The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-08-07 00:00:00

RAILWAY AFFAIRS.

A direct communication between Leeds and Manchester,
by way of Dewsbury, Huddersfield, and the Marsden and
Saddleworth Vallies, was made on Wednesday, by the
opening of the above line throughout to the public. The
influx of passengers at all the stations on the line was
very great.
CHESTER AND HOLYHEAD RAlLWAY.—Traffic for the
week ended 29th July :—Coaching traffic, £1,879 ls. 2d. ;
parcels, £55 3s. 10d. ; goods and cattle, £196 ss. 11d. ;
steam boats, £lBl Ils. Bd. Total, £2,312 2s. 7d. Ex-
clusive of toll from Shrewsbury and Chester Company,
and payment for conveyance of mails.
RAILWAY PARCELS.—Petitions have been presented to
both houses of parliament, extensively signed by mer-
chants, bankers, and wholesale traders in the following
towns :—London, Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool,
Leeds, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Edinburgh, and Glasgow.
The petitioners complain of the conduct of the railway
companies " in making a monopoly of goods traffic,
charging oppressively, illegally, and unequally on small
parcels and packed hampers, and praying for an investi-
gation, a revision of the companies' powers and rates,
protection to wholesale traders and competitors, and a
government superintendent of traffic."
PRESENTATION TO MR. LOCICE.—On Friday evening, a
party of about fifty of the friends and associates of Mr.
Locke invited that gentleman to a dinner at • Fenton's
Hotel, St. James's-street, on the occasion of presenting to
Mrs. Locke the portrait of her husband. The meeting
was composed chiefly of Mr. Locke's professional friends.
Mr. Swift, of Liverpool, was in the chair. Mr. Brunel
was present ; Mr. Stephenson was unfortunately absent.
Mr. Locke's private friends were Mr. J. O'Connell, Mr.
Cobbold, Mr. Peto, Sir J. Elphinstone, Mr. G. Pritt, Mr.
D. Gooch, Mr. Charles Manby, and others.
RAILWAY PASSENGERS ASSURANCE.—We are grati-
fied at learning that the London and North-Western
Railway Company has placed itself at the head of the
Railway Passengers' Assurance Company, by permitting
the issue of assurance tickets at the principal stations on
its line. It may be necessary to remind our readers of

the terms upon which insurances, in lietit either of loss I
of life or of personal injury, are effected by this company.
A first-class passenger will, by' a payinent of three-pence,
insure £1000; a second-class passenger, by a payment of
two-pence, will insure £500; and a third-class passenger,
by a payment of one penny, will insure £2OO. Double
journeys will, of course, demand a double insurance.
The insurance is, with this exception, irrespective of the
distance to be travelled.
LIVERPOOL, CROSBY, AND SOI7THPORT RAILWAY.—
The half-yearly meeting of thiscompany was held on Thurs-
day last, Mr. W. Earle occupied the chair. The chairman
moved the adoption ofthereport. This was seconded by Mr.
Hugh Hornby, and unanimously carried. Mr. Langs-
dale moved that no dividend should be declared, but that
the money should go towards the completion of the line.
Mr. Moss thought that if they had earned the 2i. per
cent. they ought to have it. This appeared to be the
general feeling of the meeting. Mr. Langsdale withdrew
his motion, and a dividend at the rate of 21 per cent. was
declared. It was stated that atter payment of that amount
there would still be a balance on hand of £l,OOO. It was
resolved that two vacancies in the direction should not
for the present be filled up. Satisfactory negotiations, it
was stated, were pending with Lord Derby as to much of
the land that would be required for the full extension of
the line to Liverpool. Notice of intention to forfeit 965
shares was given. Thanks were voted to the directors,
the engineer, and the secretary, and the meeting broke
up.

BRITANNIA TUBULAR BRIDGE.—The preparations at
the Menai Straits for hoisting this enormous fabric to its
permanent position over the straits are on a scale of great
magnitude. The total dead weight to be lifted 100 feet
from high water-mark is upwards of 2,000 tons, or equi-
valent to the elevation to that height cf upwards of 30,000
men. A general but erroneous impression seemed to pre-
vail that when the tubular bridge was floated the whole
operation was completed. The floating was nothing more
than the launch of the great iron ferry to the precise site
from whence it has now to be raised by mechanical power,
specially constructed for the purpose. The stroke of the
hydraulic process employed for the purpoie is six feet ;
that is to say, they are only capable of raising it six feet
at one lift. The tube of 2,000 tons has consequently to be
sustained while the presses are lowered, and a ,fresh hold
obtained. This will be effected by building up successive
layers of masonry, at every six-feet lift, under the tube,
to support it securely in its upward ascent, during which
arrangements will be made for another six-feet hoist, until
the whole 100 feet are finished. Were it not for this pro-
cess of building up, the operation would only occupy about
a day ; but, as it is, it will take a fortnight.
RAILWAY BAGATELLES,—The sum of £140,000 has
just been expended on a new station at Euston-square;
£243,096 on the bridge over the Tyne, at Newcastle;
£126,960 on the bridge over the Tweed at Berwick • and
in the Eastern Counties expose, the stations, Cambridge,
Ely, and Peterborough figure respectively in the sums of
£80,555, £90,423, and £93,234 ! !—But those are baga-
telles compared with the expenditure on the bridge over
the Menai at Bangor, which the Chester and Holyhead
directors have admitted will cost £600,000 (some people
believe it will exceod £700,000), although Mr. Stephen-
son's estimate was only £250,000 !! ! Costly as that
bridge is it will be out-heroded by the projected Cornish
railway bridge over the Tamar at Saltash, where the cen-
tre pier is to be sunk eighty feet deep below the water
surface at low water spring tides ; and as the government
stipulated that the bridge should be carried 100 feet
above the high-water surface, mokes a total height of up-
wards of 180 feet, and thereby making the works much
more extensive than those at Britannia bridge. Many
persons doubt that Mr. Brunel will complete the Saltash
bridge for less than one million ! The whole population
of Cornwall, including the Scilly islands, was, according
to the last census, only £341,279.
OPENING OF THE HUDDERSFIELD AND MANCHESTER.
—The opening of this line is remarkable in three ways. It
forms virtually a second Manchester and Leeds railway,
and is much shorter than the old one. Second, it is a
singular instance of a canal converted into a railway—
the canal, however, still suffered to exist—the two being
pretty nearly parallel to one another, but not vested in
the same proprietary. Third, it is remarkable in itself,
as a line passing through a most difficult country, full of
formidable works, completed in a short time, and at
moderate expense. When we state that it has been little
more than two years in progress, and that it contains
one tunnel of more than three miles in length, being the
longest in the world—which tunnel is at a depth of 652 ft.
below the ridge of the bill which it pierces ; and when we
add that there are seventy-seven bridges, seven viaducts,
and four tunnels on the line,—it will be apparent that the
engineer had to overcome no ordinary difficulties :—how
successfully he has overcome them, the fact of the open-
ing on Friday last has most satisfactorily shown. The
tunnel is a most successful piece of work, and so perfectly
straight, that on a clear day one can see through it from
end to end. It is entered by very handsome ashlar stone
facings, and most of the mason-work is of the' beautiful
millstone grit, which is abundant throughout the line.
Tile country is so difficult, that it is by sharp curves and
sharp gradients only that the line has been rendered prac-
ticable : but its advantages will be very great, as it reduces
the distance from Leeds to Manchester to 421 miles, while
by the old railway the distance is 62 miles. The town of
Huddersfield is by this route brought within 208 miles of
London, and important facilities are given to a vast ex-
tent of local traffic ;—the whole country through which
the line passes being filled with woollen mills and manu-
facturing villages. Several of the viaducts are structures
of great elegance and strength ; and having recently
passed over the line, we can bear testimony to the excel-
lent judgment, complete finish and solidity of the whole
of the works, which have been executed entirely wider
the superintendence of Mr. Jee. On the completion of
this line it becomes the property of the London and North
Western, and forms a most important extension of the
Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which by this means
adds to its resources a vast portion of the traffic lying to
the east of Manchester, which would otherwise have been
diverted from it. A passenger who now takes his place
in Leeds or Huddersfield will find himself little more than
200 miles from London, which he will reach without
change of carriage.