The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-10-12

| as ''paSSed TO our cOWpOSllOr WITHOUT proper eA-
| 'amination.'
| -.
| TIE EXTRA DIVIDEND INJUNCTIoN.-In the Circnit
| Circuit Court of the United States, Judge Giles
yesterday passed a decree, dismissing the bill of w.
E. Pearse and G. Snnickson, praying an injunction
to restrain the President and Directors of the Balti
more and Ohio Railroad Company from paying the
| extra dividend declared in November, 1856, &c.
AS the opinion is very long one, occupied for the
most part with the discussion of technical questions
| we have prepared the following synopsis which we
think will be found fully to give the points decided
by his Honor, and the grounds upon which his deci
| sion is based. -.
After stating the pleadings in the at great
length, and etermining. in opposition to the
ground assumed by the counsel of the Company,
that the propriety of the declaration of the divi
dend was matter for the Court to determine, and
not subject over which the President and Direc-
tors of the road had exclusive jurisdiction, his
Honor proceeds to examine the evidence before
him. In order to do so, he first considers the
effect of the answer, and determines, that being
responsive, it is to beregardedin such preliminary
proceeding under the Jules of equity, as evidence
of the facts which it contains. Upon the
facts set up by the answer he then COM
mens, and assuming them to be true, he
decides that the amount of net profits claimed to
have been earned by the Company should be re-
duced, by the deduction of certain items, from
81 O97 033 the amount of Mr.. CARROTS figures, to
S2,773,9lO. The latter amount being within $780,
900 of the amount divided, his Honor determines
that he ought not to restrain its distribution
among the stockholders in the shape proposed the
resolution to that effect passed in December, 1856,
never having been since rescinded. In coming to
this legal conclusion, his Honor recognizes the doc
trne, that although tine Company had applied the
net earnings in question to construction, it might
still divide them profits if they had been applied
with an intention to return them to the stockholders
In determining the fact ofsuch intention he bases his
conclusion exclusively upon the statements of the
answer to that effect, which, he says, "must be
taken as true on this notion" q. the preimi-
nary motion for an injunction.) Concluding from
all these facts so assumed that it had not been
"clearly shown" that the Company had exceeded
its powers in making the dividend, and determining
that in order to justify the granting of an injunc
ton, such fact must be "clearly shown" he refuses
the Injunction. He then proceeds to examine the
technical question of parties, and believing the
stockholders to be necessary parties and that they
could not be brought in under the limited jurisdic
tion of the federal court in which he is sitting, his
Honor dismisses the Bill without prejudice, refer
ring the complainants to the State Courts, where
all the parties can be properly made.
1t will be SEEM therefore, that the dismissal Of
the Bill is upon merely technical grounds, and that
so far as the question of the extra dividend is
cerned, the decision of Judge Giles is based exclu-
svely upon the facts set up in the answer of the
Company, which is merely under seal, and not un-
der the oath of any of the officers. Even upon the
Company's own facts, the judgment Of the Court
makes the damaging reduction of 1898, 1923 from
the net earnings pretended and the refusal to grant
the injunction is predicated upon legal principles,
strictly and technically applicable to the prelimi-
nary character Of the proceeding.
AN ESCAPE OF THE GovERNMENT--THE ALLEGED
| CaIRIoul Coal MINEs.-Itmay be recoected that a
great effort was made during the last session of Con-
gress to induce the Government to purchase an al
| legged coal region that had been found near Chri-
| qui, Central America, and to have appropria-
ton made of several hundred thousand dollars for
| this object.
The Washington Star of last evening says:
We have been informed by competent geologist
that there is no trace of coal measures in that re-
gion that no carboniferous fossils have even been
found there, and that the supposed coal mine is a
| tertiary deposit of Ignite of less value for fuel
than many of the peat deposits in the New England
| States. The Chiriqui Ignite is doubtless about
| such a deposit as those in Southern Texas out Of
| which spectators came making immense sums
| before due scientific investigation demonstrated
| their utter lack of any commercial value whatever
| The OVERDUE SrEAMER.-Though the prevailing
impression is that the missing steamer John L. Ste
phens, which sailed from San Francisco for Panams
on the 18th of September, to connect with the
Northern Light has been disabled only, and beer
obliged to work her way slowly into port, with bu!
one eugine-there is not little anxiety to be as
sured of her safety. The arrival of the North Sta,
1.-THE next steamer from Aspinwall) is, therefore
looked for with unusual interest.
On referring back to files, we find the Pony
Express dispatches state that the Stephens had %:
passengers, and about million in gold-of which
1928, 900 was consigned to parties in New York
She had likewise on board about 900 worth OF
silver ore from the Washoe mines.
Mr.. BRowN's MAJORITY. In making up our elec
ton returns, as published in yesterdays Exchange
an error occurred in giving the vote of the third
| precinct in the seventh ward, which should have
been 33S for Mr.. Brown, instead of 23S. There
were also several other unimportant errors, thai
upon being corrected make Mr.. Browns majority
over Mr.. Hindes, s,lC0. We were led into these
mistakes by the parties who transcribed the returns
from the poll-books. The official returns, which will
probably be made in day or two, may slightly
vary the above majority.
HOLIDAY STREET THEArRE-BEYEFIr OF Mr..
BooTH.-The friends of Mr.. Booth will be glad to
laorn This OF Hnllida