The Sun.
London, England, 1854-05-01 00:00:00

T.H. SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, MAY 1, 1854.

evening. It has been my fortune for many years to sit
1 opposite, as I do this evening, to the noble lord, and I
may say with truth that I have never seen him look
better than he does this evening in the Royal Academy
(this allusion to the noble lord's portrait was received
with much laughter and cheering), and I think I
may be entitled to be considered a judge of the noble
lord's countenance, for I have had the opportunity of
watching him for 17 years under various circumstan-
ces. (Laughter.) I have seen him in the elation of
triumph, and I do not think that I have ever seen him
of a better figure and appearance than I see him this
evening. (Cheers and laughter.) This is a peculiarity
of this distinguished artist, whose name will go down to
posterity, although one whom ho has condescended to
select for a proof of his skill may not be so fortunate.
And I may truly say with regard to the noble lord, that
I hope he may long look as well in his place in Parlia-
ment as he does upon the walls of the Royal Academy.
(Cheers.) This recalls to my attention a subject of im-
portance to which the president has adverted, and that
is, the opportunity that the noble lord and his colleagues
possess of advancing the fine arts in this country.
(Hear, hear.) I think that the expressions of sympn.thy
on the part of the noble lord and of the Chancellor of
the Exchequer are not phrases only to be remembered
on the anniversaries of the Royal Academy. I know,
my lords and gentlemen, that it is an easy fashion to say
that at the present period it is almost impossible either
to call public attention or to apply the public resources
for the furtherance of the interests of the fine arts, or to
support the efforts that may be made to form and refine
the public taste. But I may be permitted to say, that it
is a great fallacy to pretend, because a nation is unhappily
at war, that the arts of peace ought not to be cultivated.
(Hear, hear.) You will rather find, if you appeal to his-
tory, that it is when a nation feels and thinks the most
deeply that the arts most flourish. (Hear, hear.) It
was during the greatest struggle in which the Athenians
were ever engaged—the Peloponnessian war—that
Phidias flourished ; and we ought to feel at this moment,
that we aggravate the evils of war if, while it is our de-
termination to make those efforts that are necessary to
vindicate the honour and interests of this country, we
do not also do all in our power, by our sacrifices and by
our energy, to advance the cultivation of the human
mind and the refinement of the human intellect. (Cheers.)
After all it is a marvel how little is required greatly to
assist the public taste. (Hear, hear.) We have had
many occasions to mourn over those opportunities which
we have lost from the want of a very small sum ad-
vanced by the Government to purchase works which
would have improved the public taste. I can imagine
the despair of a public servant when he sees millions
expended for the operations of war, and the arrange-
ments of a campaign, and feels that a gallery must be
sacrificed, and that the opportunity of obtaining works
of art of priceless value must be foregone when they
might be obtained at a slight expenditure compared
with the vast cost that is entailed by the policy which
we from a sense of duty pursue. (Hear.) We ought
not to tolerate the opinion that it is necessary to press
those opportunities which may present themselves of ad-
vancing the public taste, and we ought, on one day in
the year at least, to look forward to the time when it
shall be considered the duty of a statesman to serve his
country and to advance the arts. (Loud cheers.)
The PRESIDENT, in proposing " Prosperity to the
city of London and and the Health of the Lord Mayor,"
said that the lovers of the fine arts were not without
hopes that the prosperity of the city of London would
in time be found to be not incompatible with the external
beauty of the metropolis. We were already witnessing
the lessening effects of one defacing agent—the smoke
furnaces ; and for the removal or diminution of that evil
we were indebted to the exertions of the noble lord the
Secretary of State for the Home Department. (Cheers.)
All must be desirous, when our public buildings were
improved in consequence, that those buildings should
he better displayed. A noble opportunity now presented
itself for the corporation to improve the approaches to
the most remarkable of our public buildings by opening
a free space on the north-east side of St. Paul's—(cheers)
—with perhaps a statute of men in the centre. He be-
lieved that representations had been made to the corpo-
ration on the subject from the Institute of British Archi-
tects. (Hear.) On the part of all who wished that
justice should be done to the good architecture we pos-
sessed, he took this opportunity of soliciting his lordship
to lend his powerful aid in promoting this desirable oh
ject. (Hear, hear.)

The boRD' MAYOR said he would promise to do his
utmost to impress the corporation of the City with the
views just expressed by the president. (Cheers.)
The PRESIDENT—I have alluded to the obligations that
the friends of art are under to the noble lord the Secre-
tary of State for the Home Department, for the intro.
duction of a law relative to the consumption of smoke,
and I feel that, on the part of the representatives of
art, it would be an unpardonable omission to neglect
this opportunity of thanking his lordship for what may
be regarded as a boon to architecture and sculpture.
(Cheers.) It will be agreeable this time to confine our
attention to such subjects, without talking of the pos•
sibility or impossibility of preventing the smoke of con-
tending armies. I give you "The health of Lord Pal-
merston."

Lord PALMERSTON, whose rising was greeted with
protracted cheering, said—Mr. President, my Lords,
and Gentlemen, it could hardly be expected, at a mo-
ment when so dark a cloud was lowering over the face
of Europe, that the unwholesome cloud that has lowered
over the surface of London should have attracted the
notice that you have given to the subject. Bat in such
an assembly as this, in which I see collected some oit
the most eminent artists in Europe, it is natural that
you should draw attention to a circumstance deeply
affecting the works of their genius. Mr. President,
that which the Government of which I have the honour
to be a member accomplished last year was merely alter-
ing the manner of doing a thing. The consumption of
smoke was no novelty—it had been going on for ages—
but the consumption of smoke had been going on in our
lungs instead of in our chimneys. (Laughter and
cheers.) That which we proposed, and which parliament
agreed to, was only this, that the smoke should
vanish in our chimneys instead of blacking our insides.
(Continued laughter.) It had long been a subject of
great grief to those who visited London to think that
from that vast volume of carbon which was perpetually
floating over our heads, all the finest works of ancient
art, and the productions of modern genius, whether of
our painters, our sculptors, or our achitects, were doomed
to receive accumulation, hiding their merits and defacing
their beauties. (Cheers.) If we could at any time re-
' joice at the prospect of the removal of this inconvenience
it is now, when we see around us so many beautiful
productions of modern genius, and feel what a calamity
it would be if in the course of a short period all the
lights of the pictures we see before us were destined to
become shadows, and all the shadows black darkness ;
and if their beauties were hid from view by a daily de-
posit of these abominable blacks which used to greet us
when we put our heads out of the window. I thank
you for adverting to the slight service I may have been
able to render to works of art, and I hope the bill of
last session may be considered as having contributed in
some small measure to the preservation of works of art
and genius. (Cheers.)
The PRESIDENT then gave " The health of Viscount
Mahon and the authors of his country," from whose in-
spirations and instructions the professors of the fine arts
hail derived so much advantage.
Viscount MArfoN, in acknowledging the toast, ad-
verted to knowl elge which historians in turn derived
from the labours of painters and sculptors.
The PRESIDENT gave "The health of the President
of the Board of Trade, in connexion with the Schools of
Design and the Department of Practical Art at Marl-
borough-house."

Mr. CARDWELL returned thanks, briefly alluding to
the advances made in the arts by British manufacturers,
and painting out the benefit likely thereby to be con-
ferred upon the commerce of the country.
The PRESIDENT then gave " Success to the Crystal
Palace at Sydenham," which, contained, he said, a
complete collection of works of ancient and modern art
—antique, rnedileval, and modern, and examples of
architecture so arranged as to give a complete impres-
sion of the character of the original monuments.
The PRESIDENT next gave the concluding toast, the
" Possessors of works of art who occasionally open their
galleries and collections to the public, and who occa-
sionally send specimens of their works to the British
Institution." (Cheers.)
The president left the chair shortly after 10 o'clock,
and, after a brief glance round the saloons, which were
like the east-room, brilliantly lighted up for the occa-
sion, the guests dispersed.

Viennese telegraphic despatches have passed, since the
commencement of the war between Russia and Turkey.
Another important line of railway runs north-east of
Vienna—with a branch to Olmutz—to Cracow in Poland.
This presents a means of 'facile intercommunication
between the Austrian and Russian Courts. Another
important line of railway runs north-west from Vienna
to Prague, in Bohemia, but beyond that town we need
not follow it. The most important of these lines of rail-
way to Austria, in a commercial point of that view, is
that from Vienna to Trieste ; and at the present time it
is more than ever valuable, as the close of the Soulineh
mouth of the Danube, by the Russians, renders that
river, below Vienna, useless to the Austrians as a chan-
nel of export. The steam commerce of the Danube,
which has been justly looked upon Austria as of the
highest importance, has been much abridged by the
through traffic being impeded.
Returning to the course of theDannbe. Having passed
Presburg, it receives at Cornorn and Gran respectively
the tributaries Wang and Gran, both of which rise in the
Tatra mountains, about 60 miles south of Cracow. A.
little to the eastward of Gran—at Waitzen—the river
makes a sudden bend to the south, and passing the al-
most impregnable fortress of Buda-Pesth, runs along the
19th parallel of east longitude for more than 100 miles
to Darda, close to the northern boundary of Sciavonia.
Here it receives the waters of a considerable river, the
Drau, which brings down the molten snow of the Julian
Alps and the Carinthian Mountains. From Darda, the
Danube runs east and by south past Peterwar-
dein, to the village of Tittel, where it receives
the Theiss. The Theiss is in itself a noble river,
forming the main trunk of a thousand reticulations
of water work, pouring down an incessant supply from
the cloud-fed Carpathians. The country round the Theiss
is, as will be remembered, the favourite fighting ground
of the Hungarians. When repulsed in their great
struggle with the Austrians, they fell back on the Mo-
rasses of the Theiss • and here, Antmus-like, they re-
ceived new vigour from their mother earth—assumed
the offensive, drove the cohorts of Hapsburg from their
tremendous strongholds at Buda and Komorn, and would
have achieved the independence of a great nation on the
demolished ramparts of Vienna, had not Russian gold
and Sarmatian brute force sapped and overwhelmed the
patriotism and the gallantry of the still unsubdued
Magyars. The most important branch of the Theiss is
the river Maros, which brings down to it, from the Car-
pathians, all the waters of Transylvania, and forms the
northern boundary of the Banat, a most important corn
growing district of south Hungary, lying immediately to
the north of &rvia.

From the village of Tittel, the Danube runs south-
east to Seenlin and Belgrade, where it receives another
important tributary, the Save, which brings to it from
Croatia and Dalmatia the waters of the Velebich Moun-
ta ns, and the Dinaric Alps.
From Belgrade the Danube flows almost dpe east to
New Orsova, where it enters Turkey, and in its course
through that country to the Black Sea, forms the natural
boundary between Wallachia, Moldavia, and Bessarabia
on the north, and Servia and Bulgaria on the south.
Ey referring to a correct map of central Europe, with
the above description, it will be seen that the Danube
and its tributaries pass through some of the richest in
agricultural wealth, and the most important of the Eu-
ropetn territories. It forms grand water ways from the
confries of North Italy, Switzerland, France, Saxony,
Prussia, and Poland, through the German and Turkish
dominions to the Euxine. And thence, through the
Mediterranean and Red Seas, and the produce of some
of the richest lands in the world may be diffused over the
globe. Keeping the circumstances in mind, it will not
be wondered at that Russia should be anxious to get at
the mouth of this important river. We mark her aggres-
sive policy, characterised by unflinching and unwearied
persistency. In 1792 she crossed the Boug [her then
boundary—even this boundary being the result of an
aggression], south of the Balta. In 1812 she passed the
Dniester, and took possession of Bessarabia, making
the Prath the national boundary, and giving the north-
ern Colossus a foothold on the left bank of the Kilia
mouth of the Danube. In 1829 she obtained posses-
sion of both tanks of the Kilia and Soulineh mouths,
and the left tank of the St. George's mouth of the
Danube. Thin she obtained the door and the key also
to the navigation of the Danube. And how has she used
them ? With steady purpose of locking the door, and
stopping up the key-hole. Odessa, which she got by
the robbery of 2792, is the outlet for the raw produce of
Southern Russia. Wallachia, Moldavia, Bulgaria, and
the Banat can supply the same sorts of produce, many
of them better, and some of them cheaper than Russia
could do. The spirited and enterprising Greek mer-
chants of Braila and Galatz were always ready to buy
up this produce, and export it to Italy, France, Eng-
land, and elsewiere. They even made journeys into the
interior, and bought the growing crops, to stimulate the
farmers to use Heir utmost exertions, and the results of
these exertions were always readily bought, and the
superfluity of a thinly populated land of plenty went to
be exchanged leer the manufactures of more densely
peopled countries, where food enough could not be grown
for their own iniabitants. This extending trade of the
Danubian provisoes, under the expanding policy of the
Turkish Government, was felt by the southern and
central provinces of Russia—and the more so because
of its restrictive policy. The rival provinces must be
checked, and Galatz and Braila must not be allowed to
throw Odessa into the shade. So quarantine establish-
ments are erected at the mouths of the Danube—
ostensibly to prevent the ingress or egress of the
plague—but in reality to delay merchant vessels for
several days. Only one of the mouths of the Donube,
the Soulineh, is navigable by vessels of any draught
of water ; and it is liable to be choked by the sand
from the mountain ranges whence the Danube rolls down
Earnest representations are made to Russia by England,
and other powers, that the channel is becoming un-navi-
ble. Russia diplomatises at first, and then sends to England
for a dredging machine. But before this arrives three
or four Russian ships are sunk, accidentally of course,
in the channel ; and when the machine does arrive, it
soon, accidently also, gets out of order, and refuses to
work. The design f Russia in rendering the transit of
raw commodities out of the Danubian principalities
tedious, dangerous and costly, is thus effected, and the
potency of their rivalry with her own territories is di-
minished. Another design of Russia—transparent
enough of latter years—is to get possession of both banks
of the Danube in Turkey. This would give her the con-
trol of a great portion of Europe's commerce ; and
with a toll-house at the mouth of the Danube, she might
tax it as she pleased. But her third and grandest de-
sign—the purpose of all her Sovereigns, from Peter the
Great downward—is to get Constantinople—the key to
the Mediterranean, Black Sea, and India. The two
objects already mentioned are only subsidiary to this ;
she would weaken and degrade Turkey before conquer-
ing it. To this end she assured Moldavia and Walla-
chia, of her "protection," and subsequently took pos-
session of them as a material guarantee, to be held
while a little matter of purely Christian faith was settled
between himself and the Sultan.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.

MALTON RACES.-SATURDAY.

The LANGTON STAKES, of 5 sous each, p p, with 20
added ; two-yr-olds, 7st ; three, 9st ; allowances and
penalties ; the second to save his stake. Straight half
mile. 10 subs.
Mr. C. Peck's Lord Hill, 3 yrs (Holmes) 1
Mr. Gibbs's Monimia, 3 yrs (Wells) 2
Mr. J. Scott's Cypriana, 2 yrs' (Dickson) 3
Mr. Shepherd's Ann Elizabeth, 2 yrs (Ashmall) 4
Betting—Even on Lord Hill, 6 to 4 agst Cypriana.
Won by half a length ; bad third.

The CONVIVIAL HANDICAP, of 10 ROVE; each, h ft, and 3
only if declared, with 50 added ; the second to save his
stake ; winners extra. One mile. 37 subs, 14 of whom
declared.

Mr. G. B. Cornish's Captain Cornish, 4 yrs, let 61b
(Wells) 1
Mr. Wilson's Ann Eliza, 4 yrs, 7st (Ashmall) 2
Mr. B. Way's Brocket, 4 yrs, 7st Sib (Chilman) 3
Mr. C. Peck's The Puritan, 5 yrs, 7st 21b (Charlton) 4
The following also ran :—Mr. W. I'Anson's Braxey,
5 yrs, 7st 4lb (including 51b extra), (Hayhoe) ; Mr. J.
Henderson's Patience, 4 yrs, 6st 91b (including 51b extra)
(Boyes) ; Mr. G. Burton's Jetty Treffz, 3 yrs, sst 21b
(Whittington) ; Mr. Reynard na Penitent, 3 yrs, 4st
101 b (Wood).

Betting-6 to 4 agst Puritan, 4to 1 agst Captain
Cornish, and 5 to 1 each agst Patience and Ann Eliza.
Won by a length ; same distance between second, third,
and fourth.

The FAREWELL STAKES of 10 sovs, each, h ft, with 40
added, for two year olds ; colts, Bst 71b ; fillies, Bst
41b. The second to save his stake. Optional selling
allowances, &c. Straight half mile. 5 subs.
Mr. H. Lister's Dinah (301.)
Mr. Grove's The Baronet (301.) (Basham) 2
Mr. G. Barton's Poor Dick (301.) (Charlton) 3
Mr. Byrne's Tom Tit (301.) (Watson) 4
Betting—Even on Dinah, 6to 4 agst Baronet. Won
by a length and a half ; a length between second and
third.

The TALLY-HO HANDICAP of 10 SOTS. each, h ft, with 20
added. Gentlemen riders ; professionals 61b extra.
One mile and a half. 7 subs.
Mr. Gregson's Trio, 4 yrs, lOst 31b (Owner) 1
Mr. Smith's Determination, 4 yrs, 9st 71b (Mr. Boynton) 2
Mr. Gent's Westwood (b b), 5 yrs, lOst 7th

(Captain Haworth) 3
Mr. G. Barton's The Surveyor, 5 yrs, llst Sib (Mr.Beart) 4
Betting-6 to 4on Surveyor, sto 2 agst Westwood,
4to 1 agst Determination. A fine race, ended in a dead
heat between Trio and Determination.

Deciding Heat —6 to 4on Determination. Trio won
easily by three lengths.

The ORIGINAL WELHAM CIIP of 50 sovs., by subscribers
of 5 sovs, each, for horses not thorough bred, &c.
Gentlemen riders, 13st each. Two miles. 10 subs.
Mr. H. Strickland's Alfred Tennyson, aged...(Owner) 1
Mr. Willoughby's na Dr. Hawtrey, 5 yrs (Mr Peart) 2
Mr. J. Crofton's b m by Delirium, yrs (Mr. Gregson) 3
Mr. C. Reynard's Luck's All, aged (Mr Wellfit) fell.
Betting-5 to 4on Alfred Tennyson, 6to 4 agst
Doctor Hawtrey. Won in a canter by three lengths.
The SPECULATION PLATE of 25 sovs. added to a sweep-
stakes of 5 sovs. each ; the second to save his stake ;
three-yr-olds and upwards. Optional selling allow-
ances. One mile and a-half. 7 subs.

Mr. Gibbs's Penitent 3 yrs (301.) (Wood) 1
Mr. Gibbs's Monimia 3 yrs (301.) (Bates) 2
Captain Reynard's Vinaigrette, 4 yrs (301.)
(Mr. Thompson) 3
The following also ran :—Hotehpot and Tomboy.

NEWMARKET FIRST SPRING MEETING.
HORSES ARRIVED SINCE OUR LAST PUBLICATION.—
Brigadier, Sussex, Contender, Lady Bird, Boiardo,
Meteora, Scythian, Umbriel, Apollonius, Honeysuckle,
Sortie, Middlesex, Bay Celia, Alembic, Champagne,
Lady Flora, Indiana, Acrobat, Applause, and f by
Touchstone out of Muscovite's dam.

The recent rains have greatly improved the condition
of the running, and the prospect encourages hopes of
capital sport and a full meeting.

NEWMARKET RACES—Tins DAT.
Five races are set for to-day. The first, a match, w
be at half past two.

RACING FIXTURES FOR 1854.
MAY.
Lothians and EdinburghlB
Lewes l9
Bath 23
Liverpool Hunt Spring 24
Epsom 30
TE.
Bibury
Stockbridge ........ ..29
Ludlow '3O
Winchester 3O

Newmarket F S
Chester Spring 9
Lothians & Edinburgh 11
Newmarket S S l6
Shrewsbury lB
JU:

Manchester
Ascot Heath. l3
Newcastle-on-Tyne 20
Hampton 91
Carlisle 26
JII:

Newmarket
Worcester 4
Lancaster 6
Mansfield ll
Liverpool l2
Ipswich 13
AIIC

Brighten
Brighton Club 4
Wolverhampton
Yarmouth 8
Reading
Odiham 9
North Staffordshire 9
Wolverhampton l4
SEPT]

Warwick
Lichfield
Western Meeting 7
Rochegter and Chatham 7
Doncaster 12
Pontefract 18

York 23
Hereford 24
Eccles
Chelmsford 29
Derby • 29
Plymouth 30
Lincoln 3l
:MBER.
Bedford 19
Leioester 2O
Manchester Autumn 2l
Lanark .25
Newmarket F 0 26
Northallerton 2B

RAIL WAY INTELLIGENCE.

GREAT INDIAN PENINSULA.

The half-yearly meeting of this company was held
on Friday at the offices, New Broad-street ; Mr. W. J.
Hamilton in the chair.

Mr. Nicholson read the report, an abstract of which
appeared in The Sun, of Friday.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the report,
stated that the second section of the line from Tannah to

Callian would be open for traffic on the Ist of May. The
receipts on the first section of the line, from Bombay to
Tannah, 22 miles in length, amounted, from its opening
on the 18th April to the 31st December, 1853, to 8,9631.,
and the expenses to 4,1141., leaving a profit of 4,8491.
The cost of that portion of the line to Tannah, 22 miles
in length, had been about 10,0001. a mile, or 220,0001.,
and the balance upon the first seven months' working
would give them a return at the rate of about 3.1 per
cent, per annum on that outlay, and that, too, notwith•
standing that as yet they had received no goods traffic,
which they had always looked to as their principal source
of revenue, and which they would no doubt receive when
the line was extended in the direction of the Ghauts. Ho

thought, therefore, they had a certainty that in a very
short time the line would pay them the 5 per cent. gua-
ranteed to them. By the last accounts it appeared that
the first portion of the south-east line, a distance of 12 or
13 miles towards Poonah, was being rapidly prooceeded
with, and that the expense would not exceed 7,0001. a
mile. The surveys both to the north-east and the south-
east were being rapidly proceeded with ; and, since the
last meeting, they had sent out a large engineering staff
to India to prosecute surveys before the extension lines
were determined upon. From all that had taken place,
however, the directors had no doubt that the line, as
originally projected, through the Ghauts to Kandeish,
Thefro mB
furtherom -
bwouldextension
o be
thee tehf the
n
north-westernt
thoeteral di
line l t
be ed provincest
wa s e
nh e C tar 1 oul
if na
India.
dline
d Chaun pore
was rapidly advancing, but the period for opening could
not as yet be fixed upon. The Governor of Bombay had
taken great interest in their progress, and had personally
inspected several of their projected extensions ; and he
(the chairman) thought there was little doubt the line, by
the Bhore Gauts as originally projected, would be the
one adopted. There could be no doubt that the railways
would prove of great benefit to the Government, by the
rapidity with which the troops might be removed ; an d
upon a recent occasion a detachment of 600 troops
were conveyed from Bombay to Tannah in less than three
hours, and the relief conveyed from Tannah to Born-
, bay in the same space of time, whereas, under the old
system, four or five days would have been occupied in
the operation. When Lord Hardinge was Governor-
General in 1846, he had estimated that 50,0001. per
annum might be saved, in the removal of troops, by the
introduction into India of railways, and they would,
therefore, see what immense advantages were likely to
accrue to the Government from the railways now in
course of construction. (Hear, hear.)
Colonel GRANT seconded the resolution, and a short
conversation ensued, in which it was stated that, as the
line was originally projected, the gradients through the
Ghauts had been for a considerable distance laid down
as 1 in 20 ; they had since been reduced to 1 in 35 for
81- miles ; and by a more recent survey, for 5 miles, and
it was believed that even more favourable gradients might
yet be discovered.
The report was then adopted, and the retiring direc-
tors and auditors re-elected.
The meeting was then made special, when the bill now
before Parliament for amending the acts of the company
was approved. This bill provides, after securing to the
original proprietors their guarantee of 5 per cent., that
the surplus profits shall go to increase the 41 per cent.
guarantee on the extension capital to 5 per cent., after
which each class of shares will rateably participate in
any additional receipts.
A vote of thanks to the chairman closed the proceed-
ings.

DEMERARA.
The annual meeting of this company was held at the
London Tavern on Friday—Mr. J. R. Carmichael in
the chair.
Mr. W. R. COLE read the advertisement convening
the meeting and the report, which says :--
"At the special meeting of proprietors held in Octo-
ber last, authority was given to the directors to borrow
the sum of 20,0001., under the colonial guarantee of in-
terest for a term of years, for the purpose of finishing the
line to Mahaica, and providing additional, plant to ac-
cominodate the traffic. In consequence, however, of
the state of the money market, the directors have thought
it advisable to defer the negotiation of the loan until a
more favourable opportunity; but of the 20,000/. then au-
thorised contracts have been entered into for the supply of
such rolling stock as was absolutely essential, and some
necessary wore have been constructed in the col
- - c'n37.

--Lit

1 The main line is now finished to Dochfour (making
a length of nearly 18 miles of rail and four miles of
sidings), and the branch from thence to the southern bank
of the Mahaica, canal is now in course of construction,
and will, in terms of the Ordinance No. 4, 1854, be com-
pleted for the accommodation of plantations, Ann's-
grove, Three Friends, Clonbrook, Beehive, Greenfield,
Grove, Orange Nassau, and Unity, on or before the
20th July next. The consent of the Colonial Legislature
for fixing the Mahaica terminus at the point suggested
by the general manager has been obtained, and this
work will be undertaken so soon as arrangements can
be made for carrying into effect the authority given to
the board at the last meeting for raisiug the requisite
funds. The capital account of the company has been
kept distinct from the revenue, and the receipts of the
line during the last six months show an increase of
nearly 1,0001. over • the corresponding period of last
year. The revenue account does not, however, exhibit
that satisfactory result which might have been anticipated
owing to the enormous increase in the cost of stores, fuel,
and freight, notwithstanding the exertions that have been
made to keep down these expenses. The traffic is steadily
on the increase, as will be seen from the following
statement of half-yearly receipts, viz. : Half-year, end-
ing September, 1851, 4,9441. 7s. 9d. ; ditto, 1852
5,632/, 15s. 10d. ; ditto, 1853, 6,233/. Is. 9d. ; ditto March,
1852, 6,690/. Os. Bd. ; ditto, 1853, 6,718/. 9s. 9d.; ditto,
1854, 7,6441. 12s. 9d. The directors feel confident that,
on the completion of the railway, a much larger revenue
will be secured at a very slight addition to the present
working expenses. The arrangements for the receipt
and delivery of goods have been remodelled, with the
view of economising the working expenses, and expedit-
ing the business of the company. The rolling stock is
maintained in efficient working order, and the number
of goods trucks have been increased from 60 to 82. The
permanent way has been improved by the lowering of
some of the bridges, and is now in excellent order. The
trains run with regularity."
....

The accounts showed, as the debtor side of the capital
account to original stock, 135,1681. 15s. 2d. ; preference
stock, 16,8971. ; loan on mortgage, 49,0001. ; ditto on
bonds, 32,000/. • due to sundry creditors, 6,5301. 13s.
4d. ; total, 239,5961. Bs. 6d. On the creditors' side of
the account, it appeared that there had been expended
up to the period of the last report, 223,745/. 19s. Bd. ;
and during the past half year, 6,1861. Os. 3d. (the princi-
pal item of which was travelling, commission, law, and
general expenses, 3,4351.) ; leaving as cash balances and
value of stores in hand, 9,9521. Bs. 7d.
The traffic receipts for the half year had been 7,6441.
12s. 9d. ; and the general expenditure, 5,444/. 9s. 'id. ;
which with interest on loans aed preference stock, 2,1101.
3s. 4d., left a balance of 901. in favour of the company.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the report,
stated that the principal portion of the item of 3,435/.
above alluded to was for commission in raising 26,0001.
on loan at 6 per cent., which had placed them iu a very
good position ; and he believed that the loan could not
have been raised under better terms. The directors had
not taken any steps for raising the 20,0001., which they
were authorised to borrow under the colonial guarantee
of interest for the completion of the line to Mahaica,
thinking that in the present state of the money market
it was better to wait and see what turn political events
might take, and which, perhaps, might lead to their rais-
ing the money on more advantageous terms than they
could now do. They had still in their hands a balance
of 1,0071. 73 per cent, preference stock unissued, and
they had received an offer from a responsible party to
take it all off their hands at par. In the first instance,
however, it was thought but fair to offer it to the pro-
prietors ; and if they did not avail themselves of it, the
directors would feel themselves at liberty to accept the
offer.

After a short conversation, the report was adopted
and the retiring directors and auditors re-elected.
The usual vote of thanks closed the proceedings.