The Sun.
London, England, 1848-08-11 00:00:00

PRICE OF SUGAR.

The average price of Brown or ➢luscovado Sugar, computed
from the returns made in the week ending August 8,
1848. is 255. Od. per cwt.

NORTH-WESTERN RAILWAY.
(THIS DAY.)
The August half yearly general meeting of this coins
pany was held this day at twelve o'clock, at the Euston
Hotel; George Carr Glyn, Esq., M.P., in the chair. The
attendance of proprietors was very large.
The usual formularies having been gone through,
The CHAIRMAN proceeded to address the shareholder?.
Before doing so he said it was due to the proprietors to
explain that from the multiplicity of the details of
the accounts the directors had found it utterly
impossible to fulfil the promise which he mado
at the last meeting, to send a printed copy
round to the shareholders some time before
the meeting ; they found that that they could not do
this unless the meeting, and consequently the payment
of. the dividends, were delayed. The directors were in
the hands of the meeting with respect to this; but he
did not know that on this occasion the directors would
have consented to do so, even had the shareholders, as
they wished, by laying an unvarnished statement before
them, in order to put an end to the extraordinary de-
preciation of their stock which was now going on.
—(Hear, hear.) He could not conceive, unless
the public supposed that the directors were
guilty of an accumulation of fraudulent management,
why their stock held its present position, which, he
need not tell them, was far beyond its real value.—
(Hear, hear.) The company had been depreciated in
the public estimation by printed attacks and reports,
which had been systematically levelled against it. The
most art eneous statements had gone forth. He was almost
ashamed to allude to the one which he denied with so
much amusement at the last meeting, that they were
going to close their line.—(Laughter.) Another
was, that owing to some difference between Mr.
Creed and the directors with respect to the ac-
counts, the former gentleman was about to resign; if
this had been true, well knowing the clear and ac-
curate knowledge which Mr. Creed possessed of the
accounts he should have believed that there was some-
thing wrong in the financial affairs. To Mr. Creed he
had looked for information as to the financial condition
of the company from the first, and the management of
the affairs, under the superintendence of the directors,
had evinced the utmost integrity and activity of that
gentleman, not only in respect of the accounts, but in the
discharge of the whole duty entrusted to him; he pinned
his faith to him, and they might do the: same.—(Hear.)
He had expressed a wish to resign, on account of his
increasing years, but, at the same time, stating that he
would be happy at all times to aid the company to the
best of his ability. The first vacancy in the direction
would be offered to him, and he trusted the shareholders
would be pleased to receive his services in that office.
The Hon. Gentleman then referred to a pamphlet, en-
titled " Bubbles :of the Age," by Mr.' Anhui Smith,
in which the narrow gauge lines were grossly at-
tacked. He quoted several passages, many of the state-
ments of which he said were so general and inaccurate,
that he could not comprehend their purpose, there-
fore could not reply to them, and denied emphatically
that the dividends were paid out of the capital,
or that the directors had ever rigged the market, as was
stated by the writer. The writer assimilated railway
property to the Union Bank of Calcutta at Bengal—a
sickly concern—the directors of which it was believed
were very blameable, since it was generally believed that
they had beep guilty
of a serious misappropriation of

the funds. He then alluded to the company of
copper miners of England in the city of London, which
had obtained some unenviable notoriety lately, as not
unlike a railway company. These were the two similies
or parallels; but the writer went on to asperse the con-
duct of a gentleman whom he styled the chairman of the
copper company, a governor of the Bank of England,
and the chairman of the Brighton Company, alluding,
as every one knew, to Mr. Grenfell, the Member fur
Preston. Now, if there was one man in the city of
London opposed to the copper eompany it was that gen-
tleman. Having stated the new mode in which the ea-
counts were kept, the Hon. Gentleman said if the writer
of the pamphlet had done him the favour to read the
speech which he made on the last occasion he would
not have fallen into the errors he had, since he
bad openly explained the nature of the accounts. He
did not know what were now the feelings of the writer
at the present moment, as Mr. Creed, so satisfied was he
of the:perfect accuracy and honour of the:accounts, had
invited him to inspect the account-books, and to satisfy
himself.—(Hear.) If any trickery were practised,
any erasure, omission, or additions, they must be dis-
covered by the vast number of clerks through whose hands
the accounts passed : nothing of the kind could be accom-
plished unless the directors suborned the servants of the
company to an incalculable extent. It was unlikely that
his friendiMr. Creed would have invited the writer to in-
spect the books if the directors had been guilty of fraud.
Several Shareholders here inquired it the directors
knew anything of the writer of the pamphlet?
Mr. GLYN said he did not. The pamphlet bore his
name, and he assured the meeting he should not have
noticed it if his attention had not been called to it by
several shareholders in London and the provinces. The
writer said he (Mr. Glyn) intended to resign if Lord
Monteagle's Audit Bill had been passed. Now what
he had always said was, and he now repeated it, that if
the management of railway companies was taken out
of the bands of a majority of the shareholders,
and the directors were to have none of the management
and all the responsibility, that neither himself nor his
colleagues would consent to hold their offices.
A SHAREHOLDER here said that the writer of the
pamphlet had informed him, in a letter which he had in
his counting-house, that he had been employed by the
Chancellor of the Exchequer to frame the two pamphlets
he had published in order that the public might be made
aware of the nature of railway transactions.
Mr. GLYN was surprised to bear the statement. He
could not believe that Sir C. Wood, who was one of the
highest-minded men is existence, would employ any one
to do so without any communication with the authorities.
of the 'companies, whom he was in the habit of
seeing from month to montb.—(Hear, hear.) At the
last meeting he said they could not look forward to any
very rapid increase in the prosperity of the company.
The events on the Continent had retarded that restora-
tion. The difference between the receipts in the • last
and present year was scarcely perceptible, yet they had
not much increased, 1,200/ being about the amount.
They must, therefore, be prepared to submit to
a further reduction upon the dividend—to receive a divi-
dend of 31. 10s. per cent. for the last half-year.---(Hear,
hear.) There had. been a saving of from 12,0001. to
13,000/. in the working expenses, notwithstanding they
had had' to work 50 ;additional miles, and to purchase
, new stock. This saving had been effected without de-
tracting in the slightest degree from the proper working
of the traffic, which during the past six months had been
conducted with more than usual regularity. They
had been enabled to materially increase their speed.
There had been a small decrease in the merchandise
traffic, and an increase in the Government duty and
parochial rates. They did not intend to ask them for
power to go to Parliament for any new lines, and those
already obtained would not be proceeded with without
the most filature consideration. (Cries of " Hear,
hear.") The Honourable Gentleman then adverted
to the dispute between the engine-drivers and the com-
pany. The directors thought it right to state that they
had no fault to find with the able locomotive superin-
tendent, and that they did not think it right to
interfere with the arrangements which had been
made under the sanction of the Locomotive Committee.
After all, the charges made by the engineers resolved
very much into a personal and individual
charge against the superintendent. There is very little
more in it than that, and disposed as we are to de with
any class of our servants' in the most liberal
way possible we have not thought it right to allow those
who hold subordinate situations to dictate to the
executive whether or not the superintendent whom we
have appointed, in whom we have faith, and whom
we find zealous, active, and intelligent, is a proper
officer for our • service or not.—(Hear, hear.)
I am happy to state that our other artificers have come
forward in a most excellent spirit, and that we have re-
ceived such assistance from the north, and from other
public establishments, that we shall be able,
without the slightest difficulty, if these mis-
guided men still pursue the course they ere at present
pursuing, to carry on the public service without the
slightest detriment, I hope, to the public safety.—(Hear,
hear.) After saying that the company would be happy
to receive the men again into their service
who had not misconducted themselves in the course of
those proceedings, he concluded by moving the adop-
tion of the report.
In reply to several questions, the CHAIRMAN stated
that the amount of capital invested in lines on which
no dividend was paid was 4,100,0001. The opinion
of the directors with respect to the Trent Valley re-
mained unaltered. Its directors considered that it
would pay 101. per cent., but all must be aware that it
must subtract a great portion of the traffic from the
North-Western. It was one of those lines which
it was politically necessary for the North-Western
to ally itself with, otherwise it might have got into the
hands of hostile parties. The traffic on the Caledonian
was increasing; they were not going to subscribe any
capital to the Aberdeen, nor to take a lease
of the line. Negotiations were going on, but
it was doubtful whether they would end in anything.
The East and West India Dock branch was going on,
but it was in the hands of an independent board. The
contracts had been fairly let; the estimate was 700,0001.,
and there was no reason to believe that it would be
exceeded. It would prove one of the most important
feeders in connexion with the line. Taking into account
the Birmingham traffic, the gross traffic of the Birming-
ham and Oxford amounted to 7 per cent. upon the whole
gross traffic. Instead of the wages of the engineers hav-
ing been reduted, they had been, on the average, in-
creased.—(Hear.) The men admitted that the dispute
was not one with respect to wages ; if they had an able
and intelligent officer it was their duty to stand by him.
—(Hear.) The attention of the locomotive committee
was called to the system of classification by the engineers
themselves—(Hear)—the rates were Bs., 7s. 6d., 71.,
6s. 6d., 65., and ss. 6d.
The report and accounts were adopted, Mr. Elias
Mozley was elected an auditor, and a vote of thanks
having been passed to the chairman, the meeting sepa-
rated. The dividend will be paid on the 28th.
The consolidation into stuck of the 201. shares of the
late London and Birmingham Railway, and 40/. shares of
the late Grand Junction Railway, as have been paid up
in full, was agreed to.

EAST LINCOLNSHIRE RAILWAY,
(THIS DAY.)
A general meeting of the shareholders in this line
was held to-day at the offices of the Great Northern
Company, in Moorgate street, when G. 11. Packe, Esq.,
took the chair.

The advertisement convening the meeting having
been read, a report was submitted the substance of which
was that the line between Great Grimsby and Louth,
fourteen miles in length, had been opened and worked
by the Great Northern Railway Company, since the Ist
of March, and that the traffic thereon has been very
satisfactory, considering its !entirely local character;
that the Act of Parliament for the junction at Grimsby
with the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Rail-
way had received the royal assent; and the works on
the line between Louth and Boston are nearly com-
pleted.
The whole line will be handed over to the Great
Northern Railway Company about the end of September;
and the guarantee of that company, of 61. per cent., will
come into operation on the Ist of October next; but a
call will be made of 2/. per share, the remainder of the
capital payable on the Ist of November next.
The cash accounts showed that the capital already re-
ceived on calls was 487,8171.; on advances for amount
received in advance of calls, 19,132/.; amount overpaid
on third call, with interest, 25/. ss. 7d.; loans on mort-
gage, received, 13,609/. 11 s. 9d.; and from other sources,
3,3591. 23. 3d.; making a total of 523,9551. 4s. 7d. The
expenses of obtaining the Act were 17,4911. la. 7d.;
expenses subsequently, viz.—of land and compensation,
including valuation and expenses, 89,5411. ss. 9d.; of
construction of works, engineering and surveying, rails,
chairs, sleepers, treenails, turntables, switches, station
buildings, gas works, &e., 373,8901. 7s. 5d.; payment on
account of contracts for works, 140,039/. Ila. 9d.; which,
with cash in the bankers' hands, 20,9331. 193., and some
minor items of expenditure, made up the balance.
The CHAIRMAN recapitulated the heads of the report,
which, after a little convereation, was unanimously
adopted ; and thanks having been voted to the chairman
and directors, the meeting was dissolved.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

(THIS EVENING.)

HOUSE OF LORDS.
The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat on the Woo'
sack at Five o'clock.