The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-06 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, :FRIDAY EVENING, JULY 6, 1866.

the passages of the Upper Elbe at Arnau and Konigs.
hof. Nor is this the only welcome intelligence
which has to-day reached the commander of the
First Army, for he has also heard that the Ziethen
Regiment of Hussars has in the front defeated an
Austrian regiment, and captured a convoy of about
50 waggons.

This morning the army moved from Sobotka,
ready and anxious to fight, but the Austrians did
not show themselves, and it has taken up a position
in front of Gitschin, prepared for battle. To-morrow
the King of Prussia comes to Gitzehin, and will
there establish his headquarters.

the zealous secretary of the association, and the
proceedings, which were throughout conducted in
the most orderly manner, closed with a vote of
thanks to the chairman.

Railway and Other Companies.

HUDSON'S BAY.

The general meeting of this company was held
yesterday at their house, Fenchurch-street--Sir E.
Head, the governor, presided.

The report stated that the profits of the year end-
ing the 31st May would enable the committee to
declare a dividend of 14s. per share, in addition to
that of Bs. per share which was distributed in Jan.
last, being together at the rate of 5f per cent. on the
stock of the company. The sum to be credited to
the,chief factors and chief traders this year would
be such as to afford satisfaction to those officers,
whose exertions in the company's service could.not
be too highly appreciated. The balance of profits
carried forward would amount to £34,868. The
quantity of furs sold this year exceeded considerably
the average of the last ten years. The committee
had long been anxious to effect a change in the
arrangements for examining and packing their goods
for export. The premises in Fenchurch-street
offered no facilities for improvement in this re-
spect, and while the value of the freehold site be-
longing to the company was very great, the conve-
niences which it afforded for their business were
altogether insufficient. Fine new premises in Lime-
street had been taken at a rent of £2,340, and a
portion of them now entirely separate had been let
at a rental of £1,350, so that the sum payable by
the company was reduced to £990. Hydraulic
presses had been erected, and arrangements made
for the examination and packing of all the com-
pany's goods on the premises. In addition to this
the committee had secured the lease of the offices at
the corner of Lime-street at a moderate premium
and a rental of £l,OOO per annum, but as the offices
were larger than they required, a portion of them
would be relet. The Hudson's Bay-house in Fen-
church-street could be sold, and the large sum it
would produce would be available. The claims of
the company under the Oregon treaty were in
course of arbitration before the Commission at
Washington, and it was understood that the evi-
dence on both sides was to be finally closed by
the Ist of July instant. The report discussed at
some length the question whether colonisation
on a large scale ought to be undertaken by the com-
pany. Negotiations had been entered into with the
Secretary of State for the Colonies in August, 1863,
as to the expediency of vesting executive and judi-
cial authority in officers of the Crown over the Red
River and the south-western portion of Rupert's
Land, belonging to the company, and exercising it
in the Queen's name. Those negotiations it ap-
peared had not up to the present time resulted in
anything definite or satisfactory.
The CHAIRMAN moved a formal resolution for the
adoption of the report and declaration of the divi-
dends therein recommended.
Mr. C. M. LAMPSON seconded the motion.
Mr. DODDS contended at considerable length that
the company had ample powers under its charter,
not only to carry on its trade but to establish a
colony and govern it without any additional powers
from the Government or ;he Colonial-office. He ad-
mitted that there was a difference of opinion on that
subject between the shareholders' committee and the
governor and directors of the company. The great
object of the Crown in granting the charter was to
enable the company to clevelope the resources of
Rupert's Land and the Hudson's Bay territory for
the extension of British commerce. The company
had full power given them over gold and silver mines
to work them and other minerals, to build forts, fac-
tories, towns, villages, and to establish plantations.
They had, in fact, full legal powers to do every-
thing that was requisite. He concluded by moving
a resolution requesting the directors to consider the
best mode of effecting the object of colonisation,
and appointing a committee of shareholders to con-
sult with the board on the subject.
Mr. MORRISON seconded the motion. He said it
only required pressure from the public to bring about
all that was desirable for the company to carryout.
Mr. WATKIN, M.P., said he considered the report
of the directors a very able document, and the
statement of Mr. Dodds very much to the purpose.
They were told that it was premature to urge this
matter forward at present. He thought the directors
should at all events have taken the first step, which
was to expend about £30,000 or £40,000 in estab-
lishing telegraphic communication to all the principal
stations in their territory, by which means they
would shorten the time of receiving information by
five or six months in respect of the more distant sta-
tion. They would then have rapid and almost con-
stant communication as to what was going on over
their vast territory ; and above all things, they would
be enabled to collect useful information and make
known in England the enormous value of their pro-
perty—the various points from which it was most
accessible, and the distances ; the routes through
which water communication could be established by
means of lakes and rivers in the interior; and the
vast extent of prairie land available upon which a
new and prosperous State could be founded. If the
people in England and the North of Scotland knew
what could be- done by enterprise and industrythere,
he thought something would soon be done to develope
the best part of the Hudson's Bay territory. The
company only requiretl a just and honest share of
the profit in carrying out the proposed measure.
only wanted what
be submitted by the directors to the
jausstgofoord,thaenirdprtohpeyerty.
lie wished the
questionwTahsei
fra ir titlea nt
odw
whole of the proprietors as to whether they would
or not take steps to colonise the southern part of
Rupert's Land. So far as he was concerned, he
would say let the majority decide the question once
and for ever. He then suggested that the meeting
should receive the report, and that circulars be sent
to the shareholders requesting them to expresseither
their assent to or dissent from the proposition for
establishing the colony, the result to be submitted
at the November meeting.

Mr. DODDS expressed his willingness to withdraw
his motion and adopt Mr. Watkin's suggestion.
A long discussion ensued, in the course of which
the Chairman explained the course the directors had
pursued, the details of which would be found in the
report. He had no objection to the suggestion of
Mr. Watkin to ascertain the opinion of the share-
holders on the subject, provided that it was modified.

The report was then unanimously adopted, and it
was agreed that a circular be sent to each share-
holder with a view to ascertain his opinion on the
question, stating the number of votes assenting to
or dissenting from the proposed measure for colo-
nising the southern portion of Rupert's Land out
of the company's Own resources, and that the result
be declared at the November meeting of the com-
pany.

On the motion of Ur. WATKIN,
_
M.P., a vote of
thanks to the Governor concluded the proceedings.

Colonel Yolland has
Ant inspected the deviation
of this company's
between Sandall and Maud's-
bridge, and it is understood that it will shortly be
SOUTR
between the two places
YORKKERE.
opened for public traffic. The old portion of line
the branch line of the West Riding
aban-
doned. The Government inspector also passed over
mentioned will be
Railwayfrom Adwick-le-street to the South York-
shire Railway at Hatfield-park. and Grimsby

IZAILWAy BILLS.
In Lord Redesdale's Committee, House of Lords,
yesterday, the following bills were passed :—Ayr
Harbour, the North Metropolitan, the Wycombe,
the Bryumawr and Blaenavon ; the Merthyr, Tre-
degar, and Abergavenny ; the Mid-Wales, the
Shrewsbury and Potteries Junction, the Swansea
Vale and Neath and Brecon Junction, and the
Ogmore Valley (
the Wrexham, Mold, and Connah
(No. 1), the Langbarne ; the Peter-
borough, Wisbeach, and Sutton ; the Buckley, and
's Quay Bills were
heard and adjourned.
In Room C, the opposition in the cases of the
Lynn and Sutton-bridge, Spalding and Bourn, and
Norwich and Spalding, and the East London
Eastern Extension Bills was withdrawn. The Llan-
trissant and Taff Vale Bill was heard and adjourned.
Iu the Painted Chamber, the Cheshire and West

Chester Bill was thrown out. The Mold and Den•
bigh Junction and the Manchester, Sheffield, and
Licolnshire (Central Station and Lines) Bills were
heard and adjourned.

In Room D, the Bute Docks (Cardiff) Bill was
again heard and adjourned.

Court of Common Council.

A Court of Common Council was held yesterday
at Guildhall, at which Alderman Rose presided as
locum tenens for the Lord Mayor, who was prevented
from attending by official business. .

The Town Clerk read a letter from Mr. Moore,
the secretary to the International Horticultural Ex-
hibition, thanking the Corporation for having allowed
the committee the use of the Guildhall.

The letter was ordered to be printed in the minutes
of the court.

THE SHERIFFS' COURT.

Mr. T. FRICKER brought forward the motion of
which he had given notice—" That the reference to
the Officers and Cleiks Committee of the 19th of
December last be enlarged, and that prior to their
bringing up their report, relating to the duties and
emoluments of the judge of the Sheriffs' Court (Mr.
Kerr), it be a further instruction to them to inquire
generally into the manner in which those duties both
at the Central Criminal Court and at the Sheriff's
Court have been discharged by Mr. Kerr, and to
report thereon to this court forthwith." In pro-
posing the motion, Mr. Fricker said that at the last
court, when a report was brought up recommend-
ing a large increase to the salary of Mr. Kerr,
which proposition was negatived, the subject of the
manner in which Mr. Kerr performed his duties at
the Sheriff's Court was partially discussed,
and he considered from what had already
taken place, that it was due not only to the
administration of justice, but also to Mr. Kerr
himself, that the allegations that had been made,
with reference to his conduct as a judge, should be
more fully inquired into. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. WEBBER sconded the motion.

A very long and somewhat personal discussion
then took place, and Mr. R. N. Philipps, in the
course of it defended Mr. Kerr, and urged that he
had decided a very large number of cases, and very
few appeals had been made against his decisions.
He also reminded the court that the Corporation
of London had been, on several occasions, compli-
mented by the Queen's judges upon the able man-
ner in which the judges appointed by the City per-
formed their duties. (Cries of "Hear, hear.") He
moved, as an amendment to the motion of Mr.
Fricker, the previous question.
Mr. M'GEORGE, the chairman of the Officers and
Clerks Committee, opposed the motion, and said
that while the subject was under consideration by
that committee they had partially investigated some
of the charges that had been made against Mr.
Kerr, and had been unable to discover anything
tangible against him.
The court ultimately divided, when the amend-
ment was negatived by a majority of 11, the num-
bers being 48 in favour of the amendment, and 59
against it.

Another amendment was proposed by Mr. SAW.
BURY, embodying the terms of the original motion
but adding to it as a rider, that the charges speei.
fically preferred against Mr. Kerr should be sub.
mitted to the committee in writing before the sub.
ject was taken into consideration by them.

This amendment gave rise to another long dis-
cussion, and in the end the amendment was put to
the court, and declared to be negatived. A division
was demanded, when there appeared for the amend-
ment 33, against it 70—majority against the
amendment, 37.
Mr. MEDWIN then proposed another amendment,
that the subject should be taken into consideration
by the whole court, with closed doors, but finding
the feeling of the court decidedly adverse to the pro-
position, he withdrew it. _ _

Mr. J. RICHARDSON then proposed as a further
amendment that instead of the question being re-
ferred to the Officers and Clerks Committee it should
be the Law and Parliamentary Committee, which
was seconded by Dr. Saunders, and carried ; and
the court then adjourned without disposing of any
of the other business upon the paper.