The Sun.
London, England, 1841-10-14 00:00:00

TALACRE COAL AND IRON

COMPANY..

The adjourned meeting of. the Proprietors of the
above Company was held yesterday, in order to receive
the Report of a Committee appointed at the last. meeting
to inspect the accounts, and to ascertain what were the
justolaitns and what were unjust. The present meeting
was also to consider the reception of the original Report
of the present Directors, and also the answer to the same
by the original Directors.
The meeting took place at about ,one o'clock, at the
office of the Company, .20, John-street, Adelphi. •
Mr. CHAPPILOW was proposed,..and took the. Ch air, and
read the .circular calling the meetiniktogether,-and, also
two letters. - •
A PROPRIETOR wished to ask what the' nature of.the
meeting was, and whether it was considered t© be a
Shareholders' meeting, because, if such it was, he should
protest :against it, as they co Ad. not constitute a. legal
Shareholders' meeting. • '
This. question was unanswered, and
Mr. Alderman WOOD rose ?and . said that he had been
told—for lie had not seen it—that ,an advertisement bad
been put in the . papers, stating :that .be should take the
chair at that meeting. He wished to know whether that,
advertisement had been inserted on the authority of the
Company or its Secretary ?
The CHAIRMAN said lie had been in the country about
a week, and on his return he was surprised at seeing the
advertisement. He had also seen a letter alluding to
the advertisement, and from Sir M. Wood, denying that
the advertisement alluded to him.
'fAyLon.:—That advertisement did not emanate
from the Company.
Mr. WOOD said he knew nothing of it. It was a
most extraordinary thing, but he knew nothing of it. It
was a foul attempt on the part of some person to attack
him (Mr. Wood).
Mr. TAYLOR. said they were as ignorant as Mr.
Wood was himself, and they had taken the first oppor-
tunity of denying it.
Mr. RAWSON said he would take that opportunity of
alluding to a statement which had gone forth in. the
public press of their last meeting. The Mining Journal
had stated that he (Mr. Rawson) would consent to sub-
scribe .fifty pounds. Now, if he had thought of sub-
scribing at all, he never
.should have mentioned such a
sum as fifty pounds ; it was ridiculous. How it came
to be .so.reported :he -.did not know ; doubtless it was
not intentional.. What he had said was, that he should
pay up all calls which became due. He mentioned the
circumstance as it had caused him some little ridicule.

A PROPRIETOR—What business have you to have re-
porters here at all ?_ _ . .

➢ir. TAYLOR said in accordance with the wish of the
last meeting, the Committee had written to all the
Shareholders, calling on them to come forward with the
subscriptions, which call had not been responded to. They
had examined the liabilities of the Company, and had
embodied that examination in the Report which he was
about to read to them.

Mr. WIRE said, before that Report was read he had
only one word to say. He wished to ask (as we
understood) why there had been but one meeting of. the
Committee since the last meeting? ,

Mr. TAYLOR said he had stated to Mr. Wire that there
would be a meeting on the Wednesday following the
last meeting, but that meeting did not take place, in con-
sequence of not seeing Mr. Rawson. He (Mr. Taylor)
saw him afterwards,. and he concurred in the meeting to
be held last Saturday instead.
_ _ . .

Mr. RAWSON said that all that could be done at the
time had been done.

Mr. WIRE did not at all object to the Report, but he
thought there had not been time sufficient to take the
matter into consideration.

Mr. TAYLOR then read the Report of the Committee
appointed at the last meeting, which stated that the
Committee had made the inquiries, and it appeared that
there had been great negligence in the conduct of the
funds of the Company, and the consequence was it was
impossible to carry. on the works of the Company. It
appeared that the gross amount received on the forma-
tion of the Company was 50,0001, which were English
shares, 15,0001 ; Irish shares, 9,500/. ; Debentures,
15,000.1. ; Loans, Advances, &c., 10,0001 The expendi-
ture up to March 1841 was 12,642/. for bills paid on ac-
count of the works, and 35,000/ for other expenses.
They had not been enabled to. go into the accounts as
they could wish, as they could not get the accounts from
the Directors in Dublin.

Mr. HORNIDGE—I advised them not to send them, but
they sent you copies.
Mr. 'TAYLOR said the expenses of the Company
amounted to 4,400/.; he mentioned this to give them an
idea of the manner in which the works had been managed.
But it was to the existing liabilities of the Company that
he wished to direct their attention, more clearly to as-
certain the claims upon them. The Committee had di-
vided the claims into three divisions. First, the claims
for goods, &c., supplied to the Company, and to which
there could be no just objection to their being at once
discharged ; secondly, those claims which required in-
quiry, and which might be reduced by that inquiry ; and
thirdly, the claims which they considered unjust and
ought to be resisted by every exertion. The first
portion of the claims amounted to 4,000/. The
second 10,0001., and the third to 19,0001. The
first named claims, for some of which bills had
been given, must be paid ; the second, the amount
might be diminished ; and the third claim—which
amounted to a serious sum of itself, and was sufficient
to demand their most careful consideration, and at
present was an insurmountable difficulty to the settle-
ment of the concerns of the Company, must rigidly be
opposed. Circulars had been sent round to the Share-
holders, calling upon them •to come forward with sub-
scriptions, but only three replies had been received.
Mr. Taylor then read two letters from the Secretary of
the Dublin Board, and the Manager of the Talacre Coal.
and Iron Works. The one from the last, was in ackuow.r,
ledgement of the receipt of the copy of the books, of,
the Dublin Board. The letter stated the writer's opinion
—that books. were never kept in a more disgraceful
or unbusiness-like manner, and he considered he
should be insulting the the Shareholders if he acted upon
them.

Mr. WESTON asked what the books were, that were
alluded to.

Mr. TAYLOR—The copies of the books of the Dublin
Board.

Mr. HORNIDGE—The books will be sent to me, but
they shall not be in your hands.
Mr. Rawson—l am sorry, Mr. Hornidge, lam on the
Committee, and am not therefore looked upon as an
honest man. I do not see why I should not be trusted
with the books.

Several gentlemen here rose, and there was great con-
fusion.

Mr. Alderman WOOD said, he thought the most
desirable thing was to have the accounts thoroughly and
fully gone into, and he fully concurred in the wish of
the Committee for further time to do so. lie, for one,
said, that be those accounts of what character they
might, they ought fully and fairly to be examined, and
then a Report upon them should be submitted to the
whole body of Proprietors. With regard to the classifica-
tion of the claims in the Report, he would say a few words.-
With regard to the first claims there could be no possible
objection. Of the second claims, it appeared, some were
thought good, others objectionable. Now, with refe-
rence to the last, which amounted to 19,0001.: it was
very difficult for one against whom prejudice had been
held, to make such statements and explanations as would
at once rebut every circumstance complained of ; there-
fore he would say, get the facts—get substantial facts—
such as would satisfy every Proprietor, and prove the in-
sinuatiiiiisand charges (as we understood). He thought the
proper course *as the fullest inquiry, and therefore he
did not think that the Shareholders could hesitate to sub-
mit the Report just read to another Committee, for the
dxpress purpose of carrying out the inquiry; and then
that trustees should be appointed to, receive money, and
pay the claims that were just. He would nOt venture a
'single opinion as to the construction of the present Re-
port, because, while it was the subject of further in-
quiry, he did not think it would be proper to do so. The
Hon. Gentleman concluded by making a motion to the
effect that further inquiry was necessary.
Mr. EDWARD wished to ask whether the. Report that
had been read was the one there bad been such discus-
sion about at a previous meeting ?
Mr. TAYLOR said it was not, and explained the last
meeting.

Mr. tlontilDGE—l think the time has arrived when
I should state the result of my visit to the Board of Di-
rectors in Dublin.

Here there was great confusion, and cries of " 'Tis
not the proper time.

Mr. TAYLOR said he was going to prbpose, in answer
to the* motion of Mr. Wood, that the original Report of
the Directors be read. He would say, that every oppor-
tunity had been given to the gentlemen present, who
wished to make any statements in reply, and he thought
that no satisfactory explanation had been given, during
the examination before the Committee, of the original
Report. When that business was first opened in Fe-
bruary last, he (Mr. Taylor) stated to the Shareholders
his belief that very serious fraud had been cominitted,and
he did think, from various sources of information—(he
had not had the documents)—but lie did think, from
information he had had on the subject, that such
was the case.—(Hear, hear, hear.) The Committee of
Directors was bound to inquire into that, and that Com-
mittee made a Report, which fully corroborated the
statement he had made. He thought they were on bet- '
ter grounds than they had been at that time, for they
now had the documents themselves in their possession,
and could prove the truth of those assertions they had
made. He (Mr. Taylor) had told the gentlemen at that
time, that in laying the case before them he should
" nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice." It
was then said that there was but a little leaven of truth
in the statement, but that there were gross imputations;
but facts came out which not only corroborated those
statements he (Mr. Taylor) had made, but proved that
the leaven of truth was very large. ' . .
A PROPRIETOR—You should read the Report of that
Committee, and not make your comments upon it.—
(Uproar.) I move that the Report be read, instead of
Mr. Taylor going on in this way.—(Great uproar.)
Mr. TAYLOR—My object NA as to relieve the Commit-
tee from the mis-statements of bad men.—(Confusion.)
Mr. Wins said he thought they were going into mat-
ters not at all according with the object of the meeting.—
(Confusion.) He thought it was not right to make these
statements. They were not to cast imputations the one
on the other ; but they ought, on the contrary, one and
all, to look their difficulties in .the face, and in a bond of
union to do the -best.: to get out of them ; but if, on the
contrary,. tthey pursued-the:course they were adopting,
they would involve -the-Company in endless litigation.
`Mr. TAIT:An; said he did not think Mr. Wire would
willinglylinterrupt public justice. He rose to propose a
resolutiiittlin answer to Mr. Wood, and to make what
.c6rnmentllle pleased on that motion.—(Hear.) He was
stating then that he wen:, to work with a full belief that
6e representation with respect to the property was untrue.
He believed that the property was not that which was re-
uveseinetlin the .prospectus, and he wassdetermined that
ilie little all he liadigiould not to lost for want of ox-

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