He hoped the House would be content to look at this question, not with regard to general or abstract principles, but with 181 regard to practical results; he hoped the House would consider that we were in a Crisis in Railway Matters, in which a mass of proposals and of plans had been brought forward; that the whole speculative action of the country had concentrated itself upon railways; and that although there might be faults found with particular decisions, although there might be with regard to certain lines feelings of objections against any inquiry not perfectly public, yet he asked the House what would have been the condition, the prospects, and the state of the railway share-market, and of speculation in that market, if there had been no Board of this kind to simplify and reduce the business within practical limits so as to enable the House of Commons to proceed?