The Express.
London, England, 1856-08-19 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY, AUGUST 19.

Ws congratulate the shareholders of the Great
We-tern le eilway Company on their having at length
taken hem of gnu e, and intimated to the Director*,
In on intelligible manner, their intention to have a
voice in the management of their property. Hitherto
tie rerolu!ions prop° -sd by the Board or its organs
were the only ones which app7ated to have a chance
of btior pa.eed at the meetings; bat at that which
has just been held two iceolivions were carried in
exceitioo to the Directors, which will doubtless
hey., the eff.et of awakening the shareholders to a
ware of their pewee.. The Chairman, Lord BAIA.
AMMON. alluded in a somewhat supercilious maw
sir to " • plea which bre been put forward for the
apt lint:nett of a number of individuals to advise with
the di-rotors o; the compel." This he designated
as a " sort of conference in stably° (whatever that
may br) to erh,el3 a board of directors could possibly
submit.' Never helm, a itaolaticn appointing four
gentlemen tor that purpose was careied, and a rano-
*illicit of the board, sou to infuse a more practical
character inte,the oireetion, seems likely to be the
result. It is very well for chairmen to speak of ad-
vice or supervision on the part of the shareholders,
as !binge to which they Ind not submit; but, be-
fore they ;ere in a pubic': to utter such
brave words, they are bound to show that
their proceeding* are characterised by the ODM.
merciel tact sod wisdom which men directing the
effsirs of great ?redly g companies are bound to possess-
If they have not thou qualifications, or others of
equal value to their fellow-shareholders, it is their
duty to retire from a post for which they are all*
unfit, and to which they have aspired either tram
vanity or in compliance with the request of Wadi-
clone felted,. lt, reverthelms, they prefer to retain
the office for which they are so little adages;, they
must submit to the control and advice of sees mac.
tle I men. The beard of the Great Western, taking
it ci a contiouous body, has ucquistionably given
no proofs of surpassing wisdom, or of the necessity
for its being enfranchised from the advice
or scrutiny of the ehareholders. What has it
done with the twenty-two soda half millions stale,
the expenditure of which it hes directed or adopted?
With every addition made to the original capital,
there has t ;ea a diminished rate of profits. It has, in
fact, come to this pees, that sloe fighting at an enor-
mous cost for the Shrewsbury lines, it is made a sub-
ject for congratulation that the lose on them is °sly
about 26.0001., while the directors mess at last to
have made the discovery that the rate chargeable for
goods carried by the Kennet and Avon Canal will
not cover the expenses. Either the earlier dividends
paid by the Great Western were not earned, or the
illOCeilliTO directors constituting the board ham been
grossly incompetent, sod have committed a aeries
of blenders in their long and ruinous struggles
toe:tend their field of operations, by making acquie-
times which have steadily diminished the remunera-
tive character of the undertaking. The improve-
ment in the management to which the present board
Isis claim, mid which has resulted in an increased
dividend, is an unanswerable proof that their former
coarse was one which not only needed, bat admitted,
oradvanta;cous modifications within the power of
active sod energetic men. It is not merely an in-
creased grew revenue to which the report directs the
attention of the shareholders, but also a dirains.
ties of the working charges both on the main
Ns and in the branches; and although
a • large portion of this diminution is 'tie-
hatable to a diminished outlay for the repairs of the
permanent way, it is probably to the outcry which
iodises(' the appointment of a committee last year
that this revolt is in a great memos to be ascribed.
"Looking at the enormous extent of the Great Wes-
tern, it cannot to wondered that such unsatisfactory
results have been produced, when we are told that
the Secretary, who.. ordinal, duties one would think
were onerous enough, was practically the manager es
well, and that the Bard of Directors was a delibera.
tire rather than an executive body. It is only by a
judicious distribution of duties that an effective
supervision can be maintained, and the organi-
sation of the Great Western executive appears to
have been wofully deficient in this respect. The
projects concocted by the engineer and secretary
seem to have bees adopted by the board, and thrust
upon the shareholders without being duly weighed,
and these two officials seem to have been mainly jest, u-
mental i n permanently sinking the value of Great Wee.
tern property. We do not indeed say it is doomed to
remain is its present disastrous state; on the contrary,
we fully believe that much can and will be done to
nice it to a better position; but these who have
bad the direction of its affairs during the first
twisty years of its existence have hung a mill-
✓ose round the neck of the Company, frees whish
it will sever be free. Is it possible to imagine a more
disgraceful position than that to which this mogul-
limit property was recently reduesd, when man wore
npwilliog to accept its debentures as security for
mosey except at exorbitant rates, and when they
mere unsaleable in the apes market P Neverthelese,
we must give the directors credit for misfits, what
we insider a great blot on the London and North-
Western. It is a comfort to find them charging to
the curtest revenue the sums expended for repairs
and renewals of the permanent limy. There meat
escesetienably be an average rate of expenditure
for them pongees, sad if that expenditure is
net incurred in me year, it will inevitably fall
with increased weight on another, and meet sontians
so long as the lies is worked. Therefore, thslis al
*pada( an amount for the primes, and keeping it
always in debt, is preposterous; es the oestrum
there Amid be a balsam perpetuity to its credit to
meet unforeseen contingencies. What would them
railways do were an inundation, as in Prance, oe
some other catastrophe, to is diet serious damage co
the permanent way P Doubtless carry the expendi-
ture thereby Mewed to capital seesust, skald there
be a possibility ordains so, Instead of sisegiag it on
a reserve toad which should be sweated he that
purpose.

.
A red beetling of refers has, however, ben
*ads both by the Sisseton sad shersinhiers of the
Onst Weston I the swell *ado( the wedge bee bees
tanned ; sad if the proprietors is thiamine to
be threetesed or cajoled into shandenlai the pukka
they bars neared, they will nobly deserve to en
their property is seep a eoadition that, Island of
eves so mall a pities of the profit se 100.0001. oat
of 422,000/. bolsi divisible sang thee. the "bole
as will be Matched is preference charges cinriessi
description.

Yale College, United Stains. bee egailseved do
degree et Denise if loon spin the Hoc Clinks imam.

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