The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-07-21 00:00:00

POLITICAL MISCELLANY

The amount of the Cobden testimonial has reached
£37,000, exclusive of the amount collected in London
and Liverpool.

To the Bright Testimonial £l2OO have been subscribed ;
Mr. Cobden contributing £lOO.
Air. Edgar A. Bowring, son of Dr. Bowring, has been
appointed private Secretary to the Earl of Clarendon, the
President of the Board of Trade.
Colonel Anson was returned for South Staffordshire on
Wednesday, unopposed. The hon. candidate immediately
after the election left Lichfield for Liverpool.
EDINBURGH ELECTION.—rhe polling took place on
Tuesday. At the close of the poll, the numbers were :
Macaulay, 1375 ; Smith, 832 ; majority, 903.
Mr. V. Smith, one of the members for Northampton,
has, it seems, been is vited to take office under Lord J.
Russell, but has declined doing so.
At a meeting held at Stockport, an address of thanks
to Sir R. Peel, as a convert to free trade, was changed
into an address to those who converted him.

The Dublin Illail says that the personal friends and
political adherents of the Duke of Wellington in the
upper house have, with the full assent of his Grace,
ranged themselves under Lord Stanley as their leader.

The Earl of Ellesmere declines to contribute to the
Cobden Testimonial, on the ground that to do so would
imply an approval of the whole scheme and operations of
the League ; a feeling which he does not entertain.
Sir Robert Peel met with a slight accident on Monday
morning, which has prevented his attendance in the
House to the present time. Resting his foot on a China
basin, it broke by the weight of his person, and lacerated
his foot.

The return of Mr. Smith for Dungarvon was unop-
posed. The proceedings connected with the election only
occupied a short time. Mr. Shell did not deem it neces-
sary to go down to meet his constituents. Repeal was
mute, although Mr. O'Connell has so often pledged him-
self to contest every place in favour of a repea!er.
The following members of the former Whig Govern-
ment have not taken office under Lord John Russell :
Viscount Melbourne, the Right Hon. Francis Thornhill
Baring, the Earl of Uxbridge, the Earl of Albemarle,
Lord Kinnaird, Richard More O'Ferrall, Esq , the Right
Hon. Robert Vernon Smith, Lord Seymour, Sir William
Clay, Bart.. &c.

A deputation of merchants of Liverpool, trading to
East 'Ala and China, had an interview with Lord John
Russell on Wednesday, at his official residence in Down-
ing-street, upon the subject of a reduction of the duty on
tea. The deputation consisted of Mr. Wm. Potter, Mr.
William Rathbone, and Mr. Henry Winch, and was ac-
companied by Viscount Sandon and Sir Howard Douglas.
FREE TRADE REJOICINGS.—The Mayor of Manches-
ter, in compliance with the request of a body of the in-
habitants, has izsued a public recommendation that
Monday, the 3d of August next, be celebrated as a general
holiday, in commemoration of the triumph of free trade.
In Ashton-under-Line a public dinner is to to take place.
In Bury, a procession, dinner. and ball will grace the 25th
and 27th instant ; and the ex-Premier is said to have been
invited to the festivities.

WEST-RIDING ELECTION. - The election for this
Riding, occasioned by the acceptance of office by Lord
Morpeth, as her Majesty's Chief Commissioner of Woods
and Forests, took place on Saturday, at Wakefield. The
Noble Lord was re-elected without opposition. None
but the personal friends of his lordship, and his warm
political partisans were present. Lord Morpeth was pro-
posed by Lord Milton, and seconded by H. Stansfeld,
EA.
most most comical mistake occurred in the transmission of
the new Irish Chancellor's appointment. As Sir Frederic
Pollock sat after dinner ruminating on the sad mutability
of parties, a letter on her Majesty's service was brought to
him, which conveyed the startling intimation that my
Lord Chief Baron was to consider himself henceforth Lord
Chancellor of Ireland. In the haate of initiatory pro-
ceedings the envelope had been addressed in error, and the
Chief of the English Exchequer was thus subjected to the
torturing tantalisation of a momentary clutch of the Irish
seals. _ _ _ _

-----
THE NEW AND LATE MINISTRY.—In the present
ministry as well as in the last, the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer is not united with the office of the First Lord cf
the Treasury. This course, however, is at variance with
the established practice. '1 he rule until within the last
five years was that the Premier, being in the Lower
House, must not only be first Lord of the Treasury, but
also Chancellor of the Exchequer, The instances in the
present century, to go no further back, are Sir Robert
Peel himself in 1834-5, Mr. Perceval, Mr. Pitt, and Mr.'
Addington. The other Premiers within the same period
were members of the Upuer House, and therefore could
not discharge the duties of Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The new practice not only diminishes the labour of the
Premier, but increases his patronage, by enabling him to
bestow the Chancellorship of the Exchequer upon one of
his adherents.

HUMOROUS INCIDENT.—On Monday night week,
when the ex-Premier was delivering his valedictory speech
in the House of Commons, Mr. O'Connell sat beside a
member whose name we are not at liberty to give, but who
vouches for the authenticity of the following statement :

Mr. O'Connell sat listening to Sir Robert-for some time
in deep attention. At length he raised his glass to his
eye, and looked at him for a minute or two through it.
" And is that Pale," says he, " that is spaking ?" Not
receiving any answer, he listened a while longer, and
then, putting his hand to his ear as if to catch the sounds
more distinctly, he repeated his question still more em-
phatically. "Is that Pale, I say, that is spaking ?" and
being satisfied that it was " Pale that was speaking."
" By the powers," he added, " the fellow will rob me of
regale !" The scene, we are assured, was extremely gra-
phic—the rich brogue and earnest gestlcutalun of the
lion. member for Cork contributing greatly to its interest.

FRIGHTFUL ACCIDENT ON THE EASTERN

COUNTIES RAILWAY.

An accident of a very dreadful character, whereby
nearly 20 persons were more or less seriously injured, and
2 or 3, it is feared, fatally so, occurred on the Eastern
Counties Railway between 4 and 5 o'clock on Saturday
afternoon. _ _

The scene of the accident was the Stratford station on
the Colchester line, the melancholy occurrence arising
from a train of empty trucks having been driven into a
passenger train while stopping at that station.
The Stratford station (Colchester branch) is situated
about three miles and a half from Shoreditch, and about
500 yards below the point where the Cambridge line di-
verges. In the immediate vicinity of the station the rail-
way is on a level, but a few yards further east it enters a
shallow cutting, perhaps half a mile in length. A bridge
is thrown across the line within a few yards of the station,
immediately after passing which the railway makes a curve
of considerable radius. At a distance of about 300 yards
another bridge is thrown across the line, which latter,
however, is not visible from the station. A signal on
Eialle's principle is erected about 150 paces from the
second bridge, and this is intended as a guide to all dri-
vers traversing the up line.
The accident occurred, as stated above, between 4 and
5 o'clock ou Saturday afternoon. The up-train from
Ipswich, due at Stratford at 56 minutes past 3, did not
arrive at that station until some minutes after its usual
time. Various estimates as to the exact period are given,
but the general impression seems to be that the train was
about twenty minutes after its proper time. Several pas-
sengers had alighted, others were in the act of entering
carriages, and the engine-driver was taking in a supply of
water, when a train was observed passing the signal-post
before alluded to, and coming rapidly towards the station.
Mr. Ilich/rdson, the station-master, was upon the plat.
form at this moment, superintending the dispatch of pas-
sengers, &c. The noise of the approaching train at once
attracted his attention, and, looking eastwards, he saw the
imminent danger in which the passengers of the stationary
train were placed. lie immediately ran towards the en-
gine, intending to induce the driver to go on with the train
then at the station, but before he could explain his ob-
ject the collision took place, and on returning along the
platform a scene presented itself which almost baffles de-

sorption.
The train, which, but a moment previous, had con-
sisted of seven or eight first and second-class carriages
and two horse-boxes, now presented little more than a
mass of broken frame-work and rubbish. Of a second-
class carriage which had been attached to the train at
Romford, and placed in the rear of the two horse-boxes,
there was literally nothing left, and the unfortunate pas-
sengers which it had contained were seen, bleeding and
wounded, lying about the railway in various directions
among the fragments. Two other second-class carriages
were so crushed as to be rendered entirely useless,
scarcely one of their hapless' inmates escaping some
serious fracture or contusion, and of the remaining car-
riages all were more or less broken, and their inmates
seriously shaken and otherwise injured.
When, the first momentary shock had subsided, the
station-master, with what assistance be could procure,
proceeded to collect the wounded persons and assist them
into the passengers' waiting-room. Medical aid was im-
mediately procured, and the worst cases were sent to
London Hospital. One gentleman had a fracture of the
right leg, another fractured his collar bone, the bones of
several ladies were broken, and one gentleman had a con-
cussion of the brain. Mr. Roney, secretary to the com-
pany, happened to be at Cambridge, and immediately
commenced an investigation into the circumstances. Mr.
Richardson, the station-master said, that the passenger
train was about starting for London, when witness ob-
served a train of empty trucks approaching the station.
Witness ran towards the driver of the passenger train,
carriagesd furtherestr destroyed
yed describedan d
passengers the man-
nerthrown about the line. He said, the passenger train con-
sisted
in-
tending to hasten his departure, but before witness could
reach the engine the collision had occurred, and the fire-
man of the passenger train was throw off the engine on to
the
the
of an engine and tender, rian i
whichwa l‘lr. Richardson
were
two horse boxes, a coach
truck, a first-class carriage, and several second-class
carriages. The train which caused the accident consisted
exclusively of empty trucks drawn by one engine.
The driver of the truck train, the stoker, the signal-
man, and an under fireman have been given into custody,
it appearing that the accident had occurred through their
negligence, the simple question in deciding which will be,
whether the signal to stop was properly exhibited. The
bulk of the evidence goes to prove that the signal was
properly lowered, hut it should also be stated that the ne-
gative assertion of the driver Clare is supported by his
stoker, and also by the man Nicholson.
The station is said to be built in a most dangerous
locality, and a new one is now erecting about half a mile
nearer London.
Among the passengers in the Ipswich train was General
Sir D. Lacy Evans. The back of the carriage in which
the gallant general was sitting, was completely driven in,
and a fragment passing upwards, tore his coat and trou-
sers, and severely injured his hack and legs. He was
removed to the Swan Tavern, Stratford, in a chaise, and,
in the course of the evening, was taken to his residence.
Sir John Tyrrell, Bart., M. Cotton, late governor of the