The Sun. — London, England, 1868-02-21 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. The Upper House of Convocation, the Min informs its readers, has been chiefly employed upon a modest attempt made by the Bishop of London to establish the principle that each clergyman is not to choose for himself his ritual observances, either as to the amount or the kind. That there should be even occasion for such a suggestion will astonish the outer world. No doubt, however, at this moment there are thousands of churches in want of some such check upon ritualistic enterprise. It is evident that the resolution would only be an appeal to the sense of pro priety, carrying with it no more weight than the opinions of the bishops speaking or voting in its favour. Even as this it has been criticised, challenged, pulled to pieces, and finally mated with an equipoise. Such a rule implied, it was objected, that it had a foundation in the fact of a general uniformity, there being no such fact ; or that it was possible to come to some actual uniformity, which was impossible ; or that the bishops were generally agreed, which thay were not ; or that the existing law could accomplish a uniformity, which it could not ; or that it could not accomplish a unformity, which remains to be proved ; or that the question was not fairly open to historical investigation ; or that Ritualism was to have less justice done it than preaching, in which a large liberty was now cheerfully conceded by common agreement ; or that the resolution assumed a lighted candle to be a greater error than an unsound doctrinal statement. Finally, a diluted form of this exceedingly mild resolution, itself a matter of course in any other Church, was adopted with the pendant that uniformity had regard to defects as well as excesses ; and that if too much was wrong, too little was wrong also, and none worse still. Such was the discussion carried on within sound, as it were, of the tremendous and costly conflicts in the courts of law, for which many thousand pounds have been subscribed, for 'which clergymen are staking all their means and all their happiness, and which other zealots, on both sides, will always be found to take up. Ritualism is only an engine of warfare. It is employed as the proper defence and most stinging retaliation, not only against what is called anti-ritualism and mere slovenli ness, but against Evangelicalism, rationalism, and modern freedom of thought. A clergyman is allowed to publish peculiar views on inspiration, eternity of punishment, and to explain away mysteries. So, instead of refuting him or moving the bishop with a view to legal proceedings, the neighbouring clergy light candles, wear stoles of quaint device, make processions, and practise movements and gestures supposed to have the sanction of an un known antiquity. When people complain, the answer is, " Why don't you complain of Mr. So-and-So, who explains away our faith altogether? Which is worse, a gilt cross or no cross at all, emblem or reality ?" Such is the war in which the altar, the pulpit, and the reading. desk are played one against another, while it is only too evident that Convocation only adds fuel to the flame, and that every year new men are throwing themselves into the fray, if only because they have to figure in de bates at the Queen Anne's Bounty Office and the Jeru salem Chamber. The Tdcgro ph considers a reconstruction of the Cabinet to be probable, notwithstanding the recovery of Lord Derby. Should the present First Lord of the Treasury resign, Mr. Disraeli will, in our contemporary's opinion, be the Prime Minister of England. These words mean a great deal. The Premiership of England is a great prize; to win it, to hold it, a man must certainly have a rare combination of gifts. He must physically have a vitality of constitution that can contend against hard toil and late hours ; mentally, he must have resources ready for use at any moment and on all occasions. He must not only be a fluent speaker, but a rapid thinker ; he must not only win the confidence of about four hundred gentlemen—the work ing majority of the House—but of over a dozen clever men, members of both Houses, with position and ability enough to fill high places, and yet prepared to accept him as their chief. In this country, still largely influenced by men of hereditary position and wealth, high birth will of course go no small way to make up for deficiencies in some of the necessary qualifications ; but the surprise excited by Mr. Disraeli's success is, that he had nothing extrinsic in his favour when he started in the race, and had many things against him. The object of the French Press Bill, as it is expressed by its provisions, is, in the opinion of the Daily News, to make the existence of an independent political journal as precarious and difficult as possible, and to surround the vocation of an independent political writer with a network of dangers and disabilities, and to do all this in the name of " the liberty of the press." It is worth remarking that the provincial journals, which are generally, of course, less influential than those of the capital, and more manageable by the authorities, are much less severely taxed. It is only fair to the Ministers who have charge of this bill to acknowledge that they all profess to be anxiously con cerned for the liberty and dignity of the press, and that the cruelty of some of the clauses of their press law is only kindness in disguise. They chasten the liberty they love in order to prevent it from falling into license, and drift ing. to destruction by its own excesses. What confounds an English reader of these debates is, that MM. Rouher, Baroche, and Pinard, in one_ and the same breath, do homage to the strength of a Government which after six teen years' existence is not afraid to be discussed, and insist on the necessity of protective legislation against the power of a few independent journals, as if France were a conquered country, and Paris in a state of siege ; as though the chronic condition of the State were smouldering rebellion and civil war, and the Second Empire could be snuffed out by an article. Mr. Cave has just introduced a bill authorising the Board of TraCe to extend, under certain conditions, the time granted by Parliament for the construction of rail ways. By an Act passed last session the board is em powered to permit the abandonment of railways, after hearing all the persons interested in the construction of the lines, and the right honourable gentleman has found, from his "experience of the working of that measure, the want of the minor power for which he now asks. An extension of time would, he says, often be the best corn-. Promise that could be made between the promoters of a line asking leave to abandon it, and the property-owners and others who object to the abandonment. If Parliament (argues the Herald) can entrust the Board of Trade with authority to release promoters entirely from their obliga tions, it may certainly give the office power to suspend the performance of those obligations ; and we de not suppose that Mr. Cave's bill, which merely proposes to re-enact an expired Act passed twenty years ago, and which during the time of its operation was found to work beneficially, will meet with opposition in any of its stages. Mr. Watkin, indeed, hinted a distrust of the proposal which deserves attention as an expression of the present phase of the railway mind. The honour• able gentleman was afraid that if such a bill should pass there would not be so many railways abandoned. The Herald is sick of hearing these reproaches of Parliament from chairmen and directors of railway companies who were themselves mainly instrumental in leading Parlia ment to perpetrate any follies of which it has been guilty. Mr. Watkin is chairman of at least two railway companies. The question cannot be dealt with entirely from the stand point of the railway chairman, who wants to close his capital account, and is horrified at the idea of increasing his working expenses by the opening of branches which are not iikely to yield any very large amount of traffic. The Standard: in calling attention to the tale told by " Investigator " of captives in the Sonmali district, re marks : " Misfortunes," it is said, "never came singly." Just at the moment when we are spending, millions of money in an expedition designed for the release of the British captives in Abyssinia, another case, almost equally pressing, is brought under our notice in so urgent a manner that we cannot refuse to attend to it. " Investigator's " letter must have enlisted the sympathies of every one who read it on behalf of the unfortunate men whom we have reason to believe to have been groaning in a thraldom twice as long and twice as hard as that which has been endured by Captain Cameron and his comrades. The widely -extended repute of this Government of ours, which is able to make its power and its influence felt in the remotest corners of the world, as well as in the most civi -1 ed, is supposed to invest it with the responsibility of watching over the interests and defending the liberties of its subjects in whatever part of Gods earth they may happen to be. The victims whose case has been so ably brought under our notice ' a're even more obscure in rank than those for whom we are making war against the im perious Potentate of Amhara. They are, however, Eng lishmen like ourselve s , an d have an equal ric , ht with any of us to such protecti on as can be afforded by cur diplo macy or our arms. As by the Factory and Workshop ;make wham he does not talc the employer who engaes 11 Regulation Acts wo know to have attended school - , certain cases, responsible for the payment of school fees ; and empower him to deduct such payment from th e u w s ages of children in to i - t place every in his employ ; so is it now o p en e education labour master on the same footing, and to juvenile the one universal and indispensable condition industry. A law of this kind would, the Post work well and easily in towns, and meet with . littl elieves ' oppo sition ; but it must be admitted that the difficeulty— enforcing its observance in agricultural districts would I °f be considerable, at all events for a time. The farmer e m ight be required to furnish returns of t h e c h ildren in Ms employment, as he is required to furnish returns of his t a xable dogs, carriages, and so forth ; but it would be didlcult to ini.11Z...! Lim do so. Farmers abhor returns, as a rule, and evade' them it 13 possible. As for any. 11- "- 4- -rn they would resist it to I,e a half-title .7„ , , til;! nii,l G7ll' colltinporary does not think that tht,y do so v• - ith , qit e is'm. The Ftrir, commenting on the "strange news from Natal" (which is to the effect that the Supreme Court fn tlle colony have refused to ta,:e notice of a decree of , toe Queen in Council), remarks : 1)1.. Colenso is as much at liberty as any man to be as sceptical as pleases him ; he may even elect to express his scepticism in the least reve rential and most flippant forms. The real q i uestion s, whether the majority of the members of the Church can be said to have liberty, when they cannot, as Churchmen, avoid the necessity of recognising a bishop whom they believe worthy of excommunication as a member of the Christian community to which they belong. Our contem porary offers no judgment upon Dr. Colenso's opinions, or upon the indispositiim of the majority of the communica ting members of the Church of England to tolerate him ns one of .themselves. TWO IRISH LAW CAS. A trial in which an interesting point WAS raised was held at the Dundalk Assizes. John F. Nugent, a Fenian prisoner who had been arrested under the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act, was indicted for having unlawfully escaped from justice. The prisoner jumped out of a window while in charge of the police in a room in Drogheda, and for a long time eluded pursuit. It appeared in evidence that the warrant under which he had been arrested bore the signature of only one of the three Lords Justices who had been sworn in during the absence of the Lord-Lieutenant, and his counsel contended that it ought to have been signed by all the Lords Justices, or a sato ment made on the face of the document that it was signed by only one in the unavoidable absence of the others. Judge Batter3by overruled the objection, but reserved the points. The prisoner was convicted, and sentenced to one month's imprisonment. -- - A libel case, arising out of the relations of landlord and tenants has occupied the attention of the Court of Queen's Bench for the last three days, and taxed the ability of a numerous bar. It was an action instituted by a carpenter and builder in Dublin against the publisher of the Wexford People newspaper for an article reflecting on the plaintiff's conduct. The words complained of are, "If our story be false, we have libelled an innocent man. If it be true, who is Mr. Hogan ? Is he a creature whose soul is in his pocket ?Is he the carpenter of yesterday—the little tyrant of to-day ?" The defence pleaded was a justifica tion. The plaintiff had purchased a piece of land in the Landed Estates Court for £1,05'0, as a co mmercial specu lation, and conceiving that it was let at too low a rent and kept in bad condition, he proposed to give leases at an advanced rent. The priest of the parish complained of his raising the rents, and the rev. gentleman's interference was resented by the plaintiff as uawarrantable. He allowed the tenants some months to consider the matter, and not hearing from them he served notices to quit. This brought down upon him the censure of the People, which denornced him as " a grinder of the faces of the poor," and used other strong language. Some of the tenants came up to Dublin to remonstrate with him, and complained that he received them very coldly, and kept them there waiting in his yard. Under these circumstances the trial excited a good deal of interest. It terminated in a disagreement of the jury. Eleven, it is said, were for giving a farthing damages, and one dissen- tient wanted to find for the defendant. MR. TILLEY'S ECCENTRICITIES. The Dublin correspondent of the Times writes :—" It is a great privilege to be a native-born American. His lot is enviable, at least out of his own country. Mr. G. F. Train is at present enjoying to the full the superior advantages which belong to such a condition. He is ' stumping the country,' as he says, and with a vengeance, too, speaking and agitating with a freedom which makes him an object of wonder and delight to the Fenian audiences who throng his lecture' rooms. His actions are a strange com mentary upon the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act and the Press prosecutions in Ireland. He was lately in Dun garvan , and treated the inhabitants of that little port to some original and agreeable views of the Jacmel expedition and other kindred topics which have re cently. been brought before them under less pleasing circumstances. He thought it extraordinary, he said, that Nagle and Warren, who, as he assured them amid cheers and laughter, only came to the town to `shake hands' with the people, not to capture it as Cromwell did, and threaten to slaughter its inhabitants, but ' merely to see if they had got a good harbour where vessels could land without cannons, re volv ers, or muskets,' should have met with such an unfavourable reception from the British Government. Now, the sooner those two American citi zens were given up the better it would be for England. He entertained the assembly by relating in a characteristic manner how he had ' snubbed' Charles Francis Adams. It was he who had raised the cry which earned Mr. Adams's recall. He would shew them, he said, that England was going down and America going up. She was 'ruled by dotards, octogenarians, septuagenarians, nonagenarians - - arians whose white hairs had no wisdom, and who had grown old without arriving at maturity so far as judgment went.' They were so busy babbling about other places they had no time to busy themselves about Ireland. The next place they would think of if they got into a war with America would be `the place where they did not rake the fire.' The British Parliament, he informed them, so far as representation was concerned, was a perfect farce. Of 500 members, 450 were landowners. It was absurd to expect a Tenure Bill from them. He declared that ' hell would be a divine institution for England.' He referred to some commentaries which had been made in the Conservative press respecting the language which he had been allowed to utter in other places, ar.d declared that he was not a Fenian, but head and shoulders above the Fenians." The Cork Examiner, which has recorded the sayings and doings of Mr. Train, con amore, ad. ls :—" Mr. Train con cluded by a brilliant rampage over the social and political morality of England. At the conclusion of his lecture he was escorted to his hotel by a vast throng of the towns people, who carried him upon their shoulders amid the most enthusiastic cheers." Mr. Train delivered his first lecture in Dublin on Thursday night to rather a tbln audience. The only part of the room that was filled was that to which admission was cheap. His language was cautious, but humorous, and his hits at England were loudly cheered. Some persons who expressed dissent were ejested. As a specu' lation the lecture was a failure. MR. PUGIN ON THE NEW ROUSES OF PARLIAMEN I. However imposing may be the array of counter evidence this pamphlet contains, in reality it is of little value by the side of a few simple facts, which are in no way touchedby it, and cannot be obliterated. My father's diary cannot be disposed of in the summary way adopted by Dr. Barry. The very irrelevance of a portion of it only makes the rest more striking and indisputable. Sir Charles Barry's repeate3 visits to Salisbury before the com petition, one of them apparently extending over a whole week, cannot lose their significancy. The lists of drawings made by myfather, their nature and subjects, and Sir Chas. Barry's four letters, in which these drawings are spoken of in such exalted terms of praise, they cannot be explained away-- a meagre amount of evidence, indeed, but suffi ciently strong to show how overwhelming it would have been had I the same advantages as my anta- gonists. Some additional facts also are produced by them which confirm my account in many of its details—such as that of Sir C. Barry having taken the very unusual precaution of " turning his nur sery into a private office to keep his designs secret." I have no intention of going into any detailed exa mination of Dr. Barry's pamphlet, because, if I succeed in taking the ground from beneath the fa bric he has built up, it is more than enough to demolish it. I have in my possession 13 volumes of my father's original compositions made in 1833-4, which not only actually delineate, with more or less exactitude, whether in ground-plan, outline, or de tail, many of the principal portions of the Houses of Parliament, but evince the same spirit and feeling, sense of form and proportion, finesse and delicate perception, of which the building itself is the out ward expression. They seem rather to be etchings of the completed work than drawings made to realise, though bnly on paper, the ideas with which his brain was teeming. About this very time Sir Charles Barry was completing a church which was not, in any single respect, an advanc3 on his buildings of 1825 and 1826. How the same man who, in Gothic work, had been standing still for ten years, could suddenly imbibe a feeling to which he had pre viously been an utter stranger—how he could have been, all but simultaneously, designing a structure so atrociously bad as St. Peter's, Hatton-garden, and one (of its kind) so perfect as the Palace of Westminster, is absolutely inconceivable, except that they were produced under different conditions. They are both in the late third-pointed style, but they have nothing whatever in common. The one has been described as possessing " all the faults that an utter absence of Gothic feeling could crowd into one building ;" the other is strikingly con tained in the original compositions of the man with whom Sir Charles Barry was in constant commu nication for months before the competition draw ings for Westminster were sent in, Sir Charles having extemporised a private drawing office to keep his designs secret from all but his wife and the "chief witness" (p. 21) in the present case. If these facts are taken in connection with certain entries in my father's diaries, which receive no notice from Dr. Barry, they have a significancy of which nothing can deprive them. It may be perfectly true that the drawings made in May, 1835, were drawings of fittings and furniture for the Birmingham Gram mar School, but what about those described as " compositions for Mr. Barry " in September ? It may be equally true that my father saw Sir C. Barry respecting "designs for furnishing Dr.Jeune's house on September 24, but after sending off five drawings to Mr. Barry on the 25th, he was working all night on the Parliament Houses on the 27th, and sent off fourteen drawings on the 29th (apparently of the central portion), with a south-east view, and two elevations on Oct. 9. These could not have been, as Dr. Barry implies (p. 17), drawings of Dr. Jeune's furniture. May I ask then why, when so un important a matter as Dr. Jeune's furniture is noted in Sir Charles Barry's diary, no allusion seems to be made to the " compositions" made by my father immediately before that time, or to the numerous drawings forwarded to Sir Charles immediately afterwards ? Dr. Barry throws no light at all on these particular entries, two of which, at all events, a h ally cyo,nanlesoctemdaywlitahsk, was Sir Charles's h r l e o us a e c s t . u " visit to my father on September 24 kept a secret (as it appears to have been the case) from Mr. Talbot Bury? Secret visits, and secret offices, and secret drawings ; for (as far as I can make out) Salisbury. lis Nlfe knew b l u r o ry.At th le n as o tin ing of the hisevid drawings enceh sent from eorilyspeaks of Tal t b h o o s t e B m u r a y d , e a l a ti t i u S g i r h C t e . s t ß i f a y r i r n y g ' s t h o a ffi t c v‘ e , h ; ils a t nd be M was . at Salisbury, working on Mr. Gillespie Graham's designs, my father was engaged at that very time in making drawings for the Birmingham Grammar School, he offers no proof of this ; whereas the diary informs us that it was on " compositions" for Sir C. Barry that he was principally occupied, sitting up a whole night working on the Parliament __ ouses. Again : Dr. Barry has made some mistake in stating (p. 16) that I assert that " Mr. Barry was at Salisbury on Sept. 1, 1835," A reference to my pamphlet (p. 15) shows that the entry is—" Mr. Barry all day, composition ;" ani this is the entry in my father's pocket-book. Dr. Barry is also in error in supposing that I have made any confusion between the diaries, or wrongly copied the entries for Nov. 2d and 9th, 1835. In the diary for that year the former entry is—" Mr. Barry arrived ;" the latter, " Mr. Barry left, paid 99 ; " and that for Nov. 3d is, " On river front, five compartments." It is, of course, impossible to dispute the authen ticity of Sir Charles Barry's diaries, and, therefore, if it appears from them that he was in London from Nov. 2d to Nov. Bth, 1835, there is an un doubted discrepancy between his entries and my father's, requiring to be cleared up. I thought it not improbable that I had inadvertently read " Barry" for " Bury," but Mr. Bury has not once intimated that he paid a second visit to Salisbury in that year, and a reference to the pocket-book itself leads me to conclude that I am not mistaken ; espe cially as throughout the whole year the one gentle man is always alluded to as " Mr. Barry," the other simply as " Bury." In the two entries now discussed it is " Mr. Barry" who is named. The discrepancy is certainly singular, for the previous visit Sir Charles paid to Salisbury, when my father met him at the White Hart, is recorded in Sir Charles's diary ; and it is immediately after this visit that my father was working all night on the Parliament Houses, and sending off 14 drawings (central portion) to Sir Charles on Oct. 2d, although it would seem that no entry of my father's assist ance appears in Sir Charles's diary until Oct. 12th. How is all this to be accounted for, and what bearing have the various facts on each other? The original composition's in question also en tirely disprove the oft-repeated assertion that my father was incompetent to design large masses, and that the Palace of Westminster in particular, " a s a whole, was beyond his grasp, and differs in every particular from what would have been expected from him." On the contrary they pourtray Palaces, Churches, Colleges, Castles, with ground-plans, sections, &c,, complete. And in one facade the disposition of the parts is exactly that of Sir C. Barry's River Front. If I represent all this truly, and I think that any one examining the books will testify that Ido so, it is evident on the one hand that my father's powers did extend to the capacity of designing a large building like the Palace of Westminster ; and on the other that the compositions contained in these volumes—even supposing for a moment that no design was actually made by my father similar in character and detail—are the origin and source from which Sir C. Barry drew his inspirations and succeeded, when in constant communication with my father, in producing a design, in no small mea sure a reproduction or adaptation of the composi tions themselves. Moreover, unless the Messrs. Barry can produce designs or compositions made anterior to them by Sir Charles, the whole mass of evidence they offer loses its entire value, and no self-depreciation by my father, no apparent incon sistency of after-events, no antagonism of details, can dislodge me from my position. I hold in my hand the indelible test of my father's powers. I THE MINERS' LOCK-OUT The lock-out among the Church Gresley miners, of whose position we have indicated the attitude from time to time, seems to have been the precursor of sewrill agita tions of a similar character in different parts of the mining districts of the country. For instance, about 500 colliers are on strike in the Poynton district, resisting an attempt of the employers to enforce a reduction of one penny in the shilling. In various other parts of Lancashire the coal proprietors have resolved to reduce the wages of the colliers in consequence of the depression which at present prevails in the trade. The proposal to work collieries under the double shift system has been encountered by a most determined opposition in South Yorkshire as well as in other parts of the colliery country. At a meeting of the National Miners' Association held last week at Manchester it was unanimously resolved : " That this meeting of the Miners' National Association Council have heard with deep regret the proposal that seems to be gaining ground in certain districts of working fiery pits by double shifts. This council, meeting as a body of practical men, consider that with the principle adopted there would be a greater loss of life than now. The council further thinks that, as the principle will so far include night work, it will therefore tend to debase the miners physically and socially, as well as create more danger. The association therefore calls upon all miners to resist the adoption of the system wherever it may be adopted." At Ashton under-Lyne it appears that the masters have resolved on reducing wages 2d. in the shilling, to work the men ten hours a day, and not to employ union men. A meeting of delegates from the various lodges was held last week, and it was almost unanimously.resolved to accept the reduction, but to refuse to work ten hours per day, or to give up the union. The chairman put it to the meeting to decide as to agreeing to the determination of the delegates on the second and third questions ; but he disputed the right of those present to discuss the question decided by the dele gates. Ultimately a resolution was carried to resist the working ten hours per day, and to maintain the union. The collieries of Glamorgamshire have resolved on accepting the reduction of 15 per cent. in the rate of wages. In the Rhondda Valley, where three-quarters of a million tons of coal are annually raised, the men at first objected to so large a reduction as 3s. in the pound, and contended that the circumstances of the trade did not warrant such a heavy decrease, which would bring wages down to a lower point than had ever been known in the district. Upon reconsideration, however, they have determined ace to submit, on condition that when an advance takes pl in the price of coal a proportionate rise should be made in wages. In Mon mouthshire matters have not been arranged in so satisfactory a manner, and the majority of the collieries have been at a standstill since the termination of the notice. The reso lution of the house-coal men not to accept the master's terms has been so far adhered to. Unanimity does not seem to prevail among the steam coal hands, for at Risca and Tredegar they arc employed, while at Abercarne and Abertillery they have declined to work. Those who are termed stationary hands, such as firemen and enginemen, have also struck at the two last-named collieries, and the employer s h ave b een obliged to bring workmen from other localities to keep the machinery and pits in order. Thisc,, i has c rea t e d some ill-feelin and increased precautions have been taken by police authorities,thorities, so as to prevent any breach of the peace. the Such are the agitations now pro in the coal country. TII E POOR POSTM XN.— A correspondent sends the following :—" If the writers of letters knew the trouble that they give these worthy labourers, they would be more careful in addressing their correspondents. The following is a verbatim copy of an address on a letter sent through the Leeds Post Office this week :--` Mary Hibson, Crompton.' After passing into the hands of several letter-carriers, and none of them being able to give a clue to the place intended, a wide-awake clerk wrote on it ' Try Armley,' which was done, when it turned out to be for Miss Maria Ibberson, Crompton-street, Arraley.'”. THE SUN, LONDON, f RIDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 21, 1868 the whole of the capital expenditure on lines and rate of interest on the company's unissued deben stations productive and open for traffic, the sum ture stock (authorised to be created in 1856) from remaining applicable to the dividend on the con- 4 per cent. to 4i per cent. solidated stock was £176,635, being equal to the A vote of thanks to the chairman and directors, payment of a dividend at the rate of £4 12s. 6d. expressing confidence in them, concluded, the pro per cent. per annum ; but the directors recom- ceedings. mended that the whole of the interest on capital invested on unproductive works, including the direct Tunbridge line, be charged to revenue ; de ducting this sum there would remain £153,820, which was equal to a dividend on the consolidated stock at the rate of 4 per cent. per annum, as against 3 per cent. in the corresponding period of last year, leav ing a balance of £1,092, and this dividend the di rectors recommended to be paid on the sth of March. The revenue would thus bear all interest charges on the entire capital for the half-year. The gross traffic receipts for the half-year ending the 31st of January last showed that £781,267 had Leen received, against £704,212, in the correspond ing period ending the 31st of January, 1867, show- BRISTOL AND EXETER. The report of the directors states that the re venue account for the half-year ended December 31 showed an available balance of £49,198, out of which they recommended that a dividend for the half-year at the rate of 4:1 per cent. per annum be declared, payable on the sth of March, leaving a balance of 11,165. The dividend for the corre sponding half of 1866 was at the rate of 41 per cent. per annum, leaving a balance of £2,474. The total traffic receipts showed a net increase of £11,995, and the total working expenses a net de crease of £423 on the past half-year, during which there had been no accidents, while the charge for compensation showed an increase of £llB, owing chiefly to loss by fire on goods in transit. The total traffic receipts for the half-year amounted to £216,961, as against £206,317, showing an increase of £10,644. The balance, £550, brought from the previous half-year, made a total of £217,511, as against £207,417, showing an increase of £10,094. The total expenditure amounted to £11,650, as against £108,380, showing an increase of £3,270, and leaving a profit on the working of £105,860 (as against £99,073 for December, 1866). The total capital expenditure, including investments to the 31st of December last, amounted to £4,597,837, ing an increase of £80,055. Tile working expenses and other deductions amounted to £357,914, against £365,723, showing a decrease of £7,814, leaving the net receipts for the half-year £429,353, against £333,484, showing a net increase of 0.4'87,869. The passenger traffic showed an increase in the number of passengers conveyed of 1,592,128, and in the amount received for their conveyance of £65,635. The increase in the number of third class passengers was 1,375,717, in the second-class 89,971, and in the first class 126,440, the increase in the receipts being £21,101, £11,719, and £32,815 respectively. The estimated portion of this increase resulting from the traffic to and from the Paris Exhibition since the Ist of August was 33,563 in the number of passengers, and in amount £24,797, and the remainder was to be attributed to the steady growth of the local traffic in the dis tricts now so accessible to the metropolitan sta tions of the company. The receipts on the goads, cattle, and minerals had exceeded those of last year by £3,389, there being also a comparative decrease in the cost of conveyance and working generally of those departments to the extent of £1,368. The number of passengers carried on the company's lines in the year 1859 was 9,588,331, and in the year ending the 31st of January, 1868, 19,944,549, showing an increase of 10,356,218 in the number of passengers. The receipts for passengers in 1859 amounted to £700,681, and in the past year to £970,741, showing an increase of £270,060, or about 37 per cent., while the increase in the num ber of passengers carried was above 100 per cent. The season tickets amounted to £27,431 iu the year 1859, and in the past year to £58,690, showing an increase of over 110 per cent. The directors congratulate the proprietors on the result of the working during the past half-year, stating that in the latter three months of the French Exhibition the expenses, including the steamboat expenses, were less by £5,460 than those of the half-year end ing January, 1867. The number of persons con veyed from Folkestone to Boulogne since the Ist of August, notwithstanding the opening of the rail way from Calais to Boulogne, had been 62,674, and on this traffic there had been no instance of perso nal injury to a passenger. The Lewisham and Tunbridge line was now in all respects ready for traffic, and would be opened for the conveyance of passengers next month. The certificate of the Government engineer had been given. The directors deemed it their duty to state that the cost of restoration and improvements (by the use of uninflarumable materials and other wise) rendered necessary by the fire at the custom house building at Charing-cross station on Tuesday last will not exceed £4,000, as estimated by the en gineers. The capital account showed that £18,247,350 had been expended. leaving a balance of £216,408 to credit. The total debentures outstanding at the end of 1867 amounted to £917,657,- leaving a balance of £52,154 un issued. The average rate of interest on the deben tures outstanding at the close of the half-year was £4 Bs. 6d. per cent., as against £4 7s. 4d. per cent. in the preceding half-year. The company's deben tures were now being taken up at 4 per cent. have access to the source of Sir C. Barry's work, and the conception which—even if not delineated in Sir Charles's design by my father himself— guided his pencil. If this can be proved to be a de lusion, I shall be the first to acknowledge my error and the right of my opponents. It is unquestionable, on the authority of Mr. Wolfe (p. 24), that my father, receiving from Sir C. Barry the requisite dimensions and explanations of his views and style, was left to himself to prepare, and did " prepare, a complete set of drawings, or rather of rough but masterly sketches in pencil, showing on a large scale the details of every part of the building, inside and out." Be also " made several drawings, mostly perspective views of the important parts of the interior, such as the Houses of Lords and Commons, the royal entrance and staircase, and others." Subsequently he made, as Sir Charles's letter and my father's diaries show, a vast collection of drawings, enumerated in my pamphlet (p. 30) ; "less than 200 in number," Mr. E. M. Barry says (p. 99). In my father's xetter to Sir Charles from Amiens he says :—" There wilt be upwards of 1,000 detail drawings of °rum Jen ts (to make) for the carvers in the lions.; of Lords alone." And yet it appears that out of the 5,000 drawings still iu existence, only 70, at. last, after many em phatic denials that such was ever the case, ac knowledged to be ray father's, remain, and these are for " internal fittnAgs for the House of Lords ;" so that every architectural drawing made by my father has been. destroyed. If I may judge from Dr. Barry's omission of all reference to Sir Charles's diaries, in explanation of the entries iu my father's pocket-book during the latter part of 1535, and of Mr. Wolte's silence respecting, the existence and receipt of the drawings from Salts- bury, during the same period of time, not only were the drawings themselves entirely destroyed, but every trace of a correspondence is lost, and not the slightest record of these transactions remains. It certainly appears beyond measure unaccountable that an amount of work which involved such " au excess of application" as to "injure" my father's " health" (vide Sir C. Barry's letter to my father, p. 26 of my pamphlet), and of which no expressions of praise and satisfaction on Sir Charles's part seem too great, should have proved so utterly useless, that they were simply consigned to destruction, except there was a motive for it; and yet, after reaching the secret office, they vanish off the face of the earth. LETTER OF 1845. The additional matter in Dr. Barry's pamphlet does not change the aspect of the letter of 1845. Neither does this document, nor do the previous letters of my father, make the least reference to the transactions of 1835, but to arrangements in ope ration ten years later ; and the reports about my father arose from the original transactions, and not from the revived conuection of the architects for the execution of carvings and decorations. In the absence of any information whatever as to Sir C. Barry's reply to my father's proposal in June, to do what was only carried out iu September, I can only state my suspicion that Sir Charles wanted him to lend himself to something to which he re- fused to accede, and that the published letter was a compromise. This would account for the agita tion and distress of mind to which I have testified, together with Mrs. Mares, who could make no mis take on the matter. This is now further confirmed by Mr. Early, who saw him at the time, and re• members his state of agitation and excitement. The evidence of the different gentlemen named in Dr. Barry's pamphlet I cauuot doubt to be in accordance with facts as presented to them, but 1 repeat with increased emphasis that I have a most exact personal knowledge of everything done in my father's office from 1844. Mr. Talbot Bury makes a most gratuitous misstatement in saying that I was at school till the age of 16. I never was at school in my life. I worked in my father's studio from a very early age, and I never left it, I know there ore the enormous amount of work done there, and the vast mass of designs which were daily emanat ing from him. May I ask Mr. T. Bury also to re concile two other statements he makes (p. 9, Dr. Barry's pamphlet) ? He observes—" No one saw the set of designs we (he and my father) were en gaged on for Mr. G. Graham but ourselves." Mr. Osmond knows that these designs were mostly done on his premises at Salisbury, and implies that he saw them there. Mr. T. Bury says that he saw Sir Charles Barry's drawings at the same time that he was working on Mr. Graham's designs, i.e., from Sept. 12th to Oct. 3d, 1835 ; and yet he states that my father first saw Mr. Barry's "remarkable design" on or about October 12th, and returned to his (Mr. Bury's) house to describe it to him. Mr. T. Bury says that " Pugin did not have 400 guineas from Mr. Barry—he did not receive over £300." Dr. Barry says he received £413 14s. My father received and paid away several large sums of money in 1835 ; but I am unable to say with any exactness who paid them to him. I certainly was, as I have been often reminded, an infant in 1835, but nothing was more improbable than that my father was working so incessantly (some eighty days, as far as I can make out) during that year for Sir Charles without any payment ; and although I have no personal knowledge of these transactions, one of the very first things to which my recollection reverts is the statement of my father that he received 400 guineas from Sir Charles in 1835, and the reproaches my mother directed against him for , 4 selling his brains: , _ _ _ That no memorandum of this payment appears in Sir C. Barry's diary is no disproof of its being made ; whereas, the amount of work confessedly done by my father in 1835 makes my statement, to say the least, more than probable. My father's letter from Nottingham confirms my own experience of the effect so often produced on him by drawing for Sir Charles Barry. In a letter to my mother he says complainingly of Sir Charles, who wanted elaborate drawings entirely changed —" He thinks nothing of my head-work." He was often wearied out and exasperated by Sir Charles's vacillation and difficulty in making up his mind, and I know that he became so disgusted at losing his time in preparing useless drawings that he determined to discontinue doing so until Sir Charles had thoroughly " made up his mind as to every arrangement," when he felt that he could be of "real service" in supplying the " de tails," which would not involve that " dreadful loss of time " in making " drawings of no real use." But to conclude from this that my father never did, or could, design, or lacked the power of de signing anything but details, is rather too mon strous a conclusion in the face of all the work he had done in the course of his life. On one point I am perfectly clear—that of the throne. The original deSign was made, I have reason to be lieve, at the time of the competition, as the diary testifies. To the best of my recollection it was with reference to the throne that Sir Charles first resought my father's assistance ; for I myself saw him within a few days prepare three distinct designs (one of them on board a Rams gate steamer) which were submitted to Sir Charles; and I have a vivid remembrance of the irritation and annoyance my father suffered from Sir Charles's repeated changes and fastidious objections. After wasting my father's time he would often revert, as he seems to have done in this instance, to the ori ginal conception ; and it was my father's experi ence of all this which accounts for the letter from Nottingham. When Sir Charles had " made up his mind as to every arrangement," my father felt that he had got on ground where Sir Charles could not follow him, and then worked to some purpose. As regards the throne, from first to last, lam absolutely certain that it was entirely my father's design. I saw the various original sketches made, I saw them worked into shape, and Mr. Burton, to whom I have appealed, and who was then engaged by Mr. Hardman at Birmingham, distinctly re members the three designs I have spoken of, which were taken to Birmingham, lost at the railway station, and subsequently found by him and dis cussed in his presence. He remembers my father's distress at the loss, carefully examined the draw ings, and knows that they were original concep tions and designs of my father. He also remembers the vanes shown in the photograph to Dr. Barry's pamphlet, which were actually made and subse- quently rejected by Sir Charles Barry. As regards the photograph itself, given in Dr. Barry's pamph let, who will question my statement that Sir Charles copied my father's style, even to a dot? But for this evident imitation I should say that the photo graph was not only after my father's design, but also drawn ly his own hand. The following letter from Mr. Purcell corrobo rates all I have advanced respecting the existence and delivery of the packet of letters to Sir Charles Barry : _ " Dear Yugin,—ln reply to your letter asking me what I remembered about the late Sir Charles Barry's letters to your father, I can state that in the year 1860 the whole correspondence which you have now made public, together with the letters given to Sir Charles Barry, were for a time in my hands. These letters 1 had examined and put aside for the purpose of writing, as you remember, a biography of your father ; the idea of which I only gave up on hearing that Mr. Ferrey had already a portion of his Recollections' in type. —Yours sin cerely, " EDMUND S. PURCELL." • At the present moment 1 feel it would be folly to commit my case to the decision of any jury, since on the Messrs. Barry's confession of the destruction of every drawing and document connected with the transaction, except such as evi dence in their favour, I am deprived of the very means on which I relied for confirmation of my statements. It only remains for me to suggest that, with all due deference to the statements of Mr. Wolfe, whose position was such that he certainly must know more about the original transactions than any one else, if there is any truth in my representa tions about the year 1835, even he was not cognizant of the real relations established between Sir Charles and my father ; and although I entirely repudiate every supposition that he states anything but what he conceives and believes to be the truth, there are certain diffi culties lying at the root of the whole matter re quiring to be cleared up; and, until this is done; I cannot admit that my position is in any material degree weakened. I cannot but acknowledge, and believe that Dr. Barry, like myself, is fully desirous of eliciting the true state of the case, and—whilst now confessing to some of the minor inad vertenees with which he has charged me— I shall be the first to accept a defeat, should I ever perceive that the grounds of my claims are un tenable. At present, however, I do not see sufficient reason for relinquishing these claims, or in any way renouncing my conviction that my father was at least the " joint architect" of the Palace of Westminster. *.* The books and documents are lodged at my office in Saville-ro w, and can be seen by a written application to myself. RAILWAY AND OTHER COMPANIES. - GREAT EASTERN. The report of the directors states that the half yearly accounts of the company, made up to the 31st of December last, show a gross revenue from all sources of £1,031,227, against a gross revenue of £996,293 in the corresponding half-year of 1866. £34,934, or at The increase has been consequently the rate of 3f per cent. The working expenses have been £511,194, or about 49f per cent. upon the gross revenue. In the corresponding half-year of 1866 the working expenses were £508,740, or about 51f per cent. on the gross revenue. The net revenue is, consequently, £509,198, against a net revenue of £483,671 in December, 1866, showing an increase of £25,521, or 5f per cent. The leased lines and the interest upon debentures absorb £238,635. A further sum of £12,076 is required for the payment of interest upon the floating debt. The remainder is sufficient to pay the half-year's dividends of all the preference shareholders falling due on the 31st December, and also all the arrears due for the previous half-year to those preference shareholders whose dividends were not covered by the revenue of that half-year. The anticipation, therefore, expressed by the late chairman of the company, that the revenue of the year 1867 would be sufficient to meet the preference dividends for that year, has proved to be correct. A slight balance of £7,737 rculaina ovcr. Them is an increase in the account for maintenance and re- newals of way and works, and a decrease in the lo comotive and traffic charges. The present Board of Directors are not responsible for the application of this outlay, having been appointed aft.2r tLe ex piration of the half year. They have, however, no reason to believe that the sum expended in the re newal of the way and rolling stock has been inade quate. Tha continental traffic through the port of Harwich still forms an item of serious loss in the half yearly accounts. There is an expenditure of £48,431 on capital account, of which £14,250 was expended in the purchase of six new locomotives, £7,867 was absorbed by Parliamentary expenses, and £2,040 is inserted on account of the purchase of a screw collier, in March, 1865, agreed to be paid for by instalments ; the remainder was spent upon additional land and works. The directors concur in the opinion, now generally gaining ground, that the additions to capital account ought to be restrained within the narrowest limits. The future position of the company depends upon four points : 1. The course which is adopted in dealing with the schemes for metropolitan extension; 2. The exact amount at which the liabilities of the company, both contingent and certain, are to be fixed ; 3. The condition of the way and rolling stock, and the ex pense which their future maintenance is likely to in volve ; 4. The extent to which it may be possible to augment the traffic and to retrench the working expenses of the various parts of the railway. The formation of any opinion upon these points de pends upon the results' of inquiries which are still in progress, and which must necessarily occupy some time. Until those inquiries are completed any attempt to estimate the future prospects of the com pany would be futile. In the course of next month, however, it will be necessary to call together the shareholders and preference shareholders, under the finance act of last year, in order to consider the pro priety of raising capital as authorised by that act. The directors hope on that occasion to be able to enter fully into the financial position and prospects of the company. The contract with the Mellis and Eye Railway Company, under which the Great Eastern Company engage to work that railway for 50 per cent. of the gross receipts, will be presented to the proprietors for confirmation. The directors do not desire to multiply working contracts upon these terms. In many cases they impose upon the company the necessity of working branch lines at a loss. But in the case of the Mellis and Eye Railway engagements have been entered into from which, in the opinion of the directors, the company cannot honourably recede. The line is only three miles in length, and the loss, at the worst, cannot be a very large sum. The board were of opinion that it was unnecessary to retain the offices both of chief officer and of a general manager. Under these circumstances Mr. Moseley, the late general manager, who has been 24 years in the ser vice of the company, retired on au annuity of £5OO. As Mr. Moseley's salary was £1,500 a year, the company will save £l,OOO a year by the arrange ment. It is one, however, that will not be valid unless it receives the sanction of the proprietors. The bill which was deposited by the late board of directors, containing, among other things, provi sions for the abolition of the separate directorships belonging to the Northern and Eastern and the East Anglian Companies, will, it is understood, be resisted by both these companies as regards - these provisions. The directors will be glad to learn the wishes of the proprietors with respect to the further prosecution of these proposed changes. The capital account to the 31st of December showed that £24,421,731 had been expended, leaving a balance against the company of £1,006,765. SOUTH-EASTERN. The report of the directors of this company states that the traffic receipts exhibit an increase on the gross earnings for the half-year of £80,055, as compared with the corresponding period last year ; while at the same time there was a decrease on the working expenses of £7_,814. After making pro vision for all axed charges, rents, and interest on SOUTH DEVON. The report of the directors states that the revenue of the half-year ended the 31st of December amounted to £123,252 as compared with £122,395 in the same half of 1866. The pleasure traffic was checked by the long continued commercial depres sion, and by the French Exhibition. The balance of disposable revenue was £40,355, and after mak ing due provision for preference and other charges, the payment of a dividend at the rate of £3 per cent. per annum on the ordinary stock was recom mended for the past half-year, leaving a balance of £416. The total expenditure on capital account for the half-year was ;£8,4G6. The debentures which had fallen due for the half-year had been re newed or replaced by others at the average rate of £4 12s. per cent. The capital account showed that £2,921,596 had been expended, leaving a balance against the company of £139,860. The revenue account for the half-year showed that £123,252 had been received, and £53,627 expended, leaving a balance of £69,625. HELL AND SELBY. The half-yearly meeting of this company was held on Tuesday, at Hull; Alderman Loftin the chair. The CHAIRMAN moved the adoption of the report, which stated that the accounts showed a balance of £34,155, out of which the directors recommended a dividend of £2 9s. 6d. per £5O share, and in pro portion on the half and quarter shares, being at the rate of 10 per cent. per annum, 6d. per share being retained at the recommendation of the auditors, to meet current expenses. The motion was seconded by Mr. W. A. SUM MERS, and carried unanimously. The retiring directors, Mr. T. B. Holmes and Mr. B. Whitaker, were unanimously re-elected, as was also the retiring auditor, Mr. G. Buckton. A vote of thanks to the chairman terminated the proceedings. MANCHESTER SHEFFIELD, AND LINCOLNSHIRE. The total expenses of this company's railways and canals, including rents, tolls, duty, &c., from January Ist to February 9th, 1868, amounted to £55,376, as against £58,953 for the corresponding period of 1867. The proportion of the South Junc tion receipts accruing to this company from Jan. 1 to Feb. 9 amounted to £3,899, as against £4,043 for the corresponding period of 1837, and the ex penses to £2,2:18, as against £2,296. BUENOS AmES GREAT SOUTHERN. The traffic receipts on this company's line, 71 miles iu length, from Jan. 1 to Dec. 22, 1867, arnouuted to £83,036, against £59,891 for the same period in 1866, showing an increase of £23,144, or about 381, per cent. LONDON GENERAL OMNIBUS (LIMITED). The report of the directors states that the total liabilities of the company on the 31st of December last amounted to £35,093. The balance of general reserve fund was now £17,648, and the leases and buildings reserve fund amounted to £23,778, mak ing together £41,426. The receipts of the company during the half-year amounted to £290,806, against £306,982 for the same period in 1866, showing a decrease of £16,176. The number of passengers carried in the half-year was £20,757,127, and for the corresponding period in 1866, 22,328,609, show ing a decrease of 1,571,482 passengers. This de crease of traffic was attributable partly to the ob struction of one of the leading thoroughfares by the works of the Holborn Viaduct, but more parti cularly to the straitened circumstances of the middle and lower classes, occasioned by the recent finan cial crisis, the consequent stoppage of business, especially at the east end of the metropolis, and by the high prices of provisions. The directors be lieved that on the completion of the Holborn Viaduct the traffic on the Holborn route, over which 150 of the company's omnibuses travelled, would be very considerably increased, as it would materially shorten the time occupied on the journey to and from the city. The average number of omnibuses working on week days in 1867 was 602, against 625 in 1866 ; and on Sundays 472, against 496 in 1866. The average traffic receipts per omnibus per week was £lB Is. 64d., against £lB Bs. sd. in 1866. The average fare per passenger was 3.30 d., against 3.25 d. in 1866. The average earnings per mile run was 11.18 d., against 11.26 d. in 1866 ; and the total number of miles run was 6,135,972 in 1867, against 6,446,476 in 1866. The directors recommended that for the past half-year the dividend should be at the rate of 2i per cent. per annum, or ls. per share, free of income-tax, payable on the 10th of March. This would require the balance of profit , £5,129, together with £2,297 from the reserve fund, leaving a balance to the credit of that.fund of £15,350. Births. MESSENT—On the 20th inst.. at Tynemouth, the wife ° Philip J. Messent, Esq., C.E., of a daughter. PARKER—On the 19. h inst . ., at 95, Gloucester-terra ce !, Hyde-park, the wife of C. Lewis Parker, Esq., of SOU. PORTMAN—On the 19th inst., at 42, Portman-square, t he Hon. Mrs. 2ortman, of a son. Marriages. RANDELL —COSIER—On the 20th inst., at St. Mary Abbott°, Kensington, Henry Handel], Esq., of Club Charabo,o Regent-street, to Emily, elder daughter.of Henry Cosi er ' Esq., of Argyll-road, Kensington. S ULIYAN —Du Bosc —On the 20th inst., at Bournemout h ; Thomas Baker Sulivan, R.N., to Isabel Christina Yl' n . torina, eldest daughter of the late J. B. Du Bose, of Zerez de la Frontera, Spain. Deaths. BREWSTER —On the 19th inst., at 107, Laurie-ter race, James Browster, aged ir e ' GEORGE - On the 17th inst., atßythorn, Huntingdo usb very suddenly, Thomas George, Esq., aged 52. Locit—On the 19th iust., at The Hall, Bushey, lolin Loch, Esq., aged 87. . , ii i '' WEBB—Oa the 18th inst., at Clownholme, Derbrh William Webb, Esq., aged 64. WALLER—On the 20th inst., at 22, Upper Montagu-square, James Waller, K. 1 1., late Major Foot, aged 75. A f ' WHITFIELD— 0 n the 19th inst. , at 142, New BoLl' tr s Mr. S. A. Whitfield, aged 37. Montag!x-strieot DUSIO London : Printed and Published by WILLIA.2II AN- - 02., of No. 112, Strand, Printer, at Tao SUN adieu,rtv of Strand, in the Precinct of the St. voy, in the Coin Aliddleam—Friday, February 21,1868. NORTH-EASTERN. Yesterday the half-yearly meeting of this com pany was held in York. Mr. IL S. Thompson, the chairman, presided. The report, and abstract of which appeared in The Sun, was taken as read. The CHAIRMAN stated that in the report they had alluded to the increase in the receipts as being highly satisfactory. It was not a brilliant statement, but he thought when they came to examine the g rouuds upon which it was so described, the share holders would agree with him it was only fair to so call it. The increase of the receipts during the past half-year, as compared with the corresponding half of 1866, amounted to £71,723, but the increase for the whole of the year was £Bl,BBl. He noticed the several receipts under the heads of passengers, goods and cattle, and minerals, and with regard to passengers stated that there was a decrease on the year of £20,793. The decrease in the passenger department was the least unsatisfactory, because it would be regained by the natural increase of population, and that increase they all saw was steadily taking place in the travelling habits of the population. In the case of a decrease of passen ger traffic last year as compared with 1866, he pointed out that there were special reasons why in the last-named year there was a greater number of passengers travelling on their line than last year— such, for instance, as the Industrial and Fine Art Exhibition, the Royal visit and Volunteer review, and Church Congress at York. The increase of receipts from goods and cattle he thought fairly re presented the state of trade in the district, and might be considered as highly satisfactory when they remembered that they had had for several years such a large increase in the receipts. (Ap plause.) The late distrust which had been mani fested had led to a great movement among railway shareholders, which was taken advantage of by speculators in the London and other Stock Ex changes, who thought they saw their way to making money by depreciating and running down the credit of one railway company after another, and then purchasing the shares which had, by their opera tions, been thrown on the market. The North- Eastern Company was not free from that sort of action, and when the directors found that they had been attacked as well as other companies, they took the natural course of calling their proprietors to- gether, and telling them to come and judge for themselves as to the truth or want of truth in the statements which had been made respecting the management of the company. (Applause.) That meeting was held, and after hearing the statements respecting the management and the affairs of the company, the shareholders gave a most de cided expression of their confidence in the directors. (Applause.) From that time to this they had given their best attention to endeavour to afford such information iu the accounts as that the shareholders should be able to judge for themselves on every point of importance connected either with the management or future liabilities of the com pany, and he hoped their accounts and reports would be found by the proprietors to approach as nearly as possible to an actual inspection of the accounts themselves. He felt that in the report the directors had now presented the shareholders would derive all needful information to enable them to satisfy themselves that the undertaking was in a thoroughly sound and proper position. (Loud applause.) Th e Chairman concluded by moving the adoption of the report. Mr. G. LEEMAN, M.P., seconded the motion, which, after some discussion, was carried. The CHAIRMAN then moved the payment of the dividends ou the 29th inst., at the following rates per annum :—Berwick, 6 per cent. ; Y or k, 5) , ; Leeds, 31 ; Thirsk and Malton, 4 ; Carlisle, 8 ; and Darlington, 81 per cent. Mr. J. W. PEASE, M.P., seconded the motion, which was adopted. The CHAIRMAN next moved that the company be authorised to borrow and re-borrow on mortgage the sum of £377,000, being the°amouut authorised to be borrowed by the Durham Lines Act, 1866. Mr. KITSON, of Leeds, seconded the motion, which was carried. Messrs. Copperthwaite, Dodsworth, Hartley, Hunter, and Kitson were re-elected directors, and Mr. G. Fenwick was elected a director in the room of the late Mr. J. Hodgson, of Newcastle. Mr. Wylie was re-elected an auditor, and the salaries of the auditors were increased from £l2O to £2OO per annum. At a special meeting which was then held, a re solution was passed authorising the increase of the