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

RAILWAY SYSTEM AND ITS RESULTS. 469
injurious ; as regards the profits of Shareholders, no doubt, it has been,
in many cases, most disastrous. But how does the case stand as re-
gards the public ? Why, -whatever may have been the effect for the
time, the competition, which Parliament has permitted, has invariably
been terminated by combination,—so that the public have been left
precisely where they were.
But the incongruities are by no means the worst feature of the par-
liamentary legislation now under consideration. Mr. Hadfield's return
has been spoken of. That return, in itself exceedingly incomplete,
and affording no information of any sort respecting forty-five Kailway
Companies, for which Acts have been obtained, shows that the amount
expended by existing Railway Companies, in obtaining the Acts of
Parliament by which they are empowered, has been no less, in parliar
mentary, legal, and engineering costs, than Fourteen Millions
sterling ! No sooner was that fact placed on record, than a universal
outcry burst from the alarmists.
ers have been plundered ;
" See," it was said, " how Sharehold-
see how their money has been squandered ;
look at this vast amount of waste, and consider how much better it
would have been in your own pockets !
" But, in no one case did
those who made these bitter comments attribute the monstrous result
to the proper cause. Kailway Directors and Officials have been held
responsible for what has been the fault, solely and exclusively, of Par-
liament itself. What interest can Directors and Officers have in
Group Committees, wherein Counsel must be feed for attendance
during, perhaps, ten or twenty days, when they are never heard nor
wanted ? What interest can Directors or Officers have in keeping
crowds of witnesses in London, at great expense, awaiting the pleasure
of a Committee, which is engaged upon another measure, and which
can rarely foresee or indicate when those witnesses will be required ?
The ingenuity of man could scarcely devise a system more costly,
than that of getting a Railway Bill through the legislature. But who
devised that system ? Parliament itself Who have begged, and
prayed, and implored for alteration unavailingly ? Directors and Officers
of Companies. An illustration may show more graphically how
Parhament has entailed expense upon Railway Companies, by the sys-
tem it has set up. Here is a striking one. The Trent VaUey Railway
was, under other titles, originally proposed in the year 1836. It was,
however, thrown out by the Standing Orders Committee, in consequence
of a barn, of the value of about £lO, which was shown upon
the general plan, not having been exhibited upon an enlarged sheet.
In 1840 the line again went before Parliament. It was proposed by
the Grand Junction Railway Company (now part of the Northwest-