s;i 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[DECEMBEn, 



ordinary state, the low-fare sj'stem was fully competent to (five t;ood 

 dividends ; and it is therefore quite {froundless to assert tliat it has 

 ceased to be able to do so, or tliat it is the cause of lower dividends. 

 J^o one ever supposed or asserted tliat that system was competent 

 to frive a maximum dividend, irrespective of all other causes ; and 

 still less that the low-fare system, or the high-fare system, or any 

 system, could jjivetlie same amount of dividend, in defiance of the 

 depression resulting from the greatest financial and political crisis 

 which the world has yet seen, — and (if we take into account the 

 failure of the grain, potato, cotton, sugar, and other crops, and the 

 prevalence of cholera, influenza) and the greatest physical crisis. 



If we were to sit dow n and estimate before-hand what would 

 be the results of such a crisis, we surely could not be surprised 

 at a falling oif of dividends from ten to seven per cent. ; and if 

 we had a fore-knowledge of such a crisis, we should be able to 

 decide that there must he a falling-off in the business of the 

 country, such as after-knowledge proves. This is a truism : and 

 it is perfectly idle to charge the diminution of revenue on the 

 fare system. That there has been a diminution consequent on the 

 opening of a great number of branches, we believe ; but that is to 

 a great extent a necessary evil, and is temporary in its operation ; 

 at all events, the public are not to suffer. Those gentlemen 

 who were very anxious for "calves" and new shares in 184.5, and 

 who pocketed the premiums upon them, are not to turn round in 

 18 IS, and make the public pay, because their branches are not yet 

 yielding the full ten per cent. At the same time we believe, as 

 said in some letters in the Morning Herald on'^^Rnihvay Legislation 

 and Railway Administration,"* that the uniform fares have pressed 

 heavily on some of the branch lines; for with a new and unde- 

 veloped traffic, an absolutely low-fare is of no good; because it has 

 no effect in diverting the old traffic on to the line of railway, and 

 which time is the chief agent in effecting. A reduction in fares 

 will stimulate a traffic already existing, but has not such great 

 effect in diverting traffic from accustomed routes, and in overcom- 

 ing the prejudices of old women and obstinate men. The remedy 

 proposed for this is a practical one; and that is, to give the Rail- 

 way Board the power of allowing alterations in the tariffs of fares 

 beneficial to the companies and to the public. The writer just 

 named has pointed out that, so far from fares being raised, they 

 might, if the companies had the power, be beneficially lowered to 

 many of the great towns and places of chief resort ; whereby the 

 revenues of the companies would be much increased. A Railway 

 Board, to be good for anything, should have the power of miti- 

 gating those regulations which press harshly on the publicand the 

 companies: and, as the writer in question has shown, there is great 

 room for the exercise of such discretionary functions in the case 

 of amalgamations, loans, new stations, fares, preference shares, 

 and many minor arrangements for wliich the expense and delay of 

 an act of parliament is now needlessly required. 



If, every time there is a commercial panic, the business and 

 energies of the country are to be still further depressed by the 

 railways putting the screw on to the means of conveyance, the 

 public will find the need of ridding themselves of such an oppres- 

 sion ; and an additional argument will be furnished for taking 

 railways into the hands of the government. 



Altogether, the policy of abridging the public accommodation is 

 as odious as it is unprofitable, but it is held by a certain school who 

 are amongst the worst enemies the railway system has ever had. 

 Mr. Glyn has always advocated monopoly, high fares, and govern- 

 ment meddling; and his brother chairmen have much the same 

 views. They have already met severe rebuffs in the narrow policy 

 to which they are attached; but in the present instance failure is 

 sure to attend them, whether successful or unsuccessful in carrying 

 a bill through parliament. Tlie public are fully aware of the mo- 

 tives on which it is founded ; and either a bill will be granted, ac- 

 companied by such stipulations as permanently to reduce tl^income 

 of the companies, or free competition in railways will be allowed, 

 the result of which will be, at an early date, a cheap line between 

 London and Birmingham. One railway man already talks of a line 

 at cts,000 per mile ; and it is practicable. In either case the ex- 

 pectations of the shareholders will be greviously deceived ; and 

 therefore we say, failure must result. 



Mr. Glyn is himself one of the authors of the present difficulties, 

 for it was he who advocated the limitation of dividends to ten per 

 cent., and its enactment by tlie legislature; a measure uncalled for 

 and injudicious, for while it did not propitiate those who olijocted 

 to railway profits, it trammelled the companies. While there are 

 famines and panics, traffic must fluctuate, — and therefore profits 

 must fluctuate. While the object is to declare a maximum divi- 



Letters by " Observer," Tewkesbury, October, 1S48. 



dend of ten per cent., there are no means of forming a reserve to 

 equalize the dividends ; but, were there no restriction, profits above 

 ten per cent, would be reserved to keep up the dividends in un- 

 favourable years. This is now rendered impossible, whereby very 

 great hardships are inflicted on railway shareholders. The least 

 that should have been given is an average ten per cent, from the 

 time of opening. 



The railway system is yet in its infancy ; and nothing can be 

 more unwise than the constant efforts to shackle it and to cramp 

 it ; and the more directors attempt to do so, the more they peril 

 the existence of the undertakings to which they belong. Inte- 

 rested and prejudiced parties may choose to assert that nothing 

 more can be done ; but whoever looks at the history of the last 

 twenty years will never dare to tie himself down to any such con- 

 ditions. It is tlie very result of improvement, that it allows fur- 

 ther improvements to be made. It would never answer to make a 

 machine for half a dozen pins ; but when thousands are wanted 

 machines are set up. A great traffic makes e.xpensive engines 

 cheap ; a high speed authorises those means which were before un- 

 thought of. After all, dare any one say tliat engines cannot be 

 made lighter, rails cheaper, bridges and viaducts of readier con- 

 struction, and gradients of greater inclination ? The claimants to 

 effect these things — nay, who are now doing them, — are already at 

 the doors ; the minds of thousands of ingenious men are at work 

 in inventing new and cheaper modes of traction ; the resources of 

 science ared ally becoming greater ; and, since light and electricity 

 have been enlisted among the servants of man, a new impulse has 

 been given to the applications of art. 



The demand for a monopoly forcibly recalls all the evils of our 

 present system of legislation on public works. The Morisonian 

 and Doctrinaire calls out for a government system of railways, and 

 relies on the Amalgamationists to prove his case : those w ho advo- 

 cate freedom in public works equally profit by the same circum- 

 stances. Conviction is gaining ground, even among the railway 

 press, who have hitherto been staunch advocates of the old com- 

 panies, and opposed the introduction of new ones. Herapath's 

 Journal'" very well points out, that in the district of the Great 

 Amalgamation there is room for thrice or four-fold the number of 

 railways. And urges that the monopolists will neither make them 

 themselves nor allow others to make them. It should be added, 

 neither will the government make them, should it get hold of the 

 railways; and thus the progress of the country in its struggle with 

 manufacturing and commercial rivals may be irretrievably impeded ; 

 for if we stand still, other countries will not; and as it is, we are 

 already too much fettered. Nothing short of freedom in the con- 

 struction of public works can secure us against high charges or in- 

 adequate accommodation ; and let us have but that freedom, and the 

 Great Amalgamation may be allowed to charge whatever fares they 

 like. It is not true that competition in railways cannot exist : the 

 question has never been carefully discussed ; for the railway parties 

 who have discussed it have thought themselves bound to monopoly. 

 Till the poorer classes of this country can be conveyed on suitable 

 terms, wo shall not have reached the limits of fair accommoda- 

 tion ; and we want thousands of miles of railway to do this. In 

 another part of this journal it is shown that the traffic of the ex- 

 isting railways is but a fraction of the whole traffic of the country : 

 indeed, the extension of the means of economical conveyance is 

 most urgent. 



When the Amalgamation Bill comes to be discussed in parlia- 

 ment, it is very likely its supporters may be little inclined to go on 

 with it. Their strength in the House of Commons is great ; but 

 the exposure of the discussion will of itself be a severe shock, 

 while the possible political operations are menacing. To a large 

 party in the house a tempting opportunity is offered, of gratifying 

 the people at the expense of the shareholders ; cheap travelliujif 

 will save the members from putting taxation on a fair basis, or 

 giving the people a share in the government. The C'heap Travel- 

 ling Bill will be the measure of the session ; members may look 

 their constituents in the face, and say they have done something ; 

 and the character of the Do-nothing Parliament will be retrieved. 

 The temptation to the government is very sore : financial reforms 

 deprive them of patronage in the customs, dockyards, and excise ; 

 and taking possession of the Great Railway Amalgamation will 

 give them compensation, without alarming the opponents of patron- 

 age and prerogative, and to the gratification of those who think 

 that the government should have legitinvite means of securing a 

 majority. Neither Whigs nor Tories can withstand such a chance, 

 in which both have an interest, — one contingent, the other im- 

 mediate. 



