ion of any conditions not contained in their original Act.

On the whole, therefore, when we consider on the one hand the superior
advantages afforded by the London and Birmingham scheme in itself, and by
the adoption of the narrow gauge, and on the other the great advantages
offered by the London and Birmingham Company, in connexion with it, over
their whole system, and the ample guarantees given against any possible
abuses of monopoly, we can arrive at no other conclusion than that the
scheme promoted by that Company is preferable on public grounds to the
competing scheme, which is inferior in itself, and which holds out no
such collateral advantages.

Having already referred to the Shrewsbury, Wolverhampton, Dudley, and
Birmingham scheme, as connected, in a great measure, with those between
Worcester and Wolverhampton, it will be convenient to include this scheme
in the present Report.

We have stated that the general question involved in the comparison of
this scheme with the competing line proposed by the Grand Junction
Company is, that the latter joins the Grand Junction line at
Wolverhampton, and thus affords no accommodation to the mineral district
between Wolverhampton and Birmingham.

If the views which we have stated in regard to the importance of opening
up this district by Railway communication are correct, this consideration
alone is sufficient to give a decided preference to the more extended
scheme. It also appears to us, that to entrust the branch to Shrewsbury
to the Grand Junction Company would be open to the objection which we
have stated in our previous Report upon the South Eastern schemes, when
discussing the general policy of giving a preference to lines proposed by
existing Companies for the accommodation of adjoining districts, viz.
that there may be danger in giving such preference where the scheme
proposed by the existing Company, although insufficient for the complete
accommodation of the district to be provided for, may yet be sufficient
to throw impediments in the way of other parties coming forward with more
extensive schemes.

A line to Shrewsbury, in the hands of the Grand Junction Company, would
manifestly be not unlikely to be used for the purposes of protection
against competition, rather than of encouragement to Extensions beyond
Shrewsbury, and to the legitimate development of the traffic. It appears
to us, therefore, that, under the peculiar circumstances of the case, the
f