The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-22 00:00:00

on the Weymouth-road ; and that another railway
will also be formed, commencing at the Bristol and
Exeter line between Taunton and Bridgewater to
Yeovil, from thence by Maiden Newton to Dorches-
ter and Weymouth. The station at Dorchester being
intended to be made in Fordington Field, at the ter-
minus of the Southampton and Dorchester Railway.
—Somerset County Gazette.
NEW RAILWAYS. - A London correspondent,
writing under the date of Wednesday, says—" On
account of the great, number of railways brought for-
ward in Ireland, the Board of Trade, I understand,
will recommend that a Commission, similar to that of
the late Mr. Drummond's, should be issued, to in-
quire and report upon the various rival lines. The
late Act gave to the Board of Trade a veto upon all
new lines, but the number is now so unprecedented
in all parts of the empire, and there are so many con-
flicting lines, that the Board consider they would he
totally unable to deal with the subject satisfactorily
without some such assistance as a Commission in Ire-
land,—Dublin Mercantile Advertiser.

WEST CORNWALL RAILWAY.—On Wednesday last,
a public meeting was held in the Guildhall, St. Ives,
to consider the propriety of applying to the West
Cornwall Railway Company to extend a branch of
their railway to that town. John Chellew, Esq.,
Mayor, was in the chair, and W. T. Praed, Esq., M.P.
with most of the influential gentlemen and merchants,
attended the meeting. Several resolutions were en-
tered into, and a deputation was appointed to wait on
the Committee to carry the measure into effect.—
Devonport Independent.
PORTOBELLO—NoRTU BRITISH RAILWAY.—This
railway has been begun in several places near the
town, and considerable activity is shown in getting on
with the work. Already are the side walls well up
of a service bridge at the Black Roads, at Joppa,
under which the railway passes about eight feet
below the level, and the embanking of the road to a
sufficient height is considerably advanced, as well as
the cuttings through the adjoining field. The rail-
way passes close to the top of Brighton Place, over a
bridge cutting off a part of the boundary wall there.
—Scotsman.

FRENCH RAILWAYS.
(From the Constitutionnel, Oct. 17.)
The promises of shares in the Orleans, Bordeaux,
and Vierzon Railways continue to sell at high pre-
miums, and the line from Amiens to Boulogne
adjudicated yesterday to the Laffittes' Company !Cr
98 years and 11 months, has already taken a respect-
able position on the Bourse. We know not if it is
the agens de change who charge themselves with the
negotiation of these titles in partibus. One thing is
certain, that the transfers are so managed, that a
great deal of money is made by one party to-day,
which will be lost by the other party to-morrow.
These promises of shares are in a great measure in
the hands of the bankers, who make their profit out of
them. Much care is taken not to throw too many
shares on the market at a time, in order not to lower
the premium, but just in proportion to the demand.
Nevertheless, we can affirm that certain speculators
have made enormous sums, although the gambling is
almost restricted to three lines, whose capital does not
exceed one hundred millions of francs. •
But what will it be when the railways from Paris
to Strasburgh, Paris. to Lyons, Lyons to Avignon,
Tours to Nantes, Paris to Chartres, and many others,
are granted ? The carrying out of these lines will
put a capital of 500 millions of francs in circulation.
If to these lines be added those from Paris to Havre,
from Paris to Orleans, and some inferior lines, the
whole number of shares in railways will represent a
capital of about 700 millions, without including the
sums which the State and the departments shall invest
in them. It is on this enormous amount that jobbing
will be effected. It is to be remarked that the
jobbing takes place before the capital is realised,
before even the concession of the line is obtained.
For example, in the line from Paris to Lyons, many
Companies have circulated promises of shares, which
are negotiated at a premium ' • the same thing occurred.
in the Strasburgh line, and it is known that con-
siderable profits were realised at one time upon these
bits of paper.
Railways, like the funds, like merchandise, are the
object of bona fide transactions, or bargains for time.
The second are always of more importance than the-
first. Ask the stock-brokers, the commercial brokers,
and they will tell you they gain a great deal by
transfers and deliveries ;. suppress gambling, and you
will take away from these intermediate parties the
two-thirds of their profits. By increasing the number
of promises of shares in railways you, on the contrary,
create new elements for this fatal passion. Bargains
for time require but very little capital—a blank con-
cession to the negotiator, and often but little credit,
are sufficient to effect important operations. In bona
fide transactions the whole capital is embarked; in
fictitious matters all that is to be done is to have
ready the presumed difference which may exist be-
tween the conclusion of the bargain and the end of
the month.
The gross amount of bona fide transactions in the
funds is, on the average, about 100 millions per an-
num ; the amount of bargains for time may be taken
at about double that sum. But transfers resulting
from effective transactions only amount to from 50
to 55 millions; the surplus belongs to operations by
order, to changes, and balances of accounts. If the
stockbrokers were compelled to rest contented with
the profits arising from these, the sole legal opera-
tions, they would make but sorry affairs, and their
charges would be far b.low what they are. Very
well ; the fictitious bargains in railways are in pro-
portion greater than those in the funds. It is pre-
ferred to gamble in railway shares because their
value being more elastic, and the limit of their fluc-
tuations more extensive, greater gains are expected.
It is clear that if the capital of railway shares is ex.
tended to six or seven millions, speculation will be
frightfully ramified ; and this serious result gill cer-
tainly be accomplished under conditions infinitely less
favourable.
If; as is to be feared, panic succeeds to extensive
speculations—if loss succeeds to gain—the existence
even of the competing companies may be affected.
The capital upon which there is at this moment such
outrageous gambling is not subscribed ; and the
Orleans and Bordeaux Railway, for example, has not
in its hands the sixty millions which it will require
for laying down the rails, and the purchase of the
materials necessary for making it. She has only sub-
scriptions guaranteed, it is true, by the payment of a
first deposit; but, from one circumstance or another,
should these promises get into disfavour, the sub-
scribers will draw back. That has been already the
case in regard to the railway from Basle to Stras-
burgh. Besides, upon what foundation rests this pre-
mium of. 100 francs on these shares ? Upon the
future product of the railway. But this is not exactly
known, at least as far as regards that portion of the
line between Tours and Bordeaux. To that extent all
is new, and the ,actual relations do not serve
as a basis for any estimate. The value in premium,
of a share, cannot be logically explained, except by an
interest superior to that which it is expected to draw
from the capital employed. Now experience alone
can prove such a fact. The high premiums which
have beon obtained upon the lines from Amiens to
Boulogne, Orleans to Vierzon, and Orleans to Bor-
deaux, will be paid by the victims, while a premium,
which is the result of a proved receipt on a railway,
far from causing losses, consolidates credit, and in-
creases the general richness of the country. But this
object is not gained except by real transactions, which
are the exact antipodes of Jobbing. The latter always
engenders losses ; it turns capital from its natural
destination, and produces periodical crisis in public
credit.

What is required by the country at this moment ? To
have railways, and not by any means to make the
fortune of bankers and speculators. However, it is
not that object which occupies the attention of the
public generally, who follow with much greater atten-
tion the fluctuations of the Bourse than the works of
the different lines which serve as a basis for the
gambling. This fatal tendency increases in propor-
tion as the Companies take a more extended part in
the execution of railways, and the premiums gained
and lost will carry fresh disorder into the association
of capital, and the discouragement among borrowers
who prefer a solid investment to the uncertainties of
jobbing. The report has spread that the Minister of
Public Works will refuse the approbation of the ad-
judication of the Vierzon Railway. Why, if you
please ? Is it because it has been mystified by the
Companies Leconte and Bartholoni ? Why, M.
Dumon is accustomed to these sort of episodes, and
another irregularity in the history of railways does
not disturb him. It is besides a precedent which
may be advantageous, and in future the contrivers of
these affairs will come to such an understanding as
shall render adjudications of railways completely
illusory ; all rivalry will be thus extinguished, and the
negotiation of promises of shares will be so much the I
more facilitated.

A WOMAN KILLED BY A Cow.—An inquest was
held at Oadby on the 16th instant, before J. Gregor},
Gent., on the body of Ann Coulson, a servant in the em.
ploy of Mrs. Jarvis, of the same place. From the gidence
it appeared that Joseph Smith and John Potterton were
dri% ing home from the fair two steers belonging to Mrs.
Jarvis, and a cow which had been bought by George
Ross, a jobber, of Oadby; and they were endeavouring
to part the beasts, in order to place them in their re-
spective fields 'When they turned down a lane. The
men followed to turn them back, and deceased (who was
standing out in the road with two children) tried to ,
assist by waving a basket she had in her hand, when the
cow ran at her and knocked her down ; on her getting
up, the cow repeatt.:o htT v,ttsck, and wounded the de-
ceased
very severely in the head. Ori being taken up, she
said to one of the men and a neighbour, "I really
thought my skull had been split ;" and, " Oh dear, Mrs.
Smith, I feel quite stupid—this cpw has killed me," She
was taken !impel and every gqsistance rendered her, but
she said she knew she-should not get over it, and she
died on the morning of the 15th.—Leicester Chronicle.