The Sun.
London, England, 1848-10-23 00:00:00

A FEW WORDS ON RAILWAY
BUSINESS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

perused with much pleasure the remarks
on the present depressed state of railway property in
your leader of Friday last, and without my assenting
either to the cause of such depression as therein
stated, or the remedy pointed out, you will, perhaps,
allow me a small space in your paper to show the
impractibility of causing a different mode of
conducting the share trade whilst the present
stamp duty and cumbrous mode of registra-
tion of shares exists. For example, my
agents purchase for my account fifty shares in
a given line, amounting t 02901., the stamp duty upon
which is al. or nearly l per cent. These shares have
to be transferred from several parties. We will, how-
ever, suppose three—twenty shares each from two,
and ten shares from the third. Those individuals may
each live at distant places ; say one in Edinburgh,
one in Bristol, another in Hull, but it is desirable to
have the whole fifty shares upon one transfer in order
to avoid further charge for stamp duty. Under
such circumstances fourteen days for delivery -of
shares is not unreasonable. It also not unfrequently
happens that considerable delay occurs at the railway
offices in the transfer of shares : thus shares received,
and paid for in the middle of an account may not
have been returned to the purchaser in time for deli-
very on the first of the succeeding account. Although
what I have stated is well known to the trade, the
casual operator in the market is often much annoyed
at the delay which takes place in the delivery of
shares. The brokers have often forwarded the deli-
very by accepting the transfer without the certifi-
cates, guaranteeing that the certificates are lying at
the office, but this has latterly come much into
disuse. True it is that speculators take &Ivan.
tage of the fourteen days for the delivery of shares,
but they also occasionally have to pay heavily
for the indulgence, as the buying-in brokers' prices
would show, were they given in the London list.
The present excessive stamp-duties levied upon rail-
way property tends much to the depreciation of its
value, as, notwithstanding the good feeling most ge-
nerally existing amongst brokers and dealers in town
and country to avoid unnecessary duty, still it deters
many moneyed men from dealing.in shares. Could not
some plan be adopted by which railway property
might be as easily passed from seller to buyer as any
commercial property whatever ? Might not the
Railway Commissioners digest some plan ? If one were
adopted, there would be no necessity for the present
system of the Stock Exchange, but until facility is
given for the more rapid delivery of this property, I
do not see how any alteration can be effected—time
must be given for the reception of stock from the
country, and the Bears will continue to take ad-
vantage of it.
To brokers in the country, the system is one of
perpetual anxiety and annoyance, as they are com-
pelled to remit the amount of their purchases by the
settling day, and, perhaps, not get possession of their
stock for upwards of fourteen days after, as it not
unfrequently happens that the buying-in broker
cannot meet with the particular stock for immediate
delivery.
Perhaps in no instance has the Legislature done
more to injure railway property than to annoy by
every legislative interference and heavy impost prac-
ticable. Committees and Commissioners have been
appointed without end, useless expenditure in obtain-
ing Acts enforced and encouraged, but I do not know
of one single Act of Parliament that has been passed
to settle the law upon railway matters, although the
decisions of the judges have been as various as the
judges themselves.

_
May next session not pass over without something
beneficial being done.—Yours respectfully,
..._ _

B. E.

TO THE EDITOR OF TEE SUN.

SlR,—Will you allow an old subscriber to your
journal the permission to express his warm approval
of your article in last evening's paper on the present
unnatural depression in the value of railway property.
Depend upon it, you have hit the nail on the right
head. Bearing is the plague-spot which now spreads
misery and ruin through many and many a hitherto
happy family. Bearing is having its day. Bulling
was in the ascendant three years ago, and every one
remembers with what mad excitement shares were
bought and sold a thousand times, and by the thou-
sand too, without one ever being delivered. Now the
scale is turned, but the system is reversed. Before
shares were sold forward at a long price, now at a
low one. Then the point was by rumour, inuendo,
bold assertion, or ought else that would answer to
bring into the market more buyers. Now the same
game is pursued, but it is with the view of bringing
in more sellers.

I have seen something of railway men, railway
meetings, and railway tactics on the Stock Exchange,
and I am besides a IPona fide holder to a considerable
amount in all the first class dividend-paying lines of
the kingdom, at my own control, and held with ease
though not without anxiety under their present de-
pression. Now, as such, I feel justified in offering a
little advice to my brother shareholders, and it is this:
" Hold on; do not be frightened out of yaw • property; ,
a better time is coming.' It may not, probably will
not, Le just yet, but it is due, it is our own, and no
man can rob us of it. Meanwhile, this panic may be
productive of some good (there are few evils without
their advantages), and that, greater vigilance on the
part of directors as regards every expense, the work-
ing of trains, cost of materials, salaries, &c., &c., and
perhaps the presentation of clear, simple, intelligible
accounts of the exact position of different companies,
so that shareholders may draw from actual figures,
officially given, their own conclusions, and see, from
plain figures, what their property is worth, and
likely to be worth.
I will venture a prophecy (and shall be glad if
any of your readers will Mow eau against it) that,
on the ZOth of June next,
Great Western Shares, now quoted 721., will be 901.
London and North-Western, ditto 1021. „ 1351.
Midland, ditto
York and North-Midland, ditto
York and Newcastle, ditto
and other lines (solid ones) in proportion.
But I must not run on. I may resume my pen ;
but, be this as it may, I beg you will wield yours to
put down Boar*, to raise a man's property to some-
thing like its legitimate value, and stem the present
mad current, set in through the medium of interested
(notoriously interested) parties against property,
from which it is clear, to the most
is satisfactory de-
monstration, the entire country deriving a gain,
and no mistake.—Believe me, Sir, yours faithfully,
Sheffield, Oct. 28. HOPE.

EXISTING REMEDY AGAINST THE "BEAR-
ING " OF RAILWAY STOCKS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN..
observe, in your newspaper of Ji rulay, the
20th inst., you propose as the true remedy against the
Bearing of railway stocks, that the shareholders
should demand from the Legislature an Act of Par-
liament, prohibiting all speculative sales of stocks
under heavy penalties, and declaring all contracts to
be illegal where the venders were not at the time pos-
sessed of the stock which they engaged to sell. Now
the fact is, but it does not seem to be so generally
known as it is desirable that it should, that there is
already such an Act of Parliament, viz., rth Geo. 11.
c. 8, rendered perpetual by the 10th Geo. 11. c. 8.
This Act, entitled " An Act to Prevent the Infamous
Practice of Stock-jobbing," contains in the 6th and
Bth sections the very provisions which you suggest as
likely to be attended with such beneficial effects ; and
it may be rendering en important service to the public
if you were to make an excerpt of these sections for
general information.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
Oct. 21, 1848. A LAWYER.
[W. e fear that our correspondent is in error, and
that
.3 will be found that the provisions of the Stock-
jobbing Act do not apply to railway stock. Indeed,
we are greatly mistaken if there has not been a
decision to that effect—there being no stock "ejusden
generis" in existence at the time of the passing of that
salutary law.i.—ED. Sun..]

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Stockton, Oct. 21, 1848.
Siu,—Knowing'you wish to correct all attempts at
imposition, may I ask the favour of your inserting
the following
On Thursday night last I left Newcastle, per mail
train, for Durham, in a second-class carriage, in which
was a poor woman, who unfortunately dropped her
ticket. On our arrival at Durham, the great men
there demanded 2s. of her. As she said she had only
20. I paid the 25. for her, on condition that if the
ticket was found they would return the money. On
my going to the station on Friday, Porter No. 38
said the ticket was found in the bottom of the car-
riage. I then applied for the return of my 25., but
was told I must go to Newcastle for it, which would
have incurred me the expense of Bs. Hoping you
will insert this,
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
EDWARD MAIIGHAN, Commercial Traveller.
23, Old Fish street, Doctors' Commons, London.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SlR,—Would you, through the medium of your
paper, answer a question which has puzzled the
brains of half Yorkshire, and on which (I do not
exaggerate) hundreds of thousands of pounds are
wagered. It is whether January (say) 10th, 1800,
is in the 18th or 19th century.
I will not give my opinion at present. But I know
this to be a fact, that one of the first county judges
in England, and an M.P. for a town in the south of
Yorkshire, have a bet of 5,000/. on the aforementioned.
I remain, Sir, yours obediently,
Rotherham, Oct. 20th, 1848. G
[The year 1800 was the last year of the 18th cen-
tury ; for, as the first century began with the year 1,
it could not be completed until the close of the yelp