The Express.
London, England, 1849-08-23 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, AUGUST 23, 1849.

RAILWAY MEETINGS.

MIDLAND.
The adjourned special general meeting of this oompany
was held yesterday, at the station at Derby, for the purpose
of receiving and coaeideting the report of the committee of
threstigatioe, appointed the 19th of April lest. Mr. Buts,
M.P. for Leicester, the clubman of the board, took the shear.
The meeting was very fully attended.
The CHAIRMAN observed that, this beiag the that °m-
aim ea which he had had the honor of appearing before them
as the chairman of the company, he was sere they would per-
mit him to beg their kind othOderation and botulisms whilst
be eudeavotand, to the beet of his ability, to conduct the
business of the day. (Hear, bear.) They were met together
on no ordinary occasion, gad it was mon than oommooly
estuary that they should rooted to the heather of the day
with coolness, °simnel,, and deliberation. With these
observation he would call on Mr. Arkwright, the chairman
of the committee. to ;waders his report.
Mr. C. ARKWRIGHT then said he believed it would
most second with the emvessionce of the meeting, as well as
his own, if in moving the adoption of the report he did so
without occupying their time with any observations
The report was In their hands, and it was for them
to deal with it u they thought proper. That it should give
azimut satisfaction was hardly to be expected, but Wale,
given every attention to the matters which bad teen referred
*them, the committee had full confidence that the resolu-
tion which he now moved on their behalf, via., that the re-
Tort be reeelved and adopted, would be canted. (Hear.)
Mr. SMITH seconded the resolution. The report might
set please all parties, but it was honest, and might be re-
'rived u a fair statement of their affairs.
The CHAIRMAN inquired if anyone wished the report
(which had been some days ago circulated amongst the pro-
prietors, end which was published in the Express of
Saturday last) to be mad ? (General cries of " No, no.")
Mr. WYLIE nes with great pain to oppose the reeep-
don of the report, the more so as he was aware of the great
tains and industry the committee had bestowed on the In
(miry ; but he would state shortly his reasons why be thought
use adoption of the report should be postponed for the pre- I
seat. The etcmtnituse was appointed to investir,ate, with
the view of giving to the shareholders a full, clear, and am-
pieta statement of the affairs of the company, and to bring
about a malt by which every shareholder might see for him-
self what the actual condition of the company was. He wee
sorry, however, to my of their report that, as a public doe.-
ment—and he spoke only of it as such—a more Incom-
plete and inconclusive document he had n seen. (Cheers,
and cries of " Oh.") It was altogether a report of opinion
and not of fact—of apology, and net of sub-
stance. (" Hear, bear," and symptoms of direst)
He would refer to one statement of the report, as evidencing
the manner in which the document had been framed. That
statement was not unimportant, nor was it very important,
except so far as showing the manner in which the report had
been prepared. The first paragraph, page 13, which referred
to the general law coats, stated that " the accountants say
that the only sum charged ta revenue for general law costs
during the period under investigation is 2321. 64. 11d. ; your
committee think this cannot be the only amount expended
under this heed. If, therefore, there has been any greater
expenditure, it has been mixed up with other charges, se
that the amount does not appear. It is probable, however,
that the sum is not large." Was this the full and detailed
report they bad been led to expect ? They were told
dust Mr. Waddingham offered to contribute to the scheme
and put his name down for 40,0004. ' • and in page 67 it was
stated that Mr. Hudson, when On lease was granted, held
fifty shares; but in Mr. Waddingham's statement it ap-
peared that Mr. Hudson had pot his name down for 30,0001.
(Hear, hear.) Bat INN they to draw the inference from
that that these were the only shares he held ?
It appeared that Mr. Hudson, Mr. Waddingham, and Mr.
Murgatroyd received amongst them a number of shares
equal to one-iourth of the whole line ; and after all they had
seen and heard of Mr. Hudson's caner, could they believe
that 30,0001. or 60 shares, as it was afterwards stated, was all
the interest he had in the scheme ? Now he charged the
committee with keeping back information and with-
holding from them the names of other persona who were
the satellites of Mr. Mutual, and who had a large interest
in the line. (Markt of dissent from some member of the
committee.) Tie committee seemed to disente this ; but he
would give them the name of one gentleman, Mr. Phillip-
son, of Manchester, Mr. Hudson's own solicitor he believed,
and ask whether it was not true that he held 650 shares.
P" No, no.") They found that Mr. Wadding' am was in
London, arranging with the Manchester and Leeds Company
respecting this line, and that Mr. Waddingham, on his own
responsibility, and as the sole representative of the L ed.
and Bradford Company, thought it right to break the agree-
ment with them, and make an offer of the line
to the Midland directors, who were then in town.
He thought it right to ask who were those directors—who
were the direvcrs of the Derby board then sitting in Lon-
don who entered into the agreement with Mr. Waddingham
to take the line ? (Hear, hear.) It was the duty of the com-
mittee to have taken the minu:es of the committee upon
this point—(hear, hear)—and to have ascertained the cir-
cumstances under which the recommendation to take this
line at 10 per cent was given. For all he knew Mr. Wad-
dingham might have made this bargain with Mr. Hudson,
and Mr. Murgatroyd alone, or those gentlemen
might posaibly have refused to enter upon the
transaction but whether it was tho one way or
other at present they knew not ; therefore, in justice to ail
parties. it was essential they should have a hill, clear, and
detailed mount of this matter, about which at present so
much suspicion rested. With regard to Mr. Waddingham,
they could do no more than judge of him by his own avi-
d. nee. lie mid, "The original act, which was passed k
1844, contained a clause authorising the leasing of the lima
the Midland Company. It was contemplated from the fine
to lease it to the Midland. In the following session we get
an act for the extension from Shipley to Coins. lei the latter
part of 1815, when the original line was approaching coon.
pletion, we determined to dispose of it to avoid the necessity
of working it ourselves. I mewed to the Midas&
board that they should take it, and put the
shareholders in the same position in all respects
as if they had been original Midland proprietors."
Did Mr. Waddingleam mean to say that he from the first told
the shareholders its Bradford when he applied to them, and
'they replied that they would have nothing to do with the
line, that it was in contem,lidion
wouldase it to the Midland ?
(Hear.) If he had done BO he have had no occasion
to go round begging for shareholders from house to house.
To my the least of it, this transaction was marked with a
great deal of fraud. (" Hear, hear," and " Oh.")
Well the lease was finally agreed upon, and at
Itkattime they found Mr. Waddingham held 1,251 shares, Mr.
Murgatroyd 2'28, and Mr. Hudson 60, and the remaining
six direetm, 338. Why should the names of the three
directors be mentioned, while those of the six who held the
338 were net given ? Now the amount which it appeared
these nine directors held is the Leeds and Bradford wog
91,0001., while the whole interest of Messrs. Waddingham,
Murgatroyd, and Heiden, in the Midland, at the same
time, was 25,0001., and of the other 12 directors, 66,0001.
He would petit to the meeting whether Mr. Waddingham,
even supposing him to be as pure as a man who had
had any dealings with railways—(a laugh)—could have been
expected to act impartially to the Midlands under such eir-
commences ? These nine d rectors held on the average
10,0001. a piece in the linethey were leasing to the Midland,
while in the latter lies their interest did not average 6,0001.
each. Their interest, therefore, was clearly to miss the bad
bargain they could as against the Midland and ke Isker at
the Leeds and Bradford-line. At theme* timth while he had
consideration for the Leeds aad Illeadked drwahaldan, he was
bound also te have oonsidendith kit the Indlard shareholders.
(Hear.) He could not Smith kas many had invested dale ,
all in Midland shame, is maks provision for their
families, sad he nucleated well, when he was
*airman of the Liverpool committee, remittent
letter from a widow, stating that her h
had invested all his in Midland shares, at a high
figure, in cordate make Me his featly, and mod-
ing her proxy, stating at 3 same time that abs had not al
male friend to look after her intend, but that abe
trusted to the honour of the committee, as gentlemen.
(Hear, hear.) They had seen how public men in other
countries had abused their trust, and hew, in conse-
quence, forsers, without any knowledge of our affairs,
had preferred to invest in English securities, trusting their
money to the management of men whom they knew only by
their high national character for honour and probity. He
was Duey to say that u the report stood it appeared that in
this ease the trust had been violated, and that the high
public character of our men of business had been disgraced
in the person of Mr. Waddingham. (" Oh," haw, sad
cheers.) Yes, he pronounced Mr. Waddingham diskamad
Wan the shareholders of that company, and dithreeed
bikes the public at largo. (" Ob," and cheers) And he
mild tell that gentleman, as he told the whole country,
that not for ten times his ill-gotten gains would a gentle-
man of trite English feelings part with his character, and I
I lemur that odium which must now accom him down to
oblivion. (Cheers, and cries of "Oh !") pany He knew not if
Mr. Waddingham was present—(hear, )ear)—but he hoped
he was, as he wished to say nothing behind his back that
ha would not rather say before his face—(hear, hear)—but
be had said nothing with regard to that gentleman's con-
Oast in which he was inn the public opiaion generally
would notbear him out. (" Ne.") lie confessed he should have
liked to have seen is the report some more infoniur
don of a scheme which had cost this company very
large sums of money, the South Midland. It was stated that
each of the directors had had an allotment of 500 shares in
that line ' • bur the committee, in that tone el apology which
pervaded the whole report, said that they could not imagine
that the directors were induced to carry out such an impor-
tant undertaking as that appeared to be at the time for the
sake of having 500 shares each allotted to them. (Hear,
' hear.) Then, all he could say was, that the imagination of
the committee was not remarkably lively. (A laugh.)
There could be no doubt that the committee might
have ebtaieed more information on this subject if
they had sought for it. He had received a letter
detailing many of the circumstances connected with
this transaction, which the committee might hare
had had they pleased, but whatever the doubt as to the le-
gality of the Leeds and Bradford affair, there could be no
doubt uto the illegality of this. It was an unfortunate
thing that in any of these transactions the directors should
have had a direct personal interest in carrying out their ar-
rangements, for however free they might have been from im-
proper influence, the existence of such interest naturally ex-
cited suspicion. With regard to Sir. Waddingham, he must
say that in his opinion he believed he was liable to a crimi-
nal preeention, hut he had had his day of triumph, and the
day of retribution was not far distant. Each of the directors
had received 500 shares on the South Midland line—he
should like to know for what ? He did not wish to snake
any personal or offensive ob-ervations —(cries of " Oh, oh,"
and a laugh). Fur many of the directors be had the highest
personal respect, and with regard to some of them, whatever
might be the change in the constitution of the board, he