The Sun.
London, England, 1865-03-15 00:00:00

The Price of Gold.

The quotation of gold at Paris is about 2 per mille pm., end
the short exchange on London is 25.20 per £1 sterling. On
comparing these rates with the English Mint price of £3
17s. 100. per ounce for standard gold, it appears that gold is
about 1-10th per cent. dearer in Paris than in London.
By advices from Hamburg the price of gold is 426 per mark
and the short exchange on London is 13.4 per £1 Malin .
Standard gold at the English Mint price is, therefore, about
3-10ths per cent. dearer in London than in Hamburg.
The course of exchange at New York on London for bills at
60 days' sight is about 249 per cent., and the premium on
gold 127 per cent. At these rates there is a small profit on
the importation of go'd from the United States.

BOAT RACE FOR £ 50 .—A scullers' race for the above
stake was rowed yesterday from Putney to Mortlake,
between James Dove, of Wapping, and Edward Carte; of
Lambeth. Betting was 2 to 1 on Dove. William Blake,
of Chelsea, was referee ; George Driver showed Dove up ;
and Henry Kelley looked after Carter. Dove won the
station, and stripped to his buff ; Carter rowing in
a jersey. They rowed well together to the Star and
Garter, where a slight foul occurred ; but they were
straight directly, and even again soon afterwards. Near-
ing the London Boat House, Dove, who leading was most
unquestionably bored by his man, and whose left appeared
to be gone, and another foul occurred, in which they
were locked. Dove got away first, and gradually drawing
out was never caught, and won as he pleased. Time,
32 min. 2 sec. The referee, on being appealed to, decided
in Dove's favour.

A FARTHING A MILE.—It is absurd to say that
transport by railway should be twenty times cheaper
than coach travelling used to be ? A pound of cake eva-
porating five pints of water will develop force enough to
draw two tons weight on a railway to the distance of a
mile in two minutes. A train of coaches weighing eighty
tons, and holding 240 passengers, can be conveyed from
Liverpool to Birmingham and back in seven hours, by four
tons of coke, which cost about £5. To carry as many
on a common road would require an establishment of 380
horses, and they would only do the work in four-and-
twenty hours. Of course it is fair to ask, why is
there no proportionate reduction in the charges for
conveyance ? Because there is, on the railway line, not
only the coke and water and working staff to pay for, but
the heavy charge on the capital sunk in making the iron
road. So, many say : forgetting that, the road once made,
the cost of each act of conveyance deducted from the sum
paid for the service, is all that determines profits. The
prime cost of the road, except as an element in its stability
and cause of more or less current expense for repairs, can
have nothing to do with the calculation. Upon a balance
of current profit and loss alone, it is to be decided what fares
will pay best Whatever the cost of making the line,
when once it is made, profits depend on the daily relation
between working expenses and receipts. Now, the average
fares on English railways are at present 2;d. a mile for first
class, Ifd. for second class, and ld. for third, while in a
railway train carrying a fair load, when all expenses of
conveyance, indirect and direct, have been allowed for, it
appears that the cost price of carrying a first class passen-
ger is ld. for 16 miles, for carrying a second class passen-
ger ld. for 25 miles, and, by still closer packing, a third
class passenger is conveyed 40 miles for ld. Thus, if the
number of travellers increased sufficiently, it is at any rate
conceivable that a half-crown fare from London to Liver-
pool might pay better than a faro of 30s.—Diekey "All
the Year Round."