The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-31 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 31, 1863.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE—This Day.

Naval and Military Intelligence.

THE NAVY.

Yesterday a naval court-martial, composed of Capt. Ful-
ford, of the Formidable, 84, President ; Capt. Hall, C. 8.,
Cumberland, 70 ; Capt, Keane, Cumberland ; Commander
Barrow, Cumberland ; and Commander Carnegie, Salaman-
der, 6, assembled on board the Formidable, flagship of Ad-
miral of the Blue, Sir G. R. Lambert, K.C.8., Naval Com-
mander-liv Chief at the Nore, for the trio). of Assist.-Surg.
Wm. Christopher Fairbairn, of the Fisgard, 42, doing duty
at the Royal Marine Infirmary, Woolwich, " for conduct
unlgecoming an officer in drinking intoxicating liquors to
such excess as to produce illness, by which ho was incapa-
citated for the performance of his duty on the 2d December
last." Mr. W. H. Knight, of the firm of B•sell, Knight,
and Arnold, solicitors, Rochester, was the official prosecu-
tor. The prisoner, who pleaded Nut Guilty, was assisted
by Mr. Fairbairn, solicitor, Woolwich. In support of the
prosecution, Deputy-Inspector-General J. Sal tnon, principal
medLal officer at the Royal Marine Infirmary, and two
other witnesses were examined, and at the close of their
evidence the Court adjourned for an hour to enable the
prisoner to prepare his defpce. The prisoner examined six
witnesses to disprove the charge, and handed in a number
of certificates of character from officers and others under
whom he had served. After deliberating for a short time
the Court considered the charge not to have been proved,
and therefore acquitted the prisoner. _

The Dromedary, steam store ship, Commander A. Brown,
whose arrival at Spithead from Ascension was reported in
The Sun of yesterday, disembarked her passengers and in-
validl3 yesterday morning, and sailed for Woolwich imme-
diately afterwards to discharge ber stores, &c.
The Sprigh'ly, steam tender, Master Commander Allen,
sailed from Portsmouth for Dartmouth yesterday morning,
with supernumeraries and marines to join the Britannia at
that port.
The ironcased ship Royal Oak, 35, Capt. Fred. K. A.
Campbell, attached to the Channel squadron, but destined
for the Mediterranean, having been thoroughly repaired in
Keyham yard, is now lying in the stream in Hamoaze, and
will shortly be removed to Plymouth Sound.
The iron troop ship Tamar, 2, Capt. Fred. H. Stirling,
was placed on Tuesday in the Prince's Dock at Key ham
steam-yard, for the purpose of overhauling her valves, &c.,
prior to her being sent to sea, probably the Mediterranean,
for the removal of troops from Corfu.
The ironcased screw steam frigate Prince Consort, 35,
having had made good the defects arising from her at
tempted passage to Liverpool early in November, has been
removed from No. 2 dock in Keyham yard, and put along-
side the jetty in the basin, to replenish with coal prior to
being replaced at her moorings among the vessels of the
first-class Steam Reserve in Hamoaze. _

The screw steam-frigate Topaze, 31, Commodore the Hon.
John W. S. Spencer, recently returned from hor station in
the Pacific, was hauled on Tuesday alongside the hulk Kent,
in Hamoaze, when her masts were taken out. She was
then removed to Devonport dockyard, preparatory to being
placed in the third division of the Steam Reserve in
Hamoaze. Her crew will probably be paid off to-day.
Yesterday the powerful floating masting-shears at Chat-
ham were towed down from the harbour to the moorings
at Gillingham, whore the iron frigate Achilles, 6,070 tons,
1,250-horse power, is being prepared for sea, to lift the
boilers, and also the masts, on board that vessel.

The first slip at Chatham dockyard, from which the paddle
wheel steamer Salamis, 250-horse power, was launched a
few months since, not being required at present for ship-
building purposes, has been converted into a store for the
reception of the iron plates to be used in the construction
of the Bellerophon and the Lord Warden. The principal
portion of the plate iron for the first-mentioned vessel has
been contracted for by Messrs. Moser, and a considerable
quantity has arrived at the dockyard, where it is stored in
the places appropriated for it. The armour-plates for the
Lord Warden will be supplied by Messrs. Brown and Co.,
of Sheffield, but none of their number have yet arrived at
the dockyard.
The new barracks at Warley are now occupied, and are
found to be well adapted for the purposes required.

The following promotions and appointments were made
yesterday at the Admiralty :—John T. H. Norris and Thos.
Huss, promoted to staff-commanders ; Wm. H. Mallard,
promoted to staff-commander on the reserved list; Stop-
ford C, Tracey, master, to the Orestes; Dr. John Bower,
surgeon, to the Hogue; Edward W. H. Veale, assist.-pay-
master, to the Victory; Robert Dinwiddie, clerk to the
Royal Oak ; Francis B. S. Robinson, John K: Noss,
Alfred R. Wroot, and Henry E. Whitley, assist• clerks, to
the Marlborough.

Oriental Inland Steam Company (Limited),

The eighth annual general meeting of the share-
holders of this company was held yesterday at the
London Tavern—the chairman of the company,

Lieutenant-Colonel John Grimes, presiding.
The SECRETARY, Mr. Robert Wilson, having read
the advertisement convening the meeting, the report

was taken as read.

The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, said he had very little to add to it except in
regard to the unsatisfactory working of the vessels

of the Ganges,. The loss resulting from those ves-

sels confirmed what the directors, at the last meet-

ing, led the directors to expect. It was absolutely
indispensable to close the agency on the Ganges,
end to transfer such of the vessels as were suitable
to the Indus, where the prospects were much more
favourable. Their only vessel on the Indus had

earned a good deal of money last year. The loss
at Calcutta arose from two causes—the great fall
which had taken place in freights, and the fact of
their two principal vessels being •completely un-
suited for river traffic, owing partly to their draught
of water, and partly to the expense of working
them. It was said the directors were responsible
for this, but they only held themselves responsible
for having adopted the advice of the managing
director, who was the designer of the boats, and
ought to have known what water they would draw.
(Hear, hear.) It was impossible for the board to be

so conversant with those matters as a gentleman

who was an engineer and shipbuilder, and if they
had trusted too much to his knowledge and state-
ments that was the extent of their delinquency.
The Ganges was designed by Mr. Bourne, and in-
tended to take four barges, but the attempt of the
Indus to go up the river Indus with three barges
was fraught with so much danger that they at once
negatived the Ganges going up with the same num-
ber, and she only took two barges. They would
have suffered a much more serious loss by the Indus
if they had attempted a voyage with four. The
profits on the River Indus would have been much
greater if they had been able to have another vessel
at work. Teey only had one vessel during the year
there, but she had paid all the expenses of the Kur-
rachee agency, and a considerable sum had been re-
mitted to this country from her earnings. They all
remembered the suit instituted against the Victoria
Insurance Company in respect to the insurance of
£5,000 on the Ganges, and which had been pend-
ing so long. The decision was in favour of this
company, but the insurance company appealed to
the Court of Exchequer. After some negotiation,
the directors had come to a compromise by which
they were to receive the £5,000 from the insurance
company, and £5OO towards the casts and interest.
The legal expenses and the interest amounted to
considerably more than £5OO, but as the London
office of the insurance company was about to be
broken up, and as the prosecution of their claim in
Australia would involve much expense and trouble,
they thought it advisable to accept that sum.
(Hear, hear.) With regard to the transfer of the
vessels from the Ganges to the Indus, there could
be no doubt that, at a certain season of the year,
boats of that description might safely be sent round
one port to the other. If they were not sent round
he did not see what could be done with them, as, on
the Ganges, they did not earn sufficient to pay the
expenses of the agency there, whereas on the Indus
they would earn large sums of money. Owing to
the number of steamers on the Ganges they could
not expect theirs to pay, though they were the best
steamers. The best thing they could do with the
Jumna, which was not yet launched, and the
Ganges, whose draught of water was too great, was
to sell them, and such plant at Calcutta as they did
not want. This only could be done at a consider-
able sacrifice, but it was better to sell them than let
Cam lie up for an indefinite period. He concluded
by moving the adoption of the report.
The motion was seconded by Mr. John Besemeres,
a director. •
Sir HENRY DRUMMOND WOLFF said that, look-
ing to the melancholy balance-sheet and the poor
prospects of improvement, the shareholders ought
rather to combine and see what could be done for
the future than criminate and recriminate as to the
past, and regretted that any allusion had been made
to Mr. Bourne, the former managing director.
(Hear, hear.) He entirely agreed with the recant.
mended= of the directors that the sphere of their
operations should henceforth be restricted to the
Indus. On the Ganges they had perhaps done all
they could, though, by endeavouring to amalgamate
with, rather than to rival, the other interests on that
river, he thought they might have earned something
of a dividend. He could not agree with the direc-
tors that they had any right to insert in the report
a compliment to the manager there. When they
found themselves in a state approaching bankruptcy
they might have made observations of a more prac-
tical nature. There was much to be done by trans-
ferring the vessels to the Indus, but he did not see
how they could send river boats from Calcutta to
Kurrachee. They would run the risk of the storms
to be met with in any part of the year in those
latitudes, and no company would undertake their
insurance. They sent a river steamer only half
insured all the way from England to India, which
was entirely lost to the company. The directors
had made an entire mistake in a:most threatening
the shareholders in the report to break up the
company if they did not choose or were unable to
bring forward money for the preference shares. He
did not know whether the directors had taken up
any of those shares before they made the threat. If
they had not, they ought to make some allowance
for the shareholders, and not have assumed so high
a tone. They say—" The directors think it right
to make a further appeal to those shareholders who
have not yet applied for their proportion of these
shares; becatise, unless a considerably larger num-
ber is subscribed for, it will be the duty of the
directors, in accordance with the condition con-
tained in their circular of November 2, to re-
turn the deposit money to the contributors, the
results of which step would, in all probability,
be the breaking up of the company." He wished
to say that he had entered into negotiations, though
unauthorised, with certain parties, and though he
regretted he was unable to state the actual result,
he believed that if his proposal were carried out it
would be of considerable advantage to the company.
He had seen Messrs. Williams, Deacon, and Co.,
their principal creditors, and explained his views to
them, and he was authorised to say that, if there
was a reasonable prospect of those views being car-
ried into effect, he might rely on their indulgence.
(Hear, hear.) If these negotiations succeeded, there
would be some chance of placing the company in a
much better position than it now held, if not of re-
storing it to its pristine vigour. He therefore in-
tended to propose that a small committee should be
appointed to examine into these negotiations and
ascertain whether they were likely to succeed, and
that this meeting should be adjourned until the com-
mittee were able to report. (Hear, hear.) There was
a great difference of opinion as to the liability of
the C shareholders. It was hard to press them to
pay money which they did not contemplate when
they took the shares, but people had no right to
enter into speculations without knowing the liability
they incurred. (Hear, hear.) If his plan were
successful, the question of the C shareholders might
be submitted to the arbitration of some common
friend or distinguished counsel, by whose decision
both parties should abide. Those shareholders wered
in this position, that if the company wound
up, up, they would, he was told, be legally bound to psi);
up their shares to the utmost. (Hear.) t
t hey could manage to float the company without
sueh a hard expedient, it would be more generous
and more likely to benefit them all in the long run.
(Hear, hear.)
the directors would
Capt. HENDERSON hoped
allow the committee to be formed.
Mr. MAPLES also supported the proposal for a
committee. From what Sir H. Wolff had told him
getting out of their difficulties, and
he believed that his scheme presented the most
practical way of
was well worth a trial.
The CHAIRMAN disclaimed, on the part of the
directors, any intention to make a threat to break
up the company unless the preference shares were
taken.
Sir H. D. WOLFF said if h had been mistaken
he would withdraw the Ptiltement he had made. He