The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-30 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

The Lords of the Admiralty, from Portland in
the Enchantress, arrived yesterday afternoon at
Plymouth. Several ships of war, supposed to be
the Channel squadron, were at some distance from
the coast ; one was entering the Sound, the others
were expected to follow. The Royal Marines at
Storehouse will be inspected to-morrow. The levee
is postponed until Monday, at 2 30 p.m., when it
will be held in Devonport dockyard.
The screw steam frigate Phoebe, 35, Capt. John
Bytbesea, will leave Plymouth Suund shortly for
Halifax.

The screw steam corvette Rattlesnake, 19, at
Devonport, of 1,705 tons, with engines of 400 horse
power, will be commissioned in a few days for a
Second-Class Commodore, to relieve Commodore
liornby on the West Coast of Africa.
The half-yearly change of quarters of the brigade
of Foot Guards will be made on Tuesday next,
when the Ist battalion of the Grenadier Guards re-
move from the Tower to Windsor, the 2d battalion
from Chelsea Barracks to St. George's Barracks,
and 3d battalion from Wellington Barracks (new
wing) to Wellington Barracks (old wing) and out
barrack. Coldstream Guards, Ist Battalion, from
St. George's Barracks to the Tower ; the 2d batal-
lion will remain in Dublin. The Scots Fusilier
Guards, Ist battalion, from Windsor to Chelsea
Barracks ; and 2d battalion from Wellington Bar-
racks (old wing) to 'Wellington Barracks (new wing.)
The depot of the 2d battalion of the 22d Regi-
ment, under the command of Capt. J. W. Trevor,
after being inspected by Major-Gen. F. Murray, left
Chatham garrison on Wednesday evening, and pro-
ceeded to Gravesend, where the officers and men
embarked on board the Earl of Percy steamer for
conveyance to Newcastle, there to await the arrival
of the service companies of the 2d battalion of the
22d Regiment from the Mauritius. The strength
of the depot is seven officers, six sergeants, 58 rank
and file, 10 soldiers' wives, and 19 children. Staff-
Assist.-Surg. J. C. Knipe proceeded in medical
charge of the troops.
At a late hour on Wednesday night a series of
highly interesting siege operations was commenced
on the field-works, Chatham, by the officers and
sappers and miners of the Royal Engineers, for the
purpose of ascertaining what field operations could
be undertaken by a large force of Royal Engineers,
when working at night, with the assistance of the
electric light, and in the face of a large hostile force.
The whole of the arrangements connected with the
proposed operations, as well as the nature of the
works intended to be undertaken, were kept con-
cealed from the force to be employed in the siege
works until Wednesday evening, when the order was
issued by the Director of the Royal Engineer Estab-
lishment (Col. J. L. A. Simmons, C. 8.) for the
working parties of sappers and miners to make pre-
parations for mining operations in the face of an
enemy in the field. Shortly after 8 o'clock the
entire force to be employed assembled on the vacant
ground at the rear of Brompton Barracks, facing
the Crimean Memorial Arch, under command of
Lieut.-Col. IV. 0. Lennox, C. 8., V.C., to whom
the duty of effecting the intended operations was
intrusted. The working implements having been
served out to each man, the Royal Engineers
marched away, under cover of the darkness, to the
scene of the proposed operations near the lower ex-
tremity of Chatham lines, where extensive field-
works had already been thrown up by the sappers
and miners, who have been occupied in military
engineering operations for several months past.
The plan of attack supposed the force in the field to
be resting with their base at Brompton, and the
efforts of the Engineers were directed to the forma-
tion of an indented sunken battery for three guns,
together with a single sap, and the driving of the
necessary galleries of communication, all of which
were to be undertaken in a more than usually ex-
posed portion of the siege-works. On the arrival
of the force on the ground pickets were posted, and
the electric light having been thrown on the works,
a body of several hundred men commenced the con-
struction of the battery, similar working parties
being at the same time employed in the forinaLion
of the single sap, and pushing forward the
galleries. The management of the electric light
was undertaken by a party of Royal Engineers
under the personal superintendence of Capt. F. J.
Bolton, 12th Regiment, who is attached to the Royal
Engineer establishment on duties connected with
his system of day and night naval and military sig-
nalling. The experience of Wednesday night proved
most conclusively that in future military operations
in the field the electric light is destined to become
a most valuable auxiliary in enabling sapping and
mining operations to be carried on under the most
favourable circumstances during the night, the
powerful rays of light, which were directed on the
exact locality where the works were in progress,
enabling the operations to be carried out under cir-
cumstances as favourable as siege works undertaken
during the day. In about three hours from the time
of commencing the works the Royal Engineers had
succeeded in completing the battery in readiness for
placing three siege guns in position, the face of the
battery being sloped off and rivetted with the ordi-
nary sand bags, as well as with galvanised iron
gabions, the valuable invention of Quartermaster
Jones, Royal Engineers. The superiority of the
gabions constructed on Quartermaster Jones's plan
was fully established during the siege operations on
Wednesday night, a party of only eight men con-
structing 50 gabions in about an hour and a half,
while to make an equal number of the old wicker
gabions in the same time would have required a
working party of 300 men, the whole of whom must
of necessity have been taken away from the siege
works where their services would be required. Shortly
before 2 o'clock yesterday morning the force of
Royal Engineers had completed the whole of the
operations ordered to be carried out—the battery,
sap, galleries, and other works having all been
placed in readiness for the mounting of the guns,
with which fire would be opened at daylight, the
whole having been completed in the comparatively
brief space of between four and five hours from the
time of tracing the site for the battery. The order
was then given for the working parties to return to
their quarters, which were reached about 2 a.m.
Yesterday another party of officers and sappers of
RoyalE ngineerswere engaged in erecting in proximity
to the newly constructed batterya new description of
flying bridge for the passage of artillery, troops, and
war stores, the only materials used in the construc-
tion of the bridge being ordinary scaffold poles
bound together on what may be described as the
double truss principle, by which system of con-
struction the lateral and vertical strains are distri-
buted over every part of the structure, and by
means of which enormous strength and rigidity are
obtained. A flooring of planks completes the
bridge, which is of sufficient strength to admit of
the passage of field-pieces, horses, ammunition-
waggons, and other field equipments. The bridge
constructed yesterday would, on ordinary services,
occupy the working party about five hours in its
erection. It is understood that some further night
siege operations will be carried out at Chatham in
the course of a few days.
Lieut.-Gen. W. Cowper Coles died at Woodcote
on Tuesday last, aged 77. The gallant General had
seen considerable service in the early part of his
professional career, and had serve 1 in the 14th and
40th Regiments of Foot and in the 4th and 12th
Dragoons. He entered the army in the autumn of
1605, and served in South Aenerica with the 14th
in 1807, including the operations previous to and
storming of Montevideo. Afterwards he served in
the Peninsula from August, 1808, to November,
1611, and again from April, 1813, to the end of
that war in 18,14. With the 40th Regiment he was
present at the battles of Roleia, Viniiera, and Tala-
vera; with the 4th Dragoons at Buasco, Albuera,
and Usagre ; and in the 12th Light Dragoons at the
passage of the Bidassoa, the Nive, and the Adour.
The General had received the silver war medal.
with seven claps, and his commissions bore date as
follows : —Ensign, Oct. 31, 1805 ; lieut., Feb. 8,
1807 ; capt., Nov. 19, 1812; major, June 9, 1825 ;
lieut.-col., Dec. 10, 1830; col., Nov. 9, 1840 ;
major-gen., Tune 20, 1851 ; and lieut.-gen.,
March 9, 1801.

The following appointments were made yesterday
at the Adtuiralty :—George L. Miller, a.sist.-pay-
master, to the Bellerophon, and Owen Davey,
assist.-Paymaster, to the Dauntless.

Railway and other Companies.

S 0 UTH -EASTERN.

The half-yearly meeting of this company was held
yesterday at the City Terminus Hotel, Cannon-
street ; Mr. E. W. Watkin, M.P., the chairman,
presided.
Mr. CHUBB, the secretary, having read the notice
convening the meeting, the report, an abstract of
which has appeared in The Sun, was taken as read.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, said they had made arrangements for admit-
ting some of the Brighton Company's trains to run
into the Cannon-street station on Monday next as
well as the South-Eastern trains. They were
anxious to give the public the advantage of coming
into that station as soon as possible under the agree-
ment with the Brighten Company. The report of
the directors was very full, and gave the proprietors
all the information that was necessary to enable
them to judge of their affairs. He had thought it
would be to the advantage of the company to charge
the interest to revenue on all the expended capital
of the company, although it might be looked upon
as a hard measure. In the expectation of having
the Tunbridge-wells line open for traffic he had
been disappointed. Some delay had taken place in
consequence of the wet weather, and therefore it was
not advisable to open it until the works were more
consolidated. They thought it better to postpone the
opening for a short time, until everything was per-
fectly ready for traffic. But as it would be opened soon
they would not suffer much from charging all the
interest to revenue on productive capital. By this
means the company would be placed on a hard
and solid basis, and he trusted that with the aid
of downright hard work and economy they would be
enabled to increase the net revenue available for
dividend, and thus make the future of the company
satisfactory to all concerned. They were paying in-
terest on the cost of a large amount of plant to pro-
vide for the working of the new Tunbridge line, and
also for the development of the traffic for the next
few years. He hoped it would be a long time before
they again had to ask them for money to purchase
new plant. A number of new engines were added to
the stock in the past half year, and their cost would
appear in the next account. He found that in the
past half year there had been an increase in the pas-
senger traffic of £50,000 ; but at the same time there
had been a decrease in the merchandise traffic of
£4,200, which had arisen from bad trade and com-
mercial distress. As to the passenger traffic, it was
upon the whole satisfactory. During the first two
months the Exhibition was open in Paris it was a
failure, and a very small increase iu the number of
passengers was due to its opening. The continental
passenger traffic showed an increase of £26,000 the
half year, and the local passenger traffic an increase
of £24,000. The local goods traffic had fallen off
from the depression of trade. He found that the
total net increase of the traffic in the half year was
£57,000, and it was earned by an additional expen-
diture of 50} per cent. on that account. He found
that the increased receipts on the Great Northern
Railway were earned at an expense of 521 per cent.
of the increased receipts, and that the increased re-
ceipts on the Midland Railway had been earned at
an expense of 120 per cent. of the increased receipts,
so that the working expenses had more than eaten
up the increase of traffic. The increased traffic on
the Lancashire and Yorkshire, which was an exceed-
ingly well managed line, was earned at an expense
of 80 per cent. He thought they would see that their
general manager, Mr. Eborall, had not lost any of
his usual care and vigilance, as he had worked their
increased receipts at 50} per cent. The number of
passengers conveyed during the past half year over
their lines was 9,700,000, showing, as compared
with the corresponding half of last year, an increase
of 1,228,000 passengers, of whom 931,000 were
carried on the line between Cannon-street and
Charing-cross. He told them that 9,700,000 pas-
sengers were carried over the company's railways
during the past half-year, and he had now to tell
them that 7,15),000 passengers were conveyed in
and out of the Cannon-street and Charing-cross
stations, and this showed them the great importance
of those metropolitan stations, and that their chief
traffic emanated from London. He had no doubt
that great as the expenditure on these stations had
been, when the traffic to and from them was deve-
loped,
they would pay the company a fair interest
on the outlay. The receipts on the Greenwich
branch showed a decrease of £l6O, in consequence
of the distress in the cast and south of London
during the half year. But there had been an in-
crease of £10,870, or 163 per cent. in the receipts
between Cannon-street and Charing-cross. From
observations he had made in travelling to and fro
he hail suggested to the general manager that it
would be better to do away with the second-class
carriages between Charing-cross and Cannon-street,
and have only first-class and third-class, charging
for the first-class return ticket 81., and for the third
class return 4d. The increase in traffic between
Charing-cross and London-bridge as compared with
London-bridge only was £40,000, and as compared
with London-bridge, Charing-cross, and Cannon-
street and London-bridge only, £74,000, exclusive
of £17,500 the local traffic on the Charing-cross line,
making together £91,500. That showed the kind of
increase that would take place. The increase in season
tickets had been £6,500. Oa Easter Monday they
had conveyed on their lines without accident
135,000 passengers. There was now a steady in-
crease in their receipts of £3,500 a week, and he
thought as to traffic receipts and other matters they
had fairly turned the corner, and as time went on their
affairs would improve. There were two teats of careful
management in con lusting railway tralli3 —viz.,
making but few bad debts, and having to pay very
little compensation for lost luggage. 'The whole
expense for the latter was £8 9s. 2d., and for bad
debts under £lO during the half-year. (Hear.)
This showed that they had people who knew how to
attend to their Lusiness. During the half-year the
directors had offered a certain amount of debenture
stock to the proprietors, and it was all readily taken
up by them. (Hear.) He called the attention of
the proprietors to an Act passed in the last session
of Parliament " to amend the law relating to rail-
ways." They would remember that a decision of
Lord Cairns had caused great consternation among
debenture-holders in the case of the London, Chat-
, ham, and Dover. It was practically to the effect
that the directors of a railway company might get
the company into debt, which no directors had any
business to do ; and, according to Lord Cairns, the
trade debt would claim before the debenture-holder
and might cause the engines and rolling stock to be
seized and sold, the working of the line might thus
be stopped, and the security of the debenture would
be endangered. By the provisions of the new Act
the debenture and debenture stock would have
priority against the company over all other claims
except rent charges and land claims ; and this placed
all railway debentures in a safe position. (Hear,
hear.) He would ask them to divide the ordinary
shares of the company into two equal portions, but
it would not be compulsory on any holder to divide
his shares. It was suggested by some very
large holders of ordinary shares that, if they
could fix one portion of the ordinary capital
entitling it to take the ordinary dividend pay-
able to the undivided share until it amounted
to 6 per cent. on the preferred portion, it would
be a great advantage, leaving the deferred
portion to take any dividend that might remaia
as coming to the whole share. It was believed
that a share thus divided would' bring a
higher prici in the market than the whole share, as
shown in the case of the Great Northern Railway
A deferred half-share and B preferred halt-share,
which together brought a higher price in the market
than the whole or undivided share now consolidated
into stock. Ile also intended to ask them to ap-
point an audit committee of five shareholders to
select auditors every year, after the plan which had
been successfully adopted by the London and North
Western Railway Company since the year 1851.
The five gentlemen he proposed to name held in the
aggregate £300,000 of the company's stock, namely,
Mr. Fielding, M.P., Mr. Fletcher, Mr. Sealy, Mr.
11. Wheeler, and Mr. Fort. The next matter he
had to propose was that as Mr. Eborall, their gene-
ral manager, was at present in a very unsatisfactory
state of health he should have leave of absence for
two months, and he hoped he would return less

careworm than he looked at present, and he was
sure he would carry with him on his journey the
good wishes of the proprietors and directors. (Hear,
hear, and a voice, " Pay his expenses.") He then
called attention to the successful exertions of the
Rev. Mr. Allcock, who had collected £4,000 and
built a church at Ashford to accommodate 600 of
the working people employed by the company. He
commenced his exertions in 1861, and had lately
completed one portion of the task he had undertaken.
Mr. Allcock had again renewed his exertions with
a view to provide an endowment for the church,
and he hoped the shareholders would kindly assist
Mr. Allcock to accomplish that desirable object.
The chairman then called attention to the unjust
state of the law as affecting rates and taxes on rail-
ways and compensation to passengers for injuries.
He hoped the recommendation of the Royal Com-
mission on Railways would induce Parliament next
Session to pass an act to remedy those grievances.
The rates aud taxes on the South-Eastern Company's
railway amounted to £30,000, or 9 per cent. of the
net earnings. A railway did not cast any burdens on
the rates, and it got no benefit for the good it did in
the various parishes through which it passed. They
had paid in one year £85,000 out of revenue for
composition for accidents. With regard to their
liabilities, the best way was to meet every charge at
once out of revenue, and not place anything to a
suspense account. He thought directors should be
prudent and thoughtful men ; and as to the present
board, he believed that no body of men could work
more pleasantly together than they did for the bene-
fit of the company, and as to the shareholders they
had given them their cordial and unanimous sup-
port. If the board had not had that support, they
could not have gone on so successfully. The agree-
ment between the company and the Brighton Com-
pany, if prudently, carefully, and faithfully carried
out, could not fail to be beneficial to both compa-
nies, and the more he thought of it the more clearly
he saw his way to a development that would arise,
and the more reason they would have for not dis-
turbing that arrangement. The capital account
would lie in a nutshell, and he now thought that the
services he had rendered to the company ought to
relieve him from the position he now occupied, and
which he accepted at request of friends who were
large shareholders in the company. His time was
fully occupied, and he thought they might go on
without him now. He would not advise his friends
to part with their stock in the company. He
thought the concern had turned the corner, the re-
venue would steadily increase, and they would again
enjoy good dividends. (Hear, hear.)
The Hon. J. BYNG seconded the motion for the
adoption of the report.
Mr. MORPETII suggested that the second-class
carriages on the Charing-cross line should be re-
tained, and that the affairs might be modified ; and,
after asking several questions with regard to items
in the accounts, he agreed that everything charge-
able against revenue should be paid in the half-
year, and that there should be no suspense account
for any purpose whatever. He thought the surplus
lands should be sold, and that the time had arrived
when they should endeavour to retain the valuable
services of Mr. Watkin by offering him suitable
compensation. (Hear.)

Mr. PUNCHER approved the course pointed out
by the Chairman, recommended a modification of
the fares on the Charing-cross Railway, and a pro-
vision for smoking carriages, to relieve those who
did not like smoking.
After some observations by Mr. Adams and Mr.
Morrin,

The CHAIRMAN explained that when the Tun-
bridge line was opened for traffic it would save 13
miles to Tunbridge, Dover, Hastings, Ramsgate,
and other places, and would practically make the
South-Eastern line as short to those places as the
Chatham and Dover line, and by means of which
they hoped to recover some of the traffic they had
lost by the competition of that company. 11'ben the
directors of the London and South-Western were
prepared to allow them a fair consid,:ration for
running trains into the Cannon-street Station the
South-Eastern directors would be ready to meet
them on fair and reasonable terms.

The report and statement of accounts were unani-
mously adopted, and a dividend at the rate of 2 per
cent per annum was declared for the past half -year
on the consolidated stock of the company, payable
on the sth of September; a bylaw was agreed to for
imposing a penalty of £5 upon persons putting in
action without reasonable cause the telegraphic
communication between passenger and guard ; an
Audit Committee was unanimously appointed, con-
sisting of Messrs. Fielding, Scaly, Fletcher, Wheeler,
and Fort, for the selection of auditors ; a resolution
was passed authorising the division of the ordinary
stocks, as proposed by the chairman.
On the motion of Mr. Bibby, a director, seconded
by Mr. Stuart, a director, both holding a large
amount of stock, a formal resolution requesting Mr.
Watkin, M.P., to retain his present position in the
company, and voting him £2,500 a year for his
valuable services, was unanimously adopted by the
meeting.

On the motion of Mr. MORPETH, £lOO was unani-
mously voted to Mr. Ebdrall out of the funds of
the company to defray the expenses of his journey
for the benefit of his health, and the proceedings
concluded with a hearty vote of thanks to the
chairman and directors.

CRYSTAL PALACE AND SOUTH LONDON JUNCTION.
The half-yearly general meeting of this company
was held yesterday at the offices, Winchester-
buildings ; Mr. J. Leveson Gower in the chair.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, said the Board had succeeded in obtaining a
settlement of the accounts between the company
and the contractor. He was of opinion that if they
took the cost of the construction of the line it would
be found that it was the cheapest of the metropo-
litan lines. Ile believed that the traffic of the line
would be quite equal to the traffic on the metropo-
litan extensions of the London, Chatham, and
Dover. The station at the Palace could not be
assailed, and they had every reason to believe that
all the metropolitan railways would be glad to have
access to the High Level Station at the Palace. The
East London proposed in their bill to make arrange-
ments to get to the Palace, but it was not suc-
cessful. He believed it was intended to renew the
project as soon as the railway property revived; this
company would be the first to benefit by it.
Mr. HOTILAM, in seconding the motion, said the
position of the station at the Crystal Palace could
not be better, standing as it did at the top of a nar-
row summit with slopes running down on all sides.
The weak point in the line was the want of city ac-
commodation, and the manner in which the line
was worked by the London, Chatham, and Dover.
Mr. BURKE, Q.C., said he had a very large inte-
rest in the company as a mortgagee, and as the
directors had not given the mortgagees any infor-
mation he had qualified himself as a shareholder for
the purpose of gaining that information. He had
been told that the line had been worked at a loss, as
the receivers had only taken £5,000, while the ex-
penditure was £B,OOO. If that was the case they had
better shut up the line. The line was badly worked
by the London and Chatham. _

Mr. MAYNARD explained that the line was worked
by the Chatham Company at cost price. The
directors had not yet taken steps to get possession
of the line, as they believed the closing of the line
could do no good to any one.
liter some further discussion the report was
adopted, and the meeting closed with a vote of
thanks to the chairman.