The Sun.
London, England, 1844-11-28 00:00:00

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

LONDON AND BIRMINGHAM RAILWAY.
A special general meeting of the Proprietors of the
above Railway 'lves held yesterday, at the Euston-square
;Lotion, for the purpose of considering the further gua-
-antee of the line to extend the IVorcester and Tring
ine to Wolverhampton; and on other special business.
Mr. J. C. Glyu was in the chair. There was a very
full attendance of Proprietors.
The notice by which the meeting had been convened
having been read,
The CHAIRMAN said he thought, perhaps, the most
regular order of proceeding would be to take, in the first
instance, the motion of which public notice had been
'4iven in the advertisement, as to the Worcester, Rugby,
and Wolverhampton line ' • and subsequently to enter
upon any other matter any Hon. Proprietor might desire
co take up. It was his (the Chairman's) duty to submit
' to them a resolution on the subject of the proposed line
risiin Oxford to Worcester, joining the London and Bir-
mingham line at Tring, and continuing on from Worces-
ter to Wolverhampton. The proceedings of the late ge-
ueral meeting had authorised, to a very considerable
4xtent, the preliminary measures connected with the line
then under the consideration of their executive body—
viz., the line from Oxford to Worcester, from
Tying to Worcester, and Oxford to Rugby. At the
,commencement of the operations of the Committee at
Worcester, to whom the matter was entrusted, they as
well as the ll!rminghain Company were in corninunica-
don with the Severn Cominiszionere.dued...the cait4Lize!l
.erests of the district, and it was thou la, from the re- I
presentations made by those parties, that a sufficient
Parliamentary ease existed to prevent, with any proba-
bility of success, the undertaking of a line from Wor-
cester to Wolverhampton. On that ground they (the
Directors of the London and Birmingham Company), ,
when they last introduced the subject to the Proprietors,
limited their remarks, on the CM they set before them,
ally to the line between Tring and Worcester, on the ,
.Me hand, and Oxford and Rugby on the other. During
the time that had elapsed since the last meetin&r, further
inquiries bad been made, and it had appeared to the
Worcester Committee, after representations made to .
them by probably the highest authority in the country
on such a subject, that the case would not be complete
Unless the district between Worcester and Wolverhamp-
ton were also comprehended in the scheme. Upon further
inquiry by the London and Birmingham Directors, it cer-
tainly appeared that the Parliamentary case which they
had in the first instance been led to believe would prevent
auy railway being constructed in that part of the country,
was not likely to be laid before Parliament in such a way
as to bring about the, ends that it had been represented to
them as likely to ensue. Under these circumstances the
Directors now came before the Proprietors to propose that I
they should extend their guarantee to the line,' between
Worcester and Wolverhampton, in addition to that 1
which the Directors had already laid before them—that
betleen Tring and Worcester and Rugby to Oxford.
The addition which this alteration made in the estimate
was calculated at 750,000 L The capital required for
the original undertaking—that which the Directors had
brought before the Proprietors on the last occasion, was
1,700,000 L The aggregate capital would therefore be
.2,500,000 L for the construction of this whole line of
railway. The total amount of revenue to be derived
from the various sources, as shown by the usual traffic I
eases in these matters, he had before him in detail, and
the particulars could e given if Honourable Proprietors
wanted them.—(Cries of " No, no.") The estimated
revenue was, in the aggregate, 226,539/, from which
they took the working expenses of 35 per cent., leaving
a net revenue of 147,250 L, thereby putting, he thought,
any opinion of the Proprietors at rest, as to the question
proposed for their consideration—he meant as to the
guarantee of 4 per cent. on the whole. It might very
naturally be asked by Honourable Proprietors present—
and the question had been put to him in private—how
the London and Birmingham Company found themselves
in connexion.with a project in that part of the country
(Worcester and Wolverhampton): It would appear to
fall naturally into the hands of the Gloucester and Bir-
mingham Company. That, indeed, was the feeling of
the London and Birmingham Directors, who had
acted on that feeling. The -Worcester Committee
I. proposed to the Grand Junction Company that that por-
tion of the line should be made jointly. They went so
far as to direct their solicitor and engineer to attend the
Grand Junction Board to treat on the question. They
(the London and Birmingham Board) thought the matter
was proceeding as such a matter ought to proceed be-
cynical two public bodies. It was certainly not for thy
meeting to ask what induced the Grand Junction Com-
pany to alter their opinion ; but it was for the meeting
to recollect that suddenly, and without previous intanit-
tion, the solicitor was informed that the Grand Junction
board had altered their views, and that they would make
the line themselves. The proceeding on the part or
the Worcester Committee was this :—They said they
would not tolerate the entire working of the line by the
Grand Junction Company ; that they would have had
that Company as partners in the undertaking, but that
if the question was to be, which of the two parties
should make the line, they would certainly put them-
selves forward for it. And the result of their putting
themselves forward to make the line had been to engage
with them in that part of the country the strongest
connexion which, probably, was ever collected together.
—(Hear, and cheers.) Thee had now the co-operation of
- Lord. Ward and his. friends, and any. Hon. -Proprietor

who was acquainted with that part of the country must
know very well the value of that connexion, and the re-
spectability it must confer on any undertaking, and that,
in fact, whoever was supported by it, went iutu the dis-
trict with claims superior to any other body. There
was one other point connected with this matter to %blob
he desired to call the attention of the Proprietors before
he read the resolution with which he should conclude.

The Directors were most anxious, as far RS rested with
the London and Birmin,,.,,ham Company, to take no step
that should be considered in the slightest degree aggres-
sive.—(Hear, and cheers.) With this view an intima-
tion had been conveyed to the Grand Junction Railway
Company that shares were reserved for them to take if
they were so disposed. But, as far as the London and
Birmingham Company were concerned, he would go
further than that. The Directora had always, as stated
to the Proprietors at the last meeting, represented
this measure as a measure of protection.—(Hear, hear,
and cheers.) He repeated it, as a measure of pro-
tection ; and if the Grand Junction Railway Company
were so disposed, as far as the London and Birmingham
Company .were concerned, and with filo, assent of the

other parties interested, they were ready to admit them
into the guarantee.—(Hear, and cheers.) Ile stated this
because he shoald be sorry to find an imputation go out
of that room that the London and Birmingham Cone
pang had meditated an aggressive act against the Grand
Junction Company.—(Hear.) He now begged to move
the resolution to which he had already referred :
" That this Company do agree to accept a lease in
perpetuity of the projected railway from Mesworth, in
the county of Buckingham, to Worcester, with lines to
Rugby and Oxford, and also from Worcester to Dudley
and Oxford, at a rent which shall be equivalent to four
per cent. upon the cost of construction, with an equal
division of surplus profits between this Company and the
Proprietors of the new lines.
" That the Directors be authorised to concur in an
application to Parliament in the ensuing session, for an
Act or Acts to authorise the construction of the before-
mentioned lines of railway, and to take all such other
steps as they may consider expedient for giving effect to
the preceding resolution."
Mr. caorrim, of Liverpool, seconded the motion.
Mr. MOULT had, at their last meeting, silently as-
sented to the guarantee for the line to Worcester, con-
sidering that no existing interests wars interfered with,
and that the Loudon and Birmingham Company had a
right to give such guarantee ; but he took it that the Pro-
prietors ought to have some distinct explanation as to the
position of the London andßirmingbam and Grand June-
tton Companies, in reference to the understanding between
them of the 3d July, before they at once annulled anti
destroyed every feature of that contract or treaty which
was made for the material protection of both Companies.
He thought it right that the Proprietors should be made
aware that the guarantee for a line so far north of Bir-
mingham as Wolverhampton was a direct violation of
the spirit of the agreement, which he was willing to
believe there had never been ou the part of the London
and Birmingham Directors, any wish to destroy. Ile,
therefore, thought he was right, at this stage of the pro-
ceedings, to ask the Chairman, who had spoken of the
willingness on the part of the London and Birmingham
Board to unite with the Grand Junction Board in carry-
ing ont the line to Wolverhampton, whether any corre-
spondence or communication had taken place in order to
get rid of the difficulties which existed on the subject,
and whether the reply on the part of the Grand Junc-
tion Company warranted the Proprietors of the London
and Birmingham Company in carrying into effect the
confirmation of the principle of the abandonment of the
spirit of the treaty made in July ?
The CHAIRMAN said the question of his Hon. Friend
was of very great importance. It was a question in
which the London and Birmingham Directors must na-
turally feel a great and deep interest ; but they were in
this difficulty with the question—they were uncertain
whether the Grand Junction Directors did, at this mo-
ment, consider the agreement of the 3d of July as an-
nulled or not.
Several Proprietors, apparently also Grand Junctini
shareholders, said " Decidedly net."
A PROPRIETOR begged to refer the Chairman to the
correspondence between the two Boards. It was neces-
sary to read only a single line of that correspondence
to show that it was not annulled. .