The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-06-20 00:00:00

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE,

The Railway Returns
.for the past week are in general
rather better than those of the preceding, but the difference
is not material. The return for the Birmingham line, how-
ever, forms an exception, there being a decrease on the week
of £771.

At a yearly meeting of the Llanelly Railway and Dock
Company last week, the gross return for the year ending
April, 1843, was found to be £7,954., being upwards of
£2,000 over the preceding year. An increase of 41,000 tons
had been made upon the new line during the year. The ac-
count of capital showed an expenditure of #1,500 since the
last annual meeting.

The Dundee and Abroad' RailWaY Company declared a
dividend of four per cent. at the annual general meeting held
on the 7th in,tant., to he paid out of net profits, stated at
C 4.058, the small balance of which would be carried to the
fund. This fund with the addition.of the £5B, would
amount to £3,967, but have to be subsequently reduced by
the payment of interest to £3,173. Although the revenue of
the railway has fallen off compared with last year £Bl3, the
reduction made in the expenditure has exceeded that amount
by some £1,400. The capital account is to be fixed and closed
at £155,000, making' every allowance for outstanding claims;
and the directors express a hope that the expenses of the
line may be further reduced in the engine department.

COMMUNICATION BETWEEN LONDON AND SCOTLAND.
—The subject of the most diiect and economical junction
railway to connect London with Glasgow and Edinburgh,
now forms the subject of much speculation among railway
projectors in the north ; one line recommended is from New-
castle-upon-Tyne along the coast to Edinburgh, and from
thence to Glasgow, the other by way of Darlington and Car-
lisle. This latter is the line recommended- by Mr. Fulton,
i❑ his report to the Lords of the Treasury on the subject of
railway communication between England and Scotland, and
could be completed at a comparatively small cost, provided
the gradients range from 1 in 50 to 1 in 80, a short distance
each side the summit level. The district of country which
this line would open to the facilities of railway communication►
is very extensive, and, in a mineral point of view, equal to
any of the same extent of service in the kingdom, while, at
present, it has ❑o means of trannsit but the old turnpike-
roads, and those few. This line is seriously worthy the con-
sideration of the capitalist, and particularly the railway corn-
panics in the north of England.
The following are the receipts of Railways for the past
week—that is to say, up to the date to which the respective
returns are made:—

Birmingham and Derby...
Eastern Counties.
Edinburgh and Glasgow...
Grand Junction...
Great North of England
Great Western
llull and Selby
Liverpool and Manchester
Birmingham
Brighton

7,290
1,419
15,179
1,262
4,846
17,252
3,480

CrOidon
Greenwich ..
Blackmail
South Western ....... .....
Manchester and Birmingham
Manchester and Leeds ....
Midland Counties
North Midland
Paris and Rouen •
South Eastein

305
L 706
1,220
6,562

2.776
4,311
3,345
2,282

Bawl'Tort RAILNVAY.—On Friday a special meeting was
held at the London Tavern, Mr. J. Harman in the chair, to
elect ten persons to act as the future directors. The meet-
ing was one of the largest of the season, and the proceedings
excited considerable interest. Mr. Bennett, of Brighton,
moved thatlbe appointment of the new directors should be
well consideirkl, and the names, addresses, and number of
shares held by each candidate sent to every shareholder
previous to the election, and that the meeting be adjourned
_

to seme future day. The motion having been seconded by
Mr. Hallett, of Brighton, a long and desultory discussion
ensued upon the terms of the proposition. Ultimately, the
following gentltlinan were nominated :—Mr. Parsons, Mr.
Rowland Hill, Mr. G. Henderson; Captain Kelly, Mr. Nash,
Hon. Captain I lotham, Captain Heaviside, Mr. Solly Flood,
Sir James Duke, Sir J. Simpson, Mr. V. Lee. Mr. Cowley,
Mr. F..ntssiirtie„, Mr:-Watson. Mr. Cattier, Mr. Minick!,
Mr. J. Thompson, and others. A proposal for proceeding
to the poll, taken as an amendment, was carried by a majority,
Mr. Earle, the representative of the Liverpool shareholders,

a large number of

proxies

Considerable did--
enssion ensued; until, at length, while the poll proceeded,
exception was taken to the Liverpool proxies, on account of
their not being stamped. It was then agreed that the ob-
jeetion should be referred to the decision of counsel ; the
votes to remain under the seal of the scrutineers until the
adjourned meeting on Monday (yesteaday.)

THE KING OF HANOVER AND JOSEPH HUME.—We did
think that the member for Montrose, • Kilkenny, Middlesex,
and a varietykof other places, did know that 3 and 2 made
s—we did dal* that, in spite of the difficulties which he
seems to find in exercising the faculty of ratiocination and
other higher functions of humanity, lie had still, when among

threes and fours, a certain mechanical aptitude for arriving
with some accuracy at the "sum tottle of the whole." But
to believe, or to expect others to believe, that an annuity of
£3,000 for 45 years is equivalent to " a grant of £500.000,"
seems to mark a mind tottering on its very feeble basis. If
the public made the enormous exertion necessary to raise at
the present moment £lOO,OOO, and invested it in the 3 per
cents., the interest would more than pay the annuity de.
manded, and at the end of 45 years the public would have its
principal back again. And ILL•. Hume asks us whether we
are "prepared to grantl.looo,ooo on such slender grounds ?"
And this from a gentleman who flatters himself that, if there
is a thingin which he really shines, it is his arithmetic. Sir
Robert Peel suggests that he may have inadvertently multi-
plied his result by 15. Perhaps he has. But to think that
we should have been believing this man's calculations so
many years!

EXTENSIVE FAILURE.—We regret to announce the sus-
pension
of payments by the long established and respectable
firm of Messrs. Harford, Davies, and Co., iron merchants of
this city, and having extensive iron works at Ebbw-vale and
Sirhowy, in South Wales. 'We understand that the total
amount of debts is stated at £300,000, the assets at X 400,000,
including, of course, the works and stock. Among the cre-
ditors are. about 300 private persons, whose debts are esti-
mated at £135,000. From the high estimation in which the
firm w„ beta. they were entrusted with the deposits of seve-
ral benefit socNies,upon which they allowed interest. Upon
this class of creikitors, as well as upon the numerous work-
people employe:MA, the firm, and the tradesmen in the lo-
cality of their vastnnanufacturing establishments, the pres-
sure, it is feared, will tall severely. It has been erroneously
stated in the Globe that the West of England and South
Wales District Bank were creditors for £B-1,000; and we
deem it important to state that the fact is that that banking
company are creditors for only £51,000, and hold securities
under which, whatever be the winding up of the concerns of
the firm, the loss to tile bank can only be of comparatively
small amount. The failure was mentioned on Thursday in
the Court of Bankruptcy in this city, in which a proceeding
of an important character, for carrying on the works, took
place. It was then stated that the continuance or the works
would not only avert much local calamity, but improve the
amount of assets by £20,000. Most anxious must every one
be that results so truly desirable for all parties be realised.—
Bristol Journal.

INFANTlClDE.—Considerable excitement has existed in
the town of Cretherne for some time past, in consequence
cf a rumour that prevailed that a girl named Martha Clark,
who lived as servant to a Mr. Alven, a person ‘,l independent
property, and the sun of a gentleman formerly a blinker of
the town, had given birth to a child, of which he was the
father. that Le had acted as accoucheur, and that he had de-
st role(' it. So long ago, as, the 19th of fay last, the girl had
m ade disclosures which led to the apprehension of tint).
prisoners, and several investigations had taken place before
the magistrates, who, from time to time, remanded the
prisoners. On Sunday last, however, the body was found
in the garden of the male prism/el., and 'an inquest was held
on it the following day, when the jury found their verdict
" That the body now found is the body of a human
being, an infant ; but how or by whom placed there is not
known." The prisoners were again brought before the ma-
gistrates on Thursday last, when the case was fully gone into.
My. Langworthy stated the nature of the charge against the
prisoners, and called a great many witnesses. From their tes-
timony it appeared that in consequence of certain informa-
tion a search was made on Sunday last in Alven's garden,
when the body of au infant in a state of decomposition was
found. Mr. Ilowda,,e, the surgeon, stated that he found
round the child's
body a hayband ; that the infant was full
grown, and that in his opinion the child had been born alive.
He further said that from the extent of the decomposition
the child must have been born five or six months ago. After
several other witnesses had been examined, the prisoner,
Alven, was asked if be had any thing to address to the
court, when he replied " I am innocent of the charge, gen-
tlemen." Upom this the female prisoner instantly ex-
claimed, "He is not innocent, gentlemen." Great impres-
sion was made in the court by this unexpected announce-
ment, and it was some time before silence -could he ob-
tained. When order Was restored, the chairman, address-
ing the female prisoner, observed, that if she wished to
address the court, now was the time to do so, but it was his
duty to tell her that what she said would be taken down,
and used at a future day. The prisoner replied that she
wished to tell every thing, and proceeded to make a full
confession, from which it appeared that Alven was the father
of her child, and he had acted as accoucheur, that he had
twisted a hayband round the infant's neck, and had then
thrown it amongst some reeds, that she had never seen the
child, but heard it cry, that Alven had never told her what
he had done with it, but her suspicions were that he had
buried the body in the garden. The
whole of the confession
was delivered with much simplicity of manner,
and the pri-
Knier, when questioned on particular portions of it, did not
vary in her statements. It was afterwards signed by her.
Mr. Lansworthy milled on the court to commit Alven as
principal in the murder, and Clarke as an accessory after the
fact. The magistrates withdrew for a short time, and on their
return committed both prisoners for trial at the next assizes,
Alven as principal, and Oat ke as an accessory after the fact.
Application was made by Alven's solicitors to the magistrates
to take bail for his appearance, and bail to a large amount
was offered, but the magistrates refused to entertain
The prisoners were shortly after conveyed to Wilton Gaol.—
Sberborne Mercury.