The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-14 00:00:00

THE MILITIA.

The North York Rifle Militia, under the com-
mand of the Duke of Leeds, the colonel, are to as-
semble at Richmond, Yorkshire, on the 28th inst.,
for 21 days' training. The regiment is about 580
strong.
The 3d Royal Surrey Militia Regiment, Lieut.-
Col. Challoner, commandant, assembled for 21 days'
training upon the 9th inst., and mustered about
500

RAILWAYS IN AUSTRIA.

ARMY CONTRACTS.

If an article could be extended to about 150 co-
lumns we might hope to be able to deal at one view:'
with the question how to clothe an English soldier.
It need not be so dull or dreary as at first sight the
subject might appear to threaten. Shoddy cloth and
boots of many patents are not in themselves invit-
ing subjects of meditation, but the adventures of a
soldier contesting with his regulation enemies is not
incapable of lively illustration. Choked by his
tight stock in all climates, toiling under his porous
greatcoat through tropical rains, shivering in the
same useless garment during night watches in
Canada, footsore from boots so contrived as to let in
the sharp atoms that strew the line of march, tor-
tured by that heavy shako which has once or twice
within military memory saved a man from a sabre
cut, but which, in every military experience, kills
men by apoplexy, such incidents of his pilgrimage
might give scope to the imagination of a military
Bunyan, and perhaps enlist the sympathies of the
most cruel and hardhearted member of the Peace
Society—if that stony-souled and most pugnacious
congregation of mortals should still exist in a cor-
porate form. But these ekborations are beyond our
possibilities. It may be as stated, that when our
men saw the loose-cfad and well-gaitered Zouaves,
springing like cats from rock to rock up the
Alma heights, they envied them the free use of
their limbs, and it is a notorious fact that when
the Chinese first saw our red coats they taxed
their ingenuity, not to find means to kill them, but
to invent contrivances for throwing them down,
for they were convinced that, once down, they
could never get up again, and might be killed off
at leisure. It is a common trick of sailors on board
ship to catch their pet monkey.and dress him in a
tight-fitting imitation of a marine's uniform ; then
they stand round and enjoy the agony and grimaces
of the creature as he vainly strives to exercise his
natural agility. But this prison of cloth and mul-
tiplication of impediments are first principles in the
minds of our martinets. They are institutions
which we must leave unquestioned. We are going
to deal only with a small episode in the great mili-
tary clothing epic.
Mr. Coningham, the member for Brighton, has
just been making the usual after-session speech now
expected by every popular constituency ; and he
does good service by keeping this subject before
the public eye. It must not be allowed to fade
away, although, no doubt, it is disagreeable to
many sympathies. Mr. Coningham truly says—" If
you attack the military system, every colonel and
general, and cornet and ensign, thinks it necessary
to get up and protest against such attacks on the ad-
ministrators of that department. They are the most
energetic and responsible people in the world—men
who have been just cut out for the place—only, by
some accident or other something went wrong and
some horrible malversations took place ; but they
knew nothing about it. Why, Col. Boldero, the
chairman of the committee appointed to inquire
into certain proceedings at Weedon, came down to
the house and made disclosures sufficient to make
the hair of every honest man's head to stand on
end. They were substantiated by evidence which
cannot be disputed. It was proved that those abo-
minations had been committed. Well, had any one
man been suspended? Not any one." The history of
this Weedon business ought to be read aloud in
public places once every week until the whole sys-
tem is thoroughly abolished and reformed.
Time was, not long ago, when the soldier was
clad by his colonel, who, having certain allowances
for that purpose, might, if he choose, make a profit
of some thousand a-year by the transaction. The
shako, the stock, the coat, the trousers, and the
boots were then provided, at a profit, out of an
allowance of 2s. 6d. per man. This was asy stem
discreditable to the rank of a field officer, and
open to other more practical objections. Rich
colonels, of great military zeal, spent sums beyond
their allowance in dressing their regiments in
fantastic splendour. Poor colonels, or avaricious
colonels, served out to their men such miserable
garments that the captains were ashamed to
march their companies through Cotentry. Public
opinion, noting these things, became first sarcastic
and then angry, and the system was abolished.
The stage was now clear for a new act. It was a
great opportunity for original administrative talent.
The object to be accomplished was to buy good
military clothes and accoutrements and serve them
out to the men. All the lights of the nineteenth
century shone upon the enterprise. Waterproofers
and anatomical tailors, boot pluggers and wool-
dyers, with a crowd of proprietors •of thousands of
registered garments, were all eager to assist ; and
book-keepers cunning in double entry, were not
wanting to keep everything in order. Great brick
buildings of businesslike ugliness arose in the cen-
tre of England; principal storekeepers and deputy-
storekeepers, and inspectors and viewers—a long
catalogue, with very liberal salaries at the top and
very wretched salaries at the bottom--were duly
appointed. That everything was done with rigorous
attention to preeedent in officidl life may be trust-
fully relied upon, for the- Idborious student finds
that the first name that becomes prominent during
after inquiries is Elliot, and the second is Grey;
And now the work commenced. First came the
contracts. They were drawn with such strict at-
tention to the public advantage that the contrac-
tor who signed that document was no longer a free
man. Whatever the representatives of the mili-
tary clothes-buying public did or said, rejected or
accepted, delayed or expedited, was under the terms
of that contract well justified in law. Grave counsel-
lors in after days pored over these stamped papers,
and vainly-tried to pick a hole in them ; but the rivets
were all sound—nothing but the Court of Bank-
ruptcy could break them. Whether the contractors
ever showed these documents to a legal adviser
before signing them we are not told. Most pro-
bably they did not even read them themsel's.
They signed. them " as a matter of form," just as
you might possibly accept a bill for the
.o'Mulligan.
Then came the execution of these contracts, and
the contractors found that the matters of form be-
came very terrible realities. Goods of all kinds
were shot into the warehouses, and there they lay
indefinitely waiting examination. During the in-
terval they were tossed about, damaged, and ren-
dered inferior to pattern, and were at last rejected.
When a piece of cloth was passed it was commonly
sent to Limerick to be made up, then' sent back to
Weedon to be inspected, and again' returned to
Limerick to be used. To one firm 12,000 out of
20,000 yards of cloth were sent back,. and the ex-
amination was so capricious that when a tradesman,
smarting under a recent rejection, furtively cut
from the rejected mass a piece of the same shape as
the pattern-piece, and invited the viewer's atten-
tion to the two, the viewer chose the recently cut
piece as the better and real pattern-piece.
Under this system no man could live. Then it got
abroad that all the contractors did not thus suffer.
Some adopted the practice of setting deception
against tyranny. They nailed up the soles of their
boots with brads to prevent the viewers finding out
defects ; they erased the rejection marks and sent
back the rejected goods, which the second time passed
unquestioned ; they put shoddy into their cloth and
bad leather in their accoutrements ; but those tricks
did not answer as a whole, and many men dis-
dained to have recourse to them. Then it became
whispered that these delays and vexatious rejections
were not quite universal, and it occurred to saga-
cious tradesmen that confidential officials, who only
received 225. a-week, might naturally wish to in-
crease their income by perquisites. After this dis-
covery had been made,—and, to give the officers
due credit, it was not the fault of all of them that
the discovery was not made at an early stage,
before so much money had been lost by delays and
rejection,—the machinery worked much more
easily. Some of the examiners worked as journey=-
men upon the work they examined ; a viewer for-
tified his energies bv coinfoi table potations of
brandy-and-water and a bonus to boot in the back
parlour of the contractor. If a tradesman was
slow to comprehend, he was followed home,
and made to understand what was the correct
practice. Sometimes, after holding out, the trades-
man at last consented " to do as other contractors
have done," and a percentage was duly paid, and
entered in the partnership books as " expenses."
The system was getting into easy gear, and people
were beginning to understand each other, when
some unfortunate jealousies arose, a proper gentle-
man-like secrecy was not preserved, and a Select
Committee of the House of Commons came upon
the stage, It is scarcely remarkable that the 12
hundred pages of evidence which they have pub-
lished teem with rank abuses. It requires con-
siderable credulity indeed to believe that when im-
mense quantities of stores are bought at contract
price, sold by auction at a waste price, and re-
ceived into store again at contract price, this
cycle of waste has its origin in no worse quality
than negligence. But, even if we believe that in
the principal officers unaccountabld and glaring
folly is more probable than actual corruption, there
is throughout the whole of the two great volumes of
evidence such numerous cases of actual bribery
among the underlings that the atoms form an at-
mosphere.
The people actually proved to have been bribed
are all inferior folk ; but the m aste of public stores
has been as great as if every officer in the establish-
ipNhlNla.a e
say what oid by Sloth n d which b
t
)iei canil
s
proportionate
lylo. at ii
cieoli.'fteionictrli
tel ? tell which was
theaet Hussa-01l whispers
that we hear anion..' commcr 3aal men, we must be-
lieve that there is fn. • more behind than has ever
been brought forward. That many men
ft are in-
fluenced by the fear "we should never. have the
chance
chance of another contract," they d o. not hesitate to
confess in private, and
so long as this fear operates

VIENNA, Sept. 10.—In various foreign journals it
has been said that the Vienna-Triests, Tyrolese,
and other Austrian railroads have become the pro-
perty of the Lombardo-Venetian Company, but the
statement is incorrect. In this country it is very
nearly impossible to obtain perfectly authentic in-
formation on matters of finance, but the following
account of what has recently passed between Baron
Bruck and the representatives of the above-men-
tioned company has been obtained from a person
who must necessarily have some little knowledge of
the actual state of affairs.
About six weeks ago Baron Rothschild of Paris,
Messrs. Blount and Talabot of the same city, and
Messrs. Laing and Uzielli, of London, came here as
the representatives of the Lombardo-Venetian Rail-
road Company, and informed the Minister of Fi-
nances that they were willing to take the Vienna-
Trieste Railroad off his hands if the terms offered
were acceptable. The price first asked for the whole
line, which is 370 English miles in length, and cost
the State about 150,000,000f1. (£15,000,000)—was
100,000,000f1. (£10,000,000).. Negotiations were
carried on for some time without any result, but a
few days ago the following terms, which will be
binding should they meet with the approval of the
Board of the Lombardo-Venetian Railroad, were
agreed on.
The Austrian Government will cede the Vienna-
Trieste Railroad, as also the line from Verona to
Botzen and from Innspruck to Kufstein, which to-
gether have a length of 130 English miles and cost
the State about 80,000,000f1., for a sum which, if
paid down at once, would be equivalent to about
£5,700,000. The representatives of the railroad
company, however, think it would be advantageous
to pay interest on a part of the capital, and have
therefore stipulated that the above-mentioned sum
shall be paid in eight annual instalments. The
Austrian Government demands a further eventual
payment of £2,000,000 in four instalments, should
it be found that after the year 1871 the whole
" net" (reseau) of railways pays above seven per
cent. on the whole capital. As a kind of indemni-
fication for the tremendouspecuniaiy sacrifices made
by the Austrian Government, the company, under-
takes to construct-1. The line over the Brenner
Pass from Innspruck to Botzen. 2. A branch from
the Trieste line to Agram and Sissek, in Croatia. 3.
A branch from the Trieste line to Klagenfurt and
Villach, in Carinthia.
The first of these three lines, which will cross the
great chain of the Alps, and form a direct commu-
nication between Germany and Italy, has been care-
fully surveyed by M. Talabot and others, and it has
been clearly ascertained that it offers fewer and less
formidable difficulties than did the Semmering.
The length of the line between Botzen and Inns-
pruck is about 80 English miles, and its cost is not
likely to exceed £2,800,000. The second line—from
Steinbruck to Sissek—can hardly fail to pay well, as
Sissek is on the Save, and consequently in con-
nection, by means of that river, with Lower Hun-
gary, the Banat, Bosnia, and Servia. Even now
great quantities of corn, rags, &c., are dragged in
bullock carts across the mountains to Fiume. The
line from Marburg to Klagenfurt and Villach is not
likely to pay so well as the others, but it will doubt-
less bring in full 5 per cent.
It is also probable that the two principal lines of
the Francis Joseph Railroad Company will be
handed over to the Lombardo-Venetian Company,
and that the present shareholders will be paid off
in bonds, The lines alluded to are from Pesth to
Marburg, and from Odenburg to Kanisha. The
former will connect the capital of Hungary with
Trieste, and the latter, which is a part of the great
line between Vienna and Belgrade, runs through
some of the most fruitful districts in the south-west
of Hungary. It is very possible that at no distant
period all heavy goods going from Trieste to Vienna,
and vice versa, will, instead of being sent across the
Semmering, go by the Odenburg-K anisha Railroad.
The capital required for the completion of all the
lines mentioned will be about £11,000,000, which
sum must he raised during a period of 10 years,
the time that will be granted for their construction.
The Austrian Government will guarantee 5 2-10
per cent. on the whole capital employed, both in
this and in the Lombardo-Venetian concession, and
the guarantee will apply separately to each of the
new lines. This last is a most important feature, as
it prevents any risk of the high dividends, which will
doubtless be earned on the main line from Vienna to
Trieste and on the Lombardo-Venetian lines, from
being diminished by losses that may possibly be
incurred on the branch lines, which are to be con-
structed exclusively with capital raised on bonds
under the separate guarantee of the State. The
receipts of the Vienna-Trieste Railroad have, since
its entire opening in Nov., 1857, been at the rate of
1,000,000 per annum, and a private company can
hardly fail to make them infinitely larger. The
Lombardo-Venetian railroads have now been in
the hands of an Anglo-French Company rather less
than two years, and the receipts have risen from
£520 to £1,040 per mile ; the working expenses,
on the contrary, have been reduced from 85 to 50
per cent.
As you will naturally wish to know how it is
the Austrian Government is willing to part with
the Vienna-Trieste Railroad at less than half its
cost, and to give away 130 miles of railway in- the
Tyrol, I will endeavour to give some explanation
on the subject. Reasons, political, financial, and
commercial induce the Imperial Government to act
as it is now doing. The Emperor is exceedingly
desirous to bring the component parts of his vast
empire into as intimate connection as possible, and
neither ho nor his Ministers arc blind to the great
political and commercial advantages which must
arise from the speedy completion of the great rail-
way girdle which is to be drawn round Austria.
If the Lombardo-Venetian Company should come
to terms with Baron Bruck, the Italian and South
Austrian lines will be amalgamated, the strate-
gically important Tyrolese line will be completed,
and Lower Hungary and Croatia will be brought
into direct railway communication with the north-
ern provinces of Austria and with Trieste, her
principal commercial port. The financial advan-
tages are self-evident. Government win be re-
lieved from further outlay for the railroads in
question, and it will, for the next six or seven
years, receive about £1,000,000 in exchange for
property which, although extremely valuable in
itself, will never be properly productive under
State management.

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THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 14, 1858.

we shall never get at the real conditions of our
public contracts. The end of the Weedon case,
however, is this :—Some of the contractors are still
contending against aspersions cast upon their mer-
cantile honour ; some give imperfect evidence, be-
cause their books are in the Bankruptcy Court ;
Mr. Ramsay, the Assistant-Director of Stores,
being considered to be chargeable only with incom-
petency or neglect, has been removed to an inferior
station ; and Mr. Elliott, the principal Military
Storekeeper, has been arrested in America, whither
he had retired with the produce of extensive
embezzlements.—Times.

.RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

GALWAY AND AMERICA

DUBLIN, MONDAY MORNING

According to the Galway Vindicator of Saturday
the success of the Lever line of packets is even
more than an accomplished fact. In proof the fol-
lowing circumstances are mentioned in connectien
with the sailing of the Prince Albert, which is
destined to make her second outward trip across,
the Atlantic on Tuesday next :
" Every berth on board the Prince Albert is en-
gaged—Arst, second, and third class ; and orders
were yesterday issued to the agents at the different
localities to enter no more passengers, just to pre-
vent disappointment. There is to-day in Galway
awaiting shipment by the vessels of the line more
than twice as much as can be carried in the vessel
for next week, and we may state that such arrange-
ments are being made by Mr. Lever for putting
additional vessels on the line as will obviate any
inconvenience or disappointment for the future.
We speak of these things not in a mere boastful
character, but as facts of great significance. To-day
we had an opportunity of looking over the book
which registers the goods received for shipment to
America at the Galway terminus of the Midland
Great Western Railway, Every day, and by every
train since Monday, large consignments of goods
have been received from almost every manufactur-
ing district of England, Ireland, and Scotland.
'rake, for instance, on Wednesday, the Bth, there
appeared on the goods list of the early train the
following entry :-26 hhds. of porter, to Hubert
and Parish, New York • City of Dublin Steam-
packet Company, to W. il. Butler, 48 cases goods ;
Jones, to ditto, 26 boxes of linen.. By next day's
train there arrived, addressed Jones to Butler, 61
boxes of linen ; 66 boxes of linen ; 7 cases of mus-
lin ; 12 bales of prints. In making mention of
these we do not, of course, pretend to enumerate
all the miscellaneous articles intended for exporta-
tion. This morning Captain Waters received a
communication from Mr. Lever, requesting to know
whether it would be possible to fit up additional
accommodation for the number of first and second
class passengers who were offering but, on con-
sultation with Captain Thompson, the man-
aging marine director of the line, who is in*Galway
at present, and actively assisting in the fitting out
of the Prince Albert, he thought it better to advise
that no more passengers should be taken than what
the ship was prepared to carry according to her
ordinary complement. In the propriety of this
arrangement we entirely concur, as it is best to study
the comfort and convenience of the passengers
already entered rather than grasp at too many.
A ship from Liverpool, the Ballot, bringing a cargo
of the primest steam coal to Mr. W. Evans, our en-
terprising fellow-citizen, arrived in the harbour.
Her anchor was scarcely dropped when the cargo
was purchased by the agent of Mr. Lever, Mr. W.
H. Butler, and the vessel was hauled alongside the
Prince Albert and the coals shipped for her out-
ward voyage. Yesterday Captain Waters and Cap-
tain Thompson were engaged in seeing to the ship-
ment of water and stores in abundant supply ; and
it is now certain that when the Blue Peter is
hoisted at the fore on the afternoon of Tuesday next,
the Prince Albert will be in as good trim, as well
filled, as well found, and as well regulated, in every
respect, as any first-class ship that ever crossed the
Atlantic from the shores of Great Britain."

IRISH BANK RETURNS.
The last bank returns exhibit a falling off in the
circulation as compared with last month, of
£84,445. In the preceding four weeks there was a
diminution of £97,696, and in the month ending on
the 3d of July a decline of £260,599, so that on the
quarter the decrease is under half a-million. Last
year the decline in the same three months was
Vioo,ooo. The falling off on the month is alto-
gether between the Bank of Ireland and the Na-
tional Bank. The Provincial and Ulster Banks have
each slightly increased their issues, and the other
banks present no alteration. In the amount of coin
held -there is, on the month, an increase from
£2,384,027 to £2,391,694.
The following figures will show the position of
the Irish banks in the aggregate now and at the
same period of last year :
Four weeks ending Average Circulation. Average Coin held.
Aug. 29, 1857 £6,224,810 • £2,245,415
„ 28, 1858 • 5,664,962 2,891,694
From the foregoing returns it follows that the
Irish banks-are now £689,532 below the sum autho-
rised by certificate, andtaking into account the coin
held, the amount is £3,081,226 below that allowed
by law. The Bank of Ireland and the Provincial
and Northern Banks are under their fixed issue.
The National, Ulster, and Belfast Banks are
above it.