THE RAILWAY MANIA. 151 



just before the church clock struck twelve. No one 

 answered their repeated knockings, and a policeman 

 informed them that the Clerk of the Peace had arranged 

 that the plans should be brought to his private house, 

 about five minutes' distance off ; but when they arrived 

 there the official refused to receive them, as it was past 

 twelve o'clock at night. They remonstrated with him, 

 and said they could prove their presence at his proper 

 official residence before twelve, and insisted on deposit- 

 ing their plans. During the altercation, the door being 

 open, they threw the plans into the house, and ran 

 back to the station, returned on the engine, and arrived 

 at Aylesbury about three o'clock in the morning. On 

 a full representation of the facts before the Standing 

 Orders Committee, it was decided that the plans were 

 to be deemed in time, as, by the evidence of the police- 

 man, they were at the Clerk's official place for deposit 

 before the hour named. It must have cost the company 

 at least £^0 to deposit this one set of plans. 



It is impossible to measure the reckless extravagance 

 which was practised at this time in the parliamentary 

 contests of rival lines, and for which, even to the present 

 day, the travelling public are still obliged to pay. This 

 needless outlay was mainly brought about by the orders 

 and regulations of Parliament itself. It was at that 

 time necessary that personal notice should be served on 

 every owner of property, however small, along which 

 the line passed ; and as a friend of mine was on the 

 staff of Messrs. Crowdey and Maynard, solicitors to the 

 Eastern Counties Line, he obtained the appointment for 

 me to serve the notices on those owners of property on 



