412 THE QROUNDSWELL. 



duce the companies to remain separate. Inability to secure 

 good running arrangements with connecting lines was the 

 great disadvantage under which the separate lines labored. 

 This difficulty the most stringent legislation failed to remove. 

 No legal enactment could impel the roads to work as har 

 moniously as single ownership : and the result was that the 

 route managed by one directory possessed advantages over 

 that composed of several disjointed lines separately owned. 

 Still the public would not accept the situation ; and, so 

 recently as last year, a Royal Commission, appointed to in 

 vestigate the subject, made their report in a blue book, 

 containing over one thousand pages, in which the present 

 system of railway management throughout Europe is com 

 prehensively reviewed. The evidence of some fifty experts, 

 and several unprejudiced witnesses is given verbatim; the 

 experiences of France, Belgium, Austria, and Prussia are 

 succinctly stated ; and the conclusions arrived at are summed 

 up by the Commissioners, in a statement of which the open 

 ing words are an index of the whole : &quot; Past amalgama 

 tions have not brought with them the evils which were 

 anticipated.&quot; 



The policy of the French Government averted consolida 

 tion by preventing the construction of more railways than 

 would adequately accommodate the districts. Thus, while 

 in France there was only one mile of railway open to twen 

 ty-six square miles of country, in England there was one to 

 about six miles of territory. The result was that rail 

 ways in France were assured all the business they could 

 handle. 



In Belgium, many of the lines were constructed by the 

 State and leased to individuals, who are guaranteed the same 

 protection assured in France. 



In Prussia, competing lines are not allowed until thirty 



