The Sun.
London, England, 1841-08-10 00:00:00

Mr. MAYHEW begged to ask what was the cost of the
entertainment given by the Directors ?
The CHAIRMAN-2661.
Mr. MAYHEW—A most extravagant sum.—(Laughter.)
In answer to the complaint of a Proprietor,
The CHAIRMAN said it was not intended that the
trains should go at more speed than at present until
the railway was opened throughout, when the time con-
sumed between the extreme stations would be under two

hours.
Mr. WALEY had the utmost confidence in the zeal and
abilities of the Directors, but he must say that it was
within his knowledge that many speculators had been
prevented from joining them on account of the Chancery
suit. He was an advocate for an arbitration in Mr. Golds-
mid's case.
Mr. • PARSONS said the time of the meeting ought
not to be occupied in discussing a legal question—it
should be submitted to arbitration if that were possible.
The CHAIRMAN said the Proprietors would have
every reason to find fault with the Directors if they al-
lowed them to be deprived of their railway merely be-
cause a few coals passed down the line. They had been
driven to the course they had now adopted, for he could
assure the meeting that they had not gone into the
Court of Chancery until they were compelled to do so.
—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. CASH begged to ask what charge was made,against
them by the London and Greenwich Railway Company?
The CHAIRMAN said they had nothing to do with the
Greenwich Company. The London and Croydon Com-
pany made an arrangement with the Greenwich, and
they (the London and Brighton Railway Company) paid
the Croydon Company lid. per mile for each passenger.
A PROPRIETOR said the Directors had acted very pro-
perly in the charges they had made for travelling upon
their line ; but he wished to know whether, when the
line was opened throughout, any alteration would be
made in the fares ?
The CHAIRMAN was happy to say that it was their in-
tention to reduce the fares when the line was opened
throughout.—(Hear, hear.) They must recollect, that
at present they bad a very expensive machinery between
Hayward-heath and Brighton, and they must also bear
in mind that only three coaches had been yet taken off
the line, and within the last week they had carried nearly
6,000 passengers.—(Hear.)
Another PROPRIETOR hoped the fares would not be
lowered very much as the line was a very expensive one.
The CHAIRMAN would endeavour to consult the in-
terests of the Proprietors and the accommoi:ation• of the
public, and they had thought it better to start with high
fares and then lower them, than to start with low fares
and be obliged to raise them.
A PROPRIETOR suggested that it would be advisable
to have an, amalgamation .of the Croydon and Brighton
Companies. At present it appeared to him that there
was a great waste of power in that part of the line.
The CHAIRMAN hoped the good sense of both Com-
panies would devise something which would do justice
to both. They had no wish to do anything detrimental
to the Croydon Company, but it was undeniable that
their traffic must interfere with that of the Croydon.
Mr. MAUBERT then moved the thanks of the meeting
to the Chairman and Directors for their able and effi-
cient management of the affairs of the Company.
The motion was seconded by Mr. MAYHEW, and car-

ried unanimously.
The CHAIRMAN returned thanks. He was satisfied
that after the line bad been a short time opened they
would all admit that they had no reason to regret having
embarked their property in the undertaking.
Thanks were then Toted to the engineer (Mr. Ras-
trick) and the meeting separated.

THE ORDER OF MECHANICS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
address you because you have always proved
yourself to be the steady friend, the able advocate, and
the faithful adviser of us working men.
I wish to ask you what it is that we are waiting for.
Is it to see what Lord A., Lord 8., Lord Y., Lord Z.
will do for us ? Were any people ever saved from op-
pression by waiting for their Lords ? I would say, let
us wait no longer, but at once do our own work with our
own hands.
We have waited too long. The shouts of our trium-
phant tyrants are everywhere driving the poor to mad-
ness. They tell us—" By crippling trade we will lessen
the demand for your labour and lower your wages—we
will by high duties exclude you from sugar, and all
things now indispensable for your comfort 3ou
may bid farewell to beef and mutton, hence-
forth these are to be allowed only ,to clergy-
men and gentlemen; take a little loaf of bad
bread and be thankful that we sell it to you." For
all the misery we suffer, Lord Sandon tells us in Liver-
pool, " to thank the clergymen of the Church of Eng-
land." The Dublin University Magazine, insulting over
our Queen, as if that lady were already their victim and
prisoner, hesitates not to call her a " deluded" woman,
and to bid us "Thank the Church of England alone" for
all our miseries. The London Standard reiterates their
cry of triumph over us, " The Church of England it is,
and the Church of England alone." It is so. I never see
the little loaf, I never look at my hungry children, I
never listen to the useless advice to give more butcher's
meat to a son and save his life, but I do feel towards the
clergymen such feelings as do not find utterance from a
man in words.
• When Charles the Fifth had the Pope a prisoner in
Rome he set all the priests in Spain to pray him out,
So when our Lords have closed the ports against all
wheat they set our clergy to work to pray it in. Having
by their laws made bread dear and placed it as much as
they can out of our reach, the clergymen would have us
day by day and a dozen -times on a Sunday cry to God,
" Give us bread."
For what, Sir, are we waiting ? Let us exert our-
selves, " the hour" has come, and if we do our part
doubtless there will soon appear " the man." Write for
us. Act with us. The torch and the dagger are the
means used by ignorant and misguided sufferers. Save
us from a wrung course by enabling us to take the right
road.
To me it appears that in each of our large towns the
working men should form themselves into a society
for mutual improvement, for recreation, and for
social elevation. We have Freemasons, Knights
of the Garter, Odd Fellows, Baths, and Thistles ; we
have ribbons and stars, and badges of many
sorts. Let us have another " Order." Coventry
will supply us with ribbons. Birmingham will make us
medals. Let no one be admitted who is not industrious,
sober, and well conducted, no one who is not either a
working man or who has proved himself to be a friend of
the industrious classes. A friendly intercourse could
easily be kept up between our large towns. The object
aimed at should be to fit us for, and raise ourselves to,
our proper station in society. No easy task.
Everything is tending to our degradation. When in
Sheffield I never went to my work so early that I did
not see at his shop window a file-cutter hard at work. At
six o'clock on a winter morning there he was bard at
work by candle light; at nine o'clock there he was still
at work, his candle burning, the file before him, hammer
in one hand, punch in the other, and the ceaseless and un-
varied thump, thump, thump. This lasted six days in the
week. On the Sunday what could he do. All places for
social enjoyment, for healthy recreation, or mental im-
provement, are closed against him. He has his choice of
the dusty road, the public-house, or the great building
where he is told to toil hard, suffer cheerfully, and to
thank the good clergy. He may stay at home, but he
cannot there have such comforts as his hard work has
earned, nor be gladdened by the presence of his wife and
children fed, clothed, and cheered as be would wish.
Relentless toil, a bad atmosphere, deficient food—these
things are making us physically inferior to our fathers.
Division of labour gives to each of us such unvaried
and machine-like employment, that our minds are not
called into action. Leisure we have not. Low wages
and dear food bring us into circumstances of distress,
dependence, and degradation. We are losing the manli-
ness for which the English were once famed. It will
soon be said " the English were once a fine race of men."
If we do not at once rouse ourselves and take mea-
sures for our own improvement, we shall soon be defi-
cient in bodily strength, in intellectual power, in social
habits, and in personal courage. We shall be miserable
and helpless victims, safely despised by those who hare
degraded us.
To the party. coming into power we are no strangers.
When apprenticed in Sheffield, I was often at the shop
of the Miss Gales, and I heard how their father and
brother had to fly their country to save their lives.
Their lives were in danger, because in the Sheffield In-
telligencer they had opposed bad Government. In Shef-
field I saw that kind and amiable man James Montgo-
mery, who was twice imprisoned for long periods, twice
fined large sums ; one time for sympathising with dis-
tress ; another, for lamenting over men murdered in the
streets of Sheffield. I saw, for years, in Sheffield
the gloom diffused by the rule of Sidmouth and Castle-
reagh. You might have thought that demons had
spread their wings over the land. There was the horror
of the skulking spy, the dread of the dungeon deep be-
yond what the law could reach. We had no Habeas
Corpus Act, but the Church in all its glory, with its
Test and Corporation Acts and its Penal Code. An ac-
cident when in London obliged me to turn into the first
glover's shop I met with. I purchased what I wanted
from a good-natured, honest-looking man. He gave me
a tract. I read it. I thought the tract was evidently
the result of strong good feeling and deficient informa-
tion. The newspapers soon after informed us that
Evans and his son were both thrust into prison. But
who needs to be reminded of those black days ? Who
does not hear coming up from the dungeon the moans of
the aged Ogden ? Who does not hear the fiendish
laugh from the Tory Treasury benches of the " revered
and ruptured" sufferer ? Who does noi, hear the cries
of the wounded and dying that come, from Peterloo ?
Who listens not during the more horrid-silence of the
widow ? Who feels not burning in his bkeast that fire
that burned in her eye-balls and prevented tears, as site"
bent over her son Richard in his blood among the mas,
sacred at Rathcormack. Lord Sandon need ItOt tell its
to thank the Church. We know our debts to it. Gladly'
would we banish from our minds such persons as thel
Ryders, and such Bishops as Jocelyn, did we not shud-
der at the knowledge that the Sandons and the Rodens
were rendering the prospect before us as black as the
dark years of suffering through which we have passed.
The landowners and the clergy have money and
leisure—their tread is sure, and their minds are at ease ;
they have both Houses of Parliament—they have the
army—they are omnipotent for monopoly. We are nu-
merous—we are congregated—we •mint at ante unite
in peaceable, strenuous, and well-directed exertions, or
be for ever tools and slaves. Under alLour. disadvan-
tages I can yet use the words of Cromwgli, I
trust, the name of Englishman will one day be 'more
respected than that of Roman ever was."
AN ENGLISH MECHANIC.
)1, Aug. 7t14 1841.
•

Liverpool

The apparatus for shifting SUnderland light-
house being completed, the operations of removal com-
menced on Monday. It is already shifted several yards
to the north, and in a few all's will be removed to the
east, um to the pier-vp.4o-4)/ne Not.