While this matter remained under consideration at the Treasury, or, in other words, was forgotten amidst the demands of more pressing business, another attempt was made at general legislation, as will hereafter appear, but still without success; and in the beginning of 1858 I again called the Postmaster-General's attention to the subject. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had suggested, meantime, that Government, instead of lending money, as I had originally proposed, or Consols, according to Mr. Hutchinson's judicious modification, might yield the necessary aid by giving its guarantee for loans to be raised by the companies themselves; but this suggestion had been condemned by Mr. Hutchinson, as far less beneficial to the companies, and as raising what would be felt as an injurious distinction between loan and loan, _i.e._, guaranteed and unguaranteed. The matter was now referred by the Treasury to the Board of Trade, then presided over by Lord Stanley of Alderley, who called for the opinion of the Secretary, Mr. Booth, which was in effect adverse. I had also, with permission, consulted Mr. Locke, the eminent engineer, then M.P. for Honiton; who, however, though approving of the principle, demanded that it should be carried out to its full extent, so as not merely to cover £30,000,000, as I had proposed, but to include loans generally. He also required a further amalgamation of companies, and what it may be remembered I had previously urged, but in vain, viz., the concession to each great company of a district or territory, into which other companies should, except in specified contingencies, be forbidden to intrude. In short, through excessive caution on the one hand, and excessive demands on the other, combined with the ordinary difficulties attending innovation, nothing was done. Ten years[142] have now elapsed since my attempt was abandoned, but my estimate of its value remains undiminished; I see no intrinsic difficulty in the plan, no counterbalancing evil to its benefit, nor any obstacle to its adoption, but the want of a more general and accurate knowledge on the subject; for lack of this, supposing my view to be correct, Government has been and still is constantly expending a quarter of a million per annum more than necessary, the railway companies are deprived of a valuable relief, and the postal service is cramped to a degree seriously affecting the interests of the public at large. _Attempts to procure Legislation._ My attempt in the same year (1857) to obtain satisfactory legislation was not more successful than my previous efforts. The bill was prepared with every just consideration for railway interests, which, indeed, I was little likely to neglect, but was introduced too late in the session to give it any chance of passing against the opposition which, to my great disappointment, it encountered.[143]