8 & 9 Vic. c. clxxxiv. South Wales Railway, 1845, c. exci. Monmouth and Hereford, &c., 1845, Page Oxford to Worcester and Wolverhampton, 1845, 209 c. clxxxviii, Oxford and Rugby, 1845, 9 (&'10) Vic. c. 20, 209 208 208 Deposit of Money under Standing Orders, 1846, 196,321 Midland, Ireland,--Lisey and Longford, 1846, 302 Railway Companies Dissolution, 1846, 353 c. 57, Guage, 1846, 207 Accidents, Compensation, 1846, 338 214, 349 c. cv, Bristol and South Wales. &c.. 1846, 209 c. clxvi,. c. ccx, Great Western to Uxbridge, 1846, 208 c. ccxxxvi, Great Western to High Wycomb, 1846, 208 208-9 208 232 210 367 385, 386 337 233 385, 886 c. cclxxviii, Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton Exten sion, &c., 1846, Inland Revenue, 1847, Post Office, 1847, Extension of Time, 1847, Winding-up Act, 1848, Peace Constables, Ireland, 1848, Winding-up Amendment Act, 1849, Waterford and Limerick Railway, 1850, xix, 3, 14 372 xxxiii, xxxiv 301 xxxvi, 233, 340 301-2 302 302 211 Dublin and Drogheda Railway, 1850 Commissioners of Woods, &c., England, 1851, 210 214 Lands, &c.; Railways Act, Ireland, 1851, 120, 301, 317 Killarney Junction Railway. 1951, Waterford and Limerick Railw ay, 1851, 328, 329 302 302 XXXV Railways and Canals Traffic Regulation, 1854, xix, 218 Stamp Act, 1856, Railways Act, Ireland, Continuance, 1858, 216 317 Xxxvi 317 45, 224 BEFORE 1840, there was no general legislation relative to Railway Legislation. Railways. Railways had been previously established, and to some extent regulated, by the special Acts authorizing their construction; and in 1838, provision was made for making such and future Railways available for the Post Office service: but it was not until 1840 that it was considered "expedient for the Safety of the Public to provide for the due Supervision of Railways," by a general law, so far as that end could then be accomplished by it. The insufficiency and imperfections of this and other of the earlier statutes passed during the growth of the railway system, are sufficiently shown by the extent and nature of subsequent legislation, which affords also at the same time ample evidence of the rapid expansion of that system. The first completed Railway in the United Kingdom for Early general traffic may be taken to be the Liverpool and Manchester line, constructed by a Company incorporated in 1826 by Act of 7 Geo. 4, c. xlix, and since, as well as the Grand Junction, amalgamated with the London and North Western Company's lines. Its opening in September, 1830, is memor The Stockton and Darlington line may, perhaps, properly be regarded as the germ of the present railway system. This and the Stratford and Moreton Railway (or horse tramway, a single line, now merged in the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton Railway Company's undertaking), appear, after some mineral tramways in the northern coal districts, to have been the earliest portions, in point of date, of the existing railway system. The Stockton and Darlington line was originally projected rather as a tramway for minerals, worked by animal labour, according to its first Act of Parliament (obtained in 1821), and ultimately opened in September, 1825, (under a further amending act of 1823), as a railway worked partly by stationary engines and inclines, partly by locomotives, and partly (for passengers) by horse power. It has since become one of the most important as well as profitable links in the chain of general railway communication. The Stratford and Moreton line was first opened in 1827, the Company having been incorporated by an act of 1820. An interesting account of both of the early lines,-the Stockton and Darlington, and the Liverpool and Manchester,-may be found in Smiles's Life of George Stephenson, the Engineer of both, and the introducer of locomotive power into practical use on railways. Railways. Railway Acts. able no less as the earliest developed example of British enterprise in this direction, than from its attendant fatality in the loss of one of our most distinguished statesmen, whose official position as Vice-President of the Board of Trade brought him in contact with the means of his destruction. The second Railway in the United Kingdom, and the first in Ireland, was the Dublin and Kingstown line, opened in 1834, and now in the hands and under the management of the Dublin and Wicklow Railway Company, in conjunction with their own more recent line. In the 38 years from 1821, when the first act of the Stockton and Darlington line was passed, to 1858, inclusive, no less. than 1,686 special Railway Acts" have been passed for the United Kingdom; of which 1,248 have been for Railways in a Number of Special Railway Acts, for the United Kingdom, passed in the 38 years, 1821 to 1858 inclusive. |