The Sun.
London, England, 1851-07-21 00:00:00

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

LONDON, BRIGHTON, AND SOUTH COAST.
The directors of this company have issued their half-
yearly report to be submitted to the meeting of proprie-
tors on Thursday next. It states that the amount of
capital raised up to the 30th of June, 1851, is 7,175 8171.,
consisting of 1,522,5874 mortgage debt, 1,037.5961. pre-
ference capital, and 4 615,6341. consolidated stock. The
directors have steadily pursued the policy of declining to
take loans, except for a long period, such as 10 years,
so as to place the company as far as possible beyond the
risk of fluctuations in the money market ; and they have
no difficulty in obtaining money for this period at 4 per
cent.. The additional capital expended during the past
half-year, irrespective of additions to working stock,
amounts to 18,4721., of which 9,302/. is for the new ter-
minus at London-bridge. This work has been completed
for about 143,0001., or 7,0001. less than the original esti-
mate. The works contemplated in the estimate of
7,200,0001. given in October, 1848, have been completed,
the liabilities all extinguished (with the exception of
about 20,000/. for land claims, &c., owing to legal diffi-
culties), and the assets all realised with the exception of
the remaining surplus lands and other property. The
value of the surplus laud may be safely taken at about
57,000/. This would have left about 109.0001. of
surplus capital on the estimate of October,
1848, supposing the traffic not to have varied
materially from the then figure of 450,4791. per
annum. Since that period, however, the gross
annual income has increased upwards of 100,0004 of
which about 40,0001 has arisen from goods traffic, which
has advanced, in less than three years, from au average
of 1,2001. to an average of upwards of 2,0001 per week,
and the amount of work done has increased in a still
larger proportion. The whole amount expended out of
capital in providing for the additions called fur by the
increased traffic from the end of the year 1848 down to
the commencement of 1851 has been only about 28,0001.
which still left a margin of about 81,000/. of unexpended
capital within the original estimate of 7,200,0004 The
time, however, had arrived when the further increase of
working stock, &c., could no longer be delayed without
serious detriment to the traffic, and 121 vehicles, costing
in all 18,8821, have been added to the stock during the
past half-year. The passenger-stock is now sufficient for
the traffic, and the directors are proceeding to provide
for the increase in the goods department. The question
of any further sum being required beyond 7 200,000/.
will not be raised unless the progressive increase of the
traffic should render further accommodation indispensa-
ble. The gross revenue for the half-year has been
248,6351., showing an increase of 20,0664 over the
corresponding half-year of 1850, of which 15 6891. has
been in the passenger, and 4,3771. in the goods traffic.
The average increase over the corresponding period
of 1850, which, during the first four months of the year,
had been 8501 per week, has, since the opening of the
Exhibition on the Ist of May, been only 4501. per week.
The principal results hitherto obtained from the Exhi-
bition have been the establishment of a cheap and direct
route between London and Paris via Newhaven and
Dieppe. The influx of passengers attracted by the
cheap fares has been so great that it has become neces-
sary to provide two passages each way daily. On com-
paring the receipts and expenditure for the half-year
ending the 30th of June, 1851, with the corresponding
period of 1850, it appears that at the former period the
receipts amounted to 241,2041., the expenses to 107,3551.,
and the miles run to 774,899, and at the latter men-
tioned period the receipts amounted to 221,1381., the ex-
penses to 98,6344, and the miles run by the trains, to
580,1140. The principal heads of increase in the ex-
pensts have arisen from the competition at Hastings,
and the increased number of trains run partly to ac-
commodate the traffic, which since the commencement
tithe Exhibition has breu chiefly of a I:,w-pric:d de-
scription, and partly to extend the tacilities for residence
in the vicinity of the line. An iucre ase of about 3,000/. in
thelocomotive department is due to the construction of
new engines of a lighter description for the traffic of the
branch lines. The report alludes to the opening of the
Ashford and Hastings line, and to the pro-
peal made by the directors to the South-
Eastern Company with a view to prevent un •
necessary competition for the traffic between London and
Hastings, which were rejected. It goes on to state that,
" The directors notjth d to the south-Eastern Com-
pany their determination to make no alteration in the
existing rates, and to take no step whatever in the way
of competition, unless compelled to do so in self-defence;
but as the South-Eastern Company, after the first month,
increased the number and speed of their trains, and re-
duced the tares for the 94 miles from London through
Ashford to Hastings considerably below their regular
fares for the 67 miles from London to Ashford, the di-
rectors had no alternative but to place additional trains
on the line at the same fares. Expense was thus entailed
on both companies, and the proceeds of the traffic were
diminished; but the result hitherto fully justifies the di-
rectors in resisting the demand for a concession of half
the entire traffic in respect of the circuitous Ashford
line, the loss sustained by this company having been
much less than that proportion In any event it will
be satisfactory to the shareholders to know that their
rights at Hastings are so effectually secured that there is
no danger of any competition depriving them of their
fair share of the traffic.

" The opinions of the directors on the question of audit
remain unchanged. They are anxious that the pro-
prietors should on all occasions exercise the ample powers
of investigation which they at present possess, like men
of business determined to understand their own affairs;
but they deprecate all attempts to apply to railways the
continental principle of substituting Government boards
and Acts of Parliament for individual vigilance and ex-
ertion—a principle which is scouted in every other
branch of English commercial enterprise.
" The net amount at the credit of the revenue account
for the half-year is 144,5281, whereof is appropriated for
interest on the mortgage debt 31,2301., for dividend on
pi4erence capital, 27,9071.: together, 59,137 Z Leaving
a balance of 85,3914 Out of which the directors re-
commend a dividend of 11. 16s. per cent. for the half-
year, atnouating to 83,0814, leaving a balance to the
credit of the current half-year of 2,3101.
" All shares on which any calls were in arrear have
been forfeited and sold, with the exception of 40, on
which there.are arrears of calls amounting to 1,4101.
These shares will be sold immediately, and the stock
and shares account thus finally closed."
The auditors' report states that they have by their con-
tinuous and monthly audit most fully and strictly ex-
amined the accounts, and they find them correct.
The mortgage debt account shows that 551,100/. was
borrowed at 5 per cent., 6,000/. at 41 per cent., 196,4274
at 4i per cent., 162,000/. at 4i per cent., 604,5601. at 4
per cent., and 2,5001. at 31 per cent., making together
1,522,5871. The capital account shows that 7,174,4071.
had been received, and 7,137,5611. expended, giving
credit for 59,1424 surplus land and other property,
leaving a balance of 36,8451. The revenue account for
the half-year stated that 251,882/. had been received, in-
cluding 3,247/ from the last account, and that 107,3551.
had been expended, leaving a balance of 144,527/. The
reserve fund amounts to 26,1121.

GRAVEYARDS-PAST AND PRESENT.

Hamlet bpoke but the feelings of the human heart
when, moralizing in the graveyard, he exclaimed, "Did
these bones cost no more in the breeding but to play at
loggats with them? Mine ache to think on't." With truth,
he complaiaed that the clownish gravedigger "bad no
feeling of his business;" and even in the present day
there are many who mill cynically ask, " What matters
it to the escaped spirit if we be knocked about the
mazzard with a sexton's spade,' when the body has ful•
filled its office upon earth, and the withered frame has
returned to dust?" Many instances may also be cited,
in which the great ones of the earth have apparently
despised any care fur the disposal of their remains.
Plato allowed no larger funeral monument than
would contain four heroic verses, and be set aside the
most barren ground for sepulture. Pliny derides care for
the dead, as a weakness only known to men. Socrates
told his friends they might burn or bury his body, if they
would not think thereby they had burned or buried Socra-
tes. Solon desired that his body might be carried to his na-
tive Salamis, to be burned and scattered to the winds.
Diogenes directed that his remains should be ex-
posed to birds and beasts of prey. Seneca would give
DO directions as to the disposal of his body, stating that
the necessity of the case would provide fur it. But all
these are equivocal; for the very fact of their having
given directions respecting their remains evidences a
certain anxiety on the subject. Our own bbakbpere
exhibits more frankness in the matter in his well-known
epitaph:—
" Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbeare
To digg the dust enclosed here.
Blest be the man that spares these stones!
And curet be he that moves my bones !"
Whatever men may say, they feel a care for the
future disposal of their bodies. In the moment of
thoughtless revelry and idle jesting they may
affirm their indifference ; but it is to no man a
pleasing reflection that, perhaps long before the worm
has finished his work, the silence of the tomb may be

invaded by the sextons spade; that even in the grave
will competition still be rife, and the remains of
his neighbour jostle against his own; that his
bones, while still corruptible, may be cast once
more into the light of day, to be gnawed
by dogs or kicked about by the vulgar. No ! man as
he hopes for immortality for his soul desires a decent
sepulture of his body. Amid the spasmodic strugglings
of this li►e, he looks forward to a freedom from care—
to a resting place, where his body may peacefully re-
pose, and where his friends may let fall the tear of re-
spect and sympathy.
The ancients exhibited peculiar care for the dead, and
it is not very creditable to civilization that reverence for
the departed appears to have been always greater in
ruder ages than in those of luxury and refinement.
Egypt is peculiarly distinguished for its monuments,
erected in honour of the dead; and the soil around its
ancient cities is literally sown with the carefully preserved
remains of millions of bodies. Petra, the Edotn of pro-
phecy, whose existence was unknown for a thousand
years, when again discovered, presented on every side
tombs and mausoleums of surpassing splendour. Etruria
has recently become a region of enlightened curiosity,
for its sepulchral vanes and monuments. The funereal
structures of ancient Greece and Rome aro yet consulted
as models, while the ruder tumuli, which are scattered
over the face of the whole earth, show the prevalence of
the sentiment in which both originated.
Contrast these facts and feelings with the condition
of things which the report of the Sanitary Commission
and Mr. Walker's researches have brought to light—
burial grounds reeking with corruption—burned coffins
and mutilated remains—the dead resting in the one
apartment of the living while the funds were being
raised for intermen t—and the hundred other horrors
which investiganlon has nefoided to the world.—Leader.

LETTER hem JOHN iviITCHEL.
LATEST NEWS F THE EXILES "-SAFE

ESCA?E OF M.MANUS.
We copy the following from the Freeman's Journal:—
• Bothwell, Van Dkerneo's Laud,
St. Patriek's Day. 1851.
" My dear Gray—Will you do us, felons, a favour?
You will see by three newspaiiers which I send you by
this post, that the efficial people here, through the
Advertiser, which is the 6 government organ,' are trying
to deprive us of all respect and consideration by charg-
ing us with a breach of faith in the mere matter of
riding out of our prescribed bounds sometimes—as if
we could not as easily leave the island: MOdanus has
shown them how easily, the minute he was free of his
parole. In short it seems not enough that we are in
the power of these gaclers, and subject to every brutal
usage they may choose to inflict, but ' as was always yet
the trick of their English nation,' they must also
blacken and belie their enemies. Therefore, you see
they lie like Britons.
" I believe the plot to be this—to produce in England
the impression that our parole cannot be trusted, and so
to procure from London authority for Sir William Deni-
son to take us into custody and set us to work. And the
plot may succeed it no notice be taken of it. Now, the
favour you are to do us is, simply to make it known that
these fellows do not impeach our good faith without
being at least answered. And this you can do by print-
ing such extracts from these: papers, and making such
remarks as you may judge best for the purpose. But
for God's sake no appeal adrnisericordiam!
" Is it not said that Sir William Denison must be an-
swered, fur the present, only thus? And is it not a gal-
lant thing in him to set his newspaper to abuse men who
are under his lock and key, that he may do a pleasure
to his employers—the British Government and the
British nation generous, chivalrous, magnanimous
British nation!
So now that I have vented my wrath, I feel easier,
and am in a good humour. Therefore I must tell you
that from many individuals and families of that same
British nation, settled in this country, we have re-
ceived (Martin and I) the kindest and most
considerate attentions and hospitalities. Indeed the
agreeable society of their houses has rescued us
from the abomination of felonious company, or (what
would have been our only alternative) the grimmest so-
litude. lam very grateful to these good people; and
whatever may be my horror of the English Government
in Ireland, I assure you I don't hate Englishmen, and as
for Englishwomen, I love Englishwomen.
" You have heard, I am sure, of our way of life here,
through the friends of O'Meagher, Martin, &c., for they,
keep perpetually writing letters. So I need hardly in-
dulge in description. Yet here's one tableau for you.
Imagine Martin and me, atter a glorious ride of twenty
miles through noble old woods, lying on the bank of a
fine lake, deep in the central mountains. It is noon day,
and so calm the water is hardly rippling on the pebbles,
and the wooden banks and promontories, and the
endless wilderness of bush stretched away through
the smoky district to blue peaks of the north-west, are
all sleeping in the sun, and bathed, and beam-
ing in an atmosphere of gold and purple. A boat
nears us slowly by help of both sail and oars; a sun-
burnt man in a sailor'r jacket stands in the stern sheets,
holding the tiller; by his side on crimson cushions, sits a
fair and graceful girl. The sun-burnt fellow is O'Meager,
and that lady, so fair and graceful is, who do you think?
Why Mrs. O'Meagher, you dog. Martin and I spring:into
the boat, do our greetings, put the boat's head about, set the
sail, for a breeze has sprung up, and skim along under a tri-
colour flag (you know O'Meagher is great in flags), till we
open a quiet bay, at the head of which bay stands a pretty
cottage with verandah and a gum-tree jetty stretching
into the water. We step ashore, and are welcomed into
our friend's newly-buiithouse by his newly wedded wife.
They have elegant rooms, books, horses, boats—why it
is alniqst like living, I usually feel our condition here
to be a kind of syncope or trance, our movements to be
soonuinbulatory, and our apparent doings and sayings
to be sick men's dreams; but this is absolutely a kind of
quasi life.
'• Until lately we used to be perpetually going to the
lakea—shat Martin, O'Dogherty, O'Meagher, and I
—and we had a pleasant enough time of it; but I fear
that is almost over now. Sir William Denison will pro-
bably be provoked into enforcing his regulations, and
then, I suppose, we must be content with our bounds.
" Are you tired, or will you take another tableau? A
cavalcade has been organiz,A to go and see the Oase
river—a fine clear, fall, whirling, rushing, deep-eddy-
ing stream, as large as the Erne or Boyne, and we are
returning by moonlight, careering through the lonely
woods and frightening the five wits out of the oppos-
sums, that clamber in a great hurry to the very tops of
the trees as we go thundering along, for all the ladies
ride like demons. We dismount at a hospitable
house. There is a good wood fire, a lively tea-table, a
piano, and amongst the songs that while away the even-
ing we are always sure to hear the "Shan Van Voeht,"
or " The Wearing of the Green," or the like. The good
souls do this to please the exiles; and Martin and I ride
home to our little cottage as nearly content as it is possi-
ble for banished men to be.

"For after all, you know the case is bad—much worse
than death. And all Irish movements at present are a
thing to gnash the teeth over, if that were any com-
fort. Yet I, duly perpending all these things, have
resolved not t> gnash my teeth, but to make the
best of this affair, to take care of my health
(which is better than it had been for ten years
before my kidnapping), to read, to ride, to smoke, yea,
to drink, and in all ways to enjoy my death-in-life, in
defiance of the very devil. It will be over some day. I
shall revisit the breathing world through the horn-gate
—that is, round Cape Horn—snd then—
" In the mean time I expect Mrs. Mitchel and the chil-
dren out here very soon. In fact, they may arrive by any
tide, and then I mean to farm and feed my sheep, like an
Arcadian swain, or Australian squatter, and teach
the boys whatever I know—wake them good horsemen,
and bring them up in the love and fear of the British
constitution. Gray, do you remember the offer you
made to me as I stood in the dock waiting for my sen-
tence? If you forget it, I do not, and, my dear fellow,
I never will. _

" Mr. O'Brien is now living in a district near Laun-
ceston, in the north of the island. I have never seen
him since my 'kidnapping, but have had several let-
ters from him. When he was about to remove
from New Norfolk to his new abode, he wrote
to us to say, that Bothwell being directly in his
way, he would spend a day with us, ride up with us
to the lakes the next day (that being also in his way);
spend another day there, and go forward with O'Meagher
on his journey to Campbelltown. You must know it
is usual to let the common prisoners, when they have
a pass to go from one district to another, take
their own route, and remain days on the way; and
M'Manus, when he had a similar journey to make some
months ago, did the very same thing which O'Brien pro-
posed to do. Well, it came to the Governor's ears that we
expected the pleasure of this visit; so he made haste to get
a written order dispatched to O'Brien, requiring him to pro-
ceed to his destination by way of Bridgwater and the mail
coach road, and not to loiter on the way.' For you
know if three rebels should get together they might plot
mischief, and danger might arise to the British consti-
tution. Three rebels! Why it is the precise number
that makes a riot. Wherefore Sir William acted with
prudence as well as magnanimity.
" I sat down merely to ask an editorial favour of
you, and here I have written you a long rigmarole. If
you like to print any of it, or all of it, do so ; but at
any rate do the main thing for us ; don't let these in-
fernal English papers get up a cry of breach of parole'
against us. They have beaten us—could they not now
let us alone?—l remain, my dear Gray, very truly yours,
" JOHN MITCHELL."

" I bethink me that I ought to tell you how it
fell out that M'Manus found himself at liberty to make
his escape. Ot course when the governor took him into
custody, and revoked his ticket of leave,' his parole
was at an end, and it wovld require a new ticket of leave
and new promise to revive it. Iu O'Dogherty's
case, after his month's hard labour, his ticket-
of-leave was restored, and a new parole required
of him. Not so M'Manus: he was not set at
liberty again by the Governor, but in spite of the
Governor, by the intervention of another power, the
' Supreme Court.' And far from giving him back his
' comparative liberty,' or taking a new prole the go-
vernor sent him orders at once to report himself at a
hiring depot.' But it was too late. M'Manus had a
clear day or two, and good friends, a ship was ready to
sail, and so he went ofi. Dv,

" EGOS AND BACON; oa, SUMMUT LIKE, IT.
Wednesday last, a man who attended some cattle from a
certain part of this county to the Royal Agricultural Show,
in London, was boasting in the market of the wonderful
things he had both seen and heard in " the great metropolis
of the world." A person standing by inquired what was the
greatest wonder he had seen? and he replied, " a place all
covered over with glass." The querist inquired the name of
the place? The " feelosopher" replied, " I dunna know
dezactiy what was the name, but I thinks as how I knows
summut like it !" On being further interrogated, he said,
" the nearest name like it I can recollect is eggs and bacon l"
On being asked if he did not mean "the Exhibition," he
replied, " egad, thee halt hit on't ; thee beest a schollard,
and I be 110116,w and this io how theo'ot got the vautege!"—
rreford ra