Mr. Acworth is an Englishman who in former years wrote many bitter things concerning the abuses which he then thought he saw in the management of the railroads of his native country, which, according to his own statement, are, besides those of the United States, the only roads in the world for whose regulation competition has been relied upon in the past. Mr. Acworth has become a convert to the _laissez faire_ theory of dealing with railroads and now evinces an unusual, but perhaps pardonable, zeal in the defense of his new position. In the preface to his book, "The Railways of England," he says upon the subject: "I have published before now not a few criticisms (which were meant to be scathing) on English railways anonymously. I find myself using, under my own name, the language of almost unvarying panegyric. This is partly to be explained by the plan of the book, which professes to set before the reader those points on each line which best merit description--its excellencies, therefore, rather than its defects. Much more, however, is it due to a change of opinion in the writer.... I have found in so many cases that a satisfactory reply existed to my former criticisms, that I have perhaps assumed that such an answer would be forthcoming in all; and if I have taken up too much the position of an apologist, where I should have been content to be merely an observer, let me plead as my excuse that I am only displaying the traditional zeal of the new-made convert." Prof. Hadley, of whose work, "Railroad Transportation, its History and its Law," mention has been made above, contributed an article to the April, 1891, number of the _Forum_, under the title "Railway Passenger Rates." He endeavors to show that the high passenger rates of American railroads are due solely to superior service. He says: "Continental Europe pays two-thirds as much as America or England and gets an inferior article. India pays still less and gets still less. The difference is seen both in quality and quantity of service. In India express trains rarely run at a greater speed than 25 miles an hour. In Germany and France their speed ranges from 25 to 35 miles an hour, and only in exceptional instances is more than 40 miles an hour. In the United States and in England the maximum speed rises as high as 50, or, in exceptional instances, 60 miles an hour. With regard to the comfort of the cars in different countries, there is more room for difference of opinion; but there can be no doubt that the average traveler in the United States, or even in the English third-class car, fares better than he would in the corresponding class on continental railroads, and infinitely better than the bulk of travelers in British India."