The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

1855-9] RAILWAYS GOVERNMENT LOANS.
was made at general legislation, as will hereafter appear,
but still without success ; and in the beginning of
1858 I again called the Postmaster-General's attention
to the subject. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had
suggested, meantime, that Government, instead of
or Con-
'
28 1
lending money, as I had originally proposed,
sols, according to Mr. Hutchinson's judicious modifica-
tion, might yield the necessary aid by giving its
guarantee for loans to be raised by the companies
themselves ; but this suggestion had been condemned
by Mr. Hutchinson, as far less beneficial to the com-
panies, and as raising what would be felt as an injurious
distinction between loan and loan, i.e., guaranteed and
unguaranteed. The matter was now referred by the
Treasury to the Board of Trade, then presided over by
Lord Stanley of Alderley, who called for the opinion
of the Secretary, Mr. Booth, which was in effect adverse.
I had also, with permission, consulted Mr.
Locke, the eminent engineer, then M.P. for Honiton ;
who, however, though approving of the principle, demanded
that it should be carried out to its full extent,
so as not merely to cover ^30,000,000, as I had
proposed, but to include loans generally. He also
required a further amalgamation of companies, and
what it may be remembered I had previously urged,
but in vain, viz., the concession to each great company
of a district or territory, into which other companies
should, except in specified contingencies, be forbidden
to intrude. In short, through excessive caution on
the one hand, and excessive demands on the other,
combined with the ordinary difficulties attending
innovation, nothing was done.
Ten years* have now elapsed since my attempt was
* Written before 1871. ED.