lving
a liability on various baronies which have guaranteed interest on
capital to the amount of L36,000 per annum. To bring these light
railways up to a proper standard and equipment; to widen the gauge in
many cases; to provide new sheds, stations, and rolling stock, and
redeem the guarantees, a sum of about L5,000,000 would probably be
necessary. In addition, projects for no less than eighty-three new
railways were brought before the Commission;[95] and it is admitted on
all hands, and the Commission find, that practically none of these
railway extensions would be undertaken by private enterprise, and that
these developments need the credit, help, and direction of the State.
Even the necessary improvement of the existing light railways cannot now
be undertaken, for under the system of legislation under which they were
constructed, there is no means of raising new capital.[96]

Now, what is advocated by the Majority Report is the--

"compulsory purchase by the State of these railway systems great
and small, to be then worked and managed by an Irish elected
authority as one concern, mainly with a view of developing Irish
industries by reduction of rates and otherwise, and not strictly on
commercial principles."[97]

This was the scheme supported by the Parliamentary Party, written up
unceasingly by the _Freeman's Journal_, and held out under the term
"Nationalisation of Railways," as one of the special boons which Home
Rule will bring to Irish traders and farmers.

But mark how the operation is to be carried out. The Commission
reported that the sum required should be raised by a railway stock
charged primarily on the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, with
recourse to Irish rates to make up possible deficiencies, and further,
that there should be an annual grant from the Exchequer of not less than
L250,000 to the Irish railway authority. Seeing that the Commissioners
refer to "the financial terms prescribed by the Act of 1844" (Regulation
of Railways Act, 7 & 8 Vict. c. 85, ss. 2-4), and that a _cash_ payment
to shareholders was provided for by that Act, it is to be presumed that
the Commissioners intended Irish shareholders to be paid in cash. The
Act of 1844 provided for payment to the companies of a sum in cash equal
to twenty-five years' purchase of the previous three years' annual
profits; but this was the minimum only, for it was provided that the
companies could, under arbitra