Railways and the State 267 



(1846), where he wrote, on the subject of railway develop- 

 ment : 



" The laissez faire system which is pursued in this country 

 to such an extent that it has become an axiom with the 

 Government to undertake nothing and to interfere with 

 nothing which can be accomplished by individual enterprise, 

 or by the associated means of private parties has been pregnant 

 with great loss and inconvenience to the country in carrying 

 forward the railway system. Perhaps there never was an 

 occasion in which the Government could with equal propriety 

 have interfered to reconcile the conflicting interests involved, 

 and to prevent public injury arising from the false steps so 

 likely to be made at first in bringing about a total revolution 

 in the internal communication of the country. It is not 

 meant by these remarks to infer that Government should 

 have taken into its own hands the construction of all or 

 any of the railroads called for by the wants of the community ; 

 but only to suggest the propriety and advantage that must 

 have resulted from a preliminary inquiry, made by competent 

 and uninterested professional men with a view to ascertain 

 the comparative advantages and facilities offered by different 

 lines for the accomplishment of the object in view. If this 

 course had been adopted before any of the numerous pro- 

 jects were brought forward for the construction of lines of 

 railway between all imaginable places, and if it had been 

 laid down as a rule by the legislature that no such projected 

 line could be sanctioned or even entertained by Parliament 

 which was not in accordance with the reports and recom- 

 mendations of the Government engineers, the saving of money 

 would have been immense. The expensive contests between 

 rival companies in which large capitals had been so needlessly 

 sunk would then have been wholly avoided ; and it might 

 further have followed from this cause that, a kind of public 

 sanction having been given to particular lines and localities, 

 much of that personal opposition which has thrown difficulties 

 in the way of works of great and acknowledged utility would 

 never have been brought forward." 



In making these remarks, Porter was only giving expres- 

 sion to views entertained in various influential quarters, and 

 to a certain extent he did but anticipate, or re-echo, accord- 

 ing to the precise date at which his observations had been 



