The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-04-16 00:00:00

COST.

Estimates of the Expense have been made with great
care ; every item has been carefully considered ; and the
Committee find that the Railway, with the Line to Perth,
will be made, including every expense excepting Plant or
Working Stock, at a cost below £800,000; but that sum
has been fixed upon as the Capital, to cover all contingen-
cies.

I The Line passes thrßouEgVhEaNcTiouEn.try comprising within
itself the three chief branches of Railway Revenue—a
great Passenger Traffic—Goods manufactured and in the
raw material—and Minerals. The estimated Traffic,
without!, taking credit for several important articles, and
after a most careful inquiry, shows a clear Revenue of
upwards of £70,000, being nearly nine per cent. on the
capital.
The Population of the counties of Fife, Forfar, Edin-
burgh, and the part of Perth immediately connected with
the Line, amounts to 605,259. The Counties connected
with'the Line, but not immediately adjoining, have a po-
pulation of 474,750—together 1,080,000. The Line passes
through a country studded with Manufactories. It is
distant not more than a few hundred yards from the nu-
merous mills on the Eden, and approaches many of the
most important Manufactories on the river Leven—a
stream which embraces a great number of works, and
affords an ample and uniform supply of water power. The
number and importance of the Manufactories of Dundee,
the northern terminus, are well known. The traffic be-
tween Edinburgh and Dundee alone, by Leith and Gran-
ton, is very great, and continues to increase by additional
means of transport being placed on the road.
The Minerals consist of Coal, Lime, Freestone, and
Iron-stone. The Line intersects the great east Coal-field
of Fife to the extent of about eleven miles, and approaches
the extensive Coal-fields in the parish of Auchterderran,
which are the most northern in Scotland. Limestone of
the best quality is in great abundance in many places
contiguous to the Line ; and rich black-band Ironstone
abounds, and is wrought for export.
As an Agricultural district, Fife, Forfar, and the ad-
joining counties are among the first in Scotland. Grain
and Cattle are largely raised and very extensively supplied
to the Southern Markets.
The Line. to Perth willp Passing
iproductive g
ho f
a greatririch
h advantagemineral
to variousinterests.
district, it will open an ample supply of Lime, and of
c l en Coal, for a
p
thatcorr
corresponding
andndi o
g advantage
the
to
surround-
ingcthheea country.lp'raonpd rie x
et t willsecure
Proprietors of the Fife Coal-fields, The saving in the

CALEDONIAN RAILWAY.
TO THE SECRETARY TO THE GLASGOW, DUMFRIES,
AND CARLISLE RAILWAY.

SIR,OBSERVED that the Provisional Committee of the
Caledonian Railway stated in their letter to
your
Chairman, that it was not their intention to notice further
attacks from the promoters of the Glasgow, Dumfries,
*and Carlisle Railway. How far a knowledge of this in-
tention may have induced you to put forth a statement of
such a nature as that which has appeared in the papers of
this week, I know not • but,as 1, and doubtless many
others, deem it calculated to mislead the public. I must
beg your indulgence, if I endeavour, as shortly as possi-
ble, to set them right iwthe matter.
With_regard to wl4 "you are pleased to call the satis-
factory reply of youeChairman, as far as I can see, that
Gentleman simplyMisclaims being a party to any crusade
against the Caledonian Railway, and declines responsibi-
lity for the statements of others, leaving them to get out
of the scrape the best way they can. The reply of Mr.
Watson seems to me to be but little more " satisfactory"
than that of your Chairman. It is not of great moment
at what precise time the parties to whom he alludes did
subscribe. The sum and substance of the matter is, that
two or three names only, I believe, have been withdrawn
from the Provisional Committee of the Caledonian Rail-
way, and the remainder of the " formidable array of
names" stands as originally put forth, with numerous in-
fluential additions. I do not know whether it was Mr.
Watson, or some one else, who stated that he was stag-
gered when he saw the formidable array of names; but it
seems to me a doubtful matter, whether the withdrawal
of two or three names from the formidable array will ena-
ble him to recover his equilibrium.
It cannot but have struck the public as a conclusive
answer to the statements respecting the gentlemen com-
posing the Committee of the Caledonian published by
you and others, that not one of these gentlemen has come
forward to ccntiadict the statements in the letter of the

Committee, signed by their Secretary, and to support
your random assertions.
This being the case, it is quite ludicrous to see you and
others, who state what you wish were the case, endea-
vouring to induce the public to give credit to your state-
ments, against authorized contradictions of them.
To enable you to understand how the whole of the
North of Scotland will be benefited by the Caledonian
Railway, it is only necessary to state, that by that line the
communication with England will be shorter, quicker,
and cheaper. than by any other line; and that front Edin-
burgh and the North-East of Scotland there will be a
saving of upwards of seventy miles in distance, and from
Glasgow and the West, of upwards of twenty miles to the
West of England, with which Scotland has most commu-
nication.

Since you ara pleased by an " ingenious plan" of your
own to make out a statement of population in favour of
the line by Dumfries, perhaps your " ingenuity" will ena-
ble you to inform the public, how you have contrived to
omit, from the population on the Caledonian line, the pa-
rishes of Lanark, Carluke, and Carstairs, containing a
population of upwards of 12,000, and the whole of the
parishes on the line to Edinburgh, as well as those of
Dumfries, Tinwald, Kirkmichael, and Lochumben,
through which the Dumfries Branch would pass; and,_
moreover, how, while vou abstain in the case of the Ca-
ledonian line, from taking .any account of the parishes
near to which the line passes, you have contrived to in-.
traduce in favour cf the Dumfries line the population of
Greenock, Port-Glasgow, &e..—places which would be at--
least fourteen miles nearer to England by the Caledonian
than by the Dumfries Railway.
With regard to these somewhat important omissions,
although I may be disposed to believe that you have done
so from carelessness, others may be less charitable. To
quote from a no less celebrated author than yourself, I
may say that " I wish to avoid all expressions of an offen-
sive nature, but must beg of you to recollect, that if you
are not more accurate in future in quoting from public
documents, you, and the Committee of your Company
who sanction these misquotations, cannot escape the im-
putation of attempting to mislead the public."
You will search in vain, I believe, in the Government
Commissioners' Report for any decision to the effect that
the making of the tNO lines, namely, that by Dumfries,
and also that by Newcastle, would be . better for the
country than the Caledonian line.
Now, let me ask you, could the country generally be
benefitted by a Railway system, by which it is proposed
to send the traffic between Edinburgh and the east of
Scotland upwards of 70 miles, and thzt from the great
commercial city of Glazgow, upwards of 20 miles out of
their way to the west at England?
On the subject of distances and gradients, a few words
may not be thrown away upon you. Various statements
have been put forth by parties unfriendly to the Caledo-
nian Railway, with a view to lead the public to the con-
clusion that the gradients to be obtained were of a nature
unheard-of in Railway making. You and your party argue
against the gradients of the Caledonian Railway, and yet
one of your Committee stated at Dumfries that you could
do nothing without a Railway carried from Lancaster and.
Carlisle through Strap Fells ; a line of which the gradients
are steeper than on the Caledonian line. On many of the
English lines now in successful operation, there are gra-
dients as steep or steeper than those proposed on the Ca-
ledian—such as the Liverpool and Manchester, Birming-
ham and Glo'ster, North Union ; and even your favourite
North British line, if executed, must be added to these.
Nor do we find that the average speed on these lines is
materially less than on the more level lines. The Edin-
burgh and Glasgow is one of the most level lines in this
country ; yet the speed of the fast trains is only 23 miles
an hour. You state that going round a steep hill is easier
than going over it—this language seems to me somewhat
vague, for you do not enlighten us by stating how far we
should be justified in going round to avoid a bill of a given
steepness. I presume you mean we should go round by
Kilmarnock and Dumfries, whatever be the distance ; but
why not carry out your own principle, and state, that to
avoid the summit of the Dumfries line, the inhabitants of
Glasgow should, on their way to Lancashire, adopt the
more level route by Edinburgh, Newcastle, and Carlisle.
Finally, with regard to your grand climax of what you
call the " objects of parties," which being rendered into
the vernacular means, I presume, motives, I can see
nothing in the letter of the Provisional Committee of the
Caledonian Railway.,.sbowing that they wish to mislead
the public into the belief that the Directors of the Eng-
lish Lines, whose names appear in the list of the Provi-
sional Committee, are influenced solely by public motives.
But you may very safely conclude, from seeing their
names in the said list, that they are quite satisfied that the
Caledonian Railway will send far more traffic to their
lines than will the Dumfries line, or any other; and if, as
you seem to hint, they are sufficiently awake to their own
interest, the legitimate inference is that the Caledonian
Railway will accommodate a greater proportion of the
travelling public than either or both of its rivals.
I remain, Sir, your mos' obedient servant,
A FRIEND OF THE PUBLIC.
G'asgow, sth April, 1844.

NOTICE TO JOURNEYMEN SHIPWRIGHTS.
A T a MEETING of the SHIP-BUILDERS' ASSO-
CIATION, held on WEDNESDAY, the 10th instant,
to take into consideration the numerous and repeated
complaints which have been made from time to time by
Ship-Owners, of the present high rate of Wages in this
serre.
Port. After having taken into .elisideration the great
Reduction which has taken pl in the necessaries of life,
since January, 1839, at wh' time, in consequence of the
high price of Provision le Wages were raised to the
present rate; and, considering the ruinously depressed
state of the Shipping Interest, it was unanimously agreed,
that from and after the 13th day of May next, the Rate of
Wages shall be REDUCED to FOUR SHILLINGS
and SIX-PENCE per Man ner Day, the overtime; &c. to
be paid in the proportion observed when the Wages were
1 before at the same rate.

(Signed,) THOS. WILSON, Chairman.
P. CATO, Secretary.
Liverpool, April 13th,-1844.

THE ALARMING EXPLOSION OF GAS IN A HOUSE IN'
ISLINGTON.—We furnished in our last, and we believe
exclusively, an account of the gas explosion in the house
of Mr. Holden, which took place a few hours before our
going to press. The Courier quotes our whole paragraph,
and, after correcting some assumed inaccuracies, states—
" It has been ascertained since the explosion. that the
house in which it occurred had been entered by thieves,
the bells and a portion of the water and_gas-pißes baying
been wrenched off and taken away, and anead pump taken
down preparatory to its removal ; and as the concussion
took place about a quarter-past seven, it is supposed it
originated with the depredators having obtained a light,
the better to enable them to carry on their proceedings---
a half-burnt lucifer match anti a piece of burnt paper
having been found on one of the chimney-pieces. It may
be right to mention, that when the former tenant left the
house, the gas was regularly turned off by the Gas Com-
pany, as is usual in such cases." The Courier states that
our account was " inaccurate in some particulars," yet,
strange to say, in correcting us " by request," does no-
thing more than recapitulate all that we stated, to the
letter, with the exception of station. that Mr. Molyneux,
on going to the Gas-office, was told that he might have a
man that night, but that as he (Mr. M.) " had deter-
mined to turn the gas off for the night, ha considered it
unnecessary till morning for a man to be sent up." All
we can say is, that our reporter derived his information
on this point from Mr. Molyneux and his lady, in person,
in their own lobby, and noted it down in their presence
at the moment ; and he must have therefore strangely
mistaken Mr. M. The thing is the more inexplicable
when it is considered that Mr. M. went down to the office
expressly at that early hour of the evening, yet returned
immediately, and had just prepared to go to bed ten mi-
nutes after, when the explosion took placeadilie having,
it is stated, determined to turn the gas off MY•the night.
What need had he to go to the office that night, if he did
not care about the matter being looked to till morning?
We never accused the Gas Company of negligence at all,
but we see in " the correction" (as the matter did not at
all impugn Mr. Molyneux) an attempt to meet a supposed
or imputed neglect, on our part, of the Gas Company;
and this is confirmed by the gratuitous finale of the Cou-
rier, that " when the former tenant left the house, the
gas was regularly turned off by the Gas Company, as is
usual in such cases"—a regularity of which we never be-
fore heard, and which induces us to inquire whether the
Gas Company had an outside gas-tap or valve to the
house, to turn it off irrespective of the wish of those
within. The fact is, our whole account was substantially
correct, in conjunction with these " corrections " ; and
we rather opine, that when the Gas Company learnt that
there was a strong smell of gas in the house, it was their
duty to send up a man immediately to arrest the further
escape of so inflammable a matter. If they were as punc-
tual in turning off their gas, so that it might not enter an
uninhabited house, as they are in demanding their rates,
the explosion would probably not have taken place. There
is one correction, however, of our contemporary, to which
we submissively bow, in deference to his superior gram-
matical taste and accuracy. We said that about three
o'clock no smell of gas could be perceived. He sets us
right by stating that " at that time no effluvia WAS ap.
parent '—in obedience to the laws of Lindley Murray,
or rather of those laid down in Ruddiman's Rudiments
of the Latin Language, of which he affects to have a
smattering ! The Journal of Saturday states of this ex-
plosion :—" As no one was hurt by the explosion, it is
certain that it took place after the departure of the thieves ;
and the gas-men are of opinion that the ignition may
have taken place from a lighted cigar outside. That the
thieves had departed. may be further inferred from the
fact, that a gentleman residing next door was alarmed at
an early hour by a strong escape of gas."

RATTAN, THE DERRY FAVOURITE.—AS may be sup-
posed, I was extremely anxious to see Rattan, the pre-
sent favourite of the coming Derby. Every one knows
that this valuable colt is the property of Mr. Crockford,
and that he is trained by one of the most skilful profes-
sors of the time, Mr. Joseph Rogers. Rattan is a nice
wiry animal, with a pedigree good enough to run any-
thing. Some fastidious writers have thought fit to pro-
nounce him " leggy," and not at all a Derby horse ; "
my opinion is very different. It is true that he is not so
powerful as a Plenepotentiary or a Bay Middleton; but
many a horse of less substance, and without a tithe of his
character for speed and stoutness, have carried off the
Derby easily ; need I allude to Frederick, in 1829, to
Spaniel, in 1831, and Little \Yonder, in 1840. Rattan,
without doubt was the best two-year old performer of last
season, and be won his two engagements so easily that it
is impossible to say how greatly superior he was to the
fields he met—and they were large fields of good horses.
I do not fancy him much grown since I saw him "pull up"
in the Houghton Meeting, but he unquestionably is im-
proved in. the muscular department, and his action is
straight and good—just such as I prefer to mount the
tiring hill at Epsom. In health Rattan looked blooming
and well. Pineapple, his " leader, " also looked well and
went in good style. It is said that be is to go for the
Craven Stakes.—Sporting Review for April.