The Sun.
London, England, 1850-07-04 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, JULY 4, 1850.

Even our anxieties as to the probable influence o
the grievous and irreparable calamity which has jus
befallen the people of England, cannot enable us so
far to overcome our feelings of profound sorrow as to
consider the consequent situation of political parties
with the calmness requisite for the formation of any
deliberate opinion. Nevertheless, it is impossible not
to make some further allusion, however incidental, to
an occurrence which engrosses public attention to the
exclusion of almost every other consideration. Not
that there is any necessity whatever for the
utterance of those feelings of regret which
are best expressed on the part of the
population by the silence indicative of the universal
emotions of despondency. No additional token of
sympathy for the survivors of the illustrious dead is
wanting from any class or division of the community.
That sympathy has been manifested in the most
touching manner, as it has been also in a manner
the most spontaneous, from the moment when the
general anxiety was heightened to alarm by the
mournful and threatening character of the bulletins,
up to the period when the dread felt by
the multitude sm.,' ually realised. We
cannot more conclusively demonstrate the
genuine and absorbing nature of these popular
condolences than by referring in evidence to the
crowds continually congregated yesterday in White-
hall-gardens, and to the stream of carriages even now
bringing evidences of unceasing respect to the relict of
the great statesman.
Our intention at present, however, is not to dilate
upon circumstances fraught with such peculiar sad-
ness, so as to excite merely a morbid indulgence of
sorrow, or an idle utterance of lamentation. For
the time being, the sentiments of the popu-
lation are those of unmingled regret and
that regret one which is, curiously enough, at
once enhanced and alleviated by a sense of the na-
tional gratitude. Our purpose, therefore, in referring
again this evening to the loss just experienced by the
British empire, is altogether different from that
against which we have uttered the foregoing
disclaimer. It is to direct fur an instant the
finger of scorn and abhorrence against those
who have so far violated all the decencies of the
commonest humanity, to say nothing of the amenities
cultivated in obedience to the dictates of civilization,
as to give voice to a despicable and super-
cilious depreciation of the great man who has just
been snatched from amongst us with such appalling
celerity—and this, be it remembered, before the
grave has yet closed over his ashes. Against such
men as these we would, however feebly or incohe.
rently, utter some syllables of our disgust and indig-
nation : allowing them afterwards to sink back into
their envenomed mediocrity. Theirs is too mean
and insignificant an animosity to require more than
the most contemptuous indifference. Yet, for the sake
of our common nature,we would protest in the strongest
language imaginable against those political vampires
whose wit can feed upon the memory of a renowned
antagonist, even though the breath of life has scarcely
departed from his remains—those ghouls of partisan-
ship whose sarcasms run riot in the sombre precincts
of the tomb, in the chambers sanctified by the pre-
sence of dissolution. One would have imagined that
the acerbities of political antagonism would have
been silenced at least by the spectacle of
so much poignant suffering, by the aspect
of such an overwhelming and wide-spreading calamity.
To conjecture otherwise would have been to invest
he politician with those darker passions which are
usually regarded as the attributes of fiends. For
even among barbarians the acrimony of personal
hatred is obliterated and forgotten when an enemy
stands over the breathless corpse of his opponent,
Yet such would, unhappily, appear to be contrary to
the doctrines, or at any rate to the custom of
Some members at least of this civilized and
Christianised generation. Scarcely is the deplorable
fact bruited about, that England has lost her greatest
statesman, than these inhuman assailants of the de-
parted begin to sneer at his lately resplendent but
now extinguished genius, to cavil at the panegyrics
by which his patriotism is being feebly commemo-
r ited, and to depreciate by every sardonic sophistry
the extent and value of his reputation. For such
posthumous detractors we have no feelings higher
than those of unmitigated contempt, and
of unutterable abhorrence. For a moment
we wculd, though with a loathing band, hold
them up to be branded by the lightnings of popular
indignation.
It has been the fate of the illustrious man whose
career has just now been brought to such an abrupt
and painful termination to have been more cruelly
vilified and more opprobriously insulted than perhaps
any one amongst the multitude of his contemporaries.
" In Gon's name," we would say to his calumniators
" let your miserable passions die out at lest
with his death—let your petty rancour& Re_
risk with the knowledge of his dissolution—
let your paltry spleen and pitiable fury sink into
nothingness now that their object is no more. Do
not, in the name of all that is holy, and gentle, and
humanizing, so far outrage the heart and the intellect
of the English people by assailing the memory of one
whose genius, and probity, and patriotism, are the
subjects of popular gratitude and of national admira-
tion." For ourselves, we have the satisfaction of
remembering that while we are earnest now
our in
,
hi
we
r commemoratione
notupon,
less
earuest
in
uf
ourthe p
illustrious
upn
while he was yet livirg amonztaunsB,4d,orannidngenb
of
by his
presence, elevating by his stet
ening by his oratory the Representative Chamber
the British Parliament.

Last week we explained the causes that led to
the great and unnecessa-y delays in the progress of a
really efficien t measure for the audit of railway ac-
counts that hire already taken place, and which may
very probably prevent any legislation on the subject
during the prey ent session. We were, however, then
unable to del ote space sufficient to examine the
various details of this most objectionable measure,
and to point out to those interested in railways, the
nature of the pri )visions by which they are to be de-

prived of all control over tr eir oc%n property. We

now enter upon this important duty.
As we have already stated, the Bill may be divided
into two portions, which are perfectly distinct from
each other. It is compounded of the Government
Bill introduced into the House of Lords by Earl
GRANVIILE and the Bill prepared by the delegates of
the different railway companies, and subsequently
brought forward by Lord STANLEY. The first 41
sections (except section 36) relate to the former
measure, the remainder to the delegates' Bill, which
is adopted with some slight alterations.
The provisions of the Act are intended to apply to
"every company incorporated for making any rail-
way in Great Britain or Ireland," so that, whether
a company avails itself of the option given, or
rather apparently given by section 36, it will still, to
a certain extent, be within the jurisdiction of "the
Auditors of Railway Accounts," and must contribute

to the expenses of the board.
Secion 2 provides " that uniform accounts shall be
kept under the several heads or divisions, and in the
fo•rn, and showing the particulars set forth in the
schedule annexed to the Act, or as near thereto as the
circumstances of the case will admit." These forms

(with the exception of No. 1) are the same us those
approved of by the delegates, and appear to be unob-
jectionable, but the Auditors of Railway Accounts
are empowered "to authorise and direct any
such addition to the particulars to be shown in the
accounts to be kept by every railway company as such
auditors may think necessary" (sec. 2). There is,
therefore, no limit to the power of these auditors,
and matters may be insisted on which might possibly
prove very injurious to the interests of several com-
_!__

panies.
The next series of clauses relate to the appoint-
ment and proceedings of the delegates, by whom two
of the auditors are to be elected. The shareholders
of each railway company having a paid-up capital of
100,0001. or upwards, are authorised to elect a delegate
for the purposes of the Act at their ordinary half-
yearly meeting, to be held next before the Ist
October next, or at any adjournment thereof, and
may make a new election at the corresponding
ordinary half-yearly meeting in every year. These
delegates are to be entitled to vote on every question
according to the following scale—viz., when the
paid-up capital of the companies does not exceed two
million pounds, the delegates shall have one vote be-
tween two, and five millions two votes, between five
and ten millions three votes, and exceeding ten mil-

lions four votes.
The delegates so chosen are to elect two persons to
be auditors of railway accounts. When two are to be
elected each delegate will be entitled to double the or-
dinary number of votes, all of which he may give to
one candidate, or may distribute them as he may think
proper between the candidates. With the auditors so
elected, there is to be appointed one auditor nominated
by the Commissioners for auditing Public Accounts,
and these three persons will be the " Auditors of Rail.
way Accounts." And all powers and authorities
granted by the Act may be exercised by any two of
them. They are to provide an office and appoint a
"secretary and so many other officers and servants as
to them shall appear necessary." And no person
interested in railway property is capable of being
elected or acting as an auditor or secretary, or
other officer or servant to the auditors, and each per-
son must make a declaration that he is not so in-
terested, and is liable to a penalty of 501. for acting
when disqualified.
Any auditor elected or appointed under the Act,
may be removed by " a resolution of a majority of
not leas than two-thirds of the votes of the delegates

present at any meeting," and " confirmed by the
Commissioners for auditing Public Accounts," provided
that notice of such resolution, and of the grounds on
which it is intended to propose the same, be dis-
tinctly given in the advertisements and letters calling
such meeting.
The next series of clauses, from sec. 26 to sec. 35,
relate to the salaries and expenses of the board and.the
mode in which the necessary funds are to be pro-
vided. A sum of 10,0001. is in the first instance to
be raised, to which all railway companies shall con-
tribute in proportion to their paid-up capital, and the
Commissioners of Railways are to ascertain and fix the
amount to be paid by each company. This, however,
by no means fixes the extent of the liability, for all
such companies are to contribute in the same propor-
tion, viz., according to the extent of their paid-up ca-
pital, whether the concern be remunerative or other-
wise, and whether it yields a dividend or not,
even if the working of the line be given up, to the
" salaries of the auditors, and such other expenses as
may appear to the said auditors to be incurred for the
common benefit of all railway companies." And in
addition, each company whose accounts are audited
by such railway auditors, shall pay such further sum
as the auditors shall certify to be required to pay the
expenses, directly or indirectly, occasioned by the
audit of such accounts (other than salaries and fixed
expenses). And each company which has availed it-
self of the option given by sec. 36 is to contribute
such sum as the auditors shall certify to be required, to
repay the expenses of the auditors appointed or autho-
rised by the Auditors of Railway Accounts to act
with the auditors elected by such company ; and any
expenses of the Auditors of Railway Accounts, in
relation to the audit, or revision of the audit, of such
company (except salaries and fixed expenses). The
Central Board are also to certify the sums to be paid
by each company, and these sums are to be recovered
from the companies, in like manner as the passenger
duties.
The auditors are to keep accounts, which shall be
open to the inspection of the delegates, and to be
audited bt the Commissioners for auditing Public
Accounts; and if the delegates by a majority of votes
shall declare that any expenditure is improper or ex-
cessive, the question is to be decided by the Commis-
sioners for auditing Public Accounts, whose judg-
ment on the matter will be final and conclusive.
These auditors are to make arrangements for the con-
tinuous audit of the accounts of all companies (who
have not decided on electing their own auditors), and
have for that purpose very stringent powers, much
greater than those given to auditors elected by the
company. It will be well on this point to compare
the above section with that which gives power to the
auditors of the different companies. Any false evi-
dence before the auditors, or any officer of theirs, is to
be punished as perjury, and withholding information
or explanation, or refusing to give evidence, is to be a
misdemeanour, and the auditors are to make a sepas
rate half-yearly report as to each company, which is
to be transmitted to the secretary within one month
after making up the half-yearly or other periodical
accounts; and the auditors may, if they think proper,
make separate reports within that time; and the se-
cretary shall, within one week after the receipt of any
such report of the auditors, or of one auditor, trans-
mit a printed copy of the same to every registered
shareholder.
The above is a brief summary of the provisions of
the first portion of the Bill, which may be termed the
Government measure. But by clause 36 a power is
given to the shareholders of every railway company
to determine that the accounts of such company be
audited by auditors elected by itself ; and if such
resolution be signified under the band of the
secretary of suchicompany to the Auditors of Railway
accounts --- days after any time to or at which
the half-yearly accounts are to be balanced, the
accounts of such company for the current half-year
shall be audited in the manner thereinafter provided.
The remaining portion of the Act is the same, with
some exceptions, as that already sanctioned by the
delegates. The alterations are, that sections 4 and
20, e
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and
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that the auditors elected by the shareholders, in place
of being authorised to employ a competent public ac-
countant, are to have associated with them an audi-
tor nominated by the Central Board, who shall have
all the powers and authorities of the auditors elected
by the company. As these are the only points in
which the remainder of the Bill differs from that ap-
proved of by the delegates, and as the clauses are
almost verbatim, it is unnecessary to go through
the remaining sections, save to direct atten-
tion to section 50, which provides for setting aside
the option nominally given by section 36. Accord-
ing to that most important clause, the elected auditors
must transmit to the Central Board, ten clear days at
least before each ordinary half-yearly meeting, a copy
of the accounts and of the balance;sheet required to
be produced at such ordinary meeting to be certified

under their hands. The accounts of every company
must, therefore, he brought under the cognizance of
the Central Board. And it shall be lawful for the
Auditors of Railway Accountr, on the requisition in
writing of five or more shareholders holding not less
than one-twentieth part of the capital of such com-
pany, or on the representation in writing of any of
the auditors of the accounts of such company, or the
insufficiency of the audit by such last• mentioned
auditors (such requisition or representation to be
delivered to the Auditors of Railway Accounts seven
days at least before such ordinary meeting), to revise
the said audit ; and all the powers and provisions of
the Act shall be applicable to such revision. There
are some other minor points of difference, but of no
real importance, and not demanding any particular
notice.

It will be obvious from the foregoing statement
that the principle of extraneous interference is clearly
insisted or. Even where a company avails itself of
the option given by section 36, it must still contribute
in proportion to its paid-up capital to the fixed ex-
penses of the Central Board, and to such expenses as
may appear to the board to be incurred for the•
common benefit of all railway companies ; and their
accounts must not only be audited by an auditor,
nominated by the board, but the accounts themselves,
and the rvert thereon, must be transmitted to the
board itself ten clear days at least before the ordinary
half-yearly meeting. The option can also be defeated,
not only on the requisition of five shareholders hold-
ing one-twentieth part of the capital of the company,
or even on the representation of any one of the
auditors, even of the person nominated by the Central
Board, whose object it may reasonably he supposed
will ba to express his dissatisfaction by making such
a representation, and thus bringing business to those
by whom he has been nominated.
In any of these oases the companies that have de-
cided in favour of self-audit will only have double
vexation and double expense. It is for the share-
holders to pronounce their opinion on this monstrous
Bill while there is yet time, and earnestly and firmly
to protest against being subjected to a vexatious in-
terference with their properties to which no other
class in the kingdom is exposed.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday.
The election of President of the Assembly for the
ensuing quarter has been postponed until Thursday
(this day).
The quarrels between the different sections of the
reactionary party are every day increasing in inten-
sity, and Orleanists, Legitimatists, and Bonapartists,
attack each other in the most unmeasured terms.
The Legitimatists have discovered that they
have been completely bamboozled in the matter of the
Electoral Law, and the Opinion Publique publishes
a letter from a leading Legitimatist in one of the
depaftments, stating that the effect of the new law
will be to prevent the return of a single Legitimatist
for that department, either to the Assembly or to any
of the municipal councils. •
The proposed Press Law will extinguish the
greater number of the Legitimatist journals; therefore
they have joined the Republicans in their opposition
to ir, and the Bill will probably be thrown out.
The Journal des Debuts published on Monday a
long article on the spread of Russian influence in
Germany, which is commented on by all the liberal
journals of yesterday ; they all declare for an alliance
with the Liberal English Ministry. The National

says :
" The Journal des _Mats publishes this morning a
very long article, in which the author develops, with
great talent, the two political truths that have been so
often put forward in our own columns. The Russian
Protectorate is spreading in the face of Germany, which
is making no advance towards its cherished unity, and
for the reason that rival interests constantly in action
absorb the forces of what German writers call the great
German fatherland. This increasing influence of Russia
is a direct menace for the rest of Europe, and more par-
ticularly for France. Now let us, upon our side. ex-
press our astonishment that the Journal des Debuts,
seeing the question in so true a light, should yet combat
Lord Palmerston with so much ardour, and labour with
all its might to paralyze the influence which he endea-
vours to oppose to the ceaseless encroachments of the
Autocrat.
The Slick assumes even a more decided tone. It
says—
" Napoleon said that before fifty years Europe would
be Cossack or Republican. Time alone can verify or
contradic.:. so oracular a saying. Speaking, however, of
the present, and with respect to circumstances upon
which we can lay our finger, we do declare that there
are only two great alliances for France to choose be-
tween—the Russian alliance, which leads direct to the
restoration of Legitimacy—that is to say, to a double
revolution, one backwards, which could not last, and
one before, baffling all human calculation as to its ex-
tent—or the English aliiauce, which assur'a not only
the approaching advent of German, Spanish, Polish, and
Italian republics, but moderate liberal progress by pacific
means. Our choice is made. We are for peace and
progress, against war and counter-revolution; we are
with the English against the Cossacks—with the Whigs
against the Tories."
We commend this passage to the attentive consi-
deration of the MOLESWORTHS, COBDENS, HUMES,
BBIGIITS, and GIBiONS, who so innocently lent their
aid on Friday to " dear ABERDEEN" and his coadju•
tors in their endeavours to extend the Russian Pro-
tectorate to England.
The Count of MoNrnithaN and the Duke of
BOURDEAUX are together at Froshdorff, and are in
constant communication with the Austrian Minister.
The Count of MONTEMoLIN has asked the band of

the Princess CARLOTTA of Naples in marriage, and
her brother King 13omna. has acceded to the request,
whereupon the Spanish Minister was instructed to
protest, and to demand his passports if the scheme
should be persisted in ; the POPE has, however, ac-
cording to the Pouvoir, rendered such protest unne-
cessary by refusing to accord the required dispensa-
tion, without which the marriage cannot be cele-
brated. _ _

M. ARMAND MARRAST has become one of the ed.
tors of the Credit. _

The Emperor of Rums has signified to the PRE-
SIDENT of the Republic that the presence of M. DE
PERSIGNT at St. Petersburgh will be anything but
agreeable ; the mission of this gentleman to the Rus-
sian Court falls therefore to the ground. This is
a sorry return for the eagerness with which
General DE LABITTE aided the intrigues of the
Princess LISTEN in the Greek affair. Let us hope it
will operate as a warning to those members of the
English aristocracy who recently manifested such
a remarkable alacrity in doing the dirty work of
Russia.
General FABVIER has given notice of a motion in
the Assembly to the following effect—" ABD-ED.
KADER, at present a prisoner at the Castle of Am-
boise, shall be conducted by the Government to
Alexandria or to St. Jean d' Acre, in conformity with
the conventions made with him."
Great•preparations are ,making throughout France
for the great Exhibition of the Industry of the
World, which is to take place in London. The Go-
vernment has introduced a Bill for a grant of 2,0001.
towards the expenses of the exhibitors.
Accounts from Rennes, Brittany, state that in
consequence of a violent hail-storm all the crops of
wheat, oats, tobacco, and rape for three leagues in
that neighbourhood have been totally destroyed, and,
at the same time, three houses thrown down by a
whirlwind.
The intelligence of the death of Sir ROBERT PEEL
reached Paris yesterday, by electric telegraph, and
produced
classes.
edsthe most profound sensation of sorrow among
all
The Bourse was badly attended, and as pur-
chasers could not be found for the quantity of Govern-
ment stock offered for sale, prices declined. The Five
per Cents. opened at 95f. 25c., and rose to 95t. 400.
They subsequently felt to 94t. 75c., at which price they
closed. The Three per Cents. closed at 56f. 85c. ;
Orleans Railroad Shares, 755 t. ; Rouen, 570'.; Havre,
222 f. 50c. ; Great Northern, 448 F. 75c.; Avignon, 171 f.
25e.; Viernn, 350 f.; Basle, 108 t. 75c.; Bordeaux, 390 f.;
Paris and Strasburg, 328 f. 75c.; Tours and Nantes,
227 f. 50c.; the New Roman Loan, 77.
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK-EXCHANGE. JOLT 3.
Boulogne and Amiens, 64—East Indian, 7,4 —Ltixem-
bourg, 2 Vl—Northern of France. 14—Orleans and Bour-
deaux, 15,i—Paris and Rouen, 2274 —Tours and Nantes, 2.