The Sun.
London, England, 1854-01-25 00:00:00

RAILWAY TRAFFIC RETURNS.

LONDON AND SOUTH-EASTERN RAlLWAT.—Traffic re-
turn for the week ending Jan. 21,1851 £13,016 3 4
Corresponding week last year 12,181 3 1

Increase in 1854 £B3s 0 3
LONDON, BRIGHTON, AND SOUTH COAST RAILWAY.—
Traffic return for the week ending Jan. 21,
1854 £8,61810 0
Corresponding week last year 8,602 4 1
Total of the half-year to this date, 1854 25,774 3 2
Total of the half-year to this date, 1853 25,893 14 5

GLASGOW AND SOUTH-WESTERN RAILWAY.--'traffic re
turn for the week ending Jan. 21, 1854 £:3,993 3 11
Corresponding week last year 3,792 11

Decrease in ISSI

1:205 12 5

NEW YORK. —IMPORTANT TO CAPITALISTS.—A satis-
factory judgment has lately been given by the Supreme
Court of New York in a case affecting the interests of per-
sons on this side to a considerable extent. For several
years the credit of all investments at New York has been
damaged in the estimation of London capitalists by the pe-
culiar circumstances attending two concerns, called the
North American Trust Company and the Dry Dock Bank.
The first of these about the year 1840 raised 500,0001.
in London, by the issue of bonds, with a pledge of cer-
tain securities, and was compelled some time afterwards
to suspend payment, since which period, the affair hav-
ing fallen into the hands of a Mr. David Leavitt, every
technicality that the sharpest practitioners could sug-
gest has been resorted to, with the view to repudiate the
claims of the parties in England. In the second in-
stance—namely, that of the Dry Dock Bank—a large
sumi was borrowed of Mr. Morrison, to escape from
which the plea of usury was afterwards set up with
complete success, but in a manner so disgraceful as to
induce the passing of a law by which any similar at-
tempt for the future would be rendered impossible. Mr.
Morrison, however, lost his money, and a similar fate
seemed likely to attend the bondholders of the North
American Trust Company, since, whatever might be
the conviction as to the integrity of the final deci-
sion of the Courts, there was a prospect that Mr.
Leavitt, who had been appointed receiver, and who
had the assets of the undertaking at his command,
would exhaust them in the interminable expedients
to which he was having recourse, and by which he
had already contrived to deprive the claimants of
their rights through 12 years of litigation. It now
appears, however, that all his pleas have been dismissed,
and that there is a prospect of his being forced to sur-
render the remains of the funds he has so long withheld,
although he has still the power of another appeal. At
the same time, whatever may be its final result, the case
is an instructive one for English capitalists. Like that
of the Dry Dock Bank, it shows that reliance may be
placed in the judgments of the New York courts, but,
at the same time, it is calculated to disabuse the minds
of those who fancy that under such circumstances re-
dress can be obtained in America at less cost and with-
out the ruinous delays that are complained of in this
country.
PORT-PHILIP GOLD COMPANY.—At the meeting of this
company, held yesterday afternoon, the report was una-
nimously adopted. The chairman (Mr. J. D. Powles)
explained the pesition of the undertaking, and stated
that, a lease having been obtained, there was a prospect
of working with success. The expenditure, in the
meantime, had been reduced to the lowest point, and
the remaining capital (60,700/.) was considered sufficient
to carry out all contemplated operations. The premises
belonging to the company were situated in Collins-street,
Melbourne, and the land and its appurtenances had
considerably increased in value. The terms of the lease
from the Colonial Government would be confined to a
5 per cent. royalty for 21 years, the area to be worked
being from 90 to 100 acres. The profits derived through
the purchase of gold would have been much greater
had not one of the Australian banks failed in completing
the necessary arrangements to facilitate such
trans-
actions. It was, however, now anticipated,
t would be re-
ed that with
perseverance the loss already sustained
trieved, and that the lease secured would produce
favourable terms.
PRICE OF GOLD.—The quotation of gold at Paris is
about 3 per mine discount (according to the last tariff,
which, at the English Mint price of 31. 17s. 101 d. pe;
for standard gold, gives an exchange of 25.094 -
oanure the exchange at Paris on London at short being
24'974, it follows that gold is about o'4B per cent. dearer
in Paris than in London. By advices from Hamburgh
the price of gold is 422 per mark, which, at the English
Mint price of 31. 17s. 101 d. per ounce for standard gold,
gives an exchange of 13'3g ; and the exchange at Ham-
burgh on London at short being 13'11, it follows that
gold is 0'77 per cent. dearer in Haniburgh than in Lon-
don. The course of exchange at New York on London
for bills at 60 days sight is 1091 per cent., and, the par
of exchange between England and America being 109
23'40 per cent., it follows that the exchange is nominally
o'oB per cent, against England ; but, after making allow-
ance for charges of transport and difference of interest,
the present rates leave no profit on the transportation
of gold either way between the two countries.
THE BANK OF FRANCE.— The increase just announced
in the rate of interest on the French floating debt is
equal to 1 per cent. on each of these securities, the rates
fixed at the last alteration, which took place on the
24th of October, having been 31 per cent. for bonds
with only five months to run, and 41 per cent, for
those of a year. The present measure was, of course,
anticipated immediately on the notification of the ad-
vance in the rate of discount by the Bank of France, but
it nevertheless appears to have exercised on Monday
a further unfavourable influence upon the Bourse.
Looking at the fact that, owing to the long recourse to
palliatives to conceal the inevitable consequences of the
deficient harvest and of the previous over-speculation,
the money market of Paris has now to sustain the effect
of these precautionary movements at a moment when it
would have been most desirable that no necessity should
have existed for them, the weakness of prices manifested
during the past fortnight is not calculated to excite cur-
-1 prise.