The Sun.
London, England, 1851-03-05 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING,

THE FAMILY" STATESMEN !
(troth the Titn.s,)
The crisis, it appears, has its moral. Ther9 is one
point in which all parties are wonderfully agreed, and
that is the v, ry small number of men at all fit, or likely,
for power, We remember when it was stated as rather
a striking fact, that there were only forty men in the
empire of Ministerial rank and capacity—men whose
admission to a Cabinet would not be regarded as a
blunder. That seemed rather a p radox. but neverthe-
less we now boast little more than half that number.
The schcol is declining, and it begins to be a serious
question whether the race of statesmen may not soon be
extinct, and the Sovereign be forced, will or nill, to dis-
pense with advisers. In these days of free trade it cer-
tainly is rather singular that the highest employment
in the country, and that most essential to the public
wellbeing, should have fallen into the hands of monopoly.
Why don't the Manchester gentlemen set up a
lc ague for free trade in office? The Ministerial
guild should be thrown open to competition, like the In-
dian trade, the municipal franchise, and the corn-market.
According to present appearances, state: men, like a poet,
nascitur, non fir, excepting that he may sometimes be-
come one by marriage. That the fact is so is established
by the consent of all the authorities, and, as those au-
thorities can give effect to their opinion, it amounts to
an actual determination to shut the door against up-
starts. A man, of course, may have a hand in Govern-
ment; he may make speeches„ move the masses, work
the press, get up associations, and make justice at last a
political necessity; but then it must to all out of doors,
or in that ambiguous region—within doors or out of
doors—that perpetual twilight of power, the British
House of Commons. If a man will consent to du his
work in rather a scrubby fashion, to be a Spartacus and
lead a servile war, or to be a literary nishtman and
write for the papers, he may perhaps serve the State, no-
torious or unknown; but that is not the way to office.
It leads in the other direction.
The first authority we shall cite on this point is the
Marquis of Lansdowne. Oa Friday evening, after de-
precating the attempt to carry on the public business of
the country without sufficient pledges of support, he pro-
ceeded:—" Such a state of things, in my opinion, if pro-
longed, can never fail to be detrimental to the honour of
the Crown, injurious to the best interests of the country,
and profitable only to those—not the most respectable
class of politicians—who in such circumstances find a
consequence which does not naturally belong to them,
and which they would not otherwise possess." We will
not do his Lordship the injustice of supposing that in
these words he intended a personal insult to the half-
dozen gentlemen whom the difficulties of his Cabinet
have brought just within sight of power for the first
time in their lives. Such is not the language
used by British statesmen towards those who are
for _ the nonce their actual rivals, whatever their

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.
8011111-EASTERN.

The half-yearlyraceting of thin company was held
yesterday at the Bridge-house hotel, London-bridge;
Mr. J. Macgregor in the chair.
Mr. HERBERT, the secretary, read the advertisement
convening the meeting. after which a report of the direc-
tors was taken as read.
The CHAIRMAN said, they would perhaps allow him
to use the language of the board, and to say that he be-
lieved that the continental traffic from London to Dover
and Folkestone had never been fully or fairly developed.
He believed that the Exhibition of Universal Industry in
London would be the means of opening a communication
between the :wo countries by the South-Eastern Rail-
way, and which would develop the traffic they had a
right to expect would come upun the line and have pro-
duced proarerity to them in the year 1848. In February,
1848, when the line from Paris to Boulogne was com.
pitted, those untoward events took place on the continent
of Europe which rendered the line so little available fur
public traffic that no increase took place. The state of
the relations between the two countries remained so far
in abeyance that there was somewhat less traffic between
London and Paris passing over their line than there had
previously been when the means of communication were
simply the diligences. To the South-Eastern Company the
Great Exhibition of 1851 would he of peculiar benefit.
It would be to them that great cousideration which the
opening of the continental lines would have been in
1848 had it not been for the untoward circumstances to
which hr had adverted. It would he satisfactory to them
to observe, as an earnest of what they might look for-
ward to, that there had been a considerable increase in
the continental traffic. During the last half-year the
number of excursionists who travelled between London
and Paris at the cheap rate of fare was 7,276; the num-
ber of passengers who had paid ordinary fares was
12,521; and the total increase of traffic between London

and Folkestone and Dover, was 13:914/. He could not
speak of this as a very important amount, but as a pro-
mise that when the Great Exhibition should have passed
' away they would continue to reap, in successive years,
the advantages of the facilities of communication which
that Exhibition would make known existed between the
Continent and London. In reviewing the statement of
receipts and expenditure for the past two half-years he
had not much to say with respect to economy. He
could point to charges of about 5,0001. for the half-year
which would not come again against revenue; and he could
also point to the diminution of expenditure which would
hereafter take place in the maintenance of way.
Mr. Barlow's great invention of permanent way would
not require a renewal fund to be laid aside at the
rate of 451. per mile per annum, as had hitherto
been the case, for it had been most satisfacto-
rily demonstrated that they might lay aside with
perfect safety only 201. per mile per annum with the
certainty that that amount would replace the permanent
way. He believed it to be a demonstrated certainty
that the effect of the use of Mr. Barlow's iron sleeper
would be that in future years this renewal fund, in re-
spect of which 20,0001. was devoted for the last half-
year, would not require more to be charged against re-
venue than probably 12,0001. A considerable sum had
been charged to revenue for the reproduation of rolling
stock over and above that sum which their own officers
told them was necessary for the purpose; but they now
thought it better and fairer to all parties to take a reso-
lution from the shareholders that there should be such a
sum laid aside as should be deemed by the company's
officers sufficient to meet any depreciation that might
have taken place, and, in fact, to place it in as efficient
a state as it was at the beginning of the half-year. In
the expectation of the extraordinary demand that would
in this year and the ensuing years be made upon them
for locomotive power and carriage stock, the directors
had ordered 25 engines of the very best description to be
delivered, under penalty, almost immediately, and a
sufficient quantity of carriage accommodation to provide
for an excess of between 4,000 and 5,000 persons.
They believed they would, with the assistance of these
superior engines, be able to do justice to the occasion,
and insure to the shareholders those benefits to which
they were so well entitled. With regard to Parlia-
mentary contests, they had to bear a burden this half-
year of not less than 2,0001. for the announcement which
the landowners' line had given them—a line projected to
be a rival one to the South-Eastern and Dover, and to
be supported by the parishes through which it was in-
tended to pass by a rate-in-aid, in order to find a divi-
dend for those gentlemen who were to advance capital
for the construction of the railway. He doubted it was
impossible for any parties to make a single mile of rail-
way in Kent which would pay. At the same time he
looked forward to a period when the South-Eastern
Company, being in a state of prosperity, would complete
certain links of communication which were still wanting
in the Kentish system of railways, although he did not
look forward to those links of communication being of
themselves productive property. He thought, however,
that possessing as they did a great property which would
undoubtedly be remunerative, it would be worth their
while to expend a certain amount of capital to fortify
their position and to prevent that opposition which
must always prove injurious. He then adverted to
differences of opinion with the Brighton Railway Com-
pany. Ho congratulated the proprietors that there
was something to differ about with the Brighton Com-
pany; for he thought it must be obvious that if the
London and Hastings and St. Leonards' traffic was not
of great value to the Brighton Company they would not
have thrown any obstacles in the way of the South-Ess•
tern Company in their endeavour to get a share of it,
The Brighton Company, without any communication,
written or verbal, filed a bill in Chancery to restrain
them from proceeding with the Ashford and Hastings
works.—(Hear, hear.) They (the Brighton Company)
had put forward in some of their letters that they had
great apprehension that the South-Eastern Compar)
were making the line in so careless a manner that the
public safety would be endan;send thereby, but be
thought the safety to which the Brighton Company were
looking was that of their own breeches' pocket—(Laugh
ter.) The Brighton Company wished to retain the
Hastings' traffic as long as possible, and they were quite
willing to throw every impediment in the way of the
South-Eastern Company obtaining a share of that traffic.
In one part of that correspondence the Brighton Com-
pany told them they grounded their title to work to the
South-Eastern station at Hastings, on an agreement with
the Brighton, Lewes, and Hastings Company. The
die ectors of the aouth-Eastern Company begged
permission to have a sight of the agreement- They
then shifted their ground, and stated that they
placed their title not on agreement, but on certain Acts
of Parliament, where they (the South-Eastern board)
could not find the title at all. On that the board took
such steps as they were advised, and which made it
necessary for the Brighton Company to apply to a court
of law to obtain an access to the station, which was then
at once offered to them, but on condition that they should
submit their title to a court of law. The fact was that
the Brighton, Lewes, and Hastings Company had a right
to travel over the Ashford and Hastings line of the
South-Eastern Company from St. Leonards to Hastings,
Company the earnings they
obtained and a quarter of the South-
p aying the o
vSeoru South-Eastern E ams ti el
or n
Eastern line, but they had no right to use the building.'
at Hastings without pay-
ing for them. The South-Eastern Company had of the South-Eastern Company
ad-
mitted them to the enjoyment of the one of two stations,
on the condition that their title should be fulfilled, or
that they should pay proper remuneration fir the accom-
modation afforded. The South-Eastern Company had
made a broad proposition to the Brighton Company.
which they had not accepted. It was that they should
squally divide with the South-Eastern Company the
traffic between London and St. Leonards and Hast-
ings, and that there should not be any competition
between them. The Brighton Company declined to
agree to the proposition, but stated that they would
be ready to take up something of the sort when the
South-Eastern Company's line from Tunbridge Wells to
Hastings should be completed. It was clear that when
the So instead of one, the Brighton Company would not be in
hadnowtwo lines to Hastings
were to claim half the
st
roagfficOgUot
betweenohd-
ap o Easterns
position
Co
ion a
Londonn Company
y t
a n d
Hastings. A few days
would, perhaps, decide whether the Brighton Company
intended to compete for or divide the Hastings' traffic.
At a former period it was urged on the directors that
they ought to amalgamate with the Brighton Company
and lease the line at 7 per cent. The proposition made
by the South-Eastern directors was that on the principle
of money, pound for pound,
amalgama-
tion to the proprietors; but, as to admitting the
preten-
sions of the Brighton Company, that they were to have
matters all their own way, and to strip the South-
t they e an
equalo
u w amountbe justified f sterling
in
recommending
of the Hastings' an
Eastern Company traffic which came
upon the South-Eastern line before the Hastings' branch
of the Brighton Railway was finished, was totally out
of the question. A most talented correspondence had
taken place with the Commissioners of Railways, in
which it was stated how improper it was
that the South-Eastern shareholders should get any
dividend at all, or that the, liue should be opened to
Hastings until all manner of warehouses and shops, &c.,
of every description, were made at Hastings. After the
correspondence had reached a certain point the South-
Eastern Board dared to insinuate, though in the most
delicate terms, to the Railway Commissioners—(Laugh-
ter)—that their duty was one which related to the safety
of the public; and es they had seen reports from the
Commissioners' officers in which it was stated there was
no doubt the line was safe for public traffic, as the 5,000
shareholders of the company were naturally looking for
their long deferred dividend they must claim the certi-
ficate to open the line. They were permitted to do so.
At the Bricklayers' Arms and at Ashford everything
was approaching completion, and, as was stated in the
report, by the Ist of January, 1852, they sincerely be-
lieved the capital account would be finally closed. To
accomplish that it would be necessary to go on realising
the value of their surplus land. They had already sold
to the extent of 20,0001., of which they had received
12,0001. He believed that 100,000/. of surplus property
might be realised and brought to the credit of the
capital account during the next twelve months. Besides
this there was a sum of about 165,000/., overdue calls,
which he was glad to say was all safe,—(Cheers.)
There was an investment in the company's shares
which, it sold, would in the present state of the market
realise a profitof 21,000/.—(Hear, hear)—besides realis-
ing the dividend, amounting to 23,646/., which they
found put to the credit of the revenue account. But the
directors submitted that on this subject the shareholders
should allow the board to be open to receive tenders for
those shares, deliverable in three, six, cr any number of
months, prior to the 31st of January, 1852, so that the
company should not be under the necessity of pressing
them upon the market for an immediate stile. They
thought that in this way the amount of stock would be
realised without affecting the market in the slightest
degree, end that it would realise not only 21,000/. profit,
which they might obtain at the price of the market, but
a much larger sum. He thought that when the directors
gave the shareholders the result of the working of the
new engines that had been ordered they would see that
the couspuny bad acquired great workin power without

intrinsic claims to that position. The only
decent construction of these worts is an avowed and
wholesale disparagement of that entire second class of
politicians, whose prospect of power is founded on the
failure of the first class. His Lordship is so honestly
persuaded that orthodox statecraft is vested in a very
small clique, that he is convinced it would be a nationrl
calamity to let in new hands. His is a wholesome jea-
lousy and depreciation of outsiders. It is the old quarrel
between " the trade" and interlopers, between fully-
qualified artisans and independent workmen. There is
not an employment in the country, from the moneyers
of the Mint to the colliers on the Tyne, nay, even to the
gangs of Irish " navvies," where those who are in do
not combine to exclude those who are out, in the full
conviction that there is not work for all. The Whigs
constitute thus a Political Union, which, no other unions
being strong enough, has a right to the public work of
the nation, and won't hear of intruders.
Lord Stanley's testimony is still more important, be-
cause the result of a close and friendly examination. He
has seen the nakedness of the land with his own eyes,
and reports the result with dispassionate fidelity. Ins
party, in his own words, " comprises men of talent, but
unfortunately contains hardly more than one individual
of political experience, and versed in the transactions of
public life ;" and his Lordship's inference is that without
that intimate experience they are unfit for cffice. He
subsequently recalls even this niggard allowance, this
one competent Protectionist. " There were few, if any,
men possessed of sufficient experience or habits of public
business," in his party—and this from a man whose
standard of official application is notoriously indulgent!
But how is this difficulty ever to be removed? If a boy
is not to go into the water till he can swim, how is he
ever to acquire the faculty? Franklin, indeed,: says
that he learnt to swim by sprawling on a table,
with a frog in a basin to direct his movements; but
Disraeli and his friends might sit for ever looking at
the gentlemen on the Treasury bench, without learning
the trick of office from their operations. But before
we reply to these discouraging views on the dearth, or
rather the impending extinction of statesmen, we will
add another testimony, unfortunately to much the same
purpose.

- Lord John Russell, on the same evening, treated the
subject rather differently, but with the same end. All
that he had to do was to make a simple statement, which
he did; but then he wound it up with a very pretentious
homily on the text, "Evil communications corrupt good
manners," tho only conceivable apropos of which was,
that there was an immediate danger of the Government
falling into ♦ery bad hands ; iu fact, that something
like a political swell mob was hustling him with a view
to that booty. It is not at all usual for gentlemen of
honest intentions and unsitTi.cted deportment to deliver
lectures on the cardinal virtues of the first maxims of
duty to one another, at least few but the Jenkinsons of
society do so. Lord John Russell might, just as well
have maundered off into a discourse on sincerity, or
patriotism, or forbearance ; and it would have
amounted to an inuendt) that some of his hearers
were particularly deficient in some of those respects.
Then, why preach about good company oa this
occasion? His great comfort, he says, throughout the
long struggle. and final triumph of Parliamentary reform
wro, " that he was acting with men in whom he had the
utmost confidence, on whose judgment he could rely,
and in whose integrity he felt the most perfect faith."
Very well; but is he in any danger of being dragged
into bad company? Whom does he mean? Sir James
Grisham? Lord Aberdeen? Mr. Gladstone? the Duke

of Newcastle? Mr. Sidney Herbert? Mr. Locke
Mr. Cobden? Mr. Disraeli? Some persons or some
actual class must be allusted to in these words, or they
are a mere platitude. His quotation from Burke ought
to be received with the practical comment that the
writer of tho,e words did break the trammels of party,
and did fled virtue elsewhere than in a clique. Going
then into detail, Lord John recites the virtues of
his early advisers, and -his later as well as his pre-
sent colleagues; not obscurely insinuating that he
and they were all equally "patriotic," "incorrup-
tible," " disinterested, " wise," " virtuous," and so
forth. Now, we must say that this is a case of enormous
puffery, and, what is worse, of malicious puffiing, for
Lord John Russell is puffing himself and his friends
avowedly at the expense of some persona or other sup-
posed to be aspiring to power, not without a reasonable
expectation of it. We might have a little hesitation in
awarding these eulogies of Lord John and his friends,
absolutely and without prejudice to others; but we do
hr sit ate to say thu all the Whigs, for the last hundred
years, have exhibited a greater hatred of jobs, a greater
indifference to the elevation of their families and con-
nexions, a greater contempt of titles, orders, honours,
and emoluments than any other school of statesmen.
Comparisons are always invidious, but never more so
than when they are made in favour of the speaker and
party. Either the peroration of Lord John Russell's
speech was an exclusive assumption of extraordinary
merit in behalf of himself and his colleagues, or it
meant to convey the impression that most of the other
names then "en the cards" were very much below the
average.

on."

CoMmon sense itself suggests a reply to this whole
strain of observation. It is an insult to a free people
and a constitutional State to allege that the faculty of
Government is confined among us just to a score or two
hands. What becomes of all ournumerous institutions for
self-government, our local magistracy, our hereditary
Legislators, and our 656 representatives in the Lower
House, with the ordeal of Committee business they are
made to undergo, if, with all this apparatus of political
training, the sacred gift of government is, after all, an
heirloom in two or three families? Surely there is no
lack of business habits in this country; surely we have
method enough, and can stick to our desks if occasion
require. The mere natural faculty of government must
be common enough, as well as a sufficient aptitude
for routine. Socrates said and proved satisfactorily
that a man who can conduct eramatie entertain-
ments or public games well has all the quali-
ties required for the service of the common-
wealth; and an apostle intimates that a man who
manages his household well is, so far, qualified for a
bishopric. The most fatal blunders of statesmen—those
that lead to war or rebellion—that alienate colonies and
disgust the people, that shackle commerce or ensnare the
conscience, are offences against common sense and com-
mon humanity, not against the esoteric rules of office
or any secret of statecraft. It has always been the boast
of the British people that they can adapt themselves to
any useful employment, possessing great versatility to-
gether with strong principle and judgment. Haw easily
our youngsters govern India, and how quickly have our
kinsmen across the Atlantic become a great empire!
Arc, then, the British people to be supposed generally
incapable of governing, and dependent on the precarious
boon of one or two families of heaven-sent statesmen?
Some fallacy, not to say fraud, may morally bo sus-
pected when so monstrous an absurdity is palmed upon
u. For the honour of the country we will not believe
it, but will rather conclude that they who tell us this are
themselves under some serious mistake as to the nature
of true government.

THE LATE EARL OF IleaßniaToN.—Yesterday
evening the mortal remains of the late Earl of Harrington
were brought from Brighton by special train, and were con-
veyed to his late residence in Whitehall-gardens. On Fri-
day evening they will again be removed by special train to
Elvaston castle, Derbyshire, for their final resting-place in
the family vault of the beautiful chapel adjoining the castle.
THE CLERK OF THE TELEGRAPH.--" You would
hardly believe," he said, " bow such an employment as mine
teaches one curtness : how one gets into the habit of saying
what one has to say in as few words as possible, and yet with
perfect clearness. I write occasionally little articles, and I
find that in them I unconsciously avoid all redundancy of
words, just as when transmitting a message. You have no
idea what a lengthy affair the messages are which we have
given us to transmit, with so many useless expressions that
make the inquiry, or whatever it may be, nearlv twice as
long as necessary. In delivering it, we cut it down about
one-half, and yet our version tells all that is to be said quite
as intelligibly as the original. For nothing is the telegraph
so often put in requisition as to inquire about ladies' dogs
that are missing. Hardly a day passes without some such in-
quiries. And such descriptions! A perfect history of the
animal's habits and virtues: it seems they can never say
enough. I have often thought how they would be shceked
did they see how all the long history of their favourites is
condensed into a couple of lines; and yet answers the pur.
pas AA wiper-Chemimes jownsh

a greater expenditure of fuel. He adverted to the mea-
sure taken by her Majesty's Government that passports
should be issued for all parts of Europe at reduced prices.
The directors hoped the Government would be induced to
issue the passports at some office not far from the booking
office of the railway. The state of the French railways
was a matter of great importance to the South-Eastern
Company. At the present time a passenger might leave
London three days later than by Southampton, and still
reach Malta in time for the overland mail to India, and
for a less amount of expense. The dividend which the
directors proposed was one at the rate of 31. 6s. 14. per
cent. per'annum; and the amount carried to profit and
loss would a►low of that being divided, and leave a sur-
plus of 2,9881. He congratulated the shareholders on
the present state of their affairs, and concluded by moving
the adoption of the report.
Mr. lizzismAw, the deputy chairman, seconded the
motion.

Mr. G. S3IITH congratulated his brother shareholders
on the satisfactory nature of the report, and said, with
reference to the proposed disposal of the company's
stock. representing 154,0001., that in his opinion it should
have been offered pro rata to the proprietors. which
would have given them a kind of bonus of one share to
every forty shares in the company. He believed the
price at which the dii ectors purchased these shares was
241. each.

Mr. LTPCROFT said, there c 0413 bo no doubt that

would be a very desirable thing to close the capital sc.
count, and he wished to know whether the chairmen
could state the amount at which it could be closed?
The CHAIRMAN said, they could not state th,, exact
amount, as it depended to a certain extent on estimates;
but they believed that the capital account would consist
of 7,433,700/, consolidated stock, 481,300/. guaranteed
4i per cent. preference shares, and 1,635,0001. of mort-
gage bonds and debentures—making a total of
19,550,000/. Of course, in order to close the capital
laccount it would be necessary to sell the surplus land,
to dispose of the shares on hand, and to collect the calls
in arrear.
Mr. LEVY reminded the proprietors that he had always
told them that with care and good management their
line would be one of the best in the kingdom. Looking
at the law expenses and the opposition to the company
from various quarters, he thought, if their chairman
had not had a very able head to carry them through they
would have been placed in very considerable difficulty.
He wished to know whether the company would have to
pay the cost of the Act of Parliament for Mr. Anger-
stein's railway?
The CHAIRMAN said that Mr. Angerstein would pay
all the expenses of the Act. The company would have
to pay him 4501. per annum for the use of his wharf
on the Thames, and also to pay a toll for passing over
his line.

Mr. LEVY thought there was no doubt that the Great
Exhibition would bring them a great deal of traffic,
but he feared it would Rot be so profitable as was ex-
pected. He hoped the directors would not spend 255.
in order to get 245. worth of traffic. He did not like to
see so much money reserved for the renewal of stock as
48,0001, for he thought it was a great deal too much.
He hoped and trusted that they would refrain from law
as much as possible. They would remember that for
the last five years he had alluded, at almost every meet-
ing, to the disagreement that was likely to arise respect-
ing the Hastings' traffic. He had no wish to dictate to
the directors as to the course they should pursue with
the matter between them and the Brighton Company,
but he hoped they would seek for peace and settle the
matter amicably.
The report was then unanimously adopted.
The CHAIRMAN then moved a resolution to the effect
that a dividend at the rate of 3/. 6s. Bd. per cent. per
annum be declared for the half-year ending 31st Jun.,
payable on the 3d of April.
Mr. RENSHAW seconded the motion.
Mr. LEVY proposed that the dividend should be de-
clared free of income•tax. _ _

Mr. J. WILSON adverted to some items in the ac-
counts with the view of showing that a sum of 23,8461.,
which had accrued in the shape of dividend on the
154,0001. stock held by the company since 1848, was in-
cluded in the disposable balance out of which they were
now to receive a dividend. He mentioned this in order

that the proprietors should not run away with the no-
doe that the line had earned the whole of the dividend
during thel past half-year. He objected to the plan
proposed by the directors for the renewal of the work-
ing stock, on the ground that it would be impossible for
any one, by glancing over 366,500/. of stock, to say how
much it was depreciated in value during the half-year.
He then proceeded to comment on other items at some
length, until cries of " Question, question," and " Time,
time," induced him to conclude by stating that he did
not agree with Mr. Herapath, who sat near him, that a
reserve fund for rolling stock was unnecessary and all
nonsense. He thought, on the contrary, that it was a
wise plan to have a reserve fund for the replacement of
rolling stock.
Alderman SaLosioNs thought it very desirable that
the dividend should find its way into the shareholders'
pockets as soon as possible after it was declared. He
hoped the directors would let the shareholders have the
money as early as possible.
The CHAIRMAN begged to say, that the doubts ex-
pressed by Mr. Wilson as to ascertaining. the state of
the rolling stock at the till of each half-year had no
foundation, for, instead of the superintendent glancing
at the stock and reporting on its state at the end of each
half-year, as supposed by Mr. Wilson, a daily account
was kept, and every week a report of the state of the
stock being renewed or under repair was cent to the
directors, and by this means their cfficers were enabled
to judge of the state of the stock and the amount neces-
sary to renew it at the end of the half-year. Repairs
and replacements were continually going on in their
shops, so that in the course of time almost every part of
their engines were renewed, and they were as good, if
not better, at the end of a certain period, as they were
when new.

Tho resolution declaring the dividend was the carried.
The CHAIRMAN said, wi h reference to the observe.•

ions of the Learned and Worthy Alderman that,v% hatever
delay might be necessary in preparing the dividend war-
rants for the ordinary shareholders, there was a class of
shareholders who held 4i per cent. preference stock who
might be paid at an earlier date, and for that purpose
he had to propose that the dividends on the 4i per cent.
guaranteed stock be paid in future after the expiration
of fourteen days from the termination of each half-year.
The resolution was then seconded and agreed to.
The CHAIRMAN then proposed a resolution, to the
effect—

" That if the rolling stock of the company at the end
of each half-year be certified by the officers of the com-
pany to be i❑ as efficient a state as at the commencement,
then that no amount shall be laid aside tor renewals for

that half-year; but if the rolling stock be estimated to
be depreciated during the half-year, and to be in a less
efficient state than at its commencement, then that a re-
serve be made to the extent of the estimated depre,:ia-

Mr. J. WILSON did not think it possible to estimate,
with any degree of accuracy, the depreciation of the
stock as proposed.
The CHAIRMAN said the directors received a report
every week of the state of the stock, and there was no-
thing to prevent an honest superintendent, who inspected
the stock day by day, from being prepared with au esti-
mate at the end of the half-year of the sum to be laid
aside for the purposes referred to.
Mr. RENSHAW seconded the motion. •
Mr. J. Itimsorr would rather have no reserve at all,
unless the amount to be set aside was a fixed sum.

The motion was then agreed to.
A discussion then ensued as to carrying out the re-
commendation of the auditors with regard to the disposal
of the investment in the company's shares, which could
now be sold at a profit. One proposition was that the
stock should be divided rateably among the proprietors,
another that tenders should be sent in from parties will-
ing to take it up at periods of three months, six months,
or nine months; eventually, on the motion of Mr. Al-
burger, it was agreed not to dispose of the shares in the
bands of the company at a less sum than'33'. 6s. Bd. each.

On the motion-of the CHAIRMAN the directors were
authorised to borrow a slim not exceeding 200,0001.
The retiring directors, Messrs. R. Brown, H. L. Smile,
and C. Ironside, were re-elected, as was also the retiring
auditor, Mr. C. Child.

The meeting was then made special for the purpose of
considering the draught of a Bill, now beforo Parlia-
ment, to authorize the South-Eastern Railway Company
to accept a lease of Mr. Angerstein'd branch railway
from the North Kent Railway at Charlton to the River
Thames.

The heads of the Bill were read, from which it ap-
peared that the term of the lease was 99 years, and the
fixed rental 450/. per annum.
A resolution approving of the Bill was then passed,
and the proceedings concluded with a cordial vote of
thanks to the Chairman.
- - -

THE NEWSPAPER PRESS.—The time has not long
since gone by when the " million" was regarded by the up-
start despots of a down-trodden humanity as a mass of me-
chanical and unthinking animalism; but a new epoch has
arrived, and now shines with no common lustre. It is not
merely now " King, Lords, and Commons, in Parliament
assembled," with their blue books voluminous; but there is
a " fourth estate," a übiquitous and higher power—the su-
perintending people to whom all must appeal, all serve, and
to whom all must bend, willingly or unwillingly. The
genius of the age is, in short, th• popular mind—the public
opinion, acting by and through that powerful organ the
public press. It is the badge and mark of modern civiliza-
tion. It is the people's own, the concentrated essence of
their mind, as they progress to a higher civilization—it will
speed onward before them with the increased velocity of the
locomotive, until it reaches the terminus of the " good
time."

EXTRAORDINARY FATALITY.—On Wednesday
morning, shortly after breakfast hour, four prisoners, who
were regularly employed about the Glasgow prison grounds,
under the superintendence of an officer, in scavenging, light-
ing, and attending to the furnaces connected with the heat-
ing apparatus in the different departments of the prison,
were discovered lying in a state of asphyxia on the floor of
the furnace-room connected with the east wing, where they
had been placed by the officer in question until they had
breakfasted. Medical aid was instantly procured, when,
after assiduous application of the means suggested by, and
under the immediate superintendence of, the medical officer,
for upwards of three hours, three of the men were resuci •
tated, but not the fourth, in whom no appearance of vitality
was observable from the first. This last, it appears, was found
lying en his face among some coke placed there for feeding
the fires when required, and may thus possibly have been
exposed to the heavier and more deadly of the gases—cart!u-
setted hydrogen—generated from the imperfect combustion
of carbonaceous mat ter.—Clasgow Daily Mail.
CARDINAL'S HAT.—A Cardinal's hat is differenced
by colour and the number of its tassels, not by its shape,
which is the same for all clergymen. Thus, for simple priests,
a black hat, with one tassel on either side; for a Bishop, a
green hat with three tassels; for a Cardinal, a crimson hat
with five or seven tassels. What the reason may be for the
variation in the number of the tassels amongst Cardinals I
should be glad to learn.—Notes and Queries.
Dispatches were sent off yesterday from the Colonial-
office to the Governor of the Felkliad Wanda,