The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-07-18 00:00:00

RAILWAY AFFAIRS.

The traffic for the week en‘Yded*Bth July, on the Chester
and Holyhead Railway, amounted to £1044 12s. 44d.
SPEED.—An express train on Friday, on the Great
Western Railway, went from Paddington to Swindon, a
distance of seventy-seven miles in seventy-four minutes-
and-a-half.

The number of waggons, &c. (exclusive, of course, of
passenger carriages,) on the London and North-Western
exceeds, 11,500; which, if estimated at only £5O each,
represent a capital of nearly £600,000 ! and to this num-
ber daily additions are making.
The narrow-gauge railway, in extension of the South-
Western to Yeovil and Exeter has just received the sanc-
tion of the Lords' Committee. There is to be a narrow
gauge railway direct from London to Exeter, in competi-
tion with the Great Western, and by many miles shorter.
The Gazelle of Friday contains an official notice from
the Commissioners of Railways, that the period of time
limited by the Manchester, Liverpool, and Newcastle
Railway Act of 1846, for the completion of the railway
shall be extended for a further period of two years, from
the expiration of the period so limited by the act.
The amount of traffic for the last week, on 3,916 miles
of railway, was £205,620, thus accounted for :—£111,824
for the conveyance of passengers only, £45,068 for the
carriage of goods, and a remainder of £48,728 for passen-
gers and goods together, not respectively apportioned ;
being an increase of £16,468 over the corresponding week
of last year, when the mileage was 3,070. The average
earnings per mile were £53, whilst in 1847 they were £6l.
One of the hardest-fought battles of the present par-
liamentary session has been the contest of the Manchester,
Sheffield and Lincolnshire with the Hull Corporation and
Docks, for the right of erecting a station and pier on the
Hull side of the Humber. The Lords' Committee, after
several days' sitting, decided this question on Wednesday,
by giving the railway the privilege of makino- a etatinn

and a pier at Hull; but at the same time they curtailed
the length of the pier, by forbidding its extension beyond
•1 1 •

RAILWAY TO SOUTHPORT.—The opening of the Liver-
pool, Crosby, and Southport Railway, so far as it is al-
ready available, namely, from Waterloo to Southport, a
length of thirteen miles, will take place this week. This
is the railway that has been constructed without a call
being made upon the proprietors, after the original one of
£2 per share, for obtaining the act and other prelimina-
ries ! Five or six months' traffic will have been had on
the line before the first instalment for the works will be
due to the contractors. This, in such a monetary period
as we have been passing through, bespeaks excellent ma-
nagement.
WEST RIDING UNION.—The opening of a link only of

scale of railways in connection with the
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, known as the West
Riding Union, took place on Wednesday. The portion
of the line just opened is one which leaves the main line
at Mirfield, in Yorkshire, and ascends the beautiful and
picturesque valley of Cleckheaton, to Low Moor, a dis-
tance of about seven and a half miles. It is ultimately
intended that this branch shall be carried forward, by way
of Bradford, to Leeds, (with a fork stretching backwards
from Low Moor also to Halifax, to which town there is
already a branch from the main line,) and thus become
the main line, in fact, from Manchester to Leeds. The
distance from the present terminus of the line at Low
Moor to Bradford, is only a little over two miles, the
ohrokles on which are in an advancing state; and when the
r nectio

opened, the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway will be
the shortest route yet projected between Liverpool and
Leeds.

DUTCH RHENISH RAILWAY.—A metting of the share-
holders in this undertaking, living in this neighbourhood,
took place on Tuesday. It transpired that the Dutch di-
rectors intended forthwith to make another call, and to
proceed with the forfeiture of the shares of those who had
not paid the last calls, and that Mr. Stitt, the commissary
named from the Liverpool shareholders, was refused ad-
mittance by the directors. Resolutions were carried for
the appointment of a committee to confer with the com-
missaries for the purpose of considering the best line of
policy to be pursued at the adjourned meeting to be held
next month in Holland. That committee were also re-
quested to inquire into the position of the concessionaires
in relation to the company, and were fully empowered to
employ what legal assistance might be deemed necessary.
After a reference to the fund which the shareholders were
already liberally subscribing to defray the expences, thanks
were unanimously voted to the deputation who proceeded
to Holland, for their services ; to Mr. Reed for his attend-
dance and explanations ; and to the chairman, when the
meeting separated.

THE- STEAM-BOAT AND RAILWAY QUESTION.
BRIGHTON RAILWAY.—On Friday, the Brighton Rail-
way Company sustained a defeat in the Lords' Commit-
tee. Tile committee consisted of the Earl of St. Ger-
mains (Chairman), Marquis of 'Westminster, Lord
Hawarden, Earl of Warwick, and Earl Morton. They
have entirely reversed the decisions of the four great
authorities who recommended, in their report, the bill to
be passed; and have completely set at nought the strong
recommendation which was offered by Sir Robert Peel,
on public grounds only, in favour of the proposition.
The committee have not yet decided upon the Soutl,.
Western Bill, but there seems every probability of their
throwing it out. They have granted the Furness Railway
Company's Bill, because it was for a mere ferry ; and they
have also granted the Chester and Holyhead Company's
Bill, because they consider Dublin to be the natural ter-
minus-of the noiy-heaa Railway. The committee have
refused the Brighton Company's Bill, because they con-
sidered that Dieppe was not the natural terminus of the
railway. They took no notice of the arguments in favour
of the exception ground set forth in the Railway Com-
missioners' Report; but gave a willing ear to the share-
holders' petition against the bill. That petition was sup-
ported by shareholders representing one-sixteenth of the
whole capital only ; while the bill was supported by ,073
shareholders, representing £1,673,000, or one-fourth of
the whole capital of the company.