The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-28 00:00:00

class ships under steam—our Minotaurs, Warriors,
and Achilles, as comparable only with Magentas and
and Solferinos—it will be found that we have not
ten frigates afloat and in commission, or that have
been in commission, that possess, "as a fleet," the
collective speed of the ten best frigates of the French
ironclad navy, that is to say, that could- make a
12-knot passage between France and Algiers, as was
done by the French fleet on the occasion of the
Emperor's recent visit to Africa. As the speed
of the slowest vessel in a fleet must necessarily
regulate the speed of all the ships in the fleet, the
undoubted importance of a balance in this respect
is obvious, and it is in this respect, as also in their
relative lengths and turning powers, that the French
ironclads excel our o'*n, and not only ours, but it
may be justly said the armoured fleets also of all
other nations. In exceptional instances of speed
the English undoubtedly beat those of France, but
in collective steaming power the latter have a de-
cided preponderance. On the whole, looking upon
the ironclads of both countries as two machines for
war, every part of which in each case should act in
perfect harmony with the other, as with the slides
and pistons of a steam-engine, we are compelled to
award the palm of superiority to the ships of France
over those of England, premising, however, that
only those of our own ships have been taken into
consideration which have been equipped to their
load draught and afterwards put through their
trial at the measured mile. In our Minotaur, Agin-
court, and Northumberland we certainly have, and
in the Pallas, Bellerophon, Lord Warden, and Lord
Clyde we hope to have, ships with 12-knot sea-
going qualifications. All these vessels will probably
have completed their deep-draught trials within the
next six months, and if they should then realise the
estimates formed of their speeds the English iron-
clad fleet may be considered fully on a par with
that of our Gallic allies, but until then the latter
will continue to occupy the foremost place in the
face of the iron navies of Europe.

The Great English Railways•

THE LONDON AND SOUTH-WESTERN.

The next system to which we propose to direct
attention is " this company," to use an expression
which' finds great favour with railway secretaries and
officials. The London and South-Western, like all
its great neighbours, represents also a mass of minor
undertakings which have linked themselves with its
fortunes by amalgamation, lease, or otherwise, and
every year the concern assumes more important pro-
portions. In one way or other, about 570 miles of
line have come to be worked by the management,
which has its head-quarters at the Waterloo termi-
nus, and the revenue now fluctuates between £25,000
and £30,000 per week. The original nucleus of the
London and South-Western system was the highly
productive line between London and Southampton,
but the enterprise has now been extended into the
far west of England, and it has carried the narrow
gauge into districts in which the genius of Mr.
Brunel once reigned supreme. If Mr. Brunel's life
had been spared, we should probably see an inces-
sant strife between this company and the Great
Western ; as it is, there is a kind of armed truce
between the two concerns—a severe struggle for a
line to Bristol on the part of the South-Western,
and for a line to Southampton on the part of the
Great Western by way of retaliation, having brought
about a cessation of hostilities between them,
both combatants being reduced, and more espe-
cially the Great Western, to a state of exhaustion.
It has required of late years considerable tact and
care to secure to the ordinary proprietors in the
South- Westerola return of 5 per cent. upon their
capital, while-the holders of the Great Western or-
dinary stock have not been so fortunate as to receive
even 3 per cent. with any regularity. Both parties
then remain quiescent for the present, the South-
Western having firmly established itself in Devon-
shire, although it has not yet got much of a footing
in Cornwall, while the .Paddington magnates have
been compelled to accept a competition which cannot
now be avoided. The rough traffic receipts, the
working expenses, and the net profits of the Lon-
don and South-Western, were as follows, in 1862,
1863, and 1864 :
Year. Receipts. Expense. Profits.
1862 £1,265,578 £630,724 £634,854
1863 1,326,863 678,104 618,759
1864 1,413,745 712,551 701,191 _

The total distance worked at the close of 'each ok
the three years was as follows :-1862---London and
South-Western proper, 4421 miles • lines worked
on lease or otherwise, 94 miles ; total, 5361 miles.
1863—London and South-Western proper, 454+
miles ; lines worked on lease or otherwise, 1011
miles ; total, 556 miles. 1864—London and South-
Western proper, 4701 miles ; lines worked on lease
or otherwise, 101 k miles ; total, 5711 miles. The
affiliated lines worked, leased, &e., by the company
comprise the Bideford. Extension, the Bishop's Wal-
tham, the Chard, the Exeter and Crediton, the
Exeter and Exmouth, the Lymington, the North
Devon, the Ringwood, the Christchurch and Bourne-
mouth, the Salisbury and Yeovil, the Staines,
Wokin gh am, and Wokina; the Stokes Bay, the Alton,
Alresford, and Winchester, &c. The capital raised
by the London and South-Western is stated in a
sheet of statistics obligingly placed .at our disposal
to have been £13,755,340 at the close of 1864, as
compared with £13,260,958 at the close of 1863,
and 12,785,585 at the close of 1862. The amount
of the ordinary stock in 1862 was £7,381,281 ; in
1863, £7,467,964; and in 1864, £7,562,228; so that;
comparing 1864 with 1862, we have an increase in
the ordinary stock of £180,947. The amount of
preference stock in 1862 was £1,830,192; in 1863,
£2,093,190; and in 1864, £`2,576,880; so that,
comparing 1864 with 1862, we have an increase in
the preference stock of £746,688. The amount of
debentures outstanding in 1862-was £3,574,112 ;in
1863, £3,699,804; and in 1864, £3,616,232; so
that, comparing 1864 with 1862, we have an in-
crease in the debentures of £42,120. These figures
are given as we find them in the previously-men-
tioned sheet of statistics, but they do not exactly
tally with a return made to the Board of Trade
last year as regards 1863. The return for
1864 has not yet been issued, we believe, by the
Railway Department of the Board, which can-
not be said to move in these matters at a railway
speed. If we take the Board of trade figures for
1863 we arrive at the following results :—Ordinary
stock, £7,067,964 ; preferential capital, £1,647,190;
debenture stock or funded debt, £786,448; and de-
bentures, £3,699,804 ; total, £13,201,406. We shall
not endeavour to discover the causes of difference
between these figures and those previously sum-
marized, but it is important to note that the deben-
ture stock and debenture loans amounted togetherto
£4,486,252, and it is satisfactory to note that some
reduction was made in the amount of debenture out-
standing last year, as the intention of the Legislature
in consenting to the issue of debenture stocks was
to gradually extinguish debenture debts. It is dif-
ficult in dealing with a company embracing such a
number of affiliated undertakings as the London
and South-Western to state exactly how the bor-
rowing powers stand, but we fancy that they have
been fully exerted, although the chairman some
months since gave an assurance that they had not
been exceeded. The debenture debt appears to be
well administered, as, of the amount outstanding in
1863, £2,586,473 bore an interest of 4 per cent.
There were no debentures in existence at 5 per cent.,
but 41 per cent. were being paid upon £50,000, 4}
per cent. upon £847,804, 41 per cent. upon £20,000,
and 41 per cent. upon £97,967. From the ra-
ther trying state of the Money-Market, the ave-
rage rate of interest upon the company's mortgage
debt has been since somewhat advancing, having
been 4.13 per cent. in the first half of 1864, 4.21 per
cent. in the second half of 1864, and 4.26 per cent.
in the first half of 1865. There is no great signifi-
cance, however, in this circumstance, as probably
all the great railway companies have had to pay a
little more of late upon their loans. The bulk of the
preference capital has been raised at 4f per cent.
Although the mortage and preferential charges have
been rolling on rapidly of late years, yet the Lon-
don and South-Western has still an excellent pro-
portion of ordinary stock in existence, the deben-
tures and preference shares having the guarantee
last year of £7,562,228 of fairly remunerated ordi-
nary capital, we may observe that a steady 5 per
cent. was divided upon the common shares or stock
in 1862, 1863, and 1864. In 1861, 1860, and 1859,
the corresponding dividends were at the rate of 41
per cent. only, so that the position of the ordinary
shareholders cannot be said to have changed for the
worse during the last six years, although in 1859
the company hadonly £232,940 of preference stock,
and in 1864 £2,576,880. But while at present the
preference stock created has done the ordinary
stock no harm, it is clear that the creation of pre-
ference shares to the amount of £450,000 per
annum—the average of the last three years—can
scarcely go on ad infinitum. While treating of
capital, it may be interesting to put on record the
fact that in 1850 the company had not raised more
than £8,808,112, of which £6,623,888 was ordinary
stock, £171,186 preference stock, and £2,013,038
debentures. The company had then, however, only
242 miles in working, while the dividend upon the
ordinary stock was only 31 per cent., so that the
extension policy of the last 15 years has been at-
tended, on the whole, with good results.
To turn now to the traffic results of the last three
years. In 1864 the receipts from passengers were
£956,193, as compared with £897,437 in 1863 and