dividends of a few great companies ! 
 The old lines of railway have destroyed or greatly impaired the 
 value of canals, and brought bankruptcy or difficulties on most of 
 the turnpike-road trusts. They have been permitted to do this 
 because they promised to supply the public with a cheaper and 
 more advantageous mode of conveyance. But, in their turn, they 
 have been outstripped by their competitors, and, consequently, 
 mast submit to the competition of new lines, offering to the public 
 greater advantages of economy, security, and speed. 
 
 Hence if the interests of the old lines were really inconsistent 
 with the adoption of a system of low fares, it would inevitably 
 
 i 2 
 
116 
 
 follow that those interests should suffer rather than that the whole 
 community should continue to be taxed for their benefit. I do 
 not, however, believe that such is the case. The traffic of our 
 great lines is so enormous, its increase is so rapidly progressive, 
 and the reductions in fares and charges, which have been tried on 
 some of them, have stimulated this increase in so remarkable a 
 manner, that I have little doubt these lines will continue to pay 
 high dividends after they have adopted tariffs very much lower 
 than those generally prevailing. 
 
 I have spoken of the tendency of the present prevalence of high 
 fares, unchecked by legislation, to injure shareholders, and disturb 
 the money and labour markets by the multiplication of railway 
 schemes. But there is another evil resulting from our present 
 course of railway legislation, compared to which its injurious 
 effects in encouraging excessive speculation and the unnecessary 
 multiplication of lines, great as these undoubtedly are, sink into 
 secondary importance. 
 
 We entail upon the country, by our present conduct, the 
 grievance of railway fares far higher than those of other European 
 countries, and far higher than is necessary for the remuneration 
 of the capital engaged in railways: and by so doing can any one 
 doubt that we are laying agriculture and manufactures, to the 
 prosperity of which cheap communications are essential, under 
 serious disadvantages ? As much stress should be laid on the cost 
 of distributing commodities as on the cost of their production; 
 and if we adventitiously increase the latter, do we not in so far 
 distress our own producers and encourage the foreigners ? 
 
 Mr. Laing says, " It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that 
 England, which has hitherto enjoyed a great superiority over all 
 other European nations in her internal communications, will shortly 
 be placed at a great disadvantage in comparison with them, owing 
 to the high fares of her railways. This disadvantage is equal to a 
 tax of from 80 to 100 per cent, on the upper and middle classes." 
 And the lower classes are yet either debarred, to a great extent, 
 from the advantage of railway travelling, or obliged to make use 
 of it under the disadvantage of slow speed and inconvenient 
 hours. 
 
 We have had many examples on our own railways of the re- 
 markable increase in their use by the public after any considerable 
 reduction of fares; and we may form an idea, from these partial 
 applications of the principle, of the wonderful impulse to travelling 
 that would be impressed upon all classes of the population were 
 this country covered by railways, carrying all classes of passengers 
 with comfort and celerity, at fares as low or lower than those of 
 the Belgian, French, and German railways. It is impossible to 
 estimate the vast amount of the facilities to commerce and industry, 
 and of individual convenience and enjoyment, which such an in- 
 creased movement would represent. A comparison of our English 
 railway legislation with that of other countries is, perhaps, the 
 best mode of exemplifying its defects. I shall select France as an 
 
117 
 
 instance of a country between whose railway legislation and that 
 of Great Britain a comparison may be instituted with the most 
 perfect fairness to the latter. The case of the Belgian railways is 
 not so applicable, as these are government works. A comparison 
 with the German railways might be objected to on the ground 
 of their low average cost of construction, and to their being to a 
 great extent only single lines. It would detain us too long were 
 we to examine how far the reduced cost of the German lines is to 
 be attributed to any facilities presented by the country, and how 
 far to causes connected with the difference between the railway 
 legislation of Germany and that of our own country. 
 
 When we compare Great Britain and France, we find that the 
 former enjoys incomparably greater facilities than the latter for 
 constructing railways by private capital, on the terms most advan- 
 tageous for the community ; and that, notwithstanding, from the 
 different railway legislation of the two countries, railways are con- 
 structed in France on more advantageous terms than in Great 
 Britain. In short, that Great Britain, which might have imposed 
 on the undertakers of railways any conditions within the bounds 
 of reason, ! has, in fact, hardly imposed any that are practically 
 operative, while France, though greatly fettered in her proceedings 
 by the necessity of attracting to railway undertakings the wealth 
 of French and English capitalists, who were slow in coming into 
 them, has secured for the State in her concessions of lines numer- 
 ous and most important reservations and advantages. 
 
 None can doubt that the prospect of traffic is much greater in 
 England than in France. The population of the former is denser; 
 a much larger proportion of it is compelled to travel for commer- 
 cial purposes, and accustomed to travel, from the comparative 
 excellence of the old modes of conveyance ; the habit of travelling 
 for pleasure is far more extended, and the number of persons in 
 affluent or easy circumstances, who can afford to pay first-class 
 fares, and to travel as often and as far as convenience or pleasure 
 may induce, is vastly greater. The goods' traffic of Great Britain 
 must also be infinitely more productive than that of France; the 
 immense manufactures and commerce of the former requiring the 
 transportation of vast quantities of foreign products, raw materials, 
 and manufactured goods to and from her ports and manufacturing 
 towns ; the prodigious population accumulated in her great towns, 
 and drawing all their supplies from a distance; the almost uni- 
 versal use of coal, and a host of other circumstances, too numerous 
 to detail, give to the British railways an incomparably greater 
 mass of goods for transport than can be expected on the railways 
 of a country like France: the towns of the latter being compara- 
 tively small, her foreign commerce little extended, her mineral 
 resources far poorer, or at least, far less developed ; the products 
 of whose only flourishing manufactures are of small bulk, and the 
 mass of whose population consists of peasant proprietors, consuming 
 the produce of their own plots of land, with very little power of 
 purchasing articles brought from other places. But while the 
 
118 
 
 prospect of traffic is much greater in Great Britain than in France, 
 the cost of constructing railways in this country is also, I believe, 
 decidedly less. I do not here take into account the heavy preli- 
 minary and parliamentary expenses, or the large payments to 
 landowners to buy off opposition, as the difference between these 
 and the corresponding items of expense in France grows out of 
 that very difference in the legislation of the two countries, which 
 is under consideration ; but allowing for these, it will be found, 
 comparing their cost in the two countries, that railways, like most 
 other things, are cheaper in England. 
 
 The cost of executing a given quantity of earthwork and masonry 
 is not materially different in the two countries ; the lower rate of 
 wages in France, if it be lower, being more than compensated by 
 the superior efficiency of English workmen. This is proved by 
 iron, wood, locomotive engines, and fuel being much dearer there 
 the fact of the employment of great numbers of the latter on rail- 
 ways in France. The other items of expense are greater in France; 
 than in England. And there is no such difference in the surface 
 of the two countries, as would account for any serious difference 
 in the cost of their respective railways, supposing them to be 
 planned with equal judgment, and executed with equal skill and 
 economy. 
 
 The disposition to vest capital in railways has been much greater 
 in England than in France. In the latter the number of persons 
 possessing considerable capitals is very limited, and these, also, 
 are almost universally remarkable for their prudence and aversion 
 from all large or novel undertakings. The rest of the nation, 
 though prudent and saving, have individually very small means, 
 and until lately were very slow in applying their savings to this 
 new kind of investment. The principle of association in joint- 
 stock companies is also far less understood, and much more dis- 
 trusted, in France than in England. A comparison of the enormous 
 sums which have been vested by the English in every kind of 
 stocks, and every class of companies, British and Foreign, with 
 the extremely limited and partial employment of French funds in 
 the same manner, gives a measure both of the respective ability of 
 the two nations, and of their disposition for new kinds of invest- 
 ment. The rate of interest, as shown by the price of Government 
 funds, is also considerably lower in England, British Consols 
 having touched par when French Three per Cents, were about 85. 
 
 It is true that within the last twelve months a railway specula- 
 tion has arisen in France, almost as wild as that which was con- 
 temporary with it in England. But if we go back a little further, 
 we shall find that while in England capital was being steadily 
 applied to the construction of great lines, and the favour of the 
 public for railway investments was only checked during very 
 great disturbances of the money market, in France, such was the 
 general apathy or distrust, that it was only by offering in one case 
 a guarantee of a dividend of four per cent., in another a large 
 loan at a low rate of interest, and in a third a large free grant in 
 
119 
 
 addition to a loan, that the Government could induce persons to 
 come forward to undertake lines which were selected as enjoying- 
 the greatest amount of traffic, and which now bear the highest 
 price. Even then it was only by the aid of English capital that 
 the subscription list of two out of three of these lines could be 
 filled up. 
 
 With these decided advantages on the side of England, both as 
 respects the revenue to be derived from railway investments and 
 the disposition of capitalists to engage in them, it might have 
 been expected that in the bargains made between the state and 
 the companies there would have been a corresponding superiority 
 on our side in the stipulations for the benefit of the public. The 
 very least we could anticipate would be, that Parliament should 
 have imposed on the English companies applying for grants of 
 lines, tariffs of charges and conditions as favourable for the public 
 as those which the French legislature has imposed on companies 
 applying for less promising lines, especially when it was found 
 that these conditions had no influence in deterring companies 
 from entering into the keenest competition for such lines. 
 
 But the fact, I regret to say, is widely different. In France a 
 rule has been laid down for many years, to which no exception is 
 allowed, that every railway shall, after a greater or less number of 
 years, become the absolute property of the state. The term varies 
 from 99 years, as a maximum, to less than 25 years. The rever- 
 sion of the Rouen and Orleans lines, after 99 years, may appear 
 a very remote benefit; but that of the Creil and St. Quentin, after 
 little more than 24 years, is a provision of which even the genera- 
 tion now living will feel the advantage. If the present views of 
 the French legislature be carried out, it will be found that in little 
 more than 40 years all the principal lines of France, forming a 
 complete system of communication between all parts of that 
 country, will, with very few exceptions, revert to the state. They 
 will then, if worked for revenue, constitute a property compared 
 to which the largest treasures amassed in former times by any 
 sovereign or state shrinks into insignificance. % 
 
 It may be fairly presumed, or rather it is all but certain, that 
 at the expiration of the present concessions, the value of the rail- 
 ways now conceded, and of those which will certainly be con- 
 ceded in France within a few years, immensely increased, as it 
 will then doubtless be, by the progressive increase of population 
 and traffic, will be far more than sufficient to pay off the whole 
 of the existing national debt of France, should her legislature 
 think fit to sell them, or lease them afresh for that purpose. In- 
 deed, considering the rapid increase of traffic, and the growing 
 demand for railways in all parts of France, it is not easy for the 
 most sanguine to form any estimate of the vast amount of capital 
 that will probably, in no very lengthened period, be vested in 
 that country in railways, and which will of course wholly revert 
 to the state. France will then possess a bondjide sinking-fund 
 of some hundreds of millions sterling. Should her Government 
 
120 
 
 adopt the plan of reducing the fares and charges on railways to 
 the sums necessary to work them, and defray wear and tear, 
 (which, in consequence of improvements, will doubtless then be 
 much less than at present,) they will afford to the community the 
 incalculable advantages of free and rapid communication through 
 every part of that country at an all but nominal cost. It will be 
 the principle of the penny postage on letters applied to all the 
 persons and products of a great nation. 
 
 The Government of France has also imposed on the companies 
 various conditions for the benefit of the public. We shall quote 
 the principal of these from the law conceding the Northern Line, 
 as this has been the model for subsequent concessions, and 
 will no doubt be adhered to for the future, unless experience 
 should suggest other conditions still more advantageous for the 
 public. 
 
 1. A maximum of charges for passengers and goods is fixed as 
 follows : 
 
 
 Toll 
 
 Cost of 
 Trans- 
 
 Total 
 
 
 
 porta- 
 tion. 
 
 
 PER HEAD PER KILOMETRE. 
 
 Passengers- 
 First Class Carriages, covered, lined, and furnished 
 
 Cents. 
 
 7 
 
 Cents. 
 3 
 
 Cents. 
 10 
 
 Second Class Carriages, covered, with glass windows 
 
 5 
 
 2-5 
 
 7-5 
 
 Third Class Carriages, covered, and closed with cur- 
 
 3 
 
 2-5 
 
 5-5 
 
 Animals 
 Cattle, cows, horses, mules, beasts of burthen . . . 
 
 7 
 
 2-5 
 
 3 
 1-5 
 
 10 
 4 
 
 Sheep lambs, goats ........... 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 PER TON PER KILOMETRE. 
 
 Goods- 
 Fresh fish, to be carried at the speed of passenger 
 
 30 
 
 20 
 
 50 
 
 First Class. Iron and lead, wrought or cast in a 
 mould ; copper, and other metals, wrought or 
 unwrought ; vinegar, wine, liquors, spirits, cotton, 
 and other wool, furniture, dye, and other foreign 
 woods, sugar, coffee, drugs, spices, colonial pro- 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 18 
 
 Second Class. Wheat, grain, flour, salt, plaster, ore, 
 coke, charcoal, all kinds of timber, blocks of mar- 
 ble, hewn stone, bitumen, rough iron castings, bar 
 
 9 
 
 7 
 
 16 
 
 Third Class. Chalk and lime-stone, mill-stones, 
 flints, sand, clay, bricks, tiles, slates, manures, 
 paving-stones, and all materials for road -making . 
 Coal. , - . 
 
 8 
 6 
 
 G 
 4 
 
 14 
 10 
 
121 
 
 I. A Maximum of Charges continued. 
 
 
 
 Toll. 
 
 Cost of 
 Trans- 
 porta- 
 tion. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Empty railway car or waggon, and locomotive not at 
 
 Cents. 
 15 
 
 Cents. 
 10 
 
 Cents. 
 25 
 
 PER KILOMETRE. 
 Carriage with two or four wheels, with a single bottom 
 
 15 
 
 10 
 
 25 
 
 Carriage with four wheels, or double bottom, and two 
 
 18 
 
 14 
 
 32 
 
 
 
 
 
 These rates do not include the tax of 10 per cent, on the cost 
 of transportation of passengers only, which is paid to the state by 
 the company, and which they may add to the tariff. 
 
 Passengers of all classes are allowed to carry 30 kilogrammes 
 (66 Ibs. avoirdupoise) weight of baggage, without extra charge. 
 
 10J centimes are about equal to Id. 
 
 A kilometre is nearly equal to five-eighths of a mile. 
 
 The French weight of 1000 kilogrammes does not differ much 
 from an English ton. 
 
 The passenger fares are equivalent to about \\d. per mile, for 
 the first class, a little over Id. for the second, and about jt/. for 
 the third. 
 
 2. The company is strictly forbidden to make reductions in 
 their charge for goods, in favour of any carrier, or any other 
 party, without giving the same advantage to all other persons. 
 
 4. Soldiers and sailors travelling singly on service, on furlough, 
 or on their return to their homes, pay only half the tariff rates. 
 Soldiers and sailors travelling in corps pay only one-quarter the 
 tariff rates. If the Government wish to forward troops or military 
 stores, it may put the whole working stock of the company in re- 
 quisition at tariff prices. 
 
 5. The mails, and the servants of the post-office in charge of 
 them, are to be carried gratuitously by all the company's trains 
 in a carriage, of which the form and dimensions are to be deter- 
 mined by Government. Special trains carrying the mails to be 
 run on the requisition of the post-office at any hours of the day 
 or night, on the payment of a remuneration, the maximum 
 amount of which is fixed at 75 cents, per kilometre (about 7d. 
 per mile) for each train, and 25 cents, more for each carriage 
 over the first. 
 
 6. Prisoners and persons having them in charge are to be 
 carried by all the regular trains at half the tariff rates, in prison 
 vans, provided by Government. 
 
 7. Government may establish an electric telegraph along the 
 line, to be protected by the company's policemen ; the function- 
 
122 
 
 aries employed in its management or repair are to be transported 
 gratuitously by the company. 
 
 8. Fifteen years after the completion of the line, Government 
 may take possession of it, on paying to the company during the 
 remaining 1 years of the lease, an annuity equal to the average nett 
 revenue of the five most productive years of the seven last years 
 of the fifteen. 
 
 9. Government may construct common roads, canals, or rail- 
 ways, crossing the company's line, taking care that the company 
 is not injured thereby. 
 
 10. Government may concede any number of new lines and of 
 branches from, or extensions of, the company's line. The com- 
 panies to whom the new lines may be conceded, may run their 
 trains along the whole length of the original line, paying on their 
 trains and their contents that portion of the charges of the latter 
 which is called the toll, as distinguished from the charge for 
 transport. The company of the main line is bound, if it reduce 
 its charges on its own traffic below the tariff rates, to reduce the 
 toll and cost of transportation in the same proportion, that the 
 branches may have the benefit of the reduction. And it may be 
 obliged by the Legislature to reduce the tolls charged by it to the 
 branches below the tolls on its own traffic in the following pro- 
 portion : 
 
 Per cent. 
 1st. If the branch or extension be not more than 100 
 
 kilometres in length 10 
 
 2nd. If between 100 and 200 kilometres . . 15 
 3rd. If between 200 and 300 kilometres . . .20 
 4th. If above 300 kilometres 25 
 
 11. Permanent Government Commissioners may be appointed 
 and paid from the company's funds, to watch over the working 
 and maintenance of the line. Before any part of the line is 
 opened, it must be inspected and reported safe by the Govern- 
 ment Engineers. 
 
 12. Railways are also taxed to the extent of l-10lh of that part 
 of their gross receipts, which is distinguished as their charge for 
 conveyance, and also pay the contribution fonciere, &c. 
 
 How widely different is this system of railway legislation from 
 our own ! In the latter, the grants of lines are all perpetual. 
 The right of revising the rates of charge on the lines constructed 
 previously to 1845, only accrues to the State after 20 years, and 
 then only on condition of guaranteeing a minimum dividend of 
 10 percent. ! The provisions for the transport of soldiers, sailors, 
 and of the post, are much less advantageous than in France ; and 
 there is no proviso for placing the whole means of transport at 
 the disposal of Government on any emergency, either of foreign 
 war or civil disturbances. There is no provision for the trans- 
 port of prisoners; there is no security against unequal charges. 
 Government has a much less general power of interfering autho- 
 ritatively with the construction or working of the line for the 
 
123 
 
 safety of the public ; nor can any company be compelled to 
 admit branch or continuation lines on its line. 
 
 Lastly and chiefly, the rates of charges of English railways 
 are practically unlimited, that is, the companies are in every 
 instance left at liberty to charge as high a rate on every part of 
 their traffic as they have ever thought, or are ever likely to think, 
 for their own advantage ; and the consequence is, that on all the 
 English railways, excepting a very small number of lines placed 
 under peculiar circumstances, the charges are much higher than 
 the French maximum rates. 
 
 A short sketch of the progress of French railway legislation 
 will show the difficulties with which the French Government had 
 to contend in getting railways constructed by private capital, and 
 the perseverance and address with which, despite these difficulties, 
 they have provided for the benefit of the public in their estab- 
 lishment. 
 
 The first line conceded in France was from St. Etienne to 
 Andrinieux, in 1823. This, however, was intended for the trans- 
 portation of minerals only ; and some other lines for the transport 
 of minerals were conceded in 1823 and the following years. But 
 it was not until 1835 that the establishment of railways on an 
 improved system, and intended chiefly for the transport of pas- 
 sengers by steam power, was commenced by the concession of 
 the line from Paris to St. Germain. In this, the first concession 
 of the kind, the legislature laid down the principle from which 
 it has never deviated, of securing the reversion of the entire rail- 
 way to the State at the expiration of a certain term of years, 
 which in this case was fixed at 99, The next considerable con- 
 cessions were those of the two lines from Paris to Versailles, also 
 for 99 years. A few other lines of minor importance in the pro- 
 vinces were conceded with the same length of lease in the two 
 following years. But it was not until J838 that a beginning was 
 made in the establishment of lines of the first magnitude, that is, 
 of lines between the metropolis and distant parts of the country, 
 by the enacting of laws for the concession of lines from Paris to 
 Rouen and from Paris to Orleans ; the terms of these grants not 
 being finally settled till 1840. In these cases the grants are for 
 99 years ; and it was further necessary to tempt English and 
 French capitalists to engage in them, by the offer of a guarantee 
 of 4 per cent, dividend by the State for the Orleans line, and of 
 a large Government loan at 3 per cent, for the Rouen line. The 
 line from Strasburg to Basle was also finally conceded in 1840. 
 In 1841 there were no concessions capitalists showing no dispo- 
 sition to come forward. 
 
 In 1842, the construction of the line from Rouen to Havre was 
 decided upon ; but the public was so little inclined to vest their 
 money in railways, that it was only by the offer of a large free 
 gift, in addition to a large loan at 3 per cent., the interest not to 
 commence till three years after the opening of the line, that a 
 company, composed partly of French and partly of English sub- 
 
124 
 
 scribers, was induced to undertake the work. A comparison of 
 the foregoing sketch of railway enterprise in France down to 
 1842, with the great number of Acts applied for and railways 
 constructed in England down to the same date, proves the im- 
 mense superiority of the latter Over the, former in the abundance 
 of capital disposable for railways and in the enterprise of its 
 owners, and greatly enhances the merit of the French legislature, 
 which, with resources so inferior, and at the risk of checking 
 altogether the construction of new lines, has had the firmness to 
 insist on terms so much more favourable to the public than those 
 obtained in England. The session of the Chambers, in 1842, was 
 distinguished by the introduction of the principle of partial con- 
 struction at the expense of the State, of such lines as were 
 supposed incapable of yielding a remunerative return on their 
 whole cost. But it is unnecessary to examine this last part of the 
 French system, since the more favoured position of England 
 makes it needless for us to resort to it. 
 
 It was not till the session of 1844-5, that such of the great lines 
 as it was presumed would yield an adequate return on the whole 
 cost of their construction viz., the Northern Line, the Paris and 
 Lyons, and the Lyons and Avignon lines, were finally offered to 
 competition : and these were offered, subject to all the stipulations 
 in favour of the public previously enumerated, although the whole 
 expense of their construction was to be defrayed, as in England, 
 by the companies. The Northern was taken at a term of 38 years, 
 and the Paris and Lyons at 41 years. The adjudication of the 
 Lyons and Avignon line has not yet taken place, 
 
 It cannot be said that the conditions imposed by the French 
 system are too onerous that they have either discouraged the in- 
 vestment of capital in railways, or reduced their probable profits, 
 in the judgment of those most competent to form an opinion on 
 the subject, below a fair and satisfactory return. The proof of 
 this is to be found in the market prices of the shares of the prin- 
 cipal French railways. At the moment I write, the Orleans 
 shares are at 1,280 for a share of 500 francs ; the Rouen at 1,010 
 for a share also of 500 ; the Northern at 260 premium on a share 
 nominally at 500 francs, but really of 450; and the Paris and 
 Lyons is at 620 for a share of 500 francs. These are the prices 
 at the present time, which is certainly one of depression rather 
 than of excitement. The Orleans have been above 1,400, the 
 Rouen above 1,200, and the Northern above 350 prem. 1 have 
 purposely quoted such lines only as have been constructed 
 entirely at the expense of companies; and two of these, the 
 Northern and the Paris and Lyons, having been conceded since 
 the French system of conditions for the benefit of the public 
 has been perfected, the shareholders in them will consequently 
 sustain, in its fullest extent, any diminution of profits which that 
 system may involve. But the fact is, that these conditions, taken 
 together, are not considered in France, nor by the English 
 capitalists who vest their money so largely in French railways, as 
 
125 
 
 material objections to investment. The terminable lease is the 
 subject of a calculation by which to ascertain the deduction to be 
 made from the nett revenue of the line to form a sinking-fund for 
 the replacement of the capital at the expiration of the term. 
 This sinking-fund, in the case of all the lines adjudicated within 
 the last three years, ranges from a little below 1 to about 2 per 
 cent. ; so that, whenever a line is expected to pay from 1 to 2 per 
 cent, more than the ordinary return on an investment say 6 per 
 cent. the line is worth making on a terminable lease of from 2-5 
 to 41 years. In regard to the other conditions, the tariff of rates 
 included, very little stress is laid upon these in estimating the 
 prospects of a line. No doubt there are a few lines in France the 
 shares of which are below par some very greatly so ; but in no 
 case can the depression in their price be traced in any degree to 
 the stringency of the conditions imposed by Government. On 
 the contrary, they are, in almost every case, lines conceded before 
 the later improvements in French railway legislation, and on 
 terms, much less favourable to the public than were stipulated for 
 in the cases of the Northern and other recently-conceded lines, 
 all of which are at a premium. The low price of their shares is 
 of course to be attributed to the injudicious location of the lines, 
 to the inadequacy of their traffic, or the exorbitancy of their cost. 
 Neither is there a single line in France which the Government is 
 willing to concede, and which is refused by companies, on account 
 of the stringency of the conditions now imposed. On the con- 
 trary, the eagerness of large capitalists and of the public to obtain 
 concessions, has been increasing, at the same time that the con- 
 ditions attached to them have been made more advantageous for 
 the public. 
 
 Now, I would beg to ask, what reason is therefor supposing 
 that the consequences would have been different had the French 
 system, with all its advantages for the public, been adopted in 
 England ? If I am right in supposing that railways in England 
 are much more promising investments than railways in France, 
 and that there is a much greater amount of capital available for 
 their formation in the former than the latter, there can be no 
 doubt that capitalists would willingly have undertaken the con- 
 struction of our lines on conditions at least as advantageous to the 
 public as have been obtained in France. A considerable part of 
 the capital vested in French railways has been subscribed by 
 English capitalists, including many who are deeply engaged in 
 English railways, who have not been prevented by the conditions 
 previously referred to from engaging in them with the greatest 
 eagerness ; and such being the fact, is there so much as the shadow 
 of a ground for supposing that they would have been less willing 
 to embark their money on the same terms in their own country ? 
 
 One great advantage of the French system remains to be noticed : 
 the initiative in deciding on the railways which shall be made, 
 and on the number of these which shall be conceded in any one 
 year, as well as in fixing the line which each shall follow through- 
 
1-26 
 
 out its length, is reserved to the Government. Had this provision 
 been adopted in England, we should have escaped a great part of 
 the very serious evils with which we are threatened by the enor- 
 mous multiplication of railway bills. Parliament would not have 
 been overwhelmed by the presentation of a mass of bills, to which 
 it is physically impossible its Members can pay any satisfactory 
 attention ; and the Prime Minister would not have been obliged to 
 declare to the House of Commons that the passing even of such 
 a proportion of these Bills as Parliament might be expected to 
 sanction, would produce the most ruinous disappointment to the 
 shareholders and the most serious national inconvenience; inasmuch 
 as they would require an annual outlay of capital on their con- 
 struction very far beyond what the resources of the country could 
 supply. The disposition to railway speculation has reached a 
 great height in France, and threatened to produce the same incon- 
 venience there that is now felt in England, by diverting capital 
 from other employments to be locked up in railway deposits and 
 calls for the construction of unfinished lines ; but the reservation 
 of the initiative of all railway projects to the Government, has 
 placed the remedy within its reach, by enabling the legislature 
 to limit the annual concessions to the schemes most required, and 
 to such only as there may be funds to construct, without unduly 
 raising the rate of interest and injuring the public. The French 
 Ministry and Chambers have shown their determination to act on 
 this principle by proposing to authorize, in the present session, 
 concessions to a small number only of the most necessary lines. 
 
 In England, where the selection of lines for railways is 
 abandoned entirely to the judgment of individual projectors, such 
 as promised the largest profit have been the first to be selected, 
 the lines having stopped at the points where the return promised 
 to be less favourable; no regard whatever having been paid nor a 
 thought bestowed on the suitableness of those lines as parts of a 
 future general system of communication to be eventually estab- 
 lished throughout the island. According as the advantages of 
 railway investments have become better known, other railways 
 have been gradually constructed in connexion with the early lines, 
 and when the rise of new and rival companies made it expedient 
 for those of older date to endeavour to secure the advantages they 
 already enjoyed, they set about planning branches in different 
 directions, not that they might form parts of a complete consenta- 
 neous system, but that they might cut the ground from under the 
 feet of their rivals, and pacify the clamour of local interests for 
 railway accommodation. Tn consequence, the great characteristic 
 of a good national railway system, that is, directness of communi- 
 cation between distant points and the Metropolis, with the facili- 
 ties of travelling to and from all parts of the country, the poorer 
 and less populous as well as the more favoured, have been to a 
 great extent irremediably sacrificed. In France, on the contrary, 
 every line of railway is planned by the Government as part of a 
 general system of main and branch lines intended to give as perfect 
 
127 
 
 a communication between all parts of the kingdom as its wealth 
 and populousness will permit. 
 
 Nor is the principle, that every particular line shall be taken as 
 part of a national system, likely to produce neglect of the accom- 
 modation of particular towns and districts. In France, the repre- 
 sentations made by all local interests are deliberately examined, 
 first by the executive Government, and afterwards by a committee 
 of each Chamber. 
 
 It should also be kept in view, that the reservation of the initia- 
 tive to the Government is no less advantageous to the shareholders 
 than to the State. Its first effect is to save French companies from 
 the very heavy preliminary and parliamentary expenses of English 
 companies; expenses which are the more to be regretted, because 
 they are a positive loss to the shareholders, and a stain on Parlia- 
 ment, without being of any advantage to the public. It is also a 
 great security against the construction of unprofitable lines. No 
 line is decided on by the French Legislature without a previous 
 report by the Government, bottomed on detailed surveys by Go- 
 vernment engineers; and traffic tables, carefully compiled from 
 official and other sources, are submitted to the criticism of the 
 public. Estimates framed in this manner are much less liable to 
 exaggeration than the hasty inquiries of sanguine and private pro- 
 jectors. French companies are also in much less danger of finding 
 their lines superseded or injured by the construction of rival lines. 
 I^jich forms part of a general whole which has been adopted after 
 a deliberate examination of all the plans proposed for supplying 
 each section of the country, in which the opinions of the Govern- 
 ment engineers, of the civil and military functionaries, and the 
 claims of all the local interests, have been received and canvassed, 
 first by the executive Government, and afterwards by committees 
 of both Chambers. There is thus comparatively little probability 
 that any other line will be conceded for the accommodation of the 
 same tract of country. And the improbability of any such hostile 
 concession is greatly increased by the reversionary interest of the 
 State in all the grants, and this of course is augmented by the 
 shortness of the lease. 
 
 Any one who reflects on the unequalled advantages which Eng- 
 land offers for railways, \\ith the surprising effect of reduced fares 
 in increasing traffic, and repairing the loss of revenue which at 
 first sight they appear likely to produce, will probably conclude 
 that a tariff of rates which should be in every item very much below 
 the French tariff, would yield an ample return on all the principal 
 English lines. But with the same tariff, the satne length of leases, 
 and the same conditions, in every other respect, that exist in 
 France, can any one doubt that our English railways would present 
 a wider and a far more profitable field for investment than the 
 French ? Within the last year or two, the attention of Parliament 
 has been called to the necessity of regulating the rates of charge on 
 railways, and of making other stipulations for the benefit of the 
 
128 
 
 public, but no measures hitherto taken are adequate to secure 
 these objects. 
 
 A measure passed during the session of 1843, gave Parliament 
 the right to revise the tolls; but this right was not to come into 
 operation till after the lapse of 20 years, and then it could only be 
 exercised on permanently guaranteeing 1 to the shareholders the 
 enormous dividend of 10 per cent. This stipulation exempted all 
 lines, with the exception of those that might turn out to be pecu- 
 liarly profitable, from the chances of revision ; and, with respect 
 to the latter, it recognised the monopoly or protective principle, 
 that a very high profit should be secured in all time to come to a 
 few great capitalists, sacrificing, for this object, the public inte- 
 rests, and going far to prevent the public from being benefited as 
 they ought to be by the increasing traffic of the country, and the 
 reduction of tolls by which it should be accompanied. 
 
 But in 1845 Parliament took a juster view of the subject, and 
 reserved to itself the power, whenever it saw fit, to revise and re- 
 gulate the tariffs of fares and charges on the lines for which Acts 
 were to be passed in the course of that and of all following years. 
 Excepting, therefore, the lines for which Acts were obtained pre- 
 viously to 1845, Parliament has it fully in its power, as well in 
 regard to the companies which procured Acts last year, as in 
 regard to those now before it, to enact moderate tariffs of charges. 
 
 Arid it is well that such is the case; for the tariffs of fares and 
 charges inserted in the Railway Acts of last session are so far 
 above the Continental tariffs, so far above the rates which many 
 even of the British railways have found it for their advantage to 
 adopt, and so near the highest rates that have ever been charged, 
 that unless the public interests are to be wholly lost sight of, it is 
 imperatively necessary they should be subjected to an unsparing 
 revision. We have also reserved the right of purchasing up rail- 
 ways at 25 years' purchase on the nett revenue, or on the revenue 
 over and above the expense of working them and keeping them up. 
 But this is an enormous sum to have to pay for such property. 
 In the case, too, of the "most productive railways, (and these are 
 the only ones the regulation of which is of great national import- 
 ance,) the large amount of their revenue would make their cost, at 
 25 years' purchase, so very great that Government might have 
 much difficulty in prevailing on capitalists to furnish funds to buy 
 up the railways even on their getting a mortgage over the latter. 
 And supposing this to be done, heavy fares would still require to 
 be charged on railway travelling to defray the interest of the pur- 
 chase money. The next generation, especially when they see the 
 French entering into the free and full possession of their railways, 
 will, perhaps, not form a very exalted estimate of our foresight, and 
 will probably be inclined to wish that some small portion of that 
 hostility, so vigorously directed against the protection so long given 
 to agriculture, had been directed against that which is now so 
 lavishly and inconsiderately given to railway projectors. 
 
129 
 
 The subject of railway amalgamation, which is now going on to 
 an immense extent, is one which demands the immediate attention 
 of Parliament. Mr. Gladstone's Bill of 1843 provided that, in the 
 case of future railways, after the payment of a dividend of 10 per 
 cent., the surplus revenue of the company should be applied to 
 the reduction of charges to the public. Now, whatever may be 
 thought of this provision, seeing the infinite number of ways in 
 which it may be evaded, it at all events imposes on Parliament 
 the duty of watching amalgamation Bills, lest they make an end 
 of the advantages, such as they are, which Mr. Gladstone's Act 
 was intended to secure to the public. For it is plain that a rail- 
 way which yields a large revenue, and which may therefore come 
 within the 10 per cent, clause, may, by amalgamating with a 
 less profitable line, reduce the dividend on the larger capital 
 formed by the union of the two below the rate at which the pro- 
 vision comes into effect, and may consequently defeat it altogether. 
 
 There is no doubt that amalgamation is of some advantage, by 
 enabling longer journeys to be performed in the same carriage, 
 but much more stress is laid on this circumstance than it deserves. 
 The transfer from one carriage to another of passengers and lug- 
 gage takes place at stations where a stop is made for refreshments^ 
 and with moderate care the inconvenience may be reduced to the 
 merest trifle. In respect to goods, nothing would be easier, pro- 
 vided the companies were desirous of mutually accommodating 
 each other and the public, than an arrangement for allowing the 
 loaded trucks to run through, 
 
 But there are plans of amalgamation on foot, in which it is con- 
 fidently believed that the accommodation of the public, by avoid- 
 ing stoppages and trouble at the junction of different lines, is a 
 mere pretence put forward to cover the real object, which is to 
 strengthen the sinews and to extend the sphere of monopoly, by 
 uniting in a compact body different companies which, while sepa- 
 rate, may interfere with each other's profits, either by direct corn- 
 petition or by encouraging the competition of third lines. It is 
 needless to say that, in all cases in which such motives may be 
 imagined or suspected, Parliament is bound firmly to oppose 
 amalgamation. 
 
 The truth is, that unless we are prepared boldly to proclaim 
 and to act upon monopoly principles, no amalgamation should be 
 permitted unless the parties consent to enter into a new contract 
 with the public. If, as I contend, fares and charges, one-half less 
 than those hitherto imposed, should, in most cases, be imposed on 
 new lines, they should also be imposed on all lines which ask from 
 Parliament Acts to carry into effect measures by which they 
 avowedly seek and expect to increase their profits, and to render 
 them more secure than at present. It is the more necessary to 
 call public attention to this point, as those amalgamation Acts, 
 and the clauses for leasing new lines to old companies, though of 
 primary importance, excite comparatively little interest. Cer- 
 tainly, t however, they require to be watched with the greatest 
 
130 
 
 jealousy, as they take away almost all the little security left to the 
 public against oppressively high charges. Is it not known to 
 every man in England, that the main object of the existing com- 
 panies in promoting, leasing, and buying new branch lines, is to 
 prevent the construction of rival lines which might expose them 
 to competition, and oblige them to reduce their charges ? 
 
 What measure could be more injurious to a large and most im- 
 portant manufacturing population, than the Act amalgamating 
 the Grand Junction, Manchester and Liverpool, and one or two 
 other lines ? The railway accommodation of an extensive, rich, 
 and populous district was thus placed entirely in the hands of one 
 company, without any effectual stipulation in favour of the public. 
 The Board of Trade reported strongly against this junction; and 
 I must do them the justice to state that they endeavoured to pre- 
 vent the introduction of clauses for effecting similar objects in 
 other Acts. But it is likely enough that in the hurry with which 
 so many Acts were passed at the end of the session, when members 
 had no time to consider each case properly, and all were heartily 
 sick of the subject, not a few may contain the same objectionable 
 clauses. 
 
 But notwithstanding the errors in our previous legislation, we 
 have yet ample means, provided we choose to avail ourselves of 
 them, to secure to the public a large proportion of the advantages 
 of an improved system of railways. Many trunk lines have yet 
 to be constructed which promise to be highly remunerative, and 
 which will accommodate very large masses of people who are now 
 either without such accommodation, or imperfectly supplied by 
 circuitous routes. Nothing can prevent these lines from being 
 constructed ; but the policy adopted by the legislature in respect 
 to them will decide whether they are to be chiefly beneficial to the 
 public or to their projectors. I, of course, allude particularly to 
 the London and York, the London and Manchester, the North 
 Kent, the Salisbury and Exeter, and the London and Portsmouth 
 lines. 
 
 There are at present schemes before Praliament for doubling all 
 the great lines which radiate from the Metropolis; and there can 
 be no reasonable doubt, from the growing demand for railway 
 shares and railway accommodation, that every one of these lines 
 will be constructed within no very remote period, even though 
 they should not be sanctioned in this or the immediately following 
 sessions. It may, indeed, be fairly doubted, should Parliament, 
 inconsistently enough, one should think, attempt to maintain them 
 in their monopoly, whether some of the existing lines will be able 
 to accommodate the enormously increasing traffic, especially in 
 goods, that will speedily accumulate upon them. 
 
 The establishment of a system of low fares and charges on these 
 lines, would be a twofold benefit to the public. It would directly 
 afford to the districts and towns which they traverse the advantage 
 of cheap communication, and would at the same time create such 
 an efficient competition with the existing lines as would bring 
 
131 
 
 about something like a reasonable reduction in the rates of the 
 latter. Besides the lines projected from the Metropolis, there are 
 now at the disposal of Parliament avast number of oiher lines, 
 every one of which will practically enjoy a monopoly of the com- 
 munications of a more or less extensive district. 
 
 It depends wholly on Parliament whether Ireland, which at 
 present is almost wholly destitute of railways, shall have them 
 established on a good or a bad system ; whether she shall be 
 parcelled out and delivered over, bound hand and foot, to the 
 tender mercies of a parcel of companies, endowed not with a 
 three years' (so hateful in the case of corn) or a thirty years', but 
 with a perpetual monopoly ; or whether the real and lasting 
 interests of the^ people shall be protected and secured by the 
 adoption of a properly contrived system of railway legislation. 
 
 Should the mass of English, Scotch, and Irish Railway Bilk 
 now before Parliament be passed without enacting low tariffs of 
 rates, and other provisions for the protection and advantage of the 
 public, the new monopoly system will be completed. The rail- 
 ways that may remain to be made, at the distance of a few years, 
 will neither be sufficiently numerous, nor in situations fitted to 
 enable future Parliaments to create any efficient check over the 
 proceedings of the then existing lines by authorizing their con- 
 struction. 
 
 Under such circumstances, the country must continue wholly 
 to depend for the immense and constantly increasing amount of 
 its internal communications on the liberality and public spirit of 
 a few monopolizing companies, all anxious (and who shall blame 
 them?) to realize the maximum amount of profit that can be 
 squeezed out of the public. And it can only, as the law (Mr. 
 Gladstone's Act) now stands, emancipate itself from this Egyp- 
 tian thraldom by paying the monopolists 250/. for every lUO/. 
 expended by them, or by constructing, at a vast expense, >new 
 lines of railway alongside of the lines conceded for ever to the 
 companies. 
 
 If the view which I have taken of the defects of our railway 
 legislation be correct, the nature of the remedies which should be 
 applied to obviate them seems sufficiently evident. An inquiry 
 should be instituted by Parliament to ascertain the rates of fares 
 and charges which will yield a fair remuneration for the capital 
 to be vested in such railways as offer a sufficient prospect of traffic 
 to justify their immediate construction. The extent to which 
 railways have already been constructed in this and other coun- 
 tries, and the time during which a part of them have been at 
 work, furnish abundant materials for such inquiry. The degree 
 in which the cost of constructing railways has been reduced since 
 the completion of the first lines, the extent to which the increase 
 of traffic on them has surpassed expectation, the law of progres- 
 sive annual increase which generally prevails on railways, and, 
 above all, the immense effect of low charges in stimulating traffic, 
 are points deserving especial attention, and which have been 
 
 K 2 
 
132 
 
 exemplified and established in the formation and working of a 
 great many lines in this and other countries. It may be said that 
 it is impossible accurately to determine the minimum of remune- 
 rative rates; and such, no doubt, is the fact. But extreme 
 accuracy is not wanted ; and it may, at all events, be established 
 to the satisfaction of Parliament, of the public, and even of the 
 shareholders themselves, that rates very far below those now pre- 
 valent may be established with perfect safety. 
 
 A tariff should be framed, on the results of this inquiry, appli- 
 cable to all railways for which Acts have not yet been passed, 
 and also to every existing railway that may apply to Parliament 
 for new powers. Should there be circumstances peculiar to any 
 given railway that would clearly justify a modification of the 
 tariff rates, such modification should of course be made, whether 
 for the advantage of the proprietors or of the public. The right 
 of revision of charges or of redemption should also be reserved to 
 the public on terms similar to those adopted in France, or others 
 more favourable for the state; and such minor stipulations for 
 the general security and % ad vantage as may be thought reasonable, 
 should be adopted. 
 
 And as the French system, with all its restrictions, leaves an 
 ample margin for speculative competition, and for high premiums 
 on shares, it should be considered whether that part of it, which 
 provides for the reversion of the lines to the State after a certain 
 number of years, may not be safely introduced into this country 
 with immense advantage to the public. 
 
 Until a set of general rules, embodying these or similar provi- 
 sions, has been sanctioned by Parliament, all Acts for lines which 
 it may not be thought desirable to postpone, should be passed 
 with the distinct proviso that these lines shall become subject 
 to all the conditions of the improved system as soon as it is estab- 
 lished. 
 
 It would be difficult to over-estimate the degree to which indi- 
 vidual convenience and general prosperity may be promoted by 
 a right policy on this subject ; that is, by enforcing, in the case 
 of the railways now before Parliament, the greatest degree of 
 cheapness, immediate and remote, of security, and of every pos- 
 sible advantage, which the peculiarly favourable circumstances of 
 our position enable us to secure. Perhaps the vast magnitude of 
 the question with which Parliament has to deal may be best 
 shown by comparing our railway revenue with the National 
 Debt. The interest on the latter does not much exceed 28,000,000/. 
 A capital of 560,000,000/. therefore, if producing 5 per cent., 
 would yield a sufficient annual revenue to pay this interest. 
 
 Now, the cost of the railways already completed in Great 
 Britain and Ireland is about 70,000,000/., and the estimated cost 
 of the lines now in course of present construction is more than 
 60,000,0001. But it is the opinion of every one best acquainted 
 with the subject, that the amount already vested in railways in 
 this country is but a small part indeed of what will ultimately 
 
133 
 
 be required. The host of schemes now before Parliament con- 
 firms this view ; at the same time that the actual revenue on the 
 lines already completed, and the estimated revenue from those 
 that are being made or before Parliament, considerably exceeds 
 5 per cent. And if \ve take into account the steadily progressive 
 and apparently boundless increase of business on almost every 
 line, it is more than probable that the receipts on our railways, 
 after the system has been completed, will amount to a gigantic 
 sum. 
 
 At all events, it may, I am satisfied, be unhesitatingly laid 
 down that the total revenue of our railways, in some 20 or 30 
 years, will amount to a large proportion indeed of the interest on 
 our Debt, or of 28,000,000/. ; and it is neither absurd nor unrea- 
 sonable to expect that it may even equal or surpass that amount. 
 And if such be the case, it is plain that the adoption from the 
 commencement of a system of terminable leases, which the expe- 
 rience of France has shown to be of easy introduction, would 
 have relieved us within e the present century, and perhaps in a 
 much shorter time, from the burden of the whole or of the 
 greater part of our Debt. 
 
 And happily, though we have neglected many opportunities for 
 securing even a moderate portion of such gigantic advantages, we 
 have still many in our power. We may deal as we please with 
 the schemes now before Parliament; but if we neglect or throw 
 away this opportunity of securing the public interests, none such 
 can ever again occur. I would, therefore, beg of the legislature 
 and the country not to neglect or evade their duty on this occa- 
 sion. Let them no longer be amused by the alleged hazard of 
 railways. If planned with the most ordinary judgment they are 
 peculiarly safe investments. The monopoly of the producers is 
 on the eve of being destroyed ; and do not let us in the same 
 session, and almost in the same breath, confirm a still more odious, 
 more oppressive, and far more indefensible monopoly on the part 
 of the public carriers. In dealing- with railways Government and 
 Parliament should have in view the single object of securing the 
 best terms, immediate and ultimate, for the public. The share- 
 holders, like the landholders, may safely be left to take care of 
 themselves ; and there is infinitely little fear of their being over- 
 reached, or of their becoming parties to a bad bargain. 
 
 It has been already seen that if the French system of conced- 
 ing railway lines for terms of years had been adopted in this 
 country, a revenue adequate, or more than adequate, to defray the 
 interest of the National Debt, would, at no very distant period, 
 have accrued to the public from railways. But though we have 
 hitherto unfortunately overlooked such immense advantages, that 
 surely is no reason why we should continue to overlook them. 
 On the contrary, it should make us more anxious and more deter- 
 mined to profit by the means still in our power; so that by the 
 better husbanding of them we may, in as far as possible, repair 
 the losses occasioned by our previous folly and shortsightedness. 
 
134 
 
 It is for the interest of the railway companies that the existing 
 system should be changed. It is not in the nature of things that 
 it should be permitted to go on. Inordinate profits growing out 
 of monopolies obtained from the want of knowledge or the care- 
 lessness of the legislature, cannot continue for ever. They will 
 be condemned in public opinion an agitation will be com- 
 menced against them, and they will be suppressed amid the 
 cheers of all except the few who may happen to profit by them. 
 If the existing companies be not blind to the signs of the times, 
 they will lose no time in reducing their fares and improving their 
 accommodations ; and if Parliament be not strangely neglectful 
 of its most sacred duties and obligations, it will take care that in 
 the establishment of new lines the public interests shall be 
 effectually secured. 
 
 No. III. 
 
 Speech of James Morrison, Esq., M.P., March 20th, 1845, on 
 moving Resolutions respecting Railways. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER, 
 
 No one who has attended to what is now passing on the subject 
 of railways can fail to be satisfied that the railway system with all 
 the advantages and difficulties which belong to it has become 
 permanent in this country ; that it is increasing daily, that it will 
 at no distant period extend itself over the whole country, and 
 become universal ; and that, from habit as well as from the real 
 benefits derived from it, railway travelling will become not simply 
 a thing to be desired, but an absolute necessity which cannot be 
 foregone. 
 
 In ordinary circumstances it would not be necessary for me to 
 do more than allude in these general terms to the extent, impor- 
 tance, and universality of railway travelling. But, sir, the circum- 
 stances of the present time are not of an ordinary description. 
 We have arrived at a very critical period with regard to our legis- 
 lation respecting this novel element in our social system. When 
 railways were first proposed, men wondered : some looked upon 
 their success as utterly impossible; most of us doubted, and none 
 seemed to believe it necessary to take any precautions, or to act 
 with forethought respecting them. That time has gone past they 
 have succeeded. Every year will bring forth great improvements, 
 for as yet railways are but in their infancy ; and they will shortly, 
 as I have already said, become universal ; and now, Sir, we are all, 
 at a late hour indeed, convinced that the legislature must step in, 
 in order as well to secure to the public all the advantages whicb 
 this new mode of transit offers, as to protect them against the mis- 
 chiefs (and they, are not slight ones) with which we are threatened 
 
135 
 
 by the establishment of a gigantic system of all-powerful mono- 
 poly. 
 
 It behoves us not to act hastly or blindly. We ought fully to 
 understand what advantages we may derive from this new system 
 what evils we have to guard against ; and then we should gravely 
 consider what are the best legislative modes we can adopt to 
 obtain the one and to protect ourselves against the other. 
 
 With the permission of the House, I propose, then, briefly to 
 enumerate and to class the advantages which the various orders 
 of the community may obtain by means of railways; to point 
 out certain mischiefs against which precaution should be taken ; 
 and then to describe the system, which, in my opinion, ought to 
 be established ; laying down at the same time, as briefly as possi- 
 ble, the principles upon which our railway legislation ought to 
 be founded, 
 
 And first, as to the advantages which may, in so many ways, 
 be expected from this remarkable application of the power of 
 steam. 
 
 I need hardly, perhaps, do more than allude to the benefits 
 which railway travelling confers upon the mere traveller, whether 
 he travel for pleasure or from necessity. Life is absolutely 
 lengthened to us all by this rapid mode of transit; space and 
 time are almost annihilated, and the many long hours which here- 
 tofore were wasted in the tedious procees of moving from place 
 to place will now be applicable to the ends for which travelling 
 is used as a means. The consequences, moral and social, result- 
 ing from this will prove to be of the highest importance. Com- 
 munication will take place with all parts of the country. There 
 will be no districts to which the light of knowledge will not have 
 penetrated ; new ideas and improvement in arts and science will 
 quickly be communicated from one end of the country to the 
 other ; old prejudices, narrow feelings of bigotry and hate will 
 wear away, and we shall all be made wiser and happier by this 
 general circulation of intelligence, this constant and general in- 
 terchange of thought and feeling. 
 
 If, however, we pass from the mere traveller for pleasure to 
 those who are driven to travel in order to further the real and 
 serious business of life, so various are the benefits, and so numer- 
 ous the sources from whence they flow, that it requires some con- 
 sideration to enable one to bear them at once and completely in 
 the memory. 
 
 If, for example, we regard the trader, who, in the prosecution 
 of his business, is obliged to proceed from one part of the country 
 to the other, or to transmit and receive information from many and 
 distant parts of the country, we shall soon perceive the extra- 
 ordinary advantages which the new system will afford him. To 
 the manufacturer and wholesale trader, this rapid means of com- 
 munication is of the last importance. Every saving of time in 
 the business of communicating orders, every saving of expense in 
 
136 
 
 the transit of the goods themselves, is to the manufacturer pre- 
 cisely the same advantage as an improvement in the machinery 
 which produces these goods. 
 
 Goods, for example, produced in Manchester, are to he con- 
 sumed elsewhere, and tbe -capital of the manufacturer has to be 
 employed partly in producing the goods, and partly in transmitting 
 them to the consumer. If there be a saving in the transit, the 
 gain to the manufacturer is the same as if it had been a saving to 
 the same extent in the mode of production ; and all the capital 
 thus no longer needed to convey the goods to the consumer, may 
 now be profitably employed in the production of the goods them- 
 selves, or in other processes of manufacture ; and thus, while the 
 producer gains what is in reality an increase of capital, the con- 
 sumer derives advantage from the diminished cost of the article ; 
 the price is lessened because it can be brought to his hand for less 
 cost ; and it is apparent, that while the whole manufacturing 
 capital of the country is increased by this admirable means of 
 communication and transit, the real gainer in the end is the 
 public, in the character of the consumer. 
 
 The benefit to the retail trader is not less important ; for, by 
 these means, he has the power of his capital very materially in- 
 creased, and the risks of his trade no less materially diminished. 
 The rapid means of communication and transit render it no longer 
 necessary for him to keep on hand a large and various assortment 
 of perishable articles. When a demand is suddenly made to hirn 
 for an article not in his shop or warehouse, he at once writes for 
 it to the wholesale dealer or manufacturer, and may obtain it by 
 return of post. I may illustrate this by a circumstance which 
 happened lately : an order was sent to an establishment in South- 
 ampton, in the morning, for a class of some goods which they at 
 the time had not; they transmitted the order by electro-tele- 
 graph to London, it came to the house in the City by messenger 
 from Vauxhall, and the goods were dispatched by the return train, 
 in time for the party who wanted them. The retail trader is by 
 these means protected, to a great extent, from all those dangers 
 which arise from a change of fashion while goods are on hand, 
 from loss by the mere operation of time on goods, and from loss also 
 arising from capital broken up in goods to meet constant demand. 
 Thus to him also this improvement is equivalent to an increase of 
 capital. And let it be observed, too, that both in the cases of 
 the manufacturer, and wholesale and retail dealer, competition \\ill 
 immediately secure to the consumer the whole of the advantages 
 thus obtained by the producer and distributer of the manufac- 
 ture. 
 
 If now we proceed to consider other classes of the community, 
 it will be immediately seen that no class will probably derive 
 greater ad vantage from railway conveyance than the farmers. One 
 of the great reasons why agriculture has been so backward in some 
 districts as compared with its condition in others, is, in fact, the 
 
137 
 
 want of opportunity on the part of the farmer to profit by per- 
 sonal observation in those improved districts from whence he might 
 draw a useful lesson to guide his operations at home. But now I 
 hope to see the farmers of the south of England enabled to make ex- 
 cursions to Norfolk and Lincolnshire, and to observe and profit by 
 the superior methods of cultivation in use in those counties. The 
 farmers will also quickly find that railways give them a means of 
 extending their operations, and deriving advantage from produce 
 which is now comparatively of small importance milk, for ex- 
 ample, might at this moment be transported fifty miles with less 
 injury than it receives in the common modes of conveyance during 
 a journey of five miles. Farmers will therefore be able (and they 
 will soon perceive the advantage) to send out quantities of their 
 produce to large towns, which hitherto they have consumed at 
 home. The monopoly of peculiar localities will in this manner be 
 destroyed, and the whole agricultural community will enjoy the 
 benefit of equal and profitable markets, while the public will 
 derive advantage from the increased area from whence their sub- 
 sistence can be drawn ; and every town in England will, by means 
 of this more easy conveyance, obtain at a cheaper rate all the com- 
 forts, and luxuries, and neccessaries of life. The means of trans- 
 port offered by railways for articles of general consumption is 
 one of the most important points in this case ; and as an instance 
 of the manner in which the facilities offered by a railway tend to 
 increased traffic of this kind, I will read a statement relative to 
 the employment of railway carriage for the conveyance of fish for 
 the consumption of the town of Manchester. 
 
 " Until recently very little fish had been used in Manchester by any of the 
 labouring classes, except the Catholics; the more regular consumption was limited 
 to the higher and the middle classes: the quantity was small, and the price was 
 high. It was observed by Captain Lawes, R.A., the Manager of the Leeds Rail- 
 way, that the fishery on the east coast was languishing from the low state of 
 demand for their fish, though their 'catch ' was good. The railway directors had 
 followed the example of all carriers, and deeming fish a luxury which must be 
 taken, had charged high prices for the transit. The captain, however, succeeded in 
 inducing them to reduce their charges ; he got the fishermen on the coast to sell all 
 the fish they took at one regular fixed price, whether the catch was great or small ; 
 he got a stand opened at Manchester, at which the best cod-fish was retailed at from 
 l^d. to 2d. per pound. The general prices had previously been from 8d. to Is. per 
 pound ; on occasions of great plenty, it was sold at 4d., its lowest price. It never 
 then got beyond the middle classes, and was not used by them very frequently. A t 
 l^d. to 2J. per pound, it got to artisans and persons of the labouring class. The 
 reduction brought the commodity within the means and inclination of so large a 
 class of customers, as to raise a demand that has kept a-head of the supply. Before 
 the arrangement was made, the quantity of fish sent by the east coast by railway was 
 only three tons and a half per week ; but within the last year it has risen to eighty 
 tons per week. The whole answered extremely well as a commercial speculation 
 to the fishermen on the coast, to the railway directors, and the salesmen ; and it 
 has led to the habitual use of fish by large numbers of persons, who rarely tasted it 
 before The example has brought in increased and cheap supplies from other 
 quarters, and made a market from whence they have been distributed into the ad- 
 jacent district." 
 
138 
 
 Before the full advantage of railway trading can be obtained, 
 however, for the poorer part of the community, the rates of charge 
 must be greatly diminished. It is obvious that our labourers 
 could hardly be expected to reap great advantages from railroads 
 unless the fares be regulated on an exceedingly moderate scale ; 
 and I do trust that the means of communication will soon become 
 so easy and so cheap, that the labourer will be enabled to leave 
 those parts of the country in which wages are low, and proceed 
 to those in which wages have been permanently higher, or where 
 a greater temporary demand exists for labour. At this present 
 moment, however, I shall not do more than allude to this part of 
 the subject in the few words I have already employed. It will 
 be necessary hereafter for me to treat more at length the whole of 
 this important branch of the subject. 
 
 While on the subject of the probable advantages to be derived 
 from railway communication, I must be permitted to suggest to 
 the landed interest, that they, perhaps, more than any other class, 
 will profit by the universality and cheapness of this means of 
 conveyance. It is obvious, if we consider them as a class, that 
 the landowners must derive benefit from any means of transport 
 which enable them easily to convey the produce of the land to 
 the great towns which constitute the great markets for that pro- 
 duce. The monopoly advantages now enjoyed by some parties 
 who have property near the great towns, will certainly be dimi- 
 nished ; but the immense majority will profit by the many mar- 
 kets which will thus be thrown open to them. This, however, is 
 but one item of benefit. If the cost of carriage be diminished, as 
 I shall show hereafter it can and ought to be, then all heavy arti- 
 cles will be easily and cheaply transported by railways. Coal, 
 and lime, and stone will be easily transmitted from place to 
 place, and the value of those estates, which, lying at a great dis- 
 tance from the sea or from any large town, and which produce 
 any of these articles, will of necessity be raised. Besides, as the 
 science of agriculture becomes improved, we shall learn accurately 
 the constituent parts of fertile soils, and be able to create perma- 
 nent fertility by a due admixture of the requisite ingredients. 
 Thus we shall obtain not the mere temporary benefit now gained 
 by manures, but we shall be able to create a permanently fer- 
 tile soil. If at a cheap rate we could transport sea-sand, chalk, 
 lime, or the refuse of cities, the whole face of a district might be 
 changed. 
 
 There is another advantage depending upon cheapness of trans- 
 port, to which, in passing, I would solicit the attention both of 
 the public generally, and of the landed interest in particular. If 
 these heavy articles I have spoken of were transported at a cheap 
 rate, new trades would spring up in various localities which now 
 possess none, or a comparatively small one. Illustrating my 
 position by a particular case, I will suppose, for example, that 
 stone could be easily and cheaply carried to any part of the coun- 
 try; any place having quarries of stone of a fine quality, would 
 
139 
 
 at once find itself possessed of a commodity which would create 
 a trade, not merely with the small locality to which it is now 
 sent, but with the whole of England. Coal, too, which has 
 hitherto been a monopoly article, supplied at a high rate, and 
 with a niggard hand, to the wretched poor of this country, might 
 thus be brought within the reach of the poorest, and many of the 
 sorest physical ills of life seriously alleviated. That this is no 
 mere speculation of my fancy daily experience is proving. Coal 
 is now, by railways, made cheaper in London, and in districts 
 not hitherto within the reach of the inland coal-fields. All that 
 is needed is so to lower the rate of charge for carriage, as to ren- 
 der the transport cheap, and, while cheap, profitable. Before 
 I sit down I hope to be able to show how this may be accom- 
 plished. 
 
 Now, Sir, if we reflect for a moment upon the simultaneous ex- 
 istence of all those various circumstances, the result that must 
 necessarily follow will, I think, be obvious at once to us all ; 
 and that result is, that railway travelling must extend to every 
 part of the country, and in time put an end to all other means of 
 communication and transport. The great high-roads have already 
 been superseded canals will soon share the same fate and even 
 the coasting trade will soon be greatly affected. With all the 
 disadvantages resulting from the novelty of the experiment, and 
 the want of all experience connected with it, the railroads have 
 already most seriously affected every other mode of transit. But 
 every day brings with it some improvement which diminishes ex- 
 pense, and gives to the railway an increased superiority. We 
 may be assured that the activity of men of science, and the energy 
 of our trading and monied classes, will not fail to bring about 
 many great and important improvements in the whole system of 
 railway travelling; and the necessary result, I confidently pre- 
 dict, will be the complete, or very nearly complete, superseding 
 of all other means of conveyance. England will then be on a 
 great scale what a town now is on a small one ; and as you can 
 at all times of the day, and nearly all times of the night, get 
 rapidly and cheaply from one street to another, so you will be 
 enabled as rapidly and cheaply to pass from one distant part of 
 the country to the other. There will be the same rapid inter- 
 change of thought in the country as in the town ; the whole com- 
 munity will be on the same level as to knowledge and civilization. 
 All parts of the country, all sections of the community, will be 
 mutually known to each other, and the collision of thought and 
 feeling will raise the whole people in the scale of civilization. 
 Their intelligence and their morality will be alike improved ; and 
 then, indeed, we shall see that this application of its power is 
 one of the greatest benefits yet conferred by steam upon man- 
 kind. 
 
 But while such are the mighty benefits which may be made to 
 flow from this great effort of human ingenuity, we must not shut 
 our eyes to the evils with which it also threatens us. Perceiving 
 
140 
 
 them clearly, we may perhaps be enabled to guard against or to 
 remove them. 
 
 The very result to which I have already directed the attention 
 of the house, viz., the destruction of all other means of communi- 
 cation, clearly points out the evil we have to apprehend. The 
 enormous capital required to establish a railway, the nature of the 
 road, and the rapidity of the travelling, make, of necessity, every 
 railway a monopoly a fact the extent and importance of which 
 has not as yet, been duly estimated. Up to the present time no 
 very great danger has been apprehended a sort of vague feeling 
 has prevailed that some might arise but the prospect and ex- 
 pectation of the evil have been so faint, that no real fear has been 
 created, no anxiety has been felt, and consequently no precau- 
 tions have been taken. Another reason too has existed for the 
 sort of apathy that has been shown, and the small favour that has 
 hitherto been extended to the railway reformer. The most active 
 minds of the community have, by the enormous funds at the com- 
 mand of the persons forwarding these schemes, been retained as 
 agents on their behalf. Engineers, secretaries, attorneys, counsel, 
 possessors of idle capital, and persons hoping to be employed in 
 some of the many situations which the construction and manage- 
 ment of railways afford, all these, together with their numerous 
 friends and dependents, are now active advocates of the railway 
 system, and prepared to meet with vehement opposition any one 
 who should attempt to regulate that system, and render it not 
 what it has hitherto been merely a means of private gain, but 
 also a matter of great national advantage. This state of things 
 has greatly contributed to strengthen the new monopoly apathy 
 on the part of the public on the one side, and a vigorous pursuit 
 of private gain on the other, have brought us to a dangerous 
 crisis; and the country is threatened with a despotism of a novel 
 and most formidable description, which, from the peculiar cir- 
 cumstances which now attend it, will create for the legislature 
 unexpected and extraordinary difficulties. 
 
 These circumstances, indeed, are not of unmixed evil. The 
 very strength of the promoters of the new system is chiefly 
 founded on the daily improvements which are taking place, and 
 the increased benefits which they are thereby enabled to offer to 
 the public. 
 
 When these schemes of railroad were first propounded, the 
 whole was a hazardous experiment, and uncertain speculation. 
 The cost of making the road was enormous, the opposition on the 
 part of the landowners very vehement, and, from the want of ex- 
 perience, the current expense in the management of such roads as 
 were actually constructed, was so large, as to make all chance of 
 profit very problematical, Now, however, the state of things is 
 very different. The experiment, in spite of all difficulty and all 
 opposition, has succeeded one immediate effect, a beneficial 
 one, I allow, if properly taken advantage of is the daily decreas- 
 ing opposition offered by the landed proprietors ; added to this, 
 
141 
 
 our experience is now extensive, and calculations respecting the 
 cost of making the roads, and the probable revenue to be derived 
 from it by way of transport of goods and passengers have arrived 
 at an astonishing accuracy. Increased skill in the actual making 
 of the road has also greatly diminished the expense ; gradients 
 that formerly would have been considered as offering insuperable 
 obstacles are now adopted without fear or difficulty, so that roads 
 are now projected and made through districts which, at the com- 
 mencement of the system, were supposed beyond the reach of 
 railway travelling. The lessons of experience which were thus 
 beneficial in the actual construction of the road,, were equally 
 profitable in the working of the line when constructed. The ex- 
 pense, too, of attending to and keeping a railway in repair, is, in 
 consequence of the consolidation of the works, and of the know- 
 ledge daily acquired, gradually diminishing. So great, indeed, 
 has been the result from all these various savings of expense, that 
 we have been told by the Board of Trade, that in parts of the West 
 of England railroads could now be made at an expense per mile of 
 from 10,000/. to 12,000/., whereas the cost of construction of the 
 Great Western line was known to have amounted to a sum ex- 
 ceeding 50,000/. per mile. The cost of working locomotive power 
 appears, from the report of the Board of Trade, to be about 
 Is. 4%d. per mile : and I have reason to believe that the whole 
 cost of running a train does not exceed 2s. per mile. This sum, 
 which is the same as the cost of a single pair of post-horses, will, 
 I am convinced, be greatly diminished as the traffic continues to 
 be further developed. But while the cost of constructing and 
 working railways has thus decreased, the probable income and 
 the probable expenses are so accurately estimated, as to render the 
 construction of a railway among the safest and most certain of 
 mercantile speculations. Its results can now be counted on with 
 far greater certainty than those of a speculation in banking, or of 
 almost any other undertaking requiring a large capital. 
 
 These various circumstances prove that the question is now no 
 longer one of private consideration, but one of great public policy ; 
 a matter not to be left to the control of inferior boards, or private 
 companies, but one which ought to be subject to the interference 
 of parliament, and guided by the wisdom of the government. A 
 great social change is in the act of taking place ; and it is to this 
 great subject that I invite the attention of the House, of the 
 Government, and more particularly of the Right Honourable 
 Baronet at the head of the administration ; and I entreat him to 
 look at this question as one great whole, and not to regard it in 
 detached and isolated details and fragments. If he will view it 
 in all its many and important ramifications if he will estimate 
 the combined effects that are certain to follow from this extraordi- 
 nary combination of influences he will, I think, agree with me in 
 believing the subject to be one of the greatest moment one fraught 
 with unspeakable benefits, if properly directed ; but if neglected 
 or mismanaged, threatening us with evil of portentous magnitude. 
 
142 
 
 What, then, I ask, are the objects we ought to aim at what 
 are the benefits we have a right to expect what are the particular 
 mischiefs against which we must guard ourselves and what are 
 the special means we ought to adopt, what the principles by 
 which we ought to be guided in order to insure to the public the 
 good, and to prevent the evil, which may result from this new 
 method of conveyance 
 
 Considering the peculiar circumstances of this country, the first 
 great advantage at which we ought to aim, and to which we are 
 certainly entitled, is, that the transport of goods and passengers 
 should be CHEAP, as well as expeditious; and to me it appears 
 clear to demonstration, that the railroads of England ought to 
 afford the cheapest means of transport in the world. 
 
 In the first place, we have a great command of capital, with the 
 rate of interest generally low compared with other countries; we 
 have a dense, active, intelligent, and striving population. There 
 is, if I may so express myself, more of activity in our social life, 
 than exists among any other European people. Take a given 
 number of Englishmen, and it will be found that they, from habit 
 and necessity, travel a much larger number of miles within the 
 year than the same number of any other European nation. But 
 not only have we thus capital, and a great demand for the means 
 of travelling, but we have all that is required for the construction 
 of these roads, the produce of our own country, cheap and ready 
 at hand. Iron and coal abound, and can be obtained more cheaply 
 by us than by any other people. We have, besides, the most 
 perfect machinery, and great experience and skill in its application. 
 Am I not, then, justified in saying, that ours ought to be the 
 cheapest railways in the world ? Yet what has been, and what is, 
 the fact ? We have and unless something more effectual be done 
 by way of regulation than has yet been provided, we shall continue 
 to have the very dearest railroads of which the whole world affords 
 any example. Let any one look at the continental railroads, and 
 their rates of toll I will not take the Belgian lines, because, as is 
 well known, they were constructed, and are worked by the Govern- 
 ment; but I solicit the attention of the House to the railroads of 
 France. The French have, it is true, taken advantage of our ex- 
 perience, and gathered wisdom from our mistakes ; and I submit 
 that we might now in return very advantageously take some hints 
 from them. The Orleans railway was established after the line to 
 Rouen ; and it is now generally understood, that the Orleans tariff 
 is to be adopted on all future French railroads. The fares upon 
 this line are fixed at the rate of 5, 7|, and 10 centimes per kilo- 
 metre for third, second, and first class passengers, being a little 
 more than half the charges generally levied in England. The 
 cost of construction was about 23,000/. per mile, and the line not 
 being, as with us, the property of the shareholders in perpetuity, 
 but after a term of years lapsing to the Government, the company 
 are of course compelled to lay by annually a portion of the profits 
 as a sinking-fund, to make up the outlay at the termination of the 
 
143 
 
 lease. Yet, notwithstanding all these conditions, I believe that a 
 better paying line than the Orleans railway does not exist in this 
 country ; and the cause of this prosperity will be found to be, 
 mainly, if not solely, in the lowness of fares. I believe, moreover, 
 it will be found, in our own lines, taking them at the very highest 
 estimate, that Id., l^d., and 2d. per mile will afford a fair remu- 
 nerating profit; and that the only chance of making any railway 
 successful, lies in the adoption of a low tariff. High prices will 
 not bring about high profits. Upon the true principles of mer- 
 cantile science, it will be found that in railways, as in all other 
 mercantile speculations, large profits are most surely attained by 
 a large trade brought into existence by low prices. If the railroad 
 proprietors properly understood their own interests, they would, 
 therefore, in all cases, foster the wish to travel, and afford facilities 
 for the constant transport of goods, by establishing a low scale of 
 fares. But the railway companies are not wise enough voluntarily 
 to adopt this mode of proceeding; it then behoves the Legislature 
 to step in and to compel the new lines to pursue this wise course 
 of conduct, which will prove not only beneficial to the public, but 
 profitable to themselves. 
 
 I may here be asked the principle upon which I would regulate 
 the rate of tolls; and my answer is, that I would determine the 
 rate of toll in every case, by the sum for which the particular line 
 of railway could now be constructed. The public are not bound 
 to inquire what the line really has cost, but merely to ascertain the 
 sum for which it could, at the present time, be constructed ; and 
 the railway proprietors ought to be compelled to carry the public 
 and their goods for such fares as would yield a fair profit upon 
 such outlay. The means of so compelling the present companies 
 are twofold either so to arrange and extend existing lines, as to 
 bring about complete competition among them, or to allow new 
 lines to be constructed at that cheaper cost which improved expe- 
 rience and skill render possible. 
 
 The existing railways have no ground for considering such a 
 course of conduct on the part of the legislature as unjust or op- 
 pressive. In the same way, and on the same principle that these 
 railroads have been allowed to supersede the old common road, so 
 will the new and cheaper railway be allowed to supersede its more 
 expensive predecessor, if that predecessor be so blind to its own 
 interests as to refuse to adopt the tariff which the public have a 
 right to require. 
 
 Hitherto, indeed, the railway companies have not generally acted 
 on the liberal principles which their interests really suggested ; 
 but they have constantly striven to keep up the rates of toll, and 
 have employed all their ingenuity to evade the effects of every plan 
 proposed by the legislature to regulate and lower their fares, 
 These legislative plans have, indeed, been but little calculated to 
 attain their proposed end, if the railroad companies chose to op- 
 pose, or not to fall in with the views of the legislature. This was 
 but too plainly shown by the mode adopted at the commencement 
 
144 
 
 of the system, when, instead of fares and charges, tolls were col- 
 lected. So little, indeed, was the system of railways understood 
 at its commencement, that the original rates were fixed upon the 
 supposition that railway proprietors would be proprietors of the 
 road only, and that persons using it would pay merely for the 
 means of transit as upon canals. It is well known that such has 
 not been the case. Railway proprietors are almost universally 
 not only the owners of the line, but the carriers upon it. Still, 
 strange as it might seem, the legislature have continued in every 
 railway bill down to the last bill of the last session to repeat these 
 lists of tolls, although in no single instance, I believe, has it been 
 found practicable to carry them into effect. Some honourable 
 gentleman, too, three or four years ago, moved that railroad com- 
 panies should be compelled to affix to every station a table of 
 these tolls. The motion was carried in utter ignorance, apparently, 
 of what I have just stated ; and the tables I have spoken of are 
 universally exhibited, although it is well known that the rates of 
 toll they show are practically a mere delusion. In truth, Parlia- 
 ment might just as well have ordered the several companies to 
 exhibit in their stations a set of old sheet almanacs. They were a 
 mere useless incumbrance. 
 
 The right honourable gentleman, the late President of the Board 
 of Trade, appeared last year to feel that something was required 
 to be done on this important subject of tolls ; but, unfortunately 
 he selected his committee, and entered upon its appointed in- 
 quiries with the vain hope of being able to bring about some 
 arrangement with the old companies, before he began to legislate 
 for the new. The time for effecting this object, by means of 
 direct legislation, has, however, been allowed to pass away ; and 
 nothing now, in fact, remains to the legislature as a means to this 
 end but parliamentary control. Mere arrangement had become 
 impossible. It was evident that with the existing high price of 
 shares upon the old lines, and the prevailing opinions respecting 
 the necessity for high tolls to ensure large profits, no plan pro- 
 posed by the right honourable gentleman would be accepted. 
 It was obvious that no board of directors would consent to such 
 terms as those which the right honourable gentleman, having the 
 interests of the public in view, could have felt justified in offering 
 them ; and even if any directors could have been found who 
 would have come into the views of the right honourable gentle- 
 man, no proprietary, in the existing state of opinion, would 
 sanction the acceptance of any such offer. The consequence was, 
 as might have been anticipated, that nothing really beneficial was 
 effected. I am, indeed, quite prepared duly to appreciate the 
 importance of some of the objects aimed at by last year's bill, 
 and more especially the attempts to compel companies to run 
 third-class trains at Id. per mile. This attempt clearly makes out 
 my proposition as respects cheap fares ; but it also illustrates the 
 unwillingness of railway companies to adopt low fares, and 
 the iriefficacy of any means yet employed to compel them to do so. 
 
Uo 
 
 By the report of the Grand Junction Company it appears that 
 upon their line the increase of third-class passengers was 308 per 
 cent., and of revenue 76 per cent. It is deserving of notice, too, 
 that while these new arrangements produced these results, they 
 have not caused, as was anticipated, any decrease in the number 
 of second-class passengers, whose numbers had a little increased, 
 the only falling off being a trifling diminution in the number of 
 first-class passengers. 
 
 While such were the actual results of this regulation, T cannot 
 but deem the railway companies deserving of severe reprobation 
 for their systematic, cruel, and but too successful attempts to 
 evade and elude the law. Every effort is made to render such 
 third-class trains irksome, and therefore useless. The trains are 
 made to go at an exceedingly slow rate ; and this not because any 
 saving is immediately derived from the slower pace ; the truth 
 being, that the slow pace rather enhances than diminishes the 
 cost. Not only does this cheap train travel slowly, but frequent 
 and long harassing stoppages are made, which wear out the 
 patience of the poor travellers, and induce them to give the 
 higher price of the quick trains, rather than undergo the annoy- 
 ance and pain of the slow one.* Some means ought surely to be 
 adopted to prevent companies keeping poor passengers upon the 
 road for fifteen hours, when the journey might easily be performed 
 in five; and, extending the principle adopted last year respecting 
 these cheap trains, railway companies might be compelled to run 
 two cheap trains up and down their line with their ordinary 
 trains every day. At present, in place of adopting this humane 
 expedient, coals or goods, in fact, anything in preference to poor 
 passengers, are joined to light fast travelling trains, and the third- 
 class passengers are left behind to wear away long and tedious 
 hours within the narrow precincts of the railway station. 
 
 The next scheme to which I would direct attention, is what is 
 called the 10 percent, clause, which has, in fact, rendered nuga- 
 tory the power of revision granted by the Act of last session. 
 This clause professes to restrict the dividends of the company to 
 10 percent, upon the capital expended, giving the surplus to the 
 public in the rate of lower rates of toll, or diminished fares. I 
 must own that I was extremely surprised when I saw the late 
 President of the Board of Trade admit this clause ; for the right 
 honourable gentleman knew full well, that experience had shown 
 in all similar cases that similar clauses had been utterly disre- 
 garded, and that, the public had never reaped from them the 
 advantages which they were intended to afford. If the House 
 will consider for a. moment, they cannot fail to perceive the 
 multitude of ways in which this clause might be eluded. For 
 example, a company might expend vast sums of money in un- 
 
 * Note in 1848. Many of the railway companies continue to fix the third- 
 class trains at hours the most ill-suited for passengers, and resort to other means 
 for rendering travelling by these trains as irksome as possible. 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 necessary repairs, or in expenses of management ; or might con- 
 sider as an outlay of capital what ought really to be considered 
 as annual and regular expenditure; or, in the last resort, the 
 company might set the law at defiance, and divide the surplus 
 among the proprietors as new shares. In fact, the clause is in 
 reality a bounty on had management. It has given the public 
 the semblance of a protection, has created a fatal security, and 
 left the real evil wholly untouched, and without a remedy. 
 
 But while the public have been thus apathetic, and the Govern- 
 ment backward in devising the means of protection, the com- 
 panies themselves are active and intelligent in projecting schemes 
 for the increase of their power, whatever may be the result of 
 their plans as respects increased profit. Among those most 
 deserving attention is the attempt to amalgamate, as it is called, 
 several lines of road. We have seen to what an extent this 
 attempt has been carried, and we have learned that, whether 
 amalgamation be a good or a bad thing, it cannot be entirely 
 prevented ; all that we can do is, to take precaution that the 
 several companies who have recourse to it shall not thereby 
 acquire a dangerous monopoly. I am inclined, indeed, to think 
 that the advantages to be obtained from amalgamation, if proper 
 regulations be adopted, will preponderate over the mischief it 
 threatens. But this will only be if we are prudent and watchful. 
 
 Now the various lines of railway will in some way or other be 
 amalgamated into large, distinct, and separate schemes ; and the 
 very certainty of this fact furnishes the strongest possible reason 
 for adopting towards them limitations and restrictions more 
 stringent than any that have yet been enforced, and especially 
 with respect to new railways ; otherwise the whole country will 
 soon be in the hands of a few railway proprietors, and at their 
 mercy. 
 
 The means proposed by which amalgamation is to be effected 
 is a matter of great and immediate importance, calling at once 
 for the serious consideration of Parliament ; I allude to the 
 power proposed to be taken by the promoters of many if not all 
 of the schemes now before the House, of leasing their lines to 
 existing companies, without any stated and fixed terms and con- 
 ditions. This is, in my opinion, the most objectionable form of 
 amalgamation, and one which the House, I am persuaded, when 
 its attention is properly awakened, will not sanction. It is, in fact, 
 taking a power by anticipation to make arrangements and con- 
 ditions respecting these leases, without the necessity of again 
 applying to Parliament with reference to them. But this is a 
 power which has never yet been conceded by the legislature, and 
 it is evidently one which will lead to great abuses, the more 
 especially after the passing of the Act of last year. By that Act 
 it is. provided, that after twenty-one years, any surplus which 
 may exist over 10 per cent, profit, shall go to the public in reduc- 
 tion of fares. The public consequently has a direct interest in 
 taking care that this re visionary interest, if I may so call it, is 
 
117 
 
 properly secured to them. But it is evident that if power to 
 make leases, without reservation, and without any conditions 
 previously defined, be given to these companies, they may, and 
 probably will, make terms and conditions which will materially 
 affect the surplus fund of 10 per cent., and thus entirely defeat 
 the intention of Parliament, as expressed in the Bill of last year. 
 I have already spoken of this 10 per cent, clause in terms of dis- 
 approbation, but the House must not suppose that I object to the 
 limiting the profits of these companies, or to reducing the fares to 
 the public ; my whole argument indeed has been directed to show 
 the advantage that will flow from both these circumstances, and I 
 have endeavoured to point out the necessity under which we 
 labour of immediately adopting some means of attaining these 
 salutary ends, my objections arising from my belief that the 10 
 per cent, clause does not in reality forward the attainment of 
 either the one or the other. 
 
 The proposed scheme of leasing is clearly brought forward for 
 the purpose of securing a monopoly; and many branch lines, I 
 can see, are projected solely with a view and intention of leasing 
 them upon certain terms to the large trunk lines, as the branch 
 lines themselves would never have been proposed for the purpose 
 of the profit to be derived from them alone. But ground is thus 
 occupied which an adverse company might intrude upon, and 
 bring competition too close to be agreeable. In some cases it is 
 probable that this object of keeping a hostile and competing line 
 at a distance, even for a few years, is the sole object of the scheme. 
 The Act will be obtained in such cases, but the road may not be 
 constructed ; some provisions ought therefore to be adopted, not 
 only to guard against the danger of the monopoly, but also to 
 ensure the formation of the road ; this, in my opinion, might be 
 accomplished by affixing more severe penalties upon non-per- 
 formance. 
 
 If, however, the scheme of amalgamation unchecked by some 
 protective conditions be once carried into effect, it seems not im- 
 probable that railway directors will come to be invested with 
 power and patronage beyond what is possessed by any other class 
 or body in the nation. The ramifications of this power will 
 extend to every town and district in England, and these companies 
 will command, by the necessary influence of their large expen- 
 diture and wide patronage, the services of the most active minds 
 among us, as well for political as other purposes. I own that I 
 should regard such a power with great alarm and distrust; and 
 the plan that I am about to propose will, I think, afford the com- 
 munity some protection against what I cannot but consider a very 
 serious danger. 
 
 It may indeed be said that my plans and safeguards are pro- 
 posed too late, because all the principal lines of railway are 
 finished. The mischief, if mischief there be, has been done, and 
 you are shutting your stable-door after the steed has been stolen. 
 This, however, is not the case; a great number of most important 
 
 L 2 
 
148 
 
 trunk lines have yet to be constructed. The Eastern Counties 
 are still unprovided with a trunk line There is no such line to 
 Dover ; for the railway running there is as much a Sussex as a 
 Kent line. There is no direct line to Exeter; the Great Western 
 can only be considered a trunk line as far as Bristol. The report 
 of the Board of Trade upon the Western Railways, states that a 
 direct line from London to Exeter would diminish the distance by 
 railroad upwards of twenty miles. I have been told it would be 
 much greater: at all events this circumstance is an important one, 
 as the comparative shortness of a competing line is now con- 
 sidered a great element in its favour. Again, there is really no 
 trunk line to Manchester, placing London in direct communica- 
 tion with the great northern manufacturing districts. I think 
 then it is evident, that though we may have lost some advantages 
 by not more promptly interfering, still that much good may 
 yet be accomplished, if we directly apply ourselves to the task 
 before us. 
 
 Having thus briefly explained the advantages which may be 
 derived from railway travelling, and pointed out the evils with 
 which it threatens us, I next proceed, Sir, to a consideration of the 
 means by which we may, in some measure, at once secure the one 
 and guard against the other ; and also, generally, to advert to the 
 principles which ought to regulate our proceedings on this im- 
 portant subject. 
 
 In the first place then, it appears to me, that, under present 
 circumstances, 10 percent, is too high a scale of maximum profit. 
 We are to look to the public interest ; and what that interest 
 requires, is, that a rate of profit, just so high, and no higher, 
 should be allowed to the promoters of railway schemes, as shall 
 induce capitalists freely to embark their money in such under- 
 takings. It has been said, indeed, if you limit your fares, you 
 will reduce your rate of interest, and thus prevent people from 
 embarking in railway schemes. But this, I venture to submit, is 
 a great mistake ; for it is evident, 
 
 First, in the present condition of the money-market, and of 
 trade generally, when very low rates of interest and low rates of 
 profit prevail, that a return of less even than 7 per cent, would be 
 sufficient to induce capitalists to embark in such speculation ; 
 
 And, secondly, all experience proves that the surest mode of 
 ensuring large profits on capital in railroads, is to establish low 
 charges; thus stimulating travelling and transport of goods by 
 railway, and gaining a large aggregate return, in small profits 
 upon a large trade. 
 
 Now, as regards the first point, let us look to the experience on 
 the Continent. No difficulty in raising money is there experi- 
 enced. Indeed English capital is flowing abundantly abroad ; 
 and surely the same persons who invest their money in foreign 
 railroads, where the tariff is fixed so low where the property 
 in the road itself is for a term of years only, will not hesitate 
 about laying it out in railroad schemes at home. The list of 
 
149 
 
 Bills on your table, in fact, proves that the desire to invest capital 
 in these speculations requires a check, rather than a stimulus ; 
 and I deem the great excitement and reckless speculation which- 
 have arisen in the share-market, to be one of the most pernicious 
 effects of the Act of last year. By that Act people were led to 
 expect, indeed I believe it has been generally understood, that a 
 dividend of 10 per cent, certain was to he permanently secured 
 to the shareholders of some of the old lines; and such dividend 
 will, I believe, be the actual result, unless they, by continuing 
 their present high rate of charge, encourage competitors to start 
 up, and thus divide the traffic hereafter with them. People, 
 indeed, were too apt to believe that the Act afforded a sort of 
 guarantee of 10 per cent, on the new lines also ; an opinion which 
 has, in no inconsiderable degree, aided in raising up that spirit 
 of inordinate speculation, which, I trust, the resolutions I intend 
 to propose, will tend to moderate. 
 
 I now turn to the consideration of the limitation of the rate of 
 charge the principles upon which that limitation ought to be 
 established ; and the probable results that may be expected 
 from it. 
 
 1 propose, then, that in all instances, the Railway Committees 
 should, in future, determine the charges upon each particular line 
 by the circumstances peculiar to that line. This has not hitherto 
 been clone, but one rate of charge has been applied generally to 
 all railroads, no matter what might be the difference in the 
 cost of constructing them. This is a vicious principle, and ought 
 at once to be given up. 
 
 All the evidence relating to the cost of construction and work- 
 ing, the estimates of traffic and expense, will be in the hands of 
 the committees which have to decide upon the cases severally 
 brought before them ; and from the various sources of informa- 
 tion which will thus be afforded them, I believe they will be able 
 to form a very accurate judgment of what will constitute a re- 
 munerating rate of fares and charges. * In many, if not in most 
 cases, a scale ranging from one-half to two-thirds of the rates at 
 present charged, would, I contend, be amply sufficient. I do not 
 mean to complain of the high scale of the fares charged at first 
 by the old lines, because when they were constructed the whole 
 scheme was an uncertain, unascertained experiment The case is 
 now altered, the whole system is reduced to a matter of calcula- 
 tion and of certainty, and presents a means of speculation as safe 
 as any other commercial venture for making money, if, indeed, 
 it be not more safe than most of such speculations. 
 
 If this plan were adopted, many legitimate advantages would 
 immediately be derived from it, both by the public and by the 
 companies themselves. 
 
 To the public the immediate effect would be the power of tra- 
 velling and of transporting goods at a cheap rate. An indirect, 
 and, as tending very effectively to the same end, not less impor- 
 tant effect, would be, that immediate advantage would be taken of 
 
150 
 
 every improvement, both in construction and working 1 . Whilst 
 the new lines, by affording the public the benefit of these lower 
 fates of charge, would in fact compel all the old lines, which now 
 possess a dangerous monopoly, to lower their fare?, and give up 
 the mischievous power we have unwarily conferred on them. 
 
 At present the cost of constructing, working, and keeping lines 
 in repair, may be indefinitely lessened, without the public gaining 
 anything by the improvement. For whether railways are con- 
 structed at an expense of I0,000/., 30.000/., or 50,000/. per mile, 
 much the same rate of fares is adopted. But it is obvious that 
 the rate at which fares become remunerative depends upon the 
 original cost and ordinary outlay, combined with the traffic ; and 
 in every other speculation in which money is laid out, except in 
 railways, a decrease in the necessary expense of a scheme produces 
 an almost immediate benefit to the public. An improved process, 
 for example, in the manufacture of iron, in a power-loom factory, 
 in the machinery of a cotton-mill, or in any of the thousand ways 
 in which steam-power is employed to diminish the cost of produc- 
 tion, causes an immediate benefit to the public, in the shape of the 
 reduced price of the article produced by the machinery so im- 
 proved. Why should not similar causes produce similar effects 
 in the case of railroads ? Every opportunity should be taken to 
 reduce the fares upon this principle, always keeping in mind that 
 we must ensure to the proprietors that rate of profit which we shall 
 determine to be fair and adequate. But we ought never to forget 
 that the public are unjustly treated whenever an improvement is 
 neglected, whenever, being adopted, the benefit goes to the rail- 
 way proprietor in the shape of a dividend above that which was 
 deemed fair and remunerative, or, whenever that advantage is, 
 elusively and in evasion of the law, made to benefit individuals in 
 the shape of unfair expenditure, and, lastly, the same injustice 
 is done to the public whensoever we raise the maximum profit of 
 the proprietor beyond the point necessary to induce him to lay out 
 his capital in the construction of necessary railways. 
 
 If such a low and reasonable rate of charges were imposed on 
 the new lines of railways, the old lines would find that, although 
 they possess, at present, undisturbed possession of their traffic, the 
 only mode of permanently securing their advantage would be the 
 reduction of their charges to such a point, as that it would not be 
 worth the trouble and expense to any other company to construct 
 a railroad in opposition to them. Having the start of all compe- 
 titors, and possessing the many advantages which that start gives 
 them in experience and confidence, they will be enabled to carry 
 passengers and goods at a cheaper rate than any newly proposed 
 company could offer ; and if they be wise, they will profit by these 
 favourable circumstances, and thus prevent a ruinous competition. 
 If, however, they be blind to their true interests, they will find 
 that the principle which I have stated, and which is the true com- 
 mercial principle will inevitably produce its effects ; and they will 
 at last, and without the same benefit' to themselves, be compelled 
 
151 
 
 to adopt the low scale of fares. The formation of two lines where 
 only one is really needed, is, indeed, a loss of capital to the public, 
 and of profit to the capitalist. It is an evil only less than that of 
 suffering one monopolising company to coerce the community at 
 large. 
 
 In order, however, to obtain the full advantage which I here 
 contemplate, it is necessary that we should embrace the present 
 opportunity. If we let that pass, the rapid construction of new 
 railways upon the old and erroneous system will greatly narrow 
 the field of our operations. By a careful and well-devised scheme 
 we might now so modify the various lines which have yet to be 
 constructed, as to make them, by means of cheaper tolls and 
 charges, as effective without being as mischievous or expensive as 
 the already existing lines. If this be neglected, we shall merely 
 multiply monopolies, and thus strengthen and increase the mischief 
 by the very means which might afford us a remedy and protection. 
 
 To devise a plan by which we might secure this benefit which 
 I am now describing, was, I suppose, within the legitimate sphere 
 of action allotted to the railway department of the Board of Trade. 
 To what extent they have fulfilled the task appointed them will 
 come to be considered hereafter. But there are some points in 
 their reports connected directly with the subjects of which I am 
 treating, to which I cannot avoid alluding at the present moment. 
 
 In the first place I would observe, upon the extraordinary and 
 unnecessary dread which the Commissioners appear to have en- 
 tertained of insolvent companies. The notion seems completely to 
 have haunted them, and they have further constantly confounded 
 insolvency with cheapness; for of cheap lines, they have through- 
 out evinced an especial dread. Under this impression they have 
 generally recommended that new lines should be entrusted to old 
 companies, because, as they alleged, the completion of the former 
 undertakings of these companies was a guarantee for their per- 
 formance of any new scheme proposed by them ; and the necessity 
 of such guarantee is enforced by citing examples of schemes not 
 carried out, or which have been delayed for a long term of years. 
 Now, Sir, I cannot draw from these premises the conclusions at 
 which the Board of Trade has arrived. The schemes which they 
 bring forward as having failed, were, in fact, not schemes of insol- 
 vent companies, but were unprofitable speculations; and they have 
 remained unfulfilled not because of the insolvency of the proprie- 
 tors, or because they had not the power of raising money, but simply 
 because the lines did not afford a prospect of remuneration. 
 
 I cannot consider it a good policy to encourage the construction 
 of unremunerating lines. If, however, it should be thought neces- 
 sary to take precautions against the non-completion of proposed 
 schemes, two modes are in our power, one of precaution, the 
 other of punishment. At present a certain portion of the capital 
 of projected lines is obliged to be paid up, and a certain limited 
 time is allowed to projectors within which they are to complete 
 their scheme. The object of these regulations is clearly to give 
 
152 
 
 the public some security that the works will be duly carried out 
 as proposed. Now if this system has not been found to work 
 well, why not modify it? If the amount required to be paid up 
 is too small, why not increase it ? If the time allowed for the 
 completion of the scheme be too long, why not shorten it ? If a 
 company should by some extraordinary chance be found unable 
 to complete a good line, there would be no difficulty in finding 
 another company (if the speculation promised to be a fair one) 
 which would step in and accomplish it. 
 
 And, as I have before observed, a fine might be imposed in case 
 of the line not being completed. 
 
 Looking at the enormous railway system which is now growing 
 up around us, I do feel most strongly the necessity of imposing 
 these reasonable restrictions on railway companies which I am now 
 submitting to the consideration of this House. If nothing be 
 done, I fear we are about to create a power most needing control, 
 but on which we shall be able to exercise none. I have already 
 described the mode in which it appears to me certain that railways 
 will supersede all other means of conveyance. Over the old 
 methods of conveyance our authority by Acts of Parliament was 
 complete, besides that we had the not less important safeguard of 
 an effective competition; whilst this new and all-absorbing mode 
 of transport, is at present, without practical limit or control, either 
 by Act of Parliament or by competition. 
 
 We have for many years been struggling against monopolies ; 
 long before I had a seat in this House, the question of monopoly 
 has proved a subject of keen discussion, of powerful attack. And 
 we now all of us seem agreed that monopolies ought not to be 
 allowed to increase, so plainly have the mischiefs they produce 
 been made manifest to us all, so completely has their impolicy 
 been exposed. Yet what is this House now doing ? While com- 
 bating old monopolies, you have reared up a new monopoly ; one 
 more formidable, more extensive in its ramifications, and more 
 injurious than any which preceded it. 
 
 I know, Sir, it has been said, and by great authority, that 
 we may rely without fear upon competition, and on the rivalry 
 naturally existing between companies possessing lines running in 
 the same general direction. But experience, as well as reason, 
 shows that to rely in this case wholly upon competition would be 
 a fatal mistake. No matter how inveterate the apparent hostility 
 of contending companies; no matter how fiercely they may fight 
 before committees, or in this House, still where there exists a com- 
 mon interest, there will soon be found a common understanding, 
 and that understanding will, of course, regard the interests not of 
 the public but of the parties more immediately concerned. Their 
 own gain is, of course, the great object of railway projectors, and 
 the consequences likely to arise to the public and the country, 
 from their being allowed to carry out unchecked all their plans, 
 to establish without hinderance the whole fabric of their power, 
 are such as make it matter of paramount necessity, immediately 
 
153 
 
 to institute some means of wholesome restraint upon what will 
 otherwise prove a potent instrument of evil. I therefore, Sir, beg 
 leave to move, 
 
 1. " That it is the duty of Parliament, in giving its sanction to the 
 establishment of new railways, to render them the means of afford- 
 ing to the public the best and safest communication, and the 
 greatest possible amount of accommodation at the lowest possible 
 rates. 
 
 2 "That the clauses heretofore introduced into railway bills to 
 limit the amount of tolls to be demanded for the use of the rail- 
 way having proved practically inoperative, it is expedient to make 
 more effectual provision against the undue enhancement of the 
 cost of travelling and transportation in every future railway bill, 
 by fixing the highest rates which the railway company shall be 
 allowed to charge for the conveyance of passengers and goods. 
 
 3. " That for these purposes every committee on a railway bill 
 introduced in the present or any future session of Parliament, 
 shall report a table of fees and charges, the lowest which they 
 shall judge to be consistent, under the circumstances of each 
 case, with a fair and reasonable return for the capital to be in- 
 vested. 
 
 4, " And that every committee to which two or more competing 
 projects for new railways may be referred, shall require the pro- 
 moters of each to put in statements as to the rates of charge 
 for the conveyance of passengers and goods to which they are con- 
 tent to be limited, and the amount of accommodation which they 
 will bind themselves to provide for the public at those rates ; and 
 that, in determining on the comparative merits of competing 
 schemes, regard shall be had to the extent and nature of the ad- 
 vantages which can be thus reserved to the public from each." 
 
 No. IV. 
 
 The Speech of James Morrison Esq., M.P., on moving for the 
 appointment of a Select Committee " to inquire whether, without 
 discouraging legitimate Enterprise, Conditions may not be em- 
 bodied in Railway Acts better fitted than those hitherto inserted 
 in them to promote and secure the Interests of the Public," in 
 the House of Commons, Thursday, March 19, 1846. 
 
 Mr. MORRISON, in bringing forward the motion of which he had 
 given notice, respecting railways, said that as he found there 
 was to be no opposition offered to the proposition, he should pro- 
 bably best consult the wishes of the house by not entering 
 upon the subject at such length as he might otherwise have been in- 
 
154 
 
 duced to do. At the same time be trusted he might be permitted to 
 occupy a few moments in stating generally what were the leading 
 objects of his motion. He considered that the experience of the 
 last year, not only in England, but the other countries of Europe, 
 had been most important, as it had shown that the developement of 
 traffic had gone on in a way not to have been anticipated by the 
 most sanguine; and he proposed to show, by the committee he 
 was about to move for, that the system of cheap fares had every- 
 where been most advantageous and profitable, and that in 
 almost every case the companies which had tried the experiment 
 had not been injured but benefited by that system. He also 
 proposed to inquire to what extent it was practicable, by some 
 general regulations, to relieve the railway committees from the 
 weight of business with which they were at present oppressed, 
 Lastly, he proposed to bring before the committee the important 
 subject of the granting of leases of lines, instead of concessions 
 in perpetuity. The railway system had been so recently intro- 
 duced, and had extended itself with such rapidity, that there had 
 been little time to give to the whole subject a calm consideration ; 
 but in the course of the past year it had been found, not only in 
 this country but in others in Belgium, France, and America 
 that there had been a remarkable increase of traffic, and, to a cer- 
 tain degree, a uniform increase. Our experience was yet in- 
 adequate to determine what the exact ratio of that increase was 
 likely to be. That it must increase with the wealth and popula- 
 tion of the country there could be no doubt; and to that must be 
 added the progression or increase of business caused by the rail- 
 ways themselves; but looking to all the circumstances, the sup- 
 position might be risked that the traffic on the great lines between 
 towns of large population would double itself in the next ten or 
 fifteen years. Should such be the opinion of the house, it would 
 probably think it necessary to reserve to itself the right of revising 
 the fares at periods considerably under twenty years apart. One 
 of the most important subjects which could engage the attention 
 of the committee would be the effect of the reduction of fares, as 
 proved wherever the system had been attempted, in increasing the 
 traffic, and, in some, if not in most, cases, improving instead of 
 diminishing the revenue. The scale of charges which would be 
 found most productive might vary to some extent with the cir- 
 cumstances of each particular case ; but it appeared evident to 
 him that the scale most advantageous to all parties was much 
 lower than anything hitherto attempted in this country. He be- 
 lieved that the rates charged in Belgium would at no distant time 
 be thought quite sufficient here. It was known that on the lines 
 recently adjudicated in France, the fares fixed for passengers had 
 been, for the first, second, and third class respectively, 10, 7^, and 5 
 centimes per kilometre, with an allowance of thirty kilogrames, 
 or 66 Ibs. of luggage to each person, these rates being somewhat 
 proportionate to l|d., l|d., and Id,, including the 10 per cent, 
 additional tax to government. Now these lines were known to 
 
-155 
 
 stand at considerable premiums ; and the Paris and Orleans Com- 
 pany, which was limited to the same rates, was highly prosperous, 
 and its shares were at a very high premium indeed a success 
 which he had never been able to account for on any other ground 
 than the lowness of fares. Let it not be forgotten that France 
 presented far fewer advantages than England in respect to railway 
 enterprise. The population there was less per square mile than 
 ours; the towns were neither so numerous nor so large; their 
 manufactures were unimportant when compared to ours : and their 
 foreign trade more limited ; so that to supply the same number of 
 people they were obliged to lay down a longer line of rail than we 
 .needed. Then, with respect to the conduct of railway business, 
 he thought that hon. members would acknowledge that the at- 
 tempt of last year had been a failure. Had he gone fully into the 
 subject he might have endeavoured to show how strange and con- 
 tradictory had been the different decisions arrived at by the com- 
 mittees, and how various had been the rates fixed for passengers 
 and goods, ranging from aid. to 4d. per mile. In one instance 
 he had been told that with respect to so important an article as 
 coal, the difference of charge for carriage between one line sup- 
 plying Manchester, and another line, was 250 per cent. If such 
 disparity as this prevailed, it must be injurious; and surely much 
 advantage would be derived from such great variations being here- 
 after corrected by some general regulation. With respect to the sub- 
 ject of leases, it was a matter which rather concerned the house and 
 the country, than the railway companies, it would be for the house 
 to consider whether the practice of granting leases for terminable 
 periods, instead of in perpetuity, might not with great advantage be 
 adopted in this country. Experience had shown that parties were 
 quite willing to undertake the whole cost of constructing railways 
 in France to be held for terminable periods. This was in fact 
 mainly a matter of policy on the part of the State. Of course a 
 sinking-fund would have to be provided out of the profits, in order 
 to reimburse the original expenditure at the expiration of the 
 lease. And that was no real hardship to companies. The whole 
 transaction resembled a loan to the State, made on the principle 
 of- terminable annuities, by which the lender agreed to receive an 
 annual payment for a term of years, instead of in perpetuity, and 
 calculated the amount of this annual payment according to the 
 length of the term. It therefore appeared to him that there could 
 not be two opinions upon the subject, and that if it were practi- 
 cable to get our new railroads undertaken upon this principle, it 
 was most desirable that no time should be lost in adopting it. 
 No one could pretend to estimate to what extent the railway sys- 
 tem might be carried in twenty or thirty years, or what might be 
 the effect of improvements in cheapening the cost of locomotion 
 during that interval. But it was manifestly desirable that the 
 State should, as early as possible, obtain the control of those 
 lines of public communication. If we adopt this system of leases, 
 which had been so successfully introduced into France, every 
 
156 
 
 Railway Act that was passed would have the effect of a conver- 
 sion of so much of our national debt into annuities terminable 
 with the expiration of the leases, without the sacrifice of one shil- 
 ling by the State. For as soon as the lease of a line expired, it 
 would become the absolute property of the State, and might 
 either be sold, and its value applied directly in reduction of the 
 public debt ; or worked or let for the benefit of the State, and the 
 revenue derived from it applied in relief of the general taxation 
 of the country. And it might safely be assumed that from the 
 progressive increase of traffic and improvement in our railway 
 science, the productiveness and value of almost every line would 
 be far greater at the termination of the lease than at present. He 
 would never advise the House to give up the principle of compe- 
 tition, for it was a very valuable one ; but competition was not 
 enough. In the case of the Bank of England it had been ad- 
 mitted that competition was not enough ; and he thought the right 
 honourable Baronet, if he would devote a little attention to the 
 subject, would acknowledge that in the case of railways, as well 
 as of banking, something more than competition was necessary. 
 He had stated that the experience of the last year had been of 
 infinite value as regarded railways. That of the next three years 
 would be more so ; and, indeed, the experience of every succeed- 
 ing year would furnish additional evidence as to the extent to 
 which the increase of traffic was likely to be carried. That there 
 were the means of working railways in this country on terms 
 more advantageous to the public than in France, could not be a 
 matter of doubt, upon comparing the resources and relative 
 amount of population of each. The honourable member illus- 
 trated this position by reading the following statistical details : 
 
 " Population of France in 1842, 34,213,929 ; and dividing this sum by the area 
 of 203,736 square miles, the population for each square mile is 167,932. The 
 population per square mile in England is at present 297^698 ; and of Great 
 Britain, 210,476. The trade and mercantile marine of France are quite incon- 
 siderable compared with those of Britain. In 1844, the total customs revenue of 
 France amounted to 215,825,704 francs, or 8,633,6287.; whereas the total customs 
 revenue of the United Kingdom, during the same year, amounted to 24,107 ,3487. 
 In 1844, the customs revenue of Liverpool amounted to 4,487,6647. ; while the 
 customs revenue of Marseilles, which has the largest trade of any town in France, 
 amounted during the same year to only 36,688,000 francs, or 1,467,5207. And, 
 with the exception of Havre, the customs revenue of which in 1844 amounted to 
 1,085,0407., the customs revenue of no other town in France exceeds 500,0007. ; 
 whereas in this country the customs revenue of the Clyde amounted in 1843 to 
 938,5147., that of Dublin to 977,8907., that of Leith to 628,0087., and that of 
 Hull to 525,4187. The proportion of the population living in towns in Britain is 
 incomparably greater than in France. This is evident from comparing the pre- 
 sent population of the ten principal towns in each. 
 
157 
 
 IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 Population, 1841 : 
 
 London , . 1,873,676 
 
 Manchester 296,183 
 
 Liverpool 286,487 
 
 Glasgow 274,533 
 
 Birmingham 182,922 
 
 Leeds 152,054 
 
 Edinburgh 138,182 
 
 Bristol 122,296 
 
 Plymouth 80,059 
 
 Sheffield 68,186 
 
 3,474,578 
 
 IN FRANCE. 
 
 Population, 1842: 
 
 Paris 875,495 
 
 Marseilles 147,191 
 
 Lyons 143,977 
 
 Bourdeaux 99,512 
 
 Rouen 90,580 
 
 Toulouse 76,965 
 
 Nantes 76,870 
 
 Lille 63,063 
 
 Strasbourg 61,150 
 
 Amiens 44,405 
 
 1,679,208 
 
 " The difference in the amount of shipping belonging to the principal English 
 and French ports is equally remarkable, thus : 
 
 Shipping exc 
 ing to the 
 in 1844. 
 
 London . 
 Liverpool 
 Newcastle 
 Sunderland 
 Glasgow . 
 Greenock . 
 Hull . . 
 
 lus 
 ten 
 
 ive 
 
 P'l 
 
 of steamers belong- 
 ncipal English ports 
 
 Vessels. Tonnage. 
 2J92 573,522 
 1,287 342,142 
 1,236 273,953 
 813 165,697 
 393 96,610 
 447 86 617 
 453 67,227 
 389 60,204 
 352 51,550 
 326 48,920 
 
 8,688 1,766,442 
 
 Shipping ex-elusive 
 ing to the ten pi 
 in 1844. 
 
 Havre. . - 
 
 of steamers belong- 
 incipal French ports 
 
 Vessels. Tonnage. 
 342 64,004 
 365 61,501 
 541 60,520 
 630 54,896 
 217 27,831 
 192 17,820 
 231 15,069 
 81 12,688 
 218 12,032 
 174 10,837 
 
 2,991 336,398 
 
 Bourdeaux 
 Nantes . 
 Marseilles 
 St. Malo . 
 Dunkirk . 
 Granville . 
 Rouen 
 Nouvelle . 
 Dieppe . 
 
 
 
 Whitehaven 
 Aberdeen 
 Dundee . 
 
 
 
 " Total shipping belonging to ports in the United Kingdom : 
 Number of Vessels. Tonnage. 
 
 22,297 2,848,149 
 
 " Total shipping belonging to ports in France : 
 Vessels. Tonnage. 
 
 13,578 695,344 
 
 " The total tonnage of France being very little more than that of the single port 
 of London." 
 
 The honourable Member concluded by moving for 
 
 " A Select Committee to inquire whether, without discouraging- 
 legitimate enterprise, conditions may not be embodied in Rail- 
 way Acts better fitted than those hitherto inserted in them to pro- 
 mote and secure the interests of the public. 
 
158 
 No. V. 
 
 DRAFT OF REPORT.* 
 
 The Select Committee appointed to inquire whether, without 
 discouraging legitimate enterprise, conditions may not be 
 embodied in Railway Acts better fitted than those hitherto 
 inserted in them to promote and secure the interests of the 
 public, and who were empowered to report their observations 
 and opinion thereupon from time to time to the House ; 
 have considered the several matters to them referred, and 
 have agreed to the following Report. 
 
 YOUR Committee have examined several witnesses, and re- 
 ceived documentary evidence on the state of railways, and the 
 legislation respecting them, in this and other countries ; and have 
 called for returns from the British Railway Companies illustrative 
 of their past and present condition : they have also to regret that 
 the delays experienced by them in obtaining various returns, on 
 subjects connected with their inquiry, have not allowed them to 
 present these observations at an earlier period. 
 
 It appears to your committee that, without discouraging legiti- 
 mate enterprise, the railway legislation of this country may be 
 materially improved by the adoption of a better system of control 
 and supervision applicable to all railways at present existing, or 
 to be constructed hereafter, and by changes in the course of pro- 
 cedure necessary to obtain railway Bill*. 
 
 The line between public and private legislation has seldom 
 been correctly drawn in this country. Individuals and associa- 
 tions have in all times been allowed to assume the exercise of 
 powers which properly belong to the executive, without being 
 subjected to due responsibility ; and in a large class of Bills, 
 private in name, but often affecting important public interests, the 
 existing mode of procedure before the legislature supplies no 
 adequate means for obtaining a knowledge of the real merits of 
 measures to other parties than those who promote or oppose 
 
 * This draft of Report was, in some way, presented to the House as the Report 
 of the Committee. I had myself left town ; but, upon inquiry by a Special Com- 
 mittee it appeared that the clerk of the committee, Mr. Chalmers, had placed the 
 document on the Bar where papers that are to be presented to the House are often 
 deposited. How the paper became actually presented was never ascertained. A 
 Special Committee was, in the following session, appointed to inquire into " The 
 circumstances under which " a certain document was printed by order of the House, 
 " purporting to be the Report of the Select Committee appointed ' To inquire 
 " ' whether, without discouraging legitimate enterprise, conditions may not be em- 
 " c bodied in Railway Acts better fitted than those hitherto inserted in them to 
 " ( promote and secure, the interests of the public." 
 
 Which Committee reported: 
 
 " That the irregularity of the proceeding appears to have arisen purely in 
 "mistake." 
 
159 
 
 them. Without entering on an inquiry into the relative advan- 
 tages or disadvantages of such a state of things at different periods 
 in the progress of a nation, your committee conceive that the 
 time has arrived when it can no longer he continued with safety, 
 and that a regard to the best interests of the community requires 
 the adoption of a very different system. Among those public 
 objects which hitherto have been the subject of legislation in 
 private Bills must be included the means by which the commu- 
 nications between the different parts of a country are effected. 
 
 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. The very nature of society implies that men should 
 have access to each other for the supply of their respective wants, 
 whether they live in towns, or are scattered over the face of a 
 country ; and the common sense of mankind tells them that the 
 roads and streets should be free from obstruction. In this country 
 from the remotest times, the title of the Sovereign, as representing 
 the nation, to the control of its roads, has always been allowed. The 
 designation of Kings Highways, by which the public roads were 
 known, sufficiently indicates the right which the Crown possessed 
 and exercised over them. The practice of intrusting to associa- 
 tions locally interested the making and repairing of roads, with 
 the power of levying tolls to repay the outlay required for that 
 purpose, which first became general towards the middle of the 
 last century, amounted merely to a delegation for a time by the 
 legislature, on certains conditions, of a portion of the powers of 
 Government to meet a public exigency, but never to a permanent 
 transfer of them. The public have always possessed the right to 
 control the trustees, and to withdraw from them the managemt'nt 
 of the highways included in their trusts ; and there are repeated 
 instances, in our own times, of the exercise of this right. 
 
 The period is not remote since an extensive parliamentary in- 
 quiry was instituted into the state of the turnpike trusts of the 
 country, when the right of the nation to regulate and control the 
 management of its highways was practically vindicated, and, 
 among other results, a number of tollgates in the neighbourhood 
 of the metropolis, felt as an inconvenience by its inhabitants, 
 were ordered to be removed. 
 
 But of all the means of communication between different 
 parts of a country, that by railways is by far the most important. 
 If it be necessary for the public welfare that a country should 
 never divest itself in perpetuity of its right of property in its 
 ordinary highways, it is still more important that it should not 
 part with the right to control its railways. On an ordinary road 
 there could have been no monopoly of the means of conveyance ; 
 a man might travel by it all hours, and in any manner he 
 pleased ; but on a railway he can only travel at such times and 
 under such arrangements as those who are entrusted with its 
 direction may choose to adopt. If one coach on a road charged 
 too much, travelled at too slow or too quick a rate, or failed in 
 
160 
 
 other respects to give satisfaction, another might have been 
 started ; but on railways there is no option ; the passenger must 
 either submit to the regulations fixed by its directors, or abstain 
 from using it. It has now been ascertained that the hope of 
 relief from the objectionable course pursued on one railroad, by 
 having recourse to a competing line, must in a great measure be 
 abandoned. It is confidently stated by nearly all the witnesses 
 examined by your committee that the public cannot^ count on 
 being relieved by competition from the consequences of an abusive 
 exercise of power on the part of railway companies. From the 
 very nature of things, therefore, a railway company exercises a 
 complete monopoly ; but a monopoly subject to no responsibility 
 and under no efficient check or control, is necessarily an intole- 
 rable abuse ; and it can only be rendered innoxious by subjecting 
 it to rigorous control and supervision. 
 
 But besides, as a railway is so superior to all other means of 
 communication, that it must necessarily supersede them, and 
 confers the greatest advantages on the localities through which it 
 runs, it becomes of the greater consequence that the lines for 
 railways should be wisely selected, and that railway companies 
 should not be suffered, by an injudicious choice, to inflict injury 
 either on the public in general or on the owners of property. 
 That these objects were not at first sufficiently attended to in this 
 country can hardly be a matter of surprise, when we reflect on 
 the ignorance with respect to the nature of the change about to 
 be effected by the new power thus brought into action, which 
 then generally prevailed. The Liverpool and Manchester Rail- 
 way, executed under the greatest discouragements, first demon- 
 strated the possibility of realizing projects which, to the minds of 
 most men, had before appeared chimerical. But even after the 
 success of this experiment, the consequences to society which would 
 result from the adoption of this new means of communication, 
 were seldom correctly appreciated, even by men of the best under- 
 standings ; and, under such circumstances, it is the less to be won- 
 dered at that extensive powers should have been given to railway 
 companies, without the accompaniment of such safeguards as sub- 
 sequent experience has proved to be necessary for the protection 
 of the public. The foreign Governments which profited by our 
 experiment, with one exception, were at first mislead by it into an 
 imitation of our practice; but they soon became aware of the evils 
 that might result to the public from parting in perpetuity with 
 the uncontrolled property in them. Belgium, the configuration 
 of a great part of which, namely, the Western, highly favours the 
 construction of railroads, is the only country of which the Govern- 
 ment from the first laid down a systematic plan respecting its 
 railways, which it afterwards strictly adhered to; that plan em- 
 braced the whole kingdom, and it had exclusively for its object to 
 communicate, at the cheapest possible rate, the benefit of railways 
 equally to every part of the population. The lines in Belgium 
 were till lately begun and completed by the government itself, 
 
161 
 
 through the means of loans ; and it was enabled to fix the fares at 
 an exceedingly low rate. The original system has been so far 
 departed from of late, that several lines of railway have been 
 conceded to private companies, for terms of years, on conditions 
 extremely advantageous to the public ; but none of these roads 
 are yet open to the public. 
 
 France did not proceed so systematically. The first railroads 
 were constructed solely with a view to the conveyance of coals to 
 the places where they were consumed. The success of the Liver- 
 pool and Manchester Line suggested the idea of conveying pas- 
 sengers, and the line from Paris to St. Germain was conceded to 
 companies in 1635, the two roads of Versailles, and that from 
 Montpellier to Cette, in 1836.* Other lines were undertaken by 
 private companies, and some by the Government itself. But at 
 length the inconvenience of numerous undertakings without order, 
 without any common plan or general design, began to be felt, 
 and the Government occupied itself seriously with the formation 
 of a plan in which these means of communication should be 
 created and connected with each other according to a system pre- 
 viously adopted. This system is explained at considerable length 
 in the report of the commission charged with examining the 
 Project de Loi, relating to the establishment of the great lines of 
 railway, presented to the Chamber of Deputies on the 16th April, 
 1842. The first general rule was, that the great lines should all 
 run from Paris in the direction of the frontiers by land and sea ; 
 Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, the Mediterranean, Spain, the 
 Ocean, and the Channel. In these directions, the points of Lille, 
 Strasbourg, Lyons, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Nantes, were to be 
 touched on. The next object, as France was not a vast plain, like 
 Belgium and Prussia, was to select the directest and shortest lines, 
 except where the height of mountains might render it advisable 
 to turn them; and the plan of conceding the lines to private 
 companies on leases was recommended. The law of 1842 is con- 
 sidered the basis of the French system. 
 
 Tn the speech of M. Dumon, in the Chamber of Deputies, on 
 the 31st January, 1846, an account is given of the manner in 
 which the views in the Act of 1842 have been carried into effect. 
 
 In 1842, there were voted 3,481 kilometres of railway. In 
 1844, the number of kilometres of railways to be constructed had 
 increased to 4,250. Hitherto extensive assistance by the State 
 had been granted ; but the successful results of the lines to 
 Orleans and Rouen led to offers by private companies to construct 
 some lines at their own expense, and on these terms the Amiens, 
 Boulogne, Montereau, and Troyes lines were conceded. In the 
 session of 1845-6 additional lines were decided on, making a total 
 of 4,998 kilometres, or about 3,100 English miles. Of the new 
 lines, the Lyons and Lyons and Avignon, were conceded without 
 any State assistance, and the lines of Tours and Nantes, and 
 Strasbourg with assistance, but considerably less than was granted 
 
 * Rapport par M. Dufaure, 1C Avril, 1842. 
 
162 
 
 by the law of 1842. At the present time, the lines in operation 
 extend to 1,000 kilometres, (about 620 miles,) and the whole 
 number of kilometres to which the railways will extend in six 
 years is estimated at nearly 6,000 (about 3,700 miles). 
 
 All the lines of France, with one or two exceptions, before the 
 introduction of this system, are conceded for terms of years vary- 
 ing from 99 to 25. 
 
 In Germany, divided as it is into a number of independent 
 states, the adoption of a systematic plan of railways was attended 
 with greater difficulty. The nature of the country, however, 
 especially of Prussia, for the most part level, suggested the con- 
 struction of them at any early period. The choice of lines was at first 
 the work of chance, but the different Governments soon became 
 convinced of the necessity of regulating by treaties the direction 
 of their lines, and proceeding according to a systematic plan. 
 
 In Austria, Prussia, and the other German States, the construc- 
 tion of lines has generally been conceded to private companies. 
 In Austria the concession is for 50 years, and in Prussia until the 
 capitals of the companies have been extinguished by sinking- 
 funds, with a right of purchase, and revision of tolls and fares. 
 The minor German States generally concede the lines on lease. 
 
 In this country alone were companies allowed the possession of 
 lines in perpetuity, subject to no available conditions. 
 
 That France should have concluded arrangements for the con- 
 struction of her railways on so much better terms than have been 
 obtained in England, cannot fail to strike with astonishment those 
 who reflect on the superiority of this country in wealth, industry, 
 density of population, and number of great towns, and on the 
 readiness which has always been evinced to embark capital in 
 undertakings promising a fair return, while France has no superi- 
 ority over England in the means of construction. But not only 
 were our advantages not turned to clue account by the Govern- 
 ment in the outset, for which some excuse was perhaps to be found 
 in our experience; the opportunity for imposing suitable con- 
 ditions on railway companies was not seized when that excuse no 
 longer existed. 
 
 Year after year companies obtained Acts for the construction of 
 lines through the most important districts of the country, charac- 
 terised by the same disregard for the interest of the public. Com- 
 panies still obtained lines in perpetuity ; the maximums for fares 
 were still fixed at far too high a rate; and the conditions imposed 
 were of so vague a character, and so utterly inapplicable to the 
 subjects which they professed to regulate, that they could hardly 
 ever be enforced or made available to the protection of the public. 
 
 The first material attempt on the part of the Legislature to place 
 the public in a more advantageous position with regard to rail- 
 ways was not a very successful one. The 7 & 8 Viet. c. 85, pro- 
 vides that after a lapse of 21 years, when the dividends shall equal 
 or exceed 10 per cent, the Lords of the Treasury, on giving three 
 months' notice, may revise the scale of tolls, fares, and charges. 
 
163 
 
 The hope of revision held out by this clause, was, however, quite 
 illusory, for no precautions had been taken to settle the principle 
 on which dividends should be calculated. The capitals on which 
 dividends were declared exceeded in many cases by large sums 
 the actual outlay ; and there existed no efficient system of ac- 
 countability by which Parliament could obtain anything like an 
 accurate knowledge of the nett profits of railway companies. By 
 the Companies' Clauses Consolidation Act of 8 Victoria, certain 
 rules were laid down with respect to the augmentation of capital 
 by the creation of new shares: but your committee are given to 
 understand that this Act does not prevent companies from allo- 
 cating shares among the proprietors at par when actually at a 
 premium, in order that they may pocket the premiums. 
 
 It is established by the most satisfactory evidence, that in the 
 case of many companies large additions have been made to the 
 nominal capitals, beyond what has been required by the actual 
 outlay, through the creation of shares, not at the current market 
 price, but at par. To take one of the most common operations of 
 the successful companies, if for instance, shares being at cent, per 
 cent, premium, a million were required for an undertaking, and 
 to raise that million, shares for a million were created in order to 
 enable the proprietors to divide among themselves another million 
 in the shape of premiums, it is clear that the nominal capital 
 exceeds by 500,000/. that of which the actual outlay required the 
 creation ; and, consequently, that a dividend is made on a sum 
 exceeding by so much that outlay. In this way the object of 
 Parliament, in subjecting companies to a revision of fares when 
 the dividends should equal or exceed 10 per cent, could always 
 be defeated. Mr. Hudson, a member of your committee, specified 
 several instances, in companies with which he was connected, 
 where large additions were made to the nominal capitals by these 
 and other means. For instance, he states that by an arrangement 
 between the Great Northern and the Great North of England 
 Railway, it was stipulated that the latter should receive 10 per 
 cent, on every 50/. share till 1851, when they had a claim to be 
 paid off in four per cent, stock at 250/. a share; thus creating a 
 new nominal capital of 250/. for every 50/. He states also that, 
 to meet a purchase by the Newcastle and Darlington Company, 
 new 25/. shares were issued to the proprietors at par, when ihey 
 were at a premium of 201. It is obvious that the money required 
 could have been obtained by a much smaller issue of shares, had 
 the 20/. premiums, as well as the 251. shares, been applied to the 
 purposes of the company, and not divided as a bonus among the 
 proprietors. 
 
 This practice of swelling the nominal amount of stocks beyond 
 the actual outlay on the lines, which has extensively prevailed, 
 was recently noticed in Reports presented by Mr. Ellice from the 
 Select Committee on Group (58) of Railway Bills, in which it is 
 stated that in the Hull and Selby Purchase Bill the actual outlay 
 and estimates for further works is 955,3t : 3f., while the money to 
 
 M 2 
 
164 
 
 be raised by the Bill is two millions, exceeding the outlay and 
 engagements of the Hull and $elby proprietors by the large sum 
 of nearly a million, and that in the Great North of England Rail- 
 way Purchase Bill, the actual outlay and estimate for additional 
 works is 1,496,796/. 18*.4(/., the proposed capital 4,000,000/., ex- 
 ceeding the actual outlay and engagements of the Great North of 
 England proprietors by the sum of 2,503,003/. Is. Sd. The com- 
 mittee in question add the observation that, in their opinion, " It 
 would be greatly for the public interest that some fixed and uniform 
 rules should be clearly laid down by the House for the guidance 
 of their committees with respect to the whole system of raising 
 capital, loans, the conversion of loans into capital, the payment of 
 rents and profits on separate lines and branches, not from the 
 actual traffic on such separate branches and lines, but from the 
 surplus receipts of old companies, in all cases where new powers 
 for raising money are applied for, of Extension, Purchase, or 
 Amalgamation Bills.'' These illustrations of a system extensively 
 prevalent, which are taken from numerous instances brought before 
 the notice of your committee, are sufficient to prove that so long 
 as it is suffered to continue, the intentions of Parliament in passing 
 the 7 & 8 Viet, must be defeated. 
 
 This practice, of issuing new shares to the present shareholders 
 at par, has not been allowed in any other country. Mr. AVilliam 
 Reed, a director of the Paris and Rouen Railway, states, that when 
 the exigencies of the company rendered it necessary for them to 
 raise money, they applied to the Government to be allowed to 
 issue to the then shareholders new shares at par, in the proportion 
 of one new share for every five shares they held. This application 
 was rejected by the Ministry, and they borrowed the money re- 
 quired, for which no authorisation was necessary. The French 
 Government contended that the rights of the future proprietor 
 would be compromised by the issue of shares at par when at a 
 premium ; but it has been maintained by some of the railroad pro- 
 prietors in this country, that it ^is immaterial whether the money 
 required by companies be raised by the creation of new stock or 
 by loans ; and whether the shareholders receive increased divi- 
 dends on smaller capitals, or smaller dividends on larger capitals. 
 But if the rate of dividend is to determine whether the scales of 
 fares shall be subjected to revision by the Government on behalf 
 of the public, it is of the very first consequence that the capitals 
 should correspond with the original outlay. It may be the same 
 thing to proprietors whether they pocket large bonuses, and in- 
 crease their capitals by sums exceeding the money laid out on the 
 roads by the amount of such bonuses, and receive proportionately 
 smaller dividends; but it is a very different thing to the public, if 
 the scales of fares are to be governed by the rate of dividend, 
 whether they pay high fares or low fares. 
 
 But by another section of this Act, the second, the Lords of the 
 Treasury are empowered, after the expiration of 25 years, to pur- 
 chase the railways, whatever the rate of divisible profits may be, 
 
165 
 
 upon giving three calendar months' notice in writing of their in- 
 tention, on payment of a sum equal to 25 years' purchase of their 
 profits, estimated on the average of the three preceding years. 
 
 This power to purchase on such extravagant terms, and under 
 such limitations, held out small hopes of relief; so that, upon the 
 whole, the position of the public with regard to railways, was not 
 thereby materially improved. 
 
 Whilst your committee thus express their regret that the public 
 interests were so little consulted in the arrangements with railways 
 for so long a period, they have seen with satisfaction the com- 
 mencement of a better system. In consequence of Sessional Orders 
 of the House, both in this and the previous session, clauses have 
 been introduced into all Acts relative to railways, either for the 
 construction of new lines, or the extension of old lines by branches, 
 reserving the power, whenever it should be deemed necessary, to 
 revise and regulate the scales of fares and charges ; and as nearly 
 all the great companies have either obtained or applied for Acts 
 for the construction of branch lines, and the extension of old lines, 
 they have thereby enabled Parliament to place them under such 
 control or supervision as it may be deemed expedient to adopt; 
 and thus the hope may at length be entertained, that means for 
 securing the public against oppressive and extravagant charges 
 will yet be adopted. 
 
 Your committee wish here to dwell a little on the immense im- 
 portance to the community of a judicious system of railways, both 
 with reference to the selection of lines, and the rates at which the 
 fares and charges are fixed. It is hardly possible, indeed, to ex- 
 aggerate the importance of a railway, not only to the great cities 
 which are connected by it, but to the districts through which it 
 runs. It has been generally assumed that railways are better 
 suited for the seats of commerce and manufacturing industry than 
 for agricultural districts ; but a highly respectable and intelligent 
 witness, Mr. Samuel Morton Peto, who has had considerable expe- 
 rience in the construction of railways in manufacturing districts, 
 and is deeply interested in the Norfolk lines as a proprietor, states, 
 as the result of his experience, that " the people in manufacturing 
 districts do not travel anything like so much as an agricultural 
 population;" and that, " he would rather, if he could get a mode- 
 rately-priced line, have it in an agricultural district than in a 
 manufacturing district, as far as the population of the district is 
 concerned.'' Mr. Peto adds, that the experience of Belgium fur- 
 nishes a striking corroboration of the soundness of these views, as 
 it has been proved by the Report of M. Desart, in whose hands 
 the Belgian Government placed the whole of its railway statistics, 
 that in a given population, the traffic of the small towns and 
 villages along a line is proportionately greater than the traffic 
 between two large cities at the termini. New branches of industry 
 are everywhere called into existence by the facility and cheapness 
 of communication afforded by railways ; and land previously oi 
 little or no value, is at once made productive by cheap access to 
 
166 
 
 materials by which the soil may be improved, and to markets for 
 disposing of its produce. On the subject of this revolution in the 
 value of land, some important evidence is given by Mr. Miller, 
 and by Mr. Smith, of Deanston. Mr. Miller states that manufac- 
 tories of sulphuric acid, extensively used for agricultural purposes, 
 have been established in suitable situations by the sides of rail- 
 ways in several districts of Scotland, and that manures are con- 
 veyed on them at charges lower than the mere tolls on turnpike 
 roads. Mr. Smith states that upon those lines which have been 
 in existence for some years, over which he has had occasion to 
 travel, a very great agricultural improvement has taken place, 
 chiefly in consequence of the cheapness and facility of transport ; 
 and by way of illustrating the amount of the benefit, he takes a 
 farm of 200 acres on a six-course shift with 15 miles of transport, 
 and shows that by the old mode the charges of carriage would 
 amount to 1421. 6s. 3d., while by railway it would be only 
 40/. 8s. 9d. Mr. Smith states also that land along the Glasgow 
 and Edinburgh Railway, previously not worth 5s. an acre, is now 
 worth between 30s. and 40s. By way of illustrating the benefit of 
 railroads, when the charges are sufficiently low, this intelligent 
 witness further states, that " a low rate would very greatly tend 
 to the increased consumption of manures, and to the transport of 
 earths for agricultural purposes; that this would give a much in- 
 creased produce to the land, which would enable the agriculturist 
 to furnish his commodity at a lower rate ; that this cheapness 
 again would increase the consumption in large towns; and in ma- 
 nufacturing populations it would also create a greater traffic upon 
 the railways, and enable them still further to reduce their rates; 
 and as the heavier articles are more consumed by the working 
 classes, it would add very much to their comfort; arid there are 
 great tracts of country which could be cultivated to much advan- 
 tage, if favoured by railway communication, which are now allowed 
 to lie comparatively barren." 
 
 With regard to these views of Mr. Smith, as to the important 
 change which railways might effect in agriculture, by the trans- 
 portation of manure and earths, your committee conceive that as 
 the fertility of soils depends on the proportion which certain earths 
 bear to each other in their composition, it is merely a question 
 whether by any mode of transport the proportions of earths can 
 be so varied as to create fertility at an expense which would be 
 remunerative. It has been demonstrated by an intelligent gen- 
 tleman, who has devoted much attention to this subject, that the 
 cost of conveyance diminishes with every increase of quantity. 
 Taking fixed sums for the interest on the capital and working the 
 railway, the charge (which with a traffic of 20,000 tons would only 
 be remunerative at 10|./. a mile) with a traffic of 1,000,000 tons, 
 would be remunerative at about a halfpenny a mile. It is impos- 
 sible, therefore, to over-estimate the importance of this new 
 instrument placed at the command of the agriculturist. 
 
 Cheapness of fares may thus create a traffic which otherwise 
 
167 
 
 could not possibly exist. It is therefore of the utmost importance 
 to determine whether fares should be fixed according to a scale 
 which, while it remunerates the railway, would allow of the exist- 
 ence of a valuable traffic, or according to a scale which would 
 prevent it. These considerations ought not to be lost sight of, in 
 determining how railways may be made most conducive to the 
 public benefit. The object to be effected by railways ought to be, 
 the affording, at the least expense, the utmost facility of com- 
 munication between different localities, and the utmost develope- 
 ment of the national resources. This object, which hitherto has 
 been little attended to in this country, where the interests of the 
 public have too often been sacrificed to the supposed interests of 
 railway companies, was much better understood by the Belgian 
 
 fovernment. Having determined to carry lines through the 
 ingdom, on a principle which should impart to every locality the 
 benefit of this improved means of communication, they saw that 
 the railways themselves would aid them in giving effect to their 
 intentions. The excess of receipts beyond the expenditure on 
 some lines, instead of being transferred, as in this country, to the 
 pockets of individuals, was applied towards the construction of 
 other lines through districts less advantageously circumstanced. 
 The Belgian government traced a general plan of railways em- 
 bracing as a network the whole country. The state lines were 
 commenced on the 5th May, 1835, and completed in October, 1843. 
 The fares for passengers, extremely low from the first, have been 
 occasionally reduced when increase of traffic enabled the govern- 
 ment to make the reduction. 
 
 In Prussia a comprehensive system of lines, embracing the whole 
 kingdom as with a network, and extending to upwards of 3,200 
 English miles, was traced several years ago. Of these lines nearly 
 700 miles are completed; about the same number of miles are in 
 the course of construction ; upwards of 800 miles finally adopted, 
 and upwards of 900 remain merely as projects. Though the un- 
 dertakings were committed to private companies, the necessity 
 of government interference was soon felt. The fundamental law 
 of the Prussian Government respecting railways is dated 3d 
 November, 1838. Three years are allowed to companies to fix 
 definitely, from experience, what rates ought to be charged ; but 
 the tariff, at the commencement, and in case of an increase of 
 fares, six weeks before the alteration, must be communicated to 
 the Government. At the end of three years the companies are 
 to receive a concession of the fares and charges in the tariff agreed 
 on between them and the ministry. In fixing the tariffs, the rates 
 are in no case to exceed what corresponds with the receipts, after 
 deducting the expense of maintaining and working the lines, &c., 
 and a dividend in no case higher than 10 per cent., or lower 
 than 6 per cent. The fares to be subject to revision after 
 periods of not less than three years, and not exceeding 10 
 years; but the companies, though they cannot increase, may 
 diminish the prescribed rates; and exact accounts of everv- 
 
168 
 
 thing relating to the concerns must be submitted yearly to the 
 ministry. A sinking-fund, corresponding with the capitals to 
 be fixed after the second Prussian railway has been opened 
 three years, and the necessary experience has been obtained, to 
 be applied in extinction of the capitals; and the tolls, on the 
 completion of the extinction, not to exceed the expense of main- 
 taining and working the lines. The post and its servants to be 
 conveyed free. Lines may be purchased after 30 years, at 25 
 years of the net profits, on an average of the five preceding 
 years. 
 
 In this country no comprehensive system has ever been traced. 
 The lines promising the most ample returns were, as a matter of 
 course, first selected by companies ; but the best mode of com- 
 municating the benefit of railways to the kingdom, considered as 
 a whole, was only incidentally, considered by committees in de- 
 ciding between rival projects. The committee of the Board of 
 Trade, in some of its reports, first attempted to lay down princi- 
 ples more worthy of the legislature of a great country, by which it 
 should be governed in regard to its railways. 
 
 Your committee conceive that the advantages of system in 
 determining on railways are sufficiently obvious. The best system 
 is that which, at the least expense, and with the least sacrifice 
 of soil, afford the greatest facilities to intercourse, and the greatest 
 encouragement to industry. By selecting an injudicious line the 
 capital of the country may be unnecessarily wasted, and the 
 population of a district may not derive ail the benefit from it to 
 which they are entitled. By constructing two lines where one 
 would suffice, there is not only an unnecessary outlay of capital, 
 but a waste of that portion of our territory. Besides, as the cost 
 of conveyance diminishes with every increase of traffic, competing 
 lines, by dividing the traffic add to the cost of conveyance on 
 the separate lines. In private concerns, no sensible man employs 
 more mechanical power than he conceives necessary for his pur- 
 pose; but it is now almost universally admitted that not a few of 
 our lines have been injudiciously traced, both with reference to 
 expenditure of capital and local accommodation ; and that, in the 
 fruitless hope of competition, rival lines have been sanctioned 
 where they were not wanted. But the sanction by parliament of 
 injudicious and unnecessary lines is not the only evil. The mere 
 entertainment of wild schemes, which may never go further than 
 committees of the House of Commons, keeps owners of property 
 in a constant state of alarm, and often subjects them to much 
 trouble and expense in watching and resisting them. It is stated 
 by several of the witnesses as matter of notoriety that more than 
 half the schemes lately brought forward, and which occupied 
 the time of Parliament, were utterly uncalled for. Mr. Robert 
 Stephenson, by way of illustrating the inconvenience of the pre- 
 sent system, stated in his evidence that he could ' quote a case at 
 Wisbeach, where, within half a mile of that town, there were 
 actually fourteen different schemes, intersecting the land in every 
 
169 
 
 possible direction, hedges cut down, and crops interfered with. 
 Now, all the legal expenses and the expenses of engineers and 
 surveyors have been thrown away, because only one act has been 
 obtained. When they come before Parliament it is impossible to 
 convey to the members of this committee a correct notion of the 
 difficulties which the committee must have to wade through in 
 coming to anything like a true decision." 
 
 It is stated by Mr. Peto that many lines have been very in- 
 judiciously laid out; and he gives, among other instances, the 
 Trent Valley line, promoted and purchased by the London and 
 Birmingham, in order to get the most direct course to Manchester; 
 and the lines of the South-Eastern Company, who are obliged to 
 incur great expense in constructing the Mid-Kent line, to remedy 
 the defects of that first adopted. 
 
 Economy in theoutlay of capital, and in the application of thesur- 
 face of the country to its railways, ought always to be aimed at. In 
 the opinion of nearly all the witnesses practically acquainted with 
 railway affairs examined by your committee the public, can never 
 benefit by the competition of companies. Mr. Robert Stephenson, 
 when asked whether the lowering the fares might not be influenced 
 by competing lines and competing canals, gave this decided 
 answer: " I have had so many cases of that kind brought before 
 me, that I have come to the conclusion, that wherever combination 
 is practicable, competition is impracticable. Therefore I say, let 
 the Government be as stringent as they like with existing com- 
 panies, but never excite competition ; because by exciting com- 
 petition, you increase the capital invested for giving the same 
 convenience which would be otherwise obtained with less capital." 
 
 Your committee find, in the second report of the select commit- 
 tee appointed this session to consider the principle of amalgama- 
 tion, as applied to the railway and canal bills under the considera- 
 tion of Parliament, and in the report of a select committee of the 
 House of Lords, also appointed this session, to take into considera- 
 tion the best means of enforcing one uniform system of manage- 
 ment on railroads in operation or to be constructed, abundant 
 confirmation of their views as to the hopelessness of looking to 
 competition for the means of securing the public interests. The 
 more powerful companies have, it appears, not only succeeded to 
 a great extent in obtaining the control of railway lines, from 
 which competition might be apprehended, but also succeeded, by 
 various means, in obtaining a control over the canals, which, for 
 a time, maintained a competition with them in the carriage of 
 heavy goods, and have thus deprived the public of all the protec- 
 tion at one time anticipated from this source. It would appear 
 from evidence received by your committee, that railways may also 
 be expected to encroach materially on the coasting trade of the 
 country. Mr. Peto states, that a great deal of the produce of 
 Suffolk and Norfolk, which hitherto has been carried by coasting 
 vessels, is now conveyed to town by railways; and that much more 
 
170 
 
 will, no doubt, be carried hereafter. Norfolk and Suffolk are 
 great counties for malt, much of which, formerly carried by 
 coasters, now reaches town by railway, cheaper and more rapidly 
 than by water; and Mr. Peto states also that as rates will be still 
 further reduced with increase of traffic, they must take away more 
 and more of the coasting trade; and that the only reason why 
 more produce is not now carried, is the inability to procure at 
 once the requisite number of engines. 
 
 Your committee therefore conceive that experience warrants 
 them in viewing railways in the light of monopolies. As expecta- 
 tions of relief from competition cannot possibly be realized, they 
 ought not to be longer entertained. But the very circumstance of 
 railways being monopolies only renders it the more necessary 
 to subject them to proper regulation. The past cannot, of course, 
 be remedied, but the future is more in our power, and an en- 
 deavour should be made to discover the best means of securing to 
 the community all the advantages which, under a proper system, 
 may be derived from railways. 
 
 A monopoly, from its very nature, can only be exercised with 
 safety to the community under effective control. One of the 
 abuses of railway management, from which the public have most 
 suffered in this country, is the fixing the fares and charges at too 
 high rates. By extravagant charges, in some cases imposed with 
 the highly objectionable view of limiting the benefit of railways 
 to particular classes, in others, with the view of driving certain 
 descriptions of animals and produce from the lines, the railway 
 companies were long open to severe animadversion. A feature 
 in the English practice, which very early attracted the notice of 
 foreigners, and is severely censured in continental publications 
 on railways, was the absence for a long time of third and fourth 
 classes on nearly all our lines. And even after third-class car- 
 riages were supplied, they were for the most part so constructed 
 as to affect health, and did not proceed with the usual trains, but 
 were dragged at a pace which seemed chosen to disgust those who 
 took places in them. In short, it appeared as if it had been de- 
 termined to exclude the great body of the nation, unable of course 
 to pay first and second class fares, from the benefit communicated 
 to the more wealthy orders. When the Belgian minister pro- 
 posed his last tariff, he introduced a modification of the third 
 class fares, with the express intention of encouraging third class 
 passengers and inducing them to travel, by which he expected to 
 swell the treasury receipts. The offensive conduct of English 
 directors betrayed, no doubt, an ignorance of their true interests ; 
 but that forms no valid excuse for them. 
 
 Many intelligent persons who saw how much better the conve- 
 nience of the public and the encouragement of industry was 
 secured abroad than in this country, where at one time fares, 
 according to Mr. Laing, ranged 80 per cent, higher than on the 
 continent, were in serious apprehensions for our trade and com- 
 
171 
 
 merce, from the disadvantages to which they were thus exposed. 
 Your Committee perceive with satisfaction that this evil has of 
 late considerably abated. Several of the railway companies, of 
 their own accord, under the influence of public opinion, and more 
 correct views of their interests, have lowered their scales of fares 
 and charges. It is admitted by most of the witnesses connected 
 with railways, examined by your committee, that in keeping the 
 scales extravagantly high, and in excluding the mass of the peo- 
 ple from the benefit of railway conveyance, the companies took a 
 most erroneous view of their own interest ; and with hardly an 
 exception it has been found that every reduction of fares has been 
 attended with an increase of revenue. Mr. Creed states that the 
 difference between the prices charged originally on the Birming- 
 ham Railway and the present prices is exactly one-third. The 
 reductions on the first class in the half-year ending 30th June 
 1844, were 17| per cent., and they caused an increase of passen- 
 gers of 19| per cent. ; on the second class the reduction in the 
 fares was 26f per cent., and the increase in the number of pas- 
 sengers 61 3 per cent.; on the third class the reduction in the 
 fares was 33^ per cent., and the increase in the number of pas- 
 sengers 259 per cent. ; and the reductions have in most cases 
 increased the revenue of the company. But were there to have 
 been no immediate increase of the revenue, still a regard to the 
 welfare and convenience of the community, which ought to be the 
 object of all legislation, would have demanded the reduction. 
 
 Your committee wish to observe, in passing, that they regret 
 to perceive in the evidence of this witness an attempt to justify the 
 limitation of carriages for third-class passengers to four out of six- 
 teen trains, not on sound commercial principles, but by the state- 
 ment that if there were third-class passengers with each train it would 
 be considered objectionable to the other passengers ; and he refers in 
 confirmation to what had taken place on the North Midland line. 
 
 Your committee cannot understand how third-class passengers 
 in separate carriages can interfere with the convenience of first- 
 class passengers, where due provision is made for the preservation 
 of order at stations. In Belgium, France, and Germany, carriages 
 for all classes proceed with every train ; and it appears from the 
 evidence of Mr. M'Gregor, the chairman of the South-Eastern 
 Company, that on their lines the conduct of the third-class pas- 
 sengers has been uniformly inoffensive, and that first-class pas- 
 sengers have never objected to travel in the same trains with 
 them. The fares of the Sooth-Eastern Company have experienced 
 a greater reduction than those on the Birmingham line. The 
 fares by the express train are 2-f^rf. per mile, and day tickets, 
 l^d. per mile ; by the ordinary trains, for the first class, 2-Qod., 
 and day ticket \ffid. per mile; for the second class l-36c/., and 
 day ticket, 1-02</. ; for the third class, -^jths of a penny, and day 
 ticket, -n^ths of a penny. On the Scotch lines the fares from the 
 first have been generally lower than on any of the English lines. 
 On the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, Mr. Miller states that 
 
172 
 
 several trains a day are run, on which fourth -class passengers pay 
 about f d. a mile, and third-class passengers, Id. ; and he thinks 
 that still lower fares would be more profitable in many districts. 
 The fares for third-class passengers on the Glasgow and 
 Greenock line are so low as a %d. a mile. According to Mr. Peto, 
 the charges on the Norfolk lines are very low. " We have," he 
 says, " paid great attention to the fares there. It was a subject 
 of deliberation before we fixed them, and we decided that the 
 lowest scale of fares, lower, in fact, than upon any other line, would 
 be that which would bring us the largest amount of profit ; that 
 it would bring the greatest number of people, and therefore would 
 be the most beneficial to ourselves." The third-class passengers 
 pay much less on the Norwich and Brandon line than Id. per 
 mile ; from Norwich to Yarmouth, 22 miles, only Is. 6d. 
 
 Notwithstanding the reductions on several of our lines, the 
 fares are almost always higher, and in some cases considerably so, 
 than on the Belgian lines. On the state lines the first-class fares, 
 which from 1835 to 1838 were \-T3d. per mile, were on the 3d 
 February, 1839, raised to l'37d. per mile ; on the 10th April, 
 1841, lowered to l"29d. per mile; on the 17th August, 1841, still 
 further lowered to \-22d. per mile, at which they remain by the 
 existing tariff. The second-class fares were successively, at the 
 above periods, O80</, O90d., Q'SQd. 0'90</., and Q'\)3d. ; the third- 
 class (ares, O40rf. 0'64rf, O48</. 0'-55d. and 0'6Sd. It will be seen 
 that by the existing tariff first-class passengers are carried for 
 something more than Id. a mile ; second-class passengers for con- 
 siderably less than Id. ; and third-class passengers for little more 
 than a halfpenny a mile. The last tariff laid before the Chambers 
 by the Belgian minister made a reduction of 10 per cent, for third- 
 class passengers, for all distances short of 25 kilometres, (15^ 
 miles,) in order, he said, to attract travellers for short distances, to 
 favour the working population, and, at the same time, increase 
 the treasury receipts. 
 
 It is more difficult to institute any satisfactory comparison be- 
 tween the charges for goods in Belgium and England, from the 
 difference in the mode of rating. In Belgium a distinction is 
 made with respect to coal and pig-iron when destined for exporta- 
 tion, and when destined for home consumption. In the former case 
 the charge is ['27 d. per ton per mile; in the latter it is charged 
 like other heavy goods, l-6id. per ton. The charges on twelve 
 English railways for iron and coal have been averaged at some- 
 what less than 2^d. a mile, ranging from \d.to6d. On the Hull and 
 Selby line the maximum for coals and coke carried 30 miles and 
 upwards is Id. per ton per mile ; for 20 miles and less than 30 
 miles, \\d. per ton per mile; for less than 20 miles, Ifrf. In the 
 Great North of England Purchase Bill the maximum for iron for 
 40 miles and upwards is l^d. per ton per mile ; for less than 40 
 miles 2d. per ton per mile; for coals upwards of 40 miles, Id. per 
 ton per mile; less than 40, but upwards of 30, IJrf. per ton per 
 mile ; for 20 miles, but less than 30, \{d. per ton per mile ; for 
 
173 
 
 10 miles and less than 20, \%d per ton per mile; for less than 10 
 mles, 2d. These maximum charges are, according to the dis- 
 tance, higher or lower than the Belgian charges. In Belgium the 
 charge for a horse on all the lines is 6'44</. ; on the Hull and 
 Selby line the maximum is 5d. per mile; in the Great North of 
 England Purchase Bill, 5d. per mile. In Belgium on all the lines 
 the charge for five or six oxen, or one waggon of small cattle, is 
 7'25d. ; for three or four oxen, five to ten pigs or calves, or eleven 
 to twenty sheep, it is 6*44</. ; for one or two oxen, or one to five 
 pigs or calves, or one to ten sheep, it is 4*83</. per mile. On the 
 two last-mentioned English lines the maximum for horses and 
 other beasts of draught or burden, if conveyed more than 15 
 miles, 5d. per mile ; for less than 15 miles, 6s. the whole dis- 
 tance ; for neat cattle, if more than 15 miles, 3d. per head per 
 mile; if one, at 2rf. per mile; if more than one, if conveyed 15 
 miles only or less, 2s. for the whole distance. 
 
 These last instances are taken from one of the latest bills, and 
 are much lower than the average rates in this country ; but, as 
 has been stated, not only is there the utmost diversity in the 
 charges on different lines, but also in the classification and mode 
 of charging, so that it is almost impossible, in goods traffic, to 
 institute a comparison either between the charges of different 
 companies, or between the charges of any one company and those 
 in foreign countries. 
 
 In Belgium the charges for the carriage of goods are, it is un- 
 derstood, in many cases, below the water-carriage rates ; and it is 
 stated, in the Compte Rendu by the Minister of Public Works of 
 the service of the year 1844, that the goods traffic of 1844 was 
 about 52,000 tons, while it was only 33,000 tons in 1843, and that 
 it was to the goods and cattle traffic that the very remarkable in- 
 crease of the revenue for that year, which exceeded the estimates 
 by 630,000 francs, had been chiefly owing. The increase of the 
 passenger traffic of 1844 above that of 1843 was nine per cent., 
 while the increase on horses was 26 per cent., on cattle 47 per 
 cent., on sheep, &c. 16 per cent., and on heavy goods 56 per cent. 
 It is principally, therefore, to the carriage of heavy goods, which 
 was scarcely thought of a few years ago, that the very considerable 
 increase in the revenue is due. 
 
 The Belgian Government would seem anxious to obtain the 
 goods traffic ; for it is stated in this Compte Rendu, that it is to the 
 extension of it that the State must look for any fresh increase in 
 the net profits of its railways. It has been observed, however, 
 that the railways do not yet maintain a very successful competition 
 with the canals ; for while in 1844 the goods carried by railway 
 amounted only to 52,000 tons, those carried by canals amounted 
 for that year to 400,000 tons. The canal traffic of 1845 still 
 showed an increase, and the freights exceeded those of 1844 by 
 18,954/. It has been inferred that the Belgian Government have 
 not yet sufficiently lowered their charges for heavy goods. 
 
174 
 
 In France, by the law of 1845, the fares and charges are in pence 
 and decimals : 
 
 d. 
 
 Passengers, per head per mile. First class . 1-66 
 
 Second . 1-25 
 
 Third ditto . 0*92 
 
 Cattle, per head per mile. Bullocks, &c. . 1'66 
 
 Calves, &c. . . 0-66 
 
 Sheep, &c. . . 0-34 
 
 Fish, per ton per mile 8-37 
 
 Goods, per ton per mile. First class . . . 3*03 
 
 Second ditto . . 2'69 
 
 Third ditto . . 2-35 
 
 And 1-67 
 
 Carriages, per mile. Single bodied . . . 4'18 
 
 Double ditto .... 5*37 
 
 The French charges are about 20 per cent, higher than the 
 Belgian for passengers, and considerably more so for cattle and 
 goods. 
 
 The fares on the lines of Austria and Prussia, and the States of 
 the German Confederation, are, in some cases, even lower than 
 those of Belgium. On the lines of Austria and Baden, which 
 were executed by the State, they are the lowest. On the Austrian 
 lines of Budweis and Linz the fares are only three silver groschen 
 per German mile, or 73d. per English mile, for second-class 
 passengers; and two silver groschen per German mile, or 0'40d. 
 per English mile, for third-class passengers. In Prussia the fares 
 differ very little from those of Belgium. On the Berlin and 
 Potsdam line, for instance, the fares for first-class passengers are 
 l'4d. per English mile; for second-class passengers l'06d. per 
 English mile; for third-class passengers 0'6rf. per mile. On the 
 Berlin and Anhalt road the fares for first-class passengers are l'47d. 
 per English mile; for second-class passengers Q,9Sd. per mile; 
 for third-class passengers 0-Qld. per mile. 
 
 The following comparison is instituted in the Rapport on the 
 Prqjet de Loi on the Northern line, to the Chamber of Deputies 
 in France, in 1845, between the passenger fares in England, 
 France, Germany, and Belgium, in centimes per kilometre, in 
 1844: 
 
 First Class. Second Class. Third Class. 
 England ... 19 12 7| 
 
 France . . . 10* 7J 5& 
 
 Germany ... 9 6| 4 
 
 Belgium . . . 7J 5| 3 
 
 These rates may still be near the truth with respect to France, 
 Germany, and Belgium, but they are no longer applicable to 
 England, where considerable reductions have taken place on most 
 
175 
 
 of the lines. But though the difference between English and 
 foreign fares and charges is not so great as it formerly was, it is 
 still sufficient to constitute a strong reason for control and inter- 
 ference; the fares on nearly all the lines are still too high, and 
 evidence has been given that railway companies, when they have 
 driven rivals out of the field, have not hesitated to raise their 
 charges, especially for the conveyance of goods, on principles not 
 perhaps strictly in accordance with their own true interests, but 
 slill less in accordance with those of the public. Your committee 
 conceive this is far too important a matter to be left to the arbitrary 
 will of companies. 
 
 The greater cheapness of coal and coke in this country enables 
 companies to convey heavy goods by railway at a much lower 
 rate than continental railways can possibly do; and the ability to 
 lower fares increases in the ratio of the amount of goods carried. 
 A line with a traffic of 750,000 tons per annum, could carry goods 
 with as much profit at Id. per ton per mile as the Paris and 
 Orleans line with a traffic of 150,000 tons at 3d. per ton per mile. 
 
 The maximum rates fixed by Parliament in the different Acts 
 are in all cases above, and in some greatly above, what ought to 
 be taken from the public; and thus, were no other check inter- 
 posed, the community would be entirely at the mercy of the com- 
 panies. Besides, as has been already observed, there is at present 
 the greatest diversity both in the scale and the mode of charging 
 on different lines. For these high fares no justification can be 
 found, either in the original outlay on the lines or the expense of 
 maintaining and working them. Mr. Reed, intimately acquainted 
 with the working of English and French lines, who is confirmed 
 by Mr. Brassey, extensively employed as a contractor in the two 
 countries, states that the cost of earthwork is much the same in 
 England and in France ; that the rails and chairs, which on the 
 Southampton line cost 2,790/. per mile, cost 4,635/. per mile on 
 the Paris and Rouen line; that the working of the former line 
 costs about 1.9. a mile, while it is about Is. 4d. on the Paris and 
 Rouen line ; that the locomotive power and the carriages cost 
 about 14| per cent- on the former and 16| on the latter ; that the 
 general expenses, including officers, police, &c., are about 12 per 
 cent, on the South Western, and about Ifi per cent, on the Paris 
 and Rouen ; so that in all these respects England, it would ap- 
 pear, has a considerable advantage over France. On some of the 
 English lines the balance of advantage is still more in favour of 
 England. 
 
 The cost of construction of the Belgian State lines appears to 
 have been very unequal. According to the Report of the Minister 
 of Public Works, the three cheapest State lines were those from 
 Ghent to Courtray, from Ghent to Bruges, and from Landen to 
 St. Trond. The line from Ghent to Courtray cost per mile 6,6^0/. ; 
 from Ghent to Bruges, 7,675/. ; from Landen to St. Trond, 8,990J. 
 The three dearest State lines were those from Louvain to Tirle- 
 mont, from Liege to the Prussian frontiers, and from Ans to Liege. 
 
176 
 
 The line from Louvain to Tirlemont cost per mile 19,957/. ; from 
 Liege to the Prussian frontiers, 40,797/. ; from Ans to Liege, 
 62,325/. The average cost of the State lines was 17,132/. per mile. 
 The items of this average cost are per mile, lands and compensa- 
 tion, 2,9I9/. ; earthwork, bridges, tunnels, &c., 7,163/. ; rails, &c., 
 3,1467. ; stations and buildings, 1,153/.; working stock, 2,20 1/. ; 
 miscellaneous, 5507. 
 
 The following is the cost of some of the French lines executed 
 and in the course of construction : 
 
 The Paris and Orleans 
 The Paris and Rouen 
 The Strasbourg and Basle 
 The Amiens and Boulogne 
 The Rouen and Havre 
 The Avignon and Marseilles 
 The Orleans and Bordeaux 
 The Centre . . 
 The North, with Calais Branch 
 The Paris and Lyons 
 
 The Lyons and Avignon, with Branch to 
 Grenoble 
 
 per 
 
 mile 
 
 24,390 
 23,754 
 
 18,485 
 20,000 
 28,300 
 28,600 
 20,830 
 18,050 
 19,900 
 24,840 
 
 25,800 
 
 The Austrian line from Olmutz to Prague, 152 English miles, 
 cost 11,657/. per mile; that from Briinn to Bohmisch-Trubau, 
 55 English miles, cost 16,3607. per mile. 
 
 The cost of construction of the Prussian lines appears to have 
 been generally lower than that of the Belgian lines. According 
 to the elaborate work of Baron von Reden, the cost of the Berlin 
 and Potsdam line was 12,323/. ; of the Magdeburg and Leipsic 
 was 10,179/. ; but the Rhenish line from Cologne to the Belgian 
 frontiers was to cost 28,3347. per English mile. This last line, 
 though lower than most of the English lines, is higher than that 
 between Edinburgh and Glasgow by a trifle, and considerably 
 higher than most of the Scotch lines. Mr. Legoyt, a respectable 
 authority, estimates the average cost of the German lines at 170,000 
 franks per kilometre, or 1 0,940/. per English mile. The Prussian 
 and other German lines pay less for land and law charges than the 
 English lines. 
 
 The following is the cost per mile of some of the principal 
 lines in this country : 
 
 Average cost per mile. 
 
 Arbroath and Forfar 9,214 
 
 Chester and Birkenhead 34,198 
 
 Dublin and Drogheda 15,652 
 
 Dublin and Kingstown 59,122 
 
 Dundee and Arbroath ..... 8,570 
 
 Durham and Sunderland ..... 14,281 
 
 Edinburgh and Glasgow . . . 35,024 
 
177 
 
 Average Cost per Mile. 
 
 Eastern Counties and North-Eastern . 46,355 
 
 Glasgow, Kilmarnock, and Ayr . . . 20,607 
 
 Glasgow and Greenock ..... 35,451 
 
 Gravesend and Rochester 13,333 
 
 Great Western 43,885 
 
 Hartlepool . 26,660 
 
 London and Birmingham . . . . 38,406 
 
 London and Blackwall 287,678 
 
 London and Brighton ..... 56,981 
 
 London and Croydon ..... 80,400 
 
 London and South-Western . ... 28,004 
 
 Manchester, Bolton, and Bury .... 70,000 
 
 Manchester and Birmingham . . . 61,624 
 
 Manchester and Leeds ..... 64,582 
 
 Midland 30,949 
 
 Newcastle, Darlington, and Brandling . . 22,992 
 
 Newcastle and Carlisle . . . . . 17,837 
 
 Newcastle and North Shields .... 44,233 
 
 Norfolk 13,150 
 
 North Union and Bolton and Preston . . 27,799 
 
 Preston and Wyre 22,26 1 
 
 Sheffield and Manchester 48,543 
 
 South-Eastern 44,412 
 
 TafT Vale 21,610 
 
 Ulster 14,334 
 
 York and North Midland, &c. . . 25,924 
 
 The extravagant expenditure in England in buying off powerful 
 landowners, from whom opposition was anticipated, and in the 
 proceedings before obtaining Acts, no doubt swelled very much 
 the outlay on many of the English lines. In the mere purchase 
 of land the outlay was often as great in France, if not greater, than 
 in England. Mr. Legoyt averages the purchases and compensa- 
 tions on the three lines of Orleans, Rouen, and Nismes at 40,000 
 francs per kilometre, or 2,572Z. per mile. Mr. Reed states that, 
 on the Paris and Rouen line, the land damage and law charges 
 cost 3,132/. per mile, (the law charges being very trifling,) while 
 on the South-Western they cost 3,923/. per mile. But if the 
 outlay has been unnecessarily great on some of the English lines, 
 and they run through districts of which the traffic does not, as is 
 alleged, yield the usual returns on capital, that can surely form 
 no reason why an extravagant scale of fares should be adhered to. 
 The proprietors of a bridge would not be allowed to charge high 
 tolls because moderate tolls would not yield such a return as they 
 might wish to obtain for the capital expended by them. 
 
 Mr. Peto says he has several times stated to directors of lines 
 in agricultural districts, that if the fares be low they will have a 
 larger traffic, but not otherwise, because the people in such dis- 
 tricts cannot afford to pay largely for their travelling; that unless 
 
 H 
 
178 
 
 you bring it within their means they will not come to you ; and 
 that if low fares will not pay, high fares never can. 
 
 Mr. Robert Stephenson states it as his belief that reductions of 
 fares are not carried to the extent that railway companies, as they 
 go on and gain experience, will carry them. It is possible that 
 ultimately the conviction may gain ground that further reductions 
 to a great extent, are indispensable; but your committee cannot 
 shut their eyes to the danger of placing the community at the 
 mercy of companies, who may or may not take views of their 
 interests in accordance with the interests of the public. The rail- 
 way companies have either driven, or must ultimately drive all 
 competition from other quarters out of the field. Even the 
 canals, which it was thought with proper management might 
 maintain a successful competition with railways in the case of 
 heavy goods, in many instances, as has already been observed, 
 have been beaten by them, and the report of the committee on 
 railway and canal amalgamation bills shows but too clearly that 
 we must prepare ourselves for seeing the canal interest come still 
 more extensively under the influence and control of railway 
 companies. This has resulted not merely from the power which 
 the passenger traffic gives the railways of conveying goods at rates 
 at which the canals cannot afford to carry them, but from their 
 obtaining the command of portions of the lines of canals, and 
 raising the tolls of that portion to the utmost limit allowed by 
 law, so that the companies in possession of the remainder of the 
 lines are thereby disabled from maintaining a successful compe- 
 tition. On no subject is there a more general agreement among 
 all the intelligent witnesses recently examined by committees of 
 both Houses of the legislature, than that railways either now are, 
 or from the nature of things must soon be, in possession of a com- 
 plete monopoly of all the internal traffic of the country. The 
 system, which has been carried to so great an extent by some 
 companies, of creating nominal capitals, amounting to twice and 
 even three times the actual outlay, had no doubt mainly for its 
 object to enable them to exclude the interference of Parliament, 
 and maintain extravagant fares. Under such circumstances, it 
 becomes of paramount importance that a vigilant superinten- 
 dence should be exercised over the different railway companies, 
 in order to defeat any attempts on the part of those companies, 
 from whatever motives, whether mistaken views of their own in- 
 terest, or the supposed necessity of their position, from exacting 
 higher fares, either for goods or passengers, than the interests of 
 the community will allow. Without interfering with the details 
 of the management on railways, further than the necessity of the 
 case may occasionally demand, they ought, as in every other 
 country, to be compelled to furnish all the information necessary 
 to the thorough understanding of whatever relates to the working 
 of the lines, and in particular to furnish complete and intelligible 
 accounts of receipts and expenditure from time to time. 
 
 By the exercise of such a control alone can a hope be entertained 
 
179 
 
 that the interests of the public will be safe under the existing rail- 
 way system. The general rule may be exceedingly good, that 
 the utmost scope should be given to private enterprise, but in the 
 case of railways the most important interests of the country are 
 at stake, and a monopoly, embracing all its communications, and 
 consequently possessing power, in the absence of control, of 
 inflicting irreparable injury on its trade and industry, from the 
 very nature of things, ought to be exercised under proper regula- 
 tion and supervision. Most of the witnesses representing the 
 railway interests, examined by your committee, deprecate all 
 attempts to regulate with exactness the scales of fares, and contend 
 that the legislature should content itself with fixing a maximum. 
 It is proper, no doubt, that maximum fares should be fixed in all 
 railway acts, but though they may be fixed with care, and may 
 sometimes approximate to fair rates at a given time, they can never 
 meet all future exigencies. Continual improvements are made, 
 both in the modes of constructing and maintaining lines, and in 
 the mechanical means by which they are worked, and the public 
 ought not to be excluded from participation in these advantages. 
 The maximum rates are however almost always extravagantly 
 high. In the acts passed so late as the session of 1845, the max- 
 imum rates for passengers are almost always thrice as much as on 
 the Belgian lines, and the charges for goods usually exceed those 
 in Belgium in nearly the same proportion, though sometimes in a 
 much greater. Thus, while in Belgium 20 sheep may be carried 
 a mile for less than 6|rf., and in France one sheep for 0'34c?., the 
 maximum rate for sheep in not a few of the English acts of 1845 
 is 2d. per head per mile, more than six times the Belgian and 
 French rates. Such is the extent of the arbitrary power possessed 
 by companies. But because the legislature was at first taken by 
 surprise, and from inability to foresee the results to which railways 
 have led, omitted to take suitable precautions against the abuse of 
 the powers entrusted to companies, that can be no reason why we 
 should not avail ourselves of subsequent experience, to turn to due 
 account such opportunities for protecting the public as are afforded 
 under the acts passed during the last two years, and as will be 
 afforded under future acts. Your committee conceive that though 
 the occasion, which was carefully seized by the Belgian and some 
 other governments, of placing the management of railways in 
 accordance witb the interests of the community, has been negle*cted, 
 yet that we should never lose sight of the fact that railways are a 
 public concern, and that the most perfect system in the abstract is 
 that which regulates the fares by such scales as will produce the 
 utmost amount of convenience to individuals, and give the utmost 
 possible developement to the trade and interest of the country. 
 We cannot, as in Belgium, obtain all the benefit which an in- 
 creased traffic on railway lines might give, because the first 
 adventurers in the great lines, which were undertaken before the 
 practicability and profitableness of railways were established, are 
 entitled to large profits, as the legitimate rewards of their enter- 
 
 N 2 
 
180 
 
 prise and sagacity. But there is a point beyond which the sacrifice 
 of the public interests ought not to be carried ; and therefore every 
 available occasion should be seized for reducing fares. Your 
 committee, entertaining such views of the legitimate demands of 
 the public on railway companies, cannot admit that we should be 
 content with the maximum fares imposed in the acts, and leave 
 the reduction of them exclusively to the discretion of companies. 
 
 Much of the evidence received by your committee bears upon 
 the defects of the existing system of legislation in the so-called 
 private bills, which are often private only in name, and in which 
 class railway bills are comprehended. The objections to the mode 
 of proceeding in these bills are of extensive application ; and your 
 committee have seen with satisfaction the report of a select com- 
 mittee on the subject of private bills, recommending a decided 
 alteration with regard to them. Of one of the suggestions in that 
 report, your committee cordially approve, the appointment of a 
 public board or department to which all applications for private 
 bills affecting public interests, should be referred. Such a board, 
 if properly constituted, might relieve committees of the House 
 from much waste of time, and companies applying for lines, as well 
 as the public at large, from much needless trouble and expense. 
 The example of foreign countries has shown that many inquiries 
 with regard to railways can best be conducted on the spot. But 
 besides the advantage from substituting a cheap and natural mode 
 of conducting inquiries, for the present cumbrous and most ex- 
 pensive mode before committees, under which, too, they are 
 entirely dependent for information on interested parties, the public 
 might hope that a properly-qualified board, entrusted with rail- 
 way affairs, would obtain more knowledge of the wants of the 
 country, and of the best means of supplying them, than com- 
 mittees, under the present system, can possibly possess. Your 
 committee, are, therefore, of opinion, that the functions of the 
 board may, with safety, be extended to the supervision of existing 
 railways, and the determining, in the first instance, subject, of 
 course, to the control of the legislature, where lines should be con- 
 structed, and what projects should be entertained. It so happens 
 that existing companies have an interest, in common with the 
 public, in preventing wild and unnecessary projects for the con- 
 struction of new lines from being put forward ; and your com- 
 mittee therefore anticipate from them no opposition to the 
 confiding such powers to the board as may be necessary to enable 
 it to interpose with effect in defeating foolish or fraudulent schemes 
 in the outset. The receipts of those companies are always 
 diminished by the construction of rival lines ; and they are often 
 put to heavy expense in purchasing them, and in buying off 
 threatened opposition. 
 
 Mr. Robert Stephenson thinks the fact of the preliminary steps 
 in railway schemes being subject to no control, is the root of all 
 the mischief now existing in the railway world, and is of opinion 
 that no project for the construction of a new railway should be 
 
181 
 
 allowed to be brought forward till it has been taken into con- 
 sideration by a Government board. Mr. William Reed, who acted 
 for about five years in the capacity of secretary to the South 
 Western Railway, and who is now a director of two French 
 railways, the Paris and Rouen and the Rouen and Havre, is of 
 opinion, from his experience in both countries, that the greatest 
 benefit would result from the appointment of a Government board, 
 to which should be committed the examination of all projects for 
 the construction of railways, with power to veto them if dis- 
 approved. 
 
 In France all schemes must first be submitted to and approved 
 of by a Government board ; but notwithstanding their having 
 obtained^the sanction of such a board, they are still, as in England, 
 referred to a Parliamentary committee ; but that committee does 
 not, as in England, hear counsel and receive evidence on all 
 manner of details, but merely decides on the materials submitted 
 to it; and it is only when any difficulty occurs, or explanation is 
 required, that a member of the Government board is called before 
 it, or some superior person in the confidence of the promoters of 
 the project, who supplies the additional information required, in 
 order to enable it to arrive at a correct decision. This part of Mr. 
 Reed's evidence is not materially contradicted by another witness, 
 Mr. D. Salomons, who states that the commission of the Chambers 
 may alter and modify a project, and that " it does hear evidence 
 in one way or other." What Mr. Reed wished more particularly 
 to convey was merely that the inquiries, which are conducted at 
 so much expense, and occupy so much time before committees of 
 the Houses of Parliament in this country, are unknown in France; 
 and that the commission of the Government board of that country, 
 though it does not decide finally whether a particular project 
 shall be adopted or rejected, is invested with the power of 
 determining, after due inquiry, whether or not it shall be sub- 
 mitted at all to the chambers. In the one case the state wishes 
 only to understand the merits of a project before allowing it to be 
 brought forward, and adopts the means believed to be most con- 
 ducive to the attainment of that end; in the other a project is at 
 once suffered to be brought forward, without having been subjected 
 to the ordeal of an examination before a department of the 
 executive entrusted with the care of the public interests, which, 
 should no opposition be offered on the part of existing companies, 
 the owners of property, or the promoters of rival projects, are here 
 but little regarded ; while, on the other hand, parties can only hope 
 to succeed in their opposition by the employment of counsel of 
 eminence, and by bringing forward witnesses, often from a distance, 
 and maintained in London for weeks at a heavy expense. 
 
 Some idea may be formed of the magnitude of the sums abso- 
 lutely wasted in this country, before Bills can pass through com- 
 mittees, from a return just made by the Eastern Counties Railway 
 to an order of the House. The line, which is 51 miles in length, 
 cost 45,190/. in Parliamentary expenses. The other preliminary 
 
 N 3 
 
182 
 
 expenses, such as cost of engineering, &c., amounting to 48,650/., 
 are separately stated. The Parliamentary expenses of the London 
 and Birmingham have been stated at 650/. per mile ; of the 
 Great Western at 1,000/. per mile. No wonder that foreigners 
 hold up their hands in astonishment when they hear of this 
 enormous waste. The sums paid for land by the Eastern Counties 
 amounted to 809,950/., or about 12,000/. per mile, alone exceeding 
 the whole cost per mile on most of the German lines, and on 
 several of the Belgian. The London and Birmingham and the 
 Great Western paid 6,300/. each per mile for lands. In the case 
 of the Rouen and Havre line, Mr. Reed states that 6,000/. was 
 paid to three gentlemen who made considerable exertions to obtain 
 the Act, but that the expenses incurred in the inquiry before the 
 board, and up to the time the Act was obtained, amounted in all 
 only to 700/. 
 
 The allowing, as an affair of course, the projectors of a railway, 
 on giving the prescribed notices, to drag existing companies or 
 owners of property on the proposed line before a committee of the 
 House of Commons, is an evil the magnitude of which can hardly 
 be over-rated. Many of the schemes lately brought forward were, 
 on the face of them, quite unworthy of being entertained ; some 
 were started for gambling purposes; and not a few with the object 
 of compelling existing companies to come to terms in order to 
 avoid a troublesome and expensive contest. Mr. Peto mentions 
 one instance within his own knowledge, where, though the line 
 was utterly impracticable, and the bill never went beyond the 
 standing orders committee of the House of Commons, the solicitor's 
 account, which did not include the expenses of engineers and 
 various other outlays, amounted to no less a sum than 82,000/. 
 
 Your Committee are happy to perceive that the causes of the 
 failure of the committee of the Board of Trade to answer the ends 
 for which it was appointed, are satisfactorily explained by many 
 of the witnesses whom they have examined. Mr. Robert Stephen- 
 son attributes the failure not to any incompetency on the part of 
 that committee, but to the faulty system pursued by them in re- 
 ceiving evidence in private. Without entering on the question 
 whether, if that committee had been properly supported by the 
 Government, a different result might have been expected,' it is 
 sufficient to state that no conclusion against the placing railways 
 under the supervision of a department of the Executive can be 
 fairly drawn from that failure. The committee of the Board of 
 Trade took more enlarged views of the object for which they were 
 appointed than the legislature and the public in general were then 
 prepared for; but after the experience of the last two years, the 
 conviction has become general that something more is required 
 than merely to decide between the conflicting claims of contending 
 parties, and that railways are of too much importance to the com- 
 munity to allow of their being any longer viewed as subordinate 
 to the interests of individuals. Objectionable as the mode of pro- 
 ceeding before committees confessedly is, and erroneous as their 
 
183 
 
 decisions may sometimes have been, this evil, great as it is, sinks 
 into insignificance in comparison with that to which the country 
 has been exposed from the want of a board of high character con- 
 nected with the Executive Government, to watch over the public 
 interests in railway affairs. Such a board, pursuing an enlightened 
 system in sanctioning or rejecting proposed lines, keeping con- 
 stantly in view the necessities of the country and the protection of 
 the public from excessive exactions for the conveyance of goods 
 and passengers, and taking due advantage of every suitable oppor- 
 tunity that may present itself for obtaining a reduction of fares 
 and charges, and uniformity both with reference to prices and 
 classification, would soon obtain the confidence of the public and 
 command the respect of the legislature. Though Parliament 
 would still have the power of deciding in the last resort, it would 
 no longer be forced to encumber itself with preliminary inquiries, 
 which might be so much more advantageously conducted before 
 a tribunal proceeding according to a more judicious system, 
 thoroughly acquainted with railway affairs, and therefore pecu- 
 liarly qualified for the task confided to it. The hopelessness of 
 shaking the confidence of Parliament in the board, which would 
 result from unsuccessful attempts, could not fail to induce a dis- 
 position to acquiesce in its decisions, and thus the spirit of 
 gambling which is so much fostered by decisions varying with 
 each other in principle, would experience a serious check. 
 
 That part of the functions of the proposed Government board 
 which relates to the supervision of existing railways, in order to 
 secure the public against a capricious exercise of their powers, and 
 unreasonable fares and charges, might not be so palatable to com- 
 panies as the power to interfere in the origination of new schemes. 
 Your committee are, however, thoroughly persuaded that a due 
 regard to the public interests essentially requires that companies, 
 in the exercise of their powers, should be placed under a vigilant 
 supervision. A board of high character and influence, possessing 
 an extensive knowledge of the wants of the different parts of the 
 kingdom, might be enabled, through the information derived from 
 one quarter, to induce the directors of the railways in another to 
 introduce improvements into their scales long before they might 
 resolve on doing so of their own accord. Mr. Smith, of Deanston, 
 for instance, states that the greatest benefit may be expected from 
 the conveyance of fat cattle on railways, as they can only be driven 
 for a very short distance. Now on many of the railways the 
 directors have from the first maintained, and still maintain, a scale 
 of charges for cattle which utterly excludes them from railways. 
 Captain Laws, a director on two or three railways, and who has 
 the management of the traffic on the Manchester and Leeds 
 Railway, recently stated before another committee that railway 
 companies, by fixing their fares for cattle and sheep too high, 
 deprived the public of the benefit of the conveyance by railways; 
 that though the present rates are only about a third of those with 
 which they started, and though the reduction has greatly increased 
 
1S4 
 
 the traffic, the majority of the cattle and sheep are still driven, to 
 their great detriment. An intelligent supervision would have led 
 to the correction of this evil long before this, and prevented the 
 ignorance or obstinacy of directors from inflicting so serious an 
 injury on the public. 
 
 A pretext has been set up by companies, that the great outlay 
 by them on their lines ought to secure them from all interference 
 with a view to a reduction of fares, so long as the profits of the 
 undertakings do not allow such dividends as would constitute a 
 fair return on their capital. Though fares so high as to interfere 
 with the interests of the country ought in no case to be allowed, 
 and the principle of determining fares by the returns which capital 
 ought to obtain is not to be recognised, yet it may not be irrelevant 
 to observe, that even if the amount of capital sunk in a line were 
 to be taken as a criterion, it would be necessary to distinguish 
 between the original outlay on a line, and the amount to which 
 the capital of a company has been swelled by the mode adopted 
 in purchasing and amalgamating with other lines, and in pro- 
 viding for extension and branch lines. It is quite clear that the 
 original outlay on lines, including all the extravagant purchases 
 of land, and the wasteful expenses incurred in surveys, and in the 
 proceedings before the Parliamentary committees, falls far short 
 of the amount of stock which has been created. Your committee 
 are unable to state with exactness the amount of money divided, 
 or to be divided in this country, among proprietors, as premiums 
 on new shares, but they conceive it cannot fall much short of fifty 
 millions. The payment of large sums to obtain the consent of 
 competing lines to amalgamations, which at one time excited so 
 much sensation, was not so objectionable in itself as in the use 
 that was made of such amalgamations, and of the power to raise 
 money for the extension of old, and the construction of branch lines. 
 By issuing shares representing capital to an amount far beyond 
 that of the money required, in order to enable proprietors to divide 
 among themselves large premiums, sums were pocketed by pro- 
 prietors, which, if applied to the purposes of the lines, would have 
 rendered a corresponding issue of snares unnecessary, and in so 
 far diminished the amount of stock created. Of these practices a 
 striking illustration has already been given by your committee, 
 from the report from the select committee on group 58 of rail- 
 way bills, relating to the Hull and Selby Railway Purchase Bill, 
 and the Great North of England Railway Purchase Bill. Were 
 an account taken of the sums already divided and to be hereafter 
 divided among proprietors in this objectionable way, and of the 
 expenditure incurred in buying ofT parties supposed to possess 
 powerful interest, and in proceedings before committees, which at 
 a low estimate alone must have exceeded 25 millions, they would 
 have been found sufficient for the construction of trunk lines for 
 the whole country. 
 
 The whole of the State lines of Belgium, of which 145 miles 
 were double and 202 miles single, cost only 5,945,148/. 
 
185 
 
 The whole of the capital required for the magnificent system of 
 railways executed and in the course of execution, and projected in 
 France, down to the autumn of 1845, by which the commercial 
 wants and the military defence of that great kingdom were pro- 
 vided for, does not exceed the sums divided and to be divided by 
 a few English companies among the proprietors in the shape of 
 premiums. 
 
 The capital for the lines conceded and executed in France, 
 down to the 31st July, 1845, amounted to 8,576,000/. ; and among 
 these lines are those from Andrezieux to Roanne, from Bordeaux 
 to La Teste, from Montpellier to Cette, from Muhlhausen to Thann, 
 from Paris to Orleans, from Paris to Rouen, from Paris to St. 
 Germain, from Paris to Versailles, from St. Etienne to Lyons, from 
 Strasbourg to Basle, the line of the Gard and the mines of La 
 Grande Combe The capital for the lines in the course of execu- 
 tion at the above period amounted to 14,100,000/. The capital for 
 the lines and branches to be conceded in 1845-6, voted in the 
 session of 1845, amounted to 32,360,000^. The capital required 
 for the lines remaining in the state of report at the close of the 
 session of 1845, excluding a few branches not finally decided on, 
 amounted to 9,520,000/. All these sums taken together amount 
 only to 64,566,OOOZ. This was the estimated amount of the 
 capital necessary to complete the French railways at the period 
 alluded to, though indeed additions have been subsequently made. 
 Such is the manner in which sums have been withdrawn from the 
 purposes of the public deemed sufficient for the construction of 
 railways, on a magnificent scale, for the greatest continental king- 
 dom, where local difficulties are often formidable, and where the 
 outlay for earthwork, masonry, and ironwork is as high as in 
 England, and which, if applied to their legitimate purposes, would 
 have left no part of Great Britain without the benefit of railways. 
 
 If we assume the average cost of the construction of railways in 
 Prussia to be 12,000/. per mile, which, judging from those already 
 executed, is certainly rather above than below the mark, the whole 
 expenditure on 3,200 miles of railway by which the surface of a 
 kingdom containing a population nearly equal to that of England, 
 will be covered as with a network, will not exceed 36,000,000/., a 
 fraction only of the money withdrawn here from its legitimate 
 purposes. 
 
 Part of the evidence taken by your committee has reference to 
 consequences with which the establishment of railways has been 
 attended, to a branch of the public revenue intimately connected 
 with the convenience and welfare of the great body of the people. 
 Before the establishment of railways the post-office, according to 
 Mr. Stow, paid for the carriage of the mails, including the coaches, 
 something under 2d. a mile; but the charges demanded by the 
 railways are much higher; and in the case of one railway, the 
 North Union, they amount to no less than 2s. 9^fc?. per mile. The 
 aggregate charge for carrying the mails in Great Britain was, in 
 1836-7 before railways were adopted, 53,293/. 18s. 4d. or Ifgrf. per 
 
186 
 
 mile per day, for 18,090 miles; but partly in consequence of the 
 increase of letters and parcels through the introduction of the 
 penny post, and partly in consequence of the high sums charged 
 by some railways, the aggregate charge is now much higher. 
 
 In 1846, as appears by a return from the post-office, the number 
 of miles travelled daily by mail-coaches had been reduced to 
 11,473, while the amount paid per annum was 46,7291. 10s. 6d., 
 or 2g</. per mile per day. But besides this sum, there is paid 
 yearly to railways no less than 102,185/. 6s. I0d.: the two 
 amounting together to 147,914/. 17*. 4d. Mr. Robert Stephenson, 
 who has been extensively employed in arbitrating between the 
 post-office and railway companies, states that the principal dif- 
 ference between Captain Harness, on the part of the post-office, 
 and himself was this, that Captain Harness contended that if a 
 line run six trains a day, and a seventh were wished by the post- 
 office, it should only pay the bare cost of that seventh train ; but 
 that he said, "No; we ought to negotiate with the post-office as 
 with other parties ; there is no law that exempts them from the 
 ordinary mode of transacting busines ;" therefore he had invariably 
 maintained that the total establishment of the railway ought to be 
 taken, and a portion of the charges placed to the account of that 
 one train ; observing, significantly, that if the legislature had made 
 a law that they should be treated differently, well and good ; but 
 that he took the law as it stands. Mr. Reed states that in France 
 they are obliged by every train to reserve a compartment of a 
 carriage, convenient for a person to ride in, for the post-office 
 guard, with his bag of letters, without any remuneration ; and a 
 similar system seems to prevail on all continental railways. When 
 a separate train is required, it is paid for by the state. In this 
 country the mail proceeds along some lines at an hour of the night 
 when there are no passengers ; and there are therefore reasons why 
 a difference should be made between such lines and the Great 
 North of England, where the train for the mail runs at a reason- 
 able time, and carries numerous passengers. Your committee 
 conceive that in all cases where the mail is carried by passenger 
 trains, no charge whatever should be made against the post-office ; 
 and that when the mail is conveyed at times when there are no 
 passenger trains, the charge should in no case exceed the additional 
 expense to which railways may be put by running such trains. 
 
 In France and other continental countries, railways are also 
 obliged to convey soldiers, sailors, and police, and their baggage, 
 either gratis, or at rates disproportionably low. It might, perhaps, 
 be advisable in this country, in the case of all bodies of men in the 
 service of the public, to fix scales of fares merely sufficient to cover 
 the additional expenses to which their conveyance might subject 
 railway companies. 
 
 Your committee will now briefly recapitulate the points which 
 they conceive ought to be aimed at in our future railway system : 
 
 1. No future lines, either for main trunks or branches, should be 
 ceded, except for terms of years. 
 
187 
 
 2. Full and accurate accounts of the proceedings of railway 
 companies, embracing their whole receipts and expenditure, should 
 be laid from time to time before Parliament 
 
 3. As all idea of the construction of new lines where they are 
 not called for by the wants of districts, in order to give the public 
 the benefit of competition, must be abandoned, in return for their 
 monopoly, companies ought to submit to an efficient system of 
 control, with a view to the security of the public against extra- 
 vagant fares and charges, and the adoption of uniformity on the 
 different lines in the scales and the mode of charging. 
 
 4. An end should at once be put to the system of issuing more 
 new shares than are required to cover necessary outlays, in order 
 to divide premiums among proprietors and thereby swell the 
 amount of nominal stock beyond the actual outlay. 
 
 5. In order to provide efficiently for the superintendence of 
 railways, and in order that the intentions of Parliament may not 
 be defeated by the directors of companies, and in order also that 
 a judicious railway system may be ensured, and a cheaper and 
 more effective mode of conducting preliminary inquiries than that 
 which now takes place before Parliamentary committees may be 
 adopted, a board or department of the executive should be 
 appointed, with power to employ inspectors, surveyors, and other 
 officers, to aid them in conducting their inquiries. Such a board, 
 to which railway affairs might be entrusted, would, from the 
 knowledge it could not fail to acquire, be enabled to judge what 
 lines are necessary for the supply of the wants of the country, how 
 far a given project may be conducive to that end, and to supply 
 Parliament with such information as may be of use in enabling it 
 to legislate in the way most beneficial to the public. 
 
 6. Railway companies should be obliged to carry the post-office 
 mails by passenger-trains free of all charges; and at times when 
 there are no passenger-trains, for the additional expense thereby 
 occasioned. The alterations which may be advisable in the case 
 of soldiers, sailors, and other bodies of men in the public service 
 have not been considered by your committee. 
 
 25 August, 1846. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 LONDON : Joseph Rickerby, Printer, Sherbourn Lane. 
 
October 1847. 
 
 NEW WORKS 
 
 ^Ifectllanemts: auo General 2lttn-aturr, 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 MESSRS. LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS, 
 
 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. 
 
 CLASSIFIED INDEX. 
 
 Agriculture and Rural Affairs. 
 Pages. 
 Bayldon On valuing Rents, &c. - 4 
 Crocker's Land-Surveying 7 
 Davy's Agricultural Chemistry - 8 
 Johnson's Farmer's Encyclopaedia 15 
 Loudon's Encvclop. of Agriculture 17 
 " Selfrnstruction - - 17 
 " Lady's Country Compan. 17 
 Lew's Elements of Agriculture - 18 
 " Cattle Breeds - - "18 
 " On Landed Property - - 18 
 " On the Domesticated Animals 18 
 
 Pages. 
 Pycroft's (Rev. J ) English Reading 24 
 Reader's Time Tables - - 24 
 Rich's Comp. to Latin Dictionary 25 
 Riddle's Latin-Eng. Dictionaries 25 
 Robinson'sArtofCuring,Pickling&c.2o 
 Rowton's Debater - 26 
 Short Whist - - - - 27 
 Thomson On the Sick Room - * 30 
 Thomson's Interest Tables - 30 
 Tomlins's Law Dictionary - 30 
 Walker's Dictionaries, by Smart - 31 
 Webster's Domestic Economy 32 
 Zumpt's Latin Grammar - - 82 
 
 Page* 
 Dunham's Spain and Portugal - 9 
 Middle Ages 
 " German Empire - 
 Denmark, Sweden, &c. 
 " Poland - - - 
 Dunlop's History of Fiction - 
 Eastlake's History of Oil Paintin" 
 Eccleston's English Antiquities - 
 Fergus's United States - 10 
 Grant's Memoir & Correspondence 11 
 Grattan's Netherlands - 11 
 Grimblot's Wm. III. & Louis XIV. 11 
 Guicciardini's Historical Maxims - 11 
 
 Thomson On Fattening Cattle - 30 
 Topham's Agricultural Chemistry 30 
 Whitley's Agricultural Geology - 32 
 
 Arts and Manufactures. 
 
 Brande's Dictionary of Science,&c. 5 
 Bucklers' St. Alban's Abbey . 5 
 Budge's Miner's Guide - - 5 
 Cartoons (The Prize) 6 
 Cresy's Civil Engineering * * 7 
 De Burtin On Pictures 8 
 Dresden Gallery - - . -9 
 Eastlake on Oil Colours - 9 
 Erans's Sugar-Planter's Manual - 10 
 Gwilt's Encyclop. of Architecture 11 
 Hayiion On Painting and Design - 12 
 Holland's Manufactures in Metal - 13 
 Loudon's Encvcl. of Rural Architect. 18 
 Moselev's Engineering & Architect. 22 
 Porter's Manufacture of Silk - - 24 
 " " Porcelain & Glass 24 
 
 Bilunij and Gardening. 
 
 Abercrombie's Practical Gardener 8 
 " andMain'sGanlener'sComp. 8 
 Callcott's Scripture Herbal - 6 
 Conversations on Botany 6 
 Drummond's First Steps to Botany 9 
 Evans's Sugar-Planter's Manual - 10 
 Henslow's Botany - 12 
 Hoare On Cultivation of the Vine - 13 
 " On the Roots of Vines - 13 
 Hooker's British Flora - 13 
 " Guide to Kew Garden* - 13 
 Lindley'B Theory of Horticulture - 17 
 " Orchard* Kitchen Garden 17 
 " Introduction to Botany - 17 
 a Flora Medica - 17 
 " Synopsis of British Flora 17 
 Loudon's tfortus Britannicus - 18 
 " " Lignosis Londinensis 18 
 * Amateur Gardener - 17 
 
 Halsted's Life of Richard III. - !> 
 Havdon On Painting and Design - 12 
 Historical Pictt. of the Middle Ages 12 
 Charades - - " - 12 
 Horsley's (Bp.j Biblical Criticism- 13 
 Jeffrey's (Lord) Contributions - 15 
 Keightley's Outlines of History - 15 
 Laing's Kings of Norway - - 15 
 Lempriere's Classical Dictionary - 16 
 Macaulay's Crit. and Hist. Essays 18 
 Mackintosh's Miscellaneous Works 19 
 " History of England - 19 
 M'Culloch'sGeographicalDictionary 19 
 Maunder's Treasury of History - 20 
 Milner's Church History - - 21 
 Moore's History of Ireland - - 22 
 Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History 22 
 Nicolas's Chronology of History - 22 
 Ranke's History of the Reformation 24 
 Rich's Comp. to Latin Dictionary 2o 
 Riddle's Latin Dictionaries - - 25 
 Rome, History of - - - - 26 
 
 Reid (Dr.) On Ventilation - - 25 
 SiblevandRutherford'sEarthwork 
 Tables 27 
 
 ** Self-Instruction * 17 
 Trees and Shrubs 17 
 " Gardening < ' 17 
 
 Russell's Bedford Correspondence 4 
 Schopenhauer's Autobiography - 26 
 Scott's History of Scotland - 26 
 
 Steam Engine, by the Artisan Club 3 
 Ure's Dictionarv'of Arts, &c. - 31 
 Wood On Railroads - * * 11 
 
 " Suburban Gardener 18 
 Repton's Landscape Gardening * 25 
 Rivers's Rose Amateur's Guide 25 
 
 Sinnett's Byways of History - - 27 
 Stebbing's History of the Church- 21 
 History of Reformation 2S 
 
 Bittgraphy* 
 
 Aikin's Life of Aduison - - 3 
 Anderson's (H. C.) Autobiography 3 
 Bell's Eminent British Poets - 4 
 
 Roberts On the Grape- Vine - 25 
 Rogers's Vegetable Cultivator - 26 
 Schleiden's Scientific Botany - 2G 
 Smith's Introduction to Botany - 28 
 
 ft Church History - - 28 
 S witzerland, History of - - -29 
 Sydney Smith's Works - 28 
 Thirlwall's History of Greece - 29 
 Tooke's History of Prices - - 30 
 
 Dover's Life of the King of Prussia 8 
 Dunham's Early British Writeis - !! 
 
 " English Flora - - - 27 
 " Compendium of Eng. Flora 28 
 
 Turner's History of England - 30 
 Tvtler's General" History - - 31 
 
 " Lives of British Dramatists 'J 
 Forster's Statesmen - - - 10 
 " (Rev.C.)LifeofBp.Jebb 10 
 
 Chronology. 
 
 Bl.iir's Chronological Tables - 4 
 
 Zumpt's Latin Grammar - - 32 
 
 Juvenile Bo,>ks. 
 
 Gleig's British Military Commanders lo 
 Grant's Memoir & Correspondence 11 
 
 Nicolas's Chronology of History - 22 
 Riddle's Ecclesiastical Chronology 25 
 
 Amy Herbert .... 3 
 i:->Vs D-.vn Book (The) - 5 
 
 Haydon's Autobiography, &c. - 12 
 
 Tate's Hratius Restitutus - - 29 
 
 Gertrude - - - 10 
 
 James's Life of the Bntck Prince - 15 
 
 
 1L; -.> Tales of the Indians - 12 
 
 " Foreign Statesmen - - 14 
 Leslie's Life of Constable - - 16 
 
 Commerce^ Mercantile Affairs. 
 
 Ho wilt's (Wm.) Boy's Country Book 13 
 " (Mary) Chad's Year-Book 13 
 
 Mackintosh's Life of Sir T. More - 19 
 Maunder's Biographical Treasury - 20 
 
 Gilbart On Banking - 10 
 M'Culloch's Dict.ofComm. & Navig. 19 
 
 Laneton Parsonage - - 16 
 Marcel's Conversations 
 
 Mohan Lai's Mohammed - - 21 
 
 Reader's Time Tables - 24 
 
 On Chemistry ... 19 
 
 Roscoe's Lives of British Lawyers- 26 
 
 Steel's Shipmaster's Assistant - 28 
 
 On Natural Philosophy - - 19 
 
 Russell's Bedford Correspondence 4 
 Schopenhauer's Youthful Life - 26 
 Shelley's Literary Men of Italy, &c. 27 
 Lives of French Writers - 27 
 
 Svmond's Merch.mt-Seameu's Law 29 
 Thomson's Interest Tables - - SO 
 Walford's Customs' Laws - - 81 
 
 On Political Economy - - 19 
 On Vegetable Physiology - 13 
 On Land and Water - - 19 
 Margaret Percival - 19 
 
 Southey's Lives of the Admirals - 28 
 " Life of Wesley - - 28 
 
 Geography and Aliases. 
 
 Mai ryat's Masterman Ready- - 20 
 " Mission .... 20 
 
 To wnsend's Eminent Judges - 30 
 Waterton's Autobiography & Essays 31 
 
 Books of General Utility. 
 
 Butler's Geography - - 5 
 " Atlas of Modern Geography 5 
 " " Ancient do. - - 6 
 " " General do. - - 6 
 Cooley's World Surveyed 6 
 
 Settlers in Canada - 20 
 " Privateers-man - - 20 
 My Youthful Companions - 22 
 Pycroft's (Rev. J.) English Reading 2i 
 
 Acton's Cookery - 3 
 Black's Treatise on Brewing - - 4 
 " Supplement on Bavarian Ber 4 
 Collegian's Guide (The) - - 6 
 Donovan's Domestic Economy - 8 
 Hand-book of Taste - 12 
 Hints on Etiquette - - - 12 
 
 De Strzelecki's New South Wales - 8 
 For-.U-iVHist. Geography of Arabia 10 
 Hall's L.UXO Geueral Atlas - - 12 
 M-Cullocii's Geographical Dictionary 19 
 Murvav's Encvcfop. of Geography - 22 
 Parrot's Ascent of Mount Ararat 
 
 Medicine. 
 
 Bull's Hints to Mothers - 5 
 " Management of Children - 5 
 Copland's Dictionary of Medicine - 7 
 Elliotson's Human Physiology - 9 
 Esdaile's Mesmerism in India - 9 
 
 Hudson's Parent's Hand-book - 14 
 " Executor's Guide - - 14 
 
 History and Criticism. 
 
 Holland's Medical Notes - - 13 
 Lane On the Water Cure - - 15 
 
 " On Making Wills - - 14 
 
 Adair's Mission to Vienna - 3 Pereira On Food and Diet - - 23 
 
 Hume's Learned Societies, &c. - 1J 
 
 " " Constantinople 3 ! Reece's Medical Guide - - - 25 
 
 Loudon's Self-Instruction - - 17 
 
 Barrett's Bible Criticisms - - 4 
 
 Thomson On Food ... 30 
 
 " Lady's Companion - 17 
 
 " Ama'teur Ganieuer - 17 
 
 Bell's History of Russia - - 4 
 Blair's Chron. and Histor. Tables - 4 
 
 Miscellaneous. 
 
 Maunder's Treasury of Knowledge 20 
 
 Bloomfield's Edition of Thucydides 4 
 
 Adshead on Prisons 3 
 
 " Biographical Treasury - 20 
 
 " Translation of do. - 4 
 
 Cartoons (The Prize) - 6 
 
 " Sclent, and Lit. Treasury 20 
 
 Cooley's History of Discovery - 6 
 
 Clavers's Forest Life - 6 
 
 " Treasury of History - 20 
 
 Crowe's History of France 7 Cocks's Bordeaux, its Winei,&e. - 6 
 
 Natural History - - 20 
 
 De Sismondi's Fall of Roman Empire 8 
 
 Collegian's Guide (The) - - 6 
 
 Parkes's Domestic Duties - - 23 
 
 " Italian Republics - 8 
 
 Colton's Lacon - ... 6 
 
 
 B 
 
Fogs. 
 De Burtin on Pictures - - - 8 
 
 Pages. 
 Collier's Roxburghe Ballads- - 6 
 
 Page*. 
 Stebbing's Church History - - 28 
 
 De Morgan On Probabilities - 
 
 Costello's Persian Rose Garden - 7 
 
 Steepleton .... 29 
 
 De Stivelecki's New South Wales - 8 
 
 Goldsmith's Poems illustrated - 10 
 
 Tate's History of St. Paul - - 29 
 
 Dresden Gallery - - - 9 
 
 Gray's Elegv, illuminated - - 11 
 
 Tayler'sDora'Melder - 29 
 
 Dunlop's History of Fiction - - 9 
 Good's Book of Nature - 11 
 
 Gulch's Robin Hood Ballads - 11 
 Horace, by Tate - - - -29 
 
 " Lady Mary - - - 29 
 Margaret; or, the Pearl - 29 
 
 Graham's English - - - - 11 
 
 Hewitt's Ballads - 13 
 
 " Sermons - - - - 29 
 
 Grant's Letters from the Mountains 11 
 
 L. E. L.'s Poetical Works - - 16 
 
 Taylor's (Bp. Jeremy) Works - 29 
 
 Hand-book of Taste ... 12 
 
 Linwood's Anthologia Oxoniensis - 17 
 
 Tomline's Introduction to the Bible 30 
 
 Hobbes (Thos.), Works of - - 13 
 Hooker's Kew Guide - - - 13 
 
 Macaulav's Lavs of Ancient Rome 18 
 
 M ackay's English Lakes - - Ib 
 
 Trevor ------ 30 
 Trollope's Analecta Theologica - 30 
 
 Hewitt's Rural Life of England - 14 
 " Visitsto RemarkablePlaces 14 
 
 Montgomery's Poetical Works - 21 
 Moore's Poetical Works - - 21 
 
 Turner's Sacred History- - - 31 
 Twelve Years Ago - - - 31 
 
 " Student-Life of Germany 14 
 
 " Lalld Rookh - 21 
 
 Wardlaw's Socinian Controversy - 31 
 
 " Social Life of Germany - 14 
 
 " Irish Melodies - 21 and 22 
 
 Weil's Bible, Koran, and Talmud 32 
 
 Colonisation & Christianity 14 
 
 Moral of Flowers - 22 
 
 Wilberforce's View of Christianity 32 
 
 Hume's Learned Societies, &c. - 14 
 
 Poets' Pleasaunce - - - - 24 
 
 Wilkinson's Catech. of Church Hist. 32 
 
 Jaenisch On Chess Openings - 14 
 Jeffrey's (Lord) Contributions - 15 
 King's Argentine Republic - - 15 
 Lane's Life at the Water-Cure - 15 
 
 Pope's Works, by Roscoe - - 24 
 Reynard the Fox - - -25 
 Sliakspeare, by Bowdler - 26 
 Sheldon's Minstrelsy - 27 
 
 AVilloughbv's (Ladvj Diary - - 32 
 Wilson's Lands of the Bible- - 32 
 
 Rural Sports. 
 
 Loudon's Lady's Country Comp. - 17 
 Macaulay'sCrit.and Hist. Essays 18 
 Mackintosh's Miscellaneous Works 19 
 
 Sophocles, by Linwood 28 
 Southey's Poetical Works - - 28 
 " British Poets - 26 
 
 Elaine's Dictionary of Sports - 4 
 Ephemera on Angling 9 
 
 Maitland's Church in the Catacombs 19 
 
 Spirit of the Woods - - 28 
 
 Hansard's Fishing in Wales - - 12 
 
 Michelet's The People - 21 
 
 Thomson's Seasons illustrated - 30 
 
 Hawbuck Grange - - 12 
 
 Moore On the Use of the Body - 22 
 " Soul and Body - 22 
 Necker De Saussure On Education 22 
 Peter Plvmley's Letters - - 24 
 
 " edited by Dr. A. T. Thomson 30 
 
 Political Economy Statistics. 
 
 Hawker's Instnictionsto Sportsmen 12 
 Loudon's Lady's Country Comp. - 17 
 Stable Talk and Table Talk - - 23 
 
 Plunkett On the British Navy - 24 
 
 Gilbart on Banking ... 10 
 
 The Sciences and Mathematics. 
 
 Pycroft's Course of Eng. Reading 24 
 R'ich's Comp. to Latin" Dictionary 25 
 
 Lang's Cooks) and 16 
 " Phillipsland ... 16 
 
 Bakewell's Introduction to Geology 3 
 
 Riddle's Latin Dictionaries - - 25 
 Roget's Chess-Board * 26 
 Rowton's Debater - - - 26 
 Sandford's Church, School, & Parish 26 
 Seaward's Narrative of his Shipwreck 26 
 Smith's (Rev. Sydney) Works - 28 
 Southey's Common place Book - 28 
 " The Doctor, &c. - -28 
 
 M'Culloch's Geos . Statist. &c. Diet. 19 
 " Dictionary of Commerce 19 
 Political Economy - 19 
 Statistics of Gt. Britain 19 
 " On Funding & Taxation 19 
 Marcet's Conversa. On Polit. Econ. 19 
 Registrar- General's Reports - 24 
 Symonds' Merchant Seamen's Law 29 
 
 Brande's Dictionary of Science, &c. 6 
 Brewster's Optics - 5 
 Conversations on Mineralogy 7 
 Cresy's Civil Engineering - 7 
 De laBeche'sGeology of Cornwall,&c. 8 
 Donovan's Chemistry 8 
 Farey On the Steam Engine - - 10 
 Fosbroke On the Ancient Arts, &c. 10 
 
 Thomson On Food - - 30 
 
 Tooke's History of Prices - - 30 
 
 Gower's Scientific Phenomena - 11 
 
 Twelve Years Ago - 31 
 
 Twiss's (Dr.; View of Polit. Econ. 31 
 
 Greener On the Gun - 11 
 
 Walker's Chess Studies - 31 
 
 
 Herschel's Natural Philosophy - 12 
 
 Wiiloughby's (Lady) Diary - - 32 
 Zumpt's Latin Grammar * - 32 
 
 Religious and Moral Works, 
 
 " Astronomy - - - 12 
 Holland's Manufactures in Metal - 13 
 
 Natural History. 
 
 Amy Herbert - .... 3 
 Barrett's Old Testament Criticisms 4 
 
 Humboldt's Cosmos ... 14 
 Hunt's Researches on Light - - 14 
 
 Catlow's Popular Conchologv - 6 
 Doubleday's Butterflies and Moths 8 
 Drummond's Letters to a Naturalist 9 
 Gray and Mitchell's Ornithology - 11 
 
 Bloomfield's Greek Testament - 4 
 " College and School do. 4 
 " Lexicon to do. - 4 
 Bunsen on theChurch of the Future 5 
 Burder's Oriental Customs 6 
 
 Kater and Lardner's Mechanics * 15 
 La Place's System of the World - 16 
 Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia - 16 
 " Hydrostatics&Pneumaticsie 
 " and Walker's Electricity 16 
 
 Kirby and Spence's Entomology - 15 
 
 Bunis's Christian Philosophy - 5 
 " " Fragments - 5 
 
 Arithmetic - - - 16 5 
 " Geometry - - - 16 .' 
 
 " S Elements of Natural History 16 
 Maunder's Treasury of Nat.History 20 
 Newell's Zoology of the Eng. Poets 22 
 Stephens's British Coleoptera - 29 
 Swainson On Study of Natural Hist. 29 
 " Animals - 29 
 " Taxidermy 29 
 
 Callcott's Scripture Herbal - 6 
 Cooper's Sermons 7 
 Coquerel's Christianity - - - 7 
 Dale's Domestic Liturgy . . 8 
 Dibdin's Sunday Library 8 
 Doddridge's Family Expositor - 8 
 Englishman's Greek Concordance 9 
 Englishman'sHeb.&Chald.Concord. 9 
 
 " Treatise on Heat - - 16 
 Marcet's (Mrs.) Conversations - 19 ' 
 Memoirs of the Geological Survey 20 
 Moseley's Practical Mechanics - 22 
 " Engineering&Architecture 22 
 Owen's Lectures on Comp. Anatomy 22 
 Pearson's Practical Astronomy - 23 
 Peschel's Elements of Physics - 23 | 
 
 Birds - - - - 29 
 
 Fitzroy's Scriptural Conversations 10 
 
 Phillips's Fossils of Cornwall, &c. 23 
 
 " Animals in Menageries - 29 
 " Fish, Amphibia, &c. - 29 
 it Insects - - - - 29 
 
 Forster's Hist. Geography of Arabia 10 
 " Lite of Bishop Jebb - 10 
 From Oxford to Rome - - - 10 
 
 " Guide to Geology - - 23 1 
 " Treatise on Geology - 23 
 Poisson's Mechanics - - - 24 
 
 " Malacology - 29 
 " Habits ana Instincts - 29 
 
 Gascovne On the Apocalyps* - 10 
 Gertrude ----- 10 
 
 Portlock's Geology of Londonderry 24 
 Powell's Natural Philosophy - - 24 
 
 Turton's Shells oftheBi itishlslands 31 
 V/aterton's Essays on Natural Hist. 31 
 Westwood's Classification of Insects 32 
 Zoology of HMSS. Erebus and Terror 32 
 
 Hook's( Dr.)Lectures onPassionWeek!3 
 Home's Introduction to Scriptures 13 
 " Abridgment of ditto - 13 
 Hoisley's (Bp.) Biblical Criticism- 13 
 Psalms - - - 13 
 
 Quarterly Journal of the Geol. Soc. 24 
 Ritchie On Railways - 25 
 Sibley and Rutherford's Tabtes - 27 
 Topham's Agricultural Chemistry 30 
 Whitley's Agricultural Geology - 32 
 
 Novels and Works of Fiction. 
 
 Jebb's (Bp.) Correspond, with Knox 15 
 " Trans of the Psalms - 15 
 
 Travels. 
 
 Bray's (Mrs.) Novels - 5 
 
 Kip's Christmas in Rome - - 15 
 
 Allan's Mediterranean 3 
 
 Dunlop's History of Fiction - 9 
 Fawn of Sertorius - 10 
 Lady Willougliby's Diary - - 32 
 Marryat's Masterman Ready- - 20 
 rf Settlers in Canada - 20 
 
 Knox's (Alexander) Remains - 15 
 Laing's Notes on Ronge's Schism - 15 
 Laneton Parsonage - - 16 
 Letters to My Unknown Friends - 16 
 Maitland's Church in the Catacombs 19 
 
 Cooley's World Surveyed - - 6 
 Costello's (Miss) North Wales - 7 
 Coulter's California &c. - 7 
 " Pacific - ... 7 
 De Custine's Russia - 8 
 
 " Mission - 20 
 " Privateers-man - - 20 
 
 Margaret Percival - 19 
 Michelet'sPriests,Women,&Families20 
 
 De Strzelecki's New South Wales - 8 
 Dunlop's Central America - 9 
 
 Pericles, a Tale of Athens - - 23 
 Southey's The Doctor, &c. - - 28 
 
 1 vol. Cyclopedias^ Diet ionaries. 
 
 Elaine's Rural Sports - - - 4 
 Brande's Science, Literature,* Art 5 
 Copland's Dictionary o!' Medicine - 7 
 Cresv's Civil Engineering - 7 
 Gwilt's Architecture - - - 11 
 
 " and Quinet's Jesuits - 21 
 Milner's Church History - - 21 
 Miracles of Our Saviour - - 21 
 Moore On the Use of the Body - 22 
 " " Soul and Body - 22 
 Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History - 22 
 Mv Youthful Companions - - 22 
 Parables of Our Lord - 23 
 Parkes's Domestic Duties - - 23 
 Pearson's Prayers - - - - 23 
 
 En-nan's Travels through Siberia - 6 
 Francis's Itily and Sicily - - 10 
 Harris's Highlands of ^Ethiopia - 12 
 King's Argentine Republic - - "15 
 Kip's Holydavs in Rome - - 15 
 Laing's Tour in Sweden - - 15 
 Lang's Cooksland - 16 
 " Phillipsland - 16 
 Mackay's English Lakes - - 19 
 
 Johnson's F trmer's Encyclopaedia- !;"> 
 Loudon's Agriculture - - - 17 
 " Rural Architecture - 18 
 " Gaidening - - - 17 
 
 Peter Plymley's Letters- - - 24 
 Pitman's Sermons on the Psalms - 24 
 Quinet's Christianity - - 24 
 Riddle's Letters from a Godfather - 5 
 
 Mont'auban's Travels in the East - 21 
 Parrot's Ascent of Mount Ararat 6 
 Paton's (A. A.) Servia - 23 
 
 " Plants ... 17 
 " Trees and Shi ubs - - 17 
 
 Sandford's Parochialia - - - 26 
 " Female Improvement - 26 
 
 Schopenhauer's Pictures of Travel 26 
 
 M'Culloch's Geographical Dictionary 19 
 " Dictionary of Commerce 19 
 Murray's Encvclop. of Geography - 22 
 Ure's Dictionary of Arts, &c. - - 31 
 
 " On Woman - - 26 
 Sermon on the Mount ( The) - - 26 
 Shepherd's Horae Apostolicce - 27 
 Shunammite (The Good) - - 27 
 
 Tischendorff's Travels in the East 30 
 Von Orlich's Travels in India - 31 
 Wilson's Travels in the Holy Land 32 
 
 Webster & Parkes's Dom. Economy 32 
 
 Sinclair's Journey of Life - - 27 
 Smith's (G.) Perilous Times - - 27 
 
 Veterinary Medicine, c. 
 
 Poetry and the Drama. 
 
 " Religion of Auc. Britain 27 
 
 Miles On the Horse's Foot - - 21 
 
 
 " " Sacred Annals - - 27 
 
 Stable Talk and Table Talk - 28 
 
 Aikin's (Dr.) British Poets - -2(5 
 
 Smith's Female Disciple - . 27 
 
 Thomson On Fattening Cattle - 30 
 
 Burger's Leonora 5 
 
 (Svdneyj Sermons - - 28 
 
 Turner On the Foot of the Horse 31 
 
 Chaleuor's Walter Gray 6 
 
 Southey's Life of Wesley - - 28 
 
 Winter On the Horse - - - 32 
 
Nero Works and New Editions 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 MESSRS. LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS, 
 ABERCROMBIE'S PRACTICAL GARDENER, 
 
 And Improved System of Modern Horticulture, alphabetically arranged. 4th Edition, with 
 Introductory Treatise on Vegetable Physiology, and Plates, by W. Salisbury. I2iuo. 6s. bds. 
 
 ABERCROMBIE & MAIN. THE PRACTICAL GARDENER'S 
 
 COMPANION ; or, Horticultural Calendar : to which is added, the Garden-Seed and Plant 
 Estimate. Edited from a MS. of J. Abercrombie, by J. Main. 8th Edition. 32mo. 2s. 6d. sd. 
 
 ACTON (ELIZA.) -MODERN COOKERY, 
 
 In all its Branches, reduced to a System of Easy Practice. For the use of Private Families. 
 In a Series of Receipts, all of which have been strictly tested, and are given with the most 
 minute exactness. By ELIZA ACTON. New Edition, to which are added, Directions for 
 Carving 1 . Fcp. 8vo. with plates and woodcuts, 7s. Gd. cloth. 
 
 AD AIR (SIR ROBERT). -AN HISTORICAL MEMOIR OF A 
 
 MISSION to the COURT of VIENNA in 1806. By the Right HonourableSir ROBERT ADAIR, 
 G.C.B. With a Selection from his Despatches, published by permission of the proper 
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 ADAIR (SIR ROBERT). -THE NEGOTIATIONS FOR THE 
 
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 the Right Honourab" 
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 the Right Honourable Sir ROBERT ADAIR, G.C.B. Being a Sequel to the Memoir of his 
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 UNIVERSITY OF CAUFORNIA LIBRARY