In the year 1868, Mr. Raphael Brandon brought out a book called _Railways
and the Public_. In it he proposes that the railways should be purchased
and worked by the government; and that passengers, like letters, should
travel any distance at a fixed charge. He calculates that a threepenny
stamp for third-class, a sixpenny stamp for second-class, and a shilling
stamp for first-class, should take a passenger any distance whether long
or short. With the adoption of the scheme, he believes, such an impetus
would be given to passenger traffic that the returns would amount to more
than double what they are at present. There may be flaws in Mr.
Brandon’s theory, yet it may be within the bounds of possibility that
some great innovator may rise up and do for the travelling public by way
of organization what Sir Rowland Hill has done for the postage of the
country by the penny stamp.