The Sun.
London, England, 1850-09-03 00:00:00

RAIL WA Y OPLRTY.

The following circular has been issued by Messrs.
John nrilton and Sons, Stock and Shsrebrokers :
On the 26th of April last we took the liberty of
suggesting such reorganisation of your railway con-.
cerns as appeared to be necessary to protect the shat-
tered state of your unguaranteed capital from further
violation. The long-continued misapplication of it to
personal and other objects entirely astray from the
original intention,—as shown by the investigations
you set on foot independent of your directors,—ended
in the great capital drawn lo railways becoming pa-
ralysed and almost unheeded, with the exception of
professional jobb:rig ; and a very diminished confidence
was caused in guaranteed, preferential, and other new
stock.

We lately tested the value of the unguaranteed
capital by supposing u person to purchase one share
in each of twenty-three unguaranteed lines, the most
attended ta, at the date of our last circular, on the
26th of April, by an outlay of 7331. 16,.. 31., and
keeping them over the 26th of July—three very dull
months in the share market—And without any ap-
parent improvement in confidence to attract particular
observation. The result, on the 26th July, showed
no variation in value upon one line—a loss upon seven
lines, anl a gain upon Fteen lines—leaving a balance
of profit amounring to 31. 7f. 31 per cent. at the end
of the three months—or at the rate of 131. 9s. per
annum.

During those three inoaths the share market was
chiefly supported by jobbers. It may perhaps be re-
marked .that the season of the year, when the obser-
vation was made, was favourable rather than other-
wise to a rise, on account of the approaching divi-
dends; but it may also be said, on the other band, that
there never was a time when such hope had less in-
fluence in that respect.
All changes proper to be made in the constitution
of a new railway board should be commenced by
balloting out of a previously proper selection from
the body of unbiassed and independent shareholders of
double the number required to form the first half of
a new board, and which half should, by selection—
and not by ballot—make up the other half to complete
the new board from the old board ; otherwise it will be
rarely if ever possible to make up a board that would
work harmoniously and efficiently together. If so many
as are required cannot be selected satisfatorily from the
old board, the number then wanted may be taken out
of those remaining after the first ballot. Boards will
in course be numerically formed, as occasions may
really require.
It is of the most leading consequence to get an in-
telligent and proper board of directors, that will con-
fine themselves rigidly to the duties to be performed.
They will have to choose a competent general ma-
nager, to whom the manager of each working de-
partment must be accountable. The directors should
not personally interfere in the practical working of
the concern, but through the general manager, who
will be in constant communication with the board ;
otherwise all will move under disorderly confusion as
heretofore. None in the concern below the directors
should have any personal interest in the capital of the
company, otherwise they may devote more atten-
tion to jobbing than to the duties they have to
perform.
The directors might be allowed to invest, but not
habitually job i❑ their own company's concerns, nei-
ther should they be permitted to derive any benefit
through any contracts or business the company may
have on foot, under a heavy forfeiture and removal
from their official appointments, without the power of
return at any after period.
Until a railway work is completed for traffic, its
real value cannot of course be ascertained ;—it will at
that period be solely governed by the income from
traffic which it can secure and retain, coupled with
the management it is famed fOr, and by a comparison
with other securities according to their relative cir-
cumstances.

If it be cf high national importance to continue the
statement, weekly, of the position of the Bank of
England for regulating the operations of commercial
affairs, it is surely not less so as regards a necessity
for a truthful statement. to be put forth at less inter-
vening periods than at half-yearly meetings, of the enor-
mous and increasing amount of capital absorbed by
railways, always quickly transferable and available to
every occasion required.
It is a fact diffi,.:ult to reconcile, after all the wide-
spread misery that railway mismanagement, deceits,
and fraud have given rise to, that shareholders should
sit down in any case satisfied without the most scru-
tinising search into the actual state of their railway
affairs, apart from the statements put forth under the
separate and sole care or authority of directors alone
—no matter how much they may otherwise be con-
fided in—and it is more extraordinary still that such
meu should suffer anftaint of suspicion to bang over
them in their administration of railway affairs, until
they have encouraged every effort that can be made
to perfect the confidenCe of both the present share-
holders and the public. _ _

All reflecting persons may easily conceive the-
degree in which Governmental interference may con-
fuse and harass the economy of a railway concern,
however slightly the attempt be made—but none can
forget the practical injury done to railway interests
when Government looked tamely on while Parliament
in 1845 let loose its unguarded power to create an
excess of new railway schemes, chiefly unrequired,
inducing a necessity for new capital impossible to
raise ; and which, in very numerous instances, have
been wisely withdrawn under the Abandonment Act,
after creating disputes to be settled in Chancery of
the most shuffling and disgraceful nature—alike
humiliating to the dignity of Parliament and the
folly of impetuous gamblers.
For Government to let loose a new set of officials
in any form to fasten on railway affairs, would be as
fatal to the interests of shareholders as are the fol-
lowers of an army on the heels of retreating troops,
who kill the wounded and carry off the spoil.
Surely such madness will not again be attempted, or
shareholders suffer the disgrace fur its absolute ne-
cessity Every
presentman directorm ust
willn w
flinchhold byro hmi s
his
caseimpe-
rativeand
duty until it is faithfully and honourably per-
formed.ormssurlyely
ed

With well-organized management, well-framed,
and well-audited accounts, many railway concerns can
hardly fail to do well for their proprietors, or to at-
tract that portion of the great unemployed and accu-
mulating loose capital now sinking in value. An
alternativa of this may be, that too great an amount
of that capital will be forced into channels detrimen-
tal to the manufacturing interests of the country, at
the imminent risk of doing worse, eventually, than
railways up to a late period have done.
Exchange arcade, Manchester, Aug. 27.

leid bLuaisnvin dEe,ss
doing.
RAILWAY SHARE MARKETS.
BRISTOL, Sarr. 2.
STOCK EXCHANGX.—The market to-day was firm, and
33 La ex div.
prices are rather improved. Great Westerns were done at
603/
STOCK EXCHAN GR.—The share market was not so firm
LIVERPOOL, SEPT. 2.
The transactions were as
follow : Lancashire and Yorkshire, Consolidated, 4242
Ditto, Fifths, 9 dis.—London and North-Western, 109:t c.
—Ditto, New Quarters, 15-16 p.—Midland, 33%—Ditto,
Halves. 25 1-16 dis. - South-Eastern and Dover, 161ef to-day, ex
anddi div.—Midland,
little
York, Newcastle, and Berwick (Original N. and B.), 15—
Newcastle and Carlisle, 8214.
MANCHESTER, Sam,. 2.
STOCK EXCHANGE. —The shire market was better to-day
than for some time past, and prices firm, especially for Great
Northerns and Dovers. The transactions were as follow :
East Lancashire, B%—Great Northern, 13% dis.—Ditto, 5
per cent, Preference, Scrip, 116,4—London and North-
Western, New Quarters, 1 p.— Ditto, Manchester and Bir-
mingham, Quarters (C), 1 1-16 p.—Manchester, Sheffield,
and Lincolnshire, Preference, 8 1-16—Newcastle and Car-
lisle, 8144—North Staffordshire, 10 13-16 dis.— South-Eastern
and Dover, IVA—Ditto, Consol. (No. 3), 16A—Ditto (No.
4), 5 7-16
YORK, AUG. 31.

York
—Great ea Western, 60%
STOCK Excirerum—The transactions to-day were as
follow : —York, Newcastle, and Berwick, 14/. 16s. 3d.
and
Ditto
N( Gr North .
juEi.d Plaunrdc,h
pa sreele,
r4ent