Excerpt from The Influence of English Railway Legislation of Trade and Industry: With an Appendix of Tracts and Documents Lines have been ceded in perpetuity. Where the object can be attained by a cession for a term of years, a cession in perpetuity is of course objectionable but whether the cession be for a term or in perpetuity, it is quite clear that the legislature, as guardians of the public interests, ought to have taken especial care that the exactions from the public should be no more than would afford a suit able return to the associations for their outlay. The cession was of the nature of a contract between the Com panics and the public, and if the legislature conceded more to the Companies in this contract than was a just equivalent for the services performed, it thereby betrayed its trust. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.