The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-21 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TBUBSDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 21, 1865

Great English and French Railways,

THE LANCASHIRE AND YORKSHIRE.

This important system has been struggling during the
last three yeArs with many and great difficulties, occasioned
by the pressure of the American war ; and perhaps no other
European railway property was so seriously affected by that
terrible convulsion, unless indeed it was the Western of
France. The shareholders of the Lancashire and Yorkshire
have shown, however, great, and deserved confidence in the
undertaking, and the ordinary stock has always been at a
respectable premium, even during the last four trying years.
Now, however, that the terrible civil war has at last ceased
in the United States, Lancashire has regained a large mea-
sure of her old industrial activity, and the Lancashire and
Yorkshire has profited in consequence, and may be said to
be enjoying a renewed lease of prosperity. The original
undertaking, which constitutes the basis of the present
Lancashire and Yorkshire enterprise, was the Manchester
and Leeds, but an amalgamation with the East Lancashire,
and leases and other arrangements with the North Union
Preston and Wyre, &c., have placed a considerable extent
of railway under the control of the Lancashire and York-
shire Board. The Preston and Wyre section, we should
state, is leased to the Lancashire and Yorkshire and London
and North-Western, but is worked by the former company,
which was conducting traffic upon the following length of
way at the dates indicated :—Dec. 31, 1862, 403 miles (378
miles double and 25 miles single) ; Dec. 31, 1863, 410 miles
(385 miles double and 25 miles single) ; and Dec. 31, 1864,
410 miles (385 miles double and 25 miles single). The
traffic acquired, the working expenses incurred, and the
profits realised upon this mileage in 1862, 1863, and 1864
were as follows :

Year. Revenue. Expenses. Profits.
1862 ... £1,732,122 ... £846,003 ... £886,119
1863 ... 1,845,016 ... 860,583 ... 984,433
1864 ... 2,027,692 835,098 ... 1,192,594
In 1861 the profits were returned at £1,034,012, and wo
believe they even exceeded that amount in 1860, when the
industrial life of Lancashire appears to have attained its
maximum development ; but in 1863 and 1864 the net re-
venue again displayed great buoyancy, and this probably
will witness a still further increase of revenue. The pro-
fits realised represent very accurately the general course
of Lancashire affairs..in 1861, 1862, 1863, and 1864 ; and it
is satisfactory to note that the ground lost in 1862 was in a
great measure recovered in 1863, while 1864 pretty well
made good all previous shortcomings. Wo believe that as
regards the figures given above for 1864 an addition of
about £7,500 ought to be made to the amount set down for
working expenses-and a corresponding amount deducted,
of course, from net profits-for the company's shares of re-
sponsibilities incurred in connection with the North
Union, of which it has a joint lease in conjunction with the
London and North-Western. We regret that we find it
necessary to speak with a certain vagueness on this sub-
ject, but the accounts immediately available for 1864 afford
no positive information on the subject. We may safely set
down, however, the net profits for 1864 at about £1,100,000,
and accept it as a fact that the position of the system at
the close of 1864 was about as good as it ever had been.
In the first half of 1864 the rough revenue increased to the
extent of £122,506, and the traffic continued to expand
until October, 1864, when a certain gloom again stole over
Lancashire ; nevertheless, the second half of 1864 yielded
on the whole an additional rough receipt of upwards of
£60,000 as compared with the corresponding six months
of 1864. In the first half of 1865 the traffic revenue, in-
cluding the receipts of the Preston and Wyre section and
the Manchester, Bolton, and Bury Canal, amounted to
£1,012,344, as compared with £986,057 in the correspond-
ing half of 1864, showing an increase of £26,287. This re-
sult was satisfactory, so far as it went, but the increase was
not sufficient to provide for an augmentation of £28,359 in
the working expenses, and of £13,904 in the fixed charges
on capital at present unproductive ; and the balance avail-
able for dividend on the ordinary stock on June 30, 1865,
was reduced to £337,072, as compared with £368,127 June
30, 1864. The additional working expenses and fixed
charges for the past half-year amount to £42,263, which,
added to the balance available for dividend on the ordinary
stock, would make up a total of £379,335. It may appear
at first sight that there is an awkward difference between
this sum and the total of £368,127 previously indicated as
available for June 30, 1864 ; but the apparent discrepancy
is explained by the fluctuations in the balances carried
forward. The dividend paid upon the ordinary stock for
1861 was 5f per cent. ; for 1862 (when the cotton famine
was felt in its full force), 31 per cent. ; for 1863, 4i per
cent. ; and for 1864, 51 per cent. For the first half of 1865
the dividend was at the rate of 5} per cent., as compared
with a rate of 5f per cent. for the first half of 1864, show-
ing a falling off, from causes already indicated, of s per
cent. The increase in the working expenses arose princi-
pally in the cost of fuel, repairs, and compensation, which
last item, by the way, presents an increasing gravity to
railway proprietors. The cotton crisis prevented, in the
case of the Lancashire and Yorkshire, the rapid increase in
the capital account witnessed during the last three or four
years in other great English railway companies. Without
taking account for the moment of the capital engaged in
leased lines, wo find that the amount of capital raised by
shares and loans by the Lancashire and Yorkshire at the
close of 1861 was £19,272,706 ; at the close of 1862,
£19,790,778 ; at the close of 1863, £19,913,571 ; at the close
of 1864, £20,255,371; and June 30, 1865, £29,677,839. The
entire additions to capital in the 42 months comprised be-
tween December 31, 1861, and June 30, 1865, would thus
appear to be £1,405,133. The amount of ordinary stock
in existence at the close of 1861 was £12,093,594 ; of
preference stock, £2,631,943; and of loans £4,527,169.
The corresponding totals June 30, 1865, were :-Ordi-
nary stock, £12,093,594 ; preference and debenture
stock, £3,754,305; and loans, £1,829,940. No additional
ordinary stock was thus created, in the 42 months ending
June 30, 1863 ; but preference and debenture stock was
issued to the amount of £1,102,362, while additional loans
were contracted to the amount of £302,771. With regard
to the loan capital, a very large amount appears to have
been borrowed within the last 18 months, the amount out-
standing December 31, 1863, having been returned at only
£4,096,371. Tho share and loan capital of the North
Union, leased jointly to the Lancashire and Yorkshire and
the London and North-Western, amounted at the close of
1863 to £1,143,242, so that the capital represented by what
is popularly known as the Lancashire and Yorkshire Rail-
way may be stated roughly at between £21,000,000 and
£22,000,000, to serve interest upon which profits are now
annually acquired to the amount of about £1,100,000,
although in the exceptional year, 1862, the net revenue
fell considerably below that standard. Following the
example of the London and North-Western, it will be seen
that the Lancashire and Yorkshire directors have always
had a very large amount of ordinary stock in existence,
although during the last two or three years th'3 proportion
of ordinary capital to the whole amount raised has been
declining. It is something, however, in a £21,000,000 con-
cern to be able to point to a solid £12,000,000 of ordinary
stock, and that stock, too, at a premium of 20 per cent.
We have sketched in fair, rough, broad outlines the po-
sition of the company at the close of June, 1865 ; but if we
go into details as to the traffic we must stop short at the
close of 1863, although it is important to remark that in
1864 the traffic increased to the extent of about £lBO,OOO
as compared with 1863, the largest share of the augmen-
tation being contributed by goods. Considerable as
was the increase in the revenue of 1864, it did not
fully represent the increase in the actual number of
passengers or weight of merchandise conveyed. To
review now in detail the traffic of 1863-The number
of passengers conveyed in that year over the
Lancashire and Yorkshire proper was 16,210,097 (against
15,010,539 in 1862). This great circulation may be discom-
posed as follows :-First-class, 1,882,836 ; second-class,
3,684,549 ; third-class, 10,642,712. The number of holders
of season or periodical tickets was 2,385. The passenger
trains also conveyed in 1863 1,592 carriages, 5,531 horses,
and 31,312 dogs. The total receipts from passengers in
1863 were :-First-class, £141,920 ; second-class, £130,789;
third-class and parliamentary, £332,347; and periodical
tickets, £22,246. The accessory receipts of the quick trains
were £48,196, and £5,590 was derived from the convey-
ance of mails, making the total earnings of the coaching
department during the year-.£741,107. Turning now to the
slow train service, we find that the number of cattle con-
veyed in 1863 was 190,602; of sheep, 494,136 ; and of pigs,
60,154. The quantity of coal and coke transported was
2,112,764 tons, and of other minerals 805,440 tons. The
quantity of general merchandise conveyed was 2,586,420
tons (against 2,415,185 tons in 1862). The revival of Lan-
cashire industry in 1863 was forcibly reflected in the con-
veyance of 2,112,764 tons of coal, while in 1862 the corre-
sponding total was only 1,914,412 tons. The earnings of
the slow trains were-from live stock, £25,906; from coal
and coke, £141,237; and from general merchandise, £870,011,
making an aggregate of £1,037,154, while in 1862 the cor-
responding total was only £975,052. The number of pas-
senger trains run in 1863 was 205,695, and of goods trains
132,259; and the total distances traversed by the former
were 3,405,257 miles, and by the latter 2,876,238 miles. The
average fares charged in 1863 were-first-class, 1.58 d. per
mile; second-claes,l•3ld. per mile ; third-class, 0.76 d. per mile.
These details refer exclusively to the Lancashire and York-
shire proper, but it may be well to recall some of the results
established on the Preston and Wyre section. Upon this lino
602,038 passengers were conveyed in 1863-96,543 first-class,
155,376 second class, and 350,119 third-class ; • there were,
besides, 1,452 holders of season and periodical tickets. The
movement of live stock comprised 15,410 head of cattle,
2,315 sheep, and 8,031 pigs. The quantity of coal and
coke carried was 97,305 tons; of other minerals, 74,118
consppasageneral
se; andenng gese
passenger
stem--the
fares
rmgee general
charged
aaefi lri.gset merchandise, 72,318 tons. The total
distance traversed by 19,604 trains was 185,749 miles. The
third-class werelass,
x 9
an
third class, £13,738 ; and •
2c rather7hia charge,
ee, c lowerfoonrdi
en
itsa
sht
only at the rate of 0.6 d. per mile ; and the receipts from
£34,483 in all. The accessory
were £2,602, and mails producreddele:ai
periodical
;fraonmd coal and agnednecroaklera, fr47a7nl:
making the total
revenue from coaching for the year ' £37,485. The receipts
from
mm
oltihveerstmmockewraelz
az£74790892;
dise, £16,909; making the slow train revenue of 1863
£29,270. With respect to working expenses, we may note
that they amounted in 1863 to £830,782 on the Lancashire
ance,
and Yorkshire proper; that total being made up as follows:
pc:
to
sot
ni tickets, kteht
the
quick 1,43:tb etoa;3itinh6nogear;
-Maintenance and renewal of way, £152,359; locomotive

power, £177,220 ; . repairs and renewals of carriages and
waggons, £60,545 ; traffic charges (coaching and merchan-
dise), £329,678; rates and taxes, £46,466; Government
duty, £19,608; compensation for personal injury, &c.,
£8,351; compensation for damage and loss of goods, £721;
legal and Parliamentary expenses, £12,383 ; and miscel-
laneous, £23,451. On the Preston and Wyre section the
working expenses of the year were £29,808, made up thus :
—Maintenance and renewal of way, £6,501; locomotive
power, .£4l, 862 (returned as the mileage rate at which engines
and carriages are found by the Lancashire and Yorkshire) ;
traffic charges (coaching and merchandise), £8,376 ; rates
and taxes, £1,022 ; Government duty, £1,367 ; and miscel-
laneous, £673. Finally, we may observe that the part of
rolling stock possessed by the company at the close of 1863
was 380 locomotives, 1,171 carriages used for the con-
veyance of passengers only, 232 other vehicles attached to
passenper trains, 10,622 waggons of all kinds used for the
cpnveyance of live stock, minerals, and general merchan-
dise, and 18 other carriages and waggons ; making the
very considerable aggregate of £12,323. This plant re-
ceived some additions in 1864, and that it is intelligently
may be seen in the fact that the company is now earning
a rough traffic of £lOO to £llO per mile per week.
The expenditure made for additional land, buildings,
and plant during the three half-years ending June 30, 1865,
and also for new lines during the same period, was as
follows :

Half-year ending Land, &c. New lines.
June 30, 1864 ... £66,990 ... £86,733
Dec. 31, 1864
.128,,352 ... 188,835

June 36, 1865 ...

125;460

149,866

The total amount thus expended for additional land,
buildings, and plant in the 18 months was thus £320,802
and for new lines £425,434. Of the £320,802 expended for
additional land, buildings, and plant, the, last item ab-
sorbed £139,662 ; but it is clear that the most reproductive
of all capital expenditure is that made for additional plant.
The permanent way has for some years engaged the serious
attention of the management, as owing to the increased
weight of the engines, carriages, and waggons, and of the
loads moved by them, the wear [and tear of the rails is
very great. The directors have come to the conclusion
that in localities whore the traffic is heavy steel rails have
many and decided advantages over common iron rails,
lasting much longer and in the end proving cheaper.
Acting upon this conviction, they have directed steel rails
to be laid down at all those places where an ordinary rai
would be worn'out in less than two years' time. The differ-
ence of the cost of these steel rails as compared with it..n
rails has been charged, we believe, to capital. The perma-
nent way generally appears to be liberally maintained, the
expenditure on this head in 1863 being at the rate of £387
per mile per annum. This is a matter, it may be parentheti-
cally observed, of great importance to investors, as perma-
nent way has been before now allowed to deteriorate in
other lines in order to squeeze out a few shillings moro di-
vidend for the time being. The new lines and extensions
which the company has been prosecuting during the last 18
months have been the following ;--Oldham, Rochdale, &c.,
Salford, Junction, Bootle and Aintree, Meltham, Dewsbury,
Shawforth, Blackburn and Chorley, Victoria Station, Bes-
wick, Heckmondwike, and Methley. The line for connect-
ing the Salford and Victoria stations at Manchester is now
opened for traffic ; and the Methley, of the capital of which
the Lancashire and Yorkshire hold one-third, is also ready
for the circulation of trains. The construction of the branch
from Rochdale to Shawforth has been postponed in conse-
quence of the extreme difficulty experienced in obtaining
possession of the land at reasonable rates ; the works have,
however, at length been let. The company failed in the
past session to obtain powers for the construction of a
highly-important line to connect its system with the Great
Eastern. This line was strenuously opposed by the Great
Northern, and on its defeat the Lancashire and Rorkshire
abandoned the project, while the Great Eastern has since
come to such terms with the Great Northern, as regards
running rowers and traffic facilities, as will obviate the
necessity of another application to Parliament on the
subject. It is difficult when we begin to speak of these
giant railway undertakings to know where to stop, so
multifarious are their interests and so wide-spread their
ramifications. We must, however, suspend our review of
the Lancashire and Yorkshire at this point. Now that the
great steam-engines of Lancashire are again beginning to
put forth their full strength, and the manufacturing popu-
lation of the county are permitted to toil with their full
vigour now that the docks at Liverpool are beginning to
be choked with cotton, and the mills inland resound with
the clank and roar of active industry, we may expect to see
this great company regain its old prosperity, and its ordi-
nary stock dividends approach the maximum of 8 per cent.,
to which, we believe, they are restricted. The shareholders
may congratulate themselves that their enterprise pene-
trates into Yorkshire as well as the great neighbouring
county, as the steadiness of the woollen trade in 1862 and
1363 compensated in some degree for the depression of the
cotton manufacture. But, whatever may be the temporary
difficulties with which the Lancashire and Yorkshire has
to contend, it must always be regarded as a fine enterprise.
Its lines have cost, in round figures, £50,000 per mile, but
it now remunerates fairly the capital engaged. If we should
witness a period of commercial ease and progress, the re-
turn upon the £12,000,000 of ordinary stock will experience
a corresponding expansion.

The Rival Ministers.

The Hull Packet states that a very amusing cor-
respondence between the Rev. T. S. Bonnin, curate
of Sculcoates, the Rev. J. Byron, rector of Killing-
holme, and the Archbishop of York, has just been
published. Sculcoates Church is the place most
generally favoured by those happy mortals who are
desirous of being joined in holy wedlock. And, as
Sculcoates owns a population of some 50,000 in-
habitants, it is scarcely likely that Mr. Bonnin, who
has to discharge unaided the clerical duties of the
parish upon a miserable stipend from the non-resi-
dent vicar, can personally ascertain the truth of the
declarations of those who, professing to be residents
in the parish, require the banns of marriage to be
published in his church. It seems that some short
time ago a certain Henry Morton and Harriet D.
Sharpe, parishioners of Killmghohne, had the banns
of marriage published, and were duly married in
Sculcoates Church. Whereupon the Rev. Mr.
Byron wrote a remonstrance to Mr. Bonnin, and
threatened a report to the archbishop. To this
letter the curate of Sculcoates gave a characteristic
reply, saying, among other things

" It is doubtless true, that from time immemorial
Sculcoates Church, simply from the convenience of
its locality, may have often proved a facilus descen-
sus matrimonio, in cases when from various reasons,
whether legitimate or not, privacy may have been
specially desirable. And it is from a presumed in-
difference on my part to the prevention of such
marriages that I have been frequently taken to task,
often in not very courteous language, by more than
50 fat incumbents in Holderness, the Fends, and
the Wolds ; their complaints, as in your case, in-
variably culminating in a proposed invocation of the
mitre ; to say nothing of a recent instance some
miles beyond Lincoln, reaching its climax in a pro-
mised roar from the throat of that sucking dove,
Convocation—in order to reduce me to their notions
of canonical obedience. Now, without entering
upon the merits of these grievances, let it suffice,
once for all, to state that neither pastoral staff held
in terrorent, nor roar, nor repetition of polite hint
once already received of three months' incarceration
as the due desert of my lack of vigilance in repelling
other men's ewes and rams from my fold, shall ever
compel me, week after week, as an ecclesiastical de-
tective, bull's-eye in hand, to patrol this parish,
from the Wilberforce Monument to the Stoneferry
Waterworks, and from the river Hull to the Ceme-
tery, in order to ferret, out some possible William
and Mary who may prefer the alternative of com-
mitting sin within the vicinity of their own."
As, perhaps was to be expected, Mr. Byron, after
this letter, did complain to the archbishop, who
wrote to Mr. Bonnin, telling him that he had acted
contrary to the law as laid down by Lord Eldon in
not making proper inquiries, and asking him if he
intended to resign his curacy. Mr. Bonnin replies
to the archbishop in a style which will make the hair
stand on end of half the curates in Yorkshire. He
has no intention of resigning his curacy, he says. As
to Lord Eldon, it shows how intense historical evi-
dence is that nobody doubts his existence. Hehopes
that the celebrated description of a curate as "a man
who excites compassion, a learned man in a hovel,
with sermons and saucepans, lexicons and bacon,
Hebrew books and ragged children," and " the man
of purple, palaces, and preferment letting himself
loose against this poor man of God," is a thing of
the past. He protests against being selected as an
exception to all the rest of the Hull clergy to make
inquiries which nobody else does make, and he thus
concludes :

" Considering, then, the incessant claims made in
large towns on a clergyman's time—the repose he
needs in keeping himself abreast with the demands
of each returning Lord's day—the visiting the sick,
and other pressing duties—your grace, I think, will
pause before imposing upon him an additional task,
the results of which are both uncertain, and entirely,
if attained, incommensurate with the toil expended
in order to realise them. The only alternative re-
maining to your grace is to urge upon your town
clergy, as gentlemen and men of honour, to guard as
far as possible against all ecclesiastical irregularities,
and resolutely henceforth to turn a deaf ear to all
unworthy petty complaints from a class of men
who can surely console themselves under their little
village grievances by good port, comfortable recto-
ries, pretty wives, fat ponies, an easy life, hunting,
fishing, and shooting, instead of reporting' them
to your grace, and thereby giving rise to such a
profitless correspondence as this which I hope may

be the last inflicted on your grace concerning ' Mar-
riages over the Border and Across the Water.' "
The last letter published is an ominous one. It is
from the non-resident vicar of Sculcoates, and is
thus communicated to the Archbishop by Mr. Bon-
nin himself

" My Lord Archbishop, —I have this morning re-
ceived a letter from my vicar, the Rev. Win. Preston,
informing me that he is in communication with your
grace respecting the withdrawal of my license, pre-
viously to giving me the usual legal notice for leav-
ing this curacy. I have simply acknowledged the
receipt of his letter, and forwarded him a copy of
the entire correspondence, printed by me for distri-
bution among my friends, a duplicate of which ac-
companies this note.—l have the honour to remain
your grace's very obedient servant, T. S. BoNNIN."

The Stock of Cotton in America.

'---A1..--

Mr. Edward Atkinson, of Boston, has written a
a second letter to Mr. Bright on the subject of the
American cotton supply. He says :

" I have reason to believe that the estimate of the agents
of the government who had have been sent out to take
charge of captured cotton would not lead to the expectation
of over one million bales of old cotton, including the cap-
tures at Mobile, Charleston, and Savannah, and about
500,000 bales of new crop. My own estimate; obtained from
our business agents, would lead me to expect as
much as 1,250,000 bales of old cotton, but much less than
500,000 bales of new, the cultivation of the new crop
planted during the war having been entirely dis-
organised by the sudden collapse of the Confederate
rule. You are aware that I believed in and dreaded the
existence of a much larger quantity of old cotton. I dreaded
the effect of very heavy receipts in November and Decem-
ber, both upon the future cultivation in this country and
elsewhere. I now feel very safe against any great depres-
sion. The abrogation of the extra tax of 25 per cent.
and the restoration of trade to its normal condition
gave immediate confidence to spinners and consumers of
cloth, and enabled us to absorb the late tolerably heavy
receipts without any very great fluctuations in price. I
estimate our present consumption at 10,000 bales per
week, and at that we cannot supply the demand for cloth
even though we are Making excessive profit. Scarcity of
operatives prevents a rapid increase. If the supply of
American cotton shall prove to bo only one and a half
million bales from September 1, 1865, to September 1, 1866,
and the price shall be at or about twenty pence in Liver-
pool, we shall retain more than one-half for consumption
North and South."

Mr. Atkinson encloses two letters from one of
his correspondents, sent out to the cotton states to
procure information bearing upon the present and
future supply of cotton. In one of these letters it
is stated that there are about 40,000 bales of cotton
in Augusta, Georgia, and that " the estimate of
the new crop is not to exceed 10 per cent." The
writer says the negroes won't work on the planta-
tions, but crowd to the towns. In the second letter,
which is dated Macon, Georgia, August 21, the
writer says :
" I am more and more persuaded that the day for large
crops of cotton at low prices has passed for ever. Cotton
will be raised, but not as before. For instanco, the women
who used to work in the fields now follow the men to the
cities, and the men support them there. It is all humbug
to talk of the negroes starving ; everywhere I hear nothing
but complaints because the supply of labour is insufficient,
and this while not one plantation in ten is half worked.
The whole of the South is to be re-built and re-furnished,
and until it is the negro will find an abundance of labour
without working the fields. Everywhere I find Northern
men ; in all of the out-of-the-way places they do almost all
the business. I find the impression among the planters is
that, while emancipation will not permanently injure the
border states—Missouri, Kentucky, Virginia, North Caro-
lina, Tennessee, and Arkansas—it is total and irremediable
ruin to the other states ; at least, so they all express them-
selves, almost without exception. Many are removing to
North Carolina, or some other border state. I found the
quality of the cotton at Augusta superior to any I have yet
seen. Its superior condition is doubtless owing to the
greater care it has received in storage. The quantity of
cotton in Macon to-day is from 30,000 to 50,000 bales. The
amount in the district tributary to Atlanta is some 25,000
bales, as nearly as I can make it. This includes the whole
district of country to the northward of Atlanta, which does
not border on the rivers ; also the countries about the
headwaters of the Chattahoochee and those immediately to
the south of the city, say 30 counties in all. This district of
country has been drained to a very large extent of its cot-
ton. Here at Macon the cotton compares favourably with
that at Augusta, which is to say it is in much better condi-
tion than that I have seen elsewhere. Some 18,000 bales
have been sent away since the Federal occupation, of which
7,000 or 8,000 have gone down the river to Darien."

The following is an extract from a letter from
the South, published in the Scotsman:—

" You are aware that the specie in the country, when the
war broke out, was loaned to the Confederate Government,
to enable it to purchase vessels, arms, and other munitions
of war in Europe. Large quantities of cotton were also
placed to the credit of Government by shipowners of the
country, on which security the Confederate States Go-
vernment issued many millions of dollar bills, premising to
redeem them in specie six months after peace was de-
clared, and the independence of the States had become WI
fait accompli. As you know, we were defeated, and that
moment Confederate money became not worth the papor
on which it was written. Every one held it, and nothing
else, and consequently every one was peculiarly ruined.
Well, in those circumstances,every one who owns any pri-
vate cotton is making strenuous exertions to get it to New
York and to Liverpool while the present high prices con-
tinue; and this is what makes all cotton firms in the South
so very busy at this particular time. Our rivers, too, are
very low ; and as ourrailroads have all more or less suffered
from the ravages of contending armies, there is a greater de-
mand for transportation than supply ; and there is, in a word,
one continual hurry and rush from morning till night, and
on till morning again, everywhere. Of course, in this race,
the smart and the strong go ahead ; the timid and the
dull go to the wall, and stay there. Ordinarily, the
busy part of the year is begun in November, when the
cotton crop is gathered in, and ends in March, when the
last of it has been brought to market. From March to
November it is considered so unhealthy in all the cities of
the Gulf of Mexico—of which this is one—that all business
is suspended, and those who can afford it go north. Those
that remain are generally decimated by yellow fever, &c.
This year, however, it is different: none have money, all
want to procure it, and most are sacrificing health in its
pursuit. This year's crop will not be gathered till Novem-
ber, and is, besides, a very small one, as all our land was
sown in corn for the maintenance of our armies. The
cotton whence our business is now derived has been on
hand since the war began, with the small additions that
have been yearly made since. This is, however, I fear, a
very dull topic for you ; but cotton is such an engaging,
fascinating business, that I am quite engrossed by it. I
talk of cotton, speak, think, and dream of it. In this part
of the world every one more or less is temporarily afflicted
with a mania popularity entitled cotton on the brain.'
. When we were in Montgomery, the capital of this
state, in March last, Nelson's division of Federal cavalry
fought and defeated my regiment, the 65th Alabama In-
fantry (we were only 1 to 7, though). Before they could
take possession of the captured city, we set fire to and
burned two large warehouses, containing together 45,000
bales. This cotton in Liverpool would at this day realise
the pretty little sum of £2,700,000."

THE DEMAND UPON ENGLAND FOR CAPITAL.—
England has now more than ever to supply the
whole world with capital. We have the pick of the
trade of the world, and its consequent profits, and we
cannot employ those profits bettor than by stimulating
the industry of our customers by wise advances of funds.
We not only thus sow the seeds of more extensive trade,
but we enable our population to acquire the luxuries of
civilisation in increased profusion. At the present
moment it is a most satisfactory sign that, although
loans are wanted from us in nearly every region, they
are all for the purpose of increasing the productions with
which we are to be supplied. The Vberoy of Egypt wishes
to obtain £3,000,000, but it is entirely to keep up and ex-
tend that remarkable development in *the industry of the
country which has been facilitated by the introduction of
English machinery, and the labours of English and French
engineers. Cuba seeks £400,000, to give increased effici-
ency to her already profitable railway system. Greece, it is
said, is at length, seriously contemplating some arrange-
ment of her dishonoured debt, in order to obtain £1,500,000
to enable her to reclaim some of her richest lands. Spain
and Austria are alike eager to draw upon us for industrial
purposes, and are prevented only by the remembrance in
this country of former breaches of commercial good faith as
regards the former, and want of confidence, caused by the
prohibitive system of the latter, both of which evils, it may
be hoped, are destined speedily to disappear. In Italy, from
cne end of the country to the other, there aro schemes of
improvement that might well attract unlimited attention
were it not for the danger of the present debt and ex-
penditure of the State, caused by the maintenance of
the army. In the Danubian Principalities the opportu-
nities are equally abundant, although capitalists will
prudently want to see something more of the work-
ing of the new Government before committing them-
selves
there to any important extent. As regards the
United States, the need for capital is such as has never
been paralleled, since there is the waste of four years' wild
destruction among 25,000,000 of the Anglo-Saxon race to
be repaired at a rate which, to satisfy the impatience of the
people, must be little short of magical. Brazil and the
Argentine Republic may seem to constitute exceptions to
the pacific character of the purposes for which loans are
required, their immediate needs having arisen from the
war with Paraguay. But that war is almost a commercial
war, and its success will have the effect of opening up to
trade one of the richest regions of South America, a region
accessible by the finest rivers, inhabited by a naturally
vigorous, although ignorant, population, and which for
more than 30 years, under the rule of the Dictator Franci,
and his successors, Lopez and his son, the present ruler,
has been sealed in utter barbariam.—Traveris Circular.

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

a

TIMES.—The trial of John Currie for the murder
of Major De Vere has failed to throw any new light
on the Motives or circumstances of that atrocious
crime. The coroner's inquest had already elicited
all the material facts of the case, and they were such
as to render a conviction inevitable. Never perhaps
was there less room for doubt or extenuation, never
was the task of a prisoner's counsel more hopeless,
and never hasthe sentence of death been pronounced
on one less deserving of compassion. it will be re-
membered that Currie was a private in the Royal
Engineers, quartered at Brompton Barracks, near
Chatham, and that his victim was a first captain in
the same corps, and instructor in field fortifications.
Since Currie had joined the regiment, on Sept. 1,
1864, he appears to have been several times on the
black lists. Though one of his officers testified on
the inquest that he was a sober and well-conducted
man, it was shown that he had been four times under
punishment for " exceeding his pass and returning
drunk." At all events, while under file instruction,
he more than once got into trouble for his idleness
and sulkiness under reprimand. On one of these
occasions his sergeant reported him, and Major De
Vere ordered his working pay to be checked for a
day, whereupon Currie doggedly refused to work,
and for that offence sent by the colonel to the cells,
and put through a course of extra work. It was then
doubtless that he meditated the cowardly vengeance
which he afterwards executed in cold blood. On the
11th of last month Major De Vere was standing
with other officers on the parade ground of Bromp-
ton Barracks about 1 o'clock in the afternoon. Currie
was in wait for him at the open windo ir of his own
barrack room with two loaded rifles. Presently Major
De Vere moved a few paces away from the rest to
give some orders, when Currie took a deadly aim and
shot him through the back. The major lingered for
11 days, but died on the 22d from the effects of the
wound. Immediately on the shot being fired Currie
was taken into custody, admitted that he had done
it, and pointed out his rifle just discharged. His
manner in addressing the officer who questioned him
was respectful and perfectly collected. On being
asked by a comrade what made him do it, he
calmly replied, " Why wouldn't I do it ?" adding
that Major De Vere was a rogue, a tyrant, and a
thief in his heart, and that he had scrupulously
singled him out, so as to injure no other officer.
He has since expressed no contrition, but, on the
contrary, entire satisfaction at his deed, and re-
ceived the news of Major De Vere's death with the
utmost unconcern. In fact, his conduct from first
to last has been that of a deliberate and self-pos-
sessed murderer, looking before and after, but with
much less regard for his own safety than for the
destruction of his enemy. It is shocking to realise
such a state of mind, and more shocking still to be
compelled to doubt whether it is by any means un-
common. Aristotle, in distinguishing the passion
of hatred from that of mere anger, remarks that the
latter aims at inflicting pain only, while the former
desires nothing less than the annihilation of its
object. It is to be feared that the worse of these
two feelings is no stranger to a great many minds,
though held in check by powerful restraints.
Avarice, lust, envy, or revenge, are all equally
capable of producing it, and there are probably
thousands who, without having the nerve to commit
murder, are nevertheless murderers in their hearts.
What Mr. Sleigh calls by a figure of speech "an
uncontrollable morbid impulse," that is, an intense
and imperious longing to put some obnoxious
person out of their way, is felt by all these
people, but it is not really " uncontrollable,"
for it is in fact controlled by the fear of the
gallows. The difference between their mental
condition and that of Currie, so far as appeared
from the evidence, is simply that his love of life,
being less intense than in most men, was not quite
sufficient to overbalance his vindictive instinct.
He fancied he had been harshly treated by Major
De Vere, and brooded over it to desperation.
Whether he had or not, and whether, as was sug-
gested at the inquest, Major De Vere was too severe
a disciplinarian, hardly affects the question. No one
can go through life without experiencing numberless
wrongs, both real and imaginary, and resisting many
" uncontrollable" temptations to retaliate for them.
Indeed, it was rather Mr. Sleigh's object to discon-
nect the crime of Currie from the alleged tyranny
of the Major, since the admission of a malicious
motive would have militated against the theory of
morbid impulse. As, however, there was not the
faintest proof or presumption of any insanity in the
prisoner, or any peculiarity about the act except its
careful premeditation, he might as well have advised
his client to plead guilty. In this case it is hardly
probable that a single voice will be raised in favour
of commuting the sentence. The most zealous oppo-
nents of capital punishment recognise certain mili-
tary offences as an exception, at least when com-
mitted on active service. It is not very easy to
reconcile the principle of this exception with the
assertion, so often made in the same quarters, that
death is not the most deterrent of penalties. Still it
is worth something as a testimony to the necessity
of enforcing discipline in our army at any cost.
Perhaps old officers, both naval and military, are
predisposed to detect degeneracy in the British sol-
diers and sailors of our own day. Perhaps they too
easily forget the mutinies and half-mutinies of for-
mer times, the complaints which have never ceased
to cause anxiety at the Admiralty, and the com-
ments of the Duke of Wellington himself on the
behaviour of those Peninsular troops who were ready
to "go anywhere or to do anything." Still, it is vain
to shut our eyes to the statistics furnished by the
calendar at each successive assizes, and to the still
more formidable increase of " military murders." At
Winchester, for instance, it has sometimes happened
that two-thirds of the whole number of prisoners
tried wore her Majesty's uniform ; in other words,
that a few thousand men, who ought to be under
strict surveillance, have committed more serious
crimes than all the other inhabitants of Hampshire.
This seems to prove either that a large proportion
of the worst characters enlist, or that they are sadly
deteriorated by the service. Whether the present
state of the army be due to the materials whence
it is drawn, or to some less obvious fault in the
system, we cannot pretend to say. It is for the
Horse Guards and the War-office to probe the evil
to its source, but the public, who pay many millions
for a force numerically small, have a direct interest
in the efficiency of its discipline. They will never be
secured by rendering the Mutiny Act more strin-
gent, or by enabling such assassins as Currie to be
tried at once by a court-martial. Such changes
may or not be desirable, but they are not recom-
mended by# our recent experience of military jus-
tice. Moreover, there are many men who would
prefer to be shot by their own comrades to con-
fronting a crowd on a scaffold. What is really im-
portant is, that conviction and punishment should
follow close enough on the crime. The act under
which Currie was transferred, on the application of
the Secretary for War, to the Central Criminal
Court has done much to abridge the interval which
might otherwise elapse. His execution will be a
warning to mutinous spirits less reckless of conse-
quences than himself, but executions alone, how-
ever numerous and exemplary, will never restore a
healthy tone of subordination to the ranks of our
army.
POST.—" The Women of Mississippi," to the
number of about four hundred and twenty, have
taken a step which seems likely to bring to a crisis
the fate of Mr. Jefferson Davis, the ex-President of
the late Southern Confederation. They have asked
for him that which he has not yet asked for himself
—a free pardon at the hands of President Johnson.
Now that this petition is presented the natural won-
der is that nothing of the kind was presented be-
fore. But better late than never, and better that a
few hundred ladies should appeal to the. President,
even though in vain, than that he should either
linger in jail prostrate in strength and spirits for an
indefinite period, or be hurried to execution through
the mockery of a trial, without one word of remon-
strance or appeal from those whom he served so
well, and in whose cause he risked and lost every-
thing. We confess that we are not sanguine of the
success of the petition. Nothing could be easier
than to put off such an appeal without an absolute
or ungracious-looking refusal. A few careful
words of assurance that in the treatment of Mr.
Davis the interests of justice and the United States
should be tempered with mercy would commit the
President to nothing, and leave the fair appellants
nothing to complain of. Unfortunately for the cause
of the petitioners the person with whom it rests to
grant a pardon is not easily accessible to the motives
which the ladies have urged, They rest their case
upon a few very simple and obvious points. Mr.
Davis, they say, had always been a prominent poli-
tician. There had long been " sectional strife fos-
tered by extremists both North and South," and
when this came to a crisis how could Mr. Davis re-
fuse the call of the almost united voice of the South-
ern people to preside over their councils ? He only
took in war the prominent position he had always
held in peace, and though the fortune of war has
gone against him, yet as the Southern States have
returned to the Union, and Mr. Davis himself is
ready to accept loyally the issue of the struggle, he
ought not to be visited with the vials of Northern
wrath. Such is the plea of these ladies of the Mis-
sissippi,
and it is one which the whole civilised world
will endorse, with the exception, perhaps, of Mr.
Bright, who does not Seem to think that an Ameri-
can President can do a wrong or unwise thing. The
truth is that the execution of Mr. Davis for the part •
forced upon him by the course of events in the South
would scandalise the world. Scarcely less scandal-
ous is the treatment which he is now undergoing. .
People on this side of the Atlantic who earnestly
desire to see every spark of feud or strife stamped
feeling and federal
out, and the return of brotherly