per cent., because, of such L300, one
hundred would be laid out by the company, and L200 by the Government,
who, taking the whole railway for their security, would have a legal
claim upon the produce of the money expended by the shareholders as well
as by themselves. He took the returns of traffic on the very lowest
line--that from Arbroath to Forfar, to show that even at the lowest
traffic yet known on any railway, the Government would be secured
against loss.
2. He next dealt with the position of shareholders under his Bill. He
said they need not be alarmed at Government taking the whole railway as
security, because, as matters stood, the shares of all lines stopped for
want of means were valueless, or all but so, in the market; the effect
of the Government loan would be to bring those dead shares to life
again; for where there was a certainty of any line being finished, there
was a fair prospect of a dividend from that line. The advantage,
therefore, of the loan to shareholders was self-evident. He read a
letter from Mr. Carr, then chairman of the Great Southern and Western
Railway of Ireland, in which the Peel Government were asked, in May,
1846, by that Company, for a loan of L500,000 to go on with their works,
they undertaking to employ 50,000 men over those works, provided their
request was complied with.
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