Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/268

 providing for a revision (which may imply a reduction) of the tolls fixed by the Acts of Parliament authorising the construction of the railways, constitutes an extreme measure not warranted by the circumstances or by any failure in their duty to the public on the part of the railway companies. On the contrary, the Railway Rates Committee of 1882, after going very fully into the subject and hearing an immense mass of evidence, mostly offered in a spirit hostile to the railway companies, have recorded their conviction in the following words, which will be found in their report:—

"Your Committee, in conclusion, report that on the whole of the evidence they acquit the railway companies of any grave dereliction of their duty to the public &hellip; Your Committee find that the rates for merchandise on the railways of the United Kingdom are, in the main, considerably below the maxima authorised by Parliament."

But there are not wanting those who are advocates of measures of a much more sweeping nature even than those involved in the legislation of the last session, and who go so far as to propose nothing less than that the Government should become the purchasers of all the railways in the United Kingdom, and work them as a department of State for the benefit of the public, the assumption being that by the concentration of the management, the absence of competition, and the appropriation of the profits reaped by the existing railway companies to the reduction of the present rates and charges, great benefits must accrue to the public at large. This proposal is one which has been more or less the theme of discussion from a very early period, and indeed it is a fact not perhaps generally known that