The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-28 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, AUG UST 28, 1868.

Issz,

WO
100
all
100
121

all
all
all
all
all
(00

100
100
100
' 2
1100
100

IBIONS.

i 7 69
1031 1041
i I,

3 4
is Isi

15i 70:
101 103
100 167

1(7 IUB

161 173
78 82
60 52
38 40
28 26
19 20
1074 108
14 2,
111 2,

103 107
99 101
121 ►3
99 101
91 13

104 1061
100 104
93 fa

83 ►;
1(.5 104

;02i IC3,
It 2 1(3

it
1011 1 02;

IC7i
15&

lel I

ITIICS.

I C4f

1131

091 1:0

101 k

106
1051 i

It4l 131

SOUTH-EASTERN RAILWAY.

The half-yearly general meeting was held yes-
_
, terday at the City Terminus Hotel, Cannon-
street ; Mr. Watkin, M.P., in the chair.
, The report having been taken as read,
The
,CHAIRMAN said—l move that the report
and accounts be received and adopted ; and I
shall submit a second and separate resolution to
you after this first has been disposed of, in refer-
ence to paragraph 4 of the report. It will, there-
fore, save you time if I postpone till then what I
have to urge upon that subject. I trust that your
retrospect will be as satisfactory to you as it is to
us. I may briefly sum it up as follows :—A capi-
tal account practically closed. Every shilling of
interest on capital charged against revenue. The
Tunbridge line has been opened throughout.
The terminable mortgage bond debt at last
provided against by a permanent debenture
stock, Peace with all your neighbours. An
increase of gross revenue of 112,769, side by side
with a reduction of working expenliture of £8,795,
thus giving you £21,564 more net profit than in
the corresponding half of 1867; and a total increase
of net profit on the year ending July 31, 1868, over
1867 of £109,432. Your advanced fares are lower
than the fares you charged in 1862; and the limited
advances you have made simply follow in the wake
of your competitors. The advances made divide
themselves into two classes —advances where our
competitors have advanced the needlessly low rates
of the past, and an advance in the scale for return
tickets on portions of the system. As regards return
tickets, we have simply done now what the northern
companies did last year, and in both classes what
the Great Eastern did some months ago. In
doing this the company has during the recent hot
weather been much reviled in a very high guar-
_ ter. The proposal in the Fusion Bill to reduce
your maximum charges was pronounced " impu-
- dent" by a noble lord whose property has
been enhanced by your capital. Doctrines
have been promulgated by the popular instructors
which must be grateful to the disciples of the philan-
thropic Prudhon, and advice given which must tend
to ease the conscience of that benefactor of man-
kind, Mr. Broadhead, of Sheffield. It is a matter
of surprise, therefore, that the suffering sharehol-
ders, who have made everybody's fortune but their
own, should at last have been aroused to ask us no
longer to postpone a dividend for the sake of giving,
as we are doing, excessive and costly facilities, by
which agricultural land may be sold at building
prices for the profit of their calumniators? Yet we
find men worth a million sterling actually abusing
the accommodation provided for second-class people,
to save 3d. a day between Cannon-street and Char-
ing-cross, and well-dressed people shouldering the
working man out of his train. But we have
had no complaint, I am proud to say,
from the real working man. If the abuse of
the poor man's accommodation by the rich should
ever lead to a reduction of the working man's
privileges of travel, he will know whose fault it is,
depend upon it. You made your railways upon
the faith of certain powers of charge. Now, we
contend that so long as your rates are within your
maximum no one has a right to complain. In fact
gentlemen, you are fair game for everybody, for,
unfortunately, you are a " company," and have
little individuality to protect you. Then as to com-
pensation for accidents, you will remember the great
fog of last autumn. Your Charing-cross line was
kept open all thy, while the river and the street
traffic was entirely stopped. A collision of no very
serious character occurred, caused by the fog. You
received £BB that day for local fares on the Charing-
cross branch, and £3OO would cover the mileage of
all that went over it that day. Yet you had claims
sent in for £12,000, and have had to incur about
£5OO in costs and medical fees in connection with
them. The people who made claims had not col-
lectively paid you more than lOs for being carried
on that day by the only means of conveyance kept
open. But beyond business rules and political eco-
nomy, there is the higher obligation which all
should follow, of assisting the less fortunate. And
I say, you, the South-Eastern proprietors, have
done so. I will only allude in passing to your special
working-class train, put on on the Ist of August,
by which the struggling mm or woman em go and
come to Cannon-street to work for 4d. I will take
the third-class accommAation you give generally.
Take New-cross. We, in this case, issue third-class
quarterly tickets, available at all our three costly
metropolitan stations, for 30s. Thus, for 2s. 4d.
a week any one can travel that distance of five
miles into the country and back as many times a
day as he likes. Then take the total number of
third-class trains. We are legally bound to run
one each way a day, which would give a total of 30
per day. We do run 524 out of a total of 622,
and on the metropolitan district, while we are
bound to run 12, we do run 356. But we are
ready, with your permission, to do more. Let us
find the wealth of London ready to grapple with
this great evil of the crowding out of the working
man. Let us see capital raised at 5 per cent. to
build working men's houses for 100,000 in any
healthy place down our line, and we shall be ready
to recommend you to contract to carry the people
at times to suit, and at prices not greater than the
difference of rent and taxe3 between unhealthy
London and the healthy open fields beyond.
In conclusion, let me congratulate you upon your
safe passage through the perils of the past four
years. Is has, indeed, been an anxious time. We
have done our best, and have we hope satisfied you.
In my own case I bad, in the dark times of ten per
cent., to find parties to lend you £BO,OOO at an
hour's notice, when money was like drops of blood,
or you might have stopped payment. Some of us
provided a considerable sum, at a large sacrifice, by
sale of securities, which was lent to you at 5 per cent.
when almost any rate could have been obtained for
money ; and others, including Mr. Byng, Mr.
Buckley, Mr. Mellor, Mr. Beattie, Mr. Norton, Mr.
Eborall, and others, cheerfully became personally
responsible for loans to take up debentures which
no one would, at the moment, renew. I hope I may
not be considered as going out of my way to speak
of myself, but in these days, when every man who
strictly does his duty in the administration of these
noble national works is visited by personal attack,
I thought it well to make this statement " to all

whom it concerns."
The lion. J. BYNG seconded the motion.
A long discussion, raised by Mr. FILDES, M.P.,
then ensued with respect to how the cost of the

new Waterloo Station was to be charged —whether
to capital cr to revenue; the result of which was

that the outlay had been saddled upon revenue, and
the report of the directors was adopted.
The meeting having been made special, it was
resolved, in accordance with the provisions of the
Railway Regulations Act of last session, to divide
the stock of the company into two classes, A and
B—the A stock to bear a fixed dividend, while the
B stock was to fluctuate with the prosperity of the
company. It was also specially resolved to alter
the line and levels of the approaches to Woodside-

bridge, and to establish provident institutions and

savings banks for the benefit of the employes of the
line.

A vote of thanks was then passed to Mr. Watkin,
who, through an attack of illness, felt obliged to
leave before the conclusion of the proceedings ; and
also to the Hon. Mr. Byng, who took his place as
president of the meeting.

GREAT DESTRUCTION OF FARE PRODUCE.-011
Wednesday afternoon a serious fire was discovered on the
property known as Church Farm, Eastchurch, Isle of
Sheppy. A few minutes after th 3 labourers had gone to
their dinner flames were seonissuing from a heap of straw
that was lying in the yard. The wind being high, the
flames were wafted to some largo stacks close by, and in a
very short time eight stacks of wheat, barley, and oats,
and about twenty quarters of beans, besides several
waggons, carts, and other farm implements, were burned;
SUICIDES IN SCOTLAND.—In the year 1865, for
which the returns havo recently been issued, there were
133 suicides in Scotland—one in every 23,579 of the esti-
mated population. 58 of these deaths were by hanging, 40
by cut-throat, 17 by poison, 12 by drowning, two by gun-
shot, two by precipitation from a height, two in ways not
stated. The number of suicides in England in the same
year was 1,390, or one in every 15,080 of the estimated
population ; so that to two suicides in Scotland there were
three in England in t lib =btu' of population.

GRAND TRUNK OF CANADA RAIL WAY.

A special general meeting of the shareholders a

bondholders of this company was held yesterday at
the City Terminus Hotel, Cannon-street. In con-
sequence of the illness of Mr. Edward Watkin, the
president of the company, the chair was taken by
Mr. Thomas Baring, M.P.
The CHAIRMAN, in opening the proceedings, ex-
plained that a committee of proprietors had asked
for a copy of the list of bondholders and share-
holders, and that the board on that requisition had
by a circular letter consulted all those whose names
appeared on the register of the company upon the
policy of the request. In that circular they put to
the proprietors three questions. The first question
was, whether they wished to have the list printed
every year ? In reply to that question, 406 pro-
prietors, representing £918,050, replied in the
negative ; and 235 proprietors, representing
£960,000, replied in the affirmative, so that upon
the poll thus conducted that arrangement was
condemned. The next question was, whether
the list should be supplied on application
at the office, upon the payment of a fee
sufficient to defray the cost of making out the copy ?
On that question the poll was as follows :—." Yes,"
425 proprietors, representing £1,228,738 ; " No,"
191 proprietors, representing £423,916. The third
question was, whether the proprietary would abide
by the offer of the board to afford every facility to
those who wished to corntnunicate with their co-
, partners? Upon that question 219 proprietors, re-
presenting £643,000, voted one way, and 244 pro-
prietors, representing £476,655, voted the other.
It was thus evident, he said, that the wish of the
proprietors was that those who wished to obtain the
information referred to should pay for it; and there-
fore he had, in deference to their views, to move
that a copy of the list of shareholders and bond-
holders be furnished to any proprietor who may be
willing to pay the expense of making out the copy.
Mr. SWIFT seconded the motion.
Sir R. JERVIS preferred a long bill of indict-
ment against the management of the company. He
could not, he said, see any possible objection the
directors could have to the publication of the list of
their copartners in the concern. He wished to know
if Mr. Watkin, as president of the company, had
any powers ultra of those possessed by the chair-
man of an English line of railway. He found on
inquiry that that gentleman was connected altogether
with five great companies, and if they divided the full
working time—ten hours each day—by five, they
would find that he cuuld only devote two hours of
his time to their business, which was of sufficient
importance to require the whole of it. Nothing
but a strict and rigorous control of the officials in
Canada could be of any avail. To them the rail-
way which returned nothing to the shareholders had
proved a regular mine of wealth. He would there-
fore move as an amendment, that a printed list of

the shareholders and bondholders be supplied to any
shareholder who may require it on the payment of
a fee of 2s. 6d.

Mr. BECKER seconded the amendment.

Mr. K. IlooGsoN, M.l'., considered it would be
useless for the company to go to any such expense.
The register was constantly undergoing changes,
and therefore, if the list was to serve any purpose,
it would have to be furnished weekly.
Mr. CYRUS LEGGE thought the list of the share-
holders and bondholders should be sent out with
each report.
Mr. CRAIK considered that would defeat the ob-

lect of the committee, which was to consult with

the proprietary previous to the next half-yearly
meeting in October. That could not be done if the
list were kept back until the time for the publica-
tion of the report.
Mr. ADAMS insisted upon the necessity of having
the list published at once.
The CHAIRMAN explained that the directors had
no object whatever in view. They wished to b 3
guided by the views of their constituents, and it
was with that motive they issued the circulars ; and

was in accordance with those views that he moved

the resolution before the meeting. If, however,
they wished to accept the amendment of Sir Ray-
mond Jer:•is, it was nothing whatever to him.
Mr. WRIGHT said every statement that came
from Canada was to the effect that the officials of
the company were living in the style of princes, from
which he gathered that they aline were benefited
by the construction of the line.
Mr. NEWMARCII considered that no reliance ought
to be placed upon anonymous statements. Ile was
confident that if a committee of investigation were
appointed into the conduct of Mr. Brydges and the
other officiAls of the company in Canada such an
investigation would redound to their credit.
Mr. ➢lotoN considered that the disinclination on
the part of the directors to supply the proprietors
with a list of their copartners, as was done in every
joint-stock bank, was an indication of the decline
of commercial morality, which he was disposed to
treat as a criminal offence. Ile would have the
books of the company open to the inspection of the
proprietors.

After some further discussion the amendment
was approved of by the meeting, and to it was at-
tached, on the motion of Mr. Cyrus Legge, a rider
providing that each year, with the report of the
directors, a list of his copartners should be furnished
to each proprietor.

The result will be that a list will be at once
printed and delivered to any proprietor who may
be willing to pay half-a-crown for it, and that
henceforth a copy free of any charge will be sent
out yearly with the report of the directors.

A vote of thanks to the chairman terminated the
proceedings.

THE NEW LIST OF VOTERS.—To-morrow, the
29th inst., is the last day for the overseers to deliver to the
clerks of the peace the list of claimants to bo registered at
the next revision. In no county or borough, unless the
"ladies" have claimed to appear on the register, can the
question be raised before the barristers at the Registra-
tion Court.

HORRIBLE DEATIL—A young lad named Thos.
Mason, 12 years of age, son of David Mason, seaman, re-
siding in Leggett-hill, South Shields, accidentally fell into
a large tank containing boiling water, in the glassworks
of Messrs. Moore, West Holborn, on Wednesday. Dr.
Coward attended the lad, but medical assistance was of
no avail, and the poor• lad died in excruciating pain.
THE ELLICOTT CITY DISASTER.—Those who
witnessed the fearful calamity at Ellicott city, Maryland,
caused by the recent flood, resulting in the death of some
43 persons, represent the spectacle as agonizing in the ex-
treme. A lady of Baltimore, Miss H. C. Adams, who was
on a visit to Ellicott city at the time, gives this interest-
ing account of what came under her observation :-" Dr.
Owings, who had been sent for professionally, had left his
house but a few minutes before the flood appeared, against
the remonstrances of his wife, who was alarmed at the
threatening aspect of the sky. It was only after receiving
three messages that he was induced to leave her. He had
barely reached the bridge, on his return, when he saw the
flood coming down, and he took refuge in the house of Mr.
Gibbons, not a hundred feet from his own dwelling, and
called to his wife, advising her how she should act for the
safety of herself and the six children by her sido. Speedily
the water drove her and the children to the roof, where,
clinging to the chimney, they seemed somewhat secure ;
but the rocking of the house—a three story frame—soon
caused the chimney to fall. Meanwhile, Mrs. Marschane,
being in the house below, reached up to Mrs. 0 wings a baby
but three weeks old, supposing it would be safer there than
in her own maternal arms. Mrs. Owings was seen to hold
it as long as she lived. Dr. 0 wings, calling across the
race, as his house floated from its foundation and lodged
against the next below, directed that the walls of the ad-
joining houses should b 3 cut through. This was done by
Mr. Fountain, and as one house after another fell, working
most heroically, this noble man cut through the walls of
seven houses, until they came to the last in the row. In
this house all the occupants of the six houses above were
assembled. Suddenly it was seen to waver, and in a
moment more, with all its precious burden of children,
women, and men, it fell with a terrific crash, and not one
soul was saved. When Dr. Owings biheld this fearful
scene his reason seemed to leave him, he endeavoured
to throw himself into the fearful current, and it took a
number of strong mon to prevent him from thus destroy-
ing himself. lie was carried to a hotel by sympathising
friends, in an almost insensible condition. Dr. Owings, it
is learned, in his present
.distressed condition, is with
friends at Ellicott city, and with their kindly aid and
sympathy bears up under his extraordinary affliction with
commendable fortitude."

At a Bombay Native Debating Society recently,
the chairman, Baboo K. U. Bose. observed that the
greatest shortcoming—in fact, properly seen, it is a
blunder—of the English rule in India is its failure to call
out and employ native talent in the administration of the
country.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.—This Day

VICTORIA CLUB BETTING-THIS DAY,

HORSES STRUCK OUT OF THEIR ENGAGE-
MENTS.

Aug. 11, at 6.30 p.m., Lady Margaret, out of the Bromley
Summer Handicap.
Aug. 20, at 3.10 p.m., Hop Leaf, out of the Ladies' Plate
at .Tuubridge.

Aug. 21, at 0.45 p.m., Paul Jones, out of tho Warwick
Cup.

Aug. 24, at 9 a.m., Salliet and Goojerat out of Oxford
engagements.

Aug. 24, at 9 a.m., Bombastes, out of Derby engage-
ments.

Aug. 24, at 9 a.m., Clairon, out of Lichfield engaga-
manta.

Aug. 24, at 9 a.m., Lucifer and Belle of Warwick, out o
Canterbury engagements.
Aug. 24, at 9 a.m., Kidderminster, out of the Trades-
men's Handicap at Derby.
Aug. 21., at 9 a.m., Success, out of the Warwick Cup.
August 21, a 9 ;a.m., Z 1.03, out of Weymouth engage-
ments.

Ausust 21, at 2.23 p.m., Kettleholder, out of all handi-
caps to date.

August 21, at 4.33 p m., Glen•nore, out of Abirigchn,
tuterbury, and Margate engagements.
August 23, at 9 a.m., G9O IWORI, out of the Warwick
Cup.

August 25, at 9 a.m., Accra anl Limpaaa, out of all
handi,mps fur which the weights have avecared.
Aug. 2-;, at 9 a.m., Gala ire, out of Abingdon engage—
ments.

Aug '25, at 9 a.m., Lady Ifighthorn, out of the Port
3t1,-,adow Pl.tte at Oxfurd.

Aug. 25, at 9 a.m., Sea Breeze, out of the Stratton
Au:Hey Nursery at Oxford.

Aug. 2,5, at 2.30 p.m., Hop Leaf, out of Yarmouth en-
gagemeLts.

Aug. 25, at 4.30 p.m., Dick Turpin, out of all engage-
ments in 1868.
Aug. 26, at 9 a.m., Cape of Good Hope and Camillo, out
of Doncaster engagements.

COLOUR.9 OF RIDERS.—Mr J. S. Bland, white and sky
blue satin jacket, cap the same.
►STEEPLECHASE FORFEIT LIST.—The forfeits of the fol-
lowing horses have been paid—Bird of Passage, King
Arthur, Lady Blanche, hfarshman, Redmire, St. Gathering
(2 sovs), Sir William, Spot, Sutton, Tom Sayers, Win
and Pay.
RICHMOND.—The following nomination for the Mem-
bers' Plate was accidentally omitted by the Clerk of the
Course in the list sent for last Calendar, viz., Mr. Snow-
den's b c Man of Ross, 4 yrs.

STOKESLEY.—Scampston has been disqualified for the
Hunters' Stakes on tho ground that he had been liable to
pay racehorse duty, and the race has been awarded to Phi-
losopher, the horse which came 1.1;---w•Ancl.

H. Chaplin, Esq., is the new Steward at pisct
of the Duke of Beaufort, who retires by rotation.

RACING FIXTURES FOR 1868.
SEPTEMBER.
Baden
Warwick September ... 1 Monmouth ...
Abingdon 3 Manchester
I
Leicester
Doncaster September 8 Walsall
I
Brecon ll Edinburgh
Richmond
Hampton Autumn l5 Royal Caledonian Hunt
Kelso lb and Western M
OCTOBER.
Bedford 1 I Sudbury and Ealing ... 15
Bromley Autumn
Newmarket 2d October 5 Harrow
.. 27
Lanark B, Worcester Aututnn ...... 2t
Chelmsford Autumn
Cheltenham l3 I
NOVE
Liverpool
9 Shrewsbury

:MBER.
I Leamington l7

STEEPLECHASES.
OCTOBER.

Bromley

DECEMBER.
St. Albans
Kingsbury I

MARKETS-7 MS DAY.

CORN.

The trade is rather steadier in tone, with very little
change in quotations.
At Mark-lane this morning the attendance was mode-
rate, and the tone rather firmer, although quiet.

The moderate supplies of English wheat were quite up
to Monday's rates.
Foreign wheat, of which supplies were light, was held
for former rates at which sales progressed slowly.
Floating cargoes of wheat since Monday have sold
rather dearer.

Malt steady iu value, with a limited sale.
The flour trade is quiet, without change in prices.
Barley, beans, and peas quoted the some as at the com-
mencement of the week.

Oats a steady sale, w;thout quotable change in prices.
Linseed cakes dull, but not quotably lower.
NEWGATE AND LEADENHALL.

MEAT.—The dead meat markets are only sparingly
supplied, and the weather being favourable, trade is
healthy and prices firm, although not quite up to the
highest point since the reaction from the late depression.
We quote —Beef, 3s 4d to 4s 10d ; mutton, 3s 4d to 4s 8d;
veal, 4$ to 4a 10d; lamb, 43 to 4s 6d per stone of 81b by
the carcase.

Poultry—The poultry trade is better owing to t! o
favourable weather, bat still not brisk, many West-end
families being from town. Fowls, common, is 9d to 2s Gd ;
Surrey chicken, 3s to 3s Gd ; fowls, 4s to 4s Gd; pigeons,
Gd to 8d; ducks, 2s Gd to 2s 9d ; geese, Gs to Gs Gd ; grouse,
3s to 4s. Eggs rather lower, Gs 6d to 7s Gd.
COLONIAL AND FOREIGN PRODUCE.

Sugar is still very dull of sale, and pricos on the spot
are Gd to 9d under those of last week. Floating cargoes
are also flat, but have not further given way. One of
Cuba Muscovado is reported sold at 23s per cwt.
Coffee.—The market is steadier, and Native Ceylon the
turn dearer. Good ordinary sold at 45s to 46s ; middling
plantation 71s to 74s per cwt.

Oils.—Linseed is firm at 31s 9d to 32s on the spot.
English brown rape continuos flat, with sellers at 31s 6d.
Turpentine is rather firmer at 26s to 26s 3d for both
French and American.