The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-18 00:00:00

EASTERN COUNTIES.

The report of the directors to the half-yearly
meeting, on Thursday next, has been issued. "The
revenue account for the half-year exhibits a decrease
of £7,203 14s 2d ; the receipts being £690,104 13s
Bd, as against £697,308 7s 10d for the correspond-
ing period of 1859. The exceptional state of the
weather during the autumn and winter months,
and the deficiency of the harvest, have exercised a
prejudicial effect on the traffic, which your directors
however, see no reason to doubt will pass away
with the cause. The expenditure on the capital
account this half-year in respect of new works and
increased accommodation to stations amounts to
£4,244 10s. 6d. A sum of £lO,lll 12s. has also
been charged on account of the permanent im-
provement of bridges, which have been renewed
substantially with brick, iron, and earthwork, in-
stead of timber with which perishable material
they were originally constructed. A further sum
of £39,753 6s. ld. has been charged for new plant
added to the rolling stock of the company consisting
principally of passenger carriages, goods
wagons, and break vans. The result of the
undertaking as regards the Eastern Coun-
ties Company is, that there is a net sum appli-
cable as revenue (after deducting the working ex-
penses, which amount to £349,975 10s. 11d.) as
will be seen by reference to revenue account B, of
£219,338 lls. 7d. ; less interest on guarantees
and loans, £146,202 Ss. ; balance, £73,136 6s. 7d. ' •
add sum carried over after paying June dividend,
1860, £5,758 1 ls. 2d. £78,894 17s. 9d. ; deduct
on account of deferred permanent way. account, as
per statement, page 13, £4,000; leaving £74,894
17s. 9d. available for dividend, out of which the
directors have declared a dividend of £1 3s. 9d. for
the half-year, being after the rate of £2 7s. 6d. per
cent. per annum on the ordinary share capital of
the company, which will absorb £69,274 16s. 9d.,
leaving a balance of £5,620 ls. to be carried for-
ward to the succeeding half-year. The working
expenses for the half-year are £49 13s. per cent.,
as against £35 17s. 6d. per cent. for the correspond-
ing period of 185 g. The permanent way and works
continue to be maintained in an efficient manner.
The expenditure on this account has, during
the last half-year been £100,281 3s. 11d., being
an increase of £41,874 Bs. over the cor-
responding period of 1859. The sum which has
been debited to revenue account is £69,552 35.:11d,
as against £58,406 15s. 11d., being an increase of
£11,145 for this half year. The balance of £30,729
(less £4,000 debited to revenue, leaving £26,729)
has bean placed at the debit of the deferred perma-
nent way renewal account, your directors consider-
ing that so large an increase of expenditure—due
to the renewal and relaying of 50 miles of railway
with new sleepers—should not all be charged to
the revenue account of one half-year, but be spread
over a longer period. Much care and attention is
given to maintain the efficiency of the locomotive
department, which is steadily improving. The
directors refer to their remarks under the Parlia-
mentary head in their last report. Their appre-
hensions as to further aggressive attacks upon the
traffic of this company have,they say,unfortunately
been fully realised. They refer particularly to the
scheme for a direct line to Bury St. Edmunds
by way of Barking, on the London and Til-
bury line; to the scheme for a line from Bury
to Thetford, from thence to Swaffham, to join
the East Anglian Railway, and from King's
Lynn to Sutton Bridge, to join the Norwich
and Spalding Railway. and thereby to effect a
junction with the Great Northern Railway at Spald-
ing; to the scheme for connecting the Bedford and
Cambridge line, for which the act was obtained in
the last session, by a junction with the Colne Valley
Railway at Haverhill, and for making a branch
from Haverhill to Clare, to join the Sudbury and
Clare Railway, and also to extend their railway
into Colchester. The directors, in their last report,
intimated that it had become necessary to take
measures for preventing the spread of this aggres-
sive system, by promoting the formation of such
lines as might appear to be really required for the
reasonable convenience of the district, and they
have followed up this suggestion by introducing in
the present session of Parliament a bill for extend-
ing the existing railway at Sudbury to Bury St.
Edmunds and Cambridge; and they have also
consented to assist in the formation of a line
from Bishop's Stortford to Braintree, by sub-
scribing to the extent of one-third of the required
capital of one hundred and twenty thousand
pounds ; and they have also agreed to assist
the completion of the Ware, Hadham, and Bunt-
ingford Railway, by subscribing an amount not
exceeding twenty-two thousand pounds. The
directors are of opinion that the accommodation
which will be afforded by lines so projected and
supported by this company will abundantly supply
the districts through which they pass, and they
trust to be able to satisfy Parliament that the hos-
tile. lines ought not to be sanctioned. The Board
of Trade have determined that the bill for the pro-
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points of difference will be determined by that
board. The draft bill is now before counsel, and
the directors fully hope to be in a position to intro-
duce it in Parliament for the next session. The
directors regret that the differences with the Nor-
folk and Eastern Union Companies remain un-
settled—a lengthened correspondence in reference
to the new hostile lines projected in the district
has taken place between the chairmen of the re-
spective companies, the greater part of which has
appeared in the public prints. In reference to
the pending suits in chancery, the directors regret
that little progress has been made in consequence
of the Norfolk and Eastern Union Companies not
having put in their answer to the bill filed by this
company. The answer of the directors of this com-
pany to the original bill was filed so long ago as the
15th Dec.' 1859. The cross bill was filed on the
22d Feb., 1860, and the putting in of the answer
has from time to time been delayed on various pre-
tences, and no final decision can in consequence be
arrived at. The directors cannot conclude without
pointing out the extraordinary circumstances which
have affected the results of the undertaking during
the present half year. This is to be attributed to
causes which have been already referred to,
and have operated adversely in a district of country
which is almost wholly agricultural. At the same
time it is advisable to state that at no period has
this:property been in a sounder condition."

TBE SYMPTOMS OF A GALE.

The following letter appeared in the Times:—

Sir,—A letter in the Timee this day from Mr.
Saekson, of itartlepool, not only requires some re-
marks from me (as the meteorological officer acting
under authority of the Board of Trade), but may
be ussed as a peg on which to hang a few sentences
of practical information about a frequently misun-
derstood fact—the rising of a barometer before and
during a northerly (north-west to north-easterly)
gale.

- Mr. Jackson says that the barometer had been
a low with south-west winds; on Friday morning
began to rise, and continued rising, with a decreas-
ing temperature, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday,
from 24 hours before the gale to 24 hours after."
And if he had read the sixpenny Barometer Manual
published yearly since 1856, and circulated gratis
in many directions, especially among the fishermen
around Great Britain and Ireland, he would have
known that these very signs, after an unusually
low barometer, and southerly wind, indicated strong
northerly gales. In the morning of Wednesday,
Feb. 6, the barometers (two Kew verified) at Nairu
were at 2866. At Penzance, only four days pre-
viously, other two similar ones were at 30.80. From
the Ist to the 7th of February—a whole week—the
barometer not only continued falling, or oscillated
(always a bad sign), over all the British islands,
but it fell remarkably low at some places.
On Tuesday night, the sth, it blew " a tremen-
dous gale from the south-west" at Queenstown. At
Dover the wind, early on the 6th, was reported at
10, in force, from the south-west. In South-Kent
it was called " a hurricane," and at sea, southward
of Ireland, vessels had a " south- w ester " in full
violence.

Wednesday and Thursday were quiet, com-
paratively, here ; not so within a few hun-
dred miles—at Marseilles and elsewhere, per-
haps including the. Black Sea; but on Friday the
foretold northerly gale began to blow, and as it
restored the level or equilibrium of the atmosphere,
of course it raised the barometer.

Some observations in the Shipping Gazette of the
14th inst. induced me to write a letter to the edi-
tor, in which was the following passage :
" The barometer began to rise just before the gale
set in from the northward, rising more rapidly as
it blew stronger. And why ? Because the polar
current of wind was rushing, as a fluid current, to-
wards the place of low barometer, where a compa-
rative deficiency had existed, which it not only
filled up, but, having once acquired impetus, or
mementum, filled up to a height exceeding that
which is usual, or normal, at the sea level—namely,
about 30 inches. The previous fall of the barome-
ter, with unusually high temperature, expressed, as
plainly as words, southerly wind, with rain.'
(Southerly including south-east to south-westerly.)
That wind, though it blew hard, did not restore the
level (or equilibrium) of the atmosphere, and there-
fore, till the polar current approached, the glass
continued to fall, or oscillated, while low. Directly
the northerly wind's approach was felt the baro-
meter began to rise, the thermometer was already
falling, and both thus moved for a time in opposite
directions, one rising for the direction of the wind,
while the other fell for its temperature."
The great practical difficulty in using a barome-
ter is avoiding the natural inclination to draw con-
clusions hastily—without thinking enough of its
foretelling properties—so often insisted on in the
Board of Trade Manual, and rather more explana-
tory pamphlet the Barometer Guide.
The main currents of atmosphere, polar and tropi-
cal, taking them on a large scale, advance along
the earth's surface side by side in nearly opposite
directions, more or less superposed, or conflicting
in every kind of combination, and turning each
other in all varieties of eddies (cyclones), though
though usually one way.
While advancing northward or southward they
move also laterally, like a ship making leeway,
towards the east, their elasticity, fluid properties,
and different temperatures (solar influence and elec-
tricity, of course, the main springs) occasioning all
the varieties of weather, all the alternations and
degree of vapour, fog, rain, snow, hail, and cloud
that we experience.
_ _

The gale; of the sth, Bth, and 9th of this month
were two cyclonic combinations. One cyclone, of
which the centrical area bore north-westward from
Nairn, in Scotland, was of a largo extent• and slow
motion.

Its southern half was checked and temporarily
overborne by another advancing rapidly from the
southwestward, which combined with and aug-
mented the strength of the polar current that on
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (10th) swept across
the North Sea, Western Europe, and beyond the
west of Ireland, much further and wider than the
extent of the Royal Charter storm.

Widely extended and very general irregularities
of the atmosphere (such as were shown by instru-
ments before the Royal Charter, the Whitsuntide,
the St. Kilda, and other storms) are easily noticed,
and are certain to be followed by more or less
strength of wind, although not in all, or even in
many places, because currents of wind, like those
of water, circulate, intermix, or follow one another,
moving swiftly in some breadths, slowly in others,
scarcely at all in cr near their respective centres of
circulation. Hence some places escape the violence
of a storm, while others, even near them, feel its
full fury.

Elaborate and complicated as may be the scien-
tific researches of meteorology, the practical use of
its results is happily most simple and availably
open to any one who will read brief instructions,
notice ordinary weather glasses, and observe the
changes in the heavens.
London, Feb. 16. ROBERT FITZROY.

THE TPISCOPA L MANIFESTO.

A writer in a contemporary says the manifesto
of the Bishops, which appeared in our columns on
Saturday, is a remarkable document.
It is one of a class, and must be viewed in con-
nexion with its predecessors. On three previous
occasions we have had compositions of this kind.
The first was the famous episcopal protest against
the elevation of Dr. Hampden to the see of Here-
ford. It was subscribed by some of the most con-
spicuous of the present members of the Bench. It
ended in the humiliating spectacle of the most
eminent subscriber being forced within a few
weeks publicly to eat bis own words, and in the re-
ception of the so-called heretic into the episcopa:
circle which now avails itself of his aid to persecute
others. The second was a denunciation, issued in
the panic of the " Papal aggression," and signed by
all but two of the wisest of the Bench, to prevent
the assumption of English titles by the Roman
Catholic hierarchy. The results of this declaration
are too well known to require description. The
third was a censure pronounced by the four Primates
of England and Ireland on a body of High Church-
men who had ventured to condemn the preselytising
practices of Bishop Gobat. Whatever may have
been the effect of the document of Bishop Gobat,
it has not affected in the least degree the opinions
or the ecclesiastical position of the clergy against
whom it was levelled.

The present manifesto has pecularities of its
own. It is an unqualified condemnation of certain
opinions, without any indication of what these
opinions severally are, or how widely the condem-
nation is meant to extend. It attacks, or appears
to attack, five living clergymen,/of eminent learn-
ing but diverse sentiments, in language almost
amounting to a libel, without drawing any distinc-
tion between the writers, without specifying either
the precise charges against them or the formularies
of the Church which they aro supposed to contra-
dict, although the highest ecclesiastical tribunal in
the country has of late twice affirmed that without
such specification charges of this nature cannot he
entertained. It intimates that the gravest doubt
exists as to the possibility of visiting the publica-
tion of those opinions in the ecclesiastical courts;
and yet, notwithstanding this doubt, it ventures,
without a trial, to pronounce a condemnation which
nothing but the clearest legal proof could justify.
It gives no indication of the opinions of any one of
the subscribing bishops on any one of the points at
issue, although it is perfectly well known that on
these points many of the bishops are widely at
variance with each; other, and that some of them
have published opinions coincident with those con-
tained in the hook which is condemned.

And this document, so grate in its character and
its results, if it means what it says, is suddenly pub-
lished without any warning to the persons accused,
although some of them have the strongest claims
on the courtesy and the justice of those who thus
accuse them ; and it first finds its way into the
public journals through the hands of a country
clergyman, who does not even publish the address
to which it is an answer, and which alone could
render it intelligible.

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