RAILWAY ANARCIII.
BETWEEN two and three hundred millions sterling. has been ex- pended on the construction of railways in this country ; the total extent of lines is 6464 miles; the average distance run per day is 110,000 miles—" nearly four and a half times the circumference of the globe." The annual revenue is about ten or eleven millions sterling—about one-fifth of that collected by the State to pay for i
the administration and defence of this em ire and the charge of the largest public debt that ever existed. What a vast property, what an immense trading " interest "!
Yet this interest, how little capable of managing itself! You would suppose that the commercial type came to its perfection in the railway body ; yet we find that it cannot keep from contest, from reckless mismanagement, from waste of funds. We saw lately what Mr. Glyn said of the ruinous and mortal competition going on between the North-western, of which he is Chairman, and the Great Northern : as Chairman of the latter, Mr. Denison concurs. " Such conduct is most ruinous and impolitic," says Mr. Glyn: " I quite agree with you," says Mr. Denison : " Then why don't you settle it ?" ories the bystander. Mr. Denison antici- pates the question ; yet, while the North-western Chairman pro- phesies that the competition " will " continue—meaning " shall," Mr. Denison avows that he will not surrender.
Some of his reproachful taunts are remarkable. Mr. 'Glyn de- nounced the mischievous absurdity of the excursion-trains—a loss to the company, dangerous for the public : yet the North-western stickS to them, while the rival abandons them. During York races, the Great Northern sent an excursion-train ; but the fares were 52s. 6d. for the first class, 408. for the second class, with no third class.: the North-western, whose Chairman reprobates cheap trains, sent, on the same day, trains with these fares—first class 15s., second 108., third 5s. And some of the passengers, said a shareholder of Mr. Denison's railway, could not come back, but were obliged to return by the Great Northern. The North-western has set apart more than 100,000/. for the eitpenses of contestation in law and Parliament) an allotment of funds grievous to the mind of Denison. We have already seen how Glyn is oppressed at the litigious enormities of the Great Northern and Great Western.
'Pet they can't help it, these great interests. They are fighting, competing, losing money, and mutilating the Queen's lieges,—they know it all,—yet it does and will go on ; and they only deplore their own folly Strange exemplar of self-government! The Irish pilot, who proved his knowledge of navigation by recognizing the rock when the vessel struck upon it, was but the antetype of these railway magnates. "See what a shoal !" they cry; " see how we are dashing upon it ! How dreadful we are ! how we confess the faults of each-"other ! how shocking, how suicidal, how insane ! What a pity that it must go on ! " And meetings are held, just now, week after week, to listen to the avowals of contest, injury, and waste. Only chairmen beg the shareholders not to look too nicely into "details " of very bloody and costly accidents. Share- holders also avert their eyes from the waste. Of course the 100,000/., which is a single specimen of that waste, is deducted from dividends, which would otherwise be by so much the larger. But even the value of the property is damaged: our City correspondent stated last week that the disclosures at these meetings had been followed by a marked fall in the value of shares. Anarchy is ever costly, even to those who enjoy it as a privilege under the name of self-government.
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