The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-11 00:00:00

DON, FRIDAY EVENING, MARCH 11, 1864

dored it ne,..essary to retain the punishment of branding as
a part of our military code, if for no other reason than the
icflueuce which the example must exercise upon other re-

- The committee divided, and the amendment was nega-
tived by SO to 50.

The clause was then agreed to, and the bill passed through
committee.

The Marino Mutiny Bill also passed through committee,
In committee of the whole house,
Mr. LAWSON moved for leave to bring in a bill to
enable owners and occupiers of property in certain districts
to prevent the common sale of intoxicating liquors within
such districts.

Mr. H. BRUCE intimated on the part of the Govern-
ment that there was no objection to the introduction of the
bill, but they could not pledge themselves to give it their
support in the future stages.
On the CHAIRMAN putting the question, the oppotents
of the motion insisted on a division, which resulted in leave
being given by 70 to 36. Subsequently the bill was brought
in and read a first time.
The house adjourned at 10 minutes to 11 o'clock.

RAILWAY INTEI LIGENCE.

CALEDONIAN.

The half-yearly meeting of this company was
hold on Tuesday at Glasgow ; Lieut.-Col. Salkold,
the chairman, presided.
The report was taken as read.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, said it afforded the directors great pleasure
to be enabled to recommend the shareholders a
higher dividend than on any farmer occasion.
(Hear.) For some time past the receipts of the
company had been gradually increasing, owing, in
the first place, to the general prosperity of the
district occupied by :the railway; in the second
place, to the increased facilities which had been
given from time to time for the development of the
traffic on the older portion of their railway; and
thirdly, owing to the additional traffid which was
brought upon the main line through the medium of
branches which had been recently opened. They
had expended upon new branches during the past
half-year £124,000 ; and when the branches now
in course of construction were opened for traffic ho
felt sure that they would not only yield a good in-
terest on the capital invested, but, by opening up
new sources of revenue, they would be the means
of bringing to the parent line additional amounts of
traffic which would prove highly. remunerative.
The total amount which had now been expended on
the new branches that were not yet opened was
£565,000; and, although they had paid interest on
this large sum out of current revenue, they still
were enabled from the same source, after a most
efficient maintenance of the permanent way and
plant, after fish-jointing the rails upon the old line
when they were renewed and rebuilding bridges
with a durable, instead of perishable material,
of which they were originally constructed,
they were still enabled to offer a dividend
for the past half-year at the rate of 6,1-
per cent. per annum. (Hear, hear.) The
working expenses had been somewhat higher than
during the half-year ending January, 1863, but so
long as the working expenses continued to oscillate
between 40 and 42 per eent., there could be no good
ground for complaint. For his own part he could
not but regard a very low rate of working expenses
with some degree of doubt and misgiving ; for,
unless they were subsidised from some extraordinary
fund, they conveyed to his mind the idea of ineffi-
cient maintenance of permanent way and rolling
stock; and when they remembered the appalling
effects of railway accidents, attended too often with
much personal suffering,and not unfrequently with
loss of life, to say nothing of the destruction of pro-
perty which always accompanied them, it behoved
the directors of a company like theirs to avail them-
selves of every means to insure the safety of the
traveller which modern ingenuity and skill had
placed at their disposal. Hence it was that a larger
sum had been expended in the maintenance of the
permanent way, in signals, and other appliances
connected therewith, than on any former occasion.
Moreover, the directors were impressed with the
belief that increased safety and additional accom-
modation provided for the travelling community,
were calculated to earn for the company a❑ in-
creased amount of public patronage, and that view,
they thought, was materially verified by the results
of the past half-year, during which period they had
carried 265,387 more passengers than during the
corresponding period of last year, yielding to the
company an increased amount of revenue for pas-
senger traffic alone during the same period of no less
than £14,443. He then adverted to the bins now
before Parliament in which the company were in-
terested for extending their lines in Glasgow, and
regretted that the Edinburgh and GlasgowCcmpany
had refused to become joint owners with them of a
line from Buchanan-street to the north harbour of
Glasgow, on condition that the Edinburgh and
Glasgow Company should withdraw a bill they were
promoting in Parliament for a similar object. They
wanted no monopoly, and were quite prepared to
give the Edinburgh and Glasgow company the
same advantages and facilities that they might ob-

tain for themselves; but the traffic on the north
side of the Clyde was of such magnitude and im•
portance that they could never consent to be de-
prived of it. The bill which was promoted in the
present session for amalgamating the Caledonian,
_ _

the Edinburgh and Glasgow, and the Central
Companies was lost on the second reading. This
he regretted, for more than one reason. Had it
been allowed to go into the committee-room, the
misrepresentations which had been published, and
which had hoodwinked and blinded the public re-
specting the bill would have been dispersed. He
also regretted it because the facilities which the
promoters of that bill were prepared to offer, not
only to the public, but to the east coast companies,
as well as to the west coast companies. By the
operation of that bill the North British, the North
Eastern, and the Great Northern companies would
not only have had the most ample facilities for the
transmission of their traffic to Glasgow and Perth,
but in the event of those facilities not proving satis-

factory to those companies, they would have been
empowered to run their own trains to Glasgow and
Perth, to appoint their own booking clerks, their
own agents, and their own carters, so that the
public would have had all the advantages of com-
petition as between the companies. By utilising
existing lines, and opening these lines up to all
corners, the necessity for duplicate lines would have
been entirely:done away with—(cheers)—and those
gentleman who had invested their property in the
existing undertakings would have still derived
a fair remuneration from that investment.
They not only proposed to give facilities, sup-
ported by running powers, to the three east coast
companies which he had named, but it was also
arranged with the London and North-Western
and the Midland Companies to give these two great
companies running powers both to Edinburgh and
Glasgow, and in return those companies were to
give to the Caledonian Company running powers
over the whole of the Lancaster and Carlisle line,
which would have put this company in direct com-
munication with the Lancashire and Yorkshire and
all the main lines in England, In short, a bill
framed on a more liberal principle never was
brought before Parliament. (Hear, hear.)

Mr. T. HILL seconded the motion for the adop-
tion of the report, and it was carried unanimously.
In reply to a question it was stated that the com.
pony were now paying interest on £565,000 of un-
productive capital expended on lines that were not
yet ready for traffic.
Resolutions were passed declaring the usual divi-
dends on the preference and guaranteed stocks and
shares for the half year ending the 31st January
last, and also at the rate of 61 per cent. per annum
on the ordinary consolidated stock of the company,
less income tax, in each case payable on the 22d inst,
and re-electing Mr. Fleming, the retiring auditor.
The meeting was then made special, and the direc-
tors were authorised to raise £325,000, under five
Acts of last Session, by the creation of ordinary stock
to that amount, and to borrow in respect thereof on
debentures £108,300, and also to exercise the bor-
rowing powers conferred by two other Acts.
A vote of thanks to the chairman concluded the
proceedings.

various disagreeable transactions between the E:s-
tern Counties and Eastern Union Companies during
several years up to the amalgiAnation of the com-
panies in the Great Eastern, exp!ained that the
only que3tion now remaining to be decided was the
amouot they should take of Great Eastern stock for
their A stork, A committee of shareholders and
directors was appointed last year to consider the
matter, and after careful inquiry and consideration
had come to the unanimous opinion that the holders
of A stock should accept £9B of Great Eastern ordi-
nary stock for every £lOO of their A stock. The
Great Eastern Board had subsequently endeavoured
to induce the holders of A stock to part with it at
95; but he (the Chairman) and those who acted
with hid' took immediate steps to resist that unfair
course. This resulted in an offer by the Great
Eastern to abide by the decision of the committee,
and to give the 98 in exchange for every 100 of A
stock. With a view to put an end to further litiga-
Con, trouble, and expense, he recommended the
acceptance of that off',ir, which he had reason to
believe would now be carried out fairly by the
Great Eastern Board. He concluded by moving a
formal resolution to the effect that the offer to ex-
change the A stock at 98 should be accepted.
Captain JEavis, iki.P., seconded the motion, and
it was carried unanimously.

It was agreed that the balance of the fund re-
maining i❑ hand, after paying the necessary law
expenses, be placed at the disposal of the committee
for their expenses. A cordial vote of thanks to the
members of ihe committee for their valuable services,
and also to the chairman for presiding, was passed.