The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-06 00:00:00

THE SUN,

parties, the right in the meantime being conceded with-
out prejudice. Mr. Carter, the solicitor to the London
and North-Western Company, in reply to the notice !
from the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Company,
stated on the 27th of November that the company had
been advised that under the agreement made by the
4hrewsbury and Birmingham Company with the Great
Western Company and the other proceedings of the
parties the special powers given the company under the
Stour Valley Act of 1847 had ceased, and that it was
the intention of the company to resist by all lawful
means any attempt to exercise those powers. And, in
order to afford every reasonable facility for obtaining a
speedy decision upon the question at issue, they sug-
gested that the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Company
a bill and move for an injunction to
should
restrain file
the London and North-Western Com-
pany from preventing them using the line in
the terms of the Act, the London and North-
estern undertaking to admit that they resist
such use, and the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Com-
pany undertaking to produce the arguments in question,
and all other documents affecting the matter. Between
the 27th and 29th of November some letters passed be-
tween the solicitors on both sides respecting the intention
of the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Company to book
passeegers and to run over the Stour Valley line with
engines and carriages. On the Ist of December the ex-
ecutive committee of the Shresbury and Birmingham
Company submitted a proposition to the London and
North-Western Company to the effect—" That the exer-
cise of the right of the Shrewsbury and Birmingham
Railway Company to use the Stour Valley Railway be sus-
pended without prejudice for a month, the London and
North-Western Company undertaking forthwith to bring
the objection raised by them to that right before the Court
for adjudication by injunction or otherwise, and to open
forth with and work for public use the Stour Valley
Railway between the joint station at Wolverhampton and
Birmingham." The Shrewsbury and Birmingham Com-
pany undertook, if the first proposal be not accepted,
to suspend in like manner until after Monday, the Bth
inst., the exercise of the same powers under any circum-
stances. On the 2d of December Mr. Carter, the soli-
citor to the London and North-Western ompany,
stated in reference to the course adopted by the Shrews.
bury and Birmingham Company on the Ist inst. to force
a passage over the Stour Vailey line, that nothing but
the presence of the Mayor and magistrates and of a body
of police prevented them from carrying their threatened
violence into execution, and that certain loss of life must
have been the result. That before they could run their
engines and carriages on the Stour Valley line it was
therefore absolutely necessary that the extent of their
alleged rights should be ascertained by an appeal to the
law. Mr. Roy, the solicitor of the Shrewsbury and Bir-
mingham, in a letter dated the 3d December, complains that
the solicitor of the London and North-Western Company
had misrepresented the conduct of the Shrewsbury and
Birmingham Company on the Ist instant, stating that
the latter company had given sufficient notice of their
intention to ran over the line, to enable the London and
North-Western Company to move the Court of Chancery
to restrain them from exercising the right, and that in-
stead of doing so they chose to threaten them (the
Shrewsbury and Birmingham Company) with violence in
case they carried on their traffic from Wolverhampton.
tinder these circumstances, the company had no alter-
native, rather than risk the public safety, but to abstain
from carrying on the traffic of the district and to call in
the aid of the magistracy and police while they formally
asserted their right. lie concludes by stating that since
the London and North-Western Company persist in
keeping the Stour Valley Railway closed, the Shrews-
bury and Birmingham have gone further, and met them
with au offer to suspend their right of using the Stour
Valley Railway, if the London and North-Western will
I carry the public themselves.