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RAILWAY 
 
 A MA LG A MA TIO N 
 
 1 A PAPER 
 
 I- 
 
 READ BEFORE THE CIVIL AND MECHANICAL 
 ENGINEERS’ SOCIETY, 
 
 March i^th, 1872, 
 
 AT No. 7, WESTMINSTER CHAMBERS, 
 
 BY 
 
 B. HAUGHTON, . 
 
 P ast-P resident. 
 
 Membre de la Societe des Ingenieurs Civils, Paris. 
 
 PRICE TWO SHILLINGS. 
 
 LONDON: * 
 
 Printed and Published by • 
 
 FREDC. C. MATHIESON, BARTHOLOMEW HOUSE, E.C 
 
 187a. 
 

RAILWAY 
 
 A MAL GA MA. TIG N. 
 
 A PAPER 
 
 READ BEFORE THE CIVIL AND MECHANICAL 
 ENGINEERS’ SOCIETY, 
 
 March ijjth, 1872, 
 
 AT No. 7, WESTMINSTER CHAMBERS, 
 
 • BY 
 
 Bf^AUGHTON, 
 
 Past-President. 
 
 Membre de la Societe des Ingenieurs Civils, Paris. 
 
 PRICE TWO SHILLINGS. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed and Published by 
 
 FkhDC. C. MATHIESON, BARTHOLOMEW HOUSE, E.C. 
 
EREDC. C. MATHIESON. 
 
 PRINTER, 
 
 BARTHOLOMEW HOUSE, BARTHOLOMEW LANE, BANK, E.C. 
 

 
 RAILWAY AMALGAMATION, 
 
 This is the most important question that has arisen in connect 
 tion with the Railways of the United Kingdom since their 
 inception, by its magnitude, its social interest, and its great 
 political significance. 
 
 It is further a surprise, and so short is the time we have had 
 to consider its bearings and to test the opinions held by the 
 country with regard to ifc, so abrupt and sudden is the appear, 
 ance with which it has confronted us, that we are dazed by it in 
 • its glare and naked immensity, driven to wrestle with it ere we 
 have had a parley, and to do battle without having had the oppor- 
 tunity to make a reconnaissance , and even without having received 
 the warning of a lonely vedette . 
 
 The London and Korth Western Railway, greatest of the 
 family of companies, has commenced operations by going to 
 if* Parliament this session for powers to unite with the Lancashire 
 and Yorkshire Company, 1,500 miles and 427 miles, making a 
 --total of 1,927 miles. 
 
 This action has been the signal for a general ferment in the 
 world of Railways, and impelled, as if by the electric shock, 
 several of the other companies start upon their legs, and effect 
 provisional amalgamations right and left. The Caledonian seizes 
 the North British ; the South Eastern and the Brighton lines ap- 
 proach e»ach other ; the North Eastern is said to coquette with the 
 Great Northern ; and a cordial understanding is arrived at be- 
 
4 
 
 tween the Great Western and the South Western, or, as described 
 by Mr. Price, an amalgamation is here intended under a “ trans- 
 parent disguise while the Midland annexes the Glasgow and 
 South Western. 
 
 Amalgamation, in short, becomes as an exciting game of chess, 
 in which Railway systems are the pieces, and Railway chairmen, 
 directors, and managers are the players, the board being the soil 
 of busy England. The movement is as natural as self preserva- 
 tion; let us, if we can, investigate its meaning and ultimate 
 direction. 
 
 Exhilarated by the movement that has been described, and 
 by reason, no doubt, of their extreme interest in it (though not 
 partakers of the strife), the public cannot be said to have looked 
 on with apathy ; during the few days that intervened between 
 the first notice given of the new alliance made by the London 
 and Rorth Western Railway Company and the opening of Parlia- 
 ment, meetings were held at Manchester, Liverpool, York, and 
 Birmingham, to consider the momentous question, in which the 
 opinions expressed were of the most varied complexion and ten- 
 dencies. 
 
 The Liverpool Town Council in their report advance thirteen 
 “ objects,” which should be sought as conditions to be embodied 
 in the amalgamation Bills before Parliament. Of these, many are 
 inadmissible, and have no connection with amalgamation, 
 and some are frivolous, but the gravamen of their deliberations 
 lies in “ objects’ ’ 1 and 2, in which they boldly call for a 
 reduction of rates and fares ; they add also a rider, consisting 
 of three classes of grounds for demanding [of Government 
 general safeguards for the public interests, the pith of which 
 is contained in the last, that amalgamation, if legalized, 
 will become subversive of the principle of competition, upon which 
 Parliament has hitherto relied for the protection of the public 
 interests ; and in their closing sentence they significantly say 
 “ that they hesitate to pronounce on the question of the 
 absorption of the Railways by the State.” 
 
s 
 
 The Liverpool Chamber of Commerce give as the result of 
 their deliberations that they consider it inexpedient such a mono- 
 poly should be created unless adequate securities bo taken ; they 
 demand a revision of the maximum tolls, now authorized with a 
 view to secure a reduction of rates where excessive, and the as- 
 similation of the maximum rates authorized by law, with the 
 rates now existing as fixed by competition. Here, it will be 
 observed, they coincide with their sister corporation in asking for 
 a reduction of rates. 
 
 The Chamber of Commerce of Manchester begins where the 
 Liverpool Town Council ends. The president hopes amalgama- 
 tion does not foreshadow a transference of the Railways to 
 Government, and gives as a reason that their management of the 
 Letter and Telegraphs posts are unsatisfactory ; a second member 
 would be alarmed if Government were to take up the Railways, 
 and concurred in the chairman’s objections to the Government 
 management of Telegraphs, saying, that rapidity of communica- 
 tion had come to an end. Sir Edward Watkin was for wise 
 combinations ; he would improve management and improve audit, 
 said there would be a keener competition by increasing the power 
 of one of the companies ; must not have monopoly governed by 
 men of narrow ideas, &c. ; would provide amalgamation on a 
 principle that would intensify competition ; would group general 
 forces together, so that they would become powerful engines of 
 competition ; would be sorry to see the Railways fall into the 
 hands of the Government, such a power of patronage in the pre- 
 sent state of political intelligence would give rise to a gigantic 
 system of jobbing. Mr. Hugh Mason, president, thinks the amal- 
 gamation of the two great Railway Companies, the London and 
 North Western and the Lancashire and Yorkshire, under suitable 
 guarantees, would be of great advantage to the people of Lan- 
 cashire and Yorkshire. 
 
 The Chamber of Commerce of Birmingham recommends to 
 Parliament that restrictions should be imposed in amalgamation 
 Bills for the protection of the public. They wisely avoid taking 
 
G 
 
 the trouble to state their grievances, or particularize their 
 demands. 
 
 The chairman, not so reticent, states his views that the liigh 
 rates already charged are matters of complaint ; that proper 
 safeguard s are required ; that there should be an equalization of 
 rates, same as there is at present for passengers ; and that all 
 charges should be reduced ; and lastly, did not think that rail- 
 ways would be worked any better by the State than under 
 private enterprise. 
 
 The York Corporation confined itself to one resolution — 
 that Government should withhold its assent to amalgamation 
 Bills until a Railway Commission shall report on the question. 
 
 Here then we have the concentrated wisdom of four of the 
 great manufacturing and commercial centres of the country, 
 Manchester, Liverpool, York, and Birmingham, and having culled 
 from it the gist of their deliberations, it is this : All agree that a 
 Select Committee or Parliamentary inquiry of some sort should 
 be appointed to report on amalgamation, with a view to protect 
 the public against the Companies by “ Safeguards.” Liverpool 
 and Birmingham demand a reduction of tolls ; Manchester 
 (with that liberality of mind which it invariably brings to 
 the discussion of imperial questions) waives every thought of 
 opposition to the great principle involved, and as stoutly asserts 
 its abhorrence of State management; Birmingham, in general 
 terms, faintly echoes Liverpool, while York scarcely conceals its 
 approbation of the advanced ideas promulgated in Cottonopolis. 
 The spirit in which the subject is approached by Liverpool 
 is impatient and antagonistic, while Manchester would deal with 
 amalgamation in an amicable and caressing manner, the first 
 resolute for a reduction of tolls as the price of its approval, the 
 last ready to concede everything that is reasonable. 
 
 The general opinion, as expressed in other quarters than 
 those named, is unsettled. There seems to be afloat a certain 
 feverishness at the prospect in front, and a fear that the country 
 is about to be oppressed by some intolerable influence, in whose 
 
7 
 
 presence it stands, and whose prestige has already enveloped it ; 
 and yet the only cry it is capable of uttering is, “ reduce your 
 charges,” the refrain of the complaints of a quarter of a century 
 hack, ever resounding, and ever so far unattended by the en- 
 couraging result, success, because delusive, and built up upon 
 shallow conceits and reasonings. 
 
 What will strike the critic of the situation, amid all this 
 gathering in hot haste, speeching, and discussion is, that no 
 common platform exists ; no settled plan of agitation has been 
 produced ; and no common watchword rallies and gladdens the 
 mass of the clamourers, as it frets beneath the shadow of the im- 
 pending tyranny ; but one weak shout is heard, and that only 
 from a wing of the tremulous regiment, that of “ lower rates and 
 fares.” But how is such a clamour to be gratified ? the hopes 
 that it can be ever such, are indeed of the faintest and smallest ; 
 because to control the charges of a trading company for the 
 wares which it has to distribute would (as a manifest breach of 
 a prominent law of economy) be impracticable in the last degree. 
 
 The thirteen “ objects ” of Liverpool, which it considers 
 ought to command the attention of our legislators, are without 
 exception, matters which are outside the range of the question of 
 amalgamation, and have no reference to it. Many of them were 
 noticed by the Royal Commission of 1865-1866, and they are so 
 glibly paraded, that they suggest the idea that the person who 
 framed the magic thirteen had a copy of the Commissioners’ report 
 before him at the time of preparing them, and quoted freely from 
 it. In vain we seek for an original suggestion or invention 
 amongst them, or any precise allusion to current and loud speak- 
 ing grievances. We find in their report only one tangible ex- 
 pression, that there is a lurking danger in amalgamation, and 
 that it ought to be combatted. 
 
 In addition to the public opinions of the towns named, we 
 must not pass over the opinions of the Press. 
 
 Here we are met by declamation and confession of 
 inability to deal with the subject ; in one paragraph from the 
 
8 
 
 Times is condensed the whole wisdom of the fourth estate in 
 connection with amalgamation: “ It is easier, however, to say 
 that the public should be protected from a new monopoly than 
 to say what form that protection should take.” 
 
 We are then driven to conclude as the upshot of these 
 several expressions of opinion, that the public do not know what 
 they want, seeing they cannot agree to state their wants, and 
 only show their teeth because it is their instinct and hereditary 
 propensity to bark whenever a Railway Company goes to Par- 
 liament with a novel proposition in hand, and one which in the 
 present case, and as far as we can now see, while being of 
 probable advantage to itself, will produce a certain and enduring 
 benefit for the community at large. 
 
 Let us now proceed in a candid spirit to enquire what is the 
 meaning of this project, the mention of which has so much 
 disturbed the serenity of the usually tranquil waters of Liverpool, 
 and so vigorously fanned the flames that at present burn with such 
 remarkable brilliancy and profit on the hearths of Birmingham. 
 
 To form a correct appreciation of its bearings, amalgama- 
 tion must be discussed side by side with the question of expro- 
 priation. The latter has been flaunted before the country for 
 many years ; it possesses many attractions, prominent in which 
 is that of symmetry, a very jewel in the eye of a Briton, as far as 
 it concerns all matters of business : method, regularity arrange- 
 ment, unification, red tape ; all these belong to symmetry in 
 affairs, and go far to make up that whole called management in 
 the conduct of business, which is so dear to his heart. If he 
 could only apply his theories to the organization of his railways, 
 how happy it would make him. We must, however, express a 
 doubt, in common with many of his most trusted and trusty 
 councillors, that this will obtain in our epoch. Theoretically and 
 broadly, unification is desirable, practically, it is infeasible. A 
 better estimate of the educated opinion of the country cannot be 
 had than that contained in the report of the Royal Com- 
 mission of 1865 — 1866, before alluded to. “ We cannot concur 
 
9 
 
 in the expediency of the purchase of the railways by the State, 
 and we are of opinion that it is inexpedient, at present, to subvert 
 the policy which has hitherto been adopted, of leaving the con- 
 struction and management of railways to the free enterprise of the 
 people, under such conditions as Parliament may think fit to 
 impose for the general welfare of the public.” 
 
 The Commission examined over 100 witnesses, and contained 
 the names of Lord Stanley, Mr. Lowe, Mr. Monsell, Mr. Galton, 
 Mr. Maclean, M.Inst.C.E., and other distinguished persons. 
 
 The circumstances of the country, and of the railways, 
 make it unlikely that the Parliamentary Joint Commission, of this 
 year, will look upon expropriation with any more favor than did 
 their predecessors of 1865 — 1866. One circumstance has arisen 
 since the latter period tending to revive the subject, that is, the 
 purchase by the State of the Telegraphs, which experiment has 
 been on the whole, a success, though we occasionally hear loud 
 complaints of its working, while it has, within a short time, 
 pointed out to us one of its annoyances in this way, that the 
 Direction is capable of interfering in the most unconstitutional 
 way with the sanctity of private messages, seizing and de- 
 taining them in passing ; and it also introduces to us the fact, 
 that State management does not succeed in eliminating that one 
 of tbe bugbears of the day, a strike of employes. 
 
 The success of the Telegraph post, however, as far as it goes, 
 cannot be said to herald success of the same kind in a State con- 
 trol of the railways ; in the one case the capital to be controlled 
 is £7,000,000, in the other £600,000,000, between which 
 amounts, there is a great gulf fixed. In the one case the revenue 
 is under £1,000,000, in the other it is £ 50 , 000 , 000 , challenging, 
 in its importance, the revenue of the State ; in the one case, the 
 employes are messengers, juvenile signallers of both sexes, and 
 low salaried clerks, easily amenable to discipline, and without any 
 particular political predilections or aspirations ; in the other, 
 besides vast numbers of ordinary workmen, such as porters, 
 policemen, and labourers, there arc armies of skilled workmen 
 
10 
 
 to be be] cl in hand, with the serious and intelligent engine driver 
 at their head ; above which again, there are phalanxes of clerks 
 of all grades to be kept in good humour and good order, while 
 higher in the scale will be found men filling the traffical and 
 scientific appointments, some of the best paid officials in the 
 islands, distinguished for the highest capacity and talent 
 in their respective spheres ; and in the event of expropriation, 
 likely, by their natural address, deportment, and skill, to assume 
 a high position in State circles, and with every temptation to 
 become politicians, while being members of the railway official 
 noblesse. 
 
 In short, a tolerably well directed telegraph post, such as we 
 now have, can in no way be held to be an example to guide the 
 nation in its search after a model railway administration ; a 
 respectable pigmy may attend to the one, it would be difficult to 
 find in England a man possessed with the capacity necessary to 
 control the other. 
 
 It will be said that the army, a State institution, is not open 
 to the difficulties of control suggestedas possible to arise in a State 
 railway edifice. They are no doubt, to some extent, parallel 
 cases ; but with striking dissimilarities ; for instance, the classes 
 of men are not, as a rule, to be found in the army which would 
 aspire to fill the highest offices in the State railway service. The 
 soldier is the gay and gallant citizen of the world ; upon his 
 arena the sun never ceases to shine, and if he becomes trouble- 
 some at home, he is, by the rules of the service, easily consigned 
 to oblivion in a distant dependency. Not so the high-class rail- 
 way official, however, who is at once a capable man in his pro- 
 fession, and a politician ; his stage is the circumscribed one of 
 the United Kingdom ; he can have his party of supporters and 
 admirers at home, and will live in its midst, and may become, by 
 means of it, combined with his own aptitude, a too powerful 
 servant ; in short, the more the question is examined from the 
 political point of sight, the less attractive the prospect becomes, 
 and the more impossible and impracticable expropriation seems to 
 
11 
 
 be. There are other objections to be brought against expropria- 
 tion. The State would assuredly have, as in the case of the 
 Telegraphs, to pay more than the current values of the lines ; 
 again, having bought the Railways, it may find that, in the pro- 
 gress of discovery, some new system of locomotion may be 
 invented to supersede the Railway, and the State will find itself 
 saddled with, a bad bargain ; and further, having acquired the 
 Railways, is the State to purchase the Canals P for if not, it must 
 work in competition with that most important department of tbe 
 carrying system of the country, amounting to a length of some 
 thousands of miles ; and having bought up the Canals, will the 
 State undertake the management of the various lines of Ships 
 and Steam Vessels that ply from port to port of these islands, 
 carrying on the coasting trade P if not, it will become necessary 
 to establish differential rates on the Railways, so as to render its 
 competition with Shipping and Canal Companies possible, these 
 differential rates being among the principal grievances of the 
 party favorable to expropriation. There is again the objection 
 to expropriation so generally made, that it would place in the 
 hands of the State such an enormous patronage (by reason of the 
 vast number of offices to be filled) as might tend to cripple the 
 independence of the people. This danger can hardly be over- 
 estimated. It has been the fashion latterly to curb the power of 
 the Minister, and diminish his opportunity of patronage by filling 
 many of the Government appointments by means of the system 
 of competitive examinations. This may also be done in the case 
 of Railway State Offices, but only in the lower grades ; the 
 objectionable practice would remain in the case of the high 
 salaried officials. 
 
 Mr. Frederick Hill’s proposition, as contained in his evidenco 
 given before the Royal Commission of 1865-66, that the State 
 should purchase the Railways, and then farm them out in groups 
 to contractors, is so full of difficulty that it would seem to land 
 us in a condition which may be described as chaos in comparison 
 with that of the stakes quo ante . The Committee shivered his 
 
12 
 
 proposal to fragments in tlieir searching examination, and yet lie 
 has the hardihood to propose it afresh in a letter to the “ Times ” 
 of a late date. 
 
 Other and various sources of danger and difficulty suggest 
 themselves, too numerous to mention ; and it is, besides, scarcely 
 necessary to enter upon their consideration now, seeing that the 
 whole question is so foreign to English habits, feeling, and ideas, 
 that it has been reported against already by more than one 
 Parliamentary Committee, and that Manchester, Liverpool, and 
 Birmingham have practically pronounced against it only a few 
 days ago. 
 
 To judge of a late semi-official visit by a Board of Trade 
 railway inspector to Ireland, there appears to be a lingering in- 
 tention on the part of the Government to try the experiment of 
 State management of the Irish Railways. Certain circles of the 
 Irish people have before now called out vociferously for the 
 novelty ; the experiment, if such be needed, may perhaps be as 
 fairly tried there as in any part of the Queen’s dominions ; the 
 fates are propitious ; the people are not antagonistic ; the Irish 
 Railway Commission of 1868 have supplied all the information 
 desirable on the subject, and with* an admirable forecast have 
 arranged a programme, the essence of which is this, that State 
 control and an immediate reduction of the existing fares and 
 rates to the extent of fifty per cent, (the latter being to Ireland the 
 really seductive feature in the proposition) would involve a loss 
 ooo of during the first year of trial, which would go on 
 
 gradually diminishing each year foH$iek*sfr years, at the expiration 
 of which period the loss would become eliminated. 
 
 The entire length of the system is 1,800 miles, being less 
 than that of the bTorth Western and Lancashire and Yorkshire 
 Railways taken together. The immediate result of the semi- 
 official visit was, that railway shares advanced considerably in 
 value. The years’ losses would be eq uivale nt to £mm$8® per 
 annum for each year, or say, to in gross, without 
 
 charging interest and compound interest. 
 
13 
 
 That the country would ultimately recoup itself to this ex- 
 tent (for of course the loss should be defrayed by the Irish State 
 purse) is problematical, but we have high authority for saying 
 that its inhabitants “ living on the borders of a melancholy ocean 
 want to be amused,” and from this point of view the proposition 
 may be entitled to notice. It is however another question to 
 expropriate this network, maintaining the existing fares and 
 rates ; and if the experiment is to be made at all, it is in this 
 fashion rather than that first-named that it will prove most 
 attractive to the ear of the economist, or if a reduction of charges 
 must be made, taking care that the rebate may be recovered out 
 of the Railways themselves in each year. 
 
 We will now proceed with the principal subject of this pajoer, 
 Railway Amalgamation. The companies are, without doubt, 
 ready to engage in this novelty of the age. ITow will the 
 committee report upon it, and what will be the solution of the 
 problem ? Either we shall have amalgamation or the proposition 
 will fall through ; the latter is extremely improbable, judging from 
 our habits as a people ; a great question has been presented to 
 our gaze by a great interest of the country, which gives sterling 
 reasons for proposing it ; showing that the project, if realized, 
 will breed advantage both to the public and to itself ; give us 
 “ guarantees and safeguards,” a section of the community calls 
 out, while it finds it not within the bounds of its capacity to say 
 what these protective measures shall be, — this is strong evidence 
 of weakness : let it be assumed, however, that it is not weakness 
 but rather that dullness, that so often visits those who are only 
 too well cared for, which besets them, and whose natural sharp- 
 ness to consult its own interests has lapsed for want of training 
 and practice of the sense, owing to the paternal solicitude of the 
 companies, which is ever occupied in straining itself further to 
 accommodate its spoiled children of locomotion, and of the road ; 
 and let us endeavour to discover for them what safeguards can be 
 imposed for their security in the future. 
 
 The great principle of competition it is, to which we owe 
 
[4 
 
 the extraordinary facilities for locomotion which we possess at pre- 
 sent ; it has been very commonly, and I think erroneously con- 
 sidered by some of those persons who take strong views on 
 amalgamation, that that principle, if adopted, will give a death 
 blow to competition ; but, I think, it can be shown that this is 
 not the case, and that competition may be retained in all its 
 original vigour, increased and strengthened in the benefits that 
 it will confer on the travelling public, by a revision of the exist- 
 ing status , that is to say, by an arrangement whereby the present 
 railway systems shall so amalgamate as to form in the future four 
 grand separate networks, at least three of which shall run north 
 and south throughout the length of England and Scotland ; by 
 this scheme the present fragmentary sj'stems forming the general 
 Railway reticulation of the country would be so partitioned and 
 grouped as to form an arrangement at once symmetrical, conform- 
 able with the general features of the terrain , and possibly 
 sufficient to satisfy the trafhcal necessities of the various manu- 
 facturing and commercial centres of the land, as well as those of 
 its seaports and shipping trade. 
 
 The titles of the four proposed networks would be — 
 
 1. The Great Western Railway, 
 
 2. The North Western Railway, 
 
 3. The Midland Railway, 
 
 4. The Great Northern Railway, 
 
 and, as named, will give a clue to their general bearings and posi- 
 tions. The titles of certain principal systems of to-day are 
 retained for obvious reasons ; they are household words, which it 
 would be almost sacrilegious to discard. 
 
 The Great Western Railway will naturally ally itself to the 
 South Western, and will be possessed of that splendid outlet and 
 steamship haven Southampton, which is a port of call for both 
 the German transatlantic lines of steamships, and from whence 
 start at frequent intervals the vessels of the Peninsular and 
 Oriental Steam Packet Company to Egypt, India, Burmah, China, 
 Japan, and Australia, also those of the Royal Mail Company for 
 
15 
 
 the West Indies, Panama, and the West Coasts of North and 
 South America, with several other lines of ships of lesser note. 
 
 This network would besides possess the traffic belonging to 
 the great war ports and arsenals Portsmouth and Plymouth, also 
 to Falmouth, famous as a port of call for merchant vessels. Its 
 coast line would extend from the eastern boundary of Hamp- 
 shire to Milford Haven, on the whole length of which its serenity 
 is alone disturbed by a leg of the Midland Railway, which pierces 
 its sanctuary at Bristol, in which neighbourhood it effects in the 
 most unaccountable manner the only direct line of communica- 
 tion between that city of historic, as well as present notoriety, and 
 the town of Gloucester. 
 
 From Milford Haven to Birkenhead this system would share 
 the coast line with the North Western Railway, the two networks 
 interlacing, as at present, in the interior. Wales would thus, on 
 the whole, continue to be a neutral ground, and enjoy all the 
 advantages arising from the competition of two, and partially of 
 three, of the principal systems of the future, a matter of no 
 common importance to her vast coal and iron interests. The 
 minor Welsh Companies would fall into association with the 
 same Great Western and North Western lines. The Great 
 Western, taking the Brecon and Merthyr, Caermarthen and Car- 
 digan, Llynvi and Ogmore, Monmouthshire lines, the Neath and 
 Brecon, the Sirhowy, the Taff Yale, the Llanelly, Rhymncy, 
 &c., &c., while the North Western Company would ally itself 
 with the Cambrian Railway, the Mid Wales Railway, the Den- 
 bigh, Ruthin, and Corwen, the Festiniog Railway, the Wrexham, 
 Mold, and Connahs Quay Railway, and others, each of the new 
 systems retaining all the running powers and facilities at present 
 existing, the one with the other. 
 
 It is, however, impossible to say off-hand what ought to be 
 a fair and equitable allocation of the lesser systems of the 
 Principality ; a satisfactory result can only be obtained after 
 much consultation, compromise, and thought. The chief ports 
 are Cardiff*, Newport, Swansea, Milford Haven, Holyhead, Bangor, 
 
16 
 
 and Chester. Milford Haven is a grand feature of the profile, 
 and is considered by many persons likely to become, in the dim 
 future, the gate of England. 
 
 The Great Western Railway would, in London, occupy the 
 first-class stations — Paddington and Waterloo. 
 
 The system would include a total mileage of 2,636 miles, 
 and a weekly revenue, as shown by the returns of the present 
 season, of £139,000. 
 
 The North Western Railway system next claims attention : 
 it would have for its nucleus the London and North Western 
 Railway of to-day. This Railway has hitherto occupied the most 
 distinguished position among English Railways by its extent, 
 revenue, and consequent influence, and — if it be allowable to use 
 the phrase, where the existence of the oldest line is only that of a 
 mushroom — by its antiquity. It has commenced operations by pro- 
 posing an alliance with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway 
 Company. This arrangement is said to have become essential, and, 
 indeed, unavoidable, from the very intimate and intricate con- 
 nection already existing between the Companies. Other com- 
 panies have looked upon the event otherwise, and believing the 
 action to be aggressive, have proceeded to counteract it, and to 
 execute strategical movements in opposition, lest the originators 
 of the amalgamation game should estimate their listlessness as a 
 sign of weakness, and further press their policy of extension. 
 
 We must, under the circumstances, congratulate the leading 
 Railway Company on the acquisition of such a fine appanage as 
 the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, with its 426 miles of line, 
 and its stock always high in the estimation of the investing 
 public, and bringing with it besides, a port on the east side of 
 the island, that of Goole, on the estuary of the Humber, in close 
 proximity to Hull : this company having be enhitherto debarred 
 from all the traffic of the eastern coast north of London. The 
 other railways that would fall to the lot of the new North 
 Western would be the Caledonian (bringing with it the entree 
 of Scotland), and the North Stafford Railway. 
 
17 
 
 The Caledonian has been coquetting with the North British 
 Company, but the negociation would seem to have fallen through, 
 and fortunately so for the scheme advanced in this paper, as such 
 an alliance would be fatal to its symmetrical structure, and also 
 to that principle of competition which is its foundation, and upon 
 which it bases its claim to public favour. 
 
 The satellites of the Scotch systems, viz., the Highland, the 
 Duke of Sutherland’s Railway, the Dingwall and Skye, &c., will 
 fall into the new orbits assigned to them, it is to be hoped without 
 shock, and will add a quasi importance to their new sun. 
 
 The ports and towns on the west coast north of Liverpool, 
 viz., Fleetwood, Maryport, and Lancaster, would be cared for by 
 the new North Western. Glasgow would lie open to the new 
 North Western, new Midland, and new Northern systems ; while 
 Edinburgh would also rejoice in all the benefits arising from the 
 presence of three of the leviathan lines of the future. 
 
 To properly apportion the Railways south of London is one of 
 the chief difficulties of the plan. The new regime points to only 
 four principal networks for all England. One of these is already 
 delineated and safely installed in splendid array on the south coast, 
 at Southampton, Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Falmouth. It is 
 hardly probable that the Northern Railway, one of the four divi- 
 sions of the future, with its new conquests to be hereafter named, 
 will aspire to reach beyond the metropolis. The Southern groups 
 still intact, will therefore gravitate towards the North Western 
 and the Midland Railways. The London, Brighton, and South 
 Coast and the South Eastern Railways falling to the lot of the 
 first-named, while there will remain to the Midland Railway Com- 
 pany the possession of the London, Chatham, and Dover line. 
 The Midland Railway Company would console itself for its lesser 
 share of the spoils of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, in the recollec- 
 tion that it will have gained in this acquisition a really grand and 
 salient position on the coveted south-east coast of England, at a 
 price altogether disproportionate to the advantage realized. In 
 its alliances with the Brighton line and the South Eastern, the 
 
18 
 
 new North Western would find itself at Portsmouth, and within 
 easy reach of Southampton, with which latter port it will of 
 course make a connection. It will further minister to the neces- 
 sities of those sunny spots seaward, Brighton, Eastbourne, 
 Hastings, Folkstone, and Dover. In London, it would possess, 
 besides its existing stations, the half of Victoria Station, as well 
 as Charing Cross, Cannon Street, and London Bridge. 
 
 There is, as before said, much difficulty in arranging an 
 equitable partitioning of the railways south of London, and this 
 latter may not be quite a satisfactory one. Other divisions of 
 the reticulation might be desirable, for instance, a portion of the 
 South Eastern Bailway might be allotted to the new Great 
 Western, thus introducing a wholesome east and west compe- 
 titive action, viz., the line from Beading to Dover, and so 
 perpetuating a connection natural, and even now existing phy- 
 sically. The latter suggestion would possess the disadvantage 
 that the' new North Western Bailway would be excluded from 
 Dover, at which post it is absolutely essential that it should have 
 a footing, which could, however, be overruled if that portion of 
 the line from Bed Hill to Dover were to become the joint 
 property of th.6 two companies. The mileage of the new North 
 Western would be 4,398 miles, and its revenue £317,000 per 
 week. 
 
 We have now to consider the positions to be occupied by 
 the third of the great Bailway Corporations of the future — the 
 Midland Baihvay Company. This Company has given notice of 
 its intention to apply for an Act of this session, to authorise its 
 amalgamation with the Glasgow and South Western Bail way. 
 This intention of theirs has been so long known and approved 
 that it may be taken as already accomplished, in fact, they 
 carried a Bill having the same object through the House of 
 Commons in 1867, being, however, defeated in the Lords, they 
 not having then made their Settle and Carlisle Bailway. The 
 annexation of the said Scotch network with existing facilities 
 and running powers of various kinds, together with its acqui- 
 
19 
 
 sition of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway south of 
 London, will give to this company a clear run from Dover to 
 Dunrobin, passing through the heart and centre of the metro- 
 polis — a power which no other company in England would at 
 present command. In addition, it would possess through its 
 Bristol leg, the prospect of a run from Southampton to the 
 same ultima thule of railways by a route which has been on 
 the tapis more than once, and with which a member of this 
 Society has been intimately connected, that is, the proposed 
 South Midland Railway. With the possession of the Glasgow 
 and South W estern Railway there is nothing more left to the 
 New Midland to acquire in North Britain, which region, with 
 the democratic propensities of its people, has opened the whole 
 of its country north of Glasgow and Edinburgh to the whole of 
 its Railways, so that the possession of one gives the key to all. 
 
 In central England, the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln- 
 shire will be a bone of contention. The telegram announcing on 
 the Stock Exchange some short time ago the intelligence of its 
 cession to the Great Northern Railway Company, and the con- 
 sternation and rage caused when its authenticity was denied, will 
 be remembered by all. 
 
 It was reported afterwards that there was a certain amount 
 of colour for the announcement. All this goes to show that there 
 is an animated consideration going on of the question — Who is 
 to be its new proprietor ? 
 
 Its destination will most probably be to swell the stomach 
 of the Midland Railway Company, bringing with it a supremely 
 valuable point of departure on the east coast in the fine port of 
 Great Grimsby, with its magnificent docks, on the south side 
 of the estuary of the River Humber. In the contest for the 
 proprietorship of this fine system it is likely that the Great 
 Northern only will compete with the Midland Company. It 
 seems, however, that, all things considered, the latter is the 
 Company to which the balance will incline, that is, to bring with 
 it this important Railway system. For many reasons, it would 
 
20 
 
 appear that the New Great Northern Railway has equal quali- 
 fications with the Midland for its possession, but, looking to the 
 other vast accessions of Railway mileage and influence that are 
 in store for the Great Northern, and seeing that it already 
 shares with the Midland and Sheffield lines a fine route from 
 Manchester to Liverpool to be opened immediately, with which 
 its new system will be tied by running powers, it would appear 
 to be a legitimate prize to the Midland. 
 
 As before alluded to, the new Midland Railway Company 
 would clearly be entitled to the ownership of the London, 
 Chatham, and Dover Line in the division of the south metro- 
 politan network, and in obtaining this it would gain an un- 
 interrupted run through London southwards, via Saint Pancras 
 andLudgate, besides securing a position of much strength and con- 
 sequence in the southern suburbs of London. It would occupy in 
 the Metropolis the first-class stations, St. Pancras, Ludgate, and the 
 one half of Victoria. The new Midland would possess a mileage 
 of 1,500 miles, and a weekly revenue, according to the present 
 tables, of £134,000. 
 
 The last of the new companies which it is the object of this 
 scheme to propose is called the Great Northern Railway Com- 
 pany. The North Eastern, the great prize of the separated net- 
 works of the country, falls within its embrace, with its enormous 
 traffic, its stock at 180, and its mileage of 1,300 miles. 
 
 The North British, bringing with it 800 miles of line, and 
 admission to Scotland it also annexes, and further, it absorbs the 
 Great Eastern with 750 miles of road, and its great agricultural 
 resources, such an immense extended and powerful grouping as 
 this new Great Northern Railway would become, almost settles 
 the question as to the allocation of the Sheffield Railway. 
 It would seem to be necessary that this system shall belong to 
 the Midland, as before observed. The latter from its birth as the 
 old Midland confined to a few central shires, has been doomed to 
 act the part of a wedge amongst the other and more powerful 
 railways of the country ; by repeated blows received, driving its 
 
21 
 
 way into a splendid and recognized, though cramped position, 
 as the back bone of England. 
 
 The mileage of the new Great Northern Railway would be 
 3,467 miles ; revenue £209,000 per week, as taken from the pre- 
 sent returns. 
 
 Thus, the four new systems as proposed are geographically 
 accounted for. The mileage and revenue under the new order 
 of things are devoid to a great extent of that uniformity which 
 some persons may expect to be one of the characteristics of such 
 a partitioning of our existing networks as that proposed, but 
 there are many absorbing and insuperable reasons why the 
 divisions cannot be made equable. Prominent amongst these are 
 the natural features of the terrain , such as rivers and mountains, 
 and hill ranges, quarries, and mineral deposits, which give to it 
 peculiarities of conformation that direct the united routes of our 
 railways, also those artificial features, such as cities and towns, 
 the positions of which were originally selected by the force of 
 the natural circumstances of terrain above stated, and the 
 necessities, as far as regards seaports, of providing safe and com- 
 modious harbours, with convenient approaches thereto, having 
 regard to winds, tides, currents, shoals, rocks, and so forth. 
 
 A further obstacle to absolute uniformity of dimension and 
 balance of power is to be found in the existing situations of our 
 great Companies, some of which, by their good fortune and 
 management, the capabilities of their several districts, their 
 existing alliances, and, in short, their present commanding 
 places in the estimation of the general public, have assumed 
 positions, the building up of which has been the result of great 
 and continued effort ; to undo works that have cost so much 
 labour, to dissect these combinations of routes in order to pro- 
 duce perfect uniformity of dimension in the new networks, would 
 be unwise and impolitic in the last degree. At the same time, I 
 am quite free to admit that certain moderate clippings and parings 
 of the existing systems, such as may be devised after the fullest 
 consideration, and thought over the proposition in its entirety 
 
22 
 
 f 
 
 may be productive of advantage, and may, indeed, be 
 effected voluntarily by tbe new companies themselves, and 
 without the aid of external interference. As it is, it will be 
 found that the gross revenue of each of the proposed groups 
 will range at about twice the amount of the revenue of its 
 
 o 
 
 principal component system of to-day, viz. : — 
 
 Revenue per week Revenue per week 
 of principal of group as pro- 
 group to day. posed. 
 
 The Great Western Railway ... £82,000 £189,000 
 
 The North Western Railway. . . 187,000 817,000 
 
 The Midland Railway ... 85,000 184,000 
 
 The Great Northern Railway... 93,000 209,000 
 
 I place the proposition before the Society such as it is, with the 
 greatest deference to those who are better informed than myself 
 on the subject, and am most anxious and willing that it shall be 
 fully criticised in all its bearings, as I know there are many 
 members of this Society who are eminently qualified to discuss 
 and analyze a scheme, such as that proposed, from their pro- 
 fessional experience, and from their intimate knowledge of the 
 Railway resources of the country. 
 
 As to the naked question of amalgamation, it is the object of 
 this Paper to show that the present marvellous advantages 
 of Railway locomotion possessed by the public, are due to 
 the active competition which has been the guiding principle 
 of the country so far; that it is desirable that that principle shall 
 be retained ; and that it can be retained, by the adoption of the 
 four networks named, three of which would run north and south 
 through the length of the island, thus preserving the fullest 
 competitive action in these directions. In the cross routes 
 competition is also well sustained ; the several systems 
 traversing the ground east and west in various directions, more 
 or less irregularly. For instance, on the parallel of Dundee ; of 
 Glasgow and Edinburgh ; of the Border line ; of Liverpool, 
 Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, and Hull ; on that of Shrewsbury, 
 Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Derby, Leicester, Peterborough, 
 and Lynn ; on that of Milford, Swansea, Cardiff, Newport, 
 
Gloucester, Bristol, Oxford, Cambridge, and London ; while all 
 four will come into competition on the really grand thoroughfare 
 of England, the line joining Manchester with London. It is not 
 a part of the idea that railway construction is to cease in con- 
 sequence of the new arrangement ; there is nothing in the scheme 
 to prevent the further extension of any one of the four systems 
 that so pleases it ; any one may travel into the territory of the 
 other, if it can succeed in persuading Parliament that such is 
 advisable, and for the general good. 
 
 The four systems might, in the fulness of time, become 
 practically four distinct railway networks, each one visiting the 
 most important commercial centres of the kingdom ; as it were, 
 four pieces of net superimposed, and each independent, or 
 partially so, of the others. When the systems had attained such 
 a condition, it might be said that the absolute perfection of the 
 scheme had arrived, that is to say, a choice of four different 
 routes offered to any person travelling from one place of import- 
 ance to any other place. 
 
 It may be said that such a result would be only an aggrava- 
 tion of the wasteful practice at present existing of having more 
 than one Railway between any two places, and that if the goal, 
 expropriation, were once reached, the work would be performed 
 by only one Railway ; but this is a specious style of reasoning, 
 the fact being this, that a single line of rail has its limit of 
 carrying power. A Railway is not an elastic kind of path, on 
 which an unlimited quantity of traffic can be carried, but a hard 
 iron road, that may be filled with traffic, and whose capacity 
 being over- taxed, it will overflow, just as will a river or a 
 tumbler in the same circumstances. 
 
 If then an existing line is choked with traffic, and a second 
 line becomes in consequence necessary, that second line ought to 
 be made, and if by the hands of a second and different company 
 so much the better, because thereby the principle of competition 
 is preserved, and the travelling public are otherwise vastly 
 benefitted in the circumstance that a new line of country is taken 
 
24 
 
 up, and a new zone of people is brought into proximity with the 
 locomotive. 
 
 Such a proviso would at once stop the fears that, as lately 
 stated by a distinguished railway magnate, any one railway 
 territory should become to any other as “ a Japan of the 
 railways into which no stranger is permitted to intrude.” 
 
 There are many advantages to be obtained by Amalgama- 
 tion other than those named, of this we have had practical proof, 
 as shown in the cases of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway; 
 of the North Eastern Railway ; of the Caledonian Railway, and 
 others, each of which has clearly proved the advantages that are 
 to be derived both for the public and for themselves by those 
 partial amalgamations which they have effected. The stocks of 
 these systems stand high in consequence, and at the same time 
 the public approve the innovation, the cause of their doing so 
 being perhaps in the fact that the Companies having been placed 
 in a better condition both as to means and in the way of 
 providing increase of facilities, they find that they as well as 
 their carriers are all the better for the change. 
 
 The Public should, therefore, beware, with such telling 
 evidences before them, of placing hindrances in the way of 
 further legitimate amalgamations ; an almost certain result 
 of such will be an advance of fares and rates in consequence of 
 the higher cost of maintenance in all branches, too well known 
 to require further notice here. Whereas, by giving their cordial 
 aid to the movement they will enable the Amalgamated Companies 
 to effect such improvements in management that they may be 
 able by means of the economies made to keep the tolls at their 
 present level, and so “ out of the nettle danger to pluck the 
 flower safety.” 
 
 The Chairmen of the Midland and Northern Railways have 
 stated, at their late meetings, that their expenses will be much 
 increased in the future ; and the Chairman of the Great Southern 
 and Western Railway has said that his Company is now com- 
 mitted to an increased charge of £18,000 a year for the same reason. 
 
25 
 
 The modus or manner of introducing the new system, would, 
 on the laissez faire principle, be left to the companies themselves ; 
 it would not be desirable to require that they should each attach 
 himself to the zone theoretically provided for him. A scheme of 
 this kind would take time for its fruition, and the necessary 
 legislation would perhaps be better displayed in negative than in 
 positive requirements. It might be required, for example, that 
 in any amalgamation changes that may be proposed, the Com- 
 pany looking for powers to amalgamate, shall be bound to adhere 
 to a certain formula of grouping, to be arranged by a Committee 
 of both houses, to be selected with that precise object in view, 
 and can only attach itself to the network chosen for it ; but it is 
 in no wise essential that such an annexation shall be made com- 
 pulsory on the Company, which ought to be free to retain its 
 independence if such a course be pleasing to it. 
 
 It is submitted then that this scheme, as stated, will meet 
 the pressing wants of the day, by foreshadowing a system which 
 will provide ample competition for the security and safeguard of 
 the public in important districts. 
 
 The remote places would be also rendered secure by the 
 provision, that here the mileage rates, both for goods and 
 passengers, shall not exceed the tolls charged on the main lines. 
 This is an important feature of the plan, and must not be for- 
 gotten. An equally important condition is, that all existing 
 running powers and facilities shall be preserved ; and that 
 obstacles shall not be put in the way of even further running 
 powers being granted where manifestly wanted and reasonable, so 
 that, in all things, a policy of effacement shall have no place in dis- 
 posing of what is and always has been, the great national safe- 
 guard and fortress to protect the mass of the public against the 
 tyranny of commerce, capital, and trade — that is, competition. 
 
 It may be added here, on the part of the Railways, that 
 maximum rates were originally imposed on the companies (as 
 it was considered at the time) as a set-off against the unusual 
 powers given them of taking forcible possession of land for the 
 
26 
 
 purposes of the railway. At the present crisis, however, no such 
 abnormal measures are demanded by them, they ask only to be 
 allowed to develope their resources without molesting landed 
 proprietors or others. It would, therefore, appear that no 
 precedent exists for a revision of the existing tolls by the State. 
 
 It is impossible within the limits of a short Paper, such as 
 this, to do more than give a faint outline of the proposed scheme. 
 I have, therefore, to ask for it your kind indulgence, as well as 
 the same for the accompanying map, upon which it has been 
 found difficult to delineate the plan with the necessary accuracy. 
 
 Fredc. C. Mathieson, Printer, Bartholomew House, Bank, London, E.C. 
 
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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBAN A