Xciv HEPORT — 1875. 



in all its parts, including the whole railway, with its movable plant, in that 

 term ; it depends also on the nature and quantity of traffic, and, lastly, on 

 human care and attention. 



With regard to what is human, it may he said that so many of these acci- 

 dents as arise from the fallibility of men will never be eliminated until the race 

 be improved. 



The liability to accident will also increase with the speed, and might be 

 reduced by slackening that speed. It increases with the extent and variety 

 of the traffic on the same line. The public, I fear, will rather run the risk 

 than consent to be carried at a slower rate. The increase in extent and 

 variety of traffic is not likely to receive any diminution ; on the contrary, it 

 is certain to augment. 



I should be sorry to say that human care may not do something; and I am 

 not among those who object to appeals through the press, and otherwise, to 

 railway companies, though sometimes perhaps they may appear in an un- 

 reasonable form. T see no harm in men being urged in every way to do their 

 utmost in a matter so vital to many. 



A question may arise whether, if the railways were in the hands of the 

 Government, they could not be worked with greater safety. Government would 

 not pay their officers better, or perhaps so well as the companies do, and it is 

 doubtful whether they would succeed in attracting to the service abler men. 

 They might do the work with a smaller number of chief officers ; for much of 

 the time of the companies' managers is occupied in internecine disputes. They 

 might handle the traffic more despotically, diminishing the number of trains, 

 or the accommodation afforded by them, or in other ways, to insure more safety ; 

 but would the public bear any curtailment of convenienco ? 



One thing they could, and perhaps would do. In cases where the traffic 

 is varied, and could more safely be conducted with the aid of relief lines, which 

 hold out no sufficient inducement to the companies to make, the Government, 

 being content with a lower rate of interest, might undertake to make them, 

 though then comes the question whether, when the whole of this vast machine 

 came to depend for supplies on annual votes of Parliament, money would be 

 forthcoming in greater abundance than it is under the present system. 



But the consideration of this subject involves other and more difficult 

 questions. 



Where are the labours of Government to stop ? The cares of State which 

 cannot be avoided are already heavy, and will grow heavier every year. Dock- 

 yard establishments are trifling to what the railway establishments, which 

 already employ 250,000 men, would be. The assumption of all the railways 

 would bring Government into conflict with every passeuger, every trader, every 

 merchant, and every manufacturer. With the raUway companies there would 

 be no difficulty ; they would sell their undertakings to any one provided the 

 price was ample. 



