The Sun.
London, England, 1850-08-09 00:00:00

LQNDON,

RAIL WAY IN TELLIGENCE.

. ,
sharehol.-I,era that a hill in Chancery has been filed
sgainit the South-Estern Company and this company,
for the purpose of preventing the rent from being paid
when due, and of invalidating the lease. Your directors
look on this attempt, by an ex-director of the South-
Eastern Company to set aside a lease framed and com-

. .
pieted under the concurrent advice of the most able
counsel in the kingdom, es a futile proceeding. Your
directors could not fur one moment doubt that gybe rent
woull be duly paid by the South-Eastern Company; but
for the better s3thfaction of the shareholders [boy wrote
a letter to the South-Eastern Company, of which the
following is a copy:— .
" Reading, Guildford, and Reigate Railway Company,
2, Royal Exchange-buildings, August 7.
" Dear Sir,—As it is probable that questions will be
asked at our half-yearly nesting to.morrow relative to
the bill filed against our respective companies, by Mr.
W. Gordon Thomson, on the subject of the kale of our
line to the South-Eastern Company, it has been con-
bidered desirable by my board to wc-rtain the views
entertained by your board on the subject. My own
directors can only look upon the proceeding as ema-
nating from a vindictive spirit, and as utterly futile,
and they have no doubt that your board look upon the
matter in precisely the same way. It is, however,
advisable that we should be in possession of a resolu-
tion of your board intimating their determination to
pay the rent due to our proprietors under the lease, on
the 15th of September next. I shall, therefore, feel
obliged by your submitting this letter to your directors,
and favouring me with a reply by twelve o'clock to-
morrow.—l am, &e.,

" J. H. BAYLEY, Secretary.
" G. S. Herbert, Esq., Sec.,
South-Eastern Railway Company.'
" South-Eastern Railway, London Terminus,
August 8, 1850.
" Dear Sir,—l have laid before the directors your
letter of yesterday, and I am desired to say in reply that
the directors are advised to, and will pay the halt-year's
rent of the Reading, Guildford, and Reigate, Railway
line when it falls due, unless, of course, fin injunction be
obtained in the meantime to restrain the payment, but
which neither the counsel of the company nor the direc-
tors contemplate as at all probable.
" I am, dear Sir, yours truly,
" G. S. HERBERT.
"' J. H. Bayley, Esq., Secretary, Reading, Guilaford,
and Reigate Railway Company."
" Your directors, then, have every reason to state with
confidence that the rent will be duly paid, and that on
calling you together the dividend due on the 15th of
September will be declared at the rate of 5/. 2s. 61. per
cent. per annum, on the amount paid up in the terms of
the lease. The directors, therefore, have row merely to
propose that this meeting be adjourned to Monday, the
16:h of SeptembQr next, at one o'clock, for the purpose
of considering the report and the accounts, declaring
a dividend, arid 4.f fixing the periods for holding the
future half-yearly meetings of the company."
Tire CHAIRMAN said with respect to the party who
had filed the bill against the companies, so far as he
could see there appeared to he no motives hut those
flowing from vindictiveness and stock•jobbitig. He
could not see it in any other way, but he hoped it
wits riot so.

Mr. .111AcGaruon, the chairman of the South-
Eastern way Company, in answer to a question
from one of the shareholder's, said he considered the
ques►ion of the lease of the Guildford, Reading,
and Reigate line by the above company as irre•
vocebly settled. He thought there was not any loop•
hole by which one party or the other could get rid of
the lease.

The CHAIRMAN then moved that the meeting be
ajourned to the 16th of September ne.xt, for the
purpose of considering the report and accounts, for de-
claring a dividend, and for fixing the periods for hold-
ing the future meetings of the company.
It was explained that the proposition for adjourn•
ing the meeting arose out of the fact that the com-
pany could not declare a dividend until the rent
from the South-Eastern Company should be paid,
and that it would not be due till the 15th of
September.
The motion having been seconded was carried, and
a vote of thanks to the chairman concluded the busi-
ness of the meeting.

FURNESS RAILwAY.—The half-yearly meeting of
the proprietors of this company took place yesterday,
at No. 12, New-street, Spring-gardens; the Right
Hon. the Earl of Burlington in the chair. After the
usual preliminaries had been observed, the secretary
read the report. I; stated that the directors regretted
that the expenses during the last half-year had been
very heavy, and that they could not, therefore, re-
commend an increased dividend, which the sati4ac-
tory amount of the traffic would have enabled them to
do. The extension of the railway from Crooklancls
to the Limial-road had been in progress during the
past half-year. Some pecuniary difficulties had ex-
isted on the part of the contractor, but the directors
had made such arraygements as had enabled him to
proceed with the works, and there was now no rea-
sonable doubt that they would be completed by the
period originally fixed—namely, the Ist March, 1851.
A further sum of money had been expended by the
commissioners during the past half year in the improve-
ment of Barrow Harbour. The woks of the White-
haven and Furness Railway were already approach-
ing completion, and it is expected that the line will
be opened before the end of the present year. The
capital account :lowed that the receipts had amounted
to 255,9851., and the expenditure to 250,1961. 7s. 11.,
leaving a balance of 5,7881. 12s. 10d. The Chairman,
in moving the adoption of the report, said it was un-
necessary fur him to make any remarks, as the report
fully explained all the circumstances of the company.
He might however, allude to the fact that the iron
ore, which was their principle source of revenue, had
maintained itself well. As to the passenger traffic,
that was at present very considerable, and they could
not anticipate any improvement until the extension to
the Sindal Wood. The report was adopted, and a
dividend declared of five per cent. on the preferential
shares, and two per cent. on the original capital. Mr.
James Rameden was appointed secretary to the com-
pany, at a minimum salary of 3001., and gradually to
increase when the profits of the half-year should be
sufficient to authorise such increase. After a vote of
thanks to the chairman, the meeting separated.

CORK AND WATREFOED RAILWAY COMPANY.—
The eighth ordinary general meeting of proprietors
was announced to be held yesterday at the offices of
the company, in Delahay-street, Westminster. At
three o'ciccic, the time specified, a few of the pro-
prietors appeared, but not enough to form a quorum.
At four, there havi-g been no sufficient augmentation
of their numbers, Mr. J. B. Elfin, chairman of the
board of directors, declared the meeting adjourned
sine die. The statement of accounts which was to
have been presented showed that the receipts to the
30th of June, 1850, amounted to 75,569/. 155., and
the expenditure up to the same period to 68,4151. 12J.
10d.. leaving a balance in favour of the company of
7,1541. 2s.'2:t.
LONDONDERRY AND COLERAINE RAILWAY.—The
half- yearly meeting of this company was lh-ld yesterday,
at the offices, Coleman-street-buildings ; Capt. 'Warren,
E.I C., in the chair. The minutes of the.last meeting
having been read and confirmed, the secretary read the
report, which stated that the deliberation at the last half-
yearly meeting, as to the best means of resuming and
completing the works, resulted in the opinion, that
two sources presented themselves by which that object
was to be obtained ; one, the procuring of the neces-
sary funds by way of loan from the public Exche-
quer ; the other, the finding a contractor to undertake
the work wholly or chiefly from his own resources.
Considering that the completion of this undertaking
would have been more promptly and more advan-
tageously secured by means of a public loan, the
directors endeavoured to procure for this company, an
advance of public money, but without any successful
result. The balance-sheet showed that the total re-
ceipts had been 261,248/, and the expenditure
260,644/., leaving a balance of 604/. After some dis-
cussion, the report was adopted, the retiring direc-
tors and auditor re4lected, and a vote of thanks given
to the chairman.

COFFINS OF BAKED CLAY OF THB CHALDBANs.—
Mr. Kennet Loftus, the fist European who has visited the
ancient ruins of Werke in Mesopotamia, and who is attached
to the surveying staff of Colonel Williams, appointed to settle
the question of the boundary line between Turkey a,,d Persia,
writes thus:—" Warka is, no doubt, the Erech of Scripture,
the second city of Nimrod, and it is the Orchoe of the Clial-
dees. The mounds within the walls afford subjects of high
interest to the historian and antiquarian; they are filled, nay,
I may say, they are literally composed of coffins, piled upon
each other to the height of forty-five feet. It has, evidently,
been the great burial place of generations of Chaldeans, as
Meshed Ali and Ket belle, at the present day are of the Per-
sians. The coffins are very strange affairs; they are in
general form like a slipper bath, but more depressed and
symmetrical, with a large oval aperture to admit the body,
which is closed with a lid of earthenware. The coffins them-
selves are also of baked clay, covered with green glaze and
embossed with figures of warriors with strange and enor.
mous coiffures, dressed in a short tunic and ling under gar-
lmegesntasp,
aarstl.vorGdrbzt the
quantitiesa e the arms
poue
pottery
inndg
aolsnot
chi ea
3. hips, t
figures,h
some most delicately modelled, are found around them • and
ornaments of gold, silver, iron, copper, glass, &c.,
within.--
Art Journal.
The Marquis of Brendalbane and Sir George Lee
were among the passengers by the General Steam Naviga-
tion Company's steam-ship Soho, that left St. Ka thsrm* e's-
wharf, for Antwerp, yesterday morning.

GUILDFORD, READING, AND REIGATE.
The meeting of the proprietors of the
abovo railway company was held yesterday at the
nffices, Royal Exchange•buildings ; Mr. James
Garrtird in the chair.

The advertisement by which the meeting had been
convened having been read, the following report was
submitted for consideration :
" Your directors have to report to the shareholders
that since the last half-yearly meeting the lease of this
line to the South-Eastern Company has ball duly sealed
and exchanged by the two companies respectively. The
200,000/ authorised by you to be raised by loan was
raised, arid 120,0001., part of the s:.tale, has been paid cif
by means of the late call of 3L per share; 80,000/, the
remainder of the loan, will be paid off by the call of 2L
per share still to be made, and of which call notice has
been given. It is, doubtless, known to most of the