The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-30 00:00:00

and consisted of 120,000 4 per cent. obligations,
redeemable at £25 each in 99 years, from 1856 to
1995; 60,000 of these obligations were issued in ex-

change for 30,000 obligations of £5O each issued by
the Marseilles and Avignon, and 8,000 obligations

of £5O each issued by the Lyons and Avignon. The
eighth loan was contracted by the St. Etienne and
Lyons Company in 1841, and consisted of 7,219 4 per
cent. obligations, issued at £4O each, and redeem•

able at .60 each in 30 years, from 1842 to 1871 ;
these obligations have been almost wholly converted

or redeemed. The ninth loan was contracted by the
St. Etienne and Lyons Company in 1856, and con-

sisted of 10,000 4per cent. obligations, issued at
£4o,each, and redeemable at £5O by annual drawings
from 1853 to 1926; these obligations have been to a
great extent converted or redeemed. The tenth loan
was contracted by the St. Etienne and Lyons, and
consisted of 2,946 4 per cent. obligations, issued at
£54 each, and redeemable at the same rate by

annual drawings from 1872 to 1891; the drawings
have not yet commenced, but the obligations have
been to a great extent converted into similar securi-
ties issued by the Rhono and Loire Company. The
eleventh loan was contracted in 1843 by the St.
Etienne and Loire Company, and consisted of 300
obligations, issued at £4O each, and redeemable at
the same rate byannual drawings from 1846 to 1875 ;
these obligations have been almost wholly converted
or redeemed. The twelfth loan was contracted in
1847 by the St. Etienne and Loire Company, and
consisted of 660 obligations similar to the preceding
and redeemable between 1851 and 1880; these ob-
ligations have been redeemed to a consider-

able extent. The thirteenth loan was con•
tracted by the Andrezieux and Roanne Company,
and consisted of; 4,000 5 per cent. obligations, issued
at £2O each, and redeemable at the same rate be-
tween 1854 and 1903; these obligations have been
nearly wholly converted or redeemed. The fourteenth
loan was contracted by the Andrezieux and Roanne
Company, and consisted of 1,980 4 per cent. obliga-
tions issued in a similar manner, and to a great ex-

tent redeemed or converted. The fifteenth loan
was contracted by the Rhone and Loire Company,
and consisted of 102,614 4 per cent. obligations
issued at £2O each, and redeemable at £25 each
between 1854 and 1952. The sixteenth loan cons
sisted of 63,643 3 per cent. obligations, issued at £l2
each and redeemable at £2O each between 1854 and
1952; it should be stated that only 29,201 of these
obligations were issued at £l2 each; the remainder
enabled the company to provide for the con,
versions previously indicated. The seventeenth
loan was contracted by the Great Central
between 1853 and 1857, and consisted of
157,912 3 per cent. obligations redeemable at £2O
each between 1855 and 1954. It should be added
that 131,007 of these obligations proceed from the
fusion of 1857, and were issued by the Great Cen•
tral at about £9 3s. each; the remainder, or
26,936 were issued by the general Paris and Medi-
terranean Company on its own account at the rate
of £l2 each. They change, obligation for obliga-
tion, and number for number, into the eighteenth
and last loan, contracted by the Bourbonnais Com-
pany in 3 per cent. obligations, repayable at the
same price as the obligations of the Great Central.
The number of obligations issued by the Bourbon-
nais was 211,000, which, with the 157,943 obliga-
tions raised by the Great Central, make a total of
368,943, so that the 18th and last loan is of very
respectable dimensions. It will not escape obsera
nation that an immense pyramid of obligations has
been reared upon the share capital, £13,523,887
having been raised by shares and £52,565,985 by
obligations at the close of 1863. Further, the issue
of obligations is still proceeding, and is expected to
proceed unchecked until 1872, when the immense
number of lines of which the company has under-
taken the construction are expected to be completed,
and when the company will appear before the world
with a capital of somewhere about £90,000,000,and
3,000 miles of railway under the control of its ad-
ministration !

The vast schemes which the directors and the Go-
vernment have matured between them could not be
carried out without the aid of a State guarantee, and
it is not surprising, then, that the greater part of
the obligations issued to an almost interminable ex-
tent by the company are assured by the Treasury
4.65 per cent. per annum. The annual charge
which they involve to the company, interest and re-
placement combined, is estimated at 5.75 per cent.,

so that the company will still have to sustain about
1.10 per cent. Further, the State guarantee only
applies to obligations to the extent of £50.200,C00,
and vast as this .mount is, it falls far short of the
estimated expenditure which the company will have
incurred by 1872 for 1873, and which is set down
at £90,800,000. Treating the matter en clojres
ronds—for when you are dealing with millions it
is not worth while to trouble yourself with a few
thousands—it will be seen that the amount raised
by shares (/13,500,000) leaves the enormous sum
of £77,300,000 to be provided by obligations, of
which £50,200,000 will be guaranteed by the State
to the extent of 4.65 per cent., while £27,100,000

. .
is not guaranteed at all. The guarantee of 4 65 per
cent., leaving a deEit of 1.10 per cent. to be made
good by the company,it follows that the annual
charge of the guaranteed obligations will be
£552,200, and of the unguaranteed obligations
£1,558,250, making an aggregate of £2,110,450,
while £1,350,000 would be required to pay the 10
per cent. upon the shares which the French capita-
lists seem to expect as a matter of course. These
totals, when combined together,
make £3,460,450 in
all. The State guarantee of 4.65 per cent. on
£50,200,000 of obligations will absorb £2,334,300,
but the State does not of course expect or intend
that this guarantee is to apply to its full extent.
but relies upon its being, if not wholly covered, at
any rate attenuated by the earnings of the new lines
conceded. To relieve the State of its guarantee, to
cover the fixed charges which the company has to
support out of its own resources, and to pay ten
per cent. upon the share capital, it would appear
that the total profits realized in 1873 must be
somewhere about £5,794,750; and as at least
forty per cent. must be allowed for working ex-
penses, the roug'a revenue for the year must be
about £10,000,000. In the current year the
earnings of the system will exceed £6,000,000, so
that to place the company in a thoroughly satisfac-
tory position the receipts ought to expand at the
rate of £400,000 per annum during the next 10
years. In 1862 and 1863 the shareholders received
dividends at the rate of 15 per cent. per annum ;
and it is clear that the company is assured a large
rate of dividend on its stock for many years to come,
although like everything else in France, the distri-
bution is " organised" and regulated by minute ar-
rangements, which we must describe more in detail,
together with the position of the lines on the old
and new networks, the revenue required, the work-
ing expenses iucuried, &e., in a future article.
Meanwhile, it must be a source of pride to every
Frenchman that amid the revolutions and distrac-
tions to which France has been subjected since 1830,
this mighty company—the first eonceesion of which,
that from St. Etienne to Andrezieux, dates from
Feb. 26, 1823—has been gradually expanding until
the wide extent of territory over which Napoleon
111. exercises his Imperial functions has positively
become too small for it, and crossing the Mediter-
ranean it has planted its foot in Algeria. The French
mind, in the matter of this vast enterprise, has shown
itself, as usual, bold and fertile; at the eame time,
there is a complexity and a dependency on Govern-
, mental aid in the arrangements made for the de-
velopment :of the• undertaking which we cermet
, I regard with much favour.

A GOOD EXAMPLE.—Thomas Broa dwood, E.
owner of the yacht Galatea, and George Fielder, Esq.,
owner of the yacht Julia, have forwarded to the National
Lifeboat Institution a donation of £'s, being the result of
a half forfeit, in a match for £5O, between the yachts Julia
and Galatea.
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