The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-03-07 00:00:00

RAILWAY AFFAIRS.

-*-
The line from Hull to Louth was opened for public
traffic on Wednesday.

The Directors of Rastrick's Direct London and Man-
chester Railway are about to make a further return of 10s.
per share.

Captain Claxton has been- engaged by Mr. Stephenson
to assist him in transporting the Conway tube for the
Chester and Holyhead railway.
The line of the Scottish Central Railway from Stirling
to Greenhall, where it joins the Edinburgh and Glasgow,
was formally opened by the directors on the 22nd ult.
At the Eastern Counties Railway Meeting. Mr. Hud-
son announced an increase of traffic on the half-year
amounting to £70,000; but the dividend is only Bs.,
owing to the consolidation and extension of the stock
receiving dividend.

The list of calls for March exhibits a total of £2,203,659
being a decrease of £1,304,406 as compared with the cor-
responding month of 1847. Of this amount £1,262;000
are called upon French and Belgian lines, the shares of
which are but partially held in this country.
The meeting of the proprietors of the Birmingham and
Oxford Junction Railway was held on Saturday. when it
was again adjourned for a week, Mr. Mozlev stating that
matters were in progress, and that he hoped an amicably
settlement would be come to in a few days.
At the half-yearly meeting of the Bristol and Exeter
Railway Company, on Thursday, a dividend of .Z 1 13s 9d:
per £lOO share, free of income tax was declared. A re-
solution was passed approving of the recommendation of
the directors to work the line independently at the expira-
tion of the present lease.

RAILWAYS V. SHIPPING.—At the annual meeting of
the Berwick General Shipping Company on Tuesday last,.
a dividend of 10 per cent was declared. During the pro-
ceedings it was remarked that railway communication ie.
inflicting great injury on the shipping of the port, in the
conveyance of goods between Berwick and Leith, and
Berwick and Newcastle.

CALEDONIAN RAILWAY.—This important railway was.
opened throughout for traffic on the 15th current, between
Carlisle, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and all places in connection
with the London and North Western and Lancashire and
Carlisle railways. Mail trains now run twice each war
daily between London, Edinburgh, and Glasgow, without
change of carriages.
From official returns it. appears that the amount of
traffic for the last week, on upwards of 3,518 miles of
railway, was £148,323, thus accounted f0r:—£68,325 for
the conveyance of passengers only, £42,829 for t he. car-
riage of goods, and a remainder of £37,169 for passengers•
and goods together, not respectively apportioned; being
an increase of £23,911 over the corresponding week of
last year, when the mileage was 2,711. The average
earrings per mile last week were £42, whilst in 1847 they
were £45.

LAND SLIP ON THE NORTH UNION RAILWAY.-011
Tuesday night, about ten o'clock, it was accidentally dis-
covered that an embankment between the Buxton and
Coppul stations, on the North Union line, about sight
miles from Preston, had given way. Before eleven o'clock•
one end of the wooden bridge had sunk considerably, and
the embankment adjoining suddenly fell in to the depth of
about twenty feet, carrying with it both lines of rail, and•
leaving a frightful chasm, into which the express train
from London, then coming up, would, but for the dis-
covery, have inevitably been driven.

ALARMING RAILMAY ACCIDENT.—On Thursday. s
fearful railway accident was well-nigh happening, by the
carelessness of not attending to the signal at the station
at Weedon. There is an iron bridge to let government
boats through, for the service of the barracks and military:
prison. This bridge was open and the proper signal
given, but owing to the inattention of the guard, no
notice was taken of the signal, and the engine fell into
the middle of the boat, which instantly sank- No lives.
happily, lost. Had it been the express train, which was
nearly due, the consequences might have been fearful.
LANCASHIRE AND YORKSHIRE.—TheIIaIf-yearly meet-
ing of this company was held at Manchester, on Wednes-
day last. Mr. Houldsworth, the chairman of the com-
pany, presided, and gave a satisfactory account of the
state and prospects of the company. Notwithstanding
the commercial depression of the country for the last six.
months, the gross income of the company, on the same
extent of mileage, exceeds that of the corresponding
months of 1846 ; the sums being, for 1846, £260,667 ; for
1847, £273,220 A dividend of 31 per cent. on the half-
year was declared, subject to the income tax. The length
of railway which the company has in course of construc-
tion is 127 miles, of which 51 miles will be opened by
July, and other 51 miles by December next. A call of
£5 will be due on the £5O Manchester and Leeds shares,
in April next • and at the same time a call of £5 will be
made upon the Liverpool and Bury £5O shares.

THE FRENCH PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT.

pGouMl
Guizot
oiocilteaonir—s
Tmmh uui
eccrlhsi
mmoHorr
eeec ooioufs
fNanTa mo
wastatenoif n
s much more of a
thane 6
thorylde,arth, aannedit he
de-
scended of an illustrious legal family. Early in life, more
than forty-five years ago, he entered the service of France
under the First Consul, as Auditor of the Council of State,
and subsequently filled high administrative functions
under the Emperor. Mole has been a French peer for-
many years, and therefore his discourses do not figure
in the Chamber of Deputies. But although his name be
not in the mouths of the public, like the names of Guizot.
Thiers, and Berryer, every educated Frenchman knows
that he is one of the foremost and most considerable men
of France. He is rather a man of the world than a litte-
rateur, or a man of science ; yet he is infinitely more of*
scholar and a man of science than M. Thiers, and under-
stands all questions of diplomacy and administration infi-
nitely better than either Thiers or Guizot. Though not
so brilliant, showy, or lively a person, in public or society.
as the deputy for Aix,—though less quick and apprehen-
sive and ready, he is more solid, steady, and reliable.
Though he could not write a state paper so quickly and
so glowingly as M. Guizot, yet when written by him, after
being fully perpended and slowly elaborated, it would be
less open to criticism or objection—it would be more
neatly and more succinctly drawn up, and present fewer
assailable points' to a rival or an enemy. Mole, though
not so ready, is sounder and safer, and his style, in speak-
ing and writing, though not so glowing, is more classic
and pure than the style either of Thiers or Guizot. His
language is rather choice and correct than flowing, rather
distinguished by propriety and eloquence than by copi-
ousness or. strength. He is calm, clear, neat, often inge-
nious; always equal to his subject; sometimes, he rises
far above it. Now that Talleyrand, Hauterive, and Ro-
ederer are dead, he is possessed of more anecdotal history
than any living homme d'etat in Paris, and is, perhaps,
the best and must classic raconteur in France. His
countenance is open and gentlemanlike, and there is
breadth and elevation in the forehead. He is rather tall,
thin, and delicately shaped, and possesses in an eminent
degree what our neighbours call the "air distingue."

M. ARAGON MINISTER OF MARINE

....
Is one of the first savans in France, and his reputation
as an orator is brilliant. He was born in 1786, and is per.
petual secretary of the Academy of Sciences, member of
the office of longitudes, and one of the most illustrious
scientific men of the age. The Republican prints say he
is moderate in expressing his opinions, though holding
extreme views. The Morning Chronicle, however, says
that even in the scientific world the great mathematician
is known by the violence of his temper and the harshness
of his character; his politics are of the most ardent repub-
licanism. The Times says he cannot string three words
together in public, although he has long been called by
his flatterers " the Consul Elect of the Republic."
M. DE LAMARTINE, MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
Is known as the historian of the Girondins. He is de-
puty for Macon, and more than thirty years ago served his
apprenticeship as a diplomatist, and was named Minister
Plenipotentiary by Charles X. in 1828 and 1830. Lamar-
tine, now in his fifty-eighth year, is a gentleman of birth
and fortune. He is everywhere a poet, even at the tri-
bune. Like most poets, however, he is rather fickle and
inconstant, vain, and imprudent. For a length of time
he occupied a very undecided position in the Chamber,
but he eventually ranged himself on the side of the Oppo-
sition. From that period M. de Larnartine took n decided
part in favour of progressive. reform, and ridiculed the
Guizot Cabinet as the Ministry of "limitations." He
voted against the Pritchard indemnity, and was prized by
the Opposition as an invaluable acquisition. The follow-
ing is an expression of his policy in his own words :
" The organic and progressive constitution of ' the entire
democracy, the expansive principle of mutual charity and
social fraternity, organized and applied to the satisfaction
of the general interest."

It appears by a parliamentary return just issed that the
number of persons in trades or professions whose incomes
amounted to £l5O, and did not exceed £2OO, and who
paid the income tax for the year ending the sth of Aprils
1845, was 38,392. The gross income on which duty for
these persons was charged amounted to £6,102,195; and
the sum received for income tax, to £177.980 13s. 9d.
The total number of persons engaged in trades and pro-
fessions who paid the income-tax in the above periods
was 111,818. In 1846 there were only sixteen persons
who paid the income tax on incomes exceeding £50,000.
and the amount these sixteen persons paid was X 34,966.
The wealthy are caught sometimes. There were 319 pee'
sons with incoule*between £lO,OOO and X 50,000.