The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-16 00:00:00

LONGER HURDLE.

Benazet
Ace of Hearts..
Target 3

1

Four ran.
HAWKS TONE WELTER.

Plover 1
Pantaloon
Target . 3
FORESTERS' PLATE.

Cutaway
Convent

1

Gomera

3

Ten ran.
LONLGEATE HANDICAP.

llesper 1
Chip-of-the-Old Block 9
Bella 3

Seven ran.
[SWEEPSTAKES OF 5 SOVS.

Venturer - _ .
1
Mariana
2
Balsam
3
Four ran.

Bank of England Return,--Last Evening.

An Account, pursuant to the Act 7th and Bth Victoria,
cap. 32, for the week ending Wednesday, Nov. 15, 1865.

ISSUE DEPARTMENT.

Notes issued .........X27,509,995 Government Debt £11,015,1e0
Other Securities .. 3.634.900
Gold Coin & Bullion 12,859,995
Silver Bullion ....

Z 27,509,095

Z27,50?,995

BANKING D
Proprietors' Capi-
tal £14,533.000
Best
Public Deposits (in-
cluding Exche-
quer, Savings'
Banks, COMMis
Mi ssioners of Na-
tional Debt, and
Dividend Ao-

EPARTMINT.
Government Seen-

rities ((including
Dead Weigh tAn-
nuity)
Other Securities
Notes
Gold and Silver 817,103
Coin

counts) 5,r90,14S
Other Deposits—, 12,275,016
Seven Day and
other Bills 509,C06

£3",` 21,955
V

I £36,2:4,015
'. MILLER, Chief Cashier.

Nov. 6, 1565.

Naval and Military Intelligence.

Instructions have been received at the shipwright
department at Chatham dockyard from the Admi-
ralty as to the vessels to be completed, repaired, and
fitted, together with the programme of works gene-
rally to be undertaken at that establishment during
the remainder of the financial year. The chief of
these will be the commencement of the two new
vessels ordered to be built from Mr. E. J. Reed's
designs, viz., the Hercules and the Blanche, the
former being an entirely new kind of ironclad, to be

coated with armour plates of great thickness, and

the latter an improved frigate (unarmoured) of the
Amazon class, and intended to carry a battery of a
few guns of the heaviest calibre. The drawings
and plans of both vessels are now in the hands of
the draughtsmen employed in the designing depart-
ment of the dockyard for the preparation of the
sectional drawings and moulds for each ship. The
Hercules will be constructed with a thickness of
iron running along her broadside of 111 inches,
of which her armour plates alone will be of the
enormous thickness of 9in., or exactly double
the thickness of the armour plates of the Warrior,
which is only protected for some 200 ft. amidships.
The recent experiments made at Shoeburyness on
the Hercules target, constructed with exactly the
same weight of iron and timber per square foot as
is intended to be employed in the vessel, proved in-
contestably that no gun hitherto invented will be
able to propel a shot through the sides. On the oc-
casion of the experiments alluded to three of the
Armstrong 12 ton 300-pounder shunt guns were
fired at a distance of only 200 yards, with charges
varying from 451 b. to 601 b. of powder. Although
a steel shot of 3001 b. weight and 10i inches in dia-
meter struck the centre of the 9-inch armour plate
with a velocity of rather more than 1,500 ft. per se-
cond, yet the blow was barely sufficient to break
through the armour, and did not injure the backing.
Sir Wm. Armstrong, in a public letter, subsequently
confessed his doubts whether even the 600-pounder
gun would have succeeded in penetrating the target
unless even the enormous 601 b. charges were greatly
increased, whereas no rifled gun yet constructed has
ever been tried at Woolwich with charges exceeding
601 b. of powder. The Blanche is to be laid down
on the slip from which the Lord Warden is to be
launched, and is to be taken in hand as soon as the
work now in progress will admit. The Reindeer,
originally laid down as a 17-gun screw corvette,
but since altered so as to enable her to mount a few
heavy guns, is to be completed and made ready for
launching forthwith. The order also directs the fine
screw unarmoured wooden frigate Ariadne, 26, 800-
horse power (nominal), to be thoroughly repaired
at an estimated cost of £16,000, which will probably
reach £20,000 before she is complete in her fitments,
furnished with new boilers, and ready for commis-
sion as the order directs. In addition to the other

vessels ordered to be refitted and repaired at Chatham,
the screw gun vessel Wanderer, 4, 200-horse power,

is to be brought forward for commission, together
with two other vessels, names not mentioned, which
are to be sent to Chatham to be refitted and re-

paired. The programme of work does not include
the ordinary repairs and refit to the harbour craft,
steamers, ships in ordinary, &c.
The screw steam frigate Topaze,
39, is being
rigged at Devonport for the first division of the

Steam Reserve.
The screw steam frigate Doris, 30, has been over-
hauled in Devonport, and prepared for active ser-
vice. It is expected that she will be put into emu.

mission shortly.
made in
the Royal Naval Reserve :—To be Sub-Lieut.—Ed.
The following appointments have been
Campbell.
win Davies ; to he llon. Lieut.—Peter

Year. Receipts. Expens3s. Profits.
1864 £1,524,771 £758,304 ... £766,467
1863 1,594,169 802,987 ... 791,182
1864 ... 1,820,296 919,798 905,498
The past year was thus a highly prosperous twelve-
months for the company, and in the current year
the traffic has made a considerable further progress.
It is right to observe that the figures given above
embrace as part and parcel of the Great Northern
system the following affiliated lines, some of which
have lost their individuality by amalgamation with
the present undertaking :--The East Lincolnshire,
the Nottingham and Grantham, the Leeds, Brad-
ford, and Halifax Junction, the Boston, Sleaford,
and Midland Counties, the West Yorkshire, the
Horncastle, the Stamford and Essendine (whichhas
this year cutitself adrift), the Norwich and• Spalding,
the Bourn and Essendine, and the Ramsey. At the
close of 1864 the total amount of capital raised by
the Great Northern proper was £13,971,806, of
which £5,808,204 was ordinary stock (12,478,188
original stock, £1,159,275 A stock, £1,159,275 B
stock, and £1,011,466 new ordinary stock, 1864) ;
£4,673,262 preference stock (£1,294,225.5 percent.
perpetual preference stock, 1849-50 ; £745,284 5 per
cent. preference stock, 1851, redeemable at 10 per
cent. premium ; £804,722 41 per cent. preference
stock, 1852-3, redeemable at 10 per cent. premium ;
£996,850 5 per cent. preference stock, 1854-5, re-
deemable at 5 per cent. premium ; £359,781 5 per
cent. irredeemable preference stock, 1861 ; £30,000
41 per cent. perpetual preference stock ; 1861,
£218,400 Hertford, Luton, and Dunstable pre-
ference stock ; £200,000 Boston and Sleaford 4i
per cent. preference stock ; and £24,000 5 per
cent. Bourn and Essendine preference stock) ;
£2,723,289 4 per cent. debenture stock, 1853 ; and
£767,051 debenture loans. The progress made
in the issue of debenture stock will be seen in the
fact that at the cllse of 1862 the amount out-
standing was £2,323,769 ; at the close of 1863,
£2,598,513 ; and at the close of 1864, £2,723,289.
The debenture loans outstanding at the close of
1862 amounted to £1,092,640 ; at the close of 1863,
to £846,085 ; and at the close of 1864 to £767,051.
The excellence of Great Northern finance is seen in
the fact that £1,011,466 was received on new ordi-
nary stock in 1864, no less than £149,137 of this
amount being obtained in premiums. The rates of
interest on the debenture debt at the close of 1864
were as follows :—£15,600 at 5 percent., £140,250
at 4i per cent., £457,724 at 41 per cent., £100,817
at 4 per cent., and £52,660 at 34 per cent. To re-
capitulate the general results disclosed in this rather
long array of figures, we may observe that of the
£13,971,806 raised by the Great Northern at the
close of 1864, £5,808,204, or 41.57 per cent. of the
whole, was ordinary stock; £4,673,262, or 33.44
per cent. of the whole, preference stock ; and
£3,490,340, or 24.99' per cent. of the whole, deben-
ture stock and debenture loans. The ordinary stock
thus bears a large proportion to the whole amount
of capital raised, although the company does not
stand in this respect so well as the Lancashire and
Yorkshire or the London and North-Western.
Hitherto we have confined our analysis to the close
of 1864, but if we bring it down a little later—viz.,
to the 30th of June, 1865—we find that the company
had at that date raised £14,362,607. Of the
£390,801 raised in the six months ending the 30th
of June, £254,493 was derived from new ordinary
stock, and £119,118 from debenture stock and de-
benture loans, leaving £17,190 raised by new pre-
ference stock. The directors thus appear to be suc-
cessfully pursuing a policy of steadily adding to the
ordinary stock. The capital amount of the Great
Northern proper, at the 30th of June, 1865, will
be seen to have been not far short of £14,500,000,
and as last session amalgamations were autho-
rised with the Leeds, Bradford, and Halifax
and the West Yorkshire—which had raised between
them £l,2oo,ooo—we may safely conclude that the
aggregate capital of what is known as the Great
Northernßailway is now very close upon £16,000,000,
while in 1846 the original promoters of the under-
taking set out with an intention to raise £8,000,000.
In 20 years the concern has thus assumed double its
first proportions ; but this is not a matter of any im-
portance, seeing that the net profits this year bid
fair to range between £950,000 and £1,000,000, or
sufficient to yield- 6 per cent. upon every shilling
embarked by the share and-debenture holders. So
excellent has been the management of the Great
Northern that the ordinary shareholders have not,
in nautical phraseology, " gone by the board," as
has often been the case in other companies, but they
have participated fairly and steadily in the growing prosperity of the undertaking. Thus, in 1858, they°
received £4158. upon every 1100 stock' for the ear
•
in 1859, £5. 3s. 9d. ; in 1860, £5 Bs. 9d • in ylB6l'
£6 10s. ; in 1863, £6 10's. • and in'
£5 15s. ; in 1862,
1864, £7 2s. 6d. Comparing 1861 with 1858,' we
have thus an improvement in the dividend e the
ordinary stock of £2 7s. 6d., or exactly 50 per cent.
in six years. In the presence of such a fact it is not
surprising that the directors have found it an easy
matter to raise a large amount of ordinary stock at
a considerable premium. But it is obvious that this
result could never have been attained without a con.

scant increase in the receipts of the company, and we
may meal the fact that, while in 1864 the revenue ex-
ceeded £1,800,000, in 1858 it amounted to only
£1,257,495. The amount of capital— shares and loans
combined—created at the close of 1858 was
£11,710,330, as compared with £13,971,805 at the
close of 1864, showing an increase of £2,261,475 in
six years. While, therefore, the traffic increased 45
per cent., comparing 1864 with 1858, the capital was
only increased to the extent of rathe rmore than 19 per
cent. The working expenses of the system have
always been rather high, having been 55.73 per cent.
of the receipts in the six months ending June, 1858;
50.64 per cent. at December, 1858 ; 55.32 per cent.
at June, 1859 ; 49.53 -per cent. at December, 1859;
55.08 per cent, at June, 1860 51'67 per cent. at
December, 1860 ; 55.89 per cent, at June, 1861
47.84 per cent. at December, 1861; 51.40 per cent.
at June, 1862 ; 49.57 per cent, atDecember, 1862 ;
1863 ; 47.72 per cent.
,at
54.72 per cent. at June,
December, 1863 ; 52.94 per cent. at June, 1864 ;
and 49.28 per cent. at December, 1864. If we
compare 1864 with 1858, we find that the propor-
tion of working expenses for the whole of 1858
was 53.18 per cent., and for the whole
per of
cent.lB64
51.11 per cent., showing a saving of 2.07
in the latter year. Considering the facilities which
the Great Northern-enjoys in respect of cheap sup-
plies of combustible, the proportion of working ex-
penses to receipts appears high. It may be observed,
however that the sysQin is relatively a small one,
while the amount expended at the charge of revenue
in the maintenance of way and the renewal of roll-
ing stock is commendably large.
If we go now into a few further details of the

traffic receipts and working expenses, we find that
in 1864 the amount acquired from passengers was
£660,U8, against £595,932 in 1863. The num-
ber of passengers conveyed in 1864 was 4,700,014,
and there was an average of 1,618 season ticket
holders for the year. Parcels produced in 1864
£56,054, against £50,006 in 1863 ; horses, carriages,
and dogs, £26,485, against £26,537 in 1863 ; and
mails, £9,603, against £9,494 in 1863. The total
earnings of the passenger trains last year were thus
£752,219, against £681,968 in 1863. Goods pro-
duced £594,265 last year, against £533,402 in 1863 ;
live stock, £44,394, against £42,182 in 1863 ; and
coals and minerals, £367,719,- against £275,095
in 1863. The aggregate earnings of the slow trains
last year wee thus £1,006,378, as compared with
£850,679 in 1863. The dividends on the shares
held by the company in other railways produced in
1864, £9,511 against £9,360 in 1863 ; and the navi-
gations owned by the company in Nottinghamshire
and Lincolnshire produced £19,053 last year, against
£20,414 in 1863. Transfer fees, interests on cash
balances, rents, &c., completed the company's re-
venue in each year. On the other side of the
account, the amount expended by the company in
the maintenance and renewal of way last year was
£187,404, against £156,704 in 1863 ; in locomotive
power, £274,943, against £229,230 in 1863 ; in re-
pairing and renewing carriages and waggons,
£75,826, against £58,560 in 1863 ; in traffic
charges (coaching, minerals, and merchandise)
£206,709, against £190,946 in 1863 ; in compensa-
tion for accidents and losses, including law costs,
£20,868, against £33,994 in 1863 ; in law charges
and Parliamentary expenses, £16,639, against
£16,761 in 1863 ; in rates and taxes, including law
costs and appeals, £29,953, against £28,136 in
1863 ; in Government duty on passenger traffic,
£23,763, against £21,573 in 1863 ; and in naviga-
tion expenses, £6,863, against £6,839 in 1863.
The balance of the working expenditure was made
up of office expenses, station rent, and insurance,
lighting, electric telegraph service, mileage, and
demurrage of stock, clearing-house charges, &c.
The expenditure made in the maintenance of way
has largely increased of late, having been £439 per
mile in 1864, against £384 per mile in 1863, £349 in
1862, £337 per mile in 1861, 363 per mile in 1860,
£350 per mile in 1859, £349 per mile in 1858,
£368 per mile in 1857, £315 per mile in 1856, and
£2BO per mile in 1855.. Although the extra expendi-
ture on the way may take or 4 per cent. off
the dividend on the ordinary stock, there can be
no doubt that the stability of the Great Northern
as h railway property is very materially increased
by the care shown in this important particular.
The distance run by trains last year was 7,290,373
miles, against 6,495,272 miles in 1863. Of these
distances, 3,109,263 miles and 2,946,484 miles re-
spectively were traversed by passenger trains, the
balance referring, of course, to the mileage of goods
and mineral trains. The growth of the train mile-
age is reflected in the fact that in 1858 it amounted
to 5,826,801 miles; in 1859, to 5,822,848 miles; in
1860, to 6,215,412 miles ; in 1861, to 6,320,629
miles ; and in 1862, to 6,188,128 miles. It may be
interesting to add that in 1855 locomotive power
cost an average of 8-29 d. per train mile run ; in
1856, 8-01 d. ; in 1857, 8-26 d. ; in 1858, 8-24 d. ; in
1859, 7-94 d. ; in 1860, 8-07 d. ; in 1861, 8-15 d. ; in
1862, 8-79 d. ; in 1863, 8-47 d. ; and in 1864, 9-05 d.
Comparing 1864 with 1855, we thus find an increase
of 0-76 d. in the cost of locomotive power per train
mile run, notwithstanding the largely increased use
of coal, especially by goods' engines. We might go
on multiplying details, but we will only notice two
other points—the number of miles of railway
worked and maintained by the company at the
close of last year, and the part of rolling stock pos-
sessed by it at the same period. Upon the first
head it may be stated that the total distance main-
tained was as follows :—London to Askern, via
Peterborough, Grantham, Newark, Retford, and
Doncaster (main line), 160 miles; Walton Junction,
near Peterborough to Gainsborough, via Boston
and Lincoln (loop line), 75 miles ; Boston to
Grimsby (East Lincolnshire line), 48 miles; Hert-
ford to Dunstable, 25 miles; Grantham to Notting-
ham, 22 miles; Bourn Railway, 7 miles ; Sleaford
Railway, 27 miles ; Ramsey Railway, 6 miles ;
Stamford Railway, 4 miles; Norwich and Spalding,
16 miles ; Horncastle Railway, 8 miles ; Leeds and
Bradford Railway and branches, 23 miles—making
a total of 421 miles, of which 364 miles were
owned by the Great Northern Company. The total
number of locomotives owned by the company at
the close of 1864 was 340—viz., 107 passenger
engines, 34 passenger tank engines, 186 goods
engines, and 13 goods tank engines. The other
rolling stock of the concern at the close of last year
may be classified as follows :—First-class passenger
carriages, 146 ; second class, 220 ; third class, 169 ;
composite carriages, 136 ; luggage and parcel vans,
130 ; carriage trucks, 55 ; horse-boxes, 100 ; open
goods and coal waggons, 6,299 ; covered goods
waggons, 1,728 ; coke trucks, 500 ; cattle trucks,
330 ; timber trucks, 200 ; ballast waggons, 211;
goods break waggons, 198 ; road, goods, and coal
vans, and carts, 473 ; and travelling cranes, 23.
The company was also proprietor of no fewer than
791 draught horses.
Such was the Great Northern at the close of
1864, and such it is at the present, save and except
that it has become a little larger, a little more
powerful, and a little more prosperous ; for there
seems practically no limit to the movement of life
and merchandise along this modern " great north
road." A rather long-pending contention with the
Great Eastern Company has been adjusted. The
Great Eastern is to become a joint owner, on equal
terms in all respects, of the Great Northern loop
line from March to its junction with the Great
Northern main line south of Doncaster, on
payment, either in capital or interest, of half
the actual cost of the lines now constructing
between March and Spalding and Gainsborough
and Doncaster, and of a proportion to be agreed
upon or to be settled by arbitration of
the cost of the loop between Spalding and Gains-
borough. The Great Eastern is to be at liberty to fix
its own rates for the carriage of coal, thus securing
the main object sought by it ; the rates for all other
traffic have been agreed to or have been settled by
arbitration. The Great Eastern is also to have run-
ning powers over the Great Northern main line from
the termination of the loop line to Doncaster, and
thence to Wakefield over the West Riding line, with
access to all places on the Great Northern and Man-
chester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire lines. The Great
Northern, on the other hand, is to have reciprocal
rights in the Great Eastern district. The traffic
between places on the Great Eastern and the Man-
chester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire systems is to be
freely exchanged between those companies, via Ret-
ford and Lincoln, and the Great Northern may also
exchange traffic at Doncb.ster and Wakefield with
the Lancashire and Yorkshire. In order to conso-
lidate these arrangements and to perfect the route
for traffic from the south and east of England to
the West Biding of Yorkshire, an agreement has
been entered into by the Great Northern and the
and Lincolnshire—subject, of
Manchester, Sheffield,
course, to the sanction of Parliament-_to purchase
jointly the West Riding and Grimsby,
which runs
in a direct line from Wakefield to Doncaster, and
through an extensive iron district to Keadby and
Lincoln. The Great Northern, in conjunction with
the Midland and tho Manchester, Sheffield, and
Lincolnshire, is also endeavouring to secure im

proved access to and better accommodation at
Liverpool, and a third line is now in course of con-
struction between that town and Manchester. In
ievenge for this, it has been stated within the
last few days that the London and North-

Weiatern proposes to apply for a new and competing

line to connect Sheffield with Manchester via
Chapel-en-le-Frith, Castleton, Bamford, and
Hathersage. Whetherthis project be carried out or
not, there can be no doubt that the Great Northern

will plant its foot in Liverpool, and compete more
earnestly and effectively than it has hitherto done
for a share of the " traffic and movement" incident
to Liverpudlian life.

_
HerTaj esty's iron paddlewheel vessel Bloodhound,
378 tonAburden, having been stripped of her engines,
&c•> was yesterday hauled out of the basin at Wool-
wich, and was taken up to the Admiralty yard at
Charlton to he broken up.