The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-02-09 00:00:00

RAILWAY AFFAIRS.

The Liverpool Crosby and Southport railway bill would
be read a second time last (Monday) night.
All negotiations between the London and North-Wes-
tern and Great Western Railway boards are at an end, and
are not likely to be renewed.
The inquest on the bodies killed on the Great Western
Railway has terminated, and the verdict is " accidental
death," with a recommendation that the tires of the
wheels should be screwed instead of welded.

At a late meeting of the directors of the Midland Rail
way Company, tenders were received for two thousand
coal waggons, which, if placed end to end, would form a.
line upwards of six miles in length. The cost of the wag-
gons would amount to nearly £150,000.
The Liverpool and Bury Railway Company intend to
make their passenger station in Moorfields, and to purchase
the Wellington Hotel, Dale-street, for a waiting-room
and inn, with a carriage road at the back to Dale-street,
opposite North John-street.
AN INSATIABLE BOG.—The railway between Shipley
and Keighley is progressing rapidly, witfi the exception of
that part near llingley Church called the Bingley-bog.
Sixty tons of earth and stones are cast into this bog every
hour of the day. Notwithstanding this immense quantity
being dropped into the gulf at both ends, all is swallowed
up every morning; the heavy matter sinking thus forces
the lighter up, and makes a black spongy embankment on
both sides.

BENEFITS FROM TELEGRAP.HIC COMMUNICATION.—
During the past week a vessel grounded in the Humber,
and was in danger of being wrecked. To save her very
prompt assistance was requisite ; and the aid of a very
powerful screw propeller being required, the telegraph
from Hull made known the want at Newcastle-upon-
Tyne, and by first train the much needed screw was forth-
coming, and thus property was saved by this prompt ass
sistance exceeding in v<du3 consith ra'ily above £l,OOO.
THE CALEDONIAN.—The works on this line are rapidly
progressing, and it is promised to be opened from Carlisle
to Beattock early in July. As Beattock is equi-distant
from Edinburgh and Glasgow, the inhabitants of the
former city are loud in their complaintrthat the Dumfries
mail is to be discontinued on the sth of April, in conse-
quence, it is Supposed, of this partial npening. They
affirm that this discontinuance will be highly detrimental
as respects correspondence from Galloway and Western
Dumfriesshire, whether proceeding northwards or south-
wards, to Liverpool or London.
ACCIDENT.—On Tuesday, in Abbott's Cliff tunnel, on
the South Eastern Railway, Joel Rush, the master of the
electric telegraph at Dover, having experienced some dif-
ficulty in transmitting a message per telegraph to Folke-
stone, was proceeding along the line to inspecrthe wires,
with a view of ascertaining where the defect existed ; and
on the one o'clock afternoon passenger train leaving
Dover for town he got on the engine with the driver and
stoker. When the train had 'advanced about thirty or
forty yards in the Abbott's Cliff tinnel, the engine-driver
saw him fall against the wall on the left-hand side, and
disappear beneath the train. Thtengine was stopped,
and the body of Mr. Rush was founfrightfully mutilated
lying across the rails.
EXTRAORDINARY FLIGHT OF A RAILWAY ENGINE AND
SINGULAR ESCAPE.—On Thursday evening, Wile some
men were engaged with an engine at the Camp-hill sta..'
tion, on the Birmingham and Bristol Railway, near the
former town the engine suddenly started off at a terrific
pace, without driver, guard, or any other person being •
upon it, and continued at the rate of upwards of 30 miles
an hour for about eight miles, when, owing to some cause
at present unknown, the engine suddenly stopped, and
avoided an accident which must have been terrible in its
consequences. It appears that it was running on the
down line, up which the third-class train was coming
from Gloucester, and had actually stopped. when within a
few minutes, if not seconds, of coming into collision with
it. The guard of the train saw the light of the runaway
engine, pulled up, and prevented the accident.
VICTORIA TUNNEL.—On Monday, the first stone of
the grand entrance of the tunnel was laid at Edge-hill,
by Edward Woods, Esq., the engineer, in the presence of ;
many of the railway officers, and of a large concourse of`
persons. The works of the tunnel commence by asp ten
' -
did iron bridge, of two arches, across their railway atiVe-
vertree-lane. Several acres of land are in progress of ex-
cavation at Edge-hill, to be added to the present station,
where there will be abundant space for the thousands

who, in the summer season, avail themselves of the cheap
trains. The grand entrance of the tunnel is under the
road leading to the railway hotel, and several hundreds of
workmen are already engaged on these gigantic undertak-
ings. The tunnel is to pass in an oblique direction across
the town, being carried in a direct line under the King's
Monument, Christ's Church, the Friends' Meeting-house,
the Chapel in Byrom-street, the North Dispensary in
Vauxhall-road, and then under the Leeds and Liverpool
Canal, to a station comprising several acres, between
Great Howard-street and the Waterloo Dock. These
works hive been contracted for by Messrs. Samuel and
James Holme, and Mr. M'Cormick, and considerable
progress has been made at the various " eyes," as they,

are termed, along the whole of the line. The entire cost
will be, we understand, about £200,000.
RUGBY, DERBY, AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY.—A
" wind-up" meeting was held in London on Saturday
weeks The directors' report stated that the total amount

• . • •
received in deposits on sharegissued, and interest on those-
deposits was £80,200, of which £45,500 had been returned
to shareholders, at the rate of 30s. per share, out of £2 12s.
6d., the deposit paid, as determined on at the last meet-_
ing ; £5900 had been paid to Mr. Brewer, the solicitor to.
the company, and one of the original promoters; £7000:
to Mr. Blunt, the engineer ; and about £13,000 to cover
various other claims and expenses, leaving a balance of
assets to the credit of the company of £B6OO in the funds
and banker's hang Of this sum, however, Mr. Brewer
still claims £4OOO more, in addition to what had 'been
already paid him ; and had brought an action for that
amount, which was now pending in the Court of Exche-
quer, and which he had offered to compromise on being
paid £2600, an offer which the directors had refused.
Should the action be altogether defeated,. then there.would
be over 53. a share more to be returned to the sharehold-
ers ; or should the compromise be accepted, there would
still -be over 3s. a share more to return. Every other
demand and claim on the company had been settled and
discharged. The report was unanimously agreed to, as
was also a resolution authorising the committee of ma-
- nagement to resist to the last paying Mr. Brewer one
• shilling more than he had already received.
of.
this Tuesday, a
Company;ver y
was
held in the Palatine Hotel, in Manchester, for the pur-
pose of considering the steps' to
LIVERPOOL, MANCHESTER, AND NEWCASTLE-UP,nu-
ON- •
Tmle-roNEus meetinguNCTlONof ißvelArvroiet
Alp-
.r—(Orns
be taken with respect to
the report Of Messrs. Win. Gibb, George W. Cram, and
Wm. Nichol, the committee of investigation appointed on
Saturday, the 25th day of July last; and to determine the
propriety of reducing the number of directors from twelve
to six_; and also for powers to proceed with and endeav- •
our fo obtain in the ensuing session of parliament acts
for—Alteration of Main Line and Hawes Branch, with
power to purchase, rent, or use the Northern Counties
Railway, and Aniendment of Acts relating to the Liver-
pool,- Manchester, and `Newcastle-upon-Tyne Junction
Railway, and to the Northern Counties Union Railway
Companies—Railwayefrom the East Lancashire Railway,
near Burnley, to join the. Burnley Branch of the Man-
chester and Leeds Railway, with power to sell or lease to
the East Lancashire Railway Company, or to the Man'
chester and Leeds Railway Company—and Liverpool;
Manchester, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne Junction and
Northern Counties Union Railways Amalgamation. The
following is a summary of the statement of accounts
Lancashire and Yorkshire Company, receipts £B9,S9A
13s. id. ; expenditure, £26,773 2s. 7d. ; balance, £63,11-
10s. 6d. ; accounts unpaid, £13,247 ss. 11(1. Liverpool,
Manchester, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne Junction Coln;
pany, receipts, £88,635 6s. 10d. ' • expenditure, £24,707
9s. 9d, •, balance, £63,927 17s. 1(1: • accounts Impala!
£7,015 6s. 2d. The report above allu'ded to stated that
the serious amount of £44,201 13s. 4d. bad been claire('
for law expenses, and the committee suggested the pro;
priety of,§ubniitting such of the bills as remained unind°
to the respective solicitors, in order to give them an or
portunity of reducing. the balances unsettled. Mr. tic"
man, after asking some questions relative to the allotreeil
of shares, asked to have the books with the minutes °
proceedings of the Company produced; and this beineg
done, he called attention to the meeting on the 270
of August, when 23,000 shares were allotted to the dirk'
tors and their friends, and 6000 only to the public.
elicited from the minutes of proceedings that on the 2"'l
of September five gentlemen - met and allotted to till',
selves 3250 shares ; and that upon the very day on wbic„-
they had issued a notice that all the shares had been talal;
up ; and be referred to the share list of Octocer 1, fr°°-,
• which it appeared that the shares Were selling at 61--
,
t.
mime. About this time a report was circulated that gem
Hudson had become favourable to the line, and that 2wt
shares were to • tie reserved for him and his friends.
their last meeting it was stated by Mr. Allhusen that
Hudson had taken -up•1000 shares, and that he (Mr. !el.
husen) hail paid the. deposit for them ; but it now appet'r'"a-
that Mr. Hudson had not taken any shares whatever
the undertaking. A very lengthened diseussion, enSllrce,
in the course of which a great deal of crinsination and
.tit
elimination passed on bothesides. Mr. IL Houldsw°_llli
suggested an amendment to the effect that the report ce„e,
be received, and that the meeting he adjourned site''
(gal
and that the directors be instructed to call another sPe.,,AO
general meeting within a month. This amendment
0-0
put to the vote, and was carried by a majority of six to fie-
of the shareholders-present. A poll was demanded.
to,
timately, however, an amicable arraugeth con
ent was 'e
and the directors' report ass carried.