Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/255

 to-day from London to Aberdeen, on the completion of his journey, his ticket is sent to the Clearing-house, and each of the companies over whose railway he has travelled is credited with its due mileage proportion of the fare he has paid. The same course is adopted with regard to the invoices of merchandise traffic; but, in addition to this, every station makes a return to the Clearing-house daily of passengers and parcels booked through, and of carriages and waggons, either loaded or empty, received and despatched. Then, scattered all over the country, at every junction of two railways, the Clearing-house have number-takers stationed, who record the number and description of every vehicle that passes a junction going from one line to another, and these men forward returns to the head office in Seymour Street All these returns are examined, analysed, and checked, one with another, and thus, with enormous labour, but with the most marvellous accuracy, the accounts are made up and the balances declared. The advantages of such an institution as this, which has had such great results in facilitating intercourse and the trade of the country, can hardly be over-estimated, for it is only by means of this system that the produce of remote districts has been brought to the door of the consumer; while, as for Ireland, if the facilities thus afforded for her cattle, poultry, butter and eggs to command the English markets had not existed, it is certain that the social condition of her people must have been much worse than it is.

The Clearing-house, however, discharges other functions besides the division of traffic receipts. It affords a convenient neutral ground where the various companies, whatever their, conflicting interests or differences