And here this allusion to the preference-share system, introduces us to a fact which may fitly close this detail of private interests and questionable practices—a fact serving at once to illustrate the subtlety and concert of railway officialism, and the power it can exert. That this fact may be fully appreciated, it must be premised, that though preference-shares do not usually carry votes, they are sometimes specially endowed with them; and further, that they occasionally remain unpaid up until the expiration of a time after which no further calls can be legally made. In the case in question, a large number of £50 preference-shares had thus long stood with but £5 paid. Promoters of extensions, &c., had here a fine opportunity of getting great power in the Company at small cost; and, as we shall see, they duly availed themselves of it. Already had their party twice tried to thrust the proprietors into a new undertaking of great magnitude. Twice had they entailed on them an expensive and harassing contest. A third time, notwithstanding a professed relinquishment of it, they {81} brought forward substantially the same scheme, and were defeated only by a small majority. The following extracts from the division lists we take from the statement of one of the scrutineers. +──────────────────────────+──────────+──────────────────────+────────+────────+──────────+ │ │ 50_l._ │ │Recorded│ Total │ Number │ │ │Preference│ Additional Stock or │Stock at│ actual │of Votes │ │ │ Shares │ Shares │the Poll│Capital │ scored │ │ │with 5_l._│ │as held.│paid up.│ for the │ │ │ paid up. │ │ │ │Extension.│ +──────────────────────────+──────────+──────────────────────+────────+────────+──────────+ │ │ │ │ £ │ £ │ │ │ │ +──────────────────────+────────+────────+──────────│ │ │ │ 7,500_l._ stock, and │ │ │ │ │The Company’s solicitor │ 500 │ 100 50_l._ shares, │ │ │ │ │ │ │ with 42_l._ 10_s._ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ paid up. │ 75,650 │ 18,140 │ 188 │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │Ditto in joint account │ │ │ │ │ │ │ with another │ 778 │ None. │ │ │ │ │ │ +──────────────────────+────────+────────+──────────│ │The solicitor’s partner │ 60 │ None. │ 3,000 │ 300 │ 20 │