[William Ewart Gladstone and colonial railways, 1846.] Printed Colonial Office circular dispatch, laying out ‘some general principles’ regarding ‘plans of Railway communication’ in the British colonies.

A scarce item, of which no other copy has been traced. 9pp, 8vo. Disbound from a volume, and paginated in manuscript 57-65. In good condition, lightly aged. Printed in lithograph in facsimile of a manuscript document. Begins by explaining the purpose of the dispatch in true Gladstonian style: ‘I find that the impulse which has been given in every other part of the Civilized World to plans of Railway communication has been felt in many of the British Colonies. The subject has been pressed on my attention from many different quarters and under circumstances both physical and economical as distinct and as various as are the conditions of those widely extended Settlements. To attempt to lay down any one set of rules or even a single rule binding inflexibly on the executive Governments of them all, would obviously be futile and impracticable. But the experience of this Country has ascertained some general principles on the subject, the application of which it may now be presumed are applicable in various degrees to the Legislation of every Country in this new field of enquiry. The object of this Despatch is to state, compendiously, what these rules or principles are.’ He proceeds to set out his principles under ten headings.