The Sun.
London, England, 1866-04-16 00:00:00

ELY, HA.DDENIIAM, AND SUTTON.

The fraffic on this line commenced to-day. The
line, which is 7i miles in length, is to be worked by
the Great Eastern.

TELEGRAPH CONSTRUCTION AND MAIN-
TENANCE (LIMITED).
The report of the directors states that the whole
of the purchase money due to the Gutta Percha
Company had been paid to them, consequently this
company is in full possession of all the property.
The final award to Messrs. Glass, Elliott, and Co.
for their business of telegraph contractors and
manufacturers bad been received, and made up the
total sum of £163,471, payable to them for the pro-
perty and goodwill of the firm, being £11,529 less
than the amount of £175,000 mentioned in the
agreement. This property was now in possession of
the company. During the past year the manufac-
ture of the Atlantic cable was completed, and the
amounts received in cash and realised securities, and
the market value on Dec. 31, 1865, of the securities
undisposed of at that date had been brought the IN-
fit and loss account. The directors ha 4 entered into
an agreement with the Anglo-American Telegraph
Company to manufacture and lay a new telegraph

line between England and'America, and to endea-
vour to complete the line partly laid in 1865, in the
success of which operation they had the greatest
confidence. The net profits for the year 1865, after
deducting the entire loss on sale of Atlantic Tele-
graph shares realised, and the depreciation in value
of those in hand, amounted to £118,343, which
with the balance from 1864 would make £161,668,
from which a reserve had been made for repairs nf
the Malta and Alexandria Telegraph of £6,356 ;
and the following further amounts had been de-
ducted—viz., interest on unpaid purchase money,
£18,771:; third interim dividend to the shareholders
on capital at 5 per cent. per annum, £9,298, leav-
ing a disposable balance of £127,243. Out of this
the directors proposed to write off £2,131 for ex-
penses of valuation and awards, to pay £13,214

for interest on capital at 5 par cent. per annum, to
carry £8,583 to the reserve fund, to pay a divi-
dend at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum (free of
income tax), which with the interim dividend made
up a total dividend of 10 per cent. per annum on
the paid up capital, to carry to a reserve account
in respect of the outlay on the Atlantic expedition
of 1865 £60,000, which would make the amount in
reserve £81,177, and to carry forward a balance of
£16,589. The company had obtained a renewal
of the lease of the Malta and Alexandria Telegraph.
The balance-sheet showed totals on both sides of
£1,239,736, including a share capital of £522,328.

MIS CELLANEOU3 AMERICAN NEWS.

~►----

From the Insurance Commissioners' Report we
learn that the domestic insurance companies of
Massachusetts had outstanding, at the date of last
official return, outstanding fire risks to the amount
of $196,456,708, and outstanding marine risks to
the amount of $43,282,730. The mutual compa-
nies had, at same time, marine risks outstanding to
the amount of $31,207,219, and fire risks to the
amount of $239,905,677. Foreign fire and marine
insurance companies, doing business in Massachu-
setts, have insured in this State during the past
year property to the amount of $277,220,371.31.

There are parties at work endeavouring to per-
suade
Congress to enact a National Insurance Act,
based upon the same principle as the National Bank
Act,—a principle which will oblige all insurance
companies to base themselves upon Government
stocks. There is no prospect of their immediate
success.

A new company, under the title of the Great
Southern and Western Life and Accident Insurance
Company, has just been established in New Orleans,
with General Longstreet for President.
FIRE INSURANCE COMPANIES.—During 1865 the
losses by fire in the United States exceeded
$43,000,000, and in the last eleven years the follow-
ing losses are reported :-
1855 513,040,000
1856
1857
1858
1859
1860

1861
1862
1863
1864
1865

Total losses $214,588,000
For the ten months ending March Ist, 1866,
$700,000 of internal revenue were collected in the
4th District of New York. The Loiillards paid in
taxes, on manufactured tobacco, $375,754 for eight
months business. The following named firms did
business exceeding $5,000,000 in amount :
George Bliss and Co. .. 510,273,000
S. B. Chittenden and Co.
E. S. Jaff ray and Co. . 7,000,000
Lanthrop, Ludington, and Co 8,209,000
i A. T. Stewart and Co.

Ifoit,llirae,trudCo. 6,872,939
Low, Harriman,' and Durfee.. 6,000,000
Anthony and Hall
G. Brewers and Co 5,863,172
H. B. Clafin and Co.
Garner and Co .. • • 8,151,123
George A. Weeks and Co 10,000,000
• •
James L. Little and Co 5,179,000
Tat, Griswold, and Kellogg, 126, Duane-st 6,111,000
Woodward, Laurence, and Cu.. 91, Chambers-st. 6,516,000 '
Hunt, Tillindhast, and Co., 70 and 72,Reado-st. 6,255,000
The Central Illinois Wool Growers' Association
met at Springfield on the 15th inst. The Associa-
tion passed resolutions recommending Congress so
to adjust the tariff that all foreign wool shall pay
a duty of 15 cents per pound, irrespective of qua-
lity or grade ; 30 cents per pound on washed wool ;
45 cents on scoured wool, and 25 cents per pound
on foreign shoddy and rags. The subject of pro-
viding for the sale of wool so as to enable the
growers to have something to do about establishing
thelan pricew as
presented• was taken into consideration, but no
P The members present were
of 45) 300 sheep, and naturally felt a
the owners
thing pertaining to wool
deep interest in every
raising.
ued in manufacturing
The number of persons enga .
employments in Ohio is estimated at 300,000 ;
,
and the manufacturing prolluets for 1805 were
valued at $67,000,000.
The Rochester Express says that all the merchants
OE that city were notifiel to call at the Collector's
t
office to pay a fine of fifty dollars for neglecting o
stamp receipts given on the Express Company's
books, on the delivery of wares, merchandise, or
money.

A great fire occurrel at Cincinnati on the 22d
instant. The splendid opera house built by Mr.
Pike, and of which he was the sole owner, was com-
pletely destroyed. The loss of Mr. Pike will foot
up $1,000,000. He had only
$37,000 insurance on
the opera house. Several others of those among the
sufferers lose to the amount of over $lOO,OOO. The
fire extended across thew_ ide thoroughfare known as
Fourth-street, injuring the Buckeye Billiard Saloon
to the extent of $lO,OOO, but not extending to other
buildings on the same block. The total loss was

$1,751,000, on which there was an insurance of but
$327,000..
- Private information received from Texas goes to
show a greatly improved condition of things in
portions of that State. The- question of manhood
suffrage is openly advocated in many places, and is
receiving influential support. The crop of cotton,
it is stated, will be greater the coming year than
ever before raised in that State.

The New York Tribune says :—" It is regarded
as certain that at the next Papal Consistory one of
the bishops of the United States will be created a
cardinal. According to the prevalent opinion in
Rome this distinction is to be conferred, not upon
any of the bishops who, during the war, showed a
warm sympathy with the cause of the Union, nor
upon any one of those who kept a profound silence
on the national question, nor upon any of the arch-
bishops, but upon the special envoy from Jeff. Davis to
Rome—Bishop Lynch, of Charleston. Of course, this
opinion resist only on rumours, and may yet turn
out to be without foundation. It is also stated as
probable that one of the Mexican bishops NVill be
raised to the dignity of a cardinal."
One of the clearest proofs of the returning pro-
sperity of the port of Charleston, S.C., is that the
receipts from customs from that port in the month
of February last was $31,618.71.
A bill has been introduced into Congress, autho-
rising the establishment of an Ocean Mail steamship
Company between Charleston, S. C., and Liverpool,
via Queenstown.

The Atlantic and Mississippi Steamship Com-
pany have twenty-three steamers constantly run-
ning between New Orleans, Memphis, and St.
Louis. The amount of produce going down the
river to New Orleans was never so large as at pre-
sent—cotton shippers preferring this route as the
cotton undergoes but one transhipment.
The manufacturing establishments of Pittsburg,
Pennsylvania, includes 50 glass factories, 58 oil
refineries, 31 rolling mills, 46 iron foundries, 33
machine shops, 10 boiler works, six large steel
works, 10 brass foundries, 16 potteries, five cotton
mills, 4 woollen mills, nine plough works, 10
establishments for heavy forging ; also a number
of white lead factories, chemical works, saw, axe,
copper, and other manufactories of only the great
staples of trade, turning out nearly one hundred
million dollars in value of her own manufactures.
There were in the United States at the begin-
ning of the present year 593 railroad companies
running one or more railway routes. At the close
of the year 1864, the date of the last official returns,
there were nearly thirty-five thousand miles of rail-
way in the United States, supported at an annual
expense of $1,264,336,000. We think few people
are aware of the immense sums that have been ex-
pended in building some of our American railroads.
The Illinois Central, 708 miles long, cost
$28,610,000; the New York Central, 555 miles,
$32,740,000; the Erie, 528 miles, $39,428,000;
the Memphis and Charleston, 290, $67,450,000 ;
the Chicago, Peoria, and Quincy, 400 miles,
$39,270,000. Pennsylvania has more miles of
railway than any other State, reporting 3,359 miles
of the iron track ; Ohio, the second in order, has
3,310 miles; Illinois, third, 3,156. Massachusetts
has 1,285 miles, costing $59,051,000.
An interesting statement of the strength of the
Federal army and its distribution over the country
has been transmitted to the United States Congress.
It appears that on the 9th January the army con-
sisted of 26,587 regulars, 57,590 white volunteers,
and 65,736 negroes—total force, 149,943. Of this
number 41,741 have since been mustered out of ser-
vice, reducing the army to about 108,000 men. On
January the 9th, 103,936 of these troops were dis-
tributed among the various Southern States, and
those mustered out were taken almost excusively
from Southern garrisons, so that now there are
about G 2,000 men in the Southern States. On the
9th January the distribution of men in the South
was as follows :—Texas, 29,248 ; Missouri, 10,890 ;
Tennessee, 10,684 ; Alabama, 10,623 ;
10,193 ; Louisiana, 10,153 ; Arkansas, 8,567; South
Carolina, 4,768 ; Virginia, 4,641 ; North Carolina,
3,106; Georgia, 1,063. There were no troops in
Maryland, Florida, or Kentucky.
The ninth volume of Mr. Bancroft's " History of
the United States" may be expected within a few
days.

Governor Buckingham, of Connecticut, has issued
a proclamation appointing March 30th as a day of
fasting and humiliation in that State.

There arc indications that New Orleans and Key
West arc to be abandoned as naval depots. Nearly
all supplies are being removed from them.
The shipments of copper ore from San Francisco
to Boston during 1865 were 10,614 tons ; to New
York, 7,528 tons; to Great Britain, 10,762 tons.
Total shipments, 28,9:31 tons.
The Lake Superior mines produced 9,971 tons of
copper in 1865, a gain of 915 tons over 1861.
Iron county, Missouri, is tempting to capitalists.
It contains more iron than any other equal area in
the country, and also abounds in copper and lead
ores, accessible by rail from all points North and
East via St. Louis.

A co-operative store in Trenton, New Jersey, is
doing a business of $50,000 a year, the stockholders
making large profits, and buying cheaper than they
could at the other shops. _ _

Some Philadelphia and Pittsburg capitalists have
been incorporated as the Kentucky Lead and Zinc
Mining Company, with a capital of $500,000. They
propose to develop some veins of lead ore in Crit-
tenden county, Kentucky.
The Missouri Pacific and Union Pacific Rail-
roads have made the contract for the transportation
of some 10,000 troops destined for the plains, and
for the vast amount of supplies and Government
freight for Fort Riley and Western posts in Colorado
and New Mexico. As the transit of these is to com-
mence about the first of April, the Missouri Pacific
Road must necessarily complete its connection with
the Union Pacific, in West Kansas, about that
time.

THE UNITED STATES AND THE PARIS EXHIBI
TlON.—General N. P. Banks, in his recent speech
in the United States Congress, urged that some of
the national vessels be used to transport American
contributions to the Great Exposition. He said :
" We want the people of Europe to see of what our
navy is composed—our iron-clads and Monitors, as
novel in naval architecture as was the yacht Ame-
rica. We want them to see 20-inch guns, and the
thousand-pound projectiles we have fabricated.
The naval authorities of our country, I am told,
would not hesitate to challenge the navies of the
whole world to discharge their batteries upon one
of our irresistible and silent Monitors, if they will
allow that Monitor to return the fire of each .by
single shr t."
Tut: PACIFIC RAILROAD.—A message from the
President, communicated to the Senate, March 12th,
inclosed a memorial of the Legislature of Colorado,
with a letter from Governor Cummings, praying an
amendment of the charter of the Pacific Railroad to
secure its location on the Smoky Hill route, via
Fort Riley, Denver, and Salt Lake. It represents
that this route is two hundred miles shorter, with a
present population of fifty thousand, 'and the most
feasible pass through the mountains, while the other
is an unpeopled wilderness for a distance of one
thousand miles.
A letter from Alabama says :—" I am happy to
state to you that our free negroes are doing finely.
We have no trouble with them ; they have all gone
to work manfully ; they give an impetus to trade
that we never before had. I have sold Jack Peters'
negroes more golds this year and last year than I
ever sold Peters, and he owned 450 negrocs. So you
see the free-pegro system is working well with us."
Anti-monopoly meetings are constantly held
through the West. At Orland Cook county, Illinois,
the farmers have formed a league for the purpose of
working in concert toward the reduction of the pre-
sent evil. They insist that the only remedy for
o vi
es in freight is a ship canal around
COUNTERFEITING THE FENIAN BONDS. The
N ear;ahraar
business of counterfeiting the Fenian bonds has been
carried on extensively in New York. Three presses
gFalls.
are reported to have been running for a fortnight
in that city, and perhaps longer, on a very accurate
counterfeit of bonds of various" denominations.
The spurious $lO bonds so closely resemble the
genuine that it requires an expert to detect the