The Sun.
London, England, 1857-08-26 00:00:00

MELBOURNE AND HOBSON'S BAY,

NORFOLK.
The half-yearly meeting of this company was held yes-
The
at the London declaring a. Redividend of solutions wer3ose passed
adopting the report, de. per
cent. on the original stock, and the usual dividends on
the preference stocks, payable on the 15th Sept.
Tao tueeting authorised the directors to raisd 50,0001
•

The statement of the accounts of this railway com-
pany to April 30, 1857, shows that 240,1801, had been
received and 213,2971. expended on the main line, and
55,160/. on the St. Kilda branch ; together 268,457/.
expended.
The revenue account for the half-year ending April 30
showed that 28.2731. bad been received, and 11,1921.
exnended, leaving a balance of 17,0311. The general
halanca-sheet shows a total of 310,1871,, including the
240,1801. received on capital account, 20,0001. loan at
7 per cent., 2,5571. Chartered Bank, 10,2351, calls due
on Shares, 15,3131. claims against the company, 4,8191.
reserve fund, and 17,0811. balance of revenue account.
On the other side are included 213,2971. expended on
main line, 55 1601. on St. Kilda branch, 2,3371. bills re-
ceivable, 11,454/. elaims due to the company, 3501. cash
in hand, and 27,5881. for stores.

THE GREAT GENERAL CODRINGTON.

(From the Times.)
Sir William Codrington is appointed to the com-
mand of—the Prince of Wales. The " Court
Circular" announces that this distinguished Gene-
ral has gone to Rainigswinter, on the Rhine, to be
in attendance on the youthful Prince. The public
will perhaps, in these times of war and tumult,
have anticipated other commands for the great
Crimean soldier,—not more honourable, of course,
but perhaps more arduous. We will not believe
that his youthful Royal Highness really requires a
first-rate General to manage him. He is, from
everything we have been able to hear, a moslgood-
natured, amiable young Prince, endowed with a
sweetness of disposition which softens down all the
stiffness of rank, and endears him to all who are
placed around him. We allow that sixteen is a
trying age ; it is the age when manhood first
dawns, and life begins to open out with its new
impulses and activities. Sixteen is, indeed, pro-
nounced by the authorities of the drawing-room to
be an intolerable-ago. Mothers, aunts, and sisters
fear sixteen., and resign themselves meekly to the
approach of a period of trial. Sixteen puts the
schoolmaster on his mettle, and keeps his nerves
and courage braced, ready for the fight. We do not
underrate the difficulties of its management and
proper control. Still, even at its worst, "sixteen"
might have been controlled by somebody who had
not blown up Sebastopol, and, softened as it is, if
not quite subdued, by Royal tank and the best of
dispositious in the present case, it would most pro-
bably have yielded to the tutorial guidance of a
quiet, sagacious civilian, who had never brandished
a sword, or sent battalions to mot tal strife. Even
clergymen have been known to undertake the task
of superintending our young Princes, s') peaceful
an occupation has it been thought, and so little con-
nected with the art of war. Some rather less formid-
able and less commanding personage, then, than
Lieut.-General Codrington,K.C, 8., Grand ross of
the Sardinian Order, Companion of the Legion of '
Honour, of the Order of the Medjidie, dec., and late
General of the English Forces in the Crimea, could
have directed the young Prince's tour up the
Rhine, could have pointed out to him the principal
towns and castles, and conducted him to the best
hotels.
The General, we observe, has gone to Konigs-
winter, doubtless to be in time to head the arduous
ascent of the Drachenfels, which his Royal Highness
has resolved upon. We do not say that a great
commander might not be of service in this under-
taking ; we know from our own experience that it
is not wholly devoid of difficulties. The race of
donkeys is not always to be depended on ; some-
times a humour of disobedience comes over them,
an inclination to do anything but facilitate your
progress, a determination in the tribe to congregate
in corners, with their riders upon them, and block
up their own pathway. Some address is required
to untie these Gordian knots, and no ascent, we are
quite sure, was ever made in this world—not even
an ascent of twenty minutes—which did not task in
some degree the virtue of patience. Still, a less dis-
tinguished General than Sir William Codrington
could restore marching order on such occasions, and
lead the way successfully up these stupendous
heights. It is true that terrific legends and tradi-
tions of war hover round the top, and the story of
the awful combat between Siegfraid and the Dra-
gon might come suitably from inditary lips. But,
whatever may have been the horrors of the past,
the present view from the top of the Drachenfels is
eminently peaceful, exhibiting the ample reaches
of a magnificent river, flowing betwe -n cornfields
and vineyards. And the same may be said of the
whole of the Rhine ; it is an eminently peace-
ful river now ; with the exception of Ehreubreit-
stein, its fortresses belOng to the past ; its present is
an era of high cultivation and adornment, grapes
And gardens, steamers and hotels. The decli-
vities of the banks exhibit the triumphs of
spade labour, by which not a foot of the invalu-
able slope, with its precious southern aspeut
and sunshine, is lost to the husbandman.
The Prince would not, probably, look for much in-
struction in the art of war from the monuments of
the old mediaeval robbers who sallied forth to levy
blackmail upon merchant vessels. These picturesque
ruins only heighten the luxurious peacefulness of
the scene, and probably Sir W. Codrington will be
the last person to " improve the occasion," like
Dugald Dalgetty, as he passes them, into a lecturlel
upon the science of war to his Royal pupil. 'll
be the first to yield to the triumphant
of the scene, to wave war with its terrorsside,
v daeferential
convert himself into the
enialitheas-j 'what need of
companion of future Royalty. peacefulness eawnid
and ewi ly enlist the
such a mighty warrior at all,
" nodding horrors"
such a service ? that this appears rather
We must frankly confess
anddererenmce:
of a Crimean General's plume in
Codrington—the fall, wo mean,
eesane
catr y
from the command
a " drop" for Gen.
it with all p
'nand of—we say of
but still it is the fact—a T.
bo of IG—or, to speak in
the language of the Court Circular," to att end 111C0
upon his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales" in
his tour up the Rhine. When the late Archbishop
of Canterbury was raised from the position of a pri-
vate clergyman to that of Bishop of London, an old
peer asked what the qualificationsthe fof fortunate
unknown were. The informant blundered and hesi-
tated, talked about theological
reading and clerical
accomplishments, scholarships, &c. At ps, last by acci-
dent he hit upon the fact that
the late prelate was
a tutor to the Marquis of Ab ercorn s son, and had
always got on with the Marquis very well. The old
peer was immediately satisfied. "Oh, if he managed
Abercorn he could manage anybody, or any die-
cess." Here is a rise from the management of one
to the franagement of many. Sir Wm. Codrington
reverses the process. He rises from the government
Of many to that of one, He LAB prepared himself