The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-02-23 00:00:00

COURT AND FASHION.

The Court left Buckingham Palace on Saturday, for
Claremont. They return to-day (Tuesday.)
On Thursday, the Queen and Prince Albert honoured
the French Plays with their presence. Her Majesty and
the Prince, with the Royal Children, have taken their ac-
customed airings in the vicinity of the palace.
The Duke of Bedford is to have the Garter vacant by
the death of the Duke of Northumberland.

The venerable Earl of Derby has so much improved in
health, that his lordship intends to leave Knowsley Park
for town at the end of the month.

RAILWAY AFFAIRS.

The Whitehaven Junction Railway was opened on
Monday. It extends from that town to Maryport.
The Lynn and Ely, Ely and Huntingdon and Lynn and
and Dereham respectively have confirmed the lease of the
lines to the Eastern Counties.

There is a general report that the East Lancashire have
purchased the Lancashire and Preston. Thus the East
Lancashire will obtain a direct line from Liverpool through
Ormskirk and Preston to Lancaster.

Such has been the demand for locomotives during
the last two years, that out of ten engines ordered by the
Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire two years ago,
only three have been as yet delivered.

Mr. G. R. Ward has jiist finished a beautiful engraving
of Mr. Mackenzie, the eminent railway contractor, from an
excellent likeness by Mr. H. J. Midge, painted by public
subscription, made at Paris.
The proposition of the Taw Vale to lease the Exeter
and Crediton was accepted by the latter. Five per cent.
to be paid by the Taw Vale for paid-up capital ; the pro-
fits exceeding five per cent. up to a half per cent., and
when exceeding five-and-a-half per cent., surplus to be
shared.

NOTTINGHAM, AMBERGATE, BOSTON, AND EASTERN
JUNCTION RAILWAY.--The first sod of this line was cut
on Friday, with much pomp and circumstance, at Bottes-
ford, near Belvoir Castle, by the lady of the chairman, as-
sisted by the noble owner of the castle—his grace the
Duke of Rutland.
The Brie'

,nton pay the best dividend they have yet done ;
31 per cent. for the half-year on the consolidated stock,
and 28s. upon the fifth shares, whereon £4O had been
paid. It is quite clear, that welcome as is this dividend,
it is so, not merely as a fact by itself, but as a warranty
of increased prosperity in future.
SEIZING RAILWAY PARCELS.—An action has been
raised before the Sheriff's Court of Paisley to decide as to
the legality of the joint railway seizing the parcels of pas-
sengers to ascertain if they contain other than personal
luggage, that being the only kind of luggage allowed to
passengers. The railway company has craved time, and
are to conduct their case by written pleadings.
NARROW ESCAPE.—On Thursday afternoon, in conse-
quence of the heavy fall of rain, about thirty yards of the
Sheffield and Manchester Railway, near Woodhead, was
washed away by the flood. A down train to Sheffield, and
another to Manchester, had just passed over, when the
line fell in. Had the fall occurred a few moments before,
the accident must have been most frightful.
In the Court of Common Pleas an action was brought
by Mr. C. Barker, the advertising agent, to recover from
Mr. Griffith, a merchant in Liverpool, as a provisional
director and member of the committee of management of
the Bristol, Manchester, and Liverpool Direct Trunk
Railway, the sum of £3O 3s. 6d. for work and labour done
in advertising the prospectus of the company. The jury
gave a verdict in favour of the claim.
Four per cent. for the half-year continues to be the
declared dividend of the Great Western. Delighting in
that confidence which has won them so many triumphs,
t'

le chairman gave • his version of the existing state of
affairs between the London and North-Western and his
company ; and Mr. Heyworth patronizingly advised the
uniform gauge companies to give up " tinkering," and to
, I put their houses

order.
The report of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln-
shire is flattering. The traffic is progressing favourably.
A dividend, after the rate of 5 per cent. per annum is to
be paid to the holders of the original £lOO Sheffield and
Manchester shares. The No. 1 quarter or preferential
shares are to receive at the rate of 71 per cent. per annum.
Satisfactory arrangements have been made with the neigh-
bouring lines.

GERMAN RAitAtUAns.-From recent German papers
we gather that within the year 1846 there opened of Ger-
man railways 174 German miles, or, in round numbers,
about 800 English miles in length. The longest section,
amounting to 94 German miles, was opened in Prussia,
and includes the direct line from Hamburgh to Berlin.
There is a line from Frankfort on the Oder to Bertin,
which joins the line from Upper Silesia to Stettin, on the
Baltic Sea. Upper Silesia is, therefore, connected by
railway communication with Stettin on the Baltic, and
with Hamburgh via Berlin. In another year there will
be another line to Hamburgh, vid Dresden, which is now
finished as far as Hanover. The Prussians completed
their direct line to Hamburgh while the good
.King of
Hanover was raising the wind to change the uniform of
his soldiers from red to blue. In the south of Germany
the grand Austrian trunk line from Vienna to Poland
passes through Upper Silesia, on its way to Galicia. A
portion of the line already constructed leads through the
vale of the Oder, and is continued to Cracow, The line
now constructing from Frankfort to Leipsig will complete
the communication between Upper Silesia of the Valley
of the Oder to the Rhine at Bierberich. The line in pro-
gress from Cologne to Minden and Magdeburg will form
a second means of communication between Upper Silesia
and the Rhine near Dusseldorf. Between the coast of
Belgium and the Rhine, the communication is opened
from Antwerp and Ostend. It is intended to construct
a railway from Flushing to Dusseldorf directly through
Dutch and Prussian territory, in order to afford ano-
ther good communication with a port always open.
The reader cannot but have been struck with the direc-
tion which all these lines seem to take. They uniformly
tend from the coast towards Upper Silesia. The moun-
tains inclosing the valley of the Upper Oiler are traversa-
Me. Over their passes the Prussian Silesian railroad
either has been, or speedily will he, orried to join the
grand Austrian line from Vienna to Cracow,'