Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/259

 been constructed under various conditions, some of them by joint-stock companies, as in England, but guaranteed by the State, while others have been built absolutely by the Government. In the United Kingdom, all the railways have been constructed by joint-stock enterprise, under the sanction of Parliament, without any subsidy or guarantee whatever; but Parliament, in granting the powers to buy land and make a railway, fixes the maximum tolls to be charged, and the Government, under various Acts of Parliament which have been passed from time to time, retains certain powers of inspection and control which will be more particularly detailed hereafter.

It may be said that, prima facie, anyone has the right to construct a railway on their own land and for their own use, and, similarly, a joint-stock company can be formed for any purpose by complying with certain formalities and by the process of registration; but when a number of individuals desire to form themselves into a company for the purpose of making a railway for public traffic, they require to obtain from Parliament compulsory powers for the purchase of land, whether the owners are willing to sell or not, to cross highways, divert roads and footpaths, to bridge rivers, and to make legal bye-laws, the breach of which shall be penal. Therefore, the first thing to be done by any group of promoters who desire to construct a new railway is to deposit a Bill, together with plans showing the course of the line and the limits of deviation. The Bill, if opposed, is referred to a Select Committee of the House of Commons, and subsequently to a like Committee of the House of Lords, and both these Committees sit and hear all the evidence that can be adduced, both on behalf of, and in opposition to, the Bill, as well as