The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-12-02 00:00:00

UNIVERSITY AND CLERICAL NEWS.

CAMBRIDGE.—On Thursday the following degrees
were conferred :—Bachelors in Physic.—A. H. Novelli,
8.A., Trinity College; F. W. Wheatley, Downing Col-
lege.—Masters of Arts.—W. C. Osborn, St. John's
College; R. Firmin, Clare Hall; J. J. Ramsay, Pem-
broke College ; C. Badham, Emmanuel College.—Bnche-
lors of Arts.—J. Jones, Queen's College ; T. D. Dove,
Emmanuel College ; G. S. Gamble, Downing College,—
Incorporate Bachelor of Arts.—G. M. Peacocke, New
Inn Hall, Oxford.
Mr. R obt. Hake, of St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, has been
elected to the Sanscrit Scholarship.

The total amount of the collections made at the various
services connec•ed with the consecration and opening of
St. Saviour's Church, Leeds, was £1,160.
The Earl of Harrowby has sent the sum of fifty
guineas to the Church Pastoral Aid Society ; Lord
Newark has subscribed the sum of £lOO to the same
society.
Lord Primate Beresford has declared his intention of
bestowing £l,OOO on each of the three provincial colleges,
towards the foundation of divinity schools for students of
the established church.

CLERICAL ELF VATIONS.—The Gazette, of Friday,
notifies that the Queen has appointed W. It. Lyall, M.A.,
Dean of Canterbury ; the Rev. W. Buckland, D.D ,
Dean of Westminster ; and T. Walpole, M.A., Rector of
Alverstoke, in the county of Hants.

MORE SECEDERS.—Me Oxford secession list is thus
increasing—Rev. W. U. Richards, M.A.. Exeter College;
John James Calman, 8.A., Worcester College ; E. Earl
Welby, Esq., M.A., fellow of Magdalene College. These
make thirty-four seceders to Rome from this university.
On Tuesday (to-day) at the monthly meeting of the
Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, Mr. Blunt
will bring forward his motion that the Bibles published by
the society, shall henceforward contain the Ayocrypha.
This motion is expected to be sharply contested.
Miss Jane Cook, of Cheltenham, has transferred to the
Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews,
the sum of £2.600 Three per Cent. Consols, for the pur-
pose of enabling the committee to complete the building
of the church on Mount Zion. She has also transmitted
to the Society's Episcopal Library at Jerusalem a set of
the works of the late Rev. C. Simeon.

LIABILITY OF RAILWAY PROMOTERS

(From the London Times.)

Among " promoters " there are, we cannot doubt, a
very considerable number who at present hug themselves
in the fancied security of having " realized," and being
likely to be " out of the mess," as soon as the 30th inst.
has past, and the certainty that thcy cautsvt rjv bcfuic
parliament in the next session is ascertained. So many
projected lines will not survive the Ist of December, that ,
our remarks will probably apply to the great majority of
provisional committeemen. Now, we will put a case
which, like some novels, may be taken as " founded on
fact." Last summer a new railway was projected, with a
capital of £500,000, divided into 25,000 shares of £2O,
each, and a deposit of £2 was required to he paid on each
share. There were 25 provisional committeemen, and
each of them was secured 100 shares, if he chose to take
them up. Applications came in for more than 100,000
shares, and therefore it seemed safe to rely on the scrip
being at a premium as soon as it was brought into the
market. The provisional committeemen took up their
2,500 shares, and judiciously disposed of them in small
lots, taking care not to glut the market. While this was
going on, allotments were made of 15,000 shares to the
general applicants ; but, as the premium was steadily
rising, the odd 7,500 were " reserved " from the public
and allotted to the provisional committeemen in various
proportions, according to their influence with the com-
mittee
of management. Most of these shares were like-
wise ,1
disposed of by their holders, who only retained a
small lot each by way of qualification. It will probably
be admitted that we have imagined a case which comes
pretty near the truth of many instances.
Now, let us look at the position of any one of those
provisional committeemen. He shall be a gal ant admi-
ral, who, before the luckless day on which be was tempted
to figure in a railway prospectus, was living an agreeable
life of retirement in a seaport town, as ignorant of busi-
ness, acts of parliament, and legal or commercial respon-
sibilities, as a sea-shark. The brilliant accounts he heard
of prize money made by railway bucaniering tempted him
to adventure with letters of allotment, as far more remu-
nerating than letters of marque, and he jumped at the
offer of a kind friend to nominate him on A provisional
committee—what provisional committee was almost in-
different to him, for he knew little enough about land
travelling. Having disposed of his first 100 shares at
£2 10s. premium, he gladly took a second 100, and
dis-
posed of them at £3 10s. premium. He thus was repaid
the £4OO which he paid by way of deposit, and " realized"
a clear profit on his venture of £6OO. We will suppose'
him to have been content with this, and not, as so fre-
quently has happened, to have frittered away his £6OO by
buying scrip in other lines at a premium and selling it at
a loss. He knows that £50,000 were paid by way of de-
posit on the shares, and that there is, consequently, a
handsome fund to be exhausted before he can be called
on for any contribution towards the preliminary expenses.
What those expenses amount to he knows not, except
that one of the committee of management has assured
him, confidentially, that though they have been unusually
heavy, they cannot, inclusive of a large sum paid for the
abandonment of a rival line, exceed 10s. a share. His
£6OO seeming so secure, he indulges in some extraordi.
nary expenditure, and soon locks it all up more or less
profitably. The 30th instant passes, and in a few days
he receives an intimation from the secretary to his line
that it had been found impossible to give the notices re-
quired by the standing orders, and that the affairs of the
company will be wound up. In the course of weeks, or
months, he sees an advettisement that the subscribers to
his line may, on application at the offices of the company,
receive back their deposits minus the expenses, at the
rate of £1 10s. a share. His mind is at rest, for he no
longer owns any scrip ; and he chuckles at being out of
the mess. In a few days, however, he is storming at the
" land-sharks." An attorney has written to him a per-
emptory letter, stating that his client, Mr. A B, who
purchased from him, through Mr. C D, the well-known
broker, 200 shares in the
has instructed the writer to demand the repayment of the
£l,OOO paid for those shares, and, in case of non-pay-
ment, to bring an action against the gallant admiral for
the amount. " What can the rascal mean?" In reply
to an indignant answer, the attorney refers him to the
case of " Kempson a. Saunders," Bingham's Reports'
volume 4, page 5, a concise statement of which may serve
as a conclusion and moral to our tale :
This was an action brought by Kempson against Satin•
class for the amount paid to him for twenty shares, at
£3 ss. premium each, in the then projected railway from
Birmingham to Bristol, which shares Saunders had pur-
chased from the original subscriber. The promoters had
agreed that nothing should be done—by which we under-
stand nothing towards the formation of the railway beyond
the necessary preliminaries for an act—till an act incor-
porating the railway should be obtained. The scheme
failed, whereupon the action was brought, and a verdict
was found for the plaintiff, subject to the opinion of the
court as to whether the whole transaction had not been
illt gal. Chief Justice Best, with the concurrence of the
rest of the court, held that the verdict must stand, and
said,—" The defendant, who was not an original subscri-
ber, but had purchased these shares (which, in fact, were
not saleable till the company was formed), sold them to
the plaintiff : but, he sold a nothing—an alleged title, of
no value. If he bought of another, he may sue the seller,
and the seller the party from whom he purchased, till,
at last, we come to THE ORIGINAL PROJECTORS, AND,
IN GETTING AT THEM, A GREAT SERVICE WILL BE

DONE."
[Considerable sensation has been caused by this article
and much discussion produced. It is asserted by many
that no buyer of scrip could recover against the seller,
because the purchase was an illegal one and the scrip-
holder would thereore be out of court. The Times, how-
ever, persists in its original statement, though we confess
that in our opinion our contemporary appears to have the
worst side of the argument.]

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

The different lines uniting at Leeds have agreed to
contribute £lOO,OOO each towards the establishment of a
central station.

The Liverpool and Bury Railway Company have given
notice to the tenants of several shops in Byrom-street
to quit, it being their intention to construct a passenger
station in that street, opposite the Baptist Chapel.
The Northern and Eastern Railway Company accept
the modified terms proposed by the Eastern Counties
Company, for the future management and regulation of
the accounts of the joint proprietary.
The Brighton and Cheltenham, and the Notttngham
and Gainsborough Railway Companies it is proposed
shall be wound up, and the remnant of the deposit re-
paid to the shareholders.

A man was found, the other day, asleep across the rails
in one of the tunnels in the Edinburgh and Glasgow
Railway. He was drunk, and had to pay £5 for his dan-
gerous bed.

The Brighton and Chichester Railway was opened on
Monday, as far as Worthing, General Pasley having cer-
tified that the line, although only one set of rails is yet
laid between Shoreham and Worthing, was fit for traffic.
The East Lancashire have unanimously agreed to
amalgamate with the Blackburn and Preston. And in
the event of the Liverpool, Ormskirk and Preston
obtaining a bill for a line from Liverpool to Preston, that
line is also to be amalgated with the East Lancashire.
Mr. Hudson has intimated to the shipwrecked seamen
and Mariners' Society his intention to grant a free pas-
sage in the third-class trains for all shipwrecked seamen
passing to the north, over the lines with which he is con-
nected.

A few days since, a special train on the Great Western
Railway, conveying several of the Directors from Exeter
to London, accomplished the distance, it is said, 194
miles in four hours and nine minutes, including the usual
stoppages. and an additional stoppage of twenty minutes
between Exeter and Bristol, the average speed being
about 60 miles.

FRENCH RAILWAYS.—The Paris and Strasburg line
has been adjudged by the Minister of Commerce to the
united companies represented by General Cubieres on a
lease of 43 years 286 days. The Tours and Nantes line
has also been adjudged to the company represented by
Count de la Finsonniere, Messrs. Mackenzie, O'Neill,
and Co., on a lease of 34 years and 15 days.
CHESTER AND HOLYHEAD.—At Chester two bridges
are in progress—the one across the Dee, and the other
across the canal. About 300 men are employed near
Chester ; about 200 more are engaged at Mostyn ; near
Conway the same number, chiefly in making the tunnel
through the rock; and about as many in the neighbour-
hood of Bangor. As yet, nothing has been done in
Anglesea.
A NOBLE FEMALE MINER.—The example set by Sir
Robert Peel, of raising the first sod on the Trent Valley
Railway, appears likely to have imitators among the fair
sex. The first blasting of the rock for the tunnel on the
line of the Derry and Coleraine Railway was performed
by Lady Bruce on the 13th instant. We are told, in an
Irish paper, that her ladyship applied the match in a
" scientific and workman. like manner," and that the ex-
plosion which followed was hailed with loud bursts of
enthusiastic applause ; truly, the Irish are an enthusiastic
nation !

SURVEYOR'S DIFFICULTIES. —The town-crier of
Swansea, on Thursday last, was busily offering 5s reward
for the recovery of " a railway surveyor of large size,"
supposed to have stolen or strayed from his colleagues,
who could not conveniently without him proceed on their
route to Brecon. At Lincoln, a ruse was resorted to
for getting surveys across the property of a refractory
landowner. A surveyor held him in parley whilst his
assistants performed their work, and then coolly told
him his refusal was of no consequence, as the necessary
survey was completed.
WINNOWING.—Out of the twelve hundred and odd
projects which, for the most part, germinated in the hot-
bed of speculation during the last four months, only half
of them have complied with the first injunction of the
Standing Orders, (insertion in the Gazette). About six
hundred and fifty have done so. This number exc eds by
four hundred the projects announced in the Gazelle of
last year. Another sweep into Limbo of these six hun-
dred would take place on Sunday night, up to which time
the Board of Trade would receive plans. Who will say
that more than half this number would then have depo-
sited their plans ?
FATAL RAILWAY ACCIDENT—On Monday, a post boy
named Wm. Hushcroft, in the service of Mr Shilleto,
innkeeper, of Bolton Percy, was engaged in removing
some luggage from a truck attached to a train on the
York and North Midland line, whilst the train was in
motion, and in endeavouring to leave the truck, his foot
slipped, and he was thrown between the truck and a pas-
senger carriage, with his back laid across the rails : a pas-
senger carriage and three empty trucks passed over him,
and the injuries inflicted were so serious as to produce
death in about two hours.
The directors of the North Union announce to their
proprietors, that they have arranged with the directors of
the Grand Junction and the Manchester and Leeds for
the transfer of the North Union to these companies, on
the following terms :—To transfer to these two last-men-
tioned companies all the works, property, &c., of the
North Union, subject to all its engagements, &c., in con-
sideration of a perpetual annuity of £lO for every £lOO of
North Union stock A, and £7 for every £lOO of North
Union stock B,—such annuities to commence at the ex-
piration of the present year, and to be paid in perpetuity
in half-yearly payments, free from all deductions, save
income or any government tax of that description. The
meeting to cuunrm this conaitional agreement is to ne
held at Preston, on the 11th December. _ _

RAILWAY RlOTS.—There has been a threatening of
very serious riots between parties of the workmen em-
ployed at different points of the Caledonian line of rail-
way in Dumfriesshire. There occurred last week a series
of the most brutal and revolting fights among the men,
which were kept up during the whole night of Saturday
and morning of Sabbath, and again renewed on Monday.
But the chief apprehensions were excited by the march of
a body of 300 English and Scotch labourers, engaged near
Ecclefechan, to attack a party of 200 Irish employed six
miles off at Locherby. The collision, which must have
been attended with very serious consequences, was only
averted by the most strenuous exertions of the magistrates
and gentlemen in the neighbourhood, and by the aid of a
military force obtained from Carlisle. It is added that
" without a small military force permanently stationed in
the district, there will be no peace for the next three
years." Disturbances of a similar kind have proceeded to
still greater lengths in East Lothian, and in Berwickshire,
on the North British line.—Glusgow Guardian.
RAILWAY SPECULATION.—At the Birmingham Dis-
trict Bankruptcy Court, last week, a bankrupt named
Suckling applied for his certificate, when the commis-
sioner, after announcing his determination to postpone his
decision, said, that the bankrupt in the present case com-
menced business in 1813 with no other capital than £lOO
of his own, and a further sum of £3OO, which he had
borrowed from his father. In this state of things the
bankrupt thought fit, in the spring of 1845, to embark
those means in speculation which he ought to have re-
tained in his own hands for the legitimate purposes of
trade. Now I must say that any one in the situation of
a trader who acts in this manner greatly misconducts him-
self. Perhaps, however, this palliation might be pleaded
for the bankrupt—that he was but following the example
of those whom he might reasonably look upon as his su-
periors. Wealth is power, and a power which most of us
are anxious to possess : but it must be sought and acquired
by honest and honourable means—by the display of talents
—by the exr rtion of industry. The mania that has so
long prevailed could furnish cases which, morally speak-
ing, deserve the greatest punishment, and might probably
be made the subject of criminal prosecution. Whether
the deluded and plundered victims who had been thus in-
jured will have spirit and energy enough to expose the
frauds by which they have suffered, or to bring the per-
petrators to that punishment they so well deserve, I know
not. That the time will come when we shall see these
frauds exposed. I do most heartily hope. I should be
gratified if anything I have said would serve to reclaim
one adventurer, or deter others from plunging into trans-
actions which present the chance of such fearful conse-
quences. The case before me, though it is not upon a
great scale, furnishes a perfect and striking illustration.
If the bankrupt had abstained from these speculations he
would not have been called upon by his father to repay
him that money which he had advanced for the purposes
of trade. The bankrupt might have progressed slowly
but surely, and at this moment he might have been not
only a solvent but a prosperous man.