SELECT COMMITTEE OF 1881 219 



were not prepared to reduce them further. Other companies 

 merely sent formal replies. 



The question was not raised again until 4th May, 1880, 

 when Mr. Hodges, of Maidstone, got a resolution carried 

 urging that the unequal charges for the carriage of English 

 and foreign produce acted unfairly on the home producer, 

 and was a matter to which the Royal Commission on Agri- 

 culture then sitting should direct special attention. The 

 Royal Commission agreed to embrace the subject in their 

 inquiry, and called as witnesses from the Council Lord Huntly 

 and Mr. Hodges. The East Kent Chamber of Agriculture 

 (now the Canterbury Farmers' Club) assisted in promoting 

 a suit to determine the legality of charges made by certain 

 railways, but the decision given was to the effect that the 

 companies were within their strict legal rights.* Early in 

 1881 the Government appointed a Select Committee to inquire 

 into the charges made by railway and canal companies for 

 the conveyance of merchandise, minerals, agricultural pro- 

 duce and parcels on railways and canals, into the laws and 

 other conditions affecting such charges, and into the working 

 of the Railway Commission of 1873. A few days later an 

 instruction to the Committee was added that they do inquire 

 into the passenger fares charged by the railway companies. 

 Among others on this Committee of twenty-three members 

 were Lord Randolph Churchill, Mr. Richard Paget, Mr. A. 

 Pell and Mr. Samuelson. Later, four others were added, 

 including Sir Baldwyn Leighton and Mr. Phipps. 



On 8th March the Council appointed a Committee of its 

 own to watch the proceedings of this Select Committee, 

 particularly as its constitution seemed to them eminently 

 unsatisfactory. The Council further requested that Sir 

 Baldwyn Leighton and Mr. Phipps might be added to the 

 Select Committee, and this recommendation was acted on 

 by the Government on 14th March. The Chamber's Com- 

 mittee included the Marquis of Huntly, Mr. Basil Hodges, 

 Mr. Charles Clay, Mr. Henry Chaplin, M.P., Mr. Duckham, 



* London, Chatham and Dover Railway Company v. R. J. Sankey. 

 County Court 



