secure a
fair share of it. But "there's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip,"
and in 1869 in a fit of timidity--a weakness most unusual with them--they
nearly lost this valuable right. The year 1867 was a time of great
financial anxiety; the Midland was weighted with heavy expenditure on
their London extension, the necessity for further capital became clamant,
the shareholders were seized with alarm, and a shareholders' consultative
committee was appointed, with the result that, in 1869, the company,
badgered and worried beyond endurance, actually applied to Parliament for
power to abandon the Settle and Carlisle line, and for authority to enter
into an agreement with the London and North-Western for access over that
company's railway to Carlisle. That power and authority, however,
Parliament, _in its wisdom_, refused to give.

The financial clouds, as all clouds do, after a time dispersed; the
outlook grew brighter, the Midland made the line, and it was opened, as I
have said, throughout to Carlisle in 1875.

In the autumn of 1872 Mr. Allport visited the United States and was
greatly impressed with the Pullman cars. On his return he introduced
them on the Midland, both the parlour car and the sleeper. About the
same time the London and North-Western also commenced the running of
sleeping cars to Scotland and to Holyhead. To which company belongs the
credit of being first in the field with this most desirable additional
accommodation for the comfort of passengers I am not prepared to say;
perhaps honors were easy.

But the greatest innovation of the time were the running by the Midland
of third-class carriages by all trains; and the abolition of second-class
carriages and fares, accompanied by a reduction of the first-class fares.
The first event took place in 1872, but the latter not till 1875. The
first was a democratic step indeed, and aroused great excitement.
Williams, in his book _The Midland Railway_, wrote, "On the last day of
March, 1872, we remarked to a friend: 'To-morrow morning the Midland will
be the most popular railway in England.' Nor did we incur much risk by
our prediction. For on that day the Board had decided that on and after
the first of April, they would run third-class carriages by all trains;
the wires had flashed the tidings to the newspapers, the bills were in
the hands of the printers, and on the following morning the Directors
woke to find themselves famous." At a later perio