The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-29 00:00:00

FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 29, 1848:

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.
DIRECT LONDON AND EXETER.
A meeting of shareholders was held yesterday at the
George and Vulture Tavern to consider what course
should be adopted in the present state of the company's
affairs. Mr. Fowler was voted to the chair. It was
stated that the company was projected in May,
1645,
and in the September of that year applications had been
made for 400,000 shares from bankers and other respec-
table parties ; that only 58,000 shares were allotted, of
which the deposit was paid on 23,495, producing
32,3051. ; of this sum 5,800 L was expended in rigging
the market. Solicitors were employed by the provi-
sional committee. In October, 1845, to proceed with
an application to Parliament for a Bill, being aware
that it would require a deposits of 150,0001. to com-
ply with the standing orders of Parliament. The com-
mittee reserved 62,000 shares for themselves, and
put advertisements in the papers stating that all
;he shares had been allotted ; the panic came, and
the prospect of realizing premiums on the reserved
shares vanished. A meeting was held on the 13th
of December, 1845, at which the provisional committee
produced a statement of accounts made out by the com-
mittee of management, showing a balance of 4921. re-
maining in hand. This statement had since been de-
clared by the accountant and bookkeeper to the com-
pany to be wholly untrue, the company's ledger at the
was handed over to the solicitor a few hours before the
time showing a balance of 18,479/., less 6,250/., which
meeting in three cheques of 500/., 1,7501., and 4,0001.,
and consequently leaving a balance of about 10,0001.
after all just claims were satisfied. A number of cheques
were drawn on the morning of the meeting for the pay-
ment of various accounts due by the company, which
were afterwards burned by the committee, and of course
never paid to the parties in whose favour they were
drawn.

A long discussion ensued on the best mode of proceed-
ing, when it was agreed to authorise Messrs. Bromley
and Aldridge to take proceedings against the managing
committee of the company, for the purpose of obtaining
an account of the money received by them, and of ob•
taining the distribution of any surplus amongst the
shareholders, and that a subscription not exceeding Gd.
per share be made to defray expenses.
After a vote of thanks to the Chairman the meeting
separated.

ARMY CLOTHING.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SlR,—The Liverpool Financial Reform Association
has transmitted to me its tracts, desirous, I suppose,
to fix my attention on the statements relative to the
army; and truly I find something very worthy of
attention in the folio wing paragraph, introduced after
an assertion that the colonels of regiments supply
bad clothing to obtain greater profits.
4th Tract, page 52 —" It is also necessary to remark
that the clothes provided by the colonel are only a part
of what the soldier wears. All linen, flannel, hosiery,
shoes, forage saps, stocks, brushes, combs, and small
articles, besides at least one cloth overall for Dragoons,
and, occasionally, trousers for infantry, aro provided by
the quartermaster and his chief, the clothing colonel, and
paid for out of the soldier's pay by, daily stoppages. The
profits accruing from these regimental clothes. shops
afford an inducement to the heads of that department of
the service to be continually devising changes in the
style of dress, of underclothing, of boots, of shoes, and
the other necessaries, so that the men are obliged to
purchase new articles and submit to stoppages in PP'
meat of them, while the articles set aside and declared
to Le unregimental are yet in good condition—in many
cases not half worn."
In opposition to this statement I offer the following
facts, and call upon the public to say what the honour
of that association can be which thus, knowing the
truth, publishes the false ; or, what its title to guide
and instruct the nation, it in ignorance,
arising from
want of due inquiry, it scruples not to vilify and
insult officers having the honourable claim of long and
arduous services to the respect of the people.
.First, as to the injurious assumption that colonels
profit by furnishing bad clothing to their regiments,
The clothing of the army is settled by the Queen's
Government. The colonels hare only to furnish it
according to the royal warrant and established pattern.
It has been the same from time immemorial. It is,
as to texture and value, superior to the clothing of any
continental army, and to protect the soldier from
unfair practices in the supply the following checks
have been provided :

A permanent board of general officers, sitting in
London, receive samples of every article, and, if
according to the Royal warrant, those samples are
sealed and transmitted to the regiments as a test
for the examination of the clothing for the year ;
but not until the clothing has been again checked
by the examination of the inspecting officers of
army clothing, a climactic, bvtly th.
board of generals. When that clothing arrives the
Lieutenant-Colonel orders a board of regimental
officers, assisted by the master tailor and shoemaker,
to examine if the articles agree with the sealed pat-
terns; if not, the whole, or part, as the case may be,
is thrown back on the Colonel's hands, and he must
provide better articles, and settle as he can with the
clothiers.

The interest and pride of the Lieutenant-Colonel
and board of regimental officers are evidently in-
volved in this examination—with the soldiers as
officers having a just feeling for the rights of the
men ; with the Horse Guards and the public, as
presenting a contented, well-dressed corps, or the
contrary. But, the check does not stop there. The
general officer comTanding is bound, at his half-
yearly inspection, to ascertain whether the Queen's
regulations have been obeyed; whether the soldiers
have any complaints to make; and he transmits
formal reports of these things to the Commander-in-
Chief. Nor is this duty lightly performed. Nothing
is more frank and just than the intercourse on such
occasions between the General and the soldiers. The
officers are ordered to retire, the General remains
alone with the men ; he invites, he encourages them
to state their just grievances, if ey have any. Nay,
if they only think they have cause of dissatisfac-
tion, his duty is to listen patiently, and show their
errors, if there be error.

So much for profit derived from bad clothing.
Let me now examine the paragraph quoted from page
52, Tract 4.

That paragraph assumes that Colonels of regiments,
officers who have passed their youth in honourable
service, do, in their old age, abandon all sense of
justice and decency, to eke out their allowances with
miserable frauds on the soldiers by whose valour they
have been raised to the situations they thus disgrace.
Is there even seeming grounds for such a revolting
insolence of falsehood ? Let the following statement
of facts answer :

1. The extra articles of clothing, termed in mili-
tary parlance "necessaries," are not provided by " the
Quartermaster and his chief, the clothing Colonel."
They are not provided by the Colonel at all. They
are obtained, under the control of the Captain, by
the pay-sergeant and the men themselves; and the
Queen's regulations strictly command that the best
and cheapest articles shall be provided. If the
Quartermaster's stores are resorted to it is because
the articles for the soldier are strictly regi-
mental in fashion, and, being purchased wholesale,
are better and cheaper, the price being fixed from
time Co Lluic by tie Lteut,einsur,-Culuimi, ussl3Lell oy
a board of officers; in any case the Colonel has no
partnership in, or control over, the sales or purchases ;
his operations are confined to the general clothing
established by the Queen's warrant. So entirely un-
constrained are the soldiers, that good men, and
generally married men, are allowed, and even en•
couraged, to purchase for themselves, and when the
pay-sergeant is employed to buy (at the retail shops)
for the company, one or more soldiers, shoemakers,
tailors, or other handicraft men, go with him to over-
look and advise him as to the bargains !
2. The royal regulations admit only of a specified
number and fashion of necessaries for a soldier. The
Colonel, who is never with the regiment, knows
nothing of this supply, nothing of the cost, nothing
of the arrangements as to form, fashion, change, or
duration. Such matters belong to the interior eco-
nomy of regiments, and, subject to the regulations,
are under the control of the Lieutenant-Colonel and
the Captains.
But there may be abuses; look at the checks,-
1. A Captain orders a soldier to take a new pair of
trousers,—but within the regulations ; he cannot
travel out of them as to form or number. The sol-
dier demurs, appeals to the commanding officer, who
decides against him ; the man ,can still appeal to the
inspecting General, or he may have a court-martial
on the case, though that, in a doubtful matter, would
be hazardous; but he is not debarred by any fear
from complaining by letter to the Commander-in-
Chief.

Is this official protection all he has to rely upon ?
No; there is for the Lieutenant-Colonel a personal
motive to do justice to the soldier. All complaints
made to the inspecting General must be reported to
the Horse Guards, and many of them would se-
riously affect his reputation and prospects. It is the
same for the Captain, who has also a pecuniary inte-
rest to contract rather than to augment the sol-
dier's expenses.``. Foul dealing cannot be hidden. Each
soldier has a little book of his accounts, signed by
the Captain ; the inspecting-General compares this
with the Captain's books, signed by the soldier,
and a_ reference to the regimental defaulters'-
book would show whether the man was well or ill-
behaved ; if the former, it would give weight to his
complaint. Again, the inspecting-General, if he finds
the aggregate debt of a company of 100 men to ex-
ceed 101., must make a special report of the fact, and
if no satisfactory explanation be furnished the Lieu-
tenant-Colonel and Captain would incur the Com-
mander-in-Chief's displeasure.
. .

The Captain's pecuniary interest is powerfully in
favour of the soldier. If a man dies, or deserts, his
accounts are immediately made up, and the credit
balance transmitted to the Secretary- at- War for the
heirs, or failing of heirs, for the public Treasury.
But if there be a debt balance the Captain loses it,
and the expense of the man's funeral also, and there
an end. He must, therefore, be at once both stupid
and dishonourable to cheat the soldiers, and take
money out of his own pocket to put it in that of his
Colonel, a man whom he has probably never seen,
may never see, and from whom he can scarcely hope
any benefit.
Such, Sir, is the system established for the protec-
tion of the soldier, who has also the guarantee, no
slight one in the British army, of his officer's honour
as a gentleman. Will those persons who have so
wantonly and so recklessly assailed that system and
that honour make public their system towards the
poor labouring men, women, and children, from
whose ceaseless toil they derive their own riches?
Will they publish a true detailed account of their
truck system? Will they state what care, what
money, what help, what protection, they bestow ,
on
their sick labouring people when profits are falling .
W. NAPIER,
Major-General, Col. of the 27thRegt.

MASTFR BAILERS' PENSION SOCIETY.—Last night
a numerously attended meeting of master bakers, con-
nected with the city of London, was held at the White
Hart] Tavern, in Bishopsgate-street, for the purpose of
electing three pensioners, not under the age of sixty
years, upon the funds of the institution, from which de-
serving parties are allowed, if males, Bs. per week ; and
if females, ss. per week. There were 44 candidates,
and the names of the successful ones, with the number
of votes polled by each of them , was :as follows, as de-
clared by the Chairman, Mr. Burnett, shortly before
nine o'clock, viz. :—Elizabeth Wheeler, 1,051 votes ;
James Gray, 683 ; and John Fencock, 1,007. The
amount paid by this society to pensioners is about 7001.
per annum, the whole of which is obtained by dona-
tions and voluntary subscriptions. The poll having
been declared, thanks were voted to the chairman, and
the meeting separated a short time after nine o'clock.
THE EARLY CLOSING MOVEMENT IN SHOREDITCH.
—The oilmen and tallow.chandlers carrying on business
in the main line of street, from Knigsland-gate to
Bishopsgate-street, have, without exception, signed a
declaration to the effect that they consider the late hours
to which retail business is protracted to be altogether
unnecessary, and highly injurious to the health of those
so engaged. They have, therefore, agreed, that on and
after Monday next, the lsrJanuary, they will close their
respective shops at nine o'clock, instead of ten, as at pre-
sent (Saturdays excepted).