11 APRIL 1846, Page 11

TOPICS OF THE

RAILWAYS : THE WIN t• -

THE apirit of gambling is deeply rooted in ' Lafterty, it chiefly-from the provincial Share Exchanges that the urgent Aries to have railway schemes wound up have proceed in' the-first stance. The shareholders, with visions of calls and other liabili- ties haunting their imginations, have been ready enough to take it up : but it was the enormous depression of shares, paralyzing the business of the Exchanges, that prompted the movement. The fears which suggested the applications to Parliament to facili- tate or compel the winding-up of a great number of the new schemes were well founded ; and yet the simple declaration of Ministers that a law will be passed to enable shareholders to with-, draw from the meshes of absurd projects in which they have en- tangled themselves, has revived the passion of speculation in rail- way shares ! If we may judge by appearances, the gambling in speculations for "the wind-up" may be as keen, and, though confined to a less numerous public, as sure to entail losses and bankruptcy on those who dip deep in them, as the speculations for the get-up. The measure which Ministers propose to introduce cannot check the speculative furor. Nay, it may be said, that by restoring a value to the shares of those concerns in which more money may reasonably be supposed to have been deposited than expended, the measure gives occasion to the gambling. But it is not easy to see how this could be avoided in any measure that enables share- holders to ascertain and discharge their liabilities at once and for ever, and to save a part of the capital risked in the railway lot- tery wherever capital has been paid up. Wherever there is a chance of money being returned, there will be a scramble to obtain the largest share-in other words, there will be gam- bling in scrip and registered shares. If it appear that serious danger would be incurred by the refusal of the Legislature to- provide the means of winding up schemes of whose success within any reasonable time no hope is entertained, the risk of giving an incidental and transient stimulus to the spirit of share-gambling must be incurred. The existence of the danger is, unfortu- nately, too widely discernible. The mania of railway share specu- lation was so impartial in its infection of all classes, and so widely diffused, that every one may observe the serious involvements and embarrassments it has occasioned within the circle of his awn personal acquaintance. If the suffering could be confined to the individuals whose folly has drawn it upon them, stern justice might say, "let them think as they have brewed " ; but they are so numerous that their aggregate embarrassments threaten to shake general credit.

The measure announced by Government appears calculated to do as much for these parties as can be done for them. The holders of the larger half of the stock of any company will be enabled to compel their managers or directors to wind it up. Their reso- lution to this effect will arrest all further proceedings in the scheme, and the incurring of all additional expense. An official trustee will be appointed to ascertain the liabilities already incurred by the company, to see that they are duly is discharged, and to distribute the residue of the paid-up capital, when there any, among those having a legal claim to it. Our repentant speculators will thus be secured against further expense and calls upon capital, and may be enabled to recover a part of the stakes so rashly hazarded. Objections have been taken to the Government proposal, on the ground that it gives no security to the public that the best and most urgently required railway schemes will be selected for execution. There is great reason to doubt whether a measure having that end in view would be compatible with the object proposed. What Ministers have been asked to do, and what they are trying to do, is to save an immense number of culpably rash and losing gamesters from the consequences of their folly ; be- cause they are so many that their ruin would draw down loss and suffering upon the general public. The mere declaration of Govern- ment, that only a limited number of lines would be allowed to ob- tain incorporating acts, could not effect this. The question, what lines best deserved to pass, could only be settled by a protracted Parliamentary investigation ; leaving the shareholders to bear all that enormous expenditure, and to remain in uncertainty as to their fate. Such a law might or might not give us the most eligible railways at an earlier period than we may otherwise obtain them, but it could not arrest the growing panic.