The Sun.
London, England, 1858-03-19 00:00:00

RAILWAY INIELIIGINCE.

CHESTER AND HOLYHEA.D RAILWAY.

The general half-yearly meeting of proprietors of
this company took place yesterday at 12 o'clock,
at the Euston square Station, for the reception of
the report of the directors, and the election of di-
rectors who go out by rotation. Sir S. Morton
Peto, Bart., ;the chairman of the company, pre-
sided.

The SECRETARY having read the minutes of the
previous meeting, the report was at the request of
the chairman, after a brief apology for the short
time it had been placed in the proprietors' hands,
taken as read. Its principal features showed that
there was a general increase of 3,625/. 14s. 11d. in
traffic receipts over the railway, and 1,5251. 17s.
10d. by the steam-boats, as compared with the cor-
responding period of the previous year, notwith-
standing a falling-off in the earnings from mer-
chandise and live stock, attributable partly to the
general stagnation of trade, and partly to a
reduction of rates, consequent on competi-
tion ; the working expenses, on the other
hand, show a decrease of 3951. 17s. The ge-
neral result is an available balance to the credit
of revenue of 38,947/. 17s. 9d., from which
the directors recommend payment of the full
dividend, for six months, on the first preference
stock, at the rate of 5i per cent. per annum, and
a further payment as for 18 months, at the rate of
5 per cent. per annum, in liquidation of arrears of
dividend on the second preference stock to Sept.
30, 1857, leaving a balance of 1,8111. 3s. ld., to
be carried forward to the current half-year.
After some discussion, the report and statement
of accounts were received and adopted.

Sir S. Morton Peto and the Hon. A. Kinnaird,
M.P., were re-elected directors, and R. W. Hand,
Esq., auditor.
A dividend on the first preference stock at the
rate of 5i per cent., and a further payment of
arrears for 18 months on the second preference
stock at 5 per cent., was then declared.
The proceedings then terminated.

UNIVERSITY INTELLIGENCE.

02i.14'01t11, MARCH 18.

The Rey. F. K. Leighton, M.A., Rector of
Harpeden, and late Fellow of All Souls, was this
day elected Warden of that society, in the place
of the Rev. Lowis Sneyd, M.A., deceased.
Mr. Leighton was originally of Magdalen Col-
lege, which he entered in the year 182. He
obtained the Chancellor's prize for Latin verse in
1826, and was placed in the Second Class in
Classics at the Michaelmas Examination in 1828.
Shortly afterwards he was elected Fellow of All
Souls. In 1841 he accepted the College living of
Harpsden, or Harding, Oxon ; and in the same
year, and again in 1843, he was nominated one of
the Select Preachers.

In a Convocation held this day at 2 o'clock, the
nomination of the Dean of Christ Church to be
Curator of the University Galleries was approved
by the House, as was the nomination of Pro-
fessor Donkin to be Curator of the Taylor
Institution. The nomination of the Rev. R. C.
Hales, of Magdalen Hall, to be Curator of the
Taylor Institution wag rejected.
The Rev. H. L. Mansel, 8.D., of St. John's
College, was declared by the Vice-Chancellor to
have been appointed by himself and the two
Proctors a Delegate of thri Press, in the room of
Dr. Bull, deceased.
The Rev. J. Griffith, M.A., of Wadham College,
Keeper of the Achives, was elected a Delegate of
Accounts in the room of Dr. Bull, deceased.

THE DANGER OF READING FOR-RTD=v

BOOKS IN RUSSIA.

A St. Petersburg correspondent of the Allye-
mane Zeitung, writing on the 15th ult., refers to
the case of Hofrath Muchinn, a respectable Russian
gentleman and official pensioner, who has just been
arrested and sent away from his home, because lie
had been guilty of reading aloud, in public places,
certain tracts printed abroad, " of a criminal pur-
port." The correspondence adds—" I enclose to
you the extract from a Gazette, which announ-
ces that Hofrath Muchinn is to be sent, under
guard, away from St. Petersburg, to one of the
remote governments, and to be kept there under
strict police surveillance.' This means in other
words, to Siberia ; and the addition, under strict
police surveillance' is a very heavy aggravation of
the punishment, the real signification of which is
what people in the West of Europe can scarcely
form a correct idea of. The ' criminal tracts,
printed abroad,' were the Kolokol (the Bell), which
appears in London, and a part of the "Voices
from Russia" (Golossah is Rossiji), which are well
known as the revolutionary writings of ilerzen,
printed in London at what is called the g Free Rus-
sian Press,' 1.1-v. 2, Julia-street, Brune wick oquare,
and which are circulated hero in great numbers.
If the reading aloud or communication of these
writings merits such a penalty, and be it observed
that no limit is fixed to its duration, and the
strict police surveillance' may thus be continued
for life, whilst the remote government is not speci-
fied by name—then thousands of persons here in
St. Petersburg are equally guilty, for those writings
are actually passed from hand to hand, though in-
deed with greater circumspection than Hofrath
Muchinn displayed. You can hardly now begin
a conversation without its turning upon the
latest attacks made by the Kolokot upon
Sakrewski, Bering, Orloff, Alderberg, and
even high personages. If any one has not
himself read them, he has at least heard of
them, exaggerated even by repetition, and the in-
adequacy of a police prohibition to put restrictions
on intellectual activity, has never been so com-
pletely exemplified as in the case of these papers,
brilliantly written and printed in the Russian lan-
guage. If the object has been to make au example
of Muchinn, and intimidate others by the sentence
passed upon him, I believe it will;produce no effect
but the observance of greater precautions and closed
doom when the same sort of thing is going on.