The half yearly report of the Great Eastern Railway is
a most .satisfactory document. Lord Salisbury's pluck and honesty seem -to have inspired the directors; the new traffic manager is up to his work, though he cuts off too many trains ; the season has been lucky, and the Company, after carrying everything to revenue that ought to be charged to it, and 17,000/. which perhaps ought -not, has been able to pay off its debts in stock, and to pay full -dividends on everything except original shares in cash. Those poor original shareholders nothing pleasant ever happens to them! -Still, although the debts have been paid off by increasing preferen- tial charges, from 387,436/. on the half-year to 451,031/. the advance is considerable, for the next improvement in receipts or reduction in expenditure will give the shareholders something. Two tasks still remain to Lord Salisbury,—to provide a dividend -for them, and to bring the railway into London without eating it all up again, and then he may retire, satisfied that whether he ever governs England or not, his countrymen will believe that he could -do it.
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