The Railway Era 233 



Merchants whose timber was thus delayed in transit were 

 fined for allowing it to obstruct the quays ; and Sandars 

 tells of one who paid 6g in fines on this account during the 

 course of two months. It was less costly and more convenient 

 to leave the delayed timber where it was, and pay the fines, 

 than to keep moving it to and fro between quay and timber 

 yard ; though the effect especially as the imports of timber 

 increased was to block up, not only the quays, but the 

 neighbouring streets, which thus became almost impassable 

 for carts and carriages. 



Corn and other commodities had often to be kept back 

 eight or ten days on account of a lack of vessels. It some- 

 times happened that commodities brought across the Atlantic 

 in three weeks were detained in Liverpool for six weeks before 

 they could be sent on to Manchester. The agents would not 

 carry certain kinds of merchandise or particular descriptions 

 of cotton at all. Alternatively they would tell a trader : 

 " We took so much for you yesterday, and we can take only 

 so much for you to-day." " They limited the quantity," 

 says Francis, " they appointed the time, until the difficulties 

 of transit became a public talk and the abuse of power a public 

 trouble. The Exchange of Liverpool resounded with mer- 

 chants' complaints ; the counting-houses of Manchester re- 

 echoed the murmurs of manufacturers." 



To avoid serious delays either to raw materials or to manu- 

 factured articles the traders were often forced to resort to 

 road transport " because," says Sandars, " speed and cer- 

 tainty as to delivery are of the first importance " ; and he 

 adds on this point, " Packages of goods sent from Manchester, 

 for immediate shipment at Liverpool, often pay two or three 

 pounds per ton ; and yet there are those who assert that the 

 difference of a few hours in speed can be no object. The 

 merchants know better." 



The example already set in so many different parts of the 

 country in the provision of rail-ways, or railways, as they 

 were now being generally called, may well have suggested 

 that in a resort to this expedient would be found the most 

 practical solution of the problem which had caused so much 

 trouble to the traders. Sandars himself says that inasmuch 

 as the two companies were " deaf to all remonstrances, to all 

 entreaties," and were " actuated solely by a spirit of mono- 



