The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-12-12 00:00:00

COURT AND FASHION.

The Queen and Prince Albert remain in the enjoyment
of quiet at Osborne-house. Lord and Lady John Russell
have been the most distinguished visitors of the week. .
On Thursday week Lord Hardinge dined with the 50th
regiment, (Queen's Own.) at the mess-room, Dover
Castle, when his lordship presented a massive gold cup to
the officers, the gift of Prince Waldemar, of Prussia.
At the Smithfield Club Cattle Show, last week, in
Class 1., the highest prize, of 30 sovereigns, was awarded
to a Hereford ox, fed by Prince Albert, and a silver me-
dal to Mr. Peter Davis, its breeder.

RAILWAY AFFAIRS.

a

During the last fortnight there went from the Bangor
station of the Chester and Holyhead railway a pig cargo,
from Ireland, in upwards of 80 trucks, each truck with
25 pigs, or about 2,000 in the whole.
CHESTER AND HOLYHEAD RAlLWAY.—Traffic for the
week ended the 2nd instant :—Coaching traffic, £744 Os.
4d. ; parcels, £44 10s. 2d. ; goods and cattle, £286 15s.
7d. • steam-boats, £9l 12s. ;—total, £1166 18s. Id.
On Monday, two labourers on the EasAnd West India
Dock and Birmingham Junction Railw were killed by
the falling in of three recently-construct arches, which,
it seems, had been considerably injured by the recentrains.
RAILWAY AcTloN.—ln the Court of Exchequer, on
Monday, a child named Dearden, not seven years old,
son of Mr. Dearden solicitor, residing somewb.v”. ;
n.ent, obtained inUJ damages ror injuries sustained by
the sudden opening of a door of the carriage on which he
was leaning, as the train arrived at Euston-square. The
injuries caused the amputation of the left leg and one of
the toes on the right foot. The jury thought the accident
occurred through the neglect of the Company's servants.

From our official returns it appears that the amount of
traffic for the last week, on 4,205 miles of railway, was
£174,861, thus accounted f0r:—£75,769 for the convey-
ance of passengers only, £53,605 for the carriage of
goods, and a remainder of £45,487 for passengers and
goods together, not respectively apportioned ; being an
increase of £20,811 over the corresponding week of last
year, when the mileage was 3,317. The average earnings
per mile were £42, whilst in 1847 they were £46.
DEPRECIATION OF RAILWAY SHARES.—The average
fall in the market prices of twelve of the principal com-
panies, has been upwards of 60 per cent. in 31 years.
Taking the month of August for a comparison, we find
that in '1845, London and North-Western shares were
£252, and in 1848, £ll4 ; Great Western, £246 and £92 ;
South-Western, £B2 and £4l ; South-Eastern, £lBO and
£94 ; Brighton, £BO and £2B ; Edinburgh and Glasgow,
£B7 and £37 ; and others in like proportion.
The Belfast and Ballymena directors, in the face of their
disappointment in the passenger receipts, declare a divi-
dend of 10s. for the past half-year, payable on the 14th.
The general expenses have been carefully attended to, and
the reduction in the fares of the second and third class
passengers it is hoped will result satisfactorily to the com-
pany. The report was adopted, and Mr. Macartney, in
an address full of minute details, completely rebutted the
charges made by Mr. Maunder against the board. Mr.
Maunder has since published an apology for his attacks.
LIVERPOOL, ORMSKIRK, AND PRESTON RAILWAY..—
The works on this line are still very backward, owing to
the numerous slips which have taken place at Rufford
three or four times each week, for the last two months .
It is stated that one place has sunk nearly thirty yardF,
perpendicularly ; and the workmen, though conveying an
immense quantity of ballast, daily, from Aughton Moss,
near Ormskirk, are, apparently, nearly as far behind as
they were five or six weeks ago. The engine propelled a
train of twenty-two waggons, laden with ballast, across
the pile-bridge, to Croston Moss, for the first time, on
Wednesday last. The bridge, which is upwards of a
quarter of a mile long, stood remarkably well, there being
very little vibration as the train passed over. It is confi-
dently predicted, however, by persons who have known
Croston Moss for the last forty years, that, when the
heavy ballast comes to be placed upon the embankment,
it will sink. A few days, however, will set this question
at rest.
RAILWAYS AND SANITARY REFORM.—In connection
with the prominent, and certainly the most important
topic of the day, as regards social comfort—we mean sani-
tary reform—it appears from an article in the Companion
to the British Almanac for the ensuing year, that rail-
ways are showing themselves most useful. It seems that
at Newcastle-on-Tyne the town's refuse has been for
some years carted out on a spot in or near to the common
moor, whence it was taken away in other carts, belonging
to the farmers of Morpeth and other places, who paid 4s.
6d. per cart-load for it. The York and Berwick Railway
has become the medium of a much improved arrangement.
The corporation now takes the collection of these mat-
ters upon itself ; the refuse is conveyed in carts to the
railway, along which it is transported, in vehicles and at
hours likely to be as little inconvenient as possible ; and
it is now delivered in the agricultural districts at 2s. 6d.
per ton. The farmers of Northumberland now use the
whole of the refuse of Newcastle, and the demand is far
beyond the supply.
PROGRESS OF THE RAILWAY SYSTEM.—If we look at
the capital invested within a given number of years, in
the shape of shares, and which in almost every case repre-
sents spare or accumulatad capital, we arrive at some
astonishing results. We may leave untouched the
mining speculations of 1825, and the joint-stock bubbles
of 1836 ; for those were remarkable rather for the extra-
vagant prices given for the scrip or deposits on shares,
than for the money actually sunk in permanent works.
In respect to the 2,700 miles of canal now at work in the
United Kingdom, they belong rather to the past genera-
tion than to the present; nearly 2,000 miles having been
projected and laid out before the commencement of the
present century : the forty years from 1770 to 1810 were
the busy years for canals. In respect to turnpike-roads,
too, the advance was more notable in the last generation
than it has been within the last twenty years, owing to
the spread of railways. The turnpike-roads and paved
streets of England and Wales amount to about 20,000
miles, and the cross-roads to nearly 100,000 miles ; these
together, though increasing yearly, do not increase in a
large ratio. But when we come to railways, we find am-
ple reason for the comparative stagnation of roads and
canals. The first passenger railway (the Liverpool and
Manchester) was opened for traffic in 1830 ; it was so
successful, that more than one hundred acts were ob-
tained for new lines between that year and 1840, and
more than five hundred in the next six years, 1841-1846.
About 1100 miles were finished and in operation in 1841 ;
about 2,650 miles in 1846 ; and there will probably be
about 4,400 miles open at the end of 1848. The capital
expended on these works, which was laid out cautiously
twenty years ago, increased at an astonishing rate. The
completed railways had zost £70,000,000 by November,
1845; and by the commencement of 1848, the expendi-
ture had increased t0k170,000,000, ofwhich £130,000,000,
had been raised by shares, and f. 40,000,000 by loans.—
tbogpanion to the Almmaaek..

UNIVERSITY AND CLERICAL NE•T.

The Rev. George Yarnoi'd Osborne, MA., curate of
Coleshillt Warwickshire, has been presented to the per-
petual curacy of Whiston, near Prescot, Lancashire.
Cannes MISSIONARY SOCIETY.—Last night the an-
nual meeting of the Chester auxiliary was held at Chester,
when the Bishop presided. At the morning meeting the
Marquis of Cholmondeley presided. The Rev. Chancellor
Raikes will take the chair at a juvenile meeting to be held
to-day - -

Mr. Macaulay has accepted the Rectorship of Glasgow
University, and has informed the electors that he will visit
the Western metropolis about the New Year, for the pur-
pose of being installed. Lord John Russell never had
time to go through the ceremony, and it is surmised that
his supposed indifference was the cause of his not being
re-elected.

LIBERALITY OF THE QUEEN DOWAGER.—The Queen
Dowager has most graciously given the munificent dona-
tion of £2O towards the expenses incurred in the erection
of a new church at Flint. The building was opened for
Divine service on Tuesday. In the morning a most im-
pressive sermon was delivered by the Lord Bishop of St.
Asaph. Among the gentry present on the interestinc,
occasion were Sir R. S. Glynn, Bart., the Hon. E. M.
Lloyd Mostyn' &c.
The Daily News remarks upon the appointment of
another "son of a Whig nobleman" to a living in the
gift of the Bishop of Durham, that the reverend prelate
" reserves all his choicest livings for his patron's friends."
" A few weeks ago he gave Houghton-le-Spring, with its
£l6OO a year to one of the sons of the late Earl Grey ; a
few weeks since he preferred a son of Lord Denman to a
benefice with £7OO a year; and now he has been attend-
ing to the temporal interest of a relative of the First
Lord of the Admiralty."
CHURCH EDUCATION.—A movement has been com-
menced in the Norwich diocese in furtherance of church
education. It is proposed to establish a training college
for school-mistresses, and another for masters also, if
funds can be raised. The bishop heads the movement,
and promises a donation of £250,, on condition that the
necessary £6,000 be raised in the diocese in the course of
the next six months. Lord Bayning has put down his
name for £lOO donation, and increases his annual sub-
scription from £5 to £2O. The Mayor of Norwich and
others have also furnished munificent contributions.
The Protestant meeting held in the Guild-hall last
Tuesday evening, and the truly eloquent address of Mr.
Stowell, will be long remembered by the inhabitants cf
Doncaster. We never remember witnessing a more stir-
ring meeting or listening to a more brilliant specimen of
popular address than the speech of the Rev. H. Stowell.
The meeting itself was well-timed, men's minds were
interested in the subject and open to conviction, and the
honest and hearty bursts of applause which accompanied
the glowing appeals of the speaker, manifested a feeling
of respect and love for the Church of England, and a set-
tled determination to oppose to the utmost all further
concessions to Rome, which it was impossible to witness
without gratitude and encouragement.—Doncaster Chro-
nicle.

THE COLONIAL BISHOPS.—Mr. John Bright, who is
so fond of making rrndom statements with a view to
damage the Church Establishment, stated, at a political
meeting the other day at Wakefield, that " upwards of
£46,000 a-year were paid out of the taxes to support
colonial bishops." This has called forth a letter from
the Rev. Ernest Hawkins, Hon. Sec. of the Colonial
Bishoprics Fund, in which he proves, by a detailed state-
ment, that " of our 21 colonial bishoprics, eight only—
viz., Nova Scotia, Montreal, Newfoundland, Jamaica,
Barbadoes, Antigua, Guiana, and New Zealand—receive
any portion of their income from the Imperial Treasury ;
and the sum of their gross united incomes is not £46,000,
as stated by Mr. Bright, but £14,790." The other
bishops' salaries are paid either out of the colonial funds,
the Colonial Bishoprics Fund, or private liberality, as in
the cases of the Bishops of Cape Town and Adelaide,
who were endowed wholly and exclusively by the pious
munificence of Miss Burdett Coutts. Mr. Hawkins adds,
that there is a happy probability of two or three more
colonial bishops being endowed ere long, without any
assistance from the Imperial Treasury. The Bishop of
New Zealand receives one-half of his salary (aoo a-year)
from the Imperial Treasury, in consequence of a recom-
mendation from Lord John Russell.