The Sun.
London, England, 1867-09-12 00:00:00

last evening that "a most suspicious-looking craft"
had been observed at Bunerana, that she seemed to
be about 600 or 700 tons burden, and had first been
observed near the mouth of Lough Swilly. No
alarm has been excited by this mysterious piece of
information.

RAILWAY INIELLIGENCE.

EAST LONDON.
An extraordinary meeting was held yesterday, at
the Terminus Hotel, Cannon-street, for the purpose
of disposing of certain forfeited shares.
The CHAIRMAN (Mr. W. Hawes), in opening the
business, said that when be called the meeting he
expected that his duty would have required of him
very few observations ; but a circular which had
been issued by Mr. W. Hartridge, giving notice of
an amendment, rendered it necessary to go at some
length into the position of the company. He had in
his hand the original prospectus, and was enabled to
declared his adherence to everything stated in it—
not a very usual thing for the chairman of a company
to be able to do in these times, when everybody was
almost as anxious to be out of joint-stock compa-
nies as two years ago they were to be in them. Mr.
Hartridge quoted the following sentence from the
prospectus —" The cost of construction is fixed be-
yond doubt by arrangements concluded with Messrs.
Brassey and Lucas and Wythes, for a contract at
prices which will make the total cost of the works
considerably less than the amount allowed in the
Parliamentary estimates." WeU, it was perfectly
true that the railway was being made by Messrs.
Brassey ; and it was being made in a manner which
was as creditable to them as it was satisfactory to
the directors. What, however, Mr. Hartridge really
meant by this quotation was to call attention to
the circumstance that this was what was called a
"contractors' line," and that the contractors had an
undue influence over the board. But that was not
the case ; the directors were in reality per-
fectly independent of the contractors. He had
mentioned this fact to Mr. Hartridge, and his re-
ply was very singular—" So many directors have
said, and the public did not believe them." He
trusted, however, the meeting would believe him
when he stated that the contractors had no influ-
ence at the board ; that they had never nominated
a single director ; that every director had been a
member of the board before the contract was made,
and that every member of it retained every shilling
of his interest. (Cheers.) As to the cost of the
construction, he had every reason to repeat his
belief that the £1,866,000 of original capital would
be sufficient to do that which he had contemplated
doing, and to open the works to a point which would
secure them a revenue at a comparatively early
period. The only portion of the line as to which
the cost was not ascertained was the bit from the
London Dock to the station of the Great Eastern
Company at Shoreditch, and the spur northward to
the Metropolitan line. As to revenue, he repeated
his previous statements, that the experience of the
Metropolitan Company justified the anticipations of
the prospectus ; besides which it must be recollected
that since those calculations were made the earnings
of the Metropolitan had risen from £740 to between
£9OO and £l,OOO per mile. He, therefore, adhered
to his previous statements with all the proper per-
tinacity of a man who had been convinced by long
thought, and who believed that what he stated was
true. (Cheers.) As to the finance of the company,
he asked for it the most searching review ; only he
asked that due allowance should be made for the
altered circumstances of the times. Nothing, in
fact, could be more simple than their finance. They
had raised so much money—there were no deben-
tures, no Lloyd's bonds, no securities except a
sum borrowed from their bankers upon the land
sales. How, then, had the necessity for this
meeting arisen ? In 1865, following the example
of larger companies who had acted on the advice of
those eminent solicitors, Messrs. Baxter and Messrs.
Burchell, they had asked for subscriptions on scrip
certificates. Now scrip was entirely outside the
Act of Parliament ; and they had no power
to sue the scripholders for their calls. The only
course they had left them if they wished to avoid
tedious, expensive, and uncertain litigation, was,
therefore, to forfeit the unpaid shares and to reissue
them. This they proposed to do in the first instance
to the shareholders, and if the shareholders would
take up the whole of them there would be no loss to
the company at all. Of course, if the general public
took up any- portion of them a loss would, pro tanto,
be sustained by the shareholders. Anyhow the shares
must be re-issued before the borrowing powers of
the company could be exercised, and without the
exercise of those powers the line could not be com-
pleted. Then Mr. Hartridge drew attention to the
fact that Messrs. Chadwick, M'Kenna, and Adam-
son had been advertised as the financial agents of
the company. That was quite true. The board
had in the first instance applied to a number of
financial companies, the highest of which had asked
the modest sum of £250,000 for undertaking the
responsibility of bringing out the scheme. The
lowest asked £130,000 or £140,000, besides certain
privileges. Messrs. Chadwick's bill, after all, was
only £27,000, or hardly more than a fifth of the
lowest sum asked by the financial companies. No
doubt it was a large item, but it had been printed
in reports and passed meeting after meeting. Mr.
Hawes, in conclusion, moved a formal resolution re-
specting the forfeited shares.
In answer to SHAREHOLDERS,
Mr. ILAWES added that the shares forfeited were
22,795, on which £76,000 had been paid. It was
proposed to allot them at 11 discount; in other
words, the £2O share would be treated as if £ll had
been paid up. This, which was a discount of 35 per
cent., followed the precedent of the successful ope-
ration recently effected by Mr. Laing.
After some remarks from Mr. T. E. KNIGHT,
approving of the course proposed by the board,
Mr. HARTRIDGE said the chairman had used the
same cleverness and dexterity as he had shown on
former occasions. He had told the meeting a great
many things they knew, but had not given them
information they desired. A large number of share-
holders had not paid their calls ; but he believed
a vast number had written for shares that had
been refused. He should like to have some
explanation of the circumstance. On the whole be
required a full inquiry, and if the board would grant
that he should be relieved from the necessity of stat-
ing things that might not be pleasant to hear.
The CHAIRMAN declined the proposal.
Mr. HARTRIDGE, resuming, said he had prepared
a speech setting out some matters of detail, but he
would reserve them for another occasion ; and he
would now merely move the amendment of which he
had given notice :—" That the recommendations of
the directors be not adopted ; that this meeting be
adjourned, and that three proprietors be appointed
a committee (with power to add to their number),
to confer with the directors and to inquire into the
present financial condition of the company, to ascer-
tain the circumstances under which certain scrip
shares were originally allotted and subsequently
forfeited for non-payment of calls; to consider the
terms upon which it is proposed to dispose of such
shares, and to exercise the borrowing powers of the
company, reporting thereon at an early meeting of
proprietors. Also to make inquiries and report an
opinion upon the postponement of some of the works
authorised by Parliament, and upon the amount of
capital required for the future purposes of the com-
pany, and generally upon any matter affecting the
interest of the proprietors.
A SHAREHOLDER having seconded the amend-
ment pro forma, a brief discussion ensued, at the
close of which
The CHAIRMAN said that if the resolution were
agreed to he had authority to subscribe for £28,000
of the re-allotted shares ; and he would undertake
that the quota of the directors should be taken up
by themselves or by their friends. The money which
the resolution would enable them to raise would
carry the works to Shoreditch, and if the Great
Eastern were not able to complete the line to Broad-
street their powers would lapse next year. This
company would then apply to Parliament for leave
to take them up, and they would acquire on most
advantageous terms the land which had been bought
and cleared by the Great Eastern.
The amendment was then put, but no hand ex-
cept Mr. Hartridge's was held up for it.
The origival resolution, which p:orided that the

forfeited shareholders pro rata, must be accepted in
writing by the Ist of October, must have a deposit
of £1 per share paid on them at that date, and a
call of 13 on the 10th was then agreed to.
A second resolution, authorising the borrowing of
£466,600 on mortgages, bonds, or debentures, was
also carried, and the proceedings terminated with a
cordial vote of thanks to the chairman and directors.

BLACKWOOD AND THE HON. D. A.

WELLS.

The Hon. David A. WELLS has taken the trouble
to show up in a letter to the Times the gross mis-
statements and errors of an article in the July num-
ber of Blackwood' s Magazine, entitled " The American
Debt, and Financial Prospects of the Union."
English people will be glad to receive from a Com-
missioner of the Treasury Department of the United
States, information which may be regarded as
official, and which must be of deep interest both to
Great Britain and to many nations on the Continent.
Remarks in Blackwood on the United States are
scarcely worth answering. Old Ebony is the stereo-
typed Tory, who recognises in the great Republic
his most dangerous enemy. He never loses an op-
portunity of inflicting an injury, and he scruples

little over the means. Whatever the subject,
whether financial, political, commercial, or social, it
is handled to this end. Like a burglar attacking a
safe, it is examined in front, in rear, at the sides,
and chisels, crow-bars, gunpowder, applied where
the defence is weakest. Finance is the point most
assailable, as credit is so easily injured, and when
injured at once damages the object of enmity.
Political and social misrepresentations only gratify
spite, and keep alive a feeling of hatred. By de-
picting American immorality, corruption, political
delinquencies, and the demoralisation of society,
another object may, however, be gained. These
pictures point morals, as well as adorn tales. The
chief moral is—beware of Republicanism, behold
the result, and ponder before you follow so pernicious
an example. Although the stereotyped Tory can
by such means inflict but little injury on the United
States, he fosters and confirms the English dread
of Republicanism. When he wants to injure
America he attacks her financial stability. There

is nothing more easy than to throw discredit on the
truth of Treasury Statements. It is not by attack-
ing the figures that this is best accomplished ; but
by insinuating that these figures only represent a
portion of the truth. Blackwood is unfortu-
nate in having made something more than
vague statements. The magazine committed
itself to a few figures, which Mr. WELLS exposes so
completely that it might reasonably be expected we
would have no more articles in Old Ebony on
American finance. But those who expect such
a result are sanguine people, who cannot be taught
by experience. Blackwood will be quite ready
to begin again in next number with a fresh manu-
facture of spurious figures. It matters little to Old
Ebony that he is exposed, considering that he has
been accustomed to such exposure time out of mind.
He keeps hammering away as he has hammered
beyond the memory of the oldest inhabitant, having
by custom and prescription obtained the right which
Tories recognise as having the force of law. Mr.
WELLS points out an amusing blunder. Mr. A.
STEWART for 1865-66 paid an income tax on
$4,000,000. For 1866-67 that tax was paid only
on $BOO,OOO. This circumstance Mack/rood
misconstrued to mean that that merchant paid
duties to the amount of $4,000,000 on the manu-
factured fabrics of England and France he imported
during that year, the last of the war ; but in the
first year of peace he paid only $BOO,OOO, or one-
fifth of his former contribution. Mr. WELLS shows
that the house in question actually paid into the
United States Treasury, in coin, upwards of
$10,000,000, instead of $BOO,OOO, on account of
duties on its importations, the writer having con-
founded a statement, which went the rounds of the
papers, of the income tax on the profits of the New
York merchant, with his import dues, and used this
example to show how heavily the customs dues of
the United States were falling off. Mr. WELLS is
impressed with the contradiction between the
universal expression of the English public, as
signified to him, of their desire to maintain
the most friendly and intimate relations between
the countries, with the constant misrepresenta-
tion of public writers in England, more
especially with regard to the financial position
of the United Stated. On this the Times
remarks that the leading American journals them-
selves furnish the most alarming intimations. This
statement may be true in fact, but it should be qua-
lified by the explanation that such articles have in
America a mere political significance, being directed
at a department of the Government, or perhaps
written, as they sometimes are, to affect the markets.
The writers who habitually endeavour to discredit
teht
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catahnetdiownrsite Government bonds. More than a column of the
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ri,ss gp given
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Repudia-
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t enyneetedthinse writeri infamous
se
the scheme. It is no wonder that JOIIN BULL
gets puzzled over American politics. " Why,"
he exclaims in wonder, " are not the Democrats the
TCeorniseeerviantaivnegsuroaftethaendUntaitkeed
tShteatesfir?et Here,stthepe
great
towards manhood suffrage. There the most able
leader of the Conservatives, as the writer calls Mr.
GEORGE H. PENDLETON, openly advocates a method
of paying the National Debt which the Republicans
(to use the correspondent's words), with some reason,
characterised by one word—Repudiation." Mr.
PENDLETON'S plan is this. Fund the whole debt,
and issue therefor 6 per cent. Bonds ; as fast as
these mature meet and pay them in greenbacks or
paper currency. To carry out this plan $2,000,000,000
must be added to the paper currency now in circu-
lation. What the country thinks of such schemes
is sufficiently shown in the steady rise of these
securities. Americans well know that they
of all nations could least allow their credit
to be damaged. They are aware that they
have more undeveloped resources than any
Other country ; that they can invite and em-
ploy foreign capital to the greatest advantage ;
that with this development will be generated a
power that will enable them with ease to liquidate
the national indebtedness—in one word, that their
most paying policy is not only to be honest, but to
ceorendcietdeirneg. e,v,ieTnhdeopeubetpfulle
ofpo points
inb e sfcarvuepnurl oeufs
h eir so,United States," the Standard correspondent adds,
" will ere long demand-1, that the Federal Bonds
scrupulously
be subjected to taxation like other property ; and
2, that the present rate of interest be reduced."
The object can be attained in the same way as
Great Britain secured it, by exciting general con-
fidence. When the world believes that 5-20's are
equal in security to Consols the rate of interest will
be equalised. The question is simply one of belief
in the ability and honesty of the Governments to
discharge their obligations. Few doubt the ability
of the United States, but many doubt their honesty,
and this feeling is kept alive by these writers.
Those who are m st injured by these unscrupulous
attacks are the holders of the bonds, ono-fifth of
which belong to Europeans. Not only are the
bonds unduly depressed, but an uneasy feeling of
insecurity is excited, and the investor is thus made
to suffer both in pocket and person.
The 7 lines exemplified in an article on Wednes-
day, after the above was written, the criticisms of
which Americans complain. Abandoning the un-
tenable position taken by the writer in Blackwood
it bases the depreciation of American Bonds on the
bad faith shown towards the creditors of the indi-
vidual States of which the Union is the aggregate,
and on Mr. HAINES' report, who, as one of three
chosen by the Secretary of the Treasury as most
conversant with the theory and practice of finance,
recommended that on the redemption of the
bonds, the tams should be maintained in form,
L though nullified jjl act, Thug, while the Times