The Sun.
London, England, 1849-05-18 00:00:00

Ansn'ing

LONDON, FRIDAY, MAY 18, 1849.

Never, we believe, has a petition been presented to
either House of Parliament, similar to that which
the Honourable Member for Exeter thought proper
to bring before the House of Commons last night
from thirty-one shareholders of the Eastern Counties
Railway. It is, indeed, difficult to understand the
motives which could have influenced thirty-one per-
sons moving in a respectable station in society to
have affixed their signatures to such a document, or a
Member of considerable experience to have consented
to bring it under the consideration of the House.
Charges were there brought forward against one of the
representatives of; an important constituency, who
had not been convicted or even accused of any legal
offence—charges wholly unconnected with Parlia-
mentary affairs, in which the Honourable Gentleman
had not in any degree acted in his legislatorial capa-
city ; and it was prayed that inquiries might be
instituted with respect thereto, and that, if well
founded, the party accused might be expelled from
being a Member of the House. This was the
modest request. The House of Commons was to
supersede the ordinary tribunals of the country, to
become a sort of Star Chamber, in which the most
inquisitorial proceedings might be carried on as to
the private conduct and character of its Members.
It was to ordain that trial by jury should be set aside,
and in lieu thereof that a Committee nominated by the
accuser should be appointed, who, after the fashion of
some of the Railway Committees, should con-
demn
without giving the party on trial an
opportunity of being heard in his own defence.
Thirty-one shareholders of the Eastern Counties
Railway desired that the House of Commons should
act in a manner so unprecedented and unconstitu-
tional, and Mr. DIVETT sanctioned the demand_by
presenting this most extraordinary petition.
The time selected for bringing the subject forward
was (if possible) in even worse taste than the subject
itself. It was well known that Mr. HUDSON was
suffering upfler a severe domestic affliction ; that he
had n't,..entqed into public life or left the shelter of
tliac;trvefol,Wi since the period of that melancholy
4scA4 f tlGd ction. A Committee of the House of
4+-
4. r!"' "'' ‘ses.!, ctually investigating at the moment
that: fiee...ipreferred, or we should rather say
j the Eastern Counties Committee,
,pt and venal conduct to Members of

the Legislature—charges which it is now well known I
were hastily put forward without any adequate
foundation. And yet it is at such a moment and
under such circumstances that Mr. DIVETT brings
forward the absurd petition of the thirty-one
shareholders—to add to the annoyances and
the troubles of this reviled and persecuted indi-
vidual.

Mr. HUDSON has, however, had no cause to regret
this piece of petty vindictiveness, of low and despi-
cable malignity. The cheers that were elicited from
every quarter when he bespoke the indulgence of the
House afforded the most satisfactory evidence that he
was surrounded by an assemblage of fair and impar-
tial gentlemen, who are not accustomed to condemn a
fellow-citizen without giving him ample opportu-
nities of vindicating his own character and of
being fully heard in his own defence.
The House of Commons is not prepared
to ostracize one of its Members because a certain
clique, interested in 'depressing railway property,
have raised an outcry against him, and have perse-
vered with an almost unprecedented degree of viru-
lence. Mr. HUDSON was listened to attentively while
he briefly explained the various points alluded to in
the petition, and his statements were received with
general approbation on every side, and from every
party. _ _

Mr. HUDSON was induced to join the Eastern
Counties Railway Company in consequence of a re-
quisition, signed by seven-eighths of the shareholders,
being presented to him, requesting that he would
become their chairman. At first he refused, but he
was subsequently prevailed upon to alter his de-
termination, and to take upon himself the responsible
duties of the office. At that period he had no shares
whatsoever in the company. So far as he was per-
sonally concerned, it signified little whether the divi-
dends were high or low. He was,however, at that time
in ,the height of his popularity, and the mere fact of
his sanctioning a project sent up the shares in the
market at least 20 or 30 per cent. It was a proud
day for the shareholders when Mr. HuDsot's name
was announced as their chairman, and for a time it
checked the downward progress of the shares. His
chief object in joining the company was to effect
some arrangement with the London and York Com-
pany, which was then projected. In that ex-
pectation he was disappointed, in consequence of
the general depreciation of railway property.
He found that there had been an increase
of the gross earnings of the line of nearly 60,0001.
sterling within the half-year, the receipts being, for
the six months ending July, 1845, 114,0001., while
no less than 173,0001. was received in the following
half year. This great increase, together with the
improvements that would be obtained when the new
feeders opened, and the traffic properly developed,
appeared to Mr. HUDSON to justify a considerable in-
' crease of dividend, and with the full concurrence of his
brother directors he acted on that opinion. It is now
asserted that sums were improperly placed to the
capital account that should have been charged to
revenue. Very different opinions, however, then
prevailed from those which are at present entertained
on that subject. It was considered that every ex-
penditure that might lead to future beneficial results
should be charged to capital. It was usual to insert
clauses in the various Acts of Parliament authorising
the payment of interest on the sums actually paid

up before the works were constructed, or any

sums whatsoever earned that could be ap-
plied to the purposes of dividend, and the
sanction of Parliament was thus deliberately given
to the system that is now so strongly complained of.
On this subject Mr. MACGREGOR, the chairman of
the South-Eastern Railway says—
" It has appeared to me indisputable, that all classes
of disbursements, which affected the permanent interests
of the company, expended at any particular pressure or
emergency, did not belong to the current expenses of the
particular period, but should be charged in amount as an
expenditure of capital. Such disbursements are thereby
made to extend over all future years, and are thus com-
paratively unfelt.
" This principle applies equally, whether such expen-
diture be incurred in the payment of fees to the officers
of the Houses of Parliament during the progress
of the Bills promoted, payments to engineers, solicitors,
counsel, and landowners, or in large sums advanced, in
the management of the traffic not expected to obtain
immediate advantages at the period when incurred, but
laid out from motives of sound policy for the enduring
interests and welfare of the company, with a confident
trust that all such payments made were bona fide, were
properly chargeable to capital account."
Mr. HUDSON acted on these principles, and for a
time nothing could be more satisfactory to the
shareholders. A season of adversity, however,

set in; the sanguine hopes of the speculators
were disappointed, and the tide of prejudice set in as
strongly against him as it had once been in his favour.
He had no pecuniary interests of any importance ;
he had not trafficked in the shares of the company ;
he had not taken advantage of the knowledge he had
acquired to "bear" the companies' stock, and thus to
gain large sums of money ; neither had he got
rid of a bad bargain by selling his shares at an
increased value in consequence of the dividends
declared. It might justly be said of him as it was
of his brother chairman, Mr. MACGREGOR, of whom
the committee said that his conduct was "honourable
throughout, and marked by a sincere, and, except
in his character of a very large proprietor,
an unflinching devotion to the interests of the

company."
No further step will, of course, be taken in refe-
rence to this very ridiculous proceeding ; but, as we
have already stated, it was fortunate for Mr. HUDSON
that so favourable an opportunity should have been
afforded of submitting his clear, straightforward, and
simple statement to the consideration of the House
and of the entire country.

h has

During that great political earthquake whit
recently convulsed the greater part of wic
Christendom
the people of this country have continually, and very
justly, congratulated themselves on their peculiar_
felicity in being enabled to enjoy, together with
undisturbed tranquillity, a greater amount of liberty
than any of their revolutionary neighbours. The
interest of the present hour has been of such an en-
grossing nature that few have cared to investigate
the causes which have led to this most satisfactory
result. But the teachings of the past and the present,
like the deductions of theory and practice, mutually
expound and illustrate each other, and perhaps there
never was a period when the page of history might
be conned with better advantage than the present. It
is, consequently, at a most appropriate time that the
great historian of our day has issued the first instal-
ment of his work ; and now, closely following upon
Mr. MACAULAY'S history, we gladly welcome ano-
' ther equally well-timed memorial of our revolutionary
history from the hand of the eloquent writer of the
" Crescent and the Cross."* We thus couple the names
of MACAULAY and ELIOT WARBURTON simply because
they have (to a certain extent) treated of a similar
theme at the same appropriate period. In other
respects their works are avowedly dissimilar. The
one is the fragment of a continuous history, the other
the record of an episode, partaking somewhat of the
nature of biography. Call it what we will—history,
biography, memoirs, or correspondence, the newly..
published work, concerning Prince RUPERT and the
Cavaliers, apart from any intrinsic interest or elo-
quence of style, is worthy of profound consideration
at the present moment, when events at home and
abroad contribute to recal to our grateful recollec-
tion how " HamrDEN died in the field, and SYDNEY
on the scaffold." Mr. ELIOT WARBURTON himself
seems to be duly impressed with the importance of
this feature of his work. "It seems to me," he says,
" that we read or write of our great
civil wars to little purpose, if we look
upon them and their actors as mere abstractions—Nee
must remember that in the terrible scenes of these
old times we see but ourselves in different circum-
stances ; ae behold Englishmen as they have. been
and may be again." Not exactly as they "may be
again," for as this eloquent annalist of the Cavaliers
very truthfully observes in another place, " thanks to
our gallant forefathers, Cavaliers and Roundheads,
there is but one real cause in England now. Loyalty
and liberty are no longer at variance, since our fore-
fathers dared to bring to issue and set at rest for ever
the question between the Sovereign and the subject.
Heroic and earnest men," he continues—and this
passage is at the same time an admirable enumeration
of the practical benefits of the civil war, and an evi-
dence of its writer's impartiality-4' heroic and earnest
men strove faithfully on either side, with tongue and
,word, and prayer and blood, for what they deemed to

* "Memoirs and Correspondence of Prince Rupert and
ai, Cltilliero9 BY Eliot Worburton." 3 Val. Aenllo37.

be the truth. Each found, as truthful and earnest
men will ever find, however ranged on different sides,
that their ultimate object had been the same. Each
found not the conquest that his human nature strove
for, but the victory that his higher nature yearned
for ; yet he found it in defeat. The Cavalier saw
much that he had been taught to reverence struck
down, buried, and put away for ever in the grave of
the STUARTS. The Roundhead beheld his glorious
visions of liberty eventuating in fierce anarchy and
final despotism, from which he was content to seek
refuge even in the Restoration." Mr. ELIOT WARBUR•
TON'S enthusiasm is occasionally, and very naturally,
excited in behalf of the generous devotion and daring
gallantry of the royal Cavaliers; nevertheless, if his
heart be with them his head is not. His reason,
calm and dispassionate, recognises the capital errors
of the cause, in spite of the individual heroism which
adorned and well nigh disguised them. "Fortunately
for us," he exclaims, " that cause was unsuccessful,
yet not altogether lost : shorn by the Parliament's
keen, sword of the despotic and false principle that
disgraced it, its nobler and better elements survive,
imparting firmer strength and a loftier tone to our
constitution." " I do not presume," he continues,
" to canvass my readers' sympathies for either Puri-
tan or Cavalier, I leave them to plead their own
cause in their own letters—l invite him to listen to
their own long silent voices, speaking once more—
eagerly, earnestly —as when armed men with
desperate speed bore these, their blotted, and often
blood-stained pages, from leaguered city or roving
camp—from faltering diplomatist or resolute warrior,
at whose beck men died. Every letter will possess
some interest for the thoughtful reader, and shed
some light for him on the heart of bygone times. He
will find them still animated by the passions that
were then throbbing in every breast. At first the
earnest rather than angry spirit of our memorable
English war is apparent in them ; but they gra-
dually become more intense in their expres-
sion, as if they were the work of a single
man ; the same note of triumph or tone of despair is
perceptible in all. Human nature and the nature of
each writer is transparent in them all ; the reader is
the confidant of kings, princes, statesmen, generals,
patriots, traitors; he is the confessor of the noblest
minds and the most villanous natures ; he sees the
very conscience of the war."
This most interesting revelation is, as we have
just said, marvellously well timed. It serves in a
peculiar manner to "point the moral" of the scenes
now daily passing round us, while at the same time
our personal experience invests with a new interest
and a double efficacy the records of events so similar
and yet so dissimilar to those of the present day.
" Prince Rupert " will be as welcome to the Liberals
of the nineteenth century, as his gallant original
was unwelcome to their predecessors two hundred
years back.

Another numerous meeting was holden on Wednes-
day evening upon the subject of intermural interment.
Another ! How many more before Parliament can
be reused to an interference ? Not many ; be sure
of that. The necessity for Legislative interference
Las become altogether too glaring to be " blinked "
even by the most impudent or the most lethargic
Government. It has even now been acknowledged
by one of the most distinguished members of the
Administration, that the Cabinet proposes very
speedily to lay the matter before the Houses in the
form of a remedial measure. For these reasons we
can refer to the proceedings of Wednesday's assem-
blage with the greatest satisfaction. We can
direct attention to the admirable speeches
reported in another part of our impression with a
larger confidence than hitherto, that the melancholy
facts narrated in those speeches will shortly be num-
bered among the records made in what KEELEY used
to call his "Beastly Reminiscences." Nor when the
evil of the present demoralizing and suicidal system
shall have been definitively removed will it be for-
gotten to whom the population will be indebted for
the acquisition of that inestimable advantage.
Gladly and eagerly as we would re cal the truth to
general recollection, the multitude scarcely requires
to be informed by us that the prime mover of the
present agitation for extramural burial, the origina-
tor of the great effort now on the eve of proving
victorious, is the gentleman who on Wednesday
addressed the meeting immediately after its eloquent

Very few need t
o b
inauguration by representativethe
ed
assu assured
thethat
Tower
butfor
Ham-
lets. the
generous and inestimable exertions of Mr. GEORGE
t spto h preventere
of our
re
gcroenat-
tinued corruption of the effort
he
ALFRED WALKER, the
atmosphere
cities, would not, in all human likelihood, have been
even by this time commenced. Whatever progress
has been made towards the prevention of the further
desecration of the dead, and thereby the further deci-
mation of the living, is due principally, and in
many instances, exclusively to him. The cause of
Extramural Interment is fully as much indebted
to Mr. WALKER, as that of Sanitary Im-
provement is to Doctor SOUTHWOOD SMITH, as
that of Catholic Emancipation was to O'Coissimz, as
lnthatiLOfEti
threoß Abolition
cI: a sthat o
of
f Slavery was to CLARKSON and
v
Free Trade was to VILLIERS
and COIIDEN, or as that of Financial Retrenchment
will be to the Hon. Gentlemen the representatives of
Montrose and the West Riding. The public should
never be allowed to lose a remembrance of these facts,
and as far as we can effect to the contrary, it shall
not lose a remembrance of the spontaneous and
untiring labours of Mr. WALKER during
the last fourteen years in regard to a subject so
repulsive, and yet, at the same time, so inti-
mttltnel
morality.
Yreferarning to
the
with the national health,
decency,
legislative interference in
urgenttbe ssubstitution
b snt
iestcuetsisoint y
of forsub
usrobma
ne
cemeteries for city graveyards—it is very far from
our intention to dilate upon the filthy and loathsome
details which have been accumulated at intervals, as
to the condition of thepr
e.npses adjoining such dens
of abomination
eftaet an
el evil that has
inturnsas Enonby the journalist, the
Every Every
pamphleteer,oonuee beenh as
been i
depicted s
the lecturer,
ken e and
byen
familiar with the existence
thee repeated
voefdepravity
pas
contemplation of those
pravity and putrescence.
appalling
sickened
i ese cds
Every one has been more or less nauseated by the de-
lineation of those dark spots in our own splendid me-
tropolis, where—
" In foul accumulation, tier on tier,
Each due instalment of the pauper bier,
Crushed in dense-pack 'd corruption there they dwell,
'Mongst earthy rags of shroud, and splinter'd shell.
A quagmire of old bones, where darkly bred,
The slimy life is busy with the dead.
Reeks from that bloated earth miasma's breath,
The full-fed taint of undigested death;
Thence, like the fumes from sleeping glutton's throat,
The noisome vapours of her surfeit float."*
The accuracy of those deplorable descriptions is too
universally appreciated to require anything like cor-
roboration. Our purpose is very different, therefore,
from an anxiety to force any more of these disgusting
particulars before the popular imagination. In place
of this we would earnestly commend to public con-
sideration the statistical facts submitted to the corn-
munityby the different gentlemen who addressed them-
selves to the subject on Wednesday—such facts, for
example, as that 600,000 individuals dying annually in
the United Kingdom, according to the estimate of the
Registrar- General, is a sufficient testimony that there
is ample reason for the interposition of the Legislature.
Again, it is impossible to conceal from ourselves how
requisite some change is, when we hear that out of
600,000, there are no less than 50,000 deaths annu-
ally in London alone ; and that the consequence of
that mortality, and of the present mode Of burial is,
that from two millions and a half to three millions of
pounds weight of dead and decaying animal matter
are. annually deposited in our metropolitan grave.
yards ! Knowing these things, it is absolutely
impossible to hesitate. Further hesitation, in
fact, would be nothing less than criminal. As
Mr. WALKER admirably hinted, to continue wil-
fully the present system of interment, and yet
at the same time to cry out, Sunday after Sunday,
" From plague, pestilence, and famine, Good Lord
deliver us !" is little short of being a blasphemous
mockery.
Before the present session has closed, some distinct
pledge, at the very least, must be extorted from the
Government, to the effect that Parliament shall be
called upon very speedily to legislate upon the sub-
ject of interment. The popular expectation in this

" The Cemetery: a Brief Appeal to the Feelings of
Society in behalf of Extra-mural Burial." Pp. 34. Wm.
rigkoring. Xmado; 1841.

regard cannot but be safe so long as Mr. WALKER
has in the House of Commons such co-operators as Mr.
GEORGE TI10?&I'SON and Mr. WILLIAM ALEXANDER
MACKINNON.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris papers of yesterday.
The result of the elections for Paris is not yet
completely known, although it is certain that LEDRU^
RoLLIN, Sergeant-Major BOICUET, LAGRANGE and
PIERRE LEROUI are returned. In the provinces M.
DUPONT DE L'EURE and the LAFAYETTES have lost
their election. M. Tunas and Admiral CECILLE
have been returned for Rouen; the whole of the
members for La Vendee are Legitimatists, the whole
of those for the Indre Republicans, and the whole of
those for the Cher Socialists. Not a single vote was
recorded in the Upper Marne for the Prince DE
JOINVILLE. M. DUPIN has been thrown at N ievre.
The illoniteur contains the official announcement of
the appointment of M. LACROSSE ad interim to the
Ministry of the Interior in the room of M. LEON
FAUCHER• _

-----
The Ilioniteur publishes the following telegraphic
dispatch from Admiral TREROUART, dated Toulon,
May 16 :
"On the day before yesterday, at 7 o'clock, P.m., I
left Civita Vecchia, where the report was current since
the previous day that two Roman envoys had arrived at
our head- quarters, as the bearers of words of accommo-
dation. These reports have been confirmed to me by a
letter from the general-in-chief of the 13th, from Castle
di Guido. lie says, ' already serious propositions of
s
submission have been made to me. We are for the
Romans the anchor of safety. I arrive at Toulon with
the Labradore and Sane, in order that they may assist
as possible the numerous
The Assemblee :Nationale gives the following as the
result of the elections for 19 names up to one o'clock
in the morning :
Bac ••• ••• 124 sections ... 51,116 votes.
horsesill
to s be ciuiceknlty to Civita Vecchia.'"
Bedeau ••• ••• 122 ... ... 39,286
Eixio ••• ••• 106 ... ... 49,429
Boichot ... ~. 125 ... ... 47,627
Bugeaud... ... 122 ... ... 49,222
Cavaignac ... 124 ... ... 54,014
Coquerel... ... 94
.„ ... 37,484
Falloux ...
... 119 ... ••• 44,504
Faucher (Leon)... 120 ... ... 47.608
Lagrangel24 49,363
Lamoricielco ... 193 ... ... 46.784
Lcdru-Rollin ... 123 ~. ... 48,297
Mather de Montjau 123 ••• '•• 47,169
Lucien Murat ... 123 ••• 61,048
Odilon Barrot ... 119 ... ... 49,218
Pyat (Felix) ... 125 ... ... 52 ,037
Rattier ... . 123 ... ... 49,419
Vavin ••• ::. 122 ... ... 43,285
Wolowski 94 ... ... 51,283
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK-EXCHANGE, MAY 17.
Eastlndian 3%—Great Indian Peninsular, 4X, —Northern
of France, 105—Paris and Strasbourg, 4%.