The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-29 00:00:00

SOUTH EASTERN.

A meeting, convened by the directors of this
company, was held at the Law Association Rooms,
Liverpool, yesterday, for the purpose of ascertain-
ing the views of the Liverpool shareholders in re-
lation to the policy of the Board ; Mr. E. Watkin,
M.P., deputy chairman, presided. Several direc-
tors and a large number of shareholders were pro-
sent.

The CHAIRMAN adverted to the serious opposition
which the Board had met with at the hands of
Messrs. Bell, Hamilton, and Adams, in very strong
language. He had seen with the greatest pain the
false and scandalous statements which had been
published in the papers and by circular with regard
to the South-Eastern property, and he wished there
was a law which could get hold of selfish men, who
bound themselves together, in order to diminish the
price of the stock. Ile then entered at some length
with a view to show
pasoliocnyeofofthseelcfo-pmrp:thneyt,ion.
They were all
companies,
take course they had
athunp:xtinoiustthlveto be atpeace with neighbouring
but they felt bound to th
done, in proposing such extensive new schemes in
self-defence.

Mr. ROBERTS having condemned the policy of the
company,
Mr. ADAMS, of Lewisham, said he appeared on
Mr. Hamilton's behalf.

The CHAIRMAN put it to the meeting whether
Mr. Adams should be allowed to address the meet-
ing, as this was a meeting of Liverpool shareholders.
The meeting decided that Mr. Adams should be
heard.

Mr. ADAMS then replied to the chairman at great
length, contending that the policy of the South-
Eastern directors in effecting the Chatham agree-
ment was a most disastrous one for the interests of
the company ; and that the schemes now before
Parliament were really schemes which the directors
had no intention to carry out, simply intending
them to intimidate the Brighton Company, and
thereby effect a compromise. If they did not suc-
ceed in coming to terms with the Brighton Com-
pany and had to carry out these schemes, the capital

for which could only be raised by preference stock,
the result would be ruinous to the present share-
holders.

After other shareholders had spoken,

The CHAIRMAN moved—" That this meeting, re-
gretting the aggressions made upon the company's
property, trusts that surrounding companies may
be induced to agree to such friendly relations and
arrangements as may greatly reduce if not obviate
the outlay of that new capital which otherwise the
public interests may require ; and approves a re-
commendation made by the chairman and deputy
chairman in reference to such a reorganisation of
the Board as may unite the proprietors and the
Board in defence of the company's rights and
interests."
Mr. ROBERTS seconded the motion.
Mr. ADAMS moved as an amendment—" That
the Liverpool shareholders, having heard the expla-
nations of the directors, decline expressing any
opinion at present."

The amendment was not seconded.
The original motion was then carried with but
five dissentients, and the proceedings concluded.

THE IRON TRADE.

WOLVERHAMPTON, Thursday.

This afternoon the usual quarterly preliminary
meetingof the ironmasters of South Staffordshire was
held at the Swan Hotel. Mr. John Hartley, of the
firm of G. B. Thorneycroft and Co., of this town,
was appointed chairman by rotation, in the room of
Mr. W. 0. Foster, M.P. for South Staffordshire,
whose year of office expires at this meeting, and
whose services were suitably acknowledged. The
question of prices was then undertaken, and it was
resolved that in the ensuing quarter the list should
remain unaltered upon that which has been in ope-
ration now for several quarters past. The prices of
best finished iron throughout South Staffordshire
will therefore remain at for bars /8 10s. at the
works, and the other descriptions in proportion.
The committee then reported upon the recent re-
ductions that had been made in the railway rates
for the carriage of iron from this district toLondon.
The reduction was not so much as had been ex-
pected ; and the existing great difference between
the prices charged for damageable and undamage-
able iron was referred to' as needing alteration in
the direction of a reduction upon the extra 2s. 6d. a
ton now charged for what is termed damageable.
The committee were instructed to continue to agi-
tate the matter. Lord Lichfield, the lord lieute-
nant of Staffordshire, attended to assist the trade,
as far as he should be able, in reference to the anti-
cipated intention of the Government to extend the
Factory Act to South Staffordshire. His lordship's
kindness was esteemed by the meeting, and a meet-
ing, to comprise the general manufacturers as well
as the ironmasters, will be held by and by. The trade
of the district was shown to be in a steady condition,
but not in that state which prevented underselling,
accompanied with competition from Belgium. The
pig iron makers are firm at a rise of £5 a ton in many
instances upon the rates of the last preliminary
meeting. The trade had before them a suggestion
that the association might, as a body, assist a
scheme for independent railway communication
with London ; but it was resolved that the matter
could not be taken up by the association. Consi-
derable difference of opinion was expressed relative
to competition in railways. Some ironmasters
thought that the district was not better served
under a system of competition than when there
was no competition, whilst others held as strongly to
an opposite view. By all, however, it was admitted
that to take up any particular railway project would
be commencing a dangerous precedent, one from
which it would be difficult to depart when other
joint-stock schemes of supposed benefit to the dis-
trict sought their patronage. There could be no
doubt that the ironmasters regarded the proposed
factory extension with disfavour ; and they ex-
pressed to the lord lieutenant of Staffordshire the
difficulties that would be presented in the working
of the act here, owing to the night and day shifts,
which the boys work in common with the men.

Antiquarian Excavations.

A most interesting excavation is now being car-
ried on among the trenches of the British and Roman
encampments at Malton, by which the positions of
various fortifications, most unwisely levelled down
and lost about the commencement of the present
century, are being recovered. A railway cutting is
being taken through this anciently fortified ground,
and numerous burials and many antiquities have
already been found. About 15 years ago the first
railway cutting was made, and it has been found
that two Roman burials were then destroyed, por-
tions of them having been found recently. At the
same time a very large British stone cairn had been
partially cut through, and the burial nearly all de-
stroyed. The tumulus was 30ft. in diameter ; the
height could not be measured, as the apex had been
removed when the ground was levelled 60 years
ago. The remains found showed that the body had
been doubled up and buried on its left side. There
had been an urn and some flint instruments buried
along with it. The barrow is regarded as one of
three lost British tumuli, and had during the whole
this century been buried beneath a thick layer of
black soil abounding with Roman pottery—the two
periods being thus strongly marked. After leaving
the large British cairn, the ground was all black
soil, chiefly from the levelling of 1800-6. In addi-
tion the fragments of pottery, a surprising quan-
tity of bones of oxen and swine was collected.
From some point of the top earth a small iron
arrow or spear head fell down, and in the same
vicinity an unusual deposit of broken Samian ware
and the Durobrivian pottery was found, together
with a coin of Constantius, a locally made (imper-
fect) lachrymatory, handles and necks of amphorae,
&c. Another British cairn of stone, formed in a
hollow of the natural surface, and, though smaller
than the first, built of limestone in the same man-
ner, was met with at a point measuring 20 yards
from the level crossing over the line of railway. The
western part of this tumulus had also been removed
in making the first railway cutting, and the greater
part of the burial has been destroyed. Exactly in
the centre of the hollow the human remains were
found. The body was unburnt, evidently doubled
up, and was very much decayed, evidently older
than the burial in the first British barrow. No per-
sonal ornaments or implements were found with this
burial. The tumulus was small, about 15ft. diameter
and 4ft. high, and was buried entirely beneath a
layer of black soil 3ft. thick. There were remains-of
charcoal, but no mortar covering and no lesser
tumulus. From the northern edge of this tumulus
the natural oolitic grit rose rapidly, and at a few
feet distant to the north the skeleton of an unburnt
male body, of considerable stature, laid at full
length, north-west and south-east, upon the surface
of the undisturbed grit, was found. The body had
been buried superficially, but, including about a
foot of levelled surface, lay about 4ft. deep. Stones
had been piled round the burial, but only in a rude
cist fashion. The bones, from the access of air and
wet, were so rotted that no part of the skeleton
could be preserved except one thigh bone, which is
now in Mr. C. Hartley's collection. This was the
skeleton of an old Roman, the jaws being toothless.
The burial had been an early one, for with it was
found a large copper coin (first brass) of Antoninus
Pius, and a very beautiful urn of the Durobrivian
pottery. This urn is of very delicate ware, and is ex-
a isac ceniatadl
tydstooahnfxabtotlinieteh,o, p. shape figured in Wright's "Celt, Roman,
whitev2elrot,ee
dlneazfinitgbezargodnpatfithtgeeurbrnle,u,
ent.
sost
epi a
at
digroup,ho fground a
f oe
lxi
ate one. The urn was smashed by the workmen, and
a few fragments were lost, but it has been rebuilt by
Mr. Monkman, and sufficient has been obtained to
show the form. This urn is a very beautiful piece
of Roman pottery. The body was laid with the face
to the east. At 34 yards' distance from the level
crossing of the railway a trench or covered way was
cut across, of 20ft. width, and a depth of 10ft., the
bottom of the excavation just reaching the level of
the line. The bottom of this trench, or vallum, was
covered with a semicircle of ashes and charcoal
nearly Ift. thick, and for 2ft. or aft. upwards the
section showed layers of ashes, among which nume-
rous bones of oxen and swine were dug out. It is
remarkable that so far as the stratification of ashes

ascended there was no trace of pottery, but that
above the lines of ashes and charcoal the soil filling
the ditch abounded with pottery unmistakably
Roman. The inference is that this covered way was
a British one, subsequently adapted by the Romans,
and ultimately filled up by Mr. Hastings during the
present century. The British and undisturbed Ro-
man periods were, however, plainly marked on the
section. In the British deposits only a bone pin was
found; in the Roman accumulations various domes-
tic utensils, among them a colander or strainer,
pierced at the bottom, were found. Just at the
northern edge of the ditch the complete skeleton of
an ox was found accompanied wieh the large twisted
handle of an amphora and other pottery. At an
advance equalling 40 yards a smaller trench was
cut through, only penetrating about 2ft. into the
solid rock, but being about 7ft wide. In this were
the remains of a huge fire, of which the ashes yielded
various bones of animals, half calcined. Mr. Cop-
perthwaite is of opinion that these were the remains
of a long-continued camp fire, probably of the allies
who were, it is presumed, cicamped on the east as
well as on the south of the main quadrangle. The
excavations at this point yielded a small coin of Helena,
mother of Constantine the Great. Coins of this date
have been often found at Milton and not elsewhere,
and Mr. Copperthwaite holds Malton has most evi-
dence in its favour of having been the birth-place
of Constantine the Great. Of the present
coin the exergue is partly de!aced, the legible portion
being --- LENAE AVG. The trench also
yielded quantities of Romaa pottery in fragments of
many utensils of various colours and manufacture,
and there were several Ronan bricks or tiles. In
no case, however, has a potter's name been found.
There are still more important excavations to come.