The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-07-02 00:00:00

barked in it, bring ourselves to believe that this bill

is to be denounced with the violence and bitterness
of tone displayed by some of our contemporaries.
We cannot, for instance, bring ourselves to believe,
with the Railway Times, that it is entitled to be
called the " Railway Plunder Bill ;" or that it is one
" invading the legal rights of railway companies—
interfering with their property—assuming over
them the most extensive, intrusive, and offensive
powers." A little arbitrary, perhaps, it may be,
as are all such interferences with property, nearly
every clause in an improvement bill, all par-
liamentary regulations of fees, &c.—as, indeed, is
every alteration of the standing orders of either
house of parliament applicable to railway or other
private bills. It certainly does go a little further
than some of these ; but, we contend, it goes only
in a direction long ago pointed out, and provides
what, to some extent, is imperatively called for by
a proper regard for the interests of the public, and,
moreover, what has been in many cases attempted
to be provided already by the legislature, although
successfully evaded by railway companies.
Let any dispassionate man glance over the clauses
of our existing railway bills, and say whether he can
entertain any doubt of the intention of the legisla-
ture, at the time of their being passed, to restrain ex-
orbitant charges and to keep down profits of work-
ing to a legitimate level. For what are maximum
scales of toll laid down but to insure such a result ?
For what are clauses inserted enabling parties, other
than the companies themselves, to put locomotives
and carriages upon the various lines, under given
conditions of remuneration and regulation ? True,
these clauses have been rendered null by parlia-
mentary omission, or undue and improper evasions
of their spirit and meaning on the part of railway
proprietors; but they serve, still, to show that the
governments who passed such bills did not mean to
promote permanent monopolies; and, if this could
have been considered at all doubtful, the direct re-
strictions imposed in some cases to the payment of
dividends of more than ten per cent. (which are got
rid of by the creation of new shares upon which
only a small per tentage of capital is paid up) should
be perfectly conclusive upon the matter.
It is contended, however, and most strongly by
our contemporary, the Railway Times, that govern-
ment has no right to step in, in the way proposed,
between the monopolies which have grown up, by
evasion of the spirit of acts of parliament, and the
public, who are onerously subjected to the arbitrary
exercise of their powers, unless it is prepared to
" protect their property against destructive compe-
tition." In other words, our contemporary, in be-
half of existing companies, says, " protect us against
the competition of rival lines—render our monopoly,
to a certain extent, a permanent monopoly, and you
may regulate our fares and compel us to increase
the scale of accommodation to be afforded to the
public." The unreasonableness of the demand is
palpable. In the first instance, government only
i asks for the power of interference with railways pay-
ing above ten per cent. Where, then, can be the
great injury ? But it is absurd to contend that all
future railway enterprise is to cease in order to pro-
tect existing lines in their ten per cent. remunera-
tion. No government can give—no government
ought to be asked to give—a guarantee so improvi-
dent and unjust to public interests.
Against many of the clauses of the proposed bill
we feel that serious objections may lie—especially
against that clause which allows to Government
compulsory powers of purchasing, and themselves
working, any line or lines ; that, in fact, few
of them are scarcely sufficiently matured ; and we
regret, therefore, that they should have been proposed
at so late a period of the session. To some of them,
however, we must give our cordial support; and
particularly to that which insists upon accommoda-
tion being provided for third-class passengers—for
the poor—and that such accommodation should not
be of the paltry character afforded upon some lines, I
but carriages with seats, and containing sufficient
covering from the weather. We want this much
upon a line very near our own locality; and for the
sake of the true interests of the proprietors of that
line, and of the public, we would urge upon the
former, without waiting for the probable necessity
under which they may be placed, to adopt the hint,
and thus obviate the possibility of the projection of
some injuriously competing scheme.

When that particularly discreet and modest indi-
vidual, Mr. William Rathbone, on a recent occasion,
was not the occupant of the chair, at a meeting
called to sympathise with the convicted conspirators,
Daniel O'Connell and others, having previously oc-
cupied a similar position at a meeting held to pro-
test against the then pending trial, we gave him
credit for something very like a spontaneous return
to a sense of what was becoming in a man invested
with the responsible duties of the magisterial bench.
But we knew not hitherto whether such were
really the motive or not.
The fate, however, it now appears, which has
just befallen a Mr. Cornelius O'Brien, like
William Rathbone, not a repealer, but who, un-
like William, attended such a meeting as that
lately held at the Liverpool Amphitheatre, had
" cast its shadows before, " and illumined
the mind of our own Solon. Mr. Cornelius
O'Brien couldn't take a hint; William Rathbone
could and did : and, as the result, the said Cor-
nelius no longer writes J. P. after his name, and
bustles in all the pomp of magisterial authority,
whilst his wiser brother of the bench of Liverpool
can still occupy his usual seat in the Sessions-
house, with the duties and dignities thereunto
attached. The awful fiat of Henry Sugden's secre-
tary has extinguished Cornelius, whilst William still
blooms and shines with undimmed beauty and re-
splendence. Unhappy Cornelius—fortunate Wil-
liam—more fortunate Liverpool for whom he is
still spared!

THE FUNDS, SATURDAY NIGHT.—The business at the
Stock-Exchange, to-day was extremely limited, and
prices had a tendency downwards. In the case of the
English securities the flatness of the market was occa-
sioned by the appearance of an influential broker, who
was supposed to be a seller. Consols for the account left
off 984 to 1 ; Bank Stock, 1971 to 1981 ; Three per Cents.
Reduced 994 to ; Three-and• a-half per Cents Rauced.
102 k to ; Long Annuities, 121 ; India Bonds, 91s. to
965, premium ; and Exchequer-bills, 735. to 755. premium.
In the foreign market there was no particular feature.
Dealings were much restricted, and values were drooping.
Spanish Three per Cents. closed 344 to 4 ; the Five per
Cents, 224 to ; Portuguese Converted, 46i to 47 ;
Peruvian, 261 to 271; Mexican, 35 to ; the Deferred,
15 to ; Dutch Two-and-a-Half per Ce
nts., 614 to 628
;
the Five per Cents., 1004 to .11 ; Danish, 88 to 89 ; Colum-
bian, 131 to .1 ; Chilian, 103 to 105 ; Buenos Ayres, 35 to
36 ; Brazilian, 82 to 83 ; and Belgian, 1021 to 1031 ;
EXPECTED VISIT OF THE KING OF SAXONY TO Li.
VERPOOL.—The Mayor has received intimation that his
Majesty, the King of Saxony, intends to honour Liverpool
with a visit on his journey through England and Wales.
His Worship has in consequence been in hourly ex
.
pectation of the Royal visit since Saturday ; but up to
the arrival of the latest train lass night his Majesty .had
not made his appearance. The King was at Cambridge
on Thursday, and at Oxford on Friday ; and on Saturday
morning he proceeded to Blenneim, near Woodstock, the
seat of the Earl of Marlborough, where, we believe, he is
at present. His visits to the provinces have been strictly
private. He travels under the name of the Graf Von
Hohenstein ; and his suite consisteof Baron de Gersdoff,
the Saxon Minister resident in' London, Baron de
Reichardt, Aid-de-Camp, and Dr. Carus, Physician to
his Majesty. The Mayor has forwarded a communica-
tioniprncadu.et
ost\to.:l;eihs,l
etsborepl
oiMbeoevlaeji;neisaftotnyricr'ss private secretary, respectfully
an
ndi
sawnhs
worship'sewn e ther is Royal
expected
intentionvisit
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itso
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handsome dejeune at the Town Hall on the approaching
occasion.