The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-08-21 00:00:00

8

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We received, yesterday, from Mr. George Holden. of Bold-
place, x 5, as a contribution to the funds of the Fancy Fair.
We have handed the amount to Mr. Bold, the efficient trea-
surer.
The rank of the bishops is not regulated by the amount of
their salaries. The income of the Bishop of Durham is
.eB,OOO per annum, according to Act of Parliament ; but we
believehis Lordship is in receipt ofconsiderablymorethan that
sum, in consequence of the increase in value of the collerier,
&c., attached to the see. The arrangement by which this
was effected we could perhaps explain, if our correspondent
feels any interest on the subject.
With three courts of assize sitting yesterday, and a multitude
of lengthy local reports of meetings, &c., we were unable to
pay our usual attention to correspondents' favours, and have
been compelled to omit several other original articles.
We are always chary in giving replies on legal questions ; but
as far as we are able to judge, we think that " A" is released
from responsibility. He possesses the receipt, and it cannot be
insinuated, we presume, that he obtained possession of it by
fraud or false pretences.

ebt Etberpool &tantrarb.

TUESDAY MORNING, AUG. 21, 1849.

THE majority of the Council, representing cor-
rectly the general feeling of the town, have spoken
out pretty decisively their opinions, upon the sub-
ject of rating the Dock Estate. Of the five mem-
members, elected to the Dock Committee on
Wednesday, four are pro-raters ; and although, on
personal grounds, we cannot but regret the result,
we are quite prepared to admit its necessity. For
the life of us, however, we cannot perceive the
grounds upon which an exception has been made
in the person of Mr. James Aikin. Entertaining a
sincere respect for this gentleman; admiring his
honesty of purpose, his firmness of character, and
his business talents, we cannot yet see that he
should have been left to exercise these qualities,
and his known great influence, in thwarting the
demands of his fellow-townsmen. The personal
respect in which Mr. Aikin is held, no doubt de-
cided the issue in his favour; but we cannot see
that the other gentlemen rejected are less perso-
nally respectable. We impute no motives of a po-
litical character to those gentlemen who voted
against Mr. Mann and for Mr. Aikin; for we find
amongst them both Conservatives and Liberals,
anti raters and pro-raters. To this conclusion,
however, we are compelled to arrive, that, after re-
jecting the valuable services of Mr. Mann, and
shrinking from carrying out towards Mr. Aikin the
-principle upon which the former gentleman was
dealt with, the pro-rating party ()ugh in consis-
tency, to have withdrawn further opposition to the
three other retiring members, unless other disqua-
lifying grounds could have been substantiated
against them than their opinions on this question.

WE have refrained, hitherto, from serious com-
ment upon the inefficiency of the management of
the Birkenhead Ferry, since it has fallen into the
Viands of the Corporation. The accident of last
week, however, from which two lives were sacrificed,
impels us to speak. It would be prejudging a very
grave question to remark upon the circumstances
under which that accident occurred, or to point,
inviduously, to the fact reported, that there were
only three hands on board the Birkenhead boat at
the time of the occurence. We have only to express
our wonder that similar accidents have not pre-
viously occurred ; and to point out those features
in the present management of the ferry, from which'
danger arises.
To perform the duties of the ferry the committee
have at present but two boats, one of which is
alleged to be, in many respects, a very inefficient
one for such a service. Should such a boat be
employed by a wealthy body like the Corporation
of Liverpool, or would she be employed by any
private individual, desirous of bringing trade to the
ferry ? Certainly not. We may be reminded, how-
ever, that two new boats have just been launched,
and only await their engines being put in to be
placed upon the station. Be it so. Some time,
however, must elapse, rapidly as the work may be
hurried on, before these new boats can be put upon
the station ; and, even then, three boats are scarcely
sufficient to conduct the business of the ferry effi-
ciently, one of them being expressly built for a
luggage boat; and one, out of the three, certain to
be occasionally laid up for repairs, &c.
The fact of the ferry being thus short provided
presses most onerously upon the poor fellows em-
ployed upon the boats. The time of their running
is, say from five o'clock in the morning, or earlier
for those who have to get up steam, until say
eleven, when the last boat arrives at Birkenhead
slip. After this the boat has to be taken to her
moorings, the steam blown off and fires raked out,
&c. ; and we may fairly set it down that the hands
do not get to bed until midnight. What energy
and watchfulness can we expect from men thus
kept at work for nineteen hours out of twenty-four
during seven days of the week ? What opportuni-
ties have they of partaking of fireside enjoyments,
or of superintending their families ? Where is their
Sabbath ? Where are their opportunities of mental
or moral culture ? We can look for none of these
things from men thus hardly tasked ; and we sub-
mit that, whatever private cupidity might prompt
individual ferry proprietors to exact from their ser- ,
wants, such management as this is most reprehen-
sible on the part of such a body as our Corporation ;
and the inefficiency which it produces, is anything
but calculated to attract business to the ferry.

OUR contemporary of Friday is a paragon of the
virtuous in journalism. He never makes false
charges against political opponents—oh no ! He
has always chapter and verse, and witnesses, ready
before he levels an aspersion against any man. In
his last paper in the course of what assumes to be
a reply to some remarks of ours, he parades himself
as immaculate in this respect. "We never in our
lives," he says, " knowingly made a false charge."
Far be it from us to contradict this assertion.
We trust for the honour of the cloth that it is true.
But our contemporary does now and then hazard a
suggestive falsehood. In the very paragraph before
snaking pharisaical profession he talks of "the
rev. author of a leading article in last Tuesday's
Liverpool Standard." Now we beg to ask him—
had he the slightest evidence, whilst penning this
insinuation, that any rev. gentleman had written
the article in question ? If he had not, as he could
not have, for it is not the fact, what does he think
of the honesty of the assumption ?
We do not complain, on personal grounds, of
our humble efforts being attributed to a member of
the best educated body of Europe ; but we can as-
sure our contemporary that we are not in the habit
of calling in aid of any description in the perform-
ance of duties, for which we feel ourselves compe-
tent, or should not have undertaken them. We
never seek to lessen our contemporary's self-com-
placency by attributing the most learned of his lu-
cubrations to the Lord Chancellor. We do not in-
sinuate that his " Stop the Pike ! now or never"
article, on Friday, was written by a stoker at some
of the waterworks, in the gasping intervals of
" firing up." We should be happy if our contem•
porary would imitate our example in this respect.

COMPLIMENT OF A SERGEANT-AT-LAW TO THE JUNIOR
BARRISTERS.—Yesterday, in the cause of "Stansfield v.
Sowler," Mr. Sergeant Wilkins passed the following high
eulogium upon the junior 'oarristers practising on this
circuit. The learned sergeant was addressing the jury for
the defendant, and in the course of doing so, remarked
that the alleged libel asserted that Mr. Stansfield was one
of the briefless fraternity. Why, was this any reflection
upon him ? He (Sergeant Wilkins) would venture to say,
that there was more of real mind, more of real learning,
more of all that which dignified the man, amongst the
briefless than amongst those who had the better fortune
to be in practice. Macauley for instance, was.a proof of
this; and he (Sergeant Wilkins) might go to some of the
back benches in that court, and point out men whose
voices were but seldom if ever heard within those walls,
whose minds he venerated, and before whom, upon points
'of law, be felt himself a child,—who were as superior to
him in mental strength as was a giant to a pigmy in
physical.
ROBBERY ON THE-HIGH SEAS.--A woman of decent
appearance, holding a child in her arms, was brought up
on the following charge. It appeared that she arrived
here a few days ago from America by the Columbus, Cap-
tain Bunk. On the homeward voyage, and when a few
days' sail from New York, a female passenger expired,
when immediately Mary Foster (the prisoner) went to a
man named Storey, another passenger, to borrow a knife.
Having his suspicions as to the use to which she meant to
apply it, he complied with the request, but watched the
woman's movements, when he saw her approach the de-
ceased woman, rip up her stays, and abstract a number
of sovereigns. lie then presented himself, and she finding
she was discovered, counted out 44 sovereigns, and enjoined
secrecy on Storey. He, however, immediately informed
the captain of what he had witnessed; but the only tice
he seems to have taken of the matter was to possesslim-
self of the deceased woman's watch and other valuables.
The man Storey informed the police of the transaction,
on the arrival of the ship ; and upon the woman being
searched, 49 pounds were found upon her, five more than
were named in the charge. The jurisdiction of the ma-
gistrate not extending to the high seas, the woman was
discharged. Mr. Clough, the chief superintendent of
police, was directed to return the five sovereigns to the
woman Foster, but to retain possession of the 44, as also
to get possession of the other property from the captain,
the whole of which will be handed over to deceased's
friends, who reside in Ireland.

THE RAILWAY COMPANIES OF THE LANCA-
SHIRE AND YORKSHIRE DISTRICT.

We believe that there are few—beyond those immedi-
ately connected with the share market, who make the
position of railway property their study—to whom the
precise arrangements and amalgamations of oar leading
lines are at all known. Not one in ten, for instance,
knows what are the lines embraced within the manage-
ment of our leviathan " London and North-Western,"
or the terms upon which these lines have been amalga-
mated. For want of such accurate information, men
speculate and invest in the dark, taking their cue only
from the temporary appearance of the share market, and
ignorant, in most cases, of the very important fact whe-
ther the concerns, whose stock they purchase, are depen-
dent for dividends upon the profits of their own working,
or are guaranteed at a fixed rate. We propose laying
before our readers the precise position of a few of the
leading companies, in which this locality is most inte-
rested ; and avail ourselves, in doing so, of the valuable
work, " The Railways of the United Kingdom," recently
published by Mr. Harry Scrivenor, the secretary to the
Liverpool Stock Exchange, to which we refer those inte-
rested for the detailed statements and documents, which
cannot be brought within the limits of a newspaper arti-
cle. We take first a line, recently opened,

THE EAST LANCASHIRE RAILWAY.
The nucleus of this company was the Manchester,
Bury, and Rossendale Company, incorporated in 1844,
with powers to raise a capital of £300,000 and to borrow
£lOO,OOO. In 1845 two additional acts were procured;
one to make a new railway—the Blackburn, Accrington,
and Colne Extension Railway, capital £530,000, with
power to borrow £176,000, and to authorise the Man-
chester and Bury to purchase such line ; and the other to
incorporate the two under the title of the " East Lanca-
shire Railway Company." By an act passed in 1846, the
company was authorised to raise, by shares, £300,000
additional, and to borrow £lOO,OOO, making the entire
capital, in shares and loans, £1,506,000, of which
£1,130,000 is in 45.200 transferrable shares of £25 each.

The East Lancashire has since brought lVitllTiiTt;-
nagement the Blackburn and Preston line, capital
£240.000. This company was amalgamated upon equal
terms; and the united company received powers to raise
£276,000 additional.

The Liverpool, Ormskirk, and Preston Company was
incorporated in 1846, capital £750,000, with power to
borrow £250,000, and to amalgamate with the East Lan-
cashire. This has been effected by a subscription capital
of 30,000 shares of £25 each, with the usual borrowing
powers.

In the session of 1847 acts were obtained for various
deviations, for which 34,720 shares of £6 ss. were issued,
and £72,000 authorised to be borrowed—in all £289,300;
and, in 1848, a further sum was raised by the issue of
preference shares of £6 ss. each, to the amount of
£288,375. The total receipts up to 31st Dec., 1848, were
£2,188,252 Bs. 9d. on shares, and £529,634 Bs. 10d. on
loan ; in all, £2,717,886. The arrears of calls were
£236,392 ; making a total capital of nearly three millions.
Of this, £2,622,631 ss. 2d. had been expended. The
portion of capital raised by the acts of 1847 is guaranteed
5 per cent. until 1850, after which the stock bears dividend
pro rata with the original shares; and the preference
shares issued in 1848 are entitled to a minimum prefe-
rence dividend of 6 per cent.
The East Lancashire therefore consists of the following
lines, viz. :—opened and working, the Rossendale line, 14
miles; Blackburn and Preston, 10 miles; Bacup branch,
2 miles ; Blackburn to Accrington, 51- miles , Stubbins to
Accrington, 71- miles ; Accrington to Burnley, 5} miles ;
Burnley to Colne, 6 miles; Ormskirk line, 26 miles—in
all 76 miles opened ; and Skelmersdale branch, 3 miles ;
Burnley Branch, mile; and Preston extenson, 3 miles—
or 61- miles in course of construction. Total length, 821-
miles.

By the East Lancashire line direct connections are
formed between Liverpool, Southport, Ormskirk, Black-
pool, Fleetwood, and Preston, joining the western route
to Carlisle and Edinburgh. Tn another direction a direct
communication is formed to Blackburn, Accrington, and
by Bury to Manchester. The Rossendale line takes pas-
sengers from Ramsbottom to Newchurch, and by coach to
Bacup. A route is also finished to Leeds by Burnley,
Colne, Skipton, and Bradford.