The Sun.
London, England, 1851-08-15 00:00:00

SUN,

the Midland Company, we are carrying on a very
serious contest with the Great Northern Company. We
have submitted to the arbitration of a very eminent in-
dividual, Mr. Gladstone, certain points in connexion
with our differences with that co-epany, and I wish that
that reference was allowed to be made more general.
The concessions, however, which had been de-
manded of us and the Midland Company are so
great, involving the infraction of agreements
with other companies, and so far exceeding
the Parliamentary or legitimate traffic connected with
that company, that hitherto they have refused to admit
them as the basis of an agreement. lam sure our
friends of the Midland Company, with whom our con-
nexion is of the closest and most intimate kind, would
be the very first to come to an arrangement with the
Great Northern Company, on e. mutual, fair, and bene-
ficial basis.—(Cries cf " Hear, hear.") We are
also at issue with the Great Western Company.
I confess that the failure of our negotiations with the
Great Western Company does not surprise me. I have
watched their policy for a great many years, and I am
fully convinced that, disappointed in their own traffic,
they would not be quite happy until they had made at-
tempts somewhere else.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.)
Our negotiations with them have, therefore, failed.
With respect to the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Com-
pany, I do not think that there is need for me to trouble
you with many observations. We are under an agree-
ment with that company for working in communication
with that line, which we are advised by an authority of
the higher rank is perfectly legal and binding, and
I see no reason why we should cease to adhere to
it. I do not know why we should be induced to
conceive that at the present moment the policy of
Parliament in railway matters can lead them to
allow of a second competing line in communication from
London to the Mersey. The Shrewsbury and Birming -
ham line was never granted with that intention; the
object of it was originally to work in connexion with
the London and Birmingham line in one district, but not
to form a competing line to the Mersey. It is perfectly
true that there was a line in connexion with it which
communicated with a large and opulent district,
the exigencies of which required a communi-
cation with the Mersey; .but that line never was
granted with the idea of entering into competition with
the London and North-Western Railway. Parliament,
I am convinced, could never feel disposed to grant a se-
cond competing line against that fair traffic which was
established by the London and North-Western Railway,
and the longer we go on the surer we shall arrive at the
conviction that the just principles laid down years ago by
Lord Dalhousie are those which must ultimately govern
railway arrangements and policy. The experience of
years shows, and more especially in cases where t he capital
account is to be closed, that is not by competition, but
by an intimate connexion between companies in the
same district, supported by Parliament allowing them
to do their best for the developement of the traffic, and
allowed, too, to put something in the pockets of their
proprietors, that we can expect to obtain the slightest
chance of the railway system being supported properly
in this country.—(Hear, hear.) To think of competi-
tion is absurd. Look at the fact, that people
are now being carried from Leeds and back
for ss. to 4s. 6d., why, what good can that do either
company? It must lead in the end to combination and
a division of the whole territory between the two COM'
paeies. That is what will be the case before long; but,
as I said at the commencement of my sp. ech, I have nu
wi.h for any reserve, Ido not hesitate to say that
before that arrives we have to go through a long and
very serious competition. The effect will be a great deal
of ruinous injury to railway property, and ineonveeience
to the public; we shall have a repetition of horrible acci-
dents until the public must at last become awake to the
real position of affairs, and we shall have Parliament
interieriug and puiting the system upon a different and
wiser lowing. These are my own remarks, and I have

no wish to commit my cull> agucs to them—(Hear)—
but I know teat there are many before me who are
large holders of railway property, and I wish to im-
press them with these same opinions ; I
wish them to go to their meetings and press

these ideas upon them.—(Hear, hear.) If - you
do not you will ruin your property, and your only
chance to preserve it in its integrity and fu►l value is
to do so. It will take time to bring about a proper feel-
ing on this subject, but I must bt-g in the meantime to
impress upon y ou the necessity of being content to keep
up a I.rge reserve fund.—(Hear, hear.) If we have to
go into this extensive competition it is a most material
thing that we should be able to do so without touch-
ing on your dividend. Therefore I do hope that you
will not from any temporary increase in the traffic
which might come into the current half-year be induced
to run away with the idea that you can increase your
dividend. If you are content to remain in your present
position, and to carry yourselves through this competi-
tition by the aid of your reserve fund, you will have
beaten down all those fancied theories of persons
unacquainted with railway matters, and you will do
more to neutralize the effect of bad legislation

than I had ever anticipated would have been done
in so short a time. We have at this moment several
agreements of that sort with the Lancashire and York-
shire, and others, and we are most anxious to carry
them out to the full. We are anxious, as far as possible, to
promote the most cordial alliance between ourselves and
those lines; they form part of the same system, and that
is part of our territory, and with their help we intend to
endeavour to work it and to meet all competition
there. I am happy to say that there is a better
feeling growing up on these points, there
is a gre,ter disposition among our neighbours to
work harmoniously together. Do not think that I wish
to alarm you abuut the state of your property. If you
will only carry on the policy which has hitherto di.
rected your proceedings, if you are content to keep your
dividend at its present amount, there is nothing in the
aspect of our concern which is in any way calculated to
discourage you. In our local traffic, and in our 188
stations we have the elements and basis of
strength which nothing can take from us.
With that conviction I hope that none of you will be
frightened by statements which you may occasionally
see in the newspapers. We shall be forced into a com-
petition, but the and will be as I have stated to you. I
shall always be ready to enter into arrangements for the
promotion of a lair and equitable understanding; but we
shall not be disposed to anrink from entering into that
competition to which we have been compelled, if we
have from you the support and encouragement which we
look for.—(Cheers.)
Mr. ILLY said, before the report was read he
should be glad to hear what course the directors in-
tended to take next session with regard to the Audit
Bill?

The CHAIRMAN said ho might say, on the spur of the
moment, that the directors were not prepared to take
any steps whatever. He must in justice, however, to
himself and others, refer the pro.driwtor to what had al-
ready taken place in Parliament.—(Hear, hear.) After
the reception which the Audit Bill had niet with there,
he contes.ed that he, for one, was not disposed to under-
take the future management of any similar Bill.—(Hear.)
The report was then read as tollowta:—
" A full statement of the accounts for the half-year
ending 30th of June last, has be, :h pl,ced in the hands
of the proprietors, from which may be derived the follow-
ing I esultg, as compared with the corresponding six
months of 1S30:--
Passenger:, parcels, and

185'. 1851. Increase.
••• £674,221 £723,862 £49,641
435,959 453,718 17,759
•••

mails
Merchandise, &c.

£1,110,180 £1,177,580 £67,400

Working expenses ... £377,422 £415,420 £38,002
" The actual per tentage of dtiburn.--weiiis to receipts
is, exclu-ive of rates and taxes, 34 99 against 33 99 in
1850, and inclusive of those items 33.99 against 38.31 in
1850.
" Besides the expenses attendant upon the working
and maintenance of 52 additional miksge, viz. :—..-
Rugy and Stamford 27i opened 29th April, and June 1,1850.
Coventry &Nuneaton 10 opened 2d September, 1850.
Rugby & Leamington 15 opened Ist March, 1851.
tee ordinary expenditure in the locomotive department,
during the halt-year, has been increased to a consider-
able extent by the measures adopted in anticipation of
the Exhibition traffic, of which the company are now de-
riving the benefit, to an extent which tally Justifies that
expenditure; the receips for the first six weeks of the cur-
rent half-year exceeding the receipts of 1850 by 88,000/.
The closing of the capital account, except for certain speci-
fied items formerly stated to the proprietors, has thrown
upon revenue a variety of expenses necessarily incurred
for additions and improvements, and which amount in
the aggregate to a considerable sum. These circum-
stances will explain the apparent disproportion between
the increase of receipts and working expenses.
" The East and West India Dock Junction Railway
is now in operation for passenger traffic, from the Junc-
tion at Camden station to Yenchurch-street. The result,
so far, has proved highly satisfactory. The line will be
used for the transit of goods so soon as the arrangements
now in progress at the termini are completed.
"Parliament has sanctioned the construction of a
short line to connect the Blackwell Railway with the ex-
tensive warehouses at Ilaydon- square, formerly the pro-
perty of the East India Company, and this branch will
be immediately proceeded with. Looking at the position
upon
and extent
of six
of these warehouses, situate in the most
central part of the city of London, and containing
upwards
asi h it
is
searing
impossible to
over-estimate their resim opfor
the further development of your merchandise traffic ;
acres
and the directors have great satisfaction in submitting to
the proprietors the terms of the arrangement, by which
titrnrcte n,g'
they have obtained the option of purchasing these ware-
houses; as also the agreement with the Blackwell Rail-
way Company, by which the transmission of the traffic
over that line is secured, on terms equitable and mutually
advantageous,
" The estimated cost of the Ilaydon-square warehouses,
together with the necessary alterations, approaches, &c.,

is:—
For the Buildings „. ...
... 525,000
„ Alterations, Machinery, sc,
... 15 000
„ Approaches •.• ••• ... 5,000

£45,000
"Parliament has also sactioned the North and South=
Western Jcuction Railway, which will connect the line
of this company near Willesden, with that of the London
and South-Western Company near Breniford, and so
afford uninterrupted communications between the manu-
facturing districts, and all points south of the Thames,
and the port of Southampton.
" The Rugby and Leamington line was opened on the
Ist of Much, and the remaining portion of the Rugby
and Stamford line on the 2d of June last.
" Your directors have to report that the Bucking-
hamshire lines of railway having been completed, the
lease of that undertaking to this Company has been
prepared, in conformity with the Act of Parliament, '
and duly executed by both companies.
" The questions in difference between this company
and the North Staffordshire have been referred to the
arbitration of the Right honourable James Stuart