The Express.
London, England, 1867-05-13 00:00:00

RICITANNIA.

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II)N DON,

MONDAY, MAY 13.

THERE seems some strange fatality in our rail-
way management. Although reforms may be
autxested, considered universally approved, and
appear on the point of being carried out, some un-
accountable perversity upsets them at the last
moment. The directors of the London and
Brighton Railway have performed this feat with
singular success and de x terity. They have contrived to
muddle a simple question, to introduce discordance
where agreement is absolutely necessary, and to
give rise to suspicions as to the conduct of them-
selves and their predecessors which are probably
untrue, but it must be admitted not without some
show of foundation. And for what is all this
done ? Surely the directors are not too blind to
perceive that if there is anything wrong in the
background, the temper of the shareholders is such
that they are determined to have it out. If, as
we should be willing to believe, there is nothing
more to be disclosed, what conceivable purpose
have the directors in view ? Their opposition to
the committee of shareholders is not likely to be
well construed. It is pretty certain to be pro-
nounced either interested, or, to say the least,
injudicious.
In looking at the proceedings of the late
meeting, the first point that will strike at-
tention is the contradictory perverseness
we have already cited. The directors seem
to have resolved to make n clean breast of
the whole affair, and, iii consequence, issued a Re-
port, which, from its elaborate details, extended
to the dimensions of a good-sized pamphlet. No-
thing could be better. The stockholders of the
London and Brighton Railway wished to have the
fullest information on the state of their property,
and prolixity was consequently, in this case, not a
vice but a virtue. Unfortunately, the Report does
not tell us much more than what we previously
knew. The circumstance of the proprietors of
the London and Brighton being in honour com-
mitted to carry out the Surrey and Sussex, Chi-
chester and Midhurst, and \Vest Sussex lines is
pointed out at length. The conclusion is
probably only too true, that this unfortu-
nate expenditure will sooner or later have
to be incurred. Yet, nevertheless, some
sort of loophole is apparently open for deferring,
if not cancelling, these unlucky bargains, since
the Chairman announced that the clauses in the
Company's Bill respecting the three above-men-
tioned lines would be withdrawn for the present
session, without prejudice to being introduced in
future. In what manner the original promoters
of these branches have been induced to forego
their claims, at least temporarily, upon the
pledged faith of the London and Brighton Com-
pany, does not very clearly appear. Certain men-
tion, however, is made of " preliminary expenses"
up to date having been paid. It would be very
satisfactory to know who have been the recipients
of this outlay. We should be strongly inclined
to believe that the directors of the Brighton
having bought out, in the interest of their com-
pany, the original promoters of the three lines
and tilled their places with themselves and their
nominees, have had no difficulty in making an
arrangement for delaying the construction of these
projects. It is easy enough for a body of gentle-
men sitting, say as the Board of the Surrey and
Sussex, to make a compact with themselves, in
their separate capacity of Board of the London
and Brighton. There is one thing very clear :
somebody or other has been compensated—the
chances are highly—for his inventive genius in
devising lines which would never pay, but were
only intended for sale. The shareholders owe it
to themselves in the first place, and to their
directors in the second, to insist upon knowing
where this money has gone.
The proceedings at the meeting were altogether
unsatisfactory. The shareholders were nut merely
unruly, but positively riotous, and the Chairman
finished by trying a coup de th&Vre, which only
sufficed to make the confusion the greater. Bring-
ing forward at the last moment an amendment to
the resolution, temperate considering all the cir-
cumstances, proposed by the Committee of Inves-
tigation, would have been bad policy at any time.
The way in which it was done served to make bad
worse. There seems to have been hardly
an attempt at orderly voting, and it is
not impossible that the irregularity which
characterised the whole affair may lead to future
litigation. There appears little chance of recon-
cilement between the contending parties. At pre-
sent we have a manifesto front the Committee ;
to-morrow there will most likely be one issued by
the Board, and so apparently the struggle will go
on until the property will be depreciated in value
to a degree at which there will be nothing left
worth fighting for.
It is clear that tactics of this sort are simply
suicidal. The railway companies have much
ground to complain of the treatment that they
have received from the Legislature--the Brighton
line, perhaps, more than ally. It would be an
end'n•ss tusk 4.i recapitulate the instances
of favouritism and too frequently bad faith ,