The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-07-20 00:00:00

RAILWAY AFFAIRS.

A collision took place on Monday, on the Brighton
Railway, between a Croydon and a London excursion
train. Several of the passengers were severely injured.
The South Devon Railway will be opened at Totnes, to-
day, (Tuesday), when a public breakfast is to take place
at Totnes. The actual testing of the atmospheric prin-
ciple, by regular traffic, is awaited by all classes with much
interest.

The bill for the amalgamation of the Chester and Bir-
kenhead, and the Birkenhead, Lancashire, and Cheshire
RailvVays, has passed through all its preliminary stages in
both houses of parliament, without the introduction of
the restrictive clauses.

In the Sheriff's Court, London, on Tuesday last, Mr.
Bromley, a corn-factor and brewer, at Colchester, ob-
tained £650 damages, from the Eastern Cmintiesaitailwer
Company, for injuries sustained at Stratford station, on
the 18th of June, by another train running into a passen-
ger train in which he and his wife were sitting. Mrs.
Bromley also sued at the same time, and a verdict was-
taken by consent for the plaintiff, damages £l5O.
PARIS AND ROUEN RAILWAY.—At the Clarendon-
rooms, on Tuesday, a special meeting of the shareholders
in this line, assembled to meet Mr. Reed, on the subject
of the proposed alteration in the statutes respecting the
sinking fund. Mr. Moss occupied the chair. Mr. Reed,
who attended on behalf of the French directors, stated
that their object was to see if they could, by an arrange-
ment of financial matters, obtain larger dividends than
had hitherto been paid. It was proposed to do this by
an arrangement of the sinking fund. One per cent. upon
the capital was set apart for a sinking fund on the share'
capital, amounting to £14,400. Now, 360,000 f. a year,
which was now paid, would redeem the capital in thirty
or forty years, whereas the period of the company'scon-
cession extended to 99 years. According to calculations,
it appeared that the small sum of 20,000 francs per an-
num, or £BOO a year, would extinguish the whole of the
capital of the Paris and Rouen Railway in 99 years, and
this was the arrangement which the directors ;wereanxious to see made. But they could not effect this
change without having the vote of a general meeting, at
which 200 persons should be present, and 36,000 shares
should be owned or represented, that being a moiety of
the share capital. On the motion of Mr. Lawrence, se-
conded by Mr. Earle, the meeting expressed its concur-
rence with the proposed arrangement, and recommended
shareholders to entrust their proxies for the purpose.

SIR ROBERT PEEL'S ADDRESS TO HIS
CONSTITUENTS.

The ex-Premier has issued an address to the electors for
the borough of Tamworth, dated from Drayton Manor,
July 15th.

The right hon. baronet commences by saying, that as a
dissolution of parliament would probably take place forth-
with, he again solicits their suffrages, if the electors con-
sider that his late policy is worthy of confidence. • Sir

Robert says, that as his position is "in some respects a
peculiar one," he considers it necessary to sketch the
course he has pursued. He repudiates any wish of again
returning to power, or of leading any great political party.
The right hon. baronet commences by alluding to the
present state of India as contrasted with its condition in
1841; and then mentions the results of Lord Aberdeen's
policy in connexion with the United States, which, he
contends, was wise and " perfectly compatible with the
honour of each country." The address then alludes to
the domestic policy of the late government, and on ques-
tions of religion, Sir Robert says—

On these points 1 desire to enter into unreserved expla-
nation with you. I write without concert or communica-
tion with any other person whatever, and the views and
opinions, therefore, which I may express, are expressed
on my own behalf exclusively.

1 feel, gentlemen, the deepest interest in.all that con-
cerns the welfare of the Established Church. I feel that
interest from sincere conviction of the truth of its doc-
trines, and from the firm belief that the Established
Church is capable of being made, and, through the tem-
pered zeal and active exertions of the highest spiritual
authorities, is in the progress of being made, the most
powerful instrument that exists for administering the_coir

solations of religion, for spreading the knowledge of Di-
vine truth, and for supplying the imperfections of human
laws by the obligations and restraints of religious duty•
I have resisted, and shall continue to resist, every pro-
posal for appropriating any portion of the revenues of the
Church, in any part of the United Kingdom, to other
than ecclesiastical purposes in direct connexion with the
Church.

I have felt it, however, to be quite consistent with a

warm attachment to the interests of the Church to take a
leading' part in those measures which have for their object
the abolition of ecclesiastical sinecures, the curtailment of
excessive emoluments, and the application of such a
portion of the revenues of Cathedral and Collegiate
churches as was not required for the purposes of those
institutions, to the partial remedy of great evils in the
social and spiritual condition of this country.
• A very few years since it was publicly declared, on the
highest authority, that " a vast proportion of the people
of this country were left destitute of the opportunities of
public worship and Christian instruction." Of this fact,
such proofs as the following were adduced :—That there
were in London and its suburbs four parishes, containing
an aggregate of 166,000 persons, with church room for
8,200, being not quite one-twentieth of the population;
that there were in the same district thirty-four parishes,
with a population of 1,137,000 inhabitants, and church

, . .
. .
room for 101,632 persons ; that in our own neighbourhood,
in the diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, there were 16
parishes, each having above 10,000 inhabitants, with an
aggregate population of 235,000 persons, and church room
for about 29,000. " .
. ... _

No doubt it was within the competency of Parliament
to make provision for the supply of these alarming defici-
encies in the means of religious instruction, by large grants
of public money derived from generallaxation but I felt
persuaded that it would not be for the advantage of reli-
gion that such a proposal should be made, until after all
the resources of the Church, which could properly be ren-
dered available for the nurnose. bad been anoli(
felt a

so persuaded that the appropriation of these re-
sources, with the willing consent of the Church, to such
objects as the augnientation of poor benefices, the esta-
blishment of new ecclesiastical districts. and the general

improvement of pastoral superintendence in very populous
parishes, would not only increase the local efficiency of the
Establishment, but would tend to confirm its hold on the
and attachment of the people.
It was for such purposes that, with the willing consent
of the Church, I proposed in the year 1843 a Bill, which
passed into a law, for making better provision for, the
spiritual care of populous parishes in England and Wales.
Under that law there have been constituted, :and agreed
to be constituted, 218 Ecclesiastical districts and new
parishes; and spiritual instruction and pastoral,-superin-
tendence will thus have been provided for a population of
above 764,000 souls. I oppose this fact to the charge of
indifference or hostility to the welfare of the Church'.

I certainly did not think it inconsistent with the true
interests of the Church, in cases wherein I deem the
claim a just one, to protect the rights and consult the
feelings and wishes of those who dissent from its doe-
trines,

With these impressions. I gave my support to measures
for quieting the titles to dissenting places of worship, and
for repealing many penal statutes in matters of religion,
obsolete so far as their practical operation is concerned,
but at variance with the mild spirit of modern legisla-
tion, and giving gratuitous offence by implying suspicion
and distrust, without offering the slightest remedy against
any apprehended danger.
With these impressions also, while cordially approving
of the proposal of her Majesty's Government to extend
the system of public instruction in this part of the united
kingdom, I expressed an opinion that it ought to be suffi-
ciently comprehensive to include the children of Roman
Catholic parents.
The right honourable baronet then refers to the state
of Ireland (that fruitful source of constantly recurring
and painful discussion), and to his government policy to-
wards it. Sir Robert prefaces his observations by quoting
portions of a letter of Mr. Burke's in support of the
Church of Ireland as by law established. Mr. Burke
says—" Ireland is a country under peculiar circumstances.
It has an ecclesiastical establishment, which, though the
religion of the Prince and of most of the first-class landed
proprietors, is not the religion of the major part of the
inhabitants, and which, consequently, does not answer to
them any one purpose of a religious establishment. I.llio
is a state of things which no man in his senses can call
perfectly happy. But it is the state of Ireland." It NO!
in reference to such consideration that Sir Robert brought
forward his Irish measures, and in a " spirit of justice
and kindness towards his Roman Catholic fellow-subject,
in Ireland."

Sir Robert then reviews his reasons for passing the Cha-
ritable Donations and Bequests Bill in Ireland, and the
Maynooth Bill. He declines by any pledge to " fetter his
discretion" as toihe propriety of endowing the Roman
Catholic priesthood. He then enters into an elaborate de'
fence of his financial and commercial policy ; of his ree."
sons for reducing the duty on various articles, and their
consequent result ; and of the causes which induced hira
repeal the. Corn-laws. The right hon. baronet seYs:
" there is no event which has since occurred which doe'
not confirm him in the belief that, even with special refer,
rence to the agricultural interest, the course taken se"
preferable to any other." Sir Robert concludes by sa%
ing, that if re-elected, he shall continue to act on the sens
principles which he pursued when in power.