Before proceeding to analyze the existing state of things, however, we would have it clearly understood that we do not suppose those implicated to be _on the average_ morally lower than the community at large. Men taken at random {61} from any class, would, in all probability, behave much in the same way when placed in like positions. There are unquestionably directors grossly dishonest. Unquestionably also there are others whose standard of honour is far higher than that of most persons. And for the remainder, they are, doubtless, as good as the mass. Of the engineers, parliamentary agents, lawyers, contractors, and others concerned, it may be admitted that though custom has induced laxity of principle, yet they would be harshly judged were the transactions which may be recorded against them, used as tests. Those who do not see how in these involved affairs, bad deeds may be wrought out by men not correspondingly bad, will readily do so on considering all the conditions. In the first place, there is the familiar fact that the corporate conscience is inferior to the individual conscience—that a body of men will commit as a joint act, that which each one of them would shrink from, did he feel personally responsible. And it may be remarked that not only is the conduct _of_ a corporate body thus comparatively lax, but also the conduct _towards_ one. There is ever a more or less distinct perception, that a broad-backed company scarcely feels what would be ruinous to a private person; and this perception is in constant operation on all railway-boards and their _employés_, as well as on all contractors, landowners, and others concerned: leading them to show a want of principle foreign to their general behaviour. Again, the indirectness and remoteness of the evils produced, greatly weaken the restraints on wrongdoing. Men’s actions are proximately caused by mental representations of the results to be anticipated; and the decisions come to, largely depend on the vividness with which these results can be imagined. A consequence, good or bad, that is immediate and clearly apprehended, influences conduct far more potently than a consequence that has to be traced through a long chain of actions or influences, and, as eventually reached, is not a particular and {62} readily conceivable one, but a general and vaguely conceivable one. Hence, in railway affairs, a questionable share-transaction, an exorbitant charge, a proceeding which brings great individual advantage without apparently injuring any one, and which, even if traced to its ultimate results, can but very circuitously affect unknown persons living no one knows where, may be brought home to men who, could the results be embodied before them, would be shocked at the cruel injustices they had committed—men who in their private business, where the results _can_ be thus embodied, are sufficiently equitable. Further, it requires to be noted that most of these great