The Sun.
London, England, 1854-11-01 00:00:00

THE AUSTRIAN RAILWAYS.

Extract from a Vienna letter received yesterday :
Some days since I informed you that the Austrian
Government had sold the South-Eastern State Railway
to the " Credit Mobilier " of Paris, on a lease of ninetyl
years, for a sum of 200 millions of francs ; and that his
Majesty the Emperor has sanctioned the contract entered
into with the representatives of this company of French
capitalists,-who, I also stated, have reserved to them-
selves the ratification of the same till the end of this
month, or, according to others, till the end of No-

vember. In substance the above information was
quite correct ; in some particulars, however, I now'
find that I have a good deal to add by way of explana-
tion and completion. M. d'Andre, who has so ably ne-
gotiated this important affair with the Austrian Govern-
ment, although a large shareholder in the " Credit
Mobilier," acted on this occasion, not as the representa-
tive of that highly respectable institution, hut as the
representative of several exceedingly influential ca-
pitalists both in France and England, whose intention
it is to establish a joint-stock company upon the basis,
of the contract in question. The particulars of this
contract, as far as I am at prfrsent informed, are as fol:
lows :—The Austrian Government sells, and the said
company buys, the whole line of railway from Itodia-f
back to Biunn' and that from Ganserndorf to Press-
burg, Pesth, Szolnok, Szegedin, and Temesvar. The
line from Szegedin to Temesvar, which is at present
only in course of construction' is to be completed by
and at the expense of the Austrian Government.
From Temesvar to the extreme frontier of Hungary,
along the Danube, this line is to be continued at the'
expense of the said company. The valuable coal mines
at Aussig in the north, and at Orovitza in the south,
are also included in the contract of sale. The price
which this company has by their representative agreed
to pay to the Government is fixed at two hundred
millions of francs, payable in silver or gold coin,
seventy millions whereof are to be paid within
fourteen days after the ratification of the contract,
for which purpose fifty-two days from the day of
the date thereof (October 15) have been agreed to.
The remainder of the purchase-money is to be
paid by instalments extending over a period of three
years. The Government has reserved to itself
the right of repurchase upon equitable terms
after the lapse of 30 years, but the present sale
and purchase is for 90 years ; after this period the entire
lines of railway, inclusive of those yet to be constructed,
revert to the State, with the exception of the materiel,
which will remain the property of the company. 'The
State guarantees 5 2-10ths per cent. on the capital in-
vested ; and if, contrary to all probability, the receipts
of the company should yield less, the State pays the dif-
ference in gold and silver. Now, upon the groundwork
of this contract, the said capitalists intend to get up a
joint-stock company, with a capital of three hundred
millions of francs, two hundred millions of which are to
be paid to the State, and one hundred millions are to
be in part invested in the purchase of the line from
Vienna to Raab, which is then to be continued to Fiume,
by and at the expenses of the purchasers, and in
part to be employed as working capital. Six hundred
thousand shares are to be issued at respectively five hun-
dred francs, and 201. sterling, and two hundred florins
Austrian convention money, whereon 39 per cent. is to be
paid up as a first instalment. There are to be twenty
directors, whereof ten are to be Frenchmen, and the
other ten Austrians. The chief office of the company is
to be at Vienna, and a branch office at Paris. To give
you something like an adequate idea of the good opi-
nion which is entertained here of this enterprise, I
may mention that a first-rate banking-house has
already reserved thirty thousand shares for itself.
With respect to the imperial sanction which has been
given to this contract, it is proper that I should explain
what is to be understood thereby. The Minister of the
Interior, Baron Bach, who, by his restless energy and
undeviating solicitude for the welfare of the state, has
been mainly instrumental in speedily bringing this im-
portant transaction to a preliminary conclusion, was
commissioned by his Majesty to have the requisite
statutes drawn up, embodying all essential conditions
for the sale of State railway property to foreigners,
and to serve for the present and all future occasions
of a similar kind. It was to this draft of an enact-
ment, perfectly applicable to the case in point, that
his Majesty has recently given his sanction. Thus it is
satisfactorily explained that this Government have ob-
tained the assent of the Emperor to the contract in
question, even previous to the ratification of the same on
the part of the aforesaid French and English capitalists.
We hear that upon this occasion M. de Baumgartner,
the Minister of Finance and Commerce, had raised cer-
tain difficulties, which, if they had not been most ener-
getically resisted by Baron von Bach, the Minister of
the Interior, would probably have deferred, or pos-
sibly have altogether prevented, the preliminary con-
clusion of this important contract. It is also added
that M. de Baumgartner is on the eve of retiring from
the arduous duties of his office. I cannot, however,
help thinking that this faithful servant of the Crown
will not allow personal considerations to influence his
resolves in this respect, because it would be very
unlike him if he did. On the other hand, I believe the
time is not far distant when Baron von Bach will be
called upon by his Imperial master to give his sole
func-
tions to the performance of even yet higher
in the State, inclusive of la haute finance,thanled
those at present confided to his care. Well-informed
persons will have it that, sooner or later, a new post
will i bs
e destinedspe specially I c
to reate d f
become
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Cabinet, which would be a post similar to the one which
the Minister of State fills in France. Still, such a fun-
damental change in the constitution of the superior go-
vernment in this country can only be the work of time.
Much might be said in favour of the plan, and, it may
be, this is well understood ; but I hardly feel myself at
liberty to give vent to personal convictions on so mo.
mentous a point. In closing my observations, however,
on the main subject, namely, the contract for the sale
and purchase of the Austrian
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