The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-11-15 00:00:00

since paid all its original cost, but it became linked
with less profitable:concerns, and finally with those
of which the losses swamped the greater part of
the profits on:the paying lines ; so that the whole
concern, under the title of the London and North-
Western Railway Company, comprising several
hundred miles of railroad, and:with an income of
more than £50,000 a-week, is worth little more
than par, though the-shares at one time bore more
than 150 per cent. premium. The recent fall is
owing, in a great measure, to the determination of
the Directors to embark more capital in the con-
struction of unprofitable branches ; but the same
depressing influence seems to prevail on almost
every line in the kingdom, and of none of them are
the shares at a price equivalent to that of other
descripthms of investment for capital. This evident
unpopularity of railway property among capitalists
may be attributed, in a great measure, to the bad
system of management which has grown up.
Directors are not sufficiently responsible to those
whose interests they govern, and are invested
with powers which few of them know how to
exercise with advantage to the great body of
shareholders, even supposing them to be willing to
do so. Rival companies attempt to carry out their
respective objects without the slightest reference
to the interests of the community ; and more
money has been spent in law, in Parliamentary
expenses, in useless engineering, and in the battle
of the gauges, than might have sufficed to give
every large town in the kingdom the advantage of
railway communication, at low, and yet remune-
rative, fares. The shareholders are great suf-
ferers by such a system, or rather want of
system, but the public are also sufferers, for fares
are levied at high rates, in order to pay interest on
the capital that has been wasted ; and though
much of the evil has been abated through exhaus-
tion of the means, it is not yet quite at an end, as
is shown by the attempt now being made to bring
the ruinous broad gauge as far as Birkenhead. It
is to be feared that Railway property will never be
a secure means of investment, until its manage-
ment is entrusted to other hands than Boards of
Directors acting independently of each other.
An arrangement of this kind will be an important
question for the Imperial Legislature ; for, though
an objection may be raised to its being an inter-
ference with the rights of property of private
shareholders, the public at large have a still
greater interest,inasmuch as the means of travelling
are now virtually entrusted to the irresponsible
holders of a gigantic monopoly.
One means of effecting this desirable object
would be to estimate the value of every separate
railway property, including all its obligations on
debentures, loans, and other debts. The whole
might then be converted into a consolidated stock,
of which each existing shareholder should be
allowed a rateable proportion. The chief direction
of the whole might be entrusted to a Board of
Commissioners, partly nominated by the Govern-
ment, and partly elected by the holders of stock.
The traffic might be entrusted to the control of
District -managers appointed by the Central Board,
and all the lines throughout the kingdom be
worked in -subordination to one system, -with fares
apportioned to the peculiarities of eaCh locality.
The present proportion of working expenses would
then 'be considerably reduced ; there would be no
ruinous competition, lower fares might 'be charged
with-advantage, the travelling public would derive
an important benefit from the'uniformity of
systkm, and the holders of railway stock would
possess a more marketable investment, because the
interest would bei:laigher and more regular in its
-rate, from the expenses being divided over a larger
-surface. It is clear that the Continental lines,
which are under Government contra, are far more
•profitable than the best of English railways.; and
'the adoption of -such a system in -this country as
we have suggested, would be a poitive benefit -te
'the shareholders, as well as to thetravelling public.

IF the slightest reliance could be placed on 'the
reports which • are daily received :by Electric Tele-
graph, it would appear that the" Turks have not
waited for diplomatic negotiations, but appealedat
once to the urbitrement of the-sword, and that-the
two principals in the qnarrel are now actually
fighting both in Europe and 'Asia. So many
falsehoods have, however, reached 'England through
• the same channel, that it is useless to argue upon
probabilities, 'though we may reasonably conclude
-that some skirmishes have taken place, and the
'Turks have possibly had the advantage at present.
'The Times, alluding to the reported battle, from
which the Russians retreated litiLla loss, says
are almost compelled to conclude that -the
encounter was nothing less than a,regular engage-
ment between the main bodies of 'the Russian and
Turkish troops, in which: the Ottoman, though
greatly inferior numbers, succeeded in com-
pletely routing the forces of the Czar." On the
other hand, the Morning ITeraif, speculating
on -the probabilities as gathered from the same
reports, says :--"It is plain, therefore,lhat before
OMEE ventures ona pitched battle—for we do not
agree with the .3 tyres in supposing that:any action
meriting that epithet can yet have been fought—
he must strongly reinforce one or. other cf the de-
tachments now threatening the extreme wings of
the AmocBAT'S army." We may, leave . nor con-
temporaries to argueithe point as they will, and, in
the dearth of more exciting news, it serves, per-
haps, as well as any other subject on which to: dilate,
but it may not be long before we shall receive
intelligence more authentic than over the wires.
It will not ibe disputed that whatever may 'have
been the eanse of the quarrel, it was of importance
to the interests of Europe that it should be settled
by diplomatic negotiation. Attempts at mediation
have, however, 'failed ; and the next best -.step -that
could be taken 'is to leave the belligerents to fight
it out, without the interference of other European
powers. Austria and Prussia. have hitherto held
aloof from affording any assistance to their great
northern ally, and England and France should
follow their good example, by giving no more aid to
Turkey than sufficient to protect her from any
actual invasion by Russia, supposing the latter
power to be triumphant ha the Danubian provinces.
It will be seen that the EMPEROR OF RUSSIA has
published a manifesto to justify his armed resis-
tance to the attacks of the Turkish forces, upon the
pretence of his right "to demand from the Ottoman
Porte inviolable guarantees in favour of the sacred
rights of the Orthodox Church," We need not
by which he attempts
possession of the
tsotopjutcs)tiiray his t
inquire into the
forciblelogic
provinces on the Danube, but we have no such
predilections in favour of Turkish infidels as to call
for any active interference on their behalf out of
stupid jealousy of the power of Russia,—a power
which is sheer weakness out of its own vast wilder-
ness,—and from the sordid consideration that
Mohammedanism is the bulwark to the Eastern
possessions of Christian England. It was the
sin of the ancient Jews that they trusted in
the LORD, who had rescued them from all their
Egypt instead of in
the horses and chariots of
enemies ; and it will be no less a sin in England,
evange-
lising the world, if, losing all mission of now entrusted with the mighty
confidence in the
righteousness of her cause, blessed with so many
signal mercies, she attempts to preserve her tem-
poral possessions in India by perpetuating Chris-
tian slavery in Turkey. The issues of the quarrel
and the destinies of the human race are, however,
in the hands of a higher power than the Coalition
Cabinet, which owns the nominal sway of " anti-