The Sun.
London, England, 1850-08-27 00:00:00

CHESTER AND HOLYHEAD.

The following report, will be submitted. on Friday
next, at the half-yearly meeting of the shareholders
" It will be in the recollection of the shareholders that
at the last half-yearly meeting your directors obtained
their approval of a Bill authorising this company to
lease their line to the London and North-Western Rail-
way Company, or to make other arrangements with that
company for its working. They hoped that long before
this time they should have been placed in a position to
convene a special meeting, to which, after receiving the
formal sanction of the measure required by the House of
Lords, it would have been their duty to submit the plans
by which the scheme then contemplated might, in the
judgment of the directors, be most beneficially carried
into execution. They regret that they must now an-
nounce to you that these expectations have been entirely
frustrated.
" Parties haying interests at variance with those of the
London and North-Western Company, and seeking to
encroach upon its traffic, took occasion, from the pro-
motion of the Bill in question by this company, to urge
upon the Committee of the House of Commons the intro-
duction of a clause giving to those parties powers aod pri-
vileges quite incompatible with any practicable arrange-
ment between this company and the London and North-
Western for thecompletion or working of the line; and, in
spite of the earnest remonstrances of your directors, they
succeeded in effecting that object. The House, how-
ever, threw out the clause, and when the same parties
made an attempt to reinstate it, it was again rejected.
But the same short sighted hostility . pursued the Bill
before the Committee of the House (f Lords, although
it was certain that with such a clause the Bill would be
valueless for any public or private object, because the
London and North-Western Company would refuse an
alliance coupled with the conditions imposed; and the
issue proving unfavourable, the measure has been ne-
cessarily abandoned, to the serious detriment of your
interests, and without a particle of benefit to the parties
whose opposition to the London and North-Western
Company led them to strike at that body through this
company.
" The result is a matter of deep regret to your direc-
tors. Their best hopes of improving your position were
founded on the possibility of combining your interests
with those of the London and North-Western Company,
and of rendering it safe and profitable for that power-
ful body to aid in extricating you from your embarrass-
ments. But your directors could not, of course, expect
that that company would undertake so arduous a task,
under the additional pressure of an Act of Parliament,
which prop ssed to deprive them, in favour of a third
party altogether without rightful claim, of a large
share of the lsgitimate advantage of the projected en-
terprise.

Nor is this the only disappointment which your d

rectors have experienced. liiMs.rch last you were ap•
prised that they weze ' in communication with her Ilia-
jesty's Government, having for their object such assist-
ance as would enable the company to complete the un-
dertaking at the earliest reriod;' and they continued
their endeavours to this end until a very recent date.
They urged upon the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with
all the force which they felt to be warranted by the
justice of the case, their claim to temporary aid from
the public press, on the ground-Ist, that the contract
for the mails having been granted to the company, be-
fore it broke ground in its works, for the avowed reason
that the traffic was insufficient in itself to afford recom-
pense for so great an undertaking, the loss in that re-
spect resulting from the visitation which had desolated
Ireland ought not to be thrown exclusively on the com-
pany, without any contribution from the Government,
so greatly benefitted by the opening of such an import-
line of communication; and, 2dly, that the peremptory
requisition of the Admiralty, backed by a Parliamentary
Coramit!ce, in regard to the mode of crossing the Menai
Straits, having imposed on the company an additional
and unlooked-for expense of nearly half a million ster-
ling, it was equitable that the Government, thus re-
lieved from all shire of the cost necessary to reconcile
two public objects (to wit, the free navigation of the
straits, and the continuous line of railway feom London
to St. George's Channel), should afford some assistance,
by way of a loan, to enable the company to complete its
works, in order to its reimbursement.

"Your directors are sorry to state that, whilst they
have been personally treated with every consideration
•and courtesy, the Government has refused to entertain
these reasonable and moderate claims for a contribution
in the shape of mere temporary aid, although it was
shown in the clearest manner that no risk could be in-
volved in the transaction. The only concession made to
the company—at the same time that its success in over-
coming not merely the vast natural difficulties of the un-
dertaking, but the impediment thrown in its way by a
public department, was used by the Prime Minister as a
cogent argument for the abolition of the Lord-Lieute-
nant of Ireland—has been the abandonment by the Go-
vernment of its claim for a contribution of 200,000/. to-
wards the new harbour at Holyhead. The directors feel,
however, that such a demand for a contribution to a
public refuge harbour is one which never ought to have
been made. In the same spirit of indifference to the
difficulties of a company engaged in carrying out an en-
terprise of pre-eminent public importance, the contract
for the performance of the mail service between Holy-
head and Kingstown was given to parties who have
a direct interest in diverting the traffic to the route
by way of Liverpool. And this was done notwith-
standing that a Select Committee of the House of Com-
mons, of which the lamented Sir Robert Peel was chair-
man, after considering the question whether this com-
pany should be permitted to own steam-boats, had ex-
pressed a deliberate opinion with respect to the advan-
the management and control of the
tage of placing
whole line between London and Dublin in the hands of
a single party.
" Under the heavy discouragements briefly described
in the foregoing paragraphs, and labouring constantly
under the pressure of the pecuniary difficulties with
which the company has bad to struggle, your directors
have exerted themselves to the best of their ability to
accomplish, at the earliest possible date, such a comple-
tion of the line as may fit it for general purposes of use-
fulness. In furtherance of this end, the last tube of the
Britannia Bridge has been raised to its intended place;
and your directors hope that that wonderful structure
will be finally completed during the month of October
nest.
"In their last report, your directors stated their in-
tention to open a separate revenue account from the lat
of January last. That course has been taken, sod the
net proceeds have been applied towards the paymi nt of
the half-year's interest on debentures due on the 10th of
July last, which, amounting to 24,5491. 10s. 5d., haves
a balance of 8,5211. 16s. 7d. chargeable against the
earnings of the current half-year.
" The proprietors will observe that the gross traffic
of the six months under review has yielded a return of
38,6521. 3s. 3d. contrasted with 31,9831 ss. 1,1 (irre-
spective of the mails in both cases), earned during the
same period of 1849; and your directors are using all
the means at their command so to increase their power
of meeting the demand for accommodation for minerals
as to afford all the desired encouragement to that im-
portant branch of business. As an instance in point,
they are now engaged in arranging for the construction
by private parties of several sidings and short branchee,
for the purpose of bringing upon the line the produce of
adjacent quarries and the like, with the stipulation that
the expense of the work shall be repaid to the construc-
tors from the proceeds of the toll. A resolution will be
submitted for your approval, giving your sanction is ar-
rangements of this description, which cannot but con-
duce to the advantage of this company.
" The attention of your directors has been earnestly
given to the cost of working the line and its adjuncts,
with a view to every practicable and prudent reduction
of expenditure, in respect especially to the packet-
service; and they have now so organized the system
of managing the steam-boats that they have
good reason to expect that, taking into account
the earnings of those vessels, and of the express trains
to which they are exclusively attached, and which would
be useless without them, the proceeds will more than
counterbalance the expenditure. It may be added that,
finding the psymenta on account of insurance to be ex-
tremely heavy, amounting iu the aggregate to 6,497,
from 'the Ist August, 1848, your directors are of opinion
that it will be expedient that the company should become
the insurer of its own steam-boats, setting aside a certain
sum annually to cover the risk of loss, and they request
your sanction accordingly.
" The arrears of calls due at the last half-yearly meet-
ing amounted to 40,666/. 103., sinoo which 2,816 L 10s.
bas been received. Your directors have declared the
forfeiture of 65 shares, which requires the confirmation of
the present meeting."
The report of the engineer, Mr. Robert Stephenson,
says—
"lt affords me very great satisfaction to report to you
that the whole of the tubes of the Britannia Bridge are
now safely deposited in their final positions. Nothing
now remains to be done but to complete the junctions
between those composing the second line.

"A fortnight will fir's—h
the junctions in the Britannia
Tower; three weeks more will complete the junction
with the Carnarvon small tube; and by the end of Octo-
Ater I have no doubt all the remaining preparations for
•t 4 opening of the second line will be brought to a ;atis-
;fitoiory conclusion. _

" +, "As this will probably be the last report I shall have
the honour of addressing to you in reference to the
works of the Holyhead Railway, I deem it only proper,
after several years cf intense anxiety respecting the
Conway and Britadnia Bridges, to return you my sin-
cere thank* for the unwavering confidence you bare al-