The life of George Stephenson, railway engineer - Lighthouse ...

CHAP, xxxi.] GEEAT WASTE OF MONEY. 393
The frightful waste of money in conducting railway proceed-
ings, before and after they reached the parliamentary committees,
was matter of notoriety. An instance has been mentioned of an
utterly impracticable line, which never got so far as the House
of Commons, where the solicitor's bill for projecting and conduct-
ing the scheme amounted to 82,000Z. It was estimated by Mr.
Laing of the Board of Trade, and the estimate was confirmed by
Mr. Stephenson, that the competition for new lines, many of
which were sanctioned by Parliament under the delusion that
railway travelling would be thereby cheapened, had led to
the expenditure of about three hundred millions sterling, of
which seventy millions had been completely thrown away in
constructing unnecessary duplicate lines. But Mr. Stephenson
further expressed himself of opinion, that this loss of seventy
millions very inadequately represented the actual loss in point
of convenience, economy, and other circumstances connected with
traffic, which the public has sustained from the carelessness of
Parliament in railway legislation.
The total cost of obtaining one act amounted to 436,223^.
Another company expended 480,000/. on parliamentary contests
in nine years. In another case, 57,000Z. was expended in one
session upon six counsel and twenty solicitors. One barrister,
in good practice before the committees, pocketed 38,O0OZ. in a
single session.
Amongst the many ill effects of the mania, one of the worst
was that it introduced a low tone of morality into railway trans-
actions. The bad spirit which had been evoked by it unhappily
extended to the commercial classes ; and many of the most fla-
grant swindles of recent times had their origin in the year 1845.
Those who had suddenly gained large sums without labour, and
also without honour, were too ready to enter upon courses of the
wildest extravagance ; and a false style of living shortly arose,
the poisonous influence of which extended through all classes.
Men began to look upon railways as instruments to job with
and they soon became as overrun with jobbers as London chari-
ties. Persons, sometimes possessing information respecting rail-
ways, but more frequently possessing none, got upon boards for
the purpose of promoting their individual objects, often in a
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