Mr. Roebuck put his promised query to Mr. Gladstone on
Tuesday night. He asked whether the Government intended to institute any inquiry into our Railway system with a view to legis- lation. The Chancellor of the Exchequer replied that he intended to advise Her Majesty to issue a Commission of Inquiry into the economical questions connected with the Railway system, such as cost of conveyance, but not into matters of policy. There was, he felt assured, a strong desire among the industrial community to discover whether the benefits of railway carriage could not be extended. Mr. Walpole proposed an address to the Crown on the subject, but Mr. Gladstone declined it as unconstitutional; Mr. Scully then asked if he did not intend to purchase Irish railways, and Mr. Gladstone, while refusing to commit the Cabinet to any proposal before the Commission had completed its labours, "concurred in the opinion that the Irish railways, as was geographically clear, formed a case by themselves." So they do, only it will be as well to ascertain whether the Irish, once aware that railway cars are Government property, may not thick it their duty to throw them off the line.
