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

The Great English and French Railways.

THE PARIS AND MEDITERRANEAN,

If " unrestricted competition" is the order of the
day in regard to English railways—if little heed is
paid to vested interests, and the course of legislation
generally keeps dividends i own to seven or eight
per cent. at the most—if vague generalities are
indulged in with reference to the accommodation
of the public, Sec.—it must be admitted that a corn.
pletely contrary state of affairs prevails in France.
There they run into the other extreme. Great
State subventions are accorded, elaborate conven-
tione are concluded, and every care is taken tosecure
10, 15, and even 20 per cent. to shareholders. The
company to which we are now about to direct
attention, and which has sprung into existence
under these fostering influences, is the mightiest
railway enterprise which the world has yet wit-
nessed. It would seem that the French, although
they borrowed most of their railway ideas from
England in the first instance, are now determined to
outdo us in the formation of great companies. The
Paris and Mediterranean—or, as it ought more
strictly to be termed, the Paris, Lyons, and Mediter-
ranean—dates from April 11, 1857, when it was
formed by the amalgamation of the two companies
owning the Paris to Lyons and Lyons to the Me-
diterranean lines, the latter having itself concluded
a fusion with the Lyons and Geneva, by the terms
of a treaty dating from January 1, 1857. The eahier
des charges of the company was approved Jane 19,
1857 ; and the statutes, prepared Jane 30, 1857,
were approved on the 3d of the following month.
The arrangements made provided for the creation
of 850,000 shares, forming the share capital of
the amalgamated companies. The 90,000 shares
pf the Lyons and Mediterranean Company
were exchanged at the rate of one old share
for two new shares, making 180,000 ; and the
265,000 shares of the Paris and Lyons Company
were exchanged at the rate of two old shares for
three new shares, making 397,500. The number of
new shares thus created was 577,500, and the new
company further issued 115,500 (L2O) shares at the
rate of £29 8s each. The total issue of shares was
thus carried to 693,000; and in September, 1863,
the administration further issued 100,000 more
shares at £2B each. These latter shares were sub-
scribed for exclusively by the holders of the pre.
viously created stock of the company. The whole
number of shares thus accounted for is 793,000, and
the odd 7,000 still remain in the " portfolio" of the
compeny,and will be negotiated when the necessity
arises for bringing them upon the market. These
shares represent in sums actually paid up-Ist. The
capital of the Lyons and Mediterranean Company,
£1,800,000 ; 2d. The capital of the Paris and Lyons
Company, £5,300,000 ; and 33. The amount of the
subscription to the 115,500 shares, £3,395,700; or
L 10,495,710 in all. To this amount must be added
£13,377, a supplementary premium, realised for
some of these latter shares; £214,800, the premium
realised on the old shares of the Lyons Company
remitted to the old Dijon Company ; and £2,850,000
for the 100,000 shares issued at £2B each ; or
£3,028,177 in all, which added to the previously
indicated total of £10,495,710 makes a definitive
aggregate of £13,523,887. This would be a re•
spectable capital in itself, but it by no means
represents the amount which the Paris and
Mediterranean has raised, an immense sum hav-
ing been obtained by almost endless issues of
obligations. Thus the company itself has been
authorised to create 2,400,000 of these securities,
bearing an annual interest of 3 per cent., issued at
about £l2 each, and redeemable at £2O each by
annual drawings in the course of 99 years,
from 1860 to 1958. These obligations were
divided into four series of 600,000 each. The first
three series are completely issued, and of the fourth
series 514,342 had been issued to the close of 1863,
leaving unissued 85,658, a number totally inadee
quate to meet the enormous responsibilities which
the company has undertaken, and which it can only
meet by obtaining authority for fresh borrowing
powers. Of the 1,850,240 obligations issued at
the close of 1862, 1,516,240, representing a sum of
£17,890,480, had been applied to the development
of the new network of lines which the company has
either completed or of which it is prosecuting the
works; 122,900 obligations, representing a sum of
£1,390,178, had been negotiated on account, of the
Lyons and Geneva Company, and were applicable
to the repayment of advances made by the Paris
and Mediterranean ; and 211,000 obligatione, re-
presenting a sum of 2,568,212, had been negotiated
on eecount of the old network of lines. Of the
464,002 obligations issued in 1863, 236,502
were devoted to the requirements of the new net-
work, 133,333 in redemption of the shares of the
Lyons and Geneva, 58,333 in redempton of the shares
of the Dauphine, and 45,833 in redemption of the
shares of the Algerian ; for the company, not content
with an immense number of lines in France, has
even obtained concessions of a network in Algeria,
and assumed works undertaken in 1859 or 1860 by
an -English contractor (Sir M. Pete). As illustra-
tive of the improved credit of the company, we may
remark that of the 464,002 obligations, or small de.
bentures, issued in 1863, 226,501 were negotiated on
the Paris Bourse at an average of £l2 4s 4d each,
while in 1862 the corresponding average was £l2 is
11d. By a recapitulation of the figures we have
given it will be seen that the total raised by the
company by shares and obligations at the close of
1862 was £35,314,756, and assuming that each
obligation issued in 1863 produced an average of
£l2 4e. each, it follows that £5,660,824 was obtained
from this source last year, carrying the total capital
raised by the Paris and Mediterranean Company pro-
per to the close of last year to £40,975,580. Although
our totals become vaster and vaster, we have not yet
fully reached the definitive "resources" which had
been made available at the close of 1863. Thus the
expenditure incurred on the old network at the
end of last year was £38,601,249, and on the new
network £28,095,122, or, combining these two totals
together, the aggregate outlay on the entire system,
December 31, 1863, was £66,696,371. The resources
realised to the same date on capital account were
for the old network, £38,423,736; and for the new
network, £27,666,136, or £66,089,872 in all. We
have shown that the amount raised by the com-
pany proper to the close of 1863 was £40,975,580,
and on deducting this sum from the previous
total of £66,089,872, a balance of £25,114,292
remains to :be accounted for. An explanation is
found in the number of loans contracted by com-
panies now fusioned in the general Paris and Medi-
terranean undertaking, and the annual charge of
which it has, of course, accepted.

The first of these loans was contracted in 1852 by
the old Paris and Lyons Company, and consisted of
80,000 4 per cent. obligations, issued at about £42
each, and redeemable at £5O each in 50 years from
the let of October, 1852. The second loan was con-
tracted in 1853, and 1856, and 1857 by the Paris
and Lyons, and consisted of 250,000 at 3 per cent.
obligations, issued at prices ranging from £lol6s.
to Lll 10s. each, redeemable at .£2O each by annual
drawings from 1856 to 1905. The third loan was
contracted in 1850 by the Marseilles and Avig.
non Company, and consisted of 30,000 4 per
cent. obligations, issued at £4O each and redeem-
able at £5O each, in 33 years from January, 1862.
Almost the whole of these obligations, it may be
added, have been exchanged against a 5 per cent.
obligations created in 1852 by the Lyons and
Mediterranean CAnpany. The fourth loan was
contracted in 1852 by the Lyons and Avig-
non Company, and consisted of 8,000 obliga-
tions, similar to the preceding; they have been also
nearly entirely exchanged against 8 per cent.
obligations of the Lyons and Mediterranean. The
fifth loan consisted of 40,000 4 per cent. obliga-
tions, issued by the Lyons and Mediterranean Com-
p?.ny at £25 each, redeemable at the same rate,
in representation
Marseilles and Avignon shares, created
ntation of the shares of the Marseilles and
Avignonrer
Company. These obligations have been
almost all exchanged against 3 and 5 per cent. obli-
gations of the Lyons and Mediterranean. The
u
sixth loan was contracted in 1852 and. 1853
by the Lyons and Mediterranean Com an
and consisted of 264,939 3 per
cdenrt.deobillgbyft,e!
tions, negotiated at £ll 41. each, an
at £2O each by annual drawings from July 18-6
to July, 1055. The seventh loan was contracted
in
1852 by the Lyons and Mf-diterrancan Company,

and consisted of 120,000 4 per cent. obligations, I
redeemable at £25 each in 99 years, from 1856 to
1995; 60,000 of these obligations were issled in CB-
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 Av'gnon. 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 £5O 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 4 per cent. obligations, issued at
£4oeacb, 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 Rhone and Loire Company. The
eleventh lean 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 by annual 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 0f,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 loin con.
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 onsisted of
157,942 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 obsers
vation 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
NO per cent. Further, the State guarantee only
applies to obligations to the extent of £50,200,000,
and vast as this amount is, it falls far short of the
estimated expenditure which the company wig have
incurred by 1872 for 1873, and which is set down
at £90,800,000. Treating the matter en elopes
roads —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 150,200,000 will be guaranteed by the Slate
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 deficit 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 rcugle 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 incurred, &c., 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 eubj acted since 1830,
this mighty company—the first concession 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 same 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 cannot
regard with much favour.

A GOOD EXAMPLE.—Thomas Broadwood, E sq.,
owner of the yacht Galatea, and George Fielder, Esq
owner of the yacht Julia, have forwarded to the National
Lifeboat Institution a donation of £25, being the result of
a half forfeit, in a match for £5O, between the yachts Julia
and Galatea.
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taken internally to root out the last seeds of the disorder
and to haste in the desired cure.

A New Step in Photography,

Few of the arts show such signs of vitality as the
infant one of photography. It would be strange,
indeed, if an art which has so much novelty and
marvel about it, which gives to idlers the -most
graceful amusement, and to workers the most
splendid results, which interests equally the man of
science and the lover of art, which yield not merely
a livelihood, but immense gains to many who prat•
tise it, and which is, nevertheless, in its infancy,
should not display great vigour and make continual
progress. One more step of a mighty progress we
chronicle to-day—a step that, though small in itself,
is of immense importance and amounts to a revolu_
tion in photography. It is the step by which now
at last 'we can produce a permanent print. English-
men and Frenchmen have hitherto carried off the
chief honours of discovery in photographic science ;
but this last discovery is the work of a German. To
explain more clearly what he has accomplished, we
propose to state as rapidly as possible what has
been already done in the science.

It is not very long since Wedg wood and Davy
failed to fix the image which sunlight impresses, and
had long been known to impress upon any surface
impregnated with nitrate of silver. Documents exist
which prove that though pictures on silvered paper
were obtained about the commencement of the pre.
sent century, no means could be found to fix the
fleeting image. Disheartened by continual failure,
our men of science Ist photography go to sleep, and
nothing effectual was done in it until, excited by
the discoveries and speculations of Niepce de St.
Victor and others, Daguerre obtained pictures on
metal plates that promised permanence. The ap-
plication of vapour of iodine to the silvered plate
gave the dagnerrotype image, and this process was
the pioneer of all the so-called "negative'' pro•
ceases now used in photography. Scarcely had the
beautiful process of Daguerre been made public
when our own countryman, Mr Fox Talbot, made
a further step in advance—one which at once gave
a great practical value to the photographic art ; he
discovered the means of producing upon paper so-
called positive images of the objects to be pictured.
Independently of Daguorre, he had succeeded in
producing negative images on paper—that is,
images in which the conditions of light and shads
are the reverse of those existing in nature, the
shadows being represented by lights, and the lights
by shadows. He now succeeded in printing from
this negative any number of positive images in
which the lights were lights and the shadows
shadows. It was a vast stride, and that which fol-
lowed was also vast. It was recommended by Le
Grey that collodon should be used as the vehicle for
the sensitive salts which, spread out in a film, re-
ceive the sun picture. The practical mind of Archer
seized the idea, and, spreading the collodion on a
glass plate, discovered the means of obtaining very
much increased delicacy of detail—a negative pica
ture of far greater value than paper could possibly
produce. Thenceforward to the present time vari-
ous improvements have been made in the process
of taking the original negatives. Greater sensitive-
ness and, as a consequence, greater rapidity of
action have been imparted to the collodion film ; and
this negative process now leaves little to be desired,
save and except one thing—the means of impressing
the sensitive surface instantaneously with any kind
of picture. Instantaneous pictures of great beauty
have been obtained, and chiefly by Colonel Stuart
Wortley, but they are for the most part confined to
the representations of objects brilliantly lighted.
Save for this defect of instantaneousness, the method
of taking negatives on a film of collodion spread
over glass is well nigh perfect.

It is in the process of transferring the negative
image into a positive one many times repeated that
the chief difficulty of photography now arises. A
perfect negative having been obtained, it is necessary
to print off hundreds and thousands of copies on
paper. The paper itself, and the materials with
which it is prepared, as the albumen and the
nitrate of silver, vary not a little in their action—
vary, indeed, so much it is rare to get 20 copies
of any individual photograph that shall be all
alike. Worst of all, the materials used in the pre-
paration of the prints contain within themselves
thn alpmonta of riPstrnotion. The moat important
materials used in the preparation of paper for prints
ing positives ar© albumen and nitrate of silver. A
fine of albumen lies upon the paper, and the surface
of it is prepared with silver to receive the print,
which is then submitted to various washing pro-
cesses in order to render it as permanent as possi-
ble. All questions of permanence, however, it is
difficult to establish, and when we come to consider
them we are reminded of the wise youth mentioned
in every Greek Delectus, who, hearing that ravens
live a hundred years, kept one to see if it were true.
Unfortunately it is not necessary to wait so long in
order to discover that the great majority of photo-
graphic prints are certainly doomed, and that the
chances are against all in which silver and albumen
are used. Nitrate of silver is so difficult to work,
and so uncertain in its effects, besides being expen•
sive, that men of science have long been on the
lookeout for some other metallic salt that would take
its place. The nitrate of uranium has, been tried, the
ammonio-citrate of iron, the chloride of gold, and so
on, but hitherto with little success. The nitrate of
uranium seemed to promise permanence in the re-
sults which it gave, but these results were attained
with great difficulty, and were only in rare in-
stances of a fine quality.
The new process which has been discovered in
Germany by Herr Wothly, and from him has been
named" wothlrype," discards nitrate of silver, and
discards albumen. For the former it uses a double
salt of uranium, the name of which is at present
kept secret; for the letter it uses collodion. We
have explained that by the ordinary method the
paper to be printed is sized with albumen, and the
surface of the albumen receives the silver prepare-
tin, which is sensitive to the light, and shows the
printed image. The paper thus does not receive
the image, but is, as it were, a mere bed on which
lies the material that does receive it. By the subs
stitution of collodion for albumen a different result
is reached. In the first place, the film of collodion
on the paper yields a beautiful smooth surface on
which to receive the image, and the result is that
pictures are printed on it with wonderful delicacy.
In the second place, the collodion before it is
washed upon the paper is rendered sensitive by
being combined with the salt of uranium. The
sensitiveness, therefore, is not on the surface
alone of the collodion film; it is in the film
itself, and so completely passes through it that
even if it be peeled away from the paper the
image which it received will be found on the paper
beneath. The vehicle thus employed is not less
superior to all others yet known for printing the
positive image on paper than it is to all others yet
known for receiving the negative image on glass.
The metallic salt which combines with it has also
rare merits. In the first place, the manipulations
are very simple and easy—far more so than in the
silver-printing process, and thus the labour saved
is considerable. Next, the paper, when rendered
sensitive for printing, or "sensitized," as the phoe
tographers say, keeps perfectly for two or even
three weeks—an immense boon to amateurs, who
can thus have their stock of printing paper "sen-
sitized" for them, whereas at present, when the
paper receives the sensitive preparation, it has to
be used almost immediately, and will Rot keep
more than a day ors two. Thirdly, the colour and
tone obtained are very various, including every
shade that can be got by the ordinary silver
plan; but, in addition, it has the advantage of being
able to print any number of impressions of exactly
the same colour, and of doing away with all such
difficulties as show themselves in meatiness and irre-
gular toning. The precision of result is a great
point. By the silver process the results are never
certain, and even when a print comes out perfect
from the frame the subsequent process of washing
and fixing go seriously to alter it. Lastly, the per-
manent character of the new method is very remark-
able. Nobody seems to know exactly why the old
silver process gives way—whether it be on account
of the albumen, or the nitrate of silver, or the hypo-
sulphite of soda. We only know that so many of the
prints prepared by the old method full away, that

❑o reliance CAD be placed on those which seem to
stand firm. We know how apt silver is to tarnish,
and especially in atmospheres that abound in the
compounds of sulphur, Some photographers stem