The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-02-06 00:00:00

RAILWAY i LL/GEA C.E.

On new year's day, 1843, with a sixpenny fare, the
Greenock and Gla,gow railway pocketed £77 from holi-
day passengers. On new year's day, 1844, with a shil-
ling fare, they received £45.
Another slip of the embankment near the Folkestone
viaduct has taken place, and a single rail has been resorted
to for the present, fur the up and down trains as far as
Saltwood.

LEEDS AND SELBY RAILWAY.—The annual meeting
of the roprietors of this undertaking was held at Scar-
borough's Hotel, Leeds, on Monday last at noon, John
Gott, in the chair. The usual dividend of 5 per cent.
which is guaranteed by the York and North Midland
Railway Company (the present lessees) was declarad.
A prospectus has been issued of a plan for joining the
five metropolitan railways in such a way as that the transit
from the one to the other will be effectually secured, and
thus enable travellers by any one of them to reach the
other with perfect facility, and without the inconveniences
now experienced in the changes from place to place.

•
SOUTH EASTERN RAILWAY.—A private opening of this
line to the terminus at Dover, took place on the 27th ult.
The trips gave great satisfaction to the directors and en-
gineers. The rails appeared to be firmly settled, and the
t•action was 83 easy as to justify a speed of upwards of
20 miles an hour, the distance from Folkestone having
been performed the last trip in fifteen minutes.
BLACKBURN AND PRESTON RAILWAY.—There is no
longer any obstacle to the carrying out the project of a
railway from Blackburn to join the North Union line at
Farrington, near Preston, and the line, as originally struck
out and surveyed by Mr. Collister, the engineer, has been
altered for a better one, Mr. Fielden having granted leave
for the line to take a more convenient course through his
estate at Witton. This amended line has been recom-
mended by Mr. Locke.
LONDON AND GREENWICH RAILWAY.—The half-
yearly meeting of the proprietors was held on Tuesday.
The report stated, that on the 20th d .y of August, a scale
of reduced fares for the line of Greenwich was adopted,
which in its results for the half-year ending the 31st De-
cember last, as compared with the corresponding half of
the preceding years, shows an increase of 151,943 passen-
gers, but a decrease of £965 4s. Bd. in the amount of re-
ceipts. From the statement of accounts for the half-year
it appeared that after paying all expenses, together with
interest on mortgage debt, and on the preference shares,
as well as appropriating £l,OOO as before, towards the
liquidation of the expense of relaying the line, there re-
mains on the profit and loss account a balance of
£416 18s. 6-id.
THE EFFECT OF RAILWAYS.—On Monday, the Sara-
cen's Head, Friday-street, Cheapside, adjoining the
church of St. Peter, West Cheap, which is one of the old-
est inns in the city of London, having been built in the
style of architecture of the 15th century, with balconies in
front, was disposed of by auction for its building mate-
rials, when it will be pulled down, and on its site, which
extends nearly to the Old Change, large Manchester
warehouses will be erected. This inn was extensively
connected with c-rach proprietors and waggon carriers
down the Great Western-road, the traffic of which has
been broken up by the establishment of the railways. The
house adjoining, No. 5, Friday-street, which is part of the
above property, is said to have bee❑ in the occupation of
Sir Christopher Wren at the time of the erection of St.
Paul's. The estate belongs to the Merchant Tailors'
Company.—Globe.
THE MANCHESTER, BURY, AND ROSSENDALE RAIL-
WAY.—This Railway is to pass through a densely popu-
lated district, and is about 131 miles in length. The popu-
lation is engaged in manufactures, and consequently have a
large traffic with Manchester. Indeed the Irwell Valley
contains some of the largest cotton spinning, printing,
bleaching, and woollen manufactories in the county, and
there is at present no means of transit from the places
affected by the line north-east of Bury but by the roads,
Haslingden, Rossendale, Bacup, and a great portion of
the manufacturing district of East Lancashire have not
even the accommodation of a canal. The present termi-
nus at Rawtenstall will command a large portion of the
traffic of the towns of Accrington, Burnly, Bacup, Has-
lingden, &c. ; but the line is capable of being extended
to Accrington, and if so, by a short branch to Blackburn,
on the one hand, and Burnley on the other, it would se-
cure almost, if not altogether, exclusively the traffic of the
eastern part of the county. The Earls of Derby and
Wilton are the principal landowners on this line, and are
understood to be favourable to the undertaking.
NORTH UNION RAILWAY.—The report of the directors
was laid before the proprietors at their general on Fri-
day. The directors congratulate the company on the
recent amalgamation with the Bolton and Preston Rail-
way, the title of which is to be merged in that of " North
Union." The entire management of the Bolton Line
passed, on the Ist instant, into the hands of ten directors
selected from the North Union, and five from the Bolton
and Preston board. The report next adverts to the pro
posed Lancaster and Carlisle, and Blackburn Branch
Lines, both of which are highly commended. The divi-
dend which was the usual one of £2 10s. per share. There
would, it is intimated, have been a larger dividend but
for the recent competition with the Bolton and Preston
Line. In addition to the dividend, however, " there will
bee bonus of from 10s. to Iss. per share, arising from the
necessity, in the present contingency, of dividing among
the proprietors exactly, and to the point, all reserves of
realised profits." The receipts on the line for the last
half-year had amounted to £28,161. Ils. 4d., and the
expenses to £11,468. 16s. 4d. ; leaving, after the payment
of the dividend on 6,339 shares, at £2. 10s. each, to the
credit of profit and loss account, £845. ss. From the
statement of capital account, it appeared that there was a
balance in hard of £2ll. The report, after a brief dis-
cussion, was unanimously adopted.
CAUTION TO RAILWAY TRAVELLERS.—James Ford,
a very steady sort of person, lost £llO, while returning
home from London on the South Eastern Railway, on
Friday evening. Ford is a jobbing carpenter, and by the
will of a relation he became entitled to the above-named
sum of money. His attorney, in London, having written
to say that the money was ready, Ford went up on Friday
to receive it himself, countryman-like. He received a
check from his attorney to the amount of £llO. Having
inquired his way to the Bank to get the same cashed, he
returned to the Borough with the money in his pocket,
namely, 70 sovereigns and four £lO Bank of England
notes. He was accosted by a person with the garb and
appearance of a countryman, who, in course of conversa-
tion, asked Ford to drink with him, saying he wanted to
get a little business in Kent. A third person "dropped
in," whom the polite iuquirer addressed as "Squire Jones."
They all drank together, arid parted, Ford repaired to the
railway station, where two persons took their seats beside
him, and left him at Reigate. When Ford got home to
his cottage at Brenchley, after supper he prepared to
spread the table with sovereigns, but to his great conster-
nation his gold had been turned into coppers, about 2s.
worth of which he found in his pocket, tied up in paper.
He remembers some confusion in the Merstham tunnel,
where he thinks the robbery took place.—Mafds•lone
Gazette.

GRAND JUNCTION RAILWAY.—The half-yearly meet-
ing of this company was held at the Cotton Sales-room,
in the Exchange Buildings, Liverpool. on Tuesday ;
John Moss; Esq., in the chair. Mr. Mozley (banker)
moved the adoption of the report in a speech of some
length, and urged upon the directors the necessity of
carrying out the Chester and Holyhead line. The Chair-
man stated, that no actual arrangement had yet been made
with the government as to what sum they would grant
towards the Holyhead line, and that the directors had not
entered into any neaociations with any other line. The
Chairman further stated, that a survey of a line had been
ordered between Chester and Shrewsbury. The Lancas-
ter and Carlisle line was highly spoken of, and the Grand
Junction Company are to furnish £250,000 towards it ;
the calculated return being 7 per cent. The Chairman
said that 4 per cent, would pay them very well, taking
into account the increased traffic brought on the Grand
Junction line by this route to Scotland. It appears that
to meet the outlay on the Shrewsbury branch and Holy-
head line, a new creation of Grand Junction shares must
be made. The total receipts for the half year ending
Dec. 31, were £212,944 Bs. 9d., and although the dimi-
nution in the passenger receipts remained nearly the same
to the close of the half year, there was an increase in the
returns for live stock and merchandise of no less than
£10,390 over the same period of 1842, and the receipts
now exceeded that of any single half year, since the line
was opened, by the sum of £4554. The expenses of the
half year were £2600 less than in 1842. The profit on the
half year, including a surplus of £616 7s. carried
over from the preceding six months, was £127,793 Is. ld.
This period of the year was, however, the most produc-
tive, and, considering that the certainty of a dividend
being maintained tended to give stability to the value of
stock, the directors had resolved to recommend that the
usual £5 per share be paid on the present occasion, al-
though the balance might appear to warrant a larger di-
vidend. Should the proprietors concur in that view, the
dividend would amount to £110,163, leaving, after pay-
ment of £5 per share, a surplus of £17,628 ls. ld. The
amount of Sunday travelling is Bs. 4d. per £3OO share.
The directors recommended a further addition of £5,000
to the fund for the renewal of stock. The future divi-
dends are to be paid quarterly.

THE ROYAL MlNT.—This national establishment com-
menced on Monday week striking the new silver coinage,
which is to be issued by government immediately after her
Majesty's royal proclamation calling in the old silver
coinage of George 111., in 1816, George IV., in 1821, and
William IV., in 1831, as the greater part of it is so de-
faced by wear and tear, and so deteriorated in weight, that
many of the half-crowns are not worth more than 2s. ; the
shillings 9d. ; and the sixpences 3d. The panic that was
anticipated by the Bank of England in consequence of the
royal proclamation of the 2d of October last on the light
gold currency having subsided in the public mind, the old
silver coinage will be called in soon after the assembling
of parliament, without any loss being sustained by the
public, as the new coinage of 1844 will be given in exchange,
without deduction, for the old currency.
ATTEMPT TO BLOW UP A MILL.—On Sunday evening
week, about half-past six, an attempt was made to blow
up the saw-mill belonging to Messrs. Bentley and White,
at the back of Union Square, Bury. The mill had been
made perfectly secure. A large quantity of gunpowder
had been thrown through a broken window at the west
end of the mill, where a board, which replaced a broken
square of glass, and which was left in on Saturday night,
had been removed, and has not since been found. A strong
hoarded petition, dividing Mr. John Wood's cottage from
the mill, was blown down by the explosion, and Mrs.
Wood, and her daughter, who was sitting reading by her
side, were both knocked down by the shock, and the child
slightly injured. The whole of the mill was much damaged,
and two squares of glass in the window of the cottage
were broken. A similar attempt to destroy the mill was
made on the 3rd of December last.