The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-07 00:00:00

1102 t 011
tirita Tat

HER MAJESTY.

WINDSOR CASTLE, April 6.
The Queen, accompanied by her Royal High-
nese`Princess Louise, went out in the grounds
this morning.

Princess Beatrice rode in the Home Park.
Prince Arthur, attended by Lieut. Picard, left
Windsor Castle last evening for Greenwich Park.

The Prince and Princess of Wales, with Prince
Albert Victor, Prince George, and Princess Louise,
left Marlborough House yesterday afternoon for
Sandringham.

11.11LTV.11" AND OTHER COATIPANMS.

ATLANTIC AND GREAT WESTERN.

The Committee of Administration have issued a
circular to the bond and debenture holders and cre-
ditors of the company, inc;uding copies of the case
submitted by them in reference to the relative pri-
ority of the consolidated bonds and the certificates
of debenture, and of the opinions given
thereon by Mr. O'Connor, of New York ;
Judge Black (late Attorney-General, United
States), of Pennsylvania ; and Judge Ran-

❑ey, of Ohio. The Committee of Administration
were originally advised both by Mr. Clarkson N.
Potter, of New York, and by their London solicitors
as to the relative priorities of the several securities ;
and, in implicit reliance on such advice, they had
never for a moment doubted the ultimate result,
and they would wiihngly have spared the heavy
expense of taking those further opinions. While,
however, they regretted the persistent and mistaken
agitation of a section of the debenture holders,
they could not refrain from an expression of satis-
faction that the opinions of such eminent legal
authorities, who were separately consulted, should
so unanimously and decidedly support the
views expressed throughout by the committee, and
should in such unmistakable terms indicate the true
position of the debenture certificates as to leave no
reasonable doubt on the subject that the consoli-
dated bonds took precedence of the certificates of
debentures. Mr. Ridsdale's committee had already
filed a bill in Chancery against the trustees of
the certificates of debenture, with the avowed in-
tention of compelling an immediate realisation of
the collateral securities ; but, as the value of the
debentures must depend almost entirely upon
the securities in the Bank of England, any
forced sale of these collaterals was to be deprecated
as alike undesirable and prejudicial to the interests of
the debenture holders, who would probably, when too
late, find their property sacrificed at a nominal
price to the advantage of some powerful combina-
tion of speculators. Mr. C. O'Connor was of
opinion that the sums due and to become due on
the debenture certificates, except so far as effectually
secured by the bonds mentioned in the debenture,
constituted at most debts at large of the consolidated
company ; that the consolidated mortgage formed a
valid lien in favour of the creditors who bad lent
money upon it, and that such creditors were en-
titled to a preference over the debts so due or to
become due on the debenture certificates. The
Hon. J. S. Black (Pennsylvania), after going into
the whole case, was of opinion that the bonds
issued by the consolidated companies, with the
mortgage made to secure them, were liens upon
the railway ; that the certificates of debenture
were not legal liens ; and that no claim of priority
could be lawfully set up for the certificates, as
against the bonds, upon any ground stated in the
case, or otherwise known to him. Therefore in dis-
tributing the proceeds of the railway the bonds
should be preferred. The Ron. Rufus P. Ranuey
(Ohio) was of opinion that the consolidated mort-
gage was a valid lien upon the property therein de-
scribed for the security of the bonds issued under it,
that the debenture debt was never a lien upon such
property, either in the hands of the original companies
or of the consolidated company, and that no lien
could now be acquired by judgment or otherwise,
which would interfere with the priority secured to
bondholders by the consolidated mortgage. The
Committee of Administration hoped to be shortly
in possession of full details of the working of the
railway during the receiver's first year of office, and
they then proposed to convene a public meeting of
the creditors, for the general consideration of the
affairs of the undertaking.