The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-05 00:00:00

EPSOM RACES --- THIS DAY.

(BY ELECTIC TELEGRAPH.)
FOUR-YEAR-OLD STAKES.

Struggle . walked over

GRAND STAND STAKES.

Bryn Gwyn
St. Lawrence 2
Traveller
Eight ran.

TO THE EDITOR Or THE SUN.
SlR,—The time in which The Derby was run to-day, as
taken by my new " Chronograph " Dial, was

min. secs. tenths.
2 45 5
I am, Sir, yours obediently,
JAS. W. BENSON.
33 and 34, Ludgate June 4, 1862.

SOUTH-EASTERN RAILWAY COMPANY.

SPECIAL MEETING THIS DAY.

- - -
A special general meeting of the proprietors in this com-
pany was held to-day, at the London-bridge Tavern, in
accordance with the standing orders of Parliament, for the
purpose of considering the following bills at present before
the Legislature :-
1, A bill (as amended in committee) intituled A Bill to
enable the South-Eastern Railway Company to make Rail-
ways to Tunbridge and Dartford respectively, and to widen
a portion of their North Kent line of Railway, and to pur-
chase additional lands for the purposes of their under-
taking.
2. A bill (as amended in committee) intituled A Bill
for authorising the construction of Railways from the
Sevenoaks Railway to Maidstone and Tunbridge, and to
join existing railways at Tunbridge, all in Kent.
3. A bill (as amended in committee) intituled A Bill
for a Lease of the Undertaking of the Mid-Kent Railway
(Bromley to St. Mary's Cray) Company to the London,
Chatham, and Dover Railway Company.
4. A bill (as amended is committee) intituled A Bill to
authorise the Mid-Rent Railway Company to make a rail-
way from the Mid-Kent Railway to Addiscombe.
Resolutions of approval were agreed to.

OFFICIALISM AND BRITISH ART.

Officialism having thoroughly satisfied itself that
commerce could not walk alone, and having secured
the Exhibition surplus of something like two hun-
dred thousand pounds, prepared an elaborate scheme
for a great Industrial University. It prevailed
upon the Government of the day to join in the
scheme, and to provide an amount of money from
the public purse almost equal to the Exhibition sur-
plus. Never, perhaps, was molly-coddling pro-
posed on such a gigantic scale, or a less scrupulous
attempt to•rob a neighbour of his business. The
Society of Arts was the originator of the Exhibi-
tion, the creator of the surplus, and the earliest
existing society formed for teaching our grand-
mothers to suck eggs. In the middle of last cen-
tury it had done all that the Manchester men of
to-day are trying to do in "stimulating produc-
tion." It had sent out commercial missionaries to
the West Indies, and had scolded children for de-
stroying acorns, and so stinting the supply of oaks•
There was scarcely a branch of trade to which it had
not made unpractical suggestions in carrying out
its plan .of encouraging commerce, manufactures,
and the arts. Of course, amidst a heap of folly, it
contrived to do a little good, for no institution, how-
ever false may be its basis, or weak its manage-
ment, can be wholly bad. It struggledon year after
year, with varying success, and was not as robust
in 1849 as it was at its birth. The Exhibition of
1851 saved it from death, and so far may be said
to have repaid its father; but still the society had
as much claim to the surplus as the Royal Commis-
sioners had, though it was not in a legal position to
secure its rights. To increase its annoyance, the
rival body, which had retained the money, proposed
to apply it in starting an opposition business, and
the society was only saved from this additional
insult by a change in the pans of Government.
The British Parliament refused to sanction the re•
moval of the National Gallery of Pictures from
Charing-cross to South Kensington, and so destroyed
the only object which the Government had in view
when they agreed to a partnership with the Exhi-
bition Commissioners. The official union was at
once dissolved after this Parliamentary decision,
the Government taking the South Kensington
Museum as their share of the capital, and the Com-
missioners taking the Kensington Gore Estate as
theirs. The great university scheme for teaching
our trading grandmothers was given up, and the
Commissioners turned their attention, like sensible
men, to the improvement of their land, but not
before their ridiculous pretensions had done as
much harm to industrial exhibitions as the greatest
enemies of those displays could desire.—Once a
Week.