Mr. Scudamore's original estimate of the cost of acquisition of the telegraphs fell far short of the final expenditure; although it must be remembered that, when he proposed £2,500,000 as sufficient, he did not anticipate items of expense which later vastly increased the cost. Before the committee which reported in 1868 he advanced his original estimate to £6,000,000, and in the following year to £6,750,000, of which he considered about two thirds to be of the nature of good-will. The telegraph companies when first approached asked for twenty-five years' purchase of their prospective profits, and the Government offered to buy at the highest price realized on the Stock Exchange up to the 25th of May, with an addition of from 10 to 15 per cent for compulsory sale. The cost of the leading companies, based upon twenty years' purchase of the net profits for the year ending 30th June, 1868, was as follows: For the Electric and International, £2,933,826; for the British and Irish Magnetic, £1,243,536; for Reuter's, £726,000; for the United Kingdom Electric, £562,000; and for the Universal Private, £184,421,--a total of £5,650,047. Separate bargains followed with many smaller companies. The acts of 1868 and 1869 granted £8,000,000, for the purpose of purchasing the undertakings of the companies and the interests of the railways; £6,640,000 were spent in purchases, and £1,560,000 in renewals and extensions between 1868 and 1872.[807] The claims for compensation on the part of some of the railways were very excessive. The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway asked for £1,129,814, with interest, and £1 per wire per mile a year for all wires erected upon its right of way by or for the Post Office. By the terms of the award they obtained £169,197 and 1_s._ per mile per wire. The Great Eastern Railway presented a claim for £412,608, with interest, and £1 per mile per wire. Their claim was reduced to £73,315 and an annual payment of £200 for way-leave. In all, the capital sum of £10,880,571 was expended by the Government, necessitating an annual interest payment of £326,417, charged, not on the Post Office vote, but on the Consolidated Fund.[808] [807] _Rep. Com._, 1867-68, xi, 435, p. 162; 1868-69, vi, 348, p. 11; 1867-68, xi, 435, p. 217; 1873, xxxix, 316, pp. 762-64; 1873, vii, 290, p. 95; _Parl. Deb._, 3d ser., cxcii, coll. 747-751, 1303-04. According to figures furnished by Mr. Fowler in a speech in the House of Commons in 1868, the value of the capital and the debentures of the Electric and International at that time was £1,240,000 while the capital value of the British and Irish Magnetic was £534,000; of Reuter's Company, £266,000; of the United Kingdom Electric, £350,000, and of the London and Provincial, £65,000 (_Parl. Deb._ 3d ser., cxcv, coll. 747-751). [808] _Rep. P. G._, 1876, p. 10; _ibid._, 1883, p. 9.