The Sun.
London, England, 1850-08-15 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON,

reduce the amount of taxation whilst carefully
providing supplies for the exigencies of the public ser-
vice, and supporting the honour and dignity of the
Crown ; and whilst we give expression to
our feelings of loyalty and attachment to your
Majesty, we may add, that it is our sin-
cere desire to do all we can to uphold the
imp( rtaet ilstitutious of the country, and to maintain its
increa,ing prosperity. We have now to crave your
Majesty's most gracious assent to our last Bill of the
session, which is to apply and appropriate the Consoli-
dated Fund. _ .

Her Majesty was then most graciously pleased to give
her Royal Assent to the following Bills:

Spitalfields and Shoredirch New Street.
Transfer of ImprovemFnt Loans.
Law Fund Duties (Ireland).
Savings Banks (Ireland).
Holyhead Harbour.

Lough Corrib Improvement Company.
General Board of Health (No. 3).

Consolidated Fund Appropriation.
The Lord Chancellor then advanced to the foot of
the throne, and keeling, presented her Majesty with
the Royal Speech, which her Majesty proceeded at once
to read in a clear and exceedingly pleasing tone of
voice. (The Speech will be found in another part of our
columns.)
The LORD CHANCELLOR then, in her Majesty's
name, and by her Majesty's commands, declared the
Parliament prorogued until the 15th of October next.
Her Majesty then descended from the throne, and
bowing most graciously to the assembled Peers, left the
House, accompanied by her Royal Consort and the whole
of her att,rd no. _

Her Majezty having disrobed, returned to the state
earringe amidst a flourish of trumpet?, whilst the band
t.f tlio Coldstream Guards struck up the Motional An-
them.

The procession having been re-formed in the same
order as before, then wound its way to Buckingham
Palace, at which place, and along the whole route, im-
mense bulks of persons were collected.

compelled to complain loudly of the uncalled for
impertinent, and assaulting interference of a knot e'f po-
licemv,n placed near Richmond-terrace, who did all in
their power to prevent our reporters reaching our office as
early as possible, by insisting upon their walking on the
crowded footpath instead of the more op in horsc.-way.
Many Members of both Houses were similarly
treated, and upon remonstrating against such conduct,
they only met with impudence and insult. We hope the
Commissioners of Police will look to this, and take care
that it shall not occur in future; that the men under
their control should be taught that civility is preferable
to impertinence; and that in the discharge of their duties
discretion is better than hasty and uncalled fur
officiousness.

TATTERSALL'S—THIS EVENING.
Six o'CLocx.

No business doing.

GREAT WESTERN
RAILWAY. (THIS DAY,)

MEETING AT BRISTOL.
(BY EXPRESS.)

FROM OUR OWN REPORTER.

The thirteenth half-yearly general meeting of th
proprietors of the Great 'Western Railway Company
was held this afternoon, at the Bristol Sta'ion, in
Bristol, pursuant to the company's Act of Parlia-
ment, for the general purposes of business.
The chair was taken at one o'clock precisely by
Charles Russell, Esq., the chairman of the company.
Some time before the hour of meeting a consider-
able number of shareholders had assembled in the
place of meeting, which greatly increased imme-
diately on the chair being taken.
The CHAIRMAN, in opening the proceedings, said
they had had such frequent meetings of proprietors
lately—no less than three in the first half
of the present year—at which all their
most important interests had been so carefully re-
viewed and so amply discussed, that their report on
the present occasion was happily mach shorter than it
ordinarily was ; and he should endeivour to give the
same agreeable character to the observations which it
was his duty to address to them. In that
report, and in the accounts which had
been distributed among the shareholders,
he hoped they would see that the directors had been
extremely anxious to carry out the wishes of the pro-
prieurs, as they were expressed at the several meet-
ings to which he had adverted. They had closed their
capital account, so far as it was possible to close it,
for those portions of the line which are completed, as
was recommended by the Committee of Consultation.
That committee calculated that the expenditure on
the finished portions cf their line up to December,
1849, emoueted to 10,410,0001., and that there was
still outstanding liabilities, referring also to that
portion of the line, amounting to 350,000/. The
expenditure on that portion of ihe line to December
actually did amount to 10,407,0001.; and of the
350,000/. they had expended about 78,0001. in paying
off some of their liabilities ; and there was a margin
left sufficient he believed to meet every other liability
that could possibly arise. He hoped the meeting
would consider that a proof that the directors were
earnestly anxious to keep their capital account closed ;
and he might state that in the last half-3 ear they had
included a sum of about 1,1001., which had been
spent in sheds and buildiags, and other new and
productive works. They had included th .t
sum in their general revenue account because
they did not consider it was desirable for so small a
SUM to disturb :the capital account.—(Hear, hear.)
(The Honourable Gentleman here went into a de-
tail of the company's finished and unfinished works,
hich are referred to in the engineer's report.)
After including the whole of the interest chargeable
to their revenue account, he thought they had done
well to maintain a dividend of 4/. per cent. per annum
on their capital, and still carrying forward a
balance of between 24,0001. and 25,000/.
from the worst to the most productive half
of the year.—(Cheers.) The subject to which the
directors had most anxiously applied their attention
was the development and improvement of their
traffic. That was, in fact, a subject to which all
railway companies must now direct their atten-
tion. From the report they would perceive
there had been a small failing off in the present
half-year as compared with the corresponding
half of last year ; and that circumstance unques-
tionably would be calculated to make them doubt the
principle of the steady increase of traffic, which he
believed was the law which ordinarily must govern
traffic, particularly in this mercantile and manu-
facturing country, if they were not able
to assign it to temporary and to special
causes. They believed that that falling off
had resulted partly from the great depression which
had prevailed in all the agricultural districts, and the
meeting must remember that theirs was a line which
was entirely connected with an agricultural district.
It had fallen off partly also from their going back to
their return-ticket system, which, although it
was greatly to the public accommodation, was
not equally remunerative to the proprietors, and
It had fallen off also, partly in consequence of the
competition they had had to encounter with the
neighbouring lines to Windsor, Reading, Gloucester,
and Cheltennam. Of fair and reasonable competition
they made no complaint. Every company who took
a line to a town was fairly entitled tc expect a rea-
sonable proportion of its traffic ; but there was a
competition which he thought both unwise and un-
just. He would illustrate what be meant by a re-
terence to an extreme case which had recently
occurred to themselves. The Great Western fares to
Reading, a distance of thirty. six miles, were for first-
class tickets Bs., for second-class ss. 6d., for third-
class 2s. 11d. He was sure it was impossible
to say that these were unreasonable charges.
It so happened that the South-Eastern line, a line
which prima facie they should hardly have consi-
dered a competitor to the Great Western; proceeding,
as it did, from the metropolis to the east and to
Dover, that was no fair right to compete with
a line proceeding by the west from London
to Bristol ; but it so happened that the
South-Eastern had leased the Reigate and
Crediton line, by which they had been enabled to
obtain a route to Reading. Their distance to Read-
ing was 68 miles, and the Great Western's 36 miles;
and'they had thought it just to convey passengers for
smaller fares than the Great Western did.—(Hear,
hear, and laughter.) They charged first class pas-
sengers, 95. 64., second class, 4. 6d. and
third class passengers at 33.—()dear.) He felt
quite satisfied that it was utterly impossiole for such
a system to continue. It could not be done except at
a loss, and its purpose must be, not to benefit the com-
pany who had adopted it, but to injure the Great
Western. He did not believe—he could not think—
the South-Eastern would, upon deliberation, think
it right to maintain a system so injurious to them-
selves, so unjust to others, and so inconsiderate to-
wards the general interests of railways. But if they
should persist in such a system it would, of course,
become the duty of the directors of the Great Western,
at any loss or any hazsrd, to counteract so unjust and
injurious a system.—(Loud cheers.) But it was
to those causes—and he hoped they/ had seen
the worst of them—for there were no other towns to
which new lines would be brought into competition
with the Great Western ; it was also to their going
back to their return-ticket system which they were
about to carefully review, and it was to the -depres-
sion in the agricultural districts that they ascribed
the falling off. They hoped, by a return of improving
times, their traffic would also improve. Every effort
of the directors would be directed to that object.
They would observe, by a new distribution of their
officers, they had placed the passenger and the
goods traffic under separate management. They
had appointed Mr. Drewe to be manager
of the goods traffic, a gentleman who had very eaten.•
sive experience in the west of England. The services
of such an officer were of great importance to the
towns he bad named, but he was satisfied that over
the whole line they should derive great benefit and
advantage from the experience and energetic services
of such an officer is their relations with
other railway companies. The altered position of
their engagements with the Oxford, Worcester,
and ‘Volverhampton, had compelled the directors of
the Great Western to appear before a Committee of
the House of Lords in the last session of Par-
liament. In the report of the Railway Com-
missioners for 1849 there appeared some im-
portant papers presented by that company to the
Railway Commissioners. If the question were a
matter of controversy now between the two compa-
nies, he should be prepared to controvert all of the
statements that were there made ; but it was not ne-
cessary that he should enter into such a contro-
versy. He had no doubt the directors of the
Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton Com-
pany had stated the case as favourably
as they could for themselves, and upon that statement
he was willing and prepared to stand. The meeting
would remember, in 1844 they entered into an agree-
ment w ith the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolver-
hampton line, and that that agreement was modified
by two subsequent agreements—one in Sept., 11-44,
and the other, he thought, in Feb., 1846. The
Great Western Company never thought of disputing
'
Wolver-
hampton re
e
, those agreements. They felt they were binding on
them, and till the difficulties occurred in 1847 and
1848, they never heard that those
controverted by the Oxford,Worcester,
gr
e nmde
however, by a
Company. It appeared,
report to their shareholders on the Ist of June, aae
and that of the month of August, 1846,
only six months after, the last arrangement
bad been entered into, they came to resolution that