There is no doubt that the agitation against the railway companies has arisen in consequence of the depressed state of trade which has existed during the last few years, not only in this country, but all over the world, many of the largest undertakings in the coal and iron industries having been carried on in fact with little or no margin of profit to those interested in them; but, whatever the cause of the agitation, it has had sufficient force to induce two successive Administrations to attempt legislation in order to satisfy it.
In 1886 Mr. Mundella, the then President of the Board of Trade, introduced a "Railway and Canal Traffic Bill," which met with vigorous opposition on the part of the railway interest, but Mr. Gladstone's Government fell before any decision was arrived at with regard to it. In the last session of Parliament (1888), however, a bill was introduced by Lord Salisbury's Government, and with some modifications in Committee became law, under the title of the "Railway and Canal Traffic Act, 1888," containing, inter alia, the following provisions:—
(1) The Railway Commissioners' powers, as defined by the Act of 1873, are renewed, and their body is re-constituted so as to consist of two appointed members (one of whom is to be of experience in railway business), and three ex-officio commissioners, one for England and Wales, one for Scotland, and one for Ireland, these latter being judges of a superior court, each of whom will preside in cases only which are heard in that part of the United Kingdom for which he is nominated.
(2) Town councils, county authorities, urban and rural sanitary authorities, harbour boards, chambers
