The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-22 00:00:00

Warehousemen and Clerks' Schools,

The annual dinner on behalf of these schools took
place last night in the London Tavern.
Mr. Cobden, M.P,, presided, and was supported
right and left by Mr. William Leaf, Mr. Samuel
Morley,:Mr. J. It. Jeffrey, of Liverpool ; Mr. J. W.
Machin, of Manchester; Mr. John Dillon, Mr. J.
P. Foster, Mr. J. Sargood, Mr. Walford Greatorex,
Mr. R. Slater, Mr. George Lawrence, and other
gentlemen. The institution has been established
eight years, during which time 110 children have
been received, and there are now in the schools 62
children-47 boys and 15 girls—who are clothed
maintained, and educated, free of all charge.
In proposing the toast of " The Queen" the
CHAIRMAN said it was a sound maxim in this con-
stitutional monarchy thatithe Sovereign could do no
wrong, but that was a maxim which applied only to
the Sovereign in a political sense, for it was impos-
sible in a country like this, where habits and man-
ners descended so much from one class to another,
that the highest personage in the realm should fail
to exercise, for good or evil, a great influence on the
character of society. There could be no doubt that
the illustrious lady now on the throne had for the
last 26 years, by her exalted example, by her per-
sonal and domestic virtues, favourably influencad
the character of this and future ages. Nay, more, she
had given stability to the throne itself, for she had
rendered impossible for the future that which was
witnessed in the not very remote past, when the
persons highest in rank and birth were among the
lowest in the scale of morality—a monstrous com-
bination, the recurrence of which would be the only
way in which the monarchical institutions could be
jeopardised in this country.
The toast was drunk with great enthusiasm.
Mr. COBDEN, in submitting the next toast—
" The Prince of Wales, the Princess of Wales, and
the remaining Branches of the Royal Family"—
said that when we felt more than ordinarily inte-
rested in the career of the young we naturally
turned with curiosity to the parental advantages
which they might have enjoyed. If we were to
survey our annals from the Norman Conquest to the
present reign we should not, perhaps, find an in-
stance in which the throne of these realms had been
surrounded by so pure and elevated an atmosphere
as that which had pervaded the Court of Queen
Victoria. The late lamented Prince Consort was
not only a man of high character and careful edu-
cation, he also possessed great natural talents; he
and if it had
had rare judgment and rare sagacity,
been possible for him to have entered the political
arena he would have placed himself in the foremost
rank of our public men. Besides the advantage of
having been brought up under the eye of such a
father, the Heir Apparent
had the great blessing of
who,us all with her being united to a princess
since her arrival in
England, had not only deligbted
grace and beauty, but bad won our hearts by her
amiability. With such favourable auguries every
one naturally felt confident that the Prince of
Wales to who'll as their warm supporter and
,
patron, the warehousemen and clerks' schools owed
substantial benefits, was destined to run a career of
exalted
happiness and usefulness.
The toast was received with all the honours.
Mr. coBDEN then proposed " The Army, Navy,
and Volunteers," and his remarks were loudly
cheered. He observed that in the course of his
travels abroad he had found that our pretensions
to superiority in some things were contested, and
in others conceded. For example, the French
would not allow that we were superior to them either
in politeness or taste ; the Prussians would not ad-
mit that we were their equals in education, while
the Spaniards claimed supremacy over us in tempe-
rance. But there was one attribute of Englishmen
with respect to which he had never heard any peo-
ple in any part of the world pretend to superiority
ever us, and that was courage—courage, he meant,
supplemented with those most formidable qualities,
tenacity of purpose and manly endurance. As the
verdict of mankind had declared that we had no
superior in those qualities, it would be a sheer
waste of time if we were to dwell upon them our-
selves. He was not sure, indeed, that it would be
good taste to do so; audit was certainly altogether
unnecessary, because henceforth the contests of na-
tions would depend less and less upon mere brute
force. We lived in a scientific age—an age when
science assisted us to travel, to send our messages,
to manufacture our goods, and to cultivate our soil.
In future, battles would be fought and won by the
aid of science, and hence it was necefssary that be-
sides courage we should have at our coal
best resources of our mechanical and chemical g:irbe
He was not going to say anything tha_t.easte,
mend the
and
contvoverted, because he held it to be bad t
Principles,
not in aecordanef+ with approved 8 miitnortgeot 1111ffle
to talk upon any difficult or abatrilusan a i
`Wanted qu.et and
diately after dinner, when ho had a theory
freedom from strong emotions, but
' which he should like to propound shortly to the men
of business whom be saw around him. Ho had
always entertained the
opinion that the
business Govern-
meat should carry on their very much as
our large merchants and capitalists carried on theirs,
in other words?
that when they wanted anything
they should go into the market
et and buy it rather
I
than attempt to nylke it for themselves. It was

GREAT WESTERN.

It appears that the directors of this company are
about allotting to the shareholders, in rateable pro-
portion to their holding, 41 per cent. perpetual
irredeemable preference shares to the amount of
£1,227,562. They state that it will not create any
fresh or additional charge upon the revenues of the
company, being issued in substitution of moneys
borrowed from bankers and others in the form of
temporary loans, renewable at short periods.
Though the state of the money-market and the
credit of the company have enabled the directors to
borrow this money at 4 or 44 per cent., yet
the commission and other expenses of frequent
renewals have increased the yearly charge to an
amount more than equal to 41 per cent. So
then, when taken up as proposed, the interest
payable upon that amount will be rather less
than it has hitherto been, and the company will
thus be secured against all contingencies in respect
thereof. The allotment will be in the proportion of
one new share of £lO for every £lOO ordinary stock
or shares in the company. The new shares are, to
be issued on the 29th inst., payable by six instal-
ments, the last being on Sept. 29, 1864. The shares
will be treated in respect of dividend as fully paid
up from the 29th inst., being equivalent to a bonus
of £2 per cent. A discount at the rate of 4:i per
cent, per annum is to be allowed on any instalment
paid in advance.