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366 METHODS OF SOCfAL REFURM.
from the other branches of administration most closely
analogous. It is, of course, impossible to say exactly in what
degree each particular evil would manifest itself, and there
would, no doubt, be some considerable national advantages
to partially counterbalance the evils. What I wish more
especially to show in the remainder of this Essay is, however,
that tilo great advantages expected from Government management
are of a chimerical character. The argument that men
atid women and trunks can be posted about like letters, is akin
to that which leads a man every now aud then to jump off his
own hou:e-tc~p, becnusc~, ILH it is n merr question of degree, he
ought., with suitablo app:uatus, to be ahlo to fly like the
birds.
One of tho principtd advantages to be gaiucd from the
State purchaso of railmnys, in Mr. Galt's opinion, is a great
reduction of fares, perhaps to a third of their present amounts.
As this reduction mould lead to a great increase of traEc,
prolmlly three times that at present existing, tho trains mould
be much bet,ter filled ; he even holds that,, with the economical
arrangelrients which a Government Department would adopt,
this threc~fold traffic might bo conducted with an ~rlrsolutely
~muZlw* nulnber of trains than run at present. The only point
admittiug of Herious controversy in this scllemo coucerns the
average nunlber of pnsscngerv nom carried in a train. An
intcrestirlg discussion arose several years since in The [rin~c~s
ulwn trrti nweights, and it was shown by 311.. 13. Haughton,
of the engineering staff of the Loudon and North-Western
llsilwny, that, for ercry ton of passengers carried in a train
there are twenby tons of dead and non-paying weight; even
in tho goods traflic the train weighs more than twice what it
conveys. The question thus reised is partly one of mechanics,
partly of traffic management. If safe and durable carriages
of less weight could be construct,ed, a great saving mould
doubtless arise ; but I see no reason whatever to suppose that
s single Government office would be likely to effec timprovements
in mechanical construction which all the competing,
dividend-earning companies, with their talented engineers,
have been unable to effect,.