The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-24 00:00:00

fif le, and is in fact only a lodgment of borrowed
in honey. The necessary amount is raised at a high
in iterest, and deposited in due form, so that, instead
of being in any way a guarantee of the stability
of: the company, it is in reality another obstacle
to the completion of the line, because it entails
the payment of a high rate of interest upon
it. Almost all the schemes now, said Lord
REDESDALE, are contractors' schemes, got up by a
contractor, an engineer, a lawyer, and a Parlia-
mentary agent ; the money is found by the emi-
r tractor, and there is little or no subscription of any
kind. An instance of the manner in which these
schemes are got up was given by the noble lord, in
the case of a contractor's line, in which the con-
tractor made a certain number of persons in his
employ shareholders, and called a meeting, at which
he announced that the line was completed, that it

would no doubt be profitable, and that he engaged
to work it for five years, and guarantee the share-
holders five per cent. for their money. He got
this widely reported, and in consequence raised the
value of the shares, and produced the other effects
the contractor wanted by obtaining credit for his
capital ; so that he could get money on very fair
terms, while, whether the line paid at all or no,
was a matter of no moment to him after his gua-
rantee expired. One great evil attending this
mischievous system is the vast and unnecessary
expense to which the regular existing railway com-
panies are put, in being forced to buy up these
easily got-up scheMes. A couple of years ago the
secretary of one of the principal lines stated
before a Parliamentary committee that no fewer
than 161 schemes affecting his company had
been promoted that year, and of these the company
had been obliged to oppose 60. The same gentle-
man gave full details of a contractor's scheme, which
was begun in reality with no company at all ; it was
only after parties concerned had obtained the bill
and the line was started that they had to find the
subscribers. Railway property is increasing so
much in extent and importance that it is becoming
one of the regular forms of investment ; and Lord
REDESDALE pointed out to their lordships how
seriously trust and other moneys so in-
vested might be affected by these bubble
companies. There was considerable danger, he
said, to the general security of railway property,
and it was important that it should be placed on a
solid foundation. His suggestion towards bringing
about a better state of things was that the deposits
should be made really available for the construction
of railways. This proposal was made by the com-
mittee of the Commons, but from the strong opposi-
tion which the recommendation encountered it was
put aside. We must, however, bear in mind that the
railway interest is so very strong in the Lower House
that questions affecting the management of the lines
are not always judged or discussed impartially.
Lord RRDESDALE proposed to submit certain alto-
rations in the standing orders to their lordships after
the recess, so that both Houses and the public
might have time to consider the subject. The
general feeling of the House was strongly in favour
of some alteration, and we hope the matter will
receive very careful inquiry. It is a common com-
plaint that railways are multiplying too fast, and
that the advantages which the public might derive
from a more moderate extension are counter

The rapid extension of our railway lines in almost
every part of the kingdom is a matter of common
remark, and there arc a good many points connected
with it which are fairly open to inquiry. While the
public advantages derived from the increased faci-

lity of communication and traffic are very great, it
does not by any means follow that there may not
be less disinterested motives for promulgating some
of the new schemes. A railway line has always an
especial attraction to the speculative, and it offers
an opportunity to those whose ambition exceeds
their capital, but it is necessary the credit system
should not be carried too far, as there are many evils
a

,ending the construction of a line whose directors
and shareholders may be all found under one roof,
and whole capital only exists on paper. The public
are not likely to be well served under such circum-
stances,
, and very often the object to be attained is to
force an existing company to buy up the new line
rather than to get it in good working order. Lord
REDESDALE last evening brought the whole subject
of the financial arrangements for the construction
of railways before the House of Lords,
and ho condemned the excessive extension
of the credit system with just severity.
Parliament had, it was thought, taken due precau-
tions to secure bona Ale schemes, but, as is often
the case, speculators have easily found means to
evade their provisions. Lord REDESDALE reminded
the House that in the early days of railways capital
was easily acquired, and up to 1845 and 1846, the
time of the railway mania, it was still easy of ac-
cess. " Since then," said his lordship, " the prac-
tice had been going from bad to worse, without the
required capital being obtained before the bills were
passed. At last it had come to such a pitch that
he felt bound to call the attention of the House to

it, for, unless some change were effected, they would
bring everything connected with railways into the
greatest possible difficulty." At first railway com-
panies were always started with a subscription con-
tract, which was often a large part of the necessary
funds, and up to 1817 or so those subscription con-
tracts were realities, but the railway mania brought
speculation to such an extravagant height that
many of the contracts became fraudulent. So great
was the discredit brought upon the whole system at
this time that subscription contracts were no longer
held of any value as
aa company.depo sit
of 8
per
Afterer
discussionof the estimated cost of
such deposit not to be
in Parliament
some for the security of
the line was ordered,
withdrawn except under a bond on the completion
of the railway, or unless one-half of the capital of
the line was expended on it. But even these pre-
cautions have proved ineffectual to guard against
the devices of enterprising speculators. The de-
posit hail in toy many instances ceacd to be bona

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, MARCH 24, 1866.

__-,0-_-

Painted by John Phillip, R.A.

THE ROYAL HERALDIC ALBUM

Published by Dean and Son, Ludgate Hill.
A magnificent volume, entitled The Royal
Heraldic Album, has already, we find, been issued
from the press by the Messrs. Dean and Son, of
Ludgate-hill—the publishers, among other works, of
Debrett's Peerage, and Baronetage, and Knightage.
A ponderous and costly tome it is, too, this Royal
Heraldic Album. A veritable edition de luxe, clad
externally in a gorgeous bevilled binding, richly
emblazoned, and internally illuminated with great
splendour in the opening pages, at least, in the
leaves that is immediately following the explana-
tory letterpress conveying to the reader's appre-
hension, in a very distinct way, indeed, all the
more important rudiments of the science of
heraldry this letterpress, moreover, being
illustrated in its turn with a profusion of
appropriate woodcuts. Half-a-dozen leaves of
the album, in fact, are illuminated in the
manner we have described—half-a-dozen, including
among them the exquisite title-page. The five
coats-of-arms thus displayed to view in all the
radiance of gilding and rainbow dyes, are those of
the Sovereign, of the Prince of Wales, of the Earl
of Clarendon, of the Earl of Derby, and of the late
Viscount Palmerston. These five being given thus
simply as specimens. The rest of the volume, con-
sisting of blank leaves, with (in each) a " mount"
—something after the fashion of the carte-de-
visite albums, only of a quarto-size instead of
being like the carte-de-visites simply in minia-
ture. The Heraldic Album is thus arranged, or
" appointed," of course, after this fashion, so as
to enable the amateur illuminator to insert at
pleasure in the after pages of the volume, card by
card, other coats-of-arms, accordingly as those other
coats of arms are selected and completed. The
idea which suggested to thepublishers of" Debrett,"
the issuing from the press of this very beautiful
volume, is in some measure akin to that which a
few weeks since prompted our own suggestion in
the columns of The Sun, that the ladies of England
having a taste, and having also leisure for these
elegant avocations, should, in preference to the
mere collection of postage-stamps and monograms,
open to themselves a new source at once of amuse-
ment and instruction, by undertaking the illumina-
tion, page by page, of the heraldic designs adorning
just such a popular Peerage as that of Debrett's. It
is akin, we say, the idea of this Heraldic Album, to
the thought that prompted our own suggestion—
but it is no more than akin to it. It is, in other words,
not the thought itself, much less the actual anticipation
or realisation of our suggestion. 'The Royal Heral-
dic Album is too costly a work to come within the
category of what we ourselves proposed. It is a
volume too magnificent, and yet, at the same time,
too incomplete, too much of a mere selection, to
fall within the reach of ordinary purchasers.
What we proposed, and what we would still urge
upon the consideration of those in any way inte-
rested in the study of heraldry on the one hand,
and of illumination upon the other, is the em-
bellishment or emblazonment by the hands of ama-
teur illuminators of either an ordinary copy of
such a work as Debrett's Peerage, published at
seven and sixpence ; or better still, perhaps, of an
exceptional edition of the same work, printed upon
thicker paper (for the purpose of illumination), say
at half a guinea ; or, best of all, perhaps, as render-
ing such a work permanent instead of merely fugi-
tive in its character—an edition of Debrett contain
ing within it the family crests, and coats-of-arms, and
supporters of the various noble houses numbered up
in the Peerage, simply with their titles attached
and the dates of their original ennoblement.
Such an edition of the Peerage, without
in any way interfering with a costly publication like
the one here immediately under notice, would, or we
are very much mistaken, open up a new branch of
elegant industry—superseding the mere collection
and arrangement of postage stamps and mono-
grams, effecting this change by awa.kening a prefer-
ence for the superior graces and beauties of heraldic
illumination.

MAYALL'S LIFE-SIZS PHOTOGRAPHS,

Photographic Portraits the full size of life have,
no doubt, often before now been produced. But
they have certainly never been produced with such
brilliant success—as works at once of Art and
Nature—as by Mr. Mayall's New Solar Camera Pr o -
cess, a process the results of which are not only life-
size, but life-like. From a negative not larger in
its dimensions than one inch square there can be
produced—nay, for that matter, there have been
produced (what are now actually on view at Mr.
Mayall's establishment in Regent-street) a series
of Eight different sized photographic portraits,
each larger than its predecessor—beginning (this
wonderful series) with a portrait exactly the size of
the one inch square negative, and so on, larger and
larger by regular gradations, up to the full-size of

life, up to the eighth and last in this magical series,
to a portrait the veritable alter ego of the individual
represented. The series here referred to as being
now on view at Mr. Mayan's Photographic Gallery,
224-226, Regent-street, gives us in this marvellous
way eight distinct shadowings forth of the noble
head of the Poet Laureate. The original process for
magnifying minute negatives by means of enormous
reflectors and condensers, was contrived some
years ago in Belgium by Monckhoven, but to
Mr. Mayall we are indebted for the adaptation
of that original process to this latest improvement
of all in the photographic art, the one called by
him the process of the New Solar Camera. The
enlarged portraits thus produced are no longer
than what enlarged photographic portraits used
to be until this new process was hit upon._
namely, coarser and coarser in proportion to the
larger and larger size to which the original negative
was expanded by the huge reflectors and condenser
employed. Now—thanks to Mr. Mayall's admirable
process—the largest size of all, namely, the life-sized
portrait, (saving only in the noticeable difference
of size) is simply identical in appearance with the
one-inch-square imprint taken from the original
negative. It marks a triumph—this new Solar-
Camera Process—in the general advancement and
development of the Photographic Art, upon the
successful accomplishment of which Mr. Mayall
may very well be congratulated.

THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IN 1860.

) At Mr. McLean's new Gallery, 7, llaymarket,
there is now on view Mr. Phillip's masterly painting
of The House of Commons in 1860, a picture that
many will remember to have seen three years ago,
namely, in 1863, on the walls of the Royal
Academy. Hardly ever, even for a few minutes at
a time, could it be seen there during that season's
Royal Academy Exhibition to anything at all like
advantage. And this simply because of its popu-
larity, because of its very attractiveness. It was
the show picture of the year, the one about which
the visitors to the gallery of the Royal Academy
collected in crowds, so that not one of them could
contrive to see it beyond just a little bit at a time.
Insomuch was this literally the case, that we hardly
seemed to have seen it at all until wejiad the satisfac-
tion of examining it at our leisure where it now is,
namely' in the inner room at No. 7 in the Hay-
market. And a masterpiece the picture is in its way,
not only as a work of art, but as a vivid repre-
sentation of the age we live in. "The very age and
body of the time, its form and pressure," are there
pourtrayed in the " counterfeit presentments" of the
leading rulers of the epoch. Lord Palmerston, it
may be remembered, is represented by Mr. Philip
in his picture as addressing the House of Commons
on a Wednesday morning's debate during the ses-
sion of 1860. Mr. Speaker (the Right Hon. Evelyn
Denison) occupies the central position in the back-
ground—seated there wigged and robed in his
peen chair of authority. At his right hand
there stands, noticeably equipped in sword and
bag-wig, and silk stockings, the Sergeant-at-
Arms, Lord Charles Russell. Seated at
the table, in front of these, are the
three clerks of the House—Mr. Ley, Mr. May,
and Sir Denis Le Marchant. On the spec-
tator's left hand (to the Speaker's right) are the oc-