The Sun.
London, England, 1852-06-11 00:00:00

THE SUN,

lUST.

FREDAY EVENING,

AMERICAN RAILROAD BONDS.
An amount equal to 1,000,000/. sterling of the bonds
of an American company, called the Illinois Central
Railroad, has just been .introduced upon the Stock Ex-
change, and the greater part of it is understood to have
been already subscribed. The railway has been
commerced, and its length is to be seven hundred
miles, extending through the entire State of Illi-
nois, and connecting all the great branches of travel
from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Its cost
is estimated at 17,000,000 dollars, or about 4,500/, per
mile, and this is to be raised by an issue of Six per Cent.
Bonds, of which 12,000,000 dollars are to be taken
in the United States, and 5,000,000 dollars here, such
bonds being secured by the line itself, and by
2,500,000 acres of land granted by Congress to the
State, and by the State to the company. They are
to be paid off at par iu 1875, but may be redeemed
at any earlier period at 20 per cent. premium. Con-
currently with the issue of the bonds a nominal share
capital also of 17,000,000 dollars will be created by the
company, and, C 3 the promoters rely that before
1875 the sales of the lands and the profits of the line
will have discharged the whole of the bonded debt,
fte participating
e extent
eo in this prospective the road would then become their property, without
its having cost them anything. As an inducement,
however, to the takers of the bonds, the option is
given
re-
version. They may accordingly, if they choose, become
shareholders o
to h
a one-half the amount of
their bonds, in which case, supposing the outlay for the
line should not exceed the contemplated 17,000,000 dolls,,
every holder of a 1001, bond, after he has been paid off in
them
1875, will still possess 501, stock in the line for which no
payment will ever have been required. Of course the
entire value of the scheme thus submitted mast depend
upon the correctness of the estimates regarding the ulti-
mate value of the lands granted by Congress, the cost of
the road and its prospects of traffic, and, lastly, the con-
stitutional validity of the arrangements under which the
whole plan has been formed, and in which the Federal
Government, the State Government, and the company
have all been parties. With regard to the first two points,
enough is known of the general results of similar works
to enable persons conversant with what has taken
place during the last fifteen
years in America to arrive
at a distinct although not a positive opinion; but the
chief reliance must still be placed upon the standing of
those by whom the proposals are introduced. In
this respect, both as regards the directors in the
United States and the trustees and agents in Eng-
land, there is enough in the commercial position of
the parties to excite full confidence that the undertaking
is believed to be intrinsically sound; as respects any
questions of constitutionality, it is to be mentioned that
the company is a New York one, and that, owing to its
lands having been granted by Congress, the tribunal to
whose jurisdiction it would be amenable is the Supreme
Court of the United States, and not the Legislative
Assembly of Illinois. If the reverse were the fact, it
would be necessary to protest against the intro-
duction of any of the securities of the company on this
side. Although Illinois has never repudiated her public
obligations, she is still a defaulter to a heavy extent,
and at one time she passed an arbitrary law imposing
confiscation in case her creditors should fail to register
their bonds within a certain defined period. Happily
since that date a different tone has been manifested, and
a full discharge of every liability is ultimately to be
locked for; but although the construction of the present
railway, by the immense impulse it will give to the pros-
perity of the State, will accelerate that conclusion, it
will take many years of punctuality to warrant, as far
as her Government is concerned, any revival of former
confidence.
In touching upon American Railroad Bonds of any
description, it is essential to add a general caution. Like
those now referred to, there are many descriptions which
are perfectly legitimate objects of investment, the extent
of any speculation that may be involved in them being
fairly Stated at the outset. At the same time it is unques-
tionable thet active attempts have been carried on for
months to introduce upon the London and provincial mar-
kets a large mass of these securities, which are likely to
prove in a great degree worthless, and which would find
no countenance in New York, except among the most
notorious speculators. By these parties they are taken
at rates of discount which show that, like doubtful bills,
they are calculated at an average—some may be paid
and some dishonoured, some may be got rid of in
England, some may be sold at home during a tem-
porary rise, and others may be advantageously coin-
promised in the ultimate litigation that awaits them.
It is therefore easy to understand that for the habitual
gamblers that abound in every commercial city they
have powerful attractions. That they should find pur-
chasers, however, among foreigners seeking a quiet in-
vestment is almost incredible. The only explanation
lies in the influences that are employed to effect the
object. Ironmasters, for instance, are tempted to
receive them in payment for orders, on which they
realize enormous profits, and once introduced, it follows
that every plan is put in motion, by means of large per-
centages to brokers and others, to insure their diffusion
amongst the public, who at last, by the force of recom-
mendations, which increase in confidence in proportion
as the nature of the original negotiation is lost sight of,
become the purchasers at par of things which probably
fetched at starting no more than 50 or 60 per cent. of
the amount they purport to represent. The system of
towns and counties pledging their credit for the payment
of these bonds is merely a revival of the method which
in 1837 was pursued by the various States, and it will in-
evitably have a similar termination. Those who may
suffer, however, must blame themselves alone. If they
would consult any leading American houses, they would
hear the opinion entertained of these documents among
the respectable portion of the commercial community in
the United State, and if they have neither opportunity
nor inclination to make such inquiry, they are not to
charge the result upon the merchants of that country, any
more than the people of New York could reproach us if
they were to accept consignments of gold mining shares in
payment for cotton from the least reputable of our London
adventurers. If capitalists wish to participate in Ame-
rican enterprise, the only rational method is to be-
come joint shareholders in undertakings that have
a definite value in the American markets. If any loss
arise, they can then at
-- all events feel satisfied that it has
not been all on one side, But to take bonds of which
know they practically nothing from companies of which
the shareholders, instead of being in the same boat,
may deem it profitable at any time to treat them as ad-
is a proceeding
ad-
versaries, 60 calculated to invite disaster,
and to injure instead of promoting a healthy co-opera-
tion between the two nations, that it will be impossible
when time the shall arrive to feel regret in witnessing its
penalty.— Times'

RAILWAY Cu,
—.AARE MARKETS.
LIVERPOOL, JUNE 10.
EXCHANGE.......W_
STOcr . e have no improvement to notice
to-day. The transactions have been very limited, and prices
and Cheshire, 1034—Eastern Counties, 9%
varied little from those h
have
have been quoted for the last
few days. Tha transactions reported were—Birkenhead,
Lancashire, 1. 7%--Lancashire and Yorkshire, 72%
London and North-Western, 122%—
Midland, 67—Se_iith-Eastern and Dover, 2054j—York and
North Midland, 23 Yi.•
MANCIrEsn,-.--,
IM.IS JUNE 10.
Ditto,E Lancashire,
ast
Fifths,
6 South-London
share market opened better this
morning, but.atterw ards declineti. and closed heavily. The
only transactions
~ reported
were—Eastern Counties, 9 3-16—
Lancashire and lorkohire,72%_London and North-Western,
STOCK
122% —msichester and Birm
, ingham (C)Quarters,l 15-16 p.
Midland, 61 N—Scluth-Aastern and Dover, 205/s.
Exc7A74E.—...TL
BERMINGLAhI, JUNE 10.
STOCK ETCH"?
an
share market has been flat
e-o
any business doing. The only sales 1
lrY
Shropshire Union, 3% (Its and Birmingham 51. 163.3 d.—
rt o
p d ar
tye,da wnedret_rsicaelyrew— sh

MONEY MARKET......TL
e quotation of gold at Paris
at the English Mint (according to the new tariff ), which,
Price of 31. 17s. 10 d. per ounce for
standard ld gives a
Lon exchange of 25.29 i ; and the ex-
change at Paris on &-11 at short being 25.42 i, it follows
gold is about 051
that ' per cent. dearer in London than
is about 5 per. mille prem.
By advices
from Hamburgh the
in Paris.
is about 430 i Per mark, wife, ,
1 n at the English Mint price of
31. 17s. 10 d. per ounce for standard gold, gives an exchange
of 13.74 ; and the ezeha
age at Hamburgh on London at
short being 13.9 k, it f
.01lows that gold is about 0.80 per cent.
dearer in London then L•.
--, Hamburgh. The course of ex-
change at New York on London for bills at 60 days' sight is
110 i per cent., and the price of gold
it follows that the
' 23-40 per cent.,
exchange is nominally 0.9„
4 Per cent. in favour of England.
An'', after making allowance for charges of transport, the
present rate.leaves A
- 81E411 profit on the importation of gold
from the United States.
and America being ifo par of exchange between England
A COLLIER pi,
--..ia DESTROYED BY Frp.E.—On
Monday night, at eleven o'clock, information was received
at the River Police-station, North Shields, that a vessel
was in flames at Jarrow, about two miles up the Tyne.
The police irarridiat_,y
ei unmoored the river engine, and had
it towed up to th
v-e scene of disaster. The vessel was lying
after the engine
off the Patent Si;
----P, and was in one sheet of flame. Shortly
and, notwithstandin-
g an immense column of water was poured
upon the boring vessel, it was not until four o'clock in the
morning that the fire
the masts fell by the vessel's side,
fire was extinguished. The vessel was a
total wreck. I,
-Lie was the Countess of Durham, belonging to
Messrs. Storer,R of Bedford t eet, North Shields. The fire
had originated i
cellor was chairman, a the cabin boyn the cabin, it supposed by the carelessness
th eli.r.inqEu4t'r"
Ives resumed before W. Brumer, Esq„ the city
coroner, at the committee-room, Town-hall. Mr. William
ACCIDENT AT OXFORD.—Yesterday
Bull, a civil engineer and architect, who had been employed
to superintend the erection of the bathe and washhouses by
the committee of the institution, of which the Vice-Chan-
The accident. •
'a his opinion was caused by the end of the
coil-pipe having been blown off, which admitted a sudden
was examined for upwards of four hours.
evaporation of steam into the hot water tank and caused it
to burst, IL,
' was quite satisfied that there must have been
a very great pressure at the time the accident happened, and
much higher than it had ever been tested at. The inquest
it is expected, will last several days. At present two deaths
have occurred from this accident, viz., John Wordsworth, the
engineer, and
re-
spectable tradesman of Oxford. The following have been
a young man named Burchell, son of a
seriously injured, and are now lying- in the infirmary, where
willEofsTthiteU ec:
they are progressing favourably, viz , Sarah Wordsworth,
ner, two girls about ten years of age; and William Hosier,
DESTRUCTION
eur;rAnnnATHs.a—rwßooadiyanSutton had a hen,
and eight chickens three weeks old, which, when ready for
the market, he intended to sell, and with the money to buy
a new jacket While he went to fetch the cows fr,oem,_t.ne
field, Billy secured his hen and her young brood a
it.n tu
d f ;se u,
ire
pen, carefully fastening the door atter him.
who can, of the poor boy's grief o
to
abstraction
hen alone, in ; at the cruel "laY, chicken alarm, being
and destruction of herwhole
not a single chick
every one,
left to run by her side. The cruel rats had taken
are those and that too in half an hour.
serve, till their blood-st iined hole w'
Unwearied watchersor se
Bounnjd the old
They will kill and carry away their victims, .if opportunity
Norway rascals, and cruel and tigersvorchiiosurseahsYrn' wolves.
in one night, sever;
'll contain no more
Two rats, a few weeks since, carried oil',
rabbits five weeks old. They were dug out
and killed the
dot after.—Preston Chronicle.