The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-02-18 00:00:00

ebe Zibtrpoot &tanbarb

TURSDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY IS, 1840.

4 Year has just elapsed since the publication of the
LIVERPOOL STANDARD was resumed under its
Present management. That resumption took place,
as most of our readers must be aware, under circum-
stances which rendered the future success of the
Paper somewhat problematical. Many of the old
subscribers, whose patronage had been extended to
the STANDARD in former years, had been led to
transfer their support to other journals, under the
impression that the STANDARD was defunct—an
impression which our Radical contemporaries took
much pains.. to strengthen and perpetuate. To this
disadvantage, sufficiently discouraging in itself, was
superadded the more serious loss of several adver-
tising connections. Confident, however, in the
strength of the Conservative body in this great coin-
tnercial town, and anxious that the. "good cause,"
which had been so long and so successfully advocat-
ed in the columns of the LIVERPOOL STANDARD,
should not suffer any detriment from the loss of an
organ Whose services had been so generously appre-
ciated, the present proprietors of this journal at once
resolved upon its republication. The result has fully
justified their anticipations. The Conservatives of
Liverpool have once more rallied round their STAN-
u'utt,---that STANDARD under which they have so
°ften victoriously fought the battles of the Constitu-
tion against the combined forces of Whiggery and
'adicalism, Popery and Infidelity.
It 15
now our pleasing, duty, at the termination of our
;first year's probation, to return our grateful acknow-
Ledgtnents for the large and increasing measure of
Support which has hitherto attended our career. The
C°llservatives •of Liverpool have fully justified the
cOnfidence which we reposed in their attachment to
the Principles which we have advocated. From these
Principles, which include the support, in unimpaired
Integrity, of our glorious Constitution in Church and
R (-7
A-
CM*
te---the maintenance of a monarchical form of
-overnm-- , checked and controuled by an heredi-
trY House of Lords, exercising independent legisla-
tive functions, and a House of Commons, freely
elected by the people—the defence of those rights
and Privileges which are the inalienable birthright of
every British subject—the support of an Established
‘. hurcb--the furtherance of a religious system of na-
tional, education—and the most uncompromising
bnrostility to every form of error, whether it be the
,Ighting superstition of Popery. the insidious poison
o Socinianism, or the pestiferous blasphemy of the
lfilthy and degraded Socialist—from these principles
we shall never deViate. They constitute the broad
basis Of our political creed. They form the founda-
tionla also of 9ur national greatness and prosperity. It
211 always, therefore, be our maxim, as it is our
motto,
be ready, in every emergency,
•Yrifith hearts resolved, and hands prepared,
The blessingsenjoy to guard."
In enteri
we
ng
upon another year in the history of the
LIVERPOOL STANDARD we pledge ourselves to
render
inir journal. worthy of increased support.
t ur Present number will bear witness to our anxiety
° furnish copious and accurate reports of public
Meetings of local and general interest, as well as
early and authentic intelligence from neighbouring
t°wris. We allude, in particular, to the report of the
great meeting for Church Extension, and to the
account of the proceedings in the Chamber of Com-
merce at Manchester.
Among the improvements which we have recently in-
troduced into the LIVERPOOL STANDARD we wish
to direct the attention of our readers to the original
intelligence which we have, for some weeks past,
given on the subject of Railways. Information of
this description must possess a peculiar interest in
Liverpool, which may he considered the central mart
for shares of every description. It is necessary to
add that we have selected our Tuesday's publication
for giving publicity to our Railway Intelligence, as a
Preliminary step towards giving to the STANDARD
of Tuesday in each week a more commercial character
than it hag hitherto assumed. While, however, we
shall endeavour to carry these plans into execution,
We shall not strive the less to render the LIVERPOOL
STANDARD one of the best FAMILY NEWSPAPERS
in the kingdom.

ti The enemies of the West India Colonies are con-
tilitling their reckless and mischievous system of agita-
:ll, and require to he most vigilantly watched, and
°st perseveringly opposed. There is nothing to
z which these men will not resort in the eagerness of their
;41 against the- injured and calumniated planters.
t, essra. Sturge, Scoble, and Co., are by no means par-
Nar in the choice of the weapons with which they
141 T on their war of extermination against the West
tibia interet. Personal abuse, misconstruction of
rti clives, garbled, statements of facts, and even gross
4'etversion of the truth, have been severally, and, we
tire sorry to add, but too successfully, resorted to in this
411°1y warfare.
b Among the most glaring of the falsehoods put forth
3' the pretended "friends of the Negroes," we would
unhesitatingly
point out the assertion that the emanci-
,Piated Negroes have been as diligent„ in the West Indies,
nee the termination of the apprenticeship, as they were
finder a coerced system of labour. That this assertion

is utterly unfounded and diametrically opposed to fact
we are fully prepared to show.

We know of Ito fairer criterion by which to judge
of the comparative industry of the Negroes in the West
Indies, previously to the abolition of slavery, and sub-
sequently to that period, than by examining the amount
of produce imported from the Colonies, during the last
few years. We have before us an elaborate statement
of the imports, deliveries, and stocks of the principal
articles of colonial growth, compiled by Mr. J. S.
Bewley, of this town, which furnishes us with the
means of completely refuting the assertions of the
Anti-Slavery folks respecting the alleged prosperity of
the West Indies. The principal article of import from
the West India Colonies is sugar. Let us see how the
facts of the case stand in reference to this important
staple. The average annual import of sugar from the
Colonies, for the six years previous to 1835, appears
to have been 255,000 hogsheads ; from 1835, when the
Apprenticeship system commenced, to 1838, when the
Negroes were finally liberated, the average was 2'4.0,000
hilds.; while the produce of the last year has dwindled
down to 179,800 hhds. The supplies of 1839 shew
the enormous decrease of 75,200 hhds. as compared
with the former period, and of 42,200 as compared
with the latter. A comparison between the imports of
sugar for the years 1838 and 1839 respectively, will
serve still more strongly to prove the indolence of the
Negroes since they obtained their freedom. The fol-
lowing will exhibit the imports from each of the Bri-
tish plantations during the last two years ;

1838. 1839.
hhds. .hhds.
Antigua
Barbadoes
•
Demerara and Berbice

Dominica
Grenada and Tobago

3,500 2,100
15,300 13,600

Jamaica
Nevis and St. Kitts 8,700 12,900
St. Lucia and St. Thomas

St. Vincent and Trinidad .. 29,850 25,200

Total imports 228,300 179,800
This statement shows a falling off in one year of
48,500 hhds. It is a singular and instructive fact—a
fact which may be noticed as connected with the imports
of other articles of Colonial produce, as well as with
that of sugar, that those Colonies show the greatest
falling off where the Negroes and the Executive Govern-
ment have been most under the controul of the Anti-
Slavery agitators. This is particularly evident from the
imports from Jamaica, Demerara, and Berbice. The
falling oil' in the imports from Jamaica amounts to
17,800 hhds ; and the imports from British Guiana
show a decrease of 18,400 hhds. Thus, out of the
total deficiency of 48,500 hhds., we find the enormous
amount of 36,200 hhds. in the Colonies of Jamaica and
British Guiana alone. Now, it is notorious that these
unfortunate Colonies have been more exposed than any
of the others to the machinations of Scoble, Sturge
Co. What are we to infer from the result afforded by
the preceding figures Can we come to any other con-
clusion than that of imputing all the mischief; the in-
dolence, and the consequent ruin which have been
witnessed in Jamaica and British Guiana to the bad coun-
sel which the Negroes have received from their pre-
tended friends ? Where the Negroes have been left
to themselves, they have been found generally disposed
to labour : where they have been meddled with by the
agents of the Anti-Slavery Society, they have been
uniformly idle and discontented.
In the article of molasses, again, we find a similar
diminution in the aggregate amount of imports. In
.
the year 1835 the number of casks imported was
51,100; in 1836, the import was 50,900 casks; in
1837, the import was 52,000 ; in 1833, the import
was 60,700; and in 1839. the import was 48,000
—showing a falling off, in the last year, of 12,700
casks.

The imports of rum exhibit a similar falling off, as
far as Jamaica and British Guiana are concerned,
though the aggregate amount from all parts, including
the East Indies and foreign countries, shows a trifling
increase. The following is a statement of the imports
of rum, from all parts, during the last five years:—

1835. 1836.
puns. puns.

1837. 1838. 1839.
puns. puns. pima.

48,700 44,750 41,100 42,900 43,400.

The discrepancy between any two of these amounts
is, certainly, not very considerable: but when we come
to look at the imports from Jamaica and Biltish
Guiana, we shall find a very serious deficiency. The
following is a table of the imports from these Colonies
during the same period :

1835.
puns.

1836. 1837. 1838. 1839
puns. puns. puns. puns.

39,000 36,900 30,600 33,500 27,450

Thus the imports of last year have been 7,300
puncheons less than the average of the four preceding
years. The consequence of this falling off in the im-
ports of the West India rums has been a considerable
advance in prices. The high prices of rum during the
past year has attracted supplies from foreign parts to a
very considerable extent. All this, has, of course,
operated injuriously to the West India interest, and
consequently to the trade and commerce of this country.
In the article of coffee, also, there has been a most
serious falling off in the imports from the West Indies
during the past year. In the year 1838 there were
imported into Liverpool 8,100 casks from the British
plantations : whilst, in the year 1839, the import was
only 6,300 casks. We believe the falling off in the
imports to London, Bristol, &c. is still more consider-
able.

The facts which have just been adduced are, we trust,
sufficient to negative the assertions made by the Anti-
Slavery Committee respecting the prosperity of the
West Indies and the orderly and diligent conduct of
the Negroes. The truth is, that, in the two principal
colonies—those of Jamaica and British Guiana—the
Negroes have been grossly misled. Every tie of gra-
titude and reciprocal affection between them and their
former masters has been, in numberless instances,
rudely dissolved by the lying insinuations of a set of
needy and interested agitators, whose policy it has been,
like that of the " Big Beggarman," to fatten upon the
imaginary grievances of the Negroes. Every insidious
art has been employed to poison the minds of the latter
against the planters. Habits of indolence have been
in consequence of the advice of their leaders, acquired
by the Negroes. They have extensively resorted to the
squatting system, and commenced the cultivation of
small patches of land, each for his own maintenance
and that of his family: and, as each family consumes
what is thus produced, the exports of the British plan-
tations are necessarily diminishing. We see no cure
for this evil but one—an extended system of free im-
migration, which, by producing greater competition,
will force the Negroes to accede to such an amount of
remuneration as can be afforded by the planters. Such
a system must be speedily adopted, or the West Indies
will be ruined..

The meeting held at the Music-hall in this town, on
Friday evening, on the subject of Church Extension,
and in support of Sir Robert Inglis's intended motion
after Easter, was one of the most important and inter-
esting ever held in Liverpool. The speeches of the
Rev. Rector Brooks, the Rev. Mr. M'Neile, and Mr.
Horsfall, appear to us specially to claim attention. The
eagerness of the operative and humbler classes to gain
admission, lnd the deep interest they took in the ac-
tual proceedings, are points too material to be lost
sight of. Had the room been twice as large as it is,
we believe it might have been filled with an overflow-
ing audience : but it had been found necessary to put
a check upon the issuing of tickets of admission at a
very early period of the week. We notice this, for it
is important that our rulers should know that very
many in the humbler walks of life have intelligence
enough to see that the welfare of the class to which
they belong—their own happiness, and that of their
children and their children's children—are involved in
the decision to which the legislature must speedily
come on this vital question.
It was. truly stated in the petition which was adopted
at the meeting, that on the poorer classes " penal mea-
sures, whenever necessary, are apt to fall with peculiar
weight and severity." And it was also stated, with
equal truth, that it is little they can do to help them-
selves. When we reflect, indeed, how dependent, un-
der any form of government, the poorer classes are
upon those who are above them, and how exceedingly
liable they are to plunge headlong into misery and
crime, if they attempt to take the remedy of even ac-
tual grievances into their own hands, they ought to be

objects of much deeper sympathy and solicitude than
unhappily they are. But those real grievances are,
strange as it may appear to some, the very ones of
which that class is ordinarily least conscious : the most
pressing evils to which they are exposed are those on
which they have never reflected. Under the ancient

parochial system, every village in the kingdom, down
even to the population of 150 or 200 souls, had a
church and a pastor; the church being often spacious
enough to hold the entire population, and the seats
open to all, as is the case to this day in most of,
or all, the Roman Catholic churches abroad, and as,
we doubt not, was the case in the early ages of Chris-
tianity, long before the errors of Popery were grafted
upon it. Whatever else the Church of Rome may
have to answer for, it is not responsible for the intro-
duction of that system of pewing, which might, we ad-
mit, have been so regulated as to preserve inviolate the
rights of the poor, but which, as it has been suffered
to prevail, is a disgrace and a scandal to Protestantism.
From a want of vigilance, and perhaps of firmness, on
the part of successive incumbents and churchwardens,
in very many instances the ancient churches of the
land (as population has gone on increasing) have be-
come appropriated to a particular caste. Yes—startle
as we may at the expression—to a particular caste;
that caste being the wealthier and smaller portion of
the community; until, to speak plainly, the poor have
been altogether deprived (we had almost said robbed)
of their share in an inheritance bequeathed to the corn-
Many a time have we been grieved to mark
n crowded churches, where our liturgical services were
performed in the most impressive manner, and where
pure evangelical truth--the gospel of Jesus Christ in
its fulness—was preached from the pulpit, that the
poor, to whom, when first promulgated, it was special-
ly addressed, formed no part of the attentive auditory ;
unless, indeed, a few could be discovered in the remote
corners and passages of the edifice, or standing, with-
out an interval of rest, in the aisles. We know of one
parish, that of Stoke Damarel, in which the town of
pevonport is situated, where, with a population of
40,000 inhabitants, there is nothing bnt aisle room for
the working classes, as far as the churches and episco-
pal chapels are concerned. And it is a fact, that in
the principal and most ancient church of Birming-
ham, with a capacity to hold 1800 persons, so
completely had the poorer classes lost all share
of the sittings, when the present rector, the Rev.
Mr. Mozeley, came to it, that, being a man of
peace, and perhaps too reluctant to avail himself of
remedies which might have involved him in unpleasant
disputes with certain of his parishioners, he purchased
some fifty sittings of privileged pew-holders, to add to
another fifty (we think that was about the number),
which had not been appropriated to the wealthier class
of parishioners.

rnunity

Again, take the parish of Sheffield (we refer to
Sheffield and Birmingham, because they have been
the scenes of recent outrage and insubordination).
Fourteen years ago that parish, having then a popula-
tion of from 70 to 80,000 inhabitants, had but three
churches ; the exact number of sittings they furnished,
we are not, at the moment, able to state, but probably
some 4 or 5,000 ;—but, be that as it may, the free and
unappropriated seats did not exceed 100! !! Who
can wonder that, when the doors of the sanctuary
were thus in a manner closed against them, the work-
ing classes should have learnt to spend their time in
pot-houses, until intemperate habits have become the
characteristic of the Sheffield artisans, and infidel
principles abound among them. In no town in Eng-
land, probably, is the scoffer at religion to be more
frequently met with than in that very parish of Shef-
field ;—so we are assured by a clergyman who has
assiduously laboured in visiting from house to house
in a district of it. A race have grown up, who, from
infancy, have had no religious principles whatever in-
stilled into their minds : ignorant of the Sacred Vo-
lume, but as they make it serve for a jest-book; their
wits sharpened to a certain extent by congregating to-
gether; and presenting to the faithful pastors, now
tardily and far too scantily sent among them, a hard-
ened and impenetrable front, that requires that the
minister of the Gospel should be armed in all the
panoply of faith, to encounter and bear up against it.

And, if we turn to our own town and neighbour-
hood, we have here much, very much, to mourn and
larnent over. We heard, but the other day, an intelli-
gent friend, who has long been a resident in Liverpool,
and an attentive observer .of things passing around
him, estimating, from facts which he had collected,
that a number not fewer than 80 or 90,000 of our own
population never enter a place of worship of any de-
scription. Now, to what does all this tend ? We will
give the answer in the words of Machiavel, a states-
man of no ordinary sagacity. " There is no surer
prognostic," says that eminent man,—" There is no
surer prognostic (If impending ruin to any state, than
4.0 r public worship to be neglected and despised." Here
we have a great statesman. and philosopher, speaking
as a man of the world, and without the slightest refill.-
ence to Christian principles, unconsciously bearing
testimony to the truth of the declaration the Almighty
made by his prophet of old, when addressing his
Church,—" The nation and kingdom which will not
serve thee shall perish ; yea, those nations shall be
utterly wasted."

It is a momentous consideration for the rulers of a
country, and for all who have station, wealth, and in-
fluence in it, including as well its merchants and tra-
ders, as its landed proprietors and the cultivators of
the soil, how much the Providence of God has placed
at their disposal. To suffer, on the one hand, as the
source of revenue, and in deference to the doctrine
of free trade (pushed, in this instance, to a most
unwarrantable extent), beer-houses and gin-palaces,
which plunder the working classes and their chil-
dren of the fruits of their honest toil, to be multi-
plied in every nook and corner of the empire (in
Glasgow the spirit-shops are one-tenth of all the houses),
and these places to be furnished with the most pesti-
lential publications, is to deal with the people in a way
that is enough to call down the bolts of heaven upon
the heads of all who are parties to the injustice and the
wrong. And, on the other hand, the injustice and the
wrong are as great, in withholding from them the op-
portunity of 'worshipping God, as their forefathers
did. The population of England and Wales is
now doubling in fifty-three years. It has increased
by upwards of six millions since 1800. If it were
not for the proprietary churches which have been
biilt in the last thirty or forty years, the destitu-
tion would, in many neighbourhoods, be ten times
greater than it is. But what has the building of these
proprietary churches done for the lower classes ? Next
to nothing ; in some absolutely nothing ! In many of
them, the idea of inviting the poor never enters the
heads of those who sit at ease in their carpeted and
cushioned pews. And then we have wonder expressed
at the demoralization, the want of natural affection, the
sabbath breaking, and the infidel principles, which in-
evitably follow such neglect; and common sense is in-
sulted. The poorer classes of this country have
grieVances, and the want of churches and schools, in
which they and their offspring can have an opportunity
of being faithfully and religiously instructed, and pre-
pared and fortified to meet and resist the temptations
which a state of poverty, or a scanty supply of this
world's goods, brings along with it, is unquestionably
one of the greatest.

Our remarks have extended so much, that we can
say nothing at present on the state of the public finances,
as bearing on the subject of Church Extension. At a
future opportunity we shall not shrink from noticing
the connexion. In the mean time, we beg to remind
those who may be disposed to ask, from whence, with
an increasing defalcation in the revenue, the money
is to come—that while only a million and a half of
public money have been devoted to the building of
churches since the days of Queen Anne, little short of
five millions can have been spent on the building and
fitting up of gaols and houses of correction. Since the
commencement of the present century, we know of one
parliamentary return, at all events, which the House of
Commons ordered to be printed the 10th October, 1831,
which gave " the total expences incurred in building,
fitting up, and furnishing" such places, since the year
1800, at £3,400,000. And glancing at another par-
liamentary document, we may form some idea of the
expence of prosecuting " felons." The return happens
to be for the year 1832. Now mark ! This is for
" prosecuting," only : not a word about clothing and
maintenance. In the county of Lancaster, there were,
in that year, 126 cases tried at the assizes, at an average
charge of £4O Os. ld. each; and 2,587 cases at sessions,
at an average of £7 19e. 4d. each : in all, £25,656 15s.

4d. spent in one-year in prosecuting only. We may
be told that this number of committals and trials was
an evidence of considerable activity and vigilance, at all
events, on the part of the magistracy and the police.
On this subject we have no complaint to make : we
have nothing to allege. But, of this we feel assured,
that if the population be not religiously brought up; if
pastors and teachers, churches and schools, are not pro-
vided, in proportion to the demand and the want,—no
police regulations, no penal statutes, no punishments
however terrible, will restrain those, who from infancy
to hoary hairs, have neither been taught to fear God,
nor to regard man. In proof of this we have only to
refer to the fact, stated by Mr. Slaney the other even-
ing in the House of Commons, when he made his
motion respecting the Causes Of Discontent in the
country ; that the amount of plunder in one year, in
Liverpool only, was £700,000 !!!

The country wants a paternal government, acting
upon Christian principles, and conservative of the rights
of all. Nothing short of this, can save it from anarchy
and ruin.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

PROSPECTS OF THE SHARE MARKET.

The improving appearance of the money market is already
producing a favourable impression upon railway property. A
considerable number of railway companies are now in a con-
dition to take up money on loan, under the authority of their
Acts of Parliament, but the unfavourable state of money mat-
ters has hitherto prevented them from adopting this method
of relieving their shareholders for a time from the necessity
of answering further calls. This difficulty. however, is now
vanishing ; the rate of interest offered by railway companies
for loans upon their debentures is beginning to he readily ac-
cepted by capitalists, and it will, we trust, in a very short
while, be in the power of several of these companies to re-
lieve their proprietary from the drain for money to pay calls,
by the unexpectedly severe pressure of which they have been
for some time so seriously inconvenienced.
The effect of this seasonable relief must be immediately
felt ; and although only applicable directly to stock upon
which a large portion of the amount has been paid, yet it
must operate indirectly upon all share property, and have the
effect of restoring confidence and gradually advancing prices.
There are many stocks upon which we think there is ample
room for a rise ; and when these shall have attained a fair
market value, the friends of railway investments will be
enabled to turn their attention to those lesser lines which arc
now struggling through a feeble infancy in almost total
neglect.

TENDENCY OF RAILWAYS TO INCREASE PAS-
SENGER TRAFFIC, AS EXEMPLIFIED IN THE
WORKING OF THE LONDON AND BIRMING-
HAM LINE.

The following statement, which has been published in the
form of an appendix to the half-yearly report of the London
and Birmingham railway, will serve to show the steady pro-
gress which this great undertaking is making in the amount
of its traffic. For the six months previous to the 30th June
last, the aggregate number of passengers travelling upon the
line was 267,144—and for the six months ended 31st Dec.
341,420—shewing an increase in number of passengers during
the past half-year of 74,276. The average number of pas-
sengers per day during these two periods was respectively
1476 and 18351—the increase per day being 3591, or nearly
241- per cent. Of Course, to render this a fair mode of cal-
culation, the number of miles travelled by each passenger,
during the two periods, must be alike ; and from the same
document we find that such has been the case—the average
number of miles travelled by each passenger, for the half
year ending June, being 65, and for the half year ending
December, 65.

The evidence here afforded of the increasing prosperity of
the London and Birmingham Railway is valuable, not only
as it applies to this particular line, but also to other lines, as
illustrating the working- of the railway system generally. We
find it stated, at a meeting of the London and Birmingham
Railway Company, held on Thursday last, by Mr. Levy, an
extensive road contractor, that " he had never known traffic
so bad for the last twenty-five years as it had been since
July last." We know too that the commerce of the coun-
try since that time has been unusually depressed, and we
have had no peculiar causes operating within the last six
months to produce an increase of travelling ; yet, on this
railway, a considerable increase—an increase of one-fourth—
has taken place. From the mode of calculation pursued, we
find too that such increase has been not only in the number
of passengers, but also of miles travelled, or (to use the
phrase of the road) that both long and short passengers hare
increased. We can therefore only attribute such a result to
the power which railways possess of developing and increas-
ing the resources of the different districts through which
they pass, and thus continually creating for themselves an
additional supply of the materiel of revenue. Let those who
are constantly decrying the advantages and affecting to doubt
the profitable working of railways generally, account other-
wise if they can, for this gratifying result of the labours of
their more enterprising neighbours. We can only see in it
satisfaction for the past, and grounds of bright hope for the
future.

BIRMINGHAM AND GLOUCESTER RAILWAY.-

HALF-YEARLY MEETING.

The half-yearly meeting of the above company was held on
Wednesday last, at the Bell Hotel, Gloucester, and the re-
ports of the directors and of the engineer were received
with the greatest satisfaction by the proprietors assembled.
By the former it appeared that the sum of. £7O per share
had been called for, amounting to the gross sum of £665,000;
and of this sum, on the 31st December, the arrears were
£77,119. Up to the date of the meeting, however, the total
amount of arrears (exclusive of the calls upon a few shares
which were declared forfeited by the meeting), had been re-
duced to the sum of £29,860.

It was also intimated to the shareholders that negotiations
were in progress to unite the Birmingham and Gloucester
with the Bristol and Gloucester line, in order to form one
continuous railway from Birmingham to Bristol, under one
direction. This arrangement, it was suggested, would ma.
terially advance the interests of both companies, and their
solicitors had been instructed to apply to Parliament jointly
for a bill to secure the necessary powers. The arrangements,
however, were not sufficiently advanced to enable the directors
to bring the matter fully before the meeting, and the share-
holders were assured that no decisive step would be taken
without mature consideration, and their opinion of its pro-
priety being first taken.

From the report of the engineer, W. S. Moorsom, Esq.,
it appeared that the works upon the line had been greatly re-
tarded by the wetness of the season ; yet that the opening of
a portion, from Cheltenham to Bromsgrove, might be calcu-
lated upon before the month of May ; a further distance of
nine miles in the month of October or November ; and to
Camp Hill, near Birmingham, before the end of the present
year.

The short extension line to the London and Birmingham
railway, which will then comprise the whole of the unfinished
works, is expected to be completed in the spring of 1841,
when the entire undertaking will be in a finished state.
It was stated by the chairman, in reply to a question from
a proprietor, that although the cost of the entire line, with
the extra accommodation and works which had been found
necessary, would exceed the amount of the revised estimates,
the company had power, under the original act of Parliament,
to pay for all works contemplated at present, as well as to
stock the line, and he believed upwards of £lOO,OOO to spare.
The extra works alluded to were stated to consist of in-
creased engineering powers, increased accommodation in
carriages, and more accommodation in point of station-room,
than had ever been contemplated, and which it had been
found advisable to provide at once, to meet the demands of a
traffic greater than the company had originally ventured to
calculate upon.

LONDON AND GREENWICH RAILWAY COM-
PANY-GENERAL MEETING.

The first annual general meeting of the proprietors of this
company (being the termication of the first year from the
completion of the railway) was held on Thursday last, at the
London Tavern, Bishopsgate-street, William Shadbolt, Esq.,
in the chair. The attendance was exceedingly large.
The report, which was read by the Deputy-Chairman,
(Josiah Wilson, Esq.,) after detailing shortly the past pro-
ceedings of the Directors, went on v.) explain the arrange-
ments required to enable the Company to accommodate the
traffic of the various other lines which are intended to run
along the Greenwich line as their entrance into London. A
strong opinion had been expressed by the parliamentary com-
mittee on railways last session, that so extensive a traffic as
is expected on this line, when the Brighton and South East-
ern lines are opened, could not be safely accommodated un-
less an extra width of road was previously constructed; ,and
it was stated that the directors had endeavoured to form an
arrangement with the Croydon Railway Company, by which
this object might be effected, on terms mutually beneficial.
This arrangement, however, they have not been able to form ;
and the Croydon Company having a previously existing con-
tract with the Greenwich for the toll upon their traffic, which
would be insufficient to remunerate the latter, after incurring
the expense of widening their road, both Companies are now
before parliament applying for the necessary powers to enable
them to fulfil the requirements of the committee.
With respect to the working of the railway it was an-
nounced, that from the experience gained upon their own
line, and from the working of others, it had been found that
more ease and steadiness of motion, combined also with
greater economy, would be secured by substituting wooden
sleepers with a heavier rail, for the present stone sleepers.
The directors, therefore, recommend that the whole of the
line should be relaid upon this principle during the present
summer.

Although, owing to the unfavourable season and other
causes, the traffic upon the line had not equalled the expec-
tations that had been entertained, the directors were enabled
to declare a dividend of ss. on each original share, leaving a
reserve fund of £1307 15s. 2d.

NORTH MIDLAND RAILWAY.
A considerable portion of this railway is so far convicted

SUSPICION OF FELONY AGAINST TWO POLICE
OFFICERS.

Before JOHN HOLMES and R. E. HARVEY, Esquires.
A ease which excited very great interest in a crowded
court, came on for hearing yesterday, before the magistrates
above named,—Mr. Rushton being absent, on business in
London. John and Joshua Fell, police constables, were
placed at the bar, the former on suspicion of having stolen,
and the latter with having received a silver watch, the pro-
perty of a young man named Bamber. The prisoners
appeared in respectable undress, and were unattended by
counsel.

Mr. Dowling, Police Commiqsioncr, briefly stated the case
to the bench, as it afterwards appeared in the following
evidence :

Mrs. Margaret Kermode said, I live in Cable-street, and
on Wednesday week Mr. Bamber, now present, came to
board and lodge at my house, recommended by Mr. Carus,
publican, of the same street. On Wednesday last, Mr.
Bamber came to me and said he felt uneasy about the weeks'
rent he owed me. I told him not to distress himself as he
was recommended by Mr. Citrus ; but he persuaded me to
take his watch as security ; and I told him that would cer-
tainly satisfy my husband, as we had often lost money by
lodgers. He also gave me four shillings at the same time,
keeping one shilling out of five, which he said he might
want, and that was all the money he had. I took the
watch and the money and put them into a desk in the
' shop where we keep our money ; Bamber said he would
not lose the watch for £5, and I said it would be there
and safe, when he paid us. I took the key of the desk
from the nail where it hung, to put in the watch and
the money, and after locking it, hung the key again on the
nail. This was in his presence. I afterwards saw the key in
the drawer of the desk. It was about twelve o'clock. At
three o'clock the same day the police came to the house.
The watch produced is the same that was given to me, and
was afterwards missed. It had a piece out of the face of it,
and a crack ; and it wound up in front. There was a seal, a
green stone, and two little keys. Mr. Bamber was twice in
the house on that day after he gave me the watch. Ile came
and had his dinner, and went out through the shop. Nobody
was in the shop at the time he went through. Besides the
watch, there were taken from the desk nine shillings in
money, namely, the four shillings given me by Bamber, and
which was placed separately, and live shillings that were in
another place. There were also twenty' shillings in a small
tin box in the desk, without a lid ; but these were not taken.
Kermode, the daughter of the last witness, said,-
1 saw my mother put the watch and money into the desk. It
was about a quarter to twelve o'clock. In about three quar-
ters of an hour after, I went to give change out of the drawer,
and saw the watch there then. Bamber came in a little af-
terwards, and enquired when the dinner would be ready. He
went out again ; but cannot say whether he went straight
through the shop. He had to go through the shop to get
out. I did not see him again till he was sent for, after three
o'clock, and after the watch was missed. That is the same
watch.

Alexander M`Pherson said,-1 am a pawnbroker in Tithe-
barn-street. On the 12th of February (Wednesday) a watch
was left in pledge with me, by a young woman. She said it
was her husband s, and she pledged it in the name of Williams,
of Preston-street. I lent twelve shillings upon it. I gave
the girl a ticket. The ticket was afterwards brought to me
by the tallest prisoner, (Joshua Fell.) He said he wanted to
redeem it, that it belonged to a friend of his who had got into
a house of ill fame, and he would take it out. He redeemed
it, and I got the ticket back. I had never seen the officer
before. That is the same watch.
William Bamber, a young man, said he was a printer. The
watch produced is mine. I gave it to Mrs. Kermode on
Wednesday, and never saw it till yesterday morning, at Mr.
Dowling's house.
Mrs. Kermode, on being recalled, said, that the last wit-
ness left her house on the night of the day on which the
watch was taken.

Police-officer 334 (Flytnan,) I lodge in Durham-place, to-
gether with John Fell. Before five yesterday evening, while
we were going to bed, a rap came to the door, and the mis-
tress of the house (as we understood the witness to say)
called out, " John, you're wanted." He said to me,
" Flyman, can you lend me a shilling ? I am going to try it
again." I told him there was a shilling on the window and
he might take it. He did so. He said, "my mother has a
watch, and it's a good goer : I did very well with the last I
bought from her, and I'll try it again." He went and
brought the watch, and looked at it, and said, " it is French
made, but Lancashire built." He said he would get a new
dial to her; it would improve her very much. He looked at
the seal and keys, and remarked that the letters were upside
down. I said they were of course cut in that way so that
the impression from them would be right. At three o'clock
that afternoon, we (the officers) were served with hills, giving
a description of the watch, at the station. John Fell was
present at the time. Front the description 1 was almost
convinced is was the watch Fell had shown me ; but as 1 had
not seen the inside, I could not be positive. I mentioned it
to my inspector when I saw him, that I thought I had seen
the watch. I gave the bill I had to the pawnbroker, think-
ing I could sufficiently remember the description. In the
morning I and John Fell went up again to go to bed. He
took the watch out again, and laid it on the shelf where he
generally put his watch. We went to bed. I afterwards gc t
up, and looked at the inside of the watch, and then I was
fully convinced that it was the same that was described. I
took it to Mr. Dowling.
The witness was cross-examined by John Frost, and ad-
mitted that the latter did not conceal the watch, but pro-
duced it openly. He repeated that Frost took it to the
window soon after day-light, and looked at the inside.
Joshua Frost here said he had gone to the country on duty,
by the railway, and did not return until Thursday evening.
This Mr. Dowling knew, as he gave him the order. (The
court said Mr. Dowling would be examined, and the prisoner
might afterwards cross-question him.)
Mr. Dowling sworn.—Yesterday morning the last witness
came to me, and brought the watch now produced. I sent
for the Fells, of course, separately. I first saw Joshua. I
asked him if he had a watch. He said " Yes." I asked
him where it was, and he took a watch out of his pocket,
which was something like that produced, in outward appear-
ance. I asked hint if he had sold a watch to his brother.
He said that he had : that he had found the ticket for it
near the Amphitheatre, on Wednesday or Thursday, he was
not certain which. He added that he had taken it out of
pledge at Mr. M‘Pherson's, and repledged it at Mr. Brown's,
Copperas-hill, for Bs, and afterwards sold the ticket to his
brother for is. I then called in John Fell, and he said he
had bought the ticket for Bs, and that he took it out of
pledge at Brown's, where it was in for 7s, and he paid 7s IW.
He said the watch was pledged at Brown's, in his brother's
name.

William Bamber was recalled, with a view to his account-
ing for where be bad been on Wednesday afternoon and even-
ing, after he dined at Mrs. Kermode's. He said that being
put out of the way by losing his watch, he was occupied
chiefly in inquiring about it. He had also called at Mr.
Carus's, in Cable-street, at Mr. Pannell's, in Byrom-street,
and at Mr. Aspinall's, at which last place some money was
due to him. He was also several times at Mrs. Kerraode's.
He had a bottle of ginger-beer at Carus's that night, but did
not change the shilling ; he had to pay for it. He did not
pay for it.
Mr. Brown, pawnbroker said :—This watch was brought
to my place on Saturday last, and pledged in the name of
Joshua Fell, for Bs. There was a great resemblance between
the prisoner John Fell, and the person who brought it; but
but he could not say positively it was he. The watch was
redeemed on the same day from my assistant, who says she
could not identify the party.
Mr. Dowling said, with reference to what Joshua Fell had
said ; that he had certainly given him an order to go to Sut-
ton to serve some summonses, and it was probable that he
was absent from the town on Wednesday.
Joshua Fell said, he had been there and had served the
summonses. He had slept at Prescot that night.
The court intimated that they did not doubt that fact, and
said that bill and notices read at the stations, affected only
John Fell.

Inspector Fresh sworn. I was at the station to which
John Frost belongs, on Wednesday, and heard the notice
read. I think John Fell was on duty then ; am not quite
sure. On Saturday John received two bills describing the
watch.

John Fell.—l did not hear any notice read. I was not
there when any notice was read.
Joshua Fell said that it was not likely that if be thought
the watch was stolen he would go and pledge it in his own
name.

John Frost said he was accused of having the watch, know-
ing it to be' stolen; but if that were the case, it was not
reasonable to snppose that he would have openly shown it to
Flyman.
Mr. Harvey here said that there was something very
strange in the whole case ;
and that they nins endeavour to
get some further information about it. Meantime, he should
remand the prisoners until to-morrow—(this day.)

MISS YANIEWICZ'S CONCERT.—Mis lady's concert took
place last evening in the Templar's flail, Great George
Street, and it must have been very gratifying to- her feelings
to have had so large an auditory. The roomwas filled. The
entire performances gave decided satisfaction, and went off
exceodingly will, but we have not space for observations
upon thew.