year. Under these are forty clerks, in five
divisions, of whom the salaries ascend from
eighty to three hundred and fifty pounds,
The progressive rise of salary is managed
upon the principle described in our account of
the Home Department, it being one that is
common to all government offices.

Certain changes in the staff of the Board of
Trade have been suggested, and are being
carried out. It is proposed, for example, to
have only one chief secretary, and under him
three assistant secretaries—one for the general
trade department, one for railway business,
and one for the mercantile marine. It is
thought that the statistics and corn returns
may be thrown into the business of the
general trade department, and that the number
of the clerks may be reduced by increasing
the number of copyists.

By adopting the division into three parts,
recognised by the suggestion of the three assistant
secretaries, we can describe the business
of the Board of Trade in an extremely simple
manner. The general trade department,
which would have cognisance of miscellaneous
matters, it will be most convenient to speak
of last. We begin, therefore, with the
Board's concern in railway management, and
in the superintendence of the mercantile
marine.

The English railway system, as every one
knows, is the result of private enterprise.
Parliament has passed some general laws to
regulate the internal administration of the
companies with regard to capital, direction,
meetings of shareholders, dividends, purchase
of land, etc., to protect the public against
very improper construction and working of
the lines of rail, to ensure due conveyance
upon fixed terms of troops and of the mails,
orders. Both houses have their standing
orders which establish conditions that all
applicants on behalf of railway enterprise are
bound to fulfil.

In the first place notice of each intended
application must be sent to the Board of Trade
before a certain day which precedes each
meeting of parliament. All applications so
received are classified by the Board, and
presented in a report made to the House of
Commons as soon as it assembles. By help of this
report the general railway committee of the
house is enabled to distribute the various
projects in the most convenient way among
the sub-committees, which decide upon their
fate, and from whose decision applicants
have no appeal. Should a railway project
deposited with the Board of Trade, after
careful examination be found to contain in its
provisions any legal defect or matter that
seems to be prejudicial to the public interests,
the Board directs to that fact the attention of
the chairman of the general committee. Any
clauses or amendments that may be required
to give effect to its suggestions it prepares,
and after the bill in question has passed the
ordeal  of the parliamentary sub-committee,
the Board of Trade again looks for any flaws
that it may contain, and if they appear, points
them out to the chairman. Finally, in order
to provide still greater security to the public,
there is a standing order of the House of
Lords that no railway bill shall be read a
third time in that house unless it has been
deposited three days before such reading
with the Board of Trade; so that it receives
then a third scrutiny from the Board with
especial reference to its bearing on the public
interests. The points chiefly looked to in
the course of these three scrutinies, concern
the way of raising and applying capital,
prevention of excessive borrowing, or of the
payment of interest out of capital; a due adjustment
of the rights of shareholders, provision
for compensation according to the very
various cases that may possibly arise, and
the insertion of a clause subjecting the
railway to the authority of future legislation.

After a railway has been authorised and
its construction is complete, it cannot be opened
unless notice of its completion has been sent
to the Board of Trade, and it has been
examined and approved by the Board's railway
inspectors. If anything be found unsafe or
incomplete the opening must be postponed
until the scruples of the Board are satisfied.

After the railway has been opened, its line
and rolling stock must be at all times open
to the visits of the government inspectors.
Upon the construction of roads and bridges,
upon questions of junctions, curves, gradients,
etc., in connexion with railway works, the
decision of the Board is final; and it may,
after hearing evidence, by its certificate,
permit any necessary deviation from the plans
and sections authorised by parliament. The
Board of Trade may also regulate the speed
of trains with a view to the safety of the
public, and the hours appointed for the
running on each line of the one parliamentary
train that is required to take passengers for
a penny a mile, at a rate not less than twelve
miles an hour, must be such as the Board of
Trade has sanctioned. The Board adjudicates
in case of dispute between railway and
railway, gives effect by its approval to the bye-
laws of each company, requires from all railway
companies annual returns of tolls and
traffic as well as of accidents, and being
charged generally with the enforcement of
all railway acts is at the same time the
official referee to crown and parliament on
any railway question that arises. Here, then,
is no lack of work for one department of the
Board of Trade. We pass on to another.

One consequence of the repeal of the old
English navigation laws was the necessity for
a new regulation of the merchant service.
This task was undertaken in the year
eighteen hundred and fifty, and is considered
to have been completed last year. Five
years ago no department of state was charged
with the care of the merchant service. We
have now a marine department of the Board