The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-16 00:00:00

as future dividends would be more secure. Take
asian example the London and South-Western
Railway. - Their debenture stock was on 31st
December £3,547,320, of which £2,499,769 was
receiving from 44 to 5 per cent. interest. The
net earning of the line for the half year ending
the 31st December was £174,761 ; for the first
half, £155,333 ; together, £330,094. If that sum
had been paid in debenture warrants the share-
holders would have lost say 10 per cent., or
£33,009 ; but the - paying off of £330,094 deben-
tures, receiving from 44 to 5 per cent., would leave
a profit—taking into account stamps, commission
to brokers, &c.—of at least -a per cent., which
would represent a profit for future dividends of
£2,062 17s. 6d. ; this would represent a capital, at
5 per cent., of £41,257, but the loss would be in
dividends 233,009, which would represent, at 5 per
cent., a capital of £660,180. It is difficult to say
what would be the effect of such a scheme on the
price of stock ; .the above calculation may be the
worst feature, as the dividend warrants would
carry 4 per cent. interest and 2 per cent. more
capital if registered at the end of six months.
Again, the debentures being paid off will make
those outstanding easier to renew at 4 per cent.,
so that it is more than probable that at the end of
a few years the debenture warrants would sell at
par, and might even rise to a premium before the
entire debenture stock is paid off. The loss to
the shareholders would decrease each year by a
certain per tentage under the 10 per cent. as in
the above calculation, and each year the capital
stock would receive over one shilling per cent.
extra dividend by the saving in interest ; so that
in all probability, stock, instead of falling,
would command a firmer price. In the case
of the Great- Northern Railway Company the
figures would run thus :—Debentures carrying
more than 4 :per cent. interest, £1,270,995 ;
net profit the first half of 1866, £175,553 ;
second half, £281,271; together £456,824 ; so
that in less than three years the entire deben-
ture interest would be consolidated into a 4 per
cent. stock, the saving would be, at -a per cent.,
£7,944, approaching per cent. dividend upon the
capital stock. The loss to the shareholders
would, in all probability, be not more than 6 per
cent., or-127,409, during three years, and at the
end of three years an increased dividend of nearly
per cent. would be ensured. Great alarm has
been excited amongst the shareholders of all the
metropolitan gas companies by a bill which the
Government has introduced to amend the Gas Act
of 1860, and petitions, unprecedented in number,
have been presented to the House of Commons
on the subject. In the bill it is proposed,
amongst several most objectionable provisions,
to enact that the maximum rate of dividend—
viz., 10 . per cent.—authorized by two previous
Acts, shall (except under conditions with which
it is impossible to comply) be reduced to 7 per
cent. The injustice of such an enactment to all
shareholders who have invested in gas shares, on
the faith of existing Acts of Parliament, is so
flagrant, and the precedent as affecting other
companies for the future is so dangerous, that it is
impossible, if a shadow of honesty remains in
the House of. Commons, that a bill so detrimental
to every interest can be allowed to pass. Among
several conditions with which it is impossible to
comply there is one :—" That the companies are
not to make up their accounts or charge any price
whatever, even to out-going or doubtful tenants of
large consumption until, on the expiration of
each quarter, a gas examiner (from whom there
is no appeal) has reported what he considers has
been the quality of the gas, and what he considers
is the price properly chargeable for it, so that
neither the companies nor the public will know
from quarter to quarter what the one is to re-

ceive or the other to pay." How is it possible
that any company can accept such•a clause ? Is it
not proposing an impossibility in order to plunder
the houSe? Do members of Parliament expect
that, by starving every enterprise in the coun-
try, they will make the country richer ? That,
by reducing every shareholder to beggary, the
shopkeepers' bills will be more readily met. Are
there not at this moment many tradesmen on the
eve of bankruptcy on account of the inability of
their customers to pay their bills? Can they
ignore that the first condition to pay debts is to
have money in purse ? If they go on reducing
every man's income, will not a day come when
the Income Tax will yield next to nothing, or
they will have to reduce the exemption clause from
£lOO a year to £2O. It is time to call upon
common sense—to appeal to better provisions of
economy—unless it is the wisdom of the House
to drive every poor, unfortunate shareholder,
widows and orphans, into the workhouse. In
the City it is felt that the speedy settlement of
the Reform question has become an absolute ne-
cessity to stay apprehensions as to future order in
these kingdoms ; that a heavy responsibility will
fall upon any parties who, for the sake of popu-
larity, may seek to obstruct the passing of the
Ministerial Bill. 'With political complexities in
all directions and a host of financial and indus-
trial questions requiring solution, it is of vital
importance that the Government should be placed
as speedily as possible in a position to give undi-
vided attention to the general interests of the '
country.

Miscellaneous American News

- o--

On the 23d March the citizens of New York were
invited to an entertainment to be given in Seventh-
! street by the Chippewa and Sioux Indians. Great
preparations were made in paint and feathers by the
savages. Tomahawks were brightened up and
scalping knives sharpened. Whisky was swallowed,
and the red men wound up to a pitch of excite-
ment which might have carried them from a feint
int.) a real attack. The Secretary of the Interior,
fearing for the hair of the citizens, prohibited the
performance. The savages would be safer on the
stage than in an open park, and those sent over to
the Paris Exposition may appear on a French stage
to the delight and instruction of a Paris audience
who may wish to learn how hair is " raised."
The scene in the House of Representatives be-
tween Mr. Butler and Mr. Bingham is very gene-
Irally
commented on by the piess. On Tuesday,
March 26, the General on'entering the House placed
on the desk of each member a printed paper in two
columns, the one containing the speech of Mr.
Bingham as it appeared in the official report,
and the same speech as it appeared in the morn-
ing journals, by which it was shown that the
objectionable portion bad been eliminated. "The
speech," said Mr. Butler, " was not delivered
as printed, and therefore he could not reply to it.
The man was not to be envied who could sit down
in the cool of the evening when all was calm about
him and bring such an accusation against his peers
as could not have been answered at the time the
debate actually occurred. As to the case of
Mrs. Suratt, he bad examined the evidence with
great care, and on this evidence he pronounced the
innocence of the woman. It was no spasmodic
thought, but his opinion was formed after calm and
deliberate consideration. At the time of Booth's
death several articles were taken from his body.
Among them a diary, containing a full account of
the original plot. This was to abduct, not murder,
the President. Who was it that changed Booth's
purpose? Who was it that would benefit by the
death of Abraham Lincoln ? On investigation of
the diary, eighteen pages were shown to have been
cut out. He charged Mr. Bingham with " conniving
at the mutilation of the book, with suppressing the fact
of the existence of such a diary, although the discovery
of a tobacco pipe on the assassin's body was intro-
duced as evidence before the military court. Had
the contents of the diary been made public the
release of Mrs. Suratt would have been secured.
Therefore the woman was murdered, and the
member for Ohio was an accomplice in
the crime." While Mr. Butler spoke he held
in his hand the diary, and as he concluded
replaced it in his pocket. Mr. Bingham asked to see
it, but Mr. Butler refused. Mr. Bingham, in reply,
stated that "Mr. Butler, as a lawyer, knew that evi-
dence after the fact was never offered nor enter-
tained by a Court. He defied him to show by any
investigation that any statement or communication
made by John Wilkes Booth w.ts not made after

the fact, and therefore inadmissible as evidence.
All the Judicial tribunals had decided one way upon
such evidence, but perhaps the genius of these
judges was not equal to the unconquerable genius
of the unconquerable hero of Fort Fisher." We
have heard quite enough of Fort Fisher, and would
like to have some more satisfactory answer to the
frightful charge brought by Mr. Butler against the
military commission that tried Mrs. Suratt. If
General Butler is in possession of this diary it will
be his duty to publish it, and at all hazards, if Mrs.
Suratt was innocent, to establish the fact.
TILE LINCOLN MONUMENT ASSOCIATION.—Wash-
ington, March 27.—Congress has just passed a law
organising an association, national in its character,
for the purpose of erecting a monument commemo-
rative of the Great Charter of American Freedom.
The Trustees for the North and North-western
States are as follows :—Representative John T.
Wilson, of Ohio ; Representative Orth, of Indiana ;
Representative Cullom, of Illinois ; Senator Har-
lan, of Iowa; and Representative Driggs, of
Michigan.
In the United States Senate on the 27th March,
Mr. Thayer asked and obtained unanimous consent
to have read a telegram from the general manager
of the Union Pacific Railroad West, from Omaha,
to the effect that work on that road was progressing
rapidly, and would be pushed on at the rate of two
miles a day for the next 100 days.
The Washington Secretary of Foreign Affairs
has condescended to explain his action in the
M'Cracken matter. The Department is bound by
the strongest bonds of red tape, unchangeable rules
and traditions, which admit of no departure. Any
charge made to the Department against an employe'
of the Republic is formally communicated to the
accused in an official document counter-signed by
the Secretary. This, Mr. Seward states, was his
own course, adopted in compliance with the well-
established rule, towards the diplomatic agents de-
nounced by Mr. M.Cracken. If the rule were
reversed, and the diplomatic agents directed to for-
ward to the President or Congress every charge
made against the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, a
staff of clerks, well up in the business, would be in-
sufficient to answer the correspondence.
The burning of the Winter Garden Theatre at
New York is regarded in the city as almost a public
misfortune. With the theatre a collection of cos-
tumes was consumed, unequalled in the accuracy
with which they delineated the modes of dress in
every age and country. Such a loss is not easily
replaced, independent of the intrinsic value of the

vast amount of the gold and silver embroidery, of
satins and silks. Messrs. Booth and Stuart, the
lessees, who thus lost the fruits of a successful life
of labour, have the deep sympathy of all, and it is
not improbable that the New Yorkers will show this
in a substantial form.

1 On the 25th March the resolution adopted by the
Senate forbidding Ministers abroad to wear uni-
forms, was discussed in the House of Representa-
tives, and an amusing debate was the result.
Mr. Noell, of Missouri, gave his own idea
of what the official dress for an American Minister
should be, and proposed its adoption by the house.
II A swallow-tailed coat, with stars and stripes in the
tail, butternut pantaloons, close fitting yellow
I stockings, with garters a la Franklin, buck-
-Iskin vest, one side black and one side white, the
whole surmounted with a cocked hat, looped up
with an American eagle. On the Speaker ruling
that the amendment was out of order, Mr. Banks
stood up and informed the House of a prediction of
Turgot's, in 1794, " that the day would come when
the United States would play the part which
Carthage played in ancient times," and "that their
, country would establish a policy in the matter
of dress as in other things" on which the resolution
was carried, and an American Minister cannot now
appear at any Court, in court-dress. Mr. Covode
amused the House by moving an amendment to the
resolution, which, although it produced laughter,
has been universally condemned as in bad taste :
" I'rovided, that diplomatic agents shall not be per-
mitted to wear any Court dress except such as shall
be prescribed and the patterns drawn by the Chief
Tailor of the nation, who is now presiding over its 1
destinies."

It was reported by telegraph from New York,
April 6, that the Liberals, under Escobedo, had
been defeated, but fuller intelligence has been
brought to Paris by M. Forest, the French Consul
at Mazatlan, who has just arrived from New York.
It appears that the Emperor personally led his
troops, and that he succeeded in completely routing
Escobedo, who fled from the field with a mere
remnant of his force. General Miramon had ad-
vanced by forced marches upon San Luis de
Potosi, while General Mejia held Queretaro. for
Maximilian. The Emperor had returned to the
capital, and was concerting with General Mendez
the measures necessary to re-open the communica-
tion between the capital and Vera Cruz, which has
been interrupted since the departure of the French
troops. On April 9it was telegraphed from New
York that Mr. Seward had written to Juarez to urge
that in the event of the Emperor Maximilian being
captured he should be treated as a prisoner of war.
It is probable that the Secretary of State had writ-
ten his letter when the Emperor was supposed to
be shut up in Queretara, with scarcely a hope of
escape. Maximilian, who is a fine dashing soldier,
may prove himself to be the most able leader in
Mexico, and he may yet command the position by
the sheer force of skill and intrepidity.
General Hancock has started from Leavenworth,
Kansas, for the country inhabited by the Sioux,
Cheyenne, and Arrapahoe Indians with 1,500
cavalry and infantry and a battery of artillery. He
was also accompanied by several chiefs and braves
of the Delawares, who are to act as guides and
scouts. General A. J. Smith commands the regi-
ment of cavalry. The expedition is not bound on
a hostile errand further than punishing those in-
clined to be belligerent, the main object being to
strengthen the friendship of the peaceable inha-
bitants.

The ship Lincolnshire belonging to Messrs. Money,
Wigram, and Sons arrived at Plymouth from Mel-
bourne on Wednesday. She reports Feb. 28, in
lat. 12.50 S., long. 31.50 W., the American ship
Lizzie Scott; 90 days from Callao ; and on March
13, in lat. 10.21 N., long. 38.22 W., the British
ship Assyrian,
.70 days from Shanghai, for New
York.

The Pall Mall Gazette informs us that the Terri-
tory of Deseret, which includes the Mormon settlement
of Utah, has adopted a Constitution and laid it
before the American Congress, with a prayer for
admission into the Union as a State. We would
have reversed the position of those names, and
called the Territory " Utah," and the Mormon
Settlement " Deseret." To the Gentile world the
Territory is known as Utah, though the Mormon
saints have termed their settlement Deseret—the
country of the Bee—the insect they have chosen as
their emblem.

COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.

NEW YORK, Saturday, March 30.

The imports of specie at New York again show a large
balance over thnexports. The Aspinwall steamer brought
$870,572, while the exports for the week amounted to
$74,742. The imports from Ist January were $6,146,181,
against exports $6,068,603. The receipts of specie at the New
York Custom-house, for the week ending Saturday last,
were $1,935,1574, and the balance in the sub-Treasury is
now $110,890,405. The demand for Europe is growing
slacker, and gives little appearance of strengthening. Some
look, however, for an increase likely to arise on account
of excursionists to the Paris Exposition, but against this
there will be the disbursements by the Treasury for the
May dividend on the 5-20's. The demand for money has
strengthened in preparation for the quarterly dividends,
but such exceptional causes must tend to increase instead
of diminishing the supply, and there is every prospect of
an accumulation of capital seeking employment. It is
confidently expected that the tightest period of the market
has passed, and greater ease will rule for some time to
come. Government Securities continue steadily to rise,
and the demand has in no degree slackened. Robinson,
Ogden, and Co., the well-known dealers in these Secu-
rities, have failed. Although there were wild reports
as to their liabilities in circulation, it is now known
that little, if any, loss will accrue, and it is even be-
lieved that the firm, after a short suspension, will
resume business. The contraction of the currency goes
steadily on, and speculators whose style of business is in-
terfered with by the process suffer severely-. It cannot be
expected that so important a change can be effected with-
out disturbance, but it may safely be predicted that those
whose business stands on a sure basis will not be mate-