The Express.
London, England, 1859-10-08 00:00:00

gbe On) v 0 S•

TO 00115111PONDIOITIL
iverimums Iseerled for " Tbe Immo; Leaden
are Lam, life 011ee. 10, No verlfretseet,
00 Tee Of el publicatin.

CIOWTOMIDirms
1.4! iValLig..ll.nz /.OEM, 111. tlija.
pi IS? I .01.116 T. 1141.5. Items. lapaki. names. arIIWN:
Yeatra—Cwareme as IL

KAT/111111:
Tits Immo. Tin LuVlt liessn. /km*.
ke..l Tiles: Me AM, • sins abp 'CM"
Os[ I?. lb. lerillorma—AN 11111111. Tb Ilialoolk

1541.13111ffil
To es Ilvanok
o=o.
LAnhthLa.
111 tddlombe, F.
C T UMW ANA • IOMMIIa Ain* e 111.
Übe Laos IL•iss as XL 4.1.0.1.• 1.11.

Tim ves'. VIZ WrtfoleDlSCl lama th Dam•
ban•st. emi O. TWIN; 11104 M than% MEW. OM
.-11•014) TOTS.—*ad VlSolllollllst, war
Pita. Ws. Omit Om. a aainis..—quismeaSl.

kITT,kNO,I4.
♦ Tan
TUCK'. Irony%
S TUATAN tAINN N Poo' CAIMANS/ AND MN IANI//
la J. N.
DACNII AIDA MADRE/ Dm l isil Itm
—And MAW /LAT Nu N. ADApann /

ZION NAT'S AT LONDON WM&
..a Dar—warns-v. OL Oa ..----.4llOwnws. On.
saramow—likenia.. IL Ina -----Ainessian.R 411 w.

LONDON. SATURDAY, OCT. 8.

CSTTAIN DOI:ULM! °ALTON'S Report en the
Railways of the United Kingdom for 1836, although
exhibiting an smcont of railway enterprise below the
go of many years, is, as usual, an interestiag
and instructive document. The length of hoe
authorised by Aot of Parliament last year was cioly
32t, miles, and the amount of money authorised to
be raised for railway purposes only 6,800,0001., the
average of the last six years being 616
males and 9,400,0001. The lines authorised in
England mid Wales ware chiefly extension' of
existing railways, or short lines which, whoa
opened, will form feeders of existing railways.
Down to the close of 1838 the Legislature bed
seactirmed altogether the construction of no less
than 16,660 miles of railway, but of these 1,610
were subseqesotly abandoned. Of the remaining
14,049 mike, 9,606 were actually open at the end of
last Deotenher,and 4,643 are yet andeished. Should
the whole of these be constructed there will he in
England and W►iss just 10,106 miles; in Scotland
1,880, and in Ireland 2,063; but it is wen than pro-
bable that oat of the above 14,049 some 2,700 miles
will never be made, because from lapse of time the
powers for the esmpulsory purehme of the requisite
lead ham bees allowed to empire. The amount of
mosey actually raised for railway purposes in the
United Kingdom to the sad 41868 wee 326,300,0001.,
sad the amber of penes, employed ea the lines
made with this mosey, to preserve the property and
make It productive, was 109,329, or astsrly 12 proses
per mils.

The 325,000,0001. raised for the mastruction of
railways represesta as expenditure of no lees them
34,2431. a mile. This amermeas avenge is governed
by the inordinate outlay of earlier years—as, for ex-
ample, the year 1846, is which sets were obtained
authorising the oosetrection of 4,600 miles of line.
and the raising 0132,000,0001. In 1848 t►e length
authorised wee tmly 371 ; in 18.50 is wee only eight
miles. TM mettles told on railway expenditure,
and the railways nide in the United King-
dom sines that time have met on an average
10,6001. per mile. The proportion which receipts
upon railways beer to the capital invested in the
hoses slowly misearliag, as is also the rate of divi-
dead ea ordinary abate 'spite/ la 1649 the latter was
1.88 ; in 1664, 3.311 i sad is 11166, 3.06 per coat It
reached 3.801 a 1667. If railway proprietors traded
with only their owa eamosy the set ressipts on railways
are of an amount to give these 3.76 per cent. intense
on the whole capital invested. Bet 44 per mat. of
the whole capital invested in railways is advanced by
way of loses or on preference shares, sod the pre-
portion i. het increasing. In 1849 the ordinary
cap ; tal bore to the whole capital the proportion of 69 per
cent. ; in 1868 It was bat 66 per cent. The preference
and loam capital has accordingly grown from a pro-
portion of 31 to 44 percent. in the interval. The inertias
of loan capital is not great, haring been 22 at the
begioning mid 33 at the close of this period, while
the preference capital, which was 9 per cent. of the
whole in 1849, was 19 in 1868. The interest
payable en this rapidly increasing deseriptioa of
capital preys epee the dividend of the ordinary
shareholder by its rate as well as it. grass
amount, being 4.63 per mat. per MONS ell 111111
and referee's eapital, admine so we lave sem.
the interest es ordiaery capital by .40 per cent.
Captain GALION malls attentioe to • provision
■ow almost invariably required by Parliament
in railway hills, that which restricts holdout
of preference shares to the protlts of a limited period
for the permeate( their dividend, and points out its
tendency ter aggravate the terms to which railway
companies raising money on preference shares will
have to submit, and also to increase the difficalty of
disposing of preference stock. It may vicar to an In-
vestor that each a restriction places it ia the power
of the directors so to adjust the time of payments of
outgoings chargeable to revenue, inch as the renewal
of en pensive works or plant, keels by accidents, and
the like, as occasionally to subject the holders of
preferential shares so restricted to abatement from
their dividend, to the subsequent advantage of the
ordinary shareholders. If the option were left the
directors of issuing the shares with or without the
restriction, still ander the obligation to insert it in
their certificates when adopted, both the company
and the preference shareholder would stand upon a
fair tooting, and the directors would have what they
ought to have—power to raise money upon the
cheapest terms. The only advantage for the sake of
which it could be desirable to make the restrictive
compulsory is entire uniformity of character it all
shares comprehended under a common designation.
But this cannot be secured, since there are already
60,000,0004 of preferential capital in existence which
neither is subject, non can be subjected, to the
restriction.

139,193,000 peseengers were owned by railway
in the United Kingdom laat year, paying 10,376,0001.
in Them The inereses in the number of the travelling
public, as compared with the precious year, is insig-
nificant, being only 18.1,000. In former years the
increase has often been six and eight millions: in
1862 it was thirteen millions. Looking over the
records of the hut ten 'ears we find that the propor-
tion of first and third clam travelling is increasing,
while that of second•e:ass travelling is diminishing.
Of the 139,000,000 passengers carried in 1838, 13.13
per ant. were eseveyed in first-clime carriages, at an
average fare of 2.0 W. per mile ; 29.93 per tont. ie

eecourielase carriages, at 1.161. per mile; sad

66.80 per cent. in third-clam eariiagas. at .88d.

per mile. In 1149 the first-claa pu►engers con-
stituted 11.42 per cent.; the second•ciate pimento%
36.84 per cent.; and the third clam pasougers, 31.6111
per cent. of the whole number carried. Gaptain
WILTON, referring to the suggestions which are
mole frost time to time for extending Government
supervision to railways with a view to the safety of
the passengers, adduces the regulations imposed on
Railway Companies in France by the Government,
and observes that interference by the Government is
scarcely possible, unless it be carried throughout the
whole sy►tem.