The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-19 00:00:00

ROYALTY IN IRELAND.

Prince Arthur leaves for Ireland on Mond y,
April 5, and will travel for three or four months in
that country. He is rather young (under 15) to be
lionised ; but royalty has to be precocious, and he is
sure to be made much of at Dublin and other places.
His presence in Ireland will give Lord Spencer and
Mr. Fortescue some anxiety, for Fenianism is rather
scotched than killed,.and the Duke of Edinburgh's
.
experience at Sydney enough to make the
authorities nervous. Prince Arthur will return to
Woolwich at the end of the summer,- and continue
his military duties till winter, when he will leave
on a visit to Canada; not quite the best time of the
year, by the way, for visiting that country.

THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD COM-
PANY'S ANNUAL REPORT.

The Pennsylvania Railroad, it will be seen, con-
tinues to develope a vigorous growth westward,
through acquisitions, compacts, and combinations,
meanwhile that the treasury of the company fattens
on its accumulations of receipts and assets. And
concerning the latter, President Thomson, in his re-
port, makes this significant and emphatic declara-
tion " The assets of this company—exclusive of
its own roads—invested for the protection and en-
largement of its traffic are now, at a reasonable
valuation, more than sufficient to meet the whole
indebtedness of the company, except the five per
cent. bonds held by the state of Pennsylvania, which
are being paid by a contribution from the net re-
venues of the company in semi-annual payments of
$230,000 each. During the past year these contri-
butions, after the payment of interest, left
$142,978.50 to he appropriated to the reduction of
the principal, which amount will annually increase
as the debt upon which interest is payable is re-
duced." The unexampled financial strength of
the Pennsylvania Railroad Company is unques-
tionably, in part, due to its unswerving resistance
of all inducements presented, from time to time,
to consolidate into its own capital the capital of
other corporations, and to the steady maintenance
of the policy of securing and preserving co-opera-
tion with other companies, through the acquisi-
tion of a majority of their capital shares and the
friendly domination of their hoards of directors.
The Pennsylvania Railroad Company is the centre
and source of a power which is diffused not alone
through its own departmental organizations, but
also through other corporations, whose lines, inter-
woven into its system of works, participate in its
benefits of reciprocity, in a union which is strength
both to trunk and to tributaries. The termini of
the Pennsylvania Railroad—not the Pennsylvania
Central Railroad as it is too often inaccuntely
called— are in Philadelphia and Pittsburg, but its
combinations strike tide-water east and south of
Philadelphia, and spread out west from Pittsburg to
the great trade centres on lake and river, prairie,
and plain. And so gradual and circumspect has
been the expansion that, so far from the company's
Own credit having been weighed down in the pro-
cess, the assets on band, says President Thomson,
are " more than sufficient to meet the whole indebt-
edness of the company, except the 5 per cent. bonds
held by the State of Pennsylvania." These lat-
ter bonds, issued in payment for the Old Main
Litic of Public Works, are yearly diminished
in amount by instalments paid out of net earn-
ings. And in connection with the old main line
we would remark, en passant, that the com-
pany's canal department, organized to operate the
canal portion of the old main line east of the Alleg-
heny Mountain, was extinguished on the organize •
tion of the Pennsylvania Canal Company, in which
the Pennsylvania Railroad Company own a majority
of the capital shares, and which canal company,
moreover, now
.own 360 miles of connecting river-
side canals, comprising 149 miles along the Sus-
quehanna river between Columbia and Wilkes-
Barre, 83 miles along the West Branch Susque-
hanna river, and 128 miles along the Juniata river.
From this river-side series of artificial navigation
'there is outlet via the Union Canal into the Schuyl-
kill Valley and via the Tidewater Canal route to
nPhrielanadaerlks that the Pennsyl-
vania and Erie lease,
Havre de Grace and Delaware City. Touching the
io
,pr ee rs
dt ie onnt s
vania Railroad Company, in 1868, incurred a" loss"
Tofhomthseo
of " $83,274.65 or $271,177.78 less than in 1867."
The next annual report will show, doubtless, a
handsome balance on the side of profit. In verity,
when it is considered that the traffic to and from
the city of Philadelphia, and the immense region
traversed by the 288 miles of Philadelphia and Erie
Road from Sunbury to Erie City, is also passed over
one hundred and eleven miles of the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company's mainline, including the whole
of the Philadelphia Division, a very small draw-
back, credited to the lease, would more than ex-
tinguish the $83,274.60" of apparent " loss"
charged against it. In the absence of the " lease"
much of this trade might have taken another route

open to it. But President Thomson deals with

figures as they stand on the books, " nothing ex-
tenuate nor aught set down in malice," and so
" I'. and E.," must wait till the current year run

out, and in the next report is substituted " gain"
for " loss." Earnings of the Pennsylvania Rail-
road for 1868. $17,233,497 31 ; earnings of the
Philadelphia and Erie Railroad, $2,804,250 36 ;
total earnings of roads owned and operated under
lease, $20,037,746 67 ; add earnings of three de-

scribed roads o3..vugd in .mai4lAY Dart, ig.,055,873 06;
zr,kruo,t)l9 73. To show that the Pennsylvania
Railroad Compaly, which was incorporated only
23 years ago (1846) already transact a large
business, and yet it has only expanded to meet
the exigencies of its situation, for large cities have

risen in the Wes; with which the great seaports
measure. There is
intertrade in evey increasing

no option but to irony or stand still and be out-

Down. 'This is rue both of cities and railroad
corporations. Ilnee " excelsior" is the word on
every lip, the asiration in every heart. And in
pursuing its onwtd career the Pennsylvania Rail-
read Company las founded and fortified the
grandest transpoation work in America, its guid-

ing spirits showig thereby that the position occu-
pied is understot and appreciated, in its strategy
and finance, andil the considerations and bear-
ings which assoate with the theme, in its actu-

alities and in k prespectS. At date June 30,
1868, the " menditure on capital account"
of the Londonand North Western Railway
Company, anvnted to £50,243,787, equal
to $251,218,93 The length of roads ope-
rated by the London and North Western
Railway Comp under ownership and lease was
1,3461 miles. / date December 31,1867, the pail
in capital and ebt of the railroad companies of
Great Britain—here there were in operation at
that date 14,24 miles of road--7,844 miles of
which were dou track, 6,403 miles single track—
reached the enctous aggregate of £502,262,887,
equal to $2,51:14,435! The average cost per
mile of the roads in Great Britain at dat-!,

Pecethber 31, It, was $176,264. At this average
cost per mile British roads, main lines and
branches, 355 les of road from Philadelphia to
trutb, the paid
Pittsburg wou
c05t562,573,720 ; whereas, in
capital and indebtedness of the
Pennsylvania Iroad Company at date Dec. 31,
1868, amounteb capital stock, $27,040,762 50 ;
mortgage bon bonds held by the State,