The Sun.
London, England, 1870-01-22 00:00:00

Alt ERECAN PitESS.

The Philadelphia Ledger says :—" The trial of
0 verend, Gurney, and Co. in the Court of Queen'ti
Bench, England, has called the attention of the
London journals to the defects of the Act of Parlia-
ment in reference to banks and joint-stock compa-
nies, which limits the liabilities of stockholders and
members of private partnerships, and the ideas ex-
pressed on this subject may be useful in this coun-
try. The weak points of the English law in reference
to banks, it is asserted, consists in the fact that all
the capital is not required to be paid in before the in-
stitution commences business. Thus, ordinarily, an
instalment of only 10 per cent. on the nominal capital
is demanded, and the bank does business on the credit
of the unpai I portion. While the undertaking pros-
pers the arrangement works smoothly, but when
c nntnercial distress oppresses the public, then the
larger, the amount left unpaid on the shares, the
greater is the ruin overwhelming the stockholders.
Another practical dilfiCuity consists in the appoint-
Inentof unskilled managers, of melt who having made
their money in other fields of labour have no experi-
ence or knowledge in the superintendence of a bank.
No man can take up a profession at a moment's notice,
and yet the subscriber to a large number of shares
of a bank is considered as fully competent to ma-
nage the institution. The same objections are urged
against the usual mode of selecting directors, and,
it is contended in addition, that persons iu this po-
sition, who have opportunities not enjoyed by the
stockholders, of learning the real condition of the
bank, should be prohibited by law from parting
with their shares, unle-s the fact be publicly an-
nounced at a general meeting, when a full and
searching investigation can be ordered. It is fur-

ther argued that the liability of the directors on
their shares should continue for a longer time than
in the case of an ordinary stockholder."
The same paper remarks as follows on submarine
cables :—" Shares in submarine cable companies are
in every instance but one sold at a large advance
above par. Thus the Electric International, par
£lOO sterling, sells for 257 to 263 ; the Submarine,
par £lOO sterling, for 245 to 255 ' • the Anglo-Ame-
rican, par £lO sterling, at 19.5 to 20 ; and the
Anglo-Mediterranean, par £lO sterling, at 17.25.
On the other hand, the French Transatlantic Cable,
par £2O sterling, sells from 15.5 to 15.75, or at a
discount of 21.25 to 22.5 per cent. This decline
in the selling price is due to the apprehension that
the permanent connection with the shores of the
United States Maybe interrupted by the Government.
It is however, asserted that arrangements have been

negotiated either for the consolidation of the Eng-
lish and French lines, or for the maintenance of the
present rates for the transmission of messages.
The Fretich Cable, according to the official report
furnished to the stockholders, cost about 6,255,000
dollars in gold, distributed amonc, the following
items —Construction andlaying or cable $4,600,000,
payment to Reuter and Erlanger for the French
charter $500,000, payment for American charter
$50,000, miscellaneous and extraordinary expenses
$1,105,000. During the thirteenth week the French
Cable was in operation it earned $11,023 in gold,
and supposing the same rate without any increase
to be continued for a year, the annual earnings
would amount to nine per cent. on the capital in-
vested. But the number of messages has been in-
creasing, so that the earnings have actually been
much larger. From these circumstances it appears
that investment in transatlantic cables are be-

lieved to be profitable, and consequently the
Belgo - American Submarine Telegraph Com-
pany has been formed. This company has just
made a contract with cable manufacturers is

England for the making and laying of a cable. The
cost of the cable, 3,760 nautical miles long, will be
$38,400,000, divided into the following items
3,609 nautical miles, 2,029 yards each of deep see
cable, $3,420,000 ; twenty miles, light shore end,
$23,600 ; forty miles medium shore end, $90,400 ;
one hundred miles, heavy shore end, $307,000.
The conductor is to be of seven copper wires insu-
lated with four coatings of gutta percha aid four
of compound, alternately, and covered with spun
Manilla yarn eight strands each, soaked in tar; and
the whole to be surrounded with gutta percha col*"
pound and properly covered. The cable will then
weigh about 1,000 pounds to the nautical mile.
The laying of the cable will coat $500,000, so that i
the cost of the line will amount to $4,341,000 n
gold. This enterprise still requires the consent of
the United States Government, but Belgium hae
granted to an American Company an exclusive
privilege for laying cables between the two eouw
tries for twenty years."

OBITUARY.—Hon. Benjamin F. Hopkins, mer.ll-
- of the U. S. House of Representatives from the Se;
cond Congressional District of Wisconsin, died on lan. 3u,
at Madison, in that State. He was born in Washington
county, N. Y., on April 22d, 1829, where he received a
common school education. Ile next removed to Wis-
consin and engaged is mercantile pursuits. In 1856-1
he was private secretary t• the Governor of Wisconsin, 10
1805 was a member of the Wisconsin House of Representa-
tives, an in 1862 and 1863 a member of the Senate. In
1866 he was elected to the Fortieth Congress, in whic''
he s ewed on the Committees of Public Lands and En"
rolled Bills. In 1868 ho was elected to the Forty-firs,"
Congress, and was chairman of the Committee on Public
Build i ugs and Grounds.—Ematiuel C. Reigart, of Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, who has just died, aged 74 years, first
nominated Thaddeus Stevens for Congress.—Stephen
Dubois, President of the Hudson River National Bank,
died at Hudson, New York, on Thursday morning, Dec.3l'
aged 66.—The Hon. John Olney, County Judge of Greene
County, New York, died on Thursday evening, Dec. 31.-"
The Hon. William L. Goggin, for several years Represen-
tative in Congress from Virginia, and Whig candidate 101
Governor iu 1859, died at Richmond on Tuesday, Jan.
in the 64th year of his age.—Mrs. Bathsheba Merton, the
oldest inhabitant of Middleburg, Vermont, has just died,
aged 99.—George Negley, youngest son of General Jameo
S. Negley, member of Congress from the Pittsburgh (Pa ),
District, died in Philadelphia, Jan. 7. His remains
be sent to Pittsburg for interment.
RAILWAY NEWS.—The Wall-street Journal sayS:
—"lmportant changes in the management of the Great
Western Railway of Canada are about to take place, which
will virtually place the road under control of its America°,
connecting lines. The committee of English directors ca
the Great Western Road, now in this country, after
thoroughly examining the road, recently held a meetinff
with James F. Joy, President of the Michigan Centre,
Road, and other prominent American railroad officials coo'
nected with the Central route. The result was, Mr. Joy
obtains a controlling influence over the affairs of the Great
Western Road, also over the Detroit and Milwaukee Road,
which was also included ha the arrangement. The office
of managing director, now held by Mr. Swinyard,
abolished. William K. Muir, present Assistant-Genera
"
Superintendent of the Michigan Central Road, has been
appointed General Superintendent of the Great Western
Road. He assumes the duties of the office on January 1'
About one hundred railroad bills are now pending the
action: Congress; three are from Arkansas—one 30
miles long, one 900, and the third is projected from Cairo'
to the Mexican boundary, near Presidio del Norte, on the
Rio Grande. with a branch to Lawrence, Kansas. Lai'
siana has three bills—one on the " Pacific Transit Rail-
way," from New Orleans to the Rio Grande-700 milee
long, for which only the right of way with 8,400 acres
per mile is asked. The Southern Pacific Road, on or near
the 32d parallel, is 1,900 miles long, and asks 400 feet for
right of way, and 40 sections to the mile ; a total of
48,685,600 acres, together with a guarantee of the interest,
on $32,000 per mile—a total of $60,800,000. Mr. Nye, °'
Nevada, has a bill for a road from Galveston, Texas, ter
Fort. Gibson, with a branch at Little Rock, Arkansas'
The distance is 700 miles.—The Utah Central Railroad 10
now built to within eight miles of Salt Lake City.--
Governor Hoffman has not turned over the Susquehanna
Railroad to the Ramsey directors. He is said to be wait-
ing for an official copy of Judge Smith's decision. It 10
understood that further legal proceedings aro to be takea,
by the opponents in the Ramsey interest.—lt is expected
that the cars of the Memphis, El Paso, and Pacific Rail'
road will be running 50 miles from Jefferson by the Ist
March, and, to Paris, Texas, by the middle of June.—The
track of the Chicago and Michigan Lake Shore Railroad
is now laid over ten miles from St. Joseph, and the work
is going on also at the New Buffalo end. Trains corn'
minced running on the Peninsular Railroad between
Battle Creek and Bellevue on December 1. The company
has 1,300 tons of iron in Detroit, and 1,800 tons on the
way. This, with what they have on hand, will iron the
road to Lansing. The company will run trains from Battle
Creek to Lansing in January. Arrangements have been
made for the completion of the Holly, Wayne, and Monroe
Railroad, to be operated in connection with 'the Lake
Shore and Flint and Pere Marquette Roads.—The Evans'
vine, Terre Haute, and Chicago Railroad Company has
been organised to construct a road from. Terre Haute, to
the State line, in the direction of Danville, there to unite
with the Chicao Danville and Vincennes Railroad. It°
northern connection the Chicago, Danville, and Vincenne°
Railroad, is being rapidly completed. About 30 miles of
track are laid and its builders will complete it to the
Indiana State line during the present year.—The West
Wisconsin Railroad Company has completed its track mil
is nor running to A.ugusta, 70 miles. Forty miles beyona
Augusta are under contract, and it is hoped to finish the
road to St. Paul during the coming year.—The last re."
of tho Utah Central Railroa(lwarstooprbieatle ie.
laid at
City on Monday, Jan. 10, with appropriate