The Sun.
London, England, 1847-10-28 00:00:00

rectors of the railway company most cordially to
unite with the inhabitants in promoting the welfare
of the port of Lynn—(Hear, hear)—and any sug-
gestion the inhabitants had to make at any time
would be most respectfully attended to ; and with
respect to the advantages he expected the railway
company would confer on the port, they would en-
deavour so to accommodate the traffic that it might

become the leading port in that part of the coast for
the commerce of the world. That company owed its
existence to the desire of the people of Lynn for
such a means of communication, and it was taken up,
not as a means of making individual profit, but with
the view of benefiting the district; and so well had
that view been carried out that, notwithstanding the
extraordinary times which they had had to pass
through, they had never had the slightest difficulty in
getting money to proceed with their works.—
(Cheers.) He did not believe that there was a single
director in the East-Anglian Company who did not
wish to confer the greatest possible good on the town
of Lynn, and by doing so, the company would be
promoting their own interests—and they might
always trust to parties going the right course when
it was their own interest to do so.—(Cheers and
laughter.) He felt that that day the town of Lynn had
made a great step on the road of improvement. The
opening of the railway was the first step ; the new
estuary, when they got it, would be the second ;
their wet docks would be the third ; and indeed he
could see no end to the prosperity which awaited
them.—(Cheers.) He hoped that ere long they
would be enabled to obtain their Estuary Company,
and he could assure them that it should not
want for any assistance the railway company could
give them. 'lt was much the fashion at the present
time to decry all railway companies as mischievous.
Now he did not think there was any reason for such
a course. He was not going to defend what gamblers
or needy speculators had done with respect to rail-
ways; he had no doubt there had been great suffer-
, ing by some parties, but there never yet had been a
good from which a partial evil had not arisen.-
-(Hear, bear.) It was not in nature that they
should be wholly free from evil; and if men proposed
good projects they could not always help a few shares
getting into doubtful hands. The charge which had
been made against the railway companies was, in
fact, more justly due to the Legislature itself, which
had caused a great portion of the mania of 1845 by
the encouragement it gave to competition.—(Hear,
hear.) That was a system which could never exist
among railways, for there was nothing to prevent
companies which were competing to day becoming
united to- morrow. Now the result of that encou-
ragement of competition was, that a large portion of
the great companies, in order to secure their traffic,
were obliged to apply in 1845-6 for lines which,
under other circumstances, would not have been re-
quired before 1855-6, or even 1865-6. Then, again,
there was a certain great man, who, having taken a
spade in his hand to cut the first sod of a railway,
made a speech in favour of direct lines, and that
gave rise to a mania in favour of direct lines.
(Hear, hear.) Now, direct as their line was, he
had no doubt that if any one had brought out a di-
rect Lynn and London line to save one mile, that it
would have been eagerly sought after.—(Laughter.)
It had been said that the railways had disarranged
commerce and made England poor. Now, he could
not see how that could possibly be. He could not
see how a country was made poor by a system which
gave to a large body of the people good employment,
good wages, and good food.—(Cheers.) Poverty
arose not from people being employed in the pro-
duction cf capital, but from their injuring capital.
When he spoke of the poor as injuring capital, he
meant to express that any man injured capital who
lived, and ate, and did not work.—(Cheers.) Now,
the great fault was the idea that money must be
represented by gold. Gold was no more use to
ninety-nine out of one hundred than any other con-
vertible medium would be. Two pounds and a half
of iron, in the form of an axe, was of more use to
many than the same weight in gold would be. The
great cause of the present difficulties was the exist-
ing currency laws, which were radically wrong, and
must be altered.—(" Hear, hear," and " No, no.")
They were told that their currency rested on a broad
basis of gold, but that was a gross error. If that was
the case, they ought to have gold to represent the
14,000,000/. which had been lent by the Bank to the
Government. Now, he could recollect that, in 1825,
only 1,300,000 sovereigns were in the Bank of Eng-
land. Now, when they declined so low, they surely
did not represent the currency of the country. What
had happened before might happen again ; and, sup-
pose the gold in the coffers of the Bank got down to
fifty or one hundred sovereigns, how could they say
that the 14,000,0001. was based upon gold ? The
law, it was evident, was bad, and it must be altered.—
(" No, no;" "Yes, yes.") He had merely given his own
opinion on the matter. He believed that railways
conduced to the prosperity of the country, and,
hoping that brighter times would arise, he trusted
the great- companies would do everything in their
power to show the futility of the argument that the
commercial distress was caused by them. After
apologising for the absence of some of his colleagueP,
the Hon. Gentleman again returned thanks, and pro-
posed " The Mayor and Corporation, with prosperity
to the town and trade of Lynn."
The CHAIRMAN returned thanks for the compliment,
and expressed the gratification the corporation felt at
the opening of the Railway.
Mr. WILSON proposed " The health of Sir W. B.
Foulkes and the ex-directors of the East-Anglian
Railway Company."
Sir. W. FOULKES acknowledged the compliment,
and begged to be allowed to explain why he had re-
tired from the direction. He had never been a rail-
way speculator, and had only joined the Lynn and
Ely for the purpose of benefiting the port of Lynn.
When. the amalgamation between-the three companies
took place it was necessary to reduce the number of
directors, and he retired, foreseeing that he would be
succeeded by Mr. Lacy, who was so much better ac-
quainted with railways than he was. The Hon.
Baronet then alluded to the necessity of the people of
Lynn doing everything in their power to promote the
interest of the Estuary Company, and stated that
arrangements were making which he believed would
insure its success.
The next toasts were, "Mr. J. C. Williams and
his colleagues, the solicitors of the East-Anglian Rail-
way Company ;" " Mr. W. Williams, the secretary of
the East-Anglian Railway Company ;" and " Mr. J.
S. Valentine, the engineer of the Company ;" the
whole of which were appropriately acknowledged.
Mr. WILSON said the next toast had reference to a
great company with which the East-Anglian Com-
pany were about to work in connexion. That com-
pany had been long in operation, and it was well
known did everything they could to promote the in-
terests of the district with which it was connected. He
begged to give "Mr. Roney, the secretary of the
Eastern Counties Railway, and the directors of that
company."—(Cheers.)
Mr. RoNEY rose to return thanks for the honour
conferred upon the company with which he had the
pleasure of being connected. In doing so he had to
apologise for the absence of Mr. Hudson and Mr.
Waddington. The former gentleman was engaged at
Sunderland on particular business, otherwise he would
have been present. Mr. Waddington, he knew, had
been most anxious to be present, and arrangements
nownabesyys)supsruee
as
been
e detainedhad made
bnyo
tfboa
arrived
his
business,
sdcs oh mie
which(% g d o l
rh
Roney)
• special
eol
swterdoaui
had
duats he
ld
deeply regret. He (Mr. Roney) felt great pleasure
in baying had the opportunity of being present at
that entertainment, which reflected credit alike
on the inhabitants of Lynn and the directors of the
East-Anglian Railway, in whose honour it was given.
He begged to assure them that the directors of the
Eastern Counties Company had desired him and the
other officials to give every facility to the traffic of the
East-Anglian Company, and nothing should be want-
ing on their part to carry out the wish of the. directors
in that respect.—(Cheers.) It was the first time he
had been in Lynn, and he felt extremely gratified,
both at the events of the night and the flattering re-
ception he had received.—(Cheers.)
" The Press," "The Ladies," &c., having been
given, the chairman vacated his seat about a quarter
to twelve, when a number of the company returned
to Ely by a special train.

AMBERGATE, NOTTINGIIAM, BOSTON,
AND EASTERN JUNCTION.
A meeting of shareholders in this company was
held at the London Tavern yesterday, in consequence
of an advertisement having appeared from the direc-
tors calling a meeting for the sth of next month, to
consider an offer made from the Great Northern
Company to lease the line at a guaranteed dividend
of five and a half per cent. upon its cost for three
years after its completion ; and the option to each
shareholder of exchanging for Northern stock at par,
after the line from London to York has been
opened, or else five per cent. in perpetuity—some por-
tions of the Ambergate line being abandoned, and
the shares reduced from 201. to 8/. each. In their
advertisement calling the meeting, the directors, how-
ever, state they cannot recommend the adoption of
the offer. Mr. Mitchell having been voted to the
chair, a letter was read from Mr. Badger, a gentle-
man who was elected to the direction at the last
general meeting, recommending the adoption of the
offer repudiated by his co-directors, and resolutions
were carried thanking him for the trouble he had
taken, and declaring it to be the opinion of the meet-
ing that it is in every way legitimate and desirable
to reduce the magnitude of the undertaking within
the limits presented by the financial capabilities of
Northern
y
three-fifty
the present proprietary and the actual requirements li
of the district for railway accommodation ; that it is
far preferable to accept an alliance with the Great
Company9niisthethperianbcainpdleonomf aenntexofpeandhietauvre
reduced
and needless section •
, the security of a guaranteed
minim= dividend, d
an the option of great pro.