The Express.
London, England, 1861-08-10 00:00:00

GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY.

The report of the directors to the thirtieth half-
yearly ordinary general meeting of the proprietors, to be
held on the 17th inst., states that the sum of 56,9601.
17s. 10d. has been disbursed on capital account ; but of this
amount 5,00 W. is in part payment of the company's sub-
scription of 2/5,000/. to the Garston and Liverpool line,and
8,0811. 10s. has been applied in paying off mortgagee on the
Witham Navigation, which the company have power to re-
issue. The actual outlay for the improvement end exten-
sion of the Great Northern Railway is therefore 43,8761
7s. 10d. The total receipts and payments on capital ac-
count to the 30th June are as follows s-Receipts to 30th
June, 1861, 11,990,711/. ; expenditure, 11,662,6031. 3s. 51. ;
balance, 307,907/.165. 7d. The following is an abstract of
the revenue account for the half-year ending 30th June
last:-Gras. eomits. 660,7981. 2s. 11d. ; gross expenditure,
2/23„7781. 6s. 9d. ; balsnos of leceipts over expenditure,
287,02 U. 16s. 2d. ' • balance from previous half-year, 9651.
idea. 10d. ; due from Eastern Counties Company, as per net
revenue account, No. 3, 8,4001.; total revenue, 296,3871. 10a.;
fixed charges, including mortgage and debenture stock in-
terest, and preference dividends, 208,2941. 3s. 3d. ; balance
available for dividend on the original A and B stocks,
90,0931. 6s. 91.; decrees as compared with the ace-
responding period of last year, 18,9931. 18.. Id.
The ba/anes will afford dividend at the rate of 31. 15s. per
cent. per annum on the original stock, giving, for the half-
year, 11. 17s. 6d. per cent. en the original stock, 31. per cent.
us the B stook, and 15s. per cent. oa the A stock ; and the
Jinxing" recommend that dividend at these rates be de-
clared at the half.yearly wanting on the 17th instant. The
balance to be carried to next 'half-year's account will be
1541. lfts. 3d. The receipt* of the ball-year were seriously
affected by the failure of last year's harvest,
and by the contraction of the general commerce
of the country ; but there is no reason to doubt that
with the return of ordinary commercial activity,
and a good harvest, the general receipts of the company
will, as heretofore, steadily increase. The navigatioos were
of course closed during the frost, and the receipts are conse-
quently less by 8731. than in 1860. The mineral traffic,
however, has yielded 3,4261. additional revenue, while its
expenses are less by 3,5161. The severity of the winter
months not only tended to depress the revenue,
but it increased the working expenses. The per-
manent way and rolling stock both suffered severely,
and it became necessary to expend upward. of 5,000/. addl.
clonal upon the carriages end wagons, principally to replace
tyres of wheels damaged or destroyed during the frost.
The general expenditure on the permanent way is further
charged with 5,0007. in reduction of the renewal account.
The additional charge upon the net revenue consists of the
rent payable to the Mordent and Luton Company ; the in-
terest on the last call of 200,000/. on the 5 per emit. Pre-
ference Stock redeemable at 5 per cent. and additional hate-
rest on borrowed capital, amounting alt.:ether to 10,6471.65.
After giving the result of the proceedings in parliament
during the last session, so far as they affect this
company, the report continues :-The directors have
thought it prudent to agree with the directors of
the Grantham and Nottingham• Company, subject to
the approval of the proprietors, to lease that line for
9J4 years on and from the Ist August instant, on
the terms of paying them a dividend at the rate of
41. 2a. 6d. per cent. per annum on their capital of
1,014,0007., with the right to purchase the whole property
on repayment of the capital at par value. A resolution to
confirm thus arrangement will ho submitted to the special
meeting, and the directors cordially recommend its ap-
proval. The directors have given much consideration to
the mode of raising the additional capital required for the
new undertakings, amounting together to aroma., and as
they think that the proprietors should not be called on to
pay interest on this sum during the period that must be
occupied in constructing the lines, they have resolved to
recommend them to authorise the issue of irredeemable 5
per cent. preference shares, the dividend oo which will
accrue from the lit January, 1864 ; the right of pre-
ference being limited to the profits of each year, in
accordance with a recent regulation of parliament. The
new shares will be 5/. each, one-fourth of which is to he
called up during this year upon one mouth's notice. and the
remainder in three equal portions in the year 1862, with a
like notice for each call. Thee. shares will be allotted in
the first instance to proprietors, in proportion to the amount
of their respective holdings, every proprietor reoeivieg one
share at the least. Mr. Walter flare Brydone has resigned
his position as engineer to the company, and the directors
have appointed Mr. Richard Johnson, who has for many
years been in the service of the company as resident
engineer at Peterborough, to the post vacated by Mr.
Brydone.

COWL AND BANDON RAILWAY. —The half-yeatiy
report of the directors of this company states that the re-
ceipts for the last six months show an increase of 2661. 10..
24. over those of the corresponding period of the previous
year, notwithstanding tb.it there has been a fallicg off in
the passenger traffic, partly owing to a recent order com-
pelling the military to march instead of travelling by rail.
The revenue account for the half-year exhibits • moat,
after providing for all expenses, of 2,349/. 7s. id. applicable
for dividend, which the directors recommend to be paid on
the No. 1 preference shares, at the rate of 51 and
en the No. 2 preference shares at the rate of 6
per asst, per annum, for the half-year ending :30th
Jane last, and payable on the Ist September next, leav-
iag a belanoe of 1491. 19s. ld. to be carried to the next ac-
count. The works of the Kinsale Junction Railway are pro.
greasing, and the line is expected to be open for traffic next
sKin4. Since the last half-yearly meeting the Cork and
Macroom Direct Railway Company have obtained as act for
constructing a railway from the lies to Macroom, and a
clause has been inserted in their bill to enable them to use
the terminus at Cork, and a mile of this company's line, at a
rent to be hereafter settled between the two companies.
The directors also report that a claim having been made by
some shareholders for dividends unpaid on the No. 1 prefer-
ence shares, previous to their taking office in June, 1636,
deemed it advisable to takethe opinion of counsel, which sill
be submitted for the consideration of the meeting,
Ten LONel OF THE BM rte.—The particulars of
the loss of this tine steamship, belonging to Messrs. T.
Wilson, Son, and Co., of Hull, have already base reported.
At the Police-court yesterday morning Mr. T. H. Travis, the
stipendiary magistrate, raid a letter which be had received
from the Board of Trade, stating that be bad carefully
considered the circumstances under which this vessel was
lost. "The default," it says, "of the master leaving the
ship when in each a pesition and under such circumstances,
in charge of a thoroughly incompetent person, appeared to
them to be so gross that to mark their disapproval of his
conduct they have deemed it right to cancel his eertiacate,
without naming for the present any time at which applies.
tins may be made for its Mars."

EXTRAORDINARY ATTEMPT TO MURDER A
PATEN&

A frightful attempt at parricide formed the
tub*, magirteria investigation at Great Grimsby, Lin-
colnshire, on Thursday last. It appeared from the evidence
that a young man, about 28 years of age, a shoemaker,
named Benjamin Betts, living with his father, John Betts,
the sexton of the pariah, having received some religious
"impression "at the baptist chapel on Sunday, laboured
under a highly nervous state of excitement, betraying evi-
dent symptoms of a deranged mind, but from
which his family did not apprehend any serious
results. However, on Friday night, he told hie
father that he would not sleep in the mime chamber with
Hollingshead, a lodger, for he was a " fiend," but would
sleep with him, to which the father assented, and about
eleven he retired to his father's chamber, leaving
the latter up reading. At one o'clock the son came
down stairs to his father, who was still sitting up, and said
be was hungry. After eating something both went to bed,
the sue taking with him two of his shoemaker's knives.
The father, not fearing any danger to himself, did not offer
to take them away. Both then undressed, and got into bed.
The eon did not betray any ill-feeling towards his father,
or say anything to lead to a suspicion of his intention.
After lying a abort time, the son got out of bed, locked
the chamber door, and returned to bed. He afterwards got
out twice, and on getting into bed the het time, which was
about three o'clock and quite dark, the father being awake,
be seized upon the old man, and began stabbing ham with
one of the knives. A closed struggle ensued, in which both
fell out of bed, and the struggle was continued on the floor,
the son making his stabs at random. The father, at hat,
getting the uppermost, obtained a mastery by seizing his
son's arm and wrenching the knife out of Ms band. Both then
got up and at on the bed. The old man opened the cham-
ber doors. soon aa ble and ran down stairs to a neigh-
Mfiarteraehn ttagtysverrAndilsaaL bang
no light in Bette's house, Mumby obtained OM from hp
own, when a fearful spectacht. petietlisd • itself, Pile house
being like a slaughterhouse, and the old man being literally
covered with blood, which was running down from several
see* wounds in his sidi and legs: Boehm diet ha was
beginning to faint, from loss of blood, Mr. ataphy sehad
for some brandy, which the sou (who had come crown
stairs) got, and gave to his father; showielravery anx-
iety to render bun assistance. There being a frightol
cut in the thigh, from which the blood was flowing rather
fast, Mr. Mumby took off his garter and tied it tightly
above thewean* which stopped the .hemorrhage. Mr.
Curds*, surgeon, was *agent for, who shot* arrived
and dressed the wound. examination he found several
stabs in the side; Which, ing an oblique direction atom
the ribs, ware firetunatelyhot of a dangerous character, and
also several stabs in the thighs and legs. The old man lost
a great quantity of blood, and is in a Very weak condition,
but is now programing favourably. 'The eon, whilst attend-
ing to his father, said that be had let the devil out of him,
and if he had not done so he would have gone to hell ; but
if he had only killed that "fiend," pointing to the eat, he
would have been saved. Mr. Hamby took him into the
road, sod walked about to calm him until the arrival of two
liormen. into whose custody he was giveu. On being
locked up be commenced whistling and singing hymns.
He was remanded.

THE FIRE AT A COLLIERY NEAR GLASGOW:
Full particulars have now been ascertained as to
the extent of the lose of if. arising from the fire at Sum-
i merle* Pik although its cause and exact circumstances have
not been verified with any degree of precision. Indeed, as
regards its cause, all opinions are mainly conjectural ; the
must probable surmise being, however, that it should be
assigned to an accumulation of soot in the air-shaft from
the rarifying furnace. This view derives a strong support
from the consideration that, only five 'minutes before the
fearful event, a number of men nsconded the shaft and saw
nothing wrong. A fact so apparently inexplicable is quite
consistent with the hypothesis now stated, ions
much as the soot might catch in a moment, and at
once convert the shaft into a column of . fire. The
men below at the time of the occuirence nata-
-1 bered 50. All of these were got out leforal o'clock yester-
day morning. Of these 11 were dead, rite one has since
died. It deepens the sad impression of this 'dire calamity
to note that among the dozes persons thus hurried into
eternity there are three installing wistire the victims were
brothers. The smog Aof those killed are as follow :
Alex. and Mild Hamilton,' brothers; John and
Thomas Potter, brothers ; Jelin and Hugh Craig,
brothers ; -- Claude Nelson, Thomas Millar,
M'Letchie Baxter,'. Currie, and Mail Thomson.
Thomson died betweetlll ead,P2 °Week yesterday forenoon.
The majority of the demand were unmarried men. The com-
pany have given instructions for the burial of the dead, pro-
mising to defray the expense,as slsoto provide for the assist-
ance of those who are hurt and who lie in a precarious state.
',nine which wag started from the aississeg in Sarapsee's
Pit was stopped when the men were being fast got out, as
it was only in the event of the wood giving way in the
shaft, and the consequent closing in of the pit, that it
would have been required. The distance to drive was only
30 feet, instead of 60 yards as we stated ou Thursday, and
this could have been accomplished in about eight noun.
Much praise is due to Andrew Hunter, Robert Hutcheson,
1 James Harris, and R. Graham, who volunteered
their services, descended the shaft twice, and were in-
strumental in rescuing the greater part of the sufferers.
They were well seconded by other workmen, whose
exertions likewise entitle them to much credit. Messrs.
Simpson and Austin, coalmasters in the vicinity, took
a very active and valuable part in the management of the
operations ; and Mr. Blank, manager of the colliery ; Alex.
Roes, manager to J. Nisbet, Esq., of Fairneygiur ; Wm.
Barr, manager to the Merryton Coal Company ; Thomas
1 Hepburn, builder ; Robert Eadie, baker is Larkhall ;
and several others, were assiduous in their exertions.
Dr. Weir has been in constant attendance on the suf-
ferers, and it is but doing justice to that gentleman
to say that he has done all for the poor unfortunates that
medical skill and kindness could suggest. Dr. Loudon,
of Hamilton, was also present, and exerted himself to the
utmost of his ability. About ten o'clock yesterday morning
two men descended the shaft to ascertain the state of
matters, when they discovered the coal to be on fire and
the pit filled with smoke. They were, therefore, obliged to
re-amend as speedily as possible, and VD reaching the surface
they were much exhausted. The pit mouth wiuummediately
afterwards covered over with wood and clay, in order to pre.
vent the admission of air, end by this means contributing to
extinguish the fire. Mr. Nelson, along with Dr. Sloan and
several other gentlemen, visited the scene of the catastrophe
yesterday afternoon, and were busy devising measures for
the relief of the sufferers and the prevention of further
damage.—!North British Md it.