The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-10-14 00:00:00

MANCHESTER SHARE MARKET-YESTERDAY.

Boston' Newark, and Sheffield, 51 6 ; Birkenhead and
Holyhead Junction, 34; Cambridge and Lincoln, 5/
5 13-16Ihs ; Chelmsford and Bury 2a ; Derby and Crewe,
51; Derby, Gainsborough, and Great Grimsby, 21;
Eastern Counties. 231 1; Edinburgh and Northern, 5;
Grand Union 31 ; Great Grimsby and Sheffield, 25 ;
Huddersfield and Manchester Railway and Canal, 211 ;
Leeds and Thirsk 171 18 ; Leicester and Bedford, 3i ;
Liverpool and Leeds Direct, 51 ; London and Manchester
(Remington's), 4 4-; Ditto Rastricks, 71 7a; Man-
cheSter and Birmingham, 84 ; Man Chester and Leeds
(sixteenths), 101; Manchester, Midland, and Great
Grimsby, 5* 61 ; Manchester and Southampton, 64-68 ;
North Eastern, 41 ; Nottingham and Bost° ~ 41 -* 5-16 ;
Nottingham and Mansfield, 51 5 ; Oxford, Worcester,
and Wolverhampton, 16 • South Eastern and Dover,
(Holmes), 4* ; South Midland, 7* 8 ; Waterford and
Valentia, 3 ; \% Midland, 4k 41 ; Worcester, Ten-
bury, and Ludlow, 51.

LIVERPOOL COTTON MARKET, OCT. 13.

The demand for Cotton to-day has somewhat revived,
and we can report upon 4000 bales having been sold, with
a somewhat livelier fteling about the market. Prices are
without a change. Holders sturdily refuse to listen to
any further concession.

A PASSING REMARK ON RAILWAY SPECU-

LATI ON.

The wings of irresponsible adventure have been cut close,
and hardly the free use of property or its returns left to
individual enterprise. In railway undertakings ten per
cent has been made the maximum-rate of divisional
profit, and the property itself is cumpulsorily saleable to
the public at the expiration of twenty-one years. Even
the management of the estate is not left free, and a cer-
tain speed of travelling and rate of charge secured to
third-class passengers (7 and 8 Vic. 84). The very
initiative of such undertakings is jealously watched :
they must not be advertised unless a registry has been
previously made at a public office, of the names, abodes,
and occupations of their promoters, and •` falsely pre-
tending to be patronised or managed by eminent op opu- '
lent persons,', subjects to a penalty. This is the " pro-
visional registration ;" but when the company is formed,
and before it can act, otherwise than provisionally, there
must be a " complete registration ;" every shareholder
must enter into a covenant to pay up instalments ; the
deed must be registered; every patron or director must
hold shares under a penalty ; shares are not previously
transferable, and every transfer must be registered before
the holder is entitled to vote or share in the profits of the
undertakings.
This is only the beginning of trouble and expense. The
great battle is still to be fought before the Legislature;
preliminary to which a survey must have been made of
the intended line, an estimate of the cost drawn out, and
the subscription-contract deposited in the private-bill
office, prior to the meeting of parliament. These prepa-
rations made, next comes the tug of war—when Greek
meets Greek—when competing companies enter the lists
before the committee of five, with a long and not a little
costly array of witnesses, attorneys, parliamentary agents,
council, &c. And even this ordeal may not be conclu-
sive, for a favourable award of the committee may be
defeated. in the ulterior stage, before the lower or upper
house of parliament.
Amidst so many safeguards—over so many obstacles—
and under so many pains and penalties, there seems no
great temptation, no greater scope, for wild and unpr;n-
cipled speculation. Public gullibility has,ceased to be
virgin land—an untrodden waste, over which any ad-
venturer may poach, without character, certificate, or
pretension. There must be testimonials—there must be
proof before competent tribunals that new undertakings
are likely to be safe and useful, ere they are deemed
eligible to be tendered for adoption to the community.
In despite, therefore, of the existing scrutiny, and of the
compulsory publicity the law has enforced upon project-
ors and their proceedings, it seems hardly possible for any
very nefariovs or air-drawn scheme of individual cupidity
to prosper. If the people are entrapped—if they sink in
a slough, it must be with their eyes open, and in culpa-
ble disregard of the finger-posts and alarm bells that have
been devised for their security. Of course, they are not
guaranteed against all chances of loss or danger ; if they
speculate, they must incur the ordinary risk of specula-
tive ventures ; and, if unusual or inordinate gains are
coveted, by taking the chance of a rise, they must, as the
fair price of the contingency, also tike the chance of a
fall, in the market.—Wades London Review.

The subscriptions for Mr. Hudson's testimonial have
reached £20,000.
The sharebrokers of Leicester have converted the
theatre into a railway exchange.
WoonsTocx.—Lord Alfred S. Churchill has announcad
himself in an address dated Hounslow Baraacks.
Sir John Rennie is to have £l,OOO per week for the
survey of a new line in the north.
It has been determined to erect a monument in West-
minster Abbey to the memory of Sir Thomas F. Buxton,
by public subscription, limited to two guineas each.

Mr. Alfred Tennyson, the author of " Lock sley Hall,"
the "May Queen," and some other beautiful poems,
which stamp him one of the first poets of the age, has just
received a pension of £2OO per annum from her Majesty.
A notice, signed by all the innkeepers in the place, has
been affixed to the church door of the parish of Forden,
Montgomeryshire, stating that they will not draw any
ale, wine, or spirits, &c., on Sundays, Christmas-days,
and Good Fridays.

A Frenchman is said to have invented a machine capa-
ble of doing every decription of sewing except the sewing
of button holes.

-
Mr. Hudson, it is said, has originated a scheme for the
establishment of a harbour and docks at Scarborough, to
facilitate the communication with the Baltic.

At a sale of stock at Castle Howard last week one
cow fetched £lBO, and her calf £65.
Within the last fortnight between 1500 and 1600 whales
have been caught off Shetland, which are calculated to
bring in a sum of £4OOO, one-third of which goes to the
proprietors, and the rest, we suppose, to those engaged in
the capture.
LIBEL ON LAW.—The following notice appeared on
the west end of a church in Watling-street :—"Any per-
son sticking bills against this church will be !prosecuted
according to law, or any other nuisance."
The commissioners for lighting the town of Stamford
are trying the experiment of burning naptha instead of gas
in the street lamps in that town. They have been induced
to do so by the high rate at which gas is charged to them.
The Dean of Winchester has opened the cathedral of
that city to the public for four hours in each day—from
nine till eleven in the morning, and from two till four in
the afternoon ; the times of the daily service being included
in each of these periods of admission.
Mr. Hudson has joined the Eastern Counties as Chair-
man ; and we understand that the entire management of
the railway is to be left in his bands.
It is stated that the depositors of the London and Man-
chester (Ashhurat's) line, have paid up the 10 per cent
without a single exception, amounting to upwards of half
a million.

STRANGE COURT CUSTOM.—In 1767, at Florence, all
he gentlemen at Court curtsied to the GranJ Duke and
he Grand Duchess. Foreigners only were permitted to
ow, they being supposed to know no better. We learn
Iso, from a review of the French Ambassador's work on
he Fronde, in the Church of England Quarterly, that
the French judges used to salute one another by curtsying.

TUESDAY MORNING, OCT. 14, 1845.

We are concerned to witness the retirement of
such a man as Mr. John North from the Town
Council of this Borough. His ability and useful-
ness have been eminently displayed during his short
career as a public servant, and we could better
afford to have lost another man.

With these feelings towards Mr. North, and with
the fullest appreciation of his worth, we are sorry to
be compelled to notice an inconsistency or two,
which appears in the address announcing his retire-
ment. After expressing his entire concurrence in
the increased grant to Maynooth, he says " I would
yet go further in the same direction, earnestly
hoping soon to see a proper provision made out of
the public revenue for the Roman Catholic clergy
of Ireland. A more steadfast Protestant than my-
self does not live, but I cannot think it any part of
my own religion to depress and degrade that of a
very large proportion of my fellow-christians. Be-
lieving all other means inadequate, I want to see the
Irish peasantry first humanized, and then instructed
by a well-educated, well-paid and respectable priest-
hood of their own, assured that then only, and with
(what the same means will influence) some sense of
the duties of property on the part of their absentee
landlords, they will become industrious, successful,
and happy."
In the first place, we cannot conceive how a re-
fusal to provide, out of the public revenue of a Pro-
testant country, a provision for the Roman Catholic
Clergy of Ireland can be said to be synonymous
with " depressing and degrading" the Roman Ca-
tholic population of Ireland, any more than the re-
fusal to endow the priesthood of any other
creed, Christian or not, is " depressing and de-
grading" the professors of that creed. Mr.
North is a consistent supporter of the present
system of religious education in the Cgrporation
Schools, from which Roman Catholics consider
their children virtually excluded. On his showing
this system therefore " depre-ses and degrades"
those who refuse to avail themselves of it.

The latter portions, however, of the passage above
quoted, are the most extraordinary. Mr. North
says, he wants to see the Irish peasantry first hu-
manized, and then instructed, by a well-educated,
well-paid and respectable Priesthood of their own."
He omits to say how they are to be . humanised."
With such humanization and education, in the doc-
trines of Popery, he concludes by stating that they
will become industrious, successful, and happy-
May we ask Mr. North how as a " steadfast Pro-
testant" he can say that education in doctrines
which are characterised in the articles of his own
reformed Church as " repugnant to the Word of
God," as " grounded upon no warranty of Scrip-
ture," as " blasphemous fables and dangerous
deceits," can make men " happy."
We are sorry Mr. North has in a manner com-
pelled us to allude to these subjects, as unfit to be
discussed in the columns of a newspaper, as in our
opinion they are uncalled for in an address to a
municipal constituency.

With respect to the propriety of the Licensed
Victualler's Body returning a few influential men
from amongst its own.members, we can see no ob-
jection. But the question suggests itself to us
whether, by striving for this object, the Victuallers,
divided as they are in political opinion, may not lose
assured friends, and will not, in the present state of
the constituencies, damage their own cause. 'We
strongly suspect that they will; and that their best
course would be to ally themselves with that large
body of the Conservative party who sympathise with
them, and, we can tell them, are resolved, at the
present election, to give their support to those can-
didates only who will pledge themselves to apply
their best energies to procure local reform and better
and more impartial government of the Town. We
do not say this to discourage all honest ambition of
any Victualler, who may have aspirations to a seat
in the Council. The Body however profess to have
a practical end in view; and practical men ought to
work by practical means.

The sick on board the Eclair have all been transferred
to the Worcester (frigate in ordinary), with the exception
of Mr. Barnard, the surgeon, who died on Thursday.
Lieutenant Isaacson and the pilot, who were taken ill on
board the Revenge, are both likely to do well. The rest
are convalescent.

On Saturday night week, on the Great North of Eng-
land. Railway, near Darlington, owing to the breaking of
the wheel of a truck which was attached mid-way amongst
some passenger carriages, the truck was thrown off the
line, and the passenger carriages were dashed together,
and several ladies and gentlemen were seriously hurt.

TUE POLICE FORCE.—We understand that a motion
has been brought before the Watch Committee that the
superintendents of divisions should be mounted. This
we consider very desirable, as they would then not only
have an easier surveilance over the inferior officers, but
could mnch more readily convey intelligence in case
of fire, &c.
COLLEGIATE INSTITUTION.—A course of lectures,
which promises to be the most popular and interesting
which has ever been delivered in this noble institution,
is to be commenced this evening, by the Rev. W. C.
Milne, upon China and the Chinese. Mr. Milne is the
son of the late distinguished missionary, and is on the
eve of returning to China, his native country, we believe.
Thoroughly conversant with the language, the manners,
and customs of the inhabitants of China, and having tra-
velled over a considerable portion of that country, Mr.
Milne must possess vast stores of information upon those
interesting topics. We believe that he will be assisted In
his lectures by Woo Sienaang, a literary Chinese, who
accompanied him to England.
THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY.—The following is
an extract of a letter, dated Konigsburg, 28th Sept. :
" The head of the German Catholic congregation here
was called before the police a few days ago, arid informed
that a ministerial ordinance had been passed, by which
the religious acts of the new Catholics would be null if
they were not performed by Protestant pastors. The new
Catholic church will be allowed the free exercise of its
religion as a tolerated religion, but its religious acts will
be only considered as private acts if the clergymen of
another church do not sanction them. The chief of the
new Catholics said that he would recommend to his eoa-
gregation that they should observe the ordinance, but
said that he could not guarantee their doing so."
HIGHWAY BOARD.—At the weekly meeting on Thurs-
day, Mr. Ashlin, the treasurer, presented the accounts of
the commissioners made up to the termination of the
year, (30th Sept., 1845,) which shewed a balance in favor
of the general account for paving, flagging, &c., of .C 11,430.
The sewerage account showed a debit for previous balan-
ces and for sewers already contracted for, of £17,440 in
advance of the rates raised for express sewerage purposes.
The amount in Leyland and Bullen's hands to the credit
of the water works, is £12,350. Mr. Procter thought
that nothing to effect good sewerage had been neglected
by the commissioners. The chairman moved that a pa-
ving rate fo eightpenee in the pound be levied, the sue-
plus resulting from which should be applied to general
purposes, and more particularly to sewerage operations.
The motion was carried. A water rate of one penny in the
pound was then agreed to be levied.
THE OXFORD VICE-CHANCELLORSHIP.—Previous to
the convocation, lest week, the Rev. Charles Page Eden,
late tutor of Oriel College, in the absence of Mr. Sewell,
presented a paper to the Vice-Chancellor, which was un-
derstood to contain an intimation that the right of abso-
lute nomination by the Chancellor of his Vice-Chancellor
was to be disputed. During the proceedings, on the letter
of the Chancellor being read, appointing Dr. Symons his
Vice-Chancellor for the ensuing year, Mr. Eden again
slept forward, and, when the Vice-Chancellor, following
the statute's words, said—"Assensum rogo," uttered a
non-placet, and demanded a scrutiny. No notice was, of
course, taken ; but it is understood that this proceeding is
preliminary to a " quo warranto" process, with a view to
try the question of the Chancellor's right. Opinions in
the university are divided on the subject ; but it is known
that many of Dr. Symons's supporters are not averse to
a legal settlement of the question ; and Only object to the
party which has raised the question, and the object they
have in view in doing so.—Church and Stale Ga2ette.
MASTERS AND MATES OF VESSELS.—On Saturday
a meeting of the Commissioners of Pilotage for this port
was held in the Town Hall, to determine what measures
would be necessary in consequence of the order of Coun-
cil, constituting them a board for the examination of mas-
ters and mates in the merchant service, in compliance
with the act which comes into operation next month.
The Mayor took the chair, and read a letter from the
Pilots' Committee to the effect, that their duties were so
onerous that they could not undertake this additional
duty. Several very excellent speeches were delivered ;
and it was considered that it was beginning at the wrong
end to examine the present masters. A good nautical
school should first have been established. Ultimately, on
the motion of Mr. Alderman Nicol, a resolution was
passed, that the Pilots' Commissioners undertake to no-
minate a board for the examination in question, and a sub.
committee was appointed to carry the resolution into
effect.