ly the Prussian State Railways. It is easy to see that without any
Customs barrier between the two countries, such a policy would
inaugurate practically a tariff war between Ireland and Great Britain,
which would be disastrous to both. That such a policy should be
subscribed to by Free-traders, and that a Free-trade Government should
advocate a change in the relations between the two countries, under
which such a system could be possible, is indeed surprising. To use
Imperial credit for such a purpose would be midsummer madness. Even
without any scheme of nationalisation, the establishment of a separate
Executive and Legislature in Ireland might have sinister effects on
traffic arrangements between Great Britain and Ireland and on the
harmonious administration of the railways.

THE RIGHT SOLUTION.

The truth of the matter, and the inference to be drawn from the above
considerations and the whole trend of modern trade, is that to break up
the railway systems of Great Britain and Ireland into two rival and
hostile systems of transit, working for different objects and by
different methods, would be to stop a natural and healthy process of
uniform working and harmony, which has enormously advanced in the last
decade, to the great advantage of Ireland.

Almost every scheme of amalgamation in Ireland has been connected with
the opening or development of a new cross-Channel route, as the history
of the Fishguard and Rosslare and the new Heysham routes fully shows. As
part of this process, English companies, like the Midland and the Great
Western, are either acquiring Irish lines or making special traffic
arrangements with them. Enormous sums have been spent on harbours and
steamers by English companies for the purpose of developing traffic with
Ireland, and the increased interchange of goods has been of great
advantage to both countries. The ideal put forward by advocates of
railway nationalisation and Irish independence, that in respect of trade
and traffic Ireland should be a sort of watertight compartment,
self-supporting and self-contained, is, I submit, a mischievous delusion
which, if put into practice, would undo much of the good progress
Ireland has recently made. Such an ideal would also be the exact
contrary of the line of national development as based on transit and
transport followed in almost every other civilized country. In Germany,
Canada, the United States, and Australia, we see the policy consistently
pu