The railways have no monopoly; Parliament has never allowed them a monopoly. In France, and elsewhere, the Legislative bodies have given railway companies a monopoly for a certain number of years; but with us the practice of Parliament has been precisely the reverse. So far from exercising any monopoly, the railways here are subjected, even among themselves, to a fierce competition. Parliament has sanctioned a second railway to Dover; there are already two lines to Hastings; two are completed to Portsmouth, and a third is making; the Government has insisted upon the South-Western making a second line to Exeter; there are already three lines to Birmingham; there are three lines to Derby, three to Peterborough, three to York, two to Cambridge, two to Oxford, two to Norwich, two to Lincoln, two to Liverpool; I know not how many to Shrewsbury; and many routes to Scotland both by the west coast and the east. Monopoly! Why Parliament on the whole circuit of the country has established, not only the principle, but the practice of free competition; and we have absolutely as much competition amongst railways now as ever existed in the old days of, what the Post Office Report calls, the public highways. The only monopoly ever accorded by Parliament to the railway companies has been the right of taking land; but that right has been encumbered, both legally and by the opportunity afforded for making claims for exorbitant compensations. Parliament has subjected railway companies to frightful expenses, and to most uncertain and unfair tribunals in its own committees. It has never assisted any work in progress, however useful even for purposes of State. It has given no concession to any company; it has undertaken no share of the work, as has been done by the Governments of other States; it has granted no crown lands for any line; it has not assisted to make a line; it has guaranteed no interest upon outlay; it has not even lent money (with the exception of about two millions to Irish railways), as it did year after year to the Holyhead Road Commissioners. What, then, is the Government entitled to from the railway companies? No doubt it is entitled to have public services properly performed, at a moderate cost. And all public services are performed by the railways for the Government, at a moderate cost. But it is not entitled—it can establish no claim—to use the property of railway proprietors, without toll, or to have its work done, without paying a fair rate of profit to those who perform it. When the Post Office Report tells you, that railways are monopolies which have destroyed competition, I ask you to consider, on the other hand, whether railways are not in fact too much subject, at the present time, to Government control. This very mail service is performed by the railways under compulsion. Did the Government compel any one to perform the duty of carrying the mails in the days of the old mail coaches?