The Sun.
London, England, 1868-07-06 00:00:00

TUE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JULY 6, 1868.

ROMAN AFFAIRS.

:From the Roma Correspondent of the Westminster Gazette)
ROME, June 27.

I mentioned by anticipation in my last the
mode of keeping the Pope's coronation day,
and I did not notice any departure from the
usual programme.
The Allocution delivered in the Consistory,
held next day, will reach you in its entirety
before this, and I need not therefore sum-
marize it ; more particularly as it touches no
important matter but such as I have already
announced. The occasion of the bishops for
Mexico being preconized, was that Juarez
wrote a letter to the Pope, couched in very
respectful terms, to announce that the Mexican
Republic, in virtue of the great principle of
" a free Church in a free State," will abstain
from all interference with the nomination of
the Mexican bishops.
The Pope went on Wednesday, being St.
John the Baptist's day and his name day, to
St. John. Lateran, to hold a Capella Papale,
according to custom. The Cardinal Arch-
priest of Basilica sang the Mass. After
first Vespers on the eve, the same cardinal had
blessed the sprigs of carnation which are dis-
tributed to the sick.
The ancient order of Knights of Malta,
some remnants of which still cling about Rome,
celebrated on the same day at its church of
the Sta. Croce, a solemn Mass, in honour of
St. John, who is one of their patrons. It
was sung by one of the chaplains of the order.
The mischief to the new camp havinc, been
repaired, the troops received orders to take
up their quarters there on Tuesday. The de-
tachments appointed to make the first trial
of camp life, started off with admirable spirit
and enthusiasm. The Annuario Militare, for
1868, just published, shows in the additions
of its summarized tables the immense prepon-
derance of the native element in the appoint-
ments of the army. It appears there are
altogether 704 officers, and of these 462 (more
than two-thirds) are Italian ; 129 French ;
59 Swiss; 19 German ; 20 Belgian; 9 Dutch;
4 English ; and 2 Spanish. Among new re-
cruits for the Zouaves, we have an Abyssinian,
a very fine-looking fellow, though with skin of
the deepest hue.
There has been some little excitement to-
day, about an alleged accident, or worse, to
the Ancona mail train. It certainly was pulled
up at an unusual point for stoppage, a short
distance on the stage between Monte Rotondo
and Rome. Any railway irregularity is so
unusual about here, that a thing which would
scarcely have given the most timid passenger
a moment's anxiety at home, becomes the sub-
ject of much canvassing. The. form the story
finally assumed being that fifty Garibaldians
had overpowered the signalman, hoisted the
danger signal in order to bring the train to a
stand, but were so alarmed at the idea of com-
ing to close quarters with some half-dozen
Zouaves who happened to be in the train, that
they made off too fast for one of them to be
seen. The probable state of the case, how-
ever, was that the signalman was a new hand,
and gave the wrong signal by mistake.
Prince Dorea has, I am told, just made
arrangements with the Passionists to give a
regular series of missions in the various little
villages which own him for a landlord—some
forty in number. The turn of each will come
round about once in eight years ; they will
begin early in July at St. Martino, a village
near Viterbo. Giving missions being a special
work of the Passionists, the Fathers will re-
ceive no fee or reward for their labours, but
will be entertained during their sojourn in
each place at the Prince's expense. It is not
altogether a new project, but a more syste-
matic and abiding plan than has hitherto been
in operation.

RAILWAY MORTGAGE SYSTEM.

(From the Anglo-American Times)
The Erie Railway War has had an effect which '
neither VANDERBILT nor DREW desired, as it
must be injurious to the interest of speculators.
Public attention, first attracted in the direction by
this remarkable fight, has been fastened inquiringly
on railway management in the United States. The
Nation has followed up a very powerful article on
the subject by giving the main reason why rail-
roads are there badly managed. One word com-
prises that reason—Mortgage ; the assertion being
" it is scarcely too much to say that leaving oat of
view half-a-dozen exceptional lines, the railways of
the United States are on an average mortgaged for
an amount fully equal to the market value even at
present inflation prices of the whole of their stock,
while many are mortgaged for more than the nominal
value of their stock, some for more than all the
road is worth, and others never had any real stock
capital at all, but were built exclusively with the
money raised by the Bile of the bonds for which the
money was pie aged." Looking over the full list of
American railways, and comparing the shire capi-
ta with the mortgage debt, we find that there is no
exaggeration in what the Nation says—the sum
raised in bonds being often in exess of the share
capital. For instance, take Indiana, and the follow-
ing is the result :

Paid in on On Bonds,
shares.
$5,6001
1,210
1,25
1,3(

Chicago and Great Eastern
Evansville and Crawfordsvillle 1,112,831 1,240,000
Indiana Central 611,050 1,254,500
Indianapolis and Cincinnati
Ind, Pittsburg, and Cleveland
Jeffersonville ....... 1,015,907 621,000
Indianapolis and Madeira ......... 819,900 640,000
Louis v. N. Albany and Chi ego . 2,800,000 3,000,000
Terre Haute and Indianapolis ... 1,983,150 5,000
The bonds are independent of other liabilities,
which, in the case of the Louisville, N. Albany,
and Chicago Railway, amounts to $2,000,000.
These lines, on the whole, owe more than the
shareholders have paid, the larger interest being
then not in the owner of the property, but in
the mortgagee. Yet the bondholders have no vote

in the management, and it sometimes happens
that the rule falls into the hands of men who have,

as the Nation asserts, never fairly invested a single
dollar in the property, and this is shown by the

operations in Wall-street. A prosperous road
earns enough to pay say 7 per cent. to the bond-
holder and 7 per cent. to the stockholder. Bad
years come, and the earnings decline, while the
expenses remain the same. Then the stockholder
receives nothing, the profit being only sufficient
to pay the interest due to the bondholder.
The violent fluctuations of the dividends are fol-
lowed by violent fluctuations in the stock, and as

the gain of speculators consists in the extent of these
fluctuations, their object is to increase them to the
utmost degree. They make money by being on the
spot and having the means instantly to avail them-
selves of early information, and they play against

the stockholders with all the chances in their favour.

But the fluctuations so profitable to speculators are
disastrous to investors keeping them constantly in
anxious insecurity, so they sell such property, and
the shares become the foot-ball of the speculators
who have no permanent interest in the road, and
neither know nor care anything about it. It is
always worth something to have the control of a
line, which means the monopoly of the transport
between two points. Those whose purpose it suits
experience little difficulty in being elected if they
are prepared to pay for the proxies of the men who
care so little about the management of the property.
"Armies of drummers are employed previous to an
election, canvassing, begging, bribing, and buying
proxies, until at the election itself proxies of half
the stock of a company are in one or two hands,
and until a stockholders' meeting of a company, re-
presenting ten millions of capital, owned by 500
individuals, frequently consists of half-a-dozen
smiling knaves and a doorkeeper. The directors
elected at such a meeting have full control over all
the property of the road for one year, with no
earthly power to call them to account save the
next yearly meeting of stockholders, similar to the
one just described." Yet these are the men who
manage a road upon which thousands daily
risk their lives, and sometimes lose them. When
the line has reached this stage the public are
pretty sure to be the sufferers. The stock
is avoided by honest investors, and is used as a mere
means of gambling by men who have otherwise no
interest whatever in the property. It is managed by
those who intend to subserve other than the interests
of the line. The greater portion of the capital has
been advanced by the bondholders, and they neither
have a control, nor do they desire it so long as the
road can return the stipulated percentage. Failing
this payment a foreclosure takes place, followed by
a sheriff's sale, when the share capital and the oc-
cupation of the directors are at once lost, which, of
course, it is the business of the managers to avert
by every means. But should the line be intrinsically
good there is even a temptation to the holders of the
first mortgage bonds to give the preference to the worst
management, for in default of payment the first mort-
gage holders can foreclose and perhaps acquire a de-
sirable property at far less than its value. The Nation
maintains that the chief step towards railway reform
is the abolition of the entire system of mortgage in-
debtedness. The subject is occupying much atten-
tion in the United States, but the system continues,
and is glaringly the case in that greatest of all rail-
way undertakings—the Union Pacific—which must
be the most powerful of railway corporations. And
who are the shareholders ? No such thing as shares
are ever offered on the market, nor are they likely
to be, so long as the agreeable plan now followed
will answer. The railway is built by Government
gtoratnhtse sumsand thusby Mortgage
°rtgage Bonds, and in proportion
obtained the subscriptions received
from the shareholders are contemptible in amount.
Out of an estimate of the cost of 1,100 miles,
amounting to $85,145,750 but $5,369,750 is
the capital stock paid in. By such a system
the corporation uses the money of the public to
work out a speculation which in all probability
will yiel d an enormous gain to themselves, while
the risk is mainly borne by the Government and
those who cannot get more than a certain interest
for their mogey. What the country surrenders may
be estimated from these words of SAMUEL F. CAREY,
of Ohio, " That more land had been given to the
Pacific Railway Company than is contained in the
States of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and
Indiana, with enough over for a State twice as large
as Massachusetts." This contribution is not to
those who furnish the money and run the risk, for
they are the bondholders, who have, for an imaginary
security, stipulating only for a certain percentage.
The Nation asserts (and quotes the recent ex-
ample of England in proof) it to be susceptible
of almost mathematical demonstration that the
depreciated value of railway shares is mostly due
to the recklessness and mismanagement which the
Mortgage system has engendered, and that had it
not been introduced the shares would to-day in
nearly all the roads be far better than the bonds now
are. We believe that the case of the English lines
will fully bear out the Nation in the assertion that
the common stock of the companies would be a
better security than the Bonds had no such system
been permitted ; and the single instance of the
London, Chatham, and Dover fully proves how the
system can be abused in the hands of the unscru-
pulous. That railways will pay in America better
than in England has been shown by experience,
for the grand desideratum is a rising country, where
the land can be obtained cheap, and to which the
railway itself gives the chief value, connecting
towns growing all the more rapidly from the benefit
of such communication. But no advantages can bear
up against careless and unscrupulous mismanagement;
and even in the United States railway shareholders
are made painfully aware that the most bountiful
gifts of nature, and the best conceived plans, may
be thus defeated, and result to them in total loss.
The full remedy has not yet been discussed by our
able contemporary ; but this main reform of raising
no capital except by the sale of shares is strongly
insisted on, and we anticipate that the Nation
is not unfavourable to Government control. The
argument is that there are three principal par-
ties interested. First, the railway fraternity ; next,
the actual stockholders ; and, lastly, the great
body of travellers and freight-senders, between
whom, throughout the world, a civil could is pre-

paring, of larger proportions than any witnessed
since the abolition of feudalism. It is a popular
error to look for relief against the railroad men
from a change which restores the control of the
roads to the shareholders, and it is evident,
if for what each strives be considered, that the
people will not gain what they want through such
a change. They complain of the imperfect accom-
modation, the insufficient number of trains, the
high and arbitrary rates of fare and freight, the
difficulty of obtaining redress for wrongs, and,
above all, the constant and frightful risk to life
and property. But what the stockholders com-
plain of is the way in which their property is
wasted and rendered unproductive, and being held
at least in part responsible for the shortcomings of
the railroad men who in their turn throw the blame
upon the system, alleging the incessant, urgent de-
mands of the people for more roads, and the indif-
ference and want of co-operation on the part of the
stockholders. The public, who are better able to ap-
preciate the errors of the managers than the errors
of the stockholders, accept the views of the
latter and tender to them their aid and sym-
pathy. We rejoice to see a subject of such over-
whelming importance thus earnestly taken up, and
it gives promise of an exhaustive discussion. A
check to investment in railways is a check to human
progress, and if unwise and unscrupulous manage-
ment be permitted such a check cannot fail to re-
sult, far there is no burnt child who so dreads
the fire as he who has invested in confidence and
finds that he has been sold a bargain. The great
mass of railway property in the United States is
not only good, but certainly among the best and
most secure in the world ; but there is a danger in
the very security into which it lulls the investor.
The point of the Nation's ranarks, however, is to
protect the public against the evils of railway com-
panies without responsible owners, against bad rails,
ill-built bridges, and construction generally, as well
as the want of accommodation, of comfort, and of
punctuality.

TIll? FINAL fIECONS7 RUCTION BILL.

THE RESTORATION OF SIX STATES.

The following is the text of the bill for the ad-
mission of North Carolina, South Carolina, Ala-
bama, Louisiana, Georgia, and Florida, as passed by
both Houses of Congress and sent to the President :
—" Whereas, the people of North Carolina, South
Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, and Flo-
rida have, in pursuance of the provisions of an Act
entitled, An Act for the more efficient Govern-
ment of the Rebel States,' passed March 2, 1867,
and the Acts supplemental thereto, framed Consti-
tutions of State Governments which are Repub-
lican, and have adopted the said Constitutions by
large majorities of the votes cast at the elections
held for the ratification or rejection of the same :
Therefore, be it enacted, That each of the States
of North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana,
Georgia, Alabama, and Florida shall be entitled and
admitted to representation in Congress as a State
of the Union, when the Legislature of such States
shall have duly ratified the amendment to the Con-
stitution of the United States, proposed by the
thirty-ninth Congress, and known as Article 14,
upon the following fundamental conditions :

Sec. 1. That the Constitution of neither of said
States shall never be so amended or changed as to
deprive any citizen or class of citizens of the United
States of the right to vote in said State who are
entitled to vote by the Constitution thereof
herein recognized except as a punishment of
such crimes as are now felonies at common law,
whereof they shall have been duly convicted
under laws equally applicable to all the inhabi-
tants of said State ; provided, that any alteratio❑
of said Constitution, prospective in its effects, may
made with regard to the time and place of resi-
dence of voters; and the State of Georgia shall only
be entitled and admitted to representation upon
this further fundamental condition : That the first
and third sub-divisions of section 17 of the fifth
Article of the Constitution of said State, except
the proviso to the first sub division, shall be null
and void, and that the General Assembly of said
State, by solemn public act, shall declare the assent
of the State to the foregoing fundamental condition.
Sec. 2. That if the day fixed for the first meeting
of the Legislature of either of said States by the
Constitutio❑ or ordinance thereof shall have passed,
or so nearly arrived, before the passage of. this
Act, that there shall not be time for the Legisla-
ture to assemble at the period fixed, such Legis-
lature shall convene at the end of twenty days
from the time that this Act takes effect, unless
the Governor elect shall sooner convene the same.
Sec. 3. That the first section of this Act shall
take effect as to each State, except Georgia, when
such State shall, by its Legislature, duly ratify
Article 14 of the amendment to the Constitution of

the United States, proposed by the thirty-ninth
Congress ; and as to the State of Georgia, when
it shall, in addition, give the assent of said State
to the fundamental condition hereinbef ore imposed
ur on the same, and thereupon the officers of each
State, duly elected and qualified under the Con-
stitution thereof, shall be inaugurated without de-

lay ; but no person prohibited from holding office
under the United States, or under any State. by
section 3 of the proposed amendment to the Con-
stitution of the United States, known as Article
14, shall be deemed eligible to any office in either
of said States, unless relieved from disability as
provided in said amendment; and it is hereby
made the duty of the President, within ten days
after receiving official information of the ratifica-
tion of said amendment by the Legislature of either
of said States to issue a proclamation announcing
that fact."

A COMPARISON.

The House of Lords has thrown out the Suspen-
sory Bill by 192 to 97, being a majority of nearly
two to one. This finishes so far the dis-establish -
meat of the Irish Church; and raises a question re-
garding the House of Peers. It is amusing to com-
pare the comments of many English papers in the
face of a pig-headed opposition to a pet scheme of
their own, with their comments on the contest be-
tween the President and Congress. Constitutional
Eight is the string they harp on when Congress,
fuming under the irritation, takes active mea-
sures to suppress Andrew Johnson, but concession,
moderation, good sense, and a forgetfulness of strict
legal right is the tune they dance to themselves.
Nor do they confine their remarks to the words of
wisdom, advising moderation and caution, but they
accompany them with open threats. The legal right
is acknowledged, but the Lords are warned to take
care how they use it, as it may be necessary, if they
attempt to exercise an independent judgment, to
" re-construct them." This, too, on the first taste
of an opposition to a question opposed by the Go-
vernment,and one nearly equally dividing the Lower
House itself. Life Peers are hinted at, and the Lords
are told that there are dozens of the eminent in the
several professions—lawyers, civil servants—both in
England and in India—Colonial Governors and
military men, whose knowledge and ability have been
vastly increased by the practical experience gained
in their tussle with the world, and whose personal
respectability equals in every way the average titled
country gentleman. Because the Lords will not tie-
coolish the ecclesiastical structure in Ireland, the
great English " reconstruction" battle threatens to
be that of the Upper House. It is a pity these
newspapers did not apply some of their reasoning
against Congress to themselves. If they concen-
trated all the mulishness of all the Peers into one
Peer, we doubt whether that one would be a more
mulish animal than Andrew Johnson, one that
more resisted going the right way, or who kicked
more viciously at any who attempted to drive
him. Had Parliament to deal with such an ob-
struction, we would learn how patient and long-
suffering was Congress. Indeed the only thing that
saved Andrew Johnson was the abusive epithets
showered on him by the Representatives, for the
nation felt, if his enemies took out their change in
that way, they had no right to have it again in another
way. Important as is the subject involved in the dis-
pute between the Commons and the Lords, it is small
when compared with that between Congress and the
President. The former affects an eighth of the
population of Ireland, and remotely the other seven-

eighths, doing away, if enforced, with a grievance
of long standing. Directly it affects a profession,
but only as regards the future—existing rights
being preserved. The latter affects ten Irelands,
not merely ecclesiastically, but in restoring civil
rights to the population, and bringing outcasts
back into the family of the States. It affects the
social connection between two races ; the one lately
in slavery to the other. In truth, Reconstruction
in America means the most gigantic question of the
age, and Andrew Johnson, blocks the way. Why, if
such an obstruction existed in England with such in-
terests at stake, the whole State machine would be
driven furiously over him, and he would be left like a
victim under the Car of Juggernauth, crushed and
flattened, and the marvel is that Congress should
have borne with him so patiently. But the English
cannot see it. They have but little idea what the
interests are, and the aggravation of the opposition
offered, and they argue on legal technicalities as if
the framers of the Constitution were writing with
the circumstances of 1868 in their minds' eye. But
there is a strange forgetfulness of all this, when

their own comparatively insufficient measure is
checked. The check comes from the highest class
in the world, time-honoured, renowned in story,
and exercising an extraordinary social influence
on the nation, assembled in a legislative capacity as
old as the Constitution. The measure they obstruct
bears the same proportion to Reconstruction, that
Andrew Johnson bears to:the Lords as the obstruc-
tion. Yet at once, so impatient are the English when
what is asserted to be public opinion is thwarted,
that they instantly talk, if not of impeaching, at
least of reconstructing, without any trial, the House
of Peers. If Americans began to read the sup-
porters of the Commons lectures on their disre-
gard to their venerated Constitution, on their law-
lessness and impatience of opposition, on their in-
fringement and usurpation of the rights of others,
they would have the measure meted to them, they
meted to Congress. But wait—let us see what they
will do when the two Houses come into direct col-

lision, should the Lords act the President's part, and
refuse to give an inch.—Anglo-American Times.

MINING IN2ELLIGENca

GOLD IN ARIZONA.—Late advices receired from
California confirm the cutting of a rich lode of
gold ore by the Specie Basis Mining Company in
Arizona. The ore yields over twenty thousand
dollars per ton. This company has recently com-
pleted the construction of reduction works, together
with a twenty-stamp mill. The shares are conse-
quently in great demand, as this company bids fair
to return large dividends during the present year.
XEVADA.—Territorial Enterprise, May sth.
We yesterday saw a gold brick from the Wilson
mine, Pine Grove; vhich weighed 1,099.15 ounces,
and is worth $20,346.02, being the moat valuable
bar ever moulded in this State.

An Aurora telegram, dated May 9th, is as fol-
lows :—" A rich discovery has been made at Brodie,
within a few days. Dan. Olstein has discovered a
quartz ledge on High Peak, near the Empire Co.'s
works. Joe. Hutchinson, one of the owners,
brought some of the rock in town to-day, and it is
certainly rich—principally gold. It has created a
great quartz excitement amongst the mining com-
munity. The owners think it will average $l,OOO
per ton."

H U 31130 LDT . —Register, May 9th : The Essex
mill, at Dun Glen, is in complete order and doing
fine work. One hundred tons of ore from the
Monroe mine has just been put.through the battery,
and is now being worked in the pans. About 100
tons more of this ore is ready for the mill, and will
be converted into silver bricks immediately.

The Silver Bend Reporter's Hiko correspondent
says, April 20th : The first silver brick of the
Pahrauagat Valley S. M. Co., located at this place,
has just been retorted, weighing about 1,100 ounces,
and 867 fine. You should see this mill to know
what perfection of machinery is. From that part
where the ore is dumped to the driver, the battery,
the furnace, the pans, and the retorting room, every-
thing gravitates.