BOLIVIA. 



59 



contracted in England in 1872* for the pur- 

 pose of constructing a railway. The railway for 

 which it was incurred has not yet been buiJt. 

 The works, commenced in 1872 under British 

 auspices, suffered "unanticipated detentions" 

 until 1877, when they were resumed under 

 American contractors, Messrs. P. and T. Col- 

 lins, of Philadelphia, several chancery suits hav- 

 ing intervened in the course of the five years', 

 interval. The firm just mentioned deposited, 

 states Colonel George Earl Church,* 40,000 as 

 * a caution-fund for compliance with their con- 

 tract to complete the road from end to end. 

 They sent several large ocean-steamers directly 

 from Philadelphia to the northern terminus of 

 the road at San Antonio on the river Madeira, 

 where there are now (April, 1880) about fifty 

 miles of railway material and contractors 1 

 plant. In a short time they had a thousand 

 men at work, and a locomotive running over 

 the first and worst five miles of the road. They 

 cleared fifteen miles of forest, cut large quanti- 

 ties of sleepers, employed four large corps of 

 engineers actively in the field, and thoroughly 

 demonstrated the perfect practicability of the 

 work. As this was thus again being vigor- 

 ously pushed forward, the bondholders filed a 

 new bill in chancery, March 2, 1878, alleging 

 the revocation of the Bolivian concession and 

 the impracticability of the railway. The trus- 

 tees were again prevented from applying the 

 trust fund. As in the previous suit, the plain- 

 tiffs resorted to every imaginable device to de- 

 lay the trial. It finally took place before Mr. 

 Justice Fry, April, 1879, who, after hearing 

 their witnesses, dismissed the bill, with costs. 

 Their own engineers gave evidence proving the 

 perfect practicability of the road. The bond- 

 holders appealed from the decision. The appeal 

 was heard by the Lords Justices in May, 1879. 

 These held that, owing to the lapse of time, 

 the seven years during which the plaintiffs, 

 the bondholders, had succeeded in preventing 

 the construction of the railway, the burden of 

 proof of its practicability rested upon the de- 

 fendants, the Navigation and Railway Com- 

 panies. These gave ample engineering evi- 

 dence, by their engineers, as to the physical 

 feasibility of the road and its ease of construc- 

 tion. The Court of Appeal gave judgment in 

 May, 1879, to the effect that, "no doubt the 

 scheme was a great one, and one which, if 

 there had been funds and other means for 

 carrying it into effect, would probably pro- 

 duce the revenue which would afford a se- 

 curity for the bondholders " ; and then decided 

 that "the railway was impracticable in a busi- 

 ness sense," ordering the trust fund, 850,000, 

 to be distributed, pro rata, among the bond- 

 holders, and the Bolivian bonds to be surren- 

 dered and deposited in the Bank of England, 



* See " Annual Cyclopaedia" for 18T9, p. 81. 



t The instigator of the enterprise, and to whom, as the re- 

 sult of a treaty between Brazil and Bolivia, both countries 

 made concessions, having for their object the openin? of a com- 

 mercial outlet for Bolivian products to the Atlantic through 

 the Amazon Eiver, and its great tributary the Madeira. 



and declaring, moreover, that " the loss of the 

 850,000 makes the scheme impracticable." 

 The defendant companies appealed to the 

 House of Lords, and the Lords, while eulo- 

 gizing the magnitude of the enterprise, and 

 lauding the good faith of Colonel Church and 

 its other promoters, confirmed the decision of 

 the Court of Appeal. Bolivia is thus placed 

 in a unique position, continues Colonel Church. 

 Her own bondholders submit her to a relent- 

 less litigation of six years, preventing the open- 

 ing of the commercial route for which they 

 subscribed the loan. Even pending litiga- 

 tion, up to 1875, she paid interest on the loan, 

 and now she finds herself without the money, 

 without the railway, without her bonds, and. 

 by judgment of the Court of Appeal, confirmed 

 by the House of Lords, is told, practically, that 

 an unauthorized act of her diplomatic agent* 

 is more powerful than her Congressional de- 

 crees. The following extract from a letter to 

 the London " Times," by its Philadelphia corre- 

 spondent, in May, 1880, shows how the inter- 

 ests of the American contractors have been 

 affected by the foregoing decision : 



The House of Lords, in affirming the decision of the 

 Court of Appeal in reference to the Bolivian loan, 

 deprived the American contractors for the Madeira ana 

 Mamore Eailway of Bolivia and Brazil of any chance 

 of getting payment for work already done and mate- 

 rials furnished. These contractors, Messrs. P. and T. 

 Collins, of Philadelphia, and their creditors, have pre- 

 sented a petition for relief to Congress. They request 

 the passage of a resolution by Congress, asking the 

 President to brin^ the matter alleged in their petition 

 to the attention of her Majesty's Government, and also 

 instructing the Secretary of the Treasury to give pub- 

 lic notice that the United States bonds now in the 

 Bank of England ? being the trust fund for the construc- 

 tion of the Madeira and Mamore Railway, Avill not be 

 paid by the United States until the rights of the peti- 

 tioners to the fund are respected. They also ask for 

 such other relief as may be due to them by reason of the 

 fact that, as American citizens, their rights and property 

 are being jeopardized by the nostilc action of the Gov- 

 ernment of Bolivia, in attempting to withdraw the con- 

 cession and grant of money, upon the faith of which 

 the contractors agreed to build the railway, and have 

 already expended their money. This petition was pre- 

 sented in the Senate by Senator Bayard, and in the 

 House by Speaker Randall. The contractors and their 

 creditors have expended nearly $1,000,000 on the work, 

 the Philadelphia and Reading Railway, which is main- 

 ly owned in England, having furnished large quanti- 

 ties of materials, and being a principal creditor. The 

 numbers of the $3,727,900 United States bonds in the 

 trust are in the possession of the contractors, and will 

 be furnished to the Secretary of the Treasury. The 

 petitions have been referred to appropriate committees 

 by Congress, but their contemplated action has not 

 yet transpired. 



As observed in our volume for 1879, no re- 

 liable returns of Bolivia's exports and imports 

 have ever been published by any of the Gov- 

 ernment departments ; hence the impossibility 

 of all but conjecture as to the aggregate value 

 of the foreign trade of the republic. The sub- 



* The Bolivian Minister, who, in June, 1876, addressed a 

 letter to Colonel Church, assuming to declare the conces- 

 sions of the navigation company to be null and of no value. 

 No evidence appears to have since been produced of his au- 

 thority for the act. 



