The Railway Era 235 



for a reduction in the rate of freight and for better accom- 

 modation. Bradshaw replied with an unqualified refusal, 

 and he treated as idle talk the then much-discussed project 

 of a line of railway. 



There is no doubt that if, at this period, reasonable con- 

 cessions had been made to the traders the building of the 

 Liverpool and Manchester Railway, although, of course, 

 inevitable, would have been delayed to a later period. The 

 traders shrank, at first, from an open fight, and the project 

 of 1822 was allowed to drop for a time. The situation was 

 found to be so hopeless, however, that in 1824 they decided 

 that mere concessions from the waterway interests would no 

 longer suffice, and that the provision of an alternative means 

 of transport had become imperative. A Liverpool and Man- 

 chester Railway Company was now formed, and on October 

 29, 1824, there was issued a prospectus which was, in effect, 

 a declaration of war against the waterway parties who had 

 so mercilessly abused the situation they thought they con- 

 trolled. This document, after mentioning that the total 

 quantity of merchandise then passing between Liverpool 

 and Manchester was estimated at 1000 tons a day, pro- 

 ceeded : 



" The committee are aware that it will not immediately 

 be understood by the public how the proprietors of a rail- 

 road, requiring an invested capital of 400,000 can afford to 

 carry goods at so great a reduction upon the charge of the 

 present water companies. But the problem is easily solved. 

 It is not that the water companies have not been able to 

 carry goods on reasonable terms, but that, strong in the 

 enjoyment of their monopoly, they have not thought proper 

 to do so. Against the most arbitrary exactions the public 

 have hitherto had no protection, and against the indefinite 

 continuance or recurrence of the evil they have but one 

 security. It is competition that is wanted, and the proof of 

 this assertion may be adduced from the fact that shares 

 in the Old Quay Navigation, of which the original cost was 

 70, have been sold as high as 1250 each ! " 



The canal interests in general had, however, anticipated 

 the definite challenge thus given, and there had already been 

 a call to arms in defence of common interests. In a post- 

 script to the prospectus just referred to it was mentioned that 



