CASES DECIDED BY COMMISSION 275 



that both the interests of the Company and of the 

 public might be considered, and that it was in general to 

 the interests of the public to encourage traffic from 

 greater distances by rates low enough to make com- 

 petition possible. The intention of Parliament was that 

 the court should weigh all the consequences of either 

 raising the low rate, or of unduly lowering the high 

 rates. 



Accordingly, in the Liverpool corn trade case against 

 the Great Western Company, the decision, on much the 

 same issues as in the case two years before against the 

 North Western, was in favour of the Company on the 

 ground that it was impossible for the Company to secure 

 the grain traffic from the Severn ports, in face of the 

 competition of the Midland Railway and of carriers by 

 water, unless the low rates were maintained, while the in- 

 equality could not be removed without unduly reducing 

 the rates from Birkenhead, which were rates applicable 

 to the whole port of Liverpool, and that it was necessary 

 to maintain the irregularity of rates, if the Midland 

 markets were to have the benefits of both sources of 

 supply. One of the Commissioners, Sir F. Peel, however, 

 delivered a judgment substantially on the lines of the 

 North Western case of 1 890. 



An appeal was dismissed on the ground that no 

 question of law was raised, and that on questions of fact, 

 there was no appeal from the Railway Commission. 



The judgment of the Railway Commissioners in the 

 case of the Mansion House Association v. the London 

 and South Western Railway Company in April, 1895, 

 gives the first interpretation of the " proviso " added in 

 the House of Lords to section 27, to exclude undue 

 preference for foreign produce. The complaint was 

 that while imported bacon and hams, butter, cheese and 

 lard, hops, and wool paid 6s a ton from Southampton 

 Docks to London, seventy-six miles, and hay 5s a ton, the 

 rates from Southampton Town were i7s 6d, 17s i id, 20s 

 lod, and 17s 11 d respectively, and for hay 9s 8d a ton for 

 the same distance ; and the rates from Botley (also ^6 

 miles) were about is 2d to is 9d higher still. The 



