The Express.
London, England, 1852-08-14 00:00:00

RAILWAY MEETINGS.

LONDON AND NORTH WESTERN RAILWAY.
The ordinary half-yearly court of proprietors in
the above eompsny was held• yesterday e.t the Ruston
Station, (litmus Caaa OLIN, En, 111.1'. chairman of
dirtetors, preeidioi.
After the usual formal buirsevi, confirmation of the
minutes of former meeting, be., the secretary, Mr. C.
STERAIIT road the advertisement convening the mooting,
and

The CHAIItIAN mid, gentlemen, I do not feel that on
ibis occasion I can venture to congratulate you on ihe ae•
counts which have been placed in your hands, because
since. th. y were issued to the proprietors • very considerable
vlteration has taken plate in the value of all railway stork ;
but, gAstlemen, l think if you take the trouble to trace tie
crews which have produced that alteration to their proper
source, you will find that although they correepouded in
time with the iron of our account., they hail nothing in
point of fact to do with the nature of the accounts them-
solves (Hear, hear.) I believe that fur some time past
the spirit of speculation has curried up railway property
generally, as it did other descriptions of property, the el-
an:lomat consequent upon the arrivals of the petticoat'
metal. from various parts of the globe raising everything is
the sl.ape of speculative property. (Hear, hear.)
eauses more of a political nature, and more vmaeeted
with the present appearance of the harvest, induendag
the decline of the lisiglish (wide. have produced a grcates
comparative decline in speculative traneactions. Now,
although I have no hesitation in affirming that there is
.thing in these accounts to disheartin you wit', regard to
the prospects of your property, still it would be perfectly
preposterous to compare the receipts of 18.12 with them of
1851, which we always told you, being the year • r the
Exhibition, must be an exceptional ferial. (Bear. bear.)
But if you compare 1102 ith 18:10, taking the same periods
in each year, you will find that we have increaser! the 311.
crapes 26,000 f , and that in the face of an active sad
strenuous opposition. (neer, hear.) Therefore so far from
there being any reel grounds for the ilcprerion of our
stock, 1 affirm that there is nothing in the state of our
affairs to disturb you as regards the present position of your
property. (Loud cheers.) I admit that our expenses hose
been high, and I a not going to hold out any hope* of a
very great oe immediate climinutiontif those expenoes. If we
attend, as I hope we always shall attend, io keeping up the
edicicncy of our establishment unadc this head, the capita!
account being closed, our expenses cannot be materially TO•
dated, but they have been unduly increased during the last
half-year from the fact of the whole stock having been
over-worked during the period of the Exhibition, while the
timo did not permit the necersary repairs to be carried on
at the moment, and the expense ha. tonsequeutly
upon the past hall year. (Hear, hear.) There a one point in
mine:ion with the accounts which must alwaya be mile-
factory, I would refer to the state of you. dila wore debt
and the powers that have been given by parliament to
create a preferential stock in substitution of that debt; I
think we must look with satisfaction to that cones Tido°, and
the certain expectation that, by the diminution of interest
en your debt you will derive substantial advantage.
in future dividends. cloud cheers.) Of the whole
of your debt which, in round nuutlicrs, is about
9,700,001., upwards of eight millions bearing interest
varying from o to 32 per cent., will be subject to the reduc-
tions to be effitted under the powers of tho Preferential
Steck Act, and a very considerable sa ing will take place.
(Hear, hear.) Another point in connexion with the accounts
—1 have albs led to it on • former occasion, but I would re-
vert foe one moment to it now—l mean the reserve fund,
fur the replacement of permanent way—the am tuot laid
by every halt-year is very considerable. When the subject
first became matter of calculation, it was done—although at
m sy appear somewhat singular—on the principle of life as-
, and I am happy to tell you that experience, up to
the present time, proves that the calculations were nut only
correct, but that, in point of fact, your reserve fund has a
tendency to become larger than necewary for the purpose
intended. I hope, therefore, that, as in the ease of the life
assurance companies, you may have in future years some-
thing in the shape of surplus accumulations to the credit of
your accounts. (Loud cheers.) I stall not occupy your
time further with the accounts. I will avoid any ing any-
thing with regarl to the observations of the auditors rela-
tive to the accounts, because it falls to my lot to-day to
bring under your notice a greater variety of topics than
usual, and I shall now proceed, leaving the report to speak
for itself, to bring under your notice the events of the last
mama of parliament, one of the most harassing as respects
your executive that has ever passed. (Hear, hear.) It will
be in the recollection of the proprietois that we had very
few bills of our own presented to parliament. One was
introduced by us for the purpose of making a new line
from Birkenhead to Chester, which we were enabled to
withdraw, in consequence of the withdrawal of the Birken-
head Company of their bill, to authorise an alliance formed
to effect our exclusion from that town. I hope it will not
be necessary to renew that bill. The next bill in which we
were interested was one for making a connection between
the Buev lime, and the Oxford, Worcester. and
- for -

Wolverhampton. It w for • abort distant,, ally 21
was pared by the reenaittop of the House of Commons
unanimousl but w rclorted by the committee of the
House of Lords. On what grounds I am at • loss
to conceive, for then was nothing to object to in the bill,
Putting aside tho nusetioa of whether or not it was tight
that the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton should
bare a cmnmuniention with the metropolis over our exist-

log liars, it was still clear that there was a ease for a line to
open communication, east and west between the Oxford,
Worcester, and Wolverhampton, and the various gauge
systems to the east ; because, be it remembered that the
narrow gauge is already legally admitted to be part of the
Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton system. The next
bill iu which we had aa interest was one promoted by an
independent company, the Worcester and Hereford. That
ball, after a long protracted scrutiny, passed the House of
Commons unanimously, but it alio was rejected by a com-
mittee of the House of Lords. Singular enough to state,
the evidence given before the coianuttee of the House of
Lords proved the necessity so strongly that their lordships
stopped the ease before the traffic evidence had
been completed, leaving us with • decided impression
that they were convinced of the necessity of such aline. It was
likewise promoted as one which would be very cheap of
construction. Whether or no that influenced their lord-
ships I cannot say, but they rejected the bill, although sup-
ported by every interest in the county, by the House of
Commons, by the local influsnees, by Lord Somers, Lord
B, &tactlessly, the town and county members. (Hear, hear.)
However, we were successful with one bill, and I am
thankful fur even that suoress. (Laughter.) Their lord-
ships passed the bill enabling us to change our debenture
debt into preferential stock. That is a most important bill,
and one by which I hope your interests will he greatly
benefited. (Owen.) So much for the parliamentary
measures by which our interests were affected. I will now
peas on as shortly as possible to those measures which we
felt it our duty to oppose. First, the North Staffordshire
promoted two bills, both of which were extremely hostile
to the interests of this company. I know it is a
matter of surprise that I have
myself to answer the statements of the daimon
eit the North Staffordshire Company, with reference to 1119
=7of this company. Now, I beg it to be dint
, that I refraiaed, not from any difficulty I
Wail bow had in replyiag, but because I do not thinli it
wend be beaming. (Loud sheers, end " Hear, hear:)
I in not think It beesedep that occupying the
chain of peat oempumin rend Is a systems of vi-
tuperatios that ems de me geed sod inn hem.
hear.) Bet Ind as addlileed news is the peeswt use,
because WIWI.* die limas won node. I
and the suggestion bed bees deputethat the =Petit
tioa between us should be refined* Robert Ste
and Mr. Hope. The North ilemillsdahire board tar:
seated, we had sasawsie, awl as I dionglit we were on the
pant
of having luesale ended sadder that decision,
thought it as to ..chafewaifs which could
only lead to ill-feelias iseusems die wmwonies. (Hear,
hear.) The consequesso ad Oh minim was, that the
two hostile bills ware The sat important
subject was that MilMiliden will the Shrewsbury
Companies and Great WintlinAnteignwationowi Arrange-
ment Bills. These Mb emedisei einem of a very extra-
ordinary nature, mime* wiled maim dames, end we
were successful in the nom of Clowimmo be ',Wang those
which were obnoxious to yew inesele 'avenged from the
bill. Is the House of Lse la asessisisam of the interfe-
rence of proprietor in the Leedom mid Birmingham,
Shrewsbury sad Chester, mdiltheir eampasdes, their bills
were stopped. Now, psalm, arena deal has been said,
and • great deal more has hen bummed, with regard to
the part which the North-Western Company has taken
with reference to than pownwlinge. I believe I should not
have thought it setwoor7 to Wks dons at all, if it had not
been from the clironmstasom *Atha allegations which had
been made on the subject weft brraght forward in the
Hone of Lords madam this , by no less an autho-
rity than Lord Lyndhurst; I know the whatever that noble
lord says must command attentioy and as his lordship is fa-
vourable to the Great Western Company, he does not conceal
that he is the sdrixate of the Great Western—he admits
that they are civil and kind to him, living as be does on
their line. I wish he lived on ours, in order that we might
show him every possible respect. (Loud laughter.) lie
lordship, acting as the advocate of the Great Western, did
in his place in parliament think fit to make the assertion
that the London and North Western Company had taken
measures with regard to the Shrewsbury Company, and
bought portions of that company's stock for the purpose of
influencing its meetings—l must take this opportunity of
saying that his lordship was wholly misinformed, and I am
summed that the statement should have been made. One of
the officers of this companystated the contrary before a com-
mittee of the House of Lords, and disproved the allegation.
That officer had told the committee without reserve that
he and other gentlemen connected with this company had
invested about 10,000/. of their own money in Shrewsbury
shares. It is not for me to say how far it was VW' in them
to do so. I know that they did so solely with • view of pro-
tecting your interests against attempts notoriously
made; but I regret the step they took, because the per-
version of the farts furnished • hauls, although a feeble
one, to be used against us. But the same officer told the
sonamittee that the transaction was utterly unknown to the
directors, in short to any one but themselves, the funds
being their own, and not the company's. I cannot leave
this subject without referring to another remark, which
also fell from that noble and I d lord with regard to
the proceedings of those particular companies in connexion
with the London and North Western Company. Ho told
the House of Lords that we, the London and North
Wooten Company, were trying to interfere with the inten-
tion of parliament with regard to the use of the Shrewsbury
and Chester and the Shrewsbury and Birmingham lines.
Now by that I suppose Lord Lyndhurst meant to declare
that the intention of parliament in the construction