The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-02 00:00:00

RAILWAYS AND THE PUBLIC.

A paper on the question " How to make railways
remunerative to the shareholders, beneficial to the public,
and profitable to the State," has been read at the Society of
Arts by Mr. Raphael Brandon. Mr. Webster, Q.C., occu-
pied the chair. Mr. Brandon's proposal is that Govern-
ment should.avail itself of the power it possesses, and unite
the whole of the railways under one general management,
so that they should become a recognised branch of
the public service, available for the whole population
—a passenger being enabled to travel one journey of any
distance in one given direction at a sum little more than
nominal. He supposes that the numbers at present tra-
velling would be increased sixfold if they could travel one
journey of any distanCe in one direction for the sum of
threepence, which is the minimum sum he has based his
calculations upon. Existing fares under the proposed
minimum prices may remain as at present ; they are
comparatively • few, and would not affect the calcu-
lations. He finds that during the year ending 1865,
passenger trains to the number of 3,448,509 ran
over 71,206,818 miles, carried 251,959,862 passengers,
and produced £14,724,802 ; this gives an average of nearly
21 miles and 73 passengers for each train, that is about 3}
passengers for each mile, the average fare paid by each pas-
senger being ls. 2d. Six times the number of passengers
could be carried for a very small (if any) additional expense,
and if a universal fare of 2d. was charged for any distance
for each person, at a very moderate computation six times
the present number would travel, and would produce
£18,896,989, being 1;4,172,187 in excess of the present
receipts. This calculation is made supposing that
each person pays only a 3d. fare ; but as it would be
necessary to divide the passengers into different classes, a
much larger receipt may be reckoned upon ; for this pur-
pose he would divide the traffic first in half, supposing
that half the passengers would travel by single fares, and
these he would sub-divide into three classes as follows : at
one shilling for first class, sixpence for second class, three-
pence for third class. The other half he considers would
take yearly tickets, which would be issued fur first and
second class passengers at £25 and £l5 each respectively,
giving the holders the privilege of travelling any distance
in any direction, in carriages provided expressly for their
use. With respect to goods traffic., he has not thought
fit to enter into any calculations. lioubtless it would
increase, but he does not think it at all likely to increase
in the same proportion as the passenger traffic. For the
Government to take up the railways no money would be
needed; each shareholder would receive in return for his
shares Government railway stock, bearing interest at
4 2-sths per cent., guaranteed by the State. The idea of
carrying a passenger from London to Edinburgh for 3d.
may be said to be preposterous, but we must remember
that it was not until Sir Rowland Hill had shewn
its feasibility that anyone thought it reasonable to
take is letter from London to Edinburgh for the same
charge as from London to Richmond. It may be said that
the analogy does not exist, that the half-ounce of a letter
is nothing, but that a passenger is really heavy, and makes
some difference in the cost of running a train. In reply,
he says that the delivery of a letter is the most expen-
sive part of its cost to the Post Office, whereas a pas-
senger takes himself away ; that the average oe trains run
could each carry six times as many passengers as are now
conveyed by them, and though the expense might be
slightly increased, the increase could be but extremely
small, while the receipts would be enormously augmented.
The public would speedily reap the advantages of a com-
plete and harmonious system of management, with regular
and continuous trains running in all directions, and a
general diminution of expense ; trade would be benefited
enormously by the increased facilities of traffic, while the
effect upon the money market of at once converting
£453,000,000 of sunk capital into readily convertible
securities would be a stimulus of enormous value to the
country.

NEW ACT ON PUBLIC DEPARTMENTS.—By an
Act of Parliament, which has received the Royal Assent,
fees and other casual receipts, which from ancient usage,
&c., have been received by persons holding public offices
under the Crown, are now to be paid into the Exchequer
to the credit of the Consolidated Fund. •
A. deputation from the Royal Agricultural
Society, consisting of Lord Walsingham, Lord Bridport,
Lord Chesham, Colonel Kingscote, M.P., Mr. Torr, Mr.
Randall, and Mr. Hall Dare (secretary), has waited
upon the Prince of Wales with the request that his Royal
Highness would act as president of the society during the
ensuing year, to which the Prince consented. The Duke
of Richmond (president) was unavoidably prevented from
accompanying the deputation.
REDUCTION OF WAGES IN THE IRON TRADE.—
On 'Wednesday the colliery proprietors of South Stafford-
shire held a meeting at the Swan Hotel, Wolverhampton,
to consider the course to be pursued now that the Iron-
masters' Association have resolved to reduce the price of
finished iron, and the rate of wages of the ironworkers.
The district embraced by tile meeting is what is known as
the thin-coal, as distinguished from the thick-coal district
(chiefly in East Worcestershire), and that is mainly de-
pendent upon the iron trade. On other occasions when a
rise or fall has taken place in iron and wages, there has
been a corresponding movement in the thin-coal business,
the change being a rise or fall, as the case may be, of 3d. a
day in the miners' wages. This practice has been observed
in the course which the meeting pursued, for it was re-
solved " That the wages of colliers and miners be reduced
'kJ_ a &Tr.')

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tows.

LONDON, THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 1868.

To-night the struggle begins again, and after the
sort of breathing time that has been allowed, we
may expect to see the combatants reappear in full
force and with fresh vigour. Perhaps the omission
of a day iu the debate may prove to have been o
great service to those who would fain take a dis-
passionate view of the question if they are only
allowed a little time to do so. It is amusing to
notice the anxiety that is displayed in some quar-
ters to magnify trifles and to invent when facts
cannot possibly be distorted. The last grand coup
in that line is the pretended discovery that Mr. HARDY
and Lord STANLEY have been quite at variance in the
tenour of the remarks that they addressed to the
House. This is really quite absurd, and it cer-
tainly shows the very insufficient ground which
these backbiters have to go upon that they thus
have recourse to so petty a style of argument, and
so unwarrantable a mode of attack. Why not
keep to the plain matter-of-fact part of the ques-
tion, and state the case broadly, for the edification
of Parliament and the public. Animated by a
sudden zeal, Mr. GLADSTONE has thought
fit to provoke a contest upon the merits
and demerits of the Irish Church Establish-
ment, and has determined to try the strength
of the Government upon the issue of it. The
Ministry have acted like wise statesmen in refusing
to consent to the extravagant proposition of the
leader of the Opposition ; and it is no exaggeration
to say that had they done so they would have for
feited the confidence of their party and compro-
mised themselves in the opinion of the country. It
is, in the first place, a most unpopular thing this
disestablishment without let or hindrance, and
numerous petitions have testified to the truth of
this, as well as influential meetings. It is true that
there have been counter, demonstrations, but they
have not been of so significant a character as the
others. Perhaps the indecent haste in which Mr.
GLADSTONE has acted could not have been better
exposed than it was by Mr. HARDY, when he said
that the Opposition could not even wait for the re-
port of their own commission, for it was by Lord
RUSSELL that this proposition was first of all made.
The more we look upon the Resolutions now before
the House the more unconstitutional do they ap-
pear. In his extreme anxiety to drive the Ministry
from office, Mr. GLADSTONE has acted in a manner
quite inexcusable for one who has been so long in
office, and knows, or ought to know, so well the
rules of the House and the forms of the constitution.
He utterly ignores the existence of the House of
Peers, and goes on as if Mr. BRIGHT'S millennium had
come, and, like our brethren across the Atlantic, we
had no such troublesome appendage belonging
to us.
How can this House of Commons dictate a policy
to the next one, and that next one to be constituted
so differently in some respects, but also how is the
House to pray the Crown to act upon these Resolu-
tions in defiance of the privileges of the other branch
of the Legislature ? It is really quite preposterous ;
and if, on the other hand, it be argued that nothing
practical will come out of them, why take up the
time of the House already so valuable by the dis-
cussion cf a question only raised for party pur-
poses ?
We have as yet met with no speaker on Mr.
GLADSTONE'S side who has condescended to inform
us why the sudden change referred to should be
made. Mr. BRIGHT has been the most explicit, but
he has rested his claims too much on Fenianism to
secure approval or win confidence. Let it not be
said that the dastardly efforts of Americanise llrish
and disaffected parties had any weight in shaking
the trust which we as a nation put in the power
and value of our time-honoured Constitution.
Such an argument is an additional reason for
delay. By the time the new Parliament
should have assembled it will be more competent
to deal with the difficult question, because a great
deal of the excitement now prevailing will have
passed away. When the Report of the Commission
shall be laid before Parliament, then, and not till
then, will be the right and fitting time to settle what
changes, alterations, modifications, and improve-
ments may be required in the Irish Church ; and,
if need be, the House might take steps for its abo-
lition ; but that would be quite another thing from
rushing into extremes and jumping at conclusions,
as Mr. GLADSTONE so imperiously demands
that the House of Commons should do.
Far from the critics who assail the Government
being borne out in their animadversions or justified
in their impertinent surmises, we wonder that they
have got out of the difficulties that lay before them,
very successfully as yet. Lord STANLEY com-
manded the attention of the House from first to
last, and his speech will long be remembered as a
masterpiece of its line, which was that of clear and
concise reasoning and common-sense
_definitions.