The Sun.
London, England, 1870-02-25 00:00:00

THAMES.

oss SYsTEM OF Fita up ON TRAD ESPEO P LE.
Charles Lawson, with several tzliases, aged 25
years, seaman of 19, Grace's-alley, St. George-in-
the-East, was charged before Mr. Paget with ob-
taining sums:of money; fraudulently by means of
advance notes made out in his favour.

Emanuel Abrahams, outfitter, 72, Cable-street,
St. George-iu the-East, cashed an advance note fur
£2 10s. on Saturday last, and gave the prisoner
33. in c tsh and £1 73. in goods. Ile charged 4s. for
cashing the note, which was signed by the captain
of the ship Emily.

John Kitchen, pace-constable, 190 11, said the
prisoner signed the articles of agreement of the ship
Emily on Saturday last, at the Tower-hill shipping
office, and received an advance note of £2los. The
ship had since sailed. On Alouday 1 st the pri-
soner 1-iguLd the articles of the ship Guvestrie at
the Sailors' Home,Welt-street, and received another
advance note. The Guvestrie had a!sa
Police-constable Sheppard, a detective otlicer of
the .11 division, said a third advance note had
been received by the prisoner, foe which he had
already received cash, and he believed several other
similar notes, for which the prisoner received cash
and clothes, had been received by him.
The prisoner said all the notes were genuine.
Mr. Paget said he knew that ; but the prisoner
had committed frauds on tradesmen by getting
them cashed, and never sailing with the ships, on
the owners of which they were made payable. None
of the notes would be paid. It was a gross system
of fraud. Besides, the prisoner had assumed dif-
ferent names, and deceived those who had shipped
him. He should order some inquiries to be made
about the prisoner, whom he remanded for a week.
DARING HIGH WAY ROBBERY. —Three youths,
named Jones, Crosby, and Mark were brought up
on remand charged with committing a daring high-
way robbery. Their victim was Mr. John Hinck-
ley, a master mariner, who was passing the end of
Plummer's-row, Commercial-road, a few evenings
since, at half-past six o'clock, and Mark ran
against him and snatched his gold watch, worth
£l2, from his pocket and ran away with it. Mr.
Hinckley pursued him, and was tripped up by
Crosby. Jones was seen in Plummer's-row before
and after the robbery. Mark had been convicted
five times and Jones twice. All the prisoners were
taken into custody by Sheppard and Foster, detec-
tives of the H division, within an hour after the
robbery, in a thieves' colony called Flower and
Dean. streets, Spitalfields.

Mr. Paget committed Mark and Crosby for trial,
and discharged Jones.

FIRES IN THE METROPOLIS.

A number of destructive fires have occurred in
the metropoliis during the night. The premises of
Miss Johns, Hanway-street, Oxford-street; Mr.
M‘Mahon, Northumberland-mews, Marylebon e ;
Mr. Tummersly, 778, Old Kent-road ; and Mr.
Casey, Wilmington-place, Bromley, have been
more or less injured, but the fire brigade succeeded
in extinguishing each before either of the houses
were destroyed.

RAILROAD INVES7MENT IN AMERICA.

(From the Anglo- American Times)

Perhaps the greatest material benefit which would
accrue from the policy advocated in the preceding
article would be the security of the wide field then
opened for English investment as well as emigra-
tion. There, is a great fertile continent, with a
climate well adapted for Europeans, inviting the
hungry masses of this side to settle on. There, is a
boundless field for the investment of capital now
diverted towards the erection of another Palace for
the SULTAN, for the arming and equipping of an
army for Russia, or for a fleet for Spain to coerce
into subjection her misgoverned colonies. Eng-
land, :.bone all countries, wants this field to be
opened to her, alike for her surplus population and
capital ; but there is, and long has been, a barrier
in the jealousy existing between the nations, and from
an ignoranco i❑ Britain of America, which some
day not far distant wi:l be regarded in that island, as
almoit incredible. Taking advantage of this igno-
rance, deigning men have levied toll under the
plea of constructing railroads in the United States,
and have thereby increaed the bias of the English
against American investment, There is, however, no
country wherein railroad-be lding supplies a more
legitimate means of investment than in the United
States, and the reasons are so obvious as scarcely
to require to be given. A railroad is the most effec-
tive, and bat little more costly in its construction, of
all highways. Wherever the line runs in the United
States population is at racted. As a rule, the railroads
are carried through or to the most inviting districts;
hence the double attraction of fertile, easily culti-
vated laud, and the means of transport. Settle-

ment and the formation of railways are then ie
Nmeriea synonymous t-rms, though linking ta,;e-
ther two wholly different things. The one is
capital ; the other, families seeking a home ; money
and emigration ; the rich ant the poor. Now,
bearing this in mini, the connection between Eng-
Und and the Amerieein wastes may be seen without
an intervening obstacle. Who have the best lands
open for settlement and improvement ?—the United
States. Who lave the most people and money to
settle and improve them ?—Great B,i:afe. Why,
then, do not the two nations, having so clear and
palpable a common interest, work together profit-
ably to fill up the wesle places of the one with the
.aurplus running to waste in the other? Perhaps
the author of all evil can best answer this question,
for it must baffle common sense. We desire here,
however, to point out the conncc'ion between emi-
gra:ion and railway enterprise in the United States,
and the interest in both which the English ought
to possess above all other nations. The banking
house of HENRY CLEWS and Co., in a recent circu-
lar, endeavoured to draw attention to what they
term the new drift of capital :

"During the war little ;AS done in railroad-building
beyond the completion of lines under contract at the be-
ginning of the struggle; and hence, for the years 4861,
1862, 1863, 1864, 1865, and 1866, the length of road con-
structed averaged only 1,032 miles per year, while, for the
six years preceding, the increase of mileage was at the
rate of 2,319 miles per annum. This fact is shown by the
following statement of the length of road constructed in
the United States for a series of years past, compiled from
Poor's Manual of Railroads of the United States :

Year. Miles. I Year: Miles.
1855, Road constr'cted 1651 I 1861, Road constr'cted 621
1856; Road constr'cted 3613 I 1862, Road constreted 8.j4
1857, Road constr'cted 2191 I 1863, Road constr'cted 1030
1858, Road constr'cted 2460 1864, Road constr'cted 733
1859, Road constr'cted 1821 I 1865, Road cJastected 1177
1860, Road constr'cted 1846 1866 Road constr'cted 1742
Total for 6 years next I Total from 1861 to 1866
preceding the war... 13915 inclusive
From this, these New York bankers argue, that
railroads have not kept pace with population and
business, the more so as a portion of the Union
Pacific is included in the last figures, althoUgh it
does little to meet the requirements of commerce iu
.the more thickly populate. sections. " The high
paces of agricultural products have attracted a
large new population to the West, with the result
of a rapid filling up of some of the less densely
settled portions of country ; and the consequent in-
crease in the quantity of products seeking the mar-
kets, and the expansion of trade generally, call for
enlarged transportation facilities in those sections."
Referring to the rapid recuperation of the South,
and the pressing want there felt for better railroad
accommodation, they remark :

"Not only has the amount of .its products been about
restored to that of former years, but the commercial enter-
prise of the people has been quickened, so that they are no
longer satisfied with their former slow and tedious me-
thods of tranportation, but demand the mist colvauient
and expeditious means for marketing their crops and for a
free exchange of products with other sections."

Taking this into consideration, aod the efforts to
develope the immense mineral wealth, the pr. sent
activity is pronounced to be no mere speculative
diversion of enterprise, but the expression of a real
commercial requirement, not to be regarded as an-
ticipating a future want, but rather as " an effort
to accommodate business already existing ; in which
respect it differs essentially from the railroad mania
of former years, when the success of the road was en-
tirely dependent upon population following the route.
Fortunately, most of the roads then built have proved
highly profitable, and their mortgage debts have
been honoured with a regularity unsurpassed by any
other class of securities. No stronger evidence could
be afforded of the need of increased railroad facili-
ties than the fact that the pressure of traffic upon
the old roads has been so great as to induce the
companies to largely increase their capital, in order
to avoid the possibility that the enormous dividends
paid might induce the State Legislatures to reduce
their rates of freight. Most of the roads now being
built, however, are not so much designel to com-
pete with old and powerful corporations as to meet
the wants of recently developed sections, to which
population is rapidly flowing, and where the means
of transportation are utterly inadequate." At the
same time HENRY CLEWS and Co., while pointing
out the difference between the stocks and the bonds,
do not cloak the real danger of investment in Ame-
rican railroads; a deplorable fact, whereby the
people permit a few scamps to kill the goose which
lays the golden, eggs.
" The conservative feeling of investors is producing a
disinclination to invest iu railroad stocks ; and very natu-
rally ; for that ems of securities are so completely under
the control of speculative directors and stock cliques, who
systematically manipulate them for the purpose of pro-
ducing artificial fluctuations, that there is no stability in
their value; and consequently the inducement afforded by
liberal dividends is neutralized by the liability to loss upon
the principal. Railroad Bonds aro not subject to those
fluctuations. The interest is first provided by the pro-
perty of the company; and having thus a stable basis,
speculation cannot interfere with their value. A first
mortgage upon a good railroad property, indeed, is one of
tho safest of all investments. It is a first lien, with amp le
margin, upon real estate which improves with the deve-
lopment of the country, and which can hardly depreciate
under any possible circumstances."

Comparing these bonds with Government Securi-
ties, they arrive at the conclusion that, while offering
quite as good security, the ratio of twenty years
compound interest would be for a Six per Cent.
$l,OOO Government Bond bought at present prices,
$2,280.59 against an Eight per Cent. Railroad
Bond for the same period, amounting to $4,317.85.
Where the selection is made with due caution, not
only do the railroad bonds return twice the sum
derivable from a Government Security in a period
of 20 years, but with equal safety. The view this house
takesof the sale of U. S. Bonds and other securities to
Europeans is the true aspect of the question. They
estimate the outflow for 1869 at $100,000,000, and
the total of the U. S. Bonds now held on this side
at $900,000,000, while the Treasury has purchased
$90,000,000 of Five-Twenties :
"The money realized upon this immense aggregate of
securities, on the one hand, goes into industrial and com-
mercial employment, tending to increase the transporta-
tion business of the country; and, on the other hand, is
seeking' investment in the construction of now roads
adapted to accommodate the augmented business."

Those who glance over American papers, whether
they come from the north, south, east, or west, must
be surprised at the activity in railroad enterprise
therein related. As the Messrs. HENRY CLEWS and
Co. state,this does not proceed, but follows, popula-
tion and requirements; it is not in advance, but
behind settlement—hence it is sound, not specula-
tive. When in England branch lines are spoken of
the investor recoils as the burnt child does from the
fire ; but these are not branch lines as understood
in England, but great arteries in embryo. What
the Pennsylvania Railroad once was, the Kansas
Pacific now is, the foundation of a trunk line, to be
developed into a main channel of communication,
and so are numerous others running in every direc-
tion. lIENRY CLEWS, Esq., the head of the firm,
and the writer of the circular, is the son of a ex-
tensive manufacturer in Staffordshire, in which
county he was born in 1834. His father took him
to the United States on one of his business visits,
and that trip altered his destiny, for he had'been
intended for the Church, with which object he was
about to enter Cambridge University. After going
through his probation as Clerk, when 25 he com-
menced business in Wall-street. First, the style
of the firm was LIVERMORE, CLEWS, and MASON,
then LIVERMORE, CLEWS, and Co., finally assuming
its present designation. He was one of the bankers
whose confidence was never shaken in Union suc-
cess during the war ; therefore, while standing
firmly in support of the Government, that course
was the one which paid. Chief Justice CHASE, then
Secretary of the Treasury, remarke I
,to a gentle-
man wllO was congratulating him on the success of
the Five-Twenty Loan--" I deserve no credit ;
had it not been for the exertions of Jay CoonE, of
Philadelphia, and Nlessrs. LivEumottE, CLEws, and
Co., of New York, the loan would not have been
taken." His forecast of the railway future, though
requiring greater judgment, was e pially correct ;
and by the boldness of his operations whe❑ his rez. -
son was convinced, he acquired the leading posi-
tion his firm now holds•—perhaps one of the greatest
banking successes ever achieved in so short a
period. We mention these facts, as they give an
additional value to the published circulars of the
house, and especially to the observations we have
extracted and submitted to our readers in this ar-
ticle.

Brighton 9, 3
Brighton Club 4
Lewes ............5, 6 i
Egharo (), 10
Windsor ll, 12
Bromley l6, 17

Slockta .. l7 to 19
Oxford .18, 19
York 23 to 25
Plyiu•,outli
Derby
Weymouth '3O, 31

SEPTEMBER.
Warwick 6 7 , Richmond 2C 21
Abingdon 8, 9 I Western Moot (Ayr) 21 to 23
Doncaster 13 to 16 i Hendon 94. 03
Hampton 20, 21 i Newmarket Ist U. 2; to JO

OC'FOI3EII.

—„ ..„-.........
Bedford 4, 5 1 Newmarket 2n 0,;t..10 to 14
Leicester
Brumloy 'i, 7 I Nowmarket 110t'u...2 I to 2;)
I,OVE.NIIIEIi,
.. _,

Liverpool 8 to 1L I Shrewsbury, 1.4 to. le

STEEPLECHASE FIXTURES-1870.
FEBRUARY.
irmingliam 4, J Harrow
Derby III Newton 25, 26
MARCH
Liverpool 8,9, lo I n.r-n1ey......31 and April 1
West Somerset li., 1, (Amite)Liam.. 31 and Apia 1
Warwick 22 to 24 !
APRIL.
Aldershot 7, 8 ! KiugblAtry ......18, 19