The Sun.
London, England, 1856-07-04 00:00:00

NEW SPECULATIONS.

The fever of speculation now gradually comment-.
ing will be watched with anxiety by all who regard
the permanent welfare of the country. Every one
can see that with the influx of bullion the demand
for new investments will increase, that this demand
will be met on all sides, and that the majority of
the schemes introduced will call not merely for the
surplus funds seeking employment at the moment,
but will pledge the community to a continued out-
lay long after the. tide may have turned. They can
also recognise -that the final result will be a crash
such as was witnessed in 1825, 1836, and 1847, and.
which in this country may be looked for with abso-
lute precision once every 11 years. The whole
population will nevertheless go on, each man be-
lieving that he will pause in time, and that his
neighbour is to be the person who must suffer: In
such a state of affairs all warnings are useless, since
there is no difference of opinion as to the end. The
only service that can be rendered is to remind the
public from time to time of their actual position,
so that, if they increase their commitments to an
extravagant extent, they may at least do so with a
full knowledge of what they are undertaking. Thus
far no danger has been incurred, but a retrospect
of the enterprises of the past half-year will show
that the amounts already engaged to be furnished
are considerable, and that when these shall have
been doubled or trebled—as will, perhaps, be the
case during the next six months—they will make
an aggregate sufficient to absorb the disposable
means of England for three or four years thereafter.
Annexed is a list of companies introduced on the
Stock Exchange since the Ist of January, 1856 :
Company. Capital.
1 Acadian Iron £200,000
2 Alliance Bank 800.030
3 Bank of Egypt 250,000
4 Ottoman Bank 500,000
5 Bank of Switzerland BOO 000
6 Pernambuco Railway _ 1,200,000
7 Riga Railway 1,600,000
8 Ceylon Railway
9 Eastern Bengal Railway 1,009,000
10 Italian Junction 1,000,000
11 Lombardo-Venetian 6,000,030
12 Euphrates Valley 1,000,000
13 Indian Mercantile Agency
14 Colonial Fibre lOO,OOO
15 Hultsdorf Mills (Ceylon)
16 Turkish Gas l'o,ooo
17 Caisse des Mines BOO,OOO
18 Quartz Reduction (California) 50,000
14 Societe des Clippers Francais BOO,OOO
20 Trinidad Fuel 50,000
21 Ruhrort Coal Mining Company 160,000
22 Societe Parisienne for Supplying Coals to Paris 800,, 00
23 Fibre and Paper lOO,OOO
24 Fairfield Candle 160.000
25 Great Yarmouth Fishery 30,000
26 Hansor's Oliphant Gas 50,000
27 Imperial Hotel 1,000,000
28 Western Bank of London 400,000
29 National Discount 1,000,000.
30 West Metropolitan Bank 300,000
31 Bank of Wales lOO,OOO
32 Unity Bank 300.000
33 London Armoury
34 London Wine 50,000
35 British Slag 53;000
36 Bernard's Patent Boot and Shoe 120,000
37 Metropolitan Milk 50,000
38 North and South Wales Steam Fuel ...... 30,0, 0
39 Metropolitan Field Bleaching and Scouring 30,000
40 Sunken Vessels Recovery 60,000
41. Surrey Gardens
42 West Ham Distillery 200,000
43 Thames Steam-tug and Lighterage 200,000
44 Mid Kent Railway 70,00)
45 Brighton Hael

The aggregate capital apparently demanded for
the above is 23,49,1,000/., a total which would
already seem alarming, but that it admits of seve-
ral important deductions. The schemes from No. 1
to No. 22 inclusive are alone those which involve
outlay in foreign countries. They amount to
19,110,000/. and as several of them, such as the
Lombardo-Venetian Railway, the Italian Junction
Railway, the Bank of Switzerland, and the Soc'ete
des Clippers Francais have been subscribed jointly
on the English and Continental Exchanges, the
sum will be by that means diminished about
6,000,000/. Another million or two may be esti-
mated for the Bank capitals, which will probably
not be required to be paid up in full. The actual
amount, therefore, now promised to foreign coun-
tries may be set down within 11,000,0001. This
will not appear extremely heavy, when it is re-
collected that in 1853 a sum nearly as large was
undertaken to be supplied to one concern alone
—namely, the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada
—but it is of sufficient magnitude to produce a
sensible effect, and, if it were in the shape
of an- immediate loan, instead of a number
of works which will be spread over a few years, it
would not fail to exert, as our recent experience
regarding the Turkish Loan may illustrate, a very
decided and inconvenient influence on the money-
market. It is to be borne in mind, moreover, that
these claims do not represent all that are in pro-
gress, since Australian and Canadian and a variety
of other debentures are quietly negotiated almost
every week, and there is likewise an advance of
1,000,0001. to be made to Sardinia. With regard
to the companies in the above list numbered 23 to
44, whose operations are confined to home, there
is little to call for remark. Their total is 4,380,0001.,
and 1,000,0001. of this is placed to the Imperial
Hotel scheme, which is either in abeyance or aban-
doned, while 2,100,0001. is taken by the National
Discount Company and several banks, and is there-
fore in no way diverted from public use. It is a
singular fact that while the law of limited liability
has been assailed on the ground that it would prove
a stimulus to the wildest speculation, it has thus
far led only to a few moderate and for the most
part useful projects, which may serve in their de-
gree the healthful purpose of finding employment
for our energies within the limits of our own shores.
—Times' City Article.

THE NATIONAL GALLERY.