The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-14 00:00:00

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE,
SPECULATION IN 1845.
A curious document came to light on Saturday in the
shape of a report from the Registrar-Generel of Joint-
stock Companies, to the Privy Council for Trade fur
1845. It forms a gigantic index of upwards of fifty fo-
lios to the doings in railway speculation for tae past
year, and can be likened, in its length and curious dice
closures, to nothing else but the ramifications of a
Welsh pedigree or Homer's catalogue of ships. An in-
teresting biography or book upon bubbles might be
wrou,ht out of it in the hands of a judicious selector. It
is, moreover, a mirror of that memorable period of na-
tional hallucination when every bubble was invested
with a value, as the true offspring of the joint-stock
genius of England, by the then reigning epidemic of
speculative cupidity and caprice. In the return every
scheme is impaled as nicely as ephemera in the folios
of a naturalist. Each scheme is accurately named and
numbered, so that all whom it concerns may take notice
and see how the multiplied schemes that came out
starred with premiums have given up the ghost of a
moonshine existence, and found a plaee in the catalogue
of all defunct things. This list is an eloquent doge of
the wild spirit of project and speculation that charac-
ter! e.d the past, and will be highly useful to the pos-
terity of specul ;tors and projectors in all time to come.
The report is but a record of the establishment of the
evil of a plethoric speculation, without at all unveiling
the disastrous and uncalculating consequences that fol-
loe ed the most puissant period of speculation in the
wor.d's history; consequences that can only be ade-
quately arrived at by diving into the depths of woe and
Whitecross-street, which is said to be half peopled
with speculators and projectors, who had a chief
hand in the late railway game of hazard. The
lift consists of fifty-three pages, and contains
the titles and specifications of 1,520 schemes, the off-
spring of 1845, the majority being for railways, water-
companies, banks, insurances, mines, and an immensity
of other joint-stock corporation. The year opened with
a mere handful, but as the days rolled on and the fever
became fiercer, they doubled, trebled, and quadrupled
in quantity, until, in September, October, and Novem-
ber, they came thickly thundering on, at the rate of
from 100 to 300 and 500 a month, and an average in
September—the most prolific of months—of from 16 to
46 each day, or 457 in the month, as will be seen by
the following analysis of the return. In December,
wizen the panic rang- the tocsin of alarm, and the excite-
ment was gradually subsiding, the climacteric was 31.
The f Hewing shows the number of projects registered
each month, with the aggregate totals for the same :
Number registered. Total.
In January l 6
February
March
Al Aril 52
May . 81
June
July
August • 175
September
October
November
December ..... 31

To' i 1 schemes registered from January to
Dec.?mber
The periA, it is well known, gave rise to the moat
whimsical and Quixotic schemings, and we select from
the on,- thousand five hundred and twenty! some.of the
mo,t amusing anomalies and nondescripts. -
The People's Colliery Company.
Melides Anglo-Franceza Mining Company.
Biographical Dictionary Society.
St. Marylebone and Paddington Joint-stock building

and Trading Company.
Agriculturist Cattle Insurance Company.
White Knights Improvement Company, now called
White Knights Estate Company.
Tehaantepec Colonization and Canal Company.
Greenwich Bath Company.
York-street Flax-spinning Mill Company.
Bury A thenmarn Company.
Lancash ra and Yorkshire North -Eastern Railway
Company.
Patent Ccncentrated Tea Company.
wigtea J. int- stock Brewery Company.
ToVesbury Oyster Company.
N.eional Lai-A
-draining Company.
Patanr Fuel Company.
.aatherham and Masborough Public Bath Company.
Wiidrr's Burton Brewery Company.
Hull Cotton-mill Company, now calledKingstonCotton-
mill Company.
Victoria Dock and Grand Union Railway Company.
National Joint-stock, Loan and Discount Company.
Brist.,l and South Wales Junction Railway Extension
Line to Monmouth Company.
Quaftertown Cotton Joint-stock Company.
Economic Draining Tile and Brick Company.
General Oceanic Telegraphic Company.
Catholic Law and General Life Assurance Company.
Northern Loan Association.
Church of England Cemetery Company.
:aational Land Drainage Company.
llighbridge Market-house Company.
Lancashire One Hundred Pounds Money Company.
Drapers' Fire Insurance Company.
Ocean Mutual Marine Assurance Institution.
New Protecting Society.
Norfolk and Suffolk Ramoneur Association.
Australian, Sydney, Paramatta, Liverpool, Richmond,
AT,d Windsor Junction Railway Company.
Mert.e,ntile Bill of Exchange, Diacount, and Loan Com-
p, n
National No-idows' and General Life Annuity and As-
,arance Society, now called Widows' National and
(aneral Life Annuity and Assurance Society.
Fitlelity Guarantee Society.
London and Ab-rdeen Granite Company.
Patent India Paper Manufacturing Company.
Marine Glue C mpany. -
Weithana Lake Ice Company.
Tehuantepec Ship Canal and Colonization Company.
Patent Cork-Cutting Company.
Ilarw•ch Pier and Docks and Birmingham and Central
England Grand Junction Railway Company, now
palled Harwich Docks and Birmingham and Central
England Railway.
Hull Worsted Mill Company.
Wylain's Steam Fuel Company.
Practicable, General, and Invalid Assurance Company.
Dacca. Sugar Company.
Burnley Cotton Twist Company.
.I)efender Company, now called Property Protection and
Insurance Company against Fraud and Robbery.
Great Hibernian Central Junction Railway Company.
Universal Guarantee Society, now called Surety Society.
Craig Ddit Slate Company.
Patent Timber Company.
Great British Advertising Company.
Railway Club House, Chambers, and General Goods
Depot Company, now called Bank Approaches Im-
provement Company.
British Class Journal Company.
National Glass Company of Ireland.
General Commercial Telegraph Company.
National and General Harbours Company, by the adop-
tion of Sleigh's Patent buoyant Sea-barrier or artiti-
ficial Beach.
Railway Carriage BuilOing Company.
Great British Railway Company. •
Great. British Extension Railway Company.
Hinckley Union Mill Company.
Prosser's Patent Wooden Railway Guide-Wheel Com.

pany.
Dudley, Wolverhampton, Tamworth, Syston, and
Leicester Railway Company, now called Dudley, Viol-
verhampton, Walsall, and Tamworth Railway Com-
pany.
British and Colonial Provident Life Assurance Annuity
Endowment, and Freehold Investment Company.
Liverpool joint-stock Railway Bank Company.
Thames and Scheldt Steam Navigation Company.
Burnley Building Company.
Manchester Auxiliary Investment Company.
Bridlington Quay and Public Rooms Company.
Wolverhamptim, Wallsall, Stamford, Peterborough, and
Norwich Junction Railway Company, now called
IVolverhampton, Walsall, Leicester, Peterborough.
Norwich, and Great Yarmouth Junction Railway
Company.
Burnley, Bradford, Leeds, York, and Hull Direct
Union Railway Company, now called Ribble and
II utnber Junction, or Preston, Biackburn, -BurnLey,
Bradford, Leeds, York, and Hull Direct Union Rail.
way Company.
Mutual Investment Society.
Fitzroy Investment Association.
hind Sugar Refining Company.
Great British Railway Company.
Roy:ti Irish Glass Company.
Nev Share an I Stock Exchange Company.
L..trion Railway Company.
Royal Grand Junction Railway Company, uniting the
London and South-Eastern, the London and Brighton,
the London and South- Western, and the Great
Western Railways.
Westminster and Charing-cross Building Company.
London and Liverpool Direct Railway Company.
Coake's National Railway Company.
,C hurley's Cotton Twist Company.
General Canal Steam Haulage Company.
Philadelphia Steel Works Company.
Metropolitan and Brighton Sea-Water Conveyance
Company.
'Provincial Sewage Manure Company.
Great City Shambles Company.
Midland C ainties Coal-Fields Railway Company.
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick Ti ansit and Coloniza-
tion Company.
Universal Railway Contracting Company.
Joint-sto.k N-aspaper Company.
Ulster Irish Centralization Railway Company.
London Circles Railway Company.
Railway and General Gas Company.
London and Harrow-on-the-Hill Direct Railway Com.
party.
Railway Land Investment Company.
London Concentral Exchange and Junction Railway
Company.
Victoria Aqueduct Company.
Inland Ports and Sea Ports Ship Railway and Goods
Traffic Company.
Ist'llilU3 of Darien, Atlantic, and Pacific Junction Rail-
, ay, Harbour and Dock, and Steam Packet Company,
now called Isthmus of Darien, Atlantic, and Pacific
Junction Railway Harbour'', Docks, Canal and Steam
Packet Company.
Northampton General Cemetery Company. •
Metropolitan Necropoli, or Grand Eastern and Western
Cemeteries Company, now called Metropolitan Necro-
poles, or Grand Eastern and Western Cemeteries Com-
pany.
Sheffield Coal Consumers' Company.
Bradford Sanatory Building Company.
Metropolitan and Great Western Junction Railways of
Cana la. Company, from Toronto to London (Canada),
now called Extension of the Great Western Railway
of Canada from the district of London to Toronka