“His Grace the Duke of Argyll.”
While this matter remained under consideration at the Treasury, or, in other words, was forgotten amidst the demands of more pressing business, another attempt was made at general legislation, as will hereafter appear, but still without success; and in the beginning of 1858 I again called the Postmaster-General’s attention to the subject. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had suggested, meantime, that Government, instead of lending money, as I had originally proposed, or Consols, according to Mr. Hutchinson’s judicious modification, might yield the necessary aid by giving its guarantee for loans to be raised by the companies themselves; but this suggestion had been condemned by Mr. Hutchinson, as far less beneficial to the companies, and as raising what would be felt as an injurious distinction between loan and loan, i.e., guaranteed and unguaranteed. The matter was now referred by the Treasury to the Board of Trade, then presided over by Lord Stanley of Alderley, who called for the opinion of the Secretary, Mr. Booth, which was in effect adverse. I had also, with permission, consulted Mr. Locke, the eminent engineer, then M.P. for Honiton; who, however, though approving of the principle, demanded that it should be carried out to its full extent, so as not merely to cover £30,000,000, as I had proposed, but to include loans generally. He also required a further amalgamation of companies, and what it may be remembered I had previously urged, but in vain, viz., the concession to each great company of a district or territory, into which other companies should, except in specified contingencies, be forbidden to intrude. In short, through excessive caution on the one hand, and excessive demands on the other, combined with the ordinary difficulties attending innovation, nothing was done.
Ten years[142] have now elapsed since my attempt was abandoned, but my estimate of its value remains undiminished; I see no intrinsic difficulty in the plan, no counterbalancing evil to its benefit, nor any obstacle to its adoption, but the want of a more general and accurate knowledge on the subject; for lack of this, supposing my view to be correct, Government has been and still is constantly expending a quarter of a million per annum more than necessary, the railway companies are deprived of a valuable relief, and the postal service is cramped to a degree seriously affecting the interests of the public at large.
Attempts to procure Legislation.
My attempt in the same year (1857) to obtain satisfactory legislation was not more successful than my previous efforts. The bill was prepared with every just consideration for railway interests, which, indeed, I was little likely to neglect, but was introduced too late in the session to give it any chance of passing against the opposition which, to my great disappointment, it encountered.[143]
Two years later, thinking I had found a favourable conjuncture, I proposed a measure on new terms, which I hoped would prove more acceptable. A bill being drawn accordingly at the Post Office, with the sanction of the Treasury, I hoped that it would be introduced early in the session of 1860; but before the time arrived, my increasing illness took so serious a form that many months elapsed before I was able to do work of any kind; and, in short, my direct attempts to obtain railway legislation here came to an end.
To what form the relation between the Post Office and the railways will eventually be brought, by legislation or otherwise, must for the present remain matter of conjecture. The purchase of the whole railway system by the State has of late been much talked of; and, of course, if this should be effected, all such legislation as I sought to procure would be superseded; but the difficulties to be surmounted are very great. Reference has been made to a Royal Commission on Railways, of which I was a member. This was appointed in 1865, and I joined it at the earnest request of Mr. Gladstone. Though unable, through the state of my health, to attend all the meetings, I was careful to examine the report of all such evidence as I did not hear, and both evidence and discussion confirmed the opinions I had previously formed on the subject. These had in the main been put forth some time before by my brother Frederic, who also frequently discussed them with me in conversation, and finally gave them concise but distinct expression in his evidence before the commission. I may add that our joint view was supported by evidence from Mr. Edward Page, Inspector-General of Mails, and Mr. Gregory, C.E., the Arbitrator for the Post Office, and afterwards President of the Society of Civil Engineers.
Adopting the suggestion of Government purchase (originally made, I believe by Mr. Galt, as early as the year 1844), but differing from him as to the mode of proceeding, my brother recommended that the purchase should be made gradually; and this not by compulsion, save in a few exceptional cases, but by free covenant between the railway proprietors and the Government; that the purchase should be effected, not by any increase of the National Debt, but on some such arrangement as is now generally adopted when one company becomes possessed of the line of another; lastly, that Government should not attempt to work the railways itself, but lease them to companies or individuals on such conditions as would most tend to public benefit. These views will be found expressed in my separate Report (for I did not succeed in bringing over my brother Commissioners to my opinion) at pp. cxii. and cxxvi.[144] Mr. Monsell, M.P. for the county of Limerick also made a separate report concurring in great measure with my own. It is foreign to the purpose of this narrative to dwell on the general advantages that might be expected to follow the great change in question; suffice it to repeat that, if effected, it would put it in the power of the Government to secure to the Post Office the prompt and unimpeded command of all railway facilities, and that on terms at once equitable in themselves and beneficial to all parties.
Arbitration with Railway Companies.