The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-11-28 00:00:00

the en

gineer, in a eon

gives the result of " a careful examination" made by
"in conjunction with a thoroughly practical engi-
neer," into the merits of Sir James Anderson's steam-

This result is, in Mr,

s words, that " the public will shortly have the op-
portunity of being conveyed, with great ease and perfect
safety, at a speed of from ten to twelve miles per hour, at
the average charge of not exceeding ld. per mile, and yet
afford a large profit to the proprietors—thus doing away
with the necessity of trunk railway companies making
costly and profitless branches."

.
BasTERN COUNTIES.—From the financial statement
just issued by this company it appears that the total share
and loan capital and liabilities amount to £10,851,593.
and that there is a balance of liabilities beyond assets of
£283.757. The total share capital carrying interest as di-
vidend is £9,717,220. The total receipts for the current
half year are estimated at £490,000, and the income for
the year commencing July, 1849, at £940.000. The di-
rectors calculate on effecting a deduction of £350,000 per
annum in the working expenses. This will, even if no
improvement should take place, fully maintain the amount
of dividend that has been recently paid, and at present
prices yield nearly seven per cent. on the capital invested.
There are, however, many circumstances that will further
improve the value of the stock, and thus add to the bene-
ficial character of the investment. The further capital
required by both companies, (exclusive of £87,070 to be
called up on certain Norfolk shares,) amounts only to
£355,000, which may be reduced by receipts from surplus
property. The total mileage will be 322 miles. The
company has not subscribed to any other lines, but it will
have the benefit of several valuable feeders, without any
responsibility on account thereof.
MIDLAND.—From the financial statement of this com-
pany, it appears that the total amount of the stock, share,
and loan capital is £11,421,620, which includes a nominal
addition of £627,463 for shares issued at a discount previ-
ous to the amalgamation of the three companies. The
proportion of capital actually received is £8,191,541, leav-
ing £2.602,615 in arrear, including the Bristol and Birm-
ingham shares. The amount of debentures, loans, &c.,
is £3,766,419. The total cost of 2851 miles of railway
producing revenue up to the 24th of October last was
£11,364,414, leaving £414.245 still to pay, and making a
total of £11,778.659. The expenditure on 27+ miles in
course of construction, not producing revenue, has been
£391,796, and there is £321,000 still to pay. On 1851
miles guaranteed and leased, the expenditure has been
£3,134.902 10s. On 92 miles, in which the company is
interested by subscription to the amount of £435,750,
the sum of £201,750 has been paid. The amount autho-
rised for other lines not commenced is £4,630,325, and
for these nothing has been paid. The total amount ex-
pended up to October 24 has been £11,957,960 and there
is £768,245 still to pay, making a total of £12,726,205.
After payment of the balance, the directors calculated on
having £2,194,650 towards the repayment of loans. The
estimated average receipt per mile per annum required to
Pay £6 per cent. when the works under contract are com-
pleted and paid for, is about £2850, an increase of £230
per mile per annum on the average mileage of the year
ending June 30, 1848.

THE " ECONOMIST " AND THE RAILWAYS

(From the Manchester Courier.)

It is an axiom constantly acted upon, that an annuity of
10 per cent., with money at its standard of five per cent.,
is double the value of such money. If a £l,OOO were paid
for an annuity, which afterwards yielded in perpetuity £lOO
per annum, it would be of equal value in the market to
one yielding only £lOO per annum, for which £2,000 had
been paid. And £2,000 of the circulating medium,
whether constituted of gold or paper, which circulated at
the interest of five per cent., or £lOO per annum, would
be an equivalent in exchange for an annuity of £lOO, al-
though only £lOOO had been paid by a former purchaser.
The same axiom alone determined the value of railway
property, the price which it will command, and, conse-
quently, the quantity of capital it represents. Every £lOO
of railway sock paying 10 per cent. is equivalent to £2OO
of the circulating medium at 5 per cent. interest, and to
only £lOO of money if interest were at 10 per cent.
Thus the £196,000,000 already expended, according to
the Economist, would be equivalent to and represent
£392,000,000. had interest remained undisturbed at the
rate of 3 per cent., at which money was available to al-
most any extent in 1845, instead of being now unattainable
even at the rate of 6 and 7 per cent. The rise of interest
frotn 3 to 6 per cent. itself intrinsically reduces the value
of capital in railways to one-half of its value or quantity at
the former rate. Just precisely as the annuity of the se-
cretary referred to, if made perpetual at £l5OO per annum,
would produce on a sale just half the number of thousand
pounds, were money permanently at 10 per cent., which it
would with money with money at 5 per cent. To per-
sons conversant with such calculations, it will be perfectly
intelligible that doubling the rate of interest
werefotrhmereonneyo
reduces to one-half the amount which should be paid in
other money
oafoosre tfohre t nheduei tpyr.ooiaCt
joonos eoqf rauenitily, w
ay property, the
change of the rate of interest from 3 to .6 per cent. on the
renewal of railway loans for long periods, now expiring
(not on discounts, which have no relation to this ques-
tion), would of itself be sufficient.
We are not now, more than the Economist, attempting
to justify any alleged impropriety in the management of
railway property by directors. This is unnecessary. The
point to which we address ourselves is the ability of the
country in ordinary circumstances to pay the required fur-
ther sum of £130,000,006 of railway calls, and to the only
conclusion to be drawn from the simple fact, that money for
railway purposes being now unattainable at 6 and 7 per
cent. involves the loss of capital to the, owners of such
property of one-half, compared to its value when money was
plentiful for the same objects at 3 and 31 per cent. ; a
cause of depreciation arising out of the state of the money
market alone.
After abating everything from the case that can be
urged on the score of profligate expenditure by:the railway
boards, what, we ask, is it all, compared with the depre-
ciation and waste of capital, through the present high
value of money on loans for long periods applicable to
almost every description of fixed property ? Had money
remained at 3 per cent., as when the bulk of the lines in
progress were projected, this fact is clear at least, that
every railway, the cost of which is one million sterling
with money obtained at 3 per cent., the cost of the same
railway must be doubled by raising the rate to 6 per cent.
That if the profligacy of expenditure had been such, that
by means of extravagant contraetsund gorgeous railway
stations, the cost of the railways, with money at 3 per
cent., had been absolutely douldcd, the effect upon the

value of the stock would only have been the same as must
arise had the whole works been more economically com-
pleted, but with money obtained at 6 per cent. interest.
Because. at 3 per cent. the borrowers obtain exactly £2OOO
at the same charge to the company which is made for every
single £lOOO borrowed at 6 per cant. A double rate of
interest doubles the cost of making fixed property of every
kind. _ _

The just remedy for the railway crisis is therefore some-
thing which shall restore the unnaturally depreciated fixed
property of the country to its average value. And nothing
whatever will contribute to that result so long as the stan-
dard of such property, ihe rate of interest, is liable to
fluctuate, as it is under the present money laws, between
3 and 12 ver cent. within the space of a few months.
Will the Economist undertake to guarantee that the same
fluctuations will not soon occur through similar causes to
those which operated last year, or through the connection
which the present laws enforce between every political
rumour from the Continent, and the rate of interest in
London ? Is not the scare of last year's panic too recent
y+•t to obliterate from the minds of moneyed men the pos-
sibility of interest being soon again at 10 and 12 percent. ?
How, then, is it likely that capitalists in their senses will
part with money for long periods, at any but the most ex-
tortionate and ruinous rates of interest ?
That the once wealthy portion of the public, who assumed
from the original subscribers to the present railways, the

whole of their liabilities, at a time when the stocks of the
several companies, under the advance of interest in Octo-
ber, 1845, and February, 1846, had fallen to what was
fairly considered a safe and advantageous price for perma-
nent investment, should now find themselves like the
commercial and industrial public at large, unable to meet
liabilities which then appeared to be perfectly easy, can

• • ..
surprise none but writers lace the Economist, who shut
their eyes to one, and that the most important, side of

this grave question
Unon what do m

property re]

to meet their en-

. _
gagernents ? Upon the quantity of such property ? No.
But upon its market and convertible value. To what class
of commercial, manufacturing, and annuitant property can
the Econcmist refer which has not sustained an extent of
depreciation as great or greater than that which has be-
fallen the value of Railway Stocks,—Factories, Machinery,
Warehouses. Dwelling-Houses, Ships, Produce, or In-
surance and Barking Companies' Stocks ? There is no
uez,ription of property almost, which for conversion into
money for any necessary purpose, will now command

fairly equivalent before the April panic of last year.
hundred millions sterling would not cover the loss
capital the country has sustained through this
depreciation of -its industry and weal-h. Here, then, i;
cause for the difficulty of meeting railway calls, altogethe

.eneral

apart from, and mucli more palpable than, an organic and
original impossibility of finding capital. And as to the
X1,3b0,000 of raillway calls, which the Economisl thinks
will destroy the country, a restoration of one class of
property alone, CONSOLS, to its former value, would
supply a working capital equivalent to the whole sum
• .• • .•

. _
required for such completion of the unfinished lines.
The principle which regulates the value of railway
property being once understood, there would be no lack

r I
of efficient plans for meeting the case of the perplexed
and almost bankrupt companies. If a fluctuation in the
rate of interest have such power, as has just been shewn,
to dissolve into nonentity, like snow before the sun, the
immense capital of those companies, their first duty ob-
viously is to unite together for one specific object—viz.,

to demand such an improvement in the present money
laws as shall admit of a permanent standard of value for
all such property in the shape of (what there is now no
certainty of for a week together) an equable rate of in-
terest. _ _ . . . _

, —..
We know of no work where the whole subject of rail-

more clearly and practically handled than in the volume*
to which we have already directed the attention of the
editor of the Economist.

* "The National Distress : its Financial Origin and Remedy.
With a Vindication of the Railways." London: Longman
and Co.

CIRQUE NATIONAL DE PARIS.-ROYAL
AMPHITHEATRE.

We have to announce that, at the request of several
parties, Mons. Dtjean has determined to give three more
morning performances during the remaining time his
troope will remain in Liverpool, previous to his departure
for London. The morning performances will take place
on the Friday of each week. We have to again state our

the amphitheatre to witness the truly grand and elegant
equestrian performances of this troope. The respected
director merits the same, and even more, patronage than

the favourites of last year. he has added numerous other
artistes of the highest excellence. In addition to the usual
attractions there have been introduced, during the week,
several novelties. MM. Newsome and Chandler have
acted a comic scene in the circle. The " Drunken Sol-
dier," by Newsome, affords to him a grand (

p portunity