The Express.
London, England, 1851-01-24 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, JANUARY 24, 1851.

As journalists bound to procure and give to the
public information as to *bat passes at the meetings
of public companies, it beoomEs, of course, our duty
to inquire into the cause of and motive fur this excep-
tional and unusual exclusion of our reporters frost
the meeting of this railway incorporation ; and,
though at present we do not profess to have made any
certain discovery, or to have formed say definite
opinion on the subject, it soy tend to elucidate the
matter, and to assist the inquiry, if we state what we
gather touching the company from letters that have
lately appeared in local newspapers. In doing so we
may, of course, err a little, bat for the inaccuracies,
the privacy enjoyed by the meeting of Tuesday must
be responsible, for it bas deprived us of positive
information.
The Stockton and Darlington is one of the oldest
railway companies in England; it was incorporated
by the legislature long before parliament bad laid
down any rules, restricting dividends to 10 per
cent., applying surplus profits to reduction of tolls,
or securing publicity of accounts ; it was, we be-
lieve, originated by members of the Stciety of
Friends, who are numerous, influential, and wealthy
in Darlington, and by them its affairs have always
been managed. It is what is called a coal line, its
object being to convey fuel from the interior of the
county of Durham to Stockton, the poet of shipment
of the River Tees. _ .

It was not lunched with the enormous capitals
that distinguish later companies; it was started with
a modest 100,0001.; and the dividends on that sum
were so large that when another 100,0001. was wanted
it wu procured by constituting 1,000 shares of 601.
eacb, and issuing them at 601. premium; an operation
at which modern companies have been accustomed to
look

____ with envious wonder; so, too, when more
money was needed other 1,000 shares of 501. each
were created and got off at the higher premium of
621. 10..; thus making a total capital of somewhat
upwards of 300,0001.: such, at least, is the statement
furnished in that "ordinary source of information,'
Bradahaw's Alms:Rack, though elsewhere the capital
is pat down at less than that amount.
Whether the original capital of the company be
now 250,0001. or 300,0001. would, however, appear to
matter very little to its proprietary ; for although at
one time no less than 15 per cent on it was annually
paid to them, at present it is profitless; and its value
is not to be found quoted in the list of Stock Ex-
change prices.
Nevertheless, upon this small amount of once so
profitable capital, an enormous sum of what is called
across the Atlantic "indebtedness" appears to have
been created : for, ,n the accounts put forth by tie
Directors of the S ockton and Darlington Railway
company, they are stated to have borrowed, "on
bonds, notes, &c.," no less than 693,3131., or very
considerably more than twice their paid-up capital—
ea operation almost as surprising as the premiums at
which they got off tt eir additional shares.
On what security this great sum was raised—
whether on the personal security of the borrowing
directors, or on the sole security of the company and its
works—we do not know : and it may be that the dime-
ton can not tell us. But of borrowing powers gene-
rally we may remark, that they are usually limited
to one-third of the capital authorised to be raised.
Whereat, in this case, the liens amount to far more
than double the capital paid op.
But the directors of the Stockton and Darlington
ILilway, thus dividing 15 per cent. on their capital,
have, it seems, not only borrowed nearly 100,0001,
but they, after the fashion of greater companies, have
takes leases of smaller lines and guaranteed them, not
half their own rate of dividend, but a nilderate 6 per
cent These companies are the Middlesborough and
dcar, and the Wear Valley, having together •share
capital of, so say- Bradshaw, 430 0001 ; and on it the
Stockton and Darlington, as we have just said, is
bound to pay 6 per cent.
Let us recapi,thate : First of all, the Stockton and
Darlington Railway Company has a share capital of
its own not exceeding 300 0001., on which for years
_ _

it divided lb per cent,; then it has borrowed Desy

700,0001., on which the &canal interest is about
34,0001. ; and lastly, it has guaremeed 6 per cent. to
two feeding lints on 430,000/.
On the faith of the euaraniees of such a company
the suck of the Wear Valley went up to a very high
premium, and there remelted for two or three years;
it is now, we see, at about 4 discount. The cause of this
decline* rif comer, to be found in the conditions of
the guaranteeing company ; and it now turns out
that the 16 per cent. dividends on its 300,0001. ca-
pital were paid out of its 700,0001. borrowed money
that the profits of all three lines will not yield
the 6 per cent. so guaranteed to the Wear
Valley and the Middlesborough and Redcar ; and
that the directors of the Stockton and Da•lington
ask the shareholders of those two lines to
resign the guarantee, and to become incorporated as
proprietors in the guaranteeing ctmpany, and then
take four per cent., if they can get it: a proposition
which, if accepted, would probably prove the most
successful operation those directors have as yet per-
formed, but which the Wear Valley shareholders very
respectfully decline; resolved, as we learn from these
northern letters, to look into the legality of all this
borrowed money, which as yet ranks before their
guarantee.
Such is what we have made out from local corres-
pondence in the Durham papers about the Stockton
and Darliogton Railway Company; doubtless there
is a great deal to add ; possibly there is something to
subtract. Bat the statement is a strange one; it
provokes curiosity ; it accounts for eecresy ; it almost
rivals the Madrid and Valencia in romance ; for,
though in very serious hands and still more serious
to all pecuniarily concerned, there is a strong dash of
the romantic about the whole affair.
As probably we shall hear more about it, the bet-
ter way in all likelihood is to let the facta graduslly
develop themselves ; so to-day we leave the nun-
, tire to the sweet or bitter fancies of our readers, go-
; cordingly as they are out or in the concern Which
. excludes reporters from its meetings.

Tans are few who believe that there is any essential
cruelty among mankiad. Every day we may see around
as noble instatces of disinterested regard for others :
eases in which, at the imminent hazard of their own
lira, men rush into almost inevitable destruction, for
the purpose of trying to rescue a fellow being. Yet
there are instances which, on the contrary, exhibit
the selfishness and heartlessness in human nature in a
very painful point of view. Such cases, when they
occur, deserve to be exhibited for public reprobation
and to such a ease we desire to-day peculiarly to call
attention.

On Saturday afternoon last, whilst it was still day-
light, a young man of 17, a clerk in a mercantile
house near Cheapside, was landing from a penny
steamboat called the Sunflower, at Hungerford pier.
The head of the boat had touched the pier, but the
stern was some distance from it. The young man,
with a want of caution which cannot but be regretted,
though the practice unhappily ie only too common,
endeavoured to jump from the stern of the revel to
the barge or dummy. Unfortunately he miscal-
culated his distance, and fell into the water. As the
accident occurred within eight, and indeed within
arm's reach, of twenty people, one would have sup-
posed that the consequence would have been a duck-
ing. Unhappily the result was the young man's death.
He perished miserably, in the sight of all the sham
watermen and ticket takers and idlers about the
plum. A plank, a rope, an oar, a boat hook, a grating,
a piece of wood from the steam boat, anything
he could have grasped, would have saved him,
and yet he was allowed to perish, crying out for
" help," and beating the water with his arms in the
vain hope of catching something that would assist in
keeping him upon the surface. He struggled in this
way for five minutes, was swept by the current from
the dummy to the pier of Hungerford Suspension
Bridge, and there sank miserably. Now, let as hear
what was done by the lookers on with a view to
resene him.

Thu is the account we hate from an eye•wits/as.
He says:

• gentleman tried to throw a hawser, bat It was tee hear :
• saa on the pier tried to meek him with a Maser boat-
kink, bet, in the firm Mature, he pared it brew the
1111•100, end before he could pt it above, so it meaner tee
bony for him to Wt, the pose rung man wr out of meek.
Ai Nu woe called to frequeudy to throw the boathook
Mr ell Mtn, but 44 roe& sot ; if be had, then still wr a
boss, On the poor young man was nearly fire Wastes
strughag Wore ha oak.
This man, it is evident, valued hia boat-hook above
the life of • fellow-creature. The captain of the

Sunflower did not attempt to back his dimmer, or to
put her round to Joan this poor unhappy youth. The
check takers on the pier were, we are told, so intent
upon collecting their pieces of paper, that they did

not move, any one of them, to render aid ! This, we
suppose, is the force of habit. "They all exhibited,"
it is said, " the coolest indifference!" Now,
Sir Prise LAURIE has been extremely active in
" putting down" people who throw themselves into
the water purposely. Could he not do something
towards " putting down " people who refrain frees
assisting those who fall Into the water accidentally ?
It may be really worth Sir Pirrea's consideration
whether suicide caused by misery, or death caused by
inhumanity is the best thing to endeavour to " put
down ? " Sir PATER may have protracted the life of
some unfortunate by "putting down" suicide from
Blackfrisre. He would probably protract the lives
of many people more desirous of retaining them by
"putting down" cold-bloodedness among the pier-
people at Hungerford.
Really, when we come to consider these tuts, it
makes us almost doubt one half we bear about the
value of "humane societies" and kindred institutions.
Here, upon this pier at Hungerford, stand the people
of all others upon whom the Royal Humane Society
would probably rely as active agents in a cue of great
emergency. fihe society supplies ropes and drags,
and life-preservers, and hangs them up, at its own
expense upon the pier, and puts up a large board
calling attention to them, and another conveying& long
series of "hints for emergencies," and a third stating
where snbscri ptions are received,and how much annually
constitutes a member. Yet, when there is a drowning
man shouting "help" there is not a creature to
throw their rope. There it hangs, adjacent to the
check-taker's box, as if it was only an emblem of the
society, and a reminder to the public that "it is en-
tirely supported by voluntary contributions." There
is not a soul about the place, apparently, who knows
of the instrument, or how to handle it, or who has
the inclination or common sense to make s proper use
of it. Considering how many hundred thousand
people land at this Hungerford Pier in the course
cf the year, would it be to much to ask
that the Royal Humane Society should keep
one of its men oo service here, during the day, and
should let him be occasionally employed in teaching
some of the steamboat people a little practical
humanity, and how to throw a rope to a drowning
man when necessary ? If they were also to cause
one of the india rubber boats they are exhibiting in
Hyde Park to be put upon this lees aristocratic sheet
of water, they might also (provided there was some
one able to use it) occasionally be instrumental in pre-
serving the life of a fellow being. And we should
think that, in addition to " voluntary contributions,"
the Royal Humane Society would have a fair claim
upon the steamboat and pier proprietors for a very
considerable payment towards the expenses which an
efficient service at these piers would entail. If such
contributions were not made, why the law ought to
step in to force steamboat and pier proprietors to do
something towards making provision for accidents.

FRANCE.

PARIS. TRIIRRDILT MORNING.
tement of the crisis the belief

Since the

has prevailed that, alter much hesitAtion , Odilon
Barrot would be the man selected to form a
cabinet. But towards the close of the sitting of
yesterday it was reported that the conditions offered
by M. Barrot had been deemed inadmissible At the
El) see, and that Leon Faucher had been charged with
the formation of a ministry. Tne tone of hostility
adopted by the Palrie against M. Barrot, whom
it accuses of having insisted on the dismissal
of M. Carlier and General Baraguay d'ltilliers gives
countenance to this report. M. Leon Faucher an-
nounced to the President at 5 o'clock that he had
obtained the adhesions of the following persons :
Buffet, Public Instruction ; Chaseeloup-Laubat,
Public Works; General d'Arbouville, War; M. Bau-
chart, Commerce; M. Lacrosse, Marine. The port-
folio of Finance was offered to M. Duo, but
clined.

In the meanwhile the nature of M Odilon Barrot's
conference at the Elyse is now distit.ctly known.
On Tuesday evening be explained to the President
how he thought it possible to reach the decisive mo-
ment of May, 1852, without any violent shock. Louis
Napoleon without admitting or rejecting M. Barrot's
conditions, asked bim to form a cabinet, with the
help of M. Battik, who was present at the inter-
view. M. Barret replied that such a combination
was impossible.
The &incipient states that M. Wais, prefect of the
Nord, has been summoned by telegraph to Paris to
to be offered a portfolio.

1.11 URSDAT ItTENINO.
It is true that Leon Faucher was charged yesterday
by the President to form a cabinet, but I understand,
from the best possible authority, that up to the pre-
sent hour he has not succeeded; and therefore
you must consider the combination of names
which I sent yon this morning as abandoned. In
fact, M. Faucher will not enter upon office without
Odilon Barrot, and M. Burot's firm adherence to the
coi.dition■ which I have mentioned as having
been propounded in his interview with the
President, is the great obstacle to the ter-
mination of the ministerial crisis. I can assure you
that MM. de Persigny and Hypolite Fortoul, another
intimate of the Elysee, stated half-an-bone ego that
nothing whatever had been yet done, and the President
was as much at sea as ever about his ministry. M. Bar-
rot this morning was taken ill, and was not present at
the sitting of the Chamber. He was deeply hurt, on
being summoned on Tuesday to the Elysee, at find-
ing M.Billault, an ex-representative of the Left, with
the President, and at being called upon to explain
his views in the presence of • person with whom he
has not two ideas in common. The next morning, it
having been judged prudent to soo•he this feeling of
irritation, a letter was written to M. Barrot, through
the mediation of one his friends, to invite him to a
second interview.

la the answer which M. Barrot sent to this note,
the contents of which have been communicated
to me through a private source he said that
the interview which he had sours,
favoured
with oa the preceding day had convinced
him that no remembrance was entertained of
the past, and no intelligence of the future. He ex-
pressed much painful surprise that a person with
whose political principles he had so little sympathy as
those of M. Billault should have been invited to be
Present at the conference at which he was called
upon to explain his views, and proposed to
him u a colleague. He positively declined to re-
pair to a second interview at the Elyse*, as he was
satisfied that, in the present disposition of minds in
that quarter, such an interview could be attended
with no useful result whatever. Upon this answer
of M. Barrot being known, M. Leon Faucher was sent
for, and charged with the formation of a cabinet
Notwithstanding the momentary feeling. of irri-
tation on the part of M. Odilon Barrot, tn conse-
quence of an absence of that consideration for him on
the part of Louis Napoleon, to which he conceived
himself entitled tram his position, negotiations were
not broken off, and it is evident that this is the solu-
tion towards which the crisis, through all its moil-
Wiese, gravitates. The President is in no hurry to form
a cabinet, because he imagines that the protraction of
the interregnum irritates the country more spinet the
Assembly. Meanwhile the Aasembly,having vindicated
its independence by the vote of the 18th,
is in no humour to offer a factious oppo-
sition to a new ministry, in order to prove
to the country that they are not inspired
by a feeling of personal hostility against the Presi-
dent. The great difficulty lies in getting a man of
importance for president of the council who will con-
sent to be dictated to. The first condition of M.
Barrot is to have the nomination of his col-
leagues. I am not sure whether the Petrie's
report is true about his insisting on the dismissal of
M. Culler. Certainly it is not intelligible, as the
last document of Culler's, published by Jules de Las-
teyrie
about the Dix Deoembre, was heartily sp.
pleaded by M. Barroffs friends.
The Asssashly'o sitting opened very 9uletly with
the discussion of the proposition relative to farm'
lesson mended by K. Morello, a member of the
Moantiun, chosen recently on the Committee of Public
&tot . Two of the late ministers, MM. Bather
and ' appeared on the ministerial bench. The
plumes of M. Lam Faucher aced the report to
circulate that be had not succeeded in his attempt to
farm a cabinet.

n. Assembly took into consideration a 'don
of MM. Impes-Dabso sad Fars, which grants a
new surmise against use provisions of the decree
abolishing slavery, with regard to French proprietors
ofslayse in foreign oonntries when slavery la allowed.
A proposition of M. B. Rasped, abolishing celibacy
among the elegy, woe rejected by a mejonty of 469
against 164.—Then the sitting broke op.