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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 127.: Smoking in Railway Carriages [1] 24 JULY, 1868 - The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXVIII The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXVIII - Public and Parliamentary Speeches Part I November 1850 - November 1868

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Subject Area: Political Theory
Collection: The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill

127.: Smoking in Railway Carriages [1] 24 JULY, 1868 - John Stuart Mill, The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXVIII The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXVIII - Public and Parliamentary Speeches Part I November 1850 - November 1868 [1850]

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The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXVIII - Public and Parliamentary Speeches Part I November 1850 - November 1868, ed. John M. Robson and Bruce L. Kinzer (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988).

Part of: Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, in 33 vols.

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127.

Smoking in Railway Carriages [1]

24 JULY, 1868

PD, 3rd ser., Vol. 193, col. 1736. Reported in The Times, 25 July, p. 7. In Committee on “A Bill Intituled An Act to Amend the Law Relating to Railways,” 31 Victoria (28 May, 1868), PP, 1867–68, IV, 513–30, the discussion was on a motion to insert after Clause 17 the following clause: “And all Railway Companies shall, from and after the passing of this Act, in every passenger train, provide smoking compartments for each class of passengers” (col. 1735). It being objected that some trains having so few carriages, or even only one, such a policy was impracticable, Mill made his first intervention.

mr. j. stuart mill suggested that the provision should be made to apply only to trains of a certain length. The abuse of smoking had become so great, and the violation of the companies’ by-laws so frequent, that the smoking in trains had become a positive nuisance. Scarcely a railway carriage could be entered in which smoking was not going on, or which was not tainted with stale tobacco.

[It was remarked that the issue should be settled by public opinion.]

Mr. J. Stuart Mill said, public opinion in this instance was swayed by a majority of smokers. It was a case of oppression by a majority of a minority.