The shareholders of the Great Eastern Railway must he happy
-people. Their shares by the latest accounts are worth less than :Spanish bonds, 38 to 41, and at the half-yearly meeting on Saturday :the new chairman- informed them that "if the shoe pinched now, it would pinch worse in June," for they would have to meet a charge for interest increased by 40,000/. and the loss of their -entire traffic in cattle. It appears that the steamers to Harwich have involved a heavy loss, and the company has still some branch lines to make. The statement altogether was only hopeful in its frank acknowledgments of disaster, and we regret to see neither board nor shareholder's appear inclined to try the only sound • reform—a great reduction of fares. The Eastern Counties lead nowhere, and only low fares will ever develop the local traffic. The first-class passenger fare in particular is beyond the means of any but a limited class, and those who cannot pay it have a great temptation to trarbl third, and so make an appreciable saving. The company should push on their Finsbury works, too. The .Shoreditch station is the most inaccessible and inconvenient in the .nietropolis.
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