The Express.
London, England, 1866-09-10 00:00:00

ROYALPRINCESS'S THEATRE,. —SoleLeases
and Manager, Mr. VlNlNG.—stanas MASON.—
Doors open at halt-pad 7 ; petormancas ouanmessoe ate o'clock
11••• Rudy. —EVERY NVINING during taw week a new esti
MrDrama, In Three Acts, by Watts Phillips, Set, entitled
iUGUILNIOT CAPTAIN. Principal characters
Miss Neilson, Miss Augusta Thompson, Mr. George Honey,
Sad Mr. Vining. Grand Ballet ot Bohemians, in which Meenewn
flageolet. Clodoche, Comic, and Normande will appear. New
Scenery by Mr. Y. Lloyds.

1117ATIONAL ASSEMBLY ROOMS, 218, High
Helkocw—This mairMileent and favourite establishment
OPIN.ILVIMY EVENLNO. me grand band, wader the direction
of Nr. WW Y Packer, performs nightly an entirely new selection
of °Wade and dance muds Open
at trall-paat 8 ; close at it
Admission, Lk

ONE of the institutions of London is EVANS'S.
Sappers and a charming MUSICAL I.NTERTAINMENT
EVERY SVSNING. After the theatres and Melton's Concerts
bazars to sup then.

JOHN BROODEN.

OBIGINAL GOLD CHAIN MANUFACTORY,
K HASILIWITA-STILEET, COY KNT-GARDEN.

JOHN BROODEN'S 18-carat GOLD CHAINS.

JOHN BROGDRN'S GOLD GUARD CHAIRS.

JOHN BROGDEN'S GOLD ALBERT CHAINS.

JOHN BROGDEN'S GOLD BROOCH CHAINS.

BENSON'S WATCHES,
68 and 60, Ludgate-hill: 65, CM Bo6d-rtreet.

Ehe OrPreoo*

TO COILIMPONDENTS
Advertisements intended for "Tiro Express," London Erasing
o'V, must be at the Mee, 10. Bouverie-street, by Two
otiA on the day of publication.

PRINC&4B'B.

Tim Irma*, TILE 1165IYi:K01 CAPTAIN.
and 0. Honey• MIS-SAS Neilson, Augusts Thomson, sod Mrs.
Biblbs.—And QUIET LODGINGS.

BETTAN!..IA.

TRW wants, GUNrowUER ToM: OR, THE GIPSY
MOTHEB AND HER SAILOR. SUN.—Mr. W. G. Row The
Marvellous Martinetten, Mut,r E. Modal—And THE
DEGNILIE.D'S CIiLLDREN.

HIGH WA.Tilt AT tONDON lIIIIDGY.

Tim Sh. Om.
To-lEozzow—liomiug. 1k 17m Afternoon. 3n. Um.

LONDON, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10.

Tam subsidence of the financial pressure has
been necessarily accompanied by a rise in the
value of first-class securities ; but in some of
the most important descriptions only &partial im-
provement has taken place. As regards Consols,
the advance has been almost uninterrupted, not-
withstanding the doubtful appearance of the weather
and its probable effect upon a considerable part of
the harvest. Several of the foreign stocks have
also risen, especially those which had hitherto
borne the least favourable reputation. The exces-
sive depreciation in bank shares--sure to happen
in a credit panic-bas been replaced by a
steady, although by no means indiscriminate,
revival of confidence. The beat miscel-
laneous descriptions have also been in
demand, while the worst have in no wise benefited
by the reduction of the Bank rate from 10 to 5
per cent. It is therefore evident that the public
are passing through that salutary stage of caution,
which ordinarily follows unreasoning fear, and are
soberly exercising their judgment in se'ecting the
safest investments they can find, instead of re-
garding every one with universal, and therefore
unjust, condemnation.
But assuming this to be the fact, what are we
to say to the present prices of British railways
It is true that the low values during the crisis
arose not from sales of actual stock, but rather
from speculative operations. Bankers holding
railway securities as investments invariably choose
debentures, and with difficulty can be prevailed
upon to take even preference shares except
to sell again. The ordinary stocks they
carefully avoid as a permanent holding, indeed
when money rises above 6 per cent. are chary
of accepting them as security for loans unlesawith
a very large cover. The chief proprietors in our
railways are found among the general public.
During the pressure the latter have not specially
suffered, as they did twenty years ago, when they
experienced the bulk of the loss from the crash of
the railway mania. Even in 1857 the injury to
private families was in the aggregate much greater
than now, after making full allowance for the
misery produced by the joint stock bank and dis-
count failures. Hence there have been few amounts
of stock brought upon the market compared with
other periods of difficulty. This furnishes an ad-
ditional reason for prices rising the moment the
monetary pressure was over. A general advance
undoubtedly did take place, but it was entirely
due to the repurchases by the previous specu-
lators for the fall. The general public, as they
had before abstained from selling, again abstained
from buying. As this result was contrary to all
expectation, the natural—though Gofer slight—re-
action has followed.

This hesitation to invest in railway property
call be traced to several distinct sources. The
first and greatest may be found in the continued
creation of new capital. Hardly a week passes
without the report of a meeting of some great
company to sanction the issue of new shares, and
the further use of the borrowing powers of the
undertaking, or to approve bills for extensions and
improvements, all involving a large additional
outlay. There seems really no end to this sort of
expenditure. Each company appears to vie with
the others in spending the greatest amount of
money the prsprietors can be induced to vote.
Now, if the capital thus expended were raised in
the form of ordinary stock there would be little
more to be said ; but in the mass of cases it is re-
presented by preference shares or debertnres. Of
course this plan succeeds very well in the first
instance, but as often as the process is repeated
the weaker becomes its efficacy, and the more p-e-
-judicial its ultimate result. People begin at last
to dread the possibility not only of the ordinary
stock receiving no dividend with so many first
charges to be met, but also whether all

these preferential payments can be sat'sfied.
It need hardly be stated that these mis-
givings have been seriously strengthened
by recent experience. One company, the
Great Eastern, cannot .pay its preference share-
holders in full, and another, the London, Chatham,
and Dover Company, bes'des its inability to pay,
acknowledges that it has incurred an illegal
debt by an over-issue of debentures. With
such facts before them the public instinc-
tively shrink from increasing their invest-
ment. They find, in the first place, the dividend
on the ordinary stock absorbed by the preference
charges ; next, that the preference charges cannot
always be paid ; and thirdly, that in purchasing a
debenture, they are not sure of getting a security
as valid as a Lloyd's bond, much leas a legal Par-
liamentary mortgage.
It is reasonable to believe that the evil will
bring its own remedy. For years it has been
pointed out that the incessant and often unproduc-
tive expenditure of capital would reduce our
railway companies to financial difficulty. It
seems hardly credible that the directors of the