The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-07 00:00:00

GRAND TRUNK OF CANADA.

The traffic receipts on this company's lines the
week ending the 19th of August amounted for local
passengers to £6,675, for foreign passengers to
£4,247, for emigrants to £238, for mails, &c., to
£829, for local freight and live stock to £10,176,
and for foreign freight and live stock to £1,832 ;
total, £23,997, against £22,433 for the correspond-
ing week last year, showing an increase of
£1,564. The total receipts from the Ist of July to
the above date amounted to £173,108, and for the
same period last year to £159,003, showing an in-
crease of £14,105.

Great English and French Railways,

THE ORLEANS.

Many months have elapsed since a review was com-
menced in these, crowded columns of the position of the
great railways of England and France. We have disposod
in succession of the London and North WeStern, the Great
Western, the Midland, the North Eastern, the Great East-
ern, and the Paris, Lyons, and Mediterranean ; but " cir-
cumstances"—a brief. but frequently most expressive term
—have prevented our fully exhausting the subject. Per-
haps, after all, we are not losers by the delay, as we are now
enabled to profit by the acquired experience of another
year. To pass to another great French network—the
Orleans—we may observe that that company was founded,
May 26, 1838, by M. Cassimir Lecomte, as the Compagnio
do Chemin. de Fer de Parish Orleans. A concession of the
main line and various branches was accorded toM.Lecomte
by a law dated July 7, 1838, and the statutes of the company
were approved by a Royal ordonnance of Aug. 13, 1838.
Such was the Orleans under Louis Philippe. That sovereign
fled ten years later from the Tuileries, but the Orleans sur-
vived the barricades of 1848. Indeed, it began to expand
and flourish under the firm rule of the Prince-President,
and before Republican pomp had finally culminated in Im-
perial splendour the already powerful company absorbed
(Sept. 27, 1852) the undertaking of the Centre (from Or-
leans Chateauroux and Nevers), the Tours and Nantes, and
the Orleans and Bordeaux. These important amalgama-
tions—or fusions, as they term them in France—were ef-
fected on the following conditions. The share capital of
the four companies, as really paid-up, was—
Company. Shares. Paid-up. Total.
Orleans ... ... 80,000 £2O £1,600,000
Centre 66,000 20 1,320,000
Bordeaux 130,000 11 1,430,000
Tours and
-Nantes 89,000 17 1,360,000

Total ... 356,000 £5,710,000
A creation was made of 176,334 provisional shares of £2O
each divided thus :—Orleans, one fusion share for one old
share, 80,000 ; Centre, one fusion share for two old shares,
33,000; Bordeaux, one fusion share for three old shares,
43,334 ; Tours and Nantes, one fusion share for four old
shares, 20,000; total, 176,334. These 176,334 shares indi-
cate a capital of £3,526,680 ; but the general meeting of
May 25, 1852, considering that the capital of £5,710,000•
really paid up by the shareholders of the four companies
ought to be represented, decided that the number of shares
should be carried to 300,000, with a capital of £6,000,000.
In consequence of a resolution adopted to this effect,
the 176,334 provisional shares were exchanged for de-
finitive shares at the rate of five provisional shares for
eight definitive shares. This arrangement absorbed
282,131 definitive shares, and the 17,866 shares remaining
were taken up at £2B each by the shareholders of the
four companies. The 300,000 old shares of the Orleans re-
present, then, a paid up share capital of £6,210,208—viz.,
.0,710,000 actual share capital of the four fused companies,

and £500,248 received from the subscription for the baL.

844ce of 17,866 definitive shares. rleu years more rolled
away—ten tranquil years of kindly despotism—kindly, at
at any rate, from a capitalist's point of view. A large num-
ber of new concessions and responsibilities were assumed,
and an immense pyramid of obligations, or small deben-
tures, was created. To give additional security to these ob-
ligations the Minister of Public WTorks insisted that morn
capital should also be raised by shares; and accordingly in
1862 a creation was made at par of 301,000 new shares,
which carried the share capital to 600,000 shares, with a
nominal capital of £12,000,000. To give an idea of the con-
tinual ettension of the undertaking, we may note that the
Paris, Sceaux, and Orsay ceded its concession to the Or-
leans by a convention concluded in 1855, and approved by
the Government in 1857 ; the transfer was made in consi-
deration of 5,000 obligations, bearing an interest of 3 per
cent. por annum, handed to, the smaller company by the
larger one, while the Orleans also undertook the charge of
the loans contracted by the Paris, Sceaux, and Orleans. A
part of the concessions (6731 miles) of the Great Central of
Franco was attributed to the Orleans by a decree dated
June 19, 1857, the consideration being the exchange of
the shares of tho Great Central against obligations
of the Orleans, and the service by the latter of the obliga-
tions of the Great Central in the proportion of 66 per 100,
the remaining 34 per 100 being at the charge of the Paris,
Lyons, and Mediterranean. At the same time that the Or-
leans thus obtained the greater part of the concessions of
the Great Central it acquired from it the Aubin mines and
ironworks, in consideration of its accepting the service of
the obligations which the Great Central had devoted to the
purchase of this portion of its undertaking. The Orleans
had also a concession to the extent of pne-third of a line
from Paris to Lyons, via Bourbonnais; bui it retroceded
this concession in 1857 to the Paris, Lyons, and 2Sediter-
rancan, in consideration of an indemnity of £44,000 for
annum from Jan. 1, 1857, to the date of the opening of the
entire line from Paris to Lyons, viaßoanne and St. Etienne
(Sept. 21, 1861), and of £BB,OOO per annum from the date
of that opening to the expiration of the three first complete
exercises (Dec. 31, 1864). After this latter date the indem-
nity to the Orleans is to be fixed by umpires for the whole
duration of the concession of the Bourbonnais. Scarcely a
year has elapsed since 1852 in which various minor con-
cessions have not been granted to the company. It would
be tedious to an English reader to go into further details
on these heads, but we may sum matters up by stat-
ing that, according to the last. convention concluded
with the State, in 1863, the aggregate concessions of
the company had attained the following importance :
—Old network, 1,2621 miles ; new network, 1,3361
miles; total, 2,5981 miles. The estimated cost of the old
network, as thus defined, is £21,720,000, and of the now
network, £30,644,000; making a total of £52,360,000. The
amount actually expended by the company to the close of
1864—01 d network, £16,939,826 ; Aubin works, £675,752;
new network, £20,740,685 ; making a total of £38,356,263.
As the estimates aro almost certain to be exceeded, we may
fairly conclude that the company will require at least an-
other £20,000,000 to carry out the imperial programme of
which it has accepted the responsibilities. The gradual
growth of the company's colossal undertaking will bo best
summed up by the following recapitulation of the distance
worked by it during the 25 years which have elapsed since
it first began to run its trains-1840 51 miles, 1841 191
miles, 1842 19/ miles, 1843 ni miles, 1844 831 miles, 1845
83/ miles, 1846 83/ miles, 1847 83/ miles, 1848 83/ miles,
1849 83/ miles, 1850 83/ miles, 1851 831 miles, 1852 515
miles, 1853 6351
miles, 1854 7141 miles, 1855 7231 miles,
1856 7181 miles,
1857 798/ miles, 1858890 miles, 1859 1,100
miles, 1860 1,163/ miles, 1861 1,2341 miles, 1862 1,3691
miles, 1863 1,5331 miles, and 1864 1,630 miles. At the close
of last year the company's concessions had thus still to be
carried out to the extent of about 900 miles, but it is ex-
pected that by 1872 the whole system will be completed,
unless fresh privileges and responsibilities are accepted in
the meantime.

The execution within the period named of the additional
lines still remaining to be carried out is, of course, ma-
terially dependent upon the state of political and monetary
affairs. Of late the works on hand have made considerable
progress, and last month (July, 1865) the extent of line in
operation on the new and old concessions combined had
been carried to 1,8391 miles. The amount of capital raised
in 1864 to meet the requirements of what is known as the
first establishment account was £5,138,653. Of this sum,
£1,967,271 was derived from calls on the new shares—which
from Jan. 1, 1865, take dividend rateably with the old
shares—while £3,171,382 was obtained from 112,250 obli-
gations forming the balance of the eighth series, and
162,918 obligations of the ninth s3ries. The 275,618 obli-
gations issued in 1864 produced an average of .£ll 10s. Gd.
each, and they are repayable by drawings at £2O each,
while until their repayment they bear an annual, interest
of 12s. each. In 1863 the obligations sold realise an average
of £lll6s. Bd. each, the falling off of Os. 2d. per obligation
observable with respect to last year being the result of
the relatively greater dearness of capital in 1864 as
compared with 1863. The total .receipts on capital- ac-
count in regard 'to the ' old network amounted to the
close of 1864 to £18,009,950, made up thus :—Share
capital, £12,000,000 ; first loan, £392,960 ; second loan,
£399,960; and third loan, £5,210,000. The expenditurel
on the old network to the close of 1.863 was £15,790,584;