When railways were first authorised, it was everywhere anticipated, strange though it may now appear, that the companies would be merely toll takers, and that the public, or carriers, would use them in the same manner as turnpike roads. Every railway was to be a highway; every one of the King or Queen’s subjects was to be free to use it. Many statutes bear traces of this, now apparently, curious assumption. The private Acts, as a rule, contained no provision for the companies themselves acting as carriers. The classification of the articles to be carried and the tolls to be taken were borrowed from the canal Acts. No very clear principle of classification ran through the special Acts. The classification in the main, however, probably accorded with the considerations pointed out by Adam Smith, who drew attention to the inconvenience of levying tolls on turnpike roads solely according to weight.[33] Speaking broadly, the tolls were in accordance with the ideas as to indirect taxation prevalent at the time when canals began to be largely constructed. In the original classification one may trace a desire to encourage agriculture, and the manufacture of iron, and such articles as were, generally speaking, carried in large quantities. Articles of general use in manufactures and raw materials were to be carried cheaply. The omissions from the lists of articles are remarkable. Such commodities as coal, iron ore, bricks, clay, manure, slates, stone, bar and pig iron, heavy iron castings, anvils, chains, timber, grain, flour, sugar, hides, dye-woods, earthenware, drugs, cotton and wool, were enumerated. On the other hand, machinery, hardware, hollow-ware, cutlery, glass, ale, wines and spirits, grease, oils, soap, drysalteries, paints, colours, paper, leather, floor-cloth, and textile fabrics, were not named; they came under the general description of “manufactured goods, articles, matters or things,” and might be charged the highest maximum rates. The special Acts contained, as a rule, an enumeration of only 40 to 50 articles in three to five classes.