The Express.
London, England, 1867-04-04 00:00:00

PRINCINr&

TRH EvE•oNn. ND. 1. WO ND VIE COSNER. Maws.
Shore and Fori,iter —.tud IT N NEVER TOO LATE TO
MEND. Mess,: Vining, Y. Villiers, Verner, Shore, Calhaem,
sad Mellon; Misses 1.. i,:.• end Roasters.

1.11'1.:1 H.

Tnr. .-.lfr. Price and MI, Kate
lIIE DI E. Nturto Mr. Ferbter, Nlesars.
Joni... Emery, Priee. Fitzirttrick, ; Yiiq
E.l.wortliy,Linitt,m, and Carlotta Luclerc 1.

STRAND,

Tate Evrsuin, MA RRI D %VG lITERR AND YOUNG HUM-
RAN 114.—I*INI I.: it t 1.1 /A , Ilk, Tilt: sENs vrioNGOAT. Messrs.
Thorne. Jatuel, and turner Nich.l.lll. swatiboruuKh,
Ilugbes, Weath,r.by, THE FUENCII

_notwirx.

.....
THIS lISTENTWO, MY TURN NEXT. Mr. Delmore; MIMI
10001 and lanuox.—And FLYING SCUD. Messrs. Neville, Del-
more. Disks, Vonore. dr. ; Mesdames V. Josephs, C. !Wunder,
lklone Foot.. liddes, Lennox, Raymond, &c.

BRITANNT A.

. _ ... .
Una EVitaiNn. FAI's1:.111:, MARGUERITE'S mAxatr
Nits Lane and Nlevldinns Junin, I:itwin. and
Ifni with Till: DI sI'MAN'S TREAsUItE; till, WEOG AND
TUE BOFFINS.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

1.1 Dar —Montinz, 39m Antennas 1K rata.
TO-Montow—Morning, td. 17m Afternoon, 2K 34m.

LONDON, THURSDAY, APRIL 4.

THE House of Commons gave one more proof
of its incurable indecision on Tuesday, in its
treatment of 31r. CRAWFORD'S Resolutions respect-
ing the Debenture Debt on Railways. It may be
acknowledged, however, that it had some excuse
in the magnitude of the subject, in the novelty
of the principle on which it was invited to act,
and in the vastness of the possible applications of
that principle. Mr. Caawroao proposed that, in
cases where adequate security can be given, the State
should assume the responsibility of the debenture
debt of railway companies unable to meet their
engagements, doing so upon conditions pro-
viding for the ultimate acquisition of those rail-
ways by the country, upon terms mutually advan-
tageous to it and to the railway companies. Per-
haps, instead of complaining of the House, we
ought to be thankful that so bold a proposal was
deliberately entertained, and fairly if not fully
examined. Nothing is more easy than to meet
a practical scheme of this kind with dogmatic
common-places equally undeniable and irre-
levant, and this is the line which stone members of
the House took OR Tuesday, and in which they
have been followed by certain public writers. It is
easy enough to say—it may even seem wise to say
—that if a railway company finds difficulty in re-
newing its debentures, the line should be sold and
the company wound up. Half the objections
made on Tuesday to Mr. CRAWFORD'S proposal
were the crude repetition of maxims which might
perhaps have been usefully adopted five-aud-
thirty years ago, but which could not now be
imported into our railway system, such as it has
grown up, is all Cie absolute severity which is so
fascinating to the theorist, without working the
most cruel injustice. The proposition of Mr. CRAW-
FORD must be examined on its own merits, as a
remedy devised to meet a particular order of cir-
cumstances. Railway property occupies a peculiar
position among the results of joint stock enter-
prise. In the first place, it is sunk in roads,
which having, in their universal development and
their immeasurable superiority to those which
they have superseded, become the chief and in-
dispensable means of communication for the whole
country, must be maintained for the public use.
In the secund place, it is to a great extent
the creature of legislation. Parliament decided
whether particular railways should be made at
all, and what securities should protect the
shareholders, what the creditors ; and this, which
is true of all classes of investors in railways, is
especially true of the debenture holders. It is
too late for Parliament to turn round upon the
large classes of persons who have put all their
money in railway shares and debentures on the
faith of legislative protection —upon the
poor gentleman, the thrifty old servant, and
the widow—and say that they stand on just
the same footing as shareholders and creditors of
a financial company or other speculative under-
taking not the child of the Legislature, and point
them to the winding-up court. The House of
Commons is bound to have regard to its own work,
and to do what it can, without injustice to the
public at large, to benefit a great interest which
it has first called into existence, and then cer-
tainly prejudiced by its interference.

Let it be clearly understood what is proposed.
After the elaborate misrepresentation on this
point which has been resorted to, it is necessary
to state that Mr. CRAWFORD does not expect to
find in the present embarrassments of railway
companies a means of paying off the national debt.
He will be satisfied if, without prejudice to the
public treasury, he can restore the property of the
greatest joint-stock interest in this country from
the depression into which it has fallen very much
through the action of Parliament and the startling
decisions in our courts of equity. It is true
his resolution refers to ulterior advantages which
the State may derive from the trans-
action which he recommends. It is objected, how-
ever, that mutual advantage is not to be looked
for in a matter of borrowing and lending, buying
and selling, and that the very suggestion of it
stamps the arrangement with unreality. If so,
then all trade is unreal, and we must go
back to the old theory of commerce, and be-
lieve that whatever OHO party to a bargain gains
must needs be lost by the other. Mr. Ca.►wroxn
proposes that when a railway company is unable
to meet its enmements, and judgments may be
obtained against it, the company may apply to the
Government, under the previsions of un Act to
be passed for that purpose, and that if the se-
curity offered is found ample the Covennnent
shall guarantee the interest and principal of the I

company's debenture debt, taking as its own
security a surrender of the company's free-
hold interest in lands, and granting to the
company a lease of the same for 50 years, subject
to a power of re-entry. The obligation assumed
by the Government would be represented by bonds
issued for a period of 50 years, and replacing the
debentures ; and the company would be bound to
pay weekly to the account of the Government a
tiftyrsecond part of the sum necessary to cover the
liability assumed by the State on its account, and
a further sum as a sinking fund. We need not
pursue the plan further to the period when the
whole bonded debt had been cancelled, and the
propertyhad reverted to the State. The immediate
practical question is, whether we have not here a
scheme capable of restoring railways essentially
sound, but at present embarrassed, to a state in
which shareholders shall get dividends, and
creditors their debts, while the country
acquires a valuable property. Of course
where security cannot be given no money must be
lent : no one proposes that the State shall come
in and repair the follies of the past. If there are
railway companies which can offer no adequate
security, this measure can do them neither good nor
Kann. It is said, however, that a company unable
meet its engagements cannot give adequate se-
curity, and that, therefore, the terms of the pro-
peal are contradictory. This is equivalent to
saying that no suspension of payment ever took
place when the estate was worth 20s. in thepound.
We believe, however, that in the City houses have
been compelled to accept the assistance and for-
bearance of neighbours when it was notorious that
they could pay, nut 205., but 40s. in the pound.
Take the case supposed by Mr. CRAWFORD, of a
railway company with a well-constructed line,
earning a large gross income, and with working
expenses and rates not exceeding 48
per cent. The Government would have
half the receipts of the company, after pay-
ment of the working expenses, as security for a
debt which could not be greater than one-fourth
of the company's capital. If there is anything to
be said against this proposal as a remedy for a
state of things which we have all reasuu to regret,
let it be urged ; but surely it is waste of time to
tell us that in America, when money is wanted to
pay offbonds, the traffic receipts are applied to
that purpose. We are far from saying that that
is not in itself the better course, and that it would
not have been well if Parliament had loft our
railway companies to raise money in this way. In
such a case we might or might not have had to wait
longer for the construction of our lines, hut certainly
railway property carrying such liabilities would
not have been, as it now is, the favourite invest-
ment of large classes of persons to whom the
punctual payment of dividends is a matter of the
utmost moment. Parliament has made these
people railway investors by the security which
it seemed to afford to this description of pro-
perty. We might have followed the American
free-trade system, and gut the lines made cheaper;
or the French system,and avoided the construction
of duplicate lines ; but Parliament followed a
system of its own, and Mr. LAING only uttered a
notorious truth when ho said that to the incon-
sistencies of its policy the present distressed con-
dition of the railway companies is owing. We
believe it was generally acknowledged on Tuesday
night that the question cannot rest where it is.
Mr. GLADSTONE admitted that it would be a grave
mistake to pronounce a hasty judgment lipon Mr.
CRAWFORD'S proposal, and we may hope that on
the next occasion the opinion of the House may be
, found to be sufficiently matured to permit of ac-
tion of some kind.

" Tim communications made to me, and from
" which I read freely and without reserve to the
" House, were strictly of an informal character,
" and therefore I shall not put them on the
" table." Such was the substance of the CHANCEL-
LOR of tho EXCHEQUER'S reply on Monday to Mr.
GLAes-roxz's searching question as to the alleged
opinions of the present and late Chairman of the
Board of Inland Revenue respecting the taxing
franchise. Thu words quoted do scant justice
either to the " freedom " or " informality " of
Mr. DISRAELI'S conduct. If our information be
correct, neither Sir CHARLES PRESSLY nor Mr.
STEPHENSON has expressed himself in favour of
the proposed franchise, and one at least of them
read Mr. DisaaaLl's daring quotation with feel-
ings for which amazement is too mild a term.
Sir Cii.taLka PRIMLY'S " communication " was,
we believe, of so " strictly an informal
" character " as to consist of a private
letter to his successor at Somerset-house,
in which questions were answered and
opinions expressed with the freedom common
between friends. It is said, moreover, that the
writer had as little notion of this letter coming
under Mr. Disaszu's eye, or the statements it
contained being brought before the House of Com-
mons, asany one corresponding with wife or brother
has that his family gossip will be published to
the world. Nor is this all. Sir CHARLES PRLNSLY'S
opinions are known to be adverse to the very
franchise in support of which portions of his
private correspondence were moat unwarrantably
read to the House. It is for Mr. D,SRAELI to
explain the anomaly. It is only by virtue of the
special knowledge acquired in the service
'of the Government that either Sir CHARLES
PRESSLT'S or Mr. STEPHENSON'S opinion carries
weight ; and it is but just that the public should
have the full benefit of the experience thus
gained. It is disappointing if this expe-
rience is misrepresented for party purposes ;
and it would be instructive to know on
authority how it happens that either the late.
or the present Chairman of the Board of
Inland Revenue has been publicly credited with
opinions opposed to those they are generally
believed to huld.

General Dunne intends to move, on the Civil
Service Estimates, that the vote for the expenses of Hyde.
park be reduced by a SUM of 18,.107/., and a resolution
" that it is just and expedient that the amount necessary
to repair the damage done to the railings and park itself
by a mob of rioters some months since, should be levied
on the city of London and surrounding districts, in the
same way as damage emoted by similar outrages is levied in
Ireland, and that such procedure is in accordance with
justice and the ancient law of England."

Mr. Whatinan has given notice of his intention
to move, as an amendment to Sir Morton l'eto's motion,
on Tuesday, for a select committee on the London, Chat-
ham, and Dover Railway Compmy, to add, at end. "and
also into the means adopted by three of the members, for
Huntingdon, Bristol,, and Dover, for raising money for the
Grand Trunk Railway of Canada and the London, Chat-
ham, and Dover Railway."

After Easter, Sir Frederick Heygate will move
that the present condition of the great majority of Irish
railways, whether as regards management, charges, and
convenience of the public, or the interest of their creditors
and shareholders, is eminently unsatisfactory, and strongly
demands the immediate attention of her Majesty's govern.
went.

WAR-OPTICZ, APRIL 2.—The Secretary of State
for War has appointed Surgeon William Perry, Royal
Artillery, to he the visiting surgeon at Aldershot, under
the " Contagions Diatoms Act, MG."— Gazette.