The Sun.
London, England, 1857-02-28 00:00:00

METROPOLITAN RAILWAY.

MEETING THIS DAY.

The half-yearly meeting of this company was held this
afternoon, at the company's offices, Great George-street ;
Mr. Ayrton, chairman of the board of directors, in the
chair.
The general statement or receipts and expen-
diture showed that there had been received since
the last half-yearly meeting held in June, 1856,
for advance of calls, 6,4821. ; loan account, 20,0001. ;
and interest on balances 115/. 65., making the total
receipts to Dec. 1856, 149,7991. 19s. There had been
expended during the same period for Parlimentary and
engineering charges, 7761. ; purchase and deposit on
land account 10,0001; office disbursements 4071. Is. 10d;
interest on cash in advance of calls 821 6d. ; and on loans
4861. ls. 10J., making the total expenditure, with
27,6251. 6s, bahnce in hand, of 149,7991. 19s.
The CHAIRMAN, in addressing the meeting, said it pre-
sented an unfavourable contrast to that of the last meet-
ing hel l at the London Tavern, and that he regretted
he bad to occupy the chair that day. At the last meet-
ing he thought they bad emerged from their languid
and dependentstate, butcircumstances had shown the con-
trary. After referring to Mr. Ricardo, M.P., guaranteer
of a certain number of shares, and to become the chair-
man of the company, he said that money, however,
instead of becoming cheap, as was anticipated, after the
war, had become scarce and dear ; and Mr.. Ricardo
made an offer to the guaranteed shareholders to cancel
his agreement with them, and to return the money. The
offer had been generally accepted, and now the guaranteed
was only covering a nominal amount of capital, while
Mr. Ricardo feeling disappointed at the result of his
operation, had resigned the chairmanship of the company.
He hoped the shareholders would be satisfied at the expla-
nation he'bad given of the proceedings of the last half-year.
The depositof 10,000/. mentioned in the account had been
paid in respect of the land contracted for with the Corp•-a-
tion of London, and the 20,0001. on the other side of the
balance-sheet had Leen placed at the London and
County Bank after the failure of the Royal British
Bank, who held at theitime of the failure 5,0001. of the
Company's money. After some further remarks he
said that this company was started on the reliance of
support from the Great Western and Great Northern
Railways Companies, and added that it would
be useless for this company to proceed with
the works unless the shareholders were deter-
mined and were ready to meet repeated calls.
He thought it an undertaking that, it carried out,
would be successful. The Great Northern, owing to the
losses from Redpath's frauds, was now unable to render
assistance, but was hoped that the Great Western Rail-
way was getting into a position to be shortly able to
assist this company. He thought they might
rely on the co-operation of the Corporation of
London, who must be most anxious to see that p rrtion of
the line complete, in connection with the New Cattle
Market. Alter some further remarks the chairman said
the business of to-day was to adopt the accounts, and to
proceed to the election of directors. He explained the
absence of a report from the transition state of the corn.
pany, and asked the shareholders to place confidence in
the Board as to their future operations.
After some discussion,

The CHAIRMAN said that the expenses for the ensuing
year would be between 4,0001. and 5,0001., and that by
the next half-yearly meeting, if not before, the share-
holders would be called together to decide whether they
would continue with the line or not.

The statement of accounts was then received and
adopted, and the retiring directors re-elected.
The meeting then separated.

WIMBLEDON AND CROYDON
RAILWAY.

MEETING THIS DAN-.
The half-yearly meeting of the shareholders in this
company was held this morning, at the offices 31, Par-
liament-street ; Mr. William Reed in the chair. It ap-
peared that the line had been leased to the Brighton
Company for 21 years, on terms which would realise 4
per cent., exclusive of the management, A dividend of
4s. per share was declared.