The Sun.
London, England, 1850-02-05 00:00:00

CALEDONIAN RAILWAY.

A meeting ef London shareholders in this company
was held yesterday at th,:Lond on Tavern, Captain the
Hon. Edward Pluaket in the chair, to consider the
course which they should adopt at the meeting which
had been called by the directors, and is to be held at the
Frennasons'• Tavern this day.
The HON. CHAIRMAN said it was most impor-
tant that, in the present unfortunate position of the
company they should come to some amicable understand-
ir 0. in reference to the meeting to-morrow (this day).
They would recollect that a committee of London share-
holders was appointed at a public meeting of the share-
holders to investiget their affairs, and that it had for a
long time been carrying on an arduous and disagreeable
opposition against the directors, but he thought subse-
quent events had fully justified its appointment. If their
advice had been taken eighteen months ago, instead
of the company being insolvent as it is now, it
would have been a tolerably flourishing one; for it
was a remarkable circumstances, considering the
nature of the country through which the line
passed, that the traffic should have been so great.
The daily receipts for traffic, taking the average of the
whole year, amounted to about 1,0001. After a long
aed tedious negotiation, an arrangement had been come
to with the directors, by which they agreed to re iign
upon certain conditions; but the Londou central com-
mittee would not he responsible for all contained in this
agreement, and the shareholders were at liberty to ratify
or to annul it. The resignation of the directors after
their gross mismanagement was only a simple act
of justice to the shareholders. They were very un-
willing to quit their seate, having entered into great
responsibilities, and would only consent to quit office on
an indemnity being given to them for all claims in re-
spect of the shares which they had purchased in other
lines. They made another stipulation that the com-
pany should further exercise its borrowing powers to
the amount e f 66,6001. to meet claims fir which the
directors were personally responsible. But whatever
opinion they might entertain as to the propriety of
making a compromise, it was absolutely indispensable that
the directors should retire. The evidences of mismanage-
meat disclosed by the committee of investigation were
altogether unparalleled in railway companies; they were
briefly but admirably summed up in the fallowing few
words which appeared in the Times on the 29th of De-
cember last:—" The recklessness, lilly, and infatuation
of the directors are without precedent in the history cf
commercial affairs." They had not only expended the
whole of their capiral, but also 850,0001. beyond it, and
yet their sta'ioes and branch lines had no; been com-
pleted. It was impossible to comprehend how six mil-
lions could have been got rid of without there being
something tangible to showfor it. Other companies which
were accused with extrava ,ance could point as the result of
it to some magnificent building or bridge, sueb, f in-
s'ance, as the Euston S a,ion, the Victoria-bridge, or
the Brit'ania Tube ; but, notwithstanding the e tortuous
expenditure cf this company, the G 'asgow termini was
unfinished, and they had scarcely any intermed'a e
stations. The resenue of the company was all mort-
gaged, but the guarantee 1 lines would have to contri-
bute towards the liquidation
.ef the debts. Ho asked
them not to form any opinions upon the
statements contained in the directors' reports, for
if they did they would be- grc qtly disappointed.
In the port cf last year the unfortunate position of the
company was partly attributed to the prevalence of the
cholera; he regretted to say that cholera was chronic
in this line, and not epidemic.—(Laughter.) If there
had been an Act of Parliament to wind up a company as
they did the bankrupt affairs of a private individual,
they would have been made bankrupts long a' o.—
(Hear.) But he might say thus much—that by acting
prudently, and paying their enormous debt out of the re-
ceipts from traffic, the guaranteed lines contributing,
making some arrangement with the creditors founded on
perfect honesty, and looking on their property somewhat
in the nature of a deferred annuity, they might yet bring
their present complicated and unfortunate affairs to a
satisfactory position. But to tell them that they
might have a dividend this year or the next was to give
expression to an absurdity. Tho way in which the
directors transacted their busircos at this, the eleventh
hour, would make a commercial house reputed solvent
insolvent in one week.—(Hear, hear.) To give an
illustration of this fact, he stated that a person who
had a fair and bona fide claim against the company for
1,7001., was obliged, after writing three times without
receiving any answer, to commence an action for the
amount; and after it had teen carried on to its extreme
limit, judgment Ras allowed to go by default, and the
complainant seized upon some engines and carriages in
satisfaction of his debt.—(Oh, oh.) He did not mention
this to crease or foster any fruitless exasperation against
the directors at the meeting to-morrow (this day), be-
cause he saw the necessity of calmly looking after their
own interests, whatever their private feelings might be,
and seeing that what little of their property remained
shonld be placed in proper hands.—(Cheers.)
The agreement entered into with the directors, which
has already appeared in the newspapers, was then read.
Considerable ,discussion followed upon it, and a little
opposition was offered to that part which indemnified the
directors for further claims; Mr. Russell, a shareholder,
declaring that he would rather lose every shilling he had
got than consent to indemnify them against the conte-
quences of their gross misconduct.

- Ultimately a resolution was passed, with only four dis-
sentients, to the following eff..ct, on the mction of Mr.
LITTLE, seconded by Mr. WEBB:—
" That the shareholders present. at this meeting, while
condemning the reckless and improper conduct of the
diredorp, are still prepared on the recommendation of
the London Central Committee to consent to and support
the compromise arranged between that committee and
the present directors."
A vote of thanks was then passed to the Chairman,
and the meeting separated.

JUVENILE OFFENDERS—According to a Parlia-
au.ntary return issued on Saturday (obtained by Mr.
Monckton Milnes), there were in 1847 as many as
11,195 juvenile offenders (11,100 in England, and 95 in
Wales) committed to prison, and in the next year
11,756 (11,631 in England, and 105 in Wales), making
in the two years 22,951. The offenders were all under
seventeen years of age. It appears from the document
that there are seventeen places in England in the nature
of charitable institutions for affording temporary refuge
to young offenders when discharged from prison. In
the county of Chester there are three; in Devon one; in
Gloucester one; in Lancaster two; in Middlesex two;
in Norfolk one; in Nottingham one; in Somerset one;
in Surrey two; in Sussex one; in Warwick one; and in
York one. When the returns were made in July last
there were 1,176 juvenile offenders undergoing sen-
tence. The returns extend to thirteen pages, and con-
tain a good deal of information as to the conviction of
juvenile offenders.

SERIOUS ACCIDENT TO T. B. BEAUMONT, ESQ
—This gentleman having lately arrived at his estate at
Bywell, mot with an accident on AVAncsday, the 22d
ult., by which his right hand was saverely injured, It
appeared that Mr. Beaumont and a fits, friends were out
on a shooting excursion, and while he was in the act of
loading his fowling-piece the gun went off, and so muti-
lated his right hand that one of his iingtr3 had to be
cmput ed. Since then, it is gratifying to learn, he is
doing well; and in a short time, it i 3 exected, he will be
complete!y recovered from the effects cf this unfortunate
accident.—Newcastle Courant.

Dispatches were received, on Saturday, at the Co-
lonial--,ffiee, from the Governors of the West India
Colonies.

DUNDEE TRADE.—Since our last report some
business has been done in flax at the rata then current,
as well as at a slight advance, far London account; and
on Monday we learned that considerable purchases bad
e.3rt made there as well as in this mark.t, chiefly in St.
l'etersburAh 9 and 6 head!, at 32/. and 29/. 2s. 6d.:per ton,
by one Russfan house from anvther.—Dundee Adver-
tiser.