With the exception of the Indus Valley and the Rajpootana Railways, all the lines above enumerated are entitled to the payment of interest from the Government of India, at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum, on all capital, the expenditure of which is duly sanctioned by the Government. At the close of 1865, the number of miles thus guaranteed was 4,944, and the amount of the guarantee would be about £81,000,000, when all lines are completed. This year, the guarantee has been extended to 700 more miles, making the total now sanctioned for guarantee 5,644 miles, and the total capital £88,000,000. By means of it, the Indian Branch Railway undertakes to construct a system of railways through Oude and Rohilcund, with branches to various places on the East Indian Railway. These districts are populous, and highly productive, and have obtained the name of the Garden of India. There are no engineering difficulties on the lines, and very few works of great magnitude, except some bridges over the Ganges, which will have to be made, if the full benefits of the lines are to be secured. The form of guarantee to the Indian Branch Railways differs in some details from the form originally adopted, but in the main the terms are the same. In the old contracts, the guarantee is given for ninety-nine years, and at the end of that period the railway lapses to the Government; but these provisions are practically annulled by the power which each company has of surrendering the railway to the Government at any time before the expiration of the ninety-ninth year (at the ninety-eight year for example), and receiving back from the Government the capital expended. In the new arrangements, no period is fixed for the termination of the guarantee, but the Government has the power of taking possession of the line after the first twenty years, or at the expiration of any ten years afterwards. If it exercise this power within a hundred years, it will have to pay a sum equivalent to the average value of the stock during the three preceding years. If the power be not exercised until after a hundred years, it then has only to pay back the capital expended. _Per contra_, the company has the power of surrendering the railway to the Government any time after the line has been opened six months. In this event, the Government is not to pay back more than the capital actually expended. The amount of guaranteed capital raised up to the 1st of April, 1867, has been £67,254,802, of which £51,800,377 consists of share capital, and £15,454,425 of debentures. It may here be observed, that it has been determined, as a rule, henceforth to restrict, as far as possible, the issue of debenture capital, especially such as is not convertible into stock. Perpetual debenture stock has, however, been sanctioned, to some extent, in the case of the Great Indian Peninsular Company, and its issue will, probably, under certain circumstances, be permitted to be made by other companies.