The Sun.
London, England, 1851-09-11 00:00:00

SHREWSBURY AND BIRMINGHAM.

The half-yearly report of the directors of this
company states that the attempt on the part of the
London and North-Western Company to obtain un-
lawful possession of the railway commenced prior to
the last half-yearly meeting, and has been continued
with scarcely any intermission up to the present time.
The directors, guided by the advice of eminent
counsel, have all along felt that the attainment of
their object, in the face of existing agreements with
the Shrewsbury and Chester and Great Western
Companies, could have afforded but a temporary
triumph to the London and North-Western Company
while it would with equal certainty have prevented
the development of the traffic, and altogether ob-
structed that through traffic upon which the alliance
with these companies depends. The contest has not
been confined to this company, and no better proof
can be given of the value of this alliance to the
Shrewsbury and Birmingham Company than the at-
tempt on the part of the London and North-Western
Company to detach the Shrewsbury and Chester
Company, by an offer of a guaranteed dividend of
per cent., and to fetter the Birkenhead, Lancashire,
and Cheshire Company by traffic agreements, it being
evident that the possession of any one of the three
railways between Birmingham and Birkenhead,
would, by rendering incomplete the continuity
of the Great Western chain of communication
between London and the Mersey, perpetuate
the London and North-Western monopoly of
a large increasing traffic, and frustrate the in-
tention of Parliament that the south of England shall
have a direct line of communication with the manu-
facturing districts of the north. The Shrewsbury
and Chester proprietors, by a large majority, rejected
the offer of the London and North-Western Company
as impracticable and altogether beyond its powers.
In the case of the Birkenhead, Lancashire, and Che-
shire Junction Railway, the London and North-
Western Company succeeded in concluding an agree-
ment for the obstruction of the traffic : but Parlia-
ment, considering this to be an act so improper on
the part of the Birkenhead Company, and so contrary
to the purposes for which all railway companies have
been incorporated, without hesitation conferred upon
the Shrewsbury and Chester Company powers to run
over, and use with their own engines and carriages,
the lines of the Birkenhead Company, not only to
Birkenhead, but to Warrington, thereby opening up,
by means of the Warrington and Altrincham line
(which obtained its Act last session), a communication
with Manchester altogether independent of the Lon-
don and North-Western Company. The directors
were advised by eminent counsel that neither the
agreement proposed to be entered into by the com-
mittee of shareholders with the London and North-
Western Company, nor any other agreement which
undertook to give an absolute fixed dividend to
the shareholders, was or could be made binding
upon either company without an act of Par-
liament, and that no such Act was intended
to be applied for, or, if applied for, had
the remotest chance of being obtained, they had no
alternative but to offer every opposition in their
power to a measure which, however plausible and
tempting, was altogether delusive. The directors are
confirmed in the soundness of the opinions by which
they were guided by the recent decisien of Lord
Cranworth, adverse to the London and North-
Western Company, upon the question of the legality
of an agreement entered into by that company and
other parties with the Oxford, Worcester, and Wol-
verhampton Company, precisely similar in principle,
although differing in details, to that proposed to be
entered into with this company. After adverting to
the insufficiency of the alleged guarantee of 3, 31, and
4 per cent., on the ground that it was to be derived
only from the tolls to be paid by the London and
North-Western Company for the traffic it may, carry
over 20 miles of the line, the report states that since
the last meeting Parliamentary powers have been ob-
tained authorising the Shrewsbury and Chester and
the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Companies (with
the approval of the Railway Commissioners) to
enter into agreements for the interchange of
traffic, and substantially for all the objects con-
templated by the existing agreement. The direc-
tors state they have availed themselves of these
powers to enter into a supplementary agreement
with the Shrewsbury and Chester Company, whice
will be submitted to the meeting. The directors
trust they may be permitted to give their time and
attention to the consolidation of the Great Western
alliance, and that the shareholders generally will see ,
that the only alliance which can be practically carried
out with the London and North-Western Company
is one of arrangement of rates between competing
points, which the directors have always been willing
to settle! by agreement, or to refer to arbitration. The
directors will, in conjunction with the Great Western
and Shrewsbury and Chester Companies, apply to
Parliament in the next session for ati A't to autho-
rise the carrying out of the agreement of May last for
an amalgamation of the three companies, and an inte-
rim guarantee of 3 and 3i per cent. out of the gross
proceeds of the London through traffic. The pro-
prietors of the Shrewsbury and Chester Company have
confirmed that agreement, with a stipulation that full
time should be allowed for the development of the
traffic on the Shrewsbury lines, after the Great Wes.
tern chain of railway communication between London
and Wolverhampton has been completed, and before
the amalgamation takes place. Various circumstances,
but chiefly the continued competition of the
London and North-Western Company for the local
traffic, and the non-opening of the Stour Valley line,
have combined to show an unfavourable result in the
revenue account. There have, however, been charged
against revenue for the first time the maintenance of
the permanent way and the whole of the general ex-
penses, as also the interest upon the debentures, part
of which was formerly charged against the expendi-
ture on the Madeley branch as unproductive. The
preference dividend has been paid for the past half-
year, but the appropriation of the Stour Valley divi-
dend for this purpose has now accumulated a year
and a-half's dividend due to class A shareholders
upon the Stour Valley portion of their stock, and
which will form a prior claim before a dividend is de-
clared upon the ordinary stock of the company. The
sum of 5,4611. has accumulated as a reserve to meet
the depreciation of the rolling stock, provided for in
the contract with Messrs. Johnson and Kinder. The
following directors retire by rotation—natnely,
Messrs. Badger, Chance, King, Knox, Perks, Phillips
and Probyn. The auditors, Messrs. Bate and Fel-
lows, state in their report that they believe the ac-
counts are correct with the exception of the amount
under the head of " Extraordinary Expenses"_
2,5631. charged to capital, which they are of opinion
should be charged to revenue as an expense incurred
professedly for the protection of the traffic of the
company, and having nothing to do with the construe-
' tion of the line. The first preference dividend paid,
amounting Go 1)447/1 baying been erroneously charged

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