The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-30 00:00:00

The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, referred to the generally admitted fact that
this company's form of accounts, devised some years
ago, w,13 the best and most intelligible that had
been adopted by railway companies. He repeated
the remark he had offered at several' half-yearly
meetings in succession—that the dividend of this
company must be expected rather to diminish than
increase until the large amount of capital commit-
ments they had in hand were not only fulfilled, but
a reasonable time 'had been given for traffic in the
new undertakings to be developed. Although
he gave that warning some years_ ago, be-
-had t..vinced his own sincerity by not parting
with a single share be then held, and which he
could have sold at the higher rates of that period,
either in this company, the Great Western, the
North Staffordshire, or the South-Eastern. In the
corresponding period of last year the dividend was
3 per cent., instead of 2, as now proposed. But then
they bad a " nest egg"—a sum to credit, not brought
into profit and loss account, from which over £ll,OOO
had been taken, or about one-half.per cent. dividend,
to mcle up the figure of 3. The depression in trade,
the bad harvest in Lincolnshire, were causes of check
to the traffic in the past half year. He already
perceived signs of hope that the cotton trade had
taken a more favourable turn. Unfortunately the
company had been exposed also to competition
from the Midland, instead of receiving the addi-
tional traffic from that company which was promised
under the agreement he held to be so unwise years
ago, when he left the management of this con-
cern in consequence of the mistaken policy, as he
then rccongnised it to be, of making that agree-
ment. There had also been a competition at sea
during the half-year, which he hoped was now ter-
minated by an agreement with the competing inte-
rests, recently signed. Notwithstanding that the
bad trade and deficient harvest bad caused a de-
crease of traffic in some important departments, an
increase had been earned in the heavier kinds,
though, of course, at a heavier rate of working ex-
pense. Deducting, however, the heavy increase for
compensation, and for rates and taxes, with other
quite exceptional items, the amount of increased
working expenses was only about £1,500. But the
most important point on which he had to touch was
the question, Is the dividend honestly earned ? In
these days everybody suspected everybody else,
and one consequence of this was that we were in
danger of not making the management of these con-
cerns more healthy, but of running after crotchets
which would make the future management almost
impossible. There were four points upon which a
railway board might cook a dividend ; Ist, they
might charge interest to capital upon unproductive
works which ought to be charged to revenue; 2d,
they might charge their parliamentary expenses in
opposing and promoting bills to capital, where it
ought to be charged to revenue ; 3d, they might
have steamers, as this company had, to the extent
of £190,000 capital. and have no depreciation fund
wl'ere there ought to be one ; 4th, they might dimi-
•nish the value of their rolling stock, plant, ra-i4lvtry,
and stores, without putting by a depreciation
fund to meet inevitable waste. On each of these
points he entered into details as they affected
this concern. , On the first point he left it to
the shareholders to, decide for themselves. Ile
would accept ,their decision, but his own opinion
was that the interest on unproductive works charged
to capital should not be deducted from the dividend.
That interest was as much part of the original cost
as was the cost of the stones in building a mill.
(Applause.) He entered into explanations with re-
spect to the other three points, all of which had
been raised in the auditor's report, explaining the
special circumstances which made it seem undesir-
able to charge the law expenses in question to capi-
tal, or to have a depreciation fund for so smal' an
amount as was concerned in the capital of the
steamers, or where the system of stores was on such
a footing as that which was adopted in this concern.
With respect to the maintenance of the way and roll-
ing stock he made comparisons with the amounts ex-
pended in renewals, &e., by this company and the '
several greater concerns which surrounded it, show-
ing that the Sheffield Company devoted out of re-
venue a much larger amount of money to mainten-
ance and renewal than its neighbours did, and, at
the same time, that the value of engines and other
stock was credited in the bcoks at much less than
the average cost. As to the improvements in the
rolling stock, he invited the shareholders to go into
the station-yard and inspect them for themselves,
comparing the original engines, waggons, &c., with
those which were gradually replacing them. (The
proceedings were suspended for a few minutes,
during which a considerable number of gentlemen
went into the station to satisfy their curiosity on the
subject.) In the course of subsequent remarks the
chairman held out hopes of an improved understand-
ing with the London and North-Western and proba-
ble saving of outlay ; he also intimated that no new
capital outlay had been incurred in the past half-
year, nor would be incurred with his sanction dur-
ing the present critical position of railway affairs,
all new sidings, &c., absolutely necessary being
charged to revenue.
Mr. FILDES, M.P., expressed great satisfac-
tion with the chairman's explanations, though think-
ing it would be better to have charged one item—
the law expenses—to revenue, and to have had a
depreciation fund for the small steamer capital.
After some criticisms from Mr. RuBERTS (Ches-
ter), who continued to deplore the South Yorkshire
engagements and the Cheshire undertakings,
The report and dividend resolutions were unani-
mously carried.

Mr. Child, accountant, was elected auditor, in
the place of Mr. Unwin, who resigned.

CALEDONIAN.

The extraordinary general meeting of this com-
pany was held yesterday, at the City-hall, Glas-
gow. After a few words from the chairman of the
Committee of Inquiry, three resolutions were suc-
cessively proposed by shareholders present. One of
those resolutions being negatived and another
withdrawn, it was ultimately resolved, by a large
majority, that the report of the Committee of In-
qpiry, with the observations of the directors thereon,
and the observations of the auditors on the report
of the accountants, be remitted to a com-
mittee to prepare and issue, if necessary, a
report or resolution thereon, and to suggest
a course to be followed in consequence of the state-
ment made by the directors, that they are prepared
to place their seats at the disposal of the share-
holders, either by p ►rtial or total retirement, should
the shareholders consider it for the interest of the
coinpany that they should do so. The 'resolution
of the committee and their observations were to be
considered at the general meeting of the company,
which wss to be held at as early a date as might be
arranged between the committee and the board of
directors.

A LITERARY STATESMAN. An advertisemen t
annouuces a letter from Earl Russell to the Right Hon.
Chichester Fortescue on the state of Ireland. Who is
Euglauci's most notorious man of letters? surely Earl
Auksell.—Punch,

tihe Times, in an article on trades unions, apropos of the
commissioners' report and Mr. Roebuck's speech, says :
Not the least pretence of conciliation, it must be owned,
did Mr. Roebuck attempt. He selected a single notorious
practice of the unions for the immediate subject of his
address, and then went straight to the mark. In different
ages, said he, men have adopted different methods of
" regulating the proportion of the reward bestowed on
labour and capital." In other words, many and various
plans have been devised for increasing the advantages of
labour in the appropriation of profits. The scantier the
supply of labour the greater would be its probable value
if the demand continued the same, and the higher,
therefore, the recompense enjoyed by each working
man. The extent to which this principle might be
carried in its practical application Mr. Roebuck
then proceeded to explain. The Chine3e,
he said, and
some other nations; had resorted to infanticide for
keeping down population, and killed children in order
to diminish competition among men. "In England,"
he continued, !` the favourite plan for limiting the
number of labourers seems to be trade unions, which,
in my opinion, is not the least cruel of the means
employed." When this strong comparison was resented
by his hearers he justified the parallel by a simple
anecdote, the truth of which could not be impeached.
There was in Sheffield a poor working man who died
prematurely, leaving a child just 10 years old without
a penny to live upon, and with no friend in the world
but an uncle. This uncle took the orphan boy into
his house, and kept him kindly and well till he was
old enough to learn a trade. The only trade he had the
means of teaching him was his own, and ,so he took him
as his apprentice. On this he was visited by the authori-
ties of the union, who told him that such an apprentice-
ship was against their rules, and that the indentures must
be cancelled. " I will not treat my dead brother's
child thus cruelly," answered the man ; "I will not de-
sert him." " Very well," was the reply ; " then we
:hall take all the hands out of the shop until you comply
'with the demand and obey our rules." The unionists
were as b,ael as their word. They ordered a " strike," and,
as far as 'they could, shut the uncle and nephew out of a
livelihood together, and left them to starve. " I suppose,"
added /an Roebuck, " that these men would have shrunk
from infanticide, and would have called me a libeller if I
had said they'll ere guilty of a crime very little, if it all,
less black than infant murder. But what was this cold
blooded cruelty but something very like murder ?" It
happens rather curiously that this particular action of
trades unions in the limitatibn of apprentices, which Mr,
Roebuck selected for such incljgnant denunciation, has
been also selected by Mi. George Potter and his colleagues
as the strongest and most defensible point in the system
of Unionism. They have requested Mr. Gladstone tc

admit them to a conference on the subject, and the first
of the questions chosen by themselves for argument and
discussion is that of this very practice. Mr. Potter
has confidently undertaken to justify the principle adopted,
and to shew good reason for the policy of the unions, but
we doubt if he comprehends the scope or direction which
the argument will assume. It needs no words to prove
that the fewer the number of operatives who divide

between them a certain amount of work, the greate.
iniL lit be the demand for their services, and the greater
the remuneration on which the privileged few could
calculate. But, not to mention that such a system would
enhance the price of all products of labour to all con-
surneri, diminish the amount of capital brought into the
trade, and curtail the amount of work divisible, the
privileged workmen are not the only persons to be con
sidered. The interests at stake are not theirs only, but
those of the entire working class. Monopolies are often
valuable to their possessors, but-prejudicial to the com-
munity. Mr. Roebuck never denied that the unionists
whose conduct he stigmatised might hope to be gainers by
their rules ; but he asked his hearers to consider at whose
expense this selfish policy was practised.
The Morning Post explains that a Government grant sz
at present bestowed upon schools emplOying certificated
teachers is administered under two heads ; that is, upon
the attendance, and upon the examination of scholars. The
grant upon attendance is four shillings per scholar ; ana
in order to obtain this erant the scholar must be proved tc.
have attended a certain number of times in the yeai. The
grant upon examination (supposing the scholar passes in
reading, writing, and arithmetic) is eight shillings per
scholar ; but if he fails to satisfy the inspector in any of
these elementary subjects, a fine of two shillings and eight-
pence is deducted for each subject in which lie is found tc
be imperfect. Now, it is not proposed to extend the grant
under both of these heads to schools not hitherto in re-
ceipt of Government aid.; but to administer it more a:"ter
the manner of a reward system, by confining it to the
grant upon examination only. A very slight- considera-
tion of the claims of both classes of schools will slim that
this distinction is, sub,stantially, just and equitable
cquitable-alikc to the certificated teacher and the uncerti-
floated teacher, and to the parents of those whom they
instruct.

It is quite conceivable that amongst the myriads of
readers of every variety of disposition and interest whose
watts are consulted in the production of a daily news-
paper there are some who ha% wondeted at what they
deemed the excessive prominence lately given in our
journals to the subject of railway accounts. They have
not seen clearly why day after day columns usually occu-
pied wh political or social topics should be surredered
to mereit questions of book-keeping. If such-personsn could
be induced to glance at the half-yearly report of tho
Brighton Railway, the Ddily News thinks their doubts
would disappear. By hundreds of eager readers that
document has been read as a judicial act sentencing them
to privation and suffering for an indefinite time. It
has told them of calculations baffled, hopes deceived,
trusts betrayed, and foresight and prudence reduced to the
level of thoughtlessness and folly. And all this because
previous truth has not been the first and constant aim of
those who have prepared the company's accounts. The
shareholders of the railway have been induced to give
their sanction to acts which have wellAnigh ruined a fine
property by representations which conld not have been
made if the actual state of their affairs had been plainly
presented in the half-yearly balance-sheets. A fallacious
appearance of prosperity was kept up -by the declaration
of dividends of 6 per cent., to facilitate operations by
which the shareholders have been excluded from any
benefit to be derived from their property, it may be for
years to come.

Apart from its atrocious surroundings, Fenianism comes
distinctly within the category of " secret societies,"
against which the Roman Church has promulgated its
most comprehensive anathemas. It may be possible, by a
stretch of casuistry, to draw distinctions between the
Carbonari and Camorristi ; but Rome would scarcely.
''venture to launch its thunders against Freemasonry, and
dlow Fenianism to go unscathed. Under these circum-
stages, the Herald is hardly surprised to find Dr. Cullen
denonng the Fenians with unsparing energy, while in
the sane breath he contributes to the spread of Irish
discontent and disaffection. It is his way of compounding
for tins he is inclined tb by damning those he has no mind
to, and he executes his task with equal energy in both
departments. The Irish people are warned very justly
that the Fenian are their worst enemies, " wicked Mid
designing knaves," who would bring ruin and misery upon
all who take.part with them, and expose immortal souls
to eternal perdition. They have "disturbed the country,
injured religion, alienated the friends who were anxious to
redress Irish grievances, or paralysed their action." Such
societies are " not only a calamity but a disgrace to our
poor country," arilit is especially pointed out that they
and those affiliated to them are " all alike condemned and
cut off as rotten branches from the Church of God."

The Chinese Government is about despatching embassies.
to America and Europe, constituted of. dignitaries ranking
in the fourth class, wearing the red button, which denotes
high favour, and accompanied by not fewer than four-and-
twenty secretaries. The main business of this mission,
says the Standard, will lie in England because, as is 113 -
serted by the Hong Kong newspapers, the Chinese are
anxious to discover why, in this country. we are all st
happy and prosperous. The reports of the twenty-four
secretaries will, no doubt, be extremely interesting ; but
we imagine that they will be artificially tinted. Of course
the first thing to be done with our visitors must be to place
them in discreet hands, and shew them over the kingdom
judiciously. They must inspect the dockyards, the hos-
pitals, the great schOols, the Crystal Palace on one of its
charming Saturdays, the British Museum, St.
Paul's
Cathedral, and Westminster Abbey ; nor will they omit
the palaces of the sovereign or the mansions of the nobility.
The Chinese have long known us in their own region, but
this is the first time that they have determined to send us
a diplomatic representative. We have had among us the
deputies of Siam and of Japan, who proved themselves to
be remarkably intelligent, and took tome notes of our
ways add means singularly critical. Now,howesvuer
s we
urveys
shall haveA when he to face the Mandarin himself,r,
Is as wb liVe at home.

Dr. Wilberforce and the Right Reverend the Lord
Bishop of Oxford are regarded by the Telegraph as two
entirely different personages. Dr. Wilberforce is a worldly,
clever, able, and eloquent man, who never does or sayi a
very foolish thing, and often both says and does extremely
sagacious ones. With the single exception of his famous
declaration, that Providence cut off the Prince Consort to
punish the sins of an evil and perverse generation, the
most censorious can scarcely recall any serious blunder in
his public life. He knows his age, and is on capital terms
with it; his religion sits lightly and gracefully upon him,
in court, grove, and bower, and, so to speak, relieves with
fine effect his mundane qualities, just as his rocliet and
lawn sleeves in the House of Peers set off his cr;inson and
jewelled ribbon. He is playful in oratory and conversa-
tion, but not carnally jocose. ; his wit is ever consecrated
and chastened by his dignity ; and the thousand g.)od
things reported in society from his lips have always a be-
coming flavour of the Episcopate. Such is Dr. Wilber-
force, in what he would call " the flesh," as an /3;l:sh-
man ; but as a Churchman he is quite another individual.
A century ago his courtly excellence would have oNFilaid,
his churchnianship altogether ; he would have. been simply
a man of the world in a mitre. But this is a serious
and a bishop has to be a bishop m earnest, one No.3,oran-
other ; therefore, his lordship cleaves very _ closely to
and is by far the most
the Laudian idea of " the Church,
astute, though not the most
.pronounced champion of the
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