RAILWAY SUICIDE.
" To Manchester and back for five shillings, with an interval allowed of seven days "—is the facility offered by the London and North-Western and Great Northern Railways, under the blessed influence of competition. The public will be delighted at this " concession," forgetting that it will ultimately have to pay for the convenience, and that some portion of the said public will pay 'in two if not three capacities. The amount of fares will not defray the outlay for the trains, and the railways will be propor- tionately subject to wear and tear which is not met. The share- holders will have to bleed for these wounds inflicted by the di- rectors of one company upon the other. The damage inflicted upon the lines will weaken them, and render them less efficient in the genuine service of the country. Railway companies would avoid all these dangers for themselves and the public if they were to adopt the spint of Lord Dalhousie's unpassed to keep within its own district, and cheerfully to coaperate with its neigh- bours. The public has an acute interest in the matter, for a very tangible reason. Nothing so much conduces to railway accidents as bad repair of railways ; bad repair comes of deficient means ; and unrestrained competition squanders upon useless excursion- trains the money that is needed for placing the railway in perms. nent repair.
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