The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-09 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY E 1 VENLNG, APRIL 9, 1868,

NAVAL AND MILITARY IN7ELLIGENCE.

Detachments of the Ist and 2d Battalions of the
Ist Royals, Ist Battalion of the 15th Regiment, 2d
Battalion of the 17th Regiment, 50th Queen's Own
Regiment, and 109th Bombay Infantry, with Lieut.
J. E. C. Doveson, 50th Regiment, in charge, have
proceeded from Chatham garrisou to the Govern-
ment rifle range at Milt:m, to undergo a course of
instruction in ball practice with the Snider rifle pre-
viously to embarking for foreign service.
A party of non-commissioned officers and sappers
of the Royal Engineers has left headquarters,
Chatham, for the Isle of Grain, to be employed in
the repair and construction of the defences erected
at the confluence of the Thames and Medway.
Lieut. Montgomery, 2 sergeants, 1 drummer, and
20 rank and file of the 83d Regiment are held in
readiness to proceed froin the depot to the service
companies at Gibraltar about the 20th inst. The
Commander-in-Chief has approved the transfer of
Serg. Ryan, 96th Regiment, to the Staff of the
Tipperary Light Infantry Militia, and Col. Mon-
tague, Royal Engineers, has assumed the command
of the Royal Engineer Corps in the eastern district
in the room of Major-Gen. M'Causland, retired on
full pay.
The whole of the high-pressure twin-screw steam
launches constructed and fitting at Chatham dock-
yard are in future to mount a single rifled gun,
-which will be carried in the bow of each.
An Admiralty order received at Chatham dock-
yard directs that in future no applications will be
received by the Board of Admiralty for increase of
salaries, wages, &c., earlier than the month of
October. or later than December in each year. With
the exception of those at Chatham dockyard the
whole of the first-class draughtsmen at the several
naval establishments have been placed on the sala-
ried lists, on salaries of £125 per annum, in accord-
ance with ;a petition presented to the Admiralty to
that effect.

The troops brought to England in the St. Law-
rence, Indiaman, from Calcutta, as reported in The
Sun of yesterday, were landed early yesterday morn-
ing from the ship and forwarded to their several des-
tinations—the invalided soldiers to the Royal Vic-
toria Hospital at Netley, and the time-expired
soldiers to their regimental depots. The St. Law-
rence afterwards sailed for London.

The Minotaur, screw, armoured iron frigate, 34,
6,621 tons, 1,350-horse power, Captain James G.
Goodenough, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral
Frederick Warden, C. 8., the admiral commanding
the Channel squadron, attended by the Warrior,
screw, armoured iron frigate, 32, 6,109 tons, 1,250
horse power, Capt. Henry Boys, and the paddle
despatch yacht Helicon (unarmoured, wooden), 2,
837 tons, 250-horse power, Commander Edward
Field, sailed from Spithead at midday yesterday for
Holyhead, to escort their Royal Highnesses the
Prince and Princess of Wales on their voyage to
and from Ireland on board the Royal yacht Victoria
and Albert. . .

—Her Majesty's Indian troopship Serapis arrived at
Alexandria at 4.40 p.m. on the 30th ult. The troops
conveyed in her from Portsmouth will proceed from
Suez to Bombay in the Malabar.

RAILWAY AND OTHER COMPANIES.

GREAT WESTERN OF CANADA.

The half-yearly general meeting of this company
was held yesterday at the London Tavern—Mr.
Alderman Dakin in the chair.
Mr. B. BAKER, the secretary, having read the
minutes of the last meeting, which were confirmed,
the report, an abstract of which appeared in The
Sun, was taken as read.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report and statement of accounts, said that the ac-
counts bad been kept in the same form for years
past, so that the shareholders might be enabled
readily to compare the items of one statement of
accounts with another. The receipts on capital ac-
count during the past half year amounted to £4,421
for arrears of calls, leaving only £2,020 still in
arrear, which was covered by the outstanding divi-
dends, so that they could not lose much on that
account. The expenditure on capital account
amounted to £23,240, and of that expenditure
£18,306 had been expended on account of the nar-
row gauge line for accommodating the through
traffic. In fact, it completed the expenditure that
had been authorised two years ago, leaving the ex-
penditure on capital account for the past half year
£4,931. It was now considered a most desirable
thing to have a closed capital account (hear, hear)
land they had been gradually arriving at that point.
At all events, the capital account would be practi-
cally closed at present, and if only £5,000 in the
half-year were necessary for capital purposes they
might not object to charge it to revenue instead of
capital. (Wear.) The third rail laid dowu for the
" Blue line," or through traffic, had been a perfect
success. 'They had received a report from the
general manager, which stated that the " Blue line"
business commenced on the Ist of January, 1867,
and up to the 31st of December, 1867, the freight
carried over it was 91,590 tons east, and 55,462
tons west—total, 147,052 tons, and the earnings
amounted to $2,692,615. The average earnings
per ton per mile was $1.96. Their endeavours had
been to raise the rates so as to cover the additional
expenses of conversion, but that was a paying rate.
The division of the $2,692,615 traffic over the
eight railways on the Blue line route, extending
about 2,000 miles, admitted of a portion to the
Great Western Railway of $658,056. The largest
portion of the earnings was taken by those having
the largest number of cars on the line, and those
who were deficient in supplying the number of
cars fixed for them had to pay so much per car
for those not supplied. The Great Western Com-
pany's proportion was 152 cars, but they only
supplied 130 cars, and they bad to pay 2s per
mile per car deficient to make up their compliment
of the supply. Each car was calculated to run
30,000 miles in the year. The business required
for the Blue-line service 619 blue cars, but at the
close of the year they had only 593 blue cars. The
business was now managed so that the cars of the
eight companies working over the narrow gauge, or
Blue line, of the Great Western and other compa-
nies were all new, being of one uniform pattern,
corresponding in size and make, so that if any part
of a car broke down on the route there were dupli-
cate parts at every principal station to repair it at
once, which afforded great facilities in carrying on
the traffic. When he told them that the total loss
and damage arising to the traffic carried over the
Blue line only amounted to $6,455 for the year, of
which the Great Western share was $1,398, or
about one quarter per cent. on the earnings, they
would perceive how successfully that joint service
had been carried on. The company's mammoth
iron boat Great Western, after a year's trial in all
kinds of weather, both by night and day, had not
failed to perform all that was expected of her. She
would take on her deck from 14 to 16 loaded cars,
and make the trip with them from dock to dock in
ten minutes. She had not failed to meet the entire
wants of the line, and might be looked upon as a
perfect success. The third rail, from Windsor to
Suspension-bridge, had enabled the Great Western
in the same train to work with the " Blue line," or
narrow gauge cars, successfully. The result had
been to open up the only unbroken guage of roads
between the east and the west, upon which
the " Blue line" cars ran from the Atlantic
to Kansas and lowa to the west, and over
the entire roads, west, south, and north of Chicago;
also to the cities and towns in the east, without
transfer, with only one waybill for the entire route.
Therefore the third rail had annexed the traffic to
the entire satisfaction of the company, and the suc-
cess of the line was fully established. With regard
to the directors' report, it showed that the total
traffic receipts amounted to £69,773 over those of
the corresponding period of 1867, but they had to
submit to a loss by the exchanges which was very
heavy. Ile was sorry to say that the local trade
had not kept up to its usual proportion. The loss
on the conversion of American funds into gold had
been £66,600 against £48,228 in the correspond-
ing period last year. In the preceding half-year
end►ng the 31st July, 1867, the local traffic
amounted to 43.95 per cent. of the whole, and the
through traffic to 56.0 per cent., but in the past

half-year the proportion was 34.9 per ce at. for local
traffic and 65.1 per cent. for through tr affic. The
entire result of the working for the pa st ha.T‘f_year
Pry/ a divi-
dpreondduactedthaepfitraroteofth4atpeenrabeelendt.threerm
atnoon,
ai
against
one ohfal3f
a showed a
.i.ypeaerr. cenTth.
eperwoarnknitnigna
eixnpetmselte,
satisfactory feature, and that greo .t care was
exercised on the part of the exec atLve to econo-
mise the expenditure. In the, corresponding
half, ending the 31st of Jam' Lary, 1867, the
working expenses were 50.26 per cent. of the
receipts, while for the past half-year they
amounted to 48.31 per cent., sh owing a decrease of
nearly 2 per cent. (Hear.) Arere it not for the
loss on the currency he believed they would have
had about double the dividend they had now to de-
clare. In the course of 6' ;years they had lost £651,459
on exchanges, which Ironic? have otherwise fruc-
tified in the hands of t'63 shareholders. The re-
newal and maintenance of the line was another im-
portant item ; that roll- tired special attention, as
nothing could be more fe Ilacious than to neglect the
efficient working of the i !ailway to make a reduction
in that item. The effol is of the directors had been
directed to maintain the I ine fully, and in the utmost
state of efficiency. I) tiring the past six years
£333,000 had been exponiied in the renewal of the
permanent way, and th, a dividend, half year after
half year, had been redo eed by that process, but the
road had been kept up ; and improved. Their able
engineer had estimated the future renewal and
maintenance of the line at £70,000 a year, and for
the third rail au additional amount of £B,OOO,
making £78,000 ; but the directors had expended
for that purpose £43,&89 in the past half-year,
raising the amount to 'the rate of £87,000 a year,
against £78,000, or £9,000 more than the estimate
of Mr. Reid. They considered that £5,000 a year
should be set aside for the renewal of the ferry
boats. He then alluded to the balance of the Go-
vernment loan to the company amounting to
£573,688, stating that the accumulation of interest
would make it £220,000 more, or £793,000. It
was called a Government loan in their accounts,
but in the Public Act it appeared as the Go-
vernment aid to the railway. He was in hopes that
the matter would be dealt with in a liberal spirit,
especially as the support of the Government, in the
first instance, had been an inducement to British
capitalists to subscribe largely towards the con-
struction of the Great Western Railway in Canada;
but soon after it was made the Grand Trunk schema
was also patronised by the Canadian Government
to make a railway from Toronto to Sarnia, as a
competing line within 20 miles of the Great Wes-
tern Railway. This he considered was a breach of
faith with the Great Western Railway Company,
and had materially injured their property. The
' dividends of the Great Western of Canada Railway
from the year 1854 to 1858, both inclusive, ave-
raged 6 per cent. per annum, but from 1859 to
1867 the dividends averaged only 2 per cent. per
annum, which showed the injurious effect on their
dividends. The colony had been greatly benefited
by the railway, and they had all the advantages of
the increased railway communication in the coun-
try. The Boari considered that they had a claim
on the Government in respect of those matters.
He had hoped that something would have been done
before this time by the authorities in Canada.
The Grand Trunk agreement would come before
the meeting in due course, and he would just refer
to the Detroit and Milwaukee Railway, in which
they were greatly interested. The traffic on that
line was progressing satisfactorily, and he had no
doubt that before long they would derive some con•
tributions from it in respect of the capital they
had advanced years ago to the Detroit Company.
The total receipts on the Milwaukee Railway
amounted for the year 1867 to £361,912, and the
working expenses to £203,942, leaving a net re-
venue of £157,970, which was applicable to inte-
rest on bonds and capital expenditure ; because the
Milwaukee Company had no capital to go to for
expenses on capital account. The interest on bonds
and loans amounted to £82,611, and after deduc-
tions on other accounts there remained a surplus of
£18,900, so that the undertaking was in a flourish-
ing and healthy condition. There had been an en-
deavour made to raise 3300,000 on capital account
for capital purposes, which, if obtained, would have
allowed a great portion of the surplus revenue to go
for dividends.

Mr. A. lions seconded the adoption of the re-
port, and the declaration of the dividend of 4i per
cent. per annum, free of income tax, payable on the
30th inst.

After some observations from Mr. Cannan, Mr.
Nicholson, and Mr. Villeboisnet,
Colonel EVELYN said he was in favour of closing
the capital account absolutely. He was oppos.ll
to a division of traffic with the Grand Trunk Com-
pany, and thought that the proposed modification
of a clause in the agreement showed that it was
not what it ought to be. lie feared it would be a
long time before they derived dividends from the
Detroit and Milwaukee Railway Company. As to
the loss s
somuch difference rrency,
as,
he thought it did not
make
was supposed, because
so n
the inflation of the currency had something to do
with the increased rates and larger receipts.
The resolution was carried unanimously.
The meeting was then made special, and a resolu-
tion pass :d confirming the traffic agreement with
the Grand Trunk Railway Company, with certain
modifications, enabling either party, on giving six
months' notice
ei to terminate the agreement.
The
proceedings concluded with a vote of thanks
to the chairman and directors.

KNOWLEDGE OF AMERICA.

(From the Anglo-American Times)

It is observable in England that a knowledge of
America and American affairs is rapidly becoming
general. American questions are now much dis-
cussed, and a more intimate acquaintance with them
shown. Indifference is begotten of ignorance ;
and knowledge creates interest. An Ashantee
savage is not likely to have his attention fixed by a
discussion of CLARA LoUISE KELLOGG'S merits as an
opera singer, nor is a British peasant likely to be
absorbed in an account of art in China. Does the
Goth care what atones LAYARD discovered in Nineveh?
The Vandal would stick them up in his hut, and,
if he were a cleanly savage, put a coating of white-
wash over the inscription. So long as the English
remained profoundly ignorant of American politics,
parties, customs, and even geography, they could
scarcely be expected to feel much interest in the
country. -It has always been a marvel to a travelled
American that this should be so. lie asked himself
how it was possible that the Great Republic should
receive so little notice from the kinsfolk in Europe,
considering the mighty changes contained in the
word. Ours, he said, is a nation, in extent equalling
Europe, embracing tracts among the most favoured
by ❑ature, containing a population rapidly becom-
ing the largest, of a race the most energetic and
intelligent. Surely the rise of such a community is
worth the serious attention of mankind. Our Go-
vernment, built on the principles of Democracy,
presents a spectacle that might well attract foreign
notice. The problem of a Republic is being solved
by the United States, and on its solution depends
the future government of mankind. If we succeed
in elevating the mass, so as to enable it to extract
from itself its best respresentatives, Republican
Government will triumph, and it will be shown that
the only true and stable rule is thus based. If, on
the contrary, we fail, our failure, in all human pro-
bability, will be decisive; and undeniable proof will
be furnished that it is almost hopeless to expect to
cultivate in a community sufficient virtue to enable
its members wisely to-rule themselves. Is not the
great trial of Democracy worthy something more
than a fleeting notice from those it so nearly con-
cerns. Until the war broke out, the Ulnited States
was a terra incognita in England. The Potomac an
Oxford man would have guessed to be somewhere
in Africa, and the Chickahommimy was the sacred
stream in which the llindoos washed their sins
away. The Southerners were a brave people, fighting
with desperate odds against the oppressive North ;
the Northerners were a grasping, greedy, trading
community who fought for empire and the "almighty
dollar." Both sections were Yankees who spoke
through their noses, sittiag round a table whereon
their feet rested, while some smoked and others
chewed. The negroes were the docile and well-
treated servants of the aristocratic Southerners,
and the Red Indians the noble and picturesque
tribes whom the Yankees hid dispossessed, and whom
they were civilizing off the face of the earth with
gunpowder and rum. It is not surprising that those
whose knowledge of the United States was limited
to these genuine facts could not appreciate the prin-
ciples for which the war was fought; the enthusiasm
which gave the unfaltering perseverance and energy,
and prompted the mighty sacrifices. There was a
jealousy of the rising greatness of Yankeedom ;
there was dislike to the Republican principles of
which the citizens were the propagandists, in the
higher classes of England which so generally give
the tone to British society. But the great deeds of
the mighty conflict could not fail to fascinate, and
mankind gradually became absorbed in watching
the war. It was necessary, to understand it, to
know something of the country ; to have an idea of
its vast rivers, its great coast line, its mountain
ranges, and long tracks of railroads. Thus, people
in Europe gained within a few years a knowledge
of American geography such as was not acquired
since the days of COLUABUS. From this knowledge
sprang other shoots. It then appeared that New
York was not the United States ; that the citizens
of New England differed materially from the
Western farmers and the Southern planters ; that
there were other poets than LONGFELLOW, other
historians than PRESCOTT, other novelists than
COOPER; that there were great jurists and states-
men as well as writers ; that the most distinguished
military and naval commanders of the age were
Americans; that their inventions were not confined
to Yankee notions, but that most of the improve-
ments in the implements—alike of agriculture,
manufacture, and of war—originated in the United
States. In art, it was. discover.A there were such
painters as BIERSTADT and'CITURCH ; such sculptors
as STORY. The English idea of American news-
papers was derived from DICKENS'S Key-hole Ob-
server, and the Tourist was surprised to hurl what the
daily ores 3 of New York really was. That an unaided
journal did not hesitate to pay a thousand pounds
for a single message of no great importance opened
his eyes to the magnitude of their operations and the
enterprise with which they were conducted ; yet he
fails to realise the fact that the intelligence placed
every morning before the citizens of New York is
far more complete and costly than that contained
in the pages of the Times. Though the interest
now taken by the English in the affairs of the
United States is observable in conversation and in the
columns of the press, yet it is strange that the people
do not apply for information to the American
organs of opinion, which are seldom seen
anywhere in Great Britain. In a London club
French, German, and Italian newsp ipers will be
found ; Canadian, Australian, and Indian ; bat
scarcely ever one from that laud of newspapers, the
United States. Why should we take, the English
ask, newspapers in which we will find ourselves
heartily abused? The sober columns of the Neu'
York Times are given to argument and reason,
not abuse ; and if a thorough national view,
from the American stand-point, be desired, which
is, after all, what ought to be sought, so that both
sides of the question may be seen, it is given in the
New York Tribune. At the same time that we can
understand the daily press of New York not being
suited to the taste of the upper classes in England,
we desire to observe that this is not the case with
such weekly literary papers as the Nation and the
Round Thble. Their manner of discussing subjects
is remarkably free from prejudice, and strikingly
the reverse of the charge brought against the Ameri-
can press of truckling to the mob. The Nation is
constantly in hot water from the force and freedom
with which it persists in discussing the measures of
its own party; and the Round Table brings down
the national indignation on its head by showing up
national foibles or social delinquencies. The lite-
rary merit of the articles of such papers is nowhere
else surpassed, and it is seldom that the Saturday
Review, or even the Spectator, brings one out excel-
ling these in terse, clear reasoning, in purity of
diction, or manifest honesty of purpose. Such
papers ought to be found in every English club and
general reading-room, and they would quickly cor-
rect the erroneous impressions so widely spread.
They are free from what, „to the English, would be
the uninteresting detail, the personal news of per-
sons unknown, and local matters, which must al-
ways fill the columns of a daily ; and the questions
they discuss are so broad in their interest and gene-
ral in their application as to be read with great
pleasure and instruction on this as well as on the
other side of the Atlantic; and much the same may
be said of many periodicals. Occasionally an illus-
trated paper, such as Frank Leslie, is seen in a
London Club ; but it comes from the endeavour of
the proprietor to promote the circulation, forwarding
the copy free, to a place where it will be much seen.
The effect of the increased interest of the English in
American affairs will be felt in the introduction and
more general circulation of American reviews. The
writer has lately been frequently asked, " Which
are the best American papers for us to take ?" and
these inquiries are but straws to show the drift of
the tide.

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CIAO of Adam%

THE LATE MR. CHAUNCEY RARE TOWNSEND.

-

The name of Mr. Chauncey Hare Townsend, who
died at his house in Norfolk-street, Park-lane, on
the 25th of February, was once better known than
at present among men of letters. Born in the year
1798, he was educated at Eton and Trinity-hall,
Cambridge, and afterwards took Holy Orders, but
was soon disabled by illness, and never resumed
the active duties of his profession. An ample in-
dependence enabled him to fall back on literary
pursuits to which his tastes and retiring habits in-
clined him. He had, indeed, scarcely passed the
age of boyhood when he introduced himself by letter
to the notice of Robert Southey as an aspirant for
poetical honours. The result was an invitation to
Greta-hall, Southey's well-known residence in the
Vale of Keswick. Encouraged by the approbation of
the elder poet, who was ever ready to give his advice
or lend his countenance, whether to obscure or
youthful genius, he published in 1821 a volume
of poems, characterised by an unusual delicacy and
refinement, both of feeling and expression. It was
not till 1851 that he brought out a second volume,
"Sermons in Sonnets," which was followed in
1859 by " The Three Gate 4," both exhibiting the
same grace of poetical style, qualified by a certain
metaphysical subtlety. Meanwhile he had bestowed
much attention on the theory and practice of
mesmerism, which he bad studied in Paris, and in
which he was for many years a firm, but not cer-
tainly a blind or superstitious, believer. On this
subject he published two works, " Facts in Mes-
merism" (1844), and " Mesmerism Proved True"
(1854), the latter in answer to an article in the
Quarterly Review. It was, however, in private
life that his most attractive qualities were dis-
played. He was au accomplished musician, and
sang the songs of his own composition with a high
degree of grace and expression. He drew and
painted with no mean skill. He was a lover of art,
and a collector of rare judgment and exquisite
taste. Every house in which he lived had, indeed,
the interest. of an art museum, though they will
chiefly be remembered for the refined and gracious
hospitality with which they were thrown open
to his friends during the • brief periods in
which they were occupied by their owner,
for during the whole of his later life he spent
the greater part of the year at his villa Monloisir, at
Lausanne. Some interesting papers in All the Year
Round on " Bewick," and on his " Poultry-yard,"
show the nature of his occupation in this beautiful
retreat. He had expressed a desire to be interred in
some quiet Surrey churchyard, and the new cemetery
at Godahning was selected, as being in the immediate
neighbourhood of Busbridge, his residence in early
life. His property is chiefly devoted by his will
to public objects. He bequeaths to the President
of the Council for the time being, for the benefit of
the South Kensington Museum, such of his pic-
tures, water-colour drawings, and engravings as
the Lord President may select ; also his collection
of Swiss coins and his boxes of precious stones and
cameos, together with the ancient gold watch which,
having been stolen by the celebrated Barring-
ton, was the cause of his transportation ; also the
looking-glass and frame over his drawing-room
chimney-piece, carved by Grinling Gibbons. The
articles thus bequeathed are said to be of great
Value. The only conditions that he attaches to
this gift are that the articles may not be sold or
exchanged, but publicly exhibited. The rest of his
pictures, drawings, engravings, books, curiosities,
and objects of vertu are given to the Wisbeach
Museum. The residue of his personal estate is de-
voted to founding a school in or near London for
educational purposes, of the humblest and simplest
kind, upon a plan to be settled by the Bishop of Lon-
don. The residue of his real estate (subject, how-
ever, to the payment of his debts and legacies, which
are specially charged thereon) is devised to his trus-
tees and executors for their absolute benefit. He
adds a hope (but repudiates any trust or obliga-
tion) that his trustees will deem it right to aid him
to the best of their ability in establishing the school
to which he devotes his personal estate. He directs,
moreover, that so much of his notes and reflections
as may throw light on his religious opinions shall be
published by Mr. Dickens.