The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-02-22 00:00:00

IRELAND.

The prisoners confined in the gaol of Ennis, notwith-
standing the special commission, amount to 511.
Government has made a grant of £lOOO to the Belfast
Flax Improvement Society.
The Erne Packet gives an account of the discovery of a
plot to assassinate a bailiff in the employment of the Earl
of Erne.

A practice of hissing during the playing of " God save
the Queen has of late become so prevalent in the Dublin
theatres as to amount to a common nuisance.
The constabulary of Tipperary have been tolerably suc-
cessful. Thousands of guns and pistols are concealed in
the banks of ditches till the present activity subsides.
The constabulary from Newport on Tuesday lodged in
the ordnance barracks, at Limerick, 1031 guns, 48 pistols,
three blunderbusses, sis guns with bayonets, pawder-
flasks, bullet-moulds, &c., taken from the peasantry.
ALTAR DENUNCIATIONS.—The Nenagh papers an-
nounce the formal suspension from his clerical functions
of the Rev. Anthony Nolan, parish priest, the rev. gen-
tleman having pleaded " guilty" to the charges preferred
against him by a sub-inspector of constabulary.
A Tralee paper states the receipt of information of a
most foul conspiracy against the life of Mr. Frederick
Mason, of Kilmore, in the barony of Clanmaurice, county
of Kerry, and that owing to the exertions of a magistrate,
Mr. G. V. Stokes, several of the parties implicated are in
custody.

" RESPECTABILITY" IN IRELAND.—A writer in the
Dublin Evening Packet says of the late Mr. Waldron :
" The deceased has been some time on his keeping to
avoid arrest, and though an improvident, he was a highly
respectable gentleman of good fortune, but by no means
remarkable for his observance of law or good morals."
A fearfuFfamine has set in Mayo. The Telegraph says
that whole villages are depopulated in Ballintubber. In
one large townland every head of a family except two men
has been cut off. Six men and women died of starvation
in Tulla, and three others were dying. The bodies of the
dead lay unburied, in some instances for seven days toge-
ther.

The poor rate in Scariff for three months, at 7s. 6d. in
the pound, amounts to £17,600. A Scariff ratepayer
writing in the Clare Journal states, that the rating is so
oppressive that many farms have been given up, and many
of the people preparing to emigrate. Eight houses and
stores have been taken for additional workhouse accom-
modation. The writer states, that a rate amounting to
total confiscation would not support the poorer popula-
tion in the absence of employment.
On Tuesday Patrick Ryan (Small) was executed at
Ennis gaol, for the murder of the late James Watson,
Esq. He ascended the scaffold at half-past two o'clock,
in a very feeble state supported by two priests. The
wretched man appeared almost insensible, and had to be
held up whilst the executioner was adjusting, the rope.
He fainted off before the bolt was drawn, and died in-
stantly. The evening before his execution he declared
his innocence in the gaol. A great concourse of persons
congregated before the prison to witness the spectacle.
UTILITY OF ORANGEISM.—A petition against the bill
far establishing diplomatic relations with Rome is in
course of signtature by the Orange lodges in the neigh-
bourhood of Downpatrick. We earnestly hope that Pro-
testants generally are adopting a like course and forward-
ing petitions to the legislature upon the same momentous
subject. The promptitude with which expression is given
to Protestant feeling through the Orange Association is a
proof of the efficiency of the organisation for.one impor-
tant purpose—not the least useful of the many which it
subserves.

TERRIBLE CALAMITY.—On Sunday night week, the
house of Mr. Clarke, pawnbroker, Killarney, was burnt
down. A family named Farrell, consisting of eight per-
sons, were in the house at the time; one of whom hav-
ing had occasion to leave his bed, perceived the fire, and
gave the. alarm to, the rest of the inmates. Some of
them endeavoured to escape (unfortunately before a lad-
der could be procured) by jumping out of the bed-room
window in the upper story, a height of nearly forty feet.
The unfortunate mother, Elizabeth, was killed in the
attempt ; the father and his son and daughter are de-
spaired of in consequence of the injuries received from
the fall. Another child having fallen into the arms of
one of the crowd present, escaped apparently uninjured ;
but the rest of the family, namely, three children, were
burnt to:death.

l
-iiEpiii, ASSOCIATION.--At the meeting, on wednes_
ecoh df in.
H the
day, -Mr. O'Mahony took the chair, and delivered a long
pa
him in Paris. Two priests,
replyt otihel e t t eT of Lord
detailingShrewsbury.
thero
p
A proceed_
in
ntserge:s newastreaen banquetgfrom
adni
given to
Mr. J. o Connell,
an and Masterman, delivered very violent
speeches. The former said he would submit a resolution
to the committee, to the effect that every parish should
meet in the neighbourhood of their respective chapels on
a Sunday to be, named in the course of the ensuing month,
in order to petition for a repeal of the union. He stated
that he was the first man who had signed a requisition for
the monster meeting in 1843, and that similar meetings
of every parish which he now proposed took place twenty
years ago, when the people, of Ireland were seeking for
emancipation. The latter priest (Masterman) detailed
what he termed a number of " Protestant atrocities"
which had been perpetrated on the Irish Catholics. The
rent for-the week was declared to be £66.

RAILWAY AFFAIRS.

-----.*-------.

The dividend for the half year of the Hull and Selby
Railway will be at the rate of X 9 19s. per cent. per annum.
The dividend on the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway,
to bdeclared next month, win be eix per eut. for the
last year.

Thomas H. Higgin, Esq., managing director of the
Preston and Wyre Railway, has received the appointment
of managing director of the Belfast and Ballymena Rail-

A man, named Barker, for some time in the employ of
the Eastern Counties' Railway Company as porter at the
Cambridge station, has, by a late decision of the Court of
Chancery, been declared to be entitled to property to the
extent of £30,000.

RAILWAYS AND CARRIERS.—The Great Western
have another action against them by the assignees of
Parker, the carrier, to recover £6,000 for overcharges—
the list of which fills -folio volumes two feet in thickness,
and the list alone costs £1,300. Pickford's case with the
South-eastern
nTuesday
the n goes
coroner's
tiller,s
inquest
i April.
LATE ACCIDENT ON THE SOUTH-WESTERN RAILWAY. o
was brought to a
close, when the jury found a verdict of " manslaughter"
against the driver and stoker of the luggage-train that ran
into the passenger-train near Woking, by which the driver
of that train was killed, and many passengers seriously hurt.
The Marquis of Breadalbahe, who is Chairman of the
Scottish Central Railway Company, when in Edinburgh
some time ago, was waited upon by a deputation of the
Sabbath Alliance, to solicit his support in regard to the
question of railway travelling on the Sabbath, when his
Lordship expressed his opinion to be in accordance with
that of the deputation.
- Out of 3400 miles of railway now opened, 300 miles only
are upon the broad or exceptional gauge of 7 feet-1-11th
of the whole length of railways opened—while the remain-
ing 3100 Miles, being 10-11ths of the whole, are on the
national gauge of 4 feet 81 inches. Only 50 miles of
broad-gauge rail 'ay have thus been opened since the
commissioners reported, while upwards of 1000 miles of
railway on the national gauge have been opened.
BRIGHTON RAILWAY. The proceedings at the meeting
of the Brighton Railway shareholders, on Monday, excited
a good deal of interest among the Stock Exchange people.
The impression is very strong that either by neglect or
design an unfair advantage was taken, by a knowledge of
the state of the finances, to operate on the Stock Exchange,
before the official announcement ; and the appointment of
the committee of shareholders for that and other matters
is relied upon to probe into the bottom as an example to
other concerns.

DREADFUL DEATH.—An engine-driver, named Wing-
, field, on Tuesday, detached his engine at Brandon station,
on the Eastern Counties' line, for the purpose of running
it into the shed, and while doing so perceived that his
lamp was in some way defective. He had noticed that his
stoker, whose duty it was to attend to the matter, was in
a state of intoxication, and consequently clambered to the
front of the engine to make all right himself. While in
the act of doing so he fell over, and was literally crushed
to atoms under the wheels of the engine.
MIDLAND RAILWAY.—The half-yearly meeting of this
company was held on Saturday, at the Derby station.
The directors reported a balance of £2,17.975 12s. 3d.,
which, after deducting £42,238 10s. 5d., - the amount of
the guaranteed dividend on the six per cent. stock and
shares, enables them to dPclare a dividend of £3 10s.
upon each £lOO of Midland Consolidated Stock of
£3.105. upon each £lOO of the Consolidated Preferential
Stock, and'after the rate of 7 per cent. per annum upon
£lO of each of the .Z4lO shares, of £2 165.. 3d. upon each
£lOO of the COnsolidated Birmingham and Derby Stock,
after the rate of 5 per cent. per annum from the opening
on the 6th of -September to the 31st December last upon
£32 10s. (the amount then called up) of the Erewash
Valley, and leave a balance available for the present half-
year of £15,672.

OPENING Or THE CALEDONIAN RAILWAY FROM GLAS-
GOW TO BEATTOOK.—On Monday this important line was
formally opened, so that the citizens of Glasgow have
now, for the first time, a. direct railway 'communication
with the metropolis, and all the English lines. At a quar-
ter-past nine o'clock, two first-clais carriages and a
second-class were in waiting at the station at Tornhead,
for the reception of the party invited, and started' at
twenty ,minutes before ten, when the signal was given,
and the first engine in connection,with a direct railway to
London was issuing its furious snort towards the south.
The construction of. the carriages is most elegant, and
surpasses anything yet seen in the north. After'a delight-
ful trip, the party arrived at Beattock station at a quarter
to one o'clock, where they partook of a sumptuous lun-
cheon.

MANCHESTER, SHEFFIELD, AND LINCOLNSHIRE
RAILWAY.`---The half-yearly meeting of this company
was held on Wednesday, at Manchester. Mr. John Cop-
man, the deputy chairman of the board of directors, pre-
sided. The secretary (Mr: Meadows) read the report,
which,` besides 'other 'particulars, stated that the receipts
to the present time amounted to £2,336,623 13s. 5d., and
the expenditure 0100,714 over that sum, against which
must be placed a balance of £21,861 on the revenue ac-
count. The Chairusu, in moving the adoption of the
report, briefly referred to the resolutions which would be
submitted to the meeting, and particularly referred' to the
reduction which had been proposed in the direction, viz.,
from 15 to 12. Mr. Peliey ailted;'Why the expenses were
greater on this than any other line ? -TheChairman said
the traffic was local at present, and of course it was more
expensive than, general' traffic. The report Was then
adopted. Several suggestions to tlie.,board created a
somewhat, animated discussion ; but 'finally the resolu-
tions proposed by the directors, which embodied the sen-
timents expressed in thereport, were Carried'. The audi-
tors were re-electedi.es' were also the retiring directors,
with the exception of Mr. Randell, who was replaced by
Mr. James Lee, of Manchester.