The Sun.
London, England, 1847-10-02 00:00:00

- \hfning allAt

LONDON, SATURDAY. OCTOBER 2, 1847.

A strong feeling has been excited in all parts of the
districts,
as but chiefly in the manufacturing dist
at. to the absolute necessity for a general suspenscion,
of vailway calls, and as a natural consequence a tern-
porar? stoppage of
all the works now in progress of
construction, and a resolution. not to enter upon any
new works until the termination of the present
monetary crisis, and the mrestoration of our financial
system to a lwalthier condition. iHence the resolu-
tions at Liverpool and Leeds,
and the important
meeting held at Manchester,
On Thursday last, of
bankers, merchants, sharebrokers, and
report of which:appeared in The Sun°otfhers (a full
The subject is undoubtedly one of the deepest interest
,Almost all classes of the community, and
nom_
svelfare and prosperity of thousands, or their
iarative ruin, is involved in the result. The question,na-
too, for the decision of the directors of the
%,,veral railway companies is of no ordinary difficulty
;
-they have been elected for the purpose of
-watching over and guarding the interests of their con-
stituencies, the shareholders, of advancing those in-
teests by every means in their power, and we can
enter into the feelings of the gentlemen who
state' piat they can suffer no other element to be ad-
mitted into the calculation, that they can consider
nothing hut whether it is for the advantage of the
ewpany which they represent to continue or suspend
their operations. The latter course may, under
pee;iliar circumstances, which must vary in each case,
be tended with very considerable loss and inconve-
nienoe. They may have entered into engagements
with their contractors which, as honest men, they are
bound s trictly to adhere to, and which they cannot
alter in ti'te slightest degree without the assent of the
other par 000 to the agreement, and for the due ful-

filment of which they themselves, in common with
every shareholder, may be made personally
responsible. Again, considerable expenditure may
have already taken place, which would remain
utterly useless and unproductive, but which a mo-
derate additional outlay would render exceedingly
valuable, not only in yielding considerable dividends
to the shareholders, but also in the increased facilities
for intercourse and traffic, facilities that are so essen-
tial to our trade and commerce, and to the national
prosperity. Another consideration must also be
borne in mind, that such a suspension would throw
thousands, aye, hundreds of thousands, of hard-work-
ing and industrious men out of employment, and
reduce them from comfort and independence to com-
parative destitution and misery. All these points
must be reflected upon maturely before those to
whose administration the shareholders have con-
fided their interests can decide upon stop-
ping the works already in progress, and must
be weighed against the evils of proceeding with vigour,
which can only be done by making new calls, or
acting on the powers conceded to them by the Legis-
lature of borrowing to an extent proportioned to
their capital, which can be done when a certain por-
tion thereof has been paid up and duly applied.
The almost invariable result of making a call, in
the present state of the money market, has been to
depreciate the value of the shares to the full amount
required to be paid up, or even to a still greater de-
gree. The whole capital of the company becomes
deteriorated in value. Proprietors who, under ordi-
nary circumstances, could readily pay the entire
sums for which they are responsible, will sooner
make considerable sacrifices by selling their shares
for anything they may bring than withdraw their
capital from other and more important undertakings.
Others are wholly unable to pay the sums demanded,
they are therefore compelled to throw their stock
upon the market ; the supply, therefore, greatly ex-
ceeds the demand, and prices must fall, and continue
to do so until those convinced of the utility of the un-
dertaking, and possessed of surplus capital for that
purpose, come forward to purchase largely, and thus
arrest the downward tendency. The injury done to
the trading and manufacturing interests, which must
be seriously affected by the additional demand for
money occasioned by railway requirements in this
period of general pressure and emergency, will inevi-
tably recoil on the value of the railways themselves,
and smaller returns and a diminished traffic will be
inevitable ; and this will equally be the case whether
the sum necessary to carry on the works should be
obtained by calls or loans. Loans, too, if it should be
decided on thus procuring the means of continuing
their operations,must necessarily be contracted on terms
very disadvantageous to the borrowers, and at a much
higher rate of interest than that which would be de-
demanded at another time. And as the directors
would in every case be bound to retain the money
for a certain period, generally five or seven years,
they would have to pay probably one third more than
if they consented to wait for a short time until after
the meeting of Parliament, when the nature of the
proposed financial measures, which are undoubtedly
under the consideration of the Ministry, shall have
been announced to the country.
All these considerations must be duly weighed and
reflected on before any decision can be rived at by
those who only take into account their own individual
interests. But in any case of doubt, the benefit
should be given to that side which is for the benefit
of the people in general. Directors, too, should not
forget that although their first duty is to the
company which they represent, they are also as
Englishmen deeply interested in the national pros-
perity, and that it should not be for any trivial or
contingent advantage, that they would increase the
general distress and difficulty. Unless, therefore, the
suspension of these works would be attended w

serious and undoubted injury to the company, they
should comply with the general request that has been
so strongly urged upon them at the several meet-

ingo. As we have already stated, there can be no general
rule. Every case must depend on its own peculiar
circumstances. This, however, appears to be certain,
that no new undertaking should now be commenced.
It is clear that the Legislature would readily consent

to an extension of the time originally granted for
the completion of their line to every company
that, in deference to the public opinion, so
strongly and unequivocally expressed, had con-
sented to the postponement of their operations. Per-
haps a special meeting of each company should be
held, in order that the directors may know the senti-
ments of the body they represent before the course
they are inclined to adopt is finally decided on. It
would be a fitting mark of respect that could not fail
to be agreeable to the shareholders.

The Great Scourge of humanity—a scourge more
awful than ATILLA and his Huns—more terrible than
the eruptions of a volcano—more devastating than
the throes of an earthquake—the Great Scourge of the
Cholera is at this moment advancing towards us with
silent but indomitable rapidity, if we may believe the
intelligence received almost daily from the frontiers
of the Russian empire. Its course is described as
being north-westerly, and it is said to have already
Penetrated into the interior of Europe. GOD defend
us from the agonies which desolated the world in
1832! Those agonies are not yet forgotten. Nor
can years obliterate the recollection of a pestilential
malady so mysterious in its character, so inexorable
in its diffusion, and so inexplicably dismal in
its progress through the nations of Christ-
endom. It pressed forwards like an aveng-
ing fiend and decimated the millions, as at
the breath of a Nemesis. Fur fifteen summers the
earth has been rid of its tormentor. At the end of
that period it is again startled by the rumoured re-
appearance of this most horrible and destructive
plague. After ravaging the territory of the Cal-
mucks, it has disseminated its contagion among the
serfs of NICHOLAS. It has travelled from the walls
of Astracan to the hovels of Charkav, and appears to
have already descended like a curse upon the inha-
bitants of Kiev, on the banks of the Dnieper. There
may unquestionably be much exaggeration in the
accounts received from Caucasia, namely, that during
an interval of nearly nine months no less than 17,050
individuals were attacked with the disease in that
kingdom, and that out of these 6,310 perished.
There may be likewise a certain degree of exaggera-
tion in the assertion that during its passage through
the streets of Astracan 137 persons were smitten
down with the cholera in a single day, namely, upen
the 30th of July. But, heightened as in all likelihood
the intelligence is by the fears of its recipients, there
cannot be a moment's doubt but that the pestilence is
again abroad upon the wings of the wind, and that
it is stealing gradually towards the central portions
of continental Europe.
With the experience of 1822 before them, it be-
comes the bounden duty of the Legislature to provide
such measures of precaution as may tend to mitigate
the miseries resulting from the Cholera in the event
of its advancing so far in a south-westerly
direction as to assail the population of these islands.
Better even than the vigilance of the most stringent
code of quarantine are those simple measures of sa-
nitary legislation for which we have clamoured so
long and so earnestly. A contagion that defies the
obstacles of quarantine may be deprived of a consi-
derable proportion of its virulence by the systematic
cleanliness introduced among a whole people by a
proper scheme of sanitary legislation. Is not this
self-evident? And, being self-evident, shall its im-
portance be depreciated when the Great Scourge of the
Cholera is for a second time impending over the
plains and cities of the eastern hemisphere ? God
forbid GoD forbid that men should be so blind to
the dictates of reason, or, rather, that they should
shut their eyes against the truth which is forced
upon their comprehension as if by instinct ! The
warning voice which comes to us from the waters of
the Dnieper tells us of the danger; the combined
arguments of experience, reason, and instinct, pro-
claim to us how that danger may be in the readiest
manner avoided, or, in the more terrible extremity,
how its anguish may be in the most efficient manner
assauged.

A total and (aot to employ the word with any
conventional meaning) a radical change is necessary
throughout society before the health of the multitude
can be considered in anything like security. Mean-
while preliminary efforts should be made to diminish
the evil consequences which are hourly flowing from
the miserable state of disarrangement by which our
villages and towns are characterised. For example, it
were hopeless to Uticipate a thorough re•organiza-