Not long ago the Council decided to adopt electrical traction on all their lines, involving an ultimate cost of £9,000,000 which will include the necessary generating stations, rolling-stock, purchase of smaller undertakings, and extensions. The result attained will be a splendid system, equivalent in length to two hundred miles of single track, though not larger than that of some big provincial cities. Wherever possible the system will be that of the conduit underground; more expensive than the trolley method, but in the crowded streets of London--where every inch of space is valuable--advantageous, and from a severely æsthetic point of view, preferable, because it dispenses with poles and wires. But on lines acquired by the Council where already exists the overhead principle, there will be no difficulty in arranging the cars so that they can be run from one system to the other, either with no stopping at all at the point of change, or with a delay of but a second or two. The cars, except the trucks, will be made in England by British firms, and are to be double-decked, double-bogied, and thirty-two feet long; they are to hold twenty-eight passengers inside, and forty-two on the roof, and will be in two compartments. They will resemble the Liverpool cars, described in Chapter XIII, and will be painted a chocolate colour. The speed will be a maximum of twelve miles an hour, with an average of about seven. Supposing, therefore, that all the L.C.C. parliamentary Bills are carried through, and that all the disunited lines are properly and harmoniously linked together, and through communication established in every direction, it will be feasible to take some such day’s business journey within the Council’s boundaries as that of Benjamin Short which I am about to relate. But before doing so I think the very important decision of the Lord Chancellor in an appeal case, November 27th, 1902, on the subject of the maintenance of tramway tracks should be recorded:-- THE MAINTENANCE OF TRAMWAY TRACKS On March 4th, 1900, Mr. Fitzgerald was driving a horse and Ralli car in Grafton Street, Dublin, when the horse stumbled and fell, and the respondent was flung out of the cart and sustained serious injuries. On the ground that the surface of the paving at the place where he was driving was unsafe for horses and in a condition which was a danger and annoyance to the ordinary traffic, he brought an action against the tramway company, and was awarded £1,000 damages, the jury holding that the part of the roadway for which the company was responsible was at the time slippery and unsafe, and that this was the cause of the horse falling. They, at the same time, found that the misfortune was not caused by the fabric of the pavement being improperly constructed or maintained.