The Sun.
London, England, 1867-10-10 00:00:00

THE SUN. LONDO/4), THURSDAY EVENI.N.G, OCTOBER 10, 1867

ARCHBISHOP MANNING ON THE PAN-
ANGLICAN PROTEST AND ROME.

The following is the substance of a sermon
preached by the Archbishop of Westminster in the
Pro-Cathedral, Moorfields, on Sunday last :
"If the world hato you, know ye that it hated M©
before you."—ST. JOHN, ay., 18.

if the first Sunday in October were not set apart
by the solemn usage of the Church for the festival
of the Holy Rosary, it might be thought that we
had appointed it this year for a special design. The
ink is hardly dry upon a document, which for its
solemnity and its signatures exceeds in public im-
portance any that has ever, perhaps, emanated from
the Anglican Communion. It contains a protest
against the claim of universal sovereignty for the
Vicar of Jesus Christ, and the intercession of the
Blessed Mother of God. We are met to-day to
ask her prayers in behalf of the Sovereign Pontiff.
What we do protests against this protest ; and at
first sight, indeed, it would appear as if our act to-
day and that declaration were in irreconcileable
contradiction. I would fain hope not ; and it is my
purpose not to place them in discord, but, if I can,
to bring them into harmony. It may seetia hardly
credible, but it is true that the protest as it
stands, and interpreted by the letter, any Catholic
might sign. It is indeed a strange result that this
authoritative document, so formidable and hostile in
expression, should contain, when analysed, nothing
which any Catholic would hesitate to affirm. I do
not say what was the intention of the framers, nor
whether this interpretation be such as the Catholic
Church would warrant. But let us hope the best.
Certainly it is not the work of charity to exagge-
rate discrepancies, nor to elevate what can be swept
away into mountains of separation. The chief
teachers of the Anglican Communion have protested
against the " pretension of universal sovereignty
over God's heritage asserted for the See of Rome."
But who asserts this universal sovereignty?
Primacy of honour and supremacy of jurisdic-
tion over the universal Church, in virtue
of the power of the keys given to
Peter and his successors, is indeed a truth,
for which all Catholics would lay down their lives.
Sovereignty over the patrimony of St. Peter, this,
too, we know and understand. But sovereignty
over the universal Church no council, pontiff, or
theologian has ever claimed. Here, then, we are
in accordance. Next, the protest denounces those
who practically exalt " the Blessed Virgin Mary as
mediator in the place of her Divine Son." To this
also we say, if any man put the Mother of God in
the place of her Divine Son, let him be ana-
thema. The protest does not say that the
Catholic Church, dogmatically or doctrinally,
sets the Blessed Virgin in the place of her Son—
thus far, at least, is gain—but that it practically
does so. You can best answer this imagination.
Is there one of you so unsound in mind, is there
any little Catholic child so unintelligent, as to con-
found the creature with the Creator, and to mis-
take the Mother of Jesus for the infinite, eternal,
incomprehensible, uncreated God? Here again,
then, we are in agreement. And, lastly, we are
warned against " addressing prayers to her as the
Intercessor between God and man." But here,
once more, we have no difference. " The Inter-
cessor" here must mean, if it mean anything, " the
Intercessor" of redemption. The Catholic Church
does not believe the Blessed Mother of God to be
the Intercessor between God and man. She did
not shed her blood for the redemption of the
world. Against such a portent of heresy we pro-
test even more intensely than the protestors. We
are, therefore, in full accordance on this point also;
unless it be meant that the Blessed Virgin is not an
Intercessor at all. If this be so, these high autho-
rities have need to look to their faith. And how
far this denunciation of asking the prayers of the
Blessed Mother of God will promote the union
which the Anglican Church is so ardently seeking
with the Churches of the East, it is not for me to
say. I am afraid the Oriental Christians will not
stay to analyse the proposition as we have done,
hoping to make the best of it, bat will take it as it
sounds, and treat it promptly, with no favour.
But, for ourselves, let us take the benefit of such
rules of interpretation as arc current in these days ;
and so interpreted, this solemn protest is altogether
an innocent proclamation. I am not sure that I
have attained its meaning or the intentions of its
framers; but, like a nebula half luminous, half ob-
scure, it passes harmless over our heads, and the
Festival of the Holy Rosary will wipe it out of the
sky. Last year, on this day, we made inter-
cession before our Divine Lord, in the Blessed
Sacrament, through the prayers of His
Blessed Mother, in behalf of the person
and authority of the Sovereign Pontiff. It was
then a moment of great anxiety. On the twelfth
of the following December the protection of France
was to be withdrawn. It was prophesied that when
" the foreign bayonets" were gone, in twenty-four
hours the Romans would rise, and the power of
the Pontiff would be dissolved. They were with-
drawn, and where are the prophets ? Pius IX.
reigns calmly still. In the month of June last, half
the Bishops of the world were gathered around
the throne which ought to have been in dust.
And now, again, before Rosary Sunday has returned,
the chief antagonist of the Holy Father, the man who
has earned his fame by bravado against the Vicar of
Jesus Christ, has, by the just authority of his
King, been rendered harmless. Such are the
events of this twelvemonth past. We are enter-
ing on another year. I cannot foretell what it
may bring forth. It is full of menace, and of peril,
and all things seem tending to a crisis. But the
events of the year gone by are an encouragement
for the year to come. We may be told that they
were but political and human agencies which pro-
tected the Holy Father. Be it so. God works
through the politics and actions of men. They are
iustruinents in I lie hands, and over all their powers
there is a will and a control which directs and re-
strains them. God works through the combinations
of Rulers, whether they will or no, and brings about
His ends by the most adverse and unlikely means.
There is nothing in the present danger of the Holy
See which has not often been before. Its existence
in the world is a perpetual miracle : divinely
founded, it has been divinely preserved. The power
of the Pontiffs forms an exception in the history of
the world. His spiritual power needs no human
aid. Neither Kings nor Emperors have been able to
arrest nor have presumed to patronize it. His tem-
poral power has subsisted for a thousand years by a
continuous intervention of Divine Providence. It
has never possessed a military force able to cope with
the weakest temporal prince. It has existed in the
midst of mighty antagonists, any one of which might
have crushed it ; and, by some strange gift of per-
petual stability, it has survived all shocks. Always
threatened, but always safe—as the Apostle says :
" We suffer persecution, but are not forsaken ; we
are cast down, but we perish not : always bearing
about in our body the mortification of Jesus, that
the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our
bodies. For we who live are always delivered unto
death for Jesus' sake : that the life also of Jesus may
be made manifest in our mortal flesh." (2 Cor. iv. 9-
11.) The Pontiffs have thereby represented to the
world the union of weakness and power. Five-and-
forty times they have been driven out of Rome, or have
never entered it. Expulsion, banishment, dethrone-
ment, this has been their history. No line of Kings
ha ever survived such vicissitudes—their lines have
been broken, and their dynasties have passed away.
But the line-of the Pontiffs is indcfec ible, and
their throne has always been restored. To be
protected by the power of Christian nations—first
by one, then by another have always been
their providential lot. It could not be other-
wise. The Divine Founder of the Church has
so disposed it that His Kingdom should not
be numbered among the nations ; nor its Head,
though supreme over all Princes, hold its own by
temporal might or military power. Vicissitudes
which would have destroyed all other dynasties fall
lightly upon the throne of the Pontiffs. Subverted
again and again, it is as often restored in undi-
minished authority. It does not, therefore, make
us afraid to see the armed bands of revolution closing
round the remnant of the territory, and aiming at
the seizure of Rome. What has been often may be
again but wo pray on in confidence, knowing

that so long as there is a Christian world, so
long the temporal power will survive. It is
not the might of any nation which sustains
it, but the instinct of faith and the dictate
of justice which pervade and govern the
Christian nations of the world. When these are
extinguished or enfeebled the anti-Christian revolu-
tion may prevail against the temporal power of the
Vicar of Jesus Christ : but till then, never. It may
be menaced and persecuted, but it will endure. If
it be now again overthrown, we believe that it will
be again set up. Such is our confidence, and for
this we pray. As I said last year, we go out to
battle with not so much as a sling and a stone, but
with a string of beads, a superstitious multitude.
But there are still other thoughts which press upon
me to-day. Our Lord has prepared us for the
hostility which is everywhere about us—"lf the world
hate you, know ye that it hated Me before you"—
and that, in proportion to our separation from the
world. " If you had been of the world, the world
would love its own ; but because you are not of the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world,
therefore the world hateth you." Now, of this we
have a signal example. There are two persons whose
names are in almost daily contrast. Is there any
one on whom such a continuous stream of contempt
and bitterness is poured as Pius IX. ? There seems
to be a delight in recounting his dangers and humi-
liations, in predicting his downfall, in encouraging
his enemies, in justifying their actions, and bidding
God speed to their conspiracies, in glorying over
their violence. If things turn in his favour, there
is disappointment and irritation ; if they go against
him, there is exultation and joy. Why ? Not for
any known reason, but because he is Pope ; and,
as such, most like his Master. Such, for the most
part, is the tone of our journals. Nevertheless, I
must here openly bear witness that my words do
not apply to certain public writers who in the last
year have shown much restraint and justice in their
language. On the other hand, there is a man whose
name I will not utter, whose antecedents and impieties
I will not recite. He has made himself conspicuous
by enmity against the Church and the Vicar of
Jesus Christ. Within the last three weeks this man
has been twice described by those who guide the
public opinion of this country in the words which
follow : as a man of " almost Godlike self-denial,"
aud, again, " of a boundless goodness." I had
thought that there was but One Infinite, " that none
is good but God alone." What comes next is still
more portentous—his " goodness passeth all under-
standing," which would appear to be an attribute of
our Divine Redeemer borrowed from the language
of St. Paul. We have here the two standing face
to face before us. The one the object of the world's
enmity, the other the object of the world's admira-
tion, or rather of the world's apotheosis or deifica-
tion. Now, these two persons represent two
systems, two principles, two spirits. They are
the legitimate heads of " the mystery of piety," and
" the mystery of impiety," as the Apostle describes
them. On the one side is the Vicar of Christ, and
all that are united to him by the laws of super-
natural justice. On the other the antagonist of
Christ and all who are banded together against His
Church on earth. Between these there can be no
reconciliation or compromise. There is an intrinsic
enmity, an essential variance, derived from their
very nature. "If the world hate you," we have
not far to seek for the reasons of this enmity.
First, it is directed against the revelation of Chris-
tianity, as such, which, by making known the
truth, has limited the licence of the human reason.
The revelation that there is one God has narrowed
the liberty of the human intelligence. No man is
at liberty to think that there are many- Gods, or
that there is no God. Polytheism and Atheism are
not only follies, but sins. In like manner by reveal-
ing the incarnation of His Son, God has imposed
another limit on the freedom of the human reason.
No man is at liberty to say that God has not been
incarnate. And so of every revealed truth of the
Church, of the Seven Sacraments, as also of every
known truth of every kind, the liberty of the
human reason to dispute at will is restrained by
being elevated to the light of knowledge. Never-
theless men resent this as a bondage. So, if pos-
sible, still more in the revealed law of God. The
Divine Commandments which require obedience,
justice, truth, and purity, are so far limitations of
human freedom. Men are not at liberty to violate
these laws. They have no right to be disobedient,
unjust, untruthful, impure. The will has no right
of liberty to infringe these laws at choice. It is
this yoke of faith and law imposed upon the intelli-
gence and the will that galls and irritates the
world. So, again, the Church is a more explicit
object of their enmity, because it is to the Church
that God has committed the custody and the execu-
tion of His truth and law. The Church—as witness,
teacher, and judge—contradicts and offends the
spirit of license to the quick. It will not compromise,
it will not be silent, it will not connive, it will
not accommodate its doctrines to modern progress,
or to the new developments of religious or secular
thought. Immutably, inflexibly, it witnesses and
teaches, judges, and condemns. And this va-
riance is rendered still more intense by its moral
teaching. It assumes to pronounce upon the right
and the wrong of public legislation, of domestic
authority, of personal conduct. It will not indulge
either tyranny or rebellion, oppression or sedition.
It will not sanction the despotism of parents nor
the disobedience of children. It will not suffer un-
rebuked the scandals of public immorality or the
license of private vice. It is a censor of our lives,
and an inexorable judge not only of what we do,
but even of what we are. And this is all the more
galling, because of the standard of morals it holds
up before the world. It is not content to teach
the bare letter of the Ten Commandments.
It requires of men obedience to a discipline, and to
precepts which exact interior conformity of the
heart and will. And even more than this. It
holds up as a standard to be honoured, if not to be
imitated, by all, a life of counsels, aud a state of
perfection, the most contrary and mortifying to the
world and to the flesh ; obedience, poverty, and
chastity : extinct virtues which are still so vigorous
in the members of the Church and in religious
orders throughout the Christian world, that they
must needs be cut down and rooted out by spolia-
tion, prohibition, dissolution, and endless railing.
But there is yet another object of the world's
enmity more visible and more within its reach. The
faith is impalpable, the Church is too vast to be
controlled, its morality can only be derided, but the
priesthood may be grasped. It is a tangible enemy,
and men may lay hands upon it. Moreover, to the
priesthood is committed the office of making the
revelation of God an authoritative reality among
men. They are teachers, guides, and judges ; they
are iu constant contact and in perpetual conflict
with the world. The more like they are to their
Master, the more hated they must be ; the more
faithfully they bear witness against the world which
crucified Him, the more they inherit the scandal
and the enmity of the Cross. It is inevitable.
A. holy priesthood must be hated by the
world. It is false to s ►y that the priesthood is
hated for the sins of priests. The world would not
hate them if they were like itself. It hates them
because they are unlike it, and because they remind
it of their Master. But last of all, and above all,
there is one on whose sole head all those enmities
descend at once. They are concentrated upon the
Vicar of Jesus Christ, who most nearly represents
Him to the world. All the enmities against the
Divine truth and the Divine law, against the Church
and its morality, against religious orders and the
priesthood, fall at once upon the chief witness for
the revelation of Christianity, the Head of the
Church, the guardian of morality, and the protec-
tor of the priesthood. All these things meet emi-
nently in his person, and all the hatred of the world
against these things he bears in an eminent degree, and
that in our behalf. There is an instinct in the world
which tells it that if the shepherd be smitten the
sheep of the flock would be scattered ; that if the
head of the Christian superstition could be over-
thrown, the battle would be half won. Therefore
it is that all the conspiracies of men are attracted
to one point. Their whole array of heresy and
schism, of infidelity and impiety, of sedition and
revolution, is directed against the person who in
himself sums up and represents to the world
the rights of God and of His Church, You see

then before you the two persons, :and the two
systems. The conflict is perpetual, and their
enmity is irreconcilable. They may be called two
Churches, and two Gospels. On the one side is the
Church of " men of good will," one, holy, visible, and
universal; on [the other, the ecclesia malignantium,
as the Scriptures call it, the Church of men of evil
will ; one in enmity against the Church of god,
though manifold as the multiplicity of evil, un-
holy in thought, word, deed, intention, and will ;
invisible, because secret, stealthy, subterraneous,
-working out of sight, and in darkness undermining
the private purities of home, the public order
of States, the thrones of princes, above
all the throne of the Sovereign Pontiff,
in whom both spiritual and civil powers
unite. It is not more certain that the Catholic
Church spreads visibly over the earth than that an
anti-Christian conspiracy of infidelity and revolu-
tion spreads in secret under the Christian world.
These two systems are in presence of each other.
Hitherto the Christian order has maintained its
supremacy. Howilong it shall ensure, God only
knows. So long as there is a Christian world, the
temporal power of the Pontiffs will be sustained by
its conscience and its instincts ; when the temporal
power is dissolved the Christian world will be dis-
solved with it. Therefore, all the storm is pointed
at the Vicar of Christ. He holds the key of the posi-
tion, or rather, his own sacred person is its strength.
And these two Churches have their two Gospels.
The one is contained in the Encyclical and Syllabus
of Pius IX. in 1864. In it are condemned the
chief errors which are now menacing the Christian
society of the world; the other was preached the
other day at Geneva. In the former are promul-
gated the great truths and laws on which the
Church, the State, and the family repose. It de-
clares the obligations and authority of reason
and revelation, of the Christian and civil law, of the
Church, and of the State. It confirms the lawful
authority of rulers, and the duty of obedienze in
subjects. It is the Gospel of order, peace, and
purity to all mankind. The other was proclaimed
by the "goodness which passeth all understand-
ing:" incomprehensible, indeed, but happily not
divine. Its chief dogmas are " that the
Papacy must be destroyed," and " that the re-
ligion of God must be propagated throughout the
world." At tha sound of a religion to be propagated,
the indevout and indocile disciples cried, " No,
no." But the religion of God was soon so explained
as to allay their fears. It is the religion of science,
of reason, and of genius, the apostles of which I
will not name. I had thought that the religion of
reason had hardly survived its last great festival,
when that deity was worshipped on the high altar
in Notre Dame, impersonated in a form I will not
describe. The religion of science is at this day
somewhat capricious. It traces mankind to a pro-
genitor among the least graceful and most grotesque
of creatures, and affirms that thought is phosporus,
the soul a name for the complex of nerves, and, if
I rightly understand its mysteries, that our moral
sense is a secretion of sugar. From want of light
my exposition may be heterodox, but of one thing
I am certain, that this religion of God js founded in
the denial and destruction of Christianity and the
Vicar of Christ. But in all this there is nothing
new. It is the same stupidity of unbelief, the same
persecuting bigotry of the infidel revolution which
from age to ago has periodically tormented the Chris-
tian world. This same delirious impiety was preached
more than half a century ago, only it was then not
by an Italian, but by a Frenchman. France was
then the "first of nations" which was to send forth
its spirit and to renew the face of the earth. Now it
is Italy. Only the other day I read a rhapsody on
the mission of Italy among the nations. It was
the utterance of the prophet of the Italia❑ revolu-
tion. Italy is to teach the nations how to live,
by abolishing Christianity. Let us hear, then, how
this Gospel was preached some seventy years ago.
In the Moiziteur of June, 1793, appeared certain
letters of ghostly counsel to the Pope. The admoni-
tions begin as follows :—" You, Holy Father, who
trample under foot the ashes of the Camilluses and
the Cincinnatuses ; you who gravely play your ridi-
culous farces on the superb theatre where the
Scipios and the Paulus Amiliuses dragged in
triumph kings bound to their chariots, do you really
think that liberty is so easily snatched from a people
ardent to preserve it ? The Declaration of the
Rights of Man contains in itself a force absolutely
invincible, because it is the force of nature. Never
did Zoroaster and Confucius, Solon and Lycurgus,
Numa, or Jesus ; never did any sage of antiquity
present a code of morals more simple, more natural,
more attractive. What a majestic spectacle to see
the first nation of Europe rise up altogether, and,
with one only voice, say, lam free, and I will that
the whole human race be free together with me.
People of all climes, arise I shake off the chains of
credulity, of error, of superstition, and of despotism !
Let us no longer suffer a barbarous caste to lead us
astray in seeking a chimerical salvation. Perish the
priesthood ! It is with our earthly happiness that
we ought to occupy ourselves. Assembleyour people,
Holy Father; arise in the midst of them, and say,
Descendants of the grandest people of the world,
too long imposture has desecrated your country ;
the day of truth is come. Cast off all ridiculous
fables. Enter again into the enjoyment of your
natural rights. Be free and sovereign. Be you the
only legislators. Restore the republic of Rome
But to save you from the vices and the abuses
which destroyed the ancient republic, do not suffer
among you patricians, nor knights, nor cardinals,
nor prelates, nor bishops, nor priests, nor monks,
nor vestals. Be you all citizens. I place my tiara
in your hands; I hope my clergy will follow my
example.' " On the 13th Ventose, be it when and
what it may, the President Merlin announced to the
Council of Ancients the great news (of the fall of
the Temporal Power and restoration of the Roman
Republic) in a message as follows :—" Citizen re-
presentatives, after 1,400 years humanity demands
the destruction of an anti-social power ; the cradle
of which seems to have been placed under the reign
of Tiberius, only to appropriate to itself the dupli-
city, the ferocious tyranny, the gloomy policy, the
thirst for blood of the father of Nero."* Where
now is this fabric of impiety ? And where in
a little while will be the stolid blasphemies of this
hour? The Christian world must perish before this
godless anarchy can destroy the source of its peace
and order. And here I would fain break off. But
there are thoughts nearer home which compel me
to go on. The influence of this country for good or
for evil, for order or for disorder, is great. As a
Christian and an Englishman I deplore the license
of nameless writing and irresponsible speech,
which, for the last twenty years, throughout the
whole Pontificate of Pius IX., has en-
couraged and stimulated the anti- Christian revolu-
tions of the Continent. We have among us public
voices which make themselves heard far and wide.
And they, too, have preached the gospel of sedition.
They would not have proclaimed the same maxims
for the guidance of our own colonies or for the
three kingdoms of our own country. But against
the Pope anything is lawful. I will not quote
chapter and verse, nor name the evangelists of these
fatal doctrines. It is enough to recite a few axioms
of their political morality. We are told that a
people may lawfully at any time, and for any cause,
overthrow its Government : that the will of the
people is a sufficient justifying reason: that national
aspirations are legitimate and supreme motives for
the dissolution of a Government, even though con-
firmed by possession, prescription, and immemorial
right: that a discontented minority may lawfully call
in the aid of foreign sedition and foreign arms to
overthrow its Government: that the principle of non-
intervention binds Governments but not individuals :
thateven Governments bound not to interfere openly
may do so secretly, that they may do by moral
countenance and encouragement in words what
they may not do by arms : that they may look on
approvingly when their subjects sow sedition in the
peaceful provinces of neighbouring states, organise
conspiracies in their capitals, and send arms and
money to the conspirators. All these things have
been publicly preached among us, and these
evil seeds wafted all over the three king-
doms, all over the empire, have already
fallen on a prepared soil and are bearing bitter fruit.

* Moniteur, tom. 39, p. 165. Gaume : La Revolution,
YQL 1, Fremdo Liyraigo, pages 119-12.

We designed them only for our neighbours, or only
for the Pope ; but they have struck root in our own
land, and we shall reap as we have sown. As a
Christian and an Englishman I protest against this
gospel of sedition ; and I pray God that my country
may not, by the remotest influence or by a passing
word, be partaker in its diffusion ; that its public
opinion, and loud public voice, and the power of its
Legislature, may be restrained by Christian order
and by international justice, and that we may not be
guilty before God of abetting, by the lightest act,
the infidel revolution which now threatens the Vicar
of Jesus Christ. If through our pride or blindness
we do so, God will not be mocked. We have been
sowing the wind, and shall reap the whirlwind.
When we have preached the gospel of sedition to
all nations, then shall the end come. Already the
warnings are upon us. There are forerunners on
the horizon, and storms below it. There are
agencies which elude control and discovery ; secret
and sudden combinations which threaten us where
we seem strongest and safest. We have dallied
with the evils which only threatened others, and
they have now recoiled upon ourselves. I trust in
God that in the day when we shall be visited for
this sin, we at least, who have protested against it,
may be guiltless of the great offence.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

CARNARVONSHIRE.

The half-yearly meeting of this company was held
on Tuesday at the offices, Bank-buildings, Captain
Johns in the chair.

The report stated that the railway was opened for
public traffic on the 2d of September last and that
the receipts are already about per mile per week.
The Cambrian Railway had not yet been opened
further than Barmouth, but the opening of the
remainder of that line was daily expected, and when
this took place the traffic receipts would be materially
increased, by reason of the unbroken communication
that would then be formed between North and South
\Vales, and also between Carnarvon and the mid-
land counties and London. An act amalgamating
the Nantile with this undertaking received the
Royal assent last session, and the directors antici-
pated that beneficial results were likely to arise
from it.

The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, said the receipts on the line had been much
greater than they had anticipated in so short a time.
They might also look forward to the completion of
the Cambrian line for additional traffic.

Resolutions were passed adopting the report,
limiting the number of the directors to four, and a
vote of thanks to the chairman concluded the pro.

ceedings.

They had, by means of the narrow gauge, saved
the expense of frequent trans-shipments, and the
car ferry boat was in perfect order. The cost of
freight in the last half-year for 296,728 tons had been
$64,159, against 256,106 tons in the corresponding
period, the cost of which for handling, &c., was
$64,471. Then, looking at the rate per ton, it was
21c. against 25c. in the same half of 1866, saving
about $10,641 in the quantity carried. The pro-
portion of receipts for local traffic was 371 per cent.,
and for through traffic 62.88 per cent. ; so they
would readily see the importance of the latter. The
through freight extended from the Atlantic to the
Mississippi, and the cars on this route were painted
blue. They were led to believe that when the line
was renewed properly that the future expenses of
maintenance would be less than formerly, but that
did not now appear to be borne out ; they had
called the attention of Mr. Reid to this matter,and
he said in his report that the £42,773 charged in the
past half year for maintenance and renewal of per-
manent way included £1,328 for the renewal of a
wooden bridge with stone at Jordan, but after that
deduction the cost of maintenance and renewal still
continued to be considerably higher than was
anticipated after the thorough renewal of the main
line carried out during the fire and a half years
from 1861 to 1866. The expenditure upon main-
tenance and renewals for the corresponding half
of 1866 was £47,514, and for the half year ending
January last £39,682. The principal causes to
prevent any Large reduction under this head were
an increase in the rate of wages, averaging about
25 per cent. above the rate that prevailed three
years ago, and an advance in the cost of timber,
&c., of about 30 per cent. Mr. Reid explained
that the heavy renewals executed between 1861 and
1866 were limited to the track and bridges of the
main line, and to the track of the Toronto and Galt
branches, and did not include the timber bridges of
the Toronto branch, all of which were perfectly
sound in 1861; but now those were all being renewed,
and would hereafter require a considerable outlay.
It was also found that those portions of the main
line relaid prior to 1861-2 now required large renew-
als of rails. The light rails in general use on that
continent, coupled with the excessive stress to which
their severe winter exposed them, rendered the per-
manent way of Canadian railways much less durable
than those of English railways, and therefore the
very best material ought alone to be used in the
manufacture of rails sent to Canada ; but instead of
that being the case it had been the unfortunate ex-
perience of all the railways on that continent to re-
ceive from England during the past eight or ten
years the rails of a decidedly inferior quality, and a
similar experience attended them in the re-rolling of
their old rails in former years in the rolling mills of
Canada and the Northern States. The result of this
had, of course, been that the duration of Canadian
and American railway tracks had universally fallen
far below the standard of England, and of the
American Continent itself in bygone years, when
sounder rails were furnished by the English manu-
facturers. But they were now independent of foreign
markets by their own rail-rolling mill ; and Mr.
Reid stated that he had recently effected a great
improvement in the quality of their rails by intro-
ducing an increased percentage of good, hard
puddled iron in the heads of the new rails, stating
that if the quality of a rail could only be improved
by 25 per cent., it was worth accomplishing at a cost
of £1 4s. Bd. per ton. He also reminded the directors
that the recent addition of a third rail to their main
track, together with 20 miles of narrow gauge sid-
ings, would, of course, augment the cost of repairs
and renewals of permanent way. That was the ex-
planation they had received from Mr. Reid on that
subject. He might mention that Mr. Hoyes's son
had recently visited Canada, travelled over the Great
Westernline,and said he found it smoother to travel
over than any line in England. The Chairman
then alluded to the proposed engagement with the
Grand Trunk Railway Company, which was for
the purpose of avoiding competition between cer-
tain places ou their lines chiefly affecting the local
traffic. They were to divide the gross traffic between
certain points in certain proportions, to be agreed
upon or settled, in case of dispute, by arbitration.
l'he advantages were obvious, as they would be
enabled to secure fair and remunerative rates. As
an instance of the competition, he mentioned that
:3 were charged in one case for a distance of 230
miles, instead of the former rate of $7. Fair rates
could be charged under the proposed agreement with
a view to protect the interests of all parties. The
length of railway of the Great Western included by
this arrangement would be 315 miles, and of the
Grand Trunk 423 miles. They believed it was a fair
and proper agreement, and the proprietors had sent
a larger amount of proxies than ever they did at atif
former period in favour of the proposed agreement.
There was only one dissentient—a Glasgow share-
holder, who would doubtless alter his mind on the
matter being explained to him. They had completely
and amicably settled all their differences in Canada
with the Commercial Bank and others. The traffic
on the Detroit and Milwaukie Railway was progres-
sing satisfactorily. It amounted for the half-year
ending the 30th of June last to £158,509, and the
expenses to £96,852, leaving a surplus of £61,657,
of which £41,299 was required to pay interest on
bonds, leaving a balance of £20,357 against £3,805
for the corresponding half of last year, showing an
increase of £16,552, which would be applied to
capital purposes. The Great Western settlement in
respect of the Milwaukie line gave them $2,000,000
or about £400,000, in recognition of the debt due to
them in 10 per cent. preference shares. They were
the only shareholders in the company, and had the
control of the property; that was the price they had
received for the large advance they had made years
ago to that company. There was a capital of
$300,000 to be created for the equipment of the line
that would come in before their claim. The increase
in the traffic of the Great Western for the first seven
weeks of the current half-year was £20,000, or
221 per cent. as compared with the receipts in cor-
responding seven weeks of last year. The harvest
in America was plentiful and bounteous, and they
were greatly indebted to the exertions of Mr. Swin-
yard, the general manager, to Mr. Reid, the en-
gineer, and to other officers of the company, and
also to the Canadian directors for the satisfactory
state of things that existed there. He concluded
by moving the adoption of the report, and that a
dividend at the rate of 4 per cent. per annum be
payable on the 24th inst.

Mr. HOYES, deputy chairman, seconded the motion.

Mr. H. H. CANNAN moved an amendment to the
effect that the paragraph in the report relating to
the agreement with the Grand Trunk Railway Com-
pany be omitted, and that the proposed agreement
be not adopted, as it would only lead to the expen-
diture of further capital and deprive the company of
the right to charge such fares as they thought proper.
Mr. SUTHERLAND seconded the amendment.

The CHAIRMAN explained that the object of the
agreement was to prevent the making of unneces-
sary or duplicate lines, and to enable them to charge
equal and remunerative rates for local traffic. The
agreement was for seven years if mutually beneficial
to both companies ; if not, it could be determined at
any time during that term by either side giving
three months' notice.

Mr. HARTRIDGE hoped the proprietors would
adopt the agreement when it came before them for
their approval, because he believed it would be
mutually beneficial to both companies. They had
expended a vast amount of capital to benefit Canada,
and the least Canada could do was to pay a fair re-
muneration for the services rendered. It was quite
certain that the proprietors of both companies were
entitled to a much better result for the money they
had expended. (hear, hear.)
Colonel EVELYN thought it better to keep the two
companies separate. The Great Western had the
shorter route and would be sure to get the greater
portion of the traffic between the two points men-
tioned in the agreement. He would therefore vote
against the motion and in favour of the amendment.
The amendment on a show of hands was lost,
there being only seven in favour of it ; and the ori-
ginal resolution was adopted.
On the motion of Mr. HARTRIDGE, the eleven re-
tiring directors and two auditors were unanimously
re-elected.

The meeting was then made special, and the pro-
vi4iolial agreement entered into between the Great

Western and Grand Trunk Railway Companies was
carried, there being three dissentients; and the pro-
ceedings concluded with a vote of thanks to the
chairman.