RAILWAYS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM—COAL AND IRON.

Thanks to the very valuable tables of railway statistics prepared by Mr. John Cleghorn, the secretary of the North-Eastern Railway, and compiled from the returns of the Board of Trade for the years from 1859 to 1865, both inclusive, we are able to present to our readers, in an abbreviated shape, a number of details respecting the railways of the United Kingdom, of a very interesting and instructive character.

Prefacing them with the remark that on the 31st December, 1852, the capital invested in British railways was £264,165,672, yielding a gross revenue of £15,710,554, we proceed to state that on the 31st of December, 1859, the amount of capital paid up was £334,362,928, and that there were then 10,002 miles opened for traffic. The number of passengers carried in 1859, exclusive of journeys made by 49,856 holders of periodical tickets, were 149,757,294, of whom 19,204,151 were first class, 44,351,903 were second, and 86,201,240 were third. The receipts from passengers, luggage, parcels, horses, carriages, dogs, and mails, were £12,537,493. Merchandise, 22,005,737 tons; minerals, 51,756,782 tons; live stock, 12,805,613 head. Receipts from these sources, £13,206,009. Total receipts, £25,743,502. The number of miles run by passenger trains was 49,753,344; by those for goods, minerals, and cattle, 43,762,452; total, 93,516,796. The Board of Trade did not furnish returns of working expenses for 1863, but we know that their proportions to receipts were about 45 per cent.

On the 31st of December, 1860, the capital paid up was £348,130,327. Miles opened for traffic, 10,433. Passengers conveyed in 1860 (exclusive of 47,894 holders of periodical tickets), 163,435,678, of whom 20,625,851 were first class, 49,041,814 were second, and 93,768,013 were third. Receipts from passenger traffic, &c., £13,085,756. Merchandise, 29,470,931 tons; minerals, 60,386,788 tons; live stock, 12,083,503 head. Receipts from these sources, £14,680,966. Total receipts, £27,766,622. The miles run by passenger trains were 52,816,579; by those for goods, minerals, and cattle, 49,427,113; total, 102,243,692. The total working expenses were £13,196,368; their proportion to receipts, 47 per cent.

On the 31st December, 1861, the capital paid up was £362,327,338. Miles opened for traffic, 10,869. Passengers conveyed in 1861 (exclusive of 52,079 holders of periodical tickets), 173,721,139, of whom 21,917,936 were first class, 51,146,672 second, and 100,656,531 third. Receipts from passenger traffic, &c., £13,326,475. Merchandise, 30,638,893 tons; minerals, 63,604,434 tons; live stock, 12,870,683 head. Receipts from these sources, £15,238,880. Total receipts, £28,565,355. The miles run by passenger trains were 54,055,476; by those for goods, minerals, and cattle, 51,085,964; total, 105,141,440. Total working expenses, £13,843,337; their proportion to receipts, 48½ per cent.

On the 31st December, 1862, the capital paid up was £385,218,438. Miles opened for traffic, 11,551. Passengers conveyed in 1862 (exclusive of 56,656 holders of periodical tickets), 180,429,071, of whom 23,105,351 were first class, 51,869,239 second, and 105,454,481 third. Receipts from passenger traffic, &c., £13,911,985. Merchandise, 30,256,913 tons; minerals, 63,405,864 tons; live stock, 12,885,003 head. Receipts from these sources, £15,216,573. Total receipts, £29,128,558. The miles run by passenger trains were 57,542,831; by those for goods, minerals and cattle, 50,518,966; total, 108,061,797. Total working expenses, £14,268,409; their proportion to receipts 49 per cent.

On the 31st December, 1863, the capital paid up was £404,215,802. Miles opened for traffic, 12,322. Passengers conveyed in 1863 (exclusive of 64,391 holders of periodical tickets), 204,635,075, of whom 26,086,008 were first class, 57,476,669 second, and 121,072,398 third. Receipts from passenger traffic, &c., £14,521,528. Merchandise, 32,517,247 tons; minerals, 68,043,154 tons; live stock, 13,029,675 head. Receipts from these sources, £16,663,869. Total receipts, £31,156,397. The miles run by passenger trains were 61,032,143; by those for goods, minerals and cattle, &c., 55,560,018; total, 116,592,161. Total working expenses, £15,027,234; their proportion to receipts 48·23 per cent.

On the 31st December, 1864, the capital paid up was £425,719,613. Miles opened for traffic, 12,789. Passengers in 1864 (exclusive of 76,499 holders of periodical tickets), 229,272,165, of whom 27,701,415 were first class, 65,269,169 second, and 136,301,581 third. Receipts from passenger traffic, &c., £15,684,040. Merchandise, 34,914,913 tons; minerals, 75,445,781 tons; live stock, 13,673,786 head. Receipts from these sources, £18,331,524. Total receipts, £34,015,564. The miles run by passenger trains were 66,555,219; by those for goods, minerals and cattle, 62,575,724; total, 129,130,943. Total working expenses, £16,000,308; their proportion to receipts, 47·03 per cent.

On the 31st December, 1865, the capital paid up was £455,478,143. Miles opened for traffic, 13,289. Passengers conveyed in 1865 (exclusive of 97,147 holders of periodical tickets), 251,862,715, of whom 29,663,205 were first class, 70,783,241 second, and 151,416,269 third. Receipts from passenger traffic, &c., £16,572,051. Merchandise, 36,787,638 tons; minerals, 77,805,786 tons; live stock, 14,530,937 head. Receipts from these sources, £19,317,475. Total receipts, £35,890,073. The miles run by passenger trains were 71,206,818; by those for goods, minerals and cattle, 68,320,309; total, 139,527,127. Total working expenses, £17,149,073; their proportion to receipts, 48 per cent.

The length of the railways in Ireland is 1,948 miles. In Scotland it is about 2,350 miles, with gross traffic receipts of about £4,200,000, whilst the income derived from Irish railways did not exceed £1,800,000 in 1866. Thus the mileage of the Scotch railways is about a sixth of the total mileage of the United Kingdom; its receipts about a ninth, the total amount of British railway receipts for 1866, being about £37,800,000.[11] The proportions for Ireland are about a seventh of the total mileage—less than a twentieth of the total receipts. There are 35 separate Boards of Railway Directors in the sister kingdom, an average of 55½ miles of railway for each Board to attend to, but, inasmuch as the aggregate length of the nine longest Irish railways is 1,354 miles, it follows that the average length of each of the remaining 26 companies’ lines is not quite 23 miles. Each company has, besides its separate Board of Directors, its separate Secretary, separate Traffic Manager, separate Engineer, separate Locomotive Superintendent, and separate Accountant. Could the London and North-Western manage to sub-divide itself after the fashion of Irish Railway Companies, it would require a staff of 73 of every one of these officers. It is to be deplored that railway animosity[12] is, in its sphere, as intense in Ireland as that which has so-called religion, for its basis. Both inflict a fearful amount of injury upon the material interests and development of the country.

One of the most objectionable features in Irish railway management is the high rates of fares charged to passengers, but especially to those of the third class; in fact rendering third class carriages in a great measure unavailable for the persons for whose use they were specially intended by the Legislature. We are happy, however, to perceive a better, a larger, and a more liberal view is beginning to be taken in Ireland on this subject, for at the meeting of the shareholders of the Midland Great Western Railway—the second of Irish railways in extent and importance, the Chairman made lengthened reference to the subject. “It was,” said Mr. Ralph Cusack, “a bold policy to adopt a scale of fares unusually low, to establish a system of excursion trains every week to and from distant points, and to hold out special inducements to the very humblest classes to avail themselves of the facilities of railway travelling.” This policy, nevertheless, was adopted, but it will not be matter of surprise that it did not find favour at the Boards of Direction of other Companies, it being alleged to be totally unsuited to the circumstances of Ireland, even where the population is numerous and tolerably prosperous. The result, however, has been that, notwithstanding peculiar difficulties arising from the embarrassed circumstances of the railway previous to the present directors coming into office, the experiment has already been successful, and will be more so. As the chairman truly said, “people require to be educated in travelling, and that could only be done by holding out inducements that would draw the masses to the railways.” It is to be hoped that the thirty-four other boards of directors will adopt this liberal and enlightened policy. It will, we are convinced, prove alike beneficial to shareholders, and to the material interests of the country.

The Board of Trade did not obtain returns of rolling stock from the companies until the year 1860. On the 31st December of that year they possessed 5,801 locomotive engines. By the 31st December, 1865, they had gradually increased to 7,414. The proportions have invariably been a little more than one engine for each two miles of railway open. On the London and North-Western, as already stated, the proportion is a little more than one engine a mile. The passenger carriages on the 31st December, 1860, were 15,076; but there must have been a great demolition of them in 1861, for on the 31st of December of that year they were only 14,609. However, they speedily recovered their numbers, for at the end of 1862 there were 15,366, and on the 31st December, 1865, 17,997, just a shade over a carriage and a third for each mile of railway open. “Other vehicles attached to passenger trains,”—these comprise break and luggage vans, travelling post offices and post office tenders, horse boxes, and carriage trucks. Their number at the end of 1861 was 5,737; on the 31st December, 1865, 6,853, a little less than one for every two miles. The use of carriage trucks has greatly diminished upon railways, but the use of horse boxes has not diminished, partly because in recent years all over England, wherever there is hunting, a “horse and his rider” can go to the field, each with his return ticket, thirty, forty, and even fifty miles, making an early start in the morning, and returning in the evening in time, at all events, for the rider’s dinner. The other “partly” is, that horse boxes have for some years been employed in a traffic for which they were not originally intended; for the Time books of many of the railways contain notices that they are available for the conveyance of the remains of persons to their last homes and resting places; and they are frequently used for this purpose.

Waggons, which comprise vehicles for the conveyance of every description of goods and minerals, timber waggons, cattle waggons, gunpowder waggons, bullion waggons, salt waggons, milk waggons, covered waggons, high-sided waggons, low-sided waggons, in short the genus waggon of every possible shape and conformity, were 188,623 on the 31st December, 1860, and on the 31st of December, 1865, they had increased to 226,407, or nearly 16¾ for each mile of railway.

The foregoing figures furnish matter for much consideration. They show, incontestably, how unceasingly the railway system of the United Kingdom, taken as a whole, continues its development. As new miles of railway are opened, and notwithstanding that they are situated principally in districts where both population and traffic are light, as compared with the population and traffic of the districts in which railways were first constructed, the total average of receipts throughout the United Kingdom, only receded three times. Thus, the average receipts per mile in 1852 were £2,141. In 1853, £2,346. In 1854, £2,510. In 1855, £2,597. In 1856, £2,659. In 1857, £2,660. There was a considerable fall in 1858 to £2,516. In 1859, they advanced to £2,574. In 1860, they were £2,661. In 1861, £2,628. In 1862, they fell to £2,523. They increased slightly in 1863, to £2,528. In 1864, they rose to £2,651; and, in 1865, they were the highest during the fifteen years, £2,691, or £550 a mile higher than in 1852.

Although the number of passengers has increased very greatly in the seven years, the principal increase has been, as will be seen presently, in those of the third class. As the average distance which each third-class passenger travels is much less than the average of one of the second class, and still less comparatively than one of the first class, it cannot be a matter of surprise, that the average money value of each railway passenger should have fallen from 1s. 6d. in 1859, to 1s. 2d. in 1865, and that of the total increase of receipts between 1859 and 1865 (£10,146,611), the receipts from passengers only has not increased more than £3,606,223, whilst the increase from goods, minerals, and cattle, has been £6,111,466. Minerals come in for the larger share of this augmentation. In the shape of quantity, the advance has been 26,049,004 tons, or 50 per cent. In cash earned the advance has also been about 50 per cent. The amount in 1859, was £4,223,002; in 1865, £6,496,402. No doubt conveyance of coals by railway is gaining rapidly upon conveyance by water. This is every day becoming more evident, especially as regards London. In fact, we have by us a return showing that during the first six months of the present year, the sea-borne coal to the Metropolis has decreased 32,480 tons, as compared with the same period of 1866; whilst coal carried by railway has increased 154,453 tons. In the last few years the quantity of coal carried by railway to London, has been gradually creeping up. Last year it was equal to that borne by water, at present it exceeds it; and henceforward, a large increase may be looked for, as the Midland Railway being now completed to London, that Company will be able to carry very fine qualities of coal from collieries which are at the shortest distance from the Metropolis of all the coal-fields of England. This will, no doubt, diminish to some considerable extent the metropolitan coal traffic of the London and North-Western Company. It now carries about two-fifths (about one million tons) of all the coal brought by railway into London.

And here, as so much has recently been said about the enormous strides that have been made in the coal extraction from our collieries in the United Kingdom, a few words on the subject may not be deemed inappropriate. It is true that, as will be seen from the subjoined summary, extracted from the Times of the 13th of September last, its production has increased with very great rapidity during the last twelve years. In 1855 it was 64,453,679 tons; in 1856, 66,645,450 tons; in 1857, 65,394,707 tons; in 1858, 65,008,649 tons; in 1859, 71,979,765 tons; in 1860, 80,042,698 tons; in 1861, 83,635,214 tons; in 1862, 81,638,338 tons; in 1863, 86,292,515 tons; in 1864, 92,787,873 tons; in 1865, 98,150,587 tons; and in 1866, 101,630,544 tons. But is there any real reason for the uneasiness that has been created about failure of supply in a century or so? We believe not, and our reasons are explained in the foot note.[13]

And now it will not be uninteresting to see what has become of all these coals. In the first place our export of them to all parts of the world was not very large, 8,733,327 tons in 1865, and 9,622,324 tons in 1866.[14] Secondly, they warmed (with the addition of some turf and a little wood), cooked, and made gas for the 30,157,239 persons who, according to the most recent returns, constitute the present population of the United Kingdom. Thirdly, we supplied with fuel, in 1865, some few foreign, and 2,718 British steam vessels, of which 1,745 were over fifty tons register, and 973 were fifty tons each and under; united, they represent a gross burden of 825,533 tons.[15] Fourthly, we furnished the principal consumption of coals for the engines of our iron-clads and our wooden-clads. Fifthly, our railway locomotives ran, as we have seen (in 1865), 139,527,127 miles, and taking the average consumption at about 35 lbs. a mile, which includes lighting up[16] and time that engines are standing in steam, waiting for duty, or acting as “pilots” (reserve and station engines), the total amount is 2,625,000 tons; and to this amount may be added the consumption in the locomotive and carriage shops, stores, and stations, 1,375,000, making the direct railway consumption 4,000,000 tons. Sixthly, independent of the coal used in the reduction of our other minerals to the state of metal, we produced, by means of 613 blast furnaces, in 1866, from 9,665,012 tons of iron ore, raised during the year, 2,576,928 tons of pig iron in England, 952,123 in Wales, and 994,000 tons in Scotland; total, 4,223,051 tons, which consumed at least 6,000,000 tons of coal; and, by means of some 6,000,000 more tons, we kept at work, in 1866, 256 iron works, in which there were 6,239 puddling furnaces, and 826 rolling mills.[17] Seventhly, our agricultural steam cultivation is beginning to count for something. And lastly, our coal assisted in the manufacture of most of the articles of our dress, and of most of the articles we require in our domestic economy. It is by means of the coal that we raise that we are able to manufacture the greater portion of the articles we export to every part of the civilised or uncivilised world. Thanks mainly to disembowelled coal, and to its noble adjunct, iron,[18] combined with the unceasing and undying energy of Englishmen, the money value of our exports has risen from £115,821,092 in 1854, to £188,827,785 in 1866. The returns for the first half of 1867 show a slight falling off as compared with those for the first half of 1856. Nevertheless, they were £88,000,000. Our colonies take between a third and one quarter, and of that proportion India alone takes a quantity approaching to one-half. To be sure, India has a gross area of 1,553,282 square miles, with a population of 193,100,963, of whom 144,674,615 belong to British India, 47,909,199 to native and independent states, 203,887 to France, and 313,262 to Portugal. Australia took from us £13,662,650 in 1866, being an increase of £323,409 over 1865, when her population was 1,599,580, an increase from 1861 of 333,148. In short,—let us say it again,—thanks to coal, energy, and iron, we deal with forty-eight independent states, and twenty-two of our colonies.[19] These seventy countries constitute, with our own little islands, practically every portion of the inhabited globe.[20]

The percentage of the working expenses of railways to the receipts was, for 1865, according to the returns of the Board of Trade, 48 per cent.; in 1862 it was the highest of the seven years, 49 per cent. But we fear that these returns are not very strictly accurate; recent inquiries and investigations have tended to show that some of the items charged to capital in the half-yearly accounts should have been debited to revenue. No doubt there has been exaggeration in several of the statements, which professional accountants have submitted to the committee of investigation by whom they have been employed. But whether this be so or not, the time has come when all charges must either be made against revenue or remain unpaid. Capital can no longer lend its friendly aid and assistance; therefore, in a year or so it will be seen how far the percentages hitherto published have been based on fact or on the fictions that have been alleged against them. The subject of working expenses is an important one, as affecting materially the question of dividend to shareholders. We therefore will give more detailed information respecting them when we connect them, in subsequent pages, with receipts and profits. In the meantime, we give, on the over-leaf, a return that has just been prepared from the three last half-yearly reports and statements of accounts published by the twelve following companies. We are aware that as regards one company, the London, Brighton and South Coast, the working expenses have been stated by the present board of directors at 10 per cent. higher than those we now publish, but we believe that these latter approach the nearer to correctness of the two.

Statement of Working Expenses on Receipts, for the eighteen months ending 30th June, 1867.

We need not, at the present day, discuss the abstract question of the value of railways to the community, but it will be well to record some of the advantages which the population of Great Britain has obtained by their establishment. Let us begin with passenger traffic. Previous to 1837, the year of the opening of the line between Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool, the speed of stage coaches did not average eight miles an hour. The speed of mail coaches was a little under ten. It is true that in former times we were proud, as we ought still to be, of the roads which the skill and ingenuity of our engineers had, by means of what were then considered vast excavations, extensive embankments, bridges, viaducts, and other works, carried through the country. In one grand respect British roads differ from those magnificent constructions of a similar nature which Imperial Rome had accomplished when in the zenith of her splendour. Those were made without the slightest view to commercial objects. The power which it gave her to transport her legions from one extremity of her dominions to another was the sole consideration with her in inducing the formation of those great causeways, the remains of which have excited the admiration of succeeding generations, even to the present day.

In 1837, there were fifty-two mail coaches, and about 500 stage coaches. If we allow to each of them the full complement of passengers that it was authorised to carry, we shall probably arrive at a tolerably correct estimate of the number of persons who then used to travel daily in the United Kingdom. It is true that the average loads of mail and stage coaches was not considered to exceed two-thirds of their number when complete, but they should be considered as carrying full loads, to allow for passengers travelling only short stages. Thus viewed, the number of persons travelling by these conveyances throughout the Kingdom was (mail coaches seven, stage coaches fourteen, exclusive of guard and coachman) 7,364, or at the rate per annum (of 365 days) 2,687,860. If to these be added 25 per cent., as representing aristocracy with post horses, and plebiscity in waggons, and a few in canal boats, we arrive at a gross total of 3,359,825. To this number may be joined, say over a million who were passengers in river and coasting steamboats.[21] Every other traveller went by the means of locomotion beneficently granted to us by the all-wise and ever-provident Creator of all things human and divine.

In 1837 the population of the United Kingdom was 25,650,426 persons, so that, assuming our calculation to be correct, the number of travellers journeying only by road was little more than an eighth of its population. As already stated, seven years previous to 1837, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (31 miles long) had been opened for traffic. But during all that period it was simply a local line unconnected with any places except its two termini, and its then comparatively unimportant intermediate stations. Nevertheless, by the substitution of steam for horse power, the number of passengers (about 21,600 per annum), previous to the opening of the railway, at once quadrupled, notwithstanding that the speed had only increased in the ratio from nine to seventeen miles an hour, the number of trains being six a day in each direction.

By 1837, when the average speed had increased to 25 miles an hour, this quadrupling had increased seven-fold: at the present time the maximum running speed on this portion of the London and North-Western Railway is forty miles an hour—the average speed of trains is about twenty-seven miles, and on week-days there are sixteen trains in each direction, on Sundays six. Yet there are now three competing lines to that of the London and North-Western between Liverpool and Manchester.

Adding the 604,000 passengers of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the proportion of land travellers to the whole population of the kingdom, in 1837, was not quite a sixth. The passengers who travelled on only thirty-one miles of railway were nearly one-sixth of all that travelled by all the mail coaches, stage coaches, post cars, post chaises, private carriages with post horses, waggons, and canal boats, over all the high roads, post roads, and the canals of the United Kingdom.

Observe the onward progress of land passenger development. No railways of the slightest importance were finished between 1830 and 1837, but by the year 1843—two years and a-half after the Great Western line had been completed between London and Bristol—1,902 miles of railway had been opened for traffic, and in the year terminating at that date, 23,466,896 passengers were carried by railway. These were, of course, exclusive of those conveyed by mail and stage coaches, and other conveyances. Their numbers could not have diminished, on the contrary, they must have increased, seeing that these conveyances then began to be used in subordination, as it were, to railways, and not as the arterial and leading means of passenger communication. Travellers went shorter distances by them—nevertheless what used to be called the “post horse duty,” that is the tax levied upon public conveyances and horses employed in passenger traffic, never diminished—on the contrary, it increased slightly during several years. For some time past it has been modified in many of its features, so that a comparison between its amount, and what it was in 1837, cannot be instituted. But the fact is notorious, that even now, with upwards of 14,000 miles of railway open throughout the kingdom, many more horses are employed in connection with passenger traffic than there were in 1837.

The number of persons who travelled by railway in the year ending 30th June, 1843, was 23,466,896: the number estimated by road, 3,359,825, total 26,826,721.

As the estimated population of the United Kingdom in June, 1843, was 27,033,692, it follows that it and the number of persons who had travelled in the previous twelve months, both by rail and by road, were not far from equal. In fact the number of persons who travelled by railway may be considered to represent the excess of travelling in 1843 over that in 1837. Let it here be noted, that in 1843, the third class passengers formed not more than a fourth of the total number carried, they being 6,891,844. We shall see presently how marvellously these numbers have progressed, not only absolutely, but in comparison with the travellers of the two other classes.

Twelve months more, on the 30th of June, 1844, with 2,050 miles open, the railway passengers exceeded the total population of the kingdom by 407,799; the numbers being respectively 27,763,602, and 27,355,803, and third class passengers had risen to be almost exactly one-third of the whole. We exclude travellers by road, not because they were less numerous than previously, but because their numbers become every year less important in comparison with the total passenger movement of the empire. For any purposes of computation that may result from these statements, they may fairly be taken for what they were in 1837, 3,359,825.

It was in 1848 that the greatest number of miles in any one year were opened for traffic,—1,191; the nearest approach to it was in the previous year,—780. In 1863, the number was 771. The smallest number was in 1843,—91 miles. The following year, 196; and in 1855, 236. The average from 1837 to 1866, both included, has been 690.

In the twelve months ending the 30th June, 1848, with an estimated population of 28,015,685, the number of persons travelling by railway had increased to double that of the population, 57,965,071, of whom 29,083,782 were third class,—1,068,097 more than the population, and a few more than one-half of the whole number carried.

“The cause of this augmentation of third class passengers is,” says the late Dr. Lardner, in his treatise upon Railway Economy, edition of 1850, “easily explained. Previous to 1846, the carriages provided for third class passengers were frequently without roofs or windows. The third class trains were started at inconvenient hours, and were transported at a comparatively slow rate. In fact, the companies appeared to study the means which were most likely to discourage the use of these cheap trains, prompted, apparently, by the apprehension that the more affluent classes[22] resorting to them, the revenue and profits from the other trains would be diminished.” By these means the humbler classes were, no doubt, deprived in a great measure of the benefit of railway transport. An Act, however, was passed in 1845 for the establishment of at least one third class train a day in each direction, in accordance with a time bill to be previously approved by the Board of Trade, the speed to be not less than twelve miles an hour, and the fare for conveyance—in carriages, the dimensions, seating accommodation, and size of windows of which must be sanctioned by the Board of Trade—not to exceed a penny a mile. Without such approval and sanction, a train is not considered, what is known in railway language, as a “parliamentary train” within the meaning of the Act. The company offending, therefore, is not allowed a remission of the duty on the passengers conveyed by such train, to which it would be otherwise entitled under the certificate of the Board of Trade, and it is liable to penalties for non-fulfilment of the terms of the Act. In two or three cases these penalties have been enforced and recovered by decisions obtained in the courts of law.

The very great development of third class traffic, by means of cheap parliamentary trains, has produced a marked change in the feelings of railway managers upon this subject in the last few years. Now, almost all the time tables show, specifically, the trains by which they can be conveyed, and by reference, among others, to the most recent monthly guide book of the London and North-Western Company, it will be seen that third class passengers are now conveyed from London to Liverpool by one particular train in six hours and a-half; to Manchester in five hours and twenty minutes. At the institution of parliamentary trains the time by them from London to both those cities was fifteen hours. But this was just half the time that the coaches took in the olden time between London and Liverpool, and it was also at just half the cost as regards fare, irrespective of the fees to guard and coachman.

In the three last years, both the Metropolitan and the London, Chatham and Dover Companies have carried the principle of cheap fares for the labouring classes much beyond the penny-a-mile system. These companies issue what are called “workman’s tickets.” It will be seen by the subjoined notice[23] contained in the monthly time books of the London, Chatham and Dover Company, that there are two classes of workman’s tickets. The distance from Victoria Station to Penge is 7¼ miles.

With such facilities it cannot he a matter of surprise, that whilst in the seven years, between 1859 and 1865, both inclusive, the first class passengers increased 10,459,054, an average yearly increase of 1,494,122; the second 26,431,338, an average yearly increase of 3,775,905; those of the third class rose 65,215,029, an average yearly increase of 9,316,432. But this is not altogether the way to look at it, for whilst the increase of third class passengers, in the four years 1859-60-61-62, was 19,253,241—a yearly average of 4,893,310, the increase of 1863 over 1862 was 15,617,917; 1864 over 1863, 15,229,183; and 1865 over 1864, 15,114,688.

In 1865 the total number of passengers carried (exclusive of 97,147 residential ticket holders) was 251,862,715, thus composed—first class, 29,663,205; second class, 70,783,241; third class, 151,416,269. But to the total number have to he added the journeys taken by the periodical ticket holders. If 100 journeys be allowed for each such holder (a number much below reality), it adds 9,717,400 to the gross amount, of which two-thirds should be attributed to first class, and one-third to second. Per contra, a deduction of about 5,000,000 must be made for passengers “booked through”—that is, passengers conveyed in a single journey over the lines of two or more companies. For instance, a passenger booked from London to Limerick, is carried, independent of his water conveyance, over the lines of four railway companies, and in the returns to the Board of Trade he is included as a passenger upon each of those lines as if he had taken a ticket upon it, yet, in reality, he takes but one journey, although it is a long one, 464 miles. Deducting say 5,000,000 on this account, it makes the total number of paying railway passengers about 256,500,000. In twenty-eight years, population and land-conveyed passengers have completely reversed their positions. In 1837 population was eight times as many as passengers, and in 1865 passengers were more than eight times as many as population.

As to the speed at which railway passengers are conveyed, we shall speak when referring to what our railways have done for postal service.

“Forty shillings a ton for goods between Liverpool and Manchester.” Yes; that was the price paid just a hundred years ago, and nobody could reckon upon having them in less than a week from the time of consignment. But the opening of the Duke of Bridgewater’s Canal diminished the price to six shillings a ton, and the time to three days. Now-a-days, the cotton spinner of Manchester would “spin a yarn” of formidable dimensions to a goods manager of a railway that dared to keep his goods more than a couple of hours on the road, with four or five hours more added for loading, unloading, and delivery. Not forty years ago, the charge was 1s. 1d. a ton a mile for goods, no matter of what kind or quality, conveyed by waggon. Thus, if any were weak enough to send a ton of goods from London to Manchester, the tariff rate would be £5. 1s. 4d., although probably the carrier, as an act of amiable condescension towards his customer, and in hopes of future favours, might take off the odd shilling and the level fourpence, and be content to carry for an even “fiver.” He would proceed at the top-gallant speed of fifteen knots a day, and he would reach his port, if all were well, in eighteen to twenty days from the time of his heaving anchor.

In process of time, the canal owners and lessees managed to more than double the charge for the conveyance of cotton between Liverpool and Manchester, and also to more than double the time for its delivery. They did more; if any of their customers happened to displease or offend them, their goods were put under ban. Canal managers were the trade unionists of those days. Nevertheless, the quantity of cotton carried was six times as much in 1824 as it had been in 1795.

The goods traffic of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway commenced on the 4th December, 1830, with a train of eighteen waggons, the weight of each of which was a little over 1¼ tons. The eighteen waggons carried a paying weight of 51½ tons of goods, the tender, water, and fuel weighed 4 tons, and, with the fifteen persons in the train, there was a total weight of 80 tons, which was drawn by an engine weighing 7½ tons, in two hours and fifty-four minutes, just 10½ miles an hour.

The development of goods traffic of our first-born English railway, although it was rapid and important, was not so striking as that of passengers; nevertheless, it increased from 1,432 tons in the first month to 5,104 tons in the fourth month. The coal traffic, from which much was expected, was practically nil; it did not become an important item of receipts until years afterwards. In fact, the Goods and Mineral Traffic of railways scarcely developed itself in the early period of their history, and, until about the year 1840, the relative proportions of passengers to goods was as 85 to 15. A striking illustration of this fact is afforded by the London and Birmingham Company; in its estimates of traffic submitted to Parliament in 1833, it was calculated that the goods traffic would produce £340,000 in the first year after opening. It barely realised £90,000, and it was twelve years before it had attained the sum of £340,000. But since 1840 the change has been gradually working. In 1847, with an average length of 3,426 miles open for traffic, 16,460,599 tons of goods of all kinds (in which are included minerals) were carried, and 3,709,030 head of cattle. All this traffic may he considered a new traffic, created solely through the influence of railways, precisely as the passenger traffic of railways, enormous as it is, is the excess of traffic over that conveyed by roadway. Between 1830 and 1837 it was often predicted that the canals of the kingdom would be ruined by the competition of railways, yet in 1846, seven to eight years after the main lines of railway which would come into competition with canals were opened, the latter were paying the following percentages on their capital:—Grand Junction 6, Oxford 26, Coventry 25, Old Birmingham 16, Trent and Mersey 30! Have canals suffered since then? Certainly not; they carry millions more tons of goods per annum than they did thirty years ago, and if they have to carry at a cheaper rate than formerly, competition has sharpened speed in transit, as well as despatch in collection and delivery; and not only is more business than ever done on the canals, but there is much more money made for distribution among shareholders.

In order to show the present state and estimation of canal property in England, we have extracted from the Investor’s Manual for August last, a publication issued monthly in connection with the Economist newspaper, a statement of the dividends that canals now pay to their shareholders. Commencing with the least profitable, and gradually ascending, we find that the Gloucester and Berkeley pays 2 per cent. in addition to paying 5 per cent. on its preferential stock; the Sheffield 2½; the Warwick and Birmingham 3; the Lancaster is leased to the London and North-Western Railway, at 3?; the Barnsley Canal pays 4; the Macclesfield Canal is leased by the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway Company, at 4¼; the North Staffordshire Railway Company leases 116 miles of canal, which under the terms of the lease have recently paid 4¼ per cent., it has been as high as 4½. By comparing the canal receipts of the first half of 1865 with those for the corresponding period of 1866, it will be seen that the former were £45,414, the latter £52,488. The Grand Junction pays 4½, in addition to a 6 per cent. preferential capital, on exactly the same amount as the ordinary capital; the Rochdale pays 4¾; the Stratford and Avon is guaranteed 5 per cent. by the Great Western Railway Company; the Peak Forest pays 5; the Regents Canal, with its very large capital, pays 5¼; the Kennet and Avon, 6; the Forth and Clyde, 6½; the Oxford, 8¼; the London and North-Western guarantees the Birmingham Canal 10; the Coventry pays 13; the Stourbridge paid 14½ in 1864, but since then its profits have diminished, nevertheless it pays 11½; the Staffordshire and Worcestershire’s dividend was 21½ per cent. in 1864, but it has now fallen to 15½,—strange to say, the only canal in the whole list of canals that does not pay any dividend is close at hand, the Worcester and Birmingham; its capital is £450,000, the sum per share paid up is £78. 8s., yet the shares must have intrinsic value, as their price is quoted 12 in share lists. The last and the highest is the Liverpool and Leeds, notwithstanding that for about a third of its length it runs parallel to three railways, and for about two-thirds to two; its goods traffic is leased to the London and North-Western, the Lancashire, and the Midland, until 1871 at the rate of 28 per cent. per annum. Of course the profits of the Bridgewater and Elsemere Canals, being private property, cannot be stated, but they are known to be very large.

If we step from 1847 to 1859, we find that goods of all descriptions have in railway accounts become separated from minerals. Of the former, the 10,002 miles of railway that were open for traffic at the end of 1859, had carried 27,005,737 tons, and they had yielded a receipt to the companies of £8,373,283, so that each ton of goods carried was worth 6s. 2¼d. to them. We shall not stop to tell the particulars of intermediate years up to 1865; suffice it to say, that every year not only has the gross tonnage increased, but also the amount realised upon each ton of goods carried. This item which, as we have just stated, was 6s. 2¼d. in 1859, had risen steadily up to 6s. 7¼d. in 1865, and at the same time the number of tons carried had increased 9,781,901 tons, the number in 1865 being 36,787,638. In like manner the money received for goods increased £3,784,956, the amount in 1865 being £12,158,239; but, just as with third class passengers, the main increase has been in the years 1863, 1864 and 1865. It was at the rate of about 2,000,000 tons a year, and nearly one million sterling.

We have already referred so fully to coals and other subterranean products, at pages 48 et seq., that we only add here, that the average value to the companies of a ton of minerals was 1s. 7½d. in 1859, and that, with occasional fluctuations, it had increased to 1s. 8d. in 1865. This is a low average, and it looks as if the profits to the railway companies from mineral traffic must be very slight indeed.

The carriage of cattle of all kinds increased from 3,709,030 head in 1847, to 12,805,613 in 1859, when each head was worth 11¼d. There was hardly any change or fluctuation until 1863, when the number increased to 13,029,675 head. In 1865 they were 14,530,937 head, but their value had risen to 11½d. a head.

The conveyance of cattle by railway reminds us how enormously all the great centres and bee-hives of our population are indebted to the iron road and the iron horse for their daily consumption and sustenance. “Give us this day our daily bread,” is in the prayer that all Christians should offer up, morning and evening, and the railways do give it in a way the stoppage of which for two or three days would cause a famine in the land. Dr. Wynter, in the article “London Commissariat” of his Curiosities of Civilization, gives the marvellous statistics relating the daily supplies of food which come to London. But since Dr. Wynter wrote, the population of the Metropolis and of its outskirts has increased a fifth. Yet the great London mouth is fed, and the great London stomach is replenished with the same regularity as ever. As it is with London, so it is with every other concentration of souls in the land. Demand is always increasing, yet supply keeps pace, and never fails to be hand and hand with it. For we have the consolation of knowing that what we are unable to produce at home we have not the slightest difficulty in finding abroad. In addition to the 14,000,000 of cattle of all kinds that are conveyed, last year, from our green pastures to our slaughter-houses, we imported 237,739 oxen, cows, and calves; and as each of these animals, as he or she steps on shore, is, according to Board of Trade computation, worth £18. 14s. 5d., it follows that John Bull has paid for them, in meal or malt, in money or money’s worth, £4,092,941. 790,880 was the number of foreign sheep and lambs that came among us last year; and, as the Board of Trade put a value upon each of them of £2. 10s. in 1865, which value has not been diminished in 1866, the score against us on this account would be, according to arithmetic as practised in the Statistical Department of that branch of public service, £1,504,312; but according to the arithmetic as known elsewhere, it is £1,977,200. The former sum could only be correct if the value were £1. 18s.½d. per head.[24]

But we must not continue the subject in anything approaching detail; suffice it is to say, that among other articles from abroad, we had meat in the shape of bacon, beef, and pork, to the extent of about 1,000,000 cwt. in quantity, and £3,000,000 in value. Of butter and cheese we had 2,000,000 cwt., of the value of £9,000,000. The use of coffee among us is diminishing. In 1852 it was 42,000,000 lbs., in 1866, it was 10,000,000 lbs. less; but the home consumption of Tea has risen in the same period from 54,713,000 lbs. to 102,265,000 lbs.,[25] nearly double; but on the other hand the duty we paid for the lesser quantity was more than double what we paid for the larger, £5,900,625 in 1852, but happily only £2,658,716 in 1866. Of foreign corn we received, for home consumption, 23,000,000 cwt. of wheat, 8,000,000 cwt. of barley, 9,000,000 cwt. of oats, 14,000,000 cwt. of maize, and 5,000,000 cwt. of wheat flour, the aggregate value of corn amounting to £30,000,000. Of the important article of sugar, we received 10,500,000 cwt. The strong beverages came to us to the value of 2¼ millions for spirits, and not far short of five millions for wine. We are fond of spices and seasonings also, 130,000 cwt. of pepper, and 24,000 cwt. of cinnamon, cloves and nutmegs, and 1,100,000 cwt. of raisins and currants. But the article of all others in the list, the importation of which, in 1866, seems the most marvellous is that of eggs, 438,878,880! 14½ per annum for each inhabitant of the kingdom, ranging from “the infant mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms” to “the last scene of all that ends this strange eventful history, second childishness and mere oblivion, sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything,” and all these, independent and exclusive of all the eggs that all the true born English, Irish, Scotch and Welsh hens lay all over the kingdom. Truly we must be the most egg-eating nation in the world. Housekeepers of Great Britain! we wish you to know that the President of the Board of Trade assesses the value of each egg, when brought into the country, at a little less than 2? farthings, or about 7¼d. a dozen. The difference between this price and the minimum of “16 a shilling warranted” constitute the charges and profits upon them between the time of their landing and their arrival in your kitchens. Fifteen years ago (1852) our importation of eggs was not a fourth of its present amount—it was 108,281,233.