The Sun.
London, England, 1839-10-04 00:00:00

RAILWAYS.

PARLIAMENTARY PAPER.
The Se:ect C,,mmittee appointed to inquire into the
state of Communication by R ailways, to whom
several petitions were referred ; ar.d who were
empowered to report their opinion and obi rva-
tions, together with the minutes of evidence
taken before them, from time to time to the
House ;—have considered the matters to them

referred, and have to report,
That although, in the discharge of the duties
confided to them, they have used all the diligence
in their power, yet they feel, that on a subject of
so much importance, where the immediate interests
of enterprising individuals, and the convenience
and intercourse of the whole community, are con-
cerned, further and more accurate information
ought to be collected before your Committee could
feel itself justified in mak:ng definite recommenda-
tions upon many of the various questions which
have come under their notice.
The difficulty of arriving at a satisfactory con-
clusion upon seveial points which have been sub-
mitted to the investigation of your Committee has
arisen from the recent origin of railway communica-
tion, from ,the rapidity, of its growth, and from the
variety of unexpected results consequent upon so
great a change in the internal communications of
the country ; while the large amount of capital in-
vested in these speculations, and a strong disincli-
nation to interfere hastily with undertakings of such
national importance, have supplied additional rea-
sons for inducing great caution before offering the
opinions which your committee feel disposed to ex-

press.
On this account they would recommend that this
Committee should be revived at the earliest possible
period of the next Session of Parliament, in order
to continue and complete their investigations ; and
they feel that this would be a safer course than any
attempt to legislate prematurely in matters where
there is a difference of opinion among persons well
qualified to form a correct judgment, and where there
is but little experience to guide to a satisfactory
conclusion.
There are, however, some questions upon which
your Committee have felt it to be incumbent upon
them, without delay, to offer recommendations to
the House, and there are other points in regard to
which they believe that they cannot better execute
the task which has been entrusted to them than by
drawing the attention of Parliament, of the public
at large, and of the railway proprietors themselves,
to a careful review of the difficulties that must arise
from an extended intercommunication throughout
the country, solely maintained by companies acting
for their private interests, unchecked by competition
and uncontrolled by authority.
Among the various important subjects offered to
their notice, and deserving investigation, the Com-
mittee have taken much evidence on the following
points :
First—The financial situation of tail way com-
panies.
Second—The power which has been given by
the Legislature to railway companies, and the pro-
bable effect which the exercise of this power will
have upon the general convenience of the public,
and the intercourse of the country.
Third—The system under which railways are
taxed.

Your Committee have examined into the amount
of capital authorised to be raised by these com-
panies, whether by the creation of shares or by
loan ; and much information on these points will
be found in the evidence of the directors of various
companies.
Here your Committee must advert to the fact that
the paper No. 3, inserted in the appendix to this
report, and prepared by an officer of the House,
has been found to be in some instances incorrect ;
this inaccuracy may be partly attributed to the great
number of Acts of Parliament under which the
several powers were obtained, but more especially
to the circumstance that, in some of the Acts by
which existing railway companies have been incor-
porated, the optional power has been given to them
of raising additional sums either by the creation of
fresh shares, or by borrowing money in various
ways. It is also right to notice that in several in-
stances railroad companies have incorporated them-
selves with others, have changed their designation,
and have extended the scope of their original un-
taking.
Your Committee directed their attention to the
course pursued by many railway companies in
coming to Parliament for the purpose of raising
additional sums, rather than by enforcing the pay-
ment of the money which they had been empowered
to raise under former Acts. The reasons which
induced companies to adopt such a course will be
found in the evidence. _

.......___
Your Committee also call the attention of the
House to the manner in which the shares or por-

tions_ of the capital stock of several companies are
made the subject of speculation—the insecurity and
inconvenience of the course of dealing, and the
evasion practised upon the revenue. Railway Acts
provide that the transfers of shares shall be made
by deed; and, to give validity to the transaction, the
deed is required to be registered in the books of the
company to which it relates ; but no time is stipu-
lated within which such registration must take
place. The practice has usually been for a broker
to settle the price or value of the share between the
vendor and the purchaser; and a printed form of
transfer is filled up, except as to the purchaser's
name, which being left blank, the deed is signed by
the vendor and delivered to the purchaser. The deed
bears the stamp of the ad valorem duty, according
to :he price actually paid, but from that moment
the transfer passes from hand to hand possibly for
many months without the payment of any duty
upon the several transactions subsequent to the
first, by which not only is the duty evaded in those
subsequent cases, but if the value of the shares con-
tinues to increase no reference whatever is had to
that increase in the several transfers subsequent to

the first, and the deed is not filled up until, for
some reason or other, a purchaser thinks proper
to register his share, and then the transfer is filled
up with his name, and taken to the office of the
company.
Not only is the revenue by such means defrauded,
but the following consequences attach :-
1. The deed itself, in strictness of law, is said
to be either a nullity when executed in blank, or
invalidated by the insertion of the name of a sub-
sequent purchaser after its execution.
2. The vendor, if a dishonest man, may sell his
share a second time, and the second purchaser,
upon registering his transfer, before any notice of
a prior sale had reached the company, would have
the better title.
3. The vendor appearing upon the Company's
hooks to be the proprietor of the share, his credi-
tors, in case of bankruptcy, would claim to be en-
titled to it as a part of of his general estatate.
4. Upon the same principle it would be subject
to be taken into execution for the debt of any indi-
vidual creditor of the vendor.
5. The vendor, although he ceased to have any
beneficial interest in the share, is liable to be sued
for any calls made upon the share at any time du-
ring which he appeared by the company's books to
be the proprietor.
6. The company is unable to ascertain with
certainty who are really beneficially entitled to the
shares, and are much inconvenienced in obtain-
ing payment of calls and collecting consents to any
arrangements requiring individual concurrence.
Your Committee are fully aware of the very great
importance of the considerations belonging to this
branch of the inquiry, but they do not feel them-
selves warranted, under the terms of their appoint-
ment, to express any opinion upon it to the House.
Should • this Committee, however, be re-appointed
in the ensuing Session, this is a subject to which
their attention should be particularly directed.
The evidence taken by your Committee has esta-
blished that in almost every case into which they
have inquired the Parliamentary estimates of the
expense of constructing railways have fallen far short
of the actual expenditure. Your Committee have
endeavoured to ascertain under what heads, and
owing to what causes, such excess of expenditure
has arisen, and they believe that it may be attri-
buted to the following circumstances :--The parties
promoting the various Bills, as well as the engineers,
were devoid of that experience which would have
enabled them to form an accurate calculation as to
the extent and nature of the work required, the
materials to be used, the quantity of land necessary
for the purposes of the railroad, and the build-
ings indispensable for the accommodation of the
public. In addition to these causes may be stated
the over-sanguine expectations, and the natural de-
sire on the part of the promoters of the work to keep

as low as possible the calculations of the antici-
pated expenditure, and thus to show their under-
taking in a favourable light. The cost of the land
required for the railroads has frequently exceeded the
value estimated before the passing of the Bills.
Moreover, in many cases it will be found that there
was an advance in the price of labour and the cost
of materials after the works had been commenced,
thus deranging in two important particulars the
total amount of the estimate. The works them-
selves were also of a magnitude never before at-
tempted ; and the scale upon which they were
necessarily constructed made calculations founded
upon former experience totally inapplicable. After
making, however, every allowance for these circum-
stances, it appears questionable whether sufficient
care was in all cases exercised by the companies or
their engineers in bringing full and well-considered
estimates of the probable cost under the notice of
Parliament ; and in several instances, undoubtedly,
plans for railroads have been submitted to Parlia-
ment as mere speculations, by projectors totally
unconnected with the district, who were little
anxious for the ultimate accomplishment of the
undertaking, so long as they could derive a tempo-
rary profit from the preliminary business which
such works necessarily occasion. These remarks,
however, do not apply to those many useful public
undertakings which redound as much to the credit
of their promoters as they conduce to the general
benefit of the public.
There can be no doubt as to the accuracy of the
statements made by several of the witnesses, that
it was impossible, before the opening of the railroads,
to calculate the nature and extent •f the accommo-
dation which would be required to meet the conve-
nience of the public, and thus the estimates pre-
sented to Parliament, as to the cost of erecting sta-
tions on the line of the Railway, have been defi-
cient to a very great extent ; the demands of the
public having greatly exceeded what, in the first
instance, was anticipated. The cost of engines and
carriages has also increased very considerably ; the
price of a locomotive engine having risen from about
1,0001. to 1,4001. or 1,6001.;' besides which a greater
amount of locomotive power, involving increased ex-
pense, has been found necessary, and has occasioned
very considerable excess beyond the calculations
which were originally made under this head of
charge.
The second head of inquiry to which the Com-
mittee have directed their attention is, the power
which has been given by the Legislature to railway
companies, and the probable effect which the exer-
cise of this power will have upon the general con-
venience of the public, and the intercourse of the
country.

It does not appear to have been the intention
of Parliament to give to a railway company the
complete monopoly of the means of communica-
tion on their line of road ; on the contrary, pro-
vision was made in all or most of the Acts of In-
corporation to enable other persons to place and
run engines and carriages on the road, upon pay-
ment of certain tolls to the company. The inten-
tion of Parliament in this respect cannot, how-
ever be carried into effect in the way
contemplated by the Legislature ; for it is ob-
vious that the payment of legal tolls is only a
very small part of the arrangement which
is necessary to open railroads to public
competition ; any person with the mere authority to
place an engine and carriages on a railway would
be practically unable to supply his engine with
water, or to take up or set down his passengers at
any convenient station or terminus, and, indeed,
would be placed in such a disadvantageous situation
that all competition with the company would be
rendered impossible.
The safety of the public also requires that upon
every railway there should be one system of manage-
ment, under one superintending authority, which
should have the power of making and of enforcing
all regulations necessary for the protection of pas-
sengers, and for duly conducting and maintaining
this new mode of communication. On this account
it is necessary that the company should possess a
complete control over their line of road, although
they should thereby acquire an entire monopoly of
the means of communication. But if these exten-
sive powers are to be granted to private companies,
it becomes more important that they should be so
controlled as to secure the public as far as possible
from any abuse which might arise under this irre-
sponsible authority.
It will be found to be the opinion of some of the
witnesses that the interests of the railway com-
panies and of the public can never be at variance,
and that the managers of these great establish-
ments, acting with an enlightened view of their
own interests, will always have a due regard to
the general advantage of the community. A more
strict investigation has, however, shown that this
assumption is not without exceptions : a main ob-
ject which the directors of a company must have
in view is to obtain a good return for the carital
expended, while it is the primary interest of the
public that the intercourse should be regularly
maintained with the greatest safety, speed, and
economy. To a certain extent it is undoubtedly
for the advantage of the company to satisfy the
wishes and supply the wants of the community.
especially on those lines where other means of
communication yet exist and maintain a competition,
although feeble, against these powerful establish-
ments. But cases have already arisen in which
the interests of private companies and of the pub-
lic have bee❑ found to be opposed to each other ;
and it appears probable that, in proportion as this
new system shall supersede other modes of travel-
ling, other inconvenient consequences will ensue.
unless some authority be established to watch over
and protect the interests of the public. The fear
of a rival line may, in some instances, be a check
upon the conduct of a company ; but there are fe«
districts in which the public will have any opportu-
nity of selection, and obvious and serious difficul-
ties must arise in carrying this means of contro,
into execution.

The Leeds and Selby Railway affords an illus-
tration of a case where the interests of a company
have been at variance, and have prevailed over the
interests of the public. Mr. Gott, in his evidence,
compares two periods of time, and shows that when
the company raised the fares, and diminished the
number of passengers by 12,000, the income of the
company was improved by 1,3001.
From the evidence of Mr. Kitson, the treasurer
of the Manchester, Bolton, and Bury Railway, it
appears that a larger revenue was produced to that
company also by the conveyance of a smaller num
ber of passengers. These results will be easily seen
by a reference to the accounts contained in the ap-
pendix relating to the Leeds and Selby, the Man-
chester and Bolton, and the Dundee and Newtyle
Railway ; and this as a point which your Com-
mittee feel to be especially deserving the attention
of Parliament and of the public.
It is, of course, the duty of the directors, watch-
ing over the pecuniary interest of the company, to
maintain the faces at the point which will produce
the largest amount of income ; an obligation, how-
ever, which may operate most injuriously upon the
public, and especially upon that class of passengers
who are least able to afford the charge.
The injurious effect of the railway system upon
the poorer class of passengers will be more severely
felt in proportion as other means of cheap travel-
ling by stage coaches, carriers' carts, and waggons
are gradually superseded. Upon this point, as
well as upon the available means of applying a re-
medy, the opinions of Mr. Robert Stephenson and
Mr. Bury are well entitled to attention.
It has been already shown that the interests of
private companies and of the public may be at
variance, as far as regards the fares of travellers ;
it is also doubtful whether the same observation be
not applicable to the cost of conveying goods by
railroads. Some petitions upon this subject
have been referred to your Committee, and
they have consequently made much inquiry upon
this important point. Witnesses, whose opinions
on this question are deserving of careful considera-
tion, will be found to differ entirely upon the com-
parative advantage of companies themselves be-
coming carriers, or of other persons undertaking
the carriage of the goods, while the company only
supply the locomotive power, and fix the hours of
departure and arrival. It is stated that the com-
pany can provide, on their own line, for the convey-
ance of goods more cheaply than can be done by
any other carriers, because the general system for
the collection and delivery, the warehousing, and
the carriage of the goods must, it is maintained,
be more economical than when several rival esta-
blishments are kept up, each having a less amount
of business ; and also because the nature of railroad

411-7--The cost of the locomotive on the Great--Westtre
Railway varies from 1,8.501. to 2,1001.