The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-08 00:00:00

ASTERN COUNTIES RAILWAY
COMPANY.
At the Adjourned General Meeting of the Shareholders of
this Company, held at the London Tavern, Bishopagate-
street, London, on Friday the 7th day of December, 1850
DAVID WADDINGTON, Esq., MT., in the Chair--
The proceedings of the Half-yearly Meeting of the 31st
August, and the Adjourned Meeting of 26th October, 1855,
having been read—
It was moved by Charles Horton Pulley, Esq., seconded by
Joshua Clark, Esq.,—
That the Report of the Committee of Investigation, ap-
pointed on the 31st day of August last to inquire into the
affairs of this Company, and which has been distributed
among the Proprietors, be now taken as read, and be received
and adopted, and entateel on the proceedings of the Meeting
of this day.
'•‘' 'Upon which an Amendment was moved by Daniel Maclaurin,
Esq., and seconded by Richard Sedgwick, Esq.,—
That the Report of the Committee be now received, and
that this Meeting be adjourned to Friday, the 4th January,
1856, at 1 o'clock p.m.
The Amendment and the original Motion having been put-,
the original Motion was declared to be carried,
John Knight, Esq., demanded a poll.
Upon which, the Chairman declared that the poll would
commence half-an-hour after the close of the Meeting, and
Continue till six o'clock in the evening ; and would be con-
tinued from day to day up to the same hour, and would
Srially close ut 4 o'clock on Friday, the 14th inst, when
the number of votes would be declared,
Thomas Sherwood, Esq., and Joseph Box, Esq., were ap-
pointed Scrutineers.
It was moved by Charles Horton Pulley, Esq., seconded by
Joseph Jtcobs, Esq , and carried—
That the continued sacrifice of the interests of the Eastern
Counties Railway Company by Mr. Waddington, during the
time that ho has held the office of Chairman of the Board, dis-
entitles him to the further confidence of the Shareholders, and
that he no longer be the Chairman of the Board of Directors
of this Company :
That his pay as Chairman do cease and be determined f, em
this day, and that he be requested to resign his seat at the
Board.
It was moved by J. S. Barnes, Esq., seconded by Charles
Horton Pulley, Esq., and carried—
That au inventory and valuation of the assets and liabilities
of the Company, in every respect, be forthwith prepared, by
or under the direction of the Committee appointed at the
last meeting of the Shareholders, and published, and that a
fur her account be also prepared by the same Committee,
showing the amount of moneys misapplied, and debts con-
tracted by the Directors, contrary to powers or terms of the
Acts of Parliament relating to the Eastern Counties Railway
Company, or any of them, and such accounts be forwarded to
each sharobolder.
That the opinion of the Attorney and Solicitor General be
taken, under the direction of the same Committee, as to
whether the Directors who have sanctioned, or been parties
.
such misapplication, are personally responsible to the
Shareholders—and if so the proper and best means to be
adopted to compel such Directors to account for and repay
the
moneys so misapplied.
It was moved by Charles Horton Pulley, Esq., seconded by
Philip Van de Wall, Esq., and carried—
That the Committee of Investigation, consisting of Horatio
Love, Esq., Edward Ball, Esq., M.P., Thomas Christy, Esq.,
J. T. Norris, Esq., Jeremiah Pileher. Esq., Hy. Soper, Esq.,
be, and they are hereby appointed, to continue their labours
until the half-yearly meeting, in February next :
That the said Committee be authorised and empowered to
confer with the Beard of Directors, and to make such sugges-
tions and recommendations from time to time as they may
think necessary, either as to present or future contracts, bills
In Parliament. the appointments of, the continuance, or en-
gagements with officers, or in any other and all matters affect-
'n: the administration of the Company's affairs or the into-
rests of the Shareholders :
That for such purposes the Committee be authorised to
employ such clerks, or to obtain such other assistance as they
tuaY require, and to call for all books, documents, papers,
,and persons under the management or control of the present
Executive of this Company :
And that the Committee he requested to report their pro-
ceedings to the Shareholders as soon as they are in a position
to
do so; and that no order of Mr. Waddington's be attended
to from the present time.
It was moved by Robert Alexander Gray, Esq. ; seconded by
Robert Dawbarn, Esq., and carried—
That those Directors of the Company who, by the evidence
adduced before the Committee, are proved not to have
Watched over the interests of the Shareholders, in the dis-
charge of their duties, be, and they are hereby, requested to
"alga their seats at the Board.
It was moved by Horatio Love, Esq. ; seconded by Robert
Dawbarn, Esq., and carried--
That this meeting cannot refrain from expressing the high
estimate in which they hold the services of Mr. Bruce, as a
Director of this Company; and that Mr. Broadbent, Mr.
/fargrave, and Mr. Simpson, also deserve the thanks of the
Ineeting for the valuable services they have rendered to the
Shareholders in assisting the Committee in their labours.
The demand which John Knight, Esq., made for a poll was
Withdrawn by him, and such withdrawal having been sub
naitted to the meeting, the same was agreed to unanimously.
DAVID WADDIVGTON, Chairman.
J. B. OWEN, Secretary.
Bishopegate Station, Dec. 7, 1855.

ROTAL LYCECTM THEATRE. - THIS
EVENING, and every evening during the
Week, the GRAND ELEUSINIAN SPECTACLE of MAGIC
and MYSTERY, by Professor ANDERSON, the Great
Wizard of the North, in 12 acts, with ever-changing variety
of incidents, continuous surprises, novel and extraordinary
effects.
Magic and Mystery is an entirely new entertainment, pos-
sessing distinctive characteristics and peculiar phases of
amusement. It is not a monologue, for the audience them•
!elves perform their parts with the principal actor, some of
them on the stage and others in front ; it is not an exhibition,
for though everything becomes metamorphosed before the
Oyes of the visitors no ono can be positive that he sees any
one thing ; but it is a comedy really performed by the eom-
DanY ; a melodrama replete with startling positions and unex-
l'ected denouements ; a magnificent spectacle, with 2,000 of
the public every night to appear as auxiliaries; and an ex-
travaganza, in which all that seems to be is entirely beyond
the bounds of probability.
Professor Anderson returns his thanks to thronged and
.ashionable audiences which have nightly filled the Lyceum
Theatre to overflow, and by means of whose generous aid lie
has been enabled to announce Magic and Mystery for con-
luuous repetition. He believes that no professor of his art
has at any time or in any place been honoured with an
amount of success so extensive, so decided, and so unusual.
Re would attribute that success to three causes ; first, that
" his present entertainment he has placed before his visitors
the results of a life sedulously devoted to the attainment of
'Perfected skill in one peculiar art, and to perfect which he
has travelled the globe in every clime ; secondly, that he has
!Pared no trouble nor expense to put this entertainment on
the stage in the most elaborate manner, by the employment
of the first mechanicians and artists of the day ; and thirdly,
that, while endeavouring to provide amusement for those
who honour him with their presence, he has not forgotten that
it is possible to afford information also, and that the oppor-
Unity should not be neglected of exposing conjuring, whers-
ever it has been used for nefarious purposes, or whenever by
resorting. to the conjuror's arts, in an illegitimate manner,
the designing have succeeded in making dupes of the
Credulous.
The 937 letters on the subject of spirit-rapping, which Pr.,.
felesor Anderson has received, from the time of opening ths
'''cutre up to the present date, bear -witness to the great in-
'crest taken on the subject of this singular delusion : whilst
many of them boar melancholy evidence to the dangers which
Atencl a belief in the superstitious nonsense of the " Spirt-
'talists." Judging simply by the correspondence which has
l!suited, Professor Anderson's exposé of spirit-rapping and
his illustration of the so-called table phenomena, have pro-
duced a sensation unequalled by any previous attempt to ex-
hose a mischievous and impudent juggle. It is impossible
for Professor Anderson to reply at length to a tithe of the
communications which reach him on the subject. He regrets
that many of these should come from ladies and gentlemen
who, from their position in society and their well-known in-
tellectual attainments, he would least have expected to have
teen converts to a belief so preposterous in itself, and s
easily susceptible of being controverted and disproved. Every
evening, from the Lyceum stage, Mr. Anderson's opinions on
Spirit-rapping are expressed, and every evening, within the
Lyceum, how tables can bo made to rap is exhibited
and elucidated. It is respectfully requested that this
Public exposition will be accepted generally as Professor
Anderson's only mode of replying at full length to his
multitudinous correspondents. He regrets that the
ilames of the great and learned of the land should
Il ave been made to figure in the documents einwating
, I,ronl.the spirit-rappers, as for instance the following, ex-
'Meted from the Morning Advertiser of Thursday, Septem-
ber 20, and taken by that journal from the New Fork Spiri-
tual Telegraph- It purports to emanate from an American
Pirit-rapper, Mr. D. D. Hume :—" Sir David Brewster
`rankly confesses that he is sorely puzzled' at what he has
witnessed, and Lord Brougham acknowledges himself to be
thoroughly nonplussed. Both of these noted men brought
The whole force of their keen discernment to bear upon ';,ho
solution of the phenomena ; but the presence of substantial,
actual hands, and the demonstrative strength of the spirits
who thus clothed themselves for the time, and moved mate-
rial objects about the room, proved to be too much of a ques-
tion for them to master." Mr. D. D. Hume, the author of the
above, has recently left England, and the following account of
Who, -and what he is, occurs in the Family Herald, No. 645:
•—" This young man, who is a Scotchman by birth, and now
In Italy, is a remarkable medium for all the manifestations
Without apparatus. Barnum, who is well-known throughout
the Anglo-Saxon world as a splendid humbug, offered him 2,000
dollars per annum if he would perform at his museum in New
Yorks Barnum then took it forsgranted that mediums could
be bought. He was somewhat astonished when his offer was
refused. Hume, on telling the fact in London lately, simply
and honestly remarked, that the money would have been very
acceptable to him, for lie was poor, young (under 20), an or-
phan, and in very had health : but he would have been afraid
of losing his power as a medium, and he would sooner lose
his life. The refusal, however, made Barnum thoughtful.
He inquired into the subject; and now Barnum, one of the
greatest humbugs in the world, and withal a conjuror, is
ens of the firmest believers in spiritualism." It is cer-
tainly surprising to find such a paragraph as this in the
editorial article of an established journal, the editor of w.ioro
Might be supposed to be sane. Even if Barnum does believs
in spirit-rapping—does spirit-rapping gain or, lose by
this accession to its adherents? and, with Barnum 's endorse
went to it, is this bill, drawn on public credulity, more likely
to be negotiated ? Professor Anderson would believe not ;
but, when' he finds that educated clergymen of the Church of
11assland have the temerity to subscribe their namesto so gross
a swindle, when he finds that the incumbent of IN o.rtlry (the
Rev. N. J. Godfrey) positively asserts his belief in it, and
writes a book on the subject, he considers it ta bo time for
him to state that which he knows of the mechanism by which
it is affected, and the mischief to which it tends. In the
Morning Advertiser of October 3 appears a letter from Sir
David Brewster, relative to that which he saw at Cox's Hote., ,
in company with Lord Brougham. He distinctly states that
Which the Wizard of the North proclaims every night—that
spirit-rapping is nothing more than conjuring applied to bad
PurPoses. Iu the Morning Advertiser of the following day,
however, there is an answer to Sir David's letter from one
Who was present when he and Lord Brougham had their
Sialice with the spirits, in which the writer says, that " the
table (a large dinner-table, I believe) moved about in the most,
extraordinary manner, and, among other things, a large ac-
cordion was convoyed by an invisible agency to my hand and
then to Lord Brougham's, in which, held by his lordship's
right hand, apart from any person, it played an air throus.h•
out." With such a statement, printed for the edification' of
the people of the 19th century, with the facts before us that
the most talented men of the day are permitting themselves
to be deluded by these juggling spirit-mongers—that the
greatest novelist of the age is now engaged in making it the
subject of a new work, and that a "spiritual convention"
has actually been advertised to be held in St. Martin's-hall,
Professor Anderson trusts that his exposures of the spiritual-
ate of America, as given by him nightly at the Lyceum, will
by rptived by the people of England as genuine honest at-