The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-10-22 00:00:00

stance no Provisional Committee was announced) brow
before the public the project of a Line from Shrewsbury
to join the Grand Junction Line at Wolverhampton, in-
stead of Stafford, (anti subsequently proposed to be ex-
tended to Birmingham); communications afterwards took
Place on the subject of the different Shrewsbury Railways,
: the result of which was, that the Grand Junction Direc-
tors agreed, as a concession to the London and Birming-
ham Company and to the new Shropshire party, to adopt
Wolverhampton, instead of Stafford, as the terminus ;
here again affording, surely, proof enough of anything
but a sire on their part to dictate. After these preli-
minary remarks, the Directors approach the two points
now in dispute, namely, first, who, under the agreement
-of the 3rd of July last between the London and Birming-
ham and Grand Junction Companies, wt-re to be the
"makers" of the Shrewsbury and Wolverh.mpton Line;
and Ito ndl y , whether Mr. Gore's patty have nr hare
not debated that agreement. The following statement
will, it is hoped, make it deer that there is no ground
whatever for complaint against the Directors of the Grand
Junction. Railway on either point.
First, as to the agreement itself ; if, in express words,
states., the*, the Grand Junction Company shall snake the
Line ; and when it is considered that the), we .e to provide
half the capital, and also to guarantee interest upon the
total amount, whatever that should be, it surely a as most
reasonable that they should be the makers of it. In Mr.
Gore's statement, however, it is said, that " it is obvious
to any impartial observer, that the word ' make' is clearly
modified and restrained from the meaning sought to be
put uron it by the stipulation as to the leasing of the
Line. In refutation of this attempt to explain away the
m.,aning of the word, the Directors beg to observe, that
the two London and Birmingham Directors, who made
the agreement, wished, at the time, that Mr. Gore's ratty
should be the makers of the Line, and they proposed (to
the Grand Junction Directors) that the agreement should
stand in that form ; the latter. however, after discussi.tn
of the matter with the London and Birmingham Direc-
tors, expressly refused to consent to the proposition, and
the agreement was altered into its present form, and
signed aecorlingly on behalf of both Companies. More
need not he said in proof that nil the parties to the agree-
merit, al Ike time they entered into it, intended precisely
the same thing, and attached precisely the same meaning
to the word " make" ; and to shew that the London and
Birmingham Directors held the same opinion at a later
date, the Solicitor of that Company wrote to Mr. Roy.
the Solicitor of the Shrewsbury party, on the 23rd of
August, a letter, from which the following is an extract:
" My understanding of the arrangement between your
Company and the London and Birmingham, is as you
have expressed it, namely, that the Grand Junction were
to take up the agreement at the point where they had left
it. I must say, also, that I contemplated that your Com-
I
pany were to be Lessors of the line, so as to cause its

being made, and to that extent the mowing party ;butl

have invariably expressed my opinion, that virtually the
making of the Line must be by the Company guarantee-
ing the interest; the mode of carrying this out had
never been discussed between us, and was, in tact, the
point at which we had just arrived, when the arrangement
with the Grand Junction was made."

To this the Directors will only further add, that their
Solicitor had previously (namely on the 24th of July)
been informed by the Solicitor of the London and Bir-
mingham Company, that Mr. Glyn was inclined to think,
not that the Shrewsbury parties should make the Line,
but that they " should be kept on until the Act of Par-
liament were obtained." thus distinctly excluding the idea
that they were to be the makers of the Line, a duty which
of course does not arise until after the period up to
which, only, their services might (in his view) be retained.
Having thus, they hope, conclusively established their
first point,—that they were to he the makers of the Line,
—the Directors proceed to the other question, whether
the Shrewsbury party have or have not concurred in that
agreement; and it is admitted to be a very material ques-
tion-in the present position of affairs. In Mr. Gore's
published statement it is alleged—
" That the only concurrence ever given by them was
that contained in the letter of their Chairman of the 12th
of July, inclosing the terms 'which recognised this Com-
pany as the makers of the Line; that. this Committee
have never, in the slightest degree, departed from that
position ; they never have assented to the Grand Junction
being the makers."
The contrary has been quite as distinctly declared, on
behalf of the London and Birmingham Directors, to the
Grand Junction Directors; the former have reported to
the latter, that the agreement of the 3rd July was read
over to Mr. Gore and his friends, on the 10th July, and
that he then " pointed out the discrepancy bEtween the
terms of t he new arrangement and the previously existing
agreement for making the Line, by which the Shrewsbury
party were to be the makers of it, under the stipel vision
of (lining Committee; whereas by the new arrangement,
Me making of it is transferred to the G, and Junction
Company." The Grand Junction Directors were in-
formed by Mr. Glyn, on the same day, that there was
souse little difficulty made by Mr. Gore and his friends
upon some parts of the agreement, and that therefore
their official concurrence in it might be a little delayed ;
but on the 15th of July, the London and Birmingham
Company sent the f 'flowing letter to the Grand Junction,
without at all noticing Mr. Gore's to Mr. Glyn of the
12th, or in• any other way indicating that there remained
the slightest 'ejection to the " new arrangement" :
" London and Birmingham Railway Offices,
Enston Station, 15111 July, 1844.

" MY DEA ft Sia.—The day following my return from
Birmingham, I made known•to the Chairman of the Pro-
visional Committee of the Shrewsbury and Birmingham
Company the terms of nor arrangement. so far as they
were interested in it. This notice, which I accompanied
with en assurance that the Grand Junction Company
fully intended to afford all the accommodation and faci-
lities which the Shrewsbury traffic might require, was
received in good part, and it now only remains for Mr.
Parker, Mr. Roy, and Mr. Swift to meet as coon as they
can, -on behalf of the three parties concerned, to give
legal Teel to our measures.
" I am, clear Sir, yours faithfully,
(Signed) " GEO. CARR GLYN.
" To John Moss, Esq."
If the Grand Junction Directors could, after this letter,
have had the slightest doubt of the fact of the concurrence
of Mr. Gore's party in those measures, such doubt
would have been removed by a letter rom the London
and Birmingham Chairman, dated as late as the 12th of
September last, wherein he expressly repeats that that
concurrence li,cl been given. The misunderstanding,
then, if any exists, as to the tiriking a the Line, has
been between the Shropshire.parties and the London and
Birmingham Directors: the Grand Junction have neither
caused nor contributed to it in any way whatever.
In Mr. Gore's statement, again, reference is made to
his letter of the .12th July, as showing that some terms
had been then actually arranged between him tend the
London and Birmingham Company, including amongst
them a provision that his party should he the makerstof
the Line; and in the same letter again he refers to his.
meeting with the London and Birmingham Company of,
the Wednesday previous (the 10th of July), as If such a
provision had been recognized at that Meeting ; whereas
the London and Birmingham Directors' Report of what
passed at that Meeting distinctly states on the contrary,
and Mr. Parker, their Solicitor, also writes, that the
terms, so far from having b-en agreed upon, had never
been even discussed ; and, moreover, (as will be seen by
Mr. Creed's letter, which follows.) he expressly stated
to Mr. Roy, when he delivered Mr. Gore's letter of the
12th of July, that that letter was not consistent with the
pledge of the Grand Junction Company, contained in the
agreement read to the Shrewsbury Deputation.
The Grand Junction Directors most sincerely regret
the misunderstanding which appears td have taken place
between the London and Birmingham Directors and Mr.
Gore and his friends; probably it may be traced to the
fact (published by Mr. Gore) that he has not communi-
cated with the Grand Junction direct : if he had done so,
and if parties had met in an•amicable spirit, all differences
might have been avoided ; snob a meeting wa, in fact,
arranged, and a day was fixed, but before that day arrived
Mr. Gore thought proper to address to the Grand Junc-
tion Direeters, through the London and Birmingham, a
letter, in which he declined any meeting unless the Grand
Junction would, as a preliminary, concede the point in
dispute. In reply to this letter, the Grand Junction Di-
rectors transmitted to the London and Birmingham the
following Resolutions, and here the matter has since
rested :

1' Grand Junction Raiknoll Office, Liverpool,
18th Septfmber, 1844.

" The Board hiving consideud a letter from the Se-
cretary of the London and Birmingham Railway, dated
16th instant, communicating one from Mr. Ormsby Gore
to 1%4r. Glvn, on the subject of the proposed Shrewsbury
and Wolverhampton Railway ;
"•Resolved,---,

" That this Board cannot but feel the greatest regret
and surprise, that the London and Birmingham Board
should have allowed themselves to be made the medium
of such a communication as that from Mr. Gore (even
overlooking the offensive and uotnerited tone an" style of
it), since the purport of it is to call upon this Board to
waive a most important point of their agreement with the
London and Birmingham of the 3rd July last, and which
point was fully discussed and considered before being
consented to by Mr. Glyn and Mr. Smith, and which
was ultimately embodied in the 3rd clause of that agree-
ment in the following words. viz. :-
-`, ' That the London and Birmingham is prepared, with
the concurrence of their Shropshire party (which they will
use their best endeavoera to obtain), to withdraw from
the guarantee towards the Shrewsbury and Birmingham
Line ; the Grand Junction, with the concurrence of their
Stafford Shareholders, undertaking to make a Line to
Wolverhampton. and guarantee four per cent. on the
capital,- and an equal division of future profits ; the
Shrewsbury and Birmingham Shareholders (ander the
same condition as the Stafford and Shrewsbury) having
an option of half the Capita! ; the Grand Junction Com-
pany having a lease in perpetuity, and working the Line
in a manner convenient to that part of the country.'
" That Mr. Gore's demand, now. thi.t the Gentlemen,
whom he designates as the Board, of which he is the
Chairman, shall the makers and lessors of the Line,'
is obviously not only inconsistent with this agreement,
(which, in so many words, provides that the Grand Jun-
ction Company shall be the ' tankers' of the Line,) and
with the rights of the latter, as the guarantors of interest
on the chpt,il to be expended on it, but is also wholly
irreconeilalle with the London and Birmingham Board's
retorts to this Board, that the Shropshire party had ex-
pressed their concurrence in the agreement, after having
bad ' trade knriwn to them the terms of it, so far as they
were inte.rested in it.'

" That this Board must, most distinctly, decline to
make the declaration' required in Mr. Gore's letter.
" That the Lonthin and Birmingham Board cannot but
be aware, that this Board have all along been, and still
are, willine and anxious to carry rut the arrangement so
made, bolls in letter end spirit; and that as, in pursuance
of it, this Bonrd have obandoned their Stifo; d and
Shy ewsbury Lose, and have offered to Mr. Gore's parte,
through Mr. Roy, half Vie capital in their Wolverhampton