should see; but strong desires often accomplish their own fulfilment, and
so it came to pass.




CHAPTER XIV.
TERMINALS, RATES AND FARES, AND OTHER MATTERS


Of course it was right that Parliament, when conferring upon the railway
companies certain privileges, such as the compulsory acquisition of land
and property, should, in the public interest, impose restrictions on
their charging powers. No one could reasonably complain of this, and had
it been done from the beginning in a clear, logical way, and in language
free from doubt, all might have been well and much subsequent trouble
avoided. But this was not the case. Each company's charging powers were
contained in its own private Acts (which were usually very numerous) and
differed for different sections of the railway. It was often impossible
for the public to ascertain the rights of the companies, and well nigh
impossible for the companies themselves to know what they were. These
powers were in the form of tolls for the use of the railway; charges for
the use of carriages, wagons, and locomotive power, and total maximum
charges which were less than the sum of the several charges. In the Acts
no mention was made of terminals, though in some of them power to make a
charge for _services incidental to conveyance_ was authorised, and what
these words really meant was the subject of much legal argument and great
forensic expenditure.

In addition to the tolls and charges, the Acts usually contained a rough