The Sun.
London, England, 1850-02-04 00:00:00

Vbtrb Xtittton

SUN OFFICE, Seven o'Clock.

CALEDONIAN RAILWAY.
(THIS DAY.)
A meeting of London shareholders in this company
was held this day at the London Tavern, Captain the
Hon. Edward Hlunket in the chair, to consider the
course which they should adopt at the meeting which
had been called by the directors, and is to be held at the
Freemasons Tavern to-morrow.
The HON. CHAIRMAN said it was most impor-
tant that, in the present unfortunate position of the
company they should come to some amicable under-
standing in reference to the meeting to-morrow.
They would recollect that a committee of London share-
holders was appointed at a public meeting of the share-
holders to investigate their affairs, and that it had for a
long time been carying on an arduous and disagreeable
opposition against the directors, but be thought subse-
quent events hal fully justified its appointment. If their
advice had been taken eighteen months ago, instead
of the company being insolvent as it is now, it
would have been a tolerably flourishing one; fur it
was a remarkable circumstances, consideraing the
natu•si of the country through which the line
passed, that the traffic should have been so great.
The daily receipts for traffic, taking the average of the
whole year, amounted to about 1,0001. Af er a long
and tedious negotiation, an arrangement had been come
to with the direct )ri, by which they agreed to resign
upeit certain conditions; but the London central com-
mittee would not be responsible for all contained in this
agreemeet, and the shareholders ware at liberty to ratify
or to annul it. The resignation of the directors after
their gross mismanagement was only a simple act
of justice to the shareholders. They were very un-
willing to quit their seats, having entered into great
responsibilities, and would only consent to quit office on
an indemnity being given to them for all claims in re-
spect of the shares which they had purchased in other
lines. They made another stipulation that the com-
pany should further exercise its borrowing powers to
the amount of 66,600/. to meet claims fur which the
directors were personally responsible. But whatever
opinion they might entertain as to the propriety of
- making a compromise, it was absolutely indispensable that
the directors should retire. The evidences of mismanage-
ment disclosed by the committee of investigation were
altogether unparalleled in railway companies; they were
briefly but admirably summed up in the following few
words which appeared in the Times on the 29th of De-
cember last:—" The recklessness, fully, and infatuation
of the directors are without precedent in the history of
commercial affairs." They had not only expended the
whole of their capital, but also 850,0001. beyond it, and
yet their stations and branch lines had not been com-
pleted. It was impossible to comprehend how six mil-
lk'ns could have been got rid of withont there being
sowething tangible to show for it. Other companies which
were accused with extrava; ance could point as the result of
it to some magnificent building or bridge, such, for in-
stance, as the Euston Station, the Victoria-bridge, or
the Brittania Tube ; but, notwithstanding the enormous
expenditure of this company, the Glasgow termini was
unfinished, and they had scarcely any intermediate
stations. The revenue of the company was all mort-
gaged, bat the guaranteed lines would have to contri-
bute towards the liquidation :of the debts. He asked
them not to form any opinions upon the
statements contained in the directors' reports, for
if they did they would be greatly disappointed.
In the port of last year the unfortunate position of the
eosspany was partly attributed to the prevalence of the
cholera; he regretted to say that cholera was chronic
in this line, and not epidemic.—(Laughter.) If there
had been an Act of Parliament to wind up a company as
they did the bankrupt affairs of a private individual,
they would have been made bankrupts long ago.—
(Hear.) But he might say thus much—that by acting
prudently, and paying their enormous debt out of the re-
ceipts from traffic, the guaranteed lines contributing,
making some arrangement with the creditors founded on
perfect honesty, and looking on their property somewhat
in the nature of a deterred annuity, they might yet bring
their present complicated and unfortunate affairs to a
satisfactory position. But to tell them that they
might hese a dividend this year or the next was to give
expression to an absurdity. The way in which the
direct )rs transacted th it business at this, the eleventh
hour, would make a commercial house reputed solvent
insolvent in one week.—(Hear, hear.) To give an
illustration of this fact, ;he stated that a person who
had a fair and bone fide claim against the company for
1,7001., was obliged, after writing three times without
receiving any answer, to commence an action for the
amount; and after it had been carriei on to its extreme
limit, judgment rai allowed to go by default, and the
complainant seized upon some engines and carriages in
satisfaction of bit debt.—(Oh, oh.) He did not mention
this to erea'• or foster any fruitless exasperation against
the directors a: the weeting to-morrow, because he saw
the necessity of calmly looking after their own interests,
wbatever their private feelings might be, and seeing that
what little of their property remained should be placed
in proper hands.—(Cheers.)
Th-&-a4retment entered into with the directors, which
Las already appeared in a e newspapers, was then read.
Considerable discussion followed upon it, and a little
opposition was offered to that part which indemnified the
directors fur further claims; Mr. Russell, a shareholder,
declaring that he would rather lose every shilling he had
got than consent to indemnify them against the come-
qurnoes of their gross misconduct.
Ultimately a resolution was passed, with only four dis-
sentients, to the following effect, on the motion of Mr.
LITTLE, seconded by Mr. WEBB:—

" That the shreliolders present at this meeting, while
condemning the reckless and improper conduct of the
dit•:torr, are still prepared on the tecommendation of
tho London Central Committee to consent to and support
the eompromise arranged between that committee and
the present directors."
A vote of thanks was then passed to the Chairman,
and the meeting separated.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

(THIS EVENING.)

HOUSE OF LORDS.

The LO2tD CHANCILLOR. took his seat upon the
Woolsack at Fire o'clock.
ANSWER TO THE ADDRESS.

The LORD efismzEALAIN brought down her Majesty's
most gracious answer to the Address. It was as follows:

"My Lords,—l thank you for your dutiful and loyal
Address. It is highly gratifying to me to receive
such an assurance of your feelings on the loss
which the Royal Family.and the whole nation have
sustained in the death of her Majesty Queen Adelaide.
It 'lilt be my study to promote the welfare of my people,
sad to winch over the important iuterests confided to
my cat*. .

AFFAIRS OF GREECE.

Lord STANLEY rose to put a question of which he
had given notice to the Noble Marquis opposite. He
little thought that within twenty-four hours after
the annoucc'em-nt in her Majesty Speech that
this country NN as on terms t f peace and amity
with other nation, they should have received an account
cf an armei attack aga.nst a friendly state, and one the
weakne: a of which should, he thought, have been an in-
ducement to f,rbearance on the part of a great power like
England, and a state,the peculiar position of which rendered
such an act precipitate and imprudent. It appeared that
on tha return of the fleet under Sir W. Parker from an ill
advised expedition to the Dardanelles, that fleet bad
proceeded to Greece, and on the arrival of Sir W.
Parker off Athens the British Minister had waited on
the Greek Minister for Foreign Affairs, and categorically
demanded a compliance with certain demands within 24
hours, and that on the refusal t) comply with these demands
acts of hostility had taken place. It was also said that the
Mediation of Russia and France had been refused. He
wished to ask if the intelligence which had been reported
in the public papers were true; and if, when the assu-
rances of peace and amity 14 ere made in her Majesty's
Spec,* this attack had been ordered; and if the Go-
vernment would have any objection to lay the papers
relating to this matter before the House?
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE would have no ob-
jection to lay all the papers before the House, and
those papers would he found to afford an ample justifica-
tion of the conduct of the British Government, in
taking those steps which were substantially correctly
described in the public papers, to enforce claims
which had been urged for years, and had
been neglected, or the liquidation of which
bad been promised by the Greek Government,
which promise had never been kept. Advantage had
been taken of the return of Sir William Parker from, he
would venture to say, a not ill-advised expedition to en-
force those claims. Every means had been ex-
hausted before Sir William Parker had had
rf eourie to coercive measures. No blockade had been
declared, and he would remind the Noble Lord that the
Government with which he had been connected had had
recourse three times to an actual blockade
against weak states to enforce British claims.
The Greek ship seized had had notice to quit before the
seizure. It was true the Ministers of Russia and
France bad red . mediation, bat they bad not been
authorisel s&.to do by their respective Courts, and a
refusal by France of a similar mediation offered by this
country had been refused without disturbing the friendly
relations subsisting between the two nations. He would
produce the papers, and they would amply justify the
course adopted by the English Government.
The Earl of ABERDEEN admitted that the conduct
of the Greek Government with respect to the repayment
of the lean had been very bad upon many occasions,
and that, perhaps, we might be justified in pro-
ceeding to estkremities in demanding repayment of
the loan; but with regard to many of the indi-
vidual claim*, they were matters of dispute.
And, with regard to the demand of territory,
considering that the integrity of the Greek territory bad
been guaranteed by France and Russia, we certainly
had no right t) expect the cession of these islands
by Greece without the consent of France and
Russia, whatever might be our claims, because the
map signed tot the time of the formation of the Greek
kingdom included those islands within the Greek States,
and it was n9t to be expected that France and Russia'
would consent to the cession of those islands until it
could be proved that the powers had been
wrong in including these islands in the Greek States.
Wi island of Sapienza was within a few hundred yards
Me coast, and at the time the lonian Islands were
:tinider the protection of the British Government,
it ,was, agreed that all is'ands situated so near the
Tupish shores as to give rise to apprehensions on the
part of the authorities, should be considered as Turkish
• territory. No blockade had been declared, but a blockade
existed de facto agaimst Greek ships of war, and he thought
great rashness arid imprudence had been exhibited by
• her Majesty's Government.

The Marquis of LANSDOWNE said that the Noble
Earl had taken advantage of his answer to the Noble
Lords question to fasten upon the Government a re-
sponsibility which they had not incurred. The
Noble Lord had said nothing about the de-
mand of the cession of the islands, and the
answer to that demand was not required to be made by
the Greek Government categorically and immediately.
The demand for the cession of those Isles stood upon a
footing totally different from the demands which Mr.
Wyse had categorically made, which were for repay-
ment of the loan, and for compensation to British sub-
jects for the injuries inflicted on them.
The Earl of ABERDEEN said if the demand made
by Mr. Wyse for these two islands had not been cate-
gorically made, then the observations which he bad
made regarding that demand did not apply. With re-
gard to the demand for compensation for injuries to
British subjects, probably those demands might be too
high; the only thing indisputable was that some com-
pensation was due, but the amount was matter for ne-
gociation.
The Marquis ( f LANSDOWNE explained.
Lord BROUGHAM was not aware that in addition to
establishing a summary Court of Chancery in Ireland
they were about to establish a summary court of com-
mon law in the Mediterranean to try ejectment cases in
twenty-four hours. He should like to know the value
of the two islands in dispute. Nothing was more to be
deprecated then acting energetically against a weak power
when we would not act so against a strong one. If an
outrage bad been committed against the person of a
British subject we were bound to protect it ; but, with
respect to a debt, he would be loth to in-
terfere—he would leave the persons to the re-
medy at law, or they might go to war with the
repudiators of America sad the Spanish States.
Lord STANLEY asked if the proceedings of Sir T.
Wyse had been adopted in consequence of instructions
sent from this country.
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE said that the papers
to be laid before the House would give any information
necessary to the complete understanding of the subject. He
completely agreed with the Noble and Learned Lord
in the distinction which he had drawn between cases of
outrage committed on the persons of British subjects by
foreign powers, and cases of mere :debt due to British
subjects from foreign powers.
ECCLESIASTIC AL COMMISSION.

The LOAD CHANCELLOR introduced a Bill to
amena and consolidate the laws relating to the Ecclesi-
astical Commission, which was read a first time, and
Their Lordships adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.
The SPEAYEZ took the Chair shortly Wore Four
o'clock.

PRIVATE BILLS.
A rast numbsr of private Bills were brought in and
read a first tims.