I am, Sir, your faithful servant, J. RUSKIN. DENMARK HILL, _Nov._ 29, 1870. I have underlined the words I want to be noticed, but, as you see, made no change in a syllable. Already the Government, not unapproved, carries letters and parcels for us. Larger packages may in time follow--even general merchandise; why not, at last, ourselves? Had the money spent in local mistakes and vain private litigations on the railroads of England been laid out, instead, under proper Government restraint, on really useful railroad work, _and had no absurd expense been incurred in ornamenting stations_, we might already have had--what ultimately it will be found we MUST have--_quadruple rails, two for passengers, and two for traffic, on every great line_; and we might have been carried in swift safety, and watched and warded by well-paid pointsmen, for half the present fares. FOOTNOTES: [82] This letter was elicited by a leading article in the _Daily Telegraph_ of November 29, 1870, upon railway accidents, and the means of their prevention, _à propos_ of two recent accidents which had occurred, both on the same day (November 26, 1870) on the London and North-Western Railway. [83] In the first letter on the Franco-Prussian War, _ante_, p. 34. (_Daily Telegraph_, Oct. 7, 1870.) MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS. II. SERVANTS AND HOUSES. MASTERSHIP. 1865. EXPERIENCE. 1865. SONSHIP AND SLAVERY. 1865. MODERN HOUSES. 1865. II. SERVANTS AND HOUSES. [From "The Daily Telegraph," September 5, 1865.] _DOMESTIC SERVANTS--MASTERSHIP._ _To the Editor of "The Daily Telegraph."_ SIR: You so seldom write nonsense, that you will, I am sure, pardon your friends for telling you when you do. Your article on servants to-day is nonsense. It is just as easy and as difficult now to get good servants as it ever was.[84] You may have them, as you may have pines and peaches, for the growing, or you may even buy them good, if you can persuade the good growers to spare you them off their walls; but you cannot get them by political economy and the law of supply and demand.