Railways and the State 271 



two Houses, with singular unanimity, agreed ... to give 

 unrestricted scope to competition. . . . Little regard was 

 paid to the claims and interests of existing railway companies, 

 still less to the interests of the unfortunate persons who were 

 induced to embark in the new projects for no better reason 

 than that they had been sanctioned by Parliament. . . . 

 The opportunity of confining the exceptional gauge within 

 its original territory was also for ever thrown away. By an 

 inconceivable want of statesmanlike views and foresight, 

 no effort was made to connect the isolated railways which 

 then existed by new links into one great and combined system 

 in the form in which they would be most subservient to the 

 wants of the community and to the great ends of domestic 

 government and national defence. Further, the sudden 

 change from the one extreme of determined rejection or 

 dilatory acquiescence to the opposite extreme of unlimited 

 concession gave a powerful stimulus to the spirit of specula- 

 tion, and turned nearly the whole nation into gamblers." 



Francis himself says of the position thus brought about : 



" All hope of applying great general principles passed away. 

 Every chance of directing the course of railways to form a 

 national system of communication was lost. . . . The legisla- 

 tive body to appropriate the idea of Mr Morrison com- 

 mitted the mistake of converting the Kingdom into a great 

 stock exchange, and of stimulating the various members of 

 the railway system to a deep and deadly struggle, destructive 

 of order and fruitful of vice." 



This may seem to be unduly strong language; but what 

 actually and immediately followed on the course of events 

 here in question was the Railway Mania of 1845-6. 



By the summer of 1845 the country had gone railway mad. 

 In the Session of 1843 the number of railway Acts passed 

 had been twenty-four, showing no more than a normal 

 development of the railway system in meeting the legitimate 

 needs of the country. In the Session of 1844 the number 

 increased to thirty-seven. In the Session of 1845 there were 

 no fewer than 248 railway Bills. In the next Session Bills 

 were deposited with the Board of Trade for the construction 

 of 815 new lines of railway, with a length of 20,687 miles, 

 and capital powers to the extent of ^350,000,000. Of these 

 815 Bills many were abortive for technical reasons, or be- 



