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378 METHODS OF SOCIAL REFORM.
the Continent, I hold that for what we pay we get, aa a
gmeral rule, services ~~npamlleled in excellence.
The conclusive mode of deciding, as it seems to me,
whethor railways are badly and oppressively managed in this
country will be to inquire whether, a.a a matter of fact, people
aro deterred from travelling by railways on account of the cost
and danger. Every institution must be tried by its resdts,
and if our railways are 80 much worse condacted than those of
other couutries, the proof ought to be found in the smallness of
tho traffic. I do not find that any of the writers who complain
about our railways have taken the trouble to ascertain the
comparative numbers of railway travellers in different
countries. In the time which is at my disposal for the
preparation of this Essay, I have not been able to discover
the number of railway passengers on tho much-praised railway
system of Belgium, but so far as we can judge from France
the advantage is vastly on our side. I find that in 1869 there
wore lll,lGJ,284 separate journeys on the French railways,
which, compared with a population of about thirty-eight
millions, ghows that each person on an average travelled not
quite three times. Now, in tha United Kingdom the number
of railway passengers in 1867 was 287,807,904, which compared
with 30,333,000, the estimated population for that year,
shows that cvery inhabitaut of the United Kingdom travelled
on tho average almost nine and a half times, or more than
three times as often ns an inhabitant of France. The use
of the railways, too, seems to be very rapidly advancing
in this country; for in 1870 every inhabitant of the United
Kingdom travelled on tho average 10.8 times by railway,
and in 1871, not less than 11.8 times. Moreover, in these
calculations no account is taken of the unknown number of
jonrneys of the holders of season and periodical tickets.
Estimate it how we will, the state of the passenger trdc
in this country is very satiafactory.
Peoplo are fond of pointing t0 the Post o&e as an
example of the benefits of Government administration direoted
aolely to the promotion of the public good; but between 1858
and 1870, the total number of 1et.ters delivered in the United
Kingdom rose only from 545 millions to 863 millions, or by