University of Virginia Library

They who could, and do not, prevent an evil, are, in part, its authors. Our law-making class, who are said to have gained more by the late Railway-Madness than any other class, could have prevented that madness, without leaving us one railway too few, by enacting that no projector of a Railway should cease to be a shareholder until the work was finished; and that no share in any unfinished railway (such shares being mere bets in writing,) should be saleable, or legally depositable as a security for money lent. But a further enactment is necessary for the safety of good-faith shareholders in all joint-stock companies. No deviation from an obtained Act of Parliament, if it would involve an additional outlay of twenty-five per cent. or more, should take place without the consent first had in writing of two-thirds of the shareholders in number and value; their consent to be afterwards confirmed by the majority of a public meeting, specially called.