The Sun.
London, England, 1859-02-03 00:00:00

METROPOLITAN RAILWAY and CITY
TERMlNUS.—Proposals for the Allotment of the Con-
tractors' Shares.—At a MEETING of the Requisitionists,
held at the Mansion-house, on the 28th of January, 1859,
' The Right Hon. the LORD MAYOR in the Chair,
The following Report of the Committee was received, and
unanimously adopted :
The Committee of Requisitionists appointed at the great
3leeting at the London Tavern to give effect to the subjoined
resolutions passed upon that occasion, have been engaged
since the date of the Meeting in making arrangements, under
the advice of eminent counsel, so as to define, with legal accu-
racy, the terms and conditions upon which the shares required
to complete the undertaking are to be issued.
The terms and conditions of the arrangements will be found
in the form of applications for shares, approved by Mr. James
AVficle and Mr. Lush. •
The Committee reprint the resolutions as unanimously
agreed to by one of the largest and most influential meetings
over which the Lord Mayor of London has ever been called
upon to preside. The facts, arguments, and conclusions set
forth in those resolutions will afford the best recommenda-
tion to the public to give their practical support to the objects
of the Meetmg by applying for shares.
The Committee have the satisfaction to state that the Right
Ron. the Lord Mayor, Sir Fitzroy Kelly, A.G. and M.P., and
Sir James Duke, Bart., M.P., and R. W. Crawford, Esq., M.P.,
(two of the Representatives of the city,) have accepted the
office of Trustees, and in their names the deposits will be
Placed in the London and Westminster Bank.,
In a letter the Committee have received from the Directors
of the Railway Company they avow that they look at the un-
dertaking purely as a commercial speculation with a view to
profit. Others who have always abstained from engaging in
railway projects have applied for shares from philanthropic
Motives, and others with a view to the relief of our streets.
Various as may be the influences which govern mankind, it
is quite clear that, however strong the desire of the public
may be to see this great measure carried into execution, unless
the proper means be taken the end cannot be attained.
The Committee do not feel it to be within their provineo to
go more than recommend the resolutions of the Public Meet-
ing and the prospectus of the Company to the careful perusal
of
every man who may be prompted to render the required
assistance by any of the motives refered to.
It has been, however, the anxious determination of the
Committee to spare no exertion which prudence could sug-
gest to ascertain all the facts of the case, and to surround the
Proposed arrangement with such legal safeguards that appli-
cants for shares may not, in any event, be involved in a re-
sponsibility which they are not willing to undertake.
The names of the present Directors of the Company will be
found at the head of the Company's prospectus ; they are
gentlemen whose standing in •society renders any voucher of
their respectability quite unnecessary from us.
It is part of the arrangement that vacancies at the Board
alien be made for four Directors, to be appointed by the new
subscribers out of their own body.
CHARLES WHITE, Chairman of the Committee.

Resolved unanimously:
That it be referred to a•joint Committee of 25, with power

Maul u umuer, IRT YC vitccvlo, ulac -
Inents, and to tePort to an adjourned meeting of the Requisi-
tionists on the 10th of March next, or on such other day as
the Lord Mayor may name for the purpose.
That such Committee do consist of the Lord Mayor and the
other Trustees, together with six of the Aldermen, or Com-
mon Councilmen, or City officers, six members of city firms,
three Directors of the Great Western and of the Metropolitan
Railway Companies, and three of the Great Northern Rail-
Way Company, or failing their adhesion, of three resident
landowners on the line, interested in obtaining the accommo-
dation of a city station.
D. W. WIRE, Chairman of the Meeting.
Mansion-litouse, Jan. 28, 1859.
Resolutions above referred to :
That the overcrowding of our streets with vehicles during
:business hours is highly injurious to trade, and entails much
loss of valuable time upon a large number of persons of both
sexes and all classes, who are obliged daily to resort to the
great public monetary and commercial establishments with
'Which this city abounds.
That the crowded state of the dwellings of the poor is one
of the most serious of our social evils—an evil which In this
City is aggravated by the fact. that respectable working men,
re and willing to pay for decent dwellings, are compelled,
Y the want of space, to live with their families in the same
courts and alleys, and often in the same houses, with •the
host degraded classes, in the midst of every vaiiety of disease,
misery, and vice.
It appears to this Meeting, by calculations deduced from
the official railway returns for the last six years, that the
'Working classes are the most profitable customers to rail-
roads ; and this meeting is strongly impressed with the
opinion advanced by I%lr. Pearson, the City Solicitor, that if a
Subway railroad could be made, intersecting the metropolis,
so as to carry merchandise, cattle, and market goods by night,
and Passehgers and parcels by day, from railroad to railroad,
and suburb to suburb, and to and through the city, by fre-
quent, regular, and convenient trains, carrying large numbers
at a very low charge, that such a railroad would relieve the
streets of many of their obstructions, and provide cheap trains
for the working classes at seasonable hours, at the same time
that it would facilitate the operations of commerce in the
City, and render the great metropolitan railways more useful
and profitable by bringing their city passengers within an
easy walking distance of all its principal streets.
It has been communicated to the Meeting by the Directors
of the Metropolitan Railway Company, that they and their
Shareholders have subscribed £175,000 to construct a sub-way
Railroad from Paddington to the city, with a view to profit as
a commercial speculation ; but as it will require a further sum
of £475,000 to complete the undertaking, they are not willing
to increase their investment, and that they will apply to Par-
liament for leave to withdraw their deposits and dissolve the
Company unless the Great Northern and the public shall be
pleased to subscribe the further sum required. This Meeting
Is of opinion that it would be much to be regretted if so
favourable an-opportunity of proving' the use and profit of the
sub-railway system were to be lost, and that this Meeting do
therefore invite those who feel an interest in removing
obstructions from the streets of the city and improving the
dwellings of the poor by means of the sub-way railway
system, as well as those who regard it only as a commercial
speculation, to take shares in the undertaking, provided it can
be satisfactorily proved that the work will be completed for
the sum stated, and that no shareholder will be involved in
any pecuniary responsibility beyond the sum he may be pleased
to subscribe.
METROPOLITAN RAILWAY—PADDINGTON TO THE
CITY.
WRECTORS.
William Arthur Wilkinson, Esq., Shortlands, Beckenham

Chairmin.
William Austin, Esq., 27, North Audley-street, Director of
the Rhymney Railway Company.
Captain Bulkeley, Windsor, Director of the Great Western
Railway Company.
John Challice, M.D., Grange-road, Bermondsey.
Charles Gilpin, Esq., 31. P., Director of the South-Eastern
William Company.
nilliam Lee, o o Fio 11 lbor ugh, Kent, Director of the Vic-
toria Station Railway Company.
David Ogilvy, Esq., Sydenham, Director of the Great Western
Railway Company.
John Parson, Esq., Ham-common, Surrey.
Lightly Simpson, Gower-street, Bedford-square, Direc-
tor of the Eastern Counties Railway Company.
Richard Pritchard Smith, M.D., Mortimer, Reading, Director
of the Great Western Railway, Company.
Auditors—Benjamin
ams, Esq., London,
tern Railway Company. Director of the Great
street John Armstrong, Esq., Upper Wimpole-
; Sampson Copestake, Esq. (Messrs. Copestake,
Moore, and Co.), Cheapside.
Bankers -The London and Westminster Bank.
Solicitors —Messrs. Burchell, 5, Broad Sanctuary, Westminster
Engineer—John Fowler, Esq.
Secretary—John Henchman, Esq.
Offices of the Company, 14, Cornhill.
The Committee appointed at the great meeting at the Lon-
don Tavern, on the subject of railway accommodation for the
city of London, having decided, after thorough investigation,
non the issue of a circular in favour of this undertaking, the
ton tors submit the following concise statement of its posi-
Lion and prospects :
The Company is incorporated by Parliament and em-
Powered to raise a capital of one million, in 210 shares, and
to borrow, in addition, one-third of the amount of the share
capital.
The line will commence at the Paddington Station of the
Great 'Western Railway at Westbourne-terrace. It will pass
under the surface of the New-road, with intermediate stations
for the occasional stoppage of trains at the Edgware-road,
it,legent's-park, Tottenham-court-road, and King's-cross at
1.,t8 iunction with the Great Northern, and thence to a station
In Farringdonstreet.
,BY a deviation of the line as authorised, Coldbath-fields
risen will, at the desire of the Magistrates, be avoided, the
line will be made to harmonise with the contemplated im-
provement of Holborn-hill, by the Metropolitan Board of
Works, and a saving in the cost of the railway will he
effected.
The total cost of the whole works, rolling stock, and preli-
minary expenses, up to the completion and equipment of the
lines ready for traffic, will not exceed a share capital of
£950,000, and the borrowing powers.
To meet this expenditure the shareholders have paid up
nearly £OO,OOO in deposits, which stand to the credit of the
Company in the hands of the Accountant-General ; and,
betty,- convinced of the profitable result of the undertaking,
they are anxious to carry it out, and are prepared to make good
their engagements on 47,500 shares, if the Great Northern
Railway and the public will aid them by subscribing for the
remaining 47,500 shares, which are now registered in the
names of contractors and others.
The directors of this Company regard with great interest
the enlarged views and philanthropic objects which Mr.
Pearson enunciated when he orignally started this project;
but they subscribed their money to' the Company as a com-
mercial undertaking, with a view to profit. They believe that
a onmerous population, and the supply of its wants, are the
best and surest foundations of railway prosperity ; and when
they reflect upon the enormous population of the district
through which this line will pass, its productive capabilities in
connection with the goods and passenger traffic of the Great
Western and Great Northern Railways and their tributaries,
and especially of the Midland and the Manchester, Sheffield,
and Lincolnshire Companies, which have recently obtained
access to the station at King's-cross, its contingent connec-
tion with the Metropolitan Cattle Market and North London
line, and upon the fact that it cannot be subjected to com-
petition with low-priced steamboats or with any new railway
in the same direction, but only with slow and expensive
omnibuses and cabs, they feel that this railroad will inevit-
ably prove the source of very large dividends to shareholders.
arious attempts have been made to reduce these large
sources of revenue to some definite financial result. These
calculations, whether based upon the existing traffic by pub-
lic vehicles, or from the passengers which may be assumed
from each station by each train, or upon the passenger traffic
of the North London, the Blackwall, and the London-bridge
Station Railways, taken in connection with the population
along those lines, prove a receipt, after a liberal allowance for
working expenses, sufficient to pay upwards of 10 per cent.
on the outlay. But the impression is so general that the pro-
fits will be large, that there can be no necessity to repeat the
calculations.
It is part of the arrangement with the Committee of Requi-
sitionists that four vacancies shall be made in the Board, to
be filled up by the parties who may now take up the shares
offered, and that all existing engagements with the Com-
pany are to be subject to revision by the Board when so re-
modelled.
It is under these circumstances that 17,500 shares are offered
to the shareholders of the Great Northern Railway Com-
pany, and 30,000 to the public, upon the terms and conditions
specified in the annexed form of application, which has been
prepared by Mr. James Wilde, Q.C., and Mr. Robert Lush,
QC. whose opinion is annexed.
" i'ire are of opinion that persons applying for shares in the
accompanying form, and obtaining an allotment, and paying
the deposits thereon to the special account at the bankers,
upon the terms specified therein, will be entitled to receive
back such deposits, and the interest allowed by the bankers, if
the whole number be not taken up within the time to be
limited for that purpose.
" The Metropolitan Railway Company
being incorporated
as a railway company by Act of Parliament, it follows as a
matter of course that persons obtaining shares in it will not
be liable for more than the amount of such shares to be paid
in deposits and calls, in the manner provided by the Com-
pany's Acts. "JAMES WILDE,
" ROBT. LUSH.

" Temple, Dec. 16, 1858."
Form of Application for Shares.
Metropolitan Railway Company.
Trustees for the Deposits on Allotment.
The Rt. Ron. the Lord Mayor Sir James Duke Bart. M.P.
Sir F. Kelly, A.G. and M.P. IR. W. Crawford,
Esq., M.P.
To the Committee of Allotment of 47,500 Shares.
Gentlemen,—l request you will allot me of the £lO
shares in the Company, and I undeftake upon allotment to
pay the deposit of £1 per share on such shares, or upon such
less number as you may allot to me ; and I undertake on the
following terms and conditions that I will, on or before the
Bth day of March next, accept the transfer of such shares as
may be allotted, and will pay any calls that may have been
or may be made thereon under the provisions of the Company's
Act.