The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-15 00:00:00

RAILWAY AND PUBLIC COJIPANIES
IN PARLIAJLENZ.

On Tuesday, on the conclusion of the engineering
and general evidence, the committee passed the bill
of the Mid Kent and Addiscombe Railway, tae
Brighton Company having withdrawn their oppo-
sition, reserving it for the commitee of the Lords.
The clauses of the London and North Western
Company's Additional Powers Bill having been
-settled, the committee intimated that they would
proceed with the hearing of the Stafford and Ut-
toxeter Company's Bill. The opposition case of the
London and North Western Railway against the
Wellington, Drayton, and Newcastle, and West
Cheshire Railway Companies, was concluded, and
the proceedings are still pending in the Radstock
and, Keynsham, West Riding, and Edinburgh and
Glasgow committees. The following went through
in committee on unopposed bills. Metropolitan
and Thames Valley Railway, for branch lines
between Breutford, Southall, Twickenham,
Isleworth, and Chertsey, and uniting the
Great Western and South Western Railways,
and to raise £333,000 ; North-Eastern, for a line of
10 miles between Market Weighton and Beverley,
and to raise £177,000; West Midland and Severn
Valley Railway, for alteration in the terms of the
lease of the Severn Valley, and for the exercise of
its borrowing powers by the West Midland ; Hor-
sham, Dorking, and Leatherhead, for a line of 13
miles from the Brighton Railway at Horsham to
the South-Eastern at Dorking and to raise £160,000;
Hatfield and St. Alban's, for extensions between
these points, and to form junctions with the Great
Northern and London and North-Western, and to
raise £93,000, the Great Northern subscribing
£20,000 ; Dublin and Meath, to raise a further sum
of £60,000.
THE THAMES EMBANKMENT: On Tuesday the
committee of the House of Commons, of which Mr.
Cowper is chairman, appointed to inquire into the
merits of the bill for embanking the north side of
the river Thames from Westminster to Blackfriars-
bridge, and for making new streets in and near
thereto, and from Blackfriars-bridge to the Man-
sion-house, met in committee room No. 13. Mr.
Sergeant Wrangham, Q.C., opened the case for the
bill at considerable length, but as the subject mat-
ter of it is so well known to the public it is unne-
cessary to refer to it further than to say that the
bill proposed the appointment of aThames Embank-
ment Board, to consist of four members of the Me-
tropolitan Board of Works and two of the City
Corporation, to construct the embankment, together
with a public roadway, 100 feet wide, from West-
minster-bridge to the eastern boundary of the Inner
Temple, and 70 feet wide from thence to Black-
friars-bridge, with all necessary approaches, with
three streets from Blackfriars-bridge, communicat-
ing with Surrey-Street, Norfolk-street, and Arun-
del-street ; also a street 70 feet wide from Black-
friars-bridge to the Poultry and Mansion-house,
-with continuous thoroughfares from Wellington-
street, Waterloo-bridge, to Hungerford-market,
through the Adelphi, and passing through White-
hall, terminating opposite the Horse Guards. Lands
reclaimed from the river are to be appropriated for
public walks and gardens, and the board, with con-
sent of the Treasury, may borrow £1,500,000.
'The annual accounts to be audited and laid before
Parliament under the designation of the Thames
Embankment Fund. The works to be approved of
by the Admiralty and Commissioners of Woods and
Works. Mr. H. Scott, Q.C., appeared for the Metro-
politan Board of Works, the City Gas Works, and
the Duke of Buccleuch ; and Mr. Calvert, Q.C., and
others, for the Duke of Northumberland, the crown
lessees, the benchers of the Temple, wharfingers,
and owners of property not in opposition to the
public principle involved in the bill, but for the in-
sertion of clauses protective of their properties and
interests. The Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, the
chairman of the Thames Embankment Commission,
was the first witness examined, and gave evidence
in favour of the bill, and the committee adjourned
to this.

Yesterday the committee on the bill for the amal-
gamation of the Eastern Counties and other compa-
nies reported that they had considered the bill, and
had found its preamble proved, that the certificate
of the Board of Trade had been laid before them,
showing that each of the companies, the Eastern
Counties, East Anglian, Norfolk, Eastern Union,
and Newmarket, had paid up and expended more
than one-half of their respective capitals. The com-
mittee found that in 1854 an agreement was entered
into between the Eastern Counties, Norfolk, and
Eastern Union Companies, by which the undertak-
ings of the two latter companies were to be worked
by the Eastern Counties, and the gross joint receipts
of the three companies, subject to certain deductions
were to be divided between them in the proportion
of five-sevenths to the Eastern Counties, one-seventh
to the Norfolk, and one-seventh to the Eastern
Union, and that such agreement was confirmed, and
the Eastern Counties were required to apply to Par-
liament in the present session for an act to amalga-
mate the company upon the basis of a division of
profits. The committee further report that the
amount of fixed charges on the several undertak-
ings of the three companies varies considerably,
and that in consequence the rate of dividend on
the ordinary stocks of the companies differs in
amount, and that in order to effect an amalgama-
tion upon the basis required by the act, and in a
manner that shall be practicable and equitable and
fair to all the parties concerned, the committee
had found it necessary to fix the total nominal
amount of the capital of the new company to be
amalgamated at a higher sum than the aggregate
amount of the capital. of the various companies
Parties to the amalgamatien. The proposal to build
and use steam vessels by the new company was not,
the committee added, proved to their satisfaction.
The bill, as it came from the committee, is now re-
printed prior to its introduction to the House of
Lords, where the Eastern Union, who dissent from
its provisions, will oppose it. The bill in its amended
form provides that as regards tne Eastern Counties,
Eastern Union, and Norfolk, the amalgamation shall
be formed by a fusion of all the stocks, the quantity of
stock assigned to each
company being measured by
the fixed liabilities affecting it, that all the fixed lia-
bilities and preference shares shall attach to the
amalgamated company, and that the quantity of
ordinary stock shall be apportioned among the three
companies in
their respective ratios, and a similar
applies to the other companies
arrangement amalamal-
gamating.Yesterday, during the progress of the oppesition
of the Lancashire and Yorkshire to the West
t
Riding, Hull, and Grimsby Railway, he committee
cleared the room, and on the readmission of the
parties, Mr. Puller, the chairman, intimated that
unless counsel for the opposition could bring for-
ward stronger evidence the committee were of
opinion that Great Grimsby was a port of consider-
able importance, arid adjourned. The case of the
proposed amalgamation of the North Eastern and
Newcastle and Carlisle Railways was opened by
Mr. Denison, Q U., and opposed by Mr. Mere-
wether and Mr. Webster for the London and North
Western,
several witnesses for the bill being exa-
mined. The Team Valley Extensions bill of the North
Eastern Railway was finally disposed of, the Hetton
Colliery Company refusing the clauses offered and
reserving their opposition for the Lords. The case of
the Radstock and Key nsham was concluded in Mr.
Adair's committee, and Mr. Hope Scott will sum up
the proceedings to-day. The 'Wellington and New..
castle, and Edinburgh and Glasgow bills are still
under consideration. The committees on the Liver-
pool Water bill, and Middle Level Drainage bill
are still occupied with evidence on the merits of
those measures.

THE THAMES EMBANKMENT.—The committee re-
assembled yesterday, Mr. Cowper in the chair,
when Capt. Borstal, secretary to the Thames Con-
servancy ; Mr. D. W. Harvey, commissioner of the
city police, and Sir It. Mayne, commissioner of the
metropolitan police, were examined at considerable
length, their evidence being in favour of the pro-
posed embankment, and of the opening of ne w
thoroughfares, to meet the greatly increasing
trade and traffic of the metropolis: The last
witness threw out a new suggestion, to the effect
that the communication from the embankment
and Cannon-street, should be continued up to Wal-
brook, the western side of which should be removed