The Sun.
London, England, 1855-06-20 00:00:00

LONDON; WEDNESDAY EVENTING, JUNE 20, 1855.

MA. ALBERT SMITH'S MuNT BLANC
is Now Open Every Evening, at 8 o'llock, except Saturday.
:tie Itlvnin3 Representattone take place every Tuesday. Thursday,
end isaixtrday, at 3 o'clock.—Stalls can be iaken at the Box-office
very day from Eleven till Foar.—Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly.

HANIVELL COLLEGE, MIDDLESEX.
The Terms of this long-e=tablished and successfal Institution
will be sent on application to the ItPv. J. A. Emerton, A.D., Princi-
pal. The School will reopen July 23d.
" iTatiwell College is fully sustaining its high character.„_ United
Service Gazette.

OYAL POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTION.
The Magnificent SILVER CANDELABRUM, Seventeen
Feet High, one of four made for the Egyptian Government, by Messrs
Williams, of 223, Oxford-street, will be on View, by special favour
for fourteen days only.
The LECTURES and EXHIBITIONS, as delivered before her Most
Gracious Majesty and his Royal Highness Prince Albert, the Patron
of the Institution, will be continued.
Lectures by Mrs. CLARA Lucas BALFOUR, "SUMMER HOURS
with the POETS," on June 21st, 28th, and July 2d, at Eight o'clock
in the evening.

SCOTTISH WIDOWS' FUND
AND LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY.
The FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL GENERAL COURT of MEM-
B h..RS of this SOCIETY was held within the Royal Hotel. Prince's-
street,.Edinburgh, on Friday the 25th ultimo,—
The Very Reverend Dr. NIACFARLAN, Principal of the University
of Glasgow, and one of the Extraordinary Directors of the So-
ciety, in the chair.
The Minutes of the last Special General Court, held on Ist Dec, m-
ber last, having been read and approved-of by the Court. the MANAGER
read thelteport of the Directors as to the Society's operations during
the past year, and from which there appear, inter alia, the following
results :
That during the year 1854 there hal been 638 Policies passed and
taken up by the proposers, representing Assurances to the ex-
tent of 455,3771. 14s. 3d.
That the Society's realised and Accumulated Fund hid increased
to the extent of 115,5541. 15'. 10d, and amounted at 31st De-
cember last to 2,802,140/. Is. Id.
That the Annual Revenue had increased to the extent of
22,1681. Os. 11d, and amounted as at 31st December last to
373,9011. 139. Bd.
That there had been 142 deaths during the year 1854, the claims
consequent on which (including Bonus Additions) amounted
to 204,0881. 17s. 43.
The Very Reverend CHAIRMAN then moved the approval of the
Report in an able and lengthened address, in the course of which
he enlarged upon the great benefits arising from Life Assurance in
general, and congratulated the members of the society upon the high
state of prosperity in which its affairs are shown to be at the present
time—remarking upon the successful results of last year's operations,
carried on as these had been during times In many respects unfavour-
able to the prosperity of this and similar institutions ; and also upon
the fact that the mortality which had taken place among the mem-
bers in the course of 1k54, although entailing claims upon the society
to a large amount, was still greatly within the expectation provided
for by the calculations.
The approval of the report having been carried by acclamation,
the Honourable Lord NEAVES proposed a vote of thanks to the
Directors and Office-Bearers of the Society for their services during
the past year, and the motion having been seconded by J•HN HUNTER,
Esq , Auditor of the Court of Session, was unanimously agreed to.
On the motion of the Rev. Dr. Coox, St. Andrews, seconded by
JAMES WRIGHT, Esq., Secretary of the Royal Bank of StN)Vand, the
following gentlemen were appointed to fill the vacancies which at
present occurred in the Direction, viz. :
As VICE-PRESIDENT.—Robert Dundas, Esq., of Arniston.
As EXTRAORDINARY DIRECTORS.
Sir James Russell of Ashiesteil.
George Tod, Esq.. Cheltenham.
Henry Cheyne, Esq., W.S., Edinburgh.
Frederick Thynne, Esq., land agent, George-st., Westminster.
As ORDINARY DIRECTORS.
James Mylne, Esq., W.S., Edinburgh.
John lopp. Esq.. W.S.. Edinburgh.
James Tytler, Esq:, of Woodhouselee.
A vote of thanks having, on the motion of HENRY Crarsrs, Esq.,
Writer to the Signet, been given to the very reverend Chairman, the
meeting adjourned.
JOHN MACKENZIE, Manager.
Wst. LINDESAY, Secretary.
Edinburgh, 5, St. Andrew-square, 9th June, 1855.
LONDON HONORARY BOARD.
George Young, Esq., Mark-lane
Charles Edward Pollock, Esq., Barrister, Temple
David Hill, Esq., East India House
John Murray, Esq., Albemarle-street
Samuel Laing, Esq., Chairman of Brighton Railway
Sir John Thomas Briggs, Admiralty
Leonard Horner, Esq.. Home-office
John Taylor, jun., Esq., C.E., Queen-street-place
LONDON AND TIM SUBURBS.

CENTRAL AGENT.
Hugh M'Kean, 4, Royal Exchange-buildings, Cornhill
DISTRICT AGENTS.
Captain R. S. Ridge, 49, Pall-mall, Agent for the West End District
Benton Seeley, 2, Hanover-street, Regent-street

THE MASSACRE 'OF BRI

It has never fallen to our lot, in the course of a long
experience, to comment upon any one event so distressing
to the best feelings of this nation, so disgraceful to the
enemy with whom we are at war, so shameful to hu-
manity, as the massacre committed by the Russians on
the boat's crew of a Briieh man-of-war on the sth of
June at Hango. Not only do we mourn the loss of six-
teen gallant young fellows, whose fate would have been
glorious if they had fallen by any of the common acci-
dents of war—not only are we revolted by the treachery
which first allowed this boat to reach the Shore under a
flag of truce, and then butchered the crew—unarmed,
unresisting—with an overwhelming force' of troops, who
sprang up from their lurking places in the rocks ; but,
while we deplore the passion and violence which so base
and ferocious an action will impart to every future en-
counter in this war, we participate in the conviction that
no. effort is too great and no measure too strong "to bring
the authors of this crime to the condign punishment they
deserve. War, no doubt, is full of horrors, and is
marked by a long tract of devastation and of blood ; but
it is also the school of honour, and no laws are more
sacred than those which regulate its excesses. Between
civilised nations those acts of forbearenCe and of courtesy
which are not unfrequent, even in the heat of a contest,
mitigate the wilder passions, and show that in defending
the interests.of their country the combatants have not
forgotten the rights of humanity. The boat of the Cris•
sack was engaged in one of these very errands of
civility at the moment when this murderous onslaught
was made upon it. It was to convey seven Finnish
prisoners to Hango, whom the Admiral had no wish
to detain, as they were not in the eel: vice of Russia,
that the boat was sent on shore. The eteetarde of
the mess accompanied the party, in the hope that
this little attention would be acknowledged by the per-
mission to buy some fresh provisions. Thus confiding,
thus deceived, Lieutenant Geneste and his men pulled in
behind the islands off Hango Point. It May here 'be
observed that this was ne plot of our officers to send a
boat into Hango harbour, for orders bad been given by
the Admiral to land the prisoners wherever they pleased,
and it was by their own choice that flange was selected.
A flag of truce, visible from the shore, was flying all
the time on the ship, and on approaching the jetty the
officer in command of the boat again waved the same
ensign of peace. It is, however, apparent from the re-
sult that the approach of this boat on its friendly errand
had been deliberately used by the Russian officers in
command at Hango to organise Qne of the most detest-
able and bloody stratagems recorded in history: Five
hundred armed men lay concealed in the immediate
neighbourhood of the lauding-place.. The liberated pri-
soners and the officers jumped out of the boat,—they
were immediately surrounded by this overwhelming
force. The miscreant commanding the party seems to
have been a man of some education, for he spoke Eng-
lish—enough, at least, to utter a brutal oath upon that
flag of truce which be was about to violate. By his
order the riflemen opened a sharp fire immediately and
indiscriminately on the officers who had landed, on the
men in the boat, and even on the Finnish prisoners who
had just been set on shore, and who fell to a man under
the merciless bullets of their own tyrants. Every man
was struck down, and, with one exception, murdered.
One wounded man was dragged out of the bottom of the
boat, where he had fallen, and was bayonetted upon the
jetty. One sole survivor marvellously escaped by feign-
ing death as soon as he was hit, and ultimately cutting
the boat adrift.

V.
This awful crime was not,, therefore, left without a
living witness t'► relate and attest the tale, and to de-
nounce to mankind and to posterity, in the strongest
language of indignation and horror, the atrocious cruelty
of this unmanly deed. Among the dacoits who infest
the banks of the Irrawaddy or the savage and piratical
tribes of the Eastern Archipelago our seamen are on

their guard against every stratagem of bloodthirsty and
faithless barbarians ; but in what is termed Christian
warfare, at a spot to which orders can be forwarded in
a few hours from the seat of Government, separated
only by a few miles of inland sea from the capital of the
Russian empire, and consequently under the direct con-
trol of the supreme authority in that country, we cer-
tainly were not prepared for a breach of military honour
and of common humanity which would disgrace the re-
motest settlement and the most barbarous savagoes of the
habitable globe. Had the authorit.es at Hango Lad any
motive to prevent the boat from entering their port, or
for refusing to receive the flag of truce, nothing was
easier than to have stopped the approach of out men by
firing a sbot across the bow of the boat. Had they even
attempted to take them prisoners for any.alleged mis-
conduct or breach of the privileges of a flag of truce,
nothing was more easy, for the party were unarmed,
and the disproportion of numbers on the side of the
Russians quite irresistible. But such wera not their in-
tentions. No signal was made to warn the beat off,
and, when the gig subsequently pulled in to ascertain
the fate of her missing comrades, an attempt was made
by people on the shore, to decoy her, too, into their
power. No summons to surrender was addressed to
the party, and the strongest proof that could be given
of the insane ferocity of the Russians, who were deter-
mined upon the instant murder of the whole crew, is
that they shot down seven of their own countrymen,
who had scarcely set foot upon the beach, and the Fin-
nish captain fell waving the flag of truce upon which
the Russians did not hesitate to fire. Such is the nation
which barely half a century ago wrested the province of
Finland, the scene of this tragedy, from the mild and
free government of the Crown of Sweden.
A crime of this nature—a violation of all that is held
sacred and honourable and brave among men—leaves an
indelible trace upon the annals of a nation. A period
of 227 years has not effaced from the memory of the
people of England the atrocity of the Amboyna mas-
sacre, when an English sea captain and nine of his men
were sacrificed to the suspicious policy of the Dutch ;
and a century has not diminished the infamy which the
night of the Black Hole of Calcutta left upon the me-
mory of the ruler of Bengal. As long as the annals of
this memorable year are recorded in the pages of history
the massacre of Hango will rank with these sinister
achievements, for no parallel can be found to it save in
the worst and most perfidious actions which have dis-
graced humanity. Indeed, this surprise exceeds them
all, for our gallant countrymen were cut off in the very
performance of an act of courtesy and kindness, and
under the shelter of an ensign which every nation but
the Russian knows how to respect. Throughout the
world, wherever this tale is told, the compassion felt for
the untimely end of these brave young fellows will be
followed by a thrill of horror at the guilt of their mur-
derers. Throughout the world, wherever the British navy
can carry its flag or point its guns, an avenging spirit
will walk the deep ; and not a British seaman afloat but
will rememberthe boats crew of the Cossack in the hour of
battle. It is not the least of the evils of such bad
actions that they invest Justice herself with the fiercer
passions, and render war more pitiless and destructive ;
but, on the other hand, they show more clearly with
what an adversary we have to deal—how false, how
cruel, how un,crupulous I They prove how impossible
it is to bind the Russians even to the observances held
sacred among enemies, except by the influence of fear
and of superior force. They convince us more and more
that the enemy to whom it is our fortune to be opposed
is not only the enemy of England and of France, but of
honour and humanity.—Morning Paper.

TISH SAILORS. the rank and file to cross. Resistance t 9 Administrative
Reform, in its real and practical sense, has been seized
upon eagerly for this purpose ; and, as we have said,
both of the Conservative orators have str;ven to daub it
over with their own peculiar colouring. Mr. Gladstone
boasts that he designed to make the civil service a sepa-
rate and exclusive profession : Mr. Disraeli, while affect-
ing claims to prior discovery, extols the invention, and
accepts its development as a pledge. Mr. Gladstone
boasts that Lord Aberdeen's Cabinet was more aristo-
cratic than any which had gone before it, and naively
reminds us that it was.by it that the far-famed civil ser-
vice project was contemplated ; a tolerably strong proof,
were any wanting, of the oligarchic tendency of the plan.
Mr. Disraeli hardly takes the trouble to deny the exclu-
sive character pt the scheme ' • and disdains altogether to
enter into OM. question whether the commercial and
manufacturing• community ought to have any represen-
tation at all in the various departments of its executive
government. Thus the approaching chiefs of the severed
sections of Toryism seek to conciliate each other's fol-
lowers by perfecting a new plot for the more effectual ex-
clusion of the plebeians. Sprung from the people them-
selves, they are equally willing, as the condition of per-
sonal elevation, to invent new bolts and bars for the de-
fence of oligarchy from within. Competitive examina-
tion may or may not be resorted to ; but the gist of
the fraud which is now sought to be palmed upon us
by Peelites and Derbyites joined is this, that while
nominations to subordinate offices are to be retained
in the hands of Government- as before, no appoint-
inents whatever are in future to be made from with-
out, no matter what the claim of me:it, or desert, skill,
or experience in the working ways of the world may
We have left ourselves but little space to notice
the strange harangue delivered by • the Prime
Minister on Monday night. Tired of playing the
buffoon, Lord Palmerston now assumes the tone
and swagger of a bravo, and flings about him coarse epi-
thets and vulgar phrases in the hope of darn.ging those
who have ventured to tell the truth regarding him, and
of deterring others from imitating their example. This
septuagenarian hectoring will not do. The time is past
when questions of personal veracity and of public mo-
ment could be settled by a resort to foul language. Lord
Palmerston may elicit cheers from his official vassals by
brandishing the terms " false" and " falsehood " round
his senatorial head • but the memory of an insulted peo-
ple cannot be bullied to sleep thereby. The middle
classes remember too painfully the persevering ribaldry
and trifling with which every complaint was met, day
after day and week after week, in the House of Com-
mons. Mr. La,yard was not the first person to take no-
tice of the matter; and were he base or weak enough to
retract every syllable of reproach he has uttered on
the subject, a hundred tongues as eloquent as his would
cry out that the accusation is but too true. What end,
then, can the Premier propose to himself by this species
of vain bravado ?—Morning Paper.

CAPTAIN M'CLURE.

A short discussion took place in the House of Com-
mons last night on the subject of the reward due to the
Arctic navigator who has at last succeeaed in solving
the problem of the North-West Passage. Events of such
importance succeed each other so rapidly nowadays
that we can scarcely believe in the existence of a period
when the public were violently excited by tidings from
Behring's Straits or Lancaster Sound. Sir John Frank-
lin and his brave companions, Sir James Ross and his
searching expedition, Sir Edward Belcher and his ships,
Captain Penny, the gallant Bellot —such were the names
and the topics which were in everybody's mouth but
a very few years ago. Just now all recollection
of them has passed away like a snow-wreath in
the kn. We must not, however, forget to be just, be-
cause it happens that England just new is engaged in a
grapple with one of the great military powers of the
world. • England can well contrive to carry on a war,
and to attend at the same time to minor claims upon
her justice and her generosity. It was Mr. Mackinnon
who brought last night before the house the question of
Captain 21.1‘Clure's services. It is an undoubted fact that
though for the last three centuries and a half all the
great maritime nations of the world have been striving
to find a passage in one direction or
.another to the
northward of the great continent of America, all adven-
turers failed until Captain M'Clure took the matter in
hand. Beyond all question, he was indebted largely for
his success to the efforts of his predecessors, although,
even so, there was enough of unknown water or ice in
the inhospitable regions through which the Investigator
forced her way to tax to the utmost the energies of the
boldest adventurer. It would be idle at a moment like

this, when every Englishman's mind is intent upon pro-
ceedings of a far more important kind to enter at any
length upon the romantic story of the Investigator's
cruise. Suffice it to say that in January, 1850, the In-
vestigator and Enterprise sailed together upon this last
voyage until off Cape Horn, when they parted company.
The Investigator in due time passed Behring's Straits,
and reached the ice on the 2d of August in the same
year, without any tidings of her consort. Captain
M'Clure resolved to proceed, because it was hoped
at the time that some tidings of Sir John Franklin and
his party might be obtained in the region which he had
then reached. He took the Investigator accordingly up
Prince of Wales' Strait, and in a sledge reached' Bank's
Land. Opposite his position at this point lay Melville
Island—the Melville Island of Parry and his successors—
so that at the very moment the problem of a north-western
passage, which had occupied the thoughts of so many
navigators from the days of Sebastian Cabot to our own
time, was solved for all practical purposes.
It is needless to speak of the Investigator's further
adventures in connection with the search for Sir John
Franklin. The good ship lies in Mercy Bay, stuck hard
and fast in the ice, unless, indeed, she be already ground
to pieces or destroyed between the cold fingers of the
Polar furies. We could have wished that, like the ship
in which Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe,
she bad been brought back to Deptford, and that Queen
Victoria might have followed in the steps of Queen
Elizabeth. This was not, however, fated to be ; let us
only be thankful that we have got back her brave crew.
It is unfortunate for them that the old Parliamentary
offer of 20,0001., which was held out as a bait to the
adventurous between 1745 and 1828, hal not been re-
newed. Strictly speaking, therefore, nothing can be
claimed upon this score. It has, however, been the
custom to bestow a reward either in honour or money,
or in both, upon all persons who have distinguished
themselves upon these perilous expeditions. Sir Edward
Parry, who reached 110 deg. west longitude, received
5,0001. and knighthood. Sir John Ross was rewarded
in a similar manner for his discoveries in Bootbia Felix.
Sir G. Back was knighted on his return from Hudson's
Bay ;so was Sir James Richardson. Sir Jas. C. Ross
received the same honour for his adventurous expedi-
tion to the Antarctic Seas. Now, it would be difficult
to say that Captain M'Clure was not, equally with
these distinguished officers, entitled to honour and
reward. After all, it was he who actually solved
the problem, however he may have been assisted to
the solution by the labours of his predecessors. The dis-
covery—we grant it freely—is entirely useless to the
human race for all purposeskif navigation and commerce.
It is however, something to have set at rest a question
upon which the minds of men have been violee tly agitated
for so many centuries. Examples of heroic endurance,
besides, are never thrown away upon the navy. Nor can
it be said of Captain M'Clure's expedition that it was
merely undertaken for a scientific purpose. He went to
look for Sir John Franklin, and found the North-Wes-
Passage. Perfect unanimity prevailed in the house at
the proprietyof appointinga select committee to examine
into Captain M'Clure's claim. We heartily wish him
success, for he has fairly earned his reward in the midst
of dangers and hardships innumerable. With the re-
cognition of his claim the cycle of Arctic discovery may
appropriately be closed.—Morning Paper.

BURSTING OF THE LOCK OF THE VICTORIA DOCKS.
—The opening of these spacious docks at Plaistow
marshes, which it was intended should take place in the
course of August next, will be necessarily delayed some
months in consequence of a serious accident which hap-
pened on Sunday by the bursting in of the principal
lock, or river entrance, near Bow-creek.

FATAL OCCURENCE AT BRISTOL.-A shocking occur-
rence took place at Bristol on Sunday last, by which
a Mahometan sailor, aged 24, and a young woman,
the same age, met with their deaths. It appears the
ship Duncan, of Liverpool, was lying in the Floating
Harbour, where, on account of being infested. with rats,
she was undergoing a fumigation with charcoal and
brimstone beneath hatches. The captain, to guard
against the possibility of danger to the crew, gave orders
that the hatches should not be opened, but the two de-
ceased persons managed (while the shipkeeper was in the
forepart of the vessel) to raise the hatchways and go be-
low in company with a Malay sailor. At a little before
six on Sunday morning, Sall and the woman were di-
covered quite quite dead from suffocation, and the Malay
nearly so. Mr. David Davis, of Queen-square, surgeon,
used all efforts to re-animate the two former, but in vain.
The survivor is, however, recovering. An inquest was
held yesterday, when a verdict was returned of " Acci-
dentally suffocated by the fumes of charcoal."
INTENDED DISTRIBUTION OP NAVAL PRIZE MONEY.-
Notice has been given to the officers, seamen, and
marines, and to all persons interested therein, that the
distribution of proceeds arising front the Russian vessel
Fidentia, captured on the 9th of April, 1854, by her Ma-
jesty's ships Tribune, Imperieuse, and Leopard, will
commence on Monday, the 9th July, 1855, in the prize
branch of the department of the " Accountant-General
of the Navy, Admiralty, Somerset House." The fol-
lowing are the shares due to an individual in the several
classes :-Flag share, 851. ss. 10d. ; captains, each 671.
108. 5d.; second class, 9/. 11s. 10d.: third, 71. 13s. 5d.;
fourth, 41. 18s. Bd.•' fifth, 21. 14s. 94.; sixtb, 2/. 9s. 3d.;
seventh, 1/. 12s. 104. ;
tenth, ss. 6d. A similar notice has been given to the
officers, seamen, and ,marines, and to all persons inter-
ested therein, that the distribution of proceeds arising
from the Russian vessel Dido, captured on the 11th of
April, 1854, by her Majesty's ships Imperieuse and Leo.
pard, will commence at the same time and place. The
following are the shares due to an individual in the
several classes :-Flag share, 411. 7e. 6d.; captains, each
491.25. Bd.; second class, 61. 1 On. 7d.; third, 51. 4s. 5d.;
fourth, 31. 7s. 2d.; fifth, 11. 17s. 4d.; sixth, 11.135. 7d.;
seventh, 1/. 2s. 5d.; eighth, 11s. 2d,; ninth, 7:J. 64.; tenth,
3s, 9d.

I PRICE SD.

THE BANKRUPTCY OF MESSRS.
STRAHAN AND CO.

•
A. meeting of the creditors of Messrs. Strahan, Paul,
and Bates, was held at the Law Institution yesterday
afternoon, to consider the stepe to be taken to secure a
full investigation of the petition recently opened in
Bankruptcy. Between 50 and 60 persons were present,
nearly the whole of whom are connected with the legal
profession, and the chair was occupied by Mr. E. S. Lee.
It was explained by Mr. Futvoye, who hag adopted the
initiative, that a number of the creditors who have suf-
fered largely through the stoppage of this firm are de.
sirous of a thorough inquiry into its affairs, and arc con-
sequently prepared to pursue such measures as 'shall
insure that object. Many, he stated, were at first in-
clined to view the suspension as eee of theee unfortunate
catastrophes which may semetimea occur in busi-
lam ; but, as it appeared .from all that could now be
ascertained that the partners had been aware of their
position for the last six years, it Was necessary to
carry out a strict examination. It was therefore pro-
posed to watch the proceedings with great vigilance.
Mr. Lawrence, who had entered at this stage, intimated
that, as the representative of the petitioning creditor, he
was most ready to state the course that had been pur-
sued and would continue to be pursued for the benefit
of the creditors and to insure the legal distribution of
the assets. Observations had been made on the manner
in which the petition in bankruptcy had been adjudi-
cated, and the effect of friendly influence in relation to it;
hut he thought be should he able to show that the step
had been taken with a desire to protect the estate against
extents from the Crown and other claims which interfered
with the interests of. the general body. Having beep
called in and consulted Without possessing the slightest
previous knowledge of Mr. Btrahansor, Sir J. D'.-'Paul,
and having only a partial atquaint;.nce through one pro-
fessional transaction with Mr. Bates, he had given the
best advice in his power, and the result was that, acting
for the petitioning creditor, he had, recommended the
course in question. This bad occurred after the house
had been culpably kept open up to the Saturday, the
plea of the partners Iseing that they expected assistance.
Through the run on the Friday and Saturday the funds
of the establishment had been diminished between
22,0001. and 24,000/ , and, notwithstanding their promp-
titude with tbe petition, tbe sheriff's officer entered on
behalf of the Crown, and secured 2,0001., the remainder
of the available cash, besides which it was necessary to
give him an undertaking to pay 700/. or 8001. additional,
to prevent him seizing the books and closing the pre-
mises altogether. An important question would arise as
to the source of the hints which may have induced many
to withdraw or reduce their balances, and if it could
he clearly proved that any intimation had been given
the Court would interpose its power and order restitu-
tion. With regard to the choice of assignees, it was
proposed to name Mr. Barwis, an accountant and navy
agent, and Mr. Montagu Tatham,•a proctor, and if the
creditors present thought fit to select a third there would
be little difficulty. An objection was made to the latter
gentleman, not from any doubt of his integrity, but from
the fear that he might not proceed eneissetically, owing
to his connection with Sir J. D. Paul. It.was said Mr.
Lee and Mr. Appleyard, as being creditors and repre-
senting large claims, would be the proper parties. With
reference to the non-appointment of persons likely to be
influenced by family ties, Mr. Lawrence mentioned that
Mr. W. Spottiswoode bad been'at first requested to act,
but that, when it was intimated his relationship to Mr.
Strahan might be raised as an objection, he at once with.
drew. After a long consultation, in which the deplor-
able condition of the estate and the heavy sums for which
certain contractors stand indebted to the firm were
alluded to, it was agreed to support the choice of assig-
nees proposed. adding the name of Mr. Appleyard, of
Lincoln's-inn ; the explanation afforded by Mr. Law-
ranee being considered satisfactory. At the close of the
meeting he stated distinctly that he should act entirely
without restraint as the representative of the petitioning
creditor, and that he, as well as the whole of the parties
concerned, saw the necessity of an unfettered investi-
gation. It was stated that there is scarcely a tradesman
among the debtors under the estate, the legal profession,
through themselves or their clients, being the principal
sufferers. The two firms of Messrs. Strahan, Paul, and
Co., and Messrs. Halford and Co., are identical, but the
opinion is that the latter will, as far as its separate posi-
tion is concerned, be found in a much better position
than the former. Some French railway concessions may,
it is thought, produce an addition to the assets.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

ABERDEEN AND SCOTTISH MIDLAND.

The directors of these companies, it appears, have
entered into a provisional arrangement for amalgamating
the two companies. 'The revenue, after deducting work-
ing expenses, is to be divided in certain portions founded
on the average of the past four years. The shareholders
of the respective companies are to retain their present
rights and preferences. The two companies aro to lease
the Dundee and Arbroath Railway on what they con-
sider favourable terms, with a view to have the control
of the traffic by railway from Aberdeen to Perth and
Dundee.