The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-05-03 00:00:00

;he rate of inclination will be one in 150 feet.

After describing the nature of the works required
on both lines, Mr. Stephenson next proceeds to draw
a comparison of the principal features of the two routes.
From Chester to Holyhead the .line passes through a
generally flat country, free from any serious difficul-
ties of execution, and with curves and inclinations of
a very favourable nature; while the works upon the
line from Porthdynllaen by Bala are said to be of a
nature that ought never to be attempted.
In point of distance of railway to be made, the Ho-
lyhead line has the advantage of having 61 miles less

than the other line. The distance from London to
Porthdynllaen, by Wolverhampton, Shrewsbury, &c.,
is 272 miles. The distance from London to Holyhead,
by Rugby, Tamworth, Chester, and Bangor, is 262
miles; showing a saving by the Holyhead line of 10
miles.

The line by Chester runs in the most direct route
to the manufacturing districts of Lancashire, Leeds,
Hull, York, Sheffield, and the Staffordshire Potteries ;
all of which are left many miles to the north by the
Shrewsbury line.

Mr. Stephenson has omitted to mention the proba-
ble sources of traffic on the proposed lines. With the
exception of the neighbourhood of Pont y Cyssylte,
the Porthdynllaen line runs through a country almost
entirely destitute of manufactures, mines, &c., of any
description. The Holyhead line, on the contrary,
passes through the rich mineral districts of Flintshire,
Denbighshire, and Carnarvonshire; and has the fur-
ther advantage of being connected at its terminus
with the Chester and Birkenhead Railway, as well as
the proposed Extension Railway to Rhuabon. The
thriving town of Holy Well is also on the line, the ma-
nufactured produce of which would alone form a con-
siderable item in the profits of this line.

Altogether we have no doubt that the Chester and
Holyhead line will be preferred, on account of its
decided superiority to the other. We think Liverpool
will be rather benefited than injured by the adoption
of this line, which will render the mineral produce of
North Wales more available than at present.

This evening, in all probability, the fate of the Mel-
bourne administration will be decided. If any reliance
is to be placed upon the declarations of the ultra-radi-
cals, it is certain that Sir Robert Peel will have a ma-
jority in favor of his amendment on the question of the
suspension of the constitution of Jamaica. We sincerely
rejoice at the prospect of foiling this nefarious attempt
of the whigs to annihilate the liberties of that important
colony. These blustering advocates of the principle of
"self-government" will not be permitted, we trust, on
this occasion at least, to carry out their tyrannical
scheme. We have often demanded " justice for Ja-
maica :" we hope that the appeal has not been made in
vain.

The whigs have thought proper to close their career
of official arrogance by the dismissal of the Duke of
Newcastle from the lord-lieutenancy of Nottingham-
shire. Whatever may have been their motives for this
arbitrary and vindictive proceeding, we have no doubt
that the noble duke will be able to vindicate his charac-
ter to the utter confusion of his upstart enemies. His
reappointment to this post of trust and honour, must
be one of the first measures of a conservative adminis-
tration.

Another glorious conservative victory has been
achieved in Scotland. Though we are not yet in pos-
session of the final state of the poll, there can be no
doubt whatever that Lord Kelburne has been returned
for Ayrshire. At the close of the first day's poll he
was 446 ahead of his opponent. The following was
the gross state of the poll on Monday evening :

Lord Kelburne (Cons.) 1560
Mr. James Campbell (Whig) 1114
Mr. Hugh Craig (Rad.)
Majority for Kelburne over Campbell.. 446

Campbell over Craig, .... 1082

The first day's poll in the contest in 1837 between
Lord Kelburne and Sir John Dunlop, stood as follows :
Sir J. Dunlop (Whig) 1378
Lord Kelburne (Cons.) .

Majority 143
Is there no evidence of reaction in Ayrshire ?

The way in which election committees are ballotted
for in the House of Commons is to us a complete
mystery. That some trickery is practised in the matter
we feel the greatest confidence. One half of the mem-
bers of that house, within a very small fraction, are
conservatives ; and we observe, by the lists of divi-
sions, that their attendance is nearly as punctual and
regular as that of the liberals. In spite, however, of
this, and in utter defiance of the doctrine of chances,
we find that the radicals have a majority on at least
four out of five of the election committees. This sin-
gular preponderance in favour of liberalism was never
more conspicuously displayed than in the ballot for
the Carlow election committee, which took place on
Tuesday last. Thirty-eight whig-radicals were called
on this occasion, and only seventeen conservatives !
But, what is a still more astonishing fact, in connec-
tion with this ballot, the names of Sir Wm. Follett,
Mr. Maclean, Sir George Rose, Mr. Law, and Sir E.
Sugden, were included among the seventeen coriser-

vatives, no one of whom (owing to illness and profes-
sional avocations) could possibly have attended. We
must say that this extraordinary result is fraught with
suspicion. Two conservatives only are left upon the
committee. Mr. Bruen has very slender chances of
obtaining justice from a tribunal thus constituted.

On reperusing Mr. Sleigh's pamphlet, entitled "A
Visit to the Corporation Schools," we frankly confess
that we can scarcely discover a paragraph in it which
is deserving of a serious reply. As we before stated,
he has left the " school question" exactly where he
found it. So far from contributing in the remotest
degree to " set it at rest for ever," he has indirectly
furnished us with a distinct corroboration of the asser-
tions made by the clergy of the town in reference to
the exclusion of the Bible.

Mr. Sleigh may not be aware that, by a formal re-
solution of the Town Council, it was agreed that the
" Irish System of Education" should be introduced
into the Corporation Schools. N ow, it is well known
that according to that system the Bible is not intro-
duced during school hours. On the contrary, it is
expressly provided that an hour shall be devoted, after
the regular business of the school is over, to the religious
instruction of the pupils; and even then it is not im-
perative on the master or any one else to produce the
Bible. Indeed, no provision whatever is made for
enforcing the attendance of the children during the
hour so set apart for religious instruction. We say,
therefore, that the Irish system does practically ex-
clude the Bible durirtg school hours.. The resolution
authorising the Education Committee to introduce this
system is to this day unrescinded. Mr. Sleigh's "Visit
to the Schools," therefore, is no answer to the " decla-
rations" made by the opponents of the Irish system.
His statement respecting the presence of " the Bible—
the actual Bible" in the schools may be perfectly
correct, and yet not invalidate in the least the
statements against which he declaims. If the Bible
be in use in these schools, as a school book, let Mr.
Sleigh inform us on what authority it is so used. Let
him inform us when the Irish system was set aside,
and under what sanction. Let him remember that the
dispute lies between the clergy and the corporation.
Until the latter repeal the obnoxious resolution, Mr.
Sleigh's assertions, however multiplied, can have no
other effect than that of making him ridiculous in the
eyes of the public.
As to the alleged proficiency of the pupils of these
schools in biblical knowledge, the very subjects touched
upon in Mr. Sleigh's examinations prove that that
knowledge may have all been obtained through the
medium of the "Extracts." The subjects are all his-
torical. The vital doctrinal truths of the Bible are not
alluded to. The exclusion of these is the essential vice
of the system.
In conclusion we would just remark that Mr. Sleigh
should have informed himself with respect to the real
merits of the dispute, before he ventured to publish his
abusive tirade against the clergy of Liverpool.