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

RAILWAY SYSTEM AND ITS RESULTS. 467
allowed, beyond the absolute outlay which the running of such trains
can be proved to have entailed.
The effect of this must naturally be, to "make Railway Companies
indifferent to postal traffic. It is needless to point out how seriously
this must be to the public disadvantage. If Eailway Companies had*-
an interest in developing postal 'as well as passenger communication,
what facilities might not be afforded to the people ! It is beginning to
be found, from the great bulk of correspondence requiring delivery,
especially in London, that uncertainty, irregularity, and delay are
becoming more and more frequent at the Post-office. If Railway'Com-
panies were interested in postal intercourse, nothing would be easier
for them than to make arrangements, whereby the deliveries, being
rendered much more frequent, might entail much less duty at one
given hour. Increased rapidity, certainty, and regularity, would be
thereby obtained ;
advantages which, with the means now at the dis-
posal of the Post-office, and with its vastly and rapidly increasing busi-
ness, there seem? but little
able to secure.
prospect of the Government alone being
The Post-office has recently absolutely entered into competition
with the Railway Companies. As carriers, the Companies derived
considerable profit from parcels. The Post-office, finding that rail-
• ways afford the means of carrying any quantity of bulk, has seen fit
to undertake the conveyance of books and other parcels at very re-
duced postal rates. If the Post-office should extend its operations a
little further, it must be brought into absolute antagonism with the
Companies. Books are heavier articles than laces, or muslins, or
many other fabrics, the conveyance of which enter largely into railway
receipts. The Post-office having made book parcels profitable,
may try to turn to account the conveyance of other, whether lighter
or heavier, articles of trade. It might be thought advisable to carry
a small valuable parcel to Aberdeen for 2c/., a rate at which Eailway
Companies, having to pay interest on capital, certainly cannot hope to
compete with a department which insists on the right of travelling on
their roads at the mere actual cost. You will not, therefore, fail to see,
that the Post-office arrangements may be carried to a point at which
great injustice would be done to Railway Companies.
Little more than a quarter of a century has elapsed, since Parliament
first began to legislate for railways. In that period a multitude
of laws have been placed upon the statute-book, which will certainly
excite the wonder, if they fail to be the admiration, of future genera-
tions. The London and Northwestern Railway alone is regulated,
as is shown by a return of Mr. Hadfield's, by no less than one hundred