The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-10-26 00:00:00

RAILWAY AFFAIRS.
_._

It is stated that the southern portions of the North
Staffordshire Railway will be opened early next spring.
The Warsaw and Cracow Railway will be opened on
the Ist of November next. A splendid carriage has been
built for the Emperor, at the cost of 120,000 florins.
Acts for 1,523 miles of railway (some of them so far
back as 1836) have been obtained for Ireland ; but up to
this time about 123 miles only have been completed,
while 164 miles only are in course of construction.

It has been decided, at the Small Debts Court, Glas-
gow, that a railway company is bound to provide accom-
modation for a passenger who has booked for a certain
train at one of the company's principal stations, in that
train, or afford him compensation, for any loss he may
have sustained.
RAILWAY PROPERTY AT A DISCOUNT.—At the sale of
the effects of a Mr. C. A. Caddy, at Barnstaple, last
week, 50 shares in the Taw Vale Railway, upon which.
£2 per share had been paid, were sold for ls. per share;
and 100 shares in the Cornwall Railway Company, upon
which £7 per share had been paid, were also knocked
down at ls. per share.—Plymouth Tinier.
WHAT A FALLING OFF !—At the commencement of
the Michaelmas Sessions at Knaresborough, in October,
1845, the doors of the Court-house were besieged by par-
ties anxious to put up notices of intended applications to
parliament for railway and other bills. The doors of the
Court-house were not large enough to receive the 101
notices that were affixed. This year not a notice has been
posted !
From our official returns it appears that the amount of
traffic for the last week, on upwards of 3,152 miles of rail-
way, was £196,190, thus accounted for :—£101,483 for the
conveyance of passengers only ; £50,499 for the carriage
of goods, and the remainder of £44,208 for passengers and
Foods together, not respectively apportioned; being an
increase of £29,960 over the corresponding week of last
year, when the mileage was about 2,525.
CONFLAGRATION AT THE SOUTH-EASTERN RAILWAY.
—A temporary range of shops, about 300 feet long, and
nearly 40 feet wide, in the vicinity of the Bricklayers'
Arms terminus of this railway, was on Friday entirely
destroyed by fire. The place was filled with pitch, tar,
and other inflammable articles. The origin of the dis-
aster is unknown, but it is generally supposed to have
been caused by the boiling over of a copper of oil and pitch.
QUADRUPLE RAILS ON THE LONDON (AND" NORTH-
WESTERN.—After much discussion in the board, during
which there was considerable opposition to the measure,
it has finally been resolved by the directors of this rail-
way that quadruple rails shall be laid down upon their
line between Camdentown and Watford, eighteen miles
down the line. The time, however, for the commence-
ment of these new, and as they appear to us unnecessary
works. has been postponed indefinitely.
THE -BIRMINGHAM AND OXFORD JUNCTION.—The
directors of this company appear determined, it is said,
in spite of Mr. Moziey's advice, to enforce the payment
of the last call. Within the last few days, between four
and live hundred writs have been issued against " dissen-
tient" shareholders, and some, under the influence of
legal consequences, have paid up the amount of their
disputed liabilities. A feeling exists that pending the
bills in Chancery, to be argued next teem, such proceed-
ings are unnecessary, and can be profitable only to the
lawyers employed.

; LONDON AND NORTH-WESTERN.---It is stated that the
' directors of this company have issued circulars to all
' companies with which they are connected, urgently re-
commending that, wherever it was practicable, railway
works should be suspended for the present; and the re-
commendation has been adopted by most of the compa-
nies to which it was made. In one instance a railway
board, whose stock has been guaranteed a fixed per cent-
age by the London and North-Western Company, imme-
diately announced their intention of not making another
call for twelve months. All works on the London and
North-Western line (and those lines now exceed five
hundred miles in extent) which could be postponed have
been suspended indefinitely ; thus carrying out Mr.
Glyn's declaration at the last meeting of the company,
that no works that were not immediately necessary would
be commenced.

FATAL ACCIDENT AT A RAILWAY VIADUCT.—A stu-
pendous stone viaduct over the river Wharfe, near Otley,
and about seven miles from Leeds, for the Leeds and
Thirsk Railway, has been in the course of erection for
about 18 months, and is now fast approaching completion ;
but, owing to one of the arches giving way on Tuesday
last, not only will the finish of the structure be for some
time delayed)ut the cause of delay will be long remem-
' bered in the neighbourhood with feelings of pain. From
some cause or other, the seventh arch of the noble erec-
tion,' which spanned the river, fell with a tremendous
crash, when several workmen were upod it, the whole of
whom were more or less injured. One young man, James
Verity, of Otley, was killed on the spot, his brains being
literally knocked out. Another young man, named Drake,
was buried in the ruins ; and the writer of this account
has heard that he expired soon after being got out. Two
or three others are a good deal injured, and two men had
narrow escapes with their lives, by clinging to the sides of
the adjoining arch. The arch which fell was of a very
great height, and the crashing of the timber and the fall-
ing of the stones were heard for a great distance.
PROGRESS OF RAILWAY TRAFFIC.—We find that the
railway traffic in the United Kingdom, by the returns
published in our table, for the three quarters ending the
25th September, 1847, amounted to £6,666,380 ' • corres-
ponding period of 1846, to £5,739,100 ; and in 1844, to
£4,195,490. There is every probability, judging from the
present receipts, that the traffic for the year 1847 will
amount to £8,890,000; that for 1846 amounted to
£7,664,870; and for 1845, to £6,649,220. It appears
that the amount expended on those railways in July,
1842, amounted to £52,380,000, and the traffic returns in
that year amounted to £4,341,780, being at the rate of
£2894 per mile per annum ; the amount expended on
them in July, 1847, amounted to £107,663,500, and the
receipts this year will amount to about £8,890,000, or
£2867 per mile per annum. The traffic per mile is rather
less ; but, comparing the amount of the traffic to the total
expenditure at the former period, it amounted to 8'29 per
' cent., and will, in all probability, at the latter period,
amount to 8-25 per cent. It may be mentioned, that the
traffic per mile per annum amounted, in 1845, to £3255,
and in 1846 to £2941. The result shows, at present, a
decrease in the traffic, both as regards the capital expended
and the miles opened. In 1842, the average cost per mile
amounted to £34,920; and in 1847, to 34,730. This high
figure probably arises from the practice of keeping the
capital accounts open.—Railway Journal.
SUSPENSION OF RAILWAY CALLS.—On Wednesday,
the deputation appointed at a meeting of shareholders in
the Liverpool, Manchester, and Newcastle Junction Rail-
way, lately held, waited on the directors of the company
by appointment, at Manchester. The proceedings on the
part of the shareholders' deputation resolved themselves
into three questions :—First, whether the directors were
disposed, in the present state of the money market, to
abandon the undertaking ; secondly, whether they were
disposed to return any portion of the £98,000 now in
hand, and wait for more favourable times ; and, thirdly,
if not disposed to do either, what they really were disposed
to do ? The directors replied, that after mature consider-
ation they found they could tot do the first without a new
act ; that their legal advisers informed them that to do the
second would be illegal; and, as regar.led any reply to the
third inquiry, they might state thAt they were perfectly
aware of the condition of the money market, that they
would do all they could to suspend works and curtail ex-
penditure, that they had let no contracts, and had bought
no land, except conditionally, and that it was their inten-
tion to suspend all operations, in so far as was consistent
with their engagements. This announcement is expected
to form a precedent that will be pretty generally followed,
at least as regards this district. The total deposits re-
ceived amounted to about £179,000, and the total ex-
penditure to about £80,500, leaving a present balance of
£98,501. Nothing beyond the finishingof the surveys and
plans for the portion of the line from Kettlewell to Bol-
ton Castle, 15 miles, which it was intended first to com-
mence out of a total of 60, and which includes a summit
tunnel, has been done, and this only has been staked out,
The line is to a great extent in alliance with the Lan-
cashire and Yorkshire Railway.
THE RAILWAYS FROM LONDON TO THE NORTH.—In
the course of a few weeks, by the completion of the Cale-
donian railway, the communication from London to Glas-
gow and Edinburgh will be continuous ; and parties may
proceed in winter rapidly, without changing carriages,
from the metropolis to these places. The distances are as
follow : Miles.

London to Carlisle, by Birmingham .. 3lO
Carlisle to Glasgow lO9
Carlisle to Edinburgh
London to Glasgow 419
London to Edinburgh 4ll
If the route of the Trent Valley Railway be pursued, the
distance from London to Carlisle will be considerably
shortened. The distance from London to Edinburgh, by
the present Midland lines' route, is 4264 miles ; but there
are at present serious interruptions at Gateshead and
Berwick, on account of the bridges across the Tyne and
Tweed, which, from their magnitude, cannot be com-
pleted for some time, and the communication has to be
effected by omnibuses. When the Great Northern Rail-
way is completed, the nearest route from London to Edin-
burgh will be by the Great Northern to York, then by
Newcastle and Berwick, or by the branch from the Great
Northern, five and a half miles north of Doncaster, to
Leeds, thence by the North 'Western, through Skipton,
to join the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway. The distance
will be— Miles.

London to York
York to Edinburgh, by Newcastle..

London to Edinburgh

London to Leeds
Leeds to Edinburgh, by Carlisle

London to Edinburgh
This last is undoubtedly the shortest route ; but the way
by the London and North Western, Lancaster and Car-
lisle, &c., as being performed in less time, and under one
management, offers many advantages for through pas-
sengers.—Carlisle Journal.