The Sun.
London, England, 1867-05-01 00:00:00

GREAT SOUTHERN OF INDIA.

The annual general meeting of this company was
held yesterday at the Loudon Tavern ; Mr. J.
Chapman in the chair.
The report, an abstract of which has appeared in
The Sun; was taken as read.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving its adoption, said the
progress of the company during the past year was
highly satisfactory. To the 79 miles of line previ-
ously in operation there were added 47f miles from
Trichinopoly to Caroor, opened for traffic on the
3d of December. All that now remained to com-
plete the undertaking was the branch from Caroor
to Erode, a distance of 40 miles, and it was confi-
dently expected that this would be finished by the
end of the year. The centre line, extending over
a distance of 166 k miles, would then be in working
operation, and a large increase of traffic might be
looked for. The Government had sanctioned the
issue of £200,000 of additional capital, of which
only £150,000 would be required. In 1864 the
gross receipts were only £27,000 ; in 1865 they
were £35,000, and last year they amounted to
£45,000, showing an increase of about 68 per cent.
on the returns for 1864, which he thought was sa-
tisfactory. The net traffic for 1864 showed a profit
of 16s. 4d. per cent. This was increased in
1865 to £2 15s. per cent., ani in 1866 to £3 153.
per cent., anti would thus steadily increase to £5
per cent. guaranteed by the Government.
Mr. J. BUTT tecond,kl the motion for the adop-
tion of the report, which, after some discussion as
to the cost of inanagcnient, was adopted.

Captain JOHNSON, the retiring director, was re.
elected, as was also Mr. Nelson, the retiring audi-
tor ; and a vote of thanks to the chairman con-
cluded the proceedings.

TELEGRAM CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTEN-
ANCE (LIMITED).
- - - -

The third annual general meeting of this com-
pany was held yesterday at the London Tavern ;
Mr. J. Fender in the chair.
The report stated that they had successfully com-
pleted the following contracts taken during the past
year:—
The cable across the Gulf of St. Lawrence, con-

lIIE SLN, LON i

necting Newfoundland with Cape Breton, establish-
ing a second telegraph line from the Newfoundland

end of the Atlantic cables to New York ; also
the manufacture and laying of a heavy
four-wire cable from Lowestoft to Norderney for
Reuter's Telegram Company, thus giving direct
telegraphic communication between England and
Northern Germany. In addition to the 6,006 miles
of submarine cables of different types previously
laid down by the staff of the company they had,
during the year 1866, manufactured and successfully
submerged 2,167 miles of cable, and satisfactorily
established the company's competency to recover
cables in great oceanic depths. After reserving
£lO,OOO for maintenance of the Malta and Alex-

andria Telegrhph there remained a balance of profit
of £122,426, from which was deducted £13,211,
the interim dividend of 2i per cent. paid to the
proprietors to June 30, 1856, leaving £109,212 for
disposal, which the directors proposed to appropriate
as follows :—To pay the proprietors the balance of
interest on capital at 5 per cent. £15,265, and a
further dividend at 5 per cent. per annum £30,530,
making up 10 per cent, per annum, free of

income-tax, and out of the balance of £63,418 to
place to the credit of the reserve fund £35,329,

1 •
which would at once increase that fund to the maxi-
mum amount—£so,ooo, and to carry £28,089 to
next year's profit and loss account. In addition

there remained to be received at the end of the year

1866 from the Atlantic Telegraph Company further
ordinary stock of that company, amounting to
£67,030, which would augment the balance for next

year. The Board had found it necessary to raise
further capital for the more profitable and econo-
mical working of the company's business, and had

decided to make a call of £5 per share, payable by
instalments—viz., £3 per share in May and £2 in

August. The directors had already this year con-
tracted with the New York, Newfoundland, and
London Telegraph Company for the manufacture
and laying down of about 300 miles of cable between
Placentia (Newfoundland) and Sydney (Nova
Scotia), and they were in treaty for several other
important contracts. The balance-sheet showed that
£609,145 had been paid up on 37,350 shares, and
£60,000 had been raised on debentures. The pro-
perty of the company in premises, leases, goodwills,
patents, &c., was estimated at £784,888. There
were also sundry securities held by the company in
shares and debentures of other companies represent-

ing £129,289.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving tho adoption of the re•
port, congratulated the proprietors on the successful
laying of the Atlantic Cable of 1866, and on the
recovery of the cable in 1865. Those impor-
tant works had involved great anxiety on the part
of the directors and great expense on the company.
The Great Eastern had been six weeks knocking
about the Atlantic in adverse weather before they
were enabled to pick up the cable of 1865. He be-
lieved the expenditure and risk they had incurred in
those operations were more than any other company
would be prepared to undertake. The dividend of 10
per cent. for the year was not so large, owing to the
reserves they had to make, as they originally con-
templated. They had been at considerable expense,
and then came the great and long depression in the
money market. It was thought that, as they had
completed their work so successfully, they would
have been flooded with contracts, but that had not
been the case, and, as prudent men, they thought it
better to improve what they had. They held pro-
perty in the Atlantic Telegraph Company and in the
Anglo-American Company, and as the receipts of
those companies were increasing every day their
securities would go on augmenting in value. They
had already improved to the extent of 30 per cent.
The successful manner in which their work had been
done must create great confidence in the company.
They found the business required a larger capital
than they thought would be necessary when they
commenced operations, and that was the reason
they made a call of £5 per share. The call would
produce £l3-1,410. They had that day accepted a
contract for a cable from Tasmania to Australia.
They had made a contract with the Italian Govern-
ment for a line from Susa to Suez. They were to
make lines to India, and they would have a right
of way for a telegraph through France. The Go-
vernments of different countries now seemed to be
impressed with the importance of extending tele-
graphic communication to other countries. They
were in treaty with some of them for laying down
important lines which it would not be advisable to
mention at present. The Atlantic Telegraph cables
were now in receipt of from £1,200 to £1,500 a-day;
it was found that these cables had the capacity of
doing any amount of business, and he was sure they
could defy all competition. Ile regretted the absence
of Sir H. A. Glass from ill health, but he hoped be-
fore long that he would be so far recovered as to be
with them again. (Hear, hear.) They had secured
the services of Capt. Sherard Osborn as managing
director, and from what they knew of him they had
entire and implicit, confidence in his ability and ma-

nagement.
Mr. CAMPBELL, a director, seconded the motion
for the adoption of the report.
After some further observations by Mr. Eames,
Mr. Evans, Mr. G. Bidder, jun., Mr. Samuel, and
Mr. Dickins,
The CHAIRMAN replied that he considered it an
advantage to have all the calls on their shares paid
up. The calls which were due had been paid up,
and the debentures were issued when money was
dear, at 6 per cent. interest. The number of direc-
tors was 12, and they had £3,000 a year ; they re-
ceived for three years' services £B,OOO among the 12
men, and they were entitled to a percentage of
profits over and above paying 10 per cent. to
the shareholders. After the failure of the cable
of 1863 it became necessary ,to raise money for
the company, when ten names were put down for
£lO,OOO each, eight were directors, and the other
two were Mr. Cyrus Field and Mr. Bewley, of
Dublin. In carrying on the business of the com-
pany they managed to secure sufficient materials to
be independent of the market ; and it was not
wise to give too much information with regard to
the business they had in hand, as it might not be
to the advantage of the company.
Resolutions were passed adopting the report, and
declaring the dividend of 10 per cent. on the paid-
up capital, free of income tax, for the year 1866.
The meeting was then made special for the pur-
pose of considering the propriety of adopting a
provisional agreement for purchasing premises,
patents, and stock for the manufactureoftele-
tele-
graphic cables, and after some formal resolutions
theiir
proceedings
and directors.i
ngscotclu(led w ith a vote of thanks to
the

ON, WEDNESDAY EVENIING, MAY 1, 1867

turesque point of view, when all are converted
into Easter sepulchres ; when the pale tapers at

long intervals serve to magnify their proportions
and throw any defects into the shade, standing like
sentinels or silent mourners guarding the approaches
to the tomb, and the polished marble pavements re-
flect their flicker as in a calm lake. The only
relief to the general gloom is the vista afforded
by one chapel adorned by countless lights and bril-
liant floral and vivid images and symbols shaded
by flowing draperies. In the centre of some vast
naves may be another cluster of starry lights beam-
ing round a Crucifix laid on the ground, which
groups may be of the mighty or affluent, or may be
of the poor or lowly, may be of ragged, barefooted
children, are kissing devoutly, and a salverat the
feet receives the offering of the frequent mite.
The Easter sepulchre is the great school for
children ; the lights, and colours, and pictures,
and flowers attract them, and elicit their inquiries,

the source of traditional teaching, as their parents
lead them along from shrine to shrine. I spent a
long time studying such scenes in those churches
lying within the special haunts of the people. In
that eminently popular church, St. Maria de Monti,
where the memory of Venerable Joseph Labre,
the beggar-saint, is so affectionately venerated,
in the lofty pile of St. Lucia in Selce, and at San
Martino a' Monti, where the spacious crypt always
affords opportunity for so faithful a representa-
tion of the tomb in the rock, and the flames
come and go through the plants of "mermaids'
hair," like watchfires seen through the long grass.
St. Pietro in Vincoli was closed, but repaid the
pilgrimage by the sight of the wonderful old stair-
case leading up to it, lit only by the tinylladonna
lamp, and the palm-tree' opposite standing out
against the moonlit sky—the oil-lamps faintly
twinkling over the declivity below tempt one to de-
precate the further advance of gas on Roman soil.
May it remain to light up the busier centres, but
may it never penetrate into such nooks as this.
The pale reflections of the moon and the Italian-
grown olive oil are quite sufficient in an atmos-
phere which glazes the roughest old buildings with
brilliance.

St. Catarina da Siena, emulating San Martino
for beauty of arrangement, attracted a great many
pilgrims. The nuns, behind- an elaborate gilt
traceried grille at the west end, were singing
verses of the Vexilla Regis and other Passion
hymns alternately with a small band of Domini-
cans before the altar. An enthusiast might have
considered the effect entrancing.
At the Cappucini a venerably-bearded frate was
preaching. The nave being encumbered with
listeners, I made my way through the northern
string of side chapels ; in each half-a-dozen monks
were grouped in various effects of chiaroscuro, as
if an artist had been there to place them ; so like
a picture they looked that it seemed quite spec-
tral when they moved to makel'iiay for one to

Pa in, or to whisper. that another meditation.
-Tfis shortly to commence when I turned to leave.
As I knelt, a Sacristan bearing a huge black cross,
sypported by twotaper-beariugfrate, emerged from
the sacristy and stood infront otyf the altar. " Ecco !
ee,o is Croce !"- exclaimed the 'lir 6aclier, who had
dexterously timed the language of his meditation
to suit this interruption, and all eyes suddenly
became aware of the silent apparition. Most
were strained and clouded with tears as he apostro-
phized it in glowing language, and implored the
strengthening of the just, the conversion of the
reprobate.
Time and space, however, forbid further loiter-
ing amid these congenial scenes ; and, after all,
what is so spirit-stirring to witness is, perhaps,
tedious to read about, or I should like to give you
a few lines about the Good Friday celebration, too ;
but that cannot be by this mail, so you must for-
give me that it will reach you in the depths of
Easter ; visiting these things leaves one little time
for writing.
The washing of the pilgrims' feet at the Trinity
de Pellegrini has been as well attended as usual by
visitors, but there has been an unusually small
number of pilgrims—not forty on the men's side,
and, I hear, a hardly larger number on the women's.
It seems that this is caused by the great celebra-
tion ; for, of course, time and strength could not be
spared for the long pedestrian expeditions so near
together.
On Tuesday, Pere Pettitot, who has taken up the
Euvre of the French soldier almost as warmly as
the late lamented Pere Villenuave, conducted the
" Via Crucis" in the Colosseum, for the special
benefit of the French-speaking portion of the Pon-
tifical army, which was very well attended. He
made a short and fervent address at each Station.
We have had a great deal of talk here about
the Monitor Miantonumock being at Civita Vec-
chia ; its curious appearance has naturally excited
a great deal of attention, and I hear of several
persons having run over to pay it a visit. It is
accompanied by an armour-plated and another
American vessel. There are also at this moment,
in the same port, a Prussian corvette, a Portu-
guese, and a Spanish man-of-war, as well as an
Austrian and a French corvette. All these, as
well as all the foreign ships in harbour, were fes-
tively dressed with their colours on the 12th.—
Correspondent of Westminster Gazette.