"The Railways Clauses Consolidation Act provides, in detail, for the use of railways by all persons who may choose to put carriages thereon, upon the payment of the tolls demandable, subject to the provisions of the statute and the regulations of the company. The view originally taken of railways in England evidently was to treat them as a common highway, open to all who might choose to put carriages thereon. But in practice it is found necessary for the safety of the traffic that it should be exclusively under the control of the company, and hence no use is, in fact, made of the railway by others." As to the questionable financial expedients so frequently resorted to in building American railways, this author says: "This is not the place, nor are we disposed, to read a homily upon the wisdom of legislative grants, or the moralities of moneyed speculations in stocks on the exchange or elsewhere. But it would seem that legislation upon this subject should be conducted with sufficient deliberation and firmness so as not to invest such incorporations with such unlimited powers as to operate as a net to catch the unwary, or as a gulf in which to bury out of sight the most disastrous results to private fortunes, which has justly rendered American investments, taken as a whole, a reproach wherever the name has traveled." The opinion is expressed in this work that under certain circumstances railroad securities should be aided by State credit, and is supported by the following argument: "Here we have no national funded stock in convenient sums for small investment, and which, being sure, is really a great blessing to the mass of those who wish to invest moderate sums as a protection against age or calamity. In those countries where such opportunities exist, it removes all temptation to invest small sums in these enterprises, which, however necessary for the public, such small owners can but poorly afford to aid in carrying forward, and which consequently should in justice either be guaranteed or owned by the State, or at all events aided by State credit, when they become indispensable for the public convenience." Upon the subject of eminent domain Redfield says: "That railways are but improved highways, and are of such public use as to justify the exercise of the right of eminent domain, by the sovereign, in their construction, is now almost universally conceded." Kent says in his "Commentaries on American Law":