and
in the class of enactment under which tramway companies are at present
protected from having their permanent ways used by vehicles owned by
other persons. Practically the possession of a vehicle having a
flanged wheel and a gauge exactly the same as that of the tram lines
in the vicinity may be taken to indicate an intention to use the
lines. Similarly a certain relation between the positions of guiding
wheels and those of the connections with cables may be held to furnish
evidence of liability to contribute towards the maintenance of
motor-tracks.

Roads and railways will be much more closely inter-related in the
future than they have been in the past. The competition of the
automobile would in itself be practically sufficient to force the
owners of railways into a more adaptive mood in regard to the true
relations between the world's great highways. The way in which the
course of evolution will work the problem out may be indicated
thus:--First, the owners of automobiles will find it convenient in
many instances to run by road to the nearest railway station which
suits their purposes, leaving their machines in charge of the
stationmaster and going on by train. In course of time the owners of
"omnibus automobiles" will desire to secure the same advantage for
their customers, and on this account the road cars will await the
arrival and departure of every train just as horse vehicles do at
present. The next step will be taken by the railway companies, or by
the local authorities, when it becomes obvious that there is much more
profit in motor traffic than there ever was in catering for the public
by means of vehicles drawn by horses. Each important railway station
will have its diverging lines of motor-traffic for the convenience of
passengers, some of them owned and managed by the same authority as
the railway line itself.

Rivalry will shortly enforce an improvement upon this system, because
in the keen competition between railway lines those stations will
attract the best parts of the trade at which the passengers are put to
the smallest amount of inconvenience. The necessity for changing
trains, with its attendant bustle of looking after luggage, perhaps
during very inclement weather, always acts as a hindrance to the
popularity of a line. When "motor-omnibuses" are running by road all
the way into the city, setting people down almost at their doors and
making wide circuits by road, the proprietors of these ve