The Express.
London, England, 1849-12-29 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 29, 1849.

=agate et the Cana=lea amnia, within reasesalile
It kr, however, to be observed that their policy
was approved at the time by the engineer' and abs by the
tharehelden. Is elmeladbm their obesevatiens upon this
breath of the lewdly the eamaires mawram their deliberate
senvisties that the Meet the reek depends natal
ally epos a redustise being 71&21 in the toms of the
guarantee sad ether preferable claims ; tsr if they are sus-
tained the whale ~Maas of the limes will sot be maffident
te &they them: sod all parties etteeseaed will be involved
ID forieri litigation sad lass.
Susi Puitcatheas.—The hada of the sempany have
Is. employed by the directors in purchasing shares In
ether companies to the ratan of 37,744 shame, upon which
407,1141. Es. bed. was paid, which, with interest, arrears, in•
tenet span emus, and same not yet called up, amount to
a total outlay and liability of 1,011,2511. ea. 4d. Alter
giviag a detailed aceeset of there trananitioes the eammittee
state that the 'lmolai embarrassments of the sesepany are
really owlog to the appropriation et so large a portion of
its funds to purposes not contemplated by the act; but with
respect to the liondffele of these share transactions the com-
mittee believe that they ware entered into by the directors
bend Me fee eervies the interest of the oompany, and not
for their own personal advantage, and that they had derived
no benefit whatever from the transactions. The committee
consider that those pushier, are illegal, as against the com-
pany, end subject the directors to the per teal respousibil;ty
thereof; and that the sum so expended might not to be
allowed in the company's accounts. But to visit them with
the fall penalty fir errors which appear to be more of Judg-
ment then intention would be uenecessuily severe; and, at
the uses time, to allow them to Gneiss would be unjust to
then who have ruffered from their acts, and the following
compromise is thereby* preposed : that, under the autho-
rity of se act of parliament the dieters= shall
retire, and that now directors he sppointed fa then
place. That certain shares be taken by elio wiwaritife
and the present and future directors be fully ease mated from
the repayment of th• funds eseeeded in the purchase el
them and interest thereon, and indemnified therefrom from
all father calls, amounting together to 359,0271. 21. 2d, and
that the present and previous expenses shell also be owe
minted from the repayment of the sum of 136,9011. 3s. Id.,
the sum expended by them on shares in the Glasgow, Kilmar-
nock, and Ardroman,Caledonian and Dumbarton, and Dundee
and Perth, and Dundee, and Arbroath, making a total, with
17,9621.145. lid.; interest thereon of 495,9281. 16s. 3d. The
directors on their part shall effectually protect and indemnify
the Caledonian Company from calls in arrear, interest
thereon, and future calls. 27,0931 shares in the Glasgow,
Kilmarnock, and Ards:ann. the Caledonian and Dumbarton
Junction, the Dundee end Perth, and the Dards' and Ar-
broath, and which with the arrears and interest to be paid up,
amounts to 620,9591. 19s. lid ; and, if required, the direc-
tors shell, at any time hereafter, transfer the whole or any
part of the said shares to the Caledoaian Company, or as
they shall decree. This was submitted to the directen, and
they expressed their wiLingness to negotiate w ith the commit-
tee for the above purpose, and that they saw nothing in the
proposal to p them from entertaining it. And,
further, that they are willing to retire, so soon as Marla-
mints can be effected, which will provide for the interests of
the company, and secure the directors from future litigation.
A compromise will not only relieve the company from all
this expense and loss, but offers an early opportunity tot
having its affairs placed tend r the active and efficient ma
easement of men of business habits, who, by closely attend.
mg te its interests,. and guarding against the repetition of
previ au errors, will impart new enereorto the undertaking
and restore its credit. Oa these grounds the committee re-
commend a compromise to be made with the directors, that
all past difiereaces should be made up, and that the entire
body of shareholders should henceforth unite in striving to
improve the joint property.
Tea FINANCIB OF Till COMPANT.—The committee ex-
pected it would have been unnecessary for them to have en-
larged upon this branch of the inquiry having the report
of Messrs. Quake, Ball, and Co. to refer to; but, in answer
to an urgent desire for its completion, they state by letter,
dated the 17th instant, that further time is absolutely neces-
sary for the due fulfilment of their instructions, and that al-
though the accounts of the company have been well
kept in a book-keeping sense, yet they hays not been so
arranged and classified as to preclude the necessity for a
close examination of each head of account, in order to
ascertain that it has been correctly stated with reference to
its apparent import and object ; neither do the books contain
all the information requisite to elucidate every question
arising under the investigation. Pending their examination
into the accounts, the committee prepared a statement of the
capital, and the amen and liabilities of the company, which
they believe to be accurate and comprehensive to
show its present financial petition.
ABSTILaCT OP CAPITAL AccOUNT.—RECEIPTS AND Ex-
PerfUltllll DP TO JUNE 30. 1849. Expenditure
6,149,3191. 17e. 3d. Receipts 4,654,6211 lie. 9d. Belem*
excess of expenditure over receipts 494,6981 ss. 6.1. In the
amount et assets and liabilities there appear to be asset., in-
cluding the 172,6001. the company is authorised to nee
by debentures' to the amount of 510,6091. 19'. 3d.,
whilst their liabilities amount to 853,7621. 2.. W. leaving
liebilities onprovided for to the extent of 343,152/ 3s. 01d.
The large amount of the floating debt and the immediate
necessity of raising the requisite loan to satisfy it,
pressed most upon the attention of the committee. The
directors could show no other resource than a sale or pledge
of the rolling stock, and for that purpose they opened
nectriations with the London and North Western Company.
Altbough this subject was not properly within the scope of
tar powers, the committee felt it to be its duty to interfere
and prevent this disposal of the rolling stock, also patties
it in the power of the directors to discharge liabilities whirl
had not been examined into. But, after much end anxious
deliberation, the committee egr.ed that the negoastion
should be proceeded with, subject, however, to the
sanction of the shareholders. The negotiation was
broken off. Then were no funds. In this emergency
the sh.reholders must be ceunated. The committee
are of opinion, that if the doe working of the line
can be effectually provided for, it might be advantageous to
have it worked under a contract with some responsible party,
and by the sole of the plant the most urgent claims might be
discharged WI h this view the directors have opened a ne-
gotiation e ith Messrs. Bras ey and Company, and the terms
offered by them for working the lines are very similar to
those under which the Lancaster and Carlisle, the Scottish
Midland, and several other railways are worked; at the same
time they agree to advance 250,0001 at 6 per cent. interest.
The terms of the contract are high. The lines could have
been worked by the company for less, provided they wen la
possession of the necessary funds.
DZBINTUZILS.—The amount of debentures issued is within
the parliamentary limits by 172,6001., but there is small
excess beyond the votes of the shareholders. The report
then gives copies of the several balance-sheets of the Gangway
which hays issued since 1845, by which it is shows that
every statement issued by the dinners after the sbarebeiden
exercised their right to examine the books of the company,
has been misstated. The statement dated the 31st December,
1845, the first given to the shareholders, shows a balsams of
207,6411. in favour of the company, whilst it was oily
162,9661. The last statement, dated June 30, 1848, shows a
balance against the company of 337,8931., whilst the true
balance sheet was 690,0491.
The committee then refer to the
AMALGAMATION WITH THE EDINBVIGH AND GLASGOW
.ideslN upon which
ihthoewydreem:tk betweent lit it
theis
twoadmittedeoin posain
all
If, however, the amalgamation is to be carried out, the com-
pletion el the agreement ought to be entered span at once.
SUGGISTIONB POI FUTURE MANI.OEMBET.-1. That the
somber of directors be reduced to nine, so as to allow three
committees for the three pyincipal departments—viz., fi-
nance, locomotive, and treffiC. 2. That the system of con-
ducting the affairs of the company by en iudependent pain
manager be continued, in preference to that of paid ma
fagging directors, but that the present salary of 2,000.. be re-
duced to one half at least when the opportunity occurs. 3.
auditorsThat4.That
thet
tbt system
required
apical°aftectollentph:irtbyeatcloulthiteedbeduiradseoocotpontersud'eposilreCtlYbmhalet.tntiatiii.
DIVIDEND.—Tbe committee have not gone into the ques-
tion of the propriety of paying a dividend of 3 per cent. on
the ordinary stock, and the dividend on the preferable stock,
in consequence of not having received Meurs. Quitter's re-
port (Signed) OW. Caws, Chairman, J. A. CAMPBELL,
R. E SCOTT, W. WADDELL, D. CAMPBELL, C. BORTH.
WICK, J. BAIRD.

LITERATUBB.

The Royal Phraseological English French and French.
English Dienonssy. By J. C. Taaysa, French Mesta,
Bum. [Dcdiested by permission to his Boyal Hiehaess
Prince Albert ] 1401141011: Delete sad Co., 1846-60.
We are much mistaken if this cork do net form an
epoch in the study of the French language by Eng-
lishmen, and indeed in the general study of living
l es by men not born to their use.
iurfaogre the publication of Mr. Tarver's volumes, the
important truth upon which they are based had been
recognised and enounced, but it had never been syste-
matically and patiently worked oat in practice. This
truth is a very sim le one : it is that, in order to speak
a language y and idiomatically, we must an-
custom ourselves to cast our thoughts in the same
coeventional forms as the society to which it belongs.
Every nation has its own way of realising abstrac-
tions to the imagination, and this lends form and body
to its phrases. "La maison set I gauche," says the
Frenchman, simply noticing itsexistence; "the house
stands on the left, says the Englishman, more pie-
turesquely indicating its upright position. This is a
trifling example, but the principle we would illustrate
by it pervades the whole of a nation's language, im-
parting a distinctive character to its poetical or
sttentiee phraseology. In simply translating from a
=We, the divining spirit of the imagination
eny man of average intellect to rinder.tand
the oonventional figurative expressions of foreigners;
but to interchange ideas with them he requires to
note and adopt their conventionalities in expressing
his own thoughts. A wide experience of them, and a
careful comparison of them with those in vogue in
his mother-tongue, is required to give facility in this.
Hitherto such experience could only be acquired by
those resident in the land where the language they
would master is spoken, and in constant intercourse
with her natives—even by such tnly when endowed
with more thanorditery quickness of perception. The
great majoray of those who are called upon to express
themselves in a foreign tongue have gone on content-
edly dressing their native logical formula in foreign
words—uttering a ludicrous and often unintelligible
jargon. This truth has been incidentally announced
by more than one, but we know of none before Mr.
Terve: who based his instruction in any language
u.:cou it—certainly of none who has devoted so much
acuteness and patient research to the comparative
anatomy of the phraseology of two languages.
The first part of Mr. Terver's work was published
in 1815; the second has just apreared. This fact,
however, would convey a very inadequate idea of the
protracted and pains-taking study it has cost him. The
dictionary lain fact the result of the labour of 30 years.
In a pleasing though brief auto-biographical remini-
scence in the preface to the second part, Mr. Tarver
states the circumstances under which the importance
of his principle was forced upon him. In coming to
this country to devote himself to tuition in his native
language as a profession, he soon found that his long
study of English, though it had enabled him to un•
derstand the language thoroughly, and relish its
literary refinementr, had not enabled him to speak
it. His words might be Enut•sh, bat hie sentences
wire French. His own difficulty suggested to him
what meat be the great difficulty of his pupils; to
overcome it has been his constant aim as a teacher;
to produce a work that might enable all to overcome
it has been his ambition as a li:erary man.
Mr. Tower has taken the Dictionary of the Aca-
demy as the basis of his French nomenclature, adding
all tne words that have acquired the right of citizen-
ship through the use of distinguished authors, or in
consequence of the necessities of science, trade, or
manufacture. Johnson, Richardson, and Webster,
with similar additions, have supplied his English
nomenclature. As a mere word-dictionary the work
is valuable and trustworthy ; but its distinguishing
characteristic is the wealth, the accuracy, the delincy
of what we have ventured to rail its "comparative
anatomy of the phraseology of the French and Eng-
lish languages." Under every word we find an ex-
haustive list of the phrases in which it is used, when-
ever a different phraseology is employed to convey
the same meaning in the other language. All wordy,
in either language, which are without exact synonyms
in the other—words relating to social habits, or em-
ployments, or modes of exertion peculiar to the one or
the other nation—are paraphrastitnlly explained.
Many proverbs—a fertile source of idiomatic pecu-
liarities in most languages —are explained Ind illus-
trated. The idea upon which the work has been
constructed, it will appear from this brief indication,
is sound and practically useful ; and the taste, judg-
ment, and patient research which Mr. Terver has
brought to his task have enabled him to work it out
moat satisfactorily.

Onsar Nomrendit.—This company am entering into
contracts for the construction of their passengers and goods
stations on the north side of the A•gent's-Canal and King's•
cross, and 1,1, their goods, warehouses, sad lommotive
btuld-
lags on the main line up to Peterborough.

THE BRITISH MUSEUM AND THE PARIS NATIONAL
LIBILLRY.—Let any Ina compare the reading rooms, day
after day, of the British Museum and the National Library
of Paris, he will at once perceive that two distinct cleans of
persons frequent these rooms. In London he will find
onl
Iny
men of letters and artists, the teachers of the people.
le themselves that come
Paris he will see that it is the peop
to read. In the British Museum be sees only grave men
and women dressed in the customary suits of solemn black,
so well befitting the avocation of letters. In the National
Library he observes groups of students from the civil I
military colleges,:soldiers of the line in their blue coin, ( (B-
een,. clerks, shopkeepers porters, and, generally speakihg,
ssroculeennsoltallel gire6asresnoiintltlePt7ouirsti.D.00ms will lecveepaloavnerotb'he;
difference between them. In London you me the tables
sneered with old volumes, maps, sad manineripts—the lite-
rature of the pest. In Paris you notice that the :leaden are
chiefly poring over the new books and new writers—Thitre,
Luanda@ Louis Blase—the living literature of their own
age. In ;riot truth the British Museum is only a library
a reference ; the Parisian institution Is a library tor reading.
—Companion to the British Alitianach for 1860.
ANCIENT RELICS ON THE MALVERN HILLa.—
The ordnance surveyors recently employed on the (mimic
of the Worcestershire Beacon, while excavating to find the
old datum mark of the former survey, uncovered a cavity in
the rock nine inches below the surface, whirrein lay a small
s^pulchral urn covering some bones and ashes. Another de-
posit of bones, but without an urn, was found at • short
tame. The cinerary remains are believed to have belonged
to an adult hams subject that have passed through t'.••
profess of cremation.
The urn is made of burnt clay, very
rude in its constructioe, but with an impressed ziuseg orna-
ment round its exterior, with one beaded line above and two
below, followed by • line of punctures evidently made by
some pointed instrument, and the rim is also marked with a
aireig border and beaded line above and below it. The
hetet is little more than two inches and the breadth of the
top meetly three. No coin or ornsment was found with
either of the sepulehrid deposits. Not having yet seen nese
interesting remains, we will not endure en ovinion as to
*heir rehab% date, nor as to the individual whose r sting
p ace was selected on this lofty altitude, bat we bel
ie*
itrn is
the first mortuary discovery Mt& on these (et*
Chreesiel .

Dumas, Deo. W.
Now that the mock nationality of the 'nth protec-
tiosists is pretty well exploded, we shall have them
coming out themselves and candidly admitting that it
was all a hoax. Notwithstanding all the fake pre-
tensions of the Okapi' memonal, there is not, in
fact, one particle of liberality mixed up in the whole
protectionist movement. No one was fool enough to
suppose that they could tolerate any meddling with
the church question. Then as to an adjustment of the
land question, with any degree of !airtime to the
tenant, it would be scarcely reuocable to expect much
on that score from them either. There remained the
franchise, at this moment, perhaps, the most vital of
all to Irish and national interests ; but upon that sub- '
jeet the leading organ of the Irish protectionists pro-
claims hostility to all reform. The Evening Mail, of
lest night, thus sneers at an anticipated franchise