5 JULY 1856, Page 31

RAILWAY SHAREHOLDERS.

A Parliamentary return just issued enables us to arrive at an approxi- mate estimate of the number of persons interested as proprietors of Railways in the United Kingdom. The return is incomplete, as eighteen railways have not forwarded the information required ; but none of these lines are of much extent or importance. The shareholders in all the other railways are returned at 167,879 on the 31st December last : after making a large allowance for persons holding shares in several under- takings, and who are in consequence numbered more than once, we see how extensively the people of the Three Kingdoms are interested in rail- ways as an investment-how comparatively small must be the holdings of many proprietors. Of the English Railways, the proprietors of the chief lines numbered as follows--:-Bristol and Exeter, 1844; Eastern Counties, 8514; Great Northern, 6132; Great Western, 10350; Lancashire and Yorkshire, 4875; Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire, 4467; North-Western, 15,115; South-Western, 4067; Brighton, 4416; Midland, 10,104; North-Eastern, 8637; North StaffOrd&ire, 3142; South-Eastern, 4434. Of the Irish Railways the Dublin.and Kingstown has 269 proprietors ; Great Southern and Western, 2580; Midland Great Western, 855. . The chief Scotch lines have the following proprietary-Aberdeen, 965; Caledonian 2782; Edinburgh and Glasgow, 1849; Edinburgh, Perth, and Dundee, 1750 ; Glasgow and South-Western, 2060; North British, $466; Scottish Central, 1120.