The Sun.
London, England, 1866-06-28 00:00:00

Reform Demonstrat on.

Last evening a demonstration in favour of Re-
form was made in Trafalgar-square, convened by
the Holborn and Clerkenwell Branches of the Re-
form League. At 8 o'clock fully 1,000 people had
assembled, filling the large square in which the
fountains are situate, while the broad terrace in front
of the National Gallery was also crowded. Soon
after 8 o'clock a procession arrived from Clerken-
well-green, headed by a brass band. The pedestal
of Nelson's Pillar was used as a platform. Mr. Lu-
craft, called to the chair, opened the proceedings,
by saying the working men had again been betrayed
on the Reform question—not by Mr. Gladstone or
Earl Russell, but by the timid members of the
Cabinet, who were afraid of doing their duty and
advising the Queen to dissolve the present recreant
Parliament. The rallying cry of Reformers must
now be " Gladstone and Liberty." Mr. Coffey
moved, " That this meeting is of opinion the Cabi-
net of Earl Russell are deserving of censure for not
having advised ber Majesty to diesofre-the present
anti-Reform Parliament, and hereby declares that
it will not in future support any measure of Reform
short of registered manhood suffrage." Mr. Brad-
laugh seconded and Mr. Finlon supported the reso-
lution, which was carried amid loud cheering.
Mr. Osborne then moved, " That this meeting views
with alarm the advent of the Tories to power, as
being destructive to freedom at home and favour-
able to despotism abroad." Mr. Mantle seconded
the resolution, and advised the people before they
separated to pay a visit to Mr. Gladstone's. This
resolution was also carried. The Chairman then
declared the meeting to stand adjourned until Mon-
day evening next, when they would assemble in
Whitehall-gardens. In accordance with the recom-
mendation, the assemblage proceeded to Mr. Glad-
stone's house. On arriving they filled not only the
large space in front of the house in Carlton-gardens,
but also the open space between Pall Mall and the
Duke of York's Monument, when loud cheers and
cries of " Gladstone" soon brought a number of the
servants to the door, who stated that Mr. Gladstone
was from home. Long cries were then raised for
Mrs. Gladstone. After the lapse of a few minutes
that lady, accompanied by her two daughters, made
her appearance in the balcony, which was the
signal for repeated rounds of cheering and clapping
of hands, accompanied by vociferous cries of
" Gladstone for ever !" Mrs. Gladstone remained
in the balcony for about five minutes acknow-
ledging the salutations of the crowd. She re-
tired amid great enthusiasm. On leaving Carlton-
gardens the crowd proceeded into Pall-mall, and
nearly the whole mass again assembled opposite the
Reform Club, where the cheering was again renewed
and answered by several gentlemen assembled at the
windows and doors of the club. The windows of

the houses in Pall-mall were all lined with spectatcrs.
The next point to which the attention of the people
was directed was the Carlton Club. The hootings
and groans now became as general as had hitherto

been the cheering. They were intermingled with cries
of " Down with Lord Derby !" "Down with the
Adullamites !' " This was kept up for fully half
an hour, only ceasing when the people had fairly
exhausted themselves. The greater part of the
crowd now began to disperse in obedience to a cry
'of "Home" very generally raised. Some cries,
however, were also raised of "To Lord Elcho's,"
whither some 500 persons proceeded, but on arriving
in St. James's-street they found a strong body of
police drawn up in front of his lordship's house.
Alter giving three groans for his lordship they
very wisely dispersed, but it was 11 o'clock before

St. James's-street and Pall-mall resumed their
wonted appearance.

Aeronitutical Society of Great Britain.

A meeting of members of the above society was
held yesterday evening, under the presidency of his
Grace the Duke of Argyll, in the lecture room of the
Society of Arts.

Mr. BREARY, the secretary, read an introductory
address sketching out the objects of the society,
which were, without pledging itself to any particular
theory of aerial navigation, to encourage aeronautic
experiments, and, if possible, to obtain the great
desiderata of flotation and propulsion for aerial
i machines.

An interesting paper descriptive of the mode of
flying adopted by different birds, an attentive study
of which the speaker contended must be the basis of
sound aeronautic science, was then read by Mr.
WENIIAM ; after which

The CHAIRMAN expressed his opinion that, if ever
they obtained the power of travelling through the
air, it would not be by the flight of individual men,
but by the production of machines capable of con-
taining a number of men, moved and sustained as
the birds moved and sustained themselves. It was
very strange that the principles which regulated the
flight and floating of birds had never been carefully
investigated by scientific men. Anatomists described
birds as obtaining the means of flight by inflating
their bodies with hot air, whereas the fact was that
if birds were so inflated they could not fly at all. As
a matter of fact, it was necessary the bird should be
heavier than the air, and this became apparent the
moment the bird of strongest flight received a shot,
when it fell to the ground. lie believed that Mr.
Wenham's investigations and experiments would
lead to important results, provided his calculations
should turn out to be correct.

After a short conversation,

Mr. GLAISHER said that an investigation of Ao
lawn of flight was a most important subject, and well
worthy the attention of the society. He, as was well
known, had frequently ascended in a balloon for the
purpose of making certain experiments, and had re-
ceived many valuable suggestions which had im-
pressed him with the utility of a society like the pre-
sent to collect such suggestions, and to submitthem
to the test of experiment.' When at an altitude of
four miles, he had little inclination to attendto any-
thing but his balloon ; and Mr. Green; who had been
500 times in the air, and who sat near him, would
confirm him in this observation. He had been very
much struck by Mr. Wenham's interesting paper,
and exhorted that gentleman to persevere in his
valuable investigations.
The CHAIRMAN suggested that the swimming of
fishes and raarine animals through the water. should
also be made the subject of
experiment bysanimals
mem-
bers of the society. Seals and other marine
which swam with perfect facility sank in a moment
or two after they
less than that of
specific gravity was but slightly
were shot, showing thus that their
the displaced water.
Capt. WEsTcA g
sted that one of the first
l theil so B
Atici l‘ielmt
steps taken sr. hould be
eldthien enoiirmintring
ue :
tion of a balloon.
ham, had written
to him, a
ck. balloon
stating that he had dis-
Covere d a means by which a
gasi
naf inat ebd
might be driven to the north pole d
laugh.)
The CHAIRMAN said that since his connection
with the Aeronautic Society had become generally
known, he bad received numerous letters of a simi-
lar description. All the writers, however, required
a few hundred pounds to enable them to make ex-
periments. (Laughter.)
The SECRETARY announced that the Duke of
Sutherland had offered a prize of £lOO to whoever
should scale Sutherland-house in an aerial machine
not inflated with gas. (A laugh.)
This terminated the proceedings.

It:_, ' —4,1 0 i
*::-. .j-fIV,
Railway and Other C v-,
IMPERIAL MEXI att:4l3'..:: (-4 .4..17
ti)III)
• .--1 -viirt14..",41,
The second ordinary meeting f. 4 : n , ~
was held yesterday at the London , et ;-111 Rs
W. Crawford, M.P., in the chair.
The renart_ an abstract of which has appeared in
The ,Sun, was taken as read.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, said it would have been very satisfactory if
they had not been burdened with disappointments in
lnancial matters. The progress of the works was
very satisfactory, and so was the amount of traffic
that came upon their line. They bad just received
advices from Mexico to the effect that the whole of
the arrears due to the company and of interest on
the whole of the sum for 1866 would be immediately
available to the company, amounting to $600,000.
They had also a grant of 15 per cent. out of the
-Customs duty, three-fourths of which had begn
paid in 1865. From that time no payment was
made to them on that account ; good faith did not
always go hand in band with ability to pay, and so
they bad suffered on that account. The Govern-
ment had, however, authorised the company's offi-
cers to call on the Custom-house authorities for the
money due, which would aid the works and go to-
wards the capital of the company, and for interest,
so that altogether they were in as good a position as
they could expect to be under the circumstances. He
believed the arrangements under which they would
receive the $600,000 would be strictly carried out.
The report as to the traffic on the line was very
satisfactory. With regard to the railway itself, they
were bound to acknowledge the extraordinary
rapidity with which it had been carried out by the
contractors. The whole of the line coloured blue on
the map at the upper part of the railway was finished
ready for the working stock, and, in addition to
that, the lino coloured black on the lower part was
opened for traffic, and the result of working it had
exceeded the anticipations of their agents. The
external traffic to Mexico was very considerable,
and the population of that place was about 500,000.
The national beverage was neither beer nor wine,
but prepared from the juice of a plant. Every day
an immense quantity of this liquor was brought into
Mexico, and they had every reason to believe that it
would soon be brought over the railway, instead of
by the ordinary route. The external commerce came
from Vera Cruz, to which there were six lines of
steamers running, and the commerce must be large
to keep those steamers employed. This was borne
out by the traffic on the railway being .E 3511 per mile
per week, and in the first three months of the year
£4Bi per mile per week ; which any one acquainted
with railways would perceive was very satisfactory.
At the same time there was a very large quantity
of goods carried along the ordinary routes, but
when they had sufficient rolling stock the railway
would gradually absorb the greater part of it.
The through traffic alone would be an ample justi-
fication for the outlay, and its development was
a very valuable traffic to look forward to. He then
adverted to two suburban lines out of Mexico be-

longing to the company of four miles each, which
would soon be united by a short junction line and
worked as one ; the traffic was at present on them.
over £4O per mile" per week. They had recently
purchased one of those lines, and the traffic already
fully justified the amount of the purchase-money ;
there was, in fact, a kind of metropolitan traffic
upon those lines which would increase. The sum
actually needed by the company at the present time
to complete the line and to get locomotive stock on
it was £300,000, and, in addition to this, they owed
a debt to capitalists who had assisted the company
in London and in Mexico exceeding £200,000, for
which the company had given security, and what-
ever might be the rate of interest the company would
have to pay for the additional money they required
to finish the line would be more than amply covered
by the traffic on the railway. (Hear, hear.) It
might interest them to know that the expenditure of
the company on the line from the junction at Puebla
to Mexico was more than £BOO,OOO, of which
£390,000 was the cost of the rails, &c., and their
transport from Vera Cruz. They had expended
from the middle point of the line near the junction
of the Puebla branch to Pasco del Mancha £550,000.
Those sums bad been paid out of the funds of the
company and sums received in Mexico, so that the
amount represented by debentures would be amply
secured. The amount of unpaid calls was very in-
considerable. The shareholders had the option of
paying up the last call of £7 per share in three in-
stalments. Some had paid it up in full, and others
were in course of payment, leaving only about
£25,000 to be paid. The shareholders had, there-
fore, fairly responded to the call, and on the whole
he thought the affairs of the company were satis-
factory.

A shareholder thought the directors could show
ample security for the 000,000 they now required
to finish the works:

The report was adopted, and a vote of thanks to
she chairman concluded the proceedings.

GREAT NORTH OF SCOTLAND.

Wharncliffe meetings were held on Monday by
the Keith and Dufftown ; the Banff, Macduff, and
Turriff ; the Alford Valley, the Aberdeen and Tur-
riff, the Formartine and Buchan, and the Moray-
shire Railway Companies, at which formal resolu-
tions were passed approving a Bill authorising the
amalgamation of those companies with the Great
North of Scotland Railway Company.