The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-21 00:00:00

GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY

COMPANY.
A special general Meeting of this Company was held
yesterday, at the Paddington Station, the Chairman of
the Board of Directors in the chair.
The CHAIRMAN said that, as the meeting was small,
he believed the business would be small also. The
Directors had called the Proprietors together for the
purpose of asking them to c, nfirin the sanction which they
had already on two occasions given to the Bill for enabling
this Company to unite with, and subscribe 150,0001. to,
the Sipth Devon Railway Company. The Bill had been
re.ad tt second time, having unanimously passed through
the Committee, and would shortly be read a third time,
notwithstanding the great opposition which had been
offered to it. But, according to:a Standing Order of the
Home of Lords, before the Bill could be read in that
House, it was necessary that the draft should have been
approved of and accepted by three• fifths of the Pro-
prietors present at a general meeting specially convened
for the purpose of taking that subject into consideration.
To comply with that Standing Order the present meeting
had been called. The Secretary would then read the
report of the Directors.
The SECRETARY read the report, which stated, almost
as concisely, the matter contained in the opening expla-
nation of the Chairman. The report further stated that
on the 10th instant the Royal Assent was given to the
Bill for enabling the Company to amalgate with the
Oxford and Cheltenham Railway Companies, whereby
they would all be under one management, and the lines
would be completed at less cost.
On the motion of Mr. Wrsnew, seconded by another
Proprietor, the report was received.
The SECRETARY then read the clauses in the South
Devon Railway Bill which applied to this Company ;
aue/, after a brief conversation,
th!t. SNITHERS moved a resolution, to the effect that
oprietors present approve of those clauses.
The resolution was seconded, and adopted uanimously.
A Paornrwron begged to suggest that some means
should be adopted by the Directors to give the Proprie-
tors more early intelligence of the approaching special
meeting. He thought the Secretary should be instructed
to write to the Proprietors, instead of leaving the matter ,
to the chance of their seeing the advertisements. For
his part, he had not seen the advertisement until late on
Saturday evening.
The CHAIRMAN said that the advertisements were in-
sorted in strict accordance with the Act of Parliament.
If they were to write to every Proprietor the Secretary
would have to write 2,500 letters.—(Hear, hear.) Still
he thought the suggestion of the Hon. Proprietor was of
importance, and the Directors would give it due consi-
deration.
Thanks were then voted to the Chairman, and the
meeting separated.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
IRON THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.—Church-rates continue to supply matter for
expensive, and we will add, disgraceful litigation. Several
cases, which have recently been published in the daily
journals, are calculated to diminish the influence which
the national Establishment ought to exercise, with salu-
tary effect, upon public opinion, and the confidence which
ought to be felt in the impartiality of the authorities who
administer the law. We have invariably employed our
efforts to induce the members of the Established
Church and the dissidents from her creeds and worship,
to unite in an application to the Legislature for an altera-
tion in the law, which is unhappily so fruitful in oc-
casions of expensive and injurious strife. We have
less hope than ever of effecting amicable arrangements
between the belligerents. But the dispute—which appears
interminable, if its termination is allowed to rest upon
a compromise between the advocates for and opponent of
the existing system—produces a state of things with
which the Legislature ought to interfere for the purpose of
applying a remedy. A law which would place the repara-
tion of the structures upon the taxation of the country,
and compel the members of the Established Church to
provide what is requisite for the performance of public
:worship in the churches, according to the rites
and ceremonies of her liturgy, would remove this
constantly arising cause of parochial strife. In many
parishes the expense incurred by litigation has amounted
to more than the entire amount of thetrate which cc-
,: „ . casioned the altercation and the subsequent legal pro-
,: ceedings in the Courts. This was the case in the still
unterminated Braintree church-rate dispute. There
the costs—which were eventuallycast upon the parish, or
rather upon the churchwardens, owing to the rate being
pronounced invalid—would have built a new church
from the foundation. Two cases illustrative of the evil
of church-rate;, as now provided for, have taken place
within the last few days. The one was decided in the
Court of Queen's Bench, on appeal from Sir H. Jenner
Fust, the judge before whom the proceedings were
brought, and the case decided in the Arches Court.
The parties, " Francis and others," inhabitants of St.
.-George Colegate, in the city of Norwich, wore cited by
Archdeacon Bathurst, to appear in that Court for refusing
to join in making a church-rate. Archdeacon Bathurst,
acting in concurrence with other Archdeacons in that
diocese, actually instituted proceedings against these
parties, and brought them into the " Court Christian,"
to answer " for having contumaciously obstructed, or
at least refused to make, or join, or concur in the
making, of a sufficient .rate for the necessary repair of
the church of the parish of St. George, Cologate, in the
city of Norwich, they being parishioners of that parish,
and liable, as such, to a rate for the repair of the church."
Mr. Francis appeared to the citation ; and pleaded,
by way of protest, that he had not been guilty of any
ecclesiastical offence in the matters alleged against him.
Sir Herbert Jenner Fust, after argument, decided
that an ecclesiastical offence had been committed by
Mr. Francis, in "refusing to make, or join, or concur
in making, a church-rate." A writ of prohibition
was obtained in the Court of Queen's Bench; and
Lord Denman delivered a judgment, remarkable for
clearness, in which the judgment of Sir 11. Jenner Fust
was reversed, and all proceedings in the suit stayed.
The power of vestry meetings to refuse church
rates was fully recognised. The expense of those pro-
ceedings must have been very considerable. This, how-
ever, is the least part of the mischief produced by such
contests. Their influence upon the public mind with
reference to religion generally, and to the Established
Church in particular, is extensively injurious, and ought
to be stayed. Another case of the same character and
. tendency was disposed of by the Judicial Committee of
Privy Council, on appeal from a decision of the same
Judge, on Thursday last. A church-rate had been made
in a vestry meeting of the parish of Hornchurch, in
Essex.' Against the validity of this rate, Pigott, an in-
habitant of the chapelry of Romford, alleged to be
situate within the parish of llornchurch, appealed, on
various grounds. The Court of Arches decided against
the party who impugned the validity of the rate.
Pigott, who is a very poor man, had conducted
his case in person. On the decision of the Court
below being pronounced against him, he appealed to
the Judicial Committee, where he obtained the able
assistance of Mr. Roebuck and Mr. Nichol.. The deci-
eo glen- of the Judge of the Ecclesiastical Court was re-
. .versed, and the whole. proceedings quashed. The juilg-
. -anent was given ears only one ground. The Court, by
Lord BroughamssaVho-presided, stated,, that as the rate
was manifestly.bad.vn this. ground, it was unnecessary to
CO into the . others. Several hundred pounds have
been spent in this litigation ; and materials for
future litigation are suggested, of which par-
.ties will avail themselves in future. If those
who cline to the existing system refuse to be
influenced by a love of peace, let them at least listen
to the voice of prudence. The requirements of the law
to 'give validity to a Church-rate are so numerous, and
the probability that one or more errors will be detected,
in any rate which may be disputed, so great, that almost
every appeal brought against a rate is succeesfuly prose-
cuted. If the law expenses incurred in pre-ecuting and
resisting appeals, and in enforcir6s payment of Church-
rates, were ascertained, it would go far to produce a
desire for a final settlement of the question in those now
most attached to the existing laweand most strenuous in
maintaining it. ' .e. -e •
STANDARD.—There is a homely English proverb,
full of good sense, like most of our old English adages,
which we think may be usefully- remembered at this
particular moment. The proverb is this, that " one
ought not .to cut his nose to vex his face."
The, principle conveyed in this simple, suggestion,
is of great value in politics ; fur in political
transactions it is that men will be most frequently
offended by the friends in whom they repose most
confidence. It is not easy to find a single ques-
tion upon which even all men pursuing the same
cod will think alike, but to find a- succession of
Such questions from year to year, is an utter impos-
sibility. Now, as in the conduct of public affairs the
actors must ever constitute only a very small portion
of the party to which they belong, it is very
plain that these actors must often give offence to many
of those engaged with them in the . same common
cause ; but to resent this offence, not merely. by war.
upon the persons who give it, but upon the principles of
the party, is surely a plain case of "cutting: the nose to,
vex the face." At present some honest men of the
Conservative party, and a great many professing Con- ,
servativea who aro not honest, are labouring to excite
public indignation against her Majesty's Ministers.' Now,
of the honest Conservatives we would ask what must '
be the• end of their success sup osino that they should
succeed in running down' pßobe'rt Peel's Cabinet ?
The question is a serious one, for they may sue-
treed, of they perseveßrieusienn, the course
ithkat
is,c they are
pursuing. Lord J.
, have
already stripped off their Whig liveries,w t:rett!'rdy to take
the reins as soon as they shall be wrested .omtSir R.
Peel's hands, with 'a resolution, however, to
on again as soon as they are settled upon Ptthi the thembox
Lot Conservatives only remember the fadlity with.
which the change was made in 1830 by the effect of
Tory apathy or Tory aid, and the return that the Whigs
trade to them, and then think twice before they again
"cut their noses to vex their faces,' haiingnow, far less
provocation than they had fourteen years,ago, Do they
want another ten years of Whig rule ? As Conserva-
tives, they must have some care for the institutions of
the country. Do they wish to place these institutions
once more at the mercy of Wing rulers, because it is
surmised that the present Ministers, though greatly miti-
gating it, have not violently reversed the whole of the
Whig policy (this is the complaint) will Conservativese
consent to return to the arms of the 'Whigs? W e speak
Here of the efforts made by honest men to run down her
Majesty's Ministers, and we wish broadly to mark the
distinction between running down a Cabinet and voting
against it, or advising others to vote against it. The
first must, if successful, be always fatal to the party to
which the Cabinet belongs. The other may, in many
-cases, augment the personal influence of Ministers,
while itluts them Out of office for a moment, and it
may at the same time greatly exalt the character of
the Perti to which the retiring Ministers belong. It is
baogriere:ttiinimisstaiokneott hatdivision politics is weakness. An
opinion, not fandamental, jeer-such more
frequently as acce9ls • 011 of strength, be
cause character