The Express.
London, England, 1868-08-31 00:00:00

HIGH WATIR 4T LONDON BM:DOZ.

To-my =iiijnlie, lb. 3171—afarn000.-111. s4m.
Tv. cirsow—Morsing, lb. 41m. Altamoom. 9h. as.

NOTICE.
Nonce, of MOTIF% MARZIAOII, Ma DIATOM, Oil POSOMPIS
ifttil 13 o'clock for insertion lame evening. Prim 9s. id.

A SECOND EDITION of t• EXPRESS,

CONTAINING
The Latest Foreign Telegrams ; the Latest City;
Railway, Mining, and other Shares; Sporting,
and General Intelligence,

IS PI7BLISIM
EVERY EVENING.

LONDON, MONDAY, AuGusr 31.

EVIL COMMUNICATIONS, ETC.

Tax epistolary literature of the Credit Ponder
of England grows apace, and when completed
will, we trust, be republished in • volume, with
the title of " A Handy Guide for Shareholdtan"
This morning, the Eight Hon. &rya= WOITIXT,
inspired, perhaps, by that esiigio loci which
a man may be supposed to feel whose name is
not an alias, who is an Englishman by right of
birth, and whose habitation is of older standing
than that of a naturalised adventures who should
write from " Champignon Hall," addressee to the
Times from " Wortley Hall, Sheffield," a letter
which may be accepted with tolerable con-
fidence as a genuine and authentic production,
since it is dated three days before its publication.
This letter deserves respectful attention, if only as
an instance of the fine sense of family and per-
sonal honour which moves a gentleman of high
social consideration, who, after having had the
misfortune to be caught and dragged down into •
financing whirlpool , is anxious that the public should
understand that he has escaped out of it with
a sum not even approaching 18,0001. sticking to
his heels. Mr. STUART Worruts, in his capa-
city of .ex-chairman of the Credit Fonder, is par-
ticularly susceptible to " impostures." When he
wrote last week to repudiate the offer of restitu-
tion unwarrantably attributed to him by an im-
pudent usurper of his name, he had none of his
papers at hand, although he wrote then (on

Monday, August 2'l), as he does now (on Fri-
day Auguat 28), from " Wortley Hall, Ethef-
" field," and his " chief object" was simply to give
the publio the earliest intimation, through
the Times, of " tho im which had
" been attempted on us all!'tuirLding we sup:
pose the Credit Foncier shareholders. The chief
object of Mr. Bremer Woe:ma's letter, date!
August 28, is to oonfitm his former statesmen-
that be bad " never received from the Cce It
" Fonder* sum even approsohing 18,0001." What
he did receive the public of course has no right to
ask, but Mr. STUART Woirrt..rs carefully intone+
the public that " the directors had no salaries nor
" board fees unless they attended," which, under
the circumstances, was certainly very oonaid trate
(not to say self-denying) on the partof the direotors.
Why Mr. STUART WORTLEY should put so fine a
point on salaries and board fees for attendance we
cannot understand ; since neither the one nor the
other of those usual items of remuneration has
been called in question. " The commission we
" received"—that is the question. Let us see
how Mr. STUART WORTLEY meets it. " The
" commission we received," he says, " was cal-
" masted strictly upon rates that were from time
" to time deliberately sanctioned after discussion
" at the public meetings, and upon profits which
" I then believed, and still believe, to have been asks-
" ally earned for the benefit of the Company."
Mr. STUART WORTLEY wee a lawyer before he was
a director; he knew then, and still knows, the
precise value of words. We should like to know
what he means by a deliberate sanction after
publio discussion. According to their articles
of association, it may very well be that
the directors of the Credit-Foncier were entitled
to divide profits on commission, for floating all
sorts of companies, destined like the parent
company itself, to enrich their directors
and impoverish their shareholders. But were
those articles of association ever read at any meet-
ing of the shareholders and deliberately adopted
after public discussion ? Had a single shareholder,
who was not also a director, the slightest acquaint-
ance with them ? One cannot expect every director
to be so extremely nice as Mr. STUART WORTLEY,
who it seems declined to accept a sum of money
which had been calculated as commission on
profits accrued while he was still on
the direction, but when he had been
absent from illness. Only when he was
well, and able to take his seat at the board,
was Mr. STUART WORTLEY willing to take
his commission on " profits accrued." But will he
explain to the public the nature of those profits?
From what source did they accrue ? To whom did
they accrue 1' What were the profits ? Into
whose hands did they fall! Who was the richer
for them ? Thousands of families can tell
Mr. STUART WORTLEY who are the poorer by
those " profits."
If, indeed, according to its articles of associa-
tion, the Credit Foncier was founded for the benefit
of its directors only, there is nothing more to be
said about these profits on commission, except
that the shareholders, in their eagerness to pocket
forty per cent. without inquiring how they got
it, have been vary properly and righteously made
the victims of their own credulous rapacity, and
have put themselves out of court as the voluntary
duped of a system which enables three of their
directors to invoke the decision of any tribunal of
law or equity in their own favour. Mr. STUART
WORTLEY, however, goes further than this ;
he has always been willing, and is still
prepared to surrender any portion of his receipts
as a director, " of which not only any court of law
" or equity might compel the payment, but which
" any properly constituted tribunal of honour or
" commercial integrity might hold to be due from
" us." Mr. ALBERT GRANT will probably con-
sider such an offer as this Quixotic, and
will begin to dread the tardy susceptibilities
of right hon. gentlemen with a local habitation
and a name. He has learnt the virtue of silence
in that greet school of honesty and honour, the
Seconh Empire, and has reason to regret, that in-
stead of adopting England as a country he
did not remain on the other side of the
Channel, to become, at least, a Senator.
Such a court of honour as Mr. STUART WORTLEY
desires ought not to be absolutely undisooverable
in England. Without undertaking to say off-

hand of whom it should consist, there can be
no difficulty in deciding whom it should exclude.
Wanted, a DIGGENES lantern !

LORD esirriznosen confirms the statement al-
ready made by another passenger that at the time
of the fatal railway accident at Abergele some at
least of the carriages were looked upon both sides.
The railway officials state, on the contrary, that,
according to custom and regulation, they were
locked upon one side. The public may be per-
mitted to ask why this senseless and dangerous
custom—a custom by the way unknown upon the
Continent—is permitted to prevail at all In the
case of the recent tragedy it was perhaps imma-
terial whether the carriage doors were locked or
not, eo rapid and almost instantaneous was the
work of destruction. If, however, another moment
or two had intervened, the chance of life or death
would have depended upon whether the doors
were locked or latched. It is pretty certain, how-
ever, that this railway regulation will not be re-
scinded except upon compulsion ; and in the
meantime the best advice that can be given to the
traveller is to carry a key in his pocket.

At Windsor Castle preparations have been com-
menced for the reception of the Queen and the junior
members of the royal family, who are expected to arrive
on or about Friday week from Switzerland. Her Majesty
will seek a few days' repose at the castle, and then pro-
seed to Balmoral. The royal grounds and Windsor Park
bare greatly Improved in appearanee gage the resent
nine.

The aoooneheinent of her Royal Highness Prin-
cess Militias may. nye tb. AO, be impanel se ao way
&Must date.

Their Ito* Highnesses the Prince and Prince.,
of Waldo are expected to pay a visit to the Duke old
Alamo of liatinclaad at Duarobta Castle before they
kb,. Scotland.

The Count and Countess de Paris and the Duke
de Poathilem are making • tour in North Wales.
Tea TilWel AHD Panrosse OP Waxa.--The
Prises of Wales, Prince John of Denmark, and the gen.
Hessen of the suite, continue to enjoy mealiest sport, on the moors and in the !med. On Friday, the
Prime of Wales went deer stalking in the A
Tomei, and killed two fine stags On Monday Mt=
west again deer stalking, and killed three very fine
which were shown in front of the castle by aid
of after dinner, in the usual way. On Tues-
day, theb Boyal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of
Wales, Priam Jobn, and the rest of the suite, went to
Loth:Mak to a Mario. The day was somewhat cold and
rough, yet the royal party seemed to enjoy thenneiven
Wisday forenoon, tieing the =summary of the birth
of the late Prince Consort, was celebrated (am:ding to
the practice since his death) by the tenantry, tenants, As.,
on the royal estates, mooting' at the monument mead to
his memory. On Wednesday afternoon the woods of
Abergeidie were " beat" for deer. It is said the stay of
their royal highnesses will not extend beyond the Bth or
loth of September. His Royal Highness the Duke of
Edinburgh, it is expected, will arrive in the course of this
week.

Mr. Hadfield, M.P., writes from Southport to a
friend in Sheffield (we the Bhejleid Tsisgraph) informing
him thadepat on the 27th natant his beloved wife, long an in-
vrted this life. The sympathy of the town will
be alid,
wd.II Hr. Hadfield is paiatull breavaaent.

iIii•EMMINNM=Mm

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
(THIS DAY.)

)s or Tun 1110111KIVES.11 urns'.

Condoling with the Chancellor of the E sehequer
that figures follow hineven to Inverness-shim, the Tins
says that his reply to Mt. GledligeneetnsiaM snakily in
what lawyets oesdlesaion osti availidanos.4 it ad 'ohs
tiet the optional expenditure of the 'country hes been
increased by about 4000,0001. to two years; and Its de-
ft nee. is that the additional outlaw was compelled by
11 1001111 of policy. Thus the Timm acknowledges that if
the expenditure of the government was neoes-
lazily increased in some departmentb it should have
economised in other directions. The policy of saving
adopted by the late ministry has been abandoned. The
present one has launched out in all directions and re-
trenched in none.
If Mr. Hunt's letter was intended to supply tory candi-
dates with a reply to the charge of extravagance brought
against the government, it is, in the estimation of the
Doily News, a complete . and conspicuous failure
To the charge of extravagant estimates he vir-
tually replies, " I assure you the money is really spent on
the army and navy." The more closely the wilt:Wars
are scrutinised the more clear will it appear that they are
charges for which the administration itself is responsible.
With 30,000,0001. to manipulate a prudent and resolute
finance minister would find it easy to reduce expenditure
in one department if it was necessary to increase it in an-
other. During the tart three years of him administration
Mr. Gladstone reduced the expenditure 3,000,0001. The
1 Tory government have increased it by 3,000,0001.
Thus a weak Tory government costs the country some
0,000,0001. annually.
The Morning Fast adopts the same view. Mr. Hunt
admits the fact of increase, whilst his explanations of it
are by no means satisfactory. Tho taxpayers of the
country will regard it as a very ugly fact to swallow.
In the opinion of the relegreph, if the defence of the
government fails in the hands of such a competent advo-
cate as Mr. Hunt, it must be because of its inherent weak-
ness, and that the case of the government is a bad one in
itself the Tr/ever/ph proceeds to point out.
The Herald doubts whether Mr. Gladstone would have
pressed his question as to the increase of 3,000,0001. for
1868-9 if he imagined that the answer would have been so
prompt and so effective. The Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer's letter not only repels the attack upon the finan-
cial policy of the government but fastens the increase of
waste and extravagance ou Mr. Gladstone himself. Mr,
Hunt admits the fact of increase, but his defend and ex-
planation is that it was rendered not only justifiable but
necessary, either from the shamefully inefficient condition
in which Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues left the ser-
vice', or by engagements to which they bad pledged
themselves, and which they transmitted to their suc-
cessors.

In the opinion of the Standard, " Mr. Gbdstone has had
another fall," and Mr. Hunt " has flung his intemperate
and disingenuous assailant very heavily." The Standard
adopts the same ground of defence as the Herald.

01.111111117.11.

Without pronouncing in any way on the merits of the
quarrel, the Daily Newt confiders that the cabmen are
altogether wrong in their mode of waging war. They
have committed the strategic error of attacking the arbiter
in the quarrel. To avenge themselves on the railways
they punish the public. To withdraw the oldie for ,
certain home of every day is an infraction of the
conditions on which their owners hold their Swinges. An
entire cessation of work—a cab strike against the
publio—is a refusal to carry out their stile of • contract.
Nor can such • strike in any way influence the
railways.
For the sake of the cabmen themselves it is to be hoped
(says the Herald) that they will reconsider their deterrai-
nation before they put themselves hopelessly lathe wrong.
There was a sort of constitutional argument in favour of
punishing the public by • strum against what their repre-
sentatives bad done in Parliament; but there is none at
all in visiting them with all manna of pains and penalties
because the railway companies drive what the cabmen
consider a hard bargain.
Whatever may be the moral right of the cabmen to
strike, they have not made it out to the public satisfaction.
They, no doubt, have a grievance against the eompaniee ;
but is that grievance big enough to Justify the measures
for redress they have begun to adopt f In one respect
however, the cabman has the advantage of his antagonist;
he has condescended to make a »presentation of his case
to the public. The railway companies, so far as the Star
is aware, have not.
The character of the meeting at the Agricultural-halt
gives the Timm no reason to doubt that the men are in
earnest in their desire to abolish the restrictions which
exclude so many of therm from the railway stations, and
the recollection of former years shows that when they
ere thus in earnest, they will resolutely maintain their
ground. Sooner or later, the public, therefore, must be
prepared to deal with another cab strike. The Times
advocates the principle of free trade in locomotion as the
only one that will reconcile the interests of the cabs and
their customers.