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incorporating the Town Police Clauses Act, 1847 (b), which, however, contains provisions very similar to the London Acts. Non-metropolitan boroughs and urban districts are also subject to police regulations and by-laws made under the Public Health Act, 1875 (38 & 39 Vict. c. 55), ss. 171, 172, which incorporates the provisions of the Town Police Clauses Act with regard to hackney carriages. A hackney carriage is defined to mean, or rather, is described as including, "every wheeled carriage, "whatever be its form or construction, used in standing or plying for hire in any street within the prescribed distance, and every carriage standing upon any street "within the prescribed distance, having thereon any "numbered plate required by this or the special Act to be "fixed upon a hackney carriage, or having thereon any plate resembling or intending to resemble any such plate "as aforesaid." Any such carriage is licensed by and is subject to the by-laws of the urban authority in whose district it is stationed. By the Town Police Clauses Act of 1889 (which is also incorporated in the Public Health Acts) the provisions of the earlier Act as regards hackney carriages are applied with modifications to every omnibus, char-à-banc, waggonette, brake, and stage coach plying for hire. By-laws, however, cannot be made with respect to omnibuses or "stage carriages." A stage carriage is any carriage drawn by animal power, conveying passengers for hire with separate fares for separate passengers, and travelling at the rate of more than three miles an hour. Any person who keeps such a carriage must have a licence from the Board of Inland Revenue, which must be yearly renewed, and in respect of which certain duties are made payable by the Stage Carriages Act, 1832 (c). There must be on the carriage such numbered plates and particulars as are directed by the Acts; specifying the

(b) 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89, ss. 3749, 51-68.

(c) 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 120; Revenue Act, 1869, s. 39.

Christian name and surname of the proprietor, or of one of the proprietors, the extreme places to which the licence extends, and the greatest number of inside and outside passengers which the carriage may lawfully convey (d). Mail coaches, in particular, are the subject of further special regulations (e). The Acts also impose penalties on persons in charge of these carriages, for offences or acts of negligence which militate against the safety or convenience of the public, e.g., driving a stage coach without a licence, or with a defective licence, or without having the plates and particulars above referred to (f); carrying too many passengers, too much luggage (g); intoxication, negligence, or furious driving (h); and in short, any misconduct, either in the driver or in the conductor, which shall endanger the safety or the property of any person, or even seriously inconvenience him (i). Furious driving or racing (whether by a stage carriage or by any other carriage), if attended with any personal injury, is a misdemeanor even by the common law (k). The Acts further provide, that where the driver, conductor, or guard of a stage carriage, who has committed the offence, is not known, or cannot be found, the proprietor shall be liable to the penalty (1), unless he prove (by evidence other than his own testimony), that the offence was committed without his privity or knowledge, and without any benefit therefrom to himself, and that he has used his best

(d) Stage Carriages Act, 1832; Railway Passenger Duty Act, 1842.

(e) Revenue Act, 1869.

(f) Act of 1832, s. 36; Railway Passenger Duty Act, 1842, s. 14; Revenue Act, 1869, s. 39.

(g) London Hackney Carriages Act, 1833, s. 4; Railway Passenger Duty Act, 1842, s. 15.

(h) Act of 1832, s. 48.

(i) Ex parte Kippins, [1897] 1 Q. B. 1.

(k) Offences Against the Person Act, 1861, s. 35; and see Highways and Locomotives (Amendment) Act, 1878; and (as to bicycles, &c.) Local Government Act, 1888, s. 85; and (as to omnibuses) Town Police Clauses Act, 1889.

(7) Act of 1832, s. 49; London Hackney Carriages Act, 1843, s. 35; Cruelty to Animals Act, 1849, s. 22.

endeavours to find out the offending driver, conductor, or guard (m).

II. Locomotives and Motor Cars.-A light locomotive within the meaning of the Locomotives on Highways Act, 1896, is a carriage (including a motor car) which weighs, unladen, less than three tons. Its maximum legal speed is fixed by the Regulations of the Local Government Board, but must not exceed fourteen miles an hour. The licensed locomotives and registered locomotives which are provided for by the Locomotives Act, 1898, are regulated by the specific provisions contained in that Act, which amends the law so as to enable borough and county councils to "permit any waggons drawn or propelled by a locomotive on the highway to carry weights in excess of those mentioned in "section 4 of the Locomotive Act, 1861." The use of locomotives on highways may also be regulated and restricted by local by-laws. If the owner of a locomotive is aggrieved by a restriction or prohibition placed on the passing of any locomotive over a bridge, he may appeal to the Local Government Board (Locomotives Act, 1898, s. 7) (n).

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III. Tramways and Light Railways.-Tramways and light railways are not necessarily distinguishable by the eye. The difference is a purely legal one, and can only be solved by finding out whether the undertaking in question was constructed under the provisions of the Tramways Act, 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 78), or under the Light Railways Act, 1896 (59 & 60 Vict. c. 48), and the rules made under that Act by the Board of Trade. Light railways, however, are not necessarily run on public highways, and may closely resemble an ordinary railway, from which again they may be distinguished in law by reason of their being constituted by a Board of Trade

(m) Act of 1832, s. 49.

(n) See (regarding steam carriages or locomotives) 24 & 25 Vict. (1861), c. 70; 28 & 29 Vict. (1865),

c. 83 (continued by 2 Edw. 7 (1902), c. 32); 41 & 42 Vict. (1878), c. 77, Pt. II. ; 59 & 60 Vict. (1896), c. 36; and 61 & 62 Vict. (1898), c. 29.

Order under the Act of 1896. For details of the law relating to tramways and light railways, as well to their promotion as to their management, the student is referred to the Acts above mentioned.

IV. Railways. These are usually constructed (and to some extent regulated) under the provisions of special Acts from time to time passed for the purpose; but these special or private Acts have certain features in common, as they usually incorporate the Railways Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. 20), and (in the case of special Acts passed after July, 1863), the Railways Clauses Act, 1863 (26 & 27 Vict. c. 92). But there are also general Acts passed for the purpose of securing a greater uniformity in the administration of railways, and of safeguarding the interests and security of the public against the private and possibly conflicting interests of shareholders in railway companies. Among these special mention may be made of the Railway Regulation Acts, 1840 to 1893, and the Railway and Canal Traffic Acts, 1854 to 1894. The year 1845 is a very important one in the history of the law of railway construction, for besides the Railways Clauses Consolidation Act, there were passed in that year the Companies Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845 (8 Vict. c. 16), which consolidated the provisions usually inserted in private Acts incorporating companies (like railway companies) engaged in work of a public nature, and also the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845 (8 Vict. c. 18), which consolidated the general provisions applicable to the acquisition of land for such purposes, and the compensation to be paid.

The legislature has entrusted the general supervision and regulation of all railways to the Board of Trade; but by the Regulation of Railways Act, 1873 (36 & 37 Vict. c. 48), s. 10, certain of the powers and duties of the Board of Trade in relation to railways were transferred to a new body called the Railway Commissioners. This

process was continued under the Railway and Canal Traffic Act, 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. 25), and at the same time the name of the commission was changed to that of the Railway and Canal Commission. The last-named body is a court of record, and consists of two commissioners appointed by the President of the Board of Trade, and of three ex officio commissioners, each of whom must be a judge of a superior court. The commission has large powers and jurisdiction under various Acts. There is a right of appeal, but only on questions of law, from the commission to the Court of Appeal. Under the provisions of the specified Railway Acts, it is made unlawful to open any railway, or portion of a railway, for the public conveyance of passengers, until one month's notice in writing shall have been given to the Board of Trade of the intention of the company to open the same for traffic, and ten days' notice of the time when the railway will be complete and ready for their inspection must also be given to the Board; and the Board may postpone the opening of any railway, until satisfied that the public may use the same without danger (o). In execution of its general control of railways, the Board orders every railway company to make returns to it of its capital, traffic, and working expenditure; of the occurrence of any serious railway accidents; and of all tolls and rates from time to time levied (p); and the Board appoints proper persons as inspectors of railways (9). Moreover, every railway company (whether specially called upon to do so or not) must report to the Board of Trade every accident attended with serious personal injury, within forty-eight hours of its occurrence (r); and is required to lay before the

(0) Railway Regulation Acts, 1842, ss. 4, 6; 1873, s. 6. The discretion of the Board is absolute (Att.-Gen. v. Great Western Railway Company (1877), 4 Ch. D. 735).

(p) Act of 1871, ss. 9, 10; Act

of 1873, s. 4; Act of 1878; Act of 1888, s. 32.

(q) Act of 1871.

(r) Ibid. As to investigation by the Board of Trade into the causes of accidents, see ss. 3—8.