The Sun.
London, England, 1853-09-03 00:00:00

Er I) trD r4littion

SUN OFFICE, Six o'clock.

STATE OF THE WOOLLEN TR ADE.

Pthistod
report
LEEDS, Sept.2.—Weeds cury
no
in
the
state of the woollen cloth market this week. The trade
generally continues steady and good. The markets on
( the
Leeds
changeof
Saturday and Tuesday were of a fair character. The
business done was about an average. The stock of cloth
in the market continues very low. Prices are without
alteration. Several buyers from London, and other
parts of the country, have been in the town during the
week, which has given considerable activity to business
in the warehouses. There is also rather more doing in
the shipping trade at present. Some respectable orders
have been received from Australia by the recent mails,
so that, on the whole, there is a fair average trade doing
in the warehouses for the season.
BRADFORD, Thursday.—The market of this day was
marked by dulness, which was not unaccounted for, as
the wet and boisterous weather, and the strong attrac-
tions of the St. George's Hall festival, no doubt had a
disturbing influence. Wool maintains its price, but is
insufficient to enable the stapler to meet the demands
of the farmer. As yarns sho wed a downward tendency,
little was done in them, the spinners preferring to work
up former orders, and wait the chances of the market.
HALIFAX, Aug. 27.—With the exception of low
mixtures, for which there is some little inquiry,
the demand for worsted goods is almost at a stand
in our piece-hall. In yarns there is no change, either
as to demand or price ; and the wool market is quiet, at
late quotations.
LEICESTER.—Our market still continues in the same
healthy condition it has been for some time past, and
although yarns have advanced full sixpence per lb. from
their prices twelvemonths since, and workmanship also
above 10 per cent., still there appears no likelihood of a
falling off in demand. The wrought hose branch have
solicited an advance of 3d. per dozen, and are likely to
obtain it, the hose being in request, and the market clear
of heavy stocks on hand. There is no alteration in yarns.
Wools are ready sale at a trifling advance. Farmers'
lots are more sought after, and obtain from 375. to 395,
according to quality.
per tod,

ARTIFICIAL PR OPA (CATION OF

SALMON.

(Front the Perthshire Courier.)
A meeting of the salmon fishing proprietors in the
River Tay was held in the County-buildings on Friday
last, for the purpose of considering a letter by Dr. Es-
daile regarding the artificial propagation of salmon.
The Lord Provost was called to the chair.
Mr. Diossox, writer, clerk to the proprietors, stated
the object of the meeting, and said that Dr. Esdaile
inf
othebyDr.
E t misoenneat to iiLn
communicate,then rose, and
s saidhe heha
dh andono practicala dd i additional
neaxl.
kpneraiwenlecdegeonhethheadsuebajneecetronfiag propagating
waspaga chiefly derivedtingsalmon
others, and especially from
what had been written by
Mr. Thomas Ashworth, of Poynton,
Cheshire. W
from
That
gentleman was present, and fortunately he would be
theregarding
theGa wmaoydien a dlreoptedlandf.o r
Dpropagatingn
thsaelnna roi
enabled to give much useful and practical information
duced Mr. Ashworth to the meeting.
A bottle was then exhibited, in which were preserved
young salmon, of from three to six months' growth. It
was admitted by all who examined the bottle that the
largest fish in it, about five inches in length, was a par.
Mr. THOMAS ASHWORTH said, he had come to this
part of the country to gather all the information he
could obtain, having seen the letter of Dr. Esdaile, ad-
dressed to salmon-fishing proprietors in the Tay, on the
" Artificial Propagation of the Salmon ;" and it was at
Dr. Esdaile's request that he had consented to stay in
Perth another day to attend the present meeting. He
(Mr. Ashworth) had entertained the opinion for a long
time that it would be as easy artificially to propagate
salmon in our rivers as it was to raise silkworms on
mulberry leaves, though the former were under water,
and the latter in the open air. He said that it was
an established fact, that salmon and other fish
may be propagated artificially in ponds in millions, at a,
small cost, and thus be protected from their natural' ene-
mies for the first year of their existence, after which they
will be much more capable of protecting themselves than
can be the case in the early stages of their existence.
His brother and he have at the present time about
20,000 young salmon in ponds, thus produced, which
are daily fed with suitable food. In the course of last
year Mr. Thomas Garnet and Mr. Peel, of Lancashire,
informed his brother and himself that Robert Rams-
bottom, a fishing-tackle-maker at Clitheroe, had about
two years ago succeeded in artificially filling a small
pond with young salmon. The plan adopted by him
was a very simple one. He with great care lifted the
salmon from the river into a tub of water, and extracted
their spawn, which was deposited in boxes filled with
with and gravel ; they were placed in a running stream,
and by this means had produced the young salmon.
His brother, Mr. Edmund Ashworth, and himself
having purchased "the Galway Salmon Fishery. "
in Ireland, they determined to try an experiment
there for the artificial propagation of salmon, under the
superintendence of Mr. Ramsbottom. A suitable place
have been fixed upon at Outerard, operations were com-
menced between the 20th December and Ist January
last, which was about a month too late, yet boxes were
prepared in which the spawn of the salmon were depo-
sited. These boxes were about eighteen inches square
and six feet in length, with a zinc grating in the sluice
at either end. There were twenty boxes in all, which
were filled with gravel or small stones to the depth of
six inches. To procure the ova and milt of the female
and male salmon, the fish were taken by small nets on
the spawn fords at night, and instantly and without in-
jury put into a tub one-fourth full of water. The female
fish was first turned on her back, one man holding the tail,
another running his hands down each side from the head,
and pressing lightly with his thumbs, the ova was readily
discharged into the tub; a similar course readily discharged
the milt. About 370 salmon were treated in the above man-
ner. and ae•bain returned to the river. Mr. Ashworth then ex-
plained how the ova and milt were mixed in the tub, and
then taken out of it with a cup and deposited in the
boxes, when it was covered with additional gravel Mr.
Ramsbottom supposed that there was put in the boxes
spawn sufficient for 40,000 ; however that might be,
there are at present about 20,000 young salmon alive
and thriving in these ponds, from 2 inches to 3 inches in
length. Mr. Ashworth then, in answer to several
questions put by Mr. Graham, of Redgorton, stated
that the fine zinc gratings were used to prevent both
sinaltmo
othnetirpyo.ndsll, ase tt hh ee yn
trout
were andvery i rdiseesettrsu frometive gtnetttihneg
detailed, at some length, the mode adopted in France
for the artificial propagation of salmon, carp, trout,
and other species of fish. The boxes there used were
3 feet in depth, 18 inches in width, and 50 yards in
length, and without bottoms, but filled about 6 inches
in depth with clean gravel. In answer to other ques-
tions, Mr. Ashworth said the ponds were about 20 yards
in length, and 12 to 13 yards in breadth, and that it was
intended to keep the young salmon in them for ten
inches
in when they will have grown to about four
in length. They would then be able to take care of
themselves on their way to the sea. He stated also
that it was indispensable the young salmon should be
fed daily with
chopped flesh meat. In France they
were fed on frogs' flesh pounded in a mortar quite small.
The current of water running through the boxes must
be pure and free from mud, and great care was required
to be taken during the periods of incubation, when the
rivers were flooded by heavy rains, to divert the muddy
water from the boxes. It took about 100 days until
the spawn gave indications of life. Mr. Ashworth
then observed that a great deal had yet to be discovered
in the artificial propagation and feeding of salmon. They
knew but comparatively little of the habits of salmon, and
in order that a greater amount of knowledge might be ob-
tained he had recommended to the commissioners of fishe-
ries in Ireland to take a portion of the fish propagated in
the way he had mentioned from the ponds and immerse
them annually in the sea for a period of three months,
and to be again deposited in the ponds for other nine
months, to be repeated for several years. The com-
missioners had taken about a dozen of these young sal-
mon from the ponds, and had had them many weeks in
the Dublin Exhibition, where they were kept in a model
of a wear, with a salmon ladder in it, the model being
supplied by a pipe, with a constant run of water. These
little creatures showed their agility by mounting the
ladder, and so passing over the wear, to the amusement
of the bystanders ; and he was informed they were alive
and thriving, being perfectly healthy in this small run
of pure water, and were fed with chopped meat every
day. It was only in this way a more accurate history
of the ages and habits of the salmon species might be
written. The expense of this plan of artificial propaga-
tion he did not estimate to exceed a pound a thousand,
which was at the rate of one farthing for each salmon.
At the conclusion of Mr. Ashworth's lucid remarks,
Sir PATRICK M. THRIEPLAND moved "That the thanks
of the meeting be tendered to that gentleman for the
important information which he had communicated."
Colonel BELSHES seconded the motion, and which
being unanimously agreed to, the CHAIRMAN conveyed
the sense of the meeting to Mr. Ashworth.
In acknowledging the compliment paid him, Mr.
ASHWORTH ASHWORTH said he bad no pecuniary objecview
he inbad made.
in
addressing the few remarks to the meeting__m
was,
that
The great consideration that weighed waith
vast increase to
by the artificial propagation of salmonldbe obtained. He
the quantity of human food would
meeting
the import-
ancethen strongly impressed upon
to commence opt-
• for Mr. Ramsbottom of sending
rations in the Tay, and instruct others as to the plants
to be adopted for increasing the salmon in that river.
steps
Mr, CONDIE was of opinion that immediate
ought to be taken to commence operations before the
close of the fishing season.
The suggestions of Mr. Condie were adopted.
Colonel BELSHES moved that the following noblemen
and gentlemen be appointed a committee, viz., the Duke
of Athol], the Earl of Mansfield,
the Lord Provost of
Perth, Mr. Graham, of Redgorton ; Mr. Condie,
`Bell, Dr. Esdaile, and Mr. Robert Buist, with power to
add to their!number ; that they take immediate step
to commence operations, and report to an early meetinj-
The motion was immediately agreed to, and Colonel
Belches added to the committee.

A. vote of thanks was awarded to the Lord Provost
for his conduct in the chair, and the meeting then septa*
rated.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

VICE-CHANCELLOR'S COURT.
(Before Sir W. Page Wood, at the Town Hall, Cam-

bri(lge.)

THE SHREWSBURY AND BIRMINGHAM RAILWAY COMPANY
V. THE HON. R. H. CLIVE AND OTHERS.
This important case, which had been adjourned at the
request of the defendants from the 24th ult., came on
yesterday at Cambridge, before Vice-Chancellor W.
P. Wood.
The Solicitor-General, on the part of the plaintiffs,
stated that his motion was an application by the Shrews-
bury and Birmingham Railway Company, against several
gentlemen who were at present directors of that com-
pany, and one or two other persons who were mixed up
by having ;acted in concert, and having used the pro-
perty of the company at the instance of those directors
against whom the principal application was made, that
they might be restrained, by the order and injunction of
the Court, from dealing with the property or effects of
the company, from administering their affairs, or
otherwise acting as the plaintiffs' directors. The Shrews-
bury and Birmingham Railway commenced at Shrews-
bury, where it communicated with the Shrews-
bury and Chester Railway, and, running down to
Wolverhampton, it there communicated with the
Stour Valley line. There had long been a contest be-
tween the two great companies, the North-Western and
the Great Western, for possession of the ascendancy over
that line. The contention between those rival companies
had led to the creation of parties amongst the Shrews-
bury and Birmingham directors, one of which was, no
doubt, in the interest of the North-Western, and another
of which was entirely devoted to the benefit of the Great
Western, whilst the body of shareholders, who looked
to promote the interests of the line itself, had their pro-
perty sacrificed by reason of the contentions of those
two parties. It had long been the desire of the great
majority of the directors to unite the company with the
Great 'Western, which had led to the entrance into con-
tracts with that company, which could not be carried
into effect on account of their illegality. The course
pursued by the directors, however, was not sanctioned
by the shareholders ; and it would be found that np to
the Bth of May, 1851, the majority of the shareholders
were averse to the operations adopted by the directors.
Finding themselves, then, not only not supported, but
their views contradicted by the shareholders, theyresolved, by any means, to obtain a majority amongst
the constituent body. or that purpose they convensidhicanh
extraordinary meeting upon the Bth May, 1851, at
they determined to alter or rescind resolutions whichw
had been pa.ssed at certain meetings of the pr'aprietors
on the 12th February and 4th April, 1851. Great ef-
forts were made to secure a majority at that meeting,
and, con trary to the result of all former meetings, the
proposition of the directors was carried, and an amend-
ment 'moved by the shareholders was negatived. This
was followed by future successes of the directors, and
the shareholders were quite unable to ascertain the
nvsans by which the majorities had been gained. At
).eiagth, upon the 22d July, 1853, the circumstances came
to light by mere accident. Upon that occasion Mr.
Robinson, a solicitor, and shareholder in the company,
being at the plaintiffs' office in Wolverhampton, ob-
tained possession of the transfer book, in which he found
transfers of shares effected about the month if May,
1851, numbered from 905 to 1,787, all inclusive. Mr.
Robinson suspected that in ten of these cases the signa-
tures of the persons named as purchasers or referees
were not in their handwriting, but were forgeries. Mr.
Robinson then put his initials against each of the ten
transfersa and he served the secretary with a notice to
take the book into his custody, in order that no abstrac-
tion, erasure, or interpolation of these transfers should
occur. In consequeace of this and other proceedings,
the book was locked up in a safe, of which it was alleged
that Mr. Knox, formerly secretary and illegally elected
a director of the company, possessed a duplicate key.
Shortly afterwards Mr. Geach, a director of the com-
pany, applied to inspect the transfer book. A good
many obstacles were thrown in the way by Mr. Knox,
'yr horn he might denominate the managing director, but
'eventually Mr. Geach obtained possession of it, when
he found that a whole page of the transfers had been
abstracted, including five of those against which Mr.
Robinson had set his initials. Under these circumstances
Mr. Geach took possession of the transfer book, as well
as of a later transfer book, also supposed to contain for-
geries, and left them at the residence of the chairman
of the company. In consequence of these proceedings,
a special public meeting of the shareholders took place
on the 23th July, at which Mr. Scott stated the cir-
cumstances which had occurred, and a committee was
appointed to investigate all the proceedings connected
with the transfer of shares, the signature and reception
of proxies, the allotment of preference shares, and the
capital account generally. The result of the investiga-
tion by the committee was to disclose such a system of
fraud as, he ventured to say, was unparalleled in the
history of railway transactions. The course pursued by
the directors appeared, to be this : they came into the
possession of numerous shares, which were thrown into
their hands partly by forfeiture and partly by other
means„ They took those shares and made transfers of
then; apparently for a consideration, as if the shares
had been sold to individuals named for that purpose,
Principally by Mr. Knox, and partly by other persons—
hedividuals, many of whom were totally ignorant of the
yjroceedings thus carried on in their names, and many
others of whom, though aware of the proceedings, lent
themselves to them for the purpose of carrying out the
design of the directors. It appeared that the transfers
were made by clerks in the employ of the company, and
that the persons who received them were required also
to execute re-transfers of the shares to the directors, so
that the transfer to capacitate, and the re-transfer to in-
capacitate, were executed at the same time. Further,
they were made at the same time to execute proxies in
favour of one or more of the directors ; and in that way
the large amount of shares then held by the directors
were made available in the most fraudulent and false
manner, for the purpose of creating a great number of
fictitious votes. In one case Mr. Knox's audacity went
so far that he made a boy, nine years of age, a transferee
of shares, and executed the tranfer and re-tranfer for
him. By this and other fraudulent means it was that
the directors obtained a majority at their meeting of the
Bth May, 1851. In addition to this, certain of the
directors,. particularly Hill, Walker, and Emery, had
assigned to themselves shares, in order to give them a
proper qualification. There was also a large number of
shares still belonging to the company, which were in the
names of Hill, Walker, and Badger ; and with regard to
those shares, therefore, and a large number of preference
shares which had not yet been issued, the directors had
the means of obtaining a majority at the forthcoming
meeting, similar to that which they had obtained at
the meeting of the Bth May, 1851. Beyond this, Knox
h ad been permitted to enter into partnership with a
firm with whom contracts were made prejudicial to the
nt erests of the company. These were transactions of
au ch a nature that he contended that no person who
was implicated in them, or who had even a suspicion of
them, was worthy to remain in the direction of the com-
pany, since they appeared to be wholly unscrupulous as
to the conduct they pursued, or altogether supine and
indifferent. The learned counsel then went minutely
through the affidavits in support of the bill and of the
preceeding statement, and read the whole of the affida-
vits in answer, which were extremely voluminous. They
generally denied the statements made in the affidavits
of the plaintiffs or where they admitted them, recrimin-
atory allegations were brought, and it was stated that
the course pursued by the directors was simply adopted
to counteract the force of a similar policy, which was
pursued by the partizans of the North-Western Com-
pany. They admitted the practice of splitting votes,
but contended that the same thing was done upon the
other side, and denied that there had been any fraudu-
lent transfer of shares for the purpose of creating
fictitious votes. They expressed a belief that it would
be greatly for the benefit of the Shrewsbury and Bir-
mingham Company, as well as for the advantage of
the public at large, that that company should be
united with the Great Western, and did not deny that
!I*3 defendants had exerted themselves to bring about
rat end.. Mr. Knox denied that he was partner in a
nu which had entered into contracts with the company,
and denied all knowledge of any abstractions from the
transfer books,forthes the whole of which he believed would be
Mr. Nielsolln, :g:1 They had been kept in the custody of
the office, n-- were accessible to all the persons in
The case had not terminated when the court rose.

COURT
o p
ANKRUPTCE
(Before Mr. Co
r Pane.)
IN RR CLARKSON.
This bankrupt, of Reading, radway
up to pass his last examination, supporrractor, came
Nicholls and Clark, of Cook's-court, LineouhiPi:l‘l:ll7-wsrhso.
stated that the assigness were satisfied with the
of the accounts, and did not object to the bantuuracy
passing, as also to an allowance being made to Als
Butler for preparing the accounts. •
The bankrupt passed, and allowance granted as prayed.