The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-25 00:00:00

MARLBOROUGII-STREET.

BRUTALITY TO A CAB II onsE.—Joseph Goff, cab driver,
badge 3,015, was charged by the Royal Siciety for the Pre-
vention of Cruelty to Animals with cruelly illtreating a
horse by unmercifully flogging it.
Joseph Cooto, one of the officers of the Royal Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, about half-past four
o'clock yesterday afternoon, saw the prisoner in Pall Mall
flogging the horse he was driving attached to a four wheel
cab in a most cruel manner. The prisoner turned up
Waterloo-place, all the way flogging the horse, and the
passengers on a passing omnibus cried "Shame" on wit-
nessing his brutal conduct. The officer pursued the prisoner,
and on stopping him, after he had gone a distance of 200
yards, all the while fkgging the horse, he
gave as his reason
for doing so that the home had stumbled.
Templerley, another officer of the Society, proved that
there were marks on the horse, showing that it had been
severely flogged.

The prisoner said he might have given the horse two or
three cuts,

Mr Knox said he could not order the prisoner to be
slowly driven and whipped, but he deserved it. His con-
duct had been most brutal.
The owner of the horse said he should discharge the
prisoner,
Mr Knox said as that would be some punishment, he
et ould only fine the prisoner 208 or 7 days.
The prisoner was taken into custody about five o'clock
yesterday, but for some reason or the other on the part of
the police was not brought before the magistrate till after
all the other charges had been disposed of.

THAMES.
AN INCORRIGIBLE YOUNG OFFENDER.—John Ballard,
charged with stealing money from a till, in White Horse•
was brought before Mr Paget,
satlriAaeset.l3:B:ttrne:Pg'nheatylia.agsoL°thWee3Prisoner entered the shop of Mr
minutes before nine in the
morning and went round the
GHooergwealsirsaesehnbboyur Washbourne, ginger beer maker, at 15
lashbourne's brother, who
was was in a parlour behind the shop, which he immediately
entered. The prisoner immediately said, " I want a half-
pennyworth of sherbet, if you please, sir, Mr Washbourne
took the prisoner alongside the till which he opened, and
missed from it 53 in half-pence. The prisoner took that
sum from his pocket, and he had a half-penny besides
in his hand. Mr Washbourne said ho would
give him into custody. The boy then made a
determined resistance, and tried to escape. He was secured
and after the first examination he was remanded for a week.
Owing to a mistake as to the date the witnesses were not in
attendance on the day appointed for the second hearing, and
the prisoner was discharged. He was again captured yes-
terday by Police-sergeant Dodsworth of the A division, who
said the prisoner had been greatly neglected, his father co-
habiting with a prostitute' and his mother in a a orkhouse.
I
The boy had been three times R custody for robbing tills,
and once convicted.
Mr Paget convicted the prisoner as Et juvenile offender,
and sentenced him to three months imprisonment and hard
labour.

HERE IS "AN 'ORRIBLE TALE."—The Paris
D-Ermites, which
Siecle, in speaking of the buildings which are to
come down in consequence of the changes connected with
tthehe rnemueoevadlesofmthaerrelleoutseeltsD;neud,
dseasys:-- eux "At the angle of
condemned
partially may be seen in the wall a
obliteratedto disappear,
by time, but which
sculptured both
n
eo
stone,
still bears some traces of the former design, namely, a dog
represented in bas-relief, in the place of a porcelain dog
fixed there during the reign of Henry IL, to commemorate
an act of instinct accomplished by one of those faithful
animals. At No. 2in that street lived, in
adjoining sappy
a barber and a pastrycook. A stranger having one day
entered the shop of the former to get shaved was never seen
to leave it. His family, being uneasy at his disappearance,
had him sought for, and a friend, accompanied by the dog
of the missing man and a sergeant of the watch, searched
all over Paris. As the seekers were at length passing be-
fore this house in the Rue des Deux-Ermites, the dog began
to scent about him with an uneasy air. It next rushed into
the barber's shop and commenced scratching on the floor
with such persistence that it led to the discovery of a trap-
door over a cellar, which still exists, and where the body of
a man was found cut into pieces. The barber, says the
story, had made a bargain with his neighbour, whose pies,
made of human flesh, had acquired a great celebrity, so that
when a stranger came to get shaved he was placed on the
trap, and, a spring being touched, he fell into the cellar
below, where he was despatched by the pastrycook, if not
killed by the fall. The two murderers were broken on the
wheel, and their houses rez2d to the ground. Is there any
truth in this story? What is eerre.a is, that until the
commencement of the 16th century there might have been
seen an open space, at a spot forreer,y occupied by the
houses, the cellars of which could still be seen. Francis I.
it was who permitted the present habitation t 9 Do built,"

Itailway and other Companies.

soCrli DEVON.

The half-yearly meeting of this company was held on
Tuesday at the company's officke, s iillbay; Mr T, Wooli-
combe, the chairman, presided.
The report was taken as read.
The CHAIRMAN, ,in moving the adoption of thel report,
observed that ho trusted they would consider it on the
whole satisfactory. The surplus actually earned over the
corresponding period of 1863 was £7,000 odd. They were
told when they last met that the Teign Valley scheme was
carried in tho last session of Parliament as a mere local
line. It was an extraordinary scheme. The parties who
had procured a bill for making a line with a capital of
£50,000, asked Parliament to allow them to raise a pre.
terential capital nearly six times the amount of the ori-
ginal capital upon the £15,000. The directors had in the
House of Commons the greatest difficulty in getting any
information whatever as to the financial position of those
gentlemen. The Teign Valley scheme excited a great deal
of attention in Parliament, and a remarkably good com-
mittee was appointed to investigate the circumstances of
the case by the House of Lords. They went into the case,
end then they did succeed in getting a complete expose of
the financial position of the company. The solicitor,
when asked to explain how it happened that he had not
got e said he was getting it every day, and
there could be no question about it. (Laughter.) However,
the result of the whole question was that the committee de-
cided unanimously that the bill ought not to pass. During
the progress of the inquiry, it was considered necessary on
the part of the South Devon Company, that the Teign Valley
Railway, being an accomplished fact, it would not do for
this company to give their opponents an opportunity of
scying they would do nothing to assist them t) carry legis-
lation into effect. Therefore they decided it was necessary
to state to the committee their willingness to work the Teign
Valley line, provided the parties were willing to treat with
them for that purpose, and to make fair terms. (Hear.) A
considerable amount of interest was manifested on the part
of the corporation of Exeter with a view to obtaining rail-
way communication to the quays at Exeter, and a scheme,
which was of the most complicated and objectionable cha-
racter, was brought forward by the Teign Valley proprie-
tors for the purpose of giving this accommodation. He
thought the South Devon Company satisfied the committee
that that scheme was perfectly impracticable, but at the
same time the directors intimated their intention of recom-
[ mending the proprietors to sanction a plan which was pro •
posed several years ago for making a communication from
their line a little below St Thomas's to the Exeter quays.
The Lords' Committee recommend that next session the
South Devon Company should connect the city quays with
their line, avoiding the necessity of crossing the roads on the
level. The cost would not exceed £5,000, and it might be
less: He referred to the necessity which the directors were
under of coming to them for authority to obtain more capital.
They proposed the sum of £300,000 as the amount which
they thought, while they were going to Parliament, they had
better take powers to raise. They certainly did not propose to
spend anything like that money at present. With respect to
the increased accommodation in doubling someportions of the
line, that they considered essentially necessary, and it ought
to be proceeded with at once—viz,, from Newton to Teign-
mouth, He thought they had capital sufficient for that pur-
pose without touching upon the new capital at all, and that
would, therefore, be available for future improvements of
the line, and for the purpose of arranging the purchase of
the locomotive stock. The purchase of that stock involved
a financial operation which must effect a considerable
saving of money to the proprietors, because the amount
which they now paid for the hire of locomotives included
the interest of contractors' capital, and the sum for redeem-
ing the plant from year to year, and the depreciation of that
plant also, He believed that the amount they at present
paid to the contractors in the shape of interest was a much
higher rate than that which they would be called upon to
pay for the money which they raised to pay them off. There •
fore there would be a clear gain upon that part of the trans..
action. Then, they also conceived that they had now
arrived at a point which would enable them to work the
line themselves, and to save the contractors' profits by car-
rying on business on their own account. They had actually
paid nearly £20,0e0 towards the cost of the locomotives from
half-year to half-year out of the revenue, and that was so
much really to the credit side of the account. With regard
to the remainder of the capital—£3oo,ooo—it would be very
difficult to go into anything like a very minute estimate of
the appropriation of that money. (Hear.) If they had had
more capital their general rolling stock would be increased
in amount, and it would be a wise step to increase it, be-
cause every halt-year they were paying a tolerably largo sum
under the head of interchange of carriage stock. They had
also found it necessary to make considerable improvements
prospectively in the general train arrangements of the line,
With regard to express trains proper, they new proposed to
have three express trains up and three down every week-
day from London. The first would leave Plymouth at 8 30
a.m., arriving in London at 3 p.m. Persons, therefore, who
were in the absolute necessity of going to London and re-
turning in one day would be enabled to go up by that train
and leave by the 450 train, which arrived in Plymouth
at 11 55 p.m. The next express would leave Plymouth at
10 45, and arrive at London at 6 10. The first down ex-
press would leave London at 9 15, reaching Plymouth at
4 35, and the second express would leave London at 11 45
a.m., arriving at Plymouth at 6 10 p.m., and a third
train would leave London at 4 50, reaching Plymout at
11 55, The third express up would be the old 320 train,
arriving in London at 11 o'clock. They had also increased
the train service for Torquay and Dartmouth. The express
which left Plymouth at 8 30-would leave Torquay at 9 25,
getting into London by 3 o'clock. The next morning ex-
press from Torquay would leave at 11 40, arriving in Lon-
don with the general Plymouth express at 6 10. The third
express train from Torquay would leave at 422 in the
afternoon, reaching London at 11 o'clock. The speed
of these trains would average somewhere about 38 miles an
hour from end to end, and considering they were some dis-
tance from the metropolis, he did not think there would be
any great reason to complain of that. (Hear.) He then
adverted to the financial arrangements between the Corn-
wall Railway and the associated companies, the Great
Western, Bristol and Exeter, and South Devon, for secur-
ing them some of their advances to that company. He still
thought that the associated companies had derived an ad-
vantage from the extension of the Cornwall line to Fal-
mouth, and that they were quite compensated up to the
present time—and he believed they might derive a still
greater compensation—for the risk and liabilities they had
incurred. If the matter had to be gone over again he should
be quite prepared to take the responsibility of recommend-
ing that proper assistance should have been given to the
Cornwall Company towards carrying it to a state of com-
pletion. (fl ear, hear.)
Mr D. DERRY seconded the motion for the adoption of
the report.
Mr J. GRANT could not concur in the opinion of the
chairman that the declaration of such an increased dividend
as it was proposed to give the shareholders was a matter
calling for any special exultation. One and a half per cent,
was but a poor return to the shareholders for the money
which they had invested in the South Devon. It was true
that it was an improvement on the dividends lately paid,
but there was assuredly great room for improvement.
Eighteen months ago their dividend only reached 6s 6d.
Though their dividend on the present occasion had improved
the market value of the South Devon stock had not improved
to any extent worthy of mention. He saw no reasonable
prospect of any great improvement in their property so long
as the directors submitted to be under the government of the
Great Western andßristol and Exeter Company. The in,.
terests of the shareholders ought to be the first and great
object of the directors, and those of the public next ; but
the principles on which the South Devon directors seem to
administer the affairs of the company were those which
were known to be most in accordance with the views and
wishes of the boards of the two companies he had just
mentioned. They would remember that some years ago the
sea load swept away a large portion of their line. The ea-
e
e uses were charged to revenue, and the shareholders re
Ceived no dividend that half year. He (Mr Grant) main-
tained that the principle of thus charging to revenue what
ought to be charged to capital was not only unjust to the
shareholders, but was contrary to sound commercial prin-
ciples. He concluded by moving the following resolution :
" That in the opinion of this meeting it is most desire
able for the South Devon Railway Company to encourage
the interchange of traffic with all neighbouring railway
companies, and for the directors to renew their efforts with
South Western Railway Company to attain that object,
and to report at the next meeting."
The Rev. A. B. WILLS, of Exeter, seconded the amend_
went, and strongly condemned the course pursued towards
the South Western Company.
Dr CLARKE supported the amendment.
Mr C. 1 ROTTER supported the original resolution.
The CHAIRMAN having replied, suggested the expediency
of the withdrawal of the amendment.
Mr GRANT, after explaining that it was not intended as
a vote of censure or want of confidence in the directors, as
the meeting appeared to suppose, coneented to withdraw
his amendment.
After the rejection of amendments by Dr Clarke and the
Rev. A. B. Ellis,
The original resolution was then put and carried.
A resolution declaring a dividend at the rate of £1 12s 63
per cent. per annum was then unanimously adopted.
On the motion of the CHAIRMAN, seconded by Mr D.
DERRY, a resolution was passed to the effect that the S eith
Devon agreed, in conjunction with the Great 'Western an. 2.
the Bristol and E:zeter, to guarantee payment in certain
proportions, the interest on dividend not exceeding £f 10,
per cent. per annum on stock created by the Cornwall Rail-
way Company to the extent of £149,600 for the repayment
of the 7,489 6 per cent. £2O preferential shares, which had
been already created and issued by the company, and also
interest at the same rate on £lOO,OOO and £82,880, to replac,
other shares that had been issued at a higher rate of interest
A vote of thanks to the Chairman closed the proceedings