The Sun.
London, England, 1850-02-27 00:00:00

as a substantive resolution, that for the future the earn-
ings of the Norfolk Railway should be kept separate and
distinct.—(Heir, hear.)
Mr. QUILTER stated that his time had been almost
exclusively occupied in auditing the accounts of the
company for the last half-year, and the result had been
that he bad extricated from the accounts of the Norfolk
Company a sum of 164,0001., which the Eastern Counties
Company had paid, and a great portion of which had
been charged to the capital account of this company.—
(Cheers.)
Mr. Ii'LAREN rose to explain, but the meeting re-
fuscd hear him.
Mr. PRICE said, if the accounts of the Norfolk line
were properly kept, the shareholders would be receiving
a dividend of ss. 6d. a share instead of 3s. He charged
upon the directors that these accounts were illegally
and improperly kept. The Norfolk line, it was well
known, did not pay its working expenses, and therefore
the money expended upon it was so much taken
from the profits divisible among the share-
holders of the Eastern Counties line. He contended
that the Norfolk and the Eastern Counties line should
be managed separately.—(Hear, hear.) That that was
not so, be could only (explain by the circumstance of
one of the leading directors of the Norfolk line being a
relative of the Chairman of the Eastern Counties line.
He concluded by moving as an amendmen', that the ac-
counts of the Norfolk line be kept separately.
Mr. ORR, of Glasgow, seconded the amendment.
Mr. GLYNN said the Committee of the Investigation
reported in favour of the amalgamation with the Norfolk
Company. The directors of the Eastern Counties line
were brought into office on that understanding.—(" No,
nu.") It was his opinion that it was in the highest de-
gree desirable that the two lines should be worked to-
gether.—(" No, no," and uproar, in the midst of which
Mr. Glyn resumed his seat.)
Mr. BROADBENT, of Manchester, spoke in favour of the
two lines being worked together. The directors could not
proceed unless they had the confidence of the share-
holders; and if they were not working with the confi-
dence of the shareholders the sooner they went out of
office the better. _ _

Mr. HELPS could not give his vote in favour of the
adoption of the report unless he had an assurance that
it did not include the auditors' report, which was false
in many respects. He then advocated a Government
audit in much the same terms as he used yesterday at
the South-Western meeting.
Mr. MARGRAVE said, when the present directors
came into office they heard on all hands that no dividend
was to be made, but they were determined to make one
if possible; and their first object was to hold both their
hands, and therefore they incurred no other expenses
but what were absolutely necessary.—(Hear.)
Mr. MARTIN congratulated the directors and the
meeting upon there being now something approximat-
ing to a remunerating dividend paid to the proprietors.
This time twelve months, they received a dividend of 25.,
and it was satisfactory to find that within the last half-
year a very considerable improvement had taken place,
so much so that a dividend of 3c. was now declared.
Still more was he delighted to see that there was a much
better prospect of a gradual increase. They could not
hope to spring into prosperity in a moment.—(Hear
hear.) Theylcould not hope that the directors, who had
been but six months in office, could in that limited pe-
riod bring the affairs of the company into a perfect state,
but they were making progress. It was, therefore,
the interest of the shareholders to place confidence in
the directors to a certain extent. (Hear, hear, and
cheers.) If they saw anything unfair, anything un-
conscientious, anything exhibiting a want of integrity or
honour in the directors, no man would come forward
sooner than he (Mr. Martin) would to condemn them.—
(Cries of " Hear, hear.") But they were not
to attack those gentlemen on the vague
suspicions and crude insinuations that had been put for-
ward.—(Cheers.) The meeting had heard a long state-
merit' about coke, but it all turned out to be unfounded.
—(Laughter.) The Honourable Gentleman in the chair
was the first man to call attention to the ruinous
state of the affairs of the company, and to sug-
gest an investigation into them, and that investigaton
had be en exceedingly satisfactory and advantageous to
the company. The meeting were told that the Chair-
man was connueel with an honourable gentleman who
had property at Lowestoft; and simply ou that ground,
forsooth, a most unwarrantable charge was brought
forward against the Honourable Chairman, for the
mere purpose of creating a prejudice against him
in the minds of shareholders.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.)
Now, he (Mr. Martin) would respectfully say, if they
hoped for prosperity, and to have their affairs managed
in a sound and healthy:manner, they ought not to listen to
such charges.—(Cheers.) Let the man who brought these
charges see beforehand that they were well founded,
and let him not put forward insinuations which on in-
vestigation turned out to have no foundation whatever.
He (Mr. Martin) was satisfied with the board of
directors, judging merely from the accounts and the re'-
ports they had produced this day, but he thought there
would be no harm arising from an expression of opinion
on this subject. He had examined their accounts; he
had also looked over the accounts of almost every rail-
way company in the kingdom, and he could honestly
and conscientiously say ho did not remember seeing a
set of accounts so perfectly satisfactory, especially that
portion of them which carried conviction to the mind
of every unprejudiced person that the sum of 424,000/
had been faithfully earned, and that every shilling that
could be fairly charged against revenue has been
fairly and properly brought into that account.
Teey now knew the worst of their affairs.
They had been a lung time in the dark, but
a gleam of light had been let in upon them,
and he would say that the exertions of the Chairman
and the directors, and of the excellent accountant em-
ployed by the company (Mr. Quilter), were entitled to
the approbation of the me eting. There was
not one single item of expenditure which
had not been brought into a decimal form, showing how
a hundredth Fart of a farthing had been expended in
each department. -(Cheers.) Fur these reasons,
great must have been the intelligence and
enormous the labour on the part of the
gentlemen by whom that satisfactory state
of things had been achieved. They had been told that
none of the capital had been charged as unproductive,
and that the whole of the interest of the guaranteed
stock and debentures was for the first time charged
against revenue. But they had at least this
satisfactory result, that through the exertions
of Mr. Quilter and the directors, 2,5331. had been added
to the capital account that must have been wholly lost if
the account had been unduly closed.—(Cheers, and
" Time, time," from Mr. Nathan.) The Hon. Gentle-
man who was taunting him about time got up and
made a long speech about 30,0001 of preference
stock which the Chairman assured the Hon. Gentleman
was never intended to be issued.—(Laughter.) He (Mr.
Martin) would say one word upon the rates and taxes
charged on railways. By the accounts he found that
the net earnings of the company had been
51,000 some hundred of pounds, and the parochial
taxes were 13,221/. odd. In other words, there was in
this way rather more than 25 per cent. taken from the
sum fairly earned and divisible among the share-
holders, to be expended in poor-rates. He
also found that there was a sum of 9,6471. 17s.
put down for Government duty on the passenger
traffic. Between those two items there was 45 per cent.
taken from the profits divisible among the shareholders.
He thought the hands of the directors would be
strengthened by an expression of the opinion of the
shareholders that the directors be requested to
continue their exertions for the purpose of bringing
down those enormous expenses.—(Cheers.) As to the
Norfolk amalgamation, the question was, were they to
enter into a series of expensive litigation, in. which they
must be defeated, for the purpose of gratifying the ca-
price of some few gentlemen who proposed and sup-
ported the amendment?—(Cheers and great uproar
among the Nathan clique.)
The CHAIRMAN rose to order. If the Hon. Pro-
prietor (Mr. Martin) wished to be heard, he (the Chair
man) hoped the meeting would allow him to speak out.
Mr. MARTIN—If others are permitted to speak, I
think I have a right to be heard. I will merely say
that we are bound as men of honour to carry out that
undertaking. We have had the opinion of two
eminent Parliamentary counsel, Messrs. Hope and
Talbot, that we could not abandon it. The
amalgamation was subsequently confirmed by
a majority of the shareholders ; and I do
not see that we are called upon to abandon it, more
particularly when the Bill was not before Parliament
at present, and when the directors have allowed a year
to elapse in order to obtain the fullest information upon
this question. Under these circumstances, I do not see
why this question of the Norfolk amalgamation should
have been lugged so strongly into this discussion.—(Loud
cheers.)
The CHAIRMAN then put the amendment, which was
almost unanimously negatived amidst loud cheers and
shouts of derisive laughter. . .

The CHAIRMAN next put the original resolution, ap-
proving of the report, which was carried with acclama-
tion, only about six persons holding up their hands
against it.
The meeting then passed to the question of audit.
Mr. Sergeant GASELEE took occasion to eulogise
the conduct of the present board of directors for the
way in which they had succeeded in extricating
the affairs of the company from the almost hope-
less confusion and complexity into which their
predecessors had plunged them. The Learned
Sergeant concluded by moving that a committee
of three of the shareholders be appointed
to confer with the delegates from other railway compa-
nies, with the view to prepare and carry through Parlia-
ment a Bill in favour of a stringent Government audit of
railway accounts.
That motion having been duly seconded, was put to
the vet-, and carried by an immense majority.
The meeting were discussing who were to be the
three members of the audit committee when our report
lett.

GALWAY AND
i‘Eitaisrtieirs Ginu.yhDnnJe,U.rNyC. TBlOittlinit.t.wklaLsWpA.
the pro-
c( C( eding t.) little the list of contributories liable to pay
off the debts of this undertaking, when it wag found that
the subscription•cleed was without a stamp, whereupon
it was ordered to be taken to the htamp-office and made
valid. In a similar case, that of the Worce::,ter, Tenbury,
and Ludlow, the Master, Sergeant Rose, held that the
proceedings were void al, initio and discharged the order
to wind-up.
POST• OFFICE PACKET ESTIMATE.—The estimate of
the sums required for the Pust-office packet service has
been published. The total charge is 764,2361, made up
of 629,290/. for the contract packet service, and 134,9461.
for Queen's vessels employed in the service of the Post-
office.
Two Russian line-of-battle ships, one of 120 and
the other of 84 guns, as well as several smaller vessels,
h.3,7e barn lately 114.9tr..hed 4t Ntkoalteu.