that may not for a long period become productive to a private speculator, are often an immediate source of wealth to the state, by employing labour, increasing production, and consequently augmenting revenue.

The report of the Railway Commissioners of Ireland which afterwards appeared, fully coincided with our views, directed the attention of Parliament to the essential difference between railways and other public works, and predicted that it would be found necessary to restrict the powers and privileges which had been conceded to private companies by legislative regulations, enforced by effective superintendence and control. The second report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons appointed to inquire into the state of communication by railways has appeared since the close of the last session. The Committee have particularly remarked the difficulties that arise from an extended inter-communication throughout the country, solely maintained by companies acting for their private interests, unchecked by competition and uncontrolled by authority.

The danger that might result to the interests of the public by giving to a private company a monopoly of the entire traffic of a great line of communication, was foreseen by Parliament, and there was an attempt made to obviate this evil by requiring a provision to be introduced into nearly all the Acts by which private companies were incorporated, for enabling other persons to place and run engines and carriages on the roads, upon payment of certain tolls to the companies. This provision, however, has proved quite useless. There are other arrangements not provided for by the Acts, which are as necessary as the payment of tolls, to open railroads to public competition. It is essential to supply the engine with water, to take up or set down passengers, and several other matters, upon which companies are left to make their own terms; and as it is not their interest to admit parties to compete with themselves, it is not likely that they would be inclined to afford to them the requisite facilities. Besides, it is essential, in order to secure the safety of the public, that there should be one system of management, under one superintending authority, which should have the power of making and enforcing all necessary regulations; and this VOL. X.-No. XIX.

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renders the monopoly of the company of the entire mode of communication almost unavoidable.

The Committee show how the company and the public may have conflicting interests,-as the main object of the former must be to obtain a good return for the capital expended, and of the latter, that the intercourse should be regularly maintained with the greatest safety, speed and economy. This opposition of interests is clearly proved to exist, by the evidence of Mr. Gott. He states that when the Leeds and Selby Railway Company raised the fares and diminished the number of passengers by 12,000, the income of the company was improved by 1300l. Mr. Ritson's evidence also shows that a larger revenue was produced to the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Railway Company by the conveyance of a fewer number of passengers at increased fares; and a like result appears from the accounts supplied by the Dundee and Newtyle Railway Company. It is therefore apparent, that the duty of the directors to maintain the fares at the point which will prove most beneficial to the pecuniary interests of the company, may operate injuriously upon the public, and especially upon the poorest class of passengers. On this subject Mr. Bury observes, "The railways have de"stroyed or they will destroy all other means of communica❝tion whatever; the stage-waggons and conveyances of that "description, which have afforded those persons accommoda❝tion, will in the end be taken off, and the companies must "provide in the same way a kind of conveyance suitable to "the means of those passengers." Besides the pecuniary interests of the public concerned in this question, their safety is an essential part of the consideration. We believe that the greatest number of accidents that have occurred on railways have arisen from the insecurity of the fences. Every one who has travelled on them must have remarked what inadequate provision there is made for guarding against the trespass of cattle on the lines. The proprietors and occupiers of the adjoining lands, whose property is at stake, have power to oblige a company to make good its fences; but the public, whose lives depend on the exact fulfilment of this duty, have no means to enforce it. Crossing a public way, and sometimes another railway on a level, from the want of sufficient

attention to the switches or points by which two lines of railways are connected, is constantly attended with risk, and occasionally with accidents; while the power of making bylaws for regulating the conduct of passengers, possessed by the company, sometimes without the sanction of any legal authority, may prove highly injurious to the liberty of the subject. The Committee therefore recommend the appointment of a Board to protect the public against the abuse of the extensive powers vested in railway companies by their respective Acts, and to control all the arrangements by which the general interests of the community may be affected. The important evidence given before this Committee deserves the most serious attention of the Legislature during the ensuing session, when the general introduction into Ireland of this new means of communication will be under their consideration. It fully confirms our impression, that a well-combined and judicious system of railroads, which will ensure to the public all the advantages that can be derived from this mode of conveyance at the cheapest possible rate, can only be effected by government construction.

In all other undertakings into which free competition can enter, society enjoys from the legitimate exertions of private interests all the advantages derivable from them; but in a line of railway, the rivalry of competing parties would be prejudicial to the safety of the public, and a monopoly is inevitable. Some companies have already engrossed the entire of the carrying trade. The Grand Junction Company have retained to themselves the conveyance of all Birmingham and Lancashire goods. The Liverpool and Manchester Company have always been the exclusive carriers on their line. The Newcastle and Carlisle and the Leeds and Selby Companies are also the sole carriers on their line. The Bolton and Leigh Railway, communicating with the Liverpool and Manchester, have let the carrying trade to one single carrier! What powerful influence may not a monopoly so gigantic exercise in a great commercial country like this!

We have before stated the points in which we differ from the Irish Railway Commissioners: we think they underrated the profits likely to be derived from the investment of capital in these undertakings, and condemn their exclusion of the

west of Ireland from a share in their advantages. On the 1st of March, last session, a resolution proposed by Lord Morpeth was agreed to by the House of Commons, that Exchequer Bills to an amount not exceeding 2,500,000l. should be made out by direction of the Treasury, to be advanced for the construction of a railway or railways in Ireland, to be secured on the profits of the works, and the deficiency, if any, provided by an assessment on the districts through which such railway or railways might be carried. From the difficulty of reconciling private interests with any public measure, the Government scheme was abandoned last session. We trust that some means will be adopted during the next for opening to the country these great channels of intercourse, without injury to any existing rights. A Drainage Act which will remove the impediments that now exist to the cultivation of the waste lands, is another measure of essential importance to a country which requires nothing but the fostering care of a paternal government to become eminently prosperous. While the disturbers of the public peace are punished, active and honest industry should be fostered and encouraged. The exertions of the Government to work out the prosperity of Ireland, and eradicate its evils, by holding the balance equal between parties, and affording to all classes the full protection of the laws, have secured to them the co-operation of those who love justice, and are friendly to civil and religious liberty. The manners of a people follow the genius of their rulers already the baneful habits which servitude introduced the blind dissensions to which custom gave the force of instinct-are disappearing; and although some features of a struggle, prolonged to an extent of which history affords no parallel, must still be expected to remain, yet the country exhibits a state of perfect tranquillity,—the people are obedient to the laws in which they have now an interest, and begin to feel the advantages of that constitution in which they have now a share.

ARTICLE VIII.

Della Economia Politica del Medio Evo, Libri III. che trattano della sua condizione politica morale economica del Cav. LUIGI CIBRARIO. 8° Torino: 1839.

WHEN Muratori was searching for historical documents to be inserted in his collection of writers on Italy during the middle ages (Rerum Italicarum Scriptores), he had the mortification of meeting with scarcely any success in Piedmont. It was in vain, as he says in his preface to the Chronicon Astense (R. I. S., tom. xi.), that he applied to every person likely to render him any assistance. The government, as well as private individuals, (with a very few honourable exceptions), turned a deaf ear to his entreaties, as if the history of Italy could be considered of slight importance, in a national point of view, to any of its provinces. Far different is the feeling prevalent in Piedmont at the present time. The illustration of the history, not of Italy indeed, (it is the fate of that unhappy country that nothing Italian should ever be encouraged by any of the mis-governments that oppress her,) but of the states of the king of Sardinia, during the middle ages, occupies the attention of a large number of persons distinguished for birth as well as for talents and accomplishments, urged in their studies by no other motive but love of country (unfortunately taken in too municipal a sense, and which might be more properly called love of province), and eager to leave no part of this interesting subject in total obscurity, even when no hopes remain of throwing upon it so clear a light as would enable the world to appreciate the merits of the laborious, modest and patriotic scholars who dedicate their lives to such pursuits.

The government of Sardinia has been shamed into giving some pecuniary assistance to help the publication of the documents from which such facts are drawn as form the subject of works like M. Cibrario's. The treaties of the House of Savoy are published by order of the minister for foreign affairs, in 4to; records, seals and coins illustrating the history of Savoy and of the reigning family, have been printed by order of the king, in 4to and 8vo; and the Monumenta