The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-11-24 00:00:00

SIGNALS FOR RAILROADS

(From the Standard.)
A distinguished artillery, officer, whose writings on topics
connected with his profession, have excited deserved atten-
tion, has addressed to us the following valuable suggestion.
the adoption of which would, we have little doubt, prevent
many serious railroad collisions :

" you permit me, through the medium of the
Standard, to suggest to directors of railroads the use of
rockets and pyrotechnical blue lights, as means of eltablish-
ing a code of signals on the various lines.
" Thus if a train be delayed at night when en route, either
from accident to the train, from the road being impassable
from drifted snow, or from the rail being defective, if a blue
light were to be ignited by one of the guards, its blaze of
light would be a beacon to approaching trains, even in a fog,
and be seen more distinctly and at a far greater distance than
the coloured lamps now in use. Disabled or retarded trains
could throw up any preconcerted number of rockets to tele-
graph to the destined station, the cause of detention, and the
nature of assistance required.
" For this purpose all trains should carry with them boxes
of blue lights and rockets—up and down trains being distin-
guished by rockets having different coloured stars. Even in
the daytime bang-rockets might be used as signals. Indeed
by means of rockets, a telegraph might be established from
one end of a line to the other, which would convey informa-
tion in a few minutes, both by day and night, even from
London to Liverpool. " ÜBIQUE."

TIRE FAILURE OF JOHNSON AND Co.—The Limerick
Chronicle states that two merchants in the corn and provi-
sion trade there have been affected by this failure, and that a
house in Kilrush has also suffered. The Belfast Chronicle
states that the failure of Johnson and Co. produced an ex-
traordinary sensation there. Some local bankers and mer-
chants are likely to suffer severely.
EXTENSIVE ROBItERY AND APPREHENSION OF THE
THIEF.—On Sunday night, a German travelling Jew, named
Frenderberg, took up his residence for the night at the Com-
passes Inn, Tunbridge Wells, and placed his jewellery-box,
containing watches and jeweilery to the value of upwards of
£2OO, in his bed-room. In the evening he fetched some
watches down stairs, for some persons to look at, and left
the box unlocked, but locked the bed-room door. When he
went to bed, about eleven, he found that his box with the
jewellery had been stolen. A man named Wm. Clarke, who
had been in the house, but had been missed some time, was
suspected, and messengers sent in all directions in search,
and Frenderberg sent post to Maidstone, whence he started
by the seven o'clock omnibus on Monday morning for
Gravesend, and went on board the Comet steamer, where
to his great joy he saw Clark, whom he immediately gave
into custody. On his person were found seven gold watches,
thirteen silver watches, and various articles of jewellery, and
a duplicate of a watch pawned at Mr. Essex's, pawnbroker,
Gravesend, for 15s. This, however, was only part of the
property,
.and Freudenberg went to London by the Comet
with a policeman, in order, if possible, to find any accom-
plices who might have taken up the other part of the booty.
THE PROFOSED S.IIUFFLIE OF THE CARDS IN FIFESIIIRE.
—The exposure which we made last week of the projected
changes rumoured to have been made in high places, regard-
ing the representation of the county and the eastern districts
of burghs, and of the prize held out to Mr. Crichton as a re-
ward for his apostaey, has put the whigs here in a position
which they do not seem to relish. They, as a matter of
course, deny the statement; but we had it from a source
which would rather surprise them were it known. It was not
intended to have been so soon made public, we believe, and
we further believe that even the leader of the party had not
been informed of the shuffle which was in contemplation.
cone to
vseupropcokrt rocket
tthheaidr
No wonder, therefore, that they were so much astounded at
the Jim Crow leap which Mr. Crichton made so suddenly
cause Supposing
them, and
a mb-
d
lighted in the middle of one of their conclaves, they could
not have been more frightened, or put beyond their propriety,
than they were surprised and astonished at finding Mr.
of
bo the
effortsshell o he
r a madegr
Crichton fighting on their side in favour of radicalism, or
whiggery, or by whatever appellation they choose to designate
the doctrines and the practices they support and advocate.
Mr. Crichton, as in duty bound to his new party, began last
week to make advances to their organ the herald; but how-
ever they may hereafter draw together, he has been received
by that journal in the meantime with a growl like that of an
angry bear when it finds its den invaded by the hunter and
his dogs. The whigs, we believe, would have preferred Mr.
C. to have remained quiet for a time, that the amalgamation
might have been more gradual ; and at any rate he should
have waited till the leaders of the party were made aware of
the cause of the exertions he was making.—FifeBhire Journal.