The Express.
London, England, 1850-08-19 00:00:00

gee erprefos.

OUTGOING MAILS.
Tim mails kw Gibesliar, MAL, Giese, Om Testes blasts,
Reese. Carlos. India, sad Chios, ens Stratitamptee, will
le made up tel-sionow monism
16. maul. no This.. Nana Amnia, Homed% sad
the Catcall Sham will ha stall up es Assam 21
Ti. incite for Brit Nath Await*, Bnis. sad the
Uoits3 States hid be made up es the ensuing et August 33.
Ile snails rid Itaresilles, to the lledlterreamaa,
tkuurlLems, As., will be smde upt
east big of As: act 24.
The Issas for Liable, Spain, sad Gibrehar will be weds
as es lb. moraine of Asian 27
The West lodia Moils, szeluttleg Honduras, ews.
N Se-
eseosh, mad broad (EP Hendee), sad larludieg Vase.
sesta, New Brands, sod Grey Taws (St Juts de limareps)
will be suds up nu tbe somas, of September 2.
The malls for lima* will be made up to September 2.
The MUM for Modern. Me Sessile. said Basses Ayres, will
be made up es dm *main Wiest 4.
Tee sea, far Htvanaalt. bisseures, Neessa„
Jeem 1,
Chili, sad Peru,will be made up earls essesiag et Sept. 17.

MON warm AT LONDON IN/DOL
Tun Das—twirl. lb Aasnanu Th. •r.
T►r.srsr nu INA •MOsss. U. Um

LONDON. MONDAY, AUGUST 19.

ins half-yearly railway meetings are now in as
full swing as grouse shooting. Already, Jailed,
those of the two greatest and as yet most successful
companies the North Western and the Great
Western—are over. Aud the noisier and more disor-
derly assemblies will quickly follow. Mr. GLYN and
Mr. Rroalm. have addressed their subjects in expla-
nation of the rest and in anticipation of the next six
months ; if not with equal success, at all events to
their general satisfaction. Bat while the Great
Western proprietors have been obliged to rest eon-
tent with what they could get—a dividend at the
rive of four per cent.; the North nesters share-
holders present oa the occasion had the ran imagnani-
mity to retire to ley their " itching palms" on more
then their directors recommended they should touch
—5 per cent., and, to testi'y their confidence in the
board, earri • on its recommendation no lama sum than
140,0001. to the general credit of the parthership,l
rattier than impeach its policy by dividing it amongst
thescielv,s. Whether so self-denying a body has
most reason to be proud of Mr. GLYN, or Mr. GLYN
of such a concentration of abrinence and forbear-
ance, is a delicate question difficult of solution. Per-
haps they can justly indulge in a reciprocal ad-
minion. It would be interesting to see the
Great Western shareholders placed in a similar pre-
dicament. _ _ .

On the prudence and advisability of carrying over
large balances of profit which can be rendered appli-
cable to prteent dividend, there is, to use Sir Roger
de Crerky'a favourite expreetion, "mach to be said
ea both sides.* It is the practice of the Bank of
England; and the example of that great establish-
ment has been followed by most other joint-stock
basking institutions. It constitutes a reserve fund
against which to draw on sudden and unforeseen
emergencies, to which all trading concerns, even
railways, are liab'e ; it enables the executive to main-
tain during a half year of unexpectedly diminished
profit the ordinary rats of dividend, and so supports
the valise of the company's stock in the market; and
it cannot but be that a company, having hooeatly a
large balance always in hand, and always applicable
to divider d, must enjoy a higher trading reputation
than a company which semi-annually divides every
penny it carol, and commences each half-year anew
with an empty till.
Such are the obvicus advantages of the practice.
Bat then come the hardships so well described by Mr.
BRIGHT. The proprietary of a railway company,
even of the North Western, is a fleeting body ;
the constituency of this half-year is greatly changed
next. What is earned in the s'x months
ending 30 h June, 1830, is justly the property of
the shareholders then on the registry; if they are
deprived of any part of it and that part b.' divided
amongst the shareholders w:ici are on the registry on
31st Dec., 1830, the new shareholders gain so much
that the old proprietors ought to have bad; the
former get what is really due to the latter. If
railway companies were to be treated as aggrega-
tions of individuals, and not as corporations or enti-
ties, this reasoning wsuld be irresistible. But as rail-
way companies cannot be so treated ; as the law has
by incorporating deprived them of ail individual cha-
racter, this general argument dots not command

Practically the goes'ioa is one of law and expe-
diency. On the 120 h sect. of 8 Viet., c. 16, special
pleading might, west once admit, raise a very inge-
nious argument in support of the proposition that
the scheme which the directors are thereby ordered to
prepare and lay bef re the shareholders, showing the
profits and apportioning the same to dividend, ought
to exhaust the profi s ; but it is clear
that the shareholders are not bound to di-
vide all the pr.ifits ; they, if not the directors, have, '1
under the clause, power to reserve profits; though how
the welts so reserved in one half year are to be
curled into the scheme of the next dces not seem to
have been provided fur by the legislature.
Is it, then, expedient to carry over large balances
of profit ? It is clearly not unjust; it is as clearly
not unlawful; is it expedient? That must depend
on the facts of each case • on the cause, which, in the
particular half-year, produced a profit larger than the
ordinary dividend; and on the probable circumstances
of the next.

In the C 486 of the North Western, the justifiestioa
will, we think, be found in the last class of reasons.
Next half-year there will not only be a heavy addi-
tional demand on revalue—no ler, raid Mr; WAY,
than 95,000 t.—but there is s probability of loss of
revenue from the hot competition jest begun with the
Great Northern. Under such circumstances to carry
forward a suoatantial balance appears only an exer-
cise of reasonable prudence; though whether
140,0001. be not too large an amount is a question we
will not prettnd to decide.
It is curious and important, however, to note the
numbers by which the directors' proposal to carry
forward a balance of 140.0001. and to limit the diet-

dead to 5 per cent. was supported and opporei: Two
divisions were called for : on the former the numbers
for Mr. BRIGHT'S amendment were 68, against it 90;
while in favour of Mr. oAaNtrr's amendment for a
still larger dividend there were 38, against 113. Now,
on the register of the North Western Company there
are, Mr. OLIN once stated, nearly 15,000 share-
holders, and yet on the all-important question of divi•
dend not 150 of these 16,000 persona could be assem-
bled to vote. Such is the confidence of railway pro-
prietors in their directors. Whether it be a wise or a
blind confidence is another question.
Oa three topics both Mr. CiLTX and Mr. RUSSELL,
In addressing their constituents, agreed, viz., on the
necessity for closing the capital amount, on the pro-
priety of bringing estimates of farther expenditure of
capital before their proprietors, and taking votes
thereon; and in condemning the Railway Commis-
sioners Audit Bill, which, though the Lords voted,
was smareartly withdrawn from the Commons, and
which, as Mr. GLTN happily and trathfully remarked,
contained all the bad and objectionable parts of all
previous audit bill..
Very different, however, in some other respects,
were those railway potentates' speeches to their
Wittesagemotee. For whilst Mr. GLYN seemed
happy and contented in his own dominions, native
sad earnest in his attention and care to the concerns
of his own unMeots, and eagseiessly and confidently
looking forward to better times, Mr. Russell. green-
bled over sad sneered at low fares, explained how os
a point of law rather than of substantial justice he
had frustrated the intention of the legislature on the
subject of fares, detailed how he bed disputes or liti-
gations with nearly all his shied ee dependent powers,
and how he and the 'slimy carmaieslonen were again
in Westminster Hall.

It would be savors towy that Mr. Russam. repels,
hut it is call justice to add that he does not, ilk* Mr.
Ot ix, impin nomadism Oust as the ability with
which the Great Westin is masaged, sadoutsd u
are the merits of the soheme, large as was at me
time its measure of mama% and improving though its
prospect. ere, it is strange that the pleasantest of all
boos for travelling on should have a mystery, a am-
plexity, and obscurity about its affairs, its alliances,
and its engagements that an, to my the least, unplea-
sant. To ordicary people, Great Western poliey
still wean an appearance of super-subtlety, of
isolation, and of selfishness ; its management is too
able, too reamed, too ingenious. In all its contracts
there is a loophole; is all its entragensente a back-
door. Aad half-yearly Mr. Ruse= is compelled to
tell his Mends what a narrow escape he made is

jumping out of the formers and how advantageouly
for du= he closed the latter just in time. All
of which, though life to the zCireaLWeatem ilk
death to the Word, Wureester,and Ifelverhompers,
and to the &ma Woks. The • • Haw may.
however come, when even Mr. Russitii: will be over-
taken. Meanwhile a little more simpliattiof tylaa
went, a little better fen in ergentibla, siCe btu.,
lase litigation woad reader am Ofent
policy more gnatsl and less.uspeperlar. \Even
railways can't afford to be for ever squabbling; rein
railways will somethass And it more profitable in the
long run to stand the amseqemiess of a bad bargain,
than to get discreditably out of a scrape.

Emma/nay do not make adroit jailers; they are
both fumy and awkward, when Galled upon to
execute tt ail. task; se is but too fully proved m the
Memorial de as. Helene. Oar Indian authorities
thought, it seems, that the Sikh Chiefs and Quota
Mother could never be left in safety in the
Panjaub. In the first burst of victory, they were
Weed treated with lenity and consideration. But
by degrees fears were excited and pretexts formed,
with, we fear, so great oheervanes of good faiths
far seizing the chiefs, as well as the Ranee, and tran-
sporting them as prisoner', from the Indu to the
Gasp'. By this severity we of coarse exasperated
the chiefs of the aid San insurrection, whilst at the,
same time we placed them within reach and facility
of escape, from the vicinity of the Nepaul frontier to
the places of their confinement. The inevi-
table result, which any one might have fore-
seen, has taken place. The intriguing Qasen Mother,
sad numbers of the influential Sikhs have made their
=from durance, and am new safe eithee at Hat-
or in some part of the independent country of
Nepaul.
h is singular mosey that whilst the last maleon-
tents of Hindostan are thus mustering in the last
Hindoo country, which ptmsirvs, a share of in-
dependeoce, an extraordiosry envoy from that
country should have been paying a pro-
loord visit in England, endeavouring to fathom
oar politic", and appreciate our power. With respeet
to the first, we doubt that his excellency General
Juno BAHADOOIL, can have made much propos. He
may have attended parliament all the session, but as
to asy one spark of light being. swank oat there as to
oar government of India. or intentions towards, it,
t'were vain to look. Lmdenhall-strest • has lost
several of its magnates by death; their places
have been filled up by election. In this fee,
all-weighing, and discussing country, the Nepanlese
envoy might
i have looked, on this ocessise for
some die y of iginciple, some struggle of Party,
some inklings of Anglo-Indian policy or division. Bat
some unknown and Aware men were succeeded by

men as little known or eminent. Daewoo, there we's
none, save what arises from personal Gonna:hut or
antipathies. And in vain might his Excellency look
in ftdenball-street for any of the symptoms
betokening the seat of a great empire. Whether he
had more reason to revere the wisdom of Cannon-
row and the statesmanship. a Sir JOHN ROB-
HOME. we need not tany to inquire. If Sir Joss
was as communicative to the Nepaulese statesman, as
he is to his own appointed councillors, truly
there is no fear of any considerable abstrao-
%ion of state secrete. Were it not, indeed
for the stalwart vessels behind Blackwell,
and the facilities fur drawing and for spending, that
our London merchants aced, his Excellency might
have come to the conclusion that the report of Eng-
land's being mistress of the East was but a myth, so
little majesty,, or publicity, or external phenomena
attend it.

We know not whether the Nepaulete attended any
review in Hyde Pak. If so, we doubt its having
been of that imposing nature ealculicaid to strike an
Oriental with an idea of our military power. Ports-
mouth they may have seen : bat what is a Beet in
relation to an inland and mountainous empire? The
simplicity of our QuERN's Court, the =jewelled
head of even the Lord Ceamberlain, and the petti-
ness of the Pimlico Palace, may have excited
esteem, but certainly not awe. We, there-
fore, fear much for the effect of the report that
General Itaw:i BAHADOOX will no doubt mate
to the Court of £atmandoo. It would be still worse
if perchance those who communicated with his ex-
cellency during his visit were more of the calibre of
Polonius than of Hamlet. _ _

The very act of sending such an embassy, how-
ever, betokens good feciog. And it is not to
be expected that the Sikh refugees come' pro-
vided with any overpowering mass of persua-
sive arguments to induce the Nepaulese to dis-
turb peace. French and Rusaians: are by this time
conviuced how absurd and idle it is to expend cares
and sums in establishing an interest antagonistic to
England at native courts. Such efforts have merely
drawn down the rain of there dynasties and the loss
of the country's independence. It is only in the case
of renewed war between Great Bntain and
China that intrigues might be set on foot to raise
a warlike enemy on the north eastern frontier of
India. The present Emperor of Clinea seems, how-
ever, lea likely than his predecessor to give cause of
quarrel.
Thus notwithstanding the flight of the Sikh', we
see little ctlence of the peace of the Eget being again
for a long time distrubed. Lord DALuousie
seems to be of this opinion ; the only
other incident of the present mail being the
130VitRNOLGENZIAL'S reprimand of, and quarrel
with, his fighting man. Sir QUILL'S NAPIER, it
seems, went to the length of disbanding a regiment,
which, he thought, required it—a dictatorial act,
which the Gonssoa-Oziatia. did not think should
be proceeded to without consulting him. Sir Cuaaus
has no idea of deferring to the toga in military
matters. To rebel against civilian superiority and
flout it, seems his favourite position. As this mode
of viewing things is at present very popular and uni-
versal throughout Europe, the more we discourage it
amongst ourselves and our dependencies, perhaps the
better.

Ir princely candidates for its crown would but let
France alone, that country would be quiet enough. And
aim upper claws would cease to intrigue and to con-
spire, each for the rigieres that would suit its peculiar
Merest', the lower den on its side would keep quiet
too, and cease to raise the standard of racialism in op-
position to that of aristocracy and priestcraft. In a
word, there is but one thing requisite for the pesos,
prosperity, and the power of France, and that is a
universal acceptance of a state of things which the
chain of events and the current of circumstances
have forced upon it.
We are by no means blind to the inconvenience of
a republic, or to the advantage of having a solid and
immovable foundation on which to erect the revolv-
ing or fluctuating machinery of popular government.
Bat in a country where nothing is certain or fined,
and where all is, late the ocean, ever in movement, ebb
and flow, and when it is infinitely safer to sail than to
aaehor, it is madness for certain parties to seek to
rebuild a monarchic structure. A triennial Nadia&
tore and election to the highsst oaks is fraught with
inconvenience and agitation, but an eternal conspiracy
against a sovereign who, whatever be his eking or
race, can never command the allegiance of even one
half cf the cannery, is worse than even a presidential
election every year.
It singularly complicates the straggle between the
several dynasties and the several shades of republi-
canism, that not one men of mark or talent appears
is the character of cadet. Even without great talents,
if there was a personage of good (Aspirate qualities, he
might have some chance of success. But that dreary
monotony of empty common-place which is stamped
on the life, visage, and pretensions of every one of the
royalist candidates, sad every one of the republican
looters, is such as to preclude all political enthusiasm
in favour of any one oe any thing.
What his the Doke of BORDEAUX dose throughout
his years of manhood f He has had ample opportu-
nities of study, obssevatioe, reflectiou 1 with a posi-
tion so fidly cosamandlug attention and respect, he
mold not make a move that would not have been
noted, or uttered a weed that would not have been
swallowed by milUese. He has lived half a life,
and made no sign. His eharever is simply that of
• dull Epicurean, a Louis XVIIL, without that
nersarob's wit or years. If we look throegh hit
tory, and ask how dynasties have bees establed or
restored, we shall in vain seek in the Doke of 800-
Distal any one of the qualities requisite to excite a
movement in his favour, and to cousseend senses.
Those who conspire for him, sr would emespire Orr
him, must do es palpably for themselves. And
that is a initial sod a devise quite too trans.