The Sun.
London, England, 1848-08-14 00:00:00

made up, they had above 100,000/, in the Union
• at 3 per cent. interest, and large sums at other
the remainder was invest• d in the shares of rail-
companies with which they were connected, and
they had hoaght at a di:count, viz., 68,0001. in
Aas incolnshire shares; in the Stamford and Wisbeach,
27,0001; Royston and Hitchin, 24,0001. ;--- and in the
'South Yorkshire, Doncaster, and Goole Railway shares,
29,0001. In reference• to the queries of Mr. Bates, le
said it was not their intention to raise additional capital;
that they could not say whether the original estimate
would be exceeded on the whole; but he could state that
the estimate for land and compensation had been ex-
ceeded owing to the defective state of the law; that the -
York Extension shares would remain in abeyance.
It was stated that the .shares to be forfeited were-j
taken up by the original proprietors, the parties to
whom they were sold having declined to register them
or pay up the calls; the former had paid up the money
due upon them, and the for!eiture would enable the
directors to issue new certificates in lieu of those for-
feited.

A PROPRIETOR recommended the adoption of the
proposition for dividing the shares into shares of 121.105.
each, as stated in the report.
Captain LAWB remarked, they could do no better than
adopt the proposition just referred to. He took that op-
portunity of expressing his willingness to submit to any
reduction in his salary that might be proposed, or to re-
tire altogether. Ile said he had given up an equally
valuable appointment to join that company, and had
also refused another and a better offer when he joined
the company. The mone.3. he had received from the
company since his appointment had been paid back in the
shape of calls on his shares, :Ind he believed the secretary
had done the same. lie stated, that beyond the 2,0001.:
a year he did not receive anything as a director of that;
company, nor of any others with which it was con-
nected.

Several other shareholders expressed themselves die-
satisfied with the pecuniary management of the concern,
but, nevertheless, after a short statement from the
Chairman, the amendment was put and negatived.
The adoption of tho report was then agreed to.
Eight hundred and sixty-five shares,. whose holders
were defaulters hi calls, were then erdered to be for-
felted.; after which thanks were voted to the Chairman,
and the proceedingteeertiiinated. . • • • ,
THE NORTH-WESTERN RAILWAY COMPANY
AND THEIR ENGINE-DRIVERS.
On Saturday night another numerous meeting of the
engine-drivers and firemen, late in the employ of the
London and North-Western Railway Company, took
place at. the- Railway Tavern, Hampstead road.
Mr. JONAS BROWN, engine-driver, again presided,
and opened the business by reading an address. He
said—Fellow-workmen, we are now no longer the ser-
vants of the London and North-Western Railway Com-
pany; and no one will, I am sure, refuse to pay attention
to the statement I an about to make, at the moment we
are leaving the greltest company in the world, to whom
we have been for many years—even by Mr. Glyn's ad-
mission—diligent, able, and faithful servants. I say
we are now no longer in the employ of this great and
powerful establishment; and it will become us to inform
the public, without fear, favour, or affection, of the
reasons and motives that have led to a result which we
must, of course, naturally regret—and deeply regret—
and which, as sure as I am sitting here, the travelling
portion of the public, as well as our Fate employ' is, will
as deeply deplore. Why, fellow-workmen, have we left
our employment? Mr. Glyn admitted, at the meeting
of the proprietors held yesterday, that they were almost
under obligations to us for the manner in which we have
worked the immense and difficult traffic of the line; but •
Hr. Glyn states that " the directors have not thought it
right to allow those who hold subordinate situations to
dictate to the executive, whether or not the superin-
tendent who has been put over them, and whom the board
have found a faithful, zealous, and active officer, is the
proper person to be at the head of the establishment."
We never dictated, fellow workmen, as to whether Mr.
M'Connell should be locomotive superintendent or not;
what we complained of was, his irregular, uncertain,
harsh, and tyrannical conduct to us; and sorely to com-
plain of this is not to dictate. We bore this, as I stated
to you last night, up to a point at which we saw it
was absolutely necessary to make stand, unless, in-
deed, we were disposed to submit to the cunningly-
devised classification scheme of Mr. M'Connell,
which we were quite satisfied, from what we had
seen of him during the two years we were under his con-
trol, was introduced for no other purpose than to carry
out his threat of 1843, of reducing the maximum wages
of drivers to ss. per day; for that such was his intention
can be proved by the testimony of a person who is now
in this room. Fellow-workmen, Mr. M'Connell was
brought upon this line for the sole purpose of reducing
the expenditure. The directors know this, and it was
the character earned by him on the Birmingham and
Gloucester line which prompted certain gentlemen,
backed, as I believe, by the influence of Captain Moor-
som and another, to introduce him upon this railway—
a circumstance to be deplored by the whole railway
proprietors of this kingdom. Take the career of Mr.
M•Connell on the Birmingham and Gloucester line.
Several of the victims of the " economy " which recom-
mended him to two or three gentlemen connected with
the London and North-Western Railway are now pre-
sent, and they can testify to the accuracy that he dis-
charged every engineman and fireman, with the excep-
tion of two enginemen and two firemen Who accepted
his reduction at that time of Bd. per day, the highest pay
on that line being 6s. Bd. per day. Fellow-workmen,
this Bd. per day was a severe loss to the company; so
much so, indeed, that the directors interfered, and rect,m-
mended that the wages of the " Grand Junction," which
were much higher, should be given, to induce active and
experienced enginemen to come on the line ; and those
wages exist, up to the present moment, on the Birqing-
ham and Gloucester Railway. I am convinced, fellow-
workmen, that the great body of the London and North-
Western directors are utterly ignorant of the scandalous
conduct to which we, their late servants have been sub-
jected ; and the time will shortly come when they will
be satisfied that it was not upon us but upon our oppres-
sor that their condemnation should have fallen. We,
fellow-workmen, can lay this pleasant conviction to our
hearts, that we offered to the directors and Mr. M'Con-
nell.to submit our care to arbitration, and that we ex-
pressed ourselves ready to do anything that any ono
disinterested and honourable man should say we ought
to do.

Mr. MARSHALL stated that he had it upon the most
authentic information from the City that some of the
persons engaged to supply the places of the old engine-
drivers were such persons as those who had the ma-
nagement of the engines of steam-boats on the Thames.
The CHAIRMAN said there was another security which
the public had under the care of the old engine-drivers,
and which the new men knew nothing about. They had
a act of private signals among themselves, which enabled
them at all times to tell the state of the line, and to run
their trains at any speed with the greatest safety.
After some further statements of a similar description,
not necessary to make public, the prcceedings terminated
at a late hour.

MEETING LAST NlGHT—(Sumer.)
Last evening, the largest meeting which has yet been
held of the engine-drivers and firemen who have seceded
from the employ of the London and North Western
Railway Company, assembled at the Railway Tavern,
Hampstead road.
J. BROWN was called to the chair at nine o'clock, and
said the course he proposed to adopt was, to read a state-
ment which should go forth as the reply of the entire
body of those who had quitted the service of the North
Wettern Company to the allegations which bad been
state-
ment :a_gainst them. He then read the following wing state-

" Having seen a letter from Mr. Creed, the secretary
of the London and North-Western Railway Company,
reflecting upon the course which the enginemen and fire-
men of that company, who have left the line in conse-
quence of a dispute with Mr. MlConnell, thought it a
duty towards themselves to pursue, most respectfully to
state, in the name and on the behalf of those persons,
that they took every possible means for preventing the
result which has unfortunately occurred—viz., their se-
cesaion from the company's service. Though no looker
in the employ of the company, we aro doing merely
simple justice to ourselves by declaring that we offered,
first, to submit the case to arbitration ; secondly, that
the whole of the old servants of the company who were
receiving Bs. per day offered voluntarily to have their
salaries reduced to 7s. 6d. per day; and thirdly, that we
would all be satisfied with the regulation of Mr. Geoch;
on the Great Western Railway, being adopted upon the
southern division of the London and North-Western
Railway. Mr. Creed states that many of the ' old
drivers and firemen have withdrawn their notice, and
that others may be expected to follow the example.'
Now, it is true that about twenty men did, through
misrepresentation, withdraw their notices, but fifteen
:in a ,
suffi-
cient w with
unexceptionable of them, upon learning the trick that had been prac-
tised upon them, recalled them, and determined to
adhere to their original notices to quit. It is with
great regret
number
of
w e observe a n
that B.
practisedl r.Creed e
nsgtiantees.
ra,
unexceptionable testimonials from their former em-
ployers, have been taken into the service, and employed
in working the trains during the week.' Mr. Creed has
in this case, as our late employers have been throu
ov
el s deceived
ce
ogei
f h
would
l d
have prepared a l
ltoow
eprove,allowed
t h if e r
etphree
sleonctoa
this unfortunate dispute, been most wickedly Toteuhd te
parsewsse w
com-
mitteeto be present at our interview with them on Fri-
day morning. We most solemnly deny, as is insinuated
assert that
been
gtheauttiewmeahnaLedtw o
st
vhe3m have
solemnlyi asrveep misrepresentation t a t i otnh iosf nl
ISlart.tieMr;Cmoing--
sgbaya,cirdMiefidre.
emCderentehdre,,oluitdlgiahat
nell, and the private influenceltof that
athreewhere, o f hisas supporters.under ti
r.
wcoatinldbeal
clolewartloy
be
ehown
correct,by
a half, ho would, under Mr, figures which every actuary
pay in eight years and
orth
system, be at least from 2,r. M'Connell's classification
Bury's
arrive at the maximum rajtetoo3f
behaviour obtained his ma • system, a man by good
leesssteacdhyanacned
would there
Opyayeamresnbt.efolrne
fhaect,couthlde
there be of those in the lower
mthoer the men engaged upon the line,
classes ever obtaining an advance to the higher classes
until they were too old to be intrusted with the charge
of an engine, and having
Rages, een working many years at a
minimum rate a
they would be thrown upon the
world without" n, ihav o.
bbeen enabled to make any provi-
sion for their declining years."
This statement was unanimously adopted.
E. LETCHFORD, engine driver, upwards of ten years on
the North-Western Railway, said ho had an important
resolution to propose. It was as follows:—" That a
deputation, consisting of Messrs. Brown, Allen, Mel-
bourne, and Woodley, be appointed to wait upon Mr
Osborne, the Member for Middlesex, the Members for
Marylebone, Mr. Hume, Mr. Wakley, and other Mem-
bers of Parliament, requesting them to inquire in the
House of Commons of the Govethment, whether it is
true that a number of men have proceeded from the Go-
vernment dock-yards to take the charge of locomotive
engines on the London and North-Western Railway, and
whether members of the Metropolitan Police hare been