classification of goods to which they applied. These were divided into
from three to five classes, and comprised some 50 to 60 articles. The
railway companies, however, had in existence, for practical everyday use,
a general classification called The Railway Clearing House
Classification, and this contained over 2,700 articles divided into seven
classes.

The tolls and charges in the Companies' Acts were fixed originally in the
old belief (to which I have before alluded) that railway companies, like
canal companies, would be mere owners of the route; and when they became
carriers and provided stations, sidings, warehouses, cranes, and all the
paraphernalia appertaining to the business of a carrier, the old form was
not altered, the charging powers remained as originally expressed in
subsequent Acts, and the same old model was followed. For several years
prior to 1881 complaints by merchants, traders and public bodies against
railway rates and fares had become very common. The cry was taken up by
the public generally, and railway companies had a decidedly unpleasant
time of it, which they bore with that good temper and equanimity which I
(perhaps not altogether an unprejudiced witness) venture to affirm
generally characterised them. The complaints increased in number and
intensity and Members of Parliament and newspaper writers joined in the
jeremiad.

Parliament, as Parliaments do, yielded to clamour, and in 1881 a Select
Committee was appointed by the House of Commons to inquire into railway
charges, into the laws and conditions affecting such charges, and
specially into passenger fares. It was a big committee, consisted of 23
members, took 858 pages of evidence, and examined 80 witnesses. At the
end of the session they reported that, although they had sat
continuously, time had failed for consideration of the evidence, and