dearly-bought tokens of boundless wealth, must be forced upon
the market to be sold at any price! The wider the sphere of
speculation, the more numerous were the necessitous parties who
rushed eagerly to get rid of their shares, and the consequence
was, that Capel Court, formerly blocked up with the equipages of
aristocratic gamblers bidding higher and higher for shares in
sham railways, was now crowded with competing sellers, glutting
the market with stock which found no favour with buyers. Down
fell the prices of shares, and oddly enough shares in the best
lines soon became proportionally more affected, because money
could be more readily raised upon them, and they were sold for
the repayment of advances. Just as these pressures were suffi-
ciently matured, the peccadilloes of the great Hudson, the bronze
king we may now dub him, were, after vain attempts to stifle dis-
closure, partially published abroad-for depend upon it, we are
yet ignorant of the thousandth part of the embezzlements of Hud-
son and his confederates in fraud. Prices fell still lower, for
many upright shareholders, who had resorted to railways as a se-
cure investment-now became frightened by the divulged devil-
ments which the Times made the most of-and the revulsion was
so dreadful, that it continues to influence the beggared share-mar-
ket up to the present time. What is to be done, is the general
cry
? but as all the confident counsellors are quite at fault, we
venture to offer a few humble suggestions. Panic is the order of
the day, and the first point which strikes us as serving to rebuke
that panic, is the undoubted increase of railway traffic, the true
foundation upon which all just railway expectations must rest.
The returns from almost all railways clearly prove that the num-
bers of passengers, and the carriage of goods, have increased
enormously. Nevertheless, the cost of working, and the charges
of management, are so high as to swamp the profits of income,
and the prospect of cheering dividends becomes more dim and dis-
tant. Our remedy for this uncomfortable condition of things, is
to have a sweeping change in the principle of the present system
of management. We recommend that meetings of shareholders
should be held, not to displace chairmen and directors, and fill up
the vacancies with fresh corruptionists; but to lay the axe to the
root of all rottenness, by disbanding all chairmen, directors, and
committees, and appointing over each railway a competent func-
tionary, whose individual responsibilities shall place him fully
under the public eye, and whose character and position will de-
pend upon the due discharge of his trust. Committees of all de-
scriptions are dens of deception and fraudulent impunity. No in-
dividual would dare to try, nor could he possibly effect, the mon-
strous villanies which are accomplished by means of committees-
often made up of crafty knaves who organize and lead the gang,

and of timid, half-and-half members, who are overborne by the assurance of their guileful colleagues. Does not the whole railway system of scoundrelism testify to the truth of our remarks? How were the bubble projects brought out but by means of committees, patched up in the back office of some pettifogging lawyer, and then published, along with a list of decoy names of notabilities-Manchester warehousemen mixed up with needy lords, and backed with bankers who had a railway partner to traffic at the Stock Exchange! Now, up to this hour all the working railways are mainly in the hands of these corrupt concoctors; and can we wonder that the poor shareholders are robbed and spoiled by the operation of an incurably unsound system? The great drift of all these people is to keep the railway realm of riches in their own clutch; and when one set of directors is forced to resign, the system is still as actively fraudulent as ever. Government audits, and other specious restraints, are sheer nonsense. Place men of intelligence and probity at the head of each railway concern-give them full power to carry on the executive of the railway-and allow no supplementary schemes to be embarked in without the concurrence of a majority of shareholders; for it was by amalgamations and other plausible arrangements, founded in fraud, that Hudson contrived to accumulate the wealth which he is now disgorging. The vast manufacturing establishments of the great railway companies are emporiums of wasteful expenditure, utterly unnecessary in a country where immense facilities are supplied by contractors ready to compete with each other in furnishing the best machinery at the most moderate rates. In short, every part of the existing railway system must be reformed, before public confidence can be revived to such an extent as shall render railway shares a desirable investment for all classes of capitalists.

THE CALEDONIAN RAILWAY.

Some weeks since we took the opportunity of conveying to our readers a series of very strong observations on railway management, in the course of which we did not hesitate to denounce the whole system as being radically rotten, and, in plain truth, a crafty organization for swindling and spoliation. We affirmed, that if railway property is rescuable from destruction, the only means of safety is to be found in abolishing the present machinery -in disbanding the entire tribe of chairmen, directors, committees, &c., who constitute an oligarchy of plunderers; and to appoint, in lieu of these, over each railway company, an able, authoritative manager, to whom should be confided the executive of

these important concerns-leaving the financial arrangements completely under the control of the shareholders. We alleged that the irresponsible power entrusted to knots of directors, rendered any effective check upon profligate expenditure totally impossible; that a Hudson, and his clique of knaves, would be found in every committee; and that the smallest coterie of cheats would overpower the milk-and-water morality of their colleagues. Men who have much business of their own rarely take a lead in these committees; the active, ruling robbers are men who make it their business to attend constantly to what they call "the affairs of the company," but which on some day of after reckoning, turns out to be an incessant occupation in filling their own pockets! In short, the railway mania engendered a class of railway corruptionists, who monopolise the mismanagement of railway property, and, until a sweeping change takes place, all hope of rendering investment in shares safe or profitable, is nothing better than a gambler's dream! Nor are railway embarrassments confined to railway committees; a further, and more fearful range of difficulties is, it strikes us, connected with banking establishments. Many banks covertly encouraged, and even participated in railway speculation, and are at this hour holders, to an immense figure, of desperately depreciated railway securities. In England, such liabilities as these would fall upon a firm of speculative bankers but in Scotland, they would rest ruinously upon a multitude of joint-stock proprietors, who are answerable for all banking engagements to the last farthing they are possessed of.

;

We have been led into this train of enquiry by considering the case of the Caledonian Railway Company, which has just been fully opened to public view; and looking into the published details, we are of opinion that the mischievous mismanagement of the affairs of this ruined company exceeds anything of the kind as yet dragged into day. A committee of shareholders having been appointed to investigate the concerns of the company, the investigators have presented a report, in which the directors are pithily charged with "recklessness, folly, and infatuation, without a precedent in the history of commercial affairs." And vigorous as this censure sounds, it is amply borne out by facts and figures. These ingenious gentlemen have contrived to expend their entire capital in outlays upon an incomplete line; and they have incurred a debt of £850,000, which with other engagements amounting to nearly £700,000 more, serves to establish the certainty that the future revenue is all mortgaged! Agreeable state of things this! The directors are not dealt with in a very complimentary manner by the reporting remonstrants, for they are alleged to have acted "more like boys than men ;" and very bad boys, too, it might be added, if only a tithe of the accusations

were proved against them. And who are these "boys ?" Why, neither more nor less than such important persons as Mr Hope Johnstone, Mr Hodgson Hinde, Mr W. Lockhart, M.P., Mr Hastie, M.P., Mr Alderman Thompson, M.P., and though last, not least, the Right Hon. Fox Maule, with a little crowd of inferior Hudsonians! Now this array of names should teach impoverished shareholders, that a decoy list of flaming M. P.'s affords no security against wasteful or fraudulent misapplication of their funds—and that such security is the one thing needful in railway management. As soon as this Pandora's box was opened, the directors began to negociate terms of resignation; and the conditions of retirement go to verify all the charges urged against them. The agreement is thus stated- "that the present directors should go out of office; that they should receive an indemnity for all the money which they had expended in buying their own company's shares (to bolster up the market prices); and that the company should exercise their borrowing powers to the amount of £66,600, to clear off engagements;" and to these extravagant extortions the shareholders have yielded, as did Mr Hudson's creditors, rather than plunge their insolvent affairs in the bottomless pit of Chancery. However, it should seem that the promised indemnity is not thought to be sufficiently safe; so the miserable shareholders are pledged to obtain an indemnity for their destroyers by means of an act of Parliament-leaving us to conclude that if there is any peculiarly dirty work to be done, it is a sort of remanet to be disposed of by the Legislature!

On the whole, these infamous railway proceedings fill us with indignation and alarm; indignation, that so many gentlemen of high position in society should have shown themselves so suspiciously inadequate to the discharge of a great public trust; and alarm, from our clear perception that railway troubles must inevitably increase. Holders of railway securities will be constrained to make forced sales of depreciated stock-especially where banking advances have been made on shares; and the market will be more and more glutted through the pressure of sellers, and the shyness of purchasers. All the elements of a fearful pecuniary panic are fatally maturing, and yet men are content with old, shuffling expedients, instead of boldly coping with a great evil by a vigorous and decisive course of action.

COUNTRY DEPUTATIONS TO MEMBERS OF THE GOVERNMENT.

As there seems springing up on all sides a very commendable zeal for public retrenchment, we think it quite possible that we may render some service to corporate bodies, and other associations, by

opening their eyes to the needless prodigality with which public funds are lavished in defraying the expenses of totally useless deputations. The common belief craftily propagated by interested parties, is a stupid fallacy that public objects cannot be successfully promoted, except a lot of sages be dispatched from some locality to London; travelling in first-class carriages; depositing themselves at first-rate hotels; faring sumptuously every day; honouring theatres with their presence every night; and then returning to their downy couches to snore away their metropolitan fatigues! The way in which these patriotic pleasures are brought about is something like the following. A project of some kind or other is started in some municipality, or chartered company, or organised body; and the attention of the Government to it is alleged to be indispensable. In England, some man of law-a Smith or a Brown; in Scotland, some Mac this; in Ireland, some O' that, demonstrates in the most convincing manner, that nothing can be done without a deputation, of which he is to be the guardian angel. Moved, seconded, carried! and off flies the deputation by an express train, discreetly composed of persons who have luckily private business in London, which they can now pleasantly transact at the public expense. Then ensue all the plausible trickeries

66

which are calculated to spin out the sojournment of the worthy deputationists. M.P.'s are to be hunted out at their respective clubs; and " our member" is requested to put himself in communication" with the departmental great man who irradiates the Treasury, or Board of Trade, or Home Office, as the case may happen to be. The longer an interview can be staved off, all the better; for the patient parties are paid for not seeing a Chancellor of the Exchequer, or other magnate, just as liberally as for beholding him. Therefore, why hurry one of her Majesty's servants, who has peradventure a long list of country gabies, all supplicating for ten minutes benign chat. At length the important day and hour arrive; the Downing Street doors turn smartly on their hinges; and the deputation, headed and flanked by smiling senators, is ushered into the presence of Lord John, or Sir Charles, or the Right Hon. Mr Somebody; and what then? Why, some complimentary babble takes place; a little bit of business is obscurely hinted at by the least bashful member of the deputation; Lord John listens with a sort of frosty reserve; mutters something about "giving consideration to the subject," and bows out the deputation, who retire precisely as they entered; for the whole affair is a complete farce; and if anything is ever effected, it is by means of written communications, which in point of fact render deputations utterly unnecessary. Having remained so long for the honour of an interview, the deputation must tarry some time longer, in order to ascertain that their solemn conference has been