The Sun.
London, England, 1857-02-18 00:00:00

THE RUSSIAN RAILWAYS.

The following letter appears in I.e Nord of Mon-
day last :---.

"ST. PETERSBURG, FEB. 10.

" The Emperor has approved the act of conces-
sion and statutes of the Great Russian Railway
Company, for such is the title assumed by the
company of shareholders which has just negotiated
a contract with the Government, and which has
Baron Stieglitz at its head. The Imperial ukase
announcing the concession has just been published.
The following are the principal conditions, the sub-
stance of which I hasten to communicate to you,
though you will be sure soon to receive the docu-
ments at full length. In the first place, these are
the names of the founders of the company :—Messrs.
Stieglitz and. Co., bankers, at St. Petersburg • Hot-
tinguer and Co., bankers, at Paris ; S. A. Fraen-
kel, banker, at Warsaw ; the Brothers Baiing and
Co., of London ; Hope and Co., of Amsterdam •,
Tutneyssen, of Paris ; Mendelsohn and Co., of
Berlin ; Isaac Pereire, Emile Pereire B. H. Fould
and Fould Oppenheim, the brothers Mallet, Baron
Seilliere, J. J. de Uribarren, Desarts-Musard and
Co., Adolphe d'Eichtbal, Frederic Grieninger and
Casimir Salvador, of Paris. The company is atio-
nyme ; its head-quarters are at St. Petersburg,
where a hoard of management is to reside, con-
sisting of twenty
members, half of whom are
cdihnagrg ien Russia,
at, the
h eto
company's
be formed
to be Russians ; and a committee, consisting of
antin
Paris
armeismfbeorrstialnti.resig
affairs which specially concern non-Russian inte-
rests. The company engages to finish, within ten
years, the four lines, the direction of which you are
already acquainted with, and likewise a branch
from the railroad between St Petersburg and War-
saw, and with li6nigsburg for its terminus. The
company's capital is 275 millions of silver roubles ;
the shares and obligations will be issued in series ;
the first series, amounting to 75 millions of silver
roubles (300 millions of francs), is enterely sub-
scribed by the founders. The company's shares will
be negotiated on the spot, in St. Petersburg, at 126
silver roubles, at 500 f. in Paris, at 201. sterling in
London, at 134 rixdollars in Berlin, at 236 Dutch
florins at Amsterdam. The Period of the concession
is to be 85 years, in which the ten years allowed for
construction are not included. The Government
guarantees five per cent., as well for the interest as
for the successive redemption of the shares, which is
to be effected in 85 years. The Government will ap-
propriate 18 millions of silver roubles, out of the
company's net profits, to repay itself for the outlay
incurred in constructing a part of the railway from
St. Petersburg to Warsaw, conceded to the com-
pany. The concessionaires engage to commence the
works in the course of the year immediately follow-
ing the signature of the ukase of concession; that
is to say, in the year 1857. The company will pay
over to the government, as a guarattee, a deposit
of 5 per cent. on the nominal capital of the first
serial issue of shares, and 5 per cent. on the capital
actually paid up on the subsequent issues of shares,
according as those issues shall be made. At any
period after the lapse of 20 years, to date from the
last year of the ten years assigned for the construc-
tion of the railways. The government is to have
the power of buying in the railwayi conceded, by
engaging to pay to the company an annuity, the
amount of which shall be fixed according to the
average net returns of the undertaking. This an-
nuity will be payable during the remainder of the
term for which the concession is made."