The Express.
London, England, 1867-10-14 00:00:00

THE PENIANS AT MANCHESTER.

On Saturday four men who had been appre-
hended at Liverpool, at a late hour the previous night,
were brought up at the City Police Court, before Mr.
Fowler, stipendiary magistrate. The Mayor of Man-
chester, Mr. H. L. Trafford, stipendiary of Salford, and
Mr. B. St. J. B. Joule, occupied seats on the bench.
Mr. W. I'. Roberts, solicitor, who appeared for the
prisoners, said that he would not be ready to go on with
the Can' till Monday. and asked for a remand till that day.
The prisoners gave the names of William Joseph Brophy,
Patrick M'Donougb, James O'Brien Chambers, and John
Loneogan. Mr. Superintendent Maybury said that the
four prisoners bad been brought from Liverpool at mid-
night, charged with being concerned in the rescue of
prisoners from the van on the 18th of last month. At
present the police were not prepared to go into the evi-
dence against them. They had evidence to identify
Chambers, and there was also evidence against Brophy.
From inquiries which the police had made regarding the
other two prisoners they would not offer evidence against
them. Mr. Fowler—You have no reason to believe that
you will get evidence against them? Mr. Maybury—No,
from what we have heard this morning. Mr. Fowler—
Then you do not ask for • remand against them'? Mr.
Maybury—No. Mr. Fowler—Against the others you
believe you will be able to produce evidence hereafter ?
Even if that were not so, their solicitor had applied for •
remand. They are, therefore, remanded till Monday.
M`Donough and Loneugan were then discharged, and
Chambers and Brophy remanded in custody.
Another outrage of a grave character is reported to have
occurred last Wednesday, but it has not yet been traced to
a Fenian source. It was an attempt to shoot Mr. John
Heywood, bookseller and publisher, of Deansgate. Mr.
Heywood resides at Stretford, and was riding into Man-
cheater in an open carriage with a friend, at eight o'clock,
, his usual hour, on N% ednesday morning, when they
, were fired at near the Northumberland Arms Hotel, Ches-
ter-road, by a man who stood on the footpath. The horse
shied at the noise of the report, but Mr. Heywood soon
brought him up, and on looking back saw the man run-
ning away. He describes him as wearing clothes like
those of a brickmaker. Mr. Heywood is publisher of •
journal called the Free Lance, which contained an article
while the late Trades Outrages Commission was sitting,
entitled the " Manchester Broadhead'," and the article
is said to have stung the brickmakers severely, so that
some of them spoke of being revenged. It is surmised
that Mr. Heywood, in default of the writer of the article
being discovered, was marked for a victim, but in fact
I nothing is positively known connecting the outrage either
with Fenianism or the brickmakers. So far the man lea
escaped detection.

THE LONDON, CHATHAM, AND DOVER

RAILWAY.

The report of the directors, together with state-
ments of account for the half-year ending June 30th, have
just been issued. The board of directors, as constituted
by the " Arrangement Act," which received the royal
assent on the 20th of August last, desire, in the first in-
stance, so explain why those documents are issued at the
present tune instead of in August last es heretofore. The
act shove mentioned places in abeyance the former powers
of the shareholders in general meeting., and directs that
separate general meetings of the shareholders and mortga-
gees shall be held half-yearly in the last weeks in February
and August. As the royal assent was not given to the act
until 20th August, and as the Companies' Clauses Conso-
lidation Act requires fourteen days previous notice of meet-
ings to be given by advertisement, it was not possible to
hold a legally constituted meeting in August last, after the
1 passing of the act. Aa the term mortgagees" occurs very
frequently in the " Arrangement Act" and in this report,
it is stated that under the denomination of mortgagees as
I defined by the act, are included not only the holders of
debentures and debenture stock, but also of any rent-
, charge, shares, or stock entitled to rank in priority to or
lon a par with any debentures of the com-
pany ; but as regards the right of voting, until
it shall be determined by the court that the
holders of any shares or stock in any rent-charge, or of any
other shares or stocks, are included in the word mortgagee,
such holden shall vote as shareholders and not as mortga-
gees. By the " Arrangement Act" the former board of
direction was dissolved, and the management of the com-
pany was vested in a board consisting of four mortgage
directors to represent the mortgagees and four share di.
rectors to represent the shareholders. Three of each class
of directors are named in the act, which directs that the
fourth share director shall be elected by the shareholder',
and the fourth mortgage director bythe mortgagees, within
two months from the passing of the act. Availing them-
selves of the necessity for calling meetings for the pur-
pose of the elections above referred to, the directors take
the opportunity of issuing • report and statements of
account, and will be glad to furnish at the
above-mentioned meetings any information or explana-
tions which may be required to supplement or explain
the statements contained in such report and accounts.
The board especially congratulate both shareholders and
mortgagees that the act contains various provisions by
which the enormous mass of litigation, in which the com-
pany has lately been involved, will be very materially
mitigated and suspended. The receivers appointed by the
Court of Chancery are discharged by the act, and the com-
pany is now able to manage its affairs without the expense
and delay of constant application to the court. With
certain inevitable exceptions, no actions, suits, or other
proceedings against the company, in respect of liabilities
existing at the passing of the act, are to be continued or
commenced for a period of ten years, without special leave
of the Court of Chancery. Facilities are given for obtain-
ing, in as luminary and inexpensive a manner as
possible, judicial decisions on various matters, which,
but for such facilities, would involve the com-
pany and its various classes of shareholders and
mortgagees in protracted and expensive law proceedings.
The act also empowers the creation of several new classes
of capital. The first in priority of these classes, viz., the
" A debenture stock, may, with the consent of the mort-
gagees, have priority over mortgages i but in order to give
validity to such consent the act requires that an applies-
tion in • form specified in the act, and accompanied by
certain. clauses of the sat, shall be transmitted to the
mortgagee& As the clauses above referred to afford much
important information with regard to the financial provi-
sions of the act, the directors transmit herewith a copy of
such clauses to the shareholders and mortgagees, and will
take a future opportunity of making the mortgagees' assent
to the issue of the debenture stock. The directors will, on
or after 30th October, be prepared to issue deferred divi-
dend warrants for arrears of interest to 30th June last ;
or they will, at the option of the debenture holder, issue
the amount in "B " debenture stock. In the caste of de-
bentures having interest coupons attached, the overdue
coupons will have to be left at the offices of the company,
or transmitted by post to the secretary ; 14 clear days after
the receipt of such coupons, the deferred dividend warrants,
or " B" debenture stock, as the case may be, will be ready
for delivery. The holders of debentures whose coupons are
exhausted are reeuested to send the numbers and amount
of their debentures to the secretary, who will, after four-
teen clear days, be prepared to hand them the deferred
dividend warrants or "B" debenture stock. The board
of directors, as now constituted, having so recently entered
upon their duties, and not being primarily responsible for
the accounts sent with the report, forbear, at the present
time, from entering into say details with reference to Each
accounts, or to the circumstances and prospects of the
company, and the mode and extent in which the recent
legislation may be expected to afford relief to the company.
They cannot, however, forbear from expressing their satis-
faction at the considerably increased traffic of the company,
which, though doubtless in some measure of an exceptional
nature, and attributable to the French Exhibition, yet is
of such • nature and extent as to show that the line is
growing in favour, and that the safety, comfort, and regu-
larity with which the traffic is conducted, is daily
becoming appreciated by the public. The accounts have
been prepared in the form adopted by the committee of
investigation, and must be understood to be without pre-
judice to the right, of all parties interested, and to all
, questions which have arisen or may arise between the 1
dif-
ferent sections of the company. The gross receipts for the
half-year amounted to =JO/. 4s. 7d., and have been
earned upon the several divisions of railways, owned or
worked by the company' as under :--The general under-
taking, including the Sheerness and Sevenosks branches,
140,7821. 9s. ; the Metropolitan Extensions. MAIO/. 7s. 2.1.;
the City lines, 11,303/. Bs. Id. ; the Kent Coast Rail-
way, 12,047/. 18s. 7d. ; the Crystal Palace and South
London Junction Railway, 4,879/. Is. 9d.—total, 227,523/.
4s. 7d. The working expenses properly attributed in the
half year to the working of the various sections has been :

Per cent. of Receipts.
The general undertaking L 91,805 18 7 equal to Q.S. 2
The Metropolitan Extension 43,1317 12 11 „ 74. 5
The City Linea 5,981 1 „ St 9
The Kent Coast Kall „ way 11,432 910 $
The Crystal Palace and nputh