The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-17 00:00:00

in expediting her fitments. Additional cabin and 1.
office accommodation for a flag officer's retinue is
being fitted on board, and various improvements in
her internal fitments are being carried out. When
completed the Rodney will hoist the flag of Vice-
Admiral the Hon. Sir H. Keppell, K.C.8., who will
relieve Vice-Admiral King, C. 8., in the command
of the China squadron. The Rodney is complete in
her fitments aloft, and there is comparatively little
remaining to be done inboard before she is out of
hand. As soon as she has been put out of the basin
and is ready to receive her guns on board her arma-
ment will be forwarded to her from the War De-
partment stores, Chatham.
The iron steam dredging machine used- for keep-
ing clear the harbour at Chatham, and preventing
the accumulations of mud and sand near the entrance
to the several docks, having been surveyed by the
officials, has been ordered to undergo some extensive
repairs both to hull and machinery, and these are
now being carried out in No. 4 dock. The dredging
machine has been in use in Chatham harbour up-
wards of 20 years, and has not required any repairs
up to the present time.

The sailing yacht Chatham, stationed for service
at Chatham dockyard, has been placed in the fourth
dock at that establishment for the purpose of being
newly coppered, and to undergo some other repairs.
This yacht is one of the oldest vessels in the navy,
the records showing that she was built fully 150
years ago, since which she has had various repairs
and alterations effected in her.
The screw frigate Forte, 29, 2,364 tons, 400-
power, unarmoured, is in the hands of the ship-
wrights and engineers belonging to the master ship-
wright and factory departments at Sheerness dock-
yard, who are bringing her forward for commission
early in the present year. There is still a deal of
work remaining to be completed on board, and it
will be some time before she is ready for the
pennant.

The announcement that the Orontes is under
orders to sail for China and Japan is incorrect, and
the statement probably referred to the Urgent,
which is under orders for the above-mentioned des-
tination. The Orontes is in dock undergoing re-
pairs, which will occupy two or three months in
execution.
The following appointments were made on Tues-
day at the Admiralty :—Sub-Lieut. F. L. Reice, to
the Achilles ; the lion. F. C. Lascelles, midship-
man, to the Achilles ; F. P. Carry and G. P. W.
Freeman, ;midshipmen, to the Lord Clyde ; Wm.
Henn, midshipman, to the Bristol ; Thos. C. D.
Thompson, naval cadet, to the Achilles ; and S. H.
Abell and A. 11. B. Beaver, naval cadets, to the
Bristol.

Railway and other Companies.

MANCHESTER, SHEFFIELD, AND' LINCOLN-

SHIRE.

The half-yearly general meeting was held yester-
day at Manchester.
An abstract of the report and statement of ac-
counts has appeared iu 7he Sun.
Mr. WATKIN, M.P., presided, and moved the
adoption of the report. He explained that the net
profit had been lessened by the general rise of wages
and cost of fuel, and in fact that during the de-
pression of various manufactures in their district the
company had been carrying a large amount of the
rougher and cheaper traffic, and consequently doing
more work for the money paid them. He showed
that notwithstanding the rejection by the House of
Lords of the Manchester Central Station Bill, the
company had reaped an advantage by promoting it.

They had got what they had been struggling for
during many years, what had been secured by agree-
ment but never actually granted to them—the sepa-

rate use of two independent lines from Ardwick to
the terminus. Also, Committees of both houses had
given sufficient declarations of the necessity of the
company being entirely independent of the control I
and obstruction of the London and North-Western,
and which would enable this company, whenever
they chose hereafter, if arrangements were not made
as he hoped they would be, by the London and
North-Western, to enforce their rights. There had
also been obtained an admission from the company

that the Sheffield Company ought to have been in-
creased and independent accommodation. These ad-
vantages, gained at the point of the sword, had cost
something like £ll,lOO. The Midland and Great
Northern, who were to have been sharers in the suc-
cess of the bill, were applied to for payment, each of
one-third of the cost, and he believed they would ac-
cede to a proposition so equitable; but the answers
could not be received for two or three weeks, and
although he ordinarily thought it sounder to charge
the Sheffield Company's portion of the account to
revenue than to capital, the Board had not come to
any decision, and it was placed as suspense account
in the meantime. To have come to a decision at
once might prejudice the negotiations. But in the
event of this company having to pay the whole
amount, the balance of nearly £13,000 carried over
to next half year, as stated in the report, would
provide for it, and still leave a balance, should it
then be decided to pay the whole out of revenue.
That being the state of matters, he was astonished
on Saturday last to receive a long bill in Chancery
at the suit of a gentleman who formerly was a large
shareholder in this concern, but he had reduced his
holding to something like £760 to restrain the di-
rectors from charging the amount to capital, and
also making them liable as directors to pay the whole
themselves. Of course, the company's solicitor had
been instructed to resist. After the distrust in mone-
tary affairs during the past year it behoved railway
directors in general to avow themselves on their
trial, and show that they had acted prudently in the
interests of their companies. He therefore reminded
the shareholders that whereas, since 1854, the capi-
tal of this company had risen from £8,167,000 to
£11,983,000 (productive and unproductive) by rea-
son of the development of the system, that policy
had increased the net profit from £217,135 in 1851
to £526,125 in 1866, excluding, of course, the Suuth
Yorkshire, for which there was a separate capital.
The increase in net profit was therefore 8 per cent.
on the capital laid out. He estimated the total
engagements of the company for new works and
stations, new stock, Liverpool and Cheshire lines,
&c , during the next few years, at £1,395,000 ; and
believed that when the shareholders met three or
four years hence they would acknowledge that this
outlay, like the previous increase of capital, had
been for the advantage of their undertaking and the
ordinary stock. (Applause.) Ile had always drawn
a distinction between sound railway property and
other railway undertakings imprudently sanc-
tioned by Parliament, promoted by contractors,
engineers, and others, who really made merchan-
dise of legislative enactments. He would de-
fine as sound property those railways which could
repay in not exceeding 25 years the whole of their
original cost out of their net profits. The Sheffield
Company, it appeared, could be in that position in
22 years. Their augmented capital had paid 8 per
cent., and must reproduce itself in 12i years ; the
capital outlay of the 13 leading railways since 1856
had paid 6a, per cent., and therefore the directors of
these concerns could not be charged with having
made an unsound outlay. In giving some explana-
tions with regard to the mode in which the directors
proposed to deal with their debenture debt, he re-
ferred to the malicious reports of his own failure
which formed the subject of so much interest in the
Stock Exchange a few weeks ago. Ile thanked the
Manchester Exchange for the assistance they had
given him, but regretted that the London body bad
done all in their power to shield the offender. He
mentioned the inquiries he had prosecuted with a
view to that person's detection, and had just received
by telegraph an intimation that the Solicitor-Gene-
ral recommended proceedings against some one
whom be named. (Loud cheers.)
Mr. FILDES, M.P., in the course of some criti-
cisms of the accounts, avowed himself the promoter
of the injunction with regard to the payment of law
expenses out of capital.
The CIISIR3IAN suggested that if Mr. Fildes would
move a resolution that the share due from this com-
pany be paid out of revenue, he individually would
second it, provided the Chancery suit was withdrawn.
Mr. FILDES assented, and a resolution to that effect
was passed, several shareholders remarking that they