The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-02-03 00:00:00

cause, was unequivocally entertained when they saw the
Edinburgh and Glasgow Company playing a fast and
loose game of negotiation with a company whose friend-
ship was so much to be desired, and ultimately lending
their co-operation to competing lines—atmospheric and
others—which they saw it to be manifestly impossible
that the legislalure could ever sanction. An amalgama-
tion, they conceived, was for the mutual advantage of
both companies; and such a course they are prepared at
the present moment to advocate almost to a man.

We, of course, are not behind the scenes. We cannot
tell whAt feeling it is which induces the Chairman of the
Edinburgh and Glasgow to throw impediments in the
way of the realization of the wishes of the bulk of the
shareholders, and of the advancement of the real interests
of the line, at whose management he is the head. We
can assure him, however, that the time is not far distant
when, if the present policy is persevered in, they will take
into their own hands a little more of the direction of their
own affairs, than they at present possess. And with
respect to the shareholders of the Edinburgh, Leith, and
Granton, we can tell him that they are becoming so far
apprized of their unassailable strength, that they will not
long allow their line to be purchaseable at the fair rate of
equality, at which it has been hitherto offered.

Already it will be s,.en that they have taken the first
step towards the assertion of their own independance, by
an amalgamation, on equitable terms, with the Edinburgh
and Northern, by which they secure the whole of the
Northern Traffic from Burntisland pier across the Forth
to Granton pier. The former pier we suspect is already
in treaty to be purchased by them, and it is not improba-
ble the purchase of the latter may be effected, by which
advantages to both lines will be secured, the extent of
which it is impossible to appreciate, and of a participation
in which the Edinburgh and Glasgow board are by their
conduct depriving themselves.

In the present position of railway matters, a Parliament
can obviously sanction no more competing lines, unless it
can be shewn that some great public benefit will accrue ;
and we are certain that, on this very ground, Mr. Lear-
month's pet schemes are mere moonshine, and the
Edinburgh, Leith and Granton is, a,id will remain,
impregnable.

Weeinvite our readers to turn to the maps, with which
we furnish them, and to say if anything better, in the
shape of accommodation, can possibly be devised than
that which the Edinburgh, Leith and Granton affords for
the city traffic, and for a connection with the sea to al!
the railways centreing in Edinburgh. And, moreover,
we ask them if it is likely that, with such a line already
formed, the valuable property in the City of Edinburgh
arid near the docks of Leith will be permitted by the
Legislature to be invaded, without some pressing emer-
gency to render it inevitable. The unhesitating answer
will be—No !

And now for the Northern plan. A few months ago it
was the wish of the Northern Railway to secure a Central
Station near the Harbour of Perth. Difficulties, how-
ever, intervened i❑ the companies coming to an amicable
conclusion, which two government engineers, Captains
Goddington and Cleather, were dispatched to Scotland to
solve; and their inquiries and negociations have termi-
nated in the arrangement of all questions in disputes and
the recommendation to form the admirable central station
at Perth, as marked in our plan. We hold out this exam-
ple to the companies south of the Forth, as worthy of their
imitation ; and if they continue to meet with obstacles in
the obstinacy of members of their respective boards, let
the shareholders, at the approaching half-yearly, meetings
take their affairs into their own hands. Really valuable
undertakings ought not to he allowed to be shipwrecked
for the want of firmness in their proprietors to repress
the want of forethought of those in whose hands they
have placed the management of such great interests.

About ten o'clock, on Thursday night, Capt. M`Cor-
rigan, of the ship Thistle, lying in the Queen's Dock, fell
into the dock, and, notwithstanding he was got out in a
short time, life was extinct.
STEALING FROM AN ENIPLOYER.—On Saturday Henry
Haugh, a boy about fifteen years of age, was committed
for trial for having stolen notes, bills, and gold to the
amount of £BO lOs., entrusted to him by his employer,
Mr. John Leslie, provision-dealer, Cleveland-square. to
convey to the Liverpool Bank. The prisoner, instead of
taking the money to the hank, absconded with it, but was
apprehended by Constable Toole at the railway-station,
Todmorden. On being searched, £4O was found upon
him, also a bundle of new clothes, arid new clothes on his
person, purchased, no doubt, out of the proceeds of his
dishonesty. This is the second case against the prisoner.
BIRKENHEAD COMMISSIONERS.—AL a special meet-
ing of the board, on Friday, the petition for the improve-
ment bill was signed, and the joint Committees of Ire-
provement and Finance were appointed a Parliamentary
Committee for Mr. Mallaby to communicate with during
the time their bill was before Parliament. Mr. Cole
stated that the Health Committee would cot be prepared
to make any report before the 9th of February, to which
period it was deferred; and Mr. Mallaby said he would make
such arrangements as would enable them to make, in com-
mittee, such additions to the bill as might he thought desi-
rable. Before the meeting was over, Mr. Laird requested
permission to say a few words on the subject of the Dock
Committee and the Birkenhead Commissioners. He
thought it necessary, and he was sorry Mr. Jack-
son was not present, that the Commissioners, as a
body, should disavow the expressions of confidence in the
Dock Committee, made use of by the chairman at the
last meeting. Such an expression of a confidence (which
he was sure they did not feel) might seriously damage them
before a committee of the House after all that had passed.
He had had a letter from Mr. Aikin, in which that gentle-
man expressed his surprise that the chairman should de-
clare that he felt such confidencein the Dock Trustees.
Mr. Laird read the answer he had sent to that letter, in
which it was stated that Mr. Aikin was wrong in sup-
posing that their contemplated landing place in Liverpool
was abandoned from any feeling of confidence in what
had been proposed by the Dock Committee. He then
contrasted the speeches made by Mr. Jackson at the last
two meetings. In the first the Commissioners were re-
presented as " dubious " of the professions of the Dock
Trustees, and in the other as having confidence in
them. In the latter case he would have disavowed any
coincidence in such confidence, but that he thought Mr.
Jackson was only expressing his own sentiments to Mr.
Wood, and not those of the Commissioners collectively.
For his own part, he had sufficiently shown in the trouble
he had taken that he was anxious to have a friendly feel-
ing with the other side of the water, but he was also
anxious they should not, in Parliament, be put in a false
position by any premature declaration of confidence.