The Duke of Richmond has accepted a proposition originally pnt
forward in the Economist, watered it down for Parliamentary consumption, and embodied it in a Bill. The Economist proposed an official audit of Railway accounts. The Duke proposes that ittwo-fifths of the shareholders, or one half of the debentureholders, or two-fifths of the preference shareholders shall consent, they shall be entitled to an official inquiry into their affairs, with evidence given upon oath. That is sensible and wise, but the Duke forgets that the public who invest the Companies with their monopoly have claims too, and that intending investors would like inquiry before they are swindled, instead of after. Shareholders want to keep up prices, and are therefore not so devoted to truth in the abstract. The Bill, however, puts a formidable weapon in the hands of a minority, who will have under it a real appeal from the Chairman and his proxies.
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