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

MONMOUTIISIIIILE,

The half-yearly meetiug was held yesterday at
the offices, Newport ; Mr. C. Bailey, M.P., in the

chair.

The CHAIRMAN moved the adoption of the report
(an abstract of which has appeared in The Sun.
Ile said that the increased working expenses arose
through the, additional cost of repairing engines and

waggons

Their law charges were also a little

heavier.

They had had a heavy Parliamentary
campaign in the last Session, and, with the excep-
tion of one bill, they had been successful. The
Blaenavon and Pontypool scheme was defeated, and
if it had passed he did not think the promoters
would have found the capital. The Pontypool, Caer-
leon, and Newport Bill was obtained, buthe did not
think the project would affect this company much. The
traffic on the line was increasing in the most satisfac-

tory manner, and the prospects of the company were
good. A large company contemplated sinking to
the lower coal measures at Aberbeg, and a large
amount of additional traffic would eventually flow
from this source. He concluded by congratulating
the shareholders on having a 6i per cent. dividend.
Mr. BATCHELOR seconded the adoption of the
report, which was agreed to.

A dividend at the rate of 61 per cent per annum,
payable on October 5, was unanimously declared.
Mr. WHITTAKER suggested that steps should be
taken to get the stock quoted on the London Stock
Exchange.

The CHAIRMAN and Mr. PHILLIPS explained
that the matter had been under the consideration
of the directors, and they had no doubt that the
stock would shortly be quoted.
The meeting was then made special, and resolu-
tions were passed authorising the directors to sub-
scribe £20,000 toward the undertaking of the
Alexandra Dock Company ; Mr. E. J. Phillips
being nominated a director to represent the Mon-
mouthshire Company at that Board.
A vote of thanks to the chairman brought the
proceedings to a close.

niE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 21, 1865.

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 aid 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 429,808, made up thus :
—Maintenance and renewal of way, £6,501; locomotive
power, £41,862 (returned as the mileage rate at which engines
and carriages are found by the Lancashire and Yorkshire) ;
traffic charges (coaching and merdandise), £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, 282 other vehicles attached to
passenper trains, 10,622 waggons of all kinds used for the
conveyance 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 :

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,—l have this morning re-
ceived a letter from my vicar, the Rev. Wm. 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.

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 be 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."

Half-year ending Land, Bce, New lines.
June 30, 1864 ... £66,990 ... £86,733
Dec. 31, 1864 ...
.42M5? ... 188,835

June 30, 1865 •125,46 G 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 someyears 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 where 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 bo worn out in less than two years' time. The differ-
ence of the cost of these steel rails as compared with iron
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 more 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. Tho 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 l now that the docks at Liverpool are beginning to
bo 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 whicb„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, tho re-
turn upon the £12,000,000 of ordinary stock will experience
a corresponding expansion.

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 instance, 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 tho 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."
'rlio following is an extract from a letter from
the South, published in the Scotsman:
" You are a;vare that the specie hi tbo uouutiy, when the
war broke out, was loaned to- the Confederate Government,
to enable it to purchase vessels, arms, and other munitions
of war in Enropo. 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 Zan
fait accompli. As you know, we were defeated, and that
moment Confederate money became not worth the paper
on which it was written. Every one held it, and nothing
else, and consequently every one was peculiarly ruined.
Well, in those circumstauces,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 our railroads 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 thoso who can afford it go north. Those
that remain are generally decimated by yellow fever, &c.
This Sear, however, it is different: none have money, all
want to procure it, and most aro 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 Rival Ministers.

-s--

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 Killingholme, 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 of ten proved a facilus descen-
sus matrinzonio, 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 terrorem, 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. Bonnie, 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 saucepfins,
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

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 ot the world, and its consequent profits, and we
cannot employ those profits better 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 Viceroy 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 aro 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 aro 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 barbarism.—Travers's Circular.