848 



venient to distinguish the town from the country populations by the salient 

 feature which each exhibits. ISTow, it is almost a self-evident truism to say 

 that, in proj^ortion as settlement spreads throughout the country and the land 

 becomes occupied by direct producers, there will be a continually increasing 

 demand for more tiuders of various classes, by whom the increased exchanging 

 and distribution must be carried on. If facilities of intercommunication, which 

 is only another expression for cheapness of transport, have the effect (of which I, 

 for one, have no doubt) of promoting the settlement of the country districts 

 and stimulating production, the town populations must increase in a corres- 

 ponding ratio. More producers will require more exchangers. Between the 

 producer and the consumer there is almost always one middle man, and 

 generally more than one. The wholesale dealer and the retail dealer, the sea 

 carrier and the land carrier, often even an agent or broker between these, are 

 all set in motion by increased j^i'oduction ; and they are all, or nearly all, 

 dwellers in towns. 



I now approach the last branch of my subject, and it is one which presents 

 some complication, and therefore somewhat greater difficulty. The gains 

 which I have enumerated will not, and cannot, be shared equally by all classes 

 of the community, whilst the price which we must pay in order to secure these 

 gains will (until railways pay a profit equal to the interest on the capital 

 expended upon them) be borne by the whole population. No taxpayer can 

 escape his contribution to the charge, howsoever small his share may be, while 

 his remoteness from the lines of railway may deprive him of direct benefit. 

 This is undoubtedly inseparable from all internal improvements, but if the 

 people of every district could successfully oppose improvements in every other 

 district, improvement could never begin. In the case of railways, however, 

 the advantages are moi-e generally difixised than those arising from ordinary 

 local improvements. In the first place, a trunk railway is partially available 

 to persons living at considerable distances from its line of progress. They will 

 generally be able to send their pi^oduce to the nearest station, which will 

 secure to them the benefit of a portion of the line. Thus the wave of cheap 

 transport, as well as the wave of equalized prices, though continually 

 diminishing in its advance, does in practice reach to considerable distances. 

 Still, it must be obvious that there will always be remote localities, which the 

 beneficial influence cannot directly reach. But there is an indirect consequence 

 which is felt universally, and that alone, I think, is worth the small share of 

 taxation v/hich, as I have said, those who reside in localities remote from the 

 i-ailway lines cannot escape from. This benefit, arising out of cheapness, which 

 indirectly reaches all and invigorates all, I will now endeavour to explain. 



If, as I trust I have proved, the)-e is a saving from cheap ti^ansport spread 

 over the whole community, what is done with that saving? A portion, 

 no doubt, will not ultimately be saved at all. Those who find it hard to 



