The Sun.
London, England, 1868-09-08 00:00:00

ANGLO-AMERICAN TELEGRAPHIC
COMPANY.

The ordinary general. meeting of the proprietors
of this company was held yesterday at the London
Tavern ; Sir Richard Glass in the chair.
The report, which was read by the Secretary,
stated that as the current financial year would not
terminate until the 30th of April, 1869, the direc-
tors had no accounts to submit to this meeting.
The directors had decided to pay a dividend on ac-
count of 103. per share, free of income tax, to b.
declared out of the receipts for the three mouths
ending the 31st Gf July, pursuant to article 167 of
the articles of association as altered at the last
meeting of the shareholders. The receipts accruing
to the Anglo-American and Atlantic Telegraph
Companies from the cables from the Ist of May
to the 31st of July had averaged £496 10s. per
day ; one of the cables only being occupied in earl-l-
ing this amount from four to six hours per day. The
working of the traffic was now in charge of the joint
committee of directors of this company and the
Atlantic Company, appointed under the agreement
of the 29th of May. They had just resolved, with
the consent of the New York, Newfoundland,
and London Telegraph 'Company, to reduce the
tariff on the Ist September next to £3, plus the
land charges at each si.le, for a message of ten
words not exceeding 50 letters, address, date and,
signature not exceeding five words, free ; this would
make the charge £3 7s 61 between Great Britain
and Ireland and New York. The directors regretted
to have to inform the shareholders that the cable of
1860 suddenly ceased to work at 12.35 p.m. on the 3d
of August. Tests were immediately made by the
Superintendents at Valentia and Heart's Content
stations, and they located the break between 85 =l9O
miles from Heart's Content, measured along the
cable (being about that spot where the second acci-
dent occurred to the same cable last year.) These
tests had since been confirmed by the electricians
sent from London for the purpose. The joint
committee of both companies had entered
into a contract with the Telegraph Construction
land Maintenance Company to despatch the steamer
Hawk, under the command of Captain Halpin,
with an experienced staff of engineers and electri-
cians on board, to pick up and repair the broken
cable.

The CHAIIDIAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, said that the proprietors would see by that
document that the receipts from the Ist of May to
the 31st of July averaged £496 10s. per day, under
the £5 tariff. The board had felt from time to
time the necessity of reducing the amount of the
tariff, both with the view of serving the public and
avoiding competition, and they had consequently
tried the experiment, and he was happy to say that
the few days during which it had been in opera-
tion had been sufficient to show that they had
adopted a wise course. On the Ist instant, which
was the day on which the £3 tariff came into opera-
tion, the net receipts were £5ll 4s. 103., on the
2d they were £545 4s. 5,1., on the 3d £526 165.,
on the 4th £531 45., and on the sth £517 63. 9d.,
showing that the reduction had resulted in a con-
siderable increase in the net returns, and he felt
little doubt that in all reasonable reductions the
shareholders would receive the benefit as well as the
public. 'With regard to the accident which had
happened to the cable, he said that he, having had
great experience in cables of a similar kind, was
thankful that accidents dil not occur more fre-
quently. As it was at the same spot where
the previous accident had occurred, the board had
given instructions that soundings should be taken in
the neighbourhood, and the nature of the bottom
ascertained. It was the intention of the directors
to keep a ship, with proper hands on board, at St.
John's or heart's Content, so that in the event of
an accident it might be repaired in two or three
days. Although his would entail some expense, it
would be in the shape of assuranre, and the outlay
would not fall entirely upon this company, a 3 the
Newfoundland Company would join them in it.
Mr. Pickersgill Cunliffe seconded the motion,
and it was carried.

The retiring directors, Mr. F. A. Bevan and Mr.
11. Bewley, and the retiring auditors, Mr. Joshua
Dean and Mr. Francis Glass, having been_unani-
mously re-elected,
The proceedings terminated with a vote of thanks
to the chairman.

The Governor of Lithuania, Potapoff, has
issued the following proclamation :—" In my cir-
cular of the 22nd March of this year, I ordered
that fines should be inflicted on all persons found
guilty of using the Polish language. I clearly
laid it down that no one should use in public the
Polish language. It is said that the prohibition
applies to the use of the language in official
matters, in the church, in the theatre, in the
s reets. As lam now informed many Polish in-
habitants set at naught this prohibition, and ap-
pear not to understand it, I am thereby compelled
to declare the meaning of my circular of the 22nd
of March. It is by that circular most strictly
forbidden to use the Polish language in any public
place, namely in the church, in the street, in
hotels, inns, offices, sugar-bakeries, coffee-houses,
restorateurs, wine-shops, beer -houses, promenades,
gardens, in any shops, printing-offices, photo-
graphic institutions, and in general in any places
where the public enter or assemble. Moreover it
is not permitted to speak Polish in a private house
when more than two persons are together. It is
only allowed in the closest family intimacy, namely,
between man and wife, parent and child, within
the walls of a private house, to speak Polish.
This order shall be strictly obeyed, and such fines
enforced as shall be a serious punishment to the
guilty."
A communication from Prague says :—" The
Czech Opposition, in presenting to the Diet the
declaration ofithe eighty-two Deputies, has played
its last card. That step, as was easy to be fore-
seen, has raised in the Vienna journals a tempest
hitherto unexampled in the long conflict between
Austrian Germanism and Bohemian nationality.
However, do not allow yourself to be misled by
the assertions of those organs which pretend that
the act in question expresses solely the opinion of
those men who signed the manifesto and of a small
circle of their partisans. The country is with
these latter, and the disposition predominates even
more generally in the provinces than in the capital.
There are, indeed, in the smaller towns and rural
districts causes of discontent felt more directly
than in Prague. The crop has been very bad this
year ; the taxes are becoming more and more
heavy, and when to those facts arc added the
numerous prosecutions for participation in meet-
ings, an idea may be formed of the state of feeling
in the country. The Czech Deputies, in acting as
they have done, have only been the interpreters of
public opinion. Telegrams from all the towns and
communes of Bohemia are arriving daily to express
an entire approval of the declaration. The Diet,
which is now only a German assembly, in conse-
quence of the withdrawal of the Czechs, has just
adjourned for a week in order to give the com-
mittees time to complete their labours."

An international exhibition of agriculture is
organised to take place at St. Petersburg next
spring. The date of opening is fixed for the 17th
May.
LIBERATION OF CAPT. JOHNSTON, OF TIIE TORY.
—Many will remember the celebrated trial of Capt. George
Johnston, of the ship Tory, accused before the Central
Criminal Court of London, upwards of 20 years ago, of
murder and cruelties on the high seas. The trial awak-
ened intense interest at the time, and ended in a verdict of
guilty, with the qualification that Captain Johnston was of
unsound mind. Ho was, therefore, ordered to bo confined
during her Majesty's pleasure, and has since been an
inmate of Bethlehem Asylum till 1860, and in another
since that date. Captain Johnston being a native of this
country, and there being a strong impression that he was
completely restored, au effort, headed by Captain Mac-
dona!d, of Sandside, was made in 1858 to obtain his libera-
tion, and a petition to her Majesty, with several
thousands of signatures, was forwarded, but without
effect. Recently the Earl of Caithness Las taken great
interest in his behalf, and the result is, that after up-
wards of twenty years' confinement, Captain Johnston
was on Saturday last set at liberty under certain sure-
ties on his account. Ho is at present in London, along
with his wife and other relatives, and from all wo can
learn ho is in the enjoyment of excellent health.—Nor-
thern Ensign.