parties, and the great subsequent economy from
the cessation of contests and the saving in working
expenses that would result from the amalgamation
of the lines.

Well, we will grant all that to be reasonable
enough, and well worth public consideration.
But how is the last grand difficulty to be
conquered? If the iron roads belong to the country,
and are to be subject in every respect to legislation
with regard to nothing but the public interest,
who is to direct them? For, certainly,
neither Mr. Galt nor Mrs. Grundy, nor anybody
else, will permit the mass of patronage involved
in the gift of all the places upon all the railways
to be vested in the crown. Nobody believes
that all the railways of the nation can be as well
governed by a Circumlocution Office as they are
governed now by their own boards of able and
competent directors. What Mr. Galt proposes
is, that government should have very little railway
patronage, and that the administration of
the railways should remain still with the ablest
of the men who now administer them. The
country itself in parliament learns what it ought
to pay, and decides what it will pay, for railway
service, and directs every change of system that
it finds to be necessary for its safety, comfort, or
convenience. The present directors of each
important railway line elect their most competent
men to form a railway board of four-and-twenty
members, under a president and two vice-
presidents, who should be responsible servants of
the State: one vice-president permanent, for
mastery of business details: the other two removable
with a change of government. The duties
of this board, composed of men acquainted with
the railway affairs of each part of the country,
should be strictly administrative, to carry out
the system as required by parliament. Under
them, each line should be managed in harmony
with the main system, but with minute reference
to the convenience of the district served
by it, having the same local board of directors
that it now has, and the same staff;
the whole existing personnel of the railway
service being retained, and all fair compensation
made to any one whose office is abolished. And
it does really seem far from impossible to effect
an arrangement which shall make the public a
large gainer, while nobody whose fortunes
are in any way connected with the railway
interest shall be a loser, and very many will
be gainers. In fact, the railway interest is, we
believe, not recusant; the only real obstacle to
the achievement of this great change which
would knock off two-thirds of the expense of
railway conveyance, is public inattention, and, in
the absence of a knowledge of that fact, natural
incredulity as to the chance of so great a boon
being attainable.

For a spirited and valuable sketch of the
possibilities of the case, and the facts from
which they are inferred, we commend everybody
to the short published address on Railway
Reform, read by MR. EDWIN CHADWICK
to the National Association for the Promotion
of Social Science, as President of its
Department of Economy and Trade. Branch
railways can now be constructed at one-third of
the cost of the old ones; and by improvements
of construction—including the use of steel
rails, which last ten years longer than iron,
besides being safer—the cost of working can
be reduced. By keeping the goods traffic clear
of the passenger traffic, the trains can be run at
increased speed. The journey to Edinburgh
could be safely reduced from twelve hours to
seven, and more than proportionally cheapened.
Even on lines of inferior construction, trains
are now run at a speed of from fifty to sixty
miles an hour. We should be free also to give
ourselves more complete passenger accommodation;
with a way for guard or passengers from
carriage to carriage; with carriages well warmed,
lighted, and ventilated; and we could have on
the improved lines, movement so easy that the
traveller could write; we could have upon all
lines, easy sleeping-couches to be secured in the
night trains; and arrangements to provide in the
trains tea, coffee, and other refreshments of good
quality, which travellers could take at their own
leisure and convenience, without choking themselves,
or scalding themselves, or suffering
delay upon the journey. All these things are
not only possible, but have actually been
done in the trains furnished by the American
Sanitary Commission for the conveyance of
wounded soldiers; and there is no reason why
one must have a sword or a gunshot wound
to earn the right of travelling in a train
with an attached kitchen, and otherwise made
thoroughly comfortable. Then again: we might
all pay, in a trivial addition to each fare, an
insurance fee, which would make immediate
compensation the rule in all cases of accident,
while enforcing for our own sakes the precautions
by which almost all railway accidents can be
prevented.

At any rate, we should have—especially after
the complete abolition of the law of settlement
—a readier harmony between supply and demand
in the labour market. The man who has
no work in Lancashire could be carried cheaply
into Devonshire if wanted there; or he could
afford to move about freely in search of work.

Goods also could be supplied direct from the
best source. With a harmonised railway system
and cheap parcels carriage, private customers
may be supplied from a hundred miles away, as
easily as from a distant street in the same town.
Retail traders may keep reduced stocks, and
save themselves many a loss by ordering from
the manufacturers perishable articles or articles
of perishable fashion, more nearly as they are
demanded of them by their customers. The fish
of the seaports can be poured into the inland
towns. The mother who may now send her
soldier boy a Bible weighing half a pound for
twopence, but cannot send him a pair of warm
stockings knitted by her hand, may send what
little gift she will, if, with command of the rail-
way system (and saving of the heavy fancy
charge that is now made for conveyance of the
mails), a parcel post be grafted on the existing