1849—FEBRUARY 24—At the half yearly meeting it was announced that the interest, which had hitherto been given to the shareholders on the amount of capital paid up, must be discontinued for want of funds; and the directors talked of making an arrangement with the Great Western Railway Company “more suitable to existing circumstances.” 1849—JUNE 9—At a special meeting of the proprietors a long report was presented from the directors, complaining that the Great Western Company would now only give them £4 per cent. on £2,500,000 of capital, instead of on the whole sum necessary to complete the line, as the directors had understood them to guarantee, and had led their proprietary to believe. A committee of proprietors was appointed to confer with the directors upon the course to be adopted. 1849—SEPTEMBER 1—Another special meeting of the directors, held in London, at which the committee of proprietors, appointed at the previous meeting, presented a report, severely impugning the conduct of the directors in several particulars, and advised that the narrow gauge alone should be laid down between Tipton and Abbott’s Wood, and the line immediately opened so far. The year 1850 witnessed a total rupture with the Great Western Company, and some very unpleasant meetings between the shareholders and the directors. The Company passed two bills through Parliament—the one authorising them to sell the Stratford Canal to the Oxford and Birmingham Company, and the other to enable certain other companies to advance them money for the completion of their line. The first morsel of the railway—the half of the loop line from Worcester to Abbott’s Wood—was opened on the 5th October, and worked by the Midland Company under special agreement. In January, 1851, Lord Ward became chairman of the Company, and the whole management passed into different hands. Messrs. Peto and Betts accepted contracts for constructing the greater portion of the line; and arrangements were entered into, by issuing preference shares at £6 per cent., for raising the capital necessary to complete the undertaking, which, it was now estimated, would cost £3,300,000 instead of the million and a half, which was the sum originally intended to be raised. The preference shares were almost immediately subscribed for, and the directors soon afterwards entered into an agreement to lease the line to the London and North Western and Midland Companies; whereupon Lord Ward resigned the chairmanship, and an unpleasant correspondence took place between his lordship and Mr. Peto. The arrangement, however, was never carried out, as an injunction was obtained by the Great Western Railway Company to prevent any other company doing that of which they themselves evaded the performance.