The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-23 00:00:00

THE SUN LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING,_ JANUARY 23, 1868.

RAILWAY AND OTHER COMPANIES

CAPITAL OF RAILWAYS IN THE UNITED
KINGDOM, 1866.
It appears from a return issued by the Board of
Trade that the total amount of capital authorised
to be raised up to the end of the year 1866 on rail-
ways in the United Kingdom amounted to
£466,151,633 on shares, and to £154,412,773 by
loans ; total, £620,564,406 ; showing, as compared
with 1865, an increase of capital authorised in
the Session of 1866 of £44,272,743. The total
amount paid up on ordinaryshares was £228,245,629,
being an increase of £8,647,433 in the year 1866.
The amount paid up on preferential shares and
stock amounted to £134,455,098, being an increase
of £10,191,623. The amount raised on debenture
stock was £14,105,594, being an increase of
£310,219, and on debentures £105,065,863, being
an increase of £7,244,766, making the total amount
of capital paid up to the 31st of December, 1866,
£481,872,184, being an increase of £26,394,041 as
compared with the amount paid up on the 31st of
December, 1865.
The capital authorised to be raised by railway
companies in England and %Vales amounted on
shares to £388,605,689, and by loans to
£129,762,809 ; total, £518,368,498, being an in-
crease of £41,158,142 during the year 1866. The
capital paid up on ordinary shares amounted to
£193,674,973, being an increase of £6,735,621 ;
on preferential capital to £109,322,844, being an
increase of £9,392,492 ; on debenture stock to
£12,566,697, being an increase of £251,690 ; and
on debentures to £86,659,720, being an increase of
£6,239,644, making the total amount paid up to the
end of 1866 £402,224,274, being an increase iu the
paid-up capital of £22,619,447.
The capital authorised for railways in Scotland
amounted to £50,104,794 on shares, and on loans
to 117,024,623 ; total, £67,129,417, being an in-
increase of £2,083,601 in the year 1866. The paid-up
capital on ordinary shares amounted to £19,797,076,
being an increase of £1,489,229 ; on preferen-
tial shares and stock, £19,460,908, being an in-
crease of £405,756; on debenture stock, £1,254,732,
being an increase of £47,964 ; and on debentures,
£12,566,082 being an increase of £920,817, making
the total paid-up capital £53,078,798, being
an increase of £2,872,766 in the paid-up capital
in 1866. _ _ _

The capital authorised to be raised for railways
in Ireland to the end of 1866 amounted, on ordi-
nary shares, to £27,441,150, on loans to £7,625,341;
total £35,066,491, being an increase of £1,031,000
in 1866. The paid-up capital on ordinary shares
amounted to £11,778,580, being au increase of
£422,583 ; on preferential shares to £5,671,306,
being an increase of £393,375 ; on debenture stock
to p 284,165, being an increase of £10,565; and to
£5,840,061 on debentures, being an increase of
£75,305, making the total paid-up capital
£26,569,112, being an increase of £903,821 in
1866..

- .
On the total paid-up capital of £481,872,184 for
railways in thrUnited Kingdom the gross traffic re-
ceipts for the year 1866 amounted to £38,164,351,
being 7.92 per cent. on the paid-up capital; the
working expenses to £18,811,673 ; and the net
receipts to £19,352,681, or 4.04 per cent. on the
paid-up capital.
On the total paid-up capital of railways in Eng-
land and Wales, amounting to• £402,224,274, the
gross traffic receipts for the year 1866 amounted to
£32,274,b69, being 8.02 per cent. on the paid-up
capital ; the working expenses to £15,894,526 ; and
the net receipts to £16,380,343, or 4.09 per cent.
on the paid-up capital.
On the total paid-up capital of railways in Sc .A-
land; amounting to £53,078,798, the gross receipts
for the year 1866 amounted to £4,127,131, or 718
per cent. on the paid-up capital ; the working ex-
penses to £2,013,087 ; and the net receipts to
£2,114,044, or 3.97 ler cent. on the paid-up
capital.
On the total paid-up capital of railways in
Ireland, amounting to £26,569,112, the gross traffic
receipts for they ear 1866 amounted to £1,762,354,
or 6.63 per cent on the paid-up capital ; the work-
ing expenses to £904,060 ; and the net receipts to
2858,294, or 2.85 per cent on the paid-up capital.

affairs, upon the report of Mr. Thompson, their 1
active secretary, who bad exerted himself to
the utmost, although unsuccessfully, to bring about
a satisfactory termination to the negotiations in
India. The Board felt bound to give the earliest
intimation to the shareholders that the prospects of
carrying out the objects of the company in India
had been completely neutralised by causes which
would be stated in their report at the adjourned
meeting ; but they could not express any opinion
until after the secretary's return as to the actual
results, beyond stating that they did not anticipate
the necessity of making a call for the amount of the
shares remaining unpaid. He then moved that,
pending the return of the secretary from India
with the information called for by the Board, the
meeting be adjourned to Tuesday, the 25th of
February next.
Mr. J. Walker, a director, seconded the motion,
which was carried unanimously, and the meeting
adjourned.

the intimate

intercourse of that Power with Russia,

and heir sympathy with the Cretan insurgents. The
writer states that the public confidence in Ame-

rican iufluence never stood higher than since Mr.
Morris has been United States' resident at this

Court.

The Lake Shore railway disaster was on the
whole the most horrible recorded ; but as usual
" nobody" is to blame. Even in a'practical coun-

try like the United States the railway gauge is not
uniform ; so carriages have often to be constructed
adapted to the varying widths. The bridges are
generally without parapets ; the stoves without

secure fastenings. The Lake Shore catastrophe
was caused by a bent axle, which threw the car

'rom the track. Axles do not bend without suffi-

cient cause ; yet nobody is to blame. Was the
axle bent before the train started, or did it bend on
the road? How has the coroner's jury discovered
that it was bent before the accident occurred ? The
car was thrown down a height of 40 feet, and then
burnt; and it would be difficult even for an intelli-
gent jury to discover what had been the faults of
the car befora it had gone through such an ordeal.

The coroner's jury, however, attributes the accident

to a bent axle, and declares that nobody was to

blame.

John O'Neil, who has succeeded Roberts a; Pre-
sident of the Fenian Senate, was born in Ireland,
whence he was carried to the United States when

very young. In 1853 he enlisted in the United
States army, and rose during the civil war to the

grade of lieutenant. At one period he commanded
a regiment of Tennessee cavalry, and as his princi-
pal service was in that State he had opportunities
_ _

of making the acquaintance of Andrew Johnson, o(
whose friendship he • boasts. The Fenian Senate
have issued au address to the American people, as is
their custom on any change, signed by O'Neil. It

is written in the usual " highfaluten" strain, assert-
ing and denying, but never arguing, appealing to

everything but reason. The people of the United
States are implored not to believe the accusations
against then of England's hired scribes, and the
Clerkenwell and all other outrages are declared to
be the work of the secret agents of the " English
Government, endeavouring to bring odium upon tile
national cause by the perpetration of crimes for,•ign
both to the genius, the instincts, and religious train-
ing of the Irish people." O'Neil is a young, hot-
headed man, who has been elected, it is feared, to
head an expedition into Canada. It was he who
led the Fenians across the Niagara, and in the ac-
tion at Limestone Ridge. Roberts, after some de-
mur, wrote his letter of resignation, but the
O'Mahony-Savage party have not given in their
adhesion to this arrangement.
After the close of the French war all sorts of
financial quacks sprang up in England—and at
intervals, ever since—to show how the national
debt should be dealt with. They proved to their
own satisfaction that two and two were ndt four,

that £800,000,000 were not £800,000,000, and
that any amount of debt might be wiped out alike
to the satisfaction of debtors and creditors, without

the levy of a tax, or the payment of a bond. Senator
Henderson, of Missouri, has come forward with a
scheme to consolidate the United States Debt in a
Three and a Half per Cent. Stock. He considers
that, sufficient interest for the wealthy people of the
East. The Secretary of the Treasury states that
people will not take the loan at a lower interest
than 5 per cent. They will take tlia loan at any
interest the United States choose to guaran tee, at
a rate that can be worked out by the Rule of Three.
If Six per Cent. gol 1-bearing Bands now fetch
109, what is the value of Three, and a Half per
Cent.? We know no other mole of calculation,
and tinkering will have the effect of lowering, not
raising, the value. The question is one of con-
fidence, and there can be no reason why the United
States' debt should be quoted lower than that of
Great Britain, except that England has been tried
in the same ordeal as that now testing the United
States, and has not been found wanting.
It is said that the President intends to forward
to Congress a Message calling the attention of the
Legislature to the poverty and destitution in the
South. A delegation has arrived in Washington
to urge the policy of lending to the planters of the
cotton States $30,000,000 at 6 per cent. on mort-
gage of crops, by which they will be enabled to
re-stock their wasted plantations. The President,
it is believed, favours the application ; but Gen.
Howard is opposed to it, and suggests instead, a
generous distribution of food by the Government,
the cost to be repaid by a lien on the crops. The cor-
respondents of the New York Herald state that in
all the cotton districts of Louisiana, Georgia, Mis-
sissippi, Alabama, North C irolina, and South Ca-
rolina, the mass of freedmen are not only starving,
but naked. In the corn-growing districts famine
is not so near. In many counties of these States the
forests are filled with armed negroes, who hunt game
by day, and at night steal the planter's stock. Nor
is the destitution confined to the blacks, for thou-
sands of the whites have not a month's provisions,
nor money to supply them. It is conceded by all
that something must be done.
The State of Virginia has announced the pay-
ment of the interest upon all bands issued before
the war, up to and including those of January,
1861. No provision has been made for the interest
on bonds issued after that date. The payment is to
be made at Richmond, and will consist of 2 per cent.
in stock and 1 per cent. in scrip. General Rogers,
the second auditor of the State, forwarded to
Messrs. Baring and C ). $50,000 to pay the inte-
rest on the sterling 'nte .est of the debt due on the
Ist January last.
A telegram, dated New York Jan. 12, says that
Gen. Meade, who was Pope's successor, has removed
Mr. Jenkins from the Government of Georgia. We
wonder if the following, told by the New 1 ork Herald' s
Washington correspondent, is the cause : " He is in-
formed that the refusal of the State Treasurer of
Georgia to honour the requisition •of the Atlanta
Convention for pay and perquisites was but a pre-
liminary step. Had General Pope been permitted
to remove the Governor and Treasurer as was con-
templated, the Convention would have found but an
empty treasury—it being understood that the funds
of the State had been removed, in anticipation of
this state of affairs, to the city of New York." Mr.
Jenkins has appealed to President Johnson for pro-
tection.

There is a case of much interest, now before the
United States' Supreme Court. The sheriff of a
county in Oregon paid the amount collected by him
for taxes in currency, claiming such payment to be
valid under the Legal Tender Act. By the laws of
Oregon the payment of taxes is made compulsory in
coin. If the sheriff collected in coin, and settled in
currency, a round balance would remain in his bands.
But the question involved is whether any State can
enforce pay►nent in other than what the Supreme
Government has decreed to be legal tender for all pay-
ments, which involves the further question whether
green-backs are a legal tender. This has been de-
cided differently by jurists, although the majority of
decisions favour the notes, as a legal tender for all
payments except such as are exempted by the Act of
Congress.
The Union Club of Boston has unanimously
elected Richard H. Dana, jun., its president.
Mr. A. T. Stewart has headed a commercial
movement for Grant as President. The great idea
is to take the nomination out of the hands of poli-
ticians, and to induce the different interests and
professions of the country to declare so strongly for
the General, that the Convention will be left no
other course than to nominate him as the national
candidate. At a late meeting in the Cooper's In-
stitute an organization was effected in New York,
composed entirely of leading merchants and lawyers.
An appeal is to be made by circular to the business
men of the country to support Grant in favour of
the commerical interest. No statement is embodied
of Grant's views, but rumour says that Mr. Stewart
is in receipt of a letter, in which Grant accepts the
nomination, approves the resolutions adopted, and
authorizes his friends to push his claims. At the
same time, Grant is attacked by leading Radical
journals for allowing himself to be made the cat's-
paw of the President in removing Generals'Pope
and Swayne. They assert that had Grant any true
Republican feeling he would not permit himself to
be used as an instrument against Republican Gene-
rals. It is believed that Chief Justice Chase will
I receive the nomination of the Republican Conven-