As the new system has created an enormous increase of traffic, so it has also, _pari passu_, developed talent proportionate to the extraordinary demand for it; and, therefore, whatever may be the imaginary dangers from a concentrated administration of our railways, we feel confident that the public have much greater reason to apprehend the inconveniences, to say the least, that must inevitably result to them from those sudden unreasonable changes of management, or rather of _mis_management, which are sure periodically to take place so long as every separate railway monopoly arbitrarily pursues not only its own system, but that which its restless shareholders from time to time may think proper to ordain. At all events, until the best plan of managing our great railways shall have been finally ascertained, and most especially until the unknown liabilities, expenses, and receipts attendant upon the establishment over the surface of our country of a series of iron highways shall have been accurately developed, it must be utterly impossible for any practical man to decide to what extent, if any, the Parliamentary tolls originally levied on the public ought in equity to have been reduced. The great truth, however, sooner or later must appear; and as the hurricane, however violently it may blow, in due time is invariably succeeded by a breathless calm;--as the ocean waves, although mountain high, shortly subside;--as the darkest night in a few hours turns into bright daylight;--so must the present mystified prospects of our great railways inevitably ere long become clear and transparent as those of any other mercantile firm; and when this moment shall have arrived, we believe a very short time will elapse before Parliament, the amalgamated Railway Boards, and the public, will come to a creditable and amicable adjustment; for while, on the other hand, it can never be the interest of the public to prefer _cheap_ to SAFE travelling, so it can never be the serious and fixed purpose of any body of men competent to direct the affairs of our arterial railways to exact from the public an exorbitant dividend which must inevitably create condign punishment; for so sure as water finds its own level will British capital always be forthcoming to lower by legitimate competition anything like a continued usurious exaction from the public. But a moment’s consideration of the following facts will show that, as regards railway tolls, the public have as yet no very great reason to complain. 1st. As regards the public:-- In 1835 the fares paid by the public for travelling from London to Liverpool, at the average rate of say 10 miles an hour, were, exclusive of fees to guards and coachmen-- £. _s._ _d._ £. _s._ _d._ Per Mail, outside 2 10 0 Inside 4 10 0 Per Coach, ditto 2 5 0 Ditto 4 5 0