ABSTRACT

THE SUBURBAN INCUBUS STILL-THE RAILWAY RATES BILLSTHE EASTERN AND MIDLANDS-THE RACE TO EDINBURGH.

1886-1888.

TH E position of the Great Northern Railway Company at thebeginning of 1886 was more satisfactory and promising than for some time past. Depression of trade, it is true, still hung over the manufacturing districts ; but there was good prospect of a revival in the near future. Meanwhile a better harvest in both grain and potatoes, and the removal of the restrictions which had in the previous year been placed on the transport of cattle, had produced improved conditions already in the agricultural parts of the system. Under the stimulus of severe weather the coal trade was unusually brisk, nor were there any signs of such another calamity as the South Yorkshire colliers' strike of 1885. With continued rest to the capital account there was good hope that the dividend, which had sunk to £4 10s. per cent, in 1884 and 1885, would at last begin a course of recovery.