The Sun.
London, England, 1852-09-10 00:00:00

S UN9 SEPTEMBER 10, 1852,

selves are able to raise money at the rate of 31. per cent.
fit,it is
nysnobviouslyraenv
arrangeen a aim© f
for
r a
thet which,
reduction
perp rie taonrususmee
e
charge made again revenue for the bond deb t.—(l.lear,
hear.) There are three modes by which this can be
brought about. The one by allowing the mortgage
debt to revolve, and to renew
it from time to time on the
best terms that the money ftb
ei
nptrho
offer-
ing to the holders of the mmoratr will allow, or by
bonds a stock bear-
ing a perpetual guaranteed rjeagef interest
to commence
from the time when the present°
mortgages expire, and
this might bo arranged by taking the
mort-
gages now, and paying the hordelriep of t present
hem down, at
once, the extra interest that would
accrue upon them
beyond the rate proposed to be granted n su
as to settle the question immediately, and
dpit is for con-
erpetuity,
sideration if terms might be made for the redemption
of this stock at par, at the end of twenty or twenty.
years; or lastly, the measure may bo effected byofferingfive
the amount of the bond debt of the company to oue
proprietors pro rata in proportion to their holdings
at at a fixed guaranteed rate of interest, and
an option of abandoning that guarantee within
a limited number of years, say three, five, or
seven years, and merging their interest in that guaran-
teed stock in the general consolidated stock of the com-
pany, and thereafter looking to its earnings for a divi-
dend. This latter mode the directors are inclined to
think would bo at once the most equitable and the most
advantageous to the proprietors, and it appears to the
directors that if the mortgage debt were so offered to
the proprietors as a consolidated stock, with a per-
petual guarantee of 31 or 3} per cent. per annum, but
with the option of within three, five, or seven years,
merging that stock into the general stock of the com-
pany, the operation could be carried out with advantage
to individual proprietors and to the general interests of
the company. At the same time it must be borne in
mind, that if the reduction in the value of money which
has been going on in consequence of the great imports
of gold from Australia and from California should pro-
ceed, either 34 per cent. or 3i per cent. per annum may
become a very high rate of interest, and circumstances
may arise which would cause those who had accepted
and parted with their proportion of the bond debt to
be sufferers thereby. It seems to the directors that
a reduction in the rate of interest on the Govern-
ment Securities may be impending. And if the
Three per Cent. Consols were reduced to 2i per
cent. it is clear that the rate of interest at which railway
debentures will be renewable must become lower than
it has ever yet been, and, therefore, delay in this mat-
ter may not be disadvantageous. Gentlemen, we trust
in looking to the charges borne by the revenue account
that a most vexatious and toilsome system of litigas
tion, annoyance, and expense, which is visited upon
railway companies in consequence of the state of the
law with regard to local assessments, may soon come
to an end. Tho Lord Chief Justice of the Queen's
Bench deferred giving judgment some time since in a
case which was before him for decision, expressing a
hope that Parliament might interpose, and relieve the
Court from the difficult position iu which it was placed
when called upon to administer the law with respect
to the rating of railways. Gentlemen, I have now to
refer to another source of expenditure, which in my
humble opinion ought to terminate, and that is the Par-
liamentary expenses incurred in opposing the projects
for rival, competing, and duplicate lines of railway. It
pleased the Legislature in the last session of Parliament
to pass an Act to enable the Eastern Counties and
Blackwell Railway Companies to construct a
railway to Tilbury and Southend, and to provide
steam communication with Gravesend. Gentlemen, I
should be stating more than the truth if I said that
this railway per se could in our opiaion be of ma-
terial injury to the South-Eastern Company, seeing that
of the traffic to Gravesend, which is principally a plea-
sure traffic, one-eighth part only passes by the railway
and seven-eighths by the river—(Elear)—and if the ac-
tion of the Tilbury Railway be simply to compete for
Gravesend traffic, I think it within the verge of possi-
bility that the portion which they may acquire may be
extracted from the seven-eighths upon the river, and not
from the one-eighth now using the North Kent line to
Gravesend.—(Hear, hear.) But, gentlemen, the pre-
amble of the Bill goes on to say that they are to open
an additional, speedy, and cheap communication, not
only between London and Gravesend, but other places in
the counties of Essex and Kent, and the evidence went
on to show that they projected steam communication
supported by those railway companies between Southend
and Ramsgate, Margate and other places, which the
South-Eastern Railway serves. Gentlemen, if new, ad-
ditional, speedy, and cheap communication is to benefit
the public, is it not fair to ask if it is to be obtained to
the injury of the property embarked in the construction
of 7,000 miles of railway now open for traffic throughout
the kingdom, at a cost of 250,000,000/. of money?
for this question is not one which affects the South-
Eastern Company alone. In a neighbouring country
the progress of the railway system has been
unattended with the destruction of property
which has been brought about here by use-
less competition, and the construction of duplicate lines
for one traffic, and which I think is certain to be brought
to a close at some early period by the consolidation of
the great interests so embarked.—(Loud cries of
" Hear.") It is certain, that if on the one hand the
public demand from railway companies every comfort,
convenience, and means of security which outlay of
capital can ensure, on the other hand, the railway compa-
nies have a right to ask for some indemnity for their
property—some guarantee that what is spent to-day in a
permanently useful project shall not be swept away to-
morrow by legislative permission to construct another
duplicate road for the self-same traffic. Gentlemen, the
indication which is presented to you by the correspond-
ence which has passed between the two greatest railways
in the kingdoms in their mutual proposals for a cessa-
tion of competition and for the amalgamation of their
united interests, is one that is not to be lost sight of,
for it points to the necessity which really exists that that
great portion of the wealth of the country which is em-
barked in the construction of railways shall receive
permanent protection, and shall be dealt with upon
terms which reason can sanction, and which shall
not be violated by extravagant competition, com-
mencing in times of excitement and specula-
tion, but creating evils as enduring as the
ground on which the railway is constructed. If
that great statesman who turned the first sod of the
Trent Valley Railway did not live long enough to see
that railway virtually closed for the traffic for which it
was constructed, and the full tide of communication be-
tween the metropolis and Lancashire, reverting again to
the route through Birmingham, and avoiding the short cut
which was supposed at the outset so likely to be benefi-
cial, we have lived to see it done. Gentlemen, we anti-
cipate that measures will be forced upon the Legislature
by you and by others interested in the capital embarked
in railway construction, to put that property on a per-
manent and satisfactory basis, and to take it out of the
power of solicitors and engineers to unsettle such gigan-
tic undertakings; and to allow the natural traffic, for
which the good works were constructed, to be continued
over the routes provided for it. It is idle to say that
combination must withdraw from the public the advan-
tage which railway competition ought to give them, be-
cause the rates to be charged, and the facilities to be
given, can bo as well enforced by Parliament from
united as from separate companies; and the proprietors
of railways have as good a right to expect that
the Government will guarantee a continuing rate
of dividend on existing railway property, and still
see it managed for the good of the country,
as the East India proprietors had when they
received a guarantee, and when their directors were
checked in the administration of the affairs of India by
a Board of Control. We now, gentlemen, are called
upon, as you will observe in the correspondence which
has been submitted to you between the South-Eastern
Company and Lord Sondes and Mr. Lushington, to say
whether you will guarantee a fixed rate of interest on
capital to be expended in the continuation of the North
Kent line from Strood to Chilham—(Cries of " No, no")
—and if the question had stopped as it was placed be)fore you in the correspondence—namely, waiting for
your views, and until the plans and sections which Lord
Sondes and his party proposed to us had been consi-
dered, the whole subject might have been differently
treated; but I now hold its my hand a printed prospec-
tus, but bearing the lithographic signature of the Noble
Lord and the other gentlemen named in it, attached to a
plan, showing that if you will guarantee 3 per
.cent.
upon an outlay of 600,0001. in constructing a conitiihnua-
tion of the North Kent line from Strood to. Ch am,
then the project is to stop there, but that if
.you will
acting with
not, then Lord Sondes and the gentlemen
him will proceed to Parliament for powers to
_con-
struct a line, not only from Strood to Chilham, and from
Strood to Maidstone, but from Strood to Dover, and
from Rochester to Gravesend, under traffiic arrange-
ments with the London, Tilbury, and Southend Rail-
way. (A Proprietor—" I wish they may get it.'') This
mode of dealing with the question is so entirely at va-
riance with all communications which I have had for
years past, both personally and in writing with the
Noble Lord, that I can only hold up my hands with as-
tonishment, and wonder that he should have departed
from the amenity, and indeed kindness, which had up to
this period marked all his views. I still hope to find
that Lord Sondes is not aware of the effect of the cir-
cular whfcb has been issued under his name, for, until I
learn it from himself, I will not believe that he would
ask us to come before you to abide your judgment with
the threat that if it were not given, as he had sug-
gested, he would endeavour to do you a far greater
injury, and to coerce you in the exercise of an honest
and independent judgment in the administering your
own affairs. Gentlemen, if that be the tone which Lord
Sondes and his party adopt, we recommend you
authorise us to take such measures as appear west linkePoyn
to defend your property, and to resist aggressiontii'
r_os
it—(Chee:s)—and which would bo at leleast it they
to the parties constructing the projected
linas'it would
w
obtained Parliamentary sanction for the,
tesent is the
be to you. Tho question is, whether !one
of f the North
proper time to complete the consonant _
also whether
Kent lino from Strood to Chilhana
constructed? If
it would be remunerative or
"t' rioters are willing to
this be the time, and if the P_
irslnvious that they have
take the risk of the outlay,
itfor the purpose on better
the means of raising nvneYy,
or any other body of
terms than Lord Sondes' partath the proposed method to
private gentlemen, and t
of placing shares in the
be adopted by Lord Sondes,

hands of contractors, and availing of their capital
is certain to be attended by an additional cost
in the works, as the contractor will of course
look for his return either in the annual remuneration
to be received for the capital which he embarks, or in
an additional profit on the works. The directors have
it in the evidence of Mr. Bidder, given in the year 1847,
that the cost of the line from Sti ood to Chilham would
ha half as much more as the sum mentioned by Lord
Sondes. Until the new plans and sections are exhibited,
there are of course no means of judging to what works
lies, or what species of road
the proposed capital app
would be constructed for it. One thing, however, is
certain, that the traffic between Strood and Canterbury
will never of itself pay for the requisite outlay, and that
it it be constructed on terms hostile to the South-
Eastern Company, a perpetual competition will exist for
the Canterbury and all other traffic beyond, whilst it re-
mains also certain, that for the advantage of the distzict
the whole working :of the Kentish system of railways
will be best effected in the hands of the South-Eastern
Company. It was upon his reports on the projects for
railway extension in the year 18,45, that Lord Dalhousie
acquired the fame which signalised him as a states-
man possessing qualities to fit him for his high trust in
India, and it was in his report on the Kentish and
South-Eastern Railways that he put forward the prin-
ciples that should guide railway extension and railway
to
.Chilhara
management. It is no fault of the South-Eastern Com-
Pany that the question of railway extension from Strood
ture in Parliament •
spite of the able reports
and Canterbury remains now unsettled in
the South-Eastern Company has been put to an expendi-
mofaiLaotardinDinaglhietussipe.ositSioinacesslhBi4ehs
for this purpose
would have gone lin
a. ong way to meet
the required outlay
u. Bill for the given
pledge that we had • '
, and in 1847, when, according to a
to Parliament,
1 by every possible opposition, construction of this railway, we were met
vti including that of the Duke
of Wellington,
and preventing the passing
himself the means of suspending
the directors it may be the
ngof the Bill. In the view of
besti course for the company
to adopt to have on their oWir
of the line from Strood to Chill7l,:half
pensoef7succoh a line could really
plans and sections
to ascertain now at what ex taken anew, in order
be constructed, at the present
labour. It will, however, be obviousstt of
materials and
that if money throughout the world dmeaporetohieatporoinprvieatlooors,
futureeom railway
the wages of labour and materials
that that economy which is predicted layincrease, and
construction may not be realised. Tho
hitherto on every occasion obtained protection frpoanyhas
Par-
liament for its position within the county of Kennit,
the directors are sanguine that a more enlightened la
sys-
tem of railway legislation, and railway management, and
protection for railway property, will be adopted, and
that the South-Eastern Company may be placed in a
position to give every facility to the county of Kent that
can reasonably be required, whilst they will not be sub-
jected to certain loss by any outlay that may be asked
of them. The year before last Lord Sondes, and the
gentlemen acting with him, brought forward a scheme
which they called a landowners' line—for that scheme
assessments were to be made on the parishes which
were to contribute to ensure a return to parties advan-
cing their capital to make the lines; and surely if this
were right for their company and their protection in
constructing a line competing with the South-Eastern
Company, it would be right that we, if called upon to
make a further extension of duplicate lines and outlay of
' capital, shall be similarly protected, and that we shall
not be left to chance as to the position in which we may
be placed. In Lord Dalhousie's report it was clearly
shown and acknowledged that no extension of the Strood
line could command the continental traffic, because the
nature of the gradients and of the working of the
North Kent line would make it impossible that the
greatest facility could be given by that route to the
continental traveller; and, indeed, a difference of ten
miles in the distance between London and Dover is al-
most immaterial in regard to the accomplishment of that
journey—for in the present management of the conti-
nental traffic, the passenger is not delayed at any part
of the journey for the purpose of giving local accommo-
dation. The directors expect to be able at a future time
to present to the proprietors a proposition for extending
the North Kent line from Strood to Maidstone on terms
not disadvantageous to this company, and satisfactory to
that town and the neighbouring district. Gentlemen,
various other projects . for railway extension in Kent in
addition to those referred to have been mentioned. I can
only say that we shall be attentive to all questions that
affect your interests, and we trust in every movement
that may be needful, we shall be able to act in conjunc-
tion with our neighbours of the Brighton Company, as
we shall frankly communicate to them whatever seems
to affect the interests of either company. I feel it my
duty to mention that his Grace the Archbishop of Can-
terbury and the clergy of the diocese sent a memorial
to the directors, urging the diminution of trains on the
South-Eastern lines on Sundays, by restricting them to
start not later than half-past six o'clock in the morn-
ing, and after half-past five o'clock in the after-
noon. Tho directors gave every consideration to the
wishes expressed by his Grace the Archbishop, but they
were unanimously of opinion that they were not justified
in putting this restriction in the se ay of travelling which
may alike embrace objects of charity and mercy as well
as amusement and necessity, and they have not seen the
propriety of discontinuing the accommodation hitherto
given to the public. It is not necessary for the directors
to comment upon the importance to the company of the
service of the steam-boats, as it is impossible to regard
the analysis of the earnings of the South-Eastern Rail.
way Company without seeing that upon the continuance
and improvement of the means of communication with
the Continent a large and increasing traffic depends, and
the directors trust that some means may be arrived at
of entirely amalgamating the interest of the two com-
panies to their mutual advantage--
(Loud cheering.)
Mr. SMALE (a director) seconded the motion.
Mr. G. SMITH—It appeared to him that the stage at
which they had now arrived in the history of their affairs
was none other than this—that the shareholders were
expected to accept whatever the directors might think
proper to offer them in the
chafe of dividend, be it
small or large.—(Hear, bear, Oh, oh, and murmurs.)
Yes, according to the chairman, the etiquette of the
meeting was to open their eyes and shut their mouths,
- ht choose
and take what the hon. board of directors mig
to give them.—(Langhter, and Oh, oh.) When here-
fleeted on what had been the prospects of this truly
f suppg other pro-
interfered with for the purpose o
noble undertaking, and saw how their propeortinrty had been
they had come there that day to receive so ins.ignificant
jects, he must say he lamented exceedingly. to find that
) u earnings were
an amount as dividend.—(Llear-,
e y adverse circumstance
very large, and in spite
It was most unfortunate,
and other matters should
their receipts were increasoinfge.v
therefore, that their expenses a
realising what they were
be such as to prevent their
own part be felt com
expect.—(flear, hear.) For h
strictly entitled to, and had
w as been
disposedled ttoo.
pletely chop-fallen and disappointe
ether peless.
regard the position of the company as alto t h
—(011, oh.) Still, if they would fairly 100 into o
their own
affairs, and tell the gentlemen who condescended to pre-
side over them, and the board of directors, what their
wishes were, and that they were determined to have
them carried' into effect for their own benefit alone, he
thought they would yet have a chance of standing as
well as any railway in the king
agreed hear.) He
agreed with Mr. Glyn, the chairman of the London and
North-Western Company, when ho stated, at the meet-
ing of his company on the 13th of August last, that pro-
prietors should say, .ive will not have our property
frittered away by you. You may marshal the trains,
and issue the dividend warrants, but the policy of the
company shall be dictated by us the shareholders;'_
(Loud cheers, and cries of " Hear.") Time after time
bad they been told by their chairman that the dividend
they then received would be the lowest; but what was
the fact? Why, that with every succeeding divid d
they went from low to lower; and ho feared that, un-
less they acted upon Mr. Glyn's advice, they would
by the report that
dis-
cover by and bye that from little they had
thing...—(Hear, hoar.) He showed come to no-
the directors took credit to themselves for the exercise
of economy. But had not the shareholders been con-
stantly urging upon them that it ought. to be practised,
though it had been left until the present half-year
to be carried oat?—(sear,
done this much earlier, and pnostshessed they m
—(Hear, hear.) If they had
exercised the power they
time of day. The proprietaryight have
hadhave ut it
auntil this
amount of confidence in theirywas no
board in the kingdom with directors. To_
equal re
spectability, that had been reposed_hoffevreeurny lag°
a proprietary i
endowed with the more warmly
holders, than the
confidence of the share d to 800
South-Eastern board; and he deeply larnente
I ,nd. These re-
how that confidence had been inisP j,„, approached
marks brought him to a matter whichd something like
with great pain, because it invelveo_
f the chairman—
touching the character and conductbicapacity alone. At
and
than
he meant, of course, in his Pu,iany convened together
their last meeting acssent or dissent ;to the
for the purpose of giving
tlehl the Reading, Guildford,
Bill for amalgamating wit
an order of the House of
and Reigate BailwaY• s'efrity of the shareholders was
they were.srp
ho now stated publicly,
al MacGregor to deny it, that that
and ho defied
t given,—(Obi oh, and laughter.) On
assent "6 no-eaarnendreent to adjourn the question
Lrequdisretdhetao"ethnatt
r015L9111 l'n ajad
that occasion
ontlas was moved, for which, when put
°l a n forest of hands" was held up, and
the chair'
was ,
fromt -small
the contrary pa a very number in-
wben
ised. The chairman was then called upon
deed was raised.
d • ion—and what did ho do? Ho paused at
for his en''
for three
it was true; but his object being to affix that abo-
ni around their necks for ever, he declared
Smith) could
declare \ i
the amendment to be lost, though he (Ur. d
declare upon his honour that it was carried by two to
first,ina H e thing
„ne!—(Hear, hear, and interruption.) The original
motion was next put, the same circumstances eccurr,, d,
and again the same decision was given by the chairman.
A SUAREIIOLDER—Why the amendment would have
had the effect of repudiating our agreement.—(gear )
Mr. SMITH—It would have had no effect of the kind,
and he contended that the course which the chairman'
had adopted in that instance was not a fair and an ho-
nourable one. It was now for the shareholders them-
selves to express their disapprobation of the leases and
amalgamation which bad been adopted, and
measures which had tended BO greatly
their property, and further to insist
own views carried out. He desired,those other
to depreciate
upon having
their
also, that they