At a late meeting of the Society Dr. Hancock exhibited a very suggestive table, showing the unsatisfactory financial position of Irish Railways. It must have occurred to many at the time that a similar table of the English and Scotch Railways would be instructive, and enable us to see whether State interference with the Railways of Ireland was rendered necessary by any circumstances peculiar to this country, or was only an aggravated form of the general unhealthiness which affects the Railway System of the entire kingdom. I have prepared such a table with the purpose of making it the groundwork of my remarks to you this evening.

Read, Tuesday, 18th December, 1866