The Sun.
London, England, 1846-02-21 00:00:00

COURT CIRCULAR.

The Queen and Prince Aipert took their usual early walk
yesterday in the pleasure•grounds of Buckingham Palace.
His Royal Highness afterwards rode out on horseback, at-
tended by Colonel Wylde, Equerry in Waiting.
Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales, Prince
Alfred, the Princess Royal, and the Princess Alice, were
taken their accustomed exercise yesterday in the royal
gardens.

His Royal Highness Prince Albert presided yesterday
afternoon at a meeting of the Commission for promoting and
encouraging the Fine Arts, in the re-building the palace of
Westminster. His Royal Highness arrived at Gwydyr
House at a quarter before three o'clock, attended by Colonel
Wylde, Equerry in Waiting.
The Commissioners present were—the Marquis of Lans-
downe, Lord John Russell, Viscount Palmerston, Lord Ash-
burton, Lord Colborne, Viscount Mahon, the Right Hon. Sir
Robert Peel, Sir Robert Harry Inglis, Bart., Mr. Benjamin
Hawes, M.P., Mr. Henry Hallam, Mr. Samuel Rogers, Mr.
Thomas Wyse, M.P., and the Secretary, Mr. C. L Eastlake.,
At four o'clock the Prince and the Commissioners went to
the new palace at 'Westminster, where they were received by
the architect, Mr. Barry, who conducted his Royal High-
ness and the members of the Commission over the new
Houses of Parliament.

Her Majesty and Prince Albert honoured the performance
of the French plays with their presence yesterday evening.
The royal suite included the Viscountess Canning, Hon.
Miss Dawson, the Earl of Warwick, Colonel Arbuthnot, and
Colonel Wylde. Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent,
attended by Lady Fanny Howard and Sir George Couper,
Bart., also honoured the performance with her presence.
Mr. Thorburn had the honour of a sitting yesterday for a
portrait of his Royal Highness Prince Alfred.
His Excellency M. Dedel and Mademoiselle Dedel returned
last Wednesday from Holland. His Excellency is quite re•
recovered front his late serious indisposition which detained
him at the Hague.
Prince Castelcicala, the Neapolitan Minister, had an inter-
view with Mr. Secretary Gladstone yesterday at the Colonial-
office.

A deputation from the iron trade of South Staffordshire,
consisting of Mr. John Barker, Mr. William Ward, Mr. Wil-
liam Mathews, and Mr. W. 0. Foster, had an interview with
the Earl of Dalhousie yesterday at the office of the Board of
Trade. The deputation was introduced by Colonel Anson,
M. P., Mr. C. P. Villiers, M.P., and Mr. T. Thornely, M.P.
His Excellency M. Dedel had an interview with Lord
Aberdeen yesterday, at the Foreign-office.
The Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England had a
special general meeting yesterday afternoon at the office in
Whitehall-place. There were present the Archbishop of
Canterbury, the Bishops of London, Carlisle, Chichester,
Ely, Hereford, Llandaff, and Oxford, the Earl of Devon, and
the Right Hon. Sir George Grey.
Dispatches were sent off yesterday evening from the
Colonial-office for the Governor of West Austraha.

SHROPSHIRE MINERAL
COMPANY.

A general meeting of the shareholders of this Company was
held yesterday, at one o'clock, at the George and Vulture
Tavern, Cornhill ; Mr. Sergeant Adams in the chair. As
some startling discoveries were expected to be made respeeting
the management of the Company, there was a very full
attendance.

The CHAIRMAN, as there was no report submitted
to the meeting, made a long speech in reference to the
history of the Company. In doing so, he said, he would have
many painful matters to bring under their consideration, still,
as in duty bound, he would keep nothing back. When he
joined the Company he did so under the impression that it was
a bona fide undertaking, and one that would be of service to
all parties concerned. He had held no shares in any previous
railway company, and was only induced to join this
from its great respectability and the respectability of
the solicitor who had the conducting of its affairs.
The first meeting of the directors that he attended
was in the middle of October last, when he was asked to take
the chair, in the absence of Major Newcombe, and at a suc-
ceeding meeting, on the 17th of October, he was elected the
chairman of the Company. He again attended meetings on the
24th and 31st, in the capacity of chairman, and afterwards the
managing committee changed its sittings into Shropshire, on
the grounds that it would be necessary to attend to the getting
forward of the surveys, and to the preparation of the plans and
sections against November 30. Sittings of the board were there
held day by day, but he was not able to be present at any of
them. All the meetings that he had attended were' four,
previous to the painful circumstance to which he would, here-
after have to allude. He had told them of the value( of the
line. On that subject they had the evidence of the engineers,
solictiors, and traffic-takers, to the effct that it would, if con-
structed, yield from fifteen to twenty per cent. on the capital.
He could not, therefore, advise them hastily to dissolve the
Company, nor to pass a censure on the directors, but
his advice was to appoint a committee to make a full and fair
examination into its whole affairs from its first commencement
until now. He wished a committee of three or five persons to
examine and sift into the whole matter, as he, fur one, was
willing to submit his conduct to the closest scrutiny. He would
now proceed to the financial affairs of the Company, on which
he was sorry he could not enter into detail so much as he desired.
He would give the amount that had been received and
the items that had been paid, but he could not admit their
accuracy, on account of his not having been a party to a great
proportion of the disbursements. At the time that he joined
the Company he found the accounts in a very unsatisfactory
state, but he was not aware of the actual state of affairs till the
12th of December. He had stated that he had not attended the
Shropshire meetings, and the 12th of December was the first
meeting after these that he was able to attend. At that meeting
he asked to see the banker's books, from which he learned that
there was only 6,0001. in hand. " Good Gad !" he exclaimed,
" what has come of all the deposits ? There should be at least
30,000/. in hand." It was then stated that 21,3211. 15s. had
been drawn out to purchase shares on the p irt of the finance
committee. An adjournment then toook place for a fort-
night, in order to make inquiry into this. At this
adjourned meeting he wished to see the cheques, in or-
der to have an explanation of this proceeding, to which he had
not been a party. The cheques were produced in the room,
but being laid down for a short time, when they were again
asked for they had gone.—( Shame, shame.) He knew the
party who took the cheques at the time, and whether he had
destroyed them or not, he (the Chairman) could not say; but
if that [gentleman would give up the cheques, then he (the
Chairman) would not mention his name
Mr. GR IFFIT HS—I am the person, and I will explain how it
was. The reason why he took the bank cheques (which were
cancelled ones) was to protect himself, as he saw he was dragged
into a responsible situation with parties little able to meet it ;
that the cheques were not destroyed ; and that he was willing
to produce them if called on by the meeting, and under an in-
demnity for what he had done.
The CHAIRMAN said that relieved him of the difficulty. Mr.
Griffiths was the party.
Some uproar then took place, and manifestations against
Mr. Griffiths, at the close of which

The CHAIRMAN proceeded—The cheques to which he re-
ferred were signed by three directors out of the four who were
empowered to sign cheques. He for one had not signed any of
those cheques. The only sum that he was a party to was
12,0601. These matters had been brought under the consi-
deration of the gentlemen who had signed the cheques and
several of them, as well as others with whom they acted, ex-
pressed themselves sorry for what they had done, but intimated
they had done so under the impression that by buy-
ing the shares at the time they did, as there was
a great probability of the shares rising in price,
the Company would be likely to be a great gainer. They
further expressed themselves willing, seeing that it had Lot
turned out as they expected, to pay back the sum. Shortly after
this there was an expectation of an amalgamation being effected
with another Company in the midland counties, in which
event there would have been, he believed, no difficulty in
letting the parties to pay up this money ; in that case, there-
fore, he thought it would be wise to allow the matter to stand
over till the result was known. He might have erred in advising
that, but he did it for the best. The amalgamation did
not succeed, and to add to their embarrassment a bill in Chan-
cery had been filed against him and the other directors. Under
these circumstances, several of the gentlemen who had promised
to pay back the money intimated that this altered the case,
and did not feel justified in doing so with that hanging over
them. The board of management never sanctioned this trans-
action and considered the directors who had acted
in this matter alone responsible. The statement of
accounts was to the following effect :—Received from
shareholders as deposits, 37,7371. ; paid for expenses and sanc-
tioned by the board of management, 12,060'. ; drawn out by
the parties to whom he had referred, to purchase shares at 2/.
each premium in the market, 21,321/. ; balance at the banker's,
4,3811. ; deficiency remaining unpaid, 7,500'. ; leaving a de-
ficiency on the total deposits of 3,1891.: deducting the
21,3211. illegally expended, there would then remain a
balance in favour of the shareholders of 18,132/.
The Hon. Gentleman then entered into some particulars about
a dispute with their country solicitor, Mr. Garbett, who was
making a claim for a larger amount than he ( the Chairman)
considered right, and in consequence of which a sum of money
in the hands of the Bilston Banking Company, amounting to
about 2,0001., belonging to the Company, was attached in
the name of that gentleman. The Chairman concluded his
address, of which the above is but a sketch, by reading
certain correspondence which had passed between himself and