The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-26 00:00:00

TO THE EDITORS or THE MANCHESTER TIMES.

GENTLEMEN,—A letter having appeared' in your
last paper signed " John Platford, Secretary," in re-
ference to some remarks made by the Directors of the
Manchester and Leeds Company, in their " Reply " to
the Liverpool Board, I am instructed to submit to the
public the following vindication of their statements.
The paragraph alluded to is as follows :
" The most important misrepresentation, however,
consists in the statement of relative distances to Shef-
field, Leeds, Hull, York, &c., by the route of the Shef-
field Railway. It is nowhere stated in that plan that this
railway is yet incomplete, and persons ignorant of the
facts would certainly be led to conclude that, if not
open, it was at least in an advanced state, and would
probably open as early as the June don line could be
made. Without at all seeking to disparage that under-
taking, the Manchester and Leeds Directors feel it
due to themselves and the public to say that such is
decidedly not the case, as that Company are at present
in circumstances of almost unparalleled difficulty, so
that it appears extremely doubtful whether their
gigantic works can ever be executed ; their capital
being exhausted, more than half their shares forfeited,
and the remainder at 60 per cent. discount."
Some of these facts are disputed in Mr. Platford's
letter; but it is reported in The Sun newspaper of the
7th inst., that Mr. Wilson Patten presented a petition
relative to the Sheffield Railway to the House of
Commons on that day, in which the petititioners
state, " that in consequence of the depressed state of
the times there was great danger of the undertaking
falling to the ground, and praying that Parliament
would be pleased to devise some remedy to get them
out of their difficulties."

Again, the following is an extract from the state-
ment recently made by the Sheffield Directors, with
the view of obtaining the suspension of the standing
orders of the House of Commons, so that they may be
enabled to apply for new powers in the present Ses-
sion :

The Act authorising the formation of the railway
was passed in 1837, and the capital authorised to be
raised by that Act was 700,000/. ; the length of the
railway is forty miles.
" Since the passing of the Act the Directors have
been involved in a series of financial difficulties in
consequence of the inability of a large portion of
the Shareholders to make good their subscriptions ;
and although calls to the extent of 821. 10s. per share
have been made, they have only produced a sum of
300,0001., which has been principally expended in
the formation of about eight miles of the line now
opened to the public, and of four miles in extension
which are nearly completed, and will shortly be
'opened to the public.
The most important works on other parts of the
line are also under contract ; but from the difficulties
experienced in providing the money requisite to meet
the expense of these works, they must inevitably be
stopped, unless some facilities are afforded of obtain-
ing the capital requisite for their completion.
" The commercial distress in the neighbourhood,
and the consequent insolvency which it has entailed
on a large proportion of the Shareholders, will suffi-
ciently account for the difficulties which the Directors
have had to contend with in the undertaking, and the
same causes have led to the forfeiture of a great num-
ber of shares, which shares, owing to the enormous
depreciation of the Company's stock, and the insu -
ciency of the provisions of the Company's Acts, the
Directors have been unable to re-issue.

" It had been fully anticipated that the opening of
a portion of the line, which took place in November
last, would have had the effect of improving the value
of the shares, and rendering the forfeited shares mar-
ketable, and would thus have enabled the Company to
provide funds for continuing the works without ap-
pealing to Parliament.; but this opening has not had
the effect anticipated, and the Directors, finding no
other resource left for them than the course they now
seek to adopt by the Bill which they have prayed
leave, to bring in, caused notices of the intended appli-
cation for such Bill to be inserted in the Gazette and
county papers three times in the month of January
last.

"No less a sum than 200,0001. is now due from the
Company to contractors, landowners, and others,
which they have no means of paying unless they ob-
tain the facilities which they seek by their Bill, inas-
much as the calls which they have the power of
making, could not be made with sufficient rapidity
to meet their outstanding debts and growing pay-
ments on the work as they fall due ; nor would such
calls be sufficient in amount to meet the engage-.
ments of the Company, unless some facilities are af-
forded of re-issuing the forfeited shares, and bor-
rowing money in the manner proposed by the Bill.
" The Directors firmly believe that the powers
proposed by the Bill (which has been approved by a
general meeting of the Proprietors) would have the
effect of saving the Company, and the contractors to
whom they are indebted, from ruin, and of ensuring
the completion of the undertaking, which is most im-
portant to the manufacturing districts of Lancashire,
Cheshire, and Yorkshire, and already the anticipation of
the passing of the Bill has had the effect of ma-
terially improving the value of the stock of the Com-
pany.'
As the Sheffield Company have called 821. 10s.
per share on the 1001. shares, which has yielded
them only 300,000/., they have as yet, therefore, no
power to borrow on mortgage.
The Directors of the Manchester and Leeds Com-
pany consider that they have very much understated
rather than overstated the financial embarrassments
of the Sheffield Company ; and they considered it
" due to themselves and the public" to allude to the
present position of the Sheffield Company, on account
of the exaggerated statements which had been circu-
lated of the advantages, in points of distance, of the
Sheffield over the Leeds line, for traffic passing east-
ward from Manchester. (See a map which was dis-
tributed at the late half-yearly general meeting of the
Liverpool Company.)
_ _

The number of shares actually declared forfeited by
the Directors may be only 900 ; but it was admitted
by one of them (see Railway Times, 1841, page 914)
that of the 7,000 shares " 3,700 might be fully and
fairly calculated on ; of the remainder some might be
good, but they were not competent to say how many."
The plain inference to he drawn from this is—that
the remaining 3,300 are held by persons from whom
no further payments, in respect of calls, could be rea-
sonably expected ; and at the last meeting it was
stated that not more than 1,517 had paid the last call,
so that 5,483 shares are still in arrear, and liable to
forfeiture.

At the time when that " Reply" was written, the
price of the Sheffield shares was quoted at about 321.
per share on 82/. 10s. paid up, so that they were at
rather more than 60 per cent. discount. I am, Gen-
tlemen, your obedient servant,
JOHN JELLICORSE, Secretary.
Huat's Bank, Manchester, March 18th, 1842.

ADVENTURES OF A 51. NoT E.-0 n Sunday
last a collection was made at St. Martin's church,
for the Colonial Bishops' Fund, and a religious
old lady had, in the exuberance ofTher love for
bishops, placed on the plate a 51. note. While
the churchwardens were carrying the treasure
from the portico of the church to the vestry,
guarded by the beadles, a strong gust of wind
carried off the five pound note. It re-
mained over the roof of the church for some
time ; the beadles, in their robes of office, looked
at it in wild astonishment, and as it floated
towards the river, they set off as fast as
their legs could carry them, shouting.,
" Stop it," " Catch it." The public ran in all
directions, believing that the cry was " Stop
thief:" A general pursuit ensued, but no one
could see either the thief or the object of pursuit,
till the beadles stopped it in Northumberland-
street, and cried out, " It is caught by the
churchwarden's chimney." On ascending the
roof of Mr. Cobbett's house they found the note
all safe. Mr. Churchwarden has, the character
of being a very charitable man, and a remark
made by a bystander excited great laughter, " The
note," said he, " has more sense than the giver."
SEWELL AND CROSS beg to inform the Nobility,
Gentry, and the Public, that their Premises will be
opened on Monday, 28th inst. when the remainder of
their valuable Stock will be submitted to their Friends
and the Public, at such prices, that must insure even
greater satisfaction than has been expressed by the
many thousands who have visited their. Establishment,
since the commencement of this unprecedented Sale.
Compton house, Old Compton-street, and Frith-street,
Soho-square. Sala commences on Monday, and follow-
ing days, at Ten o'Clock.