The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-10-16 00:00:00

-RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

(From the Railway Times)

ENGLISH ANE FRENCH PROJECTORS OF RAILWAYS.

Our readers are aware that in this country railroads are
undertaken by a greater or less number of individuals form-
ing themselves into a committee, who having sketched out
a line of railroad, and made a few rough estimates of the
cost and traffic, invite the public to become participators in
the project, and to advance money for the preliminary steps.
If the scheme succeeds in obtaining its act all parties
having shares in the undertaking are upon a par, except
perhaps that the projectors are the first directors, or have
other appointments, and all expenses are taken out of the
common stock.
On the continent a different course is pursued. The in-
dividuals who first concoct a scheme, finish the plans and
surveys, and obtain the sanction of the legislature at their
own exclusive cost and risk. Many thousand pounds are
usually spent, which if the projectors fail to obtain the
legislative sanction, are entirely their own loss ; but if they
succeed they remunerate themselves by certain liens on the
profits, generally by a certain per centage. Thus, if the
line fails either to be carried, or when carried, to be a pro-
fitable one, the projectors lose all the money they have
ventured. _

This, we must admit, is a much securer way for the
shareholders than ours. With us the projectors run little or
no risk. A flaming prospectus, impudently uttered and
maintained with audacity, is certain to gull the public, and
out of the very first deposits the original schemers take care
of themselves. There is, therefore, but little risk to the
parties, and no tie upon them that the scheme is a good and
sound one. If they are lawyers or engineers they are sure
to make a good thing of it however bad a one it may prove
to the proprietors. But• in France it is not merely requi-
site that the scheme be not bad, it must be profitable, or
the projectors fail to receive any recompense for all their
labour and money. Hence the risk of the projectors is a
guarantee to the public that, as far as human foresight can
go, it is a good and safe investment.
For example, in the Paris and Rouen railway, the condi-
tions are that it must pay five per cent. clear profit to the
proprietors, with another one per cent., to be set apart for a
sinking fund to liquidate the capital, before the projectors
are entitled to any thing. Upon all profit above this they
are to receive ten per cent. So that if the line paid sixteen
per cent., six per cent. will first have to be taken out for the
proprietors and a sinking fund, and out of the remaining ten
Latlitte and Co., the projectors, will be entitled to one per
cent., the other nine going also to the proprietary. That is,
out of 16 per cent. clear profit, the proprietors will rdceive
5 K 9=14, the sinking fund one, and the projectors one to
pay for their labour and risk, the interest and principal of
the expenses of projection, surveys, plans, and act. If the
profit was to be 10 per cent., the projectors I,s ould receive
per cent. and the shareholders 94. Or rather, in the case
of 16 per cent. profit, the shareholders would receive 15 and
the projectors 1 ; and in the 11 per cent. the shareholders
would have 10i, and the projectors 1 ; because the sinking
fund returns ultimately into the pockets of the shareholders.
Though, therefore, French railway schemers may make
large sums of money, it is only when the proprietors are
making large sums too. The scheme must not only pay a
good and fair interest for the investment, but it must also
secure a return for the capital before they can derive any
advantage. No one, therefore, will v-nture X 20,000.,
£30,000., or £40,000., which it often costs to project a rail-
way, and obtain the government sanction, unless there is a
moral certainty of its being a good thing. Consequently
where money is thus spent, it is a pretty safe guarantee to
the public of the soundness and profit of the undertaking.
We cannot help thinking that if our legislators would
pass an act for some modification of the plan being followed
in this country, it would be a far better barrier against
wild specalation than all the standing orders they could
frame about deposits.

GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY.—We are glad to see that
the directors have proceeded against one of the engine-drivers
for delaying a train, and that they have obtained a decision
which may act as a warning.—Railway Times.
LEEDS AND SELBY RAILWAY.—There is a probability of
this line being leased to the York and North Midland, and
North Midland Railways, jointly, upon terms mutually ad-
vantageous to all parties. We are not at liberty yet to state
the terms of the lease, but we believe they will pay about
44 per cent. to the Leeds and Selby proprietors, which is a
greater dividend than they have yet received. The object of
the two great companies is evidently to insure that regularity
in the trains of the Leeds and Selby, which is so desirable
for the sake of the passengers and the traffic over the lessees'
lines, and across the country from Hull to Liverpool.—Rail-
way Times.
The works of the Great North of England Railway are pro-
ceeding so satisfactorily, that it is understood the line from
Darlington to York will be opened to the public on Wednes-
day, the 25th of November.—Newcastle Journal.

CROYDON RAILWAY.—TWO tradesmen were fined at
Greenwich, last week, £lO each and costs, for throwing upon
the railway six cushions and a carpet, out of the window of a
carriage. In default the delinquents were committed for two
months to Maidstone house of correction.
MIDLAND COUNTIES RAILWAY.—The directors have this
week introduced new carriages, which will greatly add to the
ease of railway travelling on the line. It has hitherto been a
subject of complaint with passengers on almost every line of
railway, that the carriages rocked and jolted like stage coaches
on a bad road. By some this was supposed to be occasioned
by the imperfect state of the line ; by others, that the fault
was with the vehicle in which they were travelling. The di-
rectors of the Midland Counties Railway inclining to the
latter supposition, have caused carriages to be made at their
own manufactory, suspended by leather braces instead of
iron, for the purpose of obviating the inconvenience ; and
this has been found to be a decided improvement. The new
carriages are painted like the old mails, and look well. The
middle portion is for first-class passengers, and the other for
seen nd- elass.—Leiceater Chronicle.

CARDIFF TO BRIDGEWATER IN Two HOURS.—Within
six months the Bristol and Exeter Railway will be finished
to Uphill, near Weston-super-Mare. A steamer will then
run from the Bute Vocks, or Penarth Point, in one hour,
and the same time will be taken by the railway. This will
bring Bridgewater within two hours of Cardiff, and must
prove of immense advantage to the inhabitants of the latter
town, where at present, we understand, very high prices are
obtained for every kind of marketable produce. Bridgewater
and Taunton are the two cheapest markets in the kingdom.
—Cambrian.