The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-16 00:00:00

lated amounts, in carriage fur the goods and tolls for
the passengers. Everything in the arrangement has
gone on hitherto as merrily as "a marriage bell "
thatabeing, in the estimation of Childe Harold (though,
unhappily, his estimate was uncorroborated by his ex-
perience), the most hilarious article of ironmongery.
But on the Bth and 9th instant certain documents
were exchanged between the secretaries of the two
companies, announcing, on the one part, the deter-
mination of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
not to allow the trains of the East Lancashire Rail-
way to pass the Clifton Junction in future, without
delivering up the invoices of the goods, or the tickets
of the passengers, and intimating, on the other
part, the resolution of the East Lancashire
Company, to proceed as usual, the Lancashire and
Yorkshire Company to the contrary, neverthe-
less, notwithstanding. Now, both the companies
appear to possess in a very large degree that national
quality which Mr. EmeusoN considers to be the pre-
vailing characteristic of Englishmen. They both
have pluck. Both abound in what the Scotch term
"wilfu' men," and all the " wilfu' men" of both
companies would "gang their ain gait." The
consequence Ras, of course, a collision, but un-
fortunately the collision was of a physical descrip-
tion. Instead of knocking their own heals together
(which would doubtless have been mutually service-
able), they tried to knock together the heads
of their passengers, and by that means settle their
dispute in a right royal way, by deputy. As we
are rather of the same mind, however, with Made-
moiselle Jeannette in the song; and as we would wil-
lingly, if possible, lay it down as an universal axiom—
" Let those wh• make the quarrels
Be the only men to fight!"
we do at once, and most earnestly, deprecate the
conduct pursued by the officials of the Lancashire
and Yorkshire Railway Company in obstructing the
line with barricades of timber, and in otherwise
striving to gratify a pique at the expense of the un-
conscious and unoffending public. Well may the
general manager of the East Lancashire Railway,
when recounting the result of these extraordinary
proceedings, express the horror and astonishment
with which he saw one of the trucks backed on to
another shunt and impelled along a different line of
rails in the face of other trains approaching from
INlanchester !

Comparatively speaking, it matters little to the
public whether or not the conduct of the Lancashire
and Yorkshire Railway authorities was dictated by
feelings of jealousy, but it does concern the public
most deeply, both in regard to its convenience,
and especially in regard to the safety of its
life and property, that trains full of goods
and travellers should be jeopardised through
the irritability of Captain LAws, or through
the illegal " pluck" of any general manager, be he
Captain, Commodore, or Admiral-of-the-Fleet. Any
occurrence so disgraceful has not hitherto been re-
corded in the annals of our great railroad under-
takings. Until the proceedings of last Monday
morning at the Clifton Junction, the rivalry of dif-
ferent companies has scarcely ever proved otherwise
than advantageous to the public—and, most certainly,
until then, that rivalry had never imperilled
public life and public property. Before Captain
LAWS, with a temerity which may yet recoil
severely upon himself, ventured to adjudicate upon
his own case, and to fight the battles of his company,
in true railway style, by steam—the competition be-
ween line and line had only furbished up the abilities,
the promptitude, and the enterprise of different com-
panies, just as bits of iron are polished by the friction
of an ingenious instrument called the scrap-drum in
one of the railway workshops in the railway town of
Wolverton. Here, however, is a case so un-
paralleled that it must always be looked
to hereafter as a precedent. Let the law
render that precedent beneficial to the na-
tional interest. Otherwise, the petulance, or
as Mr. EMERSON might perhaps call it, the pluck of
Captain LAws may on another occasion compel us to
catalogue the number of killed and wounded in one
of his Battles of the Steam-engines.

'U HE FRENCH REPUBLIC

We have received the Paris papers of yesterday.
On the afternoon of Wednesday two of the men
convicted of the murder of General BREA were shot.
The others will, it is snid, be sent to the gallies for life.
Ti:e village of St. Miur, near the Bois de Vincennes,

is to be permanently garrisoned by 20,000 men.
M. DUCIIESNE, editor of Le Potpie, and M. Louis
MERcAap, author of a feuilleton published in that
journal, were sentenced by default on Wednesday by
the Court of Assize of Paris to imprisonment for four
years, and to pay a fine of 5,000 f.
The illoniteur publishes a decree of the PRESIDENT
of the Republic, appointing 13 captains and two lieu-
tenants to command in the Republican navy.
The iironiteur also publishes a letter from Mr.
TuaNnum., the British Consul at Granville, ad-
dressed to Captain JAYET DE GERCOURT, of the Go-
vernment steamer Passe-Partout, announcing that he
is commissioned by Lord PALMERSTON, Secretary of
State fur Foreign Affairs to the Queen of ENGLAND,
to express his gratitude to the brave sailors of the
Government steamer Passe-Partout fur their huma-
nity in having, on January llth, gone to the relief of
an English sloop, the Little Gem, which was in
danger of being wrecked near the port of Granville,
and bringing her safe into harbour; and his regret at
the loss of five of the sailors from the upsetting of one
of the boats of the Passe-Partout, and to present to
the two survivors a medal and 101. each, 241. to
ezch of the families of four of the men who perished,
and 361. to the widow of the fifth, who was a quarter-
master.

The following is the result of the second ballot for
the election of President of the National Assembly
for the ensuing month :
M. A. MARRAST, 378; M. DUFAERE, 256; M.
GB.EVY, 31 ; M. 13iLLAuLT, 6. M. MARRAST was then
declared to be duly elected President of the As-
sembly.
The frequenters of the Parisian salons have
been greatly amused by the circulation of a
piquant piece of scandalous gossip, of which the
chief of the reactionary party is the hero.
The Place St. George was, it seems, on Tuesday
disturbed from its propriety by sounds of discord
proceeding from the hotel of M. THURS. The sounds
at length became so alarming that the sentinel on
duty entered the house to ascertain the cause,
when he found M. and Madame THIERS engaged in
fierce combat, and experienced considerable difficulty
in separating them.
The trial of the accused of the 15th May is still
proceeding at Bourges.

The proceedings of Wednesday were principally
devoted to the investigation of the charges against
BLANQUI. Among the witnesses examined were
MM. FLOCON and TAECHEREAU.

It was rumoured on the Bourse that an attempt
had been made at Turin to proclaim a Republic, but
that it had been suppressed, and that the KING had
sent for GIOBERTI. The report, however, did not
obtain much credit. It was also reported that
the English and French Governments had
agreed upon a joint note to Russia,
relative to the conduct of the Russian
Government at Constantinople, in which note the
two Governments distinctly declare that any attempt
on the part of Russia to three the Dardanelles will
be considered by them as a casus
The Journal du Havre states, that the Government
of the Republic has received intelligence from Buenos
Ayres, that Mr. SOUTHERN had succeeded in arrang-
ing the differences subsisting between the English
Government and that of General ROSAS.

Italian agents are making large purchases of arms
in Paris.

The Five per Cents. fell on the Passage de l'Opera
on Wednesday night to 85f. and closed at 85f. 40c.
Propositions have been made within the last few
days, on the part of the Turkish Government, to the
Polish officers now in Paris, offering them the same
rank in the service of the SULTAN that they held in
the Polish army, and in case they accept the offer
they are requested to proceed immediately to Con-
stantinople.

Eight cases of cholera have taken place in Paris since
the 9th, two of which were fatal. The disease is said
to be of a much milder character than in 1832. Most
of the cases just mentioned have taken place in the
Gros Caillou, which was so much ravaged by that
terrible scourge during its first visit.

It was currently reported in Paris yesterday that
a collision had taken plac® between the Piedmontese
and the Austrians, in which the latter had been de-
feated. The French Government, however, had re-
ceived no intelligence of such collision. The Patric
of Wednesday night says—
" The news received to-day from Turin is of the
highest importance. War is decided upon, and the King
was to go in person on the 14th to Alessandria, to direct
the operations of the army. General Chranowsky is
appointed responsible Commander -in. Chief. Notice was
to be given on the 13th of the intention to put an end to
the armistice, but it is certain that the stipulated eight
days will not bo waited for before commencing hos-
tilities." _ _

PARIS IsOURSE, THURSDAY, Menan 15.
THREE O'CLOCK.—TIIO warlike :appearance of anus
in Lombardy has had § serious effect on the 13eurse,