•NRLF

1UHHHH

WSTORl \

VA V sTo v H

NATIONAL INDUSTRIES
EDITED BY HENRY HIGGS, C.B.

A HISTORY OF INLAND TRANSPORT
AND COMMUNICATION IN ENGLAND

National Industries

Edited by

HENRY HIGGS, C.B.

Large 8vo. Cloth gilt. Each 6s. net

The first volumes in this series will be : —

A HISTORY OF INLAND TRANSPORT
AND COMMUNICATION IN ENGLAND.
By Edwin A. Pratt.

BANKING AND THE MONEY MARKET.
By H. O. Meredith.

THE BUILDING TRADES. By A. D. Webb.

SHIPPING. By C. J. Hamilton.

THE COAL TRADE. By H. Stanley Jevons.

A HISTORY OF

INLAND TRANSPORT

AND

COMMUNICATION

IN ENGLAND

BY

EDWIN A. PRATT

AUTHOR OF "RAILWAYS AND THEIR RATES"; "GERMAN VERSUS BRITISH

RAILWAYS"; "RAILWAYS AND NATIONALISATION";

"CANALS AND TKADEKS "

ETC.

LONDON

KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD.

BROADWAY HOUSE, CARTER LANE, E.G.

1912

PREFATORY NOTE

DESIGNED as the introductory volume of a series of books —
by various writers — dealing with our " National Industries,"
the present work aims at telling the story of inland transport
and communication from the earliest times to the present date,
showing, more especially, the effect which the gradual develop-
ment thereof, in successive stages, and under ever-varying cir-
cumstances, has had alike on the growth and expansion of
trade and industry and on the general economic and social
conditions of the country.

The various phases of inland transport described in the
course of the work include roads, rivers, canals, turnpikes,
railways, tramways, and rail-less electric traction ; and the
facilities for communication of which accounts are given
comprise packhorses, waggons, stage-coaches, "flying" and
mail-coaches, private carriages, posting, hackney coaches,
cabs, omnibuses, cycles, motors, motor-buses, commercial
motors, and aeroplanes. Reference is (inter alia) made to
most of the English rivers and to many inland towns ; the
origin, achievements, and shortcomings of canals are traced ;
a complete outline of the turnpike system is given ; a short
history of tramways comprises the leading points therein ; the
story of the rise, development and prospects of the motor
industry is related ; while the evolution and development
of the railways and their position to-day both as a means
of transport and communication and as constituting in them-
selves a " National Industry " are treated in such a way as to
afford, it is hoped, a comprehensive idea of the railway system
from its very earliest origin down to the strikes and the con-

274213

vi History of Inland Transport

troversy following the close of the Royal Commission of
Inquiry in the autumn of 1911.

Incidentally, also, allusion is made to the rise of Bristol,
Lynn, Liverpool, and various other ports ; the early history of
the textile industries, the cutlery trades, the iron trade, the
salt trade, and the coal trade is briefly sketched, while the
facts narrated in relation thereto should enable the reader to
realise the bearing, throughout the ages, of State policy
towards the general question of transport. Finally, the
present situation and the future outlook are brought under
review.

Even as these pages are passing through the press new
developments are occurring which confirm the suggestion
I have made, on page 470, that " in the dictionary of trans-
port there is no such word as * finality.' "

While it is still true that the electrification of the London
suburban railways has not been generally adopted by the
trunk companies, yet the scheme in this connection announced,
on November 18, 1911, by the London and North-Western
Railway Company (see page 507) supplementing the action
already taken by the London, Brighton and South Coast Rail-
way Company in regard to some of their suburban lines, is
significant of a growing determination on the part of the great
railway companies to defend their own interests by competing,
in turn, with the electric tramways, which have absorbed so
much of the suburban traffic of late years.

Following closely on this one announcement comes another,
to the effect that a new company is about to set up, in the
Midlands, works covering thirty-four acres for the construction
of a type of petrol-electric omnibus for which great advantages
over the earlier motor-omnibuses are claimed. (This, presum-
ably, is the vehicle which the Tramways Committee of the
Edinburgh Corporation, as mentioned on page 470, propose
to watch in preference to deciding at once on a system of rail-
less electric traction.)

Prefatory Note vii

In commenting on the former of the announcements here in
question, " The Times Engineering Supplement " of Novem-
ber 22, 1911, observes:—

It is of importance to realise what this decision portends. The
history of the matter is that the steam railways were inadequate to
fulfil the requirements of the suburbs, and that an opening was
thus afforded to municipalities to provide tramways of their own.
It was a crude method of dealing with the problem ; it robbed the
main roads of every vestige of rural character, and it added new
dangers and checks to street traffic. Nevertheless it was a
necessity, and it served its purpose, first, by providing facilities
that were always cheap to the travellers, even if they were occasion-
ally dear to the taxpayers ; and, secondly, by stimulating the rail-
way companies to adopt means to get back their lost traffic. Now
that the railway companies are fully alive to the opportunities
offered to them by electrification, the general aspect of the problem
is changed, and additional support is given to the belief that
electric railways and motor-omnibuses will carry an increasing
proportion of London traffic, and that from some roads at least
tramways may even disappear altogether.

In other directions there are reports of individual agricul-
turists who are constructing light railways of their own to
secure direct communication between their farms and the
nearest main line railway, sympathetic local authorities having
offered them practical encouragement by making only a
nominal charge for the privilege of crossing the public roads
where this is necessary. A new era in agricultural transport
and cultivation is further foreshadowed in the announcement
that it is quite reasonable to believe that resort to rail-less
electric traction will serve as a means of introducing electrical
supply into rural areas for agricultural purposes ; while in the
House of Lords on November 22, 1911, Lord Lucas, replying
for the Government to some comments made by Lord Montagu
of Beaulieu on the first report of the Road Board (dealt with
on page 481), said that body considered the most important
thing at present was to improve the surface of the roads ; but

viii History of Inland Transport

" they had borne in mind the fact that it would be necessary
for them before long to undertake larger operations, involving
heavier expenditure."

Still further developments occurring, maturing, or under con-
sideration when the text of the present work was already in
type include —

(1) A projected alliance between the tube railways and the
London General Omnibus Company, following on the con-
spicuous success obtained by the latter in substituting motor
for horsed vehicles for the 300,000,000 passengers it carries
annually.

(2) The issuing of " Minutes of Evidence taken before the
Departmental Committee of the Board of Trade on Railway
Agreements and Amalgamations " [Cd. 5927], containing some
notable expressions of opinion by railway managers concerning
the future of the railway system, together with much important
information on the general subject.

(3) The publication, on December i, of the Fourth Annual
Report of the London Traffic Branch of the Board of Trade
[Cd. 5972], which deals with various matters already touched
upon in my last three chapters, including the effects of im-
proved transport facilities on the migration of population from
the inner to the outer suburban ring ; the further widening of
the motor-transport delivery radius, to the advantage of urban,
but to the disadvantage of suburban traders ; the steady sub-
stitution of mechanical traction for horse-drawn vehicles of
every type — the Report predicting, on this point, that " if two-
wheeled horse cabs continue to diminish at the rate of the last
two years, they will disappear before the end of 1 91 2 " ; the im-
probability of further material extensions of the tramway
system, and the assumption that "the competition of pro-
moters for the privilege of constructing tube railways has come
to an end " ; while the Report also discusses the merits of a
scheme for the provision, at an estimated cost of between
^20,000,000 and ,£30,000,000, of about 120 miles of great

Prefatory Note ix

arterial roads across London for the accommodation of the
increasing traffic, and of still another scheme, put forward by
a Departmental Committee of the General Post Office, for
relieving the streets of London of a good deal of mail-van traffic
by the construction of an underground electric railway, 6 J miles
in length, and costing ^£5 13,000, across the centre of London
from east to west, for the conveyance of Post Office matter,
the Report further suggesting that this particular system might
be found equally applicable to other forms of enterprise which
require the use of carts for the frequent conveyance of goods
in small consignments between fixed points.

(4) The passing by the House of Commons, on November
22, of a resolution expressing the opinion that a meeting
should take place between the parties on whose behalf the
Railway Agreement of August 19, 1911, was signed (see
p. 448), "to discuss the best mode of giving effect to the
Report of the Royal Commission " ; the acceptance by such
parties of Board of Trade invitations to a conference, in
accordance with the terms of this resolution, and the holding
of a conference which began, at the offices of the Board of
Trade, on December 7, under the presidency of Sir George
Askwith, Chief Industrial Commissioner, and resulted, on
December 1 1 , in a settlement being effected.

(5) The prospective increase, from January i, 1912, of
certain season, excursion, week-end or other special-occasion
fares (many of which now work out at a rate of a halfpenny
or a farthing, or even less than a farthing, per mile) as a means
of assisting the railway companies to meet advances in wages,
such increases in passenger fares (distinct from any increases
in merchandise rates, for a like reason, as foreshadowed by
the Government undertaking of August 19, 1911, alluded to
on pp. 448 and 511) being already in the option of the com-
panies, provided the latter do not exceed the powers conferred
on them by their Acts, and subject to the condition that on
fares of over a penny the mile Government duty must be paid.

x History of Inland Transport

(6) The reading, by Mr. Philip Dawson, at the Royal Auto-
mobile Club, on December 8, of a valuable paper on " The
Future of Railway Electrification," in which — after detailing
what had already been done in the United States, in Germany,
and, in this country, on the suburban systems of the Lanca-
shire and Yorkshire, the North Eastern and the London,
Brighton, and South Coast railways — he showed the practic-
ability and the advantages of applying electric traction (single
phase system) to main-line long-distance traffic ; announced
that the surveys and calculations in connection with a scheme
for electrifying the whole of the L.B. and S.C. Railway Com-
pany's services between London and Brighton were already far
advanced ; mentioned that such a transformation would allow
of a 10 to i5-minute service to Brighton and of the 52-mile
journey being done by non-stop trains in about 45 minutes, or
by stopping trains in about 60 minutes ; and declared that
" the equipment of this line if, as he hoped would be the case,
it were carried out, would be epoch-making in the history of
British railways."

Thus the whole subject of inland transport is now so
much " in the air " that the story of its gradual and varied
development, as here told — and this, too, for the first time on
the lines adopted in the present work — should form a useful
contribution to the available literature on one of the most
important of present-day problems.

EDWIN A. PRATT.
December 12, 1911.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. INTRODUCTORY i

II. BRITAIN'S EARLIEST ROADS .... 4

III. ROADS AND THE CHURCH u

IV. EARLY TRADING CONDITIONS .... 15
V. EARLY ROAD LEGISLATION .... 28

VI. EARLY CARRIAGES 35

VII. LOADS, WHEELS AND ROADS .... 43

VIII. THE COACHING ERA •*"?*"

IX. THE AGE OF BAD ROADS 64

X. THE TURNPIKE SYSTEM . . . . .77

XI. TRADE AND TRANSPORT IN THE TURNPIKE ERA 85

XII. .SCIENTIFIC ROAD-MAKING 98

XIII. RIVERS AND RIVER TRANSPORT . . . 108

XIV. RIVER IMPROVEMENT AND INDUSTRIAL EX-

PANSION 128

XV. DISADVANTAGES OF RIVER NAVIGATION. . 150

XVI. THE CANAL ERA 165

THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION. . . .186
EVOLUTION OF THE RAILWAY . . . .195
rac THE RAILWAY ERA 222

t:£ RAILWAY EXPANSION 242

xi

xii History of Inland Transport

CHAPTER PAGE

XXL RAILWAYS AND THE STATE . .258

XXII. DECLINE OF CANALS . .294

XXIII. DECLINE OF TURNPIKES 312

XXIV. END OF THE COACHING ERA . . 325

XXV. RAILWAY RATES AND CHARGES . . - 335
•

XXVI. THE RAILWAY SYSTEM TO-DAY . . -359

s

XXVII. WHAT THE RAILWAYS HAVE DONE . . .385
XXVIII. RAILWAYS A NATIONAL INDUSTRY . . .405

XXIX. TRAMWAYS, MOTOR - BUSES AND RAIL -LESS

ELECTRIC TRACTION 453

XXX. CYCLES, MOTOR-VEHICLES AND TUBES . . 472

XXXI. THE OUTLOOK 494

AUTHORITIES . . . . . . 514

INDEX 522

A HISTORY

OF

INLAND TRANSPORT AND
COMMUNICATION

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

THE gradual improvement, throughout the centuries, of those
facilities for internal communication which reached their
climax in the creation of the present system of railways has
constituted a dominating factor alike in our industrial and in
our social advancement as a people.

Until transport had provided a ready means alike of
collecting raw materials and of distributing food supplies and
manufactured articles, industries of the type familiar to us
to-day were practically impossible ; and until convenient and
economical means of travel were afforded, England had to be
considered less as a nation than as a collection of more or
less isolated communities, with all the disadvantages, social
and moral as well as economic, necessarily resulting ; while
the social and moral progress facilitated by improved means of
communication reacted, in turn, on the industries by creating
new wants for manufacturers and workers to supply.

To the right understanding of the position occupied by our
National Industries, it is thus necessary that the special
significance of internal communication and its development
should, at the outset, be clearly realised from the point of
view, not alone of present-day circumstances, but, also, of
conditions that either preceded the industries themselves — so
far checking their growth that industrial development in
Great Britain came at a much later date than in many coun-

2 . -•: • -History of Inland Transport

tries on the Continent of Europe — or else aided materially in
the expansion of industries as the disadvantages and draw-
backs began to disappear.

That industries existed when internal communication was
still in a primitive stage in this country is true enough ; but
they were " domestic " rather than " national," and it was
not until the advent of better means of transport that it became
possible for them to begin to pass from the one stage to the
other, and, at the same time, to exercise so important an
influence on our advancement as a nation. It is no less true
that British commerce, conducted by ships obtaining ready
access to foreign ports by traversing ocean highways, had made
much greater progress at an early period in our history than in-
dustries dependent on inland highways that were then either
non-existent or scarcely passable ; yet, though navigation might
advance still further, and though navigators might discover
still more new countries, commerce could not hope to attain
to the expansion it subsequently underwent until the indus-
tries whose operations were to be facilitated by improvement
in land communication supplied the merchants with the home
commodities which they required for sale or exchange in the
markets of the world. Whatever, again, the natural resources
of a country — and such resources have certainly been great
in our own — they may be of little material value until they
can be readily moved from the place where they exist to the
place where they can be used ; and even then it is necessary
that the cost of transport shall not be unduly high.

Transport and communication by land and water have thus
become what Prof. J. Shield Nicholson rightly calls, in his
" Principles of Political Economy," " the bases of industrial
organisation " ; and it is to industrial organisation that a
country such as ours has been indebted in a pre-eminent degree
both for its material prosperity and for the position it occupies
to-day among the nations of the world. But just as British
engineers long regarded the subject of road construction and
road repairs as beneath their notice, and left such work to be
done by any parish " surveyor," subsidised pauper or " Blind
Jack of Knaresboro'," who thought fit to engage in it, so have
most writers of history, while zealously recording the actions
of kings, of diplomatists, of politicians, and of warriors who may
have made a great stir in their day but who took only a very

Introductory 3

small share in the real and permanent progress of the British
people, bestowed only a passing reference — and sometimes
not even that — on questions of trade and transport which
have played a far more important part in our social and
national advancement.

The history of railways has already been told by various
writers. But the history of railways is only the last chapter
in the history of inland transport and communication ;
and, though that last chapter is of paramount importance,
and will here receive full recognition, it is essential that those
who would form a clear idea of the position as a whole should
begin the story at the beginning, and trace the course of events
leading up to the conditions as they exist to-day.

CHAPTER II

BRITAIN'S EARLIEST ROADS

IT has been assumed in some quarters that, because the main
routes of travel in this country did not have to pass over
lofty mountains, as in Austria and Switzerland, therefore the
construction of roads here was, or should have been, a com-
paratively easy matter. But this is far from having been the
case, the earliest opening of regular lines of communication
by road having been materially influenced by certain physical
conditions of the land itself.

The original site of London was a vast marsh, extending
from where Fulham stands to-day to Greenwich, a distance of
nine or ten miles, with a breadth in places of two or two and a
half miles. The uplands beyond the Thames marshes were
covered with dense forests in which the bear, the wild boar,
and the wild ox roamed at will. Essex was almost entirely
forest down to the date of the conquest. Nearly the whole
expanse of what to-day is Sussex, and, also, considerable
portions of Kent and Hampshire, were covered by a wood —
the Andred-Weald, or Andreswald — which in King Alfred's
time is said by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to have been
120 miles long and 30 miles broad. Here it was that, until
even these great supplies were approaching exhaustion, the
iron industry established in Sussex in the thirteenth century
obtained the wood and the charcoal which were exclusively
used as fuel in iron-making until the second half of the
eighteenth century, when coal and coke began to be generally
substituted. Wilts, Dorset and other southern counties had
extensive woodlands which were more or less depleted under
like conditions. Warwickshire, Northamptonshire and
Leicestershire all had extensive woods. Sherwood Forest
extended over almost the whole of Nottinghamshire. In
Derbyshire, as shown by the Domesday Survey, five hundreds

Britain's Earliest Roads 5

out of six were heavily wooded, and nineteen manors out of
twenty-three had wood on them. " In Lancashire," says
Charles Pearson, in the notes to his " Historical Maps of
England During the First Thirteen Centuries," "if we dis-
tinguish forest from wood, and assume that the former
was only wilderness, we still have official evidence for believing
that a quarter of a million acres of the land between Mersey
and Ribble was covered with a network of separate dense
woods."

Altogether, it is calculated by various authorities that in
the earliest days of our history about one third of the surface
of the soil in the British Isles was covered with wood, thicket,
or scrub. Of the remainder a very large proportion was fen-
land, marsh-land or heath-land. " From the sea-board of
Suffolk and Norfolk," says the Rev. W. Denton, in " England
in the Fifteenth Century," " and on the north coast almost to
the limits of the great level, stretched a series of swamps,
quagmires, small lakes and ' broads.' " A great fen, 60 miles
in length and 40 miles in breadth, covered a large proportion
of the counties of Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, North-
amptonshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. A great part
of Lancashire, Mr Denton further states, was a region of
marshes and quaking mosses, while " from Norwich to
Liverpool, and from the mouth of the Ouse at Lynn to the
Mersey, where it falls into the Irish sea, a line of fen, un-
cultivated moors and morasses stretched across England
and separated the northern counties from the midland districts,
the old territory of Mercia."

Much of the surface, again, was occupied by hills or moun-
tains separated by valleys or plains through which some
200 rivers — many of them far more powerful streams than they
are to-day — flowed towards the sea. As for the nature of
much of the soil of England, the early conditions are further
recalled by Daniel Defoe who, in describing the " Tour through
the Whole Isle of Great Britain " which he made in the first
quarter of the eighteenth century, speaks of " the soil of all
the midland part of England, from sea to sea," as " a stiff clay
or marly earth " for a breadth of 50 miles, at least, so that
it was not possible to go north from London to any part of
Britain without having to pass through " these terrible
clays," which were, he says, " perfectly frightful to travellers."

6 History of Inland Transport

It was under conditions such as these that Britain obtained
her first roads ; and it was, also, conditions such as these that
were to affect more or less the future history of inland com-
munication in England, adding largely to the practical diffi-
culties experienced in making provision for adequate transport
facilities.

Inasmuch as a great number of chariots were used by the
Britons in their attempt to resist the invasion of Caesar,
it may be assumed that there were even then in this country
roads sufficiently broad and solid on which such chariots could
run ; and though evidence both of the use of wattles in the
making of roads over clayey soil and of a knowledge on the
part of the early Britons of the art of paving has been found,
the British chariot-roads were so inefficiently constructed that
few traces of them have remained.

The earliest British roads were, however, probably of the
nature of tracks rather than of durable highways ; and they
may have been»designed less for the purposes of defence against
invasion than in the interests of that British trade which, even
then, was an established institution in the land.

Writing in " Archaeologia," vol. xlviii (1885), Mr Alfred
Tylor expresses the view that the civilisation of the Britons
was of a much higher character in some respects than has till
recently been supposed. From the fact that Pytheas of Mar-
seilles, a Greek traveller who lived B.C. 330, and visited
Britain, described the British-made chariots, he thinks we
may assume that the Britons had discovered the art of smelting
and working tin, lead and iron, and that they used these
materials in the making both of chariots and of weapons.
But they produced for export, as well as for domestic use.
Tin, more especialty, was an absolute necessity in Europe in
the bronze age for use in the making of weapons both for the
chase and for war, and the metallurgical wealth of Britain
afforded great opportunities for trading, just as it subsequently
gave the country the special importance it possessed in the
eyes of the Roman conquerors.

To the pursuit of such trading the Britons, according to Mr
Tylor, were the more inspired by a desire to obtain, in return
for their metals the amber which, as the favourite ornament of
prehistoric times, then constituted a most important article
of commerce, but was obtainable only in the north of Europe.

Britain's Earliest Roads 7

The early importance of amber in Europe is proved, Mr Tylor
says, by its presence in many parts of Europe throughout the
long neolithic age, and, therefore, long prior to the bronze age ;
and it was mainly to facilitate the exchange of metals for this
much-desired amber that the Britons made roads or tracks
from the high grounds which they generally chose for their
habitations (thus avoiding alike the forests, the fens and the
marshes), down to the ports from which the metals were to be
shipped to their destination. Mr Tylor says on this point : —

" The first British tin-commerce with the Continent in
prehistoric times moved, either on packhorses or by chariots,
in hilly districts, towards Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, that is,
in the direction from west to east ; then by sea from the
eastern British shipping ports, of which Camulodunum on the
Stour, close to the Thames (Colchester) is a type, to the Baltic.
Thus at first the ' tin ' used to find its way partly by land
and partly by sea from Cornwall to the mouths of the Elbe
and Vistula, there to meet the land caravans of the Baltic
amber commerce from the north of Europe to the south. . . .
When the land route throughout Gaul was established the tin
had to go across the English Channel, not to Brittany, across
the rougher and wider part, but to Normandy. The Isle of
Wight was nearer Normandy, and a suitable entrepot for the
coasters meeting the fleets of ocean trading ships. l . . .

" Iron and lead were, also, valuable British productions,
and could easily reach the Isle of Wight by coasting % learners
or by the British or Roman roads via Salisbury or Win-
chester. . . .

" All ancient roads to British shipping ports were, of
course, British. . . . Without roads it would be impossible
to get over the low, often clay, grounds, or to reach the seaports
in chariots, as the seaports were constantly in the clay. . . .
It was impossible to reach the shipping-ports, which are all at
low levels, without roads, as the clay and sand would be
impassable for chariots. Of course packhorses could travel
where chariots could not, but if the main roads were made for
chariots they would be equally good for packhorses."

Mr Tylor thinks there is the greater reason for assuming
that a considerable trade had thus been developed between

1 Mr Tylor argues that Brading, in the Isle of Wight, was the favoured
point of shipment.

8 History of Inland Transport

Britain and the Continent because Tacitus alludes to a
British prince who had amassed great wealth by transporting
metals from the Mendips to the Channel coast ; but our main
consideration is the evidence we get of the fact that Britain's
earliest roads appear to have owed their origin to the develop-
ment of Britain's earliest trade.

Two, at least, of the four great roads to which the designation
" Roman " has been applied followed, in Mr Tylor's opinion,
the line of route already established by the Britons under the
conditions here indicated. Certain it is that, although the
Romans always aimed at building their roads in straight lines,
and troubled little about ascents and descents, they followed
the British plan of keeping the routes to high and dry ground,
whenever practicable, in order to have a better chance of
avoiding alike the woods, the bogs, the clays, the water-
courses and the rivers.

Skilled road-builders though they were, the Romans shrank,
in several instances, Pearson tells us, from " the tremendous
labour of clearing a road through a forest where the trees must
be felled seventy yards on either side to secure them from the
arrows of a lurking foe." Thus the great military roads
marked in the Itinerary of Antonine always, if possible,
avoided passing through a forest. The roads to Chichester
went by Southampton in order to avoid the Andred-Weald
of Sussex, and the road from London to Bath did not take
the direct route to Wallingford because, in that case, it would
have required to pass through twenty miles of forest in
Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. Later on, however, as
the Roman rule became more firmly established, the making
of roads through forests became unavoidable, and much
destruction of timber followed, while the fact that the trees
thus felled were left to rot on the ground alongside the roads
helped to create the quagmires and " mosses " which were
to be so great a source of trouble to road-makers in future
generations.

As regards the routes taken by the Roman roads, Mr. Tylor
says : —

" The Romans made a complete system of permanent
inland roads to connect the Continent with the military posts,
London, York, Colchester, Chester, Uriconium, Gloucester,
Winchester, Silchester, Porchester and Brading, and chief

Britain's Earliest Roads 9

trading towns with each other. At commanding points
along or near these roads the Romans constructed camps, and
so placed their legions as to protect the centres of metallurgical
industry and the roads leading to them. . . . The Romans
did not originate the sites of many new seaport towns or towns
on large, navigable rivers, and, when they did so, as in the case
of London, Richborough, Uriconium, Rochester, Canterbury,
it was for strategical reasons, or indirectly connected with the
traffic in minerals, the great industry of Britain during the
Roman occupation as it was before it. ... Silchester . . .
was forty-five miles from London, and was on high ground
away from river or forests, and not far from the junction of a
number of land-routes. It was on dry ground on which
waggons could travel. It was convenient for roads giving
access to Cornwall for tin ; to the Mendips for lead, copper or
brass ; Gloucester and South Wales for iron ; and from these
termini there were routes passable to the east and south coasts
of England."

From all this it would seem that the mineral wealth and the
trading interests which had inspired the line of route of the
earliest British roads were, side by side with military con-
siderations, leading factors in the particular direction given
to the Roman roads that followed them.

As for the Roman roads themselves, so admirably were they
built that some of those laid down in ancient Rome and in
France have been in use for from 1500 to 2000 years, while
remains of Roman roads found in Britain, buried deeply under
the debris of centuries, have still borne striking evidence of
the solid manner in which they were first constructed.

But the point that here arises for consideration is, not only
the high quality of the great roads the Romans built in
Britain, but the broad-minded policy by which the builders
themselves were influenced. The provision of a system of
scientifically constructed roads wherever they went was,
primarily, part of the Roman plan of campaign in the wars
of aggrandisement they carried on ; but it was further
designed to aid in developing the resources of the country
concerned, while it was, also, carried out in Britain by the
Roman State itself, on lines embracing the transport conditions
of the country as a whole, and in accordance with a unified and
well-planned system of internal communication on " national "

io History of Inland Transport

lines such as no succeeding administration attempted either
to follow or to direct.

Thus the great Roman roads, connecting the rising city on
the Thames and the commercial centre of Britain with every
part of the island, were remarkable, not only because they
represented an art which was to disappear with the conquerors
themselves, but, also, because they had been directly created,
and were directly controlled, by a central authority as the
outcome of a State road policy itself fated in turn to dis-
appear no less effectually. The almost invariable practice in
this country since the departure of the Romans has been for
the State, instead of following the Roman example, and
regarding as an obligation devolving upon itself the provision
of adequate means of intercommunication between different
parts of the country, to leave the burden and responsibility
of making such provision to individual citizens, to philan-
thropic effort, to private enterprise, or to local authorities.
The result has been that not only, for successive generations,
were both the material progress and the social advancement
of the English people greatly impeded, but the actual develop-
ment of such intercommunication was to show, far too often
(i) a lamentable want of intelligence and skill in meeting
requirements ; and (2) a deficiency of system, direction and
co-ordination as regards the many different agencies or
authorities concerned in the results actually secured.

CHAPTER III

ROADS AND THE CHURCH

FOLLOWING the departure of the Romans, not only road-
making but even road-repairing was for several centuries
wholly neglected in this country. The Roman roads continued
to be used, but successive rulers in troublesome times were too
busily engaged in maintaining their own position or in waging
wars at home or abroad to attend to such prosaic details as
the repairing of roads, and they had, apparently, still less time
or opportunity for converting into roads hill-side tracks which
the Romans had not touched at all.

In proportion, too, as the roads were neglected, the bridges
of the earlier period got out of repair, fell in altogether, or
were destroyed in the social disorders of the time. So the
mediaeval ages found the means of internal communication by
land probably worse in Britain than in any other country in
western Europe.

The State having failed to acquit itself of its obligations, the
Church took up the work as a religious duty. The keeping of
roads in repair came to be considered, as Jusserand says in
" English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages," " a pious and
meritorious work before God, of the same sort as visiting the
sick and caring for the poor." Travellers were regarded as
unfortunate people whose progress on their toilsome journeys
it was Christian charity to assist. In these circumstances the
religious houses of the period took over the task of making
or repairing both roads and bridges, the faithful being en-
couraged to assist in the good work, either through gifts or
with personal labour, by the concession to them of special
indulgencies. Jusserand tells, for instance, how Richard de
Kellawe, Bishop of Durham, 1311-1316, remitted part of the
penalties on the sins of those who did good work in helping
to make smooth the way of the wanderer, his episcopal register

ii

12 History of Inland Transport

containing frequent entries of 4O-day indulgencies granted to
contributors to the road-repair funds. There were benefactors,
also, who left to the monasteries lands and houses the proceeds
of which were to be applied to the same public purpose ; while
in proportion as the monasteries thus increased the extent
of their own landed possessions they became still more
interested in the making and repairing of roads in the neigh-
bourhoods in which the lands they had acquired were situated.

In those days, in fact, people bequeathed not only land,
or money, but even live stock for the repair of roads just as
they left gifts for ecclesiastical purposes, or as people to-day
make bequests to charitable institutions. The practice con-
tinued until, at least, the middle of the sixteenth century,
since in the Sixth Report of the Historical Manuscripts Com-
mission there will be found (page 422) the last will and testa-
ment, dated May 16, 1558, of John Davye, in which the
testator says : —

" I leve and bequeithe a cowpell of oxson that I boughte the
laste yere to the building of Moulde Church where I dwell ;
And I bequieth a bullocke that I boughte of the Royde unto
the mendynge of the hye waie betwixte my howse and the
Molld."

Bequests of money or lands were also made for the con-
struction or the maintenance of bridges, or for the freeing of
bridges from toll so that the poor could cross without payment ;
and one of the duties of the bishops, when making their
visitations, was to enquire whether or not the funds thus left
were being applied to the purposes the donors intended.

On the Continent of Europe a religious order was founded,
in the twelfth century, for the building of bridges. It spread
over several countries and built some notable bridges —
such, for instance, as that over the Rhone at Avignon ; though
there is no trace, Jusserand tells us, of these Bridge Friars
having extended their operations to this country. It was,
however, from them that laymen learned the art of bridge-
building, and in Britain, as in Continental countries, bridges
came to be considered as pious works, to be put under the
special charge of a patron saint. To this end it was customary
to build a chapel alongside an important bridge — as in the case
of the old London Bridge that replaced the original wooden
structure by Peter Colechurch, " priest and chaplain," itself

Roads and the Church 13

having had a chapel dedicated to Saint Thomas of Canterbury.
Sovereigns or great landowners gave generous gifts for the
endowment of such bridges. Although, too, there was no
special order of bridge-building friars in England, guilds and
lay brotherhoods, animated by the religious spirit, were formed
in the reign of Richard II. (1377-1399) for the repair of roads
and bridges, just as, in turn, the ordinary trading guilds
which were the forerunners of the corporate bodies set up in
towns undertook to " maintain and keep in good reparacion "
bridges which had become " ruinous," and, also, to attend
to the " foul and dangerous highways, the charge whereof the
town was not able to maintain." l

It became customary, also, for hermits to take up their
habitation in cells along the main thoroughfares, and to
occupy themselves with looking after the roads, trusting to
the alms of passers-by for a little worldly recompense. In one
instance, at least, a hermit was allowed to put up a toll-bar —
the first on record in this country — and collect compulsory
payments from persons using the roads he mended. This was
in 1364, when Edward III. made a decree authorising " our
well-beloved William Phelippe the hermit " to set up a toll-bar
on the lower slope of Highgate Hill, on the north side of
London, and levy tolls for the repair of the " Hollow Way "
from " our people passing between Heghgate and Smeth-
felde."

Jusserand sums up the situation at this period by saying
that " The roads in England would have been entirely im-
passable ... if the nobility and the clergy, that is to say,
the whole of the landed proprietors, had not had an immediate
and daily interest in possessing passable roads."

There came, however, a period of decline in religious fervour.
The laity grew less disposed to give or to bequeath money,

1 In the Ninth Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission,
page 290, mention is made of a charter, granted by Edward VI., giving
a new municipal constitution to the "ancient borough" of Stratford-on-
Avon in lieu of the franchise and local government taken away by the
suppression of the guild previously existing there ; and in this charter the
guild in question is spoken of as having been, in former times, "founded
and endowed with divers lands tenements and possessions," the rents,
revenues and profits from which were to be devoted to the maintenance
of a grammar school, an almshouse, and "a certain great stone bridge,
called Stratford Bridge, placed and built over the water and river of the
Avon beside the said borough."

14 History of Inland Transport

land or cattle for road-repair purposes, however much the
offer of indulgences in return therefor might be increased from
days to months or even to years ; and the clergy, in turn,
became more remiss in acquitting themselves of the obligations
they had assumed as road-repairers. They accepted the
benefactions, and they granted the indulgences ; but they
showed increasing laxity in carrying out their responsibilities.
The roadside hermits, also, gathered in so much in the way of
contributions, voluntary or compulsory, from passers-by that
they ate and drank more than hermits ought to do, grew fat
and lazy, and too often left the roads to look after themselves.

What, therefore, with neglected roads and dilapidated
bridges, the general conditions of travel went from bad to
worse. Church Councils, says Denton, were summoned and
adjourned because bishops feared to encounter the danger of
travelling along such roads. Oratories were licensed in
private houses, and chapels of ease were built, because roads
were so bad, especially in winter, that the people could not
get to their parish churches. The charter, 47 Edward III.,
r373» by which the city of Bristol was constituted a county,
states that this was done in order to save the burgesses from
travelling to Gloucester and Ilchester, " distant thirty miles
of road, deep, especially in winter time, and dangerous to
passengers." On many different occasions, too, the members
of the House of Commons, assembled for a new session,
could transact no business because the Peers had been detained
by the state of the roads and the difficulty of travelling,
and Parliament was, therefore, adjourned.

The general conditions grew still worse with the impoverish-
ment of the monasteries by which the main part of the work
had — however negligently — been done since the end of the
Roman regime. As will be shown later on, various statutes
had gradually imposed more and more the care of the roads
on the laity, and it was upon them that the full responsibility
fell with the eventual dissolution, first of the lesser, and next
of the greater, monasteries by Henry VIII.

CHAPTER IV

EARLY TRADING CONDITIONS

RIVERS constituted, in the Middle Ages, the most important
means of inland transport. Most of our oldest towns or cities
that were not on the route of one of the Roman roads were
set up alongside or within easy reach of some tidal or navigable
stream in order, among other reasons, that full advantage
could be taken of the transport facilities the waterways
offered. So were monasteries, castles, and baronial halls,
while the locating of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge
on the Thames and the Cam respectively rendered them
accessible by sea and river to Scottish and other students
from the north who could hardly have made their way thither
by land.1

It was, however, only a limited number of inland places
that could be reached by water, and other towns or settlements
were wanted. The trading opportunities of the latter were at
first restricted to the packhorse, few of the roads being then
adapted for even the most primitive of agricultural waggons.
Long lines of packhorses, with bales or panniers slung across
their backs, made their way along roads or bridle paths
often inadequate to allow of two strings of loaded horses to
pass one another, so that many a quarrel arose, when two
teams met, as to which should go into the mud to allow the
other to pass along the path proper.

Traders sending wool or other commodities by the same
route were in the habit of making up companies in order to
secure mutual protection against robbers, and they armed
themselves and their servants as if going to battle. Like
precautions were taken by merchants from the north when
they started on their annual business journeys to London —

1 The subject of rivers and river transport will be fully dealt with in
later chapters.

1 6 History of Inland Transport

journeys so full of peril that they were not begun until the
merchant had made his will and earnestly commended himself
to the protection both of St. Botolph and of his own patron
saint. The " commercial travellers " of that day carried
their samples or their wares in a bag lying across their horse's
back, thus qualifying for the designation of " bagmen " by
which they were to become known.

In the Middle Ages everyone rode except the very poor, and
they had to be content to trudge along on foot. Kings and
nobles, princes and princesses, gentlemen and ladies, merchants
and bagmen all travelled on horseback. Women either rode
astride until the introduction of side-saddles, in the fourteenth
century, or else rode in pillion fashion.

The main exception to riding on horseback, in the case of
ladies or of the sick or infirm, was the use of litters attached to
shafts to which two horses, one in front and one behind the
litter, were harnessed. Sometimes, also, " passengers " were
carried in the panniers of the packhorses, instead of goods.

Certain main routes, and especially those favoured by
pilgrims — such as that between London and Canterbury —
must have been full of animation in those days ; but, speaking
generally, no one then travelled except on business or under
the pressure of some strong obligation.

Down to the end of the fourteenth century England was
purely an agricultural country, and her agricultural products
were exclusively for home, if not for local or even domestic
consumption, with the one exception of wool, which was
exported in considerable quantities to Flanders and other
lands then dependent mainly on England for the raw materials
of their cloth manufactures. In our own country manu-
factures had made but little advance, and they mainly sup-
plied the requirements, in each instance, of a very limited area.

England was, indeed, in those days, little more than a
collection of isolated communities in which the various
householders, more especially in villages at a distance from any
main road or navigable river, had to provide for their own
requirements to a great extent. Of retail shops, such as are
now found in the most remote villages, there were none at all
at a period when the replenishing of stocks would have
been impossible by reason of difficulties in transport ;
so that while the country as a whole was mainly agricultural,

Early Trading Conditions 17

there were more craftsmen in the villages, and there was
greater skill possessed by individuals in the production of
domestic requirements than would to-day be found among
agricultural populations accustomed to depend on the urban
manufacturer or the village stores for the commodities their
forefathers had to make, to raise or to supply for themselves.

Each family baked its own bread, with flour ground at the
village mill from the wheat or the rye grown on the family's
own land or allotment ; each brewed its own ale — then the
common beverage at all meals, since tea and coffee had still
to come into vogue ; and each grew its own wool or flax,
made its own cloth and clothing, and tanned its own leather.
What the household could not do for itself might still be done
by the village blacksmith or the village carpenter. Alike
for ribbons, for foreign spices, for luxuries in general, and for
news of the outer world the household was mainly dependent
on the pedlar, with his stock on his back, or the chapman,
bringing his collection of wares with him on horseback ;
though even these welcome visitors might find it impossible
to travel along roads and footpaths reduced by autumn rains
or winter snows to the condition of quagmires.

In these conditions many a village or hamlet became
isolated until the roads were again available for traffic, and
rural households prepared for the winter as they would have
taken precautions against an impending siege. Most of the
meat likely to be required would be killed off in the late
autumn and salted down — salt being one of the few absolute
necessities for which the mediaeval household was dependent
on the outside world ; while families which could not afford
to kill for themselves would purchase an animal in common
and share the meat. Stores of wheat, barley and malt were
laid in ; honey was put on the shelves to take the place of
the sugar then almost unknown outside the large towns ;
logs were collected for fuel and rushes for the floors ; and
wool and flax were brought in to provide occupation for the
women of the household. In the way of necessaries the
provision made by each self-dependent family, or, at least,
by each self-contained community, was thus practically
complete — save in the one important item of fresh vegetables,
the lack of which, coupled with the consumption of so much
salt meat, was a frequent source of scurvy. Millstones for

1 8 History of Inland Transport

the village mill might, like the salt, have to be brought in from
elsewhere ; but otherwise the villagers had small concern
with what went on in the great world.

Such trading relations as the average village had with
English markets or with foreign traders were almost ex-
clusively in the hands of the lord of the manor, one of whose
rights — and one not without significance, from our present
point of view — it was to call upon those who held land under
him, whether as free men or as serfs, to do all his carting for
him. This was a condition on which both villeins and cottars
had their holdings ; and though, in course of time, the lord
of the manor might relieve his people of most of the obligations
devolving upon them, this particular responsibility still
generally remained. " Instances of the commutation of the
whole of the services," says W. J. Ashley, in the account of
the manorial system which he gives in his " Introduction to
English Economic History and Theory," " occur occasionally
as early as 1240 in manors where the demesne was wholly left
to tenants. The service with which the lord could least easily
dispense seems to have been that of carting ; and so in one
case we find the entry as to the villeins, ' Whether they pay
rent or no they shall cart.' "

To the lord of the manor, at least, the difficulties of road
transport, whether in getting his surplus commodities to
market or otherwise, must have appeared much less serious
when he was thus able to call on his tenants to do his cartage.

In the towns the isolation may not have been so great as in
the villages ; but the urban trading and industrial conditions
nevertheless assumed a character which could only have
been possible when, owing to defective communications, there
was comparatively little movement and competition in regard
either to manufactures (such as they were) or to workers.

The period of internal peace and order which followed the
Norman Conquest led, as Ashley has shown, to the rise in
town after town of the merchant guild — an institution the
purpose of which was to unite into a society all those who
carried on a certain trade, in order, not only to assure for them
the maintenance of their rights and privileges, but also to
obtain for them an actual monopoly of the particular business
in which they were interested. Such monopoly they claimed
against other traders in the same town who had not entered

Early Trading Conditions 19

into the combination, and still more so against traders in
other towns. The latter they regarded as " foreigners "
equally with the traders from Flanders and elsewhere.

The merchant guilds were found in all considerable towns
in the eleventh century, and they were followed, a century
later, by craft guilds which aimed, in turn, at securing a
monopoly of employment for their own particular members.

Coupled with the guilds there was much local regulation of
the prices and qualities of commodities through the setting-up
of such institutions as the " assize " of ale, of bread and of
cloth ; while the justices had, in addition, considerable powers
in regard to fixing the rates of wages and the general conditions
of labour.

All this system of highly-organised Protection, not so much
for the country as a whole as for each and every individual
town in the country, might serve in comparatively isolated
communities ; but it could not prevail against increased
intercourse, the growing competition of developing industries,
a broader area of distribution for commodities made in greater
volume, and a wider demand for foreign supplies. It was thus
doomed to extinction as these new conditions developed ; but
it nevertheless exercised an important influence on our national
advancement, since it was the impulse of corporate unity,
fostered by the merchant guilds, and strengthened by the
system of manorial courts for the enforcement of the local
laws and customs in vogue in each separate manor before the
common law of the land was established, that led to so many
English towns securing, from King or overlord — and notably
in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when the influence
of the merchant guilds was especially great — those charters
which so powerfully stimulated the growth of the great towns,
of English citizenship, of individual freedom, and of national
prosperity. Ashley well says, in this connection : —

" Wide as were the differences between a civic republic
of Italy, or an imperial city of Germany with its subject
territory, and a little English market town, there was an
underlying similarity of ideas and purposes. Each was a body
of burghers who identified the right to carry on an independent
trading or industrial occupation with the right of burgess-ship ;
who imposed restrictions on the acquisition of citizenship, with
the object of protecting the interests of those already enjoying

2o History of Inland Transport

it ; who acted together by market regulation and inter-
municipal negotiation to secure every advantage they could
over rival boroughs ; who deemed it meet that every occupa-
tion should have its own organisation and its own representa-
tion in the governing authority, and who allowed and expected
their magistrates to carry out a searching system of industrial
supervision. Municipal magistracy was not yet an affair of
routine, bound hand and foot by the laws of the State."

The general trade of the country in the Middle Ages was
conducted mainly through markets and fairs.

Every town had its market and fixed market day, and such
market served the purpose of bringing in the surplus produce
of the surrounding agricultural district, the area of supply
depending, no doubt, on the distance for which the state of the
roads and the facilities for transport on them would allow
of commodities being brought.

Held, as a rule, annually or half-yearly, fairs assumed
much more important proportions than the (generally)
weekly local markets. It was to the fairs that traders both
from distant counties and from foreign countries brought
wares and products not otherwise obtainable ; and it was at
the fairs that the foreign merchants, more especially, bought
up the large quantities of wool which were to form their
return cargoes. Whereas the business done at the local
markets was mainly retail, that done at the fairs was, to a
great extent, wholesale, and the latter represented the bulk
of such transactions as would now be done on the public ex-
changes or in the private warehouses of London, Liverpool,
Manchester, Birmingham, and other leading commercial
centres.

Fairs were essentially the outcome of defective means of
communication. Going back in their origin to the days of
ancient Greece, they have been found in most countries in the
earlier stages of society, or under conditions which have not
allowed of (i) a ready distribution of commodities, (2) suffi-
ciently advanced manufactures, or (3) the subdivision of
trade over an adequately wide area. Fairs in-England began.
in^rrrnrt proportion an

^

f actures improved and retail trade expanded j so that to-day
the survivals are "efffier" exclusively cattle fairs, sheep fairs,
horse fairs, cheese fairs, and so on, or else are little more than

Early Trading Conditions 21

pleasure fairs, with gingerbread stalls, shows and roundabouts
for their chief attractions — mere reminiscences of old in-
stitutions which, in bygone days, were of supreme commercial
importance.

They were, also, greatly influenced by religious festivals,
whether in ancient Greece or in Europe. In Britain itself the
commemoration of saints' days by the monasteries, the
dedication festivals of churches or cathedrals, and the visita-
tion of shrines by pilgrims brought together crowds of people
whose assembling offered good opportunities for the opening
up with them of a trade in commodities which they, in turn,
might otherwise have some difficulty in procuring. It was,
indeed, to the advantage of the Church to offer or to encourage
the offering of such facilities, not only because there would
thus be a greater inducement to people to come to the festivals
or to visit the shrines, but also because when the fair was held
on land belonging to the Church or connected with religious
buildings there might be a substantial revenue gained from
the tolls and charges paid by the traders. At one time the
fairs were even held in churchyards ; but this practice was
prohibited in the I3th year of Edward I., and thenceforward
they were held on open spaces, where stalls and tents could
be erected for the accommodation of the goods on sale and of
the persons who had brought them, various amusements being
added, or encouraged, by way of affording further attractions.
The land occupied might be that of the lord of the manor,
but the fairs still continued to be held chiefly on Saints' days
or on the occasion of Church festivals, the actual dates being
generally so fixed as to allow of the foreign or other traders
attending them to arrange a circuit. The time of year pre-
ferred for the holding of fairs was either the autumn, when
people whose wants were not wholly met by pedlar or chapman
would be providing against the stoppage of all traffic along
the roads during the winter ; or the spring, when they would
want to replenish their depleted stocks. The localities mostly
favoured were towns either on navigable rivers, giving access
to a good stretch of country, or at the entrance to valleys
whose inhabitants would be especially isolated during the
winter months by their impassable roads and mountain tracks.

In course of time the fairs became, as shown by Giles Jacob,
in his " Law Dictionary " (4th edition, 1809), " a matter of

22 History of Inland Transport

universal concern to the commonwealth," as well as a valuable
monetary consideration to those who had the right to collect
the tolls ; and they were, in consequence, subjected to close
regulation. No person could hold a fair " unless by grant
from the King, or by prescription which supposes such grant " ;
the time during which it could be kept open was announced
by proclamation, and rigidly adhered to ; " just weight and
measure " was enforced, and a " clerk of the fair " was
appointed to mark the weights.

On the other hand every encouragement was offered to
traders to attend the fairs. " Any citizen of London," says
Jacob, " may carry his goods or merchandise to any fair or
market at his pleasure." Mounted guards were, in some
instances, provided on the main routes leading to the fair,
in order to protect the traders from attack by robbers. Tolls
were to be paid to the lord of the manor or other owner of the
land on which a fair was held under a special grant ; but if
the tolls charged were " outrageous and excessive " (to quote
again from Jacob), the grant of the right to levy toll became
void, and the fair was thenceforth a " free " one. It was
further laid down that persons going to a fair should be
" privileged from being molested or arrested in it for any other
debt or contract than what was contracted in the same,
or at least, was promised to be paid there."

An especially curious feature of these old fairs was the
so-called " Court of Pie Powder " — this being the accepted
English rendering, in those days, of " pied poudre " — or
" The Court of Dusty Feet." The court was one of summary
jurisdiction, at which questions affecting pedlars or other
(presumably) dusty-footed traders and their patrons, or
matters relating to " the redress of disorders," could be decided
by a properly constituted authority during the period of the
holding of the fair in which such questions or matters arose.

Jacob says of this old institution : —

" It is a court of record incident to every Fair ; and to be
held only during the time that the Fair is kept. As to the
jurisdiction, the cause of action for contract, slander, &c.,
must arise in the fair or market, and not before at any former
fair, nor after the fair ; it is to be for some matter concerning
the same fair or market ; and must be done, complained of,
heard and determined the same day. Also the plaintiff must

Early Trading Conditions 23

make oath that the contract, &c., was within the jurisdiction
and time of the fair. . . . The steward before whom the court
is held, is the judge, and the trial is by merchants and traders
in the fair."

Such courts were as ancient as the fairs themselves, and
they ensured a speedy administration of justice in accordance
with what was recognised as merchants' law long before
any common law was established. Supposed to have been
introduced by the Romans, the " court of pie powder " was,
according to Jacob, known by them under the name of " curia
pedis pulverisati," while the Saxons called it the " ceapung-
gemot," or " the court of merchandise or handling matters
of buying and selling." It was, of course, the Normans who
introduced the later term of " pied poudre," which the
English converted into " pie powder."

One of the most ancient, and certainly the most important,
of all the English fairs was the Sturbridge fair, at Cambridge,
so called from a little river known as the Stere, or the Sture,
which flowed into the Cam.1

Early records of this particular fair, according to Cornelius
Walford, in " Fairs Past and Present," are to be found in a
grant by King John in or about the year 1211. The fair
is believed to have been originally founded by the Romans ;
but it may have acquired greater importance at the date of
this particular charter by reason of what Cunningham, in his
" Growth of English Industry and Commerce in the Early
and Middle Ages," describes as the " extraordinary increase "
of commerce in every part of the Mediterranean in the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries, coupled with the " improvements in
navigation and in mercantile practice " which " went hand
in hand with this development. Englishmen," he further
tells us, " had but little direct part in all this maritime activity.
Their time was not come ; but the Italian merchants who
bought English wool, or visited English fairs, brought them
within range of the rapid progress that was taking place in
South Europe."

From the middle of the twelfth to the middle of the thir-

1 The fair has, also, been widely described as the " Stourbridge" fair,
a name which seems to associate it, quite wrongly, with the town of
Stourbridge, in Worcestershire. I have preferred to follow here the
spelling favoured by Defoe and other contemporary writers.

24 History of Inland Transport

teenth century the export of wool, leather, lead, tin and other
English commodities was in the hands almost exclusively
of foreign merchants, who came here both to purchase these
raw materials and to dispose of the products of their own or
other countries ; and Sturbridge Fair, as it happened, formed
a convenient trading centre alike for foreign and for English
traders, the question of inland communication being, in fact,
once more the dominating factor in the situation.

Foreign goods destined for the fair were mostly brought,
first, to the port of Lynn, and there transferred to barges
in which they were taken along the Ouse to the Cam, and so
on to the fair ground which, on one side, was bordered by the
latter stream. Heavy goods sent by water from London and
the southern counties, or coming by sea from the northern
ports, reached the fair by the same route. Great quantities
of hops brought to the fair from the south-eastern or midland
counties by land or water were, in turn, despatched via the
Cam, the Ouse and the port of Lynn to Hull, Newcastle, and
elsewhere for consignment to places to be reached by the
Humber, the Tyne, etc. Where water transport was not
available the services of packhorses were brought into
requisition until the time came when the roads had been suffi-
ciently improved to allow of the use of waggons.

In his " Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain "
Defoe gives a graphic account of Sturbridge Fair as he saw
it in 1723. By that date it had become, in his opinion, " not
only the greatest in the whole Nation, but in the World."
It covered an area of about half a square mile, had shops
placed in rows like streets, with an open square known as the
Duddery, and comprised " all Trades that can be named in
London, with Coffee-houses, Taverns, and Eating-houses
innumerable, and all in Tents and Booths." He speaks of
;£i 00,000 worth of woollen manufactures being sold in less
than a week, and of —

" The prodigious trade carry 'd on here by Wholesale-men
from London, and all parts of England, who transact their
Business wholly in their Pocket- Books, and meeting their
Chapmen from all Parts, make up their Accounts, receive
Money chiefly in Bills, and take Orders : These, they say,
exceed by far the sales of Goods actually brought to the Fair,
and deliver'd in kind ; it being frequent for the London

Early Trading Conditions 25

Wholesale Men to carry back orders from their Dealers for
ten Thousand Pounds-worth of Goods a man, and some much
more. This especially respects those People, who deal in heavy
Goods, as Wholesale Grocers, Salters, Brasiers, Iron-Merchants,
Wine-Merchants and the like ; but does not exclude the
Dealers in Woollen Manufactures, and especially in Mercery
Goods of all sorts, the Dealers in which generally manage their
Business in this Manner :

" Here are Clothiers from Halifax, Leeds, Wakefield and
Huddersfield in Yorkshire, and from Rochdale, Bury, &c. in
Lancashire, with vast Quantities of Yorkshire Cloths, Kerseys,
Pennistons, Cottons, &c., with all sorts of Manchester Ware,
Fustians and Things made of Cotton Wooll ; of which the
Quantity is so great, that they told me there were near a
Thousand Horse-packs of such Goods from that Side of the
Country. . . .

" In the Duddery I saw one Ware-house or Booth, with six
Apartments in it, all belonging to a Dealer in Norwich Stuffs
alone, and who, they said, had there above Twenty Thousand
Pounds value in those Goods alone.

" Western Goods had their Share here, also, and several
Booths were fill'd as full with Serges, Du-Roys, Druggets,
Shalloons, Cataloons, Devonshire Kersies, &c., from Exeter,
Taunton, Bristol, and other Parts West, and some from
London also.

" But all this is still outdone, at least in Show, by two
Articles, which are the Peculiars of this Fair, and do not
begin till the other Part of the Fair, that is to say, for the
Woollen Manufacture, begins to draw to a Close : These are
the Wooll and the Hops : As for the Hops there is scarce any
price fix'd for Hops in England till they know how they fell
at Sturbridge Fair : the Quantity that appears in the Fair
is indeed prodigious. . . . They are brought directly from
Chelmsford in Essex, from Canterbury and Maidstone in Kent
and from Farnham in Surrey ; besides what are brought
from London, the Growth of those and other places."

In the North of England, Defoe continues, few hops had
formerly been used, the favourite beverage there being a
" pale smooth ale " which required no hops. But for some
years hops had been used more than before in the brewing
of the great quantity of beer then being produced in the

26 History of Inland Transport

North, and traders from beyond the Trent came south to
buy their hops at Cambridge, taking them back to Yorkshire,
Northamptonshire, Derbyshire, Lancashire and even to
Scotland. Of wool, according to the same authority, the
quantity disposed of at a single fair would be of the value of
^50,000 or ^60,000.

In writing on this same Sturbridge fair, Thorold Rogers says,
in his " History of Agriculture and Prices " : —

" The concourse must have been a singular medley. Besides
the people who poured forth from the great towns . . . there
were, beyond doubt, the representatives of many nations
collected together to this great mart of medieval commerce.
The Jew, expelled from England, had given place to the
Lombard exchanger. The Venetian and Genoese merchant
came with his precious stock of Eastern produce, his Italian
silks and velvets, his store of delicate glass. The Flemish
weaver was present with his linens of Liege and Ghent. The
Spaniard came with his stock of iron, the Norwegian with his
tar and pitch. The Gascon vine-grower was ready to trade
in the produce of his vine-yard ; and, more rarely, the richer
growths of Spain, and, still more rarely, the vintages of
Greece were also supplied. The Hanse towns sent furs and
amber, and probably were the channels by which the precious
stones of the East were supplied through the markets of
Moscow and Novgorod. And perhaps by some of those
unknown courses, the history of which is lost, save by the
relics which have occasionally been discovered, the porcelain
of the farthest East might have been seen in many of the
booths. Blakeney, and Colchester, and Lynn, and perhaps
Norwich, were filled with foreign vessels, and busy with the
transit of various produce ; and Eastern England grew rich
under the influence of trade. How keen must have been the
interest with which the franklin and bailiff, the one trading
on his own account, the other entrusted with his master's
produce, witnessed the scene, talked of the wonderful world
about them, and discussed the politics of Europe !

" To this great fair came, on the other hand, the woolpacks
which then formed the riches of England and were the envy
of outer nations. The Cornish tin-mine sent its produce. . . .
Thither came also salt from the springs of Worcestershire . . .
lead from the mines of Derbyshire and iron, either raw or

Early Trading Conditions 27

manufactured, from the Sussex forges. And besides these,
there were great stores of those kinds of agricultural produce
which, even under the imperfect cultivation of the time,
were gathered in greater security, and therefore in greater
plenty, than in any other part of the world, except Flanders."
Other leading fairs, besides that of Sturbridge, included
Bartholomew Fair, in London, and those of Boston, Chester
and Winchester ; while Holinshed says of the conditions in
the second half of the sixteenth century, " There is almost
no town in England but hath one or two such marts holden
yearlie in the same." In the case of Bartholomew Fair, its
decay was directly due to the fact that there came a time
when English manufacturers could produce cloth equal in
quality to that from Bruges, Ghent and Ypres which had been
the chief commodity sold at this particular fair, thenceforward
no longer needed. But the eventual decline alike of Sturbridge
and of most of the other fairs carrying on a general trade was
mainly due to the revolutionary changes in commerce, in-
dustry and transport to which improved facilities for dis-
tribution inevitably led.

CHAPTER V

EARLY ROAD LEGISLATION

IT was in the year A.D. 411 that the Roman legions were
withdrawn from Britain, and it was not until 1555, or 1144
years after their departure, that the first general Act was
passed, not for the construction, but for the repair of roads in
this country. In the meantime such further construction or
repairing as was actually done had been left to the Church,
to private benevolence, to landowners acting either volun-
tarily or in accordance with the conditions on which they held
their estate, or to the inefficient operation of the common law
obligation that the inhabitants of a parish must repair the
highways within the same.

A writer in 1823, William Knight Dehany, of the Middle
Temple, in a book on " The General Turnpike Acts," comes
to the conclusion, after careful research into the records of
this early period, that " With the exception of the principal
roads communicating with the important sea ports and for-
tresses of the Kingdom (probably the four great roads formed
either by the Romans or Saxons), the other highways were
but tracks over unenclosed grounds, where the passenger
selected his path over the space which presented the firmest
footing and fewest impediments, as is the case in the present
day in forests and wastes in remote situations." He considers
that when packhorses only were used for the transport of
burdens, the state of the roads was not a subject of much
interest and importance ; but certain it is that the subject
became more acute when the greater traffic that resulted from
expanding trade and commerce led to the roads getting into
an even worse condition than they had been in previously.

The earliest road legislation that can be traced was an Act
passed in 1285, in the reign of Edward I., directing that on
highways leading from one market town to another " there be

28

Early Road Legislation 29

neither dyke, tree nor bush whereby a man may lurk to
do hurt within two hundred feet on either side of the way " ;
but this measure was designed for the protection of travellers
against robbers, and had no concern with the repair of the
roads. In 1346 tolls were imposed, by authority of Edward
III., for the repair of three roads in London, namely, " the
King's highway between the hospital of St. Giles and the bar
of the old temple (in Holborn) " ; what is now Gray's Inn
Road (" being very much broken up and dangerous "), and
another road, supposed to be St. Martin's Lane. These tolls,
according to Macpherson's " Annals of Commerce " (1805)
were to be imposed for a period of two years upon all cattle,
merchandise and other goods passing along the roads in
question ; they were fixed at the rate of one penny in the
pound on the value of the animals or goods taxed, and they
were to be paid by all persons, except, curiously enough,
" lords, ladies, and persons belonging to religious establish-
ments or to the Church." Then, in 1353, " the highway
between Temple-bar and Westminster being already rendered
so deep and miry by the carts and horses carrying merchandise
and provision at the staple that it was dangerous to pass
upon it," the King required the owners of houses alongside to
repair the road in consideration of the increased value of their
property owing to the establishment of the staple. l

Reference has already been made (page 13) to the con-
cession by Edward III. to " Phelippe the hermit " of the right
to impose tolls for the repair of the road on Highgate Hill.
Macpherson further says, under date 1363 : —

" The equitable mode of repairing the roads by funds
collected from those who used them was now so far established
that we find, besides the renewals of the tolls for the West-
minster road almost annually, tolls granted this year for the
road between Highgate and Smithfield, for that from Woox-
bridge (Uxbridge) to London, and for the venel called Faytor
(Fetter) lane in Holburn."

In the reign of Henry VIII. the first Statutes relating to

1 "Staple" was a term applied, in the Middle Ages (i) to a town to
which traders were encouraged to send their supplies of some particular
commodity— wool, for example— such town becoming the recognised head-
quarters of the trade concerned, while the arrangement was one that
facilitated the collection of the taxes imposed by the King on the traders ;
and (2) to the commodity sold under these conditions.

30 History of Inland Transport

particular highways were passed, a lord of the manor in Kent,
and another in Sussex, being empowered to construct certain
new roads, at their own expense, and then enclose the old
ones for which the new would be substituted ; but the Act of
2 and 3 Philip and Mary c. 8, passed in 1555, was the first
Highway Act in this country which applied to roads in general.

" Commerce," says Macpherson, " beginning to increase
considerably in the reign of Queen Mary, and the old roads
being much more frequented by heavy carriages " (a term
applied at this time to wheeled vehicles of any description),
the Act was passed with a view to securing a much-needed
improvement. After declaring, in a preamble, that the roads
had become " both very noisome and tedious to travel in
and dangerous to all passengers and carriages," the Act directed
that constables and churchwardens in every parish should,
during Easter week in each year, " call together a number
of the parochians " and choose two honest persons to serve
for twelve months as surveyors and orderers of works for
amending parish highways leading to any market town.
These surveyors were authorised to require occupiers of land
to attend each Midsummer with wains, or carts, in proportion
to their holdings, such carts being furnished, after the custom
of the country, with oxen, horses or other cattle and necessaries,
and to be in charge of two able men. All other householders,
cottagers and labourers, able to work and not being servants
hired by the year, were to furnish work in their own persons,
or by deputy, bringing with them " such shovels, spades,
pikes, mattocks and other tools and instruments as they
do make their own fences and ditches withall." Work was
to be carried on for four days, of eight hours each, unless
otherwise directed by the supervisors ; and constables and
churchwardens were " openly in the Church to give know-
ledge " of appointed days. Fines for default were to be
imposed at leets or quarter-sessions.

This Act was to remain in operation for seven years. In 1562
it was continued by 5 Eliz. c. 13, which, in addition to giving
compulsory powers to obtain materials for road repairs,
increased the " statute " labour, as it came to be called, from
four to six days each year.

This principle of compulsory labour on the roads was —
subject to various modifications in regard to alternative

Early Road Legislation 31

assessments — to remain in operation until the passing of the
General Highway Act of 1835, when it was wholly superseded
by highway rates. The labour itself, though it brought about
an improvement on the previous road conditions, was from
the first far from satisfactory, judging from the references
made to it by Holinshed. The roads, he says, were very deep
and troublesome in winter ; the obligation in regard to six
days' labour on them was of little avail, since the rich evaded
their duty, and the poor loitered so much that scarcely two
days' work was done out of the six ; while the surveyors,
instead of applying the labour to the amendment of roads
from market town to market town, bestowed it on particular
spots the repair of which conduced to their own convenience.
Nor, it seems, was the power conferred on the justices to
punish surveyors and parishioners if they failed in their duty
of much practical avail.

No further general legislation concerning roads was
passed until the Restoration, when, says Macpherson, " The
vast increase of commerce and manufactures and of the
capital city of London, with the concomitant increase of
luxury, brought in such numbers of heavy-wheel carriages
as rendered it by degrees impracticable, in most cases, for
parishes entirely to keep their own part of the roads in a
tolerable condition, more especially in the counties lying near
London and in the manufacturing counties."

Petitions had been received from the inhabitants of various
districts throughout the country praying that steps should be
taken for the betterment of their roads, with the view of
facilitating intercommunication, and it became evident that
some more effective system for the construction and repairing
of roads must be adopted.

In 1662 Parliament passed an Act (14 Car. II., c. 6) which
stated that, inasmuch as former laws and statutes for
mending and repairing public highways had been found
ineffectual, by reason whereof, and the extraordinary burdens
carried on waggons and other carriages, divers highways had
become dangerous and almost impassable, churchwardens
and constables or tithing men in every parish were directed
to choose surveyors yearly on the Monday or Tuesday in
Easter week, giving public notice thereof in church immedi-
ately after the end of the morning prayer. These surveyors

32 History of Inland Transport

were to view the highways, estimate the cost of the necessary
repairs, and, with the help of two or more substantial house-
holders, apportion the cost among persons assessed to the poor
rate and owners of all classes of property exclusive of " house-
hold stuff," the stock of goods in a shop being assessed as well
as the shop itself, and the personal belongings of a householder
equally with the dwelling he occupied.

j,«jThere was further brought about, in 1663, the definite
establishment, by law, of that system of toll-taking, by means
of turnpikes, the principle of which had, as we have seen,
already been adopted in a few isolated instances. Macpherson
speaks of the system as " the more equitable and effectual
method of tolls, paying at the toll-gates (called turnpikes) by
those who use and wear the roads " ; and this was the view
that generally prevailed at the time. He records as follows,
under date 1663, the passing of this first English Turnpike
Act:—

" The antient fund for keeping the roads of England repaired
was a rate levied on the land holders in proportion to their
rents, together with the actual service of the men, the carts,
and horses of the neighbourhood for a limited number of days.
But now, by the increase of inland trade, heavy carriages and
packhorses were so exceedingly multiplied that those means
of repairing the roads were found totally inadequate ; neither
was it just that a neighbourhood should be burdened with
the support of roads for the service of a distant quarter of
the Kingdom. It was therefore necessary to devise more
effective and, at the same time, more equitable means of
supporting the public roads, and the present method of
making and repairing the roads at the expense of those who
actually wear them and reap the benefit of them was now
first established by an Act of Parliament (15 Car. II., c. i.) for
repairing the highways in the shires of Hartford, Cambridge
and Huntingdon, by which three toll-gates (or turn-pikes)
were set up at Wadesmill, Caxton and Stilton."

The highways here in question formed part of the Great
North Road to York and Scotland, and the preamble of the
Act stated that this " ancient highway and post-road " was,
in many places, " by reason of the great and many loads
which are weekly drawn in the waggons through the said
places, as well as by reason of the great trade of barley and

Early Road Legislation 33

malt that cometh to Ware, and so is conveyed by water to
the city of London . . . very ruinous, and become almost
impassable, insomuch that it is become very dangerous to all
his Majesty's liege people that pass that way." The Act
required the justices in each of the three counties to appoint
surveyors who were to provide road materials and require of
persons chargeable under the general law that they should
send waggons and supply labour in accordance with their
obligations, any extra work done by them being paid for at the
usual rates in force in the district. The surveyors were, also,
to appoint collectors of tolls who were empowered to levy,
at the toll-gates (one of these being in each of the three
counties) " for every horse, one penny ; for every coach,
sixpence ; for every waggon, one shilling ; for every cart,
eightpence ; for every score of sheep or lambs, one half-penny,
and so on in proportion for greater numbers ; for every score
of oxen or neat cattle, five pence ; for every score of hogs,
twopence " ; but no person, having once paid toll, and
returning the same day with the same horse or vehicle, or
with cattle, was to pay a second time. The Act was to remain
in operation for eleven years ; though it was, of course, then
renewed.

How the turnpike system, thus introduced, was subse-
quently developed throughout the land will be shown later.

Charles II., whether he personally influenced the Act of
1663 or not, showed in a very practical way his interest in the
opening up of the country to improved communications. In
1675 a remarkable work was published by John Ogilby, Cosmo-
grapher Royal, under the title of " Britannia ; A Geographical
and Historical Description of the Roads of England and
Wales." The book consisted of 100 double-page sheets of
road maps, giving, in scroll fashion, every mile of route
for eighty-five roads or itineraries, and showing distances in
each case, together with a description of each route, written
in considerable detail. The maps, without the letterpress,
were published in the same year in a separate volume, under
the title of " Itinerarium Angliae " ; and in 1699 the descriptive
matter, without the maps, was reprinted in the form of a
handbook, under the title of " The Traveller's Guide."

In his dedication of " Britannia " to King Charles II. the
author says : " Influenced by Your Majesty's Approbation

34 History of Inland Transport

and Munificence, I have attempted to Improve our Commerce
and Correspondency at Home by Registering and Illustrating
Your Majesty's High- Ways, Directly and Transversly, as
from Shore to Shore, so to the Prescribed Limits of the
Circumambient Ocean, from this Great Emporium and Prime
Center of the Kingdom, Your Royal Metropolis."

" The Traveller's Guide " is described as " A most exact
Description of the Roads of England, being Mr Ogilby's Actual
Survey and Mensuration by the Wheel of the Great Roads
from London to all the considerable Cities and Towns in
England and Wales, together with the Cross Roads from one
City or Eminent Town to another " ; while in the preface
the author throws more light on the previous reference to
his Majesty's munificence, saying : —

" This Description of England was undertaken by the
Express Command of King Charles II., and it was at his
Expence that Mr Ogilby with great exactness performed an
Actual Survey and Mensuration by the Wheel of all the
Principal Roads of England."

CHAPTER VI

EARLY CARRIAGES

THE carts that succeeded the early British and Roman war
chariots, and enabled the villeins and cottars to do the
obligatory " cartage " for the lord of the manor, were heavy,
lumbering vehicles, with wheels hewn out of solid pieces of
wood, and were used for private transport rather than trans-
port for hire. The latter came in with the " wains " or " long
waggons " of England's pioneer road carriers. These long
waggons, according to Stow, were brought into use about the
year 1564, up to which time — save for the horse litters and the
agricultural carts — the saddle-horse and the packhorse had
been the only means of travelling and conveying goods.
The long waggon developed into a roomy covered vehicle,
capable of accommodating about 20 passengers in addition
to merchandise ; it had broad wheels adapted to the roads ;
and it was drawn, at a walking pace, by six, eight, or more
horses which (except on such long journeys as that from
London to Wigan) accompanied it for the entire journey. As
the forerunner of the stage-coach it was, at first, generally used
not only for the heavier classes of goods (lighter qualities,
and especially so when greater speed was required, still going
by packhorse), but, also, by such travellers as either could not,
or preferred not to, travel on horseback.

The waggons made regular journeys between London,
Canterbury, Norwich, Ipswich, Gloucester, and other towns.
It was in the long waggon that many a traveller in the seven-
teenth century made the journey between London and Dover,
either going to or returning from the Continent1 ; and, though,
because of this Continental traffic, the Dover road was probably
kept in as good a condition as any in the country, the long

1 The earlier Continental route was by river to Gravesend and thence
by road to Dover.

35

36 History of Inland Transport

waggon went at so slow a pace that in 1640 the journey to
Dover often took either three or four days.

To Bristol, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, long
waggons were despatched three times a week, as follows : —

LEFT LONDON. ARRIVED AT BRISTOL.
Wednesday Tuesday

Saturday Friday

Friday Thursday

It should, however, be remembered that both the long
waggon and the stage-coach which succeeded it travelled only
by day, remaining for the night at some wayside inn where,
in coaching language, it " slept."

When Charles Leigh wrote " The Natural History of
Lancashire, Cheshire and the Peak of Derbyshire," published
in 1700, the London waggons went as far north as Wigan and
Standish, where they took in cargoes of coals for sale on the
return journey. North of Wigan nearly all the trade was
carried on by strings of packhorses or by carts. Kendal was
the principal packhorse station on this line of road, sending
large trains of packhorses as far south as Wigan, and over the
hills, northward, to Carlisle and the borders of Scotland.

In 1753, according to " Williamson's Liverpool Memoran-
dum Book " for that year, the Lancashire and Cheshire stage
waggons left London every Monday and Thursday, and were
ten days on the journey in summer and eleven in the winter.
At that time no waggon or coach from the south could get
nearer to Liverpool than Warrington, owing to the state of
the roads. The general mode of travelling was on horseback.
Four owners of post-horses in London advertised in 1753
that they started from the " Swan-with-Two-Necks," Lad
Lane, every Friday morning with a " gang of horses " for
passengers and light goods, and arrived in Liverpool on the
following Monday evening, this being considered very good
time.

The conditions of transport between London and Edinburgh
in 1776, when Adam Smith published his " Wealth of Nations,"
may be judged from the following references thereto which
he makes in a comparison between the cost of land transport
and the cost of sea transport : —

" A broad- wheeled waggon, attended by two men, and

Early Carnages 37

drawn by eight horses, in about six weeks' time carries and
brings back between London and Edinburgh near four ton
weight of goods. In about the same time a ship navigated
by six or eight men, and sailing between the ports of London
and Leith, frequently carries and brings back two hundred
ton weight of goods. Six or eight men, therefore, by the help
of water carriage, can carry and bring back in the same time
the same quantity of goods between London and Edinburgh
as fifty broad-wheeled waggons, attended by a hundred men,
and drawn by four hundred horses."

The long waggon, supplementing alike the packhorse and
the coach, which carried the lighter and more urgent com-
modities, continued, right down to the railway age, the means
by which the great bulk of the general merchandise of the
country was transported where carriage by water was not
available. It remained, also, in favour with the poorer classes
of travellers until late in the eighteenth century, when the
stage coaches reduced their fares to such proportions that
there was no longer any saving in going by the slower con-
veyance.

Private carriages, as an alternative alike to the horse litter
and to riding on horseback, seem to have been introduced
into this country, from the Continent, about the middle
of the sixteenth century. In his " History of the Origin and
Progress of the Company of Watermen and Lightermen of
the River Thames " Henry Humpherus says that at her
coronation, in 1553, Queen Mary rode in a chariot drawn by
six horses, followed by another in which were " Lady Elizabeth,
her sister, and Lady Ann of Cleves." He further states that
in 1565 a Dutchman, Guylliam Boonen, presented to Queen
Elizabeth a " coach " which was considered a great improve-
ment on the " chariot or waggon " used at the coronation of
Queen Mary. But the pioneer carriages of this date were
little better than gorgeously decorated springless carts, to be
ridden in along the worst of roads, and so uncomfortable that
in an audience she had with the French Ambassador in 1568,
Queen Elizabeth told him of " the aching pains " she was
suffering in consequence of having been " knocked about "
a few days before in a coach which had been driven*too fast
along the streets. All the same, these private " coaches "
must have come into more general use by the end of the

38 History of Inland Transport

sixteenth century, since we find Stow saying in his " Survey
of London " (1598) : —

" Of old times coaches were not known in this island. . . .
But now of late years the use of coaches, brought out of
Germany, is taken up and made so common that there is
neither distinction of time nor difference of people observed ;
for the world runs on wheels with many whose parents were
glad to go on foot."

Fynes Moryson, Gent., in the " Itinerary " he published
(1617) in the reign of James I., recording various journeys he
had made, also alludes to this greater use of private " coaches,"
and he gives some interesting details as to the general con-
ditions of travel at that period. He says : —

" Sixtie or seventy yeeres agoe, Coaches were very rare in
England, but at this day pride is so far increased, as there be
few Gentlemen of any account (I mean elder Brothers) who
have not their Coaches, so as the streetes of London are almost
stopped up with them. . . . For the most part Englishmen,
especially in long journies, used to ride upon their owne
horses. But if any will hire a horse, at London they used to
pay two shillings the first day, and twelve, or perhaps eighteene
pence a day, for as many dayes as they keepe him, till the horse
be brought back home to the owner, and the passenger must
either bring him backe, or pay for the sending of him, and
find him meate both going and comming. In other parts of
England a man may hire a horse for twelve pence the day. . . .
Likewise Carriers let horses from Citie to Citie. . . . Lastly,
these Carryers have long covered Waggons, in which they carry
passengers from City to City : but this kind of journeying is so
tedious, by reason they must take waggon very earely, and
come very late to their Innes, as none but women and people
of inferiour condition, or strangers (as Flemmings with their
wives and servants) use to travell in this sort."

These long covered waggons began to be supplemented, in
1640 or thereabouts, by stage coaches, the advent of which is
thus recorded by a contemporary writer, Dr Chamberlayne : —

" There is of late such an admirable commodiousness, both
for men and women, to travel from London to the principal
towns of the country that the like hath not been known in the
world, and that is by stage coaches, wherein any one may be
transported to any place sheltered from foul weather and foul

Early Carriages 39

ways, free from cndamaging one's health and one's body by
hard jogging or over- violent motion on horse back, and this
not only at the low price of about a shilling for every five
miles but with such velocity and speed in one hour as the
foreign post can but make in one day."

The " admirable commodiousness " which thus beat the
world's record of that date was a vehicle without either
springs or windows, which carried four, six or eight passengers
inside. Over the axle there was a great basket for luggage
and a few outside passengers, who made themselves as com-
fortable as they could among the bags and boxes, a few hand-
fuls of straw being, in their case, the only concession to luxury.
The earliest coaches carried neither passengers nor luggage
on the roof, this arrangement coming into vogue later. In
order that people should not be deterred from travelling in
these conveyances by fear of highwaymen, it was announced, in
the case of some of them, that the guards were armed and that
the coaches themselves were " bullet proof."

As against the eulogy of Dr Chamberlayne it might be
mentioned that the introduction of stage-coaches was regarded
with great disfavour by another writer, John Cressett, who
published, in 1672, a pamphlet entitled " The Grand Concern
of England Explained in Several Proposals to Parliament "
(reprinted in Harleian Miscellany, vol. viii.). Cressett evidently
belonged to those adherents to " good old times " conditions
who are opposed to all innovations ; but his pamphlet affords
much information as to the general conditions of travel at the
time he wrote.

Cressett asked, among other things, " that a stop be put
to further buildings in and about London " ; " that brandy,
coffee, mum, tea and chocolate may be prohibited " ; and
" that the multitude of Stage-coaches and caravans may be
suppressed." It is with the last-mentioned demand, only,
that we have here any " grand concern." In amplifying it
he recommends " That the Multitude of Stage-coaches and
Caravans now travelling upon the Roads may all, or most of
them, be suppressed, especially those within forty, fifty, or
sixty Miles of London, where they are no Way necessary."

The indictment he prefers against the coaches is in the
following terms : —

" These Coaches and Caravans are one of the greatest

40 History of Inland Transport

Mischiefs that hath happened of late Years to the Kingdom,
mischievous to the Publick, destructive to Trade, and preju-
judicial to Lands :

" First, By destroying the Breed of good Horses, the
Strength of the Nation, and making Men careless of attaining
a good Horsemanship, a Thing so useful and commendable
in a Gentleman.

" Secondly, By hindering the Breed of Watermen, who are
the Nursery for Seamen, and they the Bulwark of the Kingdom.

" Thirdly, By lessening his Majesty's Revenues."

Alluding to the effect of coach-riding on the individual, he
says : —

" Stage-coaches . . . effeminate his Majesty's Subjects
who, having used themselves to travel in them, have neither
attained Skill themselves nor bred up their Children to good
Horsemanship, whereby they are rendered incapable of serving
their Country on Horseback, if Occasion should require and
call for the same ; for hereby they become weary and listless
when they ride a few Miles, and unwilling to get on Horseback ;
not able to endure Frost, Snow, or Rain, or to lodge in the
Fields."

These last-mentioned words, "or to lodge in the fields,"
are especially suggestive of what might happen in those days
to travellers on horseback. The writer goes on to say : —

" There is such a lazy Habit of Body upon Men, that they,
to indulge themselves, save their fine clothes, and keep them-
selves clean and dry, will ride lolling in one of them, and endure
all the Inconveniences of that Manner of Travelling rather than
ride on Horseback."

He grieves over the fact that there were not " near so many
coach-horses either bred or kept in England " as there were
saddle-horses formerly, and he mentions the interesting fact
that the York, Chester and Exeter stage-coaches, with 40
horses a-piece, carried eighteen passengers a week to each of
those three places from London, and brought the same
number back — a total of 1872 for the year. His plea that,
but for the coaches, this number of travellers would have
required, with their servants, " at least 500 horses," instead of
the 120 which sufficed for the coaches, no longer concerns us ;
but his figures as to the extent of the travel in 1673 between
London and cities of such importance — even in those days —

Early Carriages 41

as York, Chester and Exeter, are certainly interesting. One
learns from the pamphlet that there were, in addition, stage
coaches then going to " almost every town within 20 or 25 miles
of London."

The writer also sought to discredit coaches on the ground that
they were — bad for trade ! " These Coaches and Caravans,"
he said, " are destructive to the Trade and Manufactures
of the Kingdom, and have impoverished many Thousands of
Families, whose subsistence depended upon the manufacturing
of Wool and Leather, two of the Staple Commodities of the
Kingdom." It was not only that saddlers and others were
being cast on the parish, but tailors and drapers were also
suffering because in two or three journeys on horseback
travellers spoiled their clothes and hats — " Which done,
they were forced to have new very often, and that increased
the consumption of the manufactures, and the employment
of the Manufacturers, which travelling in Coaches doth no
way do."

All this must have seemed grave enough to the good
alarmist ; but there was still worse to come, for he goes on to
say that —

" Passage to London being so easy, Gentlemen come to
London oftener than they need, and their Ladies either with
them, or, having the Conveniences of these Coaches, quickly
follow them. And when they are there, they must be in the
Mode, buy all their Cloaths there, and go to Plays, Balls, and
Treats, where they get such a Habit of Jollity and a Love to
Gayety and Pleasure, that nothing afterwards in the Country
will serve them, if ever they should fix their minds to live
there again ; but they must have all from London, whatever
it costs."

Fearing, perhaps, that these various arguments might not
suffice to discredit the coaches, the pamphleteer has much
to say about the discomforts of those conveyances : —

" Travelling in these Coaches can neither prove advan-
tageous to Men's Health or Business ; For what Advantage
is it to Men's Health to be called out of their beds into these
Coaches, an Hour before Day in the Morning, to be hurried
in them from Place to Place till one Hour, two or three within
Night ; insomuch that, after sitting all Day in the Summer-
time stifled with Heat and choaked with Dust; or in the

42 History of Inland Transport

Winter-time starving and freezing with cold, or choaked with
filthy Fogs, they are often brought into their Inns by Torch-
light, when it is too late to sit up to get a Supper ; and next
Morning they are forced into the Coach so early, that they can
get no Breakfast. . . .

" Is it for a Man's Health to travel with tired Jades, and to
be laid fast in the foul ways and forced to wade up to the
knees in Mire ; afterwards sit in the Cold, till Teams of Horses
can be sent to pull the Coach out ? Is it for their Health to
travel in rotten Coaches, and to have their Tackle, or Pearch
or Axle-tree broken, and then to wait three or four hours,
sometimes half a day, to have them mended, and then to travel
all Night to make good their Stage ? "

And so on, and so on, until we come to the moral of the
story, which is that people should refuse to patronise such
innovations as stage-coaches, keep to the ways of their fore-
fathers, and do their travelling on horseback. If they could
not do that, and needs must ride in a vehicle, let them be
content with the long coaches (i.e. long waggons) which were
" More convenient than running coaches . . . for they travel
not such long journeys, go not out so early in the Morning,
neither come they in so late at night ; but stay by the Way,
and travel easily, without jolting Men's Bodies or hurrying
them along, as the running Coaches do."

But the denunciations, arguments and vigorous pleadings
of this " Lover of his Country," as the author of " The Grand
Concern " called himself, were all of no avail. The march of
progress had taken another step forward, and England found
it had now entered definitely on the Coaching Era.

CHAPTER VII

LOADS, WHEELS AND ROADS

BEFORE dealing more fully with the development of coaches
and coaching and of vehicular traffic in general, it will be
desirable to revert to the new perplexities which such develop-
ment brought to those who were concerned with the care of
the roads, and sec in what way it was endeavoured to meet
them.

In Macpherson's " Annals of Commerce " the following is
given under date 1629 : —

" The great increase of the commerce of England of late
years very much increased the inland carriage of goods,
whereby the roads were more broken than heretofore. King
Charles issued his proclamation, confirming one of his father's
in the 2oth year of his reign, for the preservation of the public
roads of England, commanding that no carrier or other person
whatsoever shall travel with any waine, cart or carriage
with more than two wheels nor with above the weight of
twenty hundred ; nor shall draw any waine, cart or other
carriage with above five horses at once."

The King Charles here spoken of was, of course, Charles I.,
and the 2oth year of the reign of his father, James I., takes
us back to 1623. That year, therefore, gives us the date
for the starting of a policy, not of adapting the roads to the
steadily increasing traffic, but of adapting the traffic to the
roads ; and this policy, as far as successive rulers and govern-
ments were concerned (efforts in the way of actual road
betterment being left almost exclusively to individual initia-
tive or private enterprise), was persevered in more or less
consistently for a period of close on two centuries.

The State policy here in question was applied mainly in two
directions : (i) the restriction to a certain weight of the loads
carried ; and (2) the enforcing of regulations as to the breadth
of wheels. The former alone is mentioned in the references

43

44 History of Inland Transport

just made to the proclamations of Charles I. and James I. ;
and it may be explained that the stipulation as to not more
than five horses being attached to any cart or waggon was itself
a precaution against the drawing of what were regarded as
excessive loads. Such precautions were renewed after the
Restoration, when, as we have seen, there began to be a
considerable expansion of trade. By 13 & 14 Chas. II., c. 6,
it was laid down that no waggon, wain, cart or carriage carrying
goods " for hire " should be drawn by more than seven horses
or eight oxen, or carry more than 20 cwt. between October i
and May i, or more than 30 cwt. between May i and October i,
thus modifying the earlier regulations, while it further enacted
that no wheels should have rims exceeding four inches in
breadth ; but by 22 Chas. II., c. 12, the maximum number
of horses allowed to any vehicles was again reduced to five ;
and by 30 Chas. II., c. 5, the words "for hire" were deleted,
the restrictions being applied to all vehicles carrying goods.

From the time of the accession of William and Mary, every
few years saw fresh Acts of Parliament becoming law, changing,
deleting or adding to regulations previously laid down as to
weight of loads, number of horses, the order in which they
should be harnessed, the breadth of the tires, the position of
the wheels, the kind of nails to be used for fastening the tires,
and so on, until it becomes practically impossible to follow
the complicated changes from time to time, if not actually
from year to year. These changes more especially applied
to the number of horses or oxen by which carts and waggons
could be drawn, and efforts were made to enforce the ever-
varying regulations by exceptionally severe penalties. The
Act 5 Geo. I., c. n, for example, authorises any person to
seize and keep possession of such number of horses as might
be attached to a carter's waggon in excess of six, or to a cart,
for hire, in excess of three ; though 16 Geo. II, c. 29, states that,
as the restriction of three horses to a cart, under the Act of
Geo. I., had been found inconvenient for farmers, and highly
detrimental to the markets of the Kingdom, the number could
be increased to four.

In reference to these legislative restrictions on the number
of horses a farmer might attach to a single cart, it is said in
" A General View of the Agriculture of Shropshire," by Joseph
Plymley, Archdeacon of Salop (1803) : " Were farmers per-

Loads, Wheels and Roads 45

mitted to draw any number of horses, it would be of great
public utility in lowering the price of these animals, which is
now enormously high. The law, as it now stands, acts as a
prohibition to farmers breeding horses ; for a breeding mare,
or a colt under five years old, is not fit to draw one of four in
a waggon, with no more than 60 bushels of barley or wheat,
which is the common load of the Shropshire or Staffordshire
farmers, neither being more than two tons. . . . Another evil
occasioned by the law is that such farmers are obliged to keep
horses of the largest size, which consume the produce of much
land by eating a large quantity of corn." Whereas good
waggon-horses could formerly be bought at from £10 to ^15
each, they were then, " by their scarcity," costing from ^25
to ^35 each. Coach-horses cost " from ^40 to £60."

The various provisions in respect to number of horses or
oxen per cart or waggon failed to keep down the loads to a
weight suited to the deficiencies of the roads — which de-
ficiencies had continued, notwithstanding the turnpikes —
and a further step was taken under 14 Geo. II., c. 42, which
authorised turnpike trustees not only to erect weighing
machines but to impose an additional toll of twenty shillings
per cwt. on any waggon which, together with its contents, had
a total weight exceeding 60 cwt. By Geo. II., c. 43, the
trustees were authorised to levy the same additional toll on
any vehicle drawn by six horses.

In addition to adopting these various restrictions on the
weights carried, Parliament had devoted much attention to
the construction of the vehicles employed. One of the pro-
visions of an Act passed in 1719 was a regulation in respect to
the breadth of the wheel-rims, or " fellies," and the use thereon
of rose-headed nails, these being regarded as injurious to the
roads ; though in the following year came another Act which
recited that as the extending of these regulations to waggons
that did not travel for hire had been found detrimental to
farmers and others, and, also, to the markets of the Kingdom,
they were repealed — only, however, to be revived, by 18 Geo.
II., c. 33, in 1745.

Parliament was now to devote much more attention to the
subject of broad wheels ; and how this came about is ex-
plained by Daniel Bourn in a pamphlet entitled, " A Treatise
upon Wheel Carriages " (1763), the main purpose of which was

46 History of Inland Transport

to expound to the world the excellences of what the writer
described as " that noble and valuable machine, the broad-
wheeled waggon." He gives the following account of the
origin of the said machine : —

" The first set of broad wheels made use of on roads in this
Kingdom were erected by Mr James Morris, of Brock-Forge,
near Wiggan in Lancashire ; who having a deep bad road to
pass with his team advised with me upon the subject ; I
mentioned the making of the fellies of his wheels of an un-
common width : He accordingly made his first set thirteen
inches, and the next year another of nine inches in the sole ;
and his travelling with these to Liverpool, Warrington and
other places, was took notice of by some persons of distinc-
tion, particularly Lord Strange, and Mr Hardman, Member
for Liverpool, &c., who after making strict enquiries of Mr
Morris, concerning their nature and properties, reported their
utilities to the House, which occasioned an Act of Parliament
being made in their favour. . . .

" Therefore let us congratulate ourselves on making thus
far so happy a progress ; and as the publick roads continue to
mend and improve, as they polish and smooth, and arrive
nearer perfection, so let us try if the carriage that travels this
road may not continue to improve too, and receive a similar
degree of perfection."

The Act of Parliament referred to by Bourn was, pre-
sumably, that of 26 Geo. II., c. 30, which laid down that — with
certain exceptions — no cart or waggon should be allowed on
any turnpike road at all unless the " fellies " of each and every
wheel had a breadth of at least nine inches, the penalty for a
breach of this enactment being a fine of ^5, with one month's
imprisonment in default of payment, and forfeiture of one of
the horses, together with its harness, to the sole use and
benefit of the person making the seizure. As a further en-
couragement of such wheels, the trustees of turnpike roads
were required to accept reduced tolls for all vehicles having
wheels of a breadth of nine inches. Two years later a further
Act (28 Geo. II., c. 17), set forth that, the former statutes
relating to cart-wheels not having answered the good purposes
intended, it was now provided that for a period of three years
from June 24, 1753, waggons having g-inch wheels were to be
allowed to pass free through every turnpike in the Kingdom,

Loads, Wheels and Roads 47

the trustees being authorised to protect themselves against
loss from such free passage by imposing higher tolls on all
carts and waggons the wheels of which were not nine inches
in width.

The idea in having these broad wheels was that they would
not only be less injurious to the roads than the narrow wheels,
but would even tend to keep the roads in good order by helping
to smooth and consolidate them in the same way as would
be done by garden rollers. Mr Bourn, who was an enthusiast
on the subject, even proposed to have cart and waggon
wheels made of cast iron with a breadth of sixteen inches !
He says in his pamphlet : —

" I would recommend having the wheels made in the
following manner : —

" Let there be run out of cast iron at the founders hollow
rims or cylinders, about two feet high, sixteen inches broad
or wide, and from one to near two inches in thickness, according
to the design or necessity of the proprietor, and the burden
he intends them to bear. Let the space, or cavity between
these cylinders be filled up solid with a block of wood, through
the center of which insert your arbor or gudgeon, and leave it
two inches and six eighths at each end longer than the cylinder;
which parts must be round, and about two inches thick, being
the pivots, and when the whole is well wedged the wheel is
compleat.

" Here then is a solid wheel, which answers all the intentions
of the garden roller ; now can anything be conceived that
would have so happy a tendency upon the roads ? to render
them smooth and even to harden and encrust the surface,
and make it resemble a terrass walk ? I say, can anything
be equal to these kind of cast iron rollers to produce the fore-
going effects ? "

Without adopting Mr Bourn's 1 6-inch cast-iron garden
rollers, the carriers of the period did, apparently, adopt
the 9-inch wheels favoured by Parliament ; but as they
found that, with g-inch wheels, they could carry much heavier
weights, there had to be a further resort to legislation directed
to a limitation of loads. This was done by 5 Geo. III., c. 38, l

1 This Act also provided that when the wheels of a waggon were so
arranged that those at the back followed in a line with those in front, the
two pairs thus running in one and the same groove, only half the usual
tolls should be charged.

48 History of Inland Transport

while under 6 Geo. III., c. 43,, turnpike trustees were directed
to issue orders to their collectors not to allow any waggon
or other four-wheeled carriage having wheels of less than
9 inches in breadth to pass through a toll-gate when drawn
by more than four horses without seizing one of the horses.
By 13 Geo. III., c. 84, the reduced tolls already conceded to
9-inch wheels were extended to 6-inch wheels, and it was
further provided that waggons with 1 6-inch wheels should pass
toll free for a year, and then pay only one-half of the tolls
to be paid by 6-inch wheeled waggons.

In order to give still further encouragement to the use
of 1 6-inch wheels, an Act passed in the following year provided
that any waggon having wheels of those dimensions should
pass toll-free for five years instead of one, and pay only half
toll afterwards.

Among the many other Acts that followed, mention may
be made of 55 Geo. III., c.ii9, which gives an especially good
idea of the infinite pains taken by the Legislature to adapt
the construction of vehicles to the apparently hopeless
deficiencies of the roads. The Act authorised road trustees
to exempt certain vehicles from tolls for overweight " provided
such Waggon, Cart or other such Carriage shall have the Soles or
Bottoms of the Fellies of all the Wheels thereof of the Breadth
of Six inches, or of Nine Inches, or of Sixteen Inches or upwards,
and be cylindrical, that is to say, of the same Diameter on the
Inside next the Carriage as on the outside, so that when such
Wheels shall be rolling on a flat or level Surface, the whole
Breadth thereof shall bear equally on such flat or level Surface ;
and provided that the opposite Ends of the Axletrees of such
Waggon, Cart or other Carriage, so far as the same shall be
inserted in the respective Naves of the Wheels thereof, shall
be horizontal and in the continuance of one straight Line,
without forming any Angle with each other ; and so that in
each pair of Wheels belonging to such Carriage, the lower Parts,
when resting on the Ground, shall be at the same distance from
each other as the upper Parts of such Pair of Wheels : Pro-
vided always," etc.

Under 3 Geo. IV., c. 126 (1822) no waggon or cart with
wheels of less breadth than 3 in. was to be used on any turnpike
road from the ist of January, 1826, under a penalty of not
exceeding ^5 for the owner and not exceeding forty shillings

Loads, Wheels and Roads 49

for the driver ; but this provision was repealed by 4 Geo. IV.,
c. 95 (1823), " in compliance," says Dehany, " with a cry
raised on the part of the farmers and agriculturists, who, in
petitions and complaints against the Act, put forward this
clause as a principal grievance."

The broad-wheel policy of successive Governments evoked
a good deal of criticism from others besides farmers and
agriculturists, who themselves seem to have been reduced from
time to time by the ever-changing regulations and restrictions
to a condition almost of despair. In speaking of the roads in
the parish of Eccles, Dr Aikin, writing in 1795, says in his
" Description of the Country from Thirty to Forty Miles round
Manchester " that although " much labour and a very great
expense of money " had been expended on them, they still
remained in a very indifferent state owing to the immoderate
weights drawn in waggons and carts, and he adds : "To
prevent this, vain and useless are all the regulations of weighing
machines ; and the encouragement of broad and rolling wheels
still increases the evil, which must soon destroy all the best
roads of Great Britain."

The general effect of the legislation in question was, also,
thus commented on by William Jessop in an article on " Inland
Navigation and Public Roads," published in vol. vi. of the
" Georgical Essays " (1804) : —

" I do not know anything in this country . . . that has
been more neglected than the proper construction of wheel
carriages and the formation of roads. It has been generally
acknowledged that for carriages of burden broad wheels,
which will roll the roads, are the most eligible ; and by the
exemptions which have been granted to those who use broad
wheels, the legislature has certainly looked forward to the
benefits to be expected from the use of them ; but never was
a proposition more misunderstood, or an indulgence more
abused. Of all the barbarous and abominable machines that
have been contrived by ignorance, and maintained by vulgar
prejudice, none have equalled the broad-wheeled carriages
that are now in use ; instead of rolling the roads, they grind
them into mud and dust."

Not alone cart-wheels, but even cart-wheel nails, engaged
the serious attention of Parliament, and formed the subject of
special legislation. The Act 18 Geo. II., c. 33, provided, among

50 History of Inland Transport

other things, that the streaks or tires of wheels were to be
fastened with flat, and not rose-headed, nails ; and an Act
passed in 1822, in the reign of George IV., directed that when
the nails of the tire projected more than a quarter of an inch
from the surface of the tire the owner of the waggon should
pay a penalty of £5 and the driver one of forty shillings for
every time such vehicle was drawn on a turnpike road ; though
an amending Act, passed the following year, reduced the
penalties to " any sum not exceeding " forty shillings for the
owner and twenty shillings for the driver.

Towards the end of the long period here in question it began
to be realised that what was wanted, after all, was an adapta-
tion of the roads to the traffic rather than an adaptation of the
traffic to the roads ; but the change in policy was not definitely
effected until two practical - minded men, John Loudon
McAdam and Thomas Telford, had introduced, at the begin-
ning of the nineteenth century, the first attempt at really
scientific road-making which had been made in this country
since the departure of the Roman legions in the early part of
the fifth century.

CHAPTER VIII

THE COACHING ERA

WHILST the Legislature had been actively engaged in en-
deavouring to adapt wheeled vehicles to roads, the number
of vehicles of various types using the roads had greatly
increased as the result of expanding trade and travel, com-
bined with the further stimulus offered by that system of
turnpike roads the story of which will be told in later
chapters.

The vehicle that first performed in this country the functions
of a public coach in transporting a number of passengers
from one place to another was, of course, the long waggon,
of which an account has already been given. Stage-coaches
began to come into use about the year 1659, when, as shown
by the " Diary " of Sir William Dugdale, there was a Coventry
coach on the road. The three coaches a week between London
and York, Chester and Exeter, spoken of by John Cressett
as running in 1673, carrying their six passengers apiece on
each journey, went, at that time, only in summer, on account
of the roads ; and even in the summer it was no unusual thing
for the passengers to have to walk miles at a time because the
horses could not do more than drag the coach itself through the
mire. The usual speed was from four to four and a half miles
an hour.

The first stage-coach between London and Edinburgh ran
in 1658. It went once a fortnight, and the fare was £4. In
1734 a weekly coach from Edinburgh to London was an-
nounced. It was to do the journey in nine days, " or three
days sooner than any coach that travels that road " ; but
either such rapid travelling as this was a piece of bluff on the
part of the advertiser or the conditions of travel went from bad
to worse since in 1 760 the Edinburgh coach for London left only
once a month, and was from fourteen to sixteen days on the
way. The fact that one coach a month sufficed to carry all the

52 History of Inland Transport

passengers is sufficiently suggestive of the very small amount
of travel by land between London and Scotland that went
on even in the middle of the eighteenth century. Fourteen
days for the journey between London and Edinburgh was
then considered a very reasonable time-allowance. In 1671
Sir Henry Herbert had said in the House of Commons, " If
a man were to propose to convey us regularly to Edinburgh
in coaches in seven days, and bring us back in seven more,
should we not vote him to Bedlam ? " 1

In 1712 a fortnightly coach from Edinburgh to London was
advertised to " perform the whole journey in thirteen days
without any stoppages (if God permits), having eighty able
horses to perform the whole journey." The fare was ^4 ros.
with a free allowance of 20 Ibs. of luggage. In 1754 the
Edinburgh coach left on Monday in winter and on Tuesday in
summer, arrived at Boroughbridge (Yorkshire) on Saturday
night, started again on Monday morning, and was due to reach
London on the following Friday.

In 1774 Glasgow had been brought within ten days of
London. The arrival of the coach was then regarded as so
important an event that a gun was fired off when it came in
sight, to let the citizens know it was really there. A lo-day
coach to London was also running from Edinburgh to London
in 1779, an advertisement in the Edinburgh Courant of that
year stating that such a coach left every Tuesday, that it
rested all Sunday at Boroughbridge, and that " for the better
accommodation of passengers " it would be " altered to a new
genteel two-end coach machine, hung upon steel springs,
exceedingly light and easy."

York was a week distant from London in 1700 ; but on
April 12, 1706, there was put on the road, to run three times
a week, a coach which, said the announcement made respecting
it, " performs the whole journey in four days (if God permits)."
The time of starting on the first day was five o'clock in the
morning.

The proprietors of a coach that ran between London and
Exeter in 1755 promised their patrons " a safe and expeditious
journey in a fortnight " ; though this record was improved
on before the end of the century, the time being reduced to

1 Passengers are to-day regularly conveyed between London and Edin-
burgh by train in eight and a quarter hours.

The Coaching Era 53

ten days. Exeter is a little over 170 miles from London, and
the journey can be done to-day, by rail, in three hours.

From London to Portsmouth took, in 1703, fourteen hours,
" if the roads were good."

The Oxford coach in 1742 left London at 7 a.m., arrived at
High Wycombe at 5 p.m., remained there for the night, and
reached Oxford the following day.

By 1751 travelling between London and Dover had so far
improved that it was accomplished in two days by stage-
coach, instead of three or four days by long waggon. The
coach left London every Wednesday and Friday at four in
the morning ; the passengers dined at Rochester, stayed for
the night at Canterbury, and were due at Dover " the next
morning, early." The announcements made in respect to this
coach state that " there will be a conveniency " — that is, a
basket — " behind, for baggage and outside passengers."

The advancement made by the stage-coach over the long
waggon was, however, satisfactory for a time only. By about
1734 the stage-coach itself began to find a rival in what was
called " the flying coach," otherwise a stage-coach which
travelled at accelerated speed. Thus the advent of a " New-
castle Flying Coach " was announced in the following terms : —

" May 9, 1734. — A coach will set out towards the end of
next week for London or any place on the road. To be per-
formed in nine days, being three days sooner than any coach
that travels the road, for which purpose eight stout horses
are stationed at proper distances."

In 1754 a " flying coach " between Manchester and London
was started by a group of Manchester merchants who, with
the developing trade of those times, doubtless felt the need
for improved facilities of travel. It was announced that
" incredible as it may appear, this coach will actually arrive
in London four days and a half after leaving Manchester."

If the person who wrote this advertisement could only
come to life again, what would he be likely to say to the fact
that London and Manchester are to-day only four hours apart,
and that a London merchant, after doing a morning's work
in the City, can leave Huston at noon, lunch in the train, be
in Manchester by four o'clock, have two hours there, leave
again at six, dine in the train, and be back in London by ten ?
On the other hand, what does the London merchant who can

54 History of Inland Transport

do these things (besides having the further advantages of the
telegraph and the long-distance telephone) think of the business
conditions in 1754, when the quickest communications be-
tween London and Manchester were by a coach doing the
journey in the then " incredible " time of four days and a
half?

The enterprise of Manchester naturally stimulated that of
Liverpool, and three years later it was announced that from
June 9, 1757, "a flying machine on steel springs " would
make the journey between Warrington and London in three
days. The roads between Liverpool and Warrington being
still impassable for coaches, the Liverpool passengers had to
go on horseback to Warrington the day previous to the
departure of the coach from that town. Manchester got a
three-day coach to London in 1760. Seven years later com-
munication by stage-coach was opened between Liverpool
and Manchester, six or even eight horses being required to drag
through the ruts and sloughs a heavy, lumbering vehicle which,
going three days a week, then took the whole day to make the
journey. In 1782 the time between Liverpool and London
was 48 hours.

Down to the middle of the eighteenth century there was no
direct communication by coach between Birmingham and
London. The Birmingham merchant or resident who wanted
to travel to London by coach, instead of on horseback, had
to go four miles by road to Castle Bromwich, and there
await the coach from Chester to London. In 1747, however,
Birmingham got a coach of its own, and this vehicle, it was
announced, would run to London in two days " if the roads
permit," x but the roads around Birmingham were still in a
deplorable condition when William Hutton published his
" History " of the town. He says that from Birmingham,
as from a grand centre, there radiated twelve roads to as many
towns ; but on most of them one could not travel with safety
in times of floods, the water, owing to the absence of cause-
ways and bridges, flowing over the road higher than the
stirrup of one's horse. At Saltley in the year 1779 he had had
to pass through what was really a dangerous river. A mile
from Birmingham, on the Lichfield road, a river remained

1 The journey between Birmingham and London can now be done by
train in two hours.

The Coaching Era 55

without a bridge until 1792. The road to Walsall had been
" lately made good," and that to Wolverhampton was much
improved ; but he speaks of the road to Dudley, twelve miles
in length, as " despicable beyond description," and says the
" unwilling traveller " was obliged to go two miles about,
through a bad road, to avoid a worse. The roads to Stratford
and Warwick were " much used and much neglected," and
the one to Coventry could " only be equalled by the Dudley
Road."

" A flying machine on steel springs " from Sheffield to
London was started in 1760. It " slept " at Nottingham the
first night, at Northampton the second, and arrived in London
on the third day. Leeds showed equal enterprise.

The Bath coach, " hung on steel springs," was hi 1765
doing the journey in 29 hours, the night being spent at
Andover. The improvement of the Bath road allowed of
Burke reaching Bristol from London in 24 hours in the
summer of 1774 ; but his biographer mentions, by way of
explaining how he accomplished this feat, that he " travelled
with incredible speed." By 1795, however, Bath had been
brought within a single day's journey of London, the traveller
who started from the Angel, at the back of St. Clements
Danes, at four o'clock in the morning, being due at Bath at
eleven o'clock at night. The journey between Dover and
London was also reduced to one day, a " flying machine "
leaving at four a.m. and reaching its destination in the
evening.

By 1784, in fact, flying coaches had become quite common,
and their once incredible speeds even came to be regarded as
far from satisfactory for travellers to whom time was of
importance.

The immediate reason, however, for the next development
arose through the defective postal arrangements. Hitherto
the mails had been carried either by post-boys, whose contract
time was five miles an hour, or, in the case of short journeys,
by veterans on foot whose rate of progress was much less,
though it was then a common practice to make up urgent
letters as parcels, and send them by the coaches. John
Palmer, manager of a theatre at Bath, finding the mail
was taking three days over a journey to London which he
himself often did in one, submitted to Pitt, in 1783, a scheme

56 History of Inland Transport

for the running of mail coaches at the then equivalent to
" express " speed. The permanent officials of the Post Office
naturally regarded such a scheme, proposed by a rank outsider,
as impracticable, if not absolutely absurd, and Palmer had a
sturdy fight before he got his way. The experimental service
started in 1784 was an immediate success, and when it became
known that letters were being carried between Bristol and
London in sixteen hours, every other important town or city in
the country (Liverpool being one of the first to petition)
wanted to have its own postal arrangements improved in the
same way. Thus there was inaugurated a " mail-coach era,"
which was to continue unchecked until the first despatch of
mails by railway in 1830.

The earliest of the mail-coaches travelled at a rate of about
six miles an hour ; but, as the roads were improved, the speed
was increased to eight, nine, ten or even twelve miles an hour.
The time for the Liverpool-London journey, for example, was
eventually reduced to 30 hours in good weather and 36 hours
in bad.

The running of these mail-coaches had a powerful influence
on the whole question of road improvement, since the
attainment of the best possible speed and the avoidance of
delays in the arrival of the mails came to be regarded as
matters of supreme importance ; while more and more of the
ordinary stage-coaches were put on for travellers to whom
the lower fares l were of greater concern than high rates of
speed.

Mail coaches had the further good effect of stimulating
great improvements in coach construction. The use of springs,
in particular, allowed of a more compact vehicle, carrying
luggage and outside passengers on the roof instead of rele-
gating them to a basket " conveniency " behind. The com-
petition, or, at least, the example of the mail-coaches had the
further result of increasing the speed of the " flying " coaches,

1 The fares by the stage coaches generally worked out at 2^d. to 3d.
a mile outside, and 4d. to 5d. a mile inside ; and those by mail-coach at
4d. to sd. a mile outside, and 8d. to lod. a mile inside. An outside place
on the Edinburgh mail-coach cost about J\ guineas, and an inside place
nj guineas, exclusive of tips to coachmen and guards at every stage, and
meals and refreshments en route. C. G. Harper, in " The Great North
Road," estimates that the total cost of a journey from London to Edin-
burgh by mail-coach was, for an outside traveller, 1 1 guineas, and for an
inside traveller 15 guineas.

The Coaching Era 57

which now generally aimed at doing their eight or nine miles
an hour ; but here, again, much depended on the state of the
roads.

Supplementary to the coaching there was the system of
" posting," favoured by those who did not care to patronise
public vehicles, and could afford the luxury of independent
travel. In the earliest form of the posting system, that is,
in the days when wheeled vehicles had not yet come into
general use, and people did their journeys on horseback,
travellers hired horses only at the recognised posting places ;
and Fynes Moryson, in his " Itinerary," narrating the con-
ditions in 1617, says a " passenger " having a " commission "
from the chief postmaster " shall pay 2^d. each mile for his
horse and the same for his guide's horse ; but one guide
will serve the whole company, tho' many ride together."
Travellers without a " commission " had to pay 3d. a mile.
The guide, presumably, brought back the horses, and, also,
really guided the traveller — a matter of no slight importance
when the roads were often simply tracks over unenclosed spaces
with no finger-posts to point the way.

Another form of posting was the hire from place to place
of horses for use in private carriages ; but the more general
form was the hiring of both horse and post-chaise — a four-
wheeled vehicle, accommodating, generally, three persons,
and having a roof on which luggage could be strapped. Posting
was a costly mode of travelling, only possible for people of
wealth and distinction. Harper calculates that to " post "
from London to Edinburgh must have cost at least ^30 ; but
it was no unusual thing, about the middle of the eighteenth
century, for the Scotch newspapers to publish advertisements
by gentlemen who proposed to " post " to London, inviting
others to join them with a view to sharing the expense.

The condition of the streets in the towns being often no
improvement on that of the roads in the country, the develop-
ment of vehicular traffic, even there, was but slow. It was
the example of Queen Elizabeth in riding in a " coach "
through the streets of London that led to private carriages
becoming fashionable, since, following thereon, " divers
great ladies " had coaches made, and went about in them —
much to the admiration of the populace, but much, also, to
the concern of the Thames watermen, who regarded the

58 History of Inland Transport

innovation as one that foreshadowed for them a competition
which did, indeed, become formidable, and even fatal, to their
own occupation.

In those days and for long afterwards the Thames was the.
highway by means of which people of all classes went, when-
ever practicable, from one part of London to another, the
main incentive to this general use of the river being the
deplorable condition of the streets and roads. In his book on
" England in the Fifteenth Century " the Rev. W. Denton
tells how the King's serjeants-at-law, who dwelt in Fleet
Street, and who pleaded at Westminster Hall, gave up an
attempt to ride along the Strand because the Bishop of Norwich
and others would not repair the road which ran at the back of
their town houses. It was safer and more pleasant for lawyers
to take a boat from the Temple stairs and reach Westminster
by water. The Lord Mayor, on his election, not only went
by water from the City to Westminster, to be received by the
judges, but down to 1711, when a " Lord Mayor's Coach "
was provided for him, rode on horseback from the Guildhall
to London Bridge, where he embarked on the City barge,
accompanied by representatives of the Livery Companies in
their barges.

Transport on the Thames constituted a vested interest of
great concern to the watermen, who had hitherto regarded as
their special prerogative the conveyance of Londoners along
what was then London's central thoroughfare ; and the story
of the way in which they met the competition of vehicular
traffic in the streets is worth the telling because it illustrates
the fact that each successive improvement in locomotion and
transport has had to face opposition from the representatives
of established but threatened conditions.

The great champion of the watermen was John Taylor
(1580-1654), the " Water Poet," as he called himself. When
the private carriages began to increase in number he ex-
pressed his opinion of them thus : —

" The first coach was a strange monster, it amazed both
horse and man. Some said it was a great crab-shell brought
out of China ; some thought it was one of the pagan temples,
in which cannibals adored the devil. . . .

" Since Phaeton broke his neck, never land hath endured
more trouble than ours, by the continued rumbling of these

The Coaching Era 59

upstart four-wheeled tortoises. ... A coach or carouch is a
mere engine of pride, which no one can deny to be one of the
seven deadly sins."

In 1 60 1 sympathisers with the watermen succeeded in
getting a Bill passed in the House of Commons " to restrain
the excessive and superfluous use of coaches." It was thrown
out by the House of Lords, though in 1614 the Commons,
in turn, refused to pass a " Bill against outrageous coaches."
In 1622 the Water Poet published a work, " An Errant Thief,"
etc., in which he dealt at length with the great injury that
was being done to the watermen by the coaches, saying, among
other things : —

"Carroches, coaches, jades and Flanders mares,
Do rob us of our shares, our wares, our fares ;
Against the ground we stand and knock our heeles,
Whilst all our profit runs away on wheeles.
And whosoever but observes and notes
The great increase of coaches and of boates,
Shall find their number more than e'er they were
By halfe and more, within these thirty yeare ;
Then watermen at sea had service still,
And those that stay'd at home had worke at will j
Then upstart hel-cart coaches were to seek,
A man could scarce see twenty in a weeke ;
But now I think a man may dayly see
More than the wherrys on the Thames can be."

In the following year he published another work, " The
World Runnes on Wheeles," in which he dealt further with the
woes of the watermen. But the coaches continued to increase
alike in number and in public favour, and the position of the
watermen became still worse in 1625, when the already
numerous private carriages were supplemented in London by
hackney carriages let out for hire, though these did not, at
first, exceed twenty in number, while they had to be hired
direct from the stables of their owners.

In 1633 it was found that the river traffic was being pre-
judiced more and more by the greater use of vehicles in the
streets. Whether or not in sympathy with the watermen, the
Star Chamber issued an Order which said : —

"As to a complaint of the stoppage of the streets by the
carriages of persons frequenting the play-house of the Black-

60 History of Inland Transport

friars, their lordships, remembering that there is an easy
passage by water unto that play-house, without troubling the
streets, and that it is much more fit and reasonable that those
which go thither should go by water, or else on foot, do
order all coaches to leave as soon as they have set down, and
not return till the play is over, nor return further than the
west end of Saint Paul's Church Yard, or Fleet conduit ;
coachmen disobeying these orders to be committed to Newgate
or Ludgate."

Opposition to the innovation of the coaches was, however,
wholly unavailing, even when supported by Star Chamber
intimations that people ought to be content to " go by water
or else on foot " ; and in 1634 permission was obtained for
hackney coaches to ply in the streets for hire, instead of their
having to remain, as heretofore, in the stables. The first
public stand, for four carriages, with drivers in livery, was
set up in the Strand, near Somerset House. A month or
two later the watermen presented to Charles I. a petition in
which they said : —

" The hackney coaches are so many in number that they
pester and incumber the streets of London and Westminster,
and, which is worst of all, they stand and ply in the terme
tyme at the Temple gate, and at other places in the streets,
and doe carry sometymes three men for fourpence the man,
or four men for twelvepence, to Westminster or back again,
which doing of this doth undoe the Company of Watermen."

The same year (1634) saw still another innovation, that of
the sedan chair, which was to play so important a role in
social life until towards the end of the eighteenth century,
and was, in fact, not to disappear until even later, since
there was a stand for sedan chairs still to be seen in St. James's
Square in 1821. How the sedan chair came to be introduced
is shown by a Royal Order issued as follows : —

" That whereas the streets of our cities of London and
Westminster and their suburbs, are of late so much in-
cumbered with the unnecessary multitude of coaches that
many of our subjects are thereby exposed to great danger,
and the necessary use of carts and carriages for provisions
thereby much hindered ; and Sir Sanders Buncombe's
petition representing that in many parts beyond sea people
are much carried in chairs that are covered, whereby few

The Coaching Era 61

coaches are used among them ; wherefore we have granted
to him the sole privilege to use, let and hire a number of the
said covered chairs, for fourteen years." *

On January 19, 1635, there was issued a Royal Proclamation
which said that —

" The great number of Hackney Coaches of late seen and
kept in London, Westminster, and their suburbs, and the
general and promiscuous use of coaches there, are not only
a great disturbance to his Majesty, his dearest consort the
Queen, the nobility, and others of place and degree, in their
passage through the streets, but the streets themselves are
so pestered and the pavements so broken up that the common
passage is thereby hindered and made dangerous, and the price
of hay and provender, &c., thereby made exceeding dear,
wherefore we expressly command and forbid that no Hackney
or hired coach be used or suffered in London, Westminster,
or the suburbs thereof, except they be to travel at least three
miles out of the same ; and also that no person shall go in a
coach in the said streets except the owner of the coach shall
constantly keep up four able horses for our service when
required."

Vigorous efforts were made to enforce this proclamation,
and the Water Poet was especially active in the matter, in
the interests of his proteges, but all to no purpose. Two years
later the King, " finding it very requisite for our nobility and
gentry, as well as for foreign ambassadors, strangers and
others " that the said restrictions should be withdrawn, was
graciously pleased to sanction the licensing in London of fifty
hackney coaches. Such attempts at limitation must, however,
have been equally of no avail, since in 1652 there was another
order, which set forth that not more than 200 should ply in
the streets. In the following year the watermen sent a further
petition to the House of Commons, and in 1654 the Protector
issued an order limiting to 300 the number of hackney coaches
to ply in London and Westminster and six miles round,
while the number of hackney coach horses was not to exceed
600. Two years or so after this the watermen sent still another

1 By an Act of Parliament passed in 1710 the number of sedan chairs
allowed to ply for hire in London was fixed at 200, but the limit was raised
in the following year to 300. This was, of course, independent of the
private sedan chairs, of which every mansion had at least one.

62 History of Inland Transport

petition to the House of Commons. This petition of " the
Overseers and Rulers of the Company of Watermen, together
with their whole society," declared that their " trade or art
of rowing on the water hath been long reputed very useful
to the Commonwealth"; that the Company had, "ever since
their incorporation, been a nursery to breed up seamen " ;
that, after serving " the Commonwealth's special service at
sea," they found that " the art affordeth but a small livelihood
to them, and that with hard labour " ; and —

" That of late your petitioners' art is rendered more con-
temptible than formerly, and their employment much lessened
and impoverished, by reason of the strange increase of hackney
coaches, which have multiplied from about three hundred
to a thousand, in eleven years last past, whereby people are
discouraged from binding their sons apprentice to the trade
of a waterman, and if remedy be not speedily had, there will
not be a sufficient number of watermen to supply the service
of the Commonwealth at sea,1 and also your petitioners and
families utterly ruined.

" That of late some rich men about the city, keep very many
hackney coaches to the great prejudice, as your petitioners
humbly conceive, of the Commonwealth, in that they make
leather dear, and their horses devour so much hay and corn ;
and also they do so fester the streets as that by sad experience
divers persons are in danger of their lives, by reason of the
unskilfulness of some of them that drive them, besides many
other inconveniences which are too large to be here inserted."

Therefore the petitioners humbly prayed that Parliament
would limit the number of such coaches.

No immediate action seems to have been taken ; but,
continuous complaints being made as to the obstructions
caused by the hackney coaches, a proclamation was issued
on November 7, 1660, by Charles II., to the effect that hackney
coaches should no longer come into the streets to be hired.
The proclamation had so little effect that on July 20, 1662,
the watermen sent a petition to the House of Lords, once more
recounting their grievances. The House named certain Lords
who were to consider the matter and report ; but Henry

1 So numerous were — or had been — the Thames watermen and lighter-
men that, according to Stow, they could at any time have furnished 20,000
men for the fleet.

The Coaching Era 63

Humpherus, author of the " History of the Origin and Progress
of the River Thames/' has been unable to find that any report
was made thereon. Soon after this the number of hackney
coaches was increased (14 Chas. II., c. 2) to 400. In 1666, more
complaints coming from the watermen, the House of Commons
appointed a committee of inquiry.

In the winter of 1683-4 the disconsolate watermen had to
suffer the indignity of seeing the Thames itself — their own
special province — invaded by the drivers of hackney coaches !
So severe was the frost that, as told by John Evelyn in his
" Diary," the Thames was frozen over " so thick as to bear,
not only streets of booths in which they roasted meat, and
had divers shops of wares, quite across as in a town, but
coaches, carts and horses," so that " coaches plied from
Westminster to the Temple, and from several other stairs to
and fro, as in the streets."

By 1685 the hackney coaches seem to have established their
position as successful competitors of the watermen, an Act
of Parliament which placed them on a recognised and regulated
footing being passed in that year, while the number to be
licensed was increased in 1694 to 700, in 1711 to 800, and in
1771 to 1000.

A still further blow was given to the interests of the water-
men by the introduction from Paris, in 1820, of the " cabri-
olet," or " cab " as it came to be called ; and yet another
was dealt to them when, on July 4, 1829, Mr Shillibeer, the
coach proprietor, ran the first omnibus from the Yorkshire
Stingo, Paddington, to the City, and thus began a further new
era in urban locomotion, supplanting, thereby, a good many
of the hackney coachmen, just as they themselves had to so
considerable an extent already supplanted the Thames
watermen.

CHAPTER IX

THE AGE OF BAD ROADS

IN the present chapter I propose to bring together the testi-
mony of various contemporary writers with a view to enabling
the reader thoroughly to realise those bad-road conditions
from which, it was hoped, the country would at last be saved by
the introduction of the system of turnpike roads inaugurated
by the Act of 1663.

Evidence of the general character of English roads at the
time the Act was passed, and, also, probably, for a considerable
period afterwards, is afforded by the maps and descriptions
of routes given by Ogilby in his " Britannia " (see page 33).
The maps indicate by means of lines and dots where the
roads had been enclosed, by hedges or otherwise, on one side
or both, and where they were still open. Taking the series
of maps for the route from London to Berwick, and so on to
Scotland, one finds that for a distance of about twenty-five
or thirty miles from London, the road was then mostly
enclosed ; and from that point, through a large part of
Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, North-
amptonshire, Rutland, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire,
only occasional stretches, mostly in the neighbourhood of
towns, and often for lengths of no more than half a mile each,
were enclosed either on one side of the road or both. The
enclosures began again about six miles south of York, and
continued for a short distance on the north of that city ; but
beyond York they became still more rare, and from Morpeth
(Northumberland) to Berwick, a distance of about fifty miles,
the total extent of enclosed road did not exceed six miles.
Taking roads in the west, it is shown that in forty miles
or so between Abingdon and Gloucester there was not a
single enclosure.

What all this meant was that, where there had been no
enclosure, the road was simply a track across commons, fens,

64

The Age of Bad Roads 65

marshes, heaths, etc., or through woods, where drivers of carts,
waggons or coaches picked and chose to the best advantage,
discarding an old path when it became a deep rut or was
otherwise impassable, in favour of a new one alongside, or
some distance away, and leaving the new one, in turn, when it
got into the same state as the old.1

The crossing of heaths and other open spaces was rendered
the more difficult by the general absence of finger-posts. 2 In
some instances land-beacons were constructed as a guide to
travellers. One which had a height of seventy feet, served as
a landmark by day and was provided with a lantern at night,
was raised in 1751 by Squire Dash wood on a dreary, barren
and wholly trackless waste in the neighbourhood of Lincoln
known as Lincoln Heath. The lantern was regularly lighted
until 1788. The beacon itself stood until 1808, when it fell and
was not rebuilt.

One especially important factor in the situation was the
nature of the soil.

I have already mentioned, on page 5, Defoe's references
in his " Tour " to this particular matter ; but the description
he gives of some of the roads which crossed the 5O-mile belt
of " deep stiff clay or marly " soil throws a good deal of light
on the conditions of travel in his day. Thus, in dealing with
the roads from London to the north, he says : —

" Suppose we take the great Northern Post Road from
London to York, and so into Scotland ; you have tolerably
good Ways and hard Ground, 'till you reach Royston about 32,
and to Knees worth, a Mile farther : But from thence you enter
upon the clays which, beginning at the famous Arrington
Lanes, and going on Caxton, Huntington, Stilton, Stamford,
Grantham, Newark, Tuxford (called for its Deepness Tuxford
in the Clays), holds on 'till we come almost to Bautree, which

1 Incidentally, this fact may explain why country roads to-day, still
following old tracks, often have so many twists and turns when, one
might think, they could just as well have been made straight.

2 A writer in the "Westminster Review "for October, 1825, referring
to the lack of finger-posts, says: "There is scarcely a parish in the
country, and not one in the remoter parts, where a stranger can possibly
find his way, for want of this obvious remedy. South Wales is an
inextricable labyrinth ; it is a chance if there is a finger-post in the whole
principality. Cornwall and Devonshire are as bad. If by chance they
are once erected they are never repaired or replaced. The justices know
their own roads and care nothing for the traveller."

66 History of Inland Transport

is the first town in Yorkshire, and there the Country is hard
and sound, being Part of Sherwood Forest.

" Suppose you take the other Northern Road, by St.
Albans. . . . After you are pass'd Dunstable, which, as in the
other Way is about 30 Miles, you enter the deep Clays, which
are so surprisingly soft, that it is perfectly frightful to Travel-
lers, and it has been the Wonder of Foreigners, how, considering
the great Numbers of Carriages which are continually passing
with heavy Loads, those Ways have been made practicable ;
indeed the great Number of Horses every Year kill'd by the
Excess of Labour in those heavy Ways, has been such a
Charge to the Country, that new Building of Causeways,
as the Romans did of old, seems to me to be a much easier
Expence. From Hockley to Northampton, thence to Har-
borough, and Leicester, and thence to the very Bank of Trent
these terrible Clays continue ; at Nottingham you are pass'd
them, and the Forest of Sherwood yields a hard and pleasant
Road for 30 miles together."

On the road to Coventry, Birmingham and West Chester
he had found the clays " for near 80 miles " ; on the road to
Worcester " the Clays reach, with some intermissions, even
to the Bank of the Severn," and so on with other roads besides.

Bourn, to whose " Treatise upon Wheel Carriages," pub-
lished in 1763, earlier reference has also been made, said,
among other things, in support of his scheme of broad-wheeled
waggons : —

" So late as thirty or forty years ago the roads of England
were in a most deplorable condition ; those that were narrow
were narrow indeed, often to that degree that the stocks
of the wheels bore hard against the banks on each side, and in
many places they were worn below the level of the neighbour-
ing surface many feet, nay, yards perpendicular, and a wide-
spreading, bushy hedge, intermixed with old half-decayed
trees and stubbs, hanging over the traveller's head, inter-
cepted the benign influence of the heavens from his path,
and the beauties of the circumjacent country from his view,
made it look more like the retreat of wild beasts and reptiles
than the footsteps of men.

" In other parts, where the road was wide, it might be and
often was too much so, and exhibited a scene of a different
aspect. Here the wheel carriage had worn a diversity of tracks

The Age of Bad Roads 67

which were either deep, or rough and stony, or high or low,
as mother nature had placed the materials upon the face of
the ground ; the spaces between these were frequently furzy
hillocks or thorny brakes, through or among which the
equestrian traveller picked out his entangled and uncouth
steps. To these horrible, hilly, stony, deep, miry, uncom-
fortable, dreary roads the narrow wheel'd waggon seems to be
best adapted, and these were frequently drawn by seven, eight,
or even ten horses, that with great difficulty and hazard dragged
after them twenty-five or thirty hundred, seldom more."

A writer in the " Gentleman's Magazine " for November,
1752, declares that the roads from London to Land's End,
and even those as far as Exeter, Plymouth or Falmouth, were
then still " what God left them after the flood " ; while in
comparing England with some of the Continental countries,
he says : —

" Nothing piques me more than that a trumpery despotic
government like France should have enchanting roads from
the capital to each remote part of use. Some roads in Holland
are very fine. . . . The republic of Berne hath made lately
three or four magnificent roads, some of which are near
100 miles in length, and that, too, in a country to which
Cornwall, Derbyshire, Cumberland and Westmoreland are
perfect carpet ground."

Sydney Smith professed to know — approximately — the
number of " severe contusions " he received in going from
Taunton to Bath " before stone-breaking McAdam was born."
He put the figure at " between 10,000 and 12,000."

In Sussex the roads were especially bad. In 1702, the year
of Queen Anne's accession to the throne, Charles III. of Spain
paid a visit to London, travelling by way of Portsmouth.
Prince George of Denmark went from Windsor to Petworth to
meet him, and an account of this 4O-mile journey by road
says : —

" We set out at six in the morning . . . and did not get out
of the carriages (save only when we were overturned or stuck
fast in the mire) till we arrived at our journey's end. 'Twas a
hard service for the Prince to sit fourteen hours in the coach
that day without eating anything, and passing through the
worst ways I ever saw in my life. . . . The last nine miles of
the way cost us six hours to conquer them."

68 History of Inland Transport

Defoe tells how the transport of timber from the neighbour-
hood of Lewes to Chatham by road sometimes took two or
three years to effect. He saw there twenty-two oxen engaged
in dragging " a carriage known as a ' tug ' " on which the
trunk of a tree had been loaded ; but the oxen would take it
only a short distance, and it would then be thrown down again
and left for other teams to take it still further short distances
in succession. He also speaks of having seen, at Lewes,
" an ancient lady, and a lady of very good quality," going to
church in a " coach " drawn by six oxen, " the way being
stiff and deep that no horses could go in it."

There would seem to have been difficulties not only in going
to church in Sussex but even in getting buried there, for in the
" Sussex Archaeological Collections " mention is made of the
fact that in 1728 Judith, widow of Sir Richard Shirley, of
Preston, Sussex, directed in her will that her body should be
brought for burial to Preston, " if she should die at such time
of the year as the roads thereto were passable."

An authority quoted in the article on " Roads " in Postle-
thwayt's "Dictionary" (1745), in referring to "that impass-
able county of Sussex," bears the following testimony thereto :
" I have seen, in that horrible country, the road 60 to 100
yards broad, lie from side to side all poached with cattle, the
land of no manner of benefit, and yet no going with a horse
but at every step up to the shoulders, full of sloughs and holes,
and covered with standing water."

On the other hand the bad roads were regarded by many
of the inhabitants of Sussex as a distinct advantage. They
afforded increased facilities for the smuggling operations
practised there down to the beginning of the nineteenth
century, by rendering pursuit more difficult,
p Arthur Young is an especially eloquent witness as to the
conditions of travel in England about the year 1770. In
making his tours through the country, with a view to investi-
gating and reporting on the state of agriculture, he passed over
all sorts of roads, and, though some of them were " good,"
" pretty good," and even " very good " — these compliments
being more especially paid to roads constructed by the country
gentry at their own cost — he experiences a difficulty in finding
words sufficiently strong in which to express himself when he
attempts to describe the roads that were really bad ; and this

The Age of Bad Roads 69

was the case in regard to many of the turnpike roads on which
alleged improvements had been carried out.

The following examples of his experiences are taken from
his " Six Months' Tour through the North of England " : —

" From Newport Pagnel I took the road to Bedford, if I
may venture to call such a cursed string of hills and holes by
the name of road ; a causeway is here and there thrown up,
but so high, and at the same time so very narrow that it was
at the peril of our necks we passed a waggon with a civil and
careful driver."

" From Grinsthorpe to Coltsworth are eight miles, called
by the courtesy of the neighbourhood a turnpike ; but in
which we were every moment either buried in quagmires of
mud or racked to dislocation over pieces of rock which they
call mending."

" From Rotherham to Sheffield the road is execrably bad,
very stony and excessively full of holes."

" Those who go to Methley by Pontefract must be extremely
fond of seeing houses, or they will not recompense the fatigue
of passing such detestable roads. They are full of ruts, whose
gaping jaws threaten to swallow up any carriage less than a
waggon. It would be no bad precaution to yoke half a score
of oxen to your coach to be ready to encounter such quagmires
as you will here meet with."

" To Coltsworth. Turnpike. Most execrably vile ; a narrow
causeway, cut into rutts that threaten to swallow one up."

" To Castle Howard. Infamous. I was near to being
swallowed up by a slough."

" From Newton to Stokesby, in Cleveland. Cross,1 and
extremely bad. You are obliged to cross the moors they
call Black Hambledon, over which the road runs in narrow
hollows that admit a south country chaise with such difficulty
that I reckon this part of the journey made at the hazard
of my neck. The going down into Cleveland is beyond all
description terrible, for you go through such steep, rough
narrow, rocky precipices that I would sincerely advise any
friend to go an hundred miles about to escape it."

" From Richmond to Darlington, by Croft Bridge. To
Croft Bridge, cross, and very indifferent. From thence to
Darlington is the great north road and execrably broke into
1 Cross = cross road.

70 History of Inland Transport

holes, like an old pavement ; sufficient to dislocate ones
bones."

" To Lancaster. Turnpike. Very bad, rough and cut up."

" To Preston. Turnpike. Very bad."

" To Wigan. Ditto. I know not in the whole range of
language terms sufficiently expressive to describe this infernal
road. To look over a map, and perceive that it is a principal
one, not only to some towns, but even whole counties, one
would naturally conclude it to be at least decent ; but let me
most seriously caution all travellers who may accidentally
propose to travel this terrible country to avoid it as they
would the devil ; for a thousand to one but they break their
necks or their limbs by overthrows or breakings down. They
will here meet with rutts which I actually measured four feet
deep, and floating with mud only from a wet-summer ; what
therefore must it be after a winter ? The only mending it
receives is the tumbling in some loose stones, which serve no
other purpose but jolting a carriage in the most intolerable
manner. These are not merely opinions but facts, for I actually
passed three carts broken down in these eighteen miles of
execrable memory."

" To Warrington. Turnpike. This is a paved road, and
most infamously bad. . . . Tolls had better be doubled and
even quadrupled than allow such a nuisance to remain."

" From Dunholm to Knotsford. Turnpike. It is impossible
to describe these infernal roads in terms adequate to their
defects. Part of these six miles I think are worse than any of
the preceding."

" To Newcastle. Turnpike. This, in general, is a paved
causeway, as narrow as can be conceived, and cut into per-
petual holes, some of them two feet deep, measured on the
level ; a more dreadful road cannot be imagined ; and wher-
ever the country is in the least sandy the pavement is dis-
continued, and the rutts and holes most execrable. I was
forced to hire two men at one place to support my chaise from
overthrowing, in turning out from a cart of goods overthrown
and almost buried. Let me persuade all travellers to avoid
this terrible country, which must either dislocate their bones
with broken pavements or bury them in muddy sand."

" I must in general advise all who travel on any business
but absolute necessity to avoid any journey further north

The Age of Bad Roads 7 1

than Newcastle. All between that place and Preston is a
country, one would suppose, devoid of all those improvements
and embellishments which the riches and spirit of modern
times have occasioned in other parts. It is a track of country
which lays a most heavy tax upon all travellers and upon
itself. Such roads are a much heavier tax than half a crown
a horse for a toll would be. Agriculture, manufactures and
commerce must suffer in such a track as well as the traveller.
. . . Until better management is produced I would advise
all travellers to consider this country as sea, and as soon
think of driving into the ocean as venturing into such de-
testable roads."

That the roads in the south of England were no improve-
ment on those in the north is shown by the same writer's
" Six Weeks Tour through the Southern Counties of England
and Wales," wherein he says : —

" Of all the cursed roads that ever disgraced this kingdom
in the very ages of barbarism, none ever equalled that from
Billericay to the King's Head at Tilbury. It is for near
1 2 miles so narrow that a mouse cannot pass by any carriage ;
I saw a fellow creep under his waggon to assist me to lift,
if possible, my chaise over a hedge. ... I must not forget
the eternally meeting with chalk waggons, themselves fre-
quently stuck fast till a collection of them are in the same
situation that twenty or thirty horses may be tacked to each
to draw them out one by one."

Of the " execrably muddy road " from Bury to Sudbury,
in Norfolk, he says : " For ponds of liquid dirt and a scattering
of loose flints, just sufficient to lame every horse that moves
near them, with the addition of cutting vile grips across the
road under pretence of letting water off, but without the
effect, altogether render at least 12 out of these 16 miles as
infamous a turnpike as ever was travelled." As for Norfolk in
general, he declares that he " does not know one mile of
excellent road in the whole country."

Conditions in and around London were not much better
than in the country. In 1727 George II. and his Queen were
the whole night in making their way from Kew Palace to St.
James's. At one particularly bad place their coach was over-
turned. In 1737 the time usually occupied, in wet weather, in
driving from Kensington to St. James's Palace was two

72 History of Inland Transport

hours — assuming that the vehicle did not stick in the mud.
Writing from Kensington in this same year, Lord Hervey
said : " The road between this place and London is grown
so infamously bad that we live here in the same solitude as we
would do if cast on a rock in the middle of the ocean ; and all
the Londoners tell us there is between them and us an im-
passable gulf of mud."

Middle ton, again, speaking in his " Survey of Middlesex "
of the Oxford Road at Uxbridge, in 1797, says that during
the whole of the winter there was but one passable track on it,
and that was less than six feet wide, and was eight inches deep
in fluid sludge.

In 1816 the Dublin Society made a grant of ^100 to defray
the cost of a series of experiments to be carried out by Richard
Lovell Edgeworth at the Society's premises in Kildare Street,
Dublin, with a view to ascertaining " the best breadth of
wheels, the proper weight of carriages and of burthen, and the
best form of materials for roads." Edgeworth's report,
published under the title of " An Essay on the Construction of
Roads and Carriages " (second edition, 1817), includes, in its
introductory matter, a short account of the history and
development of roads. After pointing out that before vehicles
for the conveyance of goods were in use little more was
required than a path on hard ground which would bear horses ;
that all marshy grounds were shunned ; that inequalities and
circuitous roads were of much less consequence than was the
case when carriages, instead of packhorses, began to be
employed, he proceeds : —

" When heavier carriages and greater traffic made wider
and stronger roads necessary, the ancient track was pursued ;
ignorance and want of concert in the proprietors of the ground,
and, above all, the want of some general effective super-
intending power, continued this wretched practice until
turnpikes were established. . . .

" The system of following the ancient line of road has been
so pertinaciously adhered to that roads have been sunk many
feet, and in some parts many yards, below the surface of the
adjacent ground; so that the stag, the hounds and horsemen
have been known to leap over a loaded waggon, in a hollow way,
without any obstruction from the vehicle."

After this the reader will better appreciate the fact that in

The Age of Bad Roads 73

the course of a report on agriculture in the county of North-
ampton, in 1813, it was stated that the only way of getting
along some of the main roads there in rainy weather was by
swimming !

Nor is there any lack of testimony as to the prejudicial effect
on trade and agriculture of the deplorable condition into which
so many of the roads had fallen.

Whitaker, in his " Loidis and Elmete" (1846), speaking of
the impediments to commerce and manufactures in the Leeds
district prior to the rendering of the Aire and Calder navigable,
impediments which, he declares, " it will be difficult for a
mind accustomed only to modern ideas and appearances to
conceive," says : —

" The roads were sloughs almost impassable by single carts,
surmounted at the height of several feet by narrow horse-
tracks, where travellers who encountered each other some-
times tried to wear out each other's patience rather than either
should risk a deviation. Carriage of raw wool and manu-
factured goods was performed on the backs of single horses,
at a disadvantage of nearly 200 to i compared to carriage by
water. At the same time, and long after, the situation of a
merchant was toilsome and perilous. In winter, during which
season the employment of the working manufacturer was
intermitted, the distant markets never ceased to be frequented.
On horse-back before day-break, and long after night-fall,
these hardy sons of trade pursued their object with the spirit
and intrepidity of a fox chase, and the boldest of their country
neighbours had no reason to despise their horsemanship
or their courage."

There is the evidence, also, of Henry Homer, author of " An
Enquiry into the Means of Preserving Publick Roads,"
published in 1767. He regarded the state of the roads and
the difficulties of internal communication as among the chief
reasons for the backward state of the country in the reign
of Queen Anne (1702-1714), saying on this subject : —

" The Trade of the Kingdom languished under these
Impediments. Few People cared to encounter the diffi-
culties, which attended the Conveyance of Goods from the
Places where they were manufactured, to the Markets, where
they were to be disposed of. And those, who undertook this
Business, were only enabled to carry it on in the Wintry-

74 History of Inland Transport

Season on Horseback, or, if in Carriages, by winding Deviations
from the regular tracks, which the open country afforded them
an Opportunity of making. . . . The natural Produce of the
Country was with Difficulty circulated to supply the Necessi-
ties of those Counties and trading Towns, which wanted, and
to dispose of the superfluity of others which abounded. Ex-
cept in a few Summer-Months, it was an almost impracticable
Attempt to carry very considerable quantities of it to remote
Places. Hence the Consumption of the Growth of Grain as well
as of the inexhaustible stores of fuel, which Nature has
lavished upon particular Parts of our Island, was limited to
the Neighbourhood of those Places which produced them ;
and made them, comparatively speaking, of little value to
what they would have been, had the Participation of them
been enlarged.

" To the Operation of the same Cause must also be attri-
buted, in great Measure, the slow Progress which was formerly
made in the Improvement of Agriculture. Discouraged by the
Expence of procuring Manure, and the uncertain Returns,
which arose from such confined Markets, the Farmer wanted
both Spirit and Ability to exert himself in the Cultivation of
his Lands. On this Account Undertakings in Husbandry
were then generally small, calculated rather to be a Means
of Subsistence to particular Families than a Source of Wealth
to the Publick."

Postlethwayt's authority on the roads of Sussex declared
that their condition at that time (1745) " hardly admits the
country people to travel to markets in winter, and makes
corn dear at the market because it cannot be bought, and
cheap at the farmer's house because he cannot sometimes
carry it to market." This fact is confirmed by G. R. Porter,
who, in his " Progress of the Nation " (1846), gives the
authority of an inhabitant of Horsham, Sussex, then lately
living, for the tradition that at one time sheep or cattle could
not be driven to the London market at all from Horsham,
owing to the state of the roads, and had to be disposed of
in the immediate neighbourhood, so that " under these
circumstances a quarter of a fat ox was commonly sold for
about fifteen shillings, and the price of mutton throughout the
year was only five farthings the pound."

Irt Devonshire the Rev. James Brome, who published in

The Age of Bad Roads 75

1726 a narrative of " Three Years Travels in England, Scot-
land, and Wales," found the fanners carrying their corn on
horseback, the roads being too narrow to allow of the use of
waggons.

Altogether the need for improved facilities for inland
communication in the interests alike of travellers and of
traders was great beyond all question, and there was un-
limited scope for the operation of such improvement as was
represented by the turnpike system, now coming into vogue.

It was, however, not so much the general needs of the
country as the rebellion in Scotland in 1745, accompanied by
such disasters for the Royalist troops as their defeat at Preston
Pans, which had led the Government to pay special attention to
the subject of road-making and road-improvement. Between
1726 and 1737 General Wade, employing in summer about
500 soldiers on the work, had constructed in Scotland itself
some 250 miles of what were, in point of fact, military roads,
being designed as a means of reducing disorder in that country.
The communications between Scotland and England still
remained, however, very defective, and, though English
cavalry and artillery had gone forward bravely enough when
the rebellion broke out, they found roads that, apart altogether
from any question of fighting on them, were not fit for them
even to move upon ; so that while the troops from the south
were hampered and delayed by the narrow tracks, the ruts
and the bogs which impeded their advance, the enemy,
more at home in these conditions, had all the advantage.

No sooner, therefore, had the rebellion been overcome than
the Government, recognising that, even if turnpikes were set
up along the roads on the border between Scotland and
England, the tolls likely to be raised there would be wholly
inadequate for the purpose, themselves took in hand the work
of road construction and improvement ; and this action gave
impetus to a movement for improving roads in England and
Wales generally.

Down to this time the turnpike system had undergone very
little development. For a quarter of a century after it had
been applied, by the Act of 1663, to the Great North Road,
no Turnpike Acts at all were sought. A few were then obtained,
but until the middle of the eighteenth century, at least, even
if not still later, travellers from Edinburgh to London met

76 History of Inland Transport

with no turnpikes until they came within about no miles of
their destination. Newcastle and Carlisle were still connected
by a bridle path only, while a writer in the " Gentleman's
Magazine " for November, 1752, in alluding to the journey
from London to Falmouth, says that " after the first 47 miles
from London you never set eyes on a turnpike for 220 miles."
The policy adopted by the Government so far stimulated
the action of private enterprise that between 1760 and 1774
no fewer than 453 Turnpike Acts were passed for the making
and repairing of roads, and many more were to follow.

CHAPTER X

THE TURNPIKE SYSTEM

THE fundamental principle of the turnpike system was that
of transferring the cost of repairing main roads from the parish
to the users.

The mediaeval practice, under which the roads were main-
tained by religious houses, private benevolence and indi-
vidual landowners, had, of course, still left the common law
obligation that each and every parish should keep in repair
the roads within its own particular limits, the Act of Philip
and Mary, with its imposition of statute duty, being, in effect,
only a means for the regulation and carrying out of such
requirement. The parishioners were even indictable if they
failed to keep the roads in repair.

But in proportion as trade and travel increased, the greater
became alike the need for good roads and, also, the apparent
injustice of requiring the residents in a particular parish to
do statute labour on roads, or to pay for labour thereon, less
in the interest of themselves and their neighbours than in that
of strangers, or traffic, passing through on the main road
from one town to another. In effect, also, whether such
requirement were reasonable or not, the work itself was either
not done at all or was done in a way that still left the roads
in a condition commonly described as " execrable."

The principle that the users should pay for the main roads
by means of tolls was thus definitely adopted ; but the
obligation in regard to other than main roads still rested in
full with the parish. It was not, however, until the passing of
24 Geo. II., c. 43, that turnpike roads were mentioned as
distinct from " highways," this being the accepted designation
for roads for which the parish was responsible. When the
adoption of the turnpike system became more general, that
is to say, about the year 1767, the turnpike roads were main-
tained— or were supposed to be maintained — by tolls, and the

77

78 History of Inland Transport

statute labour and contributions in lieu thereof were mainly
appropriated to the cross roads constituting the parish
highways, on which no turnpikes were placed ; though certain
proportions of the statute labour or statute labour contribu-
tions also became available for turnpike roads which could
not otherwise be properly maintained.

At first there was a pronounced disinclination on the part
of the public in various parts of the country to tolerate toll-
bars. It might be supposed that, the state of the roads
having generally been so deplorable, everyone would have
welcomed their amendment under almost any possible con-
ditions. Defoe, at least, was enthusiastic over the prospect of
better roads that turnpikes foreshadowed. Alluding to them
in his " Tour," he says : " And 'tis well worth recording, for
the Honour of the present Age, that this Work has been begun,
and is in an extraordinary Manner carry'd on, and perhaps
may, in a great Measure be compleat within our Memory, as
to the worst and most dangerous Roads in the Kingdom.
And this is a Work of so much general Good that certainly
no publick Edifice, Alms-house, Hospital or Nobleman's
Palace, can be of equal Value to the Country with this, nor
at the same time more an Honour and Ornament to it."

But there was another point of view which is thus ex-
pressed by Whitaker in " Loidis and Elmete " : "To inter-
cept an ancient highway, to distrain upon a man for the
purchase of a convenience which he does not desire, and to
debar him from the use of his ancient accommodation, bad as
it was, because he will not pay for a better, has certainly an
arbitrary aspect, at which the rude and undisciplined rabble
of the north would naturally revolt."

Objections to turnpikes had been further fomented by
demagogues who went about the country proclaiming that
the gates which were being put up were part of a design
planned by the Government to enslave the people and deprive
them of their liberty.

Not only did many individuals in various parts of the country
refuse to use the turnpike roads, or to pay toll if they did use
them, but in some instances the gates were destroyed, by way
of making the protests more emphatic. In 1728 it was thought
necessary to pass a general Act against "ill-designing and
disorderly persons " who had " in various parts of this King-

The Turnpike System 79

dom associated themselves together, both by day and by night,
and cut down, pulled down, burnt and otherwise destroyed
several turnpike gates and houses which have been erected by
authority of Parliament for repairing divers roads by tolls,
thereby preventing such tolls from being taken, and lessening
the security of divers of her Majesty's good subjects for
considerable sums of money which they have advanced
upon credit of the said Acts, and deterring others from making
like advances." Persons convicted of such offences were —
without any discretion being given to the justices — to be
committed for three months' imprisonment, and were, also,
to be whipped at the market cross. These penalties appear
to have been unavailing, since we find that four years later the
punishment, even for a first offence, was increased to seven
years' transportation.

But the hostility increased rather than diminished. In the
" Gentleman's Magazine " for 1749 there is an account of some
turnpike riots in Somerset and Gloucestershire which began
on the night of the 24th of July and were not suppressed until
the 5th of the following month. A start was made with the
destruction of the gates near Bedminster by " great numbers
of people." On the following night a crowd bored holes in the
gates at Don John's Cross, a mile from Bristol, blew up the
gates with gunpowder, and destroyed the toll-house. Cross-
bars and posts were erected next day, in place of the gates,
and the turnpike commissioners took it in turns to enforce
payment of the tolls. At night " a prodigious body of
Somersetshire people," armed with various instruments of
destruction, and some of them disguised in women's clothes,
went along the roads to an accompaniment of drum-beating
and much shouting, demolished the turnpikes, and pulled
down the toll-houses. Re-erected, the gates were guarded
by a " body of seamen, well armed with musquets, pistols
and cutlasses " ; but two nights afterwards the rioters were
out again, this time with rusty swords, pitch-forks, axes, guns,
pistols and clubs. They demolished and burned some
turnpikes which had been put up a third time, and destroyed
others besides. By August 3 " almost all the turnpikes and
turnpike-houses " in the neighbourhood of Bristol had been
demolished ; but a report dated Bristol, August 12, says :
" By the arrival of six troops of dragoon guards on the 5th,

80 History of Inland Transport

we are secured from all insults of the country people who
immediately dispersed and posts and chains are again erected,
and the tolls levied, but the turnpikes are fixed nearer the
city."

The revolt in Yorkshire referred to by Whitaker occurred
in 1753, four years later than the disturbances in the west.
At Selby the inhabitants were summoned by the bellman
to assemble at midnight, with hatchets and axes, and destroy
the turnpikes. They obeyed the summons, and any gate
left unprotected was soon level with the ground. In the
neighbourhood of Leeds the rioting was especially serious.
Whitaker says concerning it : —

" The public roads about Leeds were at that time narrow,
generally consisting of a hollow way that only allowed a
passage for carriages drawn by a horse in a single row, and an
elevated causeway covered with flags or boulder stones.

" The attempt to improve this state of the public roads
excited great discontent among the lower classes of the people,
who formed the design of pulling down all the turnpike bars
in the neighbourhood."

They pulled down, or burned down, as many as a dozen
in one week ; and when some of the rioters had been arrested,
and were on their way to York Castle, their friends attempted
a rescue, following this up by assaulting the magistrates and
breaking some windows. Troops were called out, and,
warnings and the firing of blank cartridge being of no avail,
ball cartridges were used, with the result that two or three
persons were shot dead, and twenty-two were wounded, some
fatally.

Whatever the justification for the turnpikes that gave
rise to this popular discontent, the way in which the system
itself was developed was certainly open to criticism.

The precedent set by the Act of Charles II. in the grouping
together of several counties, and in conferring on the justices
the powers of chief control, was wholly disregarded. Instead
of even an improvement on this procedure being effected by
the creation of a national system of turnpike roads, directed
by some central authority, and responding in regard to in-
ternal communication to the wants of the country as a whole,
there was called into being an almost endless number of purely
local trusts, each taking charge of, as a rule, from ten to

The Turnpike System 81

twenty miles of road, each concerned only in its own local,
or even its own personal, interests, and each operating under
conditions that involved an excessive expenditure with, too
often, the most unsatisfactory of results for the general public.

The defects of the system thus brought about were well
recognised by various authorities at a time when they were
still being experienced to the full.

The Select Committee appointed by the House of Commons
in 1819 to consider the subject of public highways said in the
course of their report : —

" The importance of land-carriage to the prosperity of a
country need not be dwelt upon. Next to the general in-
fluence of the seasons . . . there is, perhaps, no circumstance
more interesting to men in a civilised state than the perfection
of the means of interior communication. It is a matter,
therefore, to be wondered at, that so great a source of national
improvement has hitherto been so much neglected. Instead
of the roads of the Kingdom being made a great national
concern, a number of local trusts are created, under the
authority of which large sums of money are collected from
the public, and expended without adequate responsibility or
control. Hence arises a number of abuses, for which no
remedy is provided, and the resources of the country, instead of
being devoted to useful purposes, are too often improvidently
wasted."

Writing in 1823, Dehany said in reference to the Act of 1663,
" It is to be regretted that this plan of passing one Act applic-
able to a considerable district, and carrying it into execution
under the superintendence of the magistracy, was not pursued,
instead of parcelling out the roads into smaller divisions, with
independent bodies of trustees " ; while the " Westminster
Review," in its issue for October, 1825, argued that the whole
system of roads should be one, and continued : —

" Such a work might have been thought the duty of the
Government most interested in it ; but that Government seems
generally to be otherwise occupied. Leaving all to individual
exertion, it perhaps often leaves too much ; since there are
matters in which individual exertion has an insufficient interest,
while there are others which it is unable to accomplish without
unjustifiable sacrifices. We do not desire the perpetual, nor
even the frequent interference of Government, that is most

82 History of Inland Transport

certain; but there is an useful medium between the inter-
meddling of some of the continental states and that neglect,
or, rather, discountenance, which our own throws on numerous
matters where its aid would be of use, and which, without
that aid, cannct be accomplished. . . . The freedom of uni-
versal communication is the object, and it is to little purpose
that one portion of a road be good if the other is impassable.
It is a national and not a private concern."

Under the conditions actually brought about it was left
for any group of landowners and others in any particular
district where better roads were needed to apply to Parliament
for an Act authorising them to raise a loan in order to meet
the initial cost of making or repairing a road, and to set up
gates or bars where they could enforce payment of tolls out of
which to recoup themselves for their expenditure and meet
the costs of maintenance. Theoretically, these were simply
temporary expedients, and the turnpike trustees, having once
provided a good road, and got their money back, would take
down the toll-gates again, and leave the road for the free use of
the public. Hence every Turnpike Act was granted only for
a limited period, generally about twenty years, and had to
be renewed at the end of that term if, as invariably happened,
the debt on the road had not been cleared off, and the need
for toll-collection still remained. The cost of procuring the
periodical continuance of all these Acts was, in itself, a not
inconsiderable burden on the finances of the trusts. In, for
example, the twenty-four years from 1785 to 1809, the number
of Turnpike Acts, whether new Acts or renewals of old ones,
passed by the Legislature was no fewer than 1062.

One result of the excessive localisation of the turnpike
system was that trusts of absurdly large proportions were
created to look after absurdly small stretches of road. " The
fundamental principle," says a writer in the " Edinburgh
Review" for October, 1819, "is always to vest the whole
management in the hands of the country gentlemen ; and, as
they act gratuitously, it has been the policy of the law to
appoint in each act a prodigious number of commissioners —
frequently from one hundred to two hundred, for the care'of
ten or fifteen miles of road ; and thus a business of art and
science is committed to a promiscuous mob of peers, squires,
farmers and shopkeepers, who are chosen, not for their

The Turnpike System 83

fitness to discharge the duties of commissioners, but from
the sole qualification of residence within a short distance from
the road to be made or repaired."

That the best interests of the community could be served
under- these conditions was an impossibility. The " Edin-
burgh Review " declares, in fact, that the whole time of
the meetings of turnpike trusts was " occupied in tumultuous
and unprofitable discussions, and in resolving on things at
one meeting which run a good chance of being reversed at the
next ; that the well informed and civilized commissioners
become very soon disgusted with the disorderly uproar, or
the want of sense, temper or honesty of some of their com-
panions ; and that the management finally falls into the hands
of a few busy, bustling, interested persons of low condition,
who attend the meetings with no idea of performing a public
duty, but for the purpose of turning their powers, by some
device br other, to the profit of themselves or of their friends
or relations."

The writer of the article on " Roads " in " Rees' Cyclo-
paedia " is no less condemnatory of the whole system, speaking
of the " violent disputations and bickerings " at the meetings
of the trustees, where, he says, " a proposed new line of road
or, perhaps, the repair of an old one, will sometimes be con-
tested with as great keenness and vehemence as if the parties
were contending whether Great Britain shall be a monarchy
or a republic."

Each trust, again, had its own organisation, with attorney,
treasurer, clerk and surveyor ; and one may assume that each
of these individuals, in turn, was inspired by no greater sense
of public duty than were many of the trustees themselves,
and was much more concerned in what he could make out of
the business for himself than in helping to provide through
routes of communication in the interests of the community.
The surveyors were, generally speaking, hopelessly incom-
petent. The short length of road in charge of a trust and
the consequent limitation of the amount received for tolls
did not, as a rule, warrant the payment of an adequate salary
to a really qualified man, and the individual upon whom
the courtesy title of " surveyor " was conferred was often
either the pensioned servant of aTTocal landowner or some other
person equally unfit to be entrusted with those functions of

84 History of Inland Transport

road-management which the trustees, whether as the result
of their mutual differences or otherwise, generally left in his
hands. The " Edinburgh Review," in the article already
quoted, declares that " the state of the roads displays no
symptoms of well qualified commissioners. They leave the
art and science of the business to their surveyor — who is com-
monly just as much in the clouds as themselves as to his own
proper calling. With a laudable veneration for his fore-
fathers, he proceeds according to the antient system of things,
without plan or method ; and fearing no rivalry, and subject
to no intelligent control, he proceeds, like his predecessors,
to waste the road money on team work and paupers, and
leave nothing for the public like a road but the name and cost
of it."

Nevertheless, the turnpike system, defective in itself,
badly administered, and burdensome to the toll-payers, did
bring about an improvement in roads which previously had
too often received little or no attention ; and this improve-
ment, as will be shown in the chapter that follows, had a
material influence on trade, travel and social conditions ;
though it was not to attain its maximum results until the
turnpike roads had been supplemented by a further system
of scientific road-making and road-repairing.

CHAPTER XI

TRADE AND TRANSPORT IN THE TURNPIKE ERA

IN strong contrast to the vigorous denunciations of Arthur
Young of so many, though not all, of the roads over which his
extensive journeyings through England had led him, are the
statements of other authorities, writing about the same time,
as to the commercial and social advantages resulting from
such improvements as had been brought about. The conflict
of testimony appears inconsistent until one remembers that,
bad as were the particular conditions which Arthur Young
describes, the general conditions were, nevertheless, better
than before. Just as the first bone-shaking stage-coach, without
springs, seemed to Chamberlayne an " admirable com-
modiousness," such as the world had never before seen, so, in
the view of the writers who had not the same experience
of travel as Arthur Young, turnpike roads of any kind may
have appeared a vast improvement on the boggy roads or the
narrow bridle paths they had succeeded.

Whatever, again, the dangers and discomforts of so many
even of the new turnpike roads, there is no doubt that a
distinct stimulus was given to trade and travel as the result
not only of the better roads but of the better vehicles that
could be, and were being, used on them. Agriculture, indus-
tries, commerce and social progress all, in fact, took another
step forward as these opportunities for transport and com-
munication relatively improved.

Under the influence, possibly, of such considerations as these
Henry Homer, writing in 1767, regards with great satis-
faction the general outlook at that time. He says : —

" Our very Carriages travel with almost winged Expedition
between every Town of Consequence in the Kingdom and the
Metropolis. By this, as well as the yet more valuable Project
of increasing inland Navigation, a Facility of Communication
is soon likely to be established from every Part of the Island

86 History of Inland Transport

to the sea, and from the several places in it to each other.
Trade is no longer fettered by the Embarrasments, which
attended our former Situation. Dispatch, which is the very
life and Soul of Business, becomes daily more attainable by
the free Circulation opening in every Channel, which is adapted
to it. Merchandise and Manufactures find a ready Conveyance
to the Markets. The natural Blessings of the Island are
shared by the Inhabitants with a more equal Hand. The
Constitution itself acquires Firmness by the Stability and
Increase both of Trade and Wealth which are the Nerves and
Sinews of it.

" In Consequence of all this, the Demand for the Produce
of the Lands is increased ; the Lands themselves advance
proportionably both in their annual Value and in the Number
of Years-purchase for which they are sold, according to such
Value. . . .

" There never was a more astonishing Revolution accom-
plished in the internal System of any Country than has been
within the Compass of a few years in that of England.

" The carriage of Grain, Coals, Merchandize, etc., is in
general conducted with little more than half the Number of
Horses with which it formerly was. Journies of Business
are performed with much more than double Expedition.
Improvements in Agriculture keep pace with those of Trade.
Everything wears the Face of Dispatch ; every Article of our
Produce becomes more valuable ; and the Hinge, upon which
all these Movements turn, is the Reformation which has been
made in our Publick Roads."

In the article on " Roads " in Postlethwayt's " Dictionary "
(1745) it is declared that the country had derived great
advantage from the improvements of the roads, and from the
application of tolls collected at the turnpikes. Travelling had
been rendered safer, easier and pleasanter. " That this end is
greatly answered," we are assured, " everyone's experience
will tell him who can remember the condition of the roads
thirty or forty years ago." There had been, also, a benefit to
trade and commerce by the reduced cost of carriage for all
sorts of goods and merchandise. On this especially interest-
ing point the writer of the article says : " Those who have
made it their business to be rightly informed of this matter
have, upon inquiry, found that carriage is now 30 per cent

Trade and Transport in the Turnpike Era 87

cheaper than before the roads were amended by turnpikes."
He proceeds to give a number of examples of such reductions
in freight, among them being the following : —

" From Birmingham to London it is said there is not less
than 25 or 30 waggons sent weekly ; ys. per hundred was
formerly paid, the price now paid is from 3 to 43. per hundred.

" From Portsmouth to London the common price was 73.
per hundred, the Government paid so in Queen Anne's war,
and now only 4 to 53. per hundred is paid ; and in the late
war arms and warlike stores for his Majesty's service were
carried at the rate of 4 or 53. per hundred.

" From Exeter to London, and from other towns in the
west of like distance the carriage of wool and other goods is
very great, especially in times of war. — 123. per hundred was
formerly paid, now only 8s. per hundred. The same can be
affirmed with respect to Bristol, Gloucester and the adjacent
counties."

While the traders and the consumers were, presumably,
both benefiting from these reduced charges, the carriers also
gained, by reason of the greater loads they were able to take
with the same number of horses. On this point the writer
says : " The roads in general were formerly so bad and deep,
so full of holes and sloughs that a team of horses could scarce
draw from any place of 60 miles distant, or upwards, above
30 hundred weight of goods ; whereas the same team can now
draw with more ease 50 or 60 hundred." On the other hand
he did not overlook the fact that the keeping up of the turnpike
roads was " a prodigious expense to the nation," so that,
in his opinion, the reduction in transport charges was only
" a seeming alleviation " of the general burden.

At the time Defoe made his tour of England the turnpike
system was still in its infancy ; but he is very eulogistic over
the improvements then already made.

Having, as already mentioned on p. 65, described the roads
from London to the North across the clay-belt of the Midlands,
Defoe tells how " turnpikes or toll-bars " had been set up on
" several great roads of England, beginning at London, and
proceeding through almost all those dirty deep roads " in
the midland counties especially, " At which Turn-pikes all
Carriages, Droves of Cattle and Travellers on Horse-back are
obliged to pay an easy Toll ; that is to say, a Horse a Penny,

88 History of Inland Transport

a Coach three Pence, a Cart four Pence, at some six Pence to
eight Pence, a Waggon six Pence, in some a Shilling, and the
like ; Cattle pay by the Score, or by the Head, in some Places
more, in some less." Several of these turnpikes had been set
up of late years and " great Progress had been made in mending
the most difficult Ways."

On these roads toll was, of course, being taken by authority
of Act of Parliament ; but there was one road, at least, on
which tolls were being enforced without Parliamentary
sanction ; for Defoe goes on to say : —

" There is another Road, which is a Branch of the Northern
Road, and is properly called the Coach Road . . . and this
indeed is a most frightful Way, if we take it from Hatfield,
or rather the Park Corners of Hatfield House, and from thence
to Stevenage, to Baldock, to Biggies wade and Bugden. Here
is that famous Lane call'd Baldock Lane, famous for being
so impassable that the Coaches and Travellers were oblig'd
to break out of the Way even by Force, which the People of
the Country not able to prevent, at length placed Gates and
laid their lands open, setting men at the Gates to take a
voluntary Toll, which Travellers always chose to pay, rather
than plunge into Sloughs and Holes, which no Horse could
wade through.

" This terrible Road is now under Cure by the same Methods,
and probably may in Time be brought to be firm and solid."

In regard to the turnpike system in general he says : —

" The Benefit of these Turnpikes appears now to be so great,
and the People in all Places begin to be so sensible of it,
that it is incredible what Effect it has already had upon
Trade in the Counties where the Roads are completely finished ;
even the Carriage of Goods is abated, in some Places, 6d.
per hundred Weight, in others I2d. per hundred, which is
abundantly more Advantageous to Commerce than the
Charge paid amounts to. ...

" Besides the benefits accruing from this laudable Method
we may add, The Conveniency to those who bring fat Cattle,
especially Sheep, to London in the Winter from the remoter
counties of Leicester and Lincoln, where they are bred : For
before, the Country Graziers were obliged to sell their Stocks
off in September and October when the Roads began to be
bad, and when they generally sell cheap ; and the Butchers

Trade and Transport in the Turnpike Era 89

and Farmers near London used to engross them, and keep
them till December and January, and then sell them, though
not an Ounce fatter than before, for an advanced price to
the Citizens of London ; whereas now the Roads are in a Way
to be made everywhere passable the City will be serv'd with
Mutton almost as cheap in the Winter as in the summer, and
the profit of the advance will be to the Country Graziers, who
are the original Breeders and take all the Pains.

" This is evidenc'd to a Demonstration in the Counties
where the Roads are already repair'd, from whence they bring
their fat Cattle, and particularly their Mutton, in Droves,
from Sixty, Seventy or Eighty Miles without fatiguing,
harrassing or sinking the Flesh of the Creatures, even in the
Depth of the Winter."

Whether or not the fat cattle and the sheep were really
able to do their long walk to London without fatigue and
loss of flesh, it is certain that the naturally bad condition
of the roads leading to London was made worse by the " in-
finite droves of black cattle, hogs and sheep " which passed
along them from Essex, Lincolnshire and elsewhere. When
the roads were being continually trodden by the feet of large
heavy bullocks, " of which," says Defoe, " the numbers that
come this way " — that is, out of Lincolnshire and the fens —
" are scarce to be reckon'd up," the work done by the turnpike
commissioners in the summer was often completely spoiled
in the winter. Among, therefore, the many advantages of the
rail transport of to-day we may reckon the fact that the roads
and highways are no longer worn to the same extent as before
by cattle and sheep on their way to the London markets.

Defoe alludes, also, to the influence of improved communi-
cations on the development of the fish industry, with the
subsidiary advantage of improving the food supplies of the
people, saying, in this connection —

" I might give Examples where the Herrings which are not
the best Fish to keep, used, even before these Reparations
were set on foot, to be carried to those Towns, and up to
Warwick, Birmingham, Tarn worth and Stafford, and though
they frequently stunk before they got thither, yet the people
were so eager for them, that they bought them up at a dear
Rate ; whereas when the Roads are every where good they
will come in less Time, by at least two Days in Six of what they

90 History of Inland Transport

used to do, and an hundred times the quantity will be con-
sumed."

Until, again, the advent of better roads, food supplies
and provender — peas, beans, oats, hay, straw, etc. — for
London were brought in on the backs of horses. In proportion
as the roads improved and were made available for carts
and waggons the area of supply widened, and the counties
immediately adjoining London even petitioned Parliament
against the extension of turnpikes into the remoter counties.
These other counties, they alleged, would, from the cheapness
of their labour, be able to sell their grass and corn cheaper
in the London market than the nearer counties, and would
reduce the rents and ruin the cultivation in the latter. Here,
of course, the producer wanted protection against competition,
and wished to retain the benefit of his geographical advantage.
The broader view as to the effect of improved communications
on national progress in general was expressed by Adam Smith.
In Book L, chapter xi., Part I., of his " Wealth of Nations,"
he says : —

" Good roads, canals, and navigable rivers, by diminishing
the expense of carriage, put the remote parts of the country
more nearly upon a level with those in the neighbourhood of
the town. They are upon that account the greatest of all
improvements. They encourage the cultivation of the remote,
which must always be the most extensive circle of the country.
They are advantageous to the town, by breaking down the
monopoly of the country in its neighbourhood. They are
advantageous even to that part of the country. Though they
introduce some rival commodities into the old market, they
open many new markets to its produce. Monopoly, besides,
is a great enemy to good management, which can never be
universally established but in consequence of that free and
universal competition which forces everybody to have re-
source to it for the sake of self-defence."

The conditions under which the traders of the country in
general conducted their business was, naturally, influenced,
if not altogether controlled, by the conditions of locomotion.

Hutton tells us in his " History of Birmingham " that
the practice of the Birmingham manufacturer for, perhaps,
a hundred generations was to keep within the warmth of
his own forge. The foreign customer, therefore, applied to

Trade and Transport in the Turnpike Era 91

him for the execution of orders, and regularly made his
appearance twice a year.

Concerning the Manchester trade, Dr Aikin, in his
" Description of the Country from Thirty to Forty Miles round
Manchester " (1795), says : —

" For the first thirty years of the present century, the old
established houses confined their trade to the wholesale dealers
in London, Bristol, Norwich, Newcastle, and those who
frequented Chester fair. . . . When the Manchester trade
began to extend the chapmen used to keep gangs of pack-
horses, and accompany them to the principal towns with
goods in packs, which they opened and- sold to shop-
keepers, lodging what was unsold in small stores at the inns.
The pack-horses brought back sheep's wool, which was bought
on the journey, and sold to the makers of worsted yarn at
Manchester, or to the clothiers of Rochdale, Saddleworth and
the West Riding of Yorkshire. On the improvement of the
turnpike roads waggons were set up, and the pack-horses
discontinued ; and the chapmen only rode out for orders,
carrying with them patterns in their bags. It was during the
forty years from 1730 to 1770 that trade was greatly pushed
by the practice of sending these riders all over the kingdom,
to those towns which before had been supplied from the whole-
sale places in the capital places before mentioned."

Thus one effect of the improvement in communications was
to allow of the Manchester manufacturers establishing direct
relations with retailers in the smaller towns who had hitherto
been supplied by the wholesale dealers in the large towns,
one set of profits being saved. Dr Aikin adds : —

" Within the last twenty or thirty years the vast increase
of foreign trade has caused many of the Manchester manu-
facturers to travel abroad, and agents or partners to be fixed
for a considerable time on the Continent, as well as foreigners
to reside at Manchester. And the town has now in every
respect assumed the style and manners of one of the com-
mercial capitals of Europe."

In an article headed " Change in Commerce," published in
No. XI. of " The Original," (1836), Thomas Walker gives
(" by tradition," as he says) some particulars as to the
methods of business followed by a leading Manchester mer-
chant who was born there early in the eighteenth century

92 History of Inland Transport

and realised a sufficient fortune to be able to have a carriage
of his own when not half a dozen were kept in the town by
persons connected with business.

" He sent the manufactures of the place into Nottingham-
shire, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, and the intervening
counties, and principally took in exchange feathers from
Lincolnshire and malt from Cambridgeshire and Nottingham-
shire. All his commodities were conveyed on pack-horses,
and he was from home the greater part of every year, perform-
ing his journeys entirely on horseback. His balances were
received in guineas, and were carried with him in his saddle-
bags. He was exposed to the vicissitudes of the weather, to
great labour and fatigue, and to constant danger. . . .
Business carried on in this manner required a combination
of personal attention, courage, and physical strength not to
be hoped for in a deputy. . . . The improvements in the way
of carrying on commerce, and its increase, may be attributed
in a great degree to the increased facility of communication,
and the difference between the times I have alluded to and
the present is nearly as great as between a pack-horse and a
steam-carriage."

Walker also mentions that in the early days of the trader
here referred to Manchester was provided with wine by a
wine merchant who lived at Preston and carried his supplies
to Manchester on horseback. The quantity then consumed,
however, was but small, as " men in business confined them-
selves generally to punch and ale, using wine only as a medicine
or on very extraordinary occasions."

A no less interesting phase of the improvements being
brought about, and one to which I shall revert in the chapter
on " The Canal Era," was found in the influence of better
communications on the social conditions of the people.

That these conditions had been greatly prejudiced by the
bad roads is beyond all question. Villages which could be
reached only with difficulty in summer, and were isolated from
the rest of the world for four or five months in the autumn,
winter and early spring, were steeped in ignorance and super-
stition. True it is that in such communities as these the games,
sports, customs and traditions which represented the poetry of
old English life survived the longest, and have not even yet dis-
appeared before the march of Modern Progress. But no less

Trade and Transport in the Turnpike Era 93

true is it that such communities were the longest to foster
that once popular belief in witchcraft which meant, not merely
the looking askance at any decrepit old creature who was
believed to have turned the milk sour in the pails, or to have
stopped the cows and ewes from breeding, but the putting
to death of many thousands of supposed " witches " in
England and Scotland in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. The total number of victims in the first eighty years
of the seventeenth century alone is estimated by Dr Charles
Mackay, in " Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions,"
at forty thousand ! This particular mania was certainly shared
by Kings, Parliaments and ecclesiastics no less than by
ignorant villagers ; but it decreased in proportion as general
intelligence increased, and the increase in general intelligence
was materially influenced by those improvements in locomo-
tion and communication which led to wider knowledge and a
greater intermingling of the classes.

The same isolation fostered the belief in ghosts, goblins,
wraiths, kelpies and other inhabitants of the world of spirits,
whose visitations or doings probably formed a leading topic
of conversation as the isolated family sat round the fire in the
long winter months, wives and daughters busy, no doubt,
with their distaffs, their spinning-wheel or their needlework,
but none the less able to tell or to listen to the favourite
stories.

The whole conditions of existence were of the most cir-
cumscribed kind. Many a village got no news at all of what
was happening in the world except such as the pedlar might
bring, or, alternatively, might circulate through his London-
printed " broadsides," telling of some great victory, giving
the last dying speech of a noted highwayman, or recording
the death of one ruler and the succession of another, of which
events the villagers might not hear for two or even three
months after they had occurred. "Whole generations," in
the words of Samuel Smiles (" Early Roads and Modes of
Travelling "), " lived a monotonous, ignorant, prejudiced
and humdrum life. They had no enterprise, no energy, little
industry, and were content to die where they were born."

In the Elizabethan era, and even later, inhabitants of the
northern counties were regarded by dwellers in the south as
people among whom it would be dangerous for them to go.

94 History of Inland Transport

English navigators were entering on voyages of discovery and
conquest in distant seas, where they would fearlessly en-
counter the enemies of England or the Indians of the New
World, at a time when their fellow-countrymen at home would
have shrunk from the perils of a journey across the wilds of
Northumberland or of an encounter with the supposed savages
of Lancashire.

Even when it was a matter of visiting friends, journeys to
distant parts of the country were but rarely undertaken.
In the " Gentleman's Magazine " for December, 1752, it was
remarked that English people were readily going to France,
where they spent in 1751 nearly ^100,000 ; but though a
rich citizen in London who had relatives or friends in the
west of England might hear of their welfare half a dozen times
in his life, by post, " he thinks no more of visiting them than
of traversing the deserts of Nubia."

On the other hand, one result of this limitation in the
facilities for home travel was to give to many a county town a
far greater degree of social distinction that it can claim to-day.

Just as in mediaeval times England had consisted of so
many separate self-governing and self-dependent communities,
each with the house of the lord of the manor as the " hub "
of its own little universe, so — in the days when communications
had certainly, though still only relatively, improved — did the
county town become the recognised centre of social life and
movement for each and every cou'nty where there was any
pretence to social life at all. The country gentry, with their
wives and daughters, came to regard a visit to the county town,
and indulgence there in a round of balls, feasts, visits and
functions, in the same light as a season in London is regarded
at the present date.

London in the seventeenth century, if not even down to the
middle of the eighteenth, was, for all practical purposes, as
far away from the western counties of England as London to-
day is from Vienna or St. Petersburg. Visits to the Metropolis
were then, indeed, of extremely rare occurrence. In
Macaulay's sketch of "The State of England in 1685," forming
chapter iii. of his " History of England," there is a diverting
account of what must have happened to the lord of a Lincoln-
shire or Shropshire manor when he appeared in Fleet Street,
to be " as easily distinguished from the resident population

Trade and Transport in the Turnpike Era 95

as a Turk or a Lascar," and to be subjected to numerous
" vexations and humiliations " until, enraged and mortified,
he returned to his mansion where " he was once more a great
man, and saw nothing above himself except when at the
assizes he took his seat on the bench near the judge, or when
at the muster of the militia he saluted the Lord Lieutenant."

Adding to such " vexations and humiliations " the cost, the
inconveniences and the perils of a journey to London — perils,
too, that arose from highwaymen as well as from the roads
themselves — the country gentleman was generally content to
seek his social distractions nearer home than London. To
quote again from Macaulay : —

" The county town was his metropolis. He sometimes
made it his residence during part of the year. At all events
he was often attracted thither by business and pleasure, by
assizes, quarter sessions, elections, musters of militia, festivals
and races. There were the halls in which the judges, robed in
scarlet and escorted by javelins and trumpets, opened the
King's commission twice a year. There were the markets at
which the corn, the cattle, the wool and the hops of the sur-
rounding country were exposed for sale. There were the
great fairs to which merchants came from London, and where
the rural dealer laid in his annual stores of sugar, stationery,
cutlery and muslin. There were the shops at which the best
families of the neighbourhood bought grocery and millinery."

Defoe, in his " Tour," affords us some interesting glimpses
of the social life of various country towns in the first quarter
of the eighteenth century. Dorchester he describes as " in-
deed a pleasant town to live in. ... There is," he says,
" good company and a good deal of it," and he thinks " a man
that coveted a retreat in this world might as agreeably spend
his time, and as well, in Dorchester " as in any town he knew
in England. Exeter was " full of gentry and good company."
He has much to say in praise of social life in Dorsetshire. In
Plymouth " a gentleman might find very agreeable society."
Salisbury had " a good deal of good manners and good com-
pany." The " neighbourhood " of " Persons of Figure and
Quality " caused Maidstone to be "a very agreeable place
to live in," and one where a "Man of Letters and Manners"
would always " find suitable Society both to Divert and Im-
prove himself," the town being, in fact, one of "very great

96 History of Inland Transport

Business and Trade, and yet full of Gentry, of Mirth, and of
Good Company." King's Lynn, the head-quarters of so
important a shipping business in those days, he found
" abounding in very good company," while of York he writes :
" There is abundance of good Company here, and abundance
of good Families live here, for the sake of the good Company
and cheap living ; a Man converses here with all the World as
effectually as at London ; the Keeping up of Assemblies among
the younger Gentry was first set up here, a thing other Writers
recommend mightily as the Character of a good Country and
of a Pleasant Place."

The general effect, from a social standpoint, of the com-
bination of better roads and better coaches is well told In an
essay " On the Country Manners of the Present Age," pub-
lished in the " Annual Register " for 1761. The writer has
much to say that is of interest from the point of view of the
present work, but the following extracts must suffice : —

" It is scarce half a century since the inhabitants of distant
counties were regarded as a species almost as different from
those of the Metropolis as the natives of the Cape of Good
Hope. . . . Formerly a journey into the country was con-
sidered almost as great an undertaking as a voyage to the
Indies. The old family coach was sure to be stowed with all
sorts of luggage and provisions ; and perhaps in the course
of the journey a whole village together with their teams,
were called in to dig the heavy vehicle out of the clay, and to
drag it to the next place of wretched accommodation which
the road afforded. Thus they travelled like the caravan over
the deserts of Arabia, with every disagreeable circumstance of
tediousness and inconvenience. But now the amendments of
the roads with the many other improvements of travelling
have in a manner opened a new communication between the
several parts of our island. . . . Stage-coaches, machines, flys
and post chaises are ready to transport passengers to and fro,
between the metropolis and the most distant parts of the
Kingdom. The lover now can almost literally annihilate time
and space, and be with his mistress before she dreams of his
arrival. In short the manners, fashions, amusements, vices
and follies of the metropolis now make their way to the
remotest corners of the land as readily and speedily, along
the turnpike road, as, of old, Milton's Sin and Death, by means

Trade and Transport in the Turnpike Era 97

of their marvellous bridges over the Chaos from the infernal
regions to our world.

" The effects of this easy communication have almost daily
grown more and more visible. The several great cities, and
we might add, many poor country towns, seem to be univer-
sally inspired with the ambition of becoming the little Londons
of the part of the country in which they are situated."

But if the easy communication rendered possible by turnpike
roads and flying coaches conferred on the country towns a
hope of becoming so many little Londons, the day was to
come when a still easier communication by means of railway
lines and express trains was to take provincial residents just
as readily to the great and real London, and so deprive not a
few provincial centres of much of that social life and dis-
tinction which the improved transport facilities had brought
them.

In London itself, as may also be learned from Defoe, the
betterment of the roads around the metropolis led to the
citizens flocking out in greater numbers than ever to take
lodgings and country houses in " towns near London," which
many people having business in the City had not been able to
do before because of the trouble involved in riding to and fro
on the bad roads. We are told, further, of the consequent
increase in the rent of houses, and of the greater number of
dwellings being built, in places the roads to which had thus
been improved, as compared with other suburban districts
to which the turnpike system had not yet been extended.

We have here the beginnings of that creation of a Greater
London which has since undergone such enormous develop-
ments, and has led to the almost complete disappearance of
the custom, once in vogue in the City of London, of a merchant
or tradesman living on the same premises as those in which
he carried on his business.

Of the various circumstances that led to the eventual
decline and fall of the turnpike system, which, with all its
faults and short-comings, had at least helped to bring about
the improvements in trade, transport and social conditions
here described, I shall speak in Chapter xxiii.

CHAPTER XII

SCIENTIFIC ROAD-MAKING

ONE question which naturally arises in connection with the
turnpike roads is, " Why was it, when there was so wide-
spread an organisation of turnpike trusts, and when so much
money was being spent on the repair of the roads, that the
roads themselves were still so defective, and only relatively
better than they had been before ? " — this being the real
position, notwithstanding the praises bestowed on the turn-
pike system by those who were gratified with the stimulus
given to trade, travel and commerce by the improvements
actually made.

The answer is that although a vast amount of road-making
or road-repairing was going on, at the very considerable ex-
pense of the road users, and to the advantage of a small army of
attorneys, officials and labourers, it was not road-making of
a scientific kind, but merely amateur work, done at excessive
cost, either with unintelligent zeal or in slovenly style, and
yielding results which mostly failed to give the country the
type of road it required for the ever-increasing traffic to
which expanding trade, greater travel, and heavier and more
numerous waggons and coaches were leading.

Before the adoption of scientific road -making, the usual way
of forming a new road was, first to lay along it a collection of
large stones, and then to heap up thereon small stones and
road dirt in such a way that the road assumed the shape of the
upper half of an orange, the convexity often being so pro-
nounced that vehicles kept along the summit of the eminence
because it was dangerous for them, especially in rainy weather,
to go along the slope on either side.

This form of road was adopted in order to ensure good
drainage for rain-water ; and in this connection the writer
on " Roads " in Postlethwayt's " Dictionary " (1745) says : —

" The chief and almost the only cause of the deepness and

98

Scientific Road-Making 99

foulness of the roads is occasioned by the standing water
which, for want of due care to draw it off by scouring and
opening ditches and drains and other water courses, and
clearing of passages, soaks into the earth, and softens it to
such a degree that it cannot bear the weight of horses and
carriages."

But the result of making roads in the shape of a semi-
circle was that the central ridge was speedily crushed down,
and ruts were formed along the line of traffic passing over
the loose materials used. These ruts, again, defeated the
purpose of the original high convexity by becoming troughs
for the retention of rain and mud, the latter being rendered
worse with each fresh churning up it received from the wheels
of waggon or stage-coach.

The road-maker thus required to be speedily followed by
the road-repairer ; and his method of procedure has been
already indicated in Arthur Young's description of the road
to Wigan, where he says, " The only mending it receives is the
tumbling in some loose stones, which serve no other purpose
but jolting a carriage in the most intolerable manner."

The mending of hundreds of miles even of turnpike roads
had never gone any further than this. There was no cohesion
in collections of loose stones, mainly in their natural and more
or less rounded form, and the expectation that they would be
crushed and consolidated into a solid mass by extra-broad
waggon wheels, in accordance with Acts of Parliament in
that case made and provided, remained unfulfilled. The stones
were simply displaced and thrown aside by the traffic, the
inevitable ruts reappearing in due course ; while, as the rain-
water passed readily through them, the roads became elongated
reservoirs of water in rainy weather, and were most effectively
broken up by frost in winter.

It was from conditions such as these that Thomas Telford
and John Loudon McAdam came to rescue the country.

There had been one road-reformer before them, in John
Metcalf, a native of Knaresboro', where he was born in 1717.
Though totally blind from the age of six, he developed abun-
dant resources, and became successively fiddler, soldier,
chapman, fish-dealer, horse-dealer and waggoner. Taking at
last to road-making, he constructed about 180 miles of road
in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cheshire and Derby, rendering an

ioo History of Inland Transport

important service to the two first-mentioned counties, more
especially by improving their means of communication
at a time when they were greatly in need of better roads on
account of their then rapidly increasing trade and industry.
But though Metcalf did good work in these directions, and
achieved some noteworthy successes in carrying solid roads
across difficult bogs, he introduced no really new system, and
the chief progress made did not come until after his death,
in 1810.

Son of a shepherd at Eskdale, Dumfriesshire, where he was
born in 1757, Telford started life as a stonemason's apprentice,
but became an engineer, and undertook many important
works, including canals, bridges, harbours and docks. Here,
however, we are concerned with him only as a builder of roads
— a department in which he showed great skill and activity.

On the appointment, in 1803, of a body of Commissioners
who were to improve the system of communications in Scot-
land (one half of the expense being defrayed by Parliamentary
grants, and one half by local contributions), Telford was
selected to carry out the work, and he constructed 920 miles
of road and 1,117 bridges in the Highlands, and 150 miles of
road between Glasgow, Cumbernauld (Dumbarton) and
Carlisle. Then, in 1815, money having been voted by Parlia-
ment for the improvement of the Holyhead road, with a view
to the betterment of communications with Ireland, Telford
was entrusted with the task, which involved the making or
improvement of, altogether, 123 miles of road.

Telford's own opinion of the roads of England and Scotland
was thus expressed in the evidence he gave before the Select
Committee of the House of Commons in 1819 :—

" They are in general very defective both as to their direction
and inclination ; they are frequently carried over hills,
which might be avoided by passing along the adjacent valleys
. . . there has been no attention paid to constructing good
and solid foundations ; the materials, whether consisting of
gravel or stones, have seldom been sufficiently selected and
arranged ; and they lie so promiscuously upon the roads as to
render it inconvenient to travel upon them. . . . The shape
of the roads, or cross section of the surface, is frequently hollow
in the middle ; the sides incumbered with great banks of road
dirt, which have accumulated in some places to the height

Scientific Road-Making 101

of six, seven, or eight feet ; these prevent the water from
falling into the side drains ; they also throw a considerable
shade upon the road, and are gross and unpardonable nui-
sances. The materials, instead of being cleaned of the mud and
soil with which they are mixed in their native state, are laid
promiscuously upon the road."

In planning new roads Telford cut right through the hills,
wherever possible, in order to avoid unduly steep gradients.
In making the roads he first arranged a solid foundation of
pieces of durable stone, from 4 in. to 7 in. in size, these being
carefully put into position by hand, with the broadest side
downward, and packed with small stones in between. On the
rough pavement thus formed he laid an upper course of small
broken stones, with a binding of one inch of gravel. Between
the two courses a drain was set across the road every hundred
yards, Telford attaching great importance to the carrying
off of all water that might percolate through the upper course
on to the lower. He gave a uniform and only moderately
convex shape to the surface of the road, abandoning, in this
respect, the ideas of his more amateur predecessors. But his
system was one that called for much labour and care, as well
as for an abundant supply of the needful materials, and the
cost of carrying it out was proportionately high, if not, in
some situations, prohibitive.

McAdam preferred to be considered a road-repairer rather
than a road-builder, and his methods differed materially from
those of Telford. He became, also, much more of a propa-
gandist in the work of road-improvement, enforcing his
theories with such success that he brought a new word into
the English language, roads made or mended according to
the main principles he laid down having been known ever
since his day as " macadamised."

Born in Ayrshire in 1756 — one year before Telford — McAdam
went to America at the age of 14 to start life in the counting-
house of his uncle in New York. Subsequently he became
a successful merchant, and returned in 1783 to Scotland,
where he bought the estate of Sauchrie, and then, in 1785,
began to devote his attention to road-making, which was to
occupy his thoughts and absorb his energies for the rest of
his days. Roads he came to regard as, in his own words,
" perhaps the most important branch of our domestic

IO2 History oif Inland Transport

economy." Many new roads were then being constructed in
Scotland, and he himself became a commissioner of roads in
that country. He also began a systematic course of travel over
the roads of England and Scotland, covering, by 1814, no
fewer than 30,000 miles.

In 1810 Me Adam commenced a series of experiments in the
construction of roads, and he published the following year some
" Observations on the Highways of the Kingdom," recording
the opinions he had formed as the result of his twenty-seven
years' inquiries.

By this time the question had, indeed, become acute. The
prosperity of the country had undergone much expansion,
but the improvement of the roads, notwithstanding the
extension of the turnpike system, had in no way kept pace
with the general progress and the growing needs of the nation.
Parliamentary Committees were still devoting close attention
to that good old stock subject, the width of cart-wheels. In
1806 there was a Select Committee appointed " to take into
consideration the Acts now in force regarding the use of
Broad Wheels, and to examine what shape is best calculated
for ease of draught and the Preservation of the roads." This
Committee presented two reports, and like Committees
were appointed in the Sessions of 1808 and 1809, each of these
Committees making three reports. What Parliament itself was
doing at this period in the way of cart-wheel legislation has
already been told.

So there was abundant scope for the activities of someone
who could offer new ideas, and when, in 1811, a Select Com-
mittee was appointed " to take into consideration the Acts in
force regarding the Highways and Turnpike Roads in England
and Wales, and the expediency of additional regulations as
to the better repair and preservation thereof," x Me Adam
came forward with his proposals, as contained in the aforesaid
" Observations " presented by him to the Committee in
question.

1 Similar Committees were, also, appointed in 1819, 1820, and 1821.
In the report it eventually issued, the Committee of 1811 said : " By the
improvement of our roads, every branch of our agricultural, commercial
and manufacturing industry would be materially benefitted. Every article
brought to market would be diminished in price ; the number of horses
would be so much reduced, that by these and other retrenchments, the
expense of five millions would be annually saved to the public."

Scientific Road-Making 103

Me Adam began by saying that " In all three reports of
Committees of the House of Commons on the subject of roads,
they seem to have principally in view the construction of
wheeled carriages, the weights they were to draw, and the
breadth and form of their wheels ; the nature of the roads on
which these carriages were to travel had not been so well
attended to." Proceeding to give the results of his own
investigations, he expressed the view that the bad condition
of the roads of the kingdom was owing to the injudicious
application of the materials with which they were repaired,
and to the defective form of the roads ; and he assured the
Committee that the introduction of a better system of making
the surface of the roads, and the application of scientific
principles which had hitherto never been thought of, would
remedy the evil.

The basis of his system, as denned on this and subsequent
occasions, was the covering of the surface of roads with an
impermeable crust, cover or coating, so that the water would
not penetrate to the soil beneath, which soil, whatever its
nature, and provided it was kept dry, would, he argued,
then bear any weight likely to be put upon it.

His method of securing the said impermeable crust was by
the use of an 8 in. or 10 in. covering of broken stones, these being
not more than about i £ inches each in size, or more than about
six ounces each in weight. Such broken stones, if properly
prepared and properly laid on a road, would, he showed,
consolidate by reason of their angles, and, under the pressure
of the traffic, be transformed into a " firm, compact, im-
penetrable body," which " could not be affected by vicissi-
tudes of weather or displaced by the action of wheels." The
broken stones, with their angular edges, would, in effect,
dovetail together into a solid crust under a pressure which,
applied to pebbles or flints, would merely cause them to roll
aside, in the same way as shingle on the seashore when passed
over by a cart or a bathing van.

The difference between his broken stones and the more or
less rounded stones with which the roads were then being
repaired was, McAdam declared, the difference between the
stones that were thrown down in a stream to form a ford and
the shaped stones used to construct the bridge that went over
the stream ; while inasmuch as the road-arch, or crust, he

IO4 History of Inland Transport

formed would rest on the ground, and be impermeable to
rain-water, there would be no need to have underneath it
either a stone foundation or a system of drainage ; though he
held it as essential that the subsoil should be perfectly dry
when the " metal," or covering of broken stone, was laid in
position. Keeping the water out of the road by this means,
he would prevent the road itself from being broken up by the
action of frost, and he would have a more elastic surface than
if there were a solid stone foundation under the metal. The
thickness of his consolidated cover of broken stones would, he
further argued, be immaterial to its weight-carrying capacity.

In 1816 Me Adam became surveyor of roads in the Bristol
district, and the object lessons in road-mending which he
provided there were so convincing that his system began to be
generally approved in 1818. In 1827 he was appointed Sur-
veyor-General of Roads, and in the same year he issued a ninth
edition of his "Remarks on the Present System of Road-
Making."

In this publication he states, among other things, that very
considerable sums were being raised annually in the king-
dom, principally from tolls, on account of turnpike roads, and
these funds were expended, nominally under the protection
of Commissioners, but practically under the surveyors.
Every Session there were numerous applications to Parliament
by turnpike trusts for powers to increase their tolls in order to
pay off their debts and to keep the roads in repair. In the
Session of 1815 there were 34 such petitions ; in 1816 there
were 32, and " all passed as a matter of course." The condition
of the turnpike roads was, nevertheless, most defective, and
that of the parish roads was " more deplorable than that of
the turnpike roads." Legislative enactments for the main-
tenance and repair of the parish roads were so inadequate
that these roads " might be considered as being placed almost
out of the protection of the law." In the result " The
defective state of the roads, independent of the unnecessary
expense, is oppressive on agriculture, commerce and manu-
factures by the increase of the price of transport, by waste of
the labour of cattle, and wear of carriages, as well as by causing
much delay of time."

As for Scotland, he declared that " The roads in Scotland
are worse than those in England, although materials are more

Scientific Road-Making 105

abundant, of better quality, and labour at least as cheap, and
the toll duties are nearly double ; this is because road-making,
that is the surface, is even worse understood in Scotland than
in England." He mentions that the Postmaster-General had
been obliged to give up the mail-coach from Glasgow to Ayr
on account partly of the bad roads and partly of the expense,
there being ten turnpike gates in 34 miles of road.

The roads were, in fact, McAdam continued, " universally
in want of repair." Ample funds were already provided ; but
the surveyors employed by the turnpike trusts were " mostly
persons ignorant of the nature of the duties they are called on
to discharge," 1 and the money brought in by a continual and
apparently unlimited increase of the tolls was " misapplied in
almost every part of the Kingdom." In some new roads made
in Scotland the thickness of the materials used exceeded
three feet ;2 but, said McAdam, " the road is as open as a sieve
to receive water " ; and what this meant he was able to
show by pointing to the results of weather conditions on bad
roads in the month of January, 1820. A severe frost was
succeeded by a sudden thaw, accompanied by the melting of
much snow, and the roads of the kingdom broke up in an
alarming manner, causing great loss, much delay of the mails,
and endless inconvenience. The cause of the trouble was
explained by McAdam thus : —

" Previous to the severe frost the roads were filled with
water which had penetrated through the ill-prepared and
unskilfully-laid material ; this caused immediate expansion of
the whole mass during the frost, and, upon a sudden thaw,
the roads became quite loose, and the wheels of the carriages
penetrated to the original soil, which was also saturated with
water, from the open state of the road. By this means many
roads became altogether impassable."

On the 1000 miles of road to which his own system had

1 It was shown in evidence before the Select Committee of 1819 that
the "surveyors" in a certain district included a miller, an undertaker, a
car|*?nter, a coal merchant, a publican, a baker, "an infirm old man,"
and " a bedridden old man who had not been out of his house for several
months." Nineteen times out of twenty, it was declared, the appoint-
ment was " a perfect job."

2 McAdam had found the roads at Bristol loaded with an accumulation
two or three feet deep of stones, which had been thrown down during a
series of years with the idea of "repairing" the roads. Such roads
became his quarries for stones to be broken by hand.

106 History of Inland Transport

been applied there had, he further said, been no breaking up
at all by reason of frost.

The figure here given suggests the extensive adoption of
McAdam's system which was then proceeding. It was not only
that old roads were being repaired according to his plan,
but there was much construction of " macadamised " roads,
the deficiencies of the existing roads having discouraged and
checked the provision of new ones. Between 1818 and 1829,
as told by Porter, in his " Progress of the Nation," the length
of turnpike roads in England and Wales was increased by
more than 1000 miles. In proportion, also, as the turnpike
roads increased alike in number and in quality, through the
wider adoption of McAdam's system, there was a corresponding
impetus given to coaching in respect both to number of
vehicles and to increase of speed, leading up to those " palmy
days " of coaching which were only to close with the spread of
the railway.

It is true that McAdam's plans were not adhered to exactly
as he first laid them down. Greater experience led later
authorities to attach more importance to a foundation than
McAdam had been disposed to do ; though they did not
necessarily have foundations laid by hand, after the manner
of Telford's buried pavements. Later, the introduction, also,
of the steam-roller was to revolutionise the art of making
macadamised roads.

Nor can it be disputed that McAdam and Telford had both,
to a certain extent, been anticipated. In an article on roads
published in the " Quarterly Review," in 1820, the observation
is made in respect to them that " Many of the practices of each
of these gentlemen had been previously adopted in a variety
of instances ; but it required zeal and perseverance like theirs
to recommend the entire system to the attention of the
public."

Other persons might have recommended the use of broken
stones, and these are said to have been already employed in
Switzerland before McAdam came on the scene ; but it was
his lucid explanation of the scientific bearing of angular as
opposed to round stones ; his untiring zeal in travelling
thousands of miles over English and Scottish roads in order
to see and study everything for himself ; and his advocacy of
scientific road-making with such indefatigable energy, though

Scientific Road-Making 107

to his own impoverishment (until Parliament voted him re-
compense), that led to the conspicuous and world- wide
success his system eventually attained.

Writing in 1826, " Nimrod " said : " Roads may be called
the veins and arteries of a country, through which channels
every improvement circulates. I really consider Mr Me Adam
as being, next to Dr Jenner, the greatest contributor to the
welfare of mankind that this country has ever produced."

This may seem, to-day, to be exaggerated praise ; but if the
reader looks at the matter from the point of view from which
" Nimrod " himself must have regarded it, and tries to realise
how greatly the deplorable state of the roads — before McAdam
began to repair them — was hampering social life, travel, trade,
commerce and national industries, he will probably conclude
that such praise, at such a period, and in such circumstances,
was far from being undeserved.

The turnpike system lasted well into the railway period,
and the story of its gradual decline and the causes that led
thereto has still to be told. Before, however, dealing further
with these aspects of the general question I propose to revert
to the subject of rivers and river navigation ; to show, next,
how canals and canal transport were developed ; and then to
give an account of the rise of that railway system which was
so materially to affect alike rivers, canals and turnpike roads
as well.

CHAPTER XIII

RIVERS AND RIVER TRANSPORT

IN the earliest days of our history, and for many generations
later, navigable rivers exercised a most important, if not a
paramount, influence on the settlement of tribes, the location
of towns, the development of trade and the social life of the
people. They were natural highways, open to all who pos-
sessed the means of using them, at a time when men had
otherwise still to make roads for themselves ; and in a land
covered to so great an extent with forest and fen such natural
highways were of exceptional value. They offered a ready
means of reaching points in the interior of the country which
would otherwise have been more or less inaccessible. They
allowed of the transport, in craft however primitive, of
commodities too heavy or too bulky for conveyance by pack-
horse along the narrow paths trodden out on the hill-sides,
winding through woods, or picked out across bog, plain, or
morass.

Rivers further helped to develop that civilisation which
is directly encouraged by facility of communication between
groups of people who would otherwise assuredly remain back-
ward in social progress. It will even be found that down to
the turnpike, if not, indeed, to the railway, era in this country,
communities dwelling on the banks of navigable rivers, and
thus possessing a ready means of communication at all times
with others having a like advantage, attained to a higher
degree of culture, refinement and social standing than people in
localities where, remote from any river or passable highway,
they were shut off by bad roads from all intercourse with their
fellow-men for, at least, the whole of the winter months.

In C. H. Pearson's " Historical Maps of England During the
first Thirteen Centuries " there is abundant evidence of the
way in which towns and trading centres in Britain grew up

108

Rivers and River Transport 109

along the course of navigable rivers, while the country at
any distance therefrom remained unoccupied, however im-
portant the places that may be found there to-day. On the
map of Saxon England, for instance, mention is made of
Gleaweceaster (Gloucester; spelling from "Saxon Chron-
icle "), Teodekesberie (Tewkesbury ; " Domesday "), Brycg-
north (Bridgnorth ; " Saxon Chronicle "), and Scrobbesbyrig
(Shrewsbury; "Saxon Chronicle "), but no one can doubt
that these places attained to their early importance mainly
because of their situation on the river Severn. Other typical
inland cities or towns include London and Oxford on the
Thames ; Ware on the Lea ; Rochester on the Medway ; Peter-
borough on the Nen ; Lincoln on the Witham ; York on the
Ouse ; Doncaster on the Don ; Cambridge on the Cam ; Norwich
on the Yare ; Colchester on the Colne ; Ludlow on the Terne ;
Exeter on the Exe ; Winchester on the Ouse (Sussex) ; Here-
ford on the Wye ; Chester on the Dee ; Caerleon (Isca) on
the Usk ; and so on with many other places, the location of
which alongside a river must doubtless have been due, in part,
it may be, to the convenience of water supply, and in part,
also, to the greater fertility of the river valley, but more
especially to the facility offered by the water highway for
transport when other highways were either lacking or far less
convenient.

Adam Smith, in his " Wealth of Nations " (Book I.,
chapter xi., pages 20-1), compares the cost of sending goods
by road from London to Edinburgh with that of forwarding
them by sea, and adds : —

" Since such are the advantages of water carriage it is
natural that the first improvements of art and industry should
be made where that conveniency opens the whole world for a
market to the produce of every sort of labour, and that they
should always be much later in extending themselves into the
inland parts of the country. The inland parts of the country
can for a long time have no other market for the greater part
of their goods but the country which lies round about them,
and separates them from the sea coast and the great navigable
rivers. The extent of their market, therefore, must for a long
time be in proportion to the riches and populousness of that
country, and consequently their improvement must always
be posterior to the improvement of that country. In our

no History of Inland Transport

North American colonies the plantations have constantly
followed either the sea coast or the banks of the navigable
rivers, and have scarce anywhere extended themselves to any
considerable distance from both."

On the Continent of Europe the location of the chief inland
centres of trade, commerce, and industry was no less decided
by the convenience of transport afforded by the great navigable
rivers, as shown (to give two examples only) by Augsburg on
the Danube and Cologne on the Rhine.

In Britain there were found to be advantages in having a
port, not at the mouth of a river, but as far inland as the
vessels employed could go. One of these advantages lay in the
fact that, the further inland the river-port, the greater was the
protection against the Danish or Norwegian pirates who, at
one time, infested the seas around our shores ; but the main
reasons for the preference are somewhat quaintly expressed
by " R. S.," in a pamphlet, published in 1675, entitled
" Avon a ; or a Transient View of the Benefit of making Rivers
of this Kingdom Available. Occasioned by observing the
Scituation of the City of Salisbury, upon the Avon, and the
Consequence of opening that River to that City." The writer
says : —

" There is more advantage to those places, which, being
seated far within the Land (as this l is), do enjoy the benefit
of Commerce by Sea, by some Navigable River, than to those
Port-Towns which are seated in some Creeke or Bay only, and
are (as I may call it) Land-lock'd, having no passage up into
the Land but by Carriages, as we see in Poole and Lynn, in
Dorset, and in a number of other Port-Towns of like Scituation
in other places quite round the Island : For such places,
though the Sea brings in commodities to them, yet they can
neither without great charge convey those commodities higher
up into the Land, nor, without the like charge, receive the Inn-
land commodities to export again : Whereas, Cities seated
upon navigable Rivers far within the Land look like some
Noble Exchange of Nature's own designing ; where the Native
and the Forreigner may immediately meet, and put off to each
other the particular commodities of the growth of their own
Countreys ; the Native (as a Merchant) receiving the Forreign
Goods at first hand, and exchanging his own for them at the
1 Salisbury.

Rivers and River Transport 1 1 1

very place where they are made, or grow ; or, at most, going
no further to it, than to his ordinary Market."

Thus the ideal river-ports were those that were situated,
not only a good distance inland, but in close connection with
a Roman or other road along which commerce could be readily
brought or distributed, the land journey being reduced to
the smallest and most convenient proportions. The advantage
was still greater where the small sea-going vessels could be
carried by a tidal stream right up to the town to which their
cargo was consigned.

As against these advantages, however, there was the dis-
advantage that, the further inland the river-port, the greater
was the risk that access to it might become impracticable
either through the formation of shallows in the river-bed or
because the larger build of vessels in later years could not
pass where the smaller and more primitive type of ship of
earlier days had gone without difficulty.

From one or other of these causes many English rivers on
which considerable traffic formerly passed have dwindled in
importance, even if they have not ceased to be navigable at all ;
and many inland places that once flourished as river, or even
as " sea "-ports, would to-day hardly be regarded in that light
at all, as shown, for example, by the fate of Lewes on the
Sussex Ouse, Deeping on the Welland, Cambridge on the Cam,
Ely on the Ouse, West Dean on the Cuckmere, and Bawtry
on the Idle. York and Doncaster, though situated so far
inland, once considered themselves seaports because of their
river connection with the coast, so that, as told by the Rev. W.
Denton, in " England in the Fifteenth Century," they claimed
and exercised the right of sharing in " wrecks at sea " as
though they stood on the seaboard instead of high up the
course of the Ouse or the Don.

The Romans not only supplemented their road transport
by river transport but they sought to improve the latter by the
construction of river embankments. In the case of the Trent
and the Witham they even cut a canal — the Fossdyke — in
order to establish direct communication between them.
Just, however, as road-making became a lost art here on their
departure from Britain, so did an interval of a thousand years
elapse before there was any material attempt to follow their
example in effecting improvements in river navigation. The

H2 History of Inland Transport

initial advantage, therefore, lay with towns located on rivers
which were naturally navigable and remained navigable both
for a considerable extent and for a considerable period, without
need of amendment ; though river navigation, as a whole, did
not attain to its highest development until, as will be shown
in the chapter that follows, much had been done, especially
in connection with streams not naturally navigable, to over-
come the various impediments or difficulties to effective trans-
port.

All the same, the part that English navigable rivers, great
or small, have played in the social and economic progress of
the country has been one of undeniable magnitude and im-
portance, and offers many points of general interest.

These considerations more especially apply to the river
Severn, which, in conjunction with such of its tributaries as
the Wye and the Warwickshire Avon, was once the great
highway for the trade and traffic, not only of the western
counties, but of, also, a considerable area in Wales and the
midland and northern counties, enabling the districts it more
directly served to attain an early development long before
others which were then still struggling with the disadvantages
of bad roads, however much they may since have outstripped
them in the race for industrial advancement.

The Severn itself was naturally navigable from Welshpool,
" Montgomeryshire, a distance of 155 miles by a very winding
stream to where the river empties itself into the Bristol
Channel. This was the greatest length of navigation, unaided
by artificial means, of any river in the kingdom. The early
Britons passed along it in their coracles, and, as these were
supplemented by vessels of an improved type, trade was
developed, towns and cities — each a storehouse or an entrepot
for a more or less considerable area — began to arise on the
banks, while Bristol attained to the dignity of a great national
port when Liverpool was still only an insignificant fishing
village.

It was in connection with the Severn that the question arose
as to the right of the community to regard a navigable river
as a public highway, the same as if it were a road dedicated
to general use.

The writer of the article on " Rivers " in the " Penny
Cyclopaedia " (1841) observes that : "In rivers which are

Rivers and River Transport 113

navigable, and in which the public have a common right to
passage, the King is said to have * an interest in jurisdiction,'
whether the rivers were the King's property or private pro-
perty. These rivers were called ' fluvii regales,' ' haut streames
le roy,' or ' royal streams,' because of their being dedicated
to public use, all things of public safety and convenience
being under his care and protection." Navigable rivers being
thus, the writer continues, the King's highway by water,
many of the incidents belonging to a highway on land attached
to such rivers, and any nuisances or obstruction upon them,
even though occurring on the private land of any person, might
be made the subject of indictment.

In regard to the Severn and the right of access thereto,
it was found necessary, in 1430-1. following on complaints which
had been made to Parliament, to pass an Act (9 Hen. VI., c. 5)
for the protection of boatmen in the Severn estuary against
" many Welshmen and ill-disposed persons " who " were used
to assemble in manner of war and stop trows, boats and floats
or drags on their way with Merchandise to Bristol, Gloucester,
Worcester, and other places, hewing these craft in pieces,
and beating the sailors with intent to force them to hire boats
from the said Welshmen, for great sums of money, an evil
example and great impoverishment of a King's liege people,
if remedy were not hastily provided."

Under this Act the Severn was declared a free river for all
the King's subjects to carry on within the stream of the
river. The Act made no mention, however, of any right on the
part of the boatmen to use the land alongside the river for
the purpose of towing their vessels ; and in regard to this
point the writer in the " Penny Cyclopaedia " says : " Though
a river is a public navigable river, there is not, therefore,
any right at common law for parties to use the banks of it as
a towing path."

By an Act passed in 1504 riparian owners along the Severn
were authorised, notwithstanding the earlier enactment of
the freedom of the river itself, to take " reasonable recompense
and satisfaction " from every person going upon their land
to draw a boat. There is no evidence that the landowners
availed themselves of this authority ; but in a later Act,
passed in 1532, it was stated that although, " time out of
mind," people had used, without any imposition or toll, a path

H4 History of Inland Transport

one foot and a half broad on each side of the river for drawing
their boats, " of late certain covetous persons " had " inter-
rupted " those so using the said paths, " taking of them fines
and bottles of wine," and the Act imposed a penalty
of forty shillings on anyone attempting to enforce such
tolls, except as regards the reasonable recompense which the
riparian owners could claim. This enactment seems to have
been due to the action of local officials in Worcester, Gloucester
and other places on the river in seeking, as told in Nash's
" History and Antiquities of Worcestershire " (1781), to
raise revenue for their cities or towns by taxing traders who
used the Severn for the transport of their commodities.

The importance of the Severn, from the point of view of trade
and commerce, in the middle of the sixteenth century, is
suggested by what William Harrison wrote of it in his
" Description of the Sauerne " (1577) : "As the said stream,
in length of course, bountie of water, and depth of chanell
commeth farre behind the Thames, so for other commodities,
as trade of merchandize, plentie of cariage ... it is nothing
at all inferiour to or second to the same."

One reason for the early commercial prosperity of the Severn
towns was the important trade in flannels which they carried
on with Wales ; though the industry was, also, considerably
developed in the Severn counties themselves. Made mostly
in the farm-houses and cottages of Montgomeryshire, Merion-
ethshire and Denbighshire, before the days of factories, the
flannels and webs were taken by the makers to the fortnightly
market at Welshpool. This was a convenient centre for the
drapers from Shrewsbury, who, journeying thither along the
Severn, would, at one time, buy up the entire stock ; though
later on they had competitors in the traders from Wrexham
and other places. Although carried on only as a domestic
industry, the making of these Welsh flannels underwent
considerable expansion, Archdeacon Joseph Plymley saying,
in his " General View of the Agriculture of Salop," published
in 1803, " The manufacture in Wales by means of jennies
introduced into farm-houses and other private houses is four
times as great, I am told, as it was twenty years ago."

At Shrewsbury the wares thus brought down the Severn
from Wales were purchased mostly by merchants from London
who either sent them to Continental markets or else consigned

Rivers and River Transport 1 1 5

them to South America or the West Indies, for conversion there
into clothing for the slaves.

As the demand increased, flannels and webs were more and
more produced in and around Shrewsbury itself and other
parts of Shropshire. Shrewsbury also developed a large manu-
facture of coarse linens, linen threads, and other textiles, and
eventually attained to such prosperity that Defoe says of it,
in his " Tour " : —

" This is indeed a beautiful, large, pleasant, populous and
rich Town ; full of Gentry, and yet full of Trade too ; for
here, too, is a great Manufacture, as well of Flannel, as also
of white Broadcloth, which enriches all the Country round it.
. . . This is really a Town of Mirth and Gallantry, something
like Bury in Suffolk, or Durham in the North, but much bigger
than either of them, or indeed than both together. . . . Here
is the greatest Market, the greatest Plenty of good Pro-
visions, and the cheapest that is to be met with in all the
Western Part of England ; the Severn supplies them here with
excellent Salmon, but 'tis also brought in great Plenty from
the River Dee, which is not far off, and which abounds with
a very good Kind. . . . There is no doubt but the Cheapness
of Provisions, joined with the Pleasantness and Healthiness
of the Place, draws a great many Families thither, who love
to live within the Compass of their Estates."

Archdeacon Plymley speaks of Shrewsbury as having been,
" chiefly from the advantage of the river, for several centuries
past, a sort of metropolis for North Wales."

Bewdley, which had obtained its charter from Edward IV.,
was another Severn town which developed an extensive
trade in the exportation not only of Welsh flannels but of
timber, wool, leather, combs and sailors' caps. All these
were sent down the river to Bristol, whence the Bewdley dealers
received, in return, imported groceries and other commodities
for distribution throughout Wales and Lancashire. Bridg-
north also attained to considerable importance as a convenient
point for the transport to Bristol, via the Severn, of goods
brought by road from a Hinterland extending to Lancashire
and Cheshire.

There was, again, much traffic to and from towns situate
on the Warwickshire Avon, which enters the Severn at
Tewkesbury after passing through Stratford, Evesham, Per-

116 History of Inland Transport

shore and other towns. Defoe says of this affluent of the
Severn : " The Navigation of this River Avon is an exceeding
advantage to all this part of the Country and also to the
Commerce of the City of Bristol. For by this River they
derive a very great trade for sugar, oil, wine, tobacco, iron, lead,
and in a word all heavy goods which are carried by water
almost as far as Warwick ; and return the corn, and especially
the cheese is brought back from Gloucestershire and Warwick-
shire to Bristol."

The Wye, which enters the estuary of the Severn below
Chepstow, after passing through or along the borders of the
counties of Montgomery, Radnor, Brecknock, Hereford,
Monmouth and Gloucester, was, with its own tributary, the
Lug, not made navigable until 1661, when an Act (14 Car. II.)
was passed, the preamble of which set forth that —

" Whereas the making Navigable, or otherwise passable for
Barges, Boats, Leighters, and other Vessels the Rivers Wye
and Lugg and other Rivulets and Brooks falling into the said
Rivers in the County of Hereford and other adjacent Counties,
and so navigable into the River of Seaverne, may (with God's
blessing) be of great advantage, and very convenient and
necessary not onely to the said Counties, But also to the
Publick, By import and export of Corn and encrease of
Commerce and Trade, and improving the yearly value of lands
in the parts near adjoyning thereunto, besides the great and
extraordinary preservation of the High-ways, and most pro-
fitable and necessary to and for the City of Hereford for
conveyance thereby of Coles, fuel and other necessaries to the
said City, whereof there is now great scarcity and want, and
far greater hereafter like to grow, if some Help therefore be
not made and provided. Be it therefore," etc.

That the merchants of Bristol derived great advantage
from river as well as from sea transport is well shown by Defoe.
Not only, he tells us, did they carry on a great trade, but they
did so with less dependence on London than the merchants
of any other town in Britain. He says : —

" The shopkeepers in Bristol who, in general, are all Whole-
sale Men, have so great an Inland trade among all the Western
Counties that they maintain Carriers just as the London
Tradesmen do, to all the principal Countries and Towns,
from Southampton in the south to the Banks of the Trent,

Rivers and River Transport 117

north, and though they have no navigable river that way yet
they drive a very great trade through all those counties."

The " two great rivers," the Severn and the Wye, enabled
them, also, to " have the whole trade of South Wales, as it were,
to themselves," together with the greater part of that of North
Wales, l while the sea gave them access to Ireland, where they
were carrying on a trade which, says Defoe, was not only
great in itself but had " prodigiously increased " in the last
thirty years, notwithstanding the greater competition of the
Liverpool merchants.

The transport facilities offered by the Severn were a further I
material factor both in the local development of great coal,
iron and other industries, at a time when like industries were
still in their infancy in the north, and in the increase of the
general wealth of the western counties. In regard to Shropshire,
Archdeacon Plymley writes that the inhabitants of the
county, having such ready communication both with the
interior of the country and with the sea, had opened mines
of iron, stone, lead, lime, etc., and had, also, established very
extensive iron manufactures. As the result of all this enter-
prise, much capital had been drawn into the district ; a great
market had been opened for the agricultural produce of the
country ; the ready conveyance of fuel and manure had
enabled the cultivation of the soil to be carried on even beyond
the demands of the increasing consumption ; and all had so
operated together as to increase the wealth and well-being of
Shropshire in general.

Some interesting facts as to the conditions under which the
navigation of the Severn was conducted in 1758 are given in
a communication published in the " Gentleman's Magazine"
for that year (pages 277-8) from G. Perry, of Coalbrookdale,
under the heading, " A Description of the Severn." The
following passages may be quoted : —

" This river, being justly esteemed the second in Britain,
is of great importance on account of its trade, being navigated
by vessels of large burden more than 160 miles from the sea,
without the assistance of any lock. Upwards of 100,000 tons
of coals are annually shipped from the collieries about Madeley

1 "Wines and groceries," says Archdeacon Plymley, "are brought up
the Severn from Bristol and Gloucester to Shrewsbury, and so on to
Montgomeryshire."

n8 History of Inland Transport

and Broseley to the towns and cities on its banks, and from
thence into the adjacent countries ; also great quantities of
grain, pig and bar iron, iron manufactures and earthen wares,
as well as wool, hops, cyder, and provisions are constantly
exported to Bristol and other places, from whence merchants'
goods, &c., are brought in return. The freight from Shrews-
bury to Bristol is about los. per ton, and from Bristol to
Shrewsbury 153., the rates to the intermediate towns being
in proportion.

" This traffic is carried on with vessels of two sorts ; the
lesser kind are called barges and frigates, being from 40 to
60 feet in length, have a single mast, square sail, and carry
from 20 to 40 tons ; the trows, or larger vessels, are from 40 to
80 tons burthen ; these have a main and top mast, about
80 feet high, with square sails, and some have mizen masts ;
they are generally from 16 to 20 feet wide and 60 in length,
being, when new, and completely rigged worth about 300!."

Their number having greatly increased, he had " an exact
list " taken of all the barges and trows on the Severn in May,
1756, and this list he gives. The total number of owners
was then 210, and the total number of vessels was 376. Among
the places mentioned are the following : —

TOWN. OWNERS. VESSELS.

Shrewsbury . . . .10 ... 19

Madeley Wood . . .21 ... 39

Broseley . . . . 55 ... 87

Bridgnorth . . . . 47 ... 75

Bewdley . . . . 18 ... 47

Worcester . . . 6 ... 21

Tewkesbury . . . . 8 ... 18

Evesham-upon-Avon. . .1 ... 2

Gloucester . . . 4 7

Of the disadvantages that attended navigation on the
Severn I shall speak in chapter xv, in connection with the
decline of river transport in general.

What the Severn group of rivers, with Bristol as the head-
quarters of their navigation, were on the west coast, the Wash
group and the port of Lynn were on the east coast.

The Wash group comprised : (i) the Bedford Ouse and its
tributaries, with a main outlet at Lynn ; (2) the Welland,

Rivers and River Transport 119

with Spalding for its inland port ; and (3) the Witham, which
passes through the Fens and into the Wash by way of Boston.
There is abundant testimony available as to the former great
importance of these rivers.

Defoe says of Lynn : " There is the greatest extent of
Inland Navigation here, of any Port in England, London
excepted. The Reason whereof is this, that there are more
Navigable Rivers empty themselves here into the Sea, in-
cluding the Washes, which are branches of the same Port,
than at any one Mouth of Waters in England, except the
Thames and the Humber."

Nathaniel Kinderley, in his work on " The Ancient and
Present State of the Navigation of the Towns of Lynn,
Wisbeach, Spalding and Boston " (2nd edition, 1751), speaks
of the Bedford Ouse as having five rivers emptying themselves
into it from eight several counties ; and he says that it " does
therefore afford a great Advantage to Trade and Commerce,
since hereby two Cities and several great Towns are therein
served, as Peterborough, Ely, Stamford, Bedford, St. Ives,
Huntington, St. Neots, Northampton, Cambridge, Bury St.
Edmunds, Thetford, &c., with all Sorts of heavy commodities
from Lyn ; as Coals and Salt (from Newcastle), Deals, Fir-
Timber, Iron, Pitch and Tar (from Sweden and Norway),
and Wine (from Lisbon and Oporto) thither imported, and
from these Parts great Quantities of Wheat, Rye, Cole-Seed,
Oats, Barley, &c., are brought down these Rivers, whereby a
great foreign and inland Trade is carried on and the Breed
of Seamen is increased. The Port of Lyn supplies Six Coun-
ties wholly, and three in Part."

Another writer of the same period, Thomas Badeslade, who
published in 1766 a " History of the Ancient and Present State
of the Navigation of the Port of King's Lyn and of Cambridge
and the rest of the trading Towns in those Parts," took up
the argument that the number of inhabitants, the value of
land, the trade, the riches and the strength of every free
State were great in proportion to their possession of navigable
rivers ; and he went on to declare that " Of all the Navigable
Rivers in England the River of the Great Ouse is one of the
chief, and Lyn sits at the door of this river, as it were the
turnkey of it."

The various large and populous towns (as already mentioned)

I2O History of Inland Transport

which stood either upon the Ouse itself or upon one of the
other rivers connecting with it were, he proceeded, all depend-
ent on its navigation, and all of them were supplied by the
merchants of Lynn with what he described as " maritime
commodities." " Their Exports and Imports," he declared,
" enrich and Furnish the Country ; and raise a great Revenue
to the Government, and in all National advantages the Port
of Lyn is equalled by few Ports of this Kingdom." But,
owing to neglect of the Ouse, there was the risk that the river
would " in a very short time " be " lost to navigation," and all,
he continued, agreed that " If something be not done this
Country will be rendered uninhabitable, and the Navigation of
the Port of Lynn will be lost, and the University of Cambridge,
and all the great Towns situate on the Rivers for the benefit
of Navigation must with it decay and become impoverished ;
and the Customs and Duties of the State be in Consequence
thereof greatly lessened."

Happily our national well-being has not depended on
navigable rivers, as Badeslade thought it did, and, though the
condition of the Bedford Ouse has got far worse than it was
when he wrote, the University of Cambridge and the various
towns in question still, happily, survive. But even in Bades-
lade's time the Ouse was beginning to get, as he says, " choaked
up," and he recalls the year 1649 when " keels could sail with
Forty Tun freight 36 miles from Lynn towards Cambridge at
ordinary Neip-Tides, and as far as Huntingdon with Fifteen
Tun Freight. And Barges with Ten Chaldron of coals could
sail up Brandon River to Thetford ; and as far in proportion
up the Rivers Mildenhall, &c., &c. By all which Rivers the
Port of Lynn was capable of the most extensive Inland
navigation of any Port of England."

How Lynn served as the port for the great quantities of
foreign produce and, also, for the hops and other com-
modities sent from London and the south-western counties
for the Sturbridge fair at Cambridge has already been told
(see page 24). It was, also, through Lynn and Boston that
a large proportion of our commerce with Normandy, Flanders
and the Rhine country was conducted ; and Lynn, especially,
grew in wealth and importance, and further developed, as
Defoe found, into a town having considerable social attractions.

Concerning the Witham, Joseph Priestley says, in his

Rivers and River Transport 121

" Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals and
Railways of Great Britain " (1831), it has been thought that
previous to the Norman Conquest the river was a tideway
navigation for ships to Lincoln. That it was navigable at a
very early period he thinks may be inferred from the fact that
the Fossdike Canal, " an ancient ' Roman Work,' " was
scoured out by Henry I. in the year 1121 for the purpose of
opening a navigable communication between the Trent and
the Witham at the city of Lincoln in order that that place,
which was then in a very nourishing condition and enjoying
an extensive foreign trade, might reap all the advantages
of a more ready communication with the interior.

Another most important group of rivers, from the point of
view of inland navigation, was the series which have their
outlet in the Humber. This group includes the Yorkshire
Ouse and the Trent, both naturally navigable.

The Ouse (York) is formed by the confluence of the Ure
and the Swale sixty miles above the Trent Falls, where,
after passing through York, Selby, and Goole, it joins the
Trent and forms the Humber estuary. Under a charter
granted by Edward IV., in the year 1462, the Lord Mayor
and Aldermen of York were to " oversee and be conservators "
of this river, as well as of the Aire, the Wharfe, the Derwent,
the Don, and the Humber, all of which are connected with it.
Of the city of York, as he found it in or about the year 1723,
Defoe says : —

" No City in England is better furnished with Provision of
every Kind, nor any so cheap, in proportion to the goodness
of Things ; the River being so navigable and so near the Sea,
the Merchants here trade directly to what port of the world
they will ; for Ships of any Burthen come up within thirty
Mile of the City, and small Craft from sixty or eighty Ton,
and under, come up to the very City."

The navigable Trent was for many centuries the chief means
of communication between south and north, and Nottingham,
as the capital of the Trent district, became a place of great
importance. It was along the Trent that the King's mes-
sengers passed on their way to York, in preference to braving
the dangers of the road through Sherwood Forest. The
burgesses of Nottingham were required to take charge of them
as soon as they came to the river and conduct them safely to

122 History of Inland Transport

Torksey, whose burgesses, in turn, had to take them to the
Humber, and so on up the tidal Ouse to York.

To the town of Burton-on-Trent by packhorse or waggon,
down the Trent by barge to Hull, and thence by sailing vessel
along the east coast and up the Thames, was once a favoured
route for the consignment of cheese from Cheshire to the
London market. In Defoe's time the quantity of Cheshire
cheese thus passing along the Trent, either for London or for
east coast towns, was 4000 tons a year. Owing to the state
of the roads the Trent route was the only practicable alterna-
tive the Cheshire cheese makers had to what they called the
" Long sea " route to London, " a terribly long, and some-
times dangerous Voyage " (says Defoe) by way of the Mersey,
Land's End, the English Channel and the Thames. In describ-
ing the conditions of navigation on the Trent he tells us that,
" The Trent is Navigable by Ships of good Burthen as high as
Gainsbrough, which is near forty Miles from the Humber by
the River. The Barges without the Help of Locks or Stops
go as high as Nottingham, and further by the Help of Art
to Burton-upon-Trent in Staffordshire. The Stream is full,
the Channel deep and safe, and the Tide flows up a great Way
between Gainsborough and Newark. This, and the Navigation
lately, reaching up to Burton and up the Derwent to Derby,
is a great Support to and Encrease of the Trade of those
counties which border upon it."

In speaking more fully of Nottingham Defoe says : " The
Trent is Navigable here for Vessels or Barges of great Burthen,
by which all their heavy and bulky Goods are brought from
the Humber and even from Hull ; such as Iron, Block-tin,
Salt, Hops, Grocery, Dyers Wares, Wine, Oyl, Tar, Hemp,
Flax, &c., and the same vessels carry down Coal, Wood, Corn ;
as also Cheese in great Quantities from Warwickshire and
Staffordshire."

From an article " On Inland Navigations and Public Roads,"
by William Jessop, published in the Georgical Essays, Vol. IV.
(1804), I gather that merchandise was carried on the Trent at
a cost of eight shillings a ton for a distance of seventy miles,
and that " in point of expedition " vessels frequently made
the journey of seventy miles and back in a week, including the
time for loading and unloading — a degree of despatch which
Jessop evidently regarded as very creditable, since he adds,

Rivers and River Transport 123

" This has been done by the same vessel for ten weeks succes-
sively, and would often be done if they were not obliged to
wait for their lading."

One of the affluents of the Trent, the little river known as
the Idle, joins it at Stockwith, 21 miles from the junction of
the Trent with the Humber ; and seven miles up the Idle is
the once-famous " port " of Bawtry.

This particular place fulfilled all the conditions of what
I have already described as the ideal port of olden days. Not
only was it far inland, bringing a considerable district into
communication with the sea, but it was situated — eight miles
south-east of Doncaster — on the Great North Road, at the
point where this road enters the county of York. Until the
navigation of the Don was improved, under an Act passed in
1727, the Hull, Trent, Idle and Bawtry route was preferred
to the Hull, Ouse, Aire, Don, and Doncaster route alike for
foreign imports into Yorkshire and for Yorkshire products
consigned to London or to places abroad ; and Bawtry,
known to-day, to those who know it at all, as only a small
market town in Yorkshire, was at one time of considerable
importance.

In the reigns of Edward III. and Edward IV., as told by the
Rev. Joseph Hunter, in " The History and Topography of
the Deanery of Doncaster " (1828), the lords of the manor
of Bawtry were " of the prime of English nobility," while
the market established there dated from the beginning of the
thirteenth century. When the sovereign or any members of
the Royal Family travelled in state to the north, they were
usually met at Bawtry by the sheriff of the county and a
train of attendants.

More to our present purpose, however, is the fact that,
down to the opening of the second quarter of the eighteenth
century this inland port of Bawtry was the route by which
most of the products of Sheffield, of Hallamshire, and of the
country round about, destined for London, for the eastern
counties, or for the Continent, passed to their destination.
From Sheffield to Bawtry was a land journey of twenty miles,
and thus far, at least, packhorses or waggons had to be
utilised over such roads as there then were. The Idle is
described by Defoe as " a full and quick, though not rapid and
unsafe Stream, with a deep Channel, which carries Hoys,

124 History of Inland Transport

Lighters, Barges or flat-bottomed Vessels out of its Channel
into the Trent." In fair weather these vessels, taking on their
cargo at Bawtry, could continue the journey from Stockwith,
where the Trent was entered, to Hull ; but otherwise the
cargo was transhipped at Stockwith into vessels of up to
2oo-ton burthen, which were able to pass from the Humber
along the Trent as far as Stockwith whether laden or empty.
By means of this navigation, to quote again from Defoe : —

" The Town of Bautry becomes the Center of all the Exporta-
tion of this Part of the Country, especially for heavy Goods,
which they bring down hither from all the adjacent Countries,
such as Lead, from the Lead Mines and Smelting-Houses in
Derbyshire, wrought Iron and Edge-Tools, of all Sorts, from
the Forges at Sheffield, and from the Country call'd Hallam-
shire, being adjacent to the Towns of Sheffield and Rotheram,
where an innumerable Number of People are employed. Also
Millstones and Grindstones, in very great Quantities, are
brought down and shipped off here, and so carry 'd by Sea
to Hull, and to London, and even to Holland also. This
makes Bautry Wharf be famous all over the South Part of the
West Riding of Yorkshire, for it is the Place whither all their
heavy Goods are carried, to be embarked and shipped off."

One can thus well credit Hunter's statement that there
appear to have been several persons residing at Bawtry in the
Middle Ages who had been enriched by the commerce of " the
port," as the place was, in fact, described in the Hundred
Rolls ; but when one thinks of the great extent of the indus-
tries of the Sheffield district as carried on at the present day,
it is certainly interesting to learn of the conditions under which
they were developed, and the circuitous route by which
their products once reached London and the markets of the
world.

The industries grew, however, in spite of all the difficulties
in transport. The iron trade had existed in Hallamshire
since the reign of Henry II. (1154-1189). Sheffield cutlery
was well known in the Middle Ages. It was in high repute in
Queen Elizabeth's time. In the early part of the eighteenth
century the industries of the district were increasing at a
greater rate than ever. In 1721 the weight of Hallamshire
manufactures sent in the direction of the Humber was 13,000
tons ; and the greater proportion of this quantity must have

Rivers and River Transport 125

passed through the port of Bawtry and thence along the
river Trent.

The Thames, England's greatest river, does not, so far as
it serves the port of London and facilitates the immense trade
there carried on, enter so much into consideration from the
point of view of strictly " internal communication " as some
of the lesser rivers already mentioned, the position alike of
London, Liverpool, Newcastle, Southampton, etc., relating
to ports, docks, harbours and commerce in general rather than
to the particular forms of inland transport here under review.
One must not forget, however, that, above the port of London
itself the navigation of the Thames was, from very early
times, of the greatest advantage to a considerable extent of
country, and that the value of these services was further
increased by various tributaries of the Thames.

The fact that settlement originally followed the course of
rivers is abundantly shown by the number of cities, towns,
monasteries, abbeys and conventual establishments set up
of old in the Thames valley. The convenience, also, of water
transport must have had much to do with the locating of a
University at Oxford, on the Thames, just as it did with the
establishment of a University at Cambridge, on the Cam,
each being thus rendered accessible to scholars from Scotland
and elsewhere who would have found it impracticable to make
so long a journey under the early conditions of road travel.
The Thames became, further, the main highway for the various
counties through which it flowed, included therein being some
of the most fertile districts in the land ; and, though London
may owe its pre-eminence mainly to foreign trade, passing
between the port of London and the sea, the facilities for
communication offered above the port of London by the
Thames for the full extent of its navigable length were, in the
pre-railway days more especially, of incalculable advantage
both to the districts served thereby and to the Metropolis
itself.

This advantage becomes still more striking when we take
into account the rivers that form important tributaries of the
Thames.

The Lea was described in a statute of 1424 as " one of the
great rivers, which extendeth from the town of Ware till the
water of the Thames, in the counties of Hertford, Essex and

126 History of Inland Transport

Middlesex " ; and along this river there was carried at one
time a very considerable quantity of produce and merchandise.
The history of Ware goes back to, at least, the ninth century,
when the Danes took their ships up to the town but were
outmanoeuvred by King Alfred, who diverted the stream,
and left the vessels stranded. Not only was the founding of
Ware on the spot where it stands due to the convenience of
water communication, but Ware itself was one of the ideal
ports of the time, inasmuch as it was so far inland, and was in
convenient reach of several counties.

The navigation, as far as Godalming, of the Wey, which falls
into the Thames at Weybridge, opened up a great part of
Surrey and the adjoining counties to water communication
with London. In recording his visit to Guildford, Defoe
says of the Wey that a very great quantity of timber was
carried along it, such timber being not only brought from the
neighbourhood of that town, but conveyed by road from
" the woody parts of Sussex and Hampshire above 30 miles
from it " ; though he significantly adds that this was done
" in the Summer," the Sussex roads being, as I have already
shown, probably unequalled for badness, and especially in the
winter, by those of any other county in England. Defoe
further says in regard to the Wey that it was "a mighty
support" to the "great corn-market" at Farnham. Meal-
men (as he calls them) and other dealers obtained corn at
Farnham, and brought much of it by road to the mills on the
Wey, a distance of about seven miles. In these mills it was
ground and dressed, and it was then sent in barges to London,
"as is practiced," Defoe adds, " on the other side of the
Thames for above fifty miles distance from London."

The Medway was another means of communication between
a considerable extent of country and the Thames. It was
utilised, not alone for sending timber from the woods of
Sussex and Kent to the port of London or elsewhere, but, also,
for the distribution of general produce. Defoe says of Maid- v
stone, the chief town on the Medway, that " from this Town
and the Neighbouring Parts London is supplied with more
particulars than from any single market Town in England."

In addition to these great groups of rivers, many single and
minor rivers led to the opening up of inland ports which
served in their day a most useful purpose.

Rivers and River Transport 127

The Exe allowed of Exeter carrying on a considerable
foreign trade. Defoe tells of the " vast quantities " of woollen
manufactures sent from Exeter direct to Holland, as well as
to Portugal, Spain and Italy. The Dutch, especially, gave
large commissions for the buying of Devonshire serges, which
were made not only in Exeter but at Crediton, Honiton,
Tiverton and in all the north part of the county, giving
abundant employment to the people. Defoe speaks of the
serge-market at Exeter as, next to that at Leeds, " the greatest
in England." He had been assured, he says, that in this
market from £60,000 to £100,000 worth of serges had been
sold in a week.

In the neighbouring county of Somerset, Taunton was the
inland port to which coal conveyed in sea-going vessels from
Swansea to Bridgwater was taken in barges along the
navigable Parrett. Heavy goods and merchandise from
Bristol — such as iron, lead, flax, pitch, tar, dye-stuffs, oil,
wine, and groceries of all kinds — were received there in the
same way. From Taunton these commodities were dis-
tributed, by packhorse or waggon, throughout the county.

Whatever the original capacity of rivers naturally navigable,
there came a time when, by reason either of their inherent
defects or of the use of larger vessels, they required a certain
amount of regulation ; and there came a time, also, when it
was deemed expedient to render navigable by art many rivers
that were not already adapted thereto by nature. In this way
the necessity arose for much river legislation, together with
much enterprise in respect to river improvement, in the days
when the only alternatives to river transport were the de-
plorably defective roads.

CHAPTER XIV

RIVER IMPROVEMENT AND INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION

THE earliest legislation applying to navigable rivers referred
only to the taking of salmon or to restrictions on weirs and
other hindrances to navigation. Regulations in regard to
these matters began to be enforced in 1285, and numerous
statutes relating more especially to the removal alike of weirs,
jetties, mills, mill-dams, etc., causing obstruction to boats,
were passed ; though in 1370 and subsequently there were
complaints that the said statutes were not observed.

The first Act for the improvement of an English river was,
/according to Clifford, as told in his " History of Private Bill
| /Legislation," a statute of 1424 (2 Hen. VI.), which appointed
" a commission " to survey, redress and amend all the defaults "
of the river Lea. Six years later there was a further Act
which set forth that, owing to the number of shoals in the
river, ships and boats could not pass as they ought ; and
the Chancellor was authorised to appoint Commissioners to
remove the shoals. The Commissioners were further em-
powered to take tolls from passing vessels, though the Act was
to be in force for only three years, and was, in effect, not
renewed.

We have here the introduction, not alone of the improve-
ment of river navigation by Act of Parliament, but of the
principle of toll-collection on rivers as a means of raising funds
for defraying the cost, on the principle that those who bene-
fitted should pay. It will, also, be seen that this first legis-
lative attempt at river improvement related only to dredging
and deepening the channel of the stream to which it applied.

Next, as we are further told by Clifford, came the straighten-
ing of rivers, or their partial deviation by new cuts ; and here,
again, the Lea stands first in the Statutes. The preamble of
an Act (13 Eliz., c. 18), passed in 1571, " for bringing the river
Lea to the north side of the city of London," stated : —

128

River Improvement 129

" It is perceived by many grave and wise men, as well of
the city of London as of the country, that it were very com-
modious and profitable both for the city and the country that
the river of Lea, otherwise called the Ware river, might be
brought within the land to the north part of the city . . .
through such a convenient and meet cut as may serve for the
navigation of barges and other vessels, for the carrying and
conveying as well of all merchandizes, corn and victuals, as
other necessaries from the town of Ware and other places to
the city . . . and also for tilt-boats and wherries for con-
veying of the Queen's subjects to and fro, to their great ease
and commodity."

The Corporation of the City of London were authorised to
construct and act as conservators of the new channel, and
Commissioners in Middlesex, Essex and Hertfordshire were
again entrusted with the duty of freeing the river from shoals
and shallows.

A number of other Acts relating to the Lea followed, but
mention need only be made here of one passed in 1779 which
stated that, inasmuch as the trustees appointed under earlier
enactments could not, without further advance in the rates
they were already empowered to enforce, liquidate the charges
falling upon them in respect to the outlay for works done on
the river, they were authorised to increase those rates.

In the seventeenth century, especially in the period following
the accession of Charles II. to the throne (1660), much atten-
tion was paid to river improvement. A rapid expansion of
commerce, of industries and of wealth had followed alike the
planting of colonies in the West Indies and on the continent of
North America, the development of home manufactures, the
reclamation of many waste spaces through the operation of
enclosure Acts, and the improvements brought about in
cultivation. The need for better means of communication
in order to open up districts then more or less isolated, to
provide better transport for raw materials and manufactured
goods, and to facilitate the carriage of domestic and other
supplies needed by the increasing population, thus became
more and more apparent.

In many instances the condition of the roads and the
prejudicial results upon them of heavy traffic were adduced
as the main reason for a resort to improvements of river

130 History of Inland Transport

navigation. An Act (21 Jas. I., c. 32), passed in 1624, for
deepening the navigation of the Thames from Bercott to
Oxford, stated that it was designed " for the conveyance of
Oxford freestone by water to London, and for coal and other
necessaries from London to Oxford, now coming at a dear
rate only by land carriage, whereby the roads are becoming
exceedingly bad." It was further stated, in the preamble,
that " the said passage will be very behoveful for preserving
the highways leading to and from the said university and city
and other parts thereabouts " which, owing to " the continual
carriages by carts," had become dangerous for travellers in
winter, " and hardly to be amended or continued passable
without exceeding charge." In 1739 there was passed an
Act (14 Geo. II., c. 26), " for the betterment and more easy
and speedy portage " on the Medway of timber from the
woods of Sussex and Kent, which timber could not be " con-
veyed to a market but at a very large expense by reason
of the badness of the roads in these parts."

Various far-seeing, patriotic and enterprising individuals
took a leading part in pioneering the movement in favour of
improved river navigation which, for a period of about 100
years — until, that is, the advent of the canal era — was to be
developed with much zeal and energy, though not always with
conspicuous success. Especially prominent among these
pioneers were William Sandys, Francis Mathew and Andrew
Yarranton ; and it is only fitting that some mention should
here be made of these three worthies, each of whom shared
the fate of so many other pioneers, in so far as he was a man
in advance of his time.

Sir William Sandys, of Ombersley Court, in the county of
Worcester, obtained, in 1636, an Act of Parliament which
granted powers for making navigable the Warwickshire Avon
from the Severn, at Tewkesbury, to the city of Coventry, and,
also, the Teme, on the west side of the Severn, towards Ludlow.
Some of the works thus carried out are still rendering good
service. In 1661 he secured further Acts for making navigable
the rivers Wye and Lugg and the brooks running into them
in the counties of Hereford, Gloucester and Monmouth. Here
he anticipated much of what was to be done a century later
by Brindley, in connection with canal construction, inasmuch
as he obtained powers not simply to deepen the beds of|the

River Improvement 131

rivers and to straighten their courses, but to construct new
channels, to set up locks, weirs, etc., to provide towing-paths,
and to dig new channels where required. This last-mentioned
proposal constituted, as will be seen later on, the idea that led
up to the eventual transition from navigable rivers to artificial
canals, the new " cuts " on the former being the connecting
link between the two.

The Wye was found to be an exceptionally difficult stream
to tame and control, and Sandys' attempt to make it navigable
by locks and weirs on the pound-lock system was a failure.
The scheme was, however, afterwards carried through on
different lines ; and in summing up the results John Lloyd,
Junr., says in " Papers Relating to the History and Navi-
gation of the Rivers Wye and Lugg " (1873) : —

" Although, through the uncertainty of its stream, the Wye
was never brought to answer the purpose of a regular con-
veyance, its navigation has proved of great service throughout
the county of Hereford. Throughout the last 1 century most
of the coal consumed in Hereford and its neighbourhood was
brought up in barges after a flood. Various other heavy
articles, such as grocery, wines and spirits, having been first
conveyed from Bristol to Brockweir in larger vessels, were
carried up thence in barges at a much easier rate than by land
carriage. In return the boats were freighted with the valuable
oak timber, bark, cider, wheat, flour and other produce of the
county. The opening of the towing-path for horses by the
Act of 1809 gave a further impetus to navigation, and es-
pecially to the trade in coal from Lidbrook, and while every
river-side village could boast of its quay and its barge, the
quay walls at Hereford were thronged with loading and un-
loading barges. . . .

" Since the opening of the Hereford, Ross and Gloucester
Railway, in 1855, and the consequent dissolution of the
Towing-path Company, nearly all navigation on the Wye
above Monmouth has ceased."

Francis Mathew addressed, in 1655, to Oliver Cromwell,
" Lord Protector of the Commonwealth," a powerful argument
in favour of " The Opening of Rivers for Navigation," the
benefit thereof which he sought to show being, as his title-page
said, " exemplified by the Two Avons of Salisbury and Bristol,
1 Eighteenth.

132 History of Inland Transport

with a Mediterranean Passage by Water for Billanders of
Thirty Tun between Bristol and London." The writer de-
scribed his little book as a plea that " England's fair valleys
and rich Inlets through which so many noble Rivers insinuate
themselves might with the imitation of the industrious
Netherlanders be made in many places docible of Navigation,
to the inestimable comfort, satisfaction, ease and profit of
the publick." " Rivers," he further observed, " may be
compared to States-men, sent abroad ; they are never out
of their way so they pass by great Cities, Marts, Courts of
Princes, Armies, Leaguers, Diets and the like Theatres of
Action, which still contribute to the increase of their Observa-
tion ; So Navigable Rivers, the more places of Note they pass
by, the more they take up, or bring, still gleaning one Com-
modity or other from the Soyl they pass through, and are
supplied by every Town they touch at with imployment."

Into the details of his scheme for establishing direct water
communication between Bristol and London there is now
no need to enter. Suffice it to say that the two cities had to
wait many years before the idea he foreshadowed was carried
into effect. But I must not omit to mention one of the
arguments advanced by Mathew in support of his general
proposals, since it has a direct bearing on the conditions
of road transport at this period, and the reasons based thereon
in favour of improvements in river navigation. Thus he urged,
among other things, " the facility of Commerce from one place
to another, and the cheapness of transportation of Commodities
without so much grinding and plowing up our high-wayes,
which maketh them now in so many places impassable. You
shall see," he continued, " Western Waggons, which they
call Plows, carry forty hundred weight ; insomuch as between
Bristol and Marlborough they have been enforced at a Hill
they call Bagdown-hill, to put twenty beasts, Horse and Oxen,
to draw it up : This great abuse by this means would be taken
away, by keeping our high-wayes pleasant ; and withal, by
this transportation of Commodities by River, thej price of
Commodities would fall."

Oliver Cromwell had other matters than roads and rivers
to engage his attention^ and Francis Mathew gotjfrom him
no favourable response to his proposals. But in 1670 he
dedicated to Charles II. and " the Honorable Houses of

River Improvement 133

Parliament " a new edition of his scheme under the title of " A
Mediterranean Passage by Water from London to Bristol,
and from Lynne to Yarmouth, and so consequently to the City
of York for the great Advancement of Trade and Traffique."
In the course of his Dedication he said : —

" Observing by traversing this island, that divers Rivers
within the same may be moulded into such Form as will
admit of Vessels of thirty Tun burden, or upwards, to sail in,
unto the great Relief of divers Countryes in this Island, by
means of the same, at less than half the Rates now paid for
Land carriage . . . and considering at how easy a Charge . . .
the same may be brought to pass ... I humbly presume . . .
to become Importunate to your most Excellent and Royal
Majesty for the enterprize of and ready effecting this Work,
being an Undertaking so Heroick, that 'tis beyond the Level
of any others to attempt."

Among the reasons he now advanced in favour of removing
the obstructions and difficulties to be met with in the making
of rivers navigable were the " Wonderful Improvement to
much Trade," and especially the trade in coal ; " the great
Ease of the Subject " ; increased public revenue —

" And what is well and worthy of Observing, the High-
wayes hereby will be much preserved, and become a very
acceptable work to the Country, which now notwithstanding
their great cost, is a grievous Toil as well to Man as beast,
being now so unnecessarily plowed up by Waggons of Pro-
digious Burthens, which in this Island are dayly travelling."

Andrew Yarranton, who brought out in 1677 a remarkable
book, entitled " England's Improvement by Land and Sea,"
might be described as a Pioneer of Protection as well as an
early champion of improved inland communication. He
considered that the best way of fighting the Dutch, who were
then a source of trouble to the country, would be, not to go to
war with them, but to capture their trade and commerce.
To this end he elaborated a scheme under which, instead of
importing every year " vast quantities " of " linen cloth of
all sorts," of iron, and of woollen goods, England would
" settle " these industries here, fostering them by means
of import duties to be imposed on foreign manufactures for a
period of seven years, and supplementing those duties by the
setting-up of a general system of banking, itself, in turn,

134 History of Inland Transport

made secure by a general land register. The linen industry,
he advised, should be established in the counties of Warwick,
Leicester, Northampton, and Oxford, where, among other
considerations, navigable rivers would be available for the
purposes of transport ; and he goes on to say, in words which,
though written more than two and a quarter centuries ago,
seem only to have anticipated much that we hear from the
tariff reformers of to-day, that by this means, " we should
prevent at least two millions of money a year from being sent
out of the Land for Linen Cloth, and keep our people at home
who now go beyond the Seas for want of imployment here."

In his references to the iron trade, Yarranton speaks of the
" infinite quantities of raw iron " then being made in Mon-
mouthshire and the Forest of Dean, and he says that the
greatest part of what he calls the " Slow Iron " made in the
Forest of Dean " is sent up the Severne to the Forges, into
Worcester-shire, Shropshire, Stafford-shire, Warwick-shire and
Cheshire, and there it's made into Bar-iron : And because of its
kind and gentle nature to work, it is now at Sturbridge,
Dudly, Wolverhampton, Sedgley, Wasall, and Burmingham
and thereabouts wrought into all small Commodities and
diffused all England over, and thereby a great Trade made of
it ; and when manufactured sent into most parts of the
World " ; though in Worcestershire, Shropshire, Staffordshire,
Warwickshire and Derbyshire there were already great and
numerous ironworks in which, he adds, " Much Iron is made
of Metal or Iron Stone of another nature quite different from
that of the Forest of Deane."

Having sketched his ideas of such reorganisation of industry
as would, in his opinion, help the country both to beat the
Dutch without fighting and, also, to provide work for all
the poor people in England, he proceeded : " That nothing
may be wanting that may conduce to the benefit and in-
couragement of things manufactured, as in cheap carriage
to and fro over England, and to the Sea at easie rates, I
will in the next place shew you how the great Rivers in England
may be made navigable, and thereby make the Commodities
and Goods carried, especially in Winter time, for half the rate
they now pay."

; The schemes he especially recommended in this connection
were for the establishing of communication between the

River Improvement 135

Thames and the Severn, and between the Dee and the Severn ;
and he argued that there would be a further advantage from
the point of view of the national food supply, as an improve-
ment in river navigation would allow both of corn being more
easily brought to London and of the setting up of great
granaries, at Oxford for the advantage of London, and at
Stratford-on-Avon for the benefit of towns on the Severn. He
further says : —

" I hear some say, You projected the making Navigable
the River Stoure in Worcestershire ; what is the reason it
was not finished ? I say it was my projection, and I will
tell you the reason it was not finished. The River Stoure and
some other Rivers were granted by an Act of Parliament to
certain Persons of Honour, and some progress was made in
the work ; but within a small while after the Act passed it
was let fall again. But it being a brat of my own I was not
willing it should be Abortive ; therefore I made offers to
perfect it, leaving a third part of the Inheritance to me and
my heirs for ever, and we came to an agreement. Upon which
I fell on, and made it compleatly navigable from Sturbridge
to Kederminster ; and carried down many hundred Tuns
of Coales, and laid out near one thousand pounds, and then
it was obstructed for Want of Money, which by Contract
was to be paid."

To describe, in detail, all the various schemes for the im-
provement of river navigation which were carried out, more
especially in the second half of the seventeenth century and
the first half of the eighteenth (irrespective of the many
others that succumbed to the complaint spoken of by Yar-
ranton — want of money), would take up far too much space ;
but a few typical examples, which have a direct bearing on
the development of British trade, commerce and industry,
may be of interest.

Until the year 1694, when the improvement of the Mersey
was taken in hand, Liverpool had no chance of emerging
from a situation of almost complete isolation, and of com-
peting with ports some of which, though now ports no longer,
or far outstripped by the Liverpool of to-day, were then of
vastly greater importance than Liverpool from the point of
view of national commerce.

Nature, unaided by man, had not been so considerate to

136 History of Inland Transport

Liverpool as she had been to Bristol, to Lynn, to Hull or to
Boston. These, and other ports besides, stood on streams
which were naturally navigable for more or less considerable
distances into the interior of the country, whereas the Mersey
was not naturally navigable for more than about fifteen
or twenty miles above Liverpool. The navigation even
of the estuary as far as Liverpool presented difficulties and
dangers in stormy weather, owing to sand-banks, violent
currents and rapid tides ; but beyond Runcorn the Mersey
was not then navigable at all. Nor were the tributaries of
the Mersey — the Irwell and the Weaver — navigable.

Liverpool was thus shut off from communication with the
interior by river, and for a long time the town was not in a
much better position as regards roads. No Roman road came
nearer to Liverpool than Warrington, and, down to 1750 (as
I have already shown), the road between Warrington and
Liverpool was not passable for coaches or carriages. On the
east Liverpool was practically isolated from the rest of the
country by the high range of hills dividing Lancashire from
Yorkshire, and there were the still more formidable hills
of the Lake District on the north. The early route for a journey
to the south from Liverpool was to cross the Mersey at Monk's
Ferry, Birkenhead, and then pass through the forest of Wirral
to Chester. Here there was found a Roman road, along which
a coach to London was running in the reign of James II. (1685—
1688), whereas the first coach from Warrington to London did
not start until 1757.

So long as our commercial relations were mainly with
Continental or other ports which could be more conveniently
reached from the east or the south coast, or from Bristol,
and so long as the industries of Lancashire and Yorkshire were
but little developed, or found an outlet abroad in these other
directions, the comparative isolation of Liverpool was a
matter of no great national concern ; though how, in effect,
Liverpool compared with other seaports or river-ports in the
thirteenth century is shown by the fact (as told by Thomas
Baines, in his " History of the Commerce and Town of Liver-
pool ") that whereas the aggregate value of trading property
in Liverpool, Lancaster, Preston and Wigan — the only four
towns in Lancashire which then acknowledged possessing
such property at all — was given in an official return for the

River Improvement 137

year 1343 as £233, equal to £3495 of our present money; the
equivalent value to-day of the trading property of Bristol
at the same period would be £30,000, and that of Nottingham,
then the great inland port of the Trent, ^50,000.

That was a time when, as the same authority says, " Liver-
pool stood nearly at the extremity of the known world." But
when the known world was enlarged by the addition thereto
of the New World of America, and when commerce with the
lands across the Atlantic began to develop, and the industries
of Lancashire and Yorkshire to grow apace, the need for
improved communications with the port of Liverpool became
more and more acute.

Such need was the greater, too, because of the fate that was
overtaking the much earlier and hitherto far more prosperous
port of Chester. Established as a fortress of the first order by
the Romans, at the western end of one of their famous roads,
and favoured alike by Saxons and Normans, Chester had
developed into a flourishing commercial port from which, more
especially, intercourse with Ireland was conducted, and it was
still the port through which travellers passed to or from
Ireland for a long time after Liverpool began to compete
actively for the Irish goods traffic. Richard Blome, who
visited Chester in 1673, describes it in his " Britannia " as
" the usual place for taking shipping for Ireland, with which
it has a very great intercourse, and a place of very considerable
trade."

But, as against the advantage it offered as an inland port,
situate twenty-two miles from its estuary, and dealing with
the products of an especially productive county, Chester had
the disadvantage due to the enormous masses of sand which
were driven into the Dee by Atlantic storms, to the full fury
and effects of which the open estuary was exposed. This evil
began to grow serious soon after the Conquest, and the port
of Chester steadily declined as the port of Liverpool steadily
rose, the trade lost by the one helping to build up the pros-
perity of the other.

The benefits resulting from the improvements carried out
on the Mersey when, under the Act of 1694, navigation was
extended from Runcorn to Warrington, began to be im-
mediately felt ; but they also brought out more clearly the
great necessity for still further amendment. How merchandise

138 History of Inland Transport

went across country in those days is shown in a letter written
in 1701 by Thomas Patten, a Liverpool citizen who had
taken a leading part in the movement that led to the Mersey
being made navigable as far inland as Warrington. Referring
to a certain consignment of tobacco which was to be despatched
from Liverpool to Hull, on behalf of a trader at Stockport,
Patten says that, as the tobacco could not be carried in the
hogshead all the way by road from Warrington to Hull, and
as the sea route from Liverpool to Hull would have taken
too long, the tobacco was first forwarded by cart, in twenty or
thirty hogsheads, from the quay at Warrington to Stockport.
There it was made up into canvas-covered parcels, and then
sent on by packhorse — three parcels to a horse — a distance
of thirty-six miles by road to Doncaster, and from Doncaster
it was conveyed by river for the remainder of the distance to
Hull. Baines, who gives the letter in his " History of Lan-
cashire and Cheshire," remarks : " Such was the mode of
conveying goods up to that time, and for upwards of thirty
years after. It is evident that there could be no great develop-
ment of trade and commerce so long as the modes of com-
munication were so tedious and costly."

The improvement on the Mersey itself led to a further scheme
for making the Mersey and Irwell navigable from Warrington
to Manchester, thus establishing direct water communication
between Liverpool and Manchester, as an alternative to trans-
port by road. A survey of the two rivers was carried out
in 1712, and a prospectus was issued in which it was said : —

" The inland parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire being
favoured with a great variety of valuable manufactures
in woollen, linen, cotton, &c., and that in very great quan-
tities, has made that neighbourhood as populous, if not more
so, than (London and Middlesex excepted) the same extent
of any part of Great Britain. The trades of these counties
extend considerably through the whole island, as well as
abroad, and the consumption of groceries, Irish wool, dyeing
stuffs, and other important goods consequently is very great ;
but as yet not favoured with the conveniency of water car-
riage, though Providence, from the port of Liverpool up to the
most considerable inland town of Lancashire, Manchester,
has afforded the best, not yet employed, rivers of Mersey and
Irwell for that purpose."

River Improvement 139

It was not until the passing of the Mersey and Irwell
Navigation Act, in 1720, that the work of rendering these
rivers navigable between Warrington and Manchester was
begun, and another twenty years elapsed before it was com-
pleted. The result of this " conveniency of water carriage "
when it was, at last, obtained, was to reduce the cost of
transport of goods and merchandise from forty shillings a ton
by road to ten shillings a ton by river. The goods traffic
between Liverpool and Manchester at this time amounted
to about 4000 tons a year ; but it had, prior to the provision
of water transport, naturally been restricted to the quantity
that could be carried by the packhorses, carts and waggons
of those days. Hence the river navigation gave the advantage
of a transport not only cheaper in price but greater in capacity.
It will be seen later on, however, that the Mersey and Irwell
navigation subsequently developed disadvantages for which
a remedy was sought in the construction of the Duke of
Bridgewater's canal.

An Act, passed in 1720, for making the river Weaver navig-
able from Winsford Bridge, beyond Northwich, to Frodsham
Bridge, near the junction of the Weaver with the Mersey
(a distance of about twenty miles), was not only of further
material advantage to the port of Liverpool but a first step
in an important development of the salt mines of Cheshire.
These mines have been described as " incomparably the
richest of the salt mines and brine pits of England " ; but at
the date in question their working was greatly hampered by
transport costs and difficulties in the matter both of fuel and
of the distribution of the salt, when made.

Fuel was required for heating the furnaces and the pans
in which the brine was evaporated into salt ; and in the earliest
days of the industry the salt-makers used for this purpose
faggots of wood brought from the forests on the borders of
Cheshire and Staffordshire. As long as these supplies were
available, the principal seat of the salt trade was at Nantwich,
in the higher part of the Weaver, and near to the forests where
the wood was obtained. But the forests got depleted in
course of time, and the industry then moved to other works
lower down the river which could be operated with coal
brought from the Lancashire coal-field. This coal, however
had to be carried, by cart or packhorse, a distance of twelv

.5

V

y

140 History of Inland Transport

or fourteen miles ; and inasmuch as two tons of coal were
required for every three tons of fine salt made, the cost of
transport of raw materials was a serious item.

As for the manufactured salt, that was distributed in the
same way, even such small consignments as could then alone
be sent to Liverpool having to be taken thither by road. In
the circumstances the salt trade remained comparatively
undeveloped in Cheshire while it was making great advance
at Newcastle-on-Tyne, where the coal readily obtained, by
water, from the neighbouring coal-fields was used in the
production of salt from sea-water. In the time of the Stuarts
the manufacture of salt was one of the most important of
Newcastle's industries and articles of export.

When, under the Act of 1720, the Weaver was made
navigable as far as the Northwich and Winsford Bridge salt
works, the land journey for Lancashire coal was reduced from
twelve or fourteen miles to five or six miles, and the salt could
be sent direct to Liverpool by water. The greatest impetus to
the Cheshire salt industry (to the consequent detriment, and
eventual extinction, of that at Newcastle-on-Tyne, though
with a further advantage to the trade of Liverpool) was,
however, not given until the makers were enabled to get their
coal all the way by water through the supplementing of the now
navigable Weaver by the Sankey Canal — of which more
hereafter.

In the same year that the Act for improving the navigation
of the Weaver was passed, Parliament sanctioned a no less
important work on the river Douglas, which passes through
Wigan, and has its outlet in the Ribble estuary, at a point
about nine miles west of Preston. Wigan is situated on a part
of the Lancashire coal-fields which contains some of the
richest and most valuable seams of coal to be found in Lanca-
shire ; but down to 1720 the only means of distributing this
coal was by cart or packhorse. The opening of the Douglas
to navigation allowed of the coal being sent by water to the
estuary of the Ribble, and thence forwarded up the Ribble to
Preston, or, alternatively, along the coast either to Lancaster
in the one direction or to Liverpool and Chester in the other.
These were tedious routes, and the voyage from the Ribble
estuary along the coast was often very dangerous on account
both of storms and of sand-banks. The lines of water com-

River Improvement 141

munication were, nevertheless, so much cheaper than land
carriage that they were followed for about fifty years — until
a safer and more expeditious waterway was provided through
the opening of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.1 Thomas
Baines, from whose " History of the Town and Commerce of
Liverpool " I glean these details, adds : —

" With all its defects, the Douglas navigation may be
regarded as the primary cause of the manufacturing prosperity
of the town of Preston, which it was the first means of supply-
ing with cheap fuel for its workshops and factories. It may,
also, be considered as one of the early causes of the commercial
prosperity of Liverpool, which has always been much promoted
by the possession of cheap and abundant supplies of coal and
salt."

The rendering of the Aire and Calder navigable, under an
Act of Parliament passed in 1699, was an important event for
the then rising manufacturing towns of Leeds, Wakefield,
Halifax, Bradford and Huddersfield, situate on or within a
convenient distance of one or other of these two rivers which,
joining at Castleford, ten miles below Leeds, thence flow
in a combined stream to their junction with the Yorkshire Ouse,
and so on to the Humber and the ports of Hull and Grimsby.
The event in question was no less interesting because it marked
a further development in an industrial transition which con-
stitutes a leading factor in the economic history of England.

The textile industries originally established in the eastern
counties by refugees from the Netherlands and France after-
wards spread through the southern and western counties,
attaining in each district to a very considerable growth long
before they were of any importance in those northern counties
with which they were afterwards mainly to be associated. The
migration to the north occurred at a time when the woollen
industries were paramount and the cotton industries had still
to attain their subsequent stupendous growth. It occurred,
also, long before the Aire and the Calder were made navigable,
so that, in this case, we cannot say the industrial centres
already mentioned as being situated on or near to those two
Yorkshire rivers were set up there, as the towns on the river

1 The Douglas navigation was afterwards purchased by the proprietors
of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, who substituted an artificial cut for part
of the natural channel of the river.

142 History of Inland Transport

Severn had mainly been, in order to secure the convenience
of river transport.

The chief reason why the bleak and barren moorlands of the
north were preferred to the fair and fertile plains of the south
for the further expansion of these great national industries
was that, in the days when the steam-engine of James Watt
was as yet far off, the heavier rainfall in the English Highlands
of the north and north-west, together with the more numerous
streams pouring down mountain sides both of greater height
and of greater extent than in the south, gave to the cloth-
makers, not only the abundant water supply they wanted, but,
also, the particular kind of motive power, through the use
of water-wheels, on which they then mainly relied for the
working of their machinery.

It was in the interests of this power derived from falling
water that the textile industries first migrated from the eastern
counties — where the streams flow but slowly, and from
comparatively slight elevations — to the western counties,
where there are streams coming from hills of from 800 to
1000 feet in height. These, for a time, answered better the
desired purpose, though only to be more or less discarded, in
turn, for northern or north-western streams which, with a
greater rainfall, had their rise on heights of from 1500 to 2000
feet, and were so numerous that almost every one of the
" small " manufacturers who set up business for himself on the
otherwise cheerless slope of a Yorkshire hill-side could have a
brook, a rivulet, or a mountain torrent of his own, or, at least,
make abundant use of one before it passed on to serve the
purposes of his neighbour.

In alluding to the woollen trade as affected by these con-
ditions, Dr Aikin remarks in his " Description of the Country
from Thirty to Forty Miles round Manchester " (1795), " It
would seem as if a hilly country was particularly adapted
to it, since it almost ceases where Yorkshire descends into
the plain " ; though the position has, of course, been entirely
changed by the general resort to steam in preference to water
power.

Other industries, besides those relating to textiles, whether
woollen or, at a later period, cotton, took advantage of the
same favourable conditions, as shown in the case of Sheffield,
where the earliest of the cutlers who were to make Hallamshire

River Improvement 143

goods famous throughout the world settled down at the con-
fluence of the Sheaf and the Don because those streams afforded
them the best available means of operating their tilt-hammers.1

In the early stage of this transition period the streams
were desired and utilised solely as an aid to manufacturing
purposes. As the towns or the industrial centres developed,
however, there grew up increasing need for improved means
of transport — supplementary to the roads of that day — in
order, more especially, to facilitate the better distribution of
the commodities then being produced in ever-increasing
quantities. It was this need that led to the Act of 1699,
giving powers for rendering the Aire and the Calder navigable.
Petitions in favour thereof were presented by the " clothiers "
(as cloth-makers were then called) of various towns likely
to derive advantage from the scheme, and some of these
petitions afford an interesting insight into the conditions
under which the cloth industry was carried on in Yorkshire
and Lancashire in the closing years of the seventeenth century.

A petition from the " clothiers " of Leeds said, " That
Leeds and Wakefield are the principal towns in the north
for cloth ; that they are situated on the rivers Ayre and
Calder, which have been viewed, and are found capable to be
made highways which, if effected, will very much redound to
the preservation of the highways and a great improvement of
trade ; the petitioners having no conveniency of water
carriage within sixteen miles of them, which not only occasions
a great expense, but many times great damage to their goods,
and sometimes the roads are not passable."

The clothiers of " Ratchdale " (Rochdale) stated that they
were " forty miles from any water carriage " ; those of Halifax
said they " have no water carriage within thirty miles, and
much damage happens through the badness of the roads by
the overturning of carriages " ; and those of Wakefield said of
the scheme : —

" It will be a great improvement of trade to all the trading
towns of the north by reason of the conveniency of water

1 In giving an account of a visit he paid to Derbyshire in 1713,
Dr. William Stukeley says in his " Itinerarium Curiosum " (2nd ed.,
1776) : "At the smelting works they melt down the lead ore, and run it
into a mould, whence it becomes pigs, as they call it ; the bellows con-
tinually are kept in motion by running water."

144 History of Inland Transport

carriage, for want of which the petitioners send their goods
twenty-two miles by land carriage (to Rawcliffe) the expense
whereof is not only very chargeable but they are forced to
stay two months sometimes while the roads are impassable
to market, and many times the goods receive considerable
damage, through the badness of the roads by overturning."

The general conditions of life in Yorkshire towns in Defoe's
day, when the Aire and Calder had been made navigable,
but when bad roads still dominated the situation from a social
and domestic standpoint, are shown in the account he gives
of his visit to Halifax. After explaining how the people
devoted themselves mainly to cloth production and imported
most of their household requirements, he says : —

" Their Corn comes up in great quantities out of Lincoln,
Nottingham and the East Riding ; their Black Cattle and
the Horses from the North Riding, their Sheep and Mutton
from the adjacent Counties every way, their Butter from the
East and North Riding, their Cheese out of Cheshire and
Warwickshire, more Black Cattle also from Lancashire. And
here the Breeders and Feeders, the Farmers and Country
People find Money flowing in plenty from the Manufactures
and Commerce ; so that at Halifax, Leeds and the other
great manufacturing Towns, and adjacent to these, for the
two months of September and October a prodigious Quantity
of Black Cattle is sold.

" This Demand for Beef is occasioned thus : the usage of
the People is to buy in at that Season Beef sufficient for the
whole Year which they kill and salt, and hang up in the
Smoke to dry. This way of curing their Beef keeps it all the
Winter, and they eat this smoak'd Beef as a very great
Rarity.

" Upon this foot 'tis ordinary for a Clothier that has a
large Family, to come to Halifax on a Market Day, and buy
two or three large Bullocks from eight to ten Pounds a-piece.
These he carries home and kills for his Store. And this is
the reason that the markets at all those times of the Year
are thronged with Black Cattle, as Smithfield is on a Friday,
whereas all the rest of the year there is little extraordinary
sold there."

We have here full confirmation of what I have already said
as to the way in which people in former days provisioned

River Improvement 145

their houses in the autumn for the winter months, during
which the roads would be impassable and food supplies from
outside unobtainable.

The trading conditions of the period are shown by the
accounts of the once-famous cloth market of Leeds given,
in his " Ducatus Leodiensis ; or the Topography of Leedes,"
by Ralph Thoresby (1715), and, also, in his " Tour," by the
ever-picturesque Defoe.

Thoresby, who speaks of " the cloathing trade " as being
" now the very life of these parts," tells us that the Leeds
cloth-market was held on the bridge over the Aire every
Tuesday and Saturday down to June 14, 1684, when, for
greater convenience, it was removed to Briggate, the " spacious
street " leading from the bridge into the town. Already, in
Thoresby's day, Leeds was the manufacturing capital of the
district, and he speaks of its cloth-market as " the life not
of the town only but of these parts of England."

Defoe, in his account of the market, describes it as " in-
deed a Prodigy of its kind, and not to be equalled in the
world." He tells how, making their way to Leeds at an
early hour in the morning from the surrounding district,
the " clothiers," each bringing, as a rule, only a single piece
of cloth, assembled at the various inns, and there remained
until the ringing of a bell, at seven o'clock in the summer,
or a little later in the winter, announced that trestles,
with boards across them for the display of the cloth, had
been duly fixed in the roadway, and that the market had
opened. Thereupon the clothiers, without rush or haste,
and in the most solemn fashion, would leave their inns, and
step across the footpath to the " stalls " in the roadway.
Standing quite close to one another, they then put down
their cloth on the boards, which would soon be completely
covered with rolls of cloth arranged side by side. While the
clothiers were so engaged, the merchants would have left
their houses, entered the market, and begun their inspection
of the goods displayed for sale, so that within fifteen minutes
of the ringing of the bell the market would be in full opera-
tion. When a merchant saw a piece of cloth which suited
his requirements he would lean across the boards, and whisper
in the ear of the clothier the price he was prepared to give,
this practice of whispering being adopted in order that the

146 History of Inland Transport

other clothiers standing immediately alongside should not
hear what was said. The clothier agreed or disagreed, with-
out any attempt at " bargaining." If satisfied with the offer,
he would instantly pick up the cloth, and go off with it to
the merchant's house, where the transaction would be com-
pleted. Within less than half an hour the clothiers would be
seen thus leaving the market ; in an hour the business would
be over, and at half-past eight the bell would be rung again,
to announce that the market had closed and that there
must be no more sales. Any clothier who had not sold his
cloth would then take it back with him to his inn.

" Thus," says Defoe, " you see Ten or Twenty thousand
Pounds value in cloth, and sometimes much more, bought
and sold in little more than an hour. . . . And that which
is most admirable is 'tis all managed with the most profound
Silence, and you cannot hear a word spoken in the whole
Market, I mean by the Persons buying and selling ; 'tis
all done in whisper. ... By nine a Clock the Boards are
taken down, and the street cleared, so that you see no market
or Goods any more than if there had been nothing to do ;
and this is done twice a week. By this quick Return the
Clothiers are constantly supplied with Money, their Work-
men are duly paid, and a prodigious Sum circulates thro'
the Country every week."

It is no less interesting — and, also, no less material to
the present inquiry as to the influence of transport conditions
on trade — to learn how the cloth purchased in these particular
circumstances was disposed of in days when travel through
the country was still attended by so many difficulties.

The supplies intended for home use were distributed in
this manner : Leeds was the head-quarters of a body of
merchants who were in the habit of going all over England
with droves of packhorses loaded up with the cloth which
had been bought in the open-air market, as already de-
scribed. These travelling merchants did not sell to house-
holders, since that would have constituted them pedlars. They
kept to the wholesale business, dealing only with shopkeepers
in the towns or with traders at the fairs ; but they operated
on such a scale that, Defoe says, " 'tis ordinary for one of
these men to carry a thousand pounds value of Cloth with
them at a time, and having sold it at the Fairs or Towns

River Improvement 147

where they go, they send their Horses back for as much more,
and this very often in the Summer, for they chuse to travel
in the summer, and perhaps towards the Winter time, tho'
as little in Winter as they can, because of the badness of
the Roads."

Other of the buyers on the Leeds market sent their pur-
chases to London, either carrying out commissions from
London traders or forwarding on consignment to factors
and warehousemen who themselves supplied wholesale and
retail dealers in London, besides despatching great quantities
of coarse goods abroad, especially to New England, New
York, Virginia, etc. The Russian merchants in London also
sent " an exceeding quantity " to St Petersburg, Riga,
Sweden, Dantzic and Pomerania.

Still another group of buyers was represented by those
who had commissions direct from traders in Holland, Ger-
many and Austria, the business done by the members of this
group being " not less considerable " than that done by the
others.

It was mainly on account of this London and foreign trade
that the Act for making the rivers Aire and Calder navigable
was obtained, there being secured a waterway communication
by means of which the cloth could be sent direct from Leeds,
Wakefield and other industrial centres to Hull, there to be
shipped to London or to Continental ports, as desired.

The facilities for navigation thus afforded subsequently
had a still greater influence on the development of the York-
shire coal trade, coal being taken from Wakefield or Leeds
to the Humber, and thence conveyed up the Ouse to York,
or to the numerous towns situate on the Trent or other rivers.
By the same navigation the Yorkshire towns received most
of their supplies, either as imported into Hull from abroad,
or as received there from London or the eastern counties,
these supplies including butter, cheese, salt, sugar, tobacco,
fruit, spices, oil, wine, brandy, hops, lead, and all kinds of
heavy or bulky goods. For the merchants of Hull this meant
a business to be compared only with that of the merchants
of Lynn and Bristol.

Some of the many river improvement Acts passed in the
period here under review were not secured without a certain
amount of opposition, and the case of the Don, more especially,

148 History of Inland Transport

offers a striking example of that conflict of rival interests,
even in the case of rivers, which later on was to give rise
to many a Parliamentary battle in the days, first of canals,
and then of railways.

How the cutlers of Sheffield and the steel manufacturers
and others of Hallamshire in general had been accustomed
to forward their goods by road to the inland port of Bawtry,
thence to be sent down the Idle and on by the Trent and the
Humber to Hull, has already been told. (See pp. 123-4.) There
came a time, however, when this preliminary land journey
of twenty miles from Sheffield to Bawtry was found of great
disadvantage to the trade of the district ; and in 1697 leave
was given to bring in a Bill to allow of the Don, already
navigable to Doncaster, being rendered navigable to Sheffield,
in order that merchandise might be sent by that stream direct
from Sheffield to the Ouse, and so on to the Humber and the
port of Hull. But the opposition offered by representatives
of the Bawtry, Trent and other interests — who rightly fore-
saw in the scheme impending ruin for most of the traffic
on the Idle — was so powerful that the Bill was thrown out.
A further Bill, with a like object, was introduced, and strongly
supported, in the following Session. It was still more vigor-
ously opposed, there being what Hunter describes as "a
war of petitions," and it was not proceeded with.

For a time nothing further was done ; but in the mean-
while Sheffield was rapidly advancing to the position of one
of the leading industrial centres in the country, and the
compulsory twenty-mile journey by road to the chief port
of consignment for Sheffield goods sent to London or abroad
when there was a river flowing through Sheffield itself, was
felt to be an intolerable infliction, as well as a serious pre-
judice to the local industries.

In 1722, therefore — twenty-four years after the last of the
earlier attempts — the Master Cutler of Sheffield and the
Cutlers' Company petitioned Parliament to allow the im-
provement of the Don navigation to proceed. The corpora-
tion of Doncaster sent a like petition, and so did the corpora-
tions of Manchester, Stockport and several other places.
But the established interests still controlled the situation,
and the design once more failed.

Four years later (1726) the Sheffield cutlers made still

River Improvement 149

another effort, and this time, although the opposition was
again very powerful, it was agreed in Committee of the House
of Commons that power should be given to the Cutlers'
Company to make the Don navigable from Doncaster, not to
Sheffield itself, but to Tinsley, three miles from Sheffield ;
and, also, to maintain a turnpike road from Sheffield to
Tinsley. A Bill to this effect was passed, and in 1727 the
corporation of Doncaster obtained powers to remove certain
obstructions from the Don ; but, under an Act of 1732, the
carrying out of the whole scheme was transferred to an in-
dependent body, the Company of Proprietors of the River
Don Navigation. It proved, says Hunter, writing in 1828,
" eminently beneficial to the country " ; but the reader will
see that the Sheffield cutler or manufacturer still had to
forward his goods three miles by road before they could be
sent, first along the Don, then along the Ouse, then down
the Humber to Hull, and then (if they were consigned to
London) by sea along the east coast, and finally up the Thames
to the Metropolis. These were the conditions until the year
1821, when the three-mile journey by road was saved by the
opening of a canal between Sheffield and the Don at Tinsley,
affording, as was said, " easy accommodation with the coast
and London."

CHAPTER XV

DISADVANTAGES OF RIVER NAVIGATION

IT will have been assumed, from the two preceding chapters,
that rivers, whether naturally navigable or rendered navigable
by art, were of material service in supplementing defective
roads, in opening up to communication parts of the country
that would then otherwise have remained isolated, and in
aiding the development of some of the greatest of our national
industries.

While this assumption is well founded, yet, as time went on,
the unsatisfactory nature of much of the inland river navigation
in this country became more apparent.

Some of the greatest troubles arose from, on the one hand,
excess of water in the rivers owing to floods, and, on the
other, from inadequate supplies of water due either to droughts
or to shallows.

The liability to floods will be at once apparent if the reader
considers the extent of the areas from which rain water and
the yield of countless springs, brooks, and rivulets may flow
into the principal rivers. In the Report of the Select Com-
mittee of the House of Lords on Conservancy Boards, 1877,
there was published a list which showed that the 210 rivers
in England and Wales had catchment basins as follows : —

1000 miles and upwards n

500 ,, to 1000 miles 14

100 „ „ 500 „ 59

50 ,, ,, 100 ,, 24

10 „ „ 50 „ 102

Total 210

The rivers having catchment basins of 1000 miles or up-
wards are given thus : —

150

Disadvantages of River Navigation 151

AREA OF TRIBUTARIES.

NAME. COUNTY. LENGTH. BASIN. United length.

Miles. sq. miles. No. miles.

Humber . York . . 37 1229 2 55

Mersey . Lancaster. . 68 1707 6 188

Nen . . Northampton . 99 1055 l ll

Ouse . . York . . 59$ 4207 11 629

Ouse . . Cambridge . 156^ 2894 8 212

Severn . Gloucester . 178 4437 17 450

Thames . . 2Oi£ 5162 15 463

Trent . . Lincoln . . 167^ 3543 10 293

Tyne . . Northumberland 35 1053 6 154

Witham . Lincoln . . 89 1052 4 75

Wye . . Hereford . . 148 1655 9 223

In times of heavy storms or of continuous rainy weather,
rivers which drain up to 5000 square miles of country may
well experience floods involving a serious impediment to
navigation.

The Severn, which brings down to the Bristol Channel so
much of the water that falls on Plinlimmon and other Welsh
hills, and is joined by various streams, draining, altogether,
as shown above, an area of 4437 square miles, is especially
liable to floods. In a paper read before the Institution of
Civil Engineers in 1860, Mr. E. L. Williams stated that
floods had been known to raise the height of the Severn 1 8 ft.
in five hours, and they had not infrequently caused it to
attain a height of 25 ft. above the level of low water. The
Thames and the Trent, also, are particularly liable to floods,
and so, down to recent years, when considerable sums were
spent on its improvement, was the Weaver.

It has been asserted in various quarters that less water
runs in English rivers now than was probably the case cen-
turies ago, when the abundant forests caused a greater rain-
fall. This may be so, but, on the other hand, a number of
witnesses examined before the Select Committee of 1877
expressed the belief that the water flowing into the rivers
had increased of recent years, owing to the improved land
drainage, which drained off rapidly and sent down to the
sea much rain water that previously would have passed into
the air again by evaporation.

In the matter of high tides, " Rees' Cyclopaedia " (1819)
says that the tide " often " rises at the mouth of the Wye

152 History of Inland Transport

to a height of 40 ft.; while " Chambers' Encyclopaedia " gives
47 ft. above low-water mark as the height to which the tide
has been known to rise in the same river at Chepstow.

Of the floods in the Yorkshire Ouse Rodolph De Salis
says in " Bradshaw's Canals and Navigable Rivers of Eng-
land" (1904): "The non-tidal portion of the river above
Naburn Locks is liable to floods, which at York often reach
a height of 12 ft., and have been known to attain a height
of 16 ft. 6 in. above summer level."

The liability of English rivers to a shortage of water would
seem to be as great as their liability to excess of it. In
Archdeacon Plymley's " General View of the Agriculture
of Shropshire " (1803) there is published a table, compiled
by Telford, giving the heights reached by the Severn be-
tween 1789 and 1800. It shows that, as against some very
serious floods and inundations, the river often, during the
dates mentioned, ran for considerable periods with a stream
of no more than sixteen inches of water ; that it frequently
had less than a foot of water ; and that in times of extreme
drought the depth of water had been reduced to nine inches.
In 1796, the period during which barges could be navigated
even down-stream with a paying load did not exceed two
months, and " this interruption," it is stated, " was severely
felt by the coal-masters, the manufacturers of iron, and the
county in general."

The navigation of the Trent is declared in " Rees' Cyclo-
paedia " to be "of vast importance to the country " ; yet
the authority of John Smeaton, who had examined the river
in 1761, is given for the statement that in several places the
ordinary depth of water did not exceed eight inches. In the
upper part of the river there were, in 1765, more than twenty
shallows over which boats could not pass in dry weather
without flushes of water.

The inadequate depth of water may be due, not alone to
drought, but to the formation of shoals or shallows owing to
the rapid fall of the river, its excessive width, or the amount
of sediment brought down from the hill-sides or washed
from the bed over which it flows. Alternatively, much silting-
up may be caused by the sand brought into the river by in-
coming tides, and not always washed out again by out-going
tides.

Disadvantages of River Navigation 153

In an undated pamphlet, entitled " Reflections on the
General Utility of Inland Navigation to the Commercial
and Landed Interests of England, with Observations on the
Intended Canal from Birmingham to Worcester," by the
proprietors of the Staffordshire Canal, stress is laid on the
trouble caused by the shoals in the Severn, and some facts
are given as to the way in which traders had to meet the
uncertainties offered by river transport. The pamphlet says : —

" A principal defect of the present conveyance arises from
the shoals in the river Severn above Worcester, an evil in-
curable. The fall from Stourport to Diglis, near Worcester,
is nineteen feet ; and the river is, what this fact alone would
prove, full of shoals. These shoals impede the current of .the
stream, and retain the water longer in the bed of the river.
Let these shoals be removed, the water will pass off, and the
whole of the river become too shallow for navigation. Locks
on the river could alone correct this defect ; but these would
overflow the meadows, impede the drainage of the land, and
do an injury to the landowners, which parliament can never
sanction.

" This defect gives rise to others — to uncertainty as to the
time of the conveyance — for it is only at particular periods
that there is water sufficient for the navigation — to delays
from a want of men1 and expence from the increased number
which the strong current requires. It gives rise, also, to a
double transhipping of commodities sent from Birmingham
down the Severn, first from the canal at Stourport, and
secondly at or near Worcester, as the barges which this shoal
water will admit are too small to navigate much below.

" The delays and damage incidental to such a navigation
have induced the manufacturers of Birmingham to employ
land carriage at a great expence — many waggons are con-
stantly employed at the heavy charge of 4*. per ton from
Birmingham to Bristol alone to convey goods or manufactures
which cannot await the delay or damage to which in the
present navigation they are necessarily exposed ; — large

1 Barges were towed up-stream on the Severn by men. Writing in
1803, Archdeacon Plymley said : " A horse towing-path is now established
from Bewdley to Coalbrookdale, which is more and more used, and it is
hoped will soon be extended, the office of towing barges by men being
looked upon as very injurious to their manners."

154 History of Inland Transport

quantities of manufactures and the materials of manufactures
are likewise sent to Diglis to be conveyed by the Severn in
vessels that cannot navigate higher up the river."

In the Trent frequent shallowness of water was due, partly
to the excessive breadth of the stream, in places, and partly
to the large quantity of " warp," or silt, brought into the
river from the Humber estuary by the tides, and left there
until scoured out again when the river was in flood.

The Wash group of rivers was specially liable to the silting-
up process. Nathaniel Kinderly, writing of the position at
Lynn in 1751, said : " The Haven is at present so choaked
up with sand that at Low-water it is become almost a Wash,
so as to have been frequently fordable." Of the Nen he
says it " cannot possibly be preserved long, but is in danger
of being absolutely lost," owing to the silting-up of its bed.
As for the Witham, the welfare of the port of Boston was
threatened so far back as the year 1671, judging from an
Act (22 & 23 Chas. II. c. 25) passed in that year, the pre-
amble of which stated : —

" Whereas there hath been for some hundreds of yeares a
good navigacion betwixt the burrough of Boston and the
river of Trent by and through the citty of Lincolne, and
thereby a great trade managed to the benefit of those parts
of Lincolnshire, and some parts of Nottinghamshire, and
Yorkshire, which afforded an honest employment and lively-
hood to great numbers of people. But at present the said
navigacion is much obstructed and in great decay by reason
that the rivers or auntient channells of Witham and Fossdyke,
which runn betwixt Boston and Trent are much silted and
landed up and thereby not passable with boats and lyters
as formerly, to the great decay of the trade and intercourse
of the said citty and all market and other towns neare any
of the said rivers, which hath producet in them much poverty
and depopulation. For remedy thereof and for improve-
ment of the said navigacion, may it please your most excellent
Majestic that it may be enacted," etc.

Among various other conditions of river navigation may
be mentioned — the extremely serpentine courses of some of
the rivers, two miles often having to be made for each mile
of real advance ; the ever- varying channels in some of the
streams ; the arduous labour of towing against strong cur-

Disadvantages of River Navigation 155

rents, especially when, in the absence of towing-paths for
horses, this work had to be done by men ; and the destruc-
tion, by floods, of the river banks or of works constructed on
them.

I have here sought to catalogue, with passing illustrations,
the principal troubles attendant on inland river navigation.
That the physical disadvantages in question have continued,
in spite of all River Improvement Acts, and notwithstanding
a considerable outlay, may be seen from the report issued,
in 1909, by the Royal Commission on Canals and Waterways.

In regard to the Thames the report says that the commercial
traffic above Staines has become a very insignificant quantity,
and " if the Thames is to be converted into an artery of com-
mercial navigation, there is need for much improvement
above Windsor, but still more so above Reading."

On the Severn there is now practically no navigation above
Stourport. Much money has been spent on the river since
the Severn Navigation Act of 1842 ; the channel has been
deepened and dredged, and, "up to Worcester, at any rate,
the river is now one of the best of English waterways." But,
in spite of the considerable sums expended on improvements,
the traffic fell from 323,329 tons in 1888 to 288,198 tons in
1905, a decline in seventeen years of over 35,000 tons. High
water in the river renders it impossible for the larger estuary-
going vessels to pass under certain of the bridges, so that,
as one witness said, " A vessel may go up when the water is
low, and a freshet may come, and the vessel may not be able
to get back again for perhaps many days."

The Warwickshire Avon, once navigable from Stratford
to the Severn, is now navigable only from Evesham, and even
from that point " there is hardly any commercial traffic."

The Trent is navigable to-day to the junction with the
Trent and Mersey Canal, at Derwent mouth, " when there
is plenty of water." The report says : —

" The great difficulty on the Trent, in its present condition,
is the want of sufficient depth of water in dry seasons ; in
wet seasons traffic is impeded by floods. The river Trent is a
fine river and a most important part of the main route con-
necting the Midland waterway system and the town and
colliery district of Nottingham with each other and with the
estuary of the Humber. It appears, for want of necessary

156 History of Inland Transport

works of improvement, to be in an inefficient state for these
purposes. There is, at present, no certainty that a barge
carrying seventy or eighty tons of cargo from the port of
Hull to Newark or Nottingham will arrive at its destina-
tion without being lightened on its way. A witness said,
' Very often the traffic in dry seasons is left waiting for two
or three weeks on the road between Hull and Newark, which,
of course, is a very poor way of getting on with business.' '

On the Ouse (York), below Naburn Lock, the conservators
find it difficult to keep the channel at its proper depth by
reason of the great deposits of floating sand, or " warp,"
distributed by the tides, the scour of the river being insufficient
to carry the warp out to sea. Vessels are at times unable to
navigate for several days, obstructive shoals are formed,
and the line of the channel is frequently altered.

On the Bedford Ouse the traffic on the upper parts of the
river has come to an end, and, though there is still a small
amount between Lynn and St. Ives, " the river is in many
places very shallow and choked with weeds and mud, so
that barges are often stopped for days, and the use of steam
traction, up to St. Ives, is impossible."

The Nen from Northampton to Wisbech is " navigable with
difficulty " — where the water is sufficient at all — by barges
of the smallest size ; but sometimes navigation even by these
barges is impracticable for weeks together in certain parts
of the river. Between Northampton and Peterborough the
course of the Nen is extremely tortuous. " It would," says
the report, " take a barge nearly three days to travel the
sixty-one miles by water, while the railway can carry goods
from Northampton to Peterborough in two hours."

It is thus evident that rivers, whether navigable naturally
or rendered so by art, must be regarded as water highways
possessed of considerable disadvantages and drawbacks in
respect to inland traffic when they are on the scale and of
the type found in England. Dependent on the forces of
Nature — ever active and ever changing — rivers must needs
be the exact opposite of the fixed and constant railway
line unless those forces can be effectually controlled under
conditions physically practicable and not too costly. " Rivers,"
says L. F. Vernon-Harcourt, in his book on " Rivers and
Canals," " are not always suitable for navigation, in their

Disadvantages of River Navigation 157

natural condition, even in the lower portions of their course ;
and, owing to the continual changes taking place in their
channels and at their outlets, they are liable to deteriorate
if left to themselves." Left to themselves the English rivers,
like the Roman and the British roads, were for a thousand
years after the departure of the Romans, and the liability
to deteriorate may well have shown itself during this period,
before even the earliest of the River Improvement Acts was
passed ; though the deterioration due to the ceaseless opera-
tions of Nature may obviously continue in spite of all Acts of
Parliament, and notwithstanding a great expenditure of money.

The fate that has overtaken so many English rivers which
once counted as highways of commerce may be compared
with the fate that, also through the operation mainly of
natural causes, has overtaken many of our once flourishing
sea ports.

When, in the thirteenth century, Liverpool was raised to
the rank of a free borough, there were between thirty and
forty places which, whether situated on the coast or some
distance inland (as in the case of York), were counted as sea-
ports. Their order of importance at that time is shown by
the following table (taken from Baines's " History of Liver-
pool "), which gives the taxation then levied on each ; though
the amounts stated should be multiplied by fifteen to ascer-
tain their equivalent in the money of to-day : —

£ *• d.

£ s. d.

London

. 836 12 10

Sea ford

. 12 12 2

Boston

•' 788 15 3

Shoreham

. 20 4 9

Southampton .

. 712 3 7

Chichester

. 23 6 o

Lincoln

. 656 12 2

Exmouth

. 14 6 6

Lynn .

. 651 II II

Dartmouth

306

Hull .

• 344 14 7

Esse .

.748

York .

. 175 8 10

Fowey .

. 48 15 n

Dunwich

. 104 9 o

Pevensey

. 16 17 10

Grimsby

. 91 15 i

Coton .

ii ii

Yarmouth

54 16 6

Whitby

4 o

Ipswich

. 60 8 4

Scarborough

. 22 14 0

Colchester

16 8 o

Selby .

. 17 ii 8

Sandwich

16 o o

Barton .

. 33 H 2

Dover.

32 6 i

Hedon .

. 18 15 9

Rye .

• 10 13 5

Norwich

6 19 10

Winchelsea .

62 2 4

Orford .

. ii 7 o

158 History of Inland Transport

Of these ports the majority have ceased to be available
for the purposes of foreign commerce. Dunwich, once a con-
siderable town, the seat of a bishopric, and the metropolis
of East Anglia, had its harbour and its royal and episcopal
palaces swept away by encroachments of the sea. Hedon,
in the East Riding of Yorkshire, returned two members of
Parliament in the reign of Edward I., and was a more im-
portant centre of trade and commerce than Hull ; but its
harbour, getting choked up by sand, was converted into a
luxuriant meadow, and the ports of Hull and Grimsby now
reign in its stead. Sandwich, Romney, Hythe, all the Cinque
ports except Dover, and various other ports, got choked up
with sand, while others that have been able to retain a certain
amount of traffic are to-day only the ghosts of their former
selves.

• It is certain that in the case of English navigable rivers of
any type, much might require to be done, and spent, in order
to keep navigation open. With most of them it was a matter
of carrying on an unceasing warfare with elemental conditions.
Patriotic men like Sandys, Mathew and Yarranton might
bring forward their schemes, companies might raise and spend
much money on river navigation, and municipal corpora-
tions might do what they could, within the range of their
means and powers ; but the inherent defects and limitations
of the navigation itself were not always to be overcome by
any practical combination of patriotism, enterprise and
generous expenditure even when — and this was far from
being always the case — the requisite funds were actually
available.

Vernon-Harcourt is of opinion that " the regulation, im-
provement and control of rivers constitute one of the most
important, and, at the same time, one of the most difficult,
branches of civil engineering " ; and this difficulty must
have been found still greater in the last half of the seventeenth
and the first half of the eighteenth centuries, when river
improvement was engaging so much attention, but when
civil engineering was far less advanced than is the case to-day.

Whatever, too, the degree of success attained in the efforts
made to overcome the results of floods and droughts, of
shoals and shallows, of river mouths choked by sand washed
in from the estuaries, of streams unduly broad from lack of

Disadvantages of River Navigation 159

adequate embankments, and of ever-varying channels, what-
ever the energy and the outlay in meeting or trying to meet
conditions such as these, there still remained the considera-
tion that, even assuming all the difficulties in regulating,
improving and controlling could be surmounted, river trans-
port itself was an inadequate alternative to bad roads, (i)
because of the length of the land journey that might have
to be made before the river was reached ; and (2) because
even the best of the rivers only served certain parts of the
country, and left undeveloped other districts which were
unable to derive due benefit from their great natural resources
by reason of defective communications.

Each of these points calls for some consideration, in order
that the position of the traders at the period in question
may be clearly understood.

In regard to the distance at which manufacturers might be
situated from a navigable river, I would point to the position
of the pottery trade in North Staffordshire.

The pottery industry had been introduced into Burslem in
1690, though it made comparatively little progress until the
time of Josiah Wedgwood, who began to manufacture there
in 1759. One of the reasons for the slow growth, down to his
day, was the trouble and expense the pottery-makers ex-
perienced in getting their raw materials and in sending away
their manufactured goods.

Following on the improvement of the Weaver, under the
Act of 1720, there were three rivers of which the pottery-
makers in North Staffordshire made more or less use — the
Weaver itself, the Trent and the Severn. On the Weaver
the nearest available point to the Potteries was Winsford
Bridge, a distance of twenty miles by road. On the Trent
the principal river-port for the Potteries was Willington,
about four miles east of Burton-on-Trent, and over thirty
miles by road from the Potteries. To the Severn inland ports
the distances by road from the Potteries, via Eccleshall and
Newport, were : —

From To Miles.

Newcastle (Staff.) . Bridgnorth ... 39

Burslem ... ,, ... 42^

Newcastle (Staff.) . Bewdley ... 54
Burslem ... „ . 57$

160 History of Inland Transport

From Winsford the pottery-makers received, by pack-
horse or waggon, supplies of clay which had been sent from
Devonshire or other western counties by sea to Liverpool,
and there transhipped in barges, in which it was sent twenty
miles down the Weaver, thence to be carried twenty miles
by road. From Willington they received flints which had
been brought by sea, first to Hull, then forwarded by barge
along the Humber to the Trent, and so on to Willington, to
be carried thirty miles by road.

Manufactured pottery for London or for the Continent was
sent by road to Willington, and then along the Trent and the
Humber to Hull, where it was re-shipped to destination.
Exports were, also, despatched either to the Severn, along
which they were taken in barges to Bristol, or via the Weaver
to Liverpool. Concerning the Severn route it is stated in
" The Advantages of Inland Navigation " (1766), by Richard
Whitworth, afterwards M.P. for Stafford : " There are three
pot-waggons go from Newcastle and Burslem weekly, through
Eccleshall and Newport to Bridgnorth, and carry about eight
tons of pot-ware every week, at 3/. per ton. The same waggons
load back with ten tons of close goods, consisting of white
clay, grocery and iron, at the same price, delivered on their
road to Newcastle. Large quantities of pot-ware are con-
veyed on horses' backs from Burslem and Newcastle to
Bridgnorth and Bewdley for exportation — about one hundred
tons yearly, at 2.1. los. per ton."

The cost of land transport, along roads of the worst pos-
sible description, was considerable in itself. In a pamphlet
published in 1765, under the title of " A View of the Ad-
vantages of Inland Navigations, with a Plan of a Navigable
Canal intended for a Communication between the Ports of
Liverpool and Hull " (said to have been written by Josiah
Wedgwood and his partner, Bentley), it is stated that be-
tween Birmingham and London the cost of road transport
amounted to about eight shillings per ton for every ten miles,
but along the route of the proposed canal, and in many other
places, the cost was nine shillings per ton for every ten miles.
The pamphlet adds, on this particular point : —

" The burthen of so expensive a land carriage to Winsford
and Willington, and the uncertainty of the navigations from
those places to Frodsham, in Cheshire, and Wilden, in Derby-

Disadvantages of River Navigation 161

shire, occasioned by the floods in winter and the numerous
shallows in summer, are more than these low-priced manu-
factures can bear ; and without some such relief as this under
consideration, must concur, with their new established com-
petitors in France, and our American colonies, to bring these
potteries to a speedy decay and ruin."

It was, again, as we further learn from Whitworth's little
work, by the navigable Severn and Bristol that even Man-
chester manufacturers sent their goods to foreign countries
in the days when Liverpool had still to attain pre-eminence
over the south-western port. Every week, we are told, 150
packhorses went from Manchester through Stafford to Bewdley
and Bridgnorth, these being in addition to two broad-wheel
waggons which carried about 312 tons of cloth and Manchester
wares in the year by the same route, at a cost of £3 IDS. per
ton. The distance, via Stafford, from Manchester to Bridg-
north is 84 miles ; that from Manchester to Bewdley is
99 miles, and what the roads at this time were like we have
already seen.

The quantity of salt sent from Cheshire to Willington, to
proceed thence along the Trent to Hull for re-shipment to
London and elsewhere, is put in Josiah Wedgwood's pamphlet
at " many hundred tons " a year. The navigable Trent was
thus taken advantage of for the purposes of distribution ;
but to get to Willington from the Northwich or other salt
works in Cheshire involved a road journey of about forty miles.

Whitworth also gives much information as to what he calls
the " amazing " development the iron industry had under-
gone along the Severn valley at the time he wrote (1766) ;
and he more especially mentions that the total annual out-
put of twenty-two furnaces and forges situate within a distance
of four miles of the route of a canal he proposed should be
constructed between Bristol, Liverpool, and Hull was £624,000
— a figure which in those days appears to have been regarded
as something prodigious. But the iron- works in question,
though having the advantage of the navigable Severn in one
direction, suffered from transport disadvantages in another,
since their Cumberland ore (of which, says Whitworth, a
very small furnace used at least uoo tons a year) was brought
down the Weaver to Winsford, in Cheshire, whence it had to
be transported by road to the works on the Severn " at six
M

1 62 History of Inland Transport

shillings per ton for a very small distance." On the basis of
52,780 tons only (though, we are told, " they frequently send
iron to ... Chester and many other places at a great dis-
tance "), Whitworth calculates that the 32 forges in question
were then paying a net sum of £32,500 a year for land trans-
port, only, of the ore and pig-iron they received, and of the
manufactured iron they sent away. " I have dwelt thus
long," he says, in concluding his somewhat copious details,
" upon the iron trade to show that no branch of manufacture
can reap more immediate benefit from the making of these
canals for navigation, or more sensibly feel the want of them
when other ports of the Kingdom have them."

Of coal, he further shows, some 12,000 tons a year were
going from the Shropshire collieries to Nantwich, on the
Weaver, at a cost of ten shillings per ton for land carriage
only, apart from the supplementary cost of river transport.
In the opposite direction the farmers of Cheshire and Stafford-
shire brought about 1000 tons of cheese annually, by road,
to Bridgnorth fair — presumably for redistribution thence via
the Severn among the various centres of population in the
western counties, and also in Wales. The cheese was carried
in waggons, and, on the basis of the journey taking, altogether,
three or four days, Whitworth calculates that the cost to
the farmers in getting the cheese to Bridgnorth must have
been about thirty shillings for every two tons.

One of the subsidiary disadvantages attendant on river
transport of which mention should be made was the pilfering
of goods that went on, more especially when the barges were
stopped in the open country, perhaps for days together, by
reason of shallow water. In " A View of the Advantages of
Inland Navigations " it is said, on this point : —

" It is, also, another circumstance not unworthy of notice
in favour of canals, when compared with river navigation,
that as the conveyance upon the former is more speedy and
without interruptions and delays, to which the latter are
very liable, opportunities of pilfering earthen wares, and
other small goods, and stealing and adulterating wine and
spirituous liquors, are thereby in a great measure prevented.
The losses, disappointments and discredit of the manufac-
turers, arising from this cause are so great that they fre-
quently choose to send their goods by land at three times

Disadvantages of River Navigation 163

the expense of water carriage, and sometimes even refuse to
supply their orders at all, rather than run the risque of for-
feiting their credit and submitting to the deductions that are
made on this account.

" We may also add, with respect to the potteries in Stafford-
shire, that this evil discourages merchants abroad from dealing
with those manufacturers, and creates innumerable misunder-
standings between them and the manufacturers."

These complaints seem to have been made not without
good cause. In 1751 it had been found expedient to pass
an Act " for the more effectual prevention of robberies and
thefts upon any navigable river, ports of entry or discharge,
wharves or quays adjacent." Any person stealing goods
of the value of forty shillings from any ship, barge, boat, or
any vessel on any navigable river or quay adjacent thereto,
was, on conviction, to suffer death ! The penalty seems to
have been modified into one of transportation ; and in 1752
thirteen persons were convicted under the new Act, and sent
across the seas.

Many traders could not derive any advantage from river
transport. This was the case with the cheese-makers of
Warwickshire when they sought to compete with those of
Cheshire, or, alternatively, with those of Gloucester, who
could take their cheese by road to Lechdale or Crickdale,
on the Thames, and send it down that river to London.
"The Warwickshire Men," says Defoe, "have no Water
Carriage at all, or at least not 'till they have carry'd it a
long way by Land to Oxford, but as their Quantity is ex-
ceedingly great, and they supply not only the City of London
but also the Counties of Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridge,
Huntingdon, Hertford, Bedford, and Northampton, the
Gross of their Carriage is by mere dead Draught, and they
carry it either to London by Land, which is full an hundred
miles, and so the London cheese-mongers supply the said
counties of Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk, besides Kent and
Sussex and Surrey by Sea and River Navigation ; or the
Warwickshire Men carry it by Land once a Year to Stur-
bridge Fair, whence the Shopkeepers of all the Inland Country
above named come to buy it ; in all which Cases Land-
carriage being long, when the Ways were generally bad it
made it very dear to the Poor, who are the chief Consumers."

164 History of Inland Transport

While, also, Bedfordshire was producing " great quantities
of the best wheat in England," the wheat itself had to be
taken, from some parts of the county, a distance of twenty
miles by road to the markets of Hertford or Hitchin, whence,
after being bought and ground into flour, it was taken on,
still by road, a further distance of twenty-five or thirty miles
to London. The farmers and millers of Bedfordshire were
thus unable to enjoy the same advantages of river transport
as were open to those on the Wey or the Upper Thames.

In addition to all this, representations came from many
different quarters of the neglect of natural advantages and
other opportunities where means of transport apart from
bad roads were wholly lacking. Numerous pamphlets issued
in favour of one canal scheme or another pointed to the
opportunities that were being lost or allowed to remain
dormant. In, for example, " A Cursory View of the Ad-
vantages of an Intended Canal from Chesterfield to Gains-
borough," published in 1769, it was said : " The country
contiguous to Chesterfield abounds chiefly with bulky and
ponderous Products, such as Lead, Corn, Timber, Coals, Iron-
stones and a considerable Manufacture of earthen Ware, all
of which have been for Ages past conveyed by Land, at a
prodigious Expense." An advocate of a navigable canal
between Liverpool and Hull had much to say about the un-
developed resources of that district. Whitworth declared
that there were " many large mines of valuable contents,"
such as stone, iron ore, and marble, together with " quarries
of various sorts," that would be " opened and set to work,"
if only inland navigation were better developed, while the
cheapening of the cost of raw materials would, he declared,
lead manufacturers to embark on new enterprises. Arch-
deacon Plymley told how, even at the date he wrote (1803),
there was, in many of the midland and southern parishes of
Shropshire, " no tolerable horse-road whatever," adding,
" and in some that have coal and lime these articles are nearly
useless from the difficulty of bringing any carriage to them."

However substantial, therefore, the results to which the
navigable rivers had led, it was found by the middle of the
eighteenth century that there was real need for entirely new
efforts, and these were now to be made in the direction of
supplementing alike rivers and roads by artificial waterways.

CHAPTER XVI

THE CANAL ERA

THE initiation, in the middle of the eighteenth century, of
the British Canal Era was primarily due, not to any examples
in canal construction already offered by the ancients, by
the Chinese and other Eastern nations, or by Continental
countries, but to a natural transition from certain forms of
river improvement already carried out in England.

I have shown, on page 131, that when, in 1661, Sir William
Sandys obtained his Act for making the Wye and the Lugg
navigable, he secured powers, not only for the usual deepening
and embanking of the river itself, but for cutting new channels
where these might be of advantage, in order to avoid windings
of the stream or lengths thereof which offered exceptional
difficulties to navigation. In proportion as river improve-
ment increased, the adoption of these " side cuts," as they
were called, with pound-locks to guarantee their water
supply, was more and more resorted to, and they became
one of the most important of the measures by which it was
sought to overcome the difficulties that river navigation so
often presented.

In 1755 the Corporation of Liverpool and a number of
merchants of that port obtained Parliamentary powers to
deepen three streams flowing from the St. Helens coal fields
and combining to form the Sankey Brook, which drains into
the Mersey at a point two miles below Warrington. The
promoters sought, by making the Sankey Brook navigable,
to bring Liverpool into direct communication with the twelve
or fourteen rich beds of coal existing in the St. Helens district
of Lancashire, and thus to gain a great advantage for their
town.

For many generations the fuel consumed at Liverpool
consisted mainly of peat, or turf, of which there were great
quantities in Lancashire. At one time, says Baines, in his

165

1 66 History of Inland Transport

" History of the Commerce and Town of Liverpool," the
turbaries around the town were considered of great value.
The Act passed in 1720 for the navigation of the Douglas
had allowed of coal from the pits at Wigan being taken down
that river to the Ribble estuary, and then along the coast
to the Mersey estuary, and so on to Liverpool ; but the
advantage which would be offered by a shorter and safer
route was obvious, and the Sankey Brook scheme was taken
up with much earnestness.

The original idea, that of making the brook itself capable
of being navigated, was found to be impracticable. Not
only did the stream wind a great deal, but after heavy
rains on the surrounding hills the whole valley through which
the brook ran was liable to floods, and these would have
effectively stopped navigation so long as they continued.
Happily the powers obtained by the promoters included one
which allowed of " a side cut " ; and the first plan was
abandoned in favour of a canal separate from the brook,
though cut parallel with it somewhat higher on the hill-
sides, where the floods would be less felt. The canal was to
be provided with locks, overcoming the fall of 90 feet in
twelve miles to the Mersey, together with a pound, fed by the
brook, on the highest level, to ensure an adequate water
supply.

The immediate result of the construction of this pioneer
canal was, not only to provide a convenient coal supply for
Liverpool, but, also, in conjunction with the earlier rendering
of the Weaver navigable, to put the salt industry of Cheshire
in direct water communication with the Lancashire coal-
fields. These advantages led (i) to a great expansion of the
Cheshire salt industry ; (2) to a substantial increase in the
export of salt from Liverpool ; and (3) to the ruin of the salt
trade of Newcastle-on-Tyne, since, when the makers on the
Weaver could readily get an abundance of coal, they, with
their great natural stores of brine noted for its superlative
quality and strength had a great advantage over the makers
on the Tyne, who obtained their salt from the waters of the
k, sea.

It is thus incontestable that the Sankey Brook Canal both
started the Canal Era and formed the connecting link be-
tween the river improvement schemes of the preceding 100

The Canal Era 167

years and the canal schemes which, themselves a great
advance thereon, were to be substituted for them, only to be
supplanted in] turn [by the still further development in
inland communication brought about by the locomotive.

All the same, it was the canals of Francis, Duke of Bridge-
water, as constructed by James Brindley, a remarkable genius
and a great engineer, which gave the main incentive to the
canal movement.

The chief purpose of the Bridgewater canals was to meet
the deficiencies of the Mersey and Irwell navigation by pro-
viding new waterways, cut through the dry land, and carried
across valleys and even over rivers without any connection
with streams already navigable or capable of being rendered
navigable, — an advance on the precedent established by the
Sankey Canal.

The Duke's first artificial waterway was from his collieries
at Worsley to the suburbs of Manchester. His coal beds at
Worsley were especially rich and valuable ; but, although
they were only about seven miles from Manchester, and
although Manchester was greatly in need of a better coal
supply for industrial and domestic purposes, it was practically
impossible to get the coal carried thither from Worsley at
reasonable cost. The seven-mile journey by bad roads was
not to be thought of. The alternative was transport by the
Mersey and Irwell navigation, which was, in fact, within
convenient reach of the collieries. But the company of pro-
prietors would not abate their full charge of 35. 6d. per ton
for every ton of coal taken along the navigation even in the
Duke's own boats, and in 1759 the Duke obtained powers to
construct an independent canal. Possessing no technical
skill himself (though he is said to have been greatly impressed
by what he had seen, in his travels, of the grand canal of
Languedoc, in the south of France), he called in James
Brindley to undertake the carrying out of his plans.

Born in 1716, in the High Peak of Derbyshire, and appren-
ticed to a wheelwright whose calling he adopted, Brindley
had been brought up entirely without school learning. Though
in his apprenticeship days he taught himself to write, his
spelling was so primitive that even in his advanced years he
wrote — in a scarcely decipherable hand — " novicion " for
navigation, " draing " for drawing, "scrwos" for screws,

1 68 History of Inland Transport

" ochilor servey " for ocular survey, and so on. But he made
up for his lack of education by being a perfect genius in all
matters calling for mechanical skill, combining therewith
a quickness of observation, a fertility of resource, and a
power of adaptability which led to no problem being too
great for him to solve, and no difficulty too great for him to
overcome. Arthur Young, who had opportunities of judging
of his work and character, speaks of his " bold and decisive
strokes of genius," and tells of his " penetration, which sees
into futurity, and prevents obstructions unthought of by
the vulgar mind merely by foreseeing them."

Under Brindley's direction the canal from Worsley to
Manchester was duly constructed, and, though a professional
engineer had derided, as " a castle in the air," Brindley's
design of carrying the canal on a viaduct over the Irwell at
Barton (in order to maintain the waterway at the same
level, and so avoid the use of locks down one side of the river
valley and up the other), the result showed that the new
plan (sanctioned by a further Act obtained in 1760) was
perfectly feasible, and had been carried out with complete
success. To coal consumers in Manchester the new water-
way meant that they could obtain their fuel at half the price
they had previously paid, while to the Duke it meant that he
now had a market for all the coal his collieries could produce.

The canal from Worsley to Manchester was opened for
traffic in July, 1761 ; but before the financial results of the
one scheme had been established the Duke had projected
another and still more ambitious scheme — that of a canal
between Manchester and Liverpool, on the surveys for which
Brindley started in September of the same year.

The need for a further improvement in the transport con-
ditions between Manchester and Liverpool was undeniable.
The opening of the Mersey and Irwell navigation, under the
Act of 1720, had been of advantage when bad roads were the
only means of communication ; but there were disadvantages
in river transport which were now felt all the more because
in forty years both Manchester and Liverpool had made
much progress, and the necessity for efficient and economical
transport between the two places was greater than ever.

The Mersey and Irwell navigation followed, in the first
place, a very winding course, the bends and turns being such

The Canal Era 169

that the rivers took from thirty to forty miles to pass a
distance of, as the crow flies, not more than twenty or twenty-
five. Then the boats could not pass from Liverpool up to the
first lock, above Warrington Bridge, without the assistance
of a high tide, and they could only pass the numerous fords
and shallows higher up the stream in great freshes or, in
dry seasons, by the drawing of great quantities of water
from the locks above. Alternatively, there might be an
excess of water due to winter floods, and then navigation
would be stopped altogether. Aikin, in referring to the
navigation in the book he published in 1795, says : " The
want of water in droughts, and its too great abundance in
floods, are circumstances under which this, as well as most
other river navigations, has laboured." He adds : "It has
been an expensive concern, and has, at times, been more
burthensome to its proprietors than useful to the public."
Even in the most favourable conditions of tide or water
supply, the boats had to be dragged up and down the stream
by men, who did the work of beasts of burden until the
construction of the rival waterway led to the navigation
proprietors employing horses or mules instead.

That there were great delays in the river transport, occa-
sioning much loss and inconvenience to Manchester traders,
will be easily imagined. As it happened, too, whether the
navigation were burthensome to the proprietors or not,
they took the fullest advantage they could out of their
monopoly, at the expense of the traders. They maintained
the highest rates in their power, and when goods were damaged
in transit, or when serious losses were sustained through
delays, they refused all redress.

It is no wonder that, in all these circumstances, the Man-
chester merchants were often obliged to return even to the
bad roads for their transport, and this although road carriage
between Manchester and Liverpool cost forty shillings a
ton, as against twelve shillings a ton by river. The traders
of each town welcomed the Duke of Bridgewater's proposal
to construct a competitive waterway which would be navigable
at all times, independently of tides, of droughts and of floods,
would be nine miles shorter than the rivers, and the tariff
on which for the goods carried was not to exceed six shillings
per ton.

170 History of Inland Transport

Manchester residents were no less in need of improved
communication than were the Manchester and Liverpool
traders. Smiles, in his " Life of James Brindley," speaks
of the difficulty experienced in supplying the increasing
population with food, and says : "In winter, when the roads
were closed, the place was in the condition of a beleaguered
town, and even in summer, the land about Manchester itself
being comparatively sterile, the place was badly supplied
with fruit, vegetables and potatoes, which, being brought
from considerable distances, slung across horses' backs, were
so dear as to be beyond the reach of the mass of the popula-
tion. The distress caused by this frequent dearth of pro-
visions was not effectually remedied until the canal navigation
became completely opened up."

Nevertheless, the opposition offered to the Duke of Bridge-
water's new scheme was vigorous in the extreme. His first
project for taking the Worsley coals to Manchester by canal
had gone through unopposed ; but the second one, which
seemed to threaten the very existence of the Mersey and
Irwell navigation, put the proprietors thereof on their most
active defence. Just as those having vested interests in the
Idle and the Trent had opposed the improvement of the
Don, so now did the river interests rise in arms against the
canal interests, foreshadowing the time when these, in turn,
would fight against the railways. " Not even,'' says Clifford,
in his " History of Private Bill Legislation," " the battles of
the gauges, or any of the great territorial struggles between
our most powerful railway companies, were more hotly con-
tested than the Duke of Bridgewater's attack in 1761-2 upon
the monopoly of the Mersey and Irwell navigation."

When the Duke applied for powers to construct his canal
from Manchester to Runcorn, where it would connect with
the Mersey, the proprietors of the Mersey and Irwell naviga-
tion petitioned against it on the ground that there was no
necessity for the canal as the Mersey and Irwell navigation,
with which it would run parallel, could convey more goods
than the existing conditions of trade required ; that the
canal could confer no real advantage on the public; that
the proprietors of the river navigation had spent over ;£ 18,000
thereon ; that " great part of their respective fortunes "
was at stake ; that they had expended their money on the

The Canal Era 171

navigation on the faith of their being protected by Parlia-
ment ; and that for Parliament now to allow a canal to be
established to compete with them would be a gross inter-
ference with their vested rights. Active opposition was also
offered by landowners whose property was to be either taken
for the canal or, as they argued, would be deteriorated by
it in value ; and still more opposition came from traders
interested in the river navigation. The controversy of the
pro-canal and anti-canal parties even got mixed up with
politics, Brindley writing in his notebook that " the Toores
mad had agane ye Duk " (" the Tories made head against
the Duke ").

But, in the result, the Duke got his Bill, and Brindley pro-
ceeded to make the canal. It proved to be a far more costly
work than had been anticipated. In a total length of about
twenty-four miles from Longford Bridge, Manchester (where
it connected with the Worsley Canal), to Runcorn, it passed
through a bog with a quicksand bottom ; it crossed two
rivers ; it required numerous aqueducts, and it necessitated
the provision of many road bridges and culverts, together
with a flight of locks at Runcorn to overcome the difference
between the canal level and the Mersey level, this being the
first occasion on which locks of this kind had been constructed
in England.

Even the Duke of Bridgewater's ample fortune did not
suffice to meet the expense of the costly work he had thus
taken upon himself. There came a time when his means
were exhausted, and he found the greatest difficulty in re-
plenishing them. No one either in Liverpool or in Manchester
would honour for him a bill for £500 on a then doubtful
enterprise. There were Saturday nights when the Duke
had not sufficient money to pay the men's wages, and when
he had to raise loans of £5 or £10 from among his tenants.
He reduced his personal expenditure to £400 a year, while
the recompense that Brindley received from him for carrying
out schemes which were to be the wonder of England and
introduce a new era in locomotion never exceeded three-and-
sixpence a day, and was more often only half a crown a
day.

The Duke eventually surmounted his financial difficulties
by borrowing, altogether, .£25,000 from Messrs. Child, the

1 72 History of Inland Transport

London bankers, and the new canal was partly opened for
traffic in 1767, although the Runcorn locks were not com-
pleted till 1773. The total amount spent by the Duke on
his two canals was £220,000.

In 1772 the Duke added to the usefulness of his Manchester-
to-Runcorn canal by establishing passenger boats which
could accommodate sixty passengers, and on which they
were carried twenty miles for a shilling. He afterwards had
larger boats, holding from 80 to 120 passengers, the fares
on these being is., is. 6d. and 2S. 6d. per twenty miles,
according to class. Each of these boats, says Macpherson,
in his " Annals of Commerce," was " provided with a coffee
house kept by the master ; wherein his wife serves the com-
pany with wine and other refreshments."

The effect of the new canal on the trade and commerce of
Manchester and Liverpool was considerable. It diverted to
Liverpool the stream of export traffic which had previously
gone from Manchester via Bridgnorth and the Severn to
Bristol ; it enabled Manchester manufacturers to obtain
raw materials more readily from Liverpool, to supplement
the cheaper supplies of coal they were already obtaining
from Worsley ; and it opened up the port of Liverpool to a
wider stretch of country than could otherwise benefit from
the facilities thereof, to the advantage both of Liverpool
itself and of industrial Lancashire, though other canal schemes,
leading to like results, were to follow.

Even before the Manchester and Runcorn Canal was
opened for traffic, Brindley had started on a much bolder
project. The new scheme was one for a canal connecting
the Mersey with the Trent, and, also, with the Severn, thus
opening up direct inland water communication between
Liverpool, Hull and Bristol, and affording an alternative
to road transport not only for the Potteries, but, by means
of branch canals, for the industrial centres of Staffordshire
and Worcestershire, then, as it were, more or less land-
locked.

In the same year (1755) in which the Bill for the construc-
tion of the Sankey Canal was obtained, the Corporation of
Liverpool already had under consideration a scheme for a
canal from the Mersey to the Trent ; but no definite action
was then taken, and it was left for private enterprise to carry

The Canal Era 173

out the idea. The chief promoters were Earl Gower (ancestor
of the Duke of Sutherland), the Duke of Bridgewater, the
Earl of Stamford, Josiah Wedgwood, and various other land-
owners and manufacturers. Parliamentary powers were
obtained in 1766, and the work of construction, as planned
by Brindley, was begun at once. The name of " Grand
Trunk " was given to the undertaking, the idea being that
the waterway would form the main line of a system of canals
radiating from it in various directions, and linking up the
greater part of the country south of the Trent with the three
ports mentioned.

We have here the first suggestion of any approach to a
real system of inland communication, as applying to the
country in general, which had been attempted since the
Romans made the last of their great roads in Britain. Apart
from the natural limitations of navigable rivers, the turn-
pike roads so far constructed had been chiefly designed to
serve local interests, and successive rulers or Governments
had either failed to realise the importance of carrying out a
well-planned scheme of inland communication, embracing
a great part even if not the whole of the country, or had
been lacking in the energy, or the means, to supply what
had become one of the greatest of national wants.

There was thus all the more credit due to the little group
of far-sighted, enterprising and patriotic individuals whose
names I have mentioned that they should themselves have
undertaken work which was to have an important influence
on the industrial and social conditions of the country. Yet
the nature of the conditions under which the Trent and
the Mersey section of the Grand Trunk system was made
afforded an early example of the physical difficulties attendant
on canal construction in England which were to be a leading
cause of the decline of canals as soon as the greater advantages
of the railway and the locomotive had been established.

Canals were superior to rivers in so far as they could be
taken where rivers did not go, and could be kept under
control in regard to water supply without the drawbacks of
floods or droughts, of high tides, or of being silted up by
sand or mud. It is, indeed, reported that when, after he
had made a strong pronouncement in favour of canals,
James Brindley was asked by a Parliamentary Committee,

174 History of Inland Transport

" Then what do you think rivers are for ? " he replied, " To
supply canals with water."

On the other hand, water would not flow up-hill in canals
any more than in rivers, and in the making and operation
of canals there was, literally as well as figuratively, a great
deal of up-hill work to do.

Between the Mersey and the Trent there were considerable
elevations which formed very difficult country for water
transport. These elevations had to be overcome by the
gradual rising of the canal, by means of locks, to a certain
height, by the construction, at that point, of a tunnel through
the hills, and by a fresh series of locks on the other side, to
allow of a lower level being reached again. The rise of the
Trent and Mersey Canal from the Mersey to the summit at
Harecastle, near the Staffordshire Potteries, was 395 ft., a
final climb of 316 ft. being made by means of a flight of
thirty-five locks. Through Harecastle Hill there was driven
a tunnel a mile and two-thirds in length, with a height of
12 ft. and a breadth of 9 ft. 4 in.1 South of this tunnel the
canal descended to the level of the Trent, a fall of 288 ft.,
by means of forty locks. In addition to this the canal, in
its course of 90 miles, had to pass through four other tunnels
and be carried across the river Dove by an aqueduct of
twenty-three arches and at four points over windings of
the Trent, which it followed to its junction therewith at
Wilden Ferry.

These engineering difficulties were successfully overcome
by Brindley, and the canal was opened for traffic in 1777.
The benefits it conferred on industry and commerce, having
in view the unsatisfactory alternative means of transport,
were beyond all question. English traders saw established
across the island, from the Mersey to the Humber, a line of
inland navigation which, apart from the long and tedious
voyage round the coast, and, also, from the scarcely passable
roads, was the first connecting link in our national history
between the ports of Liverpool and Hull. But of even greater
importance were the facilities for making use of either or
both of these ports — the one on the west coast, and the
other on the east coast — which were opened up to manu-

1 Subsequently supplemented by a tunnel of larger dimensions along-
side, constructed by Telford.

The Canal Era 175

facturers and traders in the midland districts, and especially
when the Trent and Mersey Canal was supplemented by the
Wolverhampton (now the Staffordshire and Worcestershire)
Canal, connecting the Trent with the Severn ; the Birming-
ham Canal ; the Coventry Canal (which gave through naviga-
tion from the Trent via Lichfield and Oxford, to the Thames) ;
and others.

Of the many districts benefitted it was, perhaps, the Pot-
teries that received the maximum of advantage. Fourteen
years before the Trent and Mersey Canal was opened for
traffic — that is to say, in 1763 — Josiah Wedgwood perfected
a series of improvements in the pottery industry which fore-
shadowed the probability of the manufacture of coarse
pottery — already carried on in North Staffordshire for many
years— developing into the production of wares of the highest
excellence, for which a great market would assuredly be
found not only throughout England but throughout the
world. The one drawback to an otherwise very promising
outlook lay in the defective communications. The roads
were hopelessly bad and the navigable rivers were far distant.
It was almost impossible to get sufficient clay for the pur-
poses of raw material, and the cost and the risk of damage
involved in long land journeys before the goods could be
put on the water, for carriage to London or the Continent,
almost closed those markets for the Staffordshire manu-
facturer.

In 1760 — three years before Josiah Wedgwood started
his new era in pottery manufacture — the number of workers
engaged in the industry did not exceed 7000 persons ; and
not only were they badly paid and irregularly employed but
in their position of almost complete isolation from the rest
of humanity they were, as Smiles puts it in his " Life of
James Brindley," " almost as rough as their roads." They
were ill-clad, ill-fed and wholly uneducated ; they lived
in dwellings that were little better than mud huts ; they
had to dispense with coal for fuel, since the state of the roads
made its transport too costly for their scanty means ; they
had no shops, and for such drapery and household wares as
they could afford to buy they were dependent on the pack-
men or the hucksters from Newcastle-under-Lyme. Their
favourite amusements were bull-baiting and cock-fighting.

176 History of Inland Transport

Any stranger who ventured to appear among such a people,
devoid as they were of most of the attributes of civilisation,
might consider himself fortunate if he escaped rough usage
simply because he was a stranger.

Of conditions such as those to be found in the Potteries
at the period in question one gets some glimpses in William
Mutton's " History of Birmingham " (1781). He tells of a
place called Lie Waste, otherwise Mud City, situate between
Halesowen and Stourbridge. The houses consisted of mud,
dried in the sun, though often destroyed by frost. Their
occupants, judging from the account he gives of them, could
have been little better than scarcely-clad barbarians. Of
a visit he paid to Bosworth Field in 1770 the same writer
says : —

" I accompanied a gentleman with no other intent than to
view the field celebrated for the fall of Richard the Third.
The inhabitants enjoyed the cruel satisfaction of setting
their dogs at us in the street, merely because we were strangers.
Human figures, not their own, are seldom seen in those in-
hospitable regions. Surrounded with impassable roads,
having no intercourse with man to humanize the mind, no
commerce to smooth their rugged manners, they continue
the boors of nature."

How industry and improved communications may tend
to civilise a people, as well as ensure economic advance-
ment, was now to be shown in the case of the Potteries.
Wedgwood's enterprise led to the employment of far more
people ; the better means of communication allowed both
of the industry being greatly developed and of the intro-
duction of refining influences into a district no longer isolated ;
and the combination of these causes had a striking effect
on the material and the moral conditions of the workers.

In giving evidence before a House of Commons Committee
in 1785, eight years after the Mersey and Trent Canal was
opened, Wedgwood was able to say that there were being
employed in the Potteries at that time from 15,000 to 20,000
persons on earthenware manufacture alone — an increase of
from 8000 to 13,000 in twenty-five years, independently of
the opening of new branches of industry. Work was abundant,
and the general conditions were those of a greatly enhanced
comfort and prosperity.

The Canal Era 177

Then, also, when John Wesley visited Burslem in 1760 he
wrote that the potters assembled to laugh and jeer at him.
" One of them," he says, " threw a clod of earth which struck
me on the side of the head ; but it neither disturbed me nor
the congregation." In 1781 he went to Burslem again. On
this occasion he wrote : " I returned to Burslem ; how is the
whole face of the country changed in about 20 years ! Since
which, inhabitants have continually flowed in from every
side. Hence the wilderness is literally become a fruitful
field. Houses, villages, towns, have sprung up, and the
country is not more improved than the people."

This actual experience of John Wesley's would seem to
confirm the view expressed by Sir Richard Whitworth in the
observations he offered to the public in 1766 on " The Ad-
vantages of Inland Navigation." It was, he argued, trade
and commerce, and not the military force of the Kingdom,
which could alone enrich us and enable us to maintain our
independence ; but there were millions of people " buried
alive " in parts of the country where there were no facilities
for transport, and where they had hitherto been " bred up
for no other use than to feed themselves." What advantage
would not accrue to the nation when these millions were
brought into the world of active and productive workers !
" Hitherto," he continued, " the world has been unequally
dealt, and, though all the inhabitants of this island should
have an equal right to the gifts of nature in the advantages
of commerce, yet it has only happened to those who live
upon the coasts to enrich themselves by it, while as many
millions lie starving for want of opportunity to forward
themselves into the world. Though the city, village, or
country in which they live is at the lowest ebb of poverty it will,
in a short time, by trade passing through it, alter its very
nature and the inhabitants become, from nothing, as it
were, to a very rich and substantial people ; their very
natural idea of mankind, and their rude and unpolished
behaviour, will be altered and soothed into the most social
civility and good breeding by the alluring temptations of the
beneficial advantage of trade and commerce."

The opening of the Grand Trunk and other canals con-
necting with it led to such reductions in the cost of carriage
as are shown in the following figures, from Baines's " History

178 History of Inland Transport

of Liverpool," where they are quoted as from " Williamson's
Liverpool Advertiser " of August 8, 1777 : —

COST OF GOODS TRANSPORT PER TON.

BETWEEN BY ROAD. BY WATER.

£ s. d. £ s. d.

Liverpool and Etruna . . . 2 10 o ... o 13 4

,, ,, Wolverhampton .500 ... 150

,, ,, Birmingham . .500 ... 150

Manchester and Wolverhampton . 4 13 4 ... 150

Birmingham .400 ... 10 o

Lichfield . .400 ... o o

Derby. . .300 ... 10 o

Nottingham .400 ... o o

Leicester . .600 ... 10 o

Gainsborough . 3 10 o ... 10 o

Newark . .568 ... 200

Thus the cost of transport by canal was in some instances
reduced to about one-fourth of the previous cost by pack-
horse or road waggon.

Under the new conditions the numerous manufactures in
the Birmingham and Black Country districts obtained their
raw materials much cheaper than they had done before,
and secured much better facilities for distribution, the differ-
ence in cost in sending guns, nails, hardware, and other
heavy manufactures from Birmingham to Hull by water
instead of by road being in itself a considerable saving, and
one likely to give a great stimulus to the industries concerned.
Ores from the north were brought at less expense to mix
with those of Staffordshire, and the iron-masters there were
enabled to compete better with foreign producers. The
manufacturers of Nottingham, Leicester and Derby were
afforded a cheap conveyance to Liverpool for their wares.
The fine ale for which Burton was famous had been sent to
London by way of the Trent, the Humber and the Thames
since, at least, the early part of the seventeenth century, and,
exported from Hull, it had won fame for the Burton breweries
in all the leading Baltic ports and elsewhere. It was now
to be conveyed by water to the port of Liverpool, and find
fresh or expanded markets opened out for it from the west
coast, as well as the east. Cheshire salt obtained a better

The Canal Era 179

distribution ; the merchants both of Hull and of Liverpool
could now send groceries and other domestic supplies through-
out the midland counties with greater ease, and with much
benefit to the people ; while among still other advantages
was one mentioned by Baines : " Wheat which formerly
could not be conveyed a hundred miles, from corn-growing
districts to the large towns and manufacturing districts, for
less than 203. a quarter, could be conveyed for about 53. a
quarter."

The towns which had least cause for satisfaction were
Bridgnorth, Bewdley and Bristol, the traffic that had pre-
viously gone by the long land route from the Potteries to
the Severn, and so on to Bristol, being now diverted to Liver-
pool by the Grand Trunk Canal, just as the salt of Cheshire
had been taken there on the opening of the Weaver naviga-
tion, and the textiles of Manchester on the completion of the
Duke of Bridgewater's canal.

These developments had, consequently, a further influence
on the growth of the once backward port of Liverpool, and
such growth was to be stimulated by the Leeds and Liverpool
Canal.

Sanctioned by Parliament in 1769, six years before the
Grand Trunk Canal was opened, the Leeds and Liverpool
Canal was mainly designed to overcome the natural barrier,
in the form of a chain of lofty hills, which separated Lancashire
from Yorkshire, serving to isolate Liverpool and to keep back
from her the flow of trade and commerce from industrial
centres on the other side of the hills which should otherwise
have regarded Liverpool as their natural port. The canal
was further intended to open up more fully than had been
done before the great coal-fields of Lancashire, ensuring a
better distribution of their mineral wealth both to Liverpool
and to the manufacturing towns of Lancashire ; while, by
connecting with the Aire at Leeds, the capital of the York-
shire woollen industry, the canal was to provide another
cross-country connection, by inland navigation, between
Liverpool and Hull.

The work of constructing the Leeds and Liverpool Canal
included (i) the piercing of the Foulridge Hills by a tunnel,
1640 yards long, which alone took five years of constant
labour ; (2) an aqueduct bridge of seven arches over the

180 History of Inland Transport

Aire ; and (3) an aqueduct carrying the canal over the
Shipley valley. The total length of navigation was 127
miles, with a fall from the central level of 525 ft. on the
Lancashire side, and of 446 ft. on the Yorkshire side. The
entire work of construction extended over 41 years, and
the total cost was £i, 200,000.

The effect of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal on the in-
dustrial districts of Lancashire and Yorkshire was no less
remarkable than the effect of the Grand Trunk Canal on the
industries west or south of the Trent. When the Leeds and
Liverpool Canal was formed there was, as Baines observes
in his " Lancashire and Cheshire," not one town containing
10,000 inhabitants along the whole of its course from Liver-
pool to Leeds. With the improved facilities afforded for
the conveyance of raw materials and manufactured goods
from or to the port of Liverpool came a new era for the textile
trades all along the route of the canal — and the now busy
and well-populated towns of Wigan, Blackburn, Nelson,
Keighley, Bradford and Leeds are indebted in no small
degree for their industrial expansion to the better means of
communication which the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, in
the days when railways were still far off, opened up to
them.

Still another canal that was made in order to establish a
line of communication west and east, and to serve important
intermediate districts, was the Rochdale Canal, which starts
from Manchester, rises by a succession of locks to a height
438 ft. above the Manchester level, and, fed on the hill summit
by some great reservoirs, descends to the river Calder at
Sowerby Bridge, the point from which that river is navigable
to the Humber.

Connection with the Calder, and thus with the cross-
country navigation of which it formed a part, was also
obtained by means of the Huddersfield Canal, a waterway
twenty miles in length which, starting from Ashton, rises
334 ft., to the Saddleworth manufacturing district (situate
in the wildest part of the Yorkshire hills), passes through a
tunnel three miles long, and descends 436 ft. on the Hudders-
field side in reaching the level of the Calder.

The reader will have concluded from these references to
other canals that, although the Duke of Bridgewater had

The Canal Era 181

found a difficulty in raising the means with which to com-
plete his canal to Runcorn, public confidence in canals must
have been reassured, and ample money must have been
forthcoming, to allow of these further costly and important
schemes being undertaken. This conclusion is abundantly
warranted. The position following the construction of the
Bridgewater canals was thus described, in 1796, in " A Treatise
on the Improvement of Canal Navigation," by R. Fulton : —

" So unacquainted were the people with the use of canals,
and so prejudiced in favour of the old custom of river navi-
gations, that the undertaking was deemed chimerical, and
ruin was predicted as the inevitable result of his Grace's
labour. . . . Yet it was not long finished when the eyes of
the people began to open ; the Duke could work on his canal
when floods, or dry seasons, interrupted the navigation of
the Mersey ; this gave a certainty and punctuality, in the
carriage of merchandize, and ensured a preference to the
canal ; the emoluments arising to the Duke were too evident
to be mistaken ; and perseverance having vanquished pre-
judice, the fire of speculation was lighted, and canals became
the subject of general conversation."

The farming community, more especially, had looked with
suspicion upon this new-fangled idea of sending boats across
fields and up and down the hill-sides. The author of " A
Cursory View of the Advantages of an Intended Canal from
Chesterfield to Gainsborough " (1769) finds, however, a
sufficient excuse for them in the conditions of locomotion and
transport with which alone they had hitherto been familiar.
He says : —

" Though this useful set of Men, the Farmers, will un-
doubtedly reap a Proportion of Advantages from the Execu-
tion of this beneficial Scheme, they are far from being satisfied,
and seem to reflect upon it with many Doubts and Fears.
Custom, indeed, and Occupation in Life, cast a wonderful
Influence on the Opinions of all Mankind ; it is therefore by
no means surprizing that men, whose Forefathers, for Ages,
have been inured to rugged and deep Roads, to wade after
their Beasts of Burden up to the Knees in Mire, to see their
loaded Waggons stick fast in Dirt ; Men, who from their
interior, inland Situation, are almost totally unacquainted
with all Objects of Navigation ; it is by no means strange,

1 82 History of Inland Transport

that People, so unaccustomed, should consider an Attempt,
to introduce a navigable Canal up to the Town of Chester-
field, and within the Air of the Peak-Mountains, with alarming
Ideas, with Suspicion and Amazement."

Another set of scruples was thus dealt with by Richard
Whitworth — himself a canal enthusiast — in his " Advantages
of Inland Navigation " (1766) : —

" It has been a common objection against navigable canals
in this Kingdom that numbers of people are supported by
land carriage, and that navigable canals will be their ruin.
... I must advance an alternative which would free the
carrier from any fear of losing his employment on selling off
his stock of horses, viz.: — That no main trunk of a navigable
canal ought reasonably to be carried nearer than within
four miles of any great manufacturing town, . . . which
distance from the canal is sufficient to maintain the same
number of carriers, and employ almost the same number of
horses, as usual, to convey the goods down to the canal in
order to go to the seaports for exportation. ... If a manu-
facturer can have a certain conveniency of sending his goods
by water carriage within four miles of his own home, surely that
is sufficient, and profit enough, considering that other people
must thrive as well as himself, and a proportion of profit to
each trade should be the biassing and leading policy of this
nation."

In some instances certain towns did succeed in maintaining
a distance of several miles between themselves and the canals
they regarded with prejudice and disfavour. They antici-
pated, in this respect, the action that other towns were to
take up later on in regard to railways ; and in the one case
as in the other there was abundant cause for regret when the
places concerned found they had been left aside, much to
their detriment, by a main route of trade and transport.

Other alarmists predicted the ruin of the innkeepers ;
protested against the drivers of packhorses being deprived
of their sustenance ; prophesied a diminution in the breed
of draught horses ; declaimed against covering with water-
ways land that might be better used for raising corn ; and
foreshadowed a detriment to the coasting trade that, in
turn, would weaken the Navy, " the natural and constitu-
tional bulwark of Great Britain " — this being a phrase which,

The Canal Era 183

no doubt, was rolled out with great effect in the discussions
that took place.

The discovery, however, that canals were likely to be not
only exceedingly useful but a profitable form of investment
was quite sufficient to overcome all scruples, and even to
give rise, in 1791-4, to a " canal mania " which was a prelude
to the still greater " railway mania " of 1845-6. In the four
years in question no fewer than eighty-one canal and naviga-
tion Acts were passed.

So great had the eagerness of the public to invest in canal
shares become that when, in 1790, the promoters of the
Ellesmere Canal held their first meeting, the shares for which
application was made were four times greater than the number
to be issued. In 1792, when a meeting was held at Rochdale
to consider the proposed construction of the Rochdale Canal,
£60,000 was subscribed in an hour. In August, 1792, Leicester
Canal shares were selling at £155, Coventry Canal shares at
£350, Grand Trunks at the same figure, and Birmingham and
Fazley shares at £1170. At a sale of canal shares in October,
1792, the prices realised included — Trent navigation, 175
guineas per share ; Soar Canal (Leicestershire) 765 gs. ;
Erewash Canal, 642 gs. ; Oxford Canal, 156 gs. ; Cromford
Canal, 130 gs. ; Leicester Canal, 175 gs., and ten shares in
the Grand Junction Canal (of which not a single sod had
then been cut) at 355 gs. premium for the ten.

The spirit of speculation thus developed led to the making
of a number of canals which had no real prospect of remunera-
tive business, were commercial failures from the start, and
involved the ruin of many investors. Canals of this type are
still to be found in the country to-day — picturesque derelicts
which some persons think the State should acquire and put
in order again because it is " such a pity " they are not made
use of.

Dealing with the general position as it was in 1803, Phillips
wrote in his " General History of Inland Navigation " (4th
edition) : — " Since the year 1758 no less than 165 Acts of
Parliament have received the royal assent for cutting, alter-
ing, amending, etc., canals in Great Britain, at the expense
of £13,008,199, the whole subscribed by private individuals ;
the length of ground which they employ is 2896^ miles. . . .
Of these Acts 90 are on account of collieries opened in their

184 History of Inland Transport

vicinity, and 47 on account of mines of lead, ore, and copper
which have been discovered, and for the convenience of the
furnaces and forges working thereon."

Among the more typical of the canals, in addition to those
already mentioned, were — the Grand Junction Canal, con-
necting the Thames with the Trent, and thus with both the
Mersey and the Humber ; the Thames and Severn Canal ;
the Ellesmere, connecting the Severn with the Dee and the
Mersey ; the Barnsley Canal (of which Phillips says : " The
beneficial effects of this canal, in a rich mineral country,
hitherto landlocked, cannot fail to be immediately felt by
miners, farmers, manufacturers and the country at large ") ;
the Kennet and Avon (opening, according to the same au-
thority, " a line of navigation, sixteen miles in length, over
a country before very remote from any navigable river ") ;
the Glamorganshire Canal (" has opened a ready conveyance
to the vast manufactory of iron established in the mountains
of that country ") ; the extensive network of the Birmingham
Canal system ; the Shropshire Union, which connects the
Birmingham Canal with Ellesmere port, on the Mersey, and
has branches to Shrewsbury, Llangollen, Welshpool and
Newtown ; and the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal.
To the last-mentioned, constructed under an Act of Parlia-
ment passed in 1791, Baines alludes as follows in his " Lanca-
shire and Cheshire " : —

" The River Irwell flows directly down from Bury to
Manchester, and the river Croal, which flows through Bolton,
joins the Irwell between Bury and Manchester ; but neither
of these streams was considered available, by any amount
of improvement that could be given to it, for the purposes
of navigation. They are both of them very impetuous streams,
occasionally sending down immense torrents of water, but
at other times so shallow as not to furnish sufficient depth
of water for the smallest vessels. Instead, therefore, of
wasting time and money upon them, a canal was cut at a
considerably higher level, but following the general direction
of the river Irwell."

The Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal was thus a further
example of the resort to artificial canals, with water channels
capable of regulation, in preference to further schemes for
rendering rivers navigable.

The Canal Era 185

How the situation brought about by the creation of the
network of navigable waterways thus spread, or being spread,
throughout the country was regarded by an impartial ob-
server in the " Canal Mania " period is shown by the following
comments thereon by Dr Aikin : —

" The prodigious additions made within a few years to
the system of inland navigation, now extended to almost
every corner of the Kingdom, cannot but impress the mind
with magnificent ideas of the opulence, the spirit and the
enlarged views which characterise the commercial interest
of this country. Nothing seems too bold for it to undertake,
too difficult for it to achieve ; and should no external changes
produce a durable check to the national prosperity, its
future progress is beyond the reach of calculation. Yet ex-
perience may teach us, that the spirit of project and specula-
tion is not always the source of solid advantage, and possibly
the unbounded extension of canal navigation may in part
have its source in the passion for bold and precarious adven-
ture, which scorns to be limited by reasonable calculations
of profit. Nothing but highly flourishing manufactures can
repay the vast expense of these designs. The town of Man-
chester, when the plans now under execution are finished,
will probably enjoy more various water-communication than
the most commercial town of the Low Countries has ever
done. At the beginning of this century it was thought a
most arduous task to make a high road practicable for
carriages over the hills and moors which separate Yorkshire
from Lancashire ; and now they are pierced through by
three navigable canals ! Long may it remain the centre of a
trade capable of maintaining these mighty works ! "

The day was to come, however, when it would be a question,
not of the additions made to inland navigation justifying the
expense incurred, but of the inherent defects of the said
" mighty works," the increasing manufactures, and the
introduction of still better methods of transport and com-
munication giving to canals a set-back akin to that which
they themselves had already given to navigable rivers.

CHAPTER XVII

THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

CONTEMPORANEOUSLY with the canal period in England came
an industrial revolution which was to place this country —
hitherto distinctly backward in the development of its in-
dustries— at the head of manufacturing nations, but was,
also, to show that, however great the advantages conferred
by canals, as compared both with rivers and with roads,
even canals were inadequate to meet the full and ever-
expanding requirements of trade and transport.

The main causes of this industrial revolution were — the
application of a number of inventions and improved pro-
cesses to leading industries ; the incalculable advantages
derived from steam power ; the immense increase in the
supplies of cotton, coal, minerals and other raw materials ;
the greater wealth of the nation, allowing of much more
capital being available for industrial enterprises ; and the
improvement, not alone in inland communication, but in ship-
building and the art of navigation, foreign markets being thus
reached more readily at a time when the general political
and economic conditions were especially favourable to the
commercial expansion abroad which followed on our in-
dustrial expansion at home.

Woollen manufactures, originally established here with
the help of workers introduced from Flanders in the time
of Edward III., had had a long pre-eminence, obtaining a
vested interest which led to the advent of a new rival, in
the form of cotton manufacturers, receiving, at first, very
scanty encouragement. Woollens had made such progress
that, even before the Restoration, a market was (as Dowell
tells us) opened for our goods, not only in Spain, France,
Italy and Germany, but also in Russia and Baltic and other
ports, while they were carried by way of Archangel into
Persia, and also made a market for themselves in Turkey.

1 86

\

The Industrial Revolution 187

A great part of England was turned into sheep farms for the
production of wool, and by 1700 the value of woollen goods
exported had risen to £3, 000,000.

At this time the import of raw cotton was only about
1 1 million Ibs.1 To such an extent had the woollen, and, also,
the linen, industries been placed under the " protection "
of the governing powers that until 1721 it was a penal offence
in England to weave or sell calico — that is, a fabric consisting
entirely of cotton ; and down to 1774 anyone who made or
sold a fabric having more than half its threads of cotton was
liable to prosecution. Not until 1783 was the prohibition of
British-made calicoes removed and the production in this
country of all-cotton goods allowed by legislators who had
been unduly solicitous of the welfare of British industry.
When, in 1776, Adam Smith published his great work on
" The Wealth of Nations," he certainly did state that Chris-
topher Columbus had brought back from the New World
some bales of cotton, and had shown them at the court of
Spain ; but he did not think it necessary to mention that a
cotton industry had been started here, and was likely to
contribute to the wealth of the United Kingdom.

The imports of raw cotton slowly increased to 2,000,000
in 1720, and to 3,000,000 Ibs. in 1751. In 1764, the year in
which Hargreaves introduced the spinning jenny, they were
still not higher than 4,000,000 Ibs. But the successive in-
ventions, during the course of about three decades, alike of
Hargreaves, Arkwright, Crompton, Cartwright and others
gave such an impetus to the industry that by 1800 the im-
portation of raw cotton (greatly facilitated by the further
invention, in 1793, of Eli Whitney's appliance for separating
cotton from the cotton seed) had risen to 52,000,000 Ibs.,
while the value of all kinds of cotton products exported
increased between 1765 and 1800 from £800,000 to £5,800,000.

This rapid progress would not, however, have been possible
but for the facilities for obtaining cheap power afforded by
the condensing steam-engine of James Watt, who had taken
out a patent for his invention in 1769, though it was not
till 1776 that he built and sold his first engine, on which he
further improved in 1781. Steam-power, of far greater force

1 The imports of raw cotton into the United Kingdom in 1910 were
17,614,860 cwts., or nearly 1973 million Ibs., valued at ^"71,716,808.

1 88 History of Inland Transport

and utility, and capable of being produced anywhere, thus
took the place of the water-power, only available alongside
streams, on which, as we have seen, the earlier success of
the woollen industry, especially as carried on among the hills
of Yorkshire, had been established. It was by water-power
that the spinning machine so recently introduced by Sir
Richard Arkwright was operated until James Watt had
shown that steam could be used to better advantage. Then
the setting up at Papplewick, Nottinghamshire, in 1785, of
a steam-engine for the operation of cotton machinery marked,
also, the decline of domestic manufactures and the advent of
that factory system which was to bring about a complete
transformation in the industrial conditions of the United
Kingdom.

Yet just as the improvements in cotton production would
have been incomplete without the steam-engine, so, also,
would the invention even of the steam-engine have been
of little service but for an abundant supply of coal, and but,
also, for the possession of a ready and economical means of
moving the coal from the localities where it was to be found
to those where it was wanted for the purposes of the " steam
age " that was about to open.

The greater demand for fuel and the increased facilities
for supplying it led to the greater development of various
inland coal-fields, in addition to those already long in opera-
tion in the Newcastle district, and having there the advantages
of river and sea as an aid to distribution. The need, also,
of coal for the operation of the steam-engine in the countless
number of new industries or new works that followed on
James Watt's improvements had an important influence on
fixing the location of fresh industrial centres.

Coal-mining, again, was powerfully accelerated in the same
period by the iron industry, which itself was undergoing
developments no less remarkable than those attending the
expansion of the cotton industries, and having no less a
bearing on the problem of efficient inland transport.

Down to the year 1740 the smelting of iron-ores — an
industry carried on here from very early days in our history —
was done entirely with wood charcoal. For this reason the
early seat of the iron industry was in the forests that, as
already told, once covered so large an area in Sussex, Kent

The Industrial Revolution 189

and Surrey, and afforded what may, at one time, have ap-
peared to be a practically limitless supply of fuel.

The three counties in question thus attained to a high
degree of industrial importance and prosperity at a time
when Lancashire and Yorkshire were still regarded by dwellers
in the south as inhabited by a scarcely civilised people.
Lord Seymour, who was made by Henry VIII. Lord High
Admiral of England, and ended his life on the scaffold in
J549» was the owner of iron-works in Sussex. The cannon
and shot which Drake, Hawkins and Frobisher took with
them on their ships were supplied by these southern foundries.
Of the position of the industry in 1653, when there were
42 forges and 27 furnaces in the Weald of Sussex, the author
of " Glimpses of our Ancestors in Sussex " says : " Sussex
was then the Wales and the Warwickshire of England.
Foreign countries sought eagerly for its cannon, its culverines
and falconets. ... Its richly decorated fire-backs and
fantastic andirons were the pride of lordly mansions. London
sent here for the railings that went round its great cathedral ;
Sussex ploughshares, speeds and other agricultural imple-
ments and hardware were sent all over the kingdom."

Fears, however, had already been excited in Henry VIII. 's
day that the continued destruction of forests, in order to
supply the iron-works with fuel, would lead to a timber
famine ; and in Queen Elizabeth's reign such a prospect,
foreshadowing a shortage of timber for shipbuilding purposes
at the very time when a conflict with Spain was regarded as
inevitable, was looked upon as involving a possible national
disaster. A subsidiary complaint against the industry was
that the traffic to and from the iron -works injured the roads.
Legislation was therefore passed prohibiting, under severe
penalties, any increase in the number of iron-works in the
three counties mentioned, except on land already occupied
or able to furnish of itself a sufficient supply of timber.
Exportation of iron was also prohibited, and it was even
considered good policy to import iron, rather than to make it,
and so preserve the still available timber for other purposes.

By the early part of the eighteenth century the iron in-
dustry, after exhausting the timber supplies of Sussex, had
disappeared from that county ; but it flourished in Shrop-
shire, where it found both fuel and iron-stone in the Forest

190 History of Inland Transport

of Dean, while the Severn provided water-power and inland
navigation. The industry was also carried on in Staffordshire ;
and here, in the reign of James I., some important experi-
ments were made in the direction of using coal instead of
wood in the manufacture of iron ; but this idea was not fully
developed until Abraham Darby had shown, in 1735, how
coke, in combination with a powerful blast, could be sub-
stituted for wood. What is regarded as the real turning-
point in the iron industry followed in 1760, when Dr Roebuck
built, at the Carron works, his new type of blast furnace, in
which coke was to be used.

An impetus was thus given to the industry, and an impetus
it certainly needed, inasmuch as the production of iron in
the United Kingdom had sunk in 1740 to 17,350 tons. Then,
in 1783, Henry Cort, of Gosport, patented his process for
converting pig-iron into malleable iron through the operation
of " puddling " in a common air-furnace consuming coal, and
in 1784 he patented a further process for turning malleable
iron into bars by means of rollers instead of forge hammers.

These further inventions were of much service ; but the
greatest advance of all followed on the application of steam
to iron-making, as one of the many results of James Watt's
achievements. Steam enabled the manufacturers to get a
far more powerful blast in the new furnaces, at a consump-
tion of about one-third less of coal, than had been possible
in the process of smelting carried on with the help of water-
power. The use, also, of coal instead of timber for fuel,
and of steam-power in place of water-power, made the iron-
masters independent both of the forests and of the rivers of
southern England, and led to the further expansion of the
iron industry being transferred to such districts as Stafford-
shire, the north-east coast, Scotland and South Wales, where
the now all-important coal could be obtained no less readily
than the iron-ore.

So the migration of some of the greatest of our national
industries from south to north, begun by the streams on
Yorkshire hills, was completed by the steam-engine of James
Watt.

The effect on the iron industry itself of the improvements
in manufacturel^was prodigious. The 1 7, 3 5 o^" tons of iron
which^were alone produced in 1740 came from 59 furnaces,

The Industrial Revolution 191

using charcoal only. In 1788 the number of furnaces had
increased to 85, and the output to 68,300 tons, of which
55,200 tons had been produced by coke, and only 13,100
tons by charcoal. In 1796, when the charcoal process had been
almost entirely given up, the number of furnaces was 121 (in
England and Wales 104 ; in Scotland 17), and the produc-
tion was 124,879 tons. In this same year Pitt proposed to
put a tax on coal, and the following year he sought to im-
pose one on pig-iron ; but a taxing of raw material was not
to be tolerated, and he had to abandon each project.

Adding to these details corresponding figures for other
years in the Canal Era, we get the following table : —

IRON FURNACES AND PRODUCTION IN ENGLAND,

WALES AND SCOTLAND.

Year. Number of furnaces. . Production (tons).

1740 . . . 59 . . . 17,35°

1788 . . 85 ... 68,300

1796 . . . 121 . . . 124,879

1802 . . . 168 . . . 170,000

1806 . . . 227 . . . 250,000

1820 . . . 260 . . . 400,000

1825 . . 374 . . 581,367

This great increase in the output of iron meant, also, a
considerable expansion in the engineering trades of the
country in general, in the hardware trades of Birmingham,
in the cutlery trade of Sheffield, and in many other trades
besides. It led to the opening up of new centres of activity
and industry in addition to a greater aggregation of workers
in centres already established ; while the combined effect
on the coal industry itself of all these developments is well
shown by the following figures, giving the output of coal
in the United Kingdom, for the years mentioned, as estimated
by the Commissioners of 1871 : —

YEAR. TONS.

1700 .... 2,612,000

1750 .... 4,773,828

1770 .... 6,205,400
1790 .... 7,618,728

1795 . . . . 10,080,300

192 History of Inland Transport

The rapid expansion in the last half of the eighteenth
century of the various industries here mentioned, and of
many others besides, led to a corresponding growth in the
industrial towns ; and this, in turn, meant an increase in
the wants of the community, and the opening up of new
and even huge markets for agricultural produce. Such
produce, also, was now obtainable in greater quantity owing
to the fact that more land was being brought under cultiva-
tion. In 1685 it had been estimated that there were in Eng-
land about 18,000,000 acres of fen, forest and moorland.
Of this total 3,000,000 acres had been brought under cultiva-
tion before 1727. But from that time many enclosure Acts
were passed, no fewer than 138 becoming law between 1789
and 1792 ; and, though it by no means follows that all the
land so enclosed was actually cultivated, the greater op-
portunities opening out to agriculture when more and more
workers were being collected into factories and manufacturing
districts, and becoming more and more dependent on others
for food supplies which, under the old conditions of life and
industry, people grew for themselves, were beyond all ques-
tion, while agricultural production was itself advanced by
the supply of those better and cheaper aids to husbandry
which followed on the improvements in iron manufacture.

To meet the enormously increased demands for the trans-
port alike of raw materials, of manufactured articles and of
domestic supplies in the period of industrial revolution which
thus began to develop about the middle of the eighteenth
century, something more was wanted than rivers, offering
uncertain navigation, and only available in particular dis-
tricts, and highways deplorably bad in spite of Turnpike Acts
and much wasteful expenditure, another half-century having
still to elapse before Telford showed the country how roads
should be made, and Me Adam told how they should be mended.

In these circumstances, and during the period here in ques-
tion, it was canals that were mainly looked to as a means
of supplying the transport requirements then growing at
so prodigious a rate. Invention and production had already
far surpassed the means of efficient distribution. England
was on the eve of the greatest industrial expansion of any
country in Europe ; but she was starting thereon with prob-
ably the worst means of inland transport of any country in

The Industrial Revolution 193

Europe. Canals appeared to be the one thing needed ; and
every fresh canal constructed was heralded with joy because
it foreshadowed, among other things, better trade, more em-
ployment, higher wages, cheaper fuel and provisions, and
less of the isolation from which many* a land-locked com-
munity was suffering.

Some of the accounts given by Phillips, in his " General
History of Inland Navigation," of the opening of various
canals afford interesting evidence of the satisfaction with
which the populace greeted the new watenvays. I give a
few examples : —

" 1798. — The Herefordshire and Gloucestershire canal from
Gloucester to Ledbury is completed ; the opening of this
navigation took place on the soth of March, when several of
the proprietors and gentlemen of the committee embarked
... in the first vessel freighted with merchandise consigned
to Ledbury, which was followed by three others laden with
coal. They passed through the tunnel at Oxenhall, which is
2192 yards in length, in the space of 52 minutes. . . . Both
ends of the tunnel, as well as the banks of the canal, were
lined with spectators, who hailed the boats with reiterated
acclamations. It is supposed that upwards of 2000 persons
were present on their arrival at Ledbury. . . . The ad-
vantages which must result from this inland navigation to
Ledbury and the adjoining country are incalculable. In the
article of coal the inhabitants of this district will reap an
important benefit by the immediate reduction in price of at
least i os. per ton. Coals of the first quality are now delivered
at the wharf, close to Ledbury, at 135. 6d., whereas the former
price was 245. per ton."

" 1799- — The new canal from Sowerby-bridge to Rochdale
was lately opened for business. The Travis yacht first crossed
the head level, decorated with the Union flag, emblematical
of the junction of the ports of Hull and Liverpool, with
colours flying, music playing, attended by the Saville yacht,
and thousands of spectators ; a display of flags on the ware-
houses, and sound of cannon, announced to the rejoicing
neighbourhood the joyful tidings, which in the evening were
realised by the arrival of several vessels, laden with corn
and timber."

" 1800. — The Peak Forest canal . . . was opened on the

194 History of Inland Transport

ist of May. The completion of this bold and difficult under-
taking, through numerous hills and valleys, precipices and
declivities, is an object of general admiration."

Yet in these same records — published in 1803 — and among
his accounts of the crowds, the flags, the music and the
cannon that had then so recently welcomed the opening of still
more canals, Phillips tells of an innovation destined eventually
to supplant the canal system by reason of advantages which
he himself seems to have recognised, though he naturally
did not then anticipate all that was to follow. The said
innovation is thus recorded by him under date " 1802 " : —

" The locks, canal and basin, from which the Surrey iron
rail-way now in agitation, is to commence at Wandsworth,
have been lately opened and the water admitted from the
Thames. The first barge entered the lock amidst a vast
number of spectators, who rejoiced at the completion of this
part of the important and useful work. The ground is laid
out for the rail-way, with some few intervals, all the way to
Croydon ; and the undertakers are ready to lay down the
iron ; it is expected to be ready by midsummer.

" N.B. The iron rail- ways are of great advantage to the
country in general, and are made at an expense of about
300?. per mile. The advantage they give for the conveyance
of goods by carts and waggons, seems even to surpass, in
some instances, those of boat carriage by canals."

So we come to the story of the railway, which had, however,
been undergoing development, from very primitive conditions,
for a considerable period even prior to this notable event on
the banks of the Thames in 1802.

CHAPTER XVIII

EVOLUTION OF THE RAILWAY

THE early history of the railway is the early history of the
English coal trade.

Down to the sixteenth century the fuel supply of the country
alike for manufacturing and for domestic purposes was
derived almost exclusively from those forests and peat-beds
that once covered so large a portion of the area of the British
Isles. Coal was not unknown, though it was then called
*' sea-coal," a name distinguishing coal from charcoal, and
given to it because the fact of the earliest known specimens
being found on the shores of Northumberland and of the
Firth of Forth — where there are outcrops of the coal measures
— led to the belief that the black stone which burned like
charcoal was a product of the sea. The name was retained,
as an appropriate one, when coal was brought to London by
sea from the north.

Coal is known to have been received at various dates
during the thirteenth century in London (which then already
had a Sacoles, or Sea-coal, Lane), in Colchester, in Dover
and in Suffolk ; but it was used mainly by smiths and lime-
burners ; and it was used by them still more when the con-
struction of feudal castles and ecclesiastical buildings in and
following the Norman period called for work not to be done
efficiently with fires of wood or charcoal. The use of coal
as fuel for domestic purposes remained, however, extremely
limited. Unlike wood and charcoal, coal was not suitable
for burning in the centre of rooms then unprovided with
chimneys, while coal smoke was regarded as an intolerable
nuisance, and as seriously detrimental to health. It was
on these grounds that when, in the fourteenth century,
brewers, dyers and others in London were found to be using
coal, a Royal Proclamation was issued interdicting its use by
any person not a smith or a lime-burner, and appointing a

'95

196 History of Inland Transport

commission of Oyer and Terminer to see to the punishment
of all offenders.

For a further considerable period the use of coal continued
very partial ; but in the sixteenth century great uneasiness
began to be felt at the prospective exhaustion of the timber
supplies of the country, and various enactments were passed
with a view to checking the destruction of the forests. Great
attention began to be paid to the use of sea-coal as a sub-
stitute for wood, and an improvement in domestic archi-
tecture led to a more general provision of fire-places with
chimneys, thus allowing of a resort to coal fires for domestic
purposes. Chimneys began to appear, in fact, in numbers
never seen before. Harrison, writing in 1577, grieves over the
innovation of coal fires, and recalls the good old times of
wood and peat when, as he touchingly says, " our heads did
never ake."

Queen Elizabeth retained the prejudice against sea-coal,
and would have none of it. Ladies of fashion, sharing, as
loyal subjects, her Majesty's objections, would, in turn
neither enter a room where coal was burning nor eat of food
cooked at a coal fire. But James I., whose ancestors had
long favoured coal fires in Scotland — and, it may be, thus
made themselves responsible for the name of " Auld Reekie "
conferred on Edinburgh — had coal brought for fires in his
own rooms in Westminster Palace. When this fact became
known Society changed its views, and decided that the
hitherto obnoxious sea-coal might be tolerated, after all.
Howes, writing in 1612, was then able to speak of coal as
" the generall fuell of this Britaine Island."

In the result, and especially following on the development
in trade and industry which came with the Restoration,
there was a great increase in the demand for coal. In 1615
the coal fleet engaged in the transport of sea-coal to London,
and other ports on the east and south-east coasts — where
fuel was scarcest — comprised (as stated in " A History of
Coal Mining in Great Britain," by Robert L. Galloway) 400
vessels. In 1635, or only twenty years later, the number
had increased to between 600 and 700, and by 1650, or there-
abouts, the total had further risen to 900 vessels, these
figures being exclusive of the foreign fleets carrying coal to
France, Holland and Germany.

Evolution of the Railway 197

The collieries that were more especially required to meet
this increased demand were those in the immediate neigh-
bourhood of the Tyne, since they offered the advantages of
thick seams of coal of excellent quality and close alike to the
surface and to a navigable river. The proportions to which
the industry had already attained in the year 1649 are shown
by Grey, in his " Chorographia, or a Survey of Newcastle-
upon -Tine," where he says: "Many thousand people are
imployed in this trade of coales : many live by working of
them in pits : many live by conveying them in waggons
and waines to the river Tine. . . . One coal merchant im-
ployeth five hundred or a thousand in his works of coal."

The one great difficulty in the way of development lay in
the trouble experienced in getting the coal from the pit-
banks to the river for loading into the keels, or barges, by
which it would be conveyed to the sea-going colliers lying
J^elow the bridge at Newcastle.

The established custom was to send the coal to the river
by carts, or wains, or even in panniers slung across the backs
of horses ; and in Robert Edington's " Treatise on the Coal
Trade " (1813) mention is made of various collieries which
had up to 600 or 700 carts engaged in this service. Inasmuch,
however, as the art of road-making in general was then still
in its elementary stage, one can well imagine that, with all
this traffic along them, the roads between the collieries and
the Tyne must have been in a condition that added greatly
both to the difficulties and to the cost of transport. Nicholas
Wood, in his "Practical Treatise on Rail-roads" (1825),
gives an extract, dated 1602, from the book of a Newcastle
coal company, showing that " from tyme out of mynd "
the coal carts had brought eight bolls — equal to about 17
cwt. — of coal to the river ; but added that " of late several
hath brought only, or scarce, seven," a fact sufficiently
suggestive of the deplorable state to which the colliery roads
had been reduced even at the opening of a century that was
to bring about so great an increase in the demand for coal.

Bad as the position was for the collieries located near
to the Tyne, it was worse for those situate at any distance
from the river, since, under the road conditions then pre-
vailing, it was practically impossible for the owners of,, the
latter collieries to get their coal to the river at all, or to secure

198 History of Inland Transport

any share in a trade offering such great opportunities and
undergoing such rapid expansion. The coal had but a nominal
value so long as it could not be got away from the pit-banks.

The first attempt to overcome the difficulties of the situa-
tion was in the direction of laying parallel courses of stone
or wood for the waggon wheels to run upon ; but here we
have the equivalent of a partially-paved roadway rather
than of actual rails. The latter came when the parallel
wheel-courses of wood were reduced to what William Hutchin-
son, in his " View of Northumberland " (1778), calls " strings
of wood," for the accommodation of " large unwieldy car-
riages or waggons."

Nicholas Wood says that these wooden rails had a length
of about six feet, and were five or six inches in thickness, with
a breadth of about the same proportions. They were pegged
down to sleepers placed across the track at a distance of
about two f'et apart, so that one rail reached across three
sleepers. The spaces between the sleepers were filled in with
ashes or small stones, to protect the feet of the horses. The
waggons were in the form of a hopper, being much broader
and longer at the top than at the bottom. At first all four
wheels of the waggon were made either of one entire piece
of wood or of two or three pieces of wood fastened together,
the rim, in either case, being so shaped as to have on one
side a projection, or flange, which would keep the wheel
on the rails.

This, then, was the earliest example of a railway — the
fundamental principle of which is, of course, the use of rails to
facilitate the drawing or the propulsion of a moving body,
and not the particular form of motive power (however great
the importance, in actual practice, of this matter of detail)
by which the traction is secured.

The date of the first "rail-way" (so called) in the form
described, and in accordance with the principle mentioned,
is uncertain ; but Galloway, in his " History of Coal Mining,"
mentions a document dated 1660 which refers to a sale of
timber used in the construction of waggon-ways ; while
Roger North, writing in 1676, describes the then existing rail-
ways in terms which suggest that they were, at that date, a
well-established institution. Speaking generally, therefore,
one may assume that the pioneer rail-ways were brought

Evolution of the Railway 199

into operation somewhere about the middle of the seventeenth
century — if not still earlier. Taking 1650 as an approximate
date, this would mean that the first rail-way must have been
made about one hundred and eighty years before the opening
of that Liverpool and Manchester line with which the history
of railways is often assumed to have begun.

Hutchinson speaks of the collieries on the Tyne as being,
at the time he wrote (1778), " about twenty-four in number,"
and he further says of them that they " lie at considerable
distances from the river." On account of these considerable
distances the colliery managers had to secure way-leaves for
their rail- ways from the owners of intervening land, so as to
obtain access to the Tyne. Thus Roger North, in the account
he gives of the railways in the Newcastle district, says :
" When men have pieces of land between the collieries and
the rivers, they sell leave to lead coals over their ground,
and so dear that the owner of a rood of ground will expect
2O/. per annum for this leave." In some instances the total
payment for a way-leave seems to have amounted to £500
a year. Statutory powers were not required for the rail-ways
so long as they were used only for private purposes, though
when they crossed a public road the assent of the local authori-
ties was necessary.

The rails, sleepers and wheels, all of wood, came mostly
from Sussex or Hampshire, and the writer of an article on
the Tyne railways, published in the " Commercial and Agri-
cultural Magazine " for October, 1800, speaks of the use on
them of so much timber as " the more extraordinary " because
the necessities of the coal mines had previously " used up
every stick of timber in the neighbourhood," so that " the
import from returning colliers (coal-ships) was the sole
resource." Such import, also, would appear to have been
considerable, the making of wooden rail-ways on the north-
east coast being the means of developing an important in-
dustry in rails and wheels in the southern counties.

One of the importers on the Tyne was William Scott, father
of Lords Stowell and Eldon, and his " Letters," included in
M. A. Richardson's " Reprints of Rare Tracts " (Newcastle-
upon-Tyne, 1849), give some interesting details on the sub-
ject. Scott, in addition to being himself engaged in mining,
acted as agent for southern producers of wooden rails and

2oo History of Inland Transport

wheels for colliery rail-ways; and his letters show that in
and about the year 1745 the consignments were coming to
hand in " immense quantities." Scott seems to have had
great trouble in restraining the zeal of the southerners. He
tells one correspondent that " Wheels are at present a great
drug from so many yt. came last year. Rails will be wanted,
but the people pays so badly for them that wod weary eny
body to serve them." To another he says : "I find the best
oak rails will scarcely give 6d. p yd this year." To corre-
spondents at Lyndhurst, New Forest, he writes : "I fancy
the dealers in wn. wheels will expect to have wheels soon 'em
given, if such great numbers continue coming." Mr West,
of Slyndon, near Arundel, Sussex, is told that not more than
five shillings can be got for the best wooden wheels, and that
" dealers are so full that they have not room for any wheels."
On March 27, 1747, Scott writes concerning wheels : "No
less than about 2000 com'd within these 14 days from Lynd-
hurst consign'd to different people " ; and two months later
he announces that he has resolved to receive " no more such
goods as wooden wheels, rails and such like from anybody."

Most of the Tyne collieries were at a higher level than
the river, and in the construction of the rail-ways it was
sought to obtain a regular and easy descent, regardless of
route or distance, to the " staith," or shipping-stage, from
which the coal would be loaded either into the keels (barges)
employed to take it along the river to the colliers, or, in the
case of longer distance rail-ways, direct into the collier itself,
the bottom of the waggons being made after the fashion
of a trap-door to facilitate discharge. Gradual descent was
further aimed at because it allowed of the loaded waggons
moving along the rail-way by reason of their own weight.

How this prototype both of the railway and of express
trains as known to us to-day was operated is well shown in
a " Description of a Coal- Waggon," with an accompanying
illustration, contributed to the " General Magazine of Arts
and Sciences " for June, 1764, by John Buddie, of Chester-
le-street, Durham, who subsequently became manager of the
Wallsend Colliery. In the illustration a horse is depicted
drawing, by means ~ of two ropes fastened to its collar, a
loaded *f our- wheeled^coal waggon along a rail-way preceded
by a man who, having a bundle of hay underneath one arm,

Evolution of the Railway 20 1

holds some of the hay a few inches in front of the horse so
that the animal, stretching forward to get the hay, draws
along the waggon more readily.) Buddie explains that the
waggon is " conducted or drove by a single man, called the
Waggon-man, whose most common action on the road is,
inticing the horse forward with a bit of hay in his hand,
which he supplies from under his arm, a quantity of hay
sufficient for a day being kept in the Hay-poke," that is,
in a receptacle at the back of the waggon. Suspended over
one of the hind wheels is a " convoy," or brake, formed of
a curved and strong-looking piece of wood (described in the
text as alder- wood), which is attached at one end to the
waggon, and held in a loop at the other. " Its use," says
Buddie, "is to regulate the motion of the waggon down the
sides of the hills (called by the waggon men runs) making
it uniform. . . . The waggon-man, taking the end out of the
loop, lets it down upon the wheel, and, placing himself astride
upon the end, with one foot on the waggon-soal he presses
more or less, according to the declivity of the run ; the Convoy
acting at that time as a leaver."

Buddie further says : " Waggon men, in going down very
steep Runs, commonly take their horses from before, and
fasten them behind their waggons,1 as they would inevitably
be killed was the convoy to break (which frequently happens)
or any other accident occasion these waggons to run amain.
Nor is this fatal consequence attendant only on the horses,
but the drivers often receive broken bones, bruises, and
frequently the most excruciating deaths. Indeed, in some
places, a most humane custom is established, which is, when
any waggon-man loses his horse, the other Waggon-men go
a Gait for the poor sufferer, which is little out of their profits,
and purchase him another horse."

About 1750, according to Nicholas Wood, cast-iron wheels
were introduced ; but in 1765 wooden wheels were still
mostly used at the back of the waggon, to allow of the convoy
getting a better grip when the waggon was going, by its own

1 Not only was it a case of the cart going before the horse, on a
descending road, but in some instances there was attached to the waggon
a sort of horse- trolley on which the animal itself could ride down-hill, and
thus reserve its strength for taking back the empty waggon on a second
pair of rails alongside.

History of Inland Transport

weight, down an incline ; though even then the danger of
accident was, as Buddie's observations suggest, sufficiently
grave. On this same point it is said by T. S. Polyhistor, in
a " Description of a Coal Waggon," given in the " London
Magazine " for March, 1764 : —

" They commonly unloose the horse when they come to the
runs, and then put him too again when down ; the reason
of their taking him off at such places is because, were the
convoy to break, it would be impossible to save the horse
from being killed, or if the waggon-way rails be wet some-
times a man cannot stop the waggon with the convoy and
where the convoy presses upon the wheel it will fire and
flame surprisingly ; many are the accidents that have hap-
pened as aforesaid ; many hundred poor people and horses
have lost their lives ; for was there ever so many waggons
before the waggon that breaks its convoy and has not got
quite clear of the run, they are all in great danger, both men
and horses, of being killed."

Polyhistor also states that the quantity of coal one of
these waggons would draw on the rails was 19 " bolls," or
" bowls," as he calls them. This gave a load of about 42
cwt. of coal, as compared with the load of 17 cwt., or less,
to which the waggons on the ordinary roads at the collieries
had been reduced. The advantage from the point of view
of transport was obvious ; but no less certain, also, was the
risk to life and limb when a waggon with over two tons of
coal was allowed to run down an incline checked only by a
primitive wooden brake, with a man seated on one end of it
to press it against a wheel. In wet weather boys or old men
were employed to sprinkle ashes on the rails ; but there
were times when the rail-ways having a steep descent could
not be used at all.

Introduced on the Tyne, the rail-way was adopted in 1693
by collieries on the Wear, and it also came into vogue in
Shropshire and other districts. In 1698 a rail- way was set
up on Sir Humphry Mackworth's colliery at Neath, Glamorgan-
shire ; but after it had been in use about eight years it was
condemned by a grand jury at Cardiff as a " nuisance," and
the portion crossing the highway between Cardiff and Neath
was torn up. In a statement presented, rebutting the allega-
tion of the grand jury, it was said : " These waggon ways are

Evolution of the Railway 203

very common and frequently made use of about Newcastle
and also at Broseley, Benthal and other places in Shropshire,
and are so far from being nuisances that they have ever been
esteemed very useful to preserve the roads, which would
be otherwise made very bad and deep by the carriage of
coal in common waggons and carts."

The Tyneside colliery rail- way was, in fact, widely adopted ;
though it underwent many improvements long before there
was any suggestion of operating the new form of traction by
means of locomotives.

The first improvement on the original wooden rail pegged
on to the sleepers was the fastening on it of another rail, in
order that this could be removed, when worn down, without
interfering with the sleepers. This arrangement was known
as the " double way " ; and Nicholas Wood says of it :
" The double rail, by increasing the height of the surface
whereon the carriage travelled, allowed the inside of the road
to be filled up with ashes or stone to the under side of the
upper rail, and consequently above the level of the sleepers,
which thus secured them from the action of the feet of the
horses." He adds that on the first introduction of the double
way the under rail was of oak, and afterwards of fir, mostly
six feet long, and reaching across three sleepers, and was
about five inches broad on the surface by four or five inches
in depth. The upper rail was of the same dimensions and
almost always made of beech or plane tree.

The next improvement was the nailing of thin strips, or
" plates," of wrought iron on to the double rail wherever
there was a steep descent or a considerable curve, thus
diminishing the friction. These " plates " were about two
inches wide and half an inch thick, and they were fastened
on to the wooden rails with ordinary nails. They constituted
the first step towards the conversion of wooden rail- ways into
an iron road, and Nicholas Wood thinks it very likely that
the diminution of friction resulting from their use may have *
suggested the substitution of iron rails for wooden ones.

Cast-iron rails began to come into use about 1767. Their
brittleness was, at first, found to be a great disadvantage ;
but this defect was subsequently overcome, to a certain
extent, by the use of smaller waggons, which allowed of a
better distribution of weight over the rail. Then in or about

204 History of Inland Transport

1776 " plates " or " rails " (the two expressions seem to
have been used somewhat indiscriminately) were cast with
an inner flange, from two to three inches high, so that
waggons with ordinary wheels could be taken upon them
and be kept on the plate, or rail, by means of this flange.

John Curr, manager of the Duke of Norfolk's collieries,
near Sheffield, who claimed to have invented these flanged
f' plates," describes them in his " Coal Viewer and Engine
Builder's Practical Companion " (1797), as being six feet
long, three inches broad, half an inch thick, from 47 Ibs. to
50 Ibs. in weight, and provided with nail holes for fastening
them direct on to oak sleepers. Lines so constructed became
known as " plate-ways," " tram- ways," or, alternatively,
" dram-ways."

The derivation of the words tram and tramway has given
rise to a certain amount of discussion from time to time, and
the fallacy that they come from the name of Benjamin Outram,
of the Ripley iron- works, Derbyshire, who, in the last quarter
of the eighteenth century, advocated the flanged-plate system
of rail-way, has been especially favoured. It was, however,
merely a coincidence that ' ' tram ' ' formed part of his
name, and this popular theory here in question is quite
unfounded.

The real origin of " tram " is indicated, rather, by the
following list of possible derivations, which I take from
Skeat's " Etymological Dictionary " : —

Swedish : Tromm, trumm, a log, or the stock of a tree ;
also a summer sledge.

Middle Swedish : Tram, trum, a piece of a large tree cut
up into logs.

Norwegian : Tram, a door-step (of wood). Traam, a frame.

Low German : Traam, a balk or beam ; especially one of
the handles of a wheel-barrow.

Old High German : Dram, tram, a beam.

Thus in its original signification the word tram, or its
equivalent, was applied either to a log of wood or to certain
specified objects made of wood.

The word itself was in use in this country as far back as
the middle of the sixteenth century, since on August 4, 1555,
a certain Ambrose Middleton, of Skirwith, Cumberland (as
recorded in the Surtees Society " Publications," vol. xxxviii.,

Evolution of the Railway 205

page 37, note), made a will in which he left " to the amendinge
of the highwaye or tram, from the weste ende of Bridgegait,
in Barnard Castle, 203." There is no reason to doubt that
the " highwaye or tram " here referred to was a road across
which logs of wood had been laid, the name " tram " being
applied thereto by reason of its aforesaid original significa-
tion. It is, further, easy to understand how, when the pioneer
rail-ways were made entirely of wood, the word tram-way
should, for that reason, still be applied to them. Just, also,
as " tram " had already passed from a log of wood to a wooden
sledge or to a wheelbarrow handle, so it was given by pit-
men in the north of England to the small waggon in which
coal was pushed or drawn along in the workings.

When " plates " were nailed on to the wooden rails of the
early rail-ways the use of the word tram- way may still have
been regarded as appropriate ; it was retained for the plates
or rails provided with a flange, and lines constructed with
flanged plates or rails were, in turn, called plate-ways, tram-
ways, or dram-ways to distinguish them from other ways or
roads made with rails having no flange.

In course of time the wooden rails which had been the
original justification for the use of the word or prefix " tram "
disappeared, and even the flanged rails were to be met with
only on canal or colliery lines ; but " tramway " — now a
complete misnomer — is the name still given in this country
to what in the United States are more accurately known as
street railways.

Of the vast number of people in the United Kingdom who
daily use the word tramway, or speak of " going by tram,"
few, probably, realise how they are thus recalling the days
alike of log-roads and of those rail-ways of wood which were
the pioneers of the iron roads of to-day.

The designation, also, of " platelayer " was originally
applied to the men employed to lay the " plates " of which
I have spoken ; but although workers on the permanent way
are now, surely, nzi/-layers rather than plate-layers, they are
still known by the original name.

The system of flanged plates, or rails, was widely adopted ;
but when, in 1785, it was proposed to build a 3-mile plate-
way, or tram-way, of this type between Loughborough and
the Nanpantan collieries, the commissioners of a turnpike

206 History of Inland Transport

road it was necessary to cross objected, on the ground that
the raised flange would be dangerous to traffic passing along
the road. Following on these objections, William Jessop,
the engineer of the proposed line, decided, in 1788, to abandon
flanged plates and flat wheels, and to substitute for them
flat rails and flanged wheels.1 He proceeded to cast some
" edge-rails " which overcame the scruples of the road com-
missioners, and the Loughborough and Nanpantan rail-way
was opened in 1789, being the first having iron rails with a
flat surface, on the " edge " of which wheels with a flange on
their inner side were run. The plate, or tram, system of
flanged rails still had many advocates, and for a time there
was much controversy as to the respective merits of the two
systems; but the principle introduced by Jessop was eventually
adopted for railways in general, and became one of the most
important of the developments that rendered possible the
attainment of high speeds in rail transport. " The sub-
stitution of the flanged wheel for the flanged plate was,"
said Mr. James Brunlees, C.E., in his presidential address
in the Mechanical Science Section at the 1883 meeting of the
British Association, " an organic change which has been the
forerunner of the great results accomplished in modern
travelling by railway."

For some thirty years after Jessop's improvement, the
rails, of whichever kind, were still made of cast-iron, wrought-
iron rails, tried at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1805, not coming
into general use until about 1820, when John Birkenshaw,
of the Bedlington iron-works, invented an efficient and
economical method of rolling iron bars suitable for use as
railway lines.2 By 1785 iron rails, even though only cast-
iron rails, had widely taken the place of the wooden rails
which had then been in use for over a hundred years.

1 In the first instance projections were cast on the rails to allow of their
being attached to the wooden sleepers ; but, as these projections were
found to break easily, they were cast separately in the form of "pedestals,"
or "chairs," into which, after they had been fastened to the sleepers, the
rails could be fixed with pieces of wood.

2 Mr Brunlees is of opinion that the plating of rails with a steel surface
was probably begun about 1854, and that it was not until eight or ten
years later they were made entirely of steel. "Now," he said in his
address, " owing to the improvements in the manufacture of steel rails,
they can be produced as easily and as cheaply as iron rails. "

Evolution of the Railway 207

The substitution, from about 1767, of iron rails — even
though they were only cast-iron rails — for wooden ones be-
came the great event in the development of railways at this
period, and gave the newer lines their distinguishing feature
as compared with their predecessors. Each fresh line made
took the credit of being an " iron rail-way " ; and not only
did that designation remain in vogue in this country for
several decades but it fixed, also, the names of the railway
systems in various Continental countries, as shown by the
term " Chemin de Fer " in France and Belgium, " Eisenbahn "
in Germany, Austria and Switzerland ; " Strada ferrata "-in
Italy, and " Ferrocarril " in Spain (the English equivalent in
each instance being " Iron Road "), and by the name of
Holland Iron Railway Company (" Hollandsche Yzeren
Spoorvegs-maatschappy ") by which one of the oldest of the
railway companies in Holland — where it was founded in
1837 — is still known.1

One factor in the preference shown for iron rails over^
wooden ones was the consideration of cost. Alluding to the J
wooden railways of Durham, in his " General View " of the
agriculture of that county, drawn up for the Board of Agri-
culture in 1810, John Bailey, of Chillingham, says : "Of late
years, on account of the high price of wood, iron railways
have been substituted." With an increase in the price of
timber, owing to the greater scarcity thereof, as the available
supplies in the southern counties became more depleted, the
time may well have come when, apart from other considera-
tions, it was found cheaper in the north to make cast-iron
rails than to import wooden ones. The need for importing
so much timber was further diminished, from about 1739, by
the substitution, in many instances, of blocks of stone for

1 The adoption of the designation " Iron," as applied to the railway
systems abroad, was probably influenced to some extent by Thomas
Gray's " Observations on a General Iron Rail- way." First published in
1820, the work had gone through five editions by 1825, and in a letter
addressed, in 1845, to Sir Robert Peel, urging the claims of Gray to
generous treatment by the State, on the ground of his being the "author"
(sic) of the railway system, Thomas Wilson wrote : " His name and his fame
were spreading in other lands ; his work was translated into all the Euro-
pean languages, and to the impression produced by it may be attributes
the popular feeling throughout Germany and France in favour of rail-road
which has terminated in the adoption of his railway system in Germany
and Belgium especially."

208 History of Inland Transport

the wooden sleepers previously used, the iron being either
spiked to wooden plugs inserted in holes made in the stones
or else fastened by wooden pins into cast-iron " pedestals,"
as John Bailey calls them, fixed in the stones.

Wooden rails did not, however, entirely and immediately
give way to iron rails. On the contrary, the old system was
so far maintained that, according to " The Industrial Re-
sources of the Tyne," wooden railways could still be found
on the collieries in that district as late as 1860.

Among the advantages derived from the substitution of
iron rails for wooden rails was the fact that a horse could
draw, on the level, heavier loads than before. On the other
hand, the heavier the load the greater was the danger in
taking the waggons down hill-sides with only a wooden
brake to check their speed ; and this danger was increased
to an even greater degree when the use of iron rails involved
the abandonment of the wooden wheels which had hitherto
been retained at the back of the waggons in order that the
brake should act more effectively. Still further improve-
ments thus became necessary, and these first took the form
of inclined planes on which the law of gravity was employed,
loaded waggons raising empty ones, or having their own
descent regulated, by means of a rope passing round a wheel
at the top of the incline. Later on stationary engines and
chains were substituted for the wheel and the rope, horses
then being employed on the level only.

/ Bailey says on this point : " Waggon ways have generally

/ been so contrived that the ascents were not greater than a

single horse could draw a waggon up them ; but some cases

\ have happened lately where it required more than one horse,

\ and steam engines have been substituted for horses for

\ drawing waggons up these ascents. At Urpeth waggon way

I five or six waggons are drawn up at one ascent, by a steam

I engine placed at the top."

Here, then, we have another stage in the process of evolu-
tion that was going on. The stationary engine at the top of
an incline drawing up, or regulating the descent of, heavier
loads, on iron rails, was the first employment on railways of
that steam power which was afterwards to develop into the
locomotive capable to-day of taking heavy trains at a speed
of a mile a"minute. In those early days, however, speed was

Evolution of the Railway 209

not regarded as a matter of any importance. Colliery managers
were quite satisfied with a steady three miles an hour.

Although the general conditions of the pioneer railways
were, apparently, so primitive, some of the lines were more
ambitious and more costly than might, at first, be supposed.
Among them were lines from five to ten miles in extent which
served the double purpose of (i) enabling collieries in, for
example, the Hinterland of the Tyne to benefit from the ever-
expanding trade in coal ; and (2) providing them with the
means of discharging direct into the colliers below Newcastle
bridge, thus saving the preliminary transport in, and trans-
shipment from, the coal barges on the river. In these five- or
ten-mile distances there were often considerable declivities to
overcome, in order that the ideal of a gradual descent should
be secured, and the cuttings, embankments, bridges and other
works thus carried out were often closely akin to much of the
railway construction with which we are familiar to-day.
Thus Dr. Stukeley, in his " Itinerarium Curiosum," says in
describing the visit he paid to the Tanfield Collieries, Durham,
in 1725 :—

" We saw Col. Lyddal's coal-works at Tanfield, where he
carries the road over valleys filled with earth, 100 foot high,
300 foot broad at bottom : other valleys as large have a
stone bridge laid across : l in other places hills are cut through
for half a mile together ; and in this manner a road is made,
and frames of timber laid, for five miles to the river-side."

Arthur Young, also, who visited the Newcastle-on-Tyne
district in 1768, says in his " Six Months Tour through the
North of England " : " The coal waggon roads from the
pits to the water are great works carried over all sorts of
inequalities of ground so far as the distance of nine or ten
miles."

The staiths at the river end of the Tyne railways are de-
scribed in the " Commercial and Agricultural Magazine " as
" solid buildings, two stories high ; into the upper story the

1 The stone bridge here referred to allowed of an easy transport across
the valley from the collieries to the Tyne. Constructed by a local mason,
the bridge soon fell down, and was rebuilt in 1727, the architect thereupon
committing suicide to spare himself the anxiety of any possible further
collapse of his work. In Brand's " History and Antiquities of Newcastle "
(1789) it is stated that the span of the bridge was 103 feet, that the height
was 63 feet, and that the cost of the structure was £1200.

2io History of Inland Transport

waggon- way enters, and a spout projecting over the river
shoots the coals into the keels, or a trap-door drops the
coals into the lower story, whence they must be shovelled
into the keels afterwards."

John Francis expresses the opinion, in his " History of
the English Railway " (1851), that probably by 1750 there
was scarcely an important colliery that had not its own rail-
way. Such lines as these, however, were of a private character,
serving the interests only of the companies or the individuals
making them, without offering transport facilities to other
traders in return for tolls, and requiring no Act of Parliament
so long as they retained this character, did not require to
cross public roads, and could be constructed by agreement
among the landowners concerned. The more important
development came when the canal companies themselves
desired to supplement their canals by railways which anyone
paying the stipulated tolls could use in connection with canal
transport. Under these conditions the companies had to
seek for further powers from Parliament, and this they began
to do about the middle of the eighteenth century.

The Trent and Mersey Canal Act of 1776, for example,
authorised the construction of a " rail- way " from the canal
to the Froghall quarries, a distance of three and a half miles.1
In 1802 the same company obtained authority to construct
three " railways " extending from their canal in various
directions. The preamble of the Act (42 Geo. III. c. 25)
recited that the lines would be of " great advantage to the
extensive manufactories of earthenware . . . and of public
utility," and the Act accordingly sanctioned the lines " for
the passage of waggons and carriages of forms and construc-
tions, and with burthens suitable to such railways, to be
approved by the company," at rates duly specified. These
various railways, together with the Trent and Mersey Canal
itself, were, in 1846, taken over by the North Staffordshire
Railway Company, whose general manager, Mr W. D.
Phillipps, informs me that portions of two of them are still
in daily use. They are laid with cast-iron tram plates, with
flanges to keep the wheels in place, and ordinary waggons

1 In the Company's further Acts of 1783 and 1785 this line was still
spoken of as a "rail-way," with the hyphen ; but in their Act of 1797 it
had become a railway — without the hyphen.

Evolution of the Railway 2 1 1

and carts use them to get from the canal basin to the high
road, a few hundred yards away, the same rate of toll being
charged as on the canal. Mr Phillipps further says : " Our
Froghall tramway rises 400 feet from the level of the canal
to the quarry, passing by means of a tunnel through an
intermediate hill, and it is worked entirely by gravitation,
there being four inclined planes of various lengths and in-
clinations. The gauge is 3 feet 6 inches. It is practically
the same as when laid down over 100 years ago. We convey
over it nearly 500,000 tons of limestone annually, and I find
it a cheap and expeditious mode of conveyance."

I would call special attention to these details because it
was, no doubt, the fact that ordinary road carts, with flat-
edged wheels, could be taken along the flanged plates of the
early railways, and were so taken under authority of the
Acts of Parliament here in question, that originally established
the idea both of a common user of the railways by traders em-
ploying their own vehicles upon them and of competition being
thus ensured between different carriers. The pioneer public
railways, provided as accessories to canal transport, were,
indeed, looked upon as simply a variation, in principle, of
the ordinary turnpike road. They were roads furnished with
rails, and available for use, on payment of the authorised
tolls, by anyone whose cart-wheels were the right distance
apart.

The position in this respect was entirely changed when the
system of railway operation came to be definitely fixed on the
principle of edge-rails and flanged wheels, with locomotives
in place of horses ; yet the legislation immediately follow-
ing the spread of railways on this vastly different basis was
still determined, as regarded their use by the public, by the
precedent originally established under the conditions here
narrated.

While thus operated on the toll principle of a turnpike
road — the pioneer " railway stations " being themselves
simply the equivalent of toll-houses — the early railways
were all associated with canal or river transport. Robert
Fulton says in his " Treatise on the Improvement of Canal
Navigation " (1796) that " Rail-roads have hitherto been
considered as a medium between lock-canals and cartage,
in consequence of the expence of extending the canal to the

212 History of Inland Transport

particular works in its neighbourhood " ; and, in the course
of a detailed argument in favour of small boats, of from two
to five tons burden, in preference to the unduly large ones —
as he considered them — then in vogue, he adds : " Rail- ways
of one mile or thereabouts will, no doubt, be frequently
necessary, where it may be difficult to find water at the
extremity, or when the trade from the works is not sufficient
to pay the expence of machinery,1 and, its extent being one
mile, can be of little importance to the country."

That Parliament itself, at this time, looked upon railways
only as accessories to canals is shown by a reference to the
" House of Commons Journals," where, under date June 19,
*799> it is reported that a Committee appointed, on the loth
of the same month, " to consider the expediency of requiring
notices to be given of an intended application to Parliament
for leave to bring in a Bill for the making of Ways or Roads
usually called Railways or Dram Roads, or for the renewal
or alteration of an Act passed for that purpose," had adopted
the following resolution : " That it is the opinion of this
Committee, That the Standing Orders of the House of the
yth of May, 1794, relating to Bills for making Navigable
Canals, Aqueducts and the Navigation of Rivers, or for
altering any Act of Parliament for any or either of those
purposes, be extended to Bills for making any Ways or
Roads, commonly called Railways or Dram Roads, except so
much of the said Standing Orders as requires," etc. The resolu-
tion was agreed to by the House on the 25th of the same
month.

Towards the close of the century it became customary for
canal companies applying to Parliament for powers, or
extensions of existing powers, to seek for authority to make
railways, waggon ways or stone roads in connection with
their canals ; and these they were generally authorised to
lay down to any existing or future mines, quarries, furnaces,
forges or other works within a distance of, at first four,
subsequently eight, miles of such canal. They were, also,
authorised to construct any bridges necessary for giving
access to the canal. If, after being asked to make a railway,
waggon road or bridge, under these conditions, the canai
company refused so to do, the person or persons concerned
1 Stationary engines.

Evolution of the Railway 213

could carry out the work at his or their own cost and charges,
without the consent of the owner of the lands, rivers, brooks
or water-courses it might be necessary to cross, though
subject to the payment to them of compensation under
conditions analogous to those in force in regard to the con-
struction of canals. One Act of this type, the Aberdare Canal
Act, 1793, goes on to say : " Every such rail way or waggon
road and bridge . . . shall ... be publick and open to all
persons for the conveyance of any minerals, goods, wares,
merchandizes and things, in waggons and other carriages,"
of a specified construction, " and for the passage of horses,
cows and other meat cattle, on payment to the person or
persons at whose charge and expense such rail way or waggon
road shall have been made or erected " of the same rates as
would be payable to the canal company under like con-
ditions.

It was in South Wales, even more than on the Tyne, that
the early railways eventually underwent their greatest develop-
ment. In "Illustrations of the Origin and Progress of Rail
and Tram Roads and Steam Carriages or Loco-motive Engines"
(1824), by T. G. Gumming, Surveyor, Denbigh, we read : —

" As late as the year 1790 there was scarcely a single rail-
way in all South Wales, whilst in the year 1812 the rail- ways,
in a finished state, connected with canals, collieries, iron and
copper works, &c., in the counties of Monmouth, Glamorgan
and Carmarthen alone extended to upwards of one hundred
and fifty miles in length, exclusive of a very considerable
extent within the mines themselves, of which one company at
Merthyr Tydvil possessed upwards of thirty miles under-
ground connected with the stupendous iron works at that
place ; and so rapid has been the increase of rail-ways in
South Wales of late years that at the present period they
exceed four hundred miles, exclusive of about one hundred
miles underground."

The whole of these lines were on the tram-plate, or flanged-
rail, principle, while solid blocks of stone were, in Wales,
generally substituted for wooden sleepers. Cumming further
says : —

" In the extensive mining districts south of the Severn,
including South Wales, the rail and tram roads are very
numerous, and here, perhaps, more than in any part of the

214 History of Inland Transport

United Kingdom, owing to the steepness, great irregularity
and impracticable nature of the ground, they have been of the
most essential utility in supplying the place of canals. . . .

" There are numerous tram roads connected with the canal
between Cardiff and Merthyr Tydvil, in Glamorganshire.
The extent of rail road about Merthyr Tydvil alone is very
considerable ; besides which, in the same neighbourhood are
the Hirwaen, Aberdare, and Abernant tram roads, and a
great variety of others communicating with the vast works
on the hills in the vicinity."

One of the South Wales tramroad schemes — though not
specifically mentioned by Gumming — is of exceptional interest
inasmuch as it represented, probably, the first attempt ever
made to introduce a railway as a direct rival of and com-
petitor with a canal, instead of being simply a feeder thereof.
The attempt was a failure, but it nevertheless constitutes a
landmark in early railway history.

The story begins with the granting, in 1790, of an Act for
the cutting of a canal between Merthyr and Cardiff by the
Company of Proprietors of the Glamorganshire Canal Naviga-
tion, improved means of transport being then much needed
in the interests of the iron-works and other industrial under-
takings in the district. The Act of 1790 authorised the com-
pany to spend £90,000 on the canal ; but this amount was
found to be inadequate, and in 1796 a second Act sanctioned
the raising of a further £10,000, and, also, the cutting of a
short extension at the Cardiff end.

The opening of the canal for traffic is thus recorded by
J. Phillips in the fourth edition (1803) of his " General History
of Inland Navigation " : —

" Feb. 1794. The canal from Cardiff to Merthir-Tidvil is
completed, and a fleet of canal boats have arrived at Cardiff
laden with the produce of the iron works there, to the great
joy of the whole town. The rude tracks, through which the
canal passes in some places are constantly improving, from
the happy and healthful toil of the husbandman, and in a
few years will be forgotten in a garden of verdure and fer-
tility. This canal is 25 miles long ; it passes along the sides
of stupendous mountains. Nothing appears more extra-
ordinary than, from a boat navigating this canal, to look
down on the river Taaf, dashing among the rocks 100 yards

Evolution of the Railway 215

below. The fall from Merthir-Tidvil to Cardiff is nearly 600
feet."

In a later reference, dated 1802, Phillips says that the
completion of the Glamorganshire Canal " has opened a ready
conveyance to the vast manufacture of iron established in
the mountains of that country, and many thousands of tons
are now annually shipped from thence."

The canal, however, failed to meet all requirements, a
scheme for a railway, or dram-road, between Cardiff and
Merthyr being projected in the same year that the water-
way was first opened.

In " Rees' Cyclopaedia " (1819) it is stated : " The rail-
ways hitherto constructed were private property, or for the
accommodation of particular mines or works, and it was not,
we believe, until about the year 1794 that Mr Samuel Horn-
fray and others obtained an act of Parliament for constructing
an iron dram-road, tram-road or rail- way between Cardiff and
Merthyr Tidvill in South Wales, that should be free for any
persons to use, with drams or trams of the specified con-
struction on paying certain tonnage or rates per mile to the
proprietors." Tredgold, in his " Practical Treatise on Rail-
roads " (1825), makes a similar statement as regards the
granting of an Act in 1794, saying that " in consequence of
the upper part of the Cardiff or Glamorganshire canal being
frequently in want of water, the Cardiff and Merthyr rail-
way or tram-road was formed parallel to it, for a distance of
about nine miles, chiefly for the iron works of Plymouth,
Pendarran and Dowlais," with a continuation, however,
making a total distance of about 26| miles. The tramway,
he further says, " appears to have been constructed under
the first Act ever obtained for this species of road."

These statements have been accepted and repeated by
various writers ; but a search of the " House of Commons
Journals " for 1794 fails to show that any such Act was
passed. The scheme in question seems to have been pro-
jected, in 1794, by certain ironmasters, who found that their
own traffic on the canal was being prejudiced by a preference
given to the traffic of their rivals ; but the project for a
tramway or railway from Merthyr to Cardiff was abandoned
— for a time — in favour of one from Merthyr to a place
then called Navigation, and now known as Abercynon,

216 History of Inland Transport

where the canal would be joined, and traffic could be tran-
shipped.

The tramway in question is thus referred to in " The
Scenery, Antiquities and Biography of South Wales, from
Material Collected during two Excursions in the year 1803,"
by B. H. Malkin (second edition, 1807) : —

" At the Aqueduct, where the Canal is carried over the
River, an iron rail-road for the present ends ; and from the
Wharf at this place [Navigation] the Canal is the only con-
veyance for heavy goods to Cardiff ; the length of it — as
Ear as it has already been completed — is 10 miles, but it was
designed to have extended from Merthyr Tydfil to Cardiff,
and it is said that one horse would have been able to draw
40 tons of iron the whole distance of 26 miles in one day ; I
understand, however, that it is not likely to be finished, and,
indeed, it is much more necessary where it is now made from
the occasional want of water lower down where the con-
fluence of many and copious streams affords a more certain
supply to the Canal."

The line had evidently been constructed, not under any
special Act, but by the authority of powers already granted
by clause 57 of the Glamorganshire Canal Company's own
Act, which, framed on the general lines already mentioned,
conferred upon all persons owning, renting, leasing, or occupy-
ing property containing any mines of coal, iron-stone, lime-
stone or other minerals, or the proprietors of any furnaces or
other works lying within the distance of four miles from
some part of the canal the right to make any railways or
roads over the lands or grounds of any person or persons, or
to make any bridges over any river, brook or watercourse,
for the purpose of conveying the coal, iron, etc., to the said canal.

It will be noticed that this clause appears to limit to four
miles the length of any tramway constructed in virtue of its
provisions, whereas the length of the line actually made was,
in effect, nine miles from Merthyr and ten from Dowlais.
It is understood, however, that the constructors of the tram-
way successfully contended that, so long as their mines or
works were within four miles of the canal, they were at liberty
to lay down the tramway to such point on the canal as they
thought proper to select, and they chose Navigation because
it suited them best.

Evolution of the Railway 217

There is reason to believe, although actual proof is lacking,
that the original design of continuing this tramway to Cardiff
was not carried out because of the opposition of the canal
company. Certain it is that the project for such a tramway
was revived in 1799. Under date February 18, in that year,
the " House of Commons Journals " record that William
Lewis (Alderley), William Taitt, Thomas Guest, Joseph
Cowles, and John Guest, being a firm of ironmasters in the
parish of Merthyr Tydvil, known as the Dowlais Iron Com-
pany ; Jeremiah Homfray, Samuel Homfray, Thomas Horn-
fray and William Forman, ironmasters, of Merthyr Tydvil,
known by the name of Jeremiah Homfray and Co. ; Richard
Hill and William Lewis (Pentyrch Works) petitioned the
House for leave to bring in a Bill for the construction of a
" dram road " from or near Carno Mill, in the parish of
Bedwelty and the county of Monmouth to Cardiff, with
branches to Merthyr and Aberdare.1

The petitioners declared that such dram-road would
" open an easy Communication with several considerable
Ironworks, Collieries, Limestone Quarries and extensive
Tracks of Land, abounding with Coal, Limestone and other
Minerals, whereby the Carriage and Conveyance of Iron,
Coal, Lime, Timber and all kinds of Merchandize to or from
the different Places bordering on the said intended Road
will be greatly facilitated and rendered less expensive than
at present, and will tend greatly to improve the Lands and
Estates near the said Road, and the said Undertaking will,
in other Respects, be of great Public Utility."

The petition was referred to a Committee, who reported
favourably on March 8, and the Bill was presented and read a

1 The length of the main line from Carno Mill to Cardiff was to be
26 miles, the branches increasing the total to 44 miles. The estimates of
expenditure put the cost of land and construction at £3 1,105, ex'
elusive of ^894 IDS., for " obtaining the Act, etc." The items in respect
to the main line were as follows : —

Forming the road and laying the dram rails, £ s. d.
making the fences, etc., £220 per mile . . 5720 o o
Iron dram rails, 44 tons per mile, at £6 per ton . 6864 o o
Sleepers, £40 per mile ..... 1040 o o
Purchase of land, 26 miles at £75 per mile . . 1950 o o
Extra allowance, £100 per mile .... 2600 o o

£18,174 o o

218 History of Inland Transport

first time on March 15. Then, however, came the opposition
from the canal company. On April 8, as the " Journals "
further record, the Commons received a petition from the
Company of Proprietors of the Glamorganshire Canal Naviga-
tion setting forth that they had been authorised under two
Acts to make and maintain a navigable canal from Merthyr
to Cardiff ; that they had expended on this undertaking
a sum of £100,000 ; that they had seen the Bill above-
mentioned, and, they proceed : —

" That the Dram Road or Way, proposed to be made by
the said Bill, will pass from one End thereof to the other,
nearly parallel, and in almost every Part near to the said
Canal ; and in some places will cross the same ; and that
the Petitioners were induced to undertake the making of the
said Canal, in hopes of being repaid the Expence thereof,
with proper remuneration for the Risk of the said Undertaking,
by the Carriage of Coal, Lime, Iron, Timber, and other goods
and Merchandizes thereon, but if the said Dram Road or
Way should be made as proposed they would be deprived
of a great Part of those Advantages which they apprehend
they have had granted and secured to them, and are there-
fore now fully entitled to, by the said Two Acts, without the
Country adjacent or the Public in General, receiving any
particular Benefit or Advantage."

The company further pleaded that under their Acts they
were " restrained from ever receiving more than a moderate
Dividend on their Shares, and whenever the Profits of the
Canal shall be more than sufficient to pay the same, their
Rates of Tonnage are to be lowered ; * and for that reason, as
well as many others, of equal Justice, they conceive they
should be secured in the possession of all the advantages
proposed to be granted to them by the said Acts."

The House ordered that the petition do lie upon the table
until the said Bill be read a second time, and that counsel be
then heard on both sides. On May 3 a day was appointed
for the second reading, and on May 4 the House received a
further petition from landowners, tradesmen and others in
support of the Bill. The " Journals," however, contain no
record of the second reading having been reached, and their

1 In regard to this particular plea, see further references to the
Glamorganshire Canal Company on pages 238-9.

Evolution of the Railway 219

only further reference at all to the Bill is in the " General
Index" to the volumes for 1790-1801, where, under the
heading " Navigations : Petitions to make Dram Roads to
Canals, &c.," it is said of the Bill in question " Not pro-
ceeded in."

There is no reason to doubt that this first scheme for the
construction of a railway — even though under the name of a
" dram road " — which would have been not only independent
of canal transport but in direct competition therewith, was
killed through the opposition of the then powerful canal
interests. The tradition in Cardiff is that the Glamorganshire
Canal Company " got hold " of the leading promoters, and
persuaded them to abandon their scheme by electing them
members of the managing committee of the canal. Whether
or not some additional inducement was offered to them is
not known. In any case, there was no further attempt to
set up a railway in direct and avowed competition with a
canal until the great fight over the Liverpool and Manchester
Railway Bill, a quarter of a century later.

The significance of all these facts will be found still greater
in the light of what I shall have to say subsequently in regard
to the influence of canal interests and canal precedents alike
on railway development and on railway legislation.

In some instances the railways belonging to the period"^
here under review were constructed by the canal companies
not merely as feeders to the canals but as substitutes for
lengths of canal where the making of an artificial waterway
presented special difficulties. The Lancashire Canal Com-
pany, incorporated in 1792, laid a line of railway for five
miles, passing through the town of Preston, to connect two
sections of canal. The Ashby Canal Company, under an Act
of 1794, avoided a considerable expense in the construction
of locks by supplementing thirty miles of canal on the level
with intermediate lengths of railway to the extent of another
twenty miles. Writing in 1884, Clement E. Stretton says,
in his " Notes on Early Railway History," concerning these
old tram-roads of the Ashby Canal Company : " One part
has since been altered and absorbed into the Ashby and
Worthington Railway ; l but the branch from Ticknall tram-

1 Amalgamated by the Midland Railway Company.

22o History of Inland Transport

way wharf to Tucknall has never been relaid or altered in
any way, and, therefore, is a most interesting relic of ancient
times. To see waggons with flat wheels drawn over cast-
iron rails one yard long by a horse, cannot fail to interest
those who watch the workings of railways, and it most clearly
shows the great improvements made and the perseverance
which has been required to develop the present gigantic
railway system out of such small beginnings."

The Charnwood Forest Canal, again, concerning which I
shall have more to say later, was a connecting link between
two lines of edge-railway, the purpose of the combined land
and water route being to enable Leicestershire coal to reach
the Leicester market.

It will thus be seen that, whilst the coalowners introduced
railways in the first instance, it was the canal companies
themselves who, in the days before locomotives, mainly
developed and established the utility of a new mode of traction
which was eventually to supersede to so material an extent
the inland navigation they favoured. It was open to those
companies to adapt their undertakings much more com-
pletely to the new conditions, if they had had sufficient fore-
sight and enterprise so to do.

The signs of the times were obvious enough to those who
were able and willing to read them, and there were many
indications that canals would assuredly be not only supple-
mented, but supplanted, by railways. An impartial authority
like Thomas Telford, in adding a postscript to an article
on " Canals " which he had contributed to Archdeacon
Plymley's " General View of the Agriculture of Shropshire,"
wrote under date November 13, 1800 : —

" Since the year 1797, when the above account of the
inland navigation of the county of Salop was made out,
another mode of conveyance has frequently been adopted in
this country to a considerable extent ; I mean that of form-
ing roads with iron rails laid along them, upon which the
articles are conveyed on waggons, containing from six to
thirty cwt. ; experience has now convinced us that in countries
whose surfaces are rugged, or where it is difficult to obtain
water for lockage, where the weight of the articles of pro-
duce is great in comparison with their bulk, and where they
are mostly to be conveyed from a higher to a lower level, —

Evolution of the Railway 221

that in those cases, iron rail-ways are in general preferable to
a canal navigation.

" On a rail-way well constructed, and laid with a declivity
of 55 feet in a mile, one horse will readily take down waggons
containing from 12 to 15 tons, and bring back the same
waggons with four tons in them. . . .

" This useful contrivance may be varied so as to suit the
surface of many different countries at a comparatively
moderate expense. It may be constructed in a manner much
more expeditious than navigable canals ; it may be introduced
into many districts where canals are wholly inapplicable ;
and in case of any change in the working of the mines or
manufactures, the rails may be taken up and put down again,
in a new situation, at a moderate expense."

Thomas Gray, writing in 1821, warned investors in canal
shares that the time was " fast approaching when rail- ways
must, from their manifest superiority in every respect,
supersede the necessity both of canals and turnpike roads,
so far as the general commerce of the country was concerned."
He further expressed the conviction that " were canal pro-
prietors sensible how much their respective shares would be
improved in value by converting all the canals into rail-
ways, there would not, perhaps, in the space of ten or twenty
years remain a single canal in the country."

Blinded by their prosperity, however, the canal companies
failed to adopt the necessary measures for ensuring its con-
tinuance, though the Duke of Bridgewater himself saw suffi-
cient of the new rival to get an uneasy suspicion of what
might happen. " We may do very well," he is reported to
have said to Lord Kenyon, when asked about the prospects

of his canals, " if we can keep clear of those tram-roads."

Unfortunately for the canal interests, though fortunately
for the country, the qualified tram-roads were not to be
kept clear of, but, with the encouragement they got from
those they afterwards impoverished, were to bring the Canal
Era to a close, and to inaugurate the Railway Era in its place.

CHAPTER XIX

THE RAILWAY ERA

BETWEEN 1801 and 1825 no fewer than twenty-nine " iron
railways " were either opened or begun in various parts of
Great Britain. The full list is given by John Francis in his
" History of the English Railway." It shows, as Francis
points out, that from Plymouth to Glasgow, and from Car-
narvon to Surrey, " there was scarcely a county where some
form of the railway was not used." Most of these new railways
were, however, still operated in conjunction with collieries
or ironworks and canals or rivers, as the following typical
examples show : —

1802 : Sirhowey Tramroad, built by the Monmouthshire
Canal Company in conjunction with the Tredegar Iron-works;
length, eleven miles ; cost £45,000.

1809 : Forest of Dean Railway, for conveying coals, timber,
ore, etc., to the Severn for shipment ; length, seven and a
half miles ; cost £125,000.

1809 : Severn and Wye Railway, connecting those rivers ;
length, 26 miles ; cost £110,000.

1812 : Penrhynmaur Railway, Anglesey ; a colliery line,
seven miles long, consisting of a series of inclined planes.

1815 : Gloucester and Cheltenham Railway, connecting
with the Berkeley Canal at Gloucester.

1817 : Mansfield and Pinxton Railway, connecting the
town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, with the Cromford Canal
at Pinxton basin, near Alfreton, Derbyshire ; cost £32,800.

1819 : Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway ; length 30 miles ;
cost £35,000.

1825 : Cromford and High Peak Railway, connecting the
Cromford and Peak Forest Canals, and rising, by a series of
elevations, 990 feet ; length 34 miles ; cost £164,000.

The first Act for a really public railway, in the sense in
which that term is understood to-day, and as distinct from

222

The Railway Era 223

railways serving mainly or exclusively the interests of collieries,
iron -works and canal navigations," was granted by Parliament
in 1801 for the Surrey Iron Rail-way, which established a
rail connection between the Thames at Wandsworth and the
town of Croydon, with a branch to some mills on the river
Wandle whose owners were the leaders in the enterprise.
The total length was about nine and a half miles. According
to the Act, the line was designed for " the advantage of
carrying coals, corn and all goods and merchandise to and
from the Metropolis." Constructed with flanged rails, or
" plates," fixed on stone blocks, the line was available for
any ordinary cart or waggon of the requisite gauge. The
conveyances mostly used on it were four-wheeled trucks,
about the size of railway contractors' waggons. They be-
longed either to local traders or to carriers who let them
out on hire, it being doubtful whether the company had any
rolling stock of their own. The motive power was supplied
by horses, mules or donkeys. Chalk, flint, fire-stone, fuller's
earth and agricultural produce were sent from Croydon —
then a town of 5700 inhabitants — to the Thames for con-
veyance to London. The return loading from the Thames
was mainly coal and manure. Two sets of rails were pro-
vided, and there was a path on each side for the men in charge
of the horses.

Referring to the Surrey Iron Rail -way in his " History of
Private Bill Legislation," Clifford says : —

" The Act of 1 80 1, upon which the rest of this early railway
legislation was framed, follows the canal precedents in their
provision for managing the company's affairs, for raising
share and loan capital, and for compensating landowners.
Only the use of horse power was contemplated. The tracks,
when laid down, were meant, like canals, for general use by
carriers and freighters. The companies did not provide
rolling stock ; any person might construct carriages adapted
to run upon the rails, and if these carriages were approved
certain maximum tolls applied to the freight they might carry.
. . . Passenger traffic was not expected or provided for. . . .
Such was the first Railway Act, passed at the beginning of
the century with little notice by Parliament or people, but
now a social landmark, prominent in that stormy period of
history."

224 History of Inland Transport

This was, however, in point of fact, only a further develop-
ment of the still earlier railway legislation (see page 210),
which required the proprietors of lines laid down for general
traffic to allow anyone who pleased to run his own vehicles
thereon, subject to certain regulations and to the payment
of specified tolls.

The Surrey Iron Rail-way was also a landmark in railway
history because, although in itself of very small extent, it
was originally designed to serve as the first section of a rail-
way which, made by different companies, as capital could
be raised, would eventually have extended from the Thames
to Portsmouth.1 The second section was the Croydon,
Merstham and Godstone Iron Railway, which Parliament
sanctioned in 1803. From Croydon this further railway was
to carry the lines on to Reigate, with a branch from Merstham
to Godstone Green, a total distance of sixteen miles in
addition, that is, to the nine and a half miles of the Surrey
Iron Rail-way. Both companies, however, drifted into
financial difficulties, and had to apply to Parliament again,
in 1806, for fresh powers, while the lines of the second com-
pany never got beyond the chalk quarries at Merstham.

In the absence of the through traffic it had been hoped
eventually to secure, the local business alone available was
evidently inadequate to meet the charges on a capital outlay
which, at that time, may have been regarded as not incon-
siderable, inasmuch as the Surrey Iron Rail-way attained
to a good elevation at its southern end, while the Croydon,
Merstham and Godstone line went through a cutting thirty
feet deep, and crossed a valley by an embankment twenty
feet high. After a chequered career, the Merstham line was
acquired by the Brighton Railway Company in 1838 and
closed, being then no longer required. The Surrey line
lingered on till 1846, when, with the sanction of Parliament,
its operation was discontinued, the rails being taken up and
sold by auction.

1 My authority for this statement is a newspaper article, headed "Cen-
tenary of the First Railway Act," written in 1901 by W. P. Paley, and to
be found in a collection of railway pamphlets in the British Museum
(08235 i 36). The name of the journal is not stated ; but the writer of the
article gives such precise details concerning the line in question that his
information is evidently authentic.

The Railway Era 225

It was unfortunate that these two pioneer public railways
were a failure because, had they succeeded, and had they
really formed the first sections of a through line of communica-
tion between the Thames and Portsmouth, there would have
been established a further precedent — and one of much greater
value than that of a common user — the precedent, namely, \
of a trunk line made by companies co-operating with one j
another to give continuous communication on a well-organised .
system, in place of collections of disconnected lines designed, j
at the outset, to serve the interests only of particular localities, ;
with little or no attempt at co-ordination.

Yet the principle of a general public railway had, at least,
been established by the Surrey and Merstham lines, and this
principle underwent further important development by the
Stockton and Darlington Railway, the first Act for which was
obtained in 1821.

The only purpose originally intended to be served by the
Stockton and Darlington Railway was the finding of a better
outlet for coal from the South Durham coalfield. A company,
with Edward Pease as the moving spirit, was formed in 1816,
but two years later the projectors were still undecided whether
to make a canal or " a rail or tramway." George Overton,
who preceded George Stephenson as a distinguished railway
engineer, wrote to them, however, advising the latter course.
" Railways," he said, " are now generally adopted, and the
cutting of canals nearly discontinued " ; and he told them,
further, that within the last fifteen years the great improve-
ments made in the construction of tram-roads had led to the
application of the principle to a number of new roads. His
advice was adopted, and the first Act, obtained after several
unsuccessful efforts, authorised the making and maintaining
of " a railway or tramroad " from the river Tees, at Stockton,
to Witton Park Colliery, with various branches therefrom.
The line would, the Act said, be "of great public utility by
facilitating the conveyance of coal, iron, lime, corn and other
commodities from the interior of the county of Durham to
the town of Darlington and the town and port of Stockton,"
etc.

It was first intended to use wooden rails, and to rely on
horse-power, no authority for the employment of locomotives
being obtained under the Act of 1821 ; but George Stephen-

226 History of Inland Transport

son, on being appointed engineer to the line, persuaded the
company to adopt iron rails in preference to wooden ones, and
to provide a locomotive such as he had already constructed
and successfully employed at Killingworth Colliery. Two-
thirds of the rails laid were of malleable iron and one-third
of cast iron. It was not, however, until September, 1824,
that the order was actually given for a locomotive, some
of the promoters having still shown a strong preference for
the use of stationary engines and ropes.

The line was opened for traffic on September 27, 1825, and
the locomotive which had been ordered — the " Locomotion "
as it was called — was ready for the occasion. It weighed
seven tons, and had perpendicular cylinders and a boiler
provided with only a single flue, or tube, 10 inches in diameter
and 10 feet in length, the heat being abstracted therefrom
so imperfectly that when the locomotive was working the
chimney soon became red-hot.1 The usual speed was from
four to six miles an hour, with a highest possible of eight
miles an hour on the level.

The company made provision for the anticipated goods
traffic by having 150 waggons built ; but they started with
no idea of themselves undertaking passenger traffic. Their
first Act had laid down that " Any person is at liberty to use
and run a carriage on the railway, provided he complies with
the bye-laws of the company " ; and J. S. Jeans, in his
history of the Stockton and Darlington Railway published
(1875) under the title of " Jubilee Memorial of the Railway
System," says : "It was originally intended to allow the
proprietors of stage-coaches or other conveyances plying on
the route of the proposed new railway to make use of the
line on certain specified conditions." This, too, is what
actually happened ; for although, a fortnight after the opening
of the line, the railway company themselves put on the line
a springless " coach," known as the " Experiment," and
drawn by a horse, several coach proprietors in the district
availed themselves of their statutory right to run their own
coaches on the railway, first, of course, providing them with
wheels adapted to the rails. They paid the railway company

1 In succeeding engines a double tube, bent in the form of the letter
U, was fixed. Stephenson provided his "Rocket" with 25 tubes, thus
giving a further substantial increase in the heating surface,

The Railway Era 227

the stipulated tolls, and had the advantage of requiring to
use no more than a single horse for each coach. These horse
coaches for passengers seem to have run" in the intervals
when the lines were not occupied by the locomotive engaged
in drawing the coal waggons.

In a letter published in the " Railway Herald " of April 27,
1889, John Wesley Hackworth, whose father, Timothy
Hackworth, was for some time engineer on the Stockton
and Darlington Railway, says that twenty miles of the line
were at first worked by horses and locomotive in competition,
and at the end of eighteen months it was found that horse
traction was costing only a little over one-third of the trac-
tion by locomotive. Meanwhile, also, the value of the ^100
shares had fallen to ^50. In view of these results the directors
had decided to abandon locomotive power, and depend
entirely on horses ; but Timothy Hackworth said to them,
" If you will allow me to construct an engine in my own
way I will engage it shall work cheaper than animal powerjl_
He received the desired authority, and the " Royal George,"
built by him, was put into operation in September, 1827. It
confirmed the assurance which had been given, and, says
Timothy Hackworth's son, " finally and for ever " settled
the question of the respective merits of horse and steam
traction on railways.

Horse coaches still continued to run on the lines, however,
in addition to the mineral and goods trains, and in January,
1830, the company had to draw up a time-table fixing the
hours of departure for the coaches, thus ensuring a better
service for the public, and, also, protecting travellers against
any possible encounter with the locomotive as the horse
ambled along with them on the railway.

By October, 1832, seven coaches, belonging to various
proprietors, were doing fifty journeys a week between different
places on the line ; so that thus far the original idea of Parlia-
ment, in enforcing against railways the principle of a common
user of their lines by the public, had appeared to be warranted.
A year later, however, the railway company, finding, as
Jeans tells us, that it would be more convenient and more
advantageous for them to take the whole carrying trade in
their own hands and supersede the horses by steam loco-
motives, bought out, on what were considered generous terms,

228 History of Inland Transport

the interests of the four coach proprietors then carrying
passengers on their own account on the lines.

Actual experience had thus nullified the expectation that a
/ railway would be simply a rail- road upon which anyone would
be able to run his own conveyances as on an ordinary turn-
l pike road.

From October, 1833, the whole of the passenger traffic (then
undergoing rapid expansion) was conducted by the com-
pany. In April, 1834, the directors, who had by this time
acquired some other and better engines, announced that
they had commenced to run, six times a day, both " coaches "
(for passengers) and " carriages " (for goods) by locomotives ;
and this date, probably, marks the final disappearance of
the horse as a means of traction for passenger traffic on public
railways in England, though the word " coaches," introduced
into the railway vocabulary under the circumstances here
narrated, has remained in use ever since among railway men
as applied to rolling stock for passenger traffic.

Unlike its predecessors in Surrey, and though facing various
difficulties at the outset, the Stockton and Darlington line
attained to a considerable degree of prosperity. After under-
going various extensions from time to time, and playing a
leading part in the industrial expansion of the district it
served, it was incorporated into what is now the North-
Eastern Railway system.

Summing up the respects in which the Stockton and Dar-
lington line had carried forward the story of railway develop-
ment, we find that it (i) established the practicability of
substituting locomotive for horse traction on railways ;
(2) introduced the provision of waggons by the railway com-
pany, instead of leaving these to be found by carriers and
traders ; (3) proved that railways were as well adaptedTto
the transport of passengers as they were to the carriage^of
goods ; (4) showed by actual experience that the idea of a
common user of railways was impracticable ; and (5) pre-
pared the way for the eventual recognition, even by Parlia-
ment itself, of the principle that transport on a line of rail-
way operated by locomotives must, in the nature of things,
be the monopoly of the owning and responsible railway
company.

While the Surrey Iron Rail-way and the Stockton and

The Railway Era 229

Darlington Railway had been thus seeking to establish them-
selves as public railways, there was no lack of advocates of
what were then called "general rail- ways," to be laid either
on the ordinary roads or on roads made for the purpose ;
and such general railways were especially advocated for
districts where canals could not be made available.

Dr James Anderson, writing on " Cast Iron Rail- ways "
in the issue of his " Recreations in Agriculture, Natural
History," etc., for November, 1800, had already strongly
recommended them as " an eligible mode of conveyance where
canals cannot be conveniently adopted " ; and he especially
advised the construction of one railway in London, from
the new docks on the Isle of Dogs to Bishopsgate Street,
and another between London and Bath, " for the purpose of
conveying unsightly loads, leaving the roads, as at present,
open for coaches and light carriages." Such railways, he
argued, would render great service in relieving the ordinary
road of heavy traffic, and help to solve the road problem
of that day — all the more acute because Me Adam had not
yet shown the country how roads could and should be made
or repaired.

On February n, 1800, Mr Thomas, of Denton, read a
paper before the Newcastle Literary Society recommending
the introduction of railways, on the colliery principle, for
the general carriage of goods ; and R. L. Edgeworth urged,
in " Nicholson's Journal," in 1802, that for a distance of
ten miles or more one of the great roads out of London should
be provided with four tracks of railway operated by stationary
engines and circulating chains for fast and slow traffic in
each direction.

But the most strenuous advocate of all was Thomas Gray.
Both before and subsequent to the publication, in 1820, of
the first edition of his " Observations on a General Rail- way,"
he had been pressing his views, in the form of petitions, letters
or articles, on members of the Government, peers of the
realm, M.P.'s, corporations, capitalists, reviews and news-
papers. His idea was that there should be six trunk lines
of railway radiating from London, with branch lines linking
up towns and villages off these main routes ; but he was
looked upon as a visionary, if not as a crank and a bore whose
impracticable proposals were not deserving of serious con-

230 History of Inland Transport

sideration. It was evidently Thomas Gray whom the " Quar-
terly Review " had in mind when it said, in March, 1825 :
" As to those persons who speculate on making railways
general throughout the Kingdom, and superseding all the
canals, all the waggons, mail and stage-coaches, post-chaises,
and, in short, every other mode of conveyance by land and
water, we deem them and their visionary schemes unworthy
of notice."

In the result Gray was left to spend the last years of his
life in obscurity and poverty, and the further development
of the railway system of the country was proceeded with on
lines altogether different from, and far less efficient, than
those he had recommended.

The greatest impetus to the movement was now to come,
not from any individual pioneer, but from the Liverpool and
Manchester Railway ; and this line, in turn, was due far
more to purely local conditions and circumstances than to
any idea of encouraging the creation of a network of railways
on some approach, however remote, to a national or " general "
system. The original cause of the Liverpool and Manchester
line being undertaken was, in fact, nothing less than extreme
dissatisfaction among the traders both of Liverpool and of
Manchester with the then existing transport arrangements
between these two places.

Just as the Duke of Bridgewater had drawn his strongest
arguments in favour of a canal from the shortcomings of the
Irwell and Mersey navigation, so now did the traders base
their case for a railway mainly on the deficiencies and short-
comings alike of the river navigation and of the canal by
which the rivers had been supplemented.

There were, in the first place, physical difficulties. By
whichever of the two water routes goods were sent from
Liverpool to Manchester, the barges had first to go about
eighteen miles along the Mersey to Runcorn, being thus
exposed for that distance to the possibly adverse winds and
strong tides of an open estuary. The boats often got aground,
and many wrecks occurred during stormy weather. On the
canal itself the boats could often go with only half loads in
the summer, and they were liable to be stopped by frost in
winter, while the canal was closed altogether for ten days
every year for repairs.

The Railway Era 231

Supplementing these physical disadvantages of the naviga-
tion was the attitude of the waterway interests towards
the traders whom they held at their mercy. Theoretically
there was competition between the rivers and the canal ;
but the agents of both extorted from the traders the highest
possible charges for a most inefficient service.

Joseph Sandars, who was to take a leading part in the
movement for a railway between Liverpool and Manchester,
has some strong things to say about the " exorbitant and
unjust charges of the water carriers " in a " Letter " on the
subject of the proposed railway which he published in 1824.
He alleged that, whereas the Duke of Bridgewater had been
authorised by his Acts to charge not more than two shillings
and sixpence per ton for canal dues, his agents had, by various
devices, which Sandars details, exacted five shillings and two-
pence per ton. The trustees had, also, obtained possession
of all the warehouses alongside the canal at Manchester,
and they were thus able to exact whatever terms they pleased
from the bye-carriers and traders. If the canal trustees
carried the goods in their own vessels they were entitled to
charge six shillings per ton ; and their aim seems to have
been to render it impossible for the independent carriers to
do their business at a lower rate than this. When the carriers,
using boats of their own, would not pay the same rate as if
the trustees had themselves done the carrying, they were
not allowed to land the goods.

Then, by acquiring all the warehouses and all the avail-
able land at Preston Brook and Runcorn, the trustees had
likewise got control over navigation on the Trent and Mersey
Canal, which joins the Bridgewater Canal at Preston Brook.
Sandars speaks of Mr Bradshaw, to whom the Duke of
Bridgewater had, by his will, given absolute control of his
undertakings, as a dictator of canal transport. " No man,"
he says, in giving examples of the wide extent of the interests
that Bradshaw controlled or sought to influence, " can bring
a Bill forward for a canal in any part of the Kingdom but
Mr Bradshaw interferes as a sort of canal Neptune, directing
where, how, and at what price it shall run. He has tortured
the trade of the country to become tributory to him in all
directions. Every man, every corporate body, seems spell-
bound the moment Mr Bradshaw interposes his authority."

232 History of Inland Transport

As for the profits of the undertaking, Sandars says : " There
is good reason to believe that the nett income of the Duke's
canal has, for the last twenty years, averaged nearly ^100,000
per annum."

The Old Quay Company had refrained from exceeding the
amounts they were authorised to charge for tolls on the
Irwell and the Mersey ; but there was no restriction on them
in regard to traffic they themselves carried, and Sandars
alleges that they, also, had secured all the warehouse accom-
modation on their own line of route, and had almost mono-
polised the carrying trade, since a bye-carrier's business could
hardly be conducted without warehouses. They were thus
making far more money than they could have got from the
statutory tolls alone. So profitable had the undertaking
become that the thirty-nine original proprietors had, Sandars
continues, " been paid every other year, for nearly half a
century, the total amount of their investment." An immense
revenue was being raised at the expense of the merchants
and manufacturers, " and for no other purpose than to
enrich a few individuals who were daily violating Acts of
Parliament, Acts which, by a long course of cunning policy,"
they had contrived to convert into " the most oppressive
and unjust monopoly known to the trade of this Kingdom —
a monopoly which," Sandars goes on to declare, " there is
every reason to believe compels the public to pay, in one
shape or another, ^100,000 more per annum than they ought
to pay."

The agents of the two companies not only agreed be-
tween themselves what charges they would impose but,
autocrats as they were, they established a despotic sway over
the traders. They set up, says Francis, " a rotation by which
they sent as much or as little as suited them, and shipped
it how or when they pleased. They held levees, attended
by crowds who, admitted one by one, almost implored them
to forward their goods. One firm was thus limited by the
supreme wisdom of the canal managers to sixty or seventy
bags a day. The effects were really disastrous ; mills stood
still for want of material ; machines were stopped for lack
of food. Of 5000 feet of pine timber required in Manchester
by one house, 2000 remained unshipped from November,
1824, to March, 1825."

The Railway Era 233

Merchants whose timber was thus delayed in transit were
fined for allowing it to obstruct the quays ; and Sandars
tells of one who paid £6g in fines on this account during the
course of two months. It was less costly and more convenient
to leave the delayed timber where it was, and pay the fines,
than to keep moving it to and fro between quay and timber
yard ; though the effect — especially as the imports of timber
increased — was to block up, not only the quays, but the
neighbouring streets, which thus became almost impassable
for carts and carriages.

Corn and other commodities had often to be kept back
eight or ten days on account of a lack of vessels. It some-
times happened that commodities brought across the Atlantic
in three weeks were detained in Liverpool for six weeks before
they could be sent on to Manchester. The agents would not
carry certain kinds of merchandise or particular descriptions
of cotton at all. Alternatively they would tell a trader :
" We took so much for you yesterday, and we can take only
so much for you to-day." " They limited the quantity,"
says Francis, " they appointed the time, until the difficulties
of transit became a public talk and the abuse of power a public
trouble. The Exchange of Liverpool resounded with mer-
chants' complaints ; the counting-houses of Manchester re-
echoed the murmurs of manufacturers."

To avoid serious delays either to raw materials or to manu-
factured articles the traders were often forced to resort to
road transport " because," says Sandars, " speed and cer-
tainty as to delivery are of the first importance " ; and he
adds on this point, " Packages of goods sent from Manchester,
for immediate shipment at Liverpool, often pay two or three
pounds per ton ; and yet there are those who assert that the
difference of a few hours in speed can be no object. The
merchants know better."

The example already set in so many different parts of the
country in the provision of rail-ways, or railways, as they
were now being generally called, may well have suggested
that in a resort to this expedient would be found the most
practical solution of the problem which had caused so much
trouble to the traders. Sandars himself says that inasmuch
as the two companies were " deaf to all remonstrances, to all
entreaties," and were " actuated solely by a spirit of mono-

234 History of Inland Transport

poly and extortion," the only remedy the public had left
was to go to Parliament and ask for permission to establish
a new line of conveyance — and one, also, that possessed
decided advantages over canal or river transport.

But here there arose a consideration which had a material
bearing on the problem immediately concerned, and was to
affect the further development of the railway system in
general.

Numerous as were the lines already existing at this time,
none of them directly competed with the waterways. They
were feeders rather than rivals of the canals. Even the
Surrey Iron Rail-way and the Stockton and Darlington line,
though operating independently of the canal companies,
had not come into conflict with them. In the one instance —
that of the Merthyr and Cardiff dram-road — in which a rail-
way had hitherto been projected in direct competition with a
canal the scheme had been either killed or bought off by the
canal interests. But the proposed Liverpool and Manchester
Railway was avowedly and expressly designed to compete
with the existing water services. It was not simply to supple-
ment the waterways. It threatened to supplant them.

So the waterway companies, representing very powerful
interests — inasmuch as by 1824 the amount invested in canal
and navigation schemes was about ^14, 000,000 — might well
think it necessary to take action in defence of their own posi-
tion. Down to this time they had regarded the railway as
either a friend or a non-competitor, and they had either ex-
tended to it a sympathetic support or had, at least, regarded
it with a feeling of equanimity. Henceforward they had to
look upon it as an opponent.

The project for a Liverpool and Manchester Railway would
seem to have first begun to assume definite shape in or about
1822, when William James, a London engineer, who had
already proposed a " Central Junction Rail- way or Tram-
road " from Stratford-on-Avon to London, made surveys
between Liverpool and Manchester, and prepared a set of
plans. The certain prospect, however, of vigorous opposition
from the waterway interests led some of the traders to think
they had better make terms with the men in possession, if
they could ; and in that same year the corn merchants of
Liverpool memorialised the Bridgewater trustees, asking both

The Railway Era 235

for a reduction in the rate of freight and for better accom-
modation. Bradshaw replied with an unqualified refusal,
and he treated as idle talk the then much-discussed project
of a line of railway.

There is no doubt that if, at this period, reasonable con-
cessions had been made to the traders the building of the
Liverpool and Manchester Railway, although, of course,
inevitable, would have been delayed to a later period. The
traders shrank, at first, from an open fight, and the project
of 1822 was allowed to drop for a time. The situation was
found to be so hopeless, however, that in 1824 they decided
that mere concessions from the waterway interests would no
longer suffice, and that the provision of an alternative means
of transport had become imperative. A Liverpool and Man-
chester Railway Company was now formed, and on October
29, 1824, there was issued a prospectus which was, in effect,
a declaration of war against the waterway parties who had
so mercilessly abused the situation they thought they con-
trolled. This document, after mentioning that the total
quantity of merchandise then passing between Liverpool
and Manchester was estimated at 1000 tons a day, pro-
ceeded : —

" The committee are aware that it will not immediately
be understood by the public how the proprietors of a rail-
road, requiring an invested capital of £400,000 can afford to
carry goods at so great a reduction upon the charge of the
present water companies. But the problem is easily solved.
It is not that the water companies have not been able to
carry goods on reasonable terms, but that, strong in the
enjoyment of their monopoly, they have not thought proper
to do so. Against the most arbitrary exactions the public
have hitherto had no protection, and against the indefinite
continuance or recurrence of the evil they have but one
security. It is competition that is wanted, and the proof of
this assertion may be adduced from the fact that shares
in the Old Quay Navigation, of which the original cost was
£70, have been sold as high as £1250 each ! "

The canal interests in general had, however, anticipated
the definite challenge thus given, and there had already been
a call to arms in defence of common interests. In a post-
script to the prospectus just referred to it was mentioned that

236 History of Inland Transport

the Leeds and Liverpool, the Birmingham, the Grand Trunk
and other canal companies had issued circulars calling upon
" every canal and navigation company in the Kingdom to
oppose in limine, and by a united effort, the establishment
of railroads wherever contemplated."1

By this time, therefore, the projectors of the Liverpool
and Manchester Railway were threatened with the opposition,
not alone of the Bridgewater trustees and of the Old Quay
Navigation trustees, but of the canal and river navigation
interests throughout the country. As Thomas Baines well
describes the position in his " History of Liverpool," " The
canal proprietors, with an instinctive sense of danger, justly
appreciated what they affected to despise, and, with one
accord, and with one heart and mind, resolved to crush the
rival project which threatened to interrupt, if not to destroy
the hopes of prescription and the dreams of a sanguine
avarice."

The real strength of the opposition thus being worked up
against not only the Liverpool and Manchester Railway but
public railways in general will be better understood if I
supplement the references I have already made to the shares
of canal and navigation companies by a few further figures,
showing the financial position to which the waterways had
attained, and the extent of the vested interests they repre-
sented at the particular period now in question.

In a pamphlet published in 1824, under the title of " A
Statement of the Claim of the Subscribers to the Birmingham
and Liverpool Rail-road to an Act of Parliament ; in reply
to the Opposition of the Canal Companies " (quoted in the
fifth, or 1825, edition of Thomas Gray's " Observations on a
General Iron Rail- way "), it is stated that the amount of
capital originally subscribed for the old Birmingham Canal
Company was about ^55,000, in shares of ^100, subject to a
stipulation that no one person should hold more than ten
shares. The pamphlet proceeds : —

1 That this attitude of organised hostility on the part of the canal com-
panies was well maintained is shown by the following extract from the
" Manchester Advertiser" of January 30, 1836 : "The proprietors of the
Ayre and Calder navigation and of the Canals, have resolved to organise
an opposition to all railways whatever in Parliament. The canal pro-
prietors are thus openly setting themselves in opposition to one of the
greatest improvements of the age. "

The Railway Era 237

" By various subsequent Acts and collateral cuts, this
canal, which has now changed its name to the style of the
' Birmingham Canal Navigation Company,' is extended to a
distance of about 60 miles of water, containing 99 locks or
thereabouts, 10 fire engines to raise water, number of bridges
not known to the present writer.

" The original shares are computed to have cost the pro-
prietors ^140 each. In 1782 they were marketably worth
^370, and in 1792, £1110. In 1811 an Act increased the shares
500 to 1000, or, in other words, for marketable convenience
divided them. In 1813 the half share was sold as high as
^585. In 1818 power was given to the company of pro-
prietors further to subdivide the shares as they should deem
advisable, on due public notice, etc. The shares are now in
eighths. Thus at the present time, and at the last quoted
prices in Wetenhall's list, there are 4000 shares of eighths,
marketably worth £360 per eighth, each receiving an annual
dividend of ^12-10-0. Thus the original cost, compared with
the present value of the 500 shares, is as ^70,000 to ^1,444,000,
the original share having risen from ^140 sterling (or there-
abouts) to the sum of ^2840."

Shares in the Loughborough Navigation cost the first
holders ^142-17-0 each. In the " European Magazine " for
June, 1821, they are quoted at ^2600 a share, and the dividend
then being paid is given as 170 per cent. In the issue of the
same magazine for November, 1824, the price per share is
£4700, and the dividend is shown to have risen to 200 per
cent.

Among other canal shares quoted in the " European
Magazine " for the dates mentioned are the following : —

1821 1824

COMPANY. SHARE. PRICE. DIVIDEND. PRICE. DIVIDEND.

£ £ £ £ £

Coventry . . .100 970 44 1350 44 and 61

Erewash . . .100 1000 56 58

Leeds and Liverpool 100 280 10 570 15

Oxford . . . 100 630 32 900 32*
Staffordshire and

Worcestershire . 100 700 40 950 40

Trent and Mersey . 200 1750 75 2250 75*

* And bonus.

238 History of Inland Transport

The following further quotations are from " Wetenhall's
Commercial List " for December 10, 1824 : —

COMPANY. SHARE. PRICE. DIVIDEND

£ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d.

Ashton and Oldham . . 97 18 o 310 o o 500

Barnsley . . . 160 o o 340 o o 12 o o

Grand Junction . . 100 o o 296 o o 10 o o

Glamorganshire . . 172 13 4 280 o o 13 12 8

Grantham . . . 150 o o 190 o o 10 o o

Leicester . . . 140 o o 390 o o 14 o o

Monmouthshire . . 100 o o 245 o o 10 o o

Melton Mowbray . . 100 o o 255 o o 1 1 o o

Mersey and Irwell . . 1000 o o 35 o o

Neath .... 100 o o 400 o o 15 o o

Shrewsbury . . 125 o o 206 o o 10 o o

Stourbridge . . . 145 o o 220 o o 10 10 o

Stroudwater . . . 150 o o 450 o o 31 10 o

Trent and Mersey (half share) . 100 o o 2300 o o 7500*

Warwick and Birmingham . 100 o o 320 o o n o o

Warwick and Knapton . 100 o o 280 o o n o o
* And bonus.

These figures, it will be seen, are given for years when the
" canal mania " — at its height between 1791 and 1794 — had
long been over, and they suggest, therefore, bona fide market
values based on business done and dividends paid. High as
they are, it is doubtful if they tell the whole story. I have
mentioned on page 218 that in their petition to the House
of Commons against the proposed railway, or tramway,
between Merthyr and Cardiff, the Glamorganshire Canal
Company represented that they were restrained by their
Act from paying more than a " moderate " dividend. The
dividend they were authorised to pay was one of eight per
cent ; but there is a tradition in South Wales that the company,
after checking effectively the threatened railway competition,
attained to phenomenal prosperity, and resorted to an in-
genious expedient as a means of deriving further pecuniary
advantage from the waterway without exceeding the statutory
limitation in regard to the dividend to be paid. This expedient
took the form of a suspension of all tolls for a large part of
every year, the use of the canal being free to the public for

The Railway Era 239

the period so arranged. In some years, it is said, no tolls
were paid for six months at a time. This practice was found
preferable, for certain members of the managing committee —
ironmasters or large traders in the district — to a reduction of
tolls to be in force throughout the year, their practice being
to keep back their own consignments, whenever possible,
till the free period, which they could fix to suit their con-
venience. When the principal shareholders were traders
using the canal, it did not matter to them whether their
profits came wholly in dividends or partly in dividends and
partly in free carriage. Traders, however, who could not
wait for their supplies or store their manufactured goods until
the free period came round had to pay the full rates of tolls
for, at least, the period during which these were enforced.

I shall refer later to the effect on railway legislation of the
power and influence to which the waterways had attained.
The consideration for the moment is that, even allowing for
a certain number of minor or of purely speculative canals
which were admittedly failures, the waterway interests, con-
solidating their forces, were able, by virtue of their position
at the time in question, to organise a powerful and wide-
spread opposition to a rival form of transport then still in its
infancy, though obviously capable of eventually becoming a
formidable competitor.

The canal interests also made every effort to work up an
opposition on the part of representatives of the landed interests,
who, however, developed such strong hostility of their own
towards the iron road that the arguments of the canal pro-
prietors were hardly needed to arouse them to violent antagon-
ism to they^Jieme. Popular prejudices, too, were well ex-
ploited, ana the most direful predictions were indulged in
as to what would result from the running of locomotives, so
that, for a time, the promoters even abandoned the idea of
using locomotives at all.

The combined canal and land interests scored the first
victory on the Liverpool and Manchester Bill, which was
thrown out in 1825 ; but it was reintroduced and passed in
1826, the opposition of the Bridgewater trustees having, in
the meantime, been overcome by a judicious presentation to
them of a thousand shares in the railway.

The promoters thus established the new principle of direct

240 History of Inland Transport

competition between railways and waterways ; but other-
wise the Liverpool and Manchester differed from the Stockton
and Darlington, at the outset, and as a line of railway, only
in the fact that the former was to be provided throughout
with malleable iron rails, whereas the latter had two-thirds
malleable iron and one-third cast iron. On the one line as
on the other, the use of locomotives had not been decided upon
from the start ; and, unless the Liverpool and Manchester
had not only adopted locomotives but, as was, of course, the
case, improved on those of the Stockton and Darlington, it
would have shown little real advance in actual railway
operation.

The motive power to be used on the Liverpool and Man-
chester remained uncertain when George Stephenson and his
" navvies " were attacking the engineering proposition of
Chat Moss. It was still uncertain in October, 1828 — or two
years after the passing of the Act — when three of the directors
went to Killingworth colliery, to see the early locomotive
which Stephenson had made there, and to Darlington to see
the locomotives then operating on the Stockton and Darling-
ton line. They decided that " horses were out of the ques-
tion " ; but even then the point remained doubtful whether
the Liverpool and Manchester should be provided with loco-
motives or have stationary engines at intervals of a mile or
two along the line to draw the trains from station to station
by means of ropes. How the directors sought to solve the
problem by offering a premium of ^500 for a locomotive which
would fulfil certain conditions ; how George Stephenson won
the prize with his " Rocket " ; and how the " Rocket," with
a gross load of seventeen tons, attained a speed of twenty-nine
miles an hour, with an average of fourteen — whereas counsel
for the promoters had only promised a speed of six or seven
miles an hour — are facts known to all the world.

If the Stockton and Darlington Railway had had the
honour of introducing the locomotive, it was the Rainhill
trials, organised by the Liverpool and Manchester Company,
which gave the world its first idea of the great possibilities
to which alike the locomotive and the railway might attain.
In this respect the Liverpool and Manchester line carried
railway development far beyond the point already attained by
the Stockton and Darlington, although no fundamentally

The Railway Era 241

new principle in railway working was set up. The Liverpool
and Manchester line did, however, establish a new departure
in proclaiming direct rivalry with the then powerful canal
interests, and the warfare thus entered on, and persevered in
until the railway system had gained the ascendancy, was to
affect the whole further history of railway expansion and
control.

CHAPTER XX

RAILWAY EXPANSION

THE monopolist tendencies of the waterway interests, the
magnitude of the profits secured, and the resort by traders
to the building of railways as an alternative thereto and as a
means of meeting the transport requirements of expanding
industries, were factors in the development of the railway
system that operated as direct causes in the construction
of other lines besides the Liverpool and Manchester. From
these particular points of view the story of the Leicester and
Swannington Railway is of special significance.

In the closing years of the eighteenth century, when the
Canal Era was in full operation, the various new projects
put forward included one for constructing a canal, eleven
miles in length, down the Erewash valley to connect with
the Trent, thus facilitating the transport of coal and other
products from Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire to places
served by that river ; and another for rendering the Soar
navigable from its junction with the Trent to Leicester,
this being known as the Loughborough Navigation. These
two schemes were to form part of a network of important
waterways, the Soar Navigation joining the Leicester Naviga-
tion, and this, in turn, communicating with the Leicester-
shire branch of the Grand Junction Canal, thus eventually
giving a direct route from Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and
Leicestershire to London.

The Leicestershire coalowners regarded these proposals with
great uneasiness. They were then supplying Leicester with
coal conveyed there by waggon or packhorse from the collieries
on the other side of Charnwood Forest, and they foresaw
that the proposed 'navigations would give the Derbyshire and
Nottinghamshire Coalowners a great advantage over them
in the Leicester market. They accordingly offered a strong
opposition to the schemes, and persisted until the projectors

242

Railway Expansion 243

of the Loughborough Navigation undertook to make that
Charnwood Forest Canal which, with its edge-railway at
each end (see page 220), would connect the Leicestershire coal-
fields at Coleorton and Moira with Leicester, and so allow
of the threatened competition from the north of the Trent
being duly met.

The Loughborough Navigation and its Charnwood Forest
extension were completed in 1798 ; but in the succeeding
winter the Charnwood Forest Canal burst its banks, and the
damage done was never repaired, the Loughborough Naviga-
tion trustees (who, though forced to construct the canal, did
not consider themselves obliged to maintain it) finding it to
their advantage, from a traffic point of view, to enable the
Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire coalowners to have a virtual
monopoly on the Leicester market. It was under these con-
ditions that the Loughborough Navigation shares advanced,
by 1824, from their original value of ^142 iys. each to no less
a sum than ^4700.

The local waterway interests maintained their supremacy
and were, indeed, complete masters of the situation for over
thirty years ; but the days of their 200 per cent dividends
were then numbered. Influenced by what the traders of
Liverpool and Manchester were doing to fight the canal and
river monopolists there, the Leicestershire coalowners got,
in 1830, an Act of Parliament authorising them to build a
railway from Swannington to Leicester. This line would give
them the facilities they wanted for their coal ; but it was
to be a " public," and not merely a private, railway. By one
of the clauses of the Act it was provided that " all persons
shall have free liberty to use with horses, cattle and carriages
the said railway upon payment of tolls." These tolls were
arranged alike for passengers and for goods and minerals,
and they varied according to whether the travellers and
traders provided their own conveyances or used those of
the railway company. In the former case passengers were
to pay twopence halfpenny each per mile, and in the latter
case threepence per mile, the tolls for goods and minerals
being in like proportion. In a later Act, however, passed
in 1833, it was declared that " whereas the main line hath
been constructed with a view to locomotive steam engines
being used, it might be very injurious to the said railway and

244 History of Inland Transport

inconvenient and dangerous if horses or cattle were used,"
and the rights thus granted to the public under the first Act
were now withdrawn.

Opened in 1832, the Leicester and Swannington Railway
restored to the Leicestershire colliery-owners the advantage
in the Leicester market of which the canal companies had
enabled their north-of-the-Trent competitors to deprive them
for so many years ; and it was now the turn of the Notting-
hamshire and Derbyshire coalmasters to consider what they
should do to meet the new situation which had arisen. They
first had conferences with the directors of the Loughborough,
Erewash and Leicester Navigations, and sought to induce
them to grant such reductions in tolls as would enable them
to compete with the Leicestershire coal, now that this was
no longer shut out from Leicester by the dry ditch in Charn-
wood Forest. But the only concessions the canal companies
would make were regarded as wholly inadequate by the
Nottinghamshire coalmasters, who, meeting at a little inn
at Eastwood, on August 16, 1832, resolved that " there re-
mained no other plan for their adoption" than to lay a rail-
way from their collieries to the town of Leicester. They
formed a Midland Counties Railway Company, obtained an
Act, built their line, and so laid the foundations of the great
system now known to us as the Midland Railway. Into that
system the Leicester and Swannington was absorbed in 1846.

The position to-day of the waterways which for thirty
years controlled more or less the transport conditions of the
three counties in question, brought great wealth to their
owners, and, by their sole regard for their own interests,
forced the traders to resort to railways, is shown by the Fourth
or Final Report of the Royal Commission on Canals and
Waterways. From this one may learn that the Lough-
borough and Leicester Navigations, which follow the course
of the Soar, are liable to floods and are, also, sometimes short
of water, in consequence of the want of control over the supply
of water to mills ; and although, with the Grand Junction
Canal, they offer " the most direct inland water route " to
London for the traffic of Derby, Nottingham and Leicester
and of the large coal districts, they serve at present, adds the
Report, but an insignificant part of the traffic which travels
by this route.

Railway Expansion 245

In effect, the very efforts made by the canal companies to
preserve the monopoly they had so long and so profitably
enjoyed were only a direct means of encouraging railway
expansion ; though few great institutions, destined to lead to
a great social and economic revolution, have established
their position in the face of more prejudice, greater difficulties,
and less sympathetic support from " the powers that be "
than was the case with the railways.

The traders of the country were naturally favourable to
them, since the need for improved means of communication,
following on the ever-expanding trade and industry of the
land, was becoming almost daily more and more acute. But
the vested interests, as represented alike by holders of canal
shares, by turnpike road trustees and investors, and by the
coaching interests, were against the railways ; the Press
of the country was to a great extent against them ; leaders
in the literary and the social worlds either ignored or con-
demned them ; landowners first opposed and then black-
mailed them ; Governments sought to control and to tax
rather than to assist them ; and then, when the railways had
proved that they were less objectionable than prejudiced
critics had assumed, and were likely even to be a source of
profitable investment, they were boomed by speculators into
a popularity that led both to successive " railway manias "
and to the whole railway system being still further burdened
with an excessive capital expenditure which has been more
or less to its prejudice ever since.

Some of the early denunciations by those who would have
considered themselves, in their day, to be leaders of public
opinion, if not of light and learning, afford interesting examples
of the hostility which railways, in common with every in-
novation that seeks to alter established habits and customs,
had to encounter.

In the article published in the " Quarterly Review " for
March, 1825, in which proposals for making railways general
throughout the country are condemned as " visionary schemes
unworthy of notice," it is further said in reference to the
Woolwich Railway : —

"It is certainly some consolation to those who are to be
whirled at the rate of eighteen or twenty miles an hour, by
means of a high pressure engine, to be told that they are in

246 History of Inland Transport

no danger of being sea-sick while on shore, that they are not
to be scalded to death, nor drowned by the bursting of the
boiler ; and that they need not fear being shot by the scattered
fragments, or dashed in pieces by the flying off or the breaking
of a wheel. But, with all these assurances we should as soon
expect the people of Woolwich to suffer themselves to be
fired off upon one of Congreve's ricochet rockets as trust them-
selves to the mercy of such a machine, going at such a rate.
Their property they may, perhaps, trust ; but while one of
the finest navigable rivers in the world runs parallel to the
proposed railroad, we consider the other twenty per cent
which the subscribers are to receive for the conveyance of
heavy goods almost as problematical as that to be derived
from the passengers. We will back old Father Thames against
the Woolwich Railway for any sum."

In " John Bull " for November 15, 1835, railways are
spoken of as " new-fangled absurdities," and it is declared
that " those people who judge by the success of the Man-
chester and Liverpool Railroad, and take it as a criterion for
similar speculations, are dunces and blockheads." In the
case of that particular railway, the writer argues, the distance
was short, the passengers were numerous, the " thing "
was new and the traffic was great — above all the distance
was short ; but it did not follow that railways were going to
succeed elsewhere. He continues : —

" Does anybody mean to say that decent people, passengers
who would use their own carriages, and are accustomed to
their own comforts, would consent to be hurried along through
the air upon a railroad, from which, had a lazy schoolboy left
a marble, or a wicked one a stone, they would be pitched off
their perilous track, into the valley beneath ; or is it to be
imagined that women, who may like the fun of being whirled
away on a party of pleasure for an hour to see a sight, would
endure the fatigue, and misery, and danger, not only to
themselves, but their children and families, of being dragged
through the air at the rate of twenty miles an hour, all their
lives being at the mercy of a tin pipe, or a copper boiler, or
the accidental dropping of a pebble on the line of way ?

" We denounce the mania as destructive of the country in
a thousand particulars — the whole face of the Kingdom is to
be tattooed with these odious deformities ; huge mounds are

Railway Expansion 247

to intersect our beautiful valleys ; the noise and stench of
locomotive steam-engines are to disturb "^the quietude of the
peasant, the farmer and the gentleman ; and the roaring of
bullocks, the bleating of sheep and the grunting of pigs to
keep up one continual uproar through the night along the
lines of these most dangerous and disfiguring abominations. . . .

" Railroads . . . will in their efforts to gain ground do
incalculable mischief. If they succeed they will give an un-
natural impetus to society, destroy all the relations which
exist between man and man, overthrow all mercantile regula-
tions, overturn the metropolitan markets, drain the provinces
of all their resources, and create, at the peril of life, all sorts
of confusion and distress. If they fail nothing will be left
but the hideous memorials of public folly."

In " Gore's Liverpool Advertiser " for December 20, 1824,
mention is made of some of the objections then being raised
against railways, these being described as " exceedingly
trifling and puerile." " Elderly gentlemen," it is said, " are
of opinion that they shall not be able to cross the rail-roads
without the certainty of being run over ; young gentlemen
are naturally fearful that the pleasant comforts and con-
veniencies of their foxes and pheasants may not have been
sufficiently consulted. Ladies think that cows will not graze
within view of locomotive engines, and that the sudden and
formidable appearance of them may be attended with pre-
mature consequences to bipeds as well as quadrupeds. Farmers
are quite agreed that the race of horses must at once be ex-
tinguished, and that oats and hay will no longer be market-
able produce."

Other alarmist stories were that a great and a scandalous
attack was being made on private property ; that there was
not a field which would not be split up and divided ; that
springs would dry up, meadows become sterile and vegetation
cease ; that cows would give no milk, horses become extinct,
agricultural operations be suspended, and houses be crushed
by the railway embankments ; that ruin would fall alike
on landowners, farmers, market gardeners and innkeepers ;
that manufacturers' stocks would be destroyed by sparks
from the locomotives ; that hundreds of thousands of people,
including those who had invested in canals, would be beggared
in the interests of a few ; and that (as an anti-climax to all

248 History of Inland Transport

these predictions of national disaster) the locomotive, after
all, would never be got to work because, although its wheels
might turn, it would remain on the lines by reason of its own
weight — a theory which, long pondered over by men of
science, led to early projects of " general " railways being
based on the rack-and-pinion principle of operation, and was
only abandoned when someone had the happy idea of making
experiments which proved that the surmise in question was a
complete delusion.

I reproduce these puerilities of the early part of the nine-
teenth century, not simply for the entertainment of the reader,
but because it is a matter of serious consideration how far
they affected the cost of providing the country with rail-
waysi and whether, indeed, the traders who smile at them
to-day may not still be paying, in one way or another, for
the consequences they involved.

The keener the prejudice, the greater the hostility and the
more bitter the denunciations when railways were struggling
into existence, the more vigorous became the antagonism
of landowners, the higher were the prices demanded for land,
the more costly, by reason of the opposition, were the pro-
ceedings before Parliamentary Committees, and the heavier
grew that capital expenditure the interest on which would have
to be met out of such rates and charges as the railways, when
made, would impose.

To a certain extent one may sympathise with landowners
who feared that the amenities of their estates might be pre-
judiced by an innovation of which so much evil was being
said ; but, as a rule (to which there were some very honour-
able exceptions) it was found that their scruples in regard
alike to their own interests and to the national welfare even-
tually resolved themselves into a question of how much money
could be got out of the companies. Thus the extortionate
prices paid for land often had no relation to the actual value
of the land itself. They were simply the highest amount
the railway company were prepared to pay the landowner
for the withdrawal of his threatened opposition. If the
company resisted the exorbitant demands made upon them,
and would not give a sufficiently high bribe, they were so
strongly opposed that they generally lost their Bill when they
first applied for it to Parliament. Thereupon they would

Railway Expansion 249

yield, or effect a compromise on, the terms asked for, announce
that they had made amicable arrangements with the opposi-
tion, re-introduce their Bill in the following Session, and then
succeed in getting it passed.

It might happen, even then, that the companies obtained
their powers subject only to a variety of hampering or vexa-
tious restrictions which the landed gentry or others were
able to enforce in order that due respect should be shown
to their fears or their prejudices. In some of the earlier
railway Acts the companies were forbidden to use any " loco-
motives or moveable engines " without the written consent
of the owners or occupiers of the land through which their
lines passed. One of the clauses of the Liverpool and Man-
chester Act provided that " no steam engine shall be set up
in the township of Burtonwood or Winwick, and no loco-
motive shall be allowed to pass along the line within those
townships which shall be considered by Thomas Lord Lilford
or by the Rector of Winwick to be a nuisance or annoyance
to them from the noise or smoke thereof." The same two
individuals secured insertion of a clause in the Warrington
and Newton Railway Act to the effect that every locomotive
used within the parishes mentioned should be " constructed
on best principles for enabling it to consume its own smoke
and preventing noise in the machinery or motion thereof,"
and should use " no coal, but only coke or other such fuel "
as his lordship and the rector might approve.

The story of the London and Birmingham Railway is
especially significant of the general conditions under which
the English railway system came into being.

Industrial expansion had brought about great develop-
ments in the Birmingham and Black Country districts, the
population in Birmingham alone having increased from about
50,000 in 1751 to 110,000 in 1830. Wide possibilities of in-
creasing trade and commerce were being opened up, but these
were seriously hampered by the disadvantages experienced
in the matter of transport. Small parcels of manufactured
goods could be sent by coach, and a good deal of wrought iron
— in small quantities per coach — was also distributed in the
same way during the course of the year. For bulky goods or
raw materials the only means of transport between Birming-
ham and London was by canal, and this meant a three-days'

250 History of Inland Transport

journey. Over 1000 tons a week were then going from Birming-
ham to London by water ; but there was great need for a
means of communication at once more speedy and more
trustworthy. Goods were delayed in transit even beyond
the three days ; they were rejected by the shippers because
they did not arrive in proper time ; they were sometimes held
up by frost on the canal between Birmingham and London
and lost their chance of getting to the Baltic before the
spring ; while, alternatively, they might be pilfered or lost
on the canal journey, and so not get even as far as London.
There was often much difficulty, also, in obtaining raw
materials.

In the result manufacturers had to refuse orders because
they could not execute them in time, and the local industries
were not making anything like the advance of which, with
better transport facilities, they would have been capable.
The business that Birmingham manufacturers should have
been doing with Italy, with Spain, or with Portugal was
found to be drifting more and more into the hands of Conti-
nental competitors who had greater advantages both in ob-
taining raw materials on the spot and in distributing their
manufactured goods. It was further argued that in view
of the struggle then proceeding between this country and
Continental countries for commercial supremacy, the improve-
ment of the means of transport, even as regarded Birmingham
and London, was a matter of national, and not simply of
local, concern.

It might well be assumed that such considerations as these
would have appealed to the patriotic instincts of the English
people, and especially to those of the landed gentry. Yet the
issue, in January, 1832, of the first prospectus of the London
and Birmingham Railway Company, and the introduction of
their Bill in February of the same year, led to opposition, to
extortion and to actual blackmail of the most determined
and most merciless description.

The Bill passed in the Commons, but it was thrown out in
the Lords. Its rejection there was attributed to the land-
owners, who, it was declared, had " tried to smother the
company by the high price they demanded for their property."
The inevitable negotiations followed. Six months after the
defeat of the Bill the directors announced that the " mea-

Railway Expansion 251

sures " they had taken with a view to removing " that op-
position of dissentient landowners and proprietors which was
the sole cause of their failure . . . had been successful to a
greater extent than they had ventured to anticipate. The
most active and formidable had been conciliated," and the
Bill would be introduced afresh in the following Session.
This was done, and the Bill became an Act, receiving the
Royal assent on May 6, 1833.

The nature of the " measures " which had succeeded in
overcoming the opposition may be judged from some facts
mentioned by John Francis, who says that land estimated
in value at ^250,000 cost the company three times that amount.
One landowner, in addition to getting ^3000 for a certain plot,
extorted £10,000 for what he called " consequential damages" ;
though, instead of injuring the remainder of his property, the
line increased its value by twenty per cent. For land used
only as agricultural holdings the company is said to have had
to pay at the rate of £350 an acre.

But this was not all. There was the opposition of towns
as well as the greed of individuals to be taken into account.
According to Robert Stephenson's original survey, the London
and Birmingham Railway was to pass through Northampton,
where, also, it was proposed to establish the company's loco-
motive and carriage works. The opposition in Northampton,
however, was so great that in order to meet it the company
altered their plans and arranged for the line to pass at a
distance from that town. They further undertook to start
their locomotive works at Wolverton, and thus not interfere
with the amenities of Northampton.

How much the town and trade of Northampton lost as the
result of its scruples could hardly be told ; but the conse-
quences to the railway company of this enforced alteration
of route were as serious as any of the extortions practised by
the landowners. The line had now to pass through a tunnel
at Kilsby, five miles distant from Northampton, and a con-
tractor undertook to cut this tunnel for ^90,000. But, while
engaged on the task, he came upon a quicksand which reduced
him to despair and led to his throwing up the contract. Robert
Stephenson thereupon took the work in hand and he had
to have 1250 men, 200 horses and thirteen steam-engines at
work raising 1800 gallons of water per minute night and day

252 History of Inland Transport

for the greater part of eight months before the difficulty
was overcome. By the time the tunnel was completed the
cost of construction had risen from the original estimate of
^90,000 to over ^300,000, this enormous expenditure having
been incurred, not because it was necessary for the line, as
first designed, but to meet the opposition and spare the feelings
of the then short-sighted dwellers in the town of Northampton.

The London and Birmingham Railway, with its terminus
at Euston, was eventually opened for traffic throughout in
September, 1838. It was, of course, one of the lines subse-
quently amalgamated to form the London and North- Western
Railway.

The first Bill of the Great Western Railway, applied for in
1834, was strenuously opposed and defeated. The second
Bill, brought forward in the following session, was less
strenuously opposed, and was duly passed. In the interval
the opposition of the dissentient landowners had been " con-
ciliated " ; and, commenting thereon (in 1851), John Francis
says : —

" The mode by which the opposition of landholders was
met bears the same sad character as with other railways.
Every passenger who goes by the Great Western pays an
additional fare to meet the interest on this most unjust
charge ; and every shareholder in this, as in other lines,
receives a less dividend than he is entitled to from the same
cause. Nor does the blame rest with the conductors of the
railway. They were the agents of the shareholders and were
bound to forward their interests. The principle of the case
to them was nothing. They were bound to get the Act at
the cheapest possible rate, and if the law gave their rich
opponents the power of practically stopping the progress of
the line, and those opponents chose to avail themselves of
the law, the shame rests with the proprietor of the soil, and
not with the promoter of the railway. Fancy prices were
given for fancy prospects, in proportion to the power of the
landowner. Noblemen were persuaded to allow their castles
to be desecrated for a consideration. There can be no doubt —
it was, indeed, all but demonstrated — that offers were made
to and accepted by influential parties to withdraw their
opposition to a Bill which they had declared would ruin" them,
while the smaller and more numerous complainants were

Railway Expansion 253

paid such prices as should actually buy off a series of long
and tedious litigants."

The promoters of that most unfortunate of lines, the Eastern
Counties — predecessor of the Great Eastern Railway of to-
day— found themselves faced with serious opposition in the
Lords after they had got their Bill through the Commons ;
" but," says the first report, " the directors, by meeting the
parties with the same promptness and in the same fair spirit
which had carried them successfully through their previous
negotiations, effected amicable arrangements with them,"
and the company was incorporated in 1836. The negotia-
tions must, however, have been carried through with greater
promptness than discretion, for, to save the fate of their Bill,
the directors undertook to pay one influential landowner
£120,000 for some purely agricultural land which was said
to be then worth not more than £5000. After they had
secured their Bill they made persistent attempts to get out of
paying the £120,000 ; and, altogether, they so shocked John
Herapath that in successive monthly issues of his " Railway
Magazine " all references to the Eastern Counties Railway
Company were encircled by a black border.

In another instance a company proposed to meet the
opposition of certain landowners by carrying the line through
a tunnel, which would enable them to avoid the property in
question. The tunnel would have cost £50,000, and the land-
owners said, " Give us the price of that tunnel and we will
withdraw our opposition." The company offered £30,000,
and the landowners agreed to be " conciliated " on this basis.
They still came off better than the objector who began by
demanding £8000 and finally accepted £80. John Francis,
too, relates the following story : " The estate of a nobleman
was near a proposed line. He was proud of his park and great
was his resentment. In vain was it proved that the new road
would not come within six miles of his house, that the highway
lay between, that a tunnel would hide the inelegance. He
resisted all overture on the plea of his feelings, until £30,000
was offered. The route was, however, afterwards changed. A
new line was marked out which would not even approach his
domain ; and, enraged at the prospect of losing the £30,000,
he resisted it as strenuously as the other."

There were some honourable exceptions to the general

254 History of Inland Transport

tendency to extort as much as possible from the railway com-
panies. Among these may be mentioned the voluntary return
by the Duke of Bedford of a sum of £150,000 paid to him as
compensation, his Grace explaining that the railway had
benefitted instead of injuring his property ; and by Lord
Taunton of £15,000 out of £35,000 because his property had
not suffered so much as had been anticipated. Exceptions
such as these do not, however, alter the fact that, as stated
by Francis in 1851, the London and Birmingham Company
had had to pay for land and compensation an average of
£6300 per mile, the Great Western £6696, the London and
South Western £4000 and the Brighton Company £8000 per
mile.

One argument, at least, which can be advanced in favour
of State railways — as applying, however, to a country be-
ginning the creation of a railway system, or building new
railways, rather than to one taking over an existing system —
is that extortions in respect to land could not be practised
on the State in the same way as they have been practised on
English railway companies left by their Government to make
the best terms they could with those who were in a position
to drive the hardest of bargains with them. In Prussia, for
example, the securing of land for any new lines wanted for
the State railway system is a comparatively simple matter.
If the landowner and the responsible officials cannot agree
to terms, the matter is referred to arbitration, though with
every probability that the landowner will get no more than
a fair sum, and will not be able to extort fancy figures under
the head of consequential damages or as the " price " of his
withdrawing any opposition he might otherwise offer.

Apart from other considerations, and taking only the one
item of land, the State lines of Continental countries may well
have cost less to construct than the English lines, while both
in the United States and in Canada the pioneer railway com-
panies had great stretches of land given to them, by State
or Federal Government, not alone for their lines, but as a
further means of assisting them financially.

When one finds how the cost of creating the railway system
in our own country was swollen, under the conditions here
stated, to far greater proportions than should have been the
case, and when one remembers that the excessive capital

Railway Expansion 255

expenditure involved in meeting extortionate demands had
either to remain unremunerative or be made good out of the
payments of travellers and traders, it is evident that com-
parisons between English and foreign railway rates and fares
may be carried to unreasonable lengths if they ignore con-
ditions of origin by which the operation of the lines concerned
must necessarily have been more or less influenced. Francis
himself says on this point, while confessing that " every line
in England has cost more than it ought " : —

" The reader may learn to moderate his intense indignation
when, anathematising railways, he remembers with what
unjust demands and impure claims they had to deal, and
with what sad and selfish treatment it was their lot to meet.
They owe nothing to the country ; they owe nothing to the
aristocracy. They were wronged by the former ; they were
contumaciously treated by the latter."

Another factor, apart from cost of land, in swelling the con-
struction capital of British railways to abnormal proportions
has been the cost of Parliamentary proceedings ; and here,
again, State railways have had the advantage. In Prussia
the obtaining of sanction for the building of an additional
line by the State railways administration is little more than
a matter of official routine ; whereas in England the expenses
incurred by railway companies in obtaining their Acts have
often amounted to a prodigious sum — to be added, of course,
to the capital outlay which the users of the railway will be
expected to recoup, or, at least, to pay interest on.

An especially striking example was that of the Blackwall
Railway, now leased to the Great Eastern Railway Company.
The cost of obtaining the Act for this line, which is only five
miles and a quarter in length, worked out at no less a sum
than £14,414 per mile, the total cost being thus £75,673. The
amounts paid by certain other companies in securing their
Parliamentary powers are given as follows by G. R. Porter in
his " Progress of the Nation " (1846) : —

Birmingham and Gloucester . . £22,618

Bristol and Gloucester . . . £25,589

Bristol and Exeter .... £18,592

Eastern Counties .... £39,171

Great Western. .... £89,197

256 History of Inland Transport

Great North of England . . . £20,526
Grand Junction . . . . £22,757
Glasgow, Paisley and Greenock . £23,481
London and Birmingham . . . £72,868
London and South Western . . £41,467
Manchester and Leeds . . . £49,166
Midland Counties .... £28,776
North Midland . . . . £41,349
Northern and Eastern . . . £74,166
Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Man-
chester ;£3M73

South-Eastern .... £82,292

In some cases, Porter explains, the sums here given contain
the expenses of surveying and other disbursements which
necessarily precede the obtaining of an Act of incorporation.
On the other hand, they include only the costs defrayed by
the proprietors of the railway, and not the expenses incurred
by parties opposing the Bills. Nor do they include the
expenses incurred in connection either with rival schemes
or with schemes that failed altogether ; though, in these
instances, of course, there would be no chance of recouping
the outlay out of rates and fares. No fewer than five different
companies, for instance, sought for powers to construct a line
from London to Brighton, and the amounts they expended
are given by John Francis as follows : —

Rennie's line £72,000

Stephenson's ^53,75°

Cundy's £16,500

Gibb's £26,325

South-Eastern . . . . . £25,000

Total . . . £193,575

Another" company, the name of which is not given by
Francis, had so vigorous a fight that they spent nearly
£500,000 before they got their Act ; but still worse than this
was the fate of the Stone and Rugby Railway, whose pro-
moters spent £146,000 on attempts made in two successive
sessions to get an Act (the Committee on the first Bill sitting

Railway Expansion 257

on 66 days) and then failed. In another instance the pro-
moters expended £100,000 with a like result.

After the early companies had got their Acts and obtained
their land they still, as railway pioneers, had to bear the
expense of some very costly experiments, of which railways
constructed at a later date had the advantage. The idea that
the locomotive would be able to haul trains only on the
level involved much unnecessary expenditure on engineering
works, while the battle of the gauges led to a prodigious waste
of money alike in Parliamentary proceedings and in the
provision of lines, embankments, cuttings, bridges and viaducts
adapted to a broad gauge eventually abandoned in favour of
the narrower gauges now in general use.

The facts here mentioned will have given the reader some
idea of the conditions under which the railways so greatly
needed in the interests of our national industries were handi-
capped from the very outset by an unduly heavy expenditure ;
but there were still other influences and considerations which
materially affected the general position, more especially as
regards questions and consequences of State policy towards
the railway system in general.

CHAPTER XXI

RAILWAYS AND THE STATE

FROM the earliest moment of there being any prospect of
railways, operated by locomotives in place of animal power,
coming into general use, the attitude of the State towards
their promoters was one less of sympathy than of distrust ;
and this distrust was directly due to the experience the
country had already had of the waterway interests, whose
merciless exactions and huge dividends had led to the fear
that if the railway companies, in turn, were to get a monopoly
of the transport facilities of the country, they might follow
in the footsteps of the inland navigation companies unless
they were restrained either by law or by the enforcement of
the principle of competition.

Public sentiment, which Parliament is assumed to repre-
sent, and of which our legislation is supposed to be the
outcome, was divided between, on the one hand, the landed
gentry, the canal proprietors (each alike hostile to the rail-
ways until they found they had more to hope for from ex-
ploiting them), and the inevitable opponents of innovations
of any kind ; and, on the other hand, the traders, by whom
the railways were being cordially welcomed, not only because
of the greater and better transport facilities they offered,
but also because they presented an alternative to the canals,
the earlier enthusiasm for which had been greatly moderated
by the prospect of an improved means of transport.

Without adopting wholeheartedly the views of either of
these two opposing parties, Parliament regarded the position
with much concern lest there might be a renewal, in another
form, of what we have seen to be the grasping tendencies of
monopolistic canal companies ; and the distrust inspired,
under these particular circumstances, and from the very
outset, towards railway companies which were preparing
to create a revolution in the transport conditions of the

258

Railways and the State 259

country — a revolution the State was not itself disposed to
effect or to finance — was powerfully to influence much of the
subsequent railway legislation, if, indeed, it has even to-day
entirely disappeared.

At first it was assumed that competition in rail transport
would be assured, and the dangers in question proportionately
reduced, by different carriers using their own locomotives,
coaches and carriages on the railway lines, which alone,
it was thought, would be owned by the railway companies
constructing them. In some of the earlier railway Acts
there was even a provision that the railway companies could
lease their tolls, as turnpike trustees were doing. But the
apparent safeguard in the form of competition between rival
carriers disappeared when it was found (i) that, although a
railway company was required to allow a trader's own horse
or locomotive to use the line, it was under no obligation to
afford him access to stations and watering-places, or to
provide him with any other facilities, however indispensable
these might be to the carrier's business ; (2) that the tolls
charged by the railway companies were heavier than the
carriers could afford to pay ; (3) that the entire operation
of a line of railway worked by locomotives must necessarily
be under the control of the owning and responsible company ;
and (4) that railway companies would have to become carriers
of goods as well as owners of rails.

A Parliamentary Committee which sat in 1840, and of
which Sir Robert Peel was a member, had reported in the
strongest terms that the form of competition originally
designed was both impracticable and undesirable, and that
monopoly upon the same line, at all events as regarded
passengers, must be looked upon as inevitable. " Your Com-
mittee," said the report, " deems it indispensable both for the
safety and convenience of the public, that as far as loco-
motive powers are concerned, the rivalry of competing parties
on the same line should be prohibited " ; though, as some
check to the consequent monopoly of the railway companies,
they suggested that the Board of Trade should act as a super-
vising authority, with power to hear complaints, consider
bye-laws, etc.

A witness for the Grand Junction Railway Company, who
gave evidence before this Committee, said that any person

260 History of Inland Transport

might run his own engine on the Grand Junction, and in one
instance this was done by a trader who had a locomotive
on the company's line for drawing his own coal ; but the
witness apprehended the greatest possible inconvenience
from any general resort to such powers. On the Liverpool
and Manchester, also, anyone might run his own engines on
the line ; but, the witness added, " no one does."

The Royal Commission of 1865 summed up the position
thus : — " No sooner were railways worked on a large scale
with locomotive power than it was found impracticable for
the general public to use the line with carriages and engines,
and railway companies were compelled to embark in the
business of common carriers on their own line, and conduct
the whole operations."

When, in these circumstances, it was made certain that
any idea of competition between carriers using a railway
company's lines in the same manner as an ordinary highway
would have to be abandoned, it became the established policy
of the State to promote competition between the railway
companies themselves by encouraging the construction of
competitive lines or otherwise, thus still protecting, as was
thought, the interests of railway users, and checking any
monopolistic tendencies on the part of the railway companies.
The futility, however, of seeking to compel railway companies
to compete with one another had already been pointed out
by Mr James Morrison, whose speech on the subject in the
House of Commons on May 17, 1836, confirms, also, the
theory I have suggested as to the attitude adopted towards
the railway companies being traceable to fears engendered by
the undue prosperity of the canal and navigation companies.

If, argued Morrison, after one company had spent a large
sum on a line to Liverpool, another company were encouraged
to spend as much again, with a view to providing a competition
which would keep down the charges, the two would inevitably
arrive at some understanding by which the original charges
would be confirmed ; and the Legislature, he contended —
though the Legislature never acted on his contention — was
" bound to prevent, as far as it could, the unnecessary waste
of capital " on the building of unnecessary lines to promote
a competition he held to be futile. The safeguarding of the
public interests could, he thought, be effected in another way.

Railways and the State 261

" The history of the existing canals, waterworks, etc., afforded,"
he went on, " abundant evidence of the evils " of allowing
too much freedom in the matter of rates ; and he quoted the
high prices at which the shares of the Loughborough Canal
and the Trent and Mersey Canal were then still being sold,1
adding : " The possession of the best, or, it may be, the
only practicable line, and the vast capital required for the
formation of new canals, have enabled the associations in
question, unchecked by competition, to maintain rates of
charges which have realised enormous profits for a long series
of years."

The remedy he recommended in preference to competition
was that when Parliament established companies for the
formation of canals or railroads it should invariably reserve
to itself the power to make such periodical revisions of the
rates and charges as it might deem expedient, examining into
the whole management and affairs of each company, and
fixing the rates and charges for another term ; the period he
favoured being one of twenty years.*

There was no suggestion, at this time, that the railway
companies had abused their powers. The only suggestion —
and expectation — was that because the canal companies had
abused theirs, the railway companies might, and doubtless
would, do the same, unless they were prevented ; and it will

1 See page 237.

2 In the Taff Vale Railway Act of 1836 (the same year as that in which
Morrison made his proposals) the company were prohibited from paying a
dividend of more than seven per cent when the full tolls were charged, or
of more than nine per cent after the tolls had been reduced by twenty-five
per cent ; and the shareholders were required, at any meeting at which
these maximum dividends were declared, to make such reasonable reduc-
tions in the amount of the rates to be paid during the following year as
would, in their opinion, reduce the profits to the seven or nine per cent
level. It was further provided that, for the purpose of "better ascertain-
ing the amount of the clear profits upon the said railway," the company
should submit their accounts to the Justices in Quarter Sessions, who were
to make such reductions in the rates to be collected during the year next
ensuing as would, in their judgment, reduce the profits to the prescribed
minima. Mr A. Beasley, general manager of the TaffVale Railway, who
gives this information in an article on "How Parliament Harassed Early
Railways," published in " The Railway Magazine " for November, 1908,
adds: "The gentlemen of Quarter Sessions were never called upon to
undertake this formidable task as the clauses were repealed by the
Company's Act of 1840."

262 History of Inland Transport

be found that this was mainly the position throughout the
whole of the subsequent controversies.

Morrison's proposal was approved in the House of Commons,
and on May 17 he brought in a Bill for giving effect to it in
regard to all new railways, to be sanctioned in that or any
subsequent Session. But the prospect of a Parliamentary
limitation of the profits a railway might earn had a most
depressing effect on the railway interests, and on July n
Sir Robert Peel urged that the question should be decided
without further delay inasmuch as " this branch of com-
mercial enterprise was injured and almost paralysed." On
the following day the Bill was brought up again, and it was
then defeated.

In the same Session (1836) the Duke of Wellington moved,
and carried, in the House of Lords a general clause, to be
inserted in all railway Acts, the effect of which would have
been to give to Parliament the power of dealing as it might
think fit with any railway company during the next year.
John Herapath thereupon inserted in the current issue of his
" Railway Magazine " a letter addressed to the Duke of
Wellington, in the course of which he said : —

" No person can doubt your Grace's intentions are honour-
able to all parties. Fearful of the consequences of over-
grown monopolies, you are anxious to put some salutary
restrictions to those bodies riding, as you apprehend, rough-
shod over the public ; and you are anxious to do this before
they become too powerful to be ruled. Every honest and
right-minded man must be satisfied that such are needful ; nor
is there a company got up on honourable principles that would
object to any reasonable measure, in which a due regard is
paid to their own interests, and a proper consideration is
had to all the circumstances of their situation and risk.
But in common fairness these must be taken into account."

Defending the railways, and keenly criticising the attitude
of the State towards them, Herapath further said : —

" No man knows better than yourself that these works, if
they are at all likely to be beneficial to the nation — which
everyone in his sober senses admits — will form a great and
brilliant era in its prosperity. Nay, my Lord Duke, permit
me to ask you if they have not been a Godsend towards the
preservation of this country, by giving a new impetus to

Railways and the State 263

industry and trade, and saving us from that anarchy and con-
fusion to which distress was fast hurrying a large proportion
of our population ? With all these advantages staring us in
the face, what have the Government done to promote rail-
ways ? Have they done a single thing ? I am not conscious
of one. Have they removed a single impediment ? Not to
my knowledge ; but they have raised several. Have they
contributed a single farthing ? Rather, I believe, by the
intolerable and vexatious oppositions permitted in passing
the bills, have been the cause of spending many hundred
thousands, which, like another national debt, will prey to the
end of time on the vitals of public industry."

The Duke's proposed clause was dropped, and was heard
of no more ; but Herapath's prediction as to the equivalent
of " another national debt " being imposed on public industry
was to be verified by the course of subsequent events still
more than by any avoidable expenditure then already incurred.

If, again, as Herapath said, the Government had done
nothing to promote railways, they had not been backward
in seeking advantage from them in the interests both of the
Exchequer and of the Post Office.

Within two years of the opening of the Liverpool and
Manchester line, a tax of one-eighth of a penny per mile for
every passenger conveyed on the railway was imposed, and
the directors of the Liverpool and Manchester, then struggling
into existence, announced that, in consequence of the tax,
they would be obliged to charge the public higher fares. By
1840 the Exchequer receipts from the tax amounted to
£112,000. Two years later, following on a great public agita-
tion, Peel substituted for the mileage tax a tax of five per
cent on receipts from passenger traffic, and in 1844 the tax
(which had been especially oppressive on the poorer class of
travellers) was abolished in the case of third-class passengers
carried at fares not exceeding a penny a mile in " Parlia-
mentary trains," stopping at every station.1

The local authorities, with Parliamentary sanction, also
subjected the railways to a degree of taxation against which

1 Under the Cheap Trains Act of 1883 the duty was remitted in the case
of all fares not exceeding the rate of one penny a mile, and was reduced
to two per cent on fares exceeding that rate for conveyance between urban
stations within one urban district.

264 History of Inland Transport

Mr G. C. Glynn, chairman of the London and Birmingham
Railway, in a speech (at a meeting of his company) quoted
by Francis, protested in the following terms : " Then comes
the last item of local taxes and parochial rates ; these,
gentlemen, we do take exception to. ... The county assessors
and the parties to whom appeal from them is made seem
actuated by one principle, namely, to extract every farthing
they can from the railway property. We ask no boon, we
ask for no favour from Government on this subject ; but we
do ask for justice."

The railways had to submit to the taxation, but they won
the day as against certain excessive and, as they considered,
intolerable demands made upon them by or on behalf of the
Post Office.

In 1838, based on the recommendations of a Select Com-
mittee of the House of Commons on the transmission of
mails by railway, the Government introduced a Bill which,
in effect, placed the entire railway system of the country,
then and for all future time, at the command and under
the supreme control of the Postmaster-General. That func-
tionary was empowered by the Bill to call upon the railway
companies to provide him with — at their own cost — special
or ordinary trains for carrying the mails at any hour of the
day or night, proceeding at such speed, and calling or not
calling at such places, as he might direct, the companies
giving security to the Queen by bond for duly complying with
all Post Office orders, and being made liable to a penalty of
£20 in respect to every railway officer, servant or agent, who
might disobey any Post Office order. If the Post Office wished
to use its own engines and conveyances it was to be at liberty
to do so without paying any rates or tolls whatever ; and it
was, also, to be free to clear away any obstructions to its
engines, and use any of the railway company's appliances it
wanted. The railway companies were, in return, to be assured
a " fair remuneration " for (in effect) the wear and tear of
the rails ; but, lest this payment might be too much for the
Post Office, the Postmaster-General was further authorised
to recoup himself by carrying, not simply the mails, but
passengers, in the trains he might think fit to command or to
run, thus competing on the railway lines with the companies
whose property he was virtually to annex.

Railways and the State 265

The companies declared they were willing to render every
reasonable facility to the Post Office ; but they protested
most vigorously against what they called " the absurd and
tyrannical clauses " of the Bill.

These were, nevertheless, defended in the Commons on
behalf of the Government, the Attorney-General saying
" he had no doubt if the prerogative of the Crown were put in
force, the Post Office and the troops and stores might be
transmitted along the railroads without the payment of any
tolls whatever ; though he thought the companies should
have a fair remuneration for the accommodation given."

Sir James Graham, on the other hand, wanted to know
what were the Queen's rights on the Paddington Canal. He
understood that troops were frequently moved from Padding-
ton to Liverpool by canal, but were always paid for as passen-
gers. Lord Sandon, too, declared that the question was
whether the public interest conferred a right upon the Post
Office to take possession of railroads, and make use of them
without the slightest remuneration whatever. That the rail-
ways should be subject to control he readily admitted ; but
there was a wide difference between justifiable control and
absolute sway, between fair remuneration and robbery, for
such it would be to use the property of these companies with-
out paying for it.

The companies, according to a statement in the " Railway
Magazine " for August, 1838, where a summary of the debate
will be found, had been " prepared not merely to petition
but to act " — whatever this may mean. The Government,
however, adopted a more conciliatory attitude towards them
by either withdrawing or amending the clauses which had
evoked these protests, and an amicable settlement of the
future relations between the railways and the Post Office was
then effected.

The rejection of Morrison's Bill and the withdrawal of the
Duke of Wellington's motion, following on their adverse
criticism by the railway interests, had committed the Govern-
ment still more to their policy of stimulating competition
between the railway companies themselves, thus, they con-
sidered, diminishing the risk of seeing any of them become
too prosperous a monopoly. It was in full accord with this
policy that encouragement was given to the creation of

266 History of Inland Transport

many small, independent, and more or less competing lines,
and that no attempt was made to encourage the provision,
either by individual companies or by groups of companies, of
" trunk lines " of the type which Thomas Gray and others
had been urging on the country with so much though with
such futile persistence.

The advent of the new means of transport was, in fact,
marked by the complete absence of any centralised effort
with a view to securing the network of a railway system, so
planned or so co-ordinated as to make the best possible
provision for the country as a whole, and especially for the
rapidly increasing necessities of trade, commerce and in-
dustry. The failure to act on these lines was, however, only
in accordance with the previous policy, or no-policy, which
had successively left the improvement of rivers, the making
of roads, the construction of canals and the provision of turn-
pikes either to private benevolence or to private enterprise,
influenced mainly by considerations of local or personal
interests.

Much had certainly been done in these various directions
by those to whom the State had thus relegated the carrying
out of public works which in most other countries — as regards
main routes, at least — are regarded as a matter of national
obligation. But, apart from any question of providing State
funds, the lack even of intelligent direction and efficient
supervision by a central power, qualified to advise or
to organise private effort, had led both to a prodigious
waste of money and to results either unsatisfactory in them-
selves or in no way commensurate with the expenditure in-
curred. The same conditions now were to lead, in regard to
the railways, to a further waste of money, to disastrous
speculation, to infinite confusion, to the piling up of a huge
railway debt, and to the provision of innumerable small
lines which were to remain more or less independent and
disconnected fragments of a railway system until the more
enterprising companies began, on their own initiative, to
amalgamate them into through routes of traffic.1

The general position at the period here in question was
well stated by G. R. Porter in his " Progress of the Nation "

1 Professor Hadley states, in " Railroad Transportation," that in 1844
the average length of English railroads was fifteen miles.

Railways and the State 267

(1846), where he wrote, on the subject of railway develop-
ment : —

" The laissez faire system which is pursued in this country
to such an extent that it has become an axiom with the
Government to undertake nothing and to interfere with
nothing which can be accomplished by individual enterprise,
or by the associated means of private parties has been pregnant
with great loss and inconvenience to the country in carrying
forward the railway system. Perhaps there never was an
occasion in which the Government could with equal propriety
have interfered to reconcile the conflicting interests involved,
and to prevent public injury arising from the false steps so
likely to be made at first in bringing about a total revolution
in the internal communication of the country. It is not
meant by these remarks to infer that Government should
have taken into its own hands the construction of all or
any of the railroads called for by the wants of the community ;
but only to suggest the propriety and advantage that must
have resulted from a preliminary inquiry, made by competent
and uninterested professional men with a view to ascertain
the comparative advantages and facilities offered by different
lines for the accomplishment of the object in view. If this
course had been adopted before any of the numerous pro-
jects were brought forward for the construction of lines of
railway between all imaginable places, and if it had been
laid down as a rule by the legislature that no such projected
line could be sanctioned or even entertained by Parliament
which was not in accordance with the reports and recom-
mendations of the Government engineers, the saving of money
would have been immense. The expensive contests between
rival companies in which large capitals had been so needlessly
sunk would then have been wholly avoided ; and it might
further have followed from this cause that, a kind of public
sanction having been given to particular lines and localities,
much of that personal opposition which has thrown difficulties
in the way of works of great and acknowledged utility would
never have been brought forward."

In making these remarks, Porter was only giving expres-
sion to views entertained in various influential quarters, and
to a certain extent he did but anticipate, or re-echo, accord-
ing to the precise date at which his observations had been

268 History of Inland Transport

written, certain views and proposals put forward by the
Select Committee of 1844, of which Mr Gladstone (then
President of the Board of Trade) was chairman. In the Fifth
Report of this Committee it is said : —

" The Committee entertain very strongly the opinion that
in the future proceedings of Parliament railway schemes
ought not to be regarded as merely projects of local improve-
ment, but that each new line should be viewed as a member
of a great system of communication, binding together the
various districts of the country with a closeness and intimacy
of relation in many respects heretofore unknown."

So long, the Report continued, as railways were considered
to be of problematical benefit, and were in general subject
to extensive opposition on the part of the owners and occupiers
of land, and of the inhabitants of the districts they traversed,
there might have been reasons for ensuring a very full, and,
in some points of view, a disproportionately full, representation
to local interests ; but " The considerations which tend to
attach to railways a national rather than a local character gain
weight from year to year as those undertakings are pro-
gressively consolidated among themselves, as the points of
contact between them are multiplied, and as those that
were first isolated in comparison are thus brought into rela-
tion with gradually extending ranges of space, traffic and
population."

The Select Committee went on to give their reasons for
considering that the ordinary machinery of Private Bill
Committees, with their separate and unconnected proceed-
ings, and an individual existence commencing and ending
with each particular Bill, was inadequate and unsatisfactory ;
and they especially pointed to the fact that hitherto it had
not been customary to examine railway Bills "systematically
and at large with reference to public interests." There were
various questions which could not be thoroughly sifted under
the mode of procedure then in vogue, and the Committee
recommended that, with a view to assisting the judgment of
the Houses of the Legislature, all future railway Bills should,
previously to coming before Parliament, be submitted to
the Board of Trade for their report thereon. They further
said — and these observations have a special significance in
view of events that were to follow : —

Railways and the State 269

" The Committee entertain the opinion that the announce-
ment of an intention on the part of Parliament to sift with
care the particulars of railway schemes, to associate them
with the public interest (in the cases of all future schemes and
of all subsisting companies which may voluntarily accede to
such an arrangement). . . will produce very beneficial effects
in deterring parties from the attempt to entrap the public
by dishonest projects, in securing railway projects against
the shocks to which in periods of great commercial excitement
it must otherwise be liable from such causes," etc.

Praiseworthy as was the design thus put forward by Mr
Gladstone's Committee, it failed to bring about the results
anticipated.

In accordance with the recommendations made, a special
department of the Board of Trade, under the direction of
Lord Dalhousie, was created, in August, 1844, to inquire
into and report to Parliament on all new railway schemes and
Bills, with a view to guiding the Private Bill Committees of
both Houses. The special department was more especially
to report as to the positive and comparative advantages to
the public of any Bills proposed for the construction of com-
peting lines.

A great deal was hoped for from this new arrangement, and
the decisions of the department as to which of the schemes
then being promoted they would recommend for first con-
sideration by Parliament were keenly awaited.

The expansion of the railway system had, by this time,
proceeded so far that by the end of 1843 Parliament had
authorised the construction of 2390 miles of railway, of which
2036 miles were then open for traffic. The capital of these
lines was £82,800,000, and of this amount about £66,000,000
had been raised. A good deal of wild speculation in 1836-7
had been followed by a reaction, and the railway market was
still depressed in 1843 ; but in 1844 interest in railway enter-
prise was greatly stimulated by the announcement that the
Liverpool and Manchester, the Grand Junction, the London
and Birmingham and the York and Midland were paying
dividends of from ten to twelve per cent each, and that the
Stockton and Darlington was paying fifteen per cent. The
shares in existing companies rose in value, a number of new
companies were formed, and companies already operating

2jo History of Inland Transport

projected branches in defence of their own interests against
threatened competition. It was at this juncture that Mr
Gladstone's Committee presented its Report and that, follow-
ing thereon, the special department of the Board of Trade
was called upon to undertake its responsible duties.

On November 28, 1844, the department intimated that the
points it would particularly inquire into in regard to railway
Bills then before it were (i) ability and bona fide intentions of
the promoters to prosecute their application to Parliament in
the following Session ; (2) national advantages to be gained ;
(3) local advantages ; (4) engineering conditions ; and (5)
cost of construction, prospective traffic and working expenses.
On the last day of the year the department announced which
Bills they proposed to recommend, and subsequently they
issued reports giving their reasons. Strong protests were
raised by the disappointed projectors, and on the opening
of the Session of 1845 Sir Robert Peel announced that the
Government intended to leave railway Bills, as before, to
the judgment of the Private Bill Committees.

This meant the virtual setting aside of the newly-formed
department, though its actual existence was not terminated
until the following August. It meant — since each Private
Bill Committee would deal only with the merits of a particular
scheme — the definite abandonment of any opportunity for
securing, through an authority dealing with railway pro-
jects as a whole, the realisation of the ideal of Mr Gladstone's
Committee that " each new line should be viewed as a member
of a great system of communication, binding together the
various districts of the country with a closeness and intimacy
of relation " previously unknown. It meant, also, the adop-
tion of a policy of free trade in railways, without protection
for established interests, and to any and every honest pro-
moter or dishonest speculator who had a scheme to propose
it gave, in effect, carte blanche to bring it forward.

Much disappointment was felt at this collapse of Mr Glad-
stone's apparently well-devised scheme, and the policy
adopted in regard to it was keenly criticised. Francis quotes,
for instance, the following passages from " Railway Legisla-
tion," the authorship of which, however, I have been unable
to trace : —

" Swayed by motives which it is difficult to fathom, the

Railways and the State 271

two Houses, with singular unanimity, agreed ... to give
unrestricted scope to competition. . . . Little regard was
paid to the claims and interests of existing railway companies,
still less to the interests of the unfortunate persons who were
induced to embark in the new projects for no better reason
than that they had been sanctioned by Parliament. . . .
The opportunity of confining the exceptional gauge within
its original territory was also for ever thrown away. By an
inconceivable want of statesmanlike views and foresight,
no effort was made to connect the isolated railways which
then existed by new links into one great and combined system
in the form in which they would be most subservient to the
wants of the community and to the great ends of domestic
government and national defence. Further, the sudden
change from the one extreme of determined rejection or
dilatory acquiescence to the opposite extreme of unlimited
concession gave a powerful stimulus to the spirit of specula-
tion, and turned nearly the whole nation into gamblers."

Francis himself says of the position thus brought about : —

" All hope of applying great general principles passed away.
Every chance of directing the course of railways to form a
national system of communication was lost. . . . The legisla-
tive body — to appropriate the idea of Mr Morrison — com-
mitted the mistake of converting the Kingdom into a great
stock exchange, and of stimulating the various members of
the railway system to a deep and deadly struggle, destructive
of order and fruitful of vice."

This may seem to be unduly strong language; but what
actually and immediately followed on the course of events
here in question was — the Railway Mania of 1845-6.

By the summer of 1845 the country had gone railway mad.
In the Session of 1843 the number of railway Acts passed
had been twenty-four, showing no more than a normal
development of the railway system in meeting the legitimate
needs of the country. In the Session of 1844 the number
increased to thirty-seven. In the Session of 1845 there were
no fewer than 248 railway Bills. In the next Session Bills
were deposited with the Board of Trade for the construction
of 815 new lines of railway, with a length of 20,687 miles,
and capital powers to the extent of ^350,000,000. Of these
815 Bills many were abortive for technical reasons, or be-

272 History of Inland Transport

cause the necessary deposit was not paid ; but over 700 of
them reached the Private Bill Office.

How every class of society joined in the scramble for shares ;
how extravagant prices were given for the scrip of lines which,
when completed, could not for years have covered their
working expenses ; how half-pay officers, ticket-porters and
men, even, in receipt of parish relief put down their names
on the " subscription " lists for thousands of pounds' worth
of shares, on their being paid a fee — sometimes as low as
five shillings — for so doing ; how " frenzy seized the whole
nation " ; how " there was scarcely a family in England
which was not directly or indirectly interested in the fortunes
of the rail " ; and how the inevitable collapse reached every
hearth and saddened every heart in the Metropolis, bringing
many families both there and elsewhere to ruin, will be found
recorded in detail by John Francis, in his " History of the
English Railway," and need not be enlarged upon here.

In referring to the events of this period, the Report of the
Joint Committee on the Amalgamation of Railway Companies,
1872, admits that " One effect of the favour shown by Parlia-
ment to competing schemes was to encourage a large number
of speculative enterprises." Leaving aside the enterprises, of
whatever type, that did not survive the passage through
Parliament, I compile, from figures given in Clifford's " History
of Private Bill Legislation," the following table showing new
lines of railway actually sanctioned by Parliament during the
Sessions 1845-7 : —

YEAR. NUMBER. MILES. CAPITAL.

1845 118 2700 £56,000,000

1846 270 4538 £132,000,000

1847 190 !354 £39,460,000

Totals 578 8592 £227,460,000

These figures indicate sufficiently the magnitude of the
schemes in respect to which, during so short a period as three
years, Parliament assumed the responsibility of giving its
express sanction and approval.

The period of speculation was followed by the inevitable
reaction, and in 1850 it was found necessary to pass an Act

Railways and the State 273

" to facilitate the abandonment of railways and the dissolu-
tion of railway companies." Of the 8592 miles of railway
sanctioned in the three Sessions, 1845-7, no fewer than 1560
miles were (as shown by the Report of the Royal Commission
on Railways, 1867), abandoned by the promoters under the
authority of the Act ; while a further 2000 miles of railway,
requiring 40 millions of capital, are said by the Report of the
1853 Committee to have been abandoned without the consent
of Parliament.

To the extent indicated by these abandonments the rail-
way situation was certainly relieved. But the mania and
the resultant panic had serious consequences in regard not
alone to investors in the schemes that failed but also to the
companies that survived.

Apart from projects designed to open up entirely new
districts — many of them of a perfectly genuine and desirable
character — there were others directly devised to compete
with existing lines and capture some of the remunerative
traffic these were then handling ; and it was, as I have shown,
quite in accordance with the accepted principle of State
railway-policy that such competition should be encouraged,
in preference to any " districting " of the country among
particular companies or to the creation or co-ordination of
an organised system of railways on the lines proposed by
Mr Gladstone's Committee.

The existing companies, rinding that the territory already
" allotted " to them (as they considered) was being invaded,
or was in danger of being invaded, felt themselves forced, for
the purposes of self-defence, to enter on a number of pro-
tective schemes which might not, at the time, otherwise
have been warranted. Clifford says on this point in his
" History of Private Bill Legislation " : "As the Govern-
ment took no steps to prevent the promotion of competitive
railways, tending to diminish the profits of existing companies,
the latter sought to protect themselves as they best could,
and justified their many unprofitable extensions and amalga-
mations as measures forced upon them by the leave-alone
policy of the Government."

Confirmation of this statement will be found in a speech
delivered on February 23, 1848, by Mr C. Russell, M.P.,
chairman of the Great Western Railway Company, at the

274 History of Inland Transport

sixth half-yearly meeting, at Paddington, of the South Wales
Railway Company (of which he was also chairman), and
reported in " The Times " of the following day. Referring
to a pamphlet which had been issued attacking the policy of
the Great Western Railway Company, Mr Russell said : —

" If their engagements were extensive, and he did not
deny that they were so, they had been entered in only as a
matter of necessity. They all arose out of the mania of
1845-46, and even in the pamphlet in question it had been
admitted that the Great Western was not one of those com-
panies which at that time had promoted any of the many
schemes which were afloat. He, as far as he was concerned,
had not only not promoted these projects, but had taken
every means in his power to check them. In January, 1846,
in his place in Parliament he had predicted the results if
some steps were not at once adopted to put a curb upon
reckless speculation ; but most unfortunately for all parties
that was not the view which was taken by the House of
Commons. Mr Hudson and other gentlemen maintained that
the course he recommended would be an unfair interference
with private enterprise, and the consequence was that schemes
involving altogether the sum of £125,000,000 passed through
the Legislature in that year. The Great Western had remon-
strated with the President and the Vice-President of the
Board of Trade, and, left to their own resources, they had
been compelled, in self-defence, to look after their own
interests by getting hold of all the rival or contemplated rival
schemes."

In some instances the existing companies guaranteed
interest to the shareholders of branches and extensions which
were feared as rivals. F. S. Williams, in " Our Iron Roads,"
says of such lines as these that while many of them were
accepted as feeders they " proved for a time to be only
suckers."

The effects of the mania on the finances of existing rail-
way companies was further shown by the fact that, in order
to pay their contractors, some of the companies were obliged
during the crisis to raise money at from ten to thirty, and,
in some instances it is said, even at fifty per cent discount.
Then, also, the shares in ten leading companies suffered be-
tween 1845 and 1847 a depreciation in value estimated at

Railways and the State 275

£18,000,000. The following are typical examples of the falls
experienced : —

COMPANY. SHARES. JULY, 1845. AfRIL 4, 1848. DECLINE.

£ £ £ £

London and Birmingham 100 243 126 117

Great Western . . 80 (paid) 205 88 117

Midland .... IOO 187 95 92

London and Brighton . 50 76 28J 47$

While the general situation in the railway world had been
thus developing, there was a revival, in 1846, of the idea that
the work of Private Bill Committees in respect to railway
schemes should be supplemented by some other form of
inquiry into their merits.

Writing on this subject in the issue of his " Railway Maga-
zine " for July, 1837, John Herapath had said : —

" It has long been anxiously expected that Parliament
would take some steps to relieve itself from the onerous
duties of investigating and deciding on railway matters.
Probably no tribunals can be less fitted for inquiries of this
kind than Parliamentary Committees, of which the House of
Commons has lately given a demonstrative proof in the case
of the Brighton line. After Committees of the two Houses
had sat nearly the whole of last session, and a Committee of
the Commons for thirty-five days of the present ; after the
Committee's reports had been made on each of the lines and
near 300,0007. of the subscribers' money had been wasted,
the House of Commons stamped its own opinion of all those
labours by giving them the ' go-by,' and referring the whole
four lines to the judgment of a military engineer."

As for the element of uncertainty in the decisions of Parlia-
mentary Committees, F. S. Williams is responsible for the
statement that six railway Bills rejected by Commons Com-
mittees in 1844 were passed on precisely the same evidence
in 1845 ; that of eighteen Bills rejected in 1845 seven were
passed unaltered in 1846 ; and that of six Bills thrown out
by Committees of the House of Lords in 1845 four were
adopted by other Committees in 1846.

The failure, however, of the special department of the
Board of Trade, created on the recommendation of Mr Glad-

276 History of Inland Transport

stone's Committee to meet the requirements of the situation,
was complete. In giving evidence before the Select Com-
mittee of 1 88 1, the secretary of the Board of Trade, Mr
T. Farrer (afterwards Lord Farrer), referring to the work of
Lord Dalhousie's department, said the reports made " were
very able, but they were thrown over immediately they got
to the House." When, he declared, the Board of Trade
had taken all the means in their power to make a full report,
" it was treated as waste paper. The Board might just as well
have made no report at all." On the other hand, he admitted
that the reports had not been of much actual value, the Board
of Trade having no power to call the parties before them and
take evidence.

Apart from a feeling of jealousy entertained by members
in general and Private Bill Committees in particular towards
any curtailment of their powers, privileges and functions by
departmental officials, experience had shown that the Private
Bill Committees, after examining witnesses, getting expert
testimony and hearing counsel, were better able to ascertain
the facts of particular schemes than the special department,
while the latter had lost credit, also, on account of its recom-
mendations in regard to amalgamations.

The first scheme of this kind on which it was asked to report
was one for an amalgamation between the Liverpool and
Manchester Railway, the Grand Junction Railway (from
Liverpool to Birmingham) and the North Union (from Warring-
ton to Preston). The Bill was opposed by public bodies and
traders in the leading towns of Lancashire, and Lord Dal-
housie's report favoured the opposition ; but the Select
Committee on the Bill nevertheless assented to an amalga-
mation which was, in effect, to lead to the creation of the
London and North- Western system of to-day. The depart-
ment also reported unsuccessfully in 1845 against the amalga-
mation of the Chester and Birkenhead with the^ Chester and
Holyhead Railway — two other lines which were first united
to each other and then to the London and North- Western.
It further reported against various proposed amalgamations
and arrangements in the Midland Counties ; so that, as the
Report of the Select Committee of 1872 points out, the de-
partment would have objected strongly to such combinations
as the present London and North- Western Railway, the

Railways and the State 277

Great Western, the North-Eastern, the Midland, the Great
Northern and the Great Eastern.

These considerations should be borne in mind by those
who might otherwise be disposed to criticise the attitude
adopted by the Government of 1845 towards the special
department here in question.

The one experiment had been a failure — with, as we have
seen, deplorable consequences for the country and serious
prejudice to bona fide railways ; but Committees of both
Houses, appointed in 1846, were now to recommend another.
They advised the creation of a Board of Commissioners of
Railways who were to discharge the dual functions of (i)
seeing that the railway companies did not contravene the
provisions of their special Acts or of any general Statutes ;
and (2) report to Parliament, if so directed, upon any pending
railway Bills.

An Act to this effect was passed in 1846 ; but in the follow-
ing Session there was introduced a Bill which proposed greatly
to increase the powers of the Board of Commissioners. Clifford
says, concerning this Bill, that it made the Commissioners,
in effect, arbiters of all railway legislation. Promoters were
not even to survey an intended line until the Commissioners
gave permission. When the survey was made one of their
officers was to report upon the project. With them plans and
sections were to be deposited ; they were to examine into
compliance with Standing Orders and report to Parliament
upon engineering merits and proposed rates. Considerable
authority was also vested in them over existing railways.
They were to report annually to Parliament upon tolls, fares
and charges, and upon the regularity or irregularity of trains ;
and they might call for returns as to traffic and many other
details of management, inspect the books and documents of
railway companies, and settle disputes between companies
having termini or portions of line in common.

" Parliament," Clifford further tells us, " was again jealous
of this proposed interference with legislation." The railway
companies also protested, and the measure was received with
such general disfavour that it was withdrawn before it reached
a second reading. As for the Board of Commissioners, instead
of getting more authority it got less. Part of its functions were
re-united to those of the Board of Trade in 1848, and the

278 History of Inland Transport

remainder followed in 1851, whereupon the new authority
ceased to exist.1

Once more, therefore, railway Bills were left to be dealt
with on their individual merits by Private Bill Committees
operating on lines to which, not simply John Herapath, but
Mr Gladstone's own Committee, had taken exception ; and
once more was a set-back given to the aspiration for the
establishment of some central authority which could organise,
co-ordinate or otherwise consolidate the still rapidly increasing
railways on the basis of a national system of rail communica-
tion. The difficulty might, perhaps, have been met by the
creation of a Minister of Communications, who would have
held a position somewhat similar to that of the Minister of
Public Works in Prussia or in France, and have discharged a
useful function as director-in-chief, or, at least, as adviser-
in-chief, in regard alike to railways, roads, rivers and canals.
Such a Minister, being a member of the Government, might
have acted or recommended without wounding the sus-
ceptibilities of Private Bill Committees or of individual
members ; he might have organised or been the means of
organising an efficient system of railways at an earlier date
and at far less cost ; and he might have saved both the country
from its enormous losses on the wild-cat projects of unscrupu-
lous schemers during the mania period and bona fide companies
from much of the excessive capitalization into which they were
driven.

Whether or not the problems of the situation could have
been solved in this manner, the fact remains that it was the
railway companies themselves who — in spite of the established
policy of the State, directed to the maintenance of railway
competition, and in spite of the disapproval of amalgamations
by one Parliament Committee after another — brought
about the conveniences of through travel or through transit.
It was they themselves who, by amalgamation or otherwise,
instigated the creation of the " great " companies which both
ensured these conveniences and effected a complete trans-
formation in the general railway position, to the great ad-
vantage of everyone concerned.

1 The present Railway and Canal Commission, which, however, has no
functions in regard to advising on railway Bills, was created in 1873 for a
period of years, and was made permanent in 1888.

Railways and the State 279

Before, however, reaching this stage in their development,
the railways had had some other struggles with the Govern-
ment on questions of State policy arising out of those afore-
said feelings of suspicion and distrust, and due to the same
fear as before that the companies would be sure to abuse
their position unless they were restrained from so doing.

Following on the recommendations of the Committee of
1840, and with a view to safeguarding the public interests in
regard alike to safety and to reasonable treatment, some im-
portant statutory powers had already been conferred on the
Board of Trade. Under the Regulation of Railways Act, 1840,
notice was to be given to the Board of Trade of the opening
of all new lines of railway ; such lines were to be inspected
by Board of Trade inspectors ; various returns in respect of
traffic, tolls, rates and accidents were to be made to that
body, to which, also, all existing bye-laws affecting the public
were to be submitted for confirmation. In 1842 a further
Act gave the Board power to delay the opening of any new
line until they were satisfied that all the necessary works had
been effectively constructed. Mr Glyn, chairman of the
London and Birmingham Railway, said of this measure : "It
is a Bill which I do not hesitate to say is, on the whole, cal-
culated to do the interests of railways very considerable
service."

But the attitude of the companies was no longer favourable
when Mr Gladstone's Committee of 1844 proposed to confer
on the Board of Trade some drastic powers for the periodical
revision of railway rates, and likewise sought to lay down
the terms on which the State might acquire all future lines
of railway. The proposals in question were incorporated
in a Bill which was brought in by Mr Gladstone ; but the
measure met with strenuous opposition from the railway
interests, and the modifications introduced before it became
law were of such a nature that the Act has never been put
into operation.

In regard to the revision of rates, the Act laid down that
if, after the lapse of twenty-one years (not fifteen, as pro-
posed in Mr Gladstone's first Bill), any railway sanctioned
after the passing of the Act had paid ten per cent for three
years, the Treasury (not the Board of Trade) might reduce
the rates, guaranteeing, however, a ten per cent dividend to

280 History of Inland Transport

the company, while the revised rates and the guarantee were
to continue for another twenty-one years. Needless to say,
railway companies in general do not pay ten per cent divi-
dends, though in 1844 ten per cent was regarded as quite
a reasonable dividend for a railway, in view of what the canal
companies had been paying ; while no such guarantee as
that suggested is ever likely to be made by the Treasury.
Provisions authorising the Board of Trade to make deduc-
tions from the guaranteed income as penalties for what they
might regard as mismanagement, and prohibiting a company
from increasing its capital pending a revision of rates, with-
out the sanction of the Board of Trade, were so vigorously
opposed that they were abandoned.

The clauses of the Act relating to State purchase were to
apply only to new lines of railway, the 2320 miles of railway
sanctioned prior to the Session of 1844 — and including many
of the chief links in the great trunk lines of to-day — being
expressly excluded. As regarded railways sanctioned in the
Session of 1844, or subsequently thereto, it was enacted that
after the lapse of fifteen years the Treasury might acquire
them for twenty-five years' purchase of the average annual
profits for the preceding three years ; but if those profits
were less than ten per cent, the amount was to be settled by
arbitration. It was further enacted that no railway less
than five miles in length should be bought ; that no branch
should be acquired without purchase of the entire railway ;
that the policy of revision or purchase was not to be pre-
judiced by the Act ; that " public resources " were not to
be employed to sustain undue competition with independent
companies ; and, finally, that no revision of rates or State
purchase of lines should take place at all without an Act
of Parliament authorising the guarantee or the purchase,
and determining how either was to be done.

To argue, as many advocates of the nationalisation of
railways habitually do, that the basis for State purchase has
already been established by the Act of 1844 is to set up a
theory which is obviously inconsistent with the real facts of
the situation.

Commenting on this Act of 1844 the Joint Committee on
the Amalgamation of Railway Companies (1872) say in their
report : —

Railways and the State 281

" It would be impossible to deal with railways made since
1844 without dealing with railways made before that time,
since both form part of the same systems.

" As regards the revision of rates, no Government would
undertake to try experiments in reducing rates on an inde-
pendent company whose income they must guarantee ; and
efficient or economical administration could scarcely be
expected from a railway company whose rates were cut down
and whose dividend at ten per cent was guaranteed by
Government.

" Whatever value there may be in the notice given to the
companies by this Act of their liability to compulsory pur-
chase by the State, over and above the general right of
expropriation possessed by the latter in such cases, its terms
do not appear suited to the present condition of railway
property or likely to be adopted by Parliament in case of any
intention at any future time on the part of Parliament to
purchase the railways."

The proposals contained in the Bill, and modified into the
Act of 1844, were, of course, simply a further development of
the then established policy of the State in taking precautions
against the evils that might result from railway monopoly.

A greater degree of apparent success was, at first, to attend
those further precautionary measures which took the form
of encouraging the construction of competing lines, leading
both to new and to existing companies invading the so-called
" territory " of other companies, as distinct from the pro-
vision of lines in districts which had no railways at all.

There was at this time much discussion as to the rights
of established companies.

When the proposal for the appointment of the Committee
of 1840 was under discussion in the House of Commons, Sir
Robert Peel had contended that a material distinction was
to be drawn between new companies approaching Parliament
for the first time and companies which, relying on the faith
of Parliament, had invested their capital in the construction
of railways. " Parliament, it was true, might repent of the
indiscretion and levity with which it had granted those
powers . . . but he would advise Parliament to be very
cautious how it interfered with the profits or management
of companies which had been called into existence by the

282 History of Inland Transport

authority, and had invested their money on the faith, of
Parliament." Mr Gladstone's Committee of 1844 also declared
that they had been " governed throughout their consideration
of the subject by the strongest conviction that no step should
be taken by Parliament which would either induce so much
as a reasonable suspicion of its good faith with regard to the
integrity of privileges already granted, and not shown to
have been abused, or which would prospectively discourage
the disposition now so actively in operation to extend the
railway system by the formation of new lines."

On the other hand, there was that ever-present and ever-
active dread of what might happen if the railway companies did
become grasping and merciless monopolists. There was,
also, the fact that while there would be direct competition
between two railways having the same terminal points, each line
might further serve a more or less considerable and important
intermediate stretch of country which otherwise would be
left without railway accommodation at all.

For one or other of these reasons competing lines continued
to be sanctioned, notwithstanding Special Committees' recom-
mendations and railway companies' protests. One such pro-
test, giving a specific example of the tendencies of the day,
was made in a memorial to the Board of Trade, dated June
26, 1857, and headed, " Proposed Remedies for Railway
Grievances." The memorial, signed by Sir John Hall, Bart.,
and six others, and addressed to Lord Stanley of Alderley,
president, and Mr Robert Lowe, vice-president, of the Board
of Trade, had been drawn up at the request of those two
gentlemen as a more detailed statement of facts to which
their attention had already been called. Five specific griev-
ances were dealt with, and the first of these was " The Tendency
of Parliament to concede competing or otherwise unnecessary
lines." Under this head the memorialists state : —

"It is not our desire that the railway system should be
legislatively restricted within its present limits, or that exist-
ing shareholders should by any process whatever be nominally
or practically gifted with a monopoly of the means of railway
transit. We should submit to the introduction of new lines
of railway wherever called for by absolute public necessity.
... In such cases, however, we consider that the Legislature
would only be doing justice to its previous enactments in

Railways and the State 283

giving former applicants time to complete their engagements
so that they might be able, at the proper time, to exhibit
their ability and their willingness to consider the wants of
the public as well as their proper remuneration."

The memorialists mention the fact that in 1853 several
new lines were sanctioned, the period fixed for their com-
pletion being 1858, and they proceed : —

" Already, however, before these lines are opened, others
are promoted in competition with them — promoted, not by a
complaining locality, but in some cases by existing companies,
in others by persons whose only apparent object is to sell the
schemes to advantage when Parliament has sanctioned their
construction. In such instances as these we humbly submit
that the Legislature should not permit the introduction of
new lines until it has seen whether or not the company in
possession can fulfil its engagements, and whether, also, such
company should not be permitted an opportunity of electing
to extend its undertaking, or to leave further effort to the
discretion of the Legislature."

Whilst the State was thus maintaining its own policy of
competition, the railway companies were equally persistent in
keeping to their policy of amalgamation ; so that, as the Joint
Committee of 1872 remarked, " A new line was sure sooner
or later to join the combination of existing railways, and to
make common cause with them."

Practical railway experience was showing that the ordinary
ideas of competition, as regarded commercial undertakings
in general, did not and could not be made to apply to railways
beyond a certain point. The capital sunk alike in obtaining
a railway Act, in acquiring and adapting land, with provision
of embankments, cuttings, viaducts, bridges, tunnels, etc.,
for the railway lines, and in supplying the various necessary
appurtenances, railway stations, and so on, was irredeemable,
since, in the case of failure of the line, due to competition or
otherwise, the capital invested could not be realised again,
the land, rails, buildings, etc., on which it had been spent being
of little or no value for other than railway purposes. There
could thus be no transfer of capital from one undertaking to
another, as in ordinary commercial affairs.

In addition to this it might be that interest would have to be
paid on two lots of railway capital in a district where the

284 History of Inland Transport

traffic was sufficient to allow of the financial obligations of
only a single company being efficiently met, any success
achieved by the new company depending (until the available
traffic increased) on its power to divert business and profits
from the other company.

Hence it might well occur that " the best laid schemes " of
Parliament and Parliamentary Committees, in approving
competitive lines, resulted only in the companies concerned
coming to, at least, a friendly understanding ; and it might
even be that the public did not eventually benefit at all,
because, as the Joint Committee of 1872 say, " The necessity
of carrying interest on the additional capital required for the
new line tends sometimes, in the end, to raise rather than to
reduce the rates."

Economic considerations, again, apart altogether from those
monopolistic tendencies on the fear of which the policy of the
State had been founded, were quite sufficient to account for the
absorption of one company by another, and especially of small
companies by larger ones, not so much to avoid competition
as to ensure the provision of through routes operated under
one and the same management, involving less outlay on
working expenses, and providing greater advantages to the
public than if the same length of line belonged to a number
of different companies.

The lines between London and Liverpool, for example,
were originally divided between three companies, and the same
was the case with the lines between Bristol and Leeds. In
some instances the companies were not on good terms with one
another, and they ran their trains to suit their own convenience.
Even when they were on good terms, they might not have
any interests in common, apart from (at one time) offering as
few comforts and conveniences as possible to the third-class
traveller, and compelling him at least to complete his journey
by going first class, if he wished to get to his destination the
same night.

As early as 1847 attempts had been made by some of the
companies to overcome the glaring defects of the original
system of railway construction by establishing the Railway
Clearing House, with a view to facilitating through traffic
and allowing of a better adjustment of accounts when pas-
sengers or goods were carried over various lines in return for a

Railways and the State 285

single payment. The companies persevered, however, in their
further policy of amalgamation and consolidation, and in
1853 the number and magnitude of schemes with these
objects in view created such alarm on the part both of poli-
ticians and of traders that a further Select Committee — known
as Mr. CardwelTs Committee — was appointed.

The members of this Committee pointed out in their
report that the whole tendency of the companies was towards
union and extension, that competition ended in combination,
and that the companies were able in great measure to attain
these ends by agreements with one another without the
authority of Parliament. The economy and the convenience
resulting from amalgamation were admitted by the report ;
but, though still no proof was offered, or suggestion made,
that the companies were actually abusing the greater powers
they had thus secured, there was an obvious under-current
of alarm in the minds of the Committee as to the many un-
desirable things which large concerns might do.

The Committee were opposed to any " districting " of the
country between different companies, and they recommended
that, while working agreements might be allowed, amalgama-
tions between large companies should not. As an example of
the combinations they deprecated, I might mention that they
pointed with evident feelings of much concern to the fact
that if the amalgamation schemes then being proposed by the
London and North- Western Railway Company were conceded,
they would involve the union under one control of a capital
of £60,000,000, a revenue of £4,000,000, and 1200 miles of
railway, with the further result of " rendering impossible the
existence of independent rival trunk lines." One wonders
what the members of this Committee would have said had
they been told that by the end of 1910 (as shown by the Board
of Trade " Railway Returns ") the London and North- Western
would control a total authorised capital of (in round figures)
£134,000,000, have gross receipts in a single year amounting
to £15,962,000, and be operating 1966 route miles of line,
equivalent to 5490 miles of single track (including sidings),
besides being only one of half a dozen great trunk lines.

A much more practical result of the deliberations of this
Committee was seen in certain provisions of the Railway
and Canal Traffic Act, 1854, which laid down that every

286 History of Inland Transport

railway company should afford proper facilities for receiving
and forwarding traffic ; that no undue or unreasonable pre-
ferences should be given ; and that where the systems were
continuous the companies should afford due and reasonable
facilities for the interchange of traffic, without undue pre-
ference or obstruction. In this way it was sought to bring
about greater co-ordination between the numerous small lines,
and secure a better provision for through traffic. The Act
is well described by the Select Committee of 1872 as "a
measure valuable in fact and most important in its scope and
intention." It may have been further anticipated that
companies which, as the result of the Act, secured running
powers or free interchange of traffic over the lines of other
companies — and especially as regards lines having access to
London — would be less ready to agree to absorption by them ;
but if this expectation were, indeed, entertained, it was not
realised.

The companies, in fact, continued to develop their commercial
undertakings in accordance with what they regarded as com-
mercial principles, and the Joint Committee on the Amalgama-
tion of Railway Companies, 1872, taking a much broader view
of the situation than previous Committees had done, pointed
out how small had been the effect of the policy sought to be
enforced against the railways, since the combinations which
had enabled the great trunk lines to attain to the position they
occupied at that date had been effected " contemporaneously
with reports against large combinations," those reports having
had " little influence upon the action of Private Bill Com-
mittees," and not staying " the progress of the companies in
their course of union and amalgamation." The Committee
further said, on the subject of " districting " : —

" Among the various suggestions which naturally occur
when dealing with the question of amalgamation, one of the
most obvious and most important is to the effect that for the
future some endeavour should be made to compel railways
in amalgamating to follow certain fixed lines or principles.
. . . If at an earlier period in railway history such an attempt
had been successfully made, there is no doubt that it might
have provided us with a railway system, if not more efficient,
at any rate far less costly than that which we now possess.
But considering the policy, or want of policy, which has hitherto

Railways and the State 287

been pursued, and the interests which have grown up under
it, the difficulties of laying down any fixed policy for the future
arc very formidable."

The words in this extract which I have put in italics,
representing, as they do, the views of a Joint Committee of the
House of Lords and of the House of Commons, justify, I would
suggest, much of the criticism in which I have here ventured
to indulge.

Among the conclusions at which the Committee arrived were
the following : —

" Past amalgamations have not brought with them the evils
which were anticipated."

" Competition between railways exists only to a limited
extent, and cannot be maintained by legislation."

" Combination between railway companies is increasing
and is likely to increase, whether by amalgamation or other-
wise."

" It is impossible to lay down any general rules determining
the limits or the character of future amalgamations."

In support of their views in regard to the first of these
conclusions, the Committee pointed especially to the North-
Eastern and the Great Eastern Railway Companies, each of
which had so far pursued a policy of amalgamation that the
report speaks of the former as " pervading and possessing one
of the wealthiest and most important districts of the King-
dom," and of the latter as having " almost exclusive pos-
session of the principal centres to which it extends."

The Committee did not suggest that either of these com-
panies had abused its powers, or taken undue advantage
of such " monopoly " as it had secured in the districts con-
cerned. In fact, of the North-Eastern Railway they said : —
" That railway, or system of railways, is composed of thirty-
seven lines, several of which formerly competed with each
other. Before their amalgamation they had, generally speak-
ing, high rates and fares and low dividends. The system is now
the most complete monopoly in the United Kingdom . . . and
it has the lowest fares and the highest dividends of any
English railway." As for the Great Eastern, instead of abusing
their " almost exclusive possession " of the Eastern Counties,
everyone knows that the Company have won for themselves
the credit of pioneering the movement for offering exception-

288 History of Inland Transport

ally low rates and other special facilities for the transport of
agricultural produce, and, also, of having done more, perhaps,
than any other single railway company to enable working
men to live in healthy suburbs around London.

The whole position in regard to the prospective abuse of a
so-called monopoly due to railway amalgamations is, in fact,
much misunderstood.

A railway company which controls, or practically controls,
the traffic in a certain section of the country is especially
interested in developing that traffic because it will enjoy all
the advantages thereof, without having to share them with a
rival. For this reason, instead of restricting facilities, such a
company seeks to increase them ; instead of imposing ex-
tortionate fares and rates it aims, not merely at immediate
profits on the transport of particular commodities, but at
encouraging such a development of the district in general
as will ensure its prosperity, increase its population, expand
its trade, and create more traffic of all kinds in a not far
distant future.

It was precisely this idea that led the Great Eastern Railway
Company to set the example it did in seeking to develop the
interests of its agricultural districts. The more these interests
expanded, and the more profitable the agricultural industry
became to the people living in those districts, the greater
would be the demand for household supplies, for furniture,
for pianos, for building materials, and for countless other
commodities, most of which would bring additional traffic
to the line apart from the greater amount of agricultural
produce carried, and apart, also, from the further inevitable
increase in passenger traffic.

Cornwall, again, might be regarded as the " monopoly " of
the Great Western Railway ; but what person would suggest
that the Great Western have not sufficiently boomed " the
Cornish Riviera " ?

Nor is there necessarily a " monopoly " simply because a
particular district is served by a single railway. If the Great
Eastern did not take people to East-coast resorts at reasonable
rates, or if the Great Western charged excessive fares for the
journey to Cornwall, holiday-makers would, in each case,
go elsewhere. If either company, or any other company,
sought to get too much for carrying milk to London, milk

Railways and the State 289

would be obtained by the metropolitan dealers from other
districts, instead ; and so on with most other commodities.

Indirect competition, on sound economic lines, may, there-
fore, still exist even when a railway company is, after many
amalgamations, in the possession of an apparent monopoly.
The law of supply and demand will still regulate both prices
and charges. When, on the other hand, an attempt is made
to enforce an artificial and non-economic competition by Act
of Parliament, the inevitable result is that the companies
concerned find it to their advantage to combine, or to agree,
rather than to compete in rates and fares under conditions
that would not only be mutually disadvantageous, but confer
no lasting benefit on the public they seek to serve.

How the ultimate result of railway policy, as here described,
has been to bring about the creation of great systems out of
small ones may be seen from the following typical examples,
showing in each case the number of lesser companies absorbed,
leased or worked as the result of amalgamations, of leases in
perpetuity, or otherwise ; though the figures do not include
railways which have been vested in two or more companies
jointly : —

COMPANIES

NAME OF COMPANY. LENGTH OF LINE.1 AMALGAMATED

Miles. OR LINES LEASED.

Great Central 753 ... 15

Great Eastern 1133 ... 26

Great Northern 856 ... 22

Great Western 2993 ... 115

Lancashire and Yorkshire . . . 589 ... 14

London and North-Western . . . 1966 ... 59

London and South- Western . . . 964 ... 40

London, Brighton and South Coast. . 454 ... 19

Midland 1531 ... 35

North-Eastern 1728 ... 41

South-Eastern and Chatham . . . 629 ... 29

Caledonian 1074 ... 41

North British 1363 ... 45

Great Northern of Ireland . . . 560 ... 14

Great Southern and Western (Ireland) . 1121 ... 19

1 The figures in this column are taken from the Board of Trade Rail-
way Returns for] 1910.

290 History of Inland Transport

The process of amalgamation has been carried even further
than these figures suggest, some of the companies absorbed
into the great systems having themselves previously amal-
gamated a number of still smaller companies. The North -
Eastern, for example, came into existence in 1854, through a
combination of three companies — the York, Newcastle and
Berwick, the Leeds Northern, and the York and North
Midland — which three companies then represented between
them what had originally been fifteen separate undertakings.
Since 1854 the North-Eastern Company have purchased or
amalgamated thirty-eight other companies, one of which, the
Stockton and Darlington (absorbed in 1863), was already
an amalgamation of eleven companies.1

That the conveniences of travel and the advantages to
traders have been greatly enhanced by the substitution of
these few great companies for a large number of small ones
is beyond question, and actual experience has shown that the
fears of grave evils resulting from prospective abuses of the
railway " monopoly " brought about by amalgamations such
as these have been mainly imaginary, notwithstanding the
fact that they have formed the basis of so much of the policy
of the State in its dealings with the railways.

There are still various small and even diminutive companies
which have escaped the fate of being swallowed up by their
big neighbours. One of the smallest engaged in a general
traffic — as distinct from dock or mineral lines — is the Easing-
wold railway, Yorkshire, which connects with the North-Eas-

1 When giving evidence before the Departmental Committee on Rail-
way Agreements and Amalgamations, on June 21, 1910, Mr A. Beasley,
general manager of the Taff Vale Railway Company, called attention to
the fact that in " Bradshaw's Railway Manual" for 1909 there was pub-
lished a special index of all the railways of which notices had appeared in
that publication during sixty years (practically covering the whole position),
the total of such railways, including light railways, being 1129. Of this
number 86 were recorded as having been abandoned, closed or wound up,
leaving a balance of 1043. In " Bradshaw's Railway Guide " for March,
1910, only no railways — including light railways, railways operated by
joint committees, as well as railways in the Isle of Man, the Isle of
Wight, and Jersey— were given as being in actual operation. "That
shows," continued Mr Beasley, " that there must have been 933 railways,
all separately authorised, most of them separately constructed, and many
of them, for a time, separately worked, which have been purchased,
amalgamated, leased or otherwise absorbed or taken over by other
undertakings."

Railways and the State 291

tern at Alne, but still maintains an independent existence.
According to the Board of Trade Returns for 1910 the Easing-
wold Railway consists of two miles of line, or three miles if we
include sidings, and it owns one locomotive, two carriages for
the conveyance of passengers and one goods waggon. It
carried in 1910 a total of 33,888 passengers, 5547 tons of
minerals and 11,214 tons of general merchandise. Its total
gross receipts from all sources of traffic for the year amounted
to ^2358, and the net receipts, after allowing for working
expenses, were £936. The authorised capital of the company
is £1 8,000, of which ^16,000 has been paid up.

Small as this line is, it serves a useful purpose ; but the
policy of amalgamation, followed up by leading companies
with such pertinacity, and in spite of so much distrust and
opposition, has, happily, saved the railway system of the
country from remaining split up among an endless number of
companies of the Easingwold type — even though they might
have had more than three miles of railway and a single
locomotive each.

Other developments of State policy towards the railways
have applied to ensuring both perfection of construction and
safety in operation.

In the former respect the English lines have been built with
a solidity and a completeness not to be surpassed by the
railways of any other country in the world. Even in sparsely
populated districts where, under similar circumstances, the
American or the Prussian railway engineer would lay down
only such a line as would be adequate to the actual or pros-
pective traffic, would give the passengers no platform, would
provide little more than a shed for a railway station, and would
expect the public to be content with a level crossing and look
out for the trains, a British railway company is obliged to
respect State requirements by laying down a line equal to the
traffic of a busy urban centre, give the passengers such plat-
forms as will enable them to enter or leave the trains without
the slightest inconvenience, erect well-built and more or less
commodious station buildings, and, it may be, arrange for
bridges, viaducts or underground passages such as in other
countries would be found only in centres having a substantial
amount of traffic.

Apart, in fact, from any question as to expenditure on

292 History of Inland Transport

Parliamentary proceedings and on the acquiring of land, the
cost simply of building the railway itself has, generally speak-
ing, been far greater in this country than, under corresponding
geographical and traffic conditions, has been the case else-
where. Judging from the example of the Prussian State
Railway administration it is extremely doubtful if, had the
British railway system been constructed, owned and operated
by the State, instead of being left to private enterprise, any
responsible Chancellor of the Exchequer would have authorised
so great a degree of expenditure, in the interests of an absolute
perfection of construction under all possible conditions, as that
which has been forced upon commercial companies dependent
for their capital on the money they could raise from investors.

Less scope for criticism is offered by the provision of the
most complete of safety appliances in regard to signalling and
other phases of railway operation. The desirability of reducing
the risk of railway accidents to an absolute minimum is beyond
the range of all possible dispute. Yet, as a matter of detail,
the substantial cost of ensuring this all-important element of
safety, no less than the exceptionally heavy outlay on the lines
themselves, has helped still further to increase that capital
expenditure a return on which is only to be secured by the
investors from the revenue the companies can get from the
railway users.

When we look for the ultimate and combined results of the
various conditions touched upon in this and the preceding
chapter — excessive cost of land, abnormal expenditure on
Parliamentary proceedings and various aspects of State
policy and control — we find them in the fact that, whether or
not the British railways are really the best in the world, they
have certainly been the most costly.

Comparisons with other countries may be misleading unless
we remember that published statistics as to the cost of con-
struction of the world's railways apply to route mileage —
or, otherwise, " length of line " — and that the English lines
have a large proportion of double, treble and other multiple
track, while in more sparsely populated countries the rail-
ways, except in and around the large towns, consist to a far
larger extent of single track. The actual position is not, there-
fore, quite so bad as the comparative figures appear to show.
But, even allowing for these considerations, the following table

Railways and the State

293

— which I compile from data published in the " Bulletin of
the International Railway Congress Association " for February,
1911 — may be regarded as conveying the moral of the story
I have here been seeking to tell : —

CONSTRUCTION COST OF THE RAILWAYS OF
DIFFERENT COUNTRIES.

CONSTRUCTION

CAPITAL

COUNTRY.

SYSTEM.

YEAR.

MILES.

TOTAL.

PER MILE.

Great Britain

£

£

and Ireland

Entire

1905

22,843

1,272,600,000

55,712

Germany

,,

1908

35,639

813,300,000

22,821

France .

Main lines

1906

24,701

706,700,000

28,611

Belgium

State lines

1907

2,523

93,600,000

37,088

Netherlands .

Entire

I897

1,653

28,700,000

17,350

Denmark

State

1909

1,218

13,250,000

10,884

United States

of America

—

1908

233,632

3,521,200,000

15,071

Canada

—

1907

22,447

269,850,000

12,022

CHAPTER XXII

DECLINE OF CANALS

CONSIDERING that, in spite of the unreasonableness, the
exactions and the large profits of many of the canal companies
in the later days of their prosperous monopoly, the canals
themselves had rendered such invaluable service to the trade,
commerce and industry of the country, the question may well
have arisen why they were not allowed, or enabled to a greater
extent than was actually the case, to continue their career
of usefulness.

There has, indeed, for some years been in the United King-
dom a canal-revival party which favours the idea that either
the State or the local authorities should acquire and improve
the canals with a view to enabling them better to compete
with the railways — which, as the story of the Liverpool and
Manchester line shows, were at one time expressly designed as
competitors of and alternatives to the canals.

So far has this resuscitation idea been carried that in
December, 1909, the Royal Commission on Canals and Water-
ways reported in favour of the State acquiring, widening and
otherwise bringing up to date a series of canals radiating
from the Birmingham district, and establishing cross-country
connections between the Thames, the Mersey, the Severn and
the Humber. The reasons for the decline of the canals and
the practicability, or otherwise, of reviving them may thus
be regarded as questions of more than merely historical or
academic interest for (i) the traders who might benefit from
the said revival ; (2) the traders who certainly would not
benefit, but who, in conjunction with (3) the general taxpayer,
might have to contribute to the cost if the State did acquire
the canals and failed to make them pay.

The " real commercial prosperity of England " has well
been dated from the period of early canal development, when
artificial waterways began to supplement the deficiencies

294

Decline of Canals 295

of navigable streams limited to certain districts and liable
to floods, droughts and other disadvantages, and of ill-made
roads which even the turnpike system had failed to adapt
to the requirements of heavy traffic. In these conditions the
movement either of raw materials or of manufactured articles
other than those which could be carried on packhorses had,
as we have seen, been rendered all but impossible in many
parts of the country on account either of the difficulties or of
the excessive cost of transport. Canals, constituting a great
improvement on any other existing conditions, came to the
rescue, and supplied the first impetus to that industrial
revolution which the railways were to complete.

This was a great work for the canals to have accomplished,
and it was a work that was essentially done by private enter-
prise. Clifford says that " Parliament, by its legislation in
furtherance of canals and of agriculture, probably contributed
more largely to the national prosperity than by any group of
public measures passed towards the close of the last [eighteenth]
century." There is here not a word of recognition for Brindley,
the Duke of Bridgewater and the other pioneers of the canal
movement, or for the private investors who provided the
£14,000,000 spent on the actual " furtherance " of canals.
Parliament did not inspire, originate or in any way improve
the canals ; it found none of the money which they cost, nor
did it even seek to direct their construction on any such well-
organised system of through and uniform lines of communi-
cation as would have made them far more useful, and assured
them, probably, a longer lease of life. Yet Mr Clifford has no
hesitation in giving all the praise to Parliament because it
allowed the canal promoters and proprietors to carry out the
work on their own initiative, and at their own risk, as the
improvers of rivers and the providers of turnpike roads had
done before them.

" Canals in this country," says the Final Report of the
Royal Commission on Canals and Waterways, " were con-
structed upon no general scheme or system. As soon as it was
seen that they were a profitable investment, independent com-
panies were formed in every district, and, according to their
influence or their means, obtained from Parliament Acts
conceding powers to make canals of the most varying length
and character." If, in conceding these powers, Parliament

296 History of Inland Transport

had established some central authority with a view to securing
such uniformity in construction and such connected routes
as were practicable, it would have rendered a greater service
than by simply approving schemes put forward in what the
Final Report itself describes as a " piecemeal " fashion. This,
however, was not done ; nor, in fact, was action taken to
prevent the canal companies, after they had shown their enter-
prise and risked their millions, from becoming in the pre-railway
days grasping monopolists whose one idea was to exploit the
trader to their own advantage, leading him to welcome the
railways, as an alternative to the canals, still more cordially
than he had previously welcomed the canals as an alternative
to the roads and rivers.

So long as the locomotive remained in a comparatively
undeveloped stage, the canal companies refrained from re-
garding railways as serious rivals, and continued to look upon
them in the light, rather, of contributors of traffic to the
waterways ; but in proportion as the locomotive was im-
proved and the rivalry of the railways became more and more
pronounced the canal companies grew alarmed for the prospects
of their own concerns. They entered on no new undertakings —
the last inland canal, as distinct from ship canals, was com-
pleted about 1834 — and they got anxious as to the future of
those they had on their hands. They had first scoffed at the
railways as " nothing but insane schemes," or as costly
" bubbles," and they had then worked up a powerful opposition
against them. Having failed in each of these directions, they
next took steps which they would have done well to take
earlier — they reduced their tolls, and they also began to con-
sider how they could improve their canals.

In 1835 there was a general reduction of rates on the Old
Quay Navigation between Liverpool and Manchester, but this
belated policy of seeking to make terms with the traders did
not prejudice the fortunes of the new railway between those
places. As regards the improvements sought to be introduced
on the canals, Nicholas Wood, in the third edition (1838) of
his " Practical Treatise on Rail-Roads," says : —

" Canals, ever since their adoption, have undergone little
or no change ; some trivial improvements may have been
effected in the manner of passing boats from one level to
another, and light boats have been applied for the conveyance

Decline of Canals 297

of passengers ; but in their general economy they may be said
to have remained stationary. Their nature almost prohibits
the application of mechanical power to advantage in the
conveyance of goods and passengers upon them ; and they
have not, therefore, partaken of the benefits which other arts
have derived from mechanical science.

" The reverse of this is the case with railroads ; their nature
admits of almost unrestricted application of mechanical
power upon them, and their utility has been correspondingly
increased. . . .

" At the time of the publication of the first1 and second*
editions of this work scarcely any experiments had been made
on a large scale to elucidate the capabilities of canal navigation
— none, certainly, satisfactory ; since then the competition of
railways has aroused the dormant spirit of the canal pro-
prietors, and various experiments have been made to ascertain
the amount of resistance of boats dragged at different veloci-
ties ; attempts have been likewise made to adapt the power
of steam to propel the boats upon them, and other experiments
have been adopted to increase their activity as a mode of
traffic, and especially for the conveyance of passengers."

These various experiments had little practical result, and
the navigation companies found it more to their advantage, in
many instances, to make good use of their position and
influence, while they were still a power in the land, and force
the railway companies either to buy them out entirely or to
guarantee them against loss. Such results were generally
secured either by first threatening opposition to the railway
Bills, and then stating the price for withdrawing therefrom,
or, alternatively, by projecting schemes for the competitive
lines of railway specially favoured by the State policy of the
day, and likely, therefore, to be readily conceded.

When, in 1845, the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton
Railway Company — afterwards amalgamated with the Great
Western Railway Company — were seeking powers of in-
corporation, they were opposed by the Severn Commissioners,
who represented that they had spent ^180,000 in improving
the waterway, in anticipation of securing a revenue of £i 4,000
a year. In order to overcome this opposition and get their
Bill, the railway company agreed to make up to the Severn
1 1825. a 1832.

298 History of Inland Transport

Commissioners any deficit between the amount of their tolls
and ^14,000 a year. Under this obligation the railway com-
pany paid ^6000 a year for many years ; but in 1890 the
obligation was commuted by a payment by the Great Western
Railway Company of £i 00,000, and by the giving up to them
of certain mortgages to which they had become entitled in
consideration of the Commissioners discharging them from the
liability under their guarantee. In stating these facts in
evidence before the Royal Commission on Canals and Water-
ways, Mr T. H. Rendell, chief goods manager of the Great
Western Railway Company, added (Question 23,834) : " It is
desirable to mention that, because it is rather suggested that
State aid should be given to enable this very waterway to come
into fresh competition with the railway. Of course, if that
were so, it would be only fair that the Severn Commissioners
should re-imburse the railway company the compensation
they have received."

The acquiring of the Stratford-on-Avon Canal by the
Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway was another
of many instances of purchase by a railway company being
the price of withdrawal of canal opposition to railway Bills.

By threatening to apply to Parliament for powers to build
an opposition railway, the Kennet and Avon Canal Company,
in 1851, also induced the Great Western to buy them out, the
railway company agreeing to pay £7773 a year for the canal,
which has been a loss to them ever since.

In the same way the London and Birmingham Railway
Company, now the London and North- Western, originally
acquired control over the Birmingham Canal Navigations as
the result of a declared intention on the part of the canal
company, in 1845, to seek for powers to build a competing line
of railway through the Stour valley. The railway com-
pany only overcame the threatened opposition by guar-
anteeing the canal company ^4 per share on their capital,
obtaining, in return, certain rights and privileges, in regard to
control and operation, in the event of their having to make
good any deficiency in the revenue. This they have had to do
every year since 1874, with the single exception of 1875 ; and
down to 1910 the total amount paid by the London and North-
Western Railway Company to the proprietors of the Bir-
mingham Canal Navigations, under this guarantee, had been

Decline of Canals 299

no less than £874,652. The payments for the years 1906-10
were as follows : 1906, £37,017 143. 96!. ; 1907, £22,262 2S. 7d. ;
1908, £44,690 33. nd. ; 1909, £45,697 IDS. 3d.; 1910,

£39,720 33. 9d.

There has been much talk in the past of railway companies
having obtained possession of canals in order to " strangle "
the traffic on them. It is difficult to see why, except under
pressure, railway directors, who count among the shrewdest
of business men, should have incurred such substantial
obligations towards canals which, at the time, everyone re-
garded as doomed to extinction before a superior means of
transport. It is equally difficult to believe that, having in-
curred these costly obligations, the companies deliberately
" strangled " the traffic on the canals, instead of allowing
them to earn — if they could — at least sufficient to cover the
cost of their upkeep.

Whatever the precise conditions under which they acquired
control, the railway companies were compelled by Parliament
to incur obligations in regard to maintenance which have had
the effect of continuing the existence of many a little-used
waterway that would long ago have become hopelessly derelict
if it had remained under the control of an independent canal
company, instead of being kept going out of the purse of a
powerful railway company in accordance with the statutory
obligations imposed by Parliament.

These obligations were, of course, based on the principle
of ensuring competition even though canals and railways
passed under the same control, the former being supported
and kept more or less efficient out of the revenues of the latter.
This policy, however, was regarded as only an alternative
to another, to which Parliament gave the preference — that,
namely, of maintaining, if possible, a still more effective
competition by strengthening the position of the canals, now
the weaker of the combatants in the economic struggle, and
enabling them to continue their independent existence, in
preference to seeking absorption by the railways.

In 1845 an Act (8 & 9 Vic. c. 28) was passed, the preamble
of which, after alluding to the provision in the Railway Clauses
Consolidation Act, 1845, giving power to railway companies
to vary their rates, declared that " greater competition, for
the public advantage, would be obtained " if canal com-

300 History of Inland Transport

panics, etc., were to have like powers granted to them in
respect of their canals, etc. ; and the Act therefore conferred
upon them the necessary powers for varying their tolls.

The preamble of another Act passed in the same Session
(8 & 9 Viet. c. 42) recited the powers given to railway com-
panies as carriers of goods on their own lines, and stated that
" greater competition, for the public advantage, would be
obtained if similar powers were granted to canal and naviga-
tion companies." The Act accordingly extended to them the
same powers. With a like object, and again adopting the prin-
ciple sanctioned in the case of railway companies, the Act
further authorised canal companies to make working arrange-
ments between themselves, and, also, to lease their canals
to other canal companies, with a view to a better provision of
through water routes, and, consequently, a more active
competition with the railways. Two years later another Act
(10 & ii Viet. c. 94) was passed, giving the canal companies
power to borrow money for the purposes here specified.

In his presidential address to the Institution of Civil
Engineers in 1885, Sir Frederick Bramwell, dealing with
various matters relating to the transport conditions of the
country, said : " This addition to the legal powers of the canal
companies made by the Acts of 1845 and 1847 has had a very
beneficial effect upon the value of their property, and has
assisted to preserve a mode of transport competing with that
afforded by the railways."

It is true that the powers to act as carriers were taken
advantage of by leading canal companies, who worked up a
good business as carriers, although, to a certain extent, with a
result directly at variance with the widely accepted view that
canals should carry heavy and bulky commodities, and rail-
ways the lighter and more compact goods. What actually
happened was that the canal companies, as carriers, competed
with the railways in the transport of domestic supplies, while
the railways still carried most of the coal, iron-stone, etc.,
for which many people supposed that canal transport is
specially adapted.

While, however, as the result of these particular powers,
some of the canal companies improved their financial position,
and were enabled to maintain a better competition with the
railways, very little use was made of the authority given to

Decline of Canals 301

them to combine among themselves and establish through
routes, converting series of small canals into connected water-
ways under one and the same control, if not actually owned by
one and the same company, as was being so actively done with
the railways.

Some action had certainly been taken in this direction.
The Birmingham Canal system of to-day is composed of three
canal companies which had amalgamated prior to 1846,
supplemented by a fourth which joined them in that year.
The Shropshire Union, also, is formed of four canal companies
originally independent. But these are only exceptions to the
rule, for though the Joint Select Committee of 1872, following
up what had already been done at an earlier period, re-
commended that the utmost facilities should be given for
amalgamations between canal companies, few of such amal-
gamations have, as the Final Report of the Royal Commission
on Canals and Waterways points out, taken place since the
full establishment of railways. Goods sent to-day by canal
from Birmingham, for instance, to London, to Liverpool or
to Hull will pass over waterways controlled by from six to
eight different authorities, according to the route followed.

One must, however, recognise the fact that the securing of
uniformity of gauge and the establishment of through routes
presented far greater difficulties in the case of artificial water-
ways than in that of railways. The physical geography of
England is wholly unfavourable to efficient cross-country water
transport, and this fact, in itself, is sufficient to render im-
practicable any such scheme of canal resuscitation as that
which has been put forward by the recent Royal Commission.

The physical condition of England in relation to the building
of canals is well shown in the article on " Canals " published
in " Rees' Cyclopaedia " (1819) where it is said, in this con-
nection : —

" Great Britain . . . has a range of high land passing
nearly its whole length, which divides the springs and rain
waters that fall to the opposite coasts : we shall call this range
dividing the eastern and western rivers of Britain the grand
ridge. . . . No less than 22 of our canals now do or are in-
tended to pass this grand ridge, forming as many navigable
connections between the rivers of the east and west seas ! . . .
The Dudley canal crosses this grand ridge twice, the two ends

302 History of Inland Transport

being on the eastern side, and the middle part on the western
side thereof ; the Kennet and Avon crosses the eastern and
western branches, into which it divides on the Chalk Hills,
west of Marlborough, by which parts of this canal are in the
drainage of the west, the south and the east seas ! The Coven-
try Canal, also, by means of its Bedworth branch, crosses the
grand ridge twice. The populous and remarkable town of
Birmingham is situate on high ground, near to the grand ridge,
and has six canals branching off in different directions, either
immediately therefrom or at no great distance, and, what is
singular, owing to a loop, or sudden bend of the ridge at this
place, no less than five of them traverse the grand ridge, either
by means of tunnels or deep-cutting."

While the grand ridge here in question presents no diffi-
culty to powerful locomotives, the position is altogether
different with canals fed by streams of water that will not
flow up-hill. In the case of the Birmingham Canal, specially
referred to in the extract just given, there are three separate
"levels." The lowest is 209 feet, and the highest 511 feet
above sea level. Boats doing the cross-country journey, or
passing between Birmingham and the coast, would have to
overcome such heights as these by means of locks, lifts or
inclined planes.

Here we have a very different proposition from that which
is presented by canals on the flat surfaces of Holland, Belgium
and North Germany — with, also, their abundant water
supplies, from great rivers or otherwise — whereas the upper
levels of the Birmingham Canal are kept filled with water only
by means of costly and powerful pumping machinery, supple-
mented by reservoirs.

When the original builders of canals had to cross the grand
ridge, or any other elevation over which they required to pass,
they sought to economise water consumption and to keep
down both cost of construction and working expenses by
making the locks on the top levels only just large enough to
pass boats of a small size. The dimensions of any boat making
a through journey are thus controlled by those of the smallest
lock through which it would require to pass. On lower levels
where the water problem did not arise — or not to the same
degree — the locks could well be made larger, to accommodate
larger boats engaged only in local traffic.

Decline of Canals 303

The material differences in cost of construction and operation
between waterways on a low and uniform level and those
crossing considerable eminences, by means of locks, were well
recognised by Parliament when approving the lists of tolls
to be paid on different waterways. On the Aire and Calder
the minimum toll, if a boat passed through a lock, was fixed
at five shillings. On the Rochdale Canal the minimum toll
for a boat crossing the summit level was ten shillings.1 The
reason for this difference is that whereas the Aire and Calder
navigation is but little above sea level throughout, the summit
of the Rochdale Canal is at a height of 600 feet above sea
level, and is crossed by means of ninety-two locks in thirty-
two miles.

The reader will see, therefore, that the want of a common
gauge in the construction of artificial waterways, mainly
designed, at the outset, to supply the needs of particular
districts, may often have been due to more practical reasons
than simply a lack of combination or a difference of view on
the part of canal constructors, the problem of gauge on canals
built at varying elevations, and all depending on water supply,
being entirely different from any question as to the gauge
or the running of railways on the same or similar routes.

" The necessity of a uniform gauge on canals as on railways,"
says Clifford, " is now clear enough. We need not wonder
that, in the eighteenth century, Parliament was no wiser than
the engineers, and had not learned this lesson." It was,
however, not entirely a matter of wisdom. There were, also,
these inherent defects of the canal system itself to be con-
sidered. It is very doubtful if even Parliament, had it pos-
sessed the greatest foresight, could have forced, or have
persuaded, the canal companies to construct locks of precisely
the same dimensions at elevations of 400, 500 or 600 feet,
where water was difficult to get or costly to pump, as on canals
more or less on the sea level, and deriving an abundant water
supply from mountain streams or navigable rivers.

Forbes and Ashford, in " Our Waterways," also think it
is much to be regretted that in this country no standard
dimension was ever fixed for canals, " as has been done in
France." But the superficial area of the United Kingdom,

1 "The Law Relating to Railway and Canal Traffic"; Boyle and
Waghorn. Vol. I, page 296,

304 History of Inland Transport

with its mountains and valleys, and hills and dales, presents
a wholly different problem, in the matter of canal con-
struction, from that offered by the flat surfaces of France,
of Holland, of Belgium or of North Germany. In 230 miles of
waterway between Hamburg and Berlin there are three locks.
In this country there is an average of one lock for every mile
and a quarter of canal navigation. The total number of locks
is 2,377, and f°r each of these there must be. allowed a
capitalised cost of, on an average, £1360.

The fate that overtook the once prosperous canals of South
Wales when the railways could no longer be suppressed by the
canal companies, and were allowed to compete fairly with
them, has been materially due to their own physical dis-
advantages in respect of the large number of locks they require
to overcome the steep inclines of the mountainous district
in which they were made. These facts are brought out
in the Fourth (Final) Report of the Royal Commission on
Canals and Waterways, where it is said : —

" The Glamorganshire and Aberdare Canals were bought
by the Marquis of Bute in 1885. They form a continuous
narrow waterway with a total length of about 32 miles. In
this distance there are 53 locks. . . . The waterway is used
at the Cardiff end by small coasting vessels, but above this
point the traffic has fallen off considerably. The total tonnage
carried on the canals amounted in 1888 to 660,364 tons ; in
1905 to 249,760 tons. Two railways run parallel to the canals
and carry almost all the coal brought down from the collieries
near the canals. The gradients from these collieries to the
port are considerable. This makes the haulage of full railway
trucks easy, and, on the other hand, in the case of the canal
makes necessary a great number of locks relatively to the
mileage, with consequent slowness of transport.

" The Swansea Canal belongs to the Great Western Railway
Company. It is a narrow canal, i6| miles in length, and has
36 locks. The traffic has diminished . . . for reasons similar
to those given with respect to the Glamorganshire Canal."

Much more, however, than the provision of locks was
necessitated by the physical conditions of a country naturally
unsuited for artificial waterways. In some instances the
canals were taken across broad valleys by means of viaducts
designed to allow of the waterway being maintained at the same

Decline of Canals 305

level ; and certain of the works thus carried out were, in their
day, deservedly regarded as of considerable engineering
importance. The Chirk aqueduct, which carries the Ellesmere
Canal across a yoo-feet stretch in the Ceriog valley, and at a
height of 70 feet above the level of the river, and the Pont-
cysyllte aqueduct, 1007 feet long, which takes the same canal
over the river Dee, are spoken of by Phillips, in his " General
History of Inland Navigation " (1803), as " among the boldest
efforts of human invention in modern times." Elsewhere the
canals had to pass along high embankments or through deep
cuttings. Canal tunnels of up to three miles in length were
not infrequent, though some of these were made so narrow —
in the interests of economy — that they had no towing-path,
the boats being taken through by men who lay on their backs
on the cargo, and pushed against the sides of the tunnel with
their feet. Alternatively, it was sometimes possible to avoid
rising ground or deep valleys, necessitating locks, by making
wide detours in preference to taking the shortest route, as a
railway would do. Thus the distance by canal between Liver-
pool and Wigan is thirty-four miles, as compared with a
distance of only nineteen by rail. From Liverpool to Leeds
is 128 miles by canal and eighty by rail. These windings
made the canal compare still more unfavourably with the
railway when it was considered that the speed of transport
on the former was only about two and a half miles an hour,
without counting delays at the locks ; and of these there are,
between Liverpool and Leeds, no fewer than ninety-three.

But just because these engineering works had been so bold
and so costly, or left so much to be desired in regard to length
of route, and just because so many physical difficulties had had
to be overcome, it may well have happened that when what
was universally considered a better means of transport was
presented, general doubts arose as to the wisdom and prac-
ticability of reconstructing, in effect, the whole canal system
to enable it to compete better with the railways in catering
for that through traffic for which the canals themselves were
so ill adapted.

Supplementing these considerations as to the physical
configuration of the country is the further fact that in the
colliery districts the keeping of the canals in working order
involves great trouble, incessant watchfulness and very

306 History of Inland Transport

considerable expenditure on account of subsidences due to
coal-mining. In my book on "Canals and Traders" (P. S.
King & Son) I have told how " throughout practically the
whole of the Black Country, the Birmingham Canal, for a
total distance of about eighty miles, has been undermined by
colliery workings, and is mainly on the top of embankments
which have been raised from time to time, in varying stages,
to maintain the waterway above the level of the ground that
has sunk because of the coal mines underneath." Many of
these embankments, as I have had the opportunity of seeing
for myself, are now at a height of from twenty to thirty feet
above the present surface of the land, and in one instance, at
least, the subsidences have been so serious that an embank-
ment twenty feet high and half a mile long has taken the place
of what was formerly a cutting. If the Birmingham Canal
had not been controlled by the London and North-Western
Railway Company, who are under a statutory obligation to
keep it in good and effective working condition, it would
inevitably have collapsed long ago. No independent canal
company, deriving its revenue from canal tolls and charges
alone, could have stood the heavy and continuous drain upon
its resources which, in these circumstances, the canal would
have involved ; and like conditions apply to various other
railway-owned canals in the north, in Wales, and elsewhere.

Concerning the Glamorganshire Canal, it is said in " Trans-
port Facilities in South Wales and Monmouthshire," by
Clarence S. Howells i1 " The present owners have spent
£25,000 on the canal since 1885 in an ineffectual attempt to
revive its waning fortunes. One of its many difficulties is the
subsidence caused by colliery workings."

Dealing with the general position in regard to canal trans-
port in the United Kingdom, J. S. Jeans remarks in " Water-
ways and Water Transport " (1890) : —

" The railway companies have been accused of acquiring
canal property in order that they might destroy it, and thereby
get rid of a dangerous rival. This is probably not the case.
The railway companies are fully aware of the fact that water
transport under suitable conditions is more economical than
rail transport. It would therefore have suited them, at the

1 " Publications of the Department of Economics and Political Science
of the University of South Wales and Monmouthshire," No. 2 (1911).

Decline of Canals 307

same rates, to carry by water heavy traffic, in the delivery
of which time was not of so much importance. But the canals
as they came into their possession were naturally unadapted
for such traffic without being more or less remodelled, and this
the railway companies have not attempted.

" When we consider the enormous disadvantages under
which the majority of the canals of this country now labour,
the great matter for wonder is, not that they do not secure the
lion's share of the traffic, but that they get any traffic at all."

If, for the sake of argument, we leave out of account all the
" enormous disadvantages " here alluded to, and assume that
the physical difficulties already detailed could be overcome
without much trouble or great expense (though this would,
indeed, be a prodigious assumption), we should still have the
fact that the number of traders in the country who could hope
to benefit from any possible system of internal navigation
would necessarily be limited to those in certain districts,
whereas the railway can be taken anywhere, and be made to
serve the interests of each and every district or community
in the country.

It is true that when commodities can be sent direct from an
ocean-going vessel to a works situated immediately alongside
a canal, the waterway may have the advantage over the rail-
way ; and the same may be the case as regards manufactured
goods forwarded in the opposite direction. Of the 235,000
tons of flints, clay and other potters' materials brought into the
Potteries district of North Staffordshire during 1910, no fewer
than 200,000 tons, imported at Runcorn, Ellesmere Port
or Weston Port, were taken by canal to pottery works located
on or near to the canal banks. In these circumstances the
North Staffordshire Railway Company, who also control
the Trent and Mersey Navigation, cannot, as railway owners,
compete with themselves as canal owners. In the case of the
Aire and Calder, the physical conditions of which are ex-
ceptionally favourable, coal can readily be sent from the
collieries immediately alongside the waterway to the steamers
or the coal ships in the port of Goole. On the Birmingham
Canal, also, the traffic between collieries and works, or between
works and railway transhipping basins, on the same level,
is already so considerable^that no great increase could be
accommodated without carrying out on the canal a widening

308 History of Inland Transport

which would be fabulously costly, and, also, wholly im-
practicable, on account of the great iron-works and other
industrial establishments which line almost the entire twelve-
mile route between Birmingham and Wolverhampton, forming,
with their hundreds of private basins, the actual boundary
of the canal on one side or the other. To " adapt " the Bir-
mingham Canal to through traffic would produce chaos for the
local traffic.

Mr Jeans thus goes a little too far when he makes the
sweeping statement that " Canals as they were built a century
ago have no longer any function to fulfil that is worthy of
serious consideration. Their mission is ended, their use is
an anachronism." Even the title given to the present chapter,
" Decline of Canals," is to be read subject to the exceptions
represented by those of the waterways that still answer these
useful local purposes and should have every encouragement
therein. Mr Jeans is, however, fully warranted in declaring
that " it would be the idlest of idle dreams to expect that the
canal system of this or any other country as originally con-
structed can be resuscitated, or even temporarily galvanised
into activity, in competition with the railways."

There is a still further consideration.

Whatever the prospective advantages of resuscitation
when the point of despatch and the point of delivery are
both on the same canal — and especially when both are on the
same level of the canal, so that passage through locks is
unnecessary — it must be obvious that when commodities are
despatched from, or consigned to, places situate at such a
distance from a canal that supplementary transport is neces-
sary, the cost thereof must be added to the amount of the canal
charges. The sum of the two may then be so little below the
cost of rail transport that the latter — coupled with the greater
speed and the greater convenience in the way, perhaps, of
sidings or of lines of rails coming right into the works — will
be preferred. Academic theories, on paper, as to the com-
parative costs of hauling given weights of commodities on
water and rail respectively may, in fact, be rendered futile
by (i) the supplementary cost of transport to or from the
waterway and of various services or conveniences included in
the railway rate but not included in the canal charges ; and (2)
the consideration that if a large sum of money be spent on

Decline of Canals 309

improving the canals the interest thereon must either be met
by means of increased canal charges — in which event the
canal-users would have no advantage over the railway-users —
or remain as a permanent burden on the community.

How the cost of the supplementary charges and services
operates in practice may be shown by a reference to the
London coal trade, coal being a commodity which is regarded
by those who favour State ownership of the canals as one
specially adapted for waterway transport.

Except as regards the consignments of sea-borne coal, the
domestic coal supply of London is carried almost exclusively
by rail. The trucks can generally go right up to the collieries ;
they convey the coal to special and extensive railway sidings,
there to await orders ; and they proceed thence, as required,
to the suburban railway station or depot nearest to the pre-
mises of the actual consumer, in any part of the country ;
whereas coal sent by canal would first have to be taken from
the colliery to the canal, and there be discharged into the boat,
then be conveyed, say, to the Thames, next be transferred from
boat to cart, and finally be taken by road across London to
destination, with the subsidiary considerations (i) that with
each fresh handling the coal would deteriorate in value ;
(2) that the traders would lose the advantage of railway coal
sidings and station depots ; and (3) that the railway truck
is a better unit than the canal boat for the various descriptions
or qualities of coal dealt in by the average coal merchant,
whose prejudices in favour of rail transport over canal trans-
port, when the consumers are not actually located on or quite
close to the waterway, can thus be accounted for by strictly
business considerations.

The conclusion is forced upon one that, notwithstanding
the useful purposes which a certain number of canals are still
serving, any resuscitation of canals in general, or even any
provision of improved cross-country canal routes passing over
the " grand ridge," at the cost of an indefinite number of
millions to the country, can hardly be regarded as coming
within the range of sound economics. It certainly is favoured
by a larger number of traders than the comparatively small
proportion who would be able, or willing, to use the canals
when they had been improved ; but this support is directly
due to a belief that nationalisation — though what is proposed

310 History of Inland Transport

is only a partial nationalisation — of the canals would tend
towards keeping down railway rates.

In other words, the scheme is but a further development ^of
that policy which aims at enforcing the principle of competition
irrespective of cost, and without regard for the capital ex-
penditure on which a fair return ought to be assured. One
of the witnesses examined before the Royal Commission on
Canals and Waterways said there was a local feeling against
the Wilts and Berks Canal being taken in hand by the county
council " because," he said, " we are all afraid of the rates ;
but," he added, " from what I have heard from traders and
others, they would like to see it back again, mainly as a means
of cutting down railway rates." Mr Remnant, one of the
Commissioners, says in his separate report, in alluding to
import and export traffic, that most of the evidence given on
this question " seemed to point to a desire on the traders' part,
not so much for the waterways as for lower railway rates, in
order to enable them to face foreign competition " ; while
Mr Davison, another of the Commissioners, who also dissents
from the recommendations of the Majority Report, speaks of
many of the canals as being " of little economic value to the
trade of the country, apart from whatever influence they may
have in keeping down railway rates," though he adds : "If
this latter result were otherwise secured their continued
existence could not be justified on economic grounds."

Any effect which the carrying out of the Majority Report
scheme of canal improvement might have on railway rates
would, all the same, be felt only in the towns or localities
directly concerned. Benefit would result to (i) those traders
who could use the canals, and (2) those who, though not using
the canals, obtained the lower railway rates, if reductions really
were secured through the canal competition ; while traders
at a distance from the waterways would not only have to help
to pay the cost, though themselves deriving no benefit there-
from, but might even see two classes of their own competitors
in the favoured districts gain an advantage over them — one
set from State-owned and State-aided canals, and another
from the local reductions in railway rates to which those
canals might be expected to lead.

The proposals of the Royal Commission may well be ap-
proved by certain localities or individual traders on the line

Decline of Canals 311

of route of the canals proposed to be taken in hand. They
are hardly likely, however, to commend themselves to the
traders and taxpayers of the country in general.

My own view is that if the State is prepared to find money
for the purpose of cheapening the cost of transport, it could
do so to better advantage if, instead of spending millions on
an impracticable and partial scheme of canal resuscitation,
it lightened the burden of taxation now falling on the railway
companies, and thus improved their position in regard, not
merely to traders in particular districts, but to the trade and
industries of the United Kingdom as a whole.

CHAPTER XXIII

DECLINE OF TURNPIKES

THE inherent defects of the turnpike system must in them-
selves have been fatal to its permanent continuance, irre-
spective of the influence of the railways, which did not kill
the turnpikes so much as merely give them the coup de grace.

No one can deny the adequacy of the time that Par-
liament had devoted to the kindred subjects of roads and
waggons. By 1838 — and only a few years, therefore, later
than the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway —
Parliament had passed no fewer than 3800 private and local
turnpike Acts, and had authorised the creation in England
and Wales of 1116 turnpike trusts, controlling 22,000 miles
of road. But the whole system was hopelessly inefficient,
wasteful and burdensome, besides being as unsatisfactory
in its administration as it was in its results.

Managed or directed by trustees and surveyors under the
conditions detailed in Chapter X, the actual work on the
turnpike roads was mainly carried out by statute labour,
pauper labour or labour paid for out of the tolls, out of the
receipts from the composition for statute duty, or, as a last
resource, at the direct cost of the ratepayers, who were thus
made responsible for the turnpike as well as for the parish
roads.

Statute labour was a positive burlesque of English local
government. Archdeacon Plymley says in his " General View
of the Agriculture of Shropshire " (1803) : " There is no trick,
evasion or idleness that shall be deemed too mean to avoid
working on the road : sometimes the worst horses are sent ;
at others a broken cart, or a boy, or an old man past labour,
to fill : they are sometimes sent an hour or two too late in
the morning, or they leave off much sooner than the proper
time, unless the surveyor watch the whole day."

In the article already quoted from the " Westminster

312

Decline of Turnpikes 313

Review " for October, 1825, it is said : " Statute labour on the
parish roads is limited to six days work and on the turnpikes
to three. But it is now found generally expedient to demand
or take money in lieu of labour, according to a rate to be fixed
by the justices in different places. ... In practice the
statute labour was frequently a farce, half of the time being
spent in going and returning and in conversation and idle-
ness."

An authority referred to in Postlethwayt's " Dictionary "
(1745) had suggested that criminals condemned to death for
minor offences should, instead of being transported, be ordered
to do a year's work on the highway. He further recommended,
in all seriousness, that arrangements should be made with the
African Company for the importation of 200 negroes as road-
repairers, they being, as he said, " generally persons to do a
great deal of work." Failing criminals and negroes, some of
the parishes did employ paupers, gangs of whom were to be
seen pretending to work at road-mending, and getting far
more degeneration for themselves than they did good for the
roads.

In 1835 Parliament abolished both statute labour and
statute labour composition, thenceforward wholly superseded
by highway rates as applying to the whole of the minor roads
for which the parish was responsible.

Bad as the statute labour system had been, its abolition
involved a loss to the turnpike trusts estimated at about
£200,000 a year ; and this was a serious matter to trustees
whose financial position was becoming hopeless in view
of their liabilities and the discouraging nature of their outlook.
Such discouragement was due in great part to the advent of
the railways, but not entirely so, the Select Committee of
1839 on Turnpike Trusts saying in their report that " the
gradual decline in the transit on turnpike roads in some parts of
the country arises not only from the railways formed but from
steam vessels plying on rivers and as coasting traders " ;
and they added : " Whenever mechanical power has been
substituted for animal power, the result has hitherto been that
the labour is performed at a cheaper rate."

The cost of making and repairing turnpike roads, especially
under the primitive conditions still widely retained, not-
withstanding the improved methods introduced by Telford

314 History of Inland Transport

and McAdam, was in itself a most serious item, apart from
the excessive expenditure on administration. Dr James
Anderson says on this subject in the issue of his " Recreations "
for November, 1800 : —

" I have been assured, and believe it to be true, though I
cannot pledge myself for the certainty of the fact, that there
is annually laid out on repairs upon the road from Hyde Park
to Hounslow considerably above £1000 a mile. A turnpike
road cannot be made in almost any situation for less, as I am
told, than £1000 per mile ; but where it is of considerable
width, as near great towns, it will run from £1500 to £2000 per
mile ; and in annual repairs, including the purchase price of
materials, carting them to the road, spreading, raking off,
and carting away again, from £100 to £1000 a mile."

The trustees generally raised loans to meet their first
expenses, payment of interest being guaranteed out of the
tolls levied ; but though, at one time, and especially before
the competition of railways became active, the security was
regarded as adequate, an unduly costly management, combined
with decreasing receipts from tolls, resulted in the piling up
of huge financial liabilities which the trusts found it im-
possible to clear off in addition to meeting current expenditure.
The Select Committee on Turnpike Trusts in 1839 reported
on this subject : " The present debt of the turnpike trusts in
England and Wales exceeds £9,000,000, and it is annually
increasing, in consequence of the practice prevailing in several
of the trusts of converting the unpaid interest into principal,
the trustees giving bonds bearing interest for the amount of
interest due." At this time there were no fewer than eighty-
four trusts which had paid no interest on loans for several
years, and there were said to be some trusts which had paid
no interest for sixty years. Sir James McAdam, son of John
Loudon McAdam, informed the Select Committee of 1839 that
the amount of unpaid interest on the trusts at that time was
£1,031,096.

In order to improve their financial position, the trustees
generally adopted the expedient either of seeking Parlia-
mentary authority to increase their tolls or of setting up the
largest possible number of toll-gates along their own particular
bit of road. In either case it was the road-user who paid.

The Select Committee of 1819 reported that in the three

Decline of Turnpikes 315

preceding Sessions ninety turnpike trusts, seeking renewal of
their Acts, had asked for authority to increase their tolls on
the ground that they could not pay their debts without the
assistance of Parliament. The alternative to an increase of
tolls was carried so far that it became customary for the
trusts to set up a toll-gate wherever there was the slightest
excuse for so doing.

" In some places," says J. Kearsley Fowler, in " Records of
Old Times," " as, for instance, my native town of Aylesbury,
the place was literally hemmed in like a fortified city, — not even
an outlet to exercise a horse without paying a toll." There
were, he tells us, seven different trusts to maintain at Aylesbury
alone.

Mr George Masefield, a solicitor residing at Ledbury,
Herefordshire, said when giving evidence before the Select
Committee on Turnpike Trusts in 1 864 that in the twenty-one
miles between Ledbury and Kingston, a journey he frequently
made, he had to go through eight turnpike gates. In the
eight miles' journey to Newent he passed through four gates
and paid three times ; and in the thirteen miles to Worcester
he went through six gates and paid at five.

In Gloucestershire, said the " Morning Star " of September 30,
1856, "it sometimes happens you have to pay five turnpikes
in twelve miles " ; though such were the inequalities of the
burden that in some other counties, said the same paper, one
could go for miles without paying anything.

These inequalities had been previously pointed out in the
" Westminster Review " article. In speaking of the practice
followed in the location of turnpikes, the writer declared that
" gates are sometimes placed so as to tax one portion and
exempt another, so as to make strangers and travellers pay,
while those who chiefly profit by the roads, and who destroy
them most, are exempted." He further said that " the Welsh,
with their characteristic cunning, have contrived to exempt
their own heavy carts and to levy their tolls on the light
barouches of unlucky visitors " ; that one might see, in
Scotland, three toll-gates, and all to be paid, in the space of
a hundred yards ; that one might, as against this, ride thirty
miles without paying one toll ; and that " the inhabitants
of Greenwich pay the tolls for the half of Kent."

London in 1818 had twelve turnpike trusts for 210 miles of

31 6 History of Inland Transport

road. The tolls they collected in that year amounted to
^97,482 ; the expenses were ^98,856, and the accumulated
debt of the dozen trusts was ^62,658.

On the Middlesex side of London there were 87 turnpike
gates and bars within four miles of Charing Cross, or, including
the Surrey side, a total of 100 within a four-mile radius. " Let
the traveller drive through the Walworth gate southward,"
says J. E. Bradfield, in his " Notes on Toll Reform " (1856),
" and note how every road, every alley, every passage has its
' bar.' The inhabitants cannot move north, east, south, or
west without paying one toll ; and some of them cannot get
out of the parish without two tolls. The cry at every corner
of Camberwell is ' Toll.' " The position of Walworth and
Camberwell does not, however, appear to have been at all
exceptional. In Besant's " Survey of London " it is stated that
a map of London and its environs, published in 1835, shows
that it was then impossible to get away from town without
going through turnpikes. On every side they barred the way.

In the case of a stage-coach with four horses running every
day between London and Birmingham, the tolls paid amounted
to £i 428 in the year. At one gate on the Brighton road the
tolls collected came to £2400 in the year, and of this amount
;£i6oo was from coaches. The payment of these tolls was a
serious tax on the coaches, though an important source of
revenue for the turnpike trustees ; and in proportion as the
coaches were taken off the roads, owing to the competition
of the railways, the financial position of the trusts became
still worse. Mail-coaches were exempted from tolls in England,
though they had to pay them in Scotland.

The amount of the tolls varied according to the trusts or the
locality. Kearsley Fowler says that in Aylesbury for a horse
ridden or led, passing through the gates, the toll was ijd. ; for
a vehicle drawn by one horse, 4|d. ; for a carriage and pair,
gd., and so on. The tolls, he adds, fell with particular hard-
ship on farmers, and became a tax on their trade. When
sending away their corn or other produce with a waggon and
four horses they paid, in some instances, is. 6d. or 2S. 3d.
If, as often occurred, the waggon passed through two gates
in eight or nine miles, the payments came to 33. or 43. 6d.
If the waggon returned with coal or feeding stuffs it had to
pay the same tolls over again.

Decline of Turnpikes 317

Nor did the toll-payers get anything like value for their
money. About fifty per cent of the amount received by the
trustees, either direct from the tolls or from the persons
farming them, went in interest and management expenses ;
and although the remainder might be spent on road repairs, a
good proportion of this was wasted because of the inefficient
way in which the work was too often done. Mr Wrightson,
a member of the Special Committee of 1864, declared that
every toll-gate cost on an average £25 a year, and that every
turnpike trust had, on an average, five toll-gates. The total
number of trusts in 1864 was stated in the Fifteenth Annual
Report of the Local Government Board (1886) to be 1048.
An average of five toll-gates for each would give them a total
of 5240 ; and an average cost of maintenance of £25 a year
for this number of toll-gates gives a total of £131,000 a year
as the cost simply of toll-gate maintenance, apart from salaries
of official staff and other items. Mr R. M. Brereton, surveyor
for the county of Norfolk, said in the course of his evidence
before the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the
Highway Acts (1881) : " In Norfolk we collected £15,000 a
year for tolls, but we only spent £7000 a year of that actually
on the roads."

It might even happen that, after costs of management and
payment of interest had been met, there was no balance left
for road maintenance. In the Report of the Select Committee
of 1839 on Turnpike Trusts it is stated that in several instances
the creditors of the trusts had exercised the power given to
them under the General Turnpike Act (3 Geo. IV., c. 126) of
taking possession of the tolls to secure payment of their
mortgage or bonded securities and the interest due to them.
" The result," says the report, " must be to throw the burden
of repairs and of the maintenance of such roads on the several
parishes through which they pass. Should such measures
now taken by some creditors become general throughout the
kingdom, the proprietors and holders of land will not only have
to pay the tolls as usual, but must also be called on to defray
the expense of keeping the road in a proper state for the public
use, by an additional highway rate to be levied on the parishes
where the tolls paid by the public are seized by the creditor."

In addition to management expenses, expenditure on the
roads and payment of interest, allowance had to be made

318 History of Inland Transport

for the profits expected by those to whom the trustees farmed
the tolls, offering them by auction to the highest bidder.
The contractors generally had a private understanding among
themselves as to the terms they were prepared to give.
One of them, Lewis Levy by name, farmed from £400,000
to £500,000 of turnpike tolls within a radius of from sixty to
eighty miles of London ; and we may assume that he would
not have gone into the business on so large a scale as this
unless it had brought him an adequate return.

The ultimate result of these various conditions was that the
sum total of the indirect taxation thus collected from the public
was not only great in itself, and out of all proportion to the
benefits received, but was inadequate to cover an expenditure
already swollen to abnormal proportions. In his evidence
before the Select Committee of 1839 Sir James McAdam stated
that in 1836 the gross income of the different roads was
£1,776,586, and the expenditure for the year was £1,780,349,
exceeding by £3,763 the whole of the income. In Lancashire
alone the turnpike tolls came to £123,000 a year.

Collection of this considerable revenue from the com-
munity had, of course, been duly authorised by Parliament ;
yet the trustees were under no obligation to account for the
moneys they received. Not only was there free scope given
for jobbery, embezzlement and malpractices in general, but
the turnpike commissioners could, as the " Edinburgh
Review " pointed out in 1819, abuse their trust andyet go on
levying tolls, keeping possession of the road and defying
complaints. The writer on " Roads " in " Rees' Cyclopaedia "
(1819) further declares that " either from bad management,
from party influence or from chicanery and ignorance of sur-
veyors and contractors, the roads in many places are not only
laid out in the most absurd direction but are so badly con-
structed and kept in so wretched a state of repair that they
are almost impassable."

On the other hand, the great advancement in coaching,
and the higher speeds attained by the coaches during the first
three decades of the nineteenth century suggest that .the
improvements introduced by Telford and McAdam could not
have been without good effect on the chief of the main roads,
at least, however inefficient the making and repairing of the
turnpike and parish roads in general may still have remained.

Decline of Turnpikes 319

All the same, and in spite of the greater road traffic, the
financial difficulties into which the trusts drifted and the
burdensome nature of the tax imposed by the toll-system
on traders, agriculturists and the public were beyond all
doubt.

Various attempts were made to improve the position of the
trusts.

A Committee of the House of Commons recommended in
1821 that Continuance Bills for the periodical renewal of
Turnpike Acts should be exempted from fees. Another Com-
mittee made a like recommendation in 1827, and subsequently
a measure was passed scheduling in an annual public statute
the continuation of any trusts on the point of expiring.

Then, as there was so obviously an excessive number of
trusts, with a consequent undue expenditure on management,
a Committee which sat in 1820 strongly recommended the
consolidation of turnpike trusts around London. An Act
consolidating those on the north of the Thames was passed,
the preamble thereof reciting no fewer than 120 other Acts of
Parliament which the new measure superseded.

In 1833, 1836 and 1839 other Committees recommended
a general consolidation of trusts ; but little, apparently, was
done in this direction in England, though in several counties of
Scotland, as mentioned in the Report of the Select Committee
of 1864, the system was greatly improved by the appointment
of Road Boards which, by a consolidation of various trusts and
the association of several counties for the repair and main-
tenance of roads, effected a material diminution in the ex-
penses. In Ireland, also, the abolition of the system of
statute labour in 1763, the placing of the business of road-
making under the control of the grand juries, and the meeting
both of the cost of road repairs and the payment of interest on
the existing debts out of the rates of the counties and baronies
led to better roads being provided at a less burdensome cost.

By a General Turnpike Act passed in 1841, justices were
authorised, on proof being given to them of a deficiency in
the revenue of a turnpike trust, to order the parish surveyor
to pay to the trust a portion of the highway rates, to be laid
out in actual repairs on parts of the turnpike road within the
parish.

Bondholders petitioned Parliament that any deficiency

320 History of Inland Transport

in their profits owing to railway competition should be made
good by the railway companies ; but although this principle
was already being enforced, in effect, in the case of many
of the canal companies, it was not adopted in that of the turn-
pike trusts.

The various measures resorted to did no more than afford
temporary relief to the trusts, and, in the meantime, the
obligation cast upon the community of having to support so
inefficient and so wasteful a system was found to be intolerably
vexatious and burdensome.

While some persons were praising turnpikes because of
such improvement as they had effected on the roads, the
" Gentleman's Magazine " of May, 1749, had spoken of them
as " a great disadvantage in our competition for trade with
France, where they have excellent roads without turnpikes,
which are no small tax on travellers and carriers." Not only
were the tolls a tax on all commodities carried by road, but
they constituted, to a large extent, an unprofitable tax,
because so considerable a proportion of the total amount
collected went to the support of officials, contractors, lessees,
toll-gate keepers and others, who lived on the system, and so
small a proportion — after allowing for money wasted — was
usefully spent to the direct advantage of the traders in
facilitating actual transport. The Committee of 1864 con-
demned the whole system of turnpike tolls as " unequal in
pressure, costly in collection, inconvenient to the public, and
injurious as causing a serious impediment to intercourse and
traffic."

In Wales popular dissatisfaction with the great increase
of toll-gates had led in 1843-4 to the " Rebecca riots," bands
of men 500 strong, their leaders disguised in women's clothes,
promenading the roads of Pembrokeshire, Cardiganshire
and Breconshire at night and throwing down the offending
gates. It was only with considerable difficulty and much
bloodshed that the disturbances were eventually suppressed by
a strong force of soldiers. A commission appointed to inquire
into the matter found there was a genuine grievance, and an
Act of Parliament was passed which consolidated the trusts
in South Wales, regulated the number of toll-gates there, and
provided for the extinction of the debt on the roads by the
advance of about ^200,000, at three per cent interest, by the

Decline of Turnpikes 321

Public Works Loan Commissioners, to be repaid by ter-
minable annuities within thirty years. The loan was duly
paid off by 1876.

Inasmuch as English traders and travellers simply grumbled
and paid, and refrained from demonstrating as the more
emotional Welshmen had done, they had to wait longer for
any material relief from the grievances from which they, also,
were suffering.

Down to 1864 the duty of deciding in what order turnpike
Acts should be permitted to expire, instead of being renewed,
was, as Mr George Sclater- Booth (Lord Basing), formerly
President of the Local Government Board, informed the
Select Committee of the House of Lords on the Highway Acts,
when giving evidence before them in 1880, one of the functions
of the Home Office, and the Home Office, he said, " was timid
at that time in allowing these turnpike trusts to lapse."
Pressure was brought to bear on the department with a view
to effecting a more rapid extinction of the trusts ; though the
ratepayers had not then realised the results to themselves of
the cost of maintenance of disturnpiked roads being thrown
on the parish.

Following on the report of a Special Committee of the House
of Commons, recommending that the Turnpike Acts should
be allowed to expire as rapidly as possible, a House of Commons
Turnpike Committee was appointed in 1864 to take over the
whole business from the Home Office. Thenceforward this
Committee prepared every year a schedule of turnpike trusts
which they thought should expire, the schedule being em-
bodied in an annual Turnpike Acts Continuance Bill which
was duly passed by Parliament. So great was the zeal shown
by the Committee that from 1864 roads were disturnpiked at
the rate of from 1000 to 1700 or 1800 miles a year. " This,"
said Mr Sclater-Booth, " has been most distinctly the policy
of representative members of the House of Commons, and not
the policy of the Government of the day, except in so far
as the Government of the day has foreborne to exercise any
interference with the Turnpike Continuance Act in Parlia-
ment."

While the reduction in the number of turnpike trusts had
been an undoubted boon to users of the roads, it had thrown
heavy burdens on the local ratepayers. For a period of a

322 History of Inland Transport

century, at least, most of them had, in effect, and except in
certain circumstances, been relieved by the turnpike system
of their common law obligation to keep main roads in repair ;
but in proportion as the trusts expired the obligations in
respect to maintenance fell back again on the parishes. Under,
also, old enactments which still remained in force, not only
land and houses but many other kinds of property — stock-in-
trade, timber and " personal estate " generally — were assessed
for highways and other purposes. These conditions remained
until 1840, when an Exemption Act suspended the power
of levying rates on stock-in-trade, and other changes in the law
of assessment were made subsequently.

With the greater activity, from the year 1864, of the House
of Commons Turnpike Committee the burdens on the un-
fortunate parishioners became heavier than before ; and in
the Turnpike Continuance Act of 1870 there was inserted a
clause to the effect that the cost of repairing any roads dis-
turnpiked after the passing of that Act should be borne by the
highway district, where there was one, and not by the parish.
In 1874 and 1875 the House of Commons Turnpike Committee
" made very strong complaints," Mr Sclater-Booth stated in
his evidence, that they would not have proceeded so fast
as they had done, and would not have recommended Par-
liament to allow so many miles of road to be disturnpiked
year by year, if they had not felt satisfied that the Government
would have provided some remedy for the injustice they
occasioned. " They seemed to me," the witness continued,
" to have had no compunction in causing the injustice to be
occasioned before any remedy was provided for it ; but,
having permitted that injustice to take place, they complained
year after year of the action, or, rather, of the non-action, of the
Government in not applying a remedy for these grievances."

No effective remedy was, in fact, provided until 1882. Early
in the Session of that year notice was given in the House of
Commons of a resolution which declared that " in the opinion
of this House immediate relief should in some form be afforded
to ratepayers from the present unjust incidence of rates
appropriated for the maintenance of main roads in England."
Mr Gladstone undertook that something should be done in
conformity with the spirit of this resolution, and thereupon a
grant designed to cover one-fourth of the cost of maintaining

Decline of Turnpikes 323

disturnpiked roads was made annually by Parliament down
to the year 1888, when the relief granted was increased to one-
half of the total cost by a further sum of £256,000 allocated
by Mr Goschen to the same purpose from his Budget for
that year.

The actual expenditure under these successive grants is
shown in a Report on Local Taxation made, in 1893, by Mr
H. H. Fowler (afterwards Lord Wolverhampton). The
amounts there given are as follows : —

YEAR. AMOUNT EXPENDED.

i

1883 .. .. 167,165

1884 195,649

1885 .. .. 205,965

1886 . . . . 229,490

1887 .. .. 237,123

1888 .. .. 498,797

Total £1,534,189

After the passing of the Local Government Act of 1888 the
grants were discontinued, the said Act providing that from
the ist of April, 1889, all main and disturnpiked roads should,
with certain exceptions (and as distinct from parish highways),
be maintained by the county councils.

Parliament had thus at least broadened out the ratepayers'
burden in respect to road maintenance by spreading the
charges over a larger area ; and it was, also, affording a very
considerable measure of relief to the road-users in freeing them
from the obligations to pay tolls for the keeping up, not simply
of the roads, but of a machinery as costly as it was inefficient.
There was still a third set of interests to be considered, as
represented by those who had lent money to the turnpike
trusts for road construction or repairs, in the expectation of
getting a fair return. The proportions of the turnpike debt,
the falling-off in tolls, and the mismanagement of the system
generally made the outlook for the bondholders very un-
favourable ; but the best that was possible, in the circum-
stances, was done for them.

Under an Act passed in 1872 it was laid down that, for
the purpose of facilitating the abolition of tolls on any turnpike

324 History of Inland Transport

road, the highway board and the trustees might mutually agree
that the former should take upon itself the maintenance
and repair of such road, and, also, pay off and discharge either
the entire debt in respect thereto or such sum by way of compen-
sation as the Local Government Board, after an inquiry, might
determine. By a further Act, passed in 1873, highway boards
were authorised to raise loans for the more effective carrying
out of this arrangement, while Clifford states in his " History
of Private Bill Legislation " that " there have, also, been
Acts confirming more than 200 Provisional Orders passed
to arrange the debts of these unlucky trusts, extinguish arrears
of interest, allow compositions, and generally make the best of
some very disastrous investments."1

How rapid the actual decline in the number of trusts was
from the year 1864, when the House of Commons Turnpike
Committee came into existence, is shown by the following
figures, taken from the annual reports of the Local Government
Board for 1886 and 1890 : —

DATE. NUMBER OF TRUSTS. MILES.

December 3, 1864 . . 1048 . . 20,589

January i, 1886 . . 20 . . 700

1890 .. 5 .. 77

Of the five survivals on January i, 1890, three were to
expire in that same year and one in 1896, leaving only one
the fate of which was then undecided. It may be assumed
that by the end of 1896 the system of turnpikes on public
(as distinct from private) roads, which had for so long a period
played so prominent, so vexatious, and, in many respects,
so unsatisfactory a role in inland communication, had wholly
disappeared.

Turnpike roads, no less than canals, undoubtedly conferred
great advantages on the growing trade and industries of the
country. Each, however, had its serious drawbacks and
disadvantages, and, in the result, the shortcomings of the
turnpikes, added to the shortcomings of the canals,- gave
still greater emphasis to the welcome offered by traders to the
railways which were to become, to so large an extent, sub-
stitutes for both.

1 The turnpike trust loans still outstanding on the 25th of March,
1887, amounted to £92,000.

CHAPTER XXIV

END OF THE COACHING ERA

WHAT are known as the " palmy days " of the coaching era
began about the year 1820, and lasted until 1836. By 1820
the improvements in road-making of Telford and McAdam
had led to quicker travelling and the running of far more
coaches, at greater speeds, than had previously been the
case. By 1836 it was evident that coaching had reached the
climax of its popularity, and could not hope to maintain its
position against the competition of the railways which were
spreading so rapidly throughout the land.

Over 3000 coaches were then on the road, and half of these
began or ended their journeys in London. Some 150,000
horses were employed in running them, and there were about
30,000 coachmen, guards, horse-keepers and hostlers, while
many hundreds of taverns, in town or country, prospered on
the patronage the coaches brought them. From one London
tavern alone there went every day over eighty coaches to
destinations in the north. From another there went fifty-
three coaches and fifty-one waggons, chiefly to the west of
England. Altogether coaches or waggons were going from
over one hundred taverns in the City or in the Borough.

Big interests grew up in connection with the coaching
enterprise. William Chaplin, who owned five yards in London,
had, at one time, nearly 2000 horses, besides many coaches.
Out of twenty-seven mail-coaches leaving London every
night he " horsed " fourteen. He is said to have made a
fortune of half a million of money out of the business ; but
when he began to realise what the locomotive would do he
took his coaches off the road, disposed of his stock before
the railways had depreciated it, joined with Benjamin Home,
of the " Golden Cross," Charing Cross, who had himself had
a large stock of horses, and founded the carrying firm of

325

326 History of Inland Transport

Chaplin and Home, which became exclusive agents for the
London and Birmingham Railway. When the London and
South-Western Railway Company found themselves faced
with serious difficulties he devoted alike his means, his ex-
perience and his energies to helping them out of their trouble,
rendering services so invaluable to the company that he
soon became deputy chairman of the line, and was raised to
the chairmanship in 1842. Another coach proprietor, Sher-
man, who had had a large number of coaches running be-
tween London and Birmingham, threw in his lot with the
Great Western Railway as soon as it was opened, and did
much of the London carrying business in connection with
that line.

Other coach proprietors there were who, less far-sighted,
or less fortunate, held on to their old enterprises, influenced,
it may be, by the views of such authorities as Sir Henry
Parnell, who, in the second edition of his " Treatise on Roads "
(1838), declared in reference to railways : —

" The experience which has been gained from those already
completed, and from the enormous expense incurred on those
which are in progress, has led to a general opinion that there
is little probability of more than a few of these works affording
any ultimate return for the money expended upon them.

" The heavy expense which is proved by experience to be
unavailable in keeping the railways and engines in repair,
where great speed is the object, will in numerous cases soon
make it evident that no dividends can be paid to the share-
holders, and the cheaper method of using horse-power will be
adopted. . . .

" The attaining of the speed of 25 or 30 miles an hour, at
such an enormous expense, cannot be justified on any principle
of national utility. The usefulness of communication, in a
national point of view, consists principally in rendering the
conveyance of all the productions of the soil and of industry
as cheap as possible. . . . But a speed of 10 miles an hour
would have accomplished all these purposes, and have been of
great benefit to travellers, while it could have been attained
at from one half to one third of the expense which has been
incurred by the system that has been acted upon. It is no
doubt true that travelling at the rate of 25 or 30 miles an
hour is very convenient, but how it can be made to act so as

End of the Coaching Era 327

to contribute very much to the benefit of the country at
large it is not easy to discover. Economy of time in an in-
dustrious country is unquestionably of immense importance,
but after the means of moving at the rate of ten miles an
hour is universally established there seems to be no very
great advantage to be derived from going faster."

It is true that an acceleration had been effected in the
rates of speed attainable on improved roads, under the stimulus
of mail and " flying " coaches. But these results had only
been secured with consequences for the unfortunate horses
which no one possessed of a spark of humanity could fail to
deplore. Several coach proprietors, each owning between
300 and 400 horses, informed a House of Commons Select
Committee in 1819 that those of their horses which worked
within fifty miles of London lasted only three or four years,
in which period the entire stock had to be renewed. Mr Home,
of Charing Cross, who kept 400 horses, said he bought 150
every year. On some roads, it was affirmed, the mortality
of the horses, due in part to the bad state of the roads and
in part to the accelerated speed, was so great that the average
coach-horse lasted only two years. On certain roads aroilnd
London it was necessary to have six horses attached to a
coach in order to drag it through the two feet or so of mud
which, in wet weather, was to be found on such roads as the
one across Hounslow Heath.

In accounting for an increased demand for coach-horses
in 1821, a paragraph from the " Yorkshire Gazette," quoted
by the " Morning Chronicle " of December 27 in that year,
declared that it arose out of the new regulations of the Post
Office, which caused the death of two horses, on an average,
in every three journeys of 200 miles. " The Highflyer of this
city," the paragraph continued, " lately lost two horses,
and it has cost the Manchester and Liverpool coaches seven-
teen horses since they commenced to cope with the mail and
run ten miles an hour in place of seven or eight. . . . Several
horses, in endeavouring to keep time, according to the new
Post Office regulations, have had their legs snapped in two
on the road, while others have dropped dead from the effort
of a ruptured blood-vessel or a heart broken in efforts to obey
the whip."

On one of the southern roads a coach was put on which

328 History of Inland Transport

was run at the rate of twelve miles an hour ; but seven
horses died in three weeks, and the pace was then reduced
to ten miles an hour. An average speed even of six and a
half miles an hour was declared to be scarcely possible on
some of the roads. " It tore the horses' hearts out."

One cannot wonder that, when the fact of trains on the
Liverpool and Manchester Railway doing an average of
fifteen miles an hour with the greatest ease, and attaining to
double that speed when necessary, became known, humani-
tarian considerations were, in themselves, sufficient to win
preference for rail over road transport.

There was also a practical as well as a humanitarian side
to this appalling death-rate among the coach-horses. Thomas
Gray, in the course of his " Observations on a General Iron
Rail- way," showed that, reckoning the number of coach
and postchaise horses at no more than 100,000, and allowing
for renewal of stock every four years, keep and interest on
capital expenditure, the outlay would amount in twelve
years to £34,700,000 ; while a like calculation, for the same
period, in regard to the 500,000 waggon, coach, and post-
chaise horses employed on the main turnpike roads of the
country, gave a total of no less than ^173,500,000.

While, again, fair-weather travellers may have enjoyed
the scenery and the poetry of motion when seated on the
top of a coach going across country in the summer-time,
there were possibilities of great discomforts and dangers
having to be faced, as well. Accidents were so frequent that
it was usual for the coaches to carry a box of carpenters' tools,
supplemented in the winter by a snow shovel. Sometimes
the coaches stuck in the mire ; sometimes they upset. They
passed through flooded roads, they were detained by fog,
they got snowed up, or their passengers might run terrible
risks from frost. On the arrival of the Bath coach at Chippen-
ham one morning in the month of March, 1812, it was found
that two passengers had been frozen to death on their seats,
and that a third was dying. In the winter of 1814 there was a
prolonged fog, followed by a severe snow-storm which lasted
forty-eight hours. In one day thirty-three mail-coaches due
at the General Post Office failed to arrive. At Christmas,
1836, there was a snow-storm which lasted nearly a week.
On December 26 the Exeter mail had to be dug out of the

End of the Coaching Era 329

snow five times. The following day fourteen mail-coaches
were abandoned on different roads.

So, in proportion as the railways spread, the coaching
traffic declined. In 1839 a London coach proprietor, Mr E.
Sherman, of the " Bull and Mouth," told the Select Committee
on Turnpike Trusts that the persons then being carried by
coach were mostly timid people who did not like to go by
railway, though every day it was found that the timidity
was lessening, and that many individuals who formerly would
not have travelled by train for any consideration were doing
so in preference to going by coach.

The severity of the railway competition with the coaches
was, indeed, beyond all question ; but the coach proprietors
considered that their difficulty in facing it was rendered much
worse by the heavy taxation on their enterprise.

The earliest stage-coaches, patronised mostly by the poorer
class of travellers, were not taxed at all ; but when the " flying
coaches " and the " handsome machines with steel springs
for the ease of passengers and the conveniency of the country "
were put on the road and attracted passengers of a better
class, the owners of private conveyances began to complain of
the unfairness of their being taxed while the owners of public
coaches were not. Wanting more money to meet the heavy
expenditure on the American war, North met the complaints
of the private-carriage owners by putting a tax on the stage-
coaches ; and the precedent thus established, in or about
the year 1780, was followed by later Chancellors of the
Exchequer, the taxation being subsequently extended alike
to every class of vehicles used for coach traffic and, in 1832,
to all classes of railway passengers.

In 1837 a Select Committee appointed to inquire into the
taxation of internal communication reported that the taxes
then in force in respect to land travelling by animal power
were as follows : —

1. Assessed taxes on carriages and horses kept for private
use.

2. A post-horse duty.

3. A duty on carriages kept to let for hire, being ^5 55. on
each carriage with four wheels, and £3 53. for each carriage
with two wheels.

33° History of Inland Transport

4. A license duty paid by each postmaster, being 75. 6d.
per annum.

5. Mileage duty on stage-coaches.

6. A license duty on stage-coaches, being £5 on each coach
kept to run, and is. on each supplementary license.

. An assessed tax on coachmen and guards.
8. An assessed tax on draught horses.

There were many variations in the mileage duty on stage-
coaches. In 1780 it was one halfpenny for every mile travelled ;
in 1783 it was raised to a penny ; in 1797 it was twopence,
while subsequent increases led up to the highest rate of all —
one of fivepence halfpenny per mile for coaches licensed to carry
more than ten passengers inside. It was, in part, to moderate
the pressure of this tax that Shillibeer introduced the omnibus
into London,1 his first conveyance being a huge, unwieldy
conveyance which, drawn by three horses, spread the five-
pence-halfpenny mileage duty over twenty-two inside pas-
sengers.

The yield from the mileage duty was £194,559 in 1814,
£223,608 in 1815 (when there was an increase of one half-
penny per mile for every coach) and £480,000 in 1835.

So long as the stage-coaches were well patronised, little
or nothing was heard about all this taxation, which was,
in effect, passed on to the traveller, who either paid without
grumbling or else grumbled and paid. But when the rail-
ways began to divert more and more traffic from the roads,
the duties in question fell with special severity on the coach
proprietors, who then divided their maledictions pretty
equally between the railway companies and the tax-gatherers.

The mileage duty was especially burdensome under the
new conditions. Being assessed on the number of persons
each coach was licensed to carry, and not on the number of
passengers actually carried, it remained at the same amount
whether the coaches ran full, half full or empty. The fact
that the railways, which were depriving the coaches of their
patrons, then paid their halfpenny per mile only on every
four passengers actually conveyed became a grievance with
the coach proprietors, who thought that the railways should
be taxed on the same basis as themselves.
1 See p. 63.

End of the Coaching Era 331

That the taxation pressed heavily on a declining business
was beyond all possibility of doubt.

A petition drawn up in 1830 by proprietors of stage-
coaches employed on the turnpike roads between Liverpool
and various Lancashire towns showed that the taxes they
paid to the Government worked out for the year as follows : —

i «. d.

Duty on 33 coaches. . . . 8,455 J6 8

Assessed taxes for coach servants . 261 o o

Mileage duty 5»779 3 4

Total 14,496 o o

In addition to this they had to pay £8005 135. 4d. a year
for turnpike tolls, while their general expenses, including
horses (renewed every three years), harness, hostlers, rent of
stables, hay, corn and straw, etc., but allowing for value of
manure, came to £64,602 133. 4d., their total annual expendi-
ture thus being as follows : —

i s. d.

Government duty and taxes . . 14,496 o o
Turnpike tolls .... 8,005 X3 4
Expenses 64,602 13 4

Total £87,104 6 8

W. C. Wimberley, a coach proprietor of Doncaster, who
gave evidence before the Select Committee of 1837, said
that the Government taxation on a single coach, the " Welling-
ton," running between London and Newcastle, for a period of
364 days, was as follows : —

Duty for four passengers inside and £ s. d.
eleven out, sixpence per double mile,

that is up and down 278 miles . . 2529 16 o

Stamps for receipts on payment of ditto 112 6

Four licenses (four coaches being used

successively up and down) . . 20 o o

Assessed taxes on coachmen and guards 17 10 o

£2568 i 8 6

33 2 History of Inland Transport

The coach also paid, in the same period, £2537 73. 8d. for
tolls.

Another coach proprietor, W. B. Thome, told the same Com-
mittee that on five coaches to Dover he paid for mileage duty
alone in the previous year a total of £2273. On his coaches to
Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham he paid £7017 in
the twelve months, and the total amount of duty he paid
for all his coaches in the year was ^26,717. He did not think,
however, that relief from taxation would save them from
being annihilated by the railways, except as regarded certain
roads where the railways did not directly operate against
them.

Still another coach proprietor, Robert Gray, admitted
to the Committee that he did not think it would be possible
for the coaches to compete on the Bath road with the Great
Western Railway even if all the duty were taken off.

There was no doubt that the coaches could not have held
their own permanently against the railways even if they had
been relieved of taxation as soon as the success of their rivals
became assured. On the other hand, if the coaches could have
been afforded such relief that, while not attempting to compete
with the railways on main routes where competition was
hopeless, they would have been encouraged to cater for
business on routes not then served by the railways, an ad-
vantage would have been gained, not only by the coach
proprietors themselves, but by the public. The early days
of the railway undoubtedly brought serious inconvenience to
people who found themselves set down at a station ten,
fifteen or twenty miles distant from their home, with no
chance of their getting a coach because rail competition and
Government taxation combined had made it no longer possible
to run a coach on that road. If the taxation had not, as was
often the case, made all the difference between profit and loss,
many of the coaches would probably have held on a few years
longer, by which time the railways would have been more
generally developed. As it was they were withdrawn in larger
numbers, at an earlier period, than would otherwise have been
the case, and there were many instances of great hardship
to travellers whose means did not allow of their supplementing
an incomplete railway journey by hiring a vehicle specially for
themselves.

End of the Coaching Era 333

The report presented by the Select Committee of 1837
admitted the inequalities of the taxation on land travelling
as between the coaches and the railways ; but, instead of
recommending, as the coach proprietors had wanted, that
the demands on the railways should be increased, the Com-
mittee expressed strong disapproval of any tax at all being
imposed on internal communication. They said, among other
things : —

" Very valuable evidence was submitted to your Committee
by Sir Edward Lees, secretary to the Post Office at Edinburgh,
as to the increased speed, security and cheapness with which
the post might be conveyed over the cross-roads of Scotland
by the establishment of mail cars similar to those now in use
in Ireland, thereby increasing the Revenue and opening up
districts now altogether destitute of any mode of public
conveyance ; the same remarks would necessarily apply to
many cross-roads in England. The grand obstacle, however, to
the establishment of these cars is the heavy taxation on
travelling, which utterly deters individuals from engaging in
such speculations ; while in Ireland, where the roads are de-
cidedly inferior, but where none of these taxes exist, cheap and
expeditious public conveyances are everywhere to be found."

The ultimate findings and recommendations of the Com-
mittee were summed up in the following emphatic declaration :

" Your Committee earnestly recommend the abolition of all
taxes on public conveyances and on carriages generally at the
earliest period consistent with a due regard to the financial
arrangements of the country."

Unfortunately, the financial arrangements of the country
never have allowed of this recommendation being carried out,
and a further period of thirty- two years was to elapse before
even the moribund stage-coach business was relieved al-
together of the obligation to pay mileage duty.

The burdensome nature of these duties on internal com-
munication led to the formation of a " Committee for the
Abolition of the Present System of Taxation on Stage Carriages
in Great Britain " ; and in some " Observations on the In-
justice, Inequalities and Anomalies of the Present System of
Taxation on Stage" Carriages," by J. E. Bradfield,f issued by
this Committee in 1854, a strong case was made out in favour
of such abolition. Bradfield based his main arguments on the

334 History of Inland Transport

contention that by removing restrictions placed upon the free-
dom of communication the general welfare of nations was
promoted. The taxation of the stage-coaches conferred, he
said, no advantage on the coaching enterprise, since none of
the money raised in this way was expended on road improve-
ment, while the amount of the taxation often formed an
abnormally large proportion of the receipts. He mentions
the case of one coach-owner in the Lake District, thirty per cent
of whose receipts in the winter had to go to the Government
for the duties imposed, not on the amount of business he did,
but on the seating capacity of his coaches. In another instance
the duties paid were forty-five per cent of the takings. Brad-
field thought a fair average for the country in general would be
fifteen per cent. The existing system of mileage duties en-
forced, he declared, an average tax of £So per annum upon
every stud of eight horses employed in stage-coaches, as against
£30 for the same number used for postchaises, and £11 8s.
in the case of those for private carriages.

Bradfield further quotes a Windermere coach-owner as
being of opinion that there was " still great scope for coaches as
feeders to the railways if only they were given greater relief
in the matter of duties." He expresses his own opinion that
" coaches are legitimately the streams by which the traffic
should be conducted to the railways," and asks, " Why tax
the stream more than the river ? "

The steady decrease in the yield from the stage-coach duties
was in itself sufficiently significant of the changes in travel
that were then proceeding. In 1837 the revenue from the
duties was ^523, 856 ; but it began to decline steadily as the
" palmy days " of coaching came to an end, and in 1841 it had
fallen to ^314,000. In 1853, when, after various modifications,
the mileage duty was three-halfpence a mile, the yield was
only £2 1 2, 659. In 1866, after further modifications, the duty
was reduced to a farthing ; and in 1869 it was repealed
altogether ; though by that time the locomotive had sup-
planted the stage-coach except in a comparatively few localities
where it still lingered, mainly, however, as a feeder to the
railway.

The recent revival of coaching comes under the category
of sport or recreation rather than under that of internal trans-
port and communication.

CHAPTER XXV

RAILWAY RATES AND CHARGES

THE combined result of (i) a vast increase in industrial pro-
duction ; (2) the decline in river, canal and road transport ;
and (3) the various conditions which checked competition on
and between the railways was to increase greatly the need for
transportation facilities, and to make traders and the public
in general more and more dependent on the one means of
consignment and locomotion thus so rapidly becoming
paramount. Coupled with the many technical details which,
as pioneers of the railway system, the English companies
had to work out for themselves, and, also, with the questions
arising as to the future relations between the railways and the
State, there were the further problems as to (a) the means
to be adopted to ensure that the rates and charges were
reasonable, and not likely to become unjust or oppressive,
and (b) the bases on which the rates and charges should them-
selves be fixed in order to secure due regard for the public
interests, to guarantee the operation of the railways on com-
mercial lines, and to ensure for the railway investors a reason-
able return on their investments.

The earliest railway rates of all were simply a toll (as on a
turnpike road) at the rate of so much per mile, or so much
per ton per mile, for the use of the rails, with an extra charge
if the railway owners supplied the waggons. This was the
practice in vogue down to the Surrey Rail-way period, the
tolls for such use of road being fixed by Parliament because
of the railway lines being a monopoly.

The next development came when the Stockton and
Darlington Railway Company obtained powers to supply
haulage by steam power or steam-engine, and were authorised
by Parliament to charge a " locomotive toll," in addition to
the road toll, when the trader made use of the company's
engines.

There was a further development when the railway com-

335

336 History of Inland Transport

panics undertook the functions of carriers, provided waggons,
carriages and staff, and were authorised to make a charge for
the " conveyance " of goods.

Parliament did not, at first, specify the amounts of the loco-
motive and conveyance tolls, but simply required that they
should be " reasonable," the expectation at that time being
that these tolls would be kept to reasonable limits by the
competition of the outside carriers. When it was found
that the outside carriers would not run their own locomotives
on the railway, and that the railways would do their own
carrying, the amounts which could be levied as locomotive
and conveyance tolls were specified in the special Acts of the
companies concerned.

At one time, therefore, the railway companies were author-
ised by their Acts to impose three separate charges, (i) road
tolls, (2) locomotive tolls, and (3) conveyance tolls ; but in
1845 a " maximum rates clause " was introduced which
grouped these different tolls into a total charge something
less than the aggregate of the three.

In proportion as the railway companies themselves per-
formed the duties of carriers, instead of leaving this branch
of the transport business to the outside carrying firms, it
became necessary for them to provide goods depots and ware-
houses, and to have a staff available for a variety of services —
loading and unloading, covering and uncovering, etc. — which
were necessary in the handling of the traffic. The companies
then claimed that for these " station terminals " and " ter-
minal services " they were entitled to make charges in addition
to the maximum rates, whereas it was contended on the part
of the traders that these services were included in the maximum
rates, and that the companies had no right to charge for them
separately. After prolonged controversy and much litigation,
the dispute was eventually decided in favour of the companies ;
but Parliament required them to distinguish the charges for
conveyance, terminals, and collection and delivery, and,
finally, by the Charges Acts of 1891 and 1892, fixed the
amounts of the maximum station and service terminals that
each company might demand.

In the meantime much trouble had also arisen as the result
of the haphazard fashion in which the railways of the country
had been called into being.

Railway Rates and Charges 337

The original classification of goods for transport was of the
most primitive kind. In the canal companies Acts the
authorised tolls and charges were generally specified in respect
to only about a dozen different articles. The early railway
Acts followed the canal precedent in so far that each of them
contained a classification of the goods expected to go by rail,
the main difference being that the list given in the railway
Acts generally comprised from forty to sixty articles, divided
into five or six groups.

As the railways extended, and began to deal with the great
bulk of the commerce of the country, these original lists were
found to be hopelessly crude and inadequate, and one of the
duties undertaken by the Railway Clearing House, first set
up in 1847 and incorporated by an Act of 1850, was the pre-
paration of what became known as the Clearing House
classification — a work required in the interests equally of the
railways and of the traders. At the outset the Clearing House
classification comprised about 300 articles. By 1852 the
number had increased to 700, and in 1864 it had further
expanded to 1300.

The Royal Commission of 1865 recommended that the new
and improved classification thus compiled and put into
operation by the companies themselves should be the basis
of the classification imposed by the special railway Acts. The
Committee pointed out that the rates authorised by Parliament
were no longer necessarily an indication of the charges actually
made in practice since these charges depended, not on the
classifications in the companies' Acts, but on the Clearing House
classification, by reason of which they were often lower than
the statutory maxima. The Committee regarded the classifi-
cation of the private Acts as defective and inharmonious,
and they advised that the Clearing House classification should
be enacted by some general Act which might be adopted in
the private Acts by reference. The Joint Select Committee
of 1872 also advised the adoption of a uniform classification ;
but it was not until the passing of the Railway and Canal
Traffic Act of 1888 that the recommendation was carried out.
This Act of 1888 was, in part, the outcome of reasonable
dissatisfaction among the traders.

In the absence, from the outset, of any real and effective
system for the organisation of railways in accordance with

33 8 History of Inland Transport

well-defined general principles, based on the needs of the
country as a whole, great uncertainty existed as to the rates
and charges to be paid. There were then no fewer than 900
Acts of Parliament which dealt with the charging powers of
976 past or present railway companies, while the only uniform
classification was that of the Railway Clearing House, which
had almost entirely superseded the primitive classification in
the railway companies' Acts but had not yet received legal
sanction.

A recommendation to the effect " that one uniform classifi-
cation be adopted over the whole railway system " had been
made by a House of Commons Select Committee in 1882.
They considered that the adoption of this course was necessary
in view of the imperfection and want of uniformity in the
special Act classifications and charges, in which they had
failed to discover any general principle. " In some cases,"
they said, " reference must be had to more than fifty Acts
to determine the various rates the company is authorised to
charge."

The position in regard to a new and uniform classification
thus so persistently recommended was, however, complicated
by the fact that the adoption thereof would involve new
maximum rates, since the rates charged for the commodities
carried naturally depended on the particular " class " to
which those commodities had been allotted. Hence when,
by the Railway and Canal Traffic Act of 1888, provision was
at last made for a revised and uniform classification, each
railway company was further required to submit to the Board
of Trade, within a period of six months, revised schedules of
maximum rates, with a view to these ultimately — after
approval by Parliament — taking the place of the schedules
in the existing special Acts. The new scales were, also, to
include fixed maxima for " station terminals " and " service
terminals," the controversy in regard to which, as already
spoken of, was thus to be definitely settled.

The railway companies complied with these requirements,
the revised classification and schedules of maximum rates
being sent in by March, 1889, to the Board of Trade, which
appointed two special Commissioners, Lord Balfour of Bur-
leigh and Mr (afterwards Sir) Courtenay Boyle, to hold an
inquiry into them on its behalf. The traders were invited to

Railway Rates and Charges 339

send in any criticisms they might wish to offer to the com-
panies' proposals, and by June 3rd no fewer than 4000 ob-
jections had been received from over 1500 individuals or
trading associations.

By this time the formidable nature of the work that had
been undertaken began to be more fully appreciated. Not
only were there the 900 Railway Acts dealing with rates and
charges, but there were about 18,000 railway stations and
some 40,000 pairs of stations between which business was
actually transacted in regard to one or more of the 2500
articles that, by this time, were included in the Clearing House
classification. As for the rates in force, we have the statement
of Sir Henry Oakley that on the Great Northern Railway alone
they numbered 13,000,000, while Sir Richard Moon estimated
that on the London and North- Western Railway the total
at this period was no fewer than 20,000,000.

The task thus imposed by Parliament on the Board of Trade
in the revision of rates whose total number seemed almost as
countless as the stars themselves was, indeed, of stupendous
magnitude, apart altogether from the very heavy labours
devolving upon each individual company in the preparation
of schedules for its own particular lines. The task itself
was, however, rendered still more difficult by the fact that, as
pointed out by Mr Temple Franks — *

" No principles of revision had been laid down for guid-
ance. The Commissioners were not told to regard either
the existing statutory maxima or the actual rates then
charged. Amendments to this effect had been rejected in
Parliament. The Commissioners, therefore, held that the
Legislature contemplated a departure from existing maxima,
and that it is equitable ' to make a reduction in their present
powers and fix rates based to a great extent on existing rates,
but with a reasonable margin of profit for possible changes of
circumstances injuriously affecting the cost of or return from
the carriage of merchandise by railway.' In determining,
however, the principles upon which the future maxima were
to be governed, they refused to accept the proposition that
they shall cover all existing rates and non-competitive charges."

1 Lectures on the "History of Traffic Legislation and Parliamentary
Action in Connection with Railways," delivered at the London School of
Economics. See " The Railway News," November 30, 1907.

34-O History of Inland Transport

With regard to a uniform classification, the Commissioners
recommended the adoption, with certain slight changes, of the
existing Clearing House classification.

There is no need to record here, in detail, the exhaustive
nature of the inquiries, protests, rejoinders, discussions and
controversies to which the preparation of the new schedules
led. Suffice it to say that these and the revised classification
were eventually embodied in a series of Railway Rates and
Charges Orders Confirmation Acts which, as applying to the
different companies, either individually or in groups, were
passed in the Sessions of 1891 and 1892, and came into opera-
tion on January i, 1893. Under these Acts the scales of
charges are divided into six parts, viz. : (i) goods and minerals,
(2) animals, (3) carriages, (4) exceptional, (5) perishable com-
modities by passenger train, and (6) small parcels by mer-
chandise train. Each rate is made up of two parts — convey-
ance and terminals. The conveyance scales for all companies
are as near alike as circumstances will allow, and the maximum
terminals (station terminal at each end and service terminals
in respect to loading, unloading, covering and uncovering)
are common to all the Confirmation Acts.

Sir Henry Oakley, who was at this time acting as secretary
of the Railway Companies' Association, declared concerning
the new conditions thus brought about in regard to the bases
of railway rates and charges that " practically they amounted
to a revolution." The maximum powers were reduced almost
universally ; the classifications of the companies' own Acts
were abolished, and a new and uniform one substituted ;
various new scales were introduced ; the obligation was now
for the first time thrown upon the companies of carrying
perishables by passenger train ; and a new system of calcu-
lating rates was established. " It was not," said Sir Henry,
" so much per mile for any distance beyond six miles, as it
was in the original Acts, but for the first twenty miles a certain
rate, for the next thirty miles a certain less rate, and for the
next fifty miles a still further reduction, the effect being
that, by that mode of calculating, the longer the distance the
goods were carried the less the average rate per mile that was
to be charged."

Within a very short time, however, of the new rates coming
into force, there were louder and more vehement protests

Railway Rates and Charges 341

than ever on the part of the traders. The advantages of a
uniform classification were fully realised, and the traders
naturally did not object to the fact that (as stated in evidence
by Sir Henry Oakley, in 1893), from thirty to forty per cent
of the existing rates had been lowered. But they did object
most strongly when they found that certain of the rates had
been increased.

It was explained by some of the railway companies that,
owing to the vast number of the rates involved, and to the
short time between the passing of their Rates and Charges
Orders Confirmation Act and the ist of January, 1893, when
such Act came in force (the period in question being in some
instances not more than about four months), it had been
impossible for them to complete the revision of their rate-books
by the date mentioned. The class rates were ready, and what
had happened was that these had been temporarily substituted
for the special rates when time had not allowed of the latter
being duly revised.

On the other hand it was alleged against the companies
that, apart from any question of shortness of time for their
revisions, they had sought to adopt a policy of recoup-
ment, specially low non-competitive rates having been raised
to the new maxima with a view to counterbalancing the
decreases.

While the plea of the companies in respect to shortness of
time was abundantly warranted, the counter-allegation of the
traders would appear to have been not without foundation,
in view of the fact that the setting of increases against the
decreases was defended by the companies on the ground that,
being corporations based and operated on commercial prin-
ciples, they were bound to see that their revenue did not
suffer, while, it was further pleaded, they were still charging
no more than the rates which, having been expressly sanc-
tioned by Parliament, were, presumably, reasonable. They
gave the assurance, however, that the rates were still under-
going revision, and that the increases made were not necessarily
final. They further undertook that no increases should be
made which would interfere with trade or agriculture, or
diminish traffic, and that, unless under exceptional circum-
stances, there should be no increases at all which exceeded by
five per cent the rates in force in 1892.

342 History of Inland Transport

The undertaking thus given failed to satisfy the Select
Committee appointed in 1893 to inquire into these further
grievances. The Committee, in their report, expressed the
opinion that the course taken by the companies had been
" mainly actuated by their determination to recoup them-
selves to the fullest extent by raising the rates of articles
where the maximum rates were above the actual rates."
They were of opinion that the rates not reduced by the new
maxima should have been left untouched ; and they affirmed
that " the margin between the old actual rates and the present
Parliamentary maxima was not given by Parliament in order
that immediate advantage should be taken of it, or that the
policy of recoupment should be carried on, but only to meet
certain contingencies, such as rises in prices and wages," etc.
They also recommended that further steps should be taken
to protect traders from any unreasonable raising of rates
within the maxima, the Railway and Canal Commission being
empowered to deal with such questions as they arose.

The outcome of all this controversy was the passing by
Parliament, in the following Session, of the Railway and Canal
Traffic Act, 1894, which introduced an entirely new principle
in railway operation.

Turnpike trustees had always had full power to reduce and
subsequently to advance their tolls, at their own discretion,
provided they never sought to exceed the maxima imposed
under their special Acts ; and down to this time it had been
assumed that railway companies had similar powers in regard
to maxima which Parliament had already expressly sanctioned
in the Act or Acts of each individual company. There was —
and still is — no question (except in cases of "undue preference "
or " through rates ") as to the right of a company to reduce
a rate, or to transfer a commodity to a lower class, thus
effecting the same object; and there was, down to 1894,
equally thought to be no question as to their right to increase
a rate within the same limitations as those applying to turn-
pike trustees.

What the Act of 1894 did was to restrict the powers of rail-
way companies to increase their rates even within the range of
their statutory maxima. It enacted that in the event of
complaints being^made of any increase of rates, direct or
indirect, since December, 1892 (and under the Act of 1888

Railway Rates and Charges 343

a railway company had already been required to give public
notice of any increase in tolls, rates or charges it proposed to
make), " it shall lie on the railway company to prove that the
increase is reasonable " ; and for this purpose it is not to be
" sufficient to show that the charge is within any limit fixed
by an Act of Parliament or by any Provisional Order con-
firmed by Act of Parliament." Complaint is first to be made
to the Board of Trade, and, if agreement between the trader
and the railway company should not follow thereon, the
trader has the right of appeal to the Railway Commissioners,
to whom jurisdiction to hear and determine such complaint is
given. " So that," as Butterworth remarks in his " Maximum
Railway Rates," " the legislation of 1888-1894 presents this
remarkable result — that Parliament in 1892, after probably
the most protracted inquiry ever held in connection with
proposed legislation, decided that certain amounts were to
be the charges which railway companies should for the future
be entitled to make, and in 1894 apparently accepted the
suggestion that many of the charges, sanctioned after so much
deliberation, were unreasonable, and enacted that to entitle
a company to demand them it should not be sufficient to
show " that the charge was within the limit which Parliament
itself had previously fixed.

Whether traders have really gained any balance of advan-
tage from this further outcome of legislative policy in the
assumed protection of their interests, as against the railway
companies, is open to question. On the one hand they have
a guarantee against increases that offer even the slightest
suggestion of unreasonableness. On the other hand the Act
has destroyed the element of elasticity in rate-making, in-
asmuch as railway managers must needs show extreme caution
in granting reduced or " experimental " rates — in the interests
of growing industries — when, if the experiment should fail,
and the expected traffic not be forthcoming, the company
must go through the formality of advertising the " increase "
involved in putting the rate back to its former level, and must,
also, run the risk of having to " justify " such increase before
the Board of Trade or the Railway and Canal Commission.
" I know of my own knowledge and my own experience,"
Sir George Gibb once told a Departmental Committee of the
Board of Trade, " that the effect of these sections has been to

344 History of Inland Transport

prevent many reductions of rates that would have been
tried experimentally."

When we pass on to consider the principles on which railway
rates and charges are based we are met with so many com-
plexities in the solution of transport problems, and with such
direct conflict of interests on the part of different groups of
traders, that we can in no way be surprised at the controversies
and the grievances, real or imaginary, to which the subject
has given rise from time to time.

The original idea that railway rates and charges should be
fixed on a mileage basis, on the same principle as tolls on turn-
pike roads and canals, was soon found to be impracticable,
and successive Parliamentary Committees have demonstrated
its futility ; though its advocacy, in one form or another, has
not even yet been discarded by those who think that railway
rates for any given commodity should be so much per ton
per mile for all traders alike, irrespective of distance and all
other considerations.

One effect of such a principle of rate-fixing as this would
have been to exclude the long-distance trader from any
particular market, and to confer an undue advantage on the
trader in the immediate neighbourhood, or at a short distance
therefrom, who would thus have gained a monopoly of the
market, to the disadvantage of other traders and of the local
community. Nor would such a system of rate-making have
answered for the railway companies themselves, since the
discouragement of long-distance traffic would have restricted
the area of business, and limited their sources of revenue.

Another once much-favoured theory is that the railways
should charge so much for cost of service, plus a reasonable
profit for themselves.

Here, in the first place, there is the impossibility of deciding
what is the cost of the service rendered in regard to each com-
modity and each consignment thereof that is carried. No basis
exists on which the most expert of railway men could decide
the respective costs of transport for each and every article
in a train-load of miscellaneous goods, nor could any one
apportion the exact amount that each should bear in regard
to interest on capital outlay and other standing charges which
must needs be covered as well as the proportionate cost of
actual operation.

Railway Rates and Charges 345

Then we have the fact that, even if these figures could be
arrived at, many of the commodities carried would be unable
to pay the rates fixed thereon. This would especially apply to
coal, iron-stone, manure and other things either of low value
or of considerable weight or bulk. Whatever may be the real
cost of carrying them, commodities of this kind cannot pay
more than a certain rate. If that rate is exceeded either they
will be sent in proportionately smaller quantities or they
will not be sent by rail at all.

We arrive, in this way, by the logic of actual facts, at the
fundamental principle, adopted by railway companies, of
charging " what the traffic will bear " ; and by this is meant
" charging no more than," rather than " charging as much as,"
the traffic will bear. Findlay, in his book on " The Working
and Management of an English Railway "(fourth edition, 1891)
says of the practice based on this principle : —

" The rates are governed by the nature and extent of the
traffic, the pressure of competition, either by water, by a rival
route, or by other land carriage ; but, above all, the companies
have regard to the commercial value of the commodity, and
the rate it will bear, so as to admit of its being produced and
sold in a competing market with a fair margin of profit. The
companies each do their best to meet the circumstances of
the trade, to develop the resources of their own particular
district, and to encourage the competition of markets, pri-
marily, no doubt, in their own interest, but nevertheless
greatly to the advantage of the community."

The application of the principle is worked out by the
division into various classes of all minerals and merchandise
carried on the railway. The classes are known respectively
as A, B, C, i, 2, 3, 4, 5, the rates charged being lowest for
commodities in Class A and highest for those in Class 5.
The type of article included in each class may be indicated by
the following examples : —

Class A (applicable to consignments of four tons and up-
wards).— Coal, coke, gravel, iron-stone, limestone, stable
manure, sand.

Class B (applicable to consignments of four tons and up-
wards).— Bricks, concrete, various articles of iron and steel,
granite (in blocks), lime (in bulk), salt (in bulk), common
slates.

346 History of Inland Transport

Class C. — Parsnips, pitwood (for mining purposes), potatoes
(in bulk or in sacks), salt (packed), soda, straw (hydraulic
or steam-packed), waste paper (for paper-making).

Class i. — Cardboard, cotton (unmanufactured), onions,
printing paper, finished wrought iron in shafts (for driving
mill wheels), soap, sugar (in bags, cases or sacks), tallow,
vinegar (in casks).

Class 2. — Bacons and hams (cured and packed), celery,
coffee, copper, earthenware (in casks or crates), crucibles
(plumbago or clay), oranges, ropes, raw wool or yarn.

Class 3. — Baths, calicoes, carpeting, china (in hampers),
combs, cotton and linen goods (in bales, boxes, etc.), cutlery,
groceries, hardware, lead pencils, tea, wheelbarrows.

Class 4. — Light drapery (various), footballs, garden arches,
grates, ovens or stoves, haberdashery, hats (soft felt), lamps,
umbrellas.

Class 5. — Amber, engravings, feathers, cut flowers, hothouse
fruit, furs, dead horses, lace, looking-glasses and mirrors,
musical instruments, picture frames, silk.

These examples indicate the gradual rise in value in the
articles included in the several classes, though, assuming that
the traffic will bear the rate, other considerations as well as
value will apply, among these being liability to damage during
transit, weight in proportion to bulk, and nature of packing
or cost of handling.

It is further to be remembered that although a good deal of
raw material is carried in the lowest classes at rates which
might work out at less than " cost " price, when every item
in respect to " cost of service " and interest on capital ex-
penditure had been allowed for, the commodities in question
may reappear in various successive forms as part-manufactured
or, eventually, as manufactured, articles, paying a successively
higher rate, in accordance with their progressively greater
value, on the occasion of each further transportation. Even
when these results do not follow, the commodities carried at
these low rates may help to develop the resources, or to expand
the population, of a particular district, and thus serve to
create traffic in other directions.

While, also, the rates for the low-value articles may not
cover every item in the so-called cost of service, they do
contribute to the revenue an amount which might otherwise

Railway Rates and Charges 347

have to be made good by the fixing of higher rates on goods
in other classes. Traders dealing in commodities of the latter
type do not themselves lose by the fact that minerals, raw
materials, or other things are carried at rates which, although
exceptionally low, are the most they can be expected to pay.
No injustice is done to them because the other classes of traders
concerned get lower rates than they do themselves. They
may even gain — directly, because they are saved from having
to cover a larger proportion of the total railway expenditure ;
and indirectly, because the help given to those other lines of
business may either bring trade to them or else keep down the
cost of production in regard to manufactured articles they
deal in or which they themselves require.

The principle of charging " what the traffic will bear " does
more than govern the rates as applying to visible traffic. It
embraces the further principle of what Hadley, in his " Rail-
road Transportation," calls " the system of making rates to
develop business."

An immediate result of its application, not alone in England
but in various Continental countries, was to bring about a
substantial reduction in rates, so that, as Hadley further says,
between 1850 and 1880 railway rates were reduced, on an
average, to about one-half of their former figures. It may be
assumed, also, that these former figures were themselves a
substantial reduction on the rates once charged under the toll
system in force among the " get-rich-quick " canal companies.

There was thus a gain to the traders as regards both an
increase in facilities and a reduction in the cost at which
those facilities could be obtained, as compared with previous
conditions. The principle in question necessarily involved
discrimination between trades ; but it became one of the
objects of the Legislature to prevent discrimination between
individual traders in the same line of business as carried
on in the same town or centre.

The general position has been further influenced by the
existence of an ever-active sea competition, which is said to
affect probably three-fifths of the railway stations in the
United Kingdom. The rates for traffic between Newcastle
and London, or any other two ports, will necessarily be in-
fluenced, if not controlled, by the possibility of the com-
modities going by a coasting vessel if the railway company

348 History of Inland Transport

should try to get more than, in these particular circumstances,
such traffic will bear. The amount of the railway rate in such
a case as this will, in fact, be determined far more by the ele-
ment of sea competition than by any question as to either
presumptive cost of service or actual mileage.

It may well happen that between two other points, in regard
to which there is no sea competition, the rates are higher than
between two where there is sea competition, although the
distance is the same. Here we have the elements of one of
those " anomalies " which have often been urged as a reason
for equal mileage rates. The inequality in the rates is, however,
directly due to the inequality in the conditions. It is not a
case of making the no-sea-competition places pay a rate in
itself unreasonable ; it is simply a case of charging the sea-
competition places no more than they would be likely to pay.
There may be an apparent inconsistency ; but an increase in
the rates where the sea competition exists would not neces-
sarily be of advantage to the trader in the district where there
is no such competition, though it might lead to the traffic
going by sea, and involve the railway company in a loss of
revenue which would not improve their position in giving
the best possible terms to the inland trader. Nor could any
claim by the latter to be put on the same footing as the trader
on the coast, who has the alternative of sea-transport open to
him, necessarily be made good. Discrimination of places,
in addition to the discrimination of trades, there certainly may
be ; but it is a discrimination due essentially to geography and
economic laws.

Other apparent anomalies arise from the fact that where
two or more railway companies have lines running to the same
destination, the rates charged by each and all of them are, by
arrangement between the companies concerned, generally
governed by the shortest distance. Here, again, the idea of
equal mileage rates is found impracticable. If the rates
charged by each of the companies were arbitrarily fixed at
so much per ton per mile, the line with the shortest route
would naturally get all the traffic. When all charge the same
between the same points all of them benefit, and the traders
have the advantage of several routes instead of only one ;
though there is still the " anomaly " that the trader whose
consignment is carried twenty miles, and the trader whose

Railway Rates and Charges 349

goods are conveyed thirty miles or more to the same destination
both pay the same rate.

How the general principle of a sliding scale, under which
the charge per ton per mile decreases with distance over twenty
miles, works out in practice may be shown by taking the case
of merchandise in Class 5, the rate for which would be 4*3od.
per ton per mile for a distance of up to twenty miles. For
the next thirty miles the rate would be 3'7od. per ton per mile,
for the next fifty miles y2$d., and for the remainder of the
distance 2'5od. If, however, the consignment travels over the
lines of two or more companies on a through rate, the applica-
tion of the scale begins over again in respect to the territory
of each company concerned. The greatest degree of relative
advantage is thus gained by the trader whose consignments
travel throughout on the lines of one and the same company.

In any case, however, the effect of the principle is that
traders in, say, Cornwall or Scotland are enabled to compete
far more effectively on the London market with other traders
who are located much nearer to London and thus pay less for
rail transport, yet, it may be, do not have the same advantages
in respect to economical production as the trader at the
greater distance. The " tapering " railway rate — in addition
to giving the companies a greater volume of long-distance
traffic, and bringing greater prosperity to the long-distance
places — thus helps to establish equality in the general con-
ditions in regard to a particular market, whereas the equal
mileage rate would keep the distant trader to markets within
a circumscribed area, and shut him out from others at which
he might otherwise hope to get a far better sale.

In the United States the effect of this " tapering " rate,
when applied to large volumes of traffic carried for distances
of 1000 or 2000 miles or even more, is to give a very low
average rate per ton per mile, and especially so when such
average is worked out for the whole of the goods and mineral
traffic in the country. The United States average is, in fact,
for these reasons, much lower than the corresponding average
for this country, where both the average haul and the average
weight per consignment are considerably less. Then, also,
as the charges for terminals remain the same, whatever the
length of haul, they make a material difference in the rate
per ton per mile for a haul of five, ten or twenty miles while

350 History of Inland Transport

assuming infinitesimal proportions per ton per mile when
spread over a haul of a thousand miles.

There is thus no real basis for the comparison formerly
so often made between average cost of transport per ton per
mile in the United States and the United Kingdom respectively.
The only fair method of comparison is to discard averages
altogether, and contrast charges for actual consignments of
equal weight carried equal distances in the two countries ;
and comparisons made on this basis will be found to favour
the British lines rather than the American.

In some instances group rates are in operation for a series of
producing centres or for a series of ports, the rates being com-
mon to all the places or ports included in the group. This
arrangement is of advantage to the general body of the
traders concerned, since it puts them all on a footing of
equality, without reference to differences in distance ; and it
is, also, of benefit to the railway companies since it simplifies
the clerical work and helps further to avoid unremunerative
competition.

Another important feature in connection with railway rates
is the distinction between " class " rates, which represent the
authorised maxima given in the railway companies' scales
for the various classes already mentioned, and " special " or
" exceptional " rates, in which the companies concerned have
made reductions below their maximum powers, whether for
the encouragement of traffic or because of such reductions
being warranted by the volume or other conditions of the traffic
already carried. In " The Fixing of Rates and Fares," by
H. Marriott (1910), it is stated that " probably about seventy
per cent of the traffic between stations in the North of England
is conveyed at ' exceptional rates,' much below the statutory
authority."

In my book on " Railways and their Rates " I have already
given, as follows, the general principles on which these special
or exceptional rates are fixed : —

(a) Volume and regularity of traffic between the points
concerned.

(b) Weight per truck or by train which can be maintained
by such regular traffic.

(c) General earning power of the traffic.

(d) Liability or non-liability to damage.

Railway Rates and Charges 351

(e) Competition, direct or indirect, by water, by road or by
other means.

(/) Special requirements of shipping traffic to or from ports.

(g) The creation of traffic by enabling new or increased
business to be done.

(h) A general consideration of what the traffic will bear.

The following examples illustrate the actual difference
between the class rates and the special rates at which the
traffic is actually carried : —

MILES.

CLASS RATE. SPECIAL RATE.

COMMODITY. per ton. per ton.

s.

d.

s.

d.

17

Soap ....

8

9 (*)

7

II

(*)

107

,»

21

9 (a)

17

6

(«)

IC4

28

2 (a\

22

(a)

* jt
46

Undressed leather .

17

*• \L*/

6 (a)

15

0

\**/

179

Cotton and linen goods .

45

7 («)

40

0

(a)

54

Common window glass .

21

9 (a)

15

10

(«)

207

»» »» »

43

T" V /

30

5

w

20

Iron in Class C

5

3 (*) (')

3

8

(*)(<0

51

Grain ....

9

5 (*) (<•)

7

6

(6) (d)

ISO

Common bricks

ii

o (*) (rf)

10

5

(b)(d)

Notes : (a) Collection and delivery.

(<5) Station to station.

(f) 2-ton lots.

(cf) 4-ton lots

.

Yet another characteristic of English railway rates is their
division into "company's risk" rates and "owner's risk"
rates, the latter being a lower scale on which consignments
are carried provided the trader signs either a general in-
demnity for the whole of his traffic or a separate owner's
risk consignment note on the occasion of each despatch
relieving the railway from " all liability for loss, damage, mis-
delivery, delay or detention, except upon proof that such loss,
damage, misdelivery, delay or detention arose from wilful
misconduct on the part of the company's servants."

The difficulty of proving such " wilful misconduct " in
case of damage or loss has long been a grievance with traders
consigning under " owner's risk " rates, and vigorous efforts
have been made by them, or on their behalf, from time to time
to obtain a modification of these conditions.

The railway point of view in regard to this vexed question
was thus expressed by Mr F. Potter, in an address on " The

352 History of Inland Transport

Government in Relation to the Railways of the Country,"
given to the Great Western Railway (London) Lecture and
Debating Society on February n, 1909 : —

" Traders are apt to conveniently overlook the fact that
owner's risk rates did not precede the ordinary rates, but that
they have depended from the latter, and proposals have
actually been made that the order of things should be reversed,
and the owner's risk rates made the base rates, the company's
risk rates being arrived at by the addition of some percentage.
Traders well know the value of the insurance which the differ-
ence between the two classes of rates represents to them,
and, indeed, base their practice in making use of either rate
upon this knowledge. If the trader is prepared to be his own
insurer, that is, when there is a sufficiently wide margin be-
tween the two rates, he takes the owner's risk rate ; but if he
considers his goods are too valuable for him to accept the risk
himself, he makes the company do so by sending his freight
at the ordinary rates."

In the controversies which have arisen on this question of
owner's risk frequent reference has been made to the fact
that in Germany there is only one kind of rate, and that under
it the State railways do, nominally, assume the risk. I have,
however, already shown in my pamphlets on " German versus
British Railways " and " German Railways and Traders "
that unless the consignments forwarded on the German State
railways are packed so securely that it is practically im-
possible for them to come to any harm, they are accepted by
the railway officials only after the trader has signed a form of
indemnity declaring that the goods are either " unpacked "
or " insufficiently packed," thus absolving the State railways
of the responsibility they are supposed to accept.

Complaints respecting " preferential rates " have been an
especially fertile source of controversy and litigation. The
phrase as here used is somewhat misleading. The real ground
of complaint is against, not simply " preference," but " undue
preference."

If a lower rate is given for a 2-ton or a 5-ton than for a
2-cwt. or a 5~cwt. consignment, the trader in the former case
gets a distinct advantage over the trader in the latter case,
just in the same way as the wholesale man buys a large
quantity of goods at a lower price than that asked for from

Railway Rates and Charges 353

the purchaser of only a very small quantity. Here, in each
instance, we have " preference " strictly in accord with
commercial principles.

The question really at issue turns upon the consideration
whether there is undue or unfair preference. It is thus dealt
with in a proviso to sub-section 2, section 27 of the Railway
and Canal Traffic Act of 1888 :—

" Provided that no railway company shall make, nor shall
the Court, or the Commissioners, sanction any difference
in the tolls, rates or charges made for, or any difference in the
treatment of home and foreign merchandise, in respect of the
same or similar circumstances."

The position is thus controlled by the words " same or
similar circumstances." In what is known as the " South-
ampton case," decided by the Railway and Canal Commission
in 1895, the fact that foreign produce was being carried at
lower rates by the London and South - Western Railway
Company from Southampton to London than were being
charged for English produce was not disputed ; but it was
successfully argued (i) that lower rates might reasonably be
granted for train-loads of produce capable of being loaded
into the waggons at the docks and carried through, under the
best transport conditions, direct to London than for small
eonsignments, picked up at wayside stations, and loaded and
carried under far less favourable traffic conditions ; (2) that
there was no real detriment to local producers, since the towns
concerned were importing more than they were sending away ;
and (3) that in no respect were the circumstances " the same
or similar." There was, said Sir Frederick Peel, one of the
Commissioners, " no concurrence between the two classes of
traffic, and the greater economy of transport in the dock
traffic justified the lower rate."

The principle here involved disposes of, probably, most of
the complaints which have been made from time to time on
the subject of undue preference ; but as these complaints
were especially rife in 1904, a Departmental Committee, pre-
sided over by Lord Jersey, was appointed by the Board of
Trade to inquire whether or not the railway companies were
according preferential treatment to foreign and colonial farm,
dairy and market-garden produce from ports to urban centres
as compared with home produce. The Committee declared

2 A

354 History of Inland Transport

in their report " that the evidence tendered has failed to show
that the railway companies are giving undue preferential
treatment to foreign and colonial produce as compared with
home produce contrary to the intention and effect of existing
legislation." They found that some of the traders who com-
plained had compared rates which did not include terminal
services with rates that did ; had quite wrongly divided what
were, in effect, " through " rates, first subtracting the full
charge of the shipping company and then assuming that the
remainder could be compared with the rate from the first ;
or had omitted to take into account differences in regard to
bulk of consignments, packing, etc.

In effect, no British railway rate may give a preference to
foreign as distinct from British produce so far as quantities,
conditions and circumstances are the same. The rates are to
be available for like consignments whatever the source of their
origin. Where the home producer has been unable to provide the
same quantities, under the same conditions and circumstances
as the foreigner, he has equally been unable to avail himself of
a rate open to all the world. He has had the disadvantage of
the retail trader as compared with the wholesale trader. The
principle involved is practically the same as that in operation
on Continental State railways, where the traders who can
provide the biggest loads get the advantage of the most
favourable rates. On the Belgian State railways, for instance,
there are special rates for 50, for 100 and even for 3oo-ton
consignments which can obviously be taken advantage of by
only a limited number of traders. But while the retail man
cannot expect to get the same terms as the wholesale man,
there is no adequate reason why the wholesale man should
be kept to the same level as the retail man, and be refused the
lower rates for his consignments to which he is entitled on
account of their greater bulk or better loading. The question
is certainly complicated by the fact that the wholesale man
here in question is generally a foreigner ; but the railway
companies could not be required to discriminate against him,
and to penalise him on account of his nationality. The
matters at issue must needs be looked at from the point of
view of a business proposition rather than from that of ex-
pecting the railway companies to usurp the functions of the
State in carrying out a policy of Protection.

Railway Rates and Charges 355

Of late years far less has been heard, in the agricultural
world, at least, of these allegations of undue preference. The
whole position has been changed through the praiseworthy
efforts of the Agricultural Organisation Society in spreading
among the agricultural community a practical appreciation of
the advantages of combination, as adopted by their foreign
competitors, included in such advantages being the lower
rates which the railways already offer for grouped or other
large consignments. The excellent work carried on by the
society is calculated to confer, in many different directions,
much more benefit on market gardeners, dairy farmers and
agriculturists in general than would be gained by them
simply from seeking to persuade, or even to force, the railway
companies to carry at wholly unremunerative rates the small
consignments of non-associated producers, forwarded under
the least favourable conditions in respect to economical
transport. '.

As regards the machinery provided by Parliament for dealing
with traders' grievances, there is, in the first place, the Railway
and Canal Commission, which, taking the place of the earlier
Railway Commissioners, was made a permanent body under
the Act of 1888. The Court consists of two Commissioners
appointed by the Board of Trade, and three ex-officio members,
chosen from the judges of the High Court, and nominated by
the Lord Chancellor, the Lord President of the Court of
Session and the Lord Chancellor of Ireland for England,
Scotland and Ireland respectively ; though in practice only
one of the three takes part in the proceedings in connection
with any case brought before the Court. The jurisdiction of the
Commissioners includes powers to enforce obligations under
special Acts, and to deal with questions of traffic facilities,
private sidings, undue preference, through rates, etc.

Whether or not procedure before this body is too costly
for other than wealthy litigants to take advantage of is a
question which need not be discussed here ; but traders have
the further advantage of what is known as the Conciliation
Clause of the Act of 1888, which provides that " (i) Whenever
any person receiving, or sending, or desiring to send goods
by any railway is of opinion that the railway company is
charging him an unfair or an unreasonable rate^of charge,
or is in any other respect treating him in an oppressive or

356 History of Inland Transport

unreasonable manner, such person may complain to the Board
of Trade. (2) The Board of Trade, if they think that there is
reasonable ground for complaint, may thereupon call upon
the railway company for an explanation, and endeavour to
settle amicably the differences between the complainant and
the railway company." A resort to this expedient by ag-
grieved parties involves the payment of no fees or costs.

The eleventh report by the Board of Trade of their proceed-
ings under the Conciliation Clause shows that during 1908 and
1909 the number of complaints made to them was 280 — a
total insignificant in comparison with the many millions of
separate transactions in which the traders and the railway
companies must have been concerned during the two
years in question. The 280 complaints are classified as
follows : Rates unreasonable or excessive in themselves, 39
undue preference, 65 ; rates unreasonably increased, 22
classification, 30 ; delay in transit, 27 ; owner's risk, 17
rebates, 23, through rates, 15 ; miscellaneous, 42. Settlement
or partial settlement was effected in 91 cases ; in 62 the
complaints were not proceeded with ; in 122 an amicable
settlement could not be arrived at ; and in five the proceedings
had not been completed. " In certain of the cases," the
report further states, " in which an amicable settlement
was not reached, it seemed clear to the Board of Trade that
the complainants had no real ground for complaint."

Boyle and Waghorn are of opinion that in matters more or
less personal to the applicant, or of comparatively minor
importance, the procedure under this Conciliation Clause
has saved much litigation ; though when questions of general
principles are at issue the Board of Trade, as a rule, prefer
to remit the determination of them to the Railway Com-
mission. They further say : " The principal cause of the
comparative absence of litigation lies in the fact that a law
of railway traffic is being gradually evolved, reasonably
considerate of the rights of both parties, and adapted to the
actual circumstances of the traffic. In the early days of
railways this was very far from being the case." (" The Law
Relating to Railway and Canal Traffic.")
j£i Much of the adverse criticism of railway rates and charges
which has been indulged in of late years, without even any
resort to an inexpensive complaint to the Board of Trade,

Railway Rates and Charges 357

has been due to comparisons with railway conditions in other
countries.

At one time the comparison specially favoured was between
English and American railway rates ; and this was persisted
in until it was conclusively shown that there was, and could be,
no basis of comparison between huge consignments, carried
long distances, on comparatively inexpensive lines, and small
average consignments, carried short distances, on the most
costly railway system in the world. The element of " the same
or similar circumstances " was obviously lacking.

Comparisons were then made with railway conditions in
Continental countries, and various tables of comparative rates
were published from time to time, in support of railway
nationalisation theories or otherwise. But many of these
comparisons have been wholly untrustworthy because, once
more, they have not compared traffic carried under
the same or similar circumstances. Exceptional rates
granted, say, by the Prussian Government in the special
interests of their commercial policy, but (i) applying
to large consignments sent to a port for shipment, the
rates being substantially higher when the commodities
do not go further than the port, (2) granted in competition
with routes passing through adjoining countries, and (3) being
simply haulage rates, which include no additional services
whatever, have been compared with English " domestic "
rates for smaller quantities of traffic, or, it may be, with
" paper " rates for traffic that is practically non-existent,
and, therefore, has not called for special rates, while the
English rates may also include a variety of supplementary
services by the railway company (loading, unloading, collec-
tion, delivery, warehousing, etc.), which the Continental
trader would either have to perform himself or pay for as
extras.

The comparisons may thus be wholly misleading ; but,
assuming that complete equality of conditions could be assured,
or allowed for, and assuming that the Continental rates were
then found to be lower than the really corresponding English
ones, it would still be necessary to remember that in this
country there have been, from the earliest period of railway
development, many circumstances and conditions, due to
State policy or to other causes, which have tended to swell

358 History of Inland Transport

to abnormal proportions the capital expenditure that the
revenue based on rates and charges must needs cover if any
reasonable return at all is to be made to the investors. There
would, in fact, be no cause for surprise if rates and charges
on British railways could be proved to be higher than those
in force on the Continent, where the conditions attendant
on railway construction and operation have differed so
materially from our own. The wonder is, rather, in view of
all that I have said as to the past history of our railway
system, that British railway rates and charges should, generally
speaking, be as low as they are.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE RAILWAY SYSTEM TO-DAY

WHATEVER the difficulties which have attended the develop-
ment of British railways, the lines themselves have been
spread throughout the three kingdoms to such an extent
that there are now very few districts not within easy reach
of a railway ; while though the different lines are still owned
by, altogether, a considerable number of companies, the
physical connections between them and the arrangements
of the leading companies, not only for through bookings but
for through trains, supplemented by the operations of the
Railway Clearing House, have brought about as close an
approach to a really national network of railways, connecting
all the different sections of the country one with another, as
could well be expected in view of the lack of co-ordination
when the lines were first called into being.

At the end of 1910, according to the Railway Returns
issued by the Board of Trade, the " length of line " of the
railways in the United Kingdom was 23,387 miles. By itself,
however, this figure does not give an adequate idea of the
extent of the railway system. This is better realised by taking
the figures for track mileage and sidings. A far greater pro-
portion of the railways in England and Wales than in any other
country consists of double, treble or other multiple track,
so that for one mile in length of line there may be two, three
or more miles of separate pairs of rails, increasing the transport
facilities in proportion. The percentage of single track to
total length of line in various countries is shown by the
following figures : —

PER CKNTAGE OF
COUNTRY. SINGLE TRACK.

England and Wales . . . 33-0

Scotland 59-0

Ireland . . . . . .80-2

United Kingdom . . . .44-2

Prussian State railways . . 57-3

Germany (the entire system) . . .617

France (main line system) . . 57-0

359

360 History of Inland Transport

" Track mileage " in the United Kingdom is shown in the
Board of Trade Returns for 1910 as under : —

TRACK. MILES. TRACK. MILES.

First . . . 23,389 Ninth . . .24

Second . . 13,189 Tenth . . .14

Third . . 1,517 Eleventh . . 10

Fourth . . 1,192 Twelfth ... 7

Fifth . . 236 Thirteenth . . 5

Sixth . . 143 Fourteenth . . 4

Seventh . . 70 Fifteenth . . 3

Eighth . . 44 Sixteenth-nineteenth I each

Corresponding figures for the United States of America,
taken from an abstract issued in July, 1911, by the Interstate
Commerce Commission, give the following classification of
track mileage, excluding yard track and sidings : —

TRACK. MILES. TRACK. MILES.

First . . 240,831 Third . . . 2,206
Second . . 21,659 Fourth . . 1,489

It will be seen from the figures relating to track mileage
in the United Kingdom that there is at least one mile of
railway in the United Kingdom which really consists of nineteen
pairs of rails alongside one another, though counting, in length
of line, as only a single mile. In the United States there seems
to be no suggestion of any railroad having more than four
tracks.

The length of track in the United Kingdom is 39,851 miles.
To this must be added a further 14,460 miles, the length of
sidings reduced to single track, giving a total, including
sidings, of 54,311 miles.

Rolling stock was owned in 1910 by the different railway
companies throughout the United Kingdom as follows :
Locomotives, 22,840 ; carriages used for conveyance of
passengers only, but including rail motor carriages, 52,725 ;
other vehicles attached to passenger trains, 20,090 ; waggons
of all kinds used for the conveyance of live stock, minerals
or general merchandise, 745,369 ; any other carriages or
waggons used on the railway, 21,360 ; total number of
vehicles, excluding locomotives, 839,544. These figures are
exclusive of about 600,000 waggons owned by private traders.1

1 The existence of this large number of privately owned railway
waggons — the greater proportion of which are in use in the coal trade —

The Railway System To-day 361

The total weight of goods and minerals conveyed in 1910
was 514,428,806 tons, and the total number of passengers
carried (exclusive of 752,663 season-ticket holders) was
1,306,728,583. The miles travelled were — by passenger trains,
266,851,217 ; by goods trains, 154,555,559 ; by mixed trains,
1,814,762, giving a total of 423,221,538 miles. It is difficult
to grasp the real significance of these figures ; but, taking the
train mileage alone the total distance run by trains in the
United Kingdom in 1910 was equal to nearly 17,000 journeys
round the world, and to four and a half journeys to the sun.

The total amount of railway capital returned as paid-up
at the end of 1910 was £1,318,500,000, of which about
£197,000,000, or approximately fifteen per cent, was due to
nominal additions on the consolidation, conversion and division
of stocks, showing a net investment of £1,120,500,000. The
gross receipts of the companies during 1909 were as follows : —

PROPORTION TO
SOURCE. £ TOTAL RECEIPTS.

Passenger traffic . . 52,758,489 .. 42-57
Goods . . . 61,478,643 . . 49-61

Miscellaneous l . . 9,688,433 . . 7-82

Totals 123,925,565 100-00

The working expenditure in the same period amounted to
£76,569,676, a proportion to total receipts of 62 per cent.
The net receipts, therefore, were £47,355,889, the proportion
of which to paid-up capital was 3-59 per cent.

The average rates of dividend or interest alike on ordinary

recalls the days when it was assumed that traders would provide their
own rolling stock on the railways*, it shows that they still do so to a
considerable extent, although, of course, relying on the railway companies
to supply the locomotives. It will also be seen how the questions which
have arisen from time to time as to the use of a larger type of railway
waggon and, also, of automatic couplers on waggons, may be complicated
by the variety of ownership. There is an Association of Private Owners of
Railway Rolling Stock, the objects of which are " to maintain and defend
the rights and promote the interests of private owners and hirers of rail-
way rolling stock."

1 The receipts under this head were as follows : — £

Steamboats, canals, harbours and docks . . 5,145,640
Rents, tolls, hotels, etc 4,542,793

9,688,433

362

History of Inland Transport

and on all classes of capital paid in the years from 1900 to
1909, were as follows : —

YEAR.
1900
1901
1902
1903
1904
1905
1906
1907
1908
1909
1910

ORDINARY.

3-34
3-05
332
3-30
3-26
3-29
3-35

2-99
3-15

ALL CLASSES.

3'45
3'33
3'45
3 '44

3'43

3-45
3-32
3'39
3'53

It is pointed out in the Returns, however, that on account
of the nominal additions made to the capital of the companies
the rates of dividend or interest given in the tables are lower
than they would otherwise be. Thus the average rates of
dividend or interest for the United Kingdom in 1910 cal-
culated on capital exclusive of nominal additions would show :
Ordinary, 4-28 per cent (instead of 3-48 as above), and " all
classes " 4-15 (instead of 3-53) per cent.

These averages, nevertheless, allow for a large amount of
capital on which the dividend or interest paid is either nil
or substantially below the averages stated.

The rates of dividend on ordinary capital in 1910 were as
follows : —

RATES OF DIVIDEND OR INTEREST.
Nil

Not above i per cent

Above i and not above 2 per cent
„ 3 3 „

„ 3 4 »

„ 4 5 -

„ 5 6 „

„ 6 7 „

„ 7 8 „

„ 8 9 „

„ 9 per cent

Total

ORDINARY.
Amount of Per cent of

Capital.

Total.

£67,358,262

137

29,427,057

6-0

18,072,847

37

87,676,759

17-8

109,788,247

22-3

38,193,955

77

85,503>72I

17-4

54,962,066

II -2

362,000

O'l

40,000

o-o

694,907

0-1

492,079,821

IOO O

The Railway System To-day 363

The various classes of capital on which the rates of dividend
or interest paid in 1910 were either nil or not above three per
cent may be shown thus : —

RATES OF DIVIDEND OR INTEREST.

Above Above
i per cent a per cent
Not above and not above and not above
DESCRIPTION OF CAPITAL. Nil. i per cent. 2 per cent. 3 per cent.

Jb A Jb &

Ordinary

67,358,262

29,427,057

18,072,847

87,676,759

Preferential
Guaranteed

16,607,907

631,967

2,296,250
101,180

103,019,553
23,318,760

Loans and

Debenture Stock .

558,782

676,789

4,666

189,122,426

Totals

?4,524,95i

30,735,813

20,474,943

403,137,49?

£538,873,205

There are those who regard railway shareholders as
" capitalists," and consider that the keeping of railway
dividends at a low level, together with any depreciation in
the value of railway stock that may result therefrom, are
matters only likely to affect a comparatively few wealthy
men, and not, therefore, of material concern to the country
so long as the railways give the best possible service at the
lowest possible rates. In the United Kingdom, however,
the ownership of the railways is distributed among a far
greater number of persons than is the case in the United States,
where the control and the dividends of a great railway system
may alike be in the hands mainly of a few financiers. That by
far the larger number of shareholders in British railways have
comparatively small holdings was well shown by a table
published a few years ago giving the percentage of holdings
of £500 or under by shareholders, exclusive of debenture-
holders, in thirty-nine leading railways of the United Kingdom.
An analysis of this table gives the following results : —

Number of Percentage of Holdings of

Companies. £500 or under.

2 . . . 32 to 40 per cent.
10 . . . 41 „ 50

8 . . 51 „ 60

9 • • 61 „ 70
7 . . . 71 „ 80

3 • - 81 „ 90

Total 39

364 History of Inland Transport

It is true that many of the shareholders here in question
might have invested in several companies, so that their ^500
or less would not represent the full extent of their railway
holdings. On the other hand, there is the fact that many
of the single investments are those of friendly societies, trade
unions, or other organisations representing the interests and
dealing with the savings of a large number of members of the
artisan class.

In any case, whether the railway shareholder be a capitalist
large or small or only an ordinary thrifty middle-class person
who has saved a little money which he seeks to put into some-
thing both safe and remunerative, the fact remains that since
the advent of the railway era he is the person who, though
supplying the means by which this huge system of inland
communication has been brought into existence, has had the
least consideration of all. The trader, the passenger and the
railway servant have all been the subject of much legislative
effort for the protection or the furtherance of their own
interests, whereas the railway shareholder has been too
often regarded with an absolute lack of sympathy, and
treated as a person who must be severely restrained from
becoming unduly wealthy at the expense of these other
interests, and should be thankful that he is not deprived of his
property altogether.

It has really seemed as though the aim alike of the State
and of local governing authorities has been less to ensure to
the railway shareholders, who have undertaken a great public
work at their own risk and expense, a fair return on their
enterprise than to extract from the railway system huge sums
in the way of taxation.

What the railway companies have paid in the way of " rates
and taxes " since 1894 is shown by the following table, which
I compile from the Board of Trade Returns for 1903 and 1910 :

INCREASE ( + ) or
DECREASE ( - ) as

AMOUNTS PAID FOR compared with

YEAR. RATES AND TAXES. previous year.

i i

1894 .,. 2,816,000

1895 •• 3,011,000 .. (+) I95.o°°

1896 .. 3,149,000 .. (+) 138,000

1897 .. 3,249,000 .. (4-) 145,000

The Railway System To-day 365

INCREASE ( + ) or
DECREASE ( - ) as

AMOUNTS PAID FOR compared with

YEAR. RATES AND TAXES. previous year.

£ £

1898 .. 3,425,000 .. (+) 131,000

1899 .. 3,582,000 .. ( + ) 157,000

1900 .. 3,757>°°° •• ( + ) 175,000

1901 .. 3,980,000 .. (+) 223,000

1902 .. 4,228,000 .. (+) 248,000

1903 .. 4,493,000 .. (-}-) 265,000

1904 .. 4,736,000 .. (+) 243,000

1905 .. 4,933,000 .. ( + ) 197,000

1906 .. 4,965,000 .. (+) 32,000

1907 .. 4,863,000 .. (-) 102,000

1908 .. 4,884,000 .. (+) 21,000

1909 .. 5,010,000 .. (+) 126,000

1910 .. 5,102,000 .. (+) 92,000
Total payments in

1 7 years 70,228,000

These figures show a continuous increase since 1894, with
the exception only of the year 1907, when there was a decrease
of £102,000 as compared with 1906, due to the activity of the
railway companies in appealing against excessive assessments.
The advance in the total paid in 1910 over the total for 1894
was no less than £2,286,000, or 77-9 per cent.

It should be remembered, also, that the figures given relate
to sums paid for rates and taxes, and do not include the
expenses incurred by the railway companies in respect both
to their rates and taxes departments (conducted by highly
skilled officers) and to litigation arising on their appeals
against assessments they consider unfair. The total expendi-
ture under these two heads has been estimated at over £80,000
per annum.

Since comparisons are frequently made between English and
German railway rates, with a view to showing that the
former are higher than the latter, it may be of interest to
compare, also, the amount paid for taxation by the railways
of the United Kingdom with the corresponding payments
of the Prussian State railways. The length of line of the two
systems is approximately the same ; yet while the taxation
of the British system comes to £5,000,000 a year, that of the

366 History of Inland Transport

Prussian State railways is only £750,000 a year. Naturally,
when a Government owns the railways, it is much more inter-
ested in checking excessive taxation of the lines by the local
authorities than when the railways are owned by commercial
companies ; and one of the questions to which proposals in
regard to the nationalisation of the British railways gives rise
is whether, when the Government owned the railways, they
would be willing to continue the payment from the railway
revenues of all the taxation which local authorities are now
able to exact from the railway companies. Presumably not ;
and in that case the trader, whether or not he got lower
railway rates from the State, would probably have to pay
higher local rates in order to make up for the tolls no longer
levied, or levied only to a much less extent, on the railway
tramc.

The growth in the payments made by individual companies
for rates and taxes between 1902 and 1910 may be illustrated
by giving the figures for the London and North- Western, the
Great Western and the Midland Companies respectively : —

LONDON AND
YEAR. NORTH-WESTERN. GREAT WESTERN. MIDLAND.

£ £ £

1903 .. 520,000 .. 524,000 .. 418,000

1904 .. 572,000 .. 558,000 .. 435,000

1905 . . 599,ooo . . 592,000 453,00°

1906 . . 603,000 . . 621,000 . . 475,000

1907 . . 603,000 . . 608,000 . . 458,000

1908 . . 610,000 . . 638,000 . . 436,000

1909 . . 631,000 . . 663,000 . . 438,000

1910 . . 638,000 . . 669,000 . . 456,000

In addition to the items coming under the head of " rates
and taxes " the railway companies still have to pay to the
Government the passenger duty of which I have spoken on
page 263, their function here, presumably, being that of
honorary tax-gatherers who are required to get the money
from the British public in the interests of the national ex-
chequer, and save the Government the cost and the trouble
of collection. The passenger duty thus collected by them
in 1910 came to £319,404, the total contributions of the
railways to the public finances for that year being thus in-
creased to £5,421,715.

The Railway System To-day

367

The amounts paid in 1910 by some of the leading companies
under the two heads in question may be shown thus : —

COMPANY.

Great Central .
Great Eastern .
Great Northern .
Great Western .
Lancashire and Yorkshire .
London and North-Western
London and South-Western .
London, Brighton and South
Coast ....
Midland ....
North-Eastern .
South-Eastern and Chatham
Caledonian
North British

The following table shows how the sum total of the payments
both for rates and taxes and for Government duty in the years
from 1900 to 1910 work out (a) per train mile and (b) per
mile of open railway : —

RATES GOVT. PASSEN-

AND TAXES.

GER DUTY.

TOTAL.

i

i

i

149,899

4.156

154.055

322,894

14,296

337.190

223,254

13.099

236,353

669,330

29,640

698,970

261,734

18,141

279,875

638,443

5°.359

688,802

268,130

34.356

302,486

209,491

31.617

241,108

455.759

16,423

472,182

467,404

12,982

480,386

278.505

53.015

33L520

150,609

8,905

I59,5H

129,486

8,721

138,207

PER TRAIN MILE.

PER MILE OF B

AILWA

Rates and

Govt.

Rates and

Govt.

YKAK.

Taxes.

Duty.

Taxes.

Duty.

d.

d.

i

L

I90O

. . 2-24 . .

•21

.. 172 . .

18

1901

. • 2-39 . .

•22

180

19

I9O2

• - 2-53 . .

•23

190

19

1903

. . 2-73 . .

•23

200

19

1904

2-86

•22

2O9

18

1905

2-95

•22

216

18

1906

. . 2-87 . .

•21

.. 2I5 ..

18

1907

. . 272 . .

•2O

210

18

1908

.. 2-77 ..

•20

2IO

17

1909

2-86

•2O

.. 215 ..

17

1910

2-89

•19

.. 218 ..

16

This question of the taxation of railways is a matter of
material concern as regards (i) the direct results thereof on

368 History of Inland Transport

(a) rates and charges and (b) dividends paid — or not paid ;
and (2) the general policy of the State towards the whole
problem of internal communication.

As in the case of cost of land, of expenditure on Parlia-
mentary procedure, of capital outlay on construction, and of
any undue increase in cost of operation, the payments in
respect to rates, taxes and Government duty can be met by
the railway companies only by one or other of two expedients :
either by getting the money back through the rates, charges
and fares levied on the railway users (an expedient necessarily
curtailed both by legislative restriction and by the economic
necessity of not charging more than the traffic will bear), or,
alternatively, by leaving the railway investors with only an
inadequate return — if not, in respect to a large proportion of
the capital, with no return at all — on their investments.

The system of assessing railways for the purpose of local
rating is one of extreme complexity. It grew out of the
earlier system of the taxation of canals, and, had the railway
companies fulfilled the original expectation of being simply
owners of their lines and not themselves carriers, the principles
on which the system was based might have applied equally
well to rail as to canal transport. But, while rail transport
underwent a complete change, there was no corresponding
adaptation of local rating to the new conditions, and the system
actually in force is the outcome far less of statutory authority
than of custom, as sanctioned by the judges — who have
themselves had to assume the role of legislators — while the
machinery of railway valuation differs materially in England
and Wales, in Scotland, and in Ireland.1

In England and Wales there is a separate assessment of a
railway for each and every parish through which it passes.
Such assessment is divided into two parts : (i) station and
buildings, and (2) railway line. The former, arrived at by a
per centage on the estimated capital value of buildings and
site, is a comparatively simple matter. It is in regard to the
latter that the complications arise. The main consideration
in each case is the amount of rent which a tenant might reason-
ably be expected to pay for the property assessed ; and such

1 An excellent summary of the general position to-day will be found in
"The Rating of Railways," a booklet issued by the Editor of the "Great
Western Railway Magazine."

The Railway System To-day 369

presumptive amount is arrived at in regard to the lines by
calculating the amount of net earnings the railway is able to
make through its occupation of the particular length of line
that passes through the parish in question, and according
to the actual value of such length of line as an integral part
of one concern.

The extent of these net earnings is ascertained, in effect,
by first taking the gross receipts on all the traffic that passes
through the parish, and then making a variety of deductions
therefrom. The cost of construction of the railway does not
enter into consideration at all. The calculations are on what
is called the " parochial earnings principle " — that is to say,
the amount earned in the parish, and not the amount received
from traffic arising in the parish. The railway company may
have no station in the place, and the amount of traffic derived
from the parish may be practically nil ; but the assessment
of the line, on the basis mentioned, is followed out, all the
same.

The main principle is the same in Scotland and Ireland,
but with this important difference in detail : that in each of
those countries a railway is first valued as a whole, the total
value being then apportioned among the several rating areas.

It will be seen that the taxation of a railway line — as distinct
from that of railway buildings — is, to all intents and purposes,
the enforcement of a toll, on all traffic carried, for the privilege
of passing through the parish concerned ; while there is no
suggestion, as there was in the case of turnpike roads, that
those who collect the toll confer an advantage on those by
whom the toll is paid. The turnpike trustees did provide a
road, and they were, also, under an obligation to keep it in
order. The toll-payers thus got some return for their money,
and, though the trade of the district, or of the country, was
taxed, it was, also, directly facilitated by the toll-receivers.
The railway company, on the other hand, provide and main-
tain their own road, without putting the parish to the slightest
expense, yet the parish is authorised to levy upon them what is,
not only a toll, but a supplementary Income Tax for local
purposes, based on the principle of the profits the company are
supposed to make in the parish, often only because, for
geographical reasons, it is necessary their lines should pass
through it in going from one part of the country to another.
2 B

370 History of Inland Transport

On page 114 I have told how, in the early part of the six-
teenth century, the local authorities of Worcester, Gloucester
and other towns on the Severn sought to raise funds for their
local exchequers by taxing the traders who used the river
for the transport of their commodities ; and I have further
told how, in 1532, it was enacted that any person attempting
to enforce such toll or tax should be fined forty shillings.
But a practice held in the sixteenth century to be unjust in it-
self as well as prejudicial to the interests of trade, and penalised
by the Legislature accordingly, is considered quite right and
proper, and receives express legislative sanction, in the
twentieth century, though the local authorities upon whom
the toll-privilege is conferred to-day may do no more to help
the railways than Worcester and Gloucester and the other
Severn towns did to help the river traffic — and that was
nothing at all.

One result of the power thus given to local authorities
to bleed the railway companies as an easy and convenient
method of providing themselves with funds is that in a large
number of parishes throughout the country a railway company
pays the bulk of the rates, even though it may not even have
a railway station in the place.

In Chapter IV of my book on " Railways and their Rates "
I have given a table showing that in a total of 82 parishes,
divided into four groups, the proportion of local rates paid by
the London and North- Western Railway Company ranges
from 50 per cent to 86-9 per cent, although in 53 of the
parishes the company have no station. In a further table I
specify sixteen parishes in which the area of the same com-
pany's property ranges from four to fifty-eight acres, or from
1-3 per cent to 5-1 per cent of the whole of the land in the
parish, while the proportion which the railway assessment
bears to that of the entire parish ranges from 66-9 per cent to
86-1 per cent.

Being thus enabled to depend for the greater part of their
revenue on railway companies, who are given the privilege
of paying but are denied the privilege of representation or of
having any voice in the way the money they contribute shall
be spent, there are local communities which show the greater
readiness to carry out comparatively costly lighting, drainage,
education, road improvement or other such schemes because

The Railway System To-day 371

it is a railway company that will pay most of the cost, the
proportion thereof falling on the great bulk of the individual
ratepayers in the parish being thus inconsiderable. Social
reformers tell us of the improvements they find proceeding
to-day in village life in England. What is happening to a large
extent is that rural centres are providing themselves with
urban luxuries at the cost of the railway companies — that is
to say, at the cost either of the railway shareholders or of the
railway users or both together.

The same tendency may, however, be carried further still.

On the occasion of the coronation of King George and
Queen Mary, various local authorities had the less hesitation
in voting supplies to defray the cost of festivities out of the
rates because they knew that most of the money so voted
would have to be paid by a railway company. In a letter
to " The Times " of June 3, 1911, on this subject, Mr James
E. Freeman, of Darlington, says : —

" The village of Carlton Miniott, near Thirsk, lately held a
parish meeting to consider whether the £30 or so that will be
spent in local festivities in connexion with the Coronation
should be raised by means of private subscriptions or from
the rates. It was decided to levy a penny rate, with the
result that the North-Eastern Railway Company, which had
and could have no voice in the decision, will pay £21 133. 4d.,
and the loyal residents, who receive the whole of the benefit,
will pay £g us. 8d. towards the £31 53. that is to be expended.
At the neighbouring village of South Otterington the keen-
witted Yorkshiremen have profited even more from the law's
absurdities. They have voted a precept of £30 on the overseers
for their merry-making, and of this amount the North-Eastern
Railway Company will have the satisfaction of paying a
little over £25."

The " Great Western Railway Magazine" for July, 1911,
in referring to the same subject, tells of " a parish having the
good fortune to have a railway running through one end of it,
in which a rate of threepence in the £ has been imposed.
This has produced ^200, all of which has been spent on eating
and drinking in a population of less than 2000, while the
governing idea in raising the rate appears to have been that
the railway company would have to pay some £70."

Without stopping to discuss the question as to the exact

372 History of Inland Transport

proportion in which the results of this taxation system should
ultimately fall on, or be made good by («) shareholders, or
(b) traders and travellers, the policy, if not the justice, of
allowing the internal transport of the country, and, therefore,
the trade and industry of the country, to be subjected to this
abnormal taxation, if not to this actual plundering, by con-
stituted authorities, may well be open to question, and
especially so when one bears in mind the already heavy
expenditure which has fallen on the companies, and the
dissatisfaction expressed, from time to time, by traders with
the railway rates, by railway servants with their pay, and by
shareholders with their dividends. Certain it is that in the
Board of Trade " Railway Returns " all these payments on
account of rates and taxes and Government duty are included
among the items of " working expenditure," and are deducted
from the gross receipts before arriving at the amount of the
net income available for dividends or to be taken in account
in regard either to reductions in rates and charges or to in-
creases in wages.

There is no suggestion that railways should be exempted
altogether from the payment of local rates ; but the com-
plicated, anomalous and exorbitant system of taxing the
traffic on their lines has long called for amendment.

So far back as 1844 Mr Gladstone's Committee declared
they were " satisfied that peculiar difficulties attach to the
application of the ordinary laws of rating to the case of
railways which give rise to great uncertainty and inequality,
as well as to expense^and litigation, and they therefore con-
sider that the subject is one which will properly call for the
attention of the Legislature when any general measure
for the amendment of the law and practice of rating is
before it."

In 1850 the unsatisfactory nature of the law and practice
in regard to' railway assessments was pointed to by a Select
Committee of the House of Lords on " Parochial Assess-
ments."

In 1851 Lord Campbell adjourned the case of R. v. Great
Western Railway Company, and expressed the hope that
" before the next term Parliament might interfere " and
relieve the court from the difficult position in which they
were placed when called upon to administer the existing law

The Railway System To-day 373

with regard to the rating of railways. He added, in reference
to the matters arising in the case then before the court : "If
we settle those questions we may be considered as legislators
rather than as judges, making rather than expounding law."

In 1859 Mr Justice Wightman, in R. v. The West Middlesex
Water Company, said : " The whole subject matter appears to
me to be involved in so much difficulty and uncertainty that
I cannot but hope that the Legislature may interfere or make
some provision adapted to the rating of such companies as
that in question."

Among still other judges who have expressed similar views
and indulged in similar hopes may be mentioned Lord Justice
Farwell, who, in January, 1907, in the case of the Great
Central Railway v . the Banbury Union, said : " Fifty-six
years ago Lord Campbell protested and implored the Legisla-
ture to intervene. His voice was the voice of one crying in the
wilderness, and I suppose ours will be equally ineffectual if
we make the same appeal."

Then, also, the Royal Commission on Local Taxation,
in the report they presented in 1901, made various recom-
mendations in regard to the assessment of railway companies ;
but the advice of Committees and Commissioners has been
no less unavailing than the protests of judges.

Meanwhile, and pending the long-delayed action by the
Legislature, the railway companies have themselves done
what they could to protect the interests of those they repre-
sent, or of those for whose wants they cater, by appealing
against excessive and unjust assessments, and in many of
these appeals they have been successful. Such appeals
have been warranted, not alone by unfair increases of assess-
ments but by the fact that taxation based on earning powers
ought to be reduced as those earning powers decline ; and on
this last-mentioned point the Assessor of Railways and
Canals in Scotland is quoted in " The Rating of Railways "
as having said : —

" There is the undeniable fact, which the Board of Trade
returns amply prove, that the companies are now carrying
on their business at less remunerative rates than formerly.
The average fare per passenger carried, and the rates per ton
for goods and minerals handled, have fallen enormously ;
while, at the same time, working expenses have been con-

374 History of Inland Transport

tinually going up, mainly owing to the demands for higher
wages and shorter hours of employment, and the more stringent
regulations of the Board of Trade as to block-telegraph
working, brake-power, etc. Further, the increased gross
or net revenues could not have been earned without a large
capital expenditure for additional and more costly plant.
It is well known that what would have satisfied the public
twenty years ago would be deemed wholly inadequate to-day.
Competition has compelled the companies to advance with
the times ; engines are now more powerful, carriages more
comfortable, in many cases even luxurious ; trains are better
heated and lighted ; continuous brakes and also the newest
type of telegraphic instruments for signalling and working
have been provided ; stations are better furnished and
equipped — all of which would mean a greatly increased outlay
on the part of a tenant, which outlay he would undoubtedly
take into account before deciding what rent he could afford
to pay."

The considerations here presented in regard to the general
question of railway taxation are strengthened by the fact
that, although a railway company is a commercial enterprise,
it has not the facilities possessed by commercial enterprises
in general in meeting any increase in cost of production or
working expenses by an increase in its charges to the con-
sumer, or the person equivalent thereto. In this respect an
ordinary industrial concern, producing goods for sale, is a free
agent to the extent that it is restrained in its charges only by
market and economic conditions ; whereas the railway com-
pany, producing for sale the service known as transport,
may not raise a single rate or charge in regard to the transport
of goods without incurring the liability of having to " justify "
such increase before either the Board of Trade or the Railway
and Canal Commission. It has even been recommended
recently by a Departmental Committee of the Board of Trade
that like restrictions should be made to apply in the case of
increases of passenger fares.

The alternative for a railway company lies in the possibility
of reducing expenses ; but there are limitations in this
direction if perfect efficiency in all branches of the service is
to be maintained, and no one would be likely to suggest that
these exactions of local authorities should be made good by

The Railway System To-day 375

reductions in, for example, that especially large item of working
expenses represented by the wages of railway servants.

What I have said in regard to rates and taxes in general
applies no less to the increased financial burdens that would
fall on railway companies in respect to the National
Insurance Bill. With the main issues presented by that
measure I have here no concern ; but the difference between
railway companies which cannot " pass on " the heavier
taxation that all measures of this type involve and the ordinary
industrial companies which can should be sufficiently obvious. l

Clear, at least, it is that if both the Government and the
local authorities continue to pile up these burdens of taxation
on transport companies, themselves subject to the restrictions
mentioned, the traders of the country cannot expect much
relief in the railway rates of which many of them complain.
It may be that the primary effect of the financial conditions
thus brought about falls on the railway shareholders. It is,
also, the case that the traders are well assured against any
increase in rates. But the traders suffer a disadvantage as well
as the shareholders because, though the railway companies
may be prevented from raising their rates, they may, also,
find it practically impossible to reduce rates which they would
otherwise be willing to put on a lower scale. On the one hand
the traders are protected from being charged more. On the
other hand they are prevented from being charged less. They
may not lose, but they may not gain ; and inability to secure a
benefit that might otherwise be secured amounts, after all,
to the equivalent of a loss. In regard, also, to the wages of
the staff, these may not be reduced yet the power of com-
panies to advance them may be curtailed by any undue
swelling of working expenses in other directions.

1 In " Insurance Legislation in Germany ; Copy of Memorandum con-
taining the Opinions of various Authorities in Germany" [Cd. 5679],
Herr E. Schmidt, Member of the Imperial Diet, and President of the
German Tobacco Manufacturers' Association, is quoted as saying : " I am
convinced that when the social legislation was introduced, and for the first
time the large contributions for sickness insurance and later for old age
and infirmity insurance had to be paid, many of us groaned. To-day,
however, these contributions, which occur every year, are lxx>ked either to
the general expenses account or the wages account — for they are, in fact, a
part of wages — and they are naturally calculated as part of the cost of pro-
duction, and eventually appear in the price of the goods, though perhaps
not to the full extent in times of bad trade."

History of Inland Transport

A good idea of the magnitude of the capital, the scope and
extent of the operations, and^the greatness and variety of the
interests concerned in the working even of a single great
railway company is given by the following table of what are
deservedly called " interesting statistics," drawn up in regard
to the Midland Railway for the year ending December 31,
1910 : —

Capital expended . £121,304,555

Authorised Capital . £193,900,517

Working Expenses . £7,716,665

Salaries and Wages. £55015,017

Revenues : —

Coaching . . £4,058,129
Goods, Mineral &

Cattle . . £8,375,673

Miscellaneous . £607,581

Rates and Taxes . £450,379

Lines owned (miles). 1,680

Constructing or Au-
thorised . . lof

Partly owned . . 329

Worked over by

Engines . . 2,378

Train Mileage . 48,472,172

Passengers carried . 46,481,756

Season Tickets . 221,862

Coal and Coke con-
sumed (tons) . Ii773>i79

Minerals & General

Merchandise pass-
ing over line (tons)

Engines .

Carriage Stock

47,533,420
2,800
5,489

Waggon Stock

Horses

Road Vehicles .

Signal Cabins & Stages

Miles of Teleg. Wire .

Railway Telegrams

Steam Fire Engines,
Pumps, &c.

Fire Hydrants

Men qualified to render
first aid to the
injured

Contributions to
Friendly Society

Sick Allowance paid by
Friendly Society

Contributed to Super-
annuation Fund

Total number of Em-
ployes

Uniform Staff

Clerical Staff at Derby .

Workmen in all Shops .

Area of Carriage Works
(Acres) .

Acreage of Loco. Works

5,158

7,009

1,942

3M46

14,542,689

1,619

10,037
£21,916
£36,367

£34,858

29,500
2,519
13,443

126
80

The organisation and working of the English railway system
as it exists to-day are matters as to which a good deal of
interest has been shown from time to time, and a certain
degree of knowledge thereof is essential to an appreciation of
the position that has developed from the primitive conditions
already detailed. The subject is treated very fully in " The
Working and Management of an English Railway," by the
late Sir George Findlay, formerly general manager of the
London and North- Western Railway Company, whose line

The Railway System To-day 377

he naturally dealt with in his book. Much, however, has
happened since the first edition of that book was published,
in 1889, and some of the details given are not applicable to
present conditions. I do not propose to bring them all up to
date, but it may be of advantage if I attempt to convey to
the reader a general idea of the basis on which the London
and North- Western, as a typical English railway, is organised
and managed, leaving aside the technical data concerning
construction and operation with which, although they occupy
a considerable space in Sir George Findlay's book, I have here
no direct concern.

The London and North- Western Railway had, on Decem-
ber 31, 1910, a total length of line of 1966 miles, of which
380 miles were single track and 1586 double or more. The
total length of track, including sidings, in equivalent of
single track, was 5490 miles. The authorised capital was
£133,989,000 and the paid-up capital £125,038,000. The
magnitude of the company's operations is indicated by the
following figures in regard to traffic, etc., in 1910 : Number of
passengers carried (exclusive of season - ticket holders),
83,589,000 ; minerals, 43,384,000 tons ; general merchandise,
10,511,000 tons; number of miles travelled by trains,
47,463,000 ; receipts (gross) from passenger traffic, £6,699,000 ;
receipts (gross) from goods traffic, £8,900,000 ; total working
expenditure, £9,937,000.

The supreme control is exercised by a board of twenty
directors, including a chairman and a deputy chairman.
Four retire annually, and are eligible for re-election. The
directors are appointed by the shareholders, all of whom have
the right to express their views thereon at the half-yearly
meetings of the company ; and when it is stated that the
number of shareholders — -debenture, preferred and ordinary —
in the North- Western is 100,000, representing 90,000 holdings,
and that in 45,000 cases the holding is £500 or under, it will
be seen that an English railway company is a far more demo-
cratic institution than one of those great railroad systems in
the United States which may be completely dominated by a
single individual. Any shareholder in the London and North-
Western who possesses the necessary qualification, by being
the owner of ordinary stock to the value of £1,000, is eligible for
appointment on the board.

378 History of Inland Transport

The main functions of an English railway board are — to
decide questions of principle and policy ; to keep close watch
over the interests of the shareholders in regard to all questions
of finance ; and to exercise a general control and supervision
in order to ensure the thorough efficiency of the line. Subject
to such general control and supervision, the working details are
entrusted to railway officers possessed of the skill, judgment,
experience and technical knowledge requisite thereto. It is
thus no more necessary that railway directors should be railway
experts than it is that the proprietor, the manager and the
editor of a great daily newspaper should themselves be able
to write shorthand, set up type, cast a stereo and run the
machines. They can dictate policy, attend to business details
and direct heads of departments without these, in their case,
superfluous accomplishments. Railway directors who, going
beyond their legitimate functions as aforesaid, sought to inter-
fere with or dictate to skilled railwaymen on matters of
ordinary detail or office routine would, in fact, cause friction
without necessarily promoting efficiency in operation.

In practice it is not unusual for a retiring general manager
to be invited to take a seat on the board either of his own
or of another company ; but, generally speaking, the main
qualification for a railway director, apart from the extent of his
holding, is found in his possession, or assumed possession, of
good business qualities, coupled with an interest in some
particular part of the district the railway serves.

The full board of the London and North- Western Railway
meets twice a month ; but much work is also done by com-
mittees which, as in the case of a county council or other im-
portant public body, exercise supervision over certain depart-
ments, or groups of departments, presenting minutes of their
proceedings to the board for confirmation. The principal
committees are the Finance Committee, the Permanent
Way Committee, the Locomotive Committee, the Passenger
Traffic Committee, the Goods Traffic Committee and the
Debts and Goods Claim Committee. There are, in addition,
various smaller committees which deal with questions arising
in connection with legal business, stores, hotels, refreshment
rooms, etc.

The heads of the different departments concerned attend,
either regularly or as desired, the meetings of these various

The Railway System To-day 379

committees, whose members are thus kept thoroughly in
touch with everything going on in regard to matters under
their special cognisance.

On the subject of finance, Sir George Findlay says (and the
position is still as here stated, except that certain members of
the Finance Committee now meet weekly to pass current
accounts for payment) : —

" The system of control over the expenditure of the Com-
pany's money is a very complete one. The general theory is
that no expenditure is incurred without the direct sanction of
the directors, expressed by a minute of some committee
approved by the board. The district officers are, indeed,
allowed to make small necessary payments, but for these
vouchers are submitted monthly and, after being carefully
examined, are passed by the Finance Committee. No work
is done by any of the engineering departments, except ordinary
maintenance and repairs, without a minute of the directors
to sanction it, and, in like manner, no claim is paid, except
those of trifling amount, without the authority of the ' Goods
Claims Committee.' '

The executive management is carried out by the general
manager, the chief goods manager, and the superintendent
of the line, the heads of the various other departments — and,
also, the district officers — reporting to, and being under the
direction of, one or other of these three officers, or, in the case
of the chief goods manager and the superintendent of the line,
of their assistants.

The general manager naturally exercises general control.
He is accountable to the chairman and directors for the good
working of all departments, and when one takes into account
the magnitude of the financial interests at stake ; the extreme
complexity of the movements and details involved in the
operation of so many miles of railway transporting so huge a
volume of traffic ; the responsibilities of the company towards
the multitudes of travellers who depend for life or limb on the
perfection of the arrangements made for their safety ; the
enormous value of the goods of which temporary charge is
undertaken ; the questions of principle or precedent that arise
in connection with a whole army of workers, no less than the
matters of policy as regards development of the line or the
relations with other companies, involving, it may be, intro-

380 History of Inland Transport

duction of or opposition to Railway Bills ; the preparation of
evidence to be given before one or other of those oft-recurring
Parliamentary or Departmental Committees ; together with
the ever-present need of reconciling, as far as possible, the
conflicting interests of public, of staff and of shareholders —
when one tries to realise the full extent of all these duties,
obligations and responsibilities devolving upon the general
manager of a great English railway company, the holder of
such a post would seem to occupy a position more onerous
than that, probably, of any other British subject, even if he
should not deserve to rank as a ruler of what, in the variety
and extent of the interests concerned — interests greater far
than those of many a Continental State — is itself the equivalent
of a small kingdom.

In the chief goods manager's department there are, besides
himself, an assistant goods manager, two outdoor goods
managers, a mineral traffic manager and a large staff of clerks.
The chief goods manager and his assistants take charge of all
matters connected with merchandise and mineral traffic,
apart from the actual running of the trains. They arrange
the rates and conditions of carriage ; control the handling,
the warehousing, and the collection and delivery of the goods ;
deal with all questions of goods accommodation and goods
rolling stock ; negotiate the arrangements in regard to private
sidings for traders, and discharge a great number of other
duties besides.

The main function of the superintendent of the line, in
whose department there is, also, an assistant superintendent
of the line and several assistants, is to deal with all passenger,
horse, carriage and parcels traffic, and, also, the running of all
trains, whether passenger, merchandise, live-stock or mineral.
All questions relating to the actual working of the line, pas-
senger stations, signals, etc., are referred to him, and the issue
of all time-tables is also under his control.

The other heads of departments include : Secretary ;
solicitor (with assistant solicitor) ; chief accountant ; loco-
motive accountant ; cashier ; chief of expenditure depart-
ment ; chief of audit department ; registrar ; estate agent ;
rating agent ; chief engineer (with a chief clerk and two
assistant engineers, one for new works and one for permanent
way) ; chief mechanical engineer (with a chief indoor assistant

•

The Railway System To-day 381

in locomotive department, general assistant and two outdoor
assistants) ; signal superintendent ; electrical engineer ;
rolling - stock superintendent ; carriage superintendent ;
waggon superintendent ; stores superintendent ; horse super-
intendent ; police superintendent ; marine superintendent ;
hotel manager ; and chief medical officer. The total number
of persons engaged in these various departments, as carried on
in the general offices at Euston station, without reckoning
those employed elsewhere, is about 1500.

For administrative purposes the entire system, with its
close on 2000 miles of railway, is divided into a number of
districts, each of which is in charge of a district superintendent
who is responsible for the working of the trains and the control
of the staff in his district. Each district superintendent has
an assistant and several travelling inspectors working under
his direction, their duty being to visit regularly every station
and signal box, and deal with any matters requiring attention.

In some districts the superintendents are responsible both
for passenger traffic and for goods traffic. In this case they
are called district traffic superintendents. They report in
regard to the passenger business to the superintendent of the
line and in regard to the goods business to the chief goods
manager. In the most important districts the district super-
intendent is relieved of the management of the goods business
(except as regards the working of the trains) by other district
officers known as district goods managers, or goods superin-
tendents, who are responsible to the chief goods manager at
Euston.

In Dublin there is an Irish traffic manager who takes charge
of all the interests of the company in Ireland, and there are
agents in Paris and New York who look after the Continental
and American business.

The same general principle, as applied to the various
districts, operates, also, in regard to individual towns and the
management of the stations therein. At the majority of the
company's stations there is an agent, popularly known as
the station master, who is in charge of both the passenger and
the goods traffic ; and at the larger stations the work is divided
between a station master — who attends to passenger traffic,
and is accountable to the district superintendent — and a
goods agent, who is responsible for the goods work, and is under

382 History of Inland Transport

the control of the district goods manager. The station master,
in turn, has authority over the signalmen, porters and lamp-
men at his station, just as the goods agent has authority over
the local goods department. The chain of responsibility thus
works out as follows : —

Station staff. Goods staff.

Station master. Goods agent.

District superintendent. District goods manager.

Superintendent of the line. Chief goods manager.

General manager.
Committees of the board.
Chairman and full board.

While the control through the board of directors and the
general manager is complete yet, at the same time, it would be
impossible to keep pace with the rapidity with which business
is done at the present day unless the district officers were
able to act on their own responsibility in those cases where
time did not permit of matters going through the usual
routine, and for that reason the district officers of a company
like the London and North- Western are capable men who are
able, and are encouraged, to take full responsibility when it is
necessary for them to do so.

Just as the committees of the board of directors keep in
touch with the chief officers and heads of departments, so do
the chief officers keep in touch alike with one another and with
the country officers, doing this by means of periodical con-
ferences.

There is, in the first place, what is known as the " Officers'
Conference." Held once a month at Euston or elsewhere, as
convenient, it is presided over by the general manager, and is
attended alike by the chief officers and by the district officers
for both the passenger and the goods departments. At
this conference the matters discussed include proposed altera-
tions in the train service, mishaps or irregularities and their
avoidance, suggested changes in the rules, and everything
appertaining to the working, loading and equipment of the
trains.

Another conference, known as the " Goods Conference," is
also held monthly — generally on the day preceding the
Officers' Conference — and is presided over by the chief goods

The Railway System To-day 383

manager, who meets the district officers responsible for the
goods working, and discusses with them the various subjects
that arise from time to time in connection with the goods
traffic.

The minutes of both conferences are submitted to the
directors, who are thus kept still better informed of all that
is happening. Nor do the officers themselves, whether chief
officers or district officers, fail to benefit from the opportunities
for the exchange of views and experiences which the con-
ferences afford.

Periodical inspections of the line, or of the stations, in
various districts by the directors and the chief officers —
whether both together or by the chief officers alone — afford
further opportunities for checking any possible irregularities,
for ensuring the provision of adequate station accommodation,
for seeing that rules and regulations are properly observed,
and for maintaining the thorough efficiency of the system in
general.

The locomotive works of the London and North- Western
Railway Company at Crewe extend over 140 acres, including
48 acres of covered-in shops, mills, etc. These works give
employment to about 10,000 men and boys. In addition to
the making of locomotives, the various processes carried on
include the production of steel rails, girders for bridges, under-
frames for carriages, hydraulic machinery, cranes, bricks, gas-
pipes, water-pipes, drain-pipes, and a great number of other
objects and appliances necessary to the construction and
operation of the railway. Created by the London and North-
Western Railway Company, Crewe has developed from an
agricultural village into a flourishing industrial town of
42,000 inhabitants.

At Wolverton, half-way between London and Birmingham,
the company build and repair their own railway carriages
and road vehicles, and do much work besides in the making
of station furniture, office fittings, and other requirements.
The works cover 90 acres, and give employment to about
4000 hands.

The Earlstown waggon works extend over 24 acres and
employ 1800 persons, Earlstown, like Crewe and Wolverton,
being essentially a railway colony. In each instance — as will
be shown more fully in Chapter XXVIII — liberal provision is

384 History of Inland Transport

made for the educational, social and recreative needs of the
workers and their dependents.

No fewer than 82,000 persons are included in the industrial
army which to-day constitutes the staff of the London and
North- Western Railway. Of this total 11,000 are salaried
officers and clerks and 71,000 are employed at weekly wages.
A company which employs such a multitude as this, and, in-
directly, ensures sustenance to a much greater number of
persons, incurs obligations that are not met entirely by a
stated salary or wage. Hence the company, in addition to
their encouragement of schools and educational institutes,
support a Superannuation Fund Association and a Widows
and Orphans' Fund for the salaried staff, and various funds, on
a contributory basis, for the wages staff. Other organisations
supported by the company include a savings bank, a literary
society, chess, rifle and athletic clubs, a temperance society
and numerous coffee taverns for the staff.

CHAPTER XXVII

WHAT THE RAILWAYS HAVE DONE

To say that the railways have revolutionised trade and
industries would be simply to repeat one of the common-
places of modern economic history. Taking the general
statement for granted, I would invite the reader to look a
little more closely at some of the actual results that railways
have, or have not, brought about.

In the first place it would be going too far to say that the ,
Railway Age inaugurated the Industrial Era. The invention
of, or the improvements in, machinery which gave so immense
an impetus to our national industries preceded the opening of
the particular lines of railway — the Stockton and Darlington
and the Liverpool and Manchester — that were more especially
to lead to the great development of the railway system on
present-day lines. All the same, it was the railways that,
by offering a far more effective means of transport than was
already afforded by canals, rivers or roads, made it possible
for the industries then already started, or for those following
thereon, to attain to their present proportions.

For the creation of what is known as the factory system,
with its teeming industrial populations aggregated into busy
urban centres, the railways are certainly far more responsible .
than the earlier modes of transport. The merits or the draw-
backs of that system, from the point of view of general interests,
are matters that need not be discussed here. Suffice it to say
that as soon as the railways had allowed of great quantities
of raw material being conveyed, at especially low rates, to
particular localities ; of machinery being set up there, also at
lower cost than before ; of labour from the rural districts
being brought in and concentrated in the same localities, and
of an efficient distribution, again at lower rates, of commodities
produced on a large scale under the most economical con-
ditions ; — it was inevitable that factories should supplant home
2 c 385

386

History of Inland Transport

industries, that manufacturers should succeed small masters,
and that great towns should grow up in proportion as rural
centres declined.

In helping to bring about these results — results that so
materially accelerated the " economic revolution " already
proceeding — railway transport also supplied a ready means
for providing these urban communities with the necessaries
of life.

It is only with the help of the railways that the provisioning
of such vast collections of humanity as are to be found in

Condon, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Glasgow and
other centres is rendered possible. As compared with the
earlier conditions of life, when households were mainly self-
supporting, each providing for its own needs from its own

ields, pasture or garden, the average urban family to-day is
dependent on the trader for practically all domestic neces-
saries, and the same is mostly the case in suburban or even in
country districts except, it may be, in regard to vegetables,
eggs and table poultry. It is doubtful if London or any other
of these great centres ever has more than, at the outside,
a fortnight's supplies on hand. The complete stoppage of the
railway system for any such period would thus be a national
disaster. Food might still come to the ports in the same
quantities as before ; but without the railways there would be
no adequate means for its distribution, and the large inland

;o\vns would more especially be at a disadvantage. The mere

)ossibility of such an eventuality may help one to realise the
extent of our dependence to-day on rail transport from the

Doint of view, not alone of trade, industry and commerce, but
of our daily life and sustenance.

While it is true that many rural centres suffered a decline
in population when the railways led indirectly to so many
agricultural workers leaving the fields for the attractions and
the supposed advantages of urban life, it is no less true that the
expansion of the towns gave to those who remained in the
rural centres greater markets for the sale there of such produce
— and especially for such market-garden produce, eggs and
poultry — as they could supply to advantage. The railways
may not have annihilated distance, but they were engaged in
curtailing distances ; and such curtailment became still more
effective when the achievements of the locomotive were

What the Railways Have Done 387

followed by the adoption of the sliding-scale_principle under
which the rates per ton per mile decreased in proportion as
consignments were sent for a greater distance than twenty
miles.

The towns and the industrial centres expanded further
as rail transport afforded increased facilities for the conveyance
of raw materials to works which, thanks to the steam-engine,
could be set up in any part of the country, regardless of the
once indispensable water power ; and the procuring of these
raw materials not only gave a further great expansion to
national wealth, but led to the opening up to industrial
activity of many a district previously isolated and undeveloped.

Increased congestion in the towns was thus none the less
supplemented by a widespread development of the interior
resources of the country ; and in this respect the railways
accomplished results that could not have been attained by
the most complete system either of canals or of turnpike roads.
There certainly were losses, besides those in the rural districts,
and this was notably the case in some of the county, market,
or smaller towns which no longer command the same dis-
tinction in the social and economic world as before ; but the
balance as between gains and losses was in favour of an
industrial expansion, a commercial development, and an
unexampled increase in general prosperity.

On the general trade of the country the railway was to
produce results no less striking than those that related to
individual industries.

When the facilities for distributing domestic and other
necessaries throughout the inland districts, and even in the
most remote parts of the country, were so greatly increased,
the reason for the fairs which had for many centuries played
so all-important a part in English trade and commerce no
longer existed, and the country hastened to deserve Napoleon's
sarcasm by becoming " a nation of shopkeepers."

To the country trader the railway gave new opportunities.
There was no longer any need either for his going to one of the
periodical fairs or for his awaiting a call from a travelling
middleman with his troop of packhorses in order to obtain
supplies. Nor was it now necessary for him to purchase com-
paratively substantial quantities of wares at a time. Thanks
to the railway, he could generally have goods sent to him

388 History of Inland Transport

direct from the manufacturer or the warehouseman in London,
Manchester, Sheffield, Glasgow or elsewhere, and those goods,
sent for one day and delivered the next, could be ordered by
him in exactly such quantities as would suit his immediate
requirements. In this way he was enabled to keep smaller
stocks of a greater variety of articles, trade with less, or with
better distributed, capital and anticipate a much larger turn-
over. The advantage of these facilities became greater still
in proportion as the post, the telegraph and the telephone
gave the retailer greater opportunities for communicating his
wants to the wholesale trader who supplied them.

In these circumstances village stores are to be found to-day
in rural districts where shops had been non-existent down to
the Railway Age, while the conditions of retail trade in
probably every country town have no less changed, and have
altered to a proportionate extent the conditions, also, of
wholesale trade.

On the other hand, the same transport facilities which gave
these opportunities to the small trader are now, to a certain
extent, operating to his disadvantage, since there is an in-
creasing tendency for retail trade to be done by the large
houses which are to-day more and more dealing direct with
the public, consigning to retail customers either by rail or by
parcel post. In this way many of the small traders are sharing
the fate of the small masters who had already been suppressed
by the factory system.

The movement here in question is, of course, only a develop-
ment of the dual tendency now prevalent throughout the
commercial world for (i) the substitution of large or associated
undertakings for numerous small and independent ones ; and
(2) the abolition of middlemen ; yet such a movement could
hardly have been carried out to its present actual extent but
for the opportunities offered by the railway for the regular,
speedy and economical transport of commodities under just
such conditions as will alone allow of this further transition
in trade being brought about.

So far as the railways themselves are concerned, these
various developments have not been an unmixed blessing,
since they have increased|rthe] tendency? for the general
merchandise traffic to travel in small or comparatively small
consignments or parcels, involving a greater amount of

What the Railways Have Done 389

handling and of clerical work, and, therefore, an increase in
working expenses, without a proportionate gain in revenue.

The vast majority of traders in the country seem content^
to live " from hand to mouth," ordering only just what they \ vO^
want from day to day or from week to week, and depending
implicitly on prompt delivery by the railway whenever they 6^*
need fresh supplies. Thus we get such conditions of trade in
respect to general merchandise (distinct from minerals and
raw materials) as are suggested by the following table, showing
the total tonnage of traffic dealt with, and the average weight
per package handled, at the goods depots mentioned : —

AVERAGE WEIGHT

TOTAL OF TONS NO. OF PER PACKAGE.
DEPOTS. HANDLED. PACKAGES. Qrs. Ibs.

Broad Street, London . . 906 23,067 3 4

Curzon Street, Birmingham . 1615 51,114 2 *4

Liverpool Stations . . 3895 79,5 13 3 26

London Road, Manchester . 1341 28,277 3 22

How this small-parcel-at-frequent-intervals arrangement,
so convenient for a large number of traders, increases the
work of the companies in a greater ratio than it increases their
receipts is shown by the following typical figures, worked out
by a leading railway company in respect to the comparative
increases in traffic receipts and number of invoice entries
respectively at four large stations on their system : —

INCREASE IN

INCREASE IN NO. OF INVOICE
STATION. YEARS COMPARED. TRAFFIC RECEIPTS. ENTRIES.

A. .. 1899 and 1906 .. 2-93 .. 40-0

B. .. 1903 „ 1907 .. 574 .. 28-46

C. . . I9O2 ,, 1905 . . 10-36 . . 22-0

D. .. 1902 „ 1905 .. 14-33 .. 24-3

The tendencies in the direction of repeat orders for small
consignments are no less prevalent in the case of raw materials
and bulky commodities than in that of general merchandise.
The cotton-spinner has frequent consignments of cotton, in
quantities sufficient to meet immediate needs, rather than less
frequent consignments in greater bulk. The average builder
saves yard expenses and cartage by ordering from time to time

39° History of Inland Transport

the exact quantities of timber or the precise number of bricks
he wants for the particular work, or for a certain stage of
the work, on which he is engaged. The coal merchant orders
forward from day to day, or at intervals according to the state
of business, only the particular quantities of coal he requires
for present or prospective early needs, since the railway
arrangements generally render it unnecessary for him to
provide for more than a few days' supply at a time. So it goes
on through almost every department of present-day trade.

The advantages for the trader himself are enormous, and the
railways have encouraged him in the tendency here in question
by giving, for 2-ton or 4-ton lots, minimum special or ex-
ceptional rates which on the State railways of the Continent
would be available only for 5-ton, lo-ton or still higher
quantities. Yet when a trader has delivery made to him in
several consignments rather than one, it is evident that,
whatever the convenience to himself, the company must do
more work for their money and incur the risk, also, of having
to run two or more partly-filled waggons on separate days
in place, it may be, of one full one. Hence a further problem
in the railway world of recent years has been how to adjust
traffic arrangements to commercial conditions based on the
now established requirements of the British trader for small
consignments at frequent intervals, and yet secure for the
railways themselves the advantage of economical loading.
Much has been done in this direction by the leading companies
in the setting up of transhipping depots and otherwise, and
substantial economies have been effected thereby.

Another respect in which railway facilities have influenced
the course of trade lies in the fact that the large warehouses,
provided by the railway companies at certain of their goods
depots enable a large number of merchants, agents or other
traders to dispense with warehouses of their own and carry on
their business from a city office, whence they send their
instructions to the railway companies as to the destination
of particular consignments when these are to be despatched to
the purchaser. The railway companies are thus relied on to
(i) collect the goods, (2) load them into the railway waggons,
(3) transport them from one town to another, (4) unload them,
(5) remove them to the railway warehouse, (6) store them
there until they are wanted, (7) pick out, as and when required,

What the Railways Have Done 391

a particular bale or parcel from a possible pyramid of bales or
parcels warehoused for the same trader ; and (8) deliver it to a
given address.

In some instances all these services are included in the
railway rate, a certain period of free warehousing being then
allowed. In other instances, or when the free period is ex-
ceeded, a charge is made for rent ; but the trader still saves
considerably as compared with what he would have to pay for
a separate warehouse for himself, with rates, taxes and cost
of cartage in addition.

At the autumnal meeting, on October 3, 1906, of the
Executive Council of the National Chamber of Trade, held at
Bradford, it was declared, in reference to the inequality in
assessments for local rates, that there were in Bradford certain
large concerns whose business turnover amounted to more than
£40,000 a year, while the rental of the premises they occupied
was not more than £100. Some exceptionally large and
commodious railway warehouses in Bradford are certainly
made use of by local traders under precisely such conditions
as those here in question ; and it is, probably, because of these
railway warehouses that the concerns alluded to are able
to carry on a £40,000 business in £100 premises.

Even when the traders own extensive mills or factories they
often find it convenient to allow the railway company to
warehouse most of their raw material for them, sending on
supplies to them as needed, a saving thus being effected in
respect alike to capital outlay on land and buildings for store
rooms and to rates and taxes thereon. In other instances
goods are sent, as ready, to the railway warehouses at the port
to await shipment, the manufacturers once more saving in not
having to provide extra accommodation on their own premises
for the storing of goods until a large order has been com-
pleted or until a vessel is due to leave.

The extent of this railway warehouse accommodation will be
better understood if I mention that two sets of premises which
constitute the Broad Street goods depot of the London and
North- Western Railway Company, in the heart of the City of
London, have a total floor space of 29,500 square yards ; that
the same company have at Liverpool a series of warehouses
with a total of about 30,500 square yards of floor space ; that
the Great Northern Railway Company have at Bradford one

392 History of Inland Transport

wool- warehouse which can accommodate from 50,000 to
60,000 bales, and another that has a storage capacity of
150,000 bales ; and that an exceptionally large goods depot
and warehouse in Manchester, with floor space equal to one
and a quarter acres, cost the Great Northern Railway Company
no less a sum than ^1,000,000.

To illustrate the nature of the accommodation offered by,
and the work carried on, in these great goods stations and ware-
houses, I offer a few details respecting the Bishopsgate Goods
Station of the Great Eastern Railway Company.

Situate in the midst of one of the busiest of London's com-
mercial centres and in the immediate proximity of docks,
wharves, markets and warehouses carrying on, in the aggregate,
an enormous business, the Bishopsgate Goods Station is a hive
of activity of so extensive and varied a type that the working
bees employed form a staff of no fewer than 2000 persons.

The premises, which have nine exits and entrances, are
divided into three levels, known as the basement level, the
rail level and the warehouse level. The total area covered by
the goods station, including railway lines, yard and buildings,
is twenty-one acres.

The basement level consists of a series of arches on which
the lines leading into the goods station have been built.
Originally the arches were designed by the railway company
to serve the purposes of a general fruit, vegetable and fish
market, and this market was opened in 1882 ; but the lessee
of the Spitalfields market claimed certain monopoly rights
under an ancient charter, and the Bishopsgate market had to
be closed ; though the railway company continued to carry on
a market they had previously opened at Stratford, E., subject
to the payment of certain tolls to the aforesaid lessee in respect
to his rights. The Stratford market, located immediately
alongside lines of railway bringing produce from the most
important agricultural districts of the Eastern Counties, has
conferred great advantages alike on traders and on residents
in the East of London. The basement arches at Bishopsgate
are to-day let mainly to potato salesmen and others, who
find them of the greatest convenience because loaded trucks
arriving on the rail level can be lowered into the basement,
there to be moved by hydraulic power to the particular arch
for which the consignment is destined.

What the Railways Have Done 393

The rail level is the goods station proper. It has eleven sets
of rails and five loading or unloading platforms, or " banks,"
while two shunting engines are constantly employed in taking
loaded or empty trucks in or out. In 1910 the business done
gave a daily average of 725 trucks inwards traffic, and 632 out-
wards traffic, a total daily average of 1,357 trucks. About eighty
goods trains leave or arrive at the station during the twenty-
four hours. These include two which are fitted with the
vacuum brake, and give the traders and inhabitants of Lincoln
and towns beyond all the advantages of an express goods ser-
vice at ordinary rates — a service, that is, equivalent to what,
in Germany, traders would have to pay double or treble their
own ordinary rates for if they wished to ensure a corresponding
speed.

Of potatoes from the fenland districts of the Eastern
Counties the total quantity received at Bishopsgate during
1910 was 100,000 tons. Of green peas from Essex as many as
1000 tons have been received in a single day. Fish from
Lowestoft and Yarmouth runs into an annual total of many
thousands of tons.

Passengers' luggage in advance is also dealt with at Bishops-
gate. This system, saving the traveller much trouble, and
greatly facilitating the working of passenger traffic at the
stations, is evidently advancing in favour, the packages
handled at Bishopsgate having increased from 18,617 in 1900
to 87,129 in 1910.

In the matter of general merchandise, the experiences of the
other railway depots already mentioned are confirmed by
those at Bishopsgate, the taking there of the number and
weight of all consignments of merchandise forwarded on a
particular day having shown the following results : —

Number of consignments . . 7.932

Average weight per consignment . 3 cwt. 2 qrs. 25 Ibs.
Number weighing less than 3 cwts. 6,056

The total " carriage paid " entries on outwards goods traffic
in 1910 numbered over 970,000. For the month of November
alone the total was 87,659.

A large proportion of the commodious and well-lighted
warehouse level on the top storey is let off to individual
traders in what are known as "fixed spaces," the demand for

394 History of Inland Transport

which is always in excess of the supply. Goods of great
variety and of great value are stored here. The warehouse is
found especially useful in connection with the extensive goods
traffic carried by the Great Eastern Railway Company between
England and the Continent.

Mention might also be made of the fact that the cartage
work done at Bishopsgate requires a stud of about noo
horses and 850 road vehicles, and gives employment to nearly
800 carmen and van-guards ; that nine weighbridges have been
provided ; that a large staff of railway police is always on
duty to regulate the traffic in or out of the station and to
protect property ; that the station has its own steam fire-
engine and fire brigade (the company likewise undertaking
the fire insurance of goods warehoused) ; and that the general
arrangements include a complete ambulance equipment for
the rendering of first aid in the event of accidents to the
workers.1

Apart from the provision of depots and warehouses, the
railway companies facilitate the operations of traders by giving
them certain free periods in respect to the unloading of coal,
potatoes, hay, straw and various other commodities from the
railway trucks, which serve the purposes of warehouses on
wheels and involve the trader in no further cost, in addition
to the railway rate, provided he can find a customer and
arrange for the unloading to be done within the free period
allowed to him, thus escaping the alternative charge for
demurrage. Other conveniences afforded by the English
railway companies to traders include the provision — for hire
at cheap rates — of grain sacks, meat hampers and meat cloths.
The Great Eastern Railway, for instance, who serve a district
mainly agricultural, keep on hand, for the convenience of
traders, from 700,000 to 750,000 sacks, 1200 meat hampers,
and between 4000 and 5000 meat cloths.

Railways, as developed in England, have thus done more
than increase the facilities and decrease the cost of actual
transport. They have, in various ways, increased the facilities
for, and decreased the cost of the exchange of, commodities,
since there is many a trader in the country who conducts his
business much more with the help of a railway company's

1 See an article on " Bishopsgate Goods Station," by Frank B. Day, in
the "Great Eastern Railway Magazine" for July, 1911.

What the Railways Have Done 395

capital than he does with his own. It is not alone that trade
and industry have vastly increased in volume as the result of
railway operation. Trade and industry have, also, completely
changed in method, while thousands of men can carry on a
business of their own to-day who, in the pre-railway epoch,
must have been content to be little more than hewers of wood
and drawers of water.

The economy in time, also, due to the speed at which the
general merchandise traffic of the country is carried, has been
of no less importance than the economy in cost of transport.
Of these two elements speed in delivery may often be by far
the more important. Slowness in transport, as is the case on
canals, may cause no inconvenience where time is immaterial
and large, or comparatively large, stocks can be kept on hand ;
but these considerations do not apply to the great bulk of
English trading and industrial enterprises as carried on under
present-day conditions. Hence to the direct saving in the
cost of transport, and to the greater advantages in the ex-
change and distribution of commodities brought about by
railways, must be added a fair allowance for gains secured
indirectly through this further saving of time. So far back as
1838, and long, therefore, before goods trains were run at an
equivalent to express speed, Nicholas Wood wrote in the third
edition of his " Practical Treatise on Rail-roads," in comparing
rail and canal transport : — t. «

" In our comparison of the two systems of transit, we must
not lose sight of the very important consequences, resulting
to the commerce of the country, by the rapidity of com-
munication effected by the railways, which far outweighs any
trifling balance of economy in favour of canals, even if such
do exist ; and, therefore, we presume, whenever the balance
between the two modes in any degree approach each other, a
preference will be given to railway communication."

Against the various advantages that improved means of
transport have thus brought to the British trader must,
nevertheless, in his case, be set certain disadvantages. If he
can forward his commodities with greater ease, at lower rates,
and in less time, to the leading markets of the country than his
grandfather before him could do, he finds that, in practice,
the foreigner can do the same. Where the foreigner produces
at lower cost, gets the lowest available rates by reason of size

396 History of Inland Transport

of consignment, style of packing, etc., has the benefit of an
earlier season and so on, he may well be able, under a system
of free imports, to compete with the home producer on his
own markets ; though the cost of transport to the foreigner
has naturally to be reckoned from the place of origin, and not
simply from the English port through which his consignments
pass.

The general effect of rail transport on the trade and industry
of the country was thus described by Sir John Hawkshaw
in his presidential address at the Bristol meeting of the British
Association in 1875 : —

" Railways add enormously to the national wealth. More
than twenty-five years ago it was proved to the satisfaction
of the House of Commons, from facts and figures which I then
adduced, that the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway, of which
I was the engineer, and which then formed the principal
railway connection between the populous towns of Lancashire
and Yorkshire, effected a saving to the public using the railway
of more than the whole amount of the dividend which was
received by the proprietors. These calculations were based
solely on the amount of traffic carried by the railways and on
the difference between the railway rate of charge and the
charges by the modes of conveyance anterior to the railways.
No credit whatever was taken for the saving of time, though
in England pre-eminently time is money. Considering that
railway charges on many items have been considerably
reduced since that day, it may be safely assumed that the
railways in the British Isles now produce, or, rather, save to
the nation, a much larger sum annually than the gross amount
of all the dividends payable to the proprietors, without at all
taking into account the benefit arising from the saving of time.
The benefits under that head defy calculation, and cannot
with any accuracy be put into money ; but it would not be at
all over-estimating this question to say that in time and money
the nation gains at least what is equivalent to 10 per cent
on all the capital expended on railways."

Sir John Hawkshaw, it will be seen, arrived at this result
on the basis of the saving in rates and charges and in speed ;
but one must further allow for those various supplementary
services on which the railways enable the traders to effect
savings in the carrying on of their business.

What the Railways Have Done 397

Nor have the political and social results of the railway
system been in any degree less remarkable than the economic.

Politically, the railway has been a factor in the rise of
Democracy.

The construction of railways, by giving employment to
large numbers of navvies in various parts of the country, to
which they moved freely as occasion required, did much to
break down the restrictions to which the labouring classes
had so long been subjected under laws of settlement now
found to be no longer operative ; and this greater freedom of
movement, combined with the wider opportunities opened out
to them, had effects on the workers far beyond the results
accruing to them from an industrial standpoint alone.

Under, again, the influences following on the spread of
railways throughout the country, England ceased to be simply
a collection of isolated communities, and attained to a greater
degree of national life. Better communication helped to make
men better acquainted with one another, to broaden their
sympathies, to spread a better knowledge of public events
at home and abroad and to establish closer links between
town life and country life.

Then the railways which rendered this closer communication
possible proved to be among the greatest of social levellers.
The claims of the third-class passenger were recognised in course
of time, in spite of the unwillingness of the pioneer companies '
to make them due acknowledgment ; and the day was to
come when the artisan would go by the same express train as the
noble lord, arrive at his destination just as soon, and, though
not having quite so luxurious a seat, be afforded facilities of
travel greater far than those that could once be commanded
even by kings and princes. Cheap excursion trains gave to
artisan and agriculturist the opportunity of visiting great
towns or pleasure resorts to which, in the old coaching days,
the well-to-do would alone have thought of travelling. In
the same way the advantages of a concentration of life, of
thought and of movement in the capital were spread by the
easier means of communication to country districts, and
brought the population in general into closer touch with the
leaders of public opinion. The railways were the greatest
disseminators of intelligence through the newspapers or books
carried by train or by the post, itself no less dependent, in turn,

398 History of Inland Transport

on the railway for the facilities it conferred on the country.
Without the railway a cheap and widely distributed news-
paper press, such as exists to-day, would have been impossible.

So the tendency of the railway was not only to advance
trade, travel and transport, but to open men's minds, to
broaden the intellectual outlook of the artisan and the labourer,
to place them more on a level with their social superiors, and
to make them better fitted for the exercise of greater political
powers.

Socially, too, the railway system constitutes a paramount
factor in the national life.

Thanks to the greater facilities the railways afforded for
the distribution of commodities, and thanks, also, to the
greater division of labour following on the changed economic
conditions, there was no need in the Railway Age for house-
holders to practise the same domestic arts that had been more
or less obligatory in the case of their forefathers. There was
no longer the same necessity for each family to brew its own
ale, to bake its own bread and make its own cloth, or to
provide stores of salt beef and other supplies in the autumn
as if for a winter siege. When the railway enabled the village
shopkeeper to satisfy promptly all local requirements, in
winter as readily as in summer, the whole conditions of rural
life were changed.

In towns, as in villages, the railways allowed not alone of a
better distribution of domestic necessaries but of distribution
at lower prices. The distance at which a commodity was
produced or from which it came had, as a rule, comparatively
little effect on the actual selling price. The large towns,
especially, had the entire country open to them as their sources
of supply, and were no longer limited to the produce — and the
prices — of, say, a fifteen or a twenty-mile radius.

Following closely on the necessaries came the luxuries, the
cheapening of which, mainly owing to the lower cost of
transport, gave even to artisans' families alternative food
supplies of a kind beyond the reach even of the wealthiest
in the land a century ago.

The greater consumption of fruit and vegetables, sold at the
lowest possible prices, must have been of incalculable
advantage to the health of the community ; though this
advantage would not have been possible but for the facilities

What the Railways Have Done 399

afforded by the railway in the bringing of huge quantities
at a low rate from even the most distant corners of the three
kingdoms.1

If, again, the railways had to share with invention and
industrial expansion the responsibility for the great increase
in town life, and for the overcrowding of many an urban
centre, they have, on the other hand, helped the towns to
spread out into healthy suburbs, or have otherwise relieved
them of much of their overcrowding by providing workmen's
trains for the conveyance of artisans and labourers between
their place of labour and entirely new centres of population
in what once were country districts.

As for the town workers who can afford to live at greater
distances, the issue of cheap season tickets and the running
of business trains morning and evening have greatly extended
the suburbs of London, so that City men now have their homes
as far away as Brighton, Folkestone and Southend.

The encouragement thus offered by the railways to the
setting up of country or even seaside homes for town workers
has further tended to the improvement of the public health,
in addition to effecting a complete revolution in social con-
ditions as compared with the days when the merchant or the
tradesman lived over his place of business in the very heart of
the City of London.

What shall be said, also, of the effect on the national life
of that " travel habit " which received its greatest develop-
ment from the railways, though further encouraged in recent
years by the bicycle and the motor-car ? Under the combined
influences of fast trains, corridor carriages, dining, luncheon
and sleeping cars and cheap fares, whether for day excursions,
short-date or long-date periods, tours at home or abroad, or
any other of the various combinations for which facilities are
offered, the making of pleasure trips has entered so thoroughly
into the habits and customs of all grades of society that the
social and domestic conditions of to-day offer a complete
contrast from those that prevailed in the pre-railway period.
It is now only the poorest of families that fail to have an annual
holiday at a seaside resort or in the country, and even in their

1 In the week ending April 17, 1909, the broccoli sent from the Penzance
district to various destinations throughout the country filled 1012 railway
waggons, and necessitated the running of 34 special trains.

400 History of Inland Transport

case the children may be provided for by one of the philan-
thropic organisations established for this purpose.

Nor does the annual summer or autumn holiday now
suffice in a vast number of British households. There are
supplementary holidays at Easter and Whitsuntide ; there
are the trips taken on the other bank holidays besides ; and,
lest all these opportunities may not suffice, the railway
companies now enable their patrons to take a little holiday,
at reduced fares, every week-end. Thanks, in fact, to the
ever-expanding facilities for travel, holiday-making — a former
innovation now developed into an established national
institution — is no longer confined to a regular holiday season.
Winter holidays, also, are coming rapidly into vogue.

The question might well be asked if indulgence in the holiday
habit is not often carried too far, especially when trips unduly
long for the time at the tripper's disposal leave it doubtful
whether the holiday-maker should not have a second holiday
in which to rest after the fatigues of the first ; though if English
people are indeed giving themselves up far too much to
pleasure, sport and recreation, the railways must certainly
share the responsibility for what is happening.

Leaving medical authorities and social reformers to decide
on the questions just raised, one may, at least, safely affirm
that the railway has been a great promoter of friendship and
family life, since visits can now readily be exchanged between
those resident in distant parts of the country, and ties can
thus be maintained that, at one time, would have been in
danger of complete severance by the difficulties or the undue
cost of journeys by road.

In addition to doing so much to re-establish our industries,
our trade and our social life and manners on the new bases
here indicated, the railway companies have also sought to
play their part in the great and responsible question of national
defence. The gravity of the issues that, in case of invasion,
would depend on the railways being able to arrange for the
rapid and safe movement of troops, of war material and of
supplies from one part of the country to another is self-evident.
It is equally clear that the necessary plans should be carefully
prepared long in advance by those most competent to make
them.

Happily the requisite provisions to this end exist in an

What the Railways Have Done 401

organisation known as the " Engineer and Railway Staff
Corps," concerning which Mr C. H. Jeune says in the " Great
Eastern Railway Magazine" for June, 1911, in an article
accompanying a portrait (in uniform) of the general manager
of the Great Eastern, Mr W. H. Hyde, who is a Lieutenant-
Colonel of the corps in question : —

" In the case of the great Continental powers, with their
system of compulsory military service and the State ownership
of railways, immediately war is declared practically the whole
of the efficient male population, including the railway staff,
is ready to place itself under military discipline ; the effect
being that the transport or railway department, like the
infantry or artillery, becomes an integral part of the armed
forces of the country. But in England the transport arrange-
ments must of necessity be largely carried out by the railway
companies with the aid of their civilian employes. As a link
between the army and the companies there is an organisation,
the existence of which is not widely known, designated the
Engineer and Railway Staff Corps. One of the peculiar
features of this body is that it consists of officers only, many
of whom we dare to say have no practical knowledge of the
goose step. It never drills, no band of music heralds its
approach, yet its members are men of high technical ability,
and the duties it performs are of great value in the schemes of
national defence.

" The corps was formed in 1864 by the patriotic exertions of
Charles Manby, F.R.S., an eminent civil engineer, who held
the post of adjutant with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel
in the corps. It is composed of civil engineers and con-
tractors, also general managers and other officers of railway
and dock companies. At present there are, in addition to the
Commandant, one honorary Colonel, thirty Lieutenant-
Colonels, and twenty-four majors. Their function is to advise
on the transport of troops by rail and the construction of
defensive works ; to direct the application of skilled labour
and of railway transport to the purposes of national defence,
and to prepare in time of peace a system on which such duties
should be conducted."

Selected members of the Engineer and Railway Staff
Corps join with representatives of the Admiralty and the
War Office in forming the War Railway Council, which
2 D

4O2 History of Inland Transport

deals with transport and other arrangements for mobilisa-
tion.

Before leaving this branch of the subject I may, perhaps,
be excused if I look still further afield, and turn, for a moment,
from what railways have done for the nation to a few examples
of what they are doing for the Empire.

In Australia the railways allowed of settlements established
on the coast-line of a continent (covering three million square
miles) gradually stretching far inland, utilising for agricultural
purposes great areas of land that must otherwise have remained
little better than barren wastes.

Canada, as we know it to-day, owes her existence to the
railways. " Without them," said Mr E. T. Powell, in a paper
read before the Royal Colonial Institute on February 14, 1911,
" the vast dominion which we are proud to call the Canadian
Empire would have remained a loose aggregate of scattered
agricultural communities. Quebec and Alberta must have
known as much of each other as do Donegal and Kamschatka.
... A few thousand miles of steel rail . . . have saved
Canada for the Empire. . . . Every year they draw the
Dominion into closer cohesion as a self-governing unit, while
at the same time they cement it more firmly into the Imperial
fabric."

In South Africa the railways have rendered invaluable
service from the point of view alike of trade, of commerce,
of colonial expansion, and of Imperial policy. Rhodesia,
especially, will have been indebted to her railways for much
of the future greatness to which she hopes to attain ; and no
one would yet venture to limit the possible results of the
Cape-to-Cairo line, when that bold undertaking shall at last
have been completed.

Less generally known, perhaps, is the story of what the rail-
way is doing both for the Empire and for civilisation on the
West Coast of Africa.

Little more than a dozen years ago no railways at all had
been constructed there, and most of the colonies were in a
more or less disturbed condition, even if they had not been
the scene of successive massacres, of sanguinary wars, of much
expenditure thereon, and of human sacrifices in districts
steeped in slavery, barbarism and superstition.

This was especially the case on the Gold Coast, where the

What the Railways Have Done 403

Ashantis waged wars against us in 1875, 1896 and 1901. Two
years after the last of these wars the Gold Coast main line
of railway was taken up to Coomassie, the capital of Ashanti.
To-day the Ashantis carry on strife with us no longer. They
work in the gold mines instead ; and the railway that brings
the gold down to the coast has paid a five-per-cent dividend
from the day it was opened.1

Of " Sierra Leone and Its Commercial Expansion " Mr T. J.
Alldridge said, in a paper he read before the Royal Colonial
Institute on March 21, 1911 (reported in " United Empire,"
May, 1911) : —

" The extraordinary increase in the revenue of Sierra
Leone during the last few years fills one who knows the
circumstances of the Colony with amazement. It could never
have been achieved had communication by railway into oil-
palm belts, formerly quite unworked, not been introduced by
the Government. The results have been extraordinary,
although as yet hardly more than the fringe of these rich
forests has been reached. . . . Only since the putting down of
railways into our Protectorate has the Colony of Sierra Leone
made such noticeable or commercial progress. The extension
in the volume of imported merchandise, the expansion in its
export products, and the greatly increased revenue, stand out
to-day as an extraordinary revelation of what railway com-
munication is capable of effecting in places that were not long
since un-get-at-able, but which Nature has lavishly filled
with a never-failing store of indigenous wealth."

Southern Nigeria and Northern Nigeria — the former having
an area of 77,000 square miles and a population of 6,500,000
Africans, and the latter an area of 256,400 square miles and an
estimated population of 8,000,000 — are both of them countries
of enormous natural resources which are being steadily
developed by railways already built or in course of con-
struction. A writer in " United Empire " for July, 1911, says
of South Nigeria: "The trade returns of 1910 have sur-
passed even the most optimistic expectations, but there is
good reason to look forward to further considerable increases
in view of railway developments, harbour improvements, road

1 See speech by Mr Frederick Shelford at a meeting of the Royal
Colonial Institute, May 24, 1910, reported in " United Empire ; the
Royal Colonial Institute Journal," for August, 1910.

404 History of Inland Transport

construction, river clearing," etc., while of Northern Nigeria
he says : " When we remember that a densely-populated area,
twice as large as the United Kingdom, and little more than a
decade removed from the horrors of slavery, savage warfare
and wholesale human sacrifices, is run by about 300 Europeans
on £500,000 a year, and is rapidly arriving at conditions
favourable to a great development of commerce " — such
conditions including the fact that a trader can now travel
from Lagos to Zaria in three days by rail, instead of taking
three weeks, as before — " it is, perhaps, a record in the annals
of British expansion."

As for the civilising effects of railways in West Africa,
Mr P. A. Renner, an educated native, said at a Royal Colonial
Institute meeting on May 24, 1910 : "In the few years I have
lived on the coast I have seen an improvement which has so
astonished us as to make us almost worship the white man.
Previously to the introduction of railways the clan feeling
and tribal strifes and feuds were very rife, and the people of
one village would scarcely visit those of another. Now all this
is changed."

When one looks back from the work the railway is doing
to-day, in all these different directions, to those very primitive
beginnings of which I have told in earlier chapters, the whole
story appears to be far more suggestive of romance than of
sober fact and reality. From the colliery rail-way along which
John Buddie's " waggon-man " led his horse, encouraging it
to greater exertion with a handful of hay, to the railway that
conveys, not only passengers, but goods, at express speed, that
has revolutionised our industrial, our commercial and our
social conditions, and is now consolidating our Imperial
interests and effecting the civilisation of once barbarian lands,
it is, indeed, a far cry ; yet the sequence cf events can readily
be traced, while all has been done within a century and a half
of the world's history.

CHAPTER XXVIII

RAILWAYS A NATIONAL INDUSTRY

HAVING seen the part that railways have played in helping
to develop the industrial interests of the country in general,
we may now consider (i) to what extent the railways them-
selves constitute a national industry, and (2) various con-
ditions relating thereto.

The latest available statistics as to the number of all
classes of railway servants connected with the working of
railways, and including, as I understand, both salaried and
wages staffs with the exception of heads of departments, are
to be found in " Returns of Accidents and Casualties " as
reported to the Board of Trade by the railway companies of
the United Kingdom for the year ending December 31, 1910
[Cd. 5628]. These figures give a total of 608,750 persons,
classified as follows : —

No. of Persons

No.

of Persons

NATURE employed on

OF EMPLOYMENT. 3ISt Dec., iqiO.

NATURE em
OF EMPLOYMENT. 3ISt

ployed on
Dee., 1910.

i. Brakesmen. (See

7. Checkers, Chain-

Goods Guards.)

boys and Slippers :

2. Capstan-men and

(i) Men

288

Capstan-lads :

(2) Boys

27I

(i) Men . 1,421

8. Clerks :

(2) Boys . 140

(i) Men

6l,36l

3. Carmen and Van-

(2) Boys

9,044

guards :

9. Engine-cleaners:

(i) Men . 18,382

(i) Men

13,912

(2) Boys . 6,604

(2) Boys

4,267

4. Carriage-cleaners :

10. Engine-drivers &

(i) Men . 6,572

Motormen

27.330

(2) Boys . 286

ii. Firemen

25.419

5. Carriage and

12. Gatekeepers

3.543

waggon examin-

13. Greasers :

ers . . . 3,81 1

(i) Men

943

6. Checkers :

(2) Boys

753

(i) Men . 9,112

14. Guards (Goods)

(2) Boys . 77

and Brakesmen

15.339

405

406

History of Inland Transport

No. of

Persons

No.

of Persons

NATURE employed on

NATURE em

ployed on

OF EMPLOYMENT. 3ISt Dec., 1QIO.

OF EMPLOYMENT. 3ISt

Dec., 1910.

15

. Guards (Passenger)

8,239

24.

Permanent-way-

1 6. Horse drivers

1,159

Men

66,305

J7

. Inspectors :

25-

Pointsmen

708

(i) Permanent- way

1,029

26.

Policemen .

2,130

(2) Others .

8,603

27.

Porters :

18

. Labourers :

(i) Men

53,388

(i) Men

54,981

(2) Boys

4.501

(2) Boys

i,333

28.

Shunters .

13,281

19

. Lamp-men and

29.

Signal Fitters

lamp-lads :

and Telegraph

(i) Men

1,655

Wiremen .

3,905

(2) Boys

418

3°-

Signalmen .

28,653

20

. Loaders & Sheeters

4,274

31-

Signal-box lads .

1,894

21

. Mechanics & Arti-

32.

Station-masters .

8,684

sans :

33-

Ticket - Collectors

(i) Men

78,389

and Examiners .

3,904

(2) Boys

8,294

34-

Watchmen

1,151

22

. Messengers :

35-

Yardsmen .

1,299

(i) Men

1,124

36.

Miscellaneous :

(2) Boys

2,468

(i) Adults .

33,620

23

. Number-takers :

(2) Boys

2,563

(i) Men

1,252

(2) Boys

671

Total .

608,750

The foregoing table serves to show the great extent of the
railway industry from the point of view of the number of
persons directly employed therein, and it also suggests a
great variety in the occupations or grades of those employed.
In the latter respect, however, the information given fails
to offer a complete idea of the actual situation, since over
36,000 men and boys (that is, persons under eighteen years
of age) are, as will be seen, classed as " miscellaneous."

Whatever the further variety in the particular occupations
included under this head, it is certain that the railway service
affords employment for a greater range and diversity of
talent, skill, ability or effort than probably any other single
industry or enterprise on the face of the earth. From the
general manager to the railway navvy, and from the chief
engineer, working out intricate problems calling for a high
degree of skill and scientific knowledge, to the boy who
helps in the unpretending but necessary work of cleaning
the engines, there is opportunity for almost every possible
class or type of labour, whether skilled or unskilled.

Over and above the employees, of all grades, concerned in

Railways a National Industry 407

" the working of railways," as here shown, there is a very
considerable body of men employed by the railway companies
in the building of rolling stock, the making of rails, in the
provision of many other requirements, or in the doing of
much other work, necessary in the construction, equipment
and operation of their lines. The smaller companies are
content to buy their rolling stock, and they mostly have
repairing shops only ; but the larger companies have their
own locomotive, carriage and waggon works in which a very
considerable volume of employment is afforded to mechanics
and labourers who would hardly come under the ordinary
designation of " railwaymen " proper ; while in this respect
the companies concerned may be regarded as not only pro-
viders of transport but as, also, in effect, engineers and manu-
facturers.

In order to give the reader some idea of the extent of the
employment afforded by these subsidiary branches of what
is still actual railway work, I give on the next page a
table — for the data of which I am indebted to the companies
mentioned — showing the actual or the approximate number
of men employed in the leading railway works of the type in
question ; though it should be added that the figures relate
only to the particular works mentioned, and do not include
men who may be engaged in engineering or productive work
elsewhere on the same company's system.

Information as to the extent to which the railway com-
panies of the United Kingdom in general afford employment
in the directions here in question will be found in the " Census
of Production (1907) " [Cd. 5254], issued in 1910, included in
these returns being three tables which are given under the
heading " Railways (Construction, Repair and Maintenance
of Permanent Way, Plant, Rolling Stock, etc.)," and relate
to (i) output ; (2) cost of materials used ; and (3) number of
persons employed.

It is shown that the total value of all goods manufactured
or of the work done by railway companies' employees in con-
struction, maintenance and repair of permanent way, works,
buildings, plant, rolling stock, etc. (such values being sums
representing only the actual cost of manufacture or work
done, and made up of wages, materials and a portion of the
establishment charges), amounted for the year 1907 to

408

History of Inland Transport

s

M

*3

o 2

MHOOCOQOOO

Mrft^MOO lOVO
»>oo Oi
M- CO w

O

Tf M CO N

CO Tt- CO N H

Railways a National Industry

409

/34>7°3»°°o- The details are grouped under seven different
heads, as follows : —

Value.

I. Engineering Department (New Works, Repairs,

and Maintenance) : —

Permanent Way ...... 9,346,000

Roads, Bridges, Signals, and Other Works . . 2,686,000

Station and Buildings ..... 1,749,000

Docks, Harbours, Wharves, and Canals . . 745,000

Total — Engineering Department . 14,526,000

II. Locomotive Department : —

Engines, Tools, &c. (Construction and Repairs)
Buildings (New Works, Repairs, and Maintenance)
— not included under Head I. ....

Total — Locomotive Department

III. Carriages, Waggons, &c. : —

Carriages (Construction and Repairs) . . . 4,454,000
Waggons (Construction and Repairs) . . . 3,701,000
Road Vehicles for Passengers and Goods (Construc-
tion and Repairs) ...... 272,000

Buildings (New Works, Repairs, and Maintenance)

— not included under Head I. .... 33, ooo

Total — Carriages, Waggons, &c. . 8,460,000

IV. Waterworks (Repairs and Maintenance) . . 155,000

V. Electric Works :—

Buildings and Lines (New Works, Repairs, and

Maintenance) ....... 148,000

VI. Steamboats (Repairs) ..... 323,000

VII. Other Productive Departments : —

Lamps and Fittings for Lighting Purposes . . 150,000

Saddlery and Harness ..... 32,000

Tarpaulins, Waggon Covers, &c. . . . . 345,000

Clothing ....... 19,000

Printing ........ 69,000

Hoists and Cranes (if not previously returned under

Head I.) : Construction and Repairs . . . 303,000
Gas manufactured for Companies' use (not included

under other Heads) ..... 286,000

Electricity for Stations, &c. .... 128,000

Telegraphs and Telephones ..... 481,000

History of Inland Transport

Buildings (not returned under other Heads)

Works, Repairs, and Maintenance
Provender . ...

Iron and Steel Manufactures
Grease .....
Trucks, Barrows, &c. .
Other Manufactures and Work Done

New

Value.

92,000
308,000
178,000
II5,OOO

39,OOO
454,000

Total — Other Productive Departments . 2,999,000

Grand Total — Goods Made and Work Done

34,703,000

The cost of the materials used was ^17,600,000. Deducting
this amount from the total of the foregoing table, there is
left a net sum of ^17,103,000 to represent wages and establish-
ment charges ; though it may fairly be assumed that a good
deal even of the /i 7, 600,000 which stands for cost of materials
was on account of wages previously paid for the procuring
or the preparation of those materials by other than non-
railway servants.

The total number of persons employed by the railway
companies in the manufacture of the goods or in the execution
of the work comprised in the statement was 241,526, in the
proportion of 232,736 wage-earners and 8790 salaried persons.
This figure of 241,526, however, is not necessarily to be added
to the 608,750 previously given as the number of railway
servants connected with the working of railways. There is
nothing to show to what extent the two tables overlap,
though overlapping there obviously is, since the first table
includes 66,305 permanent- way men, while the second table
evidently includes the persons employed on permanent-way
work, since the value of that work is put down at ^9,346,000.
On the other hand, some classes of servants included in the
Census of Production returns are excluded from the Railway
Accidents return, so that although the exact number of
persons directly employed by the railway companies of the
United Kingdom cannot be stated, it must be somewhere
between 608,750, the total of the one return, and 850,276,
the sum of the totals for both returns.

All the figures thus far given relate to work done by persons
directly employed by the railway companies themselves ; but
there is, in addition, a vast amount of work done for the

Railways a National Industry 411

railways by independent companies or manufacturers. Tak-
ing, for instance, railway - carriage and waggon-building
factories in the United Kingdom, providing for the wants of
the smaller companies at home or for railway companies in
the colonies or abroad, I find from the Census of Production
that this particular phase of " the railway industry " (for
it must needs be regarded as included therein, notwithstanding
the fact that a few of the items relate to tramcars, horse
vehicles, etc.), led in 1907 to an output of goods made or of
work done valued at ^9,609,000. The items are : —

Railway carriages for passengers, and parts thereof 1,676,000

Railway waggons, trucks, etc. . . . 5,340,000
Parts and accessories of railway carriages and waggons

not distinguished . . . 129,000

Railway wheels and axles complete . 771,000

Tramcars and parts thereof . . 572,000

Vehicles for goods, horse-drawn . 75,000

Machinery and accessories . . 135,00°

Iron and steel manufactures and structural work 174,000

Other products 93»000

Total value of goods made . . 8,965,000

Repair work (including repairing contracts) . 644,000

Total value of goods made and work done . 9,609,000

The number of persons engaged in these railway-carriage
and waggon-building factories when the census in question
was taken was 28,193, namely, 26,492 wage-earners, and 1701
salaried staff.

When one tries to form some idea of the further volume
of employment that results from the supply of the thousand
and one necessaries which even the most enterprising and
independent of railway companies must still procure from
outside manufacturers, makers, growers or providers, it is
obvious that the railways, both as an industry in themselves
and in their dependence, in endless ramifications, on other
industries concerned wholly or in part in supplying railway
wants, must provide more or less employment for an army
of workers vastly in excess even of the aforesaid 600,000 or
800,000.

In many respects the railway service proper — that is to
say, the particular branches thereof which deal with actual

412 History of Inland Transport

transport, as distinct from construction and manufacture —
offers features that are unique in their way, even if they do not,
also, bring about types of workers of a class distinct from those
to be found in the majority of other industries.

In the latter dependence is being placed more and more on
the efficiency of the machinery employed, and the person of
greatest importance to them is the machinery-inventor or
the machinery-improver. The one who works the machine
may require to have a certain degree of skill or dexterity
in carrying on the necessary process, but the more nearly
he can approach the perfection of his machine and become,
as it were, part and parcel of it, the greater will often be his
degree of success as a worker. In his case the personal equation
hardly counts. He is merely the penny put into the slot in
order that the figures may work, and any other man, or any
other penny, that fulfilled the requisite conditions might be
expected to produce the same results.

In railway operation great importance must certainly be
attached to the efficiency of the machinery, or of the system ;
but final success may depend to a very material extent on the
efficiency of the unit. Everything that human foresight and
railway experience can suggest may be done — both in the
provision of complex machinery and in the drawing-up of the
most perfect rules and regulations — to ensure safe working;
yet the ultimate factor in grave issues on which safety or
disaster will depend may be a worker who has either risen to,
or has failed to meet, a sudden emergency. In this way,
not only does the individual unit count, but the individual
unit in railway operation may be the Atlas upon whose
shoulders the railway world does, in a sense, rest. A blunder
in an ordinary factory or workshop may involve no more
than the spoiling of a machine or the waste of so much material.
A blunder on the railway may involve a terrible loss of human
life.

Railway operation is thus calculated to give to the workers
engaged in transport a keener sense of responsibility, and to
develop therewith a greater individuality, than any other
of our national industries. The railway man concerned in
operation requires to be capable both of foresight and of
initiative. It is said of a certain railway in India that a tele-
graphic message was one day received at head-quarters from

Railways a National Industry 413

a station down the line to the following effect : " Tiger
on platform. Send instructions." In England there is no
probability of railway-station platforms being taken pos-
session of by wandering tigers ; but if anything equivalent
thereto, in the form of a sudden and dangerous emergency
not provided for by rules and regulations did arise, the officials
on duty would be expected to show alike resource and energy
in meeting the circumstances promptly and efficiently, so far
as they could, instead of waiting to ask the district superin-
tendent or the superintendent of the line for instructions.

Independently of the ever-present dangers of actual opera-
tion, to which I shall revert later on, the fact of having to deal
with such varied types of humanity as are met with on the
platforms of a busy railway station, under conditions ranging
between the extremes of amiability and irritability, must also
tend to sharpen the wits of the average railway worker, and
make a different man of him than he would be if he were to
spend his working days in feeding a machine in a factory with
bits of tin or leather to be shaped into a particular form. Nor,
whether the railway man be concerned in passenger traffic,
in goods transport, or in checking claims and accounts in the
general offices, must he fail to be ever on the look-out for
those who, though they may be the most honest of men in the
ordinary affairs of life, never scruple to defraud a railway
company when they can.

Another factor tending to differentiate the railwayman from
the ordinary industrial worker is the sense of discipline — and
the consequent subordination of each unit to an official
superior — which must needs prevail if a great organisation is
to be conducted, not simply with success for the shareholders,
but with safety for the public. The maintenance of effective
discipline is obviously essential to the safety of railway opera-
tion, just as it does, undoubtedly, further help to form the
special type of the railway servant.

The development of the same type is being fostered to an
ever-increasing degree by the special training which junior
workers undergo with a view to making them, not only better
fitted for the particular post they already occupy, but qualified
to succeed to higher positions as opportunities for their ad-
vancement may arise.

A railway manager is not alone concerned in the' working

414 History of Inland Transport

of his line, and in the doings of his staff, day by day. He looks
forward to the requirements of the line and to the constitution
of the staff at least five or ten years hence, and he wants to
make sure that, as the experienced men around him are lost
to the service, others will be at hand equally, or even still
better, qualified to take their place. He further realises that in
an undertaking in which, notwithstanding its magnitude, so
much depends on the unit, that unit should be encouraged, and
enabled, to attain to the highest practicable stage of efficiency.

This tendency is leading to results that are likely to be
both far-reaching and wide-spreading. It is a matter not only
of giving to railway workers, and especially to those in the
clerical and operative departments, a higher degree of technical
knowledge, but, also, of rendering them equal to responsibility,
of fostering their efficiency still further through their social,
physical and material well-being, and of retaining them for the
railway service notwithstanding (in the case of the clerical
staff) the allurements of traders who look upon well-trained
goods clerks, especially, as desirable assistants in the counting-
house, and seek to attract them with the offer of a somewhat
better wage.

The training and the higher education of railway workers
have undergone important developments alike in the United
Kingdom, in the United States, in Germany, in France, and
elsewhere.

In the early days of the railway the most eligible person
for the position of general manager was thought to be some
retired naval or military officer, accustomed to controlling
large bodies of men ; and the first appointments were based on
this principle. But experience soon showed that in under-
takings where technical, commercial and economic con-
siderations were all-important, the real recommendations for
leading positions were to be found, rather, in proved capacity
and in thorough knowledge of railway operation and manage-
ment.

Under the company system, as it prevails in the United
Kingdom and the United States, railwaymen, of whatever class,
are now generally taken on as boys, are trained for the position
to which they are found to be adapted, and rise to higher posts
according to capacity and opportunity — for these must needs
go together. In this way it is not unusual for the general

Railways a National Industry 415

manager on an English railway to have started as an office
boy. Many a head of department to-day entered the service
as junior clerk, and worked his way up to his present posi-
tion ; there are station-masters who began as ticket clerks ;
there are guards who gained their first knowledge of railway
work as station porters, while engine-drivers are recruited
from firemen, and firemen from engine-cleaners.

For details as to what the American railway companies are
doing in the matter of " Education for Efficiency in Railroad
Service " I must refer the reader to a bulletin written by
J. Shirley Eaton and published, under this title, by the
United States Bureau of Education. Here I can do no more
than reproduce the following extract, giving in brief Mr
Eaton's view on the general situation as he finds it on the
other side of the Atlantic : —

" Railroads, as a whole, through a representative body
such as the American Railway Association, should in a com-
prehensive way take up the matter of the education of rail-
way employees. As they now have committees devoted to
standards of construction, maintenance, and operating prac-
tice, they should also have a standing committee, of a character
to command confidence, who should sedulously foster a closer
relation between the railroad and educational agencies. This
could be done by roughly grouping railroad service into
classes according to the requirements of service, indicating
the efficiency required in a broad way, and studying the
curricula and course of experience leading up to such efficiency.
Such a body should officially gather all railroad literature and
accumulate the nucleus of a railroad museum. In various
ways the teaching force of educational agencies, training to-
ward railroad employ, could be drawn into study and dis-
cussion of the practical everyday problems of railroad work.
The large public policies involved in railroad operation are
to-day left to the doctrinaire or accidental publicist, when
they should be a subject of study and effective presentation
by the highest grade of trained experts which the associate
railroads could draw into their service. On the other hand,
such a standing committee could stimulate and guide the
practice of railroads in their methods of handling and in-
structing apprentices. Between the instruction and practice
in the service on the one side, and the instruction outside

41 6 History of Inland Transport

the service on the other side, they could foster a closer relation,
making them mutually supplementary. In developing ap-
proved plans for recruiting the service they would necessarily
indicate the lines of a more direct access than now exists from
the various schools to apprenticeships in the service, and
suggest the best methods by which such apprenticeships
would be gradually merged into the full status of regular
employ at the point of special fitness."

On this side of the Atlantic the railway servants' education
movement has assumed two phases — (i) secondary or technical
education of junior members of railway staffs in mechanics'
institutions or kindred organisations, created or materially
supported by the railway companies, and already carried on
during a period of, in some instances, over sixty years ; and
(2) a " higher education " movement, of a much more ad-
vanced type, developed since about 1903, and conducted
either in special classes held at the railway offices or in con-
nection with a University, a mechanics' institution, a local
educational body, or otherwise.

It is impossible in the space at my command to give a
detailed account of what every railway company in the
United Kingdom is doing in these directions. Some typical
examples must suffice.

To begin with mechanics' institutions and other kindred
bodies, these are by no means purely educational in their
scheme of operations. They include many social and recrea-
tive features which, in effect, should play a no less important
part than educational efforts in promoting the general
efficiency of the railway worker by helping to give him a
sound body, a contented mind, and a cheerful disposition as
well as more skilful fingers or a better-cultivated brain. In
the United States, judging from what Mr Eaton says on the
subject, all such " welfare " work as this, though carefully
fostered, is regarded by the railroad companies as a purely
business proposition ; and he does not attempt to credit
them with any higher motive than regard for the almighty
dollar. Here, however, while there has been full recognition
of the financial value of increased efficiency, the companies
have, also, not failed to realise their moral obligations towards
their staffs. Hence in seeking to promote the welfare of their
employees they have been inspired by motives of humanity,

Railways a National Industry 417

goodwill and honourable feeling in addition to, or even as
distinct from, any pecuniary advantage the shareholders
themselves might eventually gain therefrom.

Crewe Mechanics' Institution dates back to 1844, when the
Grand Junction Railway Company provided a library and
reading-room, and, also, gave a donation for the purchase of
books for the men employed in the railway works then being
set up in what was, at that time, a purely agricultural district.
In the following year this library and reading-room developed
into a Mechanics' Institution, the primary object of the rail-
way company being to afford to the younger members of their
staff at Crewe greater facilities for acquiring theory in classes at
the Institution to supplement the practical knowledge they were
acquiring in the works, though the benefits of the Institu-
tion were also to be open to residents of Crewe who were not
in the company's employ. The management was vested in
a council elected annually by the directors and the members
conjointly ; and this arrangement has continued ever since.

Larger premises were provided in 1846, in which year the
Grand Junction combined with the London and Birmingham
and Manchester and Birmingham Companies to form the
London and North- Western Railway Company. The classes
were added to from time to time until they covered the whole
range of subjects likely to be of service to the students. Be-
ginning, however, with the 1910-11 session, the art, literary
and commercial classes which had been held at the Institute
for sixty-four years were transferred to the local education
authority, the Institute retaining the scientific and technolo-
gical subjects. In addition to the ordinary work of the classes,
the more recent developments of the " higher education "
movement have led to systematic courses of instruction —
extending over four -year periods — in (i) pure science, (2)
mechanical engineering, (3) electrical engineering and (4)
building construction. An Institution diploma is given to
each student who completes a course satisfactorily. Visits
are, also, paid to engineering works, electrical generating
stations, etc. Most of the teachers are engaged at the Crewe
works, and the instruction given is thus of the most practical
kind.

One feature of the Institution is the electrical engineering
laboratory, provided by the directors of the London and

2 E

4i 8 History of Inland Transport

North- Western Railway, who have further arranged for a
number of apprentices to attend at the laboratory one after-
noon every week to receive instruction, their wages being
paid to them as though they were still on duty in the works.
There is, also, a mechanics' shop, with lathes, drilling machines,
etc., electrically driven.

Since 1855 the directors of the London and North-Western
have given an annual donation of £20 for books to be awarded
as prizes to successful students employed in their locomotive
department and various other prizes and scholarships, in-
cluding Whitworth scholarships, are also awarded. The
Institution is affiliated with the Union of Lancashire and
Cheshire Institutes, the City and Guilds of London Institute
and the Board of Education, each of which bodies holds
examinations and awards prizes and certificates. The library
has now over 12,000 volumes.

In addition to the reading-room the Institution has coffee,
smoking and recreation-rooms. Special attention is being
paid to the social side of the Institution's work through the
appointment of a " Teachers' Committee for Social and
Recreative Development," the particular purpose of this
committee being to organise sports and entertainments and
to secure the formation of a literary society.

At Wolverton there is a Science and Art Institute at which
many classes are held, and, although none of these are directly
under the management of the London and North-Western
Company, as at Crewe, the very successful and numerous
courses in engineering subjects and railway-carriage building
conducted by the committee of management, working in con-
nection with the Bucks County Council, receive the active
support and encouragement of the company's directors.

Science, commercial, art and domestic economy classes
are also held at the L. & N.-W. Institute at Earlstown, where
definite courses of instruction, in groups of subjects, and ex-
tending over at least two years, are given.

The Great Eastern Railway Mechanics' Institution, estab-
lished in 1851 at Stratford New Town, has made generous
provision for the education, recreation and social life of
employees of that company resident in London, East. The
Institution comprises a library of 9000 volumes ; reading-
room ; baths (patronised by 10,000 bathers in the course of

Railways a National Industry 419

the year) ; a large hall for lectures, entertainments, balls or
concerts ; and a billiard-room, three quoit pitches and a rifle
range, the last-mentioned being the gift of the Great Eastern
directors. Science, art, technological, commercial and other
evening classes to the number of over forty were held in the
Institution during the Session of 1910-11. Among the sub-
jects taught were : machine construction, applied mechanics,
mathematics, electrical engineering, heat-engines, motor-car
engineering, rail - carriage building, drawing, book-keeping,
shorthand, physical culture, the mandoline and the violin ;
while still other classes included an orchestral class and ladies'
classes in " first aid " and " home nursing."

A series of practical classes, in connection with the same
Institution, is also held during working hours in the Great
Eastern Railway Company's works at Stratford. Arrange-
ments are further made to extend the usefulness of these
classes by visits to engineering works and electrical generating
stations. Examinations are conducted in connection with
the Board of Education, the City and Guilds of London
Institute and the Society of Arts, and prizes, certificates and
scholarships are awarded to successful students. The total
number of students attending the various classes in 1910-11
was 958. The Institution at the end of 1910 had 1471 mem-
bers, of whom all but 79 were in the employ of the railway
company.

In 1903 the directors of the Great Eastern Railway
Company gave a further proof of their appreciation of the
educational work thus being carried on by granting to em-
ployee-students in the locomotive, carriage and waggon depart-
ment who could fulfil certain conditions leave of absence with
full pay for one or more winter sessions of about six months
each, in order to afford them increased facilities for taking
up the higher branches of technical study. Opportunities are
also given to such students for visits to manufactories, works
in progress, etc. Of the twenty-one students who had taken
advantage of the arrangements in question down to the end
of 1910, four had obtained the University degree of B.Sc.
(Faculty of Engineering) ; four had passed the intermediate
examination for the same degree ; two had obtained Whit-
worth scholarships, and five had been awarded Whitworth
exhibitions.

420 History of Inland Transport

Clubs formed in connection with the Institution include an
athletic club, a rifle club, a quoit club, a cricket club and a
football club. Concerts, illustrated lectures and various
entertainments are given in the Institution during the course
of each session.

The Midland Railway Institute at Derby, also going back
to 1851, had a membership in 1910 of 2621. Classes in French
and shorthand are held, but technical subjects are not taught,
special facilities in this respect for the company's staff being
provided by a large municipal technical college in the town.
The Institute has a library of over 17,000 volumes, a well-
stocked reading-room, a dining hall, a restaurant (for the
salaried staff), a cafe (for the wages staff), committee rooms
and a billiard-room ; while the various associations include
an engineering club (which holds fortnightly meetings
during the winter months for the reading and the discussion
of papers, and, also, pays visits to engineering works), a
natural history society (which holds indoor meetings and
organises Saturday rambles), a dramatic society, a fishing
club, a photographic society and a whist and billiard club.

A Mechanics' Institute and Technical School opened at
Horwich in 1888 was mainly due to a grant of ^5000 by the
directors of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company
and to the gift of the " Samuel Fielden " wing by the widow of
that gentleman, for many years a director of the company.
In October, 1910, there were 2224 members, of whom all but
53 were in the employ of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Company. The leading features of the Institute include a
dining hall, reading, magazine and smoke-rooms, a library of
about 13,000 volumes, a lecture hall with seating accommoda-
tion for 900 persons, the Fielden gymnasium, a miniature
rifle - range, class - rooms, and chemical and mechanical
laboratories.

Science, art, technical, commercial and preparatory classes
are conducted at the Institute in connection with the Board
of Education, London, and the instruction given includes a
continuous course of study designed to enable engineering
students to make the best use of classes of direct service to
them. The special arrangements thus made comprise a
preliminary technical course (extended over two years),
a mechanical engineering course (five years) and an electrical

Railways a National Industry 421

engineering course (four years). The classes of the Institute
(exclusive of those for ambulance work) were attended in
1910-1 1 by over 500 students. Examinations are conducted by
the Union of Lancashire and Cheshire Institutes, the Royal
Society of Arts, the City and Guilds of London Institute, and
the Board of Education, and numerous prizes and exhibitions
are awarded.

Useful service from an educational standpoint is also
rendered by the Institution's engineering and scientific club,
at whose meetings the papers read and discussed have been on
such subjects as " Prevention of Waste in Engineering,"
" Evaporation and Latent Heat," " Electric Motor-cars and
their Repairs," etc. Other affiliated societies or clubs include
a photographic society, an ambulance corps and a miniature
rifle club (also affiliated to the National Rifle Association
and the Society of Miniature Rifle Clubs). Popular lectures
are given on six Saturday evenings during the winter session.

Other railway institutes are to be found at Swindon (Great
Western Railway), at Vauxhall and Eastleigh (London and
South- Western Railway), at York and various other centres
on the North-Eastern Railway, and elsewhere.

I pass on to deal with recent developments of the higher
education movement in the railway service as operated (i) by
the companies themselves, or (2) by the companies in com-
bination with outside educational authorities.

The Great Western Railway Company, on the recommenda-
tion of their general manager, Sir James C. Inglis, inaugurated
at Paddington station in 1903 a school of railway signalling,
designed to offer to the employees of the company a definite
means by which they could acquire technical knowledge of
railway working and management. The classes are conducted
by the company's signalling expert, and the instruction given
is based on the object lessons afforded by a model railway
junction, furnished with a complete set of signalling appliances
on the standard lines as laid down by the Board of Trade
requirements. The experiment was so complete a success
that similar schools, provided with similar models, have since
been set up at various centres throughout the company's
system.

In the " Great Western Railway Magazine " for November,
1911, it was announced that a revised circular dealing with

422 History of Inland Transport

these classes was then in course of preparation, and that it
would include the following clause, setting out an important
amendment of the scheme : —

" In order to maintain the value of the certificates awarded
and the standard of efficiency of certificate holders, each
holder will in future be invited to sit for re-examination before
the expiry of five years from the date of his certificate. En-
dorsement certificates will be awarded to candidates who
successfully pass the second and subsequent examinations.
This step is felt to be desirable having regard to changing
conditions and developments in connection with modern
railway working. The date of the last certificate will be taken
into account in connection with appointments, promotions,
etc."

Other classes at Paddington, controlled by the chief goods
manager, afford instruction in railway accounts, and enable
the clerical staff to gain a better insight into matters con-
nected with the receipt, transport and delivery of goods, and,
also, the preparation of accounts and statistics both for the
Railway Clearing House and for the company's audit office.
Shorthand classes are also held.

Annual examinations take place in connection with all
these various classes, and the students passing them receive
certificates which are naturally taken into account when
questions as to advancement arise. On the occasion of the
distribution of certificates on January 14, 1910, the chief goods
manager, Mr T. H. Rendell, said that facilities for gaining
information on railway subjects were far more numerous to-day
than they were forty years ago, when he joined the service.
" Continuation classes of any kind," he proceeded, " were
then conspicuous by their absence, and practically the only
classes of this kind were those held at the Birkbeck Institute,
which he attended, though he had to pay a substantial fee
in respect to each subject taken. Formerly there was no
organised method of acquiring knowledge of railway working,
and they learnt to do right chiefly by being blamed for doing
wrong."

The London and North- Western Railway Company
established block telegraph signalling classes in 1910, the
instruction given being facilitated by a complete working
model of a double-line junction, fitted with signals and inter-

Railways a National Industry 423

locking ; a set of standard block instruments~and bells ;
an electric train staff apparatus for single line working, and
various diagrams. The lectures, given in the shareholders'
meeting-room at Euston by the company's expert in signalling,
were attended by students representing nearly all the different
departments on the station, and the results of the examinations
subsequently held were so satisfactory that the company have
since established similar classes at various other centres, in
addition.

To ensure the general efficiency of their clerical staff the
London and North- Western Company hold (i) an educational
examination which a boy must pass before he enters the
service ; (2) a further examination, at the end of two years,
to test the clerk's knowledge of shorthand, railway geography
and the railway work on which he has been engaged ; and (3)
an examination before the clerk's salary is advanced beyond
£50 per annum, it being necessary for him to show a thorough
knowledge of shorthand, and to write a paper on such subjects
as block working, train working or development of traffic.

The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company have also
established, at their head offices in Manchester, a School for
Signalling, the complete equipment with which it is furnished
including a full-sized lever frame. Instruction is given free
both to the head office staff and to the staff at the stations
within a radius of twelve miles. Special lectures, also, have
occasionally been given to the staff in the chief engineer's
department by that officer's assistants. Another feature
of the educational work of the Lancashire and Yorkshire is
the sending round to the various locomotive sheds of what is
known as an instruction van. A full description of this van
will be found in the " Railway Gazette " for January 22, 1909.

The Great Central Railway Company, to meet their require-
ments more particularly at the head offices and in connection
with their Continental business, adopted in 1908 a scheme
designed to enable them to secure the services of a certain
number of young men with higher educational qualifications
than were usually possessed by those who previously pre-
sented themselves for junior clerkships. The company accord-
ingly offer six positions annually to members of the existing
staff, under twenty-five years of age, who display the highest
standard of knowledge and ability in a competitive examina-

424 History of Inland Transport

tion, the successful candidates in each year being promoted
to an advanced scale of pay, and taking a " higher grade
course of training," which, it is thought, should fit them to
hold positions of responsibility in the future.

This higher grade course consists of periods of work, varying
from three to twelve months, in eight of the principal de-
partments, viz. the engineering, locomotive-running, goods,
traffic, rolling stock, stores, marine and general manager's
departments. The entire course covers a period of four years.
During his stay in each of these departments the student is
required to pursue a course of reading in the theory of the
work in which he is engaged in that particular section ; he is
given an opportunity to acquire practical knowledge of the work;
he must report at the end of every month to the head of the
department on the progress he has made, and, on leaving any
one section, he is to send an essay to the general manager,
showing the knowledge he has gained. Heads of departments
or sections are also required to submit confidential reports to
the general manager on the ability displayed by the student
while under their supervision.

The North-Eastern Railway Company have an elaborate
educational system which resolves itself into (i) preliminary
tests ; (2) Part I., and (3) Part II., of a secondary examination.
The subjects for examination in Part I. of the secondary
examination are — (i) Regulations for train signalling by
block telegraph and general rules and regulations ; (ii) goods
station accounts ; (iii) passenger station accounts ; (iv)
shorthand and typewriting or practical telegraphy. Those
in Part II. are — Railway subjects : (i) Railway operating ;
(ii) railway economics (general) ; (iii) railway and commercial
geography of the United Kingdom ; (iv) law relating to the
conveyance of goods and ..passengers by railway. Other sub-
jects : (v) Mathematics ; (vi) commercial arithmetic and
book-keeping ; (vii) methods employed in import and ex-
port trade of Great Britain ; (viii) French ; (ix) German. In-
stead of examining candidates in Nos. v, vi, vii, viii and ix
the company will, as a general rule, accept certificates of
proficiency in these subjects of recent date obtained at various
specified examinations elsewhere. Each candidate's required
to pass in railway operating and three other subjects, one of
which must be (ii), (iii) or (iv) of the railway subjects.

Railways a National Industry 425

It will be seen that while the subjects for Part I. cover
the practical work at a station, those for Part II. deal more
with the principles of railway operation. To assist clerks in
preparing for these tests the company have issued several
brief textbooks ; they have arranged for the delivery of
series of lectures ; they are utilising railway institutes for the
purpose of instruction, and they offer facilities for the circula-
tion of standard works on railway subjects. The company
also conduct at various centres railway block-telegraph
signalling instruction classes fully provided with the necessary
apparatus, examinations being held and certificates awarded.

Coming next to what is being done by educational bodies
working in connection with railway companies, reference
should first be made to the London School of Economics and
Political Science.

Railway transport is a subject in which the authorities of
the school have always taken great interest, and in the session
of 1896-7 a course of lectures on railway economics was given
at the school by Mr W. M. Acworth. On this occasion the
Great Western Railway Company paid the fees for members
of their staff to attend the course. When Mr Acworth gave
a further series of lectures in 1897-8, the Great Eastern Rail-
way Company also paid the fees for members of their staff
who desired to attend. In 1904 seven of the leading railway
companies gave a definite guarantee which allowed of a more
elaborate system of railway instruction being organised at
the school (now one of the schools of the University of London,
as reconstructed in 1900). Under the scheme in question a
complete course of instruction is given in the " History,
Theory and Present Organisation of Transport," leading up,
if desired, to the degree of B.Sc. (Econ.), with honours in
transport. The course is_umd£fi»1^ general supervision of a
" Committee of Governors on Railway Subjects," consisting
of five prominent members of the railway world. The lectures
are as follows : —

(A) Courses on railway subjects : —

1. Railway economics : operating (20 lectures).

2. Railway economics : commercial (20).

3. Economics of railway construction and locomotive

operation (20).

4. The law of carriage by railways (20).

426 History of Inland Transport

5. The consolidation of English railways (4).
(B) Courses on subjects useful to railway students : —

1. Accounting and business methods. Part I. (30).

2. Accounting and business methods. Part II. (30).

3. Methods and applications of statistics (15).

4. Mathematical methods of statistics : elementary (15).
Examinations are held, and certificates and medals are

awarded to successful students.

The School of Economics has, also, in its library, a collection
of works on transport questions which it believes to be the
best of the kind in existence. It comprises no fewer than
12,000 books, pamphlets, plans, reports, etc., and, as over
5000 of these were presented by Mr Acworth, the name of
the " Acworth Collection on Transport " has been given to
this unique and invaluable mine of information on every-
thing appertaining to railways and transport at home or
abroad.

With the University of Manchester the Lancashire and
Yorkshire Railway Company (in addition to what they have
done in other directions, as already mentioned) made arrange-
ments in 1903 for evening classes on railway economics in the
interests of their staff, and these classes have been continued
ever since. They are in three-year cycles, and students who
go through a complete course have the advantage of receiving,
from thoroughly qualified teachers, instruction in the follow-
ing subjects : Railway geography and railway history of
the United Kingdom and of other leading countries ; economic
analysis of the railway business in relation to other businesses ;
motor power and rolling stock ; goods traffic ; passenger
traffic ; theory of freight rates ; accounts ; Government in
relation to railways ; and railway law.

The directors of the Lancashire and Yorkshire pay the fees
for any members of their clerical staff within a radius of
twelve miles of Manchester who desire to attend these classes,
and at the close of each session they grant to three of the
most promising of the railway students scholarships which
are tenable at the University for a further three years, and
allow of attendance during the daytime at the classes in
political economy, organisation of industry and commerce and
accounting.

It was in connection with the scheme here in question that

Railways a National Industry 427

Mr H. Marriott, now chief goods manager of the Lancashire
and Yorkshire Railway, delivered the excellent course of
lectures which, republished by " The Railway Gazette,"
under the title of " The Fixing of Rates and Fares," has
become a recognised textbook on that subject.

In 1907 the directors of the same company arranged with
the Victoria University, Manchester, for the delivery of a
series of University Extension Lectures on railway economics
at the Burnley Grammar School, paying the fees of any
member of their clerical staff within a radius of twelve miles
of Burnley who wished to attend. The subjects chosen were
" Organisation of a Railway," " Goods Traffic," " Passenger
Traffic " and " Economics," and each subject extended over
three lectures.

In the autumn of 1911 arrangements were concluded be-
tween the North-Eastern Railway Company, the University
of Leeds and the Armstrong (Newcastle) University for the
giving at those Universities of courses of evening lectures on a
variety of railway subjects, the company undertaking to
pay half the fee for all members of their staff who might wish
to attend.

Finally I would mention, in this connection, that, by
arrangement between the Midland Railway Company and
the University of Sheffield, a course of 40 lectures on
economics, to extend over two years, was begun at the
Midland Railway Institute, Derby, on October n, 1911, by
Mr Douglas Knopp, the special purpose of the course being
to afford to members of the Midland Railway staff an oppor-
tunity of studying, free of expense to themselves, the
economic features of modern industrial and commercial
problems, including transportation.

Literary societies and lecture and debating societies, formed
by various railway staffs, are another outcome of the aspira-
tions of railwaymen for wider knowledge and increased
efficiency. The Great Western Railway Literary Society,
established in 1852, is one of the oldest institutions at Padding-
ton. It has a library of 10,000 volumes and various social
off -shoots. Another typical institution, the Great Western
Railway (London) Lecture and Debating Society, founded
in 1904, serves a useful function in affording opportunities
for the reading of papers by heads of departments or other

428 History of Inland Transport

qualified persons on subjects likely to be of practical service
to members of the staff. It was before this society that the
paper on " The Government in Relation to the Railways of the
Country," referred to on page 352, was read by Mr F. Potter,
chief assistant to the general manager of the Great Western
Railway.

Apart from the educational, literary or social organisations
directly associated with particular railway companies, there
are other bodies formed mainly by experts or workers in
particular departments of railway construction, maintenance
or operation who, whatever their position or attainments,
find they are not yet too old to learn, that in the railway world
there is always something new, and that advantages are to be
gained by themselves from an exchange of views, opinions and
experiences, apart from the benefits they may confer on juniors
in helping them to advance their knowledge on technical
questions. These associations are certainly to be classed
among those which promote the " higher education " of the
railwayman, though they may also serve various other pur-
poses, social, provident, etc. -.;

Among organisations of this type the Permanent Way
Institution, established in 1884, and incorporated in 1908,
occupies a leading position. It seeks to promote among
inspectors of way and works a more thorough knowledge
of all technical details connected with the discharge of their
duties, and it publishes for the use of members, and persons
qualified to be members, " information which may be likely to
encourage and exert interchange of thought, especially with a
view to create a friendly and sympathetic feeling between
members and such other persons in their duties and labours,
and for mutual help of members in the discharge of the same."
Sections are formed in important centres throughout the
United Kingdom, and the reading and discussion at the meet-
ings of the sections of short practical papers by members,
dealing mainly with matters appertaining to their employment,
is regarded by the Institution as an important phase of its
system of technical education. The sections are kept well
supplied with literature, reports, and communications affording
good material for discussion at their meetings, " and much
benefit," says a prospectus issued by the Institution, " has
been derived for the members from this interchange of ideas

Railways a National Industry 429

with men in similar capacities in other parts of the world,
whereas the former isolation and rare opportunities for inter-
course frequently caused narrow-mindedness, prejudice,
reservation of manner, and the natural loss of much useful
information and experience to both employer and employed."

Summer meetings, held in a centre where there are features
of special interest to railwaymen, are another valuable means
for the exchange of ideas between members of the Institution,
for enabling them to gain fresh experiences, and for promoting
social intercourse. These summer meetings have developed
into " conventions " lasting a week each, and they are spoken
of as having been " of untold benefit to those participating in
them." The Institution has, also, various beneficent funds.

The Association of Railway Locomotive Engineers of Great
Britain and Ireland is a body whose members have, for a
number of years, held two meetings annually — in London in
winter, and in the country in summer — for the discussion of
matters of interest to railway engineers and to railway com-
panies generally.

The Institution of Signal Engineers (Incorporated) includes
in its objects " the advancement of the science and practice
of signalling by discussion, enquiry, research, experiment
and other means ; the diffusion of knowledge regarding
signalling by means of lectures, publications, the exchange
of information and otherwise ; and the improvement of the
status of the signalling profession." Only railway signal or
telegraph engineers, superintendents in charge of railway
signalling, telegraph or kindred work, and qualified engineers
in Government service are eligible for full membership ; but
other officers engaged in technical work in engineering depart-
ments are eligible for associate membership, while in the autumn
of 1911 the Institution was considering a scheme for student
membership and the offering of annual prizes to members of
the student class for papers and essays on technical subjects.

The Association of Railway Companies' Signal Superin-
tendents and Signal Engineers was formed in 1891 with the
object of affording facilities for the discussion of signalling
questions by the chiefs of signalling departments on the rail-
ways of the United Kingdom. Two meetings are held each
year at the Railway Clearing House.

A very useful purpose in developing the higher education,

430 History of Inland Transport

not alone of railway workers but of the ever-widening circle
of those who are interested in railway work, is being served
by the Railway Club, which is established at 92, Victoria
Street, London, S.W., and has, also, various provincial centres,
with district representatives in Birmingham, Huddersfield,
Lancaster, Glasgow and Newhaven. Founded in 1899, the
club is designed to afford opportunities for bringing together
all who are concerned in railway questions in general ; though
some of the members specialise in locomotive problems, others
in traffic problems, and so on. At the London head-quarters
there is a club room well stocked with railway papers, and
here, also, the members can find a comprehensive library.
In the same building monthly meetings are held for the
reading and discussion of papers. Some of these are of a
technical character, appealing only to experts ; but subjects of
more general interest are also dealt with, the programme for
the 1910-11 session including papers by the Rev. W. J. Scott
(president) on " Railway History: 1860-80," and by Mr E. J.
Miller (hon. secretary) on " Belgian State Railways." Meetings
are also held in the provincial centres, and visits are paid both
there and in London to railway works, running sheds and other
places of interest. The utility of the Club is greatly enhanced
by the publication of its excellent little organ, " The Railway
Club Journal."

From the details here given it will be seen, not only that the
movement for increasing the efficiency of the railway worker,
by furthering his training in railway and cognate subjects,
has undergone great and varied expansion, but that railway
operation and management are coming more and more to be
regarded as a science, and one that, with its many problems
and complexities, calls for prolonged study, effort and
experience on the part of those who would attain to perfection,
or even to exceptional knowledge and skill, therein.

Nor should the said details fail to excite a more sympathetic
feeling on the part of the trading and travelling public towards
railway workers who find they can attain to greater pro-
ficiency, and acquit themselves better of their responsibilities
to the public, as well as to their company, by undergoing as
much of this training, or by securing as much of this advance-
ment in the technicalities of railway work, as their powers
may warrant or their opportunities allow.

Railways a National Industry 431

One may further anticipate that, as the various tendencies
here in question are developed, there will, not only inside but
outside the service, be a greater disposition to adopt the view
of the American authority already quoted in his suggestion
that " the large public policies involved in railroad operation
are to-day left to the doctrinaire or accidental publicist when
they should be the subject of study and effective presentation
by the highest grade of trained experts which the associate
railroads could draw into their service." When this latter
result is brought about, whether through the higher education
movement or otherwise, not only will the railway service be
rendered still more efficient, and not only will even greater
advantages be conferred on the country, but the position of the
railway interests themselves should be strengthened on
questions of State control in regard either to the principles of
railway policy or to the details of railway operation.

Recreation and physical culture, as part of the general
scheme which aims at promoting the efficiency and the
personal well-being of railwaymen, are fostered in the railway
world by the athletic clubs formed by the staffs of the various
companies, with more or less official countenance and support,
and whether in connection with mechanics' institutes or other-
wise. These clubs favour, not only athletics proper but cricket,
football, tennis, hockey, bowls, harriers, swimming, angling,
etc. They are supplemented by a London Railways Athletic
Association, which brings together the members of the different
clubs in friendly rivalry, while the various gatherings and
competitions have an excellent result — apart from the other
advantages they confer — in fostering that social life of the
railway service which tends so much to its widespread
popularity.

Mention should, also, be made of the musical societies,
the horticultural societies, the rifle clubs, the chess clubs
and other organisations. The staff or society dinners, the
outings, the smoking concerts and the presentations to
retiring colleagues help still further to promote feelings of
comradeship, mutual sympathy and goodwill not always to
be found to anything like the same extent in commercial
undertakings of other types. Such sentiments as these con-
tinue to be fostered, indeed, after the service has been left,
the Retired Railway Officers' Society having been formed,

432 History of Inland Transport

in 1901, "for the purpose of bringing together those who
in past years have held executive positions in the railway
service of Great Britain, the Colonies or India, and for the
renewal and keeping up of former friendships on the part of
gentlemen once associated, in official relations, either on
the same or on different railways." The objects of the
society are exclusively social and friendly.

Sobriety being a virtue especially desirable on the part
of those to whom so vast a number of the British public
daily entrust their lives or limbs, temperance is encouraged
in the railway service by the formation of Railway Temper-
ance Unions for all the leading lines. Each union has numerous
branches, and the various unions constitute, in turn, a federa-
tion known as the United Kingdom Railway Temperance
Union. This movement receives much practical encourage-
ment from railway directors and chief officers, and an active
propaganda is carried on. In some places the local Temper-
ance Union provides a Temperance Institute where the men
employed at a station or in a goods yard can take their meals
in comfort or spend their leisure time.

The present membership (1911) of the Temperance Union
in connection with the London and North- Western Railway
Company is 22,172, spread over 19 districts. The members
of the same union in 1905 numbered only 4777.

Thrift in the railway service is facilitated by means of
savings banks. One of these, the Great Western Railway
Savings Bank, states in its nineteenth annual report that in
1910 it had 6385 depositors, who paid in a total of £109,166,
drew out £69,828 and had £495,504 to their credit at the
end of the year. The bank pays 3^ per cent on deposits up
to £1000.

Nor are still higher things overlooked. For over forty
years it has been customary for workers in the Midland
Railway locomotive department at Derby to meet in one of
their mess-rooms at breakfast-time, and, while having their
meal, take part in a short religious service conducted by one
of their number, a harmonium being provided as an accom-
paniment to the singing. On the day preceding the Christmas
holidays the service is devoted entirely to Christmas carols
or appropriate anthems.

A distinct advantage offered by the railway service is that,

Railways a National Industry 433

subject to the ability and good conduct of the individual,
employment once obtained with a railway company offers a
tolerable assurance of permanent and regular work. Railway
companies do not run the same risk of becoming bankrupt,
and of having to wind up their business, that ordinary com-
mercial companies do, and though slackness of work may, in-
deed, lead to unavoidable reductions of staff, or to reduced
time, in the locomotive and carriage works, the full staff will
be required on the railway itself to keep it going, whatever
the amount of traffic. Should the traffic fall off, and become
non-remunerative, it is the shareholders who will suffer rather
than the railway servants engaged in the running of trains.

This fact is of the greater importance because there may
be in the railway service certain actual disadvantages, thus
referred to in the ' ' Report of the Departmental Committee on
Railway Agreements and Amalgamations," issued in May,
1911 : —

" The contention of the railway servants as to the specialisa-
tion of their industry and the peculiar difficulty they find
in changing their employment has a substantial foundation
as regards many classes of railway servants. Men leaving
one railway can seldom rely upon obtaining employment on
another, except in the lower grades, as the companies usually
have their own men waiting promotion. The value of a
railway servant often consists largely in a special skill which
is of no worth in other employments."

On the other hand, the Departmental Committee recognise
that " one of the main inducements to compete for admission
to the railway services is the strong presumption of the
permanence of employment during good behaviour " ; and
they further say that " while it would seem that the rates
of pay to all ranks in the railway service do not compare
unfavourably with those given in other commercial and
industrial occupations, the railway companies undoubtedly
profit in the quality of their services by the large range of
selection they enjoy owing to the competition for situations
under them."

On the subject of railwaymen's wages, various considera-
tions arise which tend to make any general assertions, or
even carefully prepared " averages " in respect thereto, of
little real value.
2 F

434 History of Inland Transport

The range of employment, from unskilled to highly skilled,
is so great in the railway world that to lump together all
the different grades, and then strike a so-called " average,"
which gives too high a figure for one large body of men and
too low a figure for another, must needs be far from satis-
factory.

General averages are further reduced by the inclusion
therein of a large number of boys. The table given on pages
405-6 shows that the total number of railway servants employed
on December 31, 1910, was 608,750 ; but in this total there
are no fewer than 43,584 boys (including signal-box lads),
and their wages, as boys, must needs reduce the average
of the wages paid to the adults. If, for example, we add
together the six shillings a week paid to a boy of fourteen
or fifteen employed as engine-cleaner and the thirty shillings
a week paid to a certain grade of signalmen, we get an " aver-
age " of eighteen shillings a week for the two ; but no one
could argue that this result would give a real idea of actual
conditions.

Then the average for the United Kingdom is below the
average for England and Wales because of the inclusion in
the former of the wages paid in Ireland, where the scale is
distinctly lower than is the case of England and Wales ;
whilst the inclusion in the figures for England and Wales of
the wages for numerous small and none too prosperous lines
gives a general average below what would be the actual
average on the lines of the leading English companies.

Subject to these considerations, I reproduce from the Board
of Trade " Report on Changes in Rates and Wages and Hours
of Labour in the United Kingdom, in 1910," two tables which
give the average weekly earnings of railwaymen in (i) the
United Kingdom, and (2) various parts of the United King-
dom separately. The figures are based on information supplied
by twenty-seven railway companies, employing over 90 per
cent of the total number of railway servants in the United
Kingdom ; they relate to workpeople employed in the coach-
ing, goods, locomotive and engineers' departments, exclusive
of clerical staff and salaried officers ; and they refer to actual
earnings (including overtime), and not simply to rates of
wages. The tables are as follows : —

Railways a National Industry 435

I. UNITED KINGDOM

Period to which

the figures relate.

First week in

December : —

IQOI
IQO2
1903
1904

1905
1906
1907
1908
1909
1910

Number

Amount paid in

Average

employed in
selected week.

wages in the
selected week.

weekly earnings
per head.

£

S.

d.

440,557

55I.H4

25

°1

448,429

(559,179

24

Hi

448,321

557,8i9

24

io£

445.577

557.820

25

°l

449.251

568,338

25

3i

457.942

582,207

25

5l

478,690

[618,304

25

10

459,120

574.059

25

o

459,444

582,782

25

4t

463,019

596,342

25

9

II. ENGLAND AND WALES, SCOTLAND AND IRELAND

Year.

ENGLAND AND WALES. SCOTLAND. IRELAND.

Average weekly Average weekly Average weekly
Number earnings Number earnings Number earnings
Em- per Em- per Em- per
ployed. Head. ployed. Head. ployed. Head.

s.

d.

s.

d.

s.

d.

I9OI

• 378

,121

25

61

43

,710

23

l£

18,726

19

5

1902

• 383

,883

25

5l

45

,240

23

l|

19,306

19

31

1903

. 384

.465

25

4i

44

,922

22

n£

18,934

19

5

1904

. 380

,610

25

7

45

,216

23

Ji

19,751

19

i£

1905

• 384

,321

25

io£

45

,399

23

3i

19,531

19

2|

1906

• 391

,661

25

"1

46

.407

23

4l

19,874

19

9-V

1907

. 4I2

,804

26

4i

46

,416

23

5i

19,470

19

81

1908

- 395

,271

25

61

44

,809

22

81

19,040

19

81

1909

• 394

,928

25

IOJ

45

,M7

23

3f

19,369

19

ii

1910

• 397

.715

26

3i

46

.105

23

3

19,199

20

7

Whatever the precise amount of the remuneration received,
allowance must be made for various subsidiary advantages
of the railway service.

Free uniforms or clothes are given to various grades, the
recipients thereof on one of the leading lines including station-
masters, district police and traffic inspectors, platform in-
spectors, yard inspectors, passenger guards, ticket collectors,
foremen porters and foremen parcel porters, foremen shunters,
brakesmen, shunters, signalmen, parcel porters, vanmen and

436 History of Inland Transport

boys, porters, sergeants and policemen, telegraph messengers,
sleeping-car attendants and corridor attendants. Passenger
guards, for example, get a summer coat and vest every two
years, winter coat and vest every two years, summer trousers
every year, winter trousers every year, topcoat every three
years, mackintosh every four years (main line) or every three
years (local line), belt (main line) when required, cap every
year, and two neckties every year. The amount which a man
saves by the supply of this free clothing naturally adds pro-
portionately to the actual value of his position.

On many of the lines the companies have provided for their
workers a considerable amount of cottage accommodation,
with gardens and allotments, charging rentals which yield
little more than a nominal return on the capital ex-
penditure.

The Glasgow and South- Western Railway Company have
organised, at Cockerhill, a model village for the accommoda-
tion of the principal section of the locomotive staff employed
in the engine-sheds there. Purchase of land and construction
of buildings involved the company in an expenditure of
£70,000. To-day the village has a total population of 700
persons. Each tenant gets three large rooms and a kitchen
for a rental of £13 a year, plus local rates, which amount to
about 173. a year. Attached to every house is a plot of
ground where the tenant can grow his own vegetables, or
cultivate his favourite flowers. The centre of social life in
the village is the Railway Institute, a commodious building
erected by the company, and still maintained to a certain
extent at their cost. Administration of the affairs of this
Institute is entrusted to a General Committee of thirty-two
of the tenants, elected annually, and having different sub-
committees, each of which takes charge of a particular phase
of the work. The Institute has a hall (reserved on Sundays
for religious meetings of a strictly non-sectarian character),
reading and recreation-rooms, library and baths. The village
also has a fire brigade, a children's savings bank, and a com-
mittee for the organisation of ambulance work.

A rent club, the subscription to which is one penny a
week, ensures for its members the continued payment of their
rent in the event of their being absent from work on account
of sickness. Still another advantage offered to the tenants is

Railways a National Industry 437

that of a season ticket between Cockerhill and Glasgow for
themselves or for members of their household at the nominal
charge of five shillings a year.

One of the latest developments in connection with the
housing of railway companies' workers has been on the Great
Eastern Railway, the chairman of the company, Lord Claud
Hamilton, saying at the half-yearly meeting on July 28,
1911 : —

" We have been asked by a portion of our staff to do some-
thing for them in respect of cottages, for although in some
districts they can obtain adequate lodging, in other districts
it is exceedingly difficult to obtain, at a reasonable rent, the
decent accommodation which they require. Now that our
prospects are improving, we have settled as from the ist of
July to spend £10,000 a year on cottages for our workmen.
It is not a large sum, but it is as much as we can afford, and
I must tell you we can only expect to get, at the most, 2^
per cent interest on that money. But although that is a low
rate of interest, and not remunerative, the extra comfort,
satisfaction and happiness which these men and their families
will derive from healthy and adequate accommodation repays
us, I am sure, indirectly, over and over again in their more
willing service to their employers."

Railwaymen have, again, exceptional opportunities for
getting cheap holidays. In addition to the regular holidays
given to members of the salaried staff, most of the grades
of the wages staff who have a certain period of service to
their credit get from three to six days' holiday a year, with
pay. In some cases the railway company provide special
trains enabling their employees in some railway colony —
Swindon, for example — to take a holiday en masse, the said
colony becoming, temporarily, a deserted village. The free
passes given to members of the staff are sometimes available
for travel over the lines of other companies as well.

The concession, also, to railway servants of what are
known as " privilege tickets " enables them and their
families to travel at exceptionally low rates. These tickets
are granted so freely that the number issued by one com-
pany alone during the course of a single year has been nearly
800,000.

Provision for the railwayman's old age is assured by super-

438 History of Inland Transport

animation funds in the case of the salaried staff and by
pension funds in the case of the wages staff.

The whole question in regard to the standing of these
funds was investigated by a Departmental Committee which
was appointed by the Board of Trade in 1908, and presented
its report [Cd. 5349] in 1910. It was the position, more
especially, of the superannuation funds that gave rise to
the uneasiness leading up to the appointment of this Com-
mittee. The earliest of the said funds was started by the
London and North- Western Railway Company in 1853, and
other companies followed the example thus set, the Committee
reporting on, altogether, fifteen superannuation funds brought
to their notice. At first no doubt was felt as to the stability
of the funds ; but when the railway companies, with a view
to maintaining the efficiency of the service, enforced the
retirement of officers at the age of sixty-five, or in some cases
at the otherwise optional age of sixty, heavier demands were
made on the funds at the same time that the benefits were
being increased. Actuarial investigations disclosed sub-
stantial deficiencies, and some of the companies sought to
cover these by abandoning actuarial valuations altogether
and guaranteeing payment of claims out of their revenue,
this being in addition to the ordinary contributions which,
in one form or another, all the companies were making to
the funds. A certain want of uniformity followed, and the
Committee now made various recommendations in regard
to the future working both of the fifteen superannuation
funds and of seventeen pension funds applying to the wages
staff.

There is no need here to enter into the details of the actual
or proposed arrangements. Suffice it, therefore, to point
to the existence of these funds, with their accumulated
reserves of close on ^11,000,000, as designed to assure the
future of nearly 300,000 railwaymen, over and above whatever
salary or wage they may receive while in active employ-
ment.

The Railway Guards' Universal Friendly Society was
established in 1849 to encourage thrift and to provide, among
other benefits, permanent pay for life to disabled members and
annuities for the widows and orphans of deceased members.
The total amount expended in relief down to the end of 1910

Railways a National Industry 439

was over £358,000, and there were then 250 members and
widows in receipt of life allowances amounting to ^4758 per
annum.

Further provision either for railway-men themselves in times
of distress or for their widows and orphans is made through
various organisations which are supported by the contributions
alike of railway servants, of the railway companies and of the
general public.

At the head of these excellent bodies stands the Railway
Benevolent Institution, which attained its jubilee in 1908.
The objects in view, as summarised by Lord Claud Hamilton
at the fifty-third annual dinner on May 4, 1911, are : (i) To
grant permanent annuities to railway officers and servants in
distressed circumstances ; (2) to grant permanent pensions
to widows in similar circumstances ; (3) to educate and main-
tain orphan children between six and fifteen years of age, and
then give them a start in life ; (4) to give by gratuities and by
contingent annuities temporary assistance until permanent
relief can be secured from the funds of the Institution ; (5) to
grant gratuities from the casualty fund to injured servants
and to widows of deceased servants ; (6) to enable officers
and servants to insure their lives in the best approved com-
panies on special terms ; and (7) to relieve distress whether
arising among subscribers or non-subscribers.

No fewer than 157,000 railwaymen of all classes are sub-
scribers in one form or another to the funds of the Institution,
which, apart from amounts given as gratuities, conferred its
benefits in 1910 on 2,672 annuitants and children, the total
outgoings for the year under all heads being £55,396. To
particularise only one phase of this varied activity, the number
of children — mainly orphans of railwaymen killed in the
service — who have been educated in the great Railway
Orphanage at Derby (a branch of the Institution) has been
over 2000.

Another leading railway charity, the United Kingdom
Railway Officers and Servants' Association, founded in 1861
to grant assistance in time of distress and necessity to railway
officers and servants, their widows and orphans, held its
jubilee festival on April 28, 1911, when Viscount Castlereagh,
M.P., who presided, announced that since the establishment
of the Association the relief afforded had been as follows : —

44° History of Inland Transport

Annuitants .... 5I»233 13 o

Sickness .... 100,411 7 6

Widows and members, at death 58,956 o o

Orphans .... 4,595 3 o

Special grants . . . 9,390 11 o

Total . . 224,586 14 6

Of great advantage, also, to railway workers is the Railway-
men's Convalescent Home, opened at Herne Bay, Kent, in 1901,
with its recent extension in the form of a similar home at
Leasome Castle, Wallasey, Cheshire, to which, by permission
of King George, has been given the title of " The King Edward
VII Memorial Convalescent Home for Railwaymen."

The London and South - Western Railway Servants'
Orphanage was originally opened at Clapham, in 1886, for
children whose fathers, at the time of their death, were in the
employ of the railway company. Since July, 1909, it has been
located in a commodious range of buildings erected at Woking,
Surrey, for the purpose. From the time the orphanage was
first opened over 400 children have been admitted to its
benefits.

Thanks to a generous benefaction left by the late Mr
F. W. Webb, locomotive superintendent of the London and
North- Western Railway Company, the railway colony at
Crewe is acquiring an orphanage which will accommodate
twenty girls and twenty boys, the construction cost being
estimated at about ^16,000, while a further sum of £35,000
will be available for the purposes of the endowment of what
has, appropriately, been named "the Webb Orphanage." In
appreciation of the value of the services rendered by Mr Webb
to the company, and as an indication of their sympathy with
the institution, the directors of the London and North- Western
Railway Company have subscribed ^1000 towards the funds
of the orphanage.

In addition to such support as they may render, directly
or indirectly, to the recognised railway beneficent organisa-
tions, the railway companies of the United Kingdom con-
tribute to various other institutions and associations, of
various character, not directly controlled by them, and not
for the exclusive benefit of their servants. Such contributions
are reported to the Board of Trade, which issues an annual

Railways a National Industry 441

return on the subject. Among those for 1910 were the
following : —

£ s. d

Hospitals, infirmaries and dispensaries . . . 7,832 10 6

Convalescent homes and nursing associations . . 440 17 o

Ambulance, medical, surgical aid and truss societies . 308 i o

Benevolent and friendly societies, orphan asylums, etc. 790 19 o

Mechanics', seamen's and fishermen's institutes . 1,278 14 o

Church funds . . . . . . . 1,365 17 8

Missions ........ 340 6 6

Schools and technical institutes . . . . 1,137 18 o

These contributions are made by the railway companies
not so much, presumably, from motives of ordinary philan-
thropy, but in return, more or less, for benefits derived, or
that might be derived, from the institutions in question by
members of their staffs.

Adding these further subsidiary advantages to the educa-
tional, social and recreative facilities offered by the institutes,
societies and clubs already spoken of, it will be seen that there
is more to be taken into account in regard to the railway
service in general than the question of wages alone, and
especially so when the statements concerning wages are based
on " averages."

Having seen what are the advantages of the railway service,
we may pass on to consider some of its possible disadvantages.

A return issued by the Board of Trade in August, 1911,
gives the latest available information as to the once much-
discussed question of railway servants' hours of labour.
The special interest in this subject lies, of course, in the fact
that if men engaged in the movement of trains work excessive
hours the risk of accident is increased ; and the Board of
Trade are authorised, under the Act of 1889, to call for
particulars of the hours of labour of railway servants.

At one time the returns published were presented in such
a way as to make the position appear much worse than really
was the case, even after allowing for unavoidable delays from
fog, snowstorms, floods, fluctuations in traffic, and breakdowns
or other unforeseen mishaps which have been, and must needs
be, contributory causes of prolonged hours of duty. Thus,
if an engine-driver, having taken a train to some distant
station, returned home comfortably seated in a third-class
carriage, he counted in the official returns as being on duty,

442 History of Inland Transport

as though he were still undergoing the strain of driving the
engine instead of being occupied, perhaps, in smoking his pipe,
or having a doze.

Following on protests by the railway companies, the returns
are now published in a form less open to criticism, while the
agitation raised has also led the companies to make further
efforts to prevent the occurrence of excessive hours of labour
as far as possible. The return for May, 1911, dealing
with 109,041 servants in certain grades (guards, brakesmen,
enginemen, signalmen, examiners), who worked during that
month a total of 2,740,693 days, shows that the number of
days on which the men were on duty for periods exceeding
twelve hours by one hour and upwards amounted to 14,813, or
only -54 per cent of the total days worked.

One of the greatest drawbacks in the railway service lies in
the risks of accident. The extent of these risks is shown by
the General Report of the Board of Trade on Accidents on
Railways of the United Kingdom during 1910.

From this I find that the number of railway servants killed
in " train accidents " in 1910 was nine, and the number injured
was 113. Of these, eight were killed and 109 were injured
in the work of running trains ; and the proportions of these
last-mentioned figures to the total number (76,327) of engine-
drivers, firemen and guards employed on December 31, 1910,
were : killed, one in 9541 ; injured, one in 700. Considering
that the number of miles run by trains on the railways of the
United Kingdom in 1910 was 423,221,000, the figures given
as to injuries or fatalities to railway servants through actual
train accidents do not constitute a bad record. They suggest,
rather, both the extreme care with which the railway servants
concerned discharge their duty and the effectiveness of the
precautions taken in the interests of themselves as well as of
the travelling public.

Excluding train accidents, the numbers of accidents to
railway servants due to the " movement of trains and railway
vehicles " in the same year were : killed, 368 ; injured 4587.
The number of railway servants exposed to danger from the
movement of railway vehicles being 331,296, the proportion
of accidents to number employed was : killed, one in 900 ;
injured, one in 72.

When these last-mentioned figures in regard to injured are

Railways a National Industry 443

compared with the averages for earlier years, there appears to
be a substantial increase ; but a " Note " thereon is given in
the official returns to the following effect : " An order of the
Board of Trade on the 2ist December, 1906, required non-
fatal accidents to be reported whenever they caused absence
from ordinary work for a whole day (instead of absence pre-
venting five hours' work on any of the next three days). This
alteration caused a large apparent increase in the number of
non-fatal accidents in 1907 and later years." The details in
regard to the killed afford, therefore, safer guidance if one
wishes to see whether the various appliances, precautions and
regulations adopted by the railway companies to ensure the
greater safety of those of their servants who are exposed to
danger from the movement of railway vehicles are having
the desired effect. Turning to Table X in the official returns,
I extract therefrom the following figures : —

PROPORTION OF KILLED TO NUMBERS
YEAR. EMPLOYED.

1885-1894 (average) . . . . i in 501

1895-1904 „ .... i „ 665

1905-1909 „ . . . . i „ 879

1910 i „ 900

Here, therefore, we have distinct evidence of improvement
in the element of risk in railway operation.

A third group of accidents to which railway servants are
liable relates to those that arise in the handling of goods,
in attending to engines at rest, or in other ways not connected
with the movement of trains or of railway vehicles. Here the
figures for 1910 are : Killed, 36 ; injured, 20,305. " The
number of injured is large," says the return, " but the pro-
portion of serious injuries is smaller than it is in the case of
railway accidents proper, and it will be seen that the pro-
portion of killed to injured is relatively low." The proportion
of killed, in this third group, to the average number of railway
servants exposed to risk was one in 12,546, and the proportion
of injured was one in 22. A considerable number of accidents
in railway goods sheds and warehouses which at one time
were included in the returns of accidents in factories are now
included in the returns of railway accidents.

Liability to accident, whether grave or slight, lends
additional importance to the encouragement given to railway-

444 History of Inland Transport

men by their companies to acquire a knowledge of " first aid "
and general ambulance work. Ambulance corps or classes are
now not only general but highly popular throughout the
railway system. Instruction is given by qualified teachers ;
certificates, vouchers, medallions or labels are presented to
those who pass the examinations held, and not only do
competitions for money or other prizes take place between
teams representing the various districts of a single company's
system, but an Inter-Railway Challenge Shield is annually
competed for by the picked experts of the various companies,
the winning of this shield being regarded as conferring a
great honour on those who achieve the victory for their
company.

I have here sought to give a comprehensive survey of
the railway service, as a national industry, alike from its
economic and from its human side, conveying some idea —
even if wholly inadequate — of its extent and widespread
ramifications, and showing the various influences, educational,
social and otherwise, that are eminently calculated both to
create a " railway type " and to give to the service char-
acteristics that distinguish it in many respects from any other
of our national industries.

While not being, perhaps, actually an ideal industry — and
there are very few workers, of any rank, who would be pre-
pared to admit that their occupation in life was absolutely free
from drawbacks — the railway service offers, as we have seen,
many advantages. It is, in fact, really a " service," and not
simply a means of employment. One might regard it as the
equivalent of a civil service operated on commercial lines.
Workers in all of the many classes or grades " enter the
service," as they are accustomed to say, when they are young,
and they generally do so with the idea of spending their lives
in it, and retiring on superannuation allowance or a pension
in their old age.

Railway managers, too, want workers who come to stay.
In the United States women typists are being gradually
got rid of on the railway because they so often retire at the
end of two or three years and get married, the experience
of office work they have gained in that time being thus lost
to the company. Consequently American railway managers
are now showing a preference for male workers who will regard

Railways a National Industry 445

the service in the light of a future career rather than in that
of a temporary employment.

That the railway service is a popular one is shown by two
facts : (i) the invariably large surplus of candidates over
available vacancies ; and (2) the long-service records of many
of the railway workers.

In regard to the former of these points, it will suffice to
say that the chairman of one of the leading English railway
companies has stated that in 1906 the number of applicants
for appointments on the staff of his company alone in excess
of the number for whom places could be found was over
19,000.

As regards long service, instances of from forty to fifty
years' work for one and the same railway company are so
common that they hardly call even for passing mention.
More exceptional was the case of the worker on the Great
Western whose father had served the company for forty-one
years, and who himself retired at the end of forty-two years,
leaving a son who had then been with the company twenty-
three years — a total of 106 years for one family, during three
generations.

In another instance four generations employed successively
on the Great Western showed a total of 147 years ; but even
this record is surpassed by that of a Cardiff family. The
founder of the dynasty joined the Great Western in 1840.
He remained with the company forty-two years, and left
with them two sons, of whom one served forty-five years,
and the other forty-two years. Each of these two sons had
five boys, and all ten followed the example of fathers and
grandfather in becoming servants of the same company,
keeping their positions for periods ranging from six to thirty
years. The fourth generation is represented by four members,
one of whom has already been with the company for over
ten years. The total service of those members of the family
who were still working on the Great Western a year or two
ago was 147 years, and the aggregate for the four generations
was then over 800 years. Each of the workers concerned has
been employed in the locomotive department.

Notwithstanding the general popularity of the railway
service, agitations and strikes have occurred from time to
time ; though down to 1907 most of these arose in connection

446 History of Inland Transport

with questions of conditions of labour in regard to particular
lines of railway.

In 1907 an agitation was promoted by the Amalgamated
Society of Railway Servants in favour of what was called a
" National All-Grades Programme " of demands for higher
wages, reduced hours, etc. ; and there was a further demand
that the negotiations in respect thereto should be carried on
through the officers of the Amalgamated Society of Railway
Servants. The companies declined to grant the concessions
asked for in the " Programme," alleging that to do so would
involve them in a wholly impracticable increase in their
working expenses. It was subsequently stated that accept-
ance of the " Programme " would have increased the ex-
penditure of the companies by between £6,000,000 and
£7,000,000 per annum ; that the cost to the London and
North- Western Railway Company alone would have exceeded
£500,000 per annum, equal to i j per cent of the company's
dividend ; that on the London and South- Western it would
have been equal to a two per cent dividend on the ordinary
stock ; and so on with other companies in like propor-
tion.

In the result the demand for the concession of the " Pro-
gramme " became subordinate to the demand of the A.S.R.S.
for " recognition " ; but this, again, was refused by the rail-
way companies on the ground, not alone that the membership
of the society includedj[only a minority of the men qualified
to join but, also, and more especially, because " recognition,"
involving the carrying on of negotiations through the union
leaders, would, it was argued, lower the standard of discipline
in a service where considerations of the public interests, and
especially of the public safety, made it a matter of paramount
importance that a high standard of discipline should be main-
tained.

- Threats of a general railway strike caused much alarm, and
led the Government to intervene. The negotiations carried
on at the Board of Trade were based mainly on the possibility
of arranging some system of conciliation by means of which
further disputes would be^avoided ; and eventually a four-
fold scheme was arranged, comprising, in the case of each
company accepting it, (i) consideration of applications by
officers of the department concerned ; (2) sectional concilia-

Railways a National Industry 447

tion boards; (3) a central conciliation board, and (4) the
eventual calling in of an arbitrator if the matters in dispute
should still be undecided.

Forty-six companies adopted the scheme. The conciliation
boards were elected ; agreements were in many instances
arranged as the result of their proceedings ; and, where no
settlement could be arrived at by the boards, arbitration was
resorted to. Dissatisfaction with the course of procedure
and its results was, however, expressed from time to time
more especially by members and officers of the Amalgamated
Society of Railway Servants ; and such dissatisfaction became
acute during the prevalence of the " labour unrest " which
spread throughout the country in the summer and early
autumn of 1911, affecting, more especially, the various
transport services. Joint action was now taken by the
Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, the Associated
Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen, the General
Railway Workers' Union and the United Pointsmen and
Signalmen's Society.

At the outset attempts had been made to show that the
railwaymen had some genuine grievances against the concilia-
tion boards on account of their " slowness," etc. ; but it soon
became apparent that the trouble was mainly based on fresh
demands for " recognition." On Tuesday, August 15, repre-
sentatives of the four societies issued from Liverpool an
ultimatum in which they offered the railway companies
" twenty-four hours to decide whether they were prepared
to meet immediately members of those societies to negotiate
the basis of settlement of the matters in dispute " ; and they
added : "In the event of this offer being refused, there will
be no alternative than to respond to the demands now being
made for a national railway stoppage."

The railway companies expressed their firm resolve to
adhere to the principle of conciliation, and on the following
Thursday the " signal " was given for a general railway strike.
Only about one-third of^the railway workers responded, and,
though great and very grave inconvenience and loss were
caused in some parts of the country, there was (owing, in
part, to the calling out by the Government of a large body of
troops to protect the railway operations) no such " paralysis "
of the railway traffic in general as had been threatened, while

448 History of Inland Transport

public opinion was distinctly unsympathetic towards the
strikers.

Meanwhile active steps had been taken by the Government
to effect a settlement, and late on the Saturday night
(August 19) an agreement was drawn up and signed by the
parties to the negotiations.

Under this agreement the men were to return to work
forthwith ; pending questions were to be referred to the con-
ciliation boards, while the Government undertook to appoint,
at once, a Royal Commission to investigate the working of
the conciliation and arbitration scheme, and report what
changes, if any, were desirable with a view to the prompt
and satisfactory settlement of differences. It was further
announced that the Government had given an assurance to the
railway companies that they would propose to Parliament
in the Session of 1912 legislation providing that an in-
crease in the cost of labour due to the improvement of con-
ditions of the staff would be a valid justification for a reason-
able general increase of charges within the legal maxima, if
challenged, under the Act of 1894.

Two statements, giving the result of the negotiations, were
issued by the Board of Trade on the night of August 19. In
one of these it was announced that Mr Claughton (chairman
of the London and North- Western Railway Company) and
Sir Guy Granet (general manager of the Midland Railway
Company), who represented the railway interests at the
Conference, had " stated that the recommendations of the
Commission would be loyally accepted by the railway com-
panies, even though they be averse to the contention of the
companies on any question of representation, and, should
a settlement be effected, any trace of ill-will which might have
arisen during the strike would certainly be effaced." In the
other of these official announcements it was said : " Assur-
ances have been given by both parties that they will accept
the findings of the Commission." The statements were re-
peated in " The Board of Trade Labour Gazette " for Septem-
ber, 1911.

The Royal Commission, which consisted of five members,
viz. Sir David Harrel (chairman), Sir Thomas R. Ratcliffe
Ellis, Mr Arthur Henderson, M.P., Mr C. G. Beale and Mr
John Burnett, held twenty-five sittings, between August 28

Railways a National Industry 449

and October 3, for the purpose of taking evidence, the witnesses
examined by them during this period including thirty-four
on behalf of the various railway workers' unions, ten non-
unionist workers and twenty -three representatives of the
railway companies.

The case presented on behalf of the railwaymen's unions
was, in effect : (i) that the working of the conciliation and
arbitration scheme had in various respects been very un-
satisfactory, and changes therein or alternatives thereto were
recommended, though in regard to the details of these
changes and alternatives the witnesses did not all agree
among themselves ; (2) that " recognition " of the unions,
allowing of the labour unions officials — with, as was said,
their " trained and experienced minds " — taking part in
the negotiations with the railway companies, was essential
to full justice being done to the men, who were either not
competent to state their own claims or might have their
position in the service prejudiced ; (3) that such recogni-
tion would be in the interests of industrial peace because
of the increased powers of the unions in enforcing the mainten-
ance of any bargains that were made ; (4) that discipline on
the railways would be strengthened if the men were confident
that there would be an impartial investigation of their com-
plaints ; and (5) that, as the principle of recognition was
accepted in other great industries, the railway companies
were not justified in refusing it to their own men.

On the other side it was contended (i) that much of the
disappointment felt at the results of the awards — which had,
nevertheless, led to substantial concessions being made —
was due to the unreasonable hopes raised by the " National
Programme," and that, although certain modifications might
be made in the conciliation scheme, the principle there-
of was sound, while the companies had made a " tremen-
dous departure " by themselves proposing, in 1907, in the
interests of peace, to concede the principle of arbitration,
which involved the " revolutionary " step of taking from
the directors the power of deciding what the rates of payment
and the hours of labour of their workmen were to be ; (2) that
the four unions concerned still included only about one-fourth
of the men, and that " recognition " of them would inevitably
lead to interference with questions of management and
.2 G

450 History of Inland Transport

discipline, without — as shown by the experiences of the
North-Eastern Railway, where " recognition " had not pre-
vented the occurrence of repeated disputes — offering any
guarantee for peace, while a partial strike on certain of the
Irish lines during the sittings of the Royal Commission was
pointed to as showing that the union officials were unable to
control their members ; (3) that the allegations as to railway-
men being unable or afraid to present their case to their own
companies were unfounded, and that the real object aimed
at in demanding " recognition " of the union officials was
to coerce non-unionists into joining the unions which, with
their increased membership, would then be in a better position
to force the railways to agree to all demands ; (4) that if the
companies were compelled to accept " recognition," with all
the risks it would involve, they should, at the same time, be
relieved of their present responsibilities in respect to the
public safety and public interests ; and (5) that no analogy,
in regard to " recognition," could be drawn between the
railways, the continuous operation of which was essential
to the wellbeing of the community, and ordinary commercial
undertakings, which could suspend their working with only
a limited degree of inconvenience to the public, or none at all.
The Commissioners, in their report, issued October 20,
1911, declared that in their opinion it was of the utmost
importance that the initial stage of conference between the
men and the companies — apt to be regarded as simply a pre-
liminary to the later stages under the settlement scheme —
should not only be maintained but facilitated. They recom-
mended the abolition, as " redundant," of the central boards
and the reference to the sectional boards of " any matter
dealing with hours, wages, or conditions of service, except
questions of, or bearing upon, discipline and management."
Each sectional board should have a chairman selected from
a panel to be constituted by the Board of Trade, but such
chairman should be called on to act (virtually as arbitrator)
only in the event of the sectional board being unable to agree.
The men should be free to combine in the same person the
duties of men's secretary and advocate at all meetings of the
Board, and be at liberty to appoint to such post " any suitable
person, whether an employee of the company or a person
from outside " ; though this arrangement was " not intended

Railways a National Industry 451

to prevent the men from obtaining the services of a special
advocate before the chairman."

Much dissatisfaction with the report — and mainly so on
account of what was regarded as a wholly inadequate exten-
sion of the principle of recognition — was expressed by the
men's leaders and endorsed at meetings of the men's societies,
where demands were made for a general strike on a greater
scale than before, while the leaders repudiated any suggestion
that they had given a pledge to accept the findings of the
Royal Commission of Inquiry. A new National Programme
of improved conditions was put forward, but simultaneously
therewith various of the leading railway companies announced
revisions of their rates of wages as applying to the lower
grades among their workers.

In the case of the Great Western Railway Company it
was reported that between 20,000 and 30,000 men would
benefit from the concessions, the immediate cost of which to
the company would be £56,000 per annum, with an eventual
cost, at the end of three or four years, of £78,000 per annum.
The London and North-Western Company announced in-
creases amounting in the aggregate to £80,000 a year, these
being an addition to increases already made, under the
arbitrator's award, at a cost to the company of £70,000 a
year. The Midland Railway Company gave notice that from
November 3 the minimum rate of pay for all adult members
of their staff would be 223. per week if employed in London,
2 os. per week in certain large towns, and 193. per week at all
other places, the actual advances thus made to individual
workers ranging from is. to 43. the week.

Material concessions were also announced by the Great
Central and the Caledonian, and intimation was given by
other companies that they had the matter under consideration.
All these concessions were, however, apparently disregarded
by leaders of the extremest section among the men, who
declared, in effect, that they would be satisfied with nothing
short of recognition.

In the week ending November 4 representatives of the
men's unions held a four-days' conference in London to con-
sider what action should be taken, and there would seem to
have been some hope on their part that, influenced by the
threat of a further general strike, the Government would

452 History of Inland Transport

exercise its influence with a view to inducing representatives
of the railway companies to meet the other signatories of the
August agreement and discuss with them the terms of the
report. On November 3 the Prime Minister, Mr Buxton and
Sir George Askwith did confer with selected representatives
of the companies at 10 Downing Street. No official announce-
ment was made as to the result, but this was evidently well
indicated by the following statement in " The Times " of
November 4 : —

" We understand that the attitude of the directors of the
railways of the country collectively is that, while they are
prepared to carry out to the full the whole of the recommenda-
tions of the Inquiry Commission, they are not prepared to
go any further."

Later in the same day the joint executive committee of the
railway unions informed the Press that they had decided to
take a ballot of their members — the papers to be returnable
by December 5 — on the question as to whether or not they
were prepared to accept the findings of the Royal Commission
and, also, " to withdraw their labour in favour of the recog-
nition of trade unions and of a programme of all railwaymen,"
to be agreed upon by members of the joint executive com-
mittee.

Whatever may be the final outcome of all these contro-
versies, the position in regard to the troubles both of 1907
and 1911 has obviously been most materially, if not, indeed,
mainly, influenced by questions of trade union recognition
which do not necessarily cast any reflection on the railway
service itself, or detract from it as being one of the most im-
portant, most popular and most sought after of our national
industries.

CHAPTER XXIX

TRAMWAYS, MOTOR-BUSES AND RAILLESS ELECTRIC TRACTION

IN previous chapters I have shown that the first great high-
way for^the citizens of London passing from one part of the
capital to another was the River Thames ; that the liveli-
hood of the watermen became imperilled by the competition
successively of private carriages, hackney coaches, and
cabriolets, or " cabs " ; and that these, in turn, had after-
wards to face the competition of omnibuses. A still further
development, leading to competition with the omnibuses, was
brought about by the re-introduction of the tramway, for
the purposes of street transport. ;.,•{

It was in the United States that street tramways first came
into vogue, and it was by an American, George Francis Train,
that the pioneer tramway of this type in England was laid at
Birkenhead at the end of the '50*8. A few other short lines
followed, and some were put down — without authority — in
certain parts of London, only, however, to be condemned as a
nuisance on account of the hindrance to other traffic. It was
not until 1868 that lines laid in Liverpool secured public
favour for the innovation. Fresh tramways were laid in
London between 1869 and 1871, and others followed in
Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dublin and elsewhere.

All the early lines were operated by horses ; but various
expedients were resorted to with the idea both of obtaining
greater speed and of carrying more persons at comparatively
less cost. Among these expedients were steam locomotives
and underground cables, the latter for cars furnished with a
grip attachment conveying to them the movement of the
cables, as operated by machinery at a central depot. The
greatest impetus to the street tramway system came, however,
with the application of electricity as the motive power.

The first line opened on the " trolley " system of overhead

453

454 History of Inland Transport

wires, conveying electric current to the cars, was in Kansas
City in 1884. Electric tramways were tried in Leeds in 1891,
and the system was afterwards adopted in many other towns.
Underground conduit and surface-contact systems were also
employed, with a view to avoiding overhead wires, to which
widespread objection was, especially at first, entertained ;
but the latter system has been the one generally adopted.

Development of the tramway system in England was slow
on account, not of any lack of enterprise on the part of
business men, but of the discouraging nature of tramway
legislation.

Just about the time when the original horse tramways
began to come into vogue certain local authorities were cherish-
ing strong grievances against the gas and water companies in
their districts. They complained that the charges of these
companies were extortionate and that the terms they asked,
when invited to dispose of their undertakings to the said local
authorities, were excessive. The companies, nevertheless,
controlled the situation because their Parliamentary powers
represented a permanent concession, and because, also, they
were able to fix their own price in any negotiations upon
which they might be invited to enter.

When the introduction of another public service, in the
form of street tramways, seemed likely to create still another
" monopoly," it was thought desirable to prevent the tram-
way companies from attaining to the same position as that
of the gas and water companies. Powers were accordingly
granted to enable the local authorities, if they so desired, to
acquire the undertakings, at the end of a certain period, on
terms which would be satisfactory to themselves, at least.

It was motives such as these that inspired some of the main
provisions of the Tramways Act of 1870, the full title of which
is " An Act to Facilitate the Construction and to Regulate the
Working of Tramways " ; though in a statement presented to
a Committee on Electrical Legislation of the Institution of
Electrical Engineers, in 1902, the late Sir Clifton Robinson,
manager of the London United Tramways Company, declared
that "if it had been described as an Act to discourage the
construction of tramways it would have better described the
action of some of its clauses."

The Act did, undoubtedly, confer certain advantages on

Tramways, Motor-buses, etc. 455

tramway promoters, as well as on local authorities, since it
abolished the obligation previously devolving upon them to
obtain — as in the case of a railway company — a Private Bill
in respect to each fresh line they desired to construct. It
authorised them to apply, instead, to the Board of Trade for
a Provisional Order which, on its formal confirmation by
Parliament, would have all the force of a Private Act. In
this way the procedure was both simplified and rendered less
costly.

On the other hand, the Act of 1870 laid down (i) that the
assent of the local and road authorities to a new line of tram-
way should be obtained ; though where the assent of authori-
ties in respect to two-thirds of the mileage was secured the
Board of Trade might dispense with that of any other object-
ing authority ; (2) that the frontagers were also to have a
power of veto ; (3) that the original concession should be
granted for a period of twenty-one years only ; and (4) that
at the end of such period, or at the end of any subsequent
period of seven years, the local authorities should have the
option of acquiring the tramway at the " then value " of the
plant, without any allowance for compulsory purchase, good-
will, prospective profits or other similar consideration.

So long as these provisions applied to horse tramways only,
the companies may not have found them specially oppressive,
inasmuch as there was still a prospect of their being able to
make a profit within the twenty-one-year period before they
were compulsorily bought out at " scrap-iron " rates, while
they could expect to realise the value of their stock of horses ;
though, in effect, the statutory obligations meant, even then,
that towards the end of their tenure the tramway company
did not spend a single shilling on the line more than was
absolutely necessary to keep it in working order until the
day of their eviction arrived, generally grudging even a coat
of paint for the cars and refraining from any avoidable labour
on the roadway. Individuals, and especially foreign visitors,
unacquainted with the facts of the case, might well have con-
sidered some of the old tramway systems a discredit to the
country.

When electric traction for tramway operation was intro-
duced, there was a natural expectation on the part of the
British public that the tramway companies would adopt it

45 6 History of Inland Transport

in place of horse traction. The companies were hampered,
however, by the Act of 1870, which remained in force though
a complete revolution in the conditions of street rail- transport
was being brought about.

The substitution of electricity for horse-power meant (i)
the provision of power stations, sub-stations and new car
depots ; (2) the fixing of overhead wires, together with fresh
track- work, in the streets ; (3) the use of a heavier type of
car ; and (4) the running of a much more frequent service,
since only under these conditions can an electric tramway
possibly be made to pay. All these things involved a very
substantial increase in the capital outlay, and companies
may well have hesitated to incur so great an expense with the
prospect of only a twenty-one years' tenure before them ;
while the position was even more hopeless in the case of
companies whose tenure had already half expired.

The dissatisfaction of the public when they found that the
tramway system of the country was not being brought up
to date, and compared most unfavourably with tramway
systems abroad, gave to the local authorities an apparent
justification both for providing and for operating tramways
as a special phase of municipal enterprise. At the time the
Act of 1870 was passed it was assumed that, although local
authorities might construct or acquire tramways, they would
certainly lease them to private companies to operate.1 In
proportion, however, as the movement for municipal enter-
prise developed, local authorities were the more inclined to
operate tramways in addition to owning them. There was
no general Act giving them authority so to do, but the diffi-
culty was overcome by the insertion in Local Bills of clauses
giving to the local bodies promoting the Bills power to operate
their own tramways, the reason advanced being that there
were difficulties in the way of leasing the lines to companies on
satisfactory conditions.

Matters were not left entirely in the hands of the muni-
cipalities, various tramway companies having sought, as their
twenty-one years' tenure came to a close, to make such
arrangements as would warrant an adaptation of their existing

1 When the Tramwa)s Bill of 1870 was introduced, Mr Shaw Lefevre
stated that its underlying principle was to empower local authorities ' ' to
construct tramways, but not, of course, work them."

Tramways, Motor-buses, etc. 457

system to electric traction ; while other companies applied
for powers to construct new lines or extensions of lines on the
same system. Parliament had certainly sanctioned a longer
period of tenure than twenty-one years when the promoters
could make an arrangement to this effect with the local
authorities concerned ; and it was hardly likely that a com-
pany would incur the great expense of constructing an entirely
new tramway, with electrical installation and other require-
ments all complete, unless they had some guarantee of a longer
tenure than the statutory period. But these very factors
enabled the local authorities concerned to control the situation ;
and their power to exercise this control was made still more
complete by the operation of Standing Order No. 22, which
applied to Private Bills for tramway schemes require-
ments similar to those of the Tramways Act as regards the
obligation on promoters to obtain the assents of local and road
authorities.

These authorities had thus an absolute veto over any new
tramway schemes, and such veto might finally rest in the hands
of a single local authority, controlling a sparsely populated
section of the proposed mileage, yet having, perhaps, the
controlling voice in being the one authority whose approval
was needed to make up the requisite two-thirds.

There had been some expectation on the part of tramway
promoters that the general position would be improved by the
Light Railways Act, 1896, many light railways being in-
distinguishable from tramways. Under this Act the assent
of the local and road authorities is not required, and the
frontagers' veto was done away with by it in the case of light
railways ; but authority to oppose was given to railway com-
panies, and in practice the Light Railway Commissioners
held that they ought not to authorise a tramway as a light
railway unless it connected the area of one local authority
with another. For these and other reasons the Act was not so
beneficial in regard to tramways as had been anticipated.

In the case of tramway companies it became a matter either
of paying to the local authorities the " price " they asked for
their assent, or else seeing the schemes fail at the start, without
any chance of having them even considered on their merits.
How local authorities have used — or abused — the power of
control thus possessed by them is suggested by some remarks

45 8 History of Inland Transport

made by Mr Emile Garcke in an article published in " The
Times Engineering Supplement " of July 25, 1906, where he
says : —

" The right of veto is exercised not so much with the desire
to destroy a projected enterprise, but rather to exact the
utmost conditions which a promoter will accept sooner than
abandon the project. When a scheme is proceeded with in spite
of these exactions it is taken as evidence that the conditions
imposed have not been exacting enough ; and whenever the
operating company has occasion subsequently to ask the local
authority to approve anything, the company is expected to
offer more than commensurate consideration, although the
object for which the approval is desired may be primarily for
the benefit of the public. All these obstacles imply increased
capital outlay or increased working costs, and perhaps both.
If, notwithstanding these conditions, the company earns a
moderate profit, it is accused of striving only after dividends
to the prejudice of the public. If non-success of the enterprise
follows, then the company is accused of being over-capitalised
and mismanaged, and it has come to be considered an im-
pertinence for a company to offer ever so mild a protest."

On the same subject it is stated in "The Dangers of
Municipal Trading," by Robert P. Porter (1907) : —

" The use of the veto has had disastrous effects on private
enterprise. In many districts it has led to utter stagnation
of personal initiative. Good schemes have been barred by
local authorities out of pure caprice or prejudice. Other
schemes have been allowed to proceed under barely tolerable
conditions ; the undertaking has been crippled from the start
by the high price municipalities have exacted for their consent.
Others, again, have been withdrawn by the promoter because
he found it impossible to agree to the extortionate demands
of the governing bodies."

Mr Porter quotes various authorities who have expressed
strong views on the subject of the veto.

The chairman of the Parliamentary Committee which
considered a scheme of tramways promoted in Scotland said :
" The Committee desire to put on record that in their opinion
the original scheme was a good one, and calculated to be of
much use to the district ; but it has been so mutilated and
loaded with conditions by conflicting interests and the ex-

Tramways, Motor-buses, etc. 459

cessive demands of several local bodies that it now appears to
the Committee to be wholly unworkable."

In 1902 Mr Chaplin, at one time President of the Local
Government Board, stated that " what local authorities
would describe as conditions are regarded by promoters — and
very often, no doubt, with good reason — as neither more nor
less than blackmail. This has been the subject of great com-
plaint for years, and I do not think I should be going too far
if I said that on several occasions it has led to considerable
scandals."

Lest these expressions of opinion may be considered unduly
severe by any reader unacquainted with the facts, I turn for
some definite data to the " Exhibit to Proof of Evidence,"
handed in by Sir Clifton Robinson to the Royal Commission
on London Traffic when he was examined before that body
in 1904.!

In the early days of his company (the London United), the
local authorities, Sir Clifton said, " had not, perhaps, fully
recognised their opportunity," and the company got their
assents comparatively cheaply under their first Act in 1898.

Two years later the price they had to pay for the assents of
local authorities to a group of tramways in the Twickenham,
Teddington and Hampton district was £202,000, or £16,000 a
mile. The requirements imposed on the company took the
form of " wayleaves " and of street improvements, the greater
part of the latter being entirely apart from the actual needs
of the tramway. The improvements in Heath Road, Twicken-
ham, giving a 45-ft. roadway, cost for properties and works
alone some £30,000. A like sum had to be spent in Hampton
and Hampton Wick, where the work done included the setting
back of the entire frontage of the Royal Deer Park of Bushey.

In 1901 the company sought for powers to construct twelve
miles of tramway in Kingston-upon-Thames and neigh-
bourhood. On this occasion the " concessions " wrung from

1 Another of the witnesses was the Right Hon. J. W. Lowther, M.P.,
at that time Chairman of Committees, and now Speaker of the House of
Commons. He assured the Commission that the power of "vetoing"
tramways had worked a great deal of mischief. He further declared that
the Standing Order had been most improperly used for the purpose of
extorting all sorts of terms and conditions from tramway companies, and
had subjected them to liabilities and disabilities which were never contem-
plated by Parliament.

460 History of Inland Transport

them by the local authorities amounted to £66,000 for street
improvements, £20,000 for bridges, and a further £68,000,
capitalised value of annual payments for so-called " way-
leaves." This made a total of £154,000, or £12,800 per mile,
merely for assents to the construction of their lines. The
details of the account included a sum of £1500 extorted by an
urban district council as " a contribution towards some town
improvement, not necessarily on the company's proposed line
of route, but anywhere in their district the council might
desire."

One item to which the company had to agree in 1902,
before they could obtain an Act authorising them to build
another thirteen miles of tramway, was the construction at
Barnes of an embankment and terrace along the river side.
It made a very pleasant promenade, and was certainly an
addition to the amenities of the neighbourhood ; but it cost
the tramway company £40,000. The " price " of local
authorities' assents for these thirteen miles of line worked out
thus : Street improvements (properties and works), £72,000 ;
Barnes Boulevard, £40,000 ; " wayleaves " (capitalised),
£100,000 ; a total of £412,000, or £31,600 per mile.

Altogether, in the four years, 1898-1902, the total expendi-
ture of the company on street and bridge improvements in
respect to less than fifty miles of tramway amounted to
£745,000 ; and although, to a certain extent, the widenings,
etc., were necessary for electric tramway purposes, " the bulk
of the expenditure under this head," Sir Clifton declared, " was
undertaken with a view to conciliate the local authorities,
or was forced upon us by them as the ' price of their assents.' '*
To this £745,000 was to be added £241,000, the capitalised
value, at five per cent, of the " wayleaves " the company had
also agreed to pay, making a total of £986,500, irrespective
altogether of the cost of construction and equipment of the
lines.

When, in 1904, the company proposed to construct still
another twenty-one miles of tramway in the western suburbs
of London, " they recognised their obligations to the local
and county authorities," Sir Clifton said, by proposing to
undertake street, road and bridge widenings which would have
cost them £217,932. They thought this a sufficiently generous
" price " to pay for permission to provide the district with

Tramways, Motor-buses, etc. 461

improved transport facilities. Instead of being satisfied,
the local authorities made demands which would have in-
volved the company in a further expenditure of £642,630,
making a total of £860,562. One urban district council
included in its demands the construction by the tramway
company of public lavatories and a subway. In a district
where the company were prepared to spend £30,000 on road
improvements the county council demanded a carriage-
way of forty feet and wood paving throughout six and a half
miles of country roads, involving the expenditure of a further
£30,000.

Rather than submit to all these exactions the company
abandoned their Bill. They had already abandoned sixty
miles of proposed tramway extensions " owing," said Sir
Clifton, " to the demands or the uncompromising attitude of
the local authorities," although many of these lines would have
been valuable connections with the existing tramway system,
and would have served in no small degree the traffic needs of the
districts concerned.

" It is not too much to say," added Sir Clifton Robinson,
in concluding his statement, " that instead of giving such
proposals sympathetic consideration, if not practical en-
couragement, the attitude assumed by the average local
authority of to-day is one of hostility, inspired by a desire
to extort the uttermost farthing from promoters."

In the face of experiences, or the prospect of experiences,
such as these, many would-be promoters of tramway enter-
prise developed a natural reluctance to put their own money,
or to try to induce other people to put theirs, into the business ;
and even some American financiers, who thought we were
much too slow in tramway matters in this country, and came
over here with the combined idea of showing us how to do
things and of exploiting us to their own advantage, abandoned
their plans and went home again when they got to understand
the bearing of our legislative enactments on the situation.

So, as time went on, the local authorities had greater
excuse than ever for constructing the tramways themselves ;
and most of the principal urban centres built lines of their own,
sooner or later.

That there have been certain resemblances between State
policy towards the railways and State policy towards the

462 History of Inland Transport

tramways may have been already noticed by the reader. Just
as the one was primarily based on suspicion and distrust due
to the earlier action of the canal companies, so was the other
inspired by what were regarded as the shortcomings of gas
and water companies. Just, also, as the local authorities, while
not aiding the railways at all, were given authority to levy
an abnormal taxation on them, so have they been given a free
hand to exploit the tramway companies in making them pay
a heavy price for assents to their enterprises. The story of
tramways, again, like that not only of railways but of canals
and of turnpike roads, shows the same early lack of centralised
effort with a view to securing a national system ; and this
piecemeal growth of tramways, rather than of a tramway
system, was, undoubtedly, fostered in proportion as (i) dis-
couragement was given to private companies, which could
have operated without respect to borough boundaries and
county areas, and (2) tramway construction drifted more
into the hands of local authorities, whose powers did not go
beyond the borders of their own particular districts.

While recognising these resemblances, one must admit that
the handicapping of the tramway companies has been far
more severe than that of the railway companies, by reason of
the power of absolute veto possessed by local authorities in
regard to tramway schemes, and the use they have made of it.
Parliament certainly never foresaw the extent of such use, or
abuse, when it granted the said power of veto ; and the
practices in question, like the operation of tramways by the
local authorities themselves, were due to a policy of drift and
" leave alone " rather than to deliberate intention or ex-
pressed approval on the part of the Legislature. The misfor-
tune is that when the new developments in tramways occurred,
or that when the abuses arose and the innovations were intro-
duced, Parliament did not revise its legislation to meet the
new conditions. The Royal Commission on London Traffic
reported in 1905 in favour of the abolition of the power of veto,
saying : " We consider it unreasonable that any one portion
of a district should be in a position to put a stop to the con-
struction of a general system of tramways required for the
public benefit, without even allowing the case to be presented
for the consideration of Parliament. ... It appears to us
that instead of a ' veto ' it would be sufficient that local and

Tramways, Motor-buses, etc. 463

road authorities should have a locus standi to appear before
the proposed Traffic Board and Parliament, in opposition
to any tramway scheme within their districts, by whomsoever
such tramway scheme might be promoted." But nothing has
yet been done in the way of carrying this recommendation
into effect.

The proportions in which street and road tramways and
light railways [in the United Kingdom were owned by
(a) local authorities and (b) companies and private individuals
respectively in 1909-10 are shown by the following table,
taken from official returns : —

CAPITAL TOTAL

LENGTH EXPENDITURE ON EXPENDITURE

NUMBER OF OPEN FOR LINES AND WORKS ON CAPITAL

BELONGING TO UNDERTAKINGS. TRAFFIC. OPEN FOR TRAFFIC. ACCOUNT.

M. Ch. £ £

Local authorities . 176 1710 17 36,807,264 49,568,775
Companies, &c. . 124 851 34 19,294,077 24,372,884

Totals . 300 2561 51 56,101,341 73.941.659

To this table I might append the following statistics as
to the operation of street and road tramways and light rail-
ways in the United Kingdom in 1909-10 : —

Capital authorised ...... £93,124,187

Capital paid up ...... £73, 260,225

Number of horses ...... 2,365

Number of locomotive engines .... 31

Number of cars :

Electric ....... 11,749

Non-electric ...... 601

Total number of passengers carried . . . 2,743,189,439
Quantity of electrical energy used (Board of Trade

unit) ....... 483,671,806

Gross receipts ....... £13,077,901

Working expenditure ..... £8,132,114

Net receipts ^4.945.787

Appropriations : —

Interest or dividends ..... £1,913,872

Repayment of debt or sinking fund . . 2I»I33'I34

Relief of rates ....... £346,274

Added to Common Good funds . . . . £54,028

Aid from rates ....... £64,215

It will have been seen from the table given above that the
total length of tramways and light railways owned by local
authorities is double the length of those owned by companies ;

464 History of Inland Transport

but, in the circumstances already narrated, the cause for
surprise is, rather, that private companies should have been
sufficiently bold or enterprising to do as much in the way of
tramway construction as they have.

To the tramway patron it may seem to be a matter of no
great concern whether the tramways are owned and operated
by local authorities or by companies, provided they are
satisfactory ; and there may even appear to be various
advantages on the side of public ownership of what, since the
public streets and roads are used, may be regarded as essen-
tially a public service.

There have, however, been many suggestions that municipal
tramways are too often managed on lines involving a disregard
of commercial principles, and that much of the financial
success claimed for them is due less to real " profits " than to
the omission from the expenditure side of their accounts of
inconvenient items which, if included therein, would show
much less favourable results than those desired. Thus it has
been represented from time to time by opponents of " muni-
cipal trading " — who have advanced many facts and figures
in proof of their assertions — that large sums of money spent on
street widenings for tramway purposes — that is to say, sums
which a tramway company would pay from its capital account,
and put down as costs of construction — are omitted from the
municipal tramway accounts and classed under the head of
" public improvements," to be covered out of the local rates.
The general practice is to debit a third of such expenditure
to the tramway, the other two-thirds coming out of the rates ;
but the critics allege that, in some instances, a far greater
proportion even than the two-thirds has been left to be
defrayed by the general ratepayer. * It is further alleged that
inadequate amounts are set aside for depreciation, and that
the sums allowed for the use of the central office and the
services of the central staff may be considerably less than
the figures which ought to be allocated thereto, if the
municipal tramway business were really conducted on
business lines.

1 See R. P. Porter's "Dangers of Municipal Trading," pp. 174-5,
where it is stated that of over ,£4,000,000 spent by the London County
Council on street widenings for tramway extensions only ^377,oco was
debited to the tramway undertaking.

Tramways, Motor-buses, etc. 465

Whatever the actual position may be in regard to these
matters of account, which the financial experts may be
left to decide, it has long been a question (i) whether it would
not have been better either from the early days of street tram-
ways or, at least, from the time when electric tramways were
introduced, to have given a greater degree of encouragement
to private enterprise ; and (2) whether, assuming it was neces-
sary, or desirable, that local authorities should own the tram-
ways, it would not have been more prudent to arrange with
private companies for their operation, as is done, for example,
in the case of the light railway system in Belgium. On this
latter point the Royal Commission on London Traffic say in
their report (1905) : —

" We think it reasonable that some profit should be derived
from the tramways for the benefit of the municipality, but it
does not follow that the best way of securing the largest profit
will be that the municipality, even if it finds the money for
construction, should undertake the task of operating. In other
countries it is not unusual for municipalities to construct,
purchase or otherwise acquire the tramways, but in such cases
the actual working is generally left to operating companies,
with provision for proper rates and general control. It is
claimed that such methods yield a better financial result to
municipalities, and avoid difficulties which might arise from
municipal authorities carrying on a business of this kind on
a large scale."

To-day we have the further question whether electric
tramways, which have always constituted a more or less
speculative business, have not attained the height of their
possible development, and whether they are not already on
their decline in face of other systems more efficient or, at least,
less costly and less cumbersome.

The whole history of transport shows constant change and
progress, the achievements of one generation or the " records "
of one pioneer being only the starting-point of fresh advance
or of still greater triumphs later on. Electric tramways them-
selves were, undoubtedly, as great an improvement on horse
tramways as the drawing of vehicles by horses along a pair
of rails had already been an advance on locomotion over the
rough and rugged surfaces of badly made streets or roads.
But electric tramways did not necessarily constitute finality,
2 H

466 History of Inland Transport

and local authorities who built them as though for eternity
are now faced by the rivalry of the motor-omnibus.

Motor-omnibuses are still to a certain extent in the experi-
mental stage, since no one would suggest that they have yet
attained to the greatest possible perfection, while further im-
provements in them are constantly being announced. Yet
already their number has enormously increased, and they are
not only competing severely with the tramway but threaten-
ing eventually to supersede it. The motor-omnibus requires
no special track, no overhead wires, no power station and
sub-stations, and no costly widenings of streets and roads
or rebuilding of bridges. Consequently, the capital expendi-
ture involved in the provision of a large stock of motor-
omnibuses is far less, in proportion, than that entailed by
electric tramways providing an equivalent service. The motor-
omnibus, too, has greater freedom in a busy thoroughfare —
and is thus quicker in its movements — than the tramway car,
limited to a fixed track and much more liable to be detained
by blocks of traffic. The motor-bus, again, can readily be
transferred from one route to another where greater traffic
is likely to be found, whereas the tramway, once laid, must
remain where it is, whether the takings are satisfactory or not ;
while another material factor in the case of an electric tram-
way, namely, that owing to the cost of the standing equipment
(power house, etc.), a fifteen-minute service is, generally
speaking, the lowest economic limit,1 does not arise in the
case of the motor-omnibus, which can be run according to the
actual requirements of traffic.

Still greater attention is now being paid to the subject of
motor-omnibuses, inasmuch as the discouragement given to the
provision of electric tramways by commercial companies — by
reason of the exactions levied as the price of assents or because
of the preference shown for municipal ownership — has driven
private enterprise to seek alternative methods in supplying
facilities for street and road traffic with the prospect of a
reasonable return on the capital invested ; and one ideal in
these alternative methods naturally is, in the circumstances,
that they should involve a minimum of possible control by the
local authorities. If, in the result, private enterprise, thus
driven to adopt new expedients in locomotion, should so far
1 " Electricity in Locomotion," by A. G. Whyte, 1911.

Tramways, Motor-buses, etc. 467

perfect a motor-omnibus, or any other alternative service, that
the electric tramway will not only have a powerful competitor
but be largely superseded, the position of the municipalities
which first sought to exclude or to exploit private enterprise
and then invested large sums in speculative tramway
undertakings of their own will be sufficiently serious.

While, on the one hand, certain local authorities which have
no municipal tramways are now establishing municipal motor-
omnibuses — showing in this practical manner their own view
of the respective claims of the two systems — others, with the
intention of safeguarding the interests of their tramway
undertakings rather than of securing greater transport
facilities for the public, are renewing towards the motor-
omnibus, as a direct competitor with municipal tramways,
the hostility shown by the canal companies towards the rail-
ways when the probability of the former being supplanted by
the latter began to be realised ; though it is, of course, now no
longer a matter simply of one set of commercial companies
competing with another.

A further rival to the electric tramway is arising in the
system of railless electric traction, the fundamental principle
of which is the application of electric power, derived from
overhead wires, to electric cars, resembling motor-omnibuses
(or alternatively, to goods lorries and vans), driven on ordinary
roads without rails, and capable of being steered in and out
of the traffic over the whole width of the roadway.

The advantages claimed for the system are (i) that the cost
of installation is only from one-fourth to one-third of the
average cost of British tramways per mile of route, the per-
manent way of the latter being responsible for from two-
thirds to three-quarters of the capital expenditure, while
maintenance of tramway lines is also very expensive ; (2) that
costly street widenings are avoided ; (3) that Bills for railless
electric traction projects can be laid before Parliament without
first obtaining the assent of the local authorities ; (4) that
such traction can be profitably installed in towns having
populations insufficient to support a tramway, or having
streets unsuitable for tramway rails ; (5) that it is especially
useful, for linking up outlying districts with tramways and
railways ; for developing country and seaside places ; for
the conveyance of agricultural produce from rural districts

468 History of Inland Transport

to neighbouring towns or the nearest railway ; and for the
transport of goods or minerals to or from railway stations or
harbours over the same routes as passengers ; (6) that the
cars are more reliable and cheaper to operate than petrol,
petrol-electric, steam or battery-driven vehicles ; and (7) that
inasmuch as the running of railless electric traction is prac-
tically noiseless, house property is not likely to be depreciated
in value as in the case of the tramway.

The disadvantages of the system as compared with the
motor-bus are (i) that the railless electric traction bus can
only run along streets which have been provided with over-
head wires ; (2) that, even allowing for the absence of rails,
the expense involved in overhead wires and power stations
will still be necessary, as in the case of a tramway ; (3) that
by reason of the standing expenses, and in order to utilise the
electric current to the best advantage, a frequent service
will have to be maintained, whether the traffic really warrants
it or not, whereas the motor-omnibus can be brought out and
run only at such hours of the day as remunerative traffic is
likely to be obtained ; and (4) that railless electric traction
goods vans or lorries — being able to go only along certain
streets, and being unable even there to load or unload, in-
asmuch as these operations would prevent other railless cars
from passing — would be less better adapted for urban trading
purposes than commercial motors.

Railless electric traction seems to have been first adopted
at Grevenbruck, Westphalia, in 1903, and since that date it
has been resorted to in various other places on the Continent.
In this country, apart from a short experimental line con-
structed at the Hendon depot of the Metropolitan Electric
Tramways, the first applications of railless traction have been
at Leeds and Bradford, where, following on the obtaining of
Parliamentary powers in 1910, municipal railless electric
traction systems were formally opened in June, 1911, the
system adopted being that of the Railless Electric Traction
Construction Company, Ltd. In each case the railless traction
supplements the existing municipal tramway.

At Leeds the tramway route from the City Square is
followed for about a mile, and then, with the help of a special
set of wires, the new system diverges, and continues to a
point three miles further on ; though the Parliamentary

Tramways, Motor-buses, etc. 469

powers allow of a still further extension to the city boundary.
At Bradford the railless system establishes a link a little over
a mile in length between two tramway routes.

In the Session of 1911 there were about sixteen Bills before
Parliament applying for powers in respect to railless traction.
Some of these were promoted by local authorities, one or two
were by tramway companies, one was by an omnibus company,
and the remainder were schemes by various private promoters.

Municipal corporations already owning and operating tram-
ways would seem to favour the railless electric traction system
because it enables them (i) to utilise to greater advantage
the electric power they are already generating for tramway
purposes ; and (2) to provide transport facilities for parts of
their district where, as is said, the traffic prospects would not
warrant the laying of a tramway. It is open to consideration,
however, whether the recognition by municipalities of the
advantages of railless electric traction over the tramway does
not itself foreshadow the eventual doom of the latter, apart
altogether from any considerations that arise in respect to
the motor-omnibus. It is certainly significant that in his
presidential address to the ninth annual conference of the
Municipal Tramways Association, in September, 1910, the
general manager of the Bradford Corporation Tramways,
Mr C. J. Spencer, is reported to have said : —

" In considering future developments the trackless trolley
system naturally comes first into view. The introduction of
this new method of transit into this country . . . will un-
doubtedly extend the sphere of usefulness of the trolley system.
The tramway construction boom stopped, not because every
district that required better facilities was supplied, but
because financial reasons made it impossible to proceed any
further into districts unable to support a capital expenditure
of £14,000 to £15,000 per mile of tramway laid. . . . The
railless system, however, comes along with a vehicle as reliable
as a tramcar, and at least as cheap to operate, but with a
capital expenditure on street work so low that the bugbear of
heavy interest and sinking fund charges is practically non-
existent."

It remains to be seen to what extent companies or corpora-
tions will be likely to start entirely new and independent
schemes of railless electric traction, setting up power-houses,

470 History of Inland Transport

etc., for the purpose, in preference to running motor-buses or
commercial motor vehicles. This will be the real test of the
respective merits of the two systems, apart from any further
utilisation of existing tramway power stations; and it is
always to be remembered that still greater improvements in
self-propelled buses, vans, etc., will certainly be brought
about. There is certainly significance, in this connection,
in the following report, published in the " Engineering Supple-
ment " of " The Times" of November 8, 1911 : —

"The Tramways Committee of the Edinburgh^ Corpora-
tion have decided that nothing further is to be done for the
present in connection with the proposal to adopt ^rail-less
tramways for the city and district, in view of information
which they have obtained regarding an improved type of
petrol-electric omnibus which has been introduced in London.
In the latter class of vehicle, they are informed, many of the
disadvantages of the motor-omnibus as hitherto known have
been overcome, and they consider that it would be prudent to
await further developments before taking any action with
regard to rail-less tramways."

Whatever the eventual issue of the rivalry between the two
new systems themselves, the fact that they have been intro-
duced at all would seem to confirm the assumption that in the
dictionary of transport there is no such word as " finality."
We are also left to conclude —

(1) That in the struggle between governing authorities and
private enterprise the last word is not always with the former ;

(2) That the resort by local authorities both to motor-
omnibuses and to railless electric traction suggests that, even
in their opinion, electric tramways are being improved upon,
even if they have not already had their day ;

(3) That the municipalities which checked the development
of tramways by private companies — from whom an assured
return might have been gained — and themselves spent, in the
aggregate, many millions of public money on a form of muni-
cipal enterprise yielding doubtful results, involving great
liabilities, and now, apparently, being superseded by superior
systems, may eventually find abundant reason for regretting
their past policy ; and

(4) That when local governing authorities do enter upon
speculative commercial enterprises, they cannot, any more than

Tramways, Motor-buses, etc. 471

commercial companies, set up the plea of " vested interests "
as against new-comers in the march of progress, but must
themselves also submit to economic laws, and run the risks
which commercial undertakings, even under municipal
direction, necessarily involve.

CHAPTER XXX

CYCLES, MOTOR-VEHICLES AND TUBES

IN addition to the developments in locomotion spoken of
in the previous chapter, there have been various others to
which reference should be made.

The principle of a manu-motive machine, furnished with
wheels, by means of which an individual could propel himself
along a road with greater speed and less exertion than in
walking, goes back to the very earliest days of human history,
evidences of an attempt to adapt such principle having come
down to us from the times both of the Egyptians and the
Babylonians.

In the last quarter of the eighteenth century and the first
half of the nineteenth, various contrivances were introduced
in our own country under such names as " the velocipede,"
" the dandy horse," " the hobby horse," " the wooden horse,"
and the particular form of bicycle known as " the bone-
shaker." The last-mentioned became, in spite of its draw-
backs, a craze in the late '6o's ; but it was the substitution
of indiarubber for iron tires, and the production, in 1885, by
J. K. Starley, of the modern rear-driven " safety," that
established the practical utility of the bicycle. A succession
of improvements followed, including pneumatic tires, free
wheels, two-speed and three-speed gears, the adaptation of
the bicycle to the use of ladies, and the supplementing of the
bicycle by tricycles, sociables, tandems and the motor-cycle.

Cycles have been well defined as " the poor man's carriage " ;
but they are to-day favoured by every class of the community.
Thanks, more especially, to the numerous local cycling clubs
and the great touring clubs, of which the latter count their
members by tens of thousands, cycles have materially de-
veloped the taste for travel ; they have led to indulgence in
outings or pleasure trips at home and abroad to an extent
previously unknown ; they have vastly increased the means of

472

Cycles, Motor-vehicles and Tubes 473

communication ; they have exercised a powerful influence
on our general social conditions, and they have become, in a
variety of ways, and with different modifications of the bicycle
or the tricycle principle, an important auxiliary to the
despatch of business.

Cycling has thus attained to a place of recognised usefulness
in the professions, in trade, in country life, in the Post Office
and even in the Army. It is no longer a hobby, a craze or
exclusively a source of recreation. The cycle has definitely and
permanently established its position as one of the most popular
of " carriages," and, in doing so, it has itself led to the creation
of a very considerable industry.

By 1895 the demand for cycles had become so great that
it was then impossible for the manufacturers to meet all re-
quirements. Over-speculation and over-production, accom-
panied by severe foreign competition, followed, and for a time
the position of the home industry was very unsatisfactory.
It has since re-established itself on sounder lines and now
constitutes an enterprise of considerable local importance in
various parts of the country, including Coventry, Birmingham,
Nottingham and Wolverhampton.

Public prejudice and State policy were factors in the arrested
development, in this country, of the application of mechanical
power to road vehicles, so that while such application has its
ancient history equally with the bicycle, the actual expansion
thereof — on such lines that it has now become the dominating
feature in road transport generally — has been brought about
in quite recent times.

When, in the early years of the nineteenth century, general
attention was attracted to the possibilities and prospects of
using locomotives on the railway in place either of horses or of
stationary engines, further projects were mooted for employing
steam-propelled vehicles on ordinary roads. Trade expansion
and the inefficiency of existing road-transport conditions
combined to strengthen these proposals, and from about
1827 to 1835 or 1840 much enterprise was shown in the con-
struction of steam-carriages, and more especially steam-
coaches and steam-omnibuses of which various regular
services, in London or in the country, were run with, at first,
considerable success. The vehicles in question were designed
mainly for the conveyance of passengers, and some of them

474 History of Inland Transport

attained a speed of over twenty miles an hour. There were
even those who anticipated that steam-carriages on roads
would be successful rivals of the locomotive on rails. Alexander
Gordon, civil engineer, and an ardent supporter of steam-
driven road vehicles as against railways, wrote in "An His-
torical and Practical Treatise upon Elemental Locomotion by
means of Steam Carriages on Common Roads " (1832) : —

" It will be found that, with the exception of the Liverpool
and Manchester line, and of those lines formed solely for the
purpose of conveying heavy materials on a descending road,
railways are, at least, of very questionable advantage where
there is the possibility of having a good turnpike road and
steam carriages. . . . Rail-roads have a very formidable rival
in steam communication upon the common road, and the
latter is of vastly greater advantage than the former."

Opposition, however, to steam-driven road coaches was
hardly less vigorous than the opposition offered to the rail
locomotive itself. Not only were obstructions constantly
placed on the roads to prevent the steam-coaches from passing,
but country squires, horse-coach proprietors, post-horse
owners and representatives of the turnpike road interests
combined to show the most active hostility to the new form
of locomotion. The turnpike road trustees sought to make
the running of the steam-coaches impossible by imposing pro-
hibitive tolls on them. It was shown in evidence before a
Parliamentary Committee that where on the road between
Liverpool and Prescot horse-coaches would pay a 43. toll, the
steam-coach was charged £2. 8s., while on other roads the tolls
in the case of the latter were equally extortionate.

There were pioneers in those days who devoted time, toil
and fortune to attempts to establish steam locomotion on the
roads, only, one after the other, to retire from the contest
discomfited and impoverished.

Among them was Sir Goldsworthy Gurney, who laboured
for five years and expended ^30,000 on his attempts to bring
steam-carriages into practical and permanent use. Finding,
at last, that the turnpike trustees controlled the situation,
Gurney and other steam-carriage builders petitioned Parlia-
ment to investigate the subject of the opposition shown to
them, and a Select Committee of the House of Commons was
appointed for this purpose in 1831. It reported in favour of

Cycles, Motor-vehicles and Tubes 475

steam road-carriages, and recommended a repeal of the old
turnpike Acts. A Bill to this effect was passed in the Commons
but thrown out in the Lords. Disheartened by his losses,
Gurney ceased to build and to run coaches on his own account
and tried to form a company. He failed in the attempt, and
he then appealed to Parliament to make him some recom-
pense for all he had done in the interests of the public. A
proposed grant of ^10,000 was objected to, however, by the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Gurney got nothing. Con-
cluding that it was useless to continue his attempts in the face
of so much discouragement, he sold off his stock-in-trade and
retired from the business.

By 1835 nearly all the steam-carriages had been taken off
the road, and by 1840 the considerable industry which had
been developed was engaged almost exclusively — so far as it
survived at all — in the production of traction engines, only
spasmodic attempts being made between 1840 and 1860
to produce improved types of steam-carriages for private
use.

In 1861 traction engines had so far increased in numbers
that a Locomotive Act was passed mainly to fix a scale of
tolls applicable to them on all turnpike roads ; though this
Act further stipulated that each " locomotive " should be in
charge of at least two persons, and that the speed should not
exceed ten miles an hour when the vehicle was passing along
any turnpike road or two miles an hour when passing through
a city, town or village. An amending Act, which became law
in 1865, laid down that each locomotive should be in charge
of three persons ; that one of these must walk in front carrying
a red flag, and that the maximum speed should not exceed
four miles an hour on the highway or two miles an hour in
passing through a town or village. Various other restrictions
were also imposed.

It was this " red flag Act " that virtually killed off the self-
propelled road-vehicle business here for the time being, except
as regarded traction engines proper. A few enthusiasts made
steam-carriages as a hobby, and certain manufacturers made
them for export to the colonies or to India, where there were
no such restrictions on their use as in this country. In India,
especially, these carriages were found very serviceable in
localities then unprovided with railways, though any manu-

476 History of Inland Transport

facturer who even tested their capacity on a public road in
England was liable to prosecution.

British inventors, thus effectively prevented by hostile
legislation from improving self-propelled road-vehicles, turned
their attention, instead, to tricycles and bicycles, while conti-
nental inventors, not being hampered by legislative restric-
tions in their own country, first converted the tricycle into a
motor-vehicle, then applied the motor principle to four-
wheeled waggonettes, and finally evolved some useful types
of motor- vehicles which, by 1895, were being widely adopted
on the Continent and more especially in Paris.

A few bold pioneers who introduced them here were re-
peatedly prosecuted and fined. The general position had,
in fact, become even worse since 1865, because not only was
a motor-car still regarded in the eye of the law as the equivalent
of a traction engine or " locomotive," but, under the High-
ways and Locomotives (Amendment) Act, 1878, every county
council was authorised to exact up to £10 for a licence which
would allow of the use of such traction engine or " locomotive "
only within the boundary of the authority in question, a fresh
licence being thus required for each county council district
through which a vehicle might pass. The only exceptions
were locomotives used solely for agricultural purposes. Not-
withstanding all these restrictions, there were — exclusive of
vehicles of the agricultural type — about 8000 traction engines
in use on our roads in 1895.

Much vigorous and practical protest led to the passing of
the Locomotives on Highways Act of 1896, which became the
Magna Charta of automobilism in this country. Making at
last a distinction between motor-cars and traction engines, it
relieved from the said restrictions any vehicle, propelled by
mechanical power, the weight of which (unloaded) did not
exceed three tons, or, together with that of a trailer (also un-
loaded), four tons. It further sanctioned the driving of such
vehicle at a speed of up to fourteen miles an hour, but gave
authority to the Local Government Board to reduce the
speed if it thought fit — an authorisation of which the Board
availed itself by fixing the speed limit at twelve miles an hour.

A great impetus was given to the use of light vehicles, and
November 14, 1896, when, under the Act, the motor-car
became a legal vehicle in this country, is known in automobile

Cycles, Motor-vehicles and Tubes 477

circles as Emancipation Day. But the Act afforded no relief
in the case of motor-vehicles suitable for trade or public
service purposes. Within the weights specified vehicles of
these types would have been commercially unprofitable be-
cause they could not have carried a paying load. Above the
said weights they were still regarded by the law, and were
subject to the same regulations, as road locomotives or
traction engines.

Strong representations on the subject were made by the
Royal Automobile Club (then the Automobile Club of Great
Britain and Ireland), the Society of Motor Manufacturers and
Traders and the Commercial Motor Users' Association, which
bodies claimed the right of the trading interests of the country
to a greater degree of reasonable consideration. These further
protests again led to good results. In 1903 a Motor-car Act
was passed which, among other things, raised the speed limit
to 20 miles an hour (subject to authority given to the Local
Government Board to reduce the limit to 10 miles an hour in
dangerous areas), and provided for the licensing of drivers
and the registration and identification of cars, with a view
to checking reckless driving ; while power was, also, given
to the Local Government Board to increase the maximum
weights allowed by the earlier Act. In January, 1904, the
Board appointed a Departmental Committee to inquire into
the question of increasing the maximum tare, and, after
taking counsel with technical experts, trading bodies and
commercial authorities, it finally issued the Heavy Motor-car
Order, 1904, effecting changes in the maximum weights (un-
laden) as follows : —

MOTOR CAR MOTOR CAR AND TRAILER

Act of 1896 . . 3 tons 4 tons.

Order of 1904 . 5 tons 6£ tons.

This Order, which came into force on the ist of March, 1905,
made possible the provision of commercial motor-services,
and the full development of the motor industry, on present-
day lines. It led, especially, to the creation of new types of
vehicles previously unknown here, and, by allowing " heavy
motor-cars " — the designation now applying to motor-
vehicles over two tons in weight — to take their place in
ordinary road traffic, foreshadowed changes in inland trans-

47 8 History of Inland Transport

port to which one could hardly attempt, at present, to fix any
limit.

In respect to pleasure cars, detailed figures published in the
issue of " The Car " for December 14, 1910, show that the
number of these (as distinct from heavy motor- vehicles),
registered in the United Kingdom at that date, and allowing
as far as possible for those which had lapsed, was 124,860.
Of motor-cycles there were 86,414. These figures convey
some idea of the extent to which the automobile has been
not only substituted for private horsed-carriages, as used
for ordinary urban and social purposes, but adopted, also,
for those longer journeys or tours which the improved means
of locomotion have brought so much into vogue.

How the country is being opened up more and more to
motor traffic may be shown by some references to the work
in this direction by the Royal Automobile Club and the
Automobile Association and Motor Union.

Founded in 1897, the Royal Automobile Club is an influen-
tial body with many-sided activities, including the provision of
a club house in Pall Mall well deserving the designation of
" palatial," and typical of the high standing to which auto-
mobilism has attained. More, however, to my present pur-
pose than the social advantages offered by the club is the fact
that the R.A.C. not only advises its members or associates
as to the best route in regard to any tour they propose to
make by motor, at home or abroad, but provides them with a
complete typewritten itinerary and specially-designed maps
for such tour, the information given being kept up to date
by means of reports made by the members themselves. The
inquirer is given, also, a guide-book for the district in question
written from the point of view of the traveller by road ; he
receives some confidential notes concerning the hotels en
route, and he may arrange to retain the services, for periods
of an hour, a half-day, a day, or a week, of local guides —
clergymen, writers, secretaries of local societies and others —
who are qualified authorities on art, archaeology, architecture,
natural history, topography, etc., besides having an intimate
knowledge of the localities visited. In the Club itself there is
a well-stocked " Travel Library," from whichVbooks can be
borrowed. Should the member or the associate on tour come
into conflict with the law in regard to alleged offences under

Cycles, Motor-vehicles and Tubes 479

the Motor Acts, the R.A.C. will defend him in any police
court in the United Kingdom free of charge, though it reserves
to itself the right to refuse such assistance in the case of those
who may have been guilty of inconsiderate driving.

Much has been done by the R.A.C. in the provision of road
direction posts. It has, for example, put up posts or direction
boards along the whole of the Great North Road from London
to Berwick. It erects danger signs at especially dangerous
places, though at these only, as it considers undesirable any
undue multiplication of such signs by private agencies. The
R.A.C. is, further, most vigilant in defending the common
interests of motorists when these are endangered by Parlia-
mentary Bills or in other ways.

The Automobile Association and Motor Union also has its
Touring Department, for home or foreign travel. It offers,
like the R.A.C., free defence of members prosecuted for offences
against the Motor Acts ; it has an " hotel system " of its own,
and it has shown much activity in the placing of direction
posts and danger signs on important roads throughout the
United Kingdom.

A special feature of the A. A. and M.U.'s operations is the
patrolling, by men in uniform — and provided with bicycles
or motor cycles — of 14,000 miles of roads throughout Eng-
land, Wales and Scotland. It is the duty of these patrols to
give to members information of interest concerning the road,
to warn them of any dangers on the highway, and to render
them all possible assistance in case of need. They are able
to undertake minor roadside repairs ; they procure, in case
of need, fresh petrol supplies from the nearest store ; while
each is qualified to give first aid in case of accident, much
excellent service being rendered by them on the roadside
not only to members but to the public. Agents and repairers
have also been appointed by the A. A. and M.U. in all im-
portant cities and towns and in numerous hamlets at intervals
of a few miles along every main road. The agents receive or
deliver letters or telegrams, and are helpful in many ways to
the members.

In addition to these central organisations in London there
are now Associated Automobile Clubs throughout the United
Kingdom which show a great deal of local activity and offer
many advantages to their own members.

480 History of Inland Transport

It is, again, the now general use of the automobile that has
given to the improvement of the roads the greatest degree
of stimulus it has received since the days of McAdam and
Telford.

Speaking generally, excellent results have followed from the
policy adopted by the State in transferring the charge of main
roads from turnpike trustees to the county councils, and, also,
in encouraging rural district councils to pay more attention
to local highways other than main roads. In 1908-9, for
example, the county councils spent on 27,749 miles of main
roads a total of £2,739,591, and the rural district councils
spent on the 95,144 miles of road under their own control
a total of £2, 160,492 on maintenance and repairs and £52,067
on improvements. Nor is there any reason for supposing that,
under the conditions operating to-day, this expenditure is
wasted or ill-spent, as was the case with so much of the outlay
on roads in the pre-McAdam days of non-scientific road-making.

While the roads were being adapted to the requirements
of ordinary traffic, their shortcomings from the point of view
of the traffic of motor-cars and traction engines were made
apparent, and called for special attention. It was not only
that the suction of the india-rubber tyres raised clouds of dust
and, also, injured the macadamised roads by depriving the
top layer of stones of their proper binding, but the greater
speed at which the motor-cars were driven made it especially
necessary that the roads should be alike wide and straight,
with as few awkward, if not dangerous, turns, twists or
corners as possible.

The increasing use of traction engines is indicated by a
report on the county roads issued by the Kent County Council.
The number of traction engines licensed by that body during
the year ending March 31, 1911, for use in the county, was
101, as cornpared with only 37 in the previous year.

Action was called for all the more because cycling and
automobilism have increased the use of the roads of the
United Kingdom in general to an extent that probably sur-
passes their use even in the palmy days of the Coaching Era.
At that time it was almost exclusively along the main roads
between leading cities that the coaches went in such numbers ;
whereas cyclists and motorists in search of the picturesque
may discard main roads and proceed, instead, along highways

Cycles, Motor- vehicles and Tubes 481

and by-ways where the stage-coach was never seen. The
sum total of the road traffic to-day may thus be in excess of
that of the Coaching Age, though, perhaps, appearing to be
less because it is better distributed.

For like reasons it became necessary that not only the main
roads, but the highways and by-ways, also, should receive
adequate attention.

Under the Development and Road Improvement Funds
Act, 1909, there was constituted, in 1910, a body known as
the Road Board, having for its special function the adminis-
tration of a " Road Improvement Grant." The Board was
to have power, with the approval of the Treasury, (a) to
make advances to county councils and other highway authori-
ties in respect to the construction of new roads or the improve-
ment of existing roads, and (b) itself to construct and maintain
any new roads, which appear to the Board to be required for
facilitating road traffic.

The funds available for the Road Improvement Grant arise
from the motor spirit duties and the motor-car license duties,
the last-mentioned being £i for motor-bicycles and motor-
tricycles, of whatever horse-power, and from £2 2s. to £42
for motor-cars, according to their horse-power. Motorists
thus directly contribute towards the improvement of the
roads, and the principle involved is the same as that under
which road-users formerly paid tolls on turnpike roads ; but
the present application of this principle is obviously a great
improvement on the system of turnpikes, with its excessive
cost of toll-collection and other disadvantages.

The amount likely to be available for grants by the Board
is estimated at about £600,000 a year ; but, owing to an
accumulation of funds before operations were begun, the
Board started with resources amounting to £1,600,000. The
grants actually made to September 30, 1911, were: —

i

Improvement of road crusts . . . 321,445
Road widenings and improvement of

curves and corners .... 44,856
Road diversions ..... 16,906
Construction and improvement of bridges 23,947

Total . 407.154

2 I

482 History of Inland Transport

Inasmuch as applications were made to the Board up to
June 30, 1911, for advances amounting in the aggregate to
close on ^8,000,000, there would seem still to be a great deal
that requires to be done to the roads of the country to adapt
them to the traffic conditions of to-day. It will be seen, how-
ever, that the combined operations of the Royal Automobile
Club, the Automobile Association and Motor Union, and the
Road Board constitute, in effect — and more especially from
the point of view of provision of facilities for through traffic
under satisfactory conditions — a national road policy far in
advance of anything this country has ever seen before.

These road improvements appeal to the motorist, delighting
in cross-country journeys, still more than they do to the urban
trader, whose road transport does not, generally speaking,
extend beyond a certain radius. But within the limits of
such radius the substitution of commercial motors for horse-
drawn vehicles is undergoing an expansion which seems to be
restricted only by the extent of the motor-car manufacturers'
powers of production, while already the use of so many com-
mercial motors is accentuating certain changes in commercial
conditions which — as it is one of the objects of the present
work to show — have ever been powerfully influenced by the
transport facilities of the day.

With the large wholesale and retail houses the use of the
road motor is a matter not simply of economy in transport
but, to a still greater degree, of doing a larger business, in
less time, and over a wider area, than if horsed vehicles were
used.

When urban traders send motor-vehicles a distance of over
twenty or even thirty miles into the outer suburbs, and when
those vehicles can cover from fifty to sixty miles in a day,
distributing fresh supplies to suburban or country shopkeepers,
delivering purchases to local residents, or calling on them to
leave groceries, meat and other household necessaries, the
possibilities of an expansion of business by the said traders
are greatly increased, more especially when the local residents
within the radius in question find that if they give an order to
the van-man, or send it by post one day, the motor- vehicle
will generally supply their wants the next day or the day
following. Under this arrangement the big traders, or the
big stores, in town are enabled to make their already big

Cycles, Motor-vehicles and Tubes 483

businesses bigger still — to their own advantage, but with a
corresponding disadvantage to the local shopkeepers.

In another direction the commercial motor is assisting the
operations of trading companies, caterers, grocers, tea-dealers,
tobacconists, etc., who, instead of having a single huge block
of departmental shops or stores, have numerous branches in all
parts of London, furnishing them with viands, provisions or
stock from a head depot. In all such instances as these, — more
especially when cooked food is distributed from a central
kitchen, — the superiority of the motor-vehicle over the horsed
van is self-evident ; while the further advantage is gained
that the branch establishments can be devoted wholly, or
almost exclusively, to the serving of customers, without any
need for extensive kitchen arrangements or store-rooms of their
own. Alternatively, the premises used for these branches
need be no larger than is necessary to meet day-by-day
requirements, whereas an independent trader, having only a
single establishment, would want much more accommodation,
involving higher rent, rates, taxes and expenses generally.

Once more the gain is on the part of the big trader as against
the small one ; and once more we have evidence of the
increasing tendency for the former to supersede the latter. In
fact, the real competition to-day is no longer between large
traders and small traders. It is a competition between the
commercial giants themselves. It is a contest in which the
small shopkeeper is little better than an interested spectator,
with nothing more to hope for than that the particular giant
who wipes out his business will, at least, be so far considerate
as to offer him a situation.

In the recesses of Wild Wales there has been seen a com-
mercial motor- vehicle which was virtually a shop or a general
stores on wheels — something after the style of the familiar
gypsies' van, though of a far superior type. There are evi-
dently endless possibilities in this direction. The time may
come when it will not be necessary for the rural resident to go
to the shops in even the nearest town. The shops themselves —
or equivalents thereto — will be brought to the very door.
To a certain extent there will thus be a reversal to the habits
of former days ; but between the packhorse, or the pedlar,
and the motor-shop-on-wheels there will be a distinct and a
very wide difference, representing generations of both scientific

484 History of Inland Transport

and economic progress. Do not such possibilities still further
suggest, also, the eventual supersession of the small trader
by the large one ?

In almost every class of trade or business the commercial
motor is being steadily substituted for horsed vehicles. There
are large retail houses in London which have each their
" fleets " of up to fifty or sixty mo tor- vans or lorries.1 The
carrying companies would hardly be able to provide their
extensive suburban services of to-day without road motors.
Fishmongers, ice merchants and fruit salesmen, who especially
require to have a speedy means of distributing their wares,
favour the commercial motor no less than do the managers
of evening newspapers. Laundry companies — to whose
business a great impetus has been given of late years by the
increasing resort to residential flats — find commercial motors
of great service in the collections that have to be made on
Mondays and Tuesdays and the deliveries effected on Fridays
and Saturdays. Furniture-removers, by resorting either, for
small removals, to motors carrying pantechnicons, or, for
large removals, to traction-engines and regular road trains,
can now cover distances of up to 100 or 150 miles a day, the
" record " down to the autumn of 1911 being 166 miles in a
day. Brewers, mineral-water manufacturers, oil companies,
coal merchants, pianoforte-makers, brick-makers and scores
of other traders, besides, are all taking to the new form of
street or road transport.

Motor-vehicles are likewise succeeding horsed vehicles for
fire-engines, municipal water-carts and dust-carts, street
ambulances, Post Office mail- vans,2 char-a-bancs and estate
cars, the last-mentioned being constructed so that they can be
used either for passengers or for goods. Theatrical companies
on tour use motor-vehicles for the conveyance of themselves,
plus belongings and- scenery. Political propagandists, also on
tour, move in their motor-van from one village to another
with an ease that no other road vehicle could surpass. Reli-
gious missions are being sent out in motor- vans fitted up as

1 The total number of commercial motor-vehicles working in the London
district in August, 1911, was, according to statistics compiled by "Com-
mercial Motor," 3500.

2 Mails are now being sent out from London every night by motor-vans
for distances of up to 100 miles.

Cycles, Motor- vehicles and Tubes 485

chapels, and duly dedicated to their special purpose. Finally,
after having had, through life, the advantage of all the
numerous and varied motor services here mentioned, one may
now be conveyed to one's last resting-place in what a writer
in "Motor Traction" for June 24, 1911, describes as "a
properly-equipped motor hearse."

So considerable is the expansion which the use of com-
mercial motors has undergone, and so great and varied are
the interests represented, that there is now a Commercial
Motor Users' Association which, among other purposes, seeks
to resist the placing of undue restrictions on users, and to
extend their rights and privileges. The administration of the
Association is vested in an executive committee (on which the
principal industries using self-propelled vehicles for industrial
purposes are represented) and various sub-committees.

Of the motor-omnibus as a competitor with the electric
tramway I have spoken in the previous chapter. It is a no less
serious competitor with the horse omnibus which in London,
at least, if not in other cities as well, it is rapidly driving off
the streets altogether. The position in London is suggested
by the following figures, which give the numbers of horse-
omnibuses and motor-omnibuses licensed in the years stated : —

YEAR. HORSE. MOTOR. YEAR. HORSE. MOTOR.

1902 3736 10 1907 2964 783

1903 3667 29 1908 2557 1205

1904 3623 13 1909 2155 1133

J905 3551 3i 1910 1771 "80
1906 3484 241 191 i1 863 1665

On October 25, 1911, the London General Omnibus Com-
pany, who at one time had 17,800 horses, ran their last horse-
omnibuses, these being then definitely withdrawn by them
in favour of motor-omnibuses.

A like story is to be told of the rapid substitution of motor-
cabs, popularly known as " taxis," for the horse-cabs which,
succeeding the earlier hackney coaches, had helped to render
so disconsolate the formerly important and influential,
though now utterly vanished, body known as " Thames
watermen." * Once more, in fact, the supplanters are being

1 July 31. 19". z See pp. 58-63.

486 History of Inland Transport

supplanted. " Growlers " and " crawlers " have had their
day, and the smarter-looking and quicker-moving taxis are
leaving them to share the fate of the stage-coach when it came
into competition with the better form of transport represented
by the railway.

How far the substitution of motor-cabs for horsed cabs has
already gone in London will be gathered from the following
table, taken from the report (issued in July, 1911) of the Home
Office Departmental Committee on Taxicab Fares in the
London Cab Trade : —

MOTOR-CABS HORSE-CABS LICENSED.

YEAR. LICENSED. Hansom. Four-wheel. Total.

1906 96 6648 3844 10,492

1907 723 5952 3866 9818

1908 2805 4826 3649 8475

1909 3956 3299 3263 3562

1910 6397 2003 3721 4724
I9H1 7165 1803 2583 4386

How the horse is steadily disappearing from the streets and
roads is indicated by the records of a traffic census carried out
by Mr. H. Hewitt Griffin on Putney Bridge, in Fleet Street,
E.G., and in the Edgware Road, and published in the issues
of " Motor Traction " for July 15, May 6, and October 7, 1911,
respectively.

Mr Griffin has taken his Putney Bridge census for seven
years in succession, and, comparing 1905 with 1911, he gives
net results which may be summarised as follows : —

A TWELVE HOURS' CENSUS ON

Sunday, Sunday,

TYPE OF VEHICLE. June 25, 1905. July 2,191 1.

Horse-drawn buses . 1613 .. 33

Motor-buses . . nil . . 1529

Horse cabs, carriages, etc. 715 .. 225

Motor-cars, cabs, etc. . 361 . . 194 3

The Fleet Street traffic census, taken for five successive
years, yielded the following results for 1907 and 1911 : —

1 Figures for March 31. On September 30, 1911, the number of taxi-
cabs in London was 7360.

Cycles, Motor- vehicles and Tubes 487

A TWELVE HOURS' CENSUS ON

TYPE OF VEHICLE. April 23, 1907. April 19, 1911.

Horse-drawn buses . 2241 . . 95

Motor-buses . . 995 . . 2684

Horse-cabs . . 1902 . . 391

Motor-cabs (taxis) . 48 . . 1616

In the Edgware Road the results for 1906 and 1911 were : —

A NINE HOURS' CENSUS ON

TYPE OF VEHICLE. Sept. 2O, 1906. Sept. 18, ign.

Horse-drawn buses . J776 . • 21

Motor-buses . . 441 . . 1599

Horse-cabs . . 1051 l . . 260

Motor-cabs (taxis) . 10 .. 1131

Statistics taken on the Portsmouth Road for the Surrey
County Council on seven successive days in corresponding
weeks of July, 1909, 1910 and 1911 show that the numbers
of motor-vehicles passing between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. were : —

YEAR. NO. OF MOTORS.

1909 5.863

1910 . .... 7,823

1911 ...... 10,635

These figures give an increase in two years of 81 per cent.
During twelve hours on a Saturday in July, 1911, the number
of motor-vehicles counted was 3279, or an average of 273
per hour. The greatest number passing in a single hour
was 524, while during the period of the heaviest traffic 90
passed in ten minutes.

AH these varied and ever-extending uses to which motor-
vehicles are being put would seem almost to foreshadow the
time when the horse is likely to be found only at the Zoo-
logical Gardens, as a curious survival of a bygone age in
traction.

Definite statistics as to the extent to which automobilism,
in its manifold phases, constitutes an industry in itself are
not available ; but the activities now employed on or in
connection with motors, motoring, and motor transport are
manifold and widespread.

1 Figure for Sept. 2j, 1907.

488 History of Inland Transport

For many years the crippling effect of legislative restrictions
greatly checked the development of motor-car construction
in this country. The Act of 1896 gave a stimulus to the
building of pleasure cars, but French and German makers
had the advantage until British manufacturers showed they
could produce cars which would bear comparison with the
foreign importations.

Real expansion of the home industry came with the Heavy
Motor-car Order of 1904, although even then no great degree
of progress followed immediately thereon. Traders generally
were reluctant to acquire commercial motors for themselves
until the success of the new vehicles had been assured, and
some early failures, due to faulty construction, gave commercial
motors a bad name at the start. With the adoption of im-
proved methods, their utility was fully established, and the
expansion of the industry during the last four or five years
has been remarkable in the extreme.

British manufacturers had already gained a world-wide
reputation for their steam road-vehicles (traction engines),
and they readily adapted their plant, etc., to the building of
the best type of commercial motors when the initial difficulties
had been overcome. While, therefore, French and German
makers were still sending their pleasure motors to this country,
British producers of commercial motors kept this branch of
the industry in their own hands, the position to-day being
that practically all the public service and commercial motors
used in this country are British-made. The main if not the
only chance here for foreign vehicles of these types is when
the British makers cannot execute orders promptly enough to
meet requirements.

In point of fact the orders coming to hand far exceed the
present productive capacity of some of our manufacturers,
who, in addition to seeking to supply the home market, are
now sending British-made commercial motors to almost
every country in the world. I am assured, by an authority
in a position to know, that certain of the English and Scotch
manufacturers specialising in commercial motors had so many
orders on hand in October, 1911, that unless they increased
their premises, and laid down fresh machinery, they would
be unable to execute any more until the end of 1912.

Much enlargement or rebuilding of works is already pro-

Cycles, Motor-vehicles and Tubes 489

ceeding, while manufacturers who have hitherto devoted
their attention mainly or exclusively to pleasure motors are
now adapting their plant, etc., to the making of commercial
motors either instead or in addition. The demand for pleasure
motors is limited ; that for public service motors and motor-
vehicles for traders is illimitable. From the great stores
which keep their " fleet " of delivery cars, and from the
furniture-remover who wants the equivalent almost of a
traction-engine down to the draper, the grocer or the butcher
who is content with a modest three-wheel auto-carrier for
loads up to five or ten cwt., every class of trader is to-day
finding that, to keep pace with the times, and to deliver goods
as promptly and at the same distances as his competitors, he
must needs have a quicker means of road transport than a
horsed-vehicle.

Then, while large traders having their fleets of motor-
vehicles set up their own repairing shops, the needs of smaller
traders with only two or three delivery vans are provided
for by motor manufacturers or others who undertake " main-
tenance " on contract terms, thus saving such traders from
all trouble in the matter of repairs and upkeep.

When one adds to these considerations the fact that traders
not only in the United Kingdom but in the colonies, in every
European country, and even as far away as Japan, are looking
to English and Scotch manufacturers to supply them with
motor-traction vehicles, the impression is conveyed that the
further great development of the motor industry in the United
Kingdom will be far less in pleasure motors, or even in the
motors used by doctors and others for professional purposes,
than in commercial motors ; and this impression is confirmed
by a remark made by Sir Samuel Samuel at the Motor-
Aviation dinner given by him at the Savoy Hotel on October
30, 1911. " The future of the motor-car industry," he said,
" lay in the commercial motor traffic, the solution of the street
traffic problem lay in motor-omnibuses, and in ten years time
most of the tramway stock would be scrapped."

Apart from figures as to the number of public service or
commercial motors — chiefly, as I have shown, of home manu-
facture— already in use, the only available statistics indicating
the growth of the British motor industry are those given in
the Board of Trade Returns concerning " cars, chassis and

49° History of Inland Transport

parts " exported, the total value thereof being ^1,502,000 in
1909 and ^2,511,000 in 1910. The imports in the same years
rose from ^4,218,000 to £5,065,000. It may be assumed that
the latter figures relate more particularly to pleasure cars ;
though it should be remembered that even on these, as im-
ported from France or Germany, additional work may often
be done here — in the way of body-building or otherwise — to
the extent of ^200 or so per car. Many allied trades are
likewise doing a good business in the supply of accessories.

Allowing, next, for the employment given to drivers, re-
pairers and others, and for the sum total (if it could only be
estimated) of the amount distributed annually by motorists
among hotel proprietors and town and country tradespeople,
the circulation of money that is directly due to motoring and
motor-traction must be prodigious. As far back as 1906 it
was estimated that motor drivers alone in this country were
receiving over ^5,000,000 a year in wages, that the wages
paid to men employed in the manufacture of cars and acces-
sories amounted to nearly ^10,000,000 a year, and that the
total number of drivers and others concerned in motoring was
about 230,000. But much has happened since 1906, and if
these figures accurately represent the position then, they
would have to be greatly increased to represent the position
to-day.

Thus we see that automobilism — using the word in its
widest application — has not only brought about some remark-
able changes in our conditions of inland transport and com-
munication but is itself rapidly developing into still another
of our national industries, even if it should not have done so
already.

Tube railways are an outcome of various attempts to solve
a problem in urban transport that more especially applies to
London.

When railways were first brought to the Metropolis the
prejudice against them was so strong, and the lack of foresight
as to the purpose they would eventually serve was so pro-
nounced, that in 1846 limits were set up, on what were then
the outskirts of London, within which the lines were not to
come. The whole of the central area was to be left free from
railways, the view of a Royal Commission which considered
the subject in the year stated being that, as the proportion

Cycles, Motor-vehicles and Tubes 491

of short-distance passengers by the main lines was only small,
the probable demand for the accommodation of short-distance
traffic would not justify the sacrifice of property or the ex-
penditure of money that would be involved in placing the
termini in crowded centres. The same Commission recom-
mended that if, at any future time, it should be thought
necessary to admit railways within the prescribed area, this
should be done in conformity with some uniform plan. Under
no circumstances, they urged, should separate schemes having
no reference to each other be tolerated.

It was not long before the growth of London and the trans-
port needs of its population made clear the fact that the
exclusion of railways from the central area could not be
maintained, though the recommendation of the 1846 Com-
mission as regards a uniform plan was wholly disregarded.

Supplementing the omnibuses originally established between
Paddington and the City in 1829 by Shillibeer came, in 1863,
the first line of underground railway, connecting Paddington
station with Farringdon Street, and constructed in an open
cutting, where possible. An earlier idea of having one central
station in London for all the different main lines of railway was
discarded in favour of underground railways of the type here
in question ; and the " inner circle," linking up most of the
main-line termini, was eventually completed. The original
restrictions in regard to the central area were also modified,
such stations as those at Charing Cross, Cannon-Street, Hoi-
born and Liverpool Street being allowed to be set up
within the once sacred precincts. Branches were made from
the inner circle of the underground system ; the main-line
railways began to develop their now enormous suburban
business ; the omnibuses were crowded in the busy hours of the
day, while the tramways, though excluded from the central
area still more rigidly than the railways had been, gained no
lack of patronage to or from the " outer fringe."

All these facilities served a most useful purpose ; but they
obviously required to be supplemented by lines of railway
which would directly serve the central area of London, and
both allow of easier movement from one part of London to
another and enable City workers to travel more readily
between their suburban homes and the immediate locality
of their places of work or business. Neither surface nor over-

492 History of Inland Transport

head railways across the centre of London were even to be
thought of, while the cost of still more underground railways
of the " shallow " type already constructed was looked upon
as almost prohibitive, though underground any further London
lines would assuredly have to be.

A way was found out of the difficulty by the construction
of deep-level iron tubes passing through the stratum of
clay underlying London, such tubes providing for lines of
railway along which trains to be worked by electricity could
pass between various stations — in still larger tubes — in
different parts of London and the suburbs.

The first of these tube railways was projected by the City
and South London Railway Company, and received the
sanction of Parliament in 1884. The line was opened in 1890,
and with it London acquired the pioneer of those tube railways
which were to effect so revolutionary a change in her general
transport conditions. The Central London Railway followed,
in 1900, and since then London has been provided with a
network of tube railways, offering facilities for a more or less
complete interchange of traffic, north and south, and east and
west, both between themselves and in conjunction with the
termini of the main line steam railways. In this way move-
ment about and across London has been greatly facilitated.
Three of the new tubes, the Bakerloo, the Piccadilly and the
Hampstead have been united into one system by the London
Electric Railway Company, and, together with the earlier
District Railway and the London United Tramways, are under
the same control, with great advantage to everyone concerned,
while the original underground lines — the Metropolitan and
the Metropolitan District — have been electrified and vastly
improved. The disadvantages of " isolated projects " on
which successive Commissions — the London Traffic Com-
mission among the number — have insisted so strongly have
thus, to a certain extent, been met by the principle of com-
bination through private enterprise. No action has yet been
taken to carry out the recommendation made in June, 1905,
in the Report of the Royal Commission on London Traffic, in
regard to the formation of a London Traffic Board, though a
useful work is being done by the London Traffic Branch
appointed by the Board of Trade in August, 1907* " to
continue and supplement the work of the Royal Commission

Cycles, Motor-vehicles and Tubes 493

by keeping the statistics up to date, collecting information,
and studying the problem of London traffic in all its changing
aspects." In the reports issued by this Branch will be found
a mine of interesting data on London traffic conditions,
supplementing the abundant information in the reports of
the Royal Commission itself.

It is to be hoped that the sequel to these continued investi-
gations will be the eventual creation of some such central
authority as the London Traffic Board recommended. Whether
this should be done by calling into existence for London an
entirely new body, such as the Public Service Commission
which controls all transportation questions and facilities in
New York City, or whether the simpler method of enlarging
the powers of the present Railway and Canal Commission
should be adopted, by preference, are matters of detail which
the future must be left to decide ; but the advantages that
would result from a greater degree of co-ordination in the
organising and regulating of London transport conditions
are incontestable.

As showing the extent of the patronage which the electric
railways of London, whether tube railways or otherwise, are
now receiving, I might quote from the Board of Trade " Rail-
way Returns " the following figures, giving the number of
passengers (exclusive of holders of season and periodical
tickets) carried in 1910 : —

COMPANY OR LINE. NUMBER OF PASSENGERS.

Central London .... 40,660,856

City and South London . . . 23,501,947

Great Northern and City . . . 9,380,378

Waterloo and City .... 3,724,277

London Electric .... 95,647,197

Metropolitan 82,728,776

Metropolitan District . . . 64,627,829

Whitechapel and Bow . . . 19,886,273

CHAPTER XXXI

THE OUTLOOK

HAVING now traced the important part that improvements
in the conditions of inland transport and communication have
played in the economic and social development of this country,
and having seen, also, the action taken therein, on the one
hand by so-called " private enterprise " (denned by Samuel
Smiles as " the liberality, public spirit and commercial enter-
prise of merchants, traders and manufacturers "), and on the
other hand by State and local authorities, we have now to
consider, in this final chapter, what are the prospects of further
changes and developments in those transport conditions to
which, judging from past experience, it would not be wise to
fix finality in the matter of progress.

Thus far the railway certainly represents the survival of
the fittest ; and, curiously enough, although great improve-
ments have been made in locomotive construction, in rails,
in signalling, in carriage-building and in the various depart-
ments of railway working, no absolutely new principle has
been developed since the Liverpool and Manchester Railway
definitely established the last of the three fundamental
principles on which railway construction and operation are
really based : (i) that a greater load can be moved, by an
equivalent power, in a wheeled vehicle on a pair of rails than
in a similar vehicle on an ordinary road ; (2) that flanged
wheels and flat rails are preferable for fast traffic to flat wheels
and flanged rails ; and (3) that a railway train should be
operated by a locomotive rather than by either animal power
or a stationary engine.

It is true that, in regard to the last-mentioned of these
three main principles, material changes have been brought
about by the resort to electricity as a motive power ; but this,
after all, is an improvement in the means of rail transport
rather than a complete change in the principle of transport

494

The Outlook 495

itself ; and, though electricity may supersede steam to a
considerable extent, especially for suburban traffic, the resort
to it is a reversal, in another form, to the earlier idea of motive
power distributed from a fixed point, as originally represented
by stationary engines, before the locomotive had established
its superiority thereto.

In any case, the railway is still the railway, whatever the
form of traction employed, and there is, after all, no such
fundamental difference between an electric railway and a
steam railway as there was between the railway and the canal,
or between either railway waggon or canal barge and the
carrier's cart travelling on ordinary roads. The question
that really arises here is, not whether electricity is likely to
supersede steam for long-distance as well as for short-distance
rail traffic, but whether the railways themselves are likely
to be superseded, sharing the same fate as that which they
caused to fall on the stage-coach and, more or less, on the
canal barge.

For the physical, economic and other considerations already
presented, there is no reasonable ground for expecting much
from the projected scheme of canal revival. When the country
comes fully to realise (i) the natural unsuitability of England's
undulatory surfaces for transport by artificial waterways ;
(2) the enormous cost which the carrying out of any general
scheme of canal revival would involve ; (3) the practical
impossibility of canal-widening in the Birmingham and Black
Country districts ; and (4) the comparatively small proportion
of traders in the United Kingdom who could hope to benefit
from a scheme for which all alike might have to pay ; — it is
hardly probable that public opinion will sanction the carrying
out of a project at once so costly and so unsatisfactory in its
prospective results.

Still less than in the case of canals would any attempt
to improve the conditions of transport on rivers — serving even
more limited districts, and having so many natural drawbacks
and disadvantages — be likely to meet any general advantage
or to foster any material competition with the railways.

Developments in regard to road transport are much more
promising — or, from the point of view of the railways, much
more to be feared — than any really practical revival of inland
navigation.

496 History of Inland Transport

Dealing, in this connection, first with personal travel, we
find that the main competition with the railways proceeds
from (i) omnibuses, motor or otherwise ; (2) electric tram-
ways, and (3) private motor-cars.

An omnibus, whether of the horse or of the motor type,
is the equivalent of the carrier's van or of the old stage-coach
in so far as it has the complete freedom of the roads. The
electric tramway, while having to keep to a certain route,
and involved in greater capital expenditure by reason of its
need for rails, overhead wires and power stations, may,
if owned by a local authority, still be materially aided, directly
or indirectly, out of the local rates. Thus the omnibus and the
electric tramway may both be able to transport passengers
at lower fares than the railways, which, as regards the muni-
cipal tramways, may even be called on to pay, through in-
creased taxation, towards the maintenance of their rivals.

In London itself the motor-omnibuses have undoubtedly
abstracted a considerable amount of short-distance traffic
from the Central London Railway, which, however, still has
the advantage in regard to longer distance journeys.

That electric tramways and motor-omnibuses have also
diverted a great deal of suburban passenger traffic from the
trunk railways is beyond dispute. But here the companies
are seeking to meet the position (i) by operating their own
suburban lines by electricity, giving their passengers a quicker
transport than they would get with tramways or motor-cars
stopping frequently, or held up by traffic repeatedly, on the
roads or streets ; or (2) by offering to town workers greater
facilities for removing from homes in the inner to homes in the
outer suburbs, if not in the country proper or even on the
coast itself — in other words, to such a distance that they
would naturally be dependent on the railway and the business
trains that are now run thereon from the places in question
to meet their special convenience.1

1 A good example of these tendencies is offered by the Southend district,
situate at the mouth of the Thames, a distance of 35 miles from London.
Season tickets between London and Southend are issued by the railways
at a low rate, and on the London, Tilbury and Southend line there are
6000 holders of these tickets. In the special interests of wives and
daughters cheap tickets to London by an express train are issued on
Wednesdays to allow of shopping in, town, visits to the theatre, etc., and
by this train there is an average of from 600 to 700 passengers, consist-
ing almost exclusively of ladies.

The Outlook 497

Of these two developments the former has not yet been
generally adopted, whereas the latter is in full activity, and,
in combination with the heavier local taxation which is steadily
driving people away from London boroughs, is helping to
produce results of much interest and importance.

The population, not only of London, but of great towns
in general, is undergoing a considerable redistribution. Land
at greater distances from urban centres, and hitherto devoted
only to agriculture or market gardens, is being utilised more
and more for building purposes ; the increasing values of land
within the radius of these outer suburbs improves the position
on urban markets of producers in rural centres whose lower
rents may more than compensate for their slightly heavier
cost of transport as compared with the suburban growers ;
the health of town workers taking to what are not merely
suburban but country homes should improve. Social and
domestic conditions generally are, to a certain extent, in a state
of transition; while the trunk railways are getting back
from their long-distance suburban traffic some — though not
yet, perhaps, actually the whole — of the revenue they have
lost on their short-distance traffic.

On the other hand, results are being brought about in the
inner suburbs which are viewed with much uneasiness by the
local authorities. The removal from the inner suburbs of
considerable numbers of those who can afford to live further
away from their business means (i) that population in the
inner suburban circle is decreasing, or, alternatively, that a
better-class population is giving place to a poorer-class one ;
(2) that much of the house property there is either standing
empty or is fetching considerably lower rents ; and (3) that
the taxable capacity of the areas in question is declining,
although the need for raising more by local taxation is
to-day greater than ever.

Where the local authorities who are experiencing all these
consequences of an interesting social change have themselves
helped to bring them about by setting up municipal tramways
to compete with the railways, thus, among other consequences,
driving the latter to resort to measures of self-defence, they
may find that attempts to change, if not to control, the
operation of economic forces have their risks and perils ; while
the position for the authorities concerned will be even worse
2 K.

498 History of Inland Transport

if their municipal tramway, in turn, should suffer materially
from the competition of the motor-omnibus.

Private motor-cars may appear to have deprived the rail-
ways of a good deal of their passenger traffic, and they certainly
constitute a most material and much-appreciated increase in
the facilities now available for getting about the country.
It must, however, be remembered that a very large proportion
of the journeys taken in them would probably not be made
at all if the motor-car did not exist, and if such journeys had
to be made by train instead. The actual diversion of traffic
from the railway only occurs when journeys which would
otherwise be made by rail are made by motor, in preference.
Here the railway certainly does lose.

Against the loss in the one direction in railway revenue,
owing to the greater use of motor-cars, there can at least be
set the constant growth in the taste for travel which the
railway companies (partly, again, to make up for the com-
petition in suburban traffic) have done their best to cultivate
by means of abnormally low excursion or week-end fares
based, as one leading railway officer put it to me, " not on any
idea of distance, but on the amount that the class of people
catered for might be assumed to be willing to pay."

The travel habit has thus undergone a greater expansion
of late years than has ever before been known, so that a
falling-off of railway traffic in some directions ought, sooner
or later, to be compensated for by increases in others, if,
indeed, that result has not already been attained.

The actual position in regard to passenger travel on the
railways of the United Kingdom during the years 1901-10
is shown by the following figures, taken from the Board of
Trade Railway Returns : —

PASSENGER RECEIPTS FROM

YEAR.

IQOI .

1902 .

1903 .

1904 .

1905 .

1906 .

1 Exclusive of those by season-ticket holders.

JOURNEYS.1

PASSENGERS.

£

1,172,395,900

. . 39,096,053

1,188,219,269

39,622,725

1,195,265,195

. . 39,985,003

1,198,773,72°

40,065,746

1,199,022,102

. . 40,256,930

1,240,347,132

41,204,982

The Outlook 499

PASSENGER RECEIPTS FROM

YEAR. JOURNEYS. PASSENGERS.

£

1907 . . 1,259,481,315 . . 42,102,007

1908 . . 1,278,115,488 .. 42,615,812

1909 . . 1,265,080,761 .. 41,950,188

1910 . 1,306,728,583 .. 43,247,345

These figures give evidence of, on the whole, a substantial
advance in railway passenger journeys and receipts, notwith-
standing all the competition of alternative facilities, and
we may assume that although tramways, motor-cars, motor-
omnibuses and even the latest new-comer, raillcss electric
traction, may supplement and more or less compete with the
railways, there is no suggestion that they are likely entirely
to supplant them for passenger travel.

In the matter of goods transport in general, it is the fact
that during the last ten or fifteen years, more especially, there
has been an increasing tendency for the delivery of domestic
supplies to suburban districts or towns within an ever-
expanding radius of London and other leading cities to be
effected by road, instead of by rail. The same has been the
case in the distribution by wholesale houses of goods to
suburban shopkeepers, and, also, in the reverse direction,
in the sending of market-garden or other produce to central
markets.

Where the railway companies have really created new
suburban districts through the running of specially cheap
workmen's trains, it may seem hard upon them that they
should be deprived of the goods transport to which such
districts give rise.

The fact must be recognised, however, that when the dis-
tances are within, say, a ten-, a fifteen- or even a twenty-mile
radius, and when only small or comparatively small parcels
or consignments are to be carried, the advantages in econo-
mical transport may well be in favour of the road vehicle rather
than of the railway. The road vehicle can load up in the
streets as it stands opposite the wholesale trader's warehouse ;
it pays nothing for the use of the road ; it does not make any
special contribution to the police funds in recognition of
services rendered in the regulation of the traffic ; nor is it
taxed by the local authorities on the basis of the quantity of

500 History of Inland Transport

goods carried and the extent of the presumptive profits made ;
whereas the railway company must have a costly goods depot,
acquire land for their track, lay lines of rails, maintain an
elaborate organisation to ensure safe working of the traffic,
and submit to taxation by every local authority through
whose district the goods carried may require to pass. There
is, also, the further consideration, of which I have previously
spoken, that in the case of short-distance journeys the cost
of terminal services makes the rate per ton per mile appear
much higher, in proportion, than when, while remaining at the
same figure, it is spread over a substantially greater mileage.

While, with the increasing facilities for road transport,
the railways must expect to lose more of their short-distance
traffic, they should be able to retain their long-distance
traffic, and more especially their long-distance traffic in bulk,
commercial motors notwithstanding. Where commodities
are carried either in considerable quantities or for considerable
distances, and more particularly when both of these conditions
prevail, transport by a locomotive, operating on rails, and
conveying a heavy load with no very material increase in
working expenses over the carrying of a light load, must
needs be more economical than the distribution of a corres-
ponding tonnage of goods among a collection of commercial
motors, for conveyance by road under such conditions that
each motor is operated as a separate and distinct unit.

The results, too, already brought about in the case of the
suburban passenger traffic may, possibly, be so far repeated
that railway companies deprived, also, of suburban goods
traffic by the increasing competition of road conveyances,
will show further enterprise in encouraging long-distance
goods traffic to the same markets, or to the same towns.
In this way they might seek to avoid, as far as practicable, any
falling-off in their revenue at a time when taxation, wages,
cost of materials and other working expenses all show a
continuous upward tendency.

Should the policy here in question be adopted, market-
gardeners, more especially, may find that, while they have
effected a slight saving on their cost of transport by resorting
to road conveyance, they will have to face increased com-
petition from produce coming in larger quantities from long-
distance growers who, with a lower cost of production, and,

The Outlook 501

also, with increased encouragement from the railways, might
have advantages on urban markets fully equal to those of
the short-distance grower located in the suburbs.

The whole question of the steadily increasing competition
between road and rail has thus become one of special interest,
at the present moment, alike for the trading, the motor and
the railway interests.

That the use of motor-vehicles is destined to make even
greater advance in the immediate future has already here
been shown. Yet there are distinct limitations to its possi-
bilities, although this fact is apt to be overlooked by motor
enthusiasts, some of whom are, indeed, over-sanguine. One
of them proclaims that " the new locomotion " is " designed
to be the chief means of transit to be used by humanity at
large," and " eventually will probably to a large extent super-
sede all others." He further writes : " Many of us will live
to see railway companies in places pulling up their rails and
making their tracks suitable for motor-car traffic, charging
a toll for private vehicles and carrying the bulk of the traffic
in their own motor-cars."

Granting that motor-vehicles are likely to supersede both
tramways and horse-vehicles, what are really the prospects
of their superseding railways, as well ? Should railway
shareholders at once sell out and put their money, preferably,
in motor-omnibus and commercial motor companies ?

In regard to goods we have the fact that the quantities
thereof carried by the railways of the United Kingdom in
1910 were : —

Minerals . . . 405,087,175 tons.
General merchandise . 109,341,631 ,,

Total . . 514,428,806 tons.

Motor transport could obviously not be adapted to the
transport of 400,000,000 tons of minerals, and for these,
at least, the railways would still be wanted. But the number
of motor-vehicles necessary to deal with 109,000,000 tons of
general merchandise would still be prodigious, apart from
considerations of distance, time taken in transport, wear
and tear of roads, and, also, of the question whether a loco-
motive, doing the work of many motors, would not be the

502 History of Inland Transport

cheaper unit in the conveyance of commodities carried in bulk
on long or comparatively long hauls. The suburban delivery
of parcels is one thing ; the distribution, for example (as
mentioned in a footnote on page 399), of 1000 railway waggons
of broccoli from Penzance, all over Great Britain, in a single
week, is another.

In the matter of passenger traffic, while people of means
may prefer to make such journeys as that from London to
Scotland in their own motor-car, the railway will continue to
form both the cheaper and the quicker means of travel for the
great bulk of the population as distinct from private car-
owners, whose number must needs be comparatively small.

It is in respect to urban and suburban traffic that motor-
vehicles have their best chance of competing with the rail-
ways on any extensive scale ; yet even here, and notwith-
standing all that they are already doing, their limitations are
no less evident.

Taking only one of the many railway termini in London,
the average number of suburban passengers who arrive at the
Liverpool Street station of the Great Eastern Railway Com-
pany every week-day (exclusive of 12,000 from places beyond
the suburban district) is 81,000, and of these about 66,000
come by trains arriving, in rapid succession, up to 10 a.m.
To convey 81,000 suburban dwellers by motor-omnibus
instead of by train would necessitate 2382 journeys, assuming
that every seat was occupied. On the basis of the average
number of persons actually travelling in a motor-bus at one
time, it would probably require 4000 motor-bus journeys to
bring even the Great Eastern suburban passengers to town
each day if they discarded train for bus, and the same number
to take them back in the evening. So long, too, as a single
locomotive on the Great Eastern suffices for a suburban train
accommodating between 800 and 1000 passengers, the com-
pany are not likely to pull up their rails and provide tracks
in their place for a vast " fleet " of motor-cars or motor-
omnibuses.

In some instances tramways and motor-omnibuses have,
undoubtedly, deprived the railways of considerable traffic,
and certain local stations around London have even been
closed in consequence. In other instances tramways and
buses have been of advantage to the railways by relieving

The Outlook 503

them of an amount of suburban traffic for which it might
have been difficult for them fully to provide. But any general
supplanting of railways by motor-vehicles is as improbable
in the case of passenger travel as it is in that of goods trans-
port. Motor-vehicles are certain to become still more serious
rivals of the railways than they are already, but they are not
likely to render them obsolete ; and, taking the country as
a whole, the " bulk of the traffic " may be expected still to go
by rail, motor-vehicles notwithstanding.

Although, at the outset, some of the railway companies
were disposed to regard the motor as a rather dangerous rival,
the most enterprising have themselves adopted various forms
of motor- vehicles, alike for establishing direct communication
between country stations and outlying districts unprovided
with branch lines, for enabling passengers arriving in London
to pass readily from the terminus of one company to that of
another, and for the collection and delivery of goods.

In regard, again, to the outlook for the future, important
possibilities were foreshadowed by a letter addressed to
" The Times " of August 23, 1911, by Lord Montagu of
Beaulieu, concerning " Road Transport during Strikes."
The hope of the leaders of the then recent railway strike had,
of course, been to produce such a paralysis in the transport
arrangements of the country that the railway companies
would have been forced, owing to the resultant loss, dis-
location of traffic, and, possibly, actual famine conditions,
to surrender to all the demands made upon them. While the
attempt failed on that occasion — thanks to the loyalty of the
majority of the workers, the almost complete lack of public
sympathy with the strikers, and, also, the employment of
troops for the protection of the railways — there will always
be the possibility of a renewal of the attempt. Pointing,
therefore, to the large number of motorists in the United
Kingdom, and mentioning, also, that there are, in addition, at
least 10,000 commercial motor-vehicles as well, mostly running
in or near the larger industrial centres, Lord Montagu wrote
that, if supported by the Royal Automobile Club and the
Automobile Association and Motor Union and assisted by his
brother motorists in general, he would undertake in the case
of a national emergency to carry out the following operations :

(i) The carriage of all mails where railways are now used.

504 History of Inland Transport

(2) The supply of milk, ice and necessaries to all hospitals
and nursing homes.

(3) The supply of milk, fish and perishable produce to
London and other large towns.

(4) The supply to country villages of stores not produced
in or near their area, such as sugar, tea, etc.

(5) The carriage of troops or police.

(6) The conveyance of passengers if on urgent business in
connection with family matters or trade.

Lord Montagu added that " the Government would, of
course, have to guarantee open roads and protection for
loading and unloading vehicles, and provide for the swearing-in
of motorists as special constables, who would be thus engaged
in saving the community from starvation and chaos." He
further thought that the compilation of a national register of
motorists willing to lend their cars should be proceeded with
at once.

The existence of such an organisation as this, with the
inclusion, also, in the proposed registry, of horsed waggons,
waggonettes and other vehicles owned by the country gentry
and others, might be of incalculable service both in enabling
the railway companies to stand against the coercion of a really
general strike, and in saving the transport of the country
from any approach to a complete dislocation, pending the
time when the full railway services could be resumed.

A further example of the possible usefulness of motor-
vehicles was shown by a War Office memorandum, issued
on September 26, 1911, giving particulars of a provisional
scheme for the subsidising of petrol motor-lorries already
manufactured and owned by civilians, complying with certain
specified conditions, the War Office thus acquiring the right
to purchase such lorries from the owners for military service,
in the case of need.

Measures of the kind here in question would, of course, be
temporary expedients only, there being, as shown above, no
probability that motor transport by road would ever take
the place altogether of transport by rail.

Nor is aerial locomotion likely to be a more formidable
rival of the railways than either inland navigation or motor
transport by road. One may safely anticipate that further
great advances are yet to be made in the art of flying ; yet

The Outlook 505

one may, also, assume there is no prospect of aerial locomotion
becoming a serious competitor with the railway. It is ex-
tremely interesting to know that the journey from London to
Scotland has now been made in quicker time by aeroplane than
by the fastest express, and that a looo-mile flight round Eng-
land has been accomplished with perfect control of the
machinery employed. Yet, even allowing for the greatest
possible improvements in the construction of the aeroplane,
the number of passengers who could be carried is so limited,
and the fares charged to cover capital outlay must needs
be so high, that there could be no idea of rivalry between
the aeroplane and the railway in regard to passenger traffic.

Like considerations should apply in the case of goods
traffic.

In theory the idea of an aerial express goods service looks
very promising. Yet, as a business proposition, one must
neecjs again consider : (i) the capital cost of the aeroplane ;
(2) the comparatively small quantity of goods that could be
carried on a single journey ; and (3) the high rates that
would necessarily have to be paid for their transport on
commercial lines. A " record " in the aerial carriage of a 38-lb.
consignment of electric lamps from Shoreham to Hove
(Brighton) was established on July 4, 1911, by Mr H. C. Barber,
of the Hendon Aviation Grounds ; but this particular exploit
was suggestive mainly of an advertisement for the lamps in
question. I ventured, therefore, to put the following pro-
position to Mr Barber : —

" Assume that, owing to a railway strike, no goods trains
could pass between London and Liverpool, and that a London
merchant had a consignment of goods which it was of the
utmost importance should be taken to Liverpool for despatch
by a steamer on the point of sailing. Then : (i) What would
be the maximum weight, and, also, the maximum bulk, of
such consignment as an aeroplane could carry ? (2) In
what time, approximately, could the journey from Hendon
to Liverpool be made ? (3) What sum would the London
trader have to pay for the transport ? "

Mr Barber informs me that the maximum weight of such
consignment as could be carried would be about ten stone
(i cwt. i qr.) ; that the maximum bulk would be about
30 cubic feet ; that the journey would take about four hours ;

506 History of Inland Transport

and that the charge for transport would be ten shillings per
mile. The distance " as the crow — or the aeroplane — flies "
between Hendon and Liverpool being about 200 miles, the
charge would come to ^100. Mr. Barber adds : " There is
no doubt that within the very near future it will be possible
to make much smaller charges ; also charges could be very
much reduced if there were sufficient business to make it
worth while." This is what one would expect to hear. Yet,
assuming that the aeroplane rate were reduced even by fifty per
cent, it could not, even then, compete with the railway rate
under normal conditions ; while to convey through the air
the 150 tons of general merchandise which a single locomotive
attached to one of the many goods trains passing between
London and Liverpool will haul would, on the basis of
i cwt. i qr. per machine, require the use of 2400 aeroplanes.
This calculation leaves out of account, too, the much greater
weights of grain, timber and other heavy traffic in full truck-
loads which pass from Liverpool to various inland places, and
could not, of course, be dealt with by aeroplane at all.

After surveying all these possible competitors or alternatives
we are left to conclude that, as far as foresight can suggest,
the railways are likely still to constitute at least the chief
means of carrying on internal transport and communication
in this country.

If this be so, then the main proposition as to the outlook
for inland transport in general relates to the outlook for the
railways in particular.

Here the first consideration which presents itself is that,
as regards main lines, our railway system to-day may be
regarded as approximately complete.1 There may still be
good scope for the construction of extensions, new links or of
short cuts ; but these should count as improvements rather
than as fresh lines of communication.

In London there are to be extensions of some of the existing
tubes with a view to affording to the public increased facilities
both for reaching the termini of the great trunk lines and for

1 In an address delivered by him as president of the Railway Students'
Union at the London School of Economics on October 24, 1911, Mr Sam
Fay, general manager of the Great Central Railway, said: "There is
little prospect of any extensive opening out of new competitive routes in
this country, and, but for a few comparatively short lines here and there,
the railway system may be considered complete."

The Outlook 507

a still easier interchange of traffic between the different tube
or underground railways themselves.

An exceptionally important scheme of improved transport
was announced, on November 18, 1911, by the London and
North- Western Railway Company, such scheme comprising

(1) the electrification of 40 miles of surburban railway, in-
cluding a material portion of the North London Railway;

(2) the construction by the London Electric Railway Company
of a new tube, extending their Bakerloo line from Paddington
to the L. & N. W. system at Queens' Park ; and (3) the run-
ning, for the first time, and by means of specially-constructed
carriages, of through services between a trunk line and a tube.

While the existing tube companies may thus extend their
lines, and while the trunk companies may seek to co-operate
more with them in providing for suburban traffic, the outlook
for any new tube companies in London would not seem to be
very promising in view of the fact that the holders of
^9,300,000 of ordinary stock in the London Electric Railway
(controlling the Bakerloo, Piccadilly and Hampstead lines),
out of a total capitalisation of ;£ 16,200,000, received in
1911 a dividend equal to only one per cent.

In the country what is most wanted is an increase in trans-
port facilities between existing railways and outlying districts,
the traffic from which would not be sufficient to justify the
construction of branch lines of ordinary railway. There are
fishing villages, agricultural districts, market gardening areas,
and innumerable small communities which would gain a
material advantage by being provided with better means of
communication with the nearest railway.

Whether or not such facilities should be provided by (i)
road motors, (2) railless electric traction, or (3) light railways,
is a question that must depend on the conditions, circum-
stances or prospects of the locality concerned ; but if more
people are to be sent " back to the land," and if colonies of
small holders are to be established thereon with any hope
of success, then it is desirable, if not essential : (i) that each
colony of such settlers should form an agricultural co-operative
society ; (2) that each society should set up its depot to
facilitate the combination of purchases or consignments into
grouped lots ; and (3) that between the dep6t and a con-
venient railway station there should be provided some means

508 History of Inland Transport

of collective transport under the most effective and economical
conditions.

It is thus mainly in the direction of railway feeders that
the need for increased transport facilities exists to-day.

In this absence of any general necessity for additional rail-
ways, the policy of the railway companies of late years has
been directed more to the consolidation and economical
working of the existing system of lines. This policy has
especially aimed at the furtherance of those mutual agreements
and amalgamations which, as we have seen, have constituted
a prominent phase in the development of railways from a very
early period in their history. Present-day tendencies in this
direction are especially due to the fact that working expenses
have greatly increased while the powers of the companies
to increase their charges are still subject to the restrictions
of the Act of 1894, under which they may be required to
justify before the Railway and Canal Commission any in-
crease in a rate since the 3ist of December, 1892. Increase
of expenditure is found in the higher wages bills, in the
ever-expanding items of rates and taxes, in the heavier cost
of raw materials, in the greater amount of clerical and other
work resulting from the sending of frequent small consign-
ments in place of consignments in bulk, and in the provision
of greater conveniences and luxuries in travel.

An increased volume of traffic has, to a certain extent,
compensated for these heavier expenses ; but it has not done
so sufficiently, and the ideal remedy has appeared to lie in the
direction of effecting economies in operation and management,
either by individual companies or through arrangements
between two or more, to their mutual advantage, and without,
as the companies have claimed, any disadvantage to the public.

In some instances companies have had to grant such con-
cessions to local communities as a means of overcoming
threatened opposition to their proposed arrangements that
the value of the advantages eventually obtained has been
represented almost by a negative quantity. In other instances
the opposition has been so keen, and the " prices of assent "
have been so exacting, that the companies concerned have
preferred to abandon their schemes rather than go on with
them. In still other instances companies have refrained from
attempting to carry out amalgamations requiring Parlia-

The Outlook

509

mentary sanction, and thus likely to provoke opposition, and
have made such arrangements between themselves as were
within their powers and were likely to give them some of the
advantages they wanted, though not, perhaps, all.

Following on certain developments in these various direc-
tions, a Departmental Committee was appointed, in June,
1909, by the Board of Trade to consider and report " vrhat
changes, if any, are expedient in the law relating to agreement^
among railway companies, and what, if any, general provisions
ought to be embodied for the purpose of safeguarding the
various interests affected in future Acts of Parliament author-
ising railway amalgamations or working unions." The report
of this Committee [Cd. 5631] was issued in May, 1911.

In so far as they deal with the principle that even Parliament
itself is powerless to prevent the tendency to co-operation
between railway companies originally designed to compete
with one another, the Committee do little more than re-echo
what was said, not only by the Joint Committee of 1872,
but even by Morrison in the speech he made in the House of
Commons on May 17, 1836. There is, also, a close resemblance
between what I have stated concerning the position in 1836
and at subsequent dates — namely, that there was no allegation
that the railway companies had abused their powers, only fear
that they might do so — and the following extract from the
report made by the Departmental Committee in 1911 : —

" It is, of course, to the interest of the railway companies
not to raise rates or stint accommodation to an extent that
will reduce traffic unduly, but, subject to this, a policy of self-
interest might frequently lead the companies to charge rates
which, judged by any existing standard, would be un-
reasonable."

So, in 1911, no less than in 1836, and at any time between
those dates, the policy of the State towards the railways, as
far as it can be summed up in a single word, is represented
by this word " might." The attitude of distrust and suspicion
originally engendered towards the railways by the canal
companies evidently still survives, and is expected to form,
even to-day, the approved basis of State action. The principle
of railway co-operation is, indeed, frankly and fully accepted
by the Departmental Committee, who declare they have come
to the unanimous conclusion " that the natural lines of develop-

510 History of Inland Transport

ment of an improved and more economical railway system
lie in the direction of more perfect understandings and co-
operation between the various railway companies which must
frequently, although not always, be secured by formal agree-
ments of varying scope and completeness, amounting in some
cases to working unions and amalgamations." But, although
they admit that mutual competition between railway com-
panies exists to-day in only a " limited degree," and although
they do not show that the agreements and amalgamations
thus far carried out have been in any way really detrimental
to the public interests, they are still influenced, as Parliaments,
Select Committees and Departmental Committees before
them have been for the last three-quarters of a century, by
that one word " might." Railway companies may be allowed
to co-operate — more especially because they cannot be
prevented from doing so ; but fresh restrictions and } further
obligations must be imposed lest they might abuse the facilities
granted to them, in seeking to cover increased taxation and
other items of heavier working expenses. Thus among the
recommendations of the Departmental Committee are the
following : —

" That it should be provided that when a facility or service
is diminished or withdrawn, it should lie upon the railway
company to show that the reduction or withdrawal is
reasonable.

" That it should lie upon the railway company to justify a
charge made for a service hitherto rendered gratuitously.

" That it should be declared that the law with regard to
increased charges applies to passenger fares and other charges
made for the conveyance of traffic by passenger trains."

These proposals are, no doubt, inspired by a genuine desire
to protect the public interests ; yet the effect of carrying
them out would be effectually to destroy the small amount
of elasticity that is still left in the relations between the
railway companies and the public. If, in addition to having
to " justify " the increase of any rate for goods or minerals,
the companies were required to run the risk of having to
" justify " the taking off of any train they found no longer neces-
sary, or even the slightest increase in any of the now often
extremely low railway fares, the result would be to tie their
hands still further in the making of experimental concessions,

The Outlook 5 1 1

and, in the result, the travelling public, as is the case already
with the traders, would stand to lose through a policy
nominally designed to protect their interests.

Whatever course may be actually taken in regard to these
particular aspects of the question, the trend of events in the
railway world will probably be more and more in the direction
of continuing the policy of agreements and amalgamations
on lines which, while giving the fullest transport facilities to the
public, should check wasteful competition and ensure all
practicable economy in the matter of working expenses.

That the trade of the country would suffer, in consequence,
is hardly to be anticipated. Assuming that three railway
companies, who had already agreed as to the rates they would
charge, had each been conveying goods between A and B,
and that they arranged for the consignments entrusted to all
three to be taken in one train by one route, instead of in three
trains by separate routes, a clear economy would be effected
without any detriment to the traders, since the goods would
reach B all the same, while savings in the working expenses
should render the companies better able to meet the wishes
of traders in other directions.

In regard to the possibility (as already told on page 448)
of an increase in railway rates to enable the companies to
meet increases of wages or other betterment of the positions
of their staffs, any general increase might well occasion
uneasiness, and even alarm, to traders who already find it
difficult enough to meet foreign competition, and to whom
greater cost of transport might be a matter of no little concern.
On the other hand there is an undoubted anomaly in the fact
that whilst the burdens on railway companies have greatly,
if not enormously, increased of late years, and whilst other
commercial companies are free to pass on to the consumer
increased costs of production or heavier working expenses,
including, especially, a much heavier taxation, the statutory
standard for railway companies' rates and charges should
still be that of the last day of December, 1892.

A further result of the railway strikes in the autumn of
1911 was to revive the agitation in favour of railway nation-
alisation. In some quarters it was argued that an effective
guarantee against the recurrence of railway strikes would be
found in State ownership ; but this theory is certainly not

512 History of Inland Transport

confirmed by the actual experiences of Holland, Hungary,
Victoria, Italy and France. There is no suggestion that, if
the railways were owned by the State, the railwaymen would
voluntarily abandon the right to strike ; but State ownership
fo favoured by the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants
(which passed a resolution approving thereof at the annual
conference at Carlisle on October 4, 1911), in the expectation
(i) that, under these conditions, the unions would be certain
to get " recognition " ; (2) that they would then be able to
bring such pressure to bear on the Government that they
would be sure to get what they wanted without having to
strike ; and (3) that, owing to the economies to which State
operation would lead, the Government would be in a position
to give the railway workers higher pay and shorter hours.
Here, however, the questions arise whether the country would
be willing to allow the railway unions practically to control
alike the Government and the economic situation ; whether
the assumed " economies " under State ownership and opera-
tion of the railways would really be effected ; and whether
any such changes in railway service conditions as those
that were demanded in the National All-Grades Programme
could be conceded even under a nationalisation system
without imposing on the railway users greater burdens in
the way of higher rates and fares than they might be disposed
to tolerate.

On the other hand there is the consideration that if the
working expenses of the railway companies are to be swollen
to still greater proportions by heavier wages bills, abnormal
taxation, public demands for greater facilities, and State
requirements in equipment or operation ; if, at th@ same time,
the companies are to be subjected to statutory restrictions
in regard to the charges they may impose for the services they
render ; and if, also, the danger of strikes and of outside
control or interference is to be increased, the day may con-
ceivably come when transfer of the railways to the State,
under, presumably, fair and equitable conditions, would be
the only effectual means of relieving the railways themselves
from what might then be an otherwise hopeless position.

While the outlook for the future has various elements of
uncertainty, and, in regard to matters of detail, gives rise
to some degree of concern, a review of the conditions

The Outlook

under which trade, industry and communication have been
developed throughout the ages leads to the conclusion that
the country may, at least, regard with feelings of profound
thankfulness and generous appreciation the efforts of that
long succession of individual pioneers, patriots and public-
spirited men to whose zeal, foresight and enterprise we are
so materially indebted for the advantages we now enjoy.

2 L

AUTHORITIES

THE following books, pamphlets, and reports have, among
others, been consulted in the preparation of the present
work :

" A Cursory View of the Advantages of an Intended Canal
from Chesterfield to Gainsborough " (1769).

Adams, William Bridges : " Practical Remarks on
Railways " (1854).

"A History of Ten Years of Automobilism, 1896-1906,"
edited by Lord Montagu (1906).

Aikin, J., M.D. : "A Description of the Country from
Thirty to Forty Miles round Manchester " (1795).

Allnutt, Zachariah : " Useful and Correct Accounts of the
Navigation of the Rivers and Canals West of London " (2nd
ed., 1810).

Anderson, James, LL.D. : " On Cast Iron Rail-ways," in
" Recreations in Agriculture," etc., Vol. IV (Nov., 1800).

Ashley, W. J. : " The Beginnings of Town Life in the
Middle Ages " (1896) ; " An Introduction to English Economic
History and Theory " (1892).

" A View of the Advantages of Inland Navigations, with a
Plan of a Navigable Canal intended for a Communication
between the Ports of Liverpool and Hull " (1765).

" Avona : or a Transient View of the Benefit of Making
Rivers of this Kingdom Navigable." By R. S. (1675).

Badeslade, Thomas : " The History of the Ancient and
Present State of the Navigation of the Port of Kings-Lyn
and of Cambridge, and the Rest of the Trading Towns in
those Parts " (1766).

Bailey, J. : " General View of the Agriculture of the
County of Durham " (1810).

Bailey, J., and Culley, G. : " General View of the Agriculture
of the County of Northumberland " (1794).

Baines, Thomas : " History of the Commerce and Town of

Authorities 515

Liverpool " (1852) ; " Lancashire and Cheshire, Past and
Present " (1867).

Bateman, J. : " The General Turnpike Roads Acts " (1854) ;
" The General Highways Acts " (2nd ed., 1863).

Blome, Richard : " Britannia : or a Geographical Des-
cription of England, Scotland and Ireland " (1673).

Bourn, Daniel : " A Treatise upon Wheel Carriages " (1763).

Boyle and Waghorn : " The Law Relating to Railway and
Canal Traffic " (1901).

Bradfield, J. E. : " Notes on Toll Reform and the Turnpike
Ticket System " (1856) ; " Observations on the Injustice,
Inequalities and Anomalies of the Present System of Taxation
of State Carriages " (1854).

Brand, John : " History and Antiquities of Newcastle "
(1789).

Brunlees, James, C.E. : Presidential Address, Mechanical
Science Section, British Association Meeting, 1883.

Buddie, John : " Description of a Coal Waggon," in the
" General Magazine of Arts and Sciences " for June, 1764.

Butterworth, A. Kaye : " The Law Relating to Maximum
Rates and Charges on Railways " (1897).

Cheyney, Edward P. : " English Towns and Gilds " (1895).

Clifford, Frederick, of the Inner Temple : " A History of
Private Bill Legislation " (2 vols., 1885 and 1887).

Copnall, H. H. : "A Practical Guide to the Administration
of Highway Law " (1905).

Cressett, John: "The Grand Concern of England Ex-
plained" (1673); Harleian Miscellany, Vol. VIII.

Cumming, T. G. : " Illustrations of the Origin and Progress
of Rail and Tram Roads " (1824).

Cunningham, W. : " The Growth of English Industry and
Commerce " (1890-92).

Curr, John : " Coal viewer and Engine Builder's Practical
Companion " (1797).

Defoe, Daniel : "A Tour through the Whole Island of
Great Britain " (1724).

Dehany, William Knight, of the Middle Temple : " The
General Turnpike Acts " (1823).

Denton, The Rev. W. : " England in the Fifteenth Century "
(1888).

De Salis, Henry Rodolph : "A Chronology of Inland

516 History of Inland Transport

Navigation in Great Britain " (1897) '• " Bradshaw's Canals
and Navigable Rivers of England and Wales " (1904).

" Description of a Coal Waggon, Staith, and Waggon-way,"
in the " Commercial and Agricultural Magazine," October,
1800.

Dowell, Stephen : "A History of Taxation and Taxes in
England " (2nd ed., 1888).

Eaton, J. Shirley: "Education for Efficiency in Railroad
Service," United States Bureau of Education (1909).

Edgeworth, Richard Lovell : " An Essay on the Con-
struction of Roads and Carriages " (2nd ed., 1817).

Edington, Robert : " A Treatise on the Coal Trade " (1813).

Findlay, Sir George : " The Working and Management of
an English Railway " (4th ed., 1891).

Forbes and Ashford : " Our Waterways " (1906).

Fowler, J. Kersley : " Records of Old Times " (1898).

Francis, John : "A History of the English Railway "

(1851).

Franks, W. Temple : " History of Traffic Legislation and
Parliamentary Action in Connection with Railways " ; London
School of Economic Lectures (1907).

Fulton, R. : "A Treatise on the Improvement of Canal
Navigation, exhibiting the numerous advantages to be derived
from Small Canals and boats of two to five feet wide, con-
taining from two to five tons burthen " (1796).

Galloway, R. L. : " Annals of Coal Mining and the Coal
Trade " (1898 and 1904) ; " A History of Coal Mining in Great
Britain " (1862) ; " Papers Relating to the History of the Coal
Trade" (1906).

Gilbey, Sir Walter : " Early Carriages and Roads" (1903).

Gordon, Alexander: "An Historical and Practical Treatise
upon Elemental Locomotion by Means of Steam Carriages on
Common Roads" (1832).

Gray, Thomas : " Observations on a General Iron Rail-
way " (2nd ed., 1821 ; 5th, 1825).

Grierson, J. : " Railway Rates, English and Foreign "
(1886).

Hackworth, T. : " Jubilee of the World's First Public
Railway " (1892).

Hadley, A. T. : " Railway Transportation : Its History
and Its Laws" (1906).

Authorities 517

Harper, C. G. : " The Holyhead Road " (1902) ; " The Great
North Road" (1910).

Harris, Stanley : " Old Coaching Days " (1882) ; " The
Coaching Age " (1885).

Herepath, John : " Railway Magazine " (1836-39).

Homer, Henry : " An Inquiry into the Means of Preserving
Publick Roads" (1767).

Humpherus, Henry : " History of the Origin and Progress
of the Company of Watermen and Lightermen of the River
Thames " (1887).

Hunter, The Rev. Joseph : " The History and Topography
of the Deanery of Doncaster " (1828).

Hutton, William : " History of Birmingham " (1781).

Jacob, Giles : " Law Dictionary " (4th ed., 1809).

Jeans, J. Stephen : " Waterways and Water Transport "
(1890) ; " Jubilee Memorial of the Railway System " (1875).

Jessop, William : " On Inland Navigation and Public
Roads," Georgical Essays, Vol. VI (1804).

Jusserand, J. J. : " English Wayfaring Life in the Middle
Ages " (1889).

Kinderley, Nathaniel: "The Ancient and Present State of
the Navigation of the Towns of Lyn, Wisbech, Spalding and
Boston, of the Rivers that pass through those Places and the
countries that border thereupon " (2nd ed., 1751).

Law, H., and Clark, D. K. : " The Construction of Roads
and Streets " (1887).

Lloyd, John : " Papers Relating to the Rivers Wye and
Lug " (1873).

McAdam, John London : " Remarks on the Present System
of Road Making " (gth ed., 1827).

Macaulay, Lord : " History of England," chapter in.

McCulloch, J. R. : " Dictionary of Commerce and Com-
mercial Navigation " (1882).

Macdonald, Sir J. H. A. : " The Triumph of Motor Trac-
tion," in "Chambers's Journal," August i, 1911.

Macpherson, David : " Annals of Commerce " (1805).

Maitland, F. W. : " Township and Borough " (1898).

Marriott, H. : " The Fixing of Rates and Fares " (2nd ed.,
1910).

Marshall, A. : " Principles of Economics " (4th ed., 1898).

Mathew, Francis : "Of the Opening of Rivers for Naviga-

51 8 History of Inland Transport

tion : The Benefit exemplified by the two Avons of Salisbury
and Bristol, with a Mediterranean Passage by Water for
Billanders of Thirty Tun, between Bristol and London "
(Z655) ; " A Mediterranean Passage by Water from London
to Bristol and from Lynne to Yarmouth, and so consequently
to the City of York, for the great Advancement of Trade and
Traffique " (1670).

Maxwell, William H. : " The Construction of Roads and
Streets " (1899).

May, George : " Descriptive History of Evesham " (1845).

Mayo-Smith, Richmond : " Statistics and Economics "
(1895-99).

Midleton, Viscount : Article on " Our Highways," in " The
Nineteenth Century " for Oct., 1881.

Moore, H. C. : "Omnibuses and Cabs: their Origin and
History" (1902).

Morrison, James, M.P. : " Rail Roads : A Speech Delivered
in the House of Commons, iyth May, 1836 " ; " Influence of
Railway Legislation on Trade and Industry " (1848).

Nash, T. : " The History and Antiquities of Worcester-
shire " (1781).

Nicholson, J. Shield : " Principles of Political Economy "

(1893).

Ogilby, John : " Britannia : A Geographical and Historical
Description of the Roads of England and Wales " (1675).

"On the Country Manners of the Present Age." Annual
Register (1761).

Palgrave, R. H. I. : " Dictionary of Political Economy "
(1900).

Parliamentary Reports and Papers : —

Census of Production (1907). [Cd. 5254.]
Departmental Committee on Railway Agreements and
Amalgamations (1911). [Cd. 5631.]

Joint Committee on the Amalgamation of Railway
Companies (1872). [364.]

Local Taxation, by H. H. Fowler (Lord Wolver-
hampton) (1893). [168.]

Railway Returns for 1910 (1911). [Cd. 5796.]
Road Board, First Report of (1911). [292.]
Royal Commission on Canals and Waterways : Fourth
and Final Report (1909). [Cd. 4979.]

Authorities 519

Royal Commission on the Railway Conciliation Scheme
of 1907 (1911). [Cd. 5922.]

Select Committee on the Expediency of Abolishing
Turnpike Trusts (1864). [383.]

Select Committee on the Highways of the Kingdom
(1819). [509.]

Select Committee on Turnpike Trusts and Tolls
(1836). [547.]

Parnell, Sir Henry : "A Treatise on Roads " (ist ed.,
1833 ; 2nd, 1838).

Pearson, Charles H. : " Historical Maps of England during
the first thirteen centuries, with Explanatory Essays and
Indices " (1870).

Penny Cyclopaedia : Articles on " Railways," " Rivers "
and " Roads " (1841).

Phillips, J. : "A General History of Inland Navigation "
(4th ed., 1803).

Plymley, Joseph, Archdeacon of Salop : " General View of
the Agriculture of Shropshire " (1803).

Porter, G. R. : " The Progress of the Nation " (1846).
Porter, Robert P. : " The Dangers of Municipal Trading "
(1907).

Postlethwayt, Malachy : Article on " Roads " in " Uni-
versal Dictionary of Trade " (1751).

Potter, F. : " The Government in Relation to the Railways,"
a Paper read before the Great Western Railway (London)
Lecture and Debating Society (1909).

Pratt and Mackenzie : " Law of Highways " (i5th ed.).
Priestley, Joseph : " Historical Account of the Navigable
Rivers, Canals and Railways of Great Britain " (1831).

Rees' Cyclopaedia : Articles, " Canal " and " Road " (1819).
" Reprints of Rare Tracts : Letters of William Scott "

(1847)-

Rogers, J. E. Thorold : " History of Agriculture and Prices
in England."

Sandars, Joseph : " A Letter on the Subject of the Proposed
Rail Road between Liverpool and Manchester, pointing out
the necessity for its adoption and the manifest advantages
it offers to the Public, with an Exposure of the exorbitant
and unjust charges of the Water Carriers " (1824).

Smiles, Samuel : " Lives of the Engineers" (1861).

520 History of Inland Transport

Smith, Adam : " The Wealth of Nations " (1776).

Stretton, Clement E. : " Early Tramroads and Railways
in Leicestershire " ; " History of the Loughborough and
Nanpantan Edge-rail-way " : " The Leicester and Swanning-
ton Railway," etc.

Stukeley, William, M.D. : " Itinerarium Curiosum " (2nd ed.,
1776).

" Survey of London " ; edited by Walter Besant.

Sydney, William Connor : " England and the English in
the Eighteenth Century " (1891).

Tatham, William : " The Political Economy of Inland
Navigation " (1799).

"The Motor Car in the First Decade of the 2oth Century,"
compiled by W. Eden Hooper (1908).

" The Rating of Railways," Great Western Railway Maga-
zine Booklet (1908).

" The Tourists' Guide to Bridgnorth " (1875).

Thoresby, Ralph, F.R.S. : " Ducatus Leodiensis ; or the
Topography of Leedes " (1715).

Thrupp, George A. : " The History of Coaches " (1877).

Tredgold, Thomas : "A Practical Treatise on Rail-roads
and Carriages " (1825).

Tristram, W. Outram : " Coaching Days and Coaching
Ways " (1888).

Tylor, Alfred : " New Points in the History of Roman
Britain," in " Archseologia," Vol. XLVIII.

Vernon-Harcourt, L. F. : " Rivers and Canals " (1896).

Walford, Cornelius : " Fairs Past and Present " (1883).

Walker, Thomas : " Change in Commerce," in " The
Original," No. XI (1835).

Wheeler, W. H. : " Tidal Rivers " (1893).

Whitaker, T. D. : " Loidis and Elmete " (1846).

Whitworth, Richard : " The Advantages of Inland Naviga-
tion ; or Some Observations offered to the Public to show
that an Inland Navigation may be easily effected between
the three great ports of Bristol, Liverpool and Hull " (1766).

Whyte, A. G. :' " Electricity in Locomotion" (1911).

Williams, F. S. : " Our Iron Roads " (;th ed.,i888) ; " The
Midland Railway " (sth ed., 1888).

Wilson, T. : " The Railway System and its Author "
(1845).

Authorities 521

Wood, Nicholas : "A Practical Treatise on Rail-roads "
(ist ed., 1825 ; srd, 1838).

Wright and Hobhouse : " An Outline of Local Government
and Local Taxation in England and Wales."

Yarranton, Andrew : " England's Improvement by Sea
and Land. . . . With the Advantages of making the Great
Rivers of England Navigable " (1672).

Young, Arthur : " A Six Weeks' Tour through the Southern
Counties " (1769) ; "A Six Months' Tour through the North
of England " (1770).

2 L 2

INDEX

Accidents on railways : 442-3
Acworth, W. M. : 425, 426
Aeroplanes : 504-6
Agricultural Organisation Society :

Agriculture: 16, 74, 85, 89, 164,
179, 192, 353, 355, 497, 507

Aikin, Dr. : 49, 91, 142, 169, 185

Ale, Burton : 178

Alldridge, T. J. : 403

Amalgamated Society of Railway
Servants : 446, 447, 512

Amber : 6-7, 26

Ambulance corps on railways : 444

Anderson, Dr James : 229

Andred- Weald, The : 4, 8

Aqueducts on Canals : 304

Arkwright, Sir Richard : 187, 188

Armstrong (Newcastle) University :
427

Ashley, W. J. : 18, 19

Ask with, Sir George : 452

Assizes of ale, bread and cloth : 19

Associated Society of Locomotive
Engineers and Firemen : 447

Association of Railway Companies'
Signal Superintendents : 429

Association of Railway Locomotive
Engineers : 429

Australia, Railways in : 402

Automobile Association and Motor
Union : 479, 503

Automobilism : See "Motor -ve-
hicles."

Badeslade, Thomas : 119-20

Bagmen : 16

Bailey, John : 207, 208

Baines, Thomas: 136, 138, 141,

157, 165, 178, 180, 184, 236
Balfour of Burleigh, Lord : 338
Barber, H. C : 505-6
Bartholomew Fair : 27

Bawtry : Classed as a seaport, 1 1 1 ;
port of consignment for Shef-
field goods, 123-4, 148-9

Beal, C. G. : 448

Beasley, A. : 261 «., 290 n.

Bedford, The Duke of: 254

Benevolent contributions, Rail-
way companies' : 440-1

Bequests for road repairs : 12

Birkenshaw, John : 206

Birmingham : Coach communica-
tion, 54-5 ; trade conditions,
90-1 ; cost of road transport
to London, 160; Birmingham
Canal, 184, 236-7, 298-9, 301,
302, 307, 495 ; London and
Birmingham Rly. , 249-52

Bishopsgate Goods Station : 392-4

Board of Trade and Railways : 259,
268, 269, 271, 275, 277, 279,
282, 338, 353, 356, 440, 443,
446, 448, 450, 492, 509

Boonen, Guylliam : 37

Bourn, Daniel : 45-7, 66

Boyle, Courtenay, Sir : 338

Bradfield, J. E. : 316, 333-4

Brereton, R. M. : 317

Bridge friars : 12, 13

Bridges: II, 13

Bridgewater, Francis, Duke of:
139, 167-72, 173, 221, 231,

295

Bridgnorth : Transit port on the
Severn, 115; route for pottery
goods, 159; Manchester goods,
161

Brindley, James : 130, 167-8, 171,
173, 174, 295

Bristol: Early prosperity of, 112;
trade done by Bristol mer-
chants, 116; Lancashire goods
exported via the Severn and
Bristol, 161

522

Index

523

Brome, The Rev. J. : 74-5
Bronze Ape, The : 6
Brunlees, J. : 206
Buddie, John: 2OO-I, 404
Burnett, John : 448
Burton-on-Trent : 122
Bute, The Marquis of : 304
Butterworth, A. Kaye : 343
Buxton, Mr. : 452

Cab, introduction of the: 63 ; taxi-
cabs, 485-7

Caledonian Railway : 289, 367, 451
Cambridge : Located on river, in;
importance to of river trans-
port, 119, 120, 125
Canada, Railways in : 254, 402
Canals : Advocated, 162, 164 ; a
transition from rivers, 165 ; the
pioneer British canal, 166-7 J
opposition, 170-1 ; effect of
canals on trade and industries,
175-8, 180, 192-4, 295; en-
gineering difficulties, 171, 174,
179-80; passenger traffic, 172,
265 ; public prejudice, 181-2 ;
"canal mania," 183, 185;
value of shares, 183, 236-0 ;
number of canal Acts, 183 ;
expenditure on canals, 183,
234; length of canals, 183;
canal companies adopt rail-
ways, 212, 220; excessive
charges, 231 ; attitude towards
traders, 231-3, 243-4, 296;
opposition to independent rail-
ways, 234-0, 296 ; canal extor-
tions inspire railway restric-
tions, 258 ; Royal Commission
on Canals and Waterways, 294,
295, 304 ; construction on no
general scheme, 295 ; reduction
of rates, 296 ; neglect of im-
provements, 296-7 ; canals
acquired by railways, 297-9,
306 ; increased powers, 299,
300; amalgamation of canals,
301 ; physical conditions, 301-
4 ; locks, 302, 303 ; railway
competition, 304 ; aqueducts,
304-5 ; tunnels, 305 ; colliery
operations, 306 ; canal and
rail transport compared, 307-

9 ; canal resuscitation im-
practicable, 309-11, 495

Aberdare C. : 213

Aire and Calder Nav. : 141, 143,
147, 307

Ashby C. : 219

Barnsley C. : 184, 238

Birmingham C. : 184, 236-7,
298-9, 301, 302, 307

Charnwood Forest C. : 220

Coventry C. : 183, 237, 302

Dudley C. : 301

Ellesmere C. : 184

Erewash C. : 183, 237

Fossdyke : 121, 154

Glamorganshire C. : 184, 214-8,

238-9. 304

Grand Junction C. : 183, 184
Herefordshire and Gloucestershire

C. : 193

Huddersfield C. : 180
Kennet and Avon C. : 184
Lancashire C. : 219
Leeds and Liverpool C. : 179-80,

237

Leicester C. : 183, 238
Loughborough C. : 237, 261
Manchester, Bolton and Bury

C. : 184

Mersey and Irwell Nav. : 238
Peak Forest C. : 193-4
Rochdale C. : 180, 183, 193, 303
Sankey Brook C. : 165-6
Stratford-on-Avon C. : 298
Swansea C. : 304
Thames and Severn C. : 184
Trent and Mersey (Grand Trunk)
C. : 172-5, 210, 237, 238,
261, 307

Trent Nav. : 183
CardwelPs Committee : 285
Carriages, Private : 37-8
Castlereagh, Viscount : 439
Central London Rly. : 492
City and South London Rly. : 492
Chamberlayne, Dr : 38
Chaplin, William : 325
Chaplin, Mr : 459
Chapmen: 17, 21, 24, 91
Charles I.: Proclamation concerning

roads, 43

Charles II. and roads: 33-4, 132
Cheap Trains Act, 1883 : 263 n.

524

History of Inland Transport

Cheese industry : 122, 163, 179
Chester : Roman road to, 8 ; fair,

27 ; coaches, 40, 51, 54 ; decay

of port, 137

Church and roads : 1 1-14 ; fairs, 21
Claughton, G. H. : 448
Clifford, Frederick: 128, 170,

223, 272, 273, 277, 295,

303, 324

Cloth-makers and transport : 143-4,
146-7

Coaches and coaching : The " long
waggon," 35-6, 38, 53, 325 ;
stage-coaches, 38-42, 51-3,
325; "flying" coaches, 53-5,
327 ; mail-coaches, 55-7, 325 ;
Thames watermen and coaches,
58-63 ; hackney coaches, 60-3 ;
the " palmy " days of coaching,
325 ; tolls paid by coaches,
316; coach-owners join rail-
ways, 326 ; speed accelerated,
327 ; effect on horses, 327-8 ;
cost of coach-horses, 328 ;
accidents and discomforts, 328 ;
decline of coaching, 329 ; taxa-
tion, 329-34

Coal industry : 36, 117, 140, 165,
167, 179, 188, 195-7

Commercial Motor Users' Associa-
tion : 477, 485

Continental railway rates : 357

Copper industry : 9

Corporations, Rise of Municipal : 19

Cort, Henry : 190

Cotton industry : 138, 187-8

County towns, Influence of trans-
port conditions on : 94-7

Court of Pie Powder : 22-3

Cressett, John : 39-42, 51

Crewe Mechanics' Institution : 417

Cromwell, Oliver : 131, 132

Gumming, T. G. : 213

Cunningham, W. : 23

Curr, John : 204

Cutlery, Sheffield : 124, 142, 148-

9, 191

Cycles and Cycling, 472-3, 480

Dalhousie, Lord : 269, 276

Darby, Abraham : 190

Day, Frank B. : 394 n.

Defoe, Daniel: On Sturbridge

Fair, 24-6; roads at Lewes,
68; turnpikes, 78, 87-90;
country towns, 95-6, 121, 126 ;
Bristol traders, 116; port of
Lynn, 1 19 ; trade on the
Trent, 122 ; River Idle, 123-4 ;
River Wey, 126; Devonshire
serges, 127 ; Yorkshire trade
conditions, 144, 145-7 ; cheese
industry, 163

Dehany, W. K. : 28, 49, 81
Denmark, Prince George of: 67
Denton, The Rev. W. : 5, 14, 58
De Salis, Rodolph : 152
Domesday Survey : 4
Dover, Early communication

with : 35 «., 53
Dublin Society, The : 72
Dugdale, Sir William: 51
Duncombe, Sir Sandars : 60

Easingwold Rly. : 290-1
Eastern Counties Rly. : 253
Eaton, J. Shirley, 415, 416
Edgeworth, R. L. : 72, 229
Edinburgh, Coaches to : 36, 37, 51-

2, 56 ; cost of posting to, 57
Edington, Robert : 197
Education of railwaymen, The :

413-27

Elizabeth, Queen : 37, 57, 196
Enclosure Acts : 192
Engineer and Railway Staff Corps :

401
Evelyn, John : 63

Factory System : 385

Fairs : 20-7, 91, 95

Farrer, Sir Thomas : 276

Fay, Sam : 506 n

Fen-lands : 5

Festivals, Religious : 21

Findlay, Sir George : 345, 376

Finger-posts : 65 n.

Fish industry : 89-90

Flannels, Trade in : 114-5

Fowler, H. H. (Lord Wolverhamp-

ton): 323

Fowler, J. Kearsley : 315, 316
France, Roads in : 67, 320
Francis, John : 210, 222, 251, 252,

255, 256, 272
Franks, W. Temple : 339

Index

5*5

Freeman, James K. : 371
Fulton, R. : 181, 21 1*

Galloway, Robert L. : 196, 198

Garcke, Emile : 458

General Railway Workers' Union :
447

Gibb, Sir George : 343

Gladstone, W. E. : 268, 269, 270,
273, 275-6, 278, 279, 282, 322

Glasgow and South-Western Rail-
way : 436

Glynn, G. C. : 264, 279

Goschen, Mr : 323

Gordon, Alexander : 474

Gower, Earl : 173

Graham, Sir James : 265

Granet, Sir Guy : 448

Gray, Robert : 332

Gray, Thomas : 207, 221, 229-230,
328

Great Central Rly. : 289, 367, 423,

451

Great Eastern Rly. : 253,277,287,
288, 289, 367, 392-4, 401,
418-20, 437

Great Eastern Rly. Mechanics' In-
stitution : 418-20

(lioiter London, Beginnings of:

97
Great Northern Rly. : 277, 289,

339, 367, 391-2
Great Northern of Ireland Rly. :

289

Great North Road : 32, 65, 75, 123
Great Southern and Western Rly. :

289
Great Western Rly. : 252, 254,

273-4, 277, 288, 289, 297-8,

326, 366, 421-2, 427-8, 451
Great Western Rly. Literary

Society : 427-8
Griffin, II. Hewitt : 486
Guilds, Craft : 19
Guilds, Merchant : 18-19
Gurney, Sir Goldsworthy : 474-5

Hackney carriages : 59-63
Hack worth, J. W. : 227
Hackworth, T. : 227
Hadley, Prof. : 226 ;/., 347
Hall, Sir John: 282
Hamilton, Lord Claud : 437, 439

Hardware trades : 191
Harper, C. G. : 56, 57
Harrel, Sir David : 448
Harrison, William : 114
Hawkshaw, Sir John: 396
Henderson, M.P., Arthur: 448
Hereford, Ross and Gloucester

Rly. : 131

Herepath, John : 262-3, 275, 278
Hermits and road repairs : 13
Highwaymen : 95
Historical Manuscripts Commission

Reports : 12, 13 n.
Holinshed : 31
Homer, Henry : 73
Hops: 25

Home, Benjamin : 325, 327
Horseback, travelling on : 16, 36
Horses : Number used for long

waggons, 35, 37 ; restrictions

in regard to, 43-5 ; horses used

for coaches, 325 ; mortality on

roads, 327-8
Horwich Mechanics' Institute :

420-1
Hours of labour, Railwaymen's :

441-2

Howells, Clarence S. : 306
Hull, Trade of : 122, 123, 147
Humpherus, Henry : 37, 63
Hunter, The Rev. J. : 123, 124,

148, 149

Hutchinson, William : 198, 199
Hutton, William : 54, 90, 176
Hyde, W. H. : 401

Inglis, Sir James C. : 421
Insurance Bill, National : 375
Ireland : Control of roads, 319 ;

cheap conveyances, 333
Iron industry: 4, 7, 9, 26, 117,

134, 161-2, 178, 188-91

Jacob, Giles: 21-3

James I. : 196

James, William : 234

Jeans, J. S. : 226, 227, 306, 308

Jersey, Lord : 353

Jessop, William : 49, 122, 206

Jusserand, J. J. : II, 12, 13

Kellawe, Richard de : 1 1

Kendal as a packhorse station : 36

526

History of Inland Transport

Kinderley, Nathaniel: 119, 154
Knoop, Douglas : 427

Lancashire and Yorkshire Rly. :
289, 367, 420-1, 423, 426-7

Land-beacons : 65

Lead industry : 6, 9, 26

Leeds cloth market : 145-7

Lees, Sir Edward : 333

Lefevre, Shaw : 456 n.

Leicester and Swannington Rly. :
242-4

Leigh, Charles : 36

Levy, Lewis : 318

Light railways : 457, 463, 507

Linen industry : 115, 134, 138

Litters, Use of : 16

Liverpool : Early waggons and
coaches, 36, 54, 56 ; isolation,
135-7 ; improvement of Mer-
sey, 137 ; river communication
with Manchester, 139; effect
on Liverpool trade of naviga-
tion facilities on the Weaver
and the Douglas, 139-41 ;
Sankey Brook Canal, 165-6;
Bridgewater Canals, 167-72 ;
Leeds and Liverpool Canal,
179 ; Liverpool and Manchester
Rly., 230-4 1, 494

Loads, Restrictions on : 43-5

Locks on canals : 302-4

London and Birmingham Rly. :
249-52, 254, 256, 326, 417

London and North-Western Rly. :
252, 276, 285, 289, 298-9, 339,
366» 367, 370, 376-84, 391,
417-8, 422-3, 432, 438, 440,

45 !» 5°7
London and South-Western Rly. :

254, 256, 289, 326, 353, 367,

440
London, Brighton and South Coast

Rly. : 254, 256, 275, 289, 367
London Electric Railway Coy. :

492, 493, 5°7

London General Omnibus Coy. : 485
London Railways Athletic Associa-
tion : 431
London School of Economics :

425-6, 506 n
London, Tilbury and Southend

Rly. : 496 n.

London traffic problem : 490-3,

497, 499, 5°7

London Traffic, Royal Commis-
sion on : 462, 493
London United Tramways : 492
Long service on railways : 445
Lord Mayor's coach, The : 58
Lowther, M.P., J. W. : 459 n.
Lynn, Early importance of : 24, 26,
119-20

Macaulay, Lord : 94, 95

Mackay, Dr Charles : 93

Mackworth, Sir Humphry : 202

Macpherson, David : 29, 30, 32,
42, 72

Manby, Charles : 401

Manchester : Coaches, 53-4 ; early
trading conditions, 91 ; goods
despatched via Bewdley and
Bridgnorth, 161, 172 : Mersey
and Irwell Navigation, 138-9,
168-9, I7l > Worsley-Man-
chester Canal, 168, 171 ; cost
of transport, 169 ; privations
due to defective transport, 170 ;
Liverpool and Manchester
Railway, 230-40

Manorial courts : 19

Manor, Lord of, and transport: 18

Markets : 20

Marriott, H. : 350, 427

Mathew, Francis : 131-3, 158

McAdam, J. L. : 50, 99, 101-7,
192, 318, 325,480

McAdam, Sir James : 314, 318

Metcalf, John : 99-100

Midland Rly. : 244, 277, 289, 366,
367, 376, 420, 427, 432, 451

Midland Railway Institute : 420

Monasteries: II, 12, 14, 15

Montagu of Beaulieu, Lord : 503

Moon, Sir Richard : 339

Morrison, James : 260-1, 265, 271,

5°9

Moryson, Fynes : 38, 57

Motor - vehicles : Competition of
motor-omnibuses with electric
tramways, 466-7, 497-8, with
horse-omnibuses, 485-7, with
railways, 496, 498-503 ; com-
parison of motor-omnibus and
railless electric traction, 467-8 ;

Index

527

early clays of steam-coaches,
473-4 ; traction engines, 4715 ;
hostile legislation, 475-6 ; the
MagnaChartaofautomobilism,
476 ; Motor-Car Act of 1903,
477 ; Heavy Motor-Car Order
of 1904, 477-8 ; pleasure cars
in use, 478 ; Royal Automobile
Club, 478-9 ; Automobile
Association and Motor Union,
479 ; road improvements,
480-2 ; commercial motors,
482-5 ; motor -cabs, 485-7 ;
motor industry, 487-90 ; im-
ports and exports, 489-90 ;
motors and railway strikes, 503
Municipal Tramways Association :
469

Nails, Cart-wheel : 44, 49-50
Nash, T. : 114
Newcastle-on-Tyne : Coaches, 53 ;

salt trade, 140
Nicholson, J. Shield : 2
"Nimrod": 107
North British Rly. : 289, 367
North-Eastern Rly. : 287, 289, 290,

367, 371, 424-5
North Staffordshire Rly.: 210-11,

3°7
Nottingham, Early importance of:

121, 122, 137

Oakley, Sir Henry : 339, 340, 341

Ogilby, Jonn : 33-4

Omnibuses : Introduction of, 63 ;
motor-omnibuses : competition
with tramways, 466-7, 497-8,
with railways, 496, 499, 501-3;
succeed horse-omnibuses, 485-

Outram, Benjamin : 204
Overton, George : 225, 240
Owner's risk rates on railways :

351-2

Oxford : Coaches to, 53 ; Univer-
sity and river transport, 125

Packhorse, Transport by: 15, 16,
32, 36, 90, 91, 127, 138, 139,
140, 146, 161

Paley, W. P. : 224 «.

Palmer, John : 55

Parnell, Sir Henry : 326

Passengers : In packhorse pan-
niers, 16 ; by long waggon, 38,
42 ; stage - coach, 38-42 ;
canals, 172, 265 ; rail, 498-9

Patten, Thomas : 138

Paving, Early Britons and : 6

Pearson, Charles: 5, 8, 108, III

Pedlars: 17, 21, 93

Peel, Sir Frederick : 353

Peel, Sir Robert : 259, 262, 263,
271, 281

Pension funds, Railway : 438

Permanent Way Institution : 428

Perry, G. : 117

Philippe, William : 13

Phillipps, W. D. : 210-11

Phillips, J. : 183, 184, 193, 214

Pilgrims: 16

Plymley, Joseph : 44, 114, 117, 152,
153, 164, 220,312

Polyhistor, T. S. : 202

Porter, G. R. : 74, 106, 255-6,
266-7

Porter, Robert P. : 458, 464 n.

Posting.: 57

Post Office and Railways : 264-5

Potter, F. : 351-2, 428

Pottery industry: 159-61, 175,
i?6, 307

Powell, E. T. : 402

Preferential railway rates : 352

Priestley, Joseph : 120

Private Owners of Railway Rolling
Stock, Association of: 361 n.

Prussian State Railways : 255, 291,

292, 357, 359, 365 .
Public Service Commission of New
York City : 493

Railless electric traction : 467-70,

507

Railway agreements and amalga-
mations: 278, 283-91, 433,
508-11

Railway and Canal Commission :
278 »., 355, 5oS

Railway Benevolent Institution :

439
Railway Classification : 337-40,

345-6
Railway Clearing House, 284, 337,

33», 359

528

History of Inland Transport

Railway Club, The : 430
Railway directors, Functions of:

37»
Railway electrification : 492, 494-

5, 5°7

Railway Guards' Universal Friendly
Society : 438

Railway mania, 1845-6 : 271-5

Railway nationalisation: 279-81,
511-2

Railway rates : Early proposals for
revision, 260-1, 279-80 ; canals
and railway rates, 310 ; basis
on which early rates fixed,
335~7 > early classification,
337-40 ; revision of rates by
Board of Trade commissioners,
338-40 ; Confirmation Acts of
1891-2, 340-1 ; Act of 1894,
342 ; restrictions on companies,
342-3 ; equal mileage rates,
344 ; " cost of service," 344-5 ;
"what the traffic will bear,"
34S> 347 > present classification,
345-6 ; sea competition, 347-
8 ; " anomalies," 348 ; sliding
scale principle, 349 ; American
railway rates, 349-50, 357 ;
exceptional rates, 350-1 ;
owner's risk rates, 351-2 ;
preferential rates, 353~4 ;
agricultural interests, 353-4,
355 ; machinery for dealing
with traders' grievances, 355-
6 ; comparisons with Con-
tinental rates, 357-8 ; Govern-
ment promise of legislation in
respect to increases, 448, 511 ;
survival of fittest, 494-5 ; com-
petition of omnibuses and elec-
tric tramways, 496 ; effect on
suburban traffic, 496-7 ; com-
petition of private motors,
498 ; passenger journeys, 498-
9 ; suburban goods transport,
499-500 ; road v. rail, 501-3;
railway system complete, 506 ;
needs of to-day, 507 ; railway
agreements, 508-9 ; Depart-
mental Committee, 509-10;
railway nationalisation, 511-
12

Railway Savings Banks : 432

Railway shareholders : 263-4, 377
Railway Signalling, Schools of:

421-3
Railway strikes : 447, 450, 503,

5!2

Railway system : Length of line,
359 ; single track, 359 ; length
of track, 360 ; rolling stock,
360 ; traffic statistics, 361 ;
railway capital, 361 ; gross
receipts and expenditure, 361 ;
dividends, 362 - 3 ; share-
holders and their holdings,
363-4 ; taxation, 364-75
Railway Temperance Unions : 432
Railway warehouses : 390-4
Railways : Rise of the coal trade,
195-7 ; wooden rails adopted
at collieries, 198-200; intro-
duction of cast-iron wheels,
201 ; double rails, 203 ; iron
" plates," 203 ; cast-iron rails,
203 ; flanged rails, 205 ; edge
rails, 206 ; wrought-iron rails,
206 ; significance of expression
"iron" railway, 207 ; inclined
planes and gravity, 208 ; sta-
tionary engines, 208 ; length
and character of colliery lines,
209 ; railways adopted by canal
companies, 210-13 ; position
in South Wales, 213-4; canal
interests overcome the first pro-
posed competing railway, 214-
9 ; railways supplement
canals, 219-21 ; their superi-
ority recognised, 220-1 ; rail-
ways before 1825, 222 ; Surrey
Iron Rail-way, 223-5 > Stock-
ton and Darlington, 225-8 ;
advocates of general railways,
229-30 ; Liverpool and Man-
chester Railway, 230-40 ; op-
position of canal companies,
234-8 ; Leicester and Swan-
nington Railway, 242-4 ; hos-
tility to railways, 245-9 ;
London and Birmingham Rail-
way, 249 - 52 ; landowners
and railways, 250-1, 252-5 ;
cost of Parliamentary proceed-
ings, 255-7 ; canal precedents
inspire State policy, 258 ; com-

Index

529

petition between carriers, 359-
60 ; Morrison's proposal, 260-
i ; Duke of Wellington's
motion, 262-3 ; early taxation,
263-4 ; attitude of Post Office,
264-5 '• competition between
companies, 265 ; lack of
national policy, 266-8 ; pro-
posals by Mr Gladstone's
Committee, 269 ; special de-
partment of Board of Trade
created, 269 ; set aside,
270; "railway mania" of
1845-6, 271-5; Private Bill
Committees and the special
department, 276 ; Board of
Railway Commissioners, 277 ;
Committee of 1844, 279-81 ;
State purchase, 280 ; compet-
ing lines, 281-3 ; railway
amalgamations, 283-91 ; Rail-
way Clearing House esta-
blished, 284; Mr CardwelPs
Committee, 285 ; cost of con-
struction, 291-3 ; railway com-
panies and canals, 297-9, 306-
7 ; rail and canal transport
compared, 307, 309 ; railways
and coaches, 326, 329,
332 ; results of railway opera-
tion on industries, 386, on
towns, 387, on general trade,
387-96, on political and social
conditions, 397, on national
life, 398-402, on colonial ex-
pansion, 402-4

Railways a National Industry :
Number of railway servants,
405-6 ; employees in loco-
motive works, etc., 407-10;
independent concerns, 411 ;
characteristics of the railway
service, 412-3 ; training, 413-4;
education for efficiency in
U.S.A., 415-6; railwaymen's
education movement : mechan-
ics' institutes, 416-21, rail-
way companies' classes, 421-5,
London School of Economics,
425-6, arrangements with
Universities, 426-7, literary
societies, 427-8 ; railway or-
ganisations, 428-9 ; Railway

Club, 430 ; recreation and
physical culture, 431 ; rail-
waymen's societies, 431-2 ;
Temperance Unions, 432 ; re-
gularity of employment, 433 ;
wages, 434-5 ; subsidiary ad-
vantages, 435-7 ; superannua-
tion and pension funds, 438 ;
railway charities, 439-41 ;
hours of labour, 441-2 ; acci-
dents, 442-3 ; ambulance, 444 ;
railway work a "service," 444 ;
family records, 445 ; the agita-
tion in 1907, 446; strike in
1911, 447 ; Royal Commission
of Inquiry, 448-51 ; increases
in wages, 451 ; railway unions
to ballot on question of general
strike, 452

" Rebecca " riots in Wales : 320-1

" Recognition," Question of, on
railways: 446-52, 512

"Red Flag Act": 475

Rendell, f . H. : 298, 422

Renner, P. A. : 404

Retired Railway Officers' Society :

431

Rivers, Location of towns, etc., on :
15, 108-9, no; influence of,
on social and economic con-
ditions, 108-10 ; ports on
rivers, 110-11 ; causes of de-
cline of rivers, in, 150-8;
river improvements, 111-2,
128-41 ; navigable rivers as
public highways, 112-4; toll
collection on rivers, 128; in-
fluence on trade and industries,
114-27, 129, 132, 153, 154,
159-64; floods, 150-1, 161 ;
high tides, 151-2 ; water short-
age, 152-3; silting-up, 54;
present condition, 155-6;
pilfering on, 162-3 > side-cuts
precede canals, 165
Aire: 121, 123, 141, 143, 147,

179,303,307
Avon (Bristol): 131
Avon (Warwickshire): H2,

H5-6, 155

Avon (Wiltshire) : HO, 131
Brandon: 120
Calder : 141, 143, 147, 303, 307

530

History of Inland Transport

Cam : 15, 24

Croal : 184

Cuckmere : 1 1 1

Dee: 135, 137

Derwent: 121, 122

Don: 121, 123, 143, H7-9

Douglas : 140-1, 166

Exe : 127

Humber : 24, 121, 141, 147, 151

Idle : in, 123

Irwell: 138, 168, 184

Lea : 125-6, 128-9

Lug : 116, 130, 131, 165

Medvvay : 126, 130

Mersey: 5, 135-9, 151, 165, 168

Mildenhall : 120

Nen : 151, 154, 156

Ouse (Norfolk): 5, 24, Hi,

118-20, 151, 156
Ouse (Sussex) : ill
Ouse (York): 121, 122, 141, 147,

I5i> 1S3> !56
Parrett : 127
Kibble: 5, 15, 140, 166
Severn: 112-8, 135, 151, 153-4,

155, 159-62, 298
Sheaf: 143

Stour (Worcestershire) : 135
Teme : 130
Thames, 4, 7, 15, 58-61, 122,

125, 130, 151, 155
Trent: in, 121-2, 124, 147,
148, 151, 152, 154, 155-6, 159
Tyne: 24, 151, 166
Weaver : 139-40, 159, 166
Welland: in
Wey: 126
Wharfe : 121

Witham : in, 120-1, 151
Wye: 112, 116, 117, 130-1, 151,

165

Road Boards in Scotland : 319

Road Board, The : 481-2

Roads : British, 4-8 ; Roman, 8-
10, n, 28 ; action of Church,
11-14, 28; road conditions,
14, 28-30, 31, 32-3, 49, 54,
64-73, 75, 87, 98-99 ; legisla-
tion, 28-33, 43-5 ; Statute
labour, 30-1, 312-3; road-
making and repairing, 98-107,
314; parish roads, 77; high-
way rates and road repairs,

319 ; county councils and
roads, 323, 480 ; Road Board
and Road Improvement Grant,
481-2. See, also, "Turnpikes "

Robinson, Sir Clifton : 454, 459-61

Roebuck, Dr : 190

Romans: 6-10, 28, ill

Royal Automobile Club, 477, 478-
9, 482, 503

Royal Commission on Canals and
Waterways: 294, 295, 301,
304, 310

Royal Commission on Local Taxa-
tion : 373

Royal Commission of Inquiry
(Conciliation Scheme of 1907):
448-51

Royal Commission on London
Traffic : 465, 492-3

Russell, M.P., C. : 273

Salt industry : 26, 139-40, 161,

166, 178

Samuel, Sir Samuel : 489
Sandars, Joseph : 231, 233
Sandon, Lord : 265
Sandys, Sir William : 130-1, 158,

165
Sclater-Booth, G. (Lord Basing) :

321, 322
Scotland, Roads in : 75, 104-5,

319, 333

Scott, William : 199-200

Sea-ports, Thirteenth century :
157-8

Sedan chair, The : 60-1

Sheffield : Coaches, 55 ; route for
despatch of goods, 123-4,
148-9 ; reason for settlement
of cutlery industry on the
Sheaf, 142-3

Shelford, Frederick : 403

Sherman, E. : 326, 329

Sherwood Forest : 121

Shillibeer, Mr ; 63, 330, 491

Shirley, Sir Richard : 68

Shrewsbury : Important centre for
Severn trade, 114 ; social life,
115; a metropolis for North
Wales, 115; river traffic, 118

Smeaton, John : 152

Smiles, Samuel : 93, 170, 175

Smith, Adam : 36, 90, 109, 187

Index

531

Smith, Sydney : 67

Social conditions : See under
"Transport, Influence of "

Society of Motor Manufacturers and
Traders : 477

Soil, Nature of, in England : 5

South Africa, Railways in : 402

" Southampton case," The : 353

South-Eastern and Chatham Rly. :
289, 367

Spencer, C. J. : 469

Stamford, The Earl of: 173

Staple : 29

Starley, J. K. : 472

State policy: Roads, 9-10, II, 33-
4, 43~5°> 481-2 ; railways,
2S8-9J, 336-43» 364-75,
509-11; canals, 295-6, 299-
3°°» 3°3. 311 I coaches, 329-
34; tramways, 454~6, 459,
461-2 ; self-propelled road
vehicles, 475-7

State purchase of railways, Enact-
ments respecting : 280-1

Statute labour on roads: 30-1,
312-3

Steam-coaches : Introduction of,
473 ; anticipations in regard
to, 474 ; opposition to, 474 ;
withdrawal from roads, 475

Stephenson, George : 225, 226 n

Stephenson, Robert : 251

Stockton and Darlington Rly. :
225-8, 290

Stow, John : 38

Stratford-on-Avon : Repair of
bridge, 13 n. ; river transport,

"5

Stukeley, Dr William : 143 «., 209
Sturbridge Fair : 23-6
Suburban passenger traffic : 496-7,

502, 507
Superannuation funds, Railway :

438

Surrey Iron Rail-way : 223-5
Surveyors, Road: 30, 31, 83-4,

105
Sutherland, The Duke of: 173

TaffValeKly. : 261
Taunton, Lord : 254
Taxation, Railway, 263-4, 311,
364-75> 5°8

Taylor, John (" The Water Poet ") :
58-61

Telford, Thomas: 50, 99, 100-1,
106, 174 «., 192,220,318, 325

Terminal charges on railways : 336,
340, 349-50

Textile industries : Reasons for
location of in the north, 141-2 :
influence of canals on their
development, 180

Thames watermen : 57-63

Thoresby, Ralph : 145

Thome, W. B. : 332

Tin industry : 6, 7, 9, 26

Traction engines : 475, 480

Train, George Francis : 453

" Tram," Derivation of word : 204

Tramways, Street : Introduction of,
453; early lines, 454; State
policy, 454 ; Tramways Act,
1870, 454-5 ; local authorities'
veto, 455 ; electric traction,
455-6; Light Railways Act,
1896, 457 ; " price of assents,"
457, 459-61 ; municipal tram-
ways, 461-5 ; competition of
motor-omnibuses, 466-7 ; rail-
less electric traction, 467-70 ;
tramway competition with rail-
ways, 496, 497-8, 502

Transport, Influence of on social
conditions : Isolation of com-
munities, 16-18, 92-4,108,170,
175; effect of coaching facili-
ties, 41 ; country gentry, 94 ;
county towns, 95-6 ; coaches
and " country manners," 96-7;
beginnings of "Greater Lon-
don," 97 ; civilising effects of
improved communication, 175-
7 ; political results of rail com-
munication, 397 ; social results,
397-8 ; a factor in national
life* 398-400 ; country homes
for town workers, 496-8

Transport, Influence of on trade
and industries : general, 1-3,
16-19, 27, 31, 73, I02;/., 109,
192 ; roads, 4, 6-9, 85-7, 88-
92, 104, 129-30, 139, 160,
162, 169, 249 50 ; rivers, 108,
109-10; H2, 114-6, 119-27,
129, 137-49, 153-4, 159-64,

532

History of Inland Transport

169; canals, 166, 174-80,
193-4, 230-4, 249-50, 294,
301, 307-9 ; turnpikes, 316,
320; railways, 198, 217, 225,
245, 308-10, 349, 350, 354,
385-96 ; motor-vehicles, 482-4

Tube railways : 490, 492-3, 496,
507

Turnpikes: Principle of tolls, 13,
29 ; turnpikes introduced, 32-
3 ; turnpike Acts, 75-6, 104 ;
turnpike system, 77 ; opposi-
tion to toll-bars, 78-80, 320-1 ;
defects of system, 80-4 ; stim-
ulus to trade, 85-90 ; turnpike
roads, 98-9, 104-5 > number of
turnpike Acts and trusts, 312 ;
statute labour, 312-3 ; cost of
road repairs, 314; turnpike
debt, 314, 323-4 ; tolls, 314-6,
318, 320, 331 ; cost of man-
agement, 317, 320; consolida-
tion of trusts, 319; highway
rates and road repairs, 319;
"Rebecca riots" in Wales,
320-1 ; House of Commons
Turnpike Committee, 321 ; re-
duction in number of trusts,
321-4 ; burden on ratepayers,
321-2 ; Government grants,
323 ; rapid decline of trusts,
324 ; attitude of trustees to
steam coaches, 474-5

Tylor, Alfred : 6-7

Underground railways : 491-2
United Kingdom Railway Officers
and Servants' Association : 439
United Pointsmen and Signalmen's

Society : 447

United States : Land grants to rail-
ways, 254 ; railway rates, 349-
50, 357, 377 5 education for
railway efficiency, 415-6
University of Leeds : 427
University of London : 425
University of Manchester : 426,
427

Vernon-Harcourt, L. V. : 156-7,
158

Wade, General : 75

Wages, Railwaymen's : 433~5, 451,
5ii» 512

Waggons: 15, 31, 32, 35-7, 38,
43-8, 5r> 91

War Office and motor-lorries : 504

Warrington : Position in Coaching
Age, 36, 54 ; Mersey naviga-
tion, 137, 138

Watermen, Thames : 57-63

Water power and industries : 141-2,

r43

Watt, James : 142, 187, 188, 190
Webb, F. W. : 440
Wedgwood, Josiah : 159, 160, 161,

.173, J76

Weight of loads : 44-5
Wellington, The Duke of: 262, 265
Welshpool : Severn navigable to,

112; market for Welsh flannels,

114

Wesley,' John: 177
West Coast of Africa, Railways on :

402-4

Wheels, Broad : 35, 45-9, 102, 103
Whitaker, T. D. : 73, 78
Whitworth, Richard: 160, 161,

164, 177, 182
Williams, E. L. : 151
Williams, F. S. : 274, 275
Wimberley, W. C. : 331
Wine trade : 92
Wood, Nicholas : 197, 198, 201,

203, 296, 395

Woods and Forests : 4-5, 8
Woollen industry: 15, 16, 23,24,

25, 26, 115, 118, 138, 141-3,

145-7, 179, 1 86

Yarranton, Andrew : 133-5, I5^
York : Roman military post, 8 ;
coaches, 40, 51, 52 ; road con-
ditions, 64 ; river control, 12 1 ;
trading position, 121
Young, Arthur: 68-71,85, 168, 209

WILLIAM liKENDON AND SON, LTD., PRINTERS, PLYMOUTH

14 DAY USE

RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED

LOAN DEPT.

This book is due on the last date stamped below, or
on the date to which renewed.
Renewed books are subject to immediate recall.

HESciWfS

DEC15'66-4P|

1

l?A;\' DE.«T.

'SStiSSftg u^ggS™..

KB 65891

27421 '

ft:

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY

-yi