The Sun.
London, England, 1852-01-12 00:00:00

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

PROPOSED POST• OFFICE AT THE LONDON•DRIDGE
RAILWAYS.—A memorial to the Postmaster-General is
now being numerously signed for permission to establish
a district post-office at the London-bridge Railway
Arcade, for the accommodation of the passengers, now
calculated to amount to upwards of ten millions per
annum. The directors of the railway companies are
understood to support the proposal.
MIDLAND GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY OF IRELAND.
—The engineer's estimate for constructing the proposed
Longford Deviation and Cavan Branch lines, to abandon
part of the line to Longford, and to transfer the liabili-
ties of the trustees of the New Royal Canal Company
to the railway company, is 300,0001.; and this the direc-
tors propose to:defray out of a surplus in hand of 468,0001.,
and which sum will remain unexpended after the exe-
cution of all authorised works, out cf their original
capital share and loan of 2,596,666/.
ABBOTT'S WOOD AND STOKE RAILWAY.—This ex-
tension loop line is at length ready for opening, and the
Government inspector goes over it to-day.
NORWEGIAN RAILWAY.—It appears that the first sec-
tion of this lino, from Christiana to Lake t:Dron, a dis-
tance of fourteen miles, will be opened for traffic, in the
course of two months, and a further distance of thirty
miles is to be completed in about thirteen months.

INFANTRY FIRING. MUSKET BALLS. -- Marshal
Saxe computed that, in a battle, only one ball of eighty-five
takes effect. Others, that only one in forty strikes, and no
more than one in four hundred is fatal. At the battle of
Tourney, in Flanders, fought on the 22d of May, l 794, it is
calculated that two hundred and thirty-six musket shots
were expended in disabling each soldier who suffered.—Notes
and Queries.

[ADVERTISEMENT.]—Contents of the Observer,
Sunday Morning, January 11—Four columns and a half of
the four days' lunacy case of Mrs. Catherine Cumming; six
columns of the loss of the Amazon steamer, including edi-
torial remarks ; four columns and a half of the latest French
affairs; three columns and a half of the engineers' and their
employers' strike; two columns and a half of St. Pancras
and St. Marylebone vestry meetings; six columns of useful
advertisements; and thirteen columns of miscellaneous news
—in all, forty of the Observer folio columns for 6d. Mon-
day's Observer, best for the country and abroad, at four
o'clock Monday afternoon.
APPREHENDED FALL OP THE GRAND TERMINUS
OF THE GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY.— Within the last
two or three days considerable apprehension has been ex-
cited amongst the authorities, architects, engineers, and
contractors for the construction of the stupendous works in
progress, as the grand terminus of the Great Northern
Railway, at King's Cross, that unless some efficient remedy
be applied, that portion intended as the outgoing and in-
coming station for the trains will fall. With a view to pre-
vent such a catastrophe taking place sborings have been put
up so as to support the large arches, which are designed in
imitation of the transept of the Crystal Palace, es also to
strengthen the stanchions and walls upon which they
rest. It is stated by practical men that in propor-
tion to the span' of an arch, more especially when of
such a bow as those in course of erection at the ter-
minus of the Great Northern Railway, the stanchions
or supporters, should be increased in thickness and copse-
qnent strength, and the failure in the present instance is the
circumstance that the outer walls, or stanchions on which the
arches at the Great Northern terminus rest, are not of suffi-
cient thickness to bear the superincumbent pressure of the
immense arches resting upon them, and the result is that.B
symptoms have been perceived of their giving
the base. With a view, if possible, to prevent the calamity
way towards
likely to result from the falling of such immense wo r
even the:labour and expense of pulling down and rebuilding,
large bodies of men in the employ of Mr. Jay, the contractor,
under the direction of Mr. Lewis Cubitt, the architectien
and
)e
andpor it ter
* 13
s
engineer of the Great Northern Company,
em-
ployed in strengthening the foundations of
and otherwise adding to the calibre of the
hoped and believed that their efforts successfulwillbe in
htahvee
walls,su
sustaining the arches without further fear of settlement of
the foundation.
The establishment and, on Monday last, the formal
opening of the Exchange at Wolverhampton (really the me-
tropolis of the iron districts) constitute a characteristic of
the present period. Wolverhampton is the principal resort
on matters of business for the ironmasters of South Stallard-
shire; and the erection of so splendid and convenient a struc-
ianshlvbeithaonptes
ture as that now occupied by the merchants and manufac-
turers of the neighbourhood is highly creditable,
it will be equally profitable, to the enterprising
of that town.
On Saturday the Metropolitan Typographical
or Nominee Fund Society held their second
Widow, Orphan,
annual meeting, at the School-room, Harp-alley, Fleet-
street, Mr. R. Hartwell in the chair. The report was read
by the secretary, Mr. Longman, from which it appeared that
the claims on the funds during the past year had been for
sixteen deceased members, making in all, since the first year
of the society, twenty-two deaths, at 201. each death 410/.
The funds were in a flourishing state, but members ad not,
during the last year, so much increase in numbers as might
have been expected. A letter was also received from Luke
Hansard, Esq, informing the society of h is stillretaining
the office of trustee. Several fresh committee-men were
elected, the treasurer and secretary re- elected, and thanks
Toed to the chitinuaa, after which the meeting separated.