The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-12-31 00:00:00

CHESTER AND HOLYHEAD RAILWAY,

Yesterday week a meeting was held at the Penrhyn Arms,
Bangor, to take into consideration the propriety of giving
parliamentary notices upon Messrs. Stephenson and Giles's
railway between Chester and Holyhead.

The- meeting was attended by'many of the neighbouring
gentry, and J. Wyatt, Esq., was unanimously called to the
chair.

Mr. Giles then detailed the plan of the projected railway.
and placed before the meeting the apparent merits of the line
of railway to Dublin via Chester to Holyhead. The line had
been surveyed by Mr. Stephenson, and this gentleman was
strongly in favour of it. It had been allowed, on all hands,
that Holyhead was the most fitting terminus. With respect
to Porthdynllaen, he did nut feel called upon to make any
remark, having pointed out its inferiority in his report of
1838. It was always difficult to estimate the expenses in such
large undertakings ; but he was prepared to say that the ex-
penses of the proposed line would not exceed three millions.
and most probably not two millions and a half. One thou-
sand pounds was all that was necessary to place them in a
condition to apply to government fora loan. This sum might
be raised by subscriptions, or otherwise. Mr. Giles then,
wishing the meeting to bear in mind that this sum was esti-
mated upon the least and barest expense of making the ne-
cessary surveys, left the matter in the hands of the chairman
and meeting.

The chairman then suggested that circulars should be sent
round to the gentry and others, to solicit their subscriptions.
-Mr. Grenville, banker, Chester, entirely agreed, as the
local interests of Chester were so deeply involved.
Mr. Bulkelev Hughes thought that similar meetings ought
to be held in Flintshire, Denbighshire, and the other coun-
ties, in order to stimulate emulation and prevent jealousy.
For his own part, he preferred Porthdynllaen, and, as the
representative of the six contributory boroughs of Carnar-
vonshire, he would suggest that the surveys spoken of by
Mr. Giles ought to include one of the line of road between
the Menai Bridge, or Bangor, and Porthdynllaen, in order
that the public might have fair means of testing the compa-
rative merit of the two lines from Bangor to the railway
terminus.

After several other speeches, resolutions were agreed to
for furthering the proposed object, and the meeting separated.

As INDIAN ESTABLISHMENT.—The number of servants
and people attached to one person, surprises those who have
never been in the east. My own allowance consisted of an
elephant, four horses, eight camels, and twenty domestics ; a
pretty handsome quantity forone individual.—Captain Fane's
Five Years in India.

AN EXTRAORDINARY WOMAN.—Left Meerut on our way
towards Kurnaul, and marched towards Sadanah, the former
place of residence of the Begum Sombre. This celebrated
woman, who died about two years ago, was a half-caste, and
originally married to Colonel Dyce, a German, who obtained,
during the civil wars of India, and after the downfall of the
Great Mogul, and before our taking possession of the country,
one of the many small principalities into which the whole
empire was subdivided. Aware of her husband's love for
her, she pretended, on a threatened invasion of his territories
by the Mahrattas, to destroy herself, and caused a pistol to
be fired near her palanquin. The plot succeeded. Her
spouse said he would not survive her, a

—id shot himself
through the head, when she immediately seized the govern-
ment, soon became one of our closest allies, and was con-
fined in her usurpation, which she retained till her death,
when, according to treaty, it lapsed to our government. She
seems to have been a strange mixture of good and evil. On
the side of the former she is said to have been kind to her
People, and a good mother to her adopted children. On the
other it is argued that she was arbitrary, avaricious, and at
times cruel. The worst story told of her is her having been
jealous of a Nautch girl, to whom her husband had paid
rather too much attention, having buried her alive, and seat-
ing herself above the place, smoking her hookah. The
Europeans about her, however, deny the story, and say that,
except to culprits, she was never cruel. She built and en-
dowed a Roman catholic chapel, which is very beautiful, in-
laid like the Taj, the whole of the interior being of white
marble. She is said to have died worth nearly £500,000,
which is all left to Mr. Dyce Sombre, her son-in-law, who
took it with him to England.—Five years in India.