The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-01-06 00:00:00

Jan. 6, 1846.

RESULTS OF THE RAILWAY FEVER

(From Tait's Edinburgh Magazine.)

The process of breaking up is already becoming curi-
ously manifest in some of these companies. As illustra-
tive of the real character of the railway mania, and
indicative of the nature of the " consequential sorrows,"
it deserves a glance in passing. Internal discussions are
breaking out among directors, and their co-adjutors
hurrying them before mayors and bailies, preparatory to
more regular campaigns in the courts of law. Newspapers
are sending in their advertising bills, pressing for payment,
and boards are auditing these bills, calling for vouchers,
quarreling with rates of charge. Again, operative survey-
ors are Glamourous for wages, and secret ,ries or treasurers
are sometimes hard up for ready cash. Lastly, parties to
whom scrip has been allotted have not always taken it up,
and now refuse to pay deposits for a concern which they
believe, or affect to believe, cannot go on. Lastly, some
boards, to accelerate the payment of deposits, have reduced
the amount of their calls; impatient holders, who have
been precipitate in paying up, ask to have the excess re-
funded,—which, out of an empty treasury, is not always
an easy matter. Out of the discussions to which these
applications and rejections give rise, come tart remarks
and bitter rejoinders. One angry man goes with quiet,
concentrated malice, at white heat, to consult his lawyer;
another rushes, like a boy that has been soundly thrashed,
into a mayor's court, to tell his " pitiful story." The
newspapers, as usual, blow the coals, for every " excite-
ment' promotes sale. Tne public mutters, " try the
responsibility of directors in a law court," and Mr. D. W.
Harvey, and other deeply staked directors, respond to the
hint by advertising a Defensive Association. The genius
of Westminster Hall laughs, crows, and claps its wings;
nay, it did so months ago. In July, the Law Magazine
coolly discussed the various points likely to arise when
this crisis came : the hoodiecraws croaked their consulta-
tions anent picking bones in the ears of their unheeding
victims.

All these things indicate the real character of the rail-
way delusion. Cold-blooded, predetermined swindling
has bad little part in it. All the " stags" in Capel-court
might have been seen at one time at the height of the
fever in any one of the crack eating-houses of the neigh-
bourhood. There they resorted day after day—the Jewish
variety of the Caucasian type predominating in their
features—with silk and velvet lapels, rings. and brooches,
coats of the newest cut, and trousers of the newest shade,
yet dirty and greasy withal—slobbering turtle and cham-
pagne. There were not enough of them in all to take up
the shares of half-a-dozen lines. The panic came and
they disappeared like flies when the frost sets in. "Tom,"
we said to the waiter at the
panic, " what has become of all these floe gentlemen
" I don't know, sir, out they were the best customers in
my time." Only one of them has revisited the glimpses
of the day—shockingly "seedy," and asking below his
breath for a basin of mutton broth.

Oh no, these poor devils had little to do in getting up
the steam. The standing army of swindlers has not been
increased. The swell mob of trade has only taken advan-
tage of the railway throng and crush to do a good stroke
of business. The mischief has been done by amateurs.
Railways have been regarded as gold mines used to be if
a railway company could but be " got up," no misgivings
haunted its framers about the long and dreary period
during which it must be all outlay and no return. Mana-
ging directors, without money themselves, counted upon
the deposits ; shareholders who were penniless, were sure
they could find others who had pence to buy them out.
The company was there, and the money was sure to come
after. Confidence, dash, generosity, were sure to com-
mand success. So crack engineers were engaged at large
salaries, and received carte blanche for their surveyors
and surveying patties. Advertising agents were instructed
to be active and liberal ; they boasted of their instructions
to editors and proprietors of newspapers. The newspapers
puffed and charged like heroes; the directors and secre-
taries bragged to the newspaper writers, surveyors com-
posed epics on the capabilities of their lines, and share-
holders listened to the lay with the vague, swelling►
dreamy delight of opium-eaters under the influence of
their drug. All concerned assumed that the nominal
capitals of all the projected companies would be actually
forthcoming; all counted upon the share in the plunder
which they had in imagination allotted to themselves,
being as sure as if they already held it in gold. But par
day has come, and with it a scramble, and there is not
enough for all. And like angry fools they are going to
make the matter worse ; for, instead of fairly dividing
what is actually there—all having been fools and deluders
alike—they are calling in the- lawyers to say who is to have
the oyster.

-.....-.._._

THE PANIC.—The following smart note is attached to
a recent review of the railway panic :—" To those who
can imagine no efficient substitute for gold, we would
suggest periwinkles. In Africa, and throughout a large
part of Asia, gold is not of greater value than cowries is
certain quantities. In the East Indies, among the na-
tives, 100 cowries are equal to a penny. The time will
come when a periwinkle, or an oyster-shell panic, will be
considered as sensible a thing among civilized communi-
ties as a gold panic. _

Curtio-us CusToM —At Brough, in Wesmoreland, 0
singular and ancient usage (the origin of which is en irelf
lost) is still retained. On the Eve of Twelfth-day, the
" holly tree" is carried in stately procession. Formerly
the "holly tree" was really "holly," but ash being
abundant, the latter is now substituted. There are two
head inns in the town which provide for the ceremony
alternately, though the townspeople mostly help in pre-
paring the tree, to every branch of which is fastened s
torch. About eight o'clock, p.m., it is taken to a eon.
venient part of the town, where the torches are lighted,
the town band accompanying and playing till all is corn!"
pleted, when, amid the shouts and salutes of the spectY:'
tors, it is carried up and down. The band march behind
it, playing their instruments, and pausing every time the!,
reach the town bridge, and the cross, where the " holly
is again greeted with buzzes. Many of the inhabitanto
carry lighted branches and torches; and rockets and
other fireworks illumine the sky. After a while, the tree
is placed in the middle of the town, when it is again
cheered by the numerous bystanders, and then throat
bwatchlazin
g fo,r,
holly,"this opportunity;
to and,
er
they are allowed a copious supply of ale and spirits, and
pass a "merry-night," which seldom breaks up before
amongesaiziitng them.
each
off tTohe ne
theyd oifnnthiehey are contending for, whet!
eagerly
two in the morning.—Sharpe's London Magazine.
LONDON CADMEN.—The men connected with thee!
cabs and omnibuses have become formed by degrees into
a class, as singularly idiosyncratic as the cabriolet-drivers
of the Faubourg D'Antoine in Paris, as the cabmen ad
quaymen of Dublin, or as the fisherwomen of Newhaven:
The have a language of their own, and seem to spend
their lives between constant moving, constant bantering,
and constant liquoring. Our Edinburgh cabmen se:
shrewd enough, too, but they have not the keen as
redeeming, though often coarse wit of their Londols
brethren. For example, on stepping after arrival her°
into an omnibus, it was our chance to hear a slight quer:
rel betwixt the driver and the toutor, who swings on the
footboard behind. ' Lie !' cried the toutor, in answer tt;
an accusation of the kind, ' I never tell a single lie. i
' That is true for once,' retorted his adversary ; ' for ono
lie is no sooner out than another comes rattling behind td
keep it company.' Such quicknesses of talk lead one to
reflect on the curious differences in our national chore;
ters, as English, Irish, and Scotch. Well does the old
jest-book discriminate, when it represents the replies 0s),
one of each nation, on being asked what they would 10
to spend a winter night on the top of a certain monument'
' I will take five pounds,' says the Englishman. ' 131
Jakers, I will take a cold,' is Paddy's replication. Ae
" What will you gi,e me?' is the canny Scot's obserfe
tion. Whether true or not, this anecdote is really founded
on a just distinction betwixt the characters of the threv
nations. But, added to a certain native and blunt doWO4
rightness of the English manner, the London cabmen 50
drivers generally have got their wits so sharpened by ne°:
tinual collision with their fellows, and the world at larger
that they may be risked against even the Irish for:
smart reply. Undoubtedly, they are often irepertinel
and also exorbitant when occasion serves, but let us O.
judge them here harshly, and simply regard them as,
strange class, forced by the necessities of this great el
into the form and aspect which they now wear. On e°
point, by the way, we must caution visitors to Londotilj
ere we quit this subject for the present. Let no man he's
up his finger, either in the heat of talking, or to scree;
his periwig, or for any similar purpose. All the Cabmenwithin half a mile will be at him at full gallop, and tf,
innocent man will get a volley of objurgations for holdle,e,
up his finger without wanting a cab.—Hogg's Weekil-
Instructor.
PROTECTION OR NO PROTECTION.—But there ari
A
higher and more consolatory considerations than on
these. The fate of the people of England is not in ti`"4
bands of any Cabinet—it is in their own. No alteration;,
the Corn Laws can be attempted, we presume, with
prospect of success in the present House of Comni_A
A dissolution must probably take place if the ilvPi
' Leaguers should succeed in forming an administratioso,
and a dissolution would be in itself a great evil and ace 4
siderable increase of the difficulty, for it would threo
back all the railway projects, derange additionallf 50
money market, and put off for two or three more moo
0
the employment of the Irish poor on those works vi 11,,,
will afford the best relief to their temporary distrffd,
But sooner or later we must arrive at a general electlu;
and the great question must be solved by the people the.?
selves. We do not forget the infatuation under 4.101
destructive parliaments have been from time to ?0$
elected, but the question now at issue has been :so Opt
before the public mind that we hope there is less 0,,
dreaded from popular delusion than on most former '...n0
casions. We know that we—the advocates of proteet'A,
—are the majority of all the most important constittno
cies. We are satisfied that we have in our own enediol
the means of a certain triumph. The question enne!,d
clearly stated, and not embarrassed by personal divisl/
or theoretical distinctions. It is this :—is the whole !II
tern of protection to British industry to be abandoneLe
not as to agriculture alone—but every branch of man'i/Le
lure? Are we to have not only Polish wheat—but t;)
man linens and woollens and cutlery—Saxon hosierll
..,/
rnuslins—Belgian cottons and cloths, and fire-aryrd
Dutch spirits, Swiss watches, American reprints,Fce old,
china, gloves, shoes, silks, paper, besides an toe /
variety of small articles which support a multitucleol,
poor artisans, all of whom would be undersold 1)1, /
foreigner? We cannot believe, that if the real staff
the case, the inevitable scope of the principle, be to'
explained to the more intelligent of the manfante ,
population, that even Manchester or Stockport wet!
)
return advocates for a system which, even if confir!a,F,
Corn, has no object but to effect low wages, and vilvu'll
its result wonld reduce nine-tenths of the menufact9
of England to downright unemployment and starve
The short issue is ,

Protection or no protection; el
protection to wages as well as rents—protection to e°il o
0
and woollens, as well as wheat and oats—protectiV
the town as well as to the country—to the workshoP '
the farm I—Or RUIN TO ALL 1--Qiityrierly Review.