The owners of lands along the banks of canals were entitled to construct, in connection with them, wharves, basins and warehouses; and we find in the earlier railway Acts, and in the Railways Clauses Consolidation Act 1845 (subject to which all railways since that date have been, constructed), similar powers with respect to railways conferred upon adjoining owners. They were authorised to construct sidings and junctions for the purpose of making communications between their own lands and the railway. It was intended that a trader should load his wagons on his own premises, carry them over the railway and take them off the railway again at another siding or communication, paying the railway company a mere toll for the use of the length of line over which the traffic was in fact worked. Nor was this a mere theory. For many years upon some of the railways in this country the work of carrying merchandise was, to a considerable extent, actually performed by large firms of carriers, such as Pickfords, and others, who provided their own siding accommodation with the railways, and built or rented their own stations and warehouses. During this period the railway companies, so far as this part of their traffic was concerned, merely provided the highways, the wagons and the engine power, and hauled the traffic from its place of origin to its destination; and they undertook no responsibility as common carriers in respect of the goods. The carriers provided the station accommodation, loaded and unloaded the goods, checked and weighed them, and handed over the loaded or unloaded trucks to the railway company in a convenient position for the engine to be attached to them. Of course, the carriers, who undertook all liability as such, charged the public not only the tolls which they paid to the railway company, but also a considerable additional sum to cover the risk of their Common Law liabilities, the cost of providing station and warehouse accommodation, clerkage and invoicing of goods, and other services beyond the haulage of the trucks.[42] Upon some lines the state of things which we have described existed for many years. But gradually the railway companies began to undertake the duties and responsibilities of carriers. They purchased or built, often at enormous expense, the necessary terminal accommodation which, under the previous system, had been provided by private carriers; and they made to the public charges similar to those which the carriers themselves had before made for corresponding accommodation and services. The companies raised the large sums required to furnish this accommodation and for their working capital as carriers, upon the faith that they were entitled to stand in all respects, in the place of the carriers or forwarding agents, and to make reasonable charges for accommodation and services not covered by, and obviously having no relation to, the mileage rates for simple haulage from point to point.