The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-09 00:00:00

Sporting in America.

IVe extract the following from Wilkes's Spirit of
the 7 lines :—" Taken altogether, the year 1866 has
been more remarkable for good racing, great
gatherings, and extraordinary interest than any
other that we remember. The games began in
May, at Nashville.
NASHVILLE SPRING MEETING.—The first day at
Nashville brought out 11Inggins, by Jack Malone,
out of Fanny 111Mllister. He won the three-
year• old stake, beating Liverpool and Duke of
Orleans. Harry of the West was successful at
mile heats, for all ages. The grey colt by Light-
ning, out of Edith, by Sovereign, since called
Slonewall Jackson, won the Cumberland Stake,
No. 2, for three year olds, mile heats, beating
Copper, Caledonia, and Ida.

WOODLAWN SPRING MEETlNG.—Lancaster, own
brother to Lightning, Thunder, and Loadstone,
won the stake for three ydar olds, beating the colt
by _Mickey Free and Alice Farris. Ansel beat
Easter and Saratoga, three mile heats. The other
races amounted to nothing. Asteroid walked over
for the Challenge Vase.

DEER IN SOUTH CAROLINA.-011 Saturday, 24th
November, Mr. William Ross brought down two
does, right and left; and again on Saturday, Ist
inst., killed a fine stag, with four points, i❑ fine
condition, weighing, gross, nearly two hundred
pounds. The same day Mr. John Ross killed a buck
of two points. This occurred in York district, near
Cherokee Ford. The party consisted of Messrs.
John, William, and Jacob Ross, Mr. John Moore,
Captain F. G. Latham, Mr. Moss ; Messrs. J. Moss
and Childers driving. The shooting was done with
double barrels at sixty and seventy yards with buck-
shot.

A GOOD COUNTRY FOR GAME.—The Santa Cruz
(N.Y.) Sentinel says that on Tuesday last a party of
gentlemen went out on a hunting excursion, and so

fortunate were they, that one day's shooting sufficed
to load their vehicle with game, and satisfy them
and astonish their friends with their extraordinary
skill. They brought back 1 deer, 15 dozen quail,
5 dozen rabbits, and any quantity of woodchucks
and other small fry, and several dozen empty
bottles.

By the last accounts from America, we hear that
on the lludson and some other rivers ice-boating is
at present the most exciting sport. The boats
rush at the rate of a mile a minute over clumps and
hummocks of ice, snowdrifts, and cracks down the
St. Lawrence. To keep your seat under these
circumstances is more difficult than when riding
a steeplechase. The finest fleet of ice-
boats in the United States are to be
found at Ploughkeepsie, on the Hudson.
The best are the Snoujiake, Haze, Fly-
ing Clowl, Restless, Dixie, Icicle, Una, Mimic-
hahct, Vesper, and Arctic. Each of these has
achieved the speed of one mile a minute. The Snow-
flake a year ago passed ever a course nine miles
long in eight minutes. A twenty mile race for a
service of silver is soon to take place. All the
boats of the Ploughkeepsie Association will com-
pete.

The apparatus and machinery of the Pittsburg
Gymnastic Association are among the finest and
most complete in the State, affording every de-
visable kind of athletic exercise and sport.
One of the most pleasing, as well as the most
useful fixtures in the institution, are the pull-
ing or rowing machines, constructed under the
direction of Mr. James Hamill, champion oars-
man of America. Hamill and his brother John are
active and energetic members of the association, and
by their enterprise and energy have materially as-
sisted it in its successful career.

At Brooklyn base-ball was being played on the
icc.

The American Strugg'e.

The Telegraph believes that a more unfortunate
mistake at a turning point in a nation's history was
never committed than when the American Congress
shut its doors against the re-entry of 13 States into
the bosom of the Union. If any proof were needed
to show the almost irreparable character of the
fault—the fault worse than a crime—of which the
majority were then guilty, no stronger evidence
could be given than the contrast between the feeling
now manifested among the people of both sections
and that which prevailed a year ago. Unfortu-
nately some of the men who had risen into power
as the heads of the war party began to fear lest the
restoration of harmony and the work of reconstruc-
tion should proceed too rapidly. They asked them-
selves whether, in the event of a readmission for the
Southern States, it was certain they could retain
the power whose sweets they had tasted. Great
manufacturing interests had grown up, and a high
protective tariff had enabled the Eastern States to
gather enormous profits from a system to which the
Southern people had always been opposed. me
Pennsylvania iron and coal owners, the Western
woolgrowers, the New England cotton and wool
manufacturers, were each in turn alarmed at the
idea that a return to free trade doctrines
would be advocated, as of old, by those
who would now come in as representa-
tives of districts almost exclusively agricultural.
In addition to such monopolists was a body of sin-
cere but impracticable men, who were not content
with their triumph in the great cause of emancipa-
tion for which they bad fought so long and so gal-
lantly. They insisted that the slave of yesterday
should be, not only the freeman, but the legislator
of to-day. Without a moment's intervention,
without preparation of any sort, they insisted on a
transition instant and complete. In the meantime
the glow of national triumph, the disposition to
magnanimity that springs from the first flush of
complete and decisive victory, had become weakened
and had given place to more selfish motives. First
came a desire to delay, then greatly to postpone,
and at last finally to refuse admission, to the very
States which had by force been prevented from
withdrawing. In both sections of the country pas-
sions have been excited, more malignant than ever,
because they find no vent in open and honourable
war. The North is in a ferment of fury against the
South, which responds with dark and lowering
aspect, and would to-morrow, if it had the power,
again tear itself away from a connection which it
regards with renewed abhorrence. The President
is menaced with impeachment, and his organs
threaten, in their turn, to appeal to the sword. All
is confusion, disorder, and discord ; and, to aggra-
vate the unfavourable symptoms, we see indications
of the coming of that financial crisis which has
been so long delayed. In all this the calm observer
can discern the legitimate and necessary fruits of
the departure in 1866 from the policy of harmony
and conciliation commenced under such happy
auspices in 1865.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—The report of the Great Eastern Rail-
way Company for the last half-year comes oppor-
tunely in illustration of the discussions which the
singular and unexpected position of railway pro-
perty is now suggesting. IVe certainly cannot call
this line au insolvent line, for it pays all its expenses
with a handsome surplus. Nor must we even class
it with the " unsound" concerns now freely spoken
of, for its directors take upon themselves to affirm
conscientiously that the undertaking, " apart from
its exceptional financial state," was never in " a more
sound or healthy condition" than at this mo-
ment. Still, not to mention the importance of the
reservation thus made, the Great Eastern is cer-
tainly a non-paying line as regards its own proprie-
tors. Not one sixpence of dividend is even now
forthcoming for the shareholders of one of the great
trunk lines of the kingdom. Their business is enor-
mous, their revenue princely ; but the profits of the
undertaking are not for them. The case can be
stated with the greatest ease ; in fact, we owe
it to the directors to say that a report could
hardly be put in a more compendious or in-
telligible form than has been here adopted.
Between midsummer and Christmas last, notwith-
standing the cattle plague, the cholera, and the fin-
ancial panic, the Great Eastern actually earned all
but a million of money. The gross sum taken for
business done during these six months was not less
than £996,293195. 6d., and as only £512,616 4s. 2d.
was spent in earning it, it follows that a net profit
of £483,677 15s. 4d. was realised upon the work of
the half year. If the property of the company were
unencumbered, this would afford a dividend of 10
per cent. to the shareholders ; but, unfortunately,
the state of affairs is very different. The com-
pany upon coming into possession of this hand-
some surplus has first to provide a sum of no less
than £273,146 15s. 11d. for rents to other .com-
panies, interest on mortgages and debentures, and
charges for temporary loans. Even this tremendous
sweep, .however, would still leave £214,249 11s. Bd.
available for payment of dividends ; but, unfortu-
nately, again, this item must be widely expanded,
for there are numerous preferential shareholders who
are entitled to satisfaction before the ordinary pro-
prietary. These claimants intercept a further sum
of £214,246 4s. 9d., so that after the final subtrac-
tion a net balance of £3 7s. 2d. is all that can be
" brought down" out of the half million of surplus
with which the account began. There is the history
of a great railway undertaking legibly written. The
business is good, the earnings are large, and the pro-
fits are handsome ; but the concern is so burdened
with debts and encumbrances that its owners get
nothing. The question for the proprietors—and,
indeed, for the public, for the public also is inte-
rested in the prosperity of these vast undertakings
is, what is to be done ? What are the prospects
of the Great Eastern for the future ? Well, as
things go, we may say they are tolerably good. It
is to be observed that the company is not only doing
far more than certain other companies, but is really
making, on the present occasion, quite an excep-
tional effort in the way of liquidation. After pay-
ment of all charges on mortgages and debentures,
and all claims of preferential shareholders, there
would still, at this moment, be a dividend, though a
very small one, for the original proprietors, were it
not that some preference dividends remain in arrear.
The satisfaction of these arrears absorbs the little
balance of £30,000, which would otherwise have
afforded a fractional dividend on the original stock,
so that the company is now paying hot only
all preferential charges for the half-year, but
some arrears of these charges into the bargain. If,
therefore, the Great Eastern is still a non-paying
line, it bids fair to escape from that category before
long. Unless, however, the revenue can be materially
increased, or the working expenses diminished, the
balance of the account can hardly be expected to
promise much for the shareholders. It seems that
both these improvements are actually being effected,
though, of course, only to a limited extent, and the

unhesitating conclusion of the directors upon the
point is curiously illustrative of the state of affairs.
They see no remedy but an escape from their proper
sphere. Besides being a Great Eastern Company,
they must be Northern and Western, too. Their
own proper district would have sufficed for their
capital, but it does not suffice for their encumbrances.
They have got to clear off debts as well as earn a
livelihood, and to do this they must emerge from
the Eastern Counties into the more promising pas-
stures of their neighbours. But this looks very much
like invasion, or encroachment, or whatever it may
be called, and such policy has never yet been suc-
cessful. We may take it for granted that if reck-
lessly pursued it would cost more than it would
bring. The directors, however, seem prudently bent
on negotiation rather than conquest. Treaties, they
tell us, have been pending for some time, and a satis-
factory- conclusion is thought to be in view. It will
not have escaped the realer's notice that the direc-
tors, while speaking with complacency of the "sound
and healthy condition" of their undertaking, talk in
the same breath of its" exceptional financial state."
The truth is, these remarks are directed to an ex-
ceedingly grave and ominous question, which has
already occupied the notice of Parliament in the
first week of its session. By the soundness and
health of the concern under their charge the direc-
tom mean that in a fair and honest balance-sheet
provision is made for every liability, and that even
a dividend on share capital, though not forthcoming
at present, may be reasonably anticipated from a
net balance in process of gradual enlargement. In
speaking of the exceptional state of their finances
they allude to a condition of the money-market
which precludes even the legitimate operations of
railway managers in that quarter. They have got
their debentures to deal with, and they want addi-
tional capital besides. They tried to raise it by an
offer of G per cent.—not bad terms from a line
which is, at least, paying all its creditors ; but they
could not get it. So small was the sum tendered in
reply to the invitation that the directors offered the
subscribers their money back again, and they now
bitterlycomplain that theirsecurities are disparaged,
apart from all reference to the income or prospects
of the undertaking. There is no doubt about the
fact, and as even the financial abilities of Mr.
Laing, whose aid has been invited, can only im-
prove these prospects and receipts,the difficulty still
looms in the future. It arises, as is now understood,
from the deep distrust which a financial ruin has
occasioned, and which has been aggravated by dis-
coveries affecting the credit, if not the actual value,
of railway securities. As regards this matter, no
chairman, however able, can do the Great Eastern
any good. What he can do is to confirm and im-
prove the financial position of the concern, so as to
render its credit advantageously available at the
first revival of public confidence. That revival must
some day come. I% ith a market already abounding
in money, and swelled incessantly by fresh floods
of accumulating capital, property like railway pro-
perty can never remain long out of favour. It is
depreciated now, but railway managers, who must
well know the reason why, can be in no doubt as to
the nature of the reformation required.