The Sun.
London, England, 1857-08-04 00:00:00

RAILWAY& IN
Mr. C. FREsiiriELD, in re\
tion made to the chairman and 4'4-,
India Company for a gaarantee'on-t, pra
Oude Railway, advanced the polslttiati
rangeme ut a between the East India Company-a,nd the
various companies for making railways in. India em-
bodied in thegnarantee of interest, had not, up to the
point, involved present burden on the revenues
and resources of India, and that the experience of
the working of railways was sufficient to dispel the
apprehension that there would be any ultimat
charge on those revenues and resources, resulting
from the guaraute. .He adverts in his statement
to the past history of railways in India, the un-
satisfactory nature of the contracts, and the impos-
sibility of estimating the profit of a railway where
the course of the line, the mode of construction,
the cost of the railway, the working and the fares,
were all to be prescribed by an external authority, -
whose interests must in many respects be at
variance with those of the rail way company. The
aopo,ntmentt)y the East India Company of an
ex officio director, with a veto on the proceedings
of the board, then the obligation to submit the
matter to the directors of the East India Conpany,
and afterwards to the Board of Control, had c +used
much delay anti compltcations in the progress of
the various und.-rt &figs in course of execution.
He l'elieved that the following propositions would
be found to ba substantially correct—namely :
"1. That the East India Company (under the
stipulation by which all the capital rai-eel by the
railway companies has-been, and must be paid into -
the ire taury of the East India Company) have
always been in possession of a much larger sum
than the aggregate interest advanced by them under
their guarantee.
"2. As to the East Indian Railway Company,
that the East India Company have now about
1,230,0001. or thereabouts, of the capital of that
company in their hands, while the aggregate amount
of interest paid to that company does not exceed
600,0001. or theioaboutS.
"3. As to the Bombay Railway Company, that
the East India Company have now in their hands
about 2,000,000/, of the capital of that company,
while the aggregate amount of interest paid to that
company does not exceed 220,0001., or there-
abouts.
"4. As to the Madras Railway Company, >that
the East India Company have now 1,G00,0001 , or
thereabouts, of the capital of that company in their
hands, while the apregate amount of interest paid
by the East India Company to that company does
not exceed 150,0001.
" 5. During all the time that the railway:capital
has laid in the hands of the E tst India C many it
has been employed at interest, or with equal advan-
tage, for the purpoes of the East India Company."
He sta'es that it is quite clear that up to this
time, not only have railway companies not been a
burden on the...revenues or resources of India, but
that t' ie East India Company has actually, during
the period of seven years which has intervened
since their esteb i=hment, been in possession,
through m ans of their capital, of considerable sums
over and ab:)ve the sums advanced for interest,
which have been available for their own purposes ;
that this sthte of Viingi would continue at all time 4,
so long as the capital of the railway companies was
in omrse of subscription, and until their capital
accounts were closed. The railway companies
were always ready and willing to call up capital
in
order to secure the guaranteed interest, and the
East India Company,as their self-stipu!ated bankers
hid at all times the control and use of the money
subsribed.
Wi:h respect to one obserrationby the Chairman
of the East India Company, doubting whether
future railways should nut be left t) their own in-
herent prospeAs, Mr. Frestifield stWes that he had
given much consideration t the question, and bad
arrived at two main conclusions, viz :
" 1 That the railway companies, as individual
en'erprises, would do better without the guarantee
of the Eist India Company if its absence would
secure t hem immunity from the control and restric-
tions imposed in the contract, and submitted to for
the sake of the guarantee, assuming always that the
capital could be raised wi bout a guarantee.
"2. That the East Ind a Company derives a
large benefit from the guarantee through the can-
d tions which it en ib'es the Court to impose upon
the railway companies, and through the means
which it affordsot obtaining the necessary capital,
and th it it is neither their interest nor their policy
to reign it.
"In arriving at these conclusions he assumed
that the restrictive stipulations in the contract sub-
mitted to by the railway companies mare the price
of the guarantee, and that if the guarantee were
not given those conditions could not be exacted,
but that the railway companies must in Eng-
land, free and unfettered ; and, further, that tue
interests of India required that the railway system
should have full scope in that country at the earliest
period, and that there was no class of public works
there which was of such primary importance as the
establishment of roads through the country."

The stipulations in the contract notnnly-arrelve-
great advantages to the East India Company, but
leave the railway company tied and bound in their
hands. Afrerbdverting to the inducements held
out for large investments of English capital in
foreign railways, he states that it, is fac the -fit
India Company, as the Government of India, to
consider whether they should be backward in un-
dertaking and encouraging these great works, and
lose the opportunity of securing the capital for hibe
purpose, while it is open to them.

OXFORD, WORCESTE R, AND WOLVER-
HAM PTON.

In the account of the proceedings at the half-
yearly meeting of this company, which appeared in
The Sun of Fr.day, Mr. Fenton, the chairman, was
represented to have said that Lll the fixed charges
of the undert•tking would be met by a weekly
traffic of 5,0001., "and working expenses at 40 per
cent. ;" it should have been "working expenses at
45 per cent."

MANCHESTER, SHEFFIELD, AND LIN-
COLNSHIRE., _ . .

The working expenses and other outgoings of this
company's railways (exclusive of the Manchester,
South Junction, and Altrincham), have amounted
in the fortnight ending July 26, to 10,7131., while
the corresponding period of 1856 amounted to
8,8831. The sum of 8,2841. already stated for the
first 12 days of the half-year, added to the 10,713/.
as above, makes a total expended of 18,9971., as
against 17,4741. for the corresponding period of the
previous year.