The Express.
London, England, 1850-03-13 00:00:00

LORD GRANVILLE'S RAILWAY AUDIT BILL

(From at Dolly New.)

It was peculiarly unadvisable that any Audit
bill should ibis session originate in the Lords. For
last melon they sent down to the Commons a measure
so very objectionable in principle, and so unworkable
in details, that the lower house pocked it off forth-
with to Lim4o. As, then, the House of Lords had,
in 1849, given the House of Commons a specimen of
its legislation on this subject which was at once re-
jected by o.e p)pular branch cf the legislative, it
would rely have been proper and respectful for the
Upper Howe to tare, in 1880, allowed the Lower
House to have como.enced legislation on a subject in
which their constituents are so peculiarly interested,
and in which the peerage of the country has little
or no concern. No oae called on the Lords to inter-
fere aratn in the matter: every one was waiting for
a bill t be ittrodund into the Gammons : when Lord
GRANVILLF., urged on by the Railway Commissioners,
took the country by surprise.
Lord GameviLLE's bill is, however, so destructive
of the rights of shareholders, that if they will
-only
exert themselves on their own behalf, it cannot be-
come law. At present, the theory of the law gives
considerable powers respecting audits to shareholders.
Time, for instance, shareholders elect the auditors;
auditors mast be shareholders ; shareholders have
powers to appoint committees of investigation ; share-
holders decide on the rate of dividend. True it is,
that nirectorial prectice has, on many points, neutral-
ised these powers of shareholders. And what was
wanted was that those powers should be enlarged and
extended ; that the privileges of shareholders, in the
inanageme..t of their concerns, should be more direct,
more immediate, more comprehensive ; that shwa:-
holders should have the means of really, not merely
of nominally, managing their own affairs; and that
the duties of directors should be strictly executive,
and be exercised under the vigilant superintendence
and active control of the shareholders.
. .

Now, so far from Lord Ofuoivtuo's bill aiming at
an extension of the righ's of shareholders, it utterly
destroys all the powers of audit which they now pos-
sess; it denies their competency to audit their own
accounts; it deprives them of the opportunity of
audit; and it transfers the means of shareholders'
superintendence and control to a public board, which,
when once chosen indirectly by shareholders, will
really be part and pared of the Board of Trade.
Bach a bill is an insult to the intelligence of every
railway company in the kingdom.
And this new audit board is to be maintained by
railway companies at a coat of 10,0001. a year. Here
Is a field for jobbery' Why, for 10,0001. • year the
accoamts of an empire might be audited. Yet are
railway companies to be inflicted with this heavy
charge, though each company is willing and desirous
of auditing its own accounts, and can do so at a 03,••
parativey trifling expeesa. Assessed es this heavy
charge has to be on the capital of each company, it
will amount to a most unjust, because a most unequal
tax ; for the company whose affairs are in a state of
disorder wia, under such an assesiment, have them
investigated at the expense of companies whose to-
counts need bat a few hours' verification.
The practical effect of this coasigning the audit of
all railway companies to one general board will be to,
amen sot an tfficieut, but an inefficient audit. For
Lord Guarnu.s has overlooked the important fact,
that all railway compania require nearly simultaneous
audits of their accounts. Audits are indispensable
preliminaries of general meetings ; and general meet-
ings are holden hall-yearly in the months of February
and August in each year. Railway accounts must
therefore, be riditsd in Janney and July. Now by
what powers of work does Lord GRANVILLE propose
that his three commissioners shall not only audit

the accounts of all the railway companies in tie king-
dom in those two month., but also pupae their
special reports on those accounts? The thing is quite
impossible : it cannot be done if the audit has in each
ease to be efficient. With multi a board this mast be
the alternative: either the accounts will avowedly be
imperfectly audited, or delusive reports will be issued
by the proposed Board of Audits.
On the -grounds, then, that this bill is based OR
a principle the very reverse of what is the truth--the
principle being that shareholders are incompetent to
manage, in every respect, their own affairs, whereas
they are mod competent to do so—that it will de-
price shareholders of even the very insufficient powers
they already poetess ; and that it will erect a system
which will rather delude than protect shareholders by
its results--on these grounds, the delegates of share-
holders have, we think, come to a sound conclusion in
their resolution togive to Lord ORAN VILLE'S billevery
opposition in their power, and to introduce a measure
of their own.
What that measure is, and whether it is likely
to be a sufficient substitute for the attempted inter-
ference of the Board of Trade, mu•, however, be
reserved for future examination. Meanwhile the
House of Lords may do what it pleuse ea the sub-
lest. For it is in the Commons that the question
mast be settled,

INTERVIEW WITH LORD JOHN RUSSELL.
Yesterday, a numerous deputation, teouspo•ed of
factory rowers and operatives, had an interview with Lord
John Russell. at his afield residence, In D mining-street.
Sr G-orse Grey was also present. The deputation
nosing et the Earl of Harrowby, Lord Jobs Manners,
, Sir G. Strickland, M.P. Mr. Moats, M.P., Mr.
' Aeliontgy, M.P.. Mr. Brocklehtirst, M.P . Mr. Edwards,
M.P., Mr. banns, 11.1'.. Mr. Busteild, Sir K Inglis,
M.P., Sir J. Wellesley, M.P., Mr. Added'', M.P., 14 r De
Lon Evens, M.P., Mr. Smyth, M.P., Mr. W. J. Fox, M.P.
Rev. Dr. Burned (Vicar of Bradford), 11r. John Woui
(Bradford), Mr. W. Rood (Bradford), Mr. W. Walker
pielde(Bradfotd), Mr. Thomas Fielders (Mannerist), Mr. fleansi
(Todasorden), Mr. P. Grant (Blanchester), Moen
Mille. Pitt, Wardlaw, Key, Hargreaves, Uasworth, Balms,
and Bottoodey.
Lord JOHN MANNERS headed the deputation, and ob-
served, that then were newest • considerable number e/
IWellkemln from 410 riTiv."!! towns of Ltnan
•
Aire and V Akshire, accompanied by many of their employ-
er+, who cams to inform the government of the good effects
produced by the Tea Hours Bill, where it had been feisty
tried, and of the uaiversal wish of the operatives dug it
should be made effective.
Mr. WILLIAM RAND, a large manufacturer of Brad-
ford, said, that in Yorkshire they were not troubled with
the shift system, they had obeyed the law honestly as it wee
intended '4 the legislature, and he was glad to say that the
most benedelal results followed to both masters and mat. la
some parts of Lancashire a systess of working by shift Mil
been adopted, and the object of the deputation was to In
pries upon the government the importance of making the lime
of working uniform for all parties.
Mr. WILLIAM WALKER, of Bradford, the largest
worsted spinner in Yorkshire, employing nearly 3,000 bands,
bore testimony to the benefits warn the wotkpeople had
derived from the Tea Hours Act, and declared, as a menu-
lecturer. he would never consent to any extension of the
time. So far from the operation of the Act having crippled
or injured trade, there emoted at the present time a wash
&rob!, desire to extend the powers of production, and he
never knew a period when there were so many mills and
warehouses building, which proved that there were a
mate outlay of capital for a legitimate working of the Ten
Hours' An.
Dr. BURNETT (Vicar of Bradford) sail that he spoke
from his experience as a clergyman when be said that it was
almost impossible to calculate the improvement that had
been worked amongst the people in a moral and religious
point of view ; end he believed he was expressing the send-
men e of the whole of the clergy and ministers of the district
in stating that it would be a matter of the deepest regret to
them if any alteration mu made which would entail longer
hours upon the factory workers.
Mr. SAMUEL FIELDEN said, that in the district with
which he was counected a material improveuent had taken
place amongst the factory workers, whilst the wages were
sot reduced in anything likektioe proportion of the reduction
of time. Li his own works the reduction of produce was
not more than one sixteenth upon 10 as compared with 12
hour, and he was satisfied that in a year or two as much
work would be done of the same machines in ten hours as
ever was done in twelve. Tel. would be effected partly by
increased speed, and partly by the increased vigor of the
workpeople.
Mr. W. J. FOX said, that in the borough of Oldham,
which he represented, there were about 130 muter manu-
facturers, of whom more than 100 gave him their support at
the last election, knowing that if the question was again
raised, he would vote for it, end although it had recently
been brought before their notice, not one of them had yet
complained of the cone he had and was likely to adopt in
support of this measure.
Mr. THOMAS FIELDEN said that ten hours was
easagh for any one to work, and more than the masters
could work at the present time with advantage. Many of
them were working four days a week.
Mr. JOHN MILLS, a working man, said he felt serenely
the advantages which had resulted to the operative' gene-
Idly, and especially to his own family. He had ten chil-
d:noon= of whom worked in the mill—three girls and
four boys. It was his misfortune to have one girl working
by " shifts," and there was a marked difference between her
progress and that of the other two since the Ten Hours Bill
came into operation. The two that were working ten hours
had learned to read and write ; tiny could now make their
own clothes, and learn mazy domestic duties they never
knew before, whilst the one th:t was working by shifts hod
made no regress ; in fact, he thought it cruel to ask her to
aunt to those molten after she had been thirteen burrs in
and about the mill.
Mr. MUNI Z said he could not understand why there
should be any more trouble about the matter, for it was
qui.* clear parliament intended tea hours, without the
abominable system of working by shifts now complained of.
Mr. AGLIONBY said he bad been a aupporta of the Ten
Hours Bill ter =say year.. lie had watcted the debates
and taken part in them, and it was notorious that when the
bill was passed it was intended to be a ten hours bill end t of
a fifteen hors bill, as it now resulted, and therefore he could
sot see what objection their could be to correct a mistake,
which every body believed to be a mistake. He thought the
government and the parliament were bound to correct the
error.
Mr. GRANT said that there were present working men
from most of the large towns is Lsneashite and Yorkshire
who knew the determination of the penile, and that being
IP, it was only fair to inform the government that nothing
short of an effective ten bean bill would ever satisfy them,
sad that they would continue to agitate until they ob.
Mined it.
Mr. J. WOOD said that be could never consent to
larger time, and believed that opinion was becoming very
general amount mill-owners
Lord HARRO WBY said that ha had always supported
the bill because he thought it would benefit the man and not
injure the master, and so kr that had been proved. They
bad bad, but a very short trial of it, but it was an
extraordinary one.
Several other members of the deputation spoke to the
good effects of the working of the act when fairly tried, and
the noble lord listened to all the statements with attention,
and thanked them for the information conveyed. His lord-
ship politely bored end the deputation withdrew. The
interview lasted for upwards of an hour.