Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-08-11 00:00:00

THE Dfl'S NEWS.

Parliament is just now busy winding up the
business of he session. Accordingly, the discus-
sions are quite unimportant. The House of Lords
passed a batch of bills, but nothing deserving of
special notice took place. In the House of Corn-
saons, Lord John Russell brought up the report
from the committee appointed to inquire whether
the provisions of the sth and 6:h of William IV.,
chap. 52, was not applicable to members of Parlia-
ment. The decision of the committee negatives

the proposition; and, owing to the advanced period
of the session, his Lordship announced that he did
not intend to proceed with the bill which he had
introduced a short time ago. Certainly, the coun-
try will bo much disappointed, and the consti-
tuency of London greatly annoyed at what has
taken place on the question of Jewish Emancipa-
tion since the meeting of the present Parliament.
A few questions were asked respecting the state of
the army, to which formal and studied replies
were given, and the house afterwards went into
committee of supply.
Yesterday there were two selections, Great Yar-
mouth and Birmingham. Mr. Bright was elected
without opposition, an unexpected event, but one
which does credit to the good sense of the electors
of Birmingham. Mr. Bright was not present, but
has promised that the first speech .which he
delivers shall be to his constituents. At Great

sentence he is an outcast from society; that he
must endure privations, aye, and degradation.
The certainty of meeting this will exercise a
salutary effect, and, unless depraved beyond
redemption, he will repent of his past misdeeds,
and become a reformed and a better man. At
the same time, the knowledge of this sure and
retributive punishment would not fail to cause a
fear of offending against person or property.
The remarks of the learned Baron cannot fail to
exercise a good effect, and should he measure
the extent and severity of his sentences, by
the sentiments he has propounded, he will have
held the sword of Justice with effect ; conferred
a social benefit on the country at large ; and
taught itg criminal population that signal and
condign punishment shall be meted out to every
offender.

THE shareholders in the Great Western
Railway Company have had the unwelcome
intelligence conveyed to them that the rate of
dividend for the past six months will only
be at the rate of one per cent. per
annum on their paid-up capital. Such an
amount is, beyond question, only to be
accounted for by extreme bad management;
and also in consequence of the Directors turning
their attention, to schemes of litigation, and
attempts at monopolising advantages which
would cost infinitely more than they are worth.
If proof were necessary on this head, we would
point to the expensive and protracted contest in
which they have been engaged against the
Corporation and Dock Trustees of Liverpool, for
the purpose of depriving the Borough of the
Town Dues, and controlling the management of
the Dock Estate. The result of all their efforts,
aided as they have been by the people of
Manchester, has been almost nil.

A contest of this kind must trench most seri-
ously upon the revenues of any Company. In
the first place, there is the heavy expense of coun-
sel, witnesses from all parts of the country must
be had, and the Parliamentary fees—for, as in
the law courts, so also in the Legislature—you
cannot stir a single step 'with a private Bill
unless money is advanced. Taking all these
costs, with the preliminary expenses, the money
which the Great Western Railway has advanced
since the month of November last, can not
be much less than 30,000/. This, coming out
of the surplus earnings of the line, was sufficient
to take away the funds to pay the usual rate of
dividends.

Although the report to be presented to the
meeting of shareholders endeavours to explain
away the cause for this reduction of dividen is,
we believe that it will be a somewhat difficult
task to convince the shareholders that a depre-
ciation of their capital to the extent of fully
eight per cent., in the short space of a week, has
been owing to anything else than culpability.
It is all very well for the directors to seek to
extend their line, and to compete for the goods

nnrl pn;:conrror

and North Western Company ; and they very
the shipping trade of
Birkenhead. But to do this in a proper and
unobjectionable manner they should recollect
that to have any chance of carrying out their
objects, they should not attempt to confiscate,
by Act of Parliament, other people's property.
Anything more audacious and barefaced than
the original draft of the Mersey Conservancy
Bill, could not well be conceived, and although
they obtained a favourable committee in the
House of Commons, the project was so unreason-
able and unjust in all its details, that that com-
mittee made considerable alterations therein.
When the Bill reached a committee of the
House of Lords they took a very different view
of the matter, and refused to sanction such an
enactment. This had the effect of compelling
the promoters of the Bill to agree to a compro-
mise. The leading terms of that compromise
we stated in brief yesterday. Meantime, the
Great Western Company have to continue their
expenses until the matter is finally arranged.
For these reasons, the dividend this half-year
must be reduced to the rate of one per cent.
What is such conduct but merely the directors
putting their hands into the pockets of the
shareholders and taking from their dividend four
per cent. upon the paid-up capital, to
originate and continue a contest in which
they have been completely vanquished,
and their ability and forethought questioned not
only by the railway world at large, but by the
smallest scripholder in the company.

We have alluded to this matter for the
purpose of showing that the system of manage-
ment under which such ruinous fluctuations can
occur is rotten at the very core, and calls for an
efficacious and instant remedy, Loud and
universal have been the indignation of the British
public at the recent bank defalcations. Let but
the directors of the Great Western Company
continue for a short time longer their present
system of management, and plunge headlong
into another parliamentary contest like that of
1857, and sure we are that the entire concern
would not be worth purchasing at a year's
revenue of the line.
Enough has taken place in the management
of railways to convince every one that her
Majesty's law officers could engage themselves
in no more profitable and useful task than in
the framing of a measure which will put an end
to such schemes of railway management as have
unfortunately prevailed of late years. All rail-
way directors should be debarred from engaging
in parliamentary contests without the express

THE NORTHERN TIMES.-LIVERPOOL, TUESDAY, AUGUST ii. 1857,