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360 METHODS OF SOCTAL REFORM.
at two or three simple rates, little above the cost of carriage.
I sball have to discuss varions proposals which have been
made, and will now only remark that the success of the Post,
Qtkw is due to principles of management often exactly tbe
rev81g8 of those which it is supposed that the Government
wodd spplg to the railways. Mr. Galt and others strongly
object to one kind of goods being charged differently to other
kinds, when the coat. of conveyance cannot be very difierent ;
but the Post Office charges R penny for the lightest letter,
while it conveys two ounces of printed tnattcr for a halfpenny.
Tho very different pmtal rates for books, newspapers, letters,
and cards form, in fact,, a tariff carefully classified so as to
produce n net revenue; and unless the somewhat high rates on
scald letters were maintained this revenue would soon melt
nwlty. The Post office does not pretend to frame its tariff
from regard to the cost of the services performed.
When we look more closely into the question of railway
management we find all analogy to t,he Post Office vanishing.
Not only is the capital of vast amount, being in 1871 of a total
value of &.6GSJ68P,000, but this capital is represented by property
of the most various and complicated nature. There is
not only thc permanent way, with all its bridges, viaducts,
tunnels, ctnbankmcnts, and other works, but thousands of
station-buildings of nll sizes, warehouses, sheds, repsiringshops,
factories, offices, wharves, docks, etc. etc. The locomotive
dopartmcnt has the chargo of about 10,500 engines,
nceding constant care and repairs; the rolling-stock department
owns about 23,000 passenger carriages, at least 276,000
wnggons of various kinds, and other vehicles, making a grand
total of more than 312,000, exclusive of locomotives. The
railways of the United Kingdom undoubtedly form the most
elaborate and extensive system of industrial property existing,
and it is strange to reflect t.hat the whole of this vast system
has been produced in the last forty years by the genius of
British engineers and the enterprise of British men of business.
It is especially to be remarked that the property of a railway
company farms a connected whole, and in order to secure