Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-04-20 00:00:00

GENTLEMEN OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS,

We are commanded by her Majesty to thank you
for the wise liberality with which you have granted
the necessary supplies for the military and naval
defences of the country, and for the provisions which
you have made for the exigencies of the other
branches of the public service during the interval
which must elapse before the estimates for the year
can be considered by the new Parliament, which her
Majesty will direct immediately to be called.
MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN,

Her Majesty commands us to inform you that the
appeal which she is about to make to her people has
been rendered necessary by the difficulties expe-
rienced in carrying on the public business of the
oountry, as indicated by •the fact that within
little more than a year two successive
administrations have failed to retain the
confidence of the House of Common, and her
Majesty prays that, under the blessing of Divine
Providence, the step which she is about to take may
have the effect of facilitating the discharge of her
high functions, and of enabling her to conduct the
government of the country under the advice of a
ministry possessed of the confidence of Parliament
and her people.

Several of the members shook hands with the Riglv
Hon. Gentleman, and the House broke up.

THE DISSOLUTION.

The Times announces that, though the prorogation of
the existing Parliament has taken place, yet
it believes that the writs for the new Parliament will not
be issued until Saturday. They will be proclaimed in the
several boroughs and counties on Monday, and when three
clear days have elapsed from that date the elections for the
new Parliament will begin in the boroughs, and three days
afterwards in the counties.

MEETING iY SUPPORT OF THE
ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH

COMPANY.

A large and highly influential private meeting of the
shareholders in the Atlantic Telegraph Company, resident
in Liverpool, was held on Monday last at the Clarendon-
rooms, South John-street. The chairman of the company,
the Right Hon. James Stuart Wortley, M.P., accompanied
by Mr. Seward, the secretary, attended for the purpose of
affording information, and in order to obtain the opinion of
the local proprietors upon the arrangements proposed to be
submitted to the approactring extraordinary general meeting,
for the purpose of resuscitating this interesting under-
taking.
The Right Hon. Gentleman having taken the chair, com-
menced his observations by stating that, although he had
become the chairman of the company at a comparatively
recent period, he was yet one of the original shareholders
in it, and as evincing the warm' regard entertained by him
for the welfare of the great enterprise over which he haft{
been called upon to preside; he mentioned that although at
present immersed in political engagements 'in Yorkshire,
calling for his very active attention he had laid everything
aside to come over from that county this morning for the
purpose of attending the present meeting. He then went
on to describe the present position *of the company ; their
absence of immediate funds for the attempted restoration of
the old cable, or for the prosecution of *a new one ; pointing
out the various applications that have been made by the'
board to her Majesty's government for guarantees of a
similar character to that granted with such success to the
Red Sea and Indian Telegraph Company, and contrasting
the niggardly manner in which half measures of assistance
aro doled out to great national works in this csamtry,
with the large and open-handed policy of the French
government, which, although it has guaranteed fixed divi-
dends to works of public utility, involving- an aggregate
capital of over thirty-two millions sterling, has never
yet been called upon for any contribution whatever
towards making up the dividends so secured. • Mr. Stuart
Wortley then adverted to the terms ultimately offered by
government, after long and anxious negotiations with them
on the subject, which terms the directors in London con-
sidered might form a basis, in connection with other
auxiliary arrangements, for inducing the subscription of
the necessary amount of capital for the prosecution of the
work. The terms offered were as follows :—" A' guarantee
of 8 per cent. upon the capital to be employed, not
; this guarantee to be for 25 years, conditional
upon the successful working of the cable, at a rate not less
than. 100 words per hour. A postal contract of not less
than £20,000 per annum for the business of the government ;
any excess of work to be paid for at the company's ordinary
tariff. The company's contract with the American govern-
ment, whereby a further minimum sum of £14;600 per
annum is secured to the company, is to be allowed to subsist,
so that by this arrangement the guaranteed revenue of the
company, independent altogether of mercantile support,
will be £34,600 per annum. The government to' allow
£20,000 of the guaranteed capital to be expended in. efforts
to resusicitate the old cable. The company to transfer to ,
government that portion of their privileges, under the agree-
ment
between themselves, which contained the exclusive
right to land cables from Europe on the shores of Newfound-
land." The chairman remarked, in reference to these terms,
that they had been considered by the board as worthy the
acceptance of the company, not so much as offering any very
attractive inducement to capitalists to invest in the under-
taking, which had been started in a more unselfish spirit
than most undertakings of a public nature, as that with
subsidiary arrangements to which he was about to refer,
they would be a protection, to as full an extent as is possible
under the circumstances, against the risks to which such
investments are necessarily exposed. It would be for public
spirit to do the rest, and he (the chairman) had full faith in
the result. The subsidiary arrangements alluded to were s—
"A marine insurance on the successful submergence of
the new cable, which it is believed can be obtained, at
comparatively moderate outlay, if divested of any condition
as to the working of the cable when laid, and a contract on
the following basis, which Mr. Wortley was enabled to state
would be readily entered into by parties of high respecta-
bility and responsibility. The contractor to make
all preliminary experiments as to the form of the cable,
and the manner of submerging it, charging for the same
the bare cost of such experiment. So soon as the right
plans are decided on, the contractor to proceed to
make and lay the cable, keeping separate accounts of the
whole cost, and allowing a proper check upon all his
expenditure for such purpose. The profit to be calculated
at a per ceutage upon the actual cost of making and laying
the cable. The contractor to take payment in shares of
the company for a portion of the actual cost of making the
cable. The contractor to forfeit the whole of his profit, and
a penal sum of ten thousand pounds absolutely, if the cable
when laid, does not work satisfactorily during thirty days
after the date of its submersion between shore and shore."-
The Chairman proceeded to say, that it was proposed to
issue the new capital in shares of five pounds each, with a
view to popularise and extend the interest in the under-
taking, and that the summary of what the directors would
have to offer to the public over and above the national
character of the work, and its value as a commercial and
imperial agent, would be as follow :—" First. A capital of
£600,000 in 8 per cent. preference shares of five pounds
each, guaranteed by the government, contingent on success,
Second. A guaranteed minim um income 0f£34,000 per annum;
in support of such preference, independent of public support.
Third. A policy of insurance upon the successful extension
of the cable from the shores of Great Britain and New-
foundland. Fourth. A guarantee for careful management
and electrical success under a contract similar to the one
just described, whereby 'the interests of the contractor are
involved absolutely in those of the company." The right
hon. gentleman concluded by hoping that the foregoing
explanations would be satisfactory to the meeting, and that
he might be enabled to say, when the extraordinary general
meeting of the shareholders took place in London, that the
arrangements now shadowded forth, without committinc,
any one to details, or anything but general policy, would be
acceptable to the shareholders in Liverpool.
Mr. J. C. Ewart, M.P., expressed his admiration of the
exceedingly lucid manner in which the chairman (with
whose clearness and perspicuity he was well experienced in
another place) had explained the present position of the
company, he (Mr. Evart) cordially agreed in the views set
forth by Mr. Wortley, and approved of the course recom-
mended to be taken by the board for raising the new
capital.
Mr. Bushell, president of the Chamber of Commerce, in
rising, observed that, for his own part, he was so satisfied
with the general features of the proposal which had been
so clearly and ably pointed out by the chairman, that lie
was desirous, if it would strengthen the hands of the board,
to test the feeling of the present meeting, although a private
meeting only by offering a resolution on the suoject. He
would therefore move, " That in the opinion of this meeting
the plan suggested by the chairman, the Right Hon. James
Stuart Wortley, for the obtainment of capital for the pro-
secution of this great work. is an admirable one, and is
entitled to the best consideration and support of the
Atlantic Telegraph Company."
Mr. Rankin (of Messrs. Rankin, Gilmour, and Co.)
seconded the resolution, which was carried unanimously.
Mr. Charles Holland, in proposing a vote of thanks to
the chairman, said he could not altogether allow the reso-
lution just carried to be passed without comment, lest it
should be accepted as binding upon those present, not
merely as to its general tenor, but as to the matters of detail
involved in carrying out the policy shadowed forth by the
right hon. gentleman. For his own part, while deeply
appreciating the disinterested and' valuable services of Mr.
Stuart Wortley and the other directors, he could not but
think that the proposition which had been made by our
Government, was not fair towards a body of share-
holders who had so zealously prosecuted this great
enterprise with so little of selfishness or desire' of
gain. He considered the Atlantic line—connecting. to
the home government our Great North American Colonies,
to be of no less Imperial consequence than the line to
India, and the proprietors nmre deserving of aid than the
shareholders of the Red' See, and the Indian Telegraph
Company, to whom an unconditional guarantee had been
extended, inasmuch its the Atlantic proprietors had been
heavy sufferers from their patriotism, having fearlessly come
forward with their capital when all around the idea of an
Atlantic Telegraph was dark and uncertain, and having
been the first to put to the test, and that too. in a success-
ful manner, as regards the interests of science, though
injuriously as to their own pockets, an experiment of so
hazardous and national a character. Re felt a degree of
mortification when he reflected that it should have been
possible and just for the right hon. gentleman to contrast
the ready assistance so freely granted to works of natural
importance by a foreign government, whose general cha-
racteristics possess many features adverse to the mast
cherished principles of Englishmen, with the tardy and
stinted help which is dealt out to similar undertakings in
this country. Mr. Holland concluded
,by very warmly
expressing Ms gratitude to the chairman, and by proposing
a vote of thanks' to that gentleman, which, having been
briefly seconded by Mr. Christopher Bushell, was carried
unanimously, after which the meeting broke up.