The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-24 00:00:00

EAST INDIA HOUSE.—(This Day.)

A quarterly general court of proprietcrs of the East
India Company was held this morning at the India
House, Leadenhall•street ; Colonel Sykes, chairman of
the board of directors, in the chair.

Mr. JONES, in addressing the court, said he had been
requested by the Rajah of Coorg to tender his thanks
to the court of directors for having acceded to the prayer
of his petition, and restored to him his pension. (Hear,
hear.) He (Mr. Jones) then referred to his notice of
motion he had given relative to the cost of the dinners
of the court of directors. When he gave that notice he
was under the impression that the dinners cost 4,000/,
a year, but he had since been informed that he was in
error in that respect. There were no precise returns of
their cost; from their being so mixed up with other mat-
ters it was impossible to come to a satisfactory conclu-
sion on the subject. He, therefore, withdrew the motion
of which he had given notice, and moved that a return
should be laid before the court, showing the whole of
the refectory expenses of the court of directors.
Mr. REMINGTON seconded the motion.

The CHAIMIAN said there was no objection to the re-
turn. He had no doubt that the proprietors would see
that it was to their interest as well as to the interest of
the Court of Directors that these entertainments should
take place.
Mr. LEwIN thought that when the company was a
commercial company it was very well that these City
habits should be observed, but now the company was in
a totally different position.
The motion was then agreed to.
Mr. LEWIN then moved the following resolution :

"That the seizure of the territories of Oude is one of
the worst examples of Indian spoliation, and an act of
the basest ingratitude towards the family of a native
prince, who, in a Reason of extremity (1815), when the
rule of the East Indian Company was wavering, its
treasures exhausted, and the Government of India un-
able to bring money to oppose the Maharatta confederacy,
opened his coffers with a loan of 2i millions sterling, on
the bare receipt of the Governor-General, Lord Hast-
ings; and, subsequently, in 1825, under a similar
exigency, assisted the East India Company with a fur-
ther loan of 13, millions ; and again, in 1842, when the
East India Company was in want of funds to enable
it to carry on the Affghanistan war, assisted the Go-
vernment of India with a further loan to relieve the
pressure on the Indian Treasury."
The hon. proprietor entered at great length into the
state of India at the periods alluded to, and contended
that the conduct of the directors in the seizure of Oude
could not be defended, neither morally nor politically.

A PROPRIETOR complained that sufficient notice had
not been given of the motion, and that the Court ought
not to entertain it.

Mr. LEWIN said he should have no objection to
postpone its further consideration till tip next quar-
terly court.

After some discussion the motion was negatived, as
was also the following motion, proposed by the same

gentleman :
"That in addressing a petition to the House of Lords,
in the case of the Na,cvab of Surat, in the name and in
the behalf of the East India Company, without first con-
suiting the proprietors of East India stock, was uncon-
stitutional, unprecedented, and an illegal assumption of
authority on the part of the Court of Directors."

After the transaction of some other business the cont
adjourned.

HOUSE RENTS AND WAGES AT PARIS.

In the Moniteur of yesterday the following ar-
ticle is published, with the typographical distinc-
tions which it is usual to reserve for topics of
special importance :
The rise in house rents, which has been aggravated
during the last four years by the dearness of provisions,
has caused among the population of Paris sufferings that
have awakened all the solicitude of the Emperor.
His Majesty has caused a detailed report to be pre-
sented to him on this state of things. He especially
wished to know if this increased price for dwelling was
to be attributed to the fact that, in consequence of the
recent laying out of extensive new thoroughfares, the
demolition of old houses may have been more rapid and
frequent than the erection of new houses, and whether
the equilibrium would soon be restored or not.
The following figures, (derived from official sources,
answer this twofold question.
The demolitions effected in Paris by the Prefecture of
the Seine have been :

In 1852, for 250 houses, with reimburse-
ment to the ex-proprietors 27,319,210 f.
I❑ 1853, for 515 houses, similarly expro-
priated ' 24,756,221
In 1854, for 299 houses, bought on ex-
propriation
In 1855, for 320 houses expropriated
in 1856, for 181 houses expropriated

1,565 126,211,559 f.
The expropriations projected for the year 1857 wil
not amount to more than 100 houses.

The new constructions and the enlargements of old
ediffces, raised again and valued by the general direction
of the direct contributions, have been :
To the Of a rentable And of a saleable
number of value of value of
In 1852... 633 1,400,000 28,000,000 f.
In 1853...1,095 4,700,000 94,000,000
In 1854...1,205 1,000,000 140,000,000
In 1855...1,614 10,000,000 200,000,000
In 1856...2,000 12,500,000 250,000,000

Total 6,552 35,600,000 712,000,00 e

ThesA figures prove :

1. That the number of the demolitions, already con-
siderahly reduced in 185 G, will ba yet more so in 1857.
2, That the number and value of the reconstruction
has much surpassed the number and value of the demo-
litions.

This double proportion, so rapidly decreasing for the
demolitions, so amply progressive for the reconstructions
will of course re-assure men's minds, and cannot fail to
exert an effective influence on the prices of dwellings.
The rise of rent has been favoured by the monetary em-
barrassment which the demolitions occasioned to the in-
habitants of the quat ters where they were made, and
especially by the increase of the population in Paris.
The last census, that of 1856, shows, in fact, that in the
course of the past five years this population was increased
by 121,071 souls, that is to say, by more than 1-10th ;
''but the 712 millions of constructions realised during the
aatne five years are ample for supplying this twofold de-
mand.

Doubtless, in these new edifices, the allotment of rent
for the email lodgings has not been immediately made ;
by the Emperor's order, to supply this default consider-
able advances have been allowed for the building of
work en's lodc,,ingS. In these special enterprises, the
report gives 364 lodgings for single men, 1,171 sets of
rooms for families; amounting in all to 1,775 lodgings,
948 of which are now tenanted, and 827 are being com-
pleted. Similar assistance has been offered to every per-
NOZI building a new house, and to every landlord of an
old house who may be willing to partition out the stories
into small lodgings. These encouragemente, and in par-
ticular the enormous quantity of new habitations that
are from the present time—or that shortly will be—
ready for letting, cannot fail to produce a prompt and
salutary reaction on the price of the small lodging.
We must likewise observe that the building works,
which in 1850 amounted to only 22,000,000 f. in 1851 to
26,000,000 f., in 1852 to 23,000,000 f., have risen in the
last five years so high (without including the public
monuments) as to give a value of 250,000,000 f. If the
126,000,000 f. of demolitions effected during that period
have in' ariy way contributed to the rise of rents, the
712,000,000 f. of now edifices, with all the accompanying
accessory expense,, have procured for the working classes
an amount of work, and, iu consequence, a rise of wages
t'•.rat may well serve to compensate the expense entailed
by this monetary iEconvenience.
In fine, it is undoubted that the number of new con-
structions far suroasles that of houses demolished, and
that which invariably happens in trade will also belal
rent. The ascertained glut of any ware naturally pro•
duces a fall of its price.

LATEST EWS.

VIENNA, TUESDAY.

The Emperor has left
_for Hungary. M. de
Bulow, charged with a special mission from Den-

mark, has arrived here. General de Martini,
Austrian ambassador at the court of the Two

Sicilies, left to-day for Naples.
The Bourse is very agitated, in consequence of
the affairs of Naples, and of the Bank having