This I did pretty fully and embraced the opportunity of
showing how different were the circumstances of Irish railways compared
with English, and how legislation suitable to one country might be very
unsuitable to the other. It scarcely needed saying that England was an
industrial country whilst Ireland was agricultural; that England, with
620 people to the square mile, was thickly populated and Ireland with 135
sparsely; that population meant trains and traffic; that in England
railway traffic amounted to about 7,000 pounds per mile per annum and in
Ireland a little over 1,000 pounds; that in Ireland on many lines not
more than five or six trains ran each way daily, and on others only three
or four, whilst in England, on most lines, the _hourly_ number exceeded
these. When the Committee rose Sir Michael engaged me, informally, in
conversation for a little while. He was curious concerning some of the
facts I had adduced, particularly as to the Midland line and the country
it served.
In their report the Committee stated they had confined their inquiry to
the hours of duty of those classes of railway servants that were engaged
in working traffic, viz.
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