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364 itfET'€OD.S OF SOClAL REFORM.
I proceed to discuss in more detail the objections to the
second scheme, that the Government should both purchase
and work the railways. I dismiss, as of no account, some of
the evils attribute$ to it, as, for instance, the great patronage
and political influence which it would place in the bands of the
Cabinet. My objections are, that it mould realise very few of
the prodigious advantages anticipated from it, and that it
would probably bo a disastrous financial operat,ion. It is
impossible that I should find space in this Essay to explain
fully the Objections arising against the scheme; I must confine
myself chiefly to showing that the grcnt advantages expected
to accrue from it are illusory, founded on false analogies, and
genernlly inconsistcnt inter SL'. Government is to give us lorn
fmes, bettor carriages, punctual trains, univcrsnl through
booking; it is to carry workmen daily to and from t'lleir work
at nominal charges, to convey goods at cost price, to dist,ributo
the nmils free of cost., to do nmay with all tho differential
charges which enable somc companios to earn a fair dividend,
whilc it, is at the same time to reap n net revenue from railway
traffic, over and abovo the present average dividends and
interest on loans, and in duo time to pay off the National Debt.
Assuming for tho moment that t,hc notion of the English
Government. purchasing and working thc whole of t.hc railways
is conceivnblr, my picturc of thc result's would bc very different.
In tile first instance tho Governmrnt n-auld pay from 50 to 100
pcr ccrlt. more than the p1,opcrtJ- is cornu~ercially worth; the
t'conotny al*ising from unity anti ceutralisntion of manngemeut
would bo more than counterbalanced by the want of economy
in tho purchase, use, and sale of stores; the Government must
either manago vast factories for making and repairiug engines,
carriages, and all the complicated machinery of the permanent
way, or it must be cont,inually buying by contract and selling
waste stores again, with the pecuniary advantages familiar to
us in the case of t,he Admiralty Department. In planning
extensions it must stir u1' nll kinds of local int.erests and
intense agitation and competition, and all the struggles of the
Committee-rooms would be repeated in rtnother and perhaps a
more corrupt form. In adjusting claims for compensation,