The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-04-02 00:00:00

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE,

The monthly meeting of the Council took place yester-
day, when there was a full attendance of directors, in-
cluding Mr. William Brown, M.P.
Among the subjects brought forward, after the routine
business had been disposed of, was the election of a di-
rector in the room of Mr. George Holt, resigned, when
Mr. James Ryley was unanimously chosen.
A letter from Messrs. R. Sharpe and Sons was read, on
the great loss to the revenue, and detriment to the whole-
sale dealers in coffee, by the adulteration of coffee by
chicory. Mr. Sharpe (who was in attendance) gave a'
lengthened statistical statement in corroboration of the
facts given in his letter; and after a protracted discussion,
a special committee was appointed to consider the subject,
and to elicit further information from parties interested in
the coffee trade.

A communication (of which the following is a copy)
from Lord Palmerston, in reply to the memorial of the
Chamber on the apprehended renewal of the Danish
blockade, was read :

" Foreign Office, March 26, 1850.
" SIRS I am directed by Viscount Palmerston to acknow-
ledge the receipt of your letter of the 22d instant, enclosing a
memorial from the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, praying
that her Majesty's Government will not relax their endeavours
to bring the differences at present subsisting between Prussia

great inco-nienience which the present unsettled and uncertain
state of the questions pending between Denmark and Germany
occasions to the commerce of this country ; and Viscount
Palmerston can assure you that no efforts have been, or will be,
wanting on the part of her Majesty's Government, in their ca-
pacity as mediator, to bring-these questions to a final and sa-
tisfactory adjustment. But, although her Majesty's Govern-
ment are acting as mediators in these matters, they are not
invested by the contending parties with any authority to arbi-
trate, and, therefore, the power which her Majesty's Govern-
ment possesses to direct and determine the course of these ne-
gotiations is necessarily of a very limited kind. Viscount
Palmerston knows, however, that strong representations of
the same nature as that which he has received from you have
been addressed by merchants in the north of Germany to the
government of Prussia • and there can be no doubt that such
representations from those quarters, if they continued to be
pressed, as they probably will be, must exert a useful influence
on the pending negotiations.
" I am, Sir, your most obedient humble servant,

- - - (Signed)
" Thomas B. Horsfall, Esq., President

" EMASBURY

Chamber of CoMmeiCe

A note was read from Mr. A. H. Wylie, presenting the
chamber with a set of M`Gregor's Commercial Tariffs,
and various parliamentary reports, for which the council
passed a unanimous vote of thanks. A letter was read
from the Shipowners' Association, appointing Mr. J.
Lockett as a deputy to the council, and Mr. Rankin as
his substitute in case of at

Mr. Horsfal I postponed his motion on the mode of levy-
ing the income tax, until nearer the time when the present
income tax act will expire.

RAILWAY PROSPECTS AND DEPRESSION

The cause of the continued depression of railway pro-
perty has perplexed many sagacious people, and various
have been the causes alleged for its existence. The eager-
ness of parties to realise at the slightest advance of prices;
doubt of the correctness of railway accounts ; declining
traffic; fear of impending competition as new lines reach
their completion :—all these, and other grounds, have
been urged as the cause of a depression which many con-
tend to be, with respect to the bulk of these undertakings,
only of a temporary nature. One great fact, however, is
becoming, day by day, more plainly displayed, viz., that
many of the lines, which the public have been in the habit
of regarding as leading trunk lines, and in which millions
have been embarked, have fatally injured their prospects
by improvident leases, guarantees, the issue of preference
shares, and other aggrandizing or make-shift steps,
adopted during the prevalence of the mania of 1845 and
1846 ; and each fresh discovery of an instance of the inju-
rious character of these steps, operates to produce an in-
creased depression in the confidence of the public, and a
suspicion which extends, without much discrimination, to
the railway property of the entire kingdom. _ _ _

The following startling communication, which appeared
in the City article of the Times of Wednesday last, is
well calculated to strike holders of such property with
panic :

"The report to be presented to the proprietors of the Cale-
donian Railway on Thursday is of itself sufficient to account for
the unbroken gloom which still hangs over the share-market.
It appears that on their recent assumption of the management
the new board found not merely £74,000 of bills falling due
without a farthing in the treasury, but also heavy arrears for
coke, maintenance of way, and taxes ; while at the same time
there had not been the s►ightest provision for the accruing
interest on debentures, for overdue rents on leased lines, or for
land claims ; in connexion with which last liability some of
the engines of the company had just been seized. The revenue
for the past half year, w.thout any payment whatever to leased
lines, shows an actual deficiency of £5,424, and, although this
deficiency has been partly owing to irregularities, there would
still, if such irregularities had not occurred, have been only
£11,604 to meet £66,381 of guaranteed or preferential claims.
The weekly earnings for the six months have been at the rate
of £6,135, and future prospects may be estimated from the
fact that if this total were increased to £B,OOO, and the work-
ing expenses were reduced from 54 per cent. to 50 per cent.,
there would yet be an annual deficiency, after meeting all re-
cognised liabilities, of £28,589. This, however, is not the limit
of the disastrous tale. There is the competition of the Niths-
dale line yet to be encountered, and there are new guarantees
to come into operation—one to the Greenock, and another, in
the shape of an increase, to the Barrhead Company. There are
also other lines seeking to force the fulfilment of agreements
for leases. The Dundee and Perth have brought in a bill to
fasten themselves upon the Caledonian at 8 per cent., and the
Scottish Central and the Ardrossan are also acting in the same
manner. Under these circumstances the directors state the
plain fact that the preferential claims on the company cannot
be met, and that the only chance by which even a proportion
of them may be henceforth discharged will be by effecting a
general compromise. Whether the smallest payment to the
original shareholder is ever to be hoped for will of course de-
pend entirely upon the same event. The directors think they
have good ground for 'requiring'. the various claimants to
submit to an arrangement of this kind, although they seem to
h',ve doubts whether the time is yet arrived when it can be
managed without contests."
We are at a loss to divine what is to be done to meet
such a state of things, the contemplation of which is de-
plorable. How many fortunes have been dissipated, and
how many families brought to ruin, by the madness, or
worse, of the men who have thus reduced a leading trunk
line like the Caledonian to insolvency ! How much less
guilty can we deem them than the individual, whose mis-
doings on the York and Midland and other lines excited
recently such a storm of popular indignation ? They, like
him, probably pocketed the premiums for the sake of
which they threw away the property of their unfortunate
dupes, who are now left to bewail the result of their mis-
placed confidence.