Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/41

 before being appointed, and due regard is had, not only to their knowledge and experience, but to their general intelligence, capacity, and character.

For the superior positions of inspectors, foremen, station-masters, and the higher grades of the service, it is the invariable rule to select men from the lower ranks, solely on the ground of merit, the best man for a particular post being chosen, irrespective of seniority or any other circumstance. Thus it is no unusual thing for a station-master, by reason of special aptitude, to rise to the position of divisional superintendent, and even of General Manager.

As regards the highest positions, at the time when railways were a new feature in the social life of the country, and their promoters looked around them for men suitable to direct their operations and control the large, number of persons engaged in working them, they found none who, in their opinion, at that time, were so suitably as officers who had retired from the army and navy, it being supposed that their acquaintance with discipline and the habits of command they had acquired in the pursuit of their former avocations, would stand them in good stead in their novel career. Thus, in connection with the London and North-Western Railway, we recall the names of Captain Huish and Captain Bruyeres; the North Eastern Company appointed Captain O'Brien as their general manager; the Lancashire and Yorkshire, Captain Lawes, R.N., and the Caledonian, Captain Coddington, R.N., besides other officers of the two services, whose names might be mentioned. As time went on, and the strictly commercial character of these great undertakings became more evident and pronounced, it was perceived that the duties of the highest