Page:The Canal System of England.djvu/72

 adjacent to it; and if the alterations required by the order were not made by the company within such time as it prescribed, the Commissioners might themselves make them. Section 42 also provided that in the event of the misapplication of a Railway Company's funds for the acquisition of any unauthorized interest in a canal, the canal interest purchased in controvention [sic] of its provisions should be forfeited to the Crown, the officers who permitted such application of the Company's funds being made liable for their repayment to the Company.

That Parliament has also shewn its appreciation of the disadvantage of railway-owned canals is seen by the fact that in 1889 the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company was compelled by act of Parliament to sell the canals between Sheffield and the Trent to an independent canal company, to be formed after the passing of the Act.

The cost of transport by Railway differs considerably from that by Canal. It has often been argued that the actual charge imposed by the Railway Companies is a likely criterion of the cost of the service, but this is distinctly a fallacy. In the United Kingdom the Railway Companies have openly proclaimed that the amount of traffic that a particular route will bear, and not the cost of the services rendered, is their basis of charge."