The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-10-09 00:00:00

RAILWAY AFFAIRS.

The Aberdeen and Scottish Midland railway companies
have come to an amicable arrangement, as have also the
Scottish Central and Edinburgh, Perth, and Dundee com-
panies:

During the half-year which ended on the 30th June,
there were 96 persons killed and 75 injured on the rail-
ways open for traffic in the United Kingdom ; and of these
78 were killed and 36 injured in consequence of their own
misconduct or want of caution.

WORKING EXPENSES.—The engine-drivers upon the
Great Western Railway have, for the last five or six
weeks, been receiving, in addition to their wages, some Bs.
per week per man as premium upon the amount of coke
saved by them, below the amount fixed by the regulation
table of the superintendent.
PUNCTUALITY TO TIME BY RAIL. ENFORCED.—An
Exeter solicitor, detained for an hour at the Starcross
station on the South Devon line, was lately awarded 10s.
damages by a jury, on the ground that an hour's delay in
the arrival of a train, without good excuse, was actionable
under the contract to carry passengers at a certain time,
implied in the company's time table.
RAILWAY CALLS.—The calls advertised for October
amount to £1,046,749. £11,106 are on account of foreign
companies. For the corresponding month of last year
they were £1,693,655. The total calls for the first ten
months of 1849 now amount to £17,700,964, against
£30,072,610 in the same period of 1848.
The amount of traffic for the last week, on 5,048 miles
of railway, was £230,180, thus accounted for :—£17,458
for the conveyance of passengers only, £49,499 for the
carriage of goods, and a remainder of £53,223 for passen-
gers and goods together, not respectively apportioned ;
being an increase of £9,300 over the corresponding week
of last year, when the mileage was £4,167. The average
earnings per mile were £46, whilst last year they were
£54.

RAILWAY COMPETITION.—There is a probability that
the present ruinous competition between the carrying
companies between Liverpool and Manchester will imme-
diately cease, and the former rates be resumed. A depu-
tation for this purpose waited on the Earl of Ellesmere
on Tuesday, the result of which will be more satisfactory
to the shareholders of the rival undertakings than the
system hitherto pursued.
INDIAN RAILWAYS.—A despatch from the East India
Company has been sent to Lord Dalhousie, on the sub-
ject of the railways in India. It declares that there is no
intention of strictly enforcing the clause limiting the
dividends of the company to ten per cent., and that this
power will not be exercised unless the charges of the rail-
ways become oppressive to the public of India; that a
return of fourteen per cent., provided it is not obtained
by oppressive charges, it holds out will not be considered.
excessive. With respect to additional capital the instruc-
tions are equally liberal. If it be shown to the satisfac-
tion of the governor-general that an extension of either
line is necessary to make it remunerative, the same terms
will be accorded to the additional capital as is given to the
original capital.

PROGRESS OF THE BRITANNIA BRIDGE.—In answer
to some enquiries which we made by letter addressed to
Captain Claxton, R.N., (who is appointed to superintend
the floating off of the huge tubes of the Britannia Bridge,
preparatory to their being hoisted to their places between
the towers,) we have received a polite note, dated Beau-
maris, of which the following is an extract :—" For your
information and that of your friends, I beg to acquaint you,
in reply to your letter, that the lifting process goes on
daily, early and late, at the rate of six feet per diem ;
that the tube was raised twenty-seven feet from the Ist
to the sth instant, and that, in all probability, it will be
in its place by the end of next" (now the present) "week.
Your enquirers, therefore, should be here before that
time. I shall be most happy to afford any facilities in my
power; but the whole of the lifting process is with Mr.
Clarke and Mr. Amos." The three additional tubes are
either completed or nearly completed : that known as the
G tube, standing next to the piers on the Carnarvonshire
shore, is perfecsed, the scaffolding on which it rested has
been cleared away, and the mass will be floated in the
course of a few days. There is now a clear height of sixty
feet beneath the tube now raising at high water, so that
small vessels begin to pass under it. Its permanent level
will be 100 feet above high water.