The Sun.
London, England, 1851-09-20 00:00:00

LONDO N 5,

SO UTII-EASTERN FAIL WAY COMPAII' Y.
(From the Morning Chronicle.)
The Soutia-Eastern Railway Company, by closing
their official half-year a month-later than any of their
neighbours, have generally the advantage, or disad-
vantege, of holding their meetings at a time when that
portion of the public which takes an interest in such
questions is at liberty to attend to the discussions
which agitate their body. It must be confessed that
there is generally something to be learnt on these
occasions. The South-Eastern shareholders are not
often all of one mind, and their sentiments and opinions
are commonly expressed in very intelligible terms.
Still they contrive to preserve at their meetings a tone
of moderation which some other companies might
usefully imitate. The proceedings on Thursday last
were of this character. The results of the first six
months of the present year have not been so success-
ful as was expected at its commencement; and the
Chairman had to abate something of the exuberant
hopefulness which has pervaded his official addresses
on one or two former occasions. Mr. Levy was, of
course, quite ready with a humorous speech, and
with a good deal of hearty scolding; and after him
came several other gentlemen, who, in spite of their
strong dissatisfaction with what they called the mise-
rable dividend of eight shillings per share (equal to 3
per cent. per annum), were sufficiently forbearing
to abstain from any very violent measures. Rail-
wry proprietors are, indeed, always more or less un-
reasonable when the dividend either disappoints or
exceeds their expectations; and a poor dividend is
sure to produce a torrent of incoherent criticism. To
some extent, this was the case on Thursday last.
Mr. Levy found fault with everything in his usual
eccentric style ; Mr. Smith traced the diminution of
the dividend to the increase of the trucks and car-
riages ; and Mr. Crook considered that he had just
ground of complaint, because the chairman was not
a prophet as well as a man of business. But the
meeting listened very patiently, and with considerable
good humour, to their several expositions of doctrine,
and, at the conclusion, with great gravity and good
sense, determined—almost without a ',dissentient—
to accept the directors' dividend, and make the best
of it.

If we considered that, in the present position of
the South-Eastern Company, there was any circum-
stance to create distrust or alarm, we should advert
to the proceedings of Thursday in a more serious
tone. But the fact is, the company, although not
making the rapid progress which some of the share-
holders would like to see, is, in spite of all
drawbacks, in a sound and prosperous con-
dition. Like all the other great trunk lines,
the South-Eastern widely mistook its policy and its
resources during the wild days of the speculative
fever, and for the last three or four years it has been
paying the penalty pretty smartly. But the corner
seems at length to have been turned, and nothing but
the blindest impatience or the greatest obtuseness can
now. prevent the line from attaining its proper deve-
lopment. It is very easy for gentlemen like Mr.
Smith to find fault with a large expenditure
upon new carriages, and to make out a plausible
ground of complaint by quoting only round figures
of considerable amount, which, taken by themselves,
indicate what looks like a disproportionate outlay.
This is an old and very cheap device, and although
we imagine that, in this instance, a tolerably conclu-
sive explanation might be given, it is impossible to
condense the reply into the same pithy compass as the
accusation, and consequently the assailant is not easily
deprived of the advantages of what are called his
" facts." The truth is, that the carriage accommo-
dation of the South-Eastern line, before the intro-
duction of the new rolling stock, was posstively dis-
graceful. The first and second class conveyances were
built according to one of the earliest and least
elegant, as well as least comfortable, types of railway
carriage architecture ; and there can be no doubt
that this circumstance operated very powerfully to
the disadvantage of the company. It is no answer to
this statement to say that people who are compelled
to travel along a certain line must be content with the
conveyances provided for them. That is true enough
—but one of the most valuable recent discoveries in
railway management is, that a line does best when it
depends as little as possible upon the traffic which
must pass along it. The secret of success seems to lie
in making railway travelling so pleasant and easy to
the population who live within the vicinity of a line as
to induce almost every one to set aside some portion
of his income for the frequent enjoyment of the luxury.
The art of accomplishing this object is not easily
learnt, and it is surrounded with difficulties even in
the simplest cases. Still the principle is indisputably
sound; and few companies in the kingdom can less
afford to neglect it than the South-Eastern. It is a
great mistake to regard that railway as merely a
trunk line to Dover. Geographically speaking, that
view may be correct ; but, as a question of profit and
loss, no sagacious director will overlook the adapta-
tion of the line to pleasure traffic. Previously to the
past summer the South-Eastern directors have not
seen this fact in its proper light. They have been
too much absorbed by the through traffic to Dover,
to attend with sufficient assiduity to the short traffic
to Tunbridge and other places on that portion of the
route. Before the end of the present year the Tun-
bridge Wells branch will be extended to Hastings,
and, when that event takes place, it ought to become
a paramount object with the South-Eastern board to
create and develop what may be called a residential
traffic along the whole of the Tunbridge and Hast-
ings lines. Perseverance as well as skill will be re-
quired to accomplish this end ; but the object will be
a vital one to the interests of the company, and there
could not be a more short-sighted economy than for
the shareholders to propose resolutions condemnatory
of their directors, for merely making such reasonable
provision for the accommodation of the public as
other railways have long since afforded. We advert
the more particularly to this topic, because nothing
tends so directly to prolong the mischievous uncer-
tainty with which railway property is surrounded, as
a disposition on the part of shareholders to cast un-
merited censure and suspicion on the management of
their lines.
We learn with pleasure, from the Chairman's
speech on Thursday, that greater facilities are to be
given for the traffic between London and Paris, and
vice versa, and that a probability exists that the nui-
sance of the Custom-house inspection will be in some
degree abated ; and we are no less glad to observe that
the receipts on the line since the 31st July last have
been 25,0001. more than during the corresponding
period of last year. The South-Eastern board have
still a wide field before them, and a field which it
will require all their exertions to cultivate with full
advantage to themselves and their constituents. They
must, of course, be cautious ; but they must also
know how to be prudently bold, for the full measure
of their prosperity will only be attained when they
shall have brought into action sources of revenue
that are at present barely recognised.

ANOTHER DREADFUL SCAFFOLD
ACCIDENT IN PIMLICO.
SIX PERSONS SERIOUSLY INJURED.
Yesterday afternoon, about four o'clock, an acci-
dent of a shocking nature, which, it is feared, will
terminate fatally to two of the sufferers, besides se-
verely injuring the others, occurred at the corner of
Tachbrook-street and Belgrave•place, Pimlico, from
the breaking down of a scaffold upon which some men
were at work. From information we collected on the
spot, it appears that Mr. Grigg, a builder, is erecting
three houses between the ends of the above-named
streets, and immediately facing the entrance to the
Equitable Gasworks, near Vauxhall-bridge. They are
five stories, or over fifty feet high, and nearly eighty
feet in length. The plasterers, consisting of three
men and two boys, had just finished making the
plaster cornice which projects from the side of the
parapet, and had commenced work a little lower down,
where they had not been long engaged when the
whole of the fresh cornice, extendingits entire length,
fell instantly, in one piece, carrying the whole of the
stage with it, and snapping the light scaffold poles like
matchwood, precipitated all who were standing on it
to the ground, among the bricks and rubbish below—
a labourer who was working underneath narrowly es-
caping with a cut finger. Their fall having been observed,
assistance was immediately procured, and the suf-
ferers, on being extricated, were conveyed to a sur-
geon's in the street, who sent them to the hospitals—
two to St. George's and one to the Westminster; the
remaining two were taken into Mr. Smyth's, " The
Perseverance" public-house, opposite, where Mr. I
Moore, surgeon, of Besborough-place, was unremit-
ting in his attention to the worst case, that of one of
the boys, named Carroll, the son of a poor Irish la-
bourer (who, with his wife, were almost distracted at
the mangled' state of their boy), residing in Tothill-
street, Westminster, where the lad has since been
taken in a very precarious state. The following are
the names of the sufferers, with the injuries they have
sustained :—J. Knowles, compound fracture of both
legs, Westminster Hospital H. Tulk, thigh broken
and fracture of skull, St. George's, not expected to
recover ; Alexander Grigg, brother of the builder,
severely bruised in the legs and arms, at home; the
two boys, one named Reardon, broken leg and other
injuries, St. George's; the other, named Patrick
Carroll, fracture of the base of the skull, and the
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Grigg, the builder, rendered every possible aa?istance
in procuring cabs and other conveyances. The police
were also very serviceable in keeping away the vast
crowd that had collected.

STJPFOSED DEATH OF Ma. BRIGGS. --A corres-
pondent from the Highlands informs us that a ponderous
looking shoe has been discovered on Ben Nevis, the sole of
which is covered with large-Leaded nails, so arranged as to
form the words " Mr. Briggs, his shoe." A volume of one
of the Greek poets was also found at no great distance, but
the antecedents of !dr. Briggs make it difficult to connect
the two objects.