The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-22 00:00:00

BLYTIE AND TYNE.

The half-yearly general meeting of this company
was held in Newcastle-on-Tyne, on Monday ; Mr.
J. Laycock in the chair.

The report was read by Mr. Armstrong, the secre-
tary, in which the directors congratulated the com-
pany on the steady increase in all branches of traffic.
The permanent way, as also the rolling stock and
other plant of the company, had been maintained in
a state of efficiency. The Tynemouth station and
new goods warehouse at North Shields had been
completed, and a commencement had been made
with the new station and goods warehouse at Blyth
The gross revenue for the half-year was £60,257,
and the expenditure, including way leaves and in-
terest, £39,805, leaving a balance of £20,452 ap-
plicable to dividend, out of which the directors re-
commended the payment of dividends at the rate of
10 per cent. on the 10 per cent. preference stock
and the ordinary stock and shares of the company,
and 5 per cent, on the 5 per cent. preference stock
and shares, which would leave a small balance.
The CHAIRMAN moved the adoption of the report.
He said that the earnings of the company had con-
siderably exceeded those of the preceding half-year.
But there was one thing to counterbalance this
statement--wages and the price of material had
greatly increased; and he explained the difficulty
there would be in bringing the expenditure down
again, even supposing there should be a decrease of
traffic.

Mr. J. GREY seconded the motion, which was
carried.

The dividend recommended in the report was
agreed to, and the proceedings concluded with a
vote of thanks to the chairman and directors.

RIIYMNEY.
The report of the directors of this company states
that the expenditure on capital account during the
past half-year ending the 30th of June last amounted
to £12,091. The increase in the traffic receipts
amounted to £5,344 as compared with the corre-
sponding half of 1865. The directors recommended
a dividend at the rate of 3 per cent. per annum on
the ordinary stock, leaving a balance of £96. The
most difficult portions of the Cardiff and Caerphilly
Railway were in progress, and no delay would be
allowed to occur in carrying on the works. By the
company's Act passed in the late Session of Parlia-
ment authority had been given to construct the
junction line, near Caerphilly, between their rail-
way and the Brecon and Merthyr Railway ; also
power to deviate and improve portions of other lines.
Clauses had been introduced giving running powers
to other railway companies over the low-level line of
the company's Bute Dock branch at Cardiff, on pay-
ment of the tolls therein mentioned.

The capital account showed that £544,098 had
been expended, leaving a balance of £16,684 against

the company. The revenue account for the half-
year ending the 30th of June showed that £33,863
had been received and £14,624 expended, leaving a
balance of £19,239.

France will not demand the fortresses of Pbi'
lippeville and Marienburg—that is to say, does not
ask any compensation for Prussian aggrandise-
ment at the cost of Belgium. These resolves 0!
the French Government are conformable with all
our anticipations. The material power of France
would be increased in no appreciable degree by
the acquisition of these fortresses and the smsll
slips of territory which she lost with their! ul
1814 ; and the amour propre of the nation,
wounded by the triumphs of Prussia and there-
settlement of Europe without French intervention,
would not be consoled by acquisitions made at the
expense of Belgium. If ever a French Government
proposes a rectification of its frontiers on the side el
Belgium, that rectification will not consist in the
paltry acquisition of a fortress or two, and a fiir
square leagues of territory. The neutrality and in'
dependence of Belgium will be assailed, the treaties
which bind France will be broken, for no such petty
prize. When France seeks compensation on the
side of Belgium she will seek it by the absorption
of the whole of Belgium, and the extension of the
territory of France to its so called natural frontier,
the Rhine. She may do so some day. At present
we have the assurance of the French Government
that it proposes no violation of Belgian territory,
and even those who may not give that assurance the
implicit credit which we do may find in the circum-
stances of Europe sufficient reasons to reassure
them. So far, therefore, as the English Government
the English people are concerned, this question
of frontier rectification has lost all importance. W 6
are only concerned in the independence of Belgtent
We are assured by the French Government that 1:
will not meddle with Belgium. The rectification of
the French frontier on the side of Germany Is a
matter with which we have nothing to do, except 03
far as the attempt to effect it is likely to produce 3
quarrel between France and Prussia. The cession
of the districts upon the Saar and in the Palatinate,
which France asked, would not in the slightest de'
gree affect the balance of power, and the interests
of justice and treaty faith are not involved at all.
Indeed, one can hardly help regretting—assuming
that these cessions would have satisfied France
that they were not made. The loss to Prussia and
Germany would have been nothing, and the refusal
has added to a mortification and anger which are
likely, for all the check which the good sense of the
Emperor of the French puts upon them, to lead, be'
fore very long, to a sanguinary war. Of course
no one can blame Count Von Bismarck for de-
clining to do that which, in the present temper '9'
the Germans, would have been perilous in the. ex-
treme, the more especially that his refusal has gall'
him an immediate success ; but it may hereafter be
deeply regretted both in Germany and in the rest
of Europe that the feeling of irritation which pre'
vails in France was not appeased by concession.
which, although Germany was quite warranted In
refusing to make them, would have cost her no:
thing, and saved her the necessity of a continue,'
readiness for war, and, too probably, a tremendous
struggle, in which all the achievements of the Wu"
mer of 1866 will be imperilled.