assing this Act. It must be observed, however, that the Act applies to
Ireland as well as England.

In the year 1854 Parliament considered that _regulations_ were necessary
to further control the companies and passed an important statute, the
_Railway and Canal Traffic Act_. Known, for short, in railway parlance,
as "the Act of '54," its main provisions dealt with:--

Reasonable facilities for receiving and forwarding traffic
The subject of undue preference, which was forbidden
Railways forming part of continuous lines to receive and forward
through traffic without obstruction
The liability of railway companies for loss of, or damage to, goods or
animals

and it preserved to railway companies the _protection_ of the _Carriers'
Act_, to which I have referred.

The Select Committees of 1858 and 1863 sat on the subject of the great
length of time and the immense cost which railway promotion in those days
entailed, when Bills were fiercely contested, and protracted struggles
before Parliamentary Committees took place. Two Acts resulted from their
deliberations: the _Railway Companies' Powers Act_, 1864, and the
_Railway Construction Facilities Act_ of the same year. These Acts
empowered railway companies to enter into agreements with each other in
regard to maintenance, management, running over or use of each others
lines or property and for joint ownership of stations. They also enabled
powers to be obtained from the Board of Trade to construct a railway
without a special Act of Parliament, subject to the conditions that all
the landowners concerned agreed to part with the requisite land, and that
no objection was raised by any other railway or canal company. Little
use has ever been made of this well-intentioned enactment. Landowners
have rarely been disposed to accept terms which the companies thought
fair; and rival railways, in the days gone by, dearly loved a fight.

By the _Companies Clauses Consolidation Act_ of 1845 railway companies
were required to keep full and true accounts of receipts and expenditure,
but it was not until the year 1868 that Parliament placed upon the
companies an obligation to keep their accounts in a prescribed form. This
form was scheduled to the _Regulation of Railways Act_, 1868. It
provides for half-yearly accounts, and is the form which has been
familiar to shareholders for many years. This Act (1868) also ordained
that smoking compartments be provided on