The Sun.
London, England, 1850-12-19 00:00:00

THE GAS QUESTION.

agitation that has' lien got up in the parish of Sr.
We perceive that one of oar evening contemporaries,
.he Globe, has very properly directed Lttention to the
James's, relative to the notice which three of the metro-
politan gas companies have given to Parliament for an
amalgamation of their interests, the objet of such union,
as the Gloite correctly states,
being to secure a position
which shall enable those comparnes so to concentrate
their means as to supply gas at the cheapest possible
remunerative price, and to prevent the ever-recurring in-
convenience resulting from the breaking up of .the
public thoroughfares in various parts of the metropolis,
in order to lay down immense lengths of gas pipes.
There can ha no doubt, as cogently urged by our con-
temporary, that gas companies who have expended enor-
mous sums of money in constructing works and laying
down their mains aro sernably interested in supplying
"To them," as the Globe pithily
puts it, " half a loaf is better than no bread at all," and
gp aoss,s
possibly,
furnish a t
as
it. low rate es anynew cotnpany can
existing companies, rather than be driven out of the
field, and have their
entire property destroyed, must feel
it to ha the wisest policy, in fighting agniust the intro-
ductiou of new competitors,
.to sacrifice much that they
may secure something to their shareholders. Oar con-
temporary refers to the quotations of gas shares in the
market as the best evidence that the flourishing state•
meats sent forth by new companies, of certain large
profits upon small outlays of capital, can more
reasonably be ascribed to the imagination than
really defaced from any actual profits derived from
the working of gas companies; but we think our
contempory might have gone further It would
not, we believe, be very difficult to discover gas
shareholders, who with their shares quoted at, say some
30 or 40 per cent. discount, would, t 6 avoid future re-
sponsibilities, in the shape of calls, be heartily glad to
pay handsomely to have such shares transferred to other
parties. As far as we can gather the stated opinion of
the opposition in St. James's parish, from the reports
of the proceedings as published in the daily papers, it
appears that they allege the amalgamation of the three
gas companies is simply a combination for monopoly
objects. Looking at what ha; been done in the City ia
the way of reduction in the price of gas, and taking into
consideration also the fact that the amalgamation which
the St. James's opposition complain of will put the three
companies, as ithe latter state, in a condition at once to
reduce their prices at least 20 per cent.; we are inclined
to think that the cry of monopoly in this instance has
teen unreasonably and unjustly raised. Human nature
is very fallible its monetary matters. Most of us like to
make the larg'sst possible'oofits—on the other hand, none
of us like to be deprived of every vestige of remunera-
tion; and there are none but the very insane who, with
a large capital invested in business, would suffer destruc-
tion rather than sell, even at the lowest profit, as cheaply
as their neighbours.—Railway Record.

DINNER TO LORD JAMES STUART, M.P..on
Thursday evening a dinner was given in the Bate Arms
Hotel, Roaiesay, to Lord James Stuart, M.P. for the burghs
of Ayr, Irvine, Inverary, Campbelton, and Oban, and Lord-
Lieutenant of the county of Bute, by a numerous party of
his friends and admirers, in token of the great respect and
esteem in which he is held. Archibald Sharp, Esq., Provost
of Rothesay, occupied the chair. The company numbered
upwards of 170, including a few from London, Edinburgh,
and Glasgow.—Scolsman.