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

EDINBURGEf, 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 Edinburgh,
Perth, and Dundee Railway has actually declared a
dividend of 11 per cent, on the ordinary stock of the
company, anu had surplus funds apparently sufficient to
have warranted 2 per cent. This is certainly a most
gratifying position of affairs. Not many half years ago
the wildest dreamer would have laughed irit„the face of
the man who would have hinted at such a thing ; and
in this, as in many other cases, fact has turned out
stranger than fiction. For tkis 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 had rather
severe critici-rns to make on the half-yearly balance
sheet of th. company, but with the exception of one
item of 2001. of legal expenses connected with the Scot-
tish Midland and Aberdeen Railways, there beerna 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. Tne report, however, is, upon the whole,
exceedingly gratifying, and such 34 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 resalt 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, wbo, Sunday and Satur-
day, are at their post, 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 half-holiday movements
and worke:s' excursions for almost every other class of
workers in the kingdom are incessantly demanding atten-
tion, we are not aware that there has been any move-
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, not 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
otances of the company, have been not too liberally
p aid • and now that better times are come, a few
po,ends a very few pounds, such as will be the merest
trifi a when compared with the proceeds of the line, would
be a most acceptable and a well-merited addition to the
salmi's of the most deserving. We could point out more
than o,le 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-
plication if such a small sum as the addition of 151. or