The Sun.
London, England, 1845-10-28 00:00:00

BOULOGNE AND AMIENS RAILWAY.

A meeting of the Shareholders and Proprietors in this rail-
way took place on Thursday at Paris.
Shortly after two o'clock M. 'AMITE opened the busi-
ness of the meeting, and said that these were the usual pre-
liminary forms required by law ; but as he believed it would
be sufficient to lay them upon the table, and would not be
necessary to read them, he would now proceed to read the
report of the Directors. The document was written in the
French language, and occupied nearly twenty closely written
folio pages. There was also, we were told, but one copy of it,
for it had not been " printed and circulated among the share-
holders." Apprehending that such would be the case, we
applied in the early part of the day at the proper quarter, and
at much personal inconvenience,_ for permission to copy it or
translate it, either in the assembly-room, or in any other part
cf the building, where the meeting was to be held, or such
portion of it as we should be able to accomplish before the
business of the day commenced ; but, notwithstanding that we
represented as strongly as we could the great convenience
that such an accommodation would afford us, the immense
distance we had travelled to be present at the meeting, the
great importance it would be to the English shareholders
in the line to have the report translated and published in
the English newspapers with as little delay as possible ;
notwithstanding that we urged all this, and a great deal
more, we were peremptorily refused any such accommoda-
tion •, and were told that to get a copy of the report was
out of the question, either before or after the meeting; and
that, theretbre, we should take notes of the substance of it as
it was read by the chairman. Owing, however, to the
courtesy of that gentleman the report was handed to us after
the meeting had separated to make extracts from ; but it
was then past four o'clock, and as the only mail for England
that d my left at five, we were obliged to snake a very hurried
summary of the report which we subjoin, and which contains
all the substantial facts set forth in it. It contained, in the
first two or three pages, the usual congratulatory paragraphs,
such as that since the directors (leconseil d'admistration) had
obtained the necessary powers to proceed with the work, they
had lost no time in making all the preliminary arrangements
for doing so ; that it was a line which promised to prove not
only a profitable one to the shareholders as a commercial specu-
lation, but also one of great advantage to the many large dis-
tricts of country which surrounded it on all sides, which at
present had no railway accommodation of any sort, as well
as to the constant influx of strangers to France, from the
ports of Dover and Folkstone, who wished to reach Paris by
Boulogne in a shorter time than that now occupied in accom-
plishing the journey by the long and wearisome route tra-
versed by the public diligence; that the line from Amiens
to Paris would also, it was expected, be put in course of
formation in a short time, and thus give a complete railway
communication from Boulogne to the French capital by the
Amiens route; that the ground for the formation of the
line to Amiens had been obtained with very little
diffiulty, owing, the administration felt convinced, to the
fact that the project was one which enjoyed a large share
of the public confidence ; that it would pass either through,
or close by, many small towns along the course it proposed
to traverse, the inhabitants of which looked upon it as quite a
desideratum ; that the engineers had applied, and were
still applying themselves to their part of the work with
all due diligence, and that their working engineer, M.
Bazael, would leave nothing on his part undone to facili-
tate the execution of those works ; that the administration
had had assurances from the municipal council of Belgium
to the effect that every facility would be offered by them for
the extension of the line in that direction, that travellers
who were now compelled to take the route by Abbeville, Ban-
vais, and the other towns in that direction to Paris, would very
gladly avail themselves of this, in consequence of the much
shorter time the journey to the French metropolis from
Boulogne would then occupy. The report then went on to
say, that the line of route from Amiens, it was proposed by
the " administration," should be by Noyelles-sur-Mer from
Amiens, close by the town of Valery; that as it passed
through Amiens it should cross the river that watered that
town, and thence on to Estaple, leaving which town, it
would run along by the valley of the Liami to Boulogne,
where it would for the present form its second termini :
that the total length of the line so far would be 123
kiloms., which could be easily traversed in about seven
hours ; that the line was almost a perfect level for one half
of the entire distance, and that the other half was to run
along a country of such a nature, that the cuttings would be
very trifling, the gradients by no means steep, the works
generally. presenting no engineering difficulties whatever,
and that there would not be a single tunnel upon the whole
of the line; that near the town of Estaple the line will
cros the river Couche, at the part delineated in the map, by

means 0f.4 viaduct, 250 metres long (about 600 feet), a work
to the formation of which very few difficulties of any mo-
ment presented themselves. But at Amiens the line would
meet the great northern line, and it was proposed that the
stations of both those companies at Amiens should be one
am! the same, i.e., one station common to the use of both,
provided some impediment that could rot now be foreseen
did not arise to mar so desirable an arrangement. That

the land required for the cuttings and other works in
the different arrondissements through which it was
proposed the line should pasS, had been submitted to
courts of arbitration, to determine its value, and that in
every case the question of claim for compensation had been
amicably and most satisfactorily arranged. That before the
end of the present year, the works, shops, &c, vnd the most
important part of the line will have been completed; and
that before the end of the year 1846, the principal works
between Amiens and Estaple, will also have been completed;
and that every arrangement had been made to insure the
completion of the works on that portion of the line betwenf
Amiens and Abbeville, by the same period, and that there-
fore the "administration" had every reason to hope that the
entire of the line frem one terminus to the other would be
finished and thrown open to the public by the month of May,
1847. The report then entered into an elaborate detail of

the many advantages that would accrue to the shareholders
from the fact of their connexion with the Northern line, and
having concluded with that a-surance, it then set forth a
statement of the receipts and expenditure of the company
since its commencement, by which it appeared that the
liabilities already incurred amounted to 11,897,789 f, leaving
still in the hands of the treasurer a balance amounting to
about 1,000,000 f.
A SHAREHOLDER proposed that steps be taken to bring
about an amalgamation of this company with the Northern,
but after a short discussion he withdrew his motion, a mem-
ber of the "administration" having stated that this com-
pany we: e always anxious for such a measure, and would be
ready to adopt it at any time, and were only prevented from
adopting it before now by reason of the delay attendant upon
the applications necessary to be made to the Conseil d'Etat
before such an arrangement could be entered into.
The proceedings of the day were wound up by a speech
from M. Bazael, the engineer of the line, who in the course of
his observations said, that the works had already been com-
menced between Amiens and Abbeville, and also in the neigh-
bourhood of Estaple; that some portion of the line would be
open to the public within two months after the opening of the
Northern line next year. That the interval between Abbe-
ville and Estaple, passing through or by fortified places, would
have to be disposed of by the military council; but owing to
previous arrangements that had been made, very little had
been lett for that body to do, for the plans for the works at
these places were so plain and simple that he had no fear of
their being objected to. He concluded by stating that he had
had no engineering difficulties to encounter, and that the re-
maining part of the line between Estaple and Boulogne, he
felt assured, would be completed in such time as to enable
the whole of the line to be thrown open to the public by the
spring of 1847. .
The CHAIRMAN announced that a dividend after the rate
of four francs per share had been declared, and would be pay-
able on and after the oth of November next.

The report and statement of accounts were then unani-
mously received and adopted, the same directors, or " ad-
ministration," re-elected, after which a compliment was paid
to them and the chairman for their services, and the meeting
separtaed.—chronicle.