The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-03 00:00:00

SOUTH EASTERN.

A Wharneliffe meeting of this company was held
yesterday at the Bridge house Hotel,London•bridge;
the Hon. J. By ng in the chair.
Mr. SMILES, the secretary, read the notice con.
Tening the meeting to consider nine bills, in com-
pliance with the standing orders of the House of
Lords.

The CHAIRMEN stated that three hills promoted
by them in the present session had been so far sanc-
tioned by the proprietors as to authorise the direc

tors to make applications to Parli,ment in respect
of them. By the first bill on the list it was pro-
posed to raise a capital of £lBO,OOO, by the second
bill £450,000, and by another bill,since withdrawn,
£230,000 for a line to Eastbourne—together
£860,000. The directors had subsequently been
enabled to enter into arrangements whereby the
capital applied for had bee❑ considerably reduced.
An agreement had been made with the Belgian
Company under which facilities would be afforded
for an efficient service of trains between Loudon
and Eastbourne, via Tunbridge Wells, in connec-
tion wit h the SAVII Eastern Railway, in considera-
tion of which the company's Eastbourne brat ch
had been withdrawn, as well as the proposed junc-

tion line between Croydon and 6aterham. An
arrangement had also been made with the Weald
of Kent Company, under which the South Eastern
Company's branch would terminate at Cranbrook,
and the proposed extension to Tenderden and
Appledore had been withdrawn accordingly. 'Tar
capital required for the construction of the proposed
new lines of the company would tberctote now
stand as follows :—For the branch to Westerham,
£70,000, instead of £lBO,OOO, and for the branches
to Crap brook, and Hytbe and Sandgate, £28(1,0u0,
instead of £4so,ooo—together, 1:350,000, instead
of £630,000 as originally proposed. He thought
the proprietors would not object to that reduction.
Mr. Toogood (the solicitor) read the heads of a
Bill for authorising the South-Eastern Railway
Company to make and maintain an extension of
their railway to Westerharn, and to raise further
moneys. It authorised £70,000 in shares, and the
usual borrowing powers for £23,330.
The motion of the Chairman, seconded by Mr.
Thompson, a formal resolution approving the bill,
was then carried.

The next was a Bill for authorising the South
Ea6tern Railway Compaty to make and maintain
extensions of their railway to Cranbrook, Hythe,
and Saudgate, respectively, and to raise further
moneys, to the amount of £280,000 on shares and
£93,33,) on loan.

After some observations by Mr. C. Child as to
the necessity of having a map of the projects in
the room on such occasions, a format resolution ap•
proving the Bill was carried unanimously.
the Solicitor read the heads of the next bill for
authorising the Charing-cross Railway Company
to acquire additional lands at or near Cannon
street station in the city of London, and to raise
further moneys to the amount of .t 90,000, of woich
£65,000 was for the purpose of subscribing towards
uhe cunstructio❑ of an hotel in the city.
Mr. ADAMS said the £90,000 would not be suffi-
cient for the purposes of the company, and that
the directors shonld have applied for powers to raise
£600,000.

The CHAIRMAN said the directors thought it
would be considered by the present bills that they
were asking for too much money, instead of too
little.

The bill was approved.

Oa the !notion of the CHAIRMAN, formal resolu-

tions approving the following bide, which did not
require any subscription from the South-Eastern
Company, were agreed to :—A bill to authorize the
construction of a dock, piers, a railway, and other
works at or near Ddal, and a navigable channel
therefrom to Sandwich, all in the county of Kent;
a bill for authorizing the extension and mainten-
ance of tramways in the parish of Erith, in Kent ;
a bill to authorize the London, Chatham, andllover
Railway Company to construct additional works
arid acquire additional lands, to alter the works and
powers (connected with or affecting their undt r-
taking) of other companies, bodies, and persons, and
to amend the Acts of the company relating to Dover
and to Margate; and a bill to authorize the con-
struction of a railway from Hartley and Cranbrook
to Tenterden, in the county of Kent.
Mr. WILSON, having expressed the gratification
he felt in consequence of the company having re-
cently estabEshed friendly relations with neigh-
bouring companies, moved a vote of thanks to the
chairman and directors, and the meeting was ad-
journed to the 22d inst., at the same place, for the
consideration of the other bills.

CALCUTTA AND SOUTH-EASTERN.
The half-yearly meeting of this company was
held on Tuesday at the offices, Gresham•house—Mr.
J. Borradaile in the chair.
The report stated that the terminus at Port
Canning was still unfinished, Sines the opening
of the line vessels aggregating about 7,000 tons
had visited the port, but it was regretted that
sufficient accommodation had not yet been pro-
vided there. The Municipal Commissioners of
Port Canning were endeavouring to provide a
remedy for this state of things, and pressing the
Government on the subject. With regard to roads
and approaches to the different stations they were
in a backward state. The important road for con-
necting the Barripore district with Chappahattee
station would not be completed before the middle of
the year. Until the terminal stations of the rail-
Way were put into habitable and serviceable condi-
tion the merits of the lire could not be tested• So
tar as the water site and channel were e'neerned
every day's experience served to prove the admir-

able fitness of the Matlah for a first-rate port. -The
superior cheapness, safety, and easy access of the
Mutlab. as compared with the Hooghly, was now
beyond dispute. The iron jetty, on which the con-
venience of vessels and the returns of the line in a
great measure depended, was by the last accounts
expected to be completed in dune. No exertions
had been spared to reduce the expenditure, and the
various establishments had been brought down to
the lowest point compatible with efficiency and
safety, The sums required for the railway had
been advanced from time to time by the Govern-
ment of Tricia. The capital account showed that
£431,517 had been expanded, leaving a balance of
£7,381. The total amount of guaranteed interest
received from the Government to the 31st of De-
cember, 1863, was £63,594. The traffic receipts
for the half year ending the 31st of December last
amounted to £2,494, and the expenditure to £3,029.
showing a deficiency of £535.
On the motion of the CHAIRMAN, the report was
adopted; the retiring directors, Mr Burkinyoung
and Mr. Berber, and the retiring audi►ors, Mr
Goodehep and Mr. C. W. Johnson, were reelected.

Fhe proceedings conctucled with a vote of thanks
to the directors.

SPIIIIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—The lest news from the seat Ot war in
Virginia prepares ua for the complete failure a
Grant's expedition, The telegraphic intelligence
which we published yesterday announced that the
Federal General was again advancing on the night
of Tuesday, the 17th of May. That which we pub-
lish this morning records the signal repulse of the
attack which he made on the morning of Wednes-
day, the 18th. This time the assault was directed
against Lee's centre and left. "After a desperate
conflict, lasting throughout the forenoon, the Fede-
rats were forced to retreat, with the loss of 1,200 in
killed and wounded." After the who!esale slaughter
of the previous fortnight these numbers may appear
almost trifling, but to an invading force a defeat is,
in one sense, more damaging when the loss is small.
It stems to show that the position of the enemy
was found too impregnable to be carried by "piling
up men" and marching over their bodies, and that
a timely retreat was dictated by that which is the
better part of valour. This inference is confirmed
by the sentence which follows. A counter-attack is
stated to have been afterwards made by Lee upon
Grant's front, though without success. When we
remember that, according to a New York contem-
porary, a full week before this action, " the army
of General Lee, befflA and beaten et every point,
was in full retreat towards Richmond, pursued by
the uncocquerable old Army of the Potomac," the
feet of his becoming the aggressor is sugges-
tive of many reflections. The same authority
endorsed as " absolutely true" the information
that Lieutenant-General Grant " was achieving a
victory which will be crowned with the destruc-
tion or dispersion of the main army of Jeff.
Davis, the occupation of his capital, and his flight
as an outlaw from his exploded Confederacy."

Pending the accomplishment of these decisive
events, we hear that Lee continues to occupy his old
position, about half way between Washington and
Richmond, while Grant is not only unable to dis-
lodge him, but has sometimes to act on the defen-
sive. But this is not all. "On Thursday (the 19th)
Ewell gained Grant's rear, and attempted the cap.
cure of the Federal supply trains. The result is
unknown ; but after an hour's fighting, in which
the Federals lost upwards of 1,000 men, the Con-
federates returned to their entrenchments." It
would be premature to speak of this as the finale of
Grant's invasion of Virginia, tut our readers will
probably agree with us, that a conqueror, supposed
to be driving before him a " defeated, exhausted, and
demoralised" enemy, was never placed in a more
awkward predicament. It is true that Mr. Stanton
had undertaken to reinforce him with " 25,000 vete-
ran troops;" Sue we are not told from what quarter
these veterans Are to be procured, nor is it quite
certain that they will arrive in time to avert a
crushing disaster. The most pradeut of the mill-
i ary critics at New 4oik took care to qualify their
triumphant vaticmationa by making them condi-
tional upon Beauregard having taken part in the
late engagement. If Grant had proved himself more
than a match for the joint strength of Lee and
Beaureg .rd, then the retreat of the Confederates to
Richmond was, they t bought, inevitable. They could
not afford, it was argued, to leave Butler in the rear
of their capital without. Beauregard to watch him,
and must forthwith fall back to defend it. Anothcr
paragraph in the telegraph news of to-day shows
how utterly these anticipations have been eon founded.
There is still some mystery about Beauregrad'a
movements, but we know, at all events, that after
he was bait ved to have joined Lee, General Ran-
som, one of his subordinates, surprised General
Butler in one direction, while a second detachment
of the same force surprised General Baldy Smith
in another direction. Mr. Stanton himself ad-
mitted that the latter was at first driven back
" with some contusion," but asserted that the
attack on Butler was " handsomely repulsed."
That General however, by Mr. Stanton 'a own
showing," retired"—though "leisurely"--" within
his own lines." The exact nature of this strategic
movement is explained by our latest accounts
" The Confederates captured General Hickman with
nearly his whole brigade and eight or ten cannon,
and drove the whole Federal force to their in trench-
ments at Bermuda. The Federal loss in killed and
wounded is admitted to be 2,509." Meanwhile
Beauregard, so far from having despatched all his
available troops to the assistance of Lee, was actually
in force, on the 2let of May, in Gen. Butler's imme•
diate front, ane was preparing to assault his in-
trenchments. Should be have been successful, all
cause for anxiety about the safety of Richmond will
have been removed, and Lee will no doubt have
been heavily reinforced from Beanregard's army. It
is now time to glance briefly at the operations of
General Sherman, whose expedition, however in-
ferior in magnitude to that of Grant, opened more
hopefully, and excited great expectations in the
North. On the 14th of May Mr. Stanton reported
that Sherman had forced his antagonist, Johnston,

to evacuate DAton in the Chattanooga Mountains,
though not without a loss to himself of 3,000 in
killed and wounded. On the 16th he was advane-

ing into Georgia by rapid marches. On the 17th
he was still "in eigorons pursuit," his suppiies
abundant, and his animals fattening on the pastures
and grain fields. By the 20th he had arrived at
Kingston and occupied Rome; uy the 21st he had
reached Cassville, and a great battle at Atlanta was
considered imminent. For the sequel we must
wait till the next wail, but a very cursoryinspec-
tion of the map will show the advantages under
which it will be fought by the Confederates.
' Atlanta stands at the j;2netion of three great lines
of railway, communicating with Savannah, Charles-
ton, and the Mississippi. It 1: should fall into
the hands of the Federale, it will .no doubt be
a valuable position, but in the contree'y event
it may turn out that the retreat of Johnstot: was
a preconcerted plan to draw Sherman away from
his basis of operations, and the "pursuit" of the
latter a suicidal hastening into the trap laid for him.
It is not, however, on the fate of Sherman's, but
on that of Grant's, enterprise that the fortune of the
war now appears to -be suspended. There is no
limit, indeed, to the elasticity of Northern self-
reliance, and there are persons who would not cease
to proclaim the approaching extinction of the re—
bellion though the Army of the Potomac were
annihilated and Washington taken. We speak of
no impossible contingencies. If Beauregard wei.e
to dispose of Butler and gain Lee's camp before
Grant's reinforcements could reach him, nothing,
we imagine, creed save the latter from an over-
whelming defeat. Such a defeat is ruin to an army
which has staked everything on victory, and has
no defences to fall back upon. Unless Grant can
maintain a superiority in the field, it becomes a
question whetter he will be able to recross the
Potomac with more than a remnant of his force.
We know too little of the resources at the commaed
of the Confederates, and have had too many
examples of their comparative weakness for aggres-
sive purposes, to venture on any prediction at this
conjuncture. All that we desire to point out is the
importance of political issues depending on it.
Supposing Grant's prodigious sacrifice of men to be
fruitless, and his military reputation to be wrecked,
what will be the probable effect on public opinion
in the North ? The war party will doubtless be
more furious than ever, but will the war party be
dominant any longer ? Will the policy forced on
President Lincoln by a section of the Republicans
survive the financial and moral collapse that must
follow such a catastrophe ? Or will the pacific
s
sentiments of the great masses, who have "no
interest in wrong," make themselves heard for once
above the din of boisterous passions, demanding
either a change of policy or a change of President?
We cannot tell, but we may at least hope, for the
sake of humanity, that the wild and ruthless cry,
On to Richmond," has now been raised for the
last time.

POST.—The County Courts Bill of the Lord
Chancellor, which is to be discussed to-night in the
House of Lords, has, in one particular, encountered
an amount of adverse criticism which may have in-
duced the public to overlook in other respects its
great and manifold merits. We, of course, refer to
that section of the measure which proposes to mid
that, after the Ist, day of March, 1t465, no action or
y suit should be brought for the rceovi•ty of an debt
or money demand not exceeding £2O, "unless
within one year after such debt or money demand,