The Sun.
London, England, 1845-10-22 00:00:00

,s, 11,1 t

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1845,

It is gratifying to perceive that hitherto the railway share
market for bond fide transactions has sustained itself in a
manner not merely to justify the favourable prepossessions of
those who have embarked very large investments in it, but to
remove the alarms and misgivings of many intelligent lookers-
on, who had anticipated some serious disorganisation from at-
tempts that have been made to found disastrous auguiies
upon the aspect of the commercial world in general, and the
recent notice of the Bank of England's intention to
raise its rate of interest, especially. In our last
paper on this subject we pointed out what we con-
ceive to be the permanent principles that now impart,
and are likely to communicate, stability and safety to rail-
way speculation. We have already shown that vast as are
the ramifications into which it has branched—stupendous as
is the capital which it has already absorbed—the wants, the
wishes, and the interests of society are a guarantee for the
consolidation and expansion both of the one and the
other to an extent infinitely more colossal. It would be
folly in us to deny that we retain the opinion we have so
often proclaimed, that the railway market, in common with
every other branch of invested capital, must, at some period
or other, participate in that general calamity and dislocation
which our monetary system, as established by Sir R. PEEL'S
Currency legislation, will inevitably entail upon the
country. But—looking to the amount of commercial expe-
rience and administrative sagacity, as well as of hitherto
hoarded capital, now engaged in connexion with railway
management, and baying regard to the salutary
influence of this combination of opulence and talent
at no distant day with the Legislature, with the
Government, with the Councils of the Crown itself—
we are tempted to anticipate a revision and remodelling of
those fatal laws, which have so mischievously interfered
with the adequate representation of property and the free
operation of capital. Now we believe that if those power-
ful organs for the direction of public opinion, which com-
mitted so irreparable an error in 1825 and 1826 by the
mode in which they exerted all their energies to ex-
cite, precipitate, and extend the " panic" of that me-
morable epoch, can be only induced to exhibit more
of candour, prudence, and moderation, in their dealing
with the march of events, all the engagements and liabilities
of the railway market will adjust and arrange themselves
with as little displacement and disorganisation as can possibly
happen in a sphere of such multitudinous and widely- ex-
tended operations. The ground ‘f those apprehensions
on the part of some of our Contemporaries seems to be,
mainly, the number of the new projects of railway communi-
cation ; but, lest these misgivings should be found too readily
to give way before the tests of unprejudiced inquiry and dis-
cussion, they have lately provided themselves with another
set of apprehensions, which regard the liabilities of a set of
men who have but -very recently excited their sympathies,
namely, the directors and provisional committees of such com-
panies. As to the number of new undertakings, we can add
nothing to the reasons on which we have argued, already, that
the experience of the enormous benefits derived from railroads
already constructed is an irresistible inducement with com-
munities that have not yet participated in those - ad-
vantages to secure the future enjoyment 'of them
by the construction of similar works for them-
selves. Of course in every district and portion of a dis-
trict where this want shall be felt, and this determination
arrived at to supply it, railroads will continue indefinitely
to multiply themselves. As to the liabilities of com-
mitteemen and directors, those too, beyond all ques-
tion, are absurdly exaggerated. It seems to be for-
gotten that the scope and conditions of these rail-
way; adventures have assumed of late years features
of entire novelty. The very members of a provisional com-
mittee list are to some extent on the corporate principle of a
joint-stock company or bank: a guarantee to each individual
such body fur a very limited amount of responsibility on
account of his connexion with it; and, to the public, for the
ample responsibility of the whole associated coin-
paey. With regard to liabilities incurred before the
formation of companies, :aid after their formation by pro-
jectors, managers, and mere subscribers, prior and subse-
quently to the issue of prospectuses, settlement of regulations,
delivery and transfer of shares, &c., &c., these subjects in-
volve points too numerous and complicated to allow of our
discussing them here. But we not only with great confi.
dence, but with great pleasure, refer all our readers, who may
be interestect, more or less immediately, in these matters, to two
well-timed and able little publications, which will afford
them, we think, not only amusement and information, but
grounds of well-founded and confirmed confidence in the
general safety of railway investments. The works we refer
to Are Mr. OE9IIGE LEWief

by the Projectors, Managers, and Shareholders of Railways,
&c., Considered ;" and Mr. CHARLES WORDSWORTH'S com-
pilation on " Railway Law." These are really valuable con-
tributions to one of the most important. departments of our
economic literature.

What with the monster repeal meetings in the south of
Ireland, and the manifestoes of the Orangemen in the north,
the Government of Sir It. PEEL must find no little difficulty
in preserving anything like impartial dealing between the
two factions. The Premier, however, is fortunate -in his
choice of a Lord-Lieutenant, who is a man not likely to be
swayed either by abuse or flattery, who has had much ex-
perience in settling the disputes of contending parties in
foreign states, and who can bear a great many hard words
without reply or even suffering his te.nper to be ruffled.
Such a patient disposition is much wanted at the present
time, for abuse is heaped either upon him or his employers
almost without intermission, and it is a curious fact that of
the two accusing bodies the most violent by far is that repre-
sented by the mild, religious, and Protestant Earl of RODEN.
lie has just issued a proclamation to the Protestants of the
British empire, which though not so violent in its
language, far surpasses any document of the
kind ever issued by Mr. O'CoferrEu. in regard
to the grievous charges made against Sir ROBERT PEEL.
From beginu:ng to end it is one continued theme of abuse,
with perhaps the exception of episodes setting forth the
loyalty of that Orange body, which, under its distinguished
patron, during the last reign had been ail but convicted of
high treason. The Noble Earl recounts with evident sorrow
the support given to PEEL at the elections which turned
out the Whigs. "There were indeed," says he, " misgivings
among acme sagacious observers of events ; but the greater
number buried the past in oblivion, and again trusted those
who had disappointed them." This alludes to the Emanci-
pation Bill, when they were betrayed by the Minister whom
high Orangemen delighted to call the " traitor Judas." We
have then a long list of grievances which they impute still to
that obnoxious personage. Among others the grant to
Maynouth, the national system of education, the refusal of
PEEL to grant public money for the education of the
children of the Protestant poor, the Academies Bill, the dis-
missal of loyal Protestant magistrates, esnd the encourage-
ment of the " bold and the bad." Such are the epithets ap-
plied by Lord RODEN to seven millions ‘if his fellow-subjects.
"In fact," exclaims the persecuted Orangeman, "we are
compelled to the startling conclusion by manifold proofs
that the policy of the Minister is to attempt to govern Ire-
land by the Roman Catholic party, and cannot but appr I
-,._
hend that heavier blows and greater discouragements are. still
in store for us." In other words—"MirLBOURNE scourged
us with whips, but PEEL scourges us with scorpions." It is
gratifying to find, however, that nunislosnent has not been
inflicted without good results. There is no recommendation
to restore the old dangerous and treasonable Orange Club,
but there is an injunction to remain united, and give their
priuciples effect, not in secret conclaves, but in the arena of
the House of Commons. It is, in fact, Sir ROBERT PEEL'S
own recipe—Register, register—a ; fair and legitimate mode
of serving their ends, and to which no other party can rea-
sonably object. Let Lord RODEN adhere to this scheme for
protecting Protestant interests, leave off the rabid abuse of.
his neighbours, and the insolent vanity of claiming all
loyalty, all true religion, and all merit to himself and col-
leagues, and then he will find even thaise who oppose him
ready to meet him on fair terms, and nkt a few of them go
along with him in support of the Protestant faith.

--~--

Madrid journals of the 14th state that the Cortes will be
summoned to meet in Decemher, for the purpose of receiving
the Budget and hearing the nuance Minister's details of the
working of the new system of taxation. The accounts from
the provinces were favourable, and the capital remained tran-
quil. Despotism, it appears, suits the Spanish taste better
than liberty.

Accounts from Paris announce a great fall in the funds
and shares on Monday. A sort of panic, in fact, had taken
place at the commencement of business, 'which was rather
moderated towards the close, but still everything was flat,
and prices were greatly depressed, as compared with those
of Saturday and the whole of the :preceding week. Every
one offered to sell, and scarcely a buyer was to be
found. The Three per Cents. closed. at 50c. and the Fives
40c. lower than on Saturday. The railway shares, espe-
cially those for important lines, have fallen much more in
proportion. The Northern line bad suffered most, and in
the course of a week had fallen fully 36f. ; and the sub-
joined at the following rates :—Boulogne and Amiens,
30f. ; Avignon and Marseilles, 25f. ; Rouen and
Havre, 22f. 50c. ; Orleans and Bourdeaux, 20f. ; and
Rouen nearly 191. From the excitement that prevailed
still lower prices NS ere anticipated. No political cause is
assigned by the papers generally, though one of them seems
to infer that the retirement of Marshal SOULT may have bad
some effect. The principal causes seem to be the fall in the
English funds, and' the notice of the Bank of England for
raising the rate of discount. Relative to the anticipated re-
signation of Souez, the Presse says :—" If we are rightly in-
formed, all the earnest representations made yester-
day, in the Council of Ministers, to Marshal the
Duke DE DALMAnz, could not prevail upon him to re-
nounce a resolution that he laid before it, to retire and
devote himself exclusively to the care of his health. His col-
leagues are said to have ineffectually urged him to retain at
least the Presidency of the Council, giving over to a succes-
sor in the Ministry of War the burden of that department.
The Marshal, however, persisted in declaring that he had
amply paid his debt of duty to his country, and acquired a
right to repose for the rest of his days. However incon-
testable the grounds of this answer may be, the Cabinet has
not yet lost all hope of retaining its illustrious Presi-
dent." The difficulty of finding a successor has been in-
creased by the late strange conduct of Marshal BITGEAUD,
who was said to be destined for the situation, and who, ac-
cording to the National, continues as unmanageable as ever.
"It is affirmed," says that journal, "that Marshal Bu-
GEAUD has addressed to the Cabinet, before his departure
from Marseilles, a note relative to the disavowal of his letter
to the Prefect of the Dordogne, and to the instructions
which have been sent him as to the conduct he is to pursue
in Algeria. This note is not less haughty than his famous
letter, loth in substance and shape. He insists, above all,
with much irony upon the impossibility of pursuing and
capturing ADD-EL-KADEE, res the Ministry instructed him
to do, with the view of escaping before the Chambers
the heavy responsibility they have assumed by the
treaty of Tangiers. As for capturing ABD-EL-KADAR,
he acknowledges that so important a capture would create
in-France a prodigious sensation; that it would confer great
weight on the Cabinet, and enable it victoriously to answer
such as will !reproach it with the deplorable consequences of
the treaty of Tangiers; but to dream at this moment of
capturing ADD-EL-KADER, and of an expedition into
Morocco until he he overtaken and destroyed, one must
never have set one's foot in Algeria, and not have the
slightest notion of the country. Marshal BUGEAUD
has, it is said, displayed the utmost verve, and
the utmost irony in this part of his dispatches.
In communicating it to the Council, 31. GUIZOT maintained
all his composure, but M. Curl: GRIDAINE, whose indiscre-
tion has disclosed the details we have published, said that the
hearing 'M. BUGEAUD'S letter read had made him perspire!,
In truth, 31. BUGEAUD has treated the Ministry with great
disdain. and so far from having removed some of the odium
cause(l. by his confidential epistle, he has but aggravated it,
by a manifestatiou more familiar, it is true, but more direct
and scornful. The Ministry has, however, bent more
humbly under the remonstrances of its revolted vizier."
According to the papers, the Emperor of RUSSIA had takengl
another of those rapid and unexpected flights for which he
has become so celebrated. This last exploit beats completely
that y which he surprised the Queen of ENGLAND, no less
than )is loyal subjects at St. Petersburgh. But the other
day lie was cn the shores of the Black Sea, and by this time
probably, he has surprised the Erantess by his sudden ap-
,
pearance in Italy. The following letters from Sebastorol
and Milan, leave no doubt of this new freak :
" SEBASTOPOL, SEPT. 26.—The Emperor of Russia arrived in
this town by sea, on his way from Nicolaief. In this latter town
eleven ships of war were launched in his presence. He afterwards
paid 1. visit to the Rosklaff ship of war of 84 guns, which he ex-
arnin-,d minutely. The following day a frigate called the Kovarna,
and a brig of war called the Orpheus, were launched in his pre-
' sence. In these two days thirteen ships of war were thus added
to the Russian navy in the Black Sea. The greatest activity is ob-
served in all the arsenals at Sebastopol. The Emperor had an in-
' terview with Prince Woronzoff before leaving Sebastopol. The
Emperor has given up his intended voyage to Moscow, and goes
L from I ere by Karkof, Kief, and Cracow, to join the Empress in
Italy. The Emperor has published an ukase appointing the Here.
; (Mary Grand Duke regent in his absence. Count Nesselrode ac-
companies the Emperor on his journey, and will remain in Italy till
the end of the year."

" MILAN, Our. 14.—1 t has been already stated that the Empress
of Russia was expected here to-day. We have just learned that
she will probably be accompanied by the Emperor himself. This
news wi ino doubt astonish you ; for, according to the latest ad-
vice, his Majesty was on the shores of the Black Sea, where he
had ordered Prince de Woronzoff to meet him. It appears that
the journey of the Emperor has been as rapid as that which he
made in his visit to London. He studiously avoided Vienna,
and would not, it is said, pass through Prague, where is
the Archduke Stephen, Governor of Bohemia, who declined, as
is well knorn, the honour of entering the Imperial family of
Russia, by refusing to marry the Grand Duchess Olga, an
alliance which the Emperor desired so ardently. His
coming to the Empress, however unexpected it might be,
has probably surprised neither the Empress nor the persons
of her suite, for these sudden visits of the Emperor are not un-
usual. He sometimes even comes in disguise, and has himself, as
a courtier, handed a letter to the Empress. He has assumed the
dress of a private brigadier of gendarmerie, and A is said that
once, when the Empress went with her suite to visit the cabin of a
military colonist, in a country where she happened to be for the
first time, she was *truck with astonishment at beholding under
the coarse cloak of r private soldier the Emperor holding by the
hand his two children, also disguised. Hence, when travelling,
the Empress, and all the persons who accompany her, are always
on their guard. A courier who arrives, a stranger presenting
himself suddenly, a clP‘id of dust on the road, give birth to con-
jectures relative to the Nmperor's arrival, and this continual ex.
pectation of surprise causes an
the
yrtaienrds eamnodtiohnoutsoehd
every one,
which embarrass considerably
The following ate
imperial family of Russia." 014.
cellaneous
extracts from the

papers :
" The. Debars states tha the French cruisers for the coast of
Africa will leave the French ports successively for Goree, where
Roar-Admiral Mentaimes will take the command of the division.