The Sun.
London, England, 1867-05-13 00:00:00

COMPANY.

The traffic of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad
for the month of March, 1866, compared with the same
month of 1865, is as follows :

1867. 1866.
Received from coal $480,605.01 ... $562,981.51
merchandise 129,588.68 ... 127,034.25
passengers„ &c 93,424.31 ... 89,179.48

Total receipts 5703,618.00 $779,198.27
Transportation, roadway, dun-
page, renewal fund, and all
charges

Net profit for the m0ntb...5179,272.17 $197,210.03
„ for previous
three months... 142,204.61 ... 677,879.63

Total net profit for four
months 5321,476.81 $875,089.6G

The above traffic return fur March, shows an improve-
ment on the first three months of the fiscal year, but it
still falls considerably short of former years. The startling
decrease in the earnings of the company for the past few
months induced us to inquire into the cause; the follow-
ing reply from our New York correspondent may be in-
teresting to such of our friends as are stockholders.
" The falling off in the traffic of the Reading Railroad
for January and February may be attributed to the very
severe weather, closing our river and blocking up the
lateral roads generally, also the absence of demand, in con-
sequence of the large stock of coal which had accumulated
at the various depots for shipment and distribution ; such
a winter we have not had lot many years."
The advance in American Securities on the London
market, which we reported last week, has not been main-

tained, owing to the rise in the premium on gold in New
York (3j- per cent.), as advised by telegraph. United
States 5.20's have ranged between 71 and 72, closing
71} to 1.

llinois Central and Erie Shares have not maintained

tho recent rapid advance, the former being last quoted
741; to 75i, or 1 per cent lower, and the latter 401 to 411,
nearly 3 per cent. under the price of last week.

Atlantic and Great Western debentures and Consoli-
dated Bonds aro steady, but the Sectional Bonds have
slightly given way.

(From L. P. Morton and Co.'s Circular)
New York, April 27.
Since our last advicos there has been a steady growth of
ease in monetary affairs. Funds from the interior slow a
tendency to accumulate at this centre; while there is a
growing .disposition to place money on loan rather than
employ it in business enterprises—a natural result of the
uncertainty and unprofitableness of commercial affairs.
Demand loans range at 4 to 6 per cent. Prime paper is dis-
counted at 6} to 8 per cent.

Government securities are in active demand from home
investors, partly in consequence of the purchases of short
obligations by the Treasury exceeding its issues of Conso-
lidated Five-Twenties, and partly from a disposition
among the public to change their investments from stocks
into United States bonds; and the prices of all the issues of
Five-Twenties have steadily advanced.
The speculative movement in Railroad shares has shown
rather more activity ; but the tendency of prices has been
downward, until within the last three days, during which
an improvement of two to three per cent. has been estab-
lished. The market, however, lacks real strength, from
the disinclination of the public to purchase stocks.
The prospects of the crops begin to exert a favourable
effect upon the tone of business generally. Reports front
all sections of the country represent that an unusually
large area has been placed under grain, and that the
winter crops are looking healthy. The 'spring has been
favourable for sowing and planting operations, and the
possibility of war in Europe has induced the Western
farmers to extend their crops. From the enlarged acreage

placed under grain, and the promising aspect of the grow-
ing the crops, it is rea.4onable to conclude that, with
average seasons, the supply of breadstuffs this year will
exceed that of any former period.
The cotton market has been depressed, in sympathy with

the weakness of the Liverpool market and threatening
aspect of European politics, notwithstanding the rapid
exhaustion of the Southern supply. The most carefully
drawn estimates give only about 150,000 bales of the crop
remaining for future export, against 350,000 bales for the
corresponding period of last year. Counts of the supply
at this port, made within the past fortnight, show that the
stock has been over estimated about 50,000 baled. The
consumption by domestic manufactureis has been largely
increased this year, the amount taken from September
let to date being 440,000 bales, or an average
of 15,000 per week; at which rate the home
consumption would considerably exceed 700,000 bales per
annum, an increase of one-third upon last year. The total
►eceipts for the last four weeks amount to 120,000 bales,

including 25,000 bales for last week, making the total
since Sept. Ist 1,630,000 bales. The exports for the week
are about 40,000 bales, including 27,000 bales to Great
Britain, and 12,000 to the Continent. The stock at all
ports is estimated at 410,000 bales. The advance in the
market within the last 24 hours has been very marked,
being fully 2 cents per lb. The market closes at 26i
cents for Mid. Upland; with a dispositition to hold for
higher prices.
The indications respecting the next crop are as yet too

incomplete to admit of anyestimate. Reports very uni-
formly represent that the area planted this year is larger
than last year. The planters are comparatively free from

the difficulties connected with the scarcity and barrenness
of seed, the utter disorganisation of labour, the lack of
tools, gins, building; &c., and the neglected condition of
their lands. Having to invest less in providing the ap-
pliances for planting and gathering the crop, they have
the more for use in laud and labour. These considerations
favour the probabilities of an enlarged crop. But there

aro also circumstances which, to some extent, counter-
balance these facts. The factors are generally stipulat-
ing, as a condition of their advances, that the planter shall
produce an ample supply of grain and pork for plantation
codSumption, which will cause a certain acreage to be
placed under grain which otherwise would be planted
with cotton. The result of the present crop has not
been such as to leave in the hands of the small

planters the means for planting actively this year ;
and as they derive no assistance irom the factors,
their production is likely to be less this year than
in 1866. The danger to the crops of Louisiana and

Mississippi, from the broken condition of the levees of the

3lississippiltiver, is a serious drawback to the prospects of
the crop in that section. The levees cannot be repaired
this year, and the finest cotton district of the South must
therefore be constantly liable to inundation. In some sec-
tions of the South it is apprehended that considerable in-
terruption of labour may arise from political excitement
connected with the working out of the plan of Federal re-
construction. With so many now contingencies affecting
the crop, it would be quite premature to attempt at pre-
sent to forecast the probable yield; it may, however, ha
quite safely affirmed that the supply will largely exceed
that of last year.

Sterling Exchango closes at 1091 for 60 days bankers',
and 1101 for sight ; bills on Paris are quoted 5.15 to 5.131
for 60 days, and 5.121 to 5.111 for sight.

SPEECH ABOUT PRESIDENT JOHNSON.

Hon. Edmund Cooper, late private secretary of
President Johnson, and member of the last Con-
gress from Tennessee, proposes himself as a candi-
gate for re-election, and in a speech at Shelbyville,
Tennessee, on the Ist inst., he propounded the re-
construction doctrine of the President. It varies
but little from the policy of the Executive as enun-
ciated in his various veto messages. But as a
matter of pablic interest we subjoin some of the
allusions to the President, which the speaker seemed
called upon to make to the people of his own State.
Mr. Cooper said :

Now, we deny that the President has brought
any disgrace ou our beloved State. We deny that
he has committed any official act which sustains the
charge that he has shown any defection towards, or
abandoned any of the great principles upon which
he was elected. We deny that he has degenerated
in any manner from the high and elevated position
which he occupied as a statesman and patriot before
the country when he assumed the arduous and re-
sponsible duties of the Presidency. We deny, in a
word, that he has committed any personal or political
act justifying the illiberal and unjust charge that
he is or ever has been unprincipled in any of his
private or political dealings."

The speaker concluded with the following allusions
,o the President :

1, The President of the United States is charged
with having committed great crimes and misde-
meanours,' and tavail myself of this opportunity once
more to vindicate his character,-and bear my humble
testimony to the firmness with which he has, un-
dismayed, resisted all unconstitutional legislation,
and as a bulwark protected the rights of the people.
,Nly friends, think of him in his earlier years, when
he had been put to hard struggles for mere exist-
ence, and yet he found time for close and laborious
study. This very study made him earnest and in-
tense. Simple in his tastes, masculine and untiring
in. his effort, he is of that mould in which, in earlier
times, the successful men of action were cast. He
acknowledges in life no such thing as failure, an I
whatever may be his future, he has never despaired.
It was by those rare and romantic incidents which
fiction cannot invent, and which I cull with diffi-
dence from the fields of his real life, that he ascended
the social and political ladder until he has won
palpable and distinct reputation and rank. "His
very success provokes all the searcasm of wit, all the
wails of party, all the slanders of envy, and he is now
a mark shot at by arrows steepe4 in the poison that
is distilled in the crucible of baffled ambition and inor-
dinate hate. You cannot know his early struggles.
Only those who know him best can fully appreciate
them, and how many years he laboured for indepen-
dence before it was won. My friends and countrymen
is there nothing in such a life to shield and protect it?
Think of his unconquerable hope, as he struggled
manfully against the obstacles in his pathway,
caused by poverty and want. Think of a young
heart aspiring, yet wrung, and chafed, and sorely
tried—still unshaken and undismayed, always
striving—until to-day he is the President I Pic-
ture him as a boy, feeling with what energies he
was gifted, controlled by the three great friends
God has given to the poor—
'Faith, Energy, Time.'

faith in the divinity that was within him, energy to
perfect its development, and time in which its great
aims could be wrought out. These talismanic words
are indelibly stamped on his memory, and always
cheered him through hardships and difficulties.
Surely such a life, instead of exciting in the hearts
of the great and good, feelings of envy and jealousy,
should only make them feel that through such a
life, enjoyed as the energetic and robust enjoy it,
God's great principle of success moves and breathes,
and that thus are we taught how much of aid and
solace the many derive, from the everlasting genius
of the few. The President has undergone serious

trials. His strong and self-reliant nature has
'never been wrapped in ease and luxury. They who
never suffer pain or encounter opposition know
nothing of the exquisite pleasure incident from the
repose from toil. The duty of the noble on earth
falls not amid the rosy garden of the Epicurean.
We may envy the man who enjoys and rests, but
the smile of Heaven settles rather on the brow of
those who labour and aspire. Success engenders In
the minds of the low and grovelling envy, hatred,
malice, and all uncharitableness.' They would de-
stroy, what they cannot rival or corrupt. They
would undermine by 'stories oft repeated,'
have no existence except in the filth and slime of
their own hearts. Kennels rank with corruption,
where young dogs are fed, which

Tray, Blanche, and Sweetheart

To bark at his heelA.

"And such men dare to question the integrity,
character, and political honesty of Andrew John-

son—

An eagle in his pride of plume
Hawed at by mousing owls."

COUNTRY MARKETS.