Shortly after the Government's Bill had been referred to the Select Committee, the Government made the railway companies this proposition, which was accepted. The Government was to acquire perpetual and exclusive way-leaves for telegraph lines over the railways, and the price to be paid therefor was to be left to arbitration. The railway companies were to have the choice of presenting their claims either under the head of payment for the cession of perpetual and exclusive way-leaves to the Government; or, under the head of compensation for the loss of right to grant way-leaves to any one other than the Government, as well as for the loss of right themselves to transmit messages, except on their own railway business. The Government was of the opinion that the sums to be paid to the railways under this agreement would not be large enough to raise above $30,000,000, the total sum to be paid to the telegraph companies and the railways. Parliament enacted the Bill of 1868 authorizing the Government to purchase the property of the telegraph companies and the rights of the railways; but it provided that the resulting Act of 1868 should not take effect, unless, in the Session of 1869, Parliament should put at the disposal of the Postmaster General such monies as were required to carry out the provisions of the Act of 1868. The Government immediately appointed a committee to ascertain the profits earned by the telegraph companies in the year that had ended with June, 1868. The committee, which consisted of the Receiver and Accountant General of the Post Office, and other gentlemen selected from the Post Office for their general ability, but especially for their knowledge of accounts, in June and July, 1869, reported that the aggregate of the sums to be paid to the six telegraph companies was $28,575,235,[42] the companies having put in claims aggregating $35,180,185. While the Bill had been before the Select Committee, the Government had agreed to purchase the properties of Reuters Telegram Company (Norderney Cable), as well as of the Universal Private Company. The price paid for those properties absorbed the margin on which Mr. Scudamore and the Government had counted for the purchase of the reversionary rights of the railways.