The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-25 00:00:00

niE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVEINid, AUGUST 25, Mi.

Great Northern Railway Meetinz.—This

Day.

The ordinary half-yearly meeting of this company was
held to-day at the King's Cross station—Colonel Pack;
M.P., the Chairman, presiding.
The report, which has been published, was taken as
read.

The Chairman, in moving the adoption of the report,
said that it had been his good fortune at every meeting at
which he presided to congratulate the shareholders on an
increase in their dividends, but ho regretted to state that
on the present occasion he had to inform them that the
dividend would be reduced ono half. The company had
earned £50,000 more than they had done the previous
half-year, but to earn that amount they had to expend
£17,000. The increase in the expenditure had arisen
from causes which the management could neither fore-
see or control. The capital account had increased during
the last half year £766,000, of which £21,000 had been
spent in the incorporation of the West Yorkshire stock.
The carrying on of the works had increased by £335,478,
and the increase as regarded the rolling stock wft5L156,719.
Tho revenue receipts during the past half-year were not so
profitable as could have been wished. There was, how-
ever, an increase of £621,110 on the coach, mail, and that
description of traffic. There had been a decrease in the
merchandise traffic as compared with the corresponding
period last year, which arose chiefly on the mineral traffic,
and that was caused by the warmth oil the weather in
December and January last, which of course had the effect
of diminishing the amount of coal carried on their line. An
increase of £3,456 had been incurred by the relaying of
portions of their line, and the large increase in the loco-
motive department was owing to the running of 2,090 miles
more than last half-year. Owing to the increase of the rate
of wages their expenses in that department was £13,000, but it
must be remembered they employed about 9,000 men. He
regretted to say that the amount for compensation during
the past half-year was £12,058, although the directors dis-
puted the claims where there was a chance of resisting
them successfully, at the same time they avoided all un-
necessary law proceedings. The chairman then went in
detail through the different points set forth fully in the
report.

Colonel DUNCOMBE, the deputy-chairman, seconded the
motion.

Mr. litTortEs strongly condemned the policy pursued by
the management, in which ho said they were imitating the
practice of the Great Eastern, and would, if they did not
alter their system, ultimately drift into the bankrupt con-
dition of the London, Dover, and Chatham. (Hear, hear.)
He contended that the directors wore not carrying out the
wishes of the shareholders. (Hoar, hear.) Ho strongly
objected to the system prevailing on two grounds. In the
first place the directors were self-elected, and were not the
nominees of the shareholders, which was contrary to the
spirit of the Act of Parliament. There was a clause in
that certainly which empowered the directors to appoint a
director in the event of a vacancy by death or some other
emergency, but the Act, ho contended, contemplated that
the appointment of directors should be vested in the body
of the proprietary. (Hear. hear.) Notwithstanding, how-
ever, the directors continued to elect each other without
any emergency having arisen to justify them in doing so.
In the next place there was an infamous system of proxies.
(Hear, hear.) In fact, owing to that system the share-
holders were rendered nonentities, for the directors had
proxies in their possession and at their disposal which
gave them a majority at the meeting. In illustration
he would state that one gentleman sent the directors
proxies representing £lOO,OOO stock. He wished to know
if the shareholders would sit calmly like penguins and
allow themselves to be knocked on the head. He had,
from the commencement of the present system of manage-
ment, protested against the policy pursued, and he would
continue to do so until that policy had been altered. In
reviewing the probeedings of the directors, he adverted to
the fact of £300,000 having been lent to the London,
Chatham, and Dover, for which there had been no return,
and also for money lent to the Great Eastern, with a simi-
lar result. He believed that the arrangement entered into
with the London, Dover, and Chatham involved a con-
tract which the directors of the company had failed to
enforce. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. Valentine Knight, Mr. Nicolls, and other gentlemen
supported the views taken by the previous speakers.
The CHAIRMAN, in reply, said in reference to views en-
tertained adverse to the extension of the branches on the
ground that they diverted traffic; from the main line, that
he agreed in that point of view, but he believed no loss
had been sustained by the company through the extension
of the branch lilies. U r,2Luiuded the sharoholllrs that lie
was ono of the original promoters of this company, and
tl'atzhe was appointed a director by Parliament, and two
or three other directors stood in the same position. How-
ever, the names of retiring directors were always submitted
to the meeting, and they could disapprove of the selection
of any retiring director. He contended that the results
of the connection with the London, Dover, and Chatham
Railway had not been 'unprofitable to the company.
The motion was then agreed to.
Immediately after the ordinary meeting an extraordinary
meeting of the company was held in the same place, when
a resolution was submitted authorising the creation of,
new capital to the extent of £1,075,000; under the powers
of acts passed in 1861, 5,6, with a preferential dividend
not exceeding 5 per cent. per annum ; to be allotted rate-
ably to all proprietors, and the payment of calls to bo die
tributed over a period of about 18 months.
The resolution was carried.

A vote of thanks was then given to the chairman, and
the proceedings terminated.

Embezzlement of more than Three Millions
of Francs.

The approaching trial of the cashier of the Se-
condary Bank of Railways in Paris (Sous-Comptoir
des Chemins de Fer) and his accomplices, is causing
a great sensation in the French capital, on account
of the large amount of the embezzlements, the strange
circumstances which attended the crime, and, above
all, the romantic history and high station of one of
the persons incriminated. First, it is rather difficult
to understand how it was possible to appropriate
fraudulently such large sums of money without
rousing the suspicion of the manager and the board
of directors. The Railway Secondary Bank of
Paris is a branch of the Discount Bank (Comptoir
d'Escompte) ; its relations to the latter are such as
those of the branch of the Bank of England towards
the head establishment, with only this difference,
that the branch possessed a capital of its own and a
separate board. The business of the Sous-Comptoir
consists in making loans to the railway shareholders
upon their shares by means of mortgage deeds. The
head establishment procures the money upon the
security of those deeds. The shares are returned
when the advances have been repaid. The modus
operandi of Berthome, the cashier, was as follows :
—He presented to the managing director the papers
necessary to obtain the return of the shares. It seems
that the manager was in the habit of signing these
papers without making any inquiry. As soon as
the mortgaged shares had been returned without any
reimbursement of the first loan, they were mortgaged
a second time. By these means the cashier Berthome
succeeded in borrowing fraudulently nearly 19 mil-
' lions of francs. The balance between the succes-
sive reimbursements and the amount of the loans is
3,300,000 f., which sum represents the actual defi-
ciency of the Sous-Comptoir.
The embezzlements extended over a period of four
years-1862 to 1866; but the amount increased every
year (during 1865 it reached 1,387,000 f.) For what
purpose had the cashier Berthome embezzled such
large sums of money ? It was not for himself, be-
caused he jeopardised first his own modest fortune
for the interest of those of whom he has been the
tool. Berthome had made the acquaintance of the
Prince De Croy-Chanel, Knight of Saint Louis,
Commander of the Order of Gregory the Great,
Knight of Malta, who claims the crown of Hungary.
He represents (he says) the Arpad dynasty, and coolly
asserts that he descendsfrom Attila, through Stephen
of Hungary. To be impartial, it must be stated that
in 1862 he applied to the Committee of the Great
Seal in France to be recognised as a descendant of
Andrew 11. of Hungary ; let us also add that the re-
port of Or:, committee, drawn by M. Langlais, was
unanimously in favour of his claim. Prince De
Croy-Chanel claims also from the Duke of Modena
large estates, and the title of Marquis of Este, as
descending from the House of Este. To finish the
sketch of that adventurous life, let us remember that
he belonged to the household of Napoleon I. towards
the end of the First Empire, which did not prevent
him from serving under Louis XVIII. in the body
guard. Afterwards he played a political part in the
Iberic Peninsula, and during a short time he was a
member of the Ministry in Portugal. From Portugal
he went to Spain, became a favourite of Ferdinand
VII., and obtained from that king the exclusive pri-
vilege to manufacture cloth. But he ruined himself in
those speculations. In 1827 he intrigued at the Court
of France to obtain the Imperial Crown of Mexico,
and he failed only on account of the opposition of
Charles X. During the reign of Louis Philippe he
returned to the Napoleonic ideas, and founded the
journal Le Capitole. He took part in the affair at
Boulogne, and was arraigned before the Chamber of
Peers. He was also mixed up in a forgery of bank-
notes. The Prince Croy-Chanel is now 71 ; he is now
absent from France, and his counsel explained his ab-

sence before the court by this circumstance. His pre-
sence is still indispensable in Italy on account of
his claim against the Duke of Modena, who owes
him 15 millions of francs ; as soon as the suit is
over the Prince will return to France, in order to
answer the charge now made against him. Mean-
time the cashier, Berthome, and the publisher,
Dupray de la Maherie, arc taking their trial at the
Paris Sessions. Who is Dupray ? When Prince
de Croy Chanel made the acquaintance of the cashier
be was trying to raise funds to buy the park of
Bercy, which belonged to the Nicolai family. lie
promised to the poor cashier, who had only a salary
of £lOO, the bulk of the patrimony he claimed from
the Duke of Modena,—that is to say about eight
millions of francs. That promise.dazzled the cashier,
who gave him his financial support. Towards the
end of 1861 Dupray de la Maherie published a
brochure, entitled " Droits des Carpad," on the
rights of the Carpads. To raise the funds to pay
for publication, and to provide for the expenses of
his lawsuits, the Prince had obtained 155,300 f. from
Berthome. The publisher, Dupray, was also in
want of money, and the Prince introduced him to
his good friend Berthome. Dupray began by per-
sonally guaranteeing the advances made to the
Prince by Berthome, whose confidence was thus in-
creased. Then Dupray directly borrowed from the
cashier large sums of money. The unfortunate
cashier, deeply involved in the affair, involved him-
self more and more every day, by the delusion that
the continuation of his support was necessary to
recover what he had already lent ; but he only
made the abyss more deep. In a word, he engulfs
more than three millions of francs. What had be-
come of the money ? The Prince does not answer,
being out of the pale of the law. The publisher,
whose defence has been entrusted to Barrister La-
chaud, so celebrated since the affair of Lafarge,
asserts that he has lost millions of francs in Catholic
publications. It is said that the eloquent and fiery
preacher, Father Felix; had- recommended Dupray
do la Maherie to the noble suburb of St. Germain
in particular, and to the Roman Catholic world at
large !

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.—This Day.

BOW-STREET.

Charles Spence, a porter, about 10 years in the service
of Messrs. Smith and Sons, the great news agents in the
Strand, was charged with stealing from his employers a
large quantity of newspapers.

The prisoner pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to three
months' imprisonment.

The Southern States.

(Prom the Anglo-American Times.)
Homer nods, and the most esteemed journalists
now and then are forgotten, that is they forget them-
selves. The Yankees are not favourites with the
British press, and except when they indicate an
English prejudice against the Irish they seldom pro-
voke praise. The London Examiner is usually vivid
and wise, but on American questions it has hardly
ever been fully informed. On Saturday last it con-
tained an article in which the grossest misconcep-
tion was exhibited. It was as follows :
President Johnson is resolved boldly to play out the
game with his determined enemies, the Republican party
in Congress. From the day of his unlooked-for accession
to supreme executive' power, they have striven first to
overtalk and then to overbear his earnest and wise counsels
in favour of clemency and conciliation. Raised by his
position above the personal disappointments and resent-
ments of unsatisfied ambition, and filled, as we believe,
with a hearty desire to mark his administrative reign
with the accomplishment of the great work of Federal re-
union, ho has unceasingly urged the renunciation of party
vengeance, and the re-admission of the vanquished to the
enjoyments of their sequestrated rights. No man, or at
least no band of influential men, argues that those rights
should bo held permanently forfeit. Let the worst be
thought of Southern secession, it was, after all, the act of
several millions of enfranschised and educated men, misled
no doubt, but in the main animated by a sincere and
honourable faith in the defensive necessity and patriotic
duty of civil war. Happily for the progress of civilisation
and freedom they were worsted in the field, not without
many a touching and noble acknowledgment from the
victors of the gallantry and skill they had displayed.
Simply as a matter of fact it may be said, and simply in
point of honour, it ought to be kept in remembrance, that,
man for man and corps for corps, tho Confederates were
not beaten ; they were worn out and compelled to yield by
overpowering numbers. Tho standard of revolt was
hauled down; slavery, the worst cause of all the misery
and loss of thepast five years, was publicly and irrevocably
abolished ; the oath of renewed fealty to the Constitution
of the United States was taken by nearly all the men of
rank and character in the South ; and, had the President
and his ablest advisers had their way, the Re-united
States would have been ere now re-admitted to participa-
tion in the common weal. But the ascendancy in Congress
of the Republican party, it. was felt, would be thereby
jeopardised. It was not enough that the policy of South-
ern statesmen should have been baffled, and the wealth
and blood of their followers spent in vain; it was not
enough that New England should have once more signally
asserted its predominant strength of will and superiority,
of tenacious purpose ; it must make sure of its party re-
ward in the next quadrennial election. And to this end,
and for the sake of all the seceding States, save one, have
been, and still are kept, regardless of their remonstrances
and prayers, in a state of political captivity. The conse-
quence of this blind and selfish policy aro beginning to
ripen into bitter fruit. The moderate minority of the Re-
puLlicans have been compelled to draw closer and closer
to the side of the Executive; and, in order to countervail
the electioneering tactics of the dominant majority, have
been driven to coalesce with their old party opponents,
the Democrats.

Now, President Johnson is certainly obnoxious
to the charge of having in part fraternised with the
men who were the avowed opponents of President
Lincoln, and of having accepted support from the
party who were more than friendly to the South during
the rebellion, The people who gave their energies
to the cause of the North are virtually ignored and
the writer in the Examiner, in ignorance of the
bearings of parties, condemns the party who held
fast; in the day of danger, to the Constitution.
These obvious and admitted facts tend undoubtedly
to impeach the policy of President Johnson.
President Johnson is apparently under the in-
fluence; of territorial prejudice. lie is a native of
the South, was a slaveholder, and naturally enough
bronght with him into the White House what might
be called hereditary liking. Lincoln, when he lived,
would have admitted the proper claims of justice
and humanity by stamping treason out of the South ;
for kindness and forgiveness somewhat prematurely
extended permitted the indulgence of former Southern
pride and anti-Northern sentiments. We cannot
open a Southern newspaper without finding it filled
with abuse of the Yankees, and with sneers at the
Northern people. The abiding hatred is openly ex-
pressed. The riot at New Orleans was the proper
sequence of these opinions and feelings ; and the
following extract from the telegram announcing
the news. by the Peruvian confirms the fact :
NEW Yoßx, August 10, Evening.—Governor Wells, of
Louisiana, has issued an address justifying the assembling
of the Free State Convention in New Orleans, declaring
that its opponents had concerted a plan to break it up by
force. The rebel feeling of the slave-holding aristocracy
is not yet extinguished. They seek to retain political
power by tho same spirit of political violence by which
their chiefs sustained supremacy before the war. If the
military autgority be withdrawn the lives of Union men
will not be safe.

Military law still prevails at New Orleans, and the sale
of arms and ammunition is forbidden.
Members of the Free State Convention have made affi-
davits charging the mayor aid sheriff with complicity in
the homicide during the riots.

The Freedmen's Bureau Inspectors report that the sys-
tem of contracts enforced by the Bureau is simply slavery
in a modified form.

Too much was expected from the emancipation
of the negroes. Their freedom was a reproach to
their former owners, their independent bearing an
insult. Although they had escaped from the condi-
tion of cattle they were men, but being men they
were obnoxious to the feeling of hatred which cattle
could not inspire. The removal becomes therefore
desirable ; and perhaps by-and-by people will dis-
cover wisdom in the recommendation of President
Lincoln to locate them together in a suitable place
at a distance. Their labour in the majority of the
Southern States can now be dispensed with.

MARKETS.—This Day.

COVENT GARDEN.

We aro well supplied with most kinds of produce. Fruit
moves off freely, and in vegetables a fair average business
is doing. The quotations rule as follows :

FRUIT—Pine apples, 5s to Gs; grapes, 2s Gd to 5s ;
filberts, 8d to is per lb; apples, is 3d to 2s 6d; pears,
is 3d to 2s Od ; gooseberries, 2s 6d to 3s Od ; currents, 3s
Od to 48 Od; plums, 3s Od to 4s Od; greengages, 4s Gd to
bs 6d per half sieve ; oranges, 8s to 14s; lemons, 3s Gd to
8s per 100 ; foreign pines, is 3d to 3s each ; Mulberries,
9d to is per punnet.

VEGETABLES—Red cabbages, is Gd to 2s Od; white do.,
9d to is 6d; cauliflowers, is to 2s Od; horseradish, 9d to
is 3d per doz heads ; greens, 2s Od to 2s ad ; turnips, is Gd
to 2s 6d ; carrots, 3s Od to 4s Od ; onions, is Gd to 2s per
dozen bunches ; cucumbers, 3d to is Od each ; peas, is Od
to is 6d ; French beans, is Od to is 9d per half sieve ; cos
lettuces, Gd to 10d per score.