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THE RAILWAYS AND THE STATE.*
A LITTLE experienco is worth much aygumont; n few facts
are better tllan any theory; the Government manages the
Post Office with'success; by a grcat reduction of charges it baa
created a vast business, and earns a satisfactory rovenu@; the
Government lms purchased nnd successfully reorganised the
telegraphs, and is making them pay; therefore the Goyerqment,
ought to buy the railways, and we should then have
railway fares reduced to a third of their present amounte,
trains very regular, and accidents few or none. Such are,
briefiy stated, tho reflections which haw led many persona to
join in &n agitation, lately increasing, to induce the Government
to undertake the gigantic t.ask of acquiring, reorganising,
and even working the wholo system of railway conveyanoe m
this kingdom. Although many other reasons, of more or lese
weight, @re given for the change advocated, I believe that the
main argument, consciously or unconsciously relied upon, is,
$hat becauae the State Post Office and State telegraphs succeed,
therefore State railways would suooeed.
The argument from the Post Office is, in fact, continually
appealed ta, In his article upon the subject in The Contemparary
Rwiew of July last, Mr. Axthur Arnold says:
w I regard the work ~f the rSilw(ry0 a8 gnly B magnified pasta1
~ysbm I the Mags ~f me4 md wmv, sf bowe and balm,
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Bdannhn.tel.d* 1 w
'I EB~~JB and Addreseee, by Profeeeors and Lecturers of Owem
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