The Sun.
London, England, 1849-10-22 00:00:00

LYCEUM THEATRE.

A bustling farce, from the pen of Mr. Bayle Ber-
nard, was produced here on Saturday under the title
of A Practical Man, with great success. The Prac-
tical Man is a certain Mr. Cloudesley (admirably
acted by Mr. Charles Mathews), who is a sort of
juvenile bustling, rollicking, chattering, volatile Sir
Abel Handy, is a perpetual fidget himself, and
a sore torment to all with whom he comes in contact,
an English Alnaschar. Plot there is none, the
imaginative vivacity of the hero does the whole business,
and does it excellently well. We doubt not but that
Mr. Charles Mathews will be to the full as popular
in Cloudesley as he is in Captain Patter. The farce
went briskly off, and at the conclusion Charles
Mathews was called for and loudly applauded.

_LAY COTTON—It perhaps may not be generally
known, even by thos.e engaged in flax, that by com-
pletely robbing the fibre of all its gum, we get imme-
diately a tine downy material like raw cotton, only rather
stronger. The strength of the flax is rather diminished
by this process, but still the fibre is superior to cotton;
and it may be passed through all the present cotton
machinery in the subsequent processes. This cannot
tail to be highly interesting, now that we are threatened
with a scarce and consequently dear and inferior supply
of cotton; and since much flax stalk is thrown away,
both at home and in India, the plar.t being cultivated for
the seed, it follows that we have here, prima facie, a
much less expensive raw material than cotton.
ERNATUM.—In the report of the county meeting of
Middlesex magistrates, on Saturday, the name of Von
Orloff Brink should have been printed " Carl (Charles)
Olof (Olave) Brink," that gentleman being a Swedish
barrister-at-law, and Secretary to the Royal Board of
Prisons in Sweden. Mr. Brink is at present in this
country on a special mission yelating to the examina-
tion of the syssem of police and prison discipline in
England.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

OXFORD, WORCESTER, AND WOLVERHAMPTON

A meeting of the shareholders in this company was
held at Leeds on the 18th, for the purpose of forming
a committee, with a view to the removal of the present
board of directors. Mr. Walter Stead presided.
The CHAIRMAN said that the shareholders in this
undertaking had been -led to invest large sums of
money on the faith of an alleged guarantee from the
Great Western Railway Company, not only to lease
the line, when completed, at a reasonable rate of in-
terest, but also in case of need to provide fur the
actual completion' of the line; but that they now
found that they had been labouring under a great
delusion, and had been abandoned both by the
company, under whose influence and authority the
line was introduced into Parliament, and by the
directors whose duty it was to protect their interests.
In consequence of the disastrous condition of the
company's affairs, he (the Chairman) thought that
nothing but the most prompt and energetic measures
would lead to their recovery or to a more healthy
condition. He thought the most extraordinary neg-
ligence had been shown by the directors in failing
to place the guarantee of the Great Western Com-
pany on a footing free from all ambiguity, at a time
when there could be no doubt that such a course
was open to them; and their subsequent and present
apathy in omitting to use the powers they possessed
for enforcing the performance of its engagements by
the Great Western Company, coupled with the con-
nexion of some of those directors of the Great
Western board, were such as entirely to deprive the
present directors of the confidence of the shareholders,
and to call for an independent action of the share-
holders to' procure a remedy for the evils by which
they were oppressed.—(Hear.)
A committee, consisting of Mr. James Ogle, Mr. W.
Stead, and Mr. James Walker, was appointed to pro-
secute on behalf of the shareholders for procuring the
removal of the present directors and the appointment
of a new board of directors.

A vote of thanks to the chairman closed the pro-
ceedings.

RAILWAY SHARE MARKETS.

LIVERPOOL, Ocr. 20.

STOCK EXCHANGE. —We had an animated share market
to-clay. Tue business done was to a large extent, and
prices were higher. The sales are—Caledonian, 121,4—Ditto,
Preference, 8% c.—Lancashire and Yorkshire, Quarters, 19%
dis.—Ditto, Fifths, 634 dis.—London and North-Western,
109%—Ditto, New Quarters, Is. 3d. p.—Manchester, Shef-
field, and Lincoln, 21— Ditto, Quarters (No. 1), guaranteed
7th till 1353, dis.—Ditto (No. 2), 514 —Midland, 46
Ditto, Halves, 2134 dis.—Shrewsbury and Birmingham (A),
71 dis.—South-Eastern and Dover, New (No. 2), 17% dis.
—Ditto ( So. 4), 5.1 i, —North Stafordshire, 8% dis.—York,
Newcastle, and Berwick (G. N. E. Purchase), 6 per cent.
till 1850, 51,a dis. —York and North Midland,, Preference,
6 per cent. till 1850, 474 dis
• • BIRMINGHAM, Ocr. 20.

:STOCK EXCHANGB. - Business improved to-day, and
prices were firm. The transactions were as follow :—Lon •
don and North-Western, 110 —Ditto, New Quarters, l p.-
Midi :ind, 46—Birmingham and Stour Valley, 10—Shropshire
Unio 31,4 —North Staffordseire, 83 dis.—South Stafford-
shire, 4 dis.