The Sun.
London, England, 1846-07-03 00:00:00

JULY 3, 1846.

Houses of Parliament. Present, the Hon. E. Lascelles
(chairman), the Earl of Arundel and Surrey, and Captain
Dalrymple.
sunEwsriunir AND antrairmaraza.
On being called upon by the Hon. CHAIRMAN to proceed
with this Bill,
Mr. HorE said--With regard, Sir, to the Shrewsbury and
Birmingham Bill, I should state to the Committee that they
will probably remember that there were two Bills standing
before you for the construction of a line from Birmingham to
Shrewsbury, and another from Wolverhampton to Birming-
ham. It is proposed, of course, that both companies should
not execute a line between Wolverhampton and Birming-
ham. I believe that the Bill for the line between
Wolverhampton and Birmingham can be proceeded with.
With regard to the Shrewsbury and Birmingham you will
probably remember that an amalgamation was come to
between them and the Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton
Company. The arrangements, in order to carry out that
object, are very complex, and I am afraid that we shall not
be able to do anything with that Bill to-day; but the Bill
with regard to Wolverhampton and Birmingham is ready,
and can, in fact, be now proceeded with.
11.1:17.ZT.T.3MG11.8.D1C, woLvErmardPTol7,
STS s vaxam-i-ir Wax—
vzimanrapToLT, Am) DUDLEY mXiNTES).
This Bill was accordingly proceeded with, and the preamble
declared to be proved. On the clause with respect to sta-
tions being read,
Mr. COCKBIMN, Q.C., said that the party whom he re-
presented proposed to insert a clause, the effect of which
would be to regulate the situation of the stations of the
two Companies at Wolverhampton. The Committee
were aware that both parties had scheduled the same
land as the site of their stations,•and there 'was to be,.
as.they were aware, a double station at the high and tha
low level. Now,• it so-happened that the land of both par.
ales scheduled for the purposes of stations, was intersected
by the canal in that district; and he proposed, therefore, a
clause that should give this Company one side of the
canal, and that party which he represented, the
other side. The effect of the clause (which the Learned
Counsel read and put in) would be to restrict the Companies
to a particular side of the canal.
Mr. Horz, on the part of this Company, objected to the
clause.
A long discussion ensued between the engineers of the two
companies; 'out eventually an arrangement satisfactory to
both parties was entered into, and the station clause, together
with the remaining clauses, were agreed to, as well as the
report.
The Hon. CHAIRMAN intimated that, if the Shrewsbury
and Birmingham parties were not prepared with their case,
the Committee would most probably adjourn for a week.
SOUTII sr PTOR,DSIIIILE :FUNCTION (ZXLS,
TON !IND PILESTFIELD El. NCII).

The promoters of this Bill announced that they did nol
intend proceeding with it.
The Bill was accordingly withdrawn.
SOUTH sTArronnsurnr.TUNCTlON (WIZ-
mr,NEALL Hi NCH).
This Bill was also withdrawn.
roEnnysnixam, STZIPPORZSIXTHZ, AND
VITORCESTZE JUN CTIODT.
This Bill being called on,
Mr. ALEXANDER, Q.C., objected to the Committee pro-
ceeding to entertain the Bill, inasmuch as it had been twice
called upon, and the parties were not prepared to go on with
it. In fact, he doubted whether any appearance had ever
been entered for the parties. he appeared for the
Birminghom Canal Company, in opposition to the scheme,
because it proposed to pass his clients' property about five or
six times in the most objectionable manner. His clients had
regularly attended before the Committee until the case
had been called on by the Committee, and as the promoters
were not prepared to proceed, they took it for granted that
the scheme had become defunct. That was the general im-
pression, and it was only in corsequence of the solicitor of
the Bill waiting upon his clients the previous day, and stating
that the Bill was intended to be proceeded with, that they
were now in attendance to oppose it.
On reference to the minutes of the Committee Clerk, it
was ascertained that an appearance had been regularly
entered for the Bill, and it was accordingly suffered to be
proceeded with.

The Hon. Mr. TALBOT, Q.C. (with whom was Mr. Mat-
thews), proceeded to state the case on behalf of the promoters.
He stated that the Bill was in effect unopposed, because,
although his Learned Friend, Mr. Alexander, was instructed
to appear on behalf of the Birmingham Canal Company to
appear against the preamble, when they carne to look into the
petition of his clients, the Committee would find that his
grievances were very inconsiderable and easy of adjustment.
The line would commence at Rudgely, upon the Trent Valley
line, and would pass through the mineral district in that neigh-
bourhood, which was a most important one. It then passed
through Cannock, and so down to a place called Bushell, on the
line of the South Staffordshire Railway, and afterwards formed
a junction with the Grand Junction Company, and thence
it proceeded to Birmingham and Wolverhampton. The length
of the line, he believed, was between 14 and 15 miles. The
whole estimate would amount to 260,0001. There would be
two unimportant tunnels. The object of it was to introduce
into the country already mentioned a railway which would
give them a communication with the important district of
Bilston, Wednesbury, &c. Having descanted upon the oppo-
sition offered to the line by the proprietors of th.
44."11.4,41,"
.--
Mr. George Remington, who stated that he and Sir John
Rennie were the joint engineers of the line, and having de-
scribed the route of the line, and the character of the coun-
try, as far as regarded the traffic, he ?aid that this was the
best engineering line the country could admit of. The
worst gradient on the line would be 1 in 90, and the ruling
gradient lin 230. It would be a double line, and he had no
doubt that the traffic of the county would justify the con-
struction of a double line, lie then gave a detail of the
estimates, and afterwards described the mode in which the
promoters proposed to cross the Birmingham Canal Company.
Cross-examined by Mr. ALEXANDER—There was not a
single building along the line between Brewaston and Kent.
He had never laid down a line along so thinly a populated
district as this would pass through; but he expected great
passenger-traffic between Wednesbury, &c., and the Pot-
teries. He did not know that there was great connexion
between the people of the Potteries and Wednesbury, &c.,
and yet the passe • r-traffic between the two places was
relied on as ones e principal sources of profit. Lord
Hatherton had sr ' 7.1• -I-pits along the proposed line.
The Hon. Mr. TAinur submitted that his Learned Friend
was not entitled to cross-examine the witness as to the
general merits of the line.

The Hon. CHAIRMAN said that Mr. Alexander was, of
course, entitled to continue his cross-examination as long as
his clients had petitioned against the preamble.
I Re, examination resumed—The length of the large tunnel
would be 711, and he did not know whether it would have to
pass through free stone ; he had not bored the laud through
which that or the other tunnel (264 yards long) would have
to pass. He did not know whether there was a good traffic
on the canal. The witness having undergone a lengthy
cross-examination as to the estimates,
This witness was re-examined by the lion. Mr. TALBOT,
and said that the Cannock Chase, on which Mr. Alexander
had dwelt at so much length and with so much drollery, was
by no means more unpopulated than Chat Moss, over which
the Liverpool and Manchester Railway passed. The line he
had no doubt would be a source of great profit to the share-
holders, and an advantage to the public.
The Committee adjourned until twelve o'clock to-morrow.

PRICE SD.

on traffic, made two years ago by Blessts. Sopwith
and William Cubitt, founded on the Government returns,
and statistics of a trustworthy character, and stated
that since then, the Directors being aware that
a material improvement bad taken place, had provided
that a report should be made down to the
close of 1845, by M. Magis, in reference to the same
subject, and founded, as before, on Government returns for
the mines, quarries, and other industrial establishments;
the personal evidence of the manufacturing firms, and the
French Custom-house authorities; showing the increased
traffic in the different articles of commerce and manufac-
tares. The report of the Directors thus concluded the re-
view of the traffic stAistics:
"The result therefore is, that, without the increased ac-
ccmmodagon of the railway, and merely by the natural
progress of the country itself, the traffic had already reached
last year to within about 37,000 francs, or less than 1,5001.,
of the amount estimated by Mr. Sopwith as that which
it would attain under all the advantages which the railway
would confer on those districts. Such, in fact, is the
singular rapidity with which the trade of the country is
augmenting, that M. Magis has expressed his conviction
that the production of iron, iron ore, &c., will, during the
present year, amount to double that of 1845 ; but, evon esti-
mating this increase at only 50 per cent, and reserving the
other 50 for the impulse which the opening of the railway,
with all its facilities and reduction of cost, cannot fail to give
to districts already so energetically disposed, a traffic in these
important materials is arrived at of double the amount of
that which was originally estimated to be obtained upon the
opening of the line. It is hardly necessary to point out the
natural inference of this, both as respects the proof of the
sound principle on which the original estimate was formed,
and the consequences to the interest's of the shareholder's.
The facts will speak for themselves." - • -
The. CHAIRMAN, when the report.had been read, said— Toe
!_urntstral length of the report which they had heard, and
copies of which they held in their hands, would render it
unnecessary for him to trespass long upon their time and
attention. But the reason why a report had been drawn up
at such length was the circumstances and the state in which
their line at present was, which made it desirable
that the directors should lay before them such
a report as would enable the shareholders to form
as correct a judgment as the directors themselves on the
whole of the circumstances cf the enterprise in which they
were jointly interested ; it was in order that the shareholders
might be enabled to judge of the prospects which the fnture
would develope. Besides this, however, it would gratify the
directors to give any further information which might be
deemed necessary in answer to questions put from the body of
the meeting, and he expected to be fully able to satisfy them.
He thought he might unhesitatingly say that, being now
made aware of the increase of traffic which had grown up in
the district of their line within the last year, the opinion en-
tertained of it was one of the most encouraging character.
He admitted, however, that if they were to look
to England alone, and without taking into conside-
ration the circumstances of last year, he could not be so
sanguine at present when their shares were so depressed in
the market. But they were bound to look at the cause, to
look at what had occurred the year before, when no enter-
prise, however bad, no scheme, however visionary, no
bubble, however airy, but was eagerly grasped at, and
shares immediately bought up—a state of things in which
a reverse would most naturally excite a panic, and engender
suspicion against projects of even the highest character.
He did not think, therefore, they ought to look at the state
of the share market in order tojudge correctly of the prospects
of the line. The directors had felt bound, he said, to examine,
with carefulness uud accuracy, the grounds on which the
undertaking was originally proposed, to see whether any
increase had been made in those data on the subject of traffic,
and whether that increase was in the ratio at which it had
originally been taken. This investigation, in the case of
lines already completed and in operation, would not present
great difficulties, as the profits would themselves form
a correct criterion ; but in the case of a line only in the
course of construction, unless one in operation could be found
perfectly analogous, it was fraught with difficulty—a diffi-
culty which would be felt in this kingdom, but much more
in another, and eapecially under the circumstances attachingto
this particular line. The peculiarities to which he referred were
that what he might call the two great manufacturing
districts, iron and coal, lay on different portions of the line,
and had to be brought together for the creation of iron.
The directors then had ascertained the traffic through
the district during the last year, the details of which the
meeting had heard read to them, and they naturally
expected that, if' the line had been constructed,
traffic would have passed over it. If the report was
founded in truth and was correct, it only remained for them
to consider what would be the results.—(Hear, hear.) The
report which had been drawn up on a former occasion by Messrs.
Cubitt and Sopwith was founded on an average of seven years
between 1836 and 1842, and the conclusion to which these
gentlemen had been led by their calculations was, that the
line would return an income of 96,0001. a year, including
in that sum the addition of 25 per cent., which
was no great allowance for the incitement which
the facilities of transit would
.give to trade. Such
was the estimate of the return given in by these gen-
tlemen, and, according to which, they had started with the
railway; but last year, without any railway being in opera-
tion, the increase of traffic had come to within 1,5001. of the
calculated returns of the railway itself. These facts,
if true, were very imnortant: the ant.,
Llig,tAcYatres,teftvtlaiTati;ws,e-sputiceldi as night sTurib,en-4.litt.
and carts
that passed through ; it was drawn up from the statistical re-
turns of the Belgian Government. So that the report rested on
the authorities recognised by the Government of the country,
on statistics made up with the careful industry for which the -
Belgians were celebrated, and the character of M. Magis,
whose official standing in connexion with the Government
would save him from the suspicion of practising imposi-
tion. As regarded the passenger traffic, that was
a subject more difficult to estimate; Mr. Cubitt and Mr. Sop-
with had calculated it at the rate of, 20/. a day, which, he
thought, was no exaggerated calculation for a line of railway
66 miles long. He certainly believed that their expectations
on that point • would be more than realised. He said
the directors had never laid before the meeting the
means of forming a correct judgment as to the
state and prospects of the railway, and they were anxious
that the shareholders should take every opportunity of mak-
ing themselves acquainted with the merits of the line by
consulting the original documents, which were lying at the
company's office. The Chairman concluded with moving
that the report now read be adopted, printed, and circulated.
Mr. Kirrnsch seconded the motion.
A SHAREHOLDER wished to know what extent of the line
had been already formed, and when any part of it might be
opened ?

The CHAIRMAN said the first portion of the line included a
tunnel of great extent, and they were busy with their opera-
tions in it. There were about 2,000 men employed on the
whole line. The mineral branches, which were the most
important, extended about 30 miles up in the direction of
Morialme, but these will not be in operation till September
next year, and the whole line in about twelve months after.
A SHAREHOLDER wished to know what was the probable
rate of interest which the line would bear, and whether the
capital would be sufficient, and what were the estimated
receipts?
The CHAIRMAN referred the gentleman to the report of
the estimated receipts. He said that increase of capital would
be necessary, because a double line of rails had been laid down
instead of a single line, as at first projected—an increase
which was made to meet the increase of traffic, and which,
he was sure, would be looked upon as the most prudent step
the directors could have taken.

Mr. THOMPSON HANKEY, a director, said, that as far as
they could judge of the estimated receipts, the income would
be far larger than anything originally contemplated.
The CHAIRMAN, in answer to anuther gentleman, said, he
did not expect that any call would be made on the share-
holders for some time to come.
The motion was then put and carried unanimously.
The Hon. H. BROWNE moved a vote of thanks to the
Chairman and directors.

Mr. CRAIK seconded the motion, which was carried
unanimously.
The CHAIRMAN having acknowledged the honour they
had done him and his colleagues, the meeting broke up.

SOU'T'H STAFFORDSHIRE JUNC-

TION RAILWAY.
A meeting of the shareholders of this Company took place
yesterday, at 38, Parliament-street, for the purpose of having
an agreement entered into by the directors with the Trent
Valley, Midland, and Grand Junction Company submitted
to their approbation. The meeting was very thinly at-
tended, and at half-past eleven o'clock the chair was taken
by Mr. Foster.
Mr. WAGSTAFF read the agreement, which stated, that
under the arrangement as now completed, the shareholders
in the TrentValley,Midlands, and Grand Junction Company
will have an interest to the extent of four-ninths of the
actual capital of the united company, the remaining five-
ninths being taken by the proprietors of the South Stafford-
shire Junction Railway. The arrangements as to the
line are, in substance, that the Trent Valley, Mid-
lands line shall be adopted from its commencement
at the proposed junction with the Birmingham and
Derby branch of the Midland Railway, and shall
pass through Lichfield, to or near Walsall, from which point
the line of the South Staffordshire Company will be adopted
to Dudley. The South Staffordshire Junction Company are
Branches,
and make their two communications with the Grand Junction
wiltlheeonsTisrtenotf
i
Valley Railway.
Railway, called the Darlaston and Birminghamm Raiti v
and the Trent Valley Midlands and Grand Junction y
Company, their branch
,heline, as n
communicating
mmuovni proposed,
icati with
about thirty miles of railway, through a rich and
most important district of country. It will form
a direct communication from Dudley, Walsall, and
Lichfield, and the south-west of England, to the
extensive Midland districts of the east to which
numerous lines made or in progress extend. With Wolver-
hampton the communication will be effected by means of
the Portobello branch of the Grand Junction Railway. In
accordance with the agreement, and with the requirements
of the consolidated scheme, the capital of this company has
been reduced to 420,0001., and the amount of the shares has
in consequence been reduced to 121. per share. The shares of
the South Staffordshire Junction Company have been reduced
in the same proportion.
A resolution having been unanimously agreed to ap-
proving of the agreement, the meeting separated.

TRENT VALLEY, MIDLANDS, AND
GRAND JUNCTION RAILWAY. = SPECIAL
MEETING.
A special meeting of the holders of scrip and bankers' re-
ceipts for scrip in this Company took place, at No. 19, Great
George-street, Westminster, at two o'clock yesterday, for the
purpose of having a Bill submitted to their consideration, a
copy of the proposed Bill to authorise the construction of
the railway.
Colonel Anson took the chair at two o'clock.
The SECRETARY having read the advertisement convening
the meeting,
The CHAIRMAN briefly adverted to the advantageous posi-
tion which the company had assumed by their agreement
with the South Staffordshire Junction Railway, which we
have already laid before our readers.
The Bills having been read, resolutions adopting them
were moved and seconded, and declared to be carried una-
nimously.
The number of shares assenting, as represented at the
meeting, were 17,175, without one dissent, and the number
required to authorise the further prosecution of the Bill was
6,900.
The meeting then separated, haying passed a vote of
thanks to the Chairman.