The Sun.
London, England, 1845-03-08 00:00:00

BRISTOL AND GLOUCESTER

RAILWAY.

thwirot., Finn.tv.—The half-yearly meeting of the Bristol
and Gloucester Railway was held to-day, at the White Lion,
George Jones, Esq., the Chairman of the Board of Directors,
in the chair. The attendance of Proprietors was large.
After the CHAIRMAN had adverted to the circumstances
connected With the proposal to lease the line to the Midland
Counties Railway, and other circumstances,
The Secretary, Mr. Fletcher, read the report, which en-
tered with considerable, minuteness into the proceedings of
the Company during the past six months. From the fre-
quent cheers which the statements elicited during the read-
ing, it was evident that the Proprietors were of opinion that
the Directors had done their utmost for the benefit of the
Company.
The surplus balance being 7,858/., the Directors recom-
mended a dividend of four per cent. per annum, being 20s. for
the 50/. shares, and 12s. for the 301. for the half-year, to be
paid free of income-tax.
This was unanimously-agreed to. A balance of 2,974/. 145. 4d.
remains to be applied to contingencies.
Mr. A. W. Daniel was re-elected a Director. The number
of Directors will now be reduced to ten, but the form of
keeping up the Board must be adhered to till the Act for
ratifying the amalgamation of the Company with the Bir-
mingham and Gloucester be obtained. In the meantime the
united companies will be managed as provided for by the
terms of amalgamation recently agreed to.
The business of the lease to the Midland Counties was
then entered upon by the reading of the terms of agreement.
The CHAIIIMAN,aft.er a few explanatory statements, calcu-
lated to show that the lease was mutually beneficial to the
contracting parties, moved a resolution sanctioning the agree-
ment, and authorising the Directors to adopt the necessary
measures for carrying it into effect.
Mr. ACKEN, banker, suggested that an opinion in favour of
non-Sunday travelling, as far as practicable, be expressed to
the Midland Counties Company.
This view was supported by several shareholders, but the
matter was left to the Directors.
The agreement as to the lease was then put and unani-
mously agreed to.
Votes of thanks closed the proceedings.

THE HAMPSTEAD MURDER.
DISCOVERY OF THE WEAPON WITH WHICH THE DE-
CEASED WAS KILLED.—By the extraordinary exertions of
the police, the stick, of which some mention has been already
made as having been usually carried by the prisoner, Thomas
Rocker, has been at length discovered, and in a most remark-
able manner. It will be recollected that on the post mortem
examination of the body the surgeon gave it as his opinion
that the wounds upon the head of the deceased had been pro-
duced by some blunt and not very heavy instrument. A
shoe-maker's pincers found in the prisoner's room was at first
supposed to be the weapon, but the surgeon thought it a
most unlikely one. He thought a stick more probable. In-
quiry was accordingly directed to the habits of the accused,
and it was ascertained from the evidence of his father and
brother that, up to about three weeks before the date of Mr.
Delarue's murder, he had usually carried a large and rather
heavy yellow walking-stick, which he said he had left
behind hint at the house of some friend. The police,
however, thought it by far more likely that it had been
secreted in some convenient spot until its services might be
required, and accordingly every hedge and trench, and place,
about the neighbourhood of the fatal spot has been examined,
but to no purpose. On Thursday evening, however, In-
spector Shackell, of the detective police, received an intitna •
tion that a young man in the employment of Mr. Rudd,
a poulterer in the New-road, had found a large yellow
walking-stick, covered with blood, secreted in the herbage
at the side of one of the bridges in the Regent's Park. In-
spector Shackell went instantly to the person indicated, and
at once received the stick and the particulars of its dis-
covery. Strange as it may appear, as an instance of apathy
in forwarding ,the pursuit of justice, this young man
had actually found the bloody instrument on the morning
of the Saturday following the perpetration of the murder,
and although the entire public of the three kingdoms have
been ever since aware of the importance of such a fact
being made known, lie has`suffered himself (it is said) to
be dissuaded by his father from coming forward or giving
any infermatiJn. The information received by the inspec-
tor proved to be in all respects unusually correct. nhe
stick had been thrust into the rank herbage or underwood
close by the bridge in the Regent's-park, not far from Prim-
rose-hill. Inspector Shackell lost no time in waiting on the
father and brother of the accused, to whom he showed the
stick, which they at once identified as the one usually carried
by Thomas Hocker, and the same of which he spoke when he
asserted that he had left it at the house of a friend. The in-
spector then waited on Mr. Rawlinson, the magistrate, at
Marylebone Police-court, to whom he privately communi-
cated his important discovery, as it cannot come before the N