228 RAILWAY RATES AND CONDITIONS 



Events have since shown that as regards Nos. 1 and 2 

 the Railway Committee were over-sanguine, for, notwith- 

 standing the legal prohibition of preferential treatment of 

 foreign merchandise, such preference is generally given ; and 

 traders find very considerable difficulty in ascertaining the 

 maximum rates that they can legally be charged. 



The Railway and Canal Traders' Association formed in 

 1885 amalgamated in 1892 with an association known as the 

 Mansion House Committee, because it was formed by Sir 

 James Whitehead during the year he was Lord Mayor (1889), 

 and the combined bodies have since been called the Mansion 

 House Association on Railway and Canal Traffic. 



The Railway Committee presented a report in April, 1892, 

 pointing out the excellent work which this body had done, 

 and recommending the Council to give an annual subscrip- 

 tion to their funds ; a recommendation which has ever since 

 been acted upon. The Committee of Members of the two 

 Houses of Parliament formed by Lord Henniker became 

 formally merged in the larger body in 1902, though it held 

 no meeting later than 1891. 



1893. 



The revised rates under the recently passed Acts came into 

 operation on 1st January, and it was at once found that these 

 had been materially and generally increased. The railway 

 Committee reported on 31st January that the extreme use 

 to which, in so many cases, the companies were attempting 

 to put their new powers, made it necessary that some ready 

 method should be provided by Parliament for the review of 

 rates and charges imposed. In May the Committee further 

 reported that the companies had materially reduced many 

 of the rates which had been raised on 1st January, in con- 

 sequence of the pressure brought to bear upon them in the 

 House of Commons and by the Board of Trade. The com- 

 panies, however, still claimed and enforced an all-round 

 increase of 5 per cent, on the old rates, which the Committee 

 considered to be unwarranted. 



