The railway company addressed was deaf to remonstrance. The evil was established on one important line, and was likely to spread as new lines were opened. The efforts of the pulpit and of the press also were redoubled; but while these served gradually to indoctrinate the land, and, through the blessing of God, might stay the evil in the lapse of time, still, on the other hand, the iniquity was in the mean time being firmly established, the country was being familiarized with it, and no reflecting person could fail to fear the effect of familiar habit in undermining even the most rooted principle. It became of importance thus not only to meet it by the general pressure of religious principle, but to encounter it within the walls of the offending companies, by arguments addressed in their presence to the consciences and interests of directors and shareholders, in the hope of prevailing on them, through moral suasion, to abandon the obnoxious policy, and return to right dealing. For this end, the writer of these pages submitted to his honourable friend and leader—who, in his letters at this time, was constantly grieving over his inability to work in the wake of the “declaration,” and exclaiming every now and them, “False position! false position!”—the scheme of purchasing as much railway stock as would give a voice in the half-yearly meetings of companies, and there maintaining the cause of truth and godliness. A prompt and animated reply was the immediate result, and a commission to purchase the requisite stock.