Our readers will perhaps remember that, on the 11th March, 1865, a Royal Commission was issued, nominating the Duke of Devonshire, the late Earl of Donoughmore, Lord Stanley, M.P., the Hon. E. F. Leverson Gower, M.P., the Right Hon. Robert Lowe, M.P., Sir Rowland Hill, Messrs. Roebuck, M.P., Dalglish, M.P., G. C. Glyn, M.P., Ayrton, M.P., Colonel Douglas Dalton, R.E., Mr. E. T. Hamilton, and Mr. J. R. McClean, C.E., to make various inquiries respecting railways. On the 19th of December following, a new commission was issued in substitution of the previous one, Mr. Monsell, M.P., being added to the number of Commissioners. The Earl of Donoughmore died shortly after it was issued; and, in consequence of Lord Stanley having become Secretary of State for India, he did not act for more than a short time. The report, dated the 7th of May, 1867, is therefore not signed by His Lordship. It will not be necessary to follow this report, or to refer to the general recommendations contained in it. Some are very good, and would no doubt be readily agreed to by most railway companies, if they were to take the shape of legislative enactment. Others are impracticable (such as that suggested for ensuring punctuality of trains), and like impracticable notions and ideas at all times, they “fret their little hour on the stage,” and then cease to be heard of afterwards. The evidence taken is voluminous; some of it is of a very desultory character, several of the witnesses having seized the occasion to vent their own peculiar theories, and, _sicut eorum mos est_, to inculcate the adoption of their specific or nostrum as the infallible remedy. The appendices, notwithstanding the introduction of much matter that is irrelevant for all large and practical purposes, contain a great deal of useful information. The great and main recommendation in the report is contained in the 74th clause; it is therefore given _in extenso_. “On the various grounds we have mentioned, we cannot concur in the expediency of the purchase of the railways by the State, and we are of opinion that it is inexpedient at present to subvert the policy which has hitherto been adopted, of leaving the construction and management of railways to the free enterprise of the people, under such conditions as Parliament may think fit to impose for the general welfare of the public.”