The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-27 00:00:00

EDINBURGH., PERTH, AND DUNDEE.

Wonders will never cease, and among the greatest
that has happened lately will be found in another
column, in which it will be seen that the E linburgh,
Perth, and Dundee Railway has actually declared a
dividend of 11 per cent, on the ordinary stock of the
company, and bad surplus funds apparently sufficient to
have warranted 2 per cent. Ttis is certainly a most
gratifying position of affairs. Not many half years ago
the wildest dreamer would have laughed in the face of
the man who would have hinted at such a tbiog ; and
in this, as in many other cases, fact has turned out
stranger than fiction. For this result the directors de-
serve great credit. The traffic on the line has increased
enormously; the working expenses seem to be at the
lowest figure compatible with efficiency ; and the arrange-
ment recently entered into with the Scottish Central
seems to be productive of the best effects with regard
to both lines. We have sometimes bad rather
severe criticisms to make on the half-yearly balance
sheet of the company, but with the excaption of one
item of 2001. of legal expenses connected with the Scot-

tish Midland and Aberdeen Railways, there seems no-
thing in the present report requiring remark. We are
still of opinion that money spent in opposing new rail-
way schemes, or new arrangements of other companies,
unless in very peculiar circumstances, is seldom a good
investment. The report, however, is, upon the whole,
exceedingly gratifying, and such as may well preclude
objections to so small an item. We have, however, one
remark to offer. We have said that the directors de-
serve great credit for the satisfactory result arrived at
in this report, but there are others also deserving of
more than credit. We refer to the station-masters and
other servants on the line, who, Sunday and Satur-
day, are at their poet, and who, as a class, for the
faithful and obliging discharge of their duties, are un-
surpassed, if equalled, by the railway officials on any
other line with which we a. e acquainted. These men,
serving the company faithfully, and the public with great
attention and care, have some of them very difficult posi-
tions to fill, requiring incessant watchfulness and the
strictest regularity; and although ball-h ol iday Eno vemen ta
and workers' excursions for almost every other class of
workers in the kingdom aro incessantly demanding atten-
tion, we are not aware that there has been any n ova-
ment for securing to the parties to whom we have refer-
red any days or hours of recreation, although we are sure
none require it more and few deserve it better. Now
that the line is in such a prosperous condition, we do
trust the directors will take the case of these excellent
servants into consideration, and, if possible, nut only give
them a holiday "like the lave," but make their Sabbath
duties as light as possible. We have reason to believe,
too, that some of these men who have been serving
both the public and the company with great faith-
fulness and acceptability under the straitened circum•
stances of the company, have been not too liberally
paid; and now that better times are come, a few
pounds, a very few pounds, such as will be the merest
trifle when compared with theproceeds of the line, would
be a most acceptable and a well-merited addition to the
salaries of the most deserving. We could point out more
than one of these within the limits of our own knowledge,
And we are satisfied there is no object in connection with
the line, not even dividends excepted, on which the ap-
plieatim of ouch a mall own ao the addition of ice, or
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