The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-04-02 00:00:00

dons: --

It will be seen, by drawing a line across the map of
Scotland, ten miles south of Edinburgh and Glasgow, and
referring to the:population tables, that to the northward
of that line the population is about 2,000,000, and to the
south, not above 370,000; or that the traffic of fully five:
sixths of the population southwards to England would be
across that line; and, in fact, it is well known that more
than nine-tenths of the intercourse of Scotland with Eng-
land is from the northern portion alluded to, because
nearly all the commercial and manufacturing interests are
comprehended in, and the whole resort of English tourists
is to and beyond these two ci▪ ties.
Looking to the expected comparative traffic by goods,
minerals, and agricultural produce, it must be noticed
that the district of country embraced within the fork or
branches of two adjoining lines to Edinburgh and Glas-
flaw comprehends by far the most valuable and extensive
ironworks in Scotland, causi▪
ng at this moment the most
rapid increase of wealth and population; that it contains
a boundless extent of cheap coal, and that the who e space
from Lanark to Carlisle must be supplied with coal from
the two extremities. They further observe that for forty
miles south of Edinburgh and Glasgow, if opened up by
Railway to carry.itsproduce to thew cities, this country
is capable of cultivation to a very great extent beyond its
present limits. In corroborati▪
on of this, the Government
Commissioners remark in their report, " We have had
before us various statistical returns regarding the districts
through which the several competing lines would pass, and
as they are of an interesting nature, we have placed them
in the Appendix to the Report; but we do not find that
the results they give are such as to lead us to prefer any
other line to that by Carlisle and Lockerby."
The whole question, therefore, resolves itself into this:
—'an attempt on the part of certain Shareholders in the
Glasgow and Ayr, and the Edinburgh and Glasgow Rail-
ways, to carry the public and the citzens of those two
places twenty miles round by Kilmarnock on the one
hand, or seventy miles round by Edinburgh gn the other,
on their way to England, while it is fallaciously pretended
that they will not be charged anything for this additional
distance. If this were really the case, where would be

RIVAL RAILWAYS BETWEEN CARLISLE
AND GLASGOW.
To the EDITOR of the "GLASGOW HERALD."
SIR,—Will any of your readers, who posses the requi-
site information, have the goodness to answer the fol-
lowing questions ?-
Ist. Is it true, as is currently reported, that, of the long
array of respectable parties who appear as forming the
Provisional Committee of the " Caledonian Railway," not
one of those connected with Glasgow has taken, or means
to take, a single Share in the undertaking?
2d. Is it true, as is currently reported, that the names
of some of these parties were put down in the List with-
out their authority—while others were put down in con-
sequence of permission obtained two years ago, under
different circumstances ?
3d. Is it true, as is currently reported, that some of the
most influential of these parties have, since the publica-
tion of the Prospectus, withdrawn their names—deter-
mined not to allow themselves to be made the means of
decoying others to subscribe to an michrtaking in which
they themselves have taken no Shares, and of the merits
of which, as compared with other Lines, they as yet know
little or nothing ?
4th. Is it true that the plans of the " Caledonian" Line
deposited last year, in terms of the standing orders of
Parliament, passed over, not along the Wishaw and Colt-
ness Railway, and in place of reaching Glasgow by the
Garnkirk Railway, as seems now contemplated, joined the
Pollok and Govan Coal Railway—which passes down the
surface of. West-street, and terminates on the surface of
the Paisley Turnpike Road at Tradeston?
sth. Is it true that the Table of comparative distances
now published, with the Prospectus of the Caledonian
Railway, refers entirely to the difference between the
" Caledonian" and the " North Brit'sh" or East Coast
Line, and makes no mention of the " Glasgow, Dumfries,
and Carlisle," or West Coast Line—and that the length
of the Caledonian is stated as being the same as the Cen-
tral Line reported on by the Parliamentary Commission-
ers in 1842 ; while, if now brought over the Wilsontown,
Wishaw and Coltness, Monkland and Kirkintilloch, and
Garnkirk Mineral Lines (as is talked of), it will be much
longer ?
6th. Is it true that these four mineral lines, over which
in succession it is proposed to carry the whole English
traffic with Glasgow, are many of them of a very imper-
fect construction—of only 4 feet 6 inches guage—crowded
with coal and ironstone waggons—in some places having
only a single line of rails—of a ;tilt- not exceeding
50 lbs. per lineal yard—cross' .everal important turn-
pike roads near Glasgow •. I e level—and having their
terminus at Glasgow 1 ' eet at least above the general
level .of the city ?
7th. Is it true, : • s reported to have been stated at the
public meeting d not long ago at Lanark, that the
ruling gradient of the Caledonian line will be 1 in 75,
and that for many consecutive miles • and is it true that
the length of new line to be made will be 112 miles (be-
sides the expenditure required for the alteration and com-
pletion of the Mineral Railways, while the ruling gradient
of the Glasgow, Dumfries, and Carlisle Line, will be 1 in
130, and the length of new Line 92 miles ?
Bth. Is it true that the natural summit of the Caledo-
nian Line is upwards of 1000 feet, and of the Glasgow,
Dumfries, and Carlisle Line only 600 feet above the sea ?
9th. Is it true that the alleged subscription towards the
Capital Stock of this undertaking, by the North of Eng-
land Railways, to the extent (as is said) of £600,000, is
only in,expeelaney, and that in not one of these Compa-
nies have the Shareholders yet been called together to say
whether they will, or will not, so subscribe ?
Categorical answers to these plain questions will enable
the public, especially at a distance, to understand whether
this undertaking has the real support of the respectable
parties in Scotland, under whose auspices it has been
ushered before the public, and what confidence is to be
placed in the vague statements of its merits contained in
the Prospectus.

I am, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
VERITAS.

Glasgow, 23rd March, 18-14

How MANY OF HIS SUBJECTS IS A KING WORTH?—
This question is not answered, but attenip.ed in a petition
of the knights, esquires, ministers, gentlemen, and free-
holders of the county of Lancaster, presented to Charles
1., May 2d, 1642. Alluding to that ill-fated monarch's
determination to put down the rebellion in Ireland, the
petitioners say :—" Finding your Majesty's late resolu-
tion for the expedition to threaten danger to your royal
person, ar more worth than 10,000 of ;we therefore,"
&c. "do, in all humility, present and prostrate ourselves
and supplications at your royal feet, beseeching your ma-
jesty to return to your great council" [the parliament,)
&c.—Such was the adulatory style of addressing a monarch
a few months before half his. subjects were in open rebel-
lion or revolution.
DESPERATE REMEDY FOR A DESPERATE DISEASE.--
They tell a good story of Dr. Rand. He was called on to
visit a hypochondriac patient, who fancied she had swal-
lowed a mouse. On entering the room, the ladyexclaimed,
" Dear doctor !I am glad to see you—l, am in such dis-
tress—such pain ! Oh, doctor, I have swallowed a
mouse !" " Swallowed—nonsense,', replied the doctor,
in his mild and pleasant manner. Oh, no, doctor," said
the patient, "it is not nonsense—it is a mouse—a live
mouse; he ran down my throat when I was asleep, with
my mouth open, and I feel him now, creeping about my
stomach, and trying to gnaw out. Oh, doctor, do pre-
scribe something that will cure me in a minute." "What
is it, doctor, what is it ?-I'll take anything you order."
" Well, then, my dear madam, swallow a cat —lf that don't
cure.you, nothing will."