The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-02 00:00:00

FRANCE.

PARIS, Jan. 2.

Neither the Moniteur nor any other newspaper
has been published this morning.
No reliable information has yet transpired about
the Emperor's speech on occasion of the reception
of the diplomatic body yesterday.
BOURSE, Dec. 31, Three o'clock. —The market
closed as follows :

4i per Cent.
End of month —
3 per Cent
End of month 6B 82f
Credit Mobilier
End of month 162 50
Credit Foncier 1337 50
End of m0nth...1335
RAILWAY
- -

Bank Shares
Ital'an Loan
End of month 44 55
Mexican Loan
Do. Bonds
Spanish Threes
Rome Debt 34 50
Deferred

Orleans ... _ AeCount
... 855
Northern
Lyons and Mediterranean
Southern..... 550
Western
Eastern
•• 526}
Sardinian
Austrian
Lombard 3431
North of Spain
Saragossa
Roman

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

SOUTH-EASTERN.

The gross traffic receipts on this company's lines
for the four weeks ending the 14th of December
amounted to £88,478, less £2,844 for collecting and
delivering goods, &c., leaving £85,634, to which was
added £2,922 for rents and sundries, and £3,610 for
steampacket service, making the total receipts
£92,166. From this was deducted the expenditure,
£52,204, including rates, taxes, tolls, Government
duty, and expenses of steampacket service, leaving
a net sum of £39,962. The total receipts for the
19 weeks and three days ending as above amounted
to £603,729, and the expenditure £257,049, leaving
a net balance of £346,679.

ATLANTIC AND GREAT WESTERN.
The committee of debenture-holders, appointed
at a private meeting of debenture-holders held at the
Loudon Tavern on the 21st of November last to ob-
tain the best opinion of counsel on the question of
the propriety of the debentures over the consolidated
bonds, state in their report that on a question of
such magnitude as the priority of £2,800,000 de-
benture debt over nearly £4,000,000 sterling of con-
solidated mortgage bonds, the debenture-holders were
r-. 411.11 a it" c• oocrannikkoo c.F ...Imi.iatratinn,
professing to represent the interests of all creditors,
would have sought the best legal advice on the ques-
tion of the priorities of the different classes of securi-
ties before inviting creditors, representing nearly
£3,000,000 sterling of securities, to sanction a plan
which would in effect have swept away three-fourths
at least of their claims. The committee prefaced
the opinions recently taken by an opinion delivered
by one of the very highest American judicial autho-
rities at the time of the debenture issue—the opi -
Dion of the lion. J. S. Black, late Attorney-Gene-
ral of the United States and Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania :—" I have ex-
amined the laws of New York, Pennsylvania, and
Ohio, which define and limit the powers of the
Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Company of
Pennsylvania, and the Atlantic and Great Western
Railroad Company of Ohio--together with the
statutes regulating such companies in general, as
well as the special acts incorporating the companies
named. These corporations have a right to borrow
money and secure the payment thereof as proposed
in the prospectus of the certificates of debenture
submitted to me. The pledge of the securities
there mentioned is a legal execution of their cor-
porate power. The holder of a certificate of deben-
ture in the form given will be entitled to the full
beufit of all the collateral securities pledged for its
redemption. He may recover principal and in-
terest, and, if payment should be withheld, no
Court in the country—State or Federal—having
jurisdiction of the parties and the subject, would
refuse him the proper remedy. Nor can the obli-
gation of the contract be impaired by any future
legislation without violating the Constitutions of the
several States, and that of the United States."
After giving the opinions of the Hon. Mr. Wigfall
and of Judge Thompson to the effect that no rea-
sonable doubt could be entertained on the point
submitted, that the consolidated mortgage bonds I
were subordinate to the certificates of debenture,
and all other indebtedness existing prior to consoli-
dation; the committee state as to the position of
the debentures, that, in accordance with the legal
opinions just expressed, the debenture-holders
had, over and above the value of the collateral
securities deposited in the Bank of England, an
equitable lien for the balance of their claim on
the property of the three old companies, subject
only to the prior liens of the three old companies.
In order to determine the amount of this lien, it
was necessary that the collaterals should be sold
either under the direction of the Court of Chancery
or otherwise. The collaterals could be bought in
by the debenture holders or their accredited agents,
and this course the committee strongly recom-
mended. The deed of trust provided that the secu-
rities were to be sold at the written request of any
debenture holder, and the appointment of accre-
dited agents to buy in the securities for the deben-
ture holders would prevent those securities being
improperly sacrificed. Whatever balance might
be thus determined to be due to the debenture

holders would, as their debt was already overdue,
follow the divisional bonds as a claim against the
railroad ; so that after the payment of the interest
on the divisional bonds any cash that might be in
hand must be divided rateably among the deben-
ture holders in liquidation of the capital and
interest of their overdue debt, until the same be
fully discharged.

RIGA AND DUNABURG.
The traffic receipts on this company's railway
for the month of November last amounted to
111,856 roubles, or £16,778, against 97,520 roubles,
or £14,682, for November, 1866, showing an in-
crease of 14,366 roubles, or £2,150. The total
traffic receipts from the Ist of January to the end
of November, 1867, amounted to 981,098 roubles,
or £147,164. The receipts for passengers and
their luggage amounted to 293,300 roubles, and
for goods and cattle to 652,811 roubles, together
946,111 roubles.

NORTHERN OF CANADA.
The traffic receipts on this company's line, 97
miles in length, from the Ist July to the 7th De-
cember last, amounted to £55,087, and for the cor-
responding period in 1866 to £49,977, showing an
increase of 45,110.