reserved, in one form or another, a right of control over railways. In some cases, they are themselves the chief shareholders; in some, they have lent to the companies capital at a low rate of interest; in some they have given the guarantee of the state for the capital raised. In all such cases, the right of control is admitted. In some cases, the dividends are limited to ten per cent, the legal interest of money being six or seven per cent. In some cases there is reserved a right of revision of the fares every four years. In some of the principal states-New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, for example-the charters of the companies contain a clause investing the legislature with an absolute right at any time of modifying them. Subject to such conditions, the railway charters in some states are not limited in duration; but in the principal states the duration varies from fifty to one hundred years. By the system so wisely pursued in France, and most other countries, the advantages arising from private enterprise are combined with sufficient security for the public, against the abuse of the powers intrusted to railway companies. Not only is a general power of supervision and control reserved; but the tenure of the companies being limited in duration, the entire internal communications of the country must revert to the state after a certain period. Thus, at the expiration of forty years, all the chief railways of France will be in the hands of the government; and in about ninety years, private companies will cease to exist,—unless such as the government may think fit to re-constitute. It thus appears, that England is the only country in the world whose legislature has committed the singular imprudence, of surrendering, without available conditions, and for an indefinite time, its public communications into private hands. That such monopolies can continue to exercise the powers granted to them, without the abuses to which all monopolies have been obnoxious, is not to be conceived. There are already tendencies manifested to struggle for the private objects of these bodies, against the fair claims and interests of the public. The railway companies, as they first acquired their rights of incorporation, were numerous. Each line was a separate property, and ruled by a separate Board of Directors. Although it appears that no such thing as a competing line is practicable, yet in this multitude of lines, there might be expected something approaching to competition; many small monopolies, it might be hoped, would check each other. The practice of amalgamation and combination which has begun already to prevail so extensively, must, however, dispel these hopes. The lesser companies are several y gravitating towards, and coalescing with the greater bodies; and instead of a great number of small monopolies, in which the system commenced, it is now tending towards a small number of great monopolies, in which it must ultimately terminate. The indisputable existence of these monopolies, and the liability of the abuse of their powers to the prejudice of the public, necessarily seems to infer the assumption of a corresponding control on the part of the legislature; for to suppose the indefinite continuance of an arbitrary power over the personal and commercial communications of the country, exempt alike from the operation of competition and legislative control, is an absurdity too palpable to be, by any one, seriously asserted. It may, however, be contended that no case for interference has yet arisen, and that, when it occurs, it will be time enough to provide for it. But is it not certain, that measures have been already taken to neutralise the competition of the canals in the transport of merchandise? It was proved before Mr Morrison's committee, that some of the companies have already succeeded in getting possession of portions of canals, on which they have raised the tolls to their parliamentary limit; thereby paralysing the business of the entire line, and driving the traffic to the railway, on its own terms. It is proved also, that in order to evade the provisions, few and ineffectual as they are, which the Legislature has made to check the evils of their monopoly, the larger and more powerful companies have created fictitious shares in enormous numbers, so as to make their capital appear larger, and their profits consequently smaller, and thus to exclude parliamentary interference, in the only case in which it was contemplated. It may be said, that as Parliament has established limits to the tariff of railway traffic, so long as the companies keep within these, they should be subject to no interference. To this, however, it may be answered, that when these limits were fixed, the legislature had no sufficient data by which an equitable amount could be established. Can it for a moment be maintained, that if, by any new inventions, railways could be constructed by the expenditure of half the capital sunk on those now open, and worked at half the present current expense, the public would not have right to demand a proportionate reduction in the carrying tariff? If a new line could in any case be constructed for half the expense of an existing line, or, supposing the expense to be the same, if it were constructed by parties who would be satisfied with a dividend of five instead of ten per cent, parliament is bound to sanction the new line, unless the company make a corresponding reduction in the fares on the present line. One or other of these results must take place: for if the principle be true, that capital will force its way into those employments which yield more than the ordinary rate of profit, it will be impossible to maintain the monopoly and the high charges of the old companies.'* The fares on British Railways are higher than on any other European lines. The first-class fares are sixty-three per cent higher than those on the French and German railways, seventyfive per cent higher than the Belgian, one hundred per cent higher than the Italian, and one hundred and sixty per cent higher than on the Danish lines. The second-class fares are fifty per cent higher than those of France and Germany, and one hundred and twenty per cent higher than those of Belgium and Denmark. They are one hundred per cent higher than those of Italy. The thirdclass fares are sixty-six per cent higher than in Belgium, one hundred per cent higher than in Denmark and Italy, thirty-three per cent higher than in Germany, and fourteen per cent higher than in France. In no other country are the working-classes conveyed in a manner so discreditable to humanity, and to the true interests of the carriers themselves. In short, it is evident that the abuses which have at all times and every where attended monopolies, have already manifested themselves in our Railway management, and are certain to augment, to the great prejudice of the public. It would be folly to close our eyes upon the fact, that the British public has committed a serious error, in permitting the Legislature to proceed from session to session, in the course of legislation which has prevailed in regard to railways. With an enlightened public, a vigilant and free press, an unrestricted right of discussion and petition, and the habit of the legislature to wait for the expression of public sentiment on such matters, it would be unjust to throw upon Parliament, or the administrations of the day, the exclusive blame of the mistake that has been committed. The public itself must bear the principal share of that blame. What is the actual state of the case? A new method of intercommunication was discovered, infinitely exceeding all former methods in cheapness, expedition, certainty, and regularity. Surely this rare opportunity ought to have been seized, to procure the establishment by law of a suitable administrative body, under which a prudent system of inland communication might be constructed. But what, in fact, has been done? In this, the most active country in the world, with a press absolutely free, with unparalleled facilities for the diffusion of knowledge, and the most perfect of all representative governments, we have passively surrendered the entire system of national *Morrison, p. 12. highways, without a single practicable reservation or exception, into the hands of a number of private individuals, to deal with us and our posterity, so far as respects our intercourse with each other, as may seem best to them and their heirs, now and for ever. England has ceased to possess highways. The country is intersected only by roads, which no one can use except by the permission and on the conditions prescribed by their owners! Although it be not till the eleventh hour, still, the attention of Parliament has been called to this most important subject; and measures are in progress which, it may be hoped, will correct these evils, as far as retrospective legislation can correct them. The right of Parliament to establish a system of reasonable control over the inland communications of the country, cannot, as we conceive, be denied. All practicable competition having ceased to be possible, administrative control must supply its place. A Board of Railway Control must be established. But, to be really useful, it must be invested with powers much more extensive than those possessed by the late railway department of the Board of Trade. The great object of the government should be, to bring the power of such a body to bear on the existing railway companies, in such a manner as to protect the public from the abuses incidental to them, without violating in spirit that contract, whatever it may be, which they may have made with the State. The benefit of such a system of control, rightly administered, will not be confined to the public as opposed to the monopoly of the companies. It will extend to the companies themselves,-some of which have already discovered that the maximum of profits is not necessarily attained by the maximum of fares; and that it is possible to consult the interests of the Public, by moderating their tariffs, without endangering their prospective dividends. NOTE to the First Article. THIS Article was wholly written and printed early in August last, which is here mentioned to account for its taking no notice of the subsequent proceedings of Parliament respecting its subject. No. CLXXI. will be published in January. INDEX. A Agriculture, British, state and prospects of, 416-rapid and constant American War, memorable lesson given by, 241. Archipelago, Indian-European settlements in, 167-Dutch empire Asiatics, characteristics of the different races of Eastern, 171.- B Bacon's Novum Organum, translation of, 103. Bastiat, M. Frederic, his Sophismes Economiques reviewed, 236. Borneo, expedition of H,M.S. Dido to, 147-Mr Brookes founds a |